Buffy/Torchwood crossover: Undead 3/3
Feb. 2nd, 2007 07:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jadesfireTitle: Undead III: Trust
Word Count: ~4750
Rating:Gen
Warnings/Spoilers: Only for Buffy-style violence. Setting is pre-S1 of Torchwood and mid-S5 of Buffy, so spoilers as appropriate, though none that I could see.
Summary: Sunnydale has a new kind of monster. Fortunately, help is at hand.
With huge thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rivers_bend for beta-ing and especially for getting the Scoobies on the right side of the Atlantic.
Undead I: Blood-Eaters
Undead II: A-Hunting We Will Go
Undead III: Trust
The plant was everything Buffy had expected. Big and sprawling, with a rabbit warren of rooms and corridors. They'd forced a door at the back, setting off who knew how many alarms. Jack had just shrugged.
"Might get us closer to the guy, if he's not here at the moment."
"Seriously, though," Xander said as they crept through the corridors, looking for a room for Willow to set up, "what's the guy going to get out of this?"
"Could be anything," Jack replied, peering into yet another store room. "Power lust, grudge against the town, grudge against a person, just to see if he could."
"Because it was there?" Giles suggested.
"Some people are like that. Here we are." The room Jack was looking into seemed to be ideal. A large, secluded store room with a table in the centre. He frowned as the door refused to open, putting his shoulder to it and giving an experimental shove.
"Let me." Pushing him out of the way, Buffy jiggled the handle a little. The lock wasn't that sturdy, and didn't hold up to a Slayer-strength push.
"Handy." Jack raised an eyebrow. "I know who to call next time I lose my keys."
"Just try it," Buffy muttered, standing by the door and watching as Willow and Tara set up what they needed. "What will the spell do?"
"Incinerate the toxin, and anything it's in." For someone who was proposing arson, Willow sounded surprisingly calm.
"Incinerate?" Jack raised his eyebrows even further. It looked like Buffy wasn't the only one being caught off-guard tonight.
Willow nodded. "Guaranteed to kill haemovores and destroy all remnants of the toxin."
"How long do you need?" Buffy asked, looking out into the corridor. It was hard to believe that they were going to remain undiscovered and she needed to know what they were up against.
"The spell will take about ten minutes to set up, maybe another ten to actually cast. It'll latch onto the toxin, but nothing will happen until we say the final words. We can be outside the factory for that bit, just in case, you know, there's some in here or anything like that."
Everyone gave the boxes on the shelves a nervous look.
"You had to say it, didn't you?" Xander asked, trying to read the sideways writing.
"We'll buy you all the time you need," Jack said, looking to Buffy for confirmation. "There's going to be guards or something. You don't leave stuff like this to simmer all by itself."
Buffy nodded, turning to Giles. "If you need us, yell."
"To bring the building down," he promised. "Be careful."
She snorted, then looked at Jack. "Ready?"
"Always."
They moved slowly through the corridors, stopping and listening every so often. There were no sounds of life except for their breathing and footsteps. Jack shook his head.
"This isn't right," he said. "Either he knew we were coming and cleared everything out, or he knows we're here and is waiting to trap us."
Buffy pulled a face. "You're a big help, you know that?"
"Just thinking out loud."
"Think quieter."
Turning a corner, they came to what seemed to be a dead end, until Buffy saw the door to one side of the corridor. The window was a little too high for her, and she had to go up on tiptoe to see through. Behind her, she heard Jack's soft laugh as he looked over her head.
"You need something to stand on?" he asked softly.
"Your unconscious body should do nicely," she muttered, distracted by what she could see through the small pane of glass.
Unlike the low store rooms and offices they'd passed, this was a huge space, with enormous vats down either side. From where they stood, Buffy could see four of them, each three metres high and at least two across, connected to a pipe system that ran across the whole ceiling. Still standing on tiptoe, she tried the door handle, leaning onto it when it didn't immediately open. It suddenly gave under her hand, and she half-fell into the room, only saved from an undignified sprawl by Jack, who hooked a hand into her belt and pulled her back.
"Easy does it."
"You're calling me easy?"
Shaking herself free, and feeling her cheeks reddening as Jack chuckled softly, Buffy moved more carefully towards one of the huge vats, peering round it to get a better sense of the space. There were about a dozen of the huge cylinders, all giving off heat and a foul smell. The air in here was humid, and Buffy's jacket felt too heavy and constricting. In contrast to her cautious, slow steps, Jack sauntered past, his hands stuck in his pockets, as though he was here for the tour. Seeing her face, he grinned and shrugged.
"If something's going to find us, I'd rather it was sooner than later. Gets it over with."
"Did you take lessons in stealthiness anywhere, ever?"
"I think I was off sick that day." He looked around again. "And here's a nasty thought for you. We're in here, surrounded by huge steaming vats of what I'm going to assume is the toxin. The toxin that Willow's about to, what was the word? Incinerate?"
"That was the word." Buffy made a final inspection of the room, before heading back the way they'd come. "Let's get out of here." It took her a few steps to realise that Jack wasn't following.
"There's another door," he said, pointing to the other end of the room. "Want to see where it goes?"
"What is this? The magical mystery tour?" But Buffy fell into step beside him anyway. It wouldn't do any harm to explore a little more. "Actually," she said, glancing up at Jack, "I've been meaning to ask you. Who don't you doubt?"
"What?" He seemed genuinely puzzled by the question.
"When you did that thing to drive off the haemovores before. You were saying something about not ever doubting him? Who's 'him'?
"Oh, that." Jack's face went blank, which probably told Buffy more than he'd meant to. "Just someone I knew."
"Knew? Didn't sound so far in the past to me."
