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| In Omne Tempus - Mysterious Ways And Means by Holly (8 Reviews) | | - abc + + |  | | | In lieu of some emails/reviews I've received from people who don't read my LJ, I've decided to post the one chapter of this that I had on reserve. I know I didn’t announce this everywhere, but I did put In Omne Tempus on a brief hiatus while I finished Rough and Tumble and to work on my Seasonal Spuffy fic, which is due on November 18th. Granted, I am half way through Part 4 of said fic (another predictable 5-parter) but I'd also like to know that people remember what's going on in IOT when I'm finally back to writing it. You know...the one or two chapters I hope to crank out before I disappear again to work on research papers and midterms.
So here this is. Anyone who wants to follow progress I’m making on the series, feel free to bookmark and/or friend me on LJ. My user ID is hollydb
Previously: Buffy and Spike have come clean to her mother, who took everything surprisingly well. Angelus and Darla are still at large, Giles has expressed his disapproval with his Slayer's relationship, and there's an apocalypse to avert.
Chapter Thirty
Mysterious Ways and Means
Buffy was fidgeting uncontrollably as the library doors grew closer.
“You don’ have to explain anythin’ to them,” Spike told her reasonably. “’F they don’ wanna hear it, there’s no bloody point in hashin’ it all out.”
She shook her head and drew in a deep breath. “I just really don’t have time to spend half the night defending our relationship,” she retorted. “I can’t believe Giles—”
“The Watcher knows where the priorities are.”
“He’s officially gone off the deep end. You didn’t see him when I left earlier, Spike. He was livid. He was about ten seconds away from ripping out a Bible to cite the many reasons I was going to Hell for having ever looked at you.”
The vampire frowned at that. “Din’t know Rupert was evangelical.”
“He’s not. That’s how crazy it got.”
“I know, luv. I felt it.”
“He blames me for…” Buffy pursed her lips and glanced down. “I know I’ve made mistakes. I know it. I had to look at my mother tonight and tell her that Willow was gone and it was because…well…because we didn’t know better. It’s my job to know better, and Willow’s gone because I didn’t.”
“It doesn’ make it your fault. Don’t ever think it.”
“I don’t.” And that was the scary part. Any culpability she felt for the part she played in Willow’s death had washed away completely with her new sense of self. Another way she felt more than human and less than humane, but knew also that there was nothing to be done about it. It was just something to get used to. “Anyone who got her message that night would’ve reached the same conclusion. I know it. And I know that I see things that others don’t. I feel things that others can’t right now, because of…what happened. But Giles thinks it’s my fault.”
Her vampire shook his head. “I don’ think so.”
“Spike—”
“The wolf din’t blame us, did he? The one bloke among the lot of them that had a bloody reason to start throwin’ nasties came down on our side.”
“Yet another reason why everything is so irreversibly screwed up.” They stopped at the library doors together; Spike squeezed Buffy’s hand as she inhaled deeply and released a trembling sigh. “Back into the fire, huh?” she asked. “Is there any way we can do this without them? Stop Angelus and Darla without the consent of my Watcher?”
“’F it was jus’ my grand-pappy an’ the wonder-bitch, yeh. Bloody Angelus had to go get delusions of grandeur.”
Buffy drew in another breath, as though preparing for a marathon. “Okay, then,” she said. “Here we go.”
The scene inside the library had changed very little since the last time either of them set foot across the threshold. There were two new faces, yes, but otherwise, the dismal appearance of everyone ready to greet them remained untouched. Giles was at the counter, looking over his books. Oz was at one of the tables with Xander and Cordelia, immersed in pizza and research. Jenny Calendar was coming out of the cage with an armful of goodies. She was the only one to immediately notice their entrance and stopped to flash Buffy a friendly smile.
Giles looked up after a minute, his eyes grim. “Good evening,” he said.
“Hi,” Buffy retorted, eying Xander with as much kindness as she could muster through lines of hostility. They apparently had everyone’s attention now. “Ummm…okay, I’m gonna just say this and get it out there. Spike’s here because he’s on my team. Our team. My mating him had absolutely nothing to do with Willow’s death—it was something that was predestined; it couldn’t be stopped. Would I have stopped it, had I the choice? No. Spike isn’t responsible for what happened anymore than I am. He can’t take the blame for his entire race, and it’s—”
The Watcher held up a hand. “Buffy, it’s all right.”
“No, it’s not all right to make us feel like criminals.”
