Non p.c. language warning. This chapter may prove upsetting to any Riley
fans.
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"I know what Riley's been doing, and that it's bad. But I don't get it, why would he do anything so horrible? He must know that the yetis are good, mustn't he?" Buffy sniffed.
I put a comforting hand on her shoulder and bit my tongue, with great difficulty, but there are first times for everything - my perspective on Agent Mengele and his merry band of torturers being somewhat different to what she wanted to hear at that point.
Giles rubbed the bridge of his nose, hard, and said, "They are good." He sighed, and continued, "That's probably why the Initiative wanted the child. Yetis are very resilient; that's why they are so useful as guardians to Shambala. The way to kill them is to scalp them. That's why there are some scalps and whole pelts in some of the monasteries, and no other body parts - other injuries they can eventually regenerate and heal from, hopefully even multiple gunshot wounds. We'll have to speed up the process with some healing magic and painkillers, if we're going to catch the culprits."
"So this poor yeti'll be ok, Giles?" Buffy said with some relief.
"Eventually. But the child might not be. Yeti-lore is a specialised area of study within the Council, and we can't know if the information on how to kill the guards has been passed on to the Initiative forces, though the scalping of the mate indicates it has been. But even with that information, can you imagine what the forces that created Adam could do with a regenerative live being? What a soldier that would make. It's not surprising they want a subject to experiment on."
"Speaking as an 'experiment', I vote for getting the kid. Been there, wouldn't inflict it on anyone, let alone a kiddie." I said.
Giles nodded. "Agreed. But we've got to fix this chap up first, and we have to send the Sherpas back to camp. I'm going to have to Lethe's Bramble them anyway at the end of the trip, so they don't remember where we've been, but in the meantime, we can't have them seeing a yeti." He turned and said, "Buffy, you're the fastest. Could you run back to camp and tell them to put the tents back up, and that we've changed our mind? We're staying here for the moment, and we'll just do an acclimatisation walk today. It's what we should do anyway, so they won't be surprised. And if you can bring the medical box back, we can patch this poor chap up. I'll try to get some more information on where they've gone while you're away."
She swallowed hard, nodded, and ran back along the trail.
Giles asked Anyanka, "Can you see if he knows anymore about where they went, or anything else he can tell us?"
She nodded, and knelt down to talk to the yeti.
Giles looked me in the eyes and said, "Can you tell where they went? There must have been some considerable blood from the scalping."
"Hey, not a bloodhound here, mate. But, I'll give it a go. Poor bugger." I took a good long sniff, and found a scent trail leading down the mountain towards the river. I moved on towards the edge of the mountain so I could see better. I'm a bit long sighted, which even vamping didn't sort - hurts a bit when I read, but bloody useful for spotting prey at a considerable distance. Sure enough, I could see four black dots moving slowly toward a bigger helicopter-shaped blob.
I told Giles and Anyanka. "They've got a chopper down there, and I don't reckon even Buffy and I could get down there in time to stop 'em getting away with the kiddiewink."
Giles said, "Bugger. Makes sense. It's too high up here for them to take- off safely."
I said, as it was worth a try, "You're not able to teleport here, right, Anyanka?"
Anyanka snorted. "No, I can't. But I can grant wishes - exploding wishes."
"Sorted. Anyanka, I wish that the helicopter parked down by the river explodes."
Giles spluttered, "The pilots, we can't, or we shouldn't. We should find another way."
Anyanka turned veiny and said, "You know as well as I do that there isn't another way, Rupert. Wish granted, Spike."
I heard the satisfying sound of explosions, and some very faint, but still very pleasant, screams in the distance.
"Anya, Spike, yes, that might have been necessary, at some point. We still should have discussed the alternatives first," Giles said coldly.
"It's why you sent Buffy back to camp rather than me though, isn't it? Because we're in a war here, and there's going to be casualties who aren't us, and she's still not ready to take that stain on her soul. But all of us - we've already got them. And don't be such a prat, we know you can take the hard decisions too. You just wanted the obligatory breast-beating first. Too late, mate. Done it for you, and you know you're grateful for that." I said.
