On Angels Wings

Authors Note: Sorry about the absolutely huge delay with this update, and making you all fear that the story had been abandoned, but my muse for this story stopped cooperating until very recently.

Disclaimer: I still don't own the characters that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement. Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer remain – as always – the property of their respective creators and I make absolutely no profit from their use, so please continue to keep the lawyers firmly leashed and muzzled.

Chapter Six

Sunnydale High School

Next Day

"So you're telling me Xander did this weird magic thing and now Amy's human again?"

Sitting in the library at Sunnydale High School before classes began for the day Buffy gaped at Willow and Oz who were sitting across from her. When she'd come in this morning she'd immediately cornered the witch and werewolf to fill them in on Giles being officially her Watcher again – only to find out that they'd already known, Xander having told them last night – and to query Willow on why she'd called for the teen turned whitelighter in the way she had. She had to admit she'd gotten a good chuckle at being told about how Oz had reacted to seeing Xander orb, despite having seen him do it a few times now she couldn't help but still be amazed by it. Feelings of amazement that would immediately be followed by feelings of guilt due to the fact that Xander was well, technically speaking, dead. Dead but alive but in an angelic as opposed to evil undead fashion. Especially as it was her fault, her mistakes in making him feel that he couldn't count on her to have his back that was responsible for him meeting his destiny sooner than he should have.

Then Willow had dropped this particular bombshell on her.

"Yup it was amazing to see, Buffy," Willow replied practically bouncing in her seat as she remembered the awe she'd felt seeing Xander effortlessly break the botched transformation spell holding Amy Madison in rat form. A spell that had defied all her attempts to break it. She was steadily getting used to seeing him do things like that, use his power yet at the same time it always made her feel a little sad as every time she saw him teleport himself via orbing, or do anything else with his power in point of fact, it reminded her that Xander wasn't really human anymore.

"And afterwards he left," Buffy questioned as this was the most confusing part of the whole thing to her, why would Xander leave so suddenly as it really wasn't like him. Or hadn't been like him, she thought, who knows how dying and returning to life as a whitelighter has affected his thinking process. I know dying at the hands of the Master and being revived afterwards really screwed me up for months afterwards. Though she kept her face calm she inwardly frowned worriedly at the thought that Xander might, for understandable reasons, not be quite thinking right and that he might eventually, and inadvertently, put them all in danger in the same way she had. She made a mental note to speak to him about it later as she – better than anyone else – would know exactly what he was going through.

"Yeah the Elders called him," Willow replied seemingly oblivious to Buffy's internal musing, "I don't know why."

"There could be any number of reasons," Giles said as he appeared from the office where he had been doing a quiet inventory of some of the more sensitive books that Wesley had brought over from England. He'd soon determined which ones would be safe to go on the general shelves and which would be best kept in the locked cabinet he kept in his office as the knowledge and magic's they contained were far too dangerous to be just left lying around. He'd been doing it alone as Wesley himself was spending the day with Faith both getting to know his charge and helping her sort out financing some furniture for her new apartment.

"Like?" Buffy asked.

"They are far too many to list, Buffy," Giles replied, "while it is true that the Council doesn't know as much about the Elders as we would like, they guard their secrets quite jealously after all, we do know that they never summon one of their whitelighters to their presence without a good reason."

Buffy frowned and started to open her mouth to ask again what that reason could be, but before any sound could emerge the doors to the library opened and the person she'd just been about to ask about came in. Xander walking right over to them and sitting in one of the chairs with a wary sigh.

"Long night," Buffy asked sympathetically seeing he was exhausted.

"You could say that," Xander admitted leaning back in the chair. "I didn't get to orb home till about 2am this morning."

"Ouch," Buffy replied with a wince. "What happened? Why'd the Elders keep you so late," at the surprised and questioning look Xander shot her she explained, "Willow told us they summoned you after you de-ratted Amy."

"Nothing bad Buffy," Xander explained, "the Elders were just surprised that I was able to turn Amy back, apparently her magical line had been written off as being lost to evil – thanks in no small part to her mother's extensive use of dark magic's – and their Book of Shadows confiscated years ago. As such I shouldn't have been able to turn Amy back in the way I did as my kind cannot heal evil beings or break any spells or curses placed upon them."

