Sunnydale, January 2003
Richard Castle, Watcher
Author: Starfox5
Rating: FR18
Crossover: “Castle”
Written for: TtH August Fic A Day Challenge
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Castle Characters belong to Beacon PIctures and ABC Studio. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Summary: No one ever mentioned that kind of danger when Castle had joined the Watchers Council.
Sunnydale, January 2003
“You know, Vi… Violet… that’s close enough. Really. Personal space is a thing, you know? A thing I need.” Rick Castle knew he was babbling, but any man faced with a possessed potential Slayer sniffing him while covered in the blood of Bringers would react the same way.
“T-this is n-not a-apropriate, Miss. You are u-underage and I am f-far too old f-for y-you… really.”
Case in point: Rupert was babbling a few yards away from him, faced with Rona tugging at his belt. None of the girls had spoken since the fight.
“No one ever mentioned this when I joined the Council.” Castle was backing away from Vi, slowly, to avoid provoking the predator currently possessing her. He wasn’t certain she understood him anymore. “Everyone only ever mentioned the dangers of getting killed by demons. No one said anything about potentials. Is this common for such events?”
“T-there have been r-reports about some Slayers - some! - h-having c-certain urges, after a b-baamhph,” Rupert’s explanation was cut off by Rona grabbing the Englishman’s head and mashing her lips on his. For a moment, everyone seemed to be staring at the two. Then a growl cut through the sudden silence. Annabelle grabbed Rona’s hair and pulled her away from Rupert, throwing her to the ground in the process. Rona didn’t take that lying down, and soon the two were fighting.
Castle would have usually made a comment about needing mud, if not for Vi still being far too close to him, and the fight looking more like the Hulk vs. The Terminator than Cindy vs. Cherry in the Dream Palace in Las Vegas. And it was spreading - the two bumped into other potentials, who took offense as if this was a testosterone-filled Saloon in a Western.
Rupert used the opportunity and fled to his car. Castle followed his example, praying that Vi wouldn’t give chase.
God wasn’t listening that night though, and the author was tackled and brought down a few yards from his M3.
“That’s a first down, Vi. Well done! Now you have to get back up in linooof!” Castle was flipped on his back in mid-babble, then straddled by the possessed girl. He was quite sure she almost crushed his hips while she ripped his shirt off. She leered at him, grunting, and reached for his belt.
Before she managed to rip his belt and pants off though, she was hit in the face with a load of white powder. Coughing, she rolled off Castle, who was covered with in the powder himself.
“Run!” Rupert yelled while emptying Castle’s car fire extinguisher into Vi’s face. Rick staggered to his feet and ran to his car, followed by Rupert.
Inside, both men, panting, looked at each other.
“Can they break through a car window?” Castle asked while trying to find out if he really had a broken pelvis, or if it just felt like it was broken.
“In their state, anything seems p-possible.”
They didn’t stop the car until they were half a mile away.
*****
“Welcome b… what happened to you?” Buffy was staring at Castle and Rupert, mouth wide open. They were a sight, alright. Clothes ripped, bruises visible, white powder from the extinguisher still covering skin here and there.
“We were attacked by Bringers during the ritual.” Rupert stated. “We beat them with the help of the potentials. There were no casualties.”
The potentials mumbled some agreement and filed into the house past Buffy. They didn’t sport any bruises, some healing factor must have kicked in Castle thought, but their clothes were torn up as well, and they kept their heads down. The drive back had been a very quiet affair - no one had wanted to talk about the fight, much less what had happened afterwards.
“That must have been a battle!” Buffy sounded almost jealous.
“Yes. We were in quite the sticky situation, but we persevered.” Rupert commented, looking as dignified as a British man could with his shirt and part of his pants missing.
“Wow, G-Man! Did you have an orgy out there?” Xander joked, then paled under the combined glares of the potentials and the two Watchers. “I’ll be… checking the boiler.” The young man fled with all due haste.
Rupert shook his head. “That boy’s tongue will be the death of him, one day.”
“That’s what my mother always said about me!” Castle grinned at his friend’s glare.
“So, did anything important happen while we were on our trip?” Rupert asked, in a tone that made it clear he expected the answer to be “No.”
Buffy nibbled on her lower lip and studied the floor. “Wellll…. define ‘important’?
“Buffy?” Rupert stopped polishing his glasses and cocked his head at her.
“Well…” Buffy’s smile looked more and more forced.
“Yo, G!” A well-endowed dark-haired girl in black leather and jeans waved at them, leaning on the door to the living room. “New guy!”
