Chapter 14.
A/N: Due to the road trip, SG-1 is somewhere near the Grand Canyon right now. We will see more of them once Buffy and the gang catch up.
Please review! Compliments make me write faster; criticisms make me write better.
After Jolinar had taken Xander home, Buffy gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh my god! I'm supposed to show Ford around town tonight. What am I going to do?"
It was Giles who answered first. "I would suggest doing just that. Other than the fact that he lied to you, we don't know much about him or his reasons for being here. While you keep him busy, I will drive Angel and Willow to the address Willow found."
Buffy was aghast. "But what about your date with Miss Calendar?" The idea of ruining someone's social life was appalling to her. Especially since Giles barely had a social life to speak of.
"I'll have to re-schedule." Giles explained. "Perhaps I'll bring her with to make it up to her." In truth Giles was somewhat relieved for the excuse. He was terribly fond of Jenny, but he wasn't keen on the idea of a surprise date.
"Oh Rupert. You bring me to the nicest places." Jenny observed sarcastically as the four of them exited the car in the warehouse district.
"Yes, I said I was sorry. But my Slayer has to come first. You are aware of that." Giles said patiently.
"If you don't mind me asking, where were you going to go on your date before?" Willow asked as they walked.
"I had tickets to the monster truck show." Ms. Calendar answered.
"Monster trucks?" Willow squeaked and quickly covered her mouth to hide the grin.
"I thought it'd be something different." Jenny explained.
"Yes. Quite." Giles managed as he scratched his temple.
After Angel got them into the club, they split up. Angel and Willow took the upper catwalk and Giles and Jenny went to the lower level. After a minute walking around Giles spoke, "Fascinating. This appears to be some sort of vampire worshiping cult."
"Are you sure?" Jenny observed. "It looks more like a late costume party to me."
Chantarelle walked over to them, "You guys are newbies. I can tell."
"Yes. Yes we are. Could you tell us about this place?" Giles played along.
"We're here to be blessed by the Lonely Ones." Chantarelle explained.
"The Lonely Ones?" Jenny asked.
"Vampires." Giles answered tightly. "Tell me, do you know Billy Fordham?"
"Ford? Yes. He has a friend he says can get us blessed. He's out making the arrangements right now." Chantarelle answered.
Angel and Willow came down the stairs. "I've seen enough. You ready to go?" Angel said.
Giles turned and started walking up the stairs. "Yes, we should go. Apparently, Ford is out making arrangements for these fools to be 'blessed' by some of our nocturnal friends. We'll need to let Buffy know."
Diego overheard them them as they left.
They pulled into the parking lot a few seconds before Buffy dusted her vampire. Giles motioned to the fight. "Who says I don't know how to show a woman a good time? Front row tickets to vampire... Slayage. Oh dear god. Their language is infecting me. Promise me you won't let them take me alive?"
Jenny smirked. "Fear of becoming an American teenager. I wonder if I could find a spell to accomplish that? Should keep you in line." Then she pointed. "Looks like Ford's vamp got away."
Angel was the only other person quick enough to catch the flapping of the fleeing vamp's coat in the dark. "Well, lets go confront him then."
A quick lie about how Ford would be safer inside and all five people insisting that he come with them was all it took to get him in the library. With Ford seated at the table and all five of the others standing around him, Ford was feeling a little boxed in.
"So. Ford. Bestest best bud of mine. What's the what?" Buffy said coldly.
"Excuse me? I told you. My dad-"
"Shut up." Buffy squeezed his shoulder. "I'm getting sick and tired of people lying to me." She looked at Angel.
Angel saw his chance to explain slipping away. "Okay, I can explain that. But can we talk about it after we've dealt with him?"
Buffy squeezed a little harder and Ford cried in pain. "Ah!" When the pain lessened he rotated his shoulder to make sure it still worked. "What's all this about?"
Angel jumped at the chance to transfer some of Buffy's anger away from him. "Let's see? You lied to Buffy about why you're here. You lied about staking that vamp. And you own a club full of vampire wannabes. Is that enough?"
Ford looked unrepentant. "I didn't do anything wrong."
Angel growled and lunged into Ford's face, but the growl died when Angel got close. He took a few sniffs of Ford's hair.
"Okay, does anyone else think that was a little weird?" Willow asked.
Angel backed away with a blank look on his face. "He's dying." He sighed. "Three months?"
"They told me six. But by then what they bury won't even look like me. It'll be bald and shriveled and it'll smell bad." Everyone is silent. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did the nest of tumors liquefying my brain kinda spoil the mood?"
"I don't get it." Willow said. "You're dying. But what about your friends at the club. They wanted to be- Ooooh. You want to be a vampire!"
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Buffy complained. "When you become a vamp; you die, and a demon sets up shop in your old house, and it walks, and it talks, and it remembers your life, but it's not you."
