Chapter 6: The Master Plan

Challenge: for the livejournal 2020 August Fic-a-Day Challenge

Timeline: now in season 1 of BtVS and SG1; storywise, it starts about 4 months or so after 'XX Origins of Buffy', Chapters 21-24

A/N: Thanks for all the suggestions on how/if to save Angel.

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Stargate SG-1 character belongs to Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright / SyFy Channel. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

Sunnydale

January 1997

Previously…

"I just saved a vampire!" Buffy finished with a heavy sigh.

She moved forward to rectify the situation when a guy appeared out of thin air, yelling, "No! He has a soul!"

"Excuse me?" Buffy exclaimed. "Who the hell are you?"

"Name's Whistler, and Angel there was cursed with his soul by gypsies. He's here to help you!" Whistler quickly answered, not liking the way she was gripping the stake while shooting looks at Angel.

Nobody said anything for a solid thirty seconds, then Buffy started laughing…hard. When she got a hold of herself, she also got a hold of Whistler. In one smooth motion, she tossed the stake to her brother and pulled out a very sharp-looking blade to hold to the new arrival's throat. "Why would I ever trust a vampire to help me? Did you miss the memo where I kill his kind?"

"But he's on your side!" Whistler protested, starting to move forward, only to stop when Buffy's knife drew blood.

"And I'm just supposed to take your word for it?" Buffy scoffed. "I don't think so."

"The other vampires were trying to kill him," was the next attempt.

Giles handled that one. "No, they were beating him up for interfering with the Master's plans. For all we know, he's trying to stage a coup with this Darla creature they were mentioning."

Angel shook his head. "Darla was my sire. I haven't seen her since shortly after I was cursed. She didn't like the stench of humanity surrounding me," he explained moodily. "I don't know what happened to her. Maybe she left town to find Dru and Spike so she can bring them back for the Harvest."

"Are we killing him, Buffy?" Mark interjected. "If we aren't, maybe we should take this somewhere a little less exposed."

Buffy considered some of the things both of these demons (the guy in her grip sure didn't feel human to her) had said to them; certain words sounded like they were capitalized. Capitalized words were rarely good in her opinion. Maybe they should find out what they knew before slaying them. "Alright, back to the library for a little chat. Any wrong moves on your parts and Angel is blowing in the wind and you're ruining my outfit with your blood. Got me?" she growled.

The fact that he was bleeding made Whistler more compliant than he normally would have been. It reminded him that while he might be able to pop away, he wasn't sure he could do it before she slit his throat, which he preferred in the un-slit condition. "Agreed,"

Library

After a long night of interrogating Angel and Whistler, the former who was locked in the cage while the latter was held at knifepoint by Buffy for hours. At least until Giles got him to stay by warning if he left, they'd immediately stake Angel. For whatever reason, that particular threat worked just as well as a knife.

Giles found proof of 'The Whirlwind', a group of four ultra-brutal vampires that terrorized Europe and parts of Asia for nearly two decades before they fell apart for some unknown reason. This was not information to endear the vampire to the Slayer, her Watcher or her brother.

Angel tried to explain the breakup at least – he didn't like dwelling on his evil past, "After I was cursed with the soul, the others left me for two years and I tried to deal with the crushing guilt. Eventually I found them again, but when they tested me by trying to get me to feed on innocents, they cast me aside. I've spent the last century trying to find a way to atone for my past." He neglected to say that most of that century was spent wallowing or isolating himself; no reason to cloud the issue more.

Mark, who had been only partially listening while he researched the Harvest, interrupted, "The Harvest is a ritual that can only be done once a century on the first day of the first waxing crescent moon following the winter solstice. One vampire – the Vessel – will feed on people to give strength to another vampire – presumably this Master guy they keep mentioning. I don't know why he'd need the extra power—"

"Because he's trapped by a mystical force field and needs more power to break free," Angel answered when it looked like Whistler wouldn't. Whistler was mostly remaining silent so that any information the Slayer got, she'd get from the souled vampire, thereby increasing his usefulness to her and hopefully prolonging his existence.

"And that day is…" Buffy prompted her brother, knowing that it wouldn't be 50 years from now.

He quickly searched in a farmer's almanac. "This Friday."

"Swell," Buffy snarked. "And given Murphy's Law, it's probably going to happen at the Bronze because our friends are playing there that night." She turned to Angel and asked, "So you're here to help us fight this Master and his Vessel?"

He shook his head, "I can't go against the Master!"

"Then why am I letting you live, er, survive?" Buffy snapped. "You'll give me vague warnings, but no actual help? I get dreams when I need vagueness!" She left Whistler to move over to the cage so she could stake Angel, but the Powers That Be's mouthpiece took advantage of her shift in attention and popped over to Angel, then popped him away.

"So help me, the next time I see either of them, I'm ripping out their ribcages!" she snarled.

Somewhat disturbed by the sickening imagery, Giles stuttered, "Perhaps I can do some more research on them…once this current threat is dealt with. There may yet be a reason to keep them around – albeit at arm's length."

The Bronze

Friday night

Buffy knew she had to destroy the Vessel to stop things. She didn't even need to know about the mark identifying him because he was the only vampire feeding in the place. The others were trying to round up the students to be sacrifices. To her shock, she had allies among the crowd in the form of Larry – misogynist jerk – and Jonathan – nerdy outcast. They clearly knew something about vampires and were trying to help the rest of the crowd escape. Something to dwell on later.

Just as the Vessel was about to feed on Cordy, Buffy engaged him in battle. She tricked him into believing that he was about to be dusted by the sunrise so she could stake him in the back. What an idiot. Strong, yes; mental giant, no.

As she was about to go find Mark and Giles, Oz and the band stepped in her path. "Vampires are real, huh?" he asked with a slight tilt of his head.

Was it wrong that she'd rather fight than answer his question?

A/N: I decided to go with the cliché, but twist it a little. Angel certainly has his work cut out for him if he wants to play the mysterious guy now. Don't be expecting any Slayer/vampire romance in their future.