Graile - Chapter 7 - Intermission 2
by Connor_Mac
[reviews]
Graile
Chapter 7 - Intermission II
By: MacBeth
Disclaimers: Slight underage drinking. Not full-blown alcoholism, I simply enjoy a scotch now and then. Joss' creations remain his. Montrose is the "property" of Davis/Panzer.
Author's Note: I've had this on the back burner for a while. Gave it a polish.
Archive: Paradox761's FF Archive & Slightly Over the Edge.
In Dedication to A.I.L.
* * *
Jokovich Breadworks
Manhattan, New York
Jack Covington pulled into the parking space between Aki's Jeep Wrangler and Deanna's vintage 67 Mustang. As he turned the key to kill the engine, the muscular Irishman stretched long and hard. Sighing, he slipped a faded photograph into his pocket and pulled his knapsack and bomber jacket from the passenger seat. Looking up at the old brick building, he grinned. "Home."
Opening the front door of the renovated Bakery/warehouse, he dropped his keys into a wide
Chippewa basket set on a pedestal adjacent to the coat rack next to the front door. Jack hung his bomber jacket on a peg by the key bowl and walked forward through a side doorway into a very well appointed and well-used kitchen. Lucius looked up from his newspaper and smiled at the arriving Irishman. "Hey Jack."
"Luc." Jack nodded and walked to the glass-fronted refrigerator and peered in at the contents. "Nice shopping. How'd the Yankees do?"
"They won. 6 to 4" The smirking chocolate skinned man looked up from the paper and resumed perusing the sports page. "And how was California?"
"Excruciatingly painful." Opening the door, Jack reached a hand in to grab a drink when a slim pale hand brusquely reached past and snagged a plastic baggie of O+ from a little rack set into the side of the colder section of the refrigerator. "Hello Deanna." He said to the hand, pulling a bottle of dark red wine from a special wine rack set in a lower area beneath the blood.
"How was California?" the Vampire nearly sounded interested, "Was "She" there?" Deanna emphasized, wiggling her eyebrows in an obscene manner. The lanky vampiress perched her black leather clad hips onto a well-used butcher's block and leaned over with her hands against her knees, her baggie set before her momentarily forgotten. A stray lock of inky black hair drifted in front of her eyes, which Jack pushed back over her ear.
"Yes. She was there, and as beautiful as ever." Jack nipped the cork out of the bottle and drank deeply, as Deanna bit through the rubbery plastic and drained the packet.
Simultaneously, they sighed in deep satisfaction.
"Could you please not do that? We have glasses." Lucius groused, looking sick, "Because of you two I can't stand to drink wine." He stood, folded his newspaper, and walked to the espresso machine in the corner for a refill.
Deanna smiled devilishly, "What about Cherry Kool-aid?" She winked over at Jack.
"And V8?" Jack asked, starting to relax from his long drive.
Lucius looked calmly at them both before shaking his head and leaving the room, "I hate you both so much." Once he was out of sight, he smiled. "It's like living in a madhouse around here." He mumbled, heading for the spiral stair in the corner.
The two friends shared laughter as a wiry thin goateed young man wandered in, his eyes bleary from twelve hours of deep healing sleep. "Hey Jack. When did you get in?" he yawned, slipping his hand into his unbuttoned shirt to press softly on the wide swath of bandages wrapped tightly around his midsection. Shuffling over, he leaned close to Deanna and kissed her cheek softly.
Jack ignored the almost blushing vampire and nodded to the man's waist. "How're the ribs?"
"Healing." Pike shrugged, sliding his free hand around Deanna's waist. "How was California?" Feeling Deanna tense slightly, he squeezed her tenderly.
"Painful, as always." Jack smiled, lifting the bottle to his lips for another drink. "Oh, Pike, your
Cds are in the trunk. Funny, I never figured you for a Journey fan." He grinned as he left the kitchen, following Lucius up the staircase. Pausing, he heard
Deanna and Pike tease over each other's music preferences before ascending the staircase.
