Destiny: Chapter 5
Once Spike and Willow stepped inside the house, all the potentials greeted them. Kennedy ran up to Willow and hugged her, stating that she missed her greatly. About half the potentials asked Spike how he got his injuries in which he avoided answering the questions to go down to the basement to sleep. About three potentials weren't at the house. Willow figured that they must have been the potentials that had gotten hurt with the fight against Caleb, and were still at the hospital. Only two potentials were missing. The ones that lost their lives to Caleb, Willow thought sadly.
When Andrew announced that it was breakfast, Willow decided to stay in the living room instead of being in the kitchen. To Willow's surprise, Buffy and Xander were in the living room, too, Buffy looking slightly hurt.
"Hey, Buffy," Willow greeted as she sat down next to her on one end of the couch, with Xander being on the other end.
Buffy managed a weak smile to her friend. "Hey."
It was quiet for a minute or two until Willow said, "So, Andrew knows how to make breakfast?"
Buffy nodded. "Well, kind of. Unless you count pancakes with chocolate chips in them to be breakfast."
Xander let out a low whistle. "We're going to have a lot of energetic potentials around here."
"Nothing that a good training can cure," Buffy argued. "They can burn off some energy by training with me." Buffy grimaced at the thought of that. "Or, possibly Faith. Or Robin, except that he's staying with the girls at the hospital." Then she said to Willow, "Kennedy really missed you the past two days."
"Well, you did tell her that she could have visited me at the hospital?"
"Yeah, but she said that hospitals freak her out."
"The feeling is mutual," Willow muttered under her breath. "So," she began, "did you see that demon that you were fighting?"
Buffy moaned. "Please don't make me remember. That demon nearly killed me when Spike saved me…by the way," she added, casting a wary look to Giles who had just walked in from the kitchen, "is Spike okay? I never saw him look so hurt before, not since Glory's torture on him, or what that ubervamp did to him."
"Well, despite a sight limb and a possibly strained wrist, he's peachy," Willow answered brightly. Willow turned to Giles. "Hi, Giles," she greeted. He acknowledged the greeting by nodding to her.
"A strained wrist?" Buffy asked, alarmed at the most.
Willow turned back to Buffy, and shrugged. "Or broken. I don't really know which one."
Buffy sighed before she got up. "I'm going to go check on him," she stated as she made her way to the basement.
"He's asleep!" Willow called after her. Buffy didn't respond.
"What demon?" Giles asked Willow as he came up to her. "And why wasn't I informed of this demon?"
"Oh, you know how it is, it just sort of came upon us," Xander answered.
"It's true," Willow agreed. "The demon just came into the hospital one minute and the next minute we were fighting it."
"What was the demon called?" Giles asked as he took off his glasses to clean them.
"Well, Spike said it's the Doxalton demon, and he had many theories on why it was attacking us," Willow explained.
Giles concentrated as he sought out to remember the demon. "Ah, yes, that demon," he said as he put his glasses back on. "The Doxalton demon…it has claws on both hands, right?" Willow nodded. "There are a few drawings on the demon from my books, some of which are oddly strange. I have not yet encountered the demon so I have no idea what it does look like. But from what I can gather from drawings and a few reports of sightings, the demon appears to have claws on both hands."
"Yep, you're right."
"So far we have only two out of three theories on why it wanted to kill me…" Giles gave a curious look to Xander, "I mean, on why it wanted to kill us. Yeah, the demon wanted to kill us."
"Well, from what I read so far, the Doxalton demon steals souls. Each time he gets a soul, the person without his or her soul is left weak so the demon can kill them. And each time he gathers a soul, he grows more and more powerful."
"But why does it want to get souls?" Willow asked.
"The Doxalton demon is on a search constantly. Until it can get that right soul, it can't destroy the world. Only with the pure soul can it get the power to destroy the world. Without the pure soul, all it can do is kill people with its clawed hands."
"Who's the person with the pure soul then?"
"I have no idea," Giles answered defiantly. "The person with the pure soul can be anyone or anything, for a matter of fact."
"Like a book?"
Giles grinned as he shook his head. "No, it can't be an object. It can be human, a vampire, a zombie, even, it just has to exist in this universe, and it has to have life." Giles sighed before he continued. "There is this one spell where it can identify the person with the pure soul. I've only heard about it, of course. I haven't tried yet."
Buffy came back up from the basement with the First Aid Kit in hand. "Hey, what's up?" She asked as she set the kit down on the desk.
"How's Spike?" Willow asked as her friend sat down next to her.
