Passing The Mantle
Parts 1 and 2
by Cathryn and Mary M.
DEDICATION: This story is dedicated to Tricia Stewart, aka GylzGirl, for her generous permission to use elements from her fantastic fanfic "Agenda." You can find it here:
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/6794/BtVSfanfic/agenda.html Thank you so much!
SUMMARY: Wesley comes back to Sunnydale with some startling news: something's been killing off all the Watchers. Now he, Giles, and the gang have to find out who and why before it's too late. SPOILERS: Anything up through "Graduation Day Part Two" is fair game. None for season four; explanation below. Some for the original movie, though.
NOTES: I (Cathryn) started this before season four began to air, working on rumors I'd heard, some of which have since been disproved. So if you see something that seems completely wrong (like Giles's job as curator in the museum), that would be why.
DISCLAIMER: FOX who? Joss is all. Oh, and I blatantly stole the "brain injury" device from the movie "Cemetery Man" (also called "Dellamorte Dellamore"), which belongs to . . . I don't remember. But not me.
Buffy blinked hard and gave herself a little shake. In front of the class, the professor - an educator right out of "Ferris Bueller" - was droning on and on about stuff that everyone in that room had (supposedly) learned in high school. Glancing at the girl sitting next to her, she thought, < This must be bad. Even Willow is bored.
Leaning over, she whispered, "I'll keep you awake if you keep me awake."
Willow smiled sheepishly. "Deal."
Suddenly the door exploded open. A man stumbled in backwards, followed closely by a well-muscled woman. She attacked him, knocking him back onto the floor and jumping atop him. He delivered an elbow sharply to her face, and Buffy winced as her enhanced hearing picked up the sound of the woman's nose breaking. She stood instantly, but took a moment more to assess the situation before she decided on the best course of action.
"Oh, well, here now!" the professor stuttered ineffectually up front, attempting to break into the sudden chaos. Naturally, he was completely ignored.
"Oh my god!" Willow gasped and grabbed Buffy's arm to get her attention. "Buffy, is that - ?"
"What?" Then Buffy got a clear look at the man's face. Immediately she was in motion, running to the front of the room. The woman was straddling her prey and had a knife clutched tightly in both hands fisted together, prepared to drive the blade down into his throat. His entire effort was focussed on gripping her wrists and holding the knife where it was, just a few inches short of his neck.
Buffy tapped the woman on the shoulder. "'Scuse me. You're interrupting this class, and that's just not kosher with me."
The woman looked up. The man swiftly took advantage of the distraction to twist the knife from her hands and slam it into the center of her forehead. The class barely had time to scream in horror, and Buffy had scarcely registered the fact that the knife had penetrated the solid bone far too easily, before the woman disintegrated into a fine black silt.
"Thank you, Buffy." Wesley Wyndham-Price got quickly, if slightly dizzily, to his feet and turned to the stunned professor, saying graciously, "My deepest apologies for disrupting your class, sir. Pray continue."
Not waiting for a response, he grabbed Buffy's arm and firmly propelled her to the side of the room. There was a reason that Buffy hadn't immediately recognized her former Watcher.
The past three months had changed Wesley, outside and in. Where before he had favored conservative suits, he now wore black jeans and a form-fitting black t-shirt - they allowed for quick movement and blended into the darkness at night. He rarely had the time for personal grooming, and when he did he restricted himself to a ten-minute shower-and-shave regime. His hair was a couple inches longer now disorganized, and gel-free. He sported two days' accumulation of stubble. His glasses were gone, having been broken weeks before in a similar skirmish. His movements were no longer mincing, but smooth and agile, perpetually ready for a fight. His attention at that moment was not only on Buffy, but on the people and space around them. All traces of his former naive arrogance were replaced by a subtle but intense sense of urgency. In short, Wesley was a different man who held very little resemblance to the prissy, uptight creep that Buffy remembered.
"Where can I find Mr. Giles?" he demanded. His voice was the same, at least - still clipped and accented. "He's the new museum curator. Wesley, what's going on?"
But Wesley had already shot out of the room, pausing only to pick up the woman's knife. Buffy followed him immediately, prompting Willow to give chase. The professor, usually an observant man, was too busy with his panicking class to notice the deserting students.
Wesley was waiting right outside the door. "I thought you two might follow. Now listen to me closely."
Here was revealed another changed facet - as he gave instructions, his voice held true authority rather than the overblown pomposity that the girls were used to. He continued in a low, hurried tone. "As you have probably guessed, that was hardly your standard assassin. You undoubtedly have questions. They will have to wait. Do not ask them now, do not speak to me, and do not accompany me to the museum. Do nothing that shows our association until it becomes unavoidable."
