Chapter Four: Solitudes       

It had been two months since the Sisterhood arrived and they were quickly coming to the holiday season. Ten more young women had come to the school thanks to the Sisterhood. Besides a few more tense moments between Fiona and Addison everything was fine. Giles had decided to take over all the Watcher training for Dawn, Evan, and Matt. Class was scheduled to meet every Monday, Wednesday, Friday but Giles had been known to call a class session anytime he wanted to. Mostly, like today, they met in the library office. It was nearing dinner and Giles ended the lecture on the higherachy of demons from the accelerated time dimensions. "That's it for today." He smiled and put down the book, "But before we go off to dinner you need to make a decision. Well as you know this is the last official week of classes for the school before winter break but since the three of you are remaining I was wondering if you just wanted to go on ahead and continue-?"

            "No!" said the three teenagers in unison, effectively cutting him off.

Giles gave then shrug. "Well I guess that settles that. Rather play then work I guess I can't stop you." He sighed with a false sense of disappointment.

            "The guilt trip won't work on us, Giles." Evan said with confidence.

            "Yeah, we earned are two and a half weeks off where going to take 'em." Dawn chimed in. Getting up from her seat taking her friends arms to come with her. "Now lets get out of here before he tries to appeal to our sense of duty."

"We'll see you at dinner." Matt was barely able to say before being dragged out by the two girls. Giles smiled after them as they left.

They had been almost inseparable since they met. The only time Addison's concern about having a male student at the school was called into any concern was one night when he went missing only to be found fast asleep on the floor of girls room. It was quiet innocent, really, they had fallen asleep working on their latest class project. It was nothing compared to the brothel the school almost turned into on the Thanksgiving weekend when some of the girls stuck in a few boys for illicit party they decided to throw.

Dawn had made friends with the slayers but was isolated because she was not one as well, she finally had a group of her own. Matthew, who had come to the school, still mourning over the loss of his father, felt comfort with the two girls who had also had to live through the loss of a parent. Evan had not had another vision like the one she had on her second night at the school.

Giles put his things from class away vaguely aware of someone at his door, he didn't turn around as he put his books back on the shelves. "They did buy into the 'lets work over your vacation' idea?"

"What do you think?" He turned around and gave her a smile.

"I think they're going to ask me if they can go skiing." Fiona said taking a seat on the office couch.

"So how was your day? I didn't see you this morning, but I heard you got some of the girls up early."

"Oh yeah, I came across a whole nest of Vamps on patrol late last night so I woke up team 'Thunderdome' just before sunrise to get some action. I had been up all night so I slept in. I don't have classes on Monday for that very reason."

"They did well I assume."

"Enough," she sighed, "I need to talk to Robin about giving Elizabeth extra training."

"Elizabeth Guild or Truman?"

"Guild. She has almost there but she gets self conscious when she fights. She defers to others and that could get her killed. Lydia used to do that, I've found that giving then one on one combat practice helps."

"Have you heard from Lydia or Arien recently?" Giles asked.

"Last week I got an email. I guess they really like being nomadic because they're somewhere else every week." She hid the fact she was worried about them but Giles already new that, they were her children. She looked down at her watch. "We'd better head to dinner. I helped cook but it should be that bad." He nodded and they left his office together.

"You cooked?" He asked nervously.

"I can cook!" she replied slightly offended. "Anyway, never in my entire life have I ever thought it would be with demon. Well a demon like that anyway."

"Yes Clem is quiet strange." Clem had arrived at the school only a few weeks before. He had heard from a friend of a friend about this place and wanted to see if Buffy survived the fight. Dawn invited him to stay for the weekend and then never left. He starting doing odd jobs around the school until they offered to let him stay at the school. He was to work with Andrew, which to everybody's delight kept him occupied and under control now that Xander was spending less time with him.

"I mean I met many passive demons before, they're still my friends but Clem is so… Do you know what word I looking for?"

"Cheery, friendly-"

"Cuddly." She said to surprise him. "Like a children TV show host like Barney or Big bird." He laughed at her joke. "It's good for the girl to be around him, I guess help them learn tolerance."

"Yes, and he's been a delightfully helpful." Giles putting his hand at the small of her back ushering her into the dinning hall.

