FIC: Through Thick and Thin (Chapter 2: Surprise)

["cilia" <cilia@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hey all...

Okay the story is getting a little bit more interesting I'm still setting up
the plot (if you can call it that) Any questions on this about things that
aren't making sense in the story so far?

1. Gilse returns home and shows just how hard bodiet he's become.
2. Faith turnes into a puddle on the floor.
3. More of Al'x and Stjar'a (I really have to get that thing clear myself
BTW)
4. Buffy, Willow and Spike go to London baby!

Stefan Cilia

Through Thick and Thin

Cilia

Chapter 2: Surprise

"Spike what happened to you?" Buffy asked after they'd patched the vampire
up and planted him on the couch.
"Don't know. I stepped of the jet and before I knew it I was being chased."
"Did you see them?" Willow asked as she offered him a mug and some crackers.
"No, but I heard and smelled them." He said.
"Not much to go. So that brings us to our next question. Why are you here
Spike?" Buffy asked.
"I got an message." He said and pulled out the palmtop.
"Who's this X?" Willow asked.
"I think it's Xander." Spike answered.
"Come on Spike, he wouldn't call you 'buddy' in a million years." Buffy said
and glanced at the message.
"Well then who else, assuming that it's not just what it is, a X." Willow
said.
"Still that's not the point, somehow sends me warning and then less then two
days later I'm attacked."
"Think it might have something to do with the disk?" Buffy asked.
"Not sure, wouldn't doubt it though."
"So what to we do now?" Willow asked.
"We get to Spike's jet and get the hell out of Dodge." Buffy answered.
"So the vacation over?" Willow asked.
"I'm sorry Wills." Buffy said in a soft voice.
"Don't be." Willow answered and kissed her softly.
"Ahem! Red, Slayer!" Spike said after a moment.
"Oops! Sorry Spike." Willow said as her cheeks flushed.



* * * * *



Punch! Kick! Punch! Kick! Giles pounded the sandbag relentlessly.
Faith grumbled in her bed and pulled a pillow over her head.
"It's not even dawn!" She shouted and the pounding stopped.
"Much better." She murmured and closed her eyes, then when it had been
silent for a while she opened her eyes.
Wonder if he's passed out. She thought as she wrapped a sheet around her and
walked down the stairs. She opened the doors to the basement and they
creaked.
Oh my god! She thought as she reached the final step.



* * * * *



"Stop fidgeting Al'x." Stjar'a ordered her companion. Her hair completely
covering her ears.
"I hate these things." He answered and pulled at his tie.
"Well it was either this rather nice Armani or the leather armor and I doubt
they'd let you on the plane in that."
"Now stop that." She said as she ran her hand trough his hair. She was
always amazed that it hadn't turned silver like hers. Still a lifetime under
the moon, was nothing compared to seven short years and he was after all
only human. She smiled, how arrogant she'd been when she first met him and
how he'd proven her wrong. That was a long time ago, or at least in the term
of human years.
"I'm just glad we got all the accessories through customs." He said.
"What to you plan to do when we get there?" She asked
"Look up someone I knew once." He answered.
"A lover?
"If she's sill around, although she was more of fling." He answered.
"You never told about an lover on the Hellmouth."
"It was along time ago." He answered.



* * * * *



Oh my god! Faith thought and nearly dropped the sheet. Before her stood the
ex-Watcher Rupert Giles, nicknamed G-man and Ripper, well he wasn't
standing, moving actually, quite gracefully and sporting knee length slacks,
but not much else besides that. Performing katas with an obsidian sword. She
remembered fighting him in practice, but he hadn't been so. so. hard, every
muscle clearly visible and rippling as he moved and unlike Buffy she had no
ethical dilemmas about fantasizing about the ex-watcher.
"Morning." He said after he'd finished and saw her standing at the bottom of
the stairs.
"I didn't wake you did I?" He asked.
Speak. Her mind ordered. He's just a man. It's not like you haven't seen one
before. When she opened her mouth he was already dressed in a baggy
sleeveless undershirt and smirking.
"Would you like some breakfast." He asked as he walked passed her.
"That would be nice." She answered. Come on girl mop yourself up of the
floor. Her mind reprimanded her.



"Giles?" Wesley asked when he stepped into the kitchen.
"Morning Wesley." Giles nodded and watched as Wesley took his seat.
"You're back!" He then stated.
"Only for few days and then I'm off again."
"You look good." He then said. That he does. Faith thought. Her mouth had
gone dead several minutes ago.
"May I ask where you've been for the last year?" Wesley asked as he poured
himself a cup of tea.
"A Monastery in the south of France, for the most part."
"And aside from that?"
"Traveling mostly." Giles answered and sipped his tea.
"The Council has been looking for you?"
"I know. I ran into one of their agents." Giles nodded.
"You put the man in a hospital according to the reports."
"I did no such thing." Giles exclaimed. "He simply got in the way." He said
with a grin and Faith chuckled.
"Caught between you and a dozen vampires." Wesley went on.
"More like two dozen actually." Giles corrected.
"Hanging on the side of a truck you used to ram the vampires, you then spun
it around, causing him to fly away and coming to a halt in a bed of poison
ivies and he then rolled out that into a patch wild roses, with thorns and
lots of them I might add according to the report,." Wesley exclaimed and by
now Faith was laughing out loud.
"Like I said. He got in the way." Spike said and sipped his tea again.







* * * * *



"Where to sir?" The pilot asked as Spike stepped aboard the jet.
"London." Spike said.
"Why London, all the data I've collected points to Egypt." Buffy said.
"The disk isn't longer a top priority Buffy, now I someone in London who
might be able to help us." Spike said.
"Did you just call her Buffy?" Willow asked in amassment.
"That means the situation is bad." Buffy explained.
"And we need to go to the Museum." He added.
"Really bad." Buffy said.
"Hey nothing we can't handle right." Willow said and pulled a flower from
thin air.
"So your and illusionist now are you." Buffy said and kissed her cheek.
Spike threw a bag on the floor and sat down.
"Going to war Spike?" Buffy asked as he started to sort out the weapons.
"I don't make the same mistakes twice." He stated.
"Could have fooled me." Buffy said.
"The Past is the past Slayer."
Buffy shrugged and want to lie down besides Willow.
Time to get tougher. Spike thought to himself.



Two nights later.
The National History Museum in London.



"Spike I'm going to skin you alive." Buffy yelled as she took down the
latest attacker.
"This isn't my fault." He yelled back and punched the one in front if him.
"I'm with Buffy on the skinning part." Willow said as she casually zapped an
attacker. "Who are these guys anyway?" She asked as she elbowed another, who
'd tried to sneak up behind her, in the face.
"Cultist, red robes and pentagrams, do the math." Spike said with sarcasm as
he sent one flying. He bent down and ripped the symbol of another.
"They're on the run." Willow shouted.
"And so are we!" Spike said and turned to leave.
"Good idea." Buffy said as she followed him.
"Shouldn't we at least fix this?" Willow asked.
"How in the name of." The question died on Spike's lips and Willow waved her
hand and the place was covered in a golden glow and then it was like the
battle had never happened.
"How did." Spike asked.
"Magic Spike, I've just learned control that's all." Willow answered as she
took Buffy's arm.
"I'm proud of you Wills." She said with a smile.
"Spike lets go find this friend of yours." She called as they disappeared
down the hole in the floor.
Spike looked around and shook his head. He looked down and the pentagram. It
was a little odd there was a circle in the center and two lines through the
top of two of the points. Better talk to Buffy about this. He thought as
dropped through the hole and it disappeared.