At last! I thought I was
never going to get this part done! Apologies for the slooowness of my writing. Nearly done now.
MellindraX - Well, threats will get you everywhere, it seems!
Centauri2002 - Hey, no problem with the feedback, Caz. Just glad I’m getting some! (Er….)
JewWitch18 - Well, the weekend’s over by my time – just coming up to 1 a.m. here – so I’m late! So sorry for the agonising waits – only one more part to go now, and then I’m done. Here’s your cheer now Jenny, and thanks.
Title: WtVS: Pilot Episode: Hellmouth High
Author: Mike of the Nancy Tribe
Feedback: Yes please.
Rating: PG 13 maybe.
Disclaimer: The characters belong to Joss Whedon and ME. I’ve taken liberties with them. So sue me.
Distribution: I don’t mind, but ask first, okay?
Pairings: Willow & Tara. Buffy & Cordelia (sorry about that!)
Spoiler Warning: Not really since it’s AU.
Summary: The penultimate part of the final Act. Deciphering in the library. (Oh, and jam tarts, just for Ruth.)
WtVS: Pilot Episode: HELLMOUTH HIGH
ACT 5, PART 2“’The, the tortoise will mock the fish pole and, and eat of the tiny broken waitress’. “
Tara’s mouth wrinkled with amusement as she looked up from what Willow had scribbled on a big legal pad. “Uh, honey, I’m, I’m really not sure this is right.”
“Uurgh,” said Willow, with her head in her hands. “Damn code’s makin’ me cranky.”
Tara gave the weary Slayer a sympathetic smile. “You’ve been at it for hours, sweetie. Why don’t you give your eyes and that big think box of yours a rest, hmm?”
Willow gave her a tired but defiant stare. “I. Will. Not. Let words. Defeat me. Words are good. Words are my pals. Okay, maybe not when they come out of my mouth, sometimes, but….” She blew out her cheeks and let her bottom lip assume a pout.
“Tara, is anything pink and squishy dribbling out of my ears? I think my brain’s gone all China Syndromy on me.”
“I-It’s a tough code,” said Tara. “Really tough. Whoever wrote this Codex thing was really smart. And, and seriously disturbed, I think.”
“That would be Mother Marta Noxonica,” said Giles, appearing from the stacks and heading down the staircase. They were surprised to see he’d taken off his jacket and tie for once, and rolled up his shirtsleeves. A bigger surprise was the actual hairy skin beneath all that tweed.
“An obscure but, but powerful mystic of the sixteenth century,” he continued, parking himself on the edge of the table, and shifting into oration mode. “It’s said that she became feared at her convent for ah, for exceedingly dark and bloody visions, usually precipitated by frequent bouts of, of scourging herself with spiked whips. When she started scourging
others, I believe they ah, walled her up alive. I seem to remember there was also some talk of her doing something utterly charmless with anvils and, and people’s heads. I-I chose not to read any further.”
“Gross,” said Tara, screwing up her face. “Mr. Giles? Uh, do you think we could have some more tea please? I, I think Willow could do with something a bit soothing right now.”
“Oh yes!” said Willow, perking up. “The frazzled brain needs tea. Lots of it. Input bad. Tea good.”
“Well,” said Giles, obviously pleased at Willow’s sudden liking for one of his more British habits. “How um, how about we try one of my herbal blends then? It may take a little longer to brew, but I, I think you’ll like the Lemon Verbena.” He began gathering up the empty tea cups from the table, leaving only the plates that now just contained a couple of scones, a few jam tarts, and a solitary slice of creamy-layered chocolate cake.
“Good tea always takes time, that’s what I say,” offered Willow brightly.
Much, much time, she thought, willing him to leave.
“Mm, sounds nice,” said Tara, as Giles went through to his office to put the kettle on once more.
“Tara?” Willow said plaintively as soon as he was gone, putting her head on the blonde’s shoulder and looking up at her with enormous green eyes. “To heck with the tea. Could you um, soothe me right
now? If, if you want to, I mean.”
The witch raised her eyebrows with a look of innocence. “Oh? And uh, what did you have in mind?”
