Otherside
part 2/3
Author: Frau Hunter Ash
Copyright © 2004 by Hunter Ash. All Rights Reserved.
Email: hunterash1@...
hunterash@...
Feedback welcome!!
Homepage Addy: http://www.hunterash.com/

Disclaimers: The characters and show all belong to Joss Whedon, Fox,
Mutant Enemy, Kuzui, and God only knows who else. The storyline,
however, is the sole property of the author. This story cannot be
sold or used for profit in any way. Copies of this story may be made
for private use only and must include all disclaimers and copyright
notices.

F/F romance: the story assumes a loving and sexual relationship
between people of the same and opposite genders. If this offends or
is illegal for you, then please leave. Come back when you are older,
have an open mind, moved, or changed your laws.

Spoilers: After Chosen

Summary: Giles has gone to England to help set up a new Watcher's
Council. Faith and Buffy have moved to Cleveland to train the new
Slayers. Willow, having hacked into the Council's records and bank
accounts, has set up funding for both ventures and put together a
research group with advanced computers that rival the CIA.

After losing contact with Giles and getting no answers from the Head
Watcher, Jason, Willow plans to head to England. Buffy finding out
about Willow's plans, tags along, determined to find out what's wrong
with her Watcher.

They aren't prepared for what they find. Someone has come back from
the past and they want Giles on the Otherside. Or are they what they
seem? Can Slayer and Witch find answers before Giles crosses and
doesn't return?

Rating: PG13 (USA), 12 (UK), M (Aus)

# # #

"You sure about this, Will?" Buffy asked for the third time as they
approached the club, Jason holding back and keeping quiet.

"You remember when I came back from England, I mean from here to
there… whatever. You guys couldn't see me because I was scared of
seeing you," Willow began.

"I remember, you did it unconsciously," Buffy nodded.

"Yeah, I think I can do it consciously," Willow smiled
shyly. "Everyone else will see us so we won't get stepped on but
Giles won't."

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with… with spying on my mentor," Jason
finally spoke.

"Relax, Jeeves," Buffy shrugged. "We need answers and I know Giles,
he isn't going to give them to us, even if we travelled all this way."

"Oh really, bloody Americans," Jason muttered as Willow concentrated
and then smiled.

"Let's go," she said.

"Did it work?" Jason demanded.

"We won't know until we practically get in Giles' face. If he sees us
and gets all brassed off, it didn't work," Willow smirked.

"Brassed off?" Buffy repeated. "You were over here too long."

Inside the club wasn't much different than some of the clubs Willow
had seen in New York, just as loud, crowded and dingy looking. The
only real difference was the accents and Giles playing with a fairly
decent band.

"Here's an old one, mates," Giles declared as he slammed his guitar
into play.

it wasn't just your innocence - no, it wasn't temptation
it was just your own way, of placing the flame on me

stop thinking that its all in vain, you'll keep trading your love for
pain
someday an answer will come cause there ain't no way to escape

I'm a prisoner, chained by love - it's so easy to see, I can never be
free
I'm a prisoner, chained by love, chained by love

an answer for your loneliness is only frustration
so you gave it all away by placing the blame on me
remember how it used to be, your lies won't die that easily
something's wrong, why can't you see there ain't no way to escape

I'm a prisoner, chained by love - it's so easy to see, I can never be
free
I'm a prisoner, chained by love, chained by love

it's so easy to see I can never be free, I'm a prisoner, chained by
love
born upon misery cause I'm a prisoner
did my time so let me be free, you're hurting me

someday, the answer will come your way, something's wrong, why can't
you see
that there ain't no way to escape, escape
blame it on the prisoner, chained by love - its so easy to see I can
never be free
I'm a prisoner chained by love, chained by love
it's so easy to see I can never be free, I'm a prisoner chained by
love
chained by love
Dokken
Prisoner

Buffy, Willow and Jason moved closer to the stage, right in front of
the band. Buffy used her Slayer skills to keep them from getting
jostled too much. A well-placed elbow and a glare helped keep most of
the rockers from them.

Buffy sighed with relief when Giles looked right at them and didn't
react.

The evening was spent listening to an array of punk, metal and hard
rock, none of which was upbeat or cheerful.

