Dark Moon: Pt One - Waxing Moon

“From the death of the Slayer shall rise another, as has the cycle been since the time of the Slayer began. But the Slayer who has once passed, and has risen again shall meet with her replacement, and from that, one shall fall and another will be called.”

“Ok, that’s already happened,” Buffy interrupted Giles as he read aloud, “I died, I came back, Kendra was called, Kendra came to Sunnydale, we met, and Drusilla killed her. End of story.”

“Yes,” replied Giles, “But is this referring to you and Kendra, or to you and Faith? Or perhaps this is referring to someone else all together.”

“How can you tell?” asked Willow, with a puzzled look on her face.

“That’s the problem with prophecies... they tend to be rather vague.”

“Of course they are,” replied Buffy, “The more vague they are, the less likely they are to be wrong.”

“Obviously, there’s a lot more,” said Giles, the frustration evident in his voice. He continued to read.

“Two Slayers, one under the guidance of Artemis, the other under the guise of Hekate, together shall meet and together shall walk into the darkness as the old moon dies and the new moon is born. The beast they hold sacred shall meet them, and lead them to their destiny; to Erinyes Vrekolakas. Two Slayers shall walk forth into Tartarus to face the chyldren of Kxynthaion; only one shall walk out. One Slayer will welcome death with open arms, and find solace in its cold comfort. From the ashes of Erinyes Vrekolakas, one Chyld of Kxynthaion shall rise above the others, and a Legacy of Vampyres shall be born once again.”

“That was a lot more than I think I ever wanted to know,” Buffy said with a sigh.

“So now what, Giles?” Willow asked.

“Ya,” echoed Xander, “What are we going to do now that you’ve made the Watchers aware that Faith is alive and well?”

“I’ve made a huge error, and I’ll have to fix it,” Giles picked up the telephone, dialled a number, and spent several minutes speaking softly into the receiver.

Out of Buffy, Willow and Xander, Xander was the only one with enough nerve to actually lean forward in his chair and try to make out what Giles was saying. The words were too low in both pitch and volume, and all efforts were in vain.

“It’s actually quite amazing,” said Xander, giving up his efforts completely, “For all of their living in the Dark Ages, the Watchers do know how to use telephones.”

“Do you think that they’re all like Giles?” asked Willow.

“We all met Wesley,” Xander replied.

Buffy was silent, lost in her own thoughts. Giles then slammed down the phone, rudely knocking her from her reverie, and making both Willow and Xander jump in surprise.

“Well, there’s simply no being reasonable with that group,” Giles said stiffly, “We’ll have to move fast. Buffy, I need you to get the following books: Bacchae, by Euripides; The Ancient Festivals of Attica, by J. Camus; Hellenion; and that big blue book on the top shelf. Xander, get my weapons out of the trunk in my bedroom, and put them in a duffel bag. Willow, it’s almost sunrise. Set the computer to print out two copies of the rest of the material on those disks, and then get Oz as soon as possible. Get him to bring his van.”

“What’s going on?” asked Willow, a hint of fear creeping into her voice.

“They’re coming to get Faith. And they intend to take her back to London for various inhumane treatments.”

“You mean, like shock therapy?” asked Buffy.

“Among others,” Giles replied, “There’s no time to waste. We’ve got to get ready as soon as possible.”

Buffy jumped up and started grabbing the requested books off of the shelf. Xander ran from the room and could be heard thumping up the stairs on his way to Giles’ bedroom. Willow finished clicking on the computer, so that the printer came to life once again. Giles picked up the telephone once again, dialled a number, quietly spoke a few soft phrases into the receiver, then hung up again.

Xander returned from upstairs with a large black duffel bag stuffed with a cross-bow, bolts, stakes, a couple of daggers, and various other medieval weapons that Xander couldn’t name.

“I hate to bring this up now,” Xander said, “But will there be a chance for me to grab some more suitable clothing before we go to where ever we’re going?”

“Go with Willow, and grab a couple of days worth of clothes,” Giles told him, then added, “You too, Willow, and make sure Oz packs some clothes too.”

Both Xander and Willow ran from the room, and started their brief journey over to their own homes, and then Oz’s.

“Where are we going?” asked Buffy, as she piled the four books on Giles’ desk.

“Believe it or not, we’re not going very far. But we have to disappear- all of us, until Faith is strong enough to fight. We don’t have very long until Erinyes Vrekolakas.”

“How long, exactly?” asked Buffy.

