A/N:

Would I be too much of a geek to site more sources? I needed a lot to work this out so here they are: wicca dot com, pantheon dot org, en dot wikipedia dot org, deliriumsrealms dot com, gatewaystobabylon dot com, Mesopotamia dot co dot uk

And away we go...

Chapter 16: The Goddess

BUFFY'S OFFICE – 9:00 PM

EMMA'S POV

"Hey Buffy," I'm standing in her doorway. I've been standing here for about a minute but she is completely engrossed in the papers on her desk.

She looks up at me and smiles, "Hey, whatcha up to Em?"

"I dunno, I didn't want to bother you when you're working but reading got kinda boring, Andrew threw me out of 'his' kitchen and I can't find everybody else." She waves me in and I sit down. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, shoot."

"Why do all the offices have couches? It seems rather out of the ordinary."

Buffy laughs a little then puts her elbows on the desk holding her face in her hands, "Well, it all started back when we were in Sunnydale, we would be so wrapped up in the researching and planning we wouldn't make it home, so we'd sleep at the library in Giles office. So it just seemed the thing to do when we fixed this place up to have couches everywhere, you know?"

"But you all live upstairs…" I'm confused.

She laughs, "Yes we do, and you have no idea how many times each of us has crashed in our office. It also makes it a lot less stuffy, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess. It does make it more comfortable when we're all together in one person's office."

"You see?" Buffy smiles again. "Now tell me what's really on your mind."

I stutter, "I… what do you… oh..."

"Go on, you can ask me anything," you know I think I believe her.

Swallowing hard I begin, "If Willow and Dawn find out I'm evil are you going to kill me?"

Buffy's head pops up from its perch on her hands, "Oh my God, Emma, you are not evil."

"But if they find out I am?"

She shakes her head at me, "We are not going to kill you honey, and you are not evil. Just last night Faith remembered something, come on I'll show you"

We both stand and she takes me over to Dawn an Andrew's office. She leads me right up to the white board that is now a permanent fixture in the middle of the room. Pointing to the latest addition she reads it to me "'The girl who could someday bring a great light to a great darkness,' does that sound like someone who's evil?"

I narrow my eyes first at the phrase on the board then at her, "No, I guess not. But what is this 'could' business? Does that mean that maybe I won't? Why won't I if I don't? And if I don't does that mean something happens to me to not do it? Ok, that was a lot of questions."

She has a sad smile now, "Questions I can't answer, Emma. I know it's hard but we are all going to have to wait to see what Will and Dawn find out. They are our best shot to get to the bottom of your little mystery, well, I guess it's all of ours now."

Tilting my head I furrow my brow, "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, nothing," she shakes her head then seeing my face, "Look, I really don't have any answers, the best I can do is give you more questions, and you don't want that do you?"

I hang my head, "I just want to know what's going on."

She comes to me and grasps my hands, "I know, and I just want to protect you, Emma. Please just give it a little more time."

"How long?" I know I'm being obstinate, but I can't help it.

"How about as soon as Faith and Kennedy get here?" Dawn says as she rushes in and immediately begins typing on her computer. "Where the hell are they anyway?"

Buffy answers as she watches Willow come in with an armload of books. "I saw them go out after Ken's last class; I guess it was 4:00."

I look back and forth from Buffy to Willow, "Do you think we should worry? It is after 9:00."

Willow speaks first, "I'm sure they're fine and may the Gods help the demon or vamp that gets in their way." She looks over to Buffy, "We think we found it."

MEANWHILE IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE

KENNEDY'S POV

"Hold up a sec." Fuck I'm slurring. But Faith holds up, then looking around sits on the steps. She's trying to light her cigarette but the flame and the butt aren't really meeting. "Aim for the middle one," I tell her in a very sage manner.

"Fuck me it worked!" She is very pleased with herself. "Think our girls are gonna be pissed that we're kinda pissed?" She doubles over laughing.

I sit down next to her, suddenly; I really need to know, "Faith?"

