All You Need
Giles sat alone in his cottage in a small town outside of London looking through the porch door windows out at the lush green fields, gently strumming his guitar.
"Nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy."
"All you need is love." Came a new voice from behind. Giles turned around and saw a slightly haggard Oz standing in his living room, singing in a raspy voice.
"Oz. What -I mean - well hello."
"All you need is love. But if you lose your love what do you do?"
"Oz what are you - how - er.." Giles took off his glasses and began to polish them with his shirt.
"The first time I left I had a purpose, a mission, to drive out the wolf and be the man Willow needed me to be. But the second time I had become that man, or so I thought, and still lost Willow. So I've just been wandering, surviving. But I need to - do - something. Willow and Tara are still.." Giles looked down. "Tara is - dead."
Oz's eyes brightened for a second and then filled with guilt. "So she's.."
"She with someone else now. A -"
"A woman?" Oz asked.
"Yes. A woman. A - slayer."
"Buffy?" Oz asked incredulously.
Giles sputtered "Dear Lord, no, I mean - not that there's - well. It's a long story. Suffice it to say, Willow cast a spell to activate all the potential slayers. One of them, Kennedy, well they are together now."
"So she's still doing -"
"Witchcraft?"
"...Yeah."
"Yes."
"I wish - well it doesn't matter. Whether I can be with Willow some day or whether it's so I can be with someone else, or whether it's just to have a purpose, I want to get rid of the wolf. Not just keep him at bay. Get rid of him. For good. I need your help."
"These things are very difficult. I don't know if I can help you Oz."
"All I ask is that you try."
"I will. I'll try."
Giles and Oz sat in ancient plush chairs in the den around the fireplace soaking in warmth and gin. Outside the expanse of green had turned to white. Giles took a slow sip from his glass and said in a somber voice, "I've tried, Oz, we've tried. Charms, meditation, spells, amulets. We can keep the wolf at bay during the full moon but you are still susceptible to transformation with negative stimulation, and I'm afraid that with all the stress you are putting yourself through, it's only a matter of time before.."
Oz's voice cracked. "You said there was.. something else."
"We could ask Willow."
"No not her. We can't ask her. There was something else."
"Yes there is. But it's very dangerous. And I'd have to pull some favors. And..." Giles saw the look on Oz's face and knew he couldn't refuse. "Yes. well I'll have to make a call." Giles went to the study and took a small black book out of a hidden compartment in his desk. He picked up the phone and dialed. He waited for an answer and then said "yes, I'd like to leave a message for Finn."
"I can't believe Im helping you after you let those - those yanks take me away. Do you know what they did to me?"
"Shut up Ethan," said Giles defiantly. "You turned me into a demon. You should be thankful that I was able to pull enough strings to get you out and desperate enough to want to."
"Can we just get on with it?" asked Oz, taking a quick break from the last minute welding he was completing on the large iron holding cell they had constructed in Giles' basement
Ethan smirked and put down a large leather satchel full of magical items. "Very well. I'll set up."
Oz pulled Giles aside. "I know this might not work and even if it does, it might - well I just wanted to say thanks. I don't know what I would have done without the hope you've given me." Oz hugged Giles and then began the preparations for the ceremony.
Ethan and Giles stood on either side of the circle, chanting and channeling a sustained energy bubble around Oz. The full moon shown through the cellar window. As Oz began to change form, Giles shouted "remember, you must concentrate! This spell will allow you to separate from the beast, but you must push it out with every fiber of your being!"
Oz's eyes turned to yellow and his skin began to grow fur. His nails blackened and became long and sharp. His muscles bulged and ripped through his clothing. The beast began to take over when Giles shouted "Now! Do it now!"
Ozbeast clutched his arms around his chest and howled. His form began to shake and blur. He began to split in two, Human and Oz and Beast. The beast, still only separated from Oz at the chest, began to shriek. Being the essence of the beast, it's form was exaggerated and dark, full of shadows and menace. It grew larger in it's fight to stay inside Oz, and began to snap about. Ethan's face began to contort in panic. "It's so powerful!"
