Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my work.
The Bronze
Buffy's POV
She could tell that Xander wasn't overly enthused about hanging out Ford but she figured that was likely because the three of them with a close knit group that adding a new member was uncomfortable and unwelcome. Still, she was sure he'd get used to it and just because she was willing to welcome Ford as a friend it didn't mean she was going to let him know about her being the Slayer. He didn't deserve to be pulled into the dark world she visited every time she went on patrol. Already Willow was suffering ill effects of being in close proximity to her since, instead of being with the rest of them, thanks to her nighttime transformation into a gargoyle the redhead had to do everything she could to keep from being seen after the sun went down. Since Halloween that'd meant staying home with the curtains closed and the lights kept to a minimum so no one would see anything or suspect the truth.
Willow did her best to put up a brave front but she could tell that she had still not adjusted to her nighttime form or the transformation she underwent to gain it. Not that she could entirely be blamed for this since she'd be more than a little wierded out herself if she'd been afflicted with the problem herself. Still, she took comfort in the fact that Giles was on the job looking for a counter spell to fix the young genius so, until he succeeded, she'd do her best to keep her friend's spirits up. In fact, after she did a quick patrol of the cemeteries later, she'd go by Willow's place for an hour just to let her know she hadn't been forgotten.
"Your shot, Buff," Xander said, stepping to the side to allow her to make her move. "Just remember: restraint."
She rolled her eyes at this, remembering how the last time she'd played pool with Xander and Willow she'd accidently misjudged her strength sending one of the balls off the table. The only good thing about her embarrassing slip of control was the fact that the ball that went wild struck one of the more pompous jocks on the side of the head while he was putting the moves on a sophomore.
She considered it a lose-win moment.
It was after she successfully made her shot, without mishap she might add, that she looked up to see Ford stroll into the Bronze. She couldn't help but smile at this since she had good memories of her time at Hemery and some of them did involve Ford. She spoke the truth when she said she'd had a crush on him and, while she'd gotten over it well enough, you never quite forgot your first crush.
"Ford! You made it," she said once he was close enough that she didn't need to yell for him to hear her.
"Wasn't hard to find," Ford said coming to a stop next to the pool table. "Nice place."
"We like it," Xander said, sounding happy and not at all snarky like she'd expected. "Care to try your luck?"
"Sure but do you want me to wait?" Ford asked before gesturing to the scattered balls on the pool table. "I'd hate to interrupt your game."
"No biggy," she said, glad to have a restart. "It's not like it's a serious game or anything."
"Oh, I don't know, you were pretty serious a couple of minutes ago," Xander said with a grin on his face. "All measuring your shot, looking at all the angles and everything."
She just glared at him but only at the same level as a shoulder slap.
"Reminds me of your ninth grade beauty contest, Summers," Ford said, clearly enjoying this hint about her pool skills. "After all I heard quite a bit of talk about how long it took you to choose something for the swimsuit competition. Then, of course, when it was finally time to get on stage-"
"Oh, my God, Ford, stop that!" she ordered, giving him a stronger glare but feeling bits of humor sneaking into her. "The more people you tell, the more people I have to kill."
"You can't touch me, Summers," Ford said, sounding completely unafraid of repercussions. "I know all your darkest secrets."
"Care to make a small wager on that?"
Deciding she'd had enough of 'embarrass Buffy time' she put her pool stick downd, "I'm gonna go get a drink. Ford, try not to talk."
With that she left the two young men alone and, while she would've preferred that Willow had been there to keep anything too embarrassing from being talked about, that wasn't the case. She just hoped that Xander would show some restraint because otherwise she was going to have to dig up some blackmail material of her own in order to keep her secrets secret.
She was almost at the bar when out of the crowd came Angel, making her feel distinctly better than she had beforehand.
"Hi," she said, unable to think of anything better to open the conversation with.
"Hey!" he said, sounding like he was pleased to see her as well. "I was hoping you'd show."
She was about to say something when she noticed that she had a cup in his hand and it definitely had something in it from what she could see. This was completely contradictory to everything she knew about vampires so she just had to get some answers.
"You drink! I mean, drinks. Non-blood things," she said, not being able to articulate things quite right.
"There's a lot about me you don't know," Angel said, enjoying the fact that he knew things she didn't.
"I believe that," she said, unintentionally letting out a bit of bitterness as she remembered the little meeting he'd had with some unknown woman last night. "So. What'd you do last night?"
She couldn't help but ask and she would measure his response so she'd know whether to be more suspicious or less.
"Nothin'," Angel replied, doing a decent job of being casual but she was sure she spotted a bit of defensiveness in his tone.
"Nothing at all. You cease to exist?" she asked, making it clear she wanted more details than that.
"No, I mean I stayed in, read," he replied, still not telling her the truth.
Not surprising since a girlfriend could spot these sort of things in her man.
"Oh," she said, deciding that she didn't want to get too hostile here since it'd only cause a scene.
Instead she just turned around and led Angel back to where Xander and Ford looked to be ready to start another game of pool.
"Didn't want that soda after all?" Ford asked, noticing she'd returned without a drink.
"Not thirsty," she replied, divulging no more than that.
Xander nodded in Angel's direction but it was clear that that was about as civil as he intended to be towards the vampire. She personally wished that they got along better but realistically knew that that wasn't going to happen any time soon and definitely not without a great deal of work.
"Hi," Ford said, proving he could be a little more polite.
"This is Ford," she said, turning to face Angel. "We went to school together in L.A."
"Nice to meet you," Angel said, extending his hand for a shake with equal politeness.
"Whoa!" Ford said during the shake. "Cold hands!"
"You're not wrong," Xander said with a knowing look in his eyes.
She nailed him with a look that clearly said 'mind your manners'.
"So, you're here visiting Buffy?" Angel asked, trying to make the question sound casual.
"No, I'm actually here to stay," Ford said with minimal aggression. "Just moved down."
Oh great! Alpha male chest thumping! she thought, seeing that the two of them were revving up for.
Honestly it was something she should've seen coming but she was in no mood to put up with it if she could avoid it.
"Y'know, it's getting really crowded in here tonight," she said before turning to Ford. "Um… I'm a little hot. You wanna take a walk?"
"Um, sure! That'd be nice," Ford said, sounding a bit surprised at the invitation.
"Okay, then, um…" she said before turning to Xander and Angel. "I'll see all of you tomorrow."
With that she led Ford to the Bronze entrance and, once they were outside, hopefully she wouldn't have to deal with any more posturing and she could just spend the rest of the evening enjoying an old classmate's company.
The Rosenberg Home
Willow's Bedroom
Willow's POV
I don't know whether to be happy or sad that my parents are going to be a few days late coming home this time, she thought as she tried to use a comb to tame the wild hair she got every time she transformed. I mean, it's a good thing since it'll give Giles more time to find the counter spell but kinda sad too since they're away often enough as it is.
Not that she held a grudge against them for it, though. She knew that they'd be home more if they could but their careers were very demanding and they had obligations that just couldn't be avoided without serious consequences. Considering the fact that they were the earning the money that paid for everything she owned as well as for her education, she could show at least a little lenience. Besides, they were fairly good at making it home in time for all the major holidays and her birthday, so it wasn't like she never saw them at all.
Besides, it was only a few extra days.
She could wait.
