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Hidden Agendas by angelic_amy
 
Break In.
 
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Chapter 17: Break in.


Giles placed the teapot onto the tray with the cups and lifted it from the bench, carrying it into the living room. Dawn was sitting in an armchair, her focus on the television screen as she flipped through the channels with the remote. Buffy was sitting on the sofa she had slept on, wiping her bleary eyes as she stifled a yawn.

“Didn’t you get much sleep last night?” he asked with concern. He had meant to place the tray on the coffee table, but since Spike and Angel had destroyed it last night that wasn’t possible. He stood still for a moment looking around the room with an expression of annoyance on his face.

“I can bring in a chair from the dining room?” Dawn offered as she got up from her seat and returning a moment later with said item. She placed it in the middle of the room, careful not to place it in the line of sight of the television for both herself and Buffy, before she settled back into her armchair.

Giles smiled with gratitude as he placed the tray onto it and poured Buffy a cup of tea. She had insisted on coffee, but having found none in the kitchen she was going to have to settle for his drink of choice. Buffy accepted the mug, cupping it with both hands as she blew on the top of it to cool it down.

“Not much.” She said belatedly answering Giles question. “My mind wouldn’t let me rest, thinking about too many things.”

Giles noted the look of pain that crossed Buffy’s face and suspected that is had less to do with her wound and more with whatever had been spoken with Angel last night. Deciding to hold off on questioning her about it until a later time he handed both girls a plate with some freshly cooked toast on it, which they both readily accepted.

“Judging by the time, I would assume Dawn that you won’t be attending school today?” Giles asked with a questioning brow.

“Crap!” Buffy cursed. “I completely forgot that it was a school day.”

She fixed her stare on her younger sister. “Dawn…” she said pointedly.

“What?” Dawn said with faux innocence which neither Giles nor Buffy accepted. “Come on! Can’t I stay home today? Please? You just got out of the hospital and --”

“And nothing.” Buffy cut short. “You’ve missed enough as it is. I’ll call Xander, see if he can give you a ride.”

Dawn pouted. “Please?”

“No Dawn.” Buffy said firmly with a firm stare. “Go get changed, if Xander answers his phone you’ll be there before the end of first period.”

Dawn grumbled the entire way up the stairs to her room.

Buffy called Xander on his cell phone and she was glad when he agreed to come pick up her sister. He had been planning to come over so that he could drop Giles at the Magic Box anyway, so it would just be a short detour.

Sighing as she placed the telephone back in the receiver she slowly stood up from where she was sitting on the sofa. “I should probably get changed as well if I’m going to be seen in public.” She said with a wry smile as she left the room.

~~~

Anya approached the front door to the Magic Box her key at the ready to unlock the front door when she notice that the front door was open ajar. Approaching it cautiously, she pushed it open fully before she stepped inside.

She gasped when she saw what was inside.

~~~

“All ready.” Buffy said lightly as she slowly made her way down the stairs. She was dressed in jeans and sneakers, a loose fitting yellow tank top and navy sweater that zipped up completing her change of clothing.

Both Dawn and Giles were waiting for her by the front door, Dawn dressed for school and Giles wearing the same clothes he had worn the night before. They were looking slightly worse for wear; the shirt was rumpled suggesting that he had slept in it. But she knew that he kept some clothing at the shop for the odd occasion that he spent a whole night there doing research so he would be able to change once they arrived.

