Chapter VI - The devil you know
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The lazy afternoon sunshine crept across the floor of the 'Magic Box' lighting up the dust in the air and wrapping the room in a shimmering, golden haze. It was also the reason that a certain vampire whose toes had been singed as the day progressed across the floor was now awake. The other occupants of the room had fallen in to an exhausted slumber after an all night research party. Or so thought Angel, until he realized that a hushed argument could be heard coming from the training room. He strained his hearing:
". . . Buffy, you must understand, I had no other choice."
"but, Giles, how do you know he'll help us? Even if he can. . ."
"Trust me. He will."
"Do I even wanna know. . . ?"
"I rather think not."
(Angel could almost see the watcher take off and polish his glasses at this point,)
"I spoke to him earlier. He will be here later today."
"Ethan Rayne. Now there's someone I never thought I'd. . ., actually no. I knew he'd be back. They *always* come back. . ."
When the day reached the checkout counter (making it the only customer,) the door bell chimed and in walked the subject of much debate and controversy, with a characteristic air of disinterest. Ethan Rayne. He was perceptive enough to know that most of the people in the room wanted nothing more (or less) than to knock his lights out, but then that was to be expected. Try and kill a person enough times and they're bound to hold a grudge.
"Ripper!"
Giles nodded tersely in acknowledgement and stood up straighter.
"What? No hugs?"
He walked confidently in to the center of the room stopping in front of the research table and blatantly ignoring the deadly stares, gave Angel a curious once-over.
"What's all this I hear about you folks needin' my help?"
Giles shuddered. Well at least Ethan was willing to get straight to the point. Fortunate, since Buffy was on the verge of leaping out of her seat.
"Ah, yes. We need you to do, a,"
"A locating spell!"
Willow cut in. She could see Giles take off his glasses and start to polish them. He wasn't even annoyed at her for interrupting. Worrying.
"oh and aren't you a pretty young thing. And what did you loose?"
It was Willows turn to shudder. She scooted closer to Tara drawing an amused smile from Ethan.
"Um, eww, and Xander. . ."
"And Spike."
Buffy contributed.
"oh, I see. So you want me to help you find your friends."
He said, drawing out every word, and looking for all the world like the sentence he'd just uttered was in a foreign language.
Giles knew he was playing with them. They had a lengthy (conversation was perhaps too civilized a word ) over the phone earlier, and the watcher explained the situation to him in some detail. No. he was just doing it to grate on his nerves.
"Ethan."
The warning tone was unmistakable. It still spooked Buffy how easily Giles could go from stuffy tweed man to Ripper the sociopath rebel without a cause. Except now he had a cause. And it was lounging not two feet away on the edge of the desk. She had given up on trying to work out the history between the two a long time ago, it was none of her business anyway. But now, it seemed that it had become important again suddenly, to know just how far Giles could be pushed. Ethan apparently decided to find out another time, since he baked up putting his hands out in front of him in a placating gesture, a smile still clinging to his face.
"naw, naw, Ripper ol' pal. No need to get testy."
"Do we have an agreement then?"
The other man seemed to consider for a moment, then sighed long- sufferingly.
"Show me what you got."
An hour later Ethan was caught up on the information they had, which would have taken a lot less time, had he been less proficient at instigating homicidal tendencies in people.
The vortex Willow had conjured was apparently unidirectional, and sent whatever came through it back in to the past two hundred years, according to their research. However it also served as a window to the thing that was sent back, Xander and Spike in this case, as it was anchored to them, in their time. The problem arose when the vortex was required to appear in the same physical location and the travelers. Ethan was working on combining another spell with the one that allowed the vortex to stay anchored to them.
Progress was slow. And meanwhile, there were other things to worry about, such as the fact that the longer Xander and Spike remained where they were, the more chance there was of them changing something in the past, thus effecting the present. Willow hadn't specified where exactly the vortex would appear, so the location was most likely random, but it did look like a pretty desolate place, so at least there was little risk of them changing anything important. Still. . .
"What am I looking for, again?"
Angel smiled at Buffys' attention span.
"Any signs that indicate this happened before, in other cases of time travel."
Buffy smiled sheepishly. That was a long sentence. Considering the source.
"Oh. Thanks."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop at the glare from Riley, who was sitting across the table. Willow cleared her throat loudly, and heaving distracted their attention, asked a question she'd been nursing for a while.
"Hey, is anyone else curios as to why Ethan is trying to help us? I mean really, he's been all out since three, with hardly a peep. You think maybe he's . . . you know. . . changed his evil ways?"
Buffy had been wondering that herself. But it was definitely the same old Ethan. Soo. . .
"I don't think so, Wills. Giles went all 'clams are us' on me when I asked, but it think this is payback for something."
