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Chapter 16

Spike and Buffy were conversing quietly when Anne showed back up at the house with several shopping bags. She thrust them into Buffy’s hands. “Hopefully our tastes are still similar,” the older, blonder Slayer said softly.

Buffy bit her lip for a second. She was overwhelmed with gratitude over the other woman’s actions. It had been so long since anyone had shown her any kindness that the turned Slayer was unsure how to react. “Thanks, I’m sure everything will be fine.”

Anne turned to Spike. “We’ll be having a Scooby meeting after dark to plan how to take care of the Master.”

Buffy shivered at the thought of facing the vampire that had drowned her. He scared her almost as much as Angel did now.

Anne noticed Buffy’s reaction to the mention of the Master. She turned to give the vampiress a small smile. “If Angel hadn’t done what he did, Xander would have revived you, and you would have gone on to kick old punch mouth’s ass.”

“Is that what you did?” Buffy looked at Anne with curiosity.

“Sure did.” Anne nodded. Then she gave a sly grin. “Met my version of blondie here a few months later.”

Buffy gave Spike a wide eyed look. “Did you hit it right off?”

“Oh, you could say that,” Anne said with a chuckle. “We hit it off as enemies.”

“What changed?” Buffy looked interested.

Anne shrugged. “He got caught by the Initiative and ended up with a chip that fired when he tried to hurt humans. Then, I died again, which I don’t recommend. Things were pretty crappy for a couple of years until we started this journey.”

“You gonna tell us about all this Immortal Guardian crap now?” Spike arched his eyebrow at the living Slayer.

“Are you sure you’re ready to hear all of this?” Anne looked back and forth between the two vampires. “Buffy just got out of one impossible situation, and you want to tell her about another one?”

Spike glanced at Buffy. “I think it’s for the best, Slayer. We need to know our options up front.”

Anne nodded slowly. “Let’s go get comfortable.” She headed for the living room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later, Anne took a deep breath, and ended her tale with, “And that’s where we are right now.”

“Wow, that’s a tale and a half,” Buffy murmured. She glanced over at Spike, who had been listening to Anne’s tale just as intently as she had. “That’s quite a list of bad things that could happen. Do you think Angel lost his soul, and that’s why he did what he did to me?”

Xander and Anya entered the house just in time to hear Buffy’s question, and Anya felt the need to speak up, “No, it wasn’t you. It was Darla. She cursed him when he dusted her.”

“Buffy, I’ve missed you.” Xander gave his old friend a bright smile before his face fell. “I’m really sorry we left you in the hands of that scum. If we had any inkling that you were alive, we would have rescued you.”

“I know, Xander.” Buffy gave Xander a reassuring smile. “You’re forgiven.”

“We’re here for the meeting, Anne.” Xander turned to the older Slayer. “Who all are we expecting tonight?”

Anne tilted her head in thought. “Well, Giles and Serina will be here for sure. I’ve contacted Clem and a couple other demons that weren’t inherently evil as well as the deputy mayor. The Initiative isn’t an issue at this point. So, that’s no help at all. RoseSeri is coming with her husband and the other wives.”

“Council won’t help, I can already tell you that.” Xander escorted Anya to a chair. “Giles has tried and tried to get them to send some kind of reinforcements, but they keep refusing. That’s how we ended up with Serina and the coven members here.”

“Giles did get to talk to that guy Reginald Bey that Ripper suggested.” Anne turned to pick up a notepad on an end table. “Someone will need to go pick him up at the airport in two days, and I don’t drive.” She shook her head. “William won’t let me ever again since I banged up his pile of crap car.”

Spike pointed at Buffy. “You! Are! Not! Driving! My! Baby!”

Buffy held up her hands in mock surrender. “I’ll take Anne’s word on it that we’re terrible drivers.”

Anne grinned at Xander who was watching with an amused look on his face. “You’re lucky you missed the whole band candy thing. My Xander refused to get in the car with me after that. In fact, I think he learned to drive just so he could be the driver.” She gave a small laugh.

Xander gave a small chuckle. He was in a good mood, just having had the date of a lifetime with Anya. He even had an idea for some backup for the plan to take out the Master. “What about contacting the Slayer without going through channels? Her Watcher is some guy named Wesley Pryce. Maybe if we talked to him directly he’d be willing to listen.”

