Disclaimer: Joss, WB, UPN et al. own Buffy. George Lucas, LucasFilm, LucasArts et al. own Star Wars. Timothy Zahn owns Grand Admiral Thrawn. Squaresoft own Final Fantasy. No, this isn't a FF fic.
Title: For the Good of the Empire.
Author: Paradigm Shifter
Feedback: Yes! YES! Please?! Love to know what you think.
Rating: I'll go with PG for now. Be prepared for it to go up, though.
Grateful Thanks: go to Trevelyan (Matt) and Bobby Cox. Your input and suggestions were both invaluable for this.
Notes: I hate exams. I really hate exams. [sigh]
*
Buffy screamed and huddled behind Thrawn as a car backfired down the street.
"Demon!" Buffy wailed in fear.
Thrawn sucked in a breath. This seeming noble drained his patience almost as much as it did Mara's.
"It's not a demon, girl. Its..." he trailed off as he realised he did not know what to call the mechanical contraption. It looked vaguely like one of the aerial taxis that were forever in the air all over Coruscant, the Imperial Throne World, but it had wheels. "...it's a..."
"It's a car." A male voice said from the shadows. "And you would do well to undo whatever you have done to the Slayer, demon."
"Demon? _Me_?" Thrawn was insulted. "You _dare_ address a Grand Admiral so?"
Angel coalesced out of the dark. "Let Buffy go."
Thrawn looked at the cowering noblewoman. "Is that her name? And why would we release her to you... she is more scared of you that she is of us!"
Angel realised, belatedly, that while Buffy might not be acting like the Slayer right now, the Slayer essence remained in her. Her 'spidey-sense' as Xander had termed it, was on alert because of _him_. Before anything else, boyfriend or no, Angel was a vampire. It was something he tried his best to forget.
He opened his mouth to speak again, and felt the air chill.
Mara stepped out behind him. She had been a short distance away from Thrawn as she felt a disturbance in the Force... and it was centred on this man. This man – who despite walking and talking – was completely missing from her Force sense.
If she hadn't quickly understood how to follow him in the Force, he would have been completely invisible to her. It was less the idea of tracking a person or a creature with the Force, as she could do – barely – with the little creatures that were running around, and more of watching currents in the Force: the web of Force that all living things created was disturbed as he moved through it. Almost like an atmospheric fighter's vapour trail.
Her voice was cold, and full of malice. "I don't think you want to do that."
Angel spun in surprise – more due to someone's ability to sneak up on him that fear – and visibly relaxed as he saw who he assumed to be Willow. "Willow, thank God, help me get Buffy away from him!"
Mara frowned. "Willow?"
Thrawn chuckled. "He seems to be calling you a tree, Jade."
Mara smirked, "so I noticed."
Angel turned back to Thrawn, and started to approach. Cautiously, but still threateningly. He growled as he moved. "Let Buffy go."
Thrawn stood firm. "Most amusing... and yet, I tire of this..." his blaster pistol was drawn and pointing at Angel in a fraction of a second. "I'll give you one warning. Then one warning _shot_. Make the most of my generosity."
Angel faltered. He obviously needed support, as this wasn't getting him anywhere.
Mara rolled her eyes, "I'm bored. Hurry it up, or let me do it."
The next thing Angel knew, he was flailing at his head as his hair burned. The whine of a blaster recharging its capacitors registered in his mind, and he ran, still beating at the flames he was failing to get under control...
*
Giles had just sat down with a large glass of single malt and one of his new acquisitions – a treatise on the possession of _Homo_sapiens_ by malevolent spirits – when the door practically flew off its hinges and Angel powered through, out of breath.
Giles set the glass down carefully, so as to be sure not to lose any of the precious amber fluid, and stood up slowly. "Angel," he spoke with barely controlled irritation. "What are you doing here?"
Angel got his breath back quickly, and explained as much as he could. "Somethings... wrong. Buffy's acting like an 18th century noblewoman, and Willow doesn't know who she is. She... attacked me. When I tried to get Buffy away from her and the other..."
Giles cut in, making sure he had heard what Angel said correctly. "_Willow_ attacked you? Are you sure?"
