...:: You've Got to Have Faith ::...
Samantha walked beside Buffy, thoughts running aimlessly through her
mind. Everything was so beautiful here, it was overwhelming, almost
intoxicating. The smell of honey dew filled the air as she and Buffy
edged a stray ivy patch which climbed up the main talan. "Everything
is extremely beautiful here." She saw a smile appear on Buffy's lips.
"Indeed." Something was new about Buffy today, almost as if a burdon
had been lifted. "Ya know, I can tell somethin' is different with
you." Buffy was facing her now. I wish I was that beautiful, Sam
thought. "What do you mean?" Buffy was so proper, hearing her speak
was like watching one of those movies about the 18th Century. "You
seem, I dunno... More content." Another smile appeared. "Last night
was the first night in a long time that I could actually look into his
eyes and tell him that I love him."
Indeed something was new about her this day. She was truly happy with
how things were going and how she realized she didn't have to marry
Haldir, that they were just 'together' as a couple right now, not
forever. "Who?" Sam's words interupted Buffy's track of thought. "Oh!"
She laughed at herself and Sam gave her a strange look before joining
in. "Haldir." They continued to walk through the Wood, coming to a
lake with a waterfall streaming down. A wooden bridge came into view
and it became relevant that the only way to cross the lake was to
cross the wooden bridge. "So you and Haldir are going to get married?
Is that how it works here?" A laugh escaped from Buffy, hearing all of
this nonsense. "Oh God, no!" She kept laughing. "I am free to marry
whom I wish now. Tis true I would've been married off, hadn't my
father and King of Mirkwood gotten into an arguement. Now I am free to
choose my own destiny."
Buffy set her bow down with the rest of her weaponry. "You're not
marrying Haldir?" Buffy shook her head. "I love being in his presence,
but he is not the man I want to be with for all eternity. I would
enjoy maintaining a friendship with him, though." She leaned against
the railing on the wooden bridge, it was damp from the waterfall mist.
"Everything is so simple here." Buffy smiled at the woman beside her's
thought. "It may seem simple, but I can assure you otherwise." Silence
emerged between them. Finally someone spoke. "Will you tell me about
'Elves' in general?" Buffy nodded, pleased to answer this question.
"Every Elf is different and every Elf is the same. We are all immortal
but we can be killed, we all have powers of a sort, each are
different." Again, silence until Sam spoke. "So what powers do you
have?" Thinking for a moment, Buffy came up with the words to answer
Sam's question. "It is complicated, but I will tell you. I have the
power of Voice, Sight, and Movement."
Sam was confused. What did 'Voice', 'Sight', and 'Movement' mean? "Can
you explain each to me?" Buffy nodded. "Voice means I can sing to
through a person off or make them see something, it depends. I can use
my voice to make someone fall in love or something other than that."
Sam was intrigued. "Like putting a spell on someone!" Buffy nodded but
stopped and tilted her head for a second. "Not quite a spell, but
close." Sam nodded waiting patiently for her to continue. "With Sight,
I receive visions of the past, present, or future." Sam was excited to
hear this. "Like premonitions, almost! This is cool!" Buffy laughed at
the human beside her. What a silly woman. "Yes." She let loose more
laughter before continueing again. "I can move things with my mind."
That night Buffy hurried and ate quick. She wanted to go out and do
her inspections quick. Being in the dark by herself was unnerving.
After dinner, Haldir caught up with her. "Are you going to be ok?"
Buffy nodded turning around to leave, but Haldir reached out and
grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Buffy, please don't start this again."
A look of confusion seeped across Buffy's normally impassive face.
"Don't start what again, Haldir?" She could see frustration all across
his face as he sighed for breath, loudly. "This! You running away from
me or just plain ignoring me. I can't take it anymore." Looking down
at her feet, Buffy felt sorry. Sorry for even doing this to such a
good man. Haldir was right, he didn't deserve to be treated this way.
