The three of them made their way down the basement stairs being as quiet as they could, hoping for the advantage of surprise. They also listened, trying to hear what, if anything, was going on down there. The human in the group wasn't hearing nearly as well as the two vampires, though. The problem was that neither Spike nor Lawson had heard anything yet. The location spell and Spike's sense of smell both brought them to the high school, so Giles had to be here, they just had to find him.
Spike took another deep inhale. The watcher's scent was getting more and more potent so they had to be getting close. When they finally made it down the stairs, they didn't see anything of interest. They knew he was down there though, so he had to be deeper into the basement. Finally, Spike heard the sound of something hitting the ground, he couldn't tell what, but they were in the basement so it wasn't as if the wind had knocked something over. They had to be getting close to whomever was holding Giles.
"This way," Spike said as he led the way to where he'd heard the sound. The closer they got, the more Spike and Lawson could hear groans of pain, which they both knew was the watcher. They also heard a voice saying some type of incantation, like a chant.
"This can't be good," Spike muttered under his breath.
"What?" Buffy asked urgently.
"Someone must be performing some type of ritual and it seems like the watcher's the sacrifice."
That was all Buffy needed to hear. She wasn't worried about being stealthy anymore, she just needed to get to Giles and make sure he was okay, or at least that he was going to be okay.
"Bugger," Spike cursed as he ran to follow after her.
Buffy burst through the closed doors ready to kill anything that stood in between her and her watcher. She took a second to take everything in. There were a bunch of those weird demon things they were fighting earlier, and Giles, who was clearly already roughed up, was tied up above this weird symbol that was on the ground. There was someone in front of and facing him with a dagger who was about to use it either to stab him or carve something into him. Just another weird demon ritual because they were trying to open the Hellmouth again, nothing Buffy hadn't dealt with before. Either way, they wouldn't be using her watcher to get it done.
The only problem was that there were a bunch of people in between her and Giles. So she got to work. She wasn't trying to take them down as much as she was trying to get past them. Spike and Lawson were helping her clear the way and finishing off the ones that she'd only slowed down. It took much longer than she would have liked, as the guy kept chanting the whole time. Thankfully, it looked like he had to finish the incantation before he could hurt Giles more than he already was.
'Wait, this guy sounds majorly of the familiar. Who preforms an incantation sounding so cheery?' Buffy thought as she was still trying to make her way to him. She still couldn't see his face because he was facing Giles but she had a feeling she knew this guy.
She must have been putting too much attention into figuring out who the guy was because one of the demons had a little dagger himself and slashed her arm. It wasn't too deep; she'd be fine after some disinfectant, but it hurt and made her remember she had to focus on the fight first. She kept maneuvering her way over to where Giles was tied up and Spike was not far behind her. When she finally made it to them, she grabbed the guy by the shoulder, spun him around, and punched him in the face. He looked like the punch didn't hurt him at all. Her eyes widened when she finally realized who it was.
"Mayor Wilkins?!" she exclaimed.
"Howdy, Miss Summers. Bet you weren't expecting to see me again."
"I thought Angelus killed you."
Wilkins let out one of his loud happy laughs. "Yes, well, that was a real goof on my part, wasn't it? I thought Angelus would be on my side and then he went and tried to kill me while taking my Faithy away from me. I would be dead right now if it wasn't for my friend over there."
Buffy flicked her eyes to where he was pointing to and saw herself. She froze for a second in shock before making the connection with The First. Thankfully, Spike had made his way past Wilkins while she was speaking to him and had started to get Giles down.
"Don't touch him," the body impersonator said to Spike.
"Sod off, what are you going to bloody do about it, you don't even have a body to stop me." Lawson was helping, so it didn't take long to get one of Giles's arms down.
"What are you doing? Stop them!" The First yelled at Wilkins.
He waved his hand dismissively at Spike and Giles. "Don't worry, don't worry, I will. Let me finish my story first. Miss Summers here looks mighty interested." He looked back to Buffy. "Where was I? Oh right, your ex-gentleman caller didn't want to play along with my rules at all, he wanted to be the boss. Unfortunately, he won our little altercation and used me as his first soulless drink. I'm not sure if it was laziness or no follow-through but he left me hanging onto life. I must admit it broke my heart when my little Faith went along with him. I have to believe he tricked her because she's a loyal girl."
