Summary: Buffy
refuses to let Spike reject her in the Hellmouth, setting off a chain
of events that leads them back to Willow's "Thy Will be Done" spell and
their destiny as the Immortal Guardians of the Hellmouth.
Scenerio #4 of the
Immortal
Guardian series.
Chapter 17
Xander stopped outside the Summers’ Revello Drive home. He had no idea
what he was doing there anyway. He was on his way to the airport, but
for some reason he had the urge to say goodbye to Joyce and Dawn. They
certainly didn’t deserve his leaving without some kind of reason.
“Hey, Xander.” Dawn stepped out onto the porch. “Where are you off to
with the suitcases?” She nodded towards the luggage sitting on the
sidewalk at Xander’s feet.
“I’m leaving Sunnydale. I can’t stand to see Buffy with another
vampire.” Xander raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you agree?”
Dawn sighed. She knew that Xander had grown more tolerant of Spike
since the soul, but she had forgotten how much he hated the vampire.
“We’ll miss you, Xander. I hope you have a great life where ever you
go.”
“Tell Joyce good bye for me.” Xander picked up his suitcases. “She
always treated me really nice.”
“We’ll all miss you, Xander.” Dawn stepped off the porch to give Xander
a hug. “I hope you get over your animosity for Spike someday.”
“I doubt it, Dawn.” Xander gave the young woman a tight smile. “Too
much has happened for that to happen.” He walked away.
Dawn shook her head. Things certainly would be different without Xander
around.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Flesher, Miles O’Brien, and Herman Raimen laid in wait for the
dark-haired Slayer that was their prey. The Council had gotten the call
from their operative in Sunnydale saying that Faith Lehane was awake
and free. Travers had sent them immediately to the town in question,
but the girl was proving harder to find then they had anticipated.
The only person they had seen so far was a petite blond girl. They were
surprised when she looked right at their hiding spot.
“Hello, gentlemen, I just wanted to tell you that I don’t want you in
my town.” The blond put her hands on her hips.
“Who the bloody hell are you?” Flesher snarled.
The blond smirked at the Council operatives. “Buffy Summers at your
service. Slayer, Immortal Guardian, and all around bitchy gal.”
“Hmmm, the best kind, I say.” A blond haired man stepped out of the
shadows, and he stood beside the Slayer. “Are these the gits the
Wankers sent to take out the Rogue?”
“This is them.” Buffy nodded. “You all know Spike here, don’t you?
William the Bloody 101 was the name of the class.”
“Huh?” O’Brien looked confused. “No one said anything about the two of
you. Should we capture them, boss?” He looked to Flesher for guidance.
Flesher narrowed his eyes. “Might as well. A Slayer that associates
with vampires is a detriment to the Council.” He stood up, pointed his
gun at the Slayer, and pulled the trigger.
Buffy found herself moving amazingly fast as she stepped out of the way
of the tranquilizer dart that shot through the air at her. Moving
equally as fast she was on the Council operative that had shot at her.
Beside the Slayer, Spike had gone for the other two men as they watched
in astonishment while their leader was easily overwhelmed by a little
girl.
Buffy hit Flesher in the chest. Not hard enough to kill the man, but
just enough to disable him. When she was done, she dropped him to the
floor. She kneeled beside him. “Listen to me very carefully.”
Flesher nodded while he grimaced in pain.
“You tell Travers for me that the Council is not welcome at this
Hellmouth. It is protected by the Immortal Guardians,” Buffy growled.
“Faith Lehane is also protected by the Immortal Guardians. If we hear
one little whisper that she is in any kind of danger from you guys,
you’ll live to regret it. We do have forever you know.”
Flesher nodded again. He had no idea what the Immortal Guardians were,
but they didn’t sound like someone that should be crossed. As soon as
he was able to move he was going to call Travers with the message the
Slayer was giving him. Then, he would resign. He was getting way too
old for this way of life. Maybe he’d retire to someplace warm.
“We’re done here, pet.” Spike helped Buffy to her feet. “If the wankers
send any more of these gits they’ll learn first hand that we mean
business.”
Buffy took Spike’s hand, and she stood up. They walked away from the
Council’s best operatives whom they had defeated in a matter of
seconds.
“Travers is an idiot if he tries to take those two on,” Raimen, the
third operative, muttered. “They’re scary.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“What is this book you brought with you, Mr. Bey?” Joyce indicated the
book that lay on the coffee table.
“Please call me Reggie, Mrs. Summers.” Reginald leaned forward to pick
up the book.
“Only if you call me Joyce.” The Slayer’s mother tilted her head with a
smile.
“Joyce. This is a book I found years ago at a sale. I bought it, and
thus far have been unable to translate anything except the first
heading.” Reginald opened the book. “These words are ‘The Slayer
Sultana’. However recently I was looking through the book again, and I
found this.” He turned to the back of the book to what appeared to be
an index of sorts.
“’The Immortal Guardians’? That’s what Buffy said that she and Spike
were.” Joyce looked at Reggie with growing curiosity. “What does it
mean?”
“From what I gleaned from talking to Mrs. Hassib the lawyer, Immortal
Guardians protect the world from the evils that plague our dimension.”
Reggie closed the book and put it down. “There are more than one other
set of Guardians guarding their own dimensions as we speak. There’s
even one set traveling across dimensions attempting to right wrongs and
diminishing all evil everywhere.”
“That must be a hard job,” Joyce murmured. “But Spike and Buffy are
strong. If anyone can do it, they can.”
Reggie ducked his head shyly. He had always had a hard time asking a
pretty lady out. He took a deep breath, and he stated plainly, “As I am
staying here in Sunnydale to record everything, I was wondering if you
would accompany me to dinner?”
“I would love to, Reggie.” Joyce put her hand on top of Reginald’s. “It
has been a long time since I’ve been out with a gentleman.”
Reggie blushed. “A lady like you only deserves to go out with
gentlemen.”
“That was so sickeningly sweet my teeth started to rot.” Ethan Rayne
strolled into the living room with a tray of cups.
“Shut up, Rayne,” Reggie said. He stood up to take the tray away from
the other man. “You’re going to die a lonely old man if you don’t
change your ways.”
“I agree.” Serina spoke for the first time. “It’s time to turn your
life around, Ethan. If you keep attempting to create chaos, you will
fall into the pit.”
Ethan shook his head. “Do-gooders are such downers.”
“Hey, I resent that statement,” Faith blustered. “I am so not a
do-gooder.”
“Of course you are, my dear,” Ethan replied. He looked the sultry
Slayer over carefully. “You just think you have to be a bad girl to
compensate for Buffy’s natural tendency to sacrifice herself for the
greater good.”
“Yeah, I suppose.” Faith thought about the part of the Slayer dream
where Buffy had sacrificed herself to save the world. “She is a bit of
a martyr.”
“Okay, since that’s all taken care of, how are we gonna rescue Angel.”
Cordelia slipped into the room, and she took a cup of coffee off of the
tray Reggie was still holding.
Spike and Buffy walked in the front door. They took off their coats,
and they joined the others in the living room just in time to hear
Cordelia’s question.
“We hit them, and we hit them hard.” General Buffy was in the house.
“We have the joining spell.” She gave Giles a nod as he raised the book
containing the spell in question.
“I’ve recruited some friendly demons who have lost loved ones to the
Initiative,” Spike drawled.
“If Ethan here does what he does best but focuses it on the Army
instead of us, that should be a good diversion,” Buffy continued.
“When should we do this?” Giles asked.
“I’m thinking tomorrow night,” Buffy replied. “I refuse to wait on
another apocalypse.”