Angel nodded, and continued. "She was with another. A man... or a demon. I can't decide which. He had blue skin. He was..." Angel trailed off, unsure exactly _what_ the man was.
Giles looked at Angel speculatively. "Er... two things, Angel. First, what happened to your hair? And secondly, _who_the_bloody_hell_is_going_to_pay_for_my_door_!" the last was shouted at the top of his lungs at the vampire.
Angel reached up and touched his head reflexively, wincing at the burns that were only just starting to heal. It would be days before his head wasn't a blistered mess, and a week or more before his hair started to grow back. Then he had the problem of putting hair-gel in without being able to see himself in a mirror...
"I'll pay for the door." Angel dug in a pocket for a wad of bills. "But I'm worried about Buffy!"
"You are worried about Buffy. Very commendable. So am I. I worry about Buffy all the time, when she's in class, when she goes on patrol... when she sees _you_..." Giles sarcasm was not lost on the vampire. "However, since Buffy seems to be in the capable hands of a woman who forced _you_, Angelus, to retreat in shame, I think for a while she is safe. At least, she is one of the lesser worries."
He turned and picked up the book he had been reading. "Would you say that they are possessed or simply... acting strangely?"
"Possessed." Angel said without hesitation.
"Did you see Xander when you were out there?"
Angel shook his head in the negative. "No. But I'm worried..."
"... about Buffy. Yes, I know." Giles snapped. "What will the demons think of this chance to cause havoc? Will they take it?"
Angel paused. "Perhaps. The more volatile ones will, but most wont. They are still too many superstitions about Halloween for them."
Flicking through the book further, Giles tutted and turned a few more pages. "They were all dressed up in Halloween costumes, weren't they? Snyder forced them to guide the younger children around..."
"As far as I know." Angel muttered.
"Well, I suggest that we find out how they were dressed... then we can worry about more about how to fix this." Giles moved to the phone, and picked the handset out of the cradle before hitting a speed dial number.
*
Joyce Summers sighed as the phone rang, and hit the stop button on the video that she and Dawn were watching. "Sorry, honey," she apologised, "I'll be back in a minute."
"Summers." Joyce said down the phone.
...
"Oh, Mr. Giles. I trust everything is alright?"
...
"You want to know how Buffy, Willow and Xander dressed for Halloween? May I ask why?"
...
"Very well... I believe Buffy went as an 18th century noblewoman. Something about Angel not liking spandex?" Joyce's tone told Giles exactly what she thought of her daughters choice of boyfriend material.
...
"And Xander and Willow? Um... let me ask Dawn. Some characters from Star Wars, I believe..."
Joyce covered the phone, and called, "Dawn, who did Xander and Willow dress as?"
Dawn bounced over to the phone, while replying, "Willow went as Mara Jade... but the Emperors Hand style. Y'know, the semi-evil one." She shrugged. "Xander was Grand Admiral Thrawn."
Joyce relayed this data to Giles.
...
"What is a Grand Admiral Thrawn?" she frowned, "Dawn?"
Dawn sounded bored as she lectured. "He's a blue skinned alien. Master tactician, and quite an art connoisseur. Given the Empires xenophobia, he was both lucky, and extremely gifted."
Joyce relayed what Dawn had said, and added, "Now, tell me why you want to know."
...
"No, I want to... yes, alright. They bought them at a little shop that just opened. It's on the corner of fifth, near the cinema."
...
"What was it called? Er... Ethan's, I think. What? No! I..."
...
"Well, I am afraid that that is unacceptable. I am not a fool, Mr. Giles, and I do not appreciate being treated like one. I know something is strange in this town, and I want to know why my daughter is mixed up in it!"
...
Joyce's expression didn't so much as waver as Giles continued to speak, but her eyes hardened.
...
...
"When this night is finished, Mr. Giles, I will expect a full explanation. From all of you. And I will _not_ be put off. Right now, I want Buffy home safely. As little as I trust 'Angel', you seem to. Don't make me feel that my faith in _you_ was misplaced. Goodnight."
Joyce hung up the phone before Giles could get another word out.
Dawn hugged her mother. "Everything alright, mom?"
Joyce hugged her younger daughter back. "There is something very wrong in this town, Dawn... I almost wish we'd never moved here..."
