A/N: This is a chapter that my betas, Ultrawoman and Ezekeiel Rage, have gone over well, pointing out a few little problems with it. It's why I use them. You guys are great. Maybe if I hadn't rewritten a few of these scenes these mistakes could have been avoided, but there you go. It's nice to get such a solid reader response, and I'll try to keep the updates reasonably regular. More reviews, faster I work.
Disclaimer: My life seems to be all happiness right now. I can't handle it, so anything that happens to my Scoobies is the indirect fault of the world around me, and not me. If the excuse is good enough for Joss...
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Old, unwanted surprises
"Come on, Slayer," Spike taunted as he ducked under the fledgling vamp's clumsy swing. "You can do better than that."
Buffy poked her tongue out at him before dusting her vamp with a deft punch to the chest, the creature exploding into dust as the stake punctured his heart. She leaned against the mausoleum wall and watched with a very interested eye as Spike continued to toy with his opponent.
"Hurry up, old man," Buffy teased after a few moments watching his lithe form sway around the inept attacks of the other, younger vampire. There was, after all, only so much enjoyment she could get from watching him fight when he was wearing that large duster that covered his frame almost completely.
Spike grinned savagely before driving his fist into the other vampire's head, knocking him to the ground. A hard boot to the downed demon's neck and the vampire dusted, head neatly separated from his body. Buffy raised an eyebrow archly at Spike's faux innocent expression.
"Show off."
XXX
The SUV slid to a stop on the gravel, dust still flying through the air from the vehicle's broad tires. The door opened wide and a tall man stepped out, dressed entirely in black. He looked around before gesturing to his companion in the car. Another figure dressed in black stepped out of the other side.
The two shared a look before the taller gestured to the west and sprinted off into the east, leaving the car alone on the outskirts of town, next to a sign: 'Welcome to Sunnydale'.
XXX
The Slayer and her vampire strolled through the moonlit cemetery hand in hand. Buffy was contemplating on how well her budding relationship with a vampire was going this time. Spike was wondering if he were ever going to get laid.
Still, seeing as he had already received far more than he'd ever expected, if not what he had hoped, he was not going to push her. They were snogging fairly regularly, he was not only allowed but encouraged to spend time with his Slayer and best of all, she'd said she loved him.
He wasn't so big a ponce that he'd actually bring it up, but that alone was worth more than everything else combined. Excepting his mother, the Slayer was the only one to have said that about him and meant it. Dru and Angelus had been very vocal about the fact he belonged to them, and that was a good feeling too but love was... special. That loony bint Harmony really didn't count. The girl collected wooden unicorns, and she was a vampire.
Not to say that Spike wasn't looking forward to getting in between the Slayer's legs. On the contrary, it was his largest ambition at the moment and his every idle moment was filled with speculation on the matter. Still, so long as he and his hand didn't have a falling out then he could afford to wait. After all, what's the benefit of being an immortal vampire if you're unable to wait a few short weeks for your love to get over her past hang-ups.
"Do you want..." Buffy began. Spike raked his eyes over her form, causing her to blush profusely. "Doyouwanttocomebacktomyplacetonight?"
Spike blinked. Then blinked again. Slowing the Slayer's last sentence down a lot, inserting gaps in the massive garbled word. Then he smiled. Broadly.
"Always, pet," he smiled at her. "There's just something I want to get from the crypt, so why don't you make one last sweep and I'll meet you back at the house?"
XXX
The tall figure loped through the still of the night, glancing around furtively, searching for a sign, any sign of his prey. His long stride carried him quickly through the cemetery, before he suddenly halted and stared at the ground. Kneeling, he observed something there before taking off into a new direction.
Amongst tombstones and over the damp grass the man jogged silently. After reaching the exit of the cemetery, the man scratched his head and stood for a moment, thinking or remembering, before continuing to jog down the abandoned streets.
Turning a corner suddenly, he saw his target. A short, deceptively petite blonde girl skipping along happily, wearing a tight pair of red leather pants and a black tank top. The figure continued to jog up to the girl, and when he came close she spun and connected a left jab to his chin.
As he got to his feet, he watched as the girl's hazel eyes widened in shock, and her mouth silently shaping his name.
XXX
William sat in the study, the house silent except for the scratch of his pen on the paper and the occasional rustle of Rupert's book. The young man watched, almost hypnotised by the steady flow of blue ink in the shape of cursive letters on the page. He found the entire process somewhat soothing, creating words on a blank canvas even if the words were merely the English essay due the next week.
"Why don't you share your boyfriend with us, Dawn?" Janice taunted snidely.
Dawn didn't even slow as she led William across the cafeteria. Normally she would lead William around in order to avoid a scene with the highly unpleasant girl, but he had forgotten the book Rupert had lent him and they'd had to sprint back in order to even have a shot of making it to their next class on time, and to do that they'd had to go through the cafeteria.
"He's not my boyfriend, Janice," Dawn informed her coolly as they passed the other girl and her friends.
"That's not what he says," Janice crowed.
Dawn halted suddenly, William nearly overbalancing in an effort to avoid bumping into her again, seeing as he did that far too often as it was.
"Well, he's not," Dawn said harshly as she continued out of the cafeteria, not even looking back.
William had been entirely unaware that not only had he been mistaken as to what Dawn thought of him, he had also been unaware as to how objectionable she found his friendship. He was fairly certain he'd covered his disappointment well, but he'd started withdrawing from Dawn after that day. If she found his company so unpleasant, he wouldn't force it on her.
"Will?" William turned to face Rupert, who'd put his book down. "Is... everything okay?"
