Note: Thanks to my beta t_geyer for her unending patience, perseverance and support.

SECTION 4 - ANGELS AND DEMONS

I always knew that
You wanted to say
You always knew there'd
Be a price to pay


(The Tourists)




Chapter 4.13
Thursday, June 13th, 2002


Buffy was surprised but pleased when Oz followed Giles into The Magic Box. Her eyes brightened and her lips formed a spontaneous smile. "Does this mean you're staying?"

The redhead shrugged. "Till term starts again. I had to drop out of the project I was working on to come back and Giles makes it sound like you could use every body you can get." Oz's gaze raked over the bruises on Buffy's face and his nose twitched at the pungent smell of liniment that came from both her and Spike. "Seems he was right."

This time it was Buffy's turn to shrug. "It took me off guard but we got the job done."

"And if you had been alone?" Giles asked, his tone dry.

"Either I would have found a way to deal with it or I would have run-."

"Hey, Oz, man. You forget how to use a telephone?" Xander pushed the door open and immediately greeted the werewolf with a hearty handshake.

"I kinda needed to be a place that was else."

The brunette gave a conciliatory smile as he stepped back to wrap an arm around Anya's shoulders. "Well, it's good to see you, anyway." He looked around the room, taking in the two watchers, the two sisters, Spike, Tara and Rogue. "How about we get this show on the road? Apparently there was some sort of trouble at the site last night so the boss wants me in early to help assess the damage."

Buffy looked embarrassed. "We didn't blow it up this time," she argued as if she were offering a major point in her favour.

Xander rolled his eyes but before he could ask about what had happened Spike cut in to reply to the younger man's question. "We're still short a couple of bodies."

"Would those be any bodies in particular or did you just order breakfast in?" For once Xander's humour was devoid of his habitual bitterness and seemed to be just that.

Spike nodded in the direction of the parking lot at the front of the shop as someone pulled up with an unnecessary screech of rubber on asphalt. "Watcher's apprentice was pickin' up the dark slayer on her way in."

---

"Everybody clear on what they're doing?" Buffy asked.

"Isn't this kinda putting all our eggs in one basket?" Xander asked, though he was by no means the only one to look uncomfortable.

"If you can come up with a better alternative then I'll be glad to hear it."

"Well, no, but..."

"Then it's settled."

---

"You cannot seriously have believed that the council would consider such a plan."

Giles removed his spectacles and polished them with a deliberateness that matched his words when he finally replaced them and spoke once more. "I believe, Quentin, that the council has absolutely no choice in the matter whatsoever. The forces which are arrayed against you are such that you must accept what help is offered under whatever conditions we should choose to make."

"And whose assessment are we relying on as to what we face? A vampire and his consort? You know that the blood found at the scene was far less than should have been present? It would not be an unreasonable assumption that the vampire and his pet killed the girl themselves, else where did all that blood go?"

"Rant and rail against it all you want, but, unless you want those girls and your watchers picked off one by one, you will meet our perfectly reasonable requests. Good day, Quentin... Miss Chalmers."

Lydia waited until the heavy, polished wood door had closed behind Giles before she spoke.

"Should I begin the preparations, sir?"

"Do it." The watcher gave a sigh and when he looked up it was as if he had aged several years. "Rupert and I have had our differences over the years but he's no fool and he's an honourable man. He's right. If we let the girls be picked off one at a time, should any of them ever become the slayer, we will never regain their trust.

Get our man in The White House on the phone and then pass him over to me. I'll leave the other arrangements to you, my dear."

---

Buffy grabbed her jacket as the compact car pulled up outside. "You'll be here when I get back?"

"Guess that depends on the watcher..." Spike stood up from his seat next to Bee and let his gaze travel to the dining room where Wes sat cross-legged inside a circle of red sand. "Most likely, though."

"Take care." Buffy's hand reached up to stroke the vampire's cheek.

Spike gave a wicked grin. "You, too. Try not to give the drivin' instructor a heart attack."

"That is so not funny. He says I'm getting way better."

"I know you are." Spike's smile betrayed his pride. "I told you once you got over your nerves you'd be a natural. Now, bugger off. I'm payin' that guy by the hour whether you're drivin' the thing or not."

"Not even a kiss for luck?"

Spike's feet shifted closer and unconsciously Buffy held her breath, his lips inches from hers. "Since when did you need luck, kitten?" the vampire purred. "Not that I won't kiss you anyway, just because you're downright irresistible."

Bee looked up from her sketchbook to give the vamp a discouraging glance even as the door finally closed behind his fiancée. "You can't even tone it down for a couple of minutes to spare the poor woman whose every romantic involvement mutates into an asshole by the third date?"

