Disclaimer: I own nothing. I am poor and begging you not to sue.
I'm in a hurry to write so here I go.
Glory ran her hands through her hair. It was burning inside of her. She needed them to bring a human, very quickly. It was so humiliating, she was Glorificus, and she had wait for her minions to bring back her food for her survival. It was degrading and it made her angry. If they didn't hurry, she was going to eat the human and then kill them.
The door opened, two of her servants were dragging a man through the door, and he was whimpering and mewling as he tried to squirm away. One of the pointed to Glory, "Help her!"
The other, the one she thought might be called Murk moved forward, "We're here for you great one. Drink."
Glory tried to force her pathetic human eyes to focus. Her fingers moved up the man's head and pushed their way in. The man screamed in pain as Glory screamed in relief.
Glory pushed herself to her feet shooing away her minions hands, "No, I'm good. It's okay." She looked at the man disgustedly and pushed him away from her, "Try not cutting it so close next time. Understood?"
"Of course."
"We live to serve."
Their fawning washed over her head, she was used to it, "Take this mess out with the rest of the trash." Glory looked at the one called Murk, "And you, have something to tell me?"
Murk grinned and bowed, "Indeed Glorificus."
"And I'm waiting."
"We have found, that the signs of the alignment are moving faster than expected."
Glory looked into a handheld mirror, "Meaning?"
"If you are to use the Key, you must act quickly."
Glory sighed, "Fine. I have been cooling my heels in this crappy little town long enough. Sunnydale's got too many demons and not enough retail outlets."
Murk kept himself in a humble position but his tone was just short of firm, "All you need is the Key."
"And I bet mousy the vampire slayer knows where it is."
Murk bowed, "If I may remind your eminence, you don't have much time."
Glory smirked, "Baby, if that girl's the only thing between me and my Key, I don't need much time."
* *
Buffy had had one hell of a crappy day. No scratch that, she had had the worst day she had had for months. And now she was stuck fighting with this annoyingly stubborn vampire, when all she wanted to do was go home and persuade another stubborn vampire to give her a massage and possibly a little se . . .something else.
All of her professor's had been getting down on her. She had tried to offer an opinion on something and her history professor had shot her down, and then another one of them had told her that the homework deadline had been this Wednesday not next Wednesday.
The world was just crap at the moment, she wanted to go to the Magic Box, check in with Giles and then go home. Buffy almost smiled as she thought of Spike, unfortunately just as she was almost smiling, the vamp delivered a nasty kick to her stomach and sent her flying.
Buffy's anger flared and she stood up, ready to beat the crap out of the thing when Spike leapt over the tombstones and staked the newly arisen vamp.
"Spike! Why did you do that?"
"Because I just saw it kick you in the stomach, a vamp like that. A nothing. You're off your game, what's wrong?"
Buffy was about to snap back a response, more out of habit than anything else, except that instead she just wanted him to hold her. "I had a crappy day."
Spike smiled a little and walked over to her, "Want to go home?"
Buffy slipped her arms about his waist, "Oh God yes. Just gotta check in with Giles first."
Spike nodded and planted a kiss on her lips, "Come on then pet, lets go check in, then we can do . . .other things.
Buffy smiled up at him, "God I was so hoping you'd say that."
* *
Giles had not had a good day. In fact, he'd go as far to say he'd had a spectacularly bad day.
They'd had the nerve to shut down his shop. And now they were talking about a review. They wanted to put Buffy through another test. The only problem was that he didn't know how he was supposed to stop them if that's what they wanted to do. He couldn't stop them. What was she going to say when she found out? At least this time he would be on her side from the start and she would know it. He hated thinking about the fact that he had betrayed her trust. He just hadn't known what to do for the best, like now. Oh God. What was she going to say? Another thought struck Giles, oh hell, what was Spike going to say?
* * *
Buffy pushed open the door of the Magic Box with her fingers entwined with Spike's. Already, she didn't feel quite as bad. After this, they could go home and Spike could help her feel even better.
At least that was, she was feeling better until her eyes feel on a group of smartly dressed individuals in the middle of the shop. She would have been able to guess who they were even if there wasn't a very familiar man facing her.
