Chapter 8: Falling
All the girls looked up from there activities when the chandler, in the common room, began to shake. They could here the booming voices of Willow and Kennedy, from the upstairs. When the shaking stopped, they went back to they had been doing. It was almost everyday now that that couple would be fighting.
The semester had started a little over two weeks ago, now they were a school of fifty and everything was going well. Kristy and the other new students had adjusted well enough, though more then one complaint came from Kristy about her accommodations. Ten, her suitemate in the room next to hers, and panted a speaker in her room and piped in creepy noises. Kristy stopped complaining after that. The young Watchers-in-Training returned from they're New Years ski trip relatively intact, not so eager to start up there lessons again. Faith had returned from her excursion to the Hellmouth acted like her normal self again. She and Robin were the same as ever. The only problems the school faced was the constant tension and bickering of the Witch/Slayer couple.
Everyone started to get used to them in the background, no of the staff members, besides Andrew would say a thing about it. The slayers, however, started taken bets on how long they would last.
The fight started in the dorm hallway and then moved into the staff corridor until finally they were slammed the door to their own room. Dawn, Evan and Matt could still here everything from their open door room. Dawn got up and went to her door trying to hear better about what they were saying. "Don't worry to much about it," Matt said trying to calm her fears. "they always fight, isn't that just their way?"
"No, it wasn't." Dawn said grimly. "The first time she fought with Tara, Tara got her brain sucked out, next time Willow did something stupid, really stupid."
"Well, Kennedy is different then Tara, come on," Evan said speedily, her head began to ache, "if we stop every time they fight we'll never get this project done." Dawn closed her door and rejoined her place on the floor next to her friends. They wouldn't Evan began to work again before Evan was knocked out by a rather painful vision. Matt and Dawn rushed to help her.
"Alright," Willow screamed at Kennedy, "I've apologized like a zillion times! I'm not gonna do it anymore!"
Kennedy had her back to Willow arms folded. "You don't get it, do you?" She turned around sneering at Willow.
"Oh I get it, alright! You resent me for making you feel weak." Willow snapped at her.
"You violated me. You went inside me and pulled out a part of me, don't you get that?"
"Oh," Willow slammed her fist into the dresser next to her, it made a loud bang but was not broken, "I get it. It's just like last time, I slipped you turned on me too."
"It's like that, you didn't slip this time, you did this on purpose. You knew you were taking something away from me and you still did it." Kennedy complained again.
"Not this again. You're arguments are all the same, and what the hell am I supposed to do about it now, huh? I can't change the past? Well, I might be able to but I'm not gonna." She rolled her eyes at herself. "What do you want me to do?"
"I don't know, all I know is that things haven't been right in a long time."
"Really." Dripping in sarcasm, "you won't even let me touch you anymore. You act like I scare you."
"You do… sometimes." Kennedy sighed. They stood there for a long moment on opposite sides of the room. Then an idea seemed to dawn upon Willow.
"You're jealous." She said in a harsh exclamation.
"What?" outraged.
"You were so used to you being the strong one, when we got together." Kennedy gave her a confused look Willow seemed more then happy to elaborate. "Oh poor little Willow had to cry on your shoulder and needed you to get her through it. Scared to make any move without having my wanna-be Slayer nearby. I'm a lot stronger than you think I am, Kennedy." Willow's glare meeting Kennedy's with fiery.
"No!" Kennedy shouted believing in her half lie. "It wasn't like that! You know that!" not whining but strongly holding her position.
"Oh come on, I'm a threat to you now." She didn't take a break just dived into her rant. "You got even more conceded when you became a Slayer. Thought you were so strong and prefect, you forgot what Buffy told you before it happened. I'm more powerful then all of you put together. I have the upper hand on power and I can control my magic now. I'm fine and you resent that because you lost it, because you lost your 'power' for fifteen minutes." She taunted.
Kennedy could contain herself and leaped toward her in attack but Willow, with a wave of a hand veered her of course and Kennedy landed with her fist punching through the wall next to Willow. Kennedy got up nursing her wounded hand now her face inches from Willow, she stared directly into her lovers eyes.
