Chapter 3 – Spell O' Clock
"So, we all set?" Buffy asked as she walked into the dining room guzzling down a bottle of water. The three hour workout was pretty draining for her, the potentials mostly passed out once they got home.
"Yup, just about," Willow assured her "I figure we'll set up out here since the potentials kinda overtook the living room."
"That's fine with me. Do I have time to take a shower quick before we get going?"
"Yeah, that should be fine,"
"Super, back in a flash" Buffy said as she trotted up the stairs.
Xander, Anya, & Andrew helped clear a space for the spell, moving the dining table against the far wall, making a large space for Willow to perform the spell with Buffy & Spike. "So, we gonna' need to set up some mirrors for this mirror, crystal ball trick?" Xander asked
"No, the mirrors should appear around us as the spell starts," Willow clarified "Sorta like trapping us in a fun house!" Willow was expecting at least a giggle out of that joke…
"I'd laugh but the word trap tends to scare me Wil."
"We won't be trapped, if we need to step out of the circle at any time we can, it would just break the spell. Since we'd be losing a catalyst." Xander and Andrew looked a little confused "The person we're focusing the spell on."
"Oh, got'ch'ya. You want me to go grab captain peroxide?"
"Sure, Thanks Xander."
When Xander open the door to the basement he heard a strange sound that scared him a little. Spike & Dawn were laughing, giggling even. Big bother mode kicked in and he stormed down the stairs, only to find the pair bickering and laughing at each other over a table with cards laid out on it. "I never knew kitten poker was that funny." He said as he announced his presence.
"Not poker, Rummy," Dawn clarified between giggles "And for like the first time in forever I am kicking Spike's ass!"
"Oi, you're only up two games pet, I'll beat you yet."
"It'll have to be later, it's spell'o'clock." Xander said as he gestured up the stairs, then turned to start up them.
"Already huh?" Spike said, honestly a little shocked, he looked up at the small window behind him and realize the sun was actually setting. The last couple hours flew by with Dawn being such a good distraction from his inner turmoil.
"Well then, I win." Dawn boasted.
"Not yet little bit, once the mojo is done I es'pect a rematch."
"Fine, if we don't find anything that is in need of immediate research, I'll be happy to kick your ass some more after the spell." Wild grin on her face she followed Xander up the stairs.
After a deep breath Spike threw on his coat and followed suit up the stairs to find a cleared space in the dining room with Anya, Andrew, & Xander assembling papers, and Dawn and Willow double checking all the magic components. Too late to back out now I s'pose. He thought to himself. "Where's Buffy at? She still out?" he asked the general audience.
"Well after the exhausting run she decided a shower would be best," Spike shot Andrew an annoyed look making him get right to the point, he hated the boy's stupid storyteller way of speaking. "I just heard the shower turn off, she should be down shortly."
"I think she was smart to shower, I wouldn't wanna be stuck in a sacred circle with how smelly she was." Anya felt the need to say. Spike couldn't help but smile, and chuckle a little at Anya's straightforwardness. Now Anya Spike liked, always got right to her point, never beat around the bush or wasted his time.
"She work the girls pretty hard then?" Spike asked, trying to fill the waiting silence.
"I would say so!" Andrew exasperated "They jogged to the UC Sunnydale campus, did sprint workouts on the track, did high jump and pole vaulting maneuvers, they leaped over hurdles, then they jogged all the way back here, and then finished they're 3 hour ordeal doing some yoga, or ti-chi, or maybe it was just stretching." After seeing everyone give him the same look Spike did a minute earlier he concluded with "Well I drove out with water bottles and I recorded the training requirements. I'm thirsty now." With that he popped into the kitchen.
"He's a breath of fresh air," Spike said "Thank god I don't breathe." Dawn and Anya couldn't help but giggle at the sentiment. As Andrew reentered the room, Spike heard a steady light thump on the stairs, and sure enough Buffy rounded the corner, wearing just some black yoga pants and a red tank top, still wet hair pulled up in a bun. God, she looks stunning in anything. Nothing would make me happier right now than to go a few rounds with her and end with a good shag. Spike pulled himself out of his fantasy and forced himself to concentrate as Willow started addressing everyone about the spell.
