Title:  Re-acquaintance With Old Friends and Demons

Author: willowwood

Rating: R (just to be safeJ) 

Author's Notes: This Story is kind of AU, set in the future after the episode 'As You Were'.

Dedication: This is dedicated to Houses, who recently nominated 2 of my stories for 3 Shadow and Dust Awards


Summary:  Spike gets into trouble, and not wanting to open old wounds, the Scooby Juniors decide to go and rescue him.

Email: willowwood@postmaster.co.uk

Chapter 1: First Sighting

Philip Rupert Giles sat in the offices at the Watchers Council Headquarters, London. He rifled through the various reports that lay strewn across his desk, sorting out the real from the imaginary.

He had been working for the council for the last 4 years, it was what he had always wanted to do, who he had always wanted to be. It ran in the family, he often reminded himself a small smile playing at the corner on his lips.

"Never a Watcher though" His dads words echoed in his mind, as he remembered the first time he had told Rupert Giles of his career choice. At first he had been adamant about it, after all his father new the repercussions of working along side a slayer.

And so they had reached a compromise, and now here he was working through the papers scattered about his desk, that read of sightings of strange creatures, demons and vampires. It was his job to uncover, the truth from the false-whether these sightings were real or merely a hoax, and although he often despised the lies and time consuming task of discovering them, he was sure he preferred them over the real thing any day.

Suddenly from out in the corridor he heard the muffled sound of shouting, followed by the familiar thumping of footfalls, as people headed down the corridor. He was used to things happening in this building but for some reason, there seemed to be more excitement in the air than usual on this one occasion.

Curiously he pushed away from the table, causing his chair's legs to screech against the wooden floor, as he rose to his feet. Walking across the room, he made his way towards the door, pulling it open, as the sound of the commotion rose in volume suddenly.

He stepped out into the corridor to see four or more men running in the opposite direction, rifles and other weaponry in hand. He recognised one of them and called out to him

"Hey Anthony, what's going on???"

The man turned to him, a startled expression on his face as though he hadn't expected him to have still been there at the late hour of the night.

"They're bringing a vampire in" he replied quickly, but didn't slow his pace, to explain any further before moving to continue after the three other men who had already disappeared long out of sight.

"So what's all the fuss about? They do that all the time" Philip shouted out to him, before he managed to round the corner at the end of the corridor and was long out of ear shot.

Anthony seemed unsure of whether to answer the other man or not, but obviously decided to as he cleared his throat.

"This is a Master vampire, Mr Travers has warned everyone to be on full alert just in case" he continued, then turned and disappeared before the other man could disrupt him any longer.

With a sigh, Philip turned back into his office and took a seat at his desk; leaning back he began to consider what Anthony had just told him. When suddenly a thought occurred to him, 'Master Vampire??' he only knew of two, the others having been destroyed buy the current and previous slayers.

So with out a second thought, he grabbed his jacket from where it hung on the back of the wooden chair, and headed out into the corridor and towards the holding cells.

By the time he reached the containment centre, a blackened van had already been backed into the large enclosed area, five men stood crowded around it. The entire room ghostly silent.

Each of them held some sort of weapon, that Philip doubted in a fight would do them any good, there only use to console there users. One, who was recognised as James Turner, stood directly in front of the shutter doorway, a tranquiliser gun gripped firmly in his hands. As he waited patiently as two others used large metal poles, to flip the doors clasp and pull them open the clanging of metal against metal echoing throughout the room. Once the doors were open the vans dark and eerie interior was displayed to the group, but there wasn't a vampire to be seen, although the automatic reflex action of breathing, could be faintly heard from inside.

Everyone stood in awe, not daring to move as they waited for the vampire to shift, or attack, make any form of escape. They didn't have to hold there breathe for long, as a resounding throaty growl emanated from the shadows, and before they had chance to contemplate what the sound meant. A blur of a black raced from the van, knocking down anything, and anyone that got in its way, it raced around the room. Eyeing up its captures and the surrounding area, looking for any form of escape.

After a moment, it caught sight of the doorway that lay just beyond where Philip stood, and with another growl headed towards him. But suddenly something or someone caught his eye, and before he reached the door he stopped dead in his tracks, directly in front of Philip Giles.

Philip felt as though he was a deer caught in headlights, as he scanned the face of the demon before him. The familiarity of it, catching him completely off  guard, but before he could do or say anything the vampire fell to the ground unconscious, behind him stood James, the tranquiliser aimed directly at where the vampire had once stood. Quickly, long before the vampire would wake up two other men approached it grabbed an arm each and dragged it in the direction of an empty cell.

But Philip didn't see anything after, the creature collapsed to the floor. Cause he had turned on his heels, and was racing towards his car. The sight of the vampires sparkling blue eyes, and blonde peroxide hair burned into his memory like they had many years before.

TBC