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punch_kicker15Author: punch_kicker15
Rating: R
Characters/Relationships: Willow/Giles
Summary: A prophecy leads Giles to practice dark magic once again. This sets him down a dark path, and Willow may be the only one who can help. AU in which Willow’s magic training started earlier than in canon.
Word count: 47,533
Notes: Thanks to
scratchingpost1 for generously offering a plot bunny that ate my brain, gilescandy and dragonyphoenix for looking over a very rough first draft and offering helpful suggestions and encouragement. Thanks also to the mods (red_b_rackham and traycer_ and other participants at 
het_bigbang for all of the help and hand-holding throughout. And special thanks to 
Chapter 3
Lovers Walk
Catherine
"I know it would be wrong to do a de-lusting spell on Xander without his permission. But I could consent to doing a de-lusting spell on myself, and then I'd be strong enough to just tell Xander no."
Catherine counted to ten. No matter how annoying the rules lawyering was, getting angry wouldn't help make Willow into a stronger witch.
"Well, you're right. There weren't the same ethical issues as your last love spell. But maybe we should re-read Mishima and talk about whether it was the most judicious use of magic. Was it necessary? Did it have consequences that a non-magical solution wouldn't have?"
Willow gave her a tragic look, but opened up the book.
***
Doppelgangland
Giles
The evening had been disturbing, even by Hellmouth standards, starting with the horrifying news that Willow was dead. Giles was still unsettled by the intensity of his despair and grief, and even worse, the way he’d impulsively embraced her when he'd realized she was alive. He'd done it without thinking.
As Willow grabbed her backpack and started to walk out of the library, he decided he needed to say something about the careless use of magic.
"Willow, may I have a word with you?"
"I'm sorry, Giles. I didn't mean for any of this to happen!” She twisted her smiley-face necklace around her finger. “Anya told me she was looking for a family heirloom, and she made it sound really simple. I didn't know how dark her spell was going to get, or that it was going to bring Evil Me here."
"You’re not the first person to be tricked by a vengeance demon. They can be quite manipulative. But you need to be as careful about who you do magic with as the kind of magic you do." That was advice he could have used when he was younger. Not that he would have listened to it.
Willow looked suitably chastened, so perhaps she’d learned her lesson from all of this. He’d put his emotional outburst in the mental file of Things Never to Think About Again.
***
Something Blue
Willow
Oz was gone, and it felt like he’d taken a huge chunk of Willow with him. He'd told her that she didn’t get any say in his decision to leave. Then he’d sent for his stuff without telling her. She’d given her whole heart to him, and it was obvious that she didn’t mean anything to him. It still hurt, and the spell hadn’t helped. Instead she’d endangered her friends and attracted the attention of Anya’s old boss.
She brought Catherine cookies, her woefully inadequate peace offering.
Catherine put the plate of cookies on the kitchen table, and said, “It’s an inherently unstable spell. That’s the obvious reason it all went wrong.”
Great, now on top of everything else, Willow felt stupid. “Well, I guess there would be no point in learning all the other spells if you could just Thy Will Be Done to everything."
Catherine nodded. "Right, so when might it be appropriately used?"
Willow sat down at the table, broke a cookie in half, and took a bite. "Probably for a time when you're desperate, and there is no other solution, so you're willing to risk all the possible side effects, like nearly killing your friends by saying something dumb." She held out the other half of the cookie to Catherine.
Catherine took it, but didn’t drop her drill-sergeant expression for a second. "And what would be the best practices for carrying it out?"
"Basically saying what you want, with no excess commentary about anything else that might be affected. And I don’t know why you’re so calm after I turned you into an ice queen.”
Catherine shrugged. “No permanent harm was done, so we’ll chalk it up to a learning experience."
“It’s just, we keep talking about my magic screw-ups and ethics and it all makes sense in my head, and then something happens and it all just flies away in that moment.” Willow rested her head on her arms.
“You feel things very intensely. Your magic is tied into your emotions, and powerful emotions can create powerful magic. But sometimes your emotions get the better of you, and that comes out in the magic, and in the decisions that you make in the heat of the moment. If you keep working on it, you’ll reach the point where you can control your emotions and your magic. You’re exactly where you need to be, right now."
Sometimes the faith that Catherine place in her was downright scary to Willow. What if she couldn’t live up to it? What if she never got it together?
***
A New Man
Giles
Giles had let his guard down, had believed for a few hours that Ethan was engaging with him as a fellow human being, instead of playing yet another head game. Buffy had nearly paid a heavy price for Giles's mistake.
Ethan saw people as abstractions to play with; he probably thought a Slayer killing her Watcher would be an ironic joke. Ethan didn't care about the guilt that would overwhelm Buffy if Ethan's plan had worked.
Giles was done fucking around with this. A detention center sounded about right.
