FIC: A New World (5/?)

Connor stared in bemusement at the beauty in his arms for a second before shaking himself out of his shock. Lifting Dawn's limp body into his arms he disappeared into the darkness.

Giles looked in disbelief at the former Watcher's corpse. They were in the former Watcher's living room. Zabuto was sat in his chair, a ghastly hole in his chest and S&W revolver resting on his lap. "He didn't do it."

"I beg your pardon?" Giles tore his gaze from his colleague's body to look towards his son.

Xander stepped past him and crouched down by the body, taking obvious care not to touch it. "Where's the suicide note?" Giles looked towards Vi and Rona, both Slayers shook their heads. "And suicides usually don't shoot themselves in the heart, it's always the head."

"How can you be sure?" Vi asked.

Xander's gaze didn't shift from his inspection of the corpse, but his stark answer made Giles' heart shrivel. "I thought about it enough this last year." Finally Xander stood and turned to face them. "We can't use the phone, it might be bugged," the founding Scooby declared. "All this might be a trap. We best leave now."

"Very well," Giles turned to the Slayers. "Let's go."

"Why didn't you let me go to Woodie?"


"How do you intend to find our assailants?" Angel stopped at his companion's query. He'd been so consumed with vengeful thoughts of tearing his enemies apart he hadn't even considered how he'd find out who they were. "I have a few contacts remaining from my pre Wolfram & Hart days," he replied uncertainly. "We'll track them down."

"A good plan," the goddess. "Then we'll torture them for information."

Angel resisted the urge to shudder. And he thought Angelus was visceral. "In my experience bribes usually work better. Torture is always a last resort." He stopped as his mobile began to ring. "Who in the hell?"


Giles stared at the Bostonian Slayer. "I beg your pardon?" it was the first time since he'd tasered her that Faith had spoken her silence.

"Woodie needed me," Faith glared at him, the look in her eyes causing his stomach to flutter nervously. "And you kept me from him. Why?"

"Faith," Giles struggled for words, rocked by the intensity of the senior Slayer's hatred. "You're my charge, I couldn't let you sacrifice yourself-."

"Ah bullshit!" Faith snorted. "You're just like all the rest. My ma's boy-friends needed me to be their special girl. Lin needed me to be her Slayer. Just like you," the east coast native jabbed a furious finger his way, "needed me to stay in a shithole of a hotel so I was close enough to give your precious daughter back-up, but not so close that you'd actually have to treat me like I mattered!"

"Faith that's not -."

"Now," he was alarmed to see tears welling in the brunette's soulful brown eyes, "one of the only two people to ever treat me with respect are dead and you need me to help you find his murderers. And that's five by five. I'll help you hunt down and kill every last one of the bastards. But afterwards," the young woman's heart-shaped lips curled up in disdain, "I'm through with the Council. I'm gonna go work with Angel. You got a problem with that, you best send another one of those wet works teams after me."

Giles stared aghast at the brunette's shapely behind as she stormed out of the room. He hadn't meant to use Faith, he really hadn't. But with hindsight, he could see that, consumed with Jenny's death, Angel's return, and Buffy's Crucitamen, he'd terribly neglected her. He started when he felt a hand on his elbow. "Come on G-Man," Xander muttered in his ear. "Whatever killed Zabuto might be watching this place."

"Quite," he replied dazedly. Whatever it took, he'd make it up to that poor girl he silently promised.


Angel stared at the ringing phone. "Are you not going to answer it?"

"Um?" he glanced over his shoulder to the hybrid stood behind him. "Thinking about it," he replied. "Problem is, most of the people I know who have this number are dead. It's probably an enemy ringing to check that I'm dead."

"My guide mentioned that he used Caller Id to avoid calls from the half-breed Harmony," Illyria commented slowly. "Does your phone not have such a tool."

Angel winced. Great, now the recently resurrected were more familiar with modern-day technology than him. If he was human he'd be blushing right about now. "Yeah," he admitted brusquely before glancing down at the display. Eyes widening, he answered the phone with a bark. "Connor! Why are you ringing me?"


Xander kept a worried eye on Giles as the grey-faced Watcher drove them through Newmarket's streets, the earliness of the hour meaning that the roads were thankfully mostly devoid of traffic. The strain of the last couple of hours had left the Council head haggard and drawn, his usually bright and alert eyes dull and lifeless.

And then there was, Xander risked a discreet glance into the rear view mirror, Faith. He'd hated her for so long for living when his Anya had died. It hadn't seemed right that the bitch who'd tried to kill him had survived while the girl he'd wanted to spend the rest of his life with hadn't.

But the hurt and pain in the outburst she'd directed at Giles had robbed him of much of his rage. Willow, Anya, Deadboy, and Peroxide Boy should have taught him there were shades of grey in the world and not just black and white. "Never was the sharpest knife in the drawer," he muttered to himself. He now regretted the off-hand and, he winced, downright rude he'd treated her attempts at reconciliation. Faith really needed a friend right now but she didn't have anybody. And given her current mood making up would be a heck of a chore. But she was worth the attempt.

For himself, he was ashamed to admit it but today's events had shaken him out of his year-long depression. Ensuring that Giles, Vi, Rona, and now Faith were protected and avenging those who'd died in the keep had focussed him, given him a reason to continue. At least for now. Xander's remaining eye narrowed as he noticed something. "Giles, pull over."


Connor smiled at his father's tone. "Daddy, I'm hurt. So recently re-united and already you've no time for me?"

"Connor," he could almost hear the Irish vampire counting to ten. "It's not that I'm not-."

"Relax dad," his tone turned serious. "Are you okay?"

His father sighed "I'm okay, but Wes and Gunn, they're dead."

"Oh," Connor felt as if he'd been punched in the gut. His memories were fragmentary at best but her remembered enough. He swallowed the bitter bile rising in his throat. "I'm sorry."

"So am I," his father paused for a second. "Do you need something?"

"Yeah," Connor swallowed. His dad wasn't going to like his news at all. "After speaking to you I jumped on the next plane to Italy and went to see Buffy to ask for help-."

"YOU DID WHAT!"

Connor swallowed at his father's interrupting roar. Even a half a world away his parent was still scary. "But when I got there, she was dead. I managed to get her sister out there though."

"Buffy," his father croaked. "Who?"

"I'm not clear, Dawn fainted after I rescued her."

"Okay," his father paused for a second. "Well done for saving Dawn. Now were are you staying, at a hotel?"

"Yes, at the-."

"Don't tell me," the vampire interrupted. "This line might be tapped. Are you registered under your old or new name?"

"New."

"Okay, that's good. They're less likely to know that. You remember Faith and Willow."

"Yes." He nodded. The frighteningly powerful red-head and the sex-bomb Slayer were difficult to forget even after a memory-altering spell.

"Good, have you got some paper and a pen?"

"Yeah."

"Here are their numbers. Ring them both, tell them what's happened. If anyone else answers or you get their machine just hang-up. Keep moving, change your address daily. Whatever took Buffy out is out of your league."

"I can handle myself!" Connor hissed, bristling at the insinuation.

"Son, who are the best fighters you've ever fought?"

"You and Faith," Connor answered without hesitation.

"Buffy beat us both."

"Oh." Humbled, Connor nodded. "I'll do as you ask."

"Good, I'll get over to Italy as soon as possible. Ring me daily. And soon?"

"Yes."

"I love you."