"Willow, wake up. Come on, open your eyes."
She knew that voice… With effort, she forced herself to look up. "Giles?"
"Oh thank god," Giles said, relief flooding him at the sound of Willow speaking. She'd looked so close to death when he'd found her, the steady rise and fall of her chest the only thing that told him she was still with them at all. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"There…there was a van. It was following us." Willow frowned, trying to remember while everything was so foggy. "Some men jumped out and…" She gasped. "Oh my god, Giles, they got Buffy!"
Giles swallowed. "Can you tell me anything about these men at all?"
"No. It was so quick, I didn't…" Willow frowned, a memory pushing itself through the haze of her mind. "They were talking to each other, and they had British accents."
At that, Giles paled. "The Council."
Now, Nancy spoke for the first time, and Willow was surprised to note she was even there. "Giles, I know you don't want to hear this because of what you had with Buffy's mother and everything, but if the Watchers' Council got Buffy, they may have had a good reason."
"Yeah, and I guess I must be evil, too, since they made me hit my head," Willow grumbled, trying to pull herself up but soon abandoning the plan.
"They didn't take you," Nancy said.
"No, they left her unconscious in the middle of the road," Giles snapped. "If we hadn't come along when we did, Willow could very well have died. It's high time you come to the realization that everyone else around you has, Nancy—the Watchers' Council is involved in something very sinister."
Nancy didn't agree in the least, though she held her tongue this time. Quentin Travers had told her Buffy was indeed a threat and that she had been striking out against the Council with her vampire lover for some time now. Giles was simply too blinded by his feelings for the turncoat Slayer, Joyce Summers.
Instead, Nancy said, "We need to get Willow home. She needs to rest now." She reached her hand down to the redhead, but Willow didn't take it.
"What about Buffy?" Willow asked. "I saw them hit her with something. She was hurt."
"We'll find Buffy," Giles replied. "But Nancy is right. You've got a nasty bump on your head, and you need rest."
Willow let Giles help her up, leaning heavily on him as she struggled to stand. "But you'll find Buffy?" she asked, seeking reassurance.
"Yes, we will. Now come along, my dear. I'll drive you home."
"I'm going to stay out longer," Nancy said. "Keep looking to see if I can find any traces of what happened to her."
Giles's expression was skeptical as he regarded Nancy for a moment. Just minutes ago she'd proposed the Council had had cause for nabbing Buffy, and now she was offering to search more for her? It was strange, and very unlike Nancy when she was certain she was right about something. Giles thought back to Spike's accusation earlier that Nancy would've helped someone take out Buffy, had Nancy convinced herself Buffy needed taking out.
If that were indeed the case, maybe it was for the best if Nancy stayed away from them.
"Yes, do that," Giles replied. "And please, call me immediately if you find anything at all."
"I will," Nancy said with a nod.
Giles gave her one last look before helping Willow to his car.
Spike hadn't moved from his spot in the hallway after Nancy and Giles had left. Instead, he kept trying to connect to Buffy through the claim, desperate to get a lock on her position.
"Come on, baby," he said softly to himself. "Wake up and tell me where you are…"
"Spike! Are you still here?"
Spike jumped up to his feet at the sound of Giles calling for him, and headed down the stairs. "Did you find something?"
The look on Spike's face now further solidified Giles's growing belief that the vampire did indeed feel something real for Buffy. He looked every bit the worried husband, his genuine concerned etched into every feature. As such, Giles hated to tell him what he'd discovered. "We found Willow, unconscious and on the ground," Giles said. "After reviving her, the girl claimed that Buffy was taken by a group of men in a black van. Willow also described them as having British accents, which leads me to believe…"
"The Council," Spike finished for him. "Bloody hell." Spike hit the wall with his fist, and Giles chose not to comment on the hole he left in the plaster.
"Have you had any luck determining where Buffy is?" Giles asked.
Spike shook his head. "No. She's still out." He pointed at Giles. "You know, Watcher, despite what you're trying to convince yourself, the Slayer's in on this. You want to know where Buffy is, you let me question her. Where is she, anyway?"
Giles coughed into his hand. "She claimed she was going to search for more clues pertaining to Buffy's whereabouts."
The change in Giles's tone from earlier when he'd been speaking about Nancy made Spike's eyebrow arch. "Oh? And now you don't believe her, do you?"
"After discerning that it was most likely the Council that took Buffy, I'm more willing to entertain the thought of Nancy having a hand in it," Giles admitted, looking somewhat sheepish as he did.
"Nancy was why Buffy was leaving," Spike said. "I couldn't give all the details with the Slayer standing right there, but Willow spoke to her and knew something was up. She said Nancy was entirely too calm and assured her that Buffy would be out of their hair soon."
Giles winced. It pained him to admit, but the evidence seemed to point to Nancy having played at least some part in this. The Council had clearly known where to find Buffy and had also seemed to think they had reason enough to come after her violently. The only person whom Giles could think of to give them that information was Nancy. "I knew she was uncomfortable about all of this, but I never thought her capable of making such a potentially deadly action."