Instructions finished, he turned and walked away. Willow looked at Buffy and observed unenthusiastically, "We're going to follow him, aren't we?"
"Of course not," Buffy replied. "That would be rude. We're going to take a different route. C'mon."
**********
It was a simple matter for Wesley to slip into the museum; he merely attached himself to a large, loud group of people. The harried ticket-taker never noticed the extra person. It was equally easy to find the curator's office - a quick look at a detailed map of the museum, and Wesley was standing in front of the office moments later. He knocked firmly on the door. No answer. He experienced a sudden flash of fear. Perhaps he was too late. Perhaps they had already gotten to Giles.
Then he heard a light step behind him and he whipped sharply around, instinctively reaching for the knife in its makeshift sheath at his waist.
"May I help you?" Giles asked politely, looking somewhat wary, and not recognizing him. Wesley swiftly drew the knife and leapt toward him, grabbing him by the shoulder and driving the blade down. He moved so quickly that Giles, laden with thick manila folders, was unable to react in time. Wesley stopped the blade's descent an inch away from Giles's throat. "And you're dead."
He stepped back, watching recognition dawn at the sound of his voice. "Really, Mr. Giles. I would expect you, of all people, to understand that danger is no longer reserved for the black of night."
Giles, rapidly recovering from the scare, snapped, "Most people just say hello here in America, Wesley."
"Most people aren't being tracked by expert assassins, Rupert," Wesley shot back, resheathing his knife.
Giles stared. "Come again?"
Wesley opened the office door and gestured silently for Giles to go in ahead of him, stepping inside and quickly closing the door securely as soon as the older man was safely inside the room. Giles went to his desk and put down the stack of folders; Wesley, uneasy in the small space, began to pace.
"We will wait for Willow and Buffy," he stated matter-of-factly. "I don't wish to waste time by repeating myself too often. They should be here soon."
Giles arched an eyebrow, rather put on the defensive by Wesley's orders. They were orders - Wesley's tone left no room for questioning that. Rather sharply, he replied, "What makes you so sure of that?"
Wesley's lips quirked into a small smile. "Because I told them not to."
Giles sighed irritably. "Wesley, what is going on?"
Wesley ignored the question, fixing his gaze alertly on the door at the sound of running footsteps as his hand unsheathed his knife. There was a knock on the door
"Giles?" Buffy's voice called. Wesley relaxed, but didn't put the knife back.
"Yes, Buffy, Willow, come in," Giles called back.
Willow opened the door, asking as she and Buffy walked in, "Giles, how did you know that I - oh," she finished as she saw Wesley.
Buffy didn't bother with any preliminaries. ”Okay, Wes, storytime. Who was that chick, *what* was she, and why was she trying to kill you?"
"Because of my association with the Watchers," Wesley replied simply. "Her kind, whatever it may be, has been systematically eliminating the Watchers' Network."
He paused. "Let me rephrase that. They *have* eliminated the Network." He paused to gather his thoughts.
"Do you care to elaborate on that?" Giles asked. Wesley once more ignored his question, speaking only when he had organized what he wanted to say.
"As near as I can tell," he continued a moment later, "they killed the Council first, then the students and teachers at the Watchers' Academy, or vice versa, I don't suppose the order much matters. The end result is the same," he added, sounding distant and detached as he spoke, but his eyes suddenly darkened with pain. "Then they tracked the active Watchers down. I hope some of them are simply in hiding, but I expect they're all dead. This organization, whatever it is, is very thorough."
"Then why are you still alive?" Buffy interrupted bluntly.
“Luck, " Wesley replied flatly, "although it didn't seem terribly lucky at the time. To make the long, morbid story short and boring: I became a teacher at the Academy and was fired for reasons that I don't need to waste time explaining right now. The firing happened a scant few hours before the slaughter at the Academy. I holed up in a tiny pub for a while - several hours, at least - before returning to the Academy to gather my things from my office."
Here, his voice broke, and he paused to regain control. His jaw tightened and his eyes hardened as he began to speak again: "I don't suppose I need to tell you what I found there. Suffice it to say that the assassins are violent and brutal and don't clean up after themselves."
He shook his head, pushing the excruciating memories back. "The next couple of days are blurred in my mind; my next clear memory is of going to the Meeting Place."
"The Meeting Place," Giles echoed to himself, following Wesley's line of reasoning. "Of course, that makes perfect sense."
"And that sense would be . . . ?" prompted Buffy, somewhat annoyed at the fact that both men were way ahead of her.
