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#32
A cemetry, Sunnydale:


"Can't believe they put her down so fast," Buffy said
as she placed her flowers in front of the headstone that
marked the grave of Cordelia Chase. A short life and a
rather anonymous headstone...the Chases weren't among
the rich anymore, after all. The scriptures were the
bare dates and then one wordy comment. It read: she was
a worthless little bitch. Not exactly what loving
parents had written on the gravestone of their dead
daughters. But for Mr. Chase and his former wife it
probably was okay.
Not that they were so wrong, except that Cordelia was
anything but worthless and certainly no little bitch.
"Here goes another one."

"At least she's resting in peace," Willow pointed out.

"Yeah," Buffy said awkwardly, "that's got to be some
sort of improvement." Compared to being a vampire at
least it was. Cordelia would only haunt their memories
now, if even that. They never had been so close. "At
least now we don't have to tell her her acting sucked!"
God, she had too many issues unresolved. Angel, and
Riley and then the entirely god-awful Xander-thing.

"That wasn't nice, Buffy," Willow scowled. "Would you
want to be spoken about after your death like that?"

"But true." And it was fit for Cordelia. "I still did
like her...sometimes. As for how I get remembered, who
the hell cares?"

Willow stopped to consider it and sighed, nodded.
"We still shouldn't talk bad of the dead," she told
the blonde stubbornly. "It's just not right."

"Yeah," Buffy said, earning her a comment about being an
Oz imitation. Which she wasn't. He was buried not too
far away, or would be end of the week. She was just not
in the mood for talking so much.
Things came apart quickly enough.
The remains of the Initiative had to be taken care of.
Most of the soldiers decided to leave and start over,
probably to find their own way to kill them for guilt
over what happened...Graham and Forrest were the only to
remain and help.
The Watchers wanted to open up some sort of regional
base as well, help her out as far as they could. Which
didn't look to be so much.
At least Graham was high enough in the hierarchy to
have access to their money - black accounts which held
millions of bucks and now would be used to sponsor her
new organization.
It was a beginning. But only a beginning.
"I...I mean...I got no idea where we go to, now, Wills.
It's all uncharted territory."

"Why?" Willow wondered, amazed. "Because of Faith and
Xander still being out there?"

"No. The Slaying troubles I can handle but the others?
How do I finance a secret organization, whom can we
recruit and how do we train them. What exactly makes it
a good organization at all?" Buffy rasped out, her face
grim and her eyes closed to hide her desperation. "I
never learnt that. I really don't know what to do."

"Welcome to everyday life," Willow patted her on the
back. "You'll find out, as always."

"Just like with Faith and Xander?"

"We will get them," Willow said with the highest sort
of confidence. "Even if they still are somewhere out
there. And as for the rest, uh, why don't we ask Giles
a bit about the Council and its long history?"

"Think he got any idea of it?"

"No, but he might tell you what problems there are,
then we can solve them!" Willow answered excitedly.
"Remember Business Sciences 101? This is gonna be so
much like that..."

Buffy taxed her companion and decided Willow was way too
happy to be real. "You didn't drink caffeine concentrate
again, did you, Wills?"

"No, not today," Willow shook her head. "I just am hyped
about it all. We got Adam down, our enemies are wounded
and we got the one thing we never really had...money. I
can't stop thinking about what we can do for real now. I
mean, how we..."

"Oh boy," Buffy laughed, hugging Willow. "Right. Where
is Giles, anyway?"

"I, uh, I thought he was hanging out with one of the
Watchers," Willow said and cut a face. "There was some
rumour of an affair between them."

"Don't tell me it's that woman we saw with Travers?"

"The man," Willow answered, faintly. "Hey, if I can go
with Tara he can...can't he? Well, I don't know what to
make from all this. Probably they're just old friends
and that."

