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Rupert Giles' Flat
Sunnydale California
Late Evening
Giles' POV
I hope he is not late, he thought as he waited for one of his sources to arrive. If what I have heard is true then he's had quite the trying time this past couple of years.
News between himself and his friend was difficult to come by, given the laws that insisted on the secrecy of the community of magic users, but there were ways. Based on what he'd received the last couple of years it'd sounded like his friend's world was getting decidedly grim and dangerous, with the last message he'd received stating that communications would have to cease for a time. It had only been a little over two months ago that he'd gotten a message saying that the proverbial storm had passed and that it was safe to resume their usual exchanges. They hadn't discussed much since then but when Xander dropped the current crisis in his lap, he knew there were only a few people he could trust to lend a hand.
Filius Flitwick was at the top of that list and that bloody bastard in Atlanta was at the bottom.
As much as he hated John and blamed him for a great many things, the man's skills could not be denied nor his ability to control certain arcane forces. Still, he would wait until the last possible moment before contacting him and the entire time the phone rang he'd be dreading what the git would ask as payment for his services.
Someone knocked on his door. There he is, he thought, walking over and opening the door to admit his friend.
He was somewhat surprised to find that, along with one Filius Flitwick, there were three women with him, their clothes marking them as being members of the same community.
"Good to see you again, Rupert!" Filius declared, opening his arms for a hug.
"Likewise, old friend," he said, bending down to one knee to facilitate the hug. "I have to admit that I did not expect to see you so soon or with company."
"One of the perks of being involved in the final battle with You-know-who is that the international customs agents are less inclined to give you trouble," Filius said as the hug ended. "As for these three, I figured that they'd be useful in helping you with your dilemma and also get some hands on experience with how things are atop a Hellmouth."
Looking at the three, he evaluated them as politely as he could.
The first was a thin woman in her mid-thirties, a shawl draped over her shoulders, wearing glasses with lenses so thick they made her eyes look quite a bit bigger than they really were. The look of random distraction had him wondering if she was entirely mentally stable but reassured himself that Filius would not bring someone with him whose mind was too addled to be of any help.
Next came an attractive Asian girl who looked to be roughly the same age as Buffy and the others, with long dark hair and a freckled nose. From what he could tell her affinity for sorcery allowed her to sense the energies of the Hellmouth much better than a local resident and what she felt was making her somewhat uncomfortable. He could understand that since he too had felt off during his first few weeks in Sunnydale but eventually his body got used to it.
The fact that he'd placed wards on his flat to repel the energies moderately gave him a small sanctuary where he needn't constantly be resisting the corrupting influence of the Hellmouth.
The final unexpected arrival was another teenager with a long mane of brown hair and brown eyes that reminded him all too much of Willow's. They held within them a thirst for knowledge that bordered on an addiction and implied the potential for academic greatness if properly guided. He could just picture what would happen when this girl met Willow. Between the two of them the research portion of the problem solving would be done in half the time he'd originally estimated, with the adults present only needing to double check their work to ensure it was sound.
"Allow me to introduce my colleagues," Filius said, gesturing first to the older woman. "Professor Sybill Trelawney, teacher of Divination at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I thought she might be able to use her skills at divination to gain insight into the ring you mentioned or at the very least provide you with some clues concerning what might be coming your way next."
This piqued his interest somewhat since, even among the Watcher's Council, the name Trelawney was famous in the field of divination. More specifically it was the name Cassandra Trelawney that was known throughout the supernatural community as a great witch and Seer possessing the fabled Inner Eye. According to everything he'd heard about her, the woman's prophecies had a nearly perfect record when it came to coming true, with the only supposed failures being entirely open to interpretation. Some would say they failed since the events didn't occur precisely as the woman had predicted while others insist that the prophecies had indeed come to pass, with any discrepancies being the result of actions taken AFTER the prophecy was spoken aloud.
"Next is a student in Ravenclaw House, Cho Chang," Filius said, indicating the Asian girl who grinned and bowed a bit. "One of my better students in the area of charms and an excellent student in our Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Though still in her final year, I thought it might be educational for her to come along and a fresh perspective could prove insightful."
High praise from his old friend and he had to admit that he too had considered taking Willow somewhere for an educational field trip. Not to any place where they'd get into trouble but perhaps someplace to broaden the horizons of the budding genius and show her just how far she still had to go before attempt the more advanced forms of magic. At the moment the young woman had only been exposed to the books they utilized in research and the times he was required to employ sorcery in order to vanquish the threat of the week. While he had imparted some wisdom to her along the way, as well as some facts, he was all too often too busy to give regular classes on the subject.
"Lastly but certainly not the least is Hermione Granger of Gryffindor House," Filius said turning to look at the last of his travelling companions. "A prodigy in many fields and I dare say she has so much potential it is all but impossible to list what she could do if she puts her mind to it."
Oddly enough instead of blushing at the praise as Willow sometimes would, Miss Granger seemed to take the words as confirmation of that which she already knew. However instead of making her look arrogant and self-centered he felt as though she was simply claiming credit where credit was due. If she was every bit as intelligent as Filius was implying, then his confidence would receive yet another boost and hopefully they would be able to act quickly enough to prevent some of his more terrible predictions from coming to pass.
"Now while your message did contain most of the pertinent facts, I think it would be best to start our efforts with a more detailed accounting of what happened," Filius said, making his way over to one of the chairs in the living room. "Even the smallest detail could prove vital in the end."
Nodding in agreement he began to recount everything that Xander had told him of his night patrolling, how uneventful it'd been for the most part, and how he'd noticed something off about Mister Isaac's antique shop.
"Does this Mister Isaac have any connection to the wizarding community or the supernatural in general?" Filius asked, bringing up the first inquiry to come to mind.
"Not that I am aware of. When I was chosen to be the field Watcher attached to the Slayer, I was provided with a file on Sunnydale as well as any persons of interest that resided in the area," he replied even as a little irritation entered his voice. "Though, given what we have all been through since then, I have to question how reliable the sources of information were. There was certainly no mention of a Hellmouth being here, or the Aurelius clan of vampires."
"Hmmmm… where is this Mister Isaac now?" Filius asked, sounding like he would like to speak with the antique seller.
"Still in the hospital recovering from his injuries," he replied, making a mental note to accompany the Charms professor on his trip.
He continued with the detailed briefing of Xander's adventure right up to the point where the demons mentioned what they were attempting to find out the location of.
"Not much information to go on," Miss Chang said, sounding somewhat disappointed. "There are a number of artifacts with the word 'light' in their name. Even limiting ourselves to holy artifacts in the form of rings will still leave us with quite a list to go through."
"Not necessarily. If Oliver Dragneel's book 'Organizations of Evil and How to Identify Them' is accurate, then most of the items they're credited with targeting are at least three centuries old," Hermione said, sounding like her mind was running a mile a second. "If we add to that items that possess magic that is not obviously perceivable, we should be able to narrow down the possibilities even further. Most holy relics emit a perceivable aura that even the most mundane of practitioners can pick up on. If this ring didn't exhibit anything odd until forced, it's possible that certain conditions are required to access its power or perhaps it has simply lost quite a bit of its strength since it was originally created."
Good lord! Filius was not exaggerating with this one, he thought as his own mind began to pursue the avenues of research the brilliant young lady had proposed.