Once onto the fifth floor, he paused, noting Lucius had settled in the library to read the rest of the Times and listen to some Motown out of Jack's extensive vinyl collection. Jack returned to the stair and moved slowly down the fifth floor hall towards his bedchambers; one of two rooms in the large building no one in his crew normally entered out of respect. Opening the oak double doors, he grinned at the slumbering teenager curled up in his large black leather armchair, a tiffany floor lamp illuminating the heavily curtained room. The thick curtains had been closed before he left, shrouding the room in inky darkness. Moving to one window, he stepped on a bronze floor stud the size and shape of a half cut baseball. Almost silently the heavy curtains parted, bathing the room in midmorning sunlight.
As the daylight settled over most of his room, the sleeping girl yawned and stretched into wakefulness. Blinking her eyes to adjust to the sunlight, Akivasha Tutuola winced at the sunlight and glared at Jack. "You know, in my day men woke women by gentle touches and softly whispered words."
Jack held out a hand and helped the girl to her feet. "In your day, Men were killed for a handful of copper chits." He pulled her close and hugged her tightly. "Hey Aki."
"And today, they're killed for the shoes they wear." The caramel skinned girl hugged Jack with equal force. "Hey Jack."
The two spent a moment in a tight embrace, before Aki sank back into the armchair as Jack set about emptying his knapsack and putting his soiled clothes into the laundry chute before reloading the knapsack from a large antique armoire. "Have you gone over the plans for the Vatican with D?" Jack asked, folding his socks.
Aki huffed out a breath, a sure sign of bad news. "Uh, yes..." she stammered, playing with the black pearl ring on her pinky finger.
"And?"
"It's way beyond our skill." the teen shrugged. "I figured you'd call a certain someone from your little black book."
"Like who?"
"Either Montrose or Li"
"Montrose? She's still in town?" Jack paused in mid pack and turned in surprise to Aki, who had pulled a combination pocketknife/brass knuckles from her pocket and was in the middle of cleaning her fingernails. Scoffing, he resumed packing. Turning to a small apothecary chest, he pulled a small roll of American currency from one drawer and tossed it into the pack. Seconds after he went deathly still and looked slowly towards to the door.
"Yeah, she's working the island this year, next year, she's in Madrid." Aki twirled the knife on her fingertip. "Are you going to call her?"
"Well, I could do that." Jack unrolled, and then buttoned the sleeves of his black dress shirt, "Or I could go downstairs and say hello to her myself."
Two almond eyes crossed in his direction at his grin. "How long do you think you have out west before they catch onto what you're doing?"
Jack ran a hand through his short black hair. "Two maybe three years. By then, the Slayer won't trust me at all."
Aki rubbed her hands in circles, "Then you can fulfill your master plan! Ha Ha Ha!" She finished with a comically diabolical laugh, earning her a throw pillow to the chin from an amused Jack. "Seriously, Jack. I'm not totally comfortable with you manipulating these people like this. They're not Cops, they actually know what's going on."
Jack sighed and moved to kneel before the frowning girl. "Aki. I know what I'm doing." He looked into her eyes. "I know it may not look that way, but the subterfuge, the manipulation, and my eventual "Exile" from Sunnydale is necessary. If they are not ready for what is to come, they will fail. The Dark One is coming. She isn't like the foes that they have already or will face. She's powerful, determined, aware of the Slayer's abilities, and without my efforts to prepare them; The Dark One will be unstoppable. Buffy may be the only one to defeat her. There may be another, but I doubt he'd even try."
Aki nodded. "I know. I know. You've told me all this already. I just don't like it."
"I know." Jack stood and pulled Aki to her feet. "C'mon, let's go make a deal."
The two walked down the stairs towards the main foyer of the renovated building. Halfway down the stairs between the third floor and the second, she stopped. "Jack, Why did you go early this time? With Moloch, I mean. He wasn't supposed to be active for another two weeks."
Jack nodded. "Yes, but Lin told me what Moloch's henchman would do in three weeks. It would have been suspicious for me to come back to Sunnydale so suddenly after dealing with the necromantic yahoo with the Rancor obsession."
"You could have gone and just avoided the Slayer."
"Fair point, but then, who hates me most of all?"
"Fate. She'd love nothing more than to fuck with you." The girl rubbed the bridge of her nose as Jack shrugged; Aki mimicked his shrug and pulled up her oversized fatigue pants. "One thing though, can you do something about Lucius?"
