Rating - Ummm... some parts are steamier, but mostly PG.
Disclaimer - This takes place early season 6 but I've deliberately not concentrated too much on the emotional state of the Slayer. All the characters are kinda wired though... Oh, and all characters belong to someone else. Mutant Enemy and Fox to be specific.
Feedback - Naturally.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4
"Do you think they're coming down today?" Buffy asked, staring at her watch. She absently stirred a spoon around in corn flakes long gone soggy.
Xander grinned. He put down his hammer and reached over to check the time on Anya's watch. "I don't know. The day after a life-threatening evil? Could be a while."
"We enjoy 'glad-to-be-alive' sex." Anya stated briskly. She took her arm back and looked up from her accounts books. "It's very life-affirming."
Buffy choked on a mouthful of cereal. "I'll bet."
"Better than 'didn't-quite-make-it' sex." Xander joked. "'Cos making time with the dead, not much fun."
"Depends on the dead." Buffy shrugged.
Xander stopped short. "I really walked into that one, didn't I?"
She licked a finger pointedly and held it up with a victory smile. "Point to Buffy."
"OK, but doesn't Tara have like a concussion or something?" Xander asked.
"She's probably getting pampered then." Buffy said.
A sharp, pleasured cry followed by a deep growl floated through the floorboards. The group looked up as one, dropping into embarrassed silence.
Finally, Buffy quirked an eyebrow. "Foot massage?"
***
Tara cried out, threw her head back and growled as waves of intense pleasure rippled through her. She could almost feel Willow's self-satisfied grin against her inner thigh, and she bucked her hips in reflex as her lover withdrew two fingers from her, licking them of Tara's wetness as she went.
"Mmmm…" Willow moaned.
"Oh my God." Tara reached down to pull Willow to her side into a crushing embrace. "Is everyone downstairs? Do you think they heard that?"
Willow sighed deeply and snuggled. "Almost certainly."
"Willow!" She laughed, hugging her even closer.
"Oh come on, I don't think they think we're running a book club up here." Willow replied, and winked. "If you like we can tell them we were doing a spell or something."
Tara snorted. "I think they've all seen through your crafty euphemisms, Will."
Willow threw her head back, unabashedly grinning. "Who cares anyway? We're young, in love¾"
"¾And both blessed with a healthy pair of lungs." Tara finished.
"It's a gift." Willow agreed.
Tara giggled. "So, no more insecure little Willow? Are we OK now?"
Willow buried her head in Tara's shoulder, considering. "Can't exactly promise no more little, irrational tugs of the heartstrings from time to time." She pulled a face. "I'm still not exactly bouncing with joy about the wards."
"But we're OK?" Tara insisted.
Willow nodded, happily rubbing her cheek against the soft, inside part of Tara's upper arm. "We're OK."
"Thank you, sweetie."
"My pleasure." Willow said. She missed the mischievous twinkle in her lover's eye, but there was no mistaking the meaning of the sudden movement of Tara's body. "Tara! Hands!
"Now… it's… my… pleasure…" Tara demanded, between kisses. Slowly her hands moved up the length of Willow's body, teasing her nipples and lightly massaging shoulder muscles, all the while she planted tiny kisses on Willow's neck. Willow gasped, surrendering to the onslaught.
Tara glanced up. "Questions? Comments?"
***
You failed.
Jared squirmed under the creature's intense gaze. "I captured the witch. Now we know there's two. At least two."
And now they know who you are. The deep voice boomed into Jared's brain, rattling his senses.
"You didn't think it would have been handy for me to know there was a Slayer in Sunnydale?" Jared complained.
The beast paused. I didn't know.
Jared considered this, as if filing away the creature's own ignorance for future use. He shrugged. "It won't matter anyway."
A vicious laugh rippled through him. The boy angers two witches and a Slayer in one bumbling effort and thinks that it won't matter. I am not sure if such arrogance is to be commended, or pitied.
"The witches will die. I'll see to that. The Slayer doesn't concern me. The wishes of my Order will be fulfilled."
Your Order means nothing! The creature burst forth, releasing a stream of black energy outwards, creeping into all the corners of the already darkened chamber. Jared found himself flung backwards onto his back, a sharp outcropping of rock digging into his spine. You are my servant now. You would be wise not to forget that.