"It was a long time ago." He still didn't look at her, focussing his attention on the door they'd now reached. "A long way from here."
"What happened?"
Jack paused, his eyes finally meeting hers. "He didn't let me down."
As much as she wanted to ask more, Buffy forced herself not to. The intensity of the look in Jack's eyes had startled her. Maybe this was something she didn't need to know. She looked down at the door handle.
"Is that unlocked?"
"Huh? Right. Door." Taking a deep breath, Jack turned the handle, pushing gently, then with more confidence. "It's open."
Beyond was a small office, dank and musty-smelling, with maps and diagrams pinned on all available wall space. Some of them looked eerily familiar.
"This is Sunnydale," Buffy said, looking at a large street map.
"And I think this is the beach and coastline."
"Looks like someone's been doing some planning."
"First rule of the egomaniac." Jack tapped one of the pieces of paper. "Always have a timetable."
Going over to see, Buffy ran her eye down the list of dates and times. "An evil genius with a printed schedule? They don't make them like they used to." She followed Jack's finger, reading the last date on the list. "That's three days from now."
"You mean we don't get to save the town at the last minute? Disappointing."
"We should get back." Buffy was starting to get nervous. There was only one way out of this room, and she had no intention of losing it. "Willow should be done by now."
Jack nodded, pulling one of the sheets down, folding it up and tucking it into the breast pocket of his shirt. "And the smell of incinerated haemovore is so hard to get out of your clothes."
Hurrying back past the bubbling vats and into the corridors, they made it round four corners before Buffy pulled Jack to a stop, putting her hand over his mouth to stall the obvious question. He frowned, taking half a step away from her and tipping his head to listen. From somewhere, ahead or behind them, Buffy couldn't tell, there was a soft shuffling sound and a low moaning.
"Haemovores?" she whispered, and Jack nodded. "Perfect."
"Come on." He took her hand, leading the way back to the storeroom, pausing at each corner to peer round it. Trusting him to watch ahead, Buffy kept her eyes on the way they had come, looking for any sign of movement. After two agonisingly slow minutes, Jack came to a halt, holding his arm rigid to stop her coming any closer. She waited, listening to the shuffling and moaning coming from the next corridor.
"Can we get past?"
Jack shook his head. "I don't think so."
"What about the whole 'you gotta have faith' thing? Can't you just do that again?"
"I don't know how long I can keep it up for, and there are moments when you do not want a psychic shield to give. Especially since, if there are enough of them, they can batter at it until it breaks. That's not going to be pretty."
Glancing over her shoulder, Buffy saw movement down the corridor.
"Until you think of something better, how do you do it?" When he turned to look at her, she shrugged. "Maybe if we work together, it'll last longer."
"Fine." Pushing her back against the wall, he looked down at her. "Earlier, you asked me what happened. Who I trusted. Now I'm asking you. What do you believe in, Buffy? When you get rid of everything else, what do you trust?"
She looked up at him, unable to tear herself away from his gaze. This wasn't what she'd expected. A bit of hand holding, maybe some concentration, sure. This intensity of connection, of reaching down into herself to the core of her being, was electrifying. What did she believe? Her mind was whirling, spinning with too many thoughts, and she wondered if he was doing this to her, affecting her somehow so that she felt so thrown off balance. Words, snippets of conversations echoed around her head.
Now that's everything, huh? No weapons... No friends...No hope. Take all that away... and what's left?
You are worth fighting for
She's an innocent in this. She needs you
See you in hell
Manus. The hand
The Big Bad Wolf
The Slayer
Jack pulled away, blinking and obviously startled. "What the hell was that?"
"You're asking me?" Glancing back down the corridor, Buffy saw the haemovores coming closer. "Shouldn't we, you know, do something?"
"I thought that's what we were trying to do." He took her hand, putting it to his face. "Concentrate this time."
Closing her eyes was less distracting, and she tried to clear her mind, the way she did when she was training. It was harder, doing this with Jack standing so close that she could feel his body heat and she felt her control slipping again. Instead, she took the sensation of heat, remembering standing in the dream-desert, talking, fighting with the first slayer.
Never doubted him, never will.
That was Jack, she knew, reciting the same words as before. It drove her deeper, searching for what she needed. Her own voice drifted across to her.
I walk. I talk. I shop. I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out, and I don't sleep on a bed of bones.
This was her.
She felt the power coming and heard the high ringing begin, coming from inside her head. With her eyes closed, she could see light, golden glows drifting across her awareness and, this time, the ringing was combined with an ethereal singing and the force of such power that it took her breath away. Then she heard the screaming.
Opening her eyes again, she saw the haemovores retreating, not just kept at bay but actually driven off by whatever it was that she and Jack had managed. His eyes were still closed, and she was surprised to see a single tear running down his cheek. He started as she reached up to brush it away, smiling sadly.
"I think it's working. There's a hell of a lot you haven't told me, isn't there?"
She shrugged. "Are you the pot or the kettle in this conversation?"
Buffy could feel the power now, rolling out and driving the monsters away. Vaguely, she was aware of Jack's hand in hers, that somehow he was directing what they were doing, although right now she couldn't have said what that was. From behind her, she heard footsteps hurrying towards them, and turned to see a frightened looking Xander running down the corridor.
"The others are getting out. You have to come now. Willow's ready to go bang." Seeing the looks that Buffy and Jack were giving him, he corrected himself quickly. "That would be, she's finished the spell."
"Go on," Jack said. "I'll hold them here then run like hell."
"It'll be easier if we both stay," Buffy told him firmly. "The only place they can go from here is back to the main plant room. We can lock them in there, can't we?"
