Watcher, until the next is called - Part 4
Title: Watcher, until the next is called
Chapter: 4/?
Author: astarte lydianna
Rating: NC-17
Season: During 3 and then I wander off the plotlines a bit :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the fandom or characters or anything else recognisable and make no money from this.
Summary: After a slayer turns 18 the cruciamentum isn't the only thing she faces. Council are creepy in this and there will be adult content.
Part four
Things went back to normal for the most part, Buffy and Giles and the rest of the gang carried on as they always did. She thought that she had seen Faith out one night so she may have never left town after all. She hadn't told Wesley yet. He seemed pleasant enough in a rigid British way but he still couldn't be trusted.
The only thing that was different was when she and Giles were alone. On a usual day to day basis they continued on pretty unaffected by what had happened that night of their bonding, there were odd occasions when she thought of him as attractive but not often enough to make her overly uncomfortable. After all there were plenty of other men and even total strangers that she occasionally thought ‘yum’ at but never did anything about, it’s just she wasn’t used to thinking it about Giles so she was sometimes a bit surprised when she did.
The biggest change between them was when she noticed he was particularly down or when he noticed the same of her they didn't hesitate to give one another a brief hug or even just a squeeze of the hand in silent support. After all, considering what they had done a friendly hug was nothing, especially not if it made him feel better. It made her feel better sometimes, when she needed it. They were more open with one another for the most part and that could only be a good thing in their roles, in her opinion anyway.
It was something that she needed that drove her to knock on his front door that night after patrol.
"Buffy, is something the matter?" he asked, gesturing her in and closing the door behind her.
"No." she said quickly. "Well...sort of..."
"Would you like some tea?" he offered.
"Um...no thank you, I just need to blurt it out." she replied. "I need you to do your watcher mojo on me."
"I'm sorry can you repeat that?" he asked furrowing his brows in confusion.
"You know how you have power over me, I need you to use it." she said.
"Why on earth would I need to do that?" he blinked pulling his glasses off and cleaning them.
"Angel." she told him.
"I see..." he nodded, realising that this wasn't a conversation either of them were going to enjoy. "You can no longer complete any act with him that would lose him his soul so I should think that would be enough of-"
"Not that." she cut him off. "Believe me that was one of the advantages I was seeing to this too. Kinda removes temptation when I'll be resorted to a painful wreck for cheating on my watcher."
"Buffy it's hardly cheating." he murmured.
"That's not the point though." she shrugged. "Temptation removed but...it made me realise that I can't be around Angel and just be friends. Maybe one day I can but we need space to forget each other as lovers and move on to each other as friends. I want you to use your power over me to stop me seeing Angel at all."
"Buffy that isn't exactly how this works, besides which it sounds like you've come to a pretty firm decision yourself." he told her. "Buffy, you said yourself that you and Angel...you can't have the happy ending you want. He is a vampire soul or not, he can never be a husband or father and you are a slayer you won't-"
"Live past turning twenty?" she guessed sadly.
"You will if I have anything to say about it...but reality is that slayers are always on the frontlines, a family wouldn't be fair for either you or them. You may well live to be thirty yet but even then would it be fair to leave a young child behind?" he tried to explain.
"No...I guess not..." she agreed. "But watchers...they must sometimes have families right? Otherwise where did you come from?"
"My father and his slayer were bonded, but it was a lesser bond. She was trained by the council from a young age and was called at seventeen. I was three when he left to take up his post as active watcher and seven when he returned. He was never the same." he sighed. "He cared about his slayer and her death was hard. For four years they spent every day together fighting evil how could he not care? After that he found it hard to care about anyone, even his own son."
"Giles...I'm sorry." she whispered. "Is that why you never..."
"No." he shook his head. "It was actually because I didn't want to put family in danger. My father is of course disappointed that I haven't given him a grandson to carry on the duty. The family name will end with me."
"If you hadn't done that ritual you could've still had a family." she said blinking back tears. "Out of the two of us you were the one who had a better shot at it and you threw that away for me."
"And I'd do the same all over again given the choice." he told her fondly. "The original point being that you and Angel...you know there is no chance for a future between you and if it hurts to still see him then you are the one with the power to change that."
