Xander looked at the fence with apprehension. The last fence he had attempted to jump was a less than favorite memory. In fact, he was still positive he could hear the echo of the delightful 'thud' his body made on landing.
But, that fence was in his way, and it wasn't as if he could just walk up to Willow's house, knock on the door and say, "Oh hey! Hi Mrs. Rosenberg, ..I know it's nearly midnight, but I've got this stone here that will magically keep Willow from having nightmares. D'ya mind if I put this in her room?"
No. That just wouldn't go over well at all. He'd never experience the sensation of a home cooked meal again. The delicious aroma wafting in from a kitchen...not a bag. The cluster of family gathered around a single table for a dinner...nope. This had to be done.
Besides, he needed Willow awake, alert and with it, or else he was never going to get that English assignment done. Or started for that matter.
He reached up and gripped the top of the wooden fence. "I hope Buffy's having more fun than this." Heaving himself up, he steadied his balance, loosened his knees, leaned forward and jumped.
He remembered her Mom's new English water garden, sweeping along the fence perimeter at the back of the garden, right after that jump. *Splash*. Extracting himself, and pulling some gooey leaf off his face, Xander uttered a few choice phrases about the kindness of fate, and his own brand of bad luck, and a few observations on how darn lucky Willow was to have such a good friend.
Walking his way across the rest of the yard, with a delightful "squoosh" to each step, he watched the ground rather carefully. He could expect a rake or hose, or some new unusal instrument of embasement to trip him up in this shadowy darkness. Somehow, he failed to catch site of a nearly glowing white mass from hell watching his every move. The little white blob slowly stalked Xander from behind, it's pathetic versions of a growl hidden by the strange wet-sounds Xander's shoes were making.
Xander nearly screamed in frustration as the rat-dog from hell attached itself to his pant cuff. How COULD Willow call this little rat a dog? Even more important, how could she call it a pet? Her pet? Her lovable pet? Xander was certain this 'pet' was a creature right out of the Hellmouth.
Every time Xander came over to Willow's, this hell spawn attached itself to his pant leg, uttering it's pathetic whiney little growls. And the damn thing, while small, had sharp pointy pin-like teeth. They scraped almost supernaturally well. Particularly on Xander's ankle.
"Damn dog." he muttered. Reaching down, he pried it off of him, holding it by the scruff of the neck an arms length away. Fluffy glowered at him, snarling in what it considered a fierce snarl. Mental images of booting the unholy rat out of the backyard with one swift kick almost broke Xander's will. But, Willow liked the little hell spawn, and she'd have to learn about Fluffy's inherent evil in her own time.
Detouring, he found his way to Fluffy's outdoor pen. Fluffy was given a lot of leeway, and the pen was usually left open, giving the dog free run of the backyard. "He probably goes swimming in that stupid water garden." Xander muttered to himself. With a light flick of his wrist, Xander dropped the would-be dog into the pen, closing the gate quickly before the mutant rat could escape. "Ha! How'd ya like that?" He bent down looking at the dog. "Next time, pick on someone your own size...if you can find something as pathetically small as you!"
Feeling immensely better with his victory over the dog, Xander resumed his approach to Willow's house. The house was a sidesplit, with the living room, kitchen, and dining room on the main level, two of the bedrooms on the upper floor and two on the lower floor. Unfortunately for Xander, Willow's room was on the upper floor.
* * *
Interlude:
Carmilla pensively nibbled on her thumb's fingernail, totally unaware of what she was doing while her mind tried to sort things out. Things were not going well. Not at all. That hideous dwarf of a man was making her immortal life very difficult.
The Seal. Everything she had worked for was at risk. All the sacrifices, compromises...everything! Because that creepy hunchback monster was obsessive about having the seal. How was a sweet angelic girl like herself supposed to keep all her promises when fate threw something that butt-ugly in her way?
Her eyes widened with that last though, shocked at how crude her mental imageries were. Obviously her last stay in heaven had been some time ago ... she was beginning to think in human terms. This was not good. She had a certain image to maintain after all.