“Faith.” Rupert said in a cold voice.
“Gee. Chill, G. I am here to help. Got a Slayer dream in prison, and some demons tried to kill me, so I broke out and made my way here.”
Castle realized that this was Faith Lehane. The rogue Slayer. The Killer.
“I see.” The British Watcher looked at Buffy, who cringed slightly and shrugged. He gave a very curt nod to the two girls and headed towards his room.
Buffy went after him with a slightly whiny “Giles!”
Faith turned to Castle. “You know, I would have thought that he’d be a bit loosened up after driving for hours with a couple half-naked chicks in the car.”
“I can say from personal experience that such an event is highly overrated. At least without copious amounts of alcohol.” Castle responded.
“Ah… they didn’t want to use you to take care of their horny urges?” Faith grinned. “Well, if you’ve got a case of blue balls, I can help you out.”
If this ever got out, Castle would lose his “ruggedly handsome rake” and “Bro Club” membership cards. “Thank you for the offer, but I need rest. It was a pitched fight, and we all got banged up.”
When the Slayer snickered, Castle rolled his eyes and walked past towards his room. Hopefully the locks would keep any further trouble out until he had slept for a day or so.
*****
The next morning, Castle felt far better. Well-rested, his bruises treated, his clothes fresh and whole, he smiled on his way to the kitchen. No one there seemed to share his good mood though.
“What happened?” He asked Buffy, the one who seemed the most coherent.
“Slayer dreams. Everyone had them - me, Faith, all of the potentials.” Buffy answered, holding a mug of coffee in her hands and staring at the wall.
“I take it they were not the kind of dreams that leave you happy or frustrated.” Castle made a weak joke and got a cup of coffee himself. He still hadn’t bought a better coffee maker.
“No. Giles’s trying to do the decrypting thing. He must be into his third batch of ‘fascinating”’ by now.” Buffy took a sip from her mug, and closed her eyes. “Your ex-wife is trying to help him.” She opened her eyes and turned to him. “Do you think the two were an item in the past?”
Castle spit out his coffee. “What? How did you come up with that?”
“Well… they’re both British. They’re both Watchers. They both like books and tweed and tea.” Buffy explained.
“That’s no base for a relationship.” Castle stated, refraining from making a Monty Python reference. “Besides, I assure you, Rupert has much better taste in women!”
Buffy smiled at that, though with relief and not humor, as far as Rick could tell. He didn’t know what to make of that.
“Well… with Rupert and Mary busy, and the potentials - we really need to find a catchier name, by the way - recovering from their dreams, maybe we should work on reinforcing the villa’s defenses. I’ve got a couple ideas.” Castle refilled his cup and hunted for a croissant, or anything edible the Slayers and the proto-Slayers had missed.
“What a coincidence! I have some ideas as well!” Xander grinned broadly, and snatched the last doughnut before Castle could claim the box. “We might have to raid the local Army base though, to get all I need.”
Castle didn’t think robbing the US Army was a smart move. They wouldn’t accept “we need it to save the world” as an excuse, unless he was completely mistaken. “Let’s see what we can do with legal supplies first, Xander.”
The young man sighed, but nodded. “OK. We can do it the no-fun way too.” The glance he and Buffy exchanged didn’t look like he had given up though.
“You look like you’ve got experience robbing the armory.” Castle raised his eyebrows.
“Well… we might have borrowed a few things in the past, to battle evil of course.” Xander said.
Buffy nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! The rocket launcher for the Judge. The detonators for the bomb we blew the school up with. The missiles we used against Glory. The machine gun against Adam’s horde.”
“That doesn’t count, Buffy, that was from the Initiative.” Xander corrected her.
“It was still the army’s though!” Buffy protested.
That sounded less like an Army base, and more like a self-service weapon supermarket. Well… it was quite surprising how much an upcoming apocalypse put things into perspective. “I always wanted my own tank.” He had been five at the time, but some dreams never died.
“We can get a tank?” Buffy perked up. “I didn’t know they had tanks there!”
“They haven’t, Buffy.” Now it was up to Xander to be the killjoy, and destroy the dreams of people… well, not everywhere, but at least in this house. “But we can stock up on all sorts of rockets, explosives, guns and grenades.”
“And fuel.” Castle added. “Lots of fuel for flame traps.” The British Homeguard’s flame traps might not have worked well against the Germans, would they have invaded, but they looked like tailor-made to battle demons.
The three shared some very nasty grins, then they stuck their heads together and started to plan.