Giles stopped for a moment, taking in and exhaling several deep breaths. "I would've thought that even with her doubts, she would take into consideration that the Council has already arranged the death of one Slayer."
"Well, apparently you gave the chit a little more credit than she deserved," Spike replied.
"We could still be jumping to unfounded conclusions," Giles argued, though his words held little conviction.
"We're not, Watcher, and you know it. Face it, your Slayer sold out anyone who the Council would have any struggle with, yourself included."
"Be that as it may, we need to focus on finding Buffy now before things get any worse."
"There we're in complete agreement," Spike replied, his arms crossed over his chest. "But I don't like the waiting around here bit. If they keep her drugged, I may never be able to get a clear lock on her." He peeked around Giles at the closed curtains. "If the sun would just bloody go down, I could be out there, seeing if I could sense anything if I was a little closer to her."
"That might not do us any good," Giles said. "For all we know, they've put her on a plane back to England."
The look on Spike's face told Giles that he'd neither thought of that nor liked the sound of it now that he had.
Before Spike could say anything else, the phone rang, and Giles went downstairs to answer it. The Watcher spoke with the caller in hushed tones, but Spike's vampire hearing allowed him to still pick up enough of the conversation to know it was Red and that she was saying something Giles seemed to be optimistic about. Spike went down the stairs and waited for Giles in the foyer.
Soon, Giles ended the call and came back to talk to Spike. "That was Willow. She says shortly after I dropped her off, she remembered a spell she'd seen in one of Jenny's old books. Supposedly, it's a sort of location spell, used to pinpoint where a person is on a map."
"And she thinks she can do it?" Spike asked.
"She's fairly certain. It would take less power than the spell she did to restore Angel's soul, after all. She read me the list of ingredients, and I'm going to pick them up from the magic shop downtown, then get her and bring her back here to perform the spell."
"She's all right for all of that? You said she was hurt when they grabbed Buffy."
"She was injured, yes, but she seemed convinced on the phone that she was well enough to do this, and we have very little time to waste—as I'm sure you're aware of."
Spike nodded. He was. Painfully aware. Every second he didn't have Buffy there with him made him feel as if he was another second closer to losing her forever. "And I suppose I'm to sit around here and hope she wakes up, wherever she is?" Spike asked, less than thrilled with that part of the plan.
"You don't have much of another choice right now," Giles replied. He hesitated a moment before placing his hand against Spike's arm. "We'll find her."
Spike glanced down at the Watcher's hand, the comfort from the other man seeming strange, yet Spike knew at the same time it was genuine. "We have to," he said, letting the intensity of emotion he was feeling choke his voice for the first time in front of Giles. "If something happened to Buffy, I…"
"I know," Giles said with a nod, letting his hand drop as he did. "But you can search for her best here right now, letting the bond between you work to tell you where she is."
Spike hated that, hated patiently sitting around waiting for a clue to Buffy's whereabouts, but he also knew Giles was right. "Hurry up and get the little witch so we can do this spell of hers."
"I'll be back as quickly as I can be," Giles assured Spike before leaving him alone again.
Nancy glanced around nervously, her arms crossed over her chest. This was where she'd been told to wait, but she'd been standing there for fifteen minutes past the rendezvous time, and it was starting to make her antsy.
"Ah, Slayer, you are here. Sorry to have kept you waiting."
Nancy turned towards the man as he approached her. "Mr. Travers. It's no trouble at all. I know you're a busy man."
"Yes, it has been a rather full day," Travers replied. "Do you have any more news to report?"
"They know it was the Council who took Buffy," Nancy said. "Willow heard your men speaking and recognized their accents. Giles put two and two together."
"Ah, Rupert Giles. He always was quite the intelligent man. It's a pity he had to become a traitor to our cause."
"It's Buffy's fault. Her and her mother. They corrupted him," Nancy asserted.
"The cause is no matter, my dear. Only the actions," Travers replied. "And I'm afraid your actions have been quite questionable as well."
Nancy frowned. "What do you mean? I've been loyal to the Council, and I know my duties as a Slayer."
Travers tsked and shook his head. "This coming from a Slayer who would bed a vampire? I'm afraid that isn't one of your duties at all, child."
Before Nancy could protest further, a man came out from where he'd been hiding nearby and stabbed her arm with a needle. Nancy tried to speak, but could only manage a pitiful squeak, the world spinning as her legs went out from under her.
Travers looked down at her. "We at the Watchers' Council believe that it's high time a new Slayer to be Called, one who hopefully does not allow herself to be seduced by the vampires she should be eliminating. We were going to wait until your Cruciamentum for this, but I suppose now will work just as well."
Quentin Travers waved his hand to someone off in the distance before he walked off, the man who had drugged Nancy following close behind. Nancy felt fear flooding her body as she realized she couldn't move her limbs.
All she could do was remain helpless on the ground and watch as a vampire approached her, a cruel smile on his face as he prepared to take the life of a Slayer.
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