End Interlude
* * *
Buffy, Giles and Angel sat in the confined space of the Watcher's office. Books, papers and fragile documents all carefully and meticulously laid away in bookshelves lining the walls in this tiny room, the glass doors in front of each case bearing a rather sturdy lock.
Angel had discoursed to them all as much as he knew about the Seal, and it's existence. His knowledge was limited, unfortunately, due to lack of exposure. While the Master had been occupying the chamber holding the Seal, Angel had not dared go near it. The seal had lain rather dormant under the Master's occupation. The Hellmouth and Seal confined like flies in amber even as the Master was trapped, because of the failed attempt some 70 years ago.
Giles felt a need for some further and extensive research on Seals, the seal, and the Hellmouth in general, before anything final was decided on the subject. Angel had conceded that blaming incidents of bizarre activity on the Seals' failure was premature. He couldn't be certain the seal was failing, just as he couldn't be certain there was another interloper bent on violating the Seal. Angel did believe it probable, though.
So, Giles had packed up what books he had deemed necessary from the table in the center of the library, wandering back to his office. Angel following close behind as the unlikely pair discussed possible sources.
Ms. Calendar had taken Xander, and the two of them had gone to fetch the Topaz for Willow. Ms. Calendar would prepare the stone, and drop Xander off near Willow's home. Since he knew Willow's family and house well, Xander was best suited to sneak the protective charm into Willow's bedroom.
Buffy had elected to keep Angel under close personal surveillance.
Sitting quite calmly on a chair she had dragged in from the study carols, she watched as the Watcher and the soul-cursed vampire began working through various antiquated scraps of paper and books. They were truly absorbed in the research, occasionally exchanging comments on whether a source was redundant, or had a piece of relevant information.
Angel had proven quiten useful at this task. Living at a time when Latin was a living language, he found reading and translating from Latin into English a trivial thing. Books that took Giles hours to read through, since he had to transliterate and translate as he went for the relevant information, took Angel a fraction of the time to work through. He didn't have to bother reading and translating, he just had to remember to switch back to English when he spoke up.
Buffy felt rather redundant. For all that she had accused Giles of being no use here with his books, it was here with these books he was so intimate with that all their knowledge came from. Buffy, being the Slayer and young, had no patience for the fuss of reading and translating prophecies, or Watcher Journals of years gone by.
The two men were totally engrossed in whatever it was they were reading, again. Aimlessly, Buffy wandered over to the bookcase behind her chair, fingers stroking across the spines of a few books, one in particular caught her eye. It was a strange color, for leather, and even stranger texture. Pulling it out gently, she was shocked to feel the brittleness of the fabric binding the book. It looked like leather, but leather was far more durable than this. Frowning, she opened the book just a crack to look at the pages inside. They were of the same material too. The hand written ink on the pages was difficult to read. It was both blotchy and faded, as if the ink had leaked across the page when written on originally, and faded to near illegibility over time.
The book intrigued her. It was hard to imagine someone writing a book that could not last. Raising it up towards Giles, she called out. "Giles? What kind of leather is this?"
The Watcher looked up in mild surprise. Buffy had been so quiet this past hour, he had nearly forgotten she was here. Refocusing his eyes on the object in the distance, he recognized the book immediately. "Leather? Human, I believe."
Buffy nearly dropped the book. As it was, the volume found it's shelf again quite quickly. "Human? That's disgusting?!?!"
"Quite. It's difficult to cure well. And it doesn't hold ink nearly as well as I could wish. An inferior material to document such important information on." Responded the Watcher absently, once again concentrating on Raymond Buckland's "Anatomy of the Occult".
The Slayer stared at him in amazement. How could he blow off something so...so...icky? Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at Angel. He hadn't even come up for air *Not that he needs air*, she minded herself. Both of them. She should have gone with Xander. At least then she'd be doing something, rather than just going plain stir-crazy.
* * *
Willow was sleeping, just not peacefully, Xander noted. Curled up in the fetal position, she faced the door with her back to the window. She was making soft distressed moans, her head tossing somewhat, and arms wrapped tightly around herself.