When he and the others had begun their research to learn the name of the ring and its history, they had pretty much been just combing through every book he had with little to narrow things down. However what Miss Granger had proposed was so obvious he was severely tempted to smack himself in the forehead for overlooking such logical routes.
Continuing with the debriefing he explained how Xander managed to kill three of the four demons and, as a result, had received the ring as a reward from Mister Isaac. When he got to the young man's description of the jewel in the ring lighting up and hearing an ominous gasp of revival, a look crossed over the faces of the four that immediately had him concerned.
"Professor Flitwick… do you think it could be a Horcrux?" Miss Chang asked, sounding disturbed by the possibility.
"Unlikely, my dear. If the ring were a Horcrux then the Order of the Black Dagger would not be bothering with it," Filius replied, shaking his head in denial.
"If I might ask… what precisely is a Horcrux?" he asked, never having heard the term before.
"Essentially, Rupert, the term 'Horcrux' refers to an object within which a person has concealed part of their soul. They commit an act that chips off a piece of the soul and then they hide it inside an object outside of their body," Filius replied, sounding like it was a dark matter indeed. "The act in question is of course murder, since it is universally considered one of the most evil acts capable of being committed by sapient beings, if not THE most evil act. This act metaphysically damages the soul of the murderer and, with the help of a spell, they can tear the damaged area off of their soul and place it inside an object. The primary benefit of this is that, even if their main body and main soul were to be destroyed, the murderer would not die because a piece of their soul would be tied to the world of the living."
Hearing this he was reminded of the various foul spells and rituals that had been conceived of and performed, not by demons but rather by human beings questing for power, wealth or immortality. It was the dark side of the human soul, the part that any decent person fought against, and ever did it prove that not all evils came from demonkind. He often wondered how the war between the light and the dark might have evolved if humanity as a whole resisted their darker impulses and fought to rid the planet of demonkind.
He'd wager that there would be a great many fewer demonic organizations and cabals staining the Earth at the moment.
"Well, in any case, after the ring reacted to being on Xander's finger, Mister Isaac revealed that a woman had left it in his keeping for a young man matching a specific set of traits. If any lad came in matching these traits, Mister Isaac was instructed to arrange for the lad to try it on and if it didn't react to take it back in preparation for the next prospect," he explained, moving things away from the rather dark topic. "The term 'destined owner' was used, leading me to wonder if this is not just the first step in some unknown plan."
"How interesting!" Professor Trelawney said, sounding quite intrigued. "Such a statement implies that the woman experienced some manner of glimpse into the future. To entrust a holy relic to someone who might very well have been a stranger to her… she must have been very confident in what her Inner Eye showed her."
"And you said in your message that when your charge attempted to remove the ring it produced a blue flame to protect itself?" Filius asked, sounding like he was gaining a solid grasp of things.
"Yes. The flame only lasted for as long as Buffy's fingers were touching it and vanished immediately afterwards."
"Has anyone other than the wearer tried to remove it since?" Miss Granger asked in such a way that he knew she was drawing up a series of tests for after school tomorrow.
"No. The damage the blue flames did to Buffy's hand was quite severe and, without her recuperative abilities, we saw no point in anyone else being harmed," he replied, resolute in his intent to keep any meaningless damage from being done to anyone.
"Perhaps a potion applied to the hands would offer some protection and, if not, the Episkey spell should be able to handle any burns," Miss Granger said, making him think that stopping by the local magic shop might be in order to refill his supply of potion ingredients might be in order before school tomorrow. "After all, we need to determine if the magic that empowers the Slayer is what caused the reaction or if anyone attempting to remove the ring will cause the flames to appear."
"We will gather the necessary ingredients but I would rather not explore that option until all others have failed," Filius said with a bit of reluctance. "What I have heard reminds me of a number of charmed items belonging to nobility of one sort or another in order to prevent the theft of precious heirlooms. That or simple grave robbing. This would also be in keeping with the 'destined owner' comment since such heirlooms are often used as proof of one's lineage when no other records exist."
Now there was a possibility he had not really considered.
Of course the thought had occurred to him but he'd dismissed it in favor of this simply being the latest in a long list of arcane accidents that tended to occur where Xander was concerned. In the time since he'd first met the lad, there had been quite a few unlikely incidents that befell the boy that had him considering words like 'karma' and 'curse'. After all, while the Hellmouth was indeed a veritable hotbed of paranormal phenomena and demonic species, he found it difficult to believe that one teenager could stumble into trouble so often without there being something more to it.
Bad luck only covered so much.
"Well, in any case it is probably best to settle in since I would wager that you all will need some time to adjust to the time difference," he said after looking at the clock hanging on the wall. "There is a guest room on the second floor with two singles and, if you will give me a few moments, the couch folds out into a bed as well."
"Quite right. Floo lag is not to be underestimated and if we are to be at our best to aid your young friend," Filius said with an agreeable smile before a more serious thought occurred to him. "Have they been informed of our…'community'?"
"Not really. I have informed them that there is a group with laws pertaining to the dissemination of knowledge about them but nothing more than that," he replied, knowing the importance of this question. "They are familiar with the supernatural and the demonic as well as the varieties of magic not controlled by your community, though."
"Good. So long as we phrase things properly and refrain from doing anything unmistakably linked to the Wizarding World, then the Magical Congress should have nothing to complain about," Filius said, comforted by the fact that there wouldn't be any political complications.
One can hope, he thought, remembering his own encounters with America's counterpart to the Ministry of Magic.
They tended to be less polite than the Ministry and not quite as charming when they crossed off the alternatives to 'helping' them.
Sunnydale High School
The Next Day, Morning
Buffy's POV
Ouch, she thought as she experimented with her hand to see how much the burn still hurt. Not quite done yet.
It'd been three days since Xander's new ring accidentally burned her and, while the blackness was mostly gone, it still hurt whenever she did something that stretched that area of skin. She could tell that her Slayer healing was speeding up but it'd still be a while before everything would be back to a perfectly pink pigmentation of skin. Her mom had freaked a bit when she'd seen the bandages when she'd gotten home that night but, after some explaining as well as a warning to be more careful around magical things, everything was A-okay.
She'd gotten a few stares at school but that was nothing new since she was basically a social pariah thanks to Cordelia and Snyder.
Now, though, it was all about Giles' friends figuring out what they could about the stupid ring so they could get it off Xander's finger and ship it off to the Pope or something. They hadn't shown up yet and all she'd been able to get outta Giles was that they were British, so she'd made a mental note to ease up on her Californiase to make talking easier on them. Hopefully they'd be able to help because she didn't like the stuff her mind was coming up with as far as what'd happen when the knife guys came back. She was good and, with Faith backing her up, they'd be able to handle quite a bit but it'd only taken her an hour of thought, as well as remembering Kendra, to know how bad things could go. They had no fortress to go to, no magic spells to keep demons out of their homes and, unless the hermit lifestyle was for them, they occasionally walked about town.
They were more vulnerable than she'd ever be comfortable really thinking about and that stupid ring being around wasn't making things any easier.
