Champions All
by W/T4Eva
The Player
[reviews]
E-Mail
From: Willow
To: Dawn
Thanks for the Whitelighter information. If you find out anything more please let me know. I've now met a Whitelighter. He admits to being a sort of angel but he's not exactly my best friend at the moment so anything more I can find out might be a help.
I remember the business with the First Evil but as I recall only Buffy and Angel saw it so I know less than Buffy does. I should have asked the people I met about it but I didn't think of it at the time. I'm due to meet them again in a few days and I'll ask them then. They are powerful and good witches and they seem to have good contacts. The Whitelighter is married to one of them. Yes she married an Angel! It's not just Sunnydale people who are weird. I shouldn't be surprised I suppose because I am in San Francisco.
I have done solutions to each of the calculus questions and attach them with my explanatory notes included. I think people learn calculus so that they can teach other people calculus.
All my love to everybody
Willow
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Buffy watched her last 'customer' of the day leave and then sat back in her chair and sighed. All the kids in this school are crazy she thought. They don't think of me as a counsellor, they think I'm an agony aunt, or a lonely hearts club. If one more boy tries to hit on me I'll... I'll give him lines. "Don't hit on the counsellor."
At least none of the girls have hit on me she thought, or would I even know it if they had? I'll ask Willow what to... She suddenly remembered why she couldn't ask Willow. I hope she's all right.
Dawn's doing her best as research girl Buffy thought but I miss Willow and I'd like to know what Giles is doing and why he doesn't return my calls. I'll give it a couple of days and then see if I can contact Wesley in L.A. she decided.
Principal Wood walked into the office. "You've been busy since you got here," he said. "But you're doing a good job. Getting them to do most of the talking, that's always a good thing."
It is? At least I'm doing something right she thought. I let them do most of the talking because I usually can't think of much to say.
"I'd like you to go full time from next week," continued the principal. "For some reason things seem to be building up at the moment. I think what you're doing is helping to keep a lid on things."
"Does this mean..." began Buffy.
"More money?" finished Wood. "Yes, of course. I've got the details here." The principal handed over an envelope. Buffy opened and read the letter which detailed a substantial rise in the Summers' income.
"I accept," she said quickly.
"Good," said Wood. He turned away but suddenly turned back. "If anybody gives you any idea about what's causing things to heat up lately let me know."
"What do you mean by 'heat up'? " asked Buffy.
The principal explained that since the school had opened there had been a high level of truancy and violence and several students had simply disappeared. Although he was aware of Sunnydale's poor record in all these areas what was happening seemed excessive even for Sunnydale.
"If I discover anything I'll let you know," advised Buffy, mentally adding to herself, if I discover anything you'd believe. She didn't think talking about the First Evil was quite what the principal had in mind.
"Would you mind if I spent part of each day walking about the school and the grounds to get the feel of what might be going on?" Buffy asked.
"Sort of patrol the place you mean," asked Wood.
Exactly like patrolling thought Buffy. "If you like," she replied.
"OK, but be careful," said Wood. "You're a counsellor, not a security guard."
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Anya walked around the wreck of the Magic Box. She kicked idly at pieces of debris as she did so. I was really building something here she thought. I had plans, in five years I would have expanded to LA, San Francisco even the east coast.
Anya had the insurance money and she had her savings and investments. She knew she could have the Magic Box up and running again if she wanted to without even using her demon powers for 'personal gain'. She was amused by the thought. Isn't that what demon powers are for, she thought, personal gain?
How can I be a capitalist retailer and a vengeance demon at the same time she wondered? Maybe someday if everything works out she thought. All this waiting. I was sure D'Hoffryn would have moved before now.
The door of the shop opened and Anya looked up. It wasn't D'Hoffryn and anyway he wouldn't use the door. It was Amy Madison. Anya had agreed to meet Amy at the shop. Amy wanted to buy the Magic Box and get it up and running again.
"Hi Anya," said Amy. "What's your decision? Have we got a deal?"
"Well I'd like to haggle but the price is fair so I won't, but I don't want to sell," said Anya. "Sometime I'll get this place up and running again myself." Anya spotted a small shiny object in the debris and crouched down to pick it up. It was a lucky charm. Very cheap, and not very effective but Anya pocketed it anyway on the basis she couldn't have too much good luck.
"But you know if you don't get the work started soon the place will be condemned," said Amy. "It's now or never."
"So it's condemned," said Anya. "When I'm ready I'll get it un-condemned, or I'll buy a new place."
"If you can," said Amy. "If you don't do a deal with me I'll start up somewhere nearby. As well as losing your customers you probably won't get permission to start another magic shop in this zone or even in this town."
"Are you threatening me?" asked Anya ominously glaring at Amy.
