Dawn sighed and frowned as she stared at the screen of her new Apple iBook. The title of her English paper stared back at her from the top of an empty page, the curser blinking at her mockingly as it waited for her fingers to hit the keyboard. Ahh, who was she kidding, tonight she was all tapped out on the thinking front.
It was probably because her brain was so crammed full of other stuff, non-schoolish stuff, that it didn’t have room to organise and construct an essay on the role of nature in the work of Romantic era poetry. And a lot of that other stuff was pretty damn distracting, like Saturday’s appearance of a two thousand year old, non-corporeal spirit of a Guardian high priestess in their library followed by the arrival of the very much deceased, but recently revived Tara. Dawn hoped she wasn’t a zombie or anything disgusting like that, remembering with a pang her attempt to bring back her Mom. Vampires and werewolves she was okay with, but zombies! Ew!
She hadn’t had a chance to talk to Tara yet, beyond a shy smile from the older girl and a corresponding finger wave from Dawn. Oz had whisked her and Willow away pretty damn quickly and between them, Giles and Rowan, she’d been kept pretty busy over the rest of the weekend. Well Dawn had been pretty busy over the weekend herself. But from what she’d seen, Tara hadn’t looked like a zombie or acted like one. Which duh, it wasn’t like the Guardians would choose a zombie and start training her to be one of their order.
Anyway, Dawn had decided she’d try and steal her away from Willow for a while before dinner. Once she’d finished her homework of course. Or at least finished staring at her homework, whichever came first! At least she had a little bit of spare time to do her homework in, now that she, Andrew and Willow had completed the automated Slayer Tracking Software Package, made seven copies of the software and delivered it to Recruitment teams around the world. It had taken Andrew three weeks, pretty much full time work to write the programme, tie in the mystical components and iron out the bugs, but it was so worth it.
He’d started by adapting one of those wireless network interface thingys, so that instead of sending and receiving information to and from something like a modem, it used good old Slayer essence to ‘scan’ an area and tune into the particular ‘frequency’ or ‘signature’ that Slayers emit. The device used Key energy to power and amplify the signal. Once the transmissions or signals were picked up and decoded by the computer, the data was fed back into an improved version of the identification programme that he’d developed back in July. That software was of course basically a pre-packaged remote hacking programme, designed to access a wide range of local data storage organisations in order to translate the signals into names and addresses
The hacking software was contained on disks, while Andrew had used USB formatted wireless network drives for the scanning interface, adapting the protocols on them then getting Willow to use her telekinetic abilities to channel a dose of Slayer essence from Sagaria and a tiny portion of Dawn’s key energy into each one. Both of these forces were ‘borrowed’ rather than fully appropriated. The USBs only had an operating life of four months, Amazon’s best prediction for the completion of the Recruitment Programme. Once the completion deadline was reached, the interface programme would deactivate and the borrowed energies would be released. Rather than dissipating into the ether, Willow had attached a tracer spell to the extracts, designed to guide them back to their original sources. The short-term impact on Dawn and Sagaria’s powers would be negligible, but long term, it would be zilch.
They’d passed the entire design protocol through Giles first. The technological stuff was of course light years beyond his understanding, but he and Althanea had been scrupulous in checking and rechecking the effects of the magical withdrawal process on herself and the Scythe, so Dawn had felt confident that the procedure would be as painless as Willow and Andrew had made it sound. The only thing that had really worried her was being in the same room with Sagaria and Andrew at the same time, given that the scythe had lately transformed itself into some sort of fricking fertility device.
Sure Andrew was a good friend but the thought of doing the horizontal mambo with him was terrifying enough without adding in the possibility of pregnancy. One – Andrew, two – she was far too young and three – Andrew! It was so not going to happen. And she had a pretty good idea that he would be equally horrified, not just at the thought of having sex with her, but with any girl!