The man looked over to her, "Miss Summers! Good to see you again."
Buffy glared while trying not to glare, "Mr Travers."
Spike did a quick check over of the people in the room. The tension was radiating off Buffy and Giles. Neither of them were happy in the current company. And the man, Quentin Travers, he thought it was, well he fit the stereotype that Spike had been dreading. Full of his own self-importance and secure in the knowledge that the world could not get along without him. Not a good person to piss off, and the type that Spike could have bitten just to do the world a favour a couple of months ago. He brought his mind back to the scene playing out in front of him.
"Giles has just been telling us of your training regimen. Perhaps you will favour us with a demonstration while we're here."
"Right now?"
Travers just smiled condescendingly, Spike found himself liking this man less and less by the second, "No need to rush you."
Giles, who Spike noticed was looking rather worse for wear spoke for the first time, "They're staying rather longer than I had anticipated."
"We've already laid out our project for Mr. Giles." Travers inclined his head to one of the other men, inviting him to take the floor, "Nigel?"
Spike sae the mark of a man, who viewed himself as superior enough to delegate even the simplest of task. What the man said however pleased him even less, "It's an exhaustive examination of your procedures and abilities. Observe your training, talk to your friends . . ."
Buffy was clearly appalled by the last part, "Talk to my friends?"
Travers now interrupted, "Yes, we understand that you're still taking civilians out on your patrols."
Buffy looked at Spike with anger and desperation in her eyes, "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."
"Buffy, I can sense your resistance, I don't blame you. But I think that your Watcher hasn't reminded you lately of the relative status of the players in our little game. The Council fight evil, the Slayer is the instrument by which we fight. The Council remains, the Slayers change, it's been that way since the beginning."
Giles snorted, "That's a very comforting, bloodless way of looking at it, isn't it?"
"Giles, let me talk to Buffy, because I think she's understanding me," Spike could tell by the glare on Buffy's face the rather than understanding, Buffy was just getting, very, very angry, "Glory is stronger than you. She is a more powerful instrument, if you will. We can help you; we have information that will help. Pass the review, and we give it to you without reservation. Fail the review, either through incompetence, or resisting our recommendations . . .
Apparently, this was too much for Giles, who cut him off, "Resisting your recommendations? She fails, if we don't do whatever you say. How much under your thumb do you think we are?"
The older man was not worried by this outburst, "How much do you want our help?"
"She's not your bloody instrument and you have no right to do any of this."
Spike was quite surprised, he knew that Giles loved Buffy, but he hadn't thought that the old guy had it in him to really lose it. "I understand you think this is unfair. But there are factors that should motivate you to go along with the review. Now I don't want to do this. But obviously we could shut this place down permanently."
Buffy's eyes widened in horror, "You can't do that. You don't have that kinda power."
The older watcher openly scoffed, "Of course we do and I great deal more. In fact, if you insist on fighting us, we'll arrange to have Mr. Giles deported within the day. He'll never set foot in this country again. Now perhaps your used to idle threats and sloppy discipline Miss Summers, but you're dealing with grown ups now. Am I making myself clear?"
* * *
If Travers had known how close he had come to a snapped neck, chip, or no chip, he might have been a little more polite. As it was, Spike was only restrained by Buffy gripping his hand. The three of them now sat in the middle of the aftermath.
Buffy was feeling utterly deflated. The kind of feeling she got when she lost a battle, only this was worse, she couldn't even mount an offensive. She just didn't know what to do for the best. It really did feel like they were sitting among wreckage, the shop, usually a refuge, now felt dirty, as though it had been claimed as someone else's battle-ground.
Giles got up and started pacing, "It's about power that's what it is. It's about how has the power."
Buffy looked between the two men, "I'm guessing they do. Big power outage in the Buffy County?"
Giles was angry, he pulled off his glasses and started rubbing then with a handkerchief, "I should have set you loose on them that's what I should have done."
Buffy looked utterly beaten, "Giles, that Travers guy is like, sixty, I can't hit him. Can I?"
Spike smirked, "Oh, so you can't hit a sixty year old, but you hit someone twice his age. Lovely?"
