Successor (BTVS)
- Thread starter DeAnno
- Start date
- Mature
[X] Xander fires his AK47 at Faith
-[X] He tries to shoot to injure
-[X] He tries to shoot to injure
- Location
- Before the Ninth Gate
[X] Xander fires his AK47 at Faith
-[X] He fires a warning shot
--[X] Tell the initiative thugs that if Faith hurts one more of the vampires, we'll tell all the demon populations of Sunnydale and LA exactly where the Initiative is located, where their patrols are, and declare open season on them. Make it quite clear that they only reason they haven't been mobbed so far is the peace Buffy enforced on the Hellmouth, and this action would remove that protection from them. Note the times that Buffy was needed, including the Mok'tagar, and how the only places they feel safe raiding is a suckhouse.
-[X] He fires a warning shot
--[X] Tell the initiative thugs that if Faith hurts one more of the vampires, we'll tell all the demon populations of Sunnydale and LA exactly where the Initiative is located, where their patrols are, and declare open season on them. Make it quite clear that they only reason they haven't been mobbed so far is the peace Buffy enforced on the Hellmouth, and this action would remove that protection from them. Note the times that Buffy was needed, including the Mok'tagar, and how the only places they feel safe raiding is a suckhouse.
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WyldCard4
Unregistered
[X] Xander keeps trying to negotiate. (Stunt for possibly greater effect)
-[X] No stunts.
At the moment I am concerned and partially swayed by the stunting arguments involved, but not confident in any of them right now. Actively voting to let Xander's brain handle it instead of questmind, but might change my vote as the debate goes on.
-[X] No stunts.
At the moment I am concerned and partially swayed by the stunting arguments involved, but not confident in any of them right now. Actively voting to let Xander's brain handle it instead of questmind, but might change my vote as the debate goes on.
So I had a thought on how to pressure Faith into stopping rather than getting the Initiative to pressure her into stopping. Have Xander threaten to destroy the dagger the mayor gave her if she doesn't let Gwen go and back off. Faith adored the mayor, and that weapon is the last thing she has of him. Having fun torturing vampires today is almost certainly not worth having the dagger destroyed.
Now the big problem with this plan is that if we just threaten the dagger then she probably attacks the Watch HQ trying to get it back very soon, so I would add a carrot on top of the stick. We offer to give her the dagger back, if she tells us how the Initiative knew Buffy wasn't in town. That was supposed to be secret, and it at least shouldn't be common knowledge yet. If the Initiative has a spy I would really like to know, and she might be able to tell us if they do, or at least give us a hint. This should also drive a wedge between the Initiative and Faith once they learn how little she prioritizes their information security.
I am unsure how the approval voting should look for something like this, so I hope this doesn't look too weird
[X] Xander keeps trying to negotiate. (Stunt for possibly greater effect)
--[X] Tell the initiative thugs that if Faith hurts one more of the vampires his general AI would gut their research and destroy all the Initiative computer systems.
[X] Xander keeps trying to negotiate. (Stunt for possibly greater effect)
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
Now the big problem with this plan is that if we just threaten the dagger then she probably attacks the Watch HQ trying to get it back very soon, so I would add a carrot on top of the stick. We offer to give her the dagger back, if she tells us how the Initiative knew Buffy wasn't in town. That was supposed to be secret, and it at least shouldn't be common knowledge yet. If the Initiative has a spy I would really like to know, and she might be able to tell us if they do, or at least give us a hint. This should also drive a wedge between the Initiative and Faith once they learn how little she prioritizes their information security.
I am unsure how the approval voting should look for something like this, so I hope this doesn't look too weird
[X] Xander keeps trying to negotiate. (Stunt for possibly greater effect)
--[X] Tell the initiative thugs that if Faith hurts one more of the vampires his general AI would gut their research and destroy all the Initiative computer systems.