"You think your so powerful," Willow snickered, her tone evil and resilient, "I could take away your power anytime I want too." Kennedy took a step back, she stared into Willows eyes not in fear or anger but in awe. Willow herself realized she had gone to far and retried from the room as quickly as possible. They both knew it, they were over.
Kennedy left the school later that day. She moved her things out of the room she had shared with Willow for the past seven months and moved them to the attic. She had said, before she left, that she would come back to the school cause it was her home, but not back to Willow. Everyone seemed to understand and excepted her needing to leave for a while, without protest. Willow hid herself in a private room in the library, waiting out the day for Kennedy to leave. She didn't want to talk to anyone and she defiantly didn't want to run into Kennedy. She knew she was leaving, she didn't want to make it more difficult then it was.
***********
Less than a week the school went on as normal, Fiona took over Kennedy's classes and the other teachers picked up her patrol schedule. Willow continued on like nothing had happened. She taught her math class, ate her meals, and secluded her self in different rooms of the school. If she hadn't acted liked this the majority of the last semester, they might have been more worried. She always seemed to be too busy to talk, she either had to grade papers, update her computer files or do research. It was exactly a week later when Xander was finally able to catch her.
Willow was sitting on her bed, staring out into space. She didn't notice when Xander creped his way in. The room was dim, like she had been sitting there since before the sun went down. "Hey." he said softly to her turning on the lights.
She was startled at the sound of his voice, she jumped off the bed and put her hand over heart. "Agh, you scared me." She said catching her breath.
"Sorry." He closed the door behind himself.
She relaxed and gave him a smile. "What's up?" almost cheerfully.
"I just wanted to talk to you?" He said and he took a seat on the bed, she joined him.
"About?" She asked expecting to know the answer.
"Just talk," he said honestly, "I felt like we haven't talked in a long time."
"No, we haven't." She agreed, starting to feel a bit guilty. The last time they had a meaningful conversation last was after Anya died, then work began and then the problem she had with Kennedy, stopped her from being with him.
"It's not your fault. I didn't want to talk." He gave her a smile relaxing her guilt. "We just kept missing each other since we moved here. I got depressed while you had to start the school, just as I'm getting better you and Kennedy start having problems… It's kind of…"
"Like there was never a good time." She finished for him, making herself more comfortable by resting her head on his shoulder. "You're still my best-friend though."
"I know." He tilted his head to rest on hers. "How are you doing, with Kennedy gone?" He finally asked.
"Ah, the big question." Willow groaned, she pulled away and looked at him. "I'm better than I thought I would be." She said honestly. Moving away from him more onto the bed, resting her back on the pillows.
"Why do you think that?" Xander asked taking his cue and moved back to sit next to her by the pillow. She moved to cuddle in his arms, he excepted her warmly, kissing her on the forehead.
"I didn't love her." She paused. "Not like I did Tara, not that I ever expected to, but not even close to the way I loved Oz either." Xander was quiet and just let her speak. "I liked her, I liked her a lot, and I need someone like her last year, but…"
"But, what?"
"I didn't think we were going to make it. The collective world– we. We all could have died and nothing would have mattered, I think I just leaped into it cause I was scared. I wanted so much to feel something I didn't, cause she felt it." She sniffed, "I'm horrible."
"For that? Are you kidding me?" He went on playfully, "Now, destroying my car maybe, and trying to end the world. Wanting to fall in love, nah. Apocalypses really screw us up, you know if it hadn't been for the First I think Anya and I might have actually been able to work things out, instead of just jumping each other all the time."
"I guess, it got hard when it was over and we were gonna live. We just stopped getting along. I guess I'm kind of relieved now that she's gone."
"I'm sorry."
"For?"
"For you not being as happy as I thought you were." They laid there talking, Willow feeling better from her confession started to get Xander to talk to her. They talked about Anya and how he would always miss her. Then onto more resent things, like the shop class he was teaching and a certain Greek guidance consular.
"You know, I didn't realize you were really dating Sophie until Andrew complained to me about it."
"Yeah, I took a page from the Giles/Fiona guide to inter-office romance, pretend no one asked you a question about the relationship pretend you don't understand them."
Willow laughed into his neck, "So how are you two anyway?"
