Chapter 48

Sick Surprise

A/N: Chapter forty eight.

Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss Whedon and the parties involved in airing the shows.

Feedback: Didn't I beg enough last time? No? Well, then, do as you please.

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London, England

The Watcher's Council

December 2017

Everything was going down in flames.

Giles tried to remember where he'd read about the world ending in fire or ice.

'Give me ice now.' Giles thought. 'Fuck fire. Give me ice any day of the week.'

He looked at the blank screen in front of him and he thought about the strangeness of it all. The computer was so calm and still, and around him, chaos.

His children were frightened, and even though they were all men and women, well, most of them were, they were operating on safe mode.

He honestly didn't know what to do anymore. Every order and every idea had been wrong. He was a watcher trained like the other watchers had been trained before him for entire generations. His actions were a reflection of the harsh and strict upbringing he'd had and the adolescent mistake nicknamed 'Ripper'.

He'd been a rogue watcher some time, but a watcher nevertheless.

'Qui-gon Jinn, pops.' Xander had said, the geek inside of him channeling the obliged Star Wars comparison.

Truth to be told, he'd never bothered to watch any of said flicks. He had enough fantasy and duties in his life, and he certainly didn't had the need to indulge in children's theatre on a large scale.

But then he'd met Andrew and the two boys had harassed him incessantly for entire months until he'd caved in and had agreed to watch at least one of the so called "essential parts of the greatest trilogies ever made".

The watcher had fallen asleep in the first fifteen minutes of 'The Empire Strikes Back.'

Fortunately, the two young men had not struck back and had entered their fantasy world and had let him sleep without disturbances.

He looked around again and wished he'd spent more time with them. He had a certain sense of foreboding telling him he wouldn't make it through this battle. His warriors were tired adults, and they were tired of playing by the rules.

Old rules, by the look of it. He looked at Wesley and he had the sick need to know what had happened to him. He knew the younger watcher had spent some time in hell, but he didn't know what had happened before to make him so bitter.

The experience in hell hadn't changed him. Wesley had changed years before his death.

But still, the traumatized watcher seemed to be the one who kept his head clear and knew of consequences. Maybe Wesley was the future of the Council, if it survived the battle. Maybe Xander was too human to lead an organization who dealt with death and pain every day.

Every fucking day.

Angel had muttered something sometime about Wesley and his son, and every time, every bloody time Wesley saw Connor his hand scratched the scar the former watcher had on his neck.

Had Angel given him the scar? Had Cordelia?

Was Wesley the man for the job?

The comm. Link blinked again and he sighed. He once again knew who it was on the other side of the line. Looking around to make certain no one was looking at him, he finally accepted the uplink and stared at the face that greeted him.

"Giles." Commander Finn said. Giles swallowed the bile that unexpectedly came and plastered a smile on his face.

"Riley. Long time no see." Giles replied.

"You made your terms clear." Riley answered. "I offered my services."

"How mercenary of you." Giles shot. He backpedaled and tried to keep his temper in charge. "I apologize. It's been an awful day."

"And it's bound to get worse." Riley said, ignoring Giles' outburst. "You heard about the nukes?"

"Yes, I was made aware of that development." Giles said. "Do you have a backup plan?"

"Of course." Riley said, too sure of himself. "I just needed full control of the entire military action and full disclosure."

"Meaning?"

"The king still has his doubts." Riley said, leaning back on his chair. "He worries about the political and world views."

"As should he." Giles said, leaning forward on his chair. "You or your superiors would get complete control over the country's capital. It's only safe to be concerned."

"I don't have any superiors, Rupert." Riley grimaced. "I am now the leader of the Initiative."

"Really?" Giles said. "How's Sam?"

A dark shadow crossed Riley's face, but a quick grin covered it.

"Somewhere in Iowa. Maybe Waterloo, I don't know."

"Your daughter?"

"Look, Rupert, I just called as a courtesy." Riley now leaned forward, too close to the camera. "I guess the young king's concerns will be dissipated in a few minutes, and I will march inside the city and will have it back in twelve hours."

"There are turok hans, Riley." Giles felt the need to erase the smug expression on Riley's face. "You do know they are not killed as easily as a regular vampire. And then there's the dragons."

"It's a matter of proper response, Rupert." Riley replied. "You'll merely sit back and watch the show."

"A hundred slayers couldn't take them, Riley." Giles countered. "What makes you think you and your men will?"

Riley slammed his hands on the table and stood up.

"Your girls fight rocks with rocks, Rupert. I have subsonic machines and plasma grenades. We trained like SEALS and MARINES and MI5, not like ancient crap warriors who use wood in order to police the underworld. See this?" Riley placed a machine gun in front of the camera. "This is a MA5B assault rifle, Rupert, it fires fifteen rounds per second and have a whole diverse variety of ammo. Shredder clips? They'll tear through three inches of steel, Rupert. Can any of your girls push their stakes hard enough to do that?"

"You know they can't, Riley." Giles said, now leaning back. "But they don't need drugs or steroids to take on vampires hand to hand."

"See you in hell, old man." Riley said as he logged off. Giles once again stared at the blank screen, wondering why had he pissed off the one man who could help them.