“Only until the new moon,” he told her, “We have two weeks to ensure that Faith is strong enough to fight with you. We’ll need Ciorstaidh’s help. Do you know where we can find her?”

“She took me to her apartment. She might be there.”

“Tell your mom you have to leave for a few days. Grab some clothes, then try to find Ciorstaidh. Meet me back here as soon as possible.”

“Will do,” Buffy replied, as she grabbed her coat and left the house.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

It didn’t take long for both Xander and Willow to stop at their respective homes, grab clothes (and in Xander’s case, change clothes completely), and leave their parents short notes. By the time they arrived at Oz’s house, it was little after five o’clock in the morning, the first hint of daylight was beginning to creep above the horizon.

“Do you think he’s changed back yet?” asked Xander as Willow used her key to unlock Oz’s back door.

“I hope so, or we’ll have to wait until he does. I don’t want to have to tranquillise him if we have to take his van. I can’t drive it; it’s standard transmission.”

“I’m going to wait in the van,” Xander told her as he remembered Oz’s distinct lack of clothes during his previous episodes of lycanthropy, “Just yell really loud if you need help.”

“Ok,” Willow shrugged as she opened the door, “We shouldn’t be too long.”

Willow quietly descended down the stairs into the basement, where Oz was shackled in the cage that Oz and his dad had built. Ever since Oz had discovered his lycanthropy, he had felt the urge to keep it under wraps. But with the urging of his Aunt Maureen and Uncle Ken, he finally revealed the situation to his parents. Oz had been quite amazed when his parents simply smiled, and offered to build him his cage for the period where he was in the primal state. Which, he had told Willow, either meant that they had expected it all along, or were simply humouring him because they were so deeply in denial.

Oz paced back and forth in his small confines, still in wolf form. He snarled when he saw Willow, then paused sniffed at her scent, his nostrils flaring.

“Hey sweetie,” she said soothingly, “The moon’s setting; it’s time for you to change back.

His eyes, though wild, were very enticing. Willow sat down on the floor a few feet from the cage, and waited. He stared at her, then laid down on the floor, and closed his eyes. Within a few minutes, he had returned to his human form, and Willow opened the cage and handed him his clothes, which he had left outside the cage prior to his transformation. He blinked at her as he regained his human consciousness, and began getting dressed.

“I didn’t expect to see you here this early,” he told her.

“We kinda have a major emergency happening at Slayer Central,” she replied, then moved towards him and kissed him softly on his lips. When they parted, she said, “We need to go underground for a few days.”

“Let’s roll, then.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Buffy kissed her sleeping mother on her forehead, left her a note on the night table, and slung her bag over her shoulder as she left. Along with a few changes of clothes were her typical Slayer gear: a few stakes, a bottle of Holy water, a Crucifix, and a silver dagger than Giles had given her after graduation.

From her house, she began the trek over to the apartment that Ciorstaidh had been occupying. She found the door unlocked, and the suite empty. A quick search revealed a diary sitting on the bedside table, which was more than half-filled with writing, and contained several photographs; some which were obviously quite old, others which were more recent and appeared to have been taken in Greece. Further searching turned up a very old looking book bound in cracked leather. Buffy grabbed it as well, then scrawled a hasty note, which she left on the night table where the diary previously was.

“I stopped by because we need your help with the new info you gave us. Giles is doing the best he can. Borrowed a couple of books; hope you don’t mind. We’ll be back in a few days, maybe you can find us in the meantime. Sorry I missed you. ~B.”

From there, she ran back to Giles’ place, where Xander, Willow and Oz had just arrived with the van. Giles was carrying Faith, who was still unconscious, into the back of the van, where he settled her into a make-shift bed.

“She’s going to be really pissed when she wakes up,” Xander told him.

“Only if she realises she was drugged,” Giles replied, “And if no one tells her, then she won’t know. And no one will get hurt.” Giles gave Xander a long, hard look.

Xander raised his hands in defence, and backed up slowly. “Right,” he said, “If she fell asleep, it was because she couldn’t handle the liqueur...”

“Buffy, did you find Ciorstaidh?” Giles asked her as soon as she got close enough to speak without shouting.

“No, but I found these,” she replied, handing him the two books.

“I’ll look at them later. We have to go, now.”

“Where are we going?” Buffy demanded, not liking that she had so little control of the situation.

“Underground.”

“No, really. Where are we going?”

Giles looked at her sharply, then said, “We’re going into what remains of the Master’s Lair.”