The room was too bare for the season, for Giles' taste. On the instance of Willow and the other Jewish or non-Christian Slayers there would be no Christmas decorations in the public rooms. They had all agreed, however, that the icicle lights would be appropriate to decorate the dinning hall for the winter season. The made there way to the staff table as dinner had already began. Ona again had taken the seat between Giles and Robin, Faith had gone on another mission. Kennedy again was left by herself at the table waiting for the often late or non existent Willow. It always surprised Ona that Kennedy made no effort into doing anything during meals but to wait for Willow.

Sophia and Xander had moved to where the three watchers had used to sit but have respectfully moved their distance from Ona to avoid any further complications between her and Addison. Sophie burst out laughing from a joke Xander had told her quietly. Andrew, who had just sat down near him at the table, got up and left the room in a rather disappointed huff. Clem was of at the students tables telling them stories. Andrew had grown very sensitive of Xander. Xander didn't even notice. Since he had had someone else to talk to Andrew moved from best friend back to 'Andrew, will you shut up!'. Xander moved past his isolation and had started to take more of an active role again, and had even decided they needed a new class: Woodshop and Carpentry. The new Guidance Counselor, Sophia, agreeably help set up the class which would be available starting next semester. First lesson of course would be carving stakes.

It was clear to everyone that Xander had developed a crush, even the overly distracted Willow had noticed it. Only Fiona knew, however, that Sophia fancied him as well. She was not about to let him know that, she couldn't allow him to become to dependant on her and she herself was not ready. Xander was very much like that Brian Travers she knew, and she was not quite over his passing, either.

The meal was pleasant, for everyone except Kennedy. After ten minutes she stormed out only to storm back in alone. She seemed highly frustrated and angry, Giles tried to talk to her but she would only say, Willow was too busy to come to dinner. She was to busy most nights, to the point that this was a fairly normal occurrence. Willow was trying to learn how to navigate the Scythe, it was important, they were not going to stop her from doing her that.

********

            The room was behind two solid metal doors, and several complicated locking spells. It would take all the Slayer in world to bring the doors down, and if anyone wanted to get in there that's what it would take. Inside the room was were all the items that needed to be kept protected. Books with the potential to end the world, mystical items and The Slayer Weapon, the Scythe. The weapon even had it own safe. Willow Rosenberg was the most frequent visitor in that room.

            Every night she would come into that room and every night she would hold the weapon in her hands. Before she had begun the 'Awakening' she felt nothing from the weapon but now she could feel the power radiating. Unlike with the rest of the Slayers she did not feel like it belonged to her, but she felt like she could control it. She it took her time to learn about navigating other dimensions, since every dimension had it own rules she never know quite what to expect. She could have probably gotten to this step a lot sooner but she did not foolishly rush into this.

            "I can do this," she says to herself. Again to night she pulls it out of the safe and takes in her in grip. Willow sits cross-legged on the floor and holds it out in her hands. She takes several deep breaths and closes her eyes. She had to concentrate, concentrate on the source of it's power, it's essence.

            She wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there. At one point she was vaguely aware of someone coming to talk to her on the other side of the door but she felt she was to close to finding a way, to stop. Images passed through her mind, sometimes it was hard to tell which were her own images and which were being projected to her. Then it like jigsaw puzzle everything snapped into place.

            Everything had an orange glow about it, the people, the places. She could see them, all the slayers going about their normal lives. As she took it all in, the rate of the images began to increase until she could determine a single one from another, it was overwhelming, but she continued to hold on. She could feel the energy going through her and called out in her mind for an anchor. "Buffy" her mind called out and the other images faded and was replaced with just one. She relaxed as Willow was shown the images of her best friend.

            It the colorful glow, Willow could see Buffy patrolling, the more she concentrated the more she could see what was happing around the Slayer. "This must be happening right now," She thought as Buffy began to fight off a vampire attack. She could see an aura of blue around her slayer friend, and the vampire was shadowed in black. Buffy was winning and Willow called out in her mind another name. "Faith!" she called out. The images zoomed to one a Faith sleeping in a hotel room in North Carolina. She too had the blue aura. A rush passed through Willow as she understood, she was in complete control of what she saw, she just needed a focus or it would all come at once. She did that several more times. Each time her vision improved and more and more clarity would come from each Slayer. She found it strange to find two of them together but her mind compensated. "Maybe they were part of the Sisterhood," she thought, moving on to the next location. They became so comprehensive she was starting to see the string attached to the blue aura holding all the slayers to a central place. It was then, when she realized, she could look down and see her hands. The blue aura was coming from the weapon in her hands. She was no longer watching the Slayers like on television but she was standing there like she was actually in the room, with them. She couldn't communicate with them, but she could feel the world.