Picking up footsteps with her Slayer hearing, she looked towards the doors of the library, waiting for them to open and grant her a first look at the people who might be able to help Xander. They parted half a minute later and the quartet that entered was an even mix of ordinary and weird. The first through was so small she almost thought that someone's kid had trotted into library, but once the details were taken into account the truth became clear. The little man was either a midget or some mini-demon that wasn't setting off her Slayer senses. Giles has told her that there were some demons that weren't dangerous to humans, so she figured Shorty had to be one of them.
The second to enter was an Asian girl who looked to be only a few years older than her and pretty enough that, dressed in the latest fashions in California, she'd be a shoe in to join the Cordettes. Glancing at Xander, she could tell that the girl got his seal of approval as well just by his eyes alone and mentally entertained the notion that the guy thought he might have a chance with someone not born and raised in Sunnydale. It was an interesting enough thought and, if the Asian girl turned out to be a better class of person than Cordelia, she might even encourage him to see how far he could get. It was a mild concern that since the girl was connected to the supernatural there was the possibility of danger but it looked more like she was a student of some kind.
Surely nothing bad could happen dating some bookworm's apprentice.
The next one to enter was a brunette with somewhat fuzzy hair done up in a ponytail but it was her eyes that were the noticed the most. They shone with an intelligence she'd seen in Willow whenever the redhead had managed to find a topic that caught her interest, enough to forget sleeping. It became too easy to imagine how completely nerdy things would get if Willow and this girl dove into a research project. She'd always felt like one of the big things that separated Willow from the rest of the students at Sunnydale High was the fact that there were so few people capable of talking to the redhead as an equal.
If this bushy brunette could manage it then Willow might just have found a pen pal of sorts.
The last to enter gave her flashbacks to Miss French because the lenses made her eyes look ten times bigger than they really were. Curly light brown hair dropped down past the woman's shoulders by a bit and the shawl on her shoulders made her thing of her grandmother. Like the bug her eyes implied her to be, the woman kept shifting her gaze, sometimes by only a little while other times a lot, only rarely settling on the Scooby gang for a couple of minutes. Did she have that attention deficit problem she'd heard her mother talk about once?
In any case she hoped that these people could help Xander out of the mess he'd gotten himself into.
"I trust you all slept well?" Giles asked once the doors finished swinging.
"As well as one could hope for given the time differential between London and California," the mini-demon replied with a friendly smile. "I hope Sybill didn't keep you up. She tends to get a little… nervous whenever she visits new places."
"Not noticeably so. As you can imagine the local demons do not plan their activities with their enemy's sleeping schedule in mind," Giles said, understating how the nasties could and often did disrupt a girl's beauty rest.
"Yes. Quite so," the mini-demon said, sounding like he had experience with this. "Now I presume this is the young man my colleagues are here to see?"
"Yeah. I'm seriously hoping you can get this thing off, 'cause I don't think I can handle having a target on my back." Xander replied, stepping forward.
"Well, we will do the best that we can, young man," the mini-demon said before gesturing to Xander's right hand. "Now let's see what we're working with."
Raising the right hand, she once again got a clear look at the black and gold ring that'd painfully burned her. Once the hand steadied the mini-demon and the two girls took out what to her eyes looked like two really thin and not quite pointy enough stakes. However, when the trio began flicking them and using nonsense words, all the while sending out streaks of light that hit the ring with impressive accuracy, she knew they weren't stakes. It was a bit of surprise for the Scoobies present but not enough of one to get Xander to jerk his hand out of the way.
"Well, this is certainly curious," Mini-Demon said with the 'fascinating' tone Giles usually used when he geeked out over some dusty old scroll. "The metals the ring is composed of are not found on either the mundane periodic table or even the mystical periodic table."
"How can that be possible?" Giles asked, sounding shocked. "All artifacts, regardless of their mystical affinity, are created using materials found in this reality…unless…"
"Unless they were made by someone or something not limited to the materials of our own world." Miss Fuzzy Brunette said before firing off a few more bolts of light at the ring, "I'm not seeing any signs of lingering ether on the ring. Whenever it was forged it must have been a long time ago. Possibly centuries."
"Ether?" Willow asked with her usual curiosity.
"The energy that exists between realms." Mini-Demon explained before adding a few bolts of magic of his own. "Whenever something travels from one realm to another it is exposed, for however brief a period of time, to the energy that exists in between. As is the case with many forms of energy, ether leaves a residue of sorts on anything that it comes into contact with. Non-living materials tend to hold the echo of the energy the longest whereas organic matter tends to reassert its normal state much faster."
"So is it normal for something to have this ether gunk on it for centuries?" Xander asked, sounding a bit uncertain.
"It normally depends on the degree of exposure to the ether. When beings travel between realms, they are normally exposed to the ether for only a second or so," Mini-demon replied, pausing in his magic using to think. "For this ring to have retained as much ether residue on it as our spells have revealed, its duration of contact must have been decidedly longer."
"Longer as it…?" Xander asked, looking for something a little more precise.
"Millenia, in all likelihood," Mini-Demon replied, making an educated guess.
"And it just happened to pop out into some lady's hand who just happened to fix it so that it'd wind up on Xander's finger," she said, both feeling as well as sounding skeptical. "Isn't that a little out there?"
"Not necessarily. Often when practitioners of magic wish to hide something where no one else can find it, they place it in the ether," Mini-Demon replied, making it sound perfectly reasonable. "Since the ether is near infinite in size, unless one knows precisely where they placed an item the odds of finding it are immensely against you. However if the person who put it in the ether dies before the item can be retrieved then its location becomes lost to time. Some witches and warlocks have dedicated quite a bit of time to searching the ether for lost treasures and items, much like a fisherman casts a net to catch fish."
"However even using the various methods available it is often a fruitless venture since it is more random chance that decides what a magic user retrieves from the ether," Miss Brunette Bushy said, sounding like quite the confident student. "Sometimes they gain treasure but other times they gain nothing but trash. Many give up when their losses begin to dramatically exceed their gains."
"So the lady that gave the ring to Isaac did some inter-dimensional fishing, lucked out with the ring and then decided to give it to some old guy hoping he'd give it to the right stranger?" she asked, not being able to make sense of it. "Why spend a lot of time and money to get something good just to give it up?"
"If this lady is indeed a Seer, young lady, then it is possible she foresaw herself bestowing the ring upon the owner of the antique store and then the ring being passed unto young Xander," Sible replied, sounding like those corny fortune tellers she'd seen in the movies. "The Inner Eye sometimes shows us glimpses of the future to prevent an event, while other times it reveals to us what MUST happen if darkness is to be kept at bay."
"Too bad visions don't come with a decoder ring," she said with bitterness she could not keep inside.
"It is often both a blessing and a curse to be able to perceive the future but even what fragments we can comprehend can prove vitally important." Sible said with a measure of understanding. "It is unfortunate that, due to the fluid nature of the future, the glimpses we are given are not easily perceivable."
"Isn't the whole point of predicting the future that it's DEFINITELY going to happen?" Xander asked, sounding a little confused. "If it's not carved in stone then what's the point in seeing the future in the first place?"
"That's just it, young man. At the moment the Seer receives a glimpse of the future that IS what's going to happen so long as circumstances do not change," the mini-demon said, helping out Sible with the explaining. "However the moment the Seer or anyone who learns what they saw begins to act upon what they know, the future is open to change. Whether or not it does change is entirely dependent on what the nature of the event is and what resources are available to affect the desired changes. If those who know of what is to come do not have the means or the intellect to change what they saw, then it will transpire as they saw it. However if the opposite turns out to be the case, then the foreseen event can be altered or nullified outright."
