Title: Unforeseen Circumstances 12/27
Author: Jadedragon
Rating: R
Spoilers: Season 4 up until Bad Beer, Angel Season 1, in my verse, Doyle didn't die!
Paring: B/G, B/P mentioned
Summary: Buffy has to face the consequences of her night with Parker
Notes: <> denotes thoughts
Thanks: Due to interference of RL, Wyrmie won't be available to beta the rest of my story. (pouts) Ripperslover will be stepping in to help me make sure that everything is in order. Thanks for your help, Sandra. Wyrmie, I'll be glad when RL calms down for you!

Travers watched as his troops forced their way into the front of the building. He thought he saw the Chairman among the defenders but before he could verify that fact, the Senior Council Mage appeared before the enspelled Dark Seer. This he hadn't expected. The Senior Mage was supposed to be in England, not in Sunnydale. Travers moved further away from the Seer, toward the door of the building. He was surprised, but he still had the plans that he and the Dark Seer had made if anything went wrong. Travers felt the inner pocket of his jacket. It was still there. He could still come out on top even if the battle was lost.

**********

As he appeared, the Mage looked at his older brother. Both appeared to be in their mid-thirties, but were centuries older. He quickly cast a stronger binding spell on the Seer before he had a chance to break Black Raven's spell.

"Brother, why do this?" the Mage asked him as he cast the spell.

"The Council deserves to be punished. I'm the stronger Mage and should have been Senior,' he sneered at his brother, the venom fairly dripping from his words.

"The Council chose me because you're unbalanced."

"Unbalanced, hell, I'll show you unbalanced!" the Seer retorted as he broke the magical bonds and lashed out at his brother with a death entombment spell.

The Mage swiftly countered the spell, deflecting and disarming it before it came in contact with him. He then absorbed the energy used to cast the spell and channeled that energy back into his counter spell, a blast of magick to knock the Seer unconscious. This happened so quickly, that any mortal watching wouldn't have seen anything.

The Seer countered the next spell and cast an even more potent death spell. He had to overcome his brother if he was to take his place as Senior Council Mage. It didn't bother him that he would kill his own brother. The Seer had ceased to think of the Mage as his brother centuries ago, he saw only a usurper who had taken what was rightfully his.

Counter and attack, counter and attack, and so the battle between the Mage and the Seer continued.

**********

As the back door was breeched, Giles tried to place himself in front of Buffy, but she wouldn't let him. She attacked a rogue Watcher as one attacked Giles. Each was busy as were the others around them. The fighting was taking place right in front of the door and it was getting jammed up. Ethan saw this and cast a spell on the Watchers outside and froze five of them where they stood, the seven left standing rushed the door, pushing past the defenders. Smythe attacked two, decapitating one and spearing the other as the five still standing and mobile, entered the building. Ethan then instructed Anya to tie up the frozen Watchers as he and Smythe followed the five into the building. Once Giles and Buffy had overcome the Watchers they were fighting they followed the battle into the center of the building.

**********

Wesley and Doyle were prepared when the front door gave way under the magical attack. They were quickly in position to repel the attackers, while Willow and the Chairman cast a draining spell on the enemy and they seemed to lose strength but were still fighting. Xander and McTavish were also fighting the rogue Watchers as they entered the single opening. Angel came up from behind and started fighting a fifth when an explosion rocked the area. A large portion of the front wall gave way and the other seven men quickly entered the building heading toward the mages in the center of the room. As the five defenders tried to dispatch their attackers the battle moved.

**********

The Mages were unaware of the fighting in the building, they were fighting the rogue Mages and their minds were occupied. Three of the Mages attacked the deserters with their minds, crippling them and the other two bound them and teleported them to England where there were several Ancient Mages to take them into custody. The Mages policed themselves in their own way, and the Council didn't interfere. This was the first time in recorded history that any of the Ancient Mages had made an appearance, the first time a Mage had attempted harm to humans and the Council had decided, rather wisely to give the Mages free rein to punish those who had broken their laws. The ancient race had come to the aid of the Council too many times to be questioned about their traditions.

**********

Ria met the first attacker with a kendo stick and soon had the man knocked out. She then turned to take the next one down, as she saw her brother and father had also knocked out their attackers and were moving on to another. Ethan and Smythe joined in and were fighting an attacker each. Timothy and Tara were casting a spell to place a protective barrier around the mages while they attacked the others outside. Once the spell was in place, Timothy sent Tara to Willow and the Chairman, he then turned to attack one of the enemies. Buffy and Giles soon joined the fighting.

**********

As Anya tied up the men that Ethan had taken out with his spell, one looked familiar. She couldn't place where she knew him from or even if she knew him, but as she reached him, he came to and over powered her, escaping into the darkness.

**********

Travers entered the building trying to locate the new Slayer. He rushed past the defenders at the front door who were still involved in their own battles and quickly made his way to the center of the room where the battle was at its height. He looked in astonishment as he recognized Rupert and Buffy in the midst of the fighting. He made his way to them as the battle wound down. Travers watched, as his troops were defeated. There were many more here than any of them had expected. As he saw Rupert defeat his last opponent, Travers picked up a sword and attacked the man he held responsible for his defeat.

