Continued from Previous…
"So, what happened after I convinced Joy?" Buffy continued the conversation as though nothing had happened. "Well, we started training. Immortal training. She learned the sword, all the fighting techniques I knew at the time, and half the languages I knew. Only half because half the languages I knew were the only ones being used at that time. Understand that by that time I was already well over a thousand, nearly over two thousand years old. I knew Sumerian, Latin, Chinese, Ancient Chinese, several dialects of all, Japanese, German, Mongolian, Indian languages, and dozens of others. Then."
"So, uh, so how many languages do you truly know?" Giles interrupted suddenly.
Buffy got a thoughtful look on her face as she contemplated the question. After a minute or so, she answered, "Oh, I don't know. Maybe about oh say, two hundred and twelve-no thirteen. Two hundred and thirteen languages."
Giles slipped back into shock.
Faith, having witnessed the display "earlier" when she was terra-forming the entity called "Ripper", felt it pertinent to ask. "Hey, G-man, y'kay?"
Giles meekly nodded.
Buffy shook her head ruefully as she considered the educated Watcher. While she had, now admittedly, lived longer, had more experience, could speak more languages, and had killed more demons and people than the man had ever seen, he still was a great asset to her. When she didn't have time, these days anyway, to research catalogue or write about the demons she fought and killed, Giles did and he did it well. The truly sad part of it though was that the Watcher was truly mortal, otherwise Faith would have encouraged Ripper to join her on the bus when she had decided to leave England that year. Buffy was caught for a moment in the memory of that fateful day.
London, England: 1975 A.D.
Sara Fletcher and Rupert Giles were walking down Main Street, dressed in their school uniforms, on their way to the pub straight out of class. The couple that was known as the wildest pair ever to go on the town was enjoying the last few weeks they would have together as students. Come three weeks time, the second of which were the exams, they were free to do whatever they chose with the diplomas that the Stanford board of Directors would so foolishly give to such a dangerous pair.
Unbeknownst to anyone but herself and one other, Sara, formerly Faith the Immortal Slayer, had managed to pass all of her exams early and had more than enough credit hours to pass with full honors. She already had her diploma. She had gotten it from the board just that week, planning on having to leave the country sooner than graduation would arrive. They fully understood her reasons. At least the ones that she gave them.
'Damn B and her Immortal honor and crap!' Sara was thinking to herself as she contemplated her predicament, while keeping a pleasant enough smile on her face as she and Ripper walked along watching the people pass.
'Hey, I heard that,' came a random thought through Sara's mind. It sounded strangely like her Immortal Teacher's voice.
'B?' she asked, her thought-voice inflicting her natural Bostonian accent.
'Who else has a telepathic link to you?' came the mental response.
'Ya know, I still don't get how it is that you have that cool power from the Olympians when they gave you Slayer powers, and all I get stuck with is the normal Slayer mode.' Faith complained the ever-lasting argument between the Immortal Slayers.
'Faith, if I've told you once, then I've told you a million times now, all Slayers have the potential of being telepathic. To be able to read people's true thoughts and feelings. It also helps to weed out the vampires and demons, since vampires can't be read telepathically, and demons are like listening to the sounds of hell inside of a person.'
'B, I really don't need a lecture right now. I'm walking with my boyfriend, I don't need to fall asleep on him.' Faith smart-mouthed back.
'So I see. Is this guy really the infamous "Ripper" I've heard so much about?' came Buffy's glib reply.
'What? Where the hell are you B?' Faith thought back with a flash of anger.
'Careful Faith, Rupert just asked you a question.'
Shaking her head from the lost mental connection/conversation, Sara turned her attention fully to the man standing beside her. The look on his face told her that B was right, and she had totally just missed the question.
"Sorry Rip," Sara apologized, making sure that her accent was the southern British, not the southern Boston one. "My head's all in the clouds since we passed those fumes back there."
Smirking, Rupert Giles, tall, dark brown hair perfectly combed and straight (for the moment), and devilishly handsome looks, glared down at his girlfriend, the way that she had told him she liked to be looked at by the man that wanted to own her. "And, pray tell, what fumes might those have been?"
"What?" she asked, feigning outrageous shock, "You mean to tell me you didn't get a whiff of that bloke on the corner? The one in white, that was bending so far over that I could see all the way down to the other side of the English Channel if I wanted to?"
