Disclaimers in Chapter 1
Send feedback please to slayerbelle@go.com
The Abnormality of Free Will
by Slayerbelle
Chapter 2
"Trust Her With Your Life"
The number was written here somewhere.
Buffy didn't memorize it. Maybe she should, it would come handy in times like this.
Five rings so far. Maybe she shouldn't be calling so late.
"Angel Investigations, we help the hopeless. Are you hopeless? We can help you."
*Cordelia, thank God.* Mature as they were being about their past, she wasn't ready to have awkward small talk with Angel yet.
"Cordelia," she said. "It's Buffy."
"Buffy Summers," Cordelia masked a yawn. "Angel's out, or unavailable, or whatever. He's not here."
"No, I didn't want to talk to him," But Buffy was a little miffed that Cordelia jumped to that conclusion. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Me? To what do I owe this really late pleasure?"
"Sorry if I woke you up. I wasn't sure you'd be at work this late."
"Oh, Wesley had this research party earlier. We're all having the time of our lives. What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Aurora Halley?"
Cordelia burst out laughing. "Oh God. You know her already? Tell her she's lost her touch."
"You know her."
"Of course I know her." Cordelia noticed that Buffy wasn't laughing, and she sobered up a bit. "What -- is something wrong? Is she OK?"
"She's fine. In fact, she's downstairs in my living room."
Cordelia heaved a very audible sigh of relief. "Oh, good. Great. Why did you call?"
"I just, well, I found out about her tonight, what she does. What she did for Angel. And... I wanted to check if she was telling the truth."
"Yes, she's gotten that divine whatever to protect you and she's given all this magic witch power to help keep you and herself alive, and all that. I know the drill. I've seen it in action. Why would you even doubt her, Buffy?"
"It's just... a lot of things are tense here now. I want to be sure she can be trusted."
"For what it's worth, Buffy, I trust Aurora with my life. I'd trust her with yours too. What do you mean you don't know if she can be trusted? Someone devotes her life and powers to protecting you when she gets nothing out of it..."
Buffy checked the door to make sure no one was within earshot. "She's just got awful timing, Cordelia. It's just... there's something going on here, and I want to be sure she's not connected..."
Cordelia gasped. "She didn't tell you."
"Didn't tell me what?"
"She didn't tell you why she left LA."
"What are you talking about?"
"Buffy, whatever big bad you think she might be in cahoots with, forget it. I don't think she traveled back to Sunnyhell because she enjoys your company and the local cuisine." Cordelia spoke emphatically, and Buffy sensed just how much she liked the girl. "She turned down a lucrative career in evil with Wolfram and Hart for this divine mission, and she didn't leave LA by choice."
*Wolfram and Hart... Wolfram and Hart... *
"That's the law firm, right?"
"Yeah."
"You and Aurora are friends?"
"We love her. Wesley and I, we do."
Buffy nodded. *And Angel?* "That's good to know. I just wanted to be sure she was exactly who she said she was."
"She's that and more, Buffy."
*Wolfram and Hart!* Buffy remembered now why the name was familiar.
She remembered the photograph.
"Why did she leave LA, Cordelia?" Buffy asked.
Cordelia cleared her throat. "I think you'd better let her tell you that."
====
Aurora and Giles were in the living room, alone together for almost twenty minutes already, but Buffy had to find something first.
The impromptu phone call to LA was necessary because she had to make a choice that evening.
After Aurora introduced herself the first time at the cemetery, Buffy didn't believe her. Well, she did in a way, believed her enough to take her back to the Summers house where Giles would make both heads *and* tails of her story.
Assigned by the Powers That Be to protect her. And what a story it was.
Buffy's instant reaction was, "Hello, Slayer!" She even said that aloud, and Aurora only concurred. Apparently she didn't know what she was supposed to be protecting Buffy from, only that she was sent to Sunnydale to do just that.
And then Buffy remembered the unbelievably strong demon who was roaming around town somewhere, looking for Dawn, a demon she didn't recognize or know how to defeat, and she softened up on the Slayer's Protector idea.
Maybe she really did need some supernatural help.
And then, of course, the strangest thing happened. As she let Aurora into her home, the girl started shaking and acting really loopy. She kept saying things about something being wrong with the house, that she was seeing things that wasn't there, that their family pictures were flashing. A glass of water later and she was fine.
She said it was a spell.
A quick conference with Giles and Buffy deduced that Aurora could see the spell cast on them, the way Buffy saw through it herself when she was in a trance. Which means she knew about Dawn.
Which means they had to let her in on the plan, whatever it was. It bothered her, that she would have to tell this stranger before telling Willow or Xander, or even Riley. At least she wouldn't have to worry about this girl's safety -- apparently her powers protected her life. And at least Cordelia really seemed to trust her.
"If people would just stop it with the mind control," she muttered as she lifted a sweater off her mail pile.
First there was the sister she never knew she never had. Now there was this girl, claiming she was in Sunnydale the whole time Angel was here, and she knew about everything that happened to Buffy that time, knew everyone in town. Now that the truth was being shown to her, she didn't know what to believe.
There was something she needed to clear with Aurora, though.
Nearing a month ago, she got a visit from a young man. A lawyer, very good looking. He brought her an envelope bearing the Wolfram and Hart name. She might have flirted with him a little, she was human after all, and then she noticed that he shook her hand using his left.
Because his right hand was a prosthetic.
Inside the envelope was an eight by ten photograph, black and white, of Angel kissing a girl.
