Repercussions, Reactions and Retaliation (3/?) W/B/T NC17

Title: Repercussions, Reactions and Retaliation

Author: The Bear!

Spoilers: None really, this is in the Triadverse AU and follows The Please Trilogy and The Triad Trilogy

Pairing: Willow/Buffy/Tara primarily, but other Scoobies are hooked up as well.

Summary: With Glory defeated, things should quiet down for a while... shouldn’t they?

Warnings: NC17 over all (Part 3 is kinda ‘PG13’ish)

Disclaimer: If I owned ‘em, they’d have to show it on the Ecstasy Network.

========== BtVS ==========

Chapter 3

‘Well Faith, how do you feel now?’ the dark haired Slayer wondered as she looked through the open doorway. ‘You always wondered what it would be like...’ She stood in the doorway for several moments just looking into the apartment that was once, briefly, her home.

‘Crap, how am I supposed to feel?’ she thought, annoyed with herself. She deliberately stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. ‘I never thought I’d see this place again... I...’ suddenly her stomach clenched into a painful knot, and a wave of combined anger, fear and sorrow crashed through her.

“Oh, God!” she hunched over, grabbing at her midriff and fighting back the urge to vomit as memories came crashing down in her head.

‘I said, “Thanks sugar-daddy...” God, I was gonna seduce him... I thought that’s what he wanted... what all men want,’ she remembered. Looking around at the dusty room, untouched in years it seemed, the scene continued to play itself out in her head. ‘I thought he loved me... I was so afraid when he said we had to kill Red, I was scared he’d stop loving me if I said no... then he didn’t even care, he just said he’d have vamps do it, even tried to make me feel better, like it was the way he wanted to do it all along... made me hate her even more cause I couldn’t do it myself.’

As Faith continued her perusal, the nausea seemed to subside a little and she stood up straight.

Her gaze moved around the room until she spied the still-broken window; someone had boarded it up to keep out the weather, but the image in her head was of that night. “The night Buffy killed me,” she whispered.

Another cramping knot bent her in half, and this time she couldn’t hold back. Her stomach emptied itself on the concrete floor, burning her esophagus with the pure acid, uncut by any food or drink. Flashes of memory from the fight she and Buffy had engaged in lit up the darkness behind her eyelids every time she closed her eyes. Dry heaves folded her in half and brought her to her knees.

‘Oh God I can feel it!’ she thought as each retch felt like that knife sliding into her gut all over again. It was as though she was reliving that brief moment in time again and again.

As she had that night, Faith felt a moment of shock: ‘Christ, she’s actually gonna do it!’ Her body convulsed with pain as she relived the moment the blade pierced her skin, and it was as if she shattered. Three voices cried out at once- ‘I hate you! I’ll kill you!’ her mind shrieked in rage. ‘Buffy, I love you!’ her heart screamed in desire. ‘Please! Kill me...’ her soul whispered, choking on the overwhelming remorse that filled her to bursting.

Heaves finally gave away to sobs and Faith fell over to her side and bawled. “Oh God Buffy I love you so much! I’m so sorry!” she cried out.

After several moments of uncontrollable tears, Faith dragged herself up and stumbled to the bathroom. Keeping her eyes down so as not to see her reflection and the recrimination sure to be there, she turned on the cold water and started splashing water on her face and rinsing her mouth out. When her eyes caught her reflection in the mirror, she stopped.

“I did the worst thing I coulda done. Everything else was nothin’... I loved you so much and I made you hate me enough to kill me,” Faith whispered in agony. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest as she continued, “I wish I could change it... fix it. God, I’d do anything...”

In her mind, she heard Buffy’s voice from their discussion atop the Hyperion earlier that week.

>>“You can’t.”

>>“You’re right, Faith,” Buffy had said. “You can’t change a single thing you’ve done. All you can do is be a better person, do the right thing from now on.”

‘I couldn’t believe it,’ Faith remembered her shock, this time for the opposite reason. ‘I was sure she was gonna kill me again...’

>>“You’re a Slayer, Faith. You can help us save the world. Again.” Buffy had told her.

“And I did,” Faith told her reflection with a hint of satisfaction strengthening her voice. “Fricken-A, we saved the world from the big bad hellbitch.”

Her reflection just stared back at her as it always did. ‘Not good enough Faith. It doesn’t make up for what you did.’ The disapproving tone echoed in Faith’s mind.