Of course a little voice in the back of her mind asked her what she planned on doing if Giles wasn't able to find a cure for her by the time her parents returned. After all, despite how learned the Watcher was, she knew that proper research took some time and that trying to get it done too quickly would only result in mistakes. Seeing as how Giles had been made Watcher to a Slayer, she could only presume that he'd made very few mistakes so he respected research enough to do it right. If finding a counter spell took longer than the few days, she had until her parents came back…
No. Don't think about it, she thought as she put her comb down. Even if they do come back, they usually only stay for two or three days before going somewhere else. I just need to 'sleep over' at Buffy's place while they're here and they won't suspect a thing. If necessary I'll just say I need after school hours in the library for a project of mine. That'll be enough to keep my 'condition' a secret.
She felt oddly guilty about lying to her parents but she knew that coming straight out to them with the truth would be a mistake. After all, unlike her, they didn't know the truth about the world and while gargoyles weren't entirely unattractive in the cartoon, reality didn't quite match up to that. She'd looked at her nighttime form the second time it happened and was a little annoyed at how the animators of the cartoon had left out a significant amount of detail. For one thing the horns and spikes were not seamlessly integrated into the skin without any visible joining point. Instead they were like horns and spikes you'd find in normal animals in that they looked as though they pierced the flesh and that the flesh merely healed around them. In terms of color they did possess a faded variation on the blue skin tone she had as a gargoyle but only just to keep them from being labeled white. The talons on her digits were a little better since they appeared to be at the halfway point between human fingernails and talons found on birds.
This was a good thing since it meant that she could still use things like her computer or the house phone while in gargoyle form, though it did take some adjustment in her technique to avoid damaging anything. After all she'd confirmed to her satisfaction that she was indeed strong enough to crush solid stone and that her talons were sharp enough as well as durable enough to leave deep marks in them, so damaging stuff was easy if you were careless.
She'd been careless enough already with doorknobs and cupboard doors.
She really didn't need to add more suspicious damages or even more suspicious purchases to the credit card her parents had given her once she hit her teens. She used it as sparingly as she could and usually it was either for school supplies or the usual groceries every other week. So far she'd been able to pay for most of the damage she'd accidentally caused on her own using her own savings, but even that'd run out quick if she wasn't careful at night.
That was why she'd decided this afternoon that from here on out she'd try to get as much work done while she was still human during the day so she could minimize the possibility of accidental damage.
Tap, Tap.
Turning her head sharply, she looked at her window, unconsciously spreading her wings in response to a possible threat and only quick reflexes kept her lamp from getting knocked off the table. Gently putting it back where it belonged, she walked over to the window, with much less wobbling than in the beginning, parting the blinds to find the last person she expected there.
Angel.
Reflexively she tried to cover up because, despite her best efforts, the only clothes that worked for her in both her forms was a sports bra and spandex shorts she had. It'd been a birthday present her parents had gotten her last year when they'd thought she could use a little more exercise as well as time away from her computer. The bra was designed well enough that her wings were able to pop out without tearing through it and, with some improvised sewing, the shorts could now accommodate her tail.
Nevertheless it left her feeling more than a little exposed, even though it wasn't as bad as some of the things she'd seen girls wear at the beach.
Caping her wings over her body, something she'd practiced the first night after Halloween, she managed to conceal quite a bit but she still wanted Angel to go away as swiftly as she could manage.
"Angel!" she said after she opened the window. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you," Angel replied but without saying anything more.
Talk to her? Why?
Still, if he had his reasons, she should probably find out more so she gestured for him to invite her in. However, despite this invitation, the good vampire didn't do a thing.
"Well?" she said, not understanding why he wasn't accepting her invite.
"I can't. Unless you verbally invite me, I can't come in," Angel said, explaining his lack of action.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, internally criticizing herself for not connecting the dots. "Well, okay, I invite you. To come in."
Walking away from the window, she went to her closet and immediately pulled out her bathrobe, utilizing it as best she could to cover up more. Even with her wings caped she couldn't put it over them so instead she wrapped it around her waist like a skirt and looked with satisfaction as it covered everything down to here ankles.
"I-if this is a bad time, I-" Angel said after noticing her discomfort.
"N-no! It's just I'm not supposed to have boys in my room and…" she said, trying to put him at ease, "…I'm still not entirely used to… looking like this."
"I promise to be on my best behavior," Angel said with a reassuring grin.
"What do you need?" she asked, figuring that speeding things up would be good for both of them.
"I need your help," Angel replied, taking on a more cautious disposition. "I want you to track someone down. On the 'net."
"Oh!" she exclaimed, glad that it was something she could handle easily enough. "Great! I'm so the 'net girl."
Going over to the desk she used for schoolwork she started booting up her computer.
"I just wanna find everything I can," Angel said, conveying his intentions. "Records, affiliates, I'm not even sure what I'm looking for yet."
When her computer finished booting up she brought up the customized web browser she'd programmed and went to the search engine.
"Good. What's the name?" she asked, ready to begin sifting through the internet.
"Billy Fordham," Angel replied with utmost seriousness.
What? Was this some sort of jealousy thing? If it was Angel was definitely taking things a couple of steps further than Xander.
"Uh, Angel?" she asked, deciding to gently try to push aside the man's jealousy. "If I say something you REALLY don't wanna hear, do you promise not to bite me?"
"Are you gonna tell me that I'm jealous?" Angel asked, sounding like he'd expected a reaction like this.
"Well, you do sometimes get that way," she replied, hoping he didn't get angry.
"You know, I never used to," Angel said as he moved over to sit on her bed. "Things used to be pretty simple. A hundred years, just hanging out, feelin' guilty…I really honed by brooding skills. Then she comes along. Yeah, I get jealous. But I know people. And my gut tells me something is wrong with this guy."
She had to admit that, as old as Angel was, he would have gained quite a bit of experience reading people and his vampire senses would've only made it that much easier. So with only a little reluctance she began to look for information on Buffy's old classmate from L.A., starting with anything in the last year or so. If she found nothing suspicious in that timeframe she'd go further back until she either hit pay dirt or the info was too old to be useful.
"Okay…" she said as the information began to scroll up the screen, "but if there isn't anything weird… hey, that is weird."
She'd decided to start somewhere close by so she hacked into Sunnydale High School's computers to access Ford's records but, even though she was looking at the top ten most recent additions, there was no sign of the dark haired young man. She kept looking, searching other sections of the school database in case whoever was in charge was being lazy, but all she got was the same nothing as before.
"What is it?" Angel asked, sounding very interested.
"I just checked the school records and he's not in them," she said, turning halfway towards the vampire. "I mean, usually they transfer your grades and stuff, but he's not even registered."
"He said he was in school with you guys, right?" he asked, obviously looking to build on that discrepancy.
"Let me just see if I can find out more," she replied even as she began to expand her search past Sunnydale High School. "It'll take some time, though."
"I'll come by tomorrow after sunset," Angel said, looking like he wasn't willing to push her to work quicker.
"No problem," she said, figuring that between her free period at school tomorrow plus the time she'd have after nightfall she'd have more for him by then.
"Don't tell Buffy what we're doing, alright?" Angel asked, sounding a little worried about what might happen if the Slayer found out.
She had a fairly good idea and didn't relish having to endure it any more than Angel was but nodded to show him that she'd keep quiet. Until she had more than missing school records it would be foolish and useless to talk to Buffy about her old friend.
