A/N: I own nothing of the Whedonverse nor any fairytales and I am not profiting from this work.
Chapter 11
Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
What's the matter Watcher?
She's the Slayer
All is going according to plan
"I...I don't understand. You, you wanna take a break?" The brainy redhead was staring owlishly at her boyfriend. This was very out of the blue. Way out of the blue. It was so far out of the blue it was orange.
"Willow, I think it would be best if I found a way to control the wolf." The quiet young man nodded slightly toward the community room so that their conversation didn't draw too much attention. "I think it would be a good idea to get you some tutoring too. In magic. I could have hurt you this last month and I don't want to take that chance. This is to make it better for both of us."
"Then we should find a way to teach the wolf to like me more or to stay...no that makes you sound like a pet and you're not a pet. You're a boyfriend. You're my boyfriend and a break sounds like you would stop being my boyfriend and I don't want you to stop because I like you and you like me. You still like me, right?"
"Of course I still like you but the place I heardof that can help me is far away and I wouldn't know how long it would take to discipline myself. I don't want to put you through a long distance relationship. It's best to call it a break in case the heart doesn't grow fonder. I don't want you to feel that you have to stay with me out of a sense of duty."
"Duty? I'm duty free. I'm like vacation trinkets. No duty. Totally fond."
Oz couldn't help but smile. "We can think it over during Thanksgiving break. We'll pick it up after midterms."
Willow shifted her book bag and led them back across the quad. "Maybe we can ask Giles, you know, since he's all bookish."
"So there's some new prophecy for the Slayer?" Spike leaned a hip against the kitchen counter and surveyed the dwindling contents of his mug.
"Well, it is actually very old. It was penned sometime during the forgotten age. It has to do with an entity known as the Mirage who will bring about great destruction in the pursuit of it's own form of paradise."
"So we're looking for anyone then."The vamp muttered. Joyce silently gathered the mugs and add-ins from the table to make some more cocoa. If what she could hear on the stair was to be believed she'd need to bring down one more mug for her elder daughter.
Giles huffed, fluttering some pages in the process, "We could do without the cynicism."
"And whadyou mean about forgotten age? Do you mean the dark ages?"
"No, I mean the forgotten age. It would appear that for two months this creature ruled England. The whole of this has been wiped from history through a temporal reversal. I don't know how or why it is still available for me."
"I do." Giles was the only one to jump at the young woman's entrance and muttered something about bells and failing to help a fellow out.
Spike moved to the farthest point he could manage and Joyce handed her a mug of cocoa just the way she liked it.
"Thanks mom. Giles, it's really simple. You know about something that I can work with now." Buffy sat down in the chair Spike had vacated to make his blood and looked over at her Watcher as her mother smiled at the vampire near the dining room from her own place against the sink. Buffy looked between the perpetual pain in her side and her mom but shook her head. It didn't matter. There was world savage that needed strategizing. "So, Giles, how do I beat it?"