Anyway, all jokes aside, Andrew was awesome at his job. They’d trialled the finished Software package on Saturday afternoon by portalling over to Nandish in Bihar, Northern India. Andrew had installed the software on Nandish’s laptop and opened the programme. They were in Patna, the capital of Bihar, so he’d set the parameters to 380 km, creating enough of a circumference to enclose the entire state. When Andrew pushed start it had only taken 10 minutes to bring up a comprehensive list of the names and locations of 34 girls, including the three girls in the room next door and another three in the province of Jharkhand, just to the south of Bihar.
They’d compared the new list to the one Giles, Cat and Althanea had produced for Nandish only five weeks earlier. The names matched one hundred percent, but two of the girls now had different addresses, no doubt having moved in the interim. The software was a success. Recruitment teams around the world could now install the package and at the touch of a button could identify the slayers in their current area, providing accurate up to date information wherever they went. It would save an awful lot of time and legwork by the Recruitment teams and by rescanning at the end of a recruitment drive, would provide a simple and effective means of verifying that they hadn’t ‘missed’ anyone.
Best of all, as far as Dawn was concerned, it utterly released her from her scanning responsibilities. She’d enjoyed the job at first, proud to be able to finally contribute something to the Scoobies, something pretty damn big in fact, a kind of legacy. And it had been exciting to begin with, the thrill that came from identifying a girl that she would soon get to meet, who would become part of their Amazon family, and come to Ashdown to live and train was amazing. But as the numbers built up, each new girl became little more than a number to her, just another tally mark on the board. Zipping off around the world, either by plane or by portal had also gone from an exhilarating, exotic experience to tedious, annoying and exhausting. She was over it, and now she was free!
She was so grateful to Andrew that she could have almost kissed him. But with, one – essence of Sagaria no doubt leaking out of the hard drive, and two – Andrew, that would have been going too far. So instead, as they’d sat clustered around Nandish’s laptop, she’d squealed and wrapped her arms around him in a big, girly hug. Although, by the looks plastered all over Andrew’s face he was more interested in giving Nandish a big, girly hug, and maybe even a kiss, Sagaria be damned.
They’d spent most of Sunday hand delivering the automated Slayer Tracking Software Package across the Globe. It wasn’t really something you wanted to send through the mail, and the Watchers they delivered it to had to sign a confidentiality contract, promising not to disclose the existence of such a programme to anyone, even their own Slayers. The ramifications of someone unauthorised getting hold of the disc were unthinkable. Dawn shuddered as she imagined Caleb sitting in front of a laptop, printing off hundreds of lists to give to the First’s evil, blind assassins so they could utterly eliminate the world of potentials. Although how the Bringers would have been able to read the lists, what with having no eyes, was beyond Dawn. Still, not good!
So, with Andrew firmly in hand, they’d portalled off to deliver the packages to Sofia in Uruguay, Svetlana in Myanmar, Ekrem in Yemen, Farzan in Pakistan, Lien in Shaanxi and Meredith in Hunan. Nandish and the two Chinese Slayers would be using their software just as backup, what with their I.D. lists having already been created. But for Sofia, Svetlana, Ekrem and Farzan, the resource was critical and meant they would be able to hit the road with their teams the very next day instead of waiting around for Dawn to pop over and scan the area. It really was a win-win situation.
So with that done, it was now Sunday evening and Dawn actually had time before dinner to do her homework, if not the inclination, and some free time besides. It seemed like absolutely luxury after the chaos of the last three months. She figured if she could get the opening paragraph written, then she’d reward herself with a visit to Tara.
She was dying to know how her friend was, how long she’d been with the Guardians and how she was getting on with Willow. Things must be pretty weird with the whole Willow/Tara/Oz dynamic. Awkward much. But strangely, the couple of times she’d seen Oz or Willow since Saturday, neither of them seemed sad or guilty or freaked out. Both of them looked relaxed, happy even. Which was great, cos part of her had always wondered if Willow’s thing with Oz would last if another pretty, sweet, witchy girl turned up, let alone the love of her life, Tara.
She stared back at the screen, trying hard to control and organise her thoughts, force them to consider the poetry of Byron, Keats and Wordsworth. But it was pointless and instead she brought up her newly installed web browser, Safari and started trawling through the Internet. She remembered how Chelsea, one of her new friends at Imberhorne talked about Googling her own name and how funny it was to count the number of results that came up, and read stuff about other people with the same name or even about yourself that you didn’t know was up there.
