Title: Atonement, Part 1/?
Author: Neena (varscona_pal@yahoo.ca)
Overall rating: NC-17
Pairing: Giles/Angel
Summary: Angel returns to Sunnydale intent on saving Giles’ life and making amends, but discovers that his good intentions may bring about more suffering than either of them can handle.
Setting: Season four of BtVS, season one of AtS.
Warning: Slash and a little angst.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon, Kuzui, Fox, ME, Sandollar, etc. own the rights to the characters in this story, but I’m happy to live in their shadow.
“Okay, tell me again why we’re all out here shake-n-bakin’ in the desert on a Saturday afternoon when we could be doing pretty much anything else?” Buffy was sweaty, hot and miserable and she felt like sharing.
“Because I asked you to as a personal favour to me,” said Giles. “And you agreed because deep down you still harbour a shred of respect for me and you wish to see me happy.”
“Nah, that’s not it,” she said dismissively. “I came because Willow and Xander nagged me until I seriously thought about adding humans to my list of ‘slayables’.”
“How can you not be excited?” Willow piped up from the rear of the little entourage. “This map Giles found marks the location of a temple that most scholars don’t even believe exists. It’s like going swimming and bumping into the lost city of Atlantis. It’s huge!”
“Gotta admit I’m with Willow on the excitement factor,” said Xander. “Things have been so normal lately—I think I’ve been jonesin’ for a bit of Indiana Jonesin’.”
It had been more than half an hour since they’d had to abandon Giles’ car and continue their journey on foot. Giles had assured them that the trek through the desert would only take fifteen minutes or so, but he’d stopped so many times to check his map that Buffy was starting to doubt if the map was real. One thing was certain—they were no longer teasing Willow for packing so many bottles of water.
Buffy groaned as Giles once more pulled out his map and checked his compass and pedometer. He looked up at them with a big smile. “Well, this is it—we’re here.”
They all looked around at the flat expanse of desert and instantly developed matching frowns.
“Is this temple thingy like Wonder Woman’s plane?” asked Xander. “’Cause I’m seeing nothing here.”
“Which is probably why it’s gone undetected for so long,” said Giles. He set down his backpack and unzipped it, pulling out a large book that looked about as old and dusty as the desert around them.
“Do you always pack your library with you?” asked Buffy, peeking in his backpack, which held another four or five musty tomes.
“Only the relevant volumes,” Giles said in defence. He flipped through the book until he came across an engraving. “Ah, here it is; the entrance to the temple is sealed behind a circular cover-stone with a hunter and moon carved into it. Check the ground, the temple must be here somewhere.”
They began poking around at the baked earth, but after nearly fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, they started to lose hope.
“Well, can’t say we didn’t try,” said Buffy.
“Hey! I think I found it!” Willow shouted excitedly. Buffy sighed—her chances of going shopping today had just vanished.
“Where is it?” asked Giles rushing over to join her.
“I’m standing on it,” she answered. “See where this circle of dirt is just a bit lower than all the other bits of dirt? Like a teeny crater? But I don’t see anything carved into the circle.” Giles, Buffy and Xander crowded around her, Giles dropping onto his knees to get a closer look at what could be the find of a lifetime.
“It’s definitely carved out by hand,” he said. He blew away some of the dirt, revealing a section of the circle’s arc. “Look at these edges—so finely carved—you can barely see any chisel marks.” He frowned, and blew away more dirt, then frowned some more. “That’s odd.”
“Oh, you know that can’t be good,” said Xander.
“Willow’s right, there are no carvings within the circle…I have a feeling we’re a little too close…I think this may be the moon carving in the cover-stone. Let’s spread out, see if we can find the rest of the carving.”
“Uh, Giles,” said Buffy. “I hate to burst your bubble, but if this stone is as big as it sounds, how are we going to move it? I’m a slayer, but I’m not Superman.”
“I imagine we won’t need to move it,” said Giles. “Most likely the people who built the temple contrived a means of opening the cover-stone with a key or a hidden trigger.” Giles flipped through his book again while the others started searching for more carvings.