"We want the same thing." Jared insisted, picking himself up off the floor, rubbing petulantly at sore muscles.
The creature merely nodded, letting a puff of green, acidic steam escape from his mouth. Jared jumped out of the way of the searing substance. He knew from ugly experience what it was like to not stay on your toes with a creature who breathed out a corrosive strong enough to burn the flesh from your bones.
"I will kill the witch." Jared promised.
And I will have vengeance. The creature hissed again, moving its vast bulk clumsily around the chamber. A hundred years of planning, ruined in an instant, stuck in this clumsy, monstrous shell. The monster lifted his head, revealing a scaly, slime-covered mass, with slits half-concealing lava-coloured pupils. You have my leave to go, human. Try not to do anything stupid.
"Of course, Apep." He bowed deeply from the waist, not taking his eyes from the giant serpent-like creature. "I will not fail again."
***
Giles put down the phone, a perplexed look Buffy didn't like but knew well etched across his forehead.
"Let me guess. The Malleus whose-its never even heard of this Jared guy?" Buffy said, tired and depressed. She sank into the lounge chair behind her.
Giles' frown deepened even further. "Oh, they've heard of him all right. Actually they were very excited that we even knew his whereabouts."
"A rogue witch hunter?" Xander asked. "That can't be good."
"But he still had all those powers. The wards, the suggestion spell, and that disappearing act? I'm pretty sure he didn't just escape into the floorboards." Buffy said. "What gives?"
"Well, despite not being terribly willing to deal with a Slayer who deals with witches, they were actually quite forthcoming with their information." Giles plucked his glasses from his head and started his standard glasses-cleaning ritual, his mind seemingly still spinning with the consequences of what he'd just heard. "The spells are all what his Order were calling 'granted powers', things the followers are given in order to aid them in their calling. These remain with him despite his having gone missing from their ranks. The invisibility has them as stumped as we are. Apparently it isn't a power that any Malleus follower possesses."
"That means he has help." Willow added, appearing at the top of the stairs. She descended the staircase hurriedly, Tara just a few steps behind.
Buffy jumped up again from the couch. The news didn't seem all bad - at least they maybe had two or three solid leads to work with. "So the little witch-boy has wandered off and called in reinforcements. What should we look for, research-wise?"
"Perhaps it would be worthwhile investigating upper-level demons, or other entities, that might share similar goals with Jared and have the ability to imbue the kinds of powers we've seen." Giles suggested.
Tara cut in. "Other entities? You mean, like Gods?"
"Well, yes, I assume that would be the logical assumption." Giles replied, downcast.
"Glory wasn't enough to deal with?" Buffy cringed. "Has Sunnydale become the favourite holiday destination for bored deities?"
"Let's hope there are no two-for-one deals." Xander quipped.
Willow turned to Giles "Well, whatever it is, since there have been no up close and personal attacks other than through Jared, we can kinda assume that whatever it is isn't strong enough on this plane to attack us directly."
"Yet." Anya added, warily. "It might just be a matter of time."
"OK, depressing thought. Practical." She admitted, throwing Anya a shaky smile. "But still… depressing." She headed for the table and the laptop she had left there. "I was thinking of looking up some old friends. Jared said he was from Indianapolis. Maybe he wasn't lying. He was pretty sure I was gonna die after all. Some local coven might have had some dealings with him."
"It's worth a try, absolutely." Giles confirmed. "Meanwhile the rest of us should use our usual methods. We should read up, find out who we could be dealing with."
"And I will do the traditional donut run." Xander declared, offering Anya a hand to stand up. "Who wants jelly?"
***
Dearest Willow,
I must admit your letter has stirred up many unhappy feelings in our coven. The man you are asking about, Jared, joined our coven four months ago, under the pretence of being a beginner searching for guidance.
It is not our practice to turn away the willing, so we helped him, seemingly to come into his powers, but it was soon pretty obvious he had developed on his own. Ann taught him privately on occasion, and he participated in our rituals regularly. Then two of our coven members disappeared, and he came to us, openly bragging that he would destroy us all, citing the Order of Malleus. None of us really knew what he meant, but we have researched his order since then, and they are dangerous.
After Ann died he disappeared. And you say he has attacked you in Sunnydale? We thought his leaving was good news, that no more witches in our coven would be in danger. We still don't know why he left, and we've been afraid he would come back. I don't know that we can tell you anything that could help you. He seems to have the power to control the minds of witches, to make them do things…
We can't prove he had anything to do with Ann's death, but the timing makes us suspicious of course. Her death came upon so fast.
