As written by Joy...
The Spider was dead. Priss and Willow had teleported everybody back to Tulsa, Tanya included. Willow had contacted the IDTF, and the cats had contacted their mother as well. This was going to be taken care of, and it was going to be taken care of Now, Willow put her foot down on this one.
The comatose Owen was deposited back in Jess's room with her & Isabel. The Spider's minions were bound with magick and put in the basement. 'Taylor' and Avery were put in their bedrooms, trying to sleep, and Sabre and Nyx were trying to calm Mouse down, while Giles and Amanda were trying to calm down Faith.
Tanya
"Tanya! Good to see you again!" greeted a friendly voice. "Is it true that the Spider is dead?"
"It would appear so. But what I'd like to know is how he apparantly got the collar off. So far all I've gotten is that Avery Hanson got it off. But even if she could make Master, she's only an intermediate at the moment. There's no way. And I swear, if the Spider burnt her out, well, well, well, if he weren't already dead I'd kill him with my bare hands. After burning him out and making it long and painful indeed," Tanya sighed. "Did you only you only get Masters once every twenty years or so? The only other master was here with the crash, he's heck old now, and I do not wait eagerly for the day where I will have to take his place as teacher. The first master potential to be born on earth was involved in an accident where he stupidly got arrogant and tried something over his head on his own and burnt himself out. Then there was me, and now Avery. I certainly hope we don't have to wait another twenty freaking years before there is a fully trained master on this planet."
Bastet's children and Mouse
Mouse growled and bared her teeth at Nyx as the cat tried to put antiseptic cream on a burn the girl had picked up during the expedition. She sat back on her heels and studied the sight in front of her. A basically comatose wolf curled up with a girl, who though exhausted, nearly managed to take Nyx's hands off at the elbow the minute they got close. Mouse's eyelids flickered rapidly like a person deep in the grip of REM sleep, and Nyx looked up at Sabre. "She went too far in. I can't do anything until my magick comes back. I couldn't even light a candle right now."
Sabre nodded solemnly. "I somehow think this will be a case for magic, and seeing how Priss is, it's gonna havta wait, no matter how it grieves my heart to see her lost like this."
Priss sighed from the lounge, nearly asleep as her body sent her into a healing trance. "Sabre, my brother, help me regain mine own form I cannot keep up the magick required to maintain it." Sabre nodded and helped his sister out of the bulk of her now singed white robes before she flowed down into her true shape. Priss curled up on the lounge and fell asleep in a matter of seconds.
"I would love to do that as well, or have a long hot bath," Nyx sighed. "But we can't leave Mouse alone while she's like this." Nyx finally got to tend to Mouse as the dazed girl's mind accepted her. Logan was watching with vague unease from the doorway, all signs of his apssage through the flames healed, and only having rents and tears in his clothing to show for it.
"I hope Mam gets here soon," Sabre said as he ran a hand through his hair tiredly and slumped down on the couch next to Priss.
Faith
Faith sat shaking on Giles's couch, unable to speak. "I need to go... somewhere."
She accepted the tea Amanda held out for her and sipped on it, but despite the warmth of the tea and the blanket around her shoulders, she couldn't stop shaking.
"Giles... I lost it... I... I..." Faith stopped, unable to speak as her tears resurfaced.
Bastet, Nyx and Sabre
Bastet stepped out from the Egyptian home of the Gods and into the Hansons backyard. Grumbling to herself all the way as she manoveured her pregenant body across the yard and up to the door. A dognotdog came up to her and she spat at it, and then swiped a pawful of claws across its face. It yelped and then ran off. She was a profoundly not amused Goddess. She glowered at the door. Human body this time, she thought. She shifted upwards, careful to take the kittens with her, and stood there for a moment, a small slender woman in traditional Egyptian robes with one gold hoop in an ear and the head of a cat...with a definetly pregnant belly. She supported her stomach with one hand and stepped through the door. I am never becoming pregnant again. Males! All there with the chocolate and pretty jewelery in the courting, and then babies. They go away very very quickly.
