Chapter 13 - Following the Thread
I arrive at the Magic Box to find Anya busy as usual. Jenna was already there, looking around the shelves with interest. Anya seemed not to approve of her presence, on the grounds, I assume, that she wasn't there to spend money. I'm trying to remember how much Jenna knows about Anya's past, and I come to the conclusion it's not a lot. I've never actually had any cause to discuss the ex-vengeance demon, ex-human, vengeance demon. I'm really not sure how she'd take it. Of course, I don't know how much Willow told her while she was in England, but I can't see that it would have been relevant to their discussions either.
"This woman says she's waiting for you," Anya announces in her inimitable style.
"That's right, I asked her to meet me here. This is Jenna, and I've invited Xander and Buffy too."
"I'll have you remember that another time you used my place of business as a meeting place for friends of the Slayer. It was destroyed."
"I know, Anya. I'm the one who had to fill out all the insurance forms."
She's not even slightly mollified by that, and with a wordless expression of disgust, goes back to counting the money.
The bell rings, and it's Xander, with Buffy on his heels. Xander heads straight for Anya, while Buffy joins Jenna and I at the table. Xander seems to be trying to pacify Anya, while not actually admitting that any of the rest of us have any right to be here. I know I left all the running of the store to Anya, but I do still own it, and if it was anyone but Anya professing her opinions, I'd probably be rather annoyed.
"So, Buffy, how are you?" I ask. She's looking worried.
"I'm fine, Giles, but I'll be better when we find Spike. So, we've got what we need for the spell?" Her manner is business-like, and I know she's trying hard to mask her true feelings.
I pull a packet from my inside pocket and leave it on the table in front of Jenna. She opens it, and goes through some sort of mental inventory.
"Anya," I call. "Jenna will need some other ingredients from around the shop. I'd appreciate it if you'd show her where they are. I'll pay for anything we take before we leave," I add, seeing the look on her face.
Now that she's a paying customer, Jenna gets Anya's complete attention. When the various ingredients are assembled on the table, Anya pointedly goes to the till and starts to add up the total.
While this was going on, Xander joined Buffy and I at the table, and I can tell he's concerned too. He knows that Spike's missing, as I filled him in on that, but he knows nothing about the DNA evidence, or Buffy's suspicion that she's already pregnant. I felt it important that Buffy choose when and how to pass on that information.
"I've got to do some preparations," Jenna tells us. "I'll be, perhaps, ten minutes. It would probably be better to work on a floor somewhere. Where would you suggest?"
"The training room?" I offer, looking at Buffy. She nods, and I get up to take Jenna into the next room before returning to the others. Although Anya's not sitting with us, I know she's picking up every word.
As I come out, I look at Buffy, trying to read what's on her mind.
"It's ok, Giles, I'm going to tell him." Buffy seems to have understood my thoughts.
"Tell me what?" Xander has that look of innocent curiosity that he's perfected over the years. It makes him look much more like sixteen-year-old Xander than the man he's become.
"That I'm pregnant. I'm expecting Spike's daughter, and I think , no, I know it's Dawn."
There's an initial stunned silence before Anya comes bustling over and gives Buffy a huge hug.
"Oh, that's wonderful. It's such happy news."
Anya continues to talk, but I'm no longer listening. I don't think Buffy is, either, judging by the way she's looking at Xander waiting for him to react.
"That's pretty big news there, Buff. Could you let the rest of us in on how you work all that out?"
"Well, the being pregnant thing comes from having done a test. The knowing it's Spike's, well, that's easy. I'm sure you can work that out. Unless, of course, you think I've been sleeping with a variety of demons. And the bit about it being Dawn? Well, that's because the DNA tests we had done before Dawn left, showed she was Spike's daughter. And mine. The fact that it's Dawn I'm carrying now comes from partly intuition, and partly a dream."
"You've done the test?" I ask.
Buffy nods, not taking her eyes off Xander's face as he digests the information. She's expecting animosity, and that's why she spoke the way she did, but I'm not so sure she's going to get that reaction.
"And there's been a dream?" I ask.
"Yeah." She drags her gaze away from Xander to look at me. "When you called, I'd been asleep. I dreamed that she was in my arms, and that she and Spike and I were together. She was a new-born baby, but I heard her voice in my head. She even told me she should be called Zara Renee. Apparently, that means Glorious Dawn, Reborn or something like that."
