Chapter 24 – The Scarlet
Tide
Man goes beyond his own decision
Gets caught up in the mechanism
Of swindlers who act like kings
And brokers who break everything
The dark of night was swiftly fading
Close to the dawn of day
Why would I want him just to lose him?
We’ll rise above the scarlet tide
That trickles down through the mountain
And separates the widow from the bride
Alison Krauss
A break in the meeting had
been called. The excuse given was so that everyone had the opportunity to
finish eating, but they all knew the truth. They were all feeling guilty about
something or wondering who had done what and how the hell had Angel found out?
It made Buffy realize that
they had drifted apart in the last few months. Life had become almost
lackadaisical without any immediate threats to either city. Everyone was
wrapped in their own lives and their focus to the mission was no longer their
priority. Guilt filled her because she knew she was a big perpetrator of this
herself.
With Spike gone, she had
become morose about her life. Things had to change and her mind started to
immediately list the things she could do differently. It was the only way she
could handle things anymore. The emotional decisions of her youth had given way
to forceful actions that had to be held tightly bound.
“Hey, Mum,” Raven said,
putting her hand on her shoulder.
Startled Buffy looked up to
see her daughter holding out her cell phone. “What’s up?”
“It’s Dad for you. I got a
little confused when I saw your name on the caller ID,” Raven said with a
chuckle. “You two grab the wrong ones this morning?”
“No,” Buffy said, with a
smile. “Your father decided to go swimming with his in his pocket last night.
So, he’s borrowing mine.”
She took the phone from
Raven and made her way out into the hallway for some privacy. Once the door was
closed she brought the instrument to her ear.
“Spike?”
“Hello, pet. How’s the meet
coming along?”
“We haven’t even got to the
main event yet,” Buffy answered, sliding down the wall so that she was kneeling.
Her fingers absently twisted a loose curl. “I’m just tired of all this. I’d
much rather be home, playing with Joy on the beach.”
“Sounds good to me,” Spike’s
warm timbre caused a chill to run down her spine. “Especially if you’re in a
bikini and all oiled up.”
“Bad boy,” Buffy laughed.
“How about you in speedos?”
“Bloody hell,” Spike
scoffed. “You’re ruining my fantasy here. I’m not some poofy
ponce.”
“Yeah, but think of the
effect on me? I wouldn’t be able to stop drooling.”
“Still no on that,” Spike affirmed,
laughing. “You can have me in the nude anytime you want me though.”
The door opened and Giles
motioned for Buffy to return. She held her hand up and mouthed she would be
right in. Sighing, she returned to her phone conversation again.
“Hey, they need me back in
there,” Buffy reluctantly told Spike. “Did you need something or was this just
a hello call?”
“I was wondering if you were
staying the night or going back.”
There was so much loneliness
in his voice that it made Buffy hurt. Even if she had been planning on going
home that evening, she wouldn’t now.
“I’m staying. I have an
appointment at three then I’ll be back at the house.”
“Good,” Spike replied. The
relief that she was staying was evident even in that one word. “How about I stop
by a deli and pick up some stuff for dinner?”
“Sounds wonderful,” Buffy
said, standing back up. She smoothed down her black slacks, picking at a piece
of lint. “You know me, the no can cook woman. Don’t forget to get something for
Joy.”
“No problem. I love you and
I’ll see you in a bit.”
“I love you, too,” Buffy
said, then clicked off the phone. A thread of excitement ran through her at the
thought of a quiet evening at the beach house and Spike in her arms. Showing
her love for her husband was one of the things on the list she had made earlier
and she mentally checked it off as she made her way back to her seat.
~~~~~~
The effect of his words was
clearly evident on every member of the small group. Faith kept staring off into
space, Raven and Wesley wouldn’t even look at him and Gunn kept fidgeting.
Angel rubbed his furrowed brow as he accepted that the first step had been
taken. Hopefully, Gunn would think that Angel himself was as guilty as the rest
of them. It was the only way that everything would fall into place. Life
without Cordelia in it didn’t hold much hope for
happiness or meaning. He was ready to sacrifice himself to make an impact on
the powers that was taking his wife away from him.
“All right everyone,” Giles
said, standing to gain everyone’s undivided attention. “I think we need to
discuss the prophecy that was discovered by Tanja. Wesley, please, relay what
we have managed to translate so far.”
