Part 18: No More Secrets
#
To say that Xander Harris was out of the loop would be a serious understatement. To be more precise he was at a loss as to what had been going on with Buffy and the darker side of Sunnydale as of late. He was feeling left out, quite a lot actually, and it was not a feeling he particularly cherished.
It was to be expected, of course. Buffy and Willow were going to college, he was not. They were sharing a dorm, he lived in his parents' basement. Willow was still his best bud, he did not doubt that, and he was glad he was able to be there for her ever since the whole thing with Oz and then Spike had gone down. Still, he was pretty much in the dark as to what Buffy was doing these days.
Well, hopefully that was going to change now. Buffy had invited him over for a meeting, saying only that she was going to fill him and the others in on everything that had gone down as of late. Her voice had suggested that 'everything' was not all roses and sunshine. The upside, though, was that they were meeting in the park in the middle of the day for a picnic. No possibility of vampire ambush there at the very least.
When he and Anya arrived they saw only Willow and Giles there, busily spreading a blanket on the grass and taking wrapped sandwiches out of a basket. There was no sign of Buffy yet.
"Hey, Wills," he greeted them. "G-man, what's up?"
"Don't call me that," Giles said without looking up. "Sit down, Buffy should be along momentarily."
"She is making us wait?" Anya asked, plopping down beside Xander. "She called this meeting, how come she is making us wait? That's just plain rude!"
"She said something about a surprise," Willow said, shrugging. She was actually getting used to the former demon's bluntness. "I guess we'll just have to wait and ..."
Willow's voice suddenly trailed off and her eyes widened, focused on something behind Xander. He quickly turned around, expecting something horrible and demonic to come at them even here in the middle of the day. Did he have a stake somewhere? No, of course not, why would he pack a stake for a picnic? Of all the stupid ...
His own thoughts trailed off as well when he finally saw what Willow was gaping at. Buffy was walking toward them with a big smile on her face and holding her hand was ... someone who could not possibly be here. Not in a park filled with sunshine in the middle of the day.
"Hi guys," Buffy said to her stunned friends. "Surprise!" She and Angel remained standing some feet away from the blanket, waiting for one of them to say something.
"How ...? When ...? How ...?" Willow was looking back and forth from Buffy to Angel so fast her head was starting to spin.
"It's day, right?" Xander asked no one in particular. "I'm not imagining that, am I? It's day!"
"Brightest day, Xander," Angel said with a smile on his lips. "Lots of sunshine."
"You are not wearing the Gem of Amara," Giles said, the Watcher studying the non-combusting, sunlit form of the supposed vampire. "How can you ...?"
"He is no longer a vampire," Buffy said, rubbing a hand across Angel's warm flesh. "It's a long story, gang. You want to hear it?"
"He's a real hunk," Anya said into the ensuing silence. "I didn't really see you when you came over at Thanksgiving. Why did no one tell me he was such a hunk?"
"An, really not the time!"
"Don't worry, Xander! You're still my ..."
Xander quickly clamped his hand over her mouth, not wanting to hear whatever nickname she had thought up for him right now. Whatever it was, he was sure it was nothing he wanted his friends to hear. Or Angel. Human Angel.
Did this mean he could no longer call him deadboy?
Buffy and Angel settled down on the blanket, sitting so close together that no one could possibly mistake the state of their relationship. There was a somewhat angry look on Xander's face, but he refrained from commenting. For now at least.
"Okay," Buffy began, seeing that she had her friends' undivided attention. "It all started when I went to Los Angeles to chew him out for his visit at Thanksgiving."
Buffy told them the whole story, except some of the more intimate details. Angel mostly held his silence, only adding a fact here and there and telling them about things Buffy had not seen in person, like his battle against the Mhora. Giles, Willow, and Xander listened with rapt fascination and even Anya seemed intrigued by the tale.
"This is amazing," Giles said when they finished. "I've heard rumors about Mhoras and the mystical properties of their blood, but I had no idea that they could actually bring a dead body back to life."
"I certainly did not expect it to happen," Angel admitted, "but I can't really complain either, can I?"
"No complains here," Buffy added with a big smile on her face.
"So ... Angel, you're here to stay?" Willow asked.