Watching Angel as he left the same way he came, she began to ponder the possibility that Ford was indeed up to something and wondered what it could be. You only did something in secret if you thought telling people about it would make accomplishing it impossible. What could Ford be up to that he thought Buffy would stop if she knew?
Something bad. Perhaps something VERY bad.
With that in mind she worked all the harder to find even the smallest wrinkle in Ford's digital paper trail because if the teenager was up to no good and it involved Buffy, she was going to put an end to it.
Using whatever means proved necessary to keep her first real gal pal safe from harm.
An Alleyway in Sunnydale
The Following Night
Xander's POV
Seeing the sign 'The Sunset Club', he had a bad feeling about what they'd find inside.
While he was willing to admit that it was possible the owner had chosen the name for how it sounded rather than for any hidden meaning, he knew that things on the Hellmouth were rarely that innocent.
"The only thing I could track down was this address. The Sunset Club," Willow said as she walked beside him and Deadboy, her wings caped around her shoulders. "Still didn't find anything incriminating."
"He leaves no paper trail, no records; that's incriminating enough." Angel said as they continued towards the entrance to the club.
"Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with Deadboy on this one," he said even if he didn't like the little story he'd been told.
Apparently Lord Forehead had gotten so jealous about how Buffy acted around Ford that he'd stopped by Willow's house and asked her to do some digging into the former Hemery student's background. While he wasn't as worried as he might have otherwise been thanks to the fact that he knew his best bud was strong enough to tear the vamp limb from limb, he still didn't like the image of the corpse being in her room. The whole invitation clause thing was one of the few things that eased his mind when his imagination pictured how things'd turn out if the demons began targeting Scoobies. While it was true an invite from one vamp didn't extend to the entire undead species, he didn't trust Angel but rather tolerated him because of Willow and Buffy. He knew that if he got too antagonistic or started talking about staking the brooding wonder, they'd vehemently oppose him while slinging words like 'jealous' at him.
No thank you!
"Could you NOT call me that?" Angel asked, clearly annoyed at the nickname.
He just smiled one of his usual smiles because, while he might not be able to outright call for the souled vamp's head without reprisal, the girls offered him a lot more leeway when it came to name calling or wisecracks.
"I'm gonna knock," Deadboy said before looking at Willow. "You should probably get on the rooftop across from the entrance. You'll… stand out too much if you come with us."
He had to narrow his eyes a bit at Angel pointing out Willow's inhuman form like that but his anger was tempered a bit by the fact that he had to acknowledge that a gargoyle would turn more than a few heads inside. This was a reconnaissance mission rather than something more direct and that meant not giving anyone inside the club a reason to make them think the 'newbies' were suspicious. With slightly hurt eyes Willow nodded before walking over to the brick wall and beginning her climb to the rooftop, digging her talons in with periodic crunching. Once Lord Forehead was sure the female gargoyle was out of sight he knocked on the entrance to the club and soon after the viewport slid open to reveal human eyes.
"We're friends of Ford's," Deadboy said, smartly using the name of someone who was a regular to facilitate entry.
Once he and Angel were inside, though, he could immediately tell that not sticking out like sore thumbs was not going to be an option for them. While Deadboy's outfit might allow him to blend a bit, it wasn't perfect and his own preference for Hawaiian shirts made him stand out.
"In no way do we stick out in this crowd," he said as he did his best not to attract more attention then his clothes probably already were.
"Let's look around," Angel said after glancing around a bit. "You check downstairs. I'll stay up here."
"Sure thing, mon capitan!" he said with a bit of snark even though he did as asked and descended down some stairs to the lower level of the club.
Once he reached the bottom of the stairs he just looked about, casually evaluating everything he saw to try and figure out what Ford was up to. While a lot of the clothes were all Victorian era, that didn't narrow down the genre all that much but, when he found a man in a coffin dressed like a Hollywood vampire, he got a BIG clue.
"Hi," the man in the coffin said with a wave of his hand.
He waved back but in his head he jumped to the most likely conclusion and it didn't sit well with him at all: this was a vamp fan club! He couldn't help but feel disgust at the people surrounding him for idolizing the things that'd killed Jesse and who knew how many others over the past millennia. How anyone could see them as anything other than monsters he didn't know but he did know he didn't want to stay in the club longer than he absolutely had to.
"You're new here, aren't you?" a blonde girl said, approaching him in a dark blue dress with black lace trim. "I can tell."
"Nah!" he said, trying to sound like the idea was preposterous. "I come here all the time. I just left my Phantom costume at home this time."
While he was tempted to admit to being new, he thought the girl might be a little more open if she could be fooled into believing he was a regular.
"Don't be ashamed!" the girl said with a welcoming smile on her face. "It's cool that you're open to it. We welcome anyone who's interested in the Lonely Ones."
"The Lonely Ones?" he asked even though he figured he knew what the term was referring to.
"Vampires," Angel said, popping out of nowhere and damn near making him jump.
That is IT! I'm putting a bell around Deadboy's neck ASAP and to hell with what the others think! "Oh! We usually call them the nasty, pointy, bitey ones."
He couldn't keep the anger, hate really, from seeping into his words and the fact that the blonde girl took on the expression of an enlightened person taking pity on the uninformed didn't help.
"So many people have that misconception. But they who walk with the night are not interested in harming anyone," the blonde girl said, almost gushing with adulation. "They are creatures above us. Exalted!"
"You're a fool," Angel stated, not sugarcoating his words in the least.
"Ya know, I never thought I'd ever say this but I agree with you one hundred percent," he said, almost wanting to spit to get the foul taste of the words out of his mouth. "The IQs of these people make Larry and his crew look like Einsteins."
"You don't have to be so confrontational about it," tThe blonde said with annoyance and perhaps a bit if indignation. "Other viewpoints than yours may be valid, you know."
With that the girl strode away, leaving him with Deadboy standing by his side looking about as impressed with the club goers as he was.
"I've seen enough. I've seen these sorts of people before," Angel almost growled as he shook his head in sharp disbelief. "I mean, they're children making up bedtime stories of friendly vampires to comfort themselves in the dark."
"I blame Hollywood, personally," he said as he began to head back to the entrance to the club. "When monster movies started taking a dive at the box office they probably thought 'HEY! Let's try to sell Dracula and the Wolfman as angsty and broody people you just want to take into your arms and hug'. Bet a lotta people that wind up getting eaten actually believing that shit."
Then he remembered the routine Deadboy usually used and how it had affected Buffy and Willow.
"Good thing I've got the mojo now so I can keep Buff and Willow off the menu," he said as he began to climb up the steps. "Any vamp tries to pull that crap on them, I'm gonna turn'em into roaches just so I can personally step on them."
He didn't look back to see if Deadboy had picked up on the hidden meaning behind his words but hoped that least some of the message had gotten through. While he couldn't quite claim that he thought the vamp was faking his 'souled corpse seeking redemption' routine, seeing as it'd been going on for a while, that didn't mean he'd thrown out the possibility of a future backstab. He didn't know the particulars of why Angel was acting different from every other vamp he'd ever encountered but it was unnatural in his mind.
Unnatural things only stuck around until Mother Nature came along and removed them from the equation somehow.
He hoped he'd have front row seats for when Angel was removed from the equation.
Buffy's POV
Life sucked.
