Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: I'm writing some of these, as I've come up with ideas that I honestly don't know what I'll be doing when the Ultimate series gets that far. In the meantime, these won't go away from my brain unless I do something with them. Warning: It may be a standalone it may be spoilers for something later; only time will tell.
Rating: 15 probably… mainly for language.
Setting: Season 3 - I think you'll recognise when.
What The Hell(mouth) Happened?? - Chapter 30
"An Orb of Thesulah..?" Giles queried.
"What's that do..?" Willow asked intrigued.
"They're supposed to be useful for certain 'grey' magics." Giles tried to explained. "It's one of a variety of... how shall we put this... mystical containers."
"So they're full of magic and shit..?" Faith looked around the teachers for confirmation.
"They could be." Jenny answered. "Mostly they get used for things you want to keep safe."
"Like magical keys..?" Xander asked.
"No." Giles sharply answered, refusing to make eye contact in case it turned out to be another wind-up.
"More like a safe way of putting a time delay on a spell." Jenny clarified. "Some of the larger vessels could contain demons and the such."
"So this Orb could be used to contain a demon..?" Jesse asked confused. "And this shop sells them..?" Shaking his head, he turned to the others. "Is that a good or bad thing?"
"An Orb couldn't be used to hold a demon." Jenny explained. "Well maybe one of the weaker ones."
Giles added to it. "Most demons would want to be free, the Orb wouldn't be able to hold even a mediocre attempt at freedom."
"So what are they used for?" Willow asked.
"It's like many herbs and other trinkets that Witches keep handy in case of emergency. They are kept around on the offchance that they..."
"He uses one as a paperweight." Jenny commented, nodding in Giles' direction.
Giles sighed. "It's on the desk in my office." He conceded.
Buffy stared in the general direction of the office, brow wrinkled as she concentrated on trying to identify which object they were talking about. "That globe thing..?"
"I thought that was some abstract snowglobe." Xander commented.
"It's empty... and it doesn't snow if you shake it." Jesse corrected him in a superior tone.
"Hence the abstractness..." Xander paused in his explanation. "And how do you know that it doesn't snow..?"
Jesse lowered his head as he confessed. "I may have tested it."
Willow turned to face Cordelia. "So how did you know what the non-snowing magical orb was..?"
"She probably just asked." Giles replied.
"We used it to ensoul Angel." Cordelia answered in a matter of fact tone. "Well we tried... I'm not sure if we did it in time. Though he had a soul when he came back..." Cordelia drifted off, deep in thought.
"You ensouled Angel..?" Jenny asked.
"Hey..." Cordelia began before Giles interrupted her.
"You mean after he lost his soul... after he and Buf... Right, well." Giles caught both Buffy's and Xander's eyes. "Good show." He glanced back at where Cordelia was still glaring at Jenny.
"I didn't mean it like that." Jenny stated. "It's just that those magics have been lost to the ages. I can't even imagine where you'd have gotten information like that."
"You." Cordelia casually commented.
"Pardon..?" Jenny answered.
"You got it for us." Cordelia explained, eyes boring into the elder woman.
"But wasn't she..?" Giles asked.
"Dead..? Yes." Jesse continued on, oblivious to the stares the others were giving him. "Me and Jenny... vampire victims, remember? You can say it out loud, you know." Turning to the technopagan, he quietly informed her. "If you ask Cordelia nicely, she'll tell you which one of the others staked you."
"Erm... okay," Jenny began, unsure how to politely decline the offer. "I don't think that info would help me in any way."
"I didn't know you knew magic." Buffy commented.
"I don't know that level of magic." Jenny confirmed.
"You got it off your uncle." Cordelia explained. "Can't remember his name. The one that died."
Jenny looked confused. "I haven't got a dead uncle."
"He was killed by Angelu... oh..." Cordelia realised. "Sorry I wasn't thinking of people outside our gang."
"No surprise there." Jesse stated; recieving a smile from Xander and a smack from Willow.
Faith let out a long whistle. "Angelus definitely had it in for your family."
"Well, duh." Cordelia responded.
Jenny cut her off quickly. "There's something I need to tell you."
Everyone's head swivelled towards her, she was wondering how to start this confession when the phone rang.
Elsewhere.
Ten Minutes Previously.
Maria Locans sat staring at the phone. She'd been gearing to calling this Rupert Giles for the past hour. After a night of restless sleep where she'd been jumping at every single noise, she'd phoned in sick first thing this morning. Her boss had taken it okay until she started telling them not to send anyone to the address last night, after she had attempted explaining it all to him, without actually explaining anything to him, he'd asked if she'd been on medication.
A bonus was that he'd told her to take a few days off and he'd check in with her by the end of the week.
After that she'd felt the need to clean the entire apartment. Anything to take her mind off the things which her brain insisted couldn't have been real.
Since she'd finished that task, she'd been left alone with her thoughts. And it was getting to her. At one point she was considering going to get the weekly shop out of the way, but she hadn't made it to the car without her imagination running wild.
