Recombination

Giles blinked, he sat up quickly and pulled on his glasses. "Buffy?" he called wondering where on earth his errant charge was; last thing he remembered was her falling heavily on top of him. "Buffy." He frowned moving out into the …library? He blinked again, this time in confusion and looked behind him, the door he had walked through had vanished; he was in Sunnydale Highs library. Not the new library either, the old one, under which the Hellmouth was located, "Damn." He murmured moving closer to his office- his old office the one he had gladly helped Buffy blow up.
Jumping, he looked up startled as the swinging doors slammed open giving way to an irate Buffy. "Giles we haven’t got all day, we have to get moving, now!" she reminded him, glowering almost insolently at him. Giles stared at her confused; she looked about 16 or 17, the first time he’d met her.
He shook his head. "I don’t understand Buffy, this is all wrong isn’t there something…"

His charges mouth dropped open. "Again with the slowness, that’s all you watchers are really good for isn’t it?" she asked cocking her head to one side.

She smiled slightly. "Watching and not doing, you’re always too late Giles, you let everyone down." She shook her head sadly looking down.

Giles followed her gaze down to the water and slime encrusted white shoes on her feet. His eyes widened watching the water slowly run down her legs and followed them up until he was staring into the rotting, water bloated face of the once pretty Buffy Summers. "You’re always too late." The corpse murmured lunging for him.

Giles could barely breathe, he held up his hands to ward her off, recognizing this image as the outcome of their first battle with the master. The one in which she had died and been brought back leaving only Giles nightmares on the encounter. *But she was brought back* he thought trying to concentrate on the memory of the live Buffy instead of smelling the putrefying flesh covering the corpses body.

"You’re so easy" the corpse goaded, "Your slayer was more of a challenge."

Giles’ eyes locked on the Buffy-corpse’s bloodshot blue ones; he yanked himself out of her grasp and moved back. The corpse laughed almost a sarcastic laugh, a second laugh echoed it and then a third. Giles heart sunk to his shoes and he turned, half-fearful, recognizing at least one of the voices.

Angelus lounged against the side of the wall, smirking slightly as he looked from the corpse to Giles; the selectively souled vampire stood up carelessly and sauntered towards them. "Now, now, don’t be shy," he called back to the shadows, Giles peered into them trying to make out the large, no the two small shapes following Angelus.

"Bored now, can I play?" the females voice was chillingly familiar as was the males reply,

"As long as I get to watch."

Angelus smiled proudly as his two younger childer moved next to him, both secreting a secret promise of sex and violence.

Giles felt his heart constrict as he watched two of Angelus' childer, whom he considered his children, walk towards him, their eyes yellow, their fangs elongated. He felt the pain pulse through him as Angelus placed his gift on the table, Jenny Calendar’s head. It looked normal, untouched and yielded the same expression she had had when he had found her dead body all those years before. Her eyes stared reproachfully at him and he wondered how he could have let them all down so very badly, fortunately he barely had time to truly reflect on it before the vampire duo of Xander and Willow pounced on him, sinking their fangs in.

Giles felt his own heart rate palpitate and constrict dramatically before beginning to slow down giving him a drowsy helpless feeling, strangely enough the pain in his heart was in no way comparable to that which the two vampires were inflicting on him; the pain they gave out was at least bearable. Giles lay sandwiched between them as they feasted on him much as the creature did on the sorrow radiating from him.

The creature tingled absorbing the last few dregs from the watcher; it flittered through the shop glancing at its next victims. Who should it go for? The witch, demoness, vampire or boy? It could barely contain its glee.