Title:
The Dark Rose - Chapter 19b (Secrets)Author: Dark Magic Willow
Email:
darkmagickwillow@yahoo.comRating: R, mostly for violence, no explicit sex
Pairing: W/T
Spoilers: All episodes through the end of season 6 though this story takes place 18-19 years after the end of season 6.
Feedback: Yes! Constructive criticism is always welcome.
Summary: The day after.
Magic Note: Magic, even dark magic, is not addictive in my universe, so there are no withdrawal symptoms and no dark magic dealers. Here Rack was a dark magic teacher who used his students, not a dealer. However, you can use too much magic and you can be corrupted by the power it gives you.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrights or anything else associated with BtVS. All rights lie with the production company, writers etc.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Amanda and Juli for all your insight and encouragement.
The Dark Rose
Chapter 19b: SecretsAs Tara entered the school library with Willow, she reflected on how different it seemed this afternoon. The sun was up, the power was on, and better yet there wasn't an army of zombies outside trying to kill them. Still, all wasn't well with the world. Although Giles and Dawn were reading at their usual table, Giles from a book and Dawn from a computer terminal, Spirit was curled up under a blanket in the comfy chair with a heavy tome on her lap. She looked unnaturally pale and shivered as Tara watched.
"Tara," Spirit said as she spotted her. "You're late!" she accused with a smile on her face. "If I can't get out of research like this, then you certainly shouldn't."
"Willow and I spent all morning-" Tara began.
Spirit raised her eyebrows and interrupted her before she could finish. "I'm sure we don't need to know about that," she teased.
Tara let her hair fall forward to hide her face as she blushed. "We were researching," she protested.
Dawn watched the exchange with a smile on her face. "I remember the kind of research you two used to do," she said, compounding Tara's embarrassment. It was good to let some of their tension out this way after what had happened last night. She'd watched over Spirit carefully today as she was worried about the young woman even though she'd just met her last night. Spirit's courage reminded her so much of Buffy, but she seemed so young to be facing that every night.
Giles was relieved that Spirit felt well enough to tease too even though he was unsure about whether Willow and Tara's relationship was a good thing. He interrupted the teasing, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible as he didn't wish to antagonize Willow. "Did you find anything?"
"We did," Willow answered as she put down the stack of books she was carrying beside Giles. She helped Tara unload her backpack, which was full of more reference tomes. She carefully removed the last item, bundled in layers of cloth, from the backpack and unwrapped the ancient book from its protective covering before handing it directly to Giles.
Giles looked at the book closely before opening it. Turning the pages with reverence he examined the tome closely. "It's the earliest Tacitus I've heard of," he said.
"It's also complete," Willow said with a slightly smug smile.
"But the complete histories have been lost for centuries," Giles protested, as he looked down at the book in wonder.
"Now it's found," Willow said lightly. "It's a gift for you. I know that things between us can't be made suddenly right with a single gesture, but I wanted you to know that I want them to be right." She looked into his eyes, her face open and accepting, willing him to understand what she felt for him, for Dawn, and for all her family.
Giles looked up at Willow, searching for sincerity in her dark eyes. When he finally nodded, accepting the gift with a "Thank you," the tense, worried line on his brow relaxed for the first time since Willow had seen him again in Sunnydale.
Tara saw that there were still reservations in Giles's eyes, but she was happy that things were less tense between the two than last night. She reached over and picked up the most promising of the references they had found, a thin, tattered book. "This one is a journal of someone who found the emerald we saw last night. It's been translated more than once and we're not sure of the exact dates," she said. "I'll read the most interesting entry. It's also the final one." The group at the table gathered around her as she read from the book, while Spirit listened from her chair.
"The experiment was a success beyond our worst nightmares. The Heart's power of resurrection is limitless, but it cannot be harnessed for anyone's benefit. I don't know if the Heart is broken or whether it was simply evil from the beginning, but it will surely destroy any who uses it as it has condemned us to the terrible fate we now face.
After the grotesque failures of our early experiments, we were foolish to try something more ambitious. But the Doctor insisted that it would work, that the problem was the young age of what we were trying to bring back, that it would be easier to resurrect the distant past. Did he truly believe this? I guess it doesn't matter now. I saw the Old Ones take him.
Yes, we succeeded in bringing back the Old Ones. They're hunting me as I write this journal. We didn't know that they would be so terrible. Perhaps they weren't when they were alive, but the Heart warps everything it brings back. Yet, the Old Ones aren't the worst of what we brought back.
