The Immortal Slayer - Chapter 8
The library had an air of tension as the gang assembled the next day. Buffy was unsure of her feelings towards Willow being the Immortal Slayer, Xander felt bad about Willow walking out the day before, and Giles was worried about everyone.Sitting down at the table Buffy, Xander, and Giles all began talking to Willow.
Xander babbled, trying to make sure Willow wasn't upset with him. "Wills, I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings yesterday, I didn't mean to. I just wasn't prepared for the hair and the news that you're the Immortal Slayer and everything. It was just too much. I couldn't handle it all at once. I'm really sorry."
"You know, being immortal wouldn't be all that great. Look at how bored a person can get now. Can you imagine that in like, yearlong spans? It would be torture. I'm so glad I'm it's not me." Buffy was saying; trying to cover the tinge of jealousy she felt, and convince herself being immortal really would suck.
"Willow, are you prepared to deal with everything this endeavor entails? I know you don't have a choice, but you need to be careful. Slaying is a very hard and dangerous line of work." Giles wanted to take Willow under his wing, feeling responsible for her not only as a friend, but also as a watcher.
"Everyone please just shut-up. I can't even hear my own thinking. Geez." Willow cried out with a sigh, feeling bombarded. As silence filled the room, she took a deep breath. Upon seeing the hurt looks on her friends' faces, she immediately apologized. "I'm sorry." Sighing, she looked at everyone, waiting to see what would happen next. Since they all remained quiet, Willow decided to start their meeting. "Giles, have we found anything else about the Dark Goddess? And what should I expect to happen tomorrow night? With the whole immortality thing?"
"Uhm, I still don't have anything on the Dark Goddess, and I haven't found any references to your immortality either. I don't know what to tell you." Giles replied softly, feeling disturbed that he couldn't help the young girl when she needed it most.
Willow nodded, she had expected as much. "Okay. I'll go over the website and make with the computer stuff, Xander, get your nose in the stacks. Buffy, why don't you help him? It's too early to go patrolling. Giles, look through your books and maybe the watcher's diaries? They might have something helpful." Realizing the gang was simply staring at her, Willow prodded them to get to work. "Okay people, let's go!"
Mouths agape in surprise over Willows new assertiveness, everyone rushed off to separate corners of the library busying themselves in their work as Willow connected to the school's ISP." Shoulders sagging in disappointment, Willow checked her website only to find there were no new messages. Posting a quick message, she hoped some new information would turn up soon.
~ Saille here. I need more info on the Dark Goddess and the Immortal Slayer. Does anyone know about the whole turning immortal thing? Is it like a ritual or what? Thanks! ~ Saille
Logging into her e-mail account she bit her lip, hoping against hope that someone would have sent her and e-mail dealing with this whole immortal business. After sifting through the junk mail, she smiled as she saw a message with the subject line: Immortal Slayer info. Opening the message, she read it quickly.
Saille, The Immortal Slayer must prepare for her new role. In order to do so she must seek out someone who is near immortal. She must also find the Dark Goddess' weakness if there is to be any hope of defeating her. CouncilGirl
Puzzling over the 'one who is near immortal' part, Willow called out to Giles. "Hey Giles, I got an interesting e-mail. It says I need to speak to someone who is near immortal. How can you be near immortal?"
Giles looked at the email over her shoulder, feeling as confused as Willow did. "Perhaps Buffy? Only she would have already told us if she had any information on your turning immortal."
Hearing her name, Buffy looked down from the second level of books. "Hey, are you two talking about me?" She joked, giving a mock look of anger.
"Of course not. We're trying to figure out this e-mail, it says to talk to someone who is near immortal. Any ideas?" Willow asked with a hopeful look on her face.
Buffy paused a moment, trying to decide just what near immortal meant. "The only thing I can think of is vampires. They live forever, unless they're killed a certain way, so they're near immortal."
"And the only vampire around here that would be of any help is Angel." Willow continued on Buffy's train of thought. "So I guess I need to go talk to Angel later. Now we still need to figure out what weakness the Dark Goddess has. Any clue as to who might know that one?" Willow asked, eyebrows raised. She was hoping for an encore performance of Buffy's problem solving ability.
