 |
|
Buffy stood staring at the large oval mirror for a long while before she finally asked, “And I’m supposed to be looking at...?”“Don’t you know what this is?” Giles asked, with a touch of mild annoyance in his voice.
“Um, wait,” Buffy said, putting her finger up to her mouth, “let me guess. Could it be...a mirror?”
Her last remark drew a chorus of muted chuckles from Willow, Oz and Xander, who were quite amused by the site. It was always fun watching Buffy and Giles have verbal sparing matches, but it was even more enjoyable now that he wasn’t her Watcher. It was almost as thought the “former” Watcher had joined their ranks, and become a full fledged member of the ‘Scooby gang’.
In everyone’s minds, Giles would always be Buffy’s Watcher, no matter what COW and Wesley Wyndham-Price said. But now, there were far less restraints, and far fewer rules.
Giles got up from the desk, where he had been sitting, and walked over to the mirror. His hand traced the fine carvings along its golden frame. The mirror stood as tall as he, and wide enough to fit two people in its reflection, and yet, appeared weightless. It was, in fact, quite light for its size...which was something that amazed the men who delivered it to the library.
“This ‘Mirror’,” Giles began to explain, “happens to be...”
“The ‘Looking Glass’. Which, as legend has it, allows the user to see into the future,” Wesley interrupted, as he briskly walked into the library. He stopped and gave Giles a look of disdain, “Thank you for letting me know this arrived,” he said sarcastically.
“Did I forget?” Giles smirked, “How thoughtless of me.” Ignoring Wesley, he turned to Buffy and said, “Its magic had been lost through the ages, rendering the mirror useless.”
“I don’t think it’s useless,” Willow chimed in, “Beautiful, yes...if you like bizarre, Rune covered mirrors...which, by the way, I do. But I wouldn’t say useless.” She looked into the mirror and frowned, “Am I getting fat?”
“So,” Buffy said, ignoring her friend’s comment, “if the magic is lost, than it’s like you lost the ignition key...you can’t start it up. Why bring it here?”
“Yes Mister Giles,” Wesley asked, folding his arms, “Why indeed?”
There where many times in which Giles longed to pop the impertinent little twirp right in the mouth, in the hopes it would shut him up...this was one of those times. He held back his impulse, however, out of respect for Buffy. If he were to show the Council, just what kind of a threat he really was to their ‘precious’ plans, it would endanger him, and...ultimately hurt Buffy. And, right now, she needed him more than ever.
So, Rupert Giles, bit his tongue and answered the man, “I might have discovered the spell to reactivate the Mirror.”
Wesley’s reaction was a mixture of excitement and annoyance, “Really! Why wasn’t this reported to the Council? If the Mirror could be activated again...its uses would be limitless.”
I know, Giles thought. And I also know what kind of power it would give to its owner
“Well, since I am no longer a Watcher,” Giles said with great satisfaction, “I don’t have to report anything to the Council...now, do I?”
“He aims, he shoots..he scores! Two points for the G-man,” Xander cheered.
The young Watcher stood his ground, “Whether you are, or aren’t a Watcher is irrelevant. The Council has a right to know about this find...”
Giles grabbed Wesley by the lapels and practically lifted him off his feet, “If you say anything about this, before I’ve finished my research,” he said menacingly, “I’ll be the one to break your kneecaps! Are we understood?”
“Q...quite,” Wesley stammered. As soon as Giles released him, and he regained his composure, he added, “I will expect a full report on this, when you have completed your work.”
Giles glared at Wesley, “I’ll even put it on my personal stationary, just for you.”
“Very good then,” he said with a small amount of triumph. Then turning to Buffy he asked, “Shouldn’t you be out patrolling?”
“Gee,” Buffy gave a pout, “you sure know how to take the fun out of Slaying,” She grabbed her Slayer bag, and motioned to her friends, “Come on guys, I think Giles wants to be alone with his new toy.”
Wesley watched the teens start to head toward the door and interjected, “What? Are they all going out Slaying with you? This is a sacred duty, not...not a night on the town!”
“Relax GJ,” Xander said, “We’re not muscling in on Buffy’s Sacred Duty. She Slays, we...well, we mostly duck and cover.”
As the gang left the library, Wesley looked at the older man and sighed, “Are they always this way? I don’t know how you understand American teenagers.”
“I stopped trying about three years ago.”
Wesley took his glasses off and wiped them, shaking his head in exasperation, “And what, in heavens name, does GJ mean?”
Giles smiled and turned back toward the Mirror, “It means Giles Junior.”
****** The following day, Buffy Willow and Xander meet at the library, curious to find out how far Giles got in his research. But, no sooner did they stepped through the doors, that they discovered just how far he didn’t get.
“Damnit!” Giles hissed, closing a book with a loud thud, “This book speaks in riddles!”
“Wow,” Xander grinned, “Been up all night with this? Somebody needs a nappy-bye.”
“Xander,” Buffy hushed, seeing the frustrated look on Giles’ face.
She felt for the Watcher. For Giles to get aggravated over research, it must be either an impossible spell to figure out, or he was running out of time. And the way, her mentor paced the hard wood floor, she strongly suspected it was both.
“Hey Giles,” Buffy asked as chipper as she could, “How’s it going?” Buffy caught the angry expression on Giles' face and said, “I would guess that would be...not well.”
Giles ran his fingers through his hair, as he continued to pace, “I’ve tried every spell I could think of that had a sun and a moon in it, and nothing!”
