Lie To Me, Part 4
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November 2, 1997
Any attempt at training got swiftly derailed when their usual quick check in at the morgue (to find out if any suspicious deaths had happened in the night) resulted in the discovery of Billy Ford's death. Buffy stared at Giles for a moment in incomprehension, stunned that someone she knew from Hemery was in town and, now, dead.
"What the heck was Billy doing here?" Buffy wanted to know. "And more importantly, what got hold of him?"
Giles shook his head. "It does not appear that anything did. At least, there are no obvious signs of violence on him according to what they have checked thus far. They haven't gotten very far as his body was only found an hour or so ago."
"Yeah, but this is Sunnydale. I'm not buying it." Buffy said. "If for no other reason than they attribute vampire bites to accidents with barbecue forks."
About then, Billy's parents arrived to identify their son's body. That's when things got interesting.
"Buffy, what happened?" His father wanted to know.
"I ... have no idea. I didn't even know you guys were in town." Buffy said.
That made Billy's mother frown. "What? But Billy said he wanted to come here, to ... " She took a deep, shaky breath. "To say goodbye."
"Umm ... why would he want to do that?" Buffy asked.
"He has ... had." Mr. Ford explained, looking pained at the past tense. "Terminal brain cancer. We found out about it a month or so after you left. By the time he was diagnosed, it was too late to do anything but make him as comfortable as we could and ... spend time with him. The doctors were saying he only had a month or two left, at his last check-up a week or so ago. That's when he asked to come out here."
Buffy made a horrified face. She and Billy hadn't been all that close - she'd been too invested in being Hemery's version of Cordelia for that - but he'd been a friend, and finding out he was dying of cancer was not a fun time for her. "That's horrible. God, I'm so sorry."
"It ... it's probably best it happened like this." Mrs. Ford said. "Better for his body to give out now rather than him lingering for the next month."
Buffy nodded. "Yeah."
Xander, on the other hand, was giving Buffy A Look. Then again, so was Jon. Xander was pretty sure both of them were picking up on the same thing - if in different ways. Buffy was upset, yes, but Xander could all but see the wheels turning in her head. Eventually they said their goodbyes, and left the morgue. Once they were back at the house, Buffy eyed the rest of the group.
"Something about this stinks." She told them. "I mean, ok, cancer bad. But ... why the hell did he come here? I mean, he was a friend, but we weren't really close. At least, not close enough for a final visit, you know?"
"Well, it was brain cancer." Xander pointed out. "That has to mess with the way you think, you know? Maybe he got confused, or fixated on saying goodbye to you for some reason we'll never understand 'cause he was sick."
"On the other hand." Jon pointed out. "This is Sunnydale. What are the odds it wasn't cancer, but a possession by some demon trying to get here?" He looked over at Giles.
"Nonexistent. Possessions all leave some sort of mark on the victim." Giles said. "Sometimes difficult to perceive, but they exist. Also, the fact that he had terminal cancer would have put most demons capable of possession off. Too much risk he would die on them before they got what they wanted. That said, if he was present at the high school during Buffy's first tangle with vampires, without the willful blinders Sunnydalians put on, he might remember the truth of the situation. It is conceivable he preferred a swift, if violent death to lingering in pain and ... well, whatever else the cancer would have put him through as it worked its way into his brain."
"Yeah, have to say, if I had to choose between a long lingering death or a fast one ... I'd go with fast every time." Willow piped up with a sigh. "But it still leaves us with the question of why he thought there'd be something available here to give him that fast end."
"Well, Buffy's here. And yeah, that wouldn't be enough on its own." Xander said. "But you guys all remember Jim telling us there's hinky gaps in the information available on the 'net when it comes to Sunnydale and its residents. Might have been enough to make him suspicious."
"Unfortunately, in the long run, we really don't have any way of knowing what was going on. Just that his death wasn't a violent one, which eliminates most of the demons in town." Giles said.
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November 3, 1997
The next day was mostly a quiet one, at least at first. But shortly after school let out, the influx of unknown people came to the attention of the Scoobies.
"What the hell? There aren't any conventions or anything, I know, we checked." Buffy said. "So what's with all the twenty-somethings and late teens showing up?"
"Heck if I know." Xander said, then glanced at Jon. "Can you get anything?" He asked.
Jon cocked his head, but after a few moments, he gave it a shake. "Nothing that makes sense. A lot of high spirits, and something about a party later tonight."
"Oh, now that spells trouble." Willow said, frowning.
"Yeah. A nighttime party in Sunnydale? With outsiders in attendance? Something extremely hinky is going on." Buffy said. "We're going to have to pay really close attention when we patrol tonight."
"Gimmie a few minutes and I might get a location on that party." Jon said, then glanced at Xander.
Xander, understanding the request in the look, reached over and gently gripped Jon's shoulder, and started muttering under his breath, providing the anchor Jon needed to use his senses safely if he was doing more than skimming the surface of the surrounding area senses-wise.
Jon gave his head another shake and glanced over at Xander, giving him a nod. "Ok, the party's supposed to be at the Sunset Club."
