In which Angel, Jonathan and Anya have ideas. And ding dong, the witch is dead.
Jonathan yawned. He'd been living on Jolt Cola since last night, but without the adrenaline rush of a D&D marathon, and the news of Buffy's death hadn't helped. He made a frustrated gesture at the books, candles, herbs and maps scattered around him. "Nothing."
"What do you mean, 'nothing'?" Xander was getting ready to start hitting him soon. Nobody was in a very good mood. After the initial shock had worn off, Mr. Panic had started knocking down the door; nerves were frayed and tempers on edge.
"I mean I've tried every single locator spell in my books and hers, I've done the magical version of Yahoo, Google and Altavista with wild cards, and nothing."
"So you're doing something wrong."
"Nuh-uh. I've checked everything, I even searched for some other people just to make sure the spells were working. Roger Moore is in London, Tucker Wells is in minimum security in Fresno, and Jeri Ryan is in LA shooting Boston Public which is a waste of her talent even if Voyager was a disgraceful attempt to cash in on the Star Trek name. But Willow Rosenberg is nowhere."
All color drained from Xander's face. "You mean she's..."
"No. If she was dead, I would've found her grave. I'm saying she's somewhere else, somewhere different."
"Couldn't she be using some sort of cloaking spell?" Giles, of course, looking for answers.
"Maybe... but only if she has another one of these," Jonathan held up one of Willow's books. "I can't believe she just left all this stuff."
"But... I mean, there's gotta be something we can..." Xander was starting to freak out. He had been fairly sure that Willow and Tara could take care of themselves in Vegas or New York, but if they had made off to some other dimension, that meant infinite ways to get hurt, or lost, or...
"Xander... we're all worried. But wherever they are, we can't find them, and right now there's no point in focusing on what we cannot do." Giles took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, he hadn't slept well in a long time, and he desperately wanted a drink. "Meanwhile, no one is patrolling, the robot is for the scrap heap, and while Buffy may have put the fear of God into the Council, sooner or later they are going to notice that they don't have a Slayer. We need to come up with a-a plan, or..."
"I've got one." Angel had just come up from the basement, looking even grimmer than usual. "We're bringing her back."
"O... kay..." Xander's day just couldn't get any worse. First Willow going even missinger than before, and now a delusional vampire on top. "I know you've been asleep half the day, but the subject of this meeting is our inability to even find her. Which is sort of a necessary first step to bringing her back."
"Not Willow. Buffy." They all stared at him, their faces showing everything from confused anger (Xander) to desperate hope (Dawn).
"Angel... it's not like she went to Italy or something. She's dead."
"Yeah, well so am I and I'm not lying down anytime soon. Wolfram & Hart brought Darla back from the dead, and..."
"Darla?" Giles looked up. "Darla is back?"
"Long story. Point is, they brought her back as a human. If they can do it with her, they can do it with Buffy."
"And they'd do this because they really like you and want you to be happy?" Xander was on his feet, slowly moving towards Angel.
"No, they'll do it because once I wring enough lawyer necks, they'll have no choice. Even if I have to take out every suit in LA."
"Right. And then Buffy's first job upon returning would be having to slay you."
"If that's what it takes!"
"No. I'm not gonna let you do it. I miss her as much as anyone, but I don't want her back that way." Angel and Xander were face to face now, staring each other down.
"You'll want to get out of my way, boy."
"Um... guys?"
Xander didn't budge. "I'm not going anywhere. You want to be evil again, you have to go through me. You know I've been looking for an excuse to fit you in a dustbuster."
"GUYS? There's another way..." Everyone grew quiet and turned towards Jonathan. "I-I was looking through Willow's books... some of the more advanced stuff... and there is a ritual here for restoring life to someone killed by supernatural means."
Everyone listened as Jonathan explained; compared to having Angel decimate Southern California, anything was a better idea. "...and we need something called an urn of Osiris..."
"Oh, I've got one." Giles seemed distracted. "I've been, er, using it as a paperweight."
"I don't get it. " Dawn spoke up for the first time, not really daring to believe. "If Willow knew about this spell, why wouldn't she tell us?"
Jonathan shrugged. "Maybe she didn't know. Or maybe she was afraid to. This is an incredibly powerful ritual – I know I couldn't do it."
"You mean you won't. You're scared." Angel's eyes were two slits, and it was obvious he wasn't scrapping his plan for neck-wringing just yet.
"Look, magic is more than just being able to pronounce Latin, OK? It's something you're born with – like, I could learn everything there is to know about basketball and I'd still be three feet too short for the NBA. Most people have enough to cast one or two simple spells, I have a bit more, but this – " Jonathan thumped the book and actually tried to meet Angel's stare – "channelling an ancient God? This requires power. Lots of it. If I were to try it, I'd look like Alderaan post-Death Star before I got through the first line. This is pro league stuff. We need..."
"...we need Willow. Except you can't even find her..." And the yelling match was on again.
"I've got it!" Once again, all eyes turned in one direction. Anya. "How difficult is that spell? Like if we could find someone who has never used magic but was born with as much power as Willow, could they do it?"
"Maybe... with some tech support... but people that strong are one in ten million, at least. It would take forever to find one."
"No it wouldn't. We can find one just like that this very afternoon." Anya had her cheery on and obviously considered the problem solved. Let's give our heroes a few seconds before they realise what she's thinking about, shall we?
"Oh... you can NOT be serious. Anya, that's..." Dawn, slowly shaking her head.
"Ahn... honey... I thought we'd talked about drinking before scooby meetings." Xander, slightly embarrassed.
"Oh dear Lord. You'd really do it." Giles, just now realizing that they were actually discussing this.
Anya kept arguing her case. "Look, I know it's not an ideal solution, but Buffy's dead. Without her we'll soon be knee-deep in vampires anyway. If this doesn't work, worst case scenario, we're right back where we started."
"I can handle her." Angel was on board with the idea, and despite their various half-hearted objections, the others seemed to think it was the lesser of two evils. Except Giles, who sat quietly with his head in his hands. Xander walked over to him.
"Giles..."
"I-it's wrong. It's dangerous, not to mention against all laws of... everything I stand for. Dead is dead, and it's not up to us to... God help me..."
"Tell us not to do it and we won't." Giles looked at him, opened his mouth... and then very deliberately shut it and looked away. Xander looked at Anya and nodded.
"Fine then, it's settled. We're going to the factory. Little man, have you ever envoked Eyrishon, the Endless One?"
Ah, yes, this was more like it. This was the world she loved. Death, mayhem, the sweet smell of adrenaline-spiked blood... she threw herself into the fray, but barely got one step before one of the lousy white hats grabbed her and shoved her backwards. She felt something poke at her back, and
FLASH
"Oh, fuck, not again. Why can't you people leave me alone... hey, where did... I go?"
Xander leveled his crossbow at the redheaded vampire. "Hello, Willow."
Author's note: Seems like a good cliffhanger to end on for Christmas. Will update some time next week (in the meantime, feedback makes a great Xmas gift). Happy Festivus, everyone!