Willow and Kennedy found the office building a few blocks away, just as Whistler had said. They entered and looked around the lobby; nobody was on duty at the front desk at this time of night.
"Where exactly in the building is the Black Hat's office located at?" asked Kennedy.
"Here's a sign." Willow pointed to a list of the offices contained on each floor. "Here it is: 'Black Hat Waste Management, Inc.—Fourth Floor'."
"'Waste Management'?"
"Guess it's a cover for what they really do."
They found the elevator, and Willow pushed the "Up" button. After a minute, the doors opened, and they stepped in. As they were on their way up, Kennedy set her black duffel bag down on the elevator floor and opened it. Inside were several weapons, including axes and stakes. Kennedy picked up three stakes and handed them to Willow.
"Make 'em fly like the wind, Wills." The elevator slowed, indicating they were reaching the fourth floor.
"Let's kick some cowboy ass," said Willow, grinning. They kissed right as the elevator doors dinged.
Kennedy picked up her bag. When the doors opened, they stepped directly into the lobby of the offices of the Black Hat.
The Black Hat was sitting behind a desk about thirty feet from the elevator. He was wearing a red and black plaid shirt, and his feet were resting on the desk, revealing alligator-skin boots partially covered by light blue jeans. And, of course, he was wearing a black cowboy hat. He looked up at the women as they entered, revealing a stone-faced man who appeared to be in his early forties; his dark brown hair came down past his neck. Surrounding him were a dozen or two men and women, dressed in clothing that spanned several decades of fashion—vampires, obviously.
"Well, hello there, ladies," the Black Hat spoke with a Texan accent, breaking his stone face with his most charming smile. He looked them up and down. "You know, I don't believe I recall ordering a call girl tonight, much less two of them. I got to say, though, they sent some mighty fine ones this time."
"Oh, we're here strictly on business," replied Willow. She flung one of her stakes, using magic to guide it directly into the chest of the vampire nearest to her, causing him to explode into a dust cloud. At the same time, Kennedy quickly reached into her bag and pulled out a small axe (more like a hatchet) and threw it directly at the Black Hat.
But, alas, the Black Hat was not the kind who would be that easily killed. With expert timing, he raised his left foot off of his desk and used the inner side of his boot to deflect the axe. Recovering quickly from the initial shock, he smiled again and took his legs off of his desk entirely. His bodyguards' faces morphed into vampire form.
"A couple of slayers!" He chuckled. Willow realized that he had not noticed the mystical help involved in her staking of the bodyguard. "I guess you are here on business; I tend to let my boys here handle that aspect of the company." He smirked, and calmly exited the lobby, walking toward the back of the offices. At the same time, the vampires charged toward the Slayer and the witch.
--
After Buffy arrived at the Immortal's mansion, she was escorted by several demons and humans to the front door. She rolled her eyes. She had to go through this routine with the Immortal's guards every time she came here; it was the reason she usually preferred to go elsewhere, such as a dance club or her apartment.
One of the humans knocked. A pink demon with red eyes answered, and showed Buffy in. He led her to a large room on the left side of the house (a room big enough that she could have parked her entire apartment in there), and then walked up the stairs. Buffy opened her long coat (being careful to keep her axe hidden) and sat on the couch.
After a few minutes, the demon returned to the room, this time escorting the Immortal. The Immortal whispered something in Italian to the demon, and then gestured to him to leave. He and Buffy were now alone in the house.
The Immortal was dressed in a white suit (reminiscent of the leisure suits of the 1970's); the jacket was open, revealing a maroon shirt. His jet black hair was slicked back, and his smile revealed unblemished white teeth. He reminded Buffy of the Nip/Tuck character Dr. Christian Troy.
"How's my little flower doing today?" he asked. He spoke fluent English; his accent was certainly noticeable, but not near as bad as that of most English-speaking Italians.
Buffy smiled. She had to admit, no matter how cheesy his nicknames for her were (or how evil he was, for that matter), he knew how to say anything in a way that really turned on the charm.
The Immortal walked over to the drink bar, and poured two glasses of scotch. Handing one to Buffy, he kissed her hand, and then sat down to her left on the couch (thankfully the side of her that the axe was not on), putting one arm around her. He leaned in and kissed her. Buffy could tell he was wearing a really expensive cologne.
"I hope his appearance did not frighten you?" he asked.
"Huh? Whose?"
"The one who answered the door."
