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Chapter Four: SOS for a Slayer
Watcher's Council Sydney Branch HQ, The Infirmary, Forty Minutes Later
"Are you sure you're all right Mr. Harris?" the doctor asked as he looked in the one-eyed carpenter's direction for a moment before returning to his patient.
"Naw, I'm fine. It's a good kind of pain." Xander replied with all the humor he could muster upon seeing his oldest friend next to Buffy shackled to a bed not fifteen feet from him.
The doctor seemed to accept that response for the moment and turned back to the sweat-covered blonde who lay restrained on the bed in front of him, jerking this way and that.
According to the doctor the oldest living Slayer had enough sedatives in her to take down an elephant but despite that a grimace of pain could still be seen on her face. She no longer screamed in agony and that was something that he was eternally grateful for. To say that he was a mess emotionally would have been an understatement.
It had rendered him speechless when he had seen his friend collapse in agony onto the floor of the library and given that he was a chatterbox second only to Willow and that was saying something. Koji had tried frantically to talk to her, to find out what was wrong, but it soon became clear that the former defender of Sunnydale was lost inside a room of pain.
Once it had been established that basic First Aid wouldn't do a thing, Xander had stayed with Buffy while Koji ran to summon the doctor for this branch of the Council. The Doc had arrived about ten minutes ago and after much difficulty caused by the patient's inhuman strength they had gotten her to the infirmary. During the last ten minutes, though, the doctor's 'hmmms' were becoming increasingly frequent which unless he came from an alternate universe was not of the good.
"How is she, Doctor Gibson?" Koji asked, leaning on the doorframe of the infirmary.
"It's a little early for you to be asking for a diagnosis, Mr. Minamide." Dr. Gibson replied as he tried to get a good look in Buffy's eyes.
"I understand that but can you tell us anything at all?" Koji asked.
"Well I can't detect any signs of head trauma nor do there appear to be any other obvious signs of injury anywhere on her body." Gibson replied, "Given a Slayer's ability to recover from virtually any serious wound, though, the fact that I can't see any injuries doesn't mean much. Has she been out patrolling?"
"No. In fact she was rather pleased to discover that the Slayers stationed here in Australia were so on top of things." Koji replied, "She was really looking forward to being able to enjoy her vacation without any interruptions."
"Did she have any dizzy spells? Difficulty focusing?" Gibson asked.
"She has been getting rather tired lately." Koji replied, "The both of us just figured that she had just been overexerting herself with all the partying. It wasn't until last night when she could barely stay on her feet at the pub that we decided to take her to see a doctor."
"How long has this increasing fatigue been going on?" Gibson asked with significant interest.
"About two weeks I think? That was when she started to seem a bit off to me." Koji replied.
"And you didn't think it was a little off for a Slayer to be getting unusually tired?" Xander asked in a tone that implied that Koji should have looked into matters sooner.
"Her excuse for her fatigue seemed perfectly plausible given that she was often out all night." Koji responded a bit defensively, "I tried the first few nights to keep up with her but at the pace she had set for herself I was completely exhausted in a little over two hours. It was only in the last few days that she began turning in for the night at about the same time as I did. Besides Buffy isn't the sort of person to admit she's not feeling well until it becomes impossible to cover up the symptoms. I've been around her long enough to learn that much about her at least."
He had to admit that he was right that Buffy wouldn't have let on that she wasn't feeling well if she could help it. Her fear of hospitals was great even now after facing things that should have made Sunnydale General look like a bug by comparison.
"Did you frequent any places in particular? Follow any sort of pattern that someone might have taken notice of?" Gibson asked as he took a blood sample.
"No. If there was anything that could have been said about our trips around the city it would have been that there was no pattern to them." Koji said in an amused tone, "We only returned to 'The 3 Wise Monkees' pub last night because she thought Xander would like to see it."
"Then it is unlikely that someone could have been waiting for you in order to covertly administer a toxin or poison." Gibson said as he labelled the plastic tube that contained Buffy's blood, "Still I'll take this to the labs and screen it just in case. If I were a betting man I'd say that the root of the problem is magical in nature, not medical. I suggest you contact one of the local shamans trusted by the Council to examine her. He might have better luck finding out what is wrong with her than me."