I actually understood that, she thought with the good kind of surprise.
As she thought on some of the past Slayer dreams she'd experienced and applied what she'd just been told, she had to admit that maybe these were the reasons why they'd had so much trouble thwarting them. Part of the reason was how little they'd learned from the dream about what was going to happen, especially since most of the clips of the future she got came true only days later if not sooner. The other was the fact that they'd been limited in their means to Giles Watcher stuff and what they could get from the local magic store. If Giles' ex-bosses had given him more stuff and her Slayerness had given her a clearer look into the future, they might've been able to do better.
"O-kay…what now?" Xander asked, digesting the information he'd just been given.
"Now we allow Sybill to touch the ring to see if it will trigger a precognitive vision," Filius replied, looking to the lady with inch thick lenses in her glasses. "If it does not there are other methods we can use to learn more."
"Such as?" Giles asked, speaking up for the first time in a while.
"A Tarot card reading for one. Sybill is quite good at that," Mini-demon replied, looking at the ex-Watcher. "With some preparations we can attempt to induce another discharge of that blue fire you mentioned so we can get a better look at it."
"You want to intentionally have someone burn their hand?!" she asked with a little incredulity.
"While it is a possibility, we were able to mix a fire protection potion before coming over," Miss Brunette Bushy said, not sounding worried in the least. "It should provide ample protection against the fire and if not, a simple episkey healing spell should set things right easily enough."
Could've used that three days ago, she thought with a bit of a grumble, glancing down at her bandaged hand.
It sort of made her wonder why the Council didn't assign one of these people to their Slayers. Not that she didn't appreciate everything Giles had done for her since they'd first met but fire protection potions and healing magic definitely would've made things easier. It definitely would've saved her a few chats with her mother when she'd come up a little banged up.
"Well, let us get down to it, shall we?" Sible asked rhetorically after stepping up to Xander. "Please hold out your right hand and no matter what happens please try to keep it steady."
"Okay. Sure. Youbetcha," Xander said, sounding like he was about as sure about what was going to happen next as she was.
With a gentle hand the woman with the weird glasses reached out with her hand and placed it atop the ring, making direct contact with it. For a few seconds nothing happened, or at least nothing dramatic enough to make her think the woman was seeing the future. She considered the possibility that perhaps the whole 'seeing the future' thing was happening inside Sible's head and that the rest of them would have to wait until it was over before the woman said anything. When two full minutes went by without anything she was about to ask if this was going to take long when with the suddenness of a lightning bolt the woman went rigid like she'd just grabbed an exposed power cable. It only got worse when the woman started gasping for air like nothing was getting into her lungs and she started to move forward to separate the woman from Xander, only to be stopped by the mini-demon.
"Don't worry. Sybill always reacts this way when she experiences a vision and comes out of it with a parched throat and nothing worse," Mini-demon said reassuringly even as the gasping seemed to become more controlled and the full body rigidity loosened a little bit.
"What came to an End, shall Begin Again. When the Children of Thundara and the Ever-Living One clash in the Skies of Gaea, This Age shall End, and the Journey of the King of Light shall begin," Sible gasped but, unless her ears were playing tricks with her, it sounded like there were one or two additional voices coming out of the woman's mouth. "The King, the one that Sees, shall find his Trinity of Companions, In new Forms, yet Same Souls. Through Loss, the path to his Oracle and Healing will be clear. By his hand the Five Great Spirits shall be Awakened and from his choice the New Flame Lord shall Arise! Once the Thirteen Holy Weapons are his, the Spirits shall anoint him as the King of Light, the End of the Ever Living One of Evil will be nigh...and a new Age shall be bbboooorrrnnn!"
With that last word the woman broke into a series of hacking coughs that were perfectly understandable, considering how long she'd been gasping and speaking without stopping. As Sible did so, though, everyone else in the room was trying to make sense of the obvious prophecy the woman had just spit out and what it meant for all of them.
Xander got things off to a good start.
"King of what now!?" Xander asked, sounding like someone had just told him he'd be the next ruler of Mount Olympus after Zeus retired.
She wasn't much better off.
Xander's POV
"O-kay! This is crazy talk," he said, shaking his head in disbelief of what they'd all just heard. "I think she popped one too many brain cells."
"While I will admit that it is more profound than her previous prophecies, I do not believe it should be dismissed as a mistake born of too much strain on the mind," Mister Midget said, sounding like he was giving the spooky rantings some serious thought. "Sybill comes from an illustrious line of Seers and her prophecies have come to pass. Just because this one is decidedly grander than those that came before does not mean it's wrong."
"She's using the word 'king' with me in mind!" he exclaimed, not willing to let even on grain of ground in terms of credibility. "Do I look like I belong on a throne? With a CROWN!? If that's the case then Buffy's a goddess and Willow has the potential to out mojo MERLIN!"
"I will admit, Xander, that imagining you as a king takes suspension of disbelief to a whole new level, I too have heard of the Trelawney family," Giles said in calming tones. "Even if by some chance it is mistaken, the overtones of this prophecy are far too dire to simply ignore. We should at the very least attempt to discern its meaning and only after at least half of it fails to come to pass dismiss is as being in error."
He barely managed to grab hold of the instinctive impulse to once more reject the words of the crazy lady but he succeeded because a big enough part of him had to agree with the logic. With so much talk about 'Ages coming to an end' and 'new Ages beginning', the prophecy was talking about some serious world changing potential. Seeing as how he happened to live on the world and didn't want to roll the dice to see how things would turn out if he let things change, understanding how to stop it was critical.
It didn't mean he had to LIKE it.
"Fine. Let's get with the cryptic to plain English translating," he grumbled, trying to compromise with the ex-Watcher.
"Very well. Let us look at the first line: What came to an End, shall Begin Again," Giles said, taking the lead in making sense of the prophecy. "This would imply that something that happened or existed in the past is going to be restarted in the future. Given the references to a 'King of Light', it is fair to assume that the first line refers to a kingdom or a royal line that was overthrown in the past but may one day soon rise up to rule once more."
"Don't see how that's gonna happen," he said, calling upon his limited knowledge of the world. "Everyone knows that kings and queens don't have any real power in their countries these days. They're celebrities, rich people, and not much else."
"That is true for the most part. There are some countries in the world still ruled by monarchies that hold true governing power over their lands however most are quite small in size," Giles said with a nod of agreement. "If a fallen royal line or country is destined to rise again, it could only occur somewhere where the current ruling government is beginning to show signs of failing weakness."
"Another possibility would be if some manner of natural catastrophe were to occur that would eliminate the holders of a country's key offices decimating any line of succession that might exist," British Willow said, sounding quite sure of her words. "The prophecy on the whole does not imply, much less outright state, that there will be a civil war, or even a legal struggle for power. It could mean that the change will occur so swiftly that neither possibility could transpire."
"A natural disaster like an earthquake would certainly accomplish a swift elimination of the established power structure," Giles said, looking quite thoughtful. "Fortunately such natural phenomena are not impossible to foresee since there are often tremors prior to a major earthquake and noticeable meteorological phenomena before a hurricane or typhoon. If we can gather and examine information of this nature, perhaps we can predict where a natural disaster might occur and determine if sufficient government officials belonging to one country are there at the moment."
