Fic: Magister 3, Ch 10 (FRM)

[gilescandy]

 See series here.

Ch. 10 -  Sleeper’s Nightmare

“Ouch!  Take it easy.”

Spike smirked as he continued to bandage the back of Giles’ shoulder.  “Yeah.  Like I remember how gentle you were back in the day.”

“Yes, well… You were still evil at the time.  And I didn’t like you.”  The Watcher relaxed a bit, then tensed at another stab of pain.  “Bloody Bringer daggers!”

“They got you a few good jabs,” Spike replied while frowning at what was obviously a gunshot wound.  “One more down here and we’ll have plastered all your newest holes.  Might have to get you a new wardrobe though.  This shirt’s seen better days.”

“Oh, of course.  That’s the utmost concern on my mind right now,” Giles grumbled.

“I see you guys have something to report from your little outing last night,” Buffy walked down the basement stairs and gave her Watcher a pitying look.

He tried to reassure her with a small smile.  “You could say that.  Ouch!  Damn it, Spike!”

The Slayer chuckled.  “Want me to get Willow down here.  She’s probably a little gentler.”

“No.  I don’t want her seeing me like this… again.  To tell the truth, I was hoping he’d get a move on and finish before you arrived.”

“Done now anyway.” Spike huffed, “And you’re welcome.”

Giles slid on his shirt, conceding a “Thank you.”

“So,” Buffy pulled their attention back, “Ambush?  Or did you just decide you hadn’t seen enough of your own blood lately?”

“Very funny.  Thankfully it was only Bringers.  We found no trace of any more Turok-Han.”

“Well, that’s a step toward the good.  Now, if only we had an idea how to hit the First back while It’s regrouping.”

“Did find something,” Spike perked up.  “Might be a good start for takin’ this fight to the enemy.”

******

“Sunnydale has a vineyard?”

“Yes, Xander,” Giles sighed.  “As usual, you have distilled our report to its most important nugget of information.”

The young man crossed his arms defensively, feeling the amused smiles focused on him from around the crowded living room.  All of the scoobies had gathered for the meeting.  Faith, Wood, and Dr. Pryce were also there listening intently.  The edges of the room were filled with those potentials who wanted to know what was going on, along with those who couldn’t think of anything better to do.

“I think,” Buffy tried to guide the meeting back on track, feeling for both her friend and her Watcher, “What we need to do is find out what the First is keeping there.  I mean, It did go through a lot of trouble to keep the guys away…  It told you they have something of mine.  What if they are holding more girls?”

“But why start with the kidnapping now?” Kennedy wondered, sitting on the arm of the couch next to Willow.  “When they came for us, it was all stabby, stabby first and no chance of a later.”  Giles couldn’t help noticing how close she leaning into his lover and the soft, intimate touches they shared.  His logical side tried to reason that he should be glad if Willow had found another.  Someone her own age… and species.  The demon in him screamed for the blood of his rival.  He fought to quiet the roar in his ears and pay attention to more important things.  

“Maybe they need them for a ritual or a sacrifice,” Anya said matter-of-factly.

“Oh fun…” Rona muttered.

Dr. Pryce spoke up, “We can’t get caught up on it being potentials.  We have no proof of that apart from what the First wanted Spike and Giles to witness.  I don’t mean to discount what you experienced, but you yourselves stated it was proven to be a trap.”

“I happen to agree, Doctor,” Giles announced.  “The First intimated to us that it was something of importance, but for all we know they might be holding your stapler hostage, Buffy.”

The Slayer frowned, “I don’t like taking that chance.”

“If only we could get eyes on the inside,” Faith added.  “Know what we’re getting into.”

Spike huffed, “The wanker pretty much proved it can’t be the two of us doin’ the recon.  It’s worse than walkin’ around with a tracker bullet in my back.”

“And we might be running out of time as we speak.”  Buffy looked around the room.  “They may have an army, but so do we.  As long as we’re only facing Bringers…”

“Buffy,” Dr. Pryce interrupted, “The girls have been training hard, but they’re still a group of young girls.  You wouldn’t be marching in there with a gang of slayers at your back.”

“No.  But I will have two vampires, a rouge Slayer, an ex-demon, some powerful magick, and the few people in the world I trust to have my back through anything.  As for you potentials.  Only those of you who think you’re ready need to come.  If you’re up for a fight, I won’t be ungrateful for the help.”

