Hi everyone. Finally the next part of Stolen Innocence is finished. Sorry
that it took me so long, but RL was pretty hard to ignore. I hope you like
the new part.
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"Xander?" Willow repeated her question.
But the former slayerette just calmly stared at the group, noting that some of his former friends were not longer apparent and that others had joined them.
"Well, if it isn't the infamous Scooby gang," Xander finally declared with a hint of sarcasm. "Seems like you have a few additions," he said His gaze flicked from Tara and stopped on Dawn. "Who is the girl by the way. Isn't she a bit young to be vampire slaying?"
The Scoobs first looked confused at the assassin and then at each other. Finally Buffy asked the question that was running through their combined minds.
"You don't remember?" Buffy asked.
"No," Xander said, if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I've never met her. So, who is she?"
Again the Scoobs tried to find an appropriate answer, but couldn't come up with anything. Luckily Giles came to their rescue.
"Her name is Dawn. She is Buffy's sister," Giles explained carefully.
"Buffy's sister?" Xander asked with a raised eyebrow and mustered the Watcher. "So, that's means Joyce adopted her. Well can't blame her what with the disappointment her daughter is."
The first look of total confusion was only interrupted by the look of guilt and hurt on Buffy's face. The slayer wasn't able to look any longer in Xander's direction and instead stared at the ground.
"Where is she anyway?" Xander asked bringing the Scoobs out of their thoughts. "The whole gang is escaping from Sunnydale and you leave her behind?"
Even though she still felt guilty, Buffy looked up and glared angrily at Xander. "She is dead."
Giles stepped up behind his slayer and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "She died earlier this year. Brain tumour."
Xander swallowed hard before answering. He didn't know Joyce that well, but he could imagine that her death was probably a worse punishment for Buffy than anything he could inflict on her. "Sorry to hear that," he said, his voice softer and calmer now. "I really am."
That statement was instantly answered with a snort. "Like you bleeding care."
Xander's eyes focused on the speaker and for the first time he spotted the platinum blonde vampire that had up to now hid himself behind the group.
"What in God's almighty name is Spike doing here," he asked in a mix of anger and surprise. "And why isn't he dust?"
But before the chipped vampire could mutter any kind of protest, Buffy found her voice again. "He has a chip," she told him. "He can't hurt anything human. That's all you need to know."
Even if the mention of Joyce death took a lot of fire out of his anger, the presence of the vampire only let it flare up again.
"Oh, I get it. Making time with a corpse again. 'He has a chip. He has a soul'," he exclaimed, imitating Buffy's words."You never learn from you mistakes, do you Summers? Every vampire walking on God's earth should be killed on sight, not matter what."
"Watch it Droopy," Spike finally exclaimed and stared angrily at the Tarakan. "Or I will snap your bloody neck."
"Oh, please," "people that were more intelligent or," after a look on Buffy," blonder than you tried that and I'm still standing."
"I think we are all missing a crucial point here," Giles said and interrupted the upcoming argument between Xander and the vampire.
"Yeah," Willow finally spoke up. "How is it possible that you can walk? And where were you? Cordy just told us that you had to leave for some kind of new therapy."
"You want an answer," Xander said and grabbed his left hand. He ripped the ring off his finger and threw it in the general direction of Buffy, who caught it easily in mid air. "Well here is your answer."
Buffy mustered the ring for a moment, but couldn't find anything odd about it. Finally Giles took the ring out of her hand and inspected it himself.
"Oh my good lord," Giles muttered and looked at Xander. The assassin simply stared back. "You can't be serious."
"What?" Willow asked impatiently. "What's up with the ring?"
"That's the same kind of ring the Brotherhood of Taraka wore," Giles said without looking at the redhead. "Xander's one of their assassins."
The hacker looked shocked at her former best friend. "Xander," she started after a moment, "please tell me that it's not true."
"There is nothing left to say," Xander stated. "He said everything you need to know."
"Why?"