"That'll take a lot of time, Giles," Willow pointed out, sounding a little discouraged at the task being proposed. "None of us are seismologists or meteorologists. We'd need to contact the foremost experts in both fields and have them do most of the research."
"Sadly with my ties to the Council severed I have precious few sources of information to call upon to deal with supernatural threats. I have none that are experienced in matters of earthquakes or dangerous weather phenomena," Giles said, sounding discouraged himself at how little he could contribute.
"Perhaps you do not but I do, old friend," Mister Midget reassured with a smile on his face. "Being a professor I have had the opportunity to correspond with a great many people in a variety of fields. While I confess that none of them are experts in matters of science, that particular discipline is not the only way to predict natural disasters. Once our meeting here is concluded I will send word to those best able to help us to begin looking into the matter."
"I only hope they treat this with the gravity I believe it deserves." Giles said, sounding a little more positive.
"I believe they will," Mister Midget said, not doubting his words in the least.
"Very well, that deals with the first line, so let us move onto the second," Giles said before taking a moment to recall the words. "' When the Children of Thundara and the Ever-Living One clash in the Skies of Gaea, This Age shall End, and the Journey of the King of Light shall begin'. This would imply that two factions will engage in battle and may play a crucial role in the old royal line rising again. Given the titles used, it would seem as though we may be dealing with a religious or cultural organization coming into conflict with a deity or a demon with a particularly long lifespan."
"It also kinda sounds like all the fighting will happen up in the air," he said, deciding to put more effort into things, if only to prove he's not who the prophecy is talking about. "Can't be too many religions or demons capable of flying either on their own or in fighter jets."
"True, and most demons with wings have learned to inhabit remote areas as to not draw attention to themselves," Giles said, agreeing with a nod. "However the title 'the Ever-living One' implies that it will be a single demon rather than a multitude of them. A single demon, capable of flight using wings or sorcery, as well as engaging at least two if not more opponents in battle, will certainly narrow our search. Also to have any title at all amongst demonkind implies significant power, or at least a singular accomplishment granting them their infamy."
"We may need to send someone to speak with Drogyn at the Deeper Well," Mister Midget said, sounding as though an unpleasant possibility had presented itself to his mind. "A demon of such power would not be shy about using it. If we do not recognize its title then that can only mean one of two things: either this being enters periods of dormancy, one of which will soon come to an end, or something might well be on the verge of rising from the Deeper Well."
"What is the Deeper Well?" Willow asked, her mind catching on the term.
"The Deeper Well is a burial ground of sorts, a large underground tunnel, really, that stretches from one side of the planet to another. In the Well are thousands of sarcophagi containing the corpses or essences of demons, both ancient as well as of great power," Giles replied, sounding like this was a place no one wanted to talk about, much less visit. "The demons were placed there in order to prevent their resurrection since many of them were of breeds that did not live or die in the manner we are accustomed to. Some of those interred in the Deeper Well could very well be Old Ones the likes of which ruled the world prior to the coming of the mortal races."
"Definitely a good idea to check up on that place," he said, his fear at what might come out of such a place giving him a visible case of the heebie-jeebies.
"As for the 'Children of Thundara', I cannot recall any such group existing either known to the world or just the supernatural community. This could mean that they are a relatively new group who have yet to distinguish themselves to those in power, or that they are a supremely secretive organization," British Willow said, sounding a bit frustrated at her lack of knowledge. "Still, one would think that any religious order or group capable of waging a world changing war would be known to the major governments and monitored. We should check with both our government back home and their American counterparts to see if any group they know of matches the one mentioned in the prophecy."
"Yes, that should prove informative," Giles said, sounding confident in that approach. "Regardless of the nature of the magic these 'Children of Thundara' use, there are some ingredients that continue to pop up whenever magic of a certain class is employed. If we can draw up a short list of spells or rituals that are practical for use in live combat, we can begin to ask around to the various suppliers if any suspicious purchases have been made. We could even find out if there is any one region of the world where most of them can be found since that would point to a possible location for the group's base of operations."
"Quite right! If you cannot find the Children, simply find what they will need and use that to locate them." Mister Midget said, sounding quite pleased at G-Man's train of thought. "With luck we will be able to find them before their fated battle with the Ever-Living-One and ask them what they know. Hopefully we will be able to reduce the expected level of destruction to something more tolerable for all concerned."
"Then there is the third line: 'The King, the one that Sees, shall find his Trinity of Companions, In new Forms, yet Same Souls,'" Miss Hot'n'Smart said, laying out the next bit of nonsense that SO didn't involve him. "This would imply that the King of Light had three companions in the past, that they died, possibly along with him, and that they have since been reincarnated into new forms. Whether this means something simple as new faces, something moderate as different genders or something great like a new species, there's no way of knowing."
"Reincarnation is a tricky bit of business. In almost all cases the soul of the deceased drinks from the river Lethe in the afterlife to erase their memories so that when they are reborn they are unburdened by the past life," Mister Midget said, bringing up a hand to scratch his chin. "It does not always work perfectly and there are various spells and potions that can be used to retrieve past life memories, but in this case the reborn companions will likely not remember their King. At most they might retain one defining characteristic from their past life and incorporate it into whoever or whatever they are now. If in a past life someone was unflinchingly loyal, then in their current life they might display the same degree of loyalty. If they were thrill seekers in a past life then they might be engaged in activities that can induce a similar sensation."
"So we draw up a list of things royal bodyguards do or how they act and see if anyone stands out." Buffy said, trying to get more involved in the discussion.
"Despite what you might have seen on television or in the movies, Buffy, royal bodyguards are not so unique with their traits that a reincarnated one will be easy to locate," Giles said with a bit of disappointment in his former charge. "Loyalty, devotion, bravery, cunning and many other attributes make up the soul of someone who has chosen to guard another's life even at the cost of their own. There are certainly millions of people the world over who possess these traits."
"True, but if Xander is the King of Light in the prophecy and he does go on a journey that results in him finding them, then I believe it's safe to assume that they are somewhere in North America," British Willow said, sounding like she was devising other ways to narrow down the search area. "After all, it would require someone with significant wealth and connections to travel the entire world and, if time is a factor, then limiting the search to North America is more feasible."
"Soooo… needle meet haystack?" he asked, figuring that this all meant that he'd probably wind up stumbling over these people by accident.
"Most likely," British Willow replied with a nod. "The only way I can see the odds improving would be to inspire them to find you. There has been past precedent wherein a soul, exposed to an artifact it had a strong connection to in its previous life, has remembered who or what it used to be if only in part. If we can find such an artifact and spread its image across enough venues in combination with Sunnydale's location they might come to us."
"Or you might just wind up getting anyone who just wants the artifact. People can be greedy, ya know?" he pointed out, easily imagining thieves, antique collectors or evil mojo users coming to Sunnydale then.
"Hmmm… you might be right. Still, if we do what we can to ensure the trigger is something common or valuable only to someone who has the desired past life, then screening out the extra arrivals should be simple enough." British Willow said, not sounding all that worried.
Kinda like how California Willow did when she was sure that she had the right solution.
