Replacement by sus

Author: sus
Summary: They were meant to be. The council thought they knew better than The Powers, as well as her friends. An enemy from the future changes the past.
Author's Note:
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Violence, Adult Language, Sexual Situations


Chapter 1: Replacement

"Sorry, Giles, it's my job."

She walked determined out of the library. It's my job to slay the demons of this world until I die, even if it so happens to be tonight. I wish it wasn't, I'm not done. I wanna see things, see the world, and try an adult relationship. See the new movie they put up yesterday. Go to college, try all the flavors of ice, there is. There is so much I haven't tried yet.

She wiped a tear away that slowly had found its way down her cheek. I haven’t seen Giles wrong, hope he is this time. I hope and I pray that he’s wrong.

Everything after that happened in a hurry, and it still seemed like a movie that moved too slow. Some of it repeated itself, again and again, and then there was nothing but peace.

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In the library, the phone was ringing too loud in the otherwise quiet room, startled the group of people gathered there.

Giles hurried to pick up the phone. "Buffy?"

"Am I correct in assuming that I'm talking with Mr. Giles?"

"Yes, this is Rupert Giles, how may I help you?" With his free hand he took off his glasses, rubbed over his brow with it.

"One moment please, Mr. Quentin Travers wish to speak with you."

"Mr. Giles, Quentin Travers here. I’m sorry to inform you that a new slayer has been called."

"Oh my God, then it became true." Giles leaned heavily against the desk.

"Then I can assume that you know how your slayer died?" Giles heard the question from afar, he turned around and looked over the group.

Xander and Willow were sitting at the table together, holding on to each other. Angel was on the stairs, head bowed.

Giles took a hold of himself, when he heard the question again. "Yes, in fact I do, it was a prophecy. It said: The Master would kill her. It seems he has fulfilled the prophecy."

"Seems, what do you mean by that, did you see him kill her?"

"No, Sir, I was not with her, but I will immediately go out to look for her body."

"Then the vampire must have seen her die?"

Giles wiped off his glasses, which he had just put back on. He stuttered: "S.. she was alone."

Travers raised his voice. "Why was she alone, when it even was prophesied that she was in risk of dying?"

"Not in risk. It said that The Master would kill her when he tried to break free, so as you can see there wasn’t anything I could do about it."

Now Travers screamed so loud, that even Xander and Willow could hear him. Angel had heard the whole conversation, his head was even more bowed. "You stupid, ignorant fool. You are a watcher or you are supposed to be. Apparently, you missed the class, we held about prophecies."

"What do you mean, Sir?" Giles watched Willow cry and Xander that tried to comfort her.

"Now listen up, you better write this down: A prophecy doesn’t have to come true, literally. We have seen that if the watchers go with their slayer, they can often change the outcome. Why do you think her first watcher died? He was standing by her side, as you should have done."

Giles had glided down to sit on the floor, his glasses in his hand, head bowed. "You mean to say that if I had gone with my slayer, she would have been alive?"

"You or that vampire who claims to have a soul. Yes, maybe, it’s hard to say. The only thing to do now is to find her body, and make sure that she has not been turned. However, I’m afraid that we can’t use your service anymore after this fiasco. I will be sure to notify you, probably by mail. Goodbye, Mr. Giles."

Giles raised his head to lean it back on the desk, not seeing anything. Tears in his eyes, not bothered to hang up the phone, just letting it fall.

Angel raised his eyes to Giles. "It may be our fault that she is dead?"

"Yes, it seems so."

Xander raised his voice, he almost screamed. "What do that mean, that it’s your fault, could you have prevented it? How is that possible? You claimed that there was nothing that could change the outcome."

Giles got up from the floor, found a handkerchief, and started to clean his glasses. "Well, it seems that if one or all of us had gone along with her." He stopped,to take a deep breath, before he continued. "We might have changed the prophecy, and she might have lived. "To die another day, he thought. That is the life of a slayer. To live with death every day of their lives, as long as they are allowed to live. Willow started to cry more loudly.

"Why don’t you take Willow home, Xander, maybe stay with her tonight? While I go out and try to find her body. Can I count on your help,Angel?"

Angel nodded and started toward the exit.

"Why does he get to help? We wanna help. She was our friend." Even now that she is dead, he buds in. She was my friend not his. He is the evil undead.

"I might not have known her as long as you, but I hope that she counted me as one of her friends and besides, I can find her faster." Angel looked at Xander, like a father educating a child.

Xander got in his face, almost nose to nose. "Yeah? And we should just believe that?"

"Xander, stop it." Giles went between them, to separate them.

"He’s right, Xander, he can follow her trail by smelling where she walked."

"Do you mean like a dog? That fits him," he said with a snarl.

"Enough is enough, Xander, will you please take Willow home!"

Willow spoke up for the first time. "Will you please call us later? When you have found her, maybe we can see her and say goodbye?"

"I’ll call as soon as I know something. Let's get started, Angel." I hope that they can see her, and say their goodbyes. That they didn’t let their hate for the slayer show, in how they treated her body.

He collected a crossbow and a couple of stakes. On the way out of the library Giles asked: "Do you want any weapon, Angel?"

"No, got what I need."

Outside the school, they stopped and looked around.

"Where to, Angel?"

"That way, I think." He pointed the way with his head.

"Think? Can’t you say with certainty what way?"

"She has walked here so many times, I have to pick out the strongest scent, that should be the most recent."

"Let's go then."

