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tamingthemuseFandom: BTVS -- Season Eight Comic
Prompt: 103 - Temptation
Word Count: 2,135
Warnings: Femslash
Rating: R
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Mutant Enemy, Dark Horse, and Joss Whedon. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.
Summary: On the run from a powerful force, including the slayer army, Satsu must unravel a mystery surrounding a mystical object and the phantasm taking a familiar form surrounding it.
Chapter Six
In the haze Satsu dreamed of battle. She saw the imprisoned darkness throwing itself against the towering obelisks. To her they no longer seemed old and crumbled; the stone was new and polished. She thought this was how they must have looked when first constructed.
The darkness howled and the feel of its rage gave her goosebumps. She began floating away from the entity, watching with fascination as it thrashed and screamed. She didn’t know how, but she felt safe from it.
For a moment she saw a stone wall encircle the darkness, connecting the obelisks. The entity gave one last scream and then she was Traveling, falling again through the nothingness between dimensions. She became aware of another presence next to her.
You did good. The words played over her skin and she felt instead of heard them. I’m going to put you back where you came from.
Satsu tried to speak, but couldn’t produce sound. She tried thinking at the other presence. Did we win? What about Kennedy?
The seals are back in place. You did what you were supposed to do. Ken is fine. I’m with her now.
And then Willow was gone.
Arrival
Satsu opened her eyes and found herself on the sofa in the living room of the cottage. Sitting up she pushed aside the thin blanket covering her legs. Outside the late afternoon sunlight cast an orange glow throughout the house. The embers in the fireplace had cooled and a biting chill filled the air.
She glanced around worriedly. Why hadn’t the fire been tended to? “Buffy?” she called.
Silence answered.
Satsu jumped to her feet and yelled again. Dizziness immediately threatened to put her back down. She bit the tip of her tongue and shoved away the aftereffects of Traveling. Her boots clopped loudly against the wood floor as she stumbled to the door and stepped outside.
Brisk air stung the back of her throat. Quiet greeted her there as well. The overgrown lawn rustled slightly with a soft breeze, but the highlands around her were still.
“Buffy? Miss Summers are you here?”
Nothing.
Satsu ran back inside, slamming the door behind her. She hurried through the house and looked out the row of windows in the kitchen. Fear prickled her skin. By sealing the evil away had she already locked the apparition too?
“‘End it and you end me,’” she had said.
Panic began replacing the fear. Satsu had thought…had hoped…well, she wasn’t sure what. Realistically she knew they weren’t going to live happily ever after. Becoming the two old reclusive lesbians out in the rural highlands was not a possibility.
But still…She thought she could say something to her before it was over.
Running out of places to look she ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. The cottage felt empty to her. Since her first evening curled up in front of the fireplace, even when Buffy wasn’t visible, the cottage never felt this empty to Satsu. It was as though the house itself had lost something.
She found Buffy waiting in the bedroom. A single small nub of a candle burned on the night table giving the room a relaxing waxy smell. She sat in the center of the bed with her bare feet crossed at the ankles and her back propped with pillows. Hands nested in her lap, she blinked at the slayer with wet eyes.
Relieved, Satsu sagged against the doorframe. “I thought you were gone.”
Buffy smiled a little. “Not yet.”
“You didn’t answer when I called. I thought—” Satsu straightened. “What’s wrong?”
“I couldn’t go to you,” Buffy said. “I wasn’t sure I could materialize again in this form if I tried.”
In a blink all her rationalization was gone. “No,” Satsu protested. “I fought and—”
“You won,” Buffy said instead. “My place is no longer here. You are free. You can return to your selected—the spell clouding them is fading.”
Satsu shifted weight from one foot to the other. “I don’t want to. What about you? Are you going to…”
“I’m going to sleep. Until next time when I am needed again. The dance goes on.”
She slowly walked to the bed and dropped to her knees. “Then I have failed.”
Buffy touched Satsu cheek and tipped her face up to meet her gaze. “This is what needed to happen. It was never your place to end the cycle permanently. No person or thing can.”
“But that’s not fair! Why should you have to go back with that thing?” She started to climb to her feet. “We’ll research this. We’ll find a way to get you out. I'll call Willow. She doesn't need the boxes. We can go back and...”
Buffy smiled again, full this time, and gently pulled her back down. “I’m a minder, Satsu. This is my place, my duty.”
“I don’t accept that.”
“It’s been this way for a very long time. Since before your kind cleansed the world of pure demons. It was them, the Great Old Ones, that picked me to guard the prison.”
The Asian slayer shook her head. “Just because it’s been a long time doesn’t mean we can’t change it. Searched Buffy’s memories. She knows that better than anyone.”
“I was chosen for a very specific reason. Even in that dark time, when monsters ruled and fought, I loved another ardently and purely. The Old Ones took that caring and crafted it into a door. Behind it they sealed their worst and most powerful enemy.
“Despite what you saw in that other realm, the opposite of love isn’t hate. It’s apathy, Satsu. That is what it offers. That is how it seeks to escape—by making people not notice or care. I am the balance. I am love and there is no room for temptation to be anything else.”