"It's better than nothing." Ford whispered.
"It is nothing. You're just killing yourself six months early." Buffy assured him.
"I'm going to be immortal." Ford insisted.
"And what makes you say that?" Buffy crossed her arms.
"This is just the way I imagined it!" Ford exclaimed. "And I know I am because you're going to let me go. You guys are the good guys and I haven't broken any laws so you can't touch me." Ford taunted.
"If you wanted to become a vamp, why come to me? I mean, I'm the Vampire Slayer. Why put yourself on my radar like that?" Buffy questioned.
"Buffy." Giles cautioned.
Buffy's shoulders fell as she realized. "You were going to offer them a trade." She said softly.
Willow came over to hold and comfort her friend. "Oh Buffy."
Angel was back in Ford's face growling. "What was that about not being able to touch you?" as he gave him a kidney shot. Ford yelled in pain. "Oh please. I've hit Xander a lot harder than that."
Willow shot a disappointed look at Angel. "Well, Xander's not exactly human now is he?"
"He's not?" Angel and Jenny asked simultaneously.
"Oh." Willow squeaked. "I probably shouldn't have said anything. It's kind of Xander's secret to tell. Anyway. First we have to figure out what to do with Mr. Traitor Pants here."
Ricky Dunham was glad that this job was almost done. Sure it was government work and it paid well, but making this natural cave into some sort of military base had been a lot more dangerous than advertized. He'd lost five men down here. Most had simply disappeared. One had turned up with what looked like a bite mark on his neck. Not to mention the paperwork. The non-disclosure forms he and his men had to sign were outrageous. He wasn't allowed to tell the relatives of the dead and missing men where or how they had died. Simply for knowing that there was now some base underneath the UC Sunnydale campus. If he weren't being paid so well, he'd have told someone just for the hell of it. Still he was able to complain (without revealing details) to his new friend, Al. They had met at a bar and had just one thing in common. They both hated their jobs. Their bosses were horrible. From what Ricky could tell, Al might even be scared of his boss. Al never said, but Ricky assumed that he worked for the Mafia. What the Mafia was doing in a rinky-dink town like this, he'd never know.
As Ricky bid farewell to his new friend, he truly hoped that he would be able to safely leave the service of his boss. Who ever it was, they owned this town.
Deputy Mayor Allan Finch was worried. He was worried that he was quite literally working for the Devil. Sure, the Mayor seemed nice, but he was pretty sure that Deputy Mayors in other towns didn't have to dispose of dead bodies on a regular basis. Most of them also weren't worried about their bosses using them in some unholy ritual. He wasn't even sure he wanted to tell Mayor Richard Wilkins III about the what his former drinking buddy had let slip under the influence of too many beers. But a secret base under the college campus was certainly something that he would want to know about. Hopefully the Mayor wouldn't make him investigate.
Mayor Richard Wilkins III was a little worried by the report he just received. It was also completely insane. But the person who had given it was completely truthful. He had seen to that. There's only so much pain a person can endure before they'll tell you everything you want to know. And when the subject was already dead, there was no risk of torturing him to death. The vampire had talked. Told him everything he wanted to know, and was now being vacuumed out of his carpet.
This new player, this Male Slayer, could only be trouble. It was nonsense of course, there was already one Slayer in town and there could only be one girl at a time. Which made the report doubly worrying. The Slayer was always a girl. The parts about him being crazy and having glowing eyes were unimportant right now. The Slayer had been a problem since she arrived, but she was a manageable problem and by now, a known quantity. She was also inevitable; living on an active Hellmouth attracted the town's more colorful nightlife. And if he killed this one, another would be called and sent. So he made sure that little Buffy Summers was kept in check and otherwise left alone. His own plans were far too important to allow a Slayer to catch wind of them. Those gosh darn girls could be a bit unpredictable at times. Dragging the vampire Angel out of retirement a case in point.
But a male Slayer, whatever he really was, could tip the balance of power in the wrong direction. This could mean he'd have to step up his plans for Ascension. He made a note to have Allan look into the date and time of the next solar eclipse.
"So what do we do with him?" Willow asked the group what everyone was wondering. And had been wondering for the last 15 minutes.
A noise from Giles' office distracted everyone from their thoughts. Everyone stared. Giles and Buffy started making their way to the door, which burst open revealing the second vampire from earlier carrying a book. She grabbed Giles, used him as a blocker against Buffy, and threw him into Angel as she passed and escaped out the back door.
Jenny ran up to Giles. "Are you okay?"
Giles was only concerned with his books, "A book! It took one of my books!"
"Well, at least someone in this school is reading." Jenny quipped.
Buffy sighed, "That's the vampire Ford said he killed." She turned back to where Ford had been sitting and caught the library door closing. "Well, at least we know what Ford is up to. Giles, do we know what book they stole?"
