Part 8

To Start Again

Part 8

Xander had held off on calling Sunnydale while they got everything set up and prepared. He wanted to be sure that they had everything in order and explainable before presenting it. They also had quite a few normal chores to do as well, such as taking Dawn to the doctor for her checkup. While she was there they replaced her full cast with a smaller, elbow length one. The whole crew took turns signing her new cast, and the few patches they didn’t cover, Xander put random little stickers on. The only awkward moment was when Cordelia realized that Spike had added fangs to her happy face. At which she commenced with trying to explain why he shouldn’t mess with her things, while using her favorite axe to make her point.

Finally, they had everything they needed, and explained to those who required it so that they would all be on the same page. Wesley had managed to locate and procure all of the artifacts and components that they would need, as well as a several others that he had thought might be of use. Xander immediately began working out a basic outline for the conversation, so that they wouldn’t get too far off track. The only thing he wasn’t able to get worked out was who would be going. Fred and Wesley were the obvious choice, but there hadn’t been time to figure out the rest in the last few days. Xander wasn’t too worried; they could work it out later. Personally he couldn’t wait to see his friends again. When he was finished and everything else was as settled as they could make it, Xander called Giles in order to set up a time for everyone to attend a conference call. When the designated time finally rolled around he rounded everyone up into the lobby where they gathered nervously around the phone to place the long awaited phone call. With one final deep breath, Xander centered himself and dialed.

Fortunately, with all things considered, the phone call went a lot smoother than Xander had anticipated. He had been expecting Buffy try to pull rank and dominate the conversation, but someone must have pulled her aside and given her instructions on how to behave, because she had hardly acted up at all during the debriefing. Xander strongly suspected that Giles and Angel had conspired on the matter, but he let the thought go as unimportant. So, after a brief round of pleasantries and introductions for those who didn’t know each other, Xander had turned the job of explaining everything over to Wesley.

Wesley had done a phenomenal job of explaining their plan, covering all the basic information and detailing the things that it required, all in a manner that everyone listening could understand. The only point he had to skim over was who exactly would go since it was still a matter of contention and he wanted to avoid arguing in front of the Scoobies. He took the time to explain the magical side of things and how they had come up with the plan to split Glory after hearing about Xander’s stint as twins, much to the bemusement of the Sunnydale gang. Giles had wanted to know how they intended to do that and Xander took back over for a moment to happily explain how Wesley had gone well above expectations to get everything they required, which caused the former Watcher to blush and stutter before getting everyone back on track.

The rest listened with avid interest when he told them about the method they had discovered in order to split Glory from her host, and the combined use of science and magic to capture her mortal counterpart and distract the godly half long enough for them to activate and use the Jewel of Entangled Souls to trap her. “It’s a lot of magic to use all in one go, but between Giles, Willow and I, I think we should be able to manage without much of a problem.” Wesley said as he ended his explanations, really quite pleased with how things had turned out.

“Speaking of magic, Wesley, I was wondering if you could help me with the spell I found to cure Tara,” Willow had interrupted suddenly. Xander could hear the nervousness in her voice and immediately stiffened. Willow only got that wheedling tone when she knew that what she was asking was dangerous.

Xander hated being right. Within moments of hearing her plan he had a knot of dread sitting in his stomach. Thankfully, everyone else seemed to share his discomfort, and Wesley was quick to stop Willow before she could work herself up. “Miss Rosenberg, I would like to firmly advise that you abort your plan immediately. It is both too dangerous and unstable to have much chance of success without grave consequences. May I strongly suggest that we look further into alternative methods of action? We have access to a lot of books that you do not, let us look through what we have here and then we can re-discuss our options when we arrive there later this week? Perhaps together we can find something a bit more stable and safer for all involved.”

Willow reluctantly agreed to wait on any further research until they could discuss it at length in person, as long as they would agree to still do it her way if nothing else could be found. Knowing that she had exhausted that particular subject, Willow then began asking about the technology they would be using, and how it worked. Wesley coughed uncomfortably, since she was directing the questions at him, and Xander laughingly explained that Fred was the brainchild behind that part of their scheme.

