by AntigoneUnbound » Sat Jul 26, 2003 9:23 pm
Disclaimers: Everybody except Aunt Bev belongs to Joss. I don’t think he’ll mind me borrowing them; he’s too busy wondering what happened to his career.
Spoilers: Up to season 5. I’ve played slightly with the timing of a certain Big Bad’s appearance, with some implications for Dawn’s entrance.
Rating: R for now; if it changes, I’ll give heads-up.
Distribution: Sure, with acknowledgement.
Feedback: Oh yes! [To be read in that special Tara voice we heard at the end of "NMR.]
*****
Part 38
*****
"OK, so what’s the game plan?" Xander, Willow knew, was big on game plans. They made him feel less paralyzed in the face of all-consuming terror.
After Buffy had worked through her issues with Beverly (with no small measure of assistance from Tara), the meeting had settled into a reasonable facsimile of its earlier congeniality…albeit with a heightened sense of urgency.
"Do we wait for the interdimensional skank to make the next move?" Beverly asked. Willow noticed that she was looking at Buffy as she did so.
She’s letting Buffy know that she sees her as the alpha chick in this particular pack. Very smooth.
"I don’t know that we have any choice," the Slayer answered reluctantly, pacing the length of the room. "We don’t know where she lives, or if she even ‘lives’ in any traditional sense of the word. For all we know, she only takes human form when she drops in on us for one of her surprise visits. Maybe she’s just some nebulous entity the rest of the time." She stopped for a moment, then muttered, "God, I hate just waiting; wondering when she’ll show up."
Dawn looked at Giles. "Do we know when the ritual’s supposed to happen? I mean, the coupon has an expiration date, right? She has to use the Key to get back to her home within a certain time frame, doesn’t she?"
Giles nodded. "Yes—and that’s probably the greatest advantage we have going for us. That, and having the Slayer and apparently any number of other good souls entrusted with the Key’s protection," he added, smiling gently at the two women who now stood side by side. "But to answer your original question, Dawn—we know that Glory does indeed have a limited time frame with which to work. Even draining so many people as she has, she can only stay in this world for so long. She wasn’t meant to spend so much time here."
"Which means that she should be coming for it sometime soon," Dawn said quietly.
There was an intensely uncomfortable silence, until Tara said, "And whenever she does, we’ll be ready." She walked over to where Dawn stood, hands shoved deep inside her pockets, her eyes studiously avoiding all of them. Willow thought that she had never seen the girl look so tiny.
"Dawn, Sweetie," Tara said gently, reaching out to take her hand, "I know you’re scared. We’re all scared. But we’ll get through it—all of us will get through this, and life can get back to the way it’s supposed to be."
"Right," Willow chimed in. "Soon everything will be back to normal…long nights stalking through graveyards, vanquishing demons of all sorts, and narrowly averting an apocalypse." At Dawn’s bemused gaze, she acknowledged, "Although the word ‘normal’ is, of course, a subjective term."
Giles looked back at Beverly. "And you don’t know the identity of any other Protector? Or how many there are?"
Beverly shook her head apologetically. "I wish I did, even though it’s safer that I don’t. It would give us an idea of just how much back-up Buffy has."
And again with the recognition that Buffy’s in charge. Willow knew it shouldn’t be possible, but she couldn’t help feeling that Tara had picked up some of her emotional nuance skills from her aunt.
"And they can recognize the Key, just like you, right?" Buffy asked anxiously.
"Right," Beverly reassured her. "But the Key won’t recognize them. It might be too hard for the Key to act normal if he or she were just to run into one at the mall."
"I dunno," Buffy mused, a trace of a grin flashing across her face. "I have it on good authority that the Key has a hard time acting normal under the most normal of circumstances."
"Probably has something to do with being around a control-freak vampire slayer all the time," Dawn replied sweetly, grinding her tennis shoe down onto Buffy’s open-toed sandal.
"OK, so what exactly does Glory know about the Key?" Xander was asking.
"Well clearly she knows that the Slayer is entrusted with protecting it," Giles murmured, lightly blowing across his fresh cup of tea.
"But she doesn’t know exactly who the Key is," Anya added. "Because she was looking for Tara at the multicultural fair."
"That’s right," Giles said slowly, leaning forward in his curiosity. "But why? Why Tara and not Willow, whom she had in her very hands?"
"Maybe she likes blondes," Xander offered.
"Wait a minute—Glory’s on the bus?" Beverly’s tone was incredulous. "God, there’s not a straight girl in this whole town!"
"Excuse me—breeder standing right in front of you," Buffy said indignantly.