"Kennedy!" she called out and what until she was connected to her. The images whooshed around until she was standing by her side. Willow was taken aback a moment when she realized Kennedy was in the training gym teacher her class, there were lots of glowing blue young women in the class. She looked out the window in disbelief, when she noticed it was daylight. "I must have been in all night," she though passively, delighted by the accomplishment of the beginning of her task. Now that she was comfortable, she was going to try a few things.

********

            Kennedy was in no better mood in the morning, Willow had not come to bed last night. She was grouchy all through breakfast and the young Slayer's were not happy about having a class with her. She was known as the hard-ass even when she wasn't in a bad mood. Luckily for the students, the trainers changed almost everyday. The absolute favorite instructor for this class was Faith. She was  rarely at there but when she was she won't drill them to hard on the basics and let them get right into the cool fighting. After her was Bridget, who, if she wasn't telling them scary stories, let them believe they were actually still kids and the let them play gym games.   Robin came after that. He was fun but also made them go the whole ten yards with warm ups and become drill sergeant but he ranked higher on the scale then Kennedy for one reason, he wasn't a Slayer and did not have the stamina to go as long as she made them.

            "Okay," Kennedy called getting the girls attention. They had just finished they're warm ups and now it was time for the lesson. "Today we work on balance." She gestured all the girls to the balance beam. "I need my first volunteer?" If this was the advanced class she would not want for volunteers instead of the meek few that were here. "Okay, Sara." She pointed to the 15 year old in the back. Sara was always quiet and Kennedy thought is was time she participated.

            Kennedy jumped up on the beam and Sara did the same. Sara was short with hair that was dyed a blue and green. Faith had brought her to the school a month ago, she was outgoing then, but not so much anymore. She never seem to want to fight, but she would participate with her teacher's request today. "The rules are you have to stay on the beam, you can jump and flip but you can't touch the mats or the walls, your mission is to knock me off as I try to do the same to you." Kennedy told her. Sara nodded and the sparing began.

            Kennedy planted her feet on the bar in a fighting stance.  Sara, quickly performed a leg sweep causing Kennedy to slip but grabbed onto the bar and flipped back up.  The girls around them started to cheer for Sara.  Kennedy had a look of anger in her face, no one ever got the first hit on her.  Kennedy did a left jab, but Sara quickly blocked it with her right hand, and grabbed Kennedy toward her.  Flipping Kennedy on her back.  She quickly recovered and flipped over Sara's head.  "That's it!" she yelled and charged at Sara with an uppercut.  Sara was just about to loose her footing when Kennedy grabbed her by her arm and kicked her in the face.  Kennedy was about to roundhouse her again, but Sara performed a back spring and lifted her legs up in a handspring.

Kennedy smiled as Sara dogged her last kick. 'She's getting good,' She thought proudly as Sara balanced herself on her hands and thrusted her legs forward to kick Kennedy off the beam as she flips forward. Kennedy was ready and jumped and dived over Sara. Then everything slowed down, for Kennedy at least. One moment she could picture herself grabbing onto the beam, then next it felt as if her heart had been ripped away from her stomach grew cold. She missed the beam and tumbled past the mats onto the hard wood floor.

The girls gasped and came rushing to her. They had heard the bang as her head hit the floor. Sara jumped off the beam and went to her. "Are you okay?" She asked as one of the other girls ran off to get another teacher. Kennedy's eyes were open but she seemed very far away.

'Something's wrong.', she thought. She told them she was fine, she just bumped her head, but she knew it was more then that. Her body ached. It hadn't done that in a long time, not with anything so minor as this. Going all night with a vamp, yes, but not falling of a beam. As they helped her sit up, she still could not figure out how she missed it the first place. She felt wrong and she needed to know what it was. As the other slayers doted on her, while waiting for the others to arrive, she realized she couldn't feel them. There had always been this mystical undertow, when she was around the girls but now it was gone. The realization hit her like a bus in the street, she wasn't a Slayer anymore.