"I guess so." Jack took a few cautious steps forwards. "We need to move fast though."
The haemovores had long disappeared from sight into the depths of the building, and Buffy could hear them screaming defiance from a long way off. They walked carefully back the way they had come, driving the creatures before them. Jack kept going all the way into the plant room, which was now full of haemovores, snarling and hissing and trying to stay out of the range of the psychic field.
"What now?" Xander asked, hovering behind them.
"Get back," Jack said. "I'll hold them for now." He let go of Buffy's hand, and she felt some of the power drain away, leaving her hollow inside. Yielding to Xander's insistent tugging, she let him pull her back into the corridor, watching as Jack stood facing the now enormous crowd of monsters.
The moment came so fast, that only her Slayer reflexes helped her to untangle what was happening. Something, a sound or movement or shadow, drew her attention upwards. Some of the creatures, immune to the heat, had crawled up the side of the vats and were pulling at the pipe network that ran across the ceiling. Just as Buffy's eyes found them, they succeeded in breaking one of the connections, and liquid began to stream from the open tube. She saw Jack fall to his knees as the flood of liquid broke over him, soaking him and leaving him gasping.
Instinct made her jump forwards, only to find that Xander was still holding her arm and had braced his other hand against the door, keeping it shut.
"We can't," he said, ignoring her struggles. "Look."
The haemovores had closed in around Jack, who was still kneeling on the floor. As they watched, he seemed to find the strength for a last effort, and some of the creatures closest to him retreated under a renewed attack. Apparently sensing that Buffy and Xander were still watching, he turned, frowning at them and waving an arm weakly. His skin was already starting to blister, although Buffy couldn’t tell whether it was the first effects of the toxin or scalding from the hot liquid. She saw him mouthing something.
"Buffy." Xander's voice was soft, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, trying to turn her away from the window. "We should go. Will needs to destroy this stuff."
"He's covered in it." Buffy put a hand against the window, watching as Jack hit out at a haemovore that got too close. "She'll kill him."
"He's already dead. Buffy, please."
This time, she let him turn her around, pulling her through the narrow corridors and finally out into the cold night air. There were tears in her eyes and her hands were shaking by the time they reached the others. Willow had set up the candle and tripod again on the ground, and she looked up as Xander and Buffy approached.
"We're just about ready," she said, frowning as she looked up. "Where's Jack?"
Unable to answer, Buffy shook her head, turning blindly away from the others, trying to regain her composure.
"He didn't make it," Xander said softly. "We need to do this now."
As Willow began to speak again, Buffy sensed someone coming up behind her and turned to see Giles approaching, a concerned look on his face.
"What happened?" he asked gently.
Before she could answer, Willow finished her incantation, her words making the candle burst into life with a flame so strong that it shattered the bowl. In counterpoint, Buffy heard the windows of the factory shattering as an explosion ripped through it, flames dancing in the darkness. She dropped her head to her chest, wrapping her arms around herself tightly. Looking down, she could see the face of her watch. She'd known the man for three hours, maybe four. She wouldn't grieve for him the way she would one of her friends. But the connection had been so strong, so powerful that his absence made her ache.
Gentle hands grasped her shoulders, pulling her out of herself. Giles never needed to ask and he always knew what to do. Right now, he steered her back towards the cars, not waiting for the others, just getting in beside her and driving back to the Magic Box in silence.
They sat together at the table, neither of them finding the heart to move Jack's coat from where he'd thrown it. After a while, Giles stirred, reaching out a hand to touch a button.
"It's funny, how much of an impression some people can make on you in such a short time."
"He didn't even hesitate." Buffy said. "I think he knew something like this was going to happen. And he didn't hesitate. How can someone hold their life so lightly? To just be willing to die like that?"
"You did it," Giles said gently. "Buffy, you do it every day. Every time you go out on patrol, face a demon or a vampire, you put your life on the line to save other people. It's what you do. Maybe Jack was the same."
"He did something, I don't know." She struggled to put words round what she'd felt. "It was like, somehow, he joined our souls together. I heard the first Slayer again, talking in my head, and he took the power and put it with…something." She shook her head, still not really understanding it. "He was more than he seemed."
Giles nodded, reaching out and picking up the coat. He took it behind the counter, hanging it on a hook, like it belonged there.
"We'll just keep this, for the time being," he said. They waited in silence again, sitting together until the others returned.
In some ways, it all ended that night. Everything else was just clean-up. The owner of the factory put in a claim with his insurance company for arson and moved his business out of Sunnydale. Four days later, Willow's internet searches reported his mysterious disappearance and the collapse of his international business. Three days after that, the factory was pulled down and the site surrounded by a high fence.
Three days after that, they were all in the Magic Box as usual, trying to work out if the demon Buffy had encountered earlier on in the evening was a relatively harmless Trinma demon, or a rather more dangerous Trelma one. She was only half listening to the conversation, waiting to hear whether she was going to have to go out and find the thing again, which she wasn't entirely keen to do. She'd only just been able to fend off Dawn that night, and she didn't like leaving her mom alone for too long at the moment. She was also distracted by Jack's coat, which was still hanging behind the counter. Anya kept saying it was in her way, but no-one had made any move to get rid of it.
"How big were the horns?"
It took Buffy a moment to realise that the question was directed at her.
"How big were they?" Giles repeated, giving her an impatient look. "This is important."
"I don't know. Horn sized." She held up her hands, trying to remember. About seven inches apart looked about right, and Giles shook his head.
"It can't be a Trinma, not at that size."
"Size isn't everything, you know."
If she hadn't been sitting down, Buffy knew her knees would have given way. As it was, she felt the need to grip the table firmly. It felt real, which meant that she wasn't dreaming, which meant that it really was Jack standing on the step, grinning down at them all.
