Chapter 8: Confession Is Good For The What?:

//I’m no different,
I am just the same//

Buffy was used to being to some extent an phenomenon; after all when you are a teenage girl with superpowers you don’t have much of a option in the matter. However now she was just feeling abnormal – different – and even though she was, it was not a pleasant sensation. After explaining who she in reality was – and mentally apologising to Giles for breaking cover, yet again – and where she had come from, several of them were avoiding her, numerous were staring at her and one person in particular was still glaring at her with his set of cold blue eyes.

Not that she actually could condemn him, she had unquestionably not helped the circumstances when it came right down to it and to him. The most unpleasant part of it all was that she had no understanding of why she cared about his disposition or what he thought of her - she just did and it was driving her crazy. She just kept going over and over what she had said to him and each time she got embarrassed by her words, even though she did feel that he deserved them a little.

~~

“I was sent here to protect *you* and your siblings,” Buffy shouted at the irate young man in front of her. Neither of the combatants noticed that most of the once large crowd had dissipated, unwilling and unwanting to get involved in this dispute, instead choosing to tend the wounded.

“Who would send *you* - a schoolgirl – here to safeguard anyone?”

Buffy took immense gratification in delivering her line, “Your beloved Aslan.”

Peter looked as though she had struck him at the thought that the great lion had not trusted him enough to keep his siblings from harm. “Aslan would never do that. He knows that I am capable taking care of myself… and the others.”

“And naturally this is all about *you*, isn’t it?”

“Aslan probably told you Caspian and you are just…”

“Nope, Caspian was never mentioned. Face it, your precious Aslan has more faith in *him* than in *you*,” Buffy had the last word before walking away, feeling his spiteful glare boring into her back as she retreated.

~~

She sighed at the repeating thoughts and kept on walking, following the group at an unobtrusive distance, disinclined to cause any additional distress than she previously had. So caught up in her own wretchedness, she had failed to observe that she was no longer alone.

“I’m sorry,” came a voice, breaking her from her disheartening thoughts.

She looked down and saw Trumpkin walking next to her, “For what?”

“I didn’t like you, not sure if I do now or not,” he told her brusquely. “I set out to shatter your bond with the Kings and Queens of Old. I figured you were dangerous to them.”

“Well… congratulations.”

“I am sorry I outed you.”

“Don’t worry about it! It would have come out eventually; you can only suppress your true nature for so long.”

“I am also sorry for – uh – maybe…”

“Being a little monster?” she offered helpfully.

“There is no need to be rude.”

They walked in silence for a few more minutes, before Buffy spoke. “If it helps… I’m sorry too.”

“You are referring to wanting to kill me, right?”

“What else?”

Trumpkin laughed and Buffy allowed herself to be distracted by her new found friend. “So, Buffy… what exactly is a vampire?”

It was mid-afternoon when they at long last broke through the trees and left the shadows and protection of the forest. They found themselves standing in an open expanse, staring at an extraordinary construction in the distance. As a group they moved towards it and once they had reached the entrance, the Centaurs lined up along the path inside and raised their swords up high.

The Pevensie children went on ahead and as Caspian went to follow with the others, he noticed that Buffy did not. “Are you not coming?”

“I think I’m going to – uh – check around the outside,” she replied as the others paraded past her. At Caspian’s incredulous look, she rephrased her last statement, “I think everyone else would be more comfortable if I checked around outside.”

“They will get over it.”

“I’m simply putting a little space between me and them. I’ll come inside soon.” When he made no move to leave her company, she said to him, “If you don’t hurry inside, Mr. I-am-the-High-King will take over…”

With that one inconsequential observation, Caspian just about ran inside his headquarters ready to wrestle off the takeover that his imagination – or then again maybe not – had Peter planning. With a sigh, Buffy went off by herself to double check the security precautions and rummage around for any exploitable weaknesses in the structure.

When she ultimately entered - what the Fauns on guard duty had referred to as Aslan’s How - a few hours later, she was astonished to find that Caspian had done an outstanding job in setting up his base of operations. She could see a cluster of Narnians, some that had been in the woods earlier and others that were fresh faces, crafting weapons, but she did not see anyone that she knew.

Coming around a corner she thought that she heard Caspian’s voice up ahead and as she walked towards the sound, she realised that he was not unaccompanied. That Peter – unbelievably – was with him and they were not killing each other. She was very nearly to them when their conversation caught her awareness and she flushed with mortification as she realised it was she that they were speaking about.

“Vampires? The future? She is obviously delusional,” Peter’s incensed voice echoed at full volume.

“I believe her.”

“You would,” Peter scoffed.

“It is especially sad,” Caspian answered. “You who love her doubts and I who scarcely know her believes.”

Uncomfortable Buffy headed like greased lightning back down the passageway, the way she came and then headed in the opposed direction in search of Asterius and the other Minotaurs. This was to push the eavesdropped discussion from her mind and to put herself in a more conventional position, talking about death and destruction.

As night fell, one of the sentry’s came hurrying inside with news. He told his account over and over as he attempted to get close enough to either the Prince or one of the other Royals to give them the information. In due course he did get to Peter and when he heard what was going on, he and - to some extent - Caspian called a meeting of the generals to be held in the stone table room.

