Things were getting worse for Willow. While she had thought that the magic attraction on the Hellmouth had been bad? Things were so much worse here. The darkness kept calling. Like an evil voice whispering to her that she was to just simply give in.
Her encounter with that girl a few days ago hadn't helped. The urge to just simply drain her of the obvious magical inside of her had been big. She hadn't done it though, but it was getting so much harder. To the point where she /had/ to use magic every day or...
The red head made darn sure no one noticed though. Lessons were well learned, and hiding this was one of the hardest.
She's snuck into the room before everyone else, pretending to read a book. Carefully she watched them trickle in. Caution growing as Giles entered and confusion when Xander did. She'd been so busy she hadn't noticed her best friend getting hurt? What the huh happened there?
Puzzled by this, she frowned over her book and kept watching the others. Wondering what this meeting was about this time. Always something going on here. Apparently.
When Dawn saw Xander and Giles come in, she ran up to Xander and then remembered to give him a soft hug to make sure that she didn't hurt him any worse than he already was. "Are you going to be OK, Xander?" she asked him.
Xander gave her a nod. "Yeah, kiddo. I'm gonna be hunky-dory. It's just a flesh wound." He let Giles help him sit down on the sofa so that he could relax and they could figure out just what Buffy had called this little meeting for. Xander couldn't help but feel a little happy that they were having a Scooby meeting again. It was kind of like old times. You know, before stuff like life got in the way.
Dawn nodded and sat down beside Xander. She was a little curious as to what was going on, too. Since running into Jason at Merlotte's (and having tons of fun that night), she had started the process of getting enrolled in Louisiana Tech University and getting her transcripts transferred over there. This wasn't going to be an overnight process, but at least she was starting to HAVE a life again. That's what was important to her right now. She wasn't stuck as a giant or a centaur. She was herself again...whatever that really meant.
She looked over at Buffy. "So, what's up? Everything OK?" She thought on that statement for a moment. "Well, other than the obvious stuff, is everything OK?"
Buffy heard a car pull up and breathed a sigh of relief. Xander was back, brought by Giles, which meant he was going to be perfectly fine. Not that she had any doubt, but it was nice to have a full house. She smiled at him when he came inside, giving him a one-armed hug on his good side, "Glad to have you back, Xan."
Soon Willow and her thankfully not-a-centaur-anymore sister came into the room. She realized she hadn't seen the redheaded witch in days, having been so busy in Shreveport and then with the evil Slayer. She would definitely have to schedule some sort of ice cream and/or alcohol-related outing to catch up.
She stood in the center of the room, glancing around at the surprisingly eager faces, clasping her hands together. "Yes, things are okay, for the most part. Before I go into the sort of upcoming plan, I should tell you and Will what happened the other day." She sucked in a breath, "So, as you know, Faith, Xander, and I went after a rogue slayer, who was doing more killing than good. Things got complicated and she was...accidentally stabbed to death." That was a nice, clean way of putting it, right? "And she hurt Xander in the process, but he's totally a-okay now," she said, offering him a relieved smile.
"But, that's all taken care of. It sucks a lot and was an awful situation, but we're trying to move past it. So, anyway, some of you know I've been working for this vampire sheriff guy named Eric in Shreveport. He owns that tacky vampire bar Fangtasia," she said, rolling her eyes once more at the name.
"Anyway, when he was giving me my list of baddie vamps to take out, these two random vampires tried to kill us. Obviously we took care of them, but the one said they were sent by someone to stop slayers and vampires who were taking out their own kind." She pulled the wallet she retrieved from the vampire out of her back pocket, "Says he's from Georgia. So, Eric and I, along with whoever else wants to go, were going to do a little recon to see if we can find out who wants us dead so badly."
It had never been that far-fetched for people wanting to kill her, but when it was someone not affiliated with the government, who currently thought she was a terrorist, she was definitely curious.
"Glad to be back," Xander said to Buffy as she hugged him, giving her a slight hug back. He was only a little doped up from the hospital still. While he couldn't put up a fight with the intravenous drugs, he wouldn't take the pills that they gave him while there. Ever since he found out that Buffy was calling a meeting, he wanted to be at least somewhat clear headed for it.
Giles himself sat down after helping Xander to his seat so that he could listen to Buffy talk about what was going on with her. She had mentioned something to him about working with that vampire who ran Fangtasia, and Giles had spent some time after that doing some research on the vampire in question, Eric.
"I'm sure that's not the first time someone's wanted to try and kill Eric, Buffy," Giles pointed out simply. Of course, he certainly wished anyone trying to do so a lot of luck, considering simply the vampire's considerable age. "Those vampires probably want to take out anyone working along with Eric at the moment."