Be careful. Call if you think we can do anything to help, day or night.
Blessed Be
Raven.
Willow put down the letter and fought back sobs. The others sat in a circle
around the table at the Magic Box, listening carefully. As Willow read aloud
they shared her grief. Grim looks passed between them.
"He did this." Willow's voice cracked.
"And we're going to stop him doing it again." Tara stood and walked around to Willow, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders. She responded by burying her face in Tara's torso, welcoming the hug. She rubbed her back, soothing her. "Human or not, he'll pay for this."
"The question is, did he get his demonic backer before or after he left Indianapolis?" Buffy hefted the book she'd been reading, scanning down the page for what seemed the zillionth time. "There's two or three demons we've found who could have the powers he used."
"Any of them have the ability to imbue a human with those powers?" Tara asked.
Buffy closed the book, frustrated. "Doesn't really say."
"Getting these new powers could have been the reason he left." Willow reasoned. "He could have been recruited by the big bad and sent here specifically after us."
"After you." Tara qualified. "He went directly for you, Will."
"It's true." Buffy agreed. She turned to Willow. "I'm usually the one with the big target painted on my back, but he didn't seem to even know who I was."
Willow recoiled from Buffy's worried look. "Stop looking so concerned. I'm fine. If that's all he's got then I don't think he can really hurt me any more. We've been through this. He's lost the element of surprise."
Tara jumped up suddenly, knocking the chair she'd been sitting on flying backwards. Her face was ashen, her body trembling.
"It's really OK…" Willow started.
Tara waved her off. "No, it's not that. I think I know who we're dealing with." She turned and raced up the stairs to the books on the second level, the ones with the darker powers and more dangerous magics. Hurriedly, but with due care, she rifled through volumes until she found the one she was looking for. With a grim look she flipped it open, staring at the grotesque images she was confronted with on the pages.
Finally she stopped at one section, and read.
The others stared, shocked at Tara's sudden outburst, waiting for an explanation.
"Sweetie? What is it?" Willow ventured.
Tara didn't respond, her eyes glued to the text she held in shaking fingers.
After a few moments she stood, coming towards the railing and looking down on the assembled group. "Oh my God, Willow. I almost got you killed."
Willow's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"
Tara descended the stairs carefully. At Giles' prompting she handed the book over immediately when she reached the floor.
"Apep?" Giles enquired. "An Egyptian deity?"
"An old one. The Serpent God of Chaos." Tara finished for him, making her way back to her seat. She ignored Willow's concerned looks. Still trembling she picked her chair up off the floor and righted it, slumping down into it. "Not terribly powerful in the scheme of things, but he does have certain powers that he can pass along to his followers." She looked up. "Shape-changing… invisibility… I'm sorry, this should have occurred to me before. I did enough research before I tried the spell. I'm so stupid."
"You're not stupid." Willow said firmly.
"What spell?" Buffy demanded.
"The calming spell." Willow said, understanding claiming her at last. "The ritual for inner calm."
Tara nodded. "In the spell I capture the essence of the God of Chaos into an effigy and ask the Goddess Maat to bless it. Then I cast it into the ocean and pray that Apep be captured inside his naming form - in this case a serpent made out of clay - and quit plaguing my life."
"Apep was plaguing your life?" Xander asked, still lost.
"No." Tara sighed. "It's just an expression. I was feeling chaotic, so I cast out chaos and brought in tranquillity. It's supposed to be purely symbolic."
"You captured the spirit of a God?" Willow whispered, awestruck. "And I thought I was good."
"It wasn't on purpose!" Tara wailed.
Giles held a hand up for quiet. "There's no point assigning blame. At least we're a lot closer to figuring this out than we were."
"Maybe you are, but I'm still stumbling around in darksville." Buffy claimed. She looked at Tara. "I get that you managed to piss this God off. You've captured his spirit somewhere?"
"In a little clay effigy." Tara said.
"Not necessarily." Giles corrected, his eyes caught on something in the book Tara had handed him. "You might have thought you were capturing him in the serpent effigy, but perhaps you did something else entirely. What were the exact words of the spell?"