Buffy was only attending the meeting because Caspian had asked her to be present at it, even though she was not convinced why he had done so. Slipping into the back of the room once it had already started, she leaned up against one of the stone walls and stayed back as the others discuss what was going on and what they were planning to do about it.

She was not in the slightest take by surprise when Peter knocked Caspian out of the way to take the lead. It reminded her of precisely how she had acted when Kendra had first arrived in Sunnydale and the two of them had competed for Giles’ consideration and affection, before they had come to realise they needed to work together or they were all condemned.

“It is only a matter of time. Miraz’s men and war machines are on their way. That means those same men are not protecting his castle,” Peter stood in the middle of the room proclaiming.

“What do you propose we do, Sire?” Reepicheep asked with an almost sickening devotion.

As she had expected, both Caspian and Peter stepped forward with their opinions and strategy. It was truthfully nearly comical the way that they both spoke at the same time. “We…” Caspian began as Peter uttered, “Our…”

She watched in an amalgamation of dissatisfaction and repulsion as the two men locked gazes, only to have Peter intimidate the Prince. “Our only hope is to strike them before they strike us.”

Caspian looked horrified at Peter’s suggestion, “But that is crazy. No one has ever taken that castle.”

“There is always a first time.”

“We’d have the element of surprise,” Trumpkin added.

“But we have the advantage here,” Caspian pointed out.

Buffy almost broke out laughing at the look on Peter’s face as his sister; Susan stepped forward to defend Caspian’s idea. “If we dig in, we could probably hold out indefinitely.”

Peter glared at Caspian, “Look, I appreciate what you have done, but this not a fortress, it is a tomb!”

Edmund stepped up to side with his brother, “Yes, and if the Telmarine’s are smart, they will just starve us out.”

A squirrel next to Reepicheep piped up, “We could collect nuts!”

Reepicheep glared at the offensive animal, “Oh yes and throw them at the Telmarines... Shut up!” He then turned back to Peter, “I think you know where I stand on this, Sire.”

Peter strode over to Glenstorm, “If I can get your troops in, can you handle the guards.”

“Or die trying, my liege,” was the stoic response.

“That is what I’m worried about,” Lucy said from her seat on the stone table.

“Sorry?”

“Well, you’re acting like there are only two choices: Dying here or dying there.”

Peter practically patted her on the head, “I’m not sure you have really been listening, Lu.”

“No, you’re not listening. Or have you forgotten who really defeated the White Witch, Peter?”

Peter looked thunderous, “I think we have waited for Aslan long enough.”

“Wait,” Caspian said turning surprisingly towards her and giving her the reason why he had invited her there. “Buffy, what do you think?”

She was disconcerted by the turn of events, as she found all eyes on herself once more that day – including Peter’s infuriated ones. “You want *my* opinion?”

“Yes,” Caspian established, upholding his guarantee to believe her in future.

“Why not?” Peter added his voice dripping with frost and ridicule.

“Okay… I think you’re equally wrong,” she said. Turning towards Peter, “You should listen when someone who has lived in a place his whole life tells you that it is crazy to try and take control of it.” And before Caspian could gloat she started on him, “And you… digging in might work for a while, but Edmund is right they would starve us out. You should both be listening to Lucy, there is always another choice and that one might not lead to death and blood.”

“So, your suggestion is?” Caspian asked.

Meeting Peter’s icy blue glare with a furious green one of her own, “The woods.”

“The woods?”

“The Narnians have successfully hidden in the woods for how long? The better part of thirteen hundred years. No one ever saw them; it was like they were invisible. We could use that advantage to make a pre-emptive strike against Miraz’s men. They would never see us coming.”

“That is the most ludicrous thing I‘ve heard,” Peter told her. “My plan is the only one that makes tactical sense and we’re using it.”

“Well then…” Buffy told him with conviction. “When it fails, we will all know who was to blame, won’t we?”

Most of the others – Narnians, Telmarine Princes and such – had left the room and Buffy was pondering whether or not to follow or to stay put and keep out of the way until she was needed. She felt that she might have been a little too antagonistic – not infrequent when dealing with Peter that day – when she had told him that if the plan failed it would be his fault. But he had royally pissed her off again, if you added that to the fact that she was still angry over earlier, it just led to a thoroughly pissed off slayer.

She was more than a little astounded when she turned around and found Lucy and Susan standing there, both with hesitant smiles on their faces. Buffy returned the smiles speculatively, as she wondered why they were there and what they wanted from her.

“Thank you,” Lucy said. “For backing me up now… and for saving me earlier.”

“Lu, you didn’t have to thank me.”

“I wanted too.”

Susan also spoke, “I wanted to apologise to you for earlier. It might have been a shock, but I should have listened to you instead of judging.”

“And I should have told you all the truth earlier,” Buffy admitted. “It was just kind of nice to be normal for once.”

“Well… I doubt we would have believed you anyway,” Lucy told her, flushing pink.

The three of them stood there staring at each other for a moment, before Susan spoke once more. “So… vampires?”

“You’re kidding me? You are Queen of a magical world and you’re giving me attitude?”

They all doubles up laughing at that and the three of them left the stone table room together, to find out what was going on with the others and the positions that they had been allocated to play in Peter’s *great* plan to storm Miraz’s fortified castle.

End Part

Lyrics:

Vanessa Amorossi – Absolutely Everybody

Notes:

~~ = Flashback