Chapter 2: Offers That Can't Be Refused
Next morning. Routine exercises, when suddenly things start to go terribly wrong.
Buffy's leading us potentials in some early morning judo when she's called upstairs to get a phone call. She tasks me to lead the exercises while she's gone. No problem. I can do judo. I even ask the bystanders - Giles, Dawn, and Willow - if they want to join in. They decline, although I can see Dawn give it a real thought. [Slackers,] I think. [They need some more self confidence.] I'm in the middle of thinking of motivational speeches when I sense that something upstairs has gone terribly wrong.
Buffy charges down the basement stairs. "Kennedy!" she yells. "Get away from them! Get away from them now!"
Crap.
"What is it?" I try to ask, innocently.
She stares at me. "You... I trusted you..."
"What?" I try to pretend uncomprehending.
She turns away from me, towards the rest of the now-shaken audience. "I just got a phone call from some surviving remnants of the Council. They said... that Kennedy was killed months ago by the Bringers."
Double crap.
The potentials gasp and move away from me. I quickly glance over at Willow. She lets out a soft sob... and her eyes start to turn black. Oh, Goddess.
Some times demand detailed planning. Others demand pure instinct, and this is one of them. I punch Buffy hard, knocking her to the floor. I jump down on top of her.
"Does... this... look like a ghost to you?" I yell, bouncing on top of her several times.
She's shaken, but that won't last long. "I'm going to say this exactly once. I don't know what you're talking about, but I swear to you that I have nothing to do with that thing. Absolutely nothing."
Come on Giles, you're my backup on this one.
"Buffy... you see, when the Bringers initially attacked Kennedy, they didn't get her, but they got one of her servants. Before her watcher died, he cast a spell to make the corpse look like Kennedy. That allowed her to get away safely. However, it apparently confused the surviving remnants of the Council."
I sneak a quick glance over at Willow. She's sobbing softly, but her eyes are no longer black. That's a relief.
Buffy is still looking at me suspiciously, though. Still trying to decide if I'm yet one more problem to solve by staking it.
"Is this true?" I nod.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me?"
"Well..."
Xander jumps in. "Buffy, she told me about her escape from the Bringers one night after dinner, including the whole corpse-disguising bit. Didn't she tell you?"
Buffy shakes her head. "No. Why not?"
"Honestly, Buffy, I really haven't had much of a chance to talk to you much, other than for training, planning and fighting. None of us have."
I see her relax. Between Giles and Xander, she's clearly outvoted. "Obviously, I need to learn more about you girls," she says.
Xander has once again proven his great value to this operation.
* * *
Xander is my other partner in crime, as it were. He knows even more about me than Giles does. Giles only knows that I am a powerful demonic entity who has some concern about Willow and is siding against the First, and that it is far better to have me fighting with him than against him. Xander, however, knows my real name. Soon, I may trust him to know the whole story.
I had first detected Mr. Harris during last May's crisis. He seemed to be the only one of the Scooby group who was keeping his head when Willow lost control, and who had some inkling of how to talk to Willow correctly. So, we decided to use him. To this day he has no idea how he just knew where go to find Willow, and how he got there so fast.
As for what he said to her - well, that came entirely from him. Good boy. Definitely earned a biscuit that day.
I provided him with the "biscuit" a few months ago, when I was the 2:30 appointment in his office.
"Good afternoon, Miss..."
"Kennedy. You can call me Kennedy."
"Well, then Kennedy, what can we do to help you? Construction? Renovation?"
"No. Actually, I understand that you have frequently provided help of a more - supernatural kind. Something very big and unpleasant is coming to this town. I need your help in fighting it, Mr. Harris."
Xander was taken aback, but pretended to be confused. "Miss?"
"Mr. Harris, you and I both now what exactly what we're talking about, and neither of us have a lot of time. I know you work with the Slayer. I also know that you're very concerned about the awakening of something very unpleasant."
