The Immortal Slayer - Chapter 12
Dark foreboding clouds covered the sky as Astra walked to the library. She felt more at ease around Angel and knew that without him the rest of the group was likely to be distant. Without being threatening she was allowed to participate, but that's all it was. The group did not accept her as a part of them. Of course, why should they when they barely knew her? She had taken over one of their friends, and while it was only for a few days Astra realized it must be hard for them to deal with that. Taking a calming breath she entered the library, unsure of how everyone would react.Much to her surprise, they didn't even notice her. Every single one of them had their heads buried in some book, trying to find any bit of information that might help. Curious, she sat down in a vacant chair and simply waited to see just how long it would take them to notice someone else was there. They really should be more on their guard with so much going on.
A few minutes later Xander looked up, and promptly yelled "Aaaahhhh!" The others jumped startled and looked up to see what had caused him to yell.
"Don't ever do that again. Geez." Xander admonished while regaining his composure. "Were you just waiting to scare the wits out of us? Give yourself a little ego boost?"
"No, Xander. I wanted to know how long it would take you to realize someone else was in the room. I was only here a few minutes, but that's long enough for an enemy to have surprise attacked one of you. In the future, pay more attention." She replied as her anger began rising. Who was this boy to be judging her?
Buffy astounded them all by agreeing. "You're right Astra. We should have heard you come in. We all feel the library is a safe place and sometimes forget to be on our guard here."
"Yes, just remember we're in a battle now where too much is at stake to lose because you were caught unaware."
"Excuse me Astra," Xander butted in before she could continue, "you don't by chance have a better time frame for when Willow's gonna be back in control, do you?"
Everyone looked at Astra expectantly as Xander vocalized what they were thinking.
"Willow has a strong mind. She will be ready either tomorrow night, or the next morning." Astra replied, quite pleased that Willow would be ready so soon. She had been prepared for this formation to take at least a week, if not longer. It had only been a few days and already Astra could tell that Willow was becoming stronger. Soon she would have to focus hard to stay in control and keep Willow from taking over on her own.
"We need to find out more about the enemy from the past, and the Dark Goddess. The book we found earlier said that we had to wait until after the ritual to confront this enemy. Since the ritual is over we need to find out who they are." Giles talked out loud, but was mostly regrouping his thoughts.
"Well," Buffy said, "I'll pound away on the computer again."
"No, let me." Astra volunteered. "I have access to Willow's computer knowledge." She offered as Buffy looked over at her.
"By all means then." Buffy replied, glad to give up the computer.
While Buffy and Xander worked with Giles, Astra sat down at the computer. She immediately went to Willow's website and read all the messages.
"These are my slayers, posting here on the website." Astra thought out loud. "It's good to know they're all ready, whatever may happen." Astra furrowed her brow as she realized that not all of her slayers were accounted for.
"What's the matter Astra?" Buffy asked, seeing the dark look on Astra's face.
"Oh, nothing." Astra replied, looking up. "I'm just tired. I've never inhabited a body before. It's quite taxing." Astra continued, reasoning it wasn't a total lie.
"Okay, if you're sure." Buffy said. She still had an uneasy feeling about this, like maybe Astra was trying to hide something.
Astra decided she would do some checking before she jumped to any conclusions. She didn't want to worry the gang, but since this Dark Goddess was supposed to be a slayer, it made her increasingly nervous.
***
The day had passed quickly and was steadily progressing into night as the gang continued working at the library.
"Well, I still think this enemy from the past is Spike and Dru. But I don't know how we're going to find them." Buffy said, sighing. Everyone was worn out from a long day of researching without really making any progress.
"Shouldn't be too hard luv." Spike said as he strolled in. Everyone looked up in astonishment. They were all thinking it was just a bit too easy. Immediately they were wary, wanting to know what was up for Spike to show up at just the right moment.
"Spike, how nice of you to stop by." Buffy commented, her guard going up.