"Giles? Gay?" Buffy whispered. "Comeon. It's some old
friend. And they're talking stuff, Watcher business or
such! He's too stuffy to ever be...not Giles. No."
Major, major bad images rose in her mind and made her
face grimace.


#33
the Magic Shop:


Qentin Travers was anything but happy with his agent.
"When you said she was pulling at her strings...I never
would have thought...she were that bad."

"I told you," Rupert Giles rasped out as the head of
the Watchers Council took a chair aside from him. "She
is too rebellious to keep her close by. Any attempt to
reign her in, any move to control her will lead to such
a disaster..."

"I know, now. But we cannot tollerate her founding that
other organization," Travers snapped back. Fear in the
face of the old man. "Mr. Giles, are you sure there is
another way than to tell her and HOPE she sees things
our way and cooperates?"

"I think so," Giles replied. "And it's not just my
wish. For she will never see these things as we do, she
never would accept her fate, Mr. Travers. Which would be
all too human. As usually where we can ill afford that.
Now, Angel obviously does not know or he would already
have told her."

"Maybe we should start with informing him first. He might
be an ally. If we want to get into good graces with the
souled vampire, and don't we do that?"

"And then what?" Giles snorted, angrily. Angel was off
limits. He would kill the bastard himself. When the time
was right, though. No earlier. "Good lord, Quentin, what
has the world been coming to when the Council backs away
from one immature Slayer with a head of her own? And you
speak about asking a VAMPIRE for help."

"You know that all too well, my friend," Travers
answered bleakly. "Angel is a hand now. Could you ASK
him to do it? They owe us enough, after all."

"The man loves her more than his life, for chrissake! He
never will be able to do it - rather he'd tell her all
he learns and then we will get into such troubles..."

"So we...have to...?" Quentin Travers whispered, sweat
appearing on his features. "This isn't a game, Rupert.
Especially not for you and your...private scores."

"Not more than anything else about life and death. We
have to act as I said," Giles replied forcefully. "There
simply is no other way. Our time is running out soon and
options are more and more limited."

Travers looked away and kept silent. Very silent. He
didn't even dare to breath loud as he was wlel aware of
the stare Giles gave him.
Then, after a long time of hesitation, he asked the
question Giles didn't want to hear. "Don't we have any
alternative options left? Merrick said..."

"We could try to hire Mr. Coverton and Anaeira for the
job," Giles awkwardly stated. "Or maybe Spike...if you
can get him. If he's able to...do it."

"William the Bloody? You've lost your mind, Rupert."

"He nearly would have succeeded a few times before, he
knows her...he would love to do it," Giles answered as
he hid a grin. And probably fail again as well. But this
time she actually might kill him and that would be very
good. "It would not be that hard!"

"He failed too often," Travers answered. "And he's too
unreliable anyway. And I can't offer him anything he'd
want. WE can't get that chip out of his head. As for
the others? Totally out of the question!" He laughed
pained. "Mr. Coverton is completely nuts and they have
buried him in some crypt in Rumania. A SEALED crypt, as
I want to point out. And Anaeira...don't even start to
get me talking about this one. She should have been
killed a century ago, maybe even two! She's just too
dangerous to be considered reliable."

"The date is almost at hands, sir. Either we make it now
or else...?" Giles pointed out, making a move with his
left hand that encompassed the room before he shrugged.
"We got at most a year before she has to go and fulfill
her mission. There just isn't any other way left."
Giles sighed. "I spent close to seventeen years on her,
Quentin. First with Merrick preparing me as his support
and then as his successor. We are playing with the fire
here, I knew it as soon as I saw her after...Angelus. I
asked you to care for the cruciamentum."

"That worked out only too well. Well, in the, er, the
secondary agenda at least...too bad she actually was
able to make it through."

"Unfortunately," Giles said with a rough voice, "it has
not given us what we wanted most. We bought time and we
thought she would fail on her own."

"Faith has."