He hadn't done anything wrong, so why was Buffy so cold to him? "I'm
sorry, Haldir. I am sorry because I can't do this anymore either." Now
it was Haldir's turn to be confused. "What are you saying?" A look of
resolve came across Buffy's face as she moved his hand off of her arm.
"I cannot be with you anymore because I do not love you."
"How can you say that to me? You told me last night that you were in
love with me!" Anger had seeped into Haldir's voice. He couldn't
believe the words that were coming from Buffy's mouth. "I know I did,
but I don't want this to go on anymore. It was fun for a while but
you're not the man I want to be with. I hope we can be friends still."
Haldir threw his arms out to the side in anger and frustration. He
pulled at his hair and shook his head, looking at his feet. "I don't
know, Buffy! I really don't." He gave her one pained look and
stammered off to his talan. Buffy watched him, a tear falling from her
eye.
Walking through the Wood was becoming helpful. Buffy was glad after
all that it was her turn to patrol. She hoped Haldir would remain a
friend to her after all she had put him through. She knew how he felt.
Betrayed because he had given her his whole heart but she did not give
him hers in return. Something like that would make anyone upset. It
didn't help that security had to tighten because of the visitors.
Buffy stopped dead in her tracks. Someone or something was walking in
a hurry to her side. She swung her lamp around, searching for whatever
it was that was creeping along, alone in the dark. On her other side,
something else ran by crunching on every dead leaf possible. Buffy was
becoming terrified. "Hello?" She turned around, hearing more foot
steps. Taking out her bow, she heard growling and strange mumbles.
Jumping out from the darkness, three Turok-Han surrounded Buffy. "Oh
geez, what are you?" Never in her life had Buffy seen anything that
looked like this. She braced herself for a fierce attack. From behind
the three scary demons, Buffy saw a white wizard appear. If anyone was
confused, it was Buffy. "Who are you?" The white wizard simply smiled.
"I am Saruman. These are the real vampires, my dear." Her eyes
widened. "White wizards are supposed to be good guys, am I right?" The
man before her laughed and laughed. "Dreams are for little children, I
would have hoped you have grown up by now." The vampires growled,
smiling, preparing to attack. "Why are you attacking me?" Saruman's
face became serious then. "You attacked my Faith."
Realization streamed Buffy as the vampires ran toward her, preparing
to rip her every limb apart. One of the vampires came behind her and
knocked her down. She crawled away and crouched beside a tree. Seeing
the vampires edge in closer to her, they seperate to let just one take
her out and finish her. She stood up to face it off, an eery look in
her eyes. She threw a good kick, but the vampire ducked before impact.
Frustration. She threw a hard punch, but the vampire blocked. The
vampire put her offguard when he punched her in the face and then the
stomach. She moaned and groaned in pain as Saruman laughed. She fell
to the ground face-first. The vampire smiled, revealing all of his
pointy teeth. He bent down and grabbed her on the waist, picking her
up. He began trying to choke her, only she spit blood into his face,
startling him. She managed to escape his grasp and ran off into the
woods, trying not to trip. The vampire licked the blood off his lips
and growled, going after her. She looked back, seeing the monster
right behind her. "Oh God!" Panic seeped into her voice. She didn't
know what to do!
Running as fast as she could, Buffy wasn't getting anywhere because
she was limping. She ran deeper into the woods, losing sight of the
vampire. She dropped her lantern causing the light to go out. It was
hard to see. The vampire searched the darkness for her, seeing her.
Dark being his natural area of living. The vampire came up behind her
and hit her in the head, knocking her down again. She got up, a bit
angry this time. "You know, maybe you shouldn't have come into these
woods." They began fighting again. He punched her and she kealed over
at the waist. He kicked her in the chest, sending her flying into a
nearby tree. Standing up a little shaken, Buffy saw his fist coming at
her fast. She ducked and he hit the tree behind her. As she stood up,
the vampire kicks, hits, and kicks some more causing her to grab her
ribs in pain. He kicked them again and when she stood up again, he hit
her hard in the face, causing her to fall. He picked her up and
backhanded her, then hitting her so hard she flew twenty feet across
the way.
