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Chapter 23

Once Buffy had visibly calmed down, Joyce hesitantly broached the subject that was lying heavily on everyone’s mind. “Was it another memory change, honey?”

Buffy gave a bitter little laugh and held Spike’s arms more firmly around her. “Oh, yeah,” she said, her tone indicating that this one in particular was a doozy.

“What was it, Buffy?” Giles asked with quiet insistence. “Should we be concerned about your younger self?”

“Well, she was freaked, but it was more an ‘I’m so not gonna let Xander know, ‘cause I don’t want to hear the gloating’ way…or a ‘oh, I have to share the wigginess of this with Willow’ rather than the total hysteria that was me,” Buffy told them with a self-depreciating smirk.

“But why did you act that way, Buffy? What did you see?” Dawn demanded. She was feeling a little freaked herself, she didn’t think she’d ever seen her sister react in such a way. Not even before she’d been Chosen.

“It’s kinda hard to explain,” Buffy told them. She knew she had to get it out in the open, because that was the only way she was ever going to be able to understand what she herself had seen. “I was…um…the other Buffy was really excited about the ‘Clear Sight’ spell, um…her, Willow and Xander decided to go downtown and grab some ice-cream and check out what she could see. The ice cream shop is really close to Angel’s and I…er…my younger self thought it would be a good idea to see how the spell effected him.” Buffy took a deep breath, steadying herself before she continued. “When he opened his door…” Buffy faltered. Her heart rate increased, as did her breathing.

“It’s alright, luv, just take your time.” Spike soothed the distressed blond. Buffy immediately felt calmer; Spike’s embrace was like a balm on an open wound.

Closing her eyes to get the picture clearly in her mind, Buffy described to them what she had seen. “There was this…like egg-shaped cage. It was glowing. And then there was this glowing figure next to the cage. I couldn’t see them clearly, but whoever it was seemed to be poking this stick like thing through the bars. Some of the bars looked darker then the others…like dirty water. But what was inside the cage…God…” She shuddered in remembrance. “It was Angel, but it was like a black hole or something, sucking all the light out of everything that touched it.” Buffy lifted tear filled eyes to her shocked watcher. “What does it mean, Giles?”

“Oh…er…” Giles turned panicked eyes towards the representative for the Powers of Good, his look clearly conveyed his message, ‘Bloody hell man, you’re supposed to be the expert on dream and vision analysis, you explain it’.

Gently clearing his throat to gain the attention of the confused blond, Wolfie waited for her to look at him before explaining her vision. “What you saw is a manifestation of the curse, Slayer. The parts that glow are the soul. The being inside the cage is what is left when the soul is removed. It’s clear from what you’ve said that the only part of Angel that has any humanity is the soul itself.”

“What do you mean by a ‘manifestation’ of the curse?” Joyce asked curiously.

“The curse imprisons the vampire within the soul and the cage represents that prison. The being on the outside of the cage is the rest of the soul, and the poking of the stick through the bars is the soul prompting the vampire to feel guilt,” Wolfie explained.

“But…he’s going insane,” Buffy whispered.

Wolfie nodded solemnly in agreement. “Yes, he is.”

“And the dark patches that Buffy mentioned?” Jenny felt her dread rising. She had a very bad feeling about this.

“The soul is being corrupted.”

~*~*~

“Buffy, I think you need to tell Giles what you saw,” Willow advised her best friend.

“I will, but please don’t say anything in front of Xander; you know how he gets,” Buffy pleaded with the redhead. She loved Xander, but he could be a serious butthead on occasion.

“Of course not, Buffy. No telling of Xander. My lips are sealed. But maybe you should talk to Miss Calendar, too. I mean; her ancestors did the spell in the first place, so she should be able tell you what it all means.” Willow excitedly bounced in her seat. Although she wasn’t excited about the obvious crushage than Xander still had going on for Buffy- ‘cause that was so not something to be excited about- the cool computer teacher that just happened to do magic was another story. Now that was something to get excited about!

“What ‘what’ all means?” Xander asked as he rejoined the girls at their table in the Ice Cream Emporium. Double chocolate goodness always made him happy.

“Oh…um, just that Miss Calendar will probably be able to tell us all about the spell.” Buffy smiled innocently at her curious male friend.

“Good idea,” Xander replied through a mouthful of ice cream.

~*~*~

“How come everyone else just glows, but with Angel I got the whole shebang?” Buffy grappled for something to take her mind off the whole corrupting of soul business.

“It seems you won’t have to work too hard on accessing your unused abilities.” Wolfie smiled cryptically.

“My what huh?” Buffy stared at the giant redhead blankly.

“Really! Must you, Buffy?” Giles sighed in exasperation.

Buffy grinned wickedly at her watcher and replied, “oh I must, I must.” Teasing Giles really did make her feel better.

Chuckling quietly at the quick-witted slayer, Wolfie explained, “You have the ability within you to see the lightness or darkness of each individual…much like some people can see auras. When you add that ability to the spell that your lovely friend here has done, you get what you saw with the Cursed One.”

“I miss Tara,” Buffy whispered as the mention of auras bought the gentle Wicca to mind.

Spike's head popped up. “When we get this all figured out, we'll see what we can do for the little witch, luv.” Spike was thinking that a little road trip out to bloody Podunk County wasn’t such a bad idea.

“So…what? She’ll be able to tell who’s good and who’s bad just by looking at them?” Dawn asked, not at all sure she liked that idea. Dawn could just see Buffy somehow using it to sabotage her when she was finally allowed to start dating. It was already gonna be hard enough with Spike and his tendency to be a little overprotective, she so didn’t need an all-knowing, interfering sister, too.

“Not exactly. The Slayer will be able to tell who she can trust and who she may have to keep an eye on. I suppose it could be best called having heightened insight,” Wolfie clarified for the young teen.

“Why has Xander’s humanity got a dark edge to it?” Buffy asked the question that had so concerned her younger self.

“I can answer that,” Jenny spoke up. “Seeing darkness in the glow of humanity indicates that the person has the potential for strong negative emotions like hatred or jealousy. If his humanity is surrounded, it means that he is letting those emotions rule him. Xander is going to have to be handled very carefully.”

“Perhaps I can help. You are having a meeting tomorrow night to discuss the matter of our time travellers, right?” Wolfie asked and waited for conformation before continuing. “Being told by a representative of the Powers of Good that he is considered the resident expert on the subject of temporal paradoxes will encourage his positive emotions to resurface, if we are careful.”

Spike gave a hoot of disbelief. “Hang about. You mean the whelp’s a bloody expert on something besides Twinkies and cheese curls?” and

Wolfie sent him a pointed look. “You should know better than anyone that things aren’t always as they seem, vampire.”

In spite of Spike’s amusement, the idea that Wolfie should accompany Giles had merit and was quickly agreed with by the rest of the group.

“Well, now that we’ve covered all that, we should really begin preparing for the ritual. We only have a few hours before we will need to leave,” Wolfie suggested. “That is, if you’ve decided to go ahead with it?”

“Ritual? What ritual?” Buffy asked. Her eyes narrowed as she focused in on the two individuals that seemed to have a clue as to what the giant redhead was talking about.

“Oh…er…” Giles hastily removed his glasses and proceeded to clean them as he stuttered in the face of his Slayers wrathful expression.





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