FIC: Conspiracy Theory, 10/12 (Giles/Xander, FRT)
Title: Conspiracy Theory, part 10 / 12
Author: Soft Princess (soft_princess) and Mireille (mireille719)
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing: Giles/Xander
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 6,000 (this part) / 64,000 overall
Summary: When Xander is attacked by a demon on his way to deliver a trio of young Slayers to England, he and Giles find themselves investigating a plot that may threaten the Council's very existence--and re-evaluating their relationship in the process.
Spoilers: Post-Chosen; based on aired-episode canon only.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy; we are only borrowing them.
Feedback/Concrit: Both welcome, either here or at mireille719 {at} gmail {dot} com and soft.princess {at} gmail {dot} com.
Notes: This story is being posted in 12 parts: parts 1-4 at spring_with_xan on June 17, parts 5-8 at summer_of_giles on June 19, and parts 9-12 at summer_of_giles on June 22. We would like to thank wesleysgirl for the wonderful job beta-reading.
Previous parts:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
Part 9
Xander didn't really sleep, but for the next half-hour, he kept his eyes closed, trying to relax. He could hear Buffy turning the pages of the book she was reading, and the sound of Andrew and Catherine in the kitchen talking. Giles came back after a while and chatted with Buffy. And then Xander didn't remember what happened for the next few minutes, but when he opened his eye, the voices in the kitchen were louder, and Buffy was gone. He blinked and turned to Giles. "Was I sleeping?"
"I don't know," Giles replied, putting down the papers he'd been reading, and smiling at him. "Were you?"
Xander groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Very funny. But okay, that was a stupid question."
Giles laughed. "Perhaps. Dinner should be ready. Dawn has just shown up, and I'm pretty certain that's Niki," he said, nodding at the window where they could see someone running towards the house.
"Okay, I'll go open the door for her." Xander stood and stretched. He probably had needed that nap. He could feel Giles watching him as he left the room. Heart beating fast, he walked swiftly to the front door, and opened it before Niki could knock. "Hey you."
"Xander! Mrs. Cheever said you were back, and I saw Océane, what happened? I want to know, please! Did you kill the demon? Can I see it? Did Catherine--"
"Whoa, one question at a time." Then, realizing she'd just repeat all her questions on the doorstep, he added, "Just get in and let me close the door. Did Mrs. Cheever say you could come over?" He managed to get the door closed.
"Yes, she said Mr. Giles said it was okay and that I could come. She said I can even eat here, isn't that cool?"
"Awesome," Xander replied, leading her into the dining room.
"Oh my God," Buffy said, turning to them. "She really is tiny."
"Yep," Xander said proudly, patting Niki's head. "A mini-Slayer. I always wanted one of those."
"Hey!" Niki looked up at Xander and rolled her eyes. "I might be tiny, but I can--"
"I know you can, Niki, I'm just joking." He smiled at her, and she shook her head.
"You know," she said, turning to Buffy defiantly, "I am totally stronger than you are." Xander had to put his hand on his mouth to keep from laughing.
"Oh really?" Buffy asked, crouching down in front of her.
"Yes, really."
"I don't know, Niki," Xander said. "I think Buffy could best you in a fight."
"Oh!" Niki said, letting her hands fall away from her hips. "Buffy... that's you? Everyone talks about you at school!"
"Do they now?" Buffy took Niki's hand and pulled her over to the table so they could both sit down.
"Yeah," Xander said, following their example and sitting in the chair next to Niki--which apparently meant he was also sitting next to Giles. He seriously needed to be more careful about those things; he was having enough trouble not thinking about Giles as it was. "Apparently, you're some sort of legend for every Slayer at the Academy. If you don't show up more often, you're going to be like the Loch Ness monster. Everyone will talk about you, but no one will ever be really sure you exist."
Buffy laughed. "You'll have to show them pictures every now and then to prove I'm real."
"Or sell them to the Weekly World News, " he said, grinning at her. With Niki on his left and Buffy on the other side, it was easy for him to angle himself in that direction and--mostly--ignore Giles. He could still hear him, of course, talking to Dawn. It sounded like Giles was serious about wanting her to help out while Mrs. Bishop was out of commission; he was talking about her duties and the instructors he wanted her to talk to while she was in England.
Xander shifted a little more in his chair, turning back to Niki, who had started asking questions faster than Buffy could answer them.
"Do you have your own sword? I don't. I have to use the ones in the training rooms. Do you fight lots of demons? There was a demon in my house. I killed it with my mother's big knife, but if I had a sword it would have been easier. You think I'm big enough to have a sword, don't you?"
Xander looked up at Buffy, trying hard not to burst out laughing, both at Niki's constant stream of chatter and at the fact that Buffy looked like she was about to flee from the room. Luckily, the door to the kitchen swung open, and Catherine and Andrew came in. "Whoa," Xander said, waving a hand in front of Niki to get her attention when she didn't stop talking. "How about we let Buffy eat before you interrogate her?"
Niki frowned for a minute, and Xander thought he was about to be pouted at. Then she asked, "What's 'interrogate'?"
"Ask her a lot of questions," he said, just as, from the other side of her, Buffy said, "Torture me for information."
Xander laughed. "That, too."
They were halfway through the meal when there was a knock on the dining room door, and Mrs. Cheever walked in. Her mouth had that curve that Xander had started associating with her smiling, and she looked around. "Rupert, you said you needed my help."
"Yes, Mrs. Cheever, please, sit," Giles said, standing up and pulling out an empty chair for her. "Would you like something to eat or drink?"
"No, no," she replied, shaking her head. "I'm quite fine, thank you."
Everyone was quiet around the table, even Niki, and they were all looking at Giles and Mrs. Cheever. Giles cleared his throat as he sat back into his chair. "I'll cut right to the chase. We have a demon situation."
"I figured as much," Mrs. Cheever said. "I'm not going senile quite yet, and all those measures you've implemented in the past few days are suspicious, to say the least."
Xander put down his fork. "We had to," he said. He looked around the table at everyone. These were people he'd trust with his life. "There's a conspiracy, against Giles and well, all of us, but mostly Giles. And we need to get information about it out of the demon that's chained in the basement."
Mrs. Cheever looked at him, and blinked once. "Well, that was concise." She turned to Giles. "What kind of demon is it?"
This time, it was Dawn who answered. Xander was going to have to assume that what she said was the name from the report she'd given them, because it mostly sounded like she was choking on something.
"Dear God," Mrs. Cheever murmured, putting a hand in front of her mouth. "How on Earth did you manage to get your hands on one of those? I don't believe there's ever been any sightings of them in England."
"But you do know of them?" Giles asked, pushing his plate away. Xander did the same; he wasn't hungry anymore.
"Of course I do, I did some research on the peaceful tribes in northwestern Canada, several decades ago." She frowned slightly, and pushed her glasses up on her nose. "Their history is fascinating."
"Yes, it is," Dawn said. "I never realized that demons could--"
Before Dawn could get too much into the subject of the demons' history, Xander interrupted her. "I'm sure it's really interesting, but the one we have downstairs is definitely not peaceful."
"We have reason to believe it's part of the exiled clan that moved further north," Giles added.
"Yes, fascinating! When I did my research, we couldn't get anywhere near them," Mrs. Cheever said.
"We think it was either hired, or is being controlled by someone intent on seeing me fail." Giles took an even more serious tone, and Mrs. Cheever lost the look of childlike curiosity on her face.
