Part eight

Buffy and Faith sat on the couch opposite Doctor Wilson. They had only been there for a few minutes, but both realized that the Doctor was not the mad scientist they made him out to be. He sat in the chair, white as a ghost, telling the tale of his dealings with Mister Trick. And the more he spoke, the more Buffy found herself pitying the man. He was not a horrible monster, but a man caught in a horrible situation.

“You realize Trick isn’t gonna let you live after all this is over.” Faith pointed out, not quite convinced of the man’s sincerity. “He’ll kill you and your little girl, just as soon as you lose your value to him.”

“I know,” he admitted, to the surprise of them both, “But what choice did I have? Emily’s my little girl, I have to do everything I can to protect her...I’m her father. Maybe, someday, when you two have children, you’ll understand.”

Buffy sat in silence, listening to his words. Children? She seldom allowed herself to think about that subject. How could she, or any other Slayer, possibly raise children with all of the danger they must face every day. And that’s even if they live long enough to be in the position to have them.

“Yeah, maybe,” was all she could say.

“If you were told to get rid of us, then you know what we can do?” Faith reasoned, “Why didn’t you just come to us for help? Fighting the bad guys is what we do.”

“Because,” he replied, shaking, “if I did, Trick would find out, and Emily would be dead. I couldn’t take that risk. Even with the two of here right now, it might put her in danger. Please don’t ask me to compromise her safety anymore.”

Faith was about to answer him, when Buffy interrupted, “Look, I can’t promise you that your daughter’s safe, but I can give you my word that we will do everything we can to save her. But you have to trust us...and help us. The man who was accidentally poisoned by your box, is more than just a victim...he’s...he’s very important to us. We can try to save Emily, but you have to try to save Giles. You made this poison...you’ve got to have some kind of antidote, right?”

“Yes I do,” he said, “But it won’t do any good. The antidote is at Trick’s place, under lock and key. And even if you do manage to get it out of there, it must be administered in the next twelve hours, or the damage done by the poison will be too great to reverse.”

“You’re tellin’ me he only has less than one day to live?!” Faith hissed, balling her fists in anger, “You’re supposed to be a doctor, someone who helps others get well, not murder them! What, do they teach you how to mix up “death in a needle” in med school?”

“Of course not, but I’m a chemist as well,” Wilson explained, “I know that’s not an excuse, but that’s why Trick picked me.”

Buffy had a thought, “If you made that poison yourself, then can’t you just remember the antidote? Why do we have to get it from Trick?”

“I don’t have a photographic memory. All my notes are at Mister Trick’s house, and I don’t remember the formula off the top of my head. I never thought I needed to.”

“Okay,” Buffy said, rising to her feet, “Look, you stay put, and we’ll handle the recovery,” she paused, “You didn’t invite Trick, or any of his buddies into your home...did you?”

“No,” Wilson said.

“Good,” Buffy said, “Vampires can’t come in, unless invited. So don’t let any one in until we come back.”

“And if you don’t come back?”

“Then you should try to remember that antidote,” Buffy answered, opening the door, “It might be Giles’ only chance.”

******

Giles and Jenny raced through the library doors. They quickly pushed a large book shelf and catalog card case in front of the doors, in a desperate attempt to bar the vampires entrance to their last sanctuary. While Jenny finished the barricade, Giles opened the cage and unlocked the weapon’s closet. He then looked around the room, trying to find a way to set up traps.

“God, I wish I had some holy water right about now,” Giles sighed, rigging the crossbow he took out from the closet, up to the secret passage that was behind the stacks. He had to guess the height of his foes, to determine where their hearts might be, and only hoped that he was right.

“Rupert, you said yourself that nothing will prevent them from coming into a public building,” Jenny pointed out, “And here we are barricading ourselves up...”

“We’re not staying,” Giles said, solemnly, pushing the cases away form the door, just enough to slip through, “They’ll think we’re in here...at least for a short while. That will give us some time to come up with a plan.”

“What plan?”

Giles helped her through the door, and climbed after, pulling the barricade as far over as he could. He then turned to her and looked deeply into her beautiful, brown eyes, “The plan is to kill Angel...without dying ourselves.”

“Well, then you shouldn’t have come here, old man,” Angel said, stepping around the corner, wearing a wicked grin, and flanked by his henchmen. There were only two of his followers left, but even that was far too many for them to handle at once.

Giles backed up, scooting Jenny behind him, “You’re not going to win this one,” he said bravely, “you can’t.”