Willow lowered her voice to a whisper and plucked playfully at Tara’s cardigan. “W-well um, you could, you could….rip all my clothes off and lay me across this table and, and lick me from my toes to the um, top of my head, ‘cos, ‘cos that would be
really good. But, but since Giles would have heart failure or, or a honkin’ big aneurysm or something….a kiss would do….for now. Just, just an ordinary kiss.”
“Hmm. As long as we can, y’know, try that first option sometime,” murmured Tara. “A kiss it is. But ordinary? Since when are any of my kisses
ordinary?” She said it teasingly, and with one of the lopsided smiles that made Willow ache with yearning.
“Vixen,” Tara whispered, bending her face towards the redhead, her lips parted - at the last second reaching out and plucking one of the remaining jam tarts from the nearby plate. Never once taking her sultry eyes from Willow’s, she dug her tongue deep and lasciviously into the strawberry jelly, scooping out a thick gooey layer. Then her mouth descended on Willow’s and their eyes closed as the flavour exploded on their taste buds. The remains of the tart ended up on the floor under the table in a burst of pastry crumbs.
Little groans escaped them as their tongues tangled and slid over one another, slippery with juice and the zest of strawberries. Tara’s hand crept under the cotton of Willow’s white shirt, caressing the cool skin of her belly, while Willow’s fingers danced along Tara’s thigh, rolling her long brown skirt ever higher up her leg. Their lips became sweet and sticky with fruit, and they licked and pawed at each other hungrily, ending with a last contented moan from Willow that coincided with the whistle of Giles’ kettle as it boiled.
“Mmmm, sugary
goodness,” she sighed, and sank back into her chair.
“Baby all soothed now?” asked Tara with a smile as she caught her breath.
“Oh yes….well, uh, sort of. ‘Cos now I’m all tingly again and, and I want more. I always want more of you. I swear, if we don’t get some
real alone time soon, I’m gonna go off bang.”
“Oh, you and me
both,” said Tara, with desire in every syllable.
They could smell the lemony freshness straightaway when Giles returned with a tray bearing three cups of clear, pale yellow tea. “There, that should perk you up,” he said. “Made with real leaves, mind you. No tea bags this time….oh dear lord.”
They gave him a quizzical look. “Can’t you two ah, control yourselves e-e-even for a
few minutes?” He scowled, waggling his index finger towards his mouth, and then at them. At the same moment, they realised they still had jam stains all over their lips. And smeared across their cheeks. And coating their tongues – which they stuck out at Giles, and burst out laughing.
“Well really,” he muttered. “Wasn’t
the whole way home in my car enough for you? Most off-putting, you know.”
Never enough, thought Willow as she and Tara grinned at each other, cleaning themselves up with handkerchiefs and spit. Giles didn’t know about the sneaky kisses in the shadows of Willow’s porch last night. Or just before they knocked on the side door to the library that morning. Or when Giles went off to make the first pot of tea. Or the second. Or – especially – when he vanished into the stacks for a whole ten minutes.
That one had nearly sent them into a coma through lack of breathing.
“And that’s
really not what jam tarts are for,” Giles said, apparently to himself.
The hell it’s not, Tara was thinking, eyeing up the last two for later.
Mmm, sticky sweetness and Willowskin. Her eyes sparkled at the thought, just as she realised Willow was staring covetously at the chocolate cake, and imagining how naughty she could be with the layers of yummy cream and the soft frosting.
God I love you, Willow mouthed to Tara.
I love you too, said Tara silently.
His mouth was hidden as he drank his tea, but Giles’ eyes crinkled in quiet pleasure at their happiness. He knew that this might well be the last day any of them would ever face. But, somehow, he drew hope from the fact that these two had found each other.
Then he spluttered into his cup as Willow sensuously licked a last speck of jam from Tara’s lower lip, and gave her such a hungry look that his glasses actually steamed up.
“Uh, you okay there Giles?” said Willow as he wiped his face. “’Cos, y’know, if you wanna blow bubbles, it’s better with a straw.” She leaned over to Tara. “I do that with shakes sometimes. Makes it all frothy and slurpy.”