Xander sat forward.
"Does the expression 'From beneath you, it devours' mean anything to you?"
"Well now," he said, "indeed it does. Who are you?"
"That in good time, Mr. Harris. I also know that you're very close to a certain witch named Willow Rosenberg, correct?"
"Yes, but..."
"And that said witch went through a terrible tragedy last May and had a complete nervous breakdown, right?"
Xander was taken aback. I pressed ahead.
"And further, that said witch's breakdown involved skinning her girlfriend's killer, trying to kill her friends, and attempting to burn the world to a cinder, right?"
Xander's eyes widened. I could feel his discomfort level growing. Rapidly. "How... do you know all this?"
"Let me finish. And, further, that you, Alexander Harris, were instrumental in stopping her from destroying the world, and ending the black magic storm that was destroying her?"
He nodded. Nothing like a good ego stroking to assuage discomfort. There was silence for a few seconds.
"Yes. You're absolutely right. Who are you?"
I smiled. "Don't you recognize me? You've seen me before."
He shook his head, although the recognition was breaking through his subconscious, no matter how hard he attempted to pound it back down.
"Think back to that field where you found her, Mr. Harris. Someone else was there besides the two of you."
"What are you talking about... there were only the two of us there, plus that demonic temple to... oh God." The lights suddenly went on in Mr. Harris's head. That meant I had to paralyze him temporarily before he yelled, attacked me, tried to burst out his office or any of the above.
"Very good, Mr. Harris."
I released him a little, to let out whispers. "What do you want?" he whispered.
"First let's talk about what I don't want," I said. "I am not interested in destroying this planet. If I had wanted to do that, I could have done it back in 1926. Or do you think the earthquake that swallowed whole that group of 'devil-worshipping' human trash just happened to have occurred randomly?"
Xander nodded.
"And if I had wanted to end this planet recently, I simply could have killed you when you approached my temple."
Xander nodded.
"And, as you may have picked up from your sudden paralysis, I have the ability to kill you right now. I could also kill Buffy, Dawn, Anya - all of Sunnydale, in fact. But I have not chosen to do so."
Xander nodded. Fast learner. Good boy.
"So now, let's talk about what I do want. I want to help you and the rest of the Slayer's gang fight the evil you're about to face."
Xander looks at me in disbelief. Sometimes I forget that he's secretly one of the biggest believers in that whole "demons bad, people good" crap, Anyanka or no Anyanka.
"Not every demon is evil, Mr. Harris. And even fewer are in league with the First."
He's still looking at me in disbelief. He can be surprisingly dense when it goes against his prejudices.
"The non-evil category includes me," I snapped. "I have seen the First's road of total hatred, pain and destruction first hand in other dimensions, Mr. Harris. I know where that road leads. I do not want to go there. I only want to help you defeat the First. To do that, I need your help."
Xander nods. "What do you want from me?"
"First. A few weeks from now, Rupert Giles will suddenly appear in Sunnydale with a small group of Slayers-in-Training. He will be bringing them to Sunnydale to have the Slayer protect them, train them, and eventually put them to work fighting against the First. I will be in that group, and will be called... do you remember?"
"Kennedy," said Xander.
"Very good, Mr. Harris. You are to forget that you know my true identify, and treat me like any ordinary SIT. Should anyone ever come to doubt that I am one of the SITs, you are to defend my ordinariness immediately. And, of course, you are not to let anyone know that Giles is coming to Sunnydale until he appears."
"Second. Once I arrive as Kennedy, I will become very close to Willow. You will have no objection."
Xander gasped. "But..."
"No buts, Mr. Harris. She's not doing well, is she? Be honest?"
"I don't agree, she's doing so much better..."
"Compared to when she was trying to destroy the world? True, but that's not saying much. I know about her arrival to Sunnydale, when she turned invisible. That's a very serious breach of control, Mr. Harris."
"But..."