Sabre leapt to his feet and rushed out to the kitchen. "Mam! Human this time, I see."
"Don't try my patience. My back aches and I want chocolate biscotti gelatto. I'm not eating it because I'm being a good Goddess." She frowned at her son.
"Perhaps, fully human?" He suggested diplomatically. She nodded.
"Yes, that might be best." The cat muzzle flowed and shifted and into a stunnigly beautiful woman of Arabic appearance, with blazing golden eyes outlined with kohl. "Well?"
"You look lovely as always, Mam."
"Flatterer," she smiled as he led her into the room where everyone was. "Hello. I think I recieved a message?"
"Mom!" Nyx ran over and hugged her mother, somehow taller then she was by several inches. Bastet patted her daughter's back.
"Mind the tummy, dear."
"Kittens!" Nyx purred suddenly. "When are they due?"
"Another year or so." Bastet smiled proudly as she laced her hands together under her stomach. "Bother being proper. I want chocolate biscotti gelatto. Go find me some. And fish. I would really adore some fish."
"Yes, Mom. But kinda mgicked out." Nyx shrugged. Bastet waved her hand and Nyx's eyes glowed.
"Chocolate biscotti gelatto. Fish. Go get some." Nyx disappeared and Bastet made her way over to the couch and sat down carefully. "So. What was so important you dragged me away from the Underworld, in my condition?"
Willow
Willow bowed before the mother goddess. "This is too much for me. I can't take care of everybody. How am I even a goddess? I don't deserve this, I'm not good enough for this. I've killed! I've killed humans!" Willow was freakinbg out, but she could feel the patience of the mother godess gently soothing her. "What do I do? She asked Bastet more calmly. "Am I supposed to pass judgement on these people?"
Bastet, Mouse, Nyx and Sabre
"One maust always does as one's conscience dictates," Bastet said cryptically, and smiled. "You are doing very well for one so young. When you have a few hundred years of experience on you, I think you will be a wonderful Goddess. Death comes to all, in its time. Even gods." She lifted Priss into her lap and stroked the white cat. Priss purred. "Where is the girl I Claimed as mine own?"
"There." Sabre indicated with a look. Bastet tsked at the sight fo Mouse.
"She has gone very, very deep. Wolf, let her go. Even the Pack cannot heal all wounds." Fafnir whined, and Bastet's eyes grew harder. "Let her out, wolf. She needs must be human, not Folk. She would not want to stay like this forever." Mouse sat up with a gasp, eyes wild. "Welcome back, little one."
"Wha, what?"
"Do not go so deep again. If I had not come, you might have lived your life with the mind of a wolf, remebering your alien nature only in strange, half-remebered dreams." Nyx reappeared and Bastet's eyes lit up with glee. "Mmm. Chocolate. Thank you, dear." Nyx handed the two packages she had to her mother and Bastet opened them and started to eat the icecream and fish. The people in the room averted their eyes. It just wasn't natural to eat fish dipped in chocolate biscotti gelatto. "So. I will ehlp you come to a descion, Willow, but in the end the descion is yours. A pity your first encounter like this had so many things weighing on it."
Willow
Willow breathed deeply. "I suppose, I should give the aliens to the YIRAAS to deal with, and the mutants to Xavier, he can deal with them. But this man, this Owen, he does not want to release his mental hold on the girls, and if I can get him to, do I kill him? He takes pleasure in mental torture. How do I know when to judge and when to forgive. I can feel other goddesses in my mind. Hecate wants me to destroy him, while Diana thinks I should be merciful. Oh, Mother Goddess, please help." Willow began to wring her hands, and her uncertainty was making the earth itself tremble.
Bastet, Nyx and Sabre
"Hecate always was hasty..." Bastet shook her head. "One thing you will quickly learn is that gods are just as fallble as mortals."
"But the stuff ups can be highly amusing. I mean, have you looked at the platypus?" Nyx giggled, then looked down as Bastet glared at her. "Ok, shutting up now."
"She's right you know." Sabre snickered. "Let them go to the people they should, as ye said, Willow. Owen is a difficult matter."