"Why? Let me think about it," Xander said and pretended like he thought about the situation. "Well, maybe it's due to the fact that a certain someone put me into a wheelchair and that they were the only ones that offered me to get out of it."
"So you sold your soul in order to walk again?" Willow accused him.
"You just don't get it," Xander said and walked up to the redhead. "We're not on the same level here. Maybe I should break your spine, just so you can see what it is like to feel completely helpless," Xander threatened her and Willow took a few steps back. "I did what I had to do in order to restore what was taken from me. You have a problem with that? Like I give a damn. You people lost every right to judge me when you supported her," he screamed angrily and pointed at Buffy. He took a few seconds to gather his thoughts
"If I could choose," he continued much calmer now," I wouldn't be here. I would be in Hawaii and let myself get baked by the sun. But Faith told me that there is trouble brewing, end of the world kind of trouble. And even if I don't want to admit it, that includes me. Because I want to see the world spinning with me on top of it. That I can't stand you people doesn't change the situation. Now, if you got something important to tell me, I'm in the other room," Xander said and walked out of the room.
Now that Xander was out of sight, all eyes of the current inhabitants were directed at Faith.
"Hey guys," the dark slayer exclaimed with mock cheerfulness. "Miss me?"
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"Are you finished?" Murk asked for the tenth time in an equal amount of minutes.
"No, I'm not," Ben exclaimed frustrated and glared at Glory's minion. "I'm not exactly an expert on these things. It will take several attempts."
"Well, try harder," Murk told him and walked up and down in Buffy's bedroom. "Glorificius will be angry if she doesn't know the location of the key when she returns."
"Relax, okay?" Ben tried to reassure him and concentrated again and the bowl with Buffy's brush in it. "At least we know that they are not longer in Sunnydale."
"Remember," Murk told him, "you and the glorious one have a common goal. You will be free once she returns to her home."
"I'm doing what I can," Ben told him angrily, his concentration breaking again. "But it's not exactly easy with you guys hovering around."
"If it'll help you, I will remain silent," the minion replied and bowed slightly.
Ben returned to his task and when he finally reached the level of concentration, he chanted the words that would complete the location spell. A small ball of light formed itself in the bowl and floated to the road map. It circled the map a few seconds before it finally settled down on a specific place.
Ben quickly grabbed the pen that lay beside him and marked the area on the map before the ball could disappear again.
"They are here," he told the minion triumphantly and pointed on the map.
"Excellent," Murk exclaimed and pulled Ben out of the room. "Let us hurry. The glorious one will be pleased with out success."
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After his quick exit Xander walked in the back room of the station. He sat down and quickly went through his ammunition reserves. He still had two magazines for the Mp5 and there for the SOCOM. A peek through one of the windows at the knights that had surrounded them, confirming his fear that he would need something more to get out of here.
Finally he sat down again and listened to the conversation that took place on the other side of the door. After he left the Scoobies began questioning Faith. But there was nothing much left to say, since the Council had already informed them when Faith was going to be released.
The last thing was able to hear, was that Faith said she was going to join him, then a spell from Willow and then nothing. The weird thing was that he couldn't even hear the heartbeats of the people, which brought him to the conclusion that Willow had performed some kind of silence spell on the room.
"Hey there tough guy," Faith exclaimed when she entered the room. "Need some company?"
"How are you doing;" Xander asked without looking up at her.
"A couple bruised ribs, nothing major," she exclaimed and sat down beside him. "Should be healed in a few hours. I have to admit, that was one hell of a speech. Haven't heard anything like that since Cordelia."
"Cordy?" Xander exclaimed surprised and looked at her.
"Yeah," Faith said. "You knew her."
Xander nodded simply. "How is she?"
"Pretty good I would say," Faith told him with a shrug. "She is now living in LA."
Xander again nodded. "Were you friends?" he asked after a slight pause.