"You might indulge me first, you tosser. Token protests help me sleep at night."
"Oh, you don't need those; I can make sure you sleep well. Except when the tent collapses, of course." Anyanka smiled at Giles.
He looked at her. "We will be discussing this later, away from prying vampires. But speaking of prying vampires, Spike, you're right. It is why I sent Buffy. You realise she won't like it."
"Too bloody right I do. But if she wants to take it out on me, she can. Won't be the first time or the last, but if it makes it easier on her, I'll do anything. But we haven't got forever. There's still four soldiers down there, and hopefully the kid too."
Anyanka got a truly wicked gleam in her eyes - a right nice picture it made, warmed the cockles of my heart something rotten. She knelt back down by the yeti, and murmured something in the yeti language. He'd come round again, and looked stronger, presumably fortified by the rest. He said another lot of words, which finished by Anyanka turning veiny and saying, "Wish granted."
She turned to me, and said, "It's done. The child is safe. The culprits have been punished and will never do it again. Go fetch the child. I'll wait for Buffy."
Giles said, "What did you do?"
She snapped, "My job, Giles. My job. I'm a vengeance demon, and this was true justice. Hallie's looking after my clients. I couldn't turn this down - she'd kill me. He and his child both needed justice. I'll stay with my client, and mend him when Buffy comes back with the medical kit. Go and fetch the child. We can discuss ethics later, if it'll make you feel better. Oh, take the camera. You might need the pictures for evidence of illegal invasions of other people's countries."
She dug in her daypac and handed the camera to me, and went, "Go on, shoo, he needs his child."
I tilted my head and raised an eyebrow at Giles, who breathed out sharpish, and we headed off down the trail.
I said, "What did he wish for?"
Giles puffed out his reply as his mortal lungs struggled with the thin air and brisk pace. "I don't speak much yeti... something about black hearts and rot... then... who had my baby... destroy slowly by... greatest pleasure."
"Sounds entertaining. Buffy's gonna hate it. She's going to kill me. Who else is she going to blame? Mind you, at least she won't have to see it. Sorry, carry on puffing there, mate."
"Pillock."
"Tosser."
I let him keep his breath for the knee-killing descent down the mountain. It hurt my knees, and I could feel them healing even as they suffered. Poor old Rupert - it was almost a good thing that it looked like he and Anyanka had a night of ethics discussion booked - I doubt that his knees'd be up to ought else tonight.
As we got closer to the river, and much lower down, he got more oxygen into his lungs, and so more able to give me grief. "You really should have discussed it with me first."
"I know, mate. But it's easier this way, innit? You get to hate me, not yourself, and you know we had to do it. You'd have just angsted about it, and we'd still have had to do the same. They couldn't have been allowed to get away with the kid. If they had, they'd only be back with more force. This way, we take some piccies, they realise there's something here they shouldn't mess with, and Hairy up there gets his kid back, even if we can't bring his mate back to life - can we?"
"Anya can't grant wishes to bring people back from death. Apparently it's another one of the rules. She told me in Kathmandu when we discussed them, and her job."
"So, gonna make her life hell for doing her job?" Demon solidarity - I needed to know.
He replied, "I know, or I think I know, that I should. But, in this case... I hate this. I know you're both right, and I know I am too. I'd rather not think about it, but I know if I'm going to have a relationship with a Vengeance Demon, or Justice Demon, whatever, I have to think about it. It's hard. I'm a Watcher, I'm not supposed to do this. I'm not supposed to have this, but I need it. I need her. I've killed in the course of the fight. How can I condemn her, or you, for this? They did have to be stopped, permanently. But was whatever she did excessive? It didn't give her pleasure to do this. I know that. I don't know if I could live with it if it had. But I need to think about all this."
"We're in a war, right?" I said.
"Yes, of course we are, you pillock."