Xander didn't like the sound of this Eric guy as soon as he heard about him. Not shocking, since Xander would always have a few issues with trusting vampires. He could tell that Giles wasn't feeling all that trusting, either, but Giles was always tactful, and at least bringing up good points. "Well, if you're wanting to go along with Eric, then I'm going, too, big wound or no big wound."
Huh. She had certainly missed a lot while strolling around the place. Like, apparently, her best friend getting hurt. And Giles arriving. And Slayer hunting. And if Faith had been here then where was Faith?
A slow smile slipped on her face and she quickly ducked her head while she hid there in her comfortable shadow corner.
Faith. Oh yes. Faith would understand her. Not her friends. No, never her friends. Not after the last time. They'd all freak out and Giles would give her another lecture and... she should have killed him when she the chance way back then.
The man was going to be a problem now. She just knew it. And if the fact that she barely cared about her best friend getting hurt or that she just idly in passing thought she should have killed Giles? Had any effect on her, it didn't show at all.
She only focused half on the conversation really. Buffy always did love to hear herself talk. As long as the hero Buffy was the center of attention the little Slayer was happy. Dumb girl. Who in the huh cared about some vampire guy in whowhatwheresit. Buffy did, of course. Knowing Buffy, Willow thought with a snort, she probably found the guy hot. Like Spike and Angel.
Heh. Typical. Ohhh, it was already 'Eric and I'? Go figure.
Dawn couldn't help but be fascinated by the idea that Buffy was working with yet another vampire. You'd think that she'd have learned her lessons with Angel and Spike, but Buffy was nothing if not consistent in the men she chose. Dawn just hoped that she didn't get seriously 'involved' with Eric.
While Dawn was distracted by the idea that her sister was going to be working closely with yet another vampire, Xander was noticing that something was a little off about Willow. Ever since he had proven that, occasionally, he could be a bit dense in noticing stuff going on with his friends (the whole year of Buffy being taken from heaven/Willow going evil/him and Anya's total relationship had proven that he could be dense if nothing else), he was really trying to keep up with his friends, and Willow seemed...off. He couldn't put his finger on it. He'd have to talk to her later about it.
"If you go...I may stay here," Dawn said to Buffy. "I'm trying to get enrolled in Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, and, since they're on the quarter system, I can actually get in fairly soon." She thought the system was weird, but it meant that she could get into school all the quicker and be more normal again. Yay for her!
Buffy listened to Giles without interruption. She was trying to reconnect with him and after everything that had happened the past couple days, the last thing she wanted to do was give him a reason to be angry or leave again. She needed him with her on this and everything to come--whatever that might be.
"True," Buffy agreed with Giles. "He just thought it was bizarre because our agreement is supposed to be a secret between the two of us. So, someone has found out somehow and they're coming after us to stop us from killing more vampires." Although most of this was speculation, she knew that if a vampire was after her, it wasn't long before they came after everyone in her life.
She looked at Xander and her eyes narrowed with concern, "Are you sure, Xander? I don't want to keep putting you in harm's way." Again. She couldn't help but feel extremely guilty as she looked at him; eyepatch over his eye from putting him in danger several months ago, and a wounded arm from putting him in danger the other day.
She nodded to Dawn with a hint of a proud smile, "That's totally fine. I'm glad you're doing that."
Glancing around the room, Buffy realized Willow hadn't said anything and was sticking to the shadows. She tilted her head curiously, "Will? What's up? Are you interested in coming along? We might need your witchy powers for locator spells and whatnot."
Giles couldn't help but smile at the idea that Dawn was so into the idea of getting her schooling going again. Of course, he understood that it was partially for her wanting to get back to a semblance of a normal life (as much as she could truly get, anyway), but it was still admirable that she was wanting to go back to school. He knew that she hadn't gotten far into her schooling when she was first turned into a giantess.
"Someone found out about your agreement?" He knew that she had told him in a coffee shop when they first ran into each other. "Do you think some contact overheard our first conversation?" That would be bad. He would feel terrible if something like that happened.
Xander was still slightly distracted because of his studying of Willow that he didn't realize that Buffy had addressed him for a moment. He jerked to look in Buffy's direction when he did pick up on it. "If anything, it's kinda me putting myself in harm's way," he said to her with a slight grin. "You'd think I'd learn after a while that things like to attack me, huh?" One eye and now a stab wound. You'd really think that he'd learn.
Xander glanced back toward Willow when Buffy pointed out just how quiet and shadow-sticking-to that she had been since she had come down. "You OK, Will?" he asked her.
