Crime and Punishment: Part 3
by Fire Girl
I don't own these characters. I only own the situations I have put them in.
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Part Three
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After two days of hospital care Giles was released, having suffered only a slight concussion and a dislocated shoulder, which now remained in a sling. Jenny's funeral was three days later. Giles didn't go. No one asked why.
He continued to have strange dreams. If they weren't like the one in the hospital, they relived the crash. He rarely slept and it soon showed in his face.
For the next week, there wasn't much communication between anyone. Everyone took their grief in a different manner. Xander tried to keep his spirits up by going into a severe stage of denial. Willow spent a lot of time on her computer. Cordelia became engrossed in her work, getting overtime whenever she could. As for everyone else, they stayed secluded to their rooms or homes. Buffy would occasionally try to call someone, but she rarely got much of a conversation out of them. Whenever she called Angel, she never got an answer. Even when she called during the day, the phone would continue to ring. This worried her. She hadn't heard from him for over a week. She finally left her house and went to visit him.
She looked at the night sky as she walked. It was so dark. There was no moon and the stars seemed really dim. She continued on her path, passing the Bronze as she went. It seemed crowded tonight. There was a line outside forty feet long. She considered stopping in to see if any of her friends were there, but decided to keep moving, knowing that if she stopped, she would never get started again. She left the brightly lit area of the Bronze and proceeded to the "bad part of town", as Cordelia put it.
She stepped into an alley as a short cut. She didn't like this area of town and wanted to find his place as soon as possible. A cool breeze swept over her and with it came a sudden feeling of paranoia. It was the old uh-oh-I'm-being-followed feeling. She hated that. She turned around slowly. Behind her stood a female vampire. She was an adult, which was good. Buffy was sick of having to kill teenagers. The vampire stood with her arms folded, staring at Buffy and giving her a wicked grin. Buffy took a fighting stance. The vampire laughed.
"Well," said Buffy, "what are you waiting for? Cause you know, I have somewhere to be, right now."
"Is that so? I think you should be right here."
"Why?"
Her answer was not what she'd expected. From the shadows came five more vampires. Three of them, she recognized from school. The one closest to her attacked. He ran towards her. He was obviously new to the whole fighting game. Instead of hitting her, when he reached her, his body met with a stake, which he had run into. The others ran away.
She thought that was it and began to walk away. She was wrong. Another jumped at her from the fire escape of the left building. Before she knew it, she was on the ground, with a vampire sitting on her back, restraining her to the ground. The vampires came back. They circled her. She tried to make a grab for one of the stakes that she kept on the inside of her jacket, but her arm was grabbed and twisted behind her back. The other soon followed. He held her arms tightly, denying her any movement of them.
Buffy began to panic. She looked around at her attackers as they closed in. All of a sudden, the two remaining teenagers looked surprised. They arched their bodies, then disappeared. Everyone's attention turned to where they had been. Someone was there. Whoever it was, the vampires didn't like them. A vampire blocked Buffy's view of who had attacked the kids. They all growled and soon all but the one who sat on her, walked to the other end of the alley. With her view now free, she saw who they were heading for. It was Angel.
He stood where the first vampire she'd seen had been, acting much like she had. His arms were folded and he had his you've-pissed-me-off-and-now-you're-gonna-get-it smile. One by one the vampires ran at him.
The first threw a punch. Angel quickly ducked. While he was down there, he punched the vampire's stomach. As he hunched over in pain, Angel kneed him in the head. He pulled a stake from his jacket and brought it down into the vampire's back.
The second was right behind him. He turned quickly and did a spin kick. The vampire, who was, surprisingly enough, still on his feet, threw a punch, which landed square in Angel's jaw. He threw another, but this one was caught. Angel twisted his arm behind his back, then kicked his legs out from under him. While he lay face up on the ground, Angel shoved the stake through him.
Before he could get up, his legs were kicked out from under him. He looked up and saw the third vampire. It was the same one that had first appeared in the alley. She leapt at him, while he lay on his back. He used his foot to push her off, throwing her into the wall. He stood. She lay in a crumpled mass at the base of the wall. Angel approached her cautiously. He wanted to be ready, in case she happen to suddenly jump up and attack him. Eventually, she did. He tried to use the stake, but she grabbed his hand. In a quick motion, she changed their positions and forced him against the wall. She held him tightly by the wrists and tried, against his struggling, to turn the stake around. She had almost succeeded, when his head collided painfully with hers. It was a move he soon regretted, as pain filled his head. She released him, dazed from the blow. Luckily, he recovered first and kicked her in the face. She flew back. Before she could recover, he drove his stake through her.