"Are you certain?" Giles replied doubtingly. "Sir, I was
here and I...know the situation. We never had to deal
with two of Their agents at the same time. Things are not
as they seem with Them playing behind the scenes. I hope
it was just for the mayor but lately I get bigger doubts
about it..."

"Well, she isn't so much of a problem for us anymore, as
she now is a vampire," Quentin Travers sighed and he
grinned wrily. "She and her childe stay well clear of us
nowadays and hide. They will not be able to interfere
even if they didn't hunt her. As for the Slayer Rhonda,
she's one of ours. She will do as we tell her - as will
Tiona if you can only fix the issue Buffy Summers to the
right date."

"Unless we break the rules, sir, I fear this will not be
possible," Giles answered unhappily. "It has gotten much
easier for me once Xander Harris went away and she lost
her most dangerous supporter...unfortunately he kept
around long enough to let her get very strong. Not even
Adam was able to score a decisive victory."

"What about that witch, Willow?"

"She's not exactly ready to be initiated - maybe in, oh,
another twenty years she will be," Giles commented. "But
she is very useful right where she is now...especially
with wasting her time."

"I trust your judgement, Mr. Giles."

"What else can you do, sir?" Giles chuckled as he rose
from his seat and walked to get another can of tea from
the kitchen. "I just hope we can save the world this
time around."

"It's just another new age, Giles. It must not even
happen! And it isn't just happening next week, as you
well know! We still have time to prepare."

"I fear it may be much more than just a possibility,"
Giles snapped back and was astonished about his own
bile. "We know that two of the undying ones were here
to watch over Buffy. Since her soldier lover has died
in that fire and isn't into walking the earth again,
and Angel is already dead and Willow is a witch, I can
only say Xander Harris has been one. I have no idea who
is the other one. Nor what sort of creature Harris has
become after he was turned..."

"Maybe it's you?"

"Hardly, since I am able to use magic," Giles gloated
and Travers smiled. "Unless we can be certain the other
guardian is removed we have to be careful. Buffy is at
a crossroads where she decides about important things
she doesn't even know about. But she isn't strong enough
yet to become a danger. She is not aware of..."

"Don't even speak about it!" Travers hissed. "Not even
here. One never knows."

"Don't fear, I have this house cleaned out of bugs in
the morning," Giles replied amused. "We're perfectly
safe."

"I hope so. You are too cocky for someone who failed so
often, Mr. Giles. Regardless of her continued services
to our cause she must be contained!" Travers barked
before he turned his gaze back at the books. "And if you
don't find some way soon you have to break the rules...
and pay the prize for YOUR failure."

"I understand," Giles croaked before a shiver ran down
his spine. He certainly didn't want to do that. "Can't
we make certain that our vampires get here and finish
her for us?"

"They do not seem to react to our continued provocation,
Giles. And they are rather adept at hiding, not to
mention their fighting provess!" Quentin muttered only
mildly bewildered. "However, even their luck will run
out over time. We have hired the Order of Tarakka to
take care of this problem for us instead. Makes a lot
of things...easier for us."

"That binds an awful lot of budget resources."

"Loosing more than a third of our forces in all of North
America strikes me as somewhat worse," Travers answered
sharply. "You may have forgotten that there are many
other tasks which need doing, besides the decisive ones.
Without that your tasks would be unmanageable, Giles."

"I know that," Giles answered. "I just wonder if we have
to go to such lenghts. If they had not come after Buffy
by now they never will...and it'll further deplete our
essential resources. Still, we got to continue with the
work."

"We'll be able to spare these expenses, it's not as if
we would not have the funding," Travers snorted, just as
disgusted as Giles. "We'll finally tie up all the loose
ends. Whatever, what will be _your_ next attempt?"