"But, she's had numerous other breaches. They haven't been as bad as turning invisible - or worse - but they are increasing. And you know how much she's suffering. You can see it in her eyes. You're losing her, and if you're honest with yourself, you know it."
Xander shifted in his chair. "Well, now, if you know so much about her, what do you recommend we do?"
I laugh. "We? We will not be doing much, other than being as supportive as possible. I will be the one helping her."
"Really?"
"Yes, Mr. Harris," I sigh. "I once faced a similar challenge myself. I know what she's going through. I know how to help her control her mind and her powers. The rest of you do not." I pick up on a thought in his head. "Even Mr. Giles."
"No. There, you're wrong. Giles..."
I let out a terrible laugh. "Mr. Giles is a 'rank arrogant amateur' who almost destroyed the world. Rule number one, Mr. Harris. When someone has gone mad from overdosing herself with magic, the last thing one does is give her more. Whether the magic is dark, white, green, or pink polka- dotted, it's pouring kerosene on a raging fire."
Xander lets out a slow gasp. I can feel the anger rise within him.
"Relax, Mr. Harris. Giles meant well. He does love her, we will need him, and all that. Besides, I'll find ways to make him feel appropriately remorseful."
Xander nods.
"Well, then. This has turned into one heck of a day. By 9 AM, the electrical subcontractors are trying to skip out of working on our new shopping mall for two weeks. By 12 AM, the architect of our new office building is trying to cover one of the outer walls with scrap metal to make a 'statement.' And, by 2:30 PM an inter-dimensional demon queen is making me an offer I can't refuse. God, I love Sunnydale."
* * *
Lunch time break. Willow sits away from me during this meal, much to the interest of the giggling SITs. At least it's something for them to think about other than dying.
She doesn't look at me the whole time. She eats quickly, excuses herself, and walks upstairs to her room. Xander moves to get up from the table to follow her.
[Don't get up,] I think at him. [This is my fault, I'll take care of it.] He nods.
I don't want to make it look like a fight happened, so I wait a few seconds to follow her.
I open the bedroom door, to see her sitting on the bed, head on her knees.
"Willow, I'm..."
"Don't bother," she whispers. "I'm sure you're sorry about what happened downstairs. But that's not the issue."
"Willow, what is..."
"I don't know anything about you, Kennedy. Okay. I know your family is rich and has a big mansion in the Hamptons, that you've got a half-sister, and that you've been playing at being Lara Croft or Buffy since you were 8. Yeah, and that you turn off Moulin Rouge at chapter whatever it is so it will have a happy ending."
"But Willow, you know a lot about me..."
"Oh, yeah. And that you threw yourself at me in record time. You started almost from the moment you got here."
I sit on the bed next to her. "How could I not, Willow? You're so beautiful." I gently touch her cheek. She tenses up, then relaxes.
"Why do you want this so much, Kennedy? Don't you know what it could really mean? What if... what if I'm just using you?"
I sigh. "You're not."
"How are you so sure?"
"I can tell."
"But there's so much I don't know about you, so much I don't understand about this..." I gently put my hand to her lips.
"Willow, I promise I'll tell you anything you want to know, okay? But please, I saw you crying down there, I was so worried about you... I want to make it all better. Won't you let me? Pretty please?" I give her the cutest looking pathetic face I can muster. I gently run my hand across her cheek and lower jaw, and then gently touch her neck.
Willow nods softly. "If you insist." She smiles, for the first time in hours. She also brings her hand up to cover my hand. "I couldn't possibly refuse an offer like that."
"That's because I'm so irrefusable." I smile back at her. "So we're agreed that we can talk later. As much as you want, I promise. But, can I just kiss you now?"
She hesitates for a second, and for that instant I fear I have just made a terrible mistake. But, she soon relaxes, and moves her head forward slightly. My lips touch hers, and my only next concern is to not take things too far.
Until she starts turning back into Warren.