Blah, blah, blah. Buffy and vampires, blah blah blah. Always the same. Actually, now she didn't much regret missing most of what was going on. It was boring and she was getting tired of the dramatics already. She could be in town, meeting new friends.
She looked up when people finally noticed her. Good old reliable Willow, always going unnoticed until it was too late. Nothing changed there either. She put on her usual cheery smile and nodded.
Dawn was falling right into the trap of not noticing Willow, unfortunately. She already had ideas of school books and parties and boys dancing in her head to really be able to think much about anyone else. She was going to get to be a normal person again! She was so excited about such a concept that she was about to burst. And both Giles and her sister were proud of her wanting to focus on her school work in order to go running around with a vampire to figure out who was stalking who or whatever. Made her feel happy to have both Giles and Buffy's approval.
Even though Xander was feeling uneasy about Willow and how she was acting, he wanted to brush it aside and have her be fine. His medications were starting to kick in and make him sleepy (something he knew far too much about to be comfortable with), so it was getting hard for him to focus on any one thing for too long, and, sadly, that included Willow right now.
Xander looked around at all of them for a moment. Willow was insisting that she was OK, and, right now, he really didn't have a choice but to go along with it. He leaned his head back against the sofa and shut his eyes. His lids were feeling so heavy and he was only going to rest them for a moment...
It was the light snores that brought Dawn out of her imagination of fun school times. She looked over at Xander and giggled. "I think someone's meds kicked in," she said, pointing over at Xander.
Buffy shook her head to Giles questions, "No way. I think it's way more likely that one of the vampires under Eric's control ratted us out. I think they're getting a little scared since there's a hit list on so many vamps in Louisiana. They probably think any of them are next, whether they've killed someone recently or not."
She nodded to Xander, breathing out a sigh, "Okay, if you want to come. I won't stop you. Even if I could. With my pinky," she said, grinning at him.
As the attention turned to the redheaded witch, Buffy found her brow creasing in an unusual amount of worry. But, she knew that if something was really wrong, Willow definitely wasn't going to tell all of them as they ganged up on her. "Okay, Will," she said, though she obviously wasn't convinced, "But, I do hope you consider coming along, Will. We could probably use your help. And maybe you can put some sort of protection spell on Xander since he clearly needs it," she joked.
Of course, just then, Xander started dozing off. Buffy laughed along with her sister, "We'll just let him sleep for a moment before we take him to his room."
She glanced around the room, "So, Giles and Xander are coming," she said, turning to Willow, "Maybe and hopefully Willow," and finally turning to Dawn, she said, "And you're going to stay here and hold down the fort. And not get into any trouble."
Giles bit back a chuckle when Dawn pointed out that Xander had dozed off, more than likely because of the medication that he had been given at the hospital. After all, they had given him some strong medication for his pain, so Giles was not totally amazed that it had kicked in and completely knocked Xander out. It was why he hated the stuff. It helped you with pain by either making you forget that you had pain or knocking you out so that you slept through it. It seemed that this medication was doing the latter for Xander.
Giles could also see that something was going on with Willow, even though she was trying to put off the air of her cheerful self, but now wasn’t the time so say anything. Maybe once he got her alone, although he now knew that he couldn’t yell at her like he once did, he would try talking to her in a calm manner. Maybe that would help getting through to her better than before. He just hoped that it wouldn’t come to another confrontation like it had in Sunnydale in the Magic Box. He wasn’t sure he’d live through another one of those.
He watched as Dawn smirked at her sister when Buffy mentioned no getting into trouble. Good lord, that probably meant that there would be some sort of party thrown while they were all gone, didn’t it? Not that he could do anything to prevent it. He also knew that, if Buffy rode Dawn too hard, she may just move into the dorms on the campus that she was planning to attend. Give herself even more freedom than before.
He looked toward Buffy after she went over everything. “I think that sounds good,” he said to her. “Is there anything else that we need to go over?”
Her encounter with that girl a few days ago hadn't helped. The urge to just simply drain her of the obvious magical inside of her had been big. She hadn't done it though, but it was getting so much harder. To the point where she /had/ to use magic every day or...
The red head made darn sure no one noticed though. Lessons were well learned, and hiding this was one of the hardest.
She's snuck into the room before everyone else, pretending to read a book. Carefully she watched them trickle in. Caution growing as Giles entered and confusion when Xander did. She'd been so busy she hadn't noticed her best friend getting hurt? What the huh happened there?
Puzzled by this, she frowned over her book and kept watching the others. Wondering what this meeting was about this time. Always something going on here. Apparently.
