Summary: Certain books have found their way to Sunnydale, pre-Buffy.
Disclaimer: I dun' own nuttin'!
Feedback, it makes me write faster. (You know you want to do the feedback thing.)
Pre-Fic Comments:
I'm not /entirely/ sure where this idea for Willow came from.
For you ff.net readers, this fic gets updated quicker on the XanderZone ( )
* * *
Giles woke up slowly. It was four in the morning, and he had only gotten to bed two hours ago after helping Buffy patrol and study for her maths quiz.
He got up, fumbling for his glasses, and switched on the light.
Someone banged on the door again, repeatedly. A female voice shouted "Hurry up, Giles!"
He rushed to the front door, knocking over a few piles of books on his way down the staircase.
"Ah. Good morning, Willow, what can I do for you?"
Willow had her arms full of what looked like telephone company books. She looked at Giles, puzzled.
"Why are you wearing a nightie?"
"This is a nightshirt!"
"Whatever. Look, I just need to hide some stuff here for awhile, okay?," Willow said, panicky.
"Might I ask what it is that you wish to conceal?," the Watcher asked, his mind starting to turn over.
"Well, I kinda was looking through the NSA's files, and I think they might have kind of thought of perhaps looking for me," Willow said. "It's probably nothing, but I don't want to take any chances. But if you don't want me to hide my notes here--"
"It's okay," Giles sighed. "Here, I'll put them in the spare room for now."
"Thanks! You're the best, Giles! Um, I'll go get the rest, now."
"The rest?!"
* * *
Half an hour later, the two were sitting over a cup of tea and a cup of milo.
"So," Giles said. "Why didn't you ask Xander, Jesse or Buffy if they could look after your notes?"
"Their parents would go nuts?," Willow tried.
Giles looked at her.
"Okay, I didn't want to admit to failure," she sighed. "I just went too far too fast."
"Have you told your friend Malcolm about your... activities?," Giles asked.
"No! He'd think I was a crazy woman," Willow replied.
"It's good to see you're still thinking," Giles said. "The others are only worried that this Malcolm might not be who he appears to be."
"I guess I did come down hard on them," Willow admitted. "I'll apologise tomorrow."
* * *
Later that day, Giles looked up at his proteges, minus Willow.
"Uh, that Calendar woman found that this, this book is /blank/," he said, holding up a really old tome with a picture of a horned demon on the front.
"Uh... was that, by any chance, a medieval fairytale book and /not/ a Seal?," Xander asked.
"Not at all," Giles said. "Rather charming chap called Moloch the Corrupter used to be in here."
Buffy blinked. "Giles, did you release Moloch?!"
"No!"
"Who's Moloch?," Jesse asked. "'Cause I can't remember no Moloch."
"The Corrupter," Giles began, "is a very deadly and seductive demon. He draws people to him with promises of love, power, knowledge. Preys on impressionable minds."
"Like Dave's!," Buffy said, drawing a conclusion.
"So, who read it?," Jesse asked.
"No one, as far as I can tell," Giles said. "That dreadful Calendar woman found it and it was already blank."
"If he's so powerful, why is he bothering with Dave?," Xander wondered.
"I don't know," Giles said. "And I don't know who could have read it. It-it wasn't in English."
"I never thought I'd say this," Xander said, "but /Yay/ for American monolinguism."
"Where was it?," Buffy asked, trying to narrow it down.
"Uh, in a pile with some others to be scanned," Giles recalled.
The four looked at the computer. Giles had a slightly triumphant expression. He /knew/ that no good would come of that machine!
"And that released the demon?," Jesse asked.
"No," Buffy said. "He's not out here. He's in there."
"So he's digital information stuck in this thing?," Giles asked, wanting to be sure. "Could we smash it and kill him?"
"No luck," Jesse said. "This computer is networked to the rest of the school. The school is networked to the rest of the world. He could be in Russia or Japan or Canada or something."
"So, what are we gonna do?," Xander asked.
"Willow scanned him into her file," Giles thought. "It may be a futile gesture, but perhaps we could delete him?"
"Solid!," the Slayer said.
She moved over to the computer.
"Which file is it? Uh, 'Willow'? That's probably it. I'll just delete the whole thing."
Buffy dragged the folder on the Macintosh's desktop to the Trash, then jumped back in fright when an exquisitely beautiful face appeared on the monitor.
"Stay away from Willow! It is none of your business," the face said. For all it's beauty, it was repulsive to the Slayer.
The monitor returned to the normal view one sees when using a Macintosh computer.
"Well, now we know who Malcolm is," Buffy said.
* * *
The demonic vampire looked at the other vampire. "You ain't one of the Bosses breed. Who're you, giving me orders?"
The demon was forced to silence itself when the other vampire moved across the room faster than it's eyes could follow, pinning it against the wall.
"Listen, scum," Adam said. "I'm Rice breed. I'm stronger than you. I'm smarter than you. And Lasombra accepted me into his clan. So learn some respect."
"Okay, sure," the demonic vampire said. "It's cool?"
Adam let it fall to the floor. "It's cool. Now. This is what you're going to do. You're going to pass on a message to someone. You've drawn courier duty."
* * *
"Come, Assamite. It's not that big a job," the Tzimisce vampire said. "I know that it's a blue milk run for you."
The vampire facing her shrugged. "Sure, Zhim. I'll check out that companie's offices for you."
"Wonderful," Tzimisce smiled. "Terry, please escort Assam to the Armoury?"
The tall figure behind her nodded. His face was perfect, possessing a rugged handsome quality. His limbs were straight, muscular. His expression held devotion to the female in front of him.
"Come on, I'll show you the way."
* * *
Elizabeth snarled as she made her way to Lasombra's base of operations. She had failed to Possess the Mayor, but had been able to wipe his memory of her.
Damn that little man!
It looked like they would have to work their way from the bottom up, rather than in a pincer hold. Tremere had gone to New York, to establish the Kindred there. She would check in with Lasombra, then travel to New York, checking that Tim was still doing what he should. Then...
There was nothing preventing her from catching a plane to Asia, to grasp more, control the flow of the economies.
* * *
Post-Fic Comments:
I'm theorising that with Xander being mojo-boy, Willow is gonna continue as hacker girl (not dropping that for magic as in canon.) That, and I just re-read some Phrack issues.
As for the Mayor... the Ventrue managed to make him forget her, but that was it.