Meztli’s Bright Smile

The next morning walking into the Magic Box with Dawn and seeing everyone solemn my heart grew heavy again. Well, a full half hour of guilt-free thoughts must be a record. I thought. I had told Dawn this morning what had happened, and we were all here to try and put the last few pieces of the puzzle together.

“So did you figure out what it was we missed in that prophecy?” I asked Giles.

“Well, it seems that our hindsight is perfect as it usually is, and the prophecy was correct; making more sense now than it did before.” He said.

“Read it again to us Giles, let’s see if we can’t figure things out a bit more.” I said, sitting down opposite Xander and alongside Dawn.

“ ‘Two great forces shall come together both the Chosen One will dread
but should they convene, the Beast and the Queen, one will end up dead.
One will come with death on its heart and impossible to see,
not very kind with one thing on its mind among your midst will it be.
Older than time, nigh impossible to kill, this beast shows naught its true form,
but once in a while under Meztli’s bright smile it sets out to do harm.
If found and coaxed it will help but at a price one must pay,
it will take from you a Warrior true for the heart will have its say.’

The two forces must have been the feline beast Willie told us about and the vampire Mistress whom the minions called their queen, both of which you were apprehensive about Buffy.” I nodded my head and he continued: “The two met and battled and as the prophecy foretold one killed the other. The one that was among our midst that we did not see was Ana, but the next line does not make any sense…” he said, trailing off.

“Yeah, seeing as how she died I’d say this prophecy had a few things it needed to work on.” Xander said sarcastically. Giles merely cleaned his glasses.

“We are assuming that Ana was the beast, the one who was found and coaxed into helping us, but the bit about taking a warrior from us and the part about Meztli’s bright smile make no sense to me at all. I have been up all night trying to find out what that word means, where it comes from in the hopes of figuring out the rest of it, but I have come up empty handed. I just don’t know what it means.”

“It is a South American Native Indian word that means ‘moon’.” A voice said from behind us. We all turned around to see who had said that; Dawn screamed, Willow covered her mouth in disbelief, Xander and Giles merely stared agape, and I was too shocked to even move. Because standing there in the store was Ana and Spike, no blanket was around him smoking and she looked as if nothing had happened.

“Ana?” I asked in shock. She smiled.

“It is I Slayer.” She answered. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Giles disappear to the upper level of his shop and I heard him rummaging around in the stacks, minutes of silence filled the store before Giles made a sound of sorts and headed back down with a small and tattered book in hand.

“Yes, yes, here it is. It is a word used by the Aztecs and other native cultures such as theirs and it means moon. So the line in the prophecy has to do with the light of the moon?” he asked, looking at her.

“Yes, the full moon to be exact.” She responded, her hand was entwined with Spike’s; my Slayer senses were pricking at the back of my mind that something wasn’t the same… but I couldn’t place it.

“What are you?” Xander finally blurted out. “How are you still alive? I mean, I saw you… dead… and now… you’re not. How?”

“Y-yes I’d love to know myself.” Giles chimed in.

“My name among the natives is Ocelotl, or Jaguar; you might call me a werecat I guess.” The others looked at one another and Dawn chortled a bit.

“A werecat? Yeah, right.” She mumbled, I stepped on her foot. “Ow!” she hissed.

“Oh dear lord…” Giles uttered, looking at Ana with a mixture of fascination, terror and reverence. “Never in all my life did I think those old legends had any truth to them.”

I looked at him. “You mean you’ve heard of her before?” I asked.

“Well, not Ana per say, but many years ago when I was training to be a Watcher I remember reading a journal of one of the few Watchers who had traveled to South America, and in one the last few entries stated that the owner of the journal was going to go with a group of others to track down a werecat, but no one had ever actually seen one and when they never returned another group was sent after them, but they too never returned. It was assumed since bodies were never found that they merely perished from one of the many imminent dangers or diseases that run rampant in the jungles.” He said. “It was assumed that no such creature actually existed.” He said looking at me. “I guess we were wrong. I wonder if the others ever knew or found her.” He mumbled, mostly to himself, but Ana looked at him.

“They found me.” Giles’ eyes shot open in surprise. “They hunted me, set traps and tried to kill me. They hired bounty hunters and professional poachers as well, but none of them lived long enough to tell of me. I made sure of it.” She said, and we all understood the meaning behind her words. She may be a friend of sorts, but it was obvious she was just as wild, feral and deadly as any other jungle cat.

“So we know now that the line in the prophecy is about you, but what does it mean exactly?” Willow asked gently. “ ‘Older than time, impossible to kill…’, obviously you are because, well, here you are, not dead.”

She smiled at Willow. “My species and I have been on this earth since its creation, we are far older than any of the demons that now inhabit it. Over the eons my species were hunted and though we are given many lives, if empowered with the knowledge of how to kill us you can, and back then many people did. As time claimed the villages and ancient ruins, so did it claim our history, but by then I was all that was left. I was the wisest, the quickest to learn and the most vicious. I killed before anyone had the chance to kill me, which is why I am known to be almost impossible to kill.”

“Makes sense… in a way.’ Xander said. “So that’s it then? That’s the big mystery behind how you’re still alive?” She nodded her head with a smile at him. Just then there was a clatter from above on the bookshelf and we all turned out of habit, and when we turned back, Ana and Spike were gone, the front door shutting quietly on the daylight.

“Holy shit!” Xander exclaimed. “Where did they go? I mean, Spike and daytime don’t mix nicely if ya know what I mean.” We all did, and it was then that something clicked in my mind, the little nagging thought that had been pricking at me this whole time came rushing forward.

“Giles, read that last line of the prophecy again.”

He picked up the book and read it aloud:
“ 'If found and coaxed it will help but at a price one must pay, it will take from you a Warrior true for the heart will have its say.' ”

“That’s it!” I said smiling triumphantly.

“What’s it Buffy?” Dawn asked.

“Even though we didn’t know it, by befriending Ana we convinced her to help us when we most needed it, last night, but there was a price tag none of us could comprehend. She sacrificed one of her lives for not only us, but more specifically for Spike.” It was all so clear to me now, but looking around I saw the others hadn’t put the pieces of the riddle together just yet. I sighed exasperatedly. “She paid one price, and we had to pay one as well, she took a warrior from us just like the prophecy said she would, she took Spike because she loves him, and he loves her.” I said. Giles got it first.

“‘Because the heart will have its say’.”

“Exactly.”

“So she changed him, which would explain why he could come and go while the sun is out, he is just like she is.” He added and I nodded my head in agreement, looking back at the door they had walked through with a smile for my two friends. Good luck you two, may you guys be as happy as you deserve.
***********************