TITLE:
THE PRIZE 5
AUTHOR:
STEPHEN HOWE
E-MAIL:
sh01@bigpond.com.au
FEEDBACK:
Sure.
DISTRIBUTION:
Ask and ye shall receive!
DISCLAIMER:
All characters belong to Joss! He created everything! Rated R for violence and
adult themes. Set in season 6.B/X pairing Giles is Buffy's watcher who now
works for the Council once more. Anya gave her life to save Buffy in the fight
against Glory. Dawn is still here and Willow is with Tara. SECRETS REVEALED AND TRUTHS UNEARTHED. Buffy grabs him by
the shirt. " Then what?" Frank tells her. " That's all I know! I
swear to god! He did something later that night and all hell broke loose James,
Vince and some of his deputies went out searching for him then James drove his
Viper back to the garage and told me to shut up about it." Giles clicks his
fingers. " The curator at the museum was telling someone they were trigger
happy and they should have found out where he hid it before..." Just then
his cell phone rang and Giles took it out. " God damn piece of... I wish
I'd never bought the blessed thing... Hello?" Mr. Giles? It's Quinten
Travers here I've been trying to contact you for days! .." I'm sorry
but we have a situation here and.." The boy.. Harris is still with
your group? " Xander? Yes he is why?" Well it appears he's
not as useless as we first believed. According to our resources he's a vessel
and the last of his kind. Are you still there Rupert? Do you understand what
this means? ..." Yes Travers I fully understand what it means but it
appears we maybe too late." He moves away from the others." I believe
he has been murdered and we are in the process of bringing his murderers to
justice." Listen Rupert you and your 'group ' are not the police you
will cease your actions and return to your... Giles thumbed the off switch and
threw the phone into the car. "I suggest we go back to town
and try to find out what's going on then take Frank here to the State
authorities." They agreed and Giles drove them back into town, but before
they arrived Buffy tied Frank up and told Willow to watch him. They parked out
of the centre and walked into town. THE
MUSEUM Giles and Buffy walk in like big city
visitors and wait till they can see the Curator enter his office. Buffy opens
the door and walks in followed by Giles. " I'm sorry this is a private area you'll have to..." Giles
shuts and locks the door behind him. " Hey do you know the penalty for
this?" Buffy stalks up
to him and pushes him back into the chair. " No, but my guess is it's a
lot less than kidnapping and slavery!" She lifts his nametag and tells
him. " So, John, tell me what you did with Xander and maybe I'll let you
give yourself up to the police." He snorts. " What makes you think I
did anything?" " Oh, the way
your heart sped up when I mentioned the police and the fact you're sweating
like a pig when it's almost winter." She grabbed the back of his head and
slammed it into the table. " Now I'm through playing nice! Where is
Xander?" He finally broke. " I had nothing to do with it I swear
to god!" She relaxed her grip and he told her." I don't know what
they did with him but the man you want to talk to is Sheriff Jones and his
deputies." " And they are where?" Buffy asks.
John shrugs. " They got a report that someone grabbed Frank from the gas
station and they're looking for the car." Buffy looks at Giles."
Willow!" Frank is still
shaking as the Sheriff cuts through the bonds. " You were lucky we saw the
car Frank. What the hell did they want and where are the other three?"
Frank looks over at the two deputies as they stand over Willow as she struggles
against her handcuffs and gag. Frank looks towards the town centre and tells him.
" They went to see John in the museum but Vince something's got James! We
went his place and it looks like a tornado had hit it. Then the weird lookin
guy took off into the woods to follow it." "Bill, Jim why
don't you take the little lady and go look for this guy." He grins at them
and they leer at Willow. " Oh we'll search Vince we'll search REAL
hard!" The two deputies pick Willow up and throw her in the back off
the patrol car and drive off. As they get near the Woods Bill turns to face
Willow." While we're out here we might as well show her the sights eh
Jim." They both laugh as Jim drives deep into the woods then pull up in a
clearing. Jim removes her gag after he takes out his gun." One word out of
place and you end up like him!" She glares at him as they drag her to the centre of
the clearing. " What have you done with Xander? Take me to him NOW!"
Jim laughs. " Okay honey.. Look down at your feet." Willow looks down,
realises what she's standing on and screams. Buffy and Giles are walking
the curator to the car when they see the sheriff driving it towards the museum."
Buffy drags John into an alley and warns him not to do anything stupid. She
turns to Giles." I hope Spike made it undercover before the sun came
up!" She looks to John." Do you know you have some beast roaming
around your forest?" John looked at her and sneered until he saw she
wasn't joking." They used the stone to call Kattadhin!" Giles moved closer to him. " Kattadhin?
What is that?" " To some a legend
created by drunken Indians. To those that know, it may just be the beginning of
the end of European domination of the America's!" He looks at Giles."
The first ones that created life also created Kattadhin forming it from every
animal in creation. Legend has it that during the ghost dances of the 1900's
the core of tribal shaman gathered and fore told of the coming of the
Kattadhin. And with it's coming the rivers would run red with white man's blood
till they were driven from the First Peoples land!" " Why did they call it?" Giles
asks. He
looked down. " You have to understand I only arrived here last year as
part of my studies on the First Peoples. I first found out about what the towns
people were doing when a car struck down my daughter and the doctors said she
would never recover from the coma. But after a visit from one of the natives
she was up and running around like nothing had ever happened." He looks at
Giles. " You know about their healing powers? Well we controlled them,
held them as virtual slaves, by keeping their most revered icon under lock and
key. But that damned young idiot broke in and stole it, I still can't figure
out how he did it, they chased him all the way to the reservation and we
thought he still had it but when the Sheriff caught up with him this Xander
must have hidden it. But know I guess he must have given it to the Indians."
Buffy thinks she knows what happened next but she has to know
dreading the answer she asks. " And what happened then?" "
From what I can gather he pissed Vince off so much he lost it and ... Emptied
his gun into him." John shrinks back as Buffy losses it. She starts to run
towards the front of the alley. " Buffy! " Giles calls out."
Remember he's not a demon and if you kill him you'll be worse than Faith!"
Buffy stops and he
can see her body shake as he walks up to her. She turns and he sees her
cry." But I loved him! He waited for me for so long and now I can finally
say the words he can never hear me!" Giles hugs her and
whispers." Yes he can Buffy. If he has crossed over I can't help but think
he's looking down on us with love in his heart." END
OF 5