"Good Lord," Giles exclaimed taking off his glasses and starting to polish them. He of course knew what a Book of Shadows was – all Watchers knew that as it was one of the first things they learned about in the parts of the Watchers Academy syllabus that dealt with the various types of magic's – and what they contained. For the Elders to go so far as to confiscate a Book of Shadows meant that a witch line had gone almost irretrievably dark.

"So does this mean Amy's evil," Buffy asked frowning wondering if she would have to slay Amy as she'd had to slay her mother. If she had to then she knew it wouldn't be as easy as defeating Catherine Madison had been, Amy was well aware of her powers as a Slayer and wouldn't make the mistake Catherine did of sending a banishment spell at her that – like most missile spells – could be reflected back off a shiny surface. In other words it wasn't a fight she would be looking forward to getting into.

Xander shook his head. "No," he admitted making Buffy sigh inwardly in relief, "the Elders checked her aura, while there are some tendencies their towards darker magic's that's not uncommon for a Hellmouth witch, the constant exposure to the demonic energies of the Hellmouth ensure that, Amy still has the potential to be a good witch. So she's basically on probation – if she can prove that she's a good witch, and will stay one, to her whitelighter i.e. me then her lines Book of Shadows will be returned to her."

"Book of Shadows what's that?" Willow asked.

"A Book of Shadows is a magical tomb kept by born witch lines," Giles explained, "it records all the magical knowledge of that particular line of witches containing everything from basic demonic identification information to the most complex of magic be they spells, potions, curses or rituals. It is a means of preserving knowledge as the book grows with the line and never runs out of pages. The spell that creates a Book of Shadows also has the effect that no one with an evil intent, or even a creature born of evil, can touch it, the exact effect varying with the line."

"Wow," Willow breathed, "but what's this about the Hellmouth making witches more prone to dark magic? Is that going to affect me? I don't want to be evil."

"I to would like to know that answer," Giles admitted as in all the literature he'd read he'd not come across a mention of that particular phenomena. Though truth be told learning it existed honestly didn't surprise him he listened intently for Xander's answer.

Xander sighed. "It's the dark magic that the Hellmouth constantly emits," he explained, "it can – if you aren't extremely careful – slowly start infecting a witch's internal reservoir of magic, their magical core if you will. And before you ask Will's all witches have a magical core that grows and evolves with time and practice. And it could easily affect you if you're not careful and if you don't regularly perform cleansing rituals."

"Cleansing rituals," Willow questioned honestly confused. Confusion that turned to alarm when whitelighter and watcher exchanged a look of mutual surprise and concern.

"You mean you haven't performed any cleansing rituals since you began practicing magic, Willow!" Giles exclaimed shocked and concerned. "That is extremely foolish."

"I don't know what a cleansing ritual is let alone that I had to do one regularly," Willow protested prompting Giles to take off and start polishing his glasses.

"Did you not read the book I gave you on the basics of magical theory when you first started practicing," Giles questioned looking sternly, surprisingly sternly at least to the watching Buffy and Oz, at the redheaded witch. Willow immediately started fidgeting uncomfortably under his gaze, something which set mental alarm bells ringing. "Willow."

"I, uh, may have only glanced at it," the redhead admitted reluctantly knowing she was certain to get yelled at. But the book had been boring, it had been insulting to her intelligence in away as it had made her feel like she needed her hand to be held as she started to learn magic. She'd found experimentation with spells she both found in books here in the library and on the internet to be much more fun in teaching her what she needed to be a great witch.

"Of all the idiotic… oh you foolish, foolish girl," Giles thundered making Willow wince. "Do you have any idea of the danger you've gone put your very soul in by not reading that book properly? By not doing even the basic cleansing and centring rituals it contains?"

"Ugh no."

"Will's you've put yourself in danger of becoming either a dark sorceress in the future like what Amy's mom became at best. At worst it could corrupt you to the point where you become a warlock," Xander explained shocked that Willow hadn't read whatever book it was Giles had prescribed her to read when she'd first started practicing magic last year. It was foolish and reckless and while he knew Willow could get a bit carried away at times when it came to learning new things, and sometimes hated the methodology that came with that learning especially if it felt like it was talking down to her, but he had never thought she'd be quite this reckless. Not with something as potentially dangerous as magic was.