That was the only conclusion she could come to after what'd happened in the last twenty-four hours and, if someone else had been through the things she had, she doubted they'd be able to disagree. First she'd found out a vampire that Ford, someone she'd considered her friend as well as her first crush, had claimed he'd killed was not and was quite spry for a pile of ash. Then there was the fact that Angel finally came clean about the girl she'd seen him with the night before and it turned out to be worse than she'd been expecting it to be. She'd thought that Drusilla had been an old vamp flame, someone Angel had dated way back when, and so her feelings for him had flared up with a desire to get some answers. The truth was that back when Angel had been bad, he'd gone through the mind torture handbook page by page before going for the big finale inside a convent by turning Drusilla into the vampire she was today.
She hadn't liked that.
Oh, she had known in the back of her mind that Angel hadn't always been the dark and mysterious ally that tugged at her heartstrings but she'd never really paid any attention to his bad old days. To her they were unimportant because he wasn't that guy anymore and had been doing his best to help her out at the risk of his own life. It's why she'd always been quick to anger whenever Xander had gotten too sharp with his comments because she couldn't understand why her second friend since coming to Sunnydale couldn't tell the difference between the vamps they slayed and Angel. The vamps they dusted got off on killing people, on doing things that would make most sane people throw up just thinking about them, but Angel got angry at what the other members of the undead were doing. The man she had feelings for was doing everything he could to atone for his past and help them protect the citizens of Sunnydale, if not the entire human population of the planet Earth.
Surely that at least warranted giving Angel the benefit of a doubt, right?
The main reason she'd given Xander some slack was the fact that the guy had lost his best bud to the vamps her first week in Sunnydale. It was hard those times when you arrived too late to a vamp attack to save the victim but it was even harder to watch someone you cared about die. Merrick might've only been her Watcher for a couple of months but you didn't spend quality time with someone training and not form some connections. He'd been the one to lay the foundation for the type of Slayer she was now and she doubted that she'd have survived Lothos if he hadn't been there for her. She'd gotten her revenge when she'd finally slain the master vampire but that didn't make the pain of Merrick's death go away or the anger she felt towards vampires and demons in general. Thus she could understand how Xander couldn't just set aside his hatred of vampires but he could come a little further in tolerating Angel.
Now, though… now she had to deal with the possibility that Ford had done more than simply lie to her.
That was the second thing that'd soured her mood for today.
According to Angel, her 'old friend' was connected to a club for vamp fanboys and fangirls, making the lie about dusting the female vamp all the more suspicious. If there was one thing she knew, being a fangirl herself about certain things, it was that nothing was desired more by those sort of people than getting as close to their idols as possible. For some that just meant wearing the same kind of clothing and makeup but for others it evolved into a desire to change themselves physically. She'd overheard more than a few girls at her old high school that'd tried to convince their parents to let them go under the plastic surgeon's knife to tweak their nose or their cheekbones. They'd wanted so badly to become like the people they idolized that they wanted to change their facial features so that they could be just that one step closer. Most of those girls bombed in their efforts since their parents weren't crazy enough to spend thousands of dollars on such a venture but a few managed to disguise their desires enough to make their parents see their point of view, albeit without knowing it.
The fact that their idols inevitably went from being the 'in thing' to being passé didn't do great things for the reputations of those girls, either.
If Ford really was one of those vamp fanboys and had been willing to let one of them get away and then lie about dusting it, then she could only conclude that he wanted to take his devotion to the next level. Whether that meant becoming a human lackey to some vamp crew in Sunnydale or… something worse, she didn't know. It had been the not knowing that'd caused her to meet up with Ford a short while ago to see if she could look at him and spot the signs of someone preparing to betray her. She'd been so good at it back at Hemery when it was important to know if someone really wanted to be friends with you or was just setting you up to take a big fall. All throughout their conversation she'd looked as closely as she could without giving herself away but hadn't been able to conclusively say yes or no to the question of whether Ford was planning to stab her in the back. In the end, when he'd asked her out for another night on the town, she'd decided to play along with the idea of getting more clues to help her reach a conclusion about her first crush.
Trotting down the stairs to the ground level of the school, she spotted Xander and Willow sitting down on the second flight looking like they were doing some thinking of their own. She couldn't help the flare of anger at the two for going behind her back to investigate Ford but it was tempered by the fact that they'd done so out of a desire to protect her. Put in their position, she could honestly say she'd probably have done the same thing but it still raised trust flags within her mind.
"Buffy!" Willow exclaimed, noticing her approach and standing up immediately.
For a moment she thought about simply making up some lame excuse and walking away but she decided that she needed to get the whole secret investigation thing out of the way. As long as they didn't settle things, it'd always been a road bump in their friendship and she had too few friends in Sunnydale to let that happen.
"Did, uh, Angel-" Willow began to ask, looking quite uncomfortable about what she'd done and wary of the potential blow up.
"He told me everything," she said, confirming that she knew what the redhead had done.
"I'm sorry we kept stuff from you," Willow declared, sounding quite remorseful about what she'd done at Angel's request.
"It's okay," she said, trying to smile reassuringly but not quite managing it thanks to the turmoil caused by her still unanswered Ford questions.
"When Angel came to my room he was just really concerned for you and we didn't wanna say anything in case we were wrong," Willow explained, trying to help with the understanding of her actions.
"Did you find out what Ford is up to?" Xander asked, sounding like he wanted to be kept up to date on the situation.
"I will," she said before striding off with a plan developing in her mind.
She knew it was a bit rude just to walk off like that but she knew the more her battle plan formed in her mind, the harder it would be to conceal that planning from her friends. They'd hung out enough that they'd be able to get a clue or two from her face and how she was acting to figure out that she was planning something.
She couldn't let that happen.
The basic plan that was forming in her mind was chock full of risks and could potentially backfire if she slipped up. A voice in her head that sounded a lot like Giles was telling her to wait and to come up with a sound plan but she ignored it. The sun was out at the moment and that meant the vamps were in their lairs rather than at this Sunset Club, providing her with a window of opportunity to confront her 'old friend' about what he was doing. So long as the vamps weren't there, she could handle a bunch of touched in the head teenagers with delusions about the undead residents of Sunnydale. With a little bit of luck she'd be able to convince them of the sheer insanity of their devotion and get them to abandon their little vampire fan club.
And she could get some answers from Ford about why he was trying to set her up.
The Sunset Club
Ford's POV
"Chantarelle, is everything ready?" he asked as he came down the stairs to the club's lower floor.
"Of course it's ready!" Diego declared, apparently not getting the hint that being ignored should've conveyed. "Hey, I took care of it, like I always do!"
"Is it time? Tonight?" Chantarelle asked, looking a little uneasy.
Not all that surprising considering that in her mind she was on the verge of changing species and living forever as a 'Lonely One'. Heh. He still couldn't help but chuckle on the inside at the sheer stupidity of the sheep he'd managed to gather in such a short period of time. Contrary to what Summers might think, he hadn't flown into this plan completely blind; he'd done his research, so he knew that those that got turned into vamps quickly lost whatever empathy they might've had for normal humans. Not that he could blame them because, when you got super strength, speed, agility, a healing factor and numerous other gifts upon turning, normal humans went from being equals to lower life forms. You didn't treat your food as an equal after all and so he'd had to dangle quite a big carrot in front of the lady vamp Drusilla he managed to track down. She was mad as a hatter but she was the only big player in town and he refused to be converted by a random member of the vampire rabble. He'd promised her that he'd serve up the Slayer plus a room full of mindless sheep in return for turning him into a vampire. It'd been a little difficult making out whether or not her reply was a 'yes' given how she spoke but he'd decided that her smile and order to continue with his plan was a good sign.
