CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: GENTLEMEN

Saturday: 8pm

10th July 1999

California: Sunnydale

Buffy walked through the quiet streets of the town. She couldn't believe that there were no vampires and no demons anywhere on the streets.  It seemed very strange, especially when she was used to staking an average of two or three per evening. 

She heard footsteps pounding on the concrete and realised that someone was running towards her frantically.  She readied her stake and turned to see who or what was running in her direction.  As she turned, she was caught under the weight of someone falling on top of her.  She rolled, trying to take the brunt of the fall and ended up underneath a tall blonde girl who looked to be her age.

Buffy helped the girl to her feet, wanting to ask what she'd been running from.  Her unasked question was answered when Buffy saw two demons floating towards them, dressed in suits, their faces deformed, smiles permanently stretched over their faces.  Buffy swallowed hard.

Behind the two floating demons were three smaller looking demons wearing what looked to be straight jackets.  They were coming towards the two girls.  The other blonde girl looked as though she wanted to run as fast as she could, but seemed unwilling to leave Buffy behind.  Buffy quickly weighed up her options.  Five versus one weren't horrible odds, but she didn't know how strong the demons would be.  And, armed as she was with only a stake and a dagger, she knew she needed better weaponry.

She grabbed the blonde girls hand and the two of them took off running, Buffy having to remember that this girl was no where near as fast as Buffy herself was.  The other girl seemed to be having problems keeping up, and the demons were directly on top of them.  One of the straight jacketed demon-minions grabbed Buffy's shoulders, and Buffy immediately flipped it in front of her, stunning it.

The other girl looked at her incredulously.  Buffy chose to ignore the looks until she had dispatched the other demons.  She quickly grabbed her silver dagger from the inside of the leg of her pants and stabbed the minion that had grabbed her.  She faced off against the other two, throwing one into a tree and managing to stab the other in the shoulder. 

The demon screamed silently, and Buffy used its pain to her advantage, yanking the dagger out of its shoulder and thrusting it into it's heart.

She looked at the two floating demons and swallowed hard.  The two demons exchanged looks, nodding silently to each other.  One of the demons attacked whilst the other opened up a small bag that looked to be filled with medical equipment. It took out a scalpel.  Buffy tried not to panic and managed to land a swift kick and the first demon's mid-section.  The demon barely registered the kick at all.

Buffy quickly realised that she was out of her element.  She grabbed the other girl's hand and the two of them began running once more.

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Buffy rushed into Giles' apartment, dragging the other girl with her.  Buffy shut and locked the door, dead-bolting it securely into place.  She looked out the window to check that they hadn't been followed.  It looked as though they hadn't been.

Giles, Ethan, Jay and Faith all looked up worriedly at the sound of the slamming door.  Olivia didn't look all that concerned.

Ethan was on his feet, his hand on Buffy's shoulder.  She gave him a small smile, telling him that she was alright.

Buffy looked towards the other girl who was looking completely terrified.  Buffy took her by the hand and led her over to the couch.  She knelt in front of the girl.

'Are you okay?' Buffy mouthed.

The girl just nodded and Buffy knew that she was probably just shocked by what she had seen.  Buffy grabbed the pen and paper off the coffee table and wrote a question on it before handing it to the girl.

'What's your name?' the paper asked.

She looked at it and with shaking hands wrote two words.

'Tara Mclay.'

Buffy nodded and write her own name on the paper.  'Buffy Summers.'

'Are you hurt?  Cuts?  Bruises?' Buffy wrote.

Tara shook her head, still not really understanding what had just happened.  She knew that demons existed, had been told that her entire life, but she'd never come face to face with one before.

Ethan stood behind Buffy, holding two glasses of water.  Buffy took them, smiling thankfully.  She handed one to Tara, silently imploring her to drink it.  Tara took the glass and lifted it to her lips, drinking without thought. 

Buffy stood and looked at Ethan who nodded and sat beside Tara, silently offering the newcomer a sense of comfort.

