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Author's Chapter Notes:
nastiness mentioned, nothing graphic. only a few more chapters for those hanging in there.
come on review, you kow you want to, its the only payment we get:)
Four hours. Four bloody hours and Giles, Willow and the other magic users still hadn’t managed to break Travers.

Giles threw the book he’d been looking through across the table in exasperation. He felt more Ripper that Rupert at that moment and was desperately trying to control it.

‘Having a little trouble are we Rupert? Comes of working with children. I’m sure Ethan would have been able to deal with what ever it was you wanted by now,’ taunted Travers.

Giles growled and turned his back on the old head of the council.

‘You need to learn to control yourself. Perhaps if I told you how I did it, you might live as long as I have, and then you may be old enough to learn a little control,’ Quentin Travers continued. Giles pointedly ignored him and reached for another Grimoire. There must be a spell somewhere to strip the warlock of his powers. There had to be. But what ever they found Travers simply brushed aside. You couldn’t strip the powers until you could breach his defences, you couldn’t breach the defences until the powers were stripped. It was a vicious circle. And if Willow failed they would all die. Giles knew it, so did Spike and Buffy.

Buffy had started looking into escape roots for Rachael, Xander and Dawn and whoever else they could get through the gate. Marcus had asked that Isabel and Matilda be amongst the squad and Buffy had agreed. They had to protect the children. They had set up a second doorway in the ballroom and had made ready the defences they would need to protect the escapees should the situation arise. Dawn was far from happy. She wanted to stay but she was the only one that could open a second door if it were needed.

Travers kept taunting them. All you could hear was his voice calling them names. His comments about the girls had cleared the room: no one likes being referred to as a bitch or a whore. Rachael ran crying from the taunts when he called her a tramp for sleeping with both Xander and Willow.

Willow wanted to muffle the sounds coming from him, but nothing was working. He seemed to be able to counter all their spells. But the circle held. It wouldn’t forever. They had about fifteen hours more at most.

‘How’s that bitch Rosalind, Marcus, I haven’t seen her in far too long. Does she still scream when she hears my name? I’ll never forget how Sophia screamed so nicely when I slit her stomach open. You would have enjoyed the blood, it spurted everywhere. Her pleas and cries for Mummy were delicious.’

Marcus lost his temper. He jumped into the prison circle and tried to break Travers’ neck, but couldn’t. The thought of his daughter crying and begging like that sent him into his demon face. He bit at Travers but his blows and bites were useless. Not one of them succeeded. Travers had laughed, simply laughed at them all and, reaching up his hands, straightened his spine as if there were nothing wrong.

The paralysing spell Buffy had used had worn off after two hours, leaving Travers wandering around the circle. He couldn’t break it, but keeping it strong was starting to tire Willow out completely. The coven in England had linked on to Willow feeding her energy; Giles had used every fortification and strengthening spell he could find. They had even handed over her breathing and heart functions to Rachael in an attempt to allow her to use what power she had to keep the circle intact. They hadn’t expected this bit to take so long. Releasing his powers should have taken minutes, not hours. But hours it had been.

Willow was forgiven every miscast spell and bad choice she had ever made as her hair went whiter and whiter and she tapped into the Great Mother in an effort to defeat the Warlock they had captured.

Angel and the Slayerettes had examined every inch of the room he had been in. Looking out of the window they saw that it was part of a modern looking castle: all straight lines and sheer walls. There didn’t seem to be any one around. The whole place had been deserted. No demons, no humans, just empty rooms everywhere.

The dust on some of the floors indicated that no-one had been in some of the spaces for years. All they could find was in that original room. Orb after Orb. Book after book and financial records going back hundreds of years. The new Council would really be rich.

Buffy headed across to the table where the first bag of Orbs of Thesula had been unloaded. She was curious. The coloured lights shone and sparkled inside the globe. She picked it up for a closer look and saw a girl’s face inside the smoke. It looked familiar, but she couldn’t place it at the moment. She tried not to listen to the filth coming out of Travers’ mouth. She was getting a little fed up at being called a whore, and they’d had to ban Spike and Angel from the room. Travers had annoyed the two vampires so much that they were both threatening to eat him. But Willow had told them that they couldn’t. He wouldn’t die, just give them indigestion!!

Spike and Angel wanted to keep guard. They needed to do something positive, and that was all they could think of. Buffy got fed up with them both brooding and sent them off on patrol. Evening had come and no-one had noticed.

Xander made drinks, got pastries and tried to keep everyone focused. Buffy was tired, bone weary. She had come back buzzing from the energy flowing through her, but now she just wanted to sleep.

Br. Roberto came up to her where she lay on the couch and pulled a blanket over her.

‘Sleep, little one. There is nothing you can do to help and we will need your strength later if the witch fails. It seems strange to me that I should be praying for a witch to remain strong. Our church has been trying to wipe them out for centuries, but at this moment I am really glad we failed.’ He added with a smile.

‘I don’t know if I can sleep Roberto, every time I close my eyes I think of the hundreds of slayers that man has helped kill: Kendra, Louise, the one before me, Nikki Wood, I mean he drew their essence off of them and used those he was supposed to protect just to extend his life. It’s not as if we don’t go anywhere afterwards. I mean: been there, seen the gates, felt the love. We carry on until the next adventure, but he couldn’t, could he. He wanted power and that’s only available here. He’s killed hundreds, or at least had them killed. He would have had me killed as well. Left me for the master, but Xander brought me back. Didn’t get to heaven that time.’

‘I wonder why not?’

‘Wasn’t dead for long enough, I suppose. Was the second time, when I jumped off the tower. They didn’t see that one coming. Giles said I should have killed Dawn rather than let Glory win, but I found the third way. Hurt Spike though. He really missed me, said he would have dusted himself if I hadn’t made him promise to look after Dawnie.’

‘And I would have, sweetheart.’ The blond Vampire added as he came into the room. ‘I would have but Dawn made me live and you came back. 147 days later, but you came back.’

Buffy could feel the pain radiating off Spike as he remembered those dark days.

‘Hey: I’m here and I love you, you bagged your third slayer anyway didn’t you, just not the way you meant.’

Spike lifted her hand and kissed it. Buffy started to melt then sat straight up and shouted, ‘Nikki Wood!’

‘Don’t mean to break the moment love, but she was a girl…’

‘I know,’ Buffy said as she pushed the blanket clear of her legs and ran back to the room with the Orbs of Thesula, shouting for Giles as she went. Brother Roberto and Spike followed, puzzled at her behaviour.

‘The orbs, they hold Souls. We used it for the re-souling spell we used on Angel. What if that’s where the slayers are, all of them? In the Orbs. I thought I recognised the face. I saw a picture of Nikki Wood on Robin’s desk once,’ she explained breathlessly and started searching through the hundreds of Orbs that they had collected.

‘Here it is. No, not that one.’

‘What’s going on?’ Giles asked as he watched Buffy running around the tables that had been set up.

‘Buffy thinks the Orbs contain the souls of the slayers that have died.
I wasn’t dead long enough first time, thanks to Xander, so didn’t get caught. The second time you weren’t expecting ME to die, Giles, you told me to kill Dawn. Who told you that?’

‘Travers: oh my God, he didn’t expect your death, he wasn’t ready for it.’

‘So I made it to heaven. First slayer to do so in hundreds of years.
His power supply, the reason Willow can’t break him, it’s the Orbs.’





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