Buffy smiled for the first time since the Council members had left, "You don't count." The smiled faded as she looked back to Giles, "Can they really do the stuff they threatened? Kick you out of the country?"
Giles carried on rubbing his glasses, "In a heartbeat. The rough stuff, they're all right at, they're a bit ham handed, though they get it down. But this stuff, the bureaucracy, the pulling of political strings, they're the best in the world. They can kill you with the stroke of a pen. Poncy sods. . ."
All eyes turned to the glasses in Giles' hand as he pushed the lens out of the frame accidentally.
Spike stood now, "What are they going to do to her for this review then?"
Giles looked at the vampire, "We don't know if she's going to do it yet."
"Of course I am Giles," Buffy interrupted them before it could turn into a fight, "I can't let them kick you out of the country. I need you. I also need for you two to not fight while we figure this out. Okay?"
Spike and Giles exchanged a looked and a silent note of agreement, the vampire moved next to Buffy and slipped an arm around her, his eyes returning to Giles, "So what are they going to make her do? Just tasks? They not going to hurt her."
Buffy shook her head, "That's not what I'm worried about. It's the rest. The mental part. The decisions I've made. Twice now, I've been within slaying distance of Glory, and twice, she's kicked my ass without even tensing a muscle. And I haven't been able to figure out what she is or anything about her, except that she wants the key which I have and I can't even figure out if it's okay for me to tell anyone that."
Giles leant across the table and touched her hand, "Buffy, no one could have done any better than you."
Spike was quick to back him up, but Buffy wasn't listening. She was too busy panicking, "But no one else is going to be asked the questions that I can't answer. They're going to expect me to be . . .to be like a slayer and know stuff. But I'm just me and I don't know anything and they're going to go away and they're not going to tell me how to fight Glory and I'm not going to be able to protect Dawn."
Spike could see that Buffy looked as though she was going to cry. Spike slid his hand up her back and rubbed her neck, "Hey, we'll figure this out pet I promise. We'll make sure that you pass. Just don't worry. It's not going to help you."
Buffy nodded trying to calm herself, "I guess I should be getting ready. Where do you think they'll start?"
I'm in a hurry to write so here I go.
Glory ran her hands through her hair. It was burning inside of her. She needed them to bring a human, very quickly. It was so humiliating, she was Glorificus, and she had wait for her minions to bring back her food for her survival. It was degrading and it made her angry. If they didn't hurry, she was going to eat the human and then kill them.
The door opened, two of her servants were dragging a man through the door, and he was whimpering and mewling as he tried to squirm away. One of the pointed to Glory, "Help her!"
The other, the one she thought might be called Murk moved forward, "We're here for you great one. Drink."
Glory tried to force her pathetic human eyes to focus. Her fingers moved up the man's head and pushed their way in. The man screamed in pain as Glory screamed in relief.
Glory pushed herself to her feet shooing away her minions hands, "No, I'm good. It's okay." She looked at the man disgustedly and pushed him away from her, "Try not cutting it so close next time. Understood?"
"Of course."
"We live to serve."
Their fawning washed over her head, she was used to it, "Take this mess out with the rest of the trash." Glory looked at the one called Murk, "And you, have something to tell me?"
Murk grinned and bowed, "Indeed Glorificus."
"And I'm waiting."
"We have found, that the signs of the alignment are moving faster than expected."
Glory looked into a handheld mirror, "Meaning?"
"If you are to use the Key, you must act quickly."
Glory sighed, "Fine. I have been cooling my heels in this crappy little town long enough. Sunnydale's got too many demons and not enough retail outlets."
Murk kept himself in a humble position but his tone was just short of firm, "All you need is the Key."
"And I bet mousy the vampire slayer knows where it is."
Murk bowed, "If I may remind your eminence, you don't have much time."
Glory smirked, "Baby, if that girl's the only thing between me and my Key, I don't need much time."
* *
Buffy had had one hell of a crappy day. No scratch that, she had had the worst day she had had for months. And now she was stuck fighting with this annoyingly stubborn vampire, when all she wanted to do was go home and persuade another stubborn vampire to give her a massage and possibly a little se . . .something else.
