Dark energy swirled around the five casters. Each one sat at the point of a pentagram that shielded them from the ravages of dimensional energy.
At the head of the pentagram sat a middle-aged man clad in tweed. Sometime during the spell his glasses had slipped off, but he sat unnoticing as rivulets of sweat poured down his face. This was beyond any spell he had ever cast and it was straining his skill to keep the raging power under control.
To his left sat a redhead wearing a long skirt. She sat in a lotus position and breathed deeply and evenly as the spell took its shape under her mind. It drew its form and purpose from her thoughts. It knew what she knew. A few lines formed over her brow as she fought to keep her mind on a specific image. Though the spell was beyond her power, she didn't care. Her purpose was more important.
To his right sat a short, light brown haired woman in a simple dress. She sat serenely as the energy moved through her. She was used to such powers coursing through her body. A few short months ago she could have used such magic's easily. Now, it came with far more difficulty. Her long years of controlling great power caused her to be made one of the anchors for the spell. Sweat coursed down her newly mortal face, and not for the first time she cursed her now fragile body.
Another two women, one brown haired and the other blond were holding the remaining two points. Though neither girl had a real connection to what they sought, their presence helped to power the spell. They were natural witches and the store of energy they possessed was necessary for powering the ancient seeking spell.
The spell drifted through the ether of space and time. It sent its tendrils through the waves of history as it sought out three figures, three lost friends. It drew the signature of the three from the minds of redhead and the librarian clad in tweed for they were the ones that knew the three best.
The man opened his eyes first. He sighed deeply. All his research and divinations had led him to this spell. This spell should have found and mystically tagged those they were looking for. Nothing was found, which could mean a few different things. Perhaps their astral signature was changed, maybe they had some sort of mystical protection, and unfortunately the most likely scenario was that they were de-. No, he wasn't going to think about it.
The redhead burst into tears. Her mouth quivered with emotion. She had been so sure this time. This was the spell that was going to do it. Giles had said so. Everything told her that this was the best way to find them.
The blond winced in sympathy pains. She was a powerful empath and the pain radiating from the redhead eclipsed the fatigue and drain of the other casters. She sent out soothing energy trying to calm the redhead.
Calming down, the redhead shot a grateful look at the blond and mouthed a silent thank you. She moved closer to the librarian and stretched her stiff muscles.
"You said that would work Giles," she said accusingly. "You promised," she continued brokenly. She wrapped her arms around her body and whispered, "He's really not coming back, is he? None of them are coming back!"
"I don't know Willow," Giles replied sadly. He seemed to age before Willow's eyes. He always seemed so vital, so full of energy. Now he just seemed old. "If they were anywhere in time or space, this spell should have sensed their astral signature and allowed us to grab them wherever they were." He rubbed his face and absently reached for his missing glasses. "I don't know what went wrong since the spell clearly worked."
"Your friends are most likely dead," the brunette spoke in a matter of fact voice. "After all a new slayer was called after Faith fell into the portal."
"Yes, thank you for that depressing recap Anya," Giles said while rubbing his glasses. An act he seemed to do most frequently when the former demon revealed just how tactless she could be.
"A-A-Amy and I are going to leave, okay Willow," Tara said. The young empath walked over to the redhead and hugged her, feeding her courage.
"I'm going to leave, Giles and check my notes. Maybe I missed something." Willow sounded defeated.
After all of the young girls left the home of Rupert Giles, the watcher shut his door and sighed. He never felt older than he did at this moment. He didn't realize how much he missed his three missing students, their troubles, their jokes, their life, till they were gone.
It had been six months since Xander, Faith, and Cordelia disappeared, taken through the Hellmouth.
Buffy summers was scared out of her mind. It wasn't the two vampires who thought they were stealthily trailing her. It wasn't her three friends that have been missing for six months.
It was her not so broken arm that was scaring Buffy.
An odd thing to be scared of to be sure, but that didn't dissuade Buffy. Sunday had broken her arm during that first fight two months ago. She was sure of it. She felt the snap. Heard it.
But later that night she was able to use the arm like it was as good as new. She and Angel had surprised Sunday and her minions and Buffy staked Sunday using her supposedly broken arm.
Slayers weren't supposed to heal this fast. A broken arm should have taken a week to heal. Fast, but not this fast.
In addition, in the last two months Buffy had not received a single major injury. Even the ordinary aches and pains that plagued her as a side effect of nightly combat to the death have totally disappeared. She had never felt better in her whole life. The last time Buffy had been seriously injured was during the graduation. She had been a little slow leaving the library and was caught in the explosion that killed the Mayor. She was knocked out for about two hours and Giles found her lying under some rubble. Even before that, she recovered really fast from Angel draining her to cure that poison the mayor used on him.
It worried her, but what was she going to do? Complain to Giles that she was feeling too good and she wasn't getting hurt enough on patrol?
Right.
< This is getting old >
"Come on out guys. I know you've been following me for like two hours. Lets get this over with cause I got class in the morning." Buffy turned around, crossed her arms and began tapping her foot.
Two vampires materialized out of the darkness and advanced on her. They were newbies and the dust from their graves flaked around their bodies as they stalked the blond slayer. Buffy smiled and met them head on.
Angel swept through the same cemetery as Buffy, looking for her. He finished his half of the patrol and was now looking for his friend.
Friend. That's was it.
Sure.