“Hey, me too!” giggled Tara, then whispered “You know, you can uh, blow in
my shake any time you want, don’t you?”
Giles caught that, and puzzled over it for a second, then decided to blush, covering it up with a vigorous polishing of his glasses.
“Ahem. Drink your uh tea w-while it’s still hot, ladies. Th-th-the effects are, are more um, invigorating that way. Now….while Willow attempts to, to extricate her tiny broken waitress from the clutches of the, the tortoise….” He pursed his lips primly at Willow’s annoyed glare. “Tara, have you perhaps made any progress with, with the decryption? Your um, matrix thing?”
“The program’s still running,” she said with a sigh, glancing at the screen. “But it’s kinda running on empty. I’ve um, I’ve scanned in all the encrypted pages, and I’ve primed it to home in on Euclidean algorithms –“
“Oh that’s
so smart,” said Willow, beaming her pride at Tara. “’Cos it’d take me
years to do that with a quadratic sieve.”
Giles nodded his head sagely. He was, of course, completely lost.
“But if this is a, a one-time pad,” Tara continued, “we might
never be able to crack it.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” said Willow, shaking her head. “A one-timer’s usually only for James Bondy types to send to each other or, or military stuff. This crazy Mother Martian put it in a book, so she must have wanted others to be able to read it. We just need to find the text key.”
Tara nodded. “It, it’s not an asymmetric pattern, and it’s not a hexagonic subset. It’s probably something really obvious, and we’re just too close to see it. Maybe we need something simple and direct like, like –“
“Buffy!” exclaimed Giles, in response to the distant hammering that had started on the side door. “Better late than never I suppose. I-I’ll just go and let her in.” He disappeared out the back and down the long corridor that led to the parking lot.
When he came back with Buffy a couple of minutes later, Willow and Tara were in the act of moving a few inches further apart and straightening their clothes. Giles manfully held back from rolling his eyes.
“Hi guys!” said Buffy, taking her skateboard from under her arm and leaning it against a bookcase. “Sorry I’m so late. Got kinda….tied up.”
“So, how’s um, how’s Cordelia?” asked Tara with a glint in her eye. “Is she uh, coming?”
“Uhhh….not right now,” Buffy said with a cat-got-the-cream smile. “She’s kinda….bushed. But if you wanna past-tense it and multiply? Oh yeeah!”
They all snuck a peek at Giles to make sure he was baffled. The frown said he was.
Willow couldn’t help but snicker at the sight of Buffy’s hair. The huge mass of gold was all bunched up at the back and frizzed out. It looked like birds had not only nested in it, but brought all their relatives round to party in it as well.
“What?” said Buffy off her look.
“Oh, oh nothing Buff,” said Willow from behind her hand. “I-It’s just, well, I-I mean um, you’ve got uh….you have
cough JBF hair
cough.”
“Oh god,” said Buffy, turning away and using her fingers to untangle the mess. “And I’ve been on the street like this! That settles it….I’m officially a tramp!”
Giles’ frown deepened in confusion. “Uh, what? She has what hair? I don’t….”
“Umm….” said Willow.
“Shampoo!” Tara blurted out. “Uh, JBF. I-I-It’s a new kind of um, shampoo Buffy uses. I-It conditions and, and thickens and, and smells kinda um, cool….”
“Yeah,” said Buffy, shaking her mane. “It’s for that dragged-through-a-hedge-backwards look we crazy kids nowadays think is so uh, neat.”
Good save, she winked at Tara.
Giles sniffed at the air but failed to smell anything ‘cool.’ He mentally shrugged, and wondered for the millionth time in his life just when he had stopped understanding teenagers.
Probably when I stopped being one, he thought. Although these ones seemed
particularly incomprehensible.
“Ah. Um, well,” he said. “Now that Buffy’s hair….I-I-I mean,
here, perhaps we could um, endeavour to, to bring ourselves back on track? I hate to sound gloomy, but we’re running out of time. End of the world and all that? I-I-It really would be
awfully nice to know that we’re all actually going to wake up tomorrow. Um….don’t you think?”
