BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

ODIUM

CHAPTER EIGHT: LAST RESORT

Buffy slumped miserably into the couch beneath the living room window, sobs of guilt beginning to wrack her whole body. She couldn't believe it. After all their work to reach Odium first, he simply waltzed straight into her home and took her sister from straight under her nose. The thought of Dawn brought fresh tears streaming down her face. She felt Marcus wrap an arm around her shaking shoulders in a tender embrace. His grip was measured and cautious, as if he didn't truly know his own strength.

"Buffy…." He began but she cut him short.

"How could I let this happen!" she sobbed as the despair surged in over her. "How could I just let him march in here and take her like that!"

"It wasn't you fault. You were trying to stop him in every way you could. You weren't to know he was going to do this." She turned her tear stained face to glare at him.

"But I should've done!" she snapped sharply. "I've been at this too long now to be so careless." Just as she finished speaking, the door to the house crashed open again as Giles and the others stormed inside brandishing stakes, axes, crossbows and a variety of other weapons, most of them sharp and decidedly lethal looking.

"Where is he!" demanded Xander, gripping his own double headed axe so tightly his knuckles turned white. "When I find that creepy, sword obsessed freak I'm going to…to…" his voice trailed off as he caught sight of Buffy weeping on the couch.

"Oh God!" said Willow staring at the carnage around the stairs. "We're too late."

"Buffy," said Giles dropping his crossbow to the floor so carelessly that it sent a wicked looking bolt hurtling across the living room to embed itself in the wall. "What happened here?" Slowly, Buffy raised her red rimmed eyes and stared at them all.

"It was King." She said slowly, dredging up the strength to speak from deep inside her. "He was here, and he was so fast. I couldn't stop him. He'd already taken her when we go here." Slowly her eyes fell on Gibson, stood toward the back of the gang, surveying the damage with a cool gaze.

She felt hatred for the Watcher begin to bubble up insider her. He'd known King was on his way here all along, and he hadn't told her. It was his fault King had Dawn. Not her fault but his.

"You!" she hissed sharply. "What are you doing here?" Gibson eyes suddenly locked with hers, a faint trace of amusement showing in them.

"I came to help." He said, his voice ringing with mock innocence.

"Help?" said Buffy questioningly. She clambered out of the chair and advanced threateningly toward him. "You haven't helped since I met you. You tried to stop us taking the sword and you let Dawn get captured. What sort of mission did the council send you on eh?" she was within spitting distance of him and still she continued forward. "Just what is your reason for being here?"

"Buffy please…" Marcus began, leaping to Gibson's defence. Buffy shot him a look that silenced him in an instant.

"Don't even try to stick up for him Marcus. After all, you brought him here." Gibson grinned at her smugly.

"Actually Buffy, the council brought him here." He took a step forward and as he did so, Buffy felt an invisible wall forcibly shove her back. With each step he took, she was forced further back until her body thudded dully against a wall. None of the others except for Willow seemed even to have noticed.

"My mission is to make sure King doesn't leave Sunnydale alive." He said. "A mission I fully intend to complete." Buffy stared back at him defiantly.

"No matter how many people die to achieve it?" she said, raising her jaw so that she was looking at him down her nose. He might have her pinned against the wall, but she had faced far worse than this over grown spell worker in her time and she was damned if she was going to let him intimidate her. He cocked his head slightly at her, for the first time a look of remorse flittered briefly across his face.

"I'm sorry for your sister Buffy." He said, his voice sounding genuine. "I don't take pleasure in playing you all like this, but I do what I must. King is an abomination, the worst of his kind and one that must be destroyed at any cost. Next to him, you…" he waved at the others, "all of you, are just tools to achieve that goal." Suddenly the barrier that pressed her hard against the wall vanished and Buffy felt herself sag slightly.

"My sister isn't a part of this." She said simply, "and I hate you for bringing her into it." Gibson shook his head at her.

"I didn't bring her into this Buffy, King did."

"Doesn't change things." Xander piped up. "She's still an innocent in all of this." Gibson nodded slowly.

"I accept that." He took a deep breath. "Which is why I'll help you get her back." Buffy frowned.

"What happened to 'I'll do my duty no matter what.'?" He flashed her that same self-confident grin she was already growing to loath.

"A moment of weakness."

"Uh, all of this talk is real nice'n all, but I was figuring that maybe we should be trying to save the little niblet rather than just stand here yakking about it." Said Spike. Giles shot the English vampire a look of disdain.

"In order to take any sort of action Spike, we must first decide on a plan." He turned to Buffy. "I take it King has taken Dawn with the intention of ransoming her for the sword, yes?" Buffy nodded.

"That's about the size and shape of it."

"Then what's the fuss?" said Xander. "We find where he's holding up, bust in, grab Dawn while the super brigade here," he motioned at Buffy, Spike and Marcus, "take on King and kill him."

