Happy Development
by Whedonist
Coca Cola...?
[reviews]
A/N: So I've been an absent writer...yes bad me, but in my defense, I went on holiday the last half of the year and was forbidden to write...okay so lame excuse, but eh, i tried...? Also, wanted to thank "G": apprently I don't give enough *hugs* to my beta... =0( sorry G, I'll do better promise...So thank you and thank you again for doing a wonderful job kicking my ass when it is necessary. *HUGS*
Chapter 16 — Coca Cola...?
The pop that echoed on the bridge when Willow stretched her neck muscles was the best indicator that she had been sitting looking at the computer or whatever River had called it way too long. Her back ached and she was sure that when she got up there would be a permanent imprint on the seat suspiciously shaped like her butt. Her eyes were dry and burning from the hours spent on Serenity this morning. The witch looked at the two empty coffee cups and the plate that held the crumbs of four doughnuts and decided that it was time for a serious break.
Emerging from the hangar, her eyes protested the bright afternoon sun and she winced at the pain. Willow took her time getting to the back of the house stretching her unused muscles and allowed the feeling to come back to her extremities. As she rounded the corner, she found the person she was looking for. Inara sat back in the grass; her arms stretched behind her holding up her weight. The witch sat down next to her friend and sent an amused glance towards the objects of the other woman's entertainment.
"How long have they been torturing your people?" asked Willow.
"A few hours now. I'm not clear as to why Buffy insisted they train, but, well, look at them." Inara waved a hand at the group before her.
Willow shifted her focus to the 17 girls and 2 men before her. Faith, Buffy, and Tami weaved in and out of 8 pairs of sparring partners. From what could be seen, they had chosen to focus on the quarter staff and the sounds of clacking and grunting filled the afternoon air. She focused on Buffy as the blonde watched Jayne and Carrie go at it. The pink haired slayer swept Jayne's feet from beneath him and then stopped the tip of the staff an inch from hitting his face.
Buffy barked, "Enough!" She helped Jayne to his feet and requested Carrie's staff. "Jayne, you really need to pay attention to her body."
"Gorram it woman!" Jayne brushed some of the debris from his body as he glared at the two slayers before him. "T'ain't right. I know how to fight."
"No. You know how to watch a weapon and use brute force to get what you want. That's not fighting that's brawling. Big difference." Buffy took a fighting stance and waited on Jayne to ready himself.
As he picked up his staff, Buffy spun her weapon and said, "You're watching the weapon. Stop." Buffy shifted her weight to her left leg and kicked out with her right connecting with the man's stomach. He barely deflected the follow up blow from the staff as she chided, "You need to pay the most attention to my body." She allowed him a moment to recover and then caught his glare. "Look at what parts of me are moving. The staff is a tool and nothing more. My legs are more dangerous than this." She parried his attack and then reigned down a series of blows most of which he deflected until the last few sent him once again to the grass.
The rest of the group had stopped and watched Jayne get his ass handed to him until Buffy turned to face the crowd. "Alright. Is everyone ready for lunch?" The chorus of yes's was mainly from the slayers. Breaking up, Tami offered to make lunch with the help of a few of the slayers present.
Mal, Jayne, Zo', River, Buffy and Faith all came to sit down by the women lounging in the grass. While Buffy was pretty confident that everyone knew the change of her relationship status, she kept touching to a minimum as she sat down next to her witch.
"So Willow what have you figured out?" Mal asked sitting beside Inara.
"Hmm, well, sitting for that long causes the achies other than that just a few key points. I need more time." Willow fidgeted with the grass and looked at Buffy.
"We'll figure it out. Promise." Buffy tried for a reassuring smile.
"And if we don't?" Jayne spoke up.
"I..." Willow stopped at a loss for words. This had been going through her mind for some time and unfortunately she hadn't been able to come up with anything.
"Jayne, we'll handle that if it comes to it." Mal's tone held an edge that caused the other man to back down.
"It's really not that bad. I just don't...you can't just..." The redhead struggled for the words to the ideas her mind had been mulling over. Just as she opened her mouth to clarify her non-sentences, she noticed Xander walking towards the group wearing his worried face. She nudged Buffy with her shoulder and nodded towards their friend.
Buffy looked up, "What's up Xand?"
As he reached the group, he said, "Buff, uh Giles called. Seems there are some...Ya know he used all of his British speak and you should probably talk to him. You too Wills."
"Ok," Buffy stood and offered her hand to Willow. "Let's see what Watcher Prime wants."
Willow took the hand and excused herself and Buffy from the group. They followed Xander to the room he had set up for communications.
Xander established the connection with Cleveland and a moment later, Giles' harried voice came through, "Hello?"
"Giles, it's me. I've got Xand and Wills. What's got your tweed in knots?" Buffy asked.
