fic: "Secret Messages" (Buffy Season 8; Rated PG)

[erimthar.livejournal.com]

Title: "Secret Messages"
Author: erimthar 
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 (Dark Horse comics)
Rating: PG
Word count: 1,141
Characters: Willow, Buffy, Amy Madison, Warren Mears
Warnings: Spoilers for season 8, up through issue #28.
Summary: On the eve of battle, Amy decides to add a bit of insult to upcoming injury.
Notes: Set immediately after issue #28 ("Retreat, Part 3") of the canonical Buffy Season 8 comics, written by Jane Espenson, art by Georges Jeanty, executive produced by Joss Whedon. All characters are the legal property of 20th century Fox and the creative property of Mr. Whedon.

 

( The complete story is here )

We will remember them... Chp 15

[lilachigh.livejournal.com]

Title: We will remember them...
Author: lilachigh
Rating: NC17 (sometimes!)
Summary: Buffy and Spike have ended up in war-torn France in 1943. Buffy sent back by Travers to save a Slayer and kill a vampire. Spike forced to be there to save Dru's life. Buffy has discovered that the charm to return her to her own time does not work. Spike has discovered that this Slayer is weird!





They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Laurence Binyon


Chapter 15 Counting the Cost


London – 2001

The Library of the Watcher’s Council was the most important room in the whole building: oak shelves, grey with age, covered every wall, groaning with the weight of priceless books and manuscripts. The windows looking out onto the beautiful gardens at the back of the building were shrouded in dark red velvet curtains that were never opened and the small desk lights shed only a little more illumination than their much lamented oil ancestors.

But for all its sombre appearance, Rupert Giles had never seen it empty before. There had always been a custodian sitting at the entrance and one or two researchers perched high on library ladders, making copious notes and muttering under their breath.
Now the only person in the vast room was Quentin Travers, sitting in a leather chair, not reading, not writing, just gazing into space, sipping brandy from a crystal goblet that had been old at the Battle of Waterloo, his face impassive.

“Any news regarding what happened in France?” Giles asked, closing the door behind him.

“News? Ah, no, unfortunately not.”

“Shouldn’t something have happened by now? I mean if Buffy failed to rescue Joy then another Slayer would have been called and then – ”

Travers glanced up at him and sighed. “Do sit, Rupert, and stop hovering. Patience has never been your strong point, has it? The fact that the time line has remained unaltered is, so far, exactly what we wanted to accomplish by sending Miss Summers back to 1943.”

Giles stared at him. He’d never liked his boss, could see no humanity showing on that bland, upper-class face, hear no warmth in the cut-glass accent. But he’d known him a long time and one thing he was sure of, the head of the Watcher’s Council was hiding something. Not lying, no Quentin was far too devious to lie outright, but not all the truth about Buffy’s mission to war-torn France had been revealed.

“So she’s still alive?”

“So far, I imagine, yes, she is.”

Giles pulled off his glasses and began to polish them on the end of his tie. He took a deep breath and confessed, “I’ve – I’ve taken precautions to have a charm prepared to help her return to her own time – if she can get back to England.”

Travers looked at him and a fleeting hint of amusement crossed his face. “Of course you have, Rupert. I would have expected nothing less of you. I take it you have used the services of Dorcas, our dear Witch in Residence? After all, that is what we pay her for.”

Giles felt a fool – no, more like a schoolboy facing his headmaster. “You’ve known all along that’s what I would do!”

Travers smiled. He poured himself another brandy. “I thought, being aware of your involvement with Miss Summers, that you would think it wise to make some convoluted plans to get her back to her own time.”
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