"Me, threaten a vengeance demon, do you think I'm mad? Of course I'm not threatening you." said Amy. "I'm trying to do a deal with you. I'm not your enemy Anya, or is it Anyanka? If I was your enemy I'd just open a magic shop without even talking to you and let you deal with the problems later if you ever tried to reopen this place. Anyway you're a capitalist. You should like competition."
"Nobody likes competition," grumbled Anya. "Let's talk."
Anya explained that Giles owned half of the Magic Box so she couldn't do a deal for his half. Giles was in England and she wasn't in contact with him at the moment. Anyway she wanted to keep part ownership herself. A deal was struck whereby Amy bought half of Anya's share of the shop. They reached agreement about repair and restocking of the shop. Amy would take over the running of the shop with Anya joining her if she ever retired from being a vengeance demon.
"Do you really think you might?" asked Amy.
"Might what?" replied Anya.
"Retire from being a vengeance demon. Can you do that?" asked Amy doubtfully.
Anya shrugged. "Who knows, you retired from being a rat. Anything's possible."
Amy gave Anya a dirty look but she said nothing more. It was agreed that Amy would make the arrangements to get the shop restored. Amy turned to leave but turned back as Anya spoke to her. "Ask Xander to put in a quotation for the work. He knows the way the shop used to be and he won't overcharge us. Just don't tell him I said that."
Amy smiled and nodded. "OK, your secret is safe with me," she said. "You can carry on pretending to hate him." Amy then left. Anya teleported away.
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It was late at night and Faith was sat in her cell thinking. Something was happening, something big. She knew those dreams she'd had of girls being murdered had been slayer dreams but she'd assumed that was Buffy's business. Buffy 'The Perfect Vampire Slayer' Summers would take care of it like she always did. Now she wasn't so sure.
Faith knew that the knife Deb had used to try to kill her was the same as that used by the rather odd people who had killed the girls in her dreams. Suddenly she realised who those girls must be. Potential slayers! They had that look about them. Faith remembered it from her time as a potential. She'd met a few other potentials during her early training.
Somebody was killing potential slayers and was now going after the slayers as well. That meant that Buffy was in the firing line too. Faith resisted a sudden urge to go to the nearest phone to ring Buffy. She'd have had the same dreams she thought. She'll know more about what's going on than I do and she hasn't called me.
What to do? Faith quickly realised that she couldn't stay put. She was a sitting duck in prison. These people, creatures... whatever, had a long reach. Some of those girls were killed in other countries. They had plenty of people, probably plenty of money too so they could try again and almost certainly would.
But if the enemy, whoever it was, knew so much about slayers it would expect Deb to fail. Nobody who knew anything about slayers would expect Deb to even scratch a slayer. Deb had a big reputation in the prison but in slayer terms she was helpless.
Was this a warning, or did somebody want to spook her? Spook her right out of the prison. If she left would she be doing just what the bad guys wanted? Huh she thought bad guys. I suppose everybody except Angel still thinks I'm one of the bad guys.
Let's not do too much thinking here Faith decided or I'll never leave this bunk. I'll still be sat here the next time they come after me. If somebody wants me out they'll keep sending people until I leave or they get lucky. I'm better off playing my own game she decided. So where to go?
Faith realised she had three choices. One was to try to disappear. The whosits probably had mystical backup. They didn't seem to have any trouble tracking down potentials all over the world and they were meant to be well hidden. If I go somewhere I think is safe it won't be long before somebody comes knocking on my door she thought.
If I leave here I become a player, not a pawn she decided. I'm going after them. I'm going to stop them killing potentials and take them down. I'm going to be The Slayer again. Not the other slayer, not the back up, the reserve, the 'spare'. I'm The Slayer, The Chosen One she thought. They're worried about me. I'm going to give them a lot more to worry about.
Second choice was to go straight to Sunnydale and tell Buffy and her friends she was now one of the good guys and only wanted to help. Everybody would welcome her with open arms and they'd fight the good fight together. Yeah right.
Faith decided to adopt her third choice and look up Angel in LA. She knew about the hotel where he and his gang now hung out. With the rain of fire and permanent dark the TV had reported in LA over the past few days Angel might be glad to see her.
Cordy wouldn't be too happy and nor would Wesley but she didn't have to worry about fighting them. If she went to Sunnydale she could be faced with another knife in the guts from Buffy and a magical whammy from Willow before she opened her mouth. Angel would know what was going on and she could then decide whether to move on to Sunnydale with perhaps some sort of good conduct pass from Angel.
Having made up her mind Faith moved immediately. It was dark and her cellmate was asleep. Everybody was locked down and would be for the next few hours. She went to the window and bent the bars aside. She went through the bars and straightened them from the outside whilst crouching on the sill. Faith had long since worked out her route out of prison, several routes in fact.
As Faith left the window sill by leaping upwards she didn't see her cellmate Maxine jump out of bed and run over to the window. Maxine tried to look upwards but the bars prevented her from seeing anything. She tested the bars but found them as rock solid as always.
