Buffy grumbled under her breath as she pushed open the double doors, using enough force to cause the heavy wood to slam into the walls. She almost laughed out loud as the entire assembled council heads jumped in their seats as if they had been jabbed in the arse with a cattle prod. Her laughter was cut short as she spied someone she really hadn’t expected. But it was a pleasant surprise, at least for her. It wouldn’t be so pleasant for him.
Spike looked around the room as he followed Buffy in, "Your work, Goldilocks?" he asked nodding his head to the huge axe buried in the far wall.
Buffy nodded, but her eyes were hard. "Good afternoon, Alun," she said in a voice that carried back into the corridor where Elvara was waiting with Haakon. Elvara went white and started shaking. Wolf and Fahr both growled at the sound of that name. Methos and Cassie looked ready to commit murder.
Travers stood up from his chair at the head of the table, an angry look on his face. “How did you get in here?” He started yelling for the guards, but stopped as Methos started chuckling. “What the hell are you laughing at, you blue-painted freak!?!?”
“Just laughing at the thought of you summoning the dead.” Methos replied with a smirk on his face. “I didn’t realize the council was into necromancy.”
The rest of Buffy’s group filtered into the large room, taking up places along the wall. Ritchie and Xander closing the doors and leaning against them. Anyone trying to leave the room would have to get past the two heavily armed young men.
“Who the hell are you people?” the man to Traver’s right shouted.
"I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hell was following close behind him." Alun quoted and started shaking.
"Hell is right, boy" Wolf growled as Fahr and he took point around the room.
Willow felt sick at the atmosphere; Elvara laid a hand on her shoulder and eased the pain. "It's been a few years, Alun," she said.
Haakon swung his eyes round to look at his Rakkaani, he hardly recognised the man in front of him, but Elvara did. The Sutori's growl sounded more like Wolf than him.
"Take them all," Buffy instructed.
The battle was short-lived; the Council were hardly fighters, untrained and unfit. It was the work of minutes before every man in a suit was hogtied and waiting on their knees.
Travers was still swearing, shocking Tara with the language he was using.
“Someone stuff something in his mouth. I don’t want to have to shout to be heard over that filth he is spewing.” Buffy said with a glare directed at Travers.
Giles walked over and grabbing Travers’ tie, shoved it in the man’s mouth, effectively muffling him. “It was a tad impolite of him. What with the ladies present and all.”
Alun sneered. “If those women are with Elvara... they are far from ladies. Probably nothing more than whores.”
A deep rumbling growl echoed throughout the chamber as Spike allowed his vampiric countenance to come forth once again, startling the councilmen. “Buffy love, can I bite him?”
“I wouldn’t if I were you.” Cassandra said. “You’d probably be poisoned or contract rabies or something.” She smirked. “Gods alone know he’s insane enough to be insulting the very people who hold his life in their hands.”
"Insane or stupid, they tend to taste the same." Spike grinned letting his fangs show. Alun gulped, he suddenly realised just who surrounded him.
Buffy hitched her hip up onto the table and started fiddling with her knife. "Now we're going to play a little game. I'm going to ask some questions and every time I think you're lying to me I'm going to cut something off." she smiled at the men sweetly, looking more like a cheerleader than a killer.
Travers spat out the tie. "Now look here, Little Girl...” He started to say but shut up when the decorative snakes on the knife Buffy had been holding turned to look at him.
“You really just don’t know when to quit do you?” Buffy said as she turned to face him full on. “You would think, being the head honcho around here, that you would have at least read some of your predecessor’s journals.”
“Of course I did.” Travers said with ruffled indignation. “It is required of all Heads when they are given the position.”
“Head? Given? It is my understanding that the entire board is supposed to act as one.” Methos said with a frown. “With no one person in charge.” He looked over at Buffy for clarification.
“That is the way it was set up. “ Buffy said with a nod. “The only person in charge of this little tea party should be the Slayer.” She frowned as the entire council started objecting loudly and with vehemently.
Spike simply raised an eyebrow. “What? You lot think you should be telling the Slayer what to do?”