Giles shook his head. "I didn't get a good look at it. I'll have to go through my records and figure out which one is missing." Giles stood. "If Willow and Miss Calendar are willing to assist me, we should have it narrowed down soon enough. You and Angel should return to Ford's club. If he intends to turn into a vampire it's likely that he will either arrange for the others too be turned as well or use them either in trade or as a first meal. None of those options are good for their future longevity."
It was a long walk back to the club and Angel and Buffy walked slowly. As they walked Angel explained everything about Drusilla.
"Buffy." Angel began.
"Don't talk to me. First Ford. Now you. Actually, first Xander. But then you got Willow to lie to me." Buffy ranted. "Everybody is lying to me and I'm sick of it."
Angel took the silence as an opportunity to change the subject. "What did Willow mean when she said that Xander isn't human? Xander said he got some memories from Halloween. But I take it it was more than that?"
"You'll have to ask Xander. I don't feel like explaining right now." Buffy said tersely.
"Why didn't he tell me?" Angel wondered out loud.
"Everybody lies." Buffy said sadly.
Angel and Buffy arrived at the club. It was only slightly less full than earlier that night. And Ford was nowhere to be seen. Buffy wondered if he was already betraying her. Spike was the only vampire in town whose name she knew. She wondered if Ford would find him or if he would just find some random vamp. No. Of course it would be Spike. She just couldn't seem to shake that parasite.
"Can I have your attention please?" Buffy announced from the top of the stairs. "You are all idiots." She held up a hand when Angel tried to interrupt. "You are all trying to become vampires, correct?"
"You don't have to be so mean, you know?" Chantarelle answered. "We want the Lonely Ones to bless us."
"Bless you?" Buffy asked incredulously. "Angel, show them."
Angel shifted into his game face and growled. "This is the face you want to never see in the mirror ever again?" he asked. "And as far as blessings go, the only one you're going to get is, 'For that which we are about to receive, may the dark lord make us truly thankful'." Angel finished his mock prayer and lunged at the girl with the choker. She shrunk back down the stairs. "What's the matter? The truth about vampires too much to take? Killing and feeding on humans every night not on your to-do list?"
"They are blasphemers!" Diego shouted. "Don't listen to them."
Angel walked calmly down the stairs, driving everyone before him. He walked over to the man in a blue cape and knocked him out with one punch. "Anyone else not want to listen?" Angel asked.
"And there's something else Ford probably forgot to mention. The Vampire Slayer. Basically, she's an ordinary girl who gets the job of killing every vampire she sees." Buffy pulled a stake. "Oh yeah. She's also me. So here's how it's going to go. You all line up in front of Angel down there. He's going to turn you and then I'm going to kill you permanently. Any questions?"
The room was silent for a moment before a goth girl raised her hand. "Can I not get turned?"
Buffy rolled her eyes and sighed. Though she secretly breathed in relief. "Fine." She stepped off to the side of the catwalk, allowing people to leave. "Everyone who doesn't want to die, leave now and never come back. Everyone who stays gets turned and then killed." Buffy bluffed.
Everyone but the unconscious Diego left rather hurriedly.
"What about him?" Angel motioned to the unconscious man.
"We'll have to take him with us. Maybe drop him at the hospital 'till morning." Buffy replied.
"That was quite the bluff Buffy." Angel said as he lifted the boy.
"Everyone lies. It was just my turn." Buffy answered.
The next morning Mayor Richard Wilkins III called in his Deputy Mayor. Finch was more nervous than usual. The poor man really needed to find a relaxing hobby. After the Deputy told him of what he'd learned about the base, the Mayor was troubled. How could he have not heard anything about this? He ordered Finch to send some vampires to check it out that night. Then he informed the Deputy Mayor of his own new findings. He told him to put the word on the street for information about this new, Male Slayer. And his final order to Allan was for him to find the all the solar eclipses that would be happening over the next two years.
Allan had really outdone himself. He had the predictions of the three remaining solar eclipses before the one he was planning on using. Two were going to hit mostly ocean, but one was going to hit Mexico this spring. It wouldn't hit the Hellmouth directly, but the energy of the Hellmouth and even a partial eclipse should be plenty to pull off the transformation. It was either that or go down to Mexico and he didn't want to do that. He was going to have to feed on the local population once he was transformed and he'd rather have some plump Americans than some stringy Mexicans.
It was a shame really. He was planning on a big ceremony at the high school graduation during the centennial celebration of the town. He even had his speech written. He'd had it written for 40 years now. He wrote it not long after Edna May had passed. He sighed thinking about her. Then he turned his attention to the date of the eclipse. April 20th. He counted back and found that January 10th would give him the required 100 days. Golly gee, that was only two months away. There was a lot to do and not much time to do it in. It was time to call in some favors.
A/N: And with that, we should be mostly caught up to SG1.
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