"Okay, last bell, mates," Giles announced. "Last number. We'll slow
it up a bit. This one is dedicated to a… a girl I knew for awhile."


Dark side coming now nothing is real
she'll never know just how I feel
from out of the shadows she walks like a dream
makes me feel crazy, make me feel so mean
nothing gonna save me from a love that's blind
slip to the dark side and cross that line
on the dark side, oh yeah, on the dark side
oh yeah

Dark side coming now nothing is real
she'll never know just how I feel
from out of the shadows she walks like a dream
makes me feel crazy, make me feel so mean
nothing gonna save me from a love that's blind
slip to the dark side and cross that line
on the dark side, oh yeah, on the dark side
oh yeah

nothing gonna save me from a love that's blind
slip to the dark side and cross that line
on the dark side, oh yeah, on the dark side
oh yeah
on the dark side, oh yeah, on the dark side
oh yeah
Dark Side
John Cafferty

All three watching the Watcher frowned as Giles grabbed a bottle of
Scotch from the bar when the band began clearing their gear, his
guitar case in hand.

# # #

"You sure you can do this, Will?" Buffy asked softly as they stood
outside Giles' door.

"Yeah, I can figure out from his energy when he's not in the room and
sneak in," Willow nodded. "He can't see us so maybe we'll be able to
figure out what he's up to."

"Besides drinking?" Jason mumbled. Buffy glanced over at the Watcher
and empathized. Seeing Giles fall back into a pattern of drinking
himself to sleep and "slacking" off from everything hurt just as bad
this time around as it had the first time. Buffy knew, with the
obvious admiration Jason had for Giles, that watching the older man
seem to give up, was more than disheartening.

Willow listened closely at the door and then closed her
eyes, "listening" with her magical senses. After a moment she held
her hand over the doorknob and it opened easily. "Don't get caught
hanging around out here," she whispered. "We'll meet you at the pub
half way up the street."

Before Jason could protest, the witch and Slayer slipped inside the
Watcher's flat and closed the door softly.

Willow stood against the door, instinctively holding her breath as
Giles entered the main living room from a small hallway. Buffy was on
the other side of the door, her eyes wide with fear he would see
them. After a moment they relaxed when he apparently went about his
nightly routine of settling in to drink himself to sleep. Giles had
pulled off his jacket and his boots, both dropped by the door where
the girls were standing.

Sitting down on the well-worn sofa, he opened a bottle of Scotch and
kicked his feet up on the coffee table. "I wonder if it's called a
coffee table in England?" Buffy thought to herself, wondering if
there really was anything else to find out about the Watcher besides
drinking himself to death and playing depressing rock music. He
didn't even have a television to turn on, they noticed. Buffy began
to wonder how long they could stand there before making noise or he
passed out.

Willow carefully slid down the wall, watching the Watcher.

The witch quickly covered her mouth with both hands and Buffy
clenched her fists tightly. It had been thirty minutes and Giles had
made a good dent in the level of Scotch in the bottle but that wasn't
what had startled them.

It was the woman appearing out of nowhere by the one window in the
room. Buffy saw Willow trying to keep her breathing steady and
making some kind of signs in front of them. The woman was tall, lean
and very beautiful with piercing blue eyes, long blonde hair and…
and… pointed ears?

The woman glanced at Willow and Buffy and then smiled, obviously
seeing right through Willow's shielding. The witch looked surprised
when the woman turned her attention back to a bleary eyed Giles with
a smile. She glanced at Buffy and closed her eyes for a moment.

Buffy blinked, Jenny Calendar was standing where the woman had been.
Willow was on her feet, her eyes asking Buffy whether she should
break her invisibility spell.

Buffy shook her head and held a finger to her mouth for Willow to
keep quiet.

*Jenny turned to Giles, leaning over the back of the sofa to wrap her
arms around his neck and kiss him passionately.

"Jenny," Giles whispered as she walked around to the front of the
sofa. "Don't leave me this time."

"I don't have a choice, Ru," *Jenny sighed, moving to straddle his
lap and pulling off his glasses.

Giles, wrapping his arms around her, nuzzled between her breasts as
his hands moved to unbutton her blouse. "Please! I can't take it!"

"I only have a short time each night, baby," *Jenny said softly,
raising his chin to kiss him for several minutes.