"I was hoping you weren't going to say that." she sighed. "There's something I haven't told anyone...Faith...I saw her."
"Here? In Sunnydale?" he asked looking shocked.
"I saw her in an alley the other night. She didn't hang around to chat, she ran off." she said. "Sorry I didn't tell you sooner but..."
"You're still learning to trust me again." he finished for her. "I understand."
"Sorry." she shrugged sheepishly. "Do we have to tell Wesley?"
"We probably should, if we could get Faith to take a bond on free will it is far better than the alternative. No absolute rush though…after all you could have been mistaken perhaps so better to be sure." he told her seriously. "So patrol tonight was the usual?"
"Yeah, three vamps, all dust " she smiled.
"Anything usual about them?" he asked.
"Um...actually the third one he had swords, two of ‘em." she answered. "They don't normally have swords."
"No..." he agreed. "You should come by the library tomorrow and I'll look into it."
"Deal." she agreed. "See you tomorrow watcher-mine."
~*~
The trio of friends made their way into the library the next morning together.
"Miss Summers, good morning." a familiar voice greeted her.
"Hey Wesley has the Principle Snyder not asked you why you keep hanging around campus yet?" Buffy asked, heading straight past him to knock on Giles' office door.
"Um...well...no actually I-I..." he spluttered.
"Relax Wes, she's just tormenting you." Xander told the English man patting him on the shoulder.
"Because you know how she finds it fun?" Willow agreed.
Giles followed Buffy out of his office and headed to their usual table as she continued to describe the swords and the vampires clothing as best she could.
"Morning G-man." Xander greeted him cheerily.
"Morning Giles." Willow chimed in.
"Oh yes good morning." he nodded, focusing on a book he was looking through. "Did the swords look like these?"
"Yup, that's the ones." she nodded.
"El Eliminati..." he mused.
"Impossible, they were a fifteenth century duelist cult that has been wiped out for centuries." Wesley spoke up moving over to the pair.
"Not wiped out, I slayer one last night." she insisted, narrowing her eyes at him. He visibly gulped.
"Well...I suppose it is possible that there are a few remaining members that escaped but I certainly wouldn't consider them a large threat." he told her.
"What do you know about them?" Giles asked the younger man.
"Well they were considered quite deadly in their day; of course their numbers dwindled when there was an increase in anti-vampire activity and of course a lot of pointless dueling. They became acolytes of a demon called Balthazar, who brought them to a new world, specifically here." he explained.
"You seem to know a lot about them." Giles commented. "Go ahead."
"Well, as long as I'm not stepping on any toes." he said uncertainly.
"No no, we're all quite used to working as a team here." he assured the younger man. “So why haven’t we come across this cult before, I wonder?”
"Oh...right well, Balthazar is dead, I don’t know the details on that I’m afraid and most of his followers wiped out over a century ago and the remaining members driven out of town so I doubt they are any serious threat. There was an amulet of Balthazar's that would give him strength, if I had to guess I'd say that they were looking for it." he explained. "Since Balthazar himself is dead there isn't really anything they can do with the amulet but-"
"Best err on the side of caution and stop them getting it anyway, yes I agree." Giles nodded. "Would you please?"
"Grab the amulet, keep it from the bad guys got it." she nodded. “Where do I look?” She looked to Giles before both of them turned to look at Wesley expectantly.
“A wealthy landowner called Gleaves took it after Balthazar’s death, it was reported to be buried with him.” He told them.
“Great…grave robbing.” She mumbled, before turning to Giles. “I’ll fetch it on patrol tonight. In the mean time, history awaits, coming guys?"
Wesley stared after the youths that had just left in surprise.
"If she follows orders why has she been subjected to a level three bond?" he asked.
"Hm?" Giles blinked looking up from his book. "Oh...simply because she is untrained and therefore does things differently than the council would like. In my personal opinion she could be one of the best slayers we've ever had because of that very reason."
"How so?" Wesley frowned.
"Because she is connected to the world and the people in it, she truly believes in the fight. She doesn't just fight because she is ordered to, she fights because she knows it is the right thing to do, and that she is saving lives." he explained.
