White Knight's War
How We Came To This ~ Part Two
Author :~ pixel
Rated: R mostly, but maybe some NC-17 later ~ depends how it goes
Ship: xander/graham/oc
Disclaimer: I own nothing, claim nothing, they all still belong to Joss et al
and I’m just borrowing for a while.
Authors Notes 1: Ok this is probably going to have slash, bad language,
character death and buffy bashing ~ so if you don’t like ~ don’t read. I
don’t have a beta so all mistakes are mine ~ if you point them out I’ll
try to fix them. There’s an explanation etc in prologue.
Authors Notes 2: Please make an author happy and review and I promise
it’ll make me write quicker.
Authors Notes 3: I know this has taken awhile but I had to keep reworking
it ~ I just can’t get Kennedy to sound right, I’m still not happy with this
chap but I’m posting it anyway so I can get on with the story as I’ve already
got the next few chaps written. So apologies and hope you enjoy it a bit.
Authors Notes 4: for the purposes of this chapter everything in italics is
a flashback/memory
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How We Came To This ~ Part 2
Kennedy refused to meet anyone’s eyes and her voice was tired and
strained as she began to speak, “After Sunnydale we travelled for a
bit, just living, Willow was free for the first time in years and the spell
she’d used to activate the Slayers had removed the last of the taint
from her magic. We killed demons if we happened across them, but
we didn’t go looking for trouble. We were enjoying a vacation, just
getting to know each other without all the Slayer and apocalypse
stuff getting in the way.” Kennedy’s eyes closed for a second as
she remembered those carefree months.
She’d fallen hard for Willow and as they’d spent more time alone
together they’d forged a connection deeper than either woman had
expected. She’d taken Willow home to meet her parents and watched
as her oh so powerful lover became a babbling wreck once she
realised how wealthy Kennedy’s family really were. Willow had
panicked and worried that she wasn’t good enough or that they
wouldn’t like her, finally Kennedy had resorted to calling Xander who’d
been able to talk Willow down enough that she stopped wanting to run
away. It would have been easy for Kennedy to be jealous of the
connection between the two old friends and the easy way Xander had
of making Willow listen, but she knew that they loved each other as
family and that she was the one who held Willow’s heart. When
she’d finally met Kennedy’s parents they’d welcomed her with open
arms, they realised that this quiet, charming young woman had a
great deal to do with the remarkable changes in their daughter.
Kennedy had left a wild and reckless young woman who’d had a
knack for attracting trouble; now she seemed much more stable,
relaxed and settled. The only dark spot in that time had been Amy,
they’d found the former Sunnydale resident living on the streets; a
broken and battered remnant of the woman they’d last seen. The
young Wicca had finally come to understand how wrong she’d been
in Sunnydale and had fallen apart. Her father had been unable to
cope with another witch in the family and wanted nothing to do with
her; so she was homeless and, out of guilt, she had blocked off
her magic. Kennedy had still been angry about the spell Amy had
set on Willow in Sunnydale, which had almost destroyed their
relationship before it began, but Willow felt Amy deserved another
chance. They’d sent her to England and the coven which had helped
Willow to recover after her magical breakdown.
“After a few months we knew it was time to get back to work so we
called Giles and asked what the Council had for us. At first he
wanted Willow to teach at the headquarters but neither of us wanted
that. Then the coven detected a nascent Hellmouth in Rio, it was
just in the process of forming, so it wasn’t as dangerous as the one
in Cleveland. Giles and the coven thought that maybe if we went
there we could stop it from developing further. They had a
theory that Hellmouths immediately start attracting demons to
them because they require demonic energy and the blood from the
demons’ victims in order to grow. So if Willow used her magic to
mask the signal from the Hellmouth and I kept the demon
population down we could literally starve the Hellmouth and stop it
from growing big enough to be a problem.”
It had been a magical time, they’d found a hacienda near the
ocean and,with Kennedy’s trust fund, had been able to buy it and fit
it out in style. Kennedy and the two trainee Slayers, who’d
accompanied them, were easily able to control the local nightlife and
Willow had spent time studying with local witches and shamans,
learning new forms of magic. It had been lazy days wandering the
local markets and exploring the city that had quickly become their
home and nights filled with love and laughter. Dancing at the
clubs, participating at one of the many local fiestas, patrolling the
back alleys and keeping their city safe. Nights of making love with
the first woman who’d ever truly touched her heart. They’d been
happy, content even, then in a heartbeat, everything had changed.
“We’d heard rumours about some deaths in a nearby village,
savage murders, where the bodies had been ripped apart.
We assumed it was a demon, even though Willow hadn’t been
able to identify or locate a demon in the area, we just thought
it was some breed that could mask itself from magic. We
spent several days tracking it up into the hills, when we finally
saw it……….it looked like a young girl; but we still thought it
was a demon, we’d seen creatures that had human forms before
and some that could shapeshift. We just never considered
anything else. It…no, she, attacked the minute she saw us,
she was wild, feral even, yelling about wanting our blood, about
killing us; then she saw Willow and it was like she just stopped,
froze, then she screamed.” Kennedy grimaced as she
remembered that inhuman sound. “She went all out then,
grabbed a knife from her belt and flew at Willow. I went after
her, I didn’t understand what had happened, Willow was just
standing there; she didn’t even try to defend herself. I got
there just in time, I had to kill her to stop her from gutting
Willow; even then I didn’t get it. Willow was practically
catatonic and I had to guide her back to the village. I was
terrified; I thought the demon had done something to her.
