Chapter 12: Cookies

A/N: This chapter contains some offensive language about Romani people (from Angelus).

Warmth was spreading from the rose quartz through Buffy's hand and up her arm, distracting her from the ominous shape coming into focus.

"I can feel it," she told Giles.

"You're giving her the rock?" Angelus said. "Huh. I thought you loved your gypsy girl more than that."

Buffy ignored him. "Thanks for sharing this with me," she said to Giles. "I haven't thought of her as much as I should. There are so many now...that we've lost. But she meant so much to you, and I'm sorry."

Angelus was still droning on, but it was like she couldn't hear him.

"I loved Jenny," Giles said. "But, please, don't think of who she was to me. Think of who she was. She was brave and—and caring and tenacious. Jenny was trying to save Angel's soul when she died. She wouldn't want us to let it be destroyed."

Giles brought the stone to his lips and kissed it. Then he put it into Buffy's palm and closed her fingers around it.

Buffy knew what she had to do.

She stood and faced Angelus, still gripping the stone in her hand. "For all your trash-talking the First, you're seeming like a pretty weak imitation." She moved closer, slowly. "You get off on this, I know. Trying to break us. Preying on our shame. The darkness we all have inside. And you'll always be part of him. I accept that."

She moved quickly, before he could react. "But you're going to be stuck with a soul for good, asshole," she said as she looped the cord around his neck. It worked, as she knew it would, just like when Ghost Angel had put the ring on her finger in the crater.

And again, it was suddenly Angel's eyes she was looking into. He held something out toward her. A carved wooden box. Before she could ask him what it was, what was happening, he disappeared.

The necklace and the box both clattered to the floor.

Giles picked up the rose quartz and started to hand it back to her, but Buffy stopped him.

"I don't think I'll be needing that anymore," she said with a smile. "You should keep it." She gestured to the box. "We did win, right? I don't think that's big enough to be a year's supply of Turtle Wax."

"I've seen this," Giles said, his eyebrows lifting. He stooped down to pick it up. "These carvings...It's a Kalderash artifact. There was a rendering in Jenny's papers, in her research about Angel's curse."

"Any chance it's full of cookies? Oh, or chocolate? Because I could really use either of those."

Giles ran his finger over the intricate designs on the lid. "I believe it holds memories."

"Handy," Buffy said. "Sometimes they get too unwieldy for one little brain."

"Jenny thought it might contain the family secrets that had been lost to her over the years. That, if she could find the right one, she might discover how to restore Angel's soul."

"Wait. I just went to all this trouble and we still have to figure out how to permanently attach Angel's soul?"

"No, I don't think so. Completing the trials should be enough for that," Giles said distractedly, putting the box down and heading to one of the bookshelves, where he pulled out a volume. "Here it is." He showed her the image. "A sephony box. Used as a mystical container for memories."

He read a bit more, then looked up from the page. "Yes, it's as I recall. Jenny had hoped that it would contain family memories passed down through the generations, but that's not how it works. The sephony box can only hold memories for a short time before they deteriorate. And once the box is opened, that's it. There's no putting them back inside."

"So these memories. Are they stolen?"

"I don't believe so. More like copies. I think these boxes were generally used as a kind of photo album before photography was widespread. You could show your family or your mates where you had traveled. But one time only."

Buffy looked at the box more closely. It reminded her of an old wooden jewelry box that used to sit on her mother's dresser when she was a kid. "Should we open it?"

"I would recommend against it. There's no way to know what's inside. But given the circumstances, it seems likely it will contain memories related to Angel."

Ah. She thought of all the possible horrors that could lie inside. Giles was making the right call.

"Well, usually the interdimensional tilt-a-whirl would have been here and had me dizzy by now," she said. "I guess I need to get this box back to Borsa somehow to claim my prize."

Her heart swelled as she realized how close she was to being able to hold Angel in her arms without any fear. She hoped this rigmarole with the box was just some final formality. She had done everything Mirela asked, everything the fire required. Angel's soul should be safe.

"Buffy...I..."

"Hit me with it," she said, interrupting Giles' hemming and hawing. "I know you want to give me the Angel lecture. 'Be careful. Don't get hurt.'" She smiled. "How am I doing?"

"I trust you can make your own choices," he said carefully. "But you do know that, even if Angel's soul is safe, it may still be very difficult for you."

She nodded, her heart sinking back into place.

"So whatever time you do get, take care not to waste it," Giles said.

And she put his reserve to the test by embracing him. He hugged her back for a long moment before clearing his throat and adding a little, "Yes, well..."

She held on for a beat longer, but then made herself let go.

"In the spirit of not wasting time, what do you think is the fastest way to get back to Borsa? Is there a spell or something? One that would let me take the box with me?"

She put her hands on the well-worn wood and picked it up.

And then, of course, she was spinning again.

†††

When her boots hit the ground, Buffy knew it was different this time. It was real. She was no longer in the dumb-roll passage, or whatever it was called.

It was twilight now. So much had happened, and yet it was somehow still the same day. Just 24 hours ago, she and Angel had been heading out of the hotel in Bucharest, on the trail of a scaly yellow demon.

She looked ahead and saw smoke curling from the trees. That had to be where she was headed. The site of the Kalderash camp from a century ago. She was choked by the overpowering need to find Angel, to make sure he was safe, to hold onto him and never, never let go. She began to run.

It was awkward to run while clutching the box. It felt heavier and heavier as she went, even with her slayerness. Finally she slowed down to look at it again.

Whatever was inside, it was probably some cruel twist. This whole journey had been about testing her, testing her love for Angel, confronting her own doubts. He'd said it himself before she even began — she didn't know everything he'd done. She had seen glimpses of more in hell, had gotten a refresher course in Angelus' darkness in Giles' flat. What more did she have to see?

What else could be inside but the memory of the very worst thing he'd ever done?

It seemed so obvious now. She had finished all three trials. She'd "won." But magic was never that easy. Now they were going to show her something terrible to try to poison their future, their potential happiness.

If she had to look with Angel right there, it might work. She might not be able to control her reaction and he would see something in her face and she'd never convince him that she could get over it. God, maybe she wouldn't even want to.

She squashed that thought down and away. But now she had to know. She couldn't let her worst fears play out right in front of Angel. She would get it over with now and then decide what she wanted to do, have her mind made up before he looked at her with all that shining, loving trust in his face.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. There was no turning back now.

She opened the box.