A pang of guilt stifled the moment of pride in her voice. “I know, but all I can do is what Buffy said, be a better person now. Do the right thing now,” she told herself plaintively.

‘She’ll never love you,’ again her inner voice of self-loathing rang out.

The desire to argue the point flared for the barest instant before her shoulders fell and she sighed mournfully. “No. She won’t. But maybe, someday... she might forgive me,” she finished in a whisper.

‘But can you ever forgive yourself?’

========== BtVS ==========

“Ok, is it a Slayer thing, or a magic thing, or is there just something in the water?” Xander’s voice startled Tara into breaking off her passionate twining with Buffy’s tongue.

She could hear amusement and a touch of wistfulness in Xander’s voice as he continued teasing, “I mean, seriously, Will; I think you guys do it more that me and Anya ever did!”

“Xander!” Willow exclaimed in mock annoyance, slapping him on the arm. “At least we don’t uh, incessantly talk about it... in public... graphically!”

Tara smiled at the clearly false outrage in her lover’s voice. A shiver ran down her spine as Buffy nuzzled her neck. “Vixen!” she whispered, her outrage as insincere as Willow’s had been.

“That’s only cause you’re too busy actually doing it to spend any time talking about it,” Xander said.

“Aww, poor Xander...” Buffy’s voice was laden with saccharine sympathy.

‘I do feel for him,’ Tara thought as a momentary look of pure lust crossed Xander’s eyes as he focused on her and Buffy. ‘He definitely needs a girlfriend of his own so he can stop lusting after mine!’

Xander shook his head and changed the subject. He lifted the bag from Subway and proudly proclaimed, “The hunt was successful! Let us savor the bounty of the kill!”

Tara heard Buffy say, “Ooh, food!” and then she was just gone- leaping from the couch and plucking the bag from Xander’s hand, heading for the dining table all in the blink of an eye.

“Easy tiger,” Xander chuckled. He made a show of counting his fingers, saying, “Whew, thought I might have lost one there for a second!”

Tara rose from the couch with a little more grace than Buffy’s acrobatic performance. She slipped an arm around Willow’s waist and gave the redhead a quick kiss. “Hmm, what prize have the mighty hunters brought us?” she asked with quiet humor.

‘And could it possibly taste better than kissing you?’ she wondered.

Willow smiled happily and said, “We have slain the fearsome and terrible, though tasty, submarine sandwich beast!”

The thought of one of her favorites caused Tara’s stomach to growl slightly and she excitedly said, “Ooh, didja get me...”

“...Tuna and tomatoes, you know I did,” Willow answered with a grin.

“Yay!” Tara cheered happily and gave her pet’s pet a quick kiss. She blushed slightly at her own behavior and glanced toward Xander, explaining, “I just *love* tuna!”

Strangely, Xander’s eyes widened significantly and he bit his lip, as though trying to restrain himself from doing something. Tara tilted her head slightly, confused by his response. She turned to look at Willow and saw that the redhead was blushing deep-pink.

Suddenly, Xander let loose one barking laugh, then slapped his hand over his mouth. His eyes grew wide as saucers and he turned and quickly followed after Buffy.

Bewildered, Tara asked Willow, “What? What did I say?”

========== BtVS ==========

“Dawn... Dawn...”

The voice calling her name barely registered on Dawn’s consciousness. Right now all she could focus on was the body laying at her feet.

Dead eyes stared into Dawn’s own, a ragged hole between them gaped obscenely, like a third eye gouged out. A pool of red ruin spread out on the ground like perversion of a halo- framing the dead man’s head.

“No... I didn’t... I didn’t want this...” Dawn whispered, her throat aching as though she’d been screaming her lungs out. Fear like ice-water flowed across her flesh, causing her to shiver violently.

The dead knight’s lips moved, and Dawn could hear the words in her head, even thought there was no sound. “You killed me.”

A flash of light and suddenly Dawn was there again, pulling the trigger as the knight charged her. Another flash and it was back to the body on the ground, staring accusingly at her with it’s dead eyes. Her heart hammered against her ribcage as thought it was trying to burst through her chest and escape.

“Dawn... Dawnie, honey...” the distant voice grew closer.

“Mom?” Dawn cried desperately, turning and trying to find the source of the voice. Something grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, eliciting a startled squeak. She opened her eyes to find her mother’s concerned face only inches from her own.