"Oh, erm, yes. Yes, I suppose it is." William looked at the concerned, slightly disbelieving look on his guardian's face. "Everything is splendid. Simply splendid."
Giles settled back into his chair and opened his book again, obviously not quite mollified.
"Indeed."
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence with the two men looking at one another.
"I'll just go back to my..." Rupert said eventually with a gesture to his book. William nodded.
"And I'll..." a vague gesture to his homework. The men continued to look at one another for a minute.
"Yes."
"Quite."
Still the men looked at one another, feeling incredibly uncomfortable. When the phone rang, Rupert leapt to his feet, grateful for the distraction.
XXX
"What's wrong, honey?" Joyce asked Dawn, finally sick of watching her youngest daughter mope about the house in the same fashion that Buffy had when she had been mooning over Angel.
"Nothing," she sulked. Joyce raised an eyebrow and waited. This was obviously a romantic problem. "It's nothing!" Dawn insisted sharply. Definitely romantic.
Joyce turned off the TV and swivelled in her seat so she could face he daughter fully. "I'm all ears, honey."
"It's William," Dawn exploded after a tense moment of trying to hold it in. Joyce smiled knowingly. "He went around at school telling everyone he's my boyfriend."
"That doesn't sound like William at all," Joyce said with a frown. Dawn looked slightly sheepish.
"Okay, so maybe he only told Janice but he should know that Janice is going to warp whatever he said!"
"And how would William know that?" Joyce asked in a disapproving tone. Dawn looked at her feet miserably.
"He wouldn't," she replied despondently. "Only Janice had to make a big thing of it and now he doesn't want anything to do with me. Janice is such a primo biatch."
"Dawn!" Joyce warned, trying her hardest not to grin at the fierce expression on her daughter's face. She accepted her daughter's mumbled apology before getting up to answer the phone.
"Hello?"
"Ah, Mrs Summers, it's Rupert Giles."
"Ah, Rupert, please call me Joyce."
"Very well, Joyce. I just got a call from Buffy, and I was wondering if we could all meet at your house. Something's come up and I'd rather not go to the Magic Box."
"Of course you can, Rupert. I'll see you soon."
XXX
William had been just as relieved as Rupert when the telephone rang, breaking that awkward silence. Sadly, the feeling had been fleeting. Buffy had called Rupert and asked him to go to her house, that something had come up and it would be best if everyone found out together.
What was that saying? Out of the frying pan and into the fire. The tension in the living room was intense, mainly because he and Dawn were the only ones in it. One uncomfortable situation exchanged for an even less comfortable one.
He'd thought it might not be so bad, that maybe he'd exaggerated the whole situation in his mind. Only, when he and Rupert had arrived Dawn hadn't spoken to him, hadn't even looked at him. She was only in here with him now because neither he nor her were welcome in dining room, where Rupert, Joyce, Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara waited for Buffy.
Still, he felt that he had covered his hurt and disappointment well, his face a stoic mask.
XXX
Dawn was not a happy Key. Her mom had told her off time for being so insensitive with William, which was so totally unfair because he's the one who didn't want to spend time with her, and now she had to sit in the lounge with him sitting on the other side of the room looking all kicked-puppyish. How dare he look cute in her house?
She was gearing up to give William a piece of her mind - because he really shouldn't ignore her like this - only to be interrupted by the door opening. She jumped to her feet and saw her sister come in, looking dazed. The Scoobies quickly assembled and almost all of them froze in shock.
There were two people with Buffy. There was a tall brunette woman wearing odd, black clothes. The only skin on her body that was exposed was her face, which was fully revealed by the bun her hair had been pulled back into. But it wasn't the girl who was causing shock in all of the Scoobies except William.
The figure that had that honour was a tall man, sandy brown hair. He had soft brown eyes in an open, friendly face that was only marred by a scar running through his left eyebrow, skipping his eye and continuing to run onto his cheekbone for a couple of inches. His broad, muscular form was clothed in the same black material as the girl.
"Hey," he said into the silence when it became apparent that no-one else was planning on saying anything.
"Agent Finn returns," Dawn said with an eyebrow arched sarcastically.
XXX
"Let's hurry this up, Rack," the English figure drawled lazily. "The Destroyer's been on the scene for too long a time already, and the other players are making their moves."
"I'm going as fast as I can," Rack snarled, before shrinking back in fear from the leather-clad figure before him. Clearly, the warlock feared him. He should. "This is a delicate procedure, and it'll take a lot more power."
The peroxide blond nodded to a robed figure in the shadows who left the chamber. A pair of cloaked figures came in shortly after, dragging an unconscious boy between them. Rack stared at the boy intently, causing the smaller man's lip to curl in a feral half-smile.
"Take what you need from the boy."
Tension left Rack's body as he pressed his hands down on the boy's shoulders before the younger man arched, screaming in pain. An ecstatic look slid over the warlock's face as he drained the young man of his life, a nimbus of blue energy surrounding Rack.
An arm shot to the centre of the chamber, pointing to the space in between the ring of corpses covered in arcane symbols, and the light began to gather in a tight ball of intensely bright energy. As the last of the light left Rack, the throbbing sphere of power in the middle of the giant chamber exploded, the resulting light blinding everyone in the room.
When the light faded away, the blond figure stalked silently across the concrete floor, despite his heavy black boots. There was now a crater in the middle of the room, and he peered into it.
"Welcome to hell."
XXX
A/N: It's all about trust people. When was the last time I betrayed you? Just trust me, and review. Or the Scoobies all die in the next chapter! Well, not really. But maybe! You never know. Unless you're me. Because then you would know, being the writer. REVIEW