Anya made a strangled noise and Xander yelped, although Buffy suspected that was from Anya's grip more than anything else. Slightly more practical, Tara got to her feet and made her way slowly across to him. She stopped about an arm's length away, then reached out and prodded him with one finger, turning back to the others with a delighted smile.
"He's real."
"Three dimensional, larger than life and bigger." Jack took her hand, linking his fingers through hers. "Right here, right now."
"Remarkable." Giles had taken off his glasses and was staring, open-mouthed. "We all thought-"
"-you were dead," Buffy finished for him, and Jack finally looked round at her.
"Not nearly as dead as you thought."
"We kept your coat!" Anya blurted out, running round the counter to get it. Jack took it with a grateful smile, planting a kiss on her forehead. For him, it was probably chaste, but Buffy noticed Xander reddening. Still, it was hard to be jealous of someone who'd apparently just come back from the dead.
"That's what I'm here for." Jack's look took them all in again, his smile growing even wider.
"Really?" Buffy asked softly, aware of everyone turning to her. If he was disconcerted, Jack didn't show it.
"I guess I wanted to check on you, see you didn't get all blown up or anything careless like that. And to let you know that we took care of Mr 'I want to rule the world with haemovores.'"
Willow raised her eyebrows. "That was you?"
"It's what we do best." He grinned smugly.
"Are you in town long?" Giles asked and Jack shook his head.
"Just a few more days. I'm staying at the Sunnydale Inn, if you want to call me for anything. Anything at all." He pulled on his coat. "It was fun. See you around."
"You're just leaving again?" Willow said. "Just like that?"
"Afraid so." Jack shrugged. "Some of us have actual jobs, you know, and I need to get back to mine. I'm kind of busy tonight, but you know where I live, for now anyway. Otherwise, it was a pleasure knowing you."
With a final nod, and while they were all still gaping, he began to head for the door. Buffy was on her feet and following him before she was aware of it herself.
"Jack!"
He paused, looking back, then opening the door for her. Grateful that he didn't want an audience any more than she did, she went out onto the sidewalk.
It was much warmer now than ten nights ago, and she took a deep breath before turning to look at him properly. Under the street lamps, he looked just as she remembered him, even down to the curl of hair falling onto his forehead.
"You were just going to walk away again?" she asked and he nodded.
"I'm not the staying type. Besides, you guys have got your battles to fight, I have mine. And mine aren't here."
"Where are you going?"
"Home. For now. Until the next time I get called away."
"Will you be back?" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them, especially as Jack's lips curved into an amused smile.
"So keen to see me?" Taking a deep breath, he looked round the street, as though inspecting it for the last time. "It's hard to be sure. Work doesn't bring me this way too often, you guys have got the market sewn up there, but if I'm in the neighbourhood..."
"You know where we live." She took a tentative step towards him, grateful when he reached out and pulled her into a hug, so that she didn't have to make the last move. He rested his chin on her head, letting her lean into his solid presence. It felt good to rest for a moment. As though reading her mind, he slid his hands down her arms, holding her away from him to look at her face.
"You'll do the right thing," he said softly. "I saw that much. You'll do what you have to do, and you won't be afraid."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, suddenly suspicious again. "Who are you, Jack?"
He shook his head, cupping her cheek for a moment before letting her go. "Let's just say I have access to things that other people don't know about. And I saw a lot about you. Who you are and what you can do."
"Did you see the future?" she asked. "You said 'you'll do what you have to do.' What do I have to do?"
"I don't know," he admitted, pushing his hands into his pockets. "It's not something I can turn on and off. But the things that happened to me, that changed me? Sometimes they let me know things without knowing how I know them. You know?"
"No." Getting angry now, Buffy took a step towards him. "What do you know? You've got to be more than just a really, really lucky guy. What else can you do? No-one could have survived being burned alive."
"I didn't." Jack's voice was so quiet that she nearly missed the words. "It doesn't work like that. I can't explain, I'm sorry."
"Then what use is it?" She gave him a hard shove, sending him stumbling backwards. "You turn up with your cryptic messages and knowing looks, and you don't really know anything, do you? What use is all that power, if you can't use it?"
"You tell me!" Getting his balance back, Jack took his hands out of his pockets, holding them loosely by his sides as though ready to fight her. "You've got so much power, you tell me. At least you can control it. I don't get a choice!"
"Would you rather have died?"
The words seemed to echo in the silence that followed. For a very long moment, all Buffy could hear was the blood rushing in her ears and Jack's harsh breathing. Then he looked away from her, speaking in a serious tone that she hadn't heard him use before.
"I'd rather be alive. But-" He broke off, shaking his head.
Suspicion rising in her mind, Buffy looked at him more closely. "How many times has this happened to you?"
"I don’t keep count," he said simply.
"What's it like?" she asked, not sure if she was supposed to ask. "Being dead. What's it like?"
Jack smiled sadly. "I don't know. There's life, then there's life again, normally with pain in the middle. I don't know what it's like."
"I thought it would be…" Buffy found that she couldn't finish the sentence, not looking into Jack's eyes. The depth of emotion she saw there dried the words in her throat. "I'm sorry," she whispered, and he smiled.
"Me too." Reaching out, he drew her to him again. "Take care of yourself. And them."
"I always do." She held him close for a moment, then stepped away. "Try not to die too much."
"I promise." As he had with Anya, he kissed her forehead lightly, squeezing her arm before turning and walking away down the street. She stood and watched him go, head held high and coat flapping in the light breeze, until he was swallowed by the darkness. Then she wiped the last of the tears from her face, took a deep breath and went back inside.
