Chapter 18: Scoobies, Come Out to Play
Willow stepped out of Giles' car in front of Buffy's house, noting that the lights were still on downstairs. She hoped that she would be able to lie to her friend. Not forever, she told herself, just until Giles and I figure out how to tell her. She climbed the steps to the porch and walked inside.
"Hey, Wils," Buffy greeted her from the couch, "you're back late."
"Yeah," Willow agreed, hoping she was acting as casual as she should be. "I guess it's pretty late."
"Why's your hair wet?"
Willow balked. "Oh, uh, my hair…" She grasped for an explanation that might seem plausible. "I kept falling asleep while we were researching, so I stuck my head in the sink. Woke me right up."
Buffy scrunched her nose. "Wow. I woulda gone for a coffee, but whatever floats your boat, I guess."
Relieved, Willow plopped down onto the couch next to Buffy, but shot right back up when she felt the sting of her raw backside.
"Willow, what's with you?" Buffy demanded.
"Nothing, nothing," Willow insisted. "I'm just really tired and I shouldn't be down here watching TV. I think I'm just going to head to bed."
"Okay," Buffy replied uncertainly. Willow had been acting strange all day – all week, even – and Buffy wasn't sure whether she should be concerned. For now, if Willow said she was okay, Buffy would take it on faith, but she could only do so for so long. As Willow padded up the stairs to bed, Buffy watched her go, feeling a knot of concern grow in the pit of her stomach.
Late the next afternoon, the Friday crowd at The Magic Box made it impossible to have a real meeting. Willow and Dawn weren't exactly disappointed, however, as it gave them the opportunity to chat about the boys in Dawn's class and gossip to their hearts' content.
Giles, however, was not relishing the commotion in the shop in quite the same way. He was frantically working the register while customers bombarded him with questions about this charm or that amulet. Willow, seeing the Watcher's forehead crinkle with stress, paused her conversation with Dawn and approached the counter.
"Excuse me," she said to a rather desperate-looking customer. "I can help you with that."
Giles looked at Willow with immense adoration. The witch guided the frenzied customer to the appropriate section of the shop and offered advice about which products to select for his needs. Willow did the same for the other curious and befuddled patrons, easing the burden off of Giles, who was able to take care of the large line at the register. After fifteen or so minutes, the shop had nearly emptied and the queue finally evaporated.
Willow went back over to the counter, leaning across it to within inches of Giles. She grinned up at him. "Bet you'll wanna thank me later," she purred, playfully kicking up the heel of her boot.
Giles leaned towards her, wanting to show her his gratitude, when he spied Dawn giving them the hairy eyeball. "Oh yes, Willow, thank you," Giles offered formally, speaking far too loud.
His awkwardness bringing her back to the here and now, Willow stood up straight and replied, also too loudly, "You're welcome, Giles. I…like helping customers." Her face hidden from Dawn, she shot Giles a pathetic look, then fixed her features and returned to the table to reclaim her seat across from Dawn.
"You guys are so weird," Dawn appraised, pulling out her Biology homework.
Willow sat back in her chair, puffing out her lower lip and huffing a breath upwards in dismay. This is going to be a lot harder than you thought, Willow, she told herself. A clandestine glance over at Giles suggested he was thinking the exact same thing.
Willow pulled out her own book, a novel she'd picked up from the public library that morning. It was about a librarian who solved mysteries and fell in love with a younger woman. She knew it was too on-the-nose, but she didn't care. She had already devoured half the story since breakfast.
A short time later, Buffy and Xander strode in, a tray of drinks and a bag of food in tow.
"Ooh, dinner!" Dawn exclaimed.
"Yeah, Buffy wanted to bring us all leftovers from work," Xander announced, eliciting frowns and upturned noses from the gang, "but I offered to pitch in and provide a lavish dinner of Pad Thai."
"So fancy," Willow observed, then her eyes narrowed at Buffy. "Wait a minute. You're feeding us because we're about to spend a long Friday night talking about evil and researching and stuff, aren't you?"
"No…" Buffy began unconvincingly, "unless you feel like talking about evil all night, because boy, we really have a lot of work to do."
Willow and Dawn groaned in sync. "Just when you thought any distraction would be welcome in the midst of cell diagrams," Dawn sighed.
Dawn ran off to hit the bathroom while Buffy and Giles discussed the specifics of the intel Buffy had gotten from Spike. Willow joined Xander in helping to unpack the various dishes for dinner. Xander leaned close to Willow and asked, "How are you?"
Willow smirked at Xander. "I'm good," she replied, an air of nonchalance about her that Xander saw right through.
"Are you two…did he…are you…" Xander's face contorted as the discomfort of the topic made it impossible for him to speak the words.
"Giles and I are…" Willow weighed her words. "We're good. Very good." She nodded decisively and distributed plastic forks around the table.
Xander tried to look pleased while simultaneously being nauseated. The resulting expression made him look like he was having a stroke.
"Xander," Willow chided wearily.