"Friction, again. Since she and Willow try to decide how
to build an organization worth mentioning they have
asked me out about the Watchers. I obviously will try
to give them reason for disputes and hope we can use it
to alienate her from them...," Giles sighed. "I hope she
gets stressed enough so that we can make her hand this
task to me and Willow - so after all is done we can get
our hands on this organization and use it as we then see
fit...I think we would benefit a lot from controling
this town with a stronger presense than just our own."

"I think so as well," Travers muttered and waved the
issue away leisurely. "We need something more to keep
her distracted and busy right now, however. You have
taken steps?"

"The health of her mother has been taken care of, sir.
She'll face a lot of concerns with this one as with
being alone again. I think I can make use of that by
keeping our witches busy with researching soul spells,"
Giles said wearily. "For the rest I think the hellmouth
will provide ample challenges...enough to fail."

"Not enough."

"I told you whom we need to get that job done," Giles
snapped back. "Get me them or someone else able to do
this."

"Don't worry, I'll arrange some incidents," Travers
said. "By the way, you should work on rebuilding your
spell web. It seems our fake hellmouth is slacking off
again."

"I will take care of it," Giles replied dutifully. As
he would have done anyway. "And sir? Please send us a
more dangerous threat than just another dumb demon who
thinks he can take the Slayer apart by big talking."

"We have to take what we can get," Travers answered
dismayed. "We can't just make them up after all!"

"If she lives until half a year to out limit I would
recommend just that, send enough forces to overrun her."

"Why don't we do it?"

"Because I fear she would run and continue to fight,"
Giles sighed. "And then we are in for a very...well, you
know what this is about. Read my reports before you make
plans, will you do that, sir? I always said she would do
whatever it takes to survive."

"If they were more regular I would read them more often,
not to mention them being less vague."

"The nature of my work makes just this very hard to
accomplish," Giles said. "Anyway, our time is running
out. You have to go."

"We'll meet again, Rupert," Travers nodded as he stood
up and saluted before he left. Smashing the door on the
way out to tell how angry he was.

"Bumbling fool," Rupert Giles muttered after him. What
one didn't do to fulfill a job...damn it, why did it
have to hit him? Couldn't they wait for his son to
take the charge? Probably his son would have felt the
very same...not exacly proud and very upright. But what
had to be done had to be done. "One of these days I'll
show you just how easy it is to work my job. And then
you tell me again saving the world is child's play."
Not that it was going to be so hard, for Buffy was his
biggest ally. She really was so trusting now that he had
gained her trust and made her stop asking about the
Council so much...at least what she didn't ought to ask.
She was dancing to the strings he pulled quite nicely.
No just hope he was right and she cracked under the
multitude of pressuring forces. It would be a shame if
she just ran away again. Why couldn't she have stayed in
hell after he had the demons take her there?


#34
Sunnydale UC dorm room of Buffy Summers:


Buffy listened to the tape Graham had placed in front of
her and was not ready to react. Should she tell him she
wanted him to be a liar and rip him to shreds?
Unfortunately she believed Graham.
He had forgotten one of his listening devices in the
library and that one had caught the talk between Giles
and Quentin Travers, after the man Giles pretended to
meet made sure it was safe for Travers to appear.
Nice to know her allies truested each other so much.
She couldn't believe it but Giles was betrayng her -
again! It seemed like he had done from the start. And
Merrick was in on this...whatever it was. The casual
tone in which they conferred - it wa shorrible.
"What can you tell me about this?"

"Not so much," Graham answered. "I can't make sense of
it but it sounds like your man is selling you out."
After Spike he got a little bit paranoid. "Can you say
what he's doing?"

"Trying to get me killed, but it is more than that, a
lot more!" Buffy answered. It was also about the still
mysterious Watchers' Council. There were many questions
unanswered about that - the size and agenda and the
means they had aquired over the course of time. "Keep
this a secet, Graham. No word to anyone."

"But...if he is..."