Travers raised his head and spoke with pride. “Of course we tell the slayer what to do. She works for us after all.”
Buffy laughed, “You do realize that if it wasn’t for the Slayer, you idiots wouldn’t have a job?”
Several of the councilmen exchanged looks of confusion. Travers simply started sputtering in indignation. “The Slayer is always a young girl who needs the guidance of older, wiser heads." One of the men pontificated. There were nods of agreement from the other captives. "We teach her all she needs to know and then send her where she's needed."
"Where she's needed? How come you didn't send her to Sunnydale then?" Buffy asked, still playing with her knife. There was something almost hypnotic about the way she was stroking the snakes and the way they were responding to her.
"Lady asked you a question," Methos snarled at the man nearest him.
One of the younger men cleared his throat. “We were told that the Watcher in Sunnydale didn’t require her presence.”
Giles’ face flushed in anger as he surged to his feet. “I am the Sunnydale Watcher, and I have requested her assistance no less than 5 times in the past year alone!” He turned on Travers with a snarl. “YOU told me that I was exaggerating and that I should learn to handle minor problems on my own.”
A couple of the younger men shared a glance and then quietly inquired, “What kind of problems?”
Giles simply glared at them before responding. “The first time I asked for assistance was when the Master broke free of his imprisonment in the buried church. He killed over 300 people before Spike and I managed to kill him.”
"300?" the man stuttered, "We were told that the master was secured beneath a church."
"Well he got hold a cell phone and contacted his family. Darla came and freed him, it was a blood bath," Spike growled, his eyes shining yellow.
"Then there was the hell mouth spewing forth poison, calling every demon within a thousand miles. We've been fighting for years to keep it sealed." Giles ran a hand through his hair. "Every bloody time I called there was an excuse. Now when I finally get some help you send a fucking wet works team after me."
"Now come along, Giles. Be sensible man, you don’t really think the council hires killers to go after humans do you?" the younger man asked scoffingly.
Travers didn't say a word.
"Pet, his heart's racing along as though he's running a marathon."
"Stinks as well," Wolf added. "He's hiding something."
"Oh I know that," Buffy laughed. "Just like his predecessor did. I had to explain things with an axe last time," She nodded her head to the wall decoration. “Even though it’s not really a secret from anyone in this room.” She looked around with a raised eyebrow. “Even if the council keeps it from everyone except the board... or tries to at any rate.”
Xander spluttered for a few moments before actually vocalizing, “You mean it’s a standard practice to try and kill off watchers?”
“No. The wet works team was originally set up to act as a backup for the Slayer.” Buffy said as she stared directly into Travers’ eyes. “You know, in case something larger than she could handle alone came up.”
"Things like the Master, or the Gentlemen. You must remember them, the nice beings that steal hearts. You didn't get them in Sunnydale this time. They came after Nordlys. And she screamed. Can't steal her voice."
Giles looked puzzled, "The Gentlemen steal everyone's voices. That’s how they work." he said.
Elvara laughed. "My daughter had tonsillitis once and cried to her other grandfather that she hated not being able to speak. He promised her that she would never lose her voice again. And when an Elder God promises something, it happens."
"Wet works team?" Xander reminded everyone.
"They were the elite, fierce warriors who were supposed to guard the Slayer and make sure she lived beyond seventeen. Kind of makes me wonder when that changed. Shall we look in the diaries?" Buffy asked, glancing at Cassandra.
“Maybe after all this over with?” Cassandra asked, a wicked smile gracing her lips. “We can pinpoint it then.”
Buffy nodded and turned back to stare at Travers. “Whenever it came about, one thing is quite certain. It takes an order from the Council Head to send them anywhere other than to the Slayer. This leaves Mr. Travers here solely responsible for the deaths that occurred in Sunnydale.
“What right do you have to come in here and accost us, making these accusations?” the man sitting to Travers’ right demanded.
