CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR: GLOUTIER

Monday: 7pm

16th August 1999

California: Sunnydale

Buffy stumbled into the apartment, her body aching, bruises developing on her skin, blood trickling from multiple cuts.  The group looked up, eyes going wide in horror as they took in the battered form of the blonde girl.

"Giles!" came two simultaneous cries from Jay and Faith as Xander hastened to stand.

"Christ, Buffy what happened?" Xander asked, racing to help her to walk.  He coaxed her into a chair, wincing as Buffy flinched from his gentle touch.

Giles entered quickly, eyes widening as he saw his Slayer's bruised and beaten body.  He grabbed the first aid kit and pushed Xander out of the way, kneeling on front of Buffy, tending gently to the cuts and scrapes that looked the worst.

"What did this?" Giles asked.  "Vampires?  Demons?"

Buffy shook her head, still trying to grasp what had happened.  "A woman."

She was met with four looks of confusion.  "A woman?  A regular woman?" Giles asked.

Again, the Slayer shook her head.  "She was strong.  Like…really strong.  Stronger than me.  She looked human.  She called herself Glorificus."

"Vampire maybe?" Faith suggested.

"No…her hands were warm when we fought," Buffy said. 

"But she's dead right?" Xander asked nervously.  "You did kill her, yeah?"

"Uh…not exactly.  More ran for my life type of deal," Buffy explained.

Giles dabbed at a wound with antiseptic, making Buffy wince in pain.  He apologised quietly, but continued to clean her cuts.  Buffy's jacket came off and the group collectively grimaced as they saw the darkening bruises that ran up and down Buffy's bare arms.

"What did she want?" Jay asked. 

"Apart from beating the crap out of me, I don't really know…there was…there was this monk there with her.  It looked like…it looked like she'd been torturing him," Buffy said.

Silence descended upon the room, none of them wanting to dwell on the fact that a seemingly human woman had been capable of torturing anyone, let alone a monk.

"What happened to the monk?" Xander questioned, almost afraid to ask.

"Dead," Buffy said, looking away, shamed that she hadn't been able to save him.  "I got him out of the building, but…he died."

"I wonder what he knew," Giles pondered quietly.  "What this woman wanted from him."

"Something about a key," Buffy said, meeting Giles' eyes. 

Giles looked at his charge curiously, knowing that the fact that the woman was after a key was in no way coincidental.  Buffy had been dreaming about looking for a key, and it looked as though the dreams were definitely beginning to fulfil themselves. 

"This monk guy…he told me that I had to protect it," Buffy said.

"Did he say anything else?" Giles asked.

Buffy shook her head, mouthing the word 'later' to her Watcher, not wanting the others to know the ins and outs of her dreams.  They didn't really know that being the Slayer entailed prophetic dreams, and she wanted to keep it that way. 

"No…he was kinda vague," Buffy said.

"Yeah, those dying monks really should get their acts together," Xander quipped.

Jay and Faith both quickly slapped him upside the head.

"That's not funny," Faith said quietly.

"Well uh…perhaps in the morning.  Things might be clearer then," Giles said.

------------------------

Monday: 9pm

16th August 1999

California: Sunnydale

The group finally departed, and Giles immediately wanted to know what Buffy had been keeping from the group.

"What else did you find out?"

"Well…the monk, he…he said that his brethren had made the key.  That they sent it to me to protect," Buffy said.

"Made it?  You mean to say you have to protect a regular key…a car key for instance?" Giles asked.

Buffy shook her head, her mind too tired to keep up with the rapid fire questions.  She needed sleep desperately, but she knew her Watcher would want to know everything he could as soon as possible.

"No.  He said that before the abomination came, the key had no form," Buffy said.

"The abomination?"

Buffy nodded.  "I think he was referring to the chick that kicked my ass," she said.

"Alright.  And what happened after she came?  If the key has no form, how can he expect you to protect it?" Giles asked.

"He said that they gave it form.  Gave it flesh.  Made it human.  They sent it to me," Buffy said.

"Human?  The key is a person?"

"That's what he said.  He just didn't say who it was.  Just that the key was energy until they gave it a human body," she said.

Giles sat in silent thought for a moment before standing up and heading towards his desk.  He opened a drawer and picked up a brown leather journal that Buffy used to record her dreams.  He flipped through the pages as Buffy looked on curiously.

"You think this is related to part of my dream?" Buffy asked.

"Quite possibly."

He handed the journal to her, pointing to a sentence a quarter of the way down the page.

"In your dreams, you tell the boy that he has far too much energy," Giles said. 

"So…you think that the key is a guy?" Buffy asked.

"Quite possibly," Giles replied.

"Alright…well…who are the guys in my life that I'd want to protect?" Buffy asked.

"Well…theoretically, it would need to be someone fairly new," Giles said.  "Someone that we'd never really known before."

"No, this monk guy…he said he'd given me new memories," Buffy said.  "It could be anyone really.  Ethan, Jay, Xander.  You."

Giles nodded and sat down on the couch, removing his glasses to polish them on his shirt.  He went silent for a moment and finally stood up, heading towards the bookcase.  Buffy sat back, just watching him, too tired and too sore to even try to move.

Giles took one of the books down from the shelf, flicking through it.

"Ah…here.  I might have something," Giles said.

"Wow…that was fast."

He ignored the comment and continued on.

"There's a spell…well, it's more of a trance really.  It allows the spell caster to see spells," Giles said.  "And…assuming that this key has been made of magic, it would leave behind a trace signature."

He read further down the page and looked up at his Slayer.

"There was a monk from the order of Dagon in the sixteenth century, famous for his ability to maintain a meditative state at the most advanced level."

"Gloutier?"

Giles nodded.  "He created a spell, or a trance rather.  c."

"Pull the curtain back," Buffy translated.  "I could work with that."

"Buffy…your meditative skills are…incredible for someone your age, but…Gloutier was legendary for achieving transcendent levels of conscious thought.  It took him decades before he was able to do it.  His levels of concentration were…"

"Better than mine?" Buffy asked.  "Damn…I knew you were going to say that."

"I'm only saying that…it could take a while before you're ready to do this trance.  You've never worked with magick before," he reminded her.

Buffy sighed, knowing that Giles was right.  Of course, that had never stopped her before.

"Then I'll learn."

Hmmm. Far too long between updates.  I'm getting a little bit slack I think.  My apologies.  I'm having MEGA problems with this fic.  No idea where the hell I'm going with it.  Plus, I'm kinda working on a new one that I won't be posting until it's properly finished, which should hopefully be soon.  Anyways, hope you guy are still reading this thing.

Toodles.

K.