Title: Breathing 3/3
Author: Antennapedia
Pairing: Giles/Buffy
Rating: FRM
Warnings: A few four-letter words, some non-graphic sex, an unusual fate for a core character.
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership and am making no money.
It still took him eighteen hours to get there.
Buffy went with the coven driver sent to Heathrow to pick up Xander. They held onto each other hard throughout the entire drive. Buffy told a longer version of the last few weeks, with as much detail as she could manage. Maybe Xander would know what to do. Xander knew Willow better than anybody else, still.
Giles met them at the door. He kissed Buffy, then held Xander tight. "They're waiting for you. They're getting impatient, however. Can only hold her inactive for so long. It's taking the entire coven to do it."
They gave Xander an hour with Willow before their last attempt would begin. Xander closed his eyes and held Buffy close before going into the room where they had Willow waiting.
"No stress, huh? Nothing big riding on this. Well, I guess it's no end of the world deal. Just a Willow deal. Kay. Here we go." And he went in.
After a while he came out holding Willow by the hand. "We're ready to try power draining again," Xander said. Back to the meeting space, the circle convened again. This time Xander and Buffy were together with Willow inside the binding sphere. They started, and the power once again flowed out. This time it diffused among the coven members. Most of it was discharged into the air. They weren't holding onto what they were taking, for reasons Buffy couldn't guess at.
"I'm scared, Xan," Willow said.
"Does it hurt?"
"It's not that. It's... hard to explain. Just hang on. Buffy, hold me down. Can't tell you why--"
Willow shifted then, to black hair and black eyes mode. She thrashed. Buffy pinned her, and was shocked to realize it was taking Slayer strength to do it. Buffy extended her new, improved senses, brushed them all over Willow, and finally figured it out.
"Giles. Giles. She's possessed. There's something else here." Buffy held on to Willow's arms, thrashing with more than human strength.
"Slayer sense?"
"Trust me."
"Bind her! Now!" The coven obeyed. Willow hung suspended, immobile.
Giles turned and looked at Miss Harkness, then at the coven members grouped behind him. "Holy water, crosses. Sword. In my duffle upstairs. Now!" Two people left the room at a run. They came back with bottles and a selection of crosses. He hung one around his neck, took another in his hand. Miss Harkness made as if to take the holy water from him, but he stopped her.
"This is Watcher business," he said. He handed the sword to Buffy. "Buffy, stop anyone who attempts to interfere. They don't understand this, this... And Buffy, if this fails..."
"Right. I've got your back," said Buffy, crisply. She wouldn't hold back if it came to it. She drew the sword and inspected it. She knew this one; one of Giles' better weapons. Wickedly sharp. She spun it, getting used to its weight. It would take a demon's head in a single blow, if she needed it to. There'd be time to freak later, after the world was saved. Again.
Five candles, hastily placed. Chalk lines on the floor. Holy water sprinkled over all, drawn into crosses on their foreheads by Giles' trembling fingers. Xander stepped inside the pentagram and stood where he could catch Willow. Giles lit the candles and spoke a brief plea to the Christian God for containment of evil. Buffy's power- sense tingled. A barrier was in place, with Giles, Willow, and Xander on the inside.
"Release her," said Giles. The coven's casters relaxed, and the energy bonds faded. Willow slumped into Xander's arms.
Giles closed his eyes and stood for a moment with the cross pressed to his forehead. Gathering himself. He had to be thinking about the exorcism on Randall, how that had ended in blood on his face and a severed head in his hand. He drew one last deep breath. Alex, Giles' counselor, stood against the wall. His eyes were on Giles, not on Willow. He had to know as well as Buffy did, possibly better, how rough this was going to be for Giles.
Giles opened his eyes, and spoke.
"*Exorcizo te, omnis spiritus immunde, in nomine Dei Patris omnipotentis, et in nomine Jesu Christi Filii ejus, Domini et Judicis nostri, et in virtute Spiritus Sancti.*"
Giles knelt over her. He wet his fingers with a lick, then touched them to her ears. "*Ephpheta, quod est, Adaperire.*"
Willow thrashed and swore. Giles went on, relentless, reciting Latin and holding the cross over her even when she screamed.