Buffy simply quirked one eyebrow and let the knife she was playing with slice open her thumb, causing the blood to well up and drip onto the carpet. “You ask who I am. Well that is the most intelligent question I have heard from the council in more years than I care to remember.” She slid off the table and stood facing the man who had asked. “I am Ielizibiet, Daughter of the Dragon, Shadowed Sword of the Dragon’s Temple and the Source of the Slayer line.” She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them, silver scales raced across her skin, dancing across her cheekbones, and arching over her eyes, which had turned a mesmerizing silvery-green. “In short, I am the one person in the entire existence of this council that can render you obsolete.”
Travers shook his head "No, No that's just a legend. A bed time story we tell to children. You can't be real"
Even Giles took a step backwards.
"Now the first thing you are going to do is call your dogs off, and then you are going to tell me exactly where the slayer is, and what she's doing. Then we are going to discuss why some idiot here has changed the way the council works."
The blood on the carpet pooled slightly and began to move of its own volition, heading for Travers.
“Interesting trick that.” Spike said, pointing to the moving pool of blood.
“Oh it has plenty more tricks up its nonexistent sleeves.” Buffy said with a grin, exposing dainty fangs. She handed Travers her cell phone and ordered him to dial. “Call off the wet works team. NOW.”
“And if I refuse? You will what? Kill me?” Travers snorted. “Slayers don’t kill humans.”
“Now that’s just the thing, I never said I was a slayer, just that they received their power from me.” Buffy shook her head. “And as for killing you? Why would I do that when there are so many other ways to ensure cooperation?” As she said this, the pool of blood had reached Travers’ feet and was slowly making its way up his body, heading for his face.
Xander and Giles watched in fascination as the blood snaked its way up Travers’ body and settled onto his skin, forming a silvery mask before sinking into the flesh.
Elvara said something in a language that none of the Scoobies spoke, but Haakon laughed and nodded.
"He does look better," he agreed.
"Now shall we try again?" Buffy asked. "Wet works team."
Travers shook his head, then screamed as his cheek burned away, leaving his teeth visible through the flesh.
"Let me explain. Every time you lie, or prevaricate or even just annoy me, I get angry. It literally makes my blood boil and when my blood boils it burns."
Methos chuckled, the sound more sadistic than mirthful. “I remember when you used that on Kronos... was one of my better recollections.”
Giles looked over at Methos and raised an eyebrow. “Was?”
“Yeah... it was replaced a few years back...” Methos trailed off with a sappy grin on his face. “The day Elvara was born.”
Buffy just shook her head and motioned at Travers’. “Make the call.”
Elvara smiled shyly, looking up at Methos, the first man to ever hold her.
Travers’ hand shook as he tried to dial the number. He dropped the phone, watching as the pieces scatter across the floor. He raised anxious eyes to his captors.
"Shall we try again?" Buffy asked, picking up a cell phone and held it out. Travers tried to drop it again.
"Now that wasn't nice," Spike pointed out. "Watcher, you know the number?"
Giles shook his head, still considering the looks that had passed between the Priestess and Methos.
"Never mind. I'm sure Travers will remember as soon as we start chopping bits off." Cassandra said cheerfully.
"Fingers first," Anya suggested. "They hate it when you cut off their penises, they tend to stop talking and start yelling."
Travers gulped. Part of him had believed that these people were fooling, but it seems they were deadly serious.
Buffy grinned, her scales catching the light making her look like a monster out of a nightmare
The younger watcher by his side took the phone and started to dial the number.
“Seems like at least one person here has some sense.” Haakon said as he kept a careful watch on Alun. His eyes seemed to be lit with an inner fire, making the intense green of his eyes seem to glow.
Giles nodded. “It has always been my thought that when a watcher is brought onto the board... they lose the ability to think for themselves. That one must not have been on it long.”
Buffy told the young man to hold the phone while Travers talked into it. She didn’t want him dropping it again. She arched her eyebrows when Travers spoke a few short coded words into the phone. She didn’t like the looks of the smug grin on his face either.
The man holding the phone turned to Buffy, his face having gone completely white. “He didn’t call them off... he sent them to her house.” He pointed at Elvara.
“I had a feeling he would try something like this.” Buffy said with a sigh, shaking her head.
