Fic: I Play My Part (You Play Your Game) PG-13 7/12
Wow. I got destroyed in fantasy football. I've got 4 players left, and I'm behind by 90 points. Jesus. I think I've lost this week.
Anyway. On to the fic.
Part 1 is here
Outside Cleveland, Ohio
July 2006
“I don’t get it,” said Louisa.
Vi sighed, and swept her hair behind her left ear. “Okay,” she said, pulling the text book closer. “So, when graphing the equation, we find that though the number continuously approach zero, they never quite reach it, right? So what that means is that the limit for this equation -”
“Shh,” Faith shushed, holding up a hand.
“Faith, I know you don’t care about math but some people need to pass it for -”
“Not that,” Faith said. “I think I heard something.”
She stood up and walked over to the window, looking out into the darkness. She turned her ear to the window. Vi put the book down on the table and moved to the window next to Faith, Louisa watching them the whole way.
Faith and Vi looked at each other, and Faith glanced slightly upwards. Vi acknowledged with the barest of nods.
“Must be nothing,” Faith said, checking her watch. She and Vi turned away from the windows. “You know how paranoid I can get.”
“Yup,” agreed Vi. “We all know that.”
A moment later, two men crashed in through the windows, armored like a SWAT team and carrying guns. The two men were met with vicious kicks from Vi and Faith, sending them both flying back out of the compound.
Instantly, Louisa was up from the couch. She ran to the next room, lifted a plastic case and pressed a small red button inside. There were two clocks under the case as well. One read 8:46, the current time. The other read 8:51, which Louisa reported to Faith and Vi.
“Good, thanks,” Faith said. “I heard four more upstairs and at least two in the back.” She reached into a nearby cabinet and came away with three six-foot staves. They heard steel shutters slamming shut over the windows all around the house, and a loud siren blared three times.
Outside, Faith knew, the grass was growing at an unnatural rate and tying up the feet of any intruders on the property. The fence surrounding the house was now a magical barrier, almost impenetrable in either direction by man or beast.
For all intents and purposes, the occupants of the house were now sealed inside along with any intruders, who were isolated from whoever they might have left outside. Which was exactly what they wanted.
“You two check upstairs, I’m heading for the back,” Faith said, handing Vi and Louisa a staff each. “If the girls haven’t taken care of the four I heard up there, then I’m very disappointed in them. Tie ‘em up and bring ‘em down here. And get that lazy-ass bum out of the shower. Got it?”
Vi and Louisa nodded at her and ran upstairs.
Faith crept around to the back of the house. There were four rooms back here, any one of which could be holding an intruder.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” she sang quietly, dragging her staff along the floor. It was sloppy, she knew, but she wanted whoever was back here to get overconfident.
She paused at the door to the first room and listened for a second before opening it and stepping inside. The glass from the two windows in this room lay on the floor, just as she had expected. Impressions in the carpet showed footprints leading out of the room.
She crossed the hallway into the next room, and found it empty of both people and footprints. Tapping her staff on the floor as she walked, she proceeded to the next room, and just as she suspected, it was empty as well. Right on cue, she heard two guns drawn up to bear on her.
“Turn around,” said a male voice that, shaky with nervousness.
Internally, Faith thanked whatever Gods had sent her unprepared intruders. With her sultriest smile, she turned around, swinging the staff up onto her shoulders, with her arms hooked around behind it. This had the effect of lifting the hem of her shirt to expose her well-toned midriff, while at the same time thrusting her breasts forward.
For the slightest moment, both men behind her glanced down at her figure. In that moment, she swung the staff with lightning speed off of her shoulders, catching the first one across the nose, breaking it, and then ramming the second one in the throat, collapsing his windpipe. Both men dropped their guns to grasp at their injuries, and she kicked each in the head, rendering them unconscious.
Leaving her staff resting against a wall, she dragged both men by their collars back into the common room, where the other seven girls in the house had gathered. All eight men who had come into their home were unconscious.
