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Chapter 46

William caught her before she hit the ground and cradled her inert body tenderly in his arms. Wordlessly, he carried her to the table and took a seat. Focusing on the blond beauty in his embrace, he used his senses to evaluate her condition.

“Is she alright?” Buffy asked fearfully, silently berating herself for not helping the pair earlier.

All eyes focused on the unconscious slayer as if they could wake her by will alone.

Wolfie closed his eyes, reached for his centre and asked for guidance. He was relieved to learn the truth. “She’s fine,” he announced with finality. “The PTB’s needed to talk to her directly. She’ll be back with us soon.”

~*~*~

Buffy/Joan looked around in confusion. Either the library had gone through some sort of instant weird-ass makeover, she had finally suffered that breakdown she had been promising herself, or she had somehow been transported away from her love, family, and friends – none of these options filled her with joy.

“You are our Chosen One. You please us. You are the first to embrace their destiny and their gift.”

Buffy/Joan watched in awe as the golden beauty floated towards her. She knew she was in the presence of a Power, and that it was the same presence that she’d felt in Giles’ apartment when Wolfie had been contacted. She didn’t know whether to bow or kneel or get pissed at being dragged here…and where exactly was here anyway?

“You have our thanks for many things, Chosen One, but we have brought you here for a reason. On your plane you sleep. We are sorry that you were given no notice, but we need your help and knew of no other way to make you understand the urgency of the situation. We also felt that you needed to hear directly from us an absolute truth.” The Goddess smiled benignly at Buffy as her words seemed to bloom in the Slayer’s head.

“We let you go not because we did not want you; your place is assured with us and it broke our hearts to let you return. We let you go because the winged one and the world needed you more. You are our gift, our representative, and one of our two most beloved of children; you and your champion. We love you both and we desperately wanted to keep you, but he needed you to fulfil his destiny. He did not ask, but his heart bled, and you still had so much more to do. We are grieved that you would think for even a fraction of a moment that we did not want you. Never think that, Child of Light. We would keep you close to us always if we could.”

Buffy/Joan felt the trickling of tears as they ran down her face. Her heart lightened and the weight that she felt she had carried forever eased in the face of the sincerity and love she felt pouring from the glowing being that regarded her with such tenderness. She felt the healing that had begun with William’s love finally allow her fractured psyche to mend. The tears of cleansing flowed as she felt herself held and comforted.

~*~*~

“Is there anything we can do? In the meantime, I mean, ‘cause all this sitting here and doing nothing is kinda wiggy,” Willow asked in frustration. It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy to sit around and watch Bu..er Joan sleep, but they still had other things that had to be done, didn’t they?

“Shouldn’t we be concentrating on getting them home?” Jonathan hesitantly asked, not entirely sure that he wanted them to focus on him again, but intuitively knowing that they really did need to address the problem that his future self had clearly been a part of.

“I still don’t understand how it all happened in the first place; what it was that we actually did. Maybe if we knew that we’d be able to come up with something?” Andrew offered carefully.

Giles watched his friend completely tune out the people around him. William held Joan to his chest and stroked her hair as he watched for the smallest sign that she was waking. The watcher had never felt so helpless in his life. He prayed to whoever was listening that the Pure Vampire would not have to wait too long. William looked so very lost.

~*~*~

“Thank you,” Buffy/Joan whispered with heartfelt gratitude. Taking a deep breath the Slayer seemed to straighten and radiate power, stronger than she’d been in a very long time. “You brought me here for a reason?”

“The cursed one.”

She had expected any number of reasons, but the thought of Angel had not crossed her mind for an instant. “Um…you know he’s dust, right?”

The Goddess smiled in amusement.

“Okay! Enough of the cryptic smiling. What exactly is the problem?” the Slayer asked testily, pretty sure that she was so not going to like the answer.

“In your time, he has done much good.”

“And…?”

“We would like to send him back.”

Buffy/Joan gaped at the smiling Goddess. “But he’s nuts!”

“Time flows differently in the plane he was banished to. He has been healed.”

The petite blond rolled her eyes in disgust. “Fine! He’s been healed. But what’s to stop him from becoming all stalker-nutso guy again? What’s to stop the whole possessive vamp crap from starting up again? How can you be sure he won’t start on the whole Spike-is-evil bandwagon, or trying to kill Xander, and what about the shaky soul?”

“All good questions, Chosen.”

“Well, some answers would be of the good!” she snapped sarcastically.

“We would ask that you ask him.”

“Huh?”

The Goddess gently smiled in benevolence as her wishes formed in Joan’s head. “We ask that you meet and talk with him. You still remember some good in him, while your younger self does not. We hope that your approval will pave the way for him to return safely. There is one who can help him move towards his redemption, but we need to get him to his guide, and for that we need you.”

“But I don’t wanna,” she whined.

“Do you chose not to show him clemency?” the Goddess asked with gentle curiousity.

Joan pouted. Being one of the good guys seriously sucked on occasion!

~*~*~

Joan’s eyes fluttered open and the first thing she saw was the love and relief that flittered through the eyes of her vampire. Smiling up at his gorgeous face she gently brushed his cheek with her hand. “Hey, you.”

“Welcome back, beautiful.”

“Do you want the good news, or the bad news?” she asked with a sheepish grin.





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