Buffy shrugged. "I had to wake him up before I could even talk to him. He was irritated when I did wake him up, though. Good news is that he only has a strained wrist, and no other serious injuries. He should be back to new in a couple of days." Buffy spotted Giles, and she grinned slightly. "Hey, Giles."
"Hello, Buffy," Giles greeted before he began speaking about the spell. "Anyway, the spell can identify the pure soul. I doubt I have any information on the incantation of the spell itself in my books, but I'll contact Wesley. I think I let him borrow a book with the incantation of the spell in it. But in any case, we'll get a hold of the book somehow."
"What's a pure soul?" Buffy asked, deeply confused on what the conversation was about.
"Well, Giles thinks that the demon came here to steal souls until it can find the pure soul in which the demon can then destroy the world," Willow explained quickly. "Okay, Giles, what will we do if we do find the person with the pure soul?"
Giles sighed again. "Well, if and when we do find it, we have to kill that person."
"It doesn't make sense, though," Faith said from the stairs. She was sitting on the last two steps of the staircase, overhearing the conversation. "Spike said the demon was here to steal our powers."
"Spike said that?" Giles asked, and got a nod from Faith.
"He said a couple summers back he was looking through your books," Faith explained simply.
"I think I'll talk to him about looking through my books," Giles murmured.
"So when can we get the incantation for the spell? And the book?" Willow asked to make sure that the conversation didn't go off the tracks.
"Well, I'll call Wesley today, unless something bad is happening over in LA, which I doubt, then I'll be able to get the book by tomorrow. Or possibly today at the least."
"Since that's all cleared up…" Faith sighed and headed upstairs.
All the potentials slowly cleared up from the kitchen, along with Andrew, to train with Buffy out in the backyard. Willow was really hungry by the time the conversation had come to a close, so she and Xander decided to grab whatever was leftover from the breakfast rush. Of course, all except one potential was training outside with Buffy and that potential was Kennedy.
When Willow stepped into the kitchen, she was hit by another hug from Kennedy. "Willow…" Kennedy murmured as she hugged her girlfriend. Willow returned the hug, aware that Xander was in the kitchen also. Kennedy released Willow from the hug and said, "I made you pancakes."
Willow smiled, glancing at Xander who was checking to see what kind of cereal to eat. "Oh…" she looked back to Kennedy. "That's nice."
"Thank you," Kennedy replied as she got two plates. "Andrew's pancakes weren't that good. Plus, I'm not a chocolate lover. So I made regular pancakes and blueberry pancakes."
"I'll take blueberry," Willow stated as she saw Xander pull down Lucky Charms. "Xander, you can have some pancakes too."
Xander poured the cereal into a bowl. "No thanks. I'm good." He got milk and poured it into the bowl, got a spoon, and retrieved to the living room.
"Here you go, Willow," Kennedy demanded as she pushed a plate of hot blueberry pancakes into Willow's hands. "I didn't know how much you wanted, so I started you off with two. There's plenty, though."
Willow grinned, reluctantly taking the plate. "Thanks, Kennedy," she acknowledged as she sat down on one of the stools at the counter. Kennedy sat beside her, her plate carrying two regular pancakes.
"No problem," Kennedy said while pouring syrup on her pancakes. "Anything for my girl."
"Hmm…" Willow tried a bite of the blueberry pancakes, which she found delicious. "Too bad Xander isn't here enjoying these pancakes," she said miserably. "He loves blueberry pancakes."
"Willow, why are you worrying about Xander? He can take care of himself. Besides, you heard him: he was fine with his Lucky Charms."
"I know…it's just…" defeated, Willow sighed. "I just worry about him." Willow continued eating her blueberry pancakes.
Kennedy shrugged, and then went back to her pancakes too. It was quiet for a minute. No noise at all except for the occasional chatter for passing the syrup between the both and a fly's buzz.
"You know," Willow began, breaking the lonely silence, "you really should be out training."
"I talked to Amanda. She said she'd tell Buffy about me staying with you."
Willow looked out the backdoor to the backyard where the potentials were training. She could see Buffy was going up and down the rows, counting. Some potential's were missing, Buffy knew that, and she knew the people that weren't injured. Buffy stopped counting and headed toward the door.
"Unless Amanda didn't tell Buffy," Kennedy murmured as she saw Buffy heading up the porch.
"Hey, Buffy," Willow said in an innocent voice, a small voice, as Buffy entered the kitchen.
"Willow…" Buffy greeted with a tone that meant she was in charge. "Kennedy's supposed to be training with the rest of us." Buffy glared at Kennedy.
"Well," Kennedy started as she got up from the stool, "it was nice talking to you, Willow. I'll be back…soon," she added as she passed Buffy to the backyard.