[X] Xander keeps trying to negotiate. (Stunt for possibly greater effect)
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Xander keeps trying to negotiate. (Stunt for possibly greater effect)
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
[X] Xander keeps trying to negotiate. (Stunt for possibly greater effect)
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
[X] Xander keeps trying to negotiate. (Stunt for possibly greater effect)
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
[X] Xander keeps trying to negotiate. (Stunt for possibly greater effect)
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
- Location
- Before the Ninth Gate
[X] Xander keeps trying to negotiate. (Stunt for possibly greater effect)
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Whoever said we're actually going to give it back?
- Location
- Vancouver
Well, the vote does say we will and doesn't actually mention that Xander is being duplicitous there. Also, I don't really trust our ability to hang onto it once we get Faith interested in it, without Buffy around.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, it says "Tell Faith", not "Agree to give Faith". I feel like having a former vengeance demon for a girlfriend would certainly give Xander a new perspective on the tricky wording of things.
"Hey, Faith, so there's this knife, and if you behave you can have it." [time passes] "Yup, we express-shipped it with FedEx, it should be on Quentin Travers' desk right about now. Have fun getting it."
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- Location
- Vancouver
No, it doesn't. It says 'then we will give her the dagger'. That's pretty cut and dry. Also, I don't think Xander is going to put together that there's a bigger reason to avoid giving her the knife, just thinking it will be sentimental, so he won't go through big loop arounds to avoid giving it to her
If Faith had a bunch of magical energy pouring into her from being the acknowledged mayor of sunnydale and thus the hidden artifact (that we really need to find) tied to her then I am dead certain the knife could become like Buffy's hammer. She doesn't have a lachryma artifact like that though, so I'm not worried about that in the short or medium term.
- Location
- Vancouver
Ugh, it's happened. Well, here's hoping this doesn't hurt us too bad in the long run.
But I think those are two different things. I agree she still won't be as strong as Buffy, but she may still get a boost. I don't think Dracula mentioned needing a Lachryma artifact for his godhood. The artifact is giving Buffy more 'Slayer juice' so to Scoobie-speak, but that's separate from her hammer versatility and little-g godhood.
But I think those are two different things. I agree she still won't be as strong as Buffy, but she may still get a boost. I don't think Dracula mentioned needing a Lachryma artifact for his godhood. The artifact is giving Buffy more 'Slayer juice' so to Scoobie-speak, but that's separate from her hammer versatility and little-g godhood.
Dracula mentioned looking for a lachryma artifsct here though, and has Giles researching them. He also determined that the Box of Gavrok was not strong enough to be having this sort of impact on Buffy. From that I assumed that the slayer juice and godhood and hammer were tied directly together. The artifact let's Buffy get access to pure spsyer energy which let's Buffy do a bunch of crazy stuff and make her hammer a powerful magical weapon.
- Location
- Vancouver
He did, but we hadn't even known about the godhood thing before he mentioned it, we were just looking into the slayer stuff. They might be, but I don't think they definitely have to be. The Slayer stuff helps with KILL and warnings of enemies coming our way and whatnot, but the hammer supernatural positioning and ease of use is from the godhood, not Slayer-ness (if slayer powers boosted a single weapon directly, it would be a scythe). I also worry that even if it would be harder for Faith to normally get godhood, she might get it easier here as Buffy's rival.
S4.0E5: The Watch II
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
[X] Xander keeps trying to negotiate. (Stunt for possibly greater effect)
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
Xander knew with a grim certainty that he was badly outmatched. Maybe he could've tagged Faith with this thing if he shot her by surprise, but she was practically waiting for it now. But at the same time, he couldn't let this charade go on. He needed something, anything, to make her listen.
"Stop or you never see your knife again!" He snapped it out before his brain could even guess if it was a good idea.
Even as Faith tried to process his statement, the frantic whispering that had been spreading in the room around them turned to murmurs of confusion.
"What did you freakin' say?" Faith blustered, taking a step toward him without letting go of Gwen, who was still quietly shaking in fear.
Xander somehow managed to both stand his ground and keep his finger off the trigger. "You know what I said. That nifty little doodad the mayor was so interested in. I'd bet the last jelly donut in the box it was pretty important to both of you, wasn't it?" He could tell from the look on her face that he was right, even as she tried to cover it up with her scary slayer factor. Faith always had a terrible poker face. "Buzz off, or I'll melt the thing down myself."
