The Ingathering - Chapter 4 - Blood Trails
Disclaimer & Note - See Chapter 1 Well, we were supposed to get to the crossovers in this chapter, but it went a little long - it’ll have to be in the next one. Also, there is some Latin used in this chapter. I do not speak it - I only speak American with a smattering of words in a half-dozen or so other languages. The translation to Latin was done on the internet, so all I can do is cross my fingers that it is somewhat right.
The Ingathering
Chapter 4 - Blood Trails
When the three women emerged from the study, they found the rest of the Scoobies gathered in the library. Caridad and Shannon, two of the Sunnydale Slayers, guarded the door. They were present to keep anyone from interrupting until the ritual was complete. Serenity could feel the satisfaction they radiated at being trusted by their leaders, the Inner Circle as the students called them. She hid her grin as Buffy nodded at them as the three of them walked past to enter the room.
Inside the library, preparations were under way. The tables had been moved to one side, and covered with maps. Willow and Tara moved around the center of the room setting up candles and crystals in a predetermined order. Oz and Xander held the excess supplies and followed along as the team’s witches did their work. Cordelia stretched out on a lounge in an alcove off to the side and filed her nails while Faith sat cross-legged in front of her, sharpening a dagger. Giles leaned on the door to his private office overseeing the whole operation.
He glanced over to the sisters and tilted his head in Buffy’s direction. She shrugged one shoulder and gave him a small smile, letting him know that while she might be a bit confused, it would be all right. When his eyes darted to meet Serenity’s, she quirked an eyebrow that told him it was Buffy’s story to tell now, and everyone would just have to wait until she was ready. Dawn gave a simple shrug at his look and went over to sit by Faith. With a slow nod, he accepted their reassurances and moved towards the tables.
“Willow, everyone is here now if you are ready to begin.”
The redhead nodded.
“First, everyone grab a map off the table and write your name in the upper corner. Giles, you need the one of Great Britain, but everybody else’s is the same. Tara is going to prick your finger - you need to let three drops of blood fall on the lower edge of the map.”
With quick sure steps, Tara approached each of them and lightly scored their index finger with a black athame. As the crimson liquid welled up, each of them carefully marked their maps with no more than three drops. They knew perfectly well how delicate some magic could be. As they finished, the maps were placed in a circle, each held down by clear crystals.
Willow sat at the center of a circular design created by maps, crystals, candles and salt. Closing her eyes and raising her hands out to the side, palms up, she tilted her head back and began to chant.
“Cruor ut cruor nos transporto is dico. Permissum ut quod est lost exsisto ostendo sum. Cruor venalicium , cruor peto , fatum has accersitus quod nos would refero. Proeliator of lux lucis nos peto. Permissum nostrum cognatio audite quod refero. Ostendo nos via!”
Light gathered like miniature suns over both of Willow’s upturned palms. As her voice rang out, the fire flared up, and formed an arch over her head. Giles and Tara knelt on either side of her just outside the circle. They remained silent, focusing all of their energy to keep Willow’s power in check. The others could see the power trying to escape. Small amounts of lightening flickered across the circle, probing the shielding. With a final cry, Willow released the magic. Her hair, floating in an unseen breeze, went pure white as the power rippled across the maps. The lines swayed, moving with the ebb and flow of the magic as the blood was absorbed and matched. As each map solidified once more, they could see glowing dots gently pulsating on each one. Finally, the power swirled and gathered and poured over Willow once more. As it sank into her skin, her hair returned to its normal auburn shade and her eyes opened.
Alive with power, she glanced over the maps quickly. With a few motions of her hands, she opened the circle. Oz and Xander gathered the maps, placing them back on the table. The others helped clean up the remnants of the circle so the library could be put back in order. Once finished, they each took their usual seats - their own maps placed in front of them.
Willow bounced in her seat, almost vibrating. Using so much white magic always made her slightly giddy.
“If everything worked properly, we should each have a light on our maps. They’re different colors, but we wanted to try and help narrow our focus. The only way we could think to do that was by giving different colors to the different levels of relation. I mean, how would we know what to look for? Are we looking for parents, or siblings, or what? So, we decided to have the colors all mean something. I have a light in Canada! Oh, but it’s a green dot. What was green again? I don’t think I should have a green dot in Canada…what…”
Oz reached over and covered her mouth with his hand. Buffy turned slightly and put her hand on her friend’s shoulder, pressing lightly.