“Mom? What...?” Dawn shook her head, disoriented. Her pulse was throbbing fiercely in her throat and she didn’t immediately recognize her surroundings.

“Shh, Dawn, honey it’s ok. I’m here,” Joyce said soothingly.

Dawn’s breathing slowed as the décor filtered through her confusion and she remembered, ‘Huggybear’s house... right...’

“Giles?” Dawn asked, sitting up.

“I’m here Dawn,” Giles’ warm voice quietly reassured her.

‘Good... good, he’s back.’ Just knowing he was back in the house helped quiet Dawn’s panic.

“Are you alright, Dawn?” Giles asked.

She avoided his eyes and ignored the question by asking one of her own. “Did you get whoever was shooting?”

“Yes, I did. Now, tell me what happened to you?” Giles said, his voice quiet but the tone firm.

Dawn focused on her lap, picking at the fabric of the couch. “I don’t know... I got light headed I guess.”

“Sweetie, you passed out,” Joyce said. “You’ve been asleep for over an hour!”

‘Great, I scared Mom, which was the whole thing I was trying to not do!’ Dawn thought, frustrated and upset with herself.

Dawn put on a smile and tried to reassure her mother. “I guess I didn’t sleep very well, what with waiting to hear what happened last night... and I wasn’t really hungry this morning,” she said self deprecatingly. “I should have listened to you and ate something anyway.”

Fortunately, it seemed to work. Joyce immediately filled a plate with sandwiches and pushed it into Dawn’s hands, saying, “Well, let’s not have a repeat... I want you to eat something, Ok?”

Dawn picked up one of the sandwiches and forced another smile for her mom’s sake. “Sure, ok.” She took one bite and chewed it down before looking back to Giles and asking, “So, who’s trying to kill us now?”

The look in the Watcher’s eyes let Dawn know she wasn’t fooling him.

‘Well, I wasn’t trying to fool Giles,’ Dawn thought as she dropped her gaze again and concentrated on chewing and swallowing. ‘It’s a valid question though...’

After a moment, Giles answered her question, though through his tone of voice seemed intent on letting Dawn know there would be further discussion later of her blackout. “Unfortunately, I don’t know. Someone apparently hired this assassin through an intermediary, so he didn’t know the client’s identity himself.”

“Is it those knights?” Joyce asked tremulously, wringing her hands in her lap.

“They certainly have motive.” Giles stood up and began pacing as he continued, “I, however, cannot imagine the Knights of Byzantium using a third party. Also, it seems that I was the primary target, rather than Dawn, though he did have her photo as well... strangely, he had no instructions regarding you, Joyce.”

Dawn frowned when Giles mentioned photos. ‘How would... when did they take pictures? Where did they take our picture?’ she wondered, working the problem in her mind.

“Photo? You mean like surveillance pictures, right?” Dawn asked aloud. “Like someone’s been watching us?”

Giles stared blankly at her for a moment, before a look of shock came over his face. Shock gave way to anger and Dawn could see his jaw muscles working as he stripped off his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Pillock!” he growled out through clenched teeth.

“Rupert, what is it, what’s wrong?” Joyce exclaimed, standing and gently grabbing the Brit’s arm.

“I’m a bloody idiot! That’s what’s wrong,” Giles said with a combination of irritation and embarrassment on his face. He focused on Dawn and said, “Thank you Dawn, I’m glad one of us is thinking clearly.”

‘Ok, huh?’ Dawn thought, confused. She looked to her mother and saw no more comprehension there.

“What do you mean, Giles?”

“Not surveillance photos. He had... I guess snapshots would be the word. Casual photos, where you knew you were being photographed...” he walked over to the kitchen table and opened a file folder, pulling out two pictures and bringing them back to the living area.

“I don’t understand, how would he get pictures like that?” Joyce said, dropping onto the couch next to Dawn.

“From our house,” Dawn said with a cold chill running through her. “Or from someone who knows us well enough to have pictures of us...”

“How? I... how?” Joyce asked plaintively. “Who? No one knows where we are...”

“Someone told the Knights where we were. Perhaps...” Giles stopped pacing and frowned in thought.

After several long moments, Dawn became impatient and said, “Giles, tell us!”

Apparently lost in thought, Giles started slightly at Dawn’s demand. “Oh, sorry. I was just thinking... what if someone set the knights on us for their own reasons, independent of the Knight’s motivation...”

“And when they... failed...” Dawn continued the thought.