"I didn't know," Willow exclaimed her jaw shaking as a cold knot of dread forming in her stomach at her oldest male friends words. She'd read up on warlocks after Giles and Faith had mentioned them, and the possibility that the mayor could be a very powerful one, and had no desire to become like them.

"That's why I gave you the book to read so you would know about them and the dangers of not learning magic in the correct way," Giles replied with a sigh before taking off his glasses and starting to clean them for the second time in his normal tactic for coping with stressful situations.

"Willow while your enthusiasm for learning is commendable you have to understand that magic can be a very dangerous thing. It is not something you can just experiment with," he continued. "There are specific ways of doing it, or learning it, for a good reason. Failure to follow the directions or heed the warnings can have terrible consequences – I myself had to learn that lesson the hard way, I would rather you not have to."

"So what do we do," Buffy asked worried for her friend.

"First you go to class," Giles replied glancing at the clock and seeing that classes would start in a few more minutes. "Later today we will have to do a diagnostic spell to determine the state of Willow's magical core and then take any appropriate actions to remedy the damage she has surely done to herself with such reckless behaviour."

"Can we not do it now?" Willow asked looking like she wanted to cry as she really began to realise how foolish she'd been. She tried to tell herself that she'd only wanted to use magic help with the slaying sooner than she would have been able to if she'd stuck to the books prescriptions but the words felt flat even to her own mind.

"No we do not have time before you start classes," Giles said firmly even as the warning bell sounded to inform all students it was time to head to class. "Plus it will take a bit of time for me to gather the materials needed for the spell."

"My first periods free, Giles," Xander pointed out as Buffy, Oz and Willow reluctantly got to their feet and began filing out the library. "Do you want me to help you?"

"I'd appreciate it, Xander," Giles agreed with a nod and a smile. He didn't have some of the ingredients he'd need for a magical diagnostic spell to hand as they were quite perishable and were rarely useful in spells for vanquishing demons. He would have to get them specifically and that meant going to the magic shop and if push came to shove he could always get Xander to orb over there with a list and some money to get the needed items.

"It's no trouble," Xander replied noting out the corner of his eyes the doors to the library closing behind Buffy and the others. "What ingredients do you need?"

"That can wait for a few minutes, I can always nip to the magic shop at lunch time to get the ingredients I need," Giles replied "instead I believe we need to talk about, Willow. And how foolish and reckless she has apparently been with learning magic. Which is kind of my fault, I should have paid more attention to teaching her when she first started but…"

"… You were distracted first by Jenny's death then in attempting to find Buffy after the whole thing with Acathla went down," Xander finished for him. "It's not your fault, Giles. Knowing Willow as I do she probably felt the book was talking down to her and insulting her intelligence so she decided to experiment and learn by experience instead of following the proper theory and methodologies. While that's an alright approach for most subjects it's completely the wrong way to go with magic – though until I became what I am now I didn't know that."

"But I should have," Giles said with a self-recriminating sigh, knowing he really should have paid more attention to Willow's learning of the mystical arts, especially given her first real spell had been the soul restoration curse on Angel, itself one of the darkest curses in existence. Something which should have really set alarm bells ringing before this but for some reason never had as casting such a curse as a first spell could have potentially very dangerous consequences. "Alright enough with the self-recrimination, what's done is done. Now we just need to decide what to do about it."

Xander nodded in agreement as the watcher sat down opposite him and they began to talk.

City Hall

That Same Time

Mayor Richard Wilkins the Third – and the first and the second – frowned as he read the report that Mr Trick had left on his desk this morning before the vampire retired to one of the hidden apartments in the basement to sleep out the day. The fact that the El Illuminati were in Sunnydale was a little concerning, especially as Balthazar – not to be confused with Balthazor as both demons hated it when someone did that, Balthazor usually expressing such displeasure with an energy ball - was no doubt with them and he didn't have to be genius to know what the currently weakened, obese demon was after.

He wanted his amulet back, an amulet he'd drained of its power years ago as part of his ascension preparations. Unfortunately Balthazar was strong enough in magic still to regenerate its power, leaching it back off him, should his vampire minions find and recover it. And that would not be good for him as he needed all the power he could get now that his ascension was so close as there would not be time to find an alternative source of those specific magical energies. Though the fact that the Slayers had encountered – and subsequently dusted – some of said demons minions was good news as it wouldn't take the Watcher long to identify the mark of the El Illuminati from the sword Summers had salvaged. Which would soon see both Slayers sent to deal with them a.s.a.p. as he was well aware the Balthazar was wanted dead at any cost by the Watchers Council.

