CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: GILES (II)

Tuesday: 10:30pm

19th January 1999

California: Sunnydale

Buffy sat in the apartment in the house she and Giles shared, sitting cross legged on the couch as Giles stood beside her.  Giles dangled a pale pink crystal in front of her.

"This one?" he asked.

She looked at it for a moment.  "Amethyst."

"Used for?"

"Charm bags, money spells and for cleansing ones aura," she replied.

He smiled and nodded, putting the crystal down on the table.  "Very good."

"What I wanna know is how you know when to cleanse your aura," Buffy said, grinning impishly at him.  "Does someone come along and write 'wash me' on it?"

"Buffy, I'm aware of your distaste for studying vibratory stones, but since it is part of your training, I would appreciate your glib-free attention," he said.

She looked at him, taken aback by the sudden reprimand.  He usually didn't mind if she made a few jokes during their training. 

"I'm sorry," she apologised quickly, knowing that if he was testy, it would be better to not push him.

He breathed in deeply, trying to calm himself down.  He'd been on edge for the last week, ever since a package from the Council had arrived.  Buffy was turning eighteen the next day, which meant only one thing for a Slayer.  The Cruciamentum.  A test designed by the Council to prove that the Slayer was able to work with her wits, rather than with her strength.  Giles was to inject her with a specially made compound that would strip Buffy of her strength and then lead her to an old boarding house somewhere in Sunnydale to defeat a vampiric foe. 

The problem was, Giles really really didn't want to give her the injections.  It wasn't that he didn't think she couldn't handle herself without her strength, he was fairly certain that she had the cunning to defeat anything that anyone put in front of her.  He just didn't want to betray her so terribly by injecting her in the first place.  It was the ultimate betrayal.

Giles closed his eyes in thought for a moment before deciding to plunge ahead with what he had been ordered to do.  He brought out a large crystal that the Council had had specially made for the purposes of the Cruciamentum and placed it on the coffee table in front of his Slayer.

"Alright…just try to concentrate," he said.

She nodded and looked intently at the fault in the centre of the crystal.  Without even realising it, she fell into a trance.

------------------------

An hour later, Buffy was patrolling through the streets of Sunnydale.  Faith had offered time and time again to go with her, but Buffy didn't want her to be put at risk.  Buffy did, however, go over to Faith's every evening just so the ex-Potential could have peace of mind knowing that the Slayer was alright.

Buffy sighed, wondering whether anything interesting would happen on patrol.  Things had become quieter since she had been stationed in  Sunnydale, and she had hopes that it was because of her staking so many of the older vampires that had been making the fledglings.

She heard a shift in the dirt behind her and stopped to wait for the vampire to rise.  When the vamp had got one hand out of the grave, Buffy shot her fist through the dirt and staked the vampire before it had a chance to rise completely.  It crumbled to dust.

She didn't even realise she was being attacked from behind until she had fallen headfirst towards a bushy area of the cemetery.  She re-grouped quickly and was on her feet facing the vampire before it could attack again.  She went to lunge towards it with her stake at the ready but she stopped, a sudden feeling of dizziness coming over her. 

The vampire took advantage of her momentary distraction and jumped towards her, tackling her to the ground.  Buffy went to throw him off her but found herself completely weakened of her strength.  Before she had a chance to panic, she pushed through her fear and forced herself to rely on the Council training she had been given rather than on the strength she had come to rely on so much.

She flipped the vampire over and scrambled to her feet.  She ducked a punch and shot her fist towards the vampire, the vamp barely registering that she had hit it.  Buffy didn't have time to think this through clearly and moved to improvise in order to kill this vampire.  While still ducked, she brought her leg our in a low spinning kick, hitting the vampire in the back of his knees, sending him tumbling.

Before the vampire could regroup, Buffy shoved a stake through his heart.  She tried to calm her breathing but quickly rethought that idea.  With a slowness she hadn't experienced since before her calling, she ran back to the apartment, her chest heaving and her thoughts racing wildly.  She was weak.  She had no strength at all.  This was not of the good.

----------------------

She raced into the apartment, slamming the door behind her.  She leant on it grateful that she was inside where she couldn't be attacked.  She had had to fight another vampire on the way home and had very nearly lost against it.  She had managed to stake it when it had made a particularly stupid mistake, and she had raced the rest of the way home.

Giles looked up when he saw Buffy burst through the door.  He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she was alright.  She looked horrified by something, so he knew that the injections had done as they were supposed to.

"Beth," he greeted.  He still wouldn't use the nickname that everybody else called her by.  Buffy was somewhat grateful for it.  It sounded right coming from her Watcher.  Probably something to do with the accent.  "Are you alright?"

"Giles, something's wrong," she stated.

"Wrong?" he repeated.  He could only hope that he didn't fail completely at keeping up the charade that he knew nothing of what had happened to her.

"I just got a bad case of the dizzies and nearly got killed by a couple of newbie fledglings," she stated.  "How's that for strange?"

"Well, perhaps you've got a bad flu bug or something," he suggested.

Buffy sighed, hoping that that was the case.  "No. No, not sick. I can't get sick. My mom and Tim are taking me and Dawn to the ice show on Friday night. Apparently, mom used to do it every year for my birthday when I was little. If I cancel, it's gonna break her heart."

"Well, just, um, take it easy for forty-eight hours. You know, forego patrolling until you feel yourself again," he said.

Buffy grimaced at the thought of that.  It wasn't that she enjoyed patrolling, it was more that she began to feel antsy if she didn't fight something every so often.  It was a good work-out for her, something she'd been doing since she was five, and it was hard to be told to stop, even for a day.

"Maybe I'm just tired," she said.  "I might just go to bed."

He nodded, thankful that he at least wouldn't have to lie to her anymore that night.

"I can get outta training tomorrow right?" Buffy asked.  "Cos it's my birthday?"

Giles rolled his eyes at her persistence.  She'd been pushing to have the day off all week, and every time he'd told her no.  For one thing, she would be halfway through the actual Cruciamentum test during the evening, and for another, he wanted her as prepared as possible while she was without her strength.

"No, you know that Beth," he said firmly.  "I've given you Friday night off to go to the Ice Show, so you can have the entire day off if you'd like.  But not tomorrow."

She rolled her eyes and grinned at him even though he'd said no.  "Stuffy," she teased.

She was up the stairs before he could reply.

Thanks to everyone for your reviews and emails!  Glad you enjoyed the alternate B/A chaps for those of you who read them.  And to whoever emailed Kate to tell her off for liking Kate Lockley…can I just say that you're kinda silly!  Come on, Kate is one of the most common names!  I get called Kate!!  Sheesh.  ;)  Happy New Year ppl!!

Toodles.

K.