Hey Everyone, I'm back, sorry but this chapter is a little shorter than some of the others but I wanted to start the next chapter at a certain point so that meant finishing this one where it is.
Reviewers:
Prophetess Of Hearts: Sorry no physical ass whooping for Giles, but I think that Buffy gave him a pretty good mental and emotional one
JammiesMM: Don't worry about Faith getting pushed to the back, I quite like her and she will get her time in the spot light.
JasonBarnett: Sometimes your not always thinking about the currant issues at hand. I was trying to give Faith a general observation of the currant Scooby Gang it wasn't meant to be a thought process on the currant big bad, just some thoughts. Also if the story is driving you that nuts just stop reading it. I'm not going to defend my every choice in plot line. While its great to get reviews (both good and bad) its hard yakka having to defend your story just because some one doesn't like where you're going with it.
Feedback: Yes I love getting reviews both good and bad; I'm always trying to better my writing.
The song I've stuck into this chapter is Called 'The Wood Song" Written by Emily Saliers and Performed by "Indigo Girls"
The song I've stuck into this chapter is Called 'The Wood Song" Written by Emily Saliers and Performed by "Indigo Girls" Chapter 8No way construction of this tricky plan
Was built by other than a greater hand
With a love that passes all out understanding
Watching closely over the journey
Her Mom
A Boy
Cassie
Jenny
A Woman
Tara
Larry
A man
Snyder
Jesse
Flutie
More faces she didn't recognise
A cavern
Faith
A Weapon
Caleb
A medallion
Herself
Abandoned House
Sunnydale, California
Buffy sat up with a start, gasping for breath as she ran the dream over in her head again, dead people, hundreds of them all making a cameo appearance in her dream. Looking out the window she saw that sunset was approaching. Pushing herself out of the bed she attempted to fix her dishevelled hair but to no avail, it simply refused to do anything but sit there in a tangled lump. Sighing she ran her hands over her face and tied it into a messy pony tale.
Looking in the mirror, the image that stared back at her was not the face she had once been proud of. The image she saw was of a tired and world-weary young woman; dull eye's, which had once shined had dark circles underneath them. Her hair had once been lustrous and full, was sadly limp and badly in need of a trim. Her face was bony and angular, accentuating the weight she had lost when her mother had been sick, and the fight with Glory for Dawn's life. She had never put it back on after being pulled out of heaven, food hadn't been a priority at first, and then with everything else that had happened… she ate enough to keep going, but… there are more important things happening then whether she got a full meal or not.
Buffy closed her eye's and took a deep breath, how could she have been sleeping while there was a battle to be prepared for? She remembered talking with Giles, and after she had walked out… She must have fallen asleep sometime after leaving the room.
Seeing a familiar bag sitting by the door, she smiled and knelt down to rummage through it. Finding a large assortment of clothes and underwear, she picked an outfit and wandered through into the hallway to have a shower.
Downstairs in the kitchen where Faith, Janet and Jack we're sitting discussing that nights plan, Faith looked up at the ceiling and breathed a sigh of relief
"She's awake" She told the others "and having a shower, probably worried about how she looks. You know bed hair and all that shit"
Jack snickered "And I bet you never worry about that kind of 'shit'?"
"Nope. I'm more of a get some and get gone type of girl" Faith shrugged "Although lately…" She trailed off as Jonas walked into the room; book in one hand apple in another.
"Colonel, I've been doing a bit of reading about this hellmouth, we're apparently on. Man all sorts of stuff goes on here. High death rate, weird occurrences, they get more earthquakes here in Sunnydale than the rest of the greater San Andreas Fault combined. The weirdest thing is, no one seems to really notice or report it. I wonder why that is?"
"Denial" Sam pushed Jonas out of the doorway and sat down with Mac close on her heels.
"What do you mean?" Jonas looked at her questioningly before taking another bite out of his apple "I mean" he talked around the mouthful of fruit "if stuff like this is an everyday occurrence wouldn't you want to put a stop to it instead of just ignoring it"
Jack shifted uncomfortably in his chair and tried to think of a good example that Jonas would understand "You remember the experiment your old team was working on before you joined up with us?"