Still he made a mental note to have Trick assign some minions to track down Balthazar's hiding place, just in case the Slayers didn't find him and he had to deal with the nuisance himself. After all having contingency plans never hurt.

Flipping over to the next page of the report his eyes widened in surprise at what he saw next. Apparently young Mr Harris wasn't a human as he'd long appeared to be, instead he was a whitelighter. How the hell can a whitelighter be here? The ambient dark magic's of the Hellmouth has always kept them away before, he thought honestly confused. He wondered if it was a recent development – that some vamp or demon had gotten Harris only for the Elders to make him into a whitelighter and send him back at the exact moment of his death, something which was well within their power to do. Or – more worryingly – had Harris been a whitelighter all along and they'd somehow just not noticed before now? After all he was well aware that as magical beings whitelighters could easily change their appearance with a glamour to better keep an eye on whoever their charge was.

Whichever was the case he knew he had to get rid of Xander Harris somehow and do it quickly. After all if the Slayers did somehow discover his ascension plans and told him, he'd certainly tell the Elders. Which could potentially spell total disaster for his plans, especially as he had no idea on the exact limits of their combined magical power, unlike those other interfering busy bodies who called themselves the Powers That Be there limits he knew well. For all he knew the Elders might have the combined magical strength to banish him from this realm and it wouldn't do to ascend only to be yanked into purgatory for the rest of eternity instead of feasting on the souls of mortals.

Harris would have to go, he was too dangerous a threat to allow to exist. Unfortunately he had no idea about how to go about getting rid of him... not anymore. Once he would have simply asked his old friend Alec to dispose of him in the normal fashion for a darklighter, unfortunately that was no longer possible as Alec was vanquished – destroyed nearly two years ago by the Charmed Ones. And he didn't know any other darklighters as they and warlocks like himself didn't as a general rule get on very well. In fact they generally despised one another. He'd only gotten along with Alec as he'd known him back when he'd been human, and they'd kept that old friendship going even after Alec got resurrected as a darklighter by the Source.

After a moment he sighed and put the report down. He'd think of something to deal with the threat Harris represented. He always did find ways of dealing with threats, he'd actually gotten quite good at it over the last hundred years.

The buzz of his desk terminal jolted him out of his thoughts. "Yes," he asked pressing one of the buttons on the offending device.

"Sorry to disturb you sir but there's a Mister Turner here to see you," the voice of his day secretary answered, "he's says you've asked to see him."

"Indeed I did send him in Miss Price."

"Yes sir."

Richard smiled as he signed off with the young human woman – whose perky personality he would honestly miss after he ascended – before leaning back in his chair. Cole Turner showing up meant all his problems with the El Illuminati and Harris being a whitelighter could be about to go away. After a moment of waiting the door to his office opened and the other… well man… stepped through dressed in an expensive looking Armani suit and looking, well, like a lawyer.

"Hello my friend it's been awhile," he said standing up and offering a hand.

"That it has, Richard," Cole replied accepting the offered hand and shaking it, being careful to not show any sign of his new true feelings for warlocks and other evil magical beings who could pose a threat to his beloved, Phoebe.

"Please sit," Richard said releasing the half demons hand and gesturing to the seat opposite him.

"Thank you," Cole replied sitting down. "I must admit I was surprised to get your call like that. What do you want, Richard?"

"Straight down to business I see. I always did like that about you." Richard answered as he sat down himself. "I'm in need of your services old friend, or rather the services of your other half."

Cole grinned back at him and before his eyes morphed into the larger, red-skinned form of the mighty demon Balthazor. "Go on," he said.

Richard blinked at the transformation, he'd forgotten how intimidating Balthazor could be in person, before smiling and beginning to outline just what he wanted the other man to do.

Authors Note: Well that's the new chapter finished. Things are starting to get interesting in Sunnydale now that Cole has arrived on the scene as the Charmed Ones might not be that far behind. I'm sorry there was a bit of Willow-bashing in this chapter but it was necessary as it will help avoid the trap of magical addiction that the red-haired hacker/witch fell into originally.

Once again I apologise for the huge delay with this update, hopefully it will not happen again.