"He's still a little subservient?"
"Yes. And it's getting really annoying."
"Aki, Ord did a number on Lucius' mind, we're talking about the godfather of all mindfucks. He broke him into a thousand pieces and kept him that way for almost twenty years. I've removed the, I guess you could call it a psychic net, from over his mind so it's only a matter of time before his true self reemerges. The Incarnation of War will only help him recover faster." Jack paused at the foot of the staircase.
Aki sighed and stopped Jack as his hand reached for the foyer doors. "Jack, tell me that someday they'll know everything."
An uncomfortable silence hung nearly tangibly between the two until Jack pushed open the oak double doors to greet his guest. He smiled. "Amanda. How good to see you."
A slim, shorthaired blonde sat in a very comfortable wingback chair facing the double doors and smiled at Jack. "Jack, darling! Just the man I wanted to see."
* * *
Apartment of Rupert Giles,
Sunnydale, California
Rupert Giles felt nauseous, he had spent the last two hours listening to Buffy rant and theorize about whatever deception her old friend Jack was perpetrating. Having full knowledge of exactly what the young Irishman had planned didn't ease his tension in the slightest.
Seated in Giles' living room, Buffy drummed her fingers on the arm of the Englishman's sofa and sighed. Something was still bugging her about the recent Moloch debacle. The rather surprising fact that her friend Xander not only battled a warrior demon but survived being one; and a nagging thought about why they were there to begin with being two. "Why would Graile say to meet him at the docks and not be there?"
Giles entered the room from his kitchen and shrugged somewhat helplessly. "Jack said he was hunting the Elder, correct?"
Buffy nodded absently, internally seething. "They might be connected, in a definite nonviolent way." Buffy shook her head in aggravation, as though the action could help ease her mind, "Well, let's think about this. We already know that Graile is not Jack. We've both seen Jack in sunlight. I've felt his pulse. No. I think Jack not only knows Graile, but they're working together." The teen rubbed her eyes in frustration.
"If so Buffy, We need to be careful. Elder Vampires are in no way easy to kill. It's how they've survived that long. This not a situation to handle lightly." Giles chastised, running his hand through his receding hairline.
"Trust me, I know full well that this is a dangerous situation, Giles. Jack knows me, if he was out to kill me, I'd already be dead. He's got the firepower to do it, not to mention outfit a small army. But whatever he has planned, he doesn't want me dead. At least not yet."
Rupert Giles had been trained by the Watcher's council to resist excruciating torture and he used all of his skills and will power to keep his demeanor normal. "Buffy, what exactly are you thinking of doing?"
"Play his game." Buffy grinned devilishly, "Manipulate him as he manipulates us. Plus, we have an asset he doesn't."
Rupert looked skeptical as he removed his glasses and cleaned them with a handkerchief. "Dare I ask what asset we have?"
"Simple." Buffy leaned forward, "We have the infinite resources of a multi-millennia old secret society with members spread over most of the world. Sound familiar?"
"Buffy, I don't think the Council will sanction the resources you're thinking of using."
"Giles. You yourself said that Graile is supposed to be dead right?"
"Yes. According to Council records, a Watcher killed Graile. In fact that Watcher is the only one on record to have ever killed an Elder vampire single handedly." Giles' voice faded as realization set in. "There were no witnesses to the actual death. Adrian was found severely wounded standing over the skeletal remains of an Elder Vampire."
"Adrian?" Buffy stood and stared at the Englishman's bookcase, as though waiting for a book to open and explain the mystery of her friend Jack.
"Yes, Adrian Tutuola. His duel with Graile is a legend among Watchers. What little had been witnessed was of a fantastic swordfight atop the roof of the Watcher's Council headquarters." Giles stood slowly and walked to his liquor cabinet. Hesitating only for a moment, he took two glasses and a bottle of Cutty Sark. "By the time reinforcements arrived, Graile was a charred skeleton, Adrian had been gravely wounded and Matthias Covington was dead. Matthias I'd wager was Jack's Grandfather." Returning to his seat, he gestured for Buffy to take her glass and continued. "From our run in with the ebony skinned bastard, it's blatantly obvious that Tutuola did not kill Graile."