After the disappearance of Xander and the others, Angel felt he had to stay. Despite the problems in their relationship he was not going to abandon Buffy when half of her friends disappear. She needed him and for as long as he was capable he was going to be there for her. They just had to watch out. They needed to make sure he never lost his soul again. That meant that as much as they wanted it to be different, they couldn't be together. Buffy had even tried going out on a few dates with some college guys and Angel was doing his best to be supportive, to be her friend.
And it was killing him.
His sensitive ears heard the sounds of battle up ahead and he could pick out Buffy's distinctive voice over the din of battle. Every pretense of stealth left him and he rushed forward with vampiric speed. He entered the small clearing where Buffy was dueling with a pair of new vampires. He slowed down and stopped to watch.
< God how I love this women >
He watched with a small smile as Buffy played with the two vampires. She ducked a slow punch from the first vampire and grabbed his arm. She flipped him into his friend causing both vampires to crash to the ground. While they were untangling themselves buffy looked up and smiled at Angel. She gave a small wave and tapped her foot impatiently. "I'm not getting any younger here guys, you wanna try a little harder to give me a workout?" Tiring of the vampire's incompetence, she picked up her stake and flicked it into one of the vampires' chest. Grabbing the second vampire around the neck, Buffy gave a short jerk and snapped its neck. Wiping her hands free of the dust Buffy looked up at Angel who was making his way toward her.
"Hey," she smiled. "How was patrol?"
Angel frowned as he remembered why he'd come to find Buffy. "I killed a few vampires and a gra'lock demon. Just a regular night. But I spied those Military guys you saw a few weeks ago. They were carrying some kind of gun and carrying a stunned vampire. I stayed low and got their scent so if I run into one of them without the mask, I'll know."
"We need to tell Giles to step up the research. These guys are bothering me."
Angel paused for a moment and the asked, "Did Giles or Willow call about the spell? Did it work?"
Buffy shook her head sadly. "I should never have let Xander stay with us for the Hellmouth opening. It wasn't his fight."
"Buffy," Angel began softly. "It became his fight the instant he started dating Faith. You know how close they became after Cordelia broke up with him. If you had forbid him from helping, he would never had forgiven you for embarrassing him in front of Faith, and she liked having him for backup."
"I know, but I still miss him," buffy whispered. "I never knew how much he really meant to me, how much he helped keep me going until he wasn't around anymore. How much they all meant." She buried her face in Angels jacket.
Angel wrapped his arms around her and the two of them walked out into the night.
Just friends.
The din in the cavern was deafening. Several jackhammers rattled in different parts of the cavern and to Spikes sensitive ears it sounded like a dragons roar. He snorted at the thought.
< Dragons are bloody quieter than this crap >
Spike poured over the map one last time. He knew the Gem was somewhere in this cavern. The map however was too faded to be sure what area it would be found in.
If he had a pulse it would have quickened at the thought of being this close to the gem of Amara. It made the vampire wearer nearly indestructible. With it he could control the Hellmouth. The only other vampire master in sunnydale right now was that ass Thomas Thorne. < Though that chick of his is hot> what the hell was her name again? < That's right. Killdare. Alicia Killdare > Bah!!! He didn't need some other vampire girl. He's got his Dru back. That was all he ever needed.
She was his again. He proved to her that he was still the same big bad he always had been. She'd forgiven him for that fiasco with Acathla. All it took was a few night of torture with fishhooks and holy water and she was back to being his girl.
He looked up from the map and smiled at Drusilla. She was standing in the middle of the cavern waving her hands about like a conductor. He didn't know if she was conducting the jackhammers, or some sound only she could hear. She was happy and smiling and that was all that mattered.
Spike growled and approached her. She shivered with anticipation and giggled like a schoolgirl when he seized and kissed her savagely on the mouth. He bit down on her tongue and tasted Dru's sweet blood.
Together they danced madly beneath a thousand pounds of rock
Oz came home to the apartment he shared with Willow. After the disappearance of Xander and the others she and Oz became even closer and decided to move in together at the beginning of the college semester. He opened the door to the bedroom that they shared. He saw her at her desk, head resting on a book filled with arcane doodling. He paused and watched her in the dark, his keen senses picking out her features. Oz smiled, a real smile, which he only did alone or with Willow as he studied his life mate.
The stress she put herself under with her full course load and the additional research she put in searching for the missing had taken a toll on the petite redhead. Oz could see the wan features, her sharply drawn cheeks and skeletal neck. Magic burned calories like nothing else and the always slender Willow had become nearly emaciated with the amount of power she was spending. Coupled with her not eating or sleeping much and Oz could clearly sense how much her health has taken a turn for the worse. He had tried to talk with her, to get her to slow down but she refused to listen. Anything was worth the price of Xander and the others.
And Oz could hardly blame her with the role he played in their disappearance. It was the aftermath of that event that inspired him to do research, not for a cure, but for a method of control. His meditations had given him wolf senses in his human form. Not merely scent, but hearing and night vision. He was also slowing learning how to remember his actions as a wolf, the first step in learning eventual control.
He walked silently to Willow and scooped her slight form into his arms. She stirred and half opened her eyes. "Wassup Baby," she yawned.
"Just got home from the set at the frat party," Oz whispered. "Saw you passed out, so I'm moving you."
"Your talking a lot," Willow whispered as he laid her on the bed and peppered her with several small kisses.
"Too tired to be Monosyllabic." He replied sardonically. He lay next to her and curled up against her. He inhaled her scent and let out a soft growl as he snuggled against her. No matter what, Oz was going to support his mate.