The Heart brought back everything. Everything. The land outside the building in which I hide is the bare and rocky landscape of eons ago before life emerged from the sea. Who knows what lurks in the sea off the shores of the island now? Erupting volcanos fill the air with ash, while earthquakes constantly rock the island. That's our only hope ... that the island will destroy itself before the Old Ones can leave. I hear them coming now."
"The fragment ends there," Tara said. They looked at each other soberly as she finished. The library felt darker than it had been when she began reading the journal.
"That confirms what we've seen the Master do," Giles said. He took off his glasses to polish them. "But is there anything about how to destroy it?"
"There was one other important piece of information I gleaned from the journal," Willow said, walking back and forth as she addressed the group. "It's that the greater the stature of the wielder, the more power he can draw from the Heart. It amplifies your innate powers. Since vampires can't generally cast spells, we've seen only a ghost of what the Heart could do in the hands of someone with real power."
"So he could bring back what exactly?" Spirit asked, not sounding overly worried.
"All sorts of things," Giles began. "Perhaps all the demons that lived here before the Hellmouth was close, or-"
"Oh my God," Willow said slowly, a terrible realization dawning in her eyes. "Buffy!"
"What?" Tara asked, puzzled at first by Willow's exclamation. Then as she realized what Willow was talking about, she softly said, "Oh."
"Last night, she was-" Willow began.
"No," Dawn said firmly, placing a gentle hand on Willow's arm. "It's okay. We cremated her body. There was nothing left to raise left night."
"But what about..." Giles began, then trailed off embarrassedly, realizing that it probably wasn't the best topic to bring up when the person he was about to ask about was sitting across the table from him.
"What about what?" Spirit asked in a slightly annoyed voice as the other three exchanged looks with Giles that indicated that they knew what he was about to say. "Or should I say who?"
"Me," Tara said, looking down at her hands spread on the table. She shuddered as Giles's words conjured an image in her mind of herself as one of the walking dead last night. "He's talking about me." Willow put a comforting hand on Tara's shoulder.
"What?" Spirit exclaimed, more confused than ever.
"Not really you," Dawn said from where she was standing beside Willow. "Your past self."
"Okay," Spirit said as she pushed back her chair and stood up. "Somebody needs to start explaining this now." She looked down at Dawn. "First, who are you and why are you here? I know it's more than you being Buffy's sister."
Tara looked up at Willow, wordlessly asking for her help. "Tara's body is protected by magic," Willow explained, causing Spirit's puzzled annoyance to focus on her instead of Dawn. "The spell wouldn't have been able to affect it either."
Tara let out the breath she hadn't realized that she had been holding in a long sigh. Before she could really feel her relief at the thought that there hadn't been a zombie who looked like her last night, another thought nagged at her mind. What kind of attachment to the past did those spells represent for Willow? Were they still there just to prevent something like last night from happening or were they indicative of deeper feelings?
Giles interrupted before Spirit could say anything. "Tara is the reincarnation of Tara Maclay who was a friend of Dawn and Willow," he said. "We just learned about this recently. I called Dawn to help Tara deal with the news."
"That's why I'm here," Dawn said, looking compassionately at the confused slayer.
"And you believe this?" Spirit asked, turning to face Tara.
"It's true," Tara nodded. She looked anxiously at Spirit, unsure of how her friend would react. Today was the first time she had talked with someone about this who hadn't known her in the past.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded of Tara, but the hurt feelings so evident in her eyes belied the anger of her voice.
"I ... I didn't know what to say," Tara said hesitantly as she met Spirit's brown eyes. "I couldn't quite accept it myself at first. I didn't want you thinking that I was suddenly someone you didn't know ... because I'm not." With a diffident glance at Willow she added, "I'm still me."
"I see," Spirit said, getting up. "You're still my 'friend' who doesn't tell me anything." She walked towards the doors out of the library.
"Wait," Tara pleaded, getting up to follow her. Willow watched uncertainly, not sure whether she should follow along with Tara.
"Don't," Dawn said, gently grabbing Tara's shoulder. "She needs some time."
"Spirit," Giles called out.
"Fill me in when I get back," Spirit said as she went through the doors without a backwards glance.
"Well," Giles sighed. "That could have gone better. I meant to ask you to tell her, Tara, but with everything that happened yesterday..."
"It's okay, Giles," Dawn said. "We understand."
"It's my fault," Willow said, garnering a startled look from Giles. "I shouldn't have brought up that subject."
"No," Tara said, taking Willow's hand. "It's mine. I should have told her. She's my friend."
"It'll be okay," Dawn said, feeling that she'd been saying that a lot lately. "She needs some time to think it over, then she'll be back like she said."
"I hope so," Tara said.
"Trust me," Dawn said, then took off her reading glasses and sat back down in her chair. "Now why is it called the Heart?"