"Both would be possible, from what I remember of their nature," she said. "I'd put my money on controlled, though, as they're quite--how should I say--impetuous and volatile. They could take whatever they are offered in exchange, and then disappear without doing the work, or kill their employer."
Xander nodded. "That makes a whole lot of sense, actually. But we need to talk to it."
"And that's where you come in," Giles added. "I imagine you're fluent in their language?"
"I wouldn't call myself fluent, but I imagine I can make myself understood, yes."
"Good," Buffy said, standing up and pushing her chair back. "I'll go downstairs to see Julia. It shouldn't be too long before it wakes up; it's been two hours already."
"All right," Giles agreed. "Bring Catherine with you; we'll clean up here."
"I wanna go too!" Niki jumped up from her chair. Xander had completely forgotten for a moment that she was there; he couldn't remember her ever being that quiet, unless she was sleeping. "I can beat it up, I know I can."
"Niki--" Xander started, but Buffy interrupted him.
"Let her come with, Xander, I'll keep an eye on her."
"Okay," he conceded. He didn't like it, but she did need to get some experience, and the demon was chained and there were three more Slayers around; she'd be fine.
And, he realized as Niki grabbed Buffy's hand and pulled her toward the door, calling for Catherine to hurry up, there was no way on earth he was keeping her upstairs without literally tying her to a chair, and that wouldn't work. He'd have to untie her eventually, and he did not like his chances against an annoyed little Slayer.
"Dawn," Giles suggested, "why don't you take Mrs. Cheever into the other room and show her the research you've put together? I'd like to see what she thinks of it." Which, Xander realized, was as much about Dawn as about the demon, and was a pretty smart move. If some of the other Watchers were impressed with Dawn's research skills, they'd be more in favor of her being trained as a Watcher.
It wasn't like Xander didn't know Giles was good at his job--no matter what the idiots who used to run things thought--but it was another thing entirely to watch him doing it. It made Xander wonder what the hell he was doing calling himself a Watcher. Watchers were like Giles, and Dawn, and Mrs. Cheever, and Alan Gregory. He was... well, he was good at finding Slayers, but that was about it. That didn't make him a Watcher.
Dawn nodded. "I'm sure there's more you can add," Dawn said, "but I couldn't find a lot of references." She led Mrs. Cheever through to the living room.
Before Giles or Andrew could speak, Xander got up from the table, starting to stack up plates. "That demon's going to wake up soon," he said to Giles, "and you're going to have to go downstairs anyway. Why don't I get the dishes?" He thought he managed a smile. "It's the least I can do. I mean, Andrew cooked, and you've got an interrogation to handle. I might as well make myself useful somehow."
Giles gave him a strange look, but nodded. "All right. Thank you, Xander."
"Hey, no problem," he said, turning to carry the plates into the kitchen.
To his surprise, Andrew followed him in, his hands full of silverware. "I'll help," he said.
Xander was about to argue when he remembered what they'd said earlier about Andrew needing to keep busy. "Sure. That'd be great," he lied.
***
Giles watched Xander and Andrew walk out of the room and sighed. He wasn't used to so many people in his home, anymore, and it was dizzying to have everyone talking at once during a meal. He was very thankful for the chance of a few minutes alone to sort out his thoughts.
Dawn seemed very excited by the prospect of working for the Council, something else he owed Xander, Giles thought. Xander had been right about many things, and Giles would have to thank him for that later, when all this was over. Perhaps then they would be able to talk things through.
Shaking his head to keep himself from thinking about what had happened between them the other day, Giles stood up. He would check up on Mrs. Cheever and Dawn, and then go downstairs; that would keep him busy for now.
When he went into the study, he found, to his slight surprise, that they were getting on well; Mrs. Cheever was nodding in approval as she read through Dawn's report, and Dawn sounded perfectly poised and confident as she answered her questions. It had been some time since he'd seen Dawn, and apparently he'd missed the stage where she'd become an adult overnight.
If she'd met with Mrs. Cheever's approval, then he didn't need to have any worries at all about how well she'd fit in with the other trainees, either. And perhaps she'd be interested in transferring her interest from ancient human languages to non-human ones; they had younger Watchers interested in learning Sumerian, but when Mrs. Cheever finally retired, they'd lose their expert in demonic tongues. They could get by, he supposed--enough of the current Watchers knew at least a bit of one or two languages--but Dawn's gift for languages would put her in the position to be a real asset to the Council in the next decade or so.
Yet another thing for him to make a note of for later.
He'd been noticed; Dawn looked up at him curiously, and Giles smiled. "Just checking in on you two," he said.
"Don't just stand there, Rupert" Mrs. Cheever told him--no, more accurately, scolded him. "Come over here and make yourself useful."
Dawn giggled, and Giles shot her a warning look. "I was only going to say--" she began.
Whatever she was going to say, however, Giles was to be mercifully spared, because he heard the clatter of footsteps running up the stairs and through the hallway, just a second before Nkiruka burst into the room.
"Mr. Giles, Buffy--"
"Miss Summers," Mrs. Cheever corrected her automatically.
"Yes, her," the girl agreed. "Buffy says the demon is starting to wake up." She paused, grinning. "It's very ugly. I didn't notice that when it attacked us before; I was too busy protecting Xander."
"Of course you were," Giles said. "Why don't you run to the kitchen and let Xander and Andrew know? We'll head downstairs."
"Okay!" She twirled around and left the room at a run.
Giles turned to Mrs. Cheever and Dawn, who were both standing up from the couch. "I'm not quite sure exactly how we'll proceed, but whatever happens, stay as far away from the demon as possible. Its claws alone are--"
"Rupert," Mrs. Cheever said, looking at him the same way she had, decades ago, when she'd been tutoring him in languages and he hadn't done his homework. "We know full well what we are up against here, probably better than you do. Now, shall we?"
With a nod, Giles led the way to the basement. The demon was definitely waking, if the groans it was making were any indication.
"How long are we going to have to wait for it to wake up?" Buffy said.
"You hit it pretty hard," Julia pointed out. "It could take a while."
"Maybe we should encourage it," Dawn said, looking around the room. "Giles, can you give me that glass of water?" she asked, pointing at the glass someone had probably brought down for Julia earlier.
Giles grabbed the glass and giving it to Dawn, who immediately threw it on the demon's head.
Its eyes opened fully and glowed brightly, and it stood, growling. "It's not happy," Mrs. Cheever said, just as Niki was bouncing down the stairs with a cheerful "I'm back!" and coming to stand close to Buffy.
Buffy whispered something to her that Giles couldn't hear, and the girl stepped back a few feet, taking a fighting stance.
Whatever Buffy had said, Giles hoped it kept Niki quiet while this was going on. "We can see that, Mrs. Cheever."
"No," she sighed, "that's what it just said. Rough translation would be 'this one is not happy.'"
"Well, neither is anyone else," Giles muttered. "It should be grateful it's only chained in the cellar, and not beheaded by the side of the road." That earned him another look, and he shook his head. "Ask it what it was doing," he said.
"Yes, thank you, Rupert," she said. "Can this be the last time today that I have to remind you that I know how to do my job?" She turned back to the demon, speaking quickly and listening to its reply.
"Well?" Giles demanded after a moment, when the demon paused.
"It wants to know why it should answer your questions."
Buffy answered that for him, raising the sword she was holding. "Tell it that it's the only way I'm even going to consider letting it live after it attacked my sister."