* * *
To be continued...
Next morning. Routine exercises, when suddenly things start to go terribly wrong.
Buffy's leading us potentials in some early morning judo when she's called upstairs to get a phone call. She tasks me to lead the exercises while she's gone. No problem. I can do judo. I even ask the bystanders - Giles, Dawn, and Willow - if they want to join in. They decline, although I can see Dawn give it a real thought. [Slackers,] I think. [They need some more self confidence.] I'm in the middle of thinking of motivational speeches when I sense that something upstairs has gone terribly wrong.
Buffy charges down the basement stairs. "Kennedy!" she yells. "Get away from them! Get away from them now!"
Crap.
"What is it?" I try to ask, innocently.
She stares at me. "You... I trusted you..."
"What?" I try to pretend uncomprehending.
She turns away from me, towards the rest of the now-shaken audience. "I just got a phone call from some surviving remnants of the Council. They said... that Kennedy was killed months ago by the Bringers."
Double crap.
The potentials gasp and move away from me. I quickly glance over at Willow. She lets out a soft sob... and her eyes start to turn black. Oh, Goddess.
Some times demand detailed planning. Others demand pure instinct, and this is one of them. I punch Buffy hard, knocking her to the floor. I jump down on top of her.
"Does... this... look like a ghost to you?" I yell, bouncing on top of her several times.
She's shaken, but that won't last long. "I'm going to say this exactly once. I don't know what you're talking about, but I swear to you that I have nothing to do with that thing. Absolutely nothing."
Come on Giles, you're my backup on this one.
"Buffy... you see, when the Bringers initially attacked Kennedy, they didn't get her, but they got one of her servants. Before her watcher died, he cast a spell to make the corpse look like Kennedy. That allowed her to get away safely. However, it apparently confused the surviving remnants of the Council."
I sneak a quick glance over at Willow. She's sobbing softly, but her eyes are no longer black. That's a relief.
Buffy is still looking at me suspiciously, though. Still trying to decide if I'm yet one more problem to solve by staking it.
"Is this true?" I nod.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me?"
"Well..."
Xander jumps in. "Buffy, she told me about her escape from the Bringers one night after dinner, including the whole corpse-disguising bit. Didn't she tell you?"
Buffy shakes her head. "No. Why not?"
"Honestly, Buffy, I really haven't had much of a chance to talk to you much, other than for training, planning and fighting. None of us have."
I see her relax. Between Giles and Xander, she's clearly outvoted. "Obviously, I need to learn more about you girls," she says.
Xander has once again proven his great value to this operation.
* * *
Xander is my other partner in crime, as it were. He knows even more about me than Giles does. Giles only knows that I am a powerful demonic entity who has some concern about Willow and is siding against the First, and that it is far better to have me fighting with him than against him. Xander, however, knows my real name. Soon, I may trust him to know the whole story.
I had first detected Mr. Harris during last May's crisis. He seemed to be the only one of the Scooby group who was keeping his head when Willow lost control, and who had some inkling of how to talk to Willow correctly. So, we decided to use him. To this day he has no idea how he just knew where go to find Willow, and how he got there so fast.
As for what he said to her - well, that came entirely from him. Good boy. Definitely earned a biscuit that day.
I provided him with the "biscuit" a few months ago, when I was the 2:30 appointment in his office.
"Good afternoon, Miss..."
"Kennedy. You can call me Kennedy."
"Well, then Kennedy, what can we do to help you? Construction? Renovation?"
"No. Actually, I understand that you have frequently provided help of a more - supernatural kind. Something very big and unpleasant is coming to this town. I need your help in fighting it, Mr. Harris."
Xander was taken aback, but pretended to be confused. "Miss?"
"Mr. Harris, you and I both now what exactly what we're talking about, and neither of us have a lot of time. I know you work with the Slayer. I also know that you're very concerned about the awakening of something very unpleasant."
Xander sat forward.
