Sara led them into a room with a large table surrounded by large high back tables, the walls were sparsely decorated with pictures of Indian medicine men, shaman, African tribal leaders, and other exotic looking peoples. Sara sat at the head of the table, Willow to her right, the Buffy, Xander, then Dawn, Anya, Spike and Tara.
After everyone settled Sara let her gaze fall on Willow as she spoke "Willow has decided to give up magic for good. I have tried my best to teach her temperance and patience, to not use her magic to manipulate people or change past events. But she chose not to listen. I blame the council and myself for the failures that occurred as a result of our inaction. They stayed my hand after her teacher was killed, they stopped me from coming sooner, and I let them. Only after she read the book in her anger at Glory, the one that tainted her soul, did they allow me to come. Only after the Slayer had died. The Council even started the process of getting Faith out of Jail. I stopped them, I told them to wait, for Buffy's fate line had not yet been cut. I could not see how, but the Powers That Be still had plans for her, still were going to use her." Sara's eyes shifted to Buffy "Please try to forgive Willow, it was The Powers That Be that allowed you to come back, you are not the same Buffy Summers, you now see what you are fighting for, the goal that you want for yourself and your loved ones. You have purpose, more so than even before." Sara leaned back "I saw Willow's Forget Spell, I saw her change Amy and then run rampant with her" she tried to keep the growl out of her voice as she said Amy, "I saw her visit the Warlock den and I saw her endanger Dawn. Buffy, I knew you and Spike were there, I stopped the crash from doing more than just fracture her arm, I did what I could with out manipulating people." She tried to drive the point home to Willow "The tale I have is a long one, but it is the story of my life, there is a purpose to it, and I hope that the lessons I have learned may be heeded by all, if Willow gives up magic, I must search for another and it may take another two thousand years to do it."
"Give me break, you're no vampire, or demon, how can you be that old?"
"Spike, there are those of us you don't even know about. We are called Immortals, we cannot die unless we lose our heads, we usually die by another Immortal's sword in combat, called the Game. In the Game, when challenged you must fight the other immortal one on one, without interference, and not on sacred land. When we die our life force is transferred to the winner of the combat, this transfer is called the Quickening. Now, may I continue?"
"Prove it" Spike challenged.
"What?"
"I said prove it, if you're so bloody immortal, prove it!"
"Ya know, with you guys I was kind of hoping I wasn't going to have to do this, it hurts you know."
Sara pulled a drawer out from in front of her, and produced a knife from it. She walked over and handed it to Spike, "It won't hurt your chip, go for it." She stared him levelly in the eyes; he smiled then plunged the dagger into her heart. Sara crumpled to the floor
"Spike, what have you done?" Buffy asked horrified at what Spike had done.
"Proved it." Spike tossed the knife on to the table and settled back down into his seat.
"How could you? I mean she's dead. She might have been a little nu..."
Sara Gasped hard and sat up, "Spike, you satisfied now?" she winked "Sorry guys, Spike and I spoke early and figured it would be best to 'prove' this early on." She waved a hand and the hole in her dress and the blood stains disappeared." Spike bumped into me on accident a few days back helping me bring some stuff into the club, and well since his chip did not go off, I had to explain."
She held out her hand as Buffy helped her off the floor. Everyone sat back down. She picked up the knife, cleaned it with a gesture and placed it back into the drawer.
"Now to start at the beginning, I was a child named Pedibastet, I was raised in Karanis, Egypt by a kindly mother and father. They could have no children, but found me on the doorstep one morning. My father was an influential toolmaker; his was the best quality stuff around. I had a good childhood. Nothing remarkable. This was during the Ptolemaic Dynasty and, if memory serves right, Ptolemy VIII was Pharaoh. He wasn't a favorable Pharaoh, from what my father said. When I was 13 I was married to the neighbor. Neferhotep was a good man, but when I could not produce any children for him, he divorced me for a more fertile wife. Such was the way of things. I was alone an "old maid" to use a modern term at 19 and really had no place to go. I could go back home, but why. I had heard so much of the Romans, the empire and it's glory, so I set out to see the Empire in person. It was very hard to travel alone as a woman then. Without a male escort you ran into a lot of trouble. I could not travel by boat, so it was camel or walking only. My journey took me over the Nile river east through Arabia Petraea then north and eventually west again through the Alps to what is now Italy. I pushed on until I reached Rome, what a disappointment it had been. I had traveled for so long, to find a city where I was treated worse than just about any place else. I was down trodden and heart broken. What caused me to do this, why had I not stayed home, I could have weaved with my mother and had the simple life, benefited my family. Instead I was here, sitting in an alley, with men trying to lead me "back" to the brothel. Since I have no husband that is where I must be from. I was crying so hard now, wondering if that is where I should go, when a group of drunken men burst out of the nearby tavern. They were rowdy, and boisterous after what must have been a long night of drinking. They came into the alley to relieve themselves, and stumbled over me."
