Giles wasn't going to be nice to Roger. This was the prat who'd been there with Travers when they called and fired him from the Council. It was Roger's idea to put the call on speaker phone so the entire board could have a good laugh. He sometimes wished Roger wasn't a senior member of the Council or he would've fired him the moment the Council was handed over to him.
"Yes. We, uh, we worked with a robot actually," he said, not wanting to say they tried to fool the vampire population with a robot after Buffy died, especially not in front of Roger. "I'd like to see it and see what it is."
When Roger made his last barb, Giles narrowed his eyes at the elder Wyndam-Pryce and then followed Wesley out of the office. He saw Roger was following them up to the lab and Giles' angry started to boil over as they stepped inside. Angel, Spike, and Fred were all there, along with the little weasel Knox.
Giles looked at the thing on the table. "Was it human?" he asked, looking up at Fred.
"We think so. The nervous system seems human at least, but the rest of the technology is so foreign to us. We can't be sure of anything right now. This thing really blurs the line between human and robot," Fred said just as Spike made some comment about humans and robots having sex.
"Interesting. And what's this?" Giles asked pointing at a circular device in the cyborg's stomach.
"We don't know. That's why we asked Wesley and you to come up here," Fred said.
"Well, Wesley's the language expert, not me," Giles said, smiling at his lover and taking a step away from the table so he could look at.
While Spike and his father had an apparent reunion of sorts, Wesley looked over at Rupert before stepping up to look at device in the cyborg's stomach. He examined the pattern for a moment, his brow furrowing.
"Wesley handles this stuff all the time. He's a genius when it comes to language," Fred said, echoing Rupert's assertion. He wanted to give them both a hug for their support but instead focused on what he was trying to interpret.
"Yes, well, the academy didn't make him head boy for nothing," his father said, causing Wesley to pause for a moment. Was his father actually giving him a compliment? "Mind you, as I recall, the pickings were a bit slim that year."
Of course not. Wesley swallowed against the lump in his throat while his hand throbbed. He tried to concentrate on the symbols on the device. "The pattern indicates a Hellenic derivation. I'd say early Moracian, in fact. It's a directive of some sort, a battle prayer... or a binding spell." Reaching in, he carefully pushed aside a bit of flesh that was obscuring his view. "I'll need to prepare some sort of effective counter spell..."
Just then the device started beeping, causing all of them to jump back.
"What did you do?" Roger immediately accused.
"Unless I'm very much mistaken, I've just activated the bomb," Wesley realized, his heart and stomach sinking.
There was some panic as they tried to get everyone to evacuate the room to safety before he could examine the device again and try to diffuse it. However, before he could do so, his father had reached into the cyborg's stomach cavity and tripped something to stop the beeping. Everything looked at him in amazement.
"These symbols were, in fact, Dutrovic in origin, not Moracian, as you surmised," his father told him, quite calmly, quite matter-of-factly, quite condescendingly. "When interpreted correctly, these symbols spell out the proper procedure for handling the cyborg's power core, including this fail-safe, in case someone trips the self-destruct device. Quite simple really."
"Yes, of course," Wesley said, his fists clenching together again. "Fred, perhaps my father would be of better help to you than me right now."
With that, he left the lab, wanting to find somewhere to hide, wishing for the first time in his life that he actually could find a cupboard under some stairs somewhere.
The more Roger talked, the more Giles wanted to throttle him. His barb at Wesley being the Head Boy almost earned him a fist to the jaw, but before Giles could react, the bomb in the cyborg started to go off. He took a hold of Fred's arm and pulled her toward the door of the lab. He knew he wasn't going to leave the lab without Wesley with him. Even if he had to drag him out of there.
Suddenly, the beeping stopped and Giles looked over at Roger. His eyes narrowed as the older man was once again rude to Wesley. He turned and watched Wesley leave the lab. Part of him wanted to run after him but his was too anger to. Instead, he reached over for Roger and grabbed him before slamming him against the wall.
"Lets get something straight right now. This is Wesley's place of work. You have no right to come in here, and treat him like he's nothing. If you want to belittle someone, then I suggest you find something else because you will not continue this. Understood?" Giles growled as he pinned Roger against the wall.
"How nice. My son's boyfriend has to protect him. I wonder what he'd think if he knew you were acting like he's a weakling?" Roger asked with a grin.