Like that stupid soul curse she was determined to cast prior to last summer.
Looks like I'll have to start making another contingency plan, he thought with a mental groan. The big brains always trip over the little details.
"The next line in the prophecy is: 'Through Loss, the path to his Oracle and Healing will be clear. By his hands and the Five Great Spirits shall be Awakened.'" Willow said, taking her turn in directing the conversation. "Not liking the sound of this one."
"I will admit it's a bit more ominous that I would prefer but it is not necessarily dire," G-Man said, taking a moment to clean his glasses. "There are many forms 'loss' can take, from the safest sort to the most tragic. It could simply mean that Xander will lose a competition of some sort."
"But it could also mean that one of us will…" Willow said, looking more worried by the second.
"Don't worry, Willow! This whole prophecy is garbage, so nothing'll happen. You'll see," he said, ninety-nine percent sure of what he was saying.
The one percent wouldn't go away no matter how hard he tried because of his past experience with things not going his way.
"As for the term 'Oracle', this would seem to be as much an official title as it is an indication of the being's abilities. According to conventional definitions an Oracle is a priest or priestess acting as a medium through whom advice or prophecy was sought from the gods," Giles said, sounding to be half deep in thought. "Assuming that the Oracle in the prophecy is of the Light as well, we can dismiss those belonging to the demonic races or cults that favor death and destruction."
"That will certainly decrease the number we will have to research, Mister Giles, but I believe that you are overlooking a crucial fact," Missus Bug-Eyes said ominously. "What if the gods that send this Oracle their visions of the future are the same Five Great Spirits mentioned in the prophecy? While it is possible that they are known deities who fell into a slumber when the number of worshippers became too few, there is also the possibility that the Oracle answers to gods completely unknown to us."
"While I will admit that that is a possibility, Professor Trelawney, I do not believe it likely," G-man said, not confident in that possibility. "Gods draw power from their places of power and the worship of mortals. This is a fact. There is even evidence to suggest that the forms they take are greatly influenced by the mortals who worship them. The likelihood of there being even one deity of Earth changing power that has managed to remain unknown is mind bogglingly unlikely. Five such deities? It would take the aid of the Almighty Creator for so many to retain such power and yet remain completely unknown to the world."
"And if five gods of Earth-changing power HAVE been getting the help of THE God in staying under the radar?" he asked, figuring there'd be no harm in asking.
"Well…then…" Giles replied as his British composure began to falter somewhat. "…Then they must either be so terribly evil that it took the power of the Almighty himself to seal them away or they were kept hidden for a very important maneuver against the forces of darkness."
For the sake of his sanity and his nerves, he'd just be thinking that God kept the five deities hidden to help the good guys rather than to keep the bad guys from getting some powerful help.
"From the way that the prophecy is worded, it sounds as though the Oracle will guide Xander to these Five Great Spirits as well as perhaps grant him greater access to his past life memories." British Willow pointed out, proving to be quite insightful.
"Assuming, though, that the Oracle is only a Seer rather than a powerful user of magic that would imply that the way to where each of these slumbering gods is reachable by mortals," Mister Midget said, looking thoughtful. "Albeit with numerous traps, puzzles and mazes between the entrance and them in order to ensure that only the desired people or the extremely gifted reach them. The Oracle's purpose is likely to provide the King with clues to properly navigate the defenses protecting the chamber within which the deity slumbers."
"Will all those defenses just kick out the ones who choose wrong or will they…you know…die?" Willow asked, bringing up the fate of most people who tried to make it through to protected chambers.
At least in popular forms of fiction that's what happened to them.
"Hard to say but I fear it would be the latter," Giles replied, showing that he didn't like the possibility either. "Allowing one who has tried to make it past the defenses to leave alive would only allow knowledge of the defenses to be passed on, thus increasing the likelihood of the next one to attempt entry succeeding. If it is indeed the intent of the Almighty to keep these Five Great Spirits secret until this King of Light finds them, then a place with a reputation of no one leaving would be best."
The more he was hearing about what this supposed 'King of Light' was supposed to do, the more he wanted no part of it. Earth-changing battles, unknown gods and a battle big enough that some maps might need to be redrawn in the aftermath did not a good time make in his opinion. Sure, he knew that all this talking was simply meant to understand the prophecy and that there was every chance it could be proven to be a big pile of crap but there was also the possibility that it wouldn't be crap. There was a chance that this prophecy was as real as those things got and that the future was going to get a lot more chaotic.
More chaotic and completely centered on him either to save the day or fail, likely to the death of everybody.
No pressure, right?
"What does it mean when it says Xander'll choose a new Flame Lord?" Willow asked, sounding a confused as to how such a thing could happen.
"Well, as you have heard, the perceptions of a God's worshipper can greatly affect what form they will take. It is possible that the previous Flame Lord is the weakest of the five deities and has therefore lost its previous form," Giles replied, sounding quite logical. "It is possible that, upon coming into contact with the 'King of Light', the monarch's perceptions of what a Flame Lord should look like will act as a catalyst of sorts, thus in a manner of speaking will act as the 'choice'."
"And the thirteen holy weapons?" Buffy asked, predictably being attracted to the shiny yet deadly.
"Most likely referring to weapons imbued with a strong holy attribute either due to the materials used in their construction or infused into them by their creator," British Willow replied, sounding like she had some knowledge on the matter. "It is also possible that the prophecy might simply refer to weapons often mentioned in legend as being holy due to the reputations of the people who wielded them or the cause they were used in. However, given the tone set by the prophecy so far, I think it's safe to assume that the weapons have at least one impressive magical attribute."
"So we're talking about stuff like Excalibur?" he asked even though he figured that that had to be it.
"Exactly," British Willow replied with a strong nod, indicating she shared his opinion.
Him. Wielding the same sword Excalibur that was once owned by King Arthur of Camelot.
A part of him was almost tempted to see this whole mess as just one big joke at his expense but for the life of him he couldn't think of a single intelligent being that'd be willing to go through all this, whether they hated him or just wanted a few good laughs. The more the people in the room expanded upon the words of the prophecy, the more ammunition he was given to confirm that it couldn't possibly be referring to him or was a complete lie to begin with. Even if the prophecy had been about Buffy or Willow, he would've had a bit of trouble believing that it'd come to pass. Buffy might be the Slayer and Willow the smartest girl he knew, but even they would be hopelessly out of their depth in dealing with something that had such far reaching ramifications. As a group they were barely managing to keep a lid on the darkness that lived in Sunnydale, despite some apocalypse averting to their credit.
Put anything more difficult and important on their plates, they'd try but they'd fail just the same.
"The fact that all thirteen need to be gathered before this King of Light can face the Ever-Living-One makes you think that either these weapons have weakened over time or the one they're meant to kill is just that strong," Miss Hot'n'Smart said, bringing the tension level back up. "In most tales all it takes to slay an evil being is one or two holy weapons. For a full thirteen to be required, it puts the Ever-Living-One on a level I don't think anyone's ever seen before."
"So I'm basically going to be fighting the Devil?" he asked since in his mind the only being evil on the level being proposed was the ruler of hell Satan himself.
