Don't be dismayed at good-byes.
A farewell is necessary before you
Can meet again.
And meeting again,
After moments or lifetimes, is certain,
For those who are friends.
~R. Bach
~Part One~
Buffy shivered as a cold cloying mist seeped through her clothes.
"C'mon you dumb vamps. Get out here so I can kick your asses and not
freeze mine off." The slayer muttered bitterly. She spun the wooden
stake in her hand absent-mindedly as she wove her way through the
headstones in the cemetery. The hairs on her neck prickled sensing
someone watching her and she gripped the stake tightly in her hand.
"You know it's not nice to spy on people!" she called spinning around
on her heel, preparing to pierce the vamp's heart with the stake. But
there was no vampire. Nor a demon. Just a ghostly image of a young
girl about 16 years of age. She looked like she was Chinese, but was
dressed in an red wine coloured, old English style gown made of a
velvety material, with a fitted top fastened by laces and a flowing
skirt with gold embroidery upon it. Her long dark hair was curled at
the ends and two braids from the side of her face were fastened at the
back of her head. A gold necklace hung from her neck and upon it a
delicate carved cross. "Who are you?" the slayer demanded of the
girl.
"I won't harm you. I only wish nothing but to warn you," the girl said
in an english accent that reminded Buffy of Spike's.
Buffy narrowed her eyes, "Warn me about what?", she fell back into a
fighting stance.
"He's coming, and powerful as ever. You must take caution. It's the
slayer's blood which he seeks."
"Could you be more cryptic? Who is he?" Buffy shouted in frustration.
"He's coming. Be careful, take allies as it is they who make you
stronger." The girl faded into the mist like the embers of a fire
dying out.
Buffy sprinted to the spot where the girl once stood and spun around,
but she was nowhere to be seen. She shook her head, exasperated,
"That's it! I'm going home and taking a nice, long, warm bath." She
turned to walk away, but her feet remained frozen to the ground. "What
the-"
"Slayer…" a gravely voice whispered. A black shroud immerged from the
mist, "Time to die…" it raised scaly arm bringing down a glinting
silver sword down on her.
Buffy shot up in her bed and gasped. Her heart raced as she quickly
glanced over her surroundings. She ran her hand through her hair
breathing deeply regaining her composure. It's ok. I'm still in my
dorm room and Willow's right beside me and there are no demons here.
Everything's fine. But no more spicy pizza right before bed. She
thought falling back on her pillow.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
"Hey Buff! You ok?" Willow adjusted the strap of her bag and looked
over to Buffy. "You have the dark circles and… stuff around your
eyes."
Buffy smiled at her friend picking up her own bag and smoothing her
jeans out, "I'm fine Will. I just had some way funky dreams last
night."
"Ooh!" Willow jumped excitedly, "Prophetic-y dreams? Should we
research?"
Buffy couldn't help but laugh, "I think you need to get out more Will
'cuz you're acting like Xander. You are getting way pumped over
nothing."
Willow grinned sheepishly, "Sorry. It's just that there's been a…
lacking of demony butt to kill. But not that that's bad or-"
"Hey Buffy! Willow! Wait up!" Riley called running out of their
psych class. "What's up? Whatcha talkin' about? Looks kinda serious
here."
"No! No serious stuff here. We're just talking about….stuff." Buffy
offered.
Riley looked at her strangely, "Ok…So…."
The trio looked at each other nervously. "Wow! Look at the time! I
should be elsewhere…Bye!" Willow ducked away and offered a small wave.
"So hey Buffy?"
"Yeah?" she asked expectantly.
Riley stuck his hands into his faded jeans pockets, "Do you want to go
catch a movie or something tonight?"
Her eyes lit up, "I'd love to!"
"Really?"
"Yeah! Oh wait, I promised my…mom that I'd have dinner with her
tonight." Buffy lied. She was actually scheduled to train that night
with Giles. Arg! Why does Giles have to be on a
train-a-more-efficient slayer kick? He's not even a watcher anymore, or
a librarian for that matter.
"Oh." Riley sighed dejectedly. "Well may be some other time. See
ya!" He hurried away disappearing behind a corner.
"Ugh, Giles you always pick the worst nights…" she muttered bitterly
stalking away.
"Buffy." A girl's voice whispered from behind her.
Buffy's head snapped around and saw the girl from her dream standing in
a darkened corner of the halls, "You. What are you want?"
"So Buffy! Riley ask you out?" Willow jumped up beside her causing
her to jump in surprise.
"Willow! You scared me!" Buffy brushed a stray lock of hair from her
eyes.
