|
|
|
(This is original creative material copyright Chris Kenworthy, based on characters that he has no right to owned by someone else blah blah biddy blah...) |
|
"Come on, Cordelia," she said. "I don't want you to hurt me, but I can't let you hurt the clown." Cordelia just snarled in response.
"You can't hit the clown," Willow continued. "If the clown gets it, Xander gets it - so do you. Do you understand that?"
Willow didn't get any farther. With a negligent wave of Cordelia's left hand, an unseen force picked Willow up and threw her off to the side.
But Buffy had figured out what Willow had been up to, and she furthered the cause in typically forthright fashion - she tackled Cordelia from the other side, knocking her to the ground.
"Help!" Xander called out, still being chased by the Master Clown while all of this went on.
"Hai!" Cordelia exclaimed, and blue energy lanced down her arms into Buffy's body, but Buffy's grunt of shock was a mild one.
Willow sat up and focused her attention back to Xander. "Think about the figures associated with the clown in your mind," she called out in blind hope. "Is there one who's as impressive as the clown, but not a bad-guy?"
Cordelia focussed her attention more intently on Buffy, and a sudden gust of wind blew them apart. Cordelia stood up and re-oriented on the Clown.
"The Tightrope Lady!" Xander suddenly and triumphantly declared. The Master Clown paused, phazed. So did Cordelia, thankfully aware that something new was going on.
"Yeah, that's right, of course!" Xander continued exultantly. "She's the one circus person who can take you on, isn't she, Clown?" Now it was Xander's turn to advance menacingly on the clown. "Listen carefully, buddy. Can't you hear her music? She's coming!"
And suddenly the clown was no more, as a burst of wind buffeted Xander for a moment, and then was gone. "Yeah!" Xander called out, pleased. "And the X-man whooshed his horror!" He turned around, towards Buffy and Cordelia, and saw with surprise that Cordelia had fainted. He rushed over. "Is she all right?"
"Yeah, I think so," Willow said. "But the witch-self is taking more and more of a toll on her system. Decreasing her stability."
"Which means that she keeps witching out on us more and more easily," Buffy muttered disgustedly. Willow nodded.
"By the way," Xander added in an aside, "did you and Tojo ever have any more luck looking for a way to de-witch her, Willow?"
"No," Willow said. "But it hasn't exactly been our priority. We've been trying to figure out a way out of Limbo that Kaliya and Giles can't interfere with.
"And faling spectacularly," Buffy observed. "Maybe the Cordy question need to get a higher priority again. We can't keep dealing with incidents like this - and what if she doesn't revert one time?"
Just then Mister Tojo showed up. Oz had gone to him for help, but there didn't seem to be any need.
* * * *
A few hours later, Buffy and Mister Tojo set out on a patrol of the strange parallel city. "Willow tells me that you think curing Cordelia's condition should be one of our important priorities at this point?" Akira Tojo inquired mildly.
Buffy swallowed. "Well, yeah. She's becoming more and more dangerous, in her witch-mode. She could have gotten Xander trapped by the Master Clown- Horror!"
Tojo surveyed her for a few moments with a piercing gaze. "And would this have anything to do with the fact that you and Mister Harris are secretly gratifying your mutual affection?" Buffy looked up at her in surprise. "It was not that difficult to comprehend the situation, Buffy."
"Oh," Buffy said, disappointed that Tojo had seen so easily through her secret. "Well, yeah, of course there's a connection. If Cordelia finds out about us again, it could easily be the worst witch-out we've seen from her so far, and that's something I'm very concerned about! I know that it's not fair, that Xander and me, we made our own decision and now I'm asking you to come through and save us from having to take our medicine..." She broke off. "Am I making any sense at all?"
"Quite a good deal of it," Tojo assured her. "I am not without sympathy to your predicament, Buffy - or to the decision you made. I was once young myself. But I must warn you - what you ask of me may be impossible."
Buffy smiled tiredly. "I know that." Suddenly a flicker of motion down an alley caught Buffy's eye. She stopped and looked more closely. Whatever it was had vanished, but Buffy wasn't willing to let it go at that. Briefly indicating silence to Tojo, she led the way down the alley, watching carefully for any other sign of whatever she had seen.