"And if we were, say, the SAS doing a bit of Bin-Laden hunting in caves in Afghanistan, and Anya and me used a nice grenade launcher down some caves which resulted in the enemy turning into kibble and bits. You wouldn't suggest that we used a pistol instead, and take 'em out one at a time, and run the risk of losing the chief towel-head as a result." Hey, I have been known to watch CNN - very occasionally.
He glared at me, and said, "Point taken. I do know this, tosser."
"You're welcome, wanker. Just reminding you, and practising for Buffy."
"Quite understandable. I'll talk to her too, later. Let's get this done, shall we."
We'd got close to the first soldier. I handed Giles the camera, and he took some photos before we touched the git, and possibly had to do any damage to the evidence. I put on some vamp speed but didn't need to spring, as I couldn't hear any human heartbeats and could smell the stench of death. I beckoned Giles and he joined me.
They'd got very close to the river, and being much further down, the bleakness of the high mountain ridges had turned to the beauty of alpine flowers and greenery. The clean sweet air I'd taken in to talk higher up, and which I'd enjoyed, turned to rot here down in the valley. I stopped breathing. I'm lucky - it's optional for me unless I want to talk. Giles wasn't so lucky.
Three of the soldiers had rotted as they stood. They were black, green, yellow and oozing, as if they'd been dead way longer than they should have been.
Giles blanched, and swallowed hard to avoid vomiting.
I grimaced, and pulled off the dog-tags, and the heads followed, rolling off the necks. It wasn't the pleasantest of jobs, but I needed to see if one of them was Finn - and they were all overgrown lumps with unrecognisable features. Some considerable ooze later, I got all three of the rotted soldiers' tags, and none of them were Fish-boy, though they were all very smelly.
I wiped off the tags on the grass, and gave them to Giles, who put them in a plastic bag in his daypac. Then we moved to the fourth body, which was ahead of the others.
There was a big rucksack a little away from the body, and there was a faint heartbeat in it. I ran over and pulled the sac open, and found a bound, battered, incredibly hairy, but alive baby yeti. His eyes begged me to untie him, so I did. I shouted to Giles, "Result, mate. One baby yeti, in one piece."
Giles smiled grimly. "One good thing." He came over and picked up the hairy baby, which clung onto Giles' fleece like he was never going to let go. It was a good job Anyanka wasn't there, or he'd be doomed to imminent daddyhood.
We stood and looked towards what must be Riley Finn. I looked closer and saw fat, black wriggling things all over the body. "Mate, what's that?"
Giles moved closer, and some of the things moved slightly in his direction - causing him to move back sharpish. He swallowed hard and said, "Leeches. He's covered in leeches. That's horrible."
"Fitting really. At least he died doing what he enjoyed the most - getting a suck- job."
"Spike! That's hardly appropriate, even if it is accurate. Not so good for you though. They're attracted to body heat. You don't have any. You'll have to check it's him. Get the tags. Check the pockets for any papers and take a picture."
I am paying off karma at a Michael Schumacher rate of speed, and our holiday photos are very different to most peoples.
But I didn't have a choice. I lit up in case any of the fat, plum-sized, swollen, disgusting things decided to break professional solidarity and needed burning off. I got the tags off easy enough, but had to burn off a couple of the more in the way leeches to get at the pockets, which did contain some papers in a plastic pouch.
I handed the pouch to Giles, and his little friend, and left him trying to retrieve it from the now somewhat feisty little chap, as I went towards the still burning helicopter. I took some rather good shots - very 'Apocalypse Now' - all it needed was a bit of Wagner as a soundtrack.
When I got back, Giles must have got the pouch back in his daypack, and had the contents of the rucksack out on the grass. He looked at me, and said sadly, "They were going to experiment on this little chap, ahead of a full scale assault on Shambala. They wanted to test their weaponry first in a test attack. We need to get back up there and warn them, though I think we've put an almighty spanner in the works. We can't leave the bodies here though. I wasn't overly fond of the boy, even if he did help us sometimes. I hated his treatment of Buffy and certainly loathed his work here, but I don't feel comfortable just abandoning them like this."
