Title: Controlled Descent 2/7
Author: K.V. Wylie
Pairing: Giles/Cordelia
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Sequel to Popsicles Cuddles and Couches
Disclaimer: Permission to use these characters relating to BtVS & AtS, has not been given. Joss, Twentieth Century Fox, UPN, WB & Mutant Enemy own TM and copyrighted them. This is purely for fun, and no copyright infringement is intended

The history teacher's droning reminded Buffy of a wasp she'd once seen caught in a window.  Closing her eyes, she could imagine it on the screen, swooping over the mesh in an effort to get free.  It buzzed louder as its wings fluttered and, from outside, came the answering whir of another wasp.  The whine rose in volume until Buffy thought a nest had come loose under her desk.

She opened her eyes as her books slid to the floor.  Her chair rocked and she toppled into Willow who'd come falling in from the other side.

Some of the girls screamed.  Some of the guys too.  Buffy wished they'd all shut up as she tried to find a place where nothing would come crashing down on her head.   She started crawling towards the front until she noticed a bulge forming on the blackboard.  A crack shot across the slate and it exploded forward in a volley of jagged shards.

She scooted back to her desk, crouched under it, and held the legs to keep it from falling away.  She saw Willow had done the same, fortunately, for a fluorescent light over that row smashed down with a bang of smoke and glass.  Willow squeezed her eyes shut as a coating of what looked like broken seashells fell over her.  Xander, under the desk behind her, reached forward to brush them off but drew away when they cut sharply into his hand.

"Don't open your eyes, Will!" Buffy yelled over the roar of the quake.  She leaned forward and blew over Willow's face like she was blowing out candles, Xander getting the hint and joining her a second later.

Buffy paused only once, when what looked like a sea serpent under the floor tiles rushed towards her, but it was a geyser of dust and dirt which emptied against the back wall.  Some smaller geysers followed, the thunder died, and it was over.

"I think that's got it," Xander said, stopping to catch his breath.

Willow opened her eyes cautiously.  "What did you have for lunch, Xander?  You have grape juice breath."

"You're welcome," he sighed.  He paused, looking around, and his eyes went wide.  "Oh shit."

Students, covered in dirt and plaster dust, struggled to their feet on a buckled floor.  A girl braced herself on a chair as she got up, only to have it break under her hand.  It had been the only chair left standing.

Every window had shattered, every bit of furniture was on its side, and the teacher's desk, a broad oak monstrosity, had buckled in the middle and crashed down off its legs.  Pens rolled to the lowest points on the uneven floor and books slowly joined them.  Over the door the intercom crackled as it dangled from a wire.

"Outside," the teacher cried, choking in the powdery air.  "Single file.  Don't run.  Don't panic."

But everyone did, running for the door like banshees on fire.  Buffy checked Willow's face again to make sure no glass remained, then indicated the windows with her head.  The two girls went out that way, Xander on their heels.

The sunshine looked bizarre after what they had just been through, the warmth of it jarring like a surreal Bergman close-up in an Irving Allen disaster film.  They paused to take breaths of the clearer air before going around the building towards the library.

"It doesn't look so bad out here," Willow said.

"No," Buffy agreed.  "It seemed to be mainly on the side we were."  One tree had fallen but the link fence around the school's boundary hadn't even buckled.  The west side of the school was undamaged and the students exiting here looked as if they didn't have a clue why they were being forced to leave.

The library looked completely unruffled.  They walked in and found that not one book had fallen, none of the pencils kept on the table for student use had gone anywhere, and the dust dunes on the ends of the shelves hadn't budged one iota.

"Giles?" Buffy called but it was Wesley who came out of the office.

"Mr. Giles is helping evacuate students from the building," he said.

"Nothing shook here?" Buffy asked.

Wesley shrugged.  "No.  We heard the rumbling but didn't know what it was until some students going by told us.  Very strange."

"So what was it?" Buffy demanded.

"An earthquake."

"Not the hellmouth?"

Wesley glanced at Willow and Xander.

"We've been through the harvest, an alternate universe, and the end of the world.  I *think* you can tell us," Xander said in frustration.

"Ah, yes," Wesley said.  "All right then.  Mr. Giles believes that something is making a path through the hellmouth."