"Won't work," said Buffy and Gibson simultaneously. They glanced at each other briefly before Gibson continued, "I've read a lot about our friend King and he isn't stupid enough to fall for a diversion tactic like the one you pulled with Angelus." The mention of Angel sent Buffy's mind whirling. How could she have over looked such a simple idea!

"So how else do we deal with him and get Dawn back short of actually playing into his hands and giving him the sword?" said Xander, looking at the others in turn. Buffy wasn't paying attention. Her mind was racing as she worked her way through all the possibilities. The plan was crazy but it could just work.

"I've got one Harris." Said Spike with a snap of his fingers. "How 'bout we send you in as a decoy, then while he's busy eating you alive, we snatch the girl and high tale it in the opposite direction."

"Spike, have I stressed how much you're not helping here?" Xander snapped back.

"Hey you guys!" Buffy said, loud enough to get their attention. "I've got an idea." They all turned to stare at her.

"Spill it then Slayer." Said Spike. "Can't you see the suspense is killing me?" She hot him an annoyed glance before she turned back and began to outline her plan.

"First of all, Marcus and I take the sword to him at the deadline. We give him the sword, he hands over Dawn…." Gibson was already shaking his head.

"We can't give him the sword Buffy. Have you any idea how much more powerful he'd become if he got his hands on it?"

"….and," Buffy continued, ignoring the interruption, "once he's given us Dawn, Marcus and I attack him while Willow here provides a little surprise for our good friend King." The plan was met with confused frowns from all concerned.

"Uh, Buffy," said Willow, raising her hand as if requesting permission to speak, "it sounds like a great plan and all, but what sort of surprise am I going to spring on him?" Buffy turned and looked at her, a grin spreading across her face.

"His soul." She said simply. 

*****

Dawn sat silently in the chair, staring out of the foreman's office window at the smelting plant. The heat from the cauldrons of molten metal, and the stench of the foreman's decaying body made the room almost unbearable. Cautiously, she reached up to wipe away the sweat that beaded on her forehead. The strange vampire with the ponytail continued to watch her impassively, his dark brown eyes tracking her every movement with precision and care. She folded her arms tightly across her chest. It made her feel a little better, almost like some kind of barrier against those searching eyes that seemed to bore right through her.

"So…." She said, rolling the word off her tongue as she tried to remain calm. It wasn't particularly working but she had to try something. Picturing Buffy in these kinds of situations often helped. Despite her arguments with her sister, Dawn was quietly in awe of her strength and how, no matter what, Buffy could remain calm in almost any circumstances. 

"So what?" the vampire's voice took her aback. This was the first time he'd said a word to her.

"So?" she said again, questioningly this time. The vampire continued to stare at her expectantly. Suddenly she realised she had been about to say something.

"So uh," she began again, vainly searching for a conversation topic. Not the easiest thing under that steady, unflinching stare. "Don't you ever blink?" she frowned staring closer at the vampire's eyes. He blinked in surprise.

"What?"

"I asked if you ever blinked." She said, smiling. "Looks like you do." His upper lip twitched slightly into a snarl. Dawn looked away, unable to meet his eyes.

"What are you going to do with me now?" she asked, turning the dust on the floor with the toe of her sneaker.

"What concern is that of yours?"

"Well hello!" said Dawn sarcastically, "me being your prisoner and all kind of involves me in all of this." The vampire stood up and took a threatening step forward.

"What do you want me to do to you?" he hissed. Suddenly he moved again, so quickly that to Dawn's eye he was little more than a blur as he stepped behind the chair she was sat on, swivelling it to bring her face mere centimetres away from his.

"Do you think I'm going to torture you? Demand answers to questions that you cannot possibly respond to? Or maybe," his face shifted into vamp mode, "you just expect me to bite you." The ridges and burning yellow eyes slowly slipped back into his ordinary features.

"Well what else are you likely to do?" she asked, attempting to swallow her fear. She hated it when vampires did that. It creeped her out no end.

"I'll tell you what." He said, stepping back away from her. "Absolutely nothing. It would be a waste of my time and energy, plus I simply wouldn't benefit from it."

"So why am I here?" she asked.

"Because big sister has a soft spot for you a mile wide. She'd happily end the world to save you. Luckily I don't expect our dear little Slayer to go quite that far but she does have something of mine, which I want back."

"And if she doesn't come for me?" said Dawn. She didn't doubt that Buffy would turn up, but she liked to try and cover all the bases. The vampire smiled as he made his way back over to his chair and sat back down.

"Then I'll find something to do with you." He chuckled softly.

*****

"Buffy, are you sure this is such a good idea?" Giles was stood with his back to her, hunting through some of the shelves in search of the necessary ingredients for the spell of soul restoration. Once again Buffy thanked her lucky stars that they had the Magic Box as a HQ these days. God knows where else they could have got some of this stuff at such short notice.

"Giles, I'm sure. This is as good a plan as any other that we've had."

