Heroes and Lovers
by als
Chapter 4 — Answers
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The late afternoon was quickly fading into twilight by the time Willow had regained her composure enough to try and continue.
"When I..." She began to speak, only to be interrupted by Buffy.
"Willow, you don't have to do this now. We want to know what happened, but we can wait until you're ready to tell us." Buffy's voice was gentle and supportive as she spoke.
Willow took a deep breath and looked around at her friends, her family, opening herself to what they were feeling. A warm, comforting strength filled her as she felt the love and support radiating from them. She could also feel a deep concern from Giles, he was worried for her, for what all of this meant. She looked at him and smiled reassuringly.
"Buffy, I need to tell you, all of you, what happened." Willow kept her voice calm and even. "When I woke up in that crypt, I was already dead. But the Powers that Be offered me a way to come back to you all. A way that didn't involve me turning all 'grr' and fangy or having to do the whole blood-drinking thing." She looked around, making eye contact with each of her friends in turn, basking in their unwavering love.
'Now for the harder part,' Willow thought as she took another deep breath.
"But I am different now." She swallowed, fighting the nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach as she felt the tension creeping back into the room. She could sense Giles' concern deepening into worry and fear. She turned to face him. "For one thing, when I open myself up to it, I can feel emotions from the people around me. I can draw strength from positive emotions and sort of feed on that energy."
'So far so good.' Willow looked back to Buffy now and closed herself off from the others again. She knew this next part was going to be unpleasant, and couldn't bear to feel it.
"In fact, I need to feed on that energy. If I go too long without, I'll grow weak and could even die." She quickly looked at the floor. Even without using her new empathic powers, Willow could feel the shock and dismay from her friends. "The energy I feed on that way, it won't hurt anyone. For someone to even feel it I would have to be alone with them and I'd have to draw out a tremendous amount of power. And even then, all they'd feel from it is a sort of emotional exhaustion."
Willow looked around at her friends again. The expression on Giles' face was guarded and cautious, but Willow had expected that. Xander looked troubled by what she had said and unsure of how to react. Finally, she turned to Buffy, dreading what she might see on her best friend's face. To her surprise, Buffy looked thoughtful rather then upset.
It was Buffy who spoke first. "Willow, could you show us what it's like when you," she grimaced, just slightly at the next word, "feed?"
'Boy, the surprises just keep coming,' Willow thought wryly, but before she could respond Giles spoke up.
"I think that," he broke of for a moment, as though uncertain and Willow braced for the worst, "ah, I think that would be an excellent idea." He smiled slightly at Willow. "It would certainly allay many of my concerns about what've you told us."
"Are you sure?" Willow couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice, "I mean, I can try, but I can only feed on positive energies, things like love, happiness, euphoria. You guys would have to try and project those kinds of feelings, which might be hard...right now."
"Then feed from just me Will," came Xander's voice. He shrugged and grinned slightly as Willow stared at him surprised. "Will, you've been my best friend for ever. I can't look at you and not feel good things."
Willow felt the tears welling up in her eyes again, only this time they were happy tears. "Thank you Xander." She stood up and walked over to stand next to Xander. "It's easier to feed from just one person if I'm touching them, but in groups, the energy naturally circulates between people, so I don't need to touch anyone to draw it in."
She smiled and looked down at Xander as she reached out and gently laid her hand on his cheek. She noticed her hand glow with a faint blue light as she opened herself to his emotions. The connection was instantaneous and powerful. Willow gasped slightly at the strength of his love for her. Warm strength flooded through her, revitalizing her mind and body. After only a moment she pulled her hand away and severed the connection.
"Wow," she said staggering back a step. "Oh, head rush..." The room began to spin, and she closed her eyes, certain that she was going to fall, but suddenly the slender, strong arms of the Slayer were around her, supporting her and guiding her gently back to the couch.
The energy she'd absorbed was incredible, it left her body feeling energized. Her skin was tingling all over and her senses were electrified, magnifying every sensation. After a couple of deep breaths, Willow realized that the Slayer's arms were still around her. The feeling of Buffy holding her was incredible. She closed her eyes again, savoring the moment.
"Xander, are you alright?" She heard Giles say, though there was a definite tone of amusement in his voice. Glancing over at Xander, she saw that the exchange had left him wide-eyed, slack-jawed and at a distinct loss for words.
After a moment he finally spoke, "God Will, if we could bottle that sensation, we could all get rich quick." He took a deep breath, "That was the most incredible thing I've ever felt."
"Yes, er, well, right. And Willow, how are you feeling?" Willow didn't need to open her eyes to know that Giles was cleaning his glasses as he spoke.
"I'm good," despite her best efforts to sound calm, her voice was downright giddy. "It was just really intense...probably because we've been such close friends for so long and because he was concentrating on how he felt about me. Normally, it wouldn't be quite so intense."
"Ah, yes, I see. And you were able to draw all the energy you needed?"
"Way more then enough, actually," Willow couldn't help but smile, "I'm completely overcharged right now. I can feel the energy tingling all through me. It's downright distracting. Lucky for me the excess will fade pretty quickly, otherwise I'd have to go find a way to burn it off."
"What do you mean burn it off?" Buffy asked.
"Well, this isn't the only thing that Powers changed about me. I can use the energy from feeding to do stuff."
It was Xander who piped up this time, "What kind of stuff?"
"Well, physical stuff for one thing...I could channel it to make myself stronger and faster like Buffy. Or I can use it to move things, or to do magic...kinda. But the more energy I use, the more often I have to feed to replenish it."
