A Blast from the Past: Part 2
by Jannah
::Jannah narrating::
The next morning I woke up at 6 am to get ready for my first day at work. As I took my shower, I thought about what'd happened with Buffy. She was in no mental state to be left all by herself. thinking about this led me to think about my own mental state, and my dreams last night. I thought about telling Buffy the truth and decided against, remembering what had happened last time I tried to explain to someone. Things were already bad enough for me.
I got dressed and went down stairs. Joyce, as she insisted on being called, was making breakfast. I offered to help, but she said no and continued. I heard Buffy walk down the stair and she looked normal, despite the events of the previous night.
"G'morning, Buffy."
"Morning," she said gloomily. Okay, so she wasn't okay. (Stupid me, what did I expect!)
We spent the rest of the morning in silence.
* * *
That morning, Joyce dropped us of at school. I went in and we met with Giles. Justas I was about to tell about Buffy's mental state ((she went to use the ladies room)) a young blonde haired girl and a guy walked in.
"Hi, Giles. How's Buffy?" the girl said not noticing me.
"Hey, wuts up? Hi, I'm Ozzie, who are you?" he said referring to me. He had a hint in his voice that told Willow to shut up.
"Oh, yeah, hi, I'm Willow," said the girl. They both knew about Buffy.
"Hi, I'm Jannah, but call me Jen. Y'all know about the current situation with Buffy right?"
"You mean like Vampires? And slaying them? And the one who slays them?" she said nervously.
"I think we should be asking you that question?" said Ozzie, suspiciously.
"you know, you are right. Okay, I know Buffy is the Slayer and she is having ... a dilemma pertaining to the once-evil, then good, now evil again Angelus."
"Do you know how serious this dilemma is, exactly?" said Willow.
Just then a dark-haired goofy-looking boy burst into the room, and exclaimed, " Some- thing's wrong with Buffy!!"
"What's wrong?" I asked calmly. Meanwhile, Willow had a cow.
"Where is she? Is she all right? What happened? Jen, how can you be so calm?!?!"
"The first thing the teach you in Warrior Science is to remain calm. A situation has never been improved by worrying over it."
The boy said, "Who are you? And what is warrior science? Oh, by the way, I'm Alexander, but everyone calls me Xander."
"Hi, Xander. I'm Jannah, but please call me Jen. And warrior science is basically the strategies and science and philosophies of fighting."
"I take it she knows," said Xander, making sure of this with the others.
"Yes, she does," said Giles. "Now, about Buffy.."
"Buffy's fine," said a voice from behind us. It was Buffy, holding on to a dark-haired girl's shoulders for support.
"Buffy, what happened???" said the still frantic Willow.
"Will, chill out. I just fell down the steps. I'm fine."
"I thought you went to the ladies' room," I asked suspiciously. "Its not upstairs."
"Yeah, well.." said Buffy, sheepishly.
"Let's not pursue the matter," said Giles. "On the mean time, you all should be getting to class. Jannah, I need to show you around the library and you need to shelve some books."
Everyone dispersed in to the halls.
******
::Jannah Narrating:: During the course of the day, I heard a lot about Buffy and what had happened a couple weeks ago and yadda yadda yadda. To tell you the truth, I wasn't really listening - except when Angel was mentioned. I need as much info on him as I could get.
During my lunch break, there was a package delivered to me. It was from Sanjay. I read his letter, which explained that he had seen everything in a dream. Giles found it of interest, that if he could see thing in dreams, wouldn't I have been there a long time ago? I explained that he could only see things that were troubling me - that we were chained, and that that was a term meaning emotionally bound to each other.
There were four books in all. I stacked them on the desk and went to go pick up something to eat. I reminded myself to get them later.
* * *
That evening, I was at home unpacking my things in the spare room. I figured that I didn't want to witness what I had last night all over again. I still didn't know exactly what had happened, but I didn't want to push for info -- no one wanted to talk about it anyways.
Suddenly, my eyes fell onto a small crystal glass jar -- filled with ashes. How could that have returned to em? I through it in the ocean!! The ashes -- my sister -- a constant reminder.
Impulsively, I placed the jar among the other things of value on the dresser -- a small statue of Buddha, a gift from Sanjay to remind me never to forget to meditation, a origami paper crane, a gift from Yun-soo that was a gift of friendship, and a small ring-box. I stared at the box until, involuntarily, I opened. There lay a small, silver 1claddagh ring. It was the most painful piece of my past. I put it on my ring finger, remembering the promise I had made to wear it everyday. I wonder if it would hurt him to know I broke that promise. It hurt me.
I put the ring and the box back on my dresser. I decided once and for all that I had to return Angel to Buffy -- even if it meant my own death.
I remembered the books that Sanjay sent me and went to my desk to pick them up. There were only THREE!! What happened tot he fourth one. Which one was missing. I checked the titles of the remaining three with Sandy's letter. I had "Emotions and Giving," "The Human Soul and its Reincarnation," and "The Spirit Incarnate." That meant that the missing one was "Revival of the Human Spirit." And according to the letter, it was the most informative one. I sighed. It probably fell out of my bag somewhere. I would have to recover it tomorrow.
While I was reading the first book, Buffy decided to hang with me for a while. I was reading "The Human Soul and Its Reincarnation" and Buffy wanted to know what it was about. I explained and she picked up on of the books to. I don't remember which one.