The former vampire nodded. "I will need to make some short trips back to LA to take care of some leftover business, but yes, I will stay." He turned to look fondly at Buffy. "Period."
Willow needed a moment to digest this fact, but then quickly moved over to gather both Buffy and Angel into a big hug.
"I'm so happy for you two," she squealed. "This is like a fairy tale ending, guys!"
"I hate to spoil the mood," Giles said after quietly observing for a minute, "but this fairy tale is not exactly over. We have other problems, don't we?"
A somber look came to Buffy's face. She had almost managed to put the events of two days ago out of her mind. Angel had been with her nonstop, ensuring her of his love and that he did not blame her for what happened, and for a time she had been able to pretend that the rest of the world simply did not exist. Especially that part of the world that contained a guy called Jackson King.
Giles was kind enough to take over filling Xander, Anya, and to a certain degree Willow in on what else had been going on. All of them already knew about Riley and his undercover guys, though Buffy and Giles' decision to join them for now was news to most of them. Any questions or comments they might have had about that were forgotten, though, as Giles explained about the Huntsman and what they knew about its connection to the Slayer.
"You mean this guy and the Buff here," Xander said, "are destined to ... and everyone who comes between them ...?" He looked at Angel.
"It won't come to that," both Angel and Giles said at the same time. The two men shared a quick look of understanding.
"Buffy has been able to break this ... mating bond or whatever it is," Giles explained. "We are not sure why, but I am looking into various possibilities right now."
"I spoke to Doyle in Los Angeles," Angel said. "He's a friend of mine and has something of a direct line of communication with the higher powers."
"How does that work?" Xander asked.
"He gets visions of people in trouble," Angel explained. "Also there are the Oracles, spokesbeings for the Powers That Be and ..."
"Oh, the poor guy," Anya said. "I knew a woman who had these vision things once. Blew out the back of her head after a while."
"Blew out ...? He does get terrible migraines whenever they hit, but ..."
"He isn't human, is he?" the former demon asked. "Normally only good demons are supposed to get these things, but the Powers are messy about that."
"He's a half-demon, Anya."
"Oh, that's okay then." With that the topic seemed closed for her. Angel gave her another look, but then continued with the matter at hand.
"Doyle has asked the Oracles about the Huntsman. They did not tell him much, but what they said apparently confirmed what we learned from that text the Council sent you, Giles. Slayer and Huntsman were created as a mated pair of warriors, but unfortunately the mating bond was made too strong. They can't control it and that's why the Huntsman was locked away."
"Until those Council idiots freed it," Buffy swore. "Trust the guys who are supposed to help me save the world to screw it up again."
"Did they know why Buffy was able to resist the mating bond?" Giles asked.
"They did not say. The only other thing they told Doyle was that it was a matter of essence. All that makes the Slayer is drawn to the Huntsman. Whatever they mean by that."
Giles frowned, a thoughtful look on his face. "All that makes the Slayer ...," he mumbled.
"Oh, I think G-man is in full deduction-mode," Xander said.
"Giles?" Buffy asked. "What is it?"
"Hmm? Oh, I just ... they said 'all that makes the Slayer', yes?"
"That's what Doyle said, yes."
The Watcher nodded, taking off his glasses to clean them.
"That would make sense," he said to no one in particular. "All that makes the Slayer."
"Giles, you're wigging me out," Buffy complained. "If you know something about this, share! Now!"
"It's just a theory, Buffy, but ... the only previous time we know of that the Huntsman and the Slayer met there was but one Slayer." He looked up at Buffy. "Now, though, there are two."
Buffy needed a moment to understand.
"Faith?"
#
In a hospital on the other side of Sunnydale a dark-haired girl was lying in a bed, the same bed she had been in for many months now. The doctors did not honestly expect her to ever wake up again, the damage her head had sustained in a terrible fall back in early summer was just too great.
Not one of these doctors was around, though, to see her sleep grow restless. As a matter of fact it had been restless for quite a while now. She moaned in her sleep and tossed and turned, almost as if she was in the grip of a nightmare she could not wake up from.
Had anyone been able to take a look inside her head, inside her dreams, they would have seen the face of a young man called Jackson King.
