CHAPTER SEVEN: COUNCIL
Giles glared at Quentin, hating him more in that moment than he had when Quentin had fired him.
"Good luck to you," Giles said, his voice softly menacing.
Quentin Travers glared at Giles and looked past him towards where Buffy stood behind Spike.
"Get the vampire and the ex-Watcher," Quentin ordered.
Buffy looked horrified by the suggestion and stepped forward, pushing past Spike who tried to keep her back.
"You're fights with me, not him," Buffy protested.
Quentin stared at her for a moment before nodding.
"You'll come quietly if we agree to leave your former Watcher here?" he asked.
Buffy glared at him, wondering whether or not she'd be able to take out the five men who were trying to take her away from everyone she loved best.
"If I have your word," she said.
Giles pulled her backwards, positioning himself between the group from the Watcher's Council and his vamped Slayer.
"Buffy no. I won't let them do this to you," he hissed.
Buffy shook her head and pushed him out of the way. "I am not letting you get hurt because of me."
Spike made his way forward and stood beside Buffy.
"I know you're thinking it pet …we have a good chance of taking 'em out."
Giles looked towards the peroxided vampire and glared. "You actually care what happens to her?"
Spike glared back. "Look mate, we don't got a lot of time here, so if you wanna play twenty questions, be my guest, but if you want yer Slayer to walk outta here alive…or undead or whatever, then you're gonna hafta trust me."
Giles hesitated a moment longer before finally nodding. "Fine."
"Giles, no. I won't let you do this," she whispered.
Giles gave her a small smile. "Buffy, I've been wanting to fight the Council for years."
Buffy paused and eventually nodded. Giles took a step back as if to accept that Buffy was letting herself be taken without a fight.
The three men from the Special Operations unit stepped forward, crosses in hands. Buffy didn't even flinch whereas Spike took an unnoticeable step back.
As soon as one of the men had their hands on Buffy, Giles and Spike moved completely in unison. Giles grabbed the cross and stake out of one of the men's hands, tossing them across the room. Xander deftly caught the cross and threw it out the window so it couldn't be used.
Buffy grabbed the hands of the man trying to attack her. She gave a small laugh as he held the cross out in front of him to protect himself. She took it from him, loving the look of complete surprise on his face as she held onto the cross.
"Nice bit of wood you got here," she commented, throwing the cross to Xander who threw it out the window to join the other.
Buffy grabbed the man by the collar and threw him towards the man that Giles was fighting, sending the two men from the Watcher's Council sprawling to the ground.
The third who was holding Spike back with a cross didn't even see that his two colleagues were face down on the ground. He did, however, feel the slight weight on his back, pulling at him. He looked around him and saw the small Slayer grabbing the cross from his hands and throwing the third and final cross towards Xander.
The man looked around him and saw he was pretty much defeated. Spike glared at him, though his demon still had yet to show.
"You expect to take a Slayer like 'er so easily?" Spike asked Quentin incredulously. "Good bloody luck."
Buffy turned to Spike, a little surprised by his almost compliment. He grinned and shrugged, not too certain where all of this was coming from.
"Well, if you're not going to come without a fight, then, I suppose a fights the only way to do this," Quentin stated calmly.
Buffy could only watch in fear as the door swung open to revel another six men in the doorway, decked out with crosses and stakes as well. The two men who were sprawled on the ground were slowly coming to and Buffy knew that neither she nor anyone else in this room (excepting Spike) would be able to take human life.
And the risk to her friends, to her mom, to her Watcher was far too much.
Buffy stepped forward, pushing both Giles and Spike backwards. She looked towards them, telling them that this was her decision, not theirs.
"Fine. I'll play nicely."
Quentin smiled and nodded. She stood completely still as three of the men from the Special Ops division came towards her, binding her arms behind her back.
"You'll understand the necessity for this, I assume," Quentin said, holding up a small hypodermic needle.
Buffy winced visibly and tried to keep herself from struggling. She bit back a yelp of pain as he injected her with the substance that would take all of her strength away from her.
Giles stepped forward but Buffy looked at him, pleading for him to keep himself safe.
"Where are you taking her?" he asked.
Quentin just smiled a little before turning and walking out of the library, Buffy being escorted by the entire group of nine Special Ops trained men.
Giles closed his eyes, fearing the worst.
"Alright, here's the plan," Spike said.
"Woah, hold up there buddy," Xander said, coming forward.