“Add those two to the pile,” she said, tossing her charges into the center of the room. Two of the girls immediately moved to secure their weapons and tie them up.
“Vi, Amy, sweep the whole house and make absolutely certain we didn’t miss anyone.” The two girls nodded.
“Monitor up,” Faith said to the air.
The painting hanging above the fireplace shimmered and turned into a screen showing video of the outside. Tangled in the grass were another four men, in addition to the two unconscious ones she and Vi had kicked back outside. They were hacking at the grass with their knives, and having little success.
“What the hell is going on?” Xander asked. He half-stumbled down the stairs, his hair still drenched and a towel wrapped around his waist.
Faith pointed at the pile of men on the floor, and the group of them on the lawn in the picture. “We’ve been attacked.”
“Who by?” Xander asked, turning to the slayers.
The girls stood there a moment, until Faith coughed. Almost as one they started, turning away from Xander’s naked torso.
Louisa reached under the shirt of one of the men and held up a set of dog tags. Then she opened a Velcro flap on the man’s vest, revealing an American flag.
Xander frowned. “US military? What the hell?”
The sound of a phone ringing came from the screen, and a new window appeared with Willow in the frame. Faith looked at her watch. 8:51. Right on time.
“Hi guys,” she said, cheerily. “What’s going on?”
“Hey, Will,” Xander said. “We appear to have been attacked.”
“Why are you half-naked?”
“I was in the shower.”
“And you couldn’t take the time to throw on some shorts and a t-shirt?” she asked, mock scoldingly. “Xander, there are impressionable young women in that house.”
“Are you going to be serious about this?” he asked. “We’ve just had the American military come through our windows with guns.”
“And everyone’s fine, they’re all captured, and there’s no current danger.” Willow said. “Right?”
“Okay… yes. Not the point.”
“Well, I’ve signaled the cleaners. They’re on the way,” she said. “How many were there, by the way?”
“Twelve,” Faith said. “Six in here now, six outside on the lawn.”
Willow frowned. “That few? That’s almost insulting.”
“I know, right?” Faith said.
“Well, I guess we should find out what this is about. Xander, do you want to call Riley or should I?”
“I’ll call him,” Xander said. “See who’s responsible for amateur night here.”
“Okay,” Willow said. She looked off screen for a moment, looking at her computer. “Well, just in case, I’m updating the passphrase. You should get the flash in a second.”
Across the bottom of the screen ran the words, “For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.”
“Nice,” said one of the girls.
Willow nodded. “Okay, well, you guys get ready for the -”
Her head turned to her computer and she frowned. “Hold on,” she said.
Vi and Amy returned to the room and gave Faith thumbs up. Faith nodded at them and looked back at the screen. Willow was yelling something away from the microphone, and was gesturing urgently at somebody. Faith though she could hear a lot of beeping in the background.
“Will?” Xander said. “What’s going on?”
“I just got four more alarms,” she said. “Dallas, San Diego, Jacksonville, and Queens.”
“All over the country,” Faith said. “Jesus. What the hell is going on?”
“I can’t say for sure,” said Willow. “But I think we’re under attack. I’ll call you back when I know something.”
Her picture blinked out and left the group of them all looking at each other.
“Okay,” Faith said. “We’re officially on security lockdown. Nobody comes in without the passphrase, and we don’t leave in groups of less than four. Understood?”
They all nodded.
“So,” Vi said, poking one of the unconscious men with her foot. “What do we do with these guys?”
“Get all the info from their dog tags,” Xander said. “We need something to give to Riley.”
“Xander,” said Louisa, “what does it mean if the military’s after us?”
Xander smiled at her. “I don’t know, but we’re going to find out. This right here is nothing. We need to know if this is just a rogue offshoot or if they’ve got serious people behind them. Get their names and I’ll get Riley on it immediately.”
Louisa nodded and went to grab some paper.
Faith and Xander locked - well, eye.
“What next?” she asked.