Spike's grin showed a distinct lack of repentance. "I guess last night didn't go so well, then? We could always set you up with Rupert."

"Please! Do I look ready to raid the old folks' home? Not to mention the whole watcher/half-demon thing."

"Methinks the-."

"Shut up, blood-breath, and tell me if this is it." She passed her sketchbook over to Spike, who looked intently at the pencil drawings on the open page.

"That's the one."

"Okay, just point me in the direction of a scanner and a printer..."

---

Faith packed her few belongings with some remorse. It wasn't as if her memories of the mansion were particularly fond, but when she was there she could feel a connection to Angel. It was almost as if he were there helping her to do the right thing. Buffy probably wasn't ever going to forgive her. She was always going to be the bad slayer, always going to be judged wanting, looked down upon. Angel knew where she had been and he wanted her to make it. Maybe with someone to believe in her she just might and if she couldn't have the man himself then being somewhere that still had his touch was the next best thing.

For now, though, they were preparing to move into some very hostile territory.

---

Wes's eyes flicked open and he rose from his position on the floor. He strode into the living room, looking over the two remaining blondes and picking up a backpack that he had prepared earlier. "Are we ready to get this show on the road?"

"Bloody hell, watcher. It took way longer last time. I thought Buffy would be back before we headed out."

"Sorry to disappoint but, as we don't know how long I'll be able to maintain this for, I suggest we get a move on."

Spike picked up the pouch with the orbs and pushed them into his pocket, hating the fact that though the globes could do so much to keep Buffy safe, they couldn't risk keeping them with the council around. He picked up a couple of blankets and slipped three swords from Buffy's weapons chest in between their folds.

"Whose car are we taking?" Wes asked.

Spike gave a lopsided half smile as he passed the bundle he was carrying to the watcher. "You two can take whatever car you want. I'm going for one last daytime bike ride."

"In that case we better get a description of where the entrance to the cave system is before we head out." There followed what in effect was a game of twenty questions, since Wes couldn't actually hear the demon's replies, only make guesses from its lip movements, so that mostly Bee tried to frame questions requiring only yes or no answers. This went on for five minutes before Spike got bored and pulled a large scale map of the area out of one of the cabinets in the dining room. After that, it was a simple case of 'Left, left, left, stop. Up, stop.'

There was a clatter on the stairs as Spike picked up his sunglasses and Dawn and Tara stood in the hallway. "You weren't planning on going without saying goodbye were you?" the witch asked.

"An' have Buffy sayin' you two got a proper tarrah and she didn't?"

"Well, if sticking your tongue down her throat for ten minutes doesn't class as a proper goodbye, I hate to think what you're going to do with these two," Bee drawled sarcastically before turning on a smile for the girls. "When you finish packing, the sketch is... Well, it's in my sketchbook, which is around here somewhere, and I made copies but I..."

"Put them down somewhere?" Tara asked, familiar by now with Bee's absent mindedness. "We'll find them and if we get a chance we'll make a start on the research. And as to what we 're going to do with him ... I'm not settling for less than a hug."

As she stepped forward Spike's arms wrapped around her and held her close. "An' I can remember when she was a shy young thing," he teased.

"Yeah, well I was never shy around you," Dawn announced as she and the Wicca switched places.

"For cryin' out loud, ya daft bints, I'm comin' back, y' know."

---

Spike tried to memorise the feel of the sun's warmth on his cool flesh, the way its light reflected off the water, every last detail of the all too brief trip. Almost before it had begun he pulled in next to Bee's Sunbeam. With an occasional direction from their spirit guide they soon found the entrance to the cave. Spike stowed the blankets in an alcove off to one side, in case it was still light when they returned. Then, he passed out the swords, saving the one with the heaviest, most brutal blade for himself.

Wes pulled a medium sized Maglite from the inside pocket of his jacket, but Bee shook her head. "Save it in case we need it later." She turned to face away from the two men, her head bowed and her arms drawn in around her. Only when the change was complete did she face the men again.

Spike's jaw hung open as her radiance illuminated the area for several feet around her. "Knew you weren't entirely human, pet, but it never occurred for a second that you was one of them ."

"Get over it, curly. And I'm only half one of them. Now, pass the orbs over to Wes. Tara seemed to reckon that she got some sort of feel for what it was thinking when she carried them while the spell was in effect. Chances are he should get some sort of feel for what's the right way, or at least get an uncomfortable feeling if we go the wrong way or something."

Spike handed over the orbs and, as Wes seemed to get his bearings and set off with Bee by his side illuminating the way, the vampire followed on behind. "Hi-bloody-ho!" he muttered loudly as they set off downward into the dark.