Hail to the king, baby!

[xander_lavelle]

After the meeting everyone scattered to perform their various tasks. Me? I just bummed a cigarette off one of the older girls from the shelter and headed out into the garden. I smoked and thought things through, and by the time I was done and had stamped out the butt, I decided that I needed to take stock, and headed up to my room

Comments

[wiccabuffy]

"I hope it worked."

I nodded to Willow, but inside I knew. It had worked just fine. Just like it would've worked if it had been me, but Wes was so determined. When we'd talked to Willow and I kept telling her that it was my idea and that it should be me, she'd just give me a look.

It wasn't like I was all suicidal like last year! This was rational. This was a plan to finally take back some of what we'd lost, to win this war. But I'd compromised, for the sakes of both my best friend and my boyfriend.

And, let me just say right now that it had not been my idea to use Faith. That brilliant plan had been thought up by her ex-Watcher, and Willow hadn't minded zapping a soul into her, I guess. Not after that lovely trip we all had shared at our impromptu meeting.

Ugh. So much in so little time. What else could go wrong?

“Hope what worked?” Nevermind

[xander_lavelle]

Instead of Willow answering me, Buffy spoke up.

"Heya, Xand."

I wondered what they were up to that they felt I didn’t need to know. Well, it could wait. For now.

Buffy came over and hugged me. The animal side responded, excited by the close contact with an alpha female, and would have done something fairly inappropriate if it had had more control. As it was, I just hugged her back.

She pulled away, eyeing me, taking in my new look.

"This... this isn't all about Anya, is it?"

“No, not all, but partly, I’ll admit. Let’s just say it was the catalyst.” I walked away from her, further into the room and sat down in a nice comfortable looking chair. ”I need to tell you something that you might not like, but you need to hear.

“Wes, do you know who the Ashai-machi are?”

[wishingwillow]

"Yeah, and this lot seems to have a few too many suicidal tendencies."

The minute Xander entered the workroom, his words from at the meeting echoed inside me all over again. To my ears they had seemed harsh, unthoughtful, and even cruel -- nothing like the Xander I had known for nearly all of my life. I cast a quick look over at Buffy to see if she felt the same way, but she already seemed focused on other things. Wes too, though I couldn't quite pick through his thoughts. Surprised at how alone I suddenly felt, I looked at both of them once more before turning to face Xander.

Was I being overly sensative? Was I allowing my past just a bit too much room when it came to the churning? I shook my head, trying to ignore the way I could almost feel the sharp, dark angles of Xander's clothes. Yes, I had issues. I had shelves of, and catalog-worthy ones. Of the Sears-Roebuck kind. But that didn't change what had happened in Sunnydale before we left, or even choices of Buffy's as well

[prodigalwatcher]

And just like that, the die had been cast, and we had made what could very well have been our most desperate gamble yet in this war. But, as Buffy had most correctly pointed out, we had not choice any longer but to take chances and risk whatever it took to win. It had been the most difficult argument Buffy and I had ever had, both of us passionately convinced of the rightness of our ideas.

I thanked God for the first time in an age when Buffy had agreed to my alternative.

"I hope it worked."

As did we all. Attempting to replace Faith's soul, my insistence had been, was as much about introducing a destabilising influence on the other side of the chessboard as restoring the necessary Champion back to ours. Should we be successful, we might well have brought the power of prophecy to bear against our enemies once more