"Yup?" She wipes her eyes.

"All that stuff you told me about, that you did back in the beginning, giving us all options we might not have had?" I stop and grab her cigarette, taking a huge drag. Ok, it's been like since high school since I've had one. Whoa, major head rush, maybe not a good idea. "You did something with me and Will didn't you?"

She looks at me and narrows her eyes. I think I halfway sobered bother of us up with that one question. "Yeah."

"We broke up didn't we?" I'm staring at my shoes.

She turns me to face her, "How do you know that?"

Nodding I run my hands through my hair, "I had a dream once about us fighting and me moving away. But it was more real than a dream, like a memory, it seemed right. Not right that we fought, but like it really happened, you know?" I look up at her.

"You guys would have gotten back together on your own. I didn't change the outcome, how things would have ended up happening..."

"Yeah, I get that," I put my arm around her shoulders, "Look, don't tell me anymore. I don't want to know what could have happened to mess up my life with her. She's my girl, we're together and I love her with everything I got. That's all that counts, right?"

Faith looks at me dead serious then shakes her head, "You are an incredible woman my friend."

"I want to thank you Faith, for, well, whatever you did, thank you." I pull her into a hug.

"Am I interrupting a Hallmark moment?"

Pulling away from Faith I run up the steps and engulf Willow in my arms, "Hi baby!" I don't want to think about how much she heard.

She waves her hand over my mouth, "Jesus," she turns inside and yells, "Buffy, they're home," she pauses a beat to laugh, "drunk as skunks on the front porch."

I take a step back, "What? I'm not drunk as a skunk; just a little tipsy is all."

Buffy comes to the door as Faith makes her way up the steps. "Hey B," she says softly.

"I was starting to get worried about you," The blonde whispers as she wraps her arms around her waist, leaning her head against her chest.

Faith kisses her forehead, "Mmmm, no need to worry; I'm really good at coming back."

Buffy smiles at that, "Did you guys work it out?"

"Yeah, we talked a lot, didn't we Ken?"

Grinning, I look up at the two of them and then it really hits me: exactly how perfect they are together. How happy they both are now, it's like this is what both of them have been waiting for, for years, maybe forever. Maybe it just had to wait until now for it to work. Is this what Faith meant by everything turns out the way it's supposed to?

"Ken?" Willow turns me to look at her, "You ok?"

"What? Oh yeah, fine, just spacing." Then I call back to Faith, "Yeah we talked a lot, but then, I think we drank a lot too."

"Good that you talked; not to sure about the sloppy drunk thing." Buffy, laughing, pulls Faith inside, "Now come on it's freezing out here and you two need to get it together, Will and Dawn think they've cracked the case."

DAWN AND ANDREW'S OFFICE – 9:30 PM

WILLOW'S POV

Andrew comes in with two plates of leftovers from diner and puts them in front of Ken and Faith, "Eat up my little winos, you need something to help soak up that alcohol, we need you sober now."

Emma is right behind him carrying two 1 liter bottles of water, "Buffy said this will help too." She smiles at them as she places the bottles on the coffee table.

I shake my head at them, "Ok, while these two eat, I think we can safely move some of our findings around the board. She turns her back on us while she writes and erases. When she's done, the white board now looks like this:

PtB

Darkness craves light

Answers found in Qs of past

The girl who could some day bring a great light to a great darkness

Dark Goddess

Same Demon

Parents?

Coven

Emma Glamour

No Power

Meds

Under Radar

Parents?

"Ok, are you all still with me?" She looks around as everyone nods. "Great, now this is all going to get very heady so please interrupt at any time if Dawn or I get carried away. Let me start with some background: Ereshkigal is one of the oldest Goddesses of Mesopotamia. She was a sky Goddess, the daughter of Anu, the Skyfather, and Nammu, the Primeval Mother and Waters of the Sea. According to certain legends she was kidnapped by the dragon Kur, after the separation of Heaven and Earth to the Underworld where she was made queen. Once there she was the only one to pass judgment and give laws to those that died and became part of her kingdom."

