A
Altoz
Guest
RAVELLO DRIVE: May 2002
Hand in hand, Willow and Tara came to see Doug:
"We know that Giles and you brought something along with you."
"Well, you can probably sense the whitewicca mojo in Rupert already. Or do you mean the spells and ingredients in his satchel?"
"That's exactly it. Is it what we hope it is?" Tara asked.
"If what you hope it is means a Diana Tiphareth spell, then yes."
Tara reacted: "Oh, thank you. Willow, baby? It's up to you."
"You can't have me going dark during this, or ever again. During the whole of this year, Buffy and I have both been living too close to the edge. After I brought her back, she was lost, which may explain her relationship with Spike and her susceptibility to the dao shengbeng spell. For me, it was the intoxication of power. When Dawnie was injured, I finally realised- there have to be limits. Buffy... may not respect those limits any more. But I need to. "
Tara hugged her partner: "Have I ever told you how much I love you recently?"
"Quite frequently. But I wouldn't be strong enough to do this without you, honey. All right, Doug. What do I need to do?"
Doug handed her a scroll: "Here we are. The origins of this spell come from a Jewish gnostic kabbalist syncretist community in ancient Roman Ephesus who worshipped the city deity Diana as much as Yahweh. Because you're Jewish, the spell will specifically provide a shunt in your mind, making you permanently whitewicca. You'll still be able to cast wards or defensive or protective spells if someone else attacks you. "
Tara cast a salt circle around her: "Thank you and Rupert for this, Doug. I'd heard about this but I didn't realise that the Watchers had a copy of the original spell."
Doug clasped her hand: "Introit."
"Diana Tiphareth, Guardian of Ephesus and Consort of Almighty Jahweh
I ask only for this- that you keep my mind and soul away from anything dark or corrupted. I will act only for virtue henceforth."
As she spoke those words, a burst of light erupted around Willow and she gasped with the rapture and ecstacy of communion with the Goddess as her hair and clothing momentarily turned white. As it faded, she fell into Tara's arms:
"It's over! That perverted darkness is gone! And it's never coming back!"
Giles entered the living room a moment later:
"I managed to contact Anya."
"Oh, no. She does know, doesn't she, Giles? About Xander?"
"Yes, Like Dawn earlier, she saw it on the television And I'm afraid Meers and Wells have already raided the Magic Box for darkmagick.,:
Tara frowned: "Meers I can understand. But Andrew Wells? He always seemed more rational, approachable."
Doug shook his head: "Something else is at work here. Something is shielding them from psionic contact or your Aradia location spell, Tara. I think they might be possessed by something. And it may not have something to do with the dao shengbang curse. Something else may be using them as much as Buffy. Would they have the courage to have staked Spike otherwise?"
"It makes strategic sense, though. Not killing Xander, but killing Spike. And now Willow is out of darkmagick range, Meers and Wells only have to count coup again and they'll be able to gain control over the dao shengbang, transforming Buffy into a murderer. We have no time to lose. Doug, can you teleport us to the Magic Box?"
"Tara, would you mind staying here and protecting Dawn?"
"Not at all. I understand. Take care, sweetheart." Tara kissed her partner goodbye.
Buffy had pulled over and removed her motorcycle helmet, her mind full of conflicted thoughts. Her senses had altered, somehow she realised that. She looked up at Hammerfall Park's entrance sign as the scent of her quarry drew her closer. In her mind, it was as if she could see them already. Meers had concealed himself in a cabin. Did he really think that would defend him from someone with her power and strength? Xander. Spike. The two men's faces swam into her mind and she recalled what Spike's cool flesh felt like against hers, his arms around her, his rashness, his combination of power and bewilderment at what was happening to him. She kept her heightened senses free for an intrusion, but wasn't aware that those senses had been distorted. All she knew was that Warren Meers, Andrew Wells and Jonathan Levinson all had to pay.
"Anya?" As they entered the Magic Box, they noticed the sitting woman.
"I think Meers and Wells may have zapped her. What are we thinking? I'm so sorry about Xander."
Anya looked bleakly at the others: "I... became a vengeance demon again, after Xander and I broke up. I... don't want to be here any more. I... don't want to be human any more. It hurts too much. I can't take how much losing Xander hurts me. I'm sorry, Willow, Giles. You all deserve better. And you, tall spooky but handsome guy with them."
"I know how I'd feel if it were Tara. It's all right, Anya. You don't need to apologise. You lost the man you love."
"And you don't want to be thrown into the dao shengbang vengeance matrix. No, it's all right, Anya. We understand." Giles said softly.
"Can... you do me a favour? When you cast the portal to take me back to D'Hoffryn, crush some lethe into it? I can't continue to exist with this pain, this hurt."
Doug nodded: "I'm Giles' Watchers liaison, Doug. Nice meeting you, Anya. Okay. I've cast the portal. Step through and you'll be gone from here."
As the weeping vengeance demon did so, Doug turned:
"Hey. I've picked up Buffy's thoughts. She's in Hammerfall Park and she's closing on Meers. We don't have much time."