Both of the Englishmen in question remained unawares up in the stacks.
"Whatever it is it must be big."
"Yeah. . ."
Suddenly, an exclamation of joy, followed by a crash and assorted English swearwords came from Ethan and Giles.
"I think. . . yes! Yes, here it is."
After a while Ethan came crashing out of the other room with an armful of books, and happy grin on his face. Dumping them unceremoniously in the middle of the table, he proceeded to explain, as modestly as his character allowed, what it was he found.
Buffy zoned out about half way through, but once Giles stepped in to explain the obscure references it appeared as though they had a solution.
Willow was eager to try the new spell straight away, but after some convincing she agreed to wait until morning. After all, it would do more harm than good if she was too drained to do it right, and messed it up. Still she was worried. # What if they change something. . . it'll be like 'Back to the future II' without the funny. #
Buffy was a little lost when it came to the whole changing the past deal. If they changed it then how would anyone know? They were already in the future, so how were they supposed to tell if it was the real one, or the changed one? What if it was changing all the time and they just didn't know it? Suddenly the 'world without shrimp' conversation she'd had with Anya came back to her.
She winced at the thought of the ex demon. Xander was a wreck for weeks after she'd left. He never told anyone what happened exactly. One day, at the magic box, Xander was still trying to deal, Spike decided to stay true to form and push him too far. Finally Xander exploded at the vampire and the fight that followed led Spike to being almost staked. # the bleached wonder just doesn't know when to quit. # of course after that Xander was back to himself again. Maybe Spike *did* know when to quit after all. Of course that would mean he'd done something out of the evilness of his heart, so to speak.
The thought, though unlikely, wasn't entirely out of the ball park.
Buffy had been very weary of Spike when he first 'joined the gang' but now, she not only tolerated him but trusted him as well. Not a lot, but still. . . she tried not to dwell on it too much.
The Slayer knew enough to see that Spike wasn't all he appeared, and somehow she felt reassured that he was with Xander. The two seemed to have bonded somewhat since enforced living arraignments. Also, she observed a worrying trend the vampire had of protectiveness towards Xander. # he's just doing it to annoy me! # she thought. It was almost believable, too.
She nodded pensively at the end of Giles' outline of the plan of action. She'd paid enough attention to know they were meeting back there at midday tomorrow.
# lets just hope that they can avoid drastically altering the course of humanity until lunch time. . .#
TBC. . .
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The lazy afternoon sunshine crept across the floor of the 'Magic Box' lighting up the dust in the air and wrapping the room in a shimmering, golden haze. It was also the reason that a certain vampire whose toes had been singed as the day progressed across the floor was now awake. The other occupants of the room had fallen in to an exhausted slumber after an all night research party. Or so thought Angel, until he realized that a hushed argument could be heard coming from the training room. He strained his hearing:
". . . Buffy, you must understand, I had no other choice."
"but, Giles, how do you know he'll help us? Even if he can. . ."
"Trust me. He will."
"Do I even wanna know. . . ?"
"I rather think not."
(Angel could almost see the watcher take off and polish his glasses at this point,)
"I spoke to him earlier. He will be here later today."
"Ethan Rayne. Now there's someone I never thought I'd. . ., actually no. I knew he'd be back. They *always* come back. . ."
When the day reached the checkout counter (making it the only customer,) the door bell chimed and in walked the subject of much debate and controversy, with a characteristic air of disinterest. Ethan Rayne. He was perceptive enough to know that most of the people in the room wanted nothing more (or less) than to knock his lights out, but then that was to be expected. Try and kill a person enough times and they're bound to hold a grudge.
"Ripper!"
Giles nodded tersely in acknowledgement and stood up straighter.
"What? No hugs?"
He walked confidently in to the center of the room stopping in front of the research table and blatantly ignoring the deadly stares, gave Angel a curious once-over.
"What's all this I hear about you folks needin' my help?"
Giles shuddered. Well at least Ethan was willing to get straight to the point. Fortunate, since Buffy was on the verge of leaping out of her seat.
"Ah, yes. We need you to do, a,"
"A locating spell!"
Willow cut in. She could see Giles take off his glasses and start to polish them. He wasn't even annoyed at her for interrupting. Worrying.
"oh and aren't you a pretty young thing. And what did you loose?"
It was Willows turn to shudder. She scooted closer to Tara drawing an amused smile from Ethan.
"Um, eww, and Xander. . ."
"And Spike."
Buffy contributed.
"oh, I see. So you want me to help you find your friends."
He said, drawing out every word, and looking for all the world like the sentence he'd just uttered was in a foreign language.
Giles knew he was playing with them. They had a lengthy (conversation was perhaps too civilized a word ) over the phone earlier, and the watcher explained the situation to him in some detail. No. he was just doing it to grate on his nerves.