Buffy scoffed. "Yeah, so loyal she left both of us in the lunch."
"It's lurch, but I see your point," he corrected absently. "Anyway, there I was, lying on the ground about to die when who came to save me? Well, none other than Buffy Summers. That's what I thought, anyway, until you couldn't actually touch me and had one of your bringer friends pick me up. At that point, I thought I was just dreaming." He stared off, remembering, then shook his head. "Anyway, when I came to I was here and that's when my friend over there told me who she was and what her plans were. You see, our plans were similar, at least in the sense that I can do what she wants and still get what I want in the process."
"So, what, you're going from head honcho to just an underling? Wow, what a step down that must be for you, mayor. Or, former mayor, I should say. Since, you know, they all think you're dead. Can't keep the job if you're not alive to do it."
Wilkins clearly became angry at her words. "I'm nobody's underling. We're partners, The First and I."
"Right, sure. Because we all know the germaphobe loves hanging out in dirty basements. This is totally your idea, and you're not following anyone else's orders," Buffy said, then rolled her eyes, pulling off a completely bored, unimpressed state.
She was trying not to show how thrown she was about the mayor being there. She was also confused because when she punched him in the face earlier, he didn't bat an eye. Usually, a hit like that from her would hurt anyone. It wasn't like he had super strength; he'd always had his goons to do his dirty work in the past, so she had no idea what was going on. She figured the best idea might be to just get Giles out of there as soon as possible and regroup. Speaking of Giles, Spike had gotten him down and Giles was leaning heavily on him and Lawson right then. Now she just had to get him out of there safely.
She looked at Spike and moved her eyes to the exit that was behind him but Spike shook his head no, he had no intention of leaving Buffy down there. He subtly adjusted Giles's weight so it was mostly Lawson holding him then nodded his head to the door. He could get Giles out of there safely so Spike could stay with Buffy. One look at Buffy made it clear that wasn't good enough for her, though; she wanted both of them to take him out in case there were more of The First's henchmen hiding somewhere.
Spike had agreed from the beginning to follow her lead in this fight but he wasn't happy. If they'd been by themselves he'd make it bloody clear how he felt about her orders but for now, he'd keep his word and do what she wanted him to. He knew she could take care of herself; Christ, he was pretty sure she'd win in a one-on-one fight with him, not that he'd ever admit that to her. So he grudgingly started taking slow, quiet steps to the exit behind him. They'd only made it a few steps when Drusilla appeared in front of them. Spike choked back a sob at seeing her, especially just hours after he'd staked her. He'd heard from Buffy that this First bint could turn into any person who'd died so he knew it wasn't Dru, but that didn't make seeing her any easier.
"Where are you going, my prince? The fun is just beginning."
"Get out of my way, you manipulative chit, I know you're not her," Spike said, then kept walking. When he got to where the fake Dru was, she disappeared as he walked through her.
The First reappeared right next to the mayor and was clearly angry. He had been so lost in his conversation with the slayer that he hadn't even noticed them taking his sacrifice away. "What are you doing? I told you not to let them get away!"
He knew he was being a little irrational, perhaps, but what the slayer had just been saying had upset him. "I don't take orders from you. We're partners, remember? We don't need that sacrifice, there are thousands we can use in this town alone."
"I saved your life and gave you power. I can take it away!"
'Gave you power? Is that why he wasn't affected when I punched him? Does he have, like, super strength now? Doesn't really matter I guess, it's not like he's much of a fighter anyway.'
She looked at her scythe, which she was holding, and thought she might be able to end this right now. She lifted her scythe to do just that when the ground started to shake and The First had a big smile come over her Buffy-stealing face.
"It doesn't matter anyway. The watcher bled on the seal, and that's all I needed him for anyway."
Buffy felt a little panicky. Was the Hellmouth opening up? She didn't know how to stop it and honestly, she'd always panicked a little bit whenever there was an earthquake, so she wasn't working at the top of her ability right then. The seal on the ground started to crack and Buffy took a few steps back, closer to the exit through which Spike, Sam, and Giles had left. Thankfully, even though the seal had begun to open, it was only a crack, nowhere near big enough for something to get through. She decided that the most important thing to do now was to figure out how to close it again. To do that, she needed to get back to Giles and get him to his apartment to make sure he was okay and set the Scoobies on researching. She'd have to deal with the mayor later. As she turned to make her exit, she heard The First scream in anger.
