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CHAPTER THREE
"How's your head?"Giles asked.
"Throbbing,"Jenny replied.
Giles led her towards the door, hoping to make a quick exit. No such luck. "I lost Ethan,"Buffy noted,"Giles, what's going on?"
"It's complicated,"Giles replied,"and, quite frankly, it's private."
"I don't care about private,"Buffy snapped,"I care about a dead guy attacking us. I care about you Lost Weekending in your apartment."
"I wasn't…" Giles broke off. "I was just trying to find a solution,"he attempted, realising it sounded feeble even to him.
"Giles, share,"Buffy persisted,"What is the Mark of Eyghon?"
"Hey!"Giles snapped,"This is not your battle. And as your Watcher, I am telling you unquivocally to stay out of it. Now I need to get Jenny home."
This time Buffy made no attempt to stop him leaving. But that didn't mean she considered it finished. As soon as Giles and Jenny were gone, she turned to where Xander, Willow and Cordelia were sitting in a row on the counter. "We've got work to do,"she told them,"Willow, I need you to find out anything you can about the Mark of Eyghon."
"I can look it up on the net,"Willow offered as she jumped down and headed towards the table,"but Mark of Eyghon sounds more like Giles and his books sorta deal."
"Then we hit the books. Xander, how do you feel about going through Giles' personal files and seeing what you can find?"
"I feel pretty good about it,"Xander replied smoothly,"Does that make me some sort of sociopath?" He headed for the office.
Cordelia jumped down and waited for her instructions. Then she waited some more. "What?"Buffy asked, confused.
"What about me? I care about Giles too,"Cordelia protested.
Buffy wasn't quite sure how to take the offer. Cordelia had helped out in the past certainly, but usually under extreme duress. Still, she almost qualified as a friend and Buffy wasn't going to turn her away. "Help Xander."
Cordelia looked considerably less keen all of a sudden. "Okay, when I say care, I mean…"
"Cordelia,"Buffy interrupted sharply. Being nice to her only went so far.
"Okay, okay." Cordelia headed into the office.
Jenny was sitting on the couch in Giles' apartment. "Thanks for bringing me back here. I'm not ready to be home alone right now."
Giles poured her a drink and brought it over to her, before kissing her softly on the side of the head. "Jenny…I'm very sorry about all of this. I never meant for you to be involved in any of this."
Jenny just smiled. "Well, I got involved. I guess that's what happens when two people…get involved." She leaned in and kissed him.
It wasn't unwelcome by any means but Giles knew there were weightier issues. "I really should get you home,"he told her,"I'm not a very safe person to be around at the moment."
Jenny looked at him and for one awkward moment he had a feeling she knew more than she should. "Nothing's safe in this world, Rupert,"she told him,"Haven't you worked that out by now?"
"Ah-ha!" Willow leapt up and put the book she'd been reading down in front of Buffy. "It's not Egyptian, it's Etruscan. Often mistaken for Egyptian because of the design pattern but any fool can see it predates their iconology. Look, the Mark of Eyghon, worn by his initiates." She pointed to the drawing on the page. "Egyphon, also known as the Sleepwalker, can only exist in this reality by possessing an unconscious host. Temporary possession embues the host with a euphoric feeling of power."
"What about non-temporary?"Buffy asked.
Willow read on. "Unless the proper ritual are observed, the possession is permanent and Eyghon will be born from within the host."
"I'm guessing eww,"Cordelia noted.
"Once called forth, Eyghon can also possess the dead,"Willow continued,"However,its demonic energy soon disintegrates the host, at which point Eyghon must jump into the nearest unconscious or dead person."
Buffy shook her head. "I still don't get what this has got to do with Giles."
"I don't know about Giles,"Willow replied,"But ancient sects often summoned Eyghon for bacchanls and orgies."
Xander winced. "I was not ready to hear the words 'Giles' and 'orgies' in the same sentence."
"Wait a minute, the dead guy's all puddly now,"Buffy pointed out.
"So that means the demon's gone, right?"Cordelia asked,"There wasn't anyone else dead for it to jump into. I mean, we're all not dead right?"
"No,"Buffy agreed, but she was starting to get a sinking feeling,"No-one dead."
Xander completed the thought. "But someone unconscious."
Jenny looked carefully at the phone and then yanked the cord out of the wall. The last thing she needed was that pesky Slayer and her friends getting the right idea and interrupting them. Giles poked his head round from the kitchen. "What was that?"
"What was what?"Jenny asked innocently.
"I thought I heard something."
Jenny shrugged. "I didn't."
Giles came back through with a cup of tea. "Drink this,"he told her,"and then I'll drive you home."
"You could drive me home,"Jenny agreed,"Or you could take advantage of me in my weakened state."
Jenny's intervention had not come a moment too soon. At that moment, Buffy was trying to get through on the phone without success. "Thank you, operator." She put the phone down and turned to her friends. "There's no answer from Miss Calendar's and Giles has been cut off. I'm going to go over there."
Giles was feeling increasingly flustered. The attention was welcome but the situation was far from ideal. "Jenny, I…I'm very attracted to you."
"Good,"Jenny answered.
"But now really isn't the right time."
"Oh, there's never been a better time." Jenny flipped him so she was sitting in his lap, then brought her lips down on his.
Giles responded naturally but eventually found the strength to pull away. "It's not right, I would be taking advantage,"he insisted firmly.
Jenny scoffed. "Oh, you never change, do you?"
Giles looked at her, confused. "What?"