Losing interest in Gwen, she chucked her away like a rag doll, getting up in Xander's face in the space between two breaths, his gun shoved to the side like a child's plaything. "And why won't I-"
Rachel's tomahawk flew through the air at Faith's head, and Faith caught it left-handed without missing a beat. A second later it was flung back hard and buried itself into the cheap wooden floorboards between Rachel's feet.
Faith snorted. "The adults are busy now, sweet pea. I like your spunk and your hair, but the next shot ain't gonna be free." Rachel grimaced at her, but Zoe put a hand on her shoulder and she stayed silent. Ben and the cops had somehow managed to keep their cool through the whole thing.
Then Faith turned back to Xander. "Like I was saying before, what's stopping me from melting you down first?"
"I think if that was why you were out here we wouldn't still be talking right now and I'd be on the ground in a lot of pain," Xander said. "But your boss doesn't want a full scale war any more than we do. So instead you come out to rattle our tree."
"Your tree has vampire hoes in it," Faith said.
He shook his head. "It's still our tree. Back off, or the knife gets it."
She pursed her lips, frustrated. "Give it back, and maybe I'll consider ignoring this place,"
"I'm gonna need more than that. Lay off for a week. No hassling our people, no killing demons that follow the rules," Xander hoped he wasn't pushing his luck, "and tell me how you knew Buffy isn't in town."
"Who says I do?" Faith said defensively. "Don't see her here, do I?"
"I don't think that's what you meant," Xander replied. Her hasty answer was even more convincing. She knew.
Faith deliberated, and the whole room stayed in an awkward stare-down; his team on one side, Faith and her goons on the other, and the two other vampires huddled over Gwen in the corner, still on the ground after Faith had discarded her.
"Whatever," she said ambiguously. "We're done here, let's roll."
"We're not going to bring her in?" It was the same soldier that'd questioned Faith before.
"You wanna grab her up and then get shot full of lead? Be my guest." Faith strolled out, shoving past Rachel without looking back to see if the three guys she'd brought with her would follow. Two left with her, and after a searching look at Xander (or maybe his gun), the last one was gone too.
Xander had an urge to quip about billing them for the door, but with Annie turned into a pile of dust on the floor it was probably in bad taste. Even if she was just a vampire, it felt like a personal failing.
"If you'd just pulled the trigger we could've overwhelmed her," Rachel said.
"Because getting us all killed by a slayer and/or starting a war with the US Government was at the very top of my list of things to do tonight," Xander replied.
"She's just Faith Lehane, not Clark Kent. Why do you even carry that thing if you aren't going to use it?" Rachel continued. Xander had the sense this argument wasn't going to go away.
"He's not wrong, girlie," Officer Bernie answered for him. "I've seen people shoot at the mayor before. Didn't go so hot for them."
"Weren't you one of those people?" his partner asked.
"Details."
"You were supposed to protect us." There was a non-vamp-faced girl with a pink dye job looking down at them from halfway up the stairs. Xander remembered her name now, this was Trish; the last vampire unaccounted for, the one that had made the call. Harmony had mentioned her a few times, but she wasn't coming across as bubbly and fun right now.
"That's what it looked like we were doing from here," Ben said to her, a little disgruntled.
"Would she even have come if you hadn't put a target on our backs in the first place?" Trish said.
"She's just in shock," Gwen said hurriedly, leveraging herself off the ground. "We're very grateful that you saved us."
"Didn't save Annie," Trish said. "Didn't do anything about it either."
"Trish, please!" Gwen begged.
"No, let her go on," Rachel said. "I like where this is going."
"Rachel, can you just not right now?" Zoe said.
"Spoilsport."
"This is all some game to you right? Get in a turf war, wave your stakes and guns around at each other. But it's all fine in the end because nobody's hurt. Vampires don't count."
"Do you want them to kill us all?" Gwen practically screamed at her.