Buffy found the incriminating photograph in her unorganized pile of mail.
The girl was Aurora, she could tell now.
====
She dropped the photograph in the middle of the living room coffee table.
Aurora paled. If it was possible for her entire face to drain of blood in that moment, that was probably what had happened.
Giles, meanwhile, looked upon it with interest. "May... may I?" he said, taking the photograph by the corner, looking at it closely. "Amazing, vampire with no reflection can be photographed."
"How did you get this?" Aurora said, her voice barely a whisper.
"Lawyer delivered it here himself. Cute. Plastic hand."
"Lindsey McDonald," Aurora said softly. "The bastard."
"That's probably not a term of endearment," Giles said, still observing the picture.
"Actually it kind of is." A smile came to Aurora's face. Lindsey, she had talked to him before she left LA. He was doing his job, and was good at it. She couldn't blame him, not really.
"Giles, when you've finished," Buffy said pointedly. "I just want to ask what was that, and why was it brought to my home."
Aurora was having difficulty breathing. Lindsey couldn't really be working on her now, and still. This wasn't about Angel now. This was of absolutely no use to him.
*Unless it's to get me crawling back to Wolfram and Hart. This is a stupid plan.*
"I think they intended this to expose me as... I don't know what." Aurora said.
"So this picture is real. And it's you." Buffy took a seat next to Giles and faced the girl.
"Yes, it's me. And it's real. But... it's not as tabloid gossip as it looks."
"And I'm not--" Buffy raised her hands defensively. "Hey, am currently in happy, mostly stable relationship. This isn't some kind of thing with Angel. But let's admit how weird this is."
Giles, almost hesitantly, put down the picture. "This does seem to intend to discredit you with Buffy. You did claim that you were helping Angel anonymously all these years."
"And I was, until recently." Aurora really did not want to have to tell this story. The scars had literally only started to heal. "This picture got me fired from that."
"Because you weren't supposed to show yourself to Angel," Giles said, catching on quickly from the recap earlier.
Aurora nodded. "Yes. Getting removed from the cause meant they took the power away from me as well. Of course, I still had the angry Kalderash to deal with, and they already knew me because Wolfram and Hart kindly gave them a copy of that. Angel offered to protect me, but we found out quickly that he can't."
She paused, and an awkward silence fell over the three of them.
Giles cleared his throat and pushed it. "What do you mean he can't?"
Buffy met Aurora's eyes, and as the girl lifted her hand to pull back her hair, a strange feeling punched the Slayer in her gut. This wasn't from funky crystal training, it was from intuition. She recognized that look of healing pain in Aurora's eyes.
She recognized the scar on Aurora's neck, almost identical to her own.
Giles slowly leaned closer. The scars had only healed recently.
Buffy sucked in her breath. "Your punishment if you get caught... they turn you."
She nodded. "Yes."
"And they somehow got Angel to do it. Magic. Or something."
"Yes."
"He didn't succeed."
"I don't know why he didn't. It was a miracle. Wesley and Cordelia didn't get me in time. Something intervened, I know that much."
"He must... he must feel awful about this."
"Yes he does. But that's not why I left. I left because it could happen again and again until the Kalderash get it right." Aurora was thankful she didn't have to give the details of that night, but was still unsettled by having to remember. "Fortunately I got assigned to you through a vision, and by coming here and taking it, I get my powers back."
"So you're able to defend yourself from the Kalderash," Giles continued.
"Well, only if they really want to harm me. Otherwise I'm just normal human being."
Buffy could hear little bits of history creeping into this Cliff Notes version. Wesley and Cordelia. Angel. She could get now why Cordelia said Aurora didn't leave by choice.
She loved it there. She loved them. But the only way she could stay alive was to leave, hence the Sunnydale move.
"Aurora," she said. "I have to tell you something about Dawn."
====
Aurora tried to remember if the haunting music only came to her in Sunnydale.
In LA the visions didn't have music. Or at least, not loud and creepy like the one she was hearing now.
Inside the red room she found herself in the circle again.
Buffy. Her. The man. And Dawn.
She knew it was Dawn now. She just met Dawn a few hours ago.
She wanted to tell Buffy that she recognized the man, but Buffy didn't seem to know he was around. She was just looking at Aurora.
"It's not going to be me," she said.
"What?"
"It's not going to be me."
The man turned to Aurora and spoke. "Gli universi sanguinano ed il sole brillerà nessuno più."
Buffy pointed to Aurora's hand. "You have to use that."
====
Giles was expecting her at three pm at the Magic Box. He saw her come in a few minutes before that. And slowly.
He was at the register, taking over for Anya who took a break by bringing a sandwich over to Xander's construction site. He saw the girl come in, but he didn't approach her first. In the moments it took her to cross the store and get to the round table, he noticed a slight limp in her step.
Their eyes met, and he smiled. He offered her a seat, and she took it cautiously.
Her back was either sore, or wounded.
"I'll get us some tea, and then we can start working," he said.
It was a relief, actually being able to work on this new evil. He and Buffy were being spread thin by taking turns protecting Dawn and looking for clues. Having Aurora in on the loop helped ease his burden somewhat, but he was also intrigued by what he could learn from her. He wanted to study the kind of magic she was dealing with.
Aurora, as he found out an hour later, was very much willing to share.
"... borrowing spells," she was saying.
Giles was making notes. "Borrowing spells?"
"The power isn't mine. I mean, I've learned to do simple spells, some incantations over time. But any significant power I can do isn't mine."
Interesting. "You're a channel for the power then. Do you know where it comes from?"