"Stay within your image." Tara whacked her forehead with her palm. "You're right, I didn't specify. One of the most basic mistakes."
"What is the image of Apep?" Giles asked.
"A serpent." Willow supplied. She reached around Giles and flipped the page of the book over that he was still holding. An illustration stared back at them. "That serpent to be specific."
"So somewhere around is a pissed off Apep stuck in his little serpent body trying to get out?" Xander summarised, hoping beyond hope he had misunderstood. He looked glum as Giles confirmed his haphazard analysis with a brisk nod.
"What would release him from the spell?" Buffy asked, afraid she already knew the answer.
Anya was more than happy to supply it. "Killing the witch who cast the spell."
Tara slumped further into her chair. "He's not after you Willow. He's after me."
"Au contraire, my pretty little witch" A menacing voice floated in from the doorway. Buffy whirled around, instantly tensed and ready for the new threat. The slim form of Jared leaned against the shelf closest to the door, his annoying grin broader than she remembered. He took a few lingering steps forward. "Apep has his own hangups. For me, pretty much any witch will do."
"You gotta wonder why someone who claims to be so smart keeps coming around regularly to get his ass kicked." Xander mused.
Willow moved to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Buffy, glaring at the intruder. "Give it your best shot, Jared."
Buffy glanced at her friend. "Could you sound any more OK Corral?"
"Well, clever comebacks are kind of your department. I'm just really pissed off."
Buffy folded her arms casually. "Does anger help with your mojo? Because I find that it really helps me get into the moment with the slayage."
Willow didn't answer, just stood absolutely still, gathering energies around her. "Thicken!" A bolt of liquid glue flew towards Jared. He waited a calculated moment then raised a hand, batting away the sticky energy ball with barely a thought.
"Stupid Willow." He drawled her name. "Knowing your name doesn't only give me power over you. It gives me the strength to resist your power." Jared sneered.
Willow nodded firmly. "I thought as much. Plan B."
"Reveal!" Tara called out from behind.
Jared recoiled as the magical energy hit him squarely in the chest. He regained his footing and stared down at his now-tingling limbs, as if afraid there might be one missing. After he was satisfied there was nothing wrong he gave Tara a toothy grin. "And what was that supposed to achieve, witch?"
"He's all yours, Buffy." Willow took a step back.
Jared frowned and his body vanished as he watched the Slayer approach in battle stance.
Buffy threw her hands in the air. "Do you know how much I hate that trick?"
"Buffy, look." Willow pointed to the ground. Two ghostly, black footprints stood out clearly from the polished wooden floor. "The spell. He'll leave those wherever he goes."
"A quick left to the jaw should do it." Tara called out.
The footprints started to run. Buffy caught him easily in two steps, leaping onto the invisible man's back and pummelling where she thought his head should be. Her fist made contact. She heard bones crack and he fell from under her. The invisibility spell dissipated as quickly as he had summoned it. Jared swam in and out of consciousness, reeling from the full strength of a Slayer-blow to the head.
Buffy kept a firm hold of his collar for insurance. She squinted up at Giles. "Great. Back to square one. Now what do we do with him?"
And suddenly, Jared started screaming.
***
Apep howled in fury. The walls of the cavern shook from the violence of the sound, rock and dirt from the walls and ceiling cascading around the creature as he stomped from chamber to chamber.
I ought to have to have known! He wailed. The human was impetuous, too eager for blood.
With a concentrated thought he cut his ties to Jared, removing the granted powers that had been draining his own strength. He felt the pain that coursed through Jared's blood as his patron's favour was hastily withdrawn, lingering long enough to savour his screams, then cutting the cord completely.
Before him the great beast conjured a rippling mirror. It pulsed with powers, only some of which the creature even knew how to use. Ancient, pure evil…
It was time to move beyond the vessal and act against the witch himself, whatever his limitations were in this grotesque, mortal form. The Slayer had been an unforeseen complication. So had Jared's stubborn arrogance. He had seemed the perfect vessel, a volatile mixture of hatred and raw power, willing to subjugate himself to Apep for the promise of augmentation to his already formidable skills. The boy could have been a leader, a high priest of a new order.
Now he was a shell again, and Apep would deal with him in due course. After the witches and the Slayer were all dead.
***
"What's wrong with him?" Anya called out, her hands over her heads
to block out the hideous sound.