“Okay,” Xander said confused, “either I missed part of this conversation, or you’re talking in riddles.”
“That’s my point!” Giles said, rubbing his aching temples, “It’s this damn riddle!”
“Now I’m confused,” Buffy admitted, “What riddle? I thought you had a spell?”
It was then that Giles turned to Buffy and replied, “I don’t have a spell...exactly. What I found, was this riddle having to do with the Mirror. It reads, ‘Stand before and tho shalt see, the Sun and the Moon will open thee.’ I have been trying to cast spells having to do with the sun and moon all night, and the only thing I got for my troubles is a patch of burnt floor.”
“Wow,” Xander said, looking at the blackened floor, "That's something even a gallon of paint won't cover up."
Willow moved closer to the Mirror and studied it carefully, “Hey look at this,” she pointed to a small piture of the Sun on the right and a similar piture of the moon on the left, “Sun...and Moon. Mmmm, I wonder...”
“Will, share.” Buffy begged.
Willow turned to Giles and asked, “What are these small writings in between the Sun and Moon?”
Giles stepped in for a closer look and answered, “They are ancient Gaelic.” He began to read the words to himself and suddenly looked as thought he was struck by a hammer, “My god! It couldn’t be that simple! Could it?”
“What?” Buffy asked.
“The spell is right here in front of us,” Giles smiled, “Of course, that makes sense. What better place to hide the reactivation spell, then right out in the open...”
“...where no one will look,” Xander finished, “So I guess you can get the magic mirror to tell you who’s the fairest in the land, after all.”
Giles stood in front of the Mirror and recited the spell. Buffy, Willow, and Xander waited for something to happen. A puff of smoke, an earth shattering kaboom...anything other than the silence they were now hearing. They waited...and nothing happened.
“I don’t understand,” Giles sighed, throwing his hands up in the air, “I have got to figure this out before that Wesley Wyndham-Twirp goes to the Council...if he hasn’t already.”
As they continued to struggle over the spell, Buffy felt a familiar presence enter the library. Then she heard an even familiar voice, “Hi Honey, I thought I’d find you here.”
Buffy turned around to find her mother standing there, wearing a warm smile, and bearing cookies. “Mom,” she asked, “Um...not that I'm unhappy to see you, but...what are you doing here?”
“Buffy,” Joyce reassured her daughter, “I know I promised that I would stay out of your Slaying life...and I am. I had to meet with Principle Snyder about your progress report. You know, you’re right, that man is a little toad,” she suddenly stopped and noticed the mirror for the first time, which seemed to glow brightly the moment she entered the room, “My, what a beautiful mirror, Mr. Giles, where did you get it?”
Giles looked at the Mirror, then at Joyce...then back again, not believing his eyes. The closer Joyce got to the Mirror, the brighter it shimmered, until it was noticeable to all in the room. “Sun...Moon.” he muttered over and over, trying to process a vast amount of information all at once. Then the truth struck home, “That’s it! I...I should have thought of it before. The Sun and the Moon, in the ancient Pagan religions, represents the God and the Goddess. Or, more importantly...man and woman. The riddle should read, ‘Stand before and tho shalt see the Man and the Woman will open me’.”
“So, all you need a man and woman stand in front of the Mirror,” Willow reasoned, “Then recite the spell, and the Mirror will open?”
“Yes,” Giles agreed, “A...at least in theory. But I’ll need to try it out.”
“Not with my mother you’re not!” Buffy protested, “I’ll do this spell thingie with you, but you leave her out of this.”
Willow pointed out, “I don’t think it'll work with you...or me. We both stood near the Mirror and nothing happened. But look at how it glows when your mom goes near it. I think it likes her.”
“What likes me,” Joyce said, completely in the dark, “Buffy, what’s going on?”
****** It took about five minutes to fully explain the past day’s events to Joyce, and another twenty to convince her that they all weren’t crazy. Fighting vampires and demons were one thing, but magic mirrors...that was something out of a fairy tale. And Joyce Summers did not believe in fairy tales.
Which was probably why she agreed to help Giles with the spell. After all, what harm could it do, to stand in front of some mirror for a few minutes, reciting a spell that would, most likely, not work?
The two adults stood in front of the ‘Looking Glass’, gazing into it’s flawless reflection. Giles was on the right, and Joyce on the left, when he began to recite the incantation. As he spoke, the Mirror glowed brighter and brighter, until it was almost blinding. And then, when they thought it was at it’s maximum illumination, tendrils of golden light shot out of the Mirror, like sun spots, sorrounding all those in the room, and bathing them in its warmth.
The tendrils danced in the air around each person until it settled around Giles and Joyce, playing with them, as a kitten would with a ball of yarn; first softly batting, then rolling around them. The sensation was strange, and yet, comforting. To be touched by pure light was like being touched by God. But then, the comfort disappeared.
And changed to pain.
The light tendrils, that once caressed their bodies, lashed out, stinging them like a thousand insects. They tried to move, but the Mirror held onto their very souls. As the pain increased to a level that was almost unbearable, Giles could see Buffy and the others doing everything they could to release the grip that the ‘Looking Glass’ had on them. But every time they tried, they failed.
As the world around him began to fade, he reached out for Joyce’s hand, hoping that just being in contact with another living person, would stop the darkness from invading his mind. He was wrong. And the last thing he felt before the blackness took over, was Joyce holding firmly to his hand, and pulling him close.
|
|