Anne nibbled on her lip. “I don’t know about that. Wesley was pretty uptight when he first came to Sunnydale. He was very much a Council man.”

“You know the Slayer’s Watcher too?” Xander’s jaw dropped. “Is there anyone you don’t know?”

Anne chuckled as she shrugged. “The supernatural community isn’t that big you know. There’s more civvies than there are of us.”

“I could ask Hoffy for some help,” Anya said. “I’m sure he’ll spare a demon or two to help.”

Anne looked thoughtful for a moment. “Okay, that’ll work. Just not that Halfrek chick. I really didn’t like her.”

“What’s wrong with Hallie?” Anya asked. “She’s been a good friend for a long time.” So far she found Anne to be very interesting. She didn’t like that it seemed her best friend wouldn’t be welcome around the Slayer.

“About 120 years or so, right?” Anne glanced at Spike. “William recognized her. Cecily got herself ascended into demon hood.”

Anya also glanced at Spike. “The man she finally married abused her and her children. After he killed them, she killed him in a nasty enough way that it attracted Hoffy’s attention. She’s now the patron saint of neglected children.”

“Well, goodie for her,” Spike said sarcastically. “I haven’t given a damn about Cecily since I was turned.”

“Good, let’s keep it that way,” Buffy growled. She was already feeling very possessive of the bleached blond vamp. Boy, did that revelation surprise her.

Anne secretly smiled while she got to her feet. “I’m gonna go make sure that there’s goodies for the meeting.” She went off towards the kitchen.

Buffy got a look of horror on her face. “Kitchens and Buffy are really not mixy. Somebody better get in there with her before she burns the house down.”

“I heard that,” Anne’s voice drifted in from the other room. “I defrost pizza just as good as the next Slayer.”

“See?” Buffy appealed to the others. “She’s sure to burn us down.”

“We’ll go help,” Xander chuckled. “Maybe we can just call out for pizza, or Hassib can bring some donuts.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The rental place called,” Dee said when William entered the hotel room. “The RV has been returned. Can we get out of this weird town now?”

“Yeah.” William rubbed his hands together. “Who’s gonna drive the poofter’s car back to Sunnyhell?”

“Since I’m the poofter in question, it should be me,” Liam replied. “Like I’m going to let you drive a car of mine, William.”

“Hmm, I seem to remember a certain Viper I drove around a lot,” William replied. “Besides, you can’t drive into Sunnyhell alone, or someone might think you’re Angel. You’ll get staked.” He paused for a moment. “On second thought, please do.”

Dee smacked William’s arm. “Don’t be ugly. Oz and Willow can drive the convertible. The rest of us will be in the RV. That way we can drive during the day time too.”

William sighed. “Let’s hope this RV trip is less traumatic than the last one.” He went into the other hotel room to check on the packing.

“What was that about?” Willow asked. “He’s not too thrilled about RVs.”

Dee shrugged. “Last time we had knights with big sticks chasing us. Giles got stabbed, and I got kidnapped.”

“Yeah,” Anyanka said in a bored voice. “It was a thrill ride.”

“We’ll be there by midnight if we get the lead out.” William came back from the other room. “Nibblet, use the loo, I’m not stopping in twenty miles cuz you gotta go.”

“Yes, sir.” Dee gave William a mock salute, and she quickly ducked away from the pillow thrown her way by him on her way to the bathroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Angel fought against the straight jacket that surrounded his body. He had expected to break free with in seconds, but to his amazement it didn’t happen. His nose told him he was in a hospital or similar place. The air was filled with the scent of bleach, medicine, urine, vomit, and other smells that made him glad he didn’t have to breath.

“You can’t break out of the jacket,” a disembodied voice said from the ceiling.

Angel looked up at the camera that was recording his every movement. If he had been able, he would have flipped whoever was on the other side off.

“It was designed for creatures of your nature in mind,” the voice continued. “Don’t worry though. You won’t be with us for very long. A Dr. Maggie Walsh is on her way to pick you up.”

“Who the fuck is that?” Angel muttered.





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