Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Seven

Tick Tock

New Sunnydale, the world without shrimp - Halloween 2006

The night wore on, that deep dark rich of October that often made way for the November rain. Giles made his way down main street, Ethan Rayne on his tail, stumbling despite his own urgency. There was a gash on his leg seeping blood through his pants. Giles noticed it the second he'd crossed the threshold, he was limping and hiding it rather badly. He'd refused anything for it until they got where they going. Apparently, there were things he couldn't explain yet.

Giles had no real idea why he was letting Ethan lead him, had no idea why he was going along with this. Perhaps he was distracting himself, trying to get away from his dreams. But he had to face it; this was the most exciting thing that'd happened to him this year. The Watcher's Council was running smoothly without much of his input and whatever was going on in Vegas was in hand. There wasn't much going on here. Ever since he'd moved back there was a funny sense of boredom that had befallen him, an obsoleteness that wasn't about to cause another mid-life crisis. No, he was over his crises phase. Now there was just a nostalgia about living in a Sunnydale replica and a closeness to see Buffy and Dawn whenever he wanted. It was a nice life, nice and boring.

"Over there," Ethan pointed, limping past Giles quickly and heading down a dark side street. Giles looked around them, but the alley was empty. He followed Ethan carefully, minding where he put each step. This was still Sunnydale after all, there was a screaming Hellmouth buried somewhere between here and the school library. But where they came out was nowhere near the school. No, here in the dark part of town, was the New Sunnydale motel. A bleak, oppressive white building sat on the other side of the road. Giles should've guessed. Ethan had a thing about the anonymity of hotels, so much so that he had it incorporated into his various theories about hiding from the government.

Ethan limped across the road with Giles taking the slight lead again, constantly scanning around them. When they stopped in front of the wall of concrete, Ethan produced a room key from his pocket and they slipped inside the building. He nodded to the dumpy woman on reception and smiled like he was up to something. Apparently the only way to Ethan's room was inside the building? Giles followed him regardless until they reached a squat brown door at the end of the hallway, Maintenance was written across the front in shiny black lettering.

Giles raised an eyebrow and watched as Ethan scanned the key on the door and the thing opened. To his disbelief, on the other side of the door was another hallway - identical in every detail to the one they were currently in, but with doors up and down the walls. "Pocket dimension," Ethan explained when Giles raised the corner of his glasses in a questioning fashion. "We can talk here, no one will be listening."

They arrived outside a door bearing the number twenty in the same shiny black letters as the first. Ethan scanned the key card again and the door clicked open. Inside was the plain Jane of motel rooms, unexplainable stains on the carpet, red blankets, peeling wallpaper and cracked skirting boards. Giles tried not to look around too much before stepping into the room. Ethan followed him and collapsed onto the bed, his leg buckling under him. He winced and pulled up the bottom edge of his pant leg, the blood was quickly drying and sticking the fabric to his skin. He pulled at it making a face of extreme discomfort, but he didn't make a sound. Eventually he decided his pants had to come off and made a turning motion to Giles.

"Fine," he mumbled before turning his back on his old friend. The wincing continued as Ethan unbuckled his belt and pulled down his jeans, the fabric pooling around his ankles.

"Ah ahhh," Ethan said, taking his first look at the gaping wound on his calf. Giles turned around and glared down at it, there was a line of yellow pus running down what was left of the skin, and the wound itself was a bloody mess of bruised skin, torn flesh and something suspiciously green.

"Ethan," Giles said seriously, "tell me now why you've come here?" What was he supposed to do with this, patch him up? Ethan dodged his gaze and when on staring at the wound. He couldn't believe that was his own flesh staring back at him. His head was swimming, he started blinking rapidly like he was trying to stay awake. His head was so light, so swimmy. Giles was waving a few fingers in front of his face but Ethan was unresponsive, his pupils rolled back into his head and he fell backwards onto the bed. "Oh dear lord."

It was a couple of minutes before he came round. In those minutes, Giles had rampantly searched the room for a clue as to what all this was about. But there was just nothing. Oddly nothing, like Ethan hadn't a possession in this place. He'd just sat on the floor opposite Ethan when the other man started stirring. His head thumping and his leg throbbing, and his thoughts a clouded fog. It took a second for him to even remember where he was. "Ripper?" He was moaning as he opened his eyes, Giles looked up, a slight fury and relief rose through all at once.

"A little warning next time you do that." He said, rising to his feet and offering Ethan a hand to help him up. Ethan shot him back a smile at his comment and the matter seemed settled between them.

