FIC: A New World (3/?)
"What did you do to her?"
Giles remained calm in the face of Rona's angry cry and despite the raging conflagration behind him, its heat hammering down on him with a fierce intensity. Oh god, all those innocents, there had been over thirty Slayers and more than fifty Watchers and assorted support staff in the building, all ruthlessly butchered. With the distance separating them from the keep he couldn't hear anything but the cracking of the flames but in his mind, he could hear the scream of everyone in there.
It was an effort but he managed to keep his focus. "I used a taser," he raised the offending device. "I visited Dana last night," he explained. When first confronted with Dana he'd been consumed with guilt at what the Calling had done to the already troubled girl and had determined that the Council would do whatever they could do to help her. Their efforts had been in vain and whenever he visited her he'd been forced to arm himself with a taser for his own protection as he refused to have the insane Slayer strait-jacketed. He hated having to carry the weapon, but the girl recognised him from visions of Buffy's past and would cling onto him almost as if seeking protection. She'd never attacked him or any of the Scoobies, but she had attacked others, and so he insisted that all of them be armed when they visited her. Fortunately he'd neglected to remove the weapon from his jacket after last night's visit otherwise Faith would have torn him apart in her futile eagerness to get to Wood.
"Did you have to stun her?" Rona snapped.
"Well no my dear," he snarled. "Maybe I could have talked her down, what do you think?"
The African-American Slayer's eyes flashed and her mouth opened but in a second Vi was between them. "Calm down both of you!" the red-head ordered before turning to him, a look of bewilderment on her face. "Mr. Giles, who?"
He stared at the young woman for a long second before answering. "I don't know," he admitted. There wasn't a shortage of suspects with grievances against the Council, just those with the nerve and resources to strike at its very heart. The only possible candidates he could think of was Wolfram & Hart.
"Oh good lord." If they'd strike here, then Buffy and Willow could also be in danger. Heart thundering, he reached inside his jacket for his mobile.
"Don't.""I beg your pardon?" he looked up to see Xander stood opposite him, a lucidity in his that had been missing for a year. And all it needed was a massacre, if only he'd known he have organised one... Shoving aside his macabre thought, he stared at his sin. "They need to be warned."
"Odds are whoever organised that," his son nodded towards the blazing ruin, "has the resources to tap a cell. We're out-manned, out-gunned, and on the run. Our only advantage is -."
"That they don't know we're still alive. Oh bollocks," Giles digested the unpalatable truth of Xander's words before dropping his mobile back in his pocket. "Very well. I'll need a new mobile."
"We also need a place to re-group. Any ideas?"
"One," Giles turned to Vi and Rona. "Bring her," the two Slayers looked more than little intimidated at that thought of restraining Faith. Which was understandable given the terrifying number of Slays and awesome reputation the Bostonian had built up this past year. "Here," he threw Vi the taser. "Stun her if she resists or tries to harm herself."
"Ugh, this stinks." He chuckled as he sloshed his way through the council's underground tunnels, the sewer's wastage dripping from him. "Still, with the million I got from the Scythe and the three million from the dead Slayers I can buy all the baths I need," he comforted himself. "And all the girls and comic books I've ever wanted."
"Coming!" His host's eyes widened when he opened the door. "Good lord it's been a bloody long time! How long has it been?"
"Twenty-two years. Since you were assigned that potential of yours," he supplied.
His old friend's eyes shadowed at the mention of the girl he'd raised as his daughter only for her to be brutally murdered. "Ah yes, of course. And how might I help you?"
"By dying," he brought his automatic from behind his back and fired. The silenced gun made a mocking phfft before impacting on his former comrade-in-arms' chest. His friend's eyes widened in shock and his mouth opened in a wordless shriek before his legs folded beneath him before falling to the ground. For a second he stared down at the corpse and sighed. "Terribly sorry old bean, but young Rupert's wrecking the Council. We both know it, you're just too soft-hearted to do what needs to be done." He turned to his agents behind him. "Gentlemen, you know what I require of you."
Dawn's breath came in heaving gasps as she raced away from her apartment, sweat soaking her from head to foot and her sister's screams reverberating through her. Buffy dead. She choked back a sob. Grieve later. If you didn't run she'd die too and then she would never get a chance to avenge her sister.
"Well hello pretty thing." Dawn's heart skipped a beat when a quartet of vampires stepped out of the shadows to surround her. Thanks to all the dojo time she'd pestered Buffy into spending with her this past year, she could and had handled two minions on her own on patrol before now. But four. And, her heart dropped further as she realised that in her hurry she'd left her purse behind, she didn't even have a stake. The lead demon leered at her. "We're going to have some fun."
"That's what I hate about you vampires," a voice sounded from behind the demons. "Always wanting to hog the pretty girls."
The moment he'd finished instructing the two Slayers, Giles turned towards the Council car park. Relieved that the inferno hadn't yet reached the car park, he started forward, impatient to be off so that he could find a phone box and safely call Buffy and Willow. "Wait."
He turned towards his surrogate son. "What now?" he demanded in frustration. "We need to get to a car and fast!"
Xander didn't blink. "Our own cars might not be safe."
His fellow male's words brought him up short. "Booby-trapped you mean?" Giles pursed his lips together in thought. It was a possibility that hadn't occurred to him, but was one that was far from impossible."Maybe. But I was thinking out bugs."
"BUGS!" exclaimed Roan. "Someone's trying to kill us and you're worried about a few insects-," the dreadlocked Slayer's voice trailed off when both he and Xander turned to stare at her. "Which aren't the type of bugs you were talking about of-course."
After arching an eyebrow at the teen, a subtle reminder to think before speaking or acting, he turned back to Xander. "What do you suggest?"
Xander grimaced. "If jailbird," the younger man nodded towards Faith's crumpled frame, "was fully awake I'd suggest hot-wiring a car."
"I can do that," Giles interrupted. Ignoring Xander's continuing unwillingness to let go of his and Faith's troubled past, he smirked at Vi and Rona's twin surprised looks. "I wasn't always a bloody Watcher you know."
Illyria scowled as she dropped from the hotel and into the sewers, careful not to drop the unconscious half-breed she was cradling in her arms. She'd sensed the weapon a split-second before it had hit. Enough time for her to throw the nearest half-breed to the ground and cover him with her body, but Spike and the one that the mortal she'd possessed had known as Charles had been killed instantly.
"All will pay for the indignity visited upon me," she intoned. "All will tremble at an old one's fury!"