"Her name means 'Lady of the Great Place', 'Lady of the Great Earth', or 'Lady of the Great Below'. And as Queen of the Underworld, she is," I look over to Faith, "not resembles but is the Crone aspect of the Goddess." Faith seems properly shocked. "Because of this and the knowledge gleaned from her twin sister Enki, the lord of Magic, Crafts and the Watery Deep, she represents the Knowing Within or Wise Judgment. So armed, she manages the destiny of those beyond the grave. Questions?" all heads shake no. "Dawn, you ready?"

Dawn starts opening the books on her desk and lays them out in case anyone wants to have a look, "Yeah, ok, so here's what we found. The demon is probably her vizier, like a scout, but more than that, like a lieutenant kinda. Now once a mercenary demon accepts a job, he will not stop until it's finished. So after a few calls to Ms. Hartness, we confirmed they found out about the demon and that's why they started drugging you Emma. Yes, they were scared of your power, but they were more afraid the Goddess's vizier would find you, so as we thought; the drugs effectively cloaked you without using magic, so no 'fingerprint' to trace like the Goddess did with Willow."

Buffy speaks up first, "So the demon is Earth-bound and won't rest until he brings Emma to Ereshkigal, well isn't that just great. Why does she need a vizier anyway? She possessed Emma's grandmother and then vamp at Willy's the other night."

The younger Summers nods her head, "That stumped Willow and me for while too. What we came up with leads up back to Wicca. The other night when the Goddess made contact with Faith it was exactly one phase of the moon, from Samhain, which means "end of summer" it's the third and final harvest, the dark winter half of the year commences on this Shabbat."

"November 1st – the Feast of the Dead – of course," Faith shakes her head, "But why a moon phase afterwards?"

"We think she came here on the 1st," Andrew explains. "I reviewed the security tapes and there was a vamp seen floating towards Emma's window. Now, we all know vamps don't float, but more bizarre? Once the laser tried to scan it, it burst into dust. Now I know it wasn't set to kill so we think it was the Goddess possessing the vamp, then disintegrating it when she was caught."

Emma paled, "She was watching me sleep through my window?"

"Kinda creepy," Kennedy adds.

Dawn nods, "Let's stay focused - now we do know that Samhain is one of two 'spirit-nights' where the magic interval becomes real, the laws of time and space can be temporarily suspended and the 'Thin Veil' between the worlds is lifted."

Willow cuts in, "You see according to cosmic regulations, the Gods of Heaven cannot descend to the Underworld, nor can chthonic deities ascend to the heavens. So twice a year, all can safely meet in between, here."

"Yeah, so we think the vamp thing is the key," Andrew continues. "We think she realized on Samhain that she can posses a vamp at will, not just that night, because it's a dead thing in the world of the living. So she can control one at anytime because she 'manages the destiny of those beyond the grave.' The theory is she realized this then contacted Faith to find out about Emma."

Kennedy gulps down some water then looks at me, "Let me get something straight here, you're saying the Goddess, the Coven and the PtB have been working all this time to ensure Emma does what exactly?"

"Well..." I start but Faith cuts me off.

"The way I see it, the Goddess wants two things: to be sure of Emma's safety and to contact her, possibly join her in some way. I mean why else try to kidnap her, right? The Coven, trying to stop the Goddess, hid and drugged Emma hoping to find out and counteract her plans." Faith stops and sighs, "And knowing the PtB, they've involved us probably since the day I started working for them to ensure we protect Emma and keep both the Coven and the Goddess honest."

Ken laughs, "After what you told me tonight, they probably have had this planned since you and Buffy were called."

Buffy gets up and grabs Faith's water then sits on the arm of the chair next to her. "So what does everyone want with Emma?"

I look into my oldest friend's eyes and tell her what Dawn, Andrew and I believe to be the answer: "We're not 100 certain, but we think it's to reveal the greatest mystery of all."