Dawn looked frightened for a minute. "There's something out there, isn't there, mom? And it's not just the dark..."
Both mother and daughter went and sat down again, and they watched the video mechanically for a second. Neither of them was in the mood for the film any more. Dawn snuggled up to her mother on the couch, and wished that the night would be over...
*
Giles sighed, and hung up the phone.
"Well, that was... informative."
Angel paced across the room, his anxiety plainly evident. "Was that all she told you?"
"Yes."
"Just 'yes'?"
"What would you prefer?" Giles asked icily. "We haven't got time for this. We know that at least fate has smiled on us a little: they are all together. The blue skinned man is Xander."
Angel groaned.
"I think all you can do is go back out there, and watch them from the shadows. Make sure they aren't hurt. I have..." Giles paused, and Angel could see a subtle transformation take place. "...somewhere else to be."
Angel nodded, turned, and left. Giles' voice made him halt at the entranceway, and look back over his shoulder. "Yes?"
Giles appeared to struggle with what he wanted to say for a moment. "Angel... I know that we haven't really gotten on: you're a vampire; soul or no soul, normally Buffy should have staked you outright. And because of what you are, I never really gave you a chance... but... it is obvious how deeply you care for Buffy. But if you ever do anything to hurt her..."
Angel nodded. "I know. I would want you to." He left, and Giles turned away from the door, muttering, "Sealing spell... sealing spell..."
*
Ten minutes later, Giles was standing outside his destroyed door, and two spells had been cast. The first, a sealing spell, was to make the open doorway impenetrable. Not to 'anything', but it would stop just about everything short of a nuclear blast. No one would be getting in his home. The second was more subtle. So as not to advertise that the door was off, a limited glamour was over the doorframe, making it seem as if it did, indeed, have a door in it. At least from short range: a strange side effect that Giles had never been able to work out of the spell meant that at a distance it appeared as if it was brickwork.
Giles nodded in satisfaction of a job well done, and walked to his car, fire in his eyes and a growl on his lips.
"Ethan. You are in _big_ trouble."
*
One more chapter of the night itself, and then we begin to deal with the repercussions of choices made, and paths walked... Not only by the Sunnydale natives, but by their alter-egos as well.
I'd appreciate it greatly if you reviewed! ;)
Title: For the Good of the Empire.
Author: Paradigm Shifter
Feedback: Yes! YES! Please?! Love to know what you think.
Rating: I'll go with PG for now. Be prepared for it to go up, though.
Grateful Thanks: go to Trevelyan (Matt) and Bobby Cox. Your input and suggestions were both invaluable for this.
Notes: I hate exams. I really hate exams. [sigh]
*
Buffy screamed and huddled behind Thrawn as a car backfired down the street.
"Demon!" Buffy wailed in fear.
Thrawn sucked in a breath. This seeming noble drained his patience almost as much as it did Mara's.
"It's not a demon, girl. Its..." he trailed off as he realised he did not know what to call the mechanical contraption. It looked vaguely like one of the aerial taxis that were forever in the air all over Coruscant, the Imperial Throne World, but it had wheels. "...it's a..."
"It's a car." A male voice said from the shadows. "And you would do well to undo whatever you have done to the Slayer, demon."
"Demon? _Me_?" Thrawn was insulted. "You _dare_ address a Grand Admiral so?"
Angel coalesced out of the dark. "Let Buffy go."
Thrawn looked at the cowering noblewoman. "Is that her name? And why would we release her to you... she is more scared of you that she is of us!"
Angel realised, belatedly, that while Buffy might not be acting like the Slayer right now, the Slayer essence remained in her. Her 'spidey-sense' as Xander had termed it, was on alert because of _him_. Before anything else, boyfriend or no, Angel was a vampire. It was something he tried his best to forget.
He opened his mouth to speak again, and felt the air chill.
Mara stepped out behind him. She had been a short distance away from Thrawn as she felt a disturbance in the Force... and it was centred on this man. This man – who despite walking and talking – was completely missing from her Force sense.
If she hadn't quickly understood how to follow him in the Force, he would have been completely invisible to her. It was less the idea of tracking a person or a creature with the Force, as she could do – barely – with the little creatures that were running around, and more of watching currents in the Force: the web of Force that all living things created was disturbed as he moved through it. Almost like an atmospheric fighter's vapour trail.