The response, through Mrs. Cheever, came quickly. "It was told there would be a vehicle coming down the road. In it would be a girl who would reek of Slayer--"
"Hey!" Dawn protested, glaring at the demon. "I don't reek of anything."
"There's no literal translation," Mrs. Cheever said. "Certain demon species are very sensitive to the presence of Slayers, magic users, and other supernaturally-aligned creatures; I expect it's a survival mechanism. As humans don't have that particular sense, we don't have a word for it. Your sister is a Slayer, so you've picked up some of that--we'll say 'aura,' if that sounds better to you--without actually being a Slayer, as have most of the Watchers here." When Dawn nodded her understanding, she went on, "That's what the demon was told to look for. A human girl who 'smelled' of Slayer, without actually being one."
"Bet it was surprised to find us," Buffy said.
To Giles' surprise, the demon responded without waiting for the translation. "It was," Mrs. Cheever confirmed. "It was told to expect a human man as her companion."
"Mr. Wells," Julia said. "He'd hired the car in his name."
"It understands English?" Giles asked.
"Apparently," Mrs. Cheever said tartly. She questioned the demon again for a moment, then said, "It understands some English, but it says it doesn't speak any. It may not be telling the truth, but as we're able to communicate with it regardless, I don't believe that's important."
"What were your orders?" Giles said, addressing the demon. Even if Mrs. Cheever had to translate some of it, perhaps speaking to the demon directly would predispose it to be more cooperative.
The answer wasn't at all unexpected, but hearing it delivered bluntly still chilled Giles. "It was to kill them," the translation came. "But there were many Slayers, and it lost the fight. It still doesn't quite understand how that happened," Mrs. Cheever added. "It's quite bewildered by the presence of multiple Slayers."
"Who gave the order?" Giles asked, deliberately choosing not to reply to the demon's comment.
The demon stared back at him, but didn't say a word.
Mrs. Cheever tried translating the question, but the demon didn't look at her or answer. "Well, I don't think it wants to answer that," she muttered just loud enough for Giles to hear.
"Seems not," he said. "Perhaps what it needs is a little incentive?"
Buffy raised her sword. "I'd be happy to help with that."
The demon grunted. "It says it's not afraid to die," Mrs. Cheever translated. The demon made a few more sounds. "It's prepared to make a deal with you, though."
"Oh, is it?" Giles snickered. "What does it want?"
"To be set free. If you let it go, it'll tell you who gave it the orders to kill," Mrs. Cheever said, as the demon talked.
Buffy put her sword against the demon's neck. "I don't think so."
After another comment from the demon, Mrs. Cheever repeated, "It isn't afraid to die. It wants only to return to its tribe. It..." She frowned. "It apparently wasn't a willing participant." After a few more exchanges with the demon, she turned to Giles. "Make no mistake; it doesn't feel any remorse for killing humans, any more than a human might for, oh, killing a fox that got among the chickens, or something of that nature. It sees us as a nuisance at best and a threat at worst. But it sounds as though it, and the other demons of its tribe that were involved, was being threatened."
Julia spoke up, her brow furrowed. "What could threaten a demon like that?" she said. "All right, us--" her gesture took in the other Slayers in the room-- "and maybe an army tank or something, but look at it. A whole tribe of them? What could a couple of normal people do to that?"
The demon spoke again, and Giles thought it sounded rather agitated. "Threaten its nesting grounds," Mrs. Cheever said. "I'm not absolutely certain of this species' life cycle--"
"It was in that book I had," Dawn said. "They lay eggs, and the book said that it takes around a year for the eggs to hatch, and there's only a hatching every ten years or so. So if someone wiped out the tribe's nesting grounds, it'd be ten years before there were any more baby demons. Which, if you're a demon, might not be a good thing."
Giles sighed. "Dawn, in your research, did you find anything at all about the tribe--even the human-hating offshoot--attacking humans without provocation?"
She shook her head. "That's one reason they stick to pretty remote territory. They don't like us, and they tend to kill people who get near their territory, but otherwise, they keep to themselves."
Giles considered this for a moment. "We might be able to strike a deal," he finally said.
"Giles!" Buffy interjected. "I don't want to sound heartless or anything, but, you know, demon. We don't strike deals with demons who go around killing people."
He turned to her, staring her down. "I suppose you'd rather have more casualties, then?"
"No, I think we need to get the information out of it without striking any kind of deal."
"I don't think you'll manage that," Mrs. Cheever said. "It won't respond to any kind of physical threat. It doesn't care about death. It only wants the nesting ground to be protected."
Buffy sighed, but relented, stepping back. Giles turned back to the demon. "A deal, then." He didn't like this situation, not at all, but if it was the only option, it would have to do. "We will release you--"
"Heck," Buffy interrupted him. "We'll give you a ride back to the Arctic Circle." When everyone's gaze turned back to her again, she shrugged. "No way I'm letting a demon loose anywhere near any kind of populated area. If you guys are serious about agreeing to this, we're going to make sure it doesn't get the chance to kill anyone on the way home."
"Agreed," Giles said. They did have the resources for that, after all. "We will release you back into your environment, but you have to give us the information we need for that to happen. We need names, places, means of communication. I want the full run down on whoever it is that is controlling you."
"And who knows," Julia added, approaching the demon and lowering her crossbow to her side. "Maybe if we manage to stop them fast enough, we may very well save your nest at the same time."
Mrs. Cheever started to translate when the demon stayed silent, but it interrupted her halfway. "It agrees. It is ready to give the information we need."
***
"I'm not avoiding the issue, Andrew," Xander said, drying his hands on a tea towel and wondering if it would kill Giles to actually get a dishwasher. "And the reason I'm not avoiding the issue," he went on as he tossed the towel over to Andrew, "is that there's nothing to avoid."
He could remember a time when Andrew actually believed... well, basically everything Xander told him, however stupid it was. That was a good time, he thought, as Andrew frowned and gave him a look that clearly told him that those days were long gone. "Time is precious, grasshopper," Andrew began, and Xander scowled.
"Stop with the Kung Fu crap," he muttered. Then, hearing noise in the other room, he went out, leaving Andrew to finish wiping off the splatters on the stove.
"Xander!" Niki must have been in heaven; she was holding both Buffy's and Catherine's hands, tugging them over to the couch to sit with her. "You missed everything!"
Xander frowned, turning toward Giles. He was deep in discussion with Mrs. Cheever and Dawn about something, but Xander didn't care right now. This was important enough to interrupt. "You let her go down there when the demon was awake?" he demanded.
Giles blinked, turning to look at him, but Xander didn't give him time to talk. "For God's sake, Giles, she's ten years old. Slayer or no Slayer, you've got no business putting her in that much danger!"
"The demon," Giles said, "was restrained. There were six other people in the room with them. Three of them were also Slayers." Giles' voice was quiet, but Xander could tell he'd gone too far.
He couldn’t stop himself from going farther. "I don't care if she's a Slayer," Xander said. "She's a little girl."
"And I'm the one--"
"Stop it!" Buffy yelled, jumping up and pushing her way in between them and glaring first at Giles, then at Xander. "I get your point," she said, more quietly. "But to demons? She's not a little girl. She's a Slayer. And that means that she has to at least know what she's up against. God, she had to kill a demon with her mom's kitchen knife, Xander; you can't keep her safe from everything." She smiled a little. "And if you try, she's just going to have to knock you unconscious to keep you out of the way, and you can ask Giles how much fun that is."