"But if she follows orders why a level three bond, I don't understand...I was led to believe that she was a rebellious hard-headed American teenager that refused her calling..." Wesley asked still looking confused.
"Because Quentin doesn't like her." Giles shrugged. "He doesn't like me, he doesn't like her. I agree a lower level bond would have been more than sufficient for her. She can be hard-headed at times but that has more to do with how things are done than the doing of them. She always does the right thing in the end, Faith however...the lines are indeed a little more blurry there."
"Yes, I've been told she has quite the reputation." the younger man nodded. "Once she has been captured and bonded she will be taken to a facility for retraining."
"But she isn't rogue yet, she can still be saved without being retrained. She makes some rash choices and acts out but I truly believe that she could make the right choices given the chance." Giles told him, before heading back to his office and leaving the young man to ponder that thought.
~*~*~
That evening found Buffy heading for the crypt that Wesley had told them about in search of the amulet. That was when she heard voices. She slipped inside the closest grave and hid until they had left. She counted at least six vampires, not great odds and there could've been more that she hadn't seen. She headed out after them and was surprised to hear the sounds of battle.
Sure enough she sees the vampires fighting none other than Faith. Without hesitating much she dove into the fight herself. Six to one weren’t great odds but three to one was better.
“Hey B, long time no see.” Faith greeted her as she staked a vampire behind her.
“Not really, I saw you the other day.” She replied, flinging a stake at the vampire that she had flung against the crypt entrance. “Which is odd because I thought you’d skipped town?”
“I did, then I came back.” Faith grunted staking the last one before looking around her. “Couldn’t let you have all the fun could I?”
“One went that way.” She said pointing ahead. “I think the one with the amulet ran.”
“Amulet huh? Best fetch it then hadn’t we?” Faith grinned before taking off. Not knowing what else to do she followed her.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, just as the other slayer was about to jump into an open manhole.
“Chase, obviously.”
“Dark enclosed space could be more vampires. Not smart.” Buffy protested.
“Don’t care.” Faith shrugged. “Look, I’m going down there. If you don’t want to come with…I might die.”
With that Buffy found herself having no real choice but to follow the flash of dark hair that had just vanished below.
When eventually the two slayers returned to street level Buffy was drenched from her near drowning but carried the amulet at least and Faith was rather dusty and bruised.
“So you’re back?” Buffy asked her.
“Sort of, I want in B. I want to help, you know I do but…those Watchers came after me so I had to book it.” Faith explained.
“They bonded me to Giles in the end.” Buffy admitted. “I…I’ve heard a lot about these bonding rituals Faith, you’re going to have to either stay away for real or hand yourself over to Wesley.”
“Wesley?” the dark haired girl frowned.
“Your new watcher.” Buffy explained. “He’s totally good looking but he’s kinda British and a total wuss, he’d be terrified of you I think. I have no idea why they chose him, Giles says it’s because Travers thinks Wesley will follow any orders he gives him. If they catch you here Faith, they were drug you or knock you out and force a bonding. From the ones I’ve read…the bonds that are forced read pretty much like horror stories. So if you want to stay and fight, you really need to come with me to Wesley and go willingly or begrudgingly but willingly. If not then for your sake run Faith, and this time really don’t come back.”
“I can’t make a call like that tonight. I…they won’t find me here for a while. You won’t tattle on me will you?” Faith asked.
“I told Giles I thought I saw you but both of us decided that we won’t tell Wesley yet. We were going to but then…we couldn’t do it.” She explained.
“But hey, you got lucky, you got Giles. He’s pretty cool for a watcher. Pretty cute too.” Faith grinned nudging her in the ribs.
“Cute isn’t a word I’d use…” she replied. “But whilst the bonding thing is a drag, being allowed to keep Giles as my watcher is definitely a plus.”
“Not cute?” Faith frowned. “So he’s totally hot under all those clothes huh?” She smirked knowingly.
“Totally.” Buffy admitted with a small smile.
Suddenly a familiar figure headed towards them. She tensed. Angel. Just what she needed to make this night more complicated.
“New threat in town.” He told her.
“Guessing they’re some duelist vamps after an amulet?” she asked.
“Yeah, you know then?” he asked looking surprised.