TO BE CONTINUED
#
To say that Xander Harris was out of the loop would be a serious understatement. To be more precise he was at a loss as to what had been going on with Buffy and the darker side of Sunnydale as of late. He was feeling left out, quite a lot actually, and it was not a feeling he particularly cherished.
It was to be expected, of course. Buffy and Willow were going to college, he was not. They were sharing a dorm, he lived in his parents' basement. Willow was still his best bud, he did not doubt that, and he was glad he was able to be there for her ever since the whole thing with Oz and then Spike had gone down. Still, he was pretty much in the dark as to what Buffy was doing these days.
Well, hopefully that was going to change now. Buffy had invited him over for a meeting, saying only that she was going to fill him and the others in on everything that had gone down as of late. Her voice had suggested that 'everything' was not all roses and sunshine. The upside, though, was that they were meeting in the park in the middle of the day for a picnic. No possibility of vampire ambush there at the very least.
When he and Anya arrived they saw only Willow and Giles there, busily spreading a blanket on the grass and taking wrapped sandwiches out of a basket. There was no sign of Buffy yet.
"Hey, Wills," he greeted them. "G-man, what's up?"
"Don't call me that," Giles said without looking up. "Sit down, Buffy should be along momentarily."
"She is making us wait?" Anya asked, plopping down beside Xander. "She called this meeting, how come she is making us wait? That's just plain rude!"
"She said something about a surprise," Willow said, shrugging. She was actually getting used to the former demon's bluntness. "I guess we'll just have to wait and ..."
Willow's voice suddenly trailed off and her eyes widened, focused on something behind Xander. He quickly turned around, expecting something horrible and demonic to come at them even here in the middle of the day. Did he have a stake somewhere? No, of course not, why would he pack a stake for a picnic? Of all the stupid ...
His own thoughts trailed off as well when he finally saw what Willow was gaping at. Buffy was walking toward them with a big smile on her face and holding her hand was ... someone who could not possibly be here. Not in a park filled with sunshine in the middle of the day.
"Hi guys," Buffy said to her stunned friends. "Surprise!" She and Angel remained standing some feet away from the blanket, waiting for one of them to say something.
"How ...? When ...? How ...?" Willow was looking back and forth from Buffy to Angel so fast her head was starting to spin.
"It's day, right?" Xander asked no one in particular. "I'm not imagining that, am I? It's day!"
"Brightest day, Xander," Angel said with a smile on his lips. "Lots of sunshine."
"You are not wearing the Gem of Amara," Giles said, the Watcher studying the non-combusting, sunlit form of the supposed vampire. "How can you ...?"
"He is no longer a vampire," Buffy said, rubbing a hand across Angel's warm flesh. "It's a long story, gang. You want to hear it?"
"He's a real hunk," Anya said into the ensuing silence. "I didn't really see you when you came over at Thanksgiving. Why did no one tell me he was such a hunk?"
"An, really not the time!"
"Don't worry, Xander! You're still my ..."
Xander quickly clamped his hand over her mouth, not wanting to hear whatever nickname she had thought up for him right now. Whatever it was, he was sure it was nothing he wanted his friends to hear. Or Angel. Human Angel.
Did this mean he could no longer call him deadboy?
Buffy and Angel settled down on the blanket, sitting so close together that no one could possibly mistake the state of their relationship. There was a somewhat angry look on Xander's face, but he refrained from commenting. For now at least.
"Okay," Buffy began, seeing that she had her friends' undivided attention. "It all started when I went to Los Angeles to chew him out for his visit at Thanksgiving."
Buffy told them the whole story, except some of the more intimate details. Angel mostly held his silence, only adding a fact here and there and telling them about things Buffy had not seen in person, like his battle against the Mhora. Giles, Willow, and Xander listened with rapt fascination and even Anya seemed intrigued by the tale.
"This is amazing," Giles said when they finished. "I've heard rumors about Mhoras and the mystical properties of their blood, but I had no idea that they could actually bring a dead body back to life."
"I certainly did not expect it to happen," Angel admitted, "but I can't really complain either, can I?"
"No complains here," Buffy added with a big smile on her face.
"So ... Angel, you're here to stay?" Willow asked.