With that the doctor left Xander and Koji to their own devices.
"I'll get on the phone to a representative." Koji said, "He should be able to pass along a message to the shaman we need."
"Don't bother." Xander said as he pulled out his cell phone and began to quickly dial a number, "If we're going to get magic help for Buffy then we're getting the best."
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London, England, Main HQ of the Watcher's Council Organization,
9:10p.m(local time)
"Willow! Phone for you! It's Xander!" yelled one of the baby Slayers currently assigned to the main office of the Council.
"I'll take it here!" she yelled back as she reached over to the phone sitting on a table next to the couch she was sitting on.
It was something of a surprise to be hearing from Xander so soon. He had left for Sydney to hook up with Buffy just yesterday so she didn't expect to be hearing about how cool the land down under was for at least another two days. That was about how long she figured he'd last before having to spend a day in his hotel room recovering from exhaustion and over indulging in the local cuisine.
She had wanted to go and join them herself but being the head Wiccan for the Council was hard work, especially now since she was in the middle of negotiating a treaty of sorts with a community of magic users that was almost completely isolated from the rest of the world. The gang had stumbled across it completely by accident during their search for newly awakened Slayers and matters were entering the final stages of completion as far as negotiations were concerned. Within the next week, if everything went according to plan, they would be on good terms with these people and allowed to enter their society without being cursed into the next decade.
Personally she would be thankful just to never have to be in the presence of that incompetent fool of a Minister who had been the one thing dragging the negotiations out for so long. He had argued almost every proposal made or agreed to even if it came from one of his own people and had only grudgingly came to accept the treaty as it stood now.
Fudge makes Travers look likeable! Willow thought as she pressed the button that would connect her to the line Xander was on.
"Hey Xander! How's Australia?" she asked with genuine interest and good cheer.
"Not good. Look Willow I need you to get Giles and get down here ASAP." Xander replied in a voice that not only told her to listen but that what he had to say was important.
"Why? What's wrong?" Willow asked but then it came to her, "Has something happened to Buffy?"
"She collapsed a-and Willow… it's bad. The doc had to slap some restraints on her." Xander replied as he tried to get the important facts out without letting his emotions overtake him, "He doesn't know what's wrong with her but figures it's probably magic or something. Willow… she's in pain."
Hearing her friend in such an emotional maelstrom and hearing that the other was seriously ill were two things that individually had the ability to shake her but to have them both hit at the same time was almost enough to make her brain shut down. Half her mind was on the verge of going into shock while the other half was busy trying to figure out what could have hurt Buffy so badly. The end result was a frozen Willow just staring off into space completely oblivious to everything else.
"Willow? You still there?" Xander asked from the phone with concern before cluing in somehow to what must have happened, "Willow, someone's hacked into your computer."
"Impossible! No way! I have that thing locked up tighter then Dawn's diary!" Willow exclaimed as she snapped out of her dazed state then current events came back to her, "We'll be there in a couple of minutes. Just sit tight!"
"A couple of minutes? Willow what're—" Xander started to ask but Willow was no longer paying attention to him as she got up and hung up on him.
Willow Rosenberg didn't even acknowledge that she had hung up on her bestest bud since pre-school. At that moment her mind was set on the mission at hand which was to gather the gang and all the materials she'd need to examine Buffy and then cure her.
So focused was she on this mission that she no longer saw the Slayers, Watchers or Wiccans in training as people but rather as obstacles to be navigated around. To the people who saw her she looked like a bomb set to go off if it was given even the smallest of bumps. Needless to say that was enough for them to clear a path and pass the word onto whomever they could not to get in the redheaded Wiccan's way. Ten minutes later, she had Dawn following her, along with Faith and ex-principal Wood, who were in town delivering a magical artifact they had 'liberated' from a demon clan in Cleveland.
Not even bothering to knock, she pushed open the doors to Giles' office with a telekinetic push that might have been just a skosh too hard since it left cracks in the walls. Giles stood up with a jolt from his chair behind his desk.
"What do you know?" Giles asked, not even bothering to say who he was asking about.