"You were supposed to be dead!" he yelled in anger.

"Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated," Giles replied, easily parrying the attack.

Travers pushed the battle with the Watcher he hated, trying to gain the advantage. Thrust, parry, thrust, parry, the battle went back and forth between the two men, Giles slowly gaining the advantage with his greater expertise in fencing. It wasn't long before he had Travers backed against the wall.

"Surrender, you're defeated and have nowhere to go," Giles admonished the rogue Watcher.

"I'll never surrender to you or your kind!" Travers exclaimed as he pulled a globe from inside his jacket and threw it on the floor between himself and Giles. The globe immediately shattered, releasing a grayish brown smoke, which enveloped both men. Once the smoke dispersed, Travers and Giles had disappeared.

**********

The Senior Mage felt his brother's strength waning and made one last effort to reach the brother he had loved and looked up to as a child. "Brother, surrender. I don't want to hurt you," he pleaded.

"I'll never surrender to you, you'll have to kill me. But you can't do that can you?" the Seer taunted his brother as he prepared to cast yet another death spell.

"Only if I have to!" Was the reply as the Mage realized that his brother had gone too far down the dark path to be redeemed. He cast the final spell of the battle, the one that would complete the spell that he had been subtly casting since the battle had begun. All the earth energy that had been cast with his counter spells would now overpower his brother, destroying his magic leaving him a mage without any power.

His brother crumpled as the spell hit him and took effect. The seer looked up in disbelief as he felt his magick dissipate and vanish. He couldn't counter the attack and was bound where he lay.

The Mage felt a strange magickal residue from the building and quickly teleported to it, leaving the insane magickless mage in his magickal bonds.

**********

Buffy looked in horror at the spot where Giles and Travers had been standing. As she started toward the spot, she was stopped by a force field of some sort.

"Buffy, don't disturb the residue, I may be able to follow it," the Senior Mage told her as she was released from the binding spell he had placed on her. He quickly went to examine the broken shards of glass and the magickal resonances that were still present.

"I can't feel him!" Ethan said to the group.

"Who?" Buffy asked still in shock at the disappearance of her lover.

"Rupert, he's not on this plane. I don't know where, but he's alive!" Ethan informed them.

"You and my son are connected?" The Chairman asked.

"Yes, from when we were in London together," the sorcerer explained.

"Well, yes," the Chairman replied as he moved to talk with the Senior Mage. "What have you discovered?

"Chairman, your son has been transported to another plane by a teleportation globe, Travers with him. It was keyed to a specific location, which would have been prepared and there would have been someone there to meet them. I may be able to follow, but I need to prepare and I would ask Black Raven if he would help?"

"Mage, I will do whatever I can to help find the Watcher," Black Raven assured him.

The Senior Mage motioned Black Raven to join him inspecting the area where the glass shards littered the ground. As they looked for evidence and scanned the area for the magical resonances, which would tell where the men had been teleported, the Chairman walked up to Buffy, who was still in shock.

"Buffy, I will put every resource of the Council at your disposal. We will do everything to find Rupert," he assured the worried Slayer.

"I'm jinxed. Every time I find happiness, it's taken away from me," she cried as Willow came up to comfort her. "Is there anything I can do?"

"At the moment, I don't think there is anything else to do but wait. The Senior Mage will do everything possible to retrieve the evidence of where they teleported to and the Watchers in custody may know something. They will be interrogated fully," he informed her.

Willow sat with her friend as the others rounded up the defeated Watchers who were then teleported to the Council headquarters. The defeated Seer was left behind, but was brought into the building to be interrogated by his brother.

Ethan had searched through the prisoners and hadn't found his brother. Anya informed him about the man who had awakened and run away before she could tie him up. Ethan left the building with Xander and Angel following him and started searching for his brother. Once they realized what he was doing they joined the search. They soon found two vans that had brought the attackers to the store, but a third one was missing. They realized that Nathan had escaped and went back to the building where the Mage was trying to get information from his brother.

"What have you done to me?" the Seer demanded.

"Your magick has been taken by order of the Ancients. You can help yourself by telling us where Travers has taken the Watcher Rupert Giles."

"I can't survive without magick. I demand you give it back!" he ranted.

"Once it is taken away, it is gone forever."

"You must give it back! I can't be Senior Mage without it," the Seer continued his ranting not paying any attention to the questions his brother was asking him.

The Senior Mage soon realized that his brother was hopelessly insane; the loss of his magic had pushed him over the edge. He ordered one of the other Mages to teleport with the Seer to the Council Headquarters and turn him over the Ancient Mages, who would care for the Seer until his death. A Mage without his magick didn't usually live very long. The Senior Mage looked sadly at his brother, as he was teleported to England. He knew that he would not see him again.

**********

Once it was quiet, Joyce and Cordelia left the empty storage room that had been set up as an infirmary to see if anyone needed treatment. There were a few minor cuts and some bruises, which they quickly took care of. Joyce wanted to check on Buffy, but knew that she had promised her help with the wounded and finished her part of the plan before leaving the first-aid station to Cordelia. As she entered the area where everyone had congregated, she saw Willow comforting Buffy, who was sobbing. Joyce quickly crossed the room to her daughter and sat beside her.