"It's not right. It's not proper. People might get hurt. You're like a woman, Ripper. You cry at every funeral. "
Giles wasn't quite sure what made him realise. Maybe it was the sudden hostile tone, the mocking words. Maybe it was that name, the one he'd used when trying to be someone else, someone he was now ashamed of. But suddenly he was quite aware that this wasn't Jenny talking.
"You were never strong enough for me,"she taunted,"You never deserved me. But guess what? You've got me."
Even though he knew it, it was still a shock when the next voice that came out of Jenny's mouth was not her own. It was the voice of Eyghon.
"Under your skin."
Her lips came down on his again, but when he pulled her away Jenny was changed. Not just her voice but her face. It had become fully demonic, showing the aspect of Eyghon. "Was it good for you?"she asked, then threw him away across the room, causing him to bang his head on the desk. "You never had the stomach for it. But that's okay. I'm going to rip it out." Giles tried to put up a fight but even if Eyghon hadn't been stronger than him, the knowledge that the woman he loved was in there somewhere held him back. Eyghon hurled him into a corner.
And then Buffy burst through the door. One look at what Jenny had become confirmed her theory. She kicked the demon away. "Back off,"she instructed.
Eyghon looked at her for a moment, then evidently decided it wasn't worth it. "Three down, two to go. Be seeing you." She turned and leaped through the window.
Buffy considered following her, but the crumpled heap on the floor drew her attention first. "Giles, are you all right?"
"Jenny,"Giles moaned,"Oh god!"
For a moment, Buffy was lost. However much she might make fun of him, Giles was the one person she'd always counted on to stay calm and tell her what to do. Now… "Giles, how do we stop this?"
Giles was in no mood to answer the question. "Oh god, what have I done?"
"Talk to me!"Buffy begged,"Giles, you're scaring me."
That seemed to have an effect on him, just a bit. "I'm sorry."
"I don't need you to be sorry, I need you to be Giles." Buffy struggled to get through to him. "Come on, Giles, we fight monsters. They show up, they scare us, I beat them up and they goes away. This time is no different."
"Yes, it is,"Giles insisted.
"Because you don't know how to stop it?"
When he looked at her, his eyes were full of guilt. "Because I created it."
"Did you find anything?"Willow asked as Xander emerged from the office.
"The most meticulous banking and phone records you've ever seen,"Xander replied,"And this." He held out a photograph of a young rocker.
It took Willow several moments to recognise the face. "That's Giles?!"
What had happened to Jenny had robbed Giles of any remaining reluctance to accept help or keep his secrets. Buffy sat and listened as he told her his story. "I was twenty-one, studying history at Oxford. And, of course, the occult by night. I hated it. The tedious grind of study, the overwhelming pressure of my destiny. I dropped out and went to London. Fell in with the worst crowd that would have me. We performed magicks. Small things for pleasure or gain. But Ethan and I discovered something…bigger."
"Eyghon,"Buffy supplied. She remembered when Giles had reversed Catherine Madison's spells. He had said then that he'd never performed magic before. A lie. To hide this from her.
"Yes,"Giles confirmed,"One of us would go into a deep sleep and the others would summon him. It was an incredible high." For a moment, he sounded nostalgic. Then he shook his head in disgust. "God, we were idiots."
"You couldn't control him,"Buffy realised.
"One of us, Randall…he lost control. Eyghon took him whole. We tried to drive the demon out…but it killed him." He shook his head. "No. We killed him. We thought we were free of the demon after that. Now it's back. And one by one, he will kill us all."
"Three down, two to go,"Buffy quoted,"It's going after Ethan." She got to her feet. At least that was something she could do. "I'd better beat it there."
"We'd better,"Giles corrected, getting up as well.
"I'd better,"Buffy reiterated,"You're barely mobile and speed is of the essence."
Giles sank back into his chair, robbed of even that piece of worthiness. "I don't know how to stop him without killing Jenny."
Buffy looked at him with sympathy. He must have been her age or younger when he'd been told his future was mapped out for him, that he was destined to fight demons and evil as a Watcher. She could understand the desire to avoid that destiny, to rebel against it. She'd tried to run from being a Slayer many times. She'd been running when they'd first met. He'd helped her then. It was time to return the favour, give him hope. "Got the guys working on it,"she told him,"I'll try and contain it until we work something out. She wasn't sure if she could do it. But she'd try.
"Buffy…I'm sorry."
Buffy gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "I know." Then she hurried away.
Buffy remembered what Ethan had said about the shop being leased. It wasn't open anymore but that just made it more likely that he'd be there. She pushed open the door. "Ethan?" She ventured inside and headed towards the back. "Ethan? Giles told me everything. Eyghon's coming for you."
"And you came to protect me." The voice came from behind her. Buffy wasn't sure where Ethan had been hiding but she suspected it was something he did very often. "I'm touched."
"Don't worry, it's nothing personal,"Buffy replied scornfully,"To protect Giles, I need to protect you."
Ethan sighed with mock weariness. "How does Ripper inspire such goodness?"
"Because he's Giles,"Buffy told him simply.
"And I'm not. Still, lucky me!"
Buffy did nothing to hide her disgust. "Lucky you."
"Well, there's no point running. Eyghon will find us. This mark's like a homing beacon."
"I'm not much into running away anyway."
"Aren't we manly?"
"One of us is. You're going to hide until it's over."
Ethan smiled broadly. "Excellent plan!"
Buffy looked at the rear of the shop. "Is there a way in the back?"
"There's a door,"Ethan confirmed,"It's locked. I think it's solid."
"That's where we'll set up then." Buffy gestured for Ethan to lead the way but he simply repeated the gesture to her.
"Oh no, please." Ethan waited until Buffy had walked past him, then struck her across the back with part of a mannequin. She slumped to the ground, unconscious. "Ladies first."