'I guess it was expecting the seal to open a little more than that,' Buffy thought with a vindictive snicker. Once outside, she caught up to the guys. They were waiting with Giles, who was resting on a bench while Spike was puffing away on a cigarette, pacing back and forth, obviously angry. When he saw her she could see relief enter his eyes but the anger was still burning strong.
He pulled her into his arms, mostly to reassure himself that she was okay. "What happened in there?"
"I'm not sure, I think they might have just opened the Hellmouth."
"Christ!" He pulled away just enough to look her in her eyes. "Don't bloody send me away again, Slayer. Lawson would have been fine taking your watcher out of there by himself. My spot is next to you, you hear me?"
She did not like being told what to do but she also knew it was only because he was worried about her. So she took a few deep breaths before responding and tried to keep her voice as calm and neutral as possible. "I didn't know if there were any more of The First's minions running around. Someone had to be able to keep Giles safe while the other took them out. I did what I thought was best."
He could tell she was trying to keep her cool, so he tried to do the same. He took a few deep breaths too, although his weren't technically needed. "I get that, pet, I really do, but Lawson can handle his own and we'd have only been two minutes behind him."
"Are you saying I can't handle my own?" The anger in her voice was clear now.
"What? Of soddin' course that's not what I'm saying. I know you're a bloody great fighter. Christ, my prick stands to attention just thinking about it, but that doesn't mean I don't like having your back. Plus, you were dealing with The First and that crazy sodding mayor, and we didn't see anyone on our way out."
When hearing what Spike said, her anger turned into blushing. She moved past it, though, because now wasn't the time.
"Okay, okay, whatever. Let's talk about this later. Right now we're just screaming in front of my school, which has a bunch of evil guys inside, probably coming up with a plan to attack us. Plus, I have to show my face here in the morning. With my luck, there's a student around here watching us so they can spread a rumor that's going to be all over the school tomorrow about 'Crazy Buffy' yelling at her bad boy boyfriend in the middle of town. I just want to get Giles somewhere safe."
Spike looked over to the bench where Lawson and Rupert were sitting and saw them looking at him and Buffy incredulously, making him feel slightly embarrassed. He thought he was past being able to be embarrassed, but Buffy and her Scoobies had been bringing the William out in him and that included the annoying parts of his personality too. "Right you are, kitten. Let's get Rupes home."
Spike walked over to Giles and held his hand out, offering to help him up. "How are you doing, mate? Do you need help getting home? Looks like they did a number on you."
"Yes, unfortunately, I think I do, thanks. Bloody sods were having a grand old time using me for their ritual," said Giles as he took Spike's hand to get up then put his weight on Spike as they started walking.
"Don't worry Rupes, we'll be sure to pay them back for the time you spent with them."
"Yes, we will," Buffy said darkly. The men looked at her, not used to hearing her sound so dark and vindictive, but Buffy didn't stand for anyone hurting people she cared about.
Spike wished they'd brought the DeSoto with them so that Giles didn't have to walk, because he was obviously in pain. He didn't like seeing Giles that way and it made him realize that he cared about the watcher more than he thought he did and he didn't quite know how to feel about that.
'Bloody humans making me give a shit.'
He looked back at Giles; it didn't look like anything was broken but he was definitely beat up and would probably be sore for the next few days. Thankfully, when Giles chose his flat, he chose it because of its close proximity to his work. So it only took about ten minutes to walk Giles home, even accounting for having to slow down for Giles.
When they entered, each of the teenagers' faces showed their relief at seeing Giles with them. The caregiver in Willow ran up to them and took Giles from Spike to lead him to the couch so he could relax. She then put the kettle on, though she was scared to make tea for him. The last time she'd tried, although Giles had attempted to be nice about it, it was clear by the look on his face he'd thought 'bloody Americans have no idea how to make a good cuppa.' Willow giggled because thinking about that time, she was hearing his accent in her mind, and everyone looked at her strangely for laughing in a situation like this. Her cheeks grew red in embarrassment and she quickly tried to get the attention off of her.
"Spike, do you know how to make tea the way Giles would like it? I failed miserably the last time I tried."
"Uh, sure Red. No problem." He was still trying to get used to being accepted as part of this group. So sometimes he felt strange in situations like this. Instead of dealing with his feelings on the matter, he went into the kitchen and focused on making tea.