"Tempting though, innit?"
"Yes, but I know Buffy wouldn't be happy if we left them lying here for the vultures - even if the Tibetans north of here use sky burial."
"I could un-live with leaving them to be pecked away by birdies. Culturally appropriate and all."
"Hindu country, Spike. We have a flaming helicopter as a pyre. I'll say a few words, for Buffy's sake, if no-one else. You move them."
"For Buffy, ok." The things I do for love.
I shifted 'em, which was deeply unpleasant, and Giles said a few words even Whitebread would have approved off. I stood nice and quiet while Giles did it. Then I went for a quick and bloody freezing dip in the river to get rid of the ooze.
Giles tried to give me the baby yeti, as it was my turn, when we turned back up the trail, but he screamed to be away from cold, dead me, and back to warm, cosy, live Giles.
Walking back up the mountain was harder than coming down on Giles' live lungs, especially with the additional weight of his little friend, so I took his daypac in addition to mine, and we walked in silence for the most part.
I know Giles, and he blames himself for everything, even Buffy's boy-toy turning back to the dark side. I have my faults, but I'm not a hypocrite, and can't claim to mourn the death of Mr Plastic Stake and his torturing mates. I tried to point that out, and got a snort for my pains, so I shut up. Hey, there's a first time for everything.
We got back to the girls and their patient eventually, and with Giles still breathing, even if he did look almost as dead as I am.
Buffy stood up and tapped her foot. "You left without me! You are both so in trouble!"
Then she saw the baby yeti now asleep, but still clutching Giles fleece, and she and Anyanka both went, "Oh, he's so cute! You found him!"
The father yeti made a loud noise, and the baby woke, dropped his death grip on Giles, and scampered over to Daddy's waiting bandaged arms. The father yeti's tears fell into the baby's hair as he rocked his child, talking to him all the time.
"I know what Riley's been doing, and that it's bad. But I don't get it, why would he do anything so horrible? He must know that the yetis are good, mustn't he?" Buffy sniffed.
I put a comforting hand on her shoulder and bit my tongue, with great difficulty, but there are first times for everything - my perspective on Agent Mengele and his merry band of torturers being somewhat different to what she wanted to hear at that point.
Giles rubbed the bridge of his nose, hard, and said, "They are good." He sighed, and continued, "That's probably why the Initiative wanted the child. Yetis are very resilient; that's why they are so useful as guardians to Shambala. The way to kill them is to scalp them. That's why there are some scalps and whole pelts in some of the monasteries, and no other body parts - other injuries they can eventually regenerate and heal from, hopefully even multiple gunshot wounds. We'll have to speed up the process with some healing magic and painkillers, if we're going to catch the culprits."
"So this poor yeti'll be ok, Giles?" Buffy said with some relief.
"Eventually. But the child might not be. Yeti-lore is a specialised area of study within the Council, and we can't know if the information on how to kill the guards has been passed on to the Initiative forces, though the scalping of the mate indicates it has been. But even with that information, can you imagine what the forces that created Adam could do with a regenerative live being? What a soldier that would make. It's not surprising they want a subject to experiment on."
"Speaking as an 'experiment', I vote for getting the kid. Been there, wouldn't inflict it on anyone, let alone a kiddie." I said.
Giles nodded. "Agreed. But we've got to fix this chap up first, and we have to send the Sherpas back to camp. I'm going to have to Lethe's Bramble them anyway at the end of the trip, so they don't remember where we've been, but in the meantime, we can't have them seeing a yeti." He turned and said, "Buffy, you're the fastest. Could you run back to camp and tell them to put the tents back up, and that we've changed our mind? We're staying here for the moment, and we'll just do an acclimatisation walk today. It's what we should do anyway, so they won't be surprised. And if you can bring the medical box back, we can patch this poor chap up. I'll try to get some more information on where they've gone while you're away."
