CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX: BLUE (II)
Saturday: 4am21st August 1999
California: Sunnydale
Buffy poured a circle of sand across her bedroom floor and settled herself into the middle of it. She lit a stick of incense and placed it carefully in front of her. She shook out her muscles and closed her eyes, her hands on her knees. Her breathing evened out and her mind went blank, the slayer settling into the beginning of her trance.
Giles and Ethan were researching, still trying to find out what the orb was, and to find out any information they could on a demon who called herself Glorificus. They had received strict instructions to keep the noise down in the apartment, and no one as to come upstairs for any reason, unless the world was ending. There was a note attached to the front door of the apartment telling any visitors to enter as quietly as they could so as not to disturb Buffy.
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Saturday: 4pm21st August 1999
California: Sunnydale
Buffy's eyes snapped open, her body telling her that it had been a success. She opened her eyes, everything dulled down. She stood slowly, and looked at the orb that she had placed on her desk. It was glowing a brilliant orange, brighter than it usually glowed. On the table beside it, several items, such as talismans that Ethan had given her glowed a light yellow as well.
She turned to look around the room, her attention caught by a flashing object on her bed. She brought her hands down to touch the small stuffed animal, but her hands went right through it. She moved to touch another of the animals that wasn't flashing and was able to pick it up without any problems.
She looked more closely at the animal that flashed. It was a small blue rabbit. Jay had given it to her as a memento of their childhood. It was as old as Mr Gordo, and had been Jay's favourite when he'd been growing up. He'd given the rabbit the name 'Blue', named aptly after the colour of its fur.
Buffy stared at the flashing item, completely confused as to why it would be flickering in and out of view. She turned and scanned the rest of her room. On the mirror, she noticed movement in her photographs that had been stuck to the glass.
She moved towards them, looking closely at what was on them. Many of the photos seemed perfectly normal, but every single picture of Jay flashed, her twin disappearing and reappearing every few seconds. Sometimes, he merely went out of view, and other times, he was replaced with another person.
She turned again and opened her cupboard. Inside, there was a jacket that was flashing as well. It too was one of Jay's. Buffy swallowed hard and forced herself to come out of the trance.
She stumbled, the room suddenly lighting back up. She looked again at the pictures, only to see them as normal, Jay's face smiling back at her. She walked to the bed and reached to touch Blue, perfectly able to feel the stuffed animal.
Buffy picked it up and went to the door, walking out into the corridor.
"Giles?"
"Buffy," he replied, standing up from his seat as she entered the room. "How did it go? Did it work?"
She nodded, still trying to work out what it all meant. "Yeah. It worked."
"And?"
She handed him the stuffed rabbit, which he took with some confusion.
"What is this?"
"It was Jay's. When he was little," she explained.
"And you're giving it to him because…?" Ethan asked.
"When I did the trance…it was flashing."
"Flashing?" Giles repeated.
Buffy took the rabbit back from him, staring at it pensively.
"Disappearing then coming back. And one of the jackets in my wardrobe. And some of my pictures as well, the photographs," she explained.
"Photos of whom?"
"Of Jay. I…I think that the key…I think it's Jay."
"You're brother?" Giles asked.
Buffy nodded and began pacing the room, rabbit still in hand.
"It would make sense though, wouldn't it? They knew I'd protect someone I was related to. They knew that if they built my memories of him, that I would be willing to do anything keep him safe. And they're right," Buffy said.
"Buffy…we don't have any proof of this," Giles said.
"No…Giles…I know it. The dreams, what the monk said. It all makes sense. My dream has been fulfilling itself lately, and…I know that it's Jay."
Giles sat on the couch and watched his Slayer pace. This was a lot to take in. To try and understand the exact nature of what Buffy was telling him was extremely difficult. If Buffy was right, then it meant that Jay wasn't really real. Or, he was real, but he hadn't always been there.
The monks who had created him must have had a great deal of power to be able to manipulate so many people's perceptions of reality. It was an intricate web of lies they had spun. Buffy had memories of Jay from before she had been taken to the Council, and the memories since they had been reunited were as real to her as the memories she now had of her first meetings with Willow and Xander.
Faith and Jay's relationship was completely false, but Giles could see the real affection that the two teenagers shared with each other.
"Remember when I told you that I thought the boy in the dream was Jay? You asked me how I hadn't recognised him earlier? What if the reason I hadn't recognised him was because before that, I'd never seen him before?" Buffy asked. "What if he hadn't existed when the dreams started?"
Giles picked up Buffy's brown leather journal and flicked through the pages, searching for the first entry about the boy in the barn.
"Your dream about it began on the twenty-ninth of May," he said.
Buffy did a quick mental calculation and looked up at her Watcher.
"That's exactly twelve weeks ago Giles," she said.
"Twelve? Perhaps…"
"Giles…maybe that's what the other part of the dream meant," Buffy said. "The significance of the number twelve."
"Days, years and hours, wasn't it?" Giles asked.
"Yeah. Jay and I were born twelve hours apart. He was born at six in the evening, and I was born at six in the morning. At sunrise. Mom told me that she named Dawnie because of the time I was born. So she'd have part of me in her daughter," Buffy explained.
"And twelve years?"
"I was taken when I was five, right?" Buffy said. Buffy looked to Ethan who nodded sadly.
"The twenty-fifth of January if I remember correctly," Ethan said.
"And…when Jay and I were finally reunited as brother and sister, it was twelve years later."
"Exactly twelve years?" Giles asked.
Buffy did a quick mental calculation. She grabbed apiece of paper and wrote several dates down on it.
"Twelve years minus twelve days," she said. "There's no way that that's a coincidence."
"It could very well be unrelated…"
"Giles…there are two things that I don't believe in. Coincidences and leprechauns."
"Buffy, you don't know that for sure. They may well be unrelated," Giles said gently.
She frowned and nodded, knowing within herself that she was right about Jay.
"I was right about the leprechauns though, right?"
"As far as I know…"
Buffy grinned, enjoying the suddenly thoughtful look on her Watcher's face. She'd just given him something else to begin researching, she knew it.
"Anyways…back to this whole number twelve thing. The trance I did took twelve hours and it led me to this wonderful conclusion. Jay is the key. And…regardless of whether he's my brother or not…I have to protect him."
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Why did it take so long to update? Hmmm…good question. I've finally managed to get my arse into gear and remembered another storyline I was going to use. Funny what a lot of time can do to your memory. Sorry for the lack of updates, hope you're still reading. (Oh, and check out my latest fic 'Test That Theory'…I'm willing to beg.)
Toodles.