“Slow down, Wills, we’ll get to it.”
Willow nodded, and gave Oz’s hand a gentle push.
“Right, I know. It’s just . . . exciting and scary all at the same time!”
Giles smiled at her.
“We set the colors in order to give us a range of person to look for - blue is for a person’s parents, green for their siblings, brothers or sisters, yellow would be for a child, while purple would be for some other relative, like a cousin, aunt, or uncle.”
Dawn glanced across the table at her sister’s and choked. Her blue eyes wide and jaw slightly loose, she pointed at Buffy’s map. Everyone looked at Buffy while Serenity moved quickly down the table. Buffy’s map had a handful of purple dots, which she ignored, but there were also one green dot, one yellow dot, and two blue ones. Serenity stared at the map before having to brace herself against Giles’ chair. Her blue eyes connected with Buffy’s green. She shook her head.
“That’s not possible.”
The blond Slayer snorted.
“You think?”
Giles leaned forward to see around the brunette currently perched on the arm of his chair. He looked intently at the map before taking off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. As he put the glasses back on, he glanced at Dawn and then looked back.
“Buffy?”
She huffed and folded her arms over her chest. Giving the map an evil eye, she turned towards Giles with her patented pout.
“Well, Rini’s the green one, and I’d guess the spell’s defining Dawn as the yellow. And I have no idea why there are two blue dots. There should only be one.”
Xander frowned.
“Shouldn’t the one be in Europe though? Both of these are here.”
Buffy grimaced and shifted in her seat. Rubbing her forehead with one hand, she gave a deep sigh. With a glance at her sisters, she told the rest of the group what Serenity had revealed in the study. Everyone was silent for a long moment. Finally, Giles removed his glasses and began cleaning them.
“Given everything we had previously known about our families, and what little we have determined about the prophecy, I believe we all expected some surprises. Buffy…simply has more than expected. As we find the people that Willow’s spell has pinpointed, I imagine we will find answers. What we need to consider at the moment is how we plan to go about searching for these individuals.”
Buffy smiled at her long-time watcher, grateful for his derailing of that particular conversation. She so did not want to have it right now.
“Right then, I know who all the purple dots on my map are, and none of them are anything like a warrior of light…unless some big bad has decided to start stealing Aunt Pauline’s recipes. Looks like I’m heading for Colorado to find out why I have two blue dots.”
Serenity snorted as she walked back to her seat.
“If someone’s stealing Aunt P’s recipes, I’m selling tickets to that showdown. Three things you should never do to a Southern woman - question her honor, hurt her kids, or steal her recipes. Anyway, I have one blue dot and two unknown greens. They seem to be somewhere in Kansas.”
Everyone began looking at their maps. A couple of times, someone began to question the findings, but then shook their heads and shrugged. They knew Giles was right. If they started questioning everything now, they would never get done. If nothing else, growing up on one Hellmouth and living on another had assuredly taught them to roll with the weird.
Tara smiled.
“I guess I’ll have to call my aunt. I have a purple dot in New York, so one of the cousins must have moved.”
Oz shrugged.
“A purple dot in Miami - no idea.”
Willow nodded.
“I have a green dot in Canada, near Toronto, but I have no idea either.”
Xander grimaced.
“I have three; count them, three green dots in San Francisco!”
Faith snickered.
“Hey, I have one blue dot and two green in Boston. Want to trade?”
Cordelia sniffed.
“I have no idea who some of these people are, but I have a couple of purple dots near Washington, D.C.”
Giles frowned.
“I appear to have a yellow dot in Scotland.”
Dawn looked around the table before turning to Giles and Buffy.
“So, who’s going first?”
Before anyone could answer, the sound of a ringing bell began to echo through the room. Buffy and Faith shot out of the room with Willow a few steps behind. The others scrambled to catch up as they sprinted towards the operations room. While the library and the Scoobies may be the heart of the IDF, this was the central nervous center. From here, they kept in constant contact, both magical and mundane, with their representatives around the world.