"I think we should let him live, but erase his ability to dreamwalk. That in itself will be torment. You can see that from the way the Spider reacted when the collar was placed on him," Nyx offered.
Bastet nodded. "You have learnt a little wisdom, daughter." Nyx blushed but smiled at the praise. "We can do that together, I think but to get him to release the girls minds...I can only direct, I cannot participate. I will not expose my unborn children to his mind." Bastet's hand ran over her stomach.
Willow
Willow hesitated. "I. . I can do it, get him to release them, I'm just afraid of becoming evil again."
Bastet
"Priss will help you balance it...she walks the fine line as well," Bastet soothed. "The temptation is always there, the darkness sounds so sweet...but there are very few strong enough to even want to climb back out."
"Priss is good at this kinda thing, but she'll need to recover her strength."
"I cannot truly help her at the moment, she had taken power from me already. Too much, and she will become addicted. We must wait, perhaps a day?" Bastet frowned.
Willow
"I. . . I hate waiting. But I will leave owen in his magick-induced coma for a while. First I need to take care of the council business. Why did they make me part of the council? I'm just a baby-goddess, still unsure on my feet, unsure of my power. Though, I can feel Tara, telling me I can do it." Willow suddenly smiled. "I. . It's like, all of a sudden, I just know that I have this power, and I have control over it, not it over me. It's like I can hear all of the gods and goddesses singing in my head, they're telling me to trust myself. Thank you, Mother." Willow grinned. "Tanya, Where would you like me to send the aliens?"
Bastet, Nyx and Logan
Bastet smiled as Willow took charge. "So, Sabre, come sit up here with your mother and tell me what's been going on." Nyx had draped her arm around Logan's shoulder and was whispering things to him. "Who's your friend, my black furred daughter?"
"This is Logan, otherwise known as Wolverine. He's a mutant. Logan, this is my mother, the goddess Bastet."
"Pleased to meet'cha," Logan mumured.
"Likewise, dear boy." Bastet turned to Willow, business like now. "Where there any magick users there?" Nyx looked guitly. "What did you do?" Bastet sighed.
"Ummm. Ikindaturnedthemintomiceandatethem," Nyx said rapidly. Bastat laughed. "You're not mad?"
"Cross my children and me like that, I'm almost disappointed you didn't save one for me. They should have known better anyway. If you deal in magick, you do not cross the ones on which your magick depends. They would most like have been punished by their patrons anyway."
Tanya
Tanya sent Willow telepathic a location.
"That'll be just fine, Willow, thank you. You know, as to Owen, I can just implant the suggestion for him to restore Isabel and Jessica, if you want. I do that kind of thing all the time, although..." she paused, "he does have a telepathic shield. I can bypass most telepathic shields of course, but it does take time. So if you would like me to do that, if you could give me a day to rest. It's awlfully tiring."
Xander
Xander held the wounded Slayer in his arms. "Shhhhhh, it's okay. You did come back. I'm your Watcher 'cause I believe in you Faith. You touchedc the darkness, but you didn't let it consume you. You almost did, but you came back. You will always come back."
Faith
Faith pulled out of his embrace and walked away. She rubbed the sides of her arms. "I don't know that for sure." She turned to face him. "And you don't either. What if... what if it's too much for me, and when it comes down to crunch time, I lose it."
Xander
"Faith, we will get through this. Together. The Watcher and the Slayer. You haven't had a Watcher in a long time, so why don't we start with something simple. Let's go meditate." Xander smiled at her, that big toothy Xander smile.
Faith
Faith closed her eyes for a second then looked at Xander. "Why not." She went back over to him and waited patiently.
Xander
Xander led Faith back to his hotel room, and laid some candles around in a circle. Then he sat Faith across from him, cross-legged, and showed her how to meditate in such a way as to get in touchj with the source of her power.
"Buffy did this every day, for the last couple of years, except when she wasn't breathing of course. She said it helped her to harness her strength so that she controlled it, and not the other way around*
Faith
Faith closed her eyes and did as Xander instructed. She felt a soothing calmness come over her.