"The incantation calls Alana, who from what I understand is the first of Angel's protectors. She was a Kalderash of course, very powerful witch."
"She was the first to go against the family curse."
"Yes. I'm still unclear of the details, but at some point in time she decided to help Angel. Keep him alive for him to reach what they called The Dark Times."
"And Alana, she did this how long ago?"
Aurora frowned. "I really don't know too much about the history of what I do. They kept a lot from me. I think it only started after World War 2, or around that time."
"Is she still alive?"
"I seriously doubt that."
An awkward moment passed, and Giles quickly proceeded to something else. "What kind of... of magic have you been able to do through these borrowing spells?"
She smiled. "Wild and wacky stuff. Instantly freezing water to ice. Bursting through doors. Bolts of lighting. Fire. Levitating stuff. I even healed a staked vampire once. Anything that is necessary at the time."
"As long as you protect Angel."
"Or myself, yes."
This was promising. Buffy was having difficulty with the new demon because it was particularly strong. Here they had a witch who was harnessing power that was beyond strength...
Aurora tilted her head to one side, and it was as if she had read his mind. "I can't will it to work, Mr. Giles."
"You're speaking of your powers?"
"Yes. I know Buffy needs help protecting Dawn, but I can't will the power to just come out. I don't decide this. It works only on two conditions: to protect Buffy's life, or to save my own. I can't really be of help to Dawn like this."
"But we can channel it, can't we? This is important, Aurora, and we need to have every option open to us."
She paused to think. "I know it can be channeled, but not through me. Once Cordelia channeled it through herself, and it worked very well. But it still weighed heavily on the power of Alana deciding for Cordelia to have it. All we can do is ask permission."
"Duly noted, and thank you. But... you say you can't will your powers. And yet you get yourself into situations where you fight to protect Buffy. The other time Dawn."
"You noticed the limp."
"And I think your back is hurt."
"I think I cut myself on a flower pot in Buffy's backyard."
"Aurora, you can't go into the line of fire unprepared. I think being around Angel and Sunnydale as long as you have, you'd know this very well."
"I can't help it," she said softly.
Giles put down his pen and looked at her. Of course he understood. "It doesn't help, just watching, does it."
"I know you got fired from the Council for getting involved. I know I shouldn't. But sometimes you're just so close to it, that it would be wrong not to."
It was a selflessness he had to admire. He could already imagine Angel's reaction to it. Angel would demand she stop protecting him, that he wasn't worth it. But she continued to do so anyway, because it was what she was supposed to do.
Aurora cleared her throat, and the moment was over. "Did you get all you needed to know? I'm sorry, a lot of details weren't really revealed to me until recently. Like the part about the Kalderash turning the protectors they catch into vampires. Now they didn't tell me that."
Bitterness. And just a hint of pain.
"It's cruel of your family not to warn you."
"I know it is. But I was thinking... maybe they had to hide it. Would I have said yes, had I known at what cost? I believe in what I do, but when you're sixteen years old you wouldn't necessarily choose this if you knew what you were getting into."
"You're a remarkable young lady, Aurora."
She shook her head. "I'm not. You wanted me to help you with research?"
The gears shifted quickly, and he turned the page on his notebook and decided not to pry. Aurora told him about her vision that night, and the Italian phrase the man in her dream said to her. He marveled how she remembered every word.
"The universe bleeds and the sun shall shine no more," he said.
"That's what it means?"
"Yes. It sounds ominous. You are certain this is what he said to you?"
"I just remember it. I'm supposed to."
"That's very convenient.," he observed. "I should take a look at the Italian texts that I have... this could be a cult, intent on bringing about the end of the world."
She laughed. "That's not very original."
Indeed. Giles remembered several volumes pertaining to old Italian cults and religious orders, and soon enough he and Aurora were poring over the pages at the table.
"Bloody hell," he exclaimed, minutes later.
"What?"
"I've found it, kind of." He opened the book to the page in question and showed it to Aurora. "That verse you mentioned, it's the first line of an important text from an order of Italian monks... the *Il Custode Della Chiave*. Keeper of The Key."
"You found it there. In that book."
"Well, yes."
Sunnydale actually did have everything, she didn't know why people complained about this town. "How convenient. What else does it say?"
====
Later on, Willow figured out that it was a set up.
It wasn't that Buffy *never* treated her out to the Espresso Pump, it was just rare. And while Willow didn't want to think there was an ulterior motive behind it, she knew there were reasons.
"You enjoying that?" Buffy said, a little too eagerly, pointing to Willow's iced mocca caramel with whipped cream.
She took a sip. "Immensely. Mocca goodness."
"Sorry about that earlier."
"I just don't think that was very nice of Giles, is all." Willow said, only half joking.
After classes at UC Sunnydale that day, she decided to stop by the Magic Box, in case Giles needed help with something. She was noticing how stressed he was recently, staying up late researching something he wouldn't let her help with.
Now that was really heroic of him, but she hoped he wasn't deciding again behind her back what kind of magic was too much for her.
She saw him researching in the Magic Box today with a girl she didn't recognize. He introduced her as Aurora, who was apparently some kind of witch, and they were talking hush hush about witch stuff.
Now that was just silly.
"...so I'm all like, I can help, Giles. And he says no, he and Aurora are fine, and I should just go on with my day." Willow was saying, shaking her head. "I don't know why he's always protecting me about the magic thing. I think I've proven pretty much that I can do this. I'm not a baby."
