"Oh my god!"- Buffy said as she saw Doyle next to a figure drenched in a black clock holding a figure.
Buffy, Willow, Xander, Cordelia, & Oz ran to the group.
Angel handed the limp Faith to Buffy who rushed the girl inside one of the tents. Xander & Oz helped Angel into the tent.
Once everyone was inside, Angel quickly explained what had occurred & about Anderson.
Faith was not dead. But she was not conscious either. All her vital signs were faint & slow.
Buffy: "What are our options here?"
Angel: "I really don't know. I can't fight this guy alone, & you can't be anywhere near him."
Oz: "If we can't fight Anderson maybe we can fight the spirits he's been contacting."
Doyle: "No, you can't fight the spirit world. You can only talk to it. &, hey, what about contactin' the spirit world."
Everyone looked at Willow.
Willow: "Yeah. I can do it. But, we're going to have to have some kind of idea of who to contact."
Xander: "OK, we'll get on that. We'll find the name of one of the ancient somethings & do this thing. Only we can't because we have no books or anything."
Willow (with a bit of sadness & irony): "Isn't this a time for Giles."
Everyone then looked at each other.
Buffy: "It certainly is."
An hour later Buffy, Xander, Doyle, Oz, & Cordelia- lead by Willow- were in a circle. Angel had gone to sleep after Buffy insisted he needed to gather his strength.
Willow: "I call on you to come forward. Out of the darkness, into where the light shines. Come through the void in which you passed. Reclaim citizenship in the place you have been before. The place where you lived. Come forward & speak."
Nothing happened. Buffy felt something inside herself darken.
Willow: "Come forward & speak."
Again, nothing happened.
Then something made Buffy cry out.
Buffy: "Come forward & speak!"
Suddenly, something appeared within the circle of the groups enjoined hands.
Tears filled Buffy's eyes as the image took form.
Buffy: "It's been a long time."
Spirit-Giles: "Too long. And now we do not have much time. Buffy, there's something you should know about Anderson. He is the child of one of the sorcerers whom originally created Rubare Lotta. It has taken him thousands & thousands of years to gain enough power & knowledge to contact his ancestor, to continue that legacy, & he's not about to let anything come between him & his plan. As you are, you cannot defeat him. You must regain the old powers of the slayer to rid the world of the only person ever to be able to perform and have knowledge of Rubare Lotta. To do this, you must stand in 'the first place' & chant the words, you already know them, even if you don't remember now.
"Faith can be saved. Someone must chant the words before the second sunrise after her fight was taken. But this will only work after the one who robbed her has perished. As she is, she can live. Maybe. But, if you manage to restore her, her fight will be restored as well."
After a moment of silence, Giles began to fade. In a cry, Buffy said: "Giles I miss you."
Spirit-Giles: "I miss you too. But, I'm all right where I am. I just wish I could have stayed to help you these past years. Perhaps my helping you now is my final act as your watcher."
Giles faded further, until he was a translucent watercolor.
Spirit-Giles: "One last act as someone who cares about you. The truth about the curse... Anderson knows, we all know, because Jenny did it. & she fixed it, she took out the clause." Giles was breaking up & almost hysterically getting out the last words.
Then within the circle, there was only silence.
After a very long period of silence Willow said: "It's OK to let go off each other's hands now. We're done."
Buffy was gaining control over her emotions again. "Fixed it?"
Willow: "That makes no sense, what Giles said. The curse. Wait- Angel's curse? But, I did that."
Oz: "Actually..."
Cordelia: "Oh, yeah. When you were doing that curse thing, you suddenly, like, stared straight forward & talked in that foreigny language really fast."
Oz: "It was like you were possessed."
Buffy: "Miss Calendar fixed it."
Cordelia: "What does that mean? What was wrong with it before?"
Xander: "Right now what we need to do is go to 'the first place' & do whatever Giles was talking about to Buffy."
Buffy: "Right."
Oz: "& yet, we have no clue how to do whatever Giles told us to do."
Buffy: "He said I knew, somewhere. I'll trust that. I think I'll go alone, no danger of vamps in the daylight. Everyone stay here with Faith."
Doyle: "I still don't like this whole go-it-alone idea. How 'bout I go with ya. I know the way."
Buffy: "No, you didn't sleep either. In fact, everyone get some rest. I think we have a long night ahead. & I also think I should do this alone. I feel I should."
Buffy followed the map drawn for them by the man who was supposed to lead them to 'the first place'. Before she got there, she knew she had found it. She could feel the place.
Buffy found a spot of blood where the center was, she assumed it was Anderson's from when he had performed Rubare Lotta on Faith. She wiped the blood off. Something told her instinctively that the place needed to be purified.
Buffy: "Ok, Giles, I'm here. Where are 'the words'?"
After a while Buffy sat down indian-style in the center. Hours went by, Buffy still didn't know what she was supposed to say.
Buffy wondered suddenly why Anderson had gotten to Faith first. Wesley had said first her- Buffy, then Faith. Buffy guessed that anyone of them would do, the order didn't matter. But, she wondered why he wanted to get Buffy first. Perhaps it had something to do with the legacy. Faith had been called after Buffy.
The word 'legacy'. Giles had said that word to them about Anderson. Angel had said it about slayerhood. "The legacy of the slayer". But, the legacy was adulterated by human blood. The true legacy of the slayer was already gone, slayers didn't have the power they once had had.
Buffy closed her eyes with that thought. Flashes came to her. She saw the fight as if she had lived it. Someone was perched over a sorcerer, "& with this I carry on the legacy. Of what I am, of what I stand for. Good against evil, fighting against destruction. What I have been chosen to do, I do now. I rid you of this world & I end your legacy & continue mine."
Buffy jumped out of reverie & with that, she knew the words:
"What I am, what I have been chosen to be- I reclaim. What I have had, what is entitled to me- I reclaim. I reclaim, continuing the legacy."
With that, a blue light shot out of the sky & hit Buffy's forehead.
When Buffy returned to camp, she headed to the tent where Faith was. Everyone else was asleep in other tents. Buffy took a pad of paper & wrote down 'the words'.
Buffy: "Thanks Giles."
Buffy was aware that someone was watching her.
"Everything worked out." Buffy told Angel.
Angel: "Did it? So, you have the old powers. Psychic ability? Even more extra human strength? Do you feel any smarter?"
Buffy: "Angel, after all this time. You thought you couldn't be with me because you'd endanger your soul. But, you were wrong. The curse that you have, contains no curse. All it was was your soul, no happiness clause. All of this time & we could have been happy together. & now it's too late."
Angel was taken aback.
Buffy: "It's too late because..." Buffy couldn't finish her sentence, she just cried. Angel held her.
Angel: "I'm not cursed?"
Buffy: "You're free from curses. Love will never be able to take your soul away."
For a few moments Angel digested this information, as if he wasn't already in an uproar, Buffy added after a minute: "Why didn't you ever tell me about that day?"
Angel: "What day?"
Buffy: "The one you know I'm talking about. The day I felt your heart beat."
Angel: "Oh, Buffy, I couldn't tell you. It would complicate your life. I had to bear it alone."
Buffy: "& bear it everyday since... I knew you couldn't tell me & I know why. I just thought you knowing I knew about that day would be an icebreaker into what today is going to be."
Angel looked at Buffy.
Buffy: "No questions. No doubts. Night fall is in a few hours, & those hours are too precious to waste on worries."
Angel stood still for a moment & then pulled Buffy to him & kissed her.
Buffy pulled back momentarily from his kisses: "& this time, I promise not to forget."