Jonas looked at him confused for a moment, but then what Jack was talking about hit him. "Oh… Yeah"
"It's kinda like that" Jack continued "You knew it was dangerous, but you didn't do anything cause…" He threw his hands towards Jonas in a gesture for the Kelownan to finish
"I didn't know anything different. No one else believed it was dangerous so I thought I was imagining things, and whether it was or not, they just didn't want to know"
"Give the boy a prize" Jack grinned, "No one can force you to believe anything"
"Exactly" This time it was Buffy freshly showered who pushed Jonas out of the way "Why do you think Sunnydale has so many barbeque fork stabbings?"
Before she could continue, Teal'c came in through the back door "The sun appears to be setting, are we not going into battle soon?"
"Yeah" Buffy replied, "As soon as everyone else is out of town we'll go in…"
"They're gone Buffy." Janet interrupted "After I checked the girls over, we stuck round to make sure they got out of town alright" Buffy smiled at her
"Thanks guys" The weight on Buffy's shoulders lifted somewhat knowing the others were out of town.
"So are we going to kick butt yet?" Jack asked with raised eyebrows as he looked around the kitchen
Big Yellow School bus
Outskirts of Los Angeles"What have we done? She's our best friend, she's saved us more times than I can count, not once judged us for all the screw ups we made, but she makes a bad decision and we kick her out. Why did we do that, it's not the first time she's made a mistake… but it was like the only thing that mattered was us winning this, and not … not… everything else that goes on in the meantime. She's been cutting us off more and more for months now, only telling us stuff so we wouldn't worry. I didn't even notice, not even when you said it to her face, she was cutting us off again then. So we made a mistake… we didn't have to kick her out of her own house. What kind of friends does that? I'll tell you what kind of friends, us kind of friends. Oh God Xander we're bad friends, we really really are bad…" Xander clamped a hand over Willow's mouth before she could say anything else.
"Calm down Will, we're not bad friends…"
"Yes you are" Anya interrupted them from her seat across the isle "I am too. I admit it, I'm a bad friend, but then again there was the time she stuck a sword through my chest, so I think we're even"
"Not helping An" Xander cut her off. Meanwhile Willow was sick of having Xander's hand over her mouth, so she stuck her tongue out licked all over the inside of his hand "That hasn't grossed me out since the 5th grade Will"
"What is she doing?" Anya craned her neck trying to see what was happening.
"Imph liphkng hish hnd" Willow mumbled, her mouth still covered by Xander's hand.
Giles, sitting up the front of the bus could hear bits and pieces of the conversation, got up and made his way shakily down to where the others were seated, taking the time to check up on a few of the potentials as he went. Finally sitting down on the seat in front of Willow and Xander. Looking softly at them he wondered if he had the words that would comfort them… make them feel better so to speak.
"I never liked the fact that, at the beginning, you two tried to help out Buffy and myself. But…she seemed to fight harder give it that little bit extra if it were you two in danger, so I didn't discourage it as much as I should have. It was when things really got tough, when we had the big fights that I truly questioned your being there to back her up." Giles paused to gather his thoughts
"I guess you could say that it is the nature of the Slayer, to fight alone, to be alone… Buffy claimed that her emotions gave her an edge, that they gave her that little bit extra that meant she would always win, but I wonder, how well she would have done if she had been more isolated…"
"Giles, please don't you ever finish that thought?" Xander pleaded "You know as well as I do what would have happened if Deadboy and me hadn't followed her into the caves that night.
Before Giles had a chance to think about giving the young man a carefully worded reply Anya jumped in
"Yes because if you hadn't then Buffy would be dead and we wouldn't be in this mess"
"What…?" Willow and Xander screamed and turned an icy glare on the Woman turned Vergence demon turned Woman turned Vengeance demon turned woman.
Giles groaned
Yeah but what it takes to cross the great divide
Seems more than all the courage I can muster up inside
Although we get to have some answers when we reach the other side
The prize is always worth the rocky ride