Giles nodded his head, finishing, “They sent someone else.”

‘Great, I thought it’d be over with Glory dead. It sounds like it’s just getting started,’ Dawn thought sadly.

========== BtVS ==========

“Hey, anybody here?” Faith’s voice called out questioningly.

“Dining room Faith!” Buffy called out in response.

Tara laughed, adding, “You’d better hurry Faith; Xander and Buffy have been eyeing your sandwiches pretty hard...”

“Hey, I just didn’t want them going to waste,” Xander protested, failing to entirely hide his grin.

Tara looked over toward the great room where Faith was walking in and was struck by the look on her face. ‘She looks kinda down,’ Tara thought as her face came into light. ‘Wherever she went, I wonder what happened...’

“Hey, food. I’m always up for food, what’ja get?” Faith asked.

Tara frowned and noticed Xander doing the same. ‘Definitely not happy-Faith,’ she thought. ‘It kind of reminds me of how she was on the car ride from when we picked her up at the prison.

Willow seemed not to notice anything out of the ordinary as she responded, “Xander and I have slain the dreaded subway beast.

Tara saw Xander grin at the look of incomprehension on Faith’s face. “Yes, mighty hunters are we- and the bounty from our kill is this...” He said teasingly, grabbing the remaining two paper-wrapped bundles and pushing them towards the unoccupied chair beside him.

‘She seems almost like she’s afraid he’s going to do something, or say something bad...’ Tara thought as Faith raised an eyebrow and cautiously slid into the seat next to Xander. She continued to scrutinize him for a moment before she reached for the sandwiches.

Finally her face changed as she unwrapped the first sandwich. The look of worry dissolved into a grin and she laughed a little. “What kinda animal’s got eight balls?” she asked with amusement lacing her voice.

Xander started to laugh.

Tara felt herself blush slightly and a glance at her girls showed that they too were blushing.

Xander laughed even louder when he looked at the blushing triad.

Faith just began munching down the sub with gusto.

Despite her blush, Tara was pleased as she thought, ‘Now *that’s* what I’d expect from Faith!’

As she was about to take another bite, Faith suddenly frowned and looked toward the great room. “You guys expecting anybody?” she asked.

“A car just pulled up to the front,” Buffy added, obviously hearing the same thing as Faith.

“Who knows we’re here?” Willow asked with noticeable concern in her voice.

“No one but Deadboy’s crew and us know where we are,” Xander said as stood up and strode out of the room, angling for the hallway to the bedrooms.

‘Now everyone’s all worried,’ Tara thought, feeling the tension in the room.

A loud knock caused Tara to jump slightly. Faith and Buffy stood as one and headed for the front door. As Tara and Willow stood to follow, Tara noticed Xander walking across the greatroom towards the door as well.

‘Why does Xander have a gun?’ Tara wondered, noticing a large, black pistol tucked into his belt at the small of his back.

“Xander?” Buffy sounded anxious. “Why do you have that?”

“It’s daylight, so not a vamp. The only way I can figure someone or something knows where we are, is if they followed us from either Glory’s, or from your house last night,” Xander explained. “So, if one of her scabby little minions is at the door, I thought I’d say ‘hi’.”

Faith and Buffy took positions on either side of the door while Xander cautiously approached. His right hand was on the gun in his belt, his left hand stretched out to the doorknob.

Tara grabbed Willow’s hand and laced their fingers together. ‘Oh, sweaty palm...’ she thought, feeling somehow reassured that Willow was as nervous as Tara was herself.

Tara looked back to the door in time to see Xander yank it open and take a step back. He had drawn the pistol almost completely from his pants when he paused, then put it back as he tipped his head back in laughter.

Faith and Buffy visibly relaxed and peaked around the door frame.

Both intrigued, and relieved, Tara pulled Willow along to see who was at the door.

“Um... Hi, I’m with Classic Couriers...” said the woman at the door with a surprised and wary look on her face.

Xander’s voice was sheepish as he quit laughing and said, “Sorry, we weren’t really expecting anybody...”

The delivery woman nodded her head slowly, as though she thought she just might be dealing with an insane person. “Uh huh. Ok, no problem...” She looked down at her clipboard and asked, “Um, is there a Tara McLay here?”

Tara frowned, thinking, ‘Why on earth would she be looking for me?’

Tentatively, the blond witch stepped forward, saying, “I’m Tara...”

