Chapter Two
Some Lunatic Reality
Disclaimer: These characters don't belong to me. Once you read this, you'll see I have serious doubts whether I'd even want the canon ones anyhow.
Acknowledgment: I referred a good deal to the transcript at buffyworld.com to get the opening details right, so thanks to whoever did it. I'd mention your name, but for the fact I couldn't seem to find it.
Timeframe: During "The I In Team"
"Remind me. Why should I should help you?" Giles asked the vampire who had just burst into his home.
"Because you do that," Spike scoffed. "You're the goody-good guys. You're the bloody freaking cavalry."
With a hard look in his eyes, Giles told him, "No, you can come up with a better answer than that. Why should I help you?"
After wracking his brain for a moment, Spike replied, "Ooh! Because I helped you! When you turned into that Fyarl demon, I helped you, didn't I?"
"And that was out of the, umm, evilness of your heart?" Giles responded drolly.
"Oh, hell, no," Spike declared. "I made you pay me - " he stopped short, suddenly realizing this was hardly the time to be gloating about that.
"You right bastard," he told Giles resentfully, as he handed over what remained of the cash. "That's all that's left. Spent the rest on blood and smokes. Which I'll never see again."
"Sit down, Spike," Giles told him and exited the room, leaving Xander and Anya alone with him. Xander looked at Spike, then at his supply of Boost Bars, and seemed to be about to start his sales pitch. Then he remembered Spike no longer had anything to pay him with.
Giles returned, tranquilizer gun in hand and immediately proceeded to shoot Spike with it. As soon as that was done he loaded a second dart and proceeded to shoot Spike with that one, as well. Spike managed to get out an angry shout of "Hey! What - ", but no more, before the tranquilizer took effect and he was incapable of further speech.
For a brief moment, Xander and Anya found their heads going back and forth between the watcher and the now unconscious vampire, almost as if they were watching a tennis match.
"Giles?" Xander hazarded.
"Yes?"
"Not that I actually have a problem with it. But - " there was a brief pause, followed by, "why did you do that?" Xander asked, as he pointed at Spike's prone form.
"I thought it the best way to quiet his objections, seeing as I've no intention of helping him."
"But you took his money!" Anya objected.
"I doubt he'll find much use for it after this. I thought I might donate it to charity, rather than let the Initiative confiscate it, or have it burn up in the sun."
"So you're not going to help him," Anya repeated. "Why aren't you helping him? Isn't that what good guys do? Help the weak and defenseless?"
"Spike doesn't qualify," Giles stated baldly.
"Don't you have an obligation to help him, after he helped you?" Anya asked, her honest confusion apparent.
"Not at all," Giles told her. "Spike performed a service for a fee. And a bloody extortionate one, at that! There might be some lunatic reality in which that earns him my undying gratitude, but not in this one."
"But he offered to pay you! And you robbed him!"
"Anya, Spike's the bad guy," Xander interjected.
"Oh, I'm going to do much worse than rob him," Giles told Anya.
"So, it's okay to lie to and cheat bad guys?" Anya asked Xander.
"Actually, yes," Xander told her. "But only the bad guys."
"Why aren't you helping him?" Anya asked Giles.
"Because I don't care to repeat my mistakes," came Giles' answer. "The situation Spike referred to - where I was turned into a Fyarl demon - only happened because I was foolish enough to put my trust in someone I was fully aware didn't deserve it. Since I know Spike does not merit such trust, I thought I would use an intelligent approach this time.
"On top of which," the Watcher continued, "I don't wish to chance the risk of antagonizing the Initiative that helping Spike would involve. I have a number of misgivings about their activities, but I don't want to invite open enmity yet - not until I'm certain it's warranted."
"So what are you going to do with him?" Xander asked.
"I'm of two minds. Throwing him out in the sun without his blanket does have a certain appeal, but leaving him somewhere for the Initiative soldiers to find has so much more elegance."
