Chapter 2

Rupert Giles was incensed. Angry. Outraged. He felt like he was all the adjectives for pissed off when he finally laid eyes on his old friend.

Ethan was kneeling in the barely lit storeroom before white, two-faced bust of Janus, muttering Latin, Greek, Yoruba and a mix of several dead languages at a tongue-twisting pace.

"Chronos, Mari, Urðr, Ori, Shiva, Hemuset… Janus—I beseech you!" Ethan exclaimed thunderously before his voice turned weak and muttering again.

Gods of time and fate? From many different pantheon, no less. It wasn't too uncommon to call the power of multiple gods at once, but Ethan was no great mage. If even half of those named gods gifted him with their grace Ethan was just as likely to explode as he was to channel it all.

"Ethan, what have you done?" Rupert asked.

Ethan twitched, and his rapid fire chanting slowed briefly before it picked up again. Giles wanted to go over and bash the man's head in, but noticed Willow and Cordelia had followed him. He hesitated to act violently in front of the children, but he would bloody his hands if Ethan didn't undo the spell that endangered Buffy, and undo it quickly.

"Giles, what's he doing?" Willow asked.

"And what is that decor disaster?" Cordelia added, pointing at the Janus statue.

"Willow, is he the one who sold you the costumes?"

"Yeah. But, Giles—"

"Whatever it is you did to create this nightmare, Ethan, you will undo it. Now."

The sound of shattering glass made the girls jump. Buffy's hysterical screeching came next. Rupert removed his glasses and put them in his jacket pocket before he stalked towards Ethan.

"Alright, that's enough."

"No, wait," Ethan rasped, his body shaking violently.

"Then stop this madness."

Now that he was closer, Rupert noticed how pallid and sweaty Ethan's face was. He should be brimming with energy, instead he looked like he was about to drop dead at any moment.

"What's happened?"

Ethan shuddered and coughed. "S-something… I don't understand what went wrong," he said.

Rupert watched sweat drip from Ethan's dark soppy hair like rain droplets. Most of the fabric of his red silk shirt was black with perspiration. Even the floor around Ethan was wet with his sweat.

Suddenly Rupert realized Ethan was suffering from casting exhaustion. He was using up life force to regulate the power granted him from the ether. Drawing from one's core was like running a marathon while trying to play Grand Master level chess at the same time—one could only do so for so long before the mind and body shattered under the strain.

Ethan's stamina and concentration had to be at their absolute limits.

"The costumes... the magic in them is being consumed then changed into the antithesis of magic."

"It's the Borg," Willow said.

Giles glanced back at her. "What do you mean?"

"The Borg inject nanoprobes into people when they start the assimilation process," said Willow. "The technology to create the nanoprobes is centuries more advanced than anything found on Earth."

Rupert only understood half of what Willow told him, but it was enough. All Giles needed to understand was these Borg possessed science that was as, if not more, powerful than the magic that turned them from a thing of fiction into a dangerous reality.

"Ethan, damn you, stop the spell!" Rupert demanded.

"That won't be e-enough," Ethan said. "I must turn the spell back on itself. If I don't, what's been changed by the corruption may not change back!"

"Mr. Giles! The Borg have probably assimilated half of Sunnydale by now!" Cordelia said.

Thousands of souls could be lost to those hideous machines if they didn't act quickly! Then there was the fierce, ever more clamorous battle happening at the front of the store. Whatever Angel was doing to hold back the Cybermen rejects he wouldn't be able to do it forever. His efforts all the more desperate since he couldn't seriously injure or kill his opponents.

Buffy let out another blood-curdling scream.

"Whatever. You figure out this mess," Cordelia told Rupert before she ran out to help Angel fight back the Borg.

Rupert didn't bother to protest. The girl knew it was dangerous; she didn't need him to state the obvious. Cordelia's decisiveness made Rupert realize his worry for Buffy and wariness of Ethan had deprived him of his own clarity and boldness to act.

No longer.

Rupert knelt behind Ethan and placed his hand on Ethan's shoulder.

"Take what you need from me," Rupert said.