All of her professor's had been getting down on her. She had tried to offer an opinion on something and her history professor had shot her down, and then another one of them had told her that the homework deadline had been this Wednesday not next Wednesday.
The world was just crap at the moment, she wanted to go to the Magic Box, check in with Giles and then go home. Buffy almost smiled as she thought of Spike, unfortunately just as she was almost smiling, the vamp delivered a nasty kick to her stomach and sent her flying.
Buffy's anger flared and she stood up, ready to beat the crap out of the thing when Spike leapt over the tombstones and staked the newly arisen vamp.
"Spike! Why did you do that?"
"Because I just saw it kick you in the stomach, a vamp like that. A nothing. You're off your game, what's wrong?"
Buffy was about to snap back a response, more out of habit than anything else, except that instead she just wanted him to hold her. "I had a crappy day."
Spike smiled a little and walked over to her, "Want to go home?"
Buffy slipped her arms about his waist, "Oh God yes. Just gotta check in with Giles first."
Spike nodded and planted a kiss on her lips, "Come on then pet, lets go check in, then we can do . . .other things.
Buffy smiled up at him, "God I was so hoping you'd say that."
* *
Giles had not had a good day. In fact, he'd go as far to say he'd had a spectacularly bad day.
They'd had the nerve to shut down his shop. And now they were talking about a review. They wanted to put Buffy through another test. The only problem was that he didn't know how he was supposed to stop them if that's what they wanted to do. He couldn't stop them. What was she going to say when she found out? At least this time he would be on her side from the start and she would know it. He hated thinking about the fact that he had betrayed her trust. He just hadn't known what to do for the best, like now. Oh God. What was she going to say? Another thought struck Giles, oh hell, what was Spike going to say?
* * *
Buffy pushed open the door of the Magic Box with her fingers entwined with Spike's. Already, she didn't feel quite as bad. After this, they could go home and Spike could help her feel even better.
At least that was, she was feeling better until her eyes feel on a group of smartly dressed individuals in the middle of the shop. She would have been able to guess who they were even if there wasn't a very familiar man facing her.
The man looked over to her, "Miss Summers! Good to see you again."
Buffy glared while trying not to glare, "Mr Travers."
Spike did a quick check over of the people in the room. The tension was radiating off Buffy and Giles. Neither of them were happy in the current company. And the man, Quentin Travers, he thought it was, well he fit the stereotype that Spike had been dreading. Full of his own self-importance and secure in the knowledge that the world could not get along without him. Not a good person to piss off, and the type that Spike could have bitten just to do the world a favour a couple of months ago. He brought his mind back to the scene playing out in front of him.
"Giles has just been telling us of your training regimen. Perhaps you will favour us with a demonstration while we're here."
"Right now?"
Travers just smiled condescendingly, Spike found himself liking this man less and less by the second, "No need to rush you."
Giles, who Spike noticed was looking rather worse for wear spoke for the first time, "They're staying rather longer than I had anticipated."
"We've already laid out our project for Mr. Giles." Travers inclined his head to one of the other men, inviting him to take the floor, "Nigel?"
Spike sae the mark of a man, who viewed himself as superior enough to delegate even the simplest of task. What the man said however pleased him even less, "It's an exhaustive examination of your procedures and abilities. Observe your training, talk to your friends . . ."
Buffy was clearly appalled by the last part, "Talk to my friends?"
Travers now interrupted, "Yes, we understand that you're still taking civilians out on your patrols."
Buffy looked at Spike with anger and desperation in her eyes, "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."
"Buffy, I can sense your resistance, I don't blame you. But I think that your Watcher hasn't reminded you lately of the relative status of the players in our little game. The Council fight evil, the Slayer is the instrument by which we fight. The Council remains, the Slayers change, it's been that way since the beginning."
Giles snorted, "That's a very comforting, bloodless way of looking at it, isn't it?"
"Giles, let me talk to Buffy, because I think she's understanding me," Spike could tell by the glare on Buffy's face the rather than understanding, Buffy was just getting, very, very angry, "Glory is stronger than you. She is a more powerful instrument, if you will. We can help you; we have information that will help. Pass the review, and we give it to you without reservation. Fail the review, either through incompetence, or resisting our recommendations . . .