"You nervous?" he asked as he poured the three of them some wine.
"Yes. No. I'm ready for the change," Chantarelle replied, obviously having a tough time settling on an answer. "Do you really think they'll bless us?"
"I know they will," he lied as he handed her one of the goblets, leaving Diego to get his own. "Everything's falling into place."
"What about your friends?" Diego asked, determined to be an annoyance. "Are they coming?"
"What are you talking about?" he asked, not quite sure what the idiot meant.
"Your friends. They came last night," Diego replied, elaborating on his earlier questions. "Two guys."
"They were both very mean to me," Chantarelle said, sounding a little put out by the memory.
Thinking back over the time he'd spent outside of the club, he tried to recall if he'd recruited any more sheep to the banquet or met anyone who'd know his name and might've followed him here. No, no additional sheep, but there had been two men who might've managed to track him down here. Xander and Summers' older guy friend, Angel with the cold hands. One had definitely not been a fan of his and, considering the moves he'd been putting on Buffy, the other one might've gotten jealous enough to do some digging. With the countdown he'd been forced to work with he hadn't been able to cover his tracks or hide his involvement with the club, so it wouldn't have been difficult to find the place. This wasn't how he'd planned it but he could adapt with the best of them and had already thought up some contingencies in order to make sure he got what he wanted.
Still, he had an act to keep up so...
"Oh, Christ!" he exclaimed, pretending to be angry. "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"
"I have to do everything around here?" Diego asked rhetorically and with annoyance. "Sorry, Mister Flawless Plan Guy, it slipped my mind!"
"It's gonna be alright, isn't it?" Chantarelle asked, sounding like she thought this might endanger the plan.
It wouldn't.
"It's gonna be fine!" he said, releasing his anger and putting on his 'trust me' smile.
"No. It's really not," a voice said from the second level, causing everyone to look towards it.
Plan B confirmed. Time to get it moving, he thought before he turned to Diego. "It's kinda drafty in here."
Fortunately the idiot was still smart enough to recognize the code word for what it was AND keep his movements from being anything other than casual. Now all he had to do was keep Summers focused on him and oblivious to everything else. Thankfully it looked like his 'old friend' had not changed that much from her days in L.A. so he didn't think he'd have to work too hard.
"I'm sorry, Ford. I just couldn't wait till tonight!" Buffy said with clearly false cheer as she walked down the stairs. "I'm rash and impulsive. It's a flaw."
Playing the wisecracking hero role to the hilt, he thought with a smile. "We all have flaws."
"I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly what yours is," she said as she finally reached where he was standing. "I think it has to do with being a lying scumbag."
He felt a little anger in him rise but he didn't let it seep into his words. "Everybody lies," he said, not giving her any more than he wanted her to have.
"What do you want, Ford? What's this all about?" she asked him, sounding like she expected her dominating personality to make him fold and spill everything.
"I really don't think you'd understand," he replied, knowing this would just wind her up more.
"I don't need to understand," she said, making it clear she wasn't going to stop until she got answers. "I just need to know."
"I'm gonna be one of them," he said as he moved another of his mental chess pieces into place.
"You wanna be a vampire?" she asked, sounding like 'does not compute' was flashing in her mind at the moment.
"I'm going to," he said honestly, making his resolve clear since it'd help with the performance.
"You know, vampires are a little picky about who they change ov…" she said before a metaphorical light bulb went off in her brain. "You were gonna offer them a trade!"
Guess she's gotten a little smarter since she left Hemery, he thought before turning away. "I don't think I wanna talk anymore."
Predictably she went straight to the default tool of Slayers and grabbed him by the throat, shoving him against the pillar that'd been close by.
Just like he'd choreographed.
"Yeah, well, I still feel awfully chatty!" she said, clearly angry at being made a sacrifice to his ambitions. "You were gonna give them me! Tonight!"
"Yes," he said with a nod, not seeing the point in denying it at this point.
"You had to know I'd figure it out," she said, sounding like she really thought she'd gotten the drop on him by arriving early.
Idiot.
"Actually, I was counting on it," he said as he smiled in response to his plan falling into place like clockwork.
She let him go and, to keep up with his role, he reflexively massaged his throat like any character would do after being manhandled like he'd just been.
"What's supposed to happen tonight?" she asked, likely wanting to know so she could do something to screw it up.
"This is SO cool!" he exclaimed with a victorious smile. "It's just like how it played in my head. You know that part where you ask me what's supposed to happen?" He laughed an actual laugh. "It's already happening."
With that Diego finally shut the inner door of the club with a loud clang and, just like he'd predicted, Summers raced back up the stairs to try and open it. When opening it the normal way failed to be an option she started pounding on it in the hopes her Slayer strength could punch a hole through it. Not going to happen.
"Rigged up special. Once it's closed, it can only be opened from the outside," he explained just in case the bottle blonde couldn't connect the dots. "As soon as the sun sets, they'll be comin'."
"Ford, if these people are still around when they get here…" she said, predictably trying to appeal to his humanity.
Too bad he didn't really care about such a thing or any of the sheep around him at the moment.
"We'll be changed. All of us," Diego said, sounding actually happy rather than annoyed.
"We're going to ascend to a new level of consciousness!" Chantarelle declared, making it clear that she was about as smart as her hair color stereotypically implied. "Become like them. The Lonely Ones."
"This is the end, Buffy," he said, saying his closing lines for this act. "No one gets outta here alive."
Sunnydale High School
Willow's POV
"Have you seen Buffy?" she asked, her voice full of worry.
"Not since she forgave us for investigating Ford behind her back," Xander replied as he came to a stop before her in the library. "She's got some major mad karma heading her way thanks to Snyder for skipping afternoon classes."
"She's got bigger problems than that if she did what I think she did and went where I think she went," she said as the little facts she'd managed to dig up in Miss Calendar's computer class were true. "We gotta go and we gotta go! NOW!"
"Let's arm up first," he said before going over to the weapons cage and unlocking it.
She felt happy that her best friend trusted her enough to follow her lead without asking questions. Normally she would've encouraged his more inquisitive and information seeking desires since knowledge was definitely something that should be sought out whenever possible. While it might be impossible to know everything, every little bit you did learn increased the number of things you could do with your life. The more options you had, the more you could accomplish and the more good you could do for those you cared about as well as humanity at large.
"Aaahhh! Goddamit!" Xander cried out before dropping a spiked mace to the floor. "This being part Fae is way more painful than I thought it'd be when I chose to go out as Puck for Halloween."
"At least you don't have to worry about feeling like you're being put through a weed wacker every sunrise and sunset," she said as she reached down to pick up the mace. "Plus having to worry about shredding your clothes isn't fun either."
"Guess not but for what mine cost it wouldn't be a big deal to replace'em," he said as he chose an axe with a wooden handle having learned from his previous mistake.
After tucking two wooden stakes in their pockets along with a cross and a few bottles of holy water, they ran out of the school as quickly as they could, setting course for the Sunset Club.
"Do you think we should've waited for Giles?" she asked offhand as they continued to make for their friend's hypothesized position. "Strength in numbers and stuff?"
"You heard the announcement," he replied as they turned a corner. "Snyder pulled in all the teachers for a faculty meeting. Unless you know of a good enough excuse to get G-man out of it, we're on our own."