"Does the expression 'From beneath you, it devours' mean anything to you?"
"Well now," he said, "indeed it does. Who are you?"
"That in good time, Mr. Harris. I also know that you're very close to a certain witch named Willow Rosenberg, correct?"
"Yes, but..."
"And that said witch went through a terrible tragedy last May and had a complete nervous breakdown, right?"
Xander was taken aback. I pressed ahead.
"And further, that said witch's breakdown involved skinning her girlfriend's killer, trying to kill her friends, and attempting to burn the world to a cinder, right?"
Xander's eyes widened. I could feel his discomfort level growing. Rapidly. "How... do you know all this?"
"Let me finish. And, further, that you, Alexander Harris, were instrumental in stopping her from destroying the world, and ending the black magic storm that was destroying her?"
He nodded. Nothing like a good ego stroking to assuage discomfort. There was silence for a few seconds.
"Yes. You're absolutely right. Who are you?"
I smiled. "Don't you recognize me? You've seen me before."
He shook his head, although the recognition was breaking through his subconscious, no matter how hard he attempted to pound it back down.
"Think back to that field where you found her, Mr. Harris. Someone else was there besides the two of you."
"What are you talking about... there were only the two of us there, plus that demonic temple to... oh God." The lights suddenly went on in Mr. Harris's head. That meant I had to paralyze him temporarily before he yelled, attacked me, tried to burst out his office or any of the above.
"Very good, Mr. Harris."
I released him a little, to let out whispers. "What do you want?" he whispered.
"First let's talk about what I don't want," I said. "I am not interested in destroying this planet. If I had wanted to do that, I could have done it back in 1926. Or do you think the earthquake that swallowed whole that group of 'devil-worshipping' human trash just happened to have occurred randomly?"
Xander nodded.
"And if I had wanted to end this planet recently, I simply could have killed you when you approached my temple."
Xander nodded.
"And, as you may have picked up from your sudden paralysis, I have the ability to kill you right now. I could also kill Buffy, Dawn, Anya - all of Sunnydale, in fact. But I have not chosen to do so."
Xander nodded. Fast learner. Good boy.
"So now, let's talk about what I do want. I want to help you and the rest of the Slayer's gang fight the evil you're about to face."
Xander looks at me in disbelief. Sometimes I forget that he's secretly one of the biggest believers in that whole "demons bad, people good" crap, Anyanka or no Anyanka.
"Not every demon is evil, Mr. Harris. And even fewer are in league with the First."
He's still looking at me in disbelief. He can be surprisingly dense when it goes against his prejudices.
"The non-evil category includes me," I snapped. "I have seen the First's road of total hatred, pain and destruction first hand in other dimensions, Mr. Harris. I know where that road leads. I do not want to go there. I only want to help you defeat the First. To do that, I need your help."
Xander nods. "What do you want from me?"
"First. A few weeks from now, Rupert Giles will suddenly appear in Sunnydale with a small group of Slayers-in-Training. He will be bringing them to Sunnydale to have the Slayer protect them, train them, and eventually put them to work fighting against the First. I will be in that group, and will be called... do you remember?"
"Kennedy," said Xander.
"Very good, Mr. Harris. You are to forget that you know my true identify, and treat me like any ordinary SIT. Should anyone ever come to doubt that I am one of the SITs, you are to defend my ordinariness immediately. And, of course, you are not to let anyone know that Giles is coming to Sunnydale until he appears."
"Second. Once I arrive as Kennedy, I will become very close to Willow. You will have no objection."
Xander gasped. "But..."
"No buts, Mr. Harris. She's not doing well, is she? Be honest?"
"I don't agree, she's doing so much better..."
"Compared to when she was trying to destroy the world? True, but that's not saying much. I know about her arrival to Sunnydale, when she turned invisible. That's a very serious breach of control, Mr. Harris."
"But..."
