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Becca (cowritten by Allison)
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Date Posted: 21:36:33 01/13/02 Sun
In reply to:
Becca (cowritten by Allison)
's message, "TCO Episode 3: Truths Revealed Chapter 4" on 21:29:59 01/13/02 Sun
Chapter 5
2 days later
Oz rushed into the Brownstone and flopped down on the couch across from Giles, a slight hint of excitement in his usually stone-faced expression. Luke and Lucky were already there, pouring over his books in search of an answer to their friends’ problem, but to Giles’s dismay, they hadn’t been much help so far.
“Okay, I finally got something from Willow that we can use,” Oz said after pausing to catch his breath. “The spell required an item of Spike’s but since they didn’t have anything, they substituted some book that had his picture in it.”
Giles groaned and removed his glasses for a moment to rub his eyes. “When will that girl learn not to deviate from a spell’s formula? It could be disastrous!”
“So is that why it backfired?” Lucky asked. Giles nodded thoughtfully.
“Yes, probably... I’ll bet they all touched the book at some point before the spell was cast, and that’s why they’re all affected. When a ‘personal item’ is called for, it’s supposed to be something the person owned and handled, not just a picture.”
“So how do we fix it?” Luke asked, slamming a book shut, then coughing when it stirred up some dust. “If we let it run out normally, there’s no telling what kind of trouble those crazy kids are going to cause.”
He nodded in agreement and reached for one of the books he had set aside earlier. “If I can determine which spell they cast, we should be able to find a way to reverse it.”
**A short while later**
“Giles, look!” Lucky exclaimed suddenly, breaking the silence of the room. He held out a book and pointed to one of the entries. “Could this be it?”
Giles took it from him and read through it while they watched expectantly. He gave a nod and smiled slightly, then looked up at them. “Good job, Lucky. I believe that is quite possibly the spell.”
“So how do we fix it?” Luke asked, happy that he didn’t have to read any more of the man’s boring magic books.
“Well, we’re in luck, actually. This one happens to be relatively easy. All we have to do is make an antidote and get those that have been affected by the original spell to drink it.”
“Um, so where’s the easy part?” Luke asked, frowning. “I mean, that sounds pretty complicated to me.”
“Trust me, it could be much worse. Some spell reversals require a specific phase of the moon or season, unattainable ingredients, even ritual sacrifice.”
Luke and Lucky both blanched at the idea, causing Oz to chuckle softly. “All right then, so what do we need for this one?” he asked, anxious to get moving with it. This new, brutally truthful Willow was starting to freak him out.
“Luckily, I have some of the more difficult to find items, so I’ll make up a list of what we still need, and once we’ve gathered it all, we’ll meet back here and make the serum.”
“So what goes into something like this?” Luke mused, peering over his shoulder as he started the list. “Eye of newt? Wart of toad?”
“No, nothing like that,” he muttered. “Common misconceptions. Toad’s warts are only used in fertility spells. As for newt’s eyes, they’re actually rather ineffectual in most potions. They’re usually only added for flavor.”
All three men grimaced at his explanation, and remained silent until he was finished making his lists. He handed them each a piece of paper with a few ingredients and sent them on their way to retrieve them, then worked on getting things set up in the kitchen so he could begin to prepare it as soon as they returned. About an hour later, they all trickled back into his apartment with their purchases and dropped the bags on the counter. He dug through them, pulling out the ingredients with approval. He got to Luke’s bag and pulled out a small bottle. He held it up with a frown.
“Um, I don’t recall needing Scotch for this....”
Luke snatched it from him and shook his head. “Sorry, that was for me, in case all this witchy stuff got to be too much to handle.” He grinned and took a quick drink from it, ignoring the withering look Giles was giving him. Laughing, he slapped him on the back. “Come on, Rupe, let’s get this party started!”
“Yes, right,” he sighed and stepped over to the stove. He had a large pot already on it filled with boiling water, which Lucky and Luke both eyed curiously. “Before you ask, no, I don’t have a cauldron, and yes, this can be made without one.”
Luke raised his hands in surrender and laughed. “Hey, I’m not questioning your voodoo here....”
“It’s not voodoo, it’s just simple magic,” he corrected tiredly. “Oz, grab my list and tell me what I need first?”
Oz nodded and looked at the formula Giles had written out. “Um.... thyme?”
Luke looked down at his watch. “It’s almost 8:00.”
Giles rolled his eyes. “Not that time, the herb thyme. Lucky, I believe it was one of yours.”