Xander stood there for a moment, looking at her. Then he turned and walked over to the front door.
“Hey, assholes!” he yelled at the men who were still tangled up in the grass. They looked up at him. “You come at us with twelve people? You try to scare us? You have no idea what it is you’re dealing with! I think you’re going to need a bigger boat!”
He slammed the door and turned back to the girls.
“Toss them outside,” he said, pointing to the men on the floor. “And then lock this place down.”
“What are you going to do?” Louisa asked.
Xander looked around. “I’m going to put on some pants.”
* * * * *
Now
Smallville, Kansas
“So then we tried for over a year to get at your father,” Buffy told Lois. “But we never had any success, so we started trying to figure out how to get at him through other means. Your father is an honorable man, and we knew bribes wouldn’t work. So we looked for what else might.”
“Which is how you found us,” Lois said.
Buffy nodded. “Because it turns out, there is something that your dad loves more than his country, and that’s the two of you. So we found Lucy, followed her, learned about her, and set our snare.”
* * * * *
Six months ago
Prague, Czech Republic
“Okay,” Buffy said into her headset. She was sitting in a white van down the street from the police department. There were monitors and speakers and all sorts of equipment she didn’t understand, but Andrew was there to run it all. “We’ve got eyes on the target. Xander, you’re up.”
Buffy watched as Xander engaged Lucy Lane in small talk, listening from a small microphone that was placed in his breast pocket. She had to give it to him. He’d grown up a lot since high school, and he definitely had a way with the ladies, now.
“Faith,” she said. “You’re up.”
On another monitor, she watched Faith start up her motorcycle and drive down the street. Buffy placed her hand over the microphone.
“Where are we on Kamila?” she asked Andrew. He tapped a few keys and brought up a new camera.
“Mr. Giles is with her,” Andrew said. “She’s in make-up, and her clothes are in process.”
“And Ms. Lane’s hotel?”
“Her boyfriend’s assets have been frozen by the government,” Andrew said. “She’ll be able to get her things from the room, but she can’t stay there. We paid off the management, just to make sure.”
Buffy nodded. On her monitor, Xander hopped onto the back of Faith’s motorcycle and they rode off.
“Okay,” Buffy said into her microphone. “Phase one is complete, the trap has been set. Andrew and I will stay on Ms. Lane. Robin, send a cab on up. Xander.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, with a healthy amount of sarcasm.
Buffy smiled. “You did good.”
“You’re just jealous I never broke out the ol’ Xander charm on you,” he said.
“Sure you did,” she said, watching a taxi come down the street. “But I was sixteen, and foolish beyond my years.”
“Jesus, you two,” said Faith. “Just screw already and get it over with.”
Buffy thought about that for a moment, shook her head and smiled.
* * * * *
Smallville
Now
“This was our opportunity,” Buffy said. “We couldn’t let it pass. So we brought her in, and kept her close. We did honestly come to like her, and she really has helped us out a lot.”
“But you also lied to her,” Chloe said.
Buffy nodded. “Every day.”
“What about Xander?” Lois asked, angrily. “What about his feelings, were they all just a lie? Did he just string my sister along until he was able to get both of us in a room together, and get his military buddies to call our father?”
Buffy took a deep breath, then released it. “No,” she said. “In fact, when he offered her the job, the only line he improvised was when he said she was cute. I’ve known Xander a very long time. Our best friend, Willow, has known him longer, since he was five. And I can tell you with complete certainty that he is in love with your sister.”
“And yet he’d do all this, set her up like this, lie to her like this,” said Lois.
“Yeah,” Ollie said. Lois looked at him. “Because some things are more important than how we feel about someone. How much we care about them. Some things are so important, that no matter how much we love someone, they have to come second.”
Lois deflated.
Buffy leaned forward and took Lois’s hands in hers. “It doesn’t always work out that way, though. And I really hope that your sister and Xander can work this out, because he really does love her. We’re all very fond of her.”
