TITLE: There's Banging Outside My House
AUTHOR: Ben is Glory
PAIRING: B/R, T/W, R/T
RATING: R
TIMELINE: Set before "Into the Woods"
DISCLAIMER: Everything is ME and Joss. And "but face" is from A New Man, I gave the credit so don't sue me!
THANKS: Thankies to Ann who helped me with my writer's cramp… or was it block? LOL ;D
FEEDBACK: Gimme gimme gimme!
"Is everything alright down there?" Giles called down the stairs.
Riley and Tara abruptly broke apart, startled by the interruption. Wow, that was… intense. Tara thought.
"Everything's fine, Giles. We just found the Orb," Riley said as he picked it up from a nearby shelf. He walked up the stairs leaving Tara alone and perplexed.
What the hell was that about? Oh my god, what am I going to tell Willow? Oh, I can't tell her, she'd never forgive me. But if she did something like this I would want her to tell me. Oh goddess, what am I going to do?
"You coming, Tara?" asked Riley from the doorway. His face wore a devilish grin that made her a little uneasy.
"Um, y-y-yes. I'm coming." She walked up the stairs and went back to her seat next to Willow.
"So, Giles, now that we have the Orb, what do we do with it?" asked Willow.
"I thought you guys were coming up with a plan." Tara flashed a worried look at the shop keeper.
"Well, we ran into one little, erm, catch."
"What is it, Giles?" Please don't say we can't kill him. Please don't say we can't kill him.
"Well, apparently there's not just one demon. Mequilera is only one of an army of demons."
"An army?"
"Yes. I came across a prophecy I had overlooked earlier in the Loxig texts. It said an ancient species of demon was being reborn. Apparently they're after something, the text doesn't say what, but I imagine it's fairly large with the number of demons that have been sent to Sunnydale."
"How many d-d-demons?"
"Upwards of five hundred. There could be as many as one thousand by the end of the week. I assume they will keep coming and coming until they acquire whatever it is they're after. God knows how long that will take, and we have yet to find out what they've come for."
"Does Buffy know?" Riley seemed concerned.
"We didn't bother calling," said Willow. "They probably just got home and Buffy seemed really tired. We figured we'd just tell them tomorrow. Unless they're still up when we get home." She rubbed Tara's back. "You getting tired, baby? You look a little worn out."
"Just a lot of excitement. I'll be fine. The important thing to do now is research. We should find out as much about these things as possible so we can be ready if they show up somewhere."
"She's right," Giles responded.
"You have 'but face,'" Willow pointed out. Off Giles's offended look she continued, "You looked like you were going to say 'but.'"
"But…" Giles started, "but we don't know what kind of demons we're dealing with. Mequilera was manmade and has characteristics that match so many other demons. But no two of his parts are the same."
"That's a comforting thought," Riley put in.
"Indeed," replied Giles.
"Like snowflakes!" cried Willow.
"Right…" said Giles.
"You know, snowflakes! No two snowflakes are supposed to be the same?" she tried. "So, what happened to the rest of the parts?" Willow wondered, obviously not getting anywhere with the snow flake thing.
"That's exactly it. I don't know. It's my guess they were used to make other monsters; the rest of the army. However, we can't be sure. There's no record of any other demons even resembling Mequilera, so until we see one for ourselves, we don't know anything."
"Sounds like group slaying to me," said Tara.
"I would say so. It's not safe enough anymore for just Buffy."
"She can handle herself," Riley cut in. "She's a big girl."
"We understand that, Riley. But we know virtually nothing about hundreds of demons that are due in any time now. We cannot take the chance that a few hundred will show up while Buffy's out alone on patrol. At this point I don't think I would even let Spike go by himself."
***
"Sodding Slayer. Thinks she can order me around, that I'll do anything she bloody well wants me to. I'll show her." Spike was in the third hour of patrol and too bitter for his own good. It had been a very slow night: one staking an hour in and two a half hour ago. Other than that, he'd been bored out of his mind which gave plenty of time for the anger Buffy had left him with to sink in. "I get this fucking chip out of my head and there's gonna be a visit from William the Bloody. You bet you're damn life there will be." He stopped suddenly when he heard something rustle. "Oh bollocks, here we go."
***
The phone rang and Buffy's eyes shot open. She glanced at the clock. 2 AM. Who the hell calls at 2 AM? She reached beside her and picked up the cordless phone that was sitting on her nightstand. "Hello?" she answered, her voice raspy with sleep.
"Buffy, we need you!" the voice pleaded.
"Willow? What's the matter?" she asked frantically.
"It's Spike…"
-TBC-
***
A/n: I'm trying to work in this deal where Riley has a really annoying fall in every scene. Hopefully, it'll fit in upcoming chapters ^_^ I hope you liked it, Amna =D we have to get to the title seen soon, dude =P