dragonyphoenix

Summary: Rewrite of season 1 with Giles as the Big Bad.
Master List for In a Corner of My Soul (previous chapters / scenes)

As Buffy pushed the library doors, swinging them open, she noticed that Giles didn't glance up from whatever dusty old book he'd gotten caught up in. It was nice not dealing with his snark first thing in the morning, but she'd meant to come in late, unlike most mornings when it just happened, and she'd meant for him to notice. How was she supposed to yell at him for riling up Willow with his big anti-Angel lecture if he couldn't even be bothered to look up from his book?

Maybe this called for a subtle approach. Peering over Giles' shoulder, she made a face. “Eyghon? Ugh, has this guy even heard of soap and water?”

He slammed the book shut and jumped to his feet. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Um, homeroom. Remember? I'm here each morning because apparently you think sleep is evil.”

“Oh, is it that late?” He didn't even bother to glance at the time before telling her to meditate.

She followed him to the check-out desk, ready to ask about that Eyes Gone demon, but the newspaper stopped her cold. That girl from the zoo was still missing. Buffy stared at the photo. She was so young. How come nobody had said she was so young? “They haven't found that girl yet?”

Giles' face shifted from distracted to not pretty in two seconds flat. “You knew? You were aware that a child had gone missing from the zoo and hadn't bothered to tell me?”

She felt sick. She'd been there. She could have helped, but zoo guy had said it'd be okay. “I figured she'd turn up.”

Okay, if Giles could look any more disappointed she didn't want to know. “Were you born an idiot or have you taken too many strikes to the head? A child goes missing and it doesn't even occur to you that I might need to know?”

“Well, zoo guy said that kids go missing all the time but always turn up.” Had he actually said always? Maybe he hadn't, but he hadn't been all that worried.

Giles' fist slammed against the counter. “I don't give a damn what Weirick said. You work for me. You inform me. Always. Have I made myself perfectly clear?”

“Yes.” Maybe this wasn't the best time to bring up Giles' little chat with Willow about Angel. “It couldn't have been a demon anyway. When she got lost, it was the middle of the day.”

There was something about the way Giles shook his head that left her feeling two inches tall. “Do you know nothing of your calling? Demons can be evoked – no, I suppose that word's too intellectual for your limited capacity. Demons can be called into the world.”

“But …”

“But what?” His words were so abrupt she wished she hadn't interrupted.

“But demons are already here, in the world I mean.”

“Not all demons exist on this plane, and those that don't can be called here. The ritual to evoke most demons requires a level of purity as its focus, an innocence found only in a child.”

“Wait, so someone put a demon into that little girl?”

Giles sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Buffy guessed she'd gotten it wrong again. “Of course not. Whoever evoked the demon drew it into himself.”

Okay, that had to be slightly better than putting a demon into a child, right? “Somebody made himself into a demon? On purpose?”

“Yes. There's a kind of power that can only be acquired by drawing a demon into one's body.”

Buffy wished she'd skipped the mocha and donut. Letting a demon into yourself? Okay, vampires, but that was forced, not something people actively asked for. “Okay, this guy needs to die. How do I find him?”

“You don't.”

“What do you mean I don't?”

“The demon's not a permanent resident in the human host. It's almost certainly gone by now.”

“So, I should go to the zoo.”

“What? Gods, no.”

“But that's where the girl went missing.”

“Whoever took her grabbed her from a public place and wasn't caught. He won't have been stupid enough to have kept here there.” Meaning she was stupid for thinking he would.

“There might be clues.”

“And what could you turn up that the police haven't already found?” And there was the snark. Had she really been missing it earlier?

“There's got to be something I can do.”

“You can meditate.”

There was no way. “After that? I can't.”

Giles looked like he was about to hit the desk again but then something let go in him. “I'll write you a pass. You can run laps on the track until first period.”

While Giles wrote up the pass, Buffy stared at the newspaper, at the photo of the girl. It could have been a picture of herself at that age. “What happened to her?”

“What? To whom?” Giles glanced at the paper. “Buffy, you don't want to know.”

Buffy dropped her bag at her locker on her way out of school. Sure, she could do what Giles wanted and lap around the track, or she could check out the zoo. Giles didn't have to know.