She shook her head. “Kind of a first for Xander’s girlfriends, actually.”
----------
End Chapter 7
Continue to Chapter 8
Anyway. On to the fic.
Part 1 is here
Outside Cleveland, Ohio
July 2006
“I don’t get it,” said Louisa.
Vi sighed, and swept her hair behind her left ear. “Okay,” she said, pulling the text book closer. “So, when graphing the equation, we find that though the number continuously approach zero, they never quite reach it, right? So what that means is that the limit for this equation -”
“Shh,” Faith shushed, holding up a hand.
“Faith, I know you don’t care about math but some people need to pass it for -”
“Not that,” Faith said. “I think I heard something.”
She stood up and walked over to the window, looking out into the darkness. She turned her ear to the window. Vi put the book down on the table and moved to the window next to Faith, Louisa watching them the whole way.
Faith and Vi looked at each other, and Faith glanced slightly upwards. Vi acknowledged with the barest of nods.
“Must be nothing,” Faith said, checking her watch. She and Vi turned away from the windows. “You know how paranoid I can get.”
“Yup,” agreed Vi. “We all know that.”
A moment later, two men crashed in through the windows, armored like a SWAT team and carrying guns. The two men were met with vicious kicks from Vi and Faith, sending them both flying back out of the compound.
Instantly, Louisa was up from the couch. She ran to the next room, lifted a plastic case and pressed a small red button inside. There were two clocks under the case as well. One read 8:46, the current time. The other read 8:51, which Louisa reported to Faith and Vi.
“Good, thanks,” Faith said. “I heard four more upstairs and at least two in the back.” She reached into a nearby cabinet and came away with three six-foot staves. They heard steel shutters slamming shut over the windows all around the house, and a loud siren blared three times.
Outside, Faith knew, the grass was growing at an unnatural rate and tying up the feet of any intruders on the property. The fence surrounding the house was now a magical barrier, almost impenetrable in either direction by man or beast.
For all intents and purposes, the occupants of the house were now sealed inside along with any intruders, who were isolated from whoever they might have left outside. Which was exactly what they wanted.
“You two check upstairs, I’m heading for the back,” Faith said, handing Vi and Louisa a staff each. “If the girls haven’t taken care of the four I heard up there, then I’m very disappointed in them. Tie ‘em up and bring ‘em down here. And get that lazy-ass bum out of the shower. Got it?”
Vi and Louisa nodded at her and ran upstairs.
Faith crept around to the back of the house. There were four rooms back here, any one of which could be holding an intruder.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” she sang quietly, dragging her staff along the floor. It was sloppy, she knew, but she wanted whoever was back here to get overconfident.
She paused at the door to the first room and listened for a second before opening it and stepping inside. The glass from the two windows in this room lay on the floor, just as she had expected. Impressions in the carpet showed footprints leading out of the room.
She crossed the hallway into the next room, and found it empty of both people and footprints. Tapping her staff on the floor as she walked, she proceeded to the next room, and just as she suspected, it was empty as well. Right on cue, she heard two guns drawn up to bear on her.
“Turn around,” said a male voice that, shaky with nervousness.
Internally, Faith thanked whatever Gods had sent her unprepared intruders. With her sultriest smile, she turned around, swinging the staff up onto her shoulders, with her arms hooked around behind it. This had the effect of lifting the hem of her shirt to expose her well-toned midriff, while at the same time thrusting her breasts forward.
For the slightest moment, both men behind her glanced down at her figure. In that moment, she swung the staff with lightning speed off of her shoulders, catching the first one across the nose, breaking it, and then ramming the second one in the throat, collapsing his windpipe. Both men dropped their guns to grasp at their injuries, and she kicked each in the head, rendering them unconscious.
Leaving her staff resting against a wall, she dragged both men by their collars back into the common room, where the other seven girls in the house had gathered. All eight men who had come into their home were unconscious.
“Add those two to the pile,” she said, tossing her charges into the center of the room. Two of the girls immediately moved to secure their weapons and tie them up.
