The Truth Is A Double Edged Sword
Anya stepped out of the magic shop and into the bright morning sun. She loved the feel of its warmth on her face.
She was feeling particularly pleased with herself at the moment. No only had she managed to sort out Giles’ storage of magic supplies, but she had been able to get everything on her list to completely restock it at a fraction of what it should have cost. If that wasn’t enough to give her a happy, then the discovery of the three books was. A quick glance through them had confirmed what she remembered. These weren’t council approved books and the information in them would be invaluable to team Slayer.
Adjusting her load, she prepared to make her way back to the ex-Watcher’s apartment.
“I knew it was a spell,” a voice snarled out from the darkness of the alley. “I will find a way to stop you.”
Anya turned towards the gravelly voice. Peering into the darkness, she recognized the hulking form of the vampire that claimed people and then ran away.
And Anya got pissed.
“I was having a perfectly lovely morning and now you’ve ruined it for me,” she chided. “Do you know what an idiot you are? I’m picking up supplies to re-stock Giles’ magic stores. There is no spell, but I promise you this; if you don’t stop trying to get to William, Giles will need to be quick indeed to get to you before I do. You have caused enough damage to the people I care about. I will not allow it to continue.” Anya gave him one last disdainful glare before marching away.
~~~~~~~
When the ex-demon entered the apartment, she saw that the other three had congregated around the small statue of Willow. Placing her purchases on the table, she brought them up to date.
“I got everything on the list, including some books that you will find very helpful, Giles. I also told off Angel, and why is everyone looking at Willow?”
Giles found himself smiling at the delightfully abrupt subject changes that the ex-demon seemed to excel at. Without a word, he moved to the side so that the girl could see the statue in question. His eyes narrowed when she gasped.
“What is it, Anya?”
The ex-demon raced forward, scanning the statue carefully from all angles. “It’s changed. Her whole aura has changed.”
“How is that possible?” Giles asked.
“Is this of the good or of the ‘I-so-don’t-want-to-know’ variety?” Buffy interjected her own concerns.
“Well, it seems someone said something that got through to her. All the darkness that was starting to form has completely gone. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her aura this pure. We should still bind her, just to be safe, but the binding doesn’t need to be permanent, now. The changes show that she’s willing to learn,” Anya told them. She knew that the little witch had only tolerated her because she was dating Xander, so there was a possibility that when Willow was made human again she would try to shut her out. Anya was taking a huge leap of faith that her newfound friendship with Buffy, Giles, and William would be strong enough to allow her to stay.
“Buffy?” Giles was extremely curious to know what his slayer had said to the wayward witch. He’d never known Buffy to be eloquent enough to be able to use words as a problem solving tool. She usually preferred a far more physical approach.
Buffy looked uncomfortable. Speaking to a statue was one thing, but actual conversation…with talking and answers, possibly explanations…so not something she enjoyed. “There was talking…it was a thing,” she mumbled as she uncomfortably shifted from one foot to the other.
Giles smiled at the fidgeting girl. “Then I’m glad we were able to leave you alone so that you could do your ‘thing’, Buffy.”
The binding spell did not take long as Willow was not under the umbrella of the protection spell. The Discovery Spell would take longer.
“I don’t believe I am familiar with this spell, Anya. Can you explain it?” Giles asked eagerly.
Anya tilted her head to the side, obviously trying to think of the best way to explain it. “Well it’s kind of a combination between a location spell and Cloutier’s Tirer la Couture spell.”
“Rotate many foodstuffs?” Buffy showed her complete lack of French.
William smiled indulgently as he gently corrected her, “Pull the curtain back.”
“It’s a spell to see spells. Well, a trance to see spells, actually, but you get the idea. In this case, I’ll be looking for a specific thing, though, not a spell but something unnatural,” Anya explained.
“What do you mean ‘see’ spells?” Buffy wanted to know all the details on this one. She was a little nonplussed by her terror at the thought of anything happening to William and therefore Spike. They had never had that kind of relationship before. So why was she virtually shaking in her stylish yet affordable boots at the mere thought of endangering him further by mystical means?
“Every thing leaves a trace signature. It's just imperceptible to the human eye. In this case, it could be a bright light surrounding William’s head,” Giles offered a simplistic description.
“Or a cloud of mist around him,” Anya added with an admiring glance at the watcher.
“Okay, so you'll do what the French guy did and then you should be able to see what the commandos did to Spike, right?” Buffy asked anxiously.
“I’ll be able to see if what I suspect is right. If they put something in his head, I’ll know.” Anya corrected firmly. She didn’t want Buffy thinking the wrong thing.
“We’ll be able to see,” Giles firmly announced. He had no intention of not participating. William was family after all.
Buffy sat next to William and held his hand. She hid a smile when the demon immediately began to purr, much to William’s embarrassment.
Giles and Anya moved the coffee table and positioned themselves on the floor in front of them. With the use of candles, incense, and carefully regulated breathing, the pair of them slipped into a trancelike state with surprising ease.
‘Giles? Can you hear me?’ Anya’s voice resonated clearly through his mind.
‘Yes,’ he responded.
Both looked to the couple in front of them. Giles was immediately relieved to see the pulsating red glow emanating from the back of William’s head. ‘You were right. It’s an unnatural device of some sort.’
‘Giles? Why didn’t you tell me that Buffy was immortal?’ Anya asked, her voice laced with innocent curiosity.