Rupert, looking back, saw only one man in white on the corner they had just passed when Sara had gone total space cadet on him. The Butcher. "You mean the Butcher?" he asked. Just as indicated man bent over and provided same view that Sara had just commented on.
"Oh…" Rupert muttered, and then he heard the sound. As it all clicked, he broke out in a lecherous grin and started to darkly chuckle. "I see what you mean. But what I asked is, what is it that you want to do after Graduation?"
Sara's left eyebrow shot up a half-inch. "Oh, I'll tell you what we're going to do after graduation Ripper…" Sara hissed as she grabbed Ripper's collar and pulled him down for a passionate kiss. Sara, never the one to back down for anything, forced her tongue immediately into Rupert's mouth, and was pleased when he reciprocated. Opening her mouth a little more, and using the tip of her tongue to tickle the bottom of his, Sara tried her damnedest to reach the taller man's tonsils, or at the very least, play with that little ball at the back of his throat like a game of cattails. Finally, for Rupert anyway, the need for air and continued life outbid the desire to remain lip-locked together, barely.
Gasping for the substance of the space around them that was called air; the two giddy "teenagers" just kept staring into one another's eyes for quite some time after they had separated.
After several minutes, Rupert gained enough breath to speak again. "That's…that's not…not exactly what I meant, but-but that is a good plan that I happen to agree with."
"Rupert, we're not in school. Let Ripper out to play," Sara singsonged.
A dark look crossed Rupert's face. "So, bitch, you want to know what I think of your idea?"
An apathetic look crossed Sara's face as she replied, "Who asked you?"
Ripper answered by forcefully grabbing the girl's arms and then smashed his mouth on top of hers, for a kiss that was just as violent as the previous was passionate. Sara gave as good as she got in the kiss that was more a fight in itself than a kiss. Finally, Sara got bored and let Ripper win, tricking him as always into thinking that he had naturally won. 'B's right. This telepathy power rocks.'
Suddenly, Sara was filled with an impending sense of danger and approaching doom. She only ever felt like that when two things happen. Someone was about to ruin her really good time, or something really, really, really bad was about to happen. Faith/Sara had dubbed it her "Slayer sense".
Before the kiss was even through, a screeching sound, familiar to tires and cars, broke it apart as Ripper and Sara looked down the street, just in time to see a double-decker bus run screeching into the side of a building.
'B! You still there?' Faith mentally shouted to her teacher.
'Yeah! I saw it. But I'm too far away to do anything about it! Faith, there's something on that bus. I can't see exactly what it is…but all of the kids on there look really scared. And they can't get out. I think something's blocking the doors and staircase, so they can't get out. Wait a sec…' B answered.
Thirty seconds later, 'FAITH! There's a bomb on that bus! The police scanner just picked it up! The IRA sent a terrorist out to bomb some Catholic school that's funded by some guy they're after. Apparently the driver or one of the kids found it and drove the bus there! Faith, you have to take care of that bomb. And get the kids out of there!'
Before Buffy had even finished the first sentence, Faith was running towards the bus. When she heard that there were kids on there, she tripled her pace. She saw that it was all true the moment she got to it. Scared ten and eleven year old kids in Catholic school uniforms were all in the seats, crying and screaming their heads off. Faith also saw what the door was blocked with. The bomb.
Making a very hasty decision, Faith jumped up on the engine, and using the enhanced strength that she had had for most of her life, kicked the driver's window in. Only after she crawled in did she see the driver dead on the floor, blood flowing out of his chest. Glancing up at the bomb, she saw the countdown in bright red digital numbers. 12:30. Twelve minutes and thirty seconds. Definitely not enough time to drive out of the city and evacuate all the kids.
Making another hasty decision, Sara turned the keys and started the bus. Just as Rupert was running up to the bus even. He jumped up into the cab just as she figured out how the bloody thing worked. Slapping his butt in a none too teasing way, Sara ordered him, "Out of the bloody way Ripper. Try and keep the kiddies calm. We've got to get this thing out and away from the city so it won't do too much damage."
Sara finally got the damn bus to get into reverse, and then she keyed it into Drive and struggled to maintain her connection with Buffy as she fought down her panic. 'B, I hope ya got someplace I can dump this thing and still have time to get the kids outta here!'