“Oh right.” He dug through the many bottles he had purchased and held one out. “Here.”
“Thank you.” He took the bottle and began systematically adding ingredients as Lucky and Oz handed them to him, thankful that Luke seemed to be behaving for the time being. When they got to the final item, neither of them could locate it, so he checked his list.
“Luke, I believe the um... marijuana... was your responsibility,” he said nervously. Luke gasped and reached into his pocket.
“Oh right! I almost forgot.” He pulled out a plastic bag and hurried towards the stove, reaching inside as he went. “I found some at the club and just stuck it in my pocket.... sorry about that.”
“What’s pot doing at your club, Dad?” Lucky asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. Luke shrugged and leaned against the counter.
“Beats me. I think I may have to fire Claude again, though. Here, Rupe, how much do you - ?” He held out a handful, but in his haste, accidentally bumped his elbow against the counter and dropped almost the entire contents of the bag into the pot. Giles gasped and started to reach for it, then groaned when her realized it was too late to get it back. “Oops.... man, I’m sorry about that. Does this mean we have to start over?”
Giles sighed and stepped back, shaking his head. “No, we can’t. I used the last of my crushed werewolf’s claw, and the next full moon is nearly a month away.... no, we’ll just have to use this batch, even though it was only supposed to have a pinch of marijuana...”
“So what’s going to happen?” Lucky asked. “Are they all going to get high or something?”
“No, no, nothing like that. The other ingredients take away the hallucinogenic properties of the drug, but the chemical combinations with that much of it will result in some minor side effects.”
“Such as?”
He thought for a moment, then sighed again. “I believe... yes, I think that would be right... they may all have very... blue tongues for a day or so.”
“Blue tongues?” Lucky laughed, looking at the others. “That’s all?”
“I believe so. They’re just going to have to live with it, then, because this is all we’ve got. Once I pour it into bottles, we’ll have to split up and find them so we can administer it at once. If you wait more than four hours, it will no longer work. I’ll find Buffy and Alexis. They can take care of Angel and Mr. Jacks once they’ve recovered. Oz, you can handle Willow, Xander and Cordelia, can’t you?”
“Sure,” he replied, eyeing the potions Giles carefully poured it into empty water bottles.
“I’ll get Elizabeth hers,” Lucky offered, then turned to grin at Luke. “So Dad, I guess that leaves you with Emily and Nikolas.”
“Oh great,” he groaned, rolling his eyes. “You just had to leave the Prince to me, huh?”
“Think of it as your punishment for almost ruining it,” he chuckled as he took one of the bottles from Giles. He frowned as he examined it. “Um, this looks nasty.. can we put it in another drink or something?”
“No, diluting it in anything will negate the effects, you’ll have to convince them to drink it as is. They don’t have to consume the entire bottle, just a sip or two. It should start to work immediately, so be prepared for.... their reactions. They’ll remember everything they’ve said and done, it could be a bit awkward.”
“Sure. Um, it looks like.... mud.”
Giles nodded and capped the last bottle before handing it to Oz. “Yes, I suppose it does, but mud would taste better. Let’s go find them, before they can do any more damage.”
~*~
Giles was pacing nervously around his living room, waiting for Buffy and Alexis to arrive, when he finally heard the knock on his front door. He rushed over to answer it and ushered them inside.
“Okay, Giles, what’s the big?” Buffy asked, looking around the room, half-expecting to see the rest of her friends already there. “I was about to go on patrol.”
Alexis nodded. “And Jax and I were about to - ”
“Um, that’s quite enough,” he muttered quickly before she could finish her thought. “I don’t need to hear any more....”
“Forgive him,” Buffy joked, “he’s British.”
Alexis snickered softly and he rolled his eyes. “Yes, well, this is important. That spell you did with Willow backfired...”
“Really?” Buffy gasped sarcastically. “A spell of Willow’s? Backfiring? Never!”
“Point taken,” he sighed. “But what I’m trying to tell you is that it didn’t just not work on Spike, it worked on all of you instead.”
“Oh come on, you’re trying to tell us we’ve been telling the truth for the past week?” Alexis asked. “That’s ridiculous. I’m a lawyer, it’s my job to lie!”
Buffy laughed. “Hey, that’s funny. Giles, I’ve always thought there was a rule somewhere that Watchers couldn’t be funny. How come you never tell jokes?”
“Like you said, I’m British,” he deadpanned, then ducked into the kitchen for their two bottles of the potion. “Look, just trust me on this one. You need to drink some of this to reverse the effects of the spell. Buffy, you’ve already told one person who you are that shouldn’t know, isn’t that proof enough?”
