Alternity
By Blair
Provence
TITLE: Alternity (3/3)
AUTHOR: Blair Provence
E-MAIL ADDRESS: aggiemo@msn.com
SPOILER WARNING: To third season, I suppose, up to the
finale. An alternate future.
RATING: PG-13 - (Buffy/Giles)
ARCHIVE: If you want it, let me know.
DISCLAIMER: Everything Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant
Enemy, and Warner Brothers. And they probably wouldn't like
what I do to their property, but oh, well...
SUMMARY: The Ascension has passed, but not the
danger. Buffy and Giles face a dire threat from an
unexpected quarter, and the choices they must make are
heartrending. Angst-alert!
FEEDBACK IS WELCOME AND APPRECIATED!
Alternity (3/3)
<I couldn't have heard her right,>
Giles told himself, even as he felt his heart sink down to
somewhere near his toes. "What did you say?"
She took a deep breath, hugging him
tightly. "The Council...they've got Willow,
Giles."
He pushed her away from him and waited
impatiently for her to muster the courage to meet his searching
gaze. "H-how do you know that?"
She bit her lip, her eyes filling with
tears again. "The last Tarakan I killed told me."
"The one from a month
ago?" It had been a bug-demon, he recalled, and she'd
made a Xander joke when she'd reported it to him - not the sort
of reaction he would have expected if she'd just received truly
horrible news.
Buffy shook her head.
"Another one, a week ago. When you were having dinner
with Stetson-man."
"They traced us to
Houston?" His voice rose with alarm. "And you
didn't tell me?"
"I couldn't," she replied as a
few tears escaped to spill over her cheeks. "Don't you
understand? I *couldn't* tell you. I couldn't, I
*couldn't*!" She began to tremble again, small and
alone in the rapidly cooling water.
He realized that it was imperative that
he calm and reassure her. "Buffy," he admonished,
reaching out to grip her upper arms, "listen to me for a
moment. We knew this might happen, remember? We knew
they'd try to use our friends to manipulate us. But the
Council can't hold Willow indefinitely - eventually they'll have
to let her go."
"You don't believe that," she
shot back angrily, swiping at her tears. "That's just
what we tell ourselves to get through the day, but we know it's
not true." She held up a hand to forestall his
protest. "And it doesn't matter anyway, Giles. The
Tarakan told me they didn't take her as bait to bring us back -
or at least not *just* as bait."
Cold dread roiled in his stomach.
"What do you mean?"
"They know she's the one that broke
into their files, Giles," she told him softly.
"They know she's the reason we got away from them, the
reason they don't already have our heads on a pike and a shiny
new Slayer to brainwash. H-he said there's gonna be some
kind of tribunal, and they're gonna punish her for
interfering." She closed her eyes. "It will
happen in Sunnydale. In five days. And we're not
talking about laying on a stiff fine here."
<NO!> He shook his head in
firm denial, banishing his creeping doubts as he tried to marshal
a convincing argument. "It must be a ruse, Buffy - a story
they've made up to get us to return to Sunnydale. The
Council has no *jurisdiction* over Willow!"
"What, they're gonna start playing
by the rules *now*?" she snapped, opening her eyes to glare
at him. "Those crazy sons of bitches don't give a damn
about 'jurisdiction', Giles, and you know it! Besides, I
*know* the Tarakan wasn't lying."
"Really." He studied
her. "And how exactly is it that you can be so
certain?"
Her gaze slid away from his face to land
on the rapidly diminishing mound of bubbles at the far end of the
tub. "Please don't ask me. I just know, all
right?"
"Buffy-" he said, a clear
warning in his tone.
"I tortured him, okay?" she
whispered, hunching her shoulders miserably. "He
wasn't lying. Trust me."
<Oh, God...>
"I-" He paused, took a deep breath, and exhaled
tiredly. This news did indeed change things. "I
don't know what to say. Why didn't you tell me,
Buffy?"