Xander opened his mouth to say something, then stopped himself. He knew Buffy was right. It was just that taking care of the girls he was responsible for had always been the one thing he knew he was good at, and the thought that something could have happened to Niki while he was washing dishes--
He shook his head, sighing. "You're right," he admitted. Then he took a deep breath and looked over at Giles. "I shouldn't have lost my cool like that. You know, since I have such a limited supply of it in the first place."
Giles' response was a tiny nod, but at least Xander thought that being fired was probably not imminent. As far as anything else went--he could apologize again later.
"Okay," he said. "Now that the entertainment portion of the evening is over, did you have any luck?"
"Yes, we did," Giles said, sitting down on a chair. "It's seen two people, one is its--handler, I supposed you'd call it. The demon could only describe him, but we're pretty certain we know who it is." He nodded at Mrs. Cheever.
"Peter Jones is a contemporary of mine whom I know speaks demonic languages in spades; I studied with him for years," she said, sighing. "And his being involved in this whole thing wouldn't surprise me at all."
"He is also quite close to Roger Wyndham-Pryce, who has been opposing my 'authority' since the beginning," Giles added, a grim look on his face.
"Wyndham-Pryce?" Xander frowned.
"Wesley's father, yes," Giles answered. "He makes Quentin Travers look like a progressive thinker, and he's made it clear that he resents the fact that neither he nor any of his cronies are running the Council now."
"That would be disastrous," Mrs. Cheever said, shaking her head. "He's quite opposed to the idea of having more than one slayer. I've heard rumors that he'd prefer to--no, I can't say it." She looked at the girls, who had all turned pale.
"Kill them all instead of find them all," Xander finished for her, a sick feeling in his stomach. He glanced over to make certain Niki hadn't been listening, then turned his attention back to Giles, who was rubbing his forehead. "So he's probably the one behind this, right?"
"Possibly," Giles replied. "Although we can't be certain until we get more information." He paused, then looked straight at Xander. "The other individual that the demon described matched Mrs. Garner's description, so your intuition there was right as well," he said, expression softer than it had been before. "Apparently, she has been feeding information to Peter, using the means we discussed yesterday."
So she'd been spying on them using Andrew. Xander sighed. "Great. Anything else?"
"Peter is very well versed in magic, and from what Mrs. Cheever and I have deduced, he used protection spells to make sure the demon wouldn't turn on him in any way. And he also used the threat of destroying the whole clan's nest."
Dawn picked up from there. "Apparently, they have like a failsafe system in place. If the demon turns against them, or leaves and doesn't complete the 'mission', they'll have the nest destroyed long before it can reach it again."
"So they're well organized," Xander said.
"Very." Giles stood up again, towering over them. "It's only a guess, but I'd say we're dealing with several layers of command. We simply need to get to the top of it. York is definitely a part of all this, as he's the only one who knew about Dawn, but Peter hates York, and vice versa, so I stand by what I first believed: York isn't the leader."
"I agree," Mrs. Cheever said. "Peter would never agree to work with Stephen York, so we must be dealing with two different branches here. And now that I think about it, Stephen and Roger Wyndham-Pryce were at school together."
Giles nodded. "So there's a connection there. In any case, York is due here tomorrow for an interview with Dawn," he added, taking off his glasses. "Buffy, I'd like you to be there. We'll need to get as much information out of him as we can, and as quickly as possible."
Buffy's expression turned almost gleeful. "A chance to beat up on the guy who ordered a hit on my sister? Oh yeah, I'm so there."
Dawn rolled her eyes and shook her head. "We can probably corner him with the evidence without it turning into a bloodbath, you know."
"Yeah," Buffy answered, shrugging and smiling. "But I can still imagine tearing him apart, can't I?"
"And describe it to him in graphic detail," Xander said, smiling at her. "Sorry, Dawnie, but Buffy's not the only one in favor of damaging people who threaten you."
"All right," Giles said. "We're going to have to find someone to transport the demon back to the Arctic Circle, but I'd prefer to keep it here until the situation has been resolved."
"In the basement?" Xander said.
"Unless you'd prefer to invite it up for tea," Mrs. Cheever said.
"I'd prefer to use magic," Giles went on, just like they hadn't been talking, "considering that I'm not certain how we'd get the thing onto a plane. But since Willow's still incommunicado, we'll have to find someone else who's powerful enough to transport it."
"And someone we can trust to do it," Xander added. "Which, I guess, is a good reason to keep it here until we've figured out who we can trust, even if I don't like it."
"I don't like this situation any more than you do, Xander," Giles said. "But we have no other choice for the moment."
"Yeah, I know." Giles was right, and Xander knew it. He could already predict a night of very little sleep, but at least he wouldn't be the only one.
"Dawn, you, Catherine, and Nkiruka should head back to the dormitory with Mrs. Cheever. There isn't anymore any of you can do, and you, in particular, need a good night's sleep, or as close to it as you can get." Then Giles turned to Buffy. "The rest of us will be keeping watch on the demon. Julia should eat now, so you'll be first watch."
"All right," Buffy replied. "That sounds like a plan."
"Sounds good to me, too," Xander said, turning to the girls. "Niki, you know you can't talk about any of this with anyone, right? Same goes for you, Catherine."
Catherine nodded. "We know."
"Yes, Xander," Niki added. "I can so keep a secret."
"I know you can, I wasn't saying you couldn't. I just want to make sure you know how important this is. If word gets out--"
"Bad things will happen," she finished for him. "I understand stuff, you know, I'm not just a little girl." She was angry with him, very angry apparently, and scowling. Xander would never live that one down--he really had to remember not to underestimate her or her ego. A moment later, though, she was hugging him goodbye.
"I'm sorry, Niki," he told her, softly. He really was sorry for lashing out, even though he was still angry at Giles. They could have, at the very least, told him, so he could have been down there with them. Although, he had been the one to hide in the kitchen. And Buffy was right in the end.
"Come on, Niki," Catherine said. Xander could see them from the corner of his eye, ready to leave. "We'll be back in the morning."
"Okay," Niki said, pulling away and almost immediately grabbing Catherine's hand. She waved at Buffy, a wide smile on her lips, and the four of them left.
"All right, those of us who can, need to sleep; the rest of us..." Giles sighed.
"I don't think anyone's going to get any sleep tonight," Buffy said. She looked at Xander with a small smile. "Popcorn?"
"Movie night!" He bounced to his feet; that was a good idea, actually. They didn't have any more research to do at this point, and it would keep them distracted for a while. "Giles doesn't have a lot of stuff, but I think there are a couple upstairs in my room."
When Xander looked at him, Giles was smiling and shaking his head. "I'll let you set up the VCR and take care of the refreshments, then. Buffy--"
She interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. "I'll go 'relieve' Julia of her duties. She's probably starving."
"Good plan," Xander said. "There's a plate in the fridge for her; all she has to do is heat it up. Andrew took care of it." And he should probably go and check on Andrew, too, if he hadn't come back out to join the rest of them when Xander came back down.
He wasn't just being nice, either; with Buffy downstairs on demon duty, he wanted someone else to talk to. He barely knew Julia, and conversations with Giles were tricky right now.
Xander left the room quickly, heading upstairs. He'd picked up a couple of videos from time to time when he was going to be here for longer than a night or two, and Giles had let him keep them on the bookshelf in 'his' room. Hopefully, that would be enough to keep them occupied all night.