***
Who Are You/Sanctuary
Giles
Giles took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He’d hoped that the Pergamum Codex might have some useful information to help Buffy fight Adam, but so far, it had given him nothing but eyestrain.
Willow said, "I didn’t find anything helpful in the Nakahara text, but it referred to a prophecy in a book in Korean that kind of sounds like that Double Slayer prophecy, and there's this really cool computer program called Babelfish that can translate it."
Giles leaned over Willow’s shoulder and glanced at the screen.
Time of great evil, this old enemy is beating up in the world. Beautiful girl who have the power in the blood of her one of her dark, what to fight for and must meet the two together save the world from the thing and not the body.
“Ah, of course,” said Giles, “‘From the thing and not the body’--that narrows it down. Good show.”
Willow bristled. “Well, I think it’s nifty that we can get a translation of a Korean prophecy right away instead of waiting until the poopheads at The Council get around to it.”
"Willow, translating prophecy is as much an art as a science, and the computer can't get us remotely close to the precision we need."
"Well, at least we know that it might refer to a Slayer, so it's worth finding a human to give us a better translation. And I don't understand why you're Mr. Dismissive about everything that has to do with computers. I mean, this computer and this program are the result of hundreds of years of science and math. Why can't you at least respect the effort behind it?"
She closed the laptop and rushed out in a wave of righteous indignation.
Giles tried to work out what had just happened. Once Willow had seemed to think that he knew everything. Those days were clearly long gone.
Aside from the blow to his ego, Willow’s change in attitude probably wasn’t a bad thing. He’d certainly made his share of mistakes, and would probably continue making them. She was growing up, and it was best that she think for herself. Perhaps at some point, Willow would be able to take on his role. Her research skills were excellent, notwithstanding her excessive enthusiasm for computers. And she’d demonstrated more natural talent for magic than him since she was sixteen years old.
His thoughts turned to the prophecy itself. Ever since Willow had found the first one, he'd seen versions of it popping up everywhere. Now that Faith was seeking redemption, he had a hunch that Buffy and Faith might be the last chance to save the world someday.
***
New Moon Rising
Tara
Tara shifted slightly on the bed. Her arm had fallen asleep twenty minutes ago, but if she moved it, she might wake up Willow.
For the last few hours she'd felt nothing but happy surprise that Willow had picked her and well, lust, during all of the "making up for it" they'd done.
Under any other circumstances, she'd be happy and relaxed, but instead her mind was racing. When Oz showed up, it seemed like the Goddess had offered a perfect resolution to her dilemma. Willow and Oz would pick up where they left off, and she would have happy memories of her short time with Willow. Willow would never see her as a monster.
Tara had never expected Willow to choose her. And now she didn't know what to do. Willow had given up someone who obviously loved her. And Tara hadn't been completely honest. If she told Willow about her demon nature now, she would have to explain why she hadn't told the truth earlier. And she wasn’t sure she could find the right words to explain it in a way that wouldn’t hurt Willow.
There was always the possibility that Willow would leave her before it ever became an issue. Maybe they wouldn't ever need to have that conversation. Maybe she would never have to face the moment when Willow would see her as a demon. And since that was probably the most likely outcome, there was no need to upset Willow with the truth now. Willow had already had a lot of emotional turmoil this week anyway. She deserved a little happiness right now.
***
Post-Restless
Catherine
Tara said, “Levitation spells? Aren’t they a little--advanced? And you just d-did the Unification Spell.”
Willow scooted her chair forward and rested her elbows on the kitchen table. “C’mon, I’m ready! Everyone made the Unification Spell sound like a huge deal, but we just had some freaky dreams about The First Slayer. That was it.”
“It also m-made you kinda jumpy. And you haven’t been sleeping well.”
Willow stroked Tara’s hand, still clearly in the can’t-keep-her-hands-off-her stage of infatuation. “But that could have been all those mochas I had when I was studying for finals.”
Catherine put down the borage leaves she’d been shredding for a potion. “Hold your hands up in front of you, palms down, and keep them still.”
Willow complied. There was a slight tremor in her fingers.
“Whatever the reason, you’re not calm enough for levitation spells right now.” Before Willow could protest, she added, “I’m not any happier than you are about this. Giles never consults me before disrupting my lesson plans.”
Willow stared down at her hands as if she could force them to stay still. “How can I get calm enough? I tried yoga, but I kept worrying about whether I was doing it right and I think I made things worse.”
Catherine scooped up the borage leaves and tossed them into a bag. “Lay off the caffeine and the advanced spells for a week, and we’ll check then.”
Getting Willow on track to reach her full potential was going to be difficult, between the mousy little girlfriend trying to hold her back, and Giles pushing her as far as he could whenever there was an apocalypse.
Chapter 4
