Title: "Her White Knight" (6/?)
Author: TheQueenly1
Pairing: Giles and Buffy!
Rating: PG for this chapter. Other chapters may have different ratings.

Disclaimer: As far as I know, all the characters of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" are owned by their creator, Joss Whedon. No infringement of copyright is intended or should be inferred. The original characters in this story are mine, however.

Summary: Buffy and Giles are sent back to the thirteenth century, and in the trials and travails they experience, they discover their love for each other.

Spoilers: At least up to "After Life." It is AU after that. Buffy never became sexually involved with Spike.

Notes: This story was written in response to Challenge # 4 here at the ODD website, "The B/G Knight Challenge." [Brackets] are used to indicate unvoiced thoughts. *Asterisks* are used for emphasis.

Feedback: Would be greatly appreciated!

Whatever answer Buffy might have made to Sir Geoffrey's announcement was curtailed by a shout from outside. More shouts and screams, along with the pounding of feet, the yelping of dogs, and the distant whinnying of horses followed. Buffy heard one scream above all the rest: "Vampire!"

Before either of the two Watchers could even react, Buffy seized an axe from a crossed display on the wall and charged out of Sir Geoffrey's quarters. She heard Giles call, "Buffy!" from behind her, but did not pause. This at least was something she could handle, something she knew how to do.

The sun had set sometime while she and Giles were in Sir Geoffrey's quarters, and Buffy was amazed at how dark it already was, even though it was still closer to dusk than to true nightfall. In a world in which electricity did not exist, darkness blanketed everything. On the balustrades there were torches, and some people clutched them and were waving them around, but other than the full moon above there was nothing to dispel the darkness. A man's body lay on the ground, his throat bloody. A woman knelt beside him, screaming and sobbing. Buffy looked around for something to attack, her Slayer-senses screaming: "Vampire!"

"There it goes!" someone shouted, and Buffy noticed a dark shape slide catlike away from a nearby wall. "Kill it! Kill it quickly!"

More screams and people running around, a few with swords and axes, but nobody seemed to be on the right track. Buffy made as if to follow, but Sir Geoffrey caught up to her and grabbed her arm. "No! Thou must not slay it!"

Buffy yanked her arm free. "News flash, Jeff--this is what I do, remember?"

He was not to be put off. "I must interrogate it for news of my Slayer! Capture it and thou may slay it later, but take it alive--or as close to it as the undead come!"

"It departs!" someone else cried, in a tone of relief. "It heads toward the gate!"

"Stop it!" Sir Geoffrey hissed in Buffy's ear. "Capture it, by God!" In a louder voice he shouted; "Close the gate! Do not let it escape!"

"Kill it!" someone else screamed. "Destroy it!"

"Hold!" another voice shouted, and a tall, imposing, gray-haired man whom Buffy did not recognize strode up to them, looking wild- eyed. "Touch her not!"

"Your Grace," Sir Geoffrey began. "It be not--"

The older man cut him off. "We have had this conversation before, Sir Knight! Art my orders not to be obeyed?" He glared around at the others, who were becoming less hysterical, although still clearly frightened. "No man is to touch her!"

"Who's he?" Buffy hissed, thinking that the man did not look completely sane.

"This be Duke Edward, my lady," Sir Geoffrey told her quietly, his eyes still on the gray-haired man. "The ruler of this castle."

"Aye, that be true!" the other man snapped, having overheard the comment. He advanced on Buffy and the Steward. "Have I not told thee, Sir Geoffrey, that I will suffer no man to harm her?"

Before Buffy could ask him who he was talking about, a man clad in livery rushed up to them. "It be gone, sir. It hath escaped through the gate."

"Assemble a party of men with torches," Sir Geoffrey ordered. "Make sure each man carries a torch and water blessed by the priest. Go and find it!"

"Her!" the Duke snapped. "By Jesu's wounds, you mean 'her!'" Then his expression crumpled; he seemed to be trying to hold himself together, and not succeeding too well. Buffy stared at him, feeling uncomfortable and clueless as to what was actually going on.

"Your Grace," Sir Geoffrey said, his tone less aggressive but still sounding as if his impatience was barely controlled, "It be not a 'her' any longer. It be not your lady who comes to feed on us in the night. It be the thing that killed her." He gestured over toward the body of the man whose throat had been torn out. "It must be stopped."

Lady Eleanor approached her father and laid a hand timidly on his arm. "Father...Sir Geoffrey speaks the truth. Mother would never have murdered a man, would she?" She indicated the blood-drained corpse behind them.