So, grinning to herself, she typed in ‘Dawn Summers’ and punched the return key. Wow, the results were instantaneous (well 0.22 seconds according to Google!) and there were 19,537 results. Crazy! She started scrolling down the page, glancing at the links for a senior marketing manager in Edinburgh, a yoga teacher in San Francisco and a fashion stylist in London. Cool.
Near the bottom of the page was a link for an organisation called ‘The Glorious Order of the Golden Dawn’. She was going to scroll right past it, figuring that it was just the search engine picking up Dawn and Summers separately, but the two sentence summary below the link caught her eye:
I am About To r32;Share With You a Great Secret, Dear Friend and Seeker of Knowledge and Power, The time is nigh and the One we seek is new come to our shores, her power
Frowning, she clicked on the link, preparing to be met by some group’s earnest accounts of spiritual transformation and enlightenment. She’d briefly studied the history of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in her Religious Studies class and was looking at choosing the magical order as the focus of her elective assignment later in the year. She hadn’t heard of the Glorious Order. Undoubtedly it was simply another one of the various modern Golden Dawn organizations that had sprung up around the world, the majority of them based in the States.
But what Dawn saw on the site first surprised her, then freaked her out. Instead of finding a new-agey discussion about the promotion of philosophical, spiritual and physic evolution through a range of esoteric practices, this Order seemed to be focused on promising its members enlightenment as an outcome of passing through a portal that was controlled by the Gate Mistress. Her heart missed a beat at the use of the title that had been bestowed upon her only days ago. She hoped it was just a coincidence, it sounded like a pretty dungeons and dragons kind of name anyway, so no doubt plenty of people used it.
But the passage at the bottom of the page really alarmed her:
‘Dear Friend and Seeker of Knowledge and Power,
The time is nigh and the One we seek is new come to our shores, her power knows no limits. For she is the Gate Mistress, the Holder of the Key. She dwells in the House of Summers, alongside Warriors and Wiccans, Angels and Demons, Makers and Healers. Glory and divine energy emanate from her, and with a touch she may open up all of the untold dimensions of the universe. She will guide us; she will light the pathways of the divine Sephiroth leading to the Dawn of a Golden Age. She is the earthly embodiment of the Golden Dawn. We await her divine presence.”
There were way too many similarities for it to be a coincidence. She wasn’t sure if they knew exactly where she was, but ‘new come to our shores’ sounded too stalkerish for comfort. Sure enough, although she couldn’t find a contact address or phone number anywhere on the site, their yahoo email address was suffixed .co.uk, so she knew that she was looking at a ‘local’ site. She closed her iBook and disconnected it from the power adaptor. This was too weird to just shrug off. Time to call in the big guns.
~~~
Willow just couldn’t wipe the grin off her face. She couldn’t believe that only five days ago she was so scared and worried about what life was going to throw at her. She’d been terrified that something would be wrong with the baby she and Oz had conceived under such loving but unconventional circumstances. She’d been obsessed with contacting the Guardians and overwhelmed by her work commitments.
Yet within such a short space of time, everything had been turned to rights. Ephesos had set her mind at rest about the baby, and Willow had no reason to doubt her, trusting absolutely in her omniscience. She and Oz were going to have a boy! And he was going to be fine, better than fine, hale and hearty with a boon upon him. Willow had had to open up her online dictionary once they got back to their suite, but now she knew that he was going to be healthy and strong and blessed with great gifts or benefits. So, wow, they couldn’t ask for more than that.
And her little obsession with the Guardians had paid off, big time! To not only be able to successfully summon Ephesos, but to have enlisted the aid of her and her group was a major boost for the future direction and success of Amazon. The knowledge and skills of the Guardians had been seriously under utilized for centuries, and she was so excited that they been able to bridge that divide and bring them on board. They were going to need every bit of help they could get to defeat the Scourge of Amroz.