Willow stayed put, kneeling down on top of the moon carving to see if she could spot anything unusual in its design. She’d just noticed the hairline crack that ran all the way around the circumference of the circle when she heard Xander calling out to them.
“Hey! I think I found the Hunter! Look, this bit’s his bow and arrow, pointing at the moon, and this is the arm and that’s his head and…weird—his eyes are hollow.”
“Xander, be careful. Touch nothing,” Giles warned.
But it was too late. Xander had already dug his fingers deep into the stone hunter’s eye sockets. He felt something give under his fingers, and before he could even say “oops”, he heard a startled yelp coming from Willow’s direction, and when he looked up she was gone.
“Willow!” Buffy shouted and ran to the spot where she’d been standing. Giles and Xander were running so fast to catch up with her that they nearly knocked her into the gaping hole in the ground that had once been the moon carving. About twelve feet below, Willow sat whimpering on the sandy floor at the foot of a metal rung ladder, cradling her foot in her hands. She looked up, grimacing with pain, at the trio of faces framed in sunlight above her.
“It’s alright. I think it’s just a sprain,” she said.
“Hold on, Willow, we’re on our way,” said Giles.
“You see? Now that’s what I’m talking about,” said Xander. “You don’t get much more Raiders of the Lost Ark than that. Hey, Willow! Are there any snakes down there?” he shouted down at her.
“Snakes?” Willow squeaked. Her wide eyes swept frantically across the floor looking for anything that might be slithering her way.
“Good going, Xan,” said Buffy. “Why don’t you just tell her the place is booby-trapped and be done with it?”
“It is?” asked Willow from below, squeaking even higher this time.
“No, Willow, you’re fine,” Buffy answered, then quietly turned to Giles. “She will be fine, won’t she?”
Giles couldn’t completely hide his look of doubt, and he began stammering.
“Giles—she will be okay, right?” Buffy said a little more forcefully.
“Y-yes. Of course she will. I—I’m sure the legends of ancient curses and deathtraps are entirely apocryphal,” he answered sheepishly.
“Deathtraps?!” Willow peeped from below.
“Damn, she’s got good hearing,” said Xander.
“We’re coming down, Willow,” said Giles. “Don’t panic.”
“Panic? What panic? Who panic? I’m not panicking!” Willow babbled, pasting a big fake smile on her face as if to prove it. “See?”
Giles pushed past Xander and Buffy to get to the ladder first.
“Hey! Who’s the slayer here?” asked Buffy with a pout.
“Well I didn’t see you rushing in there,” Giles retorted.
“Giles—you did say the words ‘curse’ and ‘deathtrap’. I though a little caution might be in order.”
Giles pointedly ignored her and tossed his backpack down the hole so it landed near Willow. He then manoeuvred himself over the lip of the opening and felt around with his foot until he found the first rung of the ladder. He took each step cautiously at first, expecting the ladder to be ancient and dangerous. But he was surprised to find that the metal ladder looked relatively new.
By the time he reached the bottom he was no longer concerned about ancient booby-traps. His new worry was that whoever was currently using the temple might decide to return. Especially since the only purpose this temple had ever served was for human sacrifice…
“Giles?” asked Willow. “Are you okay? You look a little freaked. You’re supposed to be reassuring me—the freaked look is not reassuring me.”
“Willow, how long until the next full moon?” he asked.
“Not ‘til tomorrow night, why?” asked Willow.
“Oh…no reason,” he answered, brushing it off ineffectually. Lucky for him she was distracted by Buffy and Xander who’d finally made it down the ladder with the rest of their gear.
“Ah, good,” said Giles, “torches.” He took one of the bags Xander was carrying and dug through it. Soon they were all equipped with heavy-duty flashlights, and Giles turned is attention to Willow’s injury.
After much prodding and wincing, Giles declared it a twisted ankle and suggested that Xander help her back to the car to wait for them.
“What? And miss out on the excitement—all those mysterious chambers full of hidden treasure? Why can’t Buffy go? It’s not like she wants to be here anyway.”
“Xander, please. There’s no telling what may be waiting for us in there; I need Buffy in case we run into anything.”
“Fine. But if you find treasure, I still get my cut,” said Xander. With a grunt he managed to heave Willow off the floor and he gave her a boost up to the first rung of the ladder.