"It's a biological imperative embedded in all slayers," Giles explained. "If a girl's watcher dies before she does, she feels a powerful compulsion to go to a small place in England, which we've nicknamed the Meeting Place. There she is assigned a new watcher. I believe," he added as an afterthought, "that you were not drawn there after Merrick's death because your preoccupation with Lothos suppressed the impulse."
"Oh. Then why didn't Faith go when her Watcher died?" Buffy asked.
Wesley had given this some considerable thought and answered immediately. "It's not a foolproof system; the impulse works best in a girl whose personality has been . . . well, suppressed, to perfectly blunt. A slayer is generally claimed while very young and trained to think of herself as a slayer, not an individual. At any rate, I would imagine that Faith's decidedly forceful personality overrode the impulse with little effort."
He waved the discussion away and got back to the more pressing matter at hand. "Anyhow, I concluded - or I assume I did; as I said, my memory there is unclear - that there was no reason for the killings to end with the Council and the Academy. If the active watchers were being killed, then their slayers would eventually congregate at the Meeting Place, each likely possessing bits of crucial information."
Wesley resumed pacing. "I spent nearly six weeks there, gathering that information, learning to fight, and teaching the girls to live without a watcher to guide them." He paused, remembering each girl's shock and terror as she had learned that, for the first time in her life, she would have to think for herself, that there was no longer anyone to tell her what to do. The sudden independence terrified all of them, but they had been adapting, at various levels of success, when Wesley had left to find Giles and begin to organize a defense.
"The assassins," he continued briskly, getting his mind back on topic. "They all have common characteristics. The first and most immediately obvious is the colors of their eyes - various shades of purple. Furthermore, their fighting techniques are virtually identical. I have yet to encounter one with unique tactics. Once you've learned their shared techniques, you can begin to anticipate their moves. "They have the same vulnerability. Their skulls are thin but tough, easily penetrated with a good sharp blade but difficult to crush. The only way to kill them is to somehow injure their brains."
"How very 'Cemetary Man,'" Buffy remarked.
"Once that happens," Wesley continued, paying her comment no heed, "they disintegrate into a black powder, as the two of you witnessed "Lastly, they are extremely single-minded in their assassinations. In a crowded room, every other person is absolutely safe, so long as they don't attempt to interfere. As soon as someone interrupts an assassination, he or she is a target."
"Oops," muttered Buffy.
"Let me guess," sighed Giles.
Wesley nodded. "The woman caught me off-guard, and I haven't slept in several days. I fought poorly and she would have killed me if Buffy hadn't stepped in. Thank you," he added seriously to his former Slayer.
Buffy nodded. Silence fell. Wesley leaned back against the wall and watched the other three absorb everything he'd told them. It was clear from their expressions that Giles was the only one who truly grasped the enormity of the thing. Willow looked anxious, and Buffy seemed merely concerned, but Giles was slightly pale and clearly shocked. The girls didn't fully understand the situation, and Wesley didn't expect them to just yet. But they would eventually.
After a few minutes, Wesley said quietly, "We must find out who is doing this and pre-empt their next move. It is my belief that Mr. Giles has evaded attack thus far only because he is no longer an official Watcher, but if the pattern continues, they will attack the former watchers next."
"So we find 'em and we stop 'em," Buffy summed up succinctly. It looked simple enough to her. Stop the bad guy. Just like always, with a few extra elements to make things interesting.”
"Well, yes," Wesley replied slowly, "but because of the. . . atypical nature of this situation, it may well prove far too complicated for this group to handle alone. We may need outside assistance."
Giles hazarded a guess. "And may I assume you have someone in mind?"
Wesley hesitated, reluctant. This was the last person he wanted back in his life in any capacity whatsoever. Was there time to withdraw the idea - ? < No. This is not the time to consider your own interests, he told himself sternly. "He's a former . . . friend . . . of mine. Things ended badly between us, and I doubt he feels any more loyalty to me than I do to him, but I think he would help for the right price, provide we can find him."
"Sounds like someone we know," Giles observed, exchanging wary looks with Willow and Buffy. "Who is he?"
Another hesitation, then Wesley spoke quickly, blurting out the name before he could change his mind and take it back. "Ethan Rayne."
Part 2
AUTHOR’S NOTES: (From Mary M.) I used Hindu/Indian names for the assassins and the Slayer that was theirs. I spread them through out the story, and you’ll generally know which word is used for what.
Bhavika (pronounced Bah-Vee-Kah) means Devoted, dedicated.
Sharna (Sharn-na) means protection, guardian.
