Transitory Evils

Part 10 Definitions of Evil


Approximately two months after Part 9


Willow looked up from her reading, to see Xander in the doorway. He looked drawn and shocked. “Xan, what’s wrong?”

“I-I just managed to get through to Dawnie, on the phone.”

“Goddess! That’s the first time anyone has! What did she say?”

“She told me to go to hell and the rest of us as well. Very bluntly.”

“What?”

“She said we hadn’t called her, hadn’t written her, never answered our phones or letters …”

“Letters? We never got any letters. Or calls. Damn! It’s the Council; it’s got to be. They’re deliberately isolating Buffy and Dawn!” Willow deduced quickly. “We need to talk to Giles. In fact, we need everyone here. Can you call the shop and get them to close up and come over? Then call Wes, Lorne and Gunn. Spike can’t go out at the moment, so we need to discuss it here. I’ll get him.” Xander nodded and headed straight for the phone.

Willow sprinted up the stairs, yelling, “Spike!” at the top of her lungs.

As Willow hurtled into their bedroom, still yelling, Spike awoke with a suddenness he was unused to. “Gods pet, what’s wrong?”

Willow forced herself to calm down and drew a breath. “Xander just spoke to Dawnie. A-And she told him to go to hell!”

“What? Why?”

“I think t-that she thinks w-we’ve been ignoring her. B-but I think it wasn’t us. I think t-the Council have been intercepting her m-mail and phone.”

“Bugger it! We need everyone here now. We’ve got to work something out.”

“I’ve already got Xan calling people.”

Spike nodded, still trying to clear the fog of sleep from his mind. He got out of bed and dragged on his jeans; followed by the same t-shirt he had worn the previous night. Stumbling, he dragged on his socks and boots, almost falling in his haste to dress and begin trying to help Dawn. He’d always liked her, and her mum.

Willow had waited only to drag on sneakers before clattering down the stairs again. She was calling for Xander even before she left the room, demanding an update on the phone calls.

As Willow reached the ground floor, the front door burst open, admitting Giles and Cordelia. Both looked very flustered and out of breath. “We got here as soon as we could.” Cordelia gasped. We sprinted when we weren’t in the car!”

Willow nodded and shrugged helplessly. “Go sit down, let Xand bring you up to date,” Willow said. “Spike’ll be down in a few moments and I’ll go put on coffee and stuff.”

As Willow entered the kitchen, she heard the door being thrown open again, and this time, the voices of Wesley, Gunn and Lorne added to the mix. She reached for the coffee, and then turned to open the refrigerator and remove a blood pack for Spike. Opening the microwave, she placed the pack inside and hit the controls. She then started both coffee and tea, aware that she needed to make a pot because recently Cordelia had become an enthusiastic convert to the national British beverage. Willow wondered for a moment if she and Giles were becoming closer, and if they would ever get past the ‘friends’ stage.

While she was working, she missed hearing Spike come up behind her and jumped when he kissed her neck, causing her to jump in surprise. “Mornin’ pet.”

“Goddess Spike! You scared me!”

“Sorry, kitten. Oh, you did me brekkie!” He kissed her on the forehead. “You’re a darlin’.”

Smiling happily as she finished the preparations, Willow heard the door opened once again. This time it was Anya, the last of the ‘New and Improved Scoobs’; as Spike had been known to refer to them.

* * * *

Giles cleared his throat a little and began to speak. “All right. Now that we’re all up to speed on what’s been happening, we have to try and attempt to resolve things, especially with Dawn. I hate to say this, but I honestly consider that after all this time with the Council, Buffy will be a lost cause, especially after almost a year of intensive … programming.”

“Giles,” Willow asked, her voice eerily calm, “are you saying that you think the Council has been brainwashing Buffy?”

“I wouldn’t go that far, Willow, “ Giles said slowly as he thought his answer through. “I’d say it’s more like a mild version of what some religious cults do. Continually stressing the ‘one true way’ to salvationor in this case the ‘one true way’ to see demons.”

Willow nodded, her calm now replaced by a cold harshness that no-one, other than Xander, could ever recall seeing on her face.

“Be cool, Wills, it’s not like …” Xander’s voice trailed off under Willow’s glare.

“We aren’t going to allow this, Giles.” Willow’s voice was a total monotone. There was no emotion whatsoever.

“Willow,” Giles began tentatively, “I know you dislike the Council, but your reaction seems a …”

Xander interrupted Giles. “G-Man, hold it. There are reasons, which we aren’t going into. I’m with Wills though all the way.” Willow’s grateful smile thanked Xander louder than any words possibly could.

Cordelia, however, was looking from Willow to Xander, and thinking back to high school. She had suddenly realised what Willow had been reminded of, and it began to replay in her mind.


