Disclaimer: My beta is a great!!! Unfortunately, neither of us owns Buffy.
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Chapter 29
"Heh…heh…," Xander wheezed.
Dawn reached over and slapped Xander on the back to get him to breathe. "Breathe, Xander. Don't die."
"I'm gonna…I'm gonna…"
"There's something wrong here." Dawn cocked her head and took in the scene before her.
"Of course there's something wrong here!" Xander yelled. "They're kissing! And not in a friendly like manner!"
"They look pretty friendly to me," Dawn snorted. "Never mind. Look at them," She stood up and grabbed Xander's jaw, forcing him to really study the lip-locked women sitting before them.
"What…huh?" Xander straightened. "Why aren't they moving?"
It was true, the women were embracing, lips pressed together, eyes locked and breathing in synch. But they weren't moving, not an inch. They hadn't responded at all to Dawn and Xander bursting through the door and arguing. And the two Scoobies hadn't been arguing quietly.
"What are they doing?" Dawn leaned down and crept up on the two slowly, peering at them. She then reached out with a perfectly manicured nail and poked Willow in the shoulder. Neither she nor Buffy reacted.
"Xander," she beckoned the dark-haired man over, "you've gotta see this. It's so cool."
"Over here is close enough, thank you," Xander denied, covering his good eye with one hand. "I'm in shock. I think I'm gonna faint."
"Oh, shut up and get over here." Dawn reached over and snatched at his sleeve, making him yelp and stumble over. "Look at their eyes."
Xander sighed and with a shudder, positioned his head so he could see the eyes of the couple.
"Okay," he said after studying them for a few moments. "That is pretty cool. Freaky, but cool."
Buffy's eyes were the bright, glowing gold they had come to associate with her using the extra power that had been bestowed on her by the Original slayer. Willow's eyes were what really captured the Scoobies attention.
Wide open, her normal green irises were expanded to the maximum. But her pupils, normally dark, were now glowing with a bright, white light. Like a star shining on a black field, the light flickered and pulsed with life. Then, as Xander and Dawn kept watching, the light started to grow.
With the growing light, the two women frozen in the embrace began breathing heavier. Where before they were almost deathly still, Buffy and Willow were now panting as their chests heaved in unison. The white light in Willow's eyes kept growing, completely engulfing the couple, joining with the gold of Buffy's and then expanding beyond
"I-I don't think this is a good thing," Xander blurted as he and Dawn scrambled back. The white and gold lights of the couple's eyes began to burn even brighter, then expanded outward in a silent explosion. A wall of light and heat slammed into Dawn and Xander, lifting them up and back into the concrete walls of Willow's meditation room.
"Ohhhh," Xander groaned and opened his eyes, rolling heavily over onto his back. He had bounced off the wall and face first onto the floor. "That kinda stings. Dawnie, you good?"
When he received no immediate response Xander grunted and raised his throbbing head, concerned. Dawn was lying on her side, one arm flung under her head. Xander grew a little frantic and began to gather his energy to get up when the brunette's eyes fluttered open and she let out a moan.
"I'd like to file a complaint," Dawn said as she looked over at Xander. "Somebody call my lawyer."
"Sorry, Dawnie," Xander grinned weakly, "Only a one-eyed carpenter here."
"Xander," Dawnie began to get up despite the pain all over her body, "Willow and Buffy."
"Shoot," Xander cursed and got up, remembering the couple in the middle of the room.
The witch and the slayer were slumped over on the floor, completely unconscious. Whatever had happened, it had obviously taken its toll on them. Their breathing was even and they didn't seem to have any injuries. The problem was that the two biggest guns the Watchers Council had were out. And neither Dawn nor Xander had a clue as to when they would wake up.
………………
"They were really kissing?" Faith asked as Dawn finished briefing the rest of the group on what had happened in the meditation room.
"Totally lip-locked," Dawn confirmed while holding an ice pack to the side of her head.
"Score one for Red," Faith smirked. "Always knew if there was someone who was gonna convince B to give up the stick, it'd have been her. Or me, ouch!" The dark slayer snatched her hand off the table from where it had been lying underneath Lucky's. "Jeesh, I'm just jokin' here!"
"Let us move onto more pertinent questions," Giles interrupted, pinching his brow and leaning back in his chair.