Buffy was busy slapping Jared's face, trying to get the wailing to stop. "I have no idea. It sounds like someone just drove a nail into his brain."
After a while the screaming was reduced to long sobs, wrenching from his throat like some distant hands had him in a choke hold. Jared curled himself into a tight ball, burying his face against his chest.
"Thank the Lord." Giles said, removing his own fingers from his ears.
"OK, that s-so wasn't me." Tara stammered. Her face collapsed in horror as she watched Jared writhing on the floor. "My spell couldn't have done that."
"Highly unlikely." Giles agreed.
"Buffy, get up." Willow instructed, moving towards the stricken boy.
"Uh uh, no way. What if he turns into Invisible Boy again?"
"He won't." Willow said. "At least, if I'm right, I don't think he can." She knelt down next to Jared and waved Buffy away. The Slayer stood up reluctantly and took a step back, but not relaxing.
Willow was careful not to touch him. She leaned in close to make sure he could hear her voice. "Jared. Can you hear me?"
He lashed out and she ducked, narrowly missing getting a fist to the face. She backed away slowly, still on her knees.
"Jared, he can't help you any more. Do you understand?" Willow said.
"Gone…" The boy whimpered. "He's gone… so much pain…" Another sobbed ripped from his throat and he reacted bitterly, growling in Willow's direction.
Willow stood up, satisfied. "Apep left him." She said, simply.
"Just like that?" Xander asked, surprised. "Those fickle Gods."
Willow shrugged and watched over Jared's hunched form. She wasn't sure why, but she suddenly felt bad for him, just lying there, having been deserted by the thing he trusted, believed in.
"That's the problem with worshipping those evil Gods. They tend to not take failure lightly." Anya said.
Willow nodded, her face filled with the sadness she couldn't explain. "He must have suddenly stopped being useful."
"I'd say he was pretty useless to start with." Buffy said, sympathy for the wretched form on the floor the furthest thing from her mind.
"Remember, not all of his powers came from Apep. He is still very dangerous." Giles warned. "His Order made that very clear."
"Yeah well, maybe he can tell us more about what we're dealing with now that he's not the big bad's whipping boy?" Buffy declared. She grabbed Jared by the collar and heaved him onto a nearby chair, ignoring his cries and whimpering.
Willow winced but didn't intervene. This is still the guy who tried to kill me. This is still the guy who robbed my powers... She tried to summon up her anger of the previous day, but her brain refused to cooperate. She looked over at Tara, took in the white bandage and black rings under her eyes. This is the guy who put Tara in danger. Ah, there it was, she thought. That familiar fire of annoyance in her stomach blossoming into full-blown anger. No time for sympathy, she admonished herself. Tara was still a target, and Jared might be the best link they had.
Jared was ranting now, spewing unintelligible phrases under his breath that she was only catching every third word of. She even swore some of it was in Latin, and the dead language sounded oddly archaic on his obviously practiced tongue.
Buffy threw Giles a questioning stare, looking for some kind of translation.
Giles stammered. "I-I'm not sure… it could be ritualistic? It could be magical?"
"It could be what his mother used to say to him as a baby." Buffy balled her hands in frustration. "Help me out here guys."
Willow concentrated, racking her brain for knowledge that she barely used anymore. "He's mumbling, like a treatise of some kind…three necessary … I can't make that out…of witchcraft, which are the devil, a witch, and the permission of almighty god…"
"Yes." Giles nodded. "That's pretty much what I'm getting too."
"Which God?" Buffy asked.
"The God." Willow stressed. "Christians only believe in one. Remember?"
Buffy scowled. "Oh yeah. Forgot. It's been a while since I dealt with that concept."
"It's like the most fundamental misconception of all." Tara explained. "Wiccans can't be Satan worshippers, we're not Christians, we don't even believe in Satan."
"So he's just quoting text?"
"The Malleus Maleficarum, I think so. It's pretty much his bible."
"You know what? I've had it." Buffy grabbed Giles by the jacket and dragged him over to the telephone on the counter. "You were right all along. Give his people a call and get one of them down here. One of them started this mess, they're damn well going to help us finish it." She ranted, furious eyes gleaming. "At the very least they can figure out what to do with the dribbling idiot over here."
Jared had indeed begun to drool, his mouth becoming slacker as his recitation continued, blurring his speech until it no longer resembled language. Lucidity had almost completely drained from his eyes, leaving him looking empty and pale.
