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Chapter 17 by ThomasMoro ThomasMoro

What happens next?

Amelia Has a Premonition

Amelia Madison had always lived in fear of dying by fire. It did not help that her own mother -- hardly the kindest woman who ever lived but still in her own way a loving parent -- had died by fire, executed by the Watchers Council for charges that were considered either legit, bogus or unbelievable, depending on whom you talked to.

Amelia still remembered standing in the crowd, silent with stark raving fear, as the flames had consumed her mother. She had kept expecting her mother to do something -- to call out a curse upon her executioners, to extinguish the flames with a sudden rain storm, to do anything apart from what she actually did -- which was to die screaming as a crowd composed of her former friends and clients silently stood by and watched her burn.

That was just two years ago but after all this time, her mother's screams still echoed within Amelia's head and though part of her told herself that her mother had deserved her fate -- that she had done great harm to a great many people -- another part of her told herself that no one -- no matter how bad -- should have to die the way that her mother did.

Perhaps that was why she chose to reach out to the dragon slayer. Up until this night, Amelia had believed that all dragon slayers were arrogant little women whose sense of entitlement made your average princess seem quite humble. Yet tonight she had not seen such a creature. She had seen a frightened little girl who was trying very hard not to sound like a frightened little girl. A girl who, like Amelia, feared **** by fire -- and had no idea what to do about the imminent prospect of such a ****.

Amelia liked to think that she had dealt with her fear by striving to prove herself the exact opposite of her mother. Instead of performing black magic, she performed white magic. Instead of using her powers to perform evil deeds, she used them to perform good deeds. And yet despite all that, she had always lived in fear that it would not be enough. That, in the end, the Watchers Council would consider her to be as guilty as her mother, no matter what she did, and send her to the stake to burn.

But by helping the Slayer, she was helping herself. At least, that's what Amelia told herself. After all, the Watchers Council might be a corrupt bunch of hypocritical old bullies but even they would not be foolish enough to execute someone who had actually proved to be of use to them. After all, they might need her help again in the future.

And yet despite all that, Amelia could not help thinking: what if the spell wasn't enough? What if Buffy wasn't able to defeat the dragon? **** by dragonfire did not seem like much improvement over **** by Council fire.

So Amelia walked outside of the Violet Moon and watched Buffy fight the dragon, only to see poor Buffy flung off into the wilderness. Great Goddess, Amelia thought. Is Buffy dead? Did my spell just ensure that Buffy would die a different type of **** by dragon than the one Buffy had originally feared?

No, wait, thought Amelia. Dragons are almost indestructible. More importantly, Buffy in her dragon form was almost indestructible. And even if she wasn't, there was no way a mere flick of the dragon's tail could have killed her.

Buffy was still alive, Amelia thought. She just knew that had to be true.

Indeed, she could see Buffy in the air right then. She was flying back to the village in the opposite direction from which she had been flung but she was returning.

But wait!

Why would Buffy be flying in from that direction? And why was she ignoring the big dragon that had just knocked the stuffing out of her. And more importantly, why did this Buffy look so different from the Buffy Amelia had seen much earlier?

A nasty thought crept into Amelia's head. And though she knew that she should be using her powers to defend herself, she could not help but just stand there as she watched the approaching dragon.

And as the dragon drew closer, Amelia found herself unable to move. In fact, she seemed unable to do anything save focus on just two thoughts:

  1. The small dragon flying in her direction was not Buffy.
  2. Amelia really was about to suffer the same **** by fire that she had always feared.

What happens next?

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