When we arrived she asked to speak to the village elders
and the village shaman. She asked them about the girl,
wanted to know who she was.”
As the elders had begun to speak Kennedy had finally
realised what had spooked Willow so badly. They’d been
told about a young girl, Alena, who had been a normal
fourteen year old until one night, a few months earlier,
she’d woken up screaming about demons. Alena had never
been the same after that night; she’d become stronger
than anyone the elders had ever seen and she’d abused
that strength. First just by bullying the other children, then
she’d moved onto the adults. Taking whatever she wanted,
hurting anybody that got in her way. The first people she’d
killed had been her parents, after that she’d seemed to
crave death, killing on a whim then disappearing for
days at a time.
The week that followed had been agony for Kennedy. She’d
had to deal with the fact that she’d killed a person, not
just another demon but a sister Slayer. It haunted her; she
wondered could that have happened to her? If the power
had been thrust into her without warning, if she hadn’t been
found by the council, if she hadn’t been in Sunnydale, if
she hadn’t known the truth about what she’d become, would
the spoilt brat she used to be have abused the gifts in the
same way as Alena? Without Willow, would she have become
a monster too?
Willow was even worse, she withdrew into her mind; she
blamed herself for every death Alena had caused. She’d
cast the spell that gave the girl her powers and she felt
responsible for the murders Alena had committed. She
believed the blood was on her hands. Eventually Kennedy
had put aside her own grief to concentrate on helping her
lover. She managed to persuade Willow to return to their
home and once there had started trying to reach the
heartbroken woman. At first it had been so hard, she’d had
to practically force Willow to eat and sleep; and the Wicca
wouldn’t talk at all and absolutely refused to use magic.
Kennedy had left the defence of the city to the two new
Slayers that Xander had just sent from Africa and focused
all her energies on Willow. When nothing else seemed to
work she’d tried to contact the Scoobies, figuring they’d be
able to reach Willow, pull her back from the edge. Giles and
Buffy didn’t return her calls; and nobody she talked to had
any idea where to find Xander.
As a last resort she contacted the coven and help came in
the unexpected form of Amy. The young Wicca had changed
since Willow and Kennedy had last seen her; she’d come to
terms with her past and become a full member of the
coven. The traumatised and broken child they’d sent to
England had returned a calm and self-controlled woman.
She spent hours talking to Willow, gradually drawing the
red head out of her guilt and grief and back into the light. It
had seemed that everything was going to be fine; then
Andrew had shown up.
“He said he’d been sent by Giles, that he had important
business to discuss with Willow. She was so fragile still and
I tried so hard to keep him away from her; but one night,
when I had to help the others with a large vampire nest
they’d found, he ambushed her. He had these files on a
bunch of girls he said were Slayers that the Council hadn’t
found in time. Slayers who didn’t know what they were,
where their new abilities came from, Slayers who’d abused
their gifts. He forced her to look at photograph after
photograph of dead and mutilated bodies; people who’d
supposedly been murdered by these rogue Slayers, he
told her that she was responsible so she had to help
stop them before anyone else died. By the time I got
back Willow was un-consolable and Amy was about two
seconds away from turning the little shit into a rat. I was
going to beat the crap out of the bastard, but only
managed to get in a couple of punches before Willow
stopped me, at least I managed to break his nose and
crack a few of his ribs. I just wanted him to leave ‘cos
Willow was hurting so much and she’d only just started
to recover from what had happened with Alena. Then he
started talking again, he said that he’d been with Buffy
in Rome and that she’d discovered a spell that would
find all the Slayers in the world and then bind them
together so that none of them would ever be able to
misuse their powers; but that it would require great
power to cast the spell and that it could only be done
if Willow went to Rome and helped them.
I wanted to know more, I mean it all seemed so
convenient, first Alena, then Andrew and his lousy files,
then this spell and everyone we could ask about it was
suddenly unavailable. I wanted to wait until I could go
with her or at least until we managed to speak to Giles
but Willow refused to wait. She grabbed at the idea of
this spell she hadn’t even seen, she just wanted badly
for it to work because she felt so guilty about the
deaths; and before I could stop her she was
booking her plane ticket.” Kennedy stopped for a
second and her hand moved up to her neck, she
pulled a necklace from underneath her shirt and started
to caress the broken crystal that hung from the slender
chain. Seeing everyone else looking at the object she
was holding, she explained. “It’s a heartstone, Willow
and I got them on our first anniversary. Two matching
crystals, she put a spell of binding on them, a few
drops of our blood on each stone to bind our life forces
together. She said it was like a mystical marriage
without all the fuss and bother of a wedding.”