As Buffy stepped through the Hammerfall Park woods, she was careful not to disturb anything, Years of experience did not betray her as she managed to elude scrutiny. But Warren Meers, or whatever dwelt within him now, sensed her approach. He stepped further inside the hut and waited, not running or panicking. Had he still been Warren Meers and not a vessel for somethin eldritch, cold and inhuman, he would have fled blindly, fearing would would have happened next. But he wasn't completely human any more. He sent airborne daggers at her, only to have her bat them aside effortlessly. He tried a sharpened spike, but she caught it and bent it in two:
"Meers! Come out of there, you coward!"
"It was an accident. I'm sorry about the construction worker-"
"No, you aren't. That would mean that there's something of substance or capable of moral behaviour left in you, and there isn't. You killed Spike. There's no walking away from that."
"You're a vampire slayer. You don't kill humans. I was doing your job. You're asking for it. I'm going to walk away from this and when I do, you're going to beg to join your leech boyfriend in hell."
And then Giles materialised alongside him:
"I'd like to test that assumption, if I may."
"Get out of my way, old man." At which point, Giles landed a haymaker on his jaw.
"No. No, you get brought to justice. You have no idea what you're playing with, you little fool."
As he got up from the floor, Warren Meers eyes darkened:
"All right then. To the death."
Buffy could have intervened at any time. She did not do so, waiting for Giles to critically weaken Meers before she stepped in and finished him off. However, something had gone wrong inside the cabin:
"Uhhh..." Giles groaned, his face cut in several places, blood seeping from his side:
"So overconfident. Did you forget Neargel? I didn't. In fact, I know him quite well. Didn't look too closely at the spell books back in the Magic Box, did we? Now. you've got something inside you and I want it." Giles tried to move away, but Meers grabbed him by his shirtfront, reached for Giles and ripped the whitewicca magic core out of his upper chest, as the Watcher screamed out once...before he died. But Meers didn't have long to savour his triumph. In his addiction to darkmagick, he had forgotten the real enemy, who had acted while he had been preoccupied.
Two shuriken blades whirled into his head, and another into his heart, before he could ward them away. Warren Meers fell lifeless to the ground as the slayer stepped up, pulled the shuriken from him and cleaned them. Her expression softened as she looked at Giles' fallen body and for a moment, it was possible to witness the war within her before the facade of control and the overlay of ruthlessness returned. blotting it out: "You will be avenged, old friend." Then Buffy Summers stepped away, back into the undergrowth. She was unable to see a dark tendril of energy leap upward from Warren Meers' corpse, seeking the second link in its fatal chain...
TO BE CONTINUED
Hand in hand, Willow and Tara came to see Doug:
"We know that Giles and you brought something along with you."
"Well, you can probably sense the whitewicca mojo in Rupert already. Or do you mean the spells and ingredients in his satchel?"
"That's exactly it. Is it what we hope it is?" Tara asked.
"If what you hope it is means a Diana Tiphareth spell, then yes."
Tara reacted: "Oh, thank you. Willow, baby? It's up to you."
"You can't have me going dark during this, or ever again. During the whole of this year, Buffy and I have both been living too close to the edge. After I brought her back, she was lost, which may explain her relationship with Spike and her susceptibility to the dao shengbeng spell. For me, it was the intoxication of power. When Dawnie was injured, I finally realised- there have to be limits. Buffy... may not respect those limits any more. But I need to. "
Tara hugged her partner: "Have I ever told you how much I love you recently?"
"Quite frequently. But I wouldn't be strong enough to do this without you, honey. All right, Doug. What do I need to do?"
Doug handed her a scroll: "Here we are. The origins of this spell come from a Jewish gnostic kabbalist syncretist community in ancient Roman Ephesus who worshipped the city deity Diana as much as Yahweh. Because you're Jewish, the spell will specifically provide a shunt in your mind, making you permanently whitewicca. You'll still be able to cast wards or defensive or protective spells if someone else attacks you. "
Tara cast a salt circle around her: "Thank you and Rupert for this, Doug. I'd heard about this but I didn't realise that the Watchers had a copy of the original spell."
Doug clasped her hand: "Introit."
"Diana Tiphareth, Guardian of Ephesus and Consort of Almighty Jahweh
I ask only for this- that you keep my mind and soul away from anything dark or corrupted. I will act only for virtue henceforth."
As she spoke those words, a burst of light erupted around Willow and she gasped with the rapture and ecstacy of communion with the Goddess as her hair and clothing momentarily turned white. As it faded, she fell into Tara's arms:
"It's over! That perverted darkness is gone! And it's never coming back!"
Giles entered the living room a moment later:
"I managed to contact Anya."
"Oh, no. She does know, doesn't she, Giles? About Xander?"
"Yes, Like Dawn earlier, she saw it on the television And I'm afraid Meers and Wells have already raided the Magic Box for darkmagick.,:
Tara frowned: "Meers I can understand. But Andrew Wells? He always seemed more rational, approachable."