'Don't worry Faith. All right, take a right! THERE!' Buffy instructed from wherever she was. Sara could feel the ancient in her mind, seeing through her eyes, but considering the situation and the moment, she really didn't care. In fact she was kinda glad that she had even this much help.
'All right Faith, I'm directing you to a small bridge that runs over the channel. I want you to stop less than ten feet in front of it and get the kids out of the back window. Safer that way. LEFT!' Buffy continued to guide her by giving her directions.
'That's all well and good B, but what are we gonna do about the bus when the bomb blows?' Faith asked.
'Drive it off the bridge.' Before Sara could interrupt though, 'Don't worry. The bridge is small enough that driving the bus over the edge won't crack the tank or set off the bomb early. Judging by appearance, from when you looked at it, it's not a nitro cap.'
'B? Do you know how to disarm this bomb?' Sara asked, suspicious.
'Look at it again.' Buffy ordered. Sara did so. And got an immediate, 'Shit! No way. Maybe if I had time to personally study the wiring, but not in the next seven minutes. Faith, you've got to hurry. If you get the kids out fast enough, you should have more than enough time to drive the bus off the bridge and still climb up out of the channel, but only if you HURRY!'
And it would be at that very minute that a slow moving, but fast enough it would seem, taxi pulled straight in front of Sara and the bus. "Oh bugger!" Sara cursed. "MOVE!!" she shouted. No response except maybe to drive slower. Her face growing dark, Rupert recognized the signs of Sara's own "Ripper".
"OY! Hey you------!" Rupert found it ironic that the buses horn would blow at the very moment that Sara was letting loose the most foulest language he had ever heard from her when she was sober, for the exact duration as well. Then Rupert looked behind him and saw all the scared faces of all the little children behind him. And suddenly Ripper had a new purpose in life. Protect these innocents. No matter the cost. If Sara would do it even now, then he certainly could do it for himself.
"Bloody Hell!" Sara cursed once again and let loose another horn blast. Finally, her face carrying a dark look that he had never, ever seen before, her patience broke and she floored the bus, ramming the tail end of the cab in front of them. But rather than back off and allow the taxi to get out of the way, Sara just kept on the gas until she was literally driving for the taxi.
After a minute, the terrified driver was able to maneuver his car out of the way of the insane woman and the way was clear all the way to the bridge. Putting the bus in idle park, Sara leaped up and ran to the back of the double decker and didn't even pause in kicking out the back window.
"Out the window Rip!" she yelled.
"What! I am not…!" Rupert yelled back. Sara rounded on him, silencing his protest before he could even get it out. "Out. The. Window." She hissed. He glared for a moment longer and then bent down and jumped out the window.
"Catch'em as they come boyo!" she shouted to him on the ground. Turning to the kids she told them as briefly as she could, that the ride was over. "Out the window. NOW!!"
Obediently, they all lined up in front of her, and every one waited patiently as she picked them up and handed them out the window, to Rupert who waited anxiously for them as they came to him. As he sat them down, he directed them as far down the street as possible, and even ordered one girl, who looked older than the rest, to call the constables and Scotland Yard.
Finally all the children were out. When seeing that no more children would be coming, Rupert launched himself back into the bus through the window, to see Sara running back up the aisle to the drivers seat.
"SARA!" he shouted. "Now is not the time to remember your purse! This bloody bus is about to blow!" Sara for the most part ignored him until she was sitting in the driver's seat.
"Not the point Rip!" she shouted back at him as she keyed the double decker into reverse. "Have to get this thing out of the way of collateral damage. Out of the streets. Don't worry, I plan on collecting my five dollars. Now bloody get off the bloody bus! I'm going to drive it off the bridge, then climb out and up the side of the channel! Don't worry about me Ripper! You've got your own life to live. I'll let you live yours, and I'll always live mine. Thanks for the ride mate!"
That was the last thing Rupert Giles ever saw or heard of Sara Fletcher, as she finished backing up and started it forward, aiming for the bridge. He couldn't hang on, so he let himself go, hoping against hope that his lover was right, and he would be seeing her again. He watched in silence as the large red bus picked up enough speed to ram through the guardrails of the bridge and get enough momentum to remain upright as it landed in the channel below.
Thank god B was right about the gas tank, Faith mused as she landed the bus safely in the channel. Then she turned to look at the clock of the bomb, and her face fell. Too damn bad she was wrong about the timing of… And the bomb went off.
TBC