“And why not?”

With that, Jenny stepped out from behind Giles with the crossbow she had gotten at his apartment, and fired a bolt directly at one of Angel’s cohorts. The bolt struck true and the vampire exploded into dust. Giles pulled out a large golden cross form his jacket and smiled, “Because you are rapidly running out of help.”

The two of them took off down the hall, before Angel could come up with a reply. The vampire by his side, moved to chase after them, but was stopped by Angel.

“What are you doing?” The vampire asked, baring his teeth in anger, “You’re letting them get away...again!”

“You really need to learn how to have patience,” Angel said, “If we just rush off after them, then where would the fun be in that? Where’s the challenge, the excitement? You need to savor every moment of their suffering...then....end it.”

Giles led Jenny into the science lab, where he frantically searched through the countless beakers and vials for something they could use. He knew he wouldn’t find any holly water here, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything that could disable a vampire.

“Well,” Jenny said, putting down the crossbow on the table, “I’m out of bolts. So much for our defense.”

“Ah, yes,” Giles smiled, taking a beaker in his hand, and reading the label, “this will do nicely.”

Jenny gave him a puzzled look, “What will?”

“This,” Giles said, showing her the beaker of Hydrochloric Acid, “It won’t kill him, but it will buy us some time...”

“And,” Jenny said, taking the crossbow once more, “It’ll hurt like hell.”

Giles carefully poured the contents of the beaker into a small test tube, and screwed the lid on tightly. He then looked around for something to act as a crossbow bolt, finding only a teacher’s pointing stick. He broke the long stick and began to sharpen the point. With no flights on the makeshift arrow, it would be a very unstable shot, but it was a chance Giles had to take. He took the sealed test tube, tied it to the narrow stick, and set it in the crossbow.

“Will, this work?” Jenny asked, watching him hunker down behind the lab table. “That thing doesn’t look like it’s going to fly very well.”

“It doesn’t have to be totally accurate, as long as it hits him on some part of his body,” Giles explained, pulling Jenny down behind the desk with him, “But,” he said, as an after thought, “Just in case, you may want to move down to the end of the table.”

The two of them waited in silence for what seemed like an eternity, neither one wanting to even breath, for fear it would give away their position. Giles listened, trying to pick up any sounds of movement outside the closed door. It was deathly silent. The shadows created by the moon, danced along the walls in an eerie ballet.

Giles tried to steady himself, as he watched the shadow play, desperate to push down the growing, pulsating fear that was beginning to over take him. He had to remain calm, if not for him, then for Jenny. He lost her once...he was not about to lose her a second time.

“Maybe we lost them,” Jenny whispered. But, that observation was short lived, when they heard the turning and twisting of the doorknob. “Then again,” she gulped, “Maybe we didn’t. Rupert, what if this doesn’t work?” she said, her own fears were starting to show, “What if you miss?”

Giles turned to Jenny, and place his hand on her cheek, “I’m not going to miss,’ he said slowly, as though he was trying to reassure himself, as well as his love, “And if I do...then we’ll think of something.”

The twisting of the doorknob became more persistent. Giles raised his crossbow, propped his arm on the table to keep the bow from shaking, and took a deep breath. He could see the outline of a figure, in the glass window, but couldn’t tell who it was. This had to work!

Then, with one strong snap, the locked door crashed in, sending a barrage of wood flying at them. Giles could hear the growl of the demon, see the rush of his body as he flew towards them, and feel the surge of adrenaline coursing through his veins, as his finger gently squeezed the trigger. Everything seemed to slow down to a crawl.

Time stopped.

Then he heard the agonizing screams of the vampire, as the tube exploded in his face. The demon stumbled back into the wall, covered his melting features with trembling hands, and cursed through a bloodied mouth. “Argh....” he gurgled, “I...I’m goin’ t’kill youuuuu!!!!”

“Sorry,” Giles said, trusting the second half of the pointer into the vampire’s chest, “You’re not going to get that chance.”

Giles picked up his sword, took Jenny’s hand, and began to cautiously approach the broken door. The only one left, was Angel, and he was no were to be seen.

******

Oz sat staring at the box, unmoving for the better part of the morning. There was something about it that really bothered him...other than the fact that it was responsible for hurting a friend. The writings were strange, nothing like anything he had seen so far in the piles of books on the table, and he was fairly sure he checked them all. And yet, they seemed as though they had a...