"So, Dawn was Spike's daughter?" Xander manages. It's taken a while, but he seems to have caught up at last.
"Yes, Xander," I confirm. "The DNA results were quite clear. She shared about half of her DNA with both Buffy and Spike, and the only logical conclusion is that she was their child."
"So," Xander looks at Buffy. "How do you feel about this?"
He's treading carefully, trying hard not to say anything wrong, but Buffy's wound tight, expecting his disapproval.
"How do I feel? Well, I'm going to get her back in a few months. She's my daughter, and the daughter of the man I love, the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. How do you think I feel?"
"I don't know, Buffy. I mean, it must be a shock. And with Spike .. "
He stops short as tears appear in Buffy's eyes.
"I'm sorry," he says, as he jumps up to put a hand on her shoulder. "I didn't mean to upset you.
Jenna comes in a moment later to tell us that she's ready. As soon as she hears this, Buffy's tears are dried roughly from her face, and she's all business again. I'm disappointed that I didn't get the chance to tell Xander about the Riley situation, but there'll be time later, and I can't see Buffy being willing to brook any delay.
We make our way into the training room, and sit as Jenna indicates.
"The first spell is the more powerful version of the basic one we did before. It should see through fairly high levels of shielding. If that doesn't work, I'll do the second spell, which is designed to trace his movements from his last known location." The explanation is crisp and professional.
She lights five candles and places them around the circle we make, with a series of maps in the centre. She begins the incantation, sprinkling powder from a mixture she's made, over the map. There's no reaction. She changes the map to one covering a wider area and repeats the spell. Still no reaction. One after another, she changes the map, ending with one of the world, but there's nothing.
With the first spell complete, Jenna gets up to gather the things for the second spell. She removes one of the candles, redistributing the others evenly. I can see Buffy and she's pale, and the disappointment on her face is evident. Jenna returns quickly with another mixture, and some thread. This time, she places the thread in a coil on a map of Sunnydale and it's environs. One end she places at the location of the High School - the last place we know Spike was.
The incantation begins, and the powder is burned over each of four candles, representing, I assume, the four points of the compass. Slowly, the thread uncoils, unwinding and marking a route along the streets marked on the map. It's fascinating to watch as the fibre makes right-angled turns at intersections, leaving the town and heading, as expected, towards UCS. Once there, I assume specifically at the base Riley described, it pauses, then moves again, this time heading out of Sunnydale. The thread continues to move until it reaches the highway, heading roughly north. It leaves the highway, and moves coast-wards, the roads becoming less important, until it pauses. Apparently in the middle of nowhere, the thread's progress halts, and we wait for it to move again, but we're disappointed.
I feel the magic dissipating around us as the spell is ended. Buffy's looking closely at the map, and I'm doing likewise, trying to make sure I know exactly where I'm heading, because I know nothing less than an immediate departure will satisfy her.
"Right," the Slayer begins, standing and taking charge. "I'm heading there. Who's with me?"
Xander and I both answer in the affirmative, and Jenna nods her assent too. Anya, seeing that she's going to be alone otherwise, agrees to come too. We quickly arm ourselves as well as we can, but if there's a base of some sort out there, we can't hope to achieve much tonight beyond information.
As we head out to the cars, I put my hand on Buffy's shoulder. "If he's guarded, we might have to come back and work on some sort of plan," I warn.
She's about to argue, but her hand goes to her stomach, and I know she's trying to think this through rationally rather than emotionally. She nods, but I can see she finds the notion of coming home without Spike painful.
Buffy climbs into the back of my car, leaving the passenger seat for Jenna, while Anya chooses to travel with Xander. The drive is conducted in silence which gives me ample time to consider the way in which Buffy's life has changed recently, and is continuing to change.
A short while ago, the suggestion that she'd consider having any sort of relationship with Spike which didn't include stakes and dustiness would have seemed ludicrous. I thought, particularly after the Angel debacle, that she'd be loath to look at another vampire. Yet, the news that she'd been sleeping with him last year didn't come as that huge a shock. I don't know why that was. We laughed about it. We actually laughed when she told me. I know that was partly the tension of the accompanying events, but it just didn't seem so important. Of course then, she was also telling me it was over, in the past. But that was before we knew that Buffy's not entirely human, and before Spike got a soul.