Buffy scanned the room. Alex was standing back against the wall, still with his eyes fixed on Giles. Miss Harkness stood next to him, biting at her fingers. She turned her attention back on the three people inside the containing pentagram: Giles stiff with strain, his right hand holding the cross high; Willow prone; Xander kneeling over her, clasping her hands.
"Will, come on Will, you gotta help us. You gotta want it gone."
"Xander? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me. How many times do I have to keep talking you out of this stuff, Will?"
"Xander," said Willow, with an odd voice. "Goodbye." Then she closed her eyes and went very still, rigid almost. She didn't fight any more. At the very end, she opened her mouth and screamed almost too loud to bear. Somebody ran at the circle, then, and Buffy cold-cocked him with the sword hilt.
Giles finished his prayer. The candles went out.
Willow's head fell back.
The room went quiet.
Giles slumped to his knees. Alex was there, holding him up, giving him water to drink. Buffy ran in toward Willow. Xander was kneeling next to her. She was on her back, unmoving. Blood trickled from her nose and mouth.
Buffy checked Willow's vitals. "Breathing," she said.
Xander patted her cheeks, then looked wildly up at Giles. "Should she be conscious?"
"Yes, I think so. That was... that was difficult. But successful. I felt it leave. Dead human. Severed soul. Romany. Revenge... So strong."
"C'mon, Will."
Giles crawled toward them. His hair was drenched with sweat, and his shirt stuck to his chest. That had been nasty, toward the end. He rested a hand on Willow's chest. Buffy felt the power flow.
***
Willow blinked. "Huh?" she said. She tried to push herself up, but fell back again. Giles knelt behind her and helped her sit.
"Thanks, Giles. Hey, what are you doing here? Hold it, where is here?" Willow looked around herself, then started scrambling backwards, away from Buffy and Xander. She pushed right back into Giles' arms. He embraced her loosely with his uninjured arm. She stopped struggling for a moment.
"Something is way wrong. Way way way wrong and I'm starting to freak out here. Xander? You look weird. Fatter? Buffy got skeletal and you got fat? What's Buffy doing here? Where's Oz?"
"Ssh, Will, hang on a sec. One question at a time. And I'm wounded, wounded, that you would comment so callously on my physique." Xander grinned at Willow, then let it die as he looked at Giles. He took Willow's left hand, and Buffy took the other, trying to be reassuring.
"Willow, sweetheart, what's the last thing you remember?"
Willow twisted around to give Giles an odd look, then looked down at her hands, still clutched by Buffy and Xander. "I was in the hospital, with Oz and Cordy. We started the spell to re-curse Angel and I was having a hard time continuing it. I kinda got dizzy, and... and then here I am. Wherever here is. Which is where?"
"Okay. We're in a house in England, in a place called Westbury. We've just finished, well, exorcising something out of you. It was a bit rough at the end. I think you've got a bit of amnesia."
Buffy watched Willow process this. A few blinks, and that mind Buffy loved had worked it through. "How long? I know you guys look older, but..."
"Four years," said Giles.
"Oy vey," said Willow. Buffy nearly cried at that. Willow had been swearing Wicca-style for so long. "I've missed three years of college! And high school graduation!"
Xander hugged her close. "And a bunch of other stuff, too, Will. Some of it good, some of it pretty sucky. I wouldn't say you *missed* graduation, exactly."
Buffy grinned. The mayor's commencement address had been totally missable. "It'll come back, though, right, Rupert? Amnesia is usually temporary."
"I-- Perhaps. It depends on the cause. This one springs from mystical causes. I can't be sure. Willow, sweetheart, can you stand up?"
Willow gave him a look again. "I'm guessing we're all good friends these days. 'Cause you were not so much with the sweet-talk last I checked. And, uh, woah, look at you in jeans and an earring. And what am I wearing? Long skirts? Oh my Gawd. Xander..." Stress began to crack through Willow's voice. Xander gathered her close.