Tiptoeing closer, Xander felt around in his pant pockets for the blue topaz. "Oh god. I hope it didn't fall into the water garden!" He thought as pockets both proved empty. Patting himself down, visions of having to climb out the window, to the roof, and down the antenna to creep across the yard and sift through the entirety of the pond haunted him. "Please let it be here! Please let that damn garden NOT have a drain..Please!" His shoulders slumped, and he leaned forward in despair, causing the chain around his neck to pull free of the wet shirt, and the blue Topaz he had carefully put around his neck so he couldn't accidentally drop it, swung free.
Xander could have slapped himself for being a moron. Fingers fumbling, he unhooked the chains catch, setting the stone down on the night table beside Willow's bed. Turning, he tried to sneak across the room to write her a note. Willow was good at noticing things out of place, and a pendant like that would not be missed.
Removing the seat cushion, Xander sat down on her wooden desk chair, wincing at the feel of is wet clothing pressed so close to his drying skin. It wasn't easy to see in the dark for something as small as a pen. Notepaper was easy to find on Willow's desk. She kept a block of it to the right of her computer. Squinting he looked on top of the desk for a pencil can or something. Instead, his eyes fell on a series of framed pictures. Lifting one down, he turned so that the light from outside fell onto the frame. It was a picture of him and Willow, taken perhaps a year ago.
Setting it back, he looked at another one. Buffy and himself. A third had Buffy and Willow. And a last one with Willow, himself and Jesse. Jesse and Willow had been good friends, he remembered. How had she felt when Jesse had died? What had it done to her? Xander had never thought to ask, or to share his own grief.
"Xander?" She called out suddenly, he jumped up, opening his mouth to reply but realized she was still sleeping.
"No! Don't! He'll..." She came awake with a jerk and a sob. It took her a few moments to compose herself, taking deep measured breaths she calmed herself down, only to give a startled cry seeing Xander suddenly stand in front of her.
Taking a deep breath, she forcibly straightened out her mind. "Xander? What's wrong ? Is Buffy...?"
Xander squatted down beside her, "No. Buffy's fine. I was just about to write you a note." He could see her confusion, it was reflected in her eyes. "Look." He pointed to the side of the bed with the Blue Topaz. "That will stop the nightmares, or at least Ms. Calendar said it would."
"I'm not having nightmares."
Xander nodded agreeably, "Of course not. Consider this a preventive measure. Apparently a lot of people are suffering from regular, repetitive and just plain ugly nightmares. So, we thought we'd do something to protect ourselves."
Willow looked at him suspiciously, "Oh." She paused for a moment. "Xander? Why are you wet?"
* * *
Buffy yawned widely, her hand only covering her mouth as her jaw shut closed. The teacher fortunately had her back to Buffy, so she didn't see it. Rolling her neck, Buffy was satisfied to hear the audible crack and the relief it inherently brought. Head tilted, she had a clear view of the empty table Xander and Willow normally sat at. Neither had shown up this morning for school.
Buffy hoped Xander had been able to get that stone in, and more importantly, had done so without being caught. The rumor mill hadn't said anything about seeing Xander in Willow's neighborhood at night, but then again, the rumor mill wasn't much interested in Willow's or Xander's extra-curricular activities. "Thank God," she muttered softly.
She could just _imagine_ the conversations if people had paid attention. Willow going out with a demon, oh yes, that would go over well. Speculation on if she had 'done IT' would have run rampant for weeks. Or Xander and the She-Mantis. And what would be said of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer lusting after Angel, the Vampire. No, far better that the mishaps of their social life stayed between the three of them. *Errr...four'n a half. Giles knows just as much, and Ms. Calendar is getting close."
The bell rang, freeing Buffy from her class. Swiftly navigating through the school halls, she found her way to the library. It secretly amused her that they could use the room deemed most public so freely for their clandestine purposes. Other than Willow, very few students even KNEW the library was there. Giles had speculated that it was a side-effect of the Hellmouth's'' close proximity to the building, right below in fact.
Pushing the door open, Buffy wandered in eyes scanning the room for her Watcher. Not seeing him in the library proper, she sauntered back to his office, pausing occasionally to nudge a book back in it's shelf, or to run a finger along a case and admire the dust. Buffy had deserted Giles and Angel shortly after her discovery of the "human" book. She could wait for the final results of their inquiry into the unknown.