Buffy nodded. "Oh, you really aren't. Did you, did you meet Aurora?"
"Well, a little introduction and all. That she's a witch and apparently she meets Giles's research buddy, let's-talk-about-magic standards." OK, a little bitterness there.
"You might see her around a bit too. Patrolling. With me."
"What?" Willow felt her face fall a little, and she hated how disappointed she must have looked. "What's going on? When did she get into the Scooby Gang? Was there an initiation I missed, or something?"
"It's not... I mean, it was sudden. She was sent here to help me. Just trust me with this, Will, and I don't really know what else to tell you."
"Sent here by whom? To help you with what?"
"Higher powers, and she doesn't know what. It's just, she just has to help me. So she'll be around."
"That doesn't sound suspicious to you?" Willow was primarily pissed, but getting a little concerned now. "People don't just show up on a Slayer's doorstep and say they want to help."
"Just... she won't be in the way. Trust me with this."
She did, she trusted Buffy with her life, more times than she could count. But what could Buffy and Giles be needing that she couldn't help them with?
"Don't think that it's you," Buffy quickly said.
"Well, there's something brewing and you're not letting me help." Willow said, and regretted how it made her sound like a kid. But she felt out of the loop, and fine, she had her own stuff too and not everything was about the Scooby Gang... but it would have been good of them to ask. She sipped the mocca, apparently designated the mocca of forgiveness, and tried to get her composure back. "OK, so I get it. There's stuff you and Giles have to do. Just... if it's really important we should be in on this together."
"It's no big. Really. I mean, she's just here to help. No problem."
"Let's just forget it then. So what are you up to tonight?"
"Dinner date with Riley. And then patrolling."
"Must be Tuesday."
====
Now, Buffy had never really done magic herself, but she didn't realize that it was an actual force that one could feel.
She and Aurora were side by side on the ground, pinned down by two vamps who had apparently just risen and were getting cemetery dirt all over their clothes and face and hair. Aurora was shouting, first in surprise, and then later in pain. Buffy was preoccupied herself, and couldn't do a thing but roll her stake Aurora's way.
Aurora's vampire opened his mouth and tilted her neck for a better angle. As he went in for the bite, Buffy felt it.
A soft hum, and then almost like a burst of static electricity. Aurora let out a soft gasp, and then she released her left arm from the vamp's grip, groped her side for the stake. The next move was too fast for Buffy to see, but apparently Aurora got her leg up and tossed the vampire off her, resulting in vamp somersaulting. And then a moment later she was on her feet, trading punches with the creature.
*I've got to get me one of those,* Buffy thought, shaking her head as she did almost the same thing with her normal Slayer strength. As soon as she got back up on her feet, she reached into her boot for the other stake, and her own attacker was dusted.
She found Aurora out of breath but successful a few headstones away.
"You were saying?" Buffy said.
Aurora dusted off her hands a bit. "Oh yeah... they called themselves Keepers of the Key. Italian monks, very versed in magic. They had to be, if they were actually hiding this thing, whatever it is. It apparently doesn't have form or shape, but they turned it into..."
"Dawn," Buffy sighed, absently sticking the pointy end of her stake over and over on the nearby tree. "Did it say what the Key was? Why they were hiding it?"
"No, just a lot of references to power."
"That's not helpful. I mean, a key opens something, right?"
"Giles said the book he has only has an excerpt of the text, not the complete volume. The Watcher's Council would have it, but I don't think you'd want them becoming suspicious when Giles places an order for the book."
"Besides, he doesn't work for them anymore anyway."
"We're keeping all research options open."
"OK."
Aurora looked at her, and then ventured tentatively. "I placed a call to Wesley, though."
"Wesley? Aurora, he can't--"
"I know, I know, I was very non-suspicious. I just asked him if he could help with a text I was looking for. I trust him. He's not like the person he was when he was your Watcher. Besides, he'd have no idea what's going on here, it's too weird."
"Only in Sunnydale," Buffy conceded. She was glad Giles had someone to help him. And, in a sense, she had someone to help her too. "Wesley saved your life." she observed.
"Carried my lifeless body in his arms, and pretended he was my husband at the hospital so he could demand a blood transfusion." Aurora said, almost wistfully. "Him and Cordelia, I owe them so much."
"That's good to hear, I mean, that you have people you trust with your life. They didn't seem the types when they were here."
"A lot's happened."
"I noticed." Buffy checked her watch, and remembered that she wanted to be home before Dawn got to bed. "I think we've struck enough fear in the hearts of the undead. Call it a night?"
====
She was gushing too much. But it was true, and she didn't want to have to hide it.
Apparently it gave Buffy some kind of comfort that she would rather be in LA. The timing of her appearance in Sunnydale made Buffy suspicious, that maybe she was after Dawn too. Although Aurora didn't know if she could go as far as protect this mysterious Key thing. The rate she was going on these patrols, she would be in bandages by the end of the week.
She also had to consider getting a day job. The calls to Cordelia and LA were seriously bankrupting her.
The vampire came at her from behind, and the buzz from her powers had already dissipated. Apparently the vampire didn't want to harm her, just shake her up, so when she was pinned to the wall by her shoulders she could only wriggle underneath his steely grasp.
It was him, the Italian guy.
He had held her up, and she was off her feet, so her face was level with his as he sneered at her.
"You don't know what you're doing," he said.
OK, who said vampires didn't breathe? What else would the stench coming out from his mouth be?
"What?" was the only thing she could get out.
"Silly child. You must realize your part in the circle. You are after the girl too."