"Don't be ridiculous!" British Willow exclaimed in a manner that made it clear she couldn't believe he'd spoke aloud such a stupid question. "Every record and mention of Lucifer makes it clear that none but the Almighty himself would be capable of killing the ruler of Hell. No, we're dealing with something or someone much weaker and that an empowered mortal would stand a decent enough chance at defeating."
"Well excuuussee ME, princess smarty pants!" he exclaimed, coping with the pressure he was under in the usual manner when an idea of his got shot down by someone who saw themselves as better than him, "But considering the crap we're combing through trying to figure out what the hell is going on, Satan's as good a possible big bad as anyone else! Assuming anything happens at all. In fact I don't know why I'm sticking around here listening to this! Listening to Harmony talking about the latest gossip making the rounds would be a better way to spend my time than this! I'm outta here!"
With that he shoved his way past Giles' Brit guests and left the library, intent on finding someplace that still made sense. He'd come back later and hopefully they'd all have a good laugh at each other for believing such a ridiculous, long winded rambling before moving onto actually getting the blasted ring off of his blasted finger!
Old man Isaac had better hope we don't see each other anytime soon or I'll punch him right on his ass!
Willow's POV
"Did… did I say something I shouldn't have?" the girl with the curly brunette hair asked, sounding like she hadn't seen Xander's outburst then departure coming.
"Gee! Ya think?" Buffy exclaimed in anger at the member of the group Giles had invited to Sunnydale to help.
As much as she wanted to join the blonde Slayer on the whole 'YOU IDIOT' bandwagon, the newcomers didn't know anything about the Scoobies, much less what topics were off limits. In Xander's case it was any less than constructive criticism or slights to his intelligence. While most of the time her best friend could just let the words roll off him or find a way to turn it right back at the person who'd spoken them, this was a unique set of circumstances. Taking in the entire prophecy from beginning to end… if Xander really was the one fated to become this King of Light, then that was an entire planet of pressure put upon her childhood friend.
For all the things the Scoobies had managed to accomplish since they'd been founded, this was as far above their usual job as President of the United States was above a common restaurant waiter.
Whenever they'd patrolled, whenever they worked together to overcome the latest threat, they never thought they were saving anything or anyone other than the town around them along with the people in it. They were just teenagers, after all, and she was pretty sure that if the Scoobies fully comprehended the scope of their actions and all the consequences of their actions, regardless of whether they won or lost, they'd be paralyzed by fear and indecision. On an instinctive level they'd all recognized this and suppressed the knowledge to the point where all that was left was what they, on some level, knew they could handle. Giles probably recognized this and therefore had done nothing to enlighten them about the grandness of the stage they were striding upon, save in moments where a certain degree of seriousness was required.
To be told more or less point blank by strangers that he was destined for a future greater and more crucial than anything else been too much for her best friend.
"Xander… no one's really had any expectations of him. Not of who he is or what he might do in the future," she said, doing her best to reveal the truth while also keeping any personal facts to herself. "I mean, I always thought that with some hard work he'd be able to get a great job but everyone else… they think he'll be lucky to get ANY job at all that isn't minimum wage."
She paused for a few minutes so that the newcomers could understand and get a feel for the sort of world Xander had been living in for most of his life.
"It's gotten easier for him since Buffy came. Helping her fight demons and vampires has him thinking that maybe there's more to who he is and what he's capable of than everyone else thinks," she said, feeling a little sorry that she and Buffy were considering limiting his slayage involvement, if only for a moment. "But it's been like baby steps for him, advancing forward little by little, at a pace he can handle. To have some prophecy come out of nowhere telling him he has to become a king of legend and basically save the world from a continent destroying evil is like going from lifting a weight your body can handle to having a mountain dropped on your head."
"I suppose it would be rather overwhelming to be suddenly confronted with a future like this," the bushy brunette said, sounding sincerely sorry about what she'd done. "However, as much as it would be nice to ease him into things, we have no idea when the events foretold will come to pass. It could be as soon as tomorrow for all we know."
"While I will not say it is impossible that the foretold events to happen tomorrow, I do not believe it likely, Miss Granger," Sybil said, sounding like she knew what she was talking about. "From the very first day that I first glimpsed the future with my Inner Eye there has always been enough time to prepare for the events I saw. Granted, sometimes I only just had enough time to prepare but it has never been so soon so as to leave me helpless."
"Even if we do have time to prepare, it is clear that Xander is the central point of this prophecy," Miss Granger said, sounding certain of her viewpoint. "What he does or does not do will have profound consequences with regards to the being called the 'Ever-Living-One' and the destruction done to the Earth."
"Prophecies are way creepy but they can't be too hard to take on," Buffy said, sounding like she was sure they could win without too much trouble. "Remember the prophecy that said the Master would kill me at the end of the first year? Obviously someone screwed up writing the thing down, 'cause I'm still here and VERY MUCH alive."
"What exactly was the wording of the prophecy?" Miss Granger asked, sounding intrigued by the news.
"I do not recall the precise wording but it was a prophecy written in the Pergamum Codex. It basically stated that Buffy would go and confront the Master of the Aurelius clan of vampires and die," Giles replied, taking his glasses off to clean them and cope with the uncomfortable topic. "However Xander refused to accept that Buffy would die and followed Angel down into the Master's lair. They found her dead, a combination of blood loss and drowning, but fortunately through the use of CPR they were able to revive her."
"Then technically it could be said that the prophecy was fulfilled as it was written," Miss Granger said, nodding in understanding. "After all, it didn't say that she would remain dead. Given this fact, it only reinforces the fact that genuine prophecies are not to be taken lightly. Even if there are ways to manipulate the events mentioned to your advantage to a certain degree, they key points cannot be altered. The Children of Thundara will clash with the Ever-Living-One and, judging by the wording, it will not be them that finally put an end to the threat but Xander. If he refuses to accept this fact, who knows how long the destruction will go on for before coming to an end."
"As grim a prediction as it is, I must concede that it must be Xander who will resolve the crisis," Giles said, sounding quite serious. "There have been many historical records of various people who attempted to reject their prophesied fates only to make matters worse and even a few wherein their rejection brought about the very end they sought to avoid. I suspect the most we will be able to do is handle the lesser problems that crop up, so as to allow Xander to focus the entirety of his attention on what he must do."
"Well, before all that, we need to get Xander out of the funk he's in," she said, pushing her chair back before getting up out of it. "I'll go talk with him."
"Perhaps I should be the one to talk with him," Miss Granger said, sounding somewhat remorseful over what she'd said earlier. "I was the one that misspoke before and caused him to storm off like he did."
"No. If you showed up he'd just get angry again," she said, shaking her head. "Even Cordy knows to avoid him after crossing the line with their war of words. At least with me he'll probably think about what I say."
"He holds a grudge?" Miss Granger asked, like she was trying to solve a riddle.
"Like you wouldn't believe!" she replied, remembering quite a few fellow students that had wronged Xander three years ago and her best friend STILL hadn't forgiven them.
Two of the three had even turned over a new leaf and had bettered themselves to the point where she was willing to give them a second chance.
Not Xander.
Cordy and the Cordettes would become real nuns of their own free will before that'd happen.
"Very well. The rest of us will follow up on our other leads in the meantime," Miss Granger said, rescinding her offer to speak with Xander.