"Oh, right, hello you three. How is New Mexico? I trust everything went well?"
"Everything's good so far." Willow offered.
"Giles, we're good, everyone's good. What's going on?" The annoyance in Buffy's voice clear.
"Yes, quite right. Xander shall I continue from the point of being hung up on?" The tone of the watcher's question heavy with sarcasm.
"Sure thing, boss man." Xander wiggled his eyebrows at his two friends.
"First order of business. Xander after you hung up on me, I took the liberty of securing passage back to Cleveland for the three of you. Before any of you interrupt, allow me a moment to explain. It seems we were all a bit too hasty in regards to those demons a few weeks back. Some of the information I have needs a more thorough look at, but I feel that it's enough to warrant being concerned over and bring, for the time being, the three of you back. Willow, I have Kimmie sending the documentation for your travel via e-mail. I trust you will take care of the rest?"
"Sure thing Giles." Willow agreed.
"Uh?" Buffy asked the shock clear in her features. "You were all with the gung-ho about getting us out here. Time travelers needing to get back, we had a meeting."
"Buffy I assure you that this is taking precedent over them, but I, the demons I feel are tied to our guests' arrival." Giles said.
"Those Coca Loka thingies? We slayed, they stopped trying to end the world. Not seeing the tie in."
"Coca Loka? Buffy, what are you, oh, never mind, yes that's right the Lekakolo demons." Buffy smiled as she heard the all too familiar sounds of Giles' kerchief against the lenses of his glasses. Not being able to help herself, she said, "Giles we should look into getting you contacts. Of course it wouldn't leave you with things to do when you're all frustrated at me."
Sending the slayer a chastising glare, Willow shook her head and asked, "So we got what wrong and Buffy's not the only one seeing the connection that's not Giles."
"It would appear that there seems to be, I had initially thought these demons weren't actually found in this dimension, but then prior to our last session together, I found an account of the ritual they were trying to perform. So naturally I had dismissed my earlier musings of them not being from here and went ahead with the second theory of them wanting to end the world."
"Sounds like the norm, G-man." Xander's face reflected deep confusion.
"Well, I was right on both accounts. It seems that they are trying to end the world. It's what this type of demon lives for really. They go from place to place to cause an apocalypse, but I was also right on my account of them not being from this dimension."
"Giles, not seeing the big. You wanna talk in circles more so I can get it. Blonde remember?"
"My word Buffy, you're supposed to gain patience as you get older not lose it." Giles snapped. "What I'm saying is that as I furthered my research, I fear that their appearance here in this dimension is tied to the appearance of our friends from the future."
Willow leaned forward on the table the three of them were seated around and let her mind click the new pieces of the puzzle in. "Giles, you don't think that's why they landed here do you? 'Cuz then that falls under the mystical heading and makes everything more complicated and then you add on the fact that we've killed two of these demons and we've already done so much and do you know how long I've been brushing up on my physics?"
Buffy placed a hand on Willow's arm as her agitation grew and squeezed. "Giles you broke Willow and I'm still not seeing the problem. So what, they're appearances are tied together? They still need to get back to their own time and it's not like the Coca Cola things are gonna offer us any help."
Willow turned to Buffy seeing where the slayer was going and said, "Sweetie, let's just go back to Cleveland." Turning away from Buffy, the witch faced the phone, "Giles, you're not saying everything. We'll go over everything in detail when we get back."
"Quite right. It would be easiest to do this when everyone is present."
"Giles, fine with the travel arrangements, but what about Faith?" Buffy asked.
"I would like to leave her in New Mexico with our friends for now. She's been with them since they arrived and she seems to get along well enough."
"Alright. Wills, what do we need to do." Buffy asked turning to her witch.
"Uhm, let me find out when the flight is for, but going to pack wouldn't be a bad. Giles, we gotta get stuff together. See you in a bit." Willow waited for Giles to say his goodbyes and then disconnected. "Alright, Xand, you wanna let everyone know that we are leaving. Buff go pack. I'm gonna get together the travel stuff."
Xander nodded and left the two girls alone. Buffy waited until the door shut then turned to Willow, "Is this bad?"
"Uh, no, I don't really know. We'll work it out." She smiled at her lover and then turned back to the laptop she had booted up.
"'Kay. I'm gonna make with the packing. See you in a few." She kissed the top of Willow's head and left the witch to the computer.
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"Hmm...morning you." Buffy cooed as she tried to stretch her limbs while still wrapped around Willow.
"Morning." Willow shot a glance over at her bedside clock and groaned. "Up, we need to get there."
"Wills, it's only," Buffy let her eyes follow the same path her lover's had a moment ago and they bulged, "Okay, so it's way late. Right. Up." She rolled off to the right and bounced up from the mattress. Turning back to the bed, she smiled, "We still have time for a shower?" Wiggling her eyebrows got a laugh and a nod from the witch.