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Xander gave her a nod. "Yeah, kiddo. I'm gonna be hunky-dory. It's just a flesh wound." He let Giles help him sit down on the sofa so that he could relax and they could figure out just what Buffy had called this little meeting for. Xander couldn't help but feel a little happy that they were having a Scooby meeting again. It was kind of like old times. You know, before stuff like life got in the way.
Dawn nodded and sat down beside Xander. She was a little curious as to what was going on, too. Since running into Jason at Merlotte's (and having tons of fun that night), she had started the process of getting enrolled in Louisiana Tech University and getting her transcripts transferred over there. This wasn't going to be an overnight process, but at least she was starting to HAVE a life again. That's what was important to her right now. She wasn't stuck as a giant or a centaur. She was herself again...whatever that really meant.
She looked over at Buffy. "So, what's up? Everything OK?" She thought on that statement for a moment. "Well, other than the obvious stuff, is everything OK?"
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Soon Willow and her thankfully not-a-centaur-anymore sister came into the room. She realized she hadn't seen the redheaded witch in days, having been so busy in Shreveport and then with the evil Slayer. She would definitely have to schedule some sort of ice cream and/or alcohol-related outing to catch up.
She stood in the center of the room, glancing around at the surprisingly eager faces, clasping her hands together. "Yes, things are okay, for the most part. Before I go into the sort of upcoming plan, I should tell you and Will what happened the other day." She sucked in a breath, "So, as you know, Faith, Xander, and I went after a rogue slayer, who was doing more killing than good. Things got complicated and she was...accidentally stabbed to death." That was a nice, clean way of putting it, right? "And she hurt Xander in the process, but he's totally a-okay now," she said, offering him a relieved smile.
"But, that's all taken care of. It sucks a lot and was an awful situation, but we're trying to move past it. So, anyway, some of you know I've been working for this vampire sheriff guy named Eric in Shreveport. He owns that tacky vampire bar Fangtasia," she said, rolling her eyes once more at the name.
"Anyway, when he was giving me my list of baddie vamps to take out, these two random vampires tried to kill us. Obviously we took care of them, but the one said they were sent by someone to stop slayers and vampires who were taking out their own kind." She pulled the wallet she retrieved from the vampire out of her back pocket, "Says he's from Georgia. So, Eric and I, along with whoever else wants to go, were going to do a little recon to see if we can find out who wants us dead so badly."
It had never been that far-fetched for people wanting to kill her, but when it was someone not affiliated with the government, who currently thought she was a terrorist, she was definitely curious.
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Giles himself sat down after helping Xander to his seat so that he could listen to Buffy talk about what was going on with her. She had mentioned something to him about working with that vampire who ran Fangtasia, and Giles had spent some time after that doing some research on the vampire in question, Eric.
"I'm sure that's not the first time someone's wanted to try and kill Eric, Buffy," Giles pointed out simply. Of course, he certainly wished anyone trying to do so a lot of luck, considering simply the vampire's considerable age. "Those vampires probably want to take out anyone working along with Eric at the moment."
Xander didn't like the sound of this Eric guy as soon as he heard about him. Not shocking, since Xander would always have a few issues with trusting vampires. He could tell that Giles wasn't feeling all that trusting, either, but Giles was always tactful, and at least bringing up good points. "Well, if you're wanting to go along with Eric, then I'm going, too, big wound or no big wound."
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A slow smile slipped on her face and she quickly ducked her head while she hid there in her comfortable shadow corner.
Faith. Oh yes. Faith would understand her. Not her friends. No, never her friends. Not after the last time. They'd all freak out and Giles would give her another lecture and... she should have killed him when she the chance way back then.
The man was going to be a problem now. She just knew it. And if the fact that she barely cared about her best friend getting hurt or that she just idly in passing thought she should have killed Giles? Had any effect on her, it didn't show at all.
She only focused half on the conversation really. Buffy always did love to hear herself talk. As long as the hero Buffy was the center of attention the little Slayer was happy. Dumb girl. Who in the huh cared about some vampire guy in whowhatwheresit. Buffy did, of course. Knowing Buffy, Willow thought with a snort, she probably found the guy hot. Like Spike and Angel.
Heh. Typical. Ohhh, it was already 'Eric and I'? Go figure.
Why has she been summoned again?
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While Dawn was distracted by the idea that her sister was going to be working closely with yet another vampire, Xander was noticing that something was a little off about Willow. Ever since he had proven that, occasionally, he could be a bit dense in noticing stuff going on with his friends (the whole year of Buffy being taken from heaven/Willow going evil/him and Anya's total relationship had proven that he could be dense if nothing else), he was really trying to keep up with his friends, and Willow seemed...off. He couldn't put his finger on it. He'd have to talk to her later about it.