Nodding she left the library before beginning to think on where he might've gone to fume. The school was mostly empty since it was the weekend, with only a handful of teachers and the janitor likely being in the building. However, since she didn't think that Xander would risk bumping into Snyder even by chance, he'd go to someplace out of the way that the troll would never go to. There was only one place she could think of on school property that fit the bill and it was oddly fitting since she knew of a few times in the past he'd gone to similar places when upset.
Navigating through the hallways, it didn't take her long to find the stairs that led up to the roof and, once she climbed them, she exited out onto the roof. From there it was easy as pie to find Xander where he was sitting just staring out at Sunnydale but not really 'seeing' anything. Walking up to him, she said nothing and instead just sat down next to him, looking in the same direction, letting him decide whether they talked or just took comfort in each other's company. Neither of them had the best home life, even if she was more optimistic about hers than Xander was. She'd met Tony and Jessica Harris precisely once and that was enough to convince her never to interact with them again unless she absolutely had to.
"It's impossible, Willow," Xander said calmly for the most part but with a light flavor of defeated certainty. "All…THAT…I can't do that."
THAT was one of the reasons why she didn't like Xander's parents.
Parents were supposed to be loving and nurturing when it came to their kids but neither of her best friend's parents could have either attribute attached to them by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, hers spent most of their time away at work but they called regularly and did their best to make it home for the big holidays. Tony and Jessica… the most kindness Xander could expect from either of them was to be ignored in favor of something else. As a result her friend lacked confidence in himself and what he was capable of despite her best efforts to change that. It hadn't been until he'd learned of Buffy being the Slayer and joining her fight that things started improving. She'd been hurt a little that it'd taken someone else to finally get Xander to start thinking that there could be more to his life but, so long as it helped him get better, she was content to let it pass her by.
"How do you know unless you try?" she asked calmly yet honestly. "Does anyone really know what they're capable of until they actually try to do something?"
"Because I'm a nobody. Kings are just princes that got the torch passed to them by their dads and even before that they probably had all the best teachers telling them what's what from the time they were kids," he replied, just letting the words flow out of his mouth without any real thought. "They actually had kingdoms ready and waiting for them! They didn't have to build one up from scratch!"
"You're right but all kingdoms, all royal bloodlines, had to start somewhere," she said, keeping herself calm in the hopes that some of it'd rub off on him. "Look back far enough in any royal family's past and I'll bet you'll find they started out as leaders of a small community that grew over time as more and more people started trusting in them to steer them in the right direction."
"Yeah? And who in their right mind would follow a California boy who won't even make it to university thanks to his shoestring budget?" he asked, pointing out his dire financial straits.
"I would. You might be reckless and a little stupid sometimes but your heart's almost always in the right place," she replied, trying to make him see the good parts of himself.
"'Almost always'?" he asked, picking up on that little condition.
"No one's perfect," she replied, not wanting to make things more difficult by pointing out his jealousy towards Angel or any other boyfriend of Buffy's.
"People'll probably expect me to be if I agree to do this," he said, once more sinking back into negative thoughts. "After all, kings that screw up tend to get kicked off their thrones during the rebellions."
"That's just Hollywood talking, Xander," she said, knowing that things like that could only come from TV or movies. "You'd have to do something pretty awful to get them to literally kick you off your throne or rebel. It's more likely they'll just call you on your mistakes and ask you to step down as king."
"And I'd have NO problem with that!" he said, sounding like he might even try to fix it so that he did get removed from his position like that sooner rather than later. "Let someone else deal with the paperwork of running a kingdom."
There he goes again, she thought with a sigh. Why can't he just have a little faith in himself?
She knew the answer to that almost immediately.
Tony Harris and Jessica Harris.
She didn't know much about either of them, aside from her one meeting with them, but for Xander to think so little of himself, to assume failure right from the beginning, probably not a day'd gone by since he'd been born that he hadn't been stepped on, literally or vocally. Normally this'd eventually get the attention of child services and Xander's frequent trips to the hospital would've definitely triggered a visit, but this was Sunnyhell. Here the cops were either corrupt or incompetent, the hospital staff just did their jobs without speaking up and the high school had its own obituary section. With all that it was no wonder that it's no wonder that no one ever intervened with the abuse Xander must've suffered and it explained his self-image.
Still, it HAD to change or else he really would grow up to be just like Tony.
Bitter and angry and hateful with booze being the only thing that mattered.
"And if you're really the only one capable of saving the world and being king?" she asked, trying to nudge him into seeing the other side of things. "What then?"
"Then God's got to be pretty desperate if I'm the one that got tapped for the job," he replied, still not all that happy with the idea.
"That mean you're just going to give up?" she asked, deciding to get a little more confrontational. "Throw in the towel? Walk up to this Ever-Living-One and just say 'you win'?"
"No… not give up… just give up command to someone better," he replied with a slight shake of his head. "Someone with the skills and the know how to win. I'll do my part, fight as best I can to help whoever it turns out to be, but I'll let them call the shots. We'll have a better chance of winning that way."
"Then maybe your job's to rally the troops and get things this real King of Light needs," she said, a plan being devised in her head. "If the Ever-Living-One's really as powerful as Giles is making him out to be then it's going to take one big ass army to take him down, or at least keep the minions busy. You helped found the Scoobies, right? Building an army can't be too much different than that."
"It is basically just convincing people to work together and get ready for whatever they gotta do, right?" he asked, to which she responded with a nod. "I guess if I get serious and think things through I could get at least SOME people to sign on. Might have to leave a few things out, though. Make them think stuff without actually promising anything."
"No. An army based on lies and schemes isn't going to last," she said sternly with a shake of her head. "Just be honest with them. Let them know what's what and find a way to make them believe there's hope waiting for them at the finish line. That beating the Ever-Living-One is a very real possibility. The rest'll take care of itself."
"You make it sound so easy," he said, looking at her with a grin. "Why is that?"
"Because the little girl mistakes knowledge for wisdom," teplied a cocky British voice from behind them. "Reality isn't so kind, dear girl. If someone like him won't step up to claim his destiny then you'd best just slit your own throats right here."
Both she and Xander got to their feet and turned to face the unknown, only to find something they didn't expect.
Standing on the other side of the rooftop was a man dressed in clothes that only had a passing resemblance to anything they knew.
Long black jacket with white and gray trim, matching trousers, red scarf and a gray/white mantle before topping it all off with a black fedora.
The thing that strayed the most from the norm was a black wing-like… thing on his left arm that made her wonder if it'd just been tacked on as an afterthought.
That it was all being worn by a middle-aged man with red hair, amber eyes and a few days' worth of growth on his face only added to the oddness. Truthfully the thing that had her on edge the most, aside from the whole 'slit your own throats' bit, was the look in the man's eyes. The patronizing civility mixed with the vicious cruelty in those two eyes made her fearful. Unlike the vampires and the demons, though, she could see that this wasn't the same combination of emotions but rather a variation that was unequivocally human in nature. She had read history books, she remembered the stories her grandma and grandpa had told her about the Nazi camps, but even those examples did little to prepare her for what lay within this man's eyes.
Then, like she'd done a few times before, she turned to Xander to see what his reaction was and ask what he thought they should do…
…Only to find such an expression of vengeance, rage, on his face that you'd think he was staring at the vampire that took Jesse away from them.
And she found herself, just a little bit and only for a moment, afraid of what her own best friend might do next.