"Alrighty, so I'll start the spell by placing us three in a sacred circle, say some latin gibberish, then it should get all shiny and start popping the mirrors up all around us. When me and Dawnie looked into it it seems the mirrors should be double sided, one side shows what has happened, and the other sees the opposite. So for example if we see a mirror show that Buffy killed Spike, that same mirror could show you guys that Spike killed Buffy. Make sense?" collective nods all around "So, just to be clear, none of what we see is set in stone, it'll just give us a glimpse of how things could be, or have been. So we may see some recaps of stuff we already know."
"So we'll probably get to see replays of Buffy beating the crap outta Spike?" Xander chimed in hopeful.
"Maybe," Willow replied, knowing what other previous interactions the group might see, some she wasn't sure if Dawn should be seeing. "Um, Buffy can I talk to you for a sec.?"
"Sure" they both stepped into the kitchen, Spike perked his ears to listen in, pretty sure he knew what Willow was gonna make clear.
"So you get the part about we may see any interaction that has happened right? Between you twos?"
"Yes Will, I'm not thrilled about it, but all else fails I just plea that some of the more embarrassing things we see didn't actually happen."
"Yeah, I suppose that's a good scapegoat," she paused still a little afraid to bring up her main point "But do you want Dawn seeing what has or well could occour be between you two? Possibly graphic sex scenes? Or brutal murders of either of you? I mean she idolizes both of you."
Buffy paused, her little sis was growing up and she knew Spike and her bumped uglys last year; but it still may scar her for life actually seeing it on a big glowy screen. "What do you think Wil?"
"I don't know, I still think of her as little Dawnie, even though she's taller than me now…"
"Do I dare let her decide? I feel like she'd think she could handle anything, then end up having a hard time dealing."
"Yeah I get that, teenagers not known for their good sense of judgement."
"Just let her be." Spike intruded in "She's way more mature than any 16 year old I've met, and you know she's gonna be helping with whatever we find out from the sodding spell."
Both women wanted to chew him out for intruding on their private conversation, but they both knew he was probably right. Besides if Buffy really didn't want Spike to hear what they were talking about they should have gotten out of his hyper hearing earshot. After a brief look of consideration between the friends, they agreed. "Your right Spike, Dawns a big girl, she should be able to handle it." Buffy conceded. With that the three rejoined the dining room.
"Okay then, any questions about the spell?" Willow inquired walking back to her box of magic goodies.
"So if we're going to be seeing two different images both in and out of the circle, how do we know which image is true, or more likely?" Anya inquired.
"That's where we'll have to take notes and sort through them later," Willow reasoned "Odds are one side is going to have more true images that we remember, and those are gonna be the dimensions in closer sync to our own, so therefore more likely to happen. So everybody is gonna need to spread out and take notes on any image they see, be specific. Look to the background, try to figure out where and when something took place, so we can put together a timeline of sorts."
"So we gonna want more eye's than just the four of us? Catch more stuff?" Dawn offered.
"No," Buffy blurted out, just a little too quickly "I'd rather it just be us. The potentials aren't going to be very helpful of the when or where of an image anyway."
"Oh, yeah I guess so," Dawn replied.
"So!" Xander nearly shouted as he clapped his hands "Shiny circle, nonsense words, doublesided mirrors start popping up and we all take notes so we don't forget what we see, then we have lots of homework when the magics all done. That about it?"
"To put it simply, yeah pretty much." Willow confessed as she grabbed the sand and almost started to pour "Oh shoot!"
"What Will?" Buffy asked first.
"It's just us in the center won't be able to take note, we're gonna be holding hands to maintain the spell."
"Oh, well we'll try to remember I guess. Shouldn't be too hard for us, since we'll know exactly what's true or not." Buffy guessed.
"Yeah, I suppose…" Willow reasoned.
"All else fails you can do the shiny remember charm you used on me." Andrew added.
"True," Willow concurred "Thanks Andrew that was actually helpful."
"And to the point!" Anya elated "Nice, all this time with me is starting to pay off." She grinned as she finished handing out the notepads.
"Alright, here we go." Willow poured the dark green sand in a large circle set the bottle down then motioned to Buffy and Spike to join hands with her and each other. "On three, One, Two, Three" on the third count they all stepped into the circle.