But on top of that, the offer of training! Ephesos had basically provided a double scholarship to the Post Graduate School of Blessed Guardians, all tuition fees and accommodation paid for. That Willow had been selected as one of postulants was astonishing, and humbling, and a huge compliment. She was almost certain she would accept the position, and she intended to work really hard to prove she was worthy of such an honor.
She’d been more than a little nervous about the workload though. After all she was already Ashdown’s Board Chair, the new non-teaching head of the I.T. Department (although if one of the new appointments worked out she’d be happy to jettison that role), a member of Amazon International’s Executive Council, and she was involved in almost every aspect of running Amazon: from the pragmatic day to day stuff like picking girls up from the airport, arranging moving schedules and overseeing administration; to the masses of research, either historical, prophetic, or mystical; through to undertaking a wide range of magical practices. And on top of that she had a relationship to nurture, and now she was having a baby. Oh Goddess.
She knew Rowan was even more concerned, the workload she had to cope with at Med School was already pretty intense, and once the baby came she was seriously worried about how she’d cope even without the added pressure of Guardian training thrown in. That’s where Tara had come in, explaining that although their physical forms would remain here on earth, the training itself would be inter-dimensional and as such would move within a different time frame from that of Earth’s.
Meaning that an entire day in the Guardian’s transcendental classroom would only steal away an hour of Willow and Rowan’s time here in the physical realm. Their training could take place while they were sleeping, or just in a relaxed, meditative state. And although they’d be attending class together, they didn’t need to synchronize their daily schedules, being quite free to chose different times of the day or even different days of the week to show up at the same class. What’s more, once they signed on the dotted line, they would be granted many of the gifts and abilities that their predecessors shared, including the ability to shift time sideways a little, a very useful skill for time-pressed young women to have.
So Tara’s explanation had set their minds to rest. Which brought up the last, but by no means the least of Saturday’s life-changing gifts. The reappearance of Tara in their lives, not only professionally, in terms of representing the Guardians, but also personally, back to fill the hole that she’d left behind when she’d been taken from them.
Willow would never forget that moment, the moment when Tara opened her eyes, and the feeling of recognition she’d had, right from the very second that Tara’s figure had replaced that of Ephesos’ had burst into a kaleidoscope of color and sound and feeling. More feeling than she’d been able to contain within her body. Which is why she’d had to cry out like a startled bird in the fields. Even as she’d called out Tara’s name, the colors were dazzling her and the sound was deafening her, and she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry or fall to the floor in awe.
Instead she’d run across the circle into Tara’s arms. And it wasn’t until she was wrapped up in them that the thought passed through her mind, ‘Arms! Thank the Goddess she has arms’, remembering Spike’s initial return from the ether, and the slight transparency of Ephesos. What had the priestess said, that her apprentice had had her corporeal form returned to her, as a gift from the Guardians? Maybe she was their star pupil or something and this was a reward for getting good grades. Willow didn’t know and she didn’t care. Well she did care, but hopefully Tara would be able to explain everything later.
And suddenly, at that thought, Willow was laughing and crying and wobbling so badly that if Tara hadn’t been holding her up, she would have surely fallen to the floor. Over Tara’s shoulder she’d seen Althanea carrying her athame and walking widdershins around the circle, thanking the elements and releasing the energy. Then all at once they’d been surrounded, Giles and Buffy and Dawn right in front of them, and Oz pressed up against her right side, directly behind the point where she was joined to Tara. He’d nuzzled into the side of Willow’s neck and enfolded both girls in his strong embrace. Willow had leaned back against him, every cell in her body blissed out by the absolute rightness of being sandwiched between her two soul mates.
It had taken a while to calm everyone down and promise them all the opportunity to hang out with Tara later, ask her all of their endless questions and get her to fill them in on the ‘Important Details’. To be honest, normally Willow would have been pretty curious too, eager to know ‘how’ and ‘why’ and ‘what’ it all meant. But at that moment her brain and her heart were stuck on ‘Yes!’ and everything else just seemed to fall away.