“Well, aren’t you just the big bucket o’ fun?” said Buffy, planting herself on a small side table and swinging her legs. “Okay, what’s the sitch?”
“Uh….” said Giles, losing out on the language thing again. Willow helped him out.
“Sooo,” said Buffy when she was up to speed. “This Marti Noxious has so far – and let me get this straight so’s I can look smug
and pretty at the same time – bamboozled the biggest brains west of the Rockies? Oh my. And here’s me thinkin’ the combined whizpower in this room could make Stephen
Hawking get up and dance!” She frowned. “Uh, better file that one under Tasteless Buffyisms. It’ll be a big file.”
“Hey, it’s not like we’re not
trying,” said Willow defensively, “I mean, this thing’s over four hundred years old and, and it was written by a total wacko. Nuttier than a big pile of nutty things in a nut bowl. Hey –
you’re a loon. Why don’t
you take a look?”
“Your panties bunching, Will?” said Buffy, grinning. “Maybe T-Bone could help you out there.”
Willow gave her a mock glare, while Tara seemed to be coolly considering the redhead’s lower half.
Buffy hopped down from her perch and peered at the decryption patterns rolling down the computer screen. “Okay, that’s gotta be the lamest game of Tetris I’ve ever seen. Means zip to me. Let’s have a look at this Codex thing.”
“Knock yourself out,” said Willow, shoving the ancient volume over to her. “No, not that part. That’s the bit that’s already translated into English. After the Sumerian.”
“Just gettin’ a feel for the style, Will,” said Buffy, flipping through the pages. “Whoa! Blood. Goats. Hammers. More blood. Death by steel, death by wood. This chick needed therapy, like
bad! And nice chapter headings, too. ‘The Power of Pain as an Instrument of Revelation.’ Catchy! Must have been a helluva Book of the Month choice.”
Giles, on the other side of the table, drummed his fingers on the polished wood and raised his eyebrows at her.
“Okay, okay,” she said, catching on and turning to the latter section of the book. “So this is, what do you call it? The ciphertext? Sheesh! Worst Word Jumble
ever! Have you thought, maybe
you need to be crazy to understand it?”
“I already
am going crazy,” said Willow in exasperation. “Just give me time.”
“From, from what I’ve read,” said Tara, stroking the Slayer’s arm in sympathy, “most old ciphers were simple substitutions. Y’know, one letter transposed for another in, in a predetermined order. We, we just don’t know the order. Or the key. Or, or anything, really. And my eyes are too tired to look at this screen anymore.”
“Poor baby,” sighed Willow, catching hold of Tara’s hand and lightly kissing it. “I know, my peepers are pooped too. Between us, we’ve got the smarts for this. But right now, the small brown furry ego that I keep in my pocket is feeling bruised and battered. Not to mention dumb.”
“Heck,” said Buffy. “You know what I do when I’m feeling down? No, not
that, gutterbrain,” she snapped, catching a little smirk from Tara. “I just look in the mirror, then I
know all’s right with the world!”
She flounced up her hair and gave a broad smile. “Hey!” she said off Willow and Giles’ ho-hum looks. “Maybe we’ll all die tonight, but I’m sure as hell gonna die pretty!”
“Uh….” said Tara quietly, looking from the screen to the book, and back again.
“You’re spending
way too much time with Cordelia,” said Willow. “I really think you might be channelling her.”
“Heh,” began Buffy with a grin. “Ain’t
that the –“
“Uh, Will?”
“Yeah baby, what’s up?”
“M-mirror. Buffy said m-m-mirror.” Tara laid her hand on the Codex, and looked urgently into Willow’s puzzled eyes. “Mirror. Reflection.
Reversal!”
Then Willow got it. “Oh. Oh!
Oh! You, you mean if we, if we
reverse the pattern we could –“
“And, and then look for repeats in the algorithm subset –“
“But what if –“
“D-doesn’t matter! The transposition isn’t linear!”
“Oh baby, you got it!” squealed Willow, throwing her arms around Tara’s neck and kissing her loudly on the cheek. “Get those magic fingers workin’ and let’s do it!”