TO BE CONTINUED
Send feedback please to slayerbelle@go.com
The Abnormality of Free Will
by Slayerbelle
Chapter 2
"Trust Her With Your Life"
The number was written here somewhere.
Buffy didn't memorize it. Maybe she should, it would come handy in times like this.
Five rings so far. Maybe she shouldn't be calling so late.
"Angel Investigations, we help the hopeless. Are you hopeless? We can help you."
*Cordelia, thank God.* Mature as they were being about their past, she wasn't ready to have awkward small talk with Angel yet.
"Cordelia," she said. "It's Buffy."
"Buffy Summers," Cordelia masked a yawn. "Angel's out, or unavailable, or whatever. He's not here."
"No, I didn't want to talk to him," But Buffy was a little miffed that Cordelia jumped to that conclusion. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Me? To what do I owe this really late pleasure?"
"Sorry if I woke you up. I wasn't sure you'd be at work this late."
"Oh, Wesley had this research party earlier. We're all having the time of our lives. What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Aurora Halley?"
Cordelia burst out laughing. "Oh God. You know her already? Tell her she's lost her touch."
"You know her."
"Of course I know her." Cordelia noticed that Buffy wasn't laughing, and she sobered up a bit. "What -- is something wrong? Is she OK?"
"She's fine. In fact, she's downstairs in my living room."
Cordelia heaved a very audible sigh of relief. "Oh, good. Great. Why did you call?"
"I just, well, I found out about her tonight, what she does. What she did for Angel. And... I wanted to check if she was telling the truth."
"Yes, she's gotten that divine whatever to protect you and she's given all this magic witch power to help keep you and herself alive, and all that. I know the drill. I've seen it in action. Why would you even doubt her, Buffy?"
"It's just... a lot of things are tense here now. I want to be sure she can be trusted."
"For what it's worth, Buffy, I trust Aurora with my life. I'd trust her with yours too. What do you mean you don't know if she can be trusted? Someone devotes her life and powers to protecting you when she gets nothing out of it..."
Buffy checked the door to make sure no one was within earshot. "She's just got awful timing, Cordelia. It's just... there's something going on here, and I want to be sure she's not connected..."
Cordelia gasped. "She didn't tell you."
"Didn't tell me what?"
"She didn't tell you why she left LA."
"What are you talking about?"
"Buffy, whatever big bad you think she might be in cahoots with, forget it. I don't think she traveled back to Sunnyhell because she enjoys your company and the local cuisine." Cordelia spoke emphatically, and Buffy sensed just how much she liked the girl. "She turned down a lucrative career in evil with Wolfram and Hart for this divine mission, and she didn't leave LA by choice."
*Wolfram and Hart... Wolfram and Hart... *
"That's the law firm, right?"
"Yeah."
"You and Aurora are friends?"
"We love her. Wesley and I, we do."
Buffy nodded. *And Angel?* "That's good to know. I just wanted to be sure she was exactly who she said she was."
"She's that and more, Buffy."
*Wolfram and Hart!* Buffy remembered now why the name was familiar.
She remembered the photograph.
"Why did she leave LA, Cordelia?" Buffy asked.
Cordelia cleared her throat. "I think you'd better let her tell you that."
====
Aurora and Giles were in the living room, alone together for almost twenty minutes already, but Buffy had to find something first.
The impromptu phone call to LA was necessary because she had to make a choice that evening.
After Aurora introduced herself the first time at the cemetery, Buffy didn't believe her. Well, she did in a way, believed her enough to take her back to the Summers house where Giles would make both heads *and* tails of her story.
Assigned by the Powers That Be to protect her. And what a story it was.
Buffy's instant reaction was, "Hello, Slayer!" She even said that aloud, and Aurora only concurred. Apparently she didn't know what she was supposed to be protecting Buffy from, only that she was sent to Sunnydale to do just that.
And then Buffy remembered the unbelievably strong demon who was roaming around town somewhere, looking for Dawn, a demon she didn't recognize or know how to defeat, and she softened up on the Slayer's Protector idea.
Maybe she really did need some supernatural help.
And then, of course, the strangest thing happened. As she let Aurora into her home, the girl started shaking and acting really loopy. She kept saying things about something being wrong with the house, that she was seeing things that wasn't there, that their family pictures were flashing. A glass of water later and she was fine.
She said it was a spell.
A quick conference with Giles and Buffy deduced that Aurora could see the spell cast on them, the way Buffy saw through it herself when she was in a trance. Which means she knew about Dawn.
Which means they had to let her in on the plan, whatever it was. It bothered her, that she would have to tell this stranger before telling Willow or Xander, or even Riley. At least she wouldn't have to worry about this girl's safety -- apparently her powers protected her life. And at least Cordelia really seemed to trust her.
"If people would just stop it with the mind control," she muttered as she lifted a sweater off her mail pile.
First there was the sister she never knew she never had. Now there was this girl, claiming she was in Sunnydale the whole time Angel was here, and she knew about everything that happened to Buffy that time, knew everyone in town. Now that the truth was being shown to her, she didn't know what to believe.
There was something she needed to clear with Aurora, though.
Nearing a month ago, she got a visit from a young man. A lawyer, very good looking. He brought her an envelope bearing the Wolfram and Hart name. She might have flirted with him a little, she was human after all, and then she noticed that he shook her hand using his left.
Because his right hand was a prosthetic.
Inside the envelope was an eight by ten photograph, black and white, of Angel kissing a girl.
Buffy found the incriminating photograph in her unorganized pile of mail.