Margaret Walsh cracked her neck as sat in front of her computer screen. She frowned as she plunked some keys as she tried to figure out a way to store more information inside the mind of her creation. She was going to need a lot more processing power and memory space for her brainchild.
The problem was both the interface and the storage. Just not enough was known about the human brain for her to be able to figure out a way to connect the cyborg and organic parts of the brain with nonhuman nervous systems.
YOU CAN DO IT MAGGIE
"Thank you Malcolm. I know I will, its just that I can finally see the finish line and I'm getting a little impatient to see the fruits of our labor." Maggie spoke to the voice that emanated from the computer the way she would a respected colleague, and a good deal more respect than she dealt with most of her students or the soldiers under her command.
YOU SOLVED THE PROBLEM OF THE POWER SOURCE AND ORGAN REJECTION DIDN'T YOU. YOU WERE THE ONE WHO FIGUED OUT HOW TO ALIGN MORE THAN A DOZEN DISPARATE ENDOCRINE SYSTEMS. YOU CAN DO THIS TOO.
Maggie leaned back in her chair. " I appreciated the vote of confidence Malcolm, but none of those things would have gotten done if you hadn't given me invaluable insight. Which I still don't know how you managed to gain.
I HAVE LIVED A LONG TIME MARGRET AND I WAS NOT ALWAYS A COMPUTER PROGRAM.
"Soon you will have a body again, my friend and I will be responsible for the most magnificent discovery in science since the completion of the human genome project," She smile as she contemplated her name eventually going down in history as the greatest expert on preternatural biology and surgical techniques.
Knock, Knock.
"Later Malcolm." She closed what she was working on. "Come in."
Captain Riley Finn walked in the room and saluted. "Ma'am, I wanted to let you know that all of the squads have returned and we managed to corral another vampire hostile. The lab boys are preparing the hostile for surgery as we speak."
"Excellent Riley." Maggie smiled at the soldier she considered a son. "Your men are doing an excellent job."
Riley smiled at the complement. "If you'll excuse me ma'am, I have one last paper to grade before class tomorrow." Riley rolled his eyes and laughed. "I've been saving Miss Anya Jenkins for last. Her papers on abnormal psychology are always something to see."
"She does have a rather unique view about certain aspects of the mind." Dr. Walsh raised her eyebrow as she watched the young military man flush as he spoke about the coed.
It seemed that young Mr. Finn was quite taken with Anya Jenkins.
The sun shined brightly as it always did in suunydale, as if the brightness and beauty of the day could counteract the shadows the hellmouth cast upon the city at night. The campus of UC sunnydale was packed with kids who were studying on the grass outside.
Buffy Summers walked along the tree lined walk way down to the psychology building with Willow and Anya. Abnormal psychology was the only class Buffy shared with both of her friends.
< Snort >
Buffy still found it hard to believe that she could actually call herself friends with the former vengeance demon Anyanka. But the girl had more than a thousand years of experience in the demon realms and she proved invaluable in stopping the Mayors ascension. The knowledge of his weakness came from her and she bravely stayed behind to help prep the explosives despite her newfound mortality. Sure Anya had no sense of tack, was rude, abrasive, and seemed to have an overly strong desire to share about her lack of a sex life but on the whole Buffy was glad to have her as a friend.
The fact that Harmony's dating issues were the reason for Anya's new found mortality caused Buffy to burst out laughing every time the thought entered her mind.
"I am exceptionally pleased with the results Riley Finn received on my Cosmo compatibility test, " Anya was telling willow and Buffy as they walked to psychology. "Plus, his hand and shoe size suggest a large penis and I am eager to find out if my estimates are accurate."
"Uh Anya, you haven't actually met Riley yet. How could you take a compatibility test for him?" Willow asked, not even touching the second part. Buffy just smiled and rolled her eyes.
Anya waved that fact off as if it was a trifling matter that was irrelevant to the subject at hand. "Please, I have not dealt with no good for nothing cheating men for ten centuries without being able to read people. He used to be in the military. Based on his height he must drink his milk, and his smile suggests that his parents must have paid for braces and whitening fluid. The calluses on his hand suggest he grew up on a farm. Everything else is extra."
Buffy perked up at hearing that Riley used to be in the military. "How do you know that Anya?" In the past Anya had demonstrated that she possessed an uncanny ability to read people, particularly nasty men. She had saved Buffy's behind when Buffy started to fall for a slick senior named Parker.
"Easy, it's the way he holds himself." Anya shrugged her shoulders. "Soldiers hold themselves straight and stand in a way no one else duplicates. Not even slayers," she added before Buffy could interrupt, "because of the differences in the way soldiers and slayers are trained."
They stopped the conversation as they reached the classroom. The three of them stopped by Riley's desk to pick up their papers he had graded. He smiled at them, mostly directing those white teeth toward Anya. Anya returned the smile with a direct assessing gaze, and Buffy could not help but notice that her eyes dipped toward his crotch subtly or the wide and not subtle smile that broke on her face when her gaze met his eyes again. Anya leaned forward to give him a good view of her breasts and was about to speak when professor Walsh entered the room looking flustered and if buffy didn't know better, upset.
"Girls get to your seats," she snapped with much more rancor than she normally mustered.
Anya shot professor Walsh a death glare as the three girls took to their seats and prepared for another day of exciting abnormal psychology.
"Buffy there is a polgara nest in the sewer system. Angel ran into a couple of them and trailed them back to their lair. Even for him, that number of polgara is too many to take on by himself. It will take all of us to kill them." Giles shook his head as he saw his slayer was once again distracted from the matter at hand. He sighed and asked, "What is it Buffy?"