"Good." Then he paused, "Well we were taking things slowly. I still have Anya in my mind and she was still mourning over Fiona's brother. I just don't want to fuck up. I like here, not quite sure if it's love yet, but I think were ready to go to the next step."
"Well she's your type and I like her. She's sweet and honest, which you apparently like." He rolled his eyes, "She older but like more than a millennium younger than your last. What's with you and Buffy always dating people so much older then you? Oh, and did you realize both you and Giles are dating women the same age?"
"Willow, don't want to think of that now!" He said moving away. Now they were looking at each other face to face.
"You're scared of Giles aren't you?" she joked. "That's why you haven't slept with her yet."
"Well, shouldn't I be. He's very protective of her. He's been really weird recently and she's like his sister, if I make the wrong moves, he'll-"
"Oh please," she laughed at him. "Giles is just as protective of you as her. Giles thinks of you like his son. He'd be more protective of is 'kind-of' son than his 'kind-of' sister." She stated stalwartly.
Xander smiled than frowned. "Wait, wouldn't that mean I'd be dating my 'kind-of' aunt?" they burst out in laughter.
************
Fiona looked at her watch as she entered Giles' Office. "It's almost midnight, shouldn't they have comeback by now?"
"What?" Giles looked up from his book confused.
"The girls, patrol, have they called?" Fiona asked staring down at him.
"Oh, no." He said calmly and looked at his watch. "Oh dear, they should have." He quickly picked up the phone and looked around his desk for the patrol list. Fiona helped him look but they were interrupted by the phone ringing. He grabbed it and continued to look for the number. "Rupert Giles."
"Hey, it's Bridge." The voice answered on the other line.
"Bridget, are you alright?" Giles let his concern fall into his voice and both he and Fiona not stopped looking. Fiona sighed a relief, and listened to Giles end of the conversation. "What problem?" he said after a few moments silence. After hearing the response he turned to Fiona. "She says to turn on the news."
************
"Right behind me at the popular all ages dance club 'Twilight' is a spot where four heroic girls saved the day…" Said the overly enthused reporter, with the name Janice Falon on the scene below it.
Forty students in pajama jammed in front of the big screen television in the rec room. Some where on the furniture the others scattered on the floor. They watched, wide eyed, the news report about they're fellow classmates. When they should the footage of Rhona, Mel, Candice and Ariel, the girls cheered. The teachers who lingered behind them in the room were less than exuberant. Curtis, Addison and Willow were woken up to watch over the girls while Giles and Robin had to go out and get the other girls from the police station. They were just holding them and Bridget for questioning. Giles wanted to make this as quiet as possible.
"These young women were already in the club when a gang calling themselves 'The Vampires' entered in masks and began to take hostages. The girls courageously stood up to them and saved all of their 30 fellow clubbers. They said it was all thanks to their school's stressed self-defense courses. When I asked them why they took the risk to themselves one of the young woman answered 'You think we'd just stand by and let these punks kill everyone.'"
"That's got to be Rhona," Said Sara.
The teachers gave each other a look. This wasn't gonna be good.
"This new gang in town," the reporter went on, "is believed to part of the same gang that terrorized Los Angelus last January when the sun mysteriously blocked out in that area. The 'Vamps' act as if they are the mythical creature they have named themselves after. They only attack at night, and tend to try to suck blood out of there victims. The six attacking gang members are still at large, then ran as they police came to the scene. The police are still out there looking for them. This could be the first of many attacks of this nature, so the police are issuing a warning for everyone to be on guard-" Curtis turned off the TV and all the girls groaned and looked at him.
"It's time to go to sleep, there is nothing more to see. You have classes tomorrow." He reasoned and the girls started to get up from and head back to theirs rooms. Curtis, Willow, and Addison head to the front door to wait for them to come home.
Sophie came down the stairs in her robe, walking past the girls one their way upstairs. "Are they back yet?" She asked Dawn and Evan who waited at the bottom of the stairs.
"Not yet." Evan sighed.
Sophie patted her on the back and went on. Her way, noting that the girls were moving so slowly up the stairs they could be moving backwards. She went to her fellow teachers. "They should be back soon." Addison told her. They were all very tired.
"Xander not coming down?" Willow asked staring out the window.
"No he's passed out." Sophie said plainly.