When they were gone, Buffy hefted two of the three bags and adjusted them over her shoulders so she could still use her flashlight.
“So? What’s the deal?” she asked. “If this is temple is so ancient and abandoned who hired Molly Maid? I’m not buying it—somebody’s been hanging around this place lately, and I’m guessing it’s not the Shriners.”
“More likely a demon religious sect,” answered Giles reluctantly.
“It’s sad that I actually expected you to say that.”
“There were debates, theoretical of course, on whether the lost temple was built by demons or humans. All known artefacts pertaining to the temple have markings that hybridize human and demon hieroglyphs.”
“And the long and the short of it is…?” asked Buffy.
“That it would be wisest to gather as much data as possible before we fall victim to an angry horde of demonic zealots,” Giles answered.
“So just another day at the office, then,” she griped and set off down the middle of the three hallways branching off the main entrance. They wandered deep inside the palace, the hallway sloping downwards and never turning, giving them the unsettling feeling they were descending into the depths of the earth. There were only a few doorways off the main hall. Some looked like storage chambers that had probably been looted centuries before. Others were little more than nooks gouged into the walls, and Giles guessed they might have been designed to act as barricades for the temple guards, in case of enemy attack. Every so often they came across hieroglyphs carved into the stone of the walls. Giles took careful note of each one in his notebook as they went, much to the annoyance of Buffy, who was starting to get seriously bored.
One thing they both worried about but didn’t feel the need to remark on again was the general cleanliness of the place. Somebody was keeping it in good repair, and the torches running the length of the hall looked like they’d been used recently. As they descended, the air grew thicker and their footsteps echoed menacingly behind them. Buffy couldn’t shake the feeling that they were trespassing, and that the owners were not the type to invite them in for tea and cookies.
Giles was about to suggest that they head back when, abruptly, the hallway made a sharp turn to the left. Around the corner, only a few metres away, was an arched doorway. Buffy’s flashlight caught a glimmer of something gold in the darkness of the room and she swung it back until it illuminated a large golden statue.
“Finally! Something more interesting than musty old stones,” she muttered and boldly walked through the archway.
“Buffy, no!” Giles shouted and ran after her.
“What?” she asked, casually turning to face him.
“The altar…the gold idol…this is the sacrificial chamber. It’s almost certain to be protected with traps.”
Buffy sniffed the air and did a slow spin, her arms flung wide open as if daring a trap to present itself. “No poisonous gasses, no arrows flying out of the walls…the ceiling isn’t falling… I think we’re safe. Anyways, if there were booby-traps they’ve probably all been sprung by now. This place is not as ‘lost world’ as you thought it was.”
“Yes—you’re probably right. Silly; I think all Xander’s talk about Indiana Jones must have rubbed off on me.”
“So this is it?” Buffy asked, taking a slow stroll around the large room. “This is the ‘surprise’ in side the Kinder Surprise? Don’t get me wrong—it’s got the pretty statue going for it—but you gotta admit it’s a bit of a letdown. No cool sarcophaguses…or is it sarcophagi? No mounds of jewel-encrusted trinkets. Just a whole lot of space and a bunch of pictures on the walls.”
“Ooh…pictures?” asked Giles with childlike glee.
“Trust you to get all giddy over ancient pictures.”
“They’re called hieroglyphs, and if you’d bothered to remember, I was once a museum curator—the opportunity to be the first person to document these writings is an honour beyond measure.” Giles got out his notebook and started systematically sketching the hieroglyphs into it.
Buffy wandered around the room aimlessly, clearly bored to tears. The golden statue (which she’d decided was either an abstract of a naked woman or a molten, amorphous blob from ground zero at Chernobyl) had long since lost its appeal.
“Please, Buffy, will you stop the incessant pacing? I’m trying to concentrate.”
“How much longer is this going to take?”
“I’m nearly done,” he said, “but if you’d give me a few moment’s peace I’d be done much faster.”
“Fine, if it means getting out of here sooner, I’ll take a walk,” said Buffy.
“Good. Just…don’t go far. Keep within shouting distance.”