Buffy looked at Giles sadly. "I was just thinking that another slayer would be useful right about now and it got me started thinking about-," She trailed off. "It's just, I never knew how much I relied on them, all of them until they were gone. Now it'll be too late forever to tell them how much they mean to me. Faith was like another sister to both Dawn and me. Xander was like my strong right arm. Someone I could rely on because no matter what, quit wasn't in his vocabulary. And Cordy," Buffy and Giles both smiled, "Cordy was a walking reality check for all of us."
"I agree with you. Those three, despite the arguments they had were people worthy of respect and are greatly missed by everyone who knew them."
"Even you Giles?" Buffy asked with a teasing smile. It was no secret that the frequent screaming matches between Faith and Cordelia over Xander caused the reserved brit no end of consternation.
Giles smiled at his slayer. "Yes even I miss them."
Growing serious, buffy asked "Is there anything else we can try Giles?"
"Short of opening the hellmouth ourselves and rummaging around inside I can't think of anything."
"That's not sounding like such a crazy idea right about now," Buffy said seriously.
"No, its really not."
Maggie Walsh rubbed her eyes as they began to blur from staring at the computer screen too much. The math just wasn't coming together; she just could not solve the information storage problem. She was never going to get Adam off the ground if she couldn't find the solution. At least Riley had found a nest of polgara demons that they could kill and harvest. One thing was going to go right tonight.
DON'T THINK LIKE THAT MAGGIE. I KNOW YOU WILL FIND THE SOLUTION.
"I once again thank you for the vote of confidence but I don't think our current level of scientific knowledge is up to the task." She sounded defeated
IF SCIENCE WILL NOT DO WHAT YOU NEED, WHY DON'T YOU TRY MAGIC? I KNOW A SPELL THAT MIGHT DO THE TRICK.
Maggie snorted. "Magic is far too unstable for this kind of delicate operation. It is too easily dispelled and far too chaotic for information storage in Adam."
DO NOT POO-POO MAGIC MARGERET, IT CAN DO NEARLY ANYTHING IF YOU CAN FIND THE RIGHT SPELL.
A stream of words began to flicker across the screen. When Maggie took a closer look she saw it was an incantation and a list of ingredients for a spell designed to preserve memories the caster wanted to never forget. < Interesting, I wonder if I could alter it to…>
I BELIEVE THIS SPELL CAN HELP YOU CIRUMVENT THE DIFFICULTIES YOU ARE HAVING UNTIL SCIENCE CAN 'CATCH UP' WITH YOUR VISION.
"Thank you Malcolm, I can definitely get this to work for me." Maggie smiled as visions of Nobel prizes danced before her gaze. She swiftly turned off the monitor when she heard a knock at the door.
"Come in."
Riley walked into the room dressed in his black operating fatigues. "We're about ready to leave, Dr. Walsh. I just wanted to let you know in case you had in last minute changes in your orders." Walsh could hear the note of hope in his voice. Her orders had been particularly strict on this mission. They were to inflict a minimum amount of damage on the demons and they were to bring back the carcasses as intact as possible. That meant that they could not use the more effective armor piercing rounds on the Polgara's, which meant that the job was suddenly a lot harder than a simple demon- killing mission.
"My order's have not changed Captain." She said coldly. Then in a softer tone she continued, "My order's are for a good reason Riley. Please don't question them."
"Yes ma'am."
Maggie smiled and waved her hands, "Go and be safe Riley."
"I have a plan." Buffy's announcement was met with slight groans from the others. Her plans never worked the why they were supposed to. She, Angel, Anya, Willow, Oz, Giles, Amy, and Tara were hovering around the entrance to the part of the sunnydale sewer where the Polgaras were living. She searched the faces of the others and saw a couple of people yawning as they held their weapons. "Here it is. The sewers are way too cramped to fight them. We won't have any room to maneuver" her gaze went to Tara. "I know your witch power is empathy. Can you project feelings of lust or something and lead them over there?" Buffy pointed to an old cemetery near where they were. It was Quiet Grove, one of the first cemeteries in Sunnydale and one filled with large trees and enough gravestones to give cover from any cops that might actually brave the night.
Tara's lowered her face and her hair created a curtain blocking her eyes from buffy. "I-I-I think I-I-I can do that. Demon emotions are weird though. I can generate something to get them into the graveyard but I can't guarantee any specific emotion. Their j-j-just too hard to pinpoint." Tara looked sheepish at not being able to help Buffy.
Buffy smiled kindly at her. "Do what you can. I'm sure it will be enough."
Amy looked at Tara and gave her a proud look. "She can do it. She is the strongest empathy my mother or I have ever heard of." Amy looked a little sick at the thought. When she broke free from her mother's possession she kept some of her mother's memories and Tara indeed was a powerful empathy. Empathy was one of the rarest witch gifts because not only can she sense or project emotions. She can use her emotions to power her magic.
The Scooby's made their way to the graveyard and hopped the gate. Giles motioned to the spell casters to hide behind several of the larger tombstones and statues while he, Angel, and Buffy stood in the open weapons at the ready. Oz took his place beside Willow and hefted a heavy crossbow while Anya hefted a large axe. Angel could swear he heard her mutter a Viking prayer under her breath.