Giles released him and leveled his gaze at him. "Leave him alone. This is your only warning," he said before leaving the lab.
The first person Giles saw was Gunn. "Have you seen Wesley?" he asked.
"I saw him going toward the library. Fourth floor and at the end of the hallway," Gunn said before going into the lab.
Giles ran up to the fourth floor and easily found the library. There were a few people in it and he walked through, finding an alcove toward the back. "Wesley?" he asked as he sat down next to his love. "All right, love?"
Wesley hadn't really paid attention to where he had ended up, just walking without thinking about it. He wasn't surprised when he had ended up in the library, though. Libraries had always been his refuge when he was growing up - the place were he had hidden, reading for hours, trying to lose himself and forget the hell his father made his life.
He headed toward the back and into one of the alcoves, where he sat down, sitting forward and resting his head in his hands. It figured that his father would choose now to pop back into his life. Now. When he was happy with his life. Or at least when he was happy with his personal life. Sure, there were still things about working here that unsettled him, but it was his life, and he was making his choices, and he was needed.
At least, he thought he was.
But now, his father was there, making him second guess himself and his knowledge.
He felt Rupert's presence when he entered the alcove, and when he sat down, asking how he was, he leaned over, resting against his lover and sighing softly. "I don't know," he whispered. "I swore to myself that I wouldn't let him get to me, not after what he did to us, what he made me do, but now he's here and..." He sighed and shook his head. "I just want him out of our life. I'm never going to go back there, not after what happened and not when you've moved here to be with me."
He looked up at Rupert and gave him a gentle smile. "I love you, you know. No matter what my father tries to say about us. I'll always love you."
Giles felt his heart break at how hurt Wesley was. He couldn't believe Roger could still do this to him. He knew what Roger had put Wesley through when he was a child. But, Wesley was an adult now and Roger needed to leave him alone. Wesley was a grown man, and was much more of a man than Roger would ever be.
"I know, love," he said as he wrapped his arms around Wesley. "I've never doubted your feelings for me. Not even after what your father said."
Part of him wanted to hide in the alcove with Wesley, just so his lover wouldn't have to face Roger again. But, he also knew it wasn't healthy for Wesley to hide away from the world. "We should probably get back to your office incase Fred needs us again," he said with a small frown. "I'm sure you don't want to go down there but we should."
Giles leaned forward and softly kissed Wesley's lips. "I'll be there with you," he murmured. "And you don't have to worry about your father. I might have told him off, and pushed him against a wall after you left the lab."
"You did what?" Wesley asked, pulling back slightly from the kiss and looking his lover in the eye. He could see the glint of protectiveness there, and while part of him wished that Rupert hadn't done that - putting himself in the middle of this - part of him couldn't help but love him for wanting to help him. "You do realize that probably pissed him off."
He suddenly grinned a bit. "And I'm rather glad for that. Come on, let's go back to the office. You're right - I can't let him keep from working; otherwise, I'm just proving him right."
Standing up, he took Rupert's hand to draw him up. Together, they headed back to his office. When they arrived, they found Angel waiting, wanting to know what exactly had happened. Wesley looked over at Rupert then explained the situation.
"Well, don't worry about what happened for now. Fathers and sons can be torture sometimes. You should see this, though," Angel said when he finished, handing him a report. "Came from your department. Reports of assassins that sound a lot like our cyborg."
Flipping open the report, Wesley furrowed his brow as he read it over. "Group of them took out a demon cabal in Jakarta. Another group destroyed the Tanmar Death Chamber. Sounds like they're doing our work for us."
That caused silence to fall over the office for a moment. "These are good guys?" Angel finally asked.
"I don't know. I should reference this with the markings we found, find some clues as to their origin." He looked over at Rupert. He knew his father was good at this sort of thing, but he'd be damned if he was going to willingly put himself in the same room as that man for an extended period of time. "It's a lot of material to go through - I could do it faster if you'd help me, love."
Rupert was glad Wesley had agreed to go back to his office, instead of staying in the library. He knew if Wesley refused to work, his father would see it as a sign of weakness, and he didn't want to give Roger anymore reasons to be cruel to his son.
When he saw Angel standing there, he sighed, not knowing if he rather be in the same room with the vampire or Wesley's father. Ignoring Angel, he went to stand by Wesley and looked at the file. "I can help you with this," he said with a nod. "I think we'll be able to find something out."