"If we hurry. No funny hands lady." Willow warned while following the blonde into the bathroom.
The shower was quick and they made it to the conference room after swinging by the kitchen to grab a quick breakfast. Buffy entered the room balancing three doughnuts and her and Willow's coffee. The redhead was behind her juggling three books and her laptop. Both stopped short inside the door as they took in the sight of the room. The room held an oblong conference table, big enough to seat 12 people along with the space at the front for a flat screen and a projector screen so that Xander could torture everyone with PowerPoint, but today the usually bare table was stacked with books and several laptops, the hum of their fans the only thing audible in the room. Giles was hunched over two texts, Xander was lazily reading one large book with his feet propped up on the table and doughnut in hand, Vi was the only one who looked up to acknowledge their entrance.
"Hi Buffy, Hi Willow." Vi smiled.
"Hi Vi, how goes it?" Buffy asked setting their breakfast down.
"Uhm, yeah, Giles?" Vi waited a moment for him to respond; when none came she spoke louder, "MR. GILES?"
"Wh-what, oh, good morning you two." He grinned up at his old charges and sat back from the table, "Glad you finally made it." He looked over his glasses at Buffy and then Willow.
"Hey, we're only..." The blonde looked down at her wrist and noticed the absence of a watch, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're late. It's not a new. What's up with the research?"
"Trying to get a jump on the latest bad or the old bad that's now newer" Xander said dropping his feet from the table. He shoved the rest of the doughnut in his mouth and let his eyes scan his two friends locking on the doughnuts Buffy sat on the table. "You gonna eat those?"
The slayer shot Xander a glare, "Yes, hands off the sugar."
"Right, not to come between a slayer and her sustenance." Xander backed away from the general area slowly.
Plopping down in a chair, Willow offloaded her things and snagged her coffee. "So researchy goodness so early in the morning. We should talk Giles. What have you found out?"
Giles stretched and then removed his glasses before starting in, "Right, first order of business. While you lot were away I did some further digging, what I found led me to a civilization in what would be considered modern day Mongolia. Now records are of course, sketchy at best, but from what I could gather, this select breed of demons made an appearance some 12,500 year ago. When they appeared, there are accounts of a group of peoples showing up in the same area. The tribes had convened and from what I could dig through seemed to think that the two were related." Giles had stood during his account of the past few days and replaced his glasses as he continued.
"Now, prior to calling Xander, I had discovered an account that reads more like a creation myth from some of the ancient Inuit tribes. This particular band of peoples migrated south and eventually became the ancestors to the Indians and South American Peoples.
"Ahem..." Willow cleared her throat and glared at Giles.
"What?" Giles looked over his glasses at the redhead.
"Indians? Giles, they are not called Indians anymore. Native American if you please. They are the indigenous people of this land."
Rolling his eyes, Giles continued, "Pardon me, they became the ancestors to nearly all of the Native American peoples." The watcher raised an eyebrow in Willow's direction.
"As much fun as this little exchange is bringing flashbacks to the small pox having, syphilis infested disaster that was Thanksgiving Day 1999. Can we uh, ya know, continue" Xander said.
"As I was saying, these particular band of peoples had been able to record, or as it were pass down, a story of their ancestors. It is told that the group of people that appeared around the same time as our demons were fair skinned, with more than half of their members with white hair and light eyes. It continues to go on with a tail of a curse on their ancestors. Their travel to the new land was marked by the appearance of beasts that decimated the land and neighboring tribes. In order to avoid the death of innocents the group migrated north across a land bridge, to what I assume to be modern day Alaska.
The tribe along with another group migrated north then east and settled for a time. Here they were able to set up a village and maintain some order. The elders there would talk of their "home land." Now, during their accounts, the "outsiders" described a place that seemed far too technologically advanced for that time. Warmer climate for instance along with better mobility and they also discussed and showed the people a way to make better weaponry than just spears. This is neatly documented, but again the source of the information was "debunked" due to the improbability that people in that time were not as evolutionarily advanced. Of course, given light to this information..." Giles looked at the bored faces of his family and sighed, "Am I boring you?"
"More like killing us...but same diff." Buffy smirked at her watcher, "So let's play the Buffy's short attention span game: what's the bottom line, before I go back to sleep." The smile she shot to Giles took the sting from her words.
"You really have managed to take the joy out of this you know?" Giles stood from his chair and began pacing, "From what I have gathered, it was fortunate that there are accounts of a slayer being in that area that managed to dispatch the demons. What I would like, Willow, is to see if you can find anything more than I have. Verification that the two appearances were linked by more than the passage I have found." He waited on Willow to nod and then continued, "Now why we are researching. We need to find out why the two are linked and if they are linked how we can send them back, both of them."