Chapter 28: Council of Reformations
Disclaimer: No ownership. I'm just perpetually on my knees before the altar of Jossverse. :P.
Rating: I think I'm boring everyone to death repeating the same thing each time. See the first fourteen chapters if you haven't, yet :)
Summary: This is the summary of everything that's happened so far (or at least everything I've thought of at the moment), and I apologize because it's rather bulky. Rest assured in the future I will only do the last couple of chapters.
AU from the ending of Season 4. Spike got wise and joined Buffy against Adam, and thus participated in the enjoining spell that has been tweaked slightly. Two mortal humans from our dimension, Cassandra and Daniel, under suspicious circumstances that look like the Powers that Be are playing around again have been transported to Buffy's dimension, Cassandra with limited knowledge of what is to come. Dawn has arrived, forming a tight friendship with Cassandra, Daniel, and Spike, who has fought with Buffy against Dracula, Harmony, and others. There are also hints of a mystical residue left over from the enjoinment spell powerful enough for Spike to connect with Buffy individually as well as all together. The timeline has been skewed because of Cassandra and Daniel's appearance, which means that Faith awakes a year later than she should have with less confusion. Although the bodyswap takes place, she chooses to go to Angel willingly, parting on fairly good terms with Buffy. Spike helped save Buffy when he realized it wasn't Buffy coming on to him, but Riley didn't, and slept with her. Big verbal fight between Riley, Buffy, and Spike, ending with Buffy storming out, Riley attempting (and then giving up) following her, and Spike who has become rather confused as of late as to his feelings about her following her and looking after her. Not is all emotional angst, however, as there are glimpses of a new Big Bad arising…
A/N (A million, million thanks to Dieu Anonyme, kim, skeleton-in-the-closet, and Firestar! All of your reviews were so lovely… Thank-you for not denying me the pleasure of coming back to review-alerts, all of you:D. Heh, I know I've been portraying Spike as rather fluffy as of late (laughs evilly) but yes, he is being cute. :P. Dieu Anonyme, don't worry. Practice makes perfect with the menacing threats. :P. I'm really glad you're enjoying this, skeleton-in-the-closet… blush not sure if I really am worthy of the praise, though. And yeah… I enjoyed writing that scene, Firestar. I'll try to incorporate your idea of the summary… come to think of it, that's an awfully good idea. Done!
Thanks for all of the wonderful reviews, people. . They make a poor writer happy. :D
Now onto our regularly scheduled chapter. (Phew, took some time, didn't it: ) ) Enjoy!)
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"Guys!" Dawn rushed to them, tangible relief in her eyes. "I was worried. I mean, alone. In the dark. With just. Two of you… You know? Um… yeah. All with the worriedness… I'm glad you're okay!"
She searched their faces, but when Cassandra only gave a pathetic, hiccuping laugh, she knew that the building worry since consciousness had been justified.
"What happened?"
The bell rung.
Daniel gave a strained smile. "Dammit, why can't it be like in Harry Potter where they get to discuss all their secret plans out in the open, when important teachers are walking past, and always manage to finish it before class…"
"Miss. Summers?" His eyes slid around to all three of them. "Ah, and Miss. Evans and Mr. Smith. What could I expect?"
They stayed silent as the (current) principal overshadowed them sternly. "Now, you wouldn't be wanting to override your already less-than-stellar reputations, would you?"
Daniel stared, deliberately vacant-looking. "In English, please."
"Two hours after school, Smith," Mr. Gordon replied smoothly. "Now go to class."
Daniel bit his tongue on the retort as Cassandra elbowed him, and they kept moving to the plain blue lockers. As soon as Mr. Gordon moved out of sight, Daniel turned around.
"Hey, what was that for?"
"To stop you from getting yourself into further trouble," Cass's face was serious. "We need to talk about…"
The second bell rung, and Mr. Gordon popper his head suspiciously around the corner. Quickly, they retrieved their books and moved off to History.
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It was the sunlight spilling onto my pillow that woke me. I yawned and stretched as the breeze came in. Sunnydale. At least I could always count on the sun. And the good weather. And the cloudless skies. And the vampires. And the apocalypses. And the Hellmouth.
And as yesterday had reminded me, days of Cupid deliberately being a bastard and playing shoot-the-Buffy-with-painful-arrows-of-the-non-lovey-kind.
I mean, honestly. How could he? Not tell who I was, that was…
My head spun. I just couldn't think of that at the moment. I slid under the covers slightly. No lessons until eleven today, anyway. I could indulge myself in a bit of a sleep in, couldn't I?
So I tried to remember the meditation technique that Giles had been going over with me lately. Lying back, I let images flow into my mind without restraint. He'd babbled something about Freud and free association as he'd taught me, but seeing as I hadn't really listened then, I ignored that part.
The female vampire…
I resisted the urge to push that thought away, and instead cautiously followed it.
Me… Blood… Life…
It was hard letting this go on… I mean come on. Even I know I'm the Queen of Denial. I can't deny that away.
Beauty… shattered… hurt… wounds… let… acceptance… conclusions…hurt… confidence… hurt… not knowing…
Hurt…
Spike…
My eyes snapped open and I bolted upright. "What the…!" I exclaimed out loud. "Where did that come from?"
Too unsettled to do any more meditation, I pushed back the covers and got unsteadily out of bed. I looked at myself in the mirror as I passed it.
Yep, still the same old Buffy. With a few old tear stains and a head full of…
No. The old Buffy… the new Buffy… the me Buffy most certainly did not have a head full of a non-arch-nemesis Spike.
I looked at the mirror again and groaned. This was a losing battle. I grasped the comb and pulled it through my hair, mentally not thinking about him and thinking instead about the lectures today. Suddenly, thinking about what had happened with Riley seemed a whole lot easier than dealing with the confusing issue of a coat-offering, bleached-blonde vampire.
