Anais Nin
Suddenly Buffy could feel her own temperature rising as she put her hands on her hips and glared at Angel.
“Look here,” she shouted, “you were the one that walked away from me, the one that wanted me to have a life. Well I just might have a chance to do that if we can complete this mission. And no, I’m not going to tell you who the father is until he knows himself. I’m sorry if you got the wrong idea in Sunnydale, but my heart belongs to another. Go home Angel, there’s nothing for you here,” she yelled before stopping and turning back to him. “Oh yeah, and thanks for helping us out with the info,” she added awkwardly.
Buffy walked the few yards back to her hotel room, where she met Wesley standing by her door.
“Well this is going to be a very unpleasant ride back to the office,” he grimaced as he nodded farewell to her, then followed Angel down the hall to the elevators.
As Buffy stepped back into the room, she was greeted by the sound of Xander in full rant.
“Well I don’t like it. I don’t trust him and I don’t trust his evil empire either. We’re asking for trouble having anything to do with Angel,” he argued.
“Look Giles, Xander’s right,” Faith stated. “Maybe not about Angel, cos on his own I’d trust him fine. But that Wolfram and Hart deal! I’ve had dealings with those guys before and they’re not only evil but they’re players with a capital P. If the amulet came from Lilah Morgan then you know it’s got to be trouble. That woman is a total bitch and she’s been after Angel for years. I can’t understand why he’s done it but Angel’s made himself a deal with the Devil.”
“Yeah,” Buffy sighed sadly as she shut the door, walked back to her seat and sat down again. “The whole thing seems totally freaky. And on top of that, I already have to deal with a jealous, angry ex-boyfriend. And that’s before he’s even found out that I’m in love with Spike, that the baby I’m having is Spike’s, that the reason for our mission is Spike. When he hears about that he’s gonna totally flip.”
“I do agree with all of your concerns,” Giles said “but we don’t seem to have any alternative at this stage.”
“Maybe, while we’re waiting we could just get out there and hit the streets anyway. You know, ask around, see if we can suss out any magickal users. We could check occult book shops and magic suppliers or-or any demon bars,” Willow suggested, getting excited as she considered the possibilities.
Everyone agreed to that suggestion so in small teams they hit the streets. However none of their subtle enquiries or witchy sensing turned up anything. The locals either didn’t know anything, or if they did, they were reluctant to say. A heavier hand would have done nothing but tip off the sorcerer involved.
As dusk settled over L.A. they returned to the hotel wearily, disheartened by their lack of progress. Buffy was just swiping her card key through the lock when she heard the phone begin ringing in her room. She pushed through the door quickly and dashed over to snatch the receiver up.
“Hello,” she panted into the phone.
“Ah, hello, Buffy?” she could recognise Wesley’s voice on the other end of the phone.
“Hey Wes,” she replied. “What have you got for us?”
“Well, rather a lot actually. I must say that what I’ve uncovered is rather intriguing and more than a little unsettling. I’d rather come over there to share this information with you. I could be there in half an hour if that suits you,” Wesley offered.
Buffy accepted, and 29 minutes later when he knocked on the door of her suite, it was to find the whole crew assembled much as they had been when he’d left earlier in the afternoon. He wasted little time, launching straight into his findings.
“It appears that the Amulet was acquired by Wolfram and Hart about two months ago,” Wesley began. “I’ve done a fair bit of digging on this amulet and it turns out that it is one of the legendary Amulets of Atar. In the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, Atar was represented by fire, both burning and unburning, and also visible and invisible. Fire was worshipped as an agent of ritual purification and one of the central means by which judgment could be passed and cleansing attained. Zoroastrians called this ‘ordeal by fire’. Passing this test would allow the participant to achieve spiritual and physical strength and wholeness and attain truth, love and life through enlightenment.” Wesley paused waiting for the excited murmurs to fade.
“The Amulets of Atar were fashioned from gold and contained mystical symbols and designs. Their purpose was twofold. First to extend the purification ritual beyond the wearer and secondly to elevate the wearer to the plane of enlightenment after they had passed through the ring of unburning fire.”
“So do you think it at all possible.” Giles interrupted thoughtfully, “that this ‘ring of fire’ could refer to some sort of portal?”
“Hmm, I guess it’s possible,” Wes pondered. “Why do you ask? You know you’ve never really said what happened in Sunnydale. Was this amulet somehow involved in the closure of the Hellmouth?”
Giles looked at Buffy, who nodded at him before he began. “Wesley, I am going to be quite frank, none of us trust Wolfram and Hart at all, and we cannot understand why either Angel or yourself have made this decision to work for them. If you think that you can change things from within then I believe you are fooling yourselves. We also feel divided on whether or not we can trust Angel himself. We are grateful that you’ve spent so much time helping us and we’d like to disclose the full story of our mission to you. But before we do so,” Giles looked at Wesley, with a serious expression on his face, “we will need your absolute assurance that none of this will get back to Angel or anyone at Wolfram and Hart.”