"Yep," Faith said with smile. "We both didn't like B, so there was a common ground. She never told me why she hated Buffy, but now I have pretty good idea. Cause every time I asked her she got his pained look on her face and even I knew when I should shut up," Faith told him. "But even she couldn't stop me from slipping into the darkside. But at least I didn't try to kill her. That was also the reason why I went to her when I woke up from my coma. She helped me. Got me back on my feet. And she also convinced me to surrender my butt to the authorities to pay for my crimes. Luckily just in time before big bad Queen Buffy could get her hands on me."
"Yeah," Xander exclaimed and got a flashback to the night that changed his life. "You don't want to meet her in that state."
"Yep. Been there, done that, got the scar on my stomach to prove it," Faith told him with a smile "Funny, huh? We are the outcasts here, even when we save their asses."
"Yeah," Xander muttered. "Guess some things never change."
Their conversation was however interrupted when the door opened again and Jenny carefully entered the room.
"Hi Xander," the former teacher greeted him and walked up to the twosome.
"I'm not in the mood Miss Calendar," Xander snapped at her.
"It's Ms. Giles actually," she corrected him with a slight smile.
"Well, congratulations," Xander told her honestly but grew serious again. "So, why did they send you?" he asked like he didn't care. "So that I crawl back to them and say how sorry I am and that I was wrong? They think that they send a pretty face and suddenly everything is forgiven"
"Xander, I really don't know if I should thank you for the compliment or slap you because you think so low of me," She told with a serious expression. "I'll let it slip this time, but you'll get in some serious trouble if you repeat this. Understood?"
slapp - should be : slap
"Yes Ma'am," Xander replied with a mock salute.
"Okay," Jenny told him with a smile. "And to answer your question: No, I'm not here because they sent me. I'm neither here to judge nor am I here to tell you how to live you life." She took a deep breath before she continued. "I'm her to apologize."
"Huh," Xander asked confused "Why's that?"
"You see, I keep replaying the whole thing in my head," she explained. "What if I had told Buffy earlier about the curse? That would have sparred us all a lot a grief and especially you a lot of pain. So I wanted to apologize for what happened to you that night."
"It's was not your fault," Xander reassure the older woman."I chose to kill Angel. You had nothing to do with that. The only ones responsible for these events are me and her."
"Still," Jenny continued. "I fell like it's my fault."
Xander sighed and went with his hands thought his hair. Finally he looked his former teacher in the eyes. "I forgive you," he said sincerely.
"Thanks," Jenny said with a smile. The three just remained where they were for the next few more seconds.
"I know I said I didn't want to judge you," she said. "But I'm curious. What's it like to be an assassin?"
Xander chuckled at the question. "Well, interesting. You meet humanity's scum and put a bullet through their heads"
"Sounds not like the most fulfilling job," the wicca exclaimed.
"I did what I had to do," Xander explained. "What would you have done in my situation? I was crippled, my friends and my parents gave a shit about me and the only way for me to survive was to take the offer."
Jenny looked the young man directly in the eyes and for a second she could see the haunted look that inhabited them "And you paid for it," she declared in a neutral voice.
"Dearly," Xander told her without breaking the eye contact.
"Xander," she continued after a moment. "You're wrong when you think that your friends didn't care about you. There are in fact three people out there that are very sorry for their actions and want to apologize to you."
But Xander simply shook his head. "I'm not ready to deal with them yet. And it's not exactly a good time to say 'I'm sorry. Maybe I'll talk to them when the whole thing is over. But not before."
"Well, it's your choice after all," Jenny told him. "You two should try to get some sleep. You will probably need it," she told them and went to the direction of door.
"Is the barrier still stable?" Faith asked, getting annoyed to the fact that she couldn't take part in the previous conversation.
"It's stable," Jenny confirmed. "We have the power of three witches to power it up. But still: We can't get out, they can't get in. We have to solve this situation somehow."
Xander nodded. "Good night Miss Cale. Ms. Giles," he corrected himself.
"Oh, and call me Jenny," he told him with smile. "Night you two," she said and left the room.
"So, what are we going to do?" Faith asked after a moment.