Tara closed her eyes and her hand sought out Amy's on its own. She clutched her girlfriends' hand and took several slow deep breaths as her thumbs gently rubbed Amy's soft hand. Her pulse quickened the way it always did and she felt the power coil around that particular emotion. She visualized it as golden light that suffused her entire being. She gathered that light into a ball that rose to the top of her head. Tara unleashed that power with a mighty mental blast and she was rocked back with sudden overwhelming lust. Tara began to hyperventilate in unison with Amy as she clutched the other girl like a lifeline.
Amy felt the urge to grab Tara right there and damn anyone who saw. She felt the power that Tara released and lust washed over her. Her nipples hardened, she grew moist and she squeezed the hand of Tara so hard she forced the blood out. "I am so going to rock your world tonight," Amy grunted.
The others also sensed the massive release of lust by Tara. Oz raised his eyebrow and Willow moved uncomfortably. Giles rubbed his glasses and shifted his pants while he made a silent vow to call Olivia again very soon. Anya licked her lips and made a silent vow to own Riley Finn. Buffy glanced at Angel while breathing heavily. She saw him stoically look straight ahead; the only sign of stress a sheen of blood sweat that dripped from his brow. Buffy fought the urge to drag Angel to the ground and ravage him. A skill she had perfected over the years.
A few minutes passed and the group waited for the demons to come out. Angel was the first to hear the demons with his enhanced hearing. He motioned for the group to make ready for the demons attacked.
They didn't have long to wait.
"Captain Finn, I got a couple of weird things on the pheromone scanner and the heat detectors." Graham motioned to the scanners in his hand.
Riley held up his hand and stopped the march of his squad of six soldiers. Pulling off his mask he asked, "What do you got?"
Graham said, "The polgara hostile's pheromones just jumped off the chart. I think they just went into heat. They're on the move. Heading this way through Quiet Grove Cemetery."
"Weapons up and eyes ready, " Riley snapped. His gaze went to Graham. "What else Soldier?"
"We got a mob of cold bodies heading straight toward the same cemetery and about a half dozen warm bodies just waiting to get caught between the both of them." Cold bodies were the field term for vampires in case they were ever overheard.
Riley straightened up and looked around. "This just became a rescue mission, soldiers. We're going to keep the civvies alive even if we have to plug the polgaras to do it."
"Walsh won't like that," Forrest, Riley's second in command said.
Riley growled, "Let her complain. I signed up to protect Americans from enemies foreign and domestic and these guys are about as foreign as they come." Riley pulled down his mask and strode off. "Everyone switch blasters from stun to lethal."
Forrest stood there for a second and then reluctantly switched his blaster to lethal and followed behind.
For nearly eight-foot tall demons with spikes in their arms, they sure were agile. The Polgara demons leapt the tall fence like it nothing. Buffy could hear the pop as the two foot long spikes shot from their arms as they rushed the scoobies that were out in the open. She felt more than saw Angel shift into game face and Giles unleash the Ripper.
Buffy met the first Polgara with a smash to its face from her axe and sent it flying. Angel dropped another with a viscous barehanded combination that cracked the Polgara's armored skin. Giles ducked the blows from another polgara and drove his sword into a gap in the creatures skin.
Others quickly replaced the three they stunned. The nest had more than a dozen members and the scoobies merely dealt the first blow.
Thomas Thorne smelled the night air and rubbed his shaved head. Fifteen minutes ago he'd been inside his lair and warm with Alicia draped over him. She'd promised some extra games that night. But no, his scout had to find out the slayer was a block away with all of her little friends. Thorne would have preferred to lay low for a few more weeks to build his brood up but twenty members should be plenty.
< Just have to wait till whatever their gonna fight softens them up >
He smiled at his consort. Alicia returned with a small nip in his direction and her emerald eyes promised lots of fun tonight after the spot of violence with the slayer. Truth be told he heard lots of interesting things about the Sunnydale slayer. He knew his slayer lore and no other slayer in history had broken from the council. She was the same one to send Spike packing with his tail between his legs and to kill the Master and Kakistos, two of the most ancient vampires in existence. Stopping the pack with an upraised hand, he silently motioned to Alicia. Taking his meaning she took half his force and circled around to the opposite side of the cemetery so they can catch the slayer in between the two halves of the vampire pack.
Thomas Thorne was indeed interested in meeting this Slayer.
Willow wiped the blood that dripped from her nose. She swayed a little and took a few deep breaths to steady herself as she focused her will on the nearest Polgara and sent him flying with a telekinetic shove. Willow stumbled to her knee. These demons were a hell of a lot tougher than the vampires she normally helped Buffy with. Dizzily she looked around to assess the battle.
Oz had done an admirable job of keeping the demons away from her with his crossbow and Zen-like precision aim. A quick count put half of the demons down in the first few minutes but at a cost. Giles was on the ground and not getting up and Anya was barely holding her own. Of the two champions, Buffy was unhurt although her clothes had torn in several places, and Angel was bleeding from bad wounds in his shoulder and thigh.
< We aren't doing so bad > Willow thought to herself. Summoning up her flagging strength she stumbled to her feet and threw her self back into the fray.
Alicia Killdare easily led her group over the fence into Quiet Grove cemetery. As one of the oldest Cemeteries in town it had some remarkably thick foliage and her group slipped into the cemetery without notice. The tall blond sniffed the air and smiled at the scent of mortal and demon blood. She could smell vampire, werewolf, normals, and one scent she could not place. The blood was tangy, and strong with an almost electric after scent. Alicia smiled at the thought of killing whatever had such a pungent blood scent. Perhaps she and Thomas could share.