"So you say." Said Gibson as he poured across the incense shelves. "But you are aware that this isn't exactly a simple spell. The chances of you pulling it off are slimmer than Calista Flockheart."

"Hey," said Willow, sounding slightly hurt. "I'll have you know, I like that show. Besides, I've done this before. Wasn't especially fun." She frowned. "As a matter of fact it was head ache inducing, spirit flowing through you scary, but I know I can do it again." Gibson shrugged.

"That I don't dispute. But even if you perform the spell, if it all goes off without a hitch, are you absolutely certain of what you'll be getting?"

"Sure we're certain." Grinned Xander. "One more miserable defanged vamp to add to our collection. Hey, we keep it up at this rate, we could end up with the whole set!"

"No, Gibson's right." Said Giles, ignoring Xander as best he could. "Giving King his soul back might not necessarily solve our problems." Buffy frowned.

"How could it make things any worse than they are all ready?" she asked. "After all, it worked with Angel."

"Yes, but with Angel we knew what we were getting." Said Giles. "We know absolutely nothing about King's personality before he became a vampire. At present King has no real interest in using his…." Giles paused as if searching for the right words, "considerable abilities for any other reason than self preservation."

"Oh," said Buffy with mock chirpiness, "let's not forget the kidnapping my sister and trying to kill me thing."

"But the only reason he is doing that is because of what we did to him."

"You're saying we should have left him be a year ago? Let him take the temple and use it to heal himself?" Buffy couldn't believe this. Giles was practically bending over backwards to protect a blood sucking vampire.

 "I'm not defending his actions Buffy." Said Giles as he dumped a set of incense sticks onto the table with the rest of the ingredients they'd gathered for the ritual. "But the truth is, giving him a soul may not necessarily make him good. What if in life, he was a murderer, or an Adolph Hitler scale bigot? He would have incredible power at his fingertips and may be far more free in its usage than King…."

"Giles, I get the point." Said Buffy, cutting him off. "We could end up making something even worse. We may even be better off just leaving King as he is, another vampire." She turned to Spike. "But he isn't just another vampire, am I right?" The peroxide blonde nodded.

"He's the Lord High Bad Ass of vampires." He said.

"See what I mean." Said Buffy, pressing her argument desperately. She knew they'd do it any way, but she wanted them to be comfortable with decision. There'd been too much bitterness floating about recently to add more dissension to the ranks with this as well.

"Sure there're risks, but if we pull this off and he's good afterwards, just imagine the kind of ally we'd have. It'd be like having the Master on our side."

"Hey!" said Spike indignantly. "Whose to say you don't already!" Buffy shot him a withering look that sent him back to hunting through his own section of the shop. Giles shrugged. She could tell he still had his doubts but he wasn't going to argue any further. He'd learned not to press the matter too far when Dawn was involved.

"I think that's everything." Said Willow going over the table with the critical eye of a master chef examining his ingredients. Buffy supposed being a witch wasn't too different. You had the hot, sweaty build up filled with effort and concentration, followed by the moment of bliss when your work finally paid off, then depression when you realised you hungry for more.

"Wait a second." Said Willow, still eyeing the spells components. "Where's the Orb of Thesela?" Giles rolled his eyes and made his way over to the back of the counter.

"You know," he said, snatching a glass ball from where it sat on top of a pile of stock order forms, "I'm going to give up using these bloody things as paper weights. They're just too damned popular." He grudgingly handed the small glass orb over to Willow, who placed it on the table with the rest of the gear.

"Now then, when we start where's everybody going to be?" said Buffy, making sure everyone knew his or her positions. She listened as the group rattled off their assigned duties, smiling secretly to herself. They'd come a long way since High School. These days they were quite the outfit, dealing with some of the most cruel and twisted things the forces of hell could throw at them. Now how many people could boast that on their resume.

The plan itself was quite simple. Buffy and Marcus headed out to the smelting plant with Odium. Once they reached the plant, they called back to the Magic Box so that Willow could begin performing the spell. Spike would remain behind as protection should anything go wrong, that way at least, if Buffy and Marcus failed, the spell still had a shot at being completed. Once the exchange was made, Marcus would get Dawn out of the plant and back to the Magic Box, while Buffy did her best to keep King occupied. The one wild unpredictable element of the plan, save the spell of course, was Odium. They still had no idea quite what powers it would grant to King. All Gibson could determine from his own particular ability was that the sword had a powerful aura similar to King's. If even half of what they had learned about the sword was fact rather than fiction, Buffy's attempt at distraction might not hold King up that long at all.

Slowly she let out a long deep breath, a vain attempt to relax herself. She'd been getting increasingly edgy over the past few hours and now they didn't have much time left. If they were going to do this, they'd need to start soon.

"Is everything ready?" she asked. Willow glanced at her briefly before turning her attention back to the table littered with the components for the ritual that would summon King's soul.

"By the time you get there it will be." She said. Buffy clenched her jaw.

"Okay then, let's get to it."