...pattern!

“Of course,” he said shaking his head, “I should have seen it before!”

“Hmm...wha?” Willow groaned, picking up her head from the computer table, and looking sleepily at him, “What is it?”

“Oh, Will,” he said, kissing her on the top of the head, “I’m sorry I woke you.”

“That’s okay,” Willow said, rubbing her stiff neck, “What time is it? How long have I been asleep? And,” she added, looking around, “Where did everybody go?”

“Noon...for five hours...and Buffy and Faith went to Trick’s house, Xander went to the hospital, and Cordelia went home,” Oz answered her. Then he went over to the table and picked up the small box, “And...I think I’ve figured out the secret behind the box.”

At that, Willow woke up, “You did? What is it?”

“Well,” he said, pointing to the writings on the box, “at first I thought that maybe it was really old writings...you know, really ancient. But, I couldn’t find anything in Giles’ books that could tell me from when. It was really bugging me.”

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

“Well, you were so tired. And you looked kinda cute, all curled up by the computer, I didn’t want to disturb you,” Oz explained, “Besides, I wanted to figure this thing out on my own. Anyway...the more I looked at it, the more it reminded me of this thing I did as a kid.”

“You wrote on small boxes, and filled it with poison?”

“No,” Oz smiled, “But I did like to make up secret codes that only me and my closest friends knew. You know, that way I could make fun of the teacher and they wouldn’t know.”

Willow looked at him, confused, “So, you think this is a code? But how can you read it...it’s just symbols?”

“You see, it doesn’t really matter what the writings look like...they could be scribbles and still be a code. All it has to have is a pattern, and if you know the reference points, you can break the code.”

“So how do we find out the reference points?”

“That’s where you come in,” he said, taking the scanning wand and handing it to Willow, “If we can scan the writings into the computer, we can...”

“...cross check it with any other known codes, and use a decipher program!” Willow finished, “I think Miss Calendar had one that she used to decipher the Restoration spell I cast on Angel. This could work! But...oh, it’s gonna take some time. Do you know how Giles is doing?”

Oz stood up and walked over to the phone, “No, but I’m gonna check.”

******

Xander jumped when the phone rang, breaking the silence in the room. He looked over at Joyce, who was dozing in the chair, and quickly got up to answer it, “Hello?”

“Xander, it’s Oz. I’ve got some good news and some bad news,” the voice said over the phone, “Which do you want to hear first?”

Xander thought about that for a moment. It seemed that, lately, all they were getting was good news/bad news. Why couldn’t they just have some plain old fashion Good News? “Well,” he said finally, “I could use some good news right about now...so hit me.”

He listened as Oz recounted the chain of events leading up to his discovery of the code theory. So, Xander thought, there might be at least one answer to this puzzling tale. “And the bad news?” he asked, almost not wanting to know.

“It’s gonna take time to decipher it. But, Willow’s sure she can do it...in about six or seven hours,” Oz’s voice seemed to deflate over the phone line.

“Great,” Xander said, trying not to show his utter despair, and knowing he wasn’t succeeding very well, “So, we will know where this box came from...just in time to bury Giles.”

“That bad?”

“Worse,” Xander sighed, “Buffy called about a half hour ago and told me that Dr. Wilson, was the one who made the poison and antidote for it. And that said antidote, was located at Mr. Trick’s place. So, in order to get the antidote, they have to take on a whole bunch of vampires and other nasties...rescue a little girl...get the vial, without breaking it...and get back in...oh, let’s say about ten hours, before the effects can’t be reversed. And, while I’ve been sitting here, Giles had two seizures from the fever...and slipped further into a coma. To be honest, I don’t even think he has six hours.”

“We’ll speed things up,” was all Oz could think to say before hanging up.

“Yeah, you do that,” Xander said, placing the phone on the receiver, and glancing at Giles, who was laying frightfully still, “ ‘cause the clock’s winding down.”

******

Buffy and Faith cased out Trick’s house, before coming up with a plan of attack. This would not be easy. It was difficult to determine just what they would be in for once they entered. There were two doors, a front and back, and many window...all of which where covered up. But, exactly how many of Trick’s henchmen would they find inside, was still a mystery.

But, hey...this whole thing was a mystery, why change now?

“We should split up and flank them,” Faith suggested moving toward the back entrance.

“I don’t know,” Buffy disagreed, “Something tells me we should stick together. Faith? Faith!”