“Translate?” Buffy asked,
looking up sharply. “What language was it written in?”
“Tanja’s
native language of German,” Wesley said, “Which is rather fortunate considering
that Tanja barely spoke English at the time she saw the plaque.”
“It was on a plaque?” Raven
spoke up. “I thought you said it was in the cave where we were fighting.”
It was too coincidental. The
only two to speak up so far was Buffy and Raven. Their questions seemingly
aimed to cast doubt on the prophecy. The hairs on the back of Angel’s neck
stood up in suspicion. From beneath his lashes he looked from Buffy to Raven.
He let his demon slip nearly to the surface, using all of his strength not to
take the final step. Using his darker side’s senses he could sense their fear.
It oozed through the air in a thick flowing stream between the pair. He inhaled
it, letting it feed him, as he pondered what was up with them. Laying his head
back against his chair, he decided he could wager everything he had that Spike
didn’t know anything at all about it. It was a very interesting tidbit that he
tucked away for future dissection.
“Tanja said that she
remembers there was a part of the wall that seemed to be different from the
others,” Giles explained. “And there was a section that held the prophecy in
the middle. Almost like a plaque that was put there.”
“Were there gates?” Buffy
smiled.
Bingo,
Angel thought.
Buffy was overplaying her
hand. He leaned forward so that the Watcher’s view of her was almost blocked.
“It does seem to be a bit
fanciful,” Angel said. He hoped that his questioning the artifact would help to
cover the Slayer’s blunder before anyone else picked up on it. “No one else saw
this plaque or this prophecy. Are we sure that she isn’t just making this up?”
“No,” Wesley replied
forcefully. “It isn’t. If you would allow us to continue, we might actually be
able to tell you.”
Angel smiled, leaned back in
his chair, pressing his leg to Buffy’s. She looked over at him. Her eyes
widened briefly but he only nodded his head. Her fear rose between them. But he
turned away without relieving her worries. There was time later to find out
what was going on.
“Why don’t you just tell us
what this prophecy says?” Faith impatiently asked. “Get it out before any more
comments are made.”
“Thank you,” Giles said. “An
excellent idea, Wesley, please proceed.”
“All right,” Wesley said,
standing. He glanced briefly around the circle then looked down at his notes.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have all the prophecy, but we have enough to know it
coincides with information that is in an ancient text that was found in
The mood in the room
changed. Gunn suddenly was very interested in making notes on his legal pad.
His every movement belied his nervousness. And the three slayers all stiffened
as if preparing for battle. The information was something that Buffy and Raven
weren’t expecting. It was easy for Angel to deduce that whatever was going on
that they didn’t have the full story. They also didn’t look at each other
making him wonder if they even knew the other knew something. It was getting
more perplexing by the moment.
“What we have been able to
decipher from what Tanja remembers is this,” Wesley said. He paused to pick up
his notes. “Three hearts forged into one soul, two winged creatures, we’ve
don’t have the rest of that line or the next one, then it goes, Thrice tempted,
one convicted holds closed the gate by faith, One fallen and all is lost, then
there is a last line that we don’t have yet.”
“The line about the gate being
kept closed by faith,” Fred interjected. “Is that the gate that is in the pit?”
“The pit that isn’t there
anymore?” Faith questioned. “Because we blew that bitch sky high.”
“We’re not sure,” Giles said.
“If it was truly the gate into hell then it would still be there beneath the
rubble.”
“Uh, excuse me,” Buffy said,
waving her pen around. “Aren’t we living on the hellmouth, therefore doesn’t
that mean it’s a mouth that opens into hell so isn’t it a gate into hell?”
“Well, yes, technically,”
Giles said, with a wry smile. “But even if we closed the hellmouth in the fight
with the First, hell is still below Sunnydale. If the prophecy is talking about
opening this particular one…”
“Then it means we did
diddly-squat in the fight,” Buffy reiterated, with a sigh. “It can just be
opened again.”
“Something along those lines,”
Wesley said. “The
“A fight of the heart?”
Angel asked. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” Giles said
quietly. “The battle we could be facing can’t be won by weapons but by someone
making the right choices.”
“Oh, that’s just great,”
Faith complained. “We beat back the uglies only to find out that they could be
set free again because someone says yes when they should have said no.”
“Exactly,” Wesley said.