" 'In order to restore or give Spirit of any human or vampire, the one in need of refreshing must be doused in the blood of its own victims. This allows the creature to become vulnerable so that Emotions and Spirit to enter him. This causes pain mentally and physically.' What does that mean? you need the blood of one of his victims? Is that why we need to make a sacrifice?"
"Dunno. Hafta read the whole book first."
After that Buffy lost interest. She, instead, decided to look at the things on my dresser. She picked up the jar and I tensed up.
"What's this??" she asked referring to my crystal jar.
"Oh, its my sister."
"HUH????"
"She was cremated after she died. I always keep the jar with me." ((I did not mention, once I got so mad at her for killing herself, I threw it in the ocean.))
"Oh." she proceeded to look through at the rest of my things. when she got to the ring box, I shouted, "Don't open that!!" but I was too late. She had already opened the box. She gasped.
"This is my ring!!" she said. "Why did you take my ring??" she said accusingly. The accusation turned to tears.
"It's my ring, Buffy. It was given to me by my fiancee in India. It's called a claddagh ring. They were fairly common through out the East a couple hundred years ago. now, they are considered antiques."
She put the box down and ran into her room. She came back with a ring. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She was holding a ring similar to mine.
"Angel gave this to me. Before..." Her voice trailed off.
I didn't mention who gave it to me.
*******
::Jannah Narrating::
After the whole ring incident, I decided to go visit Angel. I knew where he was.
I walked in the cool fall air to Angel's pad. The door was open so I let myself in.
"Hello, Angel." I called out. He was there I could sense his presence.
He came out from around a corner and looked surprised (It WAS supposed to be a surprise visit ^_^).
"What are you doing here?" he said angrily. "Wait don't tell me ... Buffy told you."
"Actually, no, I found my own way here." I said.
He tried to move straining his leg muscles, but couldn't. I laughed at him.
"Why can't I move?" he said grunting. "What did you do to me?"
"Simple really. I simply displaced the neutrons and replaced protons with electrons and neutralized your nervous system."
"Elementary." said Angel sarcastically. "So who are you anyway, Jannah? And why are you so stuck on revenge? You can't be any older the 30 and, well, for the last hundred years, I was going through a phase, if you could call it that."
"You are honestly telling me you don't remember? Okay well, I'll give you a hint." I began to hum the tune of the song I knew so well. It pained me to do it, but it was the only way.
A look of recognition, then terror, flew across Angel's face. He remembered, at least some of it, and knew what he was in for.
"You ... but ... you ... I.... village records...." Angel stammered. HE remembered.
"Why didn't you remember?" I asked, curious to here THIS excuse.
"I forced myself not to. Like I wanted to remember THAT." he said annoyedly. I knew his real reason though. When he had a soul, it was too much pain for him, so he simply forced it out of his memory.
"Yeah, sure. Well, Angel, there are three ways to end this. One, I kill you. But, of course, I'm not even supposed to THINK that because it turn the Slayer as cookoo as Drusilla. Two, You kill me and the chances of that me letting that happen are what? -- a million to one? And, Three, me returning your soul, which is becoming a bleaker possibility by the moment a my research has not faired well."
"Yeah, well, how about I just live?"
"What purpose would that serve. Somehow, you've gotto pay for what you did. Gimme another couple of nights to think about. I'll decide two nights from now, on Dil kee Badan Judaa Band (The seperation between the Soul and Body is stopped), also known as, more simply, Judaa. That is when my power will be at its peak."
"Judaa? What's that? what do you mean, power at its peak? Is that like the Harvest?"
"Too many questions, no answers. I gotta jet. Oh, by the way, don't try leaving Sunnydale, because you can't. So, don't waste you time."
With that I left. Behind me, Angel fell because he had been putting so much pressure on himself while he couldn't move. I laughed.
********
::narrator::
'What happened? Village records said she died of dysentery 197 years ago!! How did she come back after me?' thought Angel frantically as he threw some things into a bag. 'I've got to get out of this town, to hide someplace.'
"It's no use hiding, Angel," her voice echoed through the apartment. "I know where you are all the time, now that I've found you. Like I said, you can't leave Sunnydale."
"Where are you hiding? Why can't I see you??" said Angel frustrated. "You must be immoratal, or something."
"Frustration and fear are human emotions, Angel. I thought that there was no humanity in you."
"Fear and frustration belong to all living things."
"You're not living Angel...."
* * *
::Jen narrating::
When I returned, I had a feeling of satisfaction I have never in my life felt before. It felt so GOOD!! I wondered why.
I knew to expect questions from Buffy and the others. I thought of some excuse to tell them on the way home.
::Buffy narrating::
"Okay Punch left right, kick and done," Giles instructed. And I followed. Except for when he said done.
"Buffy, stop, stop!!" Giles exclaimed. "What are you doing?!?!?"
I proceeded to ignore him. The dummy I was training on fell to the floor. I stopped breathing hard.
"Well, then ..." said Giles' voice fading out.
I was feeling fatigue. I fell down to the floor.
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just need a drink." I said, gasping between breaths.
Giles ran out to the cafeteria to get me something to drink. Suddenly tears began to fall from eyes. My vision blurred, but I still noticed it. A book. Okay, yeah, it was a library. but this book was different. It was called "Revival of the Human Spirit." It was one of Jen's books. I wonder if she knew it was here.
I flipped it open and began to read. It was detailed. Maybe I could bring Angel back myself. If I did it myself, no one would need to be sacrificed. And it would provide some closure in my life. I would tell no one about the book, I vowed silently.
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