“Fred? Who’s he? We haven’t spoken to him yet, have we?” Buffy asked.

“Nope, you haven’t spoken to HER before. She’s really shy. Come on, Fred, you remember what I told you about Willow, right? She’ll totally understand you!” It took several more minutes of Xander’s quite encouragements and Willow asking a few well thought out questions before Fred relaxed enough to respond with any sort of confidence, but once she did, it was only a matter of moments before she and Willow had left everyone else in their dust by launching into rapid techno babble. The two of them were talking so fast and using so much technical jargon that Xander’s head was beginning to spin just from listening to them. It was, however, hilarious to watch as everyone else became just as confused and lost as him at the rapid fire conversation dominating the phone call as his girls’ geeked out together. Xander was extremely pleased to see that his two favorite geniuses were getting along as well as he had thought they would.

By the time they had gotten the phone call back on track and everything else tied up it was getting late, so they said their farewells with the understanding that the LA crew would be heading out to Sunnydale the day after next. Everyone was exited that things were finally coming together but at the same time they were very nervous about it. There wasn’t time for debates and theories anymore, now they were going to have to make their move and hope that they had covered all their bases.

It took time to arrange everything for transportation. The next day was spent almost entirely on packing all of their supplies and fitting them into the car, with enough room left for the passengers to be comfortable during the trip. The rest of their day was used for running last minute errands. Cordy took Dawn out to buy presents for the Sunnydale gang and keep her distracted from worrying about anything. Wesley went over their plans one final time before feverishly researching everything he could for Willow’s request with Fred’s help. By the time they had finished there was a new pile of books that Wesley thought would be useful to try and find room for in the car.

The only really tense moment came that evening, when the final decision was made about who exactly was going. There was a long drawn out argument with a lot of shouting and swearing, mostly from Spike, but in the end the decision hadn’t really been all that hard. Dawn would stay behind, because the whole reason that they were here to begin with was to keep her safe and away from Glory. And should things go wrong they needed to be sure that Dawn would be well protected. Spike would remain behind as well to be sure his Niblet was well looked after.

Cordy had had a vision halfway through the argument, which meant that both she and Angel had to stay behind as well and Gunn had no connection to Sunnydale and didn’t feel a need to interfere, so he would stay and help Angel with their latest mission. It looked like only Wesley and Fred would be going since Spike and the others just assumed that Xander would want to stay with Dawn. So it came as a complete surprise when Spike went upstairs and found Xander in his room quietly packing his things.

“What are you doing?” Spike had demanded as soon as he realized what was going on.

“I’m packing a bag. You know, placing articles of clothing or objects into convenient mode of transport in preparation of travel? What does it look like I’m doing?” Xander snarked back.

“Ha bloody ha, pet. I meant why are you packing; I thought you were staying here with me and the Niblet?” Spike asked as he sat on Xander’s bed and placed a restraining hand on the boy’s arm to get his attention.

Xander fussed with the zipper on his bag and tried to avoid looking at the vampire for several moments before he finally gave in, and with a tired sigh, looked directly into Spike’s eyes. He almost looked away again at the hurt and concern he found in that gaze, but stopped himself before he could. Xander hadn’t anticipated the hurt look and his resolve almost crumbled beneath it, but this was something he needed to do.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I have to go, even if I’m useless in the fight, and even if I can’t help that much, I at least have to try. I can’t stay here when my friends are in danger; I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened and I hadn’t been there to possibly prevent it. Please understand.” Xander pleaded.

But Spike didn’t and Xander found himself faced with the same look from Spike that Anya had given him before she left, a sort of confused resignation. And once again he found that he was unable to adequately explain his need to do this, to make the vampire understand that this wasn’t really a choice for Xander, it never had been. He was still just as incapable now of offering comfort to the odd mix of rejected understanding on Spike’s face as he had been with Anya, and completely helpless to be anything other than himself.

“I’m going.” And that was all Xander had to say.