The Duke glared at them all, and then to Buffy's surprise, he lowered his gaze. "She--she came to me. In the night. She said..."

"I know, Your Grace," Sir Geoffrey said gently. "But she be a vampire now, an unclean thing who wears the guise of thy lady. These creatures must be destroyed."

"I shall go," Sir James said, stepping up to stand beside Eleanor and the Duke. "I be not afraid of anything in the night." He stared at Buffy and Sir Geoffrey as if daring them to contradict him.

"You?" Buffy said disbelievingly. "Listen, I'll go. Everyone else should stay here. Giles--" She paused and looked around, but did not see her Watcher. "Where's Giles?"

"Sir Giles be not with you?" Lady Eleanor cried, alarmed. "Sir Giles!" She rushed toward the gate.

"My lady! Wait!" Sir James shouted. He started after her, and collided with a panic-stricken man who was rushing past. Both fell, sprawling.

"The Three Stooges were more organized than these people," Buffy muttered. "Let me go find Giles, and--"

Just then a man on horseback rode into their midst. Reining in the white steed he rode, he leaned over, holding out a hand to the Slayer. "Buffy," the man said softly, and as she heard the voice and got a look at his face, she realized it was Giles. "Let me help you up. We shall hunt the vampire together."

Buffy tucked the axe behind her and, taking his hand, allowed herself to be helped into the saddle behind her Watcher.

A livery-clad man--Buffy recognized him as the man who had come to bring the news that the vampire had escaped through the gate-- approached them with a torch in his hand. With the other hand, he actually tugged his forelock as he addressed Giles. "The men be ready, Sir Giles the Dragon-Slayer. We shall follow you!" A roar of affirmation came from an assembled group of peasant vassals, also with torches and holy water, along with some wicked-looking farm instruments, followed this statement.

"Well done," Giles replied. "Everyone stay together, and follow me!" He turned the white horse and started for the gate at a steady clip. The mob roared again and moved to follow them. Their eagerness along with barely-restrained violence made Buffy a little nervous. She slipped her arms around her Watcher's waist.

"I didn't know you could ride a horse," she said into his ear.

"There are many things you don't know about me," he said. He sounded kind of sad, and Buffy wondered if it was her imagination.

Giles glanced back over his shoulder, adding; "As a lady, you should know how to ride a horse, as well. I shall have to give you a few riding lessons after this--should we still be together, of course."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Buffy demanded. Unconsciously, she hugged him tighter. "I'm the Slayer, you're my Watcher. We've hunted vamps together lots of times--"

"There!" a man shouted, and pointed.

They were some slight distance from the castle now, almost to a copse of trees. A figure of a woman stood just before it. She turned to face them at the man's shout, her eyes glowing red in the light of the torches. As the mob drew closer her face changed into a vampire's visage, and she snarled at the men who were nearest. They shouted angrily at her, thrusting their torches out and stampeding forward.

Buffy's Spidey-sense, only tingling before, jumped up and started to yammer. Something was very wrong. "Giles--" she began.

"I know," he snapped back, then shouted to the men, "Fall back! Stand with your backs to each other, torches facing outward, and keep your holy water handy!"

As he spoke, other figures came out of the nearby trees. Buffy glimpsed their faces, saw their predatory visages, the long, sharp teeth. Vampires. She removed her axe from where she had tucked it in her belt behind her, holding it at the ready.

One man, perhaps unnerved by the sight of so many undead, did not obey Giles' order. Instead of falling back, he leaped forward, emitting a panicky shout as he thrust his torch out and waved it wildly at the advancing vampires. One vampire snarled, knocked the torch from the man's hand, and before the man could do anything else, was upon him, ripping his throat out. The man had time for one last scream.

"Stand fast!" Giles ordered, as the other men appeared about to panic. To his Slayer, he added: "Buffy--"

"Got it," she said briefly, and as he spurred on the horse, she leaned from the right side of the saddle, he from the left; and she with her axe, he with his sword, began to run the vampires down, lopping off heads as they went. Buffy slew the one who had been the Duchess. Cheers burst forth from the crowd of men as the vampires burst into great gouts of dust, then disappeared in the wind.

"The White Knight and the White Lady!" someone shouted, and others took up the cry, making it into a chant: "The White Knight! The White Lady!"

"We have our own fan club, Giles," Buffy told him.