Willow felt immeasurably conflicted. As much as she agreed with Buffy that the Order needed to become involved, it chilled her to the bone standing there listening to the Order's covenant being recited to them in chilling detail through Jared's mumblings. Something so vile and incomprehensible to her scared her to the core. And he just kept on going, without pause, knowing every word, every syllable every nuance by heart. In Latin no less. She couldn't imagine believing in, or hating something, so utterly and completely.
Within everything there was always room for question, she believed. Always room for doubt and reason, and arguments of logic. Within every theory of life there were non-absolutes. Surely the same must go for these men?
She listened almost against her will, now that her brain had begun unscrambling, translating, she couldn't seem to stop it. It bored into her soul with remarkable precision.
"Let it be known that all those who are commonly called sorcerers, and those too who are skilled in the art of divination, incur the penalty of death…
He droned on.
Any person, whatsoever his rank or position, upon such an accusation may be put to the torture, and he who is found guilty, even if he confesses his crime, let him be racked, let him suffer all other tortures prescribed by law in order that he may be punished in proportion to his offences…
And on.
The laws highly commend those who seek to nullify the charms of witches. And those who take great pains that the work of man shall not be harmed by the force tempests or by hailstorms are worthy of a great reward rather than of any punishment…"
And on.
Time for you to stop talking, she thought, fury bubbling to the surface. Maybe I could just remove his voicebox?
"Willow, is there anything you can do to shut him up?" Buffy asked, echoing Wi.llow's thoughts. The sound of his mutterings, while making no sense to her, set the Slayer's blood boiling.
Xander came to the rescue, bearing a roll of duct tape he ferreted out from behind the counter. "I believe a non-magical solution is at hand."
In a few seconds, Jared was finally silent again, mouth closed firmly by industrial strength tape.
Buffy turned back to Giles, phone in hand. "Well?"
***
Willow was listless as they walked home through the park. She scuffed her shoes against the pavement, her face reflecting the petulance of her mood.
Tara looked over, concerned, and feeling more than a little guilty from the events of the afternoon. "Penny for your thoughts?"
Willow tried to smile. "You got a few dollars to spare?"
"I'm willing to empty out my piggy bank." Tara led Willow over to a nearby bench and they sat down together. Willow tucked a leg underneath her and started to absently play with Tara's fingers, still lost in thought. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about all this." Tara said.
Willow looked up into eyes whose gloom almost matched her own. "Tara…"
"No, really. I can handle the fact that I screwed up. I just hate the fact that it could have gotten you hurt."
"But I didn't. And we're going to figure out a way to stop Apep." Willow lingered on the last, as if actively trying not to finish her sentence
"¾ But?"
"But…" She stalled for a second, uncertain of how to voice the doubts that plagued her. "I'm really not certain about Buffy's plan."
"About bringing the Malleus guys here?"
"About bringing them here in force." Willow said, with a hardness in her tone. "A bunch of loony witch hunters?"
"Buffy told them just one."
Willow snorted. "And do you think they'll listen?"
"It does seem kind of unlikely." Tara agreed. "But there isn't much we can do to stop it now."
"It just makes me so annoyed!"
"OK, why? Explain it to me."
"I'm not sure how." Willow admitted, still seething. "This whole thing, it's kind of more to do with us than with her. OK, Apep, a monster Buffy might have to deal with, but that's not all there is to worry about." She hesitated, troubled. "This is witch business. It's human witch hunters after human witches. It's our problem, and I think we should deal with it in our own way."
"Sweetie, Buffy is just trying to help."
"I know, but she's not helping the way she used to, like she really cares what happens." Willow flailed, searching for some kind of point amongst her own ramblings. "She's not really even here. So she may as well not be."
Tara couldn't even pretend to understand. "What are you saying?"
"What I mean is… well, what I think I mean is, when Buffy was gone, I think I kind of got used to dealing with things in my own way. I didn't run to the Slayer for help, because there was no Slayer…"
Tara blinked in shock. "Are you saying you feel jealous?"
"No! Yes. Maybe." Willow shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "More like, 'Stand aside, witch, there's a Slayer in town'!"
"Willow, Buffy needs you. We all need you."