Giles and Xander expected Elvara to look frightened. Instead she smiled almost demurely at Haakon. Then her hair changed colour, becoming as fair as a wheat sheaf.
"You gave him my address?" she asked Alun. "You would put your own children at risk like that?"
Alun nodded. "Why not? The council is far more important than a couple of brats. They never should have been born anyway. I definitely don’t want to even think that my blood runs in their veins."
Elvara nodded, understanding. "Pity," she said. "Haakon, he is returned to the Soturi for their judgement. He is wolf’s head”
"What about Joyce and the children?" Giles asked in a worried voice. "The wet works team won’t show any mercy to the girls."
"If a nuclear bomb hit London, or a Hell mouth collapsed on top of the house, it might, and I do mean might, scratch some of the paint.” She turned to Travers. “Your wards were attached to the very planet we stand on. Mine are woven into the fabric of the universe; if this plane of existence is destroyed my house will simply transport itself to one of the heavenly realms. Yours were sealed with innocent blood, stolen. Mine were sealed with the tears and maidenhead blood of a goddess, willingly given. All you have done is signed those men’s death warrants."
"And your own," The voice that came out of Elvara's mouth was not her own.
“Not to mention the uproar from the embassies, when armed men assault the house.” Cassandra said with a grin. “Even if we had planned on letting you out alive, you would be spending the rest of your lives in prison for terrorism.”
Buffy closed her eyes, a smile dancing on her lips. When she opened her eyes again, they sparkled with laughter. “Father is dealing with them. Says he is in need of a snack.” She blinked and laughed out loud. “Oh he IS in a good mood.” Turning Alun, she looked him dead in the eye and stated, “By my Father’s will, you have no offspring.” Before anyone could comment, she turned to Elvara and Haakon, “The blood of the traitor has been removed, replaced by that from one who is far more worthy. Haakon, Soturi to the High Priestess, I offer my felicitations, you have daughters.”
Elvara looked at Haakon, her face alight with joy as the Viking stood there looking stunned.
"Thank you, My Lady." he stuttered
Buffy grinned then giggled, "Father says one of them tasted rotten..."
Elvara laughed, "Tell him I left the peppermint cordial in the kitchen cabinet, next to the teas,"
Methos kissed her cheek, gently "Always the healer. You do your mother proud."
"Thank you," Elvara smiled up at Methos.
Xander looked between Haakon and Methos. He couldn't understand why there was no animosity.
"Enough," Buffy said. "We need answers, now. Talk. Where is the Slayer?"
"She's in Cleveland," Elvara answered, in that echoy voice that meant that she wasn't the only one in her body. Looking into Travers mind, she could see everything he was trying to hide.
“Okay then Cousin. Want to tell me what the idiot has hidden in his so-called mind?” Buffy asked with a touch of exasperation.
“You mean things like the money he has stolen from council accounts? And the number of innocent people that he has either personally killed or had ordered killed?” The being inside Elvara asked with a mask of innocent mischief on her face. “Or maybe you mean the fact that he had managed to acquire the vampire known as Kralik, and was intending to use him in the current slayer’s Cruciamentum?”
Spike snorted. “That won’t happen. The blighter is dust on the floor.”
Cassie looked slightly puzzled. "I thought you'd banned that barbaric practise?" she said. "And I only developed the drugs so that the slayers could have a wedding night without worrying about ripping their new husband to pieces before they bonded."
Giles looked over at Elvara; her eyes were shimmering with an unearthly light. The being inside grinned and licked her lips seductively. Giles was embarrassed to find himself hardening under her gaze. "May I ask why Buffy keeps calling you cousin?" he asked.
"Later, Giles," Methos said as he pulled a knife out from its scabbard. He turned to Elvara, "My Lady, would you be willing to keep his answers honest?" he requested politely.
Elvara bowed her head, and then nodded.
Anya had been searching the room, opening one large cupboard she squealed excitedly.
"Buffy, some of the implements here date back to the inquisition...ooh, they even have crocodile shears. I'm sure we could heat them up enough for them to work...I haven't ripped anyone's penis off in nearly two hundred years."