But her cries fell on deaf ears, as her Slayer-partner disappeared around the house. This was going to be one of those days, she just knew it.

Buffy looked around for a less conspicuous entrance, other than the front door, into the house, and decided on the old standard method...climbing through a window. She noticed a large oak tree growing along side the house. It’s thick branches reached out, touching the house in several places...one of which was an upstairs window.

Okay, she thought, as she began to climb the tall tree, now I can add breaking and entering to my growing list of juvie acts of crime...right along side my grand theft auto.

This is really shaping up to be one of those days.

When she got to the window and tested it, she noticed it was locked. Not much of a surprise...and certainly not a problem for her. With a very gentle, yet firm push, Buffy broke the lock on the window and climbed inside. The room was dark, except for what little light shone through the parted curtains. Buffy held her breath, as she carefully made her way through the room, not wanting to bump into anything.

She tiptoed her way to the only door to the room, and put her ear up against the cool wood. She stood there, listening for a few minutes. When she determined it to be safe, she slowly opened the door that spilled out into the hallway.

The hallway was finely decorated, with a red and gold carpet that ran the length of the floor. On the walls were several paintings of different sizes. All of them were old...and all of them were valuable.

“Well, at least the guy’s got some taste,” Buffy muttered to herself, as she passed the paintings. Then she spied a large one depicting hoards of demons slaughtering humans, and added, “Then again...maybe not.”

She continued down the hallway, knowing that with each step she took...she came that much closer to Giles’ salvation.

******

“How long was I asleep for?” Joyce asked, rubbing her stiff neck.

“About four hours,” Xander replied, “You want me to get you some coffee?”

“That would be great, thanks,” she nodded. She then looked at Xander and sadly shook her head, “I don’t known how you kids do it.”

“Do what?”

“Day after day, you fight evil, and you don’t get any closer to ending it.” she explained, “How can you stand it?”

“I don’t know,” Xander said thoughtfully, “I never really thought about it. I guess if I did, I would have run away a long time ago. But, it’s not like we don’t accomplish anything,” he continued, “I mean, we’ve saved the world a few times, fought off demons, vampires and fishmen...”

“Yes,” she said, turning her gaze to Giles, who was moaning softly in his sleep, “but in the end we’re still so vulnerable...so...”

“Mortal?”

“Yes,” she said, wiping a line of sweat from Giles’ brow, “I know that what you are doing is important. And I know that Buffy’s the Chosen One...but that doesn’t make me feel any better. Every night she goes out, I worry that she might not come back. Look at Mr. Giles...that could have been Buffy lying there...I would have been her if I let her open that damn box first. The fact that she might never live to see her twentieth birthday, scares the hell out of me.”

“I know,” Xander said sympathetically, “But that doesn’t mean we curl up in a corner and give up,” He walked over to the door, turned and motioned to Giles prone form, “I mean, just look at Giles...he’s not.”

******

“I give up!” Giles huffed, stopping in the middle of the school hall, with Jenny in tow.

“Rupert!”

“He’s playing games with us. We haven’t lost him...we haven’t even misplaced him,” Giles looked around at the unseen spirits in the school, “Angel, I know you’re here! If you want me that badly, show yourself...and be done with it!”

They waited. Waited for Angel...waited for something, anything that would tell them what their fate would be. They waited...for nothing.

This is ridiculous, Giles thought, as he pulled Jenny closer to is side, He knows we’re here. He’s probably watching us now. He turned to face Jenny and sighed. He loved her so much, it hurt. But what hurt more was the fact that he had only just gotten Jenny back, and Angel was trying to take her away again.

“Not this time!” Giles muttered.

“Not this time for what?” Jenny asked, puzzled.

Giles was taken aback for a moment, not realizing that his thoughts were spoken aloud, “Um...oh, I was just thinking to myself.”

“I’ll give you a penny for them,” A voice came from behind.

Giles turned around to see Angel standing no more than ten feet from them. He silently chastised himself for allowing Angel to sneak up on them so easily. But his self loathing only lasted a few minutes, when he felt the persistent tug on his arm from Jenny, who was motioning him to follow her up the stairs. The two turned quickly on their heels and sprinted up, leaving Angel standing in the hallway...alone.

“Hey, Rupert,” he called up to him, “I thought you wanted me to show myself. Well I did, and you ran away. I’m beginning to feel a little dejected. Come on Rupert,” he said, making his way up the steps in pursuit, “don’t you want to play?”