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If anyone asked, Marshall Eriksen would proudly say that he knew everything about his fiancé. Of course, no one ever actually asked, but Marshall knew that it was the principle of the thing that mattered. Lily had never given him any reason to think the opposite. Besides, he woke up with the realization that they’re getting married tomorrow -- tomorrow! -- so it didn’t matter if Lily still had a couple of secrets hidden in that head of hers. At least, that’s what he thought until someone started to pound on the door around noon. The gang was all together, getting ready to go to lunch when the first knock came.
He opened the door to find a man about his age with styled black hair and an eyepatch. The eyepatch threw him and it took a moment for Marshall to get any words out.
‘Are you a pirate?’
The man chuckled, running a hand through his hair, ‘I did apply for a job as part of Blackbeard’s crew, but they were looking for someone with more experience raping and pillaging,’ he peered around the room with his remaining chocolate brown eye, his gaze sweeping from Marshall to Ted to Robin to Barney, ‘Listen, maybe I’ve got the wrong place, but I’m looking for Willow Rosenberg.’
That would have been the end of it if the bathroom door hadn’t swung open to let Lily through.
‘Wills?’
When she saw the man with the eyepatch, her mouth opened in surprise.
‘Xander?’
Neither of them looked particularly comfortable seeing each other and the stranger -- Xander, apparently -- looked relieved.
‘What are you doing here, Xander?’ Lily asked, her voice tight, ‘I thought I was clear that I--’
‘I know,’ Xander interrupted, ‘and I respect your decision and everything, and if you never want to see me again after this I totally understand, but I need your help. I wouldn’t bother you if it wasn’t important. Please, it’s just,’ he paused, meeting Lily’s eyes directly with his own, ‘Rupert, uh Giles, that is, it’s...he’s missing.’
‘What do you want me to do about it?’
Marshall had never heard so much malice in Lily’s voice, it wasn’t really in her nature to be gruff. Barney, Ted, and Robin’s faces showed that they were as surprised as he was. Even Xander looked shocked, stricken.
‘Wills, look, I,’ his voice cracked and shook, ‘I know you blame...but you can’t just pretend...I mean, I don’t think he’s...’
Lily’s eyes flicked downwards at the sound of Xander’s rambling.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said quietly, ‘I know it’s not really any of your faults. What can I do about it?’ she asked again, more gently, ‘And since when has he been Rupert to you?’
‘After you left, I was...things were hard. Rup--Giles he was there for me, he helped me, we...now he’s missing and I need help and Buffy...I need help.’
‘What can I do?’
‘Some sort of, I mean I’ve got a little--’
Xander twiddled his fingers a little and Lily looked away.
‘I haven’t in a while. Not since...’ her voice trailed away as images from the past came to visit his brain.
__________
It had happened only a few months after their big battle, a good point in Kennedy and Willow’s relationship. They were all together, Kennedy and Willow holding hands, Buffy and Xander trailing behind talking about one thing or another, probably Spike and Anya. They should have known better, after everything they’d been through, but things had been so quiet in this town, so peaceful, they never even suspected. It had all happened so fast and the demon had been so strong.
One moment they were walking, having a good time and enjoying the night air. The next moment was chaos and surprise and fear. Then there was a snap and a splat followed by silence except for the demon falling to its wrinkled knees as its head rolled away, the metallic swish of Buffy sheathing her sword and Xander’s whoop of joy. Willow heard none of this, falling to her knees and ignoring the pain it shot up her thighs and into her hips. Buffy and Xander stopped celebrating long enough to see the scene before them, to realize what had happened.
Willow had tried everything, all the spells she had up her sleeves, each one weaker than the last as her concentration faltered and distraught hysteria took its place. The hand on her shoulder sent Willow into a rage, whipping around to face them, eyes turned black and contaminated by magic.
‘You!’
She ranted and raged and screamed, a steady mantra of “it’s all your fault” filling the air.
‘I never want to see your faces again! You’re all nothing but trouble for every single person I ever get close to!’
When the rage faded and despair took its place, she still refused to look at them and chose to just disappear directly following the funeral.
Willow had briefly gone to LA and worked for Angel, but even there the reminders were constant and painful, apparent in every glance the souled vampire sent her way. So, she left. Willow Rosenberg ceased to be and Lily Aldrin took her place. She hadn’t planned on meeting someone, particularly not so soon, but life and fate had other plans from the moment she first laid eyes on Marshall Eriksen.
__________
‘Please.’
Xander’s voice brought Lily crashing back to the present with her brain buzzing, hyper aware of the eyes resting on her and the tears staining her cheeks.