He was curious as the what the cyborgs were up to. Killing off demons did sound like they were on their side, but Giles was still weary as to the reasons why. If they were on the same side as Angel, whatever side he was on, then why wouldn't they just come to the firm and tell them that?
After Angel had left the room, Giles went over to the row of source books and picked one up. He'd never used one before and felt rather silly whispering to a book, even though he'd spoken to books before. Once he'd whispered what he wanted, Giles opened the book and watched as the text appeared.
He went over to the couch and sat down, and started to read the text, while jotting down some notes. He was almost to the bottom of the page when he heard someone clear their throat.
"Ignoring me now?" Roger asked, looking at the two men. "I heard you two are researching the cyborgs, and I'm here to help."
If it were up to Giles, Roger would be flying out the window, but it wasn't his office so he sighed and looked over at Wesley.
"Yes. We, uh, we worked with a robot actually," he said, not wanting to say they tried to fool the vampire population with a robot after Buffy died, especially not in front of Roger. "I'd like to see it and see what it is."
When Roger made his last barb, Giles narrowed his eyes at the elder Wyndam-Pryce and then followed Wesley out of the office. He saw Roger was following them up to the lab and Giles' angry started to boil over as they stepped inside. Angel, Spike, and Fred were all there, along with the little weasel Knox.
Giles looked at the thing on the table. "Was it human?" he asked, looking up at Fred.
"We think so. The nervous system seems human at least, but the rest of the technology is so foreign to us. We can't be sure of anything right now. This thing really blurs the line between human and robot," Fred said just as Spike made some comment about humans and robots having sex.
"Interesting. And what's this?" Giles asked pointing at a circular device in the cyborg's stomach.
"We don't know. That's why we asked Wesley and you to come up here," Fred said.
"Well, Wesley's the language expert, not me," Giles said, smiling at his lover and taking a step away from the table so he could look at.
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"Wesley handles this stuff all the time. He's a genius when it comes to language," Fred said, echoing Rupert's assertion. He wanted to give them both a hug for their support but instead focused on what he was trying to interpret.
"Yes, well, the academy didn't make him head boy for nothing," his father said, causing Wesley to pause for a moment. Was his father actually giving him a compliment? "Mind you, as I recall, the pickings were a bit slim that year."
Of course not. Wesley swallowed against the lump in his throat while his hand throbbed. He tried to concentrate on the symbols on the device. "The pattern indicates a Hellenic derivation. I'd say early Moracian, in fact. It's a directive of some sort, a battle prayer... or a binding spell." Reaching in, he carefully pushed aside a bit of flesh that was obscuring his view. "I'll need to prepare some sort of effective counter spell..."
Just then the device started beeping, causing all of them to jump back.
"What did you do?" Roger immediately accused.
"Unless I'm very much mistaken, I've just activated the bomb," Wesley realized, his heart and stomach sinking.
There was some panic as they tried to get everyone to evacuate the room to safety before he could examine the device again and try to diffuse it. However, before he could do so, his father had reached into the cyborg's stomach cavity and tripped something to stop the beeping. Everything looked at him in amazement.
"These symbols were, in fact, Dutrovic in origin, not Moracian, as you surmised," his father told him, quite calmly, quite matter-of-factly, quite condescendingly. "When interpreted correctly, these symbols spell out the proper procedure for handling the cyborg's power core, including this fail-safe, in case someone trips the self-destruct device. Quite simple really."
"Yes, of course," Wesley said, his fists clenching together again. "Fred, perhaps my father would be of better help to you than me right now."
With that, he left the lab, wanting to find somewhere to hide, wishing for the first time in his life that he actually could find a cupboard under some stairs somewhere.
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Suddenly, the beeping stopped and Giles looked over at Roger. His eyes narrowed as the older man was once again rude to Wesley. He turned and watched Wesley leave the lab. Part of him wanted to run after him but his was too anger to. Instead, he reached over for Roger and grabbed him before slamming him against the wall.
"Lets get something straight right now. This is Wesley's place of work. You have no right to come in here, and treat him like he's nothing. If you want to belittle someone, then I suggest you find something else because you will not continue this. Understood?" Giles growled as he pinned Roger against the wall.