"What are you looking at?" Willow's brow furrowed with worry.
"That girl over there." She turned and pointed to the corner but the
girl wasn't there anymore.
Willow looked to where her friend pointed, "What girl? Buffy, are you
sure you're okay?"
"She was right there!" Buffy scanned the halls finding nothing that
even resembled the girl. "Something weird is going down."
"Something bad?" Willow questioned with a worrying tone creeping into
her voice.
"I don't know." Buffy grabbed the red head's hand and dragged her out
of the building, "May be Giles can make sense of this."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Come on! Give me the bloody remote!" Spike complained trying to
snatch the remote away from Giles. "I'm going to miss 'Passions'!"
"Oh sod off! This is my home and we will watch what I choose to
watch!" the librarian retorted holding the tv remote out of the
vampire's reach.
The bleach blond vamp growled indignantly and sank back into the worn
sofa. "I can still hurt you, you know."
"Oh really? What? You going to try to lick me to death?"
"Getting lazy watcher. You used that line already." Spike snorted
smugly.
"Do SHUT U-"
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. Buffy rapped rhythmically at the door. "Giles!
Open up!"
Giles pushed himself off the sofa, keeping the black remote in his
right hand. Turning the iron doorknob, he swung open the door.
"Buffy. You're early. You're almost never early, what's wrong?"
"Ghost." She replied putting her bag down on the counter.
"Could you at least just give me the remote! I'm going to miss
Passions!" Spike shouted turning around to face the three standing by
the door.
"Shut up Spike. Believe it or not, this is serious." Buffy glared at
him angrily.
Spike snorted, "Yeah sure. Everything's serious with you." He
imitated Buffy in a high voice, "Oh Riley's never going to ask me out,
oh my life's so sad!"
"Grr!" Buffy growled. Giles quickly grabbed the riled slayer's arm
before she attacked Spike. "Hey! Let go Giles! I promise there won't
be to much blood shed." She said sweetly.
"Hmph! Like you could." Spike scoffed.
"Why don't we talk outside." Willow intervened.
"Yes, lets." Giles agreed quickly dragging Buffy out of the apartment
before she and the vamp could exchange anymore words.
Willow snapped the door shut behind them and they each took a seat at
the wrought iron table in the courtyard.
"I hate him! Why can't I just kill him? We got all the information we
need?" Buffy shouted in frustration. "All he does is talk and talk
and talk. He is so….UGH!"
"Buffy, calm down." Willow patted Buffy on the back. "Don't let him
bug you."
Giles took off his glasses and pulled out a handkerchief, wiping them
absently, "I swear you to act like an old married couple."
"Hmph! Me," she put her hand on her chest, "married to THAT? Yeah
right, that's not even funny Giles."
"Yes well I'm not a comedian. Besides, I take it you did come here to
just bicker with Spike hmm? No what ghost were you talking about?"
Giles tucked away the handkerchief and pushed his glasses on.
Buffy sank back into the uncomfortable chair, "I don't know what ghost.
Like it's this girl, she's like chinese or something and she was in my
dream last night."
"Your dream?" Giles questioned scratching his chin gently. "Was it
prophetic?"
"I wasn't sure at first, I mean I thought it was just the pizza I ate
before bed, but then when I walked out of psych class I saw her again."
"Do you see her as well Willow?"
"Uh uh." she shook her head. "I wasn't with her."
"Intriguing. Hmm. What did she looked like?"
"Well, she was oriental, she had like long dark hair, dark eyes, and
she had on this old style gown like I wore on Halloween. Oh! And she
was wearing a gold necklace with a carved cross too." Buffy recalled.
"And she was also warning me about something evil coming, but she
wouldn't say who, and then later in my dream black shroud came at me
with a sword and I couldn't my feet. It was way creepy."
"She doesn't sound familiar to me nor does the demon you mention, but
why don't we do some research tonight and see if we can find any
mention of her and the demon. The sun should be down in a few minutes
so instead of you going patrolling I'll send out Xander and Spike."
Giles stood up from the table and stretched his arms.
"Xander and Spike?" Willow asked uncertainly. "Those two will kill
each other! Besides how do we know Spike won't run off."
"Right now we are Spike's only means of survival. He can't fight and
he can't feed, so he knows better than to run off." Giles explained.
"And the Xander problem? Those two are almost as bad as Buffy and
Spike." Willow asked.
Buffy sat up straight, "Hey!"
Giles and Willow ignored her, "Well Willow, we'll just have to hope for
the best won't we?"
"I guess. Well let's assemble the scooby gang." Willow managed to say
cheerfully.