It was Oz who’d settled things down and made their excuses, his voice imbued with a quiet, calm authority that Giles and the others had listened to and respected. They’d held hands, the three of them, as they’d wandered along, Oz leading the way to their suite, as Willow pointed out different buildings and chatted away about what they were doing, what Ashdown was all about. Tara had simply nodded serenely, her lips curved gently in a Mona Lisa smile.
Willow wondered that there hadn’t been a greater sense of awkwardness or angst. The last time they’d met, things hadn’t exactly been a basketful of cute, fluffy puppies between Oz and Tara, more like a room full of crazed, furry wolf. And Oz had been so jealous and angry and out of control, which was totally understandable, well at least the jealous part. But this time, as they’d sat down all snuggly like on the couch, it was hard to pick out who was more calm, Tara or Oz.
It probably hadn’t hurt his wellbeing that the entire time she’d talked to and hugged Tara, she hadn’t once let go of Oz. That was because she didn’t want to let go of him. And that was an eye opener in its self, the realization that no matter what happened with Tara, whether she was back for good or just for a week, whether she wanted to be ‘in’ in Willow’s life or just a friend, she would never leave Oz’ side, they were bonded for life and she loved him deeply. Funny how that went, it had taken Oz coming back to Sunnydale to make her realize how much she loved Tara, now it was Tara coming back from death that had helped to clarify just how much Willow loved Oz.
They’d sat on that couch and talked and laughed for hours, Willow snuggled back against Oz’ warm embrace, her legs draped over Tara’s as their fingers interlocked with one another’s. Tara had described her experiences since parting from her body: the light (pretty), the waiting (boring), the offer (stunning), the welcome (awe-inspiring) and the training (stimulating, challenging, fascinating, rewarding).
Eventually they’d snuck over to the lounge and raided the fridge for supplies, Willow making a plate full of hot, buttery toast, while Oz expertly whipped up three light, fluffy cheese and mushroom omelettes, good enough to impress even Tara with his culinary skills. They’d carried their plates back to the suite, settling back into the couch that fit the three of them so well. Once they were replete, they’d talked some more. Willow explained the whole ‘many Slayers’ tale (most of which Tara knew – the Guardians were watching after all), and Oz shared his journey and how it had brought him back full circle, back to Willow’s arms. Finally, they’d grown tired, and almost without words, they’d stumbled through to the bedroom, tumbling into their big bed, snuggling up against one another like puppies, nothing sexual, but something deeply emotional and belonging about the instinctive act.
So far, today had been much the same, interspersed with walks around the estate and visits from their various friends. But throughout it all they were together. Willow had checked up on how Oz was doing at one stage when Tara had gone to the toilet.
“Oz are you alright with this?” she’d asked quietly.
“Yeah baby, I am surprisingly, I really am.”
“Why? I mean not that I’m not happy, delirious in fact. But I guess I’m just wondering why you’re handling this so well, not a jealous growl in earshot.”
“Don’t know, just want you to be happy I guess. You gonna leave me?”
“No, never Oz, I love you. We belong together.”
“That’s what I thought. Even the wolf, its not worried this time. It sees you as mate, mate for life. Doesn’t mind sharing. Enough beautiful Willow to go round.”
“Hmm. Is there enough gorgeous Oz to go round too?”
“What?” He’d paused, wide-eyed. “You mean …? Well, that’d be up to Tara I guess, but yeah, if you’re okay and she’s okay, guess I could force myself.”
“Ha, wouldn’t be too hard I’d imagine. I mean isn’t that a whole guy fantasy thing, you know, the old ‘two chicks, one dude, ménage a trois’ thingy?”
“Yeah, guess so. But this is different. More about connection than sex. I don’t know, just seems right somehow.”
“Yeah, baby, I know.” She’d paused, reflective for a moment. “Its good isn’t it?”
Oz had just nodded and pulled Willow into his arms, which is how Tara found them when she wandered back into the room. She’d smiled down at them, wisdom and deep affection radiating out of her eyes as they moved aside to make room for her.