Buffy turned to her Watcher.  'I think I saw the demons that were causing this,' she mouthed.

He looked at her questioningly and she grabbed a piece of paper.  She quickly made a vague sketch of what she had seen, writing underneath it that the demons had been floating when she had attacked them.

Giles looked at the drawing and something clicked over inside his mind.  He'd seen that demon before.  And not only that, he definitely recognised the rhyme that had been in Buffy's dream.  He quickly stood and went to his desk, pulling out a book with a dull red cover.  Buffy looked over at what he was looking at and saw the embossed gold lettering on the book.  'Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes.'

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Sunday: 2:30am

11th July 1999

California: Sunnydale

Giles had explained to the group using a large sheet of paper and a marker what the Gentlemen were and what they wanted.  Apparently they were fairy tale creatures who needed to collect seven hearts.  Their ultimate agenda was never disclosed, and Buffy for one didn't want to find out what evil plans they had.  The only way to kill the creatures was for someone to scream.  The problem was, she didn't know how to get her voice back.

Armed with her crossbow and several small daggers and stakes, Buffy made her way through the town.  She walked through the park and looked towards the town's clock tower.  2:30am.  She went to look away but a shadow moving inside the tower caught her eyes. 

Silently, she moved towards the tower and felt her sixth sense going haywire the closer she got.  She scaled the outside wall quickly and looked through the slats of the border up window.  There were seven of the floating demons in the tower, standing around looking as though they were congratulating each other for jobs well done.

Buffy could see seven glass jars in a semi-circle on a table.  Five of the jars were filled with hearts.  Buffy scrunched up her nose in disgust.  She quickly gathered her wits and slammed herself through the wooden boards, ducking into a roll and then bouncing to her feet, beginning the fight against the gentlemen's demon-minions.  She dispatched them all easily enough and was left to face the seven Gentlemen.

She fought furiously against them, but she couldn't seem to gain any upper hand against them.  She was flung across the room by one of them and before she could regroup, she was picked up and held in place by two of them.  They held her face-down on a large cylinder in front of the table that held the glass jars.

In the middle of the jars was a brown wooden box that looked awfully familiar.  The box was decorated with an intricate carved out pattern, painted in different shades of brown. 

The box from her dream!  That's where she had seen it before.

Buffy struggled in the strong grips of the demons behind her.  She felt something sharp penetrate her back and would have cried out in pain if her vocal chords had been working.  She struggled and managed to flip herself over on the cylinder, landing in front of the table.  She reached up her arm and flipped the table over, braking six of the glass jars and bringing the wooden box to the floor.  The seven demons raced to stop the Slayer from getting the box, but Buffy quickly grabbed her crossbow and smashed the handle against the box, smashing it to pieces.

She sat back as something forced its way back into her throat.  Without hesitating, Buffy began screaming.

Simultaneously, the Gentlemen all stopped still, hands going over their ears.  One by one, the demons heads exploded and their bodies fell to the ground.  Buffy stood up shakily and looked around her.  With a shake of her head, she headed home. 

"Too weird."

(Lotsa stuff from "Hush".  And does anyone else really wanna know what the hell the Gentlemen were trying to achieve?  What did they need seven hearts for?  Ooo, and another thing, before people start correcting me about the title of the book, there is a reason why I changed it.  I'll explain later…but it's NOT a mistake on my part…creative licence.)

As to why B/X, cos it strangely works kinda well.  But, cos I did say that this fic wasn't gonna be shippy, trust me, it's not gonna be all about them.  I've written about twelve more chaps after this, and the r/ship is barely even mentioned.  Just stick with it, pliz?  Even if you don't like B/X.  Cos, chances are, it won't last that long.  Anyways, thanks heaps for all the reviews!  You're all wonderful! 

(Go check out my latest fic 'Balance Restored' and the sequel 'Six Words'.  It's B/S and B/A…fun for everyone…ahhh, shameless plugging…who doesn't enjoy every once in a while…)

Toodles.

K.