Giles was still sitting at his desk. His glasses were off and resting on top of an opened book. The man himself was leaning back into the chair, head flung back, eyes closed. Buffy felt a pang of guilt, while she had gone home and to bed, she was willing to bet Giles had spent the entire night here, researching for HER. She tended to underappreciated everything Giles did for her, Buffy admitted to herself. And that would have to end.
Knocking once on the door, she quietly walked into the room. "Did you and Angel find much last night?" She asked, dropping her book bag onto the rumpled cot still folded out.
Giles straightened up, reclaiming his glasses and pushing them up on the bridge of his nose. "Yes. Actually, we did garner some information about the Seal." He shut the opened book directly in front of him, and swivelled the chair around to face Buffy. "I would rather wait for everyone to be together before discussing the materials, but..."
Buffy waved a hand, "No, no. That's cool. If it isn't anything urgent, I can wait." She flashed him a sunshiny smile. "Besides, neither Willow or Xander showed up this morning."
Giles raised an eyebrow. "Indeed?"
"Uh huh. I figure if Willow managed to sleep okay, and she's been really bad for the last week like her Mom said, her Mom probably let her sleep herself out." Buffy commented, taking the seat she had occupied last night.
"As for Xander.." she began.
"Xander is standing right behind of you, Oh Fearless Leader!" Intoned the chipper male Slayerette. He grinned wildly at Buffy, signaling a thumbs-up. "And yes, Fearless Leader, Willow received the pendent, and slept like a baby. After she finished grilling me, that is."
Buffy smirked. "Got caught, huh?"
Xander tossed her a dirty look, quickly changing into a grin. "Yeah, well, she woke up from a nightmare that she didn't have, and saw me. I just stayed behind to write her a note, but, she decided to play twenty questions." His grin widened. "I did get to flip through one of her newer photograph albums. She had this picture of you and her at that pool party. Nice swimsuit, Buffy." Judiciously, he didn't mention that he had swiped the picture after Willow had dozed off.
"Do you think Willow will be in class this afternoon?" asked Buffy, craning her neck to see around Xander and look at the clock. The lunch hour had 40 minutes left.
Xander shrugged. "Don't know. If she's not here yet, I rather doubt it."
"Why don't we move this into the commons?" suggested Giles, already moving past the two teenagers, a small pile of books in his arms.
Xander turned on heel, following the librarian out, jauntily swinging his knapsack onto his shoulder. Ambling along behind, he spotted the doors of the library opening, and Willow's tiny figure slipping in.
"Willow!" Buffy cried out, sweeping past Xander and Giles to hug her friend. "You look so much better! Did you get enough sleep? That clown didn't keep you from going back to sleep, did he?"
"Clown?" Xander protested. "Clown?!? I'm not a clown! I HATE clowns!".
Willow smiled brightly, hugging Buffy back, before moving on to hug Xander. "Thanks, you two, for caring! I slept wonderfully last night after Xander... left? Or didn't leave? I don't know." She paused, mentally trying to sort images out. "Anyway, yeah, I slept fine, and woke up around eleven, this morning. Mom gave me a note."
Xander grinned evilly, "You do realize your perfect attendance has been totally shot down the drain."
Willow blushed, pushing her hair back behind her ear. "Well. No. I just talked to Ms. Hillis. She asked me what I thought of today's class...so, she doesn't know I wasn't there. Besides, my grade score average is still up, so missing a morning or two won't do any harm."
Xander turned around suddenly, fussing with his backpack to avoid any further discussion on marks. Still looking and stirring about the contents of his bookbag, he blindly stumbled to the central table.
Miraculously, the table had been cleared of all paper that had so obscured it yesterday. Giles resumed his seat at the table, bestowing on Willow a welcoming smile, and a nod towards her own fixed place at the computer. With a happy little smile, Willow resumed her seat.
Buffy sat easily to Giles' right. Xander, taking the chair beside her, and opposite Willow. Both teens were scrutinizing the young hacker rather closely. All the effects of not sleeping for a week hadn't been cured in one good night of sleep, she was still a little pale, but the bags under her eyes had faded for the most part, and her energy was up.