**********

            Robin and Giles quickly came to the gym and helped carry Kennedy back to her room to lie down. They wouldn't have been too worried about her because the girls fall all the time, but when they came to her she was screaming that there was something wrong, that she lost her power. They just thought she had hit her head but her body had began to bruise and one thing they all knew was a fall like that should not have left a mark. Sara was waiting outside her door pacing back in forth. Every so often she would stop and peek into the room. It had only been five minutes but Sara had never hurt anyone before, it's why she didn't like to fight.

            Inside, Kennedy would not stay lying down. "You don't understand," She tried to push against them but failed. "I lost my strength. See I can't even get passed you guys."

            Robin stepped back and realized that she was still struggling against only Giles. "I think she might be right." Robin said and Giles back away.

            Kennedy calmed down and told them what happened. "I can't explain it." Giles said going through his mind of  what to research to find out what was wrong. An idea struck in his head and he moved over to her again. "Did you notice anyone prick you." He asked as he took a look at her arms looking for needle marks. Because of the slayer healing there would probably be no clear evidence of any intrusion into her skin but he looked anyway. If she was given a big dose and resent dose of the Slayer inhibiting drug, it might show a small bruise. There was nothing.

            "No, it wasn't anything outside, I was just in the air and wham, it was gone. That's why I fell. It was ripped out of me- I was cold and empty." Giles was taken aback. Those had been the words Evan had used to describe a vision she had a few months ago. Maybe this was it, what she picked up on. Kennedy groaned and lay down on the bed. She felt terrible and confused. She couldn't even listen to what Robin and Giles were saying. She fell quickly into depression and she though of her life without her power. She held back her tears. "Willow." She called out in desperation.

            Giles went to her side again, "Dawn went down to get her." He assured her. "Don't worry, we'll figure this out and all will be as right as rain." He turned back to Robin. "Make sure the other girls are alright." He commanded. Had the awakening only been temporary? His mind kept racing.

            Kennedy closed her eyes concentrating on trying fill the void, when it was filled for her. Her eyes shot open as the cold emptiness of her insides were replaced with the same feeling of warm soup. She could feel the power starting to run through her veins again. She sat up in the bed.

            "What is it?" Giles asked as she just smiled and looked down at her arm. The bruise began to heal and fade away. Giles reached out and touch it. "Amazing." He said studying her forearm. "Are you feeling better." Again instead of answering she smiled and grabbed onto wrist stood up and twisted it around his back. He gasped, "I'll take that as a yes." She let him go.

            "I'm feeling perfect now, the same as before." She began to stretch,

            "Well it's very odd, I think, we need to look into this it could be very dangerous."

            "Yeah-" She managed to get in before Willow broke into their room a smile on her face. Kennedy ran to her a gave her a hug. "Willow." Kennedy was upset when Willow quickly broke of the hug.

            "It worked!" The witch exclaimed and kissed the slayer's forehead.

            "What worked?" Giles immediately asked.

            Willow left Kennedy and went to Giles. "I was able to do it, navigate the Slayer dimension, like a backdoor to all of them and I was able to connect. The Scythe calls to them and is the gateway, it's how we get in and who ever is holding it, is like a goddess. I could do anything, find any of the girls…" She continued to babble on until Giles put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

            "So, what were you able to do?" Giles asked her plainly.

            "You know already," She cocked her head to Kennedy. She was on such a adrenalin rush she couldn't stand still.

            "You were the one that cut off Kennedy." Giles sighed in relief.

            "Who do you think did it?" She asked with a genuine Willow smile. "I was able to suspend her power for fifteen minutes because I willed it into existence. It was like the 'will it be spell', you know were I made you blind, and Buffy and Spike hear wedding bells. Next time it will be easier 'cause I know what I'm actually doing."

            "You cut me off!" Kennedy finally interrupted in disbelief.   

            "You were the only one I thought was appropriate. You were awake and close by."

            "I was practicing with one of the girls on the balance beam and I could have broken my neck."

            "I'm sorry, baby." She said pulling her in for a hug. "I didn't mean to hurt you. Time goes a lot faster in there cause I started the process and I didn't know if I could get that control again. Also I had stayed up all night and wanted to have something to show for it." Willow smiled and reassured Kennedy again.  "Now that I got that project licked, I can go back to-"

            "Willow-" Giles called, to not hear the end of that sentence. "So you can do, we must bring the Counsel together to discuss the next action."

            "No rush on that, I binded all the Slayers under twelve." She said confidently.

