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Part Three
They crossed Cain off the list — not because the werewolf hunter wasn’t the type for revenge, but because he’d been severely injured six months back by some of his prey. Not that Buffy felt great remorse when she heard that.
Marcie Ross they weren’t so sure about. There was one person who could pretty much literally be anywhere, but then again she had been taken away by government agents. They couldn’t come up with any surviving vampires except for Spike and Dru, and if they couldn’t think of any, odds were Ethan Rayne would also have problems.
Moloch was gone — a spell Willow cast confirmed that. Chris Epps was grateful, not angry, and the members of the Pack had all left town. Not that they were on the top of Buffy’s list anyway, but they had to be eliminated.
And most of the rest were dead anyway.
“I don’t think we can assume that it’s just the four we know of,” Giles said.
“Yeah,” Oz said. “Better to be prepared than … not.”
“Yeah, but prepared for what?” Buffy was confused. “I mean, say I load up for extra vamps and it turns out Ethan’s rung in a handful of demons? I’m not interested in rounding some lonely corner in Sunnydale and finding myself face to face with the demon’s version of the Mod Squad.”
A bit puzzled-looking himself, Xander said, “Hey, G-Man. What’s in this for Ethan?” All eyes turned to face Xander. “I mean, think of it. Here I am, I’m this chaos-worshiper. I like causing trouble, I think nothing of turning an entire town into a freaky, mothers-lock-up-your-daughters-and-then-yourselves nightmare. Sometimes I get paid, sometimes I don’t, but pretty much anything I do, I do for the joy of anarchy. And right now I’m not acting like a guy who’s on the run, so I’m guessing that’s out.”
Wesley said as angrily as he could — in a voice reminiscent of an annoyed gerbil — “And your point would be …?”
“Why is Ethan Rayne behaving in this manner?” Giles mused. “Revenge has never been his style; nor would he be doing this for pay unless it served some greater chaotic end. And this puts Ethan at a fair amount of personal risk, so the reward must be great indeed … good thinking, Xander.”
Xander’s head shot up. “That was a compliment on my thought processes, wasn’t it? And from Giles, too?”
“Cherish the moment, Xander,” Cordelia said nastily. “Way I figure, you just pretty much blew your whole allotment of brainpower for the next ten years.”
“Ahh, you’re just jealous ’cause you’ve already used up your lifetime supply,” Xander answered equitably.
“And who,” Willow said, returning to the subject, “is the one that’s paying him?”
“I’ll give you one guess,” Buffy muttered. “Starts with M, ends with R, and has a whole lot of evil in the middle.”
“Mevilr?” Oz asked.
“And, presumably, the Mayor would be doing this to distract us — and US specifically, or this would be something more akin to what occurred with the cursed candy,” Giles said.
“If only we knew more about the Ascension,” Wesley said. “The Mayor could be preparing to perform some ritual that would guarantee his success and we would have no way of knowing about it.”
“Not unless one of us suddenly develops a talent for mindreading,” Buffy sighed. “There’s just too much we don’t know.”
“7x plus 3y raised to the power of z minus 9 equals negative one,” Oz said. “Now all we need to do is solve for x, and y, and z, and maybe we can make some sense out of the equation.”
No one said anything for a minute, and slowly all eyes turned towards Giles — except for Cordelia, who was back into fixate-on-Wesley mode. Once the librarian noticed this, he said, “Right, then. So I guess what we should do right now is …”
Xander cut him off. “Scour the town from top to bottom, find Ethan and beat the answers out of him?” Some parts of that suggestion appealed to Buffy … actually, all of the suggestion appealed to Buffy.
“Pleasant as that would be on … so many levels,” Giles said, “I think we’re forced to assume that Ethan would prepare for that. And, of course, there is always the distinct possibility of you perhaps needing to slough your way through a pair of vampires and an enraged witch as well.”
“Which is her task,” Wesley said. “Buffy is not the Slayer so she can avoid potentially dangerous confrontations.”
“True enough,” Giles answered irritably, “but neither is suicide a part of her job description.”
“Actually, it was …” Buffy said.
Giles flushed for a moment, embarrassment evident in his cheeks. Then he cleared his throat and said, “Be that as it may, a frontal assault would be out of the question except as a last resort. And we cannot simply all huddle together waiting for a strike.” He took a breath. “The main problem is that Ethan is so damned unpredictable. It’s as likely he’d call for an attack en masse as to have them try to pick Buffy off one by one — not to mention that certain members of his little coterie have grudges against others among us. Catherine Madison is most certainly very annoyed with her daughter —” The rat chittered indignantly on the table — “and Lyle Gorch is bound to be very upset with Cordelia over that bluff she pulled off back during the events of Homecoming.”
THAT brought it home for Cordy. “What?” she shrieked, leaping to her feet. “After ME? That’s it, I’m gone. I’m going to lock myself in my room until this is all over.”
She paused as she stormed towards the door and said, “Well? Isn’t anyone —” and as she said the word ‘anyone’ she looked straight at Wesley “— going to escort me to my car?”
Wesley followed her outside towards the parking lot. Xander took a deep breath after they were gone and said, “Gosh. There are so many clever things I can say right now, how can I possibly choose?”
“Why don’t you write them down so we can enjoy them later?” Buffy suggested.
“Ooh. I like that.” And Xander reached for a pen and paper, which Oz handed to him with eyebrows raised.
Giles looked, harrumphed, and said, “Now that we’re quite done with the witty byplay, could we return to the problem at hand? The problem as I see it is that Ethan Rayne is capable of any course of action. Thus I suggest — apart from perhaps keeping a close eye on the Mayor’s activities, as I agree with you, Buffy, that he is likely the ultimate source of our difficulties — that we respond conservatively. Wait for a move to be made and respond.”
“I volunteer to keep an eye on the Mayor,” Oz said unexpectedly. “He’ll be looking for Buffy or Angel, and I can be very quiet and inconspicuous … when I want to be.”
“Which is all the time,” Xander said.
Shrugging his shoulders quickly, Oz said, “Pretty much.”
Reluctantly, they accepted Oz’s offer, on condition that he head for the hills if things started hitting the fan. They got ready to split up …
… and Wesley staggered in, bleeding from a gash on his forehead, and choked out “It — has — begun …” before he collapsed onto the library floor.
* * *
Cordelia Chase had never seen what hit her, but as she woke up in the back of her car her first thought was that whoever had done this to her had better NOT have messed up her hair …
Her second thought was that she’d just been knocked unconscious and tossed into the back of her own car, and that her hair was just maybe a little less important than that.
She sat up in the seat as best she could — how could she not have noticed that her hands and feet were tied? — and looked towards the driver’s seat to see exactly who’d kidnapped her. Oh, she was going to KILL Buffy for this … She blinked when she saw no one in front. “Well, GREAT!” she shrieked. “I’ve been abducted by the invisible man!”
“Same old Cordelia Chase,” a familiar, taunting voice came from the front of the car. “Well, at least this time you’re half right. Now let’s see if you can manage the Herculean feat of actually remembering my name this time. Do it and maybe I’ll let you go.”
“Oh, PLEASE! At least I learn from my mistakes, Marcie.” Oh, nice work, Cordelia, piss off your kidnapper. Why don’t you just throw yourself out of the car if you want to kill yourself?
“Now, that’s not true,” Marcie laughed. “Or you’d be the smartest woman on Earth by now.”
“Well?” Cordelia asked. “I figured out who you were …”
The next thing she felt was a spray of mist in her face. As she began to lose consciousness, Cordelia heard Marcie say, “Yeah, but I did only say maybe …”