Title - Buffy, The Vampire Slayer - Guardian : Woman Scorned

Author - Shane A. Hopkins (thesorcererbard@I-am-the-key.com)

Rating - R

Pairing - Spike and Dawn

Disclaimer - What I don't own. Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox own Buffy the Vampire Slayer and everything related to them. What I do own. Everything not owned by the above mentioned people / companies is owned by me but you may use any of it as long as you give me credit.

Authors Note - It is highly recommended that you read my 6 part story, Restoration for the back story to this story.

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Guardian : Woman Scorned

"So, what's their plan Spike?" Buffy asked seconds after he had come crashing through the door, and Willow had thrown a pile of dust back through the doorway, to give the impression that Spike had been dusted.

"I don't know, Dev, that's the Devsh'k by the way, wouldn't tell me or Fred, that's the Bloatbed." Spike answered as he crouched down beside Buffy.

Suddenly a Bloatbed demon came crashing through the boarded up window, it didn't look like he had came through on his own power, he looked like he had been thrown.

He landed in such a way as to knock Giles and Xander over and pin them to the ground, the upside of this is that he landed on the pointy end of Xander's sword, and was quite out of it.

Behind him the Devsh'k demon came through the hole. He looked round the room and saw Buffy crouched beside Spike, who he roared loudly at, he then spotted Dawn his eyes grew wide.

"Nus Os'r?" came his guttural voice.

Buffy realised who he was looking at and sprang into action, she swung her sword at Dev cutting a line in his arm, his purple blood welled up in the wound.

"Gggrrrrr." growled Dev looking down at Buffy.

Spike, meanwhile had sneaked round to the other side of Dev and came flying at him with the sword Buffy had given him.

Dev swung his arm at Spike but missed and connected with the sword. Dawn gasped as she saw Dev's arm fall to the floor, it flopped around like a fish out of water.

"Arrgg." roared Dev.

Buffy came in and swung her sword at his other arm.

Dev managed to avoid getting his other arm by throwing himself back out through the broken window, once outside he got up and ran to his motorcycle and roared off down the street, his driving wasn't exactly safe, but then it never is with only one arm.

"Damn, he got away." Buffy said her voice full of annoyance.

"Yea, and he broke my boarded up window." Xander said a little angrily.

"But, we're all okay?" Giles said as he got up from where he had been knocked.

"Yea." Xander said sitting up next to him, rolling off the Bloatbed demon. Adam got up from the seat he hadn't left since the fight began and walked over to the body, drew his sword and pierced the demons heart, the demon promptly burst into flame.

"As for you!" Buffy exclaimed, "You didn't even help us!"

"The Key was in no danger." Adam said calmly.

"Even when Dev realised that Dawn is the Key?" Spike said equally angrily.

"He was scared of her, so I saw no need to take action." Adam said.

"Well we could all have been killed!" Dawn yelled at him.

"You would not have and my obligation is to make sure you don't die." Adam said, "I must go now." with that he faded from view.

"MISSION STATUS?"

"TEMPORARILY ON HOLD."

"WHY?"

"A DEVSH'K DEMON IS AFTER THE SLAYER, I CANNOT PROTECT THE KEY WITH A DEMON ON THE HUNT."

"VERY WELL, CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE SITUATION."

"Why did Dev just take off?" Spike was thinking out loud, "I mean he realised that Lil-bit was the Key and then he more or less took off."

"That's not the main priority right now." Xander said.

"What do we do if Dev comes back?" Spike asked looking at Buffy.

"We all arm up, and we relocate to Giles house." Buffy said springing in to motion.

Less than forty minutes later they were finishing setting up shop in Giles living room.

"Hey, G-man, you need to fill your fridge more often." Xander said standing in front of the open refrigerator.

Giles just made a harrumph sound.

"Do you think this Dev will find us?" Dawn asked from where she sat.

"No, I don't think he has the recourses." Buffy said.

"Yea, I mean he only found your house by accident, or so he said." Spike told her.

There was a knock at the door. Giles got up from the couch and went over to the door and opened it.

"Hello, I'm looking for a Miss Buffy Summers?" said the man in an army uniform.

"I'm Buffy, what do you want?" Buffy said walking up behind Giles.

"I regret to inform you that one Commander Riley Finn has been killed in action while on a classified mission, you are listed as one of those to be informed should this have ever happened." The man said looking a little uncomfortable.

Buffy was speechless, she let out a sob as she sank to the floor, Willow came running up to her, Spike's emotions waged a great battle on his face, it seemed he wanted to both laugh over Riley's death and cry over Buffy's pain.

"I am sorry to have to do this but we need you to sign a confidentiality form, in case of an information leak." the man said, still outside the doorway.

"Yes, certainly, please come in." Giles said.

"Thank you that's exactly what I wanted." the man said with a smile as his face morphed into that of a vampire. He lunged at Giles attempting to bite his neck.

By this point Buffy was on her feet she had realised what was going on a fraction of a second before the vamp went after Giles. She grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him off and thrust him up against the wall.

"Is he really dead?!" Buffy yelled.

"Yes." hissed the vampire with a smile, "I was a colonel in the US army before I was turned, I was on my way to tell you."

"You bastard." Buffy said barely above a whisper, she whipped a stake out from behind her back and thrust it into the vamps chest, "You utter bastard." she said as the vamp turned to dust.

"Buffy I'm so sorry." Willow said walking up to Buffy and hugging her.

"H-how c-could he j-just." Buffy stammered before breaking down completely.

The gang could do nothing except look on as the slayer lost all control.

Giles bent to pick up the papers the vampire had dropped.

"He was on an extermination mission in the Amazon rainforest, after some." Giles paused, "Now that's not right, it says here that they were after a clan of Bloatbed demons."

"Why can't that be right." Tara asked, of the group she was the least hit by Riley's death, as she had known him less that the rest.

"The Bloatbed's are allergic to moist climates, they wouldn't last a day in a rainforest." Giles said looking confused, "Ah, I should probably mention that all that is classified by the US Military."

"And your point would be?" Xander asked.

"But there are other inconsistencies in this file." Giles said reading further.

"Like?" Buffy asked, she still had tears rolling down her cheeks but her voice had become stronger and clearer.

"Like, the Bloatbed's were spotted with a clan of Pigmy Mollusk, and they can't exist outside of the Antarctic circle." Giles said.

"Why can't they exist outside the Antarctic circle?" Tara asked.

"Because they're made from ice." Anya said.

"Ice?" Tara asked.

"Yup, living ice." Anya said.

"Wow, there's a demon made off everything isn't there." Xander said

"You have failed us again my son." said Dev's father.

"I am sorry father, please give me another chance." Dev said as he bent down in front of his father.

"I am sorry my son, but you cannot be allowed to fail us anymore." with that Dev's father drew a long blue bladed sword and swung it at Dev's head.

Dev had just enough time to think that this shouldn't be happening before his head went rolling down the ally.

"Word on the street is that Dev's gone for good." Spike said as he sat down on the couch in the Summers house. Three days had passed since the attack and things were slowly getting back to normal.

"The word?" Anya asked.

"Yea, some Spine-yak demon children found his head and are apparently playing football right now." Spike said with a smile.

"Eww." said Dawn.

"So we're safe?" Giles asked.

"As safe as we are usually." Buffy said.

**THE END**