"Apparently," Giles agreed, leaning over to behead a vampire in one efficient stroke.

"Sir Jeff did want us to capture one, though," Buffy added as she put her own weapon to good use, leaning over on the right to decapitate a vampire, which burst into dust and ashes.

"Easier said than done," her Watcher muttered. More vampires were approaching; in the darkness, Buffy could not tell how many, just that there were a lot of them, and that they were getting between the horse and the crowd.

"Giles, they're trying to cut us off," she warned.

"So I see," he said grimly. "We had better wait for another time, then, when the odds are better." Raising his voice, he called to their followers; "Retreat! Everyone fall back to the castle!"

"Aye, Sir Giles!" someone called, and there were shouts of assent from the crowd. Herding together like a flock of sheep who have heard the wolf howl, they drew back, still waving their rapidly-diminishing torches at the vampires who threatened and snarled at them. Then the crowd turned and broke into a trot, heading for the castle gate. Swiftly, Giles turned the horse to follow.

One vampire flung itself at their mount, clawing for the reins. "Our Master wants you!"

"Who's your Master--Uncle Sam?" Buffy quipped, quickly lopping off his head. Then she screamed as another vampire seized her hair and yanked her backwards, almost unseating her. Her axe clattered to the ground.

"Buffy!" Giles shouted, turning swiftly. With one hand he grabbed his Slayer and pulled her close, while with the sword in his other hand, he beheaded the vampire who was trying to pull her from the saddle. The horse snorted, tossed its head, and and charged toward the open castle gate.

"M-My hero," Buffy gasped. She had meant it as a joke, but it came out sounding all trembly and sincere. She wrapped her arms around him and held on for dear life as the horse, as anxious to be away as they were, drove itself to greater speed. With hoof beats thundering beneath them along the packed earth, their steed finally cleared the gate, and they were safely inside the castle.

Buffy half-fell from the saddle as Sir Geoffrey helped her down. Giles sheathed his sword and dismounted. One of the servants led the horse away. The crowd had mostly dispersed but some people still milled about. Torches were being relit, but now that the crisis was over, most people seemed willing to return to their beds.

"Thou did not capture a vampire," Sir Geoffrey said, his tone disapproving.

Buffy glared up at him. "I'm so glad you're safe, too. I'm sorry, but Giles and I were too busy slaying vampires who were trying to kill us and everyone else here to bring back any souvenirs for you. And shouldn't somebody close that gate?"

Sir Geoffrey sighed. "True, though if thou hast slain the late Duchess, we need not fear, for no other vampires have been invited herein, and thus may not enter."

"Then what is that?" Giles said sharply, coming up next to them and indicating the still-open gate. Everyone within earshot turned to see.

A man--or what had once been a man--approached the gate. It did so at a slow pace that was almost a shuffle, but still had something frighteningly relentless about it, as if nothing could stop it. It was not a vampire, Buffy could see, but it was stil an animated corpse.

"Giles, that looks like one of those things that showed up at my return-home party!" she whispered to her Watcher. "A zombie!"

"Close the gate!" Sir Geoffrey shouted.

"Hold!" cried the Duke. "It be my son!"

Buffy grimaced at the sight. Dead only for a little over a day, the corpse of the Duke's son had not yet begun to decay to any great extent, but it was still horrible. The eyes were open with only the whites visible, which somehow made it more frightening than if the thing had been looking directly at you. It emitted a revolting smell of decay mixed with dark magick, like the stink of rotting flesh mingled with the over-ripeness of an animal cage that had not been cleaned in some time. The body shambled forward with an oddly jerky sort of movement, as if it were moving its arms and legs only from memory. If you looked closely, you could see the stitches across the torso where the fatal wound inflicted by the dragon had been sewn up. The body was clad in the remnants of a shroud, including a cloth wrapped around its jaw to keep the mouth closed. It stopped, reached up and removed the cloth so that its jaw fell open. Its mouth gaped open, but its lips did not move as the following words issued forth.

"My Master hath taken the daughter of the Duke. She will be returned alive only if the Duke surrenders this castle to my Master, and invites him and his followers to enter herein. The Duke hath until sunset tomorrow to give his answer. If he doth not surrender to my Master, then he and all herein shall be cursed, and utterly destroyed."

Then the head jerked backwards and the corpse of the Duke's son began to shake uncontrollably, as if having some kind of fit. It collapsed to the ground and dissolved into a sickening puddle of goo, as the dead bodies of the people once possessed by Eyghon had done. There were cries of terror and revulsion as people backed away from it.