‘What are you taking about?’ Giles had no idea what the ex-demon was referring to. His slayer was human, not immortal.
‘You didn’t know,’ she murmured to herself. Making a snap decision, Anya decided to explain to the watcher what it was they were seeing. ‘If you look at me you’ll see that I’m surrounded in a faint green light. Now, look at your hand. Do you see it?’
Giles followed her direction. A clear green light did indeed seem to encompass the girl, and the same light surrounded his hand. ‘What does this mean?’ he asked, intrigued.
‘Green is the colour of earth. It means that we are both bound by the laws of earth’s nature. We live and then we die. Blue is the colour of the immortal sky. It’s the colour that we’d see surrounding that broody, claim abandoning vampire. But both Buffy and William are a mixture of both, which means that they are both immortal, but they can die like a mortal.’ Anya pondered for a moment, her agile mind trying to come up with a plausible reason for Buffy’s unexpected immortality. ‘Buffy died, didn’t she?’ she asked after a moment. She mentally berated herself for not paying closer attention to Xander’s Buffy stories.
‘Well yes, but it was only for a few moments,’ Giles responded uncomfortably. The death of his slayer would always be a difficult subject for him.
‘But another slayer was called, right?’ Anya mentally bounced in excitement. She felt rather that heard Giles’ agreement. ‘Then that’s when it happened. There should be more information in those books I got today, we can look at them and find the answers.’
Both came out of their trances filled with a sense of purpose and excitement. There was a lot of work ahead.
By silent but mutual agreement, neither Giles nor Anya mentioned Buffy’s immortality. All focus was on the object in William’s brain. The problem with removing the object- or at the very least deactivating it- was that to do so the protection spell had to be removed. Neither of them wanted to risk being without the protection spell for very long while Angel was still lurking about.
“Can you not remove just my protection from the spell? That way at least the rest of you would be protected,” William tentatively offered his opinion.
“No, it’s all linked. Look, removing the protection spell doesn’t take any time at all, and if we have everything set up and ready to go, I can remove the object and then redo the protection spell straight away. It will mean we are only without protection for about thirty minutes,” Anya said decisively.
“But won’t that be too much for you, Anya?” Giles asked, greatly concerned.
“As long as I get a good night’s sleep and properly prepare myself before I do the spell tomorrow, all I’ll probably need after is a little nap. I’ll be fine, Giles,” she assured him.
After they had all eaten, they settled down for a quite evening. William was getting weaker by the hour and they had all insisted that he lay down on the couch and rest. A sharp rap on the door had Buffy on her feet and hovering protectively at his side.
Sharing a speculative glance, Anya and Giles both moved towards the door, with Giles reaching to open it.
“Oh joy, Angel is back and look, he’s brought a friend,” Giles drawled sardonically.
“You’re very good at sarcasm, Giles. I’ve always thought so,” Anya complemented the watcher pleasantly.
“Thank you, Anya,” Giles replied as he gave the ex-vengeance demon a little bow.
Turning back to the two slack-jawed visitors, Giles playful expression changed to that expression of utter boredom that only the British excelled at. “What do you want?”
“I just want to know what’s going on. Can we come in so we can talk about it?” Angel struggled to be polite to the other man.
“What would be the point of doing the disinvite spell if he invited you in?” Anya’s tone indicated that she thought the vampire was incredibly stupid for even making such a suggestion. She totally ignored the other visitor. “Why is it any of your business anyway? Didn’t Buffy tell you to leave?” Turning to Giles and not waiting for a reply, she asked her next question, “Doesn’t leaving here imply actually going someplace that’s not here?”
Giles repressed the urge to smile at her antics. “Yes, it does, Anya,” he assured her.
“Well, that’s good. So you should go now. Goodbye.” Anya reached for the door.
“Wait!” Angel shouted angrily.
“Enough already, Ahn!” Xander snarled as he moved to push past the dour vampire, only to be stopped by the invisible barrier at the front door. “What the hell?” he sputtered.
“Giles,” Anya chortled as she clapped her hands in delight. “You used the new spell I found!”
Giles smiled proudly. “Yes, I thought it prudent. It’s a wonderful spell, keeps out all manner of degenerates and monsters.”
“HEY! What’s with the name calling?” Xander asked, shocked at their callous treatment of him.
“Tell me, Xander, do you have any missing time yesterday?” Giles asked with deceptive mildness.
“How did you know about that?” Xander hadn’t said a word to anyone, so he was shocked that the watcher knew.
“Yesterday evening Willow did another spell. Those of us that were here were protected, but you, Cordelia, Oz, Angel, and Willow were not. The spell caused you all to lose three years of your memories. To get those memories back a reversal spell was performed with Buffy acting as anchor. As all of your memories returned, Buffy experienced them. All of them.” Giles stressed the ‘all’ and watched in disgust as the two individuals paled and then blustered.
“What’s that got to do with me? I didn’t do the spell,” Xander snapped indignantly.
“It’s not my fault, Giles. I’m a victim too,” Angel whined.
Buffy walked to the door, turning first to Angel. “The day you had the Oracles to take back.” When he blanched even further, she turned to Xander. “Hyena possession and fantasies.” She gave him a small, bitter smile when his brown eyes bugged out and his mouth dropped open.
With barely restrained violence, Buffy closed the door in their faces.