It took the two men an hour or so to have Ethan's wound patched up. Giles ripped the hem off of Ethan's shirt and cleaned the wound as well as he could with the limited resources. He gave Ethan the edge of one of the pillows to bite down on as he did, the deep gash painful and seeping as Giles poured on alcohol from the minibar. He wrapped the leg tightly in the rags and tried to keep the pressure on it, Ethan was lucky, whatever it was that got him hadn't bitten down to the bone. And he'd still be able to walk, despite the pain.

When all that was over, Giles had a serious look on his face. This was not the time to muck him around, he wanted a straight answer. "Tell me Ethan, now."

Ethan stumbled over his words. "I-I um, Ripper please. Just sit down, I can- I will explain." Giles just stared back at him, "or don't. Look, I'm sorry about all that turning you into a demon business, but that place- the facility they took me too. I'd have rather been back in the canteen at Oxford- anyway, it was bad." Ethan paused to brush his hair out of his eyes. It'd grown long and straggly around the back of his neck. He looked rough, "they had me working on things, little government plans, oh God Ripper, the things I've seen." Giles nodded, tempted to roll his eyes, but Ethan continued, "they had me building a run of these hand-helds, grenades Rupert."

He stopped, bringing his eyes up to meet Giles'. "I never did found out what they were using all that stuff for, because the place was raided, the army boys swept out and-and-and we were all tossed. Bloody government, couldn't even free us. I had to face a sentence for handling stolen weapons. Four years Rupert, I got four years! It wasn't even my fault." Giles shot him a look, "okay, fine, but I said I'm sorry for that. Both times, really!" Giles looked away from him, sliding his back down the wall and taking off his glasses. "That Halloween thing wasn't even bad!" Ethan was still saying as he rubbed his head sourly.

"Just keep going, you said you were being followed," then he sighed rather deeply and refrained from closing his eyes.

"Right yeah."

"The short version, my patience is running out," Giles warned.

"Yeah well, the prison they took me too. It wasn't any old place, there were bloody demons everywhere. I had to watch my back. By the time I got out I was deep in it, this demon - Xarkog - recruited me, but I made a mistake Ripper. I should've gotten clean, gotten out of there, I did something bad. Now, Xarkog he's mad and he's sent his lackeys after me. One of them did that," Ethan explained, pointed to his bandaged leg.

Giles put his glasses back on, "Xarkog? Haven't heard of him. I could ring Anya and have her check the books, but what's the point?" He glared at Ethan, it was the middle of the night, he was stuck here, in a shoddy motel room with someone he somewhat despised. And yet this was the most exciting thing that'd happened to him all year. What had his life come to? "What were these demons like, tall, big arms, multiple legs, whatever you can tell me?" He posed to Ethan, who scratched his head and avoided Giles' eyes. "What?"

"I don't know what they looked like, I was passed out, they left me dead in the middle of the road. When I heard you were back here, I knew it would be safe, I was halfway, when they left me on the road outside a bus station. Not smart, those lackeys." Giles looked tired and unimpressed. What was he supposed to do with this?

"So to cut an extremely long story short, there's a demon after you and you came to me for help?" He asked, "Fine!" He yelled a bit too loudly, standing up and banging his fist against the wall.

"Oi, security deposit." Ethan piped up from the other side of the room.

"Screw you Ethan, I don't see why I should help you." Giles said with his eyes closed, his forehead flat against the wall. He was pondering whether this was going to be worth it or not. They'd been friends at one point though. Giles reminded himself, yeah before all the chaos came along. Maybe this is some sort of test on my conscious. He argued back and forth before turning around and facing the man again. "I agree on one condition, you never bother me again. Or Buffy, or the Council, just go back to whatever hole you crawled out of."

"Fine, but Ripper." He stood shakily on his wounded leg and outstretched a hand towards Giles, "I lied earlier. I did care about you once."

They left the motel together, Ethan winking at the woman on reception this time. Giles rolled his eyes and left through the revolving doors. "We should go back to mine and get weapons, you think these were big demons?" He called to Ethan behind him.

"Don't know, presumably. They took a big chunk of my leg Rupert, what do you think?" Ethan threw back, his leg dragging a little as they crossed the road again.

The walk back to the Magic Box was lighter than it had been the first time, Dawn was coming. That could only be a good thing. But then again, lots of demons went into hiding during the day. Giles thought, it could be harder to find them. If they were even still here. Giles could see a spark of orange glowing on the horizon line, day was coming, not that he had anywhere he was supposed to be. He looked around at his life, at the familiar alleys and side streets, at the Expresso Pump mark two, at their new version of the Magic Box. Everything was the same, but a little bit off. Lower down the valley, so nothing was exactly where it had been. The crater that made up the town was larger than ever, some suspected it was sinking but Xander was constantly being told it was nothing to worry about. New Sunnydale felt wrong, like they were trying to erase history. Giles always thought there was something a little creepy about it. Death wiped clean. Dear God, why was he still living here?