Buffy: War with the Gods Part 3
The Light.
"Exactly what do you mean? Why shouldn't I be here?" Wesley's eyes widened at his Grandfathers pronouncement.
"I meant exactly what I said. You my lad, should not be dead. You are supposed to be on the mortal plane, continuing our heritage. Using your power to help the slayer through this whole debacle. It's time for us to stop simply watching her actions, and guide them." From anyone but his Grandfather, Wesley would have dismissed these comments as ridiculous, but the look in his Grandfather's eyes told him that this was serious, there was no sign of his Grandfathers previous flippancy. This was real, this was true.
"Your father was an idiot. He didn't tell you what you needed to know. He thought you were too weak to cope with the truth." The old man laughed, "if only he'd lived to see how you died. Or to be more exact, how you lived up to the point you died. I'm sure even he would have respected your actions."
"He would never have respected me. He told me as much when I last met him." Pure disdain poured from Wesley's lips as he spoke.
"Hey Wes, that wasn't really your pop remember, it was some robot thing. That you kicked the ass of, if memory serves." Gunn's hand on his shoulder and his words almost gave Wesley the reassurance he needed. He shook his friends hand loose and stood alone, mustering as much stoicism as he could manage.
"It was an android, yes, but it was programmed by my father, with my fathers memories and reactions. It was a simmulcrum. It was him in all but body." His lips shuddered as he spoke. Wesley felt as though the weight of the world were upon his shoulders, and he felt his strength ebb away, until another hand reached out and held him.
"You were, no, you are better than your father. You're stronger in spirit, in heart and in deed. I wouldn't have fallen in love with you otherwise Wesley." He turned to Fred, smiling through the tears rolling down his cheeks. He lifted her hand from his shoulder and kissed it gently.
"Thank you Winifred Birkle, you who are the light of my existence." Wesley kissed her gently on the lips before turning back to his Grandfather. "Alright, tell me everything."
The Mortal plane.
"Well, it all started about a week after the whole poltergeist incident at the house in Sunnydale. You know, when you and Willow told me about the First pretending to be dead people. Well, I started seeing mom." Dawn looked into her sister's eyes as she spoke, seeing the glimmer of saddness in Buffy's eyes, that mirrored her own. "She started telling me about my destiny. That I was still the key, and that I had power. I was so confused, I saw her every day, but I didn't know if she was the first or if she really was mom." Tears flowed down her face as she closed her eyes trying to fight the tears back. She felt a hand take hers and squeeze gently, she could feel her sister's spirit through the touch, giving her the strength to continue.
"She said that she'd been trying to help you as well, but that you refused to believe her. So she said she needed to focus on me. She told me that I still had the Key's powers. I could open portals to other places, other times even. I tried it, and it worked, but the power scared me, and... And..." Dawn looked from Buffy to Willow to Giles, seeing the same look of concern on their faces. "That's what really happened to Miss Kitty Fantastico." Dawn turned her eyes to the floor, unable to look up at her friends. "I was trying to keep a portal open for more than a second or two, to see what happened, and she, well, she jumped in. She must have seen the light from the portal and thought it was a new toy and she jumped at it." Dawn looked up at Willow, "Honestly, I tried to get her back, but back then, I couldn't be sure where the portals led to. I opened dozens of them trying to find her, but it just didn't work. I'm sorry Willow."
"Hey, these things happen. Ask your sister about some of my early attempts a magic if you want to hear about disasters." There was a faint smile on Willow's face, that almost covered the concern and, was that fear, in her eyes. "You're getting the hang of it now though? Right? I mean you didn't just send all of those people to a hell dimension did you?"
"No, I sent them to Wisconsin." From the other side of the room, she could hear Xander sniggering. It was infectious because soon Willow and even Buffy had started laughing too. "It's the only place on Earth I can open a portal to."
Through the sniggers Xander managed to say, "I'm sure a lot of them would rather have gone to a hell dimension."
"What's the difference exactly?" Buffy asked, trying desperately not to laugh.
Dawn finally cracked and giggled as she replied, "I don't think they have as many cows in a hell dimension." This drew an even louder laugh from everyone, even Giles tried to hide it by removing his glasses and polishing them frantically, but he was still grinning, he would never have been able to deny that.
Upstairs, in the room given to the War God Illyria, she paced, talking to herself. "How can they sit here, when there is war to be made? We should leave this place and take the war to those who started it, and..." She paused, and cocked her head to the left as though listening for a whisper on the wind. "It cannot be!" She stormed to the door and tore straight through it and headed in the direction of the front door. In the distance she could hear a knocking on the door. She sped up, she knew what she would find, but she didn't know what to expect.
In the Library, they also heard the door knock. "I'll get it." Buffy said, instantly back on edge. She practically leapt to the door, she could hear the grooup follow her from the Library. She paused, bracing hersself for whatever may be on the other side. She opened the door and her jaw fell, she had not been expecting this.
"Nooooooooooo!" The cry came from a blue figure that pushed Buffy out of the way. Illyria was suddenly at the open door, facing... Wesley. "Leave this place and that form, or I swear I will rip you from his body."
"I had no idea that you cared so much Illyria." Wesley replied. "Are you alright Buffy? I know she is quite strong, I hope she didn't injure you." Buffy, had backed away from the doorway, in shock at the arrival of the formerly dead watcher. "Don't everyone say hello at once, it's deafening." He edged past Illyria, amiling as he walked. "I hope the fact that I've just walked in uninvited proves that I am at least, not a vampire?"
"Yeah, but you're still dead? Right?" Xander asked.
"Well, technically, I suppose so, but no, not really. I've been sent back. Along with someone else, it took the collective powers of the entire watchers council, in fact 100 generations of them, to send the two of us back, because we're needed here. This apocalypse is not supposed to be happening now."
"No shit Sherlock!" Buffy turned to face Dawn, frowning. "Sorry, it seemed like the right thing to say." Dawn's eyes turned to the floor again, before something else struck her. "Who else did they send?"
The answer came from the Basement. The door to which opened and Kennedy staggered the last few steps. "Why did I wake up in the basement, chained to a wall no less?"
Buffy spun, an unusual panic gripped her, she couldn't be watching Wesley and the vampire previously known as Kennedy. A noise from above told her that she could though, as Buffy2, as Xander had taken to calling her, flew straight at Kennedy from her 'perch' atop the stairwell. "Vampire!" She cried as she flew. She landed on top of Kennedy, who struggled to dislodge the slayer. Buffy2 stopped though, and sniffed at Kennedy. Then immediately stood up, and backed away.
"She is not your weak lover." Illyria's voice cut through the impromptu silence in the hallway. "She is now amalgam. She is slayer, vampire and, witch."
Willow saw it. Her knees began to buckle. "Oh my Goddess." She fell, but Kennedy caught her. Moving with a combination of vampire and slayer speed. Willow looked into the eyes of her lover and gasped one word before fainting into the abyss of unconciousness.
"Tara?"