“Staked one last night and took the dead demon’s amulet of a bunch tonight.” She replied. “Got it covered.”
“Not dead.” Angel replied shaking his head.
“The demon isn’t dead?” she asked frowning.
“No, he’s not a huge threat exactly…unless he gets that amulet of course but he’s got Giles.” Angel told her.
"Where?" Buffy demanded, trying not to let the sudden fear in her break out.
"I didn't follow, I came straight to find you, there was too many of them for me to risk following." he told her. "If they want the amulet the chances are they’re both alive still. They got the new guy too."
"Oh he's still alive alright." Buffy sighed. "He'd better stay that way."
"How do you know?" Faith asked.
"Because I'm still alive." Buffy replied grimly.
"You're bonded?" Angel guessed. Buffy saw the momentary flash of pain in his eyes and wondered how much he knew about slayer bonding. Did he realize from that one reference to her life depending on his that she had slept with Giles? She told herself it didn’t matter; her and Angel didn’t have a future so he would have to stomach the thought of her with someone else at some point.
"Yeah...happy birthday me." she muttered.
"You can use the bond to find him, I don't know how it works exactly but I've seen it done before." he told her. "You should be able to concentrate and hone on him through the bond."
"Well...it sounds better than searching warehouses aimlessly." she shrugged before closing her eyes. She tried to breathe and concentrate as she did when Giles got her to practice honing on vampires only this time she thought of him. She thought of his voice, she pictured him in her mind striding around the school library with a book in his hand. Then she felt him, a flash of warmth in her stomach that tugged backwards. "Giles..." Without another word she began to follow the feeling.
"Guess the hound dog trick is working." Faith commented before following the blonde slayer.
Author’s Notes: So buffy’s bond comes with a handy new skill, her and Angel are coming to terms with being over and Buffy and Giles seem to be closer than ever. We all know they’ll rescue the watchers in the next chapter but the real question is will Faith ever hang around to become bonded to her watcher and what happens between buffy and giles when a woman hits on him? Also no I’m not going to be going over every episode in the series, a few maybe but just the ones that can fit in with my overall story plan.
Part 5
Chapter: 4/?
Author: astarte lydianna
Rating: NC-17
Season: During 3 and then I wander off the plotlines a bit :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the fandom or characters or anything else recognisable and make no money from this.
Summary: After a slayer turns 18 the cruciamentum isn't the only thing she faces. Council are creepy in this and there will be adult content.
Part four
Things went back to normal for the most part, Buffy and Giles and the rest of the gang carried on as they always did. She thought that she had seen Faith out one night so she may have never left town after all. She hadn't told Wesley yet. He seemed pleasant enough in a rigid British way but he still couldn't be trusted.
The only thing that was different was when she and Giles were alone. On a usual day to day basis they continued on pretty unaffected by what had happened that night of their bonding, there were odd occasions when she thought of him as attractive but not often enough to make her overly uncomfortable. After all there were plenty of other men and even total strangers that she occasionally thought ‘yum’ at but never did anything about, it’s just she wasn’t used to thinking it about Giles so she was sometimes a bit surprised when she did.
The biggest change between them was when she noticed he was particularly down or when he noticed the same of her they didn't hesitate to give one another a brief hug or even just a squeeze of the hand in silent support. After all, considering what they had done a friendly hug was nothing, especially not if it made him feel better. It made her feel better sometimes, when she needed it. They were more open with one another for the most part and that could only be a good thing in their roles, in her opinion anyway.
It was something that she needed that drove her to knock on his front door that night after patrol.
"Buffy, is something the matter?" he asked, gesturing her in and closing the door behind her.
"No." she said quickly. "Well...sort of..."
"Would you like some tea?" he offered.
"Um...no thank you, I just need to blurt it out." she replied. "I need you to do your watcher mojo on me."
"I'm sorry can you repeat that?" he asked furrowing his brows in confusion.
"You know how you have power over me, I need you to use it." she said.
"Why on earth would I need to do that?" he blinked pulling his glasses off and cleaning them.
"Angel." she told him.