The former vampire nodded. "I will need to make some short trips back to LA to take care of some leftover business, but yes, I will stay." He turned to look fondly at Buffy. "Period."
Willow needed a moment to digest this fact, but then quickly moved over to gather both Buffy and Angel into a big hug.
"I'm so happy for you two," she squealed. "This is like a fairy tale ending, guys!"
"I hate to spoil the mood," Giles said after quietly observing for a minute, "but this fairy tale is not exactly over. We have other problems, don't we?"
A somber look came to Buffy's face. She had almost managed to put the events of two days ago out of her mind. Angel had been with her nonstop, ensuring her of his love and that he did not blame her for what happened, and for a time she had been able to pretend that the rest of the world simply did not exist. Especially that part of the world that contained a guy called Jackson King.
Giles was kind enough to take over filling Xander, Anya, and to a certain degree Willow in on what else had been going on. All of them already knew about Riley and his undercover guys, though Buffy and Giles' decision to join them for now was news to most of them. Any questions or comments they might have had about that were forgotten, though, as Giles explained about the Huntsman and what they knew about its connection to the Slayer.
"You mean this guy and the Buff here," Xander said, "are destined to ... and everyone who comes between them ...?" He looked at Angel.
"It won't come to that," both Angel and Giles said at the same time. The two men shared a quick look of understanding.
"Buffy has been able to break this ... mating bond or whatever it is," Giles explained. "We are not sure why, but I am looking into various possibilities right now."
"I spoke to Doyle in Los Angeles," Angel said. "He's a friend of mine and has something of a direct line of communication with the higher powers."
"How does that work?" Xander asked.
"He gets visions of people in trouble," Angel explained. "Also there are the Oracles, spokesbeings for the Powers That Be and ..."
"Oh, the poor guy," Anya said. "I knew a woman who had these vision things once. Blew out the back of her head after a while."
"Blew out ...? He does get terrible migraines whenever they hit, but ..."
"He isn't human, is he?" the former demon asked. "Normally only good demons are supposed to get these things, but the Powers are messy about that."
"He's a half-demon, Anya."
"Oh, that's okay then." With that the topic seemed closed for her. Angel gave her another look, but then continued with the matter at hand.
"Doyle has asked the Oracles about the Huntsman. They did not tell him much, but what they said apparently confirmed what we learned from that text the Council sent you, Giles. Slayer and Huntsman were created as a mated pair of warriors, but unfortunately the mating bond was made too strong. They can't control it and that's why the Huntsman was locked away."
"Until those Council idiots freed it," Buffy swore. "Trust the guys who are supposed to help me save the world to screw it up again."
"Did they know why Buffy was able to resist the mating bond?" Giles asked.
"They did not say. The only other thing they told Doyle was that it was a matter of essence. All that makes the Slayer is drawn to the Huntsman. Whatever they mean by that."
Giles frowned, a thoughtful look on his face. "All that makes the Slayer ...," he mumbled.
"Oh, I think G-man is in full deduction-mode," Xander said.
"Giles?" Buffy asked. "What is it?"
"Hmm? Oh, I just ... they said 'all that makes the Slayer', yes?"
"That's what Doyle said, yes."
The Watcher nodded, taking off his glasses to clean them.
"That would make sense," he said to no one in particular. "All that makes the Slayer."
"Giles, you're wigging me out," Buffy complained. "If you know something about this, share! Now!"
"It's just a theory, Buffy, but ... the only previous time we know of that the Huntsman and the Slayer met there was but one Slayer." He looked up at Buffy. "Now, though, there are two."
Buffy needed a moment to understand.
"Faith?"
#
In a hospital on the other side of Sunnydale a dark-haired girl was lying in a bed, the same bed she had been in for many months now. The doctors did not honestly expect her to ever wake up again, the damage her head had sustained in a terrible fall back in early summer was just too great.
Not one of these doctors was around, though, to see her sleep grow restless. As a matter of fact it had been restless for quite a while now. She moaned in her sleep and tossed and turned, almost as if she was in the grip of a nightmare she could not wake up from.
Had anyone been able to take a look inside her head, inside her dreams, they would have seen the face of a young man called Jackson King.
TO BE CONTINUED