As much as she didn't want to admit it, her friend and love interest had a point. Snyder was ten times more unreasonable than Flutie had been when it came to listening to students or cutting anyone some slack. Even when you had what to you was an airtight argument for or against something, the troll of a man just ignored you, abusing his authority just so he could smirk smugly down upon you. Trying to get Giles out of the faculty meeting would've been impossible and likely would've only gotten her and Xander into trouble right alongside Buffy, even if they hadn't skipped afternoon classes. Nevertheless, she had to wonder if they'd be able to save Buffy from whatever Ford had planned on their own.
The reason she'd been so worried for Buffy and gone to Xander was the fact that, during Miss Calendar's class, she'd done a bit more research into the location of the Sunset Club. She'd figured it'd be useful if they needed to know where all the ways in and out were located. However it was during this process that she'd learned that the club used to be a bomb shelter built during the early days of the Cold War and that meant that the walls were three feet thick of solid concrete, reinforced as well, with only one way in or out made out of metal thick enough that it'd probably take Buffy hours to pound her way out of, if she managed to escape at all. Couple that with the theme of the club and Ford's deceptive activities… the sooner they rescued Buffy, the better because in less than twenty minutes the sun was going to disappear and the vamps would come out. She was certain that Ford's plan had something to do with turning Buffy over to the vampires but she still couldn't figure out what the doody head's endgame was. What was he getting out of the situation?
Doesn't matter, she thought with a determined look on her face. He's trying to get one of my friends killed. I WON'T let that happen!
It was a little over ten minutes later that they arrived at the entrance to the club and thankfully found out that the outer door wasn't locked. Bringing her mace up into a ready position just as Xander brought his axe up, they crept towards the inner door that'd lead them to the main club area. If Ford was any kind of planner he'd have put guards on either side of the door in order to make sure any reinforcements Buffy got were stopped. She was disappointed as they finally arrived at their destination to find no guards at all. Just the door needed to access the club's interior.
"You know someone needs to read 'The Evil Overlord' handbook when they don't even put minion guards in front of the door," Xander said with half mocking disappointment. "Sloppy."
"We'll be sure to leave him a note," she said as she reached out with her hand to open the door.
Walking in they could see the gathered vampire wannabes and off to the right was Buffy standing opposite Ford, looking quite put out while the latter had an angry expression of entitlement on his face. She'd seen similar expressions on many of her fellow classmates who felt they should be treated especially well because they came from rich families or were star athletes. She didn't know what justification Ford was using but it didn't matter to her because they were putting a stop to this nonsense right now.
"Okay everybody! Party's over!" Xander said, entering the room while using his axe to intimidate a path towards Buffy. "We'll be taking our friend back now and if even one of you has a bit of common sense, you'll find someplace else to be. Someplace a little more intelligent and less pandering towards necrophilia."
Following closely behind her friend, she did her best to look threatening with her spiked mace and it seemed to work best when she tried to direct a Demona face at them.
"Hey, Buff'" Xander said, arriving at the Slayer's side. "How's the party so far?"
"Not what I thought it'd be," Buffy replied, sounding a mix of sad and angry. "Turns out Ford's got a brain tumor and plans on serving up everyone but him up to the vamps just so he won't die leaving behind a less than handsome corpse."
Hearing this she had to admit that she felt a little sympathetic towards Ford since she knew all too well from her studies the toll that chemotherapy and other tumor treatments took on the human body. It wasn't a pleasant process in the least especially since it at best bought the afflicted person extra time rather than curing the problem outright. Still, she also felt anger like Buffy because, in her mind, nothing justified sacrificing others just so you could live on, especially when being turned into a vampire wasn't gaining immortality but rather handing over your body to a blood demon.
In short he was sacrificing his own life and the lives of the rest of the club patrons for nothing but adding another vampire to the multitude that already lived in Sunnydale.
Looking to Xander, she saw very little of the compassion both she and Buffy no doubt felt for Ford and instead anger dominated her best friend's features.
"So it wasn't enough you had to stoop to worshipping those monsters!" Xanger growled, an eerie green glow beginning to manifest lightly in his eyes. "You actually want to become one of them! You're actually willing to lead all these idiots to their deaths just so you can be turned! Screw you! Buffy, let's just get the rest of these idiots out of here and leave Ford to face his new pals when they get here. Bet they'll be real miffed to find nothing on their dinner plates."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Buffy said, sounding like she was actually okay with leaving her old friend at the mercy of whatever vampire Ford had managed to make a deal with. "Of course there's just the little problem of convincing them to leave while it was still light out. I've been trying to tell them they're making a big mistake but they won't listen. Keep going on and on that they know more about vampires than I do."
"Uh huh," Xander said with a roll of his eyes. "Bet they believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, too. Bet they have the same kind of proof about those two that they do vamps. Movies, cartoons and fantasy novels with all of them written by people who've probably never laid eyes on a real vampire in their entire lives."
"We could just leave ourselves. Then they'll get the truth shoved right in their faces whether they want it or not," she said, hoping her theory that her friends were just acting to scare the club goers into leaving. "They won't be able to lie to themselves then."
"Yeah, but then they'll die a minute or so after getting the truth and then it'll be kinda pointless, Willow," Xander pointed out with a pondering expression on his face.
"I guess you're right," she conceded with seriousness almost spoiled by amusement at their little charade. "Vampires don't really bother with safe words or anything like that."
In an instant she realized what she'd said in her moment of enjoyment and had to fight to keep herself from blushing with embarrassment.
Fortunately the blonde girl who'd approached them during the last visit with Angel chose to get involved, keeping her friends from inquiring about her choice of words.
"You're not going anywhere!" the blonde declared, trying to sound determined but cracking along the edges. "The Lonely Ones won't turn us unless they get her so get her they will!"
"Miss Edith says the pretty little girl is so nice to want to help Mummy," came a voice that she didn't recognize but that positively hummed with insanity.
Everyone looked towards the source of the voice and she was shocked to see a dark haired young woman that closely matched Buffy's description of the girl she'd seen Angel with. What made things even worse, though, was the fact that behind this young woman was a trio of vampires in their game faces, all of whom looked like they were ready for their evening meals.
"But it's not sunset yet!" she exclaimed before she could stop herself even as she checked her watch.
Six twenty pm.
According to what she found online sunset wasn't supposed to be for another seven minutes and, unless the vampires had camped right next door to the club, it should've taken them at least five minutes to get here.
"Foolish little tree," the insane vampiress said with a smile. "Nasty sun can't touch the dark places. Places that grow as it falls down to the ground. We must simply be mindful of where we step."
While she might not have been fluent in crazy person speech, she figured out enough to know that the vampiress had just taken a route where she and her followers wouldn't stray into direct sunlight. With shadows that grew as the sun set there had to be many alleyways that'd opened up to them and then in a moment she considered the sewer tunnels that crisscrossed Sunnydale. It soon became clear that the daytime was not the safe place she'd originally thought it was if vampires could still travel about if they were smart about it.
Xander summed it up nicely.
"Well shit."
Xander's POV
"All of mummy's boys and girls can have their fun but the naughty Slayer and her winged tree friend are mine," the vamp lady said with a British accent before a cross expression appeared. "We shall be most cross with anyone who forgets this."
