City of Stars

Chapter Two

Willow's POV: (She's a lot more innocent, so for those who don't like curse words, you will like Willow's POV the best)

          "Giles, you need to come see this!" I yell over the immense stack of books I'm carrying. He rushes over, tripping over Xander on his way here.

          "What, Willow? Did you figure out who the evil is?" he said as he stumbled over toward me. I smile triumphantly, holding up the book I had just found.

          "Yeah! I just found out who our new Big Bad is... And it's really bad..." I say, my voice trailing off as I realize that the information that I just found is not a good thing... At all. Xander looks over at me as I say that, and sends me a questioning look. I shake my head slowly, answering his silent question.

          Do we have a good chance over surviving? Anya walks over as well. Just great, she is the single most annoying person in the history of the universe... Of any of the many zillions of other random universes. Like the one without shrimp! Realizing my train of thoughts has shot into outer space, I shake my head slightly, and realize that everyone is looking at me, waiting for my answer.

          "Well?" Giles asks me, clearly waiting for a response. I move over to him, and place the book down on the table.

          "Apparently the Big Bad's name is Felitoxian. I know, it is extremely hard to pronounce, but he's no laughing matter. It seems that he is an incarnation of war. He's kind of like the horseman of death. He seems to feed off hatred and fighting." I conclude, sugarcoating just how bad Felitoxian is.

          I flip through the book until I find the pages covering him. I have to go through a few more chapters until I find the pictures, physical, and mental descriptions. I place the book back down onto the table, 'cause I picked it up while looking for the pictures. I gesture toward the picture.

          "This is Felitoxian. Also known as the Martyr of Death, if you even mention his name during war, it's cause enough to be shot at gunpoint by your commanding officer. Even people that don't know anything about the supernatural know, and fear, his name." While introducing him, I see Xander and Anya exchange a look, and Giles' face pales even more than any human should possibly be able to.

          I figure that I can't make their fear any more extreme than I already have, so I decide to start describing his physical appearance.

          "It is said that he is one-hundred and fifty feet tall, and can crush the empire state building with just one step. He has horns that have been compared to drying lava, because they glow white-hot. His skin is black, and is cracked. Between the cracks, you can see white fire coursing beneath the skin. In addition, that is his humanoid appearance. No one has ever survived to tell the tale if they have seen his hell-god form." I say, my voice trailing off, again, because I am afraid that Xander may faint because he is so pale.

          "Also!" I continue in a perky tone, "I really don't think we should tell the potentials about this. I'm not sure they're ready for a true hell god!"

        "Yay!" Xander mutters, disbelief in his voice. I can tell by his tone that he's probably wondering how the heck I'm staying so calm. I'm really not calm, because inside of my chest, my heart is beating at a pace that I believe most people have never experienced. Sure enough the next thing out of Xander's mouth confirms what I thought he was thinking.

          "How are so fricking calm about all of this?" He cries, disbelief in his eyes.

          "Believe me, I'm not. But the way I see it, the less of a freak-out I have, the less the potentials will freak." I reply, almost instantaneously. It's amazing how much of my life has become controlled by the potentials. It seems to me like they run the household. Or the hotel-hold. Whatever you call the setup we got going on here.

           "Do you believe that we have a chance without experienced fighters?" Giles wonders, in turn interrupting me from my random train of thought. I carefully try to figure out the best way to phrase it. I quickly realize that Giles will be able to tell if I am lying, so I decide to tell the truth.

           "No... If we really wanted a fighting chance, we would most likely need very experienced soldiers to train, prepare, and lead the potentials. We have an almost zero percent chance of winning without professional help." I'm starting to wonder if all the truth is helping like I thought it would, because it seems like Xander, Anya, and Giles are having tiny freak-outs.

          "Do you think..." Giles says, trailing off. I can tell he is worried, but I cannot tell what he's thinking. Apparently, Xander does though, because he has started violently shaking his head.

         "If you think we need their help, you're an idiot!" Xander cries. Anya jumps at the anger in his voice. Even I'm a bit shaken by it, even if I don't really understand why he's so upset...

          I hear a throat clearing, and look over at Kennedy. She's standing in the doorway, and from her posture, probably has been there for a really long time.

           "Yeah?" I ask, hoping my voice is as calm and controlled, as I want it to be. She scans her eyes across the room, clearly seeing the tension in the room.

          "What were you guys talking about?" she asks, probably wondering what is going on. I look around the room, and catch Giles', Xander's, and Anya's eyes, silently asking them if we should tell her. Xander shakes his head, and I look over toward Kennedy.

          "Nothing that you should be worried about. Family affair..." I say, adding 'family affair', because people always think you are talking about a funeral. Kennedy looks skeptical, but drops it.

           "Rona and Amanda were sparring, but Rona got hurt real bad, so Amanda said to come get you." She says. I nod my head and gesture for her to lead the way. She heads toward the stairs, and before I follow her, I turn back around and face Giles.

           "Do whatever you need to do to win." I tell him, my voice firm, leaving no room for debate. With that, I spin around and walk up the stairs.

          I hope you enjoyed Willow's POV, because she was really hard to write. I much prefer Faith's POV, because her manner of speaking is so much more fun to right.