As Kennedy broke off the listeners could all see the
pain and grief etched on her face as she forced herself
to continue her story, “She left the next day, she was
so sure that Buffy had found the answer, that this spell
would fix everything. I begged her to wait but she just
wanted to get on with it, wanted all the pain and
guilt to stop.”
Driving them to the airport, both so nervous, it
would be the first time they’d been apart since
they’d admitted how they felt about each other back
in Sunnydale. She’d amused herself en route by
explaining, in graphic detail, all the things she’d do
to Andrew if he said or did anything to upset Willow
in any way. The Wicca had barely noticed, she’d
been so wrapped up in her hopes for the spell and
already had begun focusing on what she’d need to
do in Rome. Standing at the gate, her arms tight
around Willow’s waist, staring into pain filled green
eyes, trying to show how much she loved Willow,
needed her. Kissing her goodbye, the passion
flaring between them as it always did, wishing
they’d had at least one more night together
before this separation. Standing, watching as
her heart walked away.
The first few days she called all the time, she was
so excited about the spell, so sure it would fix
everything. She said she didn’t like the Immortal
much, that he didn’t feel right to her; but Buffy trusted
him and that was enough for Willow, she stopped
trusting her own judgement after everything that had
happened. Then the calls stopped, and when I finally
managed to get a hold of Buffy, she said I couldn’t
talk to Willow ‘cos she was on some kind of mystical
retreat preparing for the ritual.
Two nights later I woke up screaming, there was a
pain in my chest and my throat, like nothing I’d
ever experienced before. Then I felt her, Willow.
She just..... appeared in the room, hanging in the
air at the end of the bed. She looked like she did
in Sunnydale, when she did the spell to awaken
the potentials, her eyes and skin were glowing
and her hair was white. She was incorporeal and I
could see on her face she was in a lot of pain; she
had a huge wound in her throat, like a chunk had
been torn out of it, and she was covered in blood.
She told me she loved me; that she was sorry,
that she should have listened to me. She said
we’d be in danger if we stayed in Rio. She said
we’d have to leave and made me promise not to
trust Buffy. I remember hearing Amy come into
the room, but I couldn’t see her because I didn’t
dare tear my eyes away from Willow in case she
vanished as quickly as she’d appeared. She told
Amy she was sorry; that she had no choice, that
Amy should prepare herself. Then she did
something, we’re still not exactly sure how, but
suddenly Amy was floating right in front of her and
I could literally see Willow forcing power into Amy’s
body, it looked like it was causing them both so
much pain but Willow wouldn’t stop. When she
finished Amy was unconscious and when Willow
released her hold Amy just collapsed to the
floor. I could see Willow was much weaker; she
was fading, less substantial than she’d been.
She came closer to me; she told me she loved
me again, wanted me to promise to be strong
for her, not to give up. She sort of leaned into
me and I swear I felt her lips touch mine. Then
she was just gone, vanished, a second later I
felt my heartstone crack and break. When I
looked down it had broken completely in two
and the two halves were bleeding along the
broken edges. The pain in my throat and
chest just stopped, that’s when I knew Willow
was gone, that she was dead.”
As Kennedy could no longer hold back her tears
and was in no fit state to keep going; Amy took
up the story from there. “I came to a couple of
hours later. Kennedy was curled up on the bed
crying, she was completely unresponsive and I
was pretty much panicking. Willow,” the Wicca
paused and took a deep breath, “Willow used
her last moments, her last strength, to try and
protect us all. She dumped all of her personal
power, and the extra power she’d gathered for
the ritual, into me, along with her memories
of everything that had happened in Rome
and what she’d sensed once the ritual had
started. Trouble was, by itself the power
was too much, no human body was meant to
contain that much and I didn’t have the first
clue how to control it. I also knew we didn’t
have time for me to figure out how to get
control. I knew we had to leave, Willow made
sure she drilled into me that the Buffy and the
Immortal would be sending people after us.
They needed the power Willow had gifted me to
perform their ritual and they needed to make
sure we never had the chance to tell anyone
what they were really up to. They couldn’t afford
to let us live. I managed to get the other
Slayers to help me with Kennedy and we stole a
car and just hit the road. I managed to get a
little control over the magic and was able to
keep us warded so we couldn’t be tracked.
At first we were just heading away, but we
needed a plan so we headed for the USA,
I figured at least there we’d be on home ground
and that Kennedy and I would have people we
could call on for help. We found out later that our
house was attacked not long after we left,
levelled to the ground by dark magic.
As soon as we got over the border we found a
hotel and, once I set up the wards around
the building, I was free to try and get some kind
of control of the power Willow had given me and to
try and sort through her memories for any
information that could help us. Unfortunately the
second I opened my mind I collapsed again, my
brain just couldn’t cope with all the power and
images at once. That was enough to reach
Kennedy, it brought her out of herself, she
watched over me and looked after me for the
three days I was out cold. Like I said I wasn’t
meant to have this power so I had to change,
physically and mentally, so I’d be able to contain
it. When I came to I had better control of the
magic and access to all of Willow’s memories.
I knew that we had to get to Cleveland, that we’d
find the help we needed there.”
tbc