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November 20, 2000
The early morning chill of late November sent a
shiver through Rupert Giles' spine as he walked up
to Jenny's grave. It had been over two years since she had died,
but he still couldn't shake the feeling
that her death was somehow his fault. He had never spoken of
his guilt with anybody, not even Buffy,
because he knew that they would try to convince him he was not to blame,
and he didn't want to be
convinced. He should never have let her stay at the school late
at night by herself. He had been stupid
and reckless with another person's life and that person had died.
The pain, anger, and guilt he felt had
caused him to go after Angelus, nearly getting himself killed in the
process. The teenagers had
misunderstood his emotional state, which filled him with relief.
They believed that he was overcome
with grief and had lashed out at the person responsible; they could
not know that he did not wholly
blame Angelus, that he was lashing out as much to make himself feel
less guilty as anything else.
Perhaps if he killed the person who had killed Jenny, it would make
up for not protecting her in the first
place.
Reaching the grave, Giles' gaze was drawn to the
ground next to it. There they were. He had been
coming to this grave every week for the past two years, ever since
the day after Angel was returned on
Christmas. He had gone to tell her that her last wish had finally
been granted, and he had sat by her
grave crying for the life they could have had. The connection
he felt with her there at her grave helped
him immensely, and he had returned the next week to see her again.
That was the first time he found
the small bouquet of white roses propped up against her grave.
He had wondered idly who could have
placed them there at the time, but had quickly dismissed it, figuring
that a cemetery worker had noticed
the bare grave and had placed them there out of respect. Giles
had returned to the grave once a week
since then, not always on the same day but whenever he had time, and
every time he went he found a
bouquet of white roses propped against the grave. He felt a quiet
joy whenever he saw them, happy to
know that somebody else cared about Jenny enough to lay flowers by
her grave. He had begun to
suspect that Willow placed them there when she went patrolling at night,
but he wasn't sure.
"I miss you Jenny," he whispered, laying his flowers
next to the grave. He quickly kissed the
headstone and walked away, his mind already turning to the day ahead.
He had a shipment of new
books coming into the library, and he had to make sure he was there
to meet it.
*****
Giles looked around the library. He had put
all of the new books away, and now the library was
empty. He sighed. "I've been doing that a lot today," he
thought disgustedly. "Okay, Rupert, you've got
to get over this. When did your life start revolving around a
bunch of teenagers?" Of course he knew
the answer to this. It had started the day Xander and Willow
helped Buffy stop the Harvest. He had
never seen such brave children. "Well," he thought to himself.
"I'd only seen one child so brave.
Melissa was brave." He supposed that his world had started revolving
around Melissa the day she
entered his library and announced that she was the Slayer. That
was as it should be, though. The
Watcher's life was supposed to revolve around the Slayer. He
was not supposed to become so
attached to Xander and Willow, though. It had happened, however,
and now he missed them. He
would never admit that to them, of course, but he spent every day looking
forward to the evening when
Xander, Willow, Buffy, and Melissa would come to the library.
"Oh well," he finally muttered. "I guess I
could start doing some research." Pulling out some books,
he sat behind the counter and started reading.
He had not gotten very far and was beginning to
feel frustrated when he heard the sound of voices
coming down the hall. He smiled as the four friends pushed open
the double doors and entered the
library talking and laughing. "Hey Giles!" Buffy said, giving
him a quick hug. Then he was tackled by
Melissa. "Giles!" she cried, throwing her arms around him as
Giles caved and started laughing. It was
impossible to be melancholy when Melissa was around.
"Goodness, Melissa," he smiled. "One would
think you hadn't seen me for years instead of just last
night."
"I always miss you when you're not around," she
responded.
"Hey, G-man. Guess what?" Xander exclaimed,
holding out a paper. "I got an A on my history
exam!"
"Well, good for you. It would appear you finally
found your niche," Giles smiled.
"Yup. I'm pretty good at it. Plus, that
way I can research stuff for Wil and do my homework at the
same time. Works out well. She helps me with my other classes,"
he added, smiling at his girlfriend.
He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and then sat down in a nearby
chair. "Well," he said. "We've
got work to do. Do we still not know who this new Master is?"
Giles picked up the book he had been reading and
handed it to Xander. "Well, none of these books
have any prophecies that specifically say, 'And then a new vampire
will come along and decide that he
wants to be called Master'."
"Well, darn," Buffy said smiling. "Is there
any other way we could figure this out?"
"Um," Willow started shyly, "I think I have an idea.
I know we promised we wouldn't ask them about
vampires unless we really needed to know something, but I think this
sorta qualifies. Maybe Angel,
Spike, and Dru know something that could help us. I personally
would much rather know who this
vampire is and what he's likely to do. Especially since I'm the
one he's likely to come after."