***
Part 11
Author: Soft Princess (soft_princess) and Mireille (mireille719)
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing: Giles/Xander
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 6,000 (this part) / 64,000 overall
Summary: When Xander is attacked by a demon on his way to deliver a trio of young Slayers to England, he and Giles find themselves investigating a plot that may threaten the Council's very existence--and re-evaluating their relationship in the process.
Spoilers: Post-Chosen; based on aired-episode canon only.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy; we are only borrowing them.
Feedback/Concrit: Both welcome, either here or at mireille719 {at} gmail {dot} com and soft.princess {at} gmail {dot} com.
Notes: This story is being posted in 12 parts: parts 1-4 at spring_with_xan on June 17, parts 5-8 at summer_of_giles on June 19, and parts 9-12 at summer_of_giles on June 22. We would like to thank wesleysgirl for the wonderful job beta-reading.
Previous parts:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
Part 9
Xander didn't really sleep, but for the next half-hour, he kept his eyes closed, trying to relax. He could hear Buffy turning the pages of the book she was reading, and the sound of Andrew and Catherine in the kitchen talking. Giles came back after a while and chatted with Buffy. And then Xander didn't remember what happened for the next few minutes, but when he opened his eye, the voices in the kitchen were louder, and Buffy was gone. He blinked and turned to Giles. "Was I sleeping?"
"I don't know," Giles replied, putting down the papers he'd been reading, and smiling at him. "Were you?"
Xander groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Very funny. But okay, that was a stupid question."
Giles laughed. "Perhaps. Dinner should be ready. Dawn has just shown up, and I'm pretty certain that's Niki," he said, nodding at the window where they could see someone running towards the house.
"Okay, I'll go open the door for her." Xander stood and stretched. He probably had needed that nap. He could feel Giles watching him as he left the room. Heart beating fast, he walked swiftly to the front door, and opened it before Niki could knock. "Hey you."
"Xander! Mrs. Cheever said you were back, and I saw Océane, what happened? I want to know, please! Did you kill the demon? Can I see it? Did Catherine--"
"Whoa, one question at a time." Then, realizing she'd just repeat all her questions on the doorstep, he added, "Just get in and let me close the door. Did Mrs. Cheever say you could come over?" He managed to get the door closed.
"Yes, she said Mr. Giles said it was okay and that I could come. She said I can even eat here, isn't that cool?"
"Awesome," Xander replied, leading her into the dining room.
"Oh my God," Buffy said, turning to them. "She really is tiny."
"Yep," Xander said proudly, patting Niki's head. "A mini-Slayer. I always wanted one of those."
"Hey!" Niki looked up at Xander and rolled her eyes. "I might be tiny, but I can--"
"I know you can, Niki, I'm just joking." He smiled at her, and she shook her head.
"You know," she said, turning to Buffy defiantly, "I am totally stronger than you are." Xander had to put his hand on his mouth to keep from laughing.
"Oh really?" Buffy asked, crouching down in front of her.
"Yes, really."
"I don't know, Niki," Xander said. "I think Buffy could best you in a fight."
"Oh!" Niki said, letting her hands fall away from her hips. "Buffy... that's you? Everyone talks about you at school!"
"Do they now?" Buffy took Niki's hand and pulled her over to the table so they could both sit down.
"Yeah," Xander said, following their example and sitting in the chair next to Niki--which apparently meant he was also sitting next to Giles. He seriously needed to be more careful about those things; he was having enough trouble not thinking about Giles as it was. "Apparently, you're some sort of legend for every Slayer at the Academy. If you don't show up more often, you're going to be like the Loch Ness monster. Everyone will talk about you, but no one will ever be really sure you exist."
Buffy laughed. "You'll have to show them pictures every now and then to prove I'm real."
"Or sell them to the Weekly World News, " he said, grinning at her. With Niki on his left and Buffy on the other side, it was easy for him to angle himself in that direction and--mostly--ignore Giles. He could still hear him, of course, talking to Dawn. It sounded like Giles was serious about wanting her to help out while Mrs. Bishop was out of commission; he was talking about her duties and the instructors he wanted her to talk to while she was in England.
Xander shifted a little more in his chair, turning back to Niki, who had started asking questions faster than Buffy could answer them.
"Do you have your own sword? I don't. I have to use the ones in the training rooms. Do you fight lots of demons? There was a demon in my house. I killed it with my mother's big knife, but if I had a sword it would have been easier. You think I'm big enough to have a sword, don't you?"
Xander looked up at Buffy, trying hard not to burst out laughing, both at Niki's constant stream of chatter and at the fact that Buffy looked like she was about to flee from the room. Luckily, the door to the kitchen swung open, and Catherine and Andrew came in. "Whoa," Xander said, waving a hand in front of Niki to get her attention when she didn't stop talking. "How about we let Buffy eat before you interrogate her?"
Niki frowned for a minute, and Xander thought he was about to be pouted at. Then she asked, "What's 'interrogate'?"
"Ask her a lot of questions," he said, just as, from the other side of her, Buffy said, "Torture me for information."
Xander laughed. "That, too."
They were halfway through the meal when there was a knock on the dining room door, and Mrs. Cheever walked in. Her mouth had that curve that Xander had started associating with her smiling, and she looked around. "Rupert, you said you needed my help."
"Yes, Mrs. Cheever, please, sit," Giles said, standing up and pulling out an empty chair for her. "Would you like something to eat or drink?"
"No, no," she replied, shaking her head. "I'm quite fine, thank you."
Everyone was quiet around the table, even Niki, and they were all looking at Giles and Mrs. Cheever. Giles cleared his throat as he sat back into his chair. "I'll cut right to the chase. We have a demon situation."
"I figured as much," Mrs. Cheever said. "I'm not going senile quite yet, and all those measures you've implemented in the past few days are suspicious, to say the least."
Xander put down his fork. "We had to," he said. He looked around the table at everyone. These were people he'd trust with his life. "There's a conspiracy, against Giles and well, all of us, but mostly Giles. And we need to get information about it out of the demon that's chained in the basement."
Mrs. Cheever looked at him, and blinked once. "Well, that was concise." She turned to Giles. "What kind of demon is it?"
This time, it was Dawn who answered. Xander was going to have to assume that what she said was the name from the report she'd given them, because it mostly sounded like she was choking on something.
"Dear God," Mrs. Cheever murmured, putting a hand in front of her mouth. "How on Earth did you manage to get your hands on one of those? I don't believe there's ever been any sightings of them in England."
"But you do know of them?" Giles asked, pushing his plate away. Xander did the same; he wasn't hungry anymore.
"Of course I do, I did some research on the peaceful tribes in northwestern Canada, several decades ago." She frowned slightly, and pushed her glasses up on her nose. "Their history is fascinating."
"Yes, it is," Dawn said. "I never realized that demons could--"
Before Dawn could get too much into the subject of the demons' history, Xander interrupted her. "I'm sure it's really interesting, but the one we have downstairs is definitely not peaceful."
"We have reason to believe it's part of the exiled clan that moved further north," Giles added.
"Yes, fascinating! When I did my research, we couldn't get anywhere near them," Mrs. Cheever said.
"We think it was either hired, or is being controlled by someone intent on seeing me fail." Giles took an even more serious tone, and Mrs. Cheever lost the look of childlike curiosity on her face.
