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(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...) |
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"Do not tell me what I do or do not need," Kaliya snapped feebly back at him, not taking her gaze away from the magic mirror.
"I will indeed!" Giles burst out. Now Kaliya did turn away from the mirror, staring at Giles in utter disbelief. "I swore an oath to you, my queen, when I entered your service," Giles explained. "The oath bound me to serve your interests to the best of my ability, and THAT is exactly what I will do, even if it means saving you from your own stubborness, lady." He grabbed for the mirror, but Kaliya moved it nimbly away.
"I will rest soon, my loyal one," she placated him. "But other events command our attention. Observe for yourself," she ordered, handing him the mirror.
Giles peered into the image. At the Rosenberg house, Buffy, Akira Tojo, and Willow were preparing for some sort of excursion, and arming themselves with unidentifiable paraphernalia.
"We should arrange to observe their mission first-hand," Kaliya said. "We cannot afford to remain unaware of our opponent's plans."
"I will dispatch Michelle immediately," Giles assured her.
"No," Kaliya corrected him. "Not Michelle - she has not the necessary subtlety for this." She considered a moment. "You must do it, Giles."
"I could not," Giles demurred. "While you have not your full strength, my place is here at your side." To be ready for Michelle in case she runs out of patience, he added silently to himself.
"Very well then," Kaliya agreed meekly. "Perhaps your human friend, then? Mister Rayne? Would he be suitable?"
"Quite acceptable," Giles concurred, and left the room to seek Ethan out. Kaliya took another look at the mirror. Willow Rosenberg was saying some sort of farewell to the mysterious vampire, the one that Giles said was called 'Angel,' the one who had once had a soul and, presumably, did again. Shrugging, she set the mirror down on a table and sank into the covers of her bed.
"Mister Rayne had better hurry," she murmured to herself.
* * * *
"The spell must be cast in the place in which the deceased spent the most time over the year prior to his or her death," Tojo reminded them. "Are you sure that would not be his home?"
"Trust me, Akira," Buffy replied. "Giles lived in the library. That's the place."
"Very well." The three of them headed off towards the school. Just as they were about to turn the corner out of sight of the Rosenberg house, a black car passed silently by, moving swiftly up into easy following range.
Buffy, Willow, and Tojo arrived at the school and the library, and set up for the spell that Tojo had found. This was a fairly long and involved process, involving arranging and lighting candles all over the library, setting small open silver containers of crumbly black powder that gave off an incensy smell without flame, and drawing a quadranted mystic diagram in goopy red paint on the open floor in front of the circulation desk.
"You know," Buffy quipped, looking over the changes, "if Giles really does come back, he is gonna be SO pissed with us!"
"Hey, it's not really his library - it's a copy," Willow shot back jokingly. "We're all ready here." She went over to the lectern that they had set Tojo's book on at the head of the diagram. Tojo and Buffy went over to stand at the sides of the diagram, with their accoutrements, a small leather bag for Buffy, and an ornate iron bell for Tojo. They waited a few seconds for Willow to start.
"I call upon Hades, the arbiter of the paths of the dead, to lend us his guidance in this time," Willow intoned. "We are far from the lands of our home; yet the spirit of one dear to us is near." She gestured to Buffy, who remembered her instructions and reached a hand into the leather bag. Taking a handful of the contents, which turned out to be a floury purple powder, and scattered it over the diagram. As each grain landed, it exploded in a microscopic puff of smoke, and a fine haze spread about them all.
"Seen by us, he walks through this dark place unseeing," Willow continued. "Extend your rod, oh Hades, and guide our friend to us in spirit and in sight!" Tojo lifted up an iron bell and rang it solemnly. With a sudden flash, FOUR figures appeared within the magic diagram!
"Giles!" Buffy exclaimed gladly, before she even realized that there were others.
"Jenny!" Willow breathed amazedly, a few seconds later.
"Kendra?" Buffy said at almost the same time, recognizing one of the other two apparitions!
"Jesse?"
The ghost of Giles coughed. "What is going on here?" He turned around to take in his surroundings. "Jenny! Akira Tojo!! I - I say, am I dead?"
"'Fraid so," Buffy confirmed. "For a few months now."
"Of course," Giles rambled on. "The ritual of Amtena - for communicating with the spirits of the dead. And the last thing I remember is being subdued in Weatherly park by a mysterious vampire. She had me killed?" A few seconds later, he added a new observation. "You changed your hair again, Buffy?"
"Uh, she, Queen Kaliya, the vampire who kidnapped you, had you changed," Willow told him reluctantly. "Your vampire self is her chief assistant now."