"The full name is the Heart of Corruption," Tara answered, letting Dawn coax her back into research mode as she sat down beside Dawn. She stuck her tongue out. "See, I was doing research."
Giles cleared his throat. "Returning to Willow's statement about it being an amplifier," he said. "If it depends on innate power, why is each spell that he casts more powerful than the last?"
"It takes knowledge to fully utilize any magical artifact," Willow said. "Someone must be teaching him." Her eyes darkened with that thought. She knew too many people who could possess such knowledge, many of whom would be happy to use it to hurt her. She had tried to not leave such loose ends behind her, but over the years they had accumulated. She had paid them little attention, confident that she would be a match for any of them, but now her life was complicated. Wonderfully so, but still complicated.
"Then we have to find out who this teacher is," Giles said firmly. "Unfortunately in Sunnydale there are many candidates."
"True," Willow said with a frown. "What did the three of you find?"
"Dawn found something on the net that may indicate where the heart was found in recent times," Giles said. He gestured in Dawn's direction. "Why don't you read it, Dawn?"
"Okay," Dawn said, looking at the computer terminal in front of her. "It's a lab book entry from a UC Sunnydale professor who was studying the Tunguska site in Siberia."
"It was responsible for the 1908 Tunguska blast?" Tara asked incredulously.
"I don't know," Dawn said. "It may have only been uncovered by the blast. Let me read the entry and you'll see." She hit a few keys and started reading from the screen in front of her.
"I found a most unusual stone in a rocky matrix today near the center of the site. Superficially it looks like an uncut emerald, but is the size of a fist, much larger than any known emerald, and gives off a faint green luminescence. The stone is also intensely cold like nothing else that I've ever found. It is also harder than diamond. We can not chip or cut it with anything we have to take a sample for analysis. We'll have to store it until we get back to the Sunnydale."
Dawn turned the monitor around so that everyone could see the picture of the emerald he was talking about. Clearly it was the same huge emerald-like stone that the Master had held last night.
"Let me guess," Willow said sourly. "He's dead now."
Giles nodded. "He made it back to Sunnydale, but died several days later from 'neck trauma'," he said. "However, there was one more lab entry after he returned. It stated that radioisotope dating indicated that the strata it was found in was Precambrian, but that the object was older than the Earth. They thought something must be wrong with their measurement, but there is another explanation."
"The Old Ones brought it with them when they first came here," Willow said grimly.
"What does that mean?" Dawn asked, wrinkling her brow in puzzlement.
"Before life arose on the earth," Giles lectured. "The Old Ones came down from the stars to live here. The demons and creatures that you fight are their distant descendants. No one really knows much about them except that they were extraordinarily proficient with magic."
"Okay," Dawn said. "But what does that mean about the Heart?"
"It's indestructible," Willow said flatly.
They looked at each other uneasily as Willow's words echoed through the quiet library. How could they defeat something that had survived through all the ages of the world?
* * * * * * Deep underground, Amy stood in front of the Master's throne, looking up at the now hideous form of the Master. He clung to a semblance of life with terrible tenacity. The skin of his face and neck had melted and flowed like molten wax. One eye, full of emerald fire, peered balefully out of the wreckage of his features. He cradled the Heart in his hands like a beloved child.
"How do you explain your failure?" he demanded, glaring at her with his single eye full of hate. The Heart flared brightly with his anger.
"The Slayer by herself would have fallen, but she had powerful allies we didn't know about," Amy explained in a calm, reasonable tone. "I can show you how to deal with them though" she assured him.
Green fire spilled out of the Heart as he shot up from his throne to shout down at her. "I don't care!" he shouted. "You failed me!" He raised the Heart high to kill her, haloing himself with magical fire.
"The dark witch is coming for you now," Amy warned him without backing down. "Without my help you'll surely die."
The Master glared at Amy, baring his fangs in a terrible grimace, but sank back down into his throne. "What do you suggest?" he asked petulantly.
"I knew this witch in the past," Amy said. "I know the one spectre that can destroy her." She would give the Master what he would think was the key to defeating Willow, but she would keep the real key for herself. And when she used her key, Willow would hand the Heart over to her without a fight.
"We tried that," the Master said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Ah," Amy said. "But the Master had been defeated in battle. This time we'll bring back someone who never experienced defeat at the hands of any opponent." She smiled promisingly at the Master as she began to explain the details of her plan.
* * * * * * For Dawn, it felt like old times as she walked beside Willow through the graveyard. Tara was ahead of them, leading the patrol. Spirit had still been too ill from her encounter with the Heart to go out tonight so they were filling in for her. Dawn was surprised that Willow was so calm about Tara patrolling, especially as point woman, after how she had reacted last night. Thinking about last night brought up a question she'd been waiting to ask Willow.