Sunnydale high school, first day of freshman year for Cordelia, Xander and Willow

Cordy watched, with a plummeting heart, as she saw the ‘Four Freaks’, as she referred to them. Willow, the only girl, dressed in the usual hideous disarray that she seemed to favour for some reason. Jesse, passably cute until he opened his mouth. Xander … a total clown and loser and lastly Alex, short and swarthy, smart but with some major problems. As she recalled them, Cordy was amazed by her own shallowness then. Jesse had only slightly more than a year to live, she would become infatuated with Xander and Willow would become a witch, and then gay, and then the lover of a vampire. Poor Alex though, she thought back. What happened to him, no-one deserved. She realised that part of the reason she treated the four with such disdain was that they had something that she lacked … then. True friendship.

Xander, Willow and Jesse, she knew, went back years, but Alex was a recent addition to their group, having only been friendly with the other three for a couple of years.

Then Cordy realised that, even then, the first day at high school, it was already happening to poor Alex. His hair had been almost crew-cut and his clothing was far more sombre than it had been previously. Why, she asked herself, hadn’t she seen that at the time?

Her memory jumped forward some weeks. She saw Alex again, now dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and scarlet tie. He was carrying a small satchel as well as his usual backpack and both looked incongruous with the suit he was wearing. As clear as day, she could see him reach into the satchel hanging by his side and, almost embarrassedly give pamphlets to Xander, Jesse and Willow.

She saw the looks of shock on the faces of everyone that Alex approached. Finally, he approached her, tremblingly proffering the pamphlet. Cordy saw herself take the pamphlet without even thinking, shoving it into her bag and adding a totally unnecessary “Don’t you have somewhere to be? Somewhere … else?”

Alex turned; his shoulders slumped and walked away. Cordelia pulled the pamphlet out and looked down at the garish cover.

‘The Church of Universal Brotherhood.’ It proudly proclaimed in a hideous day-glow green. Despite herself, she was drawn on to read the text, aware, even as she did, that the pamphlet was designed to do precisely that. ‘Enhance the Power of your Mind, through faith, prayer and determination …’ the pamphlet began. Cordelia rolled her eyes and screwed the sheet up and deposited it fastidiously into a trashcan.

Her memory moved ahead a few more weeks. Now she saw herself walking with Harmony, Aura and Aphrodisia, when they came across the ‘Four Freaks’ talking heatedly. She stopped her friends and listened openly to the conversation.

“But that’s just wrong!” Willow said vehemently. “They can’t just take you out of school and go off to some dumb commune in Alberta!”

“I don’t have a choice,” Alex sighed. “I really don’t want to go somewhere that they don’t even have telephones, let alone the internet.”

“When d’you have to, like, leave, man?” Jesse asked.

“Sday.day. They only told me yesterday. I’ve only got four days to pack and to say goodbye to everyone and …” Alex finished with a huge sigh.

“Harsh, man. Real harsh.” Jesse commiserated with Alex.

Xander was, Cordelia could see, tearing up. She nudged Harmony to point it out and the four girls giggled quietly, mocking his weakness.

“So, we can’t even write?” Xander eventually asked.

“There’s a postal address, but,” Alex replied, defeated, “I have no idea if they’ll let me have any mail.” The bell rang for class and everyone began to head away.

Cordy felt an irrevocable movement towards what she knew would be the final scene in her vision of the past. It was the following Monday at the school assembly. Principal Flutie read the announcement quietly, appearing almost genuinely moved. “It’s my sad duty to announce that, yesterday, one of our students died in a car accident in Utah. I’m sure we’ll all remember Alex Bailey, one of our honour roll students.”

Cordelia felt tears trickling down her face as she came back to reality. She looked up at Willow, saying just one word, “Alex.”

Willow nodded, her own eyes brimming with tears.

Spike looked towards his lover, quirking an eyebrow in a gentle interrogative.

“I’ll tell you later, Spike,” Willow answered.

Giles looked at the reaction of the three native Sunnydalers and realised that something in their past had come back to haunt them. He took a calming breath before saying, “I can see that this has opened some old wounds, but I’m afraid that we’ll have to put the old emotions away for this. I want to stress one thing right now. You’re talking about going head to head with the Council of Watchers. A group with limitless resources, some of the best trained combat experts and most powerful sorcerers in the world. Do we want to do this? Should we do this? Can we win?

“Also, remember that the Council holds grudges. They attacked some of us in LA for working with Angel, and also intended to strip Buffy’s powers from her. And the people who arranged for that now run the Council.”

“Giles,” Willow began, “I’ll admit that I’m scared at the idea of confronting the Council, but what they’re doing to both Buffy and Dawn is just plain wrong. We have to. It’s like a moral imperative.”