"Apparently something already made a path Saturday morning," Buffy said.

"He thinks that what is being created is a permanent path, perpetually open and accessible."

"Is that possible with inter-dimensional portals?" Willow questioned.

"Oh dear, what happened to you?" Wesley asked, finally noticing the coating on her.  "I have a clothes brush that will be just the ticket."  He extracted it from his briefcase and handed it to her.  "Please, don't make a mess on the floor."

She gave Buffy a sideways look as she took the brush.

"Mr. Giles thinks it's possible," Wesley said.  "I'm not quite so sure.  He is prone to excessive bouts of imagination, after all."

Xander stared at him.  "Giles?" he queried.  "Yeah, his imagination gets him into trouble all the time."

"I'm thinking an open path wouldn't be a good idea," Buffy mused.  So far it had been doors and turnstiles.  Now paths.  All she needed to do was fall into a rabbit hole to really round out the day.

"I'm not convinced that's what it is," Wesley told her.

"Then what else could it be?"

"Uh, well, there are always possibilities."

"Such as?" she pushed.

Wesley sniffed and fell quiet.

"You don't have any, do you?" Xander asked.

"Well, not *yet*," Wesley started but Buffy interrupted him.

"I *hate* it when you guys do this.  Giles says one thing, you say another.  The two of you keep putting me in the middle."

"I am your Watcher, Miss Summers," Wesley said, adopting a formal tone that only rankled her further.  "You should be listening to me."

"But are you just being pissy because Giles thought of it before you did?"

That hit home.  Wesley straightened to his full height but, to his credit, didn't answer.

"Say a path is being opened," Willow cut in softly.  "Can we stop it?"

"I don't know," Wesley said.

"The Master tried to open one.  It was no big deal," Buffy said.

"He tried many years ago and failed," Wesley said.  "During the Harvest, his intent was only to free himself."

"We had something with tentacles waving about in here," Xander said.

"One of the old ones," Wesley said.  "They can open a door but they do not have the strength to keep it open.  Mr. Giles described what is happening now as…..ripping the door from it's hinges."

"Then what--?" Xander started and faltered.

"Something else besides the old ones?" Willow tried nervously.

Buffy met her eyes.  "Something more."  She started suddenly for the door.  "I need to find Giles."

"Miss Summers, *I* am your Watcher."  Wesley stepped in front of her.

"Then *do* something besides straighten your tie.  Giles has never been wrong about stuff like this and if you'd only take a moment to realize that and ask him for help, we might actually get through this.  I'd certainly be farther ahead if I had two Watchers on my side!"  She bounced around him and out.

Wesley, dumbfounded, raised a hand, then realized and jerked it to a halt a bare inch from the knot in his tie.

---

"You're distant tonight," Cordelia said in an irritated tone.

"Sorry," Giles said, trying to manage a smile and failing.

"You cancelled out on me last night.  I expected your full attention tonight to make up for it but you haven't even noticed what I'm wearing."

Giles looked over.  "Uh, it's very nice."

"Uh huh," she murmured.  "What colour am I wearing?"

He had to look again.

"I bet you haven't even caught on that I'm not wearing a bra."

Giles glanced at the occupants of the tables around them.  "Sssh," he whispered.

"I wish someone would tell me what's going on," Cordelia complained.  "You people in your little club never do and then you all get ticked off with me when I don't know what's happening."

That made sense, he decided.  Besides, sometimes Cordelia startled him with her clarity.

So he told her.

"Put a board across it and nail it shut," she said as she studied the menu.  "In old horror movies, they always bricked mysterious doors up."

Bricks for Christsakes.  He refrained from telling her that he and Wesley, and lately Angel, had been struggling with the issue for two days.  "We can't because we're up here and it's down….."  He stopped and a peculiar look crossed his face.  "It's down below."

"Rupert, how committed are you to vegetarian because the duck here is really--"

"Just a moment, Cordelia," he said, still wearing that odd expression.

"Can't you think and listen to me at the same time?"

His lack of reply was her reply.  "Geez," she mumbled and, putting down her menu, waited him out.

"Descent," Giles said at last.

"No, duck."

"I wonder if I can do it."

"We're not eating, are we?"

"We have to get back to the library," he started, then realized she had already risen from the table with her keys in hand.