Buffy nodded and slipped quickly out of the sacrificial chamber and into the blackness beyond.
Giles sighed, wondering if she would ever understand the importance of history and research. After all, instinct and aggressiveness may serve one well in battle, but they could be equally dangerous. It was his job to direct her passion in the right direction and temper it with knowledge. He feared she hadn’t yet learned to respect that. And here she was, already in college and severing her ties with him to strike out on her own. It was the hardest thing in the world to watch her charge blindly into the unknown, not taking the time to understand what she was up against. He had to keep reminding himself that bumps and bruises, both physical and emotional, were an important part of growing up.
Giles continued on with his work, keeping an ear tuned to Buffy’s echoing footsteps. With no distractions, he was able to finish quickly, and he wasted no time packing up his things—the chamber was starting to give him the wiggins, as Buffy would say. Somewhere down the long corridor Buffy was humming tunelessly, and the sound leant an eerie quality to the already creepy atmosphere. A chill ran down his spine as he gathered up his bag.
His heightened nerves had him practically barrelling towards the arched chamber entrance when a sizzling jolt of pain ignited every nerve in his body and sent him flying halfway across the room. His flashlight clattered noisily to the floor, spinning in circles, shadows chasing each other across the walls until the beam of light slowed and settled on Giles’ slack, unconscious face.
“Giles?” Buffy shouted. “What the hell was that?” She’d heard him cry out, but it was so brief a sound that she was now wondering if she’d imagined it. But when Giles failed to answer her, she knew the cry had been real.
She ran full speed back into the chamber where Giles was still sprawled on the floor. It looked like he was only just now coming to.
Kneeling over him, she automatically checked for any signs of major injury. He smelled like ozone—like he’s been struck by lightning—but there were no visible signs of burns.
“Giles, are you okay?” she asked.
“Buffy, no!” he panted, and tried to pull himself off the floor. She gave him a hand up. “You shouldn’t have come back in…it’s a trap. That bloody archway zapped me as I was trying to leave.”
“Are you sure?”
“Well I wasn’t lying unconscious on the floor for fun,” he snarked, rubbing the back of his head where it had struck the ground. A grape-sized lump was already forming.
“Glad to see your sarcasm is still intact,” she said. “All I’m saying is, if the doorway is jinxed, why’d it let me pass through?”
Giles’ mouth flapped uselessly a couple of times as the answer to her question refused to present itself.
“Maybe if I do it again?” asked Buffy. She proceeded to jump in and out of the room, passing effortlessly through the archway. “Okay. Now it’s your turn.”
Giles approached the archway cautiously with Buffy at his side. But Buffy went through alone. Once again Giles was struck down by a jolt of energy from the doorway. Buffy rushed back inside and knelt over Giles, who was crumpled on the floor once more, his breathing shallow and ragged.
“Damn, Giles,” she whispered to his unconscious form, “If you keep getting knocked out we’re gonna have to buy you a helmet.”
From the hallway there came the clomping, echoing sound of running footsteps.
“Buffy? Giles?” Xander yelled, his voice bouncing around in the stone temple. “Are you guys okay?” He was heading straight towards the entrance to the sacrificial chamber.
“Xander, stop!” Buffy shouted, and Xander skidded to a halt just outside the door. “Don’t come in—it’s a trap.”
Xander caught a glimpse of Giles passed out on the floor. “What happened? I was on my way back to get you guys and I saw lightning strike the ground completely out of the blue. Is Giles okay? Is that what got him?”
“Yep. He got zapped, all right. He was trying to get out of here, but the doorway knocked him out. Twice. He’s unconscious, but I think he’ll be okay.”
“So does that mean you guys are stuck in there?” he asked.
“Not me. I can come and go no problem—but this room’s taken a shine to Giles for some reason.”
“Great. Willow’s sitting in the car with a twisted ankle and Giles is out for the count. Any ideas?”
“We wait. When Giles wakes up, he’ll figure out how to get past the trap.”
“What if he doesn’t wake up this time?” he asked quietly.
“That’s not an option,” she answered, her voice edgy with determination. “He’ll wake up, and he’ll find a way out of here.”