Dawn, Clark, etc
Dawn was still sobbing as the bus of Sunnydale people pulled up outside the tournament hall. Clark and Spike had their arms wrapped around her, just trying to keep her sane. Everyone was just trying to be there for here. They had decided to move out front right after Dawn's outburst. They didn't want to disrupt the tournament, and Dawn needed to be away from people at that moment. It was bad enough to find out about your sister's death when you're away from home, but like this? And after all she had been though? Everyone was expecting her to lose it, and she had. When Dawn had slowed her crying for a bit, Spike pulled Clark aside.
"I'm really worried about her, mate. The last time Buffy died, when she jumped into the portal? Dawn went into a sort of shell. She closed herself off, wouldn't speak to anyone for nearly a week. She blamed herself, too. Just be there for her, Clark, or you'll really regret it. Imagine losing your mom, and then your sister, and then getting her back only to lose somebody else. And now she's lost her again? This isn't right." Clark nodded.
"She's experience more pain in the last 2 years than mosdt people do in their entire lifetime. I won't leave her, I promise you that." With that, Clark pulled a quietly weeping Dawn back into his arms and there they waited until the bus pulled up. By then, the cats had joined them, as well as Mouse and some of the Hansons. The Alvarezes were also there, for moral support. Faith was there, trying to cheer up Amanda. She knew exactly what Amanda was going through, that feeling that you're connected to all the strength and power in the world, but also the knowledge that somebody had to die for you to get there. Several empaths had come up to them, and had made an effort to relieve some of Dawn's pain.
Finally, the bus pulled up. One by one, everybody got off. As Willow got off the bus, Dawn ran up to the white-haired sorceress and grabbed her.
"Bring her back to me! I know you can, you have to bring her back again!" The sadness filling her face, Willow pulled Dawn into a hug.
"I want to, baby, but I can't, you know I can't. It wouldn't be fair to Buffy, we need to let her rest at last. She's with your mom now, just let them be, okay? Buffy, Joyce, Tara, they're all together now, watching over us. Besides, even if it wouldn't hurt her, Osiris would never allow it. Not again." Through her tears, Dawn looked up at Willow's face, and finally notived how beautiful the new goddess had become.
"I--I know, I just want her back. It's not fair. Everbody I love always leaves. Won't anybody stay? PLease, God, I just want somebody to stay!" That's when Clark picked up her hand again.
"I'm staying," he said. "I promise you this, Dawn, even if they put me in prison behind Kryptonite bars, I will NEVER leave you." Sniffling, Dawn smiled at him.
"I know. Now, I think we should go somewhere, 'cause I need to know. I need to know everything."
Mouse and Bastet's children
Mouse shied away from looking at Willow directly. Too much. She was just...wow. And pain, there was so much pain. Radiating from the entire party. She backed away slowly, tears running down her face as her empathic ability made her feel their anguish. She noticed a very pregnant black cat making her way over to the group. Mouse picked the cat up, carefully making sure not to hurt her or the babies. Priss, Nyx and Sabre were concentrating on the people they knew from Sunnydale.
The cat looked at her with golden, glowing eyes. Hello, child. Mouse's eyes went wide. Eep. My kittens be busy for now, but I would like to see my new sister...well, that be the easiest term for her. The cat chuckled slightly as Mouse made her way back to the group.
"OK, weirded much." Priss turned at Mouse's comments, and her face lit up.
"Mother! Nyx, Sabre!" The cats broke from the group and surronded Mouse. "Mother, we were not expecting you."
Well, obviously. There's no sacrifices for a start. Mouse felt the cat's wry amusement
"How ye been, mam?"
I been fine, Sabre dear. Now, let me see the new addition to the goddess ranks. Mouse stepped forward so that the cat could see Willow. "It's been so long...so long since someone has managed to join us. Welcome, dear." Mouse felt Bastet take control of her vocal chords in order to speak to those who could not hear her thoughts.
"Mother..." Priss warned.
"What, Priss? She be fine, and I will not leave her without reward. Now then. What is your name, dear?" Mouse's eyes tracked over from Priss to Willow.
"Willow." Her eyes were wide.
"Obviously a nature goddess. Well, I'll leave you to mourn the Slayer. Osiris also wished me to tell you that the rift you caused the first time you brought her back has been resolved. He also warns you not to do it again." Bastet licked at Mouse's neck. "I'll be seeing you again, dearie. Fare thee well." The cat disappeared and Mouse dropped to her knees.
"Very odd indeed." Mouse rubbed her temples ash she got to her feet again. "Cats, explain."
"She needed to talk. You obviously fit the bill." Nyx shrugged. Priss had turned back to the Sunnydale people, and was scanning the crowd anxiously. "She'll have done something to help ya, though you won't know what yet. She always pays her debts."
"Giles!" Priss threaded her way through the crowd to his side. "How be thee coping with this?"
