FIC: Acid String Quartet (2/?)

[PChazzman@xxxxxxx]

TITLE: Acid String Quartet (2/?)
AUTHOR: Chazzman
E-MAIL: PChazzman@xxxxxxx 
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters in this story. They all belong 
to Joss and the WB network. Please don't sue. We have nothing anyway.
SPOILERS: For Seasons 3, 4 & 5.
SUMMERY: Challenge response.
RATED: R, Some sex, Language
DISTRIBUTION: Just ask me, please...
FEEDBACK: Is very welcome.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Answer to Challenge from Bill & Shadow
AUTHOR'S NOTE 2: Uhm have I mentioned there are major character deaths? Well, 
there are.

Quartet
Chapter 2 

Excerpt from the 'Water Queen's Diary'.

April 2, 2003

The problem with assassins is that they don't care about the surrounding 
damage they do when trying to kill me, via a car bombing or strafing the 
house with machine gun fire. At least the ones who come after me don't. 
They also don't realize until too late just how pissed off I get when someone 
injures one of my friends or family members. 

Come after me, fine. No big. Your death will be quick and... well, quick. 
But when they injure the people who I love... well, for instance the assassin 
who killed Cordelia's baby, we've still got him alive around here. In fact 
there are several spells we put upon him to keep him alive. Had to do that. 
Otherwise he would have died pretty quick, being locked up in a septic tank 
and all with nothing else to eat or drink. That was after we removed his 
arms, starting with the fingers and working up joint by joint. 

And, oh yes, Cordy got remove his eyes. 

She quite enjoyed that.

Meanwhile, I have to look at the silver lining of this, and see that it 
brought to me several allies who have proven to be quite useful time and 
again over the past years. And kept Faith out of the hands of the Council.

#####

Nov. 2, 2002

Cordelia awoke with a cry in the arms of her lover. 

"Shh, Shh," came the calming soothing voice. "I've got you, Delia. I've got 
you, my love."

"Jason," she sobbed as the memories overwhelmed her yet again. The child she 
had lost to an assassin's bullet meant for her. "Oh god, why?" 

"I know, babe. I know it hurts," Kate crooned into the upset seer's ear.

"I can't take it anymore, Kate," she sobbed. "I'm accepting Buffy's offer."

Kate stared at Cordelia for several long seconds. She had known Cordelia had 
been considering the offer her "high school friend" from Sunnydale had made. 
How could she not? Kate knew that the 'official' investigation had already 
been shelved under 'Unsolved'. Because of her personal relationship with 
Cordelia she had initially not been allowed to work on the case. Now her 
efforts to get some movement on the case were met with out blank stares. 
'You're just too closely involved, Lockley' and 'we don't have the resources 
to keep every random shoot incident open'. People started avoiding her, and 
quieting down when she entered a room. After all, they had already been 
thinking she was getting weird before she became a dyke. It was depressing. 
Ten years on the force should have meant something, but apparently these days 
it didn't.

"Well then, I guess that's that," Kate sighed.

Cordelia looked down. She knew there was no way they could continue their 
relationship with herself in Sunnydale and Kate in LA. The jobs just wouldn't 
allow it.

Kate apparently knew it as well.

"I'll put in my resignation tomorrow," she said without a trace of regret.

Cordelia looked up in shocked amazement to see Kate smiling lovingly at her.

"It's not as if they'd miss me," Kate told her sincerely as she stroked the 
side of her lover's face.

"Thank you," was all Cordy could say before her emotions overwhelmed her and 
she pulled Kate into a passionate kiss.

"What about Faith?" asked Kate when they broke apart.

######

Cordelia sighed as she quietly eased the door closed. 

It had been even harder than she had anticipated.

She knew Faith had been hurt that she was crawling back to Buffy after 
everything they had been through together. Taking it as yet one more in a 
string of personal failures. Another case of Buffy being the 'Better One'. 

But Faith had not yelled. Had not raised her voice. Had not gotten angry. 
She had simply nodded her head and said 'I understand'.

This was bad.

#######

Buffy picked up the phone on the third ring. "Yes?"

"Buffy?" 

"Yes."

"It's me. Cordelia."

"Yes, Cordy."

"I- I have decided to accept your offer."

"I see."

"However, I... I need to ask you for a favor."

Buffy sighed. "Faith?"

