The Coming of the Scooby Army

Ch 14 - Donna, Keith and Sunnydale

Xander and Spike wandered through one of the darkened parks that were usually pretty empty at this time of night. Being in the 'rough part of town', it wasn't exactly a welcoming environment in the daytime, let alone when the vampires were out. Ahead of them, somewhere, were the two strangers that Xander wanted to keep from getting killed. He couldn't see shit and again felt a pang for Hyena's presence.

"I can't see crap," he complained in a whisper.

"I got 'em. No bad guys so far in their path," Spike returned in an almost normal volume. "And we're not close enough to have to whisper."

"Too far? If they get tackled…?"

"I can move fast enough. I still don't see why we should be trying to watch out for their ungrateful asses. Stupid people deserve to get culled from the herd before they have a chance to breed."

"Spike, jeezus!"

The vampire smirked for a split second. It was gone almost before it was made, but Xan saw it and could tell he was just being outrageous for the hell of it.

"Vampires…," he muttered under his breath.

"… have more than good enough hearing that muttering might as well be shouting."

"Yeah, yeah. Any signs of the two that got away? Are they even on the right track?"

"I don't sense anything. There are too many impressions in the grass from during the day to tell… probably not, though. Neither Barbie or Ken strike me as trackers."

"I think we're headed toward the motor lodge. Maybe they'll bed down for the night," Xan said, recalling that Faith had stayed there before she threw in with the Mayor.

"At least somebody gets to…," Spike didn't bother with muttering.

At ten thirty, Tara and Dawn were in her car with Kevin, Kim and Raye. The others had told her not to bother, but naturally the witch wasn't about to let them wander out at night on their own.

"So, Dawn… movie next weekend?"

Tara gave a sly grin and a glance at the girl sitting in the passenger seat. Dawn had been acting nervous all night, while trying to pretend it was a casual thing.

"I-I can't. I mean I want to! Any other time," she apologized to the boy. "It's just I have this thing next weekend… my aunt in L.A. is taking me to this spa."

"Oh, I bet that's gonna be so fun," Raye said. "I wish we could afford stuff like that, but mom bitches… uh, I mean - she complains - when I spend too much on conditioner."

"It's a good thing she isn't raising Monique then," Kim laughed. "She'd have had a nervous break down by now!"

"Well, maybe the weekend after," Kevin returned to Dawn.

"Yeah. Sounds like fun."

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Somewhere over the Atlantic, Giles glanced down at the sleeping Lavinia and wondered if he was doing the right thing. Not that it mattered what he thought at this late date. Quentin would be there waiting for him to touch down, and not showing up would only create… complications… for the others.

Still, he worried. There had been Watchers before he who had crossed the Council, of course. In every group there would be bad apples, though he never thought he'd be one of them. But, he couldn't recall the fates of the others to give him a clue as to what to expect. There had been Emily back in '71, who had used a Pygorean Fetish to force a fellow Watcher to fall in love with her. As far as he knew, she'd only been excommunicated.

There was the Post woman, who'd caused problems for he and Buffy, and she had also only been kicked out. Surely her abuse of magic had been worse and more pre-meditated than his. But, he also recalled rumors of someone named Michael Westing and there was another by the name of Charles Winthrop-Earl. Both men's fates were unknown, but rumor had it they'd been banished not only from the Council and its records, but from the whole dimension as well for their abuses of power.

But surely the others presiding over my hearing will understand why I did what I did and show leniency…, he thought as he closed his eyes and tried to push the matter from his mind.

"Those jerks blew it," Keith bitterly complained.

"C'mon, Hon. It wasn't their fault, exactly. How many couples do you think are out hunting vampires, instead of being the nabbed victims?"

"They'll have time now to recruit more! We could have wiped out the nest and gotten back to our lives."

Donna sighed. The truth was, they didn't have much of a life before Keith's vengeance quest thing, anyway.

Struggling to buy groceries and pay the utilities, putting up with her boss' crap, long hours for little pay and no one to really appreciate it… no thanks, she thought. She wasn't looking forward to the time when her fiancé decided that his revenge had been served. There was something so much… simpler… with just living night to night. Sure there was the money struggles, still, but at least this way they were always doing new, odd jobs and they were really making the world a better place.

"Hey," he said, "I asked what you wanted for dinner?"

"Oh! Sorry, my mind was wandering."

"That isn't safe, you know that!"

"I have you here to protect me," she smiled. "You wouldn't let me get ambushed."

He smiled back at her, then grabbed her arm so he could stop her walking. He gave her a deep, passion-filled kiss.

"You really are great. About this whole thing."

She'd heard this same compliment a lot since she'd given up 'everything' to follow him. He really didn't get how much she liked this new life.

"Show your appreciation with pizza," she laughed.

Two blocks away, Spike rolled his eyes… Idiots.

At the Espresso Pump, Jon stared off from behind the counter. The crowd was moderate, but currently no one was looking for coffees or muffins. He nervously scanned through the windows, looking for either Warren or one of Buffy's gang. He was sure that one or the other would be looking him up - Buffy, when she got back into town and found out what had happened to her house, Warren to give him a fat lip for taking off in the middle of a fight.

"Jon," his supervisor snapped. "Where the hell is your head tonight? I asked you ten minutes ago to sweep the floor around table six!"

"Oh, right. Sorry," he said, scampering for the broom. He wondered where Andrew was as he hadn't been answering his phone, even though Jonathon had begged him to call him back.

God, my life sucks, he thought as he swept. C'mon Andy… just let me know you're alright and then you can ignore me after that.

Warren looked at the voodoo fetish symbols doubtfully. He and Andrew were wearing matching ones made of twigs around their necks and they were scratchy and prickly. Allegedly, they were supposed to ward off locator spells and cost them a lot of the money that they'd been planning on spending on food. He had the sneaking suspicion they'd been ripped off, but it was a chance that they had to take. The car they had hotwired with a bit of magic was a clunker… the better to not draw too much attention. They were currently on a highway through the desert and were surrounded by wide stretches of sand and scrub grass in all directions.

In the passenger seat, Andy sighed annoyingly, which he kept doing every twenty minutes or so.

"My parents are going to flip," he complained.

He'd also been mentioning that at least once an hour.

"They'd flip more if you got magicked into a rat, or a hell dimension, or whatever Willow the Wonder Wench would do with us. Besides, you can always send 'em a postcard, as long as you don't reveal exactly where we're at."

"I wish you'd let me call Jon when we reach Nevada."

"Don't start that again," Warren warned. "I said 'no' and I mean it. Short-round is dead to me."

"I just want to make sure he wasn't hurt," Andy whined.

"I'm running this operation," Warren glared at his companion. "You just do what I tell you and this will work out fine…."

"This blows," Andrew muttered.

End Ch 14