Chapter Seven – Future Tense
Buffy woke up slumped in her seat and when she looked over; she saw that Lorne was fast a sleep. She reached out to wake him up and noticed something very wrong with herself. Her stomach was huge! Not that long ago it had just been a rising lump, but now it was positively popping.
"L- Lorne, wake up" she stammered and gently poked the empathy in the arm.
"Huh?" he groaned lifting his head. "What happened?"
"That's what I'd like to know"
The slayer un-strapped herself from the co-pilot's seat and went back to wake up the others. She had to bite her tongue though when she saw her sister: Dawn passed out cold in Connor's arms drooling. God she wished she had a camera right now. Angel was a near similar case, half draped over a seat, snoring even though he didn't have to breathe. She snickered at the cute little image before shouting out the wake up call.
"Fire!!"
They all shot up instantly, fully awake as though Buffy has splashed them with freezing cold water. Angel was on his feet, and then crashed painfully to the floor as his legs locked beneath him. At that spectacle, neither Dawn nor Connor could keep from laughing at the poor fallen vampire. The two teens suddenly stopped, looked at each other and then to the position in which they had slept for a few moments, before Dawn blushed scarlet and hurriedly got to her feet.
"Was that really necessary?" Angel grumbled as he forced himself up.
"Yes it was grumpy" Buffy snapped. "This is an emergency! I don't think that a three mouth old pregnancy can pop out this much in only one sleep"
Dawn eyed her sister's swollen belly with shock.
"Good god Buffy, what did you do? It looks like you swallowed a whole watermelon!"
"Can it kid!" Buffy growled and slapped Dawn gently upside the head.
"So... what does it mean?"
"Hell if I know"
"I could help you with that sweet cheeks" Lorne called back to her from the pilot's seat. "As you already know, I'm empathic. All you have to do is sing for me and I'll be able to read your destiny. That'll probably clear things up"
"... What should I sing?"
"Whatever your heart wants"
Buffy took a deep breath, thinking fast on what she was going to sing. Deep within her a song arose. It was one that told her what she had felt that past year. Her life, her death, and her life again; everything was telling her what to say. Then there was Spike... and what he had done for her. How he had saved her from herself. So she began to sing.
How can you see into my eyes like open doors
leading you down into my core
where I've become so numb without a soul my spirit sleeping somewhere cold
until you find it there and lead it back home wake me up inside
wake me up inside
call my name and save me from the dark
bid my blood to run
before I come undone
save me from the nothing I've become
Now that I know what I'm without
you can't just leave me
breathe into me and make me real
bring me to life
Wake me up inside
wake me up inside
call my name and save me from the dark
bid my blood to run
before I come undone
save me from the nothing I've become
bring me to life
Frozen inside without your touch without your love darling only you are the life among the dead
All this time I can't believe I couldn't see
kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems
got to open my eyes to everything
without a thought without a voice without a soul
bring me to life
"Wow... I didn't know something could be so beautiful" Lorne sniffed theatrically.
"What, my destiny or the song?" Buffy asked scrunching her face.
"Oh, both actually" he smiled. "Well honey, whatever happened must have thrown us forward in time. It is October 24th, you are going on eight mouths and your baby is doing well... but the rest is blank. That's never happened to me before"
"Eight months! Eight months?" Buffy seemed to be getting hysterical even as Lorne put a hand on her shoulder to clam her. "That can't be! Five months couldn't have gone by!"
"What do you mean by blank?" Angel asked suspiciously, completely ignoring Buffy's hysterics.
"Blank as in the future hasn't been written yet. Her destiny up till then is clear though – she has to get to Spike. I believe at the moment, he controls destiny itself"
"But that's not right. Only the Powers that Be have that ability!"
"Oh don't be so narrow minded Angelcakes. Some things are meant to happen out of the ordinary. Part of Buffy's fate is to help tip the hands of destiny – to help bring the world a greater peace. But she is also connected to Spike, so I was only able to read a bit on him. Spike controls destiny. There is a choice he will have to make. Four different worlds, four different fates; he'll have to choose the one and it will change the world forever"
"I don't like the sounds of that"
"Please don't start up on that" Connor suddenly interrupted. "From what I've been told of Spike, he's more worthy then you'll ever be. Sure he was a murderer – all vampires are, but you were his teacher. Dawn told me that even as a soulless creature, he was more caring and compassionate then you are with one"
Dawn gapped at Connor. 'He Who Hates All Vampires' was standing up for Spike – for her? That was a new development. Angel was also speechless, and for the same reasons as Dawn. Buffy and Lorne also seemed to be similarly effected.
