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by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that you recognize from the Buffy television show and don't make money off of them.
"They're very hard to cater for," Oz told her with a smile. "Don't sweat it - just keep your eyes open tonight, and I think you might believe soon enough."
"Uh, okay," Leslie said, smiling. There was silence for a moment or two. "So, you really thought Buffy or Willow had set me up with you?" She grinned a teasing grin.
Oz nodded noncommitally. "Well, uh, yeah..."
"Why?" she pressed. "Just because of the costumes?"
"Well, not really," Oz defended himself. "There was the whole thing with me and Willow, and you reminded me of her. You still do, actually - so much that it's scary."
"Really?" Leslie said, seeming fascinated by that idea. "As scary as a vampire??"
(In Mayor Richard Wilkins' private office.)
"Hello?" the Mayor said as he answered the ringing telephone. "Ah, yes. Is it alright if I put you on the speaker phone?" he asked with deceptive cheeriness. After a short pause for an answer, he pressed the appropriate button, and nodded at Mister Trick. "Hello? Are you there?"
"Good evening, Upriser," the mysterious voice on the telephone drawled sarcastically. "Have you gotten the staff ready?"
"Well, it's here," Wilkins said. "But I think you should understand - this item has very deep sentimental value to me, and I would have to have a very clear and important reason to part with it. Do I make myself understood?"
"Haha. You want a reason? Try this - if you don't deliver the Staff, five innocent teenagers will be sacrificed to the Sky Princess Adalia. Two hours later, seven more... do I need to go on?"
"Um... no, I don't think that will be necessary," Wilkins said.
"So, do we have a deal?"
Wilkins looked at Trick desperately. "I need... I need some time to think about it."
"You don't have much time, Ricardo. I'll expect to be greeting your emissary at the front door to the Bronze in fifteen minutes, with the staff. If they aren't there, well, the ritual altars are already getting set up. And you really don't want to know what I have planned in case you try some sort of rescue mission. Goodnight." The phone line clicked off.
Wilkins shuddered. "Such a thoroughly uncooth character, whoever he is. Not at all sophisticated like you or me, Mister Trick."
"Dude knows how to plan, though," Trick said. "Can I assume that you can't afford to let him go through with this sacrifice whatchee?" Wilkins nodded. "Then, I'd recommend we pay up. That is, if you can afford to lose this Staff of Sloozy."
Wilkins considered, then nodded sadly. "Its part in my plans is just about done. With less than two months before the Dedication, I think we should be able to get along without it. But I hate knuckling under to bullies like those. Who knows if they'll even keep their bargain once they've got the staff?"
"I'll take care of it, boss," Trick said. "They try to doublecross us, they will rue the day!!"
(Up in the Bronze catwalks.)
"Hey." Jonny was waiting for Faith and Buffy as they swung their way up onto the catwalk. "Everything okay?" he asked.
"Pretty much," Faith told him. "What's the sitch?"
"I'm not quite sure, sweetheart," Jonny admitted. "Check it out." More vampires were moving around downstairs, talking amongst themselves, planning. A vamp emerged from the corridor Buffy had been in and motioned others in.
"I think they're getting ready to move most of the prisoners," Jonny hazarded. "To those smaller rooms off the corridor - the green room, the kitchen, all those."
"Which begs the question of why," Buffy said. "Do they need the main room for something else now??"
"Should we make our move when they start the prisoner transfer?" Faith asked. "Tense and chaotic operation, watching for trouble from amongst the prisoners, not from outside..."
Buffy and Jonny exchanged a glance. "That's risky," Buffy said. "I think we'd better wait until we have a better idea what's going on."
Faith sighed. "Okay." Then her expression brightened. "Hmm... you really wanna know what's going on, I think I might have an idea..."
(Out on the dance floor.)
"Okay, c'mon, get up and move it," Rambo told a swath of hostages that included Giles and Celia. "You're going into the Green room. Let's move it!"
Giles picked himself up roughly and gave Celia a hand to help her to her feet. As he started to head in the direction indicated, Giles noticed a familiar figure that hadn't gotten up yet.
Rambo spotted it too, at the same moment. "Hey, you down there on the floor," he called out roughly. "No lingerers."
Giles hurried over to the fallen teenager, who, as he had suspected, was Xander. Looking at the irreverent young man dressed up as a British gentleman was a peculiar shock for Giles - almost like gazing into a distorting mirror. But there wasn't time to worry about that. "Come on, Mister Harris," he told him. "Can you stand up?"
"Where's Will..." Xander groaned, cutting himself off. "Uh, not without help," he mumbled.
Giles motioned towards Celia, but to his surprise she was already right beside him. Carefully they helped Xander to his feet and supported him from either side as the group moved towards the green room.
"Are you alright, Xander?" Celia whispered, and then asked Giles. "If he's been shot, should we really be moving him, no matter what the guards order?"
"I'm okay," Xander assured her. "Whatsisname bandaged me up. I was just resting back there... trying to get my strength back up."
"Whatsisname?" Giles asked.
"Uh... Cordy's new date. Cool Patterson or whatever. So, what's the situation?"
"Well," Giles enumerated the members of their little group in his mind. "They're moving most of the hostages into smaller rooms, it seems - Oz was in a group that already got moved in."
"Oz," Xander scoffed lightly. "Freakin' wereboy couldn't..." Celia glared at him, and he cut that thought off. "Not helping, huh?"
"No," Giles assured him. "Willow and Cordelia were taken into the office, there's been no sign of Buffy since she got hurt trying to save you, and... and I think Faith and Jonny disappeared as soon as the crisis began."
"So they'll be riding in to save us at the last moment," Xander decided. "Buffy too, probably. All we have to do is wait for them to make their move, and see how we can help come the time..."
(Back in the management office.)
Willow moaned softly as she woke up. A vague memory of the seance flashed through her mind, and a moment's examination established that she was tied solidly to a chair, and that another occupied chair was back to back with it - probably holding Cordelia.
"...So, you think he's gonna come? With the staff?" the waiter was asking.
"Uh -- yeah. I wouldn't guarantee it, but, well, we've got his number and he knows it. We do that ritual sacrifice and boom, no Uprising into a demon. All that he's been planning for hundreds of years goes down the drain. He's not gonna risk that - he's gonna pay up."
Was this all an extortion mission, Willow wondered. Well, it would probably be good if it was - that meant as soon as these guys got their staff or whatever, they might leave peaceably. Of course, if they were going to this much trouble for the thing, it probably wasn't good to let them have it on general principles. Who were they trying to squeeze the staff out of, though? And what was an Uprising??
"Okay," tha waiter said again. "Now... I've got a special favor to ask you."
"I'm not gonna like this, am I?"
"Well, I dunno. Little Emma over there..."
"What do you want with her?" Exactly what Willow was wondering if she wanted to know.
"I think she might play a part in the Plan." What??
"Harry, we've been over this before..."
"Well, I want to go over it again," Waiter-boy, Harry, said firmly. "From the beginning. We've been working on the Plan for thirty years now, mostly gathering bankroll, information, and minor magic, right?"
"Yeah," the other guy said. "This operation is the lynchpin, taking possession of the Staff of Shadows."
"Whereupon we take over a beautiful and stormy island off the Greek coast, build a few magnificent castles, and turn some beautiful young girls into loving vampire princesses, right?" A pause. "Well, I dunno about anybody else, but the girl I want to spend eternity with is sitting right across the room!!"
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