These were her neighbours, they were people she knew. But all it had taken was a brief glance at one of her neighbours, and she'd imagined their faces contorting, turning into that predatory visage that she was certain she'd seen last night.
"B-b-but that girl told me not to trust anyone... not even people I know." She said aloud to the empty room, as if begging it to answer her questions.
Taking a final breath to steady her nerves she walked over to the phone. Forcing herself to dial the number before she had chance to change her mind again. "She did say to call if I had questions..."
Letting it ring for a few minutes she suddenly came to a realisation. "But I don't even know her name."
"Hello, this is Rupert Gil..." The male voice with the foreign accent began.
The Master's Cave.
Same Time.
Ms Post sat in the corner with piles of books. 'Don't any of these people read anything..?' she wondered as she looked at the states of some of the volumes they were bringing her. 'Wouldn't be surprised if these hadn't been read for a century or two.'
Sighing she looked up to see where the other two were. Jonathan was attempting to explain something to most of the minions, but wasn't having much success.
'Not a good strategy at all.' She figured, after listening in for a few minutes. 'Firstly most of the people here don't even understand what you're trying to suggest, and probably couldn't be relied on if they actually found themselves in that situation.'
'Secondly,' she considered to herself. 'All that would ever achieve is a lot of chaos... and if I was interested in doing it, then there's a far easier time to go about it.'
'Well, they can only plan for that if I actually told them about it.' She reasoned, turning her attention back to the edition she'd been reading. 'One of the Master's hobbies from time to time, eh..?' She thought, flicking a few pages backward to re-read it again. 'I can see why... if this turns out to be true then it might be actually worth going ahead with their plan.'
"You." She shouted, pointing at the vampire who'd allegedly served under the Master over a hundred years ago, before he'd been trapped in his prison.
The vampire in question pointed at himself.
"Yes, you." She waved him over with the index finger of her free hand. "The Master used to read this, you say."
"Yes." The vampire replied. "It's off-limits to the likes of us." He expanded.
"But only when he was free... He never sent anyone... out on errands after the incident..?"
"Not that I know of..." The vampire conceded. "But he only really trusted Luke. Until Darla returned to serve him again anyway."
'Both dead.' Ms Post thought, 'and no-one's going to know anything more than this idiot.'
"Have you looked at the book..?" She asked him in a curious tone.
"No." He answered immediately. "It was the Master's... it wasn't my place..."
'You are aware that the Master died right..?' She managed to refrain from uttering the exasperated thought out loud; instead settling to comment. "You know your place... not too smart but willing to follow orders. Just how I like them... What's your name..?"
"Matthias..." He responded.
"And do you have a problem serving me..?" She asked.
"No ma'am... I'd have hoped that Spike would have raised me to a position of authority when he took over, but he wasn't the sort to follow prophecy and the like. I'm afraid Jonathan has followed in his footsteps..." Matthias trailed off.
"You do know you're probably the oldest here, right?" Gwen asked him with a smile on her lips.
"By a clear fifty years, best of my reckoning... but it don't matter to them..." He gestured towards the main portion of the group.
"It matters to me, Matthias.. it matters to me..." Gwen grinned at him. "Being a Watcher always taught me to be very aware of prophecies and tradition."
"Just like the Master." Matthias agreed eagerly.
"Yes... just like him." Post trailed off, then seemingly adding as an afterthought. "You wouldn't happen to know if the Master kept any notes or anything would you..? Some other relics... that he may have stored... near this one, for instance."
"You've got them there." Matthias commented while pointing at them, glad to be of help. "The one you're reading was stored with the big black one, and that old red one over there."
Post picked the books up from the untouched pile. "These three you say." Smiling at him. "Matthias... you wouldn't do a major favour would you..? Stand over there and inform me if either Jonathan or Mister Trick should happen to come this way."
Matthias smiled back, before moving to his newly assigned post.
Sunnydale Library.
The answering machine finally picked up the call, dropping the room back into it's expectant silence. Giles turned his head back to face his partner. "Well..?" He asked curious.
"I was sent here." Jenny confessed, eyeing the students surrounding her.
"Of course you were sent here." Willow began, "You replaced Mrs Dranton who took time out to raise her baby."
"No." Jenny stated firmly, cutting off any further information about the school's previous computer teacher. "I was sent here... in the same way that Giles was sent here."
"You're a Watcher..?" Xander asked, then turning to Faith. "When you get assigned a new Watcher maybe you should ask if you could get a cute one lik..."
"Xander." Giles shouted. "What exactly were you sent here to watch..?"
"Angelus." Jenny replied quietly.
"You mean Angel..?" Jesse asked. "But why..? Do ensouled extremely boring vampires get Watchers assigned to them as well as Slayers."
"Not by the Council." Giles answered, eyes staring at the computer teacher, face completely clamped down refusing to let any emotion rise to the surface.
"No... this had nothing to do with the Council." Jenny admitted. "This is about family."
End chapter thirty