"Last night," she started. "Tara told you to remember your promise. What did she mean?"
Willow looked over at Dawn for a minute, considering how to answer her question. "I promised to give up dark magic," she said.
"That's great!" Dawn said enthusiastically. Noting the lack of a positive response from Willow, she asked. "It is great, isn't it?"
"I hate that the dark magic takes me away from Tara," Willow admitted. "But sometimes it also offers the best chance to protect her."
"Why?" Dawn asked curiously. "Is dark magic more powerful than light magic?"
"No," Willow said. "But it's easier to gain access to dark magic. With light magic, the price is up front and to draw great power from light sources you have to be doing something that the light powers approve of. Anyone can draw power from dark sources, but the price comes afterwards. It's more dangerous to use, but you have more freedom." Willow didn't mention to Dawn how much easier it had been to use dark magic after she'd pulled Tara's essence from Glory.
"It still sounds like light magic is better," Dawn said cautiously, not wanting to push Willow.
"It usually is," Willow agreed. "But there are some things you can't do with it. Resurrection being one of them." She looked at Dawn with heartfelt regret in her eyes. "Tell me. Could I have saved her if I'd been here?"
"Buffy?" Dawn asked. "You can't blame yourself, Willow. She died of leukemia." Dawn looked sad but proud as she talked about her sister. She had been able to accept her sister's death in a way that Giles hadn't yet and she was proud that no vampire or demon had been able to defeat Buffy.
"I wish I'd been there for her," Willow said with a regretful sigh. She wished she could have seen Buffy one last time.
Dawn reached out to squeeze Willow's hand. "You can't change the past, Willow," she said. It was a platitude, but one that Dawn knew Willow needed to accept in her heart after spending most of her life trying to do just that. "But you can be there for your family in the future. Don't leave us again," she pleaded softly. "I missed you and Tara so much."
"I won't," Willow promised with soft eyes.
"When the Sun's up one day, we could go visit her grave if you want," Dawn offered.
"I'd like that," Willow said with a faint smile. They walked together in companionable silence for a few minutes, watching Tara ahead of them for any warnings of vampiric activity. They actually hadn't seen any vampires tonight. The Master was apparently regrouping after his defeat of the previous night, but it was better to be safe and finish the patrol.
"There was another reason I asked you to come patrol tonight," Willow said to Dawn.
"It wasn't just for the pleasure of my company?" Dawn asked in a mock hurt tone of voice.
"No," Willow smiled. "Though I would've been more than happy to have you for that alone." Her demeanor became very serious as she looked at Dawn. "We can't destroy the Heart, but there's another way to get rid of it."
"Why didn't you mention it at the meeting?" Dawn asked with a puzzled expression on her face. "Does it involve dark magic?"
"Because I need your help," Willow said. "I didn't know how Giles would react to my request."
"My help?" Dawn asked. "What can I do? I'm not a slayer or a witch."
Willow gave Dawn an unfathomable look.
"You're the Key, Dawn."
--
"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit." -- "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."
Edited by: darkmagicwillow at: 1/20/03 6:00:25 pm
). So what are you building here, I asked myself as I read this. You have Amy talking about the "key" to defeating Willow - alluding perhaps to Dawn as the Key, and also alluding to calling a spectre never defeated in battle, and Dawn of course says Buffy died a natural death (ergo, never defeated). Dawn said Buffy was cremated, but the Heart of Corruption is the strongest resurrection talisman ever, so it could still be Buffy (except that the original Master 'killed' her, momentarily - can this be construed as a defeat); but maybe it could be Dawn, because she is both the Key and was created from Buffy matter, and the other references are cleaver red herrings on your part. And now, I'm rambling aimlessly, in the helpless stream of consciousness your story has created in my mind as I try to figure out the clues you've so cleverly hidden. Yes, I know, I'll just have to wait and see how far off base my speculations are.
. To bad it also sucks out your lifeforce otherwise it would be a usefull tool in proper hands....probably a bit too powerfull for that though.
.
). Also I'm so glad to see Willow making an effort to relieve some of the tension (a rapprochement) between her and Giles with her "gift", as opposed to exacerbating an already tense situation by trying to settle "old scores" of the past. As for Spirit I can so sympathize with her feelings. Before she was part of the inner-circle (a group formed of Giles, Tara, and herself), and now with the arrival of these two "strangers" she feels like an "outsider" being left out of the loop (ie being the only one not to know about the Tara Lucas/Maclay information).
at: 1/22/03 2:25:23 am