The girl was Aurora, she could tell now.
====
She dropped the photograph in the middle of the living room coffee table.
Aurora paled. If it was possible for her entire face to drain of blood in that moment, that was probably what had happened.
Giles, meanwhile, looked upon it with interest. "May... may I?" he said, taking the photograph by the corner, looking at it closely. "Amazing, vampire with no reflection can be photographed."
"How did you get this?" Aurora said, her voice barely a whisper.
"Lawyer delivered it here himself. Cute. Plastic hand."
"Lindsey McDonald," Aurora said softly. "The bastard."
"That's probably not a term of endearment," Giles said, still observing the picture.
"Actually it kind of is." A smile came to Aurora's face. Lindsey, she had talked to him before she left LA. He was doing his job, and was good at it. She couldn't blame him, not really.
"Giles, when you've finished," Buffy said pointedly. "I just want to ask what was that, and why was it brought to my home."
Aurora was having difficulty breathing. Lindsey couldn't really be working on her now, and still. This wasn't about Angel now. This was of absolutely no use to him.
*Unless it's to get me crawling back to Wolfram and Hart. This is a stupid plan.*
"I think they intended this to expose me as... I don't know what." Aurora said.
"So this picture is real. And it's you." Buffy took a seat next to Giles and faced the girl.
"Yes, it's me. And it's real. But... it's not as tabloid gossip as it looks."
"And I'm not--" Buffy raised her hands defensively. "Hey, am currently in happy, mostly stable relationship. This isn't some kind of thing with Angel. But let's admit how weird this is."
Giles, almost hesitantly, put down the picture. "This does seem to intend to discredit you with Buffy. You did claim that you were helping Angel anonymously all these years."
"And I was, until recently." Aurora really did not want to have to tell this story. The scars had literally only started to heal. "This picture got me fired from that."
"Because you weren't supposed to show yourself to Angel," Giles said, catching on quickly from the recap earlier.
Aurora nodded. "Yes. Getting removed from the cause meant they took the power away from me as well. Of course, I still had the angry Kalderash to deal with, and they already knew me because Wolfram and Hart kindly gave them a copy of that. Angel offered to protect me, but we found out quickly that he can't."
She paused, and an awkward silence fell over the three of them.
Giles cleared his throat and pushed it. "What do you mean he can't?"
Buffy met Aurora's eyes, and as the girl lifted her hand to pull back her hair, a strange feeling punched the Slayer in her gut. This wasn't from funky crystal training, it was from intuition. She recognized that look of healing pain in Aurora's eyes.
She recognized the scar on Aurora's neck, almost identical to her own.
Giles slowly leaned closer. The scars had only healed recently.
Buffy sucked in her breath. "Your punishment if you get caught... they turn you."
She nodded. "Yes."
"And they somehow got Angel to do it. Magic. Or something."
"Yes."
"He didn't succeed."
"I don't know why he didn't. It was a miracle. Wesley and Cordelia didn't get me in time. Something intervened, I know that much."
"He must... he must feel awful about this."
"Yes he does. But that's not why I left. I left because it could happen again and again until the Kalderash get it right." Aurora was thankful she didn't have to give the details of that night, but was still unsettled by having to remember. "Fortunately I got assigned to you through a vision, and by coming here and taking it, I get my powers back."
"So you're able to defend yourself from the Kalderash," Giles continued.
"Well, only if they really want to harm me. Otherwise I'm just normal human being."
Buffy could hear little bits of history creeping into this Cliff Notes version. Wesley and Cordelia. Angel. She could get now why Cordelia said Aurora didn't leave by choice.
She loved it there. She loved them. But the only way she could stay alive was to leave, hence the Sunnydale move.
"Aurora," she said. "I have to tell you something about Dawn."
====
Aurora tried to remember if the haunting music only came to her in Sunnydale.
In LA the visions didn't have music. Or at least, not loud and creepy like the one she was hearing now.
Inside the red room she found herself in the circle again.
Buffy. Her. The man. And Dawn.
She knew it was Dawn now. She just met Dawn a few hours ago.
She wanted to tell Buffy that she recognized the man, but Buffy didn't seem to know he was around. She was just looking at Aurora.
"It's not going to be me," she said.
"What?"
"It's not going to be me."
The man turned to Aurora and spoke. "Gli universi sanguinano ed il sole brillerà nessuno più."
Buffy pointed to Aurora's hand. "You have to use that."
====
Giles was expecting her at three pm at the Magic Box. He saw her come in a few minutes before that. And slowly.
He was at the register, taking over for Anya who took a break by bringing a sandwich over to Xander's construction site. He saw the girl come in, but he didn't approach her first. In the moments it took her to cross the store and get to the round table, he noticed a slight limp in her step.
Their eyes met, and he smiled. He offered her a seat, and she took it cautiously.
Her back was either sore, or wounded.
"I'll get us some tea, and then we can start working," he said.
It was a relief, actually being able to work on this new evil. He and Buffy were being spread thin by taking turns protecting Dawn and looking for clues. Having Aurora in on the loop helped ease his burden somewhat, but he was also intrigued by what he could learn from her. He wanted to study the kind of magic she was dealing with.
Aurora, as he found out an hour later, was very much willing to share.
"... borrowing spells," she was saying.
Giles was making notes. "Borrowing spells?"
"The power isn't mine. I mean, I've learned to do simple spells, some incantations over time. But any significant power I can do isn't mine."
Interesting. "You're a channel for the power then. Do you know where it comes from?"