"I see..." he nodded, realising that this wasn't a conversation either of them were going to enjoy. "You can no longer complete any act with him that would lose him his soul so I should think that would be enough of-"
"Not that." she cut him off. "Believe me that was one of the advantages I was seeing to this too. Kinda removes temptation when I'll be resorted to a painful wreck for cheating on my watcher."
"Buffy it's hardly cheating." he murmured.
"That's not the point though." she shrugged. "Temptation removed but...it made me realise that I can't be around Angel and just be friends. Maybe one day I can but we need space to forget each other as lovers and move on to each other as friends. I want you to use your power over me to stop me seeing Angel at all."
"Buffy that isn't exactly how this works, besides which it sounds like you've come to a pretty firm decision yourself." he told her. "Buffy, you said yourself that you and Angel...you can't have the happy ending you want. He is a vampire soul or not, he can never be a husband or father and you are a slayer you won't-"
"Live past turning twenty?" she guessed sadly.
"You will if I have anything to say about it...but reality is that slayers are always on the frontlines, a family wouldn't be fair for either you or them. You may well live to be thirty yet but even then would it be fair to leave a young child behind?" he tried to explain.
"No...I guess not..." she agreed. "But watchers...they must sometimes have families right? Otherwise where did you come from?"
"My father and his slayer were bonded, but it was a lesser bond. She was trained by the council from a young age and was called at seventeen. I was three when he left to take up his post as active watcher and seven when he returned. He was never the same." he sighed. "He cared about his slayer and her death was hard. For four years they spent every day together fighting evil how could he not care? After that he found it hard to care about anyone, even his own son."
"Giles...I'm sorry." she whispered. "Is that why you never..."
"No." he shook his head. "It was actually because I didn't want to put family in danger. My father is of course disappointed that I haven't given him a grandson to carry on the duty. The family name will end with me."
"If you hadn't done that ritual you could've still had a family." she said blinking back tears. "Out of the two of us you were the one who had a better shot at it and you threw that away for me."
"And I'd do the same all over again given the choice." he told her fondly. "The original point being that you and Angel...you know there is no chance for a future between you and if it hurts to still see him then you are the one with the power to change that."
"I was hoping you weren't going to say that." she sighed. "There's something I haven't told anyone...Faith...I saw her."
"Here? In Sunnydale?" he asked looking shocked.
"I saw her in an alley the other night. She didn't hang around to chat, she ran off." she said. "Sorry I didn't tell you sooner but..."
"You're still learning to trust me again." he finished for her. "I understand."
"Sorry." she shrugged sheepishly. "Do we have to tell Wesley?"
"We probably should, if we could get Faith to take a bond on free will it is far better than the alternative. No absolute rush though…after all you could have been mistaken perhaps so better to be sure." he told her seriously. "So patrol tonight was the usual?"
"Yeah, three vamps, all dust " she smiled.
"Anything usual about them?" he asked.
"Um...actually the third one he had swords, two of ‘em." she answered. "They don't normally have swords."
"No..." he agreed. "You should come by the library tomorrow and I'll look into it."
"Deal." she agreed. "See you tomorrow watcher-mine."
~*~
The trio of friends made their way into the library the next morning together.
"Miss Summers, good morning." a familiar voice greeted her.
"Hey Wesley has the Principle Snyder not asked you why you keep hanging around campus yet?" Buffy asked, heading straight past him to knock on Giles' office door.
"Um...well...no actually I-I..." he spluttered.
"Relax Wes, she's just tormenting you." Xander told the English man patting him on the shoulder.
"Because you know how she finds it fun?" Willow agreed.
Giles followed Buffy out of his office and headed to their usual table as she continued to describe the swords and the vampires clothing as best she could.
"Morning G-man." Xander greeted him cheerily.
"Morning Giles." Willow chimed in.
"Oh yes good morning." he nodded, focusing on a book he was looking through. "Did the swords look like these?"
"Yup, that's the ones." she nodded.
"El Eliminati..." he mused.
"Impossible, they were a fifteenth century duelist cult that has been wiped out for centuries." Wesley spoke up moving over to the pair.
"Not wiped out, I slayer one last night." she insisted, narrowing her eyes at him. He visibly gulped.