“I have a package for you Ms. McLay,” the woman said, now sounding cool and professional. “If I could just get you to sign right here,” she said, pointing to her clipboard.

“Um, ok?” Tara said as she did just that.

The delivery woman took back the clipboard and handed Tara a manila envelope. “Here you are, have a nice day,” she said, turning and quickly walking back to her truck.

“What is it?” Willow asked as the Scoobies all crowded around.

“Who sent it?” Buffy asked, her voice sounding young and curious.

Tara couldn’t help but grin at Buffy’s tone. ‘Such a little girl sometimes- a sexy little girl...’

“I don’t know what it is, and it’s not marked who it’s from,” Tara said, refocusing on the matter at hand.

“Well, open it already,” Faith said impatiently. “Then you’ll know what it is, and maybe who it’s from.”

“Yes, Faith. I wouldn’t have thought of that on my own.” Tara smirked as she turned and walked over to the dining table; four curious Scoobies in tow.

She sat down and was about to tear the envelope open when Xander suddenly said, “Wait a minute, what if it’s evil?”

The other girls joined Tara in giving Xander a skeptical, questioning glance.

“I mean, like, maybe it’s booby trapped, you know... like magically of something?” Xander explained sheepishly, ducking his gaze.

“I don’t feel any magic...” Tara said, a little hesitantly. “Why did you think...?”

“I... it’s just,” Xander appeared to have difficulty expressing his reasoning. “Who would send you anything... here I mean? No one’s supposed to know we’re here...”

Tara dropped the envelope on the table and pulled her hands away without conscious thought. “That’s true...” she began, suddenly concerned.

“I dunno, I’m not getting any ‘evil vibes’ or anything,” Faith spoke up. “I mean, you gotta point, no one know’s we’re her ‘cept Angel and them guys... maybe it’s from him?”

“Yeah, no wiggy vibes here either,” Buffy offered. “We could call Angel, I guess.”

Tara smiled at the hesitancy in Buffy’s voice. ‘A sensitive subject still, I guess,’ she thought. ‘After all, it was only a couple of days ago that she took a pretty severe paddling for getting involving with him without my permission...’

Tara gave her lover’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “I think you’re right Faith, it must be from them in LA, no one but them knows we’re here, and if it’s not magical, and it’s not setting off any Slayer sense, I think we can open it...” she finished, looking at Xander with a gentle smile. “Not that being cautious is a bad thing...”

“No, you’re probably right. It’s probably from deadboy...” Xander said looking a little self-conscious.

‘I’m sure it’s safe,’ she told herself as she slid a finger into the flap and tore the top open. If her hand happened to tremble just a bit as she did so, Tara carefully ignored it.

When nothing untoward happened, Tara released the breath she hadn’t been aware she’d been holding, and dumped the contents of the envelope onto the table. There was a smaller envelope, such as would hold a card that might come with a bouquet, and a thick paper which was folded in thirds.

“Well, nothing went ‘boom’,” Buffy quipped, breaking the silence.

“Well, that’s good!” Willow said, a note of genuine relief noticeable through the humor in her voice.

“You think we’re getting a little paranoid?” Tara chuckled.

“The question isn’t ‘are we too paranoid?’” Xander began.

“It’s ‘are we paranoid enough?’” Faith said, completing Xander’s thought with a shrug and a smirk for the only guy in the room. Then she picked up her sandwich and resumed eating.

‘Scary question,’ Tara thought. She decided to think about that at a later date, and instead focused on the mystery before her. She picked up the smaller envelope and un-tucked the flap, opening it. Inside was a card with elegant, handwritten script:

Mistress,

Please forgive this lowly one’s presumptuousness;
though his corruption precludes service in the normal manner,
all that this one has is yours to command.

If it pleases you, accept this offering as amends for this one’s offence.

Your servant,

angel.

“Oh my...” Tara exhaled forcefully.

She felt her face grow hot, and her heart sped up. ‘What have you done Angel?’ she wondered with trepidation.

Dropping the card, she ignored Buffy, Willow and Xander’s chorus of ‘What’s it say?’ and quickly grabbed the other piece of paper. Unfolding it with shaking hands, Tara scanned it quickly, then blinked several times and scanned it again, slowly.

“Oh my...” she sighed again in disbelief, dropping the paper to the table and looking up at her friends and lovers.

Licking her suddenly dry lips, Tara quietly said, “You’re not going to believe this...”

========== BtVS ==========

TheBear!

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