            "What?"

            "No girls younger then twelve should have that kind of power so I 'willed it into being' that the binding won't be lifted until they turned twelve. I was thinking of making it thirteen, like when I had my Bat-Mitzvah but I didn't want to cut off the girls that were already here." She shrugged. One second Willow was smiling, the next she had fallen into Kennedy's arms past out. Kennedy lifted her up with ease and put her on the bed, she was in a very deep sleep. Neither Kennedy nor Giles seemed to worried by it in the slightest.

            "Wow, that lasted longer then I expected." Dawn said coming into the room. Kennedy began to prepare Willow for a long deserved rest. "She was so hyped up when I got her out of the Vault, Evan and I took bets on how long she would stay awake. I lost obviously."

            "And I won." Evan said coming up behind her with a smile.

            "It's not fair, you can see the future." Dawn teased.

            "Not all the time," she said innocently. She looked over at Willow. "She'll be fine."

            "Yes, I'm sure your right." Giles said began to usher the younger girls out of the room. "She hasn't slept in two nights at least she will finally get some rest. When Giles had gotten himself and the girls out of the room he turned back to talk to Kennedy. Kennedy was half-heartedly taking care of Willow. "I want you to take the rest of the day off and get some rest, if I wasn't clear." She gave him a very weak smile and nodded. "I'm sure she didn't mean to hurt you." He tried to reassure her again.

            "I know. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been…"

            "I'm sure." He smiled, "well get some rest, Dear, and when she wakes up will you tell her I want to have a word." She nodded and he closed the door as he left.

            Kennedy looked down at her lover and sighed. "How could you have done that to me?" she asked quietly into the nothingness of the room. "Why?"

*******

            Nighttime had fallen over the school and Robin made is way briskly from the kitchen to the front living room. While he had gone to get a midnight snack, he heard the girls mention that Faith had returned to the school. She was a few days early. He was surprised she had not come to see him first. He was not always been her first stop, he didn't expect himself to be, but he heard she had been back for a few hours, now.

            He knew she would be in the front living room, because no one else was in there. In fact no one was every in there except when showing the school to parents of potential Slayer students. She was in their sitting on one couches that faced the big window out to the front of the estate. She was curled up and was in the dark. All Robin could see was the moon light that struck her face in a flattering manner. She looked so far away.

            She was staring out the window, unmoving, lost in whatever thought she was in. "So you found me?" she said quietly even after he had determined that she was not aware of him entering the room.

            "I was surprised to hear you were back so early." He smiled softly and slid next her on the left side of the couch. She didn't look at him just stared out the window.

            "Yeah, North Carolina was a bust. The girl was a drifter, Watcher trained." She turned him, showing the cut near her right eye. "She didn't take to kindly to my interest in her and we got into it." She turned back to stare out the window. I already told Ona, she could be the dangerous type. She thinks she might know who the girl is." She said lightly with the tone she used only contemplating greater situations than what to wear the next day.

            "Well good thing Willow figured out how to bind the out of control Slayers, today." Robin said slipping his arm around her.

            "She did?" she asked surprised moving out of his touch.

            "Yeah, she tested it on Kennedy cut her off for fifteen minutes."

            "Oh, I bet the brat was happy about that."

            "Yeah, well, Sara thought it was her fault. They were sparing at the time." Robin told her what happened and about no more Slayers under the age of twelve.

            "Poor, Blue," Faith thought, Faith had nicknamed her "Blue" because of her hair.  she had been one of the girls Faith had brought in, a combination of rebellion and respect for authority, as long as they were doing their job right. She was always so hesitant about using her strength, this is probably not gonna help that all that much. It was also the perfect excuse to leave Robin. Something was also nagging at her mind, what Willow had been able to do.

            He had noticed her distance but she would just get that way sometimes. It was her first long-term relationship and considering her formal lifestyle, doing pretty well with it. He didn't mind giving her, her space.

            She stood and walked into the hallway. "I'm gonna go check up on my Blue-girl. Make sure she isn't beating herself up about this." Faith lied casually.

            Robin remained staring out the window. "I am I going to see you later tonight?"

            "I'd hold my breath, if I were you." She said amusingly, for the first time tonight letting her humor out to play. He smiled as she finally left. She'll be fine, he told himself, things were going to be changing around her and Faith would be fine.

End Chapter Four.