"My daughter?" the Duke croaked. He suddenly appeared old and sick; his skin looked gray.

"Curse me for a fool!" Sir Geoffrey said bitterly under his breath. "The whole thing was a feint, a diversion!"

"First my son, now my daughter," the Duke said dazedly. "Shall I lose both my children, and to that damned fiend? Shall I lose my castle, and all my vassals?" He shook his head slowly back and forth, like an old dog shaking off water. "No, no, it cannot be...we must make terms..."

"Make terms?" Sir Geoffrey cried. "Your Grace, we must fight these undead creatures, with all the power at our disposal!"

The Duke roused himself slightly to glare at Sir Geoffrey. "What power is that, Steward? On thy advice, I hath resisted this Master and his minions since he came here. The only result hath been thy lady captured, my lady killed, my vassals lost, my son dead, and my daughter taken. Perhaps I should make peace. The result cannot be worse!"

"It can be a fate worse than death," Buffy snapped. "And that's not just a figure of speech."

"With all due respect, lady," Sir James said, not sounding very respectful, "these art matters for men."

Buffy shot him a disgusted look. "That eliminates you, then."

Sir James became angry. "And what use hast thou been, save to be a burden on His Grace's bounty at a time when he needs all his might and resources?"

"That's not fair," Buffy said angrily. "Giles and I just killed a bunch of vampires, in case you weren't paying attention."

"'Tis unnatural," another, bulkier knight rumbled, stepping forward. "These dark matters stink of witchery. This one be no normal woman, and things hath become worse since she arrived."

A nearby squire moved closer, also staring at Buffy. "Perhaps she be a witch, and in league with this dark Master."

Buffy glared at them. "Don't be stupid. This isn't my fault."

A few other knights and squires gathered round. There were no more than five or six of them besides Sir James, but the vibrations of their fear and anger and the bulk of their presence as they began to press in on her made them appear uncomfortably like a mob. All were staring at Buffy with suspicion in their eyes. "She rides like a man, too," another knight added, as if that were relevant.

"Ha," Buffy snorted. "If this were a rational world, you *guys* would ride sidesaddle!"

"She hath not the decorum of a lady," one of the men said loudly. "To the keep with her!" He strode forward to grab Buffy's arm, but the Slayer seized him and flung him aside. The other men reached for their weapons.

There was the sound of a sword clearing its sheath, and then Giles was standing protectively in front of Buffy, facing the angry knights, his own sword drawn and in the en garde position. "The next man who puts a hand on my lady, dies," he said in a quiet but intense voice.

"Hold!" the Duke said furiously. "I shall have no bloodshed in my castle! Sir Giles, put up thy sword!"

Giles made no move to do so; the other men had not backed off, and indeed had pressed slightly closer to him and Buffy.

"Your Grace," Sir Geoffrey began, "This not be Sir Giles' fault--"

"Enough!" the Duke roared. "Art thou the Duke now, Sir Knight? Shall I not be obeyed in my own castle? Take Sir Giles and his lady to the keep, and lock them in!"

"Hey!" Buffy cried. "We didn't do anything!"

"Guards," Sir Geoffrey said reluctantly, "escort Sir Giles and his lady to the keep." He looked at the Watcher and Slayer as two mail- clad knights stepped forward. "Lady Buffy, Sir Giles, go with them peaceably, please, and no harm shall befall thee." He spoke urgently, looking worried. Buffy could resist them, Giles too, but even together, the Slayer and her Watcher could not take on the whole might of all a castle's retainers without someone being killed.

Buffy opened her mouth, but saw the resigned expression on Giles' face, saw him put away his sword. Reluctantly she closed her mouth, surrendering herself to the guards.

"One moment," Giles said to the two armed men, and such was the authority in his tone that they actually paused. Giles turned to his Slayer and offered his arm for her to take. "My Lady Buffy, may I escort you?" he asked, as politely as if they were going into the great hall for dinner.

It should have been corny. It was not. Buffy understood that Giles was trying to show her consideration, treat her in a way that allowed both of them some dignity as they were being led off to imprisonment. "Thank you, Sir Giles," she said quietly. "I would be honored."

She slipped her hand inside of his arm, looking up into his face; he smiled at her reassuringly. She forced herself to return the smile. Flanked by two armed knights, with Sir Geoffrey following in silence, the Slayer and her Watcher allowed themselves to be taken away to the dungeon.

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