Her voice was cold, and full of malice. "I don't think you want to do that."
Angel spun in surprise – more due to someone's ability to sneak up on him that fear – and visibly relaxed as he saw who he assumed to be Willow. "Willow, thank God, help me get Buffy away from him!"
Mara frowned. "Willow?"
Thrawn chuckled. "He seems to be calling you a tree, Jade."
Mara smirked, "so I noticed."
Angel turned back to Thrawn, and started to approach. Cautiously, but still threateningly. He growled as he moved. "Let Buffy go."
Thrawn stood firm. "Most amusing... and yet, I tire of this..." his blaster pistol was drawn and pointing at Angel in a fraction of a second. "I'll give you one warning. Then one warning _shot_. Make the most of my generosity."
Angel faltered. He obviously needed support, as this wasn't getting him anywhere.
Mara rolled her eyes, "I'm bored. Hurry it up, or let me do it."
The next thing Angel knew, he was flailing at his head as his hair burned. The whine of a blaster recharging its capacitors registered in his mind, and he ran, still beating at the flames he was failing to get under control...
*
Giles had just sat down with a large glass of single malt and one of his new acquisitions – a treatise on the possession of _Homo_sapiens_ by malevolent spirits – when the door practically flew off its hinges and Angel powered through, out of breath.
Giles set the glass down carefully, so as to be sure not to lose any of the precious amber fluid, and stood up slowly. "Angel," he spoke with barely controlled irritation. "What are you doing here?"
Angel got his breath back quickly, and explained as much as he could. "Somethings... wrong. Buffy's acting like an 18th century noblewoman, and Willow doesn't know who she is. She... attacked me. When I tried to get Buffy away from her and the other..."
Giles cut in, making sure he had heard what Angel said correctly. "_Willow_ attacked you? Are you sure?"
Angel nodded, and continued. "She was with another. A man... or a demon. I can't decide which. He had blue skin. He was..." Angel trailed off, unsure exactly _what_ the man was.
Giles looked at Angel speculatively. "Er... two things, Angel. First, what happened to your hair? And secondly, _who_the_bloody_hell_is_going_to_pay_for_my_door_!" the last was shouted at the top of his lungs at the vampire.
Angel reached up and touched his head reflexively, wincing at the burns that were only just starting to heal. It would be days before his head wasn't a blistered mess, and a week or more before his hair started to grow back. Then he had the problem of putting hair-gel in without being able to see himself in a mirror...
"I'll pay for the door." Angel dug in a pocket for a wad of bills. "But I'm worried about Buffy!"
"You are worried about Buffy. Very commendable. So am I. I worry about Buffy all the time, when she's in class, when she goes on patrol... when she sees _you_..." Giles sarcasm was not lost on the vampire. "However, since Buffy seems to be in the capable hands of a woman who forced _you_, Angelus, to retreat in shame, I think for a while she is safe. At least, she is one of the lesser worries."
He turned and picked up the book he had been reading. "Would you say that they are possessed or simply... acting strangely?"
"Possessed." Angel said without hesitation.
"Did you see Xander when you were out there?"
Angel shook his head in the negative. "No. But I'm worried..."
"... about Buffy. Yes, I know." Giles snapped. "What will the demons think of this chance to cause havoc? Will they take it?"
Angel paused. "Perhaps. The more volatile ones will, but most wont. They are still too many superstitions about Halloween for them."
Flicking through the book further, Giles tutted and turned a few more pages. "They were all dressed up in Halloween costumes, weren't they? Snyder forced them to guide the younger children around..."
"As far as I know." Angel muttered.
"Well, I suggest that we find out how they were dressed... then we can worry about more about how to fix this." Giles moved to the phone, and picked the handset out of the cradle before hitting a speed dial number.
*
Joyce Summers sighed as the phone rang, and hit the stop button on the video that she and Dawn were watching. "Sorry, honey," she apologised, "I'll be back in a minute."
"Summers." Joyce said down the phone.
...
"Oh, Mr. Giles. I trust everything is alright?"
...
"You want to know how Buffy, Willow and Xander dressed for Halloween? May I ask why?"