Then he dug his fingers into Ethan's flesh until he could feel bone and his hand his was soaked in Ethan's sweat.

Rupert leaned in close and whispered, "If this is another one of your cons, Ethan…"

When Ethan didn't appear to register pain that's when Rupert understood just how on his back foot Ethan really was.

Ethan took a deep breath and began chanting. His words flowed more smoothly as the strength he drew from Rupert meant he didn't need to pull from his own dwindling core and weaken his body further.

Rupert soon began to feel Ethan siphon power from him.

It was dangerous giving a man like Ethan Rayne unfettered access to his essence. Ethan could embed a curse, or dominate Rupert's very will—even kill him. However, Rupert felt no ill intent through their connection. The one way flow of power between them was steady and quite painless as Ethan expertly drew from Rupert's core and used the power to unweave the spell.

From the store front Rupert heard what sounded like a hundred buzzing robotic voices blaring from a dozen loud speakers.

"WE ARE THE BORG. YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN. YOUR CULTURE WILL ADAPT TO SERVICE US. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."

Following the Borg's chilling declaration Buffy unleashed her most terrified scream yet. Rupert could hardly blame her. He imagined being near whatever made such a dire threat would scare him spit-less as well.

"Giles!" Cordelia called out. "Now would be a good time to stop these tentacle raping creeps!"

Good Lord! Rupert didn't want to find out why Cordelia called the Borg that. "Ethan, hurry."

"Almost. When I give the word destroy the statue," Ethan said then resumed chanting.

"Angel, help!" Cordelia cried out.

"Get away from her!" Angel shouted.

Willow must have joined the others in front at some point because she cried out Cordelia's name. There was a scream that lasted only a few seconds before it was silenced.

"Damn you, you bastards!" The outrage in Angel's voice was palpable.

A moment later Angel's body came hurtling through the room like a cannonball, and only missed striking Rupert and Ethan by a hairsbreadth. Angel hit the back wall, head first. There was a crack of bone, the splatter of cold blood, then Angel was still. Of course he wasn't dead, but he'd need time to heal. Until then he was out of the fight.

"No! Leave me be, you monsters!" Buffy pleaded.

"Stay back!" Willow yelled.

Rupert heard Willow's desperation and imagined the girl trying to shield Buffy from the Borg, and the Borg walking through her like she was air.

"Please, don't!" Willow pleaded.

Rupert closed his eyes and waited for Buffy's screaming to start. It came, full of panic and terror, then it was cut off as quickly as it had started. Gritting his teeth, Rupert pretended tears weren't burning his eyes.

"Now, Ripper!" Ethan said.

Rupert leaped at the bust just as the Borg swarmed inside. They came in two at a time, their white ashen skin and black veined appearance all the more unnerving up close. Rupert grabbed the statue with both hands and threw it at the floor as hard as he could.

There was a flash of intense green light, and when Rupert looked up from the broken idol he saw confused but normal looking people asking each other where they were and how they got there. Rupert noticed none of the former Borg wore a costume; just the tattered remnants of everyday clothing.

Buffy and Cordelia pushed their way into the back of the shop. Buffy looked relieved to see Rupert, a feeling which Rupert certainly reciprocated. When Buffy's gaze landed on Angel laying motionless on the other side of the room she ran over to aid him however she could.

To Rupert's surprise Cordelia also looked pleased to see him. Rupert gave her a warm smile and a nod, and she returned both. Rupert made a mental note to commend her for her courage later.

Rupert searched for Willow in the crowd before he surmised she returned to her physical body after the spell ended.

"Well done, old man."

Rupert looked down and saw Ethan laying on the floor on his side. For a very brief moment Rupert was tempted to tend to his old friend, but resisted. It was disappointing enough he didn't feel like kicking Ethan's guts out through his back. Rupert supposed he was simply happy they managed to stop the Borg and win the night.

"This could have been a massive disaster," Rupert rebuked.

Ethan coughed and let out a wheezy chuckle. He rolled onto his back and looked up at Rupert with humorless eyes. Ethan's exhaustion and bloodless pallor had aged him ten years.

"Oh, it's still a right mess, Rupert," Ethan said.