"Would you be like this if I was the dead one?" Trish snapped.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Xander said. Nothing to be done about this mess but to leave and hope that someone else could smooth it over. He definitely couldn't. Maybe he didn't even want to. "If there's any other trouble, call us again."
Xander was awakened by a persistent knocking on his door. "Just a second!" he called out. Hopefully it wasn't some new emergency at… 11:30 AM? Anya must have turned off the alarm when she left this morning, bless her morally-challenged heart. He'd needed it, but it meant he was already behind schedule.
Blearily, he threw on some clothes and tried to make himself at least minimally presentable, but then another series of knocks started and he decided that this would have to be good enough. He opened the door and saw an annoyed Watcher standing on the other side, considerably more awake and better dressed than he was.
"This is outrageous!" Senior Watcher Mary Snow exclaimed.
"A lot of things are outrageous, you're going to have to narrow it down," Xander said.
"A house of ill repute! With vampires! Owned and operated by your own government!" She was apoleptic.
"We don't technically operate it," Xander was too tired for this conversation right now.
"Isn't prostitution illegal in this country?" she continued.
"Dosing teenagers with drugs and trying to kill them is illegal here too," Xander said.
"Don't be petty," she said. "I expect better of you than to bring my girls into a situation like that."
"You told me to take them on patrol. They went on patrol. It was a learning experience, just like you hoped it would be." He barely held back a comment about Rachel learning how to almost start a war. Watcher Mary was not a productive person to share that thought with.
"Are you actively trying to entangle them in the same perversions Miss Summers has become addicted to, or was it just a happy accident?"
"Mayor Summers." Xander corrected. It was easier than summoning up an answer.
"Excuse me, yes. Mayor Summers. Who likes to flaunt her soulless girlfriends for the entire council to see!"
"Only one that I know of," Xander said.
"Then why-"
"Stop," Xander said sharply. "If you feel such a burning need to have this conversation, have it with Buffy when she gets back. Or better yet, shove it, and don't. Rachel and Zoe are your people. Do you want to pull them from the Watch or not?"
"No, but-"
"Then we're done right now," He moved past her and retreated his way into the bathroom, intent on a new quest to shed his morning-zombie ways and become human once more.
Unfortunately as the shower washed the grime away, he had time to think, and the thoughts weren't encouraging. Playing over the events of last night in his head again, he still wasn't sure if Rachel threw her axe because she was jumpy or because she was looking for an excuse. She definitely wanted to be the next slayer; was she willing to kill for it? Was she past that, and actively looking to?
From what she and Zoe had been talking about in the van, she might be. And if she was, was it her own idea, or was she being put up to it? Travers was supposedly trying to solve the whole Faith issue with his legal mumbo jumbo, but Mary was here as his equal, and she was in command of the potentials; was this supposed to be her twisted version of a solution? And would a potential killing a slayer make them the next slayer? He wouldn't put it past the whole screwed up system, but he wouldn't put it past Mary to just lie about it either. Or even Travers, if this was all him playing games instead.
It was a mess, alright, and worse, it was his mess now. A mess that might start a war with the feds or get Rachel killed. And no matter how much he wanted to, he knew it wouldn't accomplish much to confront anyone about it. Rachel would stonewall, Zoe would probably lie to protect her friend, and Mary would turn it all back against him somehow.
When he emerged, Mary was gone, for better or for worse. He couldn't even pretend that would be the end of the problem, but he could willfully ignore it for another couple hours at least.
Descending down to the first level of the Watch House for something resembling breakfast, he was surprised to find ... Harmony?
"You look different," Xander said kind of obviously. Her hair was shorter, and also seemed darker in a way that he didn't know enough about girl stuff to define. The effect of the look was a little jarred by the bowl of gummy bears she was munching.
"Cynthia was sort of having a panic attack last night so we did a makeover," Harmony said.
"Cynthia was having a panic attack?" Xander asked. "Do you mean Cynthia-I-am-your-unflappably-robotic-secretary-Danvers, or is it some other Cynthia I'm not familiar with?"
"Cynthia's pretty obsessed with Buffy," Harmony said completely unironically. "And she doesn't quite like, understand the way I do."