...
"Very well... I believe Buffy went as an 18th century noblewoman. Something about Angel not liking spandex?" Joyce's tone told Giles exactly what she thought of her daughters choice of boyfriend material.
...
"And Xander and Willow? Um... let me ask Dawn. Some characters from Star Wars, I believe..."
Joyce covered the phone, and called, "Dawn, who did Xander and Willow dress as?"
Dawn bounced over to the phone, while replying, "Willow went as Mara Jade... but the Emperors Hand style. Y'know, the semi-evil one." She shrugged. "Xander was Grand Admiral Thrawn."
Joyce relayed this data to Giles.
...
"What is a Grand Admiral Thrawn?" she frowned, "Dawn?"
Dawn sounded bored as she lectured. "He's a blue skinned alien. Master tactician, and quite an art connoisseur. Given the Empires xenophobia, he was both lucky, and extremely gifted."
Joyce relayed what Dawn had said, and added, "Now, tell me why you want to know."
...
"No, I want to... yes, alright. They bought them at a little shop that just opened. It's on the corner of fifth, near the cinema."
...
"What was it called? Er... Ethan's, I think. What? No! I..."
...
"Well, I am afraid that that is unacceptable. I am not a fool, Mr. Giles, and I do not appreciate being treated like one. I know something is strange in this town, and I want to know why my daughter is mixed up in it!"
...
Joyce's expression didn't so much as waver as Giles continued to speak, but her eyes hardened.
...
...
"When this night is finished, Mr. Giles, I will expect a full explanation. From all of you. And I will _not_ be put off. Right now, I want Buffy home safely. As little as I trust 'Angel', you seem to. Don't make me feel that my faith in _you_ was misplaced. Goodnight."
Joyce hung up the phone before Giles could get another word out.
Dawn hugged her mother. "Everything alright, mom?"
Joyce hugged her younger daughter back. "There is something very wrong in this town, Dawn... I almost wish we'd never moved here..."
Dawn looked frightened for a minute. "There's something out there, isn't there, mom? And it's not just the dark..."
Both mother and daughter went and sat down again, and they watched the video mechanically for a second. Neither of them was in the mood for the film any more. Dawn snuggled up to her mother on the couch, and wished that the night would be over...
*
Giles sighed, and hung up the phone.
"Well, that was... informative."
Angel paced across the room, his anxiety plainly evident. "Was that all she told you?"
"Yes."
"Just 'yes'?"
"What would you prefer?" Giles asked icily. "We haven't got time for this. We know that at least fate has smiled on us a little: they are all together. The blue skinned man is Xander."
Angel groaned.
"I think all you can do is go back out there, and watch them from the shadows. Make sure they aren't hurt. I have..." Giles paused, and Angel could see a subtle transformation take place. "...somewhere else to be."
Angel nodded, turned, and left. Giles' voice made him halt at the entranceway, and look back over his shoulder. "Yes?"
Giles appeared to struggle with what he wanted to say for a moment. "Angel... I know that we haven't really gotten on: you're a vampire; soul or no soul, normally Buffy should have staked you outright. And because of what you are, I never really gave you a chance... but... it is obvious how deeply you care for Buffy. But if you ever do anything to hurt her..."
Angel nodded. "I know. I would want you to." He left, and Giles turned away from the door, muttering, "Sealing spell... sealing spell..."
*
Ten minutes later, Giles was standing outside his destroyed door, and two spells had been cast. The first, a sealing spell, was to make the open doorway impenetrable. Not to 'anything', but it would stop just about everything short of a nuclear blast. No one would be getting in his home. The second was more subtle. So as not to advertise that the door was off, a limited glamour was over the doorframe, making it seem as if it did, indeed, have a door in it. At least from short range: a strange side effect that Giles had never been able to work out of the spell meant that at a distance it appeared as if it was brickwork.
Giles nodded in satisfaction of a job well done, and walked to his car, fire in his eyes and a growl on his lips.
"Ethan. You are in _big_ trouble."
*
One more chapter of the night itself, and then we begin to deal with the repercussions of choices made, and paths walked... Not only by the Sunnydale natives, but by their alter-egos as well.
I'd appreciate it greatly if you reviewed! ;)