A Frame Job

[madimpossibledreamer]

This took forever because the mercenaries really really didn’t want to be written. So I just didn’t go into detail, and apparently that worked.

Main Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Assassin's Creed (Beginning's End)
Summary: The Council go through negotiations and then discuss.
Word Count: 750
Rating: Teen

        Shaun’s dressed again, still looking feverish and sick. Rebecca ends up half keeping an eye on him and half paying attention to the negotiations between Willow and Makari. They say they’d been told the Council had been keeping their little dyevóchka locked away. Even faked pictures and scents and anything else they’d needed to be convinced—well, they don’t call them fake, but one of the photographs has Xander, who says he’s actually never been to Russia of all places. If they’re acting, they’re pretty good; they’ve got legitimate distress and desperation in their faces and words, and even a pack of bloodthirsty mercenaries would be willing to die for a little girl, but Rebecca can’t quite bring herself to trust them. They hadn’t even been paid. Rebecca believes that, mostly because that’s easy enough to check it’d be a really bad idea to lie about that. Maybe she’s too paranoid, but still. And if it’s true, Makari doesn’t exactly believe them, either. He’s just desperate because they’ve at least severely hurt several of his pack, if not killed them, and he doesn’t think he has a chance if he keeps going. Rebecca believes that, too.
        At least Xander seems to share her sentiments, watching proceedings carefully, eye narrowed, even if he doesn’t interject once. He’s standing within arm’s reach of Shaun, but not too close. Probably not as close as he’d like to be standing, either, but he’s good at compartmentalization and this isn’t the time. They work out that it’s likely the tipsters were probably the ones actually keeping the niece captive, and they’re going to start planning a joint raid that obviously Xander’s going to go on even though he thinks that’s a trap, which clearly also means Shaun and Rebecca are going.
        “You can’t trust them, you know.” Xan barely manages to wait until they’re gone before he voices his own concerns, arms crossed.
        “They weren’t lying; I specifically cast a spell to be sure,” Willow insists, and Xander shakes his head.
        “I know that. They were blue once they called for the truce, and I think they’re probably telling the truth about the niece and it’s not a trap. Just, uh. Thinking about Machiavelli. When the shadiest guy in the room is calling someone shady, you should probably double check what they say, but if anyone’s going to know, it’s them, right? Mercenari will stick around as long as there’s something in it for them, but if there’s a chance they’ll benefit from stabbing you in the back, they will.” And that’s fascinating, because that kind of indicates Desmond’s memories weren’t the only things that transferred. Then again, it’s hard to tell if he’s remembering Desmond experiencing it, or if there’s some sort of recursive memory transfer thing going on from the Animus to Desmond to Xander, and it’s making her head hurt a little.
        “We’ll just have to stay on our toes.” One of the Slayers isn’t concerned. At all.
        “Well, I’ll make sure you’re involved. And we will talk. Later.” Willow fixes Xander with a look. Again, it looks like that just rolls right off his back, like he gets lectured about this kind of stuff all the time, but she’s not letting his reaction discourage her at all, either, so they’ve been friends for a while. And it’s not like she’s not going to have help. Rebecca is totally up for bullying Xan into taking care of himself and not taking risks, one because she really likes him, at this point, and two because she is not putting Shaun back together again. “In the meantime, I think someone is really itching to have an actual verbal conversation with you.” Most of the rest take that as a good cue to leave. Rebecca kind of really wants to listen in on this, and it looks like Willow’s tempted, too, but decides to wave Rebecca over, so they go hang out at what’s left of the crates. Not entirely out of earshot, and if she strains she’d probably be able to overhear, no problem, but they both kind of need the space. She is absolutely nagging Shaun after the fact, though. In the meantime, she’s pretty sure some of the protections on the tablet she’d been given had been magic, which means maybe magic can do the opposite and enhance her already considerable skills, and Willow’s supposedly the expert, right? Might as well sign herself up for Magic and Tech 101, meeting right now.