"I dunno, Buff—you lost Riley, for heaven’s sake," Willow pointed out. "Unconscious wish fulfillment? Better blatant than latent, I always say."
"Actually, Sweetie, I’ve never heard you say that," Tara countered gently. "But I like it. You can say it all the time from now on."
Giles interrupted this debate on the myriad Sunnydale sexual orientations with a brusque snort of impatience. "Actually, the available texts suggest that she has a blow-up doll." As all eyes turned to him filled with something akin to horror, he added, "What? I get to be saucy sometimes, too." He took a mildly flustered sip of his tea and continued. "To return, albeit reluctantly, to the matter at hand: Glory literally had her hands on the Slayer’s best friend; someone who has known her and worked closely with her for years. Yet she believed Tara was the Key. Why?"
"Maybe because Willow’s a Scooby vet and I’m not," Tara suggested. "I mean, that’s just one difference between us, and it may not have anything to do with why she believed it was me, but it’s worth keeping in mind."
"I agree," Giles nodded. "We should also be mindful of any other differences between the two of you, for possible clues as to her reasoning."
Willow leaned over to Tara and whispered, "You think Glory knows I wear bikini underwear and you wear thongs?"
"Probably not," Tara muttered through clenched teeth.
"If she does think the Key is one of the newer members of the club, then I’m in danger," Anya commented. Willow couldn’t tell if Anya was worried, flattered, or a little of both.
"As is Dawn," Giles added pointedly.
"Well, if she grabs either of you, she’ll just find out she was wrong—just like she was with Tara," Xander offered soothingly.
Nice thinkin’, X-Man. A little misdirection can’t hurt, just in case somebody is listening…
"Let’s face it," Willow said, a trifle dejectedly. "We really don’t know jack about Glory; least of all what she knows about the Key."
The room was silent for a moment, then Giles turned back to Beverly. "Do you have any idea how the others will end up here? How they’ll come to be in a position to protect the Key?’
"Good question," Buffy nodded. "It won’t help us to have three hundred Protectors if two hundred and ninety-nine of them live east of the Mississippi."
Again, Beverly could only shake her head. "I certainly didn’t head to Sunnydale with the idea that I might meet the Key. I just wanted to see Tara; I felt like I had to see her." She smiled ruefully at her niece.
"Maybe that’s how it’ll happen," Xander mused. "It’ll be like a homing device, or an instinct. Like salmon migrating to lay their eggs."
"Thanks for the analogy," Beverly said skeptically. "Don’t let me forget to drop off my eggs at ‘Spawn ‘r’ Us’ later tonight." Looking back at Tara, she said softly, "It really was to see you, Tara. Maybe the monks did install some kind of timer or signal, but as far as my heart and mind were concerned, I was coming to see my neice."
Tara just nodded, a kind of sad smile dimly illuminating her features.
The meeting ended not long after that, with the understanding that Beverly would be sticking around. In the interim, everyone was to stay as close to each other as possible. As they left, Tara turned quickly to Buffy. "Um, listen...about my little righteous indignation earlier..."
Buffy just smiled. "Actually, I was thinkin' it was impressively butch. And now I should probably just be quiet."
As Willow, Tara, and Beverly turned off from the rest of the group at the end of Giles’ walkway, Beverly said abruptly, "I’m calling Tanya when I get back to the hotel. I’m going to ask her to come out here."
Willow, walking on Tara’s right, felt her lover reach out to Beverly, on Tara’s left. "Want a little moral support?" she asked gently.
"I want Tanya," Beverly replied simply. "I miss her like crazy, and it looks like this is turning out to be far more eventful than I anticipated. She said last night she doesn’t like missing all the excitement."
"What does she know?" Willow asked reluctantly, hoping that Beverly wouldn’t take the question as a sign of disinterest in Beverly’s own unique situation. If I were Tanya, and Tara were the one with such a burden, no way would I stand for being hundreds of miles away.
"Don’t worry; I’ve never mentioned any specifics. To be honest, we sort of have our own little language anyway; anybody listening in would be lost most of the time."
Willow glanced quickly at Tara, who was smiling back at her. The two of them had established their own unique lexicon themselves.
"Besides," Beverly added, her voice growing very quiet, "if she had to wait until I got back to see me, she might not see me."
"Don’t say that," Tara practically shouted. As if embarrassed by her outburst, she spoke more evenly. "Aunt Beverly, we’ve all faced some of the most horrific situations you can imagine, and we always pull through." Tara attempted a smile. "It’s in the Scooby Handbook: ‘All Scoobies and Scooby guests are required to survive all supernatural battles and other exploits.’"