"Well...I suppose it is possible that there are a few remaining members that escaped but I certainly wouldn't consider them a large threat." he told her.
"What do you know about them?" Giles asked the younger man.
"Well they were considered quite deadly in their day; of course their numbers dwindled when there was an increase in anti-vampire activity and of course a lot of pointless dueling. They became acolytes of a demon called Balthazar, who brought them to a new world, specifically here." he explained.
"You seem to know a lot about them." Giles commented. "Go ahead."
"Well, as long as I'm not stepping on any toes." he said uncertainly.
"No no, we're all quite used to working as a team here." he assured the younger man. “So why haven’t we come across this cult before, I wonder?”
"Oh...right well, Balthazar is dead, I don’t know the details on that I’m afraid and most of his followers wiped out over a century ago and the remaining members driven out of town so I doubt they are any serious threat. There was an amulet of Balthazar's that would give him strength, if I had to guess I'd say that they were looking for it." he explained. "Since Balthazar himself is dead there isn't really anything they can do with the amulet but-"
"Best err on the side of caution and stop them getting it anyway, yes I agree." Giles nodded. "Would you please?"
"Grab the amulet, keep it from the bad guys got it." she nodded. “Where do I look?” She looked to Giles before both of them turned to look at Wesley expectantly.
“A wealthy landowner called Gleaves took it after Balthazar’s death, it was reported to be buried with him.” He told them.
“Great…grave robbing.” She mumbled, before turning to Giles. “I’ll fetch it on patrol tonight. In the mean time, history awaits, coming guys?"
Wesley stared after the youths that had just left in surprise.
"If she follows orders why has she been subjected to a level three bond?" he asked.
"Hm?" Giles blinked looking up from his book. "Oh...simply because she is untrained and therefore does things differently than the council would like. In my personal opinion she could be one of the best slayers we've ever had because of that very reason."
"How so?" Wesley frowned.
"Because she is connected to the world and the people in it, she truly believes in the fight. She doesn't just fight because she is ordered to, she fights because she knows it is the right thing to do, and that she is saving lives." he explained.
"But if she follows orders why a level three bond, I don't understand...I was led to believe that she was a rebellious hard-headed American teenager that refused her calling..." Wesley asked still looking confused.
"Because Quentin doesn't like her." Giles shrugged. "He doesn't like me, he doesn't like her. I agree a lower level bond would have been more than sufficient for her. She can be hard-headed at times but that has more to do with how things are done than the doing of them. She always does the right thing in the end, Faith however...the lines are indeed a little more blurry there."
"Yes, I've been told she has quite the reputation." the younger man nodded. "Once she has been captured and bonded she will be taken to a facility for retraining."
"But she isn't rogue yet, she can still be saved without being retrained. She makes some rash choices and acts out but I truly believe that she could make the right choices given the chance." Giles told him, before heading back to his office and leaving the young man to ponder that thought.
~*~*~
That evening found Buffy heading for the crypt that Wesley had told them about in search of the amulet. That was when she heard voices. She slipped inside the closest grave and hid until they had left. She counted at least six vampires, not great odds and there could've been more that she hadn't seen. She headed out after them and was surprised to hear the sounds of battle.
Sure enough she sees the vampires fighting none other than Faith. Without hesitating much she dove into the fight herself. Six to one weren’t great odds but three to one was better.
“Hey B, long time no see.” Faith greeted her as she staked a vampire behind her.
“Not really, I saw you the other day.” She replied, flinging a stake at the vampire that she had flung against the crypt entrance. “Which is odd because I thought you’d skipped town?”
“I did, then I came back.” Faith grunted staking the last one before looking around her. “Couldn’t let you have all the fun could I?”
“One went that way.” She said pointing ahead. “I think the one with the amulet ran.”
“Amulet huh? Best fetch it then hadn’t we?” Faith grinned before taking off. Not knowing what else to do she followed her.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, just as the other slayer was about to jump into an open manhole.
“Chase, obviously.”
“Dark enclosed space could be more vampires. Not smart.” Buffy protested.
“Don’t care.” Faith shrugged. “Look, I’m going down there. If you don’t want to come with…I might die.”
With that Buffy found herself having no real choice but to follow the flash of dark hair that had just vanished below.