"Yes."

"She's still pissed off about Lilah and the whole Wolfram and Hart incident?"

"She doesn't understand what or how you did it. And for that matter, neither 
do I."

"You don't need to know."

"Yes, but I'm not a slayer. Or more to the point, I'm not the 'Second 
Slayer'. I'm not the one who struggled for months trying to fight an evil 
mega-corp only too have you walk into town, defeat them in five minutes, and 
walk out with one of them as her own personal bitch."

Buffy was silent for several minutes.

"You think she'd be happy working under me?"

Cordelia slumped. "No, but she might live longer. You know the only reason 
I'm coming to you is your promise. If I thought for a minute that Faith 
could get him, I'd stay with her. We've done a lot of good here Buffy. But 
this bastard was human, and we don't have the resources you do."

"And you want revenge."

Cordelia paused for a moment before quietly saying, "Yes, I do."

"And you will have it. Come home, Cordelia. I'll take care of everything. 
You have my word."

"Thank you. Oh one more thing..."

"Yes?"

"I'm bringing someone with me. My friend Kate. She's a police detective 
and..."

"No problem."

"She's a good cop, Buffy."

"She'll be welcomed here with open arms, Cordy. We take care of our own."

"Alright. Thank you, Buffy."

Buffy hung up the phone and leaned back on the bed to continue watching 
Willow and Tara slowly torture Lilah by keeping her on the edge of a climax 
for the last hour or so. She was bound and gagged on the rack and the two 
witches were using feathers to lightly caress her erogenous zones. Lilah 
looked delirious as she writhed under the teasing torment. She was sweating 
profusely and breathing rapidly through her nose. Her eyes had held a glazed 
over look for the last thirty minutes. 

Buffy clapped her hand for attention.

"OK girls, we need to wrap this up early." Willow and Tara looked 
disappointed, but Tara moved to get her strap-on and prepared to mount Lilah 
and give her some relief.

"What's wrong?" asked Willow as she sauntered over to Buffy twirling her 
feather suggestively. 

"Cordy's worried about leaving Faith behind."

"Mmmm, Faith's behind," murmured Willow as she closed her eyes to picture it.

"Yea," said Buffy with a grin. "So how would you like to go down there, tie 
her up and spank some sense into it."

"Sounds yummy," Willow cooed in delight.

Across the room, Lilah let out a shout of relief around the gag as Tara 
plunged the dildo deep inside of her.

Buffy spread her legs, and Willow moved to kneel between them. 

Buffy's mind began to mull over the possibilities. Faith's guilt and pride 
would never allow her to work under Buffy, at least not on a permanent basis. 
Willow, however, was another story. Faith had appointed herself as Willow's 
personal guardian during the 'Year of Death' as Buffy remembered it. Buffy 
remembered how depressed Faith had been to come to her for help with Willow 
after Oz had disappeared. That had been the final straw of course. Once 
again Buffy had succeeded where Faith had failed.

Buffy often wondered if things could really have been different. Why 
everything had spiraled out of control so suddenly? Her mom, Xander, Angel, 
Oz... She knew better than to blame herself now. 

After all, she couldn't change the past.

That had been one of her concessions to Da'Hoffren.

#####

Excerpt from the 'Water Queen's Diary'.

Jan 3, 2008

'Never underestimate the stupidity of people.' Whoever first said that was a 
fucking genius. We had warned them, and done some rather nasty things to 
their lackey's, of which a VHS videotape was sent back to them, in both NTSC 
and PAL format, yet still they persisted in thinking that they should and 
could control us.

Control me. 

Or destroy me.

Either one would have made them very happy.

Well, tough shit for them because neither one was gonna happen.

See, the thing is, I've got a major ace up my sleeve and they never had a 
clue.

And while, to tell the truth, I could have eliminate them with a snap of my 
fingers, I didn't, because that would be too easy and nowhere near as 
satisfying as taking the hands on approach. 

It's a game for my amusement, you see.

Oh sure, occasionally I have in the past cheated. Sneaked a peak at the clue 
book, activated a game cheat and gone in with a nuclear powered laser canon 
to wipeout my enemies. But, only when I was really, really pissed, or 
really, really stymied for a solution.

Then I call on my pet jinni. My personal little 'make-it-so' demon.

And she does.

Provided it's within 'The Rules'.

######
End Chap 2