Chapter Six
Chapter SixThe next day Telal was going over their set for tonight with a small audience. Just a few members from other bands wanted to sit in on their dry run. Telal was used to it, they loved it when other bands wanted to watch them. Faith and Julian were surprised though that halfway through it Oz had entered the Bronze.
“Take a break, guys.” Faith said when Oz approached the stage. The others threw her and Julian a strange look but left them to talk with the lead guitarist of ‘Dingoes Ate My Baby’. Oz couldn’t help but notice how tired Julian seemed. Faith removed her guitar and sat down on the stage, her legs dangling over the edge.
“Hey.” Oz greeted Faith. He nodded his ‘hello’ to Julian as the black-haired lead singer hopped off the stage, coming to stand beside the werewolf. It hit Oz like a brick when he recognized Julian’s scent from the night before. He was there as well but it was still very fuzzy what his part was.
“Hey yourself,” Faith replied with a grin “How’s your head feelin’?” She smirked. If anyone was looking at them they would just see three people having a light conversation but the three of them knew there was nothing light about what happened the night before.
“Good,” Oz gave a small smile then took a deep breath. “I just wanted to thank you for last night. If you weren’t-” He swallowed an imaginary lump; not wanting to know what could’ve happened if Faith hadn’t been there in time.
“Dude, it’s all good.” Faith said, not entirely at ease with this public display of emotions. “I didn’t do it for the gratitude.” She smacked her palms on her thighs and chuckled somewhat uncomfortable but it didn’t show.
“Yeah, well, have a good show tonight.” Oz gave a small smile and dropped his shoulders. He silently wished he could catch their performance because he hadn’t seen them live yet but he needed to figure out what to do with the wolf inside him.
“You ain’t gonna check us out?” Julian asked confused. “Thought the wolf nights were over?” He understood that with everything that happened there were still a lot of things between him and Willow that needed sorting out but Julian sort of expected Oz to see their show.
“I’m leaving Sunnydale.” Oz replied with a sullen look in his eyes. He didn’t know where he was going just yet but he figured he’d know when e was on the road. Maybe visit Angel in L.A., he wasn’t really sure.
“Why? We just saved your girl, go celebrate with her.” Faith furrowed her eyebrows not getting why he wanted to leave now the Veruca issue was settled. Sure, they had no idea where the female werewolf was but at least she wasn’t getting in between him and the redhead. “Unless you don’t-”
“No, I love Willow,” Oz cut her off instantly. “I really do and that’s why I’m leaving.” Faith nodded in understanding. She realized he wanted to be able to be there for Willow without having to put her in danger.
“You wanna get a leash.” She stated. Oz chuckled at her choice of words but nodded with a smile.
“Something like that, yeah.” Oz clasped his palm to Faith’s, hooking their thumbs by the hilt then proceeded by lightly hitting his knuckles to Faith’s before doing the same with Julian. “Maybe I’ll catch another show when we’re in the same town or something.” There could be a chance of that happening since both he as Telal were on the road.
“That’s cool, man; just look us up afterwards when you do.” Faith smirked. Oz nodded his goodbye at the other band members standing by the bar as he turned and walked away from the stage. Faith turned to look at Julian and he could already guess why. Sighing tiredly he grabbed a pen and a piece of paper.
“Oz, wait up.” Julian ran up to the werewolf while Faith called the others back on stage. “Go see this guy.” He scribbled an address on the piece of paper. “He can help but it’s gonna cost ya.” He handed the piece of paper to Oz who read it carefully.
“I can get money.” Oz stated calmly but rejoiced on the inside. He wondered how and why Julian knew this guy could help him with his inner wolf but chose against to asking the black-haired lead singer about it.
“Not talkin’ ‘bout money.” Julian shook his head. “The price is different for everyone; if you really want and need it you’re gonna have to be willin’ to give somethin’ up.” Oz looked him in the eyes and things were starting to click in his head
“What did you give up?” He asked with a knowing look in his eyes. Julian chuckled and ran his hand through his unkempt hair. Oz smirked on the inside; Buffy had been right all along. Julian wasn’t human.