And because you demanded it: Bonus Track 1
Word Count: ~4750
Rating:Gen
Warnings/Spoilers: Only for Buffy-style violence. Setting is pre-S1 of Torchwood and mid-S5 of Buffy, so spoilers as appropriate, though none that I could see.
Summary: Sunnydale has a new kind of monster. Fortunately, help is at hand.
With huge thanks to
rivers_bend for beta-ing and especially for getting the Scoobies on the right side of the Atlantic.Undead I: Blood-Eaters
Undead II: A-Hunting We Will Go
Undead III: Trust
The plant was everything Buffy had expected. Big and sprawling, with a rabbit warren of rooms and corridors. They'd forced a door at the back, setting off who knew how many alarms. Jack had just shrugged.
"Might get us closer to the guy, if he's not here at the moment."
"Seriously, though," Xander said as they crept through the corridors, looking for a room for Willow to set up, "what's the guy going to get out of this?"
"Could be anything," Jack replied, peering into yet another store room. "Power lust, grudge against the town, grudge against a person, just to see if he could."
"Because it was there?" Giles suggested.
"Some people are like that. Here we are." The room Jack was looking into seemed to be ideal. A large, secluded store room with a table in the centre. He frowned as the door refused to open, putting his shoulder to it and giving an experimental shove.
"Let me." Pushing him out of the way, Buffy jiggled the handle a little. The lock wasn't that sturdy, and didn't hold up to a Slayer-strength push.
"Handy." Jack raised an eyebrow. "I know who to call next time I lose my keys."
"Just try it," Buffy muttered, standing by the door and watching as Willow and Tara set up what they needed. "What will the spell do?"
"Incinerate the toxin, and anything it's in." For someone who was proposing arson, Willow sounded surprisingly calm.
"Incinerate?" Jack raised his eyebrows even further. It looked like Buffy wasn't the only one being caught off-guard tonight.
Willow nodded. "Guaranteed to kill haemovores and destroy all remnants of the toxin."
"How long do you need?" Buffy asked, looking out into the corridor. It was hard to believe that they were going to remain undiscovered and she needed to know what they were up against.
"The spell will take about ten minutes to set up, maybe another ten to actually cast. It'll latch onto the toxin, but nothing will happen until we say the final words. We can be outside the factory for that bit, just in case, you know, there's some in here or anything like that."
Everyone gave the boxes on the shelves a nervous look.
"You had to say it, didn't you?" Xander asked, trying to read the sideways writing.
"We'll buy you all the time you need," Jack said, looking to Buffy for confirmation. "There's going to be guards or something. You don't leave stuff like this to simmer all by itself."
Buffy nodded, turning to Giles. "If you need us, yell."
"To bring the building down," he promised. "Be careful."
She snorted, then looked at Jack. "Ready?"
"Always."
They moved slowly through the corridors, stopping and listening every so often. There were no sounds of life except for their breathing and footsteps. Jack shook his head.
"This isn't right," he said. "Either he knew we were coming and cleared everything out, or he knows we're here and is waiting to trap us."
Buffy pulled a face. "You're a big help, you know that?"
"Just thinking out loud."
"Think quieter."
Turning a corner, they came to what seemed to be a dead end, until Buffy saw the door to one side of the corridor. The window was a little too high for her, and she had to go up on tiptoe to see through. Behind her, she heard Jack's soft laugh as he looked over her head.
"You need something to stand on?" he asked softly.
"Your unconscious body should do nicely," she muttered, distracted by what she could see through the small pane of glass.
Unlike the low store rooms and offices they'd passed, this was a huge space, with enormous vats down either side. From where they stood, Buffy could see four of them, each three metres high and at least two across, connected to a pipe system that ran across the whole ceiling. Still standing on tiptoe, she tried the door handle, leaning onto it when it didn't immediately open. It suddenly gave under her hand, and she half-fell into the room, only saved from an undignified sprawl by Jack, who hooked a hand into her belt and pulled her back.
"Easy does it."
"You're calling me easy?"
Shaking herself free, and feeling her cheeks reddening as Jack chuckled softly, Buffy moved more carefully towards one of the huge vats, peering round it to get a better sense of the space. There were about a dozen of the huge cylinders, all giving off heat and a foul smell. The air in here was humid, and Buffy's jacket felt too heavy and constricting. In contrast to her cautious, slow steps, Jack sauntered past, his hands stuck in his pockets, as though he was here for the tour. Seeing her face, he grinned and shrugged.
"If something's going to find us, I'd rather it was sooner than later. Gets it over with."
"Did you take lessons in stealthiness anywhere, ever?"
"I think I was off sick that day." He looked around again. "And here's a nasty thought for you. We're in here, surrounded by huge steaming vats of what I'm going to assume is the toxin. The toxin that Willow's about to, what was the word? Incinerate?"
"That was the word." Buffy made a final inspection of the room, before heading back the way they'd come. "Let's get out of here." It took her a few steps to realise that Jack wasn't following.
"There's another door," he said, pointing to the other end of the room. "Want to see where it goes?"
"What is this? The magical mystery tour?" But Buffy fell into step beside him anyway. It wouldn't do any harm to explore a little more. "Actually," she said, glancing up at Jack, "I've been meaning to ask you. Who don't you doubt?"
"What?" He seemed genuinely puzzled by the question.
"When you did that thing to drive off the haemovores before. You were saying something about not ever doubting him? Who's 'him'?
"Oh, that." Jack's face went blank, which probably told Buffy more than he'd meant to. "Just someone I knew."
"Knew? Didn't sound so far in the past to me."
"It was a long time ago." He still didn't look at her, focussing his attention on the door they'd now reached. "A long way from here."