“I know.”
“I mean, this terrible thing just…what?”
A tight smile formed across his lips. “I know. It was wretchedly unfair of me to have treated you the way I did.” His eyes met Spike’s. “I’m sorry.”
Buffy slumped in amazement. “This entire night is an episode of the Twilight Zone. First my mom, now you?”
“I feel Xander and I were…reacting on the basis of those who weren’t there to do anything at all,” he explained. “I’ve thought about it most extensively…the fact that you were there and we weren’t gives us the opportunity to speculate what could have been had we been there. But those are childhood daydreams of heroics. That night was not about heroics.” He nodded to Spike. “Sorry to say, the timing of all this is most unfortunate. You were an easy scapegoat.”
Spike blinked, bewildered. “Thanks, mate.”
“All this after the silent treatment today at the funeral?”
“Shame?” Xander suggested, shrugging. “We’re sorry, Buff.”
The Slayer just stared at him and shook her head. “Today is definitely a day for the record books,” she decided.
“That went rather well,” Spike retorted.
“Now that the unpleasant matter is out of the way,” Giles interspersed gravely, “we do have the issue of the impending apocalypse to contend with.”
“Could’ve been doing this two days ago,” Buffy muttered.
Spike flashed her a look. “Sweetheart…”
“I know, I know.” She threw her hands up. “Forgiven, forgotten. Apocalypse time. What’s the what? Do you have anything new?”
“Asmodeus sounds like a bitch?” Cordelia offered, shrugging. “A really big bitch?”
“Feel threatened?” Xander teased.
“A bit. I think I have the bitch territory pretty well covered, thank you.”
Oz released a steady breath and rose to his feet, book in hand. “Raphael was said to be Asmodeus’s greatest rival,” he said. “But there’s not much about him in the Book of Tobit.”
“There’s word of his involvement in assisting Tobias to defeat Asmodeus,” Giles continued. “And he describes himself as ‘One of the Seven Holy Angels.’ Many chronicles of the hierarchy of archangels place Raphael below Michael, who is said to be the voice of Israel.”
Spike held up a hand. “In other words, the ringleader of the others. Yeh, Watcher, we know that much. I don’ know how much stock you can put into those passages, though.”
“Well, we know Asmodeus is real,” Xander said. “Why wouldn’t Raphael—”
“’m jus’ sayin’, the existence of one thing doesn’ prove the existence of another. Classic bloody case of post hoc ergo propter hoc. The Watcher knows it doesn’ work that way.” He waited a beat before Giles nodded his agreement. “Asmodeus existin’ doesn’ mean rot for the other things in that text. Of all the prophecy the Watchers Council looks over, biblical rot doesn’ get a nod…mostly ‘cause it can be disproved, or there are counter texts with better evidence to back it up. You don’t know how much you can read into it.”
“You closet Bible scholar,” Buffy said jokingly.
The vampire shrugged. “Mentionin’ somethin’ historical an’ twistin’ it with fiction is how stuff sells, sweet. Make the masses believe it, an’ they buy. Jus’ look at pop culture if you have any doubt.”
“Regardless, for every great power there exists an opposite,” Giles retorted. “If Asmodeus exists, which he must, then a power of equal but opposing force must likewise exist. For the sake of argument, we’ll call that power Raphael.”
Spike nodded. “Fair enough. What’s it got to do with anythin’?”
The Watcher cleared his throat. “Well, all we have right now is speculation. We have no idea how Angelus intends to open the jar Asmodeus is alleged to have been trapped in, or even where he and Darla relocated.”
“The texts that we’ve uncovered suggest that it would take a significant amount of black magic as well as a strong malevolent source to reverse the magic on the jar,” Jenny added, glancing up from her book.
“How do we know it’s a jar?” Xander demanded. “If all these things are subject for debate, how can we trust anything?”
“We can’t. In this, we’re going on faith.” The teacher flashed a wary smile in Giles’s direction. “Rupert and I feel that emphasis should be placed on Angelus and Darla. Obviously there will be a back-up plan should they succeed in raising Asmodeus, but if we stop them before they have a chance to open the jar, there’s no reason to worry with the extremes necessary to bottle a half-angel.”
Cordelia’s brows arched. “And if your plan of magic and wonder doesn’t work? Which is, honestly, more likely. We are on a hellmouth, people. If something can go wrong, it will go wrong. I think that’s in the contract.”
