Chapter Six

What’s To Come

Giles hung up the phone after talking to Buffy. He stared at the receiver dismally; he almost didn’t know whom he had been talking to. It was extremely disheartening to realize that he couldn’t trust her. This was a new feeling for him and it sent chills down his spine.

He was actually afraid to tell her what he discovered because he didn’t think she would care. And he feared that she would do something that she would later regret. It was up to him to make sure that Dawn was safe, at least until he got his rational Slayer back.

He picked up the phone and dialed the house on Revello Drive.

“Hello” Joyce answered.

“Joyce its Rupert I want you to listen to me very carefully and don’t ask questions. I want you take Dawn and go stay at Spike’s crypt.”

“What Spike’s crypt? Rupert what are you talking about?”

“Joyce just listen to me I’ll explain everything later. I just need to make sure you two are safe. Please just do as I ask, oh and pack a bag for a couple of days.”

“Rupert, are you kidding me? I have to go to work and Dawn has school.”

“JOYCE you must do as I say your lives depends on it!”

“Our lives? Alright Rupert I’ll do it but you better give me a damn good explanation.”

“Good, good. I will check up on you soon and I’ll explain everything.”

“I hope so Rupert.” She hung up the phone not happy that she was being displaced from her home.

Giles hung up and started to pace as he tried to figure out the best way to start the inevitable conversation.

His front door opened and Buffy stonily walked in. She barely acknowledged his forced smile of greeting, as she nodded at him and walked over to stand in the darkened corner. Her impassive reaction was so foreign to him that if she didn’t look the same he would have never known it was Buffy.

He turned as he heard the other children come in and a genuine smile graced his face. They were all such good decent kids that had to deal with so much. He felt bad that he was the one that always dropped the bomb, but it was his job. So he steeled himself to his own worries and he primed himself for what he knew was going to be an explosive reaction.

Xander, Anya, Willow and Tara walked in one by one, they took one look at Giles and they knew that whatever he had to tell them was not going to be good. They walked quietly into the living room and took their respective seats. Willow and Tara shared the chair and Xander and Anya sat on the couch, they all took note that the Slayer stood alone.

“I’m glad you could all come on short notice we seem to have a….”

Just then the door was thrown open again, “Am I late? Did I miss any of the good stuff?” Spike sauntered in and sat down next to Anya on the couch; he turned and blasted her with big smile.

She rolled eyes at him. “Please.” She said then scooted closer to Xander who was scowling at Spike.

“What’s he doing here?” Xander asked.

Giles sighed as he answered sounding very unhappy about the whole thing. “I called Spike because unfortunately we are going to need his assistance.”

“That’s right kiddies you need me and my special skills.” Spike answered very proudly.

“What skill is that soap opera watching?” Xander replied.

Spike leaned in closer next to Anya, leering at her insolent boyfriend with disgust. “You just wish you had the muscle and stamina that I have boy.” He snickered then winked at Anya

Xander leaned in too and Anya was now crushed between the two of them. “Oh yeah why don’t you….”

“Why don’t you both shut the hell up and let Giles talk!” The hard command came from the dark form in the corner, and it silenced everyone in the room.

Giles was taken back by Buffy’s lack of patience, the bored expression on her face and the hardness in her voice. He could feel her agitation and annoyance from where he stood and for a second he didn’t know to what to say.

Buffy was bored and she was slowly losing her patience. She didn’t want to be here she wanted to be out hunting, killing. She just coldly stared back at him like he was an empty-headed idiot. “Giles you did call us here for a reason didn’t you? If not I do have plans?” She said.

Willow noticed the lack of emotions on Buffy’s face. She saw and understood Giles confusion with it because she felt the same. She was so angry that she wasn’t thinking about putting herself in a dangerous situation, all she could think about was lashing back at Buffy.

Standing up from the chair she faced the Slayer. “Yeah and what plans are those Buffy? You haven’t been around; you haven’t been hanging out with us or with Riley? What have you been doing? And what about poor Riley you hardly even talk to him? He is totally confused and he’s afraid to approach you with it because you’re so distant…you’re distant with everybody!” Her voice had risen by the end and everyone in the room was shocked by her very vocal outburst.

Buffy straighten up from leaning against the wall and slowly walked over to the red-haired witch, staring at her with malice in her eyes “Excuse me? What are you my mother?”

Willow wasn’t stupid and she knew that by opening her mouth she now faced the wrath of a very pissed off and unstable slayer, but she felt that this needed to be addressed and so she stood her ground. Her voice shook slightly as she spoke lower now. “No but I care about you and I want to know what’s been going on? I want to help you. Please Buffy talk to me.” She pleaded with her friend to open up and let her in.

They were nose to nose and the whole room was intently watching. Xander, Giles and Tara were afraid for Willow’s safety. Anya was too busy flipping through a magazine to care what was going on and Spike just sat there happily on the couch waiting for the catfight to begin.