“You mean Jason? That just slipped out, it doesn’t mean I’m under a spell.” She squinted at the bottle he was holding out to her and frowned. “What is that, Yoo Hoo?”
“Not quite,” he mumbled. “Just trust me, all right? When have I ever been wrong about this sort of thing?”
“Well, there was that time you didn’t read the caption under that picture of Gachnar and we all thought he was going to be this huge, nasty demon. If you had just read it, we would have been saved a lot of trouble.”
He sighed and rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Fine, so I made a mistake that time. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m right about this one. Please, just trust me and drink this.”
They frowned and reluctantly took the bottles from him. Buffy wrinkled her nose and groaned after smelling the contents. “Oh man! That’s just.... yuck!”
Alexis sniffed at hers as well and grimaced. “I second that yuck. I’d rather drink one of Jax’s protein shakes....” She looked up at Giles seriously. “You’re sure about this?”
“Yes,” he said firmly. “Just drink a little of it, you don’t need the whole thing.”
Buffy and Alexis looked at one another, then sighed and held their noses before taking a long swig from their bottles. They sputtered a little and coughed, but got enough down before capping them and dropping them onto the table in disgust.
“That was....” Alexis started to say.
“... really nasty,” Buffy finished, sticking out her tongue, which had already started to turn blue. “Couldn’t you have at least added some minty flavoring or something to it?”
“It would have interfered with its effectiveness,” he muttered, distracted a little by the shade of her tongue. “Um, how do you feel?”
“Grossed out..... and kind of embarrassed. I can’t believe I told Jason... and some of the things I said to Liz about Lucky.... oh gosh, she must hate me!”
Alexis blushed furiously and looked away from both of them. “Oh my.... did I really say all that about Jax?”
“Yep,” Buffy chuckled. “You were the Queen of Way Too Much Info.”
She buried her face in her hands and groaned. “He’s going to kill me....”
“Which brings us to the next issue,” Giles said, picking up their discarded bottles. “You two have to go find him and Angel and get them to drink this as well. They were also affected by the spell.”
They took the bottles and frowned, still reeling from the memories of what they had done and the lingering taste of the potion.
“One more thing: you have to do it by midnight or else the potions won’t work.”
“Great,” Buffy muttered, still frowning. “It tastes worse than dirt and it’s on a timer...”
~*~
Lucky flopped down on the couch in the study lounge. He had spent the last two hours looking all over town for Elizabeth, unable to locate her anywhere.
“Hey Spencer, you got one crazy girlfriend man,” one of the guys who lived on Lucky’s floor commented with a laugh as he exited the lounge.
“What?” he questioned, figuring that Liz had said something insanely truthful to a virtual stranger. “Where are you Elizabeth?” he grumbled to himself.
“Right behind you? Why? Want a little nookie?” Liz asked with a devious grin as she ran her hand across Lucky’s shoulders before ruffling his hair. “I’ll do it all for the nookie.”
“Great, she’s quoting Limp Biskit now,” Lucky muttered to himself before pulling her down onto the couch. Rather, he intended to pull her onto the couch but somehow she landed on his lap.
“Right here Lucky? Where everyone could watch?” she asked, thinking quietly for a minute. “I’d rather go back to your room but if you want . . .”
“No!” Lucky held up his hand, stopping her from rambling. “No, this isn’t about sex Elizabeth.”
She nodded understandingly. “I know, what we have is special Lucky. It wouldn’t just be sex, we’d be making love . . .which is why I think it is not a good idea to do it in here.”
Lucky threw his hands in the air in obvious frustration. “No, listen to me, we aren’t going to be doing any of that, at this moment,” he said slowly so she’d get the point. “First of all, I don’t have any idea what is going on between us. Everything you’ve been saying and doing hasn’t . . .it’s not something you’d normally just blurt out, you know?”
“But I mean it Lucky, I am in love with you. I may not be expressing it exactly the way I should, but it is the God’s honest truth, I swear,” Liz told him, looking into his eyes so he’d understand.
“I know,” Lucky whispered, almost caught up in the moment. He looked up at her, forgetting about the spell temporarily, just relishing what it was like to have her so close. Before he knew it she had moved her face closer to his and was kissing him softly.
“Elizabeth, stop it,” he said weakly before finally pulling away and sliding her off of his lap. Lucky jumped to his feet and paced the room for a moment. “What was I going to say?”
“Let’s go back to your room?” she suggested with a sly grin.