"What happened?" Joyce asked.

"Giles has disappeared with Travers!" Buffy sobbed, not making a lot of sense in her distress.

Joyce looked at Willow to get a more complete explanation.

"Giles and Travers were fighting with swords. Giles had him backed against the wall when Travers took some sort of glass ball out of his pocket and threw it at the ground. When it broke they were surrounded with smoke and when the smoke cleared they were gone. The Senior Mage and Black Raven are trying to discover what type of spell it was and where it took them," she finished.

"What have they found out?" Joyce asked concerned about Buffy's reaction to this latest crisis.

"They haven't said," Buffy sobbed. "Why can't I stop crying? I can't help anyone like this!"

"Honey, it's your hormones. I cried at the drop of a hat when I was carrying you," Joyce explained as she tried to calm her daughter. "You need to try and calm down."

"I know, I need to be prepared to go wherever Travers had taken Rupert!" she responded with purpose in her eyes. "Mom, I can't do this without him. I need him."

"I know, Honey," she told her daughter as she soothed her by stroking her hair. As she held her daughter, Joyce knew that she would do everything in her power to help Buffy find Rupert. The love between them was so strong that it brought tears to her eyes. Joyce was jealous, never had she experienced the kind of love and commitment that existed between her daughter and her Watcher. Joyce wondered if she ever would.

**********

Black Raven and the Senior Mage consulted over what they had found. The Mage knew the spell, in the glass globe, but it was one that hadn't been used in centuries. It had been used for transporting between planes by Mages who were still in training, but had been outlawed when it began to be used for unscrupulous means. The ingredients were common except for one item, a plant extract that was found only on one restricted plane. < Where and how had his brother gotten the extract? >

Black Raven looked at the Mage, realizing that he was thinking of his brother. He knew how hard it had been for the Mage to entrap his brother and take away his magic and his life.

"I think I know where Travers may have been transported. My brother had one friend that he continued to have contract with. While he wouldn't have actively helped with this, he may have provided a place for them to be met after the transport. There are resonances here of a plane that is used by the Mages for training and relaxation."

"Do you know where on this plane they may have gone?" Black Raven asked.

"If his old friend did help, they would have teleported to the heart of the Qunitas Mountain Range where he had a retreat. This is a very dangerous area and we will need the group that has gathered here to go with us to rescue Rupert from Travers."

"What is so dangerous about the area?" "The animals there are similar to the ones that were on this planet in the Pleistocene era such as the Smilodon, which you would call a Saber-toothed tiger. But there is one difference, all the animals there are venomous."

"And this is where you believe that Travers had taken Rupert?

"Yes, it would be easy to guard him in this retreat which is surrounded by dense forests populated by these very dangerous, venomous creatures."

"When can we leave?"

"First I want to verify that this is where Travers has taken him, I'll be back in an hour. Tell the others what we suspect." After giving Black Raven the instructions, the Senior Mage teleported from the room.

**********

Joyce stood to one side of the room listening to Black Raven as he explained where they thought Travers had taken Rupert.

"How are you holding up?" Colin asked as he came to stand beside Joyce.

"I'm ok. It's Buffy I'm worried about," she told the man who had quickly become a very good friend and confidant.

"She's a strong young woman, just like her mother," he told her.

"Thank you," Joyce replied as she turned her attention to the conversation that was taking place between Black Raven and one of the Mages who had stayed in Sunnydale.

**********

Black Raven called everyone together and told them what had been discovered and where they thought that Travers had taken Rupert.

"So, we'll know when he gets back if this is where they are?" Buffy asked.

"Yes."

"Can we leave then?" She continued.

"No," one of the other Council Mages spoke up. The area we will be teleporting to is very dangerous and we will have to prepare before we leave."

"How long before we can leave to rescue Rupert?" Buffy demanded, getting very impatient.

"It may take two to three days to gather the supplies that we will need," was the reply.

"What will we need? Can't we start now?" she pleaded, wanting to be doing something, anything that she felt would be helping her lover.

"Until we know where they are it would be foolish to start gathering supplies. They may be in a totally different location and we would need different supplies," Reginald told Buffy. "I'm as anxious as you are to find my son, but we have to know more before we can know exactly what we will need."

"You're saying that there isn't anything to do for the time being?"

"I'm afraid not. Once we verify where Quentin has taken Rupert, then we can make the plans needed. Also cast the needed spells to protect those of us who aren't Mage-born."

"What sort of spells?" Buffy asked wondering what type of spells he was talking about.

"First, the atmosphere on some of the planes are deadly to humans and a protective aura must be cast on each of us. Second, if it is the plane we think it is, the aura must be one that will repel animal attacks. There could be other spells depending on the exact place where Rupert is being held and what time of the year it is, or any of a dozen or more variables that we won't know about until the Mage returns."

"Oh," Buffy replied, the wind knocked out of her sails at the moment.

"We just have to wait, he should be back very soon," Reginald assured her.

So again, the group waited, this time for word of where Travers had taken Giles.

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