"Do as she said," Xander said and closed his eyes. "Who knows when we will be able to get some sleep again."
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"Xander?" Willow repeated her question.
But the former slayerette just calmly stared at the group, noting that some of his former friends were not longer apparent and that others had joined them.
"Well, if it isn't the infamous Scooby gang," Xander finally declared with a hint of sarcasm. "Seems like you have a few additions," he said His gaze flicked from Tara and stopped on Dawn. "Who is the girl by the way. Isn't she a bit young to be vampire slaying?"
The Scoobs first looked confused at the assassin and then at each other. Finally Buffy asked the question that was running through their combined minds.
"You don't remember?" Buffy asked.
"No," Xander said, if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I've never met her. So, who is she?"
Again the Scoobs tried to find an appropriate answer, but couldn't come up with anything. Luckily Giles came to their rescue.
"Her name is Dawn. She is Buffy's sister," Giles explained carefully.
"Buffy's sister?" Xander asked with a raised eyebrow and mustered the Watcher. "So, that's means Joyce adopted her. Well can't blame her what with the disappointment her daughter is."
The first look of total confusion was only interrupted by the look of guilt and hurt on Buffy's face. The slayer wasn't able to look any longer in Xander's direction and instead stared at the ground.
"Where is she anyway?" Xander asked bringing the Scoobs out of their thoughts. "The whole gang is escaping from Sunnydale and you leave her behind?"
Even though she still felt guilty, Buffy looked up and glared angrily at Xander. "She is dead."
Giles stepped up behind his slayer and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "She died earlier this year. Brain tumour."
Xander swallowed hard before answering. He didn't know Joyce that well, but he could imagine that her death was probably a worse punishment for Buffy than anything he could inflict on her. "Sorry to hear that," he said, his voice softer and calmer now. "I really am."
That statement was instantly answered with a snort. "Like you bleeding care."
Xander's eyes focused on the speaker and for the first time he spotted the platinum blonde vampire that had up to now hid himself behind the group.
"What in God's almighty name is Spike doing here," he asked in a mix of anger and surprise. "And why isn't he dust?"
But before the chipped vampire could mutter any kind of protest, Buffy found her voice again. "He has a chip," she told him. "He can't hurt anything human. That's all you need to know."
Even if the mention of Joyce death took a lot of fire out of his anger, the presence of the vampire only let it flare up again.
"Oh, I get it. Making time with a corpse again. 'He has a chip. He has a soul'," he exclaimed, imitating Buffy's words."You never learn from you mistakes, do you Summers? Every vampire walking on God's earth should be killed on sight, not matter what."
"Watch it Droopy," Spike finally exclaimed and stared angrily at the Tarakan. "Or I will snap your bloody neck."
"Oh, please," "people that were more intelligent or," after a look on Buffy," blonder than you tried that and I'm still standing."
"I think we are all missing a crucial point here," Giles said and interrupted the upcoming argument between Xander and the vampire.
"Yeah," Willow finally spoke up. "How is it possible that you can walk? And where were you? Cordy just told us that you had to leave for some kind of new therapy."
"You want an answer," Xander said and grabbed his left hand. He ripped the ring off his finger and threw it in the general direction of Buffy, who caught it easily in mid air. "Well here is your answer."
Buffy mustered the ring for a moment, but couldn't find anything odd about it. Finally Giles took the ring out of her hand and inspected it himself.
"Oh my good lord," Giles muttered and looked at Xander. The assassin simply stared back. "You can't be serious."
"What?" Willow asked impatiently. "What's up with the ring?"
"That's the same kind of ring the Brotherhood of Taraka wore," Giles said without looking at the redhead. "Xander's one of their assassins."
The hacker looked shocked at her former best friend. "Xander," she started after a moment, "please tell me that it's not true."
"There is nothing left to say," Xander stated. "He said everything you need to know."
"Why?"
"Why? Let me think about it," Xander said and pretended like he thought about the situation. "Well, maybe it's due to the fact that a certain someone put me into a wheelchair and that they were the only ones that offered me to get out of it."