Giles and Buffy looked at each other blankly as the girls huddled around the computer and Tara began punching keys rapidly. Willow dragged the Codex over, little “Aah!” sounds of understanding floating up from time to time as they crosschecked.
“Just look at ‘em go,” said Buffy. “Guess I must have said something right?”
“I believe so,” said Giles absently. “Um, well done. Well done indeed. I-I’m tempted to say we should um, leave them to it. But, but every time I do, they um, well, they tend to ah, lose their focus, as it were.” He saw that Willow’s hand was already rubbing Tara’s back, encouraging, supporting, soothing her as she typed feverishly.
Buffy saw it too, and smiled. “They’re in love, Giles,” she said quietly. “Totally and abso-frickin’-lutely. I’m no expert, but I’d say this is the first and only, for both of them. If we live through today, those two are gonna be together into little old ladyhood. And make no mistake, o super librarian English guy, we
are gonna live through today. Those two will make sure of it. Vamps, demons, zombies….snot monsters from outer space. Whatever the hell this place throws at us afterward, they’ll be here, and they’ll stop it together. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, Giles, and they’ve got it. So let’s you and me leave them alone for now, doin’ what they do best. Usin’ their brains, and lovin’ each other. Okay?”
Giles was blinking rapidly as he took off his glasses and began to polish them. “Buffy, I-I don’t know what to say. I-I’ve never heard you use so many words without a, a single joke among them. Snot monsters not withstanding. You, young lady, have hidden depths.”
“Don’t spread it around,” she said. “You’ll ruin my rep. Anyways, I’m just sayin’ what I see. They’ve got it bad, and that’s good for us.”
“Uh, would you care for some tea?” asked Giles, guiding Buffy by the elbow towards his office. “And, and maybe a biscuit? I-I-I have digestives and, and I think I may still have a packet of uh, custard creams somewhere?”
“I have
no idea what any of those are. But I gotta ask, Giles….were you ever a butler in a previous life?”
The door closed behind them as they left Willow and Tara to their task.
*It was nearly an hour before Willow tapped on the door, saying wearily but with satisfaction “It’s done, Giles. Translation complete. None of it’s good, but….come see.”
“And, and I promise, we behaved ourselves, Mr. Giles,” said Tara. “W-We really did work.”
“Well,
most of the time,” added Willow with a grin.
For the next ten minutes they read the deciphered text, as Tara scrolled down the screen. Some parts they had to skip over, as they were too gross, or too mad to make any sense.
At the end, Willow puffed out her cheeks, and said “Oh boy. That’s one crazy Mother….Noxonica.”
“Yes, yes indeed,” said Giles, leaning in to peer more closely at the screen. “But….see this passage here? ‘At the end of days, blesséd blood shall drown the world.” The exact same sentence occurs in the DeKnight Grimoire, referring to the rise of the Master. It makes me wonder if there was any um, direct connection between the two authors.”
“You mean, apart from the fact that they were both twisted pervs?” said Willow. “God, don’t make me read that part about the ‘necessary death of the innocent’ one more time. I think I’ll barf.” Tara took her hand for comfort.
“Mm, w-w-well yes, of course,” said Giles. “But there’s a, a passage further on. Tara, could you?” She hit the Page Down key. “Ah yes. Here. Let me read it again. Mm, ah, ‘death shall walk….’, um, ‘and the, the number of young that shall bleed through the Vessel shall be….’ Oh dear.”
He straightened up, walked away from the table, took off his glasses, and pinched the sides of his nose. Then he turned back to them. “I’m an idiot,” he said. “We-we’ve been expecting that we would have to go into the tunnels to face the Master and his hordes.”
“And we don’t?” said Willow. “Well, a great big
yay from me. Too many vamps, not enough room to swing a stake. Where’s the bad?”
“Th-the problem is, the Master will be sending the Vessel and his minions to
us. According to the Codex, he must feed from at least twenty to, to give him enough power to burst through the barrier a-a-and ascend. The vampires will have to come above ground to, to some place where they can be sure –“
“The Bronze,” said Buffy. “Has to be. Tonight’s the big pre-fumigation party. After that, it’s closed for a week to clear out the roaches. All those tasty young morsels? Where else are they gonna go?”
