LIFE'S A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION: Prologue
by Pen Horwitz
Disclaimer: Buffy, Willow, Angel, Xander, Giles, and the rest of the Sunnydale gang aren't mine. They belong to Joss and the nice people at Mutant Enemy. I'm not making any money off this so please don't sue. And please don't repost this without asking me first.
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Prologue
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Willow Harris sat staring at the candle. It was hard to believe that ten years ago one of her two best friends had died. She missed Buffy fiercely at times, and had become involved with the Watchers as a sort of remembrance of her friend. The ringing telephone snapped her back to reality. She picked up the receiver and cradled it to her ear. "Harris residence."
"Oh thank God, Willow, I've been trying to reach you forever."
The cultured British voice was one she'd recognize to her dying day. "Giles?"
"Willow, Kendra's dead." Giles' voice quivered with rage. "Bloody bastards. They cut her down like an animal."
Willow's mind was racing. "Has the next Slayer been called?"
Her question snapped her old mentor and friend out of his fury. "We don't know who she is, Willow. All the signs point to a re-emergence of the danger of the Hellmouth, and that the Slayer is here, but I have no idea where." A note of defeat snuck into Giles' voice as he spoke. "Willow, I'm not sure if I'm up to this anymore. I'm getting too old, plus there's Brigid to deal with."
Willow smiled at the thought of the sprite-like child Giles had become guardian of. "How is she? She's sixteen now, right?"
"Oh, yes." Giles' tone shifted from defeated to besieged. "And I thought being a Watcher to a sixteen year old girl was bad. That sweet little six year old who was the apple of my cousin's eye has become an unholy terror worse than vampires."
Willow was sympathetic. She and Xander didn't have any kids yet, but she had seen it in her own family enough to understand. "No more nightmares though?" she asked.
Giles went silent for a moment. "Her's or mine?" He sighed, and Willow remembered how painful it was for him to talk about it. Of all of them, Giles felt the most responsible for what had happened. It had been his family Buffy had died trying to save from Spike and Drucilla. Of his cousin Abbey's family, only Brigid Giles survived that night. Willow had been lucky, she hadn't seen Buffy being brought out of the warehouse with third degree burns over her entire body, cradling a small frightened child in her arms.
"Both." She said, her voice brimming with compassion.
"Brigid hasn't had nightmares for 6 years. Mine, on the other-hand, never end. I can't do this alone, Willow. I can't train another girl to go to her death. I need your help."
Willow took a deep breath. Her first assignment as a Watcher. She knew this would come someday, and she hoped Xander would understand. "I'll be there. Can you make arrangements?"
* * *
Giles spoke with Willow on little things for a while longer, playing catch up, complaining that Xander's last novel portrayed him as overly stuffy, talking about his worries of what the new Slayer might face. What he didn't tell his young friend, was he had been reading through both the Watcher diaries and the Slayer prophecies, and they were much more dire than he had imagined. He knew that Drucilla anchoring herself to the essence of the Hellmouth would have lasting repercussions, but nothing like what the books were saying. At last he bid Willow farewell and sat back down at his desk. The Pagamon Codex lay open before him. The most detailed Slayer prophecies pointed to a young woman unlike any other Slayer before her. They had tested all the other Chosen, and none of them seemed to be the one they were searching for. He looked at the clock, 10:00 PM. He glared at the time piece as it mocked him. He hadn't slept since the news of Kendra's death had reached him over twenty four hours ago. He needed to sleep. Rupert dragged himself from his work, knowing it would still be there when he woke. He entered sleep as soon as his head hit his pillow. And with sleep came the nightmares which played out his failure before his eyes.
* * *
"Buffy, you cannot go!" Giles yelled at her as she picked up the crossbow from the library weapons closet.
"Damn it, Giles. It's my fault Abbey and Brigid were taken. I should have killed Drucilla in the Sunset Club when I had the chance." Cold fury painted her face with shadows and she pointed to the box that had just arrived. "For all we know Abbey's dead, and you said that the last ritual to seal Drucilla to the Hellmouth needs innocent blood , so at least Brigid should still be alive." The Slayer hoisted the bag of supplies onto her shoulder and made for the door.
Giles raced after her. "I'm coming with you." Before she could protest he forged ahead. "I've been trained in self defense, and I've slain vampires before. Buffy, Brigid is the only blood family I have left in this world. If something happened to her, or to you and I could have prevented it..." He shook his head. "I'd never forgive myself."
"All right, Giles." Buffy laid a hand on her Watcher's shoulder. "Let's go get your family back."
It hadn't been hard for Buffy to track the vampires down. And when they arrived they found themselves staring down at a nightmarish perversion of a royal court. Abbey was there, no longer the beautiful vibrant woman that Rupert had grown up with. Now a demon stalking her own child, grinning maliciously as the tiny girl sobbed in heartrending fear and struggled to free herself from her bonds. Reigning over the whole scene was Drucilla, with Spike at her side, looking every inch the Demon Queen.
The rest was a blur as Giles watched the events from outside himself. He saw one of the ceremonial candles fall into the ornate drapery surrounding Drucilla's throne, and then consume Drucilla herself. He remembered Buffy pushing him through the door, and diving back into the inferno to save Brigid. And then the end came as Buffy stumbled out of the blaze, burned and battered, arms wrapped around the unconscious child. He reached out weeping, knowing he couldn't change anything.
"NO!" Giles woke from the dream, and sobbed as the dispair he had locked away since Buffy's death returned.
End Prologue
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