"Damn girl, how did you do that?" she muttered. Maxine had known that Faith was odd and special in various ways but this completely astonished her. "And why didn't you do it before?" Maxine went back to her bunk and lay down, already relishing the reaction of the guards in the morning when they discovered that Faith had vanished into thin air.
Meanwhile Faith had leapt up from the cell to the roof in three easy moves, going from window to window, floor by floor. Once on the roof she went to the other side and dropped down into the empty yard. She ran quickly through the shadows around the edge of the yard making sure to avoid the CCTV cameras. After working her way to the perimeter wall she took it in a single leap and disappeared into the darkness outside.
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"She'll be here soon," said Paige. "We can't put her off again. We've got to give her an answer. Anyway you know I'm going to LA tomorrow to check out what's going on there. We've got to get this done today. You all know what I think we should do." I think I might help Willow even if the others don't, she thought.
"I don't understand why you still think we should say no," said Phoebe to Leo. "We know what she wants us to do. We know she's not hiding anything. We can do the spell to bring Tara here for a few hours and then that's it." Phoebe had changed her mind after the question and answer session with Willow. Willow was really hurting and she didn't feel she could say no when it would be so simple to do what she asked.
Phoebe still worried about Leo. More and more she felt that he was following an agenda that he had not revealed to them. He had bosses and orders to follow. She wondered just what those orders were.
"We know Willow still wants to bring Tara back," said Leo. "She hasn't given up on that. If you do what she wants you'll just he encouraging her down a path that could lead back to dark magic. Willow is a very powerful witch. The consequences would be horrific. They very nearly were last time."
"What she really wants is to be with Tara. That might mean bringing her back but it might mean joining her where she is now," said Piper.
"You mean she might kill herself?" said Paige horrified. "I didn't pick up on anything like that when we questioned her."
"Willow won't kill herself because she thinks Tara's in heaven but she doesn't think she'll join her there," said Phoebe. "She may be right." Phoebe looked at Leo who just shrugged.
"Willow doesn't know what she's going to do," said Piper. "She wants to speak to Tara first and then take it from there. She thinks they're soul mates and everything will work out if only they could meet again."
"Exactly," said Leo. "Willow doesn't know what she'll do but it's pretty obvious she'll do anything to be with Tara again. Anything! She brought somebody back from the dead before. She's capable of just about anything. We mustn't help her in this. As I said the consequences could be horrific and not just for her but for you and many other people."
"What do you mean she brought somebody back from the dead before?" asked Phoebe suspiciously. "You've never said anything about that. What else are you not telling us? What have you been ordered not to tell us?"
All three sisters looked at Leo waiting for an explanation. "You know I have to follow the orders of the elders," he said. "They don't want you to help Willow. It's much too dangerous."
"And this previous resurrection?" asked Piper. "What's that all about?"
Leo explained what he knew about Willow bringing back the Slayer. How she had been able to do so because the Slayer had been killed through mystical means. She had not been able to reverse Tara's non-mystical death in the same way.
"No wonder she's so determined," said Paige. "She must think anything's possible after bringing her friend back from the dead." Paige began thinking, wasn't Prue killed by a demon? Didn't that count as mystical means? She decided to have a quiet talk with Willow sometime soon when the current business was all sorted out. She looked up to see Phoebe looking at her and realised she was not the only sister with the same thought.
"So what do we do?" asked Phoebe. "We know what the elders want but we know they're not infallible. They've got it wrong before. We've got to make up our own minds."
"I'll tell you what I think," said Piper. "It seems to me the biggest risk we face is having Willow go back to the dark magicks." Everybody nodded. "But she doesn't need our help to do that. She came to us for help and we can help her without anybody using dark magic. If we don't help her she may think she has no alternative but going back to dark magic."
"From what Leo says Tara was always a good witch and a good influence on Willow," said Paige. "Letting her talk to Willow is probably the best way we have of making sure Willow doesn't go dark again."
"I think you're making a big mistake," said Leo. "Willow used dark magic to kill. She's quite capable of using it again."
"From what you said she killed the murderer while suffering from the shock of seeing her lover dying in her arms," said Paige. "No jury would convict under those circumstances. She'd have a valid defense of temporary insanity."
"Nevertheless she killed using dark magic," protested Leo.
"It seems the elders are less forgiving than human law," said Phoebe. "I seem to remember you once told us that when a witch went dark there was no going back. Well I went back and Willow has gone back. She's not evil. This business of once an evil witch always an evil witch looks to be a complete myth."
The front doorbell sounded. Willow had made her third nervous arrival at the Halliwell mansion. Before going down to fetch Willow up to the attic Piper confirmed with her sisters that they were all determined to help Willow despite what Leo and the elders said.