Sara shifted uncomfortably; it had been a while, a long while, since she related the events to anyone. It was still very upsetting, she looked up to see everyone staring at her "Sorry, well you can kind of guess what happened next, please don't ask me to re-tell it." She looked almost like a small child then, ready to cry. Willow stood up and hugged her, then sat back down. The phone rang and Sara got up to answer it.
"Why did she bring it up if she didn't want to tell, what happened? I am sorry if I didn't get it." Dawn asked in a hushed voice.
Everyone looked around, hoping someone else would explain to Dawn when Anya blurted "She was raped, by all of them. She had my predecessor lay pretty hefty curses on them and their families. She was what Batina called an extreme case for justice. Pretty sad really."
"Oh. . ."Dawn looked down at the table.
Just then Sara came back "That was Lorne, he says they're done tonight, and said that just Fred, Gunn and Wesley are coming back with him Cordy's gonna help Angel with the baby."
"Baby!?!" They all said in almost perfect unison.
"Crap, I thought Cordy would have called to tell Willow, but I guess with all the confusion, it hasn't happened yet. Here is the run down fast version: Darla is brought back to life by Wolfram & Hart. Angel thinks he is still in love with her. He has issues and well, sleeps with her, but has no feelings for her so it does not affect the curse. Darla gets pregnant, somehow, travels everywhere to find out how, comes back to LA. Somewhere toward the end acquires something of a conscience and decides that the baby can't be born with her alive. So Darla dusts herself and leaves a human baby in behind in the dust." Sara took a breath and waved her arms and a portal appeared. Lorne, then Gunn, Wesley then Fred stepped through.
"Travelin' in style" Gunn looked back before it closed.
"Nice to meet you, Immortal High Sorceress, I am Wesley Windham Price the Third"
"Yes, Wesley, I know who you are" Sara rolled her eyes "But the question is how do you know who I am?"
"That would be my fault" Lorne piped up "I had to explain how we would get to Sunnydale in a matter of seconds, I thought the way Wesley talked about his days in the council, he had some kind of hint. Sorry, forgive me?"
"Only if you didn't give them my full preposterous title," she smirked at him, "But you did so there will be some penance later."
Gunn sat at the table. "What that whole Immortal High Sorceress thing? Don't worry, Wesley's the only one it impressed, I am just glad it is quiet now, that baby cries all the time." Sara gestured to the table that had just enough chairs left to accommodate those that had just arrive, Lorne pulled his up between Tara and Sara.
"Anyway, back to the story...I must have died there in that alley, I do not know, I awoke in the morning with a man poking me with his walking stick. 'Good' he said 'You're awake, let's clean you up.' He was a handsome man, clean, definitely not Plebian. He led me through the streets to his manor house, handed me off to his servants who cleaned me up and led me to a room to sleep. I was confused, but took this opportunity to do just that. Later that day his servant arrived and helped me dress for dinner with this kindly stranger that had helped me.
Dinner was more food than I think I saw in my whole life. It was spread out on a table, there was just seating for two. 'Please forgive the fact that there is no entertainment tonight, but we must talk in private' I thought that was strange since the servants bustled in and out continuously. He caught the look and asked them to wait until he called for them.
'My name is Methos, can you tell me what happened? I started with the travels, the fight to make it to the splendors of Rome, the disappointment when finally reaching my destination. Then I related the details of the past night through a rain of tears. |  |