"So you sold your soul in order to walk again?" Willow accused him.
"You just don't get it," Xander said and walked up to the redhead. "We're not on the same level here. Maybe I should break your spine, just so you can see what it is like to feel completely helpless," Xander threatened her and Willow took a few steps back. "I did what I had to do in order to restore what was taken from me. You have a problem with that? Like I give a damn. You people lost every right to judge me when you supported her," he screamed angrily and pointed at Buffy. He took a few seconds to gather his thoughts
"If I could choose," he continued much calmer now," I wouldn't be here. I would be in Hawaii and let myself get baked by the sun. But Faith told me that there is trouble brewing, end of the world kind of trouble. And even if I don't want to admit it, that includes me. Because I want to see the world spinning with me on top of it. That I can't stand you people doesn't change the situation. Now, if you got something important to tell me, I'm in the other room," Xander said and walked out of the room.
Now that Xander was out of sight, all eyes of the current inhabitants were directed at Faith.
"Hey guys," the dark slayer exclaimed with mock cheerfulness. "Miss me?"
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"Are you finished?" Murk asked for the tenth time in an equal amount of minutes.
"No, I'm not," Ben exclaimed frustrated and glared at Glory's minion. "I'm not exactly an expert on these things. It will take several attempts."
"Well, try harder," Murk told him and walked up and down in Buffy's bedroom. "Glorificius will be angry if she doesn't know the location of the key when she returns."
"Relax, okay?" Ben tried to reassure him and concentrated again and the bowl with Buffy's brush in it. "At least we know that they are not longer in Sunnydale."
"Remember," Murk told him, "you and the glorious one have a common goal. You will be free once she returns to her home."
"I'm doing what I can," Ben told him angrily, his concentration breaking again. "But it's not exactly easy with you guys hovering around."
"If it'll help you, I will remain silent," the minion replied and bowed slightly.
Ben returned to his task and when he finally reached the level of concentration, he chanted the words that would complete the location spell. A small ball of light formed itself in the bowl and floated to the road map. It circled the map a few seconds before it finally settled down on a specific place.
Ben quickly grabbed the pen that lay beside him and marked the area on the map before the ball could disappear again.
"They are here," he told the minion triumphantly and pointed on the map.
"Excellent," Murk exclaimed and pulled Ben out of the room. "Let us hurry. The glorious one will be pleased with out success."
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After his quick exit Xander walked in the back room of the station. He sat down and quickly went through his ammunition reserves. He still had two magazines for the Mp5 and there for the SOCOM. A peek through one of the windows at the knights that had surrounded them, confirming his fear that he would need something more to get out of here.
Finally he sat down again and listened to the conversation that took place on the other side of the door. After he left the Scoobies began questioning Faith. But there was nothing much left to say, since the Council had already informed them when Faith was going to be released.
The last thing was able to hear, was that Faith said she was going to join him, then a spell from Willow and then nothing. The weird thing was that he couldn't even hear the heartbeats of the people, which brought him to the conclusion that Willow had performed some kind of silence spell on the room.
"Hey there tough guy," Faith exclaimed when she entered the room. "Need some company?"
"How are you doing;" Xander asked without looking up at her.
"A couple bruised ribs, nothing major," she exclaimed and sat down beside him. "Should be healed in a few hours. I have to admit, that was one hell of a speech. Haven't heard anything like that since Cordelia."
"Cordy?" Xander exclaimed surprised and looked at her.
"Yeah," Faith said. "You knew her."
Xander nodded simply. "How is she?"
"Pretty good I would say," Faith told him with a shrug. "She is now living in LA."
Xander again nodded. "Were you friends?" he asked after a slight pause.