Dhara (Dar-rah) the Earth.
Haimi (High-mee) means golden.
Achala (Ah-Cha-Lah) means Constant, unceasing.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Inside an Abandoned Factory:
His clan watched as they patiently waited for a signal from their elder. The faint smell of incense filled the air as his clan chanted softly, with their heads touching the ground as they knelt before him.
The old man sat cross-legged in the middle of a circle made of black and red candles. He sat absolutely still. His deep lavender eyes glowed as he looked, not at his clan, but into the flames of the candle before him. Suddenly, he jerked and the chanting immediately stopped. The elder rose gracefully, his lavender eyes never leaving the bowed heads of his clan.
His voice, as soothing as the gentle breeze, never rose as he spoke to his clan. "Haimi has failed in her duty to kill the young Watcher. She has returned to the loving Dhara. We will say a prayer for this brave Achala that has failed in her duty."
As his clan sang a song of mourning for the young hunter that failed, the elder lifted a red candle from the circle and held it before him. Silence once again filled the room. "Twenty seasons has passed since the humans killed our beloved Sharna. The one that Dhara had chosen to protect all life from the night creatures. She was the protection, our guardian and they murdered her. She shall soon be avenged and her spirit will soon be embraced by Dhara. Lift up your heads, my children."
The clan lifted up their heads as they gazed upon the elder. Their lavender eyes glowing in the dark. The elder looked at his people as he lifted the candle high. "Sharna was chosen to be their Slayer, but they refused her. Killed her because she belonged to our clan and not theirs. Killed her as she slept in their beds, denying her the right to do what all Bhavika yearn to do...die protecting the life Dhara allowed us to have. For this insult, we gather the Achala to hunt those that judged her unworthy. And Sharna will be avenged."
"Gather all Achala to me, we will begin hunting anew, "the elder man ordered as he blew out the candle.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Buffy stared at Wesley's red face as he looked at her. She cleared her throat. "You've got to be kidding. Ethan Rayne?"
"Oh, bloody hell," Giles muttered as he glared at Wesley. Willow's jaw simply dropped as strangled noises came out of her throat. ”We don’t want him back in our lives after the last time.”
Startled, Wesley stared at the faces around him. Of all reactions he had expected this was not one that he was expecting. "Do-do you know Ethan?"
Ignoring that question, Buffy glared at Wesley. "You've got to be kidding, right? Why do we need that egotistical, warped, manipulative, sadistic and malicious son of a bitch to help us defeat these assassins?"
"Well, I can see that you're familiar with him," Wesley said dryly. "And yes, we do need his help. Unfortunately."
"Why?" Buffy demanded as she glared at Wesley. "And how the hell do you know Ethan Rayne?"
"It's none of your business how I know the man," Wesley glared as he crossed his arms. "There is no need for you to know-"
"I think that we must," Giles interrupted as he glared at the younger man. "How did you come to associate yourself with Ethan?"
"Yeah. Did you use drugs, raise demons and do other stuff with him like Giles did?" Willow demanded. Giles looked down at the young hacker and glared. Willow turned red and gave her mentor an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, Giles."
Aghast, Wesley gaped at Giles. "You were Ethan's lover, too?"
Giles let out a strangled sound as Buffy and Willow stared at Giles, to Wesley and back at Giles again. Buffy finally yelped out. "GILES? YOU'RE GAY?!?"
"Ohmigod! Ohmigod! Giles! You! Ethan!" Willow squeaked as she stared at Giles. "We never knew-I mean we knew you hated the man but we never thought that-I mean-"
Her jaw still on the floor, Buffy stared at Giles's red face. "Does-does Mom know anything about this?"
"Does Mom know anything about what?" a voice said. Everyone's head swung towards the door. A very chic Joyce Summers smiled as she entered the small office. She closed the door, knowing that the three in the room preferred to keep the door closed whenever they were together. "Oh my. Any more people in this office and you'll all be doing something sinful."
Willow made a strangled noise as Buffy squeaked out a greeting. Joyce looked at her daughter curiously. "Buffy, is there anything wrong? Why are you out of classes today? Is there some demon assassin after you?"
"Now there is," Willow blurted out. Joyce stared at the girl. Buffy smacked her friend in the arm. Willow winced. "Ow! Just kidding!"
Joyce shook her head. "I don't think so. What happened? What's going on?"
"Willow was just kidding, Mom. Really," Buffy smiled widely as she deflected her mother's hard gaze to Wesley. "There actually after Wesley there, 'cause he's a Watcher."