Locking the front door behind them, they all piled into the car and Xander pulled out of the driveway.

~~~

“Ahn?” Xander called as he approached the Magic Box, frowning when he noticed that the front door was wide open. “Anya?”

He stepped inside the shop, his eyes widening at the destruction he was met with. The shelves had been ransacked, smashed pottery littering the floor and books were strewn everywhere. A gasp behind him signaled Buffy and Giles’ entrance, both wearing similar expressions of dismay.

Anya exited from the back office, muttering under her breath about insurance policies, a broom and pan in her hands. She noticed the arrivals, glaring at them all as she swept an arm out to indicate the shop and its current state of disarray.

“Do you see what they’ve done to my shop?” She cried in annoyance. “Our shop.” She corrected a moment later when she caught the frown on Giles’ face. “Hundred’s of dollars worth of damage. And the profits! I don’t even want to think about the lost income.”

“Perhaps we shouldn’t be so hasty in the clean up, the insurance company--“

“…will want proof.” Anya interrupted, lifting a disposable camera from the bench where the cash register was formally situated. “I’ve already taken pictures of everything.”

“Oh, very good.” Giles said with a nod. “Carry on then.”

He turned his back on her as he made his way towards the pile of books that had been thrown carelessly on the ground, oblivious to the glares that Anya was shooting in his direction. Carefully sifting through the titles, he examined each one to make sure that none were missing, and also to check the current state that they were in. Several of the books had damaged spines and one, an obscure text on prophecies had been completely torn to pieces. He sighed in resignation as he picked up the pieces and placed them on the counter.

A gasp came from the direction of the front door and Giles, Buffy and Xander all turned to see Willow and Tara had arrived. “W-what happened?” Tara asked in shock.

“Oh! The crystals!” Willow said forlornly as she bent over to pick up a few shattered remains of a broken amethyst.

“I’m tipping Darla’s minions.” Xander said with a frown.

“Why do you have to make so many enemies?” Anya asked with annoyance. “It would save me a lot of money and clean-up effort if you were nicer to the demons in town.”

Buffy quirked an eyebrow in amusement. “That would conflict with the slaying part of my duties.”

“Well you could be nice whilst you killed all the demons.” Anya said with a shrug. “All the ACTUAL demons of course, not those who are formerly of the demon variety.”

Xander shook his head in amazement, joining Anya in her clean-up job and quietly reassuring her that she not on a list of the slayers targets.

“Giles what do you think they wanted?” Willow asked as she surveyed the damage. She stepped over as much of the broken products without shattering anything further, to join Giles in picking up the texts from the ground.

“I’m afraid we won’t be able to ascertain that until a full stock take is completed, and even then…” Giles shook his head in resignation. Almost all of the stock would have to be thrown out, only a few items were salvageable. He was just relieved that the books weren’t as damaged as they could have been.

Buffy had her arms folded in front of her chest, a frown of contemplation washing her features. A thought suddenly occurred to her and she quickly made her way into the training room, letting out a sigh of relief when she found that it was relatively undamaged. A couple of boxes had been tipped over, but apart from that, everything was in its place.

Including all of the weapons.

“Weird.” She mumbled.

“Did you find anything Buffy?” Xander called out as he joined her in the back room.

She shook her head to the negative. It didn’t make sense. Why would they ransack the rest of the shop, shatter almost every breakable object, but not touch the weapons? The arsenal in the back room contained enough short blades, crossbows and swords to arm, well a small army.

“They didn’t take anything.” She said with a puzzled frown.

Xander surveyed the room, equally mystified. “Well that says a lot about Darla’s smarts. Or lack of.” He said with a half grin. “That’s a good thing right? That they were stupid enough to not think of taking your weapons?”

“Perhaps not.” Giles said as he joined the pair in the back room, holding an empty velvet lined wooden box in his hand, whatever had been inside it was no longer there.

“What is it Giles?” Buffy asked.

“This box formerly contained the Dagger of Cortanzine.” He informed.

Buffy looked to Xander to see if this meant anything to him, but he just shrugged his shoulders. “I’m in blanksville here Giles.” She quipped.

“Well considering history was never one of your favourite subjects I’m not surprised.” Giles said with a light smile. “The dagger which was contained in this box was said to hold mystical properties.”

“Magical blade.” Buffy surmised. “Isn’t there like dozens of them all with different purposes?” she asked.

Giles blinked in surprise. “You actually listened to that lecture?”

Buffy shrugged her shoulders, a smug grin on her face. “You were talking about sharp pointy things. It was interesting, not like all those other speeches on stuff like the history of the quarterstaff.”

Xander snickered as Buffy scoffed, the grin disappearing off his face when Giles shot him a disapproving look. “I think I hear Anya calling me…” he said slowly as he made his way back into the shop.

“No I didn’t!” Anya’s voice sang out from the other room, causing Buffy to chuckle. When she heard Giles clearing his throat and caught the eye roll he shot in the direction of the main room of the shop, she wiped the smile off her face and tried to replace it with a more serious one. But it was difficult with the sounds of Anya and Xander’s bickering floating throughout the shop.

“Go on, you were saying, mystical blade.” Buffy urged.

“The Dagger of Cortanzine is not only an incredibly sharp and deadly weapon, it is also rumoured to be a devourer of souls.”

Giles had Buffy’s complete attention now. “It’s a soul sucker? How can a blade eat a persons soul?” she cried out in alarm and disbelief, the joviality in her stance and tone from moments earlier completely dissipating. This was bad, very bad.

“I’m not all together certain.” Giles said as he pondered that thought for a moment. “I had been looking for a way to destroy the blade, it’s an incredibly dangerous weapon, especially in the wrong hands.”

“Like it is now.” Buffy said with a dejected sigh. She began to ramble as her thoughts fell from her mouth. “What are we going to do? What do you think they are going to do? Whose soul would she be after?”

She gasped with sudden awareness. Darla, soul sucking blade, Angel.

“She wants Angelus.”

“Oh dear.” Giles said as he removed his glasses. “Yes that is a definite possibility.”

Buffy began to panic. It was the most feasible reason she could think of. It wouldn’t be for her, Darla wouldn’t bother with stealing her soul from her. She would just want her dead. And Dawn… well Buffy still had no idea how Dawn fit into this whole thing. She was starting to think that maybe Willow had been right with her suggestion from the other night. Maybe Darla was just taking advantage of a weakness.

She hoped that was all that it was, that Dawn wasn’t somehow involved in Darla’s plans for resurrecting the Master. One crazy blond after her sister at a time was enough for Buffy to have to deal with. Glory was still a threat, but things had been quite for a couple of weeks now. And Buffy intended on taking advantage of this interlude to deal with Darla and stop her plans.

The Master.

Buffy shivered. Just thinking his name was enough to cause all of the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end and send a chill down her spine. The last thing she wanted was for him to be walking the earth again.

Whatever Darla had planned, they would figure it out soon enough.

“We need to let the others know about this, if they bump into Darla or one of her minions while they’ve got this blade…” she trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought out loud.

“We’ll tell them now.” Giles said softly, placing a hand on Buffy’s shoulder in an action meant to sooth her. “It’s probably best if the group stays together after dark, it’s not safe for anyone to travel by themselves.”

Buffy nodded mutely, leaving Giles’ side and walking towards the door to share this new information and suspected plan of Darla’s with the rest of her friends.