"What happened?"
Jack paused, his eyes finally meeting hers. "He didn't let me down."
As much as she wanted to ask more, Buffy forced herself not to. The intensity of the look in Jack's eyes had startled her. Maybe this was something she didn't need to know. She looked down at the door handle.
"Is that unlocked?"
"Huh? Right. Door." Taking a deep breath, Jack turned the handle, pushing gently, then with more confidence. "It's open."
Beyond was a small office, dank and musty-smelling, with maps and diagrams pinned on all available wall space. Some of them looked eerily familiar.
"This is Sunnydale," Buffy said, looking at a large street map.
"And I think this is the beach and coastline."
"Looks like someone's been doing some planning."
"First rule of the egomaniac." Jack tapped one of the pieces of paper. "Always have a timetable."
Going over to see, Buffy ran her eye down the list of dates and times. "An evil genius with a printed schedule? They don't make them like they used to." She followed Jack's finger, reading the last date on the list. "That's three days from now."
"You mean we don't get to save the town at the last minute? Disappointing."
"We should get back." Buffy was starting to get nervous. There was only one way out of this room, and she had no intention of losing it. "Willow should be done by now."
Jack nodded, pulling one of the sheets down, folding it up and tucking it into the breast pocket of his shirt. "And the smell of incinerated haemovore is so hard to get out of your clothes."
Hurrying back past the bubbling vats and into the corridors, they made it round four corners before Buffy pulled Jack to a stop, putting her hand over his mouth to stall the obvious question. He frowned, taking half a step away from her and tipping his head to listen. From somewhere, ahead or behind them, Buffy couldn't tell, there was a soft shuffling sound and a low moaning.
"Haemovores?" she whispered, and Jack nodded. "Perfect."
"Come on." He took her hand, leading the way back to the storeroom, pausing at each corner to peer round it. Trusting him to watch ahead, Buffy kept her eyes on the way they had come, looking for any sign of movement. After two agonisingly slow minutes, Jack came to a halt, holding his arm rigid to stop her coming any closer. She waited, listening to the shuffling and moaning coming from the next corridor.
"Can we get past?"
Jack shook his head. "I don't think so."
"What about the whole 'you gotta have faith' thing? Can't you just do that again?"
"I don't know how long I can keep it up for, and there are moments when you do not want a psychic shield to give. Especially since, if there are enough of them, they can batter at it until it breaks. That's not going to be pretty."
Glancing over her shoulder, Buffy saw movement down the corridor.
"Until you think of something better, how do you do it?" When he turned to look at her, she shrugged. "Maybe if we work together, it'll last longer."
"Fine." Pushing her back against the wall, he looked down at her. "Earlier, you asked me what happened. Who I trusted. Now I'm asking you. What do you believe in, Buffy? When you get rid of everything else, what do you trust?"
She looked up at him, unable to tear herself away from his gaze. This wasn't what she'd expected. A bit of hand holding, maybe some concentration, sure. This intensity of connection, of reaching down into herself to the core of her being, was electrifying. What did she believe? Her mind was whirling, spinning with too many thoughts, and she wondered if he was doing this to her, affecting her somehow so that she felt so thrown off balance. Words, snippets of conversations echoed around her head.
Now that's everything, huh? No weapons... No friends...No hope. Take all that away... and what's left?
You are worth fighting for
She's an innocent in this. She needs you
See you in hell
Manus. The hand
The Big Bad Wolf
The Slayer
Jack pulled away, blinking and obviously startled. "What the hell was that?"
"You're asking me?" Glancing back down the corridor, Buffy saw the haemovores coming closer. "Shouldn't we, you know, do something?"
"I thought that's what we were trying to do." He took her hand, putting it to his face. "Concentrate this time."
Closing her eyes was less distracting, and she tried to clear her mind, the way she did when she was training. It was harder, doing this with Jack standing so close that she could feel his body heat and she felt her control slipping again. Instead, she took the sensation of heat, remembering standing in the dream-desert, talking, fighting with the first slayer.
Never doubted him, never will.
That was Jack, she knew, reciting the same words as before. It drove her deeper, searching for what she needed. Her own voice drifted across to her.
I walk. I talk. I shop. I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out, and I don't sleep on a bed of bones.
This was her.
She felt the power coming and heard the high ringing begin, coming from inside her head. With her eyes closed, she could see light, golden glows drifting across her awareness and, this time, the ringing was combined with an ethereal singing and the force of such power that it took her breath away. Then she heard the screaming.
Opening her eyes again, she saw the haemovores retreating, not just kept at bay but actually driven off by whatever it was that she and Jack had managed. His eyes were still closed, and she was surprised to see a single tear running down his cheek. He started as she reached up to brush it away, smiling sadly.
"I think it's working. There's a hell of a lot you haven't told me, isn't there?"
She shrugged. "Are you the pot or the kettle in this conversation?"
Buffy could feel the power now, rolling out and driving the monsters away. Vaguely, she was aware of Jack's hand in hers, that somehow he was directing what they were doing, although right now she couldn't have said what that was. From behind her, she heard footsteps hurrying towards them, and turned to see a frightened looking Xander running down the corridor.
"The others are getting out. You have to come now. Willow's ready to go bang." Seeing the looks that Buffy and Jack were giving him, he corrected himself quickly. "That would be, she's finished the spell."
"Go on," Jack said. "I'll hold them here then run like hell."
"It'll be easier if we both stay," Buffy told him firmly. "The only place they can go from here is back to the main plant room. We can lock them in there, can't we?"
"I guess so." Jack took a few cautious steps forwards. "We need to move fast though."