Buffy made sure Kennedy was out of earshot when she sighed and said, "I just don't get her sometimes." Buffy's tone returned to normal.
"She's just a teenager, Buffy," Willow said as she got up to put her dish next to the sink. "She just wants to live her life, and date boys, I bet. Remember what it was like before you got chosen?"
"Yeah…I was popular. I wanted to design dresses after I got out of high school. I had my whole life planned out…"
"And then you were chosen to be the Slayer," Willow finished for her.
Buffy nodded. "Yeah…when Merrick said those words, my whole future was taken away from me. I couldn't get any dates to proms since then."
"That's probably how Kennedy feels. She's in between living her life and probably being a Slayer. Just give her some time, Buffy." Willow left the kitchen, leaving Buffy to return to the backyard to train the potentials.
"Hey, Xander," Willow greeted cheerfully. Xander was eating at the living room table with the newspaper spread out in front of him. He looked up, saw Willow, and grinned.
"Hey, Will. How were those pancakes?"
"They were good. You should have had some, though." Willow sat down on the couch next to Xander, and sighed. Worry was sketched on her face, and Xander could see that.
"What's the problem?" He asked her.
"Nothing…except…what if you're the pure soul Giles was talking about? And we had to kill you?"
"Wait a minute…we're talking about me, right? Willow, chances are that I'm not the one with the pure soul. Besides, if it is me, then there must be an alternative way to beating the demon without having to kill me."
"But what Spike said…" Willow began, but Xander cut her off.
"And chances are what Spike said are rumors. If anything that has to be the one with the pure soul, I'd pick Spike," Xander said with a grin plastered on his face.
"Why?"
"Because then we get to kill him, and ta-da! We're in a Spike-free area!"
Willow frowned. "Xander…" she began, but Giles entered the room.
"I've got good news," he said happily. "I called Wesley and he said that he has the book with the incantation for the spell. I should be able to pick it up by today, if the latest." Giles checked his watch. "And I should be able to get back by lunchtime. Willow, would you like to come with me to pick up the book?"
"No thank you. I was hoping to get a little bit of sleep."
"Okay, well…I'll be back as soon as I can," Giles said and headed out the front door.
"You should get some sleep, too, Xander," Willow suggested.
"Now that you think about it, I am kind of tired." The two of them stood from the couch.
"You can bunk with me in my room, Xander. Probably get away from the noise when the potentials are done training," Willow offered, heading up the stairs.
"No thanks. I don't want to be a bother. I'll just sleep on the couch," Xander said while retrieving his sleeping bag.
Willow frowned. "Okay…but if you do want a room away from noise, my room's always open for rental." Then she continued up the stairs.
An hour and a half's sleep was all Willow could get, due to excess noise from the potentials downstairs and the fact that a crow was being annoying outside her window. Giving up after closing her window and still hearing the crow's cry, she decided to see what was happening downstairs.
Poor Xander, she immediately thought as she walked downstairs. A bunch of girls were gathered in the living room, watching TV. She looked to the kitchen and at least several girls were gathered together, talking loudly about make-up, while two others were discussing something other than make-up.
"Hey, any of you seen Buffy?" Willow asked the girls in the kitchen. Vi and Amanda were part of the group concerning make-up, and they both shook their head.
"We haven't seen her since after training," Amanda answered, and Vi added, "Maybe she's down in the basement."
"Okay, well, thanks." Willow left the kitchen, deciding to take Vi's suggestion and check in the basement for Buffy. The basement door was open, and the lights were on. "Buffy?" Willow called uncertainly making sure that Buffy was in the basement without going in just in case Spike was still sleeping.
"Yeah?"
Willow grinned, and walked down the basement stairs. "Hey, what're you all doing down here?" She asked Buffy once she saw Andrew, Dawn, Faith, Robin, Xander, Anya, Giles, and Spike. Spike was sitting on his cot, looking tired, and a bit annoyed. Probably because Buffy woke him up again, Willow thought.
"I retrieved the book from Wesley," Giles said, holding up a thick brown book that was torn at the bridge, "and decided to cast the spell today."
"Why aren't the potentials down here also?" Willow asked once she reached Buffy's side.
"If we do try to fit all the potentials down here, think of the noise," Buffy answered, grinning. "Plus, in that book Giles has, we need to from a circle with the caster of the spell standing in the middle of the circle."
"And I'm thinking Giles will cast the spell?" Willow asked, glancing at Giles, who frowned.
"It's for precaution, Willow. This spell is far too powerful for you. It takes a great deal of concentration, and I already know I'm not the one with the pure soul." Off of Willow's curious look, he added, "Wesley cast the spell back in LA. None of us were the pure soul."