Sabre snickered. "Seems Priss has found herself another Watcher." Nyx lifted her lip and snarled silently at him. "What?"
"Shut up."
"Fine, fine." Sabre made his way over to Faith's side. Nyx scowled after him.
Giles
Rupert Giles was g lad to see Priscilla, and he felt unbelievably honoured to meet Bastet. Embracing Priss, he asked her to introduce him to one of the alien leaders, and to help him herd the girls and everybody inside, they were afraid of drawing a crowd.
Oliver
"Okay, so let me see if I have this straight," said Oliver. "Buffy died so now Amanda is the new vampire slayer. Willow is now a goddess - a nature goddess no less, and just got paid a visit by Nyx's mum, who's the Egyptian goddess Bastet, in the form of a pregnant cat via Mouse... umm, I think... and now something good is going to happen to Mouse because of it and umm... yeah... have I forgotten anything? Or have I got it all wrong? Or what? Someone please fill in the poor ignorant human/Dathrian hybrid please!"
Clark
Clark decided to help both Oliver and Dawn out, as Oliver's bluntness was unintentionally upsetting Dawn. Pulling him aside, he decided to talk with the other teenager.
"Yeah, you've basically got it right, but I think you need to tone it down,, please. These women, as well as Spike and Mr. Giles, and I suppose that black guy over there, and Xander, are all grieving. They've only JUSt lost somebody very dear to them, as well as their entire town. >From what I can gather all of Sunnydale is now nothing but a canyon, and has been completely abandoned."
Oliver
"Umm, right, okay. Sorry. I was just getting confused again."
"Wait," asked Zac. "Lost an entire town? How'd they manage that?"
Giles and Dru
Giles took the opportunity to speak up.
"Buffy, well, decided to go down into the Hellmouth and defeat the first from Hell itself. She used the power of the sun, as well as the scythe of the Slayer to defeat the First as well as the Bringers and the Turok-Han, and managed to caused the entire Hellmouth to collapse in on itself, pulling the town with it. What used to be Sunnydale, now resembles the Grand Canyon." The knowledge that Buffy died fighting seemed to soften the blow for Dawn and Spike.
"And now my pretty Vanilla baby is the Slayer," Dru sang, rather glad that Buffy was gone. She never liked her anyway. "May we please go inside now? Maybe the sun no longer hurts me, but I still don't like it," she growled.
Faith
Faith held onto Amanda gently, feeling the quivering from the young girl. She looked at Dawn, and for the first time she felt sadness. Sadness not just for Dawn and the rest, but for herself. She shook her head, almost surprised at her own tears, rolling down her cheeks.
"So what happens now, Giles?" Faith stepped forward to the watcher, patting Dawn on the shoulder as she passed.
Mouse and Bastet's children
Priss wrapped her arms around Giles and frowned at Dru. "Let them grieve, Drusilla."
Sabre ruffled Amanda's hair and looked sadly at Priss. "She's a vamp, me girl. Don't expect her to feel for the Slayer. We'll go inside soon, lovely. Patience is a virtue." Priss raised an eyebrow at her brother, and started to purr soothingly.
Mouse had been rubbing her left arm, and finally rolled up her sleeve to find out if a spider had bitten her or something. What she found shocked her...a lot. "Dude!" She exclaimed. "Your mom gave me a new tat!" She showed the group the gold and blue Eye of Horus on her arm, which was placed on the soft skin on the inside her elbow.
"She's claimed you then." Nyx nodded in satisfaction.
"And here's me thinking, I didn't ask! What if I didn't want to be claimed, or whatever you Folk have tripping?" Mouse felt angry; people were always messing with her without permission. She hated it.
"Just means creatures of the night'll go out of their way to avoid you. And we're honour bound to help ye, lovely," Sabre tried to soothe her down. Mouse glared at him. He sighed inwardly; obviously this wasn't going to be easy. "She is a goddess, me girl. She doesn't always ask."
"Rude. She's just plain rude." Mouse glared at the cats in general. "I don't care if she is a goddess."
"They don't go by the same rules we do. Willow might be different, cos she was human once but most of them weren't." Nyx shrugged off Mouse's concern easily. The girl would come around, sooner or later. "Deal, Mouse. It's done, and she won't undo it."
Giles
"Well, there is another Hellmouth in Cleveland, though it's much smaller, and lots of demons to be fought in LA, but I thought we should stay here for a while. WE need a break. That's something Buffy never got, and wit h the Hellmouth closed, I think we can handle it. So we are going to take time to heal. Physically, emotionally, and mentally."
Mouse and Bastet's children
"An' we will help," Priss said calmly. "I do not intend to let the Council pass on into memory. True, they were at times misguided but on the whole they fulfilled a worthwhile purpose." Nyx snorted in derision. "And we are well aware of your feelings on the matter, Nyx."