"If you go...I may stay here," Dawn said to Buffy. "I'm trying to get enrolled in Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, and, since they're on the quarter system, I can actually get in fairly soon." She thought the system was weird, but it meant that she could get into school all the quicker and be more normal again. Yay for her!
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"True," Buffy agreed with Giles. "He just thought it was bizarre because our agreement is supposed to be a secret between the two of us. So, someone has found out somehow and they're coming after us to stop us from killing more vampires." Although most of this was speculation, she knew that if a vampire was after her, it wasn't long before they came after everyone in her life.
She looked at Xander and her eyes narrowed with concern, "Are you sure, Xander? I don't want to keep putting you in harm's way." Again. She couldn't help but feel extremely guilty as she looked at him; eyepatch over his eye from putting him in danger several months ago, and a wounded arm from putting him in danger the other day.
She nodded to Dawn with a hint of a proud smile, "That's totally fine. I'm glad you're doing that."
Glancing around the room, Buffy realized Willow hadn't said anything and was sticking to the shadows. She tilted her head curiously, "Will? What's up? Are you interested in coming along? We might need your witchy powers for locator spells and whatnot."
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"Someone found out about your agreement?" He knew that she had told him in a coffee shop when they first ran into each other. "Do you think some contact overheard our first conversation?" That would be bad. He would feel terrible if something like that happened.
Xander was still slightly distracted because of his studying of Willow that he didn't realize that Buffy had addressed him for a moment. He jerked to look in Buffy's direction when he did pick up on it. "If anything, it's kinda me putting myself in harm's way," he said to her with a slight grin. "You'd think I'd learn after a while that things like to attack me, huh?" One eye and now a stab wound. You'd really think that he'd learn.
Xander glanced back toward Willow when Buffy pointed out just how quiet and shadow-sticking-to that she had been since she had come down. "You OK, Will?" he asked her.
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She looked up when people finally noticed her. Good old reliable Willow, always going unnoticed until it was too late. Nothing changed there either. She put on her usual cheery smile and nodded.
"Yep, fine," she replied, "okay dokay here."
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Even though Xander was feeling uneasy about Willow and how she was acting, he wanted to brush it aside and have her be fine. His medications were starting to kick in and make him sleepy (something he knew far too much about to be comfortable with), so it was getting hard for him to focus on any one thing for too long, and, sadly, that included Willow right now.
Xander looked around at all of them for a moment. Willow was insisting that she was OK, and, right now, he really didn't have a choice but to go along with it. He leaned his head back against the sofa and shut his eyes. His lids were feeling so heavy and he was only going to rest them for a moment...
It was the light snores that brought Dawn out of her imagination of fun school times. She looked over at Xander and giggled. "I think someone's meds kicked in," she said, pointing over at Xander.
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She nodded to Xander, breathing out a sigh, "Okay, if you want to come. I won't stop you. Even if I could. With my pinky," she said, grinning at him.
As the attention turned to the redheaded witch, Buffy found her brow creasing in an unusual amount of worry. But, she knew that if something was really wrong, Willow definitely wasn't going to tell all of them as they ganged up on her. "Okay, Will," she said, though she obviously wasn't convinced, "But, I do hope you consider coming along, Will. We could probably use your help. And maybe you can put some sort of protection spell on Xander since he clearly needs it," she joked.
Of course, just then, Xander started dozing off. Buffy laughed along with her sister, "We'll just let him sleep for a moment before we take him to his room."
She glanced around the room, "So, Giles and Xander are coming," she said, turning to Willow, "Maybe and hopefully Willow," and finally turning to Dawn, she said, "And you're going to stay here and hold down the fort. And not get into any trouble."
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Giles could also see that something was going on with Willow, even though she was trying to put off the air of her cheerful self, but now wasn’t the time so say anything. Maybe once he got her alone, although he now knew that he couldn’t yell at her like he once did, he would try talking to her in a calm manner. Maybe that would help getting through to her better than before. He just hoped that it wouldn’t come to another confrontation like it had in Sunnydale in the Magic Box. He wasn’t sure he’d live through another one of those.
He watched as Dawn smirked at her sister when Buffy mentioned no getting into trouble. Good lord, that probably meant that there would be some sort of party thrown while they were all gone, didn’t it? Not that he could do anything to prevent it. He also knew that, if Buffy rode Dawn too hard, she may just move into the dorms on the campus that she was planning to attend. Give herself even more freedom than before.
He looked toward Buffy after she went over everything. “I think that sounds good,” he said to her. “Is there anything else that we need to go over?”
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