They walked for a while in silence, Giles followed Angel. Suddenly, he stopped. Giles got his face crushed into Angel’s back. He took a step back, covered his nose with one hand, and ripped off his glasses with the other. "What in God's name made you stop?"

"Blood! I smell her blood, and if I’m not mistaken her smell is overlapping here. Like she is going back the way she came."

"Strange," Giles commented. They walked back almost at the same route.

"Her smell is mixed with others, maybe she helped someone."

"Hmm," Giles grumbled.

They came to a halt just outside the cemetery’s gate. "It stops here."

"What do you mean? Can’t you track her anymore or what?"

"It’s like, she vanished in thin air."

"What if she was carried away?"

"Then I would still smell her in the air." Angel started to walk around in circles, tried to catch her smell. "I’m getting nothing at all. That must mean that they have transported her away in a car."

Giles searched through his pocket for a hanky. "Why would they take her with them?"

"I have no idea whatsoever. The only thing I can think of is a ritual to free The Master."

Giles put his glasses back on. "Then there should have been something in the books about it. I'd better go back and check them, since we don’t get anymore here."

Angel nodded. "I’ll look around and try to find The Master’s lair. Maybe they have brought her body there. That seems logical if there is a ritual involved."

"I’ll head back to the school. Will you please check in when you know something? At least tomorrow sometime after dark at my home. I think I’ll take a little time of."

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The first thing Giles did when he arrived at the school, was to go over the prophecy with a tooth comb. He didn't find anything new. Nothing about any ritual. Just that she would die by the hands of The Master.

Giles leaned back in his chair. One hand was holding his glasses, which dangled over the side of the armrest, while he pinched the bridge of his nose with the other, like he was trying to stop an oncoming headache. He slowly got up from the chair, and went into his office to get the bottle he had stashed in the lowest drawer at the back.

He really needed a drink. Actually several, but he had too much to do until they found her body. He poured a large drink in a mug, drank half of it in one swallow, before he filled it up again and hid the bottle where it belonged.

He walked back into the main room. Sat down, slowly sipping from the mug, while he thought about what he had to do now, and in the next days. Where did the janitor store the boxes I used, when I brought my books here? The cellar maybe.

Slowly, he got on his feet, feeling so tired, but he had work to do. After he had collected the boxes from the cellar, as he guessed was where they were stored, he got his books together, piled them up on the table. Occasionally taking a sip of his mug. He got startled when he heard the doors open. He yelled from the stacks: "Is that you Angel?"

"No, it’s me, Xander."

Giles stepped out from the stacks to see Xander standing at the desk. "What are you doing here, Xander? I thought that you were home with Willow."

He looked down." Yeah! But I couldn't stand it. All she does is crying and saying: I could have changed it if I had gone with her."

"And you just left her alone?" Giles asked outraged.

Xander looked up at Giles, who was still standing on the stairs. "No, of course not. Her mum was at home, and it became kind of awkward. She thought I was her boyfriend, and that I had hurt her."

"How did you then explain that Willow was so upset?" Giles asked as he came down the stairs.

Xander helped Giles get the books down on the table. "We said that a friend of ours was missing, and it’s not even a lie. I guess that since you haven’t called yet, you had no luck finding her body?"

"That’s quite right, we lost her trail after a short time." He sat down.

Xander joined him. "What are you doing here?"

"I’m packing my books together." He claimed his mug again.

"Why do you do that?" Xander asked.

Giles placed his hands around the mug, as if he was trying to warm his hands. "There are several reasons: First of all, I need all my time to find out what happened tonight, and for that I need my books." He stopped, to take a mouthful of his mug.

"And? You said that there were several reasons," Xander asked curiously.

Giles sat quiet for a couple of minutes, until Xander became anxious, before he answered. "Yes, there is. First as I said: I have to find out what happened tonight. Second: I need a break, and I don’t even know if I have a job tomorrow."

"You mean that principal Snyder will blame you, that Buffy is gone? He can’t do that! He can’t fire you because of that, and if he still does then you are still a watcher."

"That is where you might be incorrect. You know that The Watcher’s Council called today? To tell me that a new slayer has been called."

"Yes, I know that, I was in the room when they called." Does he think that I'm stupid or slow?

Giles sighed heavily. "They did more than tell me that a new slayer is called, they also blamed me for Buffy’s death, and Travers told me that I shouldn't count on having a job as a watcher in the future."

"Oh, I see," Xander said. "But then you have your job here at the school, as the librarian. It’s not that bad." Xander smiled a little.

Giles smiled sadly. "It’s not that easy. You see it was The Watcher’s Council that made it so that I got this job, and they can take it away with my title as watcher. And they have enough power to have me deported, just like that." He snapped his fingers.

"Oh, so you may have to leave for England?" the boy asked. "Then we’ll be all alone! Who’ll watch the hell mouth? Willow and I can’t do it without help."

Giles sighed again. "I don’t think you’ll have to. As I see it Angel is trying to make redemption for what he has done, so he can probably be convinced to help out."

"Angel! Always Angel! I don’t want to hear his name, it’s his fault that she is dead," Xander screamed.

Giles stood up and started to pack his books, not looking at Xander. "You seem to have a selective memory! You forget that we all agreed not to go with her, not to help her. That she is the slayer and have to fight her fights alone." He looked up, Xander wasn't meeting his eyes. "If you don’t have anything better to do, you can help me pack everything up and get the boxes out to my car."