"Oh…no, no. I've seen much uglier, believe me." Buffy started to ease back the right side of her coat.
"That's a relief. I hired him just recently, actually."
"Yeah, I guessed that; he wasn't here the last time I was." Buffy reached her right hand inside her coat for the axe.
"He was recommended to me by Ilina—remember her?"
Buffy was now easing the axe out of the loop. "Yeah, she's the Wolfram and Hart CEO, right?"
"She said he had special abilities—very valuable ones."
Buffy now had the axe free. She could now kill him—and he would never see it coming.
"Yeah, and what might those special abilities BE!" She screamed the last word as she raised the axe and swung it right toward the Immortal's head.
But the axe did not reach his head. Instead, he reached up with incredible reflexes and grabbed the handle of the axe near its head, stopping it less than an inch away from his own. He was still smiling, as if nothing had happened.
The Immortal answered her question. "Well, flower, if you really must know, he can read people's minds."
--
Near the Colosseum, Faith smashed down the front door of the mansion with her foot. Carrying her duffel bag and the case, she entered, followed by Giles, who carried a sword. Having heard the noise, the reptilian demon D'Sulok entered the front room, with two gray demons with small horns protruding from their foreheads trailing behind him.
As Whistler had said, D'Sulok was indeed over seven feet tall. His skin was dark green. He walked on two feet, but did not walk fully upright; he leaned slightly forward, using his tail for balance. He strongly reminded Faith of one of those raptors from the Jurassic Park films (God, how they had been overused in that series!). Strangely enough, he was not naked; he wore a blue robe with a hole in the back for his tail to stick through; it waved around as he walked. Faith guessed it was to show that he was "civilized," if such a word could be used to describe a demon who was a member of the Circle of the Black Thorn. He spoke, or rather growled, something in Italian.
"Speak English, asshole," said Faith. D'Sulok's yellow eyes lit up with anger.
"Fool mortals," D'Sulok growled in English. "How dare you enter my abode without my invitation."
"Oh, sorry, guess I should ask first. May I please come in so I can kill you?" Faith set her bag and the case down. Opening the bag, she took out a long sword.
D'Sulok growled at this. Then he chuckled. He spoke something to his escorts in a language unknown to either Giles or Faith. The escorts drew swords and charged directly at Faith. Faith raised her sword, prepared to fight, but Giles stepped in front of her.
"I'll hold them off. You take care of the lizard." He clashed swords with both of the gray demons. Faith walked around the three of them and headed directly for D'Sulok, sword raised in front of her face, pointing straight up.
D'Sulok smiled; the light from the chandelier reflected off of his sharp teeth. "Very well, she-mortal, it will be my pleasure to crush your bones."
--
Dawn and Andrew entered the lobby of Wolfram and Hart and approached the front desk. Sitting behind it was a middle-aged female Brachen demon; she wore glasses with thick, black frames on a green face that had short spikes protruding from it.
"Excuse me, we're here for our interview with the CEO."
The Brachen demon looked up, and then rolled her eyes.
She pointed her finger to her left. "Look at sign!" she said rudely. Andrew and Dawn looked where she was pointing. In bright red letters, a sign read: The nighttime secretary speaks only three words of English.
"Oh. Sorry." Andrew switched to Italian and repeated what he had said before. The secretary put on a headset and pressed a button on the earpiece. Andrew and Dawn heard her mention that the two of them were there for an interview with the CEO. She listened, then turned the headset off. She told Andrew and Dawn to wait in the lobby; the CEO would be down shortly.
--
Author's Note: I need to address two things here.
First thing:
Due to strong violence and some sexual references that may be used in upcoming chapters, it is quite possible that I may take this story up to an M rating. Just to warn you.
Second Thing:
If you check the reviews on this story, you'll notice that Allen Pitt asked some valid questions; I will answer them here so that others can see.
It is my interpretation that Giles never told Willow about Angel's phone call; even though she had met Fred only once or twice, I think she liked her enough that she would have at least tried to help her. As it was, we never got a single hint on the series that she did.
As for Andrew telling Buffy that Spike was back, I decided against it mainly because, well, what's he going to do, say something like "Oh, by the way, Buffy, I know you're probably going to be dead in a few hours, so I thought it'd be a good time to tell you that Spike's been back for nearly a year"?
Again, both of these were valid questions, and I would be interested in writing fanfics about them in the future.
Oh, and as always, leave feedback.