"And tell them we know, without knwoing what he means?"
Buffy asked him frankly, dismayed. "I would like to go
to him and beat the truth out of him. If I thought I
could do it." She hardly was able to keep breathing as
Giles mentioned Faith, but she had paled and almost died
as Travers used the phrase about the fake hellmouth.
The one damn thing she had protected with body and soul
for years and it was a fake, just a dummy created by
him? He had to be crazy!
Faith ahd Xander, not going after her. The Watchers now
hiring the Assassin Order after their own agents had
failed with ridding the world of them. Not to mention
that part about Spike and those other two.
"We have to learn what they are up to."

"We could do it by capturing him and using some truth
drug. The results are very reliable, usually."

"Watchers are not usual people, Graham. Giles was able
to withstand a lot before - to the point of death. They
obnly managed to get something from him by using...well,
that's another story. And it isn't so simple...," Buffy
uttered devoid of any life in her eyes. The final straw.
Giles betrayed her, wanted her dead. Why? He just had
admitted he worked directly for the Council still and
all the last year had been a work of deception. "We have
to take other measures, Graham. They must not know that
we are now aware of this treachery."

"So you don't want him to know."

"Exactly. This is why we got to get some outside help,"
Buffy answered slyly. If she was cornered on all fronts
she had to break that and get Angel to help her. Aside
from the Watcher, and Willow who would not be of so much
use in this, he was the most experienced researcher she
knew. "We have to know what these scumbags are talking
about before we can do anything...because we don't know
that much."

"What's to know?"

"The Council has secrets, Graham. So far they said they
are very poor."

"And?" Graham groaned, scratching his neck. "They are. A
bunch of pompous bumbling fools, bookworms..."

"Who can spend twenty million dollars," Buffy said with
a sharp tone to her voice. "That's the prize for even
one unlimited contract with the order."

"The order? Oh, that...what are they?"

"The guild of assassins. Men and demons, whatever. Very
old - we're speaking of biblical age there - and very,
very deadly. They demand a million for sending three of
their agents to kill someone and they don't stop until
either the victim or they are dead," Buffy said drily.
She had not thought she could sound like that. So...so
shattered. "An unlimited contract means they will send
wave after wave of their killers until the job is done."

"Fourty million dollars?" Graham croaked out, stunned.
"But they don't even have...!"

"That makes you wonder, doesn't it?" Buffy nodded. She
bit her lips. Finally the cruciamentum made sort of a
sense - they were concerned about her asking questions
about the Council, so they made her severe all ties and
stop searching foir her own disgust. "Until we learn
what's the real deal with the Council we can't take
anything for granted anymore."

Graham silently nodded, pale. "We don't get that much
money..."

"Don't I know?" Buffy muttered, her thoughts worlds
away. Giles saying he spent close ot her lifetime on
this...Merrick, her first Watcher who died for her.
Damn, she was going to be paranoid if she didn't get an
idea about whom to trust and whom not. "All we know now,
Graham, is that we DON'T know what is going on. And I
feel the sharks are closing in."

"We got to do something."

"We will. Move a stash of arms away from the hold we
showed the Watchers and keepout of sight," Buffy said
and as she saw the look in his eyes she groaned. "And
don't do anything rash. If Giles said he swept his
house clean and they are aware of listeners they'll do
it again."

"He didn't do such a good job."

"Can you be sure they won't find anything? I can't,"
Buffy muttered. "Just watch them from afar, get us an
idea about their activities."

"I will. What about the money?"

"They don't have it and they sure as hell won't get it,"
Buffy whispered, thinking about Willow and Tara. What
could they do there? If she went down they were in for
what the Watchers would do to take over. If they were
ready to kill her, why not them as well? "We'll have to
wait until we got someone able to work with that." She
stood up. "I think I should go and get some answers."

"Where do you get that?"

"You don't like to know the answer to that," Buffy
replied weakly. "But it's our best shot, trust me. I'm
gonna be away for a day."

"What else can we do?" Graham said numbly, remembering
the past. "I'll wait for you with a report, Buffy."