"You pay for the drinks, Rupert.  I'll go start the car."  As he reached for his wallet, she added, "And don't think you're not making this up to me later."

---

Buffy paused outside the library doors.  It sounded like a real quarrel in there.  She knew Xander had gone to the Bronze long ago so it couldn't be him and Cordelia, and she didn't know who else might be arguing so loudly.

She went to go in but paused again at Angel's raised voice.

"A human can't take it there!  I've been there, I know!  I had an awful time trying to get back."

"I'm not worried about coming back.  I suspect it probably won't matter," came Giles' quieter reply though he sounded no less determined.

"Give up your life, Giles?"

"Give up this reality.  I tried this once before and failed but I suspect because I was on the surface.  I know the incantation works.  I spoke it at the ocean and it killed every demon there."

"But not Drusilla," Angel said.

"No, because Xander pulled me out of the water and she followed my trail."

"This is different, Giles.  This is below in the nether region.  No human can take it."

"I have demon blood in me."

"But you're still human."

"I don't need to be.  I could Descend."

"Become demon?"  Wesley now, horrified into a higher octave.

"I could go down part-way and stop."

"You're talking about entering the Rapture," Angel said.

"Completely misnamed, I understand," Giles said in a slightly amused voice.  To Wesley he added, "You're a Watcher.  You should be able to keep hold of the pulley, as it were.  If I'm stopped half-way down, my human intent to fasten the door should remain.  My infected blood will allow me to exist in the Rapture state without going mad."  His voice dropped.  "At least I shouldn't go completely so."

"Going down is easy," Angel said.  "It's the getting *back*, Giles."

"I can only plan the way in but does it matter?" Giles asked.  "What's important is to fasten the door.  If it's secured at the source, it won't ever open again."

"But you wouldn't get back," Angel said in a very low tone.

There was silence.

At last, Giles said, "Controlled Descent."

"No," Angel said.  "I'll go."

"You're not human enough," Giles said.  "You'll lose your soul completely and this time it will be gone."

"Buffy will never let you go," Angel said.

"I'm already Descending now.  I near Rapture every time there's a disturbance in the hellmouth.  I know what it feels like and I don't fear this.  What I fear…..is something else."

"There must be another way," Wesley said in a quick nervous voice.

"Then tell me what it is," Giles asked.  "Tell me where it is.  We've spent two days and where are we?  That damn thing is still opening."

"It doesn't seem right to risk a Watcher," Wesley said.

"We risk Slayers," Giles said, angry now, a cold hard pitch in his words.  "Buffy has gone down to face the Master herself.  Did you never think our time could come, Mr. Wyndham-Price?  We were born to this, to give our lives too in doing all that we can, all that we *must*, even if we are no more than the quick, futile burn of a moth straining into an inferno.  Put what you need to in order and do your part so that I can go down."  There was a pause, then he added, "Angel, keep Buffy occupied.  Don't tell her for she'll come in after me.  If I fail, she'll be needed up here."

Buffy slammed the door so violently the top hinge broke and flew over her onto the floor.  The three men, startled, turned as she strode up to them.  She scattered them, smashed Giles with a right cross, and sent him backwards over the table.

"You BASTARD!" she yelled.

Angel grabbed her arms as Wesley stepped in front of her.  Giles got up slowly, raised a hand to his jaw, and winced.  She tensed again and, feeling it, Angel pulled her away.  It was then she noticed Cordelia sitting rigidly on the edge of a chair, white even under her makeup.

"Buffy, please don't hit him," she pleaded.

It was the sight of Cordelia that stopped her.  Buffy dropped her fists to her sides and, with effort, unfurled them.  To Giles she asked, "You were going to die without even letting me say goodbye to you first?"

"Quasi-die," Wesley corrected.

"DAMN YOU!" she yelled and he jumped back.  "Die is DIE as in GONE!"

"No, he'd go into Rapture, Buffy," Angel said.  "Neither dead nor alive, neither demon nor human.  In-between."

"Dead is dead.  You don't get a little dead!" she snapped, trying to cover the quiver in her voice that preceded tears.

"Someone has to go down," Angel said, putting his arms around her.

"Get another plan!"

"They've been trying," Cordelia said.

"Shut up," Buffy told her.

