Set during the time Giles was held captive by Angel.

Unbetaded

I do not own these characters. Joss Whedon owns these characters. I take the characters out, play with them, and then put them back into their boxes when I am finished.

Since the arrival of the creatures, Spike and Druscilla in Sunnydale, Giles had read all of the journal entries he could find on the pair. Unfortunately there were not many entries associated with the duo. It seemed that the more one dug into their trail the more the trail tapered off into missing journals and magically sealed entries. Many of these entries centered at the time period of World War II. It was rumored the Watcher Headquarters had been attacked, and many potential Slayers killed, during this period. It was also rumored that Spike and Druscilla were at the very heart of this attack. Typical, Giles thought as he pulled fruitlessly against the rope that tethered him to a chair, that the Council sought to protect their own pride over the lives of those who gave their very lives to the Council. This was a pattern Giles was all too familiar with. Now faced with his own mortality and the safety of Buffy, Giles had little information about the creature that stood before him and certainly no information that could be help his situation.

What he did know was thin at best. Spike had appeared sometime around the late eighteen hundreds. He was, typical of Vampires, quiet young when he was turned. It was unknown who Sired the creature but, it was believed to be either Druscilla or Angelus. What was known was that he was part of the Auralias clan and therefore, in the world of demons, something of royalty. In the few sketches the Watchers had made of the human creature, Spike, had taken over was a beautiful gentleman of soft features. His hair hung in gentle blonde curls and his dress was suitable of a gentleman with fabric of velvets and tweed. It was hard to see that image now under the hard, slicked back hair and long leather jacket the creature wore. His body and face seemed harder still. He was, however, still beautiful. Giles believed that was part of how the creatures caught their prey. Their beauty captivated and called to many a weaker person. It was a beauty that spoke to the darker side of Giles. A side he had buried, but still called out on occasion to hunt as these creatures hunted. This was a side of himself that Buffy knew nothing about. He often wondered how long he could keep this side of himself a secret.

The creature continued to watch him tilting its head left to right as if trying to gather more information from each angle of its head. It was incongruous to see a creature, dead, evil, un-human, surrounded by the shinning metal of the human contraption of a wheelchair. He could tell the creature resented it. He wondered, briefly, if the creature resented it more because it held him back or because it reminded him of when it was human? The creature wheeled closer and took out a cigarette. It took a few moments to light the cigarette, play with the dull grey lighter and then slip the lighter back into its black leather coat.

"You know I met a few of you watchers over the years. You never stop surprising me with how useless you lot are. It's the girls really, isn't it? They're the real threat. You lot are merely window dressing you are." It blew out a stream of smoke as it talked.

It was the most the creature had spoken since Giles had been held captive. He was taken aback both by the choice of topic and by the upper crust accent which poked through the rougher cockney speech pattern.

"I'm sorry we disappoint you so." Giles spat back unwilling to explain the importance of a Watcher's role to such an unworthy audience.

The creature dropped its barely smoked cigarette unto the floor and moved closer still only stopping when their knees touched. It was within a breath of Gile's face. Those eyes, cold blue, stared into his as if it theirs was a conversation between souls. Looking into those eyes Giles could swear he heard howls from distant creatures and could feel the air around him changing into a violent swirl pulling him down. The room disappeared and he now only saw the creature.

"I have had a right old time I have. I have bound your kind, Watchers, to stakes in the desert and cut off their heads. I have heard their screams, pulled out their bowels and drown them under lakes of water. I have held their still beating hearts in my grip and pull off their limbs like a child pulling apart marshmallow treats. Their blood was as red as any humans and their death as swift and pitiful. And always the Slayers are left to fight for themselves. Gems among the trash, that's what Slayers are."

The creature smiled a cruel smile that cut across its face like a red scar. "And you, you know you're holding her back. Don't you?"

Giles tried to speak but it was like he was swallowing sand. Noises, howls, screams, moans, jumped into his ears deafening him. The pressure of the air pulled him further and further down until he could no longer raise his head. Defeated he closed his eyes.

"Flowers are lovelier with their petals black and crisp."

Giles opened his eyes. The air was still, the noises quieted, the creature sitting in its wheeled contraption across the room smoked a cigarette. It smirked at Giles.

"All flowers pale to your dark beauty my sweet." The creature said addressing the female, Drucsilla, but never taking his eyes off of Giles. Drucsilla stood in the doorway to the room. Her black hair hung in long ringlets around her face and down her back. A dark purple velvet dress hung on her body. She smiled at the creature and walked over to it, sitting on its lap.

"Have a good hunt my love?" the creature asked turning his head to now look at his beloved.

"Yes, but now I'm tired and need my prince to take me to bed." She purred not even glancing in Giles direction.

"As you wish."

They smiled as each other before falling into a heated kiss. Ignored Giles was left to play unwilling voyeur as the couple finished their passions and the creature, Spike, rolled them slowly out of the room.

A giggle floated out from Drucilla as the chair disappeared from view and Giles lowered his head in despair.