She swallowed hard, nodded, and ran back along the trail.
Giles asked Anyanka, "Can you see if he knows anymore about where they went, or anything else he can tell us?"
She nodded, and knelt down to talk to the yeti.
Giles looked me in the eyes and said, "Can you tell where they went? There must have been some considerable blood from the scalping."
"Hey, not a bloodhound here, mate. But, I'll give it a go. Poor bugger." I took a good long sniff, and found a scent trail leading down the mountain towards the river. I moved on towards the edge of the mountain so I could see better. I'm a bit long sighted, which even vamping didn't sort - hurts a bit when I read, but bloody useful for spotting prey at a considerable distance. Sure enough, I could see four black dots moving slowly toward a bigger helicopter-shaped blob.
I told Giles and Anyanka. "They've got a chopper down there, and I don't reckon even Buffy and I could get down there in time to stop 'em getting away with the kiddiewink."
Giles said, "Bugger. Makes sense. It's too high up here for them to take- off safely."
I said, as it was worth a try, "You're not able to teleport here, right, Anyanka?"
Anyanka snorted. "No, I can't. But I can grant wishes - exploding wishes."
"Sorted. Anyanka, I wish that the helicopter parked down by the river explodes."
Giles spluttered, "The pilots, we can't, or we shouldn't. We should find another way."
Anyanka turned veiny and said, "You know as well as I do that there isn't another way, Rupert. Wish granted, Spike."
I heard the satisfying sound of explosions, and some very faint, but still very pleasant, screams in the distance.
"Anya, Spike, yes, that might have been necessary, at some point. We still should have discussed the alternatives first," Giles said coldly.
"It's why you sent Buffy back to camp rather than me though, isn't it? Because we're in a war here, and there's going to be casualties who aren't us, and she's still not ready to take that stain on her soul. But all of us - we've already got them. And don't be such a prat, we know you can take the hard decisions too. You just wanted the obligatory breast-beating first. Too late, mate. Done it for you, and you know you're grateful for that." I said.
"You might indulge me first, you tosser. Token protests help me sleep at night."
"Oh, you don't need those; I can make sure you sleep well. Except when the tent collapses, of course." Anyanka smiled at Giles.
He looked at her. "We will be discussing this later, away from prying vampires. But speaking of prying vampires, Spike, you're right. It is why I sent Buffy. You realise she won't like it."
"Too bloody right I do. But if she wants to take it out on me, she can. Won't be the first time or the last, but if it makes it easier on her, I'll do anything. But we haven't got forever. There's still four soldiers down there, and hopefully the kid too."
Anyanka got a truly wicked gleam in her eyes - a right nice picture it made, warmed the cockles of my heart something rotten. She knelt back down by the yeti, and murmured something in the yeti language. He'd come round again, and looked stronger, presumably fortified by the rest. He said another lot of words, which finished by Anyanka turning veiny and saying, "Wish granted."
She turned to me, and said, "It's done. The child is safe. The culprits have been punished and will never do it again. Go fetch the child. I'll wait for Buffy."
Giles said, "What did you do?"
She snapped, "My job, Giles. My job. I'm a vengeance demon, and this was true justice. Hallie's looking after my clients. I couldn't turn this down - she'd kill me. He and his child both needed justice. I'll stay with my client, and mend him when Buffy comes back with the medical kit. Go and fetch the child. We can discuss ethics later, if it'll make you feel better. Oh, take the camera. You might need the pictures for evidence of illegal invasions of other people's countries."
She dug in her daypac and handed the camera to me, and went, "Go on, shoo, he needs his child."
I tilted my head and raised an eyebrow at Giles, who breathed out sharpish, and we headed off down the trail.
I said, "What did he wish for?"
Giles puffed out his reply as his mortal lungs struggled with the thin air and brisk pace. "I don't speak much yeti... something about black hearts and rot... then... who had my baby... destroy slowly by... greatest pleasure."
