In a Corner of My Soul: Angel: Confrontation

[dragonyphoenix]

Summary: Rewrite of season 1 with Giles as the Big Bad.
Master List for In a Corner of My Soul (previous chapters / scenes)
Note: Many thanks to Gill O. for pointing out Long John Silver had a peg-leg and not an eye patch. Buffy's mistake was originally mine.

Giles watched from the library doors, presumably looking like a besotted fool, as Jenny strolled down the hallway. He shouldn’t have made the date, but he’d been so elated when she’d first walked in that he’d found he couldn’t resist. Victories, after all, should be celebrated.

She stopped and waved before vanishing around the corner. Feeling relatively certain she wouldn’t interrupt again, he returned to the book and translated the text to be certain. “The Bellitorian ritual grants the amulet's master dominion over vampires of the Aurelian line. He may empower or weaken them at his will.”

At last he had the ritual, and now, once he had the Amulet of Dominion, he could destroy both Angelus and the Master. He could rip away their strength, leaving them defenseless against even a mere human. Giles didn’t, unfortunately, have the amulet, but magical items tended to be traceable if one knew how. Not that he did know how to trace that specific amulet. It would almost certainly take days of research merely to track down the amulet’s locator spell. Damn! Did nothing ever go smoothly?

This research would require volumes he’d stored at the mansion. He wasn’t about to waste an entire day twiddling his thumbs at the high-school while his research could be moving forward, but he did have a meditation session with Willow that afternoon. She wasn’t coming along as smoothly as he’d hoped. Apparently the girl was too timid to try the Tantric practices. Perhaps if he started her back on magic lessons, she’d realize her focus needed more practice. Right, so he couldn’t leave school for the whole day, but he could collect a few books and bring them to the high-school. In addition, the trip would give him a chance to stop at the zoo to discuss Weirick’s indiscretion.

He arrived before the zoo had opened, but Giles had never allowed a little thing like a locked gate to hold him back. Weirick had shown him the side entrance, one used by the staff. The lock was easy enough to pick. A closed zoo, however, did not necessarily equal an empty zoo. “Hey, you! How’d you get in here?” The three young men approached him as a group. “You’re not supposed to be in here.”

Giles had found that nothing threw off aggression like asking for help. “Ah, good, I was hoping someone could help me. I have an appointment with, ah, a Dr. Weirick. Could you direct me to him?”

“Oh.” The young men stopped short. “Dr. Weirick. He’s expecting you?”

“Of course.”

One of the lads led Giles to the office. “Uh, sir? This man said he has an appointment?”

If Weirick was surprised, he didn’t let it show. “Oh, sure, send him in.”

An eclectic mix of weapons, relics of ancient cultures, appeared on display about the room: a Spanish lance-head with such an elaborate design etched into the metal that it must have once belonged to someone of status; a wakizashi which looked to be from the Muromachi period; a scabbard, weaponless, but carved with runes suggesting it had been crafted to enclose a soul chaser, an ensorcelled blade created to hunt demons.

Giles closed the door and slammed the newspaper onto Weirick’s desk. “Are you insane?” Tapping a finger onto the girl's photo, he added, “Am I correct in presuming you killed her?”

“You can’t keep Eyghon caged. He wants to be free.”

The man’s eyes seemed to glow with an unholy glee. Gods, the idiot was more dangerous than he’d imagined. “This has nothing to do with Eyghon. You wanted the power. You took it and made a mess in your own backyard which, honestly, I could care less about except that it’s also my backyard. You do realize that if the Slayer’d found you, you’d be dead?”

“Or she would.”

“You little shit. Do you honestly belive you could kill a Slayer?”

Giles grabbed Weirick’s collar and pulled him close, but the man shot a punch at him. Giles twisted and the punch barely grazed his ribs. He shoved Weirick away. The man had the temerity to laugh. “Eyghon could kill her.”

Eyghon wants her alive, Giles thought. Or possibly not. The demon, enshrouded in human flesh, would have lost any sense of reason. His longer-term goal would have given way to the thrill of the hunt. “You know nothing. You killed that child here, in your own zoo, didn’t you? What happens if the police find her? What if they find you?”

“Then your name will be on my lips. If they capture me, I will implicate you.”

Giles left him there. The man was mad. Worse, he was on his guard. Giles shouldn’t have confronted him. Now Weirick would be almost impossible to kill.

He was angry enough to blaze out of the parking lot but drawing attention to himself this close to the zoo, especially if Weirick's victim was ever found, was far too irresponsible. He drove carefully and quietly until he spotted Buffy standing just outside the zoo's front entrance. He pulled the car over but didn't bother to yell. He laid on the horn. Buffy leaped about three feet into the air and was facing him when she landed. “Giles.” He could see her trying to work out how to explain why she wasn’t running laps around the track, or, no, hold on. He checked his watch. No, she was missing first period. “You know,” she said. “I’m always surprised to see how nice a car you have. A bit above a librarian’s pay grade though, isn’t it?”

“Get. In.”

She joined him in the front. As he peeled off, he could feel her eyes on him. “I know you didn't want me at the zoo, but there could have been clues, something only a Slayer would have noticed.”

Gods, he needed to keep her away from the zoo. Who knew what would happen if she ran into Weirick again. “Believe me, there are no clues.”

“But how could you … oh! You went to the zoo to look for clues, didn't you? But …”

“What is it Buffy?”

“Why didn't you bring me? Two eyes, better than one? Um, I obviously mean sets of eyes because how many people have only one eye, other than Long John Silver.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Giles took a deep breath before replying. “Long John Silver had a peg-leg. His eyes were fine.”

“Huh?”

“You referred to the pirate, Long John Silver, from Treasure Island. The character was missing a leg, not an eye.”

“Really? Are you sure? Because I thought …”

“Buffy.” His tone was perhaps sharper than it should have been but it did shut her up. How had he been distracted by pirates of all things? “I've been training to be a Watcher since I was a lad. Believe me, I didn't miss any clues. And we can't have you dodging out of school for no reason. Do you honestly believe Snyder will be as forgiving of your lapses as Flutie?”

“Oh, yeah, Flutie, really easy going.”

“I want your promise, Buffy. Leave the zoo alone.”

“But Giles …”

“Now.”

“I promise.”