"The one who's likely to come after?" Angel asked,
entering the library and walking over to Buffy.
"The new Master," Buffy answered, wrapping her arms
around him. "Any ideas who that could be?"
"Well, actually, we've been talking about that.
There are a couple of vampires who have been living
back East who might try to start leading the rest of us. We also
think you might want to check with the
Talamasca and the Legacy to see if they have any ideas," Angel suggested
to Giles.
"I've already contacted Derek Rayne in San Francisco,"
Giles answered. Then, seeing the looks of
confusion on the faces of the young people, he added, "He's the Precept
of the Legacy House in San
Francisco."
"Oh, of course," Buffy joked. "That clears
that up for us."
"You've never met Derek Rayne?" Angel asked her,
clearly astonished. "I'm surprised he didn't
come down here the second he found out the True Slayer had emerged."
"Well, I actually haven't told him yet," Giles informed
him.
Drusilla laughed from her position just inside the
double doors. Spike and Angel never hesitated
about entering, but she always felt guilty. They at least had
reasons to be there; it was the only time
they could spend with Melissa and Buffy. Drusilla had no such
reason, so she tended to stay apart from
the group of friends. "Sorry," she said quietly, turning to leave.
"Drusilla, wait," Giles stopped her. "Why
did you laugh?"
"Well, I've never met this Derek Rayne person, but
if he's anything like Angel says, he's not going to
be too pleased with you for keeping this from him. He sounds
like the type of guy who likes to be
informed."
"Yeah, if you don't watch out, he'll sic Nick on
you," Angel laughed.
"Who's Nick?" Melissa asked the question for the
four friends. They were all obviously confused.
"Giles, you didn't tell them about the Legacy did
you? Did you tell them about the Talamasca?"
Angel asked.
"No, actually. I didn't think they would be
particularly interested in the various organizations devoted
to the supernatural. The only one they need to interact with
is the Watcher Organization so I just told
them about that. Buffy's attention span is not quite long enough
to get through a complete explanation
anyway," Giles answered as Buffy hit him on the arm.
"Hey!" she responded. "My attention span is
just fine. I'm even managing to sit through classes
now. You should be proud."
"What are these groups?" Willow interrupted, smiling.
"Do you think they could help us figure this
out?"
"They might be able to," Giles answered. "Okay,
this is the very short version of this. The Legacy is
a group that is devoted to investigating paranormal occurences.
There are different 'Houses' in cities
around the world. The San Francisco House has a Precept, who
is the head of the House, named
Derek Rayne. He is a friend of mine, and, yes Drusilla, he is
going to be pretty angry that I didn't tell
him that we found the True Slayer. The Talamasca is a separate
organization which is in charge of
collecting and guarding information about the supernatural. The
Watcher Organization is a subset of the
Talamasca. They also have 'Houses' around the world. I
had two friends in the London House, David
Talbot and Aaron Lightner, but they're both dead now."
"Wait a minute," Willow interrupted again.
"What did you say their names were?"
"David Talbot and Aaron Lightner," Giles answered,
wondering why she wanted to know.
"David's real? You're saying that those are
not fictional characters? They're real people?" Willow
asked incredulously. "Are you sure?"
"What do you mean fictional characters?" Giles asked,
equally confused. "Of course they're real
people. What are you talking about?"
"This is what I'm talking about!" Willow exclaimed,
rifling through her backpack and producing a worn
copy of a book entitled "The Tale of the Body Thief" by Anne Rice.
"Those two men are characters in
this book and several others. They are members of a group called
the Talamasca, but that was
invented by this author. They are not real people!"
"What is this book?" Giles asked, taking it out
of Willow's hand.
"You have got to be kidding," she responded.
"You've never even heard of it?" As she saw that
Giles was serious, she sighed wearily. "This is number four in
a series called the 'Vampire Chronicles'
by this author, Anne Rice. Those people that you mentioned are
in there. You see, this guy named
David Talbot, a member of the Talamasca, becomes friends with this
vampire named Lestat, who is
the main character..." she trailed off, seeing looks of recognition
on the faces of Angel, Spike, and
Drusilla.
Seeing the look on her boyfriend's face, Melissa
said quietly, "William, do you know Lestat? Is he
real? Like really real?" She had also read these books,
of course. She thought everyone in the world
had. "Well, at least, everyone should," she thought to herself.
"Yes, love, he's certainly real," he answered, shaking
his head. "So what exactly are those books
about?"
"Well, they're written from Lestat's point of view,
in first person actually, except for the first one. That
one is Louis telling his story. Anyway, the rest is from Lestat's
point of view except in 'Queen of the
Damned' when it's talking about the other characters. But from
the second book on they all start as
though Lestat himself is writing them under a pen name," Melissa broke
off, realizing what she was
saying. She looked over at Willow, whose jaw had dropped.