"Sounds entertaining. Buffy's gonna hate it. She's going to kill me. Who else is she going to blame? Mind you, at least she won't have to see it. Sorry, carry on puffing there, mate."
"Pillock."
"Tosser."
I let him keep his breath for the knee-killing descent down the mountain. It hurt my knees, and I could feel them healing even as they suffered. Poor old Rupert - it was almost a good thing that it looked like he and Anyanka had a night of ethics discussion booked - I doubt that his knees'd be up to ought else tonight.
As we got closer to the river, and much lower down, he got more oxygen into his lungs, and so more able to give me grief. "You really should have discussed it with me first."
"I know, mate. But it's easier this way, innit? You get to hate me, not yourself, and you know we had to do it. You'd have just angsted about it, and we'd still have had to do the same. They couldn't have been allowed to get away with the kid. If they had, they'd only be back with more force. This way, we take some piccies, they realise there's something here they shouldn't mess with, and Hairy up there gets his kid back, even if we can't bring his mate back to life - can we?"
"Anya can't grant wishes to bring people back from death. Apparently it's another one of the rules. She told me in Kathmandu when we discussed them, and her job."
"So, gonna make her life hell for doing her job?" Demon solidarity - I needed to know.
He replied, "I know, or I think I know, that I should. But, in this case... I hate this. I know you're both right, and I know I am too. I'd rather not think about it, but I know if I'm going to have a relationship with a Vengeance Demon, or Justice Demon, whatever, I have to think about it. It's hard. I'm a Watcher, I'm not supposed to do this. I'm not supposed to have this, but I need it. I need her. I've killed in the course of the fight. How can I condemn her, or you, for this? They did have to be stopped, permanently. But was whatever she did excessive? It didn't give her pleasure to do this. I know that. I don't know if I could live with it if it had. But I need to think about all this."
"We're in a war, right?" I said.
"Yes, of course we are, you pillock."
"And if we were, say, the SAS doing a bit of Bin-Laden hunting in caves in Afghanistan, and Anya and me used a nice grenade launcher down some caves which resulted in the enemy turning into kibble and bits. You wouldn't suggest that we used a pistol instead, and take 'em out one at a time, and run the risk of losing the chief towel-head as a result." Hey, I have been known to watch CNN - very occasionally.
He glared at me, and said, "Point taken. I do know this, tosser."
"You're welcome, wanker. Just reminding you, and practising for Buffy."
"Quite understandable. I'll talk to her too, later. Let's get this done, shall we."
We'd got close to the first soldier. I handed Giles the camera, and he took some photos before we touched the git, and possibly had to do any damage to the evidence. I put on some vamp speed but didn't need to spring, as I couldn't hear any human heartbeats and could smell the stench of death. I beckoned Giles and he joined me.
They'd got very close to the river, and being much further down, the bleakness of the high mountain ridges had turned to the beauty of alpine flowers and greenery. The clean sweet air I'd taken in to talk higher up, and which I'd enjoyed, turned to rot here down in the valley. I stopped breathing. I'm lucky - it's optional for me unless I want to talk. Giles wasn't so lucky.
Three of the soldiers had rotted as they stood. They were black, green, yellow and oozing, as if they'd been dead way longer than they should have been.
Giles blanched, and swallowed hard to avoid vomiting.
I grimaced, and pulled off the dog-tags, and the heads followed, rolling off the necks. It wasn't the pleasantest of jobs, but I needed to see if one of them was Finn - and they were all overgrown lumps with unrecognisable features. Some considerable ooze later, I got all three of the rotted soldiers' tags, and none of them were Fish-boy, though they were all very smelly.
I wiped off the tags on the grass, and gave them to Giles, who put them in a plastic bag in his daypac. Then we moved to the fourth body, which was ahead of the others.
