A/N Warning! This chapter was written while I watched a season three episode (I don't like season three that much, with the Angel presence and all…) Anyway, enjoy! evil smirk Gotta… kill… brooding… poof…
Chapter 8
Buffy stood in awe, watching the silver fountain. The sun shone through the trees and made the fountain glisten. She drew a shaky breath and walked towards it. 'Well… I guess it doesn't get much closer to liquid silver in golden light, than this… This is it, then…' She pulled up a tiny bottle from her pocket and filled it with the crystal clear water. She winced as she got some on her hand; it was as cold as ice.
She quickly dried her hand on her shirt and put the bottle containing the water in her pocket. She looked around the clearing. 'That's it? Huh. Thought it was going to be harder than this…'
She didn't see the pair of golden eyes, watching her from behind the trees.
"Giles! Giles!" Willow shook the sleeping Watcher.
Giles sat up in his bed, Willow had convinced him to go to sleep when he hadn't been able to sit still for more than five minutes.
"Willow," He reached for his glasses on the nightstand. "…calm down. Is there a problem?"
She simply nodded and held up a book for Giles to read. "Oh, dear lord."
Buffy suddenly felt cold. She looked up and saw that the first stars had begun to twinkle in the darkening sky. 'Well, I better get home…'
She looked at the glistening fountain a last time and turned to leave, when she felt a cold hand on her shoulder. She quickly turned around, but didn't see anyone.
Then she caught a glimpse of silver among the trees and started to walk towards it. She frowned as the silver slowly faded and jumped as a female whisper was heard in the night.
'It isn't your time yet.'
She frantically looked around, looking for the woman who had spoken to her. She shook of the feeling that something was wrong and took out another small bottle from her pocket. She opened it and began to pour the light green powder in a circle.
"Oh, dear lord."
"Yes, Giles, you've said that already!" Xander, who had walked in on a very nervous Willow and a muttering Giles, began to pace and Willow silently wondered why all the men she knew did that when they didn't know what to do. "Why haven't I been told this?"
Giles sighed and sat down on a chair. "We're terribly sorry, Xander…" Willow nodded in agreement. "We just didn't have time to… It just went so fast, and with Spike returning and all… He needed the antidote fast. But that's really not the…"
Xander interrupted her. "It's okay, Wills… It's just…"
He took a deep breath and sat down next to Giles. "I just can't help to feel jealous, you know…"
Willow looked at him with raised eyebrows. "I knew I didn't have a second chance with Anya, but… I still miss her, you know, and I can't help but to wonder what would have happened if she came back instead of Captain Peroxide… I lost a friend when I lost her…"
Willow smiled slightly and wiped at a stray tear on Xander's cheek.
"I know it never will be the same without Anya, but I know someone with the same humour and the same snarky remarks at the wrong time… I really think that he needs a friend."
"He?" Xander looked at Willow, who nodded and smiled, and he groaned. "I don't know, Will… It's Spike we're talking about here!"
"Well, doesn't everybody deserve a second chance? Buffy seemed to have given him that. Why can't you?"
"We'll see…" He rolled his eyes dramatically and turned to Giles, who had sat and watched the scene before him with an entertained smile.
"So, tell me about how we are going to get Buffy home?" Xander asked.
Giles' smile vanished and he shook his head. "No, that wasn't why we were upset when you walked in… She knows how to get home."
"Well… Why were you upset, then?"
"The antidote that Buffy went to get… It's just an antidote for demons, for humans it's… It's poison to us."
Dawn's shriek of horror woke Spike from his dark dreams, and he opened his eyes just in time to see Buffy emerge from a green swirl on the wall.
Buffy smiled as she saw which room she had come to. She had thought of getting home while she had stepped into the swirl, and she couldn't have gotten it more right. There they were, her family. Her ex-mystical key sister and her William. That sent sparks flying throughout her whole body; her William. She had been so stupid not to see the love that shone in his eyes.
"You're back…" He whispered and Dawn ran up to embrace her sister.
"Do you have the antidote?" Buffy nodded and showed the bottle to Dawn. "Wow, it almost looks like it's shining…" She reached out to take the bottle from Buffy and gasped as she touched her sisters hand.
"Oh, my god, Buffy… Your hand… It's ice-cold!"
A/N Kind of a cliffhanger, I know… But I'll post next chappie ASAP! Please, review… It's the only payment fanfic writers get.
If you found anything in this chapter that you didn't get, don't worry! It'll all be sorted out soon!