"Both would be possible, from what I remember of their nature," she said. "I'd put my money on controlled, though, as they're quite--how should I say--impetuous and volatile. They could take whatever they are offered in exchange, and then disappear without doing the work, or kill their employer."
Xander nodded. "That makes a whole lot of sense, actually. But we need to talk to it."
"And that's where you come in," Giles added. "I imagine you're fluent in their language?"
"I wouldn't call myself fluent, but I imagine I can make myself understood, yes."
"Good," Buffy said, standing up and pushing her chair back. "I'll go downstairs to see Julia. It shouldn't be too long before it wakes up; it's been two hours already."
"All right," Giles agreed. "Bring Catherine with you; we'll clean up here."
"I wanna go too!" Niki jumped up from her chair. Xander had completely forgotten for a moment that she was there; he couldn't remember her ever being that quiet, unless she was sleeping. "I can beat it up, I know I can."
"Niki--" Xander started, but Buffy interrupted him.
"Let her come with, Xander, I'll keep an eye on her."
"Okay," he conceded. He didn't like it, but she did need to get some experience, and the demon was chained and there were three more Slayers around; she'd be fine.
And, he realized as Niki grabbed Buffy's hand and pulled her toward the door, calling for Catherine to hurry up, there was no way on earth he was keeping her upstairs without literally tying her to a chair, and that wouldn't work. He'd have to untie her eventually, and he did not like his chances against an annoyed little Slayer.
"Dawn," Giles suggested, "why don't you take Mrs. Cheever into the other room and show her the research you've put together? I'd like to see what she thinks of it." Which, Xander realized, was as much about Dawn as about the demon, and was a pretty smart move. If some of the other Watchers were impressed with Dawn's research skills, they'd be more in favor of her being trained as a Watcher.
It wasn't like Xander didn't know Giles was good at his job--no matter what the idiots who used to run things thought--but it was another thing entirely to watch him doing it. It made Xander wonder what the hell he was doing calling himself a Watcher. Watchers were like Giles, and Dawn, and Mrs. Cheever, and Alan Gregory. He was... well, he was good at finding Slayers, but that was about it. That didn't make him a Watcher.
Dawn nodded. "I'm sure there's more you can add," Dawn said, "but I couldn't find a lot of references." She led Mrs. Cheever through to the living room.
Before Giles or Andrew could speak, Xander got up from the table, starting to stack up plates. "That demon's going to wake up soon," he said to Giles, "and you're going to have to go downstairs anyway. Why don't I get the dishes?" He thought he managed a smile. "It's the least I can do. I mean, Andrew cooked, and you've got an interrogation to handle. I might as well make myself useful somehow."
Giles gave him a strange look, but nodded. "All right. Thank you, Xander."
"Hey, no problem," he said, turning to carry the plates into the kitchen.
To his surprise, Andrew followed him in, his hands full of silverware. "I'll help," he said.
Xander was about to argue when he remembered what they'd said earlier about Andrew needing to keep busy. "Sure. That'd be great," he lied.
***
Giles watched Xander and Andrew walk out of the room and sighed. He wasn't used to so many people in his home, anymore, and it was dizzying to have everyone talking at once during a meal. He was very thankful for the chance of a few minutes alone to sort out his thoughts.
Dawn seemed very excited by the prospect of working for the Council, something else he owed Xander, Giles thought. Xander had been right about many things, and Giles would have to thank him for that later, when all this was over. Perhaps then they would be able to talk things through.
Shaking his head to keep himself from thinking about what had happened between them the other day, Giles stood up. He would check up on Mrs. Cheever and Dawn, and then go downstairs; that would keep him busy for now.
When he went into the study, he found, to his slight surprise, that they were getting on well; Mrs. Cheever was nodding in approval as she read through Dawn's report, and Dawn sounded perfectly poised and confident as she answered her questions. It had been some time since he'd seen Dawn, and apparently he'd missed the stage where she'd become an adult overnight.
If she'd met with Mrs. Cheever's approval, then he didn't need to have any worries at all about how well she'd fit in with the other trainees, either. And perhaps she'd be interested in transferring her interest from ancient human languages to non-human ones; they had younger Watchers interested in learning Sumerian, but when Mrs. Cheever finally retired, they'd lose their expert in demonic tongues. They could get by, he supposed--enough of the current Watchers knew at least a bit of one or two languages--but Dawn's gift for languages would put her in the position to be a real asset to the Council in the next decade or so.
Yet another thing for him to make a note of for later.
He'd been noticed; Dawn looked up at him curiously, and Giles smiled. "Just checking in on you two," he said.
"Don't just stand there, Rupert" Mrs. Cheever told him--no, more accurately, scolded him. "Come over here and make yourself useful."
Dawn giggled, and Giles shot her a warning look. "I was only going to say--" she began.
Whatever she was going to say, however, Giles was to be mercifully spared, because he heard the clatter of footsteps running up the stairs and through the hallway, just a second before Nkiruka burst into the room.
"Mr. Giles, Buffy--"
"Miss Summers," Mrs. Cheever corrected her automatically.
"Yes, her," the girl agreed. "Buffy says the demon is starting to wake up." She paused, grinning. "It's very ugly. I didn't notice that when it attacked us before; I was too busy protecting Xander."
"Of course you were," Giles said. "Why don't you run to the kitchen and let Xander and Andrew know? We'll head downstairs."
"Okay!" She twirled around and left the room at a run.
Giles turned to Mrs. Cheever and Dawn, who were both standing up from the couch. "I'm not quite sure exactly how we'll proceed, but whatever happens, stay as far away from the demon as possible. Its claws alone are--"
"Rupert," Mrs. Cheever said, looking at him the same way she had, decades ago, when she'd been tutoring him in languages and he hadn't done his homework. "We know full well what we are up against here, probably better than you do. Now, shall we?"
With a nod, Giles led the way to the basement. The demon was definitely waking, if the groans it was making were any indication.
"How long are we going to have to wait for it to wake up?" Buffy said.
"You hit it pretty hard," Julia pointed out. "It could take a while."
"Maybe we should encourage it," Dawn said, looking around the room. "Giles, can you give me that glass of water?" she asked, pointing at the glass someone had probably brought down for Julia earlier.
Giles grabbed the glass and giving it to Dawn, who immediately threw it on the demon's head.
Its eyes opened fully and glowed brightly, and it stood, growling. "It's not happy," Mrs. Cheever said, just as Niki was bouncing down the stairs with a cheerful "I'm back!" and coming to stand close to Buffy.
Buffy whispered something to her that Giles couldn't hear, and the girl stepped back a few feet, taking a fighting stance.
Whatever Buffy had said, Giles hoped it kept Niki quiet while this was going on. "We can see that, Mrs. Cheever."
"No," she sighed, "that's what it just said. Rough translation would be 'this one is not happy.'"
"Well, neither is anyone else," Giles muttered. "It should be grateful it's only chained in the cellar, and not beheaded by the side of the road." That earned him another look, and he shook his head. "Ask it what it was doing," he said.
"Yes, thank you, Rupert," she said. "Can this be the last time today that I have to remind you that I know how to do my job?" She turned back to the demon, speaking quickly and listening to its reply.
"Well?" Giles demanded after a moment, when the demon paused.
"It wants to know why it should answer your questions."
Buffy answered that for him, raising the sword she was holding. "Tell it that it's the only way I'm even going to consider letting it live after it attacked my sister."