"I'll fill ya in, Will."
"Let's get a bit of tea in you. You haven't eaten in a couple of days, I believe. And allow me to introduce you to Miss Jane Harkness, who's been your, um, instructor here at the coven."
Then the bustling began, and Willow was sheltered in the gentle hands of her best and longest friend, and Buffy could relax.
Later, they had tea, the four of them, around a table in the kitchen, huddled together. Willow clung to Xander, who patiently gave his unique version of the story of the last four years. Giles put in a word here and there, along with careful soft questions that were designed to nudge Willow's memory. If it remained. Buffy had to admit that she was suspicious of Willow, still. Things had gotten bad enough that Buffy was willing to entertain the notion that Willow was shamming.
But it didn't appear to be the case. She had no memories of Dawn whatsoever. She was from before the time the monks had tampered with all of them. She cried when she heard the story of Buffy's death, and was disbelieving when she heard Xander's description of the resurrection.
Buffy extended that Slayer magic-sense, and tasted only a shimmer around Willow. Lemony, faint. She had power, but less than Tara had had. And no more wigging. That's what convinced Buffy more than anything. She met Giles' eyes and raised her eyebrows and shrugged just a little. He nodded, and stopped the questions. He excused himself to go meet with Miss Harkness. Probably to report what he'd observed about Willow.
Willow watched him leave the kitchen, then turned to Buffy. "You and Giles? When?"
"Yeah, me and Rupert. Way recently."
"This one is news to me too, Will," said Xander. "I am way past the point of being wigged by it. You want to know what I feel about it, Buff? 'Cause I can tell you. It makes me happy. God, I think about you two, and I feel relieved. It means you're with a good guy, a decent guy, not with another vampire. And it means that Giles is gonna come back. And I'll take both those. Anything but what it's been like the last year."
Xander broke off. He was in tears. He turned away from them. Willow looked at Buffy, puzzled. "I take it things got pretty angsty."
"To say the least. Things just weren't same after... after I died and you brought me back."
"I'm still having a hard time with that. I was that powerful? And dark?"
"It wasn't you, Will. Rupert thinks you were possessed, and toward the end you weren't entirely in charge."
Willow shuddered.
In their little room under the eaves, later, Buffy held Giles close and let him talk. Relief and painkillers made him voluble.
"The best theory we have is simple possession. Willow and some unknown entity were sharing her consciousness for the last four years. Willow's self was dominant at first, but gradually became swamped out by the other. At the end, she was only able to reassert herself with great effort. I have new respect for her, how strong she must been."
"You're talking as if she died." Buffy looked down at Giles, where his head rested on her chest. Slayer night vision showed her his face clearly. His eyes were closed.
"The Willow we've known for the last four years did die. During the exorcism. She understood what was happening and sacrificed herself." He was silent. Then, "I'm ashamed that I treated her badly. I was angry."
"You were angry at the thing inside her, not her. A Romany. That's a gypsy?"
"Yes. If I had to guess, a member of Jenny's clan. Hopping aboard to help with the re-cursing, then staying. Perhaps Willow even invited it in, unawares. Powerful magic often opens channels we must guard, and Willow wouldn't have been experienced enough to know how. Obvious in retrospect, but our usual means of detecting it failed. It... he? she? cloaked itself well. Gradual personality changes, ending in radical behavioral changes. Dammit! I should have seen."
"I could sense it. Since our big fight. I just didn't know what I was sensing. And I felt guilty about wigging. She was my friend. I thought... I thought I was just feeling guilty about you."
"Oh, my Buffy. Never feel guilty about this."
"No. Not any more. I've figured it out."
"Knew you would," he said.
He tightened the arm he had laid across her bare waist, under the soft sheet, his broken arm. He was sprawled across her, heavy and warm, a little sweaty. Messy, imperfect, and alive. Buffy watched Giles' back rise and fall with his breath, evening out, slowing, as he eased into sleep.
FIN