“My home.” He replied with a shrug. “It was worth it.” His gaze drifted to the brunette standing on stage laughing with Matt. They said their goodbyes again and each took off in opposite direction, Oz going to his van and Julian joining the rest of the band.
-:-TUYRF-:-
Buffy had just told Giles everything that had happened the night before. From the point where she ran into a commando to the point that Faith had disappeared with the demon she believed was Julian. Giles wasn’t completely convinced that the demon was in fact Julian but he couldn’t ignore Buffy’s instinct.
“So these men in military garbs, they were trying to fight you, Faith and this demon?” Giles asked, trying to see if he got all the facts straight. He understood most of what happened up until Buffy told him that a demon and a young woman were fighting the werewolves.
“Yes but you’re missing the point.” Buffy sighed irritated. “This girl, Faith, she moved like a Slayer but more primal and she saved Willow from Oz and Veruca.” Buffy missed the frown covering Giles’ features as she stood up and started wandering through his living room.
“But Veruca vanished?” Giles questioned. Faith, Slayer… where had he heard that before? He shook his head lightly, returning to the topic at hand. Veruca had vanished and no one knew where she was. That could form a problem.
“Yeah, Faith said the soldiers took her.” Buffy replied moving her finger over the back’s of the old books that were displayed in her unofficial Watcher’s living room. “She was protecting the demon from these soldier guys. And then Julian’s amulet.” She spun around on her heels and faced Giles. “The look in her eyes, Giles, she needed that amulet back. That’s got to mean something, right?” It wasn’t exactly proof that Julian was the demon but it came pretty close.
“I suppose so.” Giles muttered absently. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew more than any of them thought. He started browsing trough his books, not too casual but not too driven either. He just wanted to read something that could ease his mind.
“But if Faith is a Slayer, why doesn’t she have a Watcher?” Buffy mused aloud. “Kendra was sent here by her Watcher but Faith; she just goes touring with her band.” The blonde flopped down in Giles’ couch. “God, I hope the Council’s not thinking about liquidating me.” Buffy groaned. She had enough of the Council. It had been just too much that they had sent that Wesley guy last year to replace Giles. Thankfully that was over but now neither of them worked for the Council anymore and with the death of Kendra having called a new Slayer, the council could try and eliminate her and Giles if they wanted to.
“Watchers.” Giles looked up from the books on his desk and made a beeline to his bedroom while muttering softly and heatedly. “The Council.” Buffy watched him retreat up the stairs and rolled her eyes. She took a glance at her watch and stood up.
“Giles, I’m gonna go.” She called out. “I promised Xander I’d tell him everything that happened last night.” She waited for a response but could only hear rummaging up the stairs. With a final shrug she left the apartment.
-:-TUYRF-:-
Veruca held her knees tight to her chest, partly because of the nudity and partly because of the fear, staring at the lab coats walking past her cell. Sometimes they held charts, sometimes syringes and just a little more than comfortable to Veruca’s liking they would stand in front of her Skinnerian holding cell and look at her while writing down things.
The bright lights were hurting her vision after hours and hours of sitting in this confinement. She had tried to get out of her cell but the doors gave her an electrical jolt that hurt like hell each time she touched it. She remembered large bits of what happened but her memory got lost when she was thrown out the window at the Chemistry Lab.
But that wasn’t the worst thing about being in her holding cell. She was scared as hell from the other demons that she could hear and see. The worst was seeing demons twice her size unconscious and removed from its cell and hearing the lab coats saying what parts should be separated from the demon’s body or where a mechanism is needed to be placed.
Veruca’s ears perked when she heard two men talking to each other. She stood up warily, checking to see if anyone else heard their conversation then walked as close to the electronically charged door as she could without getting jolted.
