__Protect You__
By Beadtific
Buffy woke with a hot face and the scratch of sand under her cheek. Sitting up, she recognized the fire pit of the
vision quest she had taken before the fight with Glory. She looked down at herself and found she was dressed in
the pajamas she was wearing in Devon. Major time slippage indicated; it must be a dream. Her lip was tender and
bleeding. \\Uh oh,” she thought, remembering Giles kissing her, \\we must have messed up big time.// She stood and
looked over the fire, wondering when the First Slayer would show.
The First Slayer was there, and she had Giles. Clad in his pajama pants, bound and gagged with a crude,
rough-looking rope, he was conscious. His jade earring gleamed in the firelight, and other than a few rope burns,
he looked all right. The primitive spirit sat behind him on a rock and held a small flint knife to his throat. A
surge of panic hit Buffy, and she felt a warning of calm from Giles in answer.
The First Slayer slapped Giles’ chest with her knife hand. “No,” she grunted, in her rusty voice, “no share.” She
shook her dreadlocks at Buffy. “Too much.”
“Hey, we talked about this,” Buffy trying to placate the angry aboriginal spirit, while puzzling out what it meant
that Giles was here in her dream. “About how it was better to have all the slayers activated? No one has to do it
alone, or be alone.” Buffy had had a little dream visit from the spirit of The First Slayer after the fall of
Sunnydale and the activation of slayers worldwide. She had been furious at first, but Buffy came away from the
Slayer dream with the feeling that the spirit had been oddly comforted knowing subsequent slayers would not have
to be the Chosen One.
The First Slayer shook her head and jerked Giles’ head back with one hand, while she pounded the other on the
center of his chest again. Giles didn’t wince, but he did swallow hard and took a few shuddering breaths through
his nose.
“Hey, easy!” Buffy shouted
“No,” the spirit growled, slapping his chest again, “this, is too much. Too much share.”
She was talking about the Bond. Buffy and Giles realized it at the same moment, and as she looked at Giles, she
could see his eyes close in guilt.
“Um, listen, can the Powers send us a translator or something? No offense, but I think it might help.”
The First Slayer scowled, clearly offended. “No. I come. Alone.” She slapped Giles’ chest and pointed to Buffy. “I
come – this.” She shook her head – a big no, “Not….good.”
“Hey,” Buffy said to the spirit softly, edging carefully around to Giles’ side of the fire. “The Bond is good. It
will make us stronger. It’s been a little rocky, but we just have to figure out how to work out the bugs, that’s
all. Wouldn’t you have wanted something like this?”
The First Slayer gave her a look of sad reproach. Then she glowered and shook her head menacingly at her heir. The
spirit gestured between Buffy and Giles. “Is too much. No,” She shook her head again, a little confused this time,
unable to find the words to express what she needed. Buffy was uncomfortably reminded of all the times she’d make
much the same gesture while talking to Giles. \\Looks like that might run in the family, the whole more
action/less talk thing.// she thought to herself, and was astonished to hear a snort from Giles and feel a faint
breath of humor through the Bond. Luckily, the First Slayer was caught up in thought and ignored him.
The spirit’s face became slightly less forbidding, and she held up her knife hand. “This,” she said, circling her
hand in the spot where the Bond manifested itself, “too much.” She traced a circle about the size of a grapefruit
over Giles’ chest, and looked to Buffy to see if she got the message.
Buffy was shocked to see how much it had grown since the coven had viewed them earlier. She traced a circle about
the same size over her own chest, nodding, while glancing at Giles. He gave a little moan, and closed his eyes
again briefly. The First Slayer, still sitting above him on a rock, wrapped her legs around his torso and gave him
a warning grunt. He sat still, but was still breathing hard as if struggling with strong emotions. The spirits’
message had filled him with enough remorse and fear to leak through the Bond.
“So, it’s this big,” Buffy prompted, circling her hand over her chest again.
The First Slayer held up two fingers together. “This, this the most share.” She shook her fingers at Buffy and at
Giles. “Most. Protect.
She slapped Giles chest again. “This, is too much. Too much share. No protect you.”
“Our Bond is too big so we share too much? And you think that’s bad, how?” Buffy was afraid she knew what was
coming.
The spirit nodded her head and jerked back Giles’ head. She looked off into the darkness, obviously thinking
again. She turned back to Buffy with a gleam in her eye.
Keeping her legs tight around Giles’ torso, the spirit gestured at Buffy, then at Giles, and then at herself, her
knife hand winding jerky circles around her lolling head, eyes rolling and tongue hanging out. She made a
high-pitched moaning sound, and rolled Giles’ head in sync with her own. She stopped and grinned at Buffy. It was
the scariest smile she had ever seen.
“Oh great, now you warm up to me when you tell me we’re gonna go crazy.”
The First Slayer made a happy sort of grunt and slapped Giles’ chest again, this time in approval, digging her
heels into his stomach by accident. The bound man choked out a few breaths.
“Listen, I get it. You can let him go now. We’ll figure it out – try to back off a little. We’ve been doing better
at shielding, some. Really.” Buffy hated how whiny she sounded.
The spirit’s grotesquely grinning face shut down into its familiar, forbidding expression. Getting a secure grip
on Giles with one hand in his hair, and her legs tightening over his ribs, the spirit reached behind her back,
grabbed a handful of reddish powder and threw it into the fire. Green and white flames erupted, and the
transparent form of Willow appeared in the flames.
“Buffy?” the redhead squeaked, “Where am I?” Willow spotted the First Slayer and Giles, and started to struggle
out of the fire; she was trapped in it. “Giles?” Willow segued straight into rage,” Hey, get away from him, you
bitch!”
The First Slayer growled and threatened Giles again, snapping the witch out of her angry struggles. “Hey, First
Slayer, uh, lady, um, person, no fast movements or anything now. Everything’s peachy. All friends here, right?”
Willow laughed nervously, and the spirit jerked her heels into her captive’s stomach again, finally causing Giles
to emit a stifled groan. She pulled his head back again for extra effect. “Okay, shutting up now,” she whimpered.
Willow turned to Buffy, who gave her a tiny shake of her head, indicating she’d explain later.
Buffy saw Giles swallow again and close his eyes. \\Rupert, sweetie? Can you hear me?// Buffy thought. Giles
opened his eyes and slid them to meet hers. His eyes crinkled, letting her know he caught their little in-joke. He
blinked twice, not daring to attempt anything more.
\\Just wait for my signal,// she sent again. His eyebrows raised and he blinked once, very slowly and sent a wave
of warning through the bond. The First Slayer punched him in the chest, knocking the breath out of him.
“No,” she growled, tensing up even further. She pressed the knife against him just below the sternum. The spirit
glowered at the transparent Willow. “Witch. Make protect,” she instructed, jerking her chin at Buffy.
“Uh, p-protect Buffy, okay. A-and Giles?” Satisfied with the first answer, the First Slayer ignored the question,
turning to Buffy instead. She held up two fingers again. “This much.” Buffy nodded.
“What are…?” she started to ask the spirit, as the aborigine raised the knife.
“I protect you!” the First Slayer howled, and plunged her knife towards Giles’ chest. Buffy screamed and fell.
Thousands of miles away, a napping Willow woke up sobbing. Tears running down her cheeks, she scrambled for her
phone.
* * *