"Buffy!"  Giles now, harsh and authoritative.  "We're going to do this.  There's no more time."

"No, Giles.  We'll deal with what comes up."

"We can't," he said.  "Are you going to make me stay up here and witness death upon death I could have prevented?"

"We've dealt with everything in the past.  We can deal with this."

"No," Angel said.  "We can't."

The tears did come.  "You're scaring me."

"And maybe you should be scared," Giles said.  "You kill the children up here, the new ones exploring the surface.  What's down below, what's coming, are the true Nosferatu, thousands upon thousands of years of existence, soulless because they never had a soul to begin with, vacant and appalling, lost and unaware they're so.  They have no fear, no feeling, no anticipation, and no pleasure.  The Slayer's light is meaningless to them.  She is something that may cling for a moment in their silent ponderous movement, like a leaf on the side of a mountain.  They are the ancient whales coming out of the deep, inexorable and monstrous in their momentum.  The swell of dark tide around them will extinguish the sun.  They were here before.  They travelled down and now they're returning.  They have felt forward and laid the first path.  They know this way is open and they are coming, Buffy.  We need to fasten the locks before they reach the door."

"But you are just one person," she tried, cheeks streaming wet now.

"I have Angel's and Drusilla's blood which gives me some of their strength.  I don't need a lot to throw a deadbolt."  Giles looked over her head at Angel.  "Give me a map.  Give me the straightest line, the shortest route.  I'll go down as near to the portal as possible.  Where would that be?"

Angel thought for a moment.  "The sunken church.  Giles, there's someone down there who knows you already."

Giles stared at him.  "Who?" he started, but as he asked, he already knew.  He dropped down into a chair.  "My God, can it be so?"

"He doesn't remember himself," Angel added.  "But he remembers you."

"Not another vampire with a soul?" Wesley asked.  The look Angel gave him shut him up.

Immune to the look, Cordelia muttered from the side, "Geez, is everyone out of your past a psycho-demon?  Don't you have any normal friends?"

She wasn't answered either.  At length Angel moved in front of Giles and knelt, his dark serious eyes meeting the green ones.  "Keep away.  Don't let him find you there.  He's not what he was before."

"How do you know what he was before?" Giles said sharply.

"I don't need to know and I don't need to tell you.  You've spent your life looking into the truth, Rupert.  Don't blind yourself now."  Angel glanced at Buffy with a strange sad expression before turning back to Giles.  "Don't hesitate, don't hold back thinking there's a sliver of the man you knew.  He has turned.  Know this and, if you cannot avoid him, deal with him swiftly."  He straightened and, after a look at Wesley, said, "There's something else I don't like."

"I know but he's on our side," Giles said humourlessly.

"Excuse me," Wesley retorted.

"You're putting a lot of trust in him," Angel said.

"Who am I supposed to trust?" Giles asked in a tight tone.  "You?"

Angel scowled.  "Considering how well his kneecaps stood up to Balthazar, I can't conceive of him as the pulley, much less his being left on his own as Buffy's Watcher."

"She'll have you," Giles said reluctantly before Wesley could open his mouth.  Angel snatched the opening.

"You are trusting me after all.  Then trust me with one thing more, Rupert.  Let Buffy claim you."

"No," Wesley cut in furiously.  "That is between the Watcher and the Slayer."

"What is it?" Buffy asked.

"No!" Wesley repeated.  "Absolutely not.  Mr. Giles was fired."

"Will you shut up for two seconds?" Buffy snapped and Cordelia dropped her face into her hands.

"God, here everyone goes again."

Buffy turned to Angel.  "What do you mean I can claim him?"

"It's a way of marking him as yours," Angel said.  "He would never be lost to you then.  No matter where he went, you'd be able to find him.  A Slayer can demand it of her Watcher.  It's her right."

Wesley opened his mouth.  Buffy shot, "*Don't* say it."

Cordelia looked up.  "This sounds like a good thing.  Well, depending on how she…..does it."

Buffy eyed Giles.  "Why does everybody have to tell me?  Why don't I know these things?"

"If you'd ever read your handbook," he said.  "The problem is there's no way to undo it."

Buffy sighed in exasperation.  "And that's a problem because?"