"According to Xander, Buffy is unconscious but in pain. The Council doctor there can't find a medical reason for her condition, which makes it a magical affliction." Willow replied as if reading a report or using a tape recorder to transcribe something, "Apparently the pain is so bad that they had to put her in restraints to keep her from hurting herself by accident."
"Give me a few moments to delegate some duties and I'll join you in the library to pick up some relevant volumes." Giles said as he reached for the phone.
Willow's impatience grew as more time went on, but eventually Giles and the others succeeded in quickly redistributing their responsibilities among those capable of handling them.
Once the group reached the library things moved more swiftly, because if there was one thing that the core group of the reformed Watcher's Council knew how to do was assemble the relevant research materials. Then using a reduction spell shrank the pile so that it could fit in two suitcases instead of the four that it would have taken had the books and scrolls been left at their original size. It was when they walked out of the library that Dawn seemed to clue into one detail that everyone else seemed to have overlooked.
"How exactly are we going to get to Sydney?" Dawn asked and she got her reply not in words but in a sight that spoke volumes about how upset Willow was right then.
Like some higher being was playing with its paint or photo manipulation program Willow's hair flowed from its usual red to snow white in a matter of seconds. A soft glow began to surround her and then expand to encompass them all making it seem as if they were all doing the glowy thing that the Elves of Lord of the Rings did. Then with a snap of vacuum being suddenly filled in with air they were gone leaving the entire building in a state of confusion and concern.
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Sydney, Australia, HQ for the Local Branch of the Watcher's Council, Infirmary
With a flash of light that left spots in his eyes, Xander saw that Willow and the gang had arrived, with Willow providing the means of transportation in her usual impressive fashion. Once his eyesight had cleared up he was a little startled to find all of the Scoobies that had survived Sunnydale in the room tucked into any space that was available. Unfortunately not every available space was at ground level, so both Wood and Faith wound up being placed on top of two filing cabinets.
"Nice of you guys to pop in and say hello." Xander said, unable to resist introducing some levity into the moment.
Most of the gang smiled at this remark but he could see that both Willow and Dawn had gone straight to Buffy, who was still tied down to the examination table as well as sedated. Not that that kept Buffy from thrashing about every so often thanks to the pain she was in.
It had been torture for him, sitting there waiting for the gang to arrive, and not being able to do a single thing to ease his friend's suffering. He couldn't risk giving her a sedative because a doctor he was not and he didn't know any magic so all he could do was sit and wait. However, with all of his friends from Sunnydale here now, he knew things would be okay. No matter what demon or problem they had faced back in the 'dale, they had never failed to come out on top and he knew they'd be able to cure Buffy in no time flat.
"Xander give me a sit rep." Willow said as she began to run glowing hands up and down the blonde Slayer's body.
Snapping to military form at the tone of Willow's voice as well as the term she had used, he began to relate all the information he knew connected to Buffy's condition.
Willowheard all of this, near as he could tell, without taking her eyes off of her friend and patient. However as time went on and everyone waited to hear what the Wiccan woman's examination spells had to tell her they became increasingly worried when Willow continued to stare at her suffering friend with focused eyes.
While only Giles and maybe Robin Wood had any clue as to how long a magical examination should take, it didn't take a genius to figure out that more time spent examining equaled big problem.
It was when Willow was suddenly repelled away from Buffy by some unseen force that they knew that they had a Giles style 'good lord' problem on their hands. It hadn't been a 'knocked through a wall' repulsion or even a 'slammed up against a wall' repulsion, but rather the kind that caused one to stumble backwards and almost get knocked on their butts.
"Willow you okay?" Xander asked, as he walked over to steady his friend who still looked a little unsteady on her feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine, but we got trouble with a capital T!" Willow replied with fear as she cautiously approached Buffy as though she expected to be repelled again.
"Why? What did you sense?" Giles asked with growing concern on his face.
"Well when I started scanning for arcane anomalies I focused on foreign contagions and curses that matched the symptoms Buffy was exhibiting." Willow replied as she reached the examination table without incident, "However there was considerable magical interference preventing me from getting a clear view of her sub-dermal aura so I had a real hard time seeing past it. When I finally decided to try and push the interference out of the way… well… let's just say it pushed back."