“Oh god,” said Tara. “A-All those kids….”
“And Cordy. You couldn’t keep her away. Well,
I couldn’t, anyway.”
“Oh, I-I-I’m sure your friend Miss Chase will be fine,” said Giles, trying to reassure her. “I-I mean, one among so, so many, sh-she’s bound to –“
“Are you kidding me?” said Buffy. “With what I
know she’ll be wearing tonight, she’ll be the first to get fanged!”
“A-All right,” said Giles, “w-w-we’ll make sure we get her to, to safety. But we
must arrive at the right time. Too early and we could be trapped inside or, or they could start taking people off the street. Too late and….w-well, I’m sure I don’t have to say it.”
“So?” said Buffy, hands on hips.
“Hm? Oh, the time, yes, w-w-well, I’m not too….”
“Uh, Mr. Giles?” said Tara, pointing to the screen. “I, I think this….”
The librarian pushed his glasses further back on his nose and looked at the passage she indicated. “Ah! Ah yes, this is it. I knew I’d seen it. The, the Harvest will begin at the….third hour of the cut moon, first beyond the solstice. Well, that makes it tonight, of course. A cut moon is a very old term for the crescent phase after a new moon. But for the exact time, I shall have to um, consult the almanac. Which is on the bottom shelf of the cabinet behind you, Willow.”
The Slayer reached back for the book and handed it to him. “Giles?” she said. “If, if we have to fight in the middle of the Bronze….just how do we explain away the guys with bumpy faces and, and the dusting, and why they’re trying to bite people’s necks? Just wondering, ‘cos, ‘cos I think the police and reporters
might want to know.”
“At this moment,” said Giles, lifting his face from the almanac, “I….have absolutely no idea. But I-I wouldn’t worry too much. The, the authorities in this town seem supremely stupid, and – Ah, here it is! Good lord!”
He looked at the wall clock below the balcony. “Um, according to this the, the Harvest will begin a little after seven o’clock. But th-that’s more than an hour before sunset!” And only about three hours away, as they could all see.
“So, how is that possible, Giles?” said Buffy. “Are the vamps all gonna be wearing Sunblock for Monsters or something?”
“I-I think this tells us how,” said Tara, reading from the screen. “’And before that hour, those that slither shall r-rise, the rocks of earth shall fall and, and the sun shall be devoured.’ I-I’m guessing, but….eclipse?”
“Oh,” said Giles. “Yes, that, that’s a fair assumption.”
“But none of those things has happened,” said Willow. “And I don’t like the slithery part. Sounds snakey. Brrr!”
“Well, there’s no certainly no eclipse due for, for
many months,” said Giles, visibly relieved. “It
is only prophecy after all. Those things are notoriously unreliable. Anyone for more tea?”
And at that moment, the sunlight coming in through the library windows dimmed, and a tremendous drumming started on the roof.
They all looked at each other, then ran down the corridor towards the parking lot.
They crowded into the doorway, to see stones and pebbles raining down from a clear sky, falling among a mass of worms, eels and small snakes, that seemed to have exploded up from the sewers.
And like a curtain being drawn shut, the ominous shadow of the moon slid in front of the sun, and turned the daylight air grey.
“Ah. Bugger,” said Giles.
--------------------------------------
END OF ACT 5, PART TWO
--------------------------------
Always.........
I'm determined to keep the girls as Willow-y and Tara-y as I can, even though their roles may have changed. I don't think I'd love them so much otherwise!
yay update! various sounds of encouragement! woo! and, also-- hoo! 
Giles line about the police of Sunnydale being supremely stupid was funny as was his reaction to Willow and Tara smoochies. liked the way that Tara soothed Willow 
Oh, and Giles said "bugger". Hee hee
but oh, for the love of all that is holy, exactly how much more teasing can we endure?? I am voting for serious alone time in the final installment! (after the sumpreme ass-kicking for the evil powers...no "necessary death of the innocent" here!)