Doug shook his head: "Something else is at work here. Something is shielding them from psionic contact or your Aradia location spell, Tara. I think they might be possessed by something. And it may not have something to do with the dao shengbang curse. Something else may be using them as much as Buffy. Would they have the courage to have staked Spike otherwise?"
"It makes strategic sense, though. Not killing Xander, but killing Spike. And now Willow is out of darkmagick range, Meers and Wells only have to count coup again and they'll be able to gain control over the dao shengbang, transforming Buffy into a murderer. We have no time to lose. Doug, can you teleport us to the Magic Box?"
"Tara, would you mind staying here and protecting Dawn?"
"Not at all. I understand. Take care, sweetheart." Tara kissed her partner goodbye.
Buffy had pulled over and removed her motorcycle helmet, her mind full of conflicted thoughts. Her senses had altered, somehow she realised that. She looked up at Hammerfall Park's entrance sign as the scent of her quarry drew her closer. In her mind, it was as if she could see them already. Meers had concealed himself in a cabin. Did he really think that would defend him from someone with her power and strength? Xander. Spike. The two men's faces swam into her mind and she recalled what Spike's cool flesh felt like against hers, his arms around her, his rashness, his combination of power and bewilderment at what was happening to him. She kept her heightened senses free for an intrusion, but wasn't aware that those senses had been distorted. All she knew was that Warren Meers, Andrew Wells and Jonathan Levinson all had to pay.
"Anya?" As they entered the Magic Box, they noticed the sitting woman.
"I think Meers and Wells may have zapped her. What are we thinking? I'm so sorry about Xander."
Anya looked bleakly at the others: "I... became a vengeance demon again, after Xander and I broke up. I... don't want to be here any more. I... don't want to be human any more. It hurts too much. I can't take how much losing Xander hurts me. I'm sorry, Willow, Giles. You all deserve better. And you, tall spooky but handsome guy with them."
"I know how I'd feel if it were Tara. It's all right, Anya. You don't need to apologise. You lost the man you love."
"And you don't want to be thrown into the dao shengbang vengeance matrix. No, it's all right, Anya. We understand." Giles said softly.
"Can... you do me a favour? When you cast the portal to take me back to D'Hoffryn, crush some lethe into it? I can't continue to exist with this pain, this hurt."
Doug nodded: "I'm Giles' Watchers liaison, Doug. Nice meeting you, Anya. Okay. I've cast the portal. Step through and you'll be gone from here."
As the weeping vengeance demon did so, Doug turned:
"Hey. I've picked up Buffy's thoughts. She's in Hammerfall Park and she's closing on Meers. We don't have much time."
As Buffy stepped through the Hammerfall Park woods, she was careful not to disturb anything, Years of experience did not betray her as she managed to elude scrutiny. But Warren Meers, or whatever dwelt within him now, sensed her approach. He stepped further inside the hut and waited, not running or panicking. Had he still been Warren Meers and not a vessel for somethin eldritch, cold and inhuman, he would have fled blindly, fearing would would have happened next. But he wasn't completely human any more. He sent airborne daggers at her, only to have her bat them aside effortlessly. He tried a sharpened spike, but she caught it and bent it in two:
"Meers! Come out of there, you coward!"
"It was an accident. I'm sorry about the construction worker-"
"No, you aren't. That would mean that there's something of substance or capable of moral behaviour left in you, and there isn't. You killed Spike. There's no walking away from that."
"You're a vampire slayer. You don't kill humans. I was doing your job. You're asking for it. I'm going to walk away from this and when I do, you're going to beg to join your leech boyfriend in hell."
And then Giles materialised alongside him:
"I'd like to test that assumption, if I may."
"Get out of my way, old man." At which point, Giles landed a haymaker on his jaw.
"No. No, you get brought to justice. You have no idea what you're playing with, you little fool."
As he got up from the floor, Warren Meers eyes darkened:
"All right then. To the death."
Buffy could have intervened at any time. She did not do so, waiting for Giles to critically weaken Meers before she stepped in and finished him off. However, something had gone wrong inside the cabin:
"Uhhh..." Giles groaned, his face cut in several places, blood seeping from his side:
"So overconfident. Did you forget Neargel? I didn't. In fact, I know him quite well. Didn't look too closely at the spell books back in the Magic Box, did we? Now. you've got something inside you and I want it." Giles tried to move away, but Meers grabbed him by his shirtfront, reached for Giles and ripped the whitewicca magic core out of his upper chest, as the Watcher screamed out once...before he died. But Meers didn't have long to savour his triumph. In his addiction to darkmagick, he had forgotten the real enemy, who had acted while he had been preoccupied.
Two shuriken blades whirled into his head, and another into his heart, before he could ward them away. Warren Meers fell lifeless to the ground as the slayer stepped up, pulled the shuriken from him and cleaned them. Her expression softened as she looked at Giles' fallen body and for a moment, it was possible to witness the war within her before the facade of control and the overlay of ruthlessness returned. blotting it out: "You will be avenged, old friend." Then Buffy Summers stepped away, back into the undergrowth. She was unable to see a dark tendril of energy leap upward from Warren Meers' corpse, seeking the second link in its fatal chain...
TO BE CONTINUED