This of course got everyone else in the room worried since they knew that after the redhead's little adventure as 'Dark Willow' she was likely one of the most, if not the most, powerful magic users on the planet. If whatever that was blocking Willow's gaze had enough strength to knock her back it had to be formidable indeed.
"Were you able to learn anything about Buffy's condition?" Giles asked, hoping that the young woman had been able to at least catch a glimpse of what was wrong with the blonde Slayer.
"No, but now that I have a feel for what the interference can do I should be able to at least get a peek beyond it without getting knocked back again." Willow said as she placed both her hands, palms down, over Buffy's body and began to work her mojo once again.
It was clear from the concentration on her face that she was focusing a great deal in order to keep what happened before from happening again.
It was probably like trying to sneak past Snyder's office without getting caught. It only took the tiniest of sounds to alert the troll to someone in need of a detention. Even Buffy had tried to sneak around behind Snyder's back but her Slayer speed and agility only reduced the number of times she got caught. Hopefully Willow would be smart enough with her magic to slip past the interference that seemed to have a sharp dislike of intruders.
"Well that I didn't expect." Willow muttered to herself.
"What is it?" Dawn asked with concern from the foot of the examination table.
"I've managed to get past the bulk of the interference that was obscuring Buffy from my Sight but I've found something rather strange." Willow replied without breaking her concentration or ceasing her examination of the downed Slayer, "From what I can tell the Slayer part of her actually seems to be getting stronger."
"What? Stronger you say? How?" Giles asked in surprise and the others could tell that the Watcher had never before heard of such a thing.
"Well think of it like the colors on your TV. The Slayer essence is usually present and looks normal like images on television with the brightness and contrast settings just right so that everything looks normal." Willow replied trying to put what her magical senses were telling her into words, "When I look at the Slayer essence in Buffy right now its like someone fiddled with the brightness setting and is randomly increasing how bright it looks."
"Randomly you say?" Giles asked as he tried to apply what Willow was telling him to his knowledge of Slayers and magic in general.
"Yeah. One minute it increases just enough so I can tell the difference and the next it takes a big step forward." Willow replied before her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, "What the…? What's going on here?"
"What is it?" Dawn asked.
"What do you see?" Giles inquired.
"I ran a deeper scan to see if there was anything sneaky going on and boy did I find something." Willow replied as her gestures became quicker as well as sharper, "The only problem is it doesn't make any sense. From what I can tell the Slayer essence is doing something to Buffy's body, reforming it somehow. The process is very slow going but it's definitely happening."
Xander was floored by this announcement and from the looks on everyone else's faces they were equally shocked. Faith looked the most worried and given that she had her own personal slice of the Slayer essence inside of her she had good reason to be concerned. As one most of the group, sans Willow as she was still examining Buffy, looked to Giles as he was one of the few survivors of the 'Old Council' and as such would have some sort of explanation for this odd occurrence. Rupert though was busy cleaning his glasses furiously which everyone in the room took as a sign that he was extremely worried.
"So what's the sitch G-Man?" Xander asked with concern and an eagerness to have his surrogate father figure tell him there was nothing to worry about, "What's happening with Buffy?"
"W-well I can only speculate at this point without consulting my books." Giles replied trying to sound confident in his words, "However from what I can recall about the Slayer line this has never occurred before or if it has all evidence of its existence was destroyed. However from what Willow has described I can only presume that up until recently the Slayer essence was dormant or at least stable. Something must have happened to change it and induce this state of change. Xander, did Buffy or Mr. Minamide mention anything odd occurring since Faith was with them in Japan?"
"No, nothing. It's pretty much been vacation 24/7 from what both of them told me at the pub." Xander replied as he came up empty on 'odd occurrences'.
"Then we have to assume that whatever precipitated this change in the essence of the Slayer within Buffy it happened during her mission in Japan." Giles said, "Nothing else fits the timeline of events."
"Hold up there G. I was there too and you don't see me needing to be strapped down." Faith said as she made a very good point.