A whistle from behind him, caused Angel to turn around. He soon found himself in a new predicament. The vampire that sat upon Buffy, had released her arms, but now held her head at a threatening angle. He was preparing to snap her neck.
"There are two ways we can do this." He said, "The easy way or the hard way."
After every few words, he turned her head a little more to the side, causing her to wince with pain every time. This vampire was making her mad and she was sick of waiting to be rescued.
"I have a better way." she said. With that, she quickly rolled the unsuspecting vampire off her back. He released her head and fell on the ground. She stood and prepared to fight. Being bested, the vampire ran off. She ran after him. When she caught up to him, she jumped onto his back, forcing him to the ground.
"See how you like it." she said, before pulling the stake from her jacket and reducing the vampire to a small pile of dust. A second later, Angel was at her side.
"You Ok?' he asked as he pulled her to her feet.
"I think so." she said.
"You surprised me, you know? It's not like you to chase after ‘em like that. What's wrong?"
Buffy felt criticized. That vampire had made her mad.
"What? I can't make sure that the job is done? You think I should let them go next time? Fine, if that's what you really want." she said accusingly. She began to walk away.
Angel stood there for a few moments, confused.
"What'd I do?" was all he could say. Then something else came to him.
"I wanna know something." he said. She stopped and turned around.
"What?" she said.
"I'm gonna be blunt, so I'm apologizing now. Why is it that whenever you come back from LA, you're a bitch?"
She raised an eyebrow at him, then turned to leave, shaking her head as she went.
"You're not even gonna answer me?" he called after her.
She stopped again, but kept her back to him "You're not being so nice yourself."
"It's just something I've noticed." he continued, "Even when you're only gone for a weekend, you come home with a really bad attitude that we all have to suffer through. What is it?"
"I'll tell you." she said, walking back towards him, "The first two weeks of my vacation were the loneliest two weeks I've ever had. My best friend was gone. When she finally got back, I had to leave. Whenever I come back here, I always have to leave something good and this time it was just..." she sighed, "I didn't want to come home to this. My friends hardly even talk to me. Because I missed one stupid vampire, Jenny is dead and Giles has a dislocated shoulder, when they should be making wedding plans right now. I haven't even seen Giles since the day he woke up. To put it simply my summer has sucked! That's why I'm a bitch, right now!"
By the end, she was yelling; Angel had expected a simple fight, not an attack. She tried to leave again.
"You still blame yourself for this?" he asked.
She stopped for a second. In that instant her rage changed to distress and she searched hopelessly for something to say. She said, "I'm just scared."
She was surprised at herself for saying it. She was even more surprised that she would allow herself to admit it to him. She never had before. Without her mind's consent, her voice continued, "I was gone for two weeks and this happened. If I hadn't left-" she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself.
He said, "Before, I told you that this could have happened with you here. Now, I know that it would have." He walked up behind her and put arms around her.
"Come inside," he said, "I'll tell you everything."
She nodded, "Sorry, for being a bitch."
"Sorry for calling you one."
They arrived at his place a few minutes later. She sat down, as he went to a desk and pulled out an envelope. He took several pages from it and handed them to her.
"This should explain it all. It's from a member of the Romany tribe."
She gave him a puzzled look, then began to read aloud:
"‘Dear Angel,
"‘Is it really you? You wouldn't believe how much I know about you from the stories alone. As strange as it sounds, it's a privilege to hear from you. Not many people have.
"‘Let me start off by saying that the information you've asked for is something that is somewhat confidential, but on the advice of my wife, I'll tell you what you ask. Besides, being who you are, I don't think I can deny that which you seek. Before I tell you, though, I want you to know a few things.
"‘The reason I know so much about you is because you were the first of our kind to be made. Yes, there are others like you. I am one of them. There are six of us in all.
"‘I stumbled upon this camp about twenty years after you did. Had it not been for you, they would have killed me. In fact, they were going to kill you at first, but they had dealt with vampires before. Killing them did no good. More kept coming. When you wiped out a quarter of their tribe, they felt that killing you wouldn't be enough. An example had to be made. So they made one.
"‘When you fled them, they thought that you would tell other vampires and their worries would be over. Your silence proved them wrong. When I showed up, they did the same to me, hoping I would leave and spread the word that the Romany tribe was no force to be trifled with. Instead, I stayed; I had no where else to go. Four more vampires would come to their camp before they would be left alone. Three of them stayed. Ira was a tourist in France, when he was changed. He was "reformed" about fifty years ago. Then there was Marcus. He's an African-American, who owned a butcher shop, until he was made a vampire when he was twenty-two. We met him in 1966. The last one who joined the tribe was Marianna. She was seventeen when she became a vampire. Physically, she's the youngest of us all. In reality, she's three years younger than I am, making her the second oldest to live here. In 1981, she killed an elder, provoking the rest of the tribe. I was glad when she joined us. After a few years, we married. The last vampire we saw was three years ago. When they changed him, he ran off. No one knows where he is, but we haven't seen a vampire since. Hopefully, we won't see anymore.