“Vi, Amy, sweep the whole house and make absolutely certain we didn’t miss anyone.” The two girls nodded.
“Monitor up,” Faith said to the air.
The painting hanging above the fireplace shimmered and turned into a screen showing video of the outside. Tangled in the grass were another four men, in addition to the two unconscious ones she and Vi had kicked back outside. They were hacking at the grass with their knives, and having little success.
“What the hell is going on?” Xander asked. He half-stumbled down the stairs, his hair still drenched and a towel wrapped around his waist.
Faith pointed at the pile of men on the floor, and the group of them on the lawn in the picture. “We’ve been attacked.”
“Who by?” Xander asked, turning to the slayers.
The girls stood there a moment, until Faith coughed. Almost as one they started, turning away from Xander’s naked torso.
Louisa reached under the shirt of one of the men and held up a set of dog tags. Then she opened a Velcro flap on the man’s vest, revealing an American flag.
Xander frowned. “US military? What the hell?”
The sound of a phone ringing came from the screen, and a new window appeared with Willow in the frame. Faith looked at her watch. 8:51. Right on time.
“Hi guys,” she said, cheerily. “What’s going on?”
“Hey, Will,” Xander said. “We appear to have been attacked.”
“Why are you half-naked?”
“I was in the shower.”
“And you couldn’t take the time to throw on some shorts and a t-shirt?” she asked, mock scoldingly. “Xander, there are impressionable young women in that house.”
“Are you going to be serious about this?” he asked. “We’ve just had the American military come through our windows with guns.”
“And everyone’s fine, they’re all captured, and there’s no current danger.” Willow said. “Right?”
“Okay… yes. Not the point.”
“Well, I’ve signaled the cleaners. They’re on the way,” she said. “How many were there, by the way?”
“Twelve,” Faith said. “Six in here now, six outside on the lawn.”
Willow frowned. “That few? That’s almost insulting.”
“I know, right?” Faith said.
“Well, I guess we should find out what this is about. Xander, do you want to call Riley or should I?”
“I’ll call him,” Xander said. “See who’s responsible for amateur night here.”
“Okay,” Willow said. She looked off screen for a moment, looking at her computer. “Well, just in case, I’m updating the passphrase. You should get the flash in a second.”
Across the bottom of the screen ran the words, “For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.”
“Nice,” said one of the girls.
Willow nodded. “Okay, well, you guys get ready for the -”
Her head turned to her computer and she frowned. “Hold on,” she said.
Vi and Amy returned to the room and gave Faith thumbs up. Faith nodded at them and looked back at the screen. Willow was yelling something away from the microphone, and was gesturing urgently at somebody. Faith though she could hear a lot of beeping in the background.
“Will?” Xander said. “What’s going on?”
“I just got four more alarms,” she said. “Dallas, San Diego, Jacksonville, and Queens.”
“All over the country,” Faith said. “Jesus. What the hell is going on?”
“I can’t say for sure,” said Willow. “But I think we’re under attack. I’ll call you back when I know something.”
Her picture blinked out and left the group of them all looking at each other.
“Okay,” Faith said. “We’re officially on security lockdown. Nobody comes in without the passphrase, and we don’t leave in groups of less than four. Understood?”
They all nodded.
“So,” Vi said, poking one of the unconscious men with her foot. “What do we do with these guys?”
“Get all the info from their dog tags,” Xander said. “We need something to give to Riley.”
“Xander,” said Louisa, “what does it mean if the military’s after us?”
Xander smiled at her. “I don’t know, but we’re going to find out. This right here is nothing. We need to know if this is just a rogue offshoot or if they’ve got serious people behind them. Get their names and I’ll get Riley on it immediately.”
Louisa nodded and went to grab some paper.
Faith and Xander locked - well, eye.
“What next?” she asked.
Xander stood there for a moment, looking at her. Then he turned and walked over to the front door.