"A Watcher and Slayer so joined can't be separated."

"Still not seeing the issue here," she said.

"I'm not your Watcher.  The Council will punish you."

"They can go eat burnt scones.  I've had Merrick, Khieri, and this one," she gave Wesley a irritated look.  "But, Giles, *you* are my Watcher."

Giles was quiet for a long moment.  Then he said quietly, "Buffy, I don't want you to find me.  What would come back wouldn't…..be of much use."

"I will never believe that," she said and to Angel added, "I'm claiming him.  Tell me how."

"You're not listening," Giles said harshly.  "A Watcher and Slayer can't be separated afterwards.  If I die--"

"I die too?" she asked.

"No," Angel said.

"But your powers will be lost," Giles interrupted.

"Like what you did to me?" Buffy asked.  "Do you mean someone from the Council is going to come over here and give me injections?  Fat chance."

"They won't have to come.  If I die, you will weaken.  The Council won't interfere and they won't call the next Slayer.  They'll leave you here to be killed and they won't raise a finger to stop it."

"Their not getting up off their pompous asses to do anything doesn't seem like much of a change to me," Buffy said but it was in a small voice.

Giles met her eyes.  "Buffy, here is the last word.  No."

"That was the fourth to last word.  Here are the final three."  She lifted her chin.  "It's.  My.  Right."  She swung back to Angel.  "How do I do it?"

Wesley stepped in, raising a hand.  "If I may--"

As one, Buffy and Cordelia burst out, "NO!"

The two girls glanced at each other in surprise.  Then Buffy planted herself in front of Giles.  "Angel, tell me how."

She heard Wesley's steps and the library door as he flew out.  With a touch of bleak amusement, Giles said, "Pissing him off just before I need him is probably not a good idea, Buffy."

"Angel," Buffy persisted.

Angel gestured at Giles.  "He tells you his old name, his true name.  You say it back to him and it's done."

"Sounds easy enough," she said.

"Don't be fooled by it.  This is bigger than what's ever been between you before," Angel said.  "Our true names are interwoven with the old ways and the old magicks.  Knowing someone's true name makes them very vulnerable to you.  It gives you a power over them such as you've never imagined.  Even the sun itself, if called by its old name, must bend down."

In the hush that followed, Buffy whispered, "How will I know if he's telling me the truth?  What if he lies?"

"You'll know," Angel answered.

Buffy sat down in front of Giles.  "Do I have an old name?" she asked him.

"Probably," he said softly.  "Most Slayers do.  I don't know it though."

"How do you know yours?"

"Someone used it once."  He didn't elaborate but the look on his face was enough.

"Let's do this," she said.

From the side, Cordelia asked, "What about us?"

Angel nodded at the door.  "You and I leave."

She stood slowly.  "No one's going to do that pulley thing right now though, are they?"

"I need Wyndham-Price for it," Giles said.

"We'll go find him," Angel said.  "I want to make sure he knows what he's supposed to do."

"He'd *better*," Cordelia said severely.  "He'd damnwell better because he's dealing with something that belongs to me now."  Buffy raised her head curiously as Cordelia rounded the table but the latter swept by her.  Cordelia leaned down, kissed Giles, and said, "Tell her what you need to but don't you dare do anything else until I get back.  I mean it!"

She followed Angel out.  Flabbergasted, Buffy asked, "Cordelia?"

"I thought this was a place you didn't want to go," Giles said, using her own words back at her.

"Oh God.  Ick," Buffy cringed.  "I can't even begin to imagine you and *Cordelia*….."

"Then don't."

"This is a lot worse than when Xander was….."

"Buffy."

"Right, we're going to do the claiming thing," she mumbled, coming back to the point.

But he was shaking his head.  "I don't know if I can trust you."

Her head jerked up.  Though hurt, she replied stiffly, "You don't have any choice.  Now tell me what I want."

He went so quiet and still she couldn't even hear him breathe.  After a long anxious space of time, he whispered a single word.

She repeated it back to him, stumbling over the unfamiliar vowels.  As she did so, something darted through her, an unpleasant feeling that squirmed down into her bowels before it eased.

"Giles?" she asked but he turned away from her, the swift pulling back paining her more than his earlier doubt of her.

"I'm going to get the others," she said.

NEXT