"They were friends. Very good friends." Buffy thought aloud, her eyes absently shifting from book to book in thought.
"What?" Giles's brow narrowed in disbelief. "Adrian Tutuola is a Hero. He."
"He lied." Buffy interrupted. "He and Graile set up the fight, a play visible enough to be witnessed by the other Watchers below, though isolated enough so that the finale wasn't seen." Buffy turned back to her Watcher. "Adrian could have been Jack's ally or for all we know, even Jack himself."
"No. I've seen Tutuola's painting in the Watcher's Academy. I can safely say that he and Jack are two different men." Giles smiled slightly.
"What do you mean?"
"Adrian Tutuola was Nigerian."
"Ah. So, not as black as Graile obviously; His skin was like... solid darkness."
"Indeed," The Englishman nodded, seeking respite in his glass.
Buffy finished her own glass and sat back in the sofa as the liquor burned softly down her throat. "Jack will probably be back next year." Giles nodded. "We'll plan something then, but until he does show, I need you to start calling the council." The Slayer looked up at the clock Giles had purchased in Amsterdam as a gift for his father. "Crap. It's nearly two. I was supposed to call Mom at eleven." Buffy headed for the door and bid the watcher goodnight.
Giles waited for the Slayer to begin her run home before reaching for his telephone. Before Jack had left, he'd given the Englishman his business card. Giles hesitated for only a moment before dialing the number.
* * *
Akivasha rolled across the mat, ducking beneath Lucius' kick. Off to the side, Jack sat beside Amanda and Pike, Deanna's absence due to her habit of sleeping in late on mornings. Aki rolled to her feet and swept Lucius' ankles. The sturdy black man fell to the side, landed on his hand, and flipped over onto his feet to applause from their audience, his gi pants flapping from the sharp movement.
The two combatants lashed at each other with perfectly timed kicks and punches, over and over, before Aki slipped, expecting a left slam instead of a snap kick from the right. The girl hit the mat hard, grunting more in shock and self-disappointment than in pain. Lucius helped the teen to her feet and froze in fear as Aki looked into his eyes. Her normally amber eyes had become vivid ochre and as her palm came into contact with his bared and sweaty chest, a burst of golden light flashed. Lucius cursed as he was thrown across the third floor gymnasium, slamming into the mirrored wall, shattering it into pieces.
The stunned former thrall blinked owlishly before standing and walking the fifty feet to the equally stunned crew. Turning to the embarrassed girl, he nodded. "Good shot." He grinned, "you've been practicing." Rubbing his head, he sat down beside Jack.
Jack stood and removed his sweatshirt, "My turn." He winked as he handed the garment to the slim blonde beside him. A poor digital version of the Red Dwarf theme echoed around the gym and the Irishman's shoulders dropped. "Maybe not." Amanda handed him his cell phone and he nodded to Pike. "Tag, you're it." As the New Yorker turned Californian turned back again stepped onto the mat a distance from Aki, Jack clicked his cell phone on,
"Time and Again Antiquities, Jack here."
"Jack? This is Giles."
"Good morning Rupert."
"Morning. I need a favor."
Jack moved to a far window for privacy. "Name it."
"I need you to wipe my memory."
"I went over this with you before, Rupert. I can't wipe memories, that's like asking a toddler to drive a stick shift Cadillac." He rubbed the bridge of his nose; unaware that three thousand miles away, Giles was as well. "I can only push memories around."
"That won't work very long, I was trained in the academy to resist mental tampering and torture."
"No shit."
"Damnit Jack, this is no time for flippancy. The Slayer needs to be able to trust me, how long do you think it will take her to detect our deception?"
Jack looked out the plate glass windows towards the risen sun and basked for a moment in sunlight. "You'll get a package tomorrow morning. Inside will be a round trip ticket here, I have a favor I can call in. Tell Buffy it's a Watcher thing."
"Alright. Thank you Jack."
"No problem then. This is why I didn't push your memories. I also underestimated your bond with her. Rest assured and wait for the postman." Jack disconnected the call and dialed the airline.
* * *
Giles replaced the receiver and moved to his stair, hoping to catch a few hours of sleep before having to wake up. "The tickets had better be first class."
* * *
Fin