There was nothing - until they came to the next street down. About a half a block away from them, a man in a dark coat walked down the street. "Giles!" Buffy breathed. "I wonder what he's doing here - Kaliya's hideout is on the other side of town," she whispered. "Come on, Akira."
Tojo suffered himself to be led down the street by his student. "I suspect this is not what it seems," he muttered. "Consider his clothes. They are not characteristic of the vampire Giles."
But Buffy had already silently caught up to Giles. She reached out to grab him forcefully by the shoulder - and Buffy's hand passed THROUGH Giles' shoulder! Caught without the support she had expected, Buffy lost her balance and stumbled to the sidewalk. The Giles-figure continued walking down the street without pause.
"What the?" Buffy righted herself, and charged down the street again. Tojo followed, shaking his head. This time Buffy walked around Giles and in front of him. "Hey there!" she called out and waved her hands, but Giles didn't seem to notice. Defeated, she stopped still - and the Giles-image passed right through her!
"What's going on?" Buffy wailed as Tojo finally caught up to her. "Is that Giles' ghost? The real Giles, I mean?"
"It would appear that that is exactly what it is. Angel said that spirits of the ether were drawn into Limbo when it was formed. That could well include human spirits of the dead - ghosts."
"But why couldn't he see me?"
"That is a part of how some ghosts manifest. They simply reenact events from their human lives, unaware of the world around them, or in some cases can think for themselves and observe the fixed scenery, but not people or movable objects."
"Hmm," Buffy considered. "I thought it was that living people couldn't see ghosts, not the other way around."
"Also sometimes true," Tojo admitted.
"So," Buffy pressed. "What do we do about it? Is there a way to make contact with Giles? That could be a great help... no offense," she finished uneasily, realizing that Tojo could have interpreted that as a slight on his Watcher abilities.
"Let us return to the Chase house. I should consult my references."
* * * *
Buffy slipped her sweater back over her head quickly when she heard a knock at the door. "Come in?" she called uncertainly.
"Buffy?" Xander poked his head in, then realized what she had said. He quickly entered the room and closed the door behind him.
"Hi, you!" Buffy said, smiling and rising from the bed in Cordelia's brother's room. Xander quickly slipped his arms tenderly around Buffy and kissed her lovingly on the mouth.
"Hey!" Buffy protested, breaking the kiss off after a few pleasant seconds. "Come on! Cordelia's in the house, and she has a tendency to walk into rooms without knocking."
"I'm sorry," Xander murmured, stroking her back with his hands. "I just get carried away every time I see you."
"Well, stifle it!" Buffy snapped, disengaging from his embrace, then grinned at him to mitigate any insult he might have read into her remark. Buffy sat back down on her bed, and Xander turned the desk chair around to face her and sat upon it.
"So, Willow tells me you may have seen the ghost of Giles?"
"That's what it looked like," Buffy confirmed. "How are Willow and Tojo doing?"
"They've found some good references on communicating with ghosts already - it'll take them an hour or so to work out a plan." Xander looked closely at his secret love. "How do you feel about it, Buffy?"
"Um?" Buffy considered. "Excited, hopeful. It's like, if this works, I'll finally have my chance to make my peace with him. To say all the things that were left unsaid between us when I ran out on Sunnydale." She shook her head. "That's not all of it, though. I've wished so hard some nights that Giles, MY Giles, was back. As much as we snarked at each other, he - he was the kind of guy who could make everything all right, you know? Akira knows his stuff, and he's easier to get along with, but he doesn't have that Gilesness."
"Well, I never was as close to him as you were," Xander disclaimed, "but I think I know what you mean. And you've got a perfect right to want him back, to need him."
"Thanks," Buffy said, smiling back at him. She leaned over to stroke his arm caressingly. "I mean it," she whispered, and scooted over to give him a brief smooch on the lips.
"Hey, what about...?" Xander started.
"Quick. Doesn't count." Buffy informed him teasingly. "I'm gonna head over to Willow's and find out about making contact with ghosts, okay?"
"Of course," Xander replied, sighing.
|
|
|
|
