TITLE: A New Life 1/6
AUTHOR: Anne
RATING: R
PAIRING: Giles/Buffy
FEEDBACK: Oh yes please!
E-MAIL: bookmangal@yahoo.fr
CATEGORY: Action/Adventure
SUMMARY: Q gives Buffy and Giles a new life.
SPOILERS: none.
TIMELINE: Set in the future.
DISTRIBUTION:. ODD. The BG Zone; Tweedy book guy; WatcherGirls.
UCSL. Anyone else ask first please.
DISCLAIMER: The characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant
Enemy, Sandollar Productions, Kuzui Enterprises, 20th Century Fox
Television and the UPN Television Network. The story is written for
the pleasure of the author and readers, and has no lucrative purpose
whatsoever. Please don't reproduce this story anywhere without the
author's consent.
WARNING: this part: graphic violence
THANKS: thank you Annuette and Caz.
NOTE: Giles met Q in three precedent fics I wrote called "Ripper of
Borg", "Zijan" & "Gladiator" (both not translated into English yet).
That is why he knows him.
Restfield cemetery gate:
Giles looked around him, a little reassured, by the heavy weight of his crossbow. He was not afraid for himself, but for Buffy, who was just over 4 months pregnant. She had gained weight and was less supple, thus less skilful when fighting. He was also very worried for the baby. If Buffy received a bad blow, his son could die.
"Buffy …"
Buffy shook her head. "No, Giles. We have already spoken about this. I shall patrol until I can't do it any more."
He sighed, when Buffy decided on something, it was useless to try to make her change her mind.
They patrolled around the cemetery for more than an hour without meeting a single vampire. Relieved Giles opened the door of his car, so that Buffy could sit in the passenger seat when they both heard a growl, the characteristic growl of a vampire. They turned around to see a vampire. The evil creature groaned in pleasure.
"The Slayer and her Watcher, good! I'm going to kill you both and then I'll become the new Master."
Giles pushed Buffy into the car and raised his crossbow towards the evil creature, which was on him before he had the time to fire. The vampire punched Giles hard, then taking advantage that he was half knocked out, took one of the bolt out of his crossbow and plunged it into his throat to rip it opened, into his stomach, then into his ribs, several times. The cries of pain were fast replaced by groans and Giles collapsed dying.
Buffy, horrified, remained paralyzed for seconds before grabbing the crossbow and firing. The vampire became skeleton-like then exploded in a cloud of dust. Buffy knelt down near Giles and cried out in horror. Her husband was still alive, but he already looked like a corpse: his face was very pale, bathed with sweat and his features were creased in pain. He fixed the stars above him with an empty, and apathetic glance, already somewhere else. Convulsive shivers shook his whole body and he breathed with difficulty. She took his hand. It trembled and was cooling.
"Rupert, do you hear me?"
Buffy saw Giles's gaze move slowly towards her, but the life was fading from his eyes. He tried to speak but only unarticulated words came from his lips.
"Rupert … Oh God, no! Don't die!"
Giles tightened his grip on Buffy's hand, murmured something incomprehensible, his face streaming with tears. She guessed that he was trying to say I love you.
"I love you too, Giles." Buffy murmured between sobs. "I'll always love you."
She cupped Giles' head and kissed him. When she moved back from her
husbands cooling body, she noticed the two newbie's next to her,
their white fangs dripping with saliva …
*
* *
Giles looked around him surprised; there was nothing, nothing except for white, everywhere and something solid under his feet. He bent and his hand did not meet the ground. Nevertheless he was standing on something … He frowned intrigued when he saw a silhouette move out bit-by-bit from the nothingness. It was a big, strong, brown man, with a roguish gaze and a smirk on his lips. He wore a long white dress decorated with geometrical motives. Giles recognized the man, or rather the human-shaped entity.
"Hello Rupert."
"Hello Q. Did I die?"
"No you didn't die Rupert, I saved you. Because you have done enough for the Good Side, I mean the Powers That Be. I have decided to reward you and your wife. I am going to offer Buffy and you a new life, in a place where there will be no demons, vampires, nor Hellmouth and where you will live a happy life together with your son."
Giles exhaled a long sigh. "Q, thank you very much but Buffy and I have a mission … "
The entity from the Q Continuum shook its head. "No, you had a mission. For all those who knew you both know you died."
Giles blinked twice, astonished. "What?"
Q smiled. "Another Slayer replaced Buffy and another Watcher replaced you. You are from now on released from your obligations and so you can start a new life."
"Buffy and I died? You said to me two minutes ago that I hadn't died? I don't understand."
"I am going to explain everything to you Rupert. A few seconds after you lost consciousness Buffy was mortally wounded by two vampires. I also saved her and I transported her to another dimension, on another Earth, where you both will soon begin a new life. Having saved your life and having transported you "somewhere else", Buffy on the other Earth and you here, so that I explain all the story, I created perfect copies of your bodies, both dead and drained, so that everybody considers you dead. Buffy and Giles died; long live the new Buffy and the new Giles!" Q put a friendly hand on the Watcher's shoulder. "I made it for you, so that Buffy and you are finally happy together. Do you understand?"
Giles nodded. "Yes, naturally. Q I would like to join Buffy to explain everything to her and of course to see her again. So could you send me to her? Please?"
"I planned something else Rupert."
The Watcher groaned. " What did you imagine this time Q?"
"In the dimension where I am going to send you Rupert Giles was not the Slayer's Watcher. He died at sea in a plane crash. You will replace him. As for your Buffy, she will replace the other Buffy, also drowned at sea who was not the Slayer. Naturally you will forget your past life and really believe to be them and you will believe many other things too. I have as you know a vivid imagination." Q snapped his fingers and Giles vanished in the middle of a sheet of white light. "Good bye Rupert."
*
* *
Giles groaned with pain slowly opening his eyes. His dried salty tears stuck his eyelids. He managed to open his mouth to moisten his lips dried out and covered with cracks due to the sun, with the tip of his puffy tongue. The sun had burned his skin too, covering it with burns. When he managed to completely open his eyes the sun dazzled him and he immediately closed them. When he wanted to move his painful muscles rebelled and a shout escaped from his lips, which split and started to bleed. He stopped moving and looked in front of him: everything was blue, up to the horizon, the ocean as the sky. He dozed off for hours then fell in a kind of semi-coma for 24 hours and was awakened by the cries of birds. He half opened his eyes and behind the veil of his blurred vision distinguished a white sandy beach and some palm trees. He knew he was on an island. He had run aground there pushed by the current. He was not saved yet, because if he did not drink water quickly, he would die from dehydration. He managed to stand up at the end of several attempts and atrocious pain. He got out of the lifeboat and staggering went towards palm trees and especially to their cool shadow. As soon as he was shielded from the sun, he collapsed and fell asleep, again completely exhausted.