Before I could explore last night further, though, the phone rang.
I groaned until I recognized the number. Willow. A smile flitted through my heart. Old times and memories… Willow ringing me up every night and then coming over for hours of girl talks over Angel and Xander and Oz… I frowned as I realized that since Tara had come into our lives, we hadn't really had the chance to talk so much. The enjoinment spell had brought us closer again, but not as close as I'd have liked it to. I picked up the phone.
"Hey Willow."
"Hi Buffy," her bubbly voice floated across the line, slightly subdued. "How are you hanging?"
I grimaced and flopped down onto my bed. "Yeah, I guess I'm not too bad. I went out and had a little Buffy-slaying time, so that was fun."
"I hope you didn't get to sleep too late… you know the lecture today's important, right?" Willow laughed. "And I doubt she'll be happy if you sleep again in her class."
I chuckled dryly. "Well, actually, I got to sleep fairly early, considering. And that's one of my problems."
"One of your problems?" she echoed, and I could feel her confusion through the phone. I smiled as I got the perfect image of her face. "How does that work? You get good sleepies after horrible night… isn't that a good thing?"
"Yeah, it is," I sighed. "But you see, the reason I got to sleep early was because Spike showed up and offered to patrol for me so I could rest."
Silence. I could hear the phone crackling slightly as Willow moved around.
"You serious?"
"Yeah, I am. So do you see my problem?"
"Wow, that was really nice of him," she ignored my last question. "You know, he's been more helpful lately…"
"Yes! That's it!" I punched air. "That's my problem! Spike is being too helpful!"
Silence.
"You do know how ridiculous that sounded, don't you?" Willow asked.
"But it is, Will," I flopped backwards. "I know… I know we've had this talk before…" I winced slightly at the memory. "And it didn't really end with flowers and roses. But why's he helping?"
"Well, we can always do the enjoining spell again," Willow offered. "I've been wanting to try that again. "We'll be able to see."
"I guess…" I sighed. "But when did it get so complicated, Will? I mean, I got a little cold, and he offered me his duster! Hello, Spike here! He offered his precious leather duster without even thinking! I could tell. It was just weird."
"Okay," she said. "That is weird."
"I know… and I can't believe it. I mean, even the situation between me and Riley sounds simple compared to that," I sat up and started pacing around the room.
"About that…" Willow mentioned tentatively. "What are you going to do about Riley?"
I stopped, and then sat down again. And swallowed.
"I don't know."
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"When Queen Elizabeth realized that she only had a limited amount of choices available…"
Something's happening. Daniel wrote. He passed the note to Dawn, who opened it carefully without Mrs. Cuddon noticing.
What do you mean?
What Cass and I saw last night…
What did you see?
Daniel and Cassandra shared a look, and then Dawn silently slid the paper to her.
There was nothing, last night.
What?
As in there was nothing. No random demons. No bats. We didn't even see a stray vampire. There was nothing but…
Cass paused, and surreptitiously passed it to Daniel.
This… thing. We saw.
A ritual.
Of what?
That's what we need to find out.
Especially when…
They swallowed.
Mrs. Cuddon lifted the crumpled piece of paper and scanned it. When she was done, she raised and eyebrow, and hung it contemptuously in her hand.
"And what, may I ask, is the meaning of this?"
"Um…"
Cass thought quickly. "We're writing a fantasy book together," the words came out in a rush. "We were deciding on this part where…"
"That's quite enough, Cassandra," she stopped her, and then looked warningly at the three of them. They gulped. "If I catch you writing silly notes in my class again, I will give you a detention. Is that clear?"
"Yes Mrs. Cuddon," they chorused.
"Good."
Phew.
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"In any event," Quentin Travers continued. "There has been a disturbance. And with our Slayer gone rogue… well, I'm open to suggestions."
A young woman cleared her throat. "Shouldn't we alert the former Watcher? Giles? The Slayer may have broken away from our Council, but from what we've heard she's still fighting evil."
Another man spoke up. "I don't like that idea. It's like we're crawling back to her… she should be crawling back to us! She's the Slayer, we're the Council! She is our weapon to use!"
"Your arrogance is unbecoming," Elspeth replied coolly. "If you must remember, the Council…"
"I'm sure we don't need another history lesson," Fredrick snapped, his eyes flashing in barely concealed hatred.
"A pity, considering…"
"I don't know," another man mused. "She has been doing a good job…"
"She's a traitor!"
"Now, calm down, Fredrick…"
"Don't you remember? Taking up with Angelus and…"
"I thought you said we didn't need another history lesson," Elspeth said dryly.
"Why you…"
"Enough!" Travers barked out, silencing the entire table. His burning eyes swept over all of them. "I asked for your opinions, not for an all out brawl! Elspeth! Fredrick! Desist!"
The table of Watchers stirred. Since Quentin Travers had become Head Watcher, a different way of thinking had slowly overcome the Council. Less arrogant, more accepting. Many muttered that it was his daughter's influences… suitably out of his nephew's hearing. Some of the older members resisted strongly, others were happier. But they were all still slightly confused as to how to assess Slayer situations now, with neither the old view nor a full new view to rely on. Hence, they looked expectantly at Quentin Travers, their Head Watcher, and waited for him to continue speaking.
"In any event, what we do face is serious. The prophecies have foretold a year of trouble ahead. And near the Hellmouth, the energies have been increasing. It is about time."
"So what do we do?" Fedrick demanded. "Follow her fool proposal?"
"Actually," Quentin replied mildly. "I see nothing foolish in it. If anything, we might be able to gain her trust again."
"But what if the ex-Watcher doesn't listen?"
"I'm sure he will," Quentin shrugged. "It's part of his job."
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