That had everyone blinking. "Ok, show of hands. Who knows what the heck that is?" Buffy wanted to know. No one raised their hands. "Well shit. Apparently, we've managed to miss a thing or two in our patrols."
"No shit." Xander said. "Well, we'll just tag where this lot is parking it until sundown, then come out and tail them to wherever and go from there."
"That's about all we *can* do." Giles agreed.
They headed back to the Summers' house and spent a few hours doing homework and getting dinner. About an hour before the sun set, they headed down to the basement and grabbed weapons, just in case things went south.
(_)(_)(_)
Across town, Spike had a bit of a problem. The entire court knew about the incoming wannabes. Most of the vampires in the court were all for eating them. Hell, for that matter, Spike was all for it. The only thing that pissed him off more than vampire wannabes was Angel when he was being especially assholish.
That said, Spike was well aware of the fact that if they *did* go in and eat all those idiots, they'd have the Slayer and her cohort on their asses faster than any of them could think. The Slayer might be willing to sort-of tolerate the existence of the court when its existence led to there only being one or two victims a night. It was an improvement over the dozen or so deaths a night when Sunnydale had been up to its ears in minions. She would not, though, continue to tolerate the court if they slaughtered thirty or so people in one night. That kind of idiocy would see her embarking on a quest to wipe them all out posthaste, forthwith, and with extreme prejudice.
What it all boiled down to was a test of just how well Spike could control his court. Tempting as they were, going after the wannabes was just not smart at all. Not this early in the game, with the handful of vampires that had survived the purge still working their way to a level of competence, intelligence, and fighting prowess to handle a confrontation with the Slayer and her cohort. In a few more months, a head-on clash would be possible, and might just work out to Spike's favor, but right now, there wasn't a chance in hell of him winning and he knew it. Not against a Slayer with the sort of backup this one had.
Then again ... there was that second Slayer Lucas had spotted. It'd taken a few days to confirm the girl was actually a Slayer. Spike was still trying to figure out how in the name of hell that had happened. Insofar as he was aware, there had never been two Slayers at once.
And the second Slayer? Was the bog-standard Council bred and trained Slayer. Which meant she would be extremely easy pickings compared to the Summers chit. Even with the two Slayers now hanging out together, the second one would still be an easy mark because she wasn't integrated into the group at all, and still kept to the teachings of the Council.
So. The second Slayer would be unlikely to mess with the wannabes. And tracking her would distract the court from the wannabes. Also, he *had* promised to kill a Slayer. What better time to come through on his promise than this?
"Right. Court meeting, one hour." Spike barked from his 'throne'. "Lucas, make sure everybody's here."
Lucas nodded and took off to spread the word. Silent Bob stepped up to take Lucas' usual spot at Spike's side. "Bob, want you to cull a few from the herd. We're going to be going hunting, but I want some folks to stay behind to protect the lair. I wouldn't put it past the Summers chit to show up here when we're all gone."
Bob nodded, and took off as well to choose those who'd stay behind to guard the lair.
An hour later, the entire court was assembled.
"Right, you lot. Everyone knows we got a bunch of those wannabe wankers in town, looking to become vamps, because we're such gentle, misunderstood souls." Spike said.
Literally every demon in the room laughed at that. Spike smirked.
"I know it's mighty tempting to go eat the lot of them, but I got a better idea. We got two Slayers in town, and that's two too many. We play this right, we'll be down to one Slayer by dawn. The Summers girl'll head for the wannabes, to protect them. She knows they're a big, juicy, tempting target. She'll expect the lot of them to attract hungry demons of some description."
There were a few agreeing nods from the assemblage.
"So we let her waste her time doing that. Meantime, odds are good the second Slayer won't be in on the fun. 'cause she's Council raised and trained. Which makes her stupid as hell and easy pickings." Spike continued.
Ok, so maybe not - the Chinese Slayer Spike had taken on nearly a century ago had been Council raised and trained, and that gal had been a challenge and a half to take down. But Spike knew better than to make it sound like he didn't think he could take this Slayer on without breaking a sweat. Showing even the smallest weakness was just this side of suicidal.
"She'll be wandering about. Alone. So while Summers is busy guarding a bunch of useless wankers, we go and have us a Slayer killing party." Spike finished.
The members of his court seemed to like that idea. Of course, not a one of them had tangled with a Slayer, so they had no clue how tough a Slayer was to kill, even under ideal circumstances. Even when they'd had enough and wanted to call it quits, they didn't roll over and die easily. They had too strong a survival instinct, even when they'd gotten to the point of having a death wish. Which tended to happen to them pretty young thanks to the Council's idiocy. Of course, Spike had only fought and killed two Slayers (one more than any other vampire he knew of had managed)so it wasn't like he had vast amounts of personal experience dealing with Slayers, but he'd made a point of studying them, and that had meant investigating how the Council handled them.
No matter what happened. Whether the second Slayer stuck with Summers or did her own thing, whether Spike managed to kill her or not, tonight was going to be extremely interesting. It would also very likely change the game as it was being played in Sunnydale. Spike was fairly sure that Summers would be pissed about her fellow Slayer being killed, but what that would mean for the court, he didn't know. Nor did he know how the court would react if the second Slayer stuck with Summers, or Spike failed to kill her.