Buffy spotted a tree branch beside her, she picked it up and as the
vampire came up to her, she hit him hard in the face causing him to
fall back. She stood up and hit him some more and once he fell to the
ground she limped off. But after just two seconds of trying to run
off, the vampire caught up to her, grabbing her from behind and
throwing her into a tree. He threw a kick to her face and grabbed her
arm, flinging her into another tree. The vampire edged closer and from
behind, an arrow hit him through the heart and he became nothing more
than a pile of dust. The Elf, Buffy realized, was the one who had
rescued her. She recognized him immediately from her dreams. Legolas.
She couldn't do anything except fall to the ground as he walked toward
her.
Legolas was shocked to see this beautiful woman being pummled by a
beast he had been tracking for a month. He saw her staring at him in
shock and gratefulness for a few minutes until she collapsed on the
ground. He rushed up kneeling beside her beaten body. "Excuse me,
miss?" She stared up at him. He knew her! Every night in his dreams he
had seen her face, her beautiful body. This was the woman he had also
been in search for. His true love. "Buffy..."
Her attention was caught immediately when she heard him gasp her name.
She sat up carefully, cringing. "Legolas." They smiled at one another
until she cringed again. He picked her up and carried her all the way
back to Lorien, where all of the Galadhrim awaited in a meeting with
the Lord and Lady present. Apparently, their attention was brought by
Galadriel who had seen this event in her mirror.
Legolas sat Buffy down on a wooden chair which Galadriel had guided
him to. He looked up at the Lady Elf. "She looks horrible. I'm afraid
I did not reach her aid in time." The Lady held up her hand and shook
her head. "You did well, my dear. She is alive, that is all that
matters." With that said, Galadriel turned to address the rest of the
Galadhrim. "From this night forth, no one is to go out on the patrol
by themselves. You must have two other partners with you at all times
after dark in the Wood." Legolas saw Buffy open her eyes and watched
as she listened intently. "We do not even know what this was that
Buffy took on tonight, My Lady!" Someone yelled from the crowd. "We
will look into it, do not fear." Grumbles escaped all of the
Galadhrim's lips. Legolas stepped forward. "I know what it is that
Buffy took on. I have been after it for a month now." Every eye in the
talan was on Legolas. "Saruman has envoked the purest evil there is.
The First Evil. As far as taking it down, I am uncertain that it can
be taken out." More mumbles and grumbles. "We will find a way, I
assure you!" The Lord tried to calm them down.
"Buffy was one of our strongest, My Lord! How are we expected to
succeed now?" Another Elf yelled from the crowd. Buffy stood up
carefully and all eyes were on her. "You're right. We don't know how
to fight it. We don't know when it will come. We cannot run, cannot
hide. This might be the end. Something is always going to be here to
try and destroy the world. We're here to stop them. To beat them back.
But we're not dealing with them, we're dealing with the reason why
they exist. Evil. The strongest. The First." Galadriel turned to face
her granddaughter. "Buffy, I know you must be tired..." Buffy cut her
words off. "I am beyond tired. I am beyond scared. I am standing at
the mouth of Hell and it is going to swallow me whole. But it is going
to choke on me. We are not ready? They are not ready. They believe we
will wait for the end to come, like we always do. I'm done waiting.
They want an apocalypse? Oh, we shall give them one. Anyone who wants
to run, do it now. We have just become an army. We have just declared
war. From now on we won't face our worst fears, we will seek them out.
We will find them and cut their hearts out one by one, until the First
shows itself for what it really is. I will kill it myself. There is
only one thing on this earth that is more powerful than Evil."
The Stargate SG-1 team stood beside the Galadhrim listening. They gave
each other glances. "And that is us. Any questions?"