She gave him a '*duh*, why do you
think?' look, then averted her eyes again. "Because
this means I have to go back, Giles, don't you see? I can't
let Willow suffer because she was foolish enough to make friends
with me. I have to try to save her."
He reached out to grip her chin between
his fingers, forcing her to turn her head and meet his
gaze. "You mean *we* have to try." He'd
intended for his words to be reassuring, but her reaction wasn't
at all what he'd expected.
Her face crumpled with misery.
"Oh, God, I knew you'd say that. I knew it, and I
couldn't figure out a way to stop it!"
<What?> "You can't
think I would ever leave you to face this alone, Buffy. I
would never abandon you."
The tears began again, and she reached
out to touch his chest with a bubble-covered hand.
"Don't you think I know that? Don't you think that if
there's anything in the *world* I'm sure of, it's that you won't
ever leave me alone? But it's a *death* sentence,
Giles! Going back to Sunnydale is like putting a gun in
your mouth and pulling the trigger!"
He knew that what she said was true, but
felt obliged to argue the point anyway. "Buffy-"
She cut him off, never pausing as the
words burst forth in a torrent. "I almost left
tonight, Giles."
His jaw dropped. "What?"
She rushed onward, heedless of his
response. "The two hundred vamp dollars?
Airfare. That's why I was late meeting you, Giles. I
spent an hour at the airport watching the planes take off, trying
to convince myself that I could do it without you."
She crossed her arms over her chest, hunching her shoulders
defensively as her tears dripped into the water. "Telling
myself that if I never showed up at that bar you'd spend days
here looking for me before you'd figure out where I'd gone - and
by that time everything would be resolved, and Willow would be
safe, and *you* would be safe..."
"And you would be *dead*," he
finished bitterly, suddenly overcome by an overwhelming,
irrational anger. Did the girl not understand what she
meant to him? "How *dare* you!"
"Don't y-yell at me," she
shouted back, hiccuping in distress. "I'm doing the
best I can, don't you understand that? Can't you see how
impossible this is? How would *you* make that kind of
choice, huh? Me or Willow, pick who dies!
*Now*!"
Her visible distress tore at Giles, but
he couldn't seem to get past the anger. "That's not
the point - it's *my* decision!" he retorted.
"*I* decide where I go, and why. It's not up to
you."
She stared at him, all huge eyes and
trembling lips. "But I love you," she whispered
brokenly. "And I don't know how not to give the world
to keep you safe."
And with just those few words his anger
melted away into nothing. "Oh, Buffy."
She launched herself toward him,
tumbling gracelessly from the tub into his lap. Water and
bubbles pooled on the tile floor, but neither of them
noticed. "I love you," she said, kissing
him. "I *love* you! And if I'm going to die,
then I have to know that you will live. I can't *do* it,
otherwise."
"There are never any guarantees,
Buffy." He kissed the top of her head, crushing her
against his chest. "But to ask me to stay
behind? Knowing how you'd feel if I asked it of you?
Do you honestly think that I love you any less than you love
me?"
He *felt* her breathing stop.
"What?"
He closed his eyes, wondering how words
that were meant to bring such joy could cause so much pain.
But she deserved to hear them. "I love you,
Buffy. I can't imagine my life without you - and more to
the point, I don't *want* to."
She said nothing in response, but
embraced him so tightly that he was afraid she might crack some
ribs. They held each other as the minutes passed, limbs
entwined on a cold tile floor, listening to the beating of each
other's hearts.
Finally she spoke again, her voice small
and tired in the stillness of the dingy little room.
"What are we going to do, Giles?"
He smoothed her hair with his hand,
savoring the silk of it as he bade a silent farewell to all the
hopes and dreams that had come to be in their months together,
the moments of happiness easing in around the pain.
He sighed - resolved, once again, to
duty.
"We're going to go back.
Together."
END (3/3)