"Well, when my lovers keep gettting killed by the idiots, so you really wonder why? Hurts, Priss. Cuts deep. And I can't hurt them the way I should because *you* won't allow it. Protecting the hidebound imbeciles." Nyx spun on her heel and stalked off, fury radiating from her stiff back. "I think they got exactly what they desereved."
"Well, someone's a little touchy today," Sabre said, raising his eyebrow.
"Bite me," Nyx tossed back over her shoulder.
"Date, time and body part!" Sabre yelled after her. "Sorry ye had to get that tossed at ye, Watcher. She's a bit sensitive." Mouse had by this time made her way into the crowd of Potentials, touching their arms and sending soothing waves of peace out generally. When she got to Spike though, she stopped short.
"You loved her."
"Yes." His eyes were filled with pain. Mouse wanted to heal it, somehow, so she put her hands on his face and sent him waves of acceptance and love/comfort/hope. She could sense the difference in her sendings; she was much stronger then she had been before Bastet's touch. She tried to heal the brokenness she sensed inside the souled vampire.
Dawn and Clark
Dawn walked through the group, looking at the Poltentials, but when she got to Xander, she threw her arms around him.
"Xander, you've always been there, you've always been the heart, and our rock. If you tell me everything's going to be okay, I'll believe you, just please, don't let go." Xander stroked the girl's hair, and let her cry into his shoulder. Though the others had tried to comfort her, it was Xander who would finally succeed. She had known him, in her mind, since she was 9 years old, and he had been her first real crush, as well as the big brother she had never had. Clark wished that he could soothe her pain the way Xander could, but despite their attraction, he had only known her a couple of months, while Xander had known her for 7 years.
Priss and Mouse
Spike sighed and closed his eyes as Mouse projected emotions at him. He could feel her soothing his demon, and healing some of his soul. A little part of it, but that was more then he had felt for a long time. He didn't deserve it, but he understood, now, the urge to help and heal where one could.
Mouse poured good emotions into Spike, sensing that she was only touching at the edges. She gritted her teeth and tried harder. She would do this. Energy flowed through her fingertips; shed never concentrated on one person for so long a time before. And he was *so* wounded. The edges of her vision started to go black, and sparkles danced across her sight. She grimly kept trying. She wasn't the type that gave up, otherwise she'd have curled into a little ball and died years ago. Her legs started to feel weak, and she wavered a little bit. Not going to give up on this! She kept empathing to Spike, even as she started to black out.
Spike snapped his eyes open in shock as she crumpled. "Bloody hell!" He barely caught her before she hit the ground in a heap. She was whimpering under her breath; he could hear it.
Priss whipped around, eyes wide as she felt Mouse fall. "What happened, William?" She ran to his side as he cradled Mouse's limp form in his arms.
"She, she was trying to heal me. I think." Spike sounded dazed.
"Too much for her to heal, even with my mother's touch," Priss clucked. "She isn't the type to give up though. She would have healed thee, even if it killed her once she'd accepted the challenge. Thankfully, she fainted before she could." Priss laid her hands over Mouse's temples and fed some of the earth's energy into Mouse. "Wake up, brave girl."
Mouse gasped in a breath, and her eyes slid open. "What happened?"
"You were trying to erase all the hurt William has ever felt. Do not try to do that again," Priss scolded.
Dru
"It's Willy's fault he feels the pain. Why'd you get that pesky soul, anyway?' Drusilla whined. "Oh! This one smells so good, like hate!" Dru buried her face in Robin Wood's neck, and was preparing to bite him.
Sabre and Nyx
Sabre turned and almost flew through the air as he knocked Drusilla away, arms wrapping around her waist as they both fell to the ground. Robin Wood had a stake and cross raised. Sabre rolled off Drusilla, and leant back on his elbow. "No snacking, Dru love. I don't think the black guy would like it, much. And he seems seriously equipped for vamp slayage. Hecan't hurt you, I know, the Gem. But you promised no feeding!"
"She's right, you know. But he smells almost familair...don't you think? Like, oh, somehow reminds me of New York, and, and a fight, But when, with who, and where?" Nyx sauntered up to Wood, and looked him over, obviously searching for something to remind her, then she grinned. "That Slayer, right? Of course, that was what made me decide to try Spike out. She was just, wow, and then Spike managed to beat her. I had to try out a vamp good enough to tke out a Slayer. Just, had to do it. You have her lok about you, something of her scent...what kin are you to her?"
"Her son." Nyx's eyebrows went up.
"Slayer with a kid? Brave girl." Nyx looked over at Dru. "You alright, sweetie?"
Dru
Dru pouted. "I'm hungry. If I can't snack on anybody's friends, that what shall I eat?" Suddenly, Dru wondered what they'd do if she went off to the prison and started snacking on the inmates.
Faith
Faith glanced warningly at Drusilla, still trying to get accustomed to the fact she was now working alongside more vampires. She had felt like Angel was an exception because he had a soul, but now so did Spike, but Drusilla was a different story completely. Oh well, there wasn't a lot that she could do about it.