Buffy was blinded by rage at the audacity of the witch. Her body trembled with her effort to suppress the anger at being talked to like a child. Just like He had done, didn’t she control her own fate and business? Who the hell was Willow to question her about anything! “My business is just that Willow, my business! It’s not yours so keep your nose out of it!” She had said it so low and hard that Willow didn’t know what to say.

Giles cleared his throat to get their attention. This was getting out of hand, now was not the time to confront Buffy on her behavior and Willow was certainly not the person to do it. “Now girls we have urgent business to discuss this is not the place nor the time for other things.”

Willow looked to Giles and was about to say something but she stopped when she saw the slight shake of his head. “Alright fine…” She looked back to Buffy who hadn’t moved an inch and whose body language screamed violence. “I’ll keep my nose out of it.”

She sat down almost relieved not to have to go on with the confrontation. But Buffy still stood there not moving, never once taking her eyes off the witch. Everyone waited with baited breath to see what she would do next. Even Spike now sat at the edge of the couch waiting to jump up and protect Red if he needed to.

“Buffy.” Giles called out but she didn’t respond she just stayed where she was staring menacingly at Willow and it was making him nervous. “BUFFY!”

Finally there was a slight twitch in her body and she slowly backed away from Willow and walked over to the kitchen counter where she sat down and stared at the wall in the kitchen.

Giles cleared his throat again. “As I was saying…there is an apocalypse coming and we must prepare ourselves.”

Everyone groaned. “Ohhhh not again! Can’t we ever get a break?”

“Yes, well it would seem not. There is a Hell Goddess making her way to Sunnydale and she is looking for a key to open the portal to her dimension so she can go home.”

Spike guffawed. “Home to a hell dimension? Not a nice place why would she want to do that?”

“It seems that she was kicked out centuries ago and wants to return home to rule. She is searching for the key that will do that.”

“So why come here?” Willow asked.

“Ah Will you do remember we live on a Hellmouth right?” Xander said.

Willow blushed, “Dah well of course we do, but how does she know the key is here?”

Giles kept an eye on Buffy to see if there were any reactions to what he was saying. “It seems that the key was previously being watched over by some monks. Glory, that’s her name by the way, she killed them all trying to retrieve the key but not before they were able to transform it and send it somewhere safe.”

“So what they transformed it into something that’s here in Sunnydale?” Xander asked.

“Yes, well not exactly, not a thing but a…person.”

They all looked at Buffy, all of them thinking the same thing. “It’s not me you morons.” She hadn’t turned around but she had felt their eyes digging into her back.

They all breathed a sigh of relieve.

“Well then who is it?” Tara meekly asked.

Giles looked back to Buffy. “Dawn.”

A round of what’s, you have to be kidding me, and no way’s filled the room. Spike was the first one to jump up and deflate this idea. “No way Rupert. We all have memories of the bit. Besides there’s no way she isn’t human I would smell it.”

As they continued to argue with Giles, Buffy was reflecting on how she felt about hearing that her sister wasn’t her sister. She dug deep inside to find something, anything. She definitely didn’t feel sad; she didn’t feel mad or indignant like the others. There was no urge to protect or scream for justice. She basically felt…nothing.

Giles held up his hands trying to calm everyone. “The monks implanted the memories so that we would all believe her to be real.”

“Yeah, okay but that doesn’t explain the smelling bit.” Spike still protested.

Giles was also perplexed by that he just assumed that it was some powerful magic that the monks had used. “I don’t know why Spike. We must just assume that the monks were able to conceal that some how, I don’t know.”

Looking at Buffy with hard eyes he continued, “They transformed the key into Dawn and sent her here because they knew that the Slayer would protect her with her own life.” They all looked at Buffy sitting there staring at the wall stonily. None of them believed that was the case anymore and they each had their own horrific thoughts of how she would handle this.

“Um…Giles if you don’t mind me asking, how did you find this out?” Tara asked.

“An acquaintance of mine has been researching a prophecy that concerns someone close to him. He came across a section that when he deciphered it, mentioned Sunnydale. He was able to decipher the rest and it clearly states that these events with Glory will happen and that they are all part of the prophecy. He checked with the Watchers Council and so have I, after talking to them they have confirmed this to be true. They also confirmed the death of the monks and that the key has been transformed.”

“Excuse me; did you say Watcher’s Council? Exactly who is this acquaintance of yours Giles?’ Xander asked but he already had a bad feeling about what the answer would be.

Giles watched Buffy like a hawk she hadn’t moved at all, hadn’t said a single word and he didn’t know what to make of it. He knew that the second the word came out of his mouth there would be some reaction, and of course he wasn’t disappointed “Wesley.”

The scrape of her chair against the floor as she violently pushed away from the counter echoed through the silence in the room. “I’ve heard enough I’m leaving.” She headed toward the door.

“Buffy wait we must discuss our plan, what we’re going to do, how we will keep Dawn safe!” Giles screamed at her.

She stopped with her hand on the doorknob. She slowly turned around and looked at her Watcher “There’s nothing to discuss Giles. A hell goddess is coming to town searching for a key to get home. Dawn is that key and I say we hand her over. End of story.” With that said she left with six faces staring at her in utter horror and shock.

Chapter Seven