By Moadine
For the Disclaimer and Author's Notes, see the Prologue.
“Giles, take a look at this.” Dawn threw a pad of paper down on the coffee table in front of the Englishman. “I think I found a prophecy that seems to relate to Buffy.”
“Another one? My Lord. Your sister seems to be a magnet for prophecies.”
Dawn pointed to her notes impatiently. “Giles. Read.”
The former Watcher cleared his throat, fixed his spectacles on his nose, and began to translate, both from the archaic symbols she had copied and her own unintelligible scribblings, what she had written. “Let’s see here. Ah, here we are. To understand the now, one must understand the then.
“In the beginning, there were not one but four [Slayer’s?]. Two male, two female. Each was an Element’s child and each was destined to be the first [of their line]. Through parents’ blood, each knew the talents of their Element-parent. But three- air, fire and water- were seduced by the darkness and each chose to abandon the light. The [betrayers] were discovered; the three then became the first creatures of darkness to be slain by their remaining sister. As their dust settled, the Powers cursed them to live their lives many times ---------------- until they began to understand- at the very core of their being- the wrong that had been [committed].
After the fall of the largest [hellmouth], the three shall live separate but entwined, though it shall not remain so for long. The strength of the past cannot be escaped, even many [Slayers] have come and gone since the [Separation]. Each must face who they are and the darkness that lies inside; each must face the chasm twice and come out the better for it.” Giles began to look excited. “If the chasm means ‘death’, then this prophecy is almost certainly about Buffy and two others.”
Dawn groaned and impatiently repeated, “Read.”
He continued, “For the first to return, Air’s daughter, acceptance of who she is must be gained without knowing what she was. The second, the son of fire, will not know until after his second return from the chasm. The third, by far the most [jealous?] and stubborn of the three, is the one for whom Fate worries. Even if he does manage to both forget and learn, the sun shall not see his acceptance of the truth for many cycles.
“Should all three ascend over what they were, then the [Slayer?] lines that should have been will finally emerge and the vampire race will die out.
“Should even one fail, death will multiply itself, until Earth is home only to demons.” Giles took off his glasses and nervously wiped them before placing them back on his nose. “Oh dear.”
“’Oh dear’ is right. We don’t even know who the other two are yet.” The teenager started to fidget nervously.
“It would help if we could find out what talents they were talking about in the prophecy.”
Dawn’s face brightened up. “Ooh! I know that one! I already looked them up. Air has agility and speed; Fire has a, uh, ‘great strength of emotion’ and the ability to teleport from one place to another; Water has greater physical strength and the power to heal others.”
“Well, I was wrong. That knowledge didn’t help us narrow the list at all. I suppose, then, if there is a clue to be found in this prophecy, it is in this passage here: Each must face who they are and the darkness that lies inside; each must face the chasm twice and come out the better for it. That most likely means that each has to die twice and come back. But that doesn’t happen very often.” Giles sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know. I-I just don’t know.”
“What about Spike?” Dawn asked into the silence. “He was very passionate about loving Buffy and about protecting me. And, as a vampire, he’d already died once even before the battle in Sunnydale. Then…”
“He died a second time. He could be the one dealing with fire.” His face was brighter for a moment and then the frown returned. “But Dawn, he hasn’t come back.”
Now Dawn was getting excited again as she got more into her topic. “Maybe we need to help him. After all, Buffy needed help. Maybe we need to go to the crater and try to-”
“No!” Giles slammed the book closed again and stood, towering over Dawn. “You are never to participate in resurrection. Never! It was far too dangerous with Buffy and it will be even more so for Spike because he was a vampire and who knows what breed of evil we could unleash on the world if we tried to bring him back.”
Dawn’s face fell and Giles could tell she was near tears. “It’s all right, Dawn. I know you miss him and I know Buffy misses him, but resurrection is not the answer. Sometimes, you just have to accept things the way they are and move on with your life.”
Dawn sniffled and grabbed a Kleenex box from the coffee table. She wiped her nose, sniffled again, and asked, “So do we tell Buffy?”
“About this prophecy? Yes, I believe we should. Maybe she has ideas as to who the other two are.”
“But Spike…”
“Either he is the one dealing with fire and he has failed his test or he is not one of the three referred to in the prophecy. Either way, there is at least one other who we need to find and quickly.” He grabbed the papers off the table and hurried upstairs to Buffy’s room. Without waiting for an invitation, Dawn quietly matched him step for step.
The door was locked. Buffy’s bedroom door was locked. “Odd,” Giles muttered. Then, he knocked and asked, “Buffy? Can you open the door?”
No answer came. No footsteps could be heard moving across the floor. On the other side of her door only silence could be heard.
“Buffy?” he asked louder. “Can you hear me?”
Again, there was no answer.
“Dawn, stand back. I’m going to kick her door in.”
The teenager was about to protest when she saw the look on the man’s face. Then, she got out of the way.
Wood splintered and the lock screamed as the door shot inward. As he put a hand out to keep the door from bouncing back in their faces, the former Watcher waited until his eyes had adjusted somewhat, then let out another inquiry. “Buffy?”
The body on the bed gave no answer.
On to Chapter 7
Back to my stories