"I know, I know. I'm just still kinda wiggin' out here, Wil. You have to admit that this whole thing is kind of nuts." Xander met Willow's eyes, and she could see concern there, but it was concern couched in affection.
"Yeah, it is," she admitted.
"Are you going to tell Buffy?"
"Of course," Willow paused and glanced over at her friend, still deep in discussion with Giles, the man Willow loved. "I just don't know how. She's going to freak out."
"Yup," Xander affirmed, kissing Willow affectionately on the forehead as he passed her to grab a drink from the tray. Willow couldn't help but laugh at the futility of her worrying. No matter what, Buffy was going to have a negative reaction to Willow and Giles' relationship, and no matter what, Willow was going to have to tell her anyway. Not tonight, she decided. I just need a little time.
Once the hunger of the group had been sated, Buffy relayed the basics of Spike's intelligence-gathering operation to Dawn, Xander, and Willow.
"So, according to this spiritual authority…sage…guy, the Hellmouth is pumping out energy like crazy, drawing vamps and other demons from miles away. It's like somebody put vampire catnip in the middle of Sunnydale."
"So, vamp-nip," Xander offered, then chuckled. "Heh, vamp-nip. Sounds like vampire nipples." He paused, his eyes growing wide. "Oh god, now I'm thinking about Spike's nipples. Get it out, get it out!" Xander swatted around his head as if he were being attacked by bees.
Ignoring him, Buffy continued, "Basically, we need a way to reduce the energy emanating from the Hellmouth so that beasties and bad guys stop flocking here like ants to a picnic. Willow, last month you did a spell on that Gaarvoth demon and made it so he couldn't raise any more zombies. You called it a magic disruption spell."
"Yeah…" Willow nodded, unsure.
"So, would that work on a place instead of a person? Could you disrupt the energy of the Hellmouth?"
Willow let out her breath in a huff. "I don't know, Buff. The Hellmouth isn't exactly a place, it's more like a thinning of the membrane between dimensions. Since I don't know what is causing the energy output to increase, I don't know if I can stop it."
Willow looked around the table and saw the eyes of Buffy, Dawn, Xander, and Giles all fixed on her. Shrugging her shoulders, she offered, "I could try?"
Buffy smiled. "That's my girl. What do you need?"
"Well, I'll have to figure out some logistics first. And I'd like to do some practice before I try it full-scale. Give me a couple of days?"
Nodding, Buffy turned to the rest of the group. "Okay, while Willow prepares to try the spell, the rest of us need to do damage control. With so many extra demons and vamps in town, people are getting hurt. Dawn, talk to the other kids at school about avoiding the streets and night and traveling in pairs or groups. Make up a story if you have to, something about almost getting kidnapped or rabid coyotes, whatever it takes. Xander, I'm going to need your help patrolling and clearing the streets after sundown. Giles, help Willow with her magic and keep your ears open at the shop; maybe if there's a magical reason for the Hellmouth being more active, somebody who comes here will know something about it." Buffy locked eyes with each member of the group to be sure they understood their task.
Once she was satisfied, Buffy stood and grabbed her coat. "Dawn, Xander and I are going to take you home then head out on patrol. Giles, will you make sure Willow gets home alright?"
Giles nodded and had to stop himself from reaching for Willow's hand. "Yes, of course."
Willow stood and hugged Buffy reassuringly. "We'll figure it out, Buffy, don't worry."
Buffy pulled away and met Willow's eyes. "I know you're still working on everything, but time is a factor. We need you, Wil."
Nodding gravely, Willow squeezed Buffy's arm. "I'll do my best."
With a small smile, Buffy nodded goodbye to Willow and Giles, then exited the shop behind Xander and Dawn. Alone in the shop, Giles and Willow let out a heavy sigh at the same time.
Giles smiled. "Well, I suppose we have our work cut out for us. Shall I retrieve Spates Catalog?"
"I'll grab the addenda to the Necronomicon," Willow sighed, each going to the appropriate section of the reference shelves.
After an hour of research and materials-gathering, Willow had an idea of how she wanted to approach the spell. If she and Giles could create a small interdimensional portal within a sacred circle, Willow could practice limiting the energy emanating from the portal. If she could figure out how to do that, she could theoretically scale up the same spell to limit the energy coming out of the Hellmouth.
In the training room at the back of the shop, Giles rolled up his shirt sleeves and got to work preparing to cast a circle. Willow was meditating on the floor mat, drawing in mystical energy and clearing her mind. Grabbing an ancient text from the table, Giles turned to a page covered in runes.
"Willow," he said, "whenever you're ready, I can open a small portal. The circle should protect us in case anything goes wrong."
After a moment, Willow opened her eyes, nodded solemnly to Giles, and stood up. Her bare feet sunk slightly into the mat, and she stood in a Southpaw stance, leading with her right foot and arm. She breathed deeply, focus evident on her face.
"Do it," she said.
Giles began chanting in a forgotten tongue, and almost immediately a glowing mote of blue light formed in the air about three feet above the floor. The mote grew into a swirling whirlpool, relatively calm and strikingly beautiful. It looked almost like a scale model of the Milky Way. Heat came off the portal even with the protective circle in place. Giles stopped chanting but stayed put. The same book that told him how to open the portal also contained the spell to reverse the incantation, so he stood at the ready.