“They starve you.” One of the voices said “When you're ready to bite your own arm, they shoot out one of those packets. You drink, and the next thing, you're gone.” Veruca frowned, realizing these were vampires. “And that's when they do the experiments.” She could hear the fear in his voice. At least she knew her food would be drugged, too.
“And, uh, they are?” A British voice asked “The government? Nazis? A major cosmetics company?” Veruca leaned against the wall that was closest to the two vampires. If she maybe knew what the deal here was maybe she could convince those lab coats to let her go.
“Who cares?” The first voice again. “All I know is, one minute I'm running from the Slayer and the next thing, I'm here.” The Slayer? Veruca wondered. Whoever this ‘Slayer’ was probably had a lot of enemies. It would make sense that this ‘Slayer’ locked her enemies up but what did Veruca have to do with any of this?
“The Slayer! I knew it! I knew it!” The owner of the British voice sounded enraged. Veruca figured he had probably dealt with this Slayer before.
“Yeah, she took apart my crew, and led me straight to these guys.” The first voice snarled. Veruca frowned at the voice saying that the Slayer was a ‘she’. She tried to recall more things about what happened when she changed and then remembered the lead guitarist of Telal. She was there and her demon friend threw Veruca out the window.
“She set me up, too. I always worried what would happen when that bitch got some funding.” The British voice growled and slammed his hands against the wall in frustration. “She's wised up a bit.” He mused. “Fine! I'll take her apart. I don't care how brilliant she is.” Veruca couldn’t help but chuckle at the voice. If he could have taken the Slayer then he would’ve done it already.
-:-TUYRF-:-
Buffy was eying the stage with her arms crossed, listening to Telal play their fourth song of the night. She enjoyed the music but didn’t let it show. She needed proof that Julian wasn’t human and that Faith… She didn’t know anything about Faith but she needed to know anyway. Tonight was the last night she could confront the brunette before her band left again for God Knows Where.
“I'm sick of letting you control the places that I go, I'm never giving into you again.” Julian sang while glancing at Buffy. “Take, take another look at me and tell me what you see. All of these cats tryin' to get under my skin but they can't step over me.” Buffy’s gaze kept alternating between Faith and Julian “You try to control me but ya can't hold me. You don't own me, if you ever step to me.” Faith hadn’t looked at her the whole night but just as Julian ended the second verse she sent Buffy a stone cold glare.
“I sometimes wish that I could fly.” Faith stepped up to a mic and soft but strongly sang the next line with Julian “Hold me tight in your arms tonight, sick of livin' inside a lie, alright.” She backed off again from the mic and easily moved her fingers over her guitar “I can't count the times I've tried, stand alone just to lift you high. You're my answer to the question why.” As Pete echoed the last word Julian grabbed his mic with two hands.
“Buffy.” Buffy tore her gaze away from the stage when Giles called out her name. She was surprised to say the least that he was in the Bronze but more so because he was holding a very old and worn looking book in his hands.
“Giles, what’s wrong?” She asked concerned. She really hoped that Giles didn’t just happen to find a prophecy that states she has to fight some demon tonight or the world would end… again. She wasn’t in the mood; she wanted to know more about Julian and Faith.
“Is this the demon?” Giles showed her a page with an illustration of the demon from the night before but in the illustration he had a ring on his right hand and a dagger in the left. It was exactly the same demon, except for the look in its eyes.
“Haunt me if you want me but I'll warn you…” Julian looked at the blonde Slayer and the older man that had rushed over to her. “If you ever step to me… Again,” He glanced over at Faith and she had seen the man as well. “You try to control me but ya can't hold me. You don't own me, if you ever step to me.” The music stopped with the last word and they received their applause but neither Faith nor Julian cared for it at the moment.
“That’s impossible.” Buffy exclaimed when Giles finished telling her what he found out. The older Brit shook his head with a grim smile and they both turned their eyes on stage where they could see Faith and Julian staring back at them.
End of Episode 1----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N: How's that for an ending =)
