Buffy & The Four Ch. 03

Giles straightened. "Now, it is vital that you all understand. On no account must you disturb Tara or speak to the imp. No matter what, you must not cross into the circle, understood? The consequences of trying would be very bad. Very bad indeed."

Tara gingerly took the skin from Giles and smoothed it out on the floor so that the top end of it touched the apex of the chalk triangle. The triangle had a circle about six feet across drawn inside it, touching each plane. Tara lit the three black candles she had positioned and then sat down cross-legged before the parchment, facing the circle.

When Giles had joined the others at the back of the room, she began her chant.

"Hecate, receive this plea and look favourably upon me. Grant me your protection and bless this symbol with your power. Seal this room from the reach of the abyss. Lock this time from the key of the eternal. Bind the infernal within your light."

As she chanted, the young witch drew symbols in the air before her with two stiff fingers. On the word "light", she cast a pinch of sulphur into the flame of the nearest candle. It was consumed in a blaze and a tiny ball of foul-smelling, yellowish smoke drifted upward.

"Hecate, guide my call into the Abyss. Focus my words on the ears of those I seek. With your will and might, pull the veil apart. Hecate, do this on the treaty of your servant, do this at the behest of your daughter."

Holding a finger over a small jar of ink, Tara pricked it with a needle and squeezed three drops of her blood out. Picking up the sharpened stick Dawn had fetched earlier, she used it as a substitute quill and began to write after dipping it into the ink.

"Creature of knowledge, creature of temptation, appear to me." As she spoke, she drew sigils and runes onto the skin. It served well enough. "Little nightwing, come. Tiny fiend, hark. This woman bids you trade, this woman seeks your council."

Bowing her head, Tara flicked her hand toward the circle so that a small amount of her blood spattered across it. Then she waited. After about three seconds, the blood began to sizzle and boil. A jet of yellow gas sprang up in the exact centre of the circle, about four feet from the witch, and spouted a foot high.

As the gas appeared, the chalk outline of the circle began to emit a red glow. When the gas cloud had billowed out and dispersed, a small demon was left in its place.

The creature was human looking, except for pointed ears, bat wings and coal-black skin. It was about six inches tall and had a wingspan of about a foot. With unnaturally slow wingbeats, it hovered two foot off the floor and stared into Tara's eyes.

"You are brave witch, to call upon one as mighty as I."

Dawn did not take her gaze off the imp, but leant closer to Giles. "Is he for real? Mighty? I've got dolls bigger than him," she whispered.

"Don't make the mistake of assuming size and power are the same thing, they are not." He kept his voice as low as hers, "Imps may look harmless but they are vicious little monsters that drink the misery of those who invoke them."

"I am Tara MaClay. I summoned you to hear my request and grant me your wisdom."

The imp responded in the formal manner. "I am Oswald Bull. I bow to your request for an audience. Tell me your plight child."

Tara put her finger down to the bottom of the skin she had written on and rubbed her blood upon it. The invocation aspect of the spell completed, she sighed and folded her hands on her lap. The imp shook itself as the thrall of the calling wore off and it hissed in anger.

"You dare to summon me?! Foolish mortal, you know not that which you have done."

"Three of my friends are possessed and I wish to know h..how to free them," Tara stated.

"H..how?" the imp mimicked. "Cluck, cluck little chicken. Why do you waste my time, girl?"

"Three of my friends are possessed and I wish to know how t..to free them," Tara repeated.

"Stubborn little mouse, aren't you? I eat mice, don't you know? What can you possibly offer me in return for the bounty of my knowledge?"

This was not going as Tara had hoped. The imp seemed to think she was not worthy of trading with and she was unsure of what to do next. Trying to calm herself, she restarted the compact. "I am Tara MaClay. I summoned you to hear my request and grant me your wisdom."

This time, however, the imp was not bound to respond in kind. "I am Oswald Bull. Go away little bird before my wrath scalds you!" With that, the fluttering little demon swooped toward her, but when it got above with the glowing chalk it was repulsed as if it had hit a solid wall.

"Well done, witch! Your spell is strong. Now free me or suffer the consequences."

"N..not until you tell me what I want to know," she replied, a hard edge to her voice. The imp raised a surprised eyebrow and then grinned.

"Okay. What is it you require, again?"

"You know what I require. How do I gain the freedom of my friends? How do I harmlessly remove that which possesses Buffy, Willow and Anya?"