"The way you do?" Xander almost didn't want to know.
"Buffy isn't going to die to some dumb volcano in a time dimension," Harmony said. "Buffy's too cool for that and all the nerds have it under control. But I guess Wilkins wasn't supposed to die at graduation either. So she worries."
"She was all wiggily loyal to Wilkins before?" Xander asked.
"Duh. It's her whole thing," Harmony seemed to at least think she understood this.
"Couldn't she just, you know, get another new one then?" Xander tried.
"No, because none of them would be even nearly as cool as Buffy. Obviously," Harmony said. "But anyway, my hair! Do I look more mature? Dangerous? Do you think Buffy will like it?" She seemed hopeful.
He avoided the topic. "Your neck looks healed," She'd been sporting the scar from Kathy's attack all week, and Xander still hadn't been sure if she was recovered enough for the field.
"Makeup," She explained. "I'm mostly fine though, really. I'm not frail like a human or anything." She gave him a look.
Clearly she wanted to get back into the game, and Xander could hardly say no with how strapped they were. "Well, if you're up to it, there's something I'd like you to handle for me. You heard about the suck house last night?"
"Yeah, it sucks what happened to Annie," Harmony said. "I didn't really like her, but still, the suck house is Buffy's. The principle of it irks me."
It was definitely a different reaction than any of the vamps on the scene had had last night, and Xander wasn't sure why. "Trish took it a lot worse than you did. She expected us to start a shooting war, and she was a little ornery when we left."
"Huh," Harmony said. "Do you think we need to kill her?"
Xander's confusion deepened. "I thought you two were kind of friends?"
Harmony shrugged. "We can't have her plotting rebellion against Buffy." Her voice was unusually serious.
"Still, I'm not sure we have to go that far," Xander almost regretted saying it. If the whole suck house experiment were to go up in a cloud of dust, it would simplify a lot. But it definitely wasn't what Buffy would want, and it felt suspiciously like betraying his oath. Not that he had an oath, but still.
"If you say so," Harmony said. "So you want me to go down, straighten her out?"
"More smooth things over," Xander said. "Try to make sure they keep a lid on the mystery of the missing mayor too."
"I'll go tonight," Harmony resolved. "Do you think all the denizens downtown will be terrified of my new look?"
"That or terrified of your fashion choices," Xander said.
"Geek." She flicked him in the shoulder with her finger.
He poked her in the nose. "Bimbo."
She bit the head off another gummy bear. "So how are your two slayerboppers?"
"Zoe's fine. Rachel's like a very tall chihuahua."
"The whole hating me attitude has been super annoying," Harmony agreed. "Do you think she's gonna get herself killed?"
"That's what I'm trying to prevent," he said.
"Go figure. So what's your plan for tonight?"
Vote: Buffy's still gone. What is Xander going to focus on tonight to help his dual goals of educating Rachel and defending the hellmouth?
[] A visit to Willy's Place to show the flag and dig up some dirt could pay dividends, plus it'll be a chance for Rachel to be exposed to demons in a more normal setting, getting her more used to the status quo in Sunnydale.
[] Buffy and Willow were going to attend the year's first Wicca group meeting at UC Sunnydale tonight and try to do some recruiting. Xander could go with the two potentials in their stead, but it might be kind of awkward. At least the flyer said everyone was welcome.
[] A patrol a day keeps the vampires away. This time Xander wants to do a more traditional foot patrol of the local cemeteries. Hopefully Rachel will find something appropriate to vent her anger on in a situation less likely to get her dead.
--[X] Tell Faith that if she doesn't back off we will destroy the mayor's dagger, and that if she tells us how she knew Buffy was gone and plays nice until Buffy is back, or a week has gone by, then we will give her the dagger.
Xander knew with a grim certainty that he was badly outmatched. Maybe he could've tagged Faith with this thing if he shot her by surprise, but she was practically waiting for it now. But at the same time, he couldn't let this charade go on. He needed something, anything, to make her listen.
"Stop or you never see your knife again!" He snapped it out before his brain could even guess if it was a good idea.