"But, she's had numerous other breaches. They haven't been as bad as turning invisible - or worse - but they are increasing. And you know how much she's suffering. You can see it in her eyes. You're losing her, and if you're honest with yourself, you know it."
Xander shifted in his chair. "Well, now, if you know so much about her, what do you recommend we do?"
I laugh. "We? We will not be doing much, other than being as supportive as possible. I will be the one helping her."
"Really?"
"Yes, Mr. Harris," I sigh. "I once faced a similar challenge myself. I know what she's going through. I know how to help her control her mind and her powers. The rest of you do not." I pick up on a thought in his head. "Even Mr. Giles."
"No. There, you're wrong. Giles..."
I let out a terrible laugh. "Mr. Giles is a 'rank arrogant amateur' who almost destroyed the world. Rule number one, Mr. Harris. When someone has gone mad from overdosing herself with magic, the last thing one does is give her more. Whether the magic is dark, white, green, or pink polka- dotted, it's pouring kerosene on a raging fire."
Xander lets out a slow gasp. I can feel the anger rise within him.
"Relax, Mr. Harris. Giles meant well. He does love her, we will need him, and all that. Besides, I'll find ways to make him feel appropriately remorseful."
Xander nods.
"Well, then. This has turned into one heck of a day. By 9 AM, the electrical subcontractors are trying to skip out of working on our new shopping mall for two weeks. By 12 AM, the architect of our new office building is trying to cover one of the outer walls with scrap metal to make a 'statement.' And, by 2:30 PM an inter-dimensional demon queen is making me an offer I can't refuse. God, I love Sunnydale."
* * *
Lunch time break. Willow sits away from me during this meal, much to the interest of the giggling SITs. At least it's something for them to think about other than dying.
She doesn't look at me the whole time. She eats quickly, excuses herself, and walks upstairs to her room. Xander moves to get up from the table to follow her.
[Don't get up,] I think at him. [This is my fault, I'll take care of it.] He nods.
I don't want to make it look like a fight happened, so I wait a few seconds to follow her.
I open the bedroom door, to see her sitting on the bed, head on her knees.
"Willow, I'm..."
"Don't bother," she whispers. "I'm sure you're sorry about what happened downstairs. But that's not the issue."
"Willow, what is..."
"I don't know anything about you, Kennedy. Okay. I know your family is rich and has a big mansion in the Hamptons, that you've got a half-sister, and that you've been playing at being Lara Croft or Buffy since you were 8. Yeah, and that you turn off Moulin Rouge at chapter whatever it is so it will have a happy ending."
"But Willow, you know a lot about me..."
"Oh, yeah. And that you threw yourself at me in record time. You started almost from the moment you got here."
I sit on the bed next to her. "How could I not, Willow? You're so beautiful." I gently touch her cheek. She tenses up, then relaxes.
"Why do you want this so much, Kennedy? Don't you know what it could really mean? What if... what if I'm just using you?"
I sigh. "You're not."
"How are you so sure?"
"I can tell."
"But there's so much I don't know about you, so much I don't understand about this..." I gently put my hand to her lips.
"Willow, I promise I'll tell you anything you want to know, okay? But please, I saw you crying down there, I was so worried about you... I want to make it all better. Won't you let me? Pretty please?" I give her the cutest looking pathetic face I can muster. I gently run my hand across her cheek and lower jaw, and then gently touch her neck.
Willow nods softly. "If you insist." She smiles, for the first time in hours. She also brings her hand up to cover my hand. "I couldn't possibly refuse an offer like that."
"That's because I'm so irrefusable." I smile back at her. "So we're agreed that we can talk later. As much as you want, I promise. But, can I just kiss you now?"
She hesitates for a second, and for that instant I fear I have just made a terrible mistake. But, she soon relaxes, and moves her head forward slightly. My lips touch hers, and my only next concern is to not take things too far.
Until she starts turning back into Warren.
* * *
To be continued...