"The incantation calls Alana, who from what I understand is the first of Angel's protectors. She was a Kalderash of course, very powerful witch."
"She was the first to go against the family curse."
"Yes. I'm still unclear of the details, but at some point in time she decided to help Angel. Keep him alive for him to reach what they called The Dark Times."
"And Alana, she did this how long ago?"
Aurora frowned. "I really don't know too much about the history of what I do. They kept a lot from me. I think it only started after World War 2, or around that time."
"Is she still alive?"
"I seriously doubt that."
An awkward moment passed, and Giles quickly proceeded to something else. "What kind of... of magic have you been able to do through these borrowing spells?"
She smiled. "Wild and wacky stuff. Instantly freezing water to ice. Bursting through doors. Bolts of lighting. Fire. Levitating stuff. I even healed a staked vampire once. Anything that is necessary at the time."
"As long as you protect Angel."
"Or myself, yes."
This was promising. Buffy was having difficulty with the new demon because it was particularly strong. Here they had a witch who was harnessing power that was beyond strength...
Aurora tilted her head to one side, and it was as if she had read his mind. "I can't will it to work, Mr. Giles."
"You're speaking of your powers?"
"Yes. I know Buffy needs help protecting Dawn, but I can't will the power to just come out. I don't decide this. It works only on two conditions: to protect Buffy's life, or to save my own. I can't really be of help to Dawn like this."
"But we can channel it, can't we? This is important, Aurora, and we need to have every option open to us."
She paused to think. "I know it can be channeled, but not through me. Once Cordelia channeled it through herself, and it worked very well. But it still weighed heavily on the power of Alana deciding for Cordelia to have it. All we can do is ask permission."
"Duly noted, and thank you. But... you say you can't will your powers. And yet you get yourself into situations where you fight to protect Buffy. The other time Dawn."
"You noticed the limp."
"And I think your back is hurt."
"I think I cut myself on a flower pot in Buffy's backyard."
"Aurora, you can't go into the line of fire unprepared. I think being around Angel and Sunnydale as long as you have, you'd know this very well."
"I can't help it," she said softly.
Giles put down his pen and looked at her. Of course he understood. "It doesn't help, just watching, does it."
"I know you got fired from the Council for getting involved. I know I shouldn't. But sometimes you're just so close to it, that it would be wrong not to."
It was a selflessness he had to admire. He could already imagine Angel's reaction to it. Angel would demand she stop protecting him, that he wasn't worth it. But she continued to do so anyway, because it was what she was supposed to do.
Aurora cleared her throat, and the moment was over. "Did you get all you needed to know? I'm sorry, a lot of details weren't really revealed to me until recently. Like the part about the Kalderash turning the protectors they catch into vampires. Now they didn't tell me that."
Bitterness. And just a hint of pain.
"It's cruel of your family not to warn you."
"I know it is. But I was thinking... maybe they had to hide it. Would I have said yes, had I known at what cost? I believe in what I do, but when you're sixteen years old you wouldn't necessarily choose this if you knew what you were getting into."
"You're a remarkable young lady, Aurora."
She shook her head. "I'm not. You wanted me to help you with research?"
The gears shifted quickly, and he turned the page on his notebook and decided not to pry. Aurora told him about her vision that night, and the Italian phrase the man in her dream said to her. He marveled how she remembered every word.
"The universe bleeds and the sun shall shine no more," he said.
"That's what it means?"
"Yes. It sounds ominous. You are certain this is what he said to you?"
"I just remember it. I'm supposed to."
"That's very convenient.," he observed. "I should take a look at the Italian texts that I have... this could be a cult, intent on bringing about the end of the world."
She laughed. "That's not very original."
Indeed. Giles remembered several volumes pertaining to old Italian cults and religious orders, and soon enough he and Aurora were poring over the pages at the table.
"Bloody hell," he exclaimed, minutes later.
"What?"
"I've found it, kind of." He opened the book to the page in question and showed it to Aurora. "That verse you mentioned, it's the first line of an important text from an order of Italian monks... the *Il Custode Della Chiave*. Keeper of The Key."
"You found it there. In that book."
"Well, yes."
Sunnydale actually did have everything, she didn't know why people complained about this town. "How convenient. What else does it say?"
====
Later on, Willow figured out that it was a set up.
It wasn't that Buffy *never* treated her out to the Espresso Pump, it was just rare. And while Willow didn't want to think there was an ulterior motive behind it, she knew there were reasons.
"You enjoying that?" Buffy said, a little too eagerly, pointing to Willow's iced mocca caramel with whipped cream.
She took a sip. "Immensely. Mocca goodness."
"Sorry about that earlier."
"I just don't think that was very nice of Giles, is all." Willow said, only half joking.
After classes at UC Sunnydale that day, she decided to stop by the Magic Box, in case Giles needed help with something. She was noticing how stressed he was recently, staying up late researching something he wouldn't let her help with.
Now that was really heroic of him, but she hoped he wasn't deciding again behind her back what kind of magic was too much for her.
She saw him researching in the Magic Box today with a girl she didn't recognize. He introduced her as Aurora, who was apparently some kind of witch, and they were talking hush hush about witch stuff.
Now that was just silly.
"...so I'm all like, I can help, Giles. And he says no, he and Aurora are fine, and I should just go on with my day." Willow was saying, shaking her head. "I don't know why he's always protecting me about the magic thing. I think I've proven pretty much that I can do this. I'm not a baby."
Buffy nodded. "Oh, you really aren't. Did you, did you meet Aurora?"
