Xander woke up to the sound of heavy objects being moved around. Slowly, he opened one eye, remembering the previous night's events, as they returned to him. He took in the crumpled figure of Willow on the mat next to him. Of the elf, Lissa, there was no sign, but the noise from the shop told him he would find her there. Carefully he got up, so as not to disturb Willow, who still appeared to be asleep. She would need more sedatives soon, or Evil Willow would try to resurface again.
Cautiously, he approached the elf in the other room, "Er, Lissa, isn't it. I need to go out, get some pills for Willow? Those things, can I get past them now?" Slowly, the elf turned around, resting her violet gaze on him. "She won't need any pills," is was a statement.
"I hate to prove you wrong there, but if that dark magic tried to get out again, well," he gestured the building around them, "this will probably crash and burn, just like us."
"As I said," Lissa stated, "she won't need pills, and if Evil Willow, as you stated, gets out. I can handle her. Have no fear." With that she walked over to the table, where three earthenware pots were sat, along with a bowl of water and a bag of salt.
"I'm hungry!" mumbled a sleepy-looking Willow, as she stumbled into the room. Carefully, giving the elf an extremely wide berth, she made her way to Xander's side.
"What are those Xander?" she stared at the pots on the table, "I don't like the look of this." Lissa answered "for the cleansing," she gestured the pots "I need them to contain the magics I release from you, before I dispose of them."
"Your wards are down, Lissa, thought I'd pop in with breakfast," she said nervously almost stumbling into the Magic Shop, Lissa, merely nodded her thanks before approaching the pots again.
Carefully, Lissa dipped each of the pots into the water, in turn, then added salt to each pot, swirling it around to coat the inside. She reached behind the pots and did the same to three cork lids. Anya smiled and nodded. "I know what she's doing, she won't harm Willow. It's an old spell, been used for millennia to contain magic." Xander raised his eyebrows, "oookay, I don't really want to know about this."
"Xander, back away from the elf. I can deal with her," Willow's voice again, stronger. He looked to see her eyes, blackened by the magic that was rising within her.
y, and with a confidence no one else was feeling in the room at the time, Lissa turned and faced Willow, whose hair was slowly turning black again. Sparks were gathering at Willow's fingertips, like blue electricity. Black eyes met violet ones and the air charged up between the women, causing both Xander and Anya's hair to stand on end. Lissa began whispering, it seemed she was talking to herself, were it not for the fact that a breeze appeared from nowhere, ruffling her hair gently. A ball of blue erupted from Willow, aimed directly at the elf, but it never reached it's destination, merely hanging directly in front of Lissa. She seemed oblivious, her voice not above a whisper, as the wind between them increased velocity, like a mini tornado. With a scream, Willow launched three more balls of magical energy towards the elf, and once again they never reached their destination, hanging between the two opponents, frozen in mid air.
Neither woman saw Buffy enter the magic shop, followed closely by Giles and Dawn, who ran into Giles due to his sudden stop. All three were in shock at the sight that had met them. Giles reached out and slowly drew Buffy backwards and against him. "Don't move," he whispered and felt her move her head in acknowledgement.
He glanced back at Dawn, who was peering at the scene from behind his elbow. What they saw was an obvious magic battle, between two adept and skilled opponents. However, it appeared the elf had more than her fair share of ability, as she didn't seem to merely be stopping the balls of magic, but each ball was slowly dwindling down to a mere spark in front of their eyes. The wind picked up intensity between the two opponents again, this time blasting towards Willow, who screamed as it surrounded her, lifting her slowly off the floor, to suspend in the air. Gradually, Willow seemed to freeze, her arms and legs pinned straight, her eyes and hair gradually losing the blackness, before slowly she was lowered back to the floor, where she lost consciousness. As the wind dwindled back to nothing, Lissa stumbled backwards, holding her side, but still whispering, her eyes locked on Willow's form, then with a groan, she collapsed back against the counter, panting, "shit, that hurt," was all but gasped out, "thank the gods she doesn't really know how to use what she's got." Slowly the gang split up and got busy. Buffy quickly going over to Willow and Xander, who both seemed in a state of shock, in their own ways. Willow seemed unreachable, although now fully conscious. Xander was muttering,"how? She just whispered and ... poof!"
***********************************************************************************
I know its a bit slow at present, it will pick up next chapter - enter Spike! My apologies re the first two, didn't realise what effect a text file entry has i.e. no paragraphing - R