Three witches, two slayers, and two watchers were on duty around the clock. Given the international scope of the IDF, there was no other choice. Emergencies, requests for aid or simple messages all came to this room and would be dealt with accordingly. Every slayer, witch, watcher, support member, and ally had a direct line to this room by both phone and by way of a message crystal charged by Willow. For more normal needs, the phone was used. In a dire emergency, the person sending the warning knew the likelihood of rescue would be slim, so they would use the crystal. It would cause an alarm to go off at headquarters as well as recording any thoughts the carrier was concentrating on. When released by it’s holder after being activated, the crystal would be mystically transported to the operations room and a team would be dispatched. Teams and/or individuals being sent normally had to be approved by one of the Circle. It kept the knee-jerk reactions to a minimum. Allowances were made of course during apocalypse season.
Serenity knew it wasn’t dire, or there would have been a siren. However, the sound of a bell meant that one of their people needed an outside opinion for something - something they thought had the potential to become a bigger threat, or something they just did not understand. When she reached the room, one of the slayers on duty, Vajra, was already reporting to Buffy and Faith.
“It’s Kacela. She’s visiting her grandmother. Apparently there’s something setting off her senses. She can’t find anything however - no disappearances, no unexplained deaths, nothing. In her opinion, either it’s something that is keeping its head down, trying not to draw attention, or her senses have gone haywire.”
Buffy frowned.
“Either way, it’s not of the good. Faith, you’ve worked with her more. What’s your take?”
The dark-haired slayer shook her head.
“No way it’s her senses, B. She’s one of the girls that Xan found in Africa. Her mom’s with an embassy or something down there. Girl’s one of the best trackers and hunters we’ve got. If she says something’s there, it’s there.”
“Right then, where’s she at?”
Dani, one of the witches, turned from her computer screen.
“Her grandmother lives in Kansas, Lawrence to be precise.”
Buffy snorted.
“Powers are being a bit heavy-handed. At least that gives us an answer.”
Everyone frowned at her, confused, except for Giles. He gave a small quirk of a smile before turning to Serenity.
“I believe that means you’re first. Who would you like on your team?”
AN - Okay, finally, I think we’re ready to get to the crossovers! I really meant to do Buffy first, but every time I’ve tried to write the entrance, I’ve had a couple of guys frickin’ insist on being there! So, gotta meet them first! Here is the translation for Willow’s spell.
“Blood to blood we send this call. Let that which is lost be revealed. Blood the marker, blood the seeker, destiny has called and we would answer. Warriors of light we seek. Let our kindred hear and answer. Show us the way!”
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
The Ingathering
Chapter 4 - Blood Trails
When the three women emerged from the study, they found the rest of the Scoobies gathered in the library. Caridad and Shannon, two of the Sunnydale Slayers, guarded the door. They were present to keep anyone from interrupting until the ritual was complete. Serenity could feel the satisfaction they radiated at being trusted by their leaders, the Inner Circle as the students called them. She hid her grin as Buffy nodded at them as the three of them walked past to enter the room.
Inside the library, preparations were under way. The tables had been moved to one side, and covered with maps. Willow and Tara moved around the center of the room setting up candles and crystals in a predetermined order. Oz and Xander held the excess supplies and followed along as the team’s witches did their work. Cordelia stretched out on a lounge in an alcove off to the side and filed her nails while Faith sat cross-legged in front of her, sharpening a dagger. Giles leaned on the door to his private office overseeing the whole operation.
He glanced over to the sisters and tilted his head in Buffy’s direction. She shrugged one shoulder and gave him a small smile, letting him know that while she might be a bit confused, it would be all right. When his eyes darted to meet Serenity’s, she quirked an eyebrow that told him it was Buffy’s story to tell now, and everyone would just have to wait until she was ready. Dawn gave a simple shrug at his look and went over to sit by Faith. With a slow nod, he accepted their reassurances and moved towards the tables.
“Willow, everyone is here now if you are ready to begin.”
The redhead nodded.
“First, everyone grab a map off the table and write your name in the upper corner. Giles, you need the one of Great Britain, but everybody else’s is the same. Tara is going to prick your finger - you need to let three drops of blood fall on the lower edge of the map.”
With quick sure steps, Tara approached each of them and lightly scored their index finger with a black athame. As the crimson liquid welled up, each of them carefully marked their maps with no more than three drops. They knew perfectly well how delicate some magic could be. As they finished, the maps were placed in a circle, each held down by clear crystals.
