Energy (A Buffy fanfic)

Chapter 3: Supression

Buffy

As the Biology lesson with Ms. French ended, Willow, Xander and I went to the cafetieria. It's quite a rare occurence for us to go there and have time to eat leisurely without having to go to Giles. Theo, on the other hand, headed straight to the library. Looks like we have a miniature Giles coming up.

Xander seems unusually quiet. He has evidenty fallen for Ms. French, and it seems as though she had a thing for school-boys.

He seems to regain some life when we reach the cafetieria. He says "Ooh, hot dog surprise! My favorite!". Willow quips "Call me old fashioned, but I really don't want any surprises in my hot dogs." I agree with her there.

"I wonder what she sees in me?" Xander muses quietly. I have feeling that he thinking about Ms. French again. If only he wouldn't seize on relationships that can only end badly, he'd be so much better off. Whoever heard of a teacher-student relationship working out? If only he'd take Willow, instead of lusting after me or, for that matter, just about anyone in a skirt.

"Probably some sort of magnetism, coupled with my good looks." he continues. "Xander, if she wants you, it's because you're too dumb to wonder why she can't find someone here own age and too desperate to care about the surgical improvements." I just can't resist riling him. His face becomes outraged "She does not have surgical improvements! She's all natural!." he sighs wistfully. I, on the other hand, a becoming more and more convinced that she's nothing of the kind. There's just no way she could ensnare almost every male in the school and she's been here for barely five minutes. It just smacks of magic. Willow tries to get my attention while Xander picks up his surprising hotdog. She waves a hand around and mouths something. It takes me a moment to realise that she's pretending to do magic spells. I nod, and mouth "Giles?" She nods as well.

"Hey Xander, we're just going to pop over and see how Giles is doing, 'kay?" He doesn't answer, because Blayne just appeared, no doubt to rib him about coming second place. I take his appearance as the cue for our disappearances.

It's a good thing that the library is in the middle of the school, and not tucked away like in my old school, otherwise we would spend hours trekking there and back. Just as we're about to go in, I hear a cry of amazement from Giles. "Fascinating! And you say you built this? How does it work?"

We go in, and see Giles peering at Theo's mess of wires, which was now faintly vibrating. Theo looks, for the first time I've ever seen him, embarrassed. "I don't really know" he mutters. "I just feel all jittery and kind of hyperactive, like Willow when she's had coffee, and then I start building this and the jitteriness just sort of flows into it."

Giles smacks his forehead. "How could I have forgotten? Theo, I think I may have found out what you are." There's a blur of motion and Theo's suddenly in front of Giles, gripping his wrists. "Really?" He says, in a quiet, intense voice. I feel as though I'm watching something private, and take Willow's hand and turn to leave. Without turning around, Theo says "No, don't go. I want you to stay and here this." Giles looks at us, surprised to see us. Then he continues, after asking Theo to let go of his wrists. "Theo, I believe that you may be a suppressed warlock." Theo cocks his head, and asks the question that I had been about to ask "What's a suppressed warlock?"

"A warlock is a male witch. They're rarer than witches, but generally more powerful. However, both witches and warlocks have the problem that sometimes their power can be re-routed as a result of some sort of trauma. This means that instead of their power being used to influence things outside themselves, it effects their physical body instead. Hence they become stronger or faster than they would normally be. I'd say that the trauma is the same as the one which caused you to lose your memory. Unfortunately, in most cases the suppression is permanent, and they never regain their powers."