Buffy knits her brow, "The mystery of life?"

"No B," Faith answers before I can, "the mystery of death."

I nod slowly, "Exactly."

"Does that mean I'm going to die? Is she gonna kill me?" Emma inches closer to Faith and Buffy.

"No honey," I try to reassure her as Faith puts an arm around her, "We think it's more an imparting of knowledge thing. You know 'a great light to a great darkness' sort of like an enlightenment. We think there's a way to travel freely between the worlds and the Goddess needs you in order to do it."

"Hey, wait a minute, I read some of those translations; are we forgetting she killed her sister and hung her on a hook, who exactly said this Goddess is a benevolent being?" That's my baby, just cut to the chase, don't hold back really, especially with Emma sitting right here.

Dawn glares at Kennedy then flashes her eyes to Emma and back again, "No Ken, we're not forgetting that, but you have to remember, some lore is written to impart power upon the Gods so people will respect and fear them, not all that is written is true."

I try a different approach, "No one knows better than Dawn and I how dangerous it is to deal with a Goddess, well maybe Buffy." Ken bows her head, properly chastened. "Hey, I know you're just looking out for everybody and making sure we take everything into consideration, but we've been incredibly thorough."

She nods then looks up at me, "I just don't trust any of them. Although I do think Faith is right about the PtB: it makes complete sense that they brought us in to be the equalizer between the Coven and the Goddess."

"I think it's time we find out for sure," Faith rises. "I'm going to the PtB tomorrow. They might have more information and more importantly they might have a way for us to contact the Goddess. There is no way we're waiting for Beltane to address her on our terms."

Buffy looks at her quizzically, "Wait, what's Beltane?"

Shocked that Faith knew the holidays, I answer "It's the other 'spirit night', it's traditionally April 30th."

"That's my birthday." Emma says softy.

Faith puts her head in her hands then laughs, "Of course it is." She looks up at Buffy then me, "Mine too."

"Can this get any fucking weirder?" Kennedy leans back and shakes her head.

Buffy puts a hand on Faith's arm, "Whoa, babe. We are all going to think about everything we learned tonight and come up with a plan as to how to best handle this. No flying off the handle, no one gets hurt. At least that's what we aim for." She hangs her head and I know she's thinking about that kid, Vanessa. There's a look that's going back and forth between her and Faith and I'm really kinda thinking something more is going on here.

"Look B, I'm not saying I'm going to do anything drastic, just going to talk to them and find out if we can safely contact the Goddess, ok?"

Buffy narrows her eyes, knowing Faith doesn't always follow the plan, "Ok, but I'm going with you."

BUFFY'S ROOM 1:30 AM

FAITH'S POV

My hands move up her sides then into her hair. She's lying over me panting into my neck trying to catch her breath. It's been hours, but I just can't get enough. I roll us so she's on her back then I descend on her again. My tongue traces her mouth as I slide my leg between hers, we both gasp for air.

I swing my hair to the side as I kiss her cheek, ear, then slowly make my way down her neck. My leg shifts, her body rises into mine, I lift her shoulders and nibble on her collar bone before slowly coming back to her lips. Our hearts are once more pounding indistinguishably, wanting, needing.

"Faith..." she shutters then breaks away.

Mourning the loss of her lips, I try to capture them again.

"God, baby, I can't..." she stills my head in her hands. Staring into my eyes as her breathing begins to slow, "You've made my entire body into one raw nerve, I can't take anymore."

I search her eyes and know she's right. Sighing heavily I roll us back and drag her on top of me. "I can't get enough of you tonight." My hands trail up and down her back as I press her tightly against me.

She lays her head down on my chest as she hugs me, "I've noticed," I can feel her smile then she lifts her head up, "you ok?"

"I'm here with you so I'm more than ok," I pull her head back to my chest, holding her as close as I dare. "Now get some sleep, we have a big day tomorrow." And I have no idea how long this is going to last.