tarnished -- part two -- trekker |
Chapter Six | |
Too Much |
"I'm not angry. I'm disappointed," it said, lurking, as it seemed wont to, in the shadows. "But not surprised. You're human."
Ethan had slipped out as soon as he could, the girl's enthusiastic retelling of his supposedly heroic efforts to rescue him had been giving him a headache. And the impressed and surprised look Giles had shot him, over the girl's shoulder, had simply been annoying. As though Ethan were five, and looking for praise. Ridiculous.
He leaned against the alley wall outside of the hotel.
"Yes. Human. So sorry," he said, drolly, to the apparition.
"Well, I'm sure we can do something about that in time. For now, perhaps we should start small. I should have known better than to expect you to simply stand by for all that. I know how messy it can be. How about next time, you just give the address to me? It'll all be said and done by the time you arrive. No harm, no foul."
Ethan didn't say anything. He waited until it had vanished, then headed back inside.
***
Ethan's next mission was a long one, all the way to a small town in China. He didn't give the address to the First. He did, however, hint that he would be willing to hand her over, at some point, which was enough to keep it off his back.
As it turned out, it was all a moot point, however, since the First's minions had already gotten to the girl by the time he arrived.
Jet-lagged and tired, he settled into a hotel room. He'd never been a big fan of blood. It was chaos and disorder that he was fond of. He'd never aimed for death or even pain. He liked to shake things up, to remind people they were alive.
He'd never wanted to see this much death.
***
Giles made it back to London before Ethan, apparently, since the hotel room they had booked together was empty when he arrived. This was slightly odd, but not too much. Getting in and out of China would undoubtedly prove complicated, although he trusted Ethan to be up to it. That kind of wheeling and dealing had always been one of the man's fortes.
So, he settled in to wait, and decided, idly, to watch the news as he did.
Which turned out to not be the best idea.
The first thing he saw was bright orange flames, glowing against the dark of night, and a news announcer saying, "There are no reports of survivors, and the compound appears to have been brunt completely to the ground. Again, we're reporting live from Nairobi, where an apparent terrorist attack has completely destroyed the compound of a UK-based organization called the Council of Watchers. There was another attack on the CoW in London--"
Giles missed the rest of whatever he said.
He stared at the flames long after the show had switched over to commercials, and then back to a different report.
The African compound of the Watcher's Council. His older brother and his family were there. He'd just talked to Edwin last week. They'd argued about whether or not the Potentials would be safer with Buffy all in one group, or spread around the world. They'd hung up in a useless rage, with nothing agreed upon. And now... now there were no survivors. His brother, and his two nephews, and his sister-in-law...
He wondered if it were truly possible to get used to this. At that moment, all he could feel was nothingness. Numb. Reeling.
It didn't seem like it could possibly be real. A part of his mind simply shut down and refused to believe it.
He stood and went to the small honor bar, and selected a bottle of Jack Daniels. Not his drink of choice, but it would do. He set it atop the fridge and walked over to the sink. His own reflection in the mirror looked haggard and strange. He ran the water and splashed a bit on his face, dried off with a towel that seemed to match his pale skin.
The world had threatened to end before. Now it simply seemed to be doing it. Ending. Inevitable.
He walked back and picked up the bottle, sat at the table. These everyday things seemed strange, somehow. As though he were merely watching himself from far away.
Then Ethan's voice spoke.
"Dead. The lot of them. They'll all be dead soon enough," he said.
Only, it wasn't Ethan, of course, because Ethan had never come in. Giles didn't bother to look at it. He shut his eyes.
"Dead, just like me," it said.
tarnished -- part two -- trekker |