“So, until we can finish
translating both the prophecy and text,” Buffy said. “There isn’t really a
whole lot we can do.”
“I’d like to know what we
could do anyway,” Gunn said, breaking his silence for the first time that day.
“If it all depends on one person, then all of us getting ready to fight sure isn’t going to help matters.”
“What if this one person,”
Giles answered, “fails to do the right thing? It could unleash something worse
than what we faced in the battle with the First. Being prepared to fight is all
we can do.”
“Plus,” Wesley said. “If we
can find out who this one person is then maybe we can help influence them to do
the right thing.”
“So, it all goes back to
what I was saying before,” Angel interrupted. “We, ourselves, are falling into
the wrong choices. How could we ever hope to influence someone else to do the
right thing?”
“Because in the end,” Buffy
quietly said. “We are the right thing. We are the final force between hell and
earth and I believe when it comes down to the line, we would make the choices
on the side of good.”
It was then that Angel
realized that Buffy knew who the person was. She believed in this person enough
to try and interfere in the group finding out. He dismissed Spike from the
equation because Buffy had sent him away. If he was the one, then she would
have kept him close. His mind began to run through the people they knew who
might be important enough to make a difference. He glanced around the room, his
eyes settling on Raven. But then he shook his head. She wasn’t significant
enough. He pressed his fingers together as he continued around the room, but
couldn’t figure it out. He made a note to start paying more attention to who
Buffy seemed to be molding.
The group broke up soon
after that. Decisions and assignments had been handed out. But it wasn’t
anything that wasn’t expected. The Watchers would continue to research, the
notes of Tanja dreams would be given to the Watchers, Faith and Buffy to see if
they could detect something that would help, and the others were to keep their
eyes and ears open for any sign of trouble.
Deciding the present was as
good as any time to put his plan into motion, Angel walked toward Gunn who was
gathering his notes together.
“Hey,” Angel said, stopping
next to his friend. Gunn looked questioningly up at him. “I rode into town with
Buffy this morning. If you’re heading back to the office mind if I catch a ride
with you.”
“No, that’s fine,” Gunn
answered with a nod. “No problem at all.”
It was done.
~~~~~~~
Raven had barely paid
attention to Angel’s speech. It couldn’t have anything to do with her because
she hadn’t done anything. Well, at least not yet anyway. She doodled on her
notepad as the others were getting ready to leave. The small talk didn’t
interest her at all. Nothing seemed to be going right and for the first time
she had doubts about her father doing the right thing. If everyone around her
was screwing up, wasn’t the odds good that Spike would, too? It just didn’t
bode well at all. And it would fit into the way her life was going right now.
A conversation interrupted
her thoughts and without trying to appear conspicuous she listened a little
closer to Fred and Wesley.
“I’ll be back in the office
in a few hours,” Wesley said. “I need to stop at the Hyperion and drop off
these notes.”
Fred made some agreement,
kissed Wesley quickly before hurrying from the room. The woman always seemed to
be in top speed for something, Raven surmised as she quickly formulated a plan.
Standing, she made her way over to the Watcher.
“Wes, you’re going to the
Hyperion?” Raven coyly asked, trying to appear as if she didn’t feel well.
“Yes, I am,” Wesley
answered, even as he stuffed his notes and books into a briefcase.
“Would you mind giving me a ride
there?” Raven asked, sitting in the chair vacated by Fred. “I was supposed to
go with Mum this afternoon, but I’m not feeling too well and would rather go
and lie down until she’s done.”
“Are you ill?” Wesley asked,
in concern.
His caring made her feel
guilty but she pushed it away. It was a good sign, she told herself. He cared
and he wanted her. It was meant to be.
“I’ve got a bad headache,”
Raven softly said, rubbing her forehead. “Please?”
“Of course you can,” Wesley consented.
“Let me talk to Angel for a moment and then we’ll be on our way.”
Raven had to suppress the
excitement that welled up within her. She closed her eyes to hide the glow she
knew would be reflected in them and nodded in agreement. Now, all she had to do
was convince Buffy that she wasn’t feeling well and everything would be set in
motion.
Crossing her fingers as she
made her way to Buffy, she hoped that the legends of her ancestry were true. If
they were all she had to do was get Wesley alone, concentrate when she touched
him, and he wouldn’t be able to resist her. Sometimes being from Lankasha
wasn’t such a bad heritage after all, she decided.
to be continued…