"Well... what do we do?" Dawn asked the awkward question.
"Continue on to Africa. We'll find our answers there"
Spike awoke with a massive splitting headache. He noticed groggily that he was hanging upside down from a small tree and that all the blood in his body had rushed to his head. With much effort, he untangled himself and fell like a stone to the ground. While he lay stunned, there was a groan of pain not too far away.
Roho was slumped against a tree, a large ugly black bruise beginning to appear on his face. He was weakly trying to push himself up to no avail and then gave up with a soft defeated growl.
"You okay kid?"
"I believe everything is still intact. How about you?"
"Same"
"So... what do you think happened?"
"Beats me, but does that have anything to do with this" Spike asked pointing out into the horizon.
And Roho turned his gaze to the horizon to see that there was a mountain rising up out of the desert. It looked to be of some kind of sparkling black stone, a beacon in the shifting browns and oranges. Spike saw that the boy was staring at the mountain with shell-shocked awe, as if he had never seen something so magnificent before – and he hadn't.
"Obscurus Cor" they whispered in unison. "The Dark Heart"
Then Roho regained himself.
"Whatever that was friend, it brought us right to our destination!" the boy grinned widely. "The Dark Heart was the mountain of obsidian in the middle of Kenya. It cannot be located by anything – magically cloaked from any unworthy eyes. It was only our legends that told us the way, but it so seems that the Powers have other things in mind. They must have brought us all the way here faster then before. Come, we have about seven days walk"
"Sure, but do I need to remind you that this spell is wearing off? I feel as though I want to die" Spike groused painfully.
"Then that is all the more reason for us to get moving"
Spike trudged along feeling as if there was something that hadn't been said. They had left at the start June, but something wasn't right. The day seemed darker almost and the air, even though un-mercilessly hot, seemed cooler. With that, he decided to raise the question.
"Does anything seem different to you?"
"The light and the air, they seemed to have changed suddenly. But we have to get to the mountain, and then we can discuss the changes in the weather"
"If you say so"
Buffy leapt to her feet and then wobbled dangerously as her large stomach began to throw her off balance. Dawn had to quickly rush forward and support the swaying mother-to-be from falling flat on her face... or worse, her stomach. The two sisters giggled as Angel and Connor watched on.
Angel was going in to a deep brooding stage. As he watched Buffy, all he could see was what wasn't his. There was a persistent nagging at the back of his head that told him he had Cordelia, but Buffy had been his one true love and all he could do was think about her. Now and then his eyes would flash gold as he though of Spike too, the one person in the whole world that he cared the least for. Spike was his grandchilde, his worst enemy, Buffy's love and the father of Buffy's child... the child that should have been his.
Beside the silent vampire sat his son, the miracle child and son of two vampires. Connor couldn't seem to help himself, but he soon found that he was staring at Dawn every chance that he got. She was a strange girl to him; he had never met anyone like her. She had a sort of fire in her that he had only seen in himself before. She wouldn't take is attitude and she was strong – his equal and the soon found that for some reason he wanted her so much. It was something he couldn't understand... why would he want his own death that was wrapped up in the package of a seemingly harmless young girl? Maybe that was an answer he was never going to get.
"So umm..." Connor coughed, trying to find something right to say and then stalled. "...When do we land?"
"In just a few minutes Connor" Angel replied. "Lorne has spotted something that looks something like an oasis below, so you'll be able to get off this jet in no time"
"You mean a real oasis?" Dawn grinned. "I wound what it has to eat?"
"Nothing that you'll be eating for sure. We don't know in there"
Dawn glared at Buffy and an evil smile crossed her face.
"Oh don't tell me that you're not hungry for some kind of yummy tropical fruit?" her grin grew wider as she saw the look that was begging to appear on her sister's face. "Think of all that fruit we could bring back to make smoothies with?"
Then Buffy broke.
"Alright, alright, I give in. You are evil Dawnie, really evil"
"Sure. I learned from the best"
"So that'll be..." Connor continued.
"Oh a few hours, ten tops"
"Good God I need some sleep" Buffy groaned, turning to her sister. "How about you?"
So was it satisfactory? Translation: Obscurus Cor means Dark Heat in Latin. I went with the five months and just to clue you in on the date – the part in the prophecy that was All Hallows, Halloween for all will be the 'day of reckoning'. Well anyway, I gotta go and start the next chapter. Later!