"Who was that?" Willow asked, standing behind Giles and handing him a cup of tea. Giles nodded and took the cup out of the redhead's hands.

"That was the Commander of the Initiative." Giles replied between sips of his tea. "You remember the initiative, don't you?"

"Sure." Willow said. "Bunch of trigger happy soldiers who take steroids and like their werewolves dissected."

"Those are the ones." Giles nodded. "Looks like they're getting a shot at it."

"What? They'll be creamed!" Willow said as she pulled a chair and sat on it. "Did you record the conversation? Maybe we can contact him back and tell him..."

"No need." Giles interrupted. "He won't listen to us."

"Why?"

"Because we had a deal." Giles sighed. "The PD, the military, the Initiative and I had a deal."

"What kind of deal?" Willow asked and narrowed her eyes.

"I was told the initiative had been eliminated." Giles said, taking his glasses off. "But I knew such an investment and effort wouldn't let be gone to waste, so I researched."

"That's you, research guy."

"Yes, well, I did dig on. More than I should have." Giles accepted. "When the Council blew up and I was suddenly the recipient of everything left on the Council's records and money, I knew I had to take different approaches to what had been done before."

He took another sip of his tea. Chamomile, by the looks and taste of it.

"Remember in Sunnydale, ages ago, when Buffy was arrested?"

Willow nodded.

"I realized we needed certain support behind our actions, in case something bad should happen."

"Something bad is happening."

"Not like that." Giles corrected. "Something like our slayers caught on tv."
"I think I may begin to understand why Agent Parker was always around." Willow said.

"He was part of everything. I had ties with the PD here, the FBI, some in the CIA, others on NSA and even the IRS."

"I get it." Willow smiled. "He was my CO on 'NAM, the CIA has him MIA, right?"

"What?"

"Never mind."

"The military wasn't so easy, you know, they like to do everything by the book." Giles took another sip. "But when you are searching, you are bound to become the subject of yet another search, and the Initiative found me before I found them."

"Now comes the part were you tell me you made a deal with the devil, right?" Willow raised her eyebrows.

"Something like that, yes." Giles nodded. "Looks like the Council had some, uhm, obscure information on everyone. Hidden files regarding police corruption, indiscretions of the royal family, something called 'Jack the Ripper', another thing known as 'Spring-heeled Jack' and many others."

"That should cover the police and the monarchy, but the military?"

"The military has their own agenda, and we agreed not to bother one another, but the initiative was the, odd brother, sort of." Giles continued. "So we all came to an understanding."

"I'm not going to like this, right?"

"The initiative needed funds to survive." Giles said. "I had control of an organization that had unlimited funds."

"Oh no."

"But I needed control. The initiative has no bloody clue as to how to handle the public and the hostiles."

"We should know."

"Thus money became a way to control them, and I revealed their existence to certain members of the military."

"Double agent."
"I had them under my control." Giles said. "I had given them the money they needed to survive, but I cut their growth by having the military watch over them. In all paranormal situations, I had first dibs, so to speak."

"You bought our privacy?"

"Yes. I bought our secrecy. Anything unnatural happening on the UK? It had to come first here than anywhere else. If not, well, there are a whole bunch of letters and documents that would be very interesting if the media got caught of them."

"God..."

"I know." Giles sighed. "But I had to ensure the safety of the slayers. Why do you think I was certain they'd be sure out there? When I heard the police was shooting our slayers I felt betrayed and sick."

"Guess you can't control frightened people."

"I can't control the mob." Giles accepted. "But I had a certain agreement with the higher powers."

"But now the city is going up in flames, isn't it?" Willow said. "It doesn't matter anymore what kind of hold you have over them. They want to rescue the city, and they'll take help from anyone, won't they?"

Giles nodded.

"And the guy from the Initiative, the one you had been controlling, now has managed to leap you and went higher, didn't he?" Willow asked.

"We had our shot." Giles said. "We tried, and we failed. The military tried, and they failed. The army wants to use nuclear bombs to stop the dragons. The initiative offered another approach."

"Oh, man." Willow sighed as well. "There went our first dibs on everything."

"It's worst." Giles revealed. "I used the initiative in wet jobs."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Tell me something, Will." Giles leaned back on his chair. "If Oz suddenly became a threat, and I ordered you, Buffy or Xander to take him down, would you have done it?"

Willow was shocked by the question. "You didn't...?"

"Oz is alive and well in Norway. Now tell me..."

"You know we would have tried to find another way." Willow whispered.

"I know. And I love you all for it. But there are threats I didn't want you to know about. And some others I couldn't ask you to stop."

Willow ran her hands through her hair.

"So you used the initiative those times." She kept whispering.

"Yes." Giles said. "If I'd told you about a five year old boy who turned into a massive, blood thirsty monster at night and had already massacred half of his town, what would you have tried to do?"

"Oh God, don't tell me this."

"I had to do it, so I could worry about you and the things the slayers could do for the world." Giles said. "You are heroes, Willow. You have bled for the world. You've wept for it. You are not murderers."

"Interesting."

Giles and Willow leapt and turned around. Giles felt the heavy stare the woman he loved as his daughter was sending his way, and he didn't want to think about the face Xander had.

"Something you want to tell us?" Buffy asked.