"Alright. Now, with you all here, I'll tell you what Angel and I determined." Giles began, spreading a few sheets with his handwriting on it out in an organized pattern.
Buffy raised a slim blond eyebrow. "Shouldn't we wait for Ms. Calendar?"
She could have sworn Giles' cheeks blushed redly. He cleared his throat loudly, looking up at the upper floor and at some distant point on the shelving. "Yes, well, umm. Ms. Calendar is looking up something for me. A 4th century demon. Zaebos."
Willow looked at him puzzled, pressing a few keys she looked at him again with even more confused. "Umm. Giles? According to this database you had me construct...there is no 4th century Zaebos. There's a Demon Lord Zaebos, but he's confined in the rings of Hell..."
Giles feigned surprise. "Oh. Really? Well, I..um, that is... Fancy that."
Buffy snickered, but displayed an innocent expression when Giles looked at her.
"Hey, " Xander spoke up. "I'm getting confused here. So, Ms. Calendar is in the club, or is conditionally in the club, or is a guest speaker to the club? Y'know, membership pass cards might come in handy, we could keep who's who straight."
"I...well, it doesn't matter." Giles again cleared his throat, pushing his glasses higher up on his nose. "For a recap on last night, for Willow's benefit, we discovered that the Hellmouth is warded by a mystical seal." He pulled a pen out of his shirt pocket, tapping it lightly on one of the pages as he began lecturing.
"The Seal was constructed roughly at the same time that the Old Ones were cast out. Legends state that it was established by a higher power, who appointed a Guardian to the Seal."
"The Guardian is, I'm afraid, for the most part an unknown. The only Guardian I have recorded is one, uh...ah yes, Galenna. The name strikes me as funny, as this area was inhabited primarily by native people, and this Galenna is clearly a Gaelic name, but I digress. Galenna was Guardian to the Seal in..." He reached for another paper, bringing it closer. "The sixth century. The incident recording her as Guardian was the rising insurrection of a hidden Demon Lord. The Demon Lord attempted to take possession of the Seal, and Galenna fought him off. Interestingly, the Demon Lord used the Bubonic Plague to weaken humanity and facilitate his own conquest."
"Used? As in, it happened at the same time as, or he sicced it on people?" Xander asked.
Giles looked up from his reading, " I really don't know, Xander. I believe the second, but a natural occurrence of the plague is always possible."
"Oh."
"So...what else, Giles?" Buffy prodded. The Watcher turned his gaze to her.
"The Seal's Guardian is to protect the seal from anyone taking control of it, or breaking it from this side of reality. If the Seal were violated or broken, the Hellmouth could be opened permanently."
"But the Hellmouth DID open, when the Master was freed, didn't it?" asked Willow, her attention focused exclusively on Giles. For some reason, everything he was saying seemed to be especially important for her to remember. And when he had said 'Galenna', she had automatically wanted to say, "But she's not the Guardian anymore." Where were these thoughts coming from?
"Yes. The Seal works in cycles. The Master's inhabitation and imprisonment was a direct result of the Seal's activity. It prevented the Master from releasing the Hellmouth some seventy years ago. However, at specific astrological convergences, such as the night that Buffy faced the Master, the Seal is weakened to the point the Hellmouth temporarily cycles open. If the Master had destroyed the Seal, the Hellmouth could become a fixed portal."
"The Seal, as I said, needs the protection of the Guardian. It can only be damaged on this side. It would take vast occult powers, united, for the Old Ones to break the Seal, but remarkably little on this side."
Buffy stopped Giles, her brow furrowed in concentration. "So, what you're saying is that the Seal isn't being protected right now? 'Cause, if it was being protected, and this Guardian was doing her, or his, job we wouldn't be having all these problems?"
Giles frowned slightly, "I'm not saying that, precisely. I, and Angel, do believe, however, that something is attempting to take up the Master's cause. I also believe that this new interloper is smarter, and instead of trying to remove the Slayer has chosen to attempt the removal of the Guardian. By doing so, it can easily take the Seal."