"Look, I know you don't like me, I really don't care, but if you want her back then I suggest you bloody well do what I say," Spike said.
Xander took another step back and perched himself on the table, hating that he was being told what to do by yet another vampire.
"As I was saying," Spike started again. "We need to get as many of the good guys as we can in on this. Get the great poof, I don't care, but we need to find out where that wanky Council lot would take her."
Giles nodded his agreement and looked at the group who were sitting in a stunned silence. Joyce looked as though she had just lost her daughter for a second time, which, in reality, she had.
"We'll get her back, Joyce," Spike said softly.
Joyce looked up at the vampire and smiled. "I trust you."
Giles looked up at the vampire and breathed in, not certain how he knew, but he was certain that Spike could be trusted.
"I think they're taking her to England."
~*~
Buffy tried not to put up too much of a struggle as she was loaded into a van and chained to the seat. She glared at Wesley who had the decency to look away, embarrassed.
Two men from the Special Ops division sat on either side of her, each with a stake and a dart gun. They obviously didn't want her dead, just disabled.
"So, where are we headed?" Buffy asked casually, surprised that she had managed so sound so calm about everything.
The two men with the stakes didn't reply, so her stare at Wesley became a lot harder. "Wes…where are we going?" she asked again, her words a little slower this time.
"They're taking you to the Council headquarters," he said softly.
She looked at him, surprised. "In England?"
He nodded and began fidgeting with a button on his coat.
"You can't just kill me here?" she asked. "Oh wait, you already did that."
Wesley looked up sharply and tried not to let his emotions show.
"The Council doesn't want you dead," Wesley admitted.
The two men from Special Ops coughed simultaneously, telling Wesley to keep his mouth shut.
"Ahhh, so…now I'm some sort of a lab-rat vamped Vampire Slayer," she said, her voice low and soft.
Wesley closed his eyes, hating that this was so complicated. He didn't fully understand what was happening. Even with the compound that Quentin had injected into Buffy, she still would have been able to kill them had she wanted to. Angel's words from the evening before rang in his mind.
"She was a Slayer, and all vampires know that Slayers don't ever turn properly."
Having contact with a turned Slayer was unprecedented, and he could understand the Council wishing to know exactly what happened, but…to perform such tests on someone who still had all the characteristics of a person seemed…incredibly wrong.
It didn't help that her demon hadn't even showed itself, not during the fight and not anytime after that. She had been able to touch the crosses, much as Giles had said the other night. She didn't have burnt hands or even the slightest trace of a burn.
The van came to an abrupt halt and Buffy looked up. The doors swung open and she was unchained from the seat, though her hands were still bound. She was lifted from the van and she tried to take in her surroundings.
The Sunnydale airstrip. It was only used for private planes and emergency landings, but Buffy recognised it immediately.
There was a small aircraft on the runway, the initials WC on the tail. She swallowed hard and looked towards it, fear in her eyes.
She let herself be dragged towards it and reluctantly walked up the stairs herself.
When she walked inside she was greeted with Quentin standing in front of a large cage. She eyed both the cage and the Watcher warily.
"I'm not about to kill everyone on board," Buffy said tiredly.
Quentin just shrugged and moved aside, allowing her two escorts to push her inside the cage which allowed her to stand, but only just. Had she been an inch taller, she would have been even more uncomfortable.
"Fine, I'll bite," she said. She immediately regretted her choice of phrase. "Though, not literally," she said, trying her lame attempt to cover it up.
"That just killed all hope of getting untied, didn't it?" Buffy asked.
"That it did. We're just doing this as a precaution," Quentin explained.
Buffy sighed and sat down on the seat inside her confines.
"Fine. But you should know that if I don't get fed soonish I'm gonna get testy."
Heya ppl!
Thanks heaps to everyone who's been reviewing and emailing me about this fic! Fully encouraging! In answer to some questions:
Why was it called kittens: no idea. ;) Cos Spike told her he wanted to go play with the other kittsn…I dunno.
Wesley: I LOVE Wes. I know that it fully looks like I don't, but he's one of my faves!! When I wrote this, I hadn't seen any of Angel which is why I didn't particularly like him…
Angel: uhhh…when I wrote this I REALLY didn't like Angel as a character. So…Angel lovers, I apologise for his behaviour in the upcoming chapters. I can pretty much guarantee you won't like him. ;)
Toodles.
K.