"Ethan."
The warning tone was unmistakable. It still spooked Buffy how easily Giles could go from stuffy tweed man to Ripper the sociopath rebel without a cause. Except now he had a cause. And it was lounging not two feet away on the edge of the desk. She had given up on trying to work out the history between the two a long time ago, it was none of her business anyway. But now, it seemed that it had become important again suddenly, to know just how far Giles could be pushed. Ethan apparently decided to find out another time, since he baked up putting his hands out in front of him in a placating gesture, a smile still clinging to his face.
"naw, naw, Ripper ol' pal. No need to get testy."
"Do we have an agreement then?"
The other man seemed to consider for a moment, then sighed long- sufferingly.
"Show me what you got."
An hour later Ethan was caught up on the information they had, which would have taken a lot less time, had he been less proficient at instigating homicidal tendencies in people.
The vortex Willow had conjured was apparently unidirectional, and sent whatever came through it back in to the past two hundred years, according to their research. However it also served as a window to the thing that was sent back, Xander and Spike in this case, as it was anchored to them, in their time. The problem arose when the vortex was required to appear in the same physical location and the travelers. Ethan was working on combining another spell with the one that allowed the vortex to stay anchored to them.
Progress was slow. And meanwhile, there were other things to worry about, such as the fact that the longer Xander and Spike remained where they were, the more chance there was of them changing something in the past, thus effecting the present. Willow hadn't specified where exactly the vortex would appear, so the location was most likely random, but it did look like a pretty desolate place, so at least there was little risk of them changing anything important. Still. . .
"What am I looking for, again?"
Angel smiled at Buffys' attention span.
"Any signs that indicate this happened before, in other cases of time travel."
Buffy smiled sheepishly. That was a long sentence. Considering the source.
"Oh. Thanks."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop at the glare from Riley, who was sitting across the table. Willow cleared her throat loudly, and heaving distracted their attention, asked a question she'd been nursing for a while.
"Hey, is anyone else curios as to why Ethan is trying to help us? I mean really, he's been all out since three, with hardly a peep. You think maybe he's . . . you know. . . changed his evil ways?"
Buffy had been wondering that herself. But it was definitely the same old Ethan. Soo. . .
"I don't think so, Wills. Giles went all 'clams are us' on me when I asked, but it think this is payback for something."
Both of the Englishmen in question remained unawares up in the stacks.
"Whatever it is it must be big."
"Yeah. . ."
Suddenly, an exclamation of joy, followed by a crash and assorted English swearwords came from Ethan and Giles.
"I think. . . yes! Yes, here it is."
After a while Ethan came crashing out of the other room with an armful of books, and happy grin on his face. Dumping them unceremoniously in the middle of the table, he proceeded to explain, as modestly as his character allowed, what it was he found.
Buffy zoned out about half way through, but once Giles stepped in to explain the obscure references it appeared as though they had a solution.
Willow was eager to try the new spell straight away, but after some convincing she agreed to wait until morning. After all, it would do more harm than good if she was too drained to do it right, and messed it up. Still she was worried. # What if they change something. . . it'll be like 'Back to the future II' without the funny. #
Buffy was a little lost when it came to the whole changing the past deal. If they changed it then how would anyone know? They were already in the future, so how were they supposed to tell if it was the real one, or the changed one? What if it was changing all the time and they just didn't know it? Suddenly the 'world without shrimp' conversation she'd had with Anya came back to her.
She winced at the thought of the ex demon. Xander was a wreck for weeks after she'd left. He never told anyone what happened exactly. One day, at the magic box, Xander was still trying to deal, Spike decided to stay true to form and push him too far. Finally Xander exploded at the vampire and the fight that followed led Spike to being almost staked. # the bleached wonder just doesn't know when to quit. # of course after that Xander was back to himself again. Maybe Spike *did* know when to quit after all. Of course that would mean he'd done something out of the evilness of his heart, so to speak.
The thought, though unlikely, wasn't entirely out of the ball park.
Buffy had been very weary of Spike when he first 'joined the gang' but now, she not only tolerated him but trusted him as well. Not a lot, but still. . . she tried not to dwell on it too much.
The Slayer knew enough to see that Spike wasn't all he appeared, and somehow she felt reassured that he was with Xander. The two seemed to have bonded somewhat since enforced living arraignments. Also, she observed a worrying trend the vampire had of protectiveness towards Xander. # he's just doing it to annoy me! # she thought. It was almost believable, too.
She nodded pensively at the end of Giles' outline of the plan of action. She'd paid enough attention to know they were meeting back there at midday tomorrow.
# lets just hope that they can avoid drastically altering the course of humanity until lunch time. . .#
TBC. . .