Willow fixed her gaze on the portal and began her own chant, this one in plain English:
Though there be a door within
A space where walls have worn so thin
I limit now this energy
Restore our world's tranquility
Her arms outstretched towards the portal, Willow repeated the chant over and over, willing the portal not to close, but to weaken. Slowly, it began to change. The vibrant blue light became less saturated, turning a duller and duller color. The whirling motion slowed and there was no longer any heat emanating from the circle. The portal was definitely still there, but it seemed almost to be in stasis, frozen.
Willow continued her chanting, the strain of the magic showing on her moistened brow. Giles spoke softly, reminding her, "Willow, don't force it. You are still getting used to using your power again. Relax. Let it go."
Breathing deeply, Willow blinked and met Giles' eyes. He was right. Willow stopped chanting and slowly brought down her arms to rest by her sides. The swirling portal returned to its previous hue of brilliant sapphire and it went back to its original level of activity. Giles read the incantation to close it, and the light collapsed down into the tiny mote again before popping out of existence.
Willow sat with a thud on the floor mat, breathing heavily. She wiped her forehead and tried to regain her composure.
"That was amazing," Giles breathed. "The power you're exhibiting so soon after your recovery…it's remarkable."
Willow shook her head. "It's not enough, Giles. You saw that. As soon as I let go, it went right back to its natural state. If I did the same thing to the Hellmouth, the reduction in energy would only last as long as I kept chanting. It's not a permanent fix."
Giles knelt down to face her. "Willow. I know you want to help Buffy. We all do. But you're holding yourself to an impossible standard. You should be happy about how far you've come and what you've been able to accomplish."
Nodding reluctantly, Willow looked into Giles' eyes. "But what are we going to do now?"
The next afternoon, Giles, Xander, Willow, Buffy, and Spike sat around the table at The Magic Box in silence. Willow, having revealed the temporary and limited nature of her energy limitation spell, was trying her best not to become overwhelmed by guilt. Giles reached for her hand under the table and squeezed it firmly. Buffy had clearly put all of her eggs into the Willow-saves-us-with-magic basket, and now she was out of ideas.
"We could always just abandon ship," Spike chimed in helpfully.
Buffy leveled a look of stern impatience his way and refused to respond. "Listen guys," she reasoned, "there has to be a reason that we're seeing this surge in energy. Giles, have you found anything in the calendars, prophesies, or codexes that might explain why this is happening now?"
"Codices," said Willow and Giles together.
Buffy groaned impatiently. "Have you?"
"No, I'm afraid not," Giles sighed, cleaning his glasses thoroughly. "There's nothing in any of my texts that would point to any event of significance in this place or time."
Buffy turned. "Spike, have you heard anything from your people?"
Spike shrugged noncommittally. "None of the tourist vamps can explain why they came. They just say they felt like heading out this way. There are more vamps, more demons, more witches, more werewolves, more everything. Anything with even a smidge of supernatural blood is being drawn to Sunnydale. I don't know why, and nobody seems to have a clue either."
Xander leaned forward, arguing, "There's got to be a reason. Is it possible that a person is causing the increase in energy from the Hellmouth? Could someone be doing this on purpose?"
Everyone looked at Willow and Giles. "It's possible," Willow equivocated, "but it's equally likely that this is some kind of natural occurrence or even interference from a Hell dimension. We don't even know if the surge of energy is caused by something on this side of the Hellmouth."
"Has anyone actually gone to the entrance to the Hellmouth to see if anything's there?" Giles asked.
Everyone looked around guiltily for a moment.
"Alright, then," Giles remarked. "Shall we take a field trip to our old stomping grounds?"
The new high school was nicer-looking than the outdated building that had been destroyed during The Ascension, but somehow it still smelled the same. Xander emitted a pained squeak when Buffy kicked down a door he himself had installed. Once inside, Spike shrugged off his protective blanket and five of them proceeded further into the building.
"God," Willow murmured as they entered the main hall, "I feel like I'm late for a test or something. I didn't even go to school in this building." Her voiced bounced off the wall eerily as they proceeded down an empty corridor.
"Keep it together, Wil," Buffy warned. "We don't know what we're going to find and I need your A-game, not your anxiety."
"Heard," Willow replied, making an effort to breathe evenly and focus her mind.
With Xander's memory of the layout as a guide, they quickly found the door to the basement and climbed down into the shadowy lower level. Spike himself was not immune to the Hellmouth's energy, and he acted as a bloodhound, sniffing out the exact spot from which the power was emanating.
Spike indicated a maintenance door and Buffy silently signaled the gang to get behind her. She opened the door and stepped inside.
"Hello there," a woman greeted her cheerfully. "You must be Buffy. I've heard so much about you."
Willow recognized the voice and peered inside the room. "Doctor Gruden?"
"Please," she replied, "how many times must I ask you to call me Dana?"