"How do you know that?" Willow asked coyly. Sophie just gave her a look and made Willow smiled. Sophie matched it and took her pace with the teachers. "Well I'm wiped, I'm going to bed." Willow said going down the other hall to get to the other stairway. Now that Sophie was up she could get back to bed. She just missed the Slayer 'Heroines' getting back.
Giles wouldn't talk to them during the car ride back. They were cheerfully talking to each other about they're victory but he wouldn't say a word. All the Slayers still in the area ran back and congratulated them. Everyone was smiling and happy even the teachers, well except for Giles. He stood back and glared and the Slayers congratulated each other. He couldn't let it go on.
"All of you, to bed, now!" He announced loud and harshly. The girls stop celebrating and turned to stare at him.
"Yo, man," Rhona said first, "can't we have any fun, we saved liked 30 people tonight? We're heroes." She was never afraid to stand up for herself, and did so at any spare moment. "Why can't we get any recognition for it?"
"No, your stupid little girls, who could have gotten yourselves exposed!" He shouted and continued on, "Your faces, you record, this school is now out in the open! You think the evil creatures of this world don't watch television or read newspapers! This puts us all at risk, we worked very hard for this school to remain virtually invisible and tonight you came very close to mucking all that up! This school must go on unnoticed, it's to important to all the Slayer that this happen. The Slayer has always been an unsung hero for a reason, amenity! You girls will have to do unimaginable things in the world and go unnoticed, that's the price of your power! You need to be responsible with it! Now go to bed!" He paused looking at all the students. "Now!"
They left this time moving with great speed instead of lagging. Giles's wasn't often mad, but when he was, they didn't want to be around. The young watchers waited with the rest of the staff, who were also caught off guard by Giles' out burst.
When Giles went off into the greeting room, Dawn yield to Fiona and let her go to him instead of herself. Dawn had grown quite fond of Fiona during the ski trip, and it probably helped she was best friends with her 'daughter'. Dawn knew that she had more of a chance of getting through his barriers than herself. Dawn gave Fiona an encouraging smile as she went onto Giles.
"What the hell is going on with you?" Fiona accosted the moment she was in the room with him. He didn't answer and he didn't look at her. She soften a bit when she realize he was still confused by himself. She knew something happened a few days ago, he started cutting himself off, "What happened?" she asked again, when he turned around to look at her.
"It's nothing." He looked up again, his gaze still with fire, "I was perfectly right to say what I did." He pointed out of the room, "They can't act like that without drawing the wrong kind of attention!"
"Attention from who?" She stayed strong. "We had Willow put up those ward to protect this school, they're not getting in so easy and it wouldn't be hard for them to find us. This place reeks of magical energy for all of us."
"Creatures of darkness are not limited to the demons and vampires of this world." He said cryptically.
Fiona opened her mouth again to questions his statement but turned around when she heard her name called. It was Matthew and she ran back out into the hall. Giles followed her, concerned about what had happened.
Evan was on the ground, Matthew, Dawn and Sophie all around her. Fiona rushed to her and got down on her knees. "What happened?" she asked who ever could answer. "A vision?" She already knew. Sophie nodded. Fiona tried to wake her up and asked for help. "Did she say anything?"
"The same thing she said last week." Matthew said casually. "Cold, black, darkness."
Fiona looked over at him. "Last week?" confused.
"She didn't tell you." Surprised.
Dawn chimed in next, "We were working on a project and she started to get a headache than fainted. She was only out for a second and she told us not to worry."
"Damn." Fiona moaned, waiting for Robin to bring the smelling salts to wake her up.
"Why do you have to wake her up, can't we just take her up to bed?"
"She just needs to be up for a minute to make sure there is no neurological damage. It has happened to some seers. Their mind can't take the over load of images. Passing out is the first sign of rejecting the visions." She said disappointedly, stroking Evan cheek. Robin back with the container and went down to the floor and put the salt under Evan noise. Evan wake up with a start and jumped right into Fiona's arms.
"It won't stop," Evan cried, her head pounding and the vision haunting her memory. "I don't know what it is and it won't stop."
Dawn started to tear up in sympathy. If what Fiona was saying was right, Evan could be in serious trouble. She did not want to lose her best friend.
End Chapter Eight.