"Yep," Faith said with smile. "We both didn't like B, so there was a common ground. She never told me why she hated Buffy, but now I have pretty good idea. Cause every time I asked her she got his pained look on her face and even I knew when I should shut up," Faith told him. "But even she couldn't stop me from slipping into the darkside. But at least I didn't try to kill her. That was also the reason why I went to her when I woke up from my coma. She helped me. Got me back on my feet. And she also convinced me to surrender my butt to the authorities to pay for my crimes. Luckily just in time before big bad Queen Buffy could get her hands on me."
"Yeah," Xander exclaimed and got a flashback to the night that changed his life. "You don't want to meet her in that state."
"Yep. Been there, done that, got the scar on my stomach to prove it," Faith told him with a smile "Funny, huh? We are the outcasts here, even when we save their asses."
"Yeah," Xander muttered. "Guess some things never change."
Their conversation was however interrupted when the door opened again and Jenny carefully entered the room.
"Hi Xander," the former teacher greeted him and walked up to the twosome.
"I'm not in the mood Miss Calendar," Xander snapped at her.
"It's Ms. Giles actually," she corrected him with a slight smile.
"Well, congratulations," Xander told her honestly but grew serious again. "So, why did they send you?" he asked like he didn't care. "So that I crawl back to them and say how sorry I am and that I was wrong? They think that they send a pretty face and suddenly everything is forgiven"
"Xander, I really don't know if I should thank you for the compliment or slap you because you think so low of me," She told with a serious expression. "I'll let it slip this time, but you'll get in some serious trouble if you repeat this. Understood?"
slapp - should be : slap
"Yes Ma'am," Xander replied with a mock salute.
"Okay," Jenny told him with a smile. "And to answer your question: No, I'm not here because they sent me. I'm neither here to judge nor am I here to tell you how to live you life." She took a deep breath before she continued. "I'm her to apologize."
"Huh," Xander asked confused "Why's that?"
"You see, I keep replaying the whole thing in my head," she explained. "What if I had told Buffy earlier about the curse? That would have sparred us all a lot a grief and especially you a lot of pain. So I wanted to apologize for what happened to you that night."
"It's was not your fault," Xander reassure the older woman."I chose to kill Angel. You had nothing to do with that. The only ones responsible for these events are me and her."
"Still," Jenny continued. "I fell like it's my fault."
Xander sighed and went with his hands thought his hair. Finally he looked his former teacher in the eyes. "I forgive you," he said sincerely.
"Thanks," Jenny said with a smile. The three just remained where they were for the next few more seconds.
"I know I said I didn't want to judge you," she said. "But I'm curious. What's it like to be an assassin?"
Xander chuckled at the question. "Well, interesting. You meet humanity's scum and put a bullet through their heads"
"Sounds not like the most fulfilling job," the wicca exclaimed.
"I did what I had to do," Xander explained. "What would you have done in my situation? I was crippled, my friends and my parents gave a shit about me and the only way for me to survive was to take the offer."
Jenny looked the young man directly in the eyes and for a second she could see the haunted look that inhabited them "And you paid for it," she declared in a neutral voice.
"Dearly," Xander told her without breaking the eye contact.
"Xander," she continued after a moment. "You're wrong when you think that your friends didn't care about you. There are in fact three people out there that are very sorry for their actions and want to apologize to you."
But Xander simply shook his head. "I'm not ready to deal with them yet. And it's not exactly a good time to say 'I'm sorry. Maybe I'll talk to them when the whole thing is over. But not before."
"Well, it's your choice after all," Jenny told him. "You two should try to get some sleep. You will probably need it," she told them and went to the direction of door.
"Is the barrier still stable?" Faith asked, getting annoyed to the fact that she couldn't take part in the previous conversation.
"It's stable," Jenny confirmed. "We have the power of three witches to power it up. But still: We can't get out, they can't get in. We have to solve this situation somehow."
Xander nodded. "Good night Miss Cale. Ms. Giles," he corrected himself.
"Oh, and call me Jenny," he told him with smile. "Night you two," she said and left the room.
"So, what are we going to do?" Faith asked after a moment.
"Do as she said," Xander said and closed his eyes. "Who knows when we will be able to get some sleep again."