“Hey, assholes!” he yelled at the men who were still tangled up in the grass. They looked up at him. “You come at us with twelve people? You try to scare us? You have no idea what it is you’re dealing with! I think you’re going to need a bigger boat!”
He slammed the door and turned back to the girls.
“Toss them outside,” he said, pointing to the men on the floor. “And then lock this place down.”
“What are you going to do?” Louisa asked.
Xander looked around. “I’m going to put on some pants.”
* * * * *
Now
Smallville, Kansas
“So then we tried for over a year to get at your father,” Buffy told Lois. “But we never had any success, so we started trying to figure out how to get at him through other means. Your father is an honorable man, and we knew bribes wouldn’t work. So we looked for what else might.”
“Which is how you found us,” Lois said.
Buffy nodded. “Because it turns out, there is something that your dad loves more than his country, and that’s the two of you. So we found Lucy, followed her, learned about her, and set our snare.”
* * * * *
Six months ago
Prague, Czech Republic
“Okay,” Buffy said into her headset. She was sitting in a white van down the street from the police department. There were monitors and speakers and all sorts of equipment she didn’t understand, but Andrew was there to run it all. “We’ve got eyes on the target. Xander, you’re up.”
Buffy watched as Xander engaged Lucy Lane in small talk, listening from a small microphone that was placed in his breast pocket. She had to give it to him. He’d grown up a lot since high school, and he definitely had a way with the ladies, now.
“Faith,” she said. “You’re up.”
On another monitor, she watched Faith start up her motorcycle and drive down the street. Buffy placed her hand over the microphone.
“Where are we on Kamila?” she asked Andrew. He tapped a few keys and brought up a new camera.
“Mr. Giles is with her,” Andrew said. “She’s in make-up, and her clothes are in process.”
“And Ms. Lane’s hotel?”
“Her boyfriend’s assets have been frozen by the government,” Andrew said. “She’ll be able to get her things from the room, but she can’t stay there. We paid off the management, just to make sure.”
Buffy nodded. On her monitor, Xander hopped onto the back of Faith’s motorcycle and they rode off.
“Okay,” Buffy said into her microphone. “Phase one is complete, the trap has been set. Andrew and I will stay on Ms. Lane. Robin, send a cab on up. Xander.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, with a healthy amount of sarcasm.
Buffy smiled. “You did good.”
“You’re just jealous I never broke out the ol’ Xander charm on you,” he said.
“Sure you did,” she said, watching a taxi come down the street. “But I was sixteen, and foolish beyond my years.”
“Jesus, you two,” said Faith. “Just screw already and get it over with.”
Buffy thought about that for a moment, shook her head and smiled.
* * * * *
Smallville
Now
“This was our opportunity,” Buffy said. “We couldn’t let it pass. So we brought her in, and kept her close. We did honestly come to like her, and she really has helped us out a lot.”
“But you also lied to her,” Chloe said.
Buffy nodded. “Every day.”
“What about Xander?” Lois asked, angrily. “What about his feelings, were they all just a lie? Did he just string my sister along until he was able to get both of us in a room together, and get his military buddies to call our father?”
Buffy took a deep breath, then released it. “No,” she said. “In fact, when he offered her the job, the only line he improvised was when he said she was cute. I’ve known Xander a very long time. Our best friend, Willow, has known him longer, since he was five. And I can tell you with complete certainty that he is in love with your sister.”
“And yet he’d do all this, set her up like this, lie to her like this,” said Lois.
“Yeah,” Ollie said. Lois looked at him. “Because some things are more important than how we feel about someone. How much we care about them. Some things are so important, that no matter how much we love someone, they have to come second.”
Lois deflated.
Buffy leaned forward and took Lois’s hands in hers. “It doesn’t always work out that way, though. And I really hope that your sister and Xander can work this out, because he really does love her. We’re all very fond of her.”
She shook her head. “Kind of a first for Xander’s girlfriends, actually.”
----------
End Chapter 7
Continue to Chapter 8