Xander nodded, "Alright. So, we're up against...what? A demon? Demon Lord? Another Master Vampire? Or one of a thousand different garden varieties of unlimited evil?"
Willow shot him an amused glance before turning back to Giles and Buffy. "What are we going to do?" She asked the question quietly.
Buffy looked at Giles for a long quiet moment. "I think, the best course of action would be to have a look at this Seal, and find the Guardian." She waited for Giles' approving nod. "I also think we should know means and measures to assuming temporary protection of the Seal."
Giles' frowned again at that, pulling out a slim black book. "I considered that this morning. The Seal's Guardian is special. It seems a understanding of how to manipulate and direct power is required to keep the Seal safe. Again, my resources on the Guardian's are limited. I just don't have enough information. I need more details to come to any accurate conclusions."
"What do you think they mean by 'power', " Willow thoughtfully interjected for the groups consideration. In her minds eyes, she could see columns of radiance streaming all around. Touching, and tangible. Did directing mean moving energy, or...
Giles shook his head, "I'm not certain. The Seal is a mystical construct, most likely it's magical energy. I'm afraid I can only offer speculations though."
"I think we should have invited Ms. Calendar to this one." Xander shook his head ruefully. "She's the one who knows all the magic- stuff, isn't she?"
Buffy winced. They were going to have a lot of fast talking to do before Ms. Calendar would let the "why she wasn't invited" topic drop. " Yeah. Hey, Giles, I think you should talk to her about all this."
Giles' wince was even more pronounced. He could already hear the lecture he was going to get.
Willow ignored them, instead accessing the city's security files again. The Hellmouth was beneath the school, somewhere near the library. So the easiest access route to it was.... Finding it, she sent a copy of it to the printer. Looking up, she interrupted Buffy's squabble with Giles on who should tell who what.
"Maybe we should figure out what we're going to do? Like a plan?" They looked at her as if there was another head sprouting obscenely out of her shoulders. "I mean. I've got the quickest route in, but...what do we do when we get there? And who's going in? And when?"
Buffy looked at Xander out of the corner of her eyes. Yup. Their Willow was back. "Okay, good point Willow. Can this trip wait until tomorrow? I mean, if we go Friday at least then we won't have school to deal with later."
Everyone there nodded their agreement. Giles seemed to consider it for a moment before he nodded curtly.
"Okay. So. Who's going in? Me, obviously, and I think Giles should come, for research purposes." She smirked at her Watcher. All his repeated 'I don't knows..' encouraged her to drag him down with her. *I hope he's not claustrophobic? Naah..with that tiny office, how could he be.*
"I'm in." Xander stretched lazily. He cast his eyes to Willow, who had leaned over to fetch the printout from the printer tray.
"Me too." She said quickly. She didn't know why, but she felt that she needed to go. If all those horrible nightmares, watching everyone dying, or being chewed on, or..., she shuddered just thinking about it ... were coming from the Hellmouth, she wanted it stopped. And she wanted to SEE it stopped.
Buffy seemed inclined to argue the last, but a warning look from Giles shut her up. "Right, well, then how about, tentatively, we assume Ms. Calendar will deal with the Seal, we'll find the bad guy, and then we all come home?"
The warning bell for the end of the lunch hour sounded. Xander stood up. "Sounds good to me." He cocked an eyebrow at Willow, indicating with a thrust of his chin that she should get up, and go to class. Even if she'd been out of it yesterday, he could bet her homework was still done. And after his sacrifices of last night, he deserves some answers.
Slowly, Willow stood up. Buffy was still talking earnestly to Giles, convincing him to deal with Ms. Calendar. Moving away from Buffy, and closer to Xander, she dropped her voice. "Oh, hey. I was wondering. Did you look at my photo albums last night?"
Xander stifled a cough. "Me? Um..yeah, I flipped through a couple. Uh. Why?"
She smiled sweetly at the criminal. "Oh, a picture or two seems to have fallen out, and I was just wondering if you knew where they fell to?" *like, in your pocket?* she amended silently.
The sounds of his protests echoed down the corridor.
End Part Three
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