"‘I tell you this to let you know that you are not alone. You aren't the only one to suffer this incredible pain. We've all relived, time and again, the horrible things we've done in our nightmares, but we've also come to terms with it. I'm afraid, none of us has had a relapse of our acts, as you have, but you should know that we understand we're sorry for the trouble that this tribe has caused you. I can't speak for the humans, but for the rest of the reformed vampire population on the planet, I'd like to say sorry. We would like to help you anyway we can, but we take a terrible risk if we do. For now, we'll try to discourage the elders from any further spies or punishment for as long as we can.
"‘Now, down to business. Let me first say that this was no accident as you thought it was. I grieve more than anyone for Janna's death. She was like my daughter. When her parents died, I cared for her as my own. I'd never had children, but she showed me what it was like to be a father. Whenever she wrote home from Sunnydale, she always wrote a separate letter to me first.
"‘Unfortunately, ours had to be a secret friendship. When Enyos, her uncle, learned that we were friends, he became angry and forbade her from talking to me. He has no compassion for vampires, because it was a vampire that killed his sister. To be specific, it was Marianna. His sister was Janna's mother. After she died, he became bitter and cold to everyone. He shunned our kind and kept Janna away from us. When the subject came up, he suggested that she be the one to watch you. He thought he could trust her to get the job done. He was wrong; everyone knew it but him.
"‘So she was sent to your town, where she was happy. Unfortunately, these people didn't like that. When they realized that she was slacking on the job, they sent someone else to watch her. His name is Kubar. He reported on her each week, always saying that she was getting too close to you and that she wasn't doing her job right. Kubar is a bitter man, who doesn't like anyone or anything, so, of course, he never even mentioned the good things. She was aware of his presence, but she didn't know who he was. He took on the identity of a citizen. Knowing him, it was probably a position of power; somewhere that he could push people around. Mostly likely, it was somewhere he could push around her and everyone close to her. From what I know, Kubar didn't work alone. His accomplice is someone he met there. Whoever it is, he's been able to get Kubar a respectable job where he can keep an eye on her. It's another powerful person of the community. I wish I could tell you who they both are, but their identities are hidden even from me.
"‘A few weeks ago, we received a letter from Janna, saying that she was getting married. All the elders gathered in one house to discuss what they would do. I wasn't there to hear the discussion but a week later, I got word that Janna had died in a car accident. I have no proof, but I definitely know that it wasn't an accident. The vampire you told me about was probably either bribed or threatened into causing the crash. As I said, I wish there was more that I could tell you. I hope that this much will suffice.
"‘From all of us here: Good luck on your search. If there is anything else, you need to know, just ask.
Troy Diran
"‘PS: We were all glad to hear that you were able to save your relationship with the slayer, after you were gone for those few months. It's just as well for her. From what I hear, slayers have a hard enough time with relationships as it is. Fate has definitely smiled on you both. I hope it continues to.'
"Wow" she said when she had finished, "How did you find this guy?"
"I talked some information out of a few vampires. I actually, talked to the one who stood in front of the car. He said that a short man threatened to restore his soul if he didn't do what he said. Obviously, he didn't want that. When I realized the Romany were involved, I went to Jenny's apartment. I found her address book and Troy's name was inside. I wrote to him and this came yesterday."
"You'd been to her place, before?"
"Just once. I borrowed a book. Buffy, we have to do something."
"We will." she assured him.
"What?"
"We find Kubar."
"Then?"
"Well, that depends. If he did cause her death, we kill him. If not, we find out who did. That tribe has gotten away with a lot of things. Murder shouldn't be one of them." She began to walk towards the door, "Go back. Talk to the vampire who was in the accident and find out anything you can. I'm gonna go tell Giles what we found. Can I take this with me?" she said gesturing to the letter in her hand.
He nodded and joined her at the door. They walked out of the building, then went their separate ways.
Buffy took a shortcut through the alleyways and arrived at Giles' street a few minutes later. At the edge of the block, she stopped dead in her tracks. Ambulances blocked the entrance to Giles's apartment. She ran to the door and saw someone being wheeled out on a stretcher. When she was close enough to see the person's face, she saw that it was Giles.
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