Back in the living room, Buffy was fussing over her watcher and though Giles understood her worry and need to make sure he was okay, he was fine and just needed some space and sleep. "Thank you, Buffy, but I'm fine, I promise. I just need a good night's rest."
Buffy looked at him dubiously but eventually nodded. "Okay, Giles. I understand. I guess we'll just go and pick this up tomorrow."
"Not so fast, Buffy. We still have one little problem to deal with," said Giles, sounding incredulous, and nodded his head over to the chair that had a tied-up slayer in it.
Buffy laughed awkwardly. "Right, I kinda forgot about her." At Giles's unbelieving look, she got defensive. "Hey! It's been a crazy day, you can't blame me. I was focused on saving you."
"Right. Sorry, Buffy. By the way, those ghastly creatures took me before I saw how the fight ended. I was so worried that you'd need me and my magic and I wouldn't be there to help you. What happened, dear girl?" Though Buffy was acting like she was fine, Giles could see the sadness she was trying to hide.
"We won," she tried to say cheerfully. When Giles just continued to stare at her, she continued. "I staked Angelus and Spike staked Drusilla. Since you weren't there I had to resort to knocking Faith out," she said shortly, just giving the bare-bones amount of details, unemotionally.
He felt terrible for Buffy. And for Spike too, now that he thought about it. Buffy was like a daughter to him and somehow, Spike had become one of his closest friends. He didn't really want to think about the fact that one of the people he was closest to was a master vampire known for killing his charge's kind. He knew that his slayer and the vampire were now in a relationship with each other, but neither seemed the type to just stop caring about former lovers when they moved on. Giles knew that they both must be hurting. Before the fight, he'd been hoping that somehow it would work out that Buffy would go against Drusilla and Spike would fight Angelus so neither had to kill the one they once loved. Unfortunately, life rarely turns out the way you want it to, and fights to the death even less so. Now all he could do was be there for them however he could. Neither were the type to let their pain show, however, so he had no choice but to sit, watch, and wait for an opportunity to help, if one ever came.
Faith made a sound of pain. It seemed she was finally coming to consciousness. Buffy must have hit her hard for her to have been out that long. She had a lot of anger to work out when it came to Faith, so it made sense. In Buffy's eyes, Faith had turned her back on her and on all that slayers should stand for. Faith chose her wants and likes over what she was called for as well as over her family, because even if they didn't always get along, Buffy looked at Faith like a sister. She was her Sister Slayer and you didn't betray your sister.
"What the hell?" Faith groaned in pain then groaned again when she opened her eyes and saw where she was.
Buffy didn't know how to act around Faith right then. Yes, she'd been under thrall for some of her time with Angelus, but when Buffy had been their captive and was being tortured by them, that was all Faith. Drusilla wasn't even there at that point, so Faith couldn't use the excuse of being thralled. When had it happened? When had Faith decided it was too much and she wanted out? What was she going to do when she left? Was she going to just run and continue doing whatever she wanted or was she going to come to Buffy, beg forgiveness, and try to repent? Buffy doubted it was the latter but she hoped that was Faith's plan because if it was, that meant that Faith regretted what she'd done and wanted to do better. Wanted to make it up to Buffy for hurting her, both physically and mentally.
"Faith, good to see you're finally awake. We were starting to think you were going to sleep the night away. I never took you as the lazy type."
Buffy could see Faith pull on her chains, testing how strong they were and trying to find a way out of her situation. "Wow B, you sure look better than the last time I saw you. Healed up quite nicely from your little stay at Casa de Angelus."
The Scoobies didn't know what to think of that statement. Faith had seen Buffy a few times since she'd been freed from the mansion. Did that mean Faith didn't remember those times? Had she forgotten all that happened while she was thralled? If so, how much time had she lost?
Buffy scoffed. "That was nothing. I was healed from that little vacation in a day or two. I've had much worse done to me. Don't flatter yourself by thinking you did anything special. What are you going to do now that your cohorts are nothing but dust in the wind?"
Faith looked surprised to hear that Angelus and Drusilla were dust but she went back to a blank 'nothing bothers me' face fast. "I think that depends, B."
"On what?"
"On you. Are you planning on keeping me chained up forever? I know you don't have it in you to hurt a human so I know I'm not going to die here. Your only real option is to let me go. Then I have my whole life and the whole world open to me. I can pretty much do whatever I want whenever I want."