Giles shifted a little. "That was clever," he whispered to the three young women. "She included harmlessly into the compact. If she had not, then it is just like an imp to give her a method that would kill Buffy and the others."

"So it is three lives you wish to save, Wicca?"

"Yes."

"What price would you pay for this?"

"Anything. What do you ask?"

"I think one life for three is a good bargain. Sell me your soul and I will give you the information to save your friends."

"Damn!" Giles hissed.

"She can't do that, can she?" Dawn gasped, looking at the Englishman to allay her fears.

"Now that he has stated a price, she must either agree or decline. The imp has manoeuvred her into letting him set the conditions of the compact. It's my fault, I should have told her the exact words to use to prevent this!"

Tara bowed her head as she considered her options. She had none. If she agreed, Willow would be saved. Swallowing, she lifted her head, "Oka..."

"WAIT!" Giles stood. "Demon, we will not let her give you what you ask for. Tell us what we wish to know!"

Ru whispered to Dawn, "Wasn't he the one who told us to be quiet and not interfere?"

The hovering demon screwed its face up and spat in Giles' direction. "You are nothing, human. What impudence to speak to me! For that, I will add suffering to the witch's bargain. She will pay for your folly."

"She will not!" Giles strode forward until he stood by Tara's shoulder. The imp flew higher so that it was eye to eye with the Watcher. Giles looked livid. "You will tell us what we want to know or YOU will pay the price for that!"

"Ha! What foolishness. You cannot coax me with idle threats. I have far more power than you can imagine. If it were not for me being bound within this circle, you would all be in torment already. So don't waste your useless threats on me, human, and be thankful that neither human nor demon can cross these boundaries!"

Giles took off his spectacles and polished them on the hem of his waistcoat as he became so calm it seemed menacing. "You are correct that humans and demons cannot cross that boundary. However," he turned to the women at the back of the room. "Faith? Would you be so kind as to go in there and introduce yourself?"

"Now you're talkin'," she growled. "About fucking time we did things my kind of way."

Quickly, she strode forward and crossed into the mystic circle. Almost. Unlike the imp, who was repelled fully, she penetrated part of the circle before it flared with brighter light. She yelped in agony at the nerve searing pain and jerked backward. "Fuck!"

The imp seemed amazed that she had been able to even partly enter the circle, but he found her pain hysterical. Faith scowled at the uncontrolled laughter and glanced to Giles. He was stood emotionless to her failure.

"Enter the circle," he told her.

Taking a deep breath the Slayer set herself and then rushed forward. Half her body made it through, but the magic boundary flashed and threw her across the room. She screamed as she skidded across the floor, and began to flap her hand to try to get rid of the searing pain coursing through her arm. "OW! Fucking hell, Giles!"

"Again."

"What?! No way!"

"Again."

"Are you crazy? That fuckin' hurts! And I'm not kiddin' either. I can take my share of pain, but that is something special."

"So it is. Now cross into the circle."

She picked herself up and glared daggers at her Watcher. He stood impassively, seemingly not bothered by her pain.

This time, the barrier flung her onto her back, gasping and crying in agony.

"Giles! Stop it!" Dawn begged, horror on her face.

The Englishman looked down at the Slayer. "Get up and do as you are told."

Her vision dancing, her blood roaring in her ears, Faith rolled on her side and coughed raggedly in awe at the unbelievable pain. "Jesus."

The room was silent apart from the demon's laughter.

Terribly slowly, the brunette raised herself to her hands and knees, and then wavered to her feet. "Giles, I can't..." she said, weakly.

"Do it."

This time, the look she gave him was one of hurt. She had thought he cared for her a little more than he obviously did. "You wouldn't keep asking Buffy to suffer that."

"No," he said, flatly. "She would have done what I asked on the first attempt."

Faith's look of betrayal at his words was echoed by Dawn's shocked gasp.

The imp was struggling to regain its composure. "Ha ha ha! What a stupid human you are! This man tells you to do something and you do it? Why?"

Faith twisted her eyes to the little fiend and set her jaw. "Because he's my Watcher." She lowered her shoulder and dashed forward. When she struck the barrier, it flared again and assailed her with further all-consuming agony, but this time she burst through and skidded to a halt in the middle of the circle. Now she was inside, the pain ripping through her veins was less, but still almost unbearable.