Willow thought about it, and then frowned. "What if the pure soul isn't here? What if it's far away, like in Hawaii?"
"I'm certain it's here. I already cast this one spell, which tells you which city and state the pure soul is in, so now we can cast the actual spell." Giles sighed, and then skimmed through the book only to stop on a page. "Okay, everyone, we need to form the circle." At that sentence, almost everybody sighed, except Willow, who was eager to see the spell work. The circle formed quickly, as everyone wanted to get out of the musty basement. And, unluckily, Xander and Spike happened to be standing next to each other in the circle.
"What now?" Spike asked, casting an irritating look to Xander. "Do we have to hold hands and sing Kumbaya?"
"Hey, I'm not thrilled about this whole situation either. As far as I'm concerned, I just want to get out of this foul smelling basement and back to life," Xander countered.
"I live in here, you know!" Spike said, a bit offended.
"Gee, and maybe that's why it smells so bad," Xander replied.
"Oh, for God's sake, let's get on with the spell, you two," Giles broke in, stopping their argument before it got out of reach. He was standing in the middle of the circle, with all eyes on him. "Now, once this spell is cast, it shouldn't be long before it leads us to the pure soul."
"And what happens next?" Willow asked with mock-interest. "Why are you going to kill some innocent when you do find that they're the pure soul? Why can't we just kill the demon instead?"
"Willow!" Giles snapped. He looked up from the book, eyes blazing with anger. "This is not the time to discuss it!"
"Why shouldn't we discuss it here and now? You've always been Mr. Know-It-All; so tell me, do you know what you're doing to an innocent when they find out they're the pure soul? You're putting them in danger…in our hands. There must be some other way to kill the demon without having to kill the innocent…"
All eyes were on Willow as she said, "I don't want to kill an innocent…" then, she added quietly, "I don't want to be a murderer…not again."
Giles sighed, his patience thinning, and said, in a quiet, but angry, tone, "You will not be the murderer. I will be." Everybody took a moment to let that sink in before Giles said, "End of discussion." Ignoring seething looks from the crowd, he added, "Let's get on with the spell."
Willow thought about what had just happened. She never saw Giles look that angry, not since the time when he found out that she had brought Buffy back to life. Their trust in each other was slowly fading at each argument, bringing in more hatred. Even though Giles had said he was going to be the murderer, Willow couldn't bring herself to even think about that. Willow had always thought she and Giles had some sort of connection. He trusted her, she trusted him. Even though they're trust in each other was fading, the connection was still there…somewhere. With Giles being going to be the murderer, Willow felt like she was going to be the murderer. Guess our connection is a strong one, Willow thought as Giles finished chanting the spell.
A hazy blue cloud had just appeared in front of Giles. "Now," he began, staring at the massive cloud that floated in the middle of the basement, "this should lead us to the pure soul. It's very similar to the spell to locate potentials, just give it a second."
Xander groaned, and said, "It won't give off that rotten egg smell like the potential slayer cloud, will it?"
"Even if it did, the overpowering smell of the basement will just knock it right off its feet, won't it?" Spike muttered.
Unfortunately, Xander heard what Spike said, and countered him. "Not unless the power of the rotten-egg-smell kicks the ass of the foul-basement-smell."
Spike grinned. Waiting for the right moment of getting into an argument with the whelp was like waiting over a decade for Angel to be staked: but now it has come. "Just to let you know…" Spike began, but his happy moment was cut too soon as Buffy quickly said, "Spike!"
Sighing, Spike turned his attention to Buffy. "What?" He asked, a bit annoyed that he didn't get to finish his argument with Xander.
"Spike…" she repeated, then she added, "Xander…the cloud…"
Spike turned his attention to what was in front if him, so did Xander. What replaced Spike's annoyance was that of confusion, then happiness of some sort. The cloud was directly in front of them both, hovering, as if waiting for something…
Xander could see that smile on Spike's face, and said, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Spike. After all, it may be me with the most chickens."
Spike didn't reply, nor did anyone say a word, as they just watched, and waited to see who was the pure soul…
A/N: Cliffhanger! I couldn't resist! You can flame me if you want, but the cliffhanger is staying! Anyway…I hope you enjoyed this chapter…I'm sure I did. Everyone's got problems they need to fix out: Willow and Kennedy, Willow and Xander, Willow and Giles…um…Spike and…Buffy…just to let you know, this story will feature B/S too, I just need to wait until the right moment.
Oh boy, the next chapter will be hard to write…should Spike be the one with the pure soul…? Or should it be Xander…?
*Walks away muttering to herself*