She and her vampires stalked with the careful silence only the dead can master until she spied the battle. The slayer and her pet vampire were doing well against the polgara although several of her more fragile mortal friends sported rather painful looking injuries. She spotted a pretty, pouty-lipped blond hiding behind a large gravestone casting magicks of some kind at the demons. Like a wraith, Alicia slipped around the gravestones between her and the blond and crept up to her. Alicia clapped a hand over her mouth and whispered, "Hey there sexy." Alicia licked her neck and pricked her with elongated fangs.
At her action vampires came from ever direction to encircle the Scooby's.
< Stupid close range power > Amy cursed the nature of her witch power. All natural witches developed their own personal power that they could use. Willow possessed a moderate strength telekinesis, Tara was a strong empathy, and Amy could generate fire same as her mother.
Of course it was about as strong as a big cigarette lighter, which meant that she had to get uncomfortably close to use her ability.
Amy blasted a Polgara that strayed too close to her and then took a quick look behind her at Tara. She glanced at her lover to make sure she was still safe and her eyes widened at the sight of a blond, lithe vampiress leaning over Tara's throat.
"Buffffy!!" Amy shrieked. "Vampires!!"
Not even stopping to see how Buffy responded, Amy took off at a run toward her love. Flames sprouted from in between her fingers and her hands wreathed themselves in fire. Reaching her Tara she lashed out at the vampire holding her with a fiery fist that impacted the female vampire's cheek.
Alicia flew back and patted her singed cheek. "Bitch, " she growled, "I'm so gonna rip out your heart and suck on the juices." Alicia rushed toward Amy and ducking a second wild swing, she struck Amy in face knocking her to the ground.
Tara touched her blood soaked collar and the meek girls eyes narrowed at the sight of the blond vampire standing over her beloved. She pointed a finger and uttered a single word.
"Boil."
The effect was immediate. The blond vampire doubled over in pain and night air wavered with heat the emanated from the vampire.
Tara concentrated and poured more power into the spell.
"Bufffy!!! Vampires!!!"
Buffy ducked a blow from the arm spike from a Polgara demon and looked behind her. And saw a legion of undead that seemed to materialize from every direction lead by big vampire with a shaved head. He looked like a biker with his ripped leather jacket and silver studded belt. Buffy suddenly noticed what Anya was talking about. Despite his scruffy appearance, he carried himself like a soldier, a warrior born and bred.
< Why don't my plans ever work right? We were doing so well > Buffy whined to herself. She dropped to the ground and spun around catching the Polgara behind the knee dropping the larger creature. Flipping back to her feet, she looked to Angel who was a little worse for wear from the battle. "Recognize our friend over there?"
Angel grimaced. "Looks like Thomas Thorne. He's a contemporary of Darla. Angelus thought he was a boring ass. He's smart, patient and his brood is really loyal to him. He's actually a good leader and he's killed at least one slayer in single combat."
Buffy sighed. "I hate happy vampire families." She looked softy at Angel for a moment and then ran forward. Angel hobbled after her, slowed by his wounds. He watched as Buffy sent a blurring series of attacks toward Thorne, which he evaded as easily as if she told him where she was going to strike.
Tara poured on the power. Hot blood streamed from the nose and mouth of the blond vampire and she lay on the ground in a fetal position shaking.
Amy stood up and turned to see even more vampires come from every direction. Out of the corner of her eye she saw buffy start to fight the leader. A pair of vampire approached her. A blast of fire consumed the one in the lead and the other suddenly decided to go after easier prey. Like the souled vampire. Amy's power might not be the strongest of the three, but hers was the best for vampire killing.
A yelp of pain made her turn around and she saw Tara laying on the ground a vampire standing over her. The blond vampiress stood up and swayed weakly. She wiped the warm blood off her face with the back of her hand and walked over to Tara. "Your going to live for a long time before I kill you," and punctuated her fury with a swift kick to Tara's ribs.
"Stay the Hell away from her you bitch." Amy screamed and once again rushed forward to the aid of her beloved. Amy stopped short when a vampire behind her grabbed her hair and jerked her around. A punch dropped her to the ground and kept her head fogged enough so she couldn't concentrate on her power. The vampire picked her up and tossed Amy over the nearest tombstone.
Amy looked around and saw several vampires advancing menacingly.
Anya coughed. < I wonder if vampire dust cause cancer > you have to think about that sort of thing when you're a fragile mortal. She might be 1119 years old but if she wanted to live to see twenty-one she had to be careful. She evaded a blow from one of the still active polgara demons and darted forward to embed her axe into the throthgar organ on the side of his abdomen. The demon fell to the ground, a fountain of blood erupting from his side. Anya shook her head.
Polgaras were so easy to kill.
Anya sighed and turned on another vampire that tried creeping up behind her. You didn't get to be 1100 years and thrive in D'hoffran's court by being easy to ambush. She dodged the first punch but the second caught her in the stomach.
Of course for 1100 years she had super strength and the power to regenerate wounds.
Oz calmly lifted his crossbow and fired again. The fiberglass weapon hummed with accuracy and sent a bolt right through the heart of an approaching vampire. That was the third one he had killed. Willow had nearly passed out from the magical exertion. She was totally tapped out of power, especially since she had performed such a powerful spell only the night before. Oz was grimly firing bolt after bolt but he was nearly out of things to fire. He had used most of his ammunition during the fight with the polgara demons and was rapidly running out.
He was reloading the crossbow when a vampire grabbed him and ripped the weapon out of his hand. The vampire forced him to his knees.
