Part IIGiles had not expected to be visited at such a late hour, not with having told his Slayer and her Slayerettes that all they had to do was take out a few fledges then return home for some sleep. He was certainly not expecting to see the group blood soaked and carrying what appeared to be a limp, lifeless Xander Harris into his living room. His eyes were wide as they moved Xander’s body onto Giles’ couch.
“What the bloody hell happened?” Giles exclaimed, running a hand through his tousled hair. Buffy frowned.
“We took on the group you told us about and everything seemed to go well, up until the point where some vamp guy grabbed Xander and stabbed him,” She gestured to the dagger still sticking out of Xander’s chest. Giles blinked and grabbed his glasses from out of his robe pocket, slipping them on and peered at the dagger with interest.
“My word,” Giles breathed, tilting his head. “And he’s still alive?” He glanced up at Buffy, then at every other member of the team. Tara nodded.
“Oz said he is.” She said quietly. Giles nodded at her, turning his gaze back down to Xander.
A rustle from somewhere towards the bedroom alerted the Scoobies, each one grabbing for some sort of weapon. Giles frowned and rolled his eyes, straightening.
“Oh, please, don’t do that,” He sighed, pushing his glasses further up on his nose. “I hadn’t expected to be barged in on, I have…company.” He almost colored at his last remark. To emphasize that point, a half dressed Ethan Rayne stepped into the living room, a cup of tea in one hand.
“Thought you’d be up to something, Rip,” Ethan said, handing the cup over to Giles as he stifled a yawn. Buffy quirked an eyebrow at Giles. Giles sighed. “Oh, don’t ask questions, we have more important matters to look into,” The Watcher said, sipping his tea. Buffy raised her hands defensively and stepped back. Turning his attention to Ethan, Giles motioned for him to approach closer. “Do you have any idea what that could be, Ethan?” Giles asked. Ethan stepped forward, rubbing the sleep out of one of his eyes. He scowled.
“I believe I’ve seen one of these before,” Ethan said, running his thumbnail over his bottom lip, thinking. “Now where was it and why was it important?” He murmured. Willow gave him one hell of a kicked puppy look.
“Can we…remove the thing? Will it kill him if we do?” She asked. Ethan glanced at the red headed witch and smiled.
“It’ll be okay if we remove it, it won’t kill him, I promise,” Ethan said. Giles raised a questioning eyebrow, but remained silent. Willow practically jumped to the dagger hilt, carefully wrapping her fingers around it, her eyes going to Giles’. Though he wasn’t as positive as Ethan, Giles could see his boyfriend saw something he didn’t and nodded at Willow to continue. Slowly, she inched the dagger out of Xander’s chest until the five-inch blade was completely out. Her wide-eyed gaze immediately flew to meet Oz’s. He sniffed Xander again and nodded.
“He’s still okay.” Oz said. Willow breathed a sigh of relief.
“Okay, still alive, but,” Buffy motioned to Xander. “Why is he out like that? I mean, normally, dagger to the chest means dead. He’s not dead, he seems to be…sleeping. What gives?” She asked. Ethan tapped his chin.
“I can just barely remember…something about this type of dagger. I think it’s a Piske Blade, but I can’t be too sure.” He grumbled. Giles nodded.
“Then we find out.”
Back to Part I
On to Part III