~~~

Darla was reclining on a sofa, turning the sharp little blade over in her hand when she heard a knock on the door. Having been expecting Jake to return via the sewer tunnels from the Alibi Room around about now, she called out permission for entrance.

The young vampire entered the room, a broad smile stretched across his face as he approached her. “It is done mistress.” He informed as he knelt before her, taking one of her hands in his and kissing her knuckles. He revered her as she was meant to be. If it weren’t for her he would still be weak, he would still be human. She had given him strength, power, immortality and even the pleasure of sharing her bed. That; was the most rewarding of all.

“This pleases me.” Darla purred, beckoning Jake with a curled finger to join him on the sofa.

Jake eagerly crawled up from his kneeling position to join her, raining kisses up her arm as he moved closer to her.

“Did the snitch buy it?” she asked with a raised brow referring to Willy, the proprietor of the Alibi room. He was the last in a long line of informants that Darla was aware that both Angel and Buffy sourced for information on occasion.

“Every word.” Jake assured as he continued his worship of her body. “You should have seen the look on his face when he ‘overheard’ the details for the resurrection ceremony. The other vampires in the bar as well, they all believe that the Master will arise again.”

Darla joined Jake in laughter. “Very good. You are fast becoming a very useful asset.”

Jake dipped his head in pride. “I live to serve you.”

“And serve me you have.” A coy expression shifted across her face. “However may I reward you?”

A carnal grin stretched across Jake’s face. “However you see fit mistress.”

Darla grabbed Jake around the neck and wrapped herself around him, catapulting them both off the sofa and onto the ground.



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