Willow sat at the center of a circular design created by maps, crystals, candles and salt. Closing her eyes and raising her hands out to the side, palms up, she tilted her head back and began to chant.
“Cruor ut cruor nos transporto is dico. Permissum ut quod est lost exsisto ostendo sum. Cruor venalicium , cruor peto , fatum has accersitus quod nos would refero. Proeliator of lux lucis nos peto. Permissum nostrum cognatio audite quod refero. Ostendo nos via!”
Light gathered like miniature suns over both of Willow’s upturned palms. As her voice rang out, the fire flared up, and formed an arch over her head. Giles and Tara knelt on either side of her just outside the circle. They remained silent, focusing all of their energy to keep Willow’s power in check. The others could see the power trying to escape. Small amounts of lightening flickered across the circle, probing the shielding. With a final cry, Willow released the magic. Her hair, floating in an unseen breeze, went pure white as the power rippled across the maps. The lines swayed, moving with the ebb and flow of the magic as the blood was absorbed and matched. As each map solidified once more, they could see glowing dots gently pulsating on each one. Finally, the power swirled and gathered and poured over Willow once more. As it sank into her skin, her hair returned to its normal auburn shade and her eyes opened.
Alive with power, she glanced over the maps quickly. With a few motions of her hands, she opened the circle. Oz and Xander gathered the maps, placing them back on the table. The others helped clean up the remnants of the circle so the library could be put back in order. Once finished, they each took their usual seats - their own maps placed in front of them.
Willow bounced in her seat, almost vibrating. Using so much white magic always made her slightly giddy.
“If everything worked properly, we should each have a light on our maps. They’re different colors, but we wanted to try and help narrow our focus. The only way we could think to do that was by giving different colors to the different levels of relation. I mean, how would we know what to look for? Are we looking for parents, or siblings, or what? So, we decided to have the colors all mean something. I have a light in Canada! Oh, but it’s a green dot. What was green again? I don’t think I should have a green dot in Canada…what…”
Oz reached over and covered her mouth with his hand. Buffy turned slightly and put her hand on her friend’s shoulder, pressing lightly.
“Slow down, Wills, we’ll get to it.”
Willow nodded, and gave Oz’s hand a gentle push.
“Right, I know. It’s just . . . exciting and scary all at the same time!”
Giles smiled at her.
“We set the colors in order to give us a range of person to look for - blue is for a person’s parents, green for their siblings, brothers or sisters, yellow would be for a child, while purple would be for some other relative, like a cousin, aunt, or uncle.”
Dawn glanced across the table at her sister’s and choked. Her blue eyes wide and jaw slightly loose, she pointed at Buffy’s map. Everyone looked at Buffy while Serenity moved quickly down the table. Buffy’s map had a handful of purple dots, which she ignored, but there were also one green dot, one yellow dot, and two blue ones. Serenity stared at the map before having to brace herself against Giles’ chair. Her blue eyes connected with Buffy’s green. She shook her head.
“That’s not possible.”
The blond Slayer snorted.
“You think?”
Giles leaned forward to see around the brunette currently perched on the arm of his chair. He looked intently at the map before taking off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. As he put the glasses back on, he glanced at Dawn and then looked back.
“Buffy?”
She huffed and folded her arms over her chest. Giving the map an evil eye, she turned towards Giles with her patented pout.
“Well, Rini’s the green one, and I’d guess the spell’s defining Dawn as the yellow. And I have no idea why there are two blue dots. There should only be one.”
Xander frowned.
“Shouldn’t the one be in Europe though? Both of these are here.”
Buffy grimaced and shifted in her seat. Rubbing her forehead with one hand, she gave a deep sigh. With a glance at her sisters, she told the rest of the group what Serenity had revealed in the study. Everyone was silent for a long moment. Finally, Giles removed his glasses and began cleaning them.
“Given everything we had previously known about our families, and what little we have determined about the prophecy, I believe we all expected some surprises. Buffy…simply has more than expected. As we find the people that Willow’s spell has pinpointed, I imagine we will find answers. What we need to consider at the moment is how we plan to go about searching for these individuals.”
Buffy smiled at her long-time watcher, grateful for his derailing of that particular conversation. She so did not want to have it right now.
“Right then, I know who all the purple dots on my map are, and none of them are anything like a warrior of light…unless some big bad has decided to start stealing Aunt Pauline’s recipes. Looks like I’m heading for Colorado to find out why I have two blue dots.”