“I’m in,” Kennedy raised her hand.  Several more girls around the room followed suit.

“That settles it.  You guys start preparing.  By this evening, Spike, Giles, Faith and I will have our battle pla…”

“Buffy!  Look out!”  At her Watcher’s warning, Buffy scanned the room on high alert.  Seeing nothing to indicate danger, she turned back just in time to catch his fist in her face, sending her sprawled on the floor and stunned.

“G!?!” Faith grabbed for his shoulder.  He wheeled around, picking her up off her feet and hurling her into a wall.

 Girls were screaming and rushing to escape the madness and confusion.  Some were unlucky enough to come within the vampire’s reach and paid for their mistake.  Three were knocked unconscious in the blink of an eye.  Another had her arm snapped.  The youngest of their group was jostled into the fray and Kennedy sprung in to push her from harm, earning a side full of broken ribs for the good deed.

Spike grabbed Giles around the middle from behind, trying to hold him, but was hauled over the bigger man’s head and slammed through the makeshift coffee table.  “Get them outta here,” he grunted to Willow.

“Giles, what’s happening?”  Her lover didn’t acknowledge her at all.  “Everybody stay away from him.  Just run!”

“Please.  We’re trying to help you.”  Dawn stood in front of her friend, but his eyes looked right through her.

“Dawn, no!”  Dr. Pryce’s order was too late.  Giles’ strong hands shot out and wrapped around the girl’s throat.  She and Willow clawed at his hands, trying to pull him off the fragile youngster, but he was just too strong. 

The last thing Dawn saw as darkness swallowed her vision was the spark of recognition finally flash in her attacker’s eyes.

******

There were Bringers everywhere.  How did they all get inside so suddenly?  Giles fought for all he was worth, trying to shake them off and find the others.  But they kept coming at him.  Grabbing for him.  Thrusting their angry weapons at him.  He caught one around the neck and squeezed in anger as it clawed at him.

A flash burned his eyes and, as his vision cleared, all he could see was Dawn going limp in his brutal hands.

He released her at once, watching in what felt like torturous slow motion as she fell into the arms of Willow and the doctor.  Both looked at him with fear behind their eyes.  Around him lay bodies of his friends, broken bodies of the very children he had sworn he’d protect.  It was all suddenly too clear.  The blood on his hands was theirs.  The First had unleashed a new and deadly weapon against them.  And it was him.

Knowing only one way to protect them, he turned and ran. 

“Watcher, wait!” Spike tried to stop him.

Giles raced through the kitchen, grabbing his pink blanket, and ran out into the afternoon sun.  He didn’t look back and didn’t stop.  The other vampire could only follow to the door, halted by the killer sunlight.  He looked around franticly for protection of his own, but none was at hand.  By the time he had made a single scan of the room Giles was already long gone.

******

Spike came back to the scene of Dr. Pryce performing CPR on Dawn as the others watched anxiously.  It took several tense, drawn-out minutes before the younger Summers finally took a sharp breath.

“Keep her calm and breathing steadily,” the doctor whispered to Buffy as she moved to start triage on the other wounded.

Willow looked up and saw Spike watching.  “Where did he go?”

“Gone.  Couldn’t stop him.”  The vampire threw his arms up.  “Bolted outta here like a scalded cat.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Kennedy said, holding her ribs and indicating to Dr. Pryce she’d be all right until the others were tended to.

“He didn’t know what he was doing,” Spike tried to defend.

“Hey,” Faith returned to the tightening group of scoobies.  “You were the only one who didn’t seem completely surprised when the G bomb went off.  Spill it, Blondie, what’s going on with the Big Guy?”

He glanced around nervously.

“Spike, just tell us!” Buffy ordered at him, still holding the sister she’d almost lost in her arms.

“All right.  It’s happened before.  At least, I think it has.  When we were out on patrol, we split up to track some Bringers we saw.  Well… he saw.  When I caught up with him later, he was lyin’ in the middle of a bar surrounded by bodies.  All he remembered was getting ambushed, but there were only human dead.  And those wounds he was sporting weren’t made by any daggers.  Some were from a switchblade I saw on the floor where I found him, and one looked like a bullet from the bartender’s revolver.”

“And you guys didn’t think this was worth sharing?” Buffy spoke in a deadly whisper.