"Well, you know, suddenly that's not good enough anymore." Willow said. Feelings she had bottled up threatened to flow out of her all at once, but there didn't seem to be enough words to describe it all. "This is a situation that calls for witches, not more witch hunters. I'm nervous about this plan, Tara. Do you think the Order of Malleus are going to come waltzing in, fix our problem and then just go away?" She shook her head vehemently. "Not when they see how much power is here, how much they could destroy."
"OK, just say you're right." Tara was almost afraid to ask. "What do you want to do about it?"
"I have a few ideas."
"Ideas you decided not to tell Buffy about?"
"She wouldn't have been interested. And Giles is even worse. Once one spell goes wrong the whole lot of them just turn all anti-magic, as if every spell that gets cast will go wrong. They never have any faith in what I can do. What we can do." She amended hastily. "Of course, that's only until they need magic to save their asses again, and then it's all 'Willow, Tara, can you cast this spell?'"
"Anger isn't going to help us out of this, Will." Tara soothed. "It's not that I don't agree with you, but we can't take matters into our own hands just because we don't like the decision Buffy makes."
Willow stared for a second, face twisted in defiance. Little by little she relented under the softness of Tara's gaze. Her anger broke apart and began to subside. "Maybe I'm just suffering from sidekick syndrome?"
"Yeah well, " Tara joked, forcing levity. "Who are we kidding? That's what we are."
"Oh, that is so the problem." Willow's objections picked up steam again. "You know, I never used to question that Buffy was the Slayer and we were her team." She grimaced. "Teams work together. And they work to each other's strengths. I thought we'd gotten over this I am the Chosen One, I know everything stuff."
"Willow, that's not how it is at all." Tara stated firmly. "Deep inside you know that."
"Do I?" The question was almost innocent, free of the vehemence and anger of just seconds before, just a plaintive cry for reassurance. Tara wrapped her arms around Willow to find her lover shaking all over. From what she couldn't say. Rage? Or disappointment? Maybe even fear. It didn't matter. All that mattered was finding a way to drive away the hurt before it affected Willow's relationship with Buffy.
Tara's first instinct was to suggest Willow talk out her anger with Buffy herself, but even she was forced to concede that talking feelings with the Slayer at the moment was… well, difficult was a polite word. She'd had more emotionally honest discussions with the garden fence.
***
After brief introductions had been dispensed with, the room fell into an uneasy silence. Battle lines were drawn with simple glances and body language, with Buffy and Giles standing on one side, Willow on the other, and the priest of Malleus standing uncomfortably towards the middle, oblivious to the undercurrents of tension, lost in his own purpose and agendas.
"Will you let me speak with him?" The priest prodded at last. Willow leaned back against the wall, arms crossed, shooting daggers across the room.
"For a few minutes." Giles assented. "With us present, and in a language we understand."
The priest looked mildly amused for a moment, then caught Willow's eye and his face went cold. The witch cast him a speculative glance, wondering whether his reactions were based on fear, or just plain old revulsion. She supposed she couldn't really blame him - just the sight of him made her skin prickle.
Anya and Xander had decided they'd much rather not be present when the priest made his entrance, and Tara had reluctantly hurried off to work an hour before, not liking the timing that meant she had to leave Willow facing off with a master witch hunter alone. Well, not alone exactly, but at the moment the presence of Buffy and Giles was unlikely to be something that helped Willow relax.
Matthew Cooper, Willow thought to herself. That's how he had introduced himself. No Father Matthew Cooper or Brother, or Reverend or any other salutation she had thought he might use. Just plain old Matthew Cooper. Such a normal, everyday name. She found it discomforting that someone like him, average in pretty much every way, could walk down a street and draw no attention, as if he wasn't plotting murder with his every breath. He was certainly not someone she would instinctively notice, or know to be careful of.
She shuddered. When it came down to it, she was fairly sure she preferred demons. Or vampires. At the very least that kind of evil never pretended to be anything but evil - and never tried to convince itself it wasn't.
He was staring at her too. "Will the witch be there?"
"The witch has a name." Willow forced herself to say.
He actually looked embarrassed. "I apologise. My Order, as you can imagine, is not used to relating to your kind as…" He struggled for an appropriate term.
"Human?" Willow supplied, his obvious discomfort considerably easing her own.
"Actually, what I was thinking was more like colleague. Or ally."
Buffy stepped in. "We're not your friends, Mr Cooper. We're not even on the same side. We just happen to have a similar need right now."