When eventually the two slayers returned to street level Buffy was drenched from her near drowning but carried the amulet at least and Faith was rather dusty and bruised.
“So you’re back?” Buffy asked her.
“Sort of, I want in B. I want to help, you know I do but…those Watchers came after me so I had to book it.” Faith explained.
“They bonded me to Giles in the end.” Buffy admitted. “I…I’ve heard a lot about these bonding rituals Faith, you’re going to have to either stay away for real or hand yourself over to Wesley.”
“Wesley?” the dark haired girl frowned.
“Your new watcher.” Buffy explained. “He’s totally good looking but he’s kinda British and a total wuss, he’d be terrified of you I think. I have no idea why they chose him, Giles says it’s because Travers thinks Wesley will follow any orders he gives him. If they catch you here Faith, they were drug you or knock you out and force a bonding. From the ones I’ve read…the bonds that are forced read pretty much like horror stories. So if you want to stay and fight, you really need to come with me to Wesley and go willingly or begrudgingly but willingly. If not then for your sake run Faith, and this time really don’t come back.”
“I can’t make a call like that tonight. I…they won’t find me here for a while. You won’t tattle on me will you?” Faith asked.
“I told Giles I thought I saw you but both of us decided that we won’t tell Wesley yet. We were going to but then…we couldn’t do it.” She explained.
“But hey, you got lucky, you got Giles. He’s pretty cool for a watcher. Pretty cute too.” Faith grinned nudging her in the ribs.
“Cute isn’t a word I’d use…” she replied. “But whilst the bonding thing is a drag, being allowed to keep Giles as my watcher is definitely a plus.”
“Not cute?” Faith frowned. “So he’s totally hot under all those clothes huh?” She smirked knowingly.
“Totally.” Buffy admitted with a small smile.
Suddenly a familiar figure headed towards them. She tensed. Angel. Just what she needed to make this night more complicated.
“New threat in town.” He told her.
“Guessing they’re some duelist vamps after an amulet?” she asked.
“Yeah, you know then?” he asked looking surprised.
“Staked one last night and took the dead demon’s amulet of a bunch tonight.” She replied. “Got it covered.”
“Not dead.” Angel replied shaking his head.
“The demon isn’t dead?” she asked frowning.
“No, he’s not a huge threat exactly…unless he gets that amulet of course but he’s got Giles.” Angel told her.
"Where?" Buffy demanded, trying not to let the sudden fear in her break out.
"I didn't follow, I came straight to find you, there was too many of them for me to risk following." he told her. "If they want the amulet the chances are they’re both alive still. They got the new guy too."
"Oh he's still alive alright." Buffy sighed. "He'd better stay that way."
"How do you know?" Faith asked.
"Because I'm still alive." Buffy replied grimly.
"You're bonded?" Angel guessed. Buffy saw the momentary flash of pain in his eyes and wondered how much he knew about slayer bonding. Did he realize from that one reference to her life depending on his that she had slept with Giles? She told herself it didn’t matter; her and Angel didn’t have a future so he would have to stomach the thought of her with someone else at some point.
"Yeah...happy birthday me." she muttered.
"You can use the bond to find him, I don't know how it works exactly but I've seen it done before." he told her. "You should be able to concentrate and hone on him through the bond."
"Well...it sounds better than searching warehouses aimlessly." she shrugged before closing her eyes. She tried to breathe and concentrate as she did when Giles got her to practice honing on vampires only this time she thought of him. She thought of his voice, she pictured him in her mind striding around the school library with a book in his hand. Then she felt him, a flash of warmth in her stomach that tugged backwards. "Giles..." Without another word she began to follow the feeling.
"Guess the hound dog trick is working." Faith commented before following the blonde slayer.
Author’s Notes: So buffy’s bond comes with a handy new skill, her and Angel are coming to terms with being over and Buffy and Giles seem to be closer than ever. We all know they’ll rescue the watchers in the next chapter but the real question is will Faith ever hang around to become bonded to her watcher and what happens between buffy and giles when a woman hits on him? Also no I’m not going to be going over every episode in the series, a few maybe but just the ones that can fit in with my overall story plan.
Part 5