"My god, Rupert!" Jenny Calendar breathed. "Uh, that monster, Angelus; he didn't change me, did he?" She considered, then decided herself. "No - he broke my neck, didn't he?"
"You remember?" Willow asked, morbidly fascinated.
"Well, it's kind of a hard death to forget."
"So, wait a second," Jesse broke in. "We're all dead? I'm dead?!?"
"Uh, yeah Jesse," Willow said. "Going on for two years, now."
"Man," Jesse sighed. "You look nice with the new hairdo, Will." He shook his head. "The last thing I remember is a big football player charging at me. With fangs."
"Where is Drusilla?" Kendra asked Buffy. "She is de one dat slew me, correct?"
"Yeah," Buffy confirmed. "Probably in England, back on Earth. I had to give Spike the chance to take Drusilla out of town; in exchange for his help against Angelus." At Kendra's outraged glare she muttered, "Hey, it was either that or let the whole world go to Hell."
"Back on Earth?" Giles repeated. "If we're not on Earth, where are we, Buffy?"
* * * *
"Ghosts?" Kaliya inquired incredulously.
"I cannot think of anything else that would account for what I saw, Kaliya" Ethan confirmed. "Giles was there, and his technopagan ex-girlfriend, whom I believe is dead, yes?" Vamp-Giles nodded solemnly. "Buffy's hand passed right through them."
"Could it have been illusion?"
"Perhaps," Ethan admitted. "But why would they have gone to the trouble of crafting such a phantasm? To deceive me? I don't believe they even knew that we were following them. And even if they did, what purpose could it serve?"
"Ghosts, then," Kaliya allowed. "This raises grand possibilities. Even before now, I have believed that I felt - " Suddenly, she broke off, closed her eyes, and started repeating what sounded like a four-syllable mantra over and over.
Ethan and Giles stared at her, then, after about twenty seconds, Giles interrupted her. "Are you alright, my lady?"
Kaliya broke off her chanting, and groaned long-sufferingly. "Yes, of course, my dear Giles." She squinted appraisingly at the two others. "Are either of you familiar with methods for contstraining and compelling the spirits of the dead?"
Giles stared at her in utter astonishment. "I am," Ethan admitted simply.
"Very good. Go to the houses that the Slayer and her people have been using, find any one of the ghosts, and bring him or her to me." She fixed a cold glare at both of them. "NO-ONE is to disturb me until this has been accomplished."
"Understood," Ethan replied, and dragged Giles out of Kaliya's chambers. As they left, Giles could hear her return to her chanting. "Am-ah-tar-een. Am-ah-tar-een..."
* * * *
"No, no, you worked the spell perfectly," the ghost of Jenny Calendar was assuring Willow as they walked back to the Rosenberg house. "The only thing is, it's not that discriminating a spell. If you had wanted a single ghost, you should have put in more specific information. As it is, it just kinda zammed in all of us, and a good thing too."
"A dimensional Limbo? Really? How extraordinary," Giles commented to Tojo and Buffy, a little further along the street.
"'Ow many vampiyahs?" Kendra asked.
"We're not sure," Buffy admitted. "There were about fifteen of them when the spell went wrong, plus Ethan Rayne and the two demons. But it seems like they captured some other people who got transported into Limbo and, uh, made them."
Jesse had been walking at the very end of the procession, looking very lost and confused. Realizing this, Willow turned around to address him - and couldn't figure out what to say. "Um, how's death been?" she blurted out at last."
Jesse shook his ethereal head. "Nothing much. It really feels like it's only been a few days since that, that thing bit me." He frowned slightly. "I was floating in somewhere kind of dark blue for a while, then all of a sudden I was here. Two years, huh?"
"Yep," Willow confirmed. "Oh, Xander is gonna be SO pleased and surprised to see you, Jesse!" She smiled in anticipation of that moment. "One word of warning though - don't do anything to make Cordelia mad." After saying that, Willow considered pensively for a moment. "That probably means don't talk to her, no offense."
"Cordelia's here?" Jesse demanded incredulously.
"Jesse!" Xander's voice came. Buffy looked for him for just a second, startled, then realized that they were within sight of the Rosenberg house. Xander had been waiting on the porch. "What, uh, how..."
"We found more ghosts than we bargained for," Buffy told him.
"Xander!" Jesse called out with relief. "Can you tell me what's going on? I mean, I hardly even remember her," he indicated Buffy with an idle pointing gesture, "and I've understood like nothing that Willow's been saying for the past ten minutes!"
"Ack!" Buffy swirled to see what had happened, and gaped. Kendra was being dragged away, by a glowing arm that had its deathly white hand about Kendra's throat!
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