Even as Faith tried to process his statement, the frantic whispering that had been spreading in the room around them turned to murmurs of confusion.
"What did you freakin' say?" Faith blustered, taking a step toward him without letting go of Gwen, who was still quietly shaking in fear.
Xander somehow managed to both stand his ground and keep his finger off the trigger. "You know what I said. That nifty little doodad the mayor was so interested in. I'd bet the last jelly donut in the box it was pretty important to both of you, wasn't it?" He could tell from the look on her face that he was right, even as she tried to cover it up with her scary slayer factor. Faith always had a terrible poker face. "Buzz off, or I'll melt the thing down myself."
Losing interest in Gwen, she chucked her away like a rag doll, getting up in Xander's face in the space between two breaths, his gun shoved to the side like a child's plaything. "And why won't I-"
Rachel's tomahawk flew through the air at Faith's head, and Faith caught it left-handed without missing a beat. A second later it was flung back hard and buried itself into the cheap wooden floorboards between Rachel's feet.
Faith snorted. "The adults are busy now, sweet pea. I like your spunk and your hair, but the next shot ain't gonna be free." Rachel grimaced at her, but Zoe put a hand on her shoulder and she stayed silent. Ben and the cops had somehow managed to keep their cool through the whole thing.
Then Faith turned back to Xander. "Like I was saying before, what's stopping me from melting you down first?"
"I think if that was why you were out here we wouldn't still be talking right now and I'd be on the ground in a lot of pain," Xander said. "But your boss doesn't want a full scale war any more than we do. So instead you come out to rattle our tree."
"Your tree has vampire hoes in it," Faith said.
He shook his head. "It's still our tree. Back off, or the knife gets it."
She pursed her lips, frustrated. "Give it back, and maybe I'll consider ignoring this place,"
"I'm gonna need more than that. Lay off for a week. No hassling our people, no killing demons that follow the rules," Xander hoped he wasn't pushing his luck, "and tell me how you knew Buffy isn't in town."
"Who says I do?" Faith said defensively. "Don't see her here, do I?"
"I don't think that's what you meant," Xander replied. Her hasty answer was even more convincing. She knew.
Faith deliberated, and the whole room stayed in an awkward stare-down; his team on one side, Faith and her goons on the other, and the two other vampires huddled over Gwen in the corner, still on the ground after Faith had discarded her.
"Whatever," she said ambiguously. "We're done here, let's roll."
"We're not going to bring her in?" It was the same soldier that'd questioned Faith before.
"You wanna grab her up and then get shot full of lead? Be my guest." Faith strolled out, shoving past Rachel without looking back to see if the three guys she'd brought with her would follow. Two left with her, and after a searching look at Xander (or maybe his gun), the last one was gone too.
Xander had an urge to quip about billing them for the door, but with Annie turned into a pile of dust on the floor it was probably in bad taste. Even if she was just a vampire, it felt like a personal failing.
"If you'd just pulled the trigger we could've overwhelmed her," Rachel said.
"Because getting us all killed by a slayer and/or starting a war with the US Government was at the very top of my list of things to do tonight," Xander replied.
"She's just Faith Lehane, not Clark Kent. Why do you even carry that thing if you aren't going to use it?" Rachel continued. Xander had the sense this argument wasn't going to go away.
"He's not wrong, girlie," Officer Bernie answered for him. "I've seen people shoot at the mayor before. Didn't go so hot for them."
"Weren't you one of those people?" his partner asked.
"Details."
"You were supposed to protect us." There was a non-vamp-faced girl with a pink dye job looking down at them from halfway up the stairs. Xander remembered her name now, this was Trish; the last vampire unaccounted for, the one that had made the call. Harmony had mentioned her a few times, but she wasn't coming across as bubbly and fun right now.
"That's what it looked like we were doing from here," Ben said to her, a little disgruntled.
"Would she even have come if you hadn't put a target on our backs in the first place?" Trish said.
"She's just in shock," Gwen said hurriedly, leveraging herself off the ground. "We're very grateful that you saved us."