"You can't do that, you're human!" the small thing gasped in astonishment. He flew sideways, but not quick enough to avoid her grasp.

"I can do anything I want," she replied through gritted teeth. "I may be human, but I'm also a Slayer. Now, Batfink, do you sing or do I squeeze?"

Its body only just long enough for its head to jut out of her fist, the imp shrieked, "Wait! I'll tell, I'll tell!"

"Well you can start by giving us your real name," Giles said pleasantly, as he replaced his spectacles.

"I told you already. It's Oswald Bull!"

At a glance from the Watcher, Faith gave a gentle squeeze.

"I'm telling you the truth! My name is Oswald Bull!"

Veruca turned to Dawn. "Why is his name so important?"

"Names have power, I think," the teenager replied. "If Tara knows its real name, she can use it in any of a dozen spells. Anything from a summons to a death spell, I suppose."

Giles nodded to Faith and the Slayer applied a little more pressure. The demon screamed until she slackened her grip enough for it to breathe. "Why do you not believe me?" it wheedled.

"How stupid do you think I am?" Giles asked. "I know imps like to play games, but you're not very good at it, are you? Honestly, Oswald Bull? Ossie is short for Oswald, is it not? So that makes you Ossie Bull. Imp Ossie Bull. I mean, really! Is that the best you could do? Now we will try the truth, shall we?"

Faith squeezed to let the imp know what his future held if he did not obey. She prayed he would start talking, because she was not sure how much longer she could stand the intense pain inside the red light of the circle.

"Okay, okay!" he finally squealed. "My real name is Penk. Satisfied?"

For a long moment, Giles studied the terrified creature before deciding that this time it was telling the truth. "Okay, Penk. Now you know that we can punish you severely anytime we wish to with that information, don't you?"

"Yes," it said, sadly.

"So tell us what we want to know."

The imp opened its mind to the ether and let its magic work. "You wish to know how to remove the possession from the individuals named Buffy Anne Summers, Willow Rosenberg and Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins. That will not be easy; they are consumed by the essence of Hate."

"Christina Emmanuella?" Ru sniggered.

"You're one to talk about funny names, VERUCA," Dawn giggled. "Anyway, Anya changes her name nearly as often as she changes the style and colour of her hair."

Giles paced back and forth. "Who did this?"

"Ruth Gordon with the aid of her coven, who call themselves The Daughters of Gaia."

Dawn gasped, despite the fact that they had already suspected the teen witches. "Even though Buffy left them alone after that business with The Spirit of Oak? Those bitches! That's the last time I lend Mary my calculator, I'll tell you!"

"Isn't creating an essence beyond their abilities?" Tara asked Penk.

"Normally yes. But Ruth has gained a powerful ally in Gohnarth. He is artificially feeding her power by way of the Machina Demonica."

"The Machina Demonica!" Giles murmured. "I thought it was a myth. Can it really be used in such a way?"

"Yes," the imp said, smugly. "Even now, it channels magical power across the dimensions and into Ruth Gordon."

"Who's this Gonads dude?" Faith asked Giles.

"Gohnarth. He is one of the Elder demons. We had already decided that he was involved, somehow, because of the Hagna demons that attacked you and Buffy. There are very few references to him, but they all agree that he is deadly. Around the time that the purebred demons left Earth's dimension, legend has it that Gohnarth built his infernal machine. Supposedly, he uses it to lure victims to him and then takes his entertainment from them. To be honest, I always assumed the bit about a mystical/mechanical machine was an exaggeration, but it seems not."

"So, without him, the Daughters of Gaia would be back to their old wanna-blessed-be status and not super witches?"

"Yes, I suppose so," the Englishman nodded.

"In that case, how do I get to Gohnarth and slay him?"

"You cannot. Gohnarth is ancient and wise. If my memory serves me right, the texts claim he sealed his dimension with a spell that allows only him to open the gates. We could complete the rituals to gain his notice, but he will only appear if he wants to. And I should imagine that he knows all about us and so is unlikely to invite us into his lair."

"There must be a way, Giles."

"Somehow, yes. But I cannot think what that is. Penk, how can we stop the Machina Demonica from feeding power to Ruth?"

"Break it," the imp replied, simply.

The Englishman hissed in frustration, but rephrased his question. "How can we get into Gohnarth's dimension to break the Machina Demonica?"