The haemovores had long disappeared from sight into the depths of the building, and Buffy could hear them screaming defiance from a long way off. They walked carefully back the way they had come, driving the creatures before them. Jack kept going all the way into the plant room, which was now full of haemovores, snarling and hissing and trying to stay out of the range of the psychic field.
"What now?" Xander asked, hovering behind them.
"Get back," Jack said. "I'll hold them for now." He let go of Buffy's hand, and she felt some of the power drain away, leaving her hollow inside. Yielding to Xander's insistent tugging, she let him pull her back into the corridor, watching as Jack stood facing the now enormous crowd of monsters.
The moment came so fast, that only her Slayer reflexes helped her to untangle what was happening. Something, a sound or movement or shadow, drew her attention upwards. Some of the creatures, immune to the heat, had crawled up the side of the vats and were pulling at the pipe network that ran across the ceiling. Just as Buffy's eyes found them, they succeeded in breaking one of the connections, and liquid began to stream from the open tube. She saw Jack fall to his knees as the flood of liquid broke over him, soaking him and leaving him gasping.
Instinct made her jump forwards, only to find that Xander was still holding her arm and had braced his other hand against the door, keeping it shut.
"We can't," he said, ignoring her struggles. "Look."
The haemovores had closed in around Jack, who was still kneeling on the floor. As they watched, he seemed to find the strength for a last effort, and some of the creatures closest to him retreated under a renewed attack. Apparently sensing that Buffy and Xander were still watching, he turned, frowning at them and waving an arm weakly. His skin was already starting to blister, although Buffy couldn’t tell whether it was the first effects of the toxin or scalding from the hot liquid. She saw him mouthing something.
"Buffy." Xander's voice was soft, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, trying to turn her away from the window. "We should go. Will needs to destroy this stuff."
"He's covered in it." Buffy put a hand against the window, watching as Jack hit out at a haemovore that got too close. "She'll kill him."
"He's already dead. Buffy, please."
This time, she let him turn her around, pulling her through the narrow corridors and finally out into the cold night air. There were tears in her eyes and her hands were shaking by the time they reached the others. Willow had set up the candle and tripod again on the ground, and she looked up as Xander and Buffy approached.
"We're just about ready," she said, frowning as she looked up. "Where's Jack?"
Unable to answer, Buffy shook her head, turning blindly away from the others, trying to regain her composure.
"He didn't make it," Xander said softly. "We need to do this now."
As Willow began to speak again, Buffy sensed someone coming up behind her and turned to see Giles approaching, a concerned look on his face.
"What happened?" he asked gently.
Before she could answer, Willow finished her incantation, her words making the candle burst into life with a flame so strong that it shattered the bowl. In counterpoint, Buffy heard the windows of the factory shattering as an explosion ripped through it, flames dancing in the darkness. She dropped her head to her chest, wrapping her arms around herself tightly. Looking down, she could see the face of her watch. She'd known the man for three hours, maybe four. She wouldn't grieve for him the way she would one of her friends. But the connection had been so strong, so powerful that his absence made her ache.
Gentle hands grasped her shoulders, pulling her out of herself. Giles never needed to ask and he always knew what to do. Right now, he steered her back towards the cars, not waiting for the others, just getting in beside her and driving back to the Magic Box in silence.
They sat together at the table, neither of them finding the heart to move Jack's coat from where he'd thrown it. After a while, Giles stirred, reaching out a hand to touch a button.
"It's funny, how much of an impression some people can make on you in such a short time."
"He didn't even hesitate." Buffy said. "I think he knew something like this was going to happen. And he didn't hesitate. How can someone hold their life so lightly? To just be willing to die like that?"
"You did it," Giles said gently. "Buffy, you do it every day. Every time you go out on patrol, face a demon or a vampire, you put your life on the line to save other people. It's what you do. Maybe Jack was the same."
"He did something, I don't know." She struggled to put words round what she'd felt. "It was like, somehow, he joined our souls together. I heard the first Slayer again, talking in my head, and he took the power and put it with…something." She shook her head, still not really understanding it. "He was more than he seemed."
Giles nodded, reaching out and picking up the coat. He took it behind the counter, hanging it on a hook, like it belonged there.
"We'll just keep this, for the time being," he said. They waited in silence again, sitting together until the others returned.
In some ways, it all ended that night. Everything else was just clean-up. The owner of the factory put in a claim with his insurance company for arson and moved his business out of Sunnydale. Four days later, Willow's internet searches reported his mysterious disappearance and the collapse of his international business. Three days after that, the factory was pulled down and the site surrounded by a high fence.
Three days after that, they were all in the Magic Box as usual, trying to work out if the demon Buffy had encountered earlier on in the evening was a relatively harmless Trinma demon, or a rather more dangerous Trelma one. She was only half listening to the conversation, waiting to hear whether she was going to have to go out and find the thing again, which she wasn't entirely keen to do. She'd only just been able to fend off Dawn that night, and she didn't like leaving her mom alone for too long at the moment. She was also distracted by Jack's coat, which was still hanging behind the counter. Anya kept saying it was in her way, but no-one had made any move to get rid of it.
"How big were the horns?"
It took Buffy a moment to realise that the question was directed at her.
"How big were they?" Giles repeated, giving her an impatient look. "This is important."
"I don't know. Horn sized." She held up her hands, trying to remember. About seven inches apart looked about right, and Giles shook his head.
"It can't be a Trinma, not at that size."
"Size isn't everything, you know."
If she hadn't been sitting down, Buffy knew her knees would have given way. As it was, she felt the need to grip the table firmly. It felt real, which meant that she wasn't dreaming, which meant that it really was Jack standing on the step, grinning down at them all.