Willow's eyes were wide and in shock as the "make-out" session
continued with no sign of letting up. The woman's lacy blouse was
open and Giles' shirt was off. Buffy felt her face flushing and her
hands clenching tightly together.

*Jenny sighed and pulled back as Giles whimpered. "I have to go, Ru."

"No, please," Giles begged. "You can't keep leaving me!"

"Come to me," *Jenny urged. "A few more days and we can be together
forever."

"Why the Welsh underworld, the fairies?" Giles asked as she kissed
his neck.

"My family connected with them when travelling through here years
ago," *Jenny answered. "When I died, I went to them instead of any
other afterlife. I couldn't forget or let you go though, Ru. Come to
me! Your Slayer is grown beyond you, the witch is stable and no
longer needs you, the Slayer loves no one and never sees you. Come to
me and live forever in my arms."

*Jenny turned to the young women, her face shifting back to the
blonde woman, and smirked at them as Giles wept in her arms, begging
*Jenny not to leave.

"You'll be mine forever soon, Ru," she promised, standing up and
pulling his hands from her. "Soon, baby, soon. Find the gate and
come to me. I can't come again after the night of Gwynn ap Nudd."

"I know," Giles nodded, falling back on the sofa. "I'll be there."

"I'll be waiting," *Jenny promised and looked at Buffy. "Once you
cross and are with me, it'll be forever."

The woman shifted back to her original appearance as she approached
the door. As she started to fade, she laughed at Willow and Buffy.

They blinked and watched as Giles grabbed the bottle of Scotch and
curled up on the sofa, weeping and drinking.

# # #

5 November

Buffy nodded absently as the waitress placed breakfast in front of
her, Willow and Jason. Neither of the other two looked enthusiastic
about the meal either, the Slayer reflected. It had been a long
night after they had emerged from Giles' apartment and met with Jason
at the pub.

Long discussions hadn't helped and now the three were sitting at a
restaurant still trying to decide what to do and what all of it meant.

"Could she be Jenny?" Buffy asked softly.

"I really, really don't think so," Willow said, shaking her
head. "Her basic appearance wasn't Jenny and she smirked at us. Miss
Calendar wouldn't smirk, she'd at least say something."

Buffy nodded as Jason watched them closely.

"What does that mean?" he finally asked after a few moments of
silence as they ate.

"It means someone from the fairy realm has chosen to drag Giles into
their world and keep him," Willow said wearily. "Maybe it's his
magical talent or they just took a fancy to him."

"Took a fancy to him?" Buffy repeated. "You definitely spent too much
time here, Will. Okay, I'm not letting him go. We handcuff him to his
bed on the 8th and end of story."

"Well, there might be a problem," Willow said slowly and Jason nodded.

"There are tales of the fairy people, when unable to drag their
chosen mates back through the gates, well, uh…" Jason stammered.

"Spit it out, Jeeves," Buffy growled.

"If they can't have them one way, they get them the other by killing
them and trying to grab the spirit when it leaves the body," Jason
explained.

"So if we prevent him from going to her, she'll try and kill him,"
Buffy frowned over her eggs. "So we kill the fairy bitch when she
tries."

"I don't think that'd work," Willow said thoughtfully. "Even Merlin
fell for a half-fairy and gave up his magic to her. I haven't heard
of a witch defeating a fairy."

Jason nodded. "Only clever humans tricking them or managing to get
away."

"But Giles doesn't want to escape," Buffy complained. "What about
confronting him? Telling him what's happening and smacking him around
a little?"

"I doubt he'd listen," Willow said after a moment. "He thinks it's
Jenny and if she's worked magic, he won't listen that she isn't."

"Then how do we fix this?" Buffy asked softly.

"I'm not sure but we've only two days to figure it out," Jason sighed.

# # #

Later that night Jason kept an eye on Giles while the older man was
on stage, Willow consulted the coven she had worked with before, and
Buffy cruised demon bars asking questions about the Fairy Realm and
Gwynn ap Nudd.

After the pubs closed the three met up at an all night coffee shop to
compare notes.

Willow drank a full cup of coffee immediately and motioned for
another as she pulled out her notes.