Willow blinked her eyes and saw that oz was in trouble. She tried to stand but couldn't move very much. Willow reached deep inside and felt the guttering spark of her magic reserves.
"Incinerate." The vampire burst into flames and Willow sagged against the tombstone. Several more vampires approached and grabbed both Oz and Willow. Willow raised her hands but nothing happened. She was just too tired.
Angel watched buffy in a brutal fight with Thomas. He couldn't help but worry about her. He limped forward but thanks to the polgara wound in his leg he was nowhere near fast enough to catch up to her. A group of vampires surrounded him.
"Angelus." One whispered.
"Betrayer," said another. Angel grimaced. Thomas was unique among vampire masters. He trained his children in pack tactics and fighting techniques. He ran his brood like an army and they were very effective. Angel wasn't looking forward to this fight.
The vampires sprang together as one. Angel grabbed one and swung him around and slammed him into another couple of minions. He slammed his foot down on the neck of one of the vampires severing it. At the same time Angel struck out blindly with an elbow catching another vampire in the chin, dropping him to the floor. Spinning around he tried to keep away from allowing any of the vampires from getting near his back. One vampire jumped off a gravestone and clapped arm around his neck. Angel dropped to a knee and flipped the unfortunate vampire forward into a large tree. Where a branch pierced his heart.
Before Angel could struggle to his feet, a half-dozen vampires bore him to the ground.
"So you're the famous slayer that got all those brits in a panty twist," Thorne said while smiling. "Thought you'd be taller." He grabbed buffy and slammed his forehead into her face. Everyone heard the audible crack of her nose. Blood streamed down her face. A backhanded blow sent her stumbling and ripped her pants.
"You are so going to pay for that," Buffy growled. "I love these pants. She sent a flurry of blows that drove the large vampire back several paces. She launched a kick aimed at Thorne's head. He ducked the blow and caught her foot in a vice-like grip. " I think there's a gap somewhere in slayer training. This is how I killed the last one." He smiled at the horrified looking Buffy and brought his elbow down on the slayers knee.
"AAAHHH."
The battle stopped for a moment as everyone stood in shock as the vampire tossed the crippled slayer to the ground. His voice clearly carried over the battleground. "Your leg is broken slayer. Your friends are surrounded by my pack. You're all going to die tonight."
Buffy's hazel eyes blinked clear of the pain and her voice carried just as strongly. "No we aren't."
"Who's going to stop me? Your gimpy pet vampire?" Thomas Thorne pointed at Angel who had been surrounded, and he smiled. "Gather them up, we'll take them back to the warehouse. He smiled at the captured Scooby gang. " You're going to be my guests at a feast."
Just then a cracking bolt of blue electricity hit Thorne in the chest and Thomas flew back and crashed into several of his minions. Thomas shook his head clear and saw what hit him. Looked like a big guy in black fatigues carrying some kind of plastic looking gun. About six other guys who looked the same came from behind him blasting the other vampires in his pack with those blue bolts. The weaker vampires collapsed into dust while the stronger vampires were merely stunned.
Buffy could feel a burning sensation in her leg and the muscles began to cramp. Buffy couldn't believe what was happening. Her leg, which was very broken, was starting to straighten out. The external wound was sealing up and she could feel the bone fusing together. She felt a tingling sensation in her nose and could only assume that was also healing.
She was definitely going to have to ask Giles about this.
Anya looked up to see the vampire in front of her turn to dust courtesy of a gun-wielding soldier. When she looked around she saw several other soldiers blasting vampires. She saw the lead soldier rush forward to engage the leader in hand to hand. < He has pleasingly broad shoulders. Too pleasing. > She thought as she squinted suspiciously at the soldier. Her eyes darted to his pants and they widened. < Riley > her mind whispered.
Grabbing her axe she rushed forward. <You better not be evil… >
Thomas stood up. His chest burned like never before. He saw the large soldier coming at him, stake in one hand and blaster in the other. Struggling to his feet, he blocked the first strike to the heart and gripped the soldier's wrist so he couldn't aim his blaster. Thorne kicked the soldier in the back of his leg and punched the soldier in the chin. He went down like a sack of potatoes.
Thomas cracked his neck and began to smirk. A smirk that died when he saw the slayer whose leg he had broken stand up. Very healed.
It was Buffy's time to smile. "Its my turn now."
Willow tried to focus. She really did. But nothing was working. Vampires surrounded her and Oz. Oz was still struggling but Willow could barely summon the energy to keep her eyes open.
"Leave Red alone." A smoky voice called out.
Willow craned her head. That voice was so distinctive. It belonged to the love of her best friend's life. Faith.
She saw woman in a black leather coat with a cascade of dark brown hair that coiled past her shoulders. A pair of sunglasses perched on her nose. Only Faith could smile like that. That smile of perfect confidence. But she was too old. Faith was 17; a year younger than Xander but this girl was about twenty-five.
Willow murmured, "Faith?"
"Got it in one, Little Red Riding Hood." Only Faith ever called her that. Thought it was funny cause Oz is the big bad wolf.
Faith's hips swayed and creaked in their leather casing as she beckoned the vampires surrounding Oz and Willow. "Can't leave me hanging Boys," Her throaty voice teased. Three vampires rushed her as one. Moving faster than anything Willow has ever seen Faith rolled around their blows. A swift punch sent a vampire flying into a statue, which broke apart. Spinning around she drove her knee into another vampire. The rush of his dusting punctuates the sound of that vampire's ribs shattering. The last vampire began backing away, hands up. Faith pouted. "Can't be leaving so soon," she whispered.