Jenny nodded. “We know. Working on maybes isn’t doing anyone any favors, but that doesn’t mean we should just ignore the symptoms of the problem and saddle up for something worse. Not if we have a chance to stop it from escalating now.”
“And in the meantime,” Buffy asked, “if we don’t find Angelus and Darla, what do we have that we can throw at Asmodeus?”
“We’re working on that,” the teacher replied.
Xander offered a dry snort. “How reassuring.”
“Jenny has dabbled enough in the dark arts to hold her own,” the Watcher said defensively. “If worse comes to worse, she can…she has the ability to…”
Spike held up a hand. “Ummm, excuse me, but…are you outta your bleedin’ mind?”
“Hey!” Giles and Jenny objected together.
“Your Plan B is to have that slip of a thing channel the power of an unknown entity that we’re callin’ Raphael for kicks? Do you have any sodding idea what that could do?” They stared at him blankly. He chuckled dryly and shook his head. “The lot of you are completely barmy. Get two forces of that much power together an’ you’ll be fortunate if this pissant town isn’t wiped off this miserable earth.”
“Hey, wait a second,” Xander interjected. “We do this kinda thing all the time!”
“Not like this, you don’t,” Spike retorted. “Not with powers like this. What the lot of you have seen is Buffy fightin’ the baddies with nothin’ but her strength to back her up. The world’s about to end, an’ she stops it…usually by herself. Gettin’ two powers of equal force in the same place, an’ you can kiss this bloody town goodbye.”
Cordelia frowned. “And yet I fail to see why that’s a bad thing.”
Buffy’s brows arched. “Do you want to be the one to go knock on every door and tell people to pack up and leave because the Book of Revelation is about to land in their backyard?”
There was a long pause. “No, I think I’ll pass on that.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“The point is,” Giles intervened, “while there are plenty of theories, there is nothing definitive to speculate what we might expect…though Spike’s point is well taken.”
“Another reason why we want to focus our energy now on stopping Angelus and Darla before it can happen,” Jenny added. “Though in the meantime, I’m going to be preparing for the worst.”
“Should Asmodeus be summoned successfully, I rather doubt summoning his equal would do the people of Sunnydale any more harm than Asmodeus himself.”
Spike bristled. “I still say the lot of you are barmy.”
“If you have a better idea, please, feel free.”
“Why not just banish him again?” Buffy asked. “I mean…why do we need to summon the power of his equal to do the fighting for us? Asmodeus is a demon. I’m the Slayer. Either find a way for me to kill it or do whatever was done to him all over again.”
“The jar that Asmodeus is legend to have been trapped in is very rare.”
“So? Find something to trap him in and work on that instead. Don’t even bother with Raphael.”
“The text indicates that the only way to contain Asmodeus was with the help of his equal,” Giles argued.
“Yes, for a guy named Tobit. Not for us. Not for a slayer, a vampire, a werewolf, and a woman who practices witchcraft. Plus he was enslaved by Solomon with that ring-thing, so I’m thinking the Great and Powerful Oz might not be so great and powerful.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Oz observed. “I like to think I just play it cool.”
Spike snickered appreciatively.
Buffy flashed the wolf a smile before turning back to Jenny. “I want you to research how to banish him…or trap him in something that we can banish. If that doesn’t work, we’ll go to your nuclear explosion of an idea.”
The Watcher arched a brow. “What do you propose we banish him in?”
“I don’t care. Just find something.” She grabbed Spike’s hand. “In the meantime, we’re gonna patrol. See what we can do to make sure you don’t have to turn this town into a science project gone wrong for Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts.”
“After Angelus and Darla,” Oz said, rising to his feet. “I’ll go with you.”
Buffy and Spike exchanged a glance.
“No,” they said together.
“I have a right to go,” he replied softly. “Furthermore, you can’t stop me.”
The Slayer drew in a deep breath, her protest dying on her lips. She didn’t know what to say; if there was anything to say. Above anyone, Oz deserved vindication. His world had been Willow. He had music, yes, and smarts, but Willow had been his motivation for getting out of bed every morning. For her, he’d started doing his homework, because he knew that she hated to see brilliance put to waste. Half the songs he’d written for Dingoes Ate My Baby in the past two years were inspired by his love for her. Oz wasn’t a very verbal guy—his music and his actions always spoke volumes for how deeply he felt.