Serenity snorted as she walked back to her seat.
“If someone’s stealing Aunt P’s recipes, I’m selling tickets to that showdown. Three things you should never do to a Southern woman - question her honor, hurt her kids, or steal her recipes. Anyway, I have one blue dot and two unknown greens. They seem to be somewhere in Kansas.”
Everyone began looking at their maps. A couple of times, someone began to question the findings, but then shook their heads and shrugged. They knew Giles was right. If they started questioning everything now, they would never get done. If nothing else, growing up on one Hellmouth and living on another had assuredly taught them to roll with the weird.
Tara smiled.
“I guess I’ll have to call my aunt. I have a purple dot in New York, so one of the cousins must have moved.”
Oz shrugged.
“A purple dot in Miami - no idea.”
Willow nodded.
“I have a green dot in Canada, near Toronto, but I have no idea either.”
Xander grimaced.
“I have three; count them, three green dots in San Francisco!”
Faith snickered.
“Hey, I have one blue dot and two green in Boston. Want to trade?”
Cordelia sniffed.
“I have no idea who some of these people are, but I have a couple of purple dots near Washington, D.C.”
Giles frowned.
“I appear to have a yellow dot in Scotland.”
Dawn looked around the table before turning to Giles and Buffy.
“So, who’s going first?”
Before anyone could answer, the sound of a ringing bell began to echo through the room. Buffy and Faith shot out of the room with Willow a few steps behind. The others scrambled to catch up as they sprinted towards the operations room. While the library and the Scoobies may be the heart of the IDF, this was the central nervous center. From here, they kept in constant contact, both magical and mundane, with their representatives around the world.
Three witches, two slayers, and two watchers were on duty around the clock. Given the international scope of the IDF, there was no other choice. Emergencies, requests for aid or simple messages all came to this room and would be dealt with accordingly. Every slayer, witch, watcher, support member, and ally had a direct line to this room by both phone and by way of a message crystal charged by Willow. For more normal needs, the phone was used. In a dire emergency, the person sending the warning knew the likelihood of rescue would be slim, so they would use the crystal. It would cause an alarm to go off at headquarters as well as recording any thoughts the carrier was concentrating on. When released by it’s holder after being activated, the crystal would be mystically transported to the operations room and a team would be dispatched. Teams and/or individuals being sent normally had to be approved by one of the Circle. It kept the knee-jerk reactions to a minimum. Allowances were made of course during apocalypse season.
Serenity knew it wasn’t dire, or there would have been a siren. However, the sound of a bell meant that one of their people needed an outside opinion for something - something they thought had the potential to become a bigger threat, or something they just did not understand. When she reached the room, one of the slayers on duty, Vajra, was already reporting to Buffy and Faith.
“It’s Kacela. She’s visiting her grandmother. Apparently there’s something setting off her senses. She can’t find anything however - no disappearances, no unexplained deaths, nothing. In her opinion, either it’s something that is keeping its head down, trying not to draw attention, or her senses have gone haywire.”
Buffy frowned.
“Either way, it’s not of the good. Faith, you’ve worked with her more. What’s your take?”
The dark-haired slayer shook her head.
“No way it’s her senses, B. She’s one of the girls that Xan found in Africa. Her mom’s with an embassy or something down there. Girl’s one of the best trackers and hunters we’ve got. If she says something’s there, it’s there.”
“Right then, where’s she at?”
Dani, one of the witches, turned from her computer screen.
“Her grandmother lives in Kansas, Lawrence to be precise.”
Buffy snorted.
“Powers are being a bit heavy-handed. At least that gives us an answer.”
Everyone frowned at her, confused, except for Giles. He gave a small quirk of a smile before turning to Serenity.
“I believe that means you’re first. Who would you like on your team?”
AN - Okay, finally, I think we’re ready to get to the crossovers! I really meant to do Buffy first, but every time I’ve tried to write the entrance, I’ve had a couple of guys frickin’ insist on being there! So, gotta meet them first! Here is the translation for Willow’s spell.
“Blood to blood we send this call. Let that which is lost be revealed. Blood the marker, blood the seeker, destiny has called and we would answer. Warriors of light we seek. Let our kindred hear and answer. Show us the way!”
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3