"Didn't save Annie," Trish said. "Didn't do anything about it either."
"Trish, please!" Gwen begged.
"No, let her go on," Rachel said. "I like where this is going."
"Rachel, can you just not right now?" Zoe said.
"Spoilsport."
"This is all some game to you right? Get in a turf war, wave your stakes and guns around at each other. But it's all fine in the end because nobody's hurt. Vampires don't count."
"Do you want them to kill us all?" Gwen practically screamed at her.
"Would you be like this if I was the dead one?" Trish snapped.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Xander said. Nothing to be done about this mess but to leave and hope that someone else could smooth it over. He definitely couldn't. Maybe he didn't even want to. "If there's any other trouble, call us again."
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Xander was awakened by a persistent knocking on his door. "Just a second!" he called out. Hopefully it wasn't some new emergency at… 11:30 AM? Anya must have turned off the alarm when she left this morning, bless her morally-challenged heart. He'd needed it, but it meant he was already behind schedule.
Blearily, he threw on some clothes and tried to make himself at least minimally presentable, but then another series of knocks started and he decided that this would have to be good enough. He opened the door and saw an annoyed Watcher standing on the other side, considerably more awake and better dressed than he was.
"This is outrageous!" Senior Watcher Mary Snow exclaimed.
"A lot of things are outrageous, you're going to have to narrow it down," Xander said.
"A house of ill repute! With vampires! Owned and operated by your own government!" She was apoleptic.
"We don't technically operate it," Xander was too tired for this conversation right now.
"Isn't prostitution illegal in this country?" she continued.
"Dosing teenagers with drugs and trying to kill them is illegal here too," Xander said.
"Don't be petty," she said. "I expect better of you than to bring my girls into a situation like that."
"You told me to take them on patrol. They went on patrol. It was a learning experience, just like you hoped it would be." He barely held back a comment about Rachel learning how to almost start a war. Watcher Mary was not a productive person to share that thought with.
"Are you actively trying to entangle them in the same perversions Miss Summers has become addicted to, or was it just a happy accident?"
"Mayor Summers." Xander corrected. It was easier than summoning up an answer.
"Excuse me, yes. Mayor Summers. Who likes to flaunt her soulless girlfriends for the entire council to see!"
"Only one that I know of," Xander said.
"Then why-"
"Stop," Xander said sharply. "If you feel such a burning need to have this conversation, have it with Buffy when she gets back. Or better yet, shove it, and don't. Rachel and Zoe are your people. Do you want to pull them from the Watch or not?"
"No, but-"
"Then we're done right now," He moved past her and retreated his way into the bathroom, intent on a new quest to shed his morning-zombie ways and become human once more.
Unfortunately as the shower washed the grime away, he had time to think, and the thoughts weren't encouraging. Playing over the events of last night in his head again, he still wasn't sure if Rachel threw her axe because she was jumpy or because she was looking for an excuse. She definitely wanted to be the next slayer; was she willing to kill for it? Was she past that, and actively looking to?
From what she and Zoe had been talking about in the van, she might be. And if she was, was it her own idea, or was she being put up to it? Travers was supposedly trying to solve the whole Faith issue with his legal mumbo jumbo, but Mary was here as his equal, and she was in command of the potentials; was this supposed to be her twisted version of a solution? And would a potential killing a slayer make them the next slayer? He wouldn't put it past the whole screwed up system, but he wouldn't put it past Mary to just lie about it either. Or even Travers, if this was all him playing games instead.
It was a mess, alright, and worse, it was his mess now. A mess that might start a war with the feds or get Rachel killed. And no matter how much he wanted to, he knew it wouldn't accomplish much to confront anyone about it. Rachel would stonewall, Zoe would probably lie to protect her friend, and Mary would turn it all back against him somehow.
When he emerged, Mary was gone, for better or for worse. He couldn't even pretend that would be the end of the problem, but he could willfully ignore it for another couple hours at least.
Descending down to the first level of the Watch House for something resembling breakfast, he was surprised to find ... Harmony?