Almost as one, every male in the room winced and fought the urge to cross their legs. “Ahn! Do you have to say things like that?” Xander whined, an almost animalistic sound of anticipated pain issuing from his throat.
Buffy laughed, “I’m sure we can think of some way to heat those up for you Anya. “ She turned to Methos and nodded once. “If anyone can glean honest answers from this waste of skin, it will be Death.”
Travers’ face went white, thinking he was to be put to death. Little did he know that he would wish that he had been.
Buffy looked over at Cassandra. “To be honest, I can’t remember if I did ban it or not.” She looked over at the axe imbedded in the wall with a thoughtful frown. She shook her head after a few moments and then nodded. “I think I did!” She laughed the sound echoing in the chamber. “Maybe we need to use the same principle for choosing Watchers!”
Giles smiled fiendishly at the thought of being pitted against a vampire. His daily workouts with Spike had kept him fit and in excellent fighting trim for a man of his years. He noticed that the watchers in the room had all gone completely white at the suggestion. Figures, they had probably never even been face to face with a vampire that wasn’t locked up and being tortured.
Giles took a deep breath "I think training watchers seems like an excellent idea. How many of you have faced a vampire? Or a Were of any kind?"
"Or a witch?" Anya asked, lifting up her hand and playing with a flame.
"Try an immortal or two?" Cassie smiled, but there was no warmth in the expression.
"Can we all stop boasting?" Elvara asked in her normal voice. "You are making the mere mortals feel a little bit inferior," she said as she pulled up a chair to sit down. "They are hiding more, Cousin." her voice had developed the echo again. "They expect you to lose here; Travers doesn't think you can really hurt him. He just fears death. Really fears it."
The blue painted man grinned evilly. "And so he should, but I think that my little one should leave," he said pointedly, looking at Elvara. "Her heart is too gentle for what is to happen."
"Go find something else to do," Buffy instructed. "And take the witches with you." She glanced over at the group of watchers and a look of impatience crossed her face. “On second thought, everyone out. And close the doors.”
A look of worried concern crossed Methos’ face. “Mother...”
“Do not argue with me. Just go. I am tired of playing with these fools.” Methos noticed that her nails had started to lengthen and he nodded, before herding everyone towards the doors. He literally had to grab Xander and push him through, as the young man kept trying to edge around him.
Haakon looked at Buffy as he put a hand in the small of Elvara's back to guide her away from the carnage that was about to ensue.
"My Lady Elizabetta, Alun still wears the tattoos of the Soturi. There are many of us who worked hard and long to be so honoured. By tradition they should be carved from his skin to be tanned and left in the temple as a warning to others," he said quietly, in the old language.
"I won’t forget," Buffy replied in the same tongue.
“What is she going to do?” Xander asked belligerently. “Why can’t we watch?”
Cassandra sighed and softly said, “You really don’t want to know.”
"You look worried," Giles commented to Methos as they escorted the ladies out of the room.
"Last time I saw her this pissed off we lost a city, as in there was nothing left standing."
Cassie pointedly shut the door, but it didn't stop the growls or the screams.
Spike could smell blood, not Buffy's, and there was a strong smell of some sort of lizard, and burning flesh.
Willow looked ill, so did Tara, but Anya just hummed a little ditty and checked her nails.
"I think we'll go and collect the woman I left upstairs," Elvara said grabbing hold of the two witches. Haakon and Spike followed them out of the basement.
As they headed up the stairs, Spike slung an arm around Haakon’s shoulders and said, “You do realize that you now have two teenage girls to call your own?” When Haakon threw him an amused glance, Spike continued with, “And to borrow your credit cards and your car keys, and keep you up all night worrying about them? Especially if it combines her red hair with your green eyes. Knock dead gorgeous is what they will be.” That said, Spike slipped away from Haakon and wrapped an arm around each of the two young witches, lending them what comfort he could as they shuddered from the screams issuing from below.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Here we go, another chapter.
Thanks again to Jamies_Lady for her ideas, prompting and prodding. Without which this would never have gotten posted.
Thanks again to Jamies_Lady for her ideas, prompting and prodding. Without which this would never have gotten posted.