Becoming What, Exactly?: Part 26
by Theory Queen
Giles' phone rang shrilly, and he got up swiftly to answer it. He thought it might have been Adam, calling to say he was in New York; he was not prepared to hear Buffy's voice... and he was certainly not prepared for her request.

"Give a vampire back his soul? Buffy, where are you? What are you talking about? Whose soul?"

"Spike's. I want to know the ritual to give Spike back his soul." Very quietly, as if she'd muffled the phone, he heard her say, "He's mad. I don't know if he'll do it or not."

"Buffy, who are you talking to? What is going on?" Giles was angry. Except for her letter, he hadn't heard from her at all since she left. He hadn't known where she was, what she was doing, or anything. The tone of his voice made it clear to her that he wasn't giving out any information until she came up with some answers.

She sighed. "I'm all right, Giles. I'm not ready to tell you where I am yet, but I really need to know if I could perform the ritual, or if I need someone else, or what? I know Willow did it on Angel, and it worked. I just want to know if it's possible to do it on Spike too?"

"I - I don't know." Giles managed to say. His mind whirled with the various implications of what she didn't say: where is she? Where is Spike? Does she know about Angel? Has he found her yet? "Let me ask around and get back to you. Uh, how can I reach you?""

"Tricky, Giles. I said I wasn't ready yet. I'll call you back tomorrow night. I have to hang up now, the lib - uh, there's someone waiting for the phone. Bye!" An intercom announcement almost drowned out her last sentence, and she hung up hurriedly.

Giles hung up his telephone, dumbstruck. He had recognized the voice of the woman on the intercom! He hadn't heard it in a couple of years, but it was unmistakable - as was the gist of the announcement she had made: "Attention, ladies and gentlemen, the library will be closing in five minutes..." Giles leaped to his feet, found his address book and dialed an out of state number.

"Uh, hello? May I speak to Linda, please? Yes, I'll wait. "Linda? This is Rupert Giles. Yes, yes, fine, thanks. How - How are you? Fine, good, good. Yes, I know it's been a long time. Listen, I need your help with something. You remember that photo I showed you a few Christmases ago, of the new slayer I was assigned? Good. Uh, Would you recognize her again? I have reason to believe she might be there now. If you see her, call me back. Yes, I'll be here. Thank you!"

He spent a tense few minutes waiting for the phone to ring. When it did, he snatched it out of the cradle. "He-hello? Yes, it's I. She is? Thank you, Linda! She's with whom? A man who resembles... uh, who is Billy Idol?" He scowled at the reply. "Well if you're just going to laugh at me... No, there is nothing wrong with my musical tastes! Yes, Linda, yes. Thank you for your help. Good-bye."

The next morning, Willow and Xander found Giles alone in the library brooding. "Morning!" Willow said cheerily. "I got your message last night, but I got in too late to call. What's up?"

"I got a call from Buffy last night," he told her. "She says she's all right, but she didn't tell me where she was. I found out from another source."

"Angel? I mean, Adam?" Willow wondered.

"So where is she?" Xander demanded. "Has he found her yet?"

"Uh, no. At least, I don't think so, or she would have mentioned it. She was in the New York City Library, apparently with some gent who resembles Billy Idol, whoever that is."

"Oh, my god!" Willow said. She and Xander looked at each other in horror.

"Uh, who is this Billy Idol?" Giles asked. Willow went and fired up the computer, finding a website dedicated to the rock star.

"Well, if it helps, Giles, here's his picture," she offered. "Which means she's probably with -"

"Spike," Giles finished. "What on earth..." he dropped his head in his hands. Willow cast a concerned glance at her friend, then went to Giles.

"Giles, what's wrong? What did Buffy say?" she asked.

"She asked me to tell her the ritual to give a vampire back his soul," he said. "Specifically, Spike's. I told her I would ask you about it and get back to her. She's calling me again tonight."

"She wants to give Spike back his soul?"

"Why?" Xander demanded. "Why doesn't she just kill him?"

"Perhaps there are other issues, Xander. After all, we know very little about her situation since she left." Giles said.

"Yeah, right. Hey, maybe she hates him too much to kill him, and wants him to suffer guilt and pain like Angel did." Xander brightened at the thought.

"Or maybe," Willow thought out loud, "Maybe she doesn't WANT to kill him." She caught the questioning looks of the other two and explained further. "As far as she knows, Angel is dead. Maybe she's starting to like Spike instead?"

"Willow, that's sick. Twisted, even. Why would she want to date another vampire guy? I mean, you think she'd learn her lesson." Xander opened Willow's purse while he spoke, and rummaged through it. He found a box of tic-tacs and helped himself to some. "And anyway, New York isn't even the hellmouth! How could something like that possibly happen in a place that doesn't even have a hellmouth?"

"I'm sure I don't know. But if the slayer wants a vampire to get his soul back, for whatever reason, it's not really our place to, uh, refuse. Willow, do you think the ritual is possible for Spike? If he and Buffy are, um, spending time together, it might be safer for her if we -- "

"Oh, sure, I get you," Willow affirmed. "Well... I could try the ritual here, but I have no way of knowing what kind of effect it'll have so far away. I think it would be possible, but there needs to be some sort of connection there, where Spike is. I think I can..." she stopped talking, thinking furiously. "Yeah, I think it would be possible. All I need is the same stuff as before, and some basic information about Spike. Can I borrow some of your books, maybe your... watcher journals?" she wheedled. She'd been itching to get her fingers on those journals for a long time.

Giles smiled indulgently. He was biding his time until the Watcher Council would allow him to tell Willow her destiny. Meanwhile, it certainly wouldn't hurt her to have some exposure to the materials, premature as it might be. He nodded.


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