I'm still amazed that he would do such a thing. I think we all realised he was apt to do some very strange things in the name of love, hence his behaviour as regards Drusilla, but to get a soul? It's such a huge undertaking. And it's not as if he didn't understand the consequences. He'd seen Angel, saw how the soul tormented him. He knew, and he understood fully what he was doing.
If there's one thing I'm certain of, it is that he'd die for Buffy. Or Dawn. What's worrying me now is the notion that Buffy would do likewise. Well, we already know that she was willing to die for Dawn. I suspect that the fact that Buffy is now carrying Dawn, or should that be Zara? is what's going to keep her from doing something foolish. Of course, the hormonal changes involved in being pregnant might alter her perception too. It's all too much for my simple bachelor brain to work out.
As far as I know, there is no part of me that's remotely demon. Apart from the time that Ethan Rayne caused me to find out what it's like to be a Fyarl demon, of course. Despite my purely human sensibilities, I can feel Buffy's anxiety. It's like a fourth presence in the car. I know how she was at the height of her feelings for Angel, and it was nothing like this.
Jenna breaks into my thoughts with "I've spoken to my sisters at the Coven."
"Yes?" I reply.
"Yes. I wanted to discuss the situation regarding Mr. Finn. I had no ideas on how to free him from this energy that's taken over his will, and I wanted them to consider the problem too."
"And did they come up with anything?"
"Not so far, I'm afraid. The records of the Coven go back a long way, and they've promised to have our archivists look through everything they think might be relevant. I think it's safe to say that if anything of this type has been done before, there will be a record somewhere in our library."
"Good." I reply, as I pull off the highway at the point indicated by the thread.
The memory that Riley's responsible to some extent for Dawn's early departure means that I'm not actually too concerned about freeing him from the energy. What surprised me was Buffy's concern for him. The fear she could sense must have been exceptional in some way for her to put aside her perfectly understandable animosity towards him. I wonder again if he has been treated in some way to make him irrationally afraid of becoming a demon. If so, he is perhaps more to be pitied than disliked. Then again, if, as I suspect, Spike's in a highly defended base of some sort, Riley might be our best bet for getting him out. Of course, I don't know how far we'll be able to trust him. Whatever we do, I think we need to retain the ability to re-infect him with the energy. I can think of nothing else as likely to retain his loyalty as that.
I check the map which Jenna is holding for me when the roads became unfamiliar. If my memory serves, I take a right at the next intersection. The map confirms my belief, and I'm a little surprised when I see the road. If I hadn't known from the map that it was there, I'd have driven past without seeing it. It's hardly a road, although it is surprisingly even. The point where the thread trail stopped is about three hundred yards along this road.
I drive slowly, and I know that all of us are scanning the surroundings carefully as we progress. There is nothing. The road peters out into woodland, and there is nothing. I know we've gone far enough, too far even, but there is no installation around here. Even underground, I'm sure there's nothing. There are no buildings of any kind. Not even a shed or derelict mine that I can see. Of course, I can come back in daylight and confirm that, but I'm pretty sure now.
Buffy's trying to persuade me that we should continue, that there must be something in the woods ahead, and I know we're not going to get away without looking. I agree to Buffy's request that we continue for a short time on foot. I go to tell Xander and Anya what I've agreed, but Anya's shaking her head.
"What is it?" I ask.
"There's no one within five miles of us right now."
"How can you be sure?" Buffy asks.
"Vengeance demon? There's not a human adult on this planet, and very few children, who are completely without thoughts of vengeance. Most of them are so mild and fleeting that you don't even know they're there, but I can feel them. I feel them all the time. Of course, I only act on the most significant ones, but I can feel all the rest. Spike's a perfect example, and he's not even human. He's got all sorts of things that go through his head. Most of them are directed at Angel, of course. So I know Spike's not here."
"He could be unconscious," Buffy offers.
"He could be, but he'd be bound to have some sort of guard, and there's no one here."
Buffy deflates at the news, but agrees reluctantly to give up for now. We pile back into the cars, and head back towards Sunnydale. The main questions in my mind are why they would have brought Spike out to this remote spot in the first place? And, of course, where is he now?
I wish Buffy was sitting in the front now, so I could better gauge how she's coping, but I don't suppose it makes much difference. She's obviously deeply disappointed, and there's nothing I can offer to make that better. I just hope we can come up with some way to enable Riley to help us, because at the moment, I simply don't see any other options.