‘I don’t,’ she tried to stay, but only air came out. She cleared her throat and tried again, ‘I don’t have any supplies.’
‘I have everything,’ Xander said, indicating the duffel bag at his feet, ‘Everything except the skill.
Lily nodded, swiping away an errant tear, ‘Fine.’
‘Anybody want to explain this?’
Ted’s voice broke through the silence that had followed Lily’s agreement.
‘Babe?’
Lily looked at Marshall, a sad smile on her lips, ‘Something from my past, something I tried very hard to forget.’
Then, she told them a story about a girl named Buffy in a town called Sunnydale. It was a fantastical story of vampires and demons and Mayors turning into snakes. It was a story of joy and sorrow, pain and healing, love and loss, magic and mystery.
Then, she told Xander a story about a woman named Lily in a city called New York. It was no less fantastical than the other story had been, but in a different way. It was a story of the abnormality of normal life, love and friendship and happily ever after. A story in which life was not filled with fear and danger around every turn.
‘I missed this,’ Xander said softly when she had finished, ‘I missed seeing you so happy.’
Marshall and Ted moved the coffee table and Xander emptied his bag, digging through various demon and vampire weaponry to find what he needed. The last thing Xander did was remove the sweater he had been wearing.
‘You have to have something that belongs to the person,’ he explained as he handed it over, ‘I’ve been wearing it, but it’s still his.’
Lily sat cross legged on the floor, an atlas on the ground before her. She sorted the materials Xander and had brought and arranged them at her sides, the sweater in her lap. Overtly, it smelled like Xander’s aftershave, but underneath that she could sense the familiar spice of Giles’ cologne and the sweetness of pomegranate body wash, a special English brand he had used for as long as Lily could remember.
Xander handed her a large tome with yellowing pages and fading ink, opened to a page filled with lines of text.
‘German,’ Lily noted with surprise and she read and committed the words to memory, ‘Interesting choice.’
‘He told me once that this is the most powerful tracking spell he knows,’ Xander explained.
‘It’s certainly more violent than most,’ Lily agreed.
They had learned over the years that magic was usually stronger if it required the use of blood. Something about connecting the spellcaster to the spell.
‘I don’t want you guys to worry,’ Lily told her oddly silent friends who were looking on from across the room, ‘I’ve done worse before.’
Lily folded Giles’ sweater into a square and tied a piece of hemp cord around it to keep it there. She mixed several herbs and spices in a small crystal bowl, twisting the dry mixture with her fingers as she chanted the guttural German text of the spell. Xander, seated in front of her on the other side of the atlas, handed over a small flint knife. Lily used it to cut a thin line in the palm of her hand, deep enough for the blood to pool, but shallow enough that it wouldn’t flow. She poured the spices over the cut and squeezed her hand into a fist, allowing everything to mingle with her blood.
Still chanting, she placed the palm of her bloody, spiced hand, now glowing with a soft green light, on top of the bundle that was Giles’ sweater. As the chanting reached its peak, the glow intensified then dimmed until only the tip of one finger shone.
‘Now,’ Lily whispered.
Xander opened the atlas to a map of the world. Lily’s finger moved of its own accord, hovering over the map, scanning it until she got to North America. Then, her finger touched down lightly. Xander flipped to the page that held a map of North America. Again, Lily’s finger hovered and scanned until it set down lightly in one block of the map grid. This continued on smaller and smaller scales, the magic finally leading them to the town of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
‘More detail,’ Lily told him, and Xander happily found the correct page. It was obvious that this was a more specific location than he had been hoping for.
The spell ceased when they got to one corner of a particular graveyard on the northeast side of a small county called Agrius.
The glow faded from Lily’s finger and she slumped over, exhausted. Marshall went to her side, wrapping an arm around his fiancé protectively. Lily smiled at him tiredly and kissed him reassuringly.
‘I’m fine, Marshmallow, I promise.’
Xander looked confused for a moment, ‘I thought you were--’
‘Love doesn’t discriminate,’ Lily murmured, the exact same thing she had said to him they first time they’d really talked about the whole Tara thing. Xander smiled at her.
Marshall helped Lily clean up her hand as Xander packed his things. The one-eyed man slipped Giles’ sweater on over his head, despite the thin line of blood near the collar.
‘Thanks,’ Xander said, hugging Lily as best as he could when Marshall still had his arm around her.
‘Say hi to Giles for me,’ Lily replied when he broke away, ‘Oh, and Xander?’
The man in question looked back, hand resting on the doorknob.
‘Next time you want to visit, call first.’
Xander was smiling as he left, closing the door behind him.