The response, through Mrs. Cheever, came quickly. "It was told there would be a vehicle coming down the road. In it would be a girl who would reek of Slayer--"
"Hey!" Dawn protested, glaring at the demon. "I don't reek of anything."
"There's no literal translation," Mrs. Cheever said. "Certain demon species are very sensitive to the presence of Slayers, magic users, and other supernaturally-aligned creatures; I expect it's a survival mechanism. As humans don't have that particular sense, we don't have a word for it. Your sister is a Slayer, so you've picked up some of that--we'll say 'aura,' if that sounds better to you--without actually being a Slayer, as have most of the Watchers here." When Dawn nodded her understanding, she went on, "That's what the demon was told to look for. A human girl who 'smelled' of Slayer, without actually being one."
"Bet it was surprised to find us," Buffy said.
To Giles' surprise, the demon responded without waiting for the translation. "It was," Mrs. Cheever confirmed. "It was told to expect a human man as her companion."
"Mr. Wells," Julia said. "He'd hired the car in his name."
"It understands English?" Giles asked.
"Apparently," Mrs. Cheever said tartly. She questioned the demon again for a moment, then said, "It understands some English, but it says it doesn't speak any. It may not be telling the truth, but as we're able to communicate with it regardless, I don't believe that's important."
"What were your orders?" Giles said, addressing the demon. Even if Mrs. Cheever had to translate some of it, perhaps speaking to the demon directly would predispose it to be more cooperative.
The answer wasn't at all unexpected, but hearing it delivered bluntly still chilled Giles. "It was to kill them," the translation came. "But there were many Slayers, and it lost the fight. It still doesn't quite understand how that happened," Mrs. Cheever added. "It's quite bewildered by the presence of multiple Slayers."
"Who gave the order?" Giles asked, deliberately choosing not to reply to the demon's comment.
The demon stared back at him, but didn't say a word.
Mrs. Cheever tried translating the question, but the demon didn't look at her or answer. "Well, I don't think it wants to answer that," she muttered just loud enough for Giles to hear.
"Seems not," he said. "Perhaps what it needs is a little incentive?"
Buffy raised her sword. "I'd be happy to help with that."
The demon grunted. "It says it's not afraid to die," Mrs. Cheever translated. The demon made a few more sounds. "It's prepared to make a deal with you, though."
"Oh, is it?" Giles snickered. "What does it want?"
"To be set free. If you let it go, it'll tell you who gave it the orders to kill," Mrs. Cheever said, as the demon talked.
Buffy put her sword against the demon's neck. "I don't think so."
After another comment from the demon, Mrs. Cheever repeated, "It isn't afraid to die. It wants only to return to its tribe. It..." She frowned. "It apparently wasn't a willing participant." After a few more exchanges with the demon, she turned to Giles. "Make no mistake; it doesn't feel any remorse for killing humans, any more than a human might for, oh, killing a fox that got among the chickens, or something of that nature. It sees us as a nuisance at best and a threat at worst. But it sounds as though it, and the other demons of its tribe that were involved, was being threatened."
Julia spoke up, her brow furrowed. "What could threaten a demon like that?" she said. "All right, us--" her gesture took in the other Slayers in the room-- "and maybe an army tank or something, but look at it. A whole tribe of them? What could a couple of normal people do to that?"
The demon spoke again, and Giles thought it sounded rather agitated. "Threaten its nesting grounds," Mrs. Cheever said. "I'm not absolutely certain of this species' life cycle--"
"It was in that book I had," Dawn said. "They lay eggs, and the book said that it takes around a year for the eggs to hatch, and there's only a hatching every ten years or so. So if someone wiped out the tribe's nesting grounds, it'd be ten years before there were any more baby demons. Which, if you're a demon, might not be a good thing."
Giles sighed. "Dawn, in your research, did you find anything at all about the tribe--even the human-hating offshoot--attacking humans without provocation?"
She shook her head. "That's one reason they stick to pretty remote territory. They don't like us, and they tend to kill people who get near their territory, but otherwise, they keep to themselves."
Giles considered this for a moment. "We might be able to strike a deal," he finally said.
"Giles!" Buffy interjected. "I don't want to sound heartless or anything, but, you know, demon. We don't strike deals with demons who go around killing people."
He turned to her, staring her down. "I suppose you'd rather have more casualties, then?"
"No, I think we need to get the information out of it without striking any kind of deal."
"I don't think you'll manage that," Mrs. Cheever said. "It won't respond to any kind of physical threat. It doesn't care about death. It only wants the nesting ground to be protected."
Buffy sighed, but relented, stepping back. Giles turned back to the demon. "A deal, then." He didn't like this situation, not at all, but if it was the only option, it would have to do. "We will release you--"
"Heck," Buffy interrupted him. "We'll give you a ride back to the Arctic Circle." When everyone's gaze turned back to her again, she shrugged. "No way I'm letting a demon loose anywhere near any kind of populated area. If you guys are serious about agreeing to this, we're going to make sure it doesn't get the chance to kill anyone on the way home."
"Agreed," Giles said. They did have the resources for that, after all. "We will release you back into your environment, but you have to give us the information we need for that to happen. We need names, places, means of communication. I want the full run down on whoever it is that is controlling you."
"And who knows," Julia added, approaching the demon and lowering her crossbow to her side. "Maybe if we manage to stop them fast enough, we may very well save your nest at the same time."
Mrs. Cheever started to translate when the demon stayed silent, but it interrupted her halfway. "It agrees. It is ready to give the information we need."
***
"I'm not avoiding the issue, Andrew," Xander said, drying his hands on a tea towel and wondering if it would kill Giles to actually get a dishwasher. "And the reason I'm not avoiding the issue," he went on as he tossed the towel over to Andrew, "is that there's nothing to avoid."
He could remember a time when Andrew actually believed... well, basically everything Xander told him, however stupid it was. That was a good time, he thought, as Andrew frowned and gave him a look that clearly told him that those days were long gone. "Time is precious, grasshopper," Andrew began, and Xander scowled.
"Stop with the Kung Fu crap," he muttered. Then, hearing noise in the other room, he went out, leaving Andrew to finish wiping off the splatters on the stove.
"Xander!" Niki must have been in heaven; she was holding both Buffy's and Catherine's hands, tugging them over to the couch to sit with her. "You missed everything!"
Xander frowned, turning toward Giles. He was deep in discussion with Mrs. Cheever and Dawn about something, but Xander didn't care right now. This was important enough to interrupt. "You let her go down there when the demon was awake?" he demanded.
Giles blinked, turning to look at him, but Xander didn't give him time to talk. "For God's sake, Giles, she's ten years old. Slayer or no Slayer, you've got no business putting her in that much danger!"
"The demon," Giles said, "was restrained. There were six other people in the room with them. Three of them were also Slayers." Giles' voice was quiet, but Xander could tell he'd gone too far.
He couldn’t stop himself from going farther. "I don't care if she's a Slayer," Xander said. "She's a little girl."
"And I'm the one--"
"Stop it!" Buffy yelled, jumping up and pushing her way in between them and glaring first at Giles, then at Xander. "I get your point," she said, more quietly. "But to demons? She's not a little girl. She's a Slayer. And that means that she has to at least know what she's up against. God, she had to kill a demon with her mom's kitchen knife, Xander; you can't keep her safe from everything." She smiled a little. "And if you try, she's just going to have to knock you unconscious to keep you out of the way, and you can ask Giles how much fun that is."
