FIC :: Daybreak Postponed (7/12)

["C S Armitage" <soren_nyrond@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE: Daybreak Postponed [approximately] (7/12)
AUTHOR: Soren Nyrond
DISCLAIMER: All characters in this part belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy -- etc etc as in part (0/12). Some ideas have been borrowed for elsewhere to illuminate this story: they did once belong to Other Companies (and still do, I imagine), but since they are by way of being generic concepts, Idon't think anything's awry.
SUMMARY: In which Quentin explains and Giles deduces. Yes, I know there'sa lack of smoochies -- this fic is smoochie-lite
ARCHIVING:: All enquiries welcomed
SPOILERS: None - none of this ever happened in the ME-world
AUTHOR'S NOTES: All nice feedback welcome. 
  

 
DAYBREAK HAS BEEN POSTPONED

By Soren Nyrond

Part Six - The Meeting

 

 

Elspeth thought and then said "I don't think anyone uses the west annexe atthe moment: there's a window there that looks down into the hall where Quentin wants us."

"He's using the Compton Room ?" Giles queried.

"Yes. Why ?"

 

"Possibly nothing, possibly everything." Giles refused to be more specific, lest he create more problems than he solved. "Buffy, we needto move. But I need you to look . nondescript."

"Pardon ?"

"He means, look like a student," Elspeth said. "Look ordinary.You walk like a Slayer - people here will notice that. You need to blendin if you're going to be in the corridors here, with people seeing you."

"Exactly. Had you better be going ?"

"Yes - come on, Samantha. My gracious: don't you ever wear - "

"I had no problem with what she was - ouch !"

"Sorry, Xander," Buffy said. "Will - you're sure you'll be allright on your own ?"

"Hey - I'm going to be here !"

"That's what I said - on her own." Buffy's blinding smile tookany malice out of the retort.
"I'll be fine, Buffy," Willow replied resolutely. "I have books, I have Xander. You'll be back."

"I'll be back," Buffy replied, in her best mock-Arnie. "Come on, Giles - where's this West whatever ?"

 

The Compton Room was almost big enough for a High School dance,and many of the people down there looked high-school or college age. It was wood-panelled (like much of the rest of Ravenslaut Hall), and had a diasacross one end. Buffy wasn't impressed: she wasn't certain, but it lookedmore like a theatrical set than a real stately home.

Then she saw the vast brass lectern-eagle, in the far corner of the room. She was about to ask Giles whether this meant that Cordelia's vision was coming true (although she suddenly remembered he'd asked her to stay silent) when a group of sober-suited men stepped onto the dias, and another group, about twice as many, filed in from a door underneath where Giles and Buffy lay, uncomfortably, on the top of a cupboard Buffy had pulled over to the high window, at Giles' request.  

And among the group on the dias Buffy recognised, all too well,the brooding countenance of Quentin Travers. She didn't trust him - and not just because he had made Giles poison her and put her mother's life at risk. But she had to admit, grudgingly, that he made an impressive figurehead.

But something, she found, was running her blood chill as she watched him draw breath to speak.



"Thank you all for coming. I don't intend that this take long.

"You will be aware of the - unusual circumstances - in which wepresently find ourselves. The Inner Circle are aware of all your concernsand we shall be taking steps tonight to correct the position. I'm afraid that, for the moment, I have to ask that you remain . inactive. The Watchers have their duties - mostly round-the-clock research. Those not on that assignment are asked to stay away from the libraries for the moment. Slayers - please keep to your dormitories or the refectory. Practice sessions will resume shortly. No-one should attempt to go outside - the weather continues adverse - nor should anyone try to enter either the East Wing or thisarea, until one of us specifically authorises it.

"Slayers - you may disperse. Watchers, would you remain for a moment, please ?"

There was a general exodus of people, until about twenty were left, who looked a reasonable cross-section of adult-type English-type people. Toward the front was an elderly man, in a tweed jacket which looked to Buffy as if had seen not only better days, but also good days, tolerable days and pretty unfriendly days, before reaching its present state.

He wasted no time in stepping forward to address the platform party.

"Travers - I think you and the Inner Circle owe the rest of us some sort of explanation. While you people - "

"Professor Hodgson," Quentin Travers said, in the tone of a manholding in a sharper response, "we are all grateful for your constant interest in the Council's inner secrets. We are all sensible of your excellentwork in the past, and of the unfortunate accident that led you to resign from the Inner Circle. As you did then, so I have now to ask that those outside the Circle have faith in the work those of us at the heart of the Council are carrying forward."

 

Buffy suddenly realised that the voices had stopped. She couldn't remember what they had been talking about, but it had been . important . 

"Buffy - wake up !" Giles was saying. "We have to get back to the others."

He gripped her shoulders as they climbed down from the cupboard.

"Are you listening ?"

"I think I dropped off, Giles: I'm sorry."

"No," Giles said, studying the pupils of her eyes carefully: "You were hypnotised. So, presumably, were most of the others. One of the Circle must have been using a Meminor Crystal or something similar.

"That settles it - we must be especially careful. Here, we have to put the cupboard back. Then we must regroup with Xander and Willow."

"What about Elspeth and Samantha ?" Buffy asked, as they cracked the door open, to make sure that the coast was clear.

"I will need to check that they aren't under a similar influence. Oh, don't worry - you were just sent to sleep: Quentin Travers would never be able to control you - I doubt if even a gun or a whip would do that for him."

"Thank you," Buffy said, genuinely moved that Giles had that much faith in her. "Let's go. You lead, and I'll follow like your submissive pupil." She enjoyed the sudden flush that suffused his features, but carefully said nothing.

 

They walked back, carefully, through the corridors. Outside, the world still looked twilight. Buffy twisted her head and saw that there looked to be a grey overcast in the sky. The grounds of the Hall were heavily shaded, however, dark enough to hide any number of evils. The corridors were even darker and two or three times she stumbled over unseen obstacles. Eventually, though, they got back to the room they had appropriated. Willow and Xander were still there, tucked down behind the semi-screen of furniture intended to foil casual observers.

"What happened ?" Willow asked.

"Yes - what was with the top-secret meeting and how did you manage to listen in ?" Xander demanded, with puppyish enthusiam.

"On top of a cupboard," Buffy began. Xander's eyes did saucer impressions and he was about to ask just how kinky Buffy planned on gong, and could he help her find out, when the door opened again, and Samantha came in.

"Weren't you supposed to be in your dormitory ?" Giles asked. The girl smiled sweetly.

"How could I sleep worrying about the dangers the four of you might be getting into ?" The subtext "Without me getting my share" was clearly there, but unstated.

"So what was at the meeting, Giles ?" Willow asked. But Rupert Giles was more interested, for the moment, in the pupils of Samantha Rose'seyes.

"To whom is a Slayer's first loyalty ?" he asked her.

"To Life, and to the Life of all before the life of One."

"Is that something from the handbook ?" Willow asked, already trying to jot it down.

"Are you sure this isn't a Fraternal order, like the Leopard Lodge or the Stonecutters ?" Xander said: "This sounds awfully like - "

"Time out, guys," Buffy called. "And keep the noise down."

"I quite agree," Elspeth Jennings said. "No-one is around out there, but if they had been - "

She saw Samantha and her face grew thunderous. But before she could say anything to the young Slayer-candidate, Giles took her arm: "We need to speak, urgently. Anything else can wait." He glanced round. "Willow, organise the others to look up the Rites of the Dark Voracious, if you would. Elspeth ?" And he led the other Watcher out of the door.