"Well, a little introduction and all. That she's a witch and apparently she meets Giles's research buddy, let's-talk-about-magic standards." OK, a little bitterness there.
"You might see her around a bit too. Patrolling. With me."
"What?" Willow felt her face fall a little, and she hated how disappointed she must have looked. "What's going on? When did she get into the Scooby Gang? Was there an initiation I missed, or something?"
"It's not... I mean, it was sudden. She was sent here to help me. Just trust me with this, Will, and I don't really know what else to tell you."
"Sent here by whom? To help you with what?"
"Higher powers, and she doesn't know what. It's just, she just has to help me. So she'll be around."
"That doesn't sound suspicious to you?" Willow was primarily pissed, but getting a little concerned now. "People don't just show up on a Slayer's doorstep and say they want to help."
"Just... she won't be in the way. Trust me with this."
She did, she trusted Buffy with her life, more times than she could count. But what could Buffy and Giles be needing that she couldn't help them with?
"Don't think that it's you," Buffy quickly said.
"Well, there's something brewing and you're not letting me help." Willow said, and regretted how it made her sound like a kid. But she felt out of the loop, and fine, she had her own stuff too and not everything was about the Scooby Gang... but it would have been good of them to ask. She sipped the mocca, apparently designated the mocca of forgiveness, and tried to get her composure back. "OK, so I get it. There's stuff you and Giles have to do. Just... if it's really important we should be in on this together."
"It's no big. Really. I mean, she's just here to help. No problem."
"Let's just forget it then. So what are you up to tonight?"
"Dinner date with Riley. And then patrolling."
"Must be Tuesday."
====
Now, Buffy had never really done magic herself, but she didn't realize that it was an actual force that one could feel.
She and Aurora were side by side on the ground, pinned down by two vamps who had apparently just risen and were getting cemetery dirt all over their clothes and face and hair. Aurora was shouting, first in surprise, and then later in pain. Buffy was preoccupied herself, and couldn't do a thing but roll her stake Aurora's way.
Aurora's vampire opened his mouth and tilted her neck for a better angle. As he went in for the bite, Buffy felt it.
A soft hum, and then almost like a burst of static electricity. Aurora let out a soft gasp, and then she released her left arm from the vamp's grip, groped her side for the stake. The next move was too fast for Buffy to see, but apparently Aurora got her leg up and tossed the vampire off her, resulting in vamp somersaulting. And then a moment later she was on her feet, trading punches with the creature.
*I've got to get me one of those,* Buffy thought, shaking her head as she did almost the same thing with her normal Slayer strength. As soon as she got back up on her feet, she reached into her boot for the other stake, and her own attacker was dusted.
She found Aurora out of breath but successful a few headstones away.
"You were saying?" Buffy said.
Aurora dusted off her hands a bit. "Oh yeah... they called themselves Keepers of the Key. Italian monks, very versed in magic. They had to be, if they were actually hiding this thing, whatever it is. It apparently doesn't have form or shape, but they turned it into..."
"Dawn," Buffy sighed, absently sticking the pointy end of her stake over and over on the nearby tree. "Did it say what the Key was? Why they were hiding it?"
"No, just a lot of references to power."
"That's not helpful. I mean, a key opens something, right?"
"Giles said the book he has only has an excerpt of the text, not the complete volume. The Watcher's Council would have it, but I don't think you'd want them becoming suspicious when Giles places an order for the book."
"Besides, he doesn't work for them anymore anyway."
"We're keeping all research options open."
"OK."
Aurora looked at her, and then ventured tentatively. "I placed a call to Wesley, though."
"Wesley? Aurora, he can't--"
"I know, I know, I was very non-suspicious. I just asked him if he could help with a text I was looking for. I trust him. He's not like the person he was when he was your Watcher. Besides, he'd have no idea what's going on here, it's too weird."
"Only in Sunnydale," Buffy conceded. She was glad Giles had someone to help him. And, in a sense, she had someone to help her too. "Wesley saved your life." she observed.
"Carried my lifeless body in his arms, and pretended he was my husband at the hospital so he could demand a blood transfusion." Aurora said, almost wistfully. "Him and Cordelia, I owe them so much."
"That's good to hear, I mean, that you have people you trust with your life. They didn't seem the types when they were here."
"A lot's happened."
"I noticed." Buffy checked her watch, and remembered that she wanted to be home before Dawn got to bed. "I think we've struck enough fear in the hearts of the undead. Call it a night?"
====
She was gushing too much. But it was true, and she didn't want to have to hide it.
Apparently it gave Buffy some kind of comfort that she would rather be in LA. The timing of her appearance in Sunnydale made Buffy suspicious, that maybe she was after Dawn too. Although Aurora didn't know if she could go as far as protect this mysterious Key thing. The rate she was going on these patrols, she would be in bandages by the end of the week.
She also had to consider getting a day job. The calls to Cordelia and LA were seriously bankrupting her.
The vampire came at her from behind, and the buzz from her powers had already dissipated. Apparently the vampire didn't want to harm her, just shake her up, so when she was pinned to the wall by her shoulders she could only wriggle underneath his steely grasp.
It was him, the Italian guy.
He had held her up, and she was off her feet, so her face was level with his as he sneered at her.
"You don't know what you're doing," he said.
OK, who said vampires didn't breathe? What else would the stench coming out from his mouth be?
"What?" was the only thing she could get out.
"Silly child. You must realize your part in the circle. You are after the girl too."
TO BE CONTINUED