"How nice. My son's boyfriend has to protect him. I wonder what he'd think if he knew you were acting like he's a weakling?" Roger asked with a grin.
Giles released him and leveled his gaze at him. "Leave him alone. This is your only warning," he said before leaving the lab.
The first person Giles saw was Gunn. "Have you seen Wesley?" he asked.
"I saw him going toward the library. Fourth floor and at the end of the hallway," Gunn said before going into the lab.
Giles ran up to the fourth floor and easily found the library. There were a few people in it and he walked through, finding an alcove toward the back. "Wesley?" he asked as he sat down next to his love. "All right, love?"
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He headed toward the back and into one of the alcoves, where he sat down, sitting forward and resting his head in his hands. It figured that his father would choose now to pop back into his life. Now. When he was happy with his life. Or at least when he was happy with his personal life. Sure, there were still things about working here that unsettled him, but it was his life, and he was making his choices, and he was needed.
At least, he thought he was.
But now, his father was there, making him second guess himself and his knowledge.
He felt Rupert's presence when he entered the alcove, and when he sat down, asking how he was, he leaned over, resting against his lover and sighing softly. "I don't know," he whispered. "I swore to myself that I wouldn't let him get to me, not after what he did to us, what he made me do, but now he's here and..." He sighed and shook his head. "I just want him out of our life. I'm never going to go back there, not after what happened and not when you've moved here to be with me."
He looked up at Rupert and gave him a gentle smile. "I love you, you know. No matter what my father tries to say about us. I'll always love you."
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"I know, love," he said as he wrapped his arms around Wesley. "I've never doubted your feelings for me. Not even after what your father said."
Part of him wanted to hide in the alcove with Wesley, just so his lover wouldn't have to face Roger again. But, he also knew it wasn't healthy for Wesley to hide away from the world. "We should probably get back to your office incase Fred needs us again," he said with a small frown. "I'm sure you don't want to go down there but we should."
Giles leaned forward and softly kissed Wesley's lips. "I'll be there with you," he murmured. "And you don't have to worry about your father. I might have told him off, and pushed him against a wall after you left the lab."
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He suddenly grinned a bit. "And I'm rather glad for that. Come on, let's go back to the office. You're right - I can't let him keep from working; otherwise, I'm just proving him right."
Standing up, he took Rupert's hand to draw him up. Together, they headed back to his office. When they arrived, they found Angel waiting, wanting to know what exactly had happened. Wesley looked over at Rupert then explained the situation.
"Well, don't worry about what happened for now. Fathers and sons can be torture sometimes. You should see this, though," Angel said when he finished, handing him a report. "Came from your department. Reports of assassins that sound a lot like our cyborg."
Flipping open the report, Wesley furrowed his brow as he read it over. "Group of them took out a demon cabal in Jakarta. Another group destroyed the Tanmar Death Chamber. Sounds like they're doing our work for us."
That caused silence to fall over the office for a moment. "These are good guys?" Angel finally asked.
"I don't know. I should reference this with the markings we found, find some clues as to their origin." He looked over at Rupert. He knew his father was good at this sort of thing, but he'd be damned if he was going to willingly put himself in the same room as that man for an extended period of time. "It's a lot of material to go through - I could do it faster if you'd help me, love."
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When he saw Angel standing there, he sighed, not knowing if he rather be in the same room with the vampire or Wesley's father. Ignoring Angel, he went to stand by Wesley and looked at the file. "I can help you with this," he said with a nod. "I think we'll be able to find something out."
He was curious as the what the cyborgs were up to. Killing off demons did sound like they were on their side, but Giles was still weary as to the reasons why. If they were on the same side as Angel, whatever side he was on, then why wouldn't they just come to the firm and tell them that?
After Angel had left the room, Giles went over to the row of source books and picked one up. He'd never used one before and felt rather silly whispering to a book, even though he'd spoken to books before. Once he'd whispered what he wanted, Giles opened the book and watched as the text appeared.
He went over to the couch and sat down, and started to read the text, while jotting down some notes. He was almost to the bottom of the page when he heard someone clear their throat.
"Ignoring me now?" Roger asked, looking at the two men. "I heard you two are researching the cyborgs, and I'm here to help."
If it were up to Giles, Roger would be flying out the window, but it wasn't his office so he sighed and looked over at Wesley.
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