"Oh, well, if the Handbook says so…" Beverly stopped and turned to Tara, giving her a wry smile. "Sweetie, I know that this trip hasn’t been what you expected. For what it’s worth, I wasn’t expecting this either."
The air about them seemed heavy with a kind of sad, wistful lassitude, as if reluctant to let time nudge them toward such horrors as they would most certainly see. Tara stood facing Beverly, holding onto both of her hands. Willow took a half-step closer to her lover and laid her cheek gently against her back, her hands resting lightly on Tara’s waist.
Tara seemed to have a hard time speaking. "Aunt Beverly, I think I gave up on normal a long time ago; or maybe normal gave up on me. Either way, you are who you are, and I’m proud of you. For everything," she added, and now Willow could hear the tears in her beloved’s voice. "As far as I’m concerned, you knew my mother; more importantly, you loved her."
"Yes I did," Beverly replied simply. "And she was so easy to love, Tara." She paused, and looked at Willow over Tara’s shoulder. "Willow—finish that sentence for me, if you would."
"She was so easy to love…just like her daughter," Willow instantly obliged. And then the three of them melted into a kind of living sculpture of arms and hand and cheeks and backs as they pulled into one very impressive group hug.
Finally, Beverly pulled away just a bit. "I hate to go all mundane concerns on you two, but is it OK to be walking around here at night?"
"Oh, we always pack protection," Willow boasted, "and I ain’t talkin’ dental dams, either." Catching herself, she added with mortification, "And now I just ain’t talkin’ at all."
"What Willow’s trying to say in her own very singular fashion is that we always carry holy water and crosses," Tara said in reply to both Beverly’s question and her bemused look at Willow’s announcement.
"OK; cool. Just checking," Beverly nodded as she linked her arm through Tara’s and they began walking once more.
"Um, so Beverly…trying the speech thing again," Willow fumbled. "I was wondering—you said that you repel Glory. Do you know if you have the same impact on demons and other less respectable creatures?"
"That’s a good question," Beverly mused. "You know, I’ve definitely had the feeling that I was being watched a couple of times…actually, followed would be a better word."
"Were you scared?" Tara asked, her voice edged with concern.
"Well, I was definitely aware of them. And it’s not like I have any great strength or fighting skill, so I guess I should have been more afraid than I was. But I have to admit, I felt pretty secure; like I knew somehow that they wouldn’t get too close."
"And it was always the same feeling?" Willow asked, her inveterate curiosity eager to understand this new phenomenon.
"Similar feelings, yeah…but not exactly identical—if you’ll pardon the redundancy." Beverly’s expression suggested that she was busy analyzing the limited data herself. "You know…this is just a hunch, but I wonder if there’s a connection between whatever I’m facing at the moment and how powerful my impact is."
"What do you mean?" Tara asked, frowning.
"I wonder if my effect is directly or maybe inversely proportional to the evil of what I’m facing. Maybe that’s why I’ve felt more or less confident in each experience. If something’s really evil, I repel them either more or less."
"Wonder what effect you’d have on Pat Robertson?" Willow asked thoughtfully.
"I suspect we’d each repel the other so strongly that we’d just shoot to opposite sides of the globe," Beverly said dryly.
They were walking past the hospital now. Willow felt her mind wandering back to that awful night when they had first learned of Joyce’s collapse. She could feel Beverly’s eyes resting on her with curiosity.
"This is the hospital where Buffy and Dawn’s mother died," she explained, feeling Tara’s own sadness roll off of her in waves.
"God—what else do those two have to face?" Beverly asked, more to herself than Willow or Tara, it seemed.
Looking at the imposing structure, Willow saw someone walking toward them, illuminated by the lights of the parking lot. She stiffened and reached into her pocket; but then she felt herself relax as recognition sank in.
"Everything OK?" Beverly asked quietly.
"Yeah—it’s one of the good guys," Tara replied in an equally soft voice. She smiled at the friendly face arriving before them.
"Hello, Ben."
*****
To Be Continued
*****
I thought I’d never get back online. Had some computer technical difficulties but I’m back and it literally feels like Christmas in July with all the updates.
. I can’t wait for my next summer rock concert August 9th. What can I say? Sadly it’s the only therapy I can afford. Regardless, I wait as patiently as I can for the next update. In the end they are always worth the wait.
at: 7/26/03 8:43 pm
Update!!! I can't wait to meet Tanya. I loved the Pat Robertson reference. 
Interesting with Ben showing up at the end. I wonder if Beverly will have some kind of effect on him or not. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait and see. Update soon please. 
anyway.