“Yeah . . .” he sighed as his eyes drank the sight of her in. “Wait, no, stop it . . .” Lucky groaned in frustration. He was eighteen, male, and involved with a beautiful woman who seemingly wanted him every chance she got—it was worse than any mystical spell he could imagine. “I have specific reason for being here.”
“You live in this building, that’s a good enough reason if ever I heard one,” Elizabeth teased as she lounged on the couch. “Lucky, you are being an awful drag, you know that? What other college guys would turn down sex when presented to them?”
“Elizabeth, you know that we aren’t even close to ready for that. So much has happened lately, hell, I don’t even know if we are dating . . . I’m so confused, you’ve got to slow down, please,” Lucky lamented. He reached into his leather jacket and pulled out the bottle of the potion.
“You’re right . . .but I just figured . . . I don’t know Lucky. I feel like we are so old-fashioned and boring compared to everyone else. Look at Buffy and Angel, they have this great star-crossed lovers romance thing going on, destined to be together, forced apart. Willow and Oz, they are so cute and perfect, yet because of who they are it’s not boring, same for Cordelia and Xander, they fight all the time—certainly not dull. Even Nikolas and Emily are more interesting than we are. We are just, DULL!”
“It’s not dull Elizabeth, it’s just not defined yet, we haven’t had a serious discussion about our relationship . . .”
“What’s in your hand?” she asked, finally noticing the bottle with the mud like liquid.
“Finally, we are getting to the point,” Lucky said to himself. “You know that little spell you did when I was in the hospital?”
“The spell that didn’t work? Yeah, I think I remember,” she said sarcastically. “What about it.”
“It did work, and I’m not talking about it not working on Spike. Elizabeth, it did work, just on the wrong people.”
“Really?” she asked, her eyes open in excitement. “Who?”
“You and Buffy and everyone else who was in the room that night,” he told her, running his hand through his hair, this was turning into a tedious task.
“Never we haven’t been under any truth . . .” Liz’s voice trailed off as her mind went over the events of the last week or so. “Oh my God! Buffy told Jason the truth about her . . .oh my God Lucky, this is terrible, we have to stop it before she says anything else she’ll regret, before they all do. I must have been spared because . . .”
Lucky was shaking his head in disagreement, getting her to stop rambling. “Man, I don’t know what part of your brain the little spell worked on but you’ve been . . . I swear, this truth spell must be connected to your libidos as well. Here,” he held out the bottle, “take this, it’ll fix everything.”
“It looks vile Lucky, I thought you loved me? Why would you make me drink something . . .”
Before she say anything else Lucky grabbed her around the waist and kissed her passionately. He finished and looked into her eyes. “I do, that’s why you have to drink this, please.”
“Fine,” she sighed, still a bit thrown by his bold move. She took the bottle from his hand, pinched her nose shut and gulped down some of serum. Lucky watched her for a moment, hoping it didn’t have any other, more serious side effects. She gagged for a moment, sticking out her already blue tongue, getting Lucky to laugh.
“What is so funny?”
“Um, oh, nothing,” Lucky gasped as he stopped his laughing. “How do you feel?”
“Oh my, oh my, oh my,” she repeated, rubbing at her eyes as her entire face flushed. “I have been so . . .horny!” she declared, obviously horrified.
“No, I wouldn’t use that word,” Lucky said soothingly. “More like your sexuality was awoken by your ability to tell the utter truth . . . oh great, I’m starting to sound Nikolas or something.”
“How can you even look at me after the way I’ve acted? Lucky, I am so sor--.”
Once again Lucky stopped her from speaking by kissing her softly. “Don’t be. We still have a lot of stuff to deal with, but I think your little trip down honesty lane has opened the door for us to deal with that stuff.”
“Thank God, I wouldn’t want to ever lose you,” she whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder.
“Impossible, you’re stuck with me,” he said with a chuckled as he rubbed her back. “You do have other stuff, slayer stuff, to probably take care of.”
“I do? Oh gosh, Jason right? I’m going to kill Buffy . . .” Liz complained as she pulled Lucky out the door of the lounge. “I’ll go find our friendly, neighborhood mobster and clear things up with him. Hopefully he’ll understand, I just can’t believe she told him.”
“You want me to come along?” he suggested.
Liz shook her head, “Nah, I can handle this on my own.”
“I guess you’re right, besides I should go find out how my dad is doing with Nikolas and Emily, it was his job to cure them.”
Liz looked at Lucky in shock, “Oh, I’d love to have seen that one.”
PART B CLICK ON REPLY YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS PART B
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