Everyone had gathered together after Dawn and Xander had rushed Willow and Buffy to the infirmary. The cover story was that it was a surveillance spell gone wrong, but Dawn wasn't sure how long that was going to hold. The doc could find nothing physically wrong with either of them. They didn't seem to be in any kind of distress, they were just sleeping.
"You've gone over what happened. Does anyone have any theories?" Giles asked.
"Those two have been thick as thieves," Faith said. "They for sure were hiding somethin'."
"Yeah," Dawn sighed, "But nobody knows what. Well, except for the whole kissing thing, but I knew about that and I don't think kissing is supposed to make things go all boom."
"You been doin' the wrong kind of kissing then Dawnie," Faith leered.
"Wait a minute," Xander pushed into the conversation. "You knew about the kissing? Why didn't you tell me?"
"'Cause you'd have freaked," Dawn spared him a glance. "Moving on. It doesn't really matter what happened. We don't have time to figure it out. Either they'll come out of it or they won't, but we have to make a decision about what to do next."
Faith raised an eyebrow, Dawnie sure had grown up. She was getting to be more and more like her older sister every day.
"So whatta we know," Faith got down to business as well. Buffy and Willow, of all people, would understand the necessity.
"We've been keeping an eye on illegal traffic because we knew they'd have to move the girls somehow." Dawn picked a remote off the table and pointed it toward the wall. A screen rolled down and a display flickered to life.
"I love a good PowerPoint," Xander commented. "They're always so entertaining."
"I've got the spinny arrows in this one." Dawn grinned and then pushed another button. Three of said arrows in different colors spun into view and pointed at three points on the world map displayed there. Dotted lines in three different colors matching the arrows showed up as well. The lines originated at the spots where the girls had been snatched from and ended at the locations, bouncing all over the map
"They moved them around a lot, trying to avoid detection, but we finally got them. We tracked them down to these locations, one in Mexico, one in Africa, and one in India."
"Even I can see that's all in a straight line," Faith commented.
"They're all on intersecting points for latitude and longitude." Lucky's voice cut through the room. "They all lie on the 20 degree circle of latitude."
"Exactly," Dawn nodded. "They didn't grab these girls randomly. Slayers are hard enough to contain when it's a willing containment. You don't go to that kind of trouble just for souvenirs. That, combined with the locations they're holding them at, screams big time mojo to me."
"So we snatch 'em back," Faith grunted. "We know where they are now."
"Yes." Giles nodded. "We'll have to do it soon as well. I would have rather taken them back while in transport, but we didn't find them fast enough."
"Okay," Faith nodded, "Lucky and I'll start getting some teams together from all the schools. This'll have to be a worldwide op."
"Good," Giles agreed and the two slayers left the office to start their part of the operation.
"It's not gonna be that easy," Xander said. "These guys aren't stupid. They have to know we'll be gunning for them."
"I know," Giles adjusted his glasses and sighed. "And likely Faith and Lucky do as well. But we have no choice. We can't just leave those girls there."
"No, I guess we can't," Xander looked down at his sneakers and shrugged. "So it's likely a suicide mission?"
"That's always a possibility," Giles whispered.
"But they'll go anyway," Dawn clenched her fist. "And hopefully they'll get the kids out first."
"All right," Xander stood up, "I'll get the covens on this. We need to get as much intel as possible about these locations so we don't send them in completely blind."
"I'll see if I can get anything out of the governments," Dawn joined him in walking out of the office.
"It's days like this I almost miss Sunnydale," Giles whispered and then turned back to his books. They all had their part to do.
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Author's Note:
So are fair heros are down and out and it's the rest of the Council to the rescue. Will they be there in time? What are the bad guys planning? And why is the author writing dialogue like a 1920's radio show?
Tune in next chapter to find out....(about the story I mean, cause I just felt like writing like this;)
Omake:
Lucky- What did you mean about you and Buffy?
Faith- What do you mean?
Lucky- You mentioned in the office about you turning Buffy away from driving stick, what did you mean?
Faith- I-I-I...it was just a joke - weak laughter
Lucky- Really - insert sarcasm and dark look
Faith- Of course - cough - not
Lucky- WHAT?!
Faith- Gotta go!