Willow brought a hand to her mouth, quickly rose, and ran out of the room.

“Red!” Spike called after her, but the look in Buffy’s eyes warned him not to follow.  “Look.  The Watcher hadn’t figured it out yet.  He still thought he’d fought off a group of nasties.  And I know that bar.  It was full of doomsday worshipers celebrating the end of the world.  No harm done there.”

“No,” Faith accused.  “The harm was bringing him here when you knew he was dangerous.”

“I thought I could help him before anything happened.  Didn’t expect it again so soon.  What was I supposed to do, leave him out there and vulnerable?”

Xander pointed at Dawn.  “This is better?”

“We have to find where he went,” Spike muttered, agitatedly running his hand over his hair.

“Why?  So he can get another chance at us?” Kennedy add sarcastically.

“I don’t know,” Buffy shook her head.  “Maybe we can keep him here and in chains or something.  Just in case.”

“Yes, of course,” Anya spoke up.  “Because chains worked so well the last time he was evil.”

“Last time…?” Kennedy exhaled.

“Giles isn’t evil,” Dawn forced out in a hoarse voice.  “I saw it when he was him again.  He’s terrified.”

Buffy thought for a moment.  “Spike’s right.  We need to get him back here.  I need my Watcher with me if I’m going to win this war.”

“I said we need to find him.”  The vampire that loved her squatted down to look her in the eyes.  “Pet, if this was happening to me and you told me you needed me, nothing could keep me from being right here and the danger to anyone else be damned.  But we both know he’s smarter than that.  As long as Giles thinks the First can use him to hurt people, he’ll stay as far away from here as possible.”

Tears pricked at Buffy’s eyes as she was caught between anger and fear.  Dr. Pryce stepped into the suddenly silent group with a glass of water for Dawn.  “Sip it slowly, Dear.  Does anything other than your neck hurt?”  Her patient shook her head slowly.

“What are our casualties?” Faith whispered.

“Hardly as bad as it could have been.  We’ll have five girls out of commission for a while, but they are alive.  It’s miraculous considering Mr. Giles’ strength and training.”  The elder Watcher frowned as Willow returned, the stunned look still in her eyes.  “Come, Kennedy.  Let’s find a place you can disrobe and I can examine your injuries.”  Visibly sorry to leave, the potential stood and obeyed.  “After that I’ll be taking everyone to hospital for x-rays.  There’s only so much I can tell from my examinations.”

Xander went to hug his oldest friend.  “You didn’t have to come back.  We understand.”

Willow gave the group an odd glance and suddenly realized where all the pity was coming from.  “After all we’ve been through, you guys really think I’m giving up on him now? We’re going to figure this out and get him back.  Giles needs our help.  That’s what I’m focused on.”

Anya cocked her head.  “Then why did you run off like you were going to vomit?”

“I wasn’t going to… nevermind.  I remembered something Giles had said and I needed to make a call.”  She sighed deeply at the lack of comprehension in the faces around her.  “When Giles got home, he mentioned something about the coven sending him visions.  But, we’ve never actually seen him have one since.  I needed to call Althenea and share a hunch with her.  You see, the coven did try to contact him that way, but only once.  They directed him to Prague and the other Watchers.  The problem was, it took the combined effort of everyone, and when the Seers touched his psyche they couldn’t take the backwash of emotions.  Rage, guilt, fear, love…  Some are still recovering.”

“He said he’d had several,” Buffy remembered.

“We think that they had to pull back so fast that they might have accidently left a backdoor open in his mind.  It’s been like an open wound that the First must have been poking at for a while now.  From what just happened, it’s pretty clear that the First has figured out how to make the visions so real he can’t tell them from reality.”

Xander frowned, “What does this mean?”

“For the Watcher,” Spike growled, “it means now that he’s figured out what’s happening to him, the next time he does get attacked he’ll hesitate to fight back.  And hesitating right now is bad news.”

“Is there any way to close the door?” Dawn asked Willow.

“The coven is working on it.  They’ll call me as soon as they find anything.  In the meantime, I thought I’d put my head together with Ethan and see if we can come up with, at least, a temporary shield for Giles.”

“Huh,” Anya mused.  “Haven’t seen him in a while.”  At her statement the others suddenly realized they hadn’t seen him either.

Dawn sighed heavily.  “He’s not here.  He found a lead in the council papers and went to check it out.  Thought no one would miss him.  Guess he was right,” she added in a mutter.