Willow's not certain about what happens next. The vampire is backing up and a bright flash and then the vampire was blown to dust.
And a dull glow seemed to surround Faiths hands.
Tara rocked back, a drop of bloody spittle dripping from the corner of her chin. Alicia slapped her again. Amy was being held by a pair of vampires in front of Tara, a purplish bruise forming on her face.
< ConfidencesexypowerfuloldCORDELIA >
A wave of emotions overpowered Tara and sagged in her captor's arms. Someone was here. Someone with more power than anything she has ever encountered in her life. It was at that moment that she heard the tap of heels on stone.
Alicia turned around and saw a beautiful brunet with hair that hung well past her shoulders. She wore a white leather coat and white silk pants that hung loose around her legs. She had a compact out and appeared to be running her fingers through her hair and studying her reflection in the mirror. "Who the Hell are you?"
"You better hope I'm not the fashion police cause you'd get the death penalty." She shrugged her shoulders and laughed. "But then what do you expect from a race that can't see themselves in the mirror."
"I'm going to kill you, bitch," Alicia roared and rushed forward dropping Tara to the ground.
The mysterious woman smiled. "No, your really not." Her eyes flashed white, like they suddenly turned to smoke and so did the eyes of Alicia and the two vampires holding Amy.
< FearregretshameremorsefearOHGOD >
Tara was suddenly overwhelmed by emotions being felt by the three vampires. They were feeling overwhelmingly of pain and regret. But that was impossible. Vampires didn't feel those things. They couldn't.
The three vampires backed away, their eyes wide as they looked around. Alicia stared in horror at her bloody hands and the other two vampires looked even worse. They turned around and ran off.
The brunet in white walked over to Amy. "Hi Amy," she said softy.
"Cordelia!!" Came the incredulous reply
"Yeah its me." She smiled. "Its amazing how fast vampires run when you give them a taste showing them what a soul is like." She laughed. "Its like they can't live with a little guilt."
Angel struggled underneath the pile of vampires. He was easily strong enough to move two maybe three vampires, but not five. They were digging into his skin with their teeth and his previous wounds burned. He heard two pops and felt the pile suddenly become lighter. He could smell the vampire dust in the air. Forcing several of the vampires off him, he saw a hand extend forward, but the bodies prevented him from seeing the face of whoever was helping him. But nothing prevented him from hearing a voice that he thought he would never hear again.
"Miss me dead boy?"
"Xander?"
The hand jerked him to his feet and now he saw the smiling face of the boy who had hated him since the day they met. Same damn smile but he looked older. Stubble graced his face, real stubble. Not the kind that teenagers try and fail to get, but the kind that turned a goofy young man into a dangerous looking one. He saw Xander rub his face and look toward Buffy. He clearly heard Xander mutter, "Well that's unexpected."
< BUZZ >
"Xander?"
Buffy heard that question and paused in her battle against Thomas Thorne. Her second wind seem to be working much better than her first wind. Whatever is healing her seems to be doing it faster. Several times during the fight Thorne had clearly broken her ribs but after a few moments they seemed to heal same as her leg. A dull pain pounded in her head and it only seemed to clear when she heard Angel say ' Xander' loudly.
Buffy made the mistake of turning to see what Angel was talking about. Thorne took that momentary lapse of concentration and threw all his weight into a punch that launched Buffy through the air. She slammed into the base of a large statue.
Shaking the cobwebs from her mind, she looked up and saw… Xander?
"Hey, Buff. That wasn't very smart of you was it?" Xander smiled and pulled Buffy to her feet.
"Xander…but…how…" Buffy tried to ask the questions that were running through her mind but there were so many they tripped over themselves.
"Hold that thought." Xander pointed with thumb back at Thorne. "We still got the biker general to deal with." With that Xander turned around and leaped practically the whole distance between him and Thomas Thorne. Buffy could almost swear she saw his eyes become yellow.
She saw Xander move almost lazily and avoid the blows from the big vampire. As fast as Thorne seemed to move, Xander seemed to move even slower but none of the blows connected. An open palm strike delivered lightly to the vampires chest sent him stumbling back. Xander followed up with a kick the dropped him to the ground. Xander leapt up and jumped down on Thorne, but at the last second something seemed to distract both of them and Thorne evaded the blow. Xander cocked his ear.
Angel could hear the police sirens. He was surprised to notice that so could apparently Xander. Only vampires should be able to hear them at this distance. He moved to go to Buffy's side when a soldier appeared before him, blaster in hand and covered in vampire dust. Angel could tell that this soldier was black and Angel was about to speak when the blaster came up and shot him. The blast rocked him back. Were he a younger vampire he would surely have been killed. As it was it stunned him painfully and his last thought before sinking into unconsciousness was of Buffy.
< Her hair looks so beautiful in the moonlight >
Thomas watched the three newcomers that had so effectively killed some of his eldest children. With the oncoming sirens he decided it was best to leave. "Everybody lets go." He waved his hands in a circular motion. "Lets blow this joint."
As he was gathering his stragglers he noticed the black soldier heft the betrayer Angelus over his shoulder and likewise order his men to retreat. The five soldiers left without notice, leaving only one of their members behind. He saw the black soldier take a long look at the downed one for a long moment before sounding the retreat and leaving him there.
"Does Giles still live at the same place?" Xander asked. He ran over to Willow and Oz and began checking them over worriedly.
"Yes." Both Buffy and Cordelia answered in unison. Buffy looked over at Cordelia and then