"Oh my God," she breathed. "He's real
isn't he? These books aren't fiction. That stuff really
happened." Then her eyes got wide. "Then that
means..."
"That David Talbot is not dead!" Willow finished
her thought. "Oh God, I think I know who the new
Master is. If those books are right, then I'd place good money
on either Lestat or Armand. Armand
may seem like the quiet type, but I don't think he'd mind being in
charge of everyone. I mean, he was
leading the theatre in Paris," Willow continued, barely believing that
what she was saying was true.
"What do you mean David's not dead?" Giles interrupted
her before she went into a full-scale
analysis of the series.
"Well, if you'll open up to the end of that one
in your hand, you'll notice that David has a young body.
That's because this body thief took his and a whole bunch of stuff
happened. Anyway, Lestat killed
David's body, but David's soul wasn't in it. The body thief's
was. David's soul was in this young body
and Lestat turned him into a vampire. So, basically, David is
a vampire, but he doesn't look like the
David you knew," Willow concluded breathlessly.
"David Talbot is a vampire? Is that what you're
saying?" Giles asked.
"Well, um, yes. But Lestat and the vampires
in the book don't act at all like the ones we've met.
Lestat's actually kinda cool," she said before she could stop herself.
"Except that he's evil and we
should all hate him and everything," she quickly added.
Drusilla laughed again. She knew how Willow
felt. Spike and Angel had given her nothing but grief
when she told them that she liked Lestat. They found him to be
too flashy for their tastes, but she
thought he was adorable. "I think I know a way we can find out
who the new Master is," she told the
group, breaking her train of thought.
"How?" Spike asked, afraid he already knew where
Dru was heading.
"I'm going to contact Pandora and..." Drusilla began.
"Absolutely not!" Spike and Angel interrupted simultaneously.
Spike then converted to a calmer
tone. "Dru, Marius will destroy you if you try to contact them.
He told you that over a hundred years
ago."
"Yes, I know," Drusilla answered, a determined edge
in her voice. "He's had time to calm down,
though, and I don't think he would really try to kill me. Besides
I've got three Slayers here who can
protect me, right? Also, he didn't want to be contacted by the
person I was then. I'm not that person
any more. I am no longer insane, and I stopped killing for sport
long ago. I need to talk to Pandora, so
I'm going to contact her," she settled the matter. "Now, if you'll
excuse me, I'm going to go to the
bathroom and then I'll come back to contact Pandora in case any of
you need to tell her anything."
Xander decided that he'd heard that excuse enough
and smiled as he called to Drusilla, "You don't
need to use the bathroom. You'd better come up with another excuse."
Drusilla turned and smiled at Xander. Of Melissa's
three friends, Willow was her favorite, but Xander
was a close second. She had wondered how long he would let her
use that excuse and already had
another one prepared. "Okay, you caught me. I'm hungry
and I have a bottle of blood in this bag," she
said, indicating the backpack she carried. "I don't want any
of you to see me drinking it, though," she
added, her head downcast.
"Oh," Xander said, feeling guilty for making her
feel so bad. "I'm sorry, Drusilla," he told her as he
walked over to her and gave her a hug. "You can go ahead and
go. I'm sorry."
Startled at the sign of affection, Drusilla hugged
Xander back and then released him. She turned and
walked out of the library. "Okay, so making him feel sorry for
me was a little under-handed," she
thought to herself as she walked down the hall, "but it wasn't like
I was really lying. I am hungry and I
don't want them to see me drinking blood. It's just that that's
not all I'm going to do." Satisfied that she
hadn't really done anything wrong, Drusilla left the school and headed
for the cemetery.
When she reached the cemetery, she headed for the
grave of Jenny Calendar. She smiled sadly
when she saw the small bouquet of flowers Giles had placed there that
morning. Then she pulled out
the bunch of white roses she had picked earlier that night and placed
them next to the grave, picking up
the one she had placed there the night before and putting it in her
bag. "I'm sorry," she said quietly to
the night air as she had every night for almost two years. "I
shouldn't have told Angel what you were
doing. It was my fault you died. I missed him, though,
and I didn't want to lose him again. I know that's
not an excuse. It's just an explanation. I'm sorry that
you died and I'm sorry that poor man is so lonely
without you. I think that the flowers do help him a little, though.
He always seems just a tiny bit happier
on the days he comes to see you. Maybe that's just getting to
talk to you, though," Drusilla sighed.
"Well, I'd better get back," she told the simple headstone. "I'm
sorry. I promise I'll take care of all of
them for you." Then she turned and walked back in the direction
of Sunnydale High School.
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