“And we’ll all be holding our breaths for him to come back,” Xander said sarcastically.

Faith noticed the flash of anger in the younger girl’s eyes.  “Hey, magic man didn’t have to be here in the first place.  So far, I think he’s earned a little trust.  It was stupid of him to go alone though.”

“Oh, he’s not,” Dawn grinned.  “I made him take Andrew with him.”

All of the ladies in the group glanced at each other and spontaneously broke into chuckles.  Anya voiced their collective thought.  “I wonder how fast he became annoying enough to warrant a virgin sacrifice.”

Spike’s eyes went wide and he began patting at the pockets of his tight jeans.  Confirming his realization, he growled, “Bloody pickpocket.”

******

Giles didn’t quite know how he got there, but he was soon making his way through the endless tunnels under the Restfield cemetery.  With each turn his reeling mind became more disoriented, more lost in a twisting labyrinth.  This was fine with him.  If he couldn’t find his way out, he couldn’t be a threat to anybody.

His journey was halted by an immovable steel door set into the stone wall.  A dead end.  The vampire crumpled to the floor and stayed there.

“You gonna hide down here forever?”

Giles didn’t look up at the sound of Buffy’s voice.  “Pick someone else,” he moaned.

“All right,” the clipped English accent of an older gentleman joined him.  “Let it not be said that I’m needlessly cruel.”

The Watcher glanced up to see the face of his old mentor, and often tormentor.  It brought a different kind of pain, but felt somehow fitting.  Quinten Travers smiled kindly back at him.

“How many did I kill?” Giles asked quietly, dipping his head back into his folded body.

“Not as many as I would have liked.  But then, there was still that last part of your consciousness fighting the illusion.  Next time it will be perfect.”

“There won’t be a next time!” the vampire snapped.  “As long as I have a semblance of control I won’t let you use me to cause any more pain.”

“Oh, my boy.  You really think you have a choice?  You were made to cause pain.  You are a perfectly forged weapon.  And wielded by the right master you will bring this world to its knees.”

Giles rolled to a sitting position against the cold, stone wall and chuckled mirthlessly.  “It’s not for you.”

The First visibly started.  “What did you say?”

“I said this weapon is not for you.”

“Insolent…” Travers growled.  “What makes you think you can stop the inevitable?  I am evil.  The original and all powerful.  There is none who can resist me indefinitely.”

Giles slowly and deliberately got to his feet and stared into the eyes of evil.  “This. Weapon. Is not. For you.”

The vision’s eyes glowed red with rage.  “And how do you expect to stop what has already been set in motion.  I will have you.”

“I’ll do what should be done with all weapons too dangerous for this world.”  The Watcher gathered all the power he could into his hands and thrust it at the ceiling of the tunnel.  Lightning flashed, slicing through the darkness and slammed into the rock and dirt.  The earth collapsed, caving in and sealing the tunnel.

******

“Spike?” Wood called as he stepped into the basement.

“Yeah,” the vampire answered absently, making preparations to leave the house.

“I hear you’re going after Mr. Giles.”

“Soon as the sun lets me.”

“I’d like to go with you.”

Spike glanced up at the near stranger.  “Why?  S’not your problem.”

“Helping Buffy and these girls has become my problem.”  The large man gave a small smile.  “Look, it’s dangerous for any of us to venture out alone.  And, I have a feeling you won’t be the only one who wants to find him tonight, but you are the most likely to.”  He stepped closer and lowered his voice.  “I also think you’re the only one who will be able to do what needs to be done if we find Mr. Giles is too far gone.”

“I don’t think I like what you’re saying, Mate,” the vampire growled.

“I’ve been watching for a while now, and I believe there’s one thing that drives your friend more than anything else.  That’s the safety of everyone here.  What will he expect you to do if he is the real danger to them?”

“We can bring him back from this,” Spike insisted.  “Things have been worse before.”

“But you know we can’t bring him back here.”  Wood sighed.  “If someone else finds him first, they won’t be able to do whatever has to be done.  There’s too much love for him, and that makes him a danger they can’t fight.  You and I can.  Just ask yourself what he would do to protect these girls.”  He paused for a moment and turned to leave.  “Think about it.  I’ll be waiting out front at sundown.”

Wood walked up the stairs, leaving Spike to his preparations.