"Concentrate Ethan! We must keep the field up so they can separate!" Yelled Giles. But Ethan began to panic and let down his guard. The beast snapped its huge ephemeral teeth at Ethan and caused him to completely drop his guard. The circle evaporated and the beast and Oz began to spin around, still together at the hips. It lunged again at Ethan but he took a small glowing orb out of his pocket and held it up, driving back the beast and causing it snap about wildly. He squeezed the orb, causing a power surge that drove the beast into Giles, its jaws clamping on his arm.
Giles looked down at his bleeding arm and said "you fool!" Small hairs began to sprout from his wound. They began to spread along his skin, marking a grey trail of fur that was followed by a swelling of muscle and sinew. The beast and Oz remerged and became a conventional werewolf, momentarily shocked enough by the unification for Giles to tackle into the holding cell. "Quick Ethan! Lock us in!"
Ethan hesitated. "You've just been bitten Ripper, a transformation has never happened that quickly."
"Ethan can't you see? I've been bitten by the beast in it's pure form. Now lock us in!" Ethan complied and then begin to back away. "Where are you going? Come back!"
"Don't worry, when I'm far enough away, I'll call someone. But I'm not going to let you send me away to those yanks again. Goodbye my friend."
Soon after Ethan left, Giles completed his transformation and Ozbeast regained it's composure and spotted the newly formed Gilesbeast. It crept forward slowly and then leaped at Gilesbeast, knocking it on it's back. It held Gilesbeast down with it's massive paws and bared it's fangs and growled. Then it leaned closer and began to sniff. A glimmer of recognition crept into it's head and it panted and then began to lick.
Oz was swimming in warm clear waters towards a bright shape. He was embraced by the light and felt more secure, more comfortable then he could ever remember. Wrapped in love, he swam about in delight until a voice cut into his dream. "This is getting to be a habit with us."
Oz blinked warily into the bright light, unable to make out where the voice was coming from. "Wha--?"
"You know. Me standing outside your holding cell. You waking up inside naked with someone else in your arms."
Oz's eyes shot open, revealing Willow standing outside the iron bars. "Willow?" Then realization set in. The warmness he was embraced in was naked Giles. He shot up and backed away.
"What happened?" asked Willow.
"There was a ritual. Something went wrong. I -"
Giles was now awake. "I enlisted the help of Ethan. We were trying to cure Oz. Ethan screwed up and I was bitten by the beast in its pure form."
"That explains... not quite everything."
Giles and Oz looked at each other and turned red. They both sputtered the beginnings of sentences and then gave up.
Oz and Willow sat in the green field talking. "I should have asked for your help from the beginning Willow. Without the help of you and your new coven, me and Giles would probably have been werewolves forever. I feel so free. But now that the wolf is gone, I feel something else. Something that scares me almost as much.
Willow pondered for a moment and then said "you know Oz, maybe this makes sense. I mean I was love in Xander but he had been my best friend for like forever. But you are the first and only guy who I really felt attracted to. Maybe I sensed.. something.. in you."
"I don't know Willow," replied Oz. "Would I have felt this way if that night hadn't happened? I mean Giles has spent every waking moment of the last year standing by me, doing everything to try and find a cure for me. I felt so close to him, but it was still... and now despite the wolf being gone, I can still feel his blood inside me. And mine is in him. We have this intense connection. But I'm afraid, Willow. I don't know what it all means. I don't know what I need."
"All you need is love," replied Willow, unaware of the memory that flashed into Oz's head. Oz smiled. "Anyway, I think there is someone else that you need to figure this all out with." Giles had appeared in the distance. Willow hugged Oz and walked away.
Giles made his way down to Oz, sat down, and said "I think it's time we talked about what happened."
Oz nodded. "You're right. I've just been scared. And with Willow's ritual I was able to not think about it for awhile. She said something to me that kind of made sense. I mean, I can kind of see where those feeling could have come from. But you - you've never..."
Giles sighed. "I tried my best to forget about it. But there was a time. A long time ago. With Ethan. It was brief and complicated and confusing and I did my best to forget about it. But despite Ethan's being... Ethan. It was at least partly genuine."
Oz looked up at Giles. "I've been looking for love for a long time. I had lost it because of the beast inside me. But you were there for me. You took away the beast. And you gave me love. I think maybe I'm finally free."
Giles said "so what now?"
Oz took hold of Giles's glasses and removed them from his face. He leaned in and whispered "now this." His lips gently met Giles' and they embraced. From a distance, Willow saw the two hold each other tight and she smiled.