Apparently, this was too much for Giles, who cut him off, "Resisting your recommendations? She fails, if we don't do whatever you say. How much under your thumb do you think we are?"
The older man was not worried by this outburst, "How much do you want our help?"
"She's not your bloody instrument and you have no right to do any of this."
Spike was quite surprised, he knew that Giles loved Buffy, but he hadn't thought that the old guy had it in him to really lose it. "I understand you think this is unfair. But there are factors that should motivate you to go along with the review. Now I don't want to do this. But obviously we could shut this place down permanently."
Buffy's eyes widened in horror, "You can't do that. You don't have that kinda power."
The older watcher openly scoffed, "Of course we do and I great deal more. In fact, if you insist on fighting us, we'll arrange to have Mr. Giles deported within the day. He'll never set foot in this country again. Now perhaps your used to idle threats and sloppy discipline Miss Summers, but you're dealing with grown ups now. Am I making myself clear?"
* * *
If Travers had known how close he had come to a snapped neck, chip, or no chip, he might have been a little more polite. As it was, Spike was only restrained by Buffy gripping his hand. The three of them now sat in the middle of the aftermath.
Buffy was feeling utterly deflated. The kind of feeling she got when she lost a battle, only this was worse, she couldn't even mount an offensive. She just didn't know what to do for the best. It really did feel like they were sitting among wreckage, the shop, usually a refuge, now felt dirty, as though it had been claimed as someone else's battle-ground.
Giles got up and started pacing, "It's about power that's what it is. It's about how has the power."
Buffy looked between the two men, "I'm guessing they do. Big power outage in the Buffy County?"
Giles was angry, he pulled off his glasses and started rubbing then with a handkerchief, "I should have set you loose on them that's what I should have done."
Buffy looked utterly beaten, "Giles, that Travers guy is like, sixty, I can't hit him. Can I?"
Spike smirked, "Oh, so you can't hit a sixty year old, but you hit someone twice his age. Lovely?"
Buffy smiled for the first time since the Council members had left, "You don't count." The smiled faded as she looked back to Giles, "Can they really do the stuff they threatened? Kick you out of the country?"
Giles carried on rubbing his glasses, "In a heartbeat. The rough stuff, they're all right at, they're a bit ham handed, though they get it down. But this stuff, the bureaucracy, the pulling of political strings, they're the best in the world. They can kill you with the stroke of a pen. Poncy sods. . ."
All eyes turned to the glasses in Giles' hand as he pushed the lens out of the frame accidentally.
Spike stood now, "What are they going to do to her for this review then?"
Giles looked at the vampire, "We don't know if she's going to do it yet."
"Of course I am Giles," Buffy interrupted them before it could turn into a fight, "I can't let them kick you out of the country. I need you. I also need for you two to not fight while we figure this out. Okay?"
Spike and Giles exchanged a looked and a silent note of agreement, the vampire moved next to Buffy and slipped an arm around her, his eyes returning to Giles, "So what are they going to make her do? Just tasks? They not going to hurt her."
Buffy shook her head, "That's not what I'm worried about. It's the rest. The mental part. The decisions I've made. Twice now, I've been within slaying distance of Glory, and twice, she's kicked my ass without even tensing a muscle. And I haven't been able to figure out what she is or anything about her, except that she wants the key which I have and I can't even figure out if it's okay for me to tell anyone that."
Giles leant across the table and touched her hand, "Buffy, no one could have done any better than you."
Spike was quick to back him up, but Buffy wasn't listening. She was too busy panicking, "But no one else is going to be asked the questions that I can't answer. They're going to expect me to be . . .to be like a slayer and know stuff. But I'm just me and I don't know anything and they're going to go away and they're not going to tell me how to fight Glory and I'm not going to be able to protect Dawn."
Spike could see that Buffy looked as though she was going to cry. Spike slid his hand up her back and rubbed her neck, "Hey, we'll figure this out pet I promise. We'll make sure that you pass. Just don't worry. It's not going to help you."
Buffy nodded trying to calm herself, "I guess I should be getting ready. Where do you think they'll start?"