Joyce turned to look at the tall, grubby man dressed in black who was standing behind the door. She stared at him for a few seconds. "I never would have recognized you, Wesley. You're looking a bit...tired."
"Yes, yes I am," Wesley said as he rubbed his neck. "It has been a horrible time since I left Sunnydale late July."
"Yeah, must be really hard to sleep and eat, knowing that there demon assassins are after you and all the other Watchers," Willow said sympathetically as she patted his arm.
"What?" Joyce yelped as she stared at the girl. Buffy glared at Willow as she said 'oops!'. Joyce swung her head to look at Giles for confirmation. "Rupert! There are demon assassins after Wesley? And all the other Watchers? Are they after you and Buffy?"
"Well, ah," Giles coughed as he crossed his fingers behind his back. "Not exactly. Right now they're after Wesley."
Joyce took a step forward and glared at him. "But will they come after you and Buffy? And don't you dare cross your fingers while you lie to me, Rupert Giles!"
"They'll only come after me if I try and stop them from killing Wesley, Mom," Buffy said as she told the half-truth. "So what are you doing here? You're supposed to be in the gallery today."
Joyce looked at her daughter. "I am. And I'm supposed to meet Rupert here for a lunch date at his place. I needed him to show me his sketches. And don’t try and change the subject."
"You're meeting him for lunch to have sex with him?" Buffy yelped as she looked at her mother in horror. Ever since her Mom and Giles started seeing each other, she was constantly filled with mixed feelings. She was glad that her mom was dating and that Giles found someone, but did it have to be with each other? And now, they were up to the sex part of their relationship? That was…”Ew! Mom! You can’t be having sex with Giles! It’s too-ick!”
“Why can’t I have sex with Rupert?” asked Joyce as she rolled her eyes at her daughter. ”Honey, sex with Rupert is not ‘ick’. It’s actually quite-“
“I don’t want to hear it!” Buffy yelped as she covered her ears. “It’s too ew!”
"Because he's a gay!" Willow yelped at the same time. Giles groaned as he buried his face into his hands. Joyce stared at the two girls as if they had two heads.
"No, Rupert is not gay," Joyce said slowly to the girls. "He’s bisexual. And as much as I’d like to have sex with him as soon as possible, I really am going over to his place to have lunch and to see the sketches he made for the new display he had in mind for the gallery and museum joint art venture."
Willow goggled at the first two sentences. ”You knew that he wasn’t gay and was a bisexual?”
“In this day and age don’t you think it would be stupid if I didn’t?” Joyce countered. When Giles made a strangled sound, Joyce went over to his side and patted him on the shoulder.
"Oh," Buffy said in a small voice. She looked at Giles warily. His face was red and he looked like he wanted the Hellmouth to open up and swallow him whole. ”Sorry about that Giles, but you and Mom and sex in the same sentence is still-ick.”
"But if we're going to have sex on the menu, I wouldn't say no to that either," Joyce continued impishly. Willow let out a squeak as Wesley stared at her, then at Giles.
"Again, Mom. Way too much info, Mom. Way too much info," Buffy glared at her mother as she covered her ears. Joyce smiled sweetly at her daughter, then gave Giles a come-hither smile. ”And stop looking at Giles like that. You’re scrambling his brains.”
Heat shooting through him, Giles forced himself to look away from her and cleared his throat. Ignoring Joyce’s muffled giggle, Giles cleared his throat again. ”Yes, well. Perhaps later. Now about these assassins Wesley, why are they after the Watchers? And why do we need Ethan?”
“I don’t know why they are after the Watchers,” Wesley said as he ran his fingers through his hair tiredly. “I tried to research them, but wasn’t able to. They are not like any of the demons that we studied in the Academy, and to be quite frank, I don't know where to start looking.”
“So then how did you know how to kill them?” Willow demanded. ”You were the one that told us that their skulls were soft and that you could kill them that way.”
Wesley nodded as he looked at the young Wiccan. ”Yes, but only because I managed to kill one by accident.”
“But why do we need Ethan Rayne?” Buffy demanded in frustration. ”Granted, I really don’t want him back in town after all the trouble he did the last time he was here, and the fact that he was Giles and Wesley’s lover is really giving me the wiggins, I really don’t see why we should have him back.”
Everyone stared at Wesley as he let out a frustrated noise. “We need him because Ethan was once trained to be a Watcher before he was kicked out of the Network.. And because he might have an idea on who these assassins are.”
Joyce stared at Wesley, then at Rupert. Buffy stared at Wesley then at Giles. Staring at Giles, Willow yelped. ”Ethan Rayne was a baby Watcher?”
TBC~