Wesley paused, looking thoughtful, before he responded to Giles’ request. “Well of course, you have my assurance, that goes without saying. And I think I shall also need to take extra precautions when carrying out any research or enquiries related to this project. It seems that Wolfram and Hart are going to be quite heavily implicated in this whole affair. Now more than ever, I think I must be privy to what the facts of that affair are.”
So they sat and explained to Wesley everything that had happened right from Spike’s role and the events that took place in the Hellmouth, to the research that Giles and his team had uncovered in England about Sagaria and the Legion of the Light, through Buffy’s dreams and the conception of her child and Rowan’s role in the prophecy. Wesley asked questions along the way, expressing astonishment or concern as befitted the story; all the while the gleam in his eyes steadily grew as he began to slot together parts of the tale they were telling with the puzzle pieces that he himself held. Finally they explained how Rowan’s locator spell had been blocked since they’d arrived in L.A.
“Right, well, that certainly is an amazing story. I can’t believe I’m saying this Buffy, but we’re going to get Spike back for you so that you can prepare for the birth of your baby together. Then we can get this prophecy sorted and another big evil kicked into touch.” Wesley rubbed his hands together as he prepared to get down to business.
“Everything you’ve told me about the effects of the Amulet Angel gave Buffy point to this indeed being one of the famed Amulets of Atar. And given Rowan’s visions and Buffy’s dreams, plus the results of the original locator spell, I must concur, it seems that Spike continues to exist somewhere, either on this plane or another. But whether, as Rupert has proposed, the Amulet acted as a portal to another plane, one perhaps of enlightenment, or whether Spike is somehow trapped within the Amulet itself, then it is clear that finding the Amulet is the key to recovering Spike.” Wes became more animated as the connections lined up in his mind.
“But wouldn’t the Amulet still be lying at the bottom of that cesspit we lovingly refer to as Sunnydale?” Xander queried.
“Not necessarily. In fact I’m quite certain it has been recovered, more than likely by mystical means rather than physical, and undoubtedly quite soon after the collapse. The parties concerned would probably have only waited a week or two, just long enough to assume that grieving relatives or nosy reporters would have drifted away.”
Willow bit her lip and frowned as she listened to Wesley’s speculation. Something tickled the edges of her memory but she couldn’t drag it forward into the light.
“Okay, so the key to this mystery is the Amulet of Atar. Now, the firm’s Accounting Department runs like a tight ship. I was able to find out from their records exactly when the Amulet was acquired, from whom and how much was paid. Interestingly the amulet was obtained from a business associate of Wolfram and Hart’s, an associate who also happens to be on the list of local practitioners of the dark arts. But for the Amulet he was paid very little, particularly when you consider the almost priceless value of the artifact itself alongside its astonishing powers. I have been considering the idea that perhaps the sum represented a rental fee rather than an outright purchase, in which case ownership of the amulet would then revert back to the sorcerer himself.”
“Oo, oo, oo,” Willow interrupted. “I’ve been trying to remember something and it’s finally come to me. Buffy, Dawn and I spent some time together out at the site a day or two before we left the Sunnydale crater to fly out to England. Just as we were arriving that morning, a big black limousine was pulling away from the crater. I remember thinking at the time how weird it was ‘cos it looked very expensive and shiny and kinda outta place next to the dusty crater and they sorta squealed out of there as we pulled up. I tried to look inside but the glass was all darkened and I couldn’t see anything and they were going pretty fast. It was definitely weird, don’t you think so Buffy?”
“Um, well,” Buffy’s forehead crunched up in concentration and she bit her lip. “I can only vaguely recall that. I kinda had other things on my mind at the time,” she shrugged. “Sorry.”
“No, that’s fine Buffy,” Wesley assured her. “Willow, can you remember any other details about the car itself, or the exact date and time you saw it.”
“Well the date’s easy, cos it was the day before we flew out, so the 31st May and it was early, about eight in the morning I figure. And I know I looked at the license plate, but after all these weeks I can’t remember it,” Willow admitted disappointedly.
“Hmmm, maybe, if you were to be placed in a meditative state, you’d be able to recall the plate number,” Wesley mused. “Meditation is an excellent way to reach a state of deep relaxation where you can often focus your mind on a particular action or event.”
“I’ve worked on self-meditation techniques,” Oz volunteered. “Could help.”
“Yes, thank you Oz. Perhaps if you and Willow could go and find a quiet spot shortly then you could have a go at recovering that number. It may be merely coincidental, or it may prove crucial in helping us trace where the amulet is now. In the mean time I’d like to find out a little more about the warlock who provided Wolfram and Hart with the amulet.” Wesley paused before recounting his recent findings. “Looking back over the Law Firm’s records, it appears that the firm has used this sorcerer frequently. In fact, he received an astronomical amount of money for services rendered less than two weeks after the acquisition of the amulet, on the same day that Angel accepted responsibility for running Wolfram and Hart. I’d very much like to uncover what service he provided that required such a large payment.”
“Do you know this warlock’s name?” Giles inquired.
“Oh sorry, did I not mention it before,” Wesley looked around the room. “His name is Cyvus Vail.”