Giles nodded. “I agree, he said slowly. “We don’t have an option. I just want everyone to know that this will perhaps be the hardest thing we’ve ever done. Also, we’ll have to use guile rather than violence, and stop sulking Spike,” Giles added without missing a beat before continuing. “If we attacked the Council directly, we’d all be killed. It’s that simple.”

“So what do we do, Giles?” Cordelia asked.

“What we have to try and do, dear,” Giles answered a little absently, “is to try and get the girls away from any ‘minders’ they may have.”

“Dear?” Spike mimicked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Giles, is there something you’ve forgotten to mention?” Willow added innocently.

“You there, Wes?” Gunn asked, waving his hand in front of a rather glazed former watcher.

Lorne just smiled and winked at Willow, following it up with a whispered, “Told you it wouldn’t be too long.”

Giles looked embarrassed and uncomfortable, while Cordelia smiled happily, and then placed her hand gently on the older man’s thigh. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” she urged, “we can tell them.”

Cordelia flashed a dazzling smile at everyone and plunged ahead without waiting for Giles’ assent. “We’ve been dating for a couple of weeks now. He’s wonderful.” She looked at Wesley, and smiled again before she continued. “I’m sorry Wes, I just didn’t realise then that it was Giles I wanted. The whole age issue y’know. So I went for you. A young Giles. I am sorry, can you forgive me for doing that, all those years ago?”

“Of course, Cordy. Not that there’s anything to forgive.” Wesley answered, giggling and happy for his friend.

Spike smiled openly and asked, teasingly and sarcastically, “What is it with all these Sunnydale bints? They’re all into older men.”

Willow looked at Spike levelly. “Yeah, guess we are. I mean, you’re so old that you can’t even remember which damn century we’re in.” Then she poked her tongue out at her lover.

Spike chuckled and looked at Giles. “You’re okay Rupes? You’re sitting there looking pretty stunned.”

“Er …” Giles removed his glasses and rubbed his forehead, deep in thought. “Yes, I think so. I think I was just expecting a lot more negativity about this. The fact everyone’s joking about it is … surprising.”

Spike smiled back. “Well, Rupes, think of it like this. I’m the big bad, and yet I’m totally captivated by this little vixen … Chubs and a former demon … neither are conventional, and there’s a fairly significant age difference in both cases. Why would we be upset?”

Giles just blinked helplessly. Lorne got up and smiled dazzlingly. “Congratulations, Giles. Just be sure that the Ripper doesn’t hurt her.”

“Who’s the Ripper?” Gunn asked, concern playing across his features.

“Giles is,” Anya answered easily. “When he was younger he was a very bad man.” Her comment consciously mocked Spike’s catchphrase, and she winked at the blond vampire.

Cordelia laughed. “I dunno, I heard about the time Ripper came out to play. I think it might be fun.”

Giles just gaped at her.

Wesley cleared his throat, both breaking up the interplnd gnd gaining everyone’s attention. “As touching as all this is, I think we should at least draw up some preliminary plans to help both Buffy and Dawn.”

Giles nodded, both relieved and obscurely disappointed at getting back to the reason for the urgent meeting. “Yes, I suppose we should,” the watcher said. “The main problem that I have is how to get Spike to London. There’s no way he could avoid direct sunlight.”

Wesley looked up at Giles‘ comment. “I can think of two options. Firstly, a private jet. Alternatively, Spike could always travel as cargo. I was thinking of Rupert’s and my dear departed father.”

“I’ll bloody well hire a jet rather than get stuck in a bleedin’ coffin for hours. And, Wes, if you want me to be your father … sod off, I wouldn’t turn you if you paid me.”

Wesley managed to look both relieved and offended at the same time, while Gunn chuckled quietly.

“So, what do we do when we get there?” Cordy asked.

“I’m unsure.” Giles admitted. “But Wesley and I will try and create a map, as accurately as we can remember. I’m thinking that we’ll need to create a lot of distractions, and try to get one or two people in to talk to Dawn and Buffy. Hopefully they’ll be able to convince them to … return with us.”

“Does everyone have passports?” Willow asked. “I know Spike and I do, and obviously Giles and Wesley do.”

“Well, I don’t. And I can’t really see me being issued one, somehow.” Lorne said, smiling.

“Er … I don’t have one either.” Gunn remarked sadly. “And given my record, even if I did, I wouldn’t get into another country anyhow.”

“Anya and I do. We got them before we decided on Hawaii for the honeymoon.” Xander said.

”I still have mine,” Cordelia added happily. “It’ll be nice to use it again.”

“So, everyone who can go will,” Giles said in a voice that brooked no argument. “Spike, can you arrange for that jet?”

”Yeah. I’ll hire a cargo jet. They do have seats. no wno windows.”

”But … but how will we see out?” Anya asked.

“We won’t, you daft bint. That’s more or less the bloody point.”