"Calm down now. I don't want to fight. I just thought that maybe we could join forces until this whole Dark Goddess thing is over. My baby Dru has some valuable information, what with her visions and all."
Buffy relaxed just a little; after all they had worked with Spike before. "So why didn't you join forces with the newest big bad in town?" She asked sarcastically.
"Because it's not me." Spike replied. "The hellmouth is my turf and I don't like it when someone else butts in. Besides, Dru had a vision and we came to the realization that we didn't really want to work with this Dark Goddess person."
"So, what did this vision show you?" Buffy prodded.
"What, you want all the specifics or something?" Spike grinned sarcastically.
Buffy threw her hands up in the air. It never got any easier to deal with him. "Maybe it will help us defeat her. Get rid of her, ya know. Isn't that what you want?"
"All right. She was only going to kill us after we helped her defeat you. Happy, pet?"
"So she was gonna use you to get what she wanted and then dust you so you wouldn't be a threat. Makes sense to me." Xander commented with a shrug.
"Is that the only reason you came to us?" Giles asked, feeling as though there were more to this meeting than what Spike was saying.
"Yes." Spike said, rolling his eyes. "I want to get rid of her as much as you do. I'm suggesting a short truce until she's defeated. Then I go back to my life, you go back to yours."
"What if we don't believe you?" Astra said, standing up confidently.
"Well, Red, seems like you've gotten some guts since last time I saw you. I promise we won't hurt your pretty little neck, for the time being at least." Spike said mockingly.
Walking over to him Astra replied, "I'm not worried about my neck. What I want to know is what's in it for you? What are you trying to get out of this, besides keeping your butt undead?"
"I want the Dark Goddess destroyed. Same as you." Spike said.
"I still don't believe you." Astra stated. "But we'll work on that later."
"Right, and I suppose you'll beat the information right out me too." Spike said as he rolled his eyes again.
"If I have to. For now, I'd like to work on something else. You've killed two slayers, right?"
"You're a quick one Red. Two of them, and since this isn't new information…" Spike finished, his tone dry and bored as he eyed the red head wondering what brought about her sudden interest in his history with slayers.
"Two of my slayers." Astra stated, a menacing look on her face.
"Your slayers?" Spike looked at Willow as though she had gone insane.
"Yes. My Slayers. I don't like it when my slayers are murdered. And you murdered two of them."
Spike looked over Astra's shoulder to where Buffy stood. "What the bloody hell is she talking about?" He asked.
Buffy just shrugged. She enjoyed seeing Spike squirm. It was an occurrence that didn't happen very often.
"Willow. Red, luv, you're talking crazy. Did you hit your head or something?"
"Willow. I'm not Willow." Astra replied.
Spike threw his hands up in the air. "What is going on here?"
"Hello Spike." Angel said as he stepped out of the shadows.
"Well," Spike said focusing on Angel instead of Astra for the moment, "I was wondering when you would show up. Can't be around the slayer without having the soulful vamp along, can you?" Spike smirked. "I'll take this as my cue to leave. I'll be in touch. Hey Red, keep the fire in you. I like it." Spike sneered as he walked out the door.
Angel and the others sat down and talked about what had happened. They filled Angel in and he gave a small grin at hearing about Spike's confusion. "It's always fun to see Spike squirm." He said, giving the group a feeling that he was talking about more than today's events.
As they all began preparing to leave, Xander decided to ask something he was wondering about. "Out of curiosity," he started, "What does the long hair have to do with being the immortal slayer? Is the hair really that big a deal?"
Astra smiled. "No." She confessed. "Actually, I was being selfish. I've always wanted long red hair. I figured that at least for a few days I could have it." Astra explained, laughing softly. Not for the first time she longed to be a human instead of the Universal Slayer.
They ended the day in better spirits and headed home. For a little while they were able to escape the fact that the world was in trouble, and once again they were the heroes.