"See, that's where you're wrong. I might not like hurting humans but I don't think Spike here has a problem with it. Plus, I know a group of stuffy old British guys that have been wanting to speak to you. Hey, I wonder what they'll do with a rogue slayer. I mean, I've been a good little slayer and they still tried to kill me on my eighteenth birthday just for the hell of it. Doesn't seem that they like slayers who don't follow their rules. Oh, and then there's option C, a certain mayor is really angry at you for betraying him. I'm sure he'd like to get his hands on you."
"That's not funny, B. Wilkins is dead, I saw Angelus kill him."
"Yeah, I thought so too, until I saw him earlier today. He's working with The First now. He sure has some things he'd like to say to you. You know, he told me loyalty is one of the most important things to him. I wonder how he feels about you boinking the one you thought killed him." Buffy said with her pointer finger on her chin and her eyes looking up to the sky, looking as if she was thinking hard about the question.
Fear entered Faith's eyes and it was clear she didn't want to find out what the mayor wanted to say to her. Giles could also see the regret in her eyes. He was disappointed that the regret was directed at betraying the mayor and not betraying them. Now that he thought about it, the mayor was more than welcome to her because she'd also been planning on betraying Angelus and Dru by running. He knew the girl had had a hard life before becoming a slayer but that didn't make it okay for her to be acting as she had been and for her to keep screwing over the people who tried to help her. He thought Faith had a lot of potential to do a lot of good but right now she was too focused on her wants and all she wanted was to have fun and be free from the burden of being a slayer. She wanted to keep the power but have none of the responsibility.
Giles didn't really know what was the right choice when it came to what to do with Faith. A big part of him thought letting the Watchers Council know where she was was the right answer but he also thought that might be because of his extensive training under them. It's not as if he trusted the Council at all. He'd heard stories of the Watchers' 'retraining program' for slayers who lost their way, but he didn't think even Faith deserved that. That still left them with nowhere to send her and he knew they weren't safe with Faith around and free to do what she wanted. He sighed, then flinched because when he took a deep breath he realized that he must have a big bruise on his ribs from one of the ugly buggers punching him there. They weren't going to come up with a solution for Faith tonight so the best thing they could do was to secure her and think about what to do next.
At that moment Spike came out of the kitchen with the watcher's tea and handed him the cup. "Here you go, Rupes. Red and I thought a proper cuppa might make you feel a little better."
Giles cleared his throat because he felt touched by the gesture and that made him feel a little uncomfortable. "Right, thanks." He took a sip before speaking up. "Alright everyone, it's late, we're not going to figure everything out tonight. We must find a good place to secure Faith and we'll make the decisions about her, The First, and the mayor on the morrow."
"I'll stay here tonight to keep watch," Spike offered, feeling like a ponce for trying to be so helpful. He also wanted to be there to make sure Giles was okay because he was pretty beat up and it'd probably suck for him to get around alone. He wasn't going to say that out loud though, to protect what was left of his reputation and so Giles wouldn't let his pride kick in and tell Spike to leave.
"I'll stay too!" Buffy offered and gave Spike a secret sultry smile. Or at least, she thought it was secret, but everyone saw it and knew exactly what she was planning. That made Giles very uncomfortable. He might have accepted that they were a couple and given his tentative approval but that didn't mean he wanted them canoodling in his own flat.
"Right, thank you, Buffy but I doubt that will be necessary."
"Don't know Rupes, yours truly is pretty tired and can use the company to help keep me up. Don't worry Rupert, we won't keep you up all night with our shagging, my mum raised a gentleman, she did."
Buffy slapped his arm, Spike laughed at himself, and Giles and Willow both blushed. "Christ, you git, don't speak that way about my dau-slayer," Giles corrected himself before he could embarrass himself more, but Buffy heard what he'd almost said and gave him a loving smile. "Anyway, I'm quite tired, so let's get Faith here settled, then everyone can go home to get some rest because we're going to have to meet back here early in the morning.
Everyone nodded, it wasn't hard to decide that the best place to chain Faith to was the bathtub, and Faith didn't even try to stop them as there were too many people for her to get away right then. She knew the only chance she'd get was when Buffy and her new vamp toy were distracted. Once she was properly secured, everyone went their separate ways for the night.