His face froze. "Then I suppose we should get on with it."
"This way." Giles pointed towards the back of the Magic Box.
Before the priest's arrival Giles had removed the tape that had served so nicely to silence Jared. Ever since he had been free to speak again jared had taken up his ritual once more, continuing to recite passages from the Malleus Maleficarum as if they were branded on his memory.
"Do you teach them to do that?" Buffy asked, not attempting to hide her disgust.
"Actually yes. It's a bit like the army. When captured, give only your name, rank, serial number…" He looked Jared over carefully. Willow noticed though that he seemed to regard Jared as more of a specimen than a person, examining him as she would a germ under a microscope. "When all else fails, our members will remember these passages verbatim, and recite them until nothing else exists in their minds but the words."
Buffy winced. "That would drive me nuts."
He nodded. "Precisely."
"Because even if a madmen were to eventually reveal the presence of the Order, his captors would think he was a loony anyway. Especially if they've had no previous contact with the supernatural world." Willow finished.
"You're very quick." He observed.
"For an abomination?" She retorted, bitterly.
"Quite." He was past being baited by her now. The smile he gave her grated up and down her spine and she was forced to look away, or something ugly would slip from between her lips.
Cooper snapped his fingers twice in front of Jared's face and the boy looked up, seeing properly for the first time since the spirit of Apep had rushed from his body.
"Jared?"
"Master?"
"You're back." The older man smiled, his face appearing almost benevolent.
"He's gone." Jared whimpered. His head lolled to one side.
"Good." A hardness slipped into Cooper's voice, but he reined back any attempt at rebuke. "You will be yourself again."
"And the witch?"
Willow tensed.
Cooper didn't blink, his whole concentration focussed on the boy. "That's not our concern for now." The priest looked up at Giles. "I'd like to untie him and take him with me now."
"Are you kidding? No way." Willow spluttered.
Giles held up a placating hand to Willow. "I'm sorry Mr Cooper. I'm not sure we can allow that just yet."
"Why did you bring me here if not to take the boy home?" Cooper asked, confused.
"We brought you here to help us figure out what to do with him." Buffy said "I don't think just letting him go is really an option. He tried to kill one of my friends."
"And he failed." Cooper replied.
"So the fact that he tried to kill another human being doesn't occur to you as wrong?"
"We don't see…" He started, then stopped, diplomacy taking over. "That is, he was carrying out the duties of our Order. However misguided his dealings with this demonic power may have been, his motives cannot be questioned."
"You don't see witches as human beings." Willow said flatly.
He inclined his head. "Considering how much you seem to know about our Order, there seems little use in denying that fact."
"And, just out of curiosity, if he had killed someone who wasn't a witch?" Giles asked.
"He would be punished."
"We're getting nowhere here." Buffy said, grim-faced.
Cooper considered this for a moment, weighing his options. "I can see only one solution then."
Buffy looked amused, pretty certain that anything he proposed was going to be unacceptable. "And that is?"
Without preamble Cooper reached flipped a dagger into his fingers from beneath his sleeve, and flung it toward the prone figure tied the chair. The dagger drove deep into the boys neck and he gurgled briefly, then slid sideways, life draining from his limbs.
Buffy reacted, while Willow and Giles merely stood in shock. As she saw the knife emerge she flung herself towards the priest, too late to stop him flicking the weapon at its target.
Jared died as Buffy drove the priest to the ground. She whacked him belatedly across the face and he reeled with the shock of the blow, but didn't react.
Willow expected to feel sorry for Jared. Even with Cooper's horrible words echoing in her ears she had never thought to feel so utterly disconnected with so horrible an act. But as she watched Jared die she felt no urge to leap forward, no compulsion to preserve this particular life. She didn't wonder for a moment if that would have made any difference anyway. What mattered to her suddenly was that she didn't bother trying. As he died she felt, with a twinge of guilt, that much safer again, and more than a little bit revenged.
Buffy was appalled. "That was your solution?"
"You could never have done it." He explained, simply. "And nothing else would satisfy us both."
"This doesn't satisfy me." Buffy growled, watching the blood pool upon the floor, feeling sick to her stomach.
"Well, in that case, I admire you for that." He said, his voice and face devoid of emotion. "But it is finished."
And with that, the priest disappeared.