"You look different," Xander said kind of obviously. Her hair was shorter, and also seemed darker in a way that he didn't know enough about girl stuff to define. The effect of the look was a little jarred by the bowl of gummy bears she was munching.
"Cynthia was sort of having a panic attack last night so we did a makeover," Harmony said.
"Cynthia was having a panic attack?" Xander asked. "Do you mean Cynthia-I-am-your-unflappably-robotic-secretary-Danvers, or is it some other Cynthia I'm not familiar with?"
"Cynthia's pretty obsessed with Buffy," Harmony said completely unironically. "And she doesn't quite like, understand the way I do."
"The way you do?" Xander almost didn't want to know.
"Buffy isn't going to die to some dumb volcano in a time dimension," Harmony said. "Buffy's too cool for that and all the nerds have it under control. But I guess Wilkins wasn't supposed to die at graduation either. So she worries."
"She was all wiggily loyal to Wilkins before?" Xander asked.
"Duh. It's her whole thing," Harmony seemed to at least think she understood this.
"Couldn't she just, you know, get another new one then?" Xander tried.
"No, because none of them would be even nearly as cool as Buffy. Obviously," Harmony said. "But anyway, my hair! Do I look more mature? Dangerous? Do you think Buffy will like it?" She seemed hopeful.
He avoided the topic. "Your neck looks healed," She'd been sporting the scar from Kathy's attack all week, and Xander still hadn't been sure if she was recovered enough for the field.
"Makeup," She explained. "I'm mostly fine though, really. I'm not frail like a human or anything." She gave him a look.
Clearly she wanted to get back into the game, and Xander could hardly say no with how strapped they were. "Well, if you're up to it, there's something I'd like you to handle for me. You heard about the suck house last night?"
"Yeah, it sucks what happened to Annie," Harmony said. "I didn't really like her, but still, the suck house is Buffy's. The principle of it irks me."
It was definitely a different reaction than any of the vamps on the scene had had last night, and Xander wasn't sure why. "Trish took it a lot worse than you did. She expected us to start a shooting war, and she was a little ornery when we left."
"Huh," Harmony said. "Do you think we need to kill her?"
Xander's confusion deepened. "I thought you two were kind of friends?"
Harmony shrugged. "We can't have her plotting rebellion against Buffy." Her voice was unusually serious.
"Still, I'm not sure we have to go that far," Xander almost regretted saying it. If the whole suck house experiment were to go up in a cloud of dust, it would simplify a lot. But it definitely wasn't what Buffy would want, and it felt suspiciously like betraying his oath. Not that he had an oath, but still.
"If you say so," Harmony said. "So you want me to go down, straighten her out?"
"More smooth things over," Xander said. "Try to make sure they keep a lid on the mystery of the missing mayor too."
"I'll go tonight," Harmony resolved. "Do you think all the denizens downtown will be terrified of my new look?"
"That or terrified of your fashion choices," Xander said.
"Geek." She flicked him in the shoulder with her finger.
He poked her in the nose. "Bimbo."
She bit the head off another gummy bear. "So how are your two slayerboppers?"
"Zoe's fine. Rachel's like a very tall chihuahua."
"The whole hating me attitude has been super annoying," Harmony agreed. "Do you think she's gonna get herself killed?"
"That's what I'm trying to prevent," he said.
"Go figure. So what's your plan for tonight?"
Vote: Buffy's still gone. What is Xander going to focus on tonight to help his dual goals of educating Rachel and defending the hellmouth?
[] A visit to Willy's Place to show the flag and dig up some dirt could pay dividends, plus it'll be a chance for Rachel to be exposed to demons in a more normal setting, getting her more used to the status quo in Sunnydale.
[] Buffy and Willow were going to attend the year's first Wicca group meeting at UC Sunnydale tonight and try to do some recruiting. Xander could go with the two potentials in their stead, but it might be kind of awkward. At least the flyer said everyone was welcome.
[] A patrol a day keeps the vampires away. This time Xander wants to do a more traditional foot patrol of the local cemeteries. Hopefully Rachel will find something appropriate to vent her anger on in a situation less likely to get her dead.
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