There was still a lot to work out, and the whole details package to share, a task that Giles had booked in for after Tara’s ‘Welcome Home’ dinner that evening, but Willow was happy, in fact down right content, scarily so. Tara’s return was like a legacy from the Higher Beings, well at least from the Guardians, and she was going treasure and make the most of such a wonderous gift. But in the meantime, she was going to go and take a shower, make herself presentable for company, while she left Tara in the company of Oz and Dawn, the younger girl having popped in for a squealy, teary, pre dinner visit. Willow was looking forward to the big show and tell and eager to get on with the next stage of her life, the next stage of their lives, together.
~~~
Buffy stepped out of the shower and straight into the warm, fluffy towel that Spike was holding out for her. Not for the first time did she thank the Powers that Be for the seemingly endless supply of hot water they had access to in the Lodge. It never seemed to run out, no matter how long it took for Spike and her to finish up their ‘showering’ routines. And what an awesome ‘shower’ that had just been, her pregnancy somehow elevating her sensitivity and libido. Damn, when you got down to it, she was one horny little bitch these days. Luckily Spike was always up for it, he could match anything she threw his way. And some!
As they got ready for dinner, she couldn’t help but wonder about Tara’s story. Sure they’d popped in to catch up earlier in the day, but neither she nor her room mates were saying too much, promising they’d do a big reveal after dinner. Buffy sighed. She loved these big Scooby meals. They usually tried to coordinate meal times and all get together at least two or three times a week. The tradition served two functions, the communal meal feeding not only their bodies, but also their sense of family and connection, and the setting also providing a perfect setting for their frequently needed group powwows. It had become common practice to save the sharing till ‘after dinner’.
On other nights, at least two or three of them made sure to have dinner with the Slayers, wanting to stop any great divide opening up between the girls and the Exec. Generally they stayed in the dining room for at least two of the four sittings, trying to catch up with the girls in an informal setting. It was an important part of their roles as teachers and mentors and they didn’t mind doing it. But the Scooby dinners were the ones she really looked forward, sitting noisily around the table like the Waltons, talking, and eating and laughing. Of course it didn’t hurt that they ate in the Lounge, which was like twenty feet from her front door. Talk about convenient.
She was going to miss living here in a way; there was such a sense of family within the walls of the Lodge. All of her besties, except Giles and Cat lived right here. But with baby on the way, it was time to start thinking about moving into their own place. There were five houses on the property, all set closer to the road than the main buildings, but still within the circumference of Ashdown’s protection spell. Giles and Cat lived in one of them, and the Downer family were in another. But the three homes in between were vacant and she and Spike had been through them and chosen one they liked. She was almost six months along now, so they still had plenty of time, but she wanted to start choosing furniture and decorating the place over the next month or so. She figured that was the nesting thing kicking in.
It had taken a while, but she and Spike were really on board with the whole parenting deal now. They couldn’t wait, her growing bump and the baby’s movements fostering a deepening connection between the three of them. Buffy felt a profound sense of peace and serenity welling up inside of her, a feeling of utter rightness, of predestination. And for once the whole destiny thing seemed to be a good thing, not bad. She’d spent so much of her life railing against the fates, the Universe, the Higher Powers, whoever or whatever it was that seemed to direct her life, take away her choices and use her like a puppet for their own ends.
But Spike and the baby, this was different. Still seemingly preordained, but so much more like a reward than a punishment that she made sure to voice her gratitude every day. Mainly to Spike, but if whoever wanted to listen in and take credit, well she was cool with that. With that in mind, the whole ‘progenitor of the new order’ thing hadn’t fazed her at all. Made her curious sure, once she’d found out what progenitor meant, but she figured it was probably a good thing, just meant their kid was going to be special and important, a legacy for the future, and she wasn’t going to argue with that.
Buffy finished getting dressed and walked through to the living room where Spike was waiting for her. Hopefully Tara would be able to answer some of their questions tonight, and if not, then oh well, they’d find out sooner or later. They slipped through the door and closed it behind them; then hand in hand, they walked across the courtyard to the Lounge, ready to share food and the secrets of the universe with their friends and family.