Satsu tried raising another protest, but Buffy cut her off again.
“This is who I am, Satsu. It’s what I really am. Please respect that.”
Finally the slayer nodded. She kept her eyes fixed on the floor, not yet ready to see what Buffy’s eyes held.
“It’s safe for you to return to your home. The others—including your Buffy—will be back to normal when you arrive. They might be a little foggy on the details of these past few days, but you can fill them in.”
Satsu realized that was an invitation to leave. “No,” she said again. Buffy looked surprised and she quickly amended herself, “I mean I won’t go until after you’ve…Oh God, I almost said died.” She shook her head at the stupidity.
Buffy grimaced. “I don’t even like that one. How about we settle on ‘disappear?’”
“I won’t leave first. I'll be here with you, ma’am, until the end.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I want to. You were there for me—many times—and I’ll help you now.”
Buffy looked at her for a long moment, studying her with an odd expression. “Rarely do my charges wish to stay after the resealing. Often I am a reminder of someone they wish to return to, or no longer think of. I would like it if you stayed.”
Satsu backed up a step and reached for the belts of her vest. She fumbled with the buckles twice before getting them open. The heavy ceramic plates hit the floor with a thud. Doing her best not to appear nervous or unsure, Satsu sat beside Buffy and settled back against the headboard.
An awkward moment passed and Buffy said, “Normally after you sleep with someone you are allowed to put your arm around her.”
“Oh.” Satsu flushed. “I wasn’t sure how you wanted me to…you know.”
“Treat me as if I really was her.”
Satsu put her arm around Buffy’s shoulders and smiled slightly as the other woman nestled against her chest. That same familiar hair scent filled her head and instantly tight muscles eased. A sigh escaped her and she felt Buffy smile against her t-shirt.
“That’s better.”
Satsu glanced out the window at the dusky light casting long shadows across the bedroom. The corners of the windowpanes were already frosting with the quickly falling temperature. With her free hand she grabbed the bedspread and pulled it over herself and Buffy.
“How long?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never tried holding on before. The pull to return is very strong though.”
Satsu ran her fingertips up and down Buffy’s arm, enjoying the smoothness of her skin. “Thank you for picking me. I’ll never forget these past few days.”
“Take the Sylph Box with you,” Buffy said. “Make sure Willow gets it. The box is an old object of power and she’ll keep it safe.”
Night settled in and the single candle on the bedside table provided the only light. Silently Satsu stared at the wall and counted the soft thumps of Buffy’s heart. Neither spoke; good bye somehow didn’t seem appropriate or needed. The shape form had all of Buffy’s memories and knew how Satsu felt.
Satsu reached the conclusion that when she returned to the castle and filed her report, she would leave out all mention of Buffy. Kennedy never encountered the shape form and a thousand years would pass before anyone would have to worry about the evil entity escaping again.
Satsu could keep her time here in the cottage safely for herself. She wondered if that made her a bad person or somehow deviant.
After a couple of hours the candle nub burned out. Sleep pulled at Satsu’s eyes but she refused to give in. She wanted desperately to stay with Buffy to the end. Buffy’s breath was slow and even as she rested. Around midnight she suddenly went slack in Satsu’s arms and, with a rush of air that filled the empty space, she was gone.
Stunned, Satsu sat up. “Buffy?!”
The cottage was completely silent. She had no doubt that the minder was gone.
Satsu curled onto her side, brought her knees to her chest, and cried hot salty tears for the first time since she was eight years old.
The next day was sunny and cold. Satsu slept until midday—too tired and spent to get up any earlier. Awake she listened as wind whistled around the house. Realizing she couldn’t stay any longer, Satsu climbed to her feet and began the process of packing up camp.
She dressed in fresh clothes and jammed the rest into her travel pack. Throwing the armored vest over her shoulder, she walked from the bedroom.
Downstairs she quietly retraced her steps from the first day in the cottage. Pulling the dustcovers from the foyer closet, she spread them over the furniture. Leaving the house as she found it. As she worked, Satsu became aware she was looking for something of Buffy’s to take with her. Nothing of the apparition’s was real however—no clothes, scrunchies, or accessories were left behind. Only memories could come with her.
Carefully she placed the quicksilver box in her backpack and tucked it around her clothes to keep it from jostling. Lastly she cleaned the percolator and the two coffee mugs they used. It was late afternoon when she finished removing her presence from the house. She didn’t want to stay another night however.
With the door key again out of sight on the doorframe, Satsu scanned the highlands around her. It didn’t seem quite as inviting as it once did. She shrugged her vest on, left it open, and tucked her gloves behind her belt.
The motorbike was still concealed alongside the house underneath several bushes. She dug the bike free and walked it down the overgrown path. She paused at the street and fought the urge to look back. None of what happened there was ever real, she told herself.
Free of pain in her side or hands, Satsu set the choke and kicked the engine alive. She squared herself on the seat and began the long journey back to civilization and home. Leaving behind nothing but a forgotten and neglected cottage set far away from prying eyes.
End
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Fire and Ice
by Robert Frost
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