"True but you did not journey through the Bone Eater's Well with Buffy to the Warring States era or have prolonged contact with several different varieties of youkai." Giles said pointing out the flaw in the dark Slayer's reasoning, "Also, no offence to you Faith, Buffy has had a rather extraordinary career as a Slayer so it is possible that some sort of cumulative effect from her adventures left Buffy extra susceptible to something in the past."
Xander could tell that Giles was waiting for someone else to argue with him and propose another theory to explain the blonde Slayer's current state. However no one did. Whether that was because they could not fault the Watcher's reasoning or simply didn't know enough about what had happened in Japan to construct a theory he didn't know. He had to admit that it made sense. From what Buffy had told him over the phone and when they were at the pub she hadn't really been involved in anything out of the ordinary since her worldwide tour began. Oh she'd been asked apparently at every stop to check in on the newly called Slayer as well as a few demon dens but nothing that she hadn't done before. This trip back to the past in Japan was the only thing that stuck out during her entire vacation.
"If there's something youkai in nature that's doing this it shouldn't be too hard to spot it. Youkai aren't exactly common these days you know." Willow said as the colour of the light generated by her hands changed, "So if I alter my scans to exclude all other forms of demonic energy except that generated by youkai I should be able to spot the source of the trouble easily."
The entire group, Xander included, waited with bated breath for Willow to finish her scan and find the source of their friend's condition.
"Giles? Did any of the ancient Watcher chronicles ever mention what kind of demon the essence of the Slayer was taken from?" Willow asked with elevated concern as her hands seemed to hover around torso area, "'cause from what I'm seeing the Slayer essence seems to be drawing in and absorbing what little youki is in the immediate vicinity."
"What!" Giles exclaimed with the rest of the people in the room having expressions on their faces implying the same sort of reaction to the news.
"It was hidden from my earlier scans by all the background noise of the various demonic energies native to Australia but once I tuned them out it was easy to see." Willow replied explaining the situation from her own perspective, "It looks like the Slayer essence is feeding on the youki its drawing in but if what I saw earlier is any indication it isn't getting anywhere near enough for what it's trying to do."
"So basically her inner Slayer is trying to do some remodelling but doesn't have the green for it." Faith said in her usual 'back to basics' way, "Isn't that a good thing? If the Slayer spirit finds out there isn't enough of the mojo it needs around it might decide to stop."
"I don't believe we'll have the luxury of that option." Giles said putting his glasses sombrely on his face, "Based on Willow's discovery I think it is safe to say that Buffy's pain is being caused by the Slayer essence's efforts to absorb more youki than is readily available. While it is possible that the Slayer essence might eventually stop seeking youki the pain would most assuredly prove fatal to Buffy. The body, even a Slayer's body, can only take so much pain before it simply shuts down."
"Well if there isn't enough youki here why don't we take her where there's tons of it." Xander suggested tentatively as he had a feeling his solution wouldn't make him many friends in this room.
"Xander! Didn't you hear Willow? It's trying to change her, transform her, into who knows what!" Dawn exclaimed, both surprised and angry that the founding male Scooby would suggest such a thing.
"I know, Dawn, but we have to face facts here. Giles has already said that starving the Slayer in Buffy will likely kill her. I'm betting the same thing would happen if we tried to force it to stop absorbing youki all together." Xander said trying to sound as reasonable and compassionate as possible, "That leaves us with either removing the Slayer spirit from Buffy or letting whatever is happening happen. Since we don't have demons lining up to do it for us I'm guessing that there is no way to make a Slayer normal again. We don't have a choice, not if we want to save Buffy."
Dawn looked a couple of baby steps away from breaking down into tears but she nodded in agreement just the same.
Looking about the room, Xander could see that the rest of the people that made up the core of the new Watcher's Council were in reluctant agreement.
"Very well. I'll go find Mr. Minamide and ask him to contact the Higurashi family. We may need to use the well if the youki in modern-day Japan proves inadequate." Giles said as he began to make his way to the door of the infirmary, "Willow, if you could call the local airport and have the Council's private jet fuelled and ready for take-off, we should be in the air inside of an hour."
"I'm on it." Willow said.
Xander hoped that they could get Buffy to Tokyo quickly enough.
Hold on Buffy! Hold on! Xander thought with determination as he looked at the pain-wracked face of his second female friend.