Anya made a strangled noise and Xander yelped, although Buffy suspected that was from Anya's grip more than anything else. Slightly more practical, Tara got to her feet and made her way slowly across to him. She stopped about an arm's length away, then reached out and prodded him with one finger, turning back to the others with a delighted smile.
"He's real."
"Three dimensional, larger than life and bigger." Jack took her hand, linking his fingers through hers. "Right here, right now."
"Remarkable." Giles had taken off his glasses and was staring, open-mouthed. "We all thought-"
"-you were dead," Buffy finished for him, and Jack finally looked round at her.
"Not nearly as dead as you thought."
"We kept your coat!" Anya blurted out, running round the counter to get it. Jack took it with a grateful smile, planting a kiss on her forehead. For him, it was probably chaste, but Buffy noticed Xander reddening. Still, it was hard to be jealous of someone who'd apparently just come back from the dead.
"That's what I'm here for." Jack's look took them all in again, his smile growing even wider.
"Really?" Buffy asked softly, aware of everyone turning to her. If he was disconcerted, Jack didn't show it.
"I guess I wanted to check on you, see you didn't get all blown up or anything careless like that. And to let you know that we took care of Mr 'I want to rule the world with haemovores.'"
Willow raised her eyebrows. "That was you?"
"It's what we do best." He grinned smugly.
"Are you in town long?" Giles asked and Jack shook his head.
"Just a few more days. I'm staying at the Sunnydale Inn, if you want to call me for anything. Anything at all." He pulled on his coat. "It was fun. See you around."
"You're just leaving again?" Willow said. "Just like that?"
"Afraid so." Jack shrugged. "Some of us have actual jobs, you know, and I need to get back to mine. I'm kind of busy tonight, but you know where I live, for now anyway. Otherwise, it was a pleasure knowing you."
With a final nod, and while they were all still gaping, he began to head for the door. Buffy was on her feet and following him before she was aware of it herself.
"Jack!"
He paused, looking back, then opening the door for her. Grateful that he didn't want an audience any more than she did, she went out onto the sidewalk.
It was much warmer now than ten nights ago, and she took a deep breath before turning to look at him properly. Under the street lamps, he looked just as she remembered him, even down to the curl of hair falling onto his forehead.
"You were just going to walk away again?" she asked and he nodded.
"I'm not the staying type. Besides, you guys have got your battles to fight, I have mine. And mine aren't here."
"Where are you going?"
"Home. For now. Until the next time I get called away."
"Will you be back?" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them, especially as Jack's lips curved into an amused smile.
"So keen to see me?" Taking a deep breath, he looked round the street, as though inspecting it for the last time. "It's hard to be sure. Work doesn't bring me this way too often, you guys have got the market sewn up there, but if I'm in the neighbourhood..."
"You know where we live." She took a tentative step towards him, grateful when he reached out and pulled her into a hug, so that she didn't have to make the last move. He rested his chin on her head, letting her lean into his solid presence. It felt good to rest for a moment. As though reading her mind, he slid his hands down her arms, holding her away from him to look at her face.
"You'll do the right thing," he said softly. "I saw that much. You'll do what you have to do, and you won't be afraid."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, suddenly suspicious again. "Who are you, Jack?"
He shook his head, cupping her cheek for a moment before letting her go. "Let's just say I have access to things that other people don't know about. And I saw a lot about you. Who you are and what you can do."
"Did you see the future?" she asked. "You said 'you'll do what you have to do.' What do I have to do?"
"I don't know," he admitted, pushing his hands into his pockets. "It's not something I can turn on and off. But the things that happened to me, that changed me? Sometimes they let me know things without knowing how I know them. You know?"
"No." Getting angry now, Buffy took a step towards him. "What do you know? You've got to be more than just a really, really lucky guy. What else can you do? No-one could have survived being burned alive."
"I didn't." Jack's voice was so quiet that she nearly missed the words. "It doesn't work like that. I can't explain, I'm sorry."
"Then what use is it?" She gave him a hard shove, sending him stumbling backwards. "You turn up with your cryptic messages and knowing looks, and you don't really know anything, do you? What use is all that power, if you can't use it?"
"You tell me!" Getting his balance back, Jack took his hands out of his pockets, holding them loosely by his sides as though ready to fight her. "You've got so much power, you tell me. At least you can control it. I don't get a choice!"
"Would you rather have died?"
The words seemed to echo in the silence that followed. For a very long moment, all Buffy could hear was the blood rushing in her ears and Jack's harsh breathing. Then he looked away from her, speaking in a serious tone that she hadn't heard him use before.
"I'd rather be alive. But-" He broke off, shaking his head.
Suspicion rising in her mind, Buffy looked at him more closely. "How many times has this happened to you?"
"I don’t keep count," he said simply.
"What's it like?" she asked, not sure if she was supposed to ask. "Being dead. What's it like?"
Jack smiled sadly. "I don't know. There's life, then there's life again, normally with pain in the middle. I don't know what it's like."
"I thought it would be…" Buffy found that she couldn't finish the sentence, not looking into Jack's eyes. The depth of emotion she saw there dried the words in her throat. "I'm sorry," she whispered, and he smiled.
"Me too." Reaching out, he drew her to him again. "Take care of yourself. And them."
"I always do." She held him close for a moment, then stepped away. "Try not to die too much."
"I promise." As he had with Anya, he kissed her forehead lightly, squeezing her arm before turning and walking away down the street. She stood and watched him go, head held high and coat flapping in the light breeze, until he was swallowed by the darkness. Then she wiped the last of the tears from her face, took a deep breath and went back inside.
And because you demanded it: Bonus Track 1