The vamps displayed what brain cells they had by nodding in agreement before flooding into the club, heading for any and every human they set their eyes on. As much as he might not like them for their devotion, he was pretty sure that they were revising their fealty at the moment and that meant he had to save their lives. The only problem with that was that, even with Giles' help, he hadn't made much progress with learning to master his magic. He had levitation down pat but not to the point where he was confident that he could fly without risking a nasty fall. As for the rest… Giles seemed pretty determined to take things slow so it'd probably be a long while before he learned how to change one thing into another in the blink of an eye or teleport.
Too bad, 'cause it'd be real handy to be able to 'port everyone but Ford to safety right now.
Seeing one after another of the club patrons become a meal for the undead, he decided that the time for taking it slow had come to an end. He would not stand by and let the idiots die when he had at least the ability to TRY and save them. Calling forth his magic, he levitated himself into the air, drawing the attention of both vampire and human alike, buying himself a couple of seconds to come up with a rhyme to guide his power.
Thank GOD for his active imagination and his ability to work well under pressure.
"Idiots and fools thou wish to hurt, to bring cold death with which they did flirt," he chanted while mentally willing into existence the form he wished the spell to take. "Deprived though I may be of sun's holy light, from the undead I take your treasured sight!"
When he felt his magic reach its peak he released it so it could do what he hoped it would and was not disappointed as the energy lit up the room even as the vampires cried out in pain as they reflexively reached for their eyes. However, in the place of the human eyes with unholy golden irises there was naught but emerald light filling the sockets, proving itself incapable of letting the undead corpses see the world around them. With the sudden shock the bloodsuckers unintentionally let go of their prey, causing both teenage boy and girl to scramble away from those they now saw unmistakably as monsters. Some had gotten away with only scratches but others would need medical care if they didn't want to die of blood loss within the next half hour.
"Clear the area around the door, guys!" he said even as he reached out with his ability to levitate objects to seize the teenagers who looked to be in the direst need of medical help. "We gotta get these people out of here! I don't know how long that spell's gonna last!"
His friends didn't hesitate as they fought their way to the door, staking or bashing vamps as they went in order to reduce the number they'd have to deal with upon reaching the door. What he had planned was ambitious indeed but it was the only thing he could think of that stood a chance of getting the club patrons out of the building and to the hospital anytime soon. With every dusted or disabled vamp, though, his hopes rose even as he did his best to maintain the focus needed to keep those in his grip on the club patrons. It was all looking great, like they might even manage to complete the dusting of the lead vamp, but he really should've realized that pressing your luck on the Hellmouth tended to go sour.
Just as Willow was about to do a homerun swing with her mace to the lead vampires, the blind corpse surprised everyone by shooting out her right hand and grabbing his best bud by the throat. The redhead tried to swing her mace and hit the bloodsucker in an effort to get free of her captor but the walking corpse caught the swing by the wrist, stopping it cold.
"Silly little tree," the crazy vamp lady said with a fanged smile. "Eyes aren't the only way to see. No, no, no. You are quite loud, you know."
He prepared to open his mouth, to cast a spell to rescue his friend, but the crazy lady just squeezed harder, causing Willow to struggle even harder to free herself.
"Ah, ah, aahh! Not one word, little trickster," the lady vamp warned with deadly crazy intent. "One word and I'll snap her twig and then the tree will come tumbling down once and for all."
Much as he'd like to say otherwise, it would take him more than few seconds to chant even the shortest rhyme but that would be time enough for the bloodsucker to kill Willow. So with the utmost reluctance he floated back in order to show that he was backing down. He didn't trust that the undead woman would spare Willow but, until a more opportune time revealed itself, he couldn't make a single move to turn the tables on the fang face.
The sound of someone's wrist watch alarm going off caught his attention along with a few others as he looked towards the source to find that it was Ford. He wondered for a moment why the traitor had set his time for now but, when Willow began to make noises of pain and her body began to spasm, he instantly knew what was happening and why it'd happened.
Sunset.
And there was one thing that had become common for his best friend lately whenever the sun vanished below the horizon. As with the times he'd seen before first her fingers did merge, four becoming three, then her skin changed color from slightly pale Caucasian to a grayish blue color. Things became more dramatic after that when her feet went from five toes to three, with each tipped with a talon like her fingers, and her legs became what Giles had called digitigrade. To him it just meant the legs took on an appearance more akin to the hind legs of a cat but in any case her shoes were obliterated and her pants began to tear to accommodate the new configuration. The tail tore through the seat of her pants and the wings sprouted from her back, shredding the back of her shirt, making the sleeves the only thing keeping her entire upper body from being exposed. With a roar that'd be more at home coming from the mouth of a jungle cat the transformation was complete.
Thus it was that the lady vamp suddenly found herself the weaker one as Willow, with relative ease, pulled the hand that had been clamped around her throat away, letting her breath freely once more.
"Times up," Willow growled, sounding quite angry and intimidating. "Rules change."
In a move that was quite a bit more brutal than he'd been expecting, his best bud literally ripped the lady vamp's arm off of her body but, before it could be used as a club, it turned to ash. Nevertheless the scream of pain was quite satisfying to him and had a dramatic effect on the minions since they ceased trying to harm the club patrons. Instead they began to try to make their way back to the stairs in order to come to the aid of their mistress. Why they'd be so loyal to such an insane vampire he'd never understand but, since it lessened the threat to the club patrons, he considered it a good thing. Sadly, since his blindness spell was still in effect, they couldn't make quick enough progress and so as Willow brought her mace back to swing, it looked like the head was about to be cut off this gang of bloodsuckers.
Too bad with nothing left to restrain the insane bloodsucker, the unnatural thing was able to evade the swing and immediately it made for the door to the club. It was not a direct route given that his spell of blindness was still at work but with whatever senses were still left to the demon it managed to get to the door. Willow got one more swing in with her mace but, whether it was due to luck or skill, her target succeeded in evading it and got out the door escaping from his line of sight. The rest of the vampires soon followed since, as was the case with most minions, they lost their courage when their leader turned tail and ran for it. As much as he hated the idea, going after them would take more time than he and his friends had, especially if they wanted to save as many lives as possible. The moment the way was clear he zipped forward through the air, mentally keeping the levitated ailing club patrons in single file behind him as he went through the door.
Once out in the open air he soared up into the night sky, casting his eyes about for the familiar sight of the hospital and, once he had a lock on it, he flew with all the speed he could manage towards it. Through his magical grip on them he could feel the wounded patrons breathing still but they were getting weaker by the moment as the amount of blood lost began to reach the danger zone.
"Just hold on!" he said more to himself than to those he carried. "Almost there."
He just hoped that Buffy and Willow could handle things back at the club because, considering what they'd just been through, the possibility of the club members doing something stupid was high. After all they'd just witnessed their idols trying to kill them, a floating guy casting a spell and a normal girl turning into a gargoyle. Considering how he'd reacted after seeing his first vampire, he doubted that their brains were firing on all cylinders at the moment.
Still, between a Slayer and a mystical creature strong enough to crush solid stone, it'd probably take luck more than anything else for untrained civilians to take them down.
Luck or his friends' unwillingness to harm the former vampire wannabes, even if it was to protect themselves.
He prayed his friends wouldn't let their idealism get the better of them.