"You can only do that when the machine is in operation. The mystic energy it is directing leaves a pinprick hole in the fabric of the dimension wall as it passes through; you can get in by way of that."

"How?" he asked, reigning in all the patience he could.

"It needs the hole to be widened enough for you to pass through. To do this you need a very powerful witch or the combined efforts of a large coven. The only one who could do it single-handed would be Willow Rosenberg."

Giles sagged. "This is the chicken and the egg! We need to break the Machina Demonica to free Willow, and we need a free Willow to help us break the machine!"

The imp sniggered quietly, but Faith heard it and squeezed harder. "What? What are you laughing at?"

"ARGH! Stop, stop! I'll tell, I'll tell!" When she relented, the demon did as he claimed. "I did not say that you needed to destroy the Machina Demonica to free your friends."

"Yes, you did!" Giles snapped.

"No, I didn't. You asked me how Ruth Gordon got the power to summon the essence and I told you. Then you asked me how you could stop it feeding power to the witch. What you want to know is how you can free Willow Rosenberg and the others from the possessive power of the essence of Hate."

"Well?"

"You need to counter each one with the correct token of love."

"Stop stretching this out and just tell us as simply as you can what we need!"

"Each girl is infected with what is essentially liquid hate. A side effect is that each victim now serves those who created it, the Daughters of Gaia, but basically you need an antidote. The antidote to hate is love. What you need to do is use an essence of Love to counter the essence of Hate."

"How can we create an essence of Love?"

"The blessing rite of Aphrodite will alter the raw material into a pure essence."

"Okay, what material?"

"The fruit of an act of love."

"Oh, I see."

"I don't understand," Dawn said, looking to Giles for an explanation.

"According to the imp, we need to create the opposite of what was used to infect Buffy, Willow and Anya. Basically, what we need is semen to bless."

Dawn's face slowly turned to one of dismay and disgust as his words sunk in. "You mean magic cum, don't you?"

"Not quite, but you're near enough."

"Why does it always have to be cum?"

"Well, ahem, semen is the very essence of life, so to speak. All magic takes its root in life energy to some extent. A magic user essentially jump starts a spell with some of their own life essence; that is why a witch gets tired the more magic she uses. However, some spells require ingredients and one of the most powerful is semen."

"So then you just get it like we did to summon Ko-lan The Seer, huh?"

"No," the imp interrupted. "For it to be transformed into the essence of love, it needs to be spilled during the act and mingled with the juice of a woman to become the fruit of love."

"Did I just hear right?" Ru asked. "We need a ritual that involves having sex and then blessing the goo afterwards?"

"Eloquently put," Giles sighed.

Faith gasped, the wrenching pain of the magic barrier wearing her down. As she did so, her hand tightened a little on the imp, who yelped and assumed it was a goad to gain more information. "There is more master," he cried. "To increase the chances of success, you must use the fruit from someone who loves the person you are trying to cure. If both love the intended recipient of the potion, the chances of a cure are increased tenfold."

"Let me get this straight," Faith said. "We need to get two people who love Buffy to fuck each other, collect the cum afterward and then get Tara to bless it?"

"Yes, mistress," the imp nodded.

Faith glanced at Giles. His lips firmed into a tight line as he considered all this. "Is there no other way?"

"Not available to you. A Gugguk could mate with them and the essence of Hate would migrate into it, but it takes a year to awaken a Gugguk."

"Very helpful," the Watcher sighed, sarcastically. "You may go, now."

Faith released the little demon and it fluttered away before giving her the finger and vanishing in a cloud of sulphur. As soon as it was gone, the Slayer staggered back out of the circle and collapsed to the floor. Giles rushed to her side and gently took hold of her arm, "Are you okay?"

"Five by five," she winced. "Fuck that hurt!"

"I am sorry to have had to ask you to do it."

"That's what we do, isn't it? You command and I obey."

A rueful smile appeared on both their faces as Giles chuckled, "In theory."

++++++++++

"Show me again."

Willow nodded and carefully repeated the gesture while Jody watched. The young girl brushed her jet-black bangs to the side and hooked them behind her ears. "And will it work?"

"Sure."

"Cool."

"What are you doing?" Mary asked as she slipped into the dorm room after her shower, a yellow towel wrapped around her body and another around her head. She was surprised to see that Jody was sat on the floor, huddled with the redheaded Wicca, while Kimberley was sat at the single desk with her school books open.