He hadn’t said much at all in the past few days, but he was broken inside. Anyone who looked at him would know that.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Giles volunteered softly, stirring Buffy from her reverie. “Oz—”
“I need to be there when it happens,” the wolf said.
“I understand that. But I don’t think…the best way you can help is to stay here. Buffy and Spike—”
“Yeah, okay.” Oz’s shoulders drooped and he returned to the table, his expression illegible.
“It’s just that—”
He held up a hand. “I know.”
An awkward silence fell over the library. Giles cleared his throat and turned back to the Slayer. “You two best be off,” he said. “Come back here for a report before you head home.”
Buffy nodded. “Will do.”
“Be careful.”
She smirked. “Aren’t I always?”
A worried look overwhelmed the Watcher’s face, and he glanced to Spike. “Make sure she doesn’t go looking for trouble, would you?”
“What?” Spike retorted, incredulous. “You think I have a bloody say in what she does?”
“He’s kinda whipped,” Buffy agreed, shooting her mate a grin.
Giles sighed. “You’d think having a vampire watching over your slayer would make you feel better.” A pause. “Or wait. No, you wouldn’t.”
Buffy’s hand tightened around her mate’s, and they turned together. “We’ll be back soon,” she said.
She didn’t breathe again until they were in the vacant hallway, walking down the long corridors in blissful solitude. A heavy weight compressed her shoulders and her insides spooled with dread. The meeting should have lightened her spirits, but she couldn’t see the half-full. With as long as she’d been doing this, with as long as the world had been her duty to defend, she couldn’t remember Giles having ever approached something from such a radical angle. It bothered her that she was the calm one in this.
It bothered her because she knew not to underestimate the Powers. They seemed terribly preoccupied with making sure that she would at no point ever know peace. The rollercoaster ride of the past few days wasn’t slowing down. Rather, they’d come to a lull; a trek up a hill before the world started spiraling around them once more. With as much as it seemed had already happened, the rest felt as though it needed to be over now.
“What is it?” Spike asked.
“This bothers me.”
He chuckled briefly. “Gotta be a bit more specific there, pet.”
“Well, Giles…he wants to—”
“Ah. That.”
“He’s never suggested anything like that. Summon an archangel? I feel like I’m caught in a Tim LaHaye book.”
Spike snickered appreciatively. “There are jus’ names that stir more of a response than others,” he said. “I think Asmodeus is one of the more recognizable of the noncanonical demons. Rupert’s jus’ trippin’ all bloody over himself.”
“He’s supposed to be the calm, collected one.”
“He’s only human. Asmodeus is likely the largest thing he’ll ever tackle.”
Buffy released a deep breath and shook her head. “God, I hope so. After this, I so need a vacation.”
“Anywhere you wanna go, pet. Jus’ gotta say the word.”
She smiled. “I think after this, we’ve earned it.”
“My girl deserves a honeymoon,” he agreed. “As for now, we have my fam’ly to locate. Come on, luv.”
That rush of dread surged again. She refused to call it a premonition; she refused to give it that much power over her. If it was a premonition, she wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it. If it was a premonition, chances were it would come true. “Do you think we’ll find them?” she asked. “Do you think there’s a chance of that? They disappeared again…we couldn’t find them the first time, and now they’ve disappeared again. Why do we think we can find them? I mean, we don’t even know if they’re alive.”
“They’re alive, pet. You know it; else you would’ve mentioned it back there.” Spike paused. “They’re still out there.”
She licked her lips. “I’m terrified.”
“Buffy—”
“If Asmodeus is released—”
“We’ll deal, sweetling.”
“I…so much has changed.” She glanced down. “I’ve lost so much, but I still have a lot to lose.” You. You and the world. “And I’m terrified.”
Spike smiled softly. “You think I’m gonna go quietly now?” he demanded. “I finally got what I’ve been waitin’ for…well, more than fourteen years, pet. I’ve been waitin’ for you forever. Angelus isn’t gonna best me now. Won’ bloody allow it.”
She raised his hand to her lips and brushed a kiss across his skin. “I love you.”
“Love you, too, baby.” He smiled. “It’ll be all right.”
“I wish I had your confidence.”
He kissed her brow and squeezed her hand. He flooded her with warmth, despite the cruel presence of doubt.
She had the world to lose. The world and her mate. Her mate that gave her reason.
But Spike was right. If Angelus wanted a fight, she would bring one to him.
There would be no quiet defeat.
To be continued in Chapter Thirty-One: Ring Out The Bells Again…
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