Xander opened his mouth to say something, then stopped himself. He knew Buffy was right. It was just that taking care of the girls he was responsible for had always been the one thing he knew he was good at, and the thought that something could have happened to Niki while he was washing dishes--
He shook his head, sighing. "You're right," he admitted. Then he took a deep breath and looked over at Giles. "I shouldn't have lost my cool like that. You know, since I have such a limited supply of it in the first place."
Giles' response was a tiny nod, but at least Xander thought that being fired was probably not imminent. As far as anything else went--he could apologize again later.
"Okay," he said. "Now that the entertainment portion of the evening is over, did you have any luck?"
"Yes, we did," Giles said, sitting down on a chair. "It's seen two people, one is its--handler, I supposed you'd call it. The demon could only describe him, but we're pretty certain we know who it is." He nodded at Mrs. Cheever.
"Peter Jones is a contemporary of mine whom I know speaks demonic languages in spades; I studied with him for years," she said, sighing. "And his being involved in this whole thing wouldn't surprise me at all."
"He is also quite close to Roger Wyndham-Pryce, who has been opposing my 'authority' since the beginning," Giles added, a grim look on his face.
"Wyndham-Pryce?" Xander frowned.
"Wesley's father, yes," Giles answered. "He makes Quentin Travers look like a progressive thinker, and he's made it clear that he resents the fact that neither he nor any of his cronies are running the Council now."
"That would be disastrous," Mrs. Cheever said, shaking her head. "He's quite opposed to the idea of having more than one slayer. I've heard rumors that he'd prefer to--no, I can't say it." She looked at the girls, who had all turned pale.
"Kill them all instead of find them all," Xander finished for her, a sick feeling in his stomach. He glanced over to make certain Niki hadn't been listening, then turned his attention back to Giles, who was rubbing his forehead. "So he's probably the one behind this, right?"
"Possibly," Giles replied. "Although we can't be certain until we get more information." He paused, then looked straight at Xander. "The other individual that the demon described matched Mrs. Garner's description, so your intuition there was right as well," he said, expression softer than it had been before. "Apparently, she has been feeding information to Peter, using the means we discussed yesterday."
So she'd been spying on them using Andrew. Xander sighed. "Great. Anything else?"
"Peter is very well versed in magic, and from what Mrs. Cheever and I have deduced, he used protection spells to make sure the demon wouldn't turn on him in any way. And he also used the threat of destroying the whole clan's nest."
Dawn picked up from there. "Apparently, they have like a failsafe system in place. If the demon turns against them, or leaves and doesn't complete the 'mission', they'll have the nest destroyed long before it can reach it again."
"So they're well organized," Xander said.
"Very." Giles stood up again, towering over them. "It's only a guess, but I'd say we're dealing with several layers of command. We simply need to get to the top of it. York is definitely a part of all this, as he's the only one who knew about Dawn, but Peter hates York, and vice versa, so I stand by what I first believed: York isn't the leader."
"I agree," Mrs. Cheever said. "Peter would never agree to work with Stephen York, so we must be dealing with two different branches here. And now that I think about it, Stephen and Roger Wyndham-Pryce were at school together."
Giles nodded. "So there's a connection there. In any case, York is due here tomorrow for an interview with Dawn," he added, taking off his glasses. "Buffy, I'd like you to be there. We'll need to get as much information out of him as we can, and as quickly as possible."
Buffy's expression turned almost gleeful. "A chance to beat up on the guy who ordered a hit on my sister? Oh yeah, I'm so there."
Dawn rolled her eyes and shook her head. "We can probably corner him with the evidence without it turning into a bloodbath, you know."
"Yeah," Buffy answered, shrugging and smiling. "But I can still imagine tearing him apart, can't I?"
"And describe it to him in graphic detail," Xander said, smiling at her. "Sorry, Dawnie, but Buffy's not the only one in favor of damaging people who threaten you."
"All right," Giles said. "We're going to have to find someone to transport the demon back to the Arctic Circle, but I'd prefer to keep it here until the situation has been resolved."
"In the basement?" Xander said.
"Unless you'd prefer to invite it up for tea," Mrs. Cheever said.
"I'd prefer to use magic," Giles went on, just like they hadn't been talking, "considering that I'm not certain how we'd get the thing onto a plane. But since Willow's still incommunicado, we'll have to find someone else who's powerful enough to transport it."
"And someone we can trust to do it," Xander added. "Which, I guess, is a good reason to keep it here until we've figured out who we can trust, even if I don't like it."
"I don't like this situation any more than you do, Xander," Giles said. "But we have no other choice for the moment."
"Yeah, I know." Giles was right, and Xander knew it. He could already predict a night of very little sleep, but at least he wouldn't be the only one.
"Dawn, you, Catherine, and Nkiruka should head back to the dormitory with Mrs. Cheever. There isn't anymore any of you can do, and you, in particular, need a good night's sleep, or as close to it as you can get." Then Giles turned to Buffy. "The rest of us will be keeping watch on the demon. Julia should eat now, so you'll be first watch."
"All right," Buffy replied. "That sounds like a plan."
"Sounds good to me, too," Xander said, turning to the girls. "Niki, you know you can't talk about any of this with anyone, right? Same goes for you, Catherine."
Catherine nodded. "We know."
"Yes, Xander," Niki added. "I can so keep a secret."
"I know you can, I wasn't saying you couldn't. I just want to make sure you know how important this is. If word gets out--"
"Bad things will happen," she finished for him. "I understand stuff, you know, I'm not just a little girl." She was angry with him, very angry apparently, and scowling. Xander would never live that one down--he really had to remember not to underestimate her or her ego. A moment later, though, she was hugging him goodbye.
"I'm sorry, Niki," he told her, softly. He really was sorry for lashing out, even though he was still angry at Giles. They could have, at the very least, told him, so he could have been down there with them. Although, he had been the one to hide in the kitchen. And Buffy was right in the end.
"Come on, Niki," Catherine said. Xander could see them from the corner of his eye, ready to leave. "We'll be back in the morning."
"Okay," Niki said, pulling away and almost immediately grabbing Catherine's hand. She waved at Buffy, a wide smile on her lips, and the four of them left.
"All right, those of us who can, need to sleep; the rest of us..." Giles sighed.
"I don't think anyone's going to get any sleep tonight," Buffy said. She looked at Xander with a small smile. "Popcorn?"
"Movie night!" He bounced to his feet; that was a good idea, actually. They didn't have any more research to do at this point, and it would keep them distracted for a while. "Giles doesn't have a lot of stuff, but I think there are a couple upstairs in my room."
When Xander looked at him, Giles was smiling and shaking his head. "I'll let you set up the VCR and take care of the refreshments, then. Buffy--"
She interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. "I'll go 'relieve' Julia of her duties. She's probably starving."
"Good plan," Xander said. "There's a plate in the fridge for her; all she has to do is heat it up. Andrew took care of it." And he should probably go and check on Andrew, too, if he hadn't come back out to join the rest of them when Xander came back down.
He wasn't just being nice, either; with Buffy downstairs on demon duty, he wanted someone else to talk to. He barely knew Julia, and conversations with Giles were tricky right now.
Xander left the room quickly, heading upstairs. He'd picked up a couple of videos from time to time when he was going to be here for longer than a night or two, and Giles had let him keep them on the bookshelf in 'his' room. Hopefully, that would be enough to keep them occupied all night.
***
Part 11