"Sorry." Buffy shrugged. "We'll have to figure that one out the hard way. Good old research. Yay." She added with sarcasm. Research had never been her strong point.
"Yes, I believe Angel would be the only likely person. I'll begin trying to find some reference to the Dark Goddess' weakness. I wonder if Xander has found anything?" Giles flipped through a book as he talked, trying to find anything that might remotely be of use.
"Yo, G-man! Check this out." Xander walked past Buffy and down the stairs, scanning the rest of the passage as he did so.
"Right on cue." Willow said, rolling her eyes, as she and Giles walked over to the table.
Following Xander down the stairs Buffy joined the group already clustered around Xander.
"What have you found?" Giles asked
"This DG is gonna go down. She's not immortal." Laying the book down on the table for all to see, Xander proudly showed off what he had found.
Picking up the book Willow read it aloud. "The Dark Goddess walks the earth as a mortal. Magical powers protect her, but there is a missing link. To find this link you must first confront an enemy. Only he and his partner can provide the information you need to destroy the Dark Goddess. Wait until after immortality has been gained to confront this enemy or all will be lost." Willow grimaced. "How do we find this guy? And we have to wait until after I turn immortal? Why does it have to be so complicated? Why can't they say 'You're now immortal, go kill this chick' and there you go. A day's work complete and on with my life."
"I think the stress is getting to you Wills. Chill out, we're here to help."
"I know Xander. It's just still so new. Why couldn't it come in little steps or something?"
"Not the Hellmouth style." Xander retorted.
Willow smiled even though she didn't really want to. Xander was always able to lift her mood when she needed it. Looking over at him, her smile began to fade. Inwardly Willow groaned and told herself to focus on the bigger picture. She could moon over Xander later. "Okay, so we have to wait at least until sometime Saturday to be able to talk to this enemy. Why don't you two work on finding out who the enemy is," Willow pointed her fingers at Xander and Giles, "Buffy can go on patrol now and see if there's any rumors on the street, and I'm gonna go talk to Angel and see if he knows anything about what's supposed to happen to me tomorrow night. I would like to be at least a little prepared."
Giles smiled seeing the determined look on her face. There was a store of strength in this girl that had only been touched upon so far. Over the next week, Giles knew that strength would be sorely tested. "We'll catch up with you tomorrow, I presume?"
"Yeah Giles, I'll talk to you then." Willow waved as she headed out the door with Buffy behind her. The two girls walked in silence, giving each other mutual support. Before they headed off in different directions they hugged, each expressing what they couldn't put into words.
***
The twilight Willow had left the library in now gave way to the enshrouding darkness of night. Nearing the mansion, she began to worry that Angel may have already gone out for the evening. The uncertainty of being able to talk to him added to her nervousness. If she weren't able to talk to him, then she would have literally no clue as to what might happen to her tomorrow night. Knocking on the door, she called out to him "Angel? Are you here?"
Hearing Willow's voice Angel immediately felt a sense of anticipation at seeing her again. Walking over to open the door, he ignored all the questions this feeling brought to his mind.
"Willow." He said with a small smile on his face. "Come on in."
"Hi." Willow replied finding she was smiling back at him. Quickly she began talking to distract herself from the thoughts running through her mind. "Uhm, I'm supposed to talk to you, I think, about this whole turning immortal thing. I got an e-mail, and it said to talk to someone who is near immortal. And we figured you were the most likely candidate. So, do you know anything about it? The whole turning immortal thing?"
"I talked to Whistler last night, and paid another visit to Willy's. After talking to them I found out some more about the immortality ritual, but they didn't know anything about the Dark Goddess."
"Ritual?" Willow asked, a slight grimace crossing her face. Some rituals were not to be taken lightly. "Like really bad ritual or more like the kind I do with magic?"
"I'd say you'd view this more on the bad side. The ritual is a form of magic, a higher order of magic that no one can control. You'll fall into a trance before the start of the eclipse, and an aura will surround your body. It won't be painful. The aura is due to the magical powers you already possess, working with the magical powers that will turn you immortal."
"That's it? That doesn't sound all that bad."