"Wow, you're practically a regular old superhero now Will." Buffy teased gently.
"I dunno about superhero...I'd settle for just being a better sidekick for the Slayer."
Buffy hugged her tightly, "Nope, no sidekicks here...a good partner maybe...but way too important to be a sidekick." Willow felt the heat rising in her face as she blushed brightly.
* * * * *
'This is the most amazing feeling,' Buffy thought happily. She'd been sitting with her arms around Willow, just holding her, since she'd shown them how she fed. Neither of them had moved to break the contact yet. She could feel the energy flowing through Willow and it gave her goose-bumps. Willow felt so powerfully alive, that She couldn't help but feel it too. And it felt wonderful.
She looked down at Willow, entranced by the content look on her face. Holding her felt right, like it was meant to be. She realized Willow was looking up at her, smiling gently. 'She's just so beautiful,' Buffy thought as she leaned toward her. Willow raised up slightly, as if to meet her halfway. 'Oh God, I think I'm about to kiss her...'
"So, ah," Giles spoke, startling them both, and the moment slipped away, "is there anything else we should know about? Anything that you need to avoid or weaknesses that we should help you guard against?" Buffy frowned; deeply annoyed that another opportunity had slipped past her. However, she couldn't help but grin as she saw the equally annoyed look on Willow's face. And there was that tone again, Giles was holding something back.
"Oh, well I'm still human in most regards," the giddiness finally began to ebb from Willow's voice. "I can still be hurt, or killed, like anyone else. Only, as long as I feed when I need to, I'll heal really fast." Buffy felt Willow shift slightly in her arms, as though she were uncomfortable with what she was saying, "With steady access to the energy I need, I should be able to recover quickly from anything that doesn't, you know, kill me."
Buffy glanced at Giles, trying to understand what he was thinking about. He looked away immediately, avoiding her eyes. 'Okay then,' she thought, annoyed at her Watcher's actions.
"Ok Giles, so what's the what?" Buffy's voice was sharp and reproving, "You're holding something back and it's starting to annoy me. Don't make me have to go all Faith on you."
"Yeah G-man, cause I'm gonna have to say cranky Slayer? Not so much with the fun to be around." Xander joked, but a quick glance showed Buffy that his face was very serious.
Giles sighed, "Willow, you must understand that we need to know more about you, about your abilities and limitations. Without that information, we could conceivably put both of you in great peril."
Buffy opened her mouth and began to say something but Willow spoke first. "Buffy," she said quietly. Buffy closed her mouth and looked down at the reclining redhead to see her gently shake her head.
"Giles," Willow went on, her voice calm and sincere, "I can appreciate your concerns. I don't want to put Buffy or anyone else in any danger if I can help it. So if there are things you need to know, ask them, and I'll answer as best I can."
Buffy looked over to observe Giles' reaction. She couldn't help but grin at his obvious surprise over how reasonable Willow was being.
"Ah well, then. You mentioned that you could make yourself stronger and faster?"
"Well, yeah, but only for a short while at a time. A few minutes, probably..." Willow sounded a bit uncertain, "Renewing that kind of power continuously would drain my energies really quickly. Also, it really wouldn't do a lot of good, since I'm not exactly much of a fighter."
"I hadn't actually thought about that, Will." Buffy admitted surprised, "Do you think you could train her? If she's going to help, I'd feel better if she could defend herself a little better."
"Yes, well of course, I'd be happy to help." Giles smiled a bit at that, "And, Willow, I believe you said something about being able to use your power to work magic?"
"Well, kinda, but not exactly." Buffy felt Willow shift slightly again, as though she were having a difficult time finding the words she wanted, "I can focus my power to change things, the way that magic does, only without so much of the spells and incantations part of it. It's more an act of focusing my will on what I want to happen, and then fueling it with my energy. And of course, the bigger the effect, the more power it consumes."
"So you're saying that you can pretty much do almost anything?" said Xander, clearly bothered by the implications.
"Oh God no. My powers are fairly limited...I can just do little things. Move objects or maybe set a vampire on fire...stuff like that."
"Ah, yes, well that's still quite useful...your powers should most certainly be of great use in helping Buffy." Giles sounded completely taken aback by Willow's gifts. "You might not even need to learn to fight..."
"No." Willow asserted, "I do need to learn to fight." She shifted to look directly at Giles, without leaving Buffy's embrace. "Right now, I don't know how quickly I might burn up my energy. If I don't learn to fight, then if my power got used up, I'd be defenseless and that would put us both at risk." Willow paused, swallowing before she continued. "With time and practice, I'll be able to do more, have finer control of how much of my power I use, and even be able to gather more energy then I can now, but that stuff's not gonna happen over night. So it's a good idea for me to learn more...conventional ways of fighting too."
Buffy smiled at Willow. 'That's my Willow,' she thought happily, 'always thinking of the big picture.'
"I should train with you too," Buffy said firmly, "If we're going to be fighting together then we should get familiar with each other."
"Well, yes, that's quite a good idea Buffy," Giles couldn't have looked more like a proud father if he'd tried, "Excellent really, we can, ah, well, we can start tomorrow."
"Ooo, and we can go to the Bronze after, 'cause I think I can feed there without bothering anybody," Willow said happily. "You want to come to the Bronze with us tomorrow Xander?"
Buffy shot a quick glance at Xander, hoping he would have other plans, only to find him grinning happily.
"Hmm, go to the Bronze with my two very beautiful best-friends or sit at home all night in the musty basement?" he said with mock consideration, "Well, just count me in for some Bronzy goodness tomorrow evening."