There was a big rucksack a little away from the body, and there was a faint heartbeat in it. I ran over and pulled the sac open, and found a bound, battered, incredibly hairy, but alive baby yeti. His eyes begged me to untie him, so I did. I shouted to Giles, "Result, mate. One baby yeti, in one piece."
Giles smiled grimly. "One good thing." He came over and picked up the hairy baby, which clung onto Giles' fleece like he was never going to let go. It was a good job Anyanka wasn't there, or he'd be doomed to imminent daddyhood.
We stood and looked towards what must be Riley Finn. I looked closer and saw fat, black wriggling things all over the body. "Mate, what's that?"
Giles moved closer, and some of the things moved slightly in his direction - causing him to move back sharpish. He swallowed hard and said, "Leeches. He's covered in leeches. That's horrible."
"Fitting really. At least he died doing what he enjoyed the most - getting a suck- job."
"Spike! That's hardly appropriate, even if it is accurate. Not so good for you though. They're attracted to body heat. You don't have any. You'll have to check it's him. Get the tags. Check the pockets for any papers and take a picture."
I am paying off karma at a Michael Schumacher rate of speed, and our holiday photos are very different to most peoples.
But I didn't have a choice. I lit up in case any of the fat, plum-sized, swollen, disgusting things decided to break professional solidarity and needed burning off. I got the tags off easy enough, but had to burn off a couple of the more in the way leeches to get at the pockets, which did contain some papers in a plastic pouch.
I handed the pouch to Giles, and his little friend, and left him trying to retrieve it from the now somewhat feisty little chap, as I went towards the still burning helicopter. I took some rather good shots - very 'Apocalypse Now' - all it needed was a bit of Wagner as a soundtrack.
When I got back, Giles must have got the pouch back in his daypack, and had the contents of the rucksack out on the grass. He looked at me, and said sadly, "They were going to experiment on this little chap, ahead of a full scale assault on Shambala. They wanted to test their weaponry first in a test attack. We need to get back up there and warn them, though I think we've put an almighty spanner in the works. We can't leave the bodies here though. I wasn't overly fond of the boy, even if he did help us sometimes. I hated his treatment of Buffy and certainly loathed his work here, but I don't feel comfortable just abandoning them like this."
"Tempting though, innit?"
"Yes, but I know Buffy wouldn't be happy if we left them lying here for the vultures - even if the Tibetans north of here use sky burial."
"I could un-live with leaving them to be pecked away by birdies. Culturally appropriate and all."
"Hindu country, Spike. We have a flaming helicopter as a pyre. I'll say a few words, for Buffy's sake, if no-one else. You move them."
"For Buffy, ok." The things I do for love.
I shifted 'em, which was deeply unpleasant, and Giles said a few words even Whitebread would have approved off. I stood nice and quiet while Giles did it. Then I went for a quick and bloody freezing dip in the river to get rid of the ooze.
Giles tried to give me the baby yeti, as it was my turn, when we turned back up the trail, but he screamed to be away from cold, dead me, and back to warm, cosy, live Giles.
Walking back up the mountain was harder than coming down on Giles' live lungs, especially with the additional weight of his little friend, so I took his daypac in addition to mine, and we walked in silence for the most part.
I know Giles, and he blames himself for everything, even Buffy's boy-toy turning back to the dark side. I have my faults, but I'm not a hypocrite, and can't claim to mourn the death of Mr Plastic Stake and his torturing mates. I tried to point that out, and got a snort for my pains, so I shut up. Hey, there's a first time for everything.
We got back to the girls and their patient eventually, and with Giles still breathing, even if he did look almost as dead as I am.
Buffy stood up and tapped her foot. "You left without me! You are both so in trouble!"
Then she saw the baby yeti now asleep, but still clutching Giles fleece, and she and Anyanka both went, "Oh, he's so cute! You found him!"
The father yeti made a loud noise, and the baby woke, dropped his death grip on Giles, and scampered over to Daddy's waiting bandaged arms. The father yeti's tears fell into the baby's hair as he rocked his child, talking to him all the time.