"Some general notes: the spiral path up the hill dates back about 4
or 5 thousand years. The abbey was the last to be closed in 1539 by
Henry the 8th. There's a primary water spring which is rumoured to
have very invigorating properties and it's still clear. The oldest
part of the abbey is the crypt and its said to be a great place for
consciousness-raising. There's a good chance he might go there to do
a ritual. Or the spring, it's thought to be a fairy garden."

"Gwynn ap Nudd is a Welsh deity. He leads the Wild Hunt, chasing the
White Stag, Celtic myth stuff. Those that see the hunt are forced to
either join it or go mad. Those that run with Gwynn ap Nudd and his
hounds die of exhaustion at dawn," Jason continued, consulting his
own notes.

"Charming," Buffy commented.

"He guards the portals to the Underworld and those to the Fairy
Realm. He is described as having a flowing grey cloak and a pale
horse," Jason sighed.

"Anything about the bitch?" Buffy asked but Willow and Jason shook
their heads.

"Just what the old myths tell us," Willow said softly. "That they
sometimes take human lovers. Anyone who eats or drinks anything in
the Fairy Realm is then trapped there."

"Like the Greek and Roman myths of eating anything in the
underworld," Buffy said thoughtfully and Willow raised her
eyebrows. "Hey, I took Greek mythology!"

"Anyway, they're strong magically," Willow shrugged. "No one knows
how long they live."

"So what can we offer Giles to keep him here?" Jason asked softly.

"I don't know," Willow admitted. "He loved Jenny and she died, he was
falling for Olivia but she wanted him back in England. He wouldn't
leave Buffy and now he doesn't think he has anything."

"That's not true!" Buffy protested. "He's got… uh, us."

"Buffy, none of us `need' him," Willow said softly. "He probably
doesn't even think we care if he's here or not. Only something major
will keep him here, I think."

Buffy nodded, looking thoughtful as Jason yawned.

6 November

After a few hours of sleep, Buffy was back at Giles' flat. They had
decided to approach Giles and beg, if necessary, for him to stay in
their world. While Willow and Jason continued sleeping, Buffy
decided she'd approach Giles first.

The Slayer pounded on his door for several minutes and frowned when
he didn't answer the door. Sighing for a moment, she kicked in his
door and went in quickly. Looking around, she realized Giles wasn't
in the flat. She grabbed a notepad and notebook off his desk and
laptop. She headed towards the roof when she heard police sirens in
the distance and voices at the bottom of the stairs.

Jumping from one apartment building to another, Buffy made her way to
the end of the block before climbing down a fire escape and trotting
back to the Watcher's mansion.

Within minutes she was pounding on Jason's door with a groggy Willow
following behind her.

"Come on, Jeeves, open up," Buffy shouted and shoved past the Watcher
when he opened the door, staring at her with his mouth open in
surprise.

"I must protest, Miss Summers!" he started to complain, closing his
robe and pulling his glasses on.

"Giles is gone," Buffy snapped, cutting off any further protests.

"What do you mean, gone?" Jason asked, glancing at his watch.

"It's 3pm in the afternoon," Willow supplied.

"I went to his place and Giles isn't there," Buffy began explaining,
digging in her backpack for the notepad and laptop. "His guitar is
gone, so is his overnight bag."

Willow's eyes narrowed and she reached for the laptop. "I'll find
him. Most likely a hotel near Glastonbury Tor."

Jason nodded. "I'll get the magical supplies you'll need in case
he's already gone into the Fairy Realm."

"What does that mean?" Buffy asked as Willow booted up the computer.

"If he's already crossed into the Otherworld, Willow can go in and
try and talk him back out before he gets caught there permanently,"
Jason explained. "Not easy and fairly dangerous to the witch. If
she's distracted or gets lost… she could end up there for years or
forever."

"Damnit!" Willow grumbled and looked up at the Watcher and Slayer
from a chair.

"Will?"

"Uh well… he doesn't plan on coming back," the witch said
softly. "He reformatted his hard drive. There's no information at
all."

"Then hack away and find if he has a reservation somewhere?" Buffy
suggested.

Willow nodded and headed out of the room for her own computer.

"Okay, if we can't find him today, how long do we have?" Buffy
demanded.

"Tomorrow night at sunset," Jason said wearily. "Let me get dressed
and we'll head to Wales."