"There's more."
"More?" Willow said, her forehead scrunched with worry. "That's the part I didn't want to hear," she groaned.
"While in this trance you have no control over your body. I'm not sure what exactly will happen, but the magic will take over. Both magic's are at work here and you will succumb to their control." Angel paused, letting the meaning sink in. "At this point you may feel pain, but I don't know what that pain will be like. That's something only you will ever know. You may float in the air or you may attack someone or something. I'm not sure what exactly might happen. You need to be out in the open, and have Buffy there to keep an eye on you." Seeing Willow's face fall, then grow pale as he explained the ritual to her, Angel felt a bit resentful towards the powers that be for deciding he was the one to tell her about all this.
"Okay." Willow said while sitting down. "Wow, that's a lot of stuff I didn't want to hear. I can deal with this. It's not until tomorrow. I can handle this. Will you be there too?" She asked, looking up to see the vampire's response.
"Yeah, I'll be around."
"Lurking as always. You're good at that. You may have to teach me how. That skill could definitely come in handy. Is that a skill you can teach someone, or is that something you just have to know how to do?"
"With your red hair, I don't think you could ever lurk anywhere." Angel tried to joke with her, but he sounded as serious as he always did.
Willow's face dropped. She could always cover her hair if she needed to. And it wouldn't always be this long, she hoped at least.
Seeing her reaction Angel immediately felt sorry. "Willow, I'm sorry. That was a bad attempt at humor, it's never been my strong suit."
"Humor, huh? We have to work on your delivery." Willow slowly bounced back. "Okay. Here's what I know. We have to find and confront an enemy who has a partner, but I can't meet him until after I'm immortal. This enemy knows the weakness that the dark goddess has. I was sent an e-mail that told me to find the Dark Goddess' weakness, and then Xander actually found a mention of it in a book. So, any ideas there?"
"No."
"Not a thing?" Willow asked in such a pleading voice that Angel couldn't help letting out a small laugh.
Surprised at hearing him laugh, Willow looked up at him, before laughing herself. This had definitely been a weird week. As she listened to him laugh softly, she found her gaze drawn toward his lips. Willow halted her laughter immediately upon realizing what she was doing. This was Angel, she couldn't think of him like that.
As the silence filled the air where Willow's laughter once was, Angel's laugh died off and he looked at her questioningly. She had stopped so suddenly it left him wondering what the cause could be. Somewhat saddened he thought of how good it had felt to really laugh again. "Willow, is anything wrong?" Angel asked her cautiously.
"Huh? Oh, no. Nothing's wrong. I'm just tired. Thanks for the info. Guess I'll see you tomorrow night at the whole immortality ritual thing. Can't wait. I'll talk to you later. " Rushing out the door, thoughts running rampant, Willow did not notice two vampires off to one side of the mansion entrance.
Angel quietly followed Willow, knowing something was up. She babbled and then ducked out when she didn't want to deal with something, he had pretty much figured that out when they talked briefly about Cordelia earlier in the week. Only he didn't know what the problem was here. Being grabbed from behind Angel was caught off guard. As he recovered he yelled out "Willow!" to get her attention. His worry wasn't focused on the vampire holding him; rather it was on Willow as there was a vampire approaching her.
Hearing her name Willow whirled around, still unsettled from the thought of Angel's lips, and stared straight into the face of the second vamp. Fear crossed her features as she became aware the vampire was already grabbing her arms. As he leaned in toward her, saying, "The Dark Goddess wants you," he abruptly turned to dust as Angel staked him from behind. Angel caught a glimpse of gratitude cross Willow's face through the ash before her knees weakened, and she tumbled to the ground. It wasn't long before strong arms lifted her back to a standing position.
"Willow, are you all right?" Concern was etched over Angel's face. If anything had happened to her…he didn't let himself finish that thought, filled with more emotion than just the fate of Sunnydale.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I think." She replied, adrenaline coursing through her body even as she struggled to stay standing. "He said the Dark Goddess wanted me?" She half asked. "If he said that, then she knows who I am. She knows I'm the Immortal Slayer. Oh god, she knows." Looking up at Angel fear and panic mixed in her eyes.