Sunnydale High School Library
Buffy's POV
"So let me see if I have this right…" Giles said as he cleaned his glasses in an obvious sign of his agitation. "Angel, Willow and Xander investigated Ford due to their own suspicions and discover that not only is he not a student at this school but is also connected to a vampire fan club. Buffy, in her infinite wisdom, decides to confront Ford before sundown with the desire to get answers but does so without back up of any kind or any preparation. Willow learns the details of the club's construction and suspecting a trap acquires Xander's aid before promptly leaving for the club with minimal preparation.
"They arrive in time to learn the truth but just as you are about to depart Angel's childe Drusilla arrives, intent on killing everyone present. Xander, in an act of sheer recklessness, casts a spell he has no experience with and succeeds in blinding every vampire present but, before you can take advantage of this, Drusilla takes Willow hostage," Giles recapped putting his glasses back on his nose. "Then, through sheer luck, the sun sets, causing her to transform into her gargoyle state, allowing her to overpower Drusilla, forcing her and her minions to flee. Xander then got as many of the injured to the hospital as he could levitate, WHILE flying himself, while Buffy and Willow remained behind to deal with some rather emotionally upset teenagers. Through what was likely sheer luck those same teenagers choose to go home rather than do something violent to the two of you and then you returned here. Does that about sum up what happened?"
"Yes," was all she could say in reply to the man's rather disapproving look at her.
She had to admit with the way he put it, her plan to confront Ford hadn't been the brightest of moves and the fact that everything turned out as well as it had was more due to luck than design.
"Well, you should all count yourselves fortunate that Drusilla had not been more prepared for Willow's transformation or Xander's magic," Giles said, still sounding quite disapproving though it did die down, if only by a little. "Let us hope that the loss of an arm proves incentive enough to cause her to relocate to less dangerous locations."
"That'd be nice but, considering she's batshit crazy, losing an arm might just make her that much more determined to take one of ours," Xander pointed out, obviously believing in the less positive possibility.
"True. However, with the news that the Slayer has two allies, one that can tear limbs off of bodies and the other capable of sorcery, it is likely that her minions will seek employment elsewhere," Giles said, sounding like he was considering how tonight's events had changed things in Sunnydale. "Vampires, particularly young ones, will often gravitate to stronger ones both for protection as well as the opportunities that may present themselves at a later date. By eliminating Spike and seriously handicapping Drusilla, you have brought that group's leadership into question. If one of the minions is ambitious they may try to seize control themselves. If not they will abandon her for the next most infamous demon or vampire in Sunnydale."
"At least it'll buy us some breathing room," she said, sounding a little less worried with the news that the nutty vampiress was going to be having problems of her own.
"Not much, I am afraid," Giles said, sounding less optimistic. "Vampires and demons are ruthless as you know and their power struggles are equally so. The duration of these sorts of confrontations generally depend on the strength of each side and the intelligence of their respective leaders."
"Then she's already down a point, right?" Xander asked, sounding like he'd found something to be hopeful for. "I mean, insane people generally don't make the best leaders."
"While it is true that her insanity will hamper her ability to lead her followers and her decreased ability to physically dominate the disobedient will also pose a problem, we should not count her out yet," Giles replied, shaking his head slightly. "Watcher diaries record that she has a measure of precognitive ability, though made sporadic due to her mental instability, and that should help her anticipate any strikes made against her."
"But if she can see the future then why didn't she know I was going to transform or that Xander could do magic?" Willow asked, pointing out something that was on everyone's mind but the Watcher's.
"My theory at the moment is that, due to the fact that you were given your new abilities by Janus via the Halloween spell, she cannot read you as clearly as others if at all," Giles replied, taking on a more speculative tone. "Janus is the Roman god of beginnings and endings after all. Taken further, it could easily be said that he is also the Roman god of time itself since seconds of time are constantly beginning and then ending. As such, it is possible that those touched by his power are hidden from the 'sight' of precognitive beings or perhaps the god himself is acting to hide you."
"Why would a Roman god care about us?" Willow asked, sounding like she was uncertain whether being aided by a god was a good thing.
"It is unlikely that he is doing this out of the goodness of his heart if that is what you are asking," Giles replied, sounding like he thought pigs flying would happen before a god showed genuine unbiased benevolence to a mortal creature. "It is more likely he would see the potential entertainment and sustenance your continued existence would provide him with. Many deities gain nourishment by mortals taking action involving their respective divine domains. War gods gain strength by mortals waging war. Gods of wisdom gain strength by mortals broadening the scope of their knowledge. While genuine worship of these deities may have been forced into back rooms, they can still draw power from the unknowing."
"So we're basically just TV and an endless bag of chips for Janus?" Xander asked rhetorically, once again boiling things down to the basics.
"Essentially yes," Giles replied with an expression of both amazement and exasperation. "Until he grows bored with his entertainment or his 'snacks', you will receive a measure of protection from him."
"What do you mean 'a measure of protection'?" she asked, not liking the less than complete statement.
"Basically if he thinks it'll be more amusing to let certain precognitive people see your future or certain practitioners of legilimency peer into your minds, then he will withhold his protection." Giles sounded like he disapproved of this footnote.
"Legil-whatsy?" Xander asked, sounding like he didn't recognize the word anymore than she did.
"It is the act of magically navigating through the many layers of a person's mind and correctly interpreting one's findings," Giles replied, sounding concerned. "Contrary to what you may think, this is NOT the same as telepathy or mind reading."
"Sure sounds like it to me," Xander said, dismissing the opposition to the term.
"Whatever," Willow said, moving things away from an ultimately pointless argument. "Shouldn't we be worrying about the vampire power struggle about to break out in Sunnydale?"
"While certainly a matter for concern, it will not be quite as bad as you are likely imagining," Giles said reassuringly as he turned his head to the sitting gargoyle. "The vampires know it is to their benefit to keep their existence a secret from the human race and even if they did not various other demonic species would. They would almost certainly intervene if Drusilla or her usurper became too public with their activities."
"So no demolished lengths of streets with fires everywhere you look but turning the wrong corner'll be even more fatal than usual," Xander said, sounding decidedly less concerned than before. "Sounds like business as usual to me just with my mojo training needing to be upped."
"That goes without saying," Giles said with a somewhat sharper tone. "Since it is clear that you will throw caution to the wind when it comes to your magic under certain circumstances, I suppose I have no choice but to intensify your instruction in order to minimize potential calamities."
"You're saying you're worried I'll accidentally blow something up if you don't double up on the spell teaching?" Xander asked, a bit of humor in his tone.
At this point she expected her Watcher to be polite with his response, reserved, as he was with most things due to his upper crust British upbringing.
"Suffice it to say I would prefer Sunnydale not be made to resemble a demilitarized zone due to one of your ill phrased rhymes," Giles replied with a hint of a grin formed by his lips.
Everyone looked at the Brit, herself included, after hearing his response, and for a moment wondered where the hell that'd come from.
Then they comprehended the humor of it and even Xander chuckled a bit at the images it produced.
An Unknown Location
"What is going on?" she asked as she looked at the jewel in her hand. "This is the second time it's glowed!"
"I know as much as you do," he said with an expression that indicated he was considering various possibilities at once. "Still we should have a bit of time before things get complicated. The jewel is part of a pair and the other one is hidden well. It would take a much stronger reaction than what we've seen before THEY'D notice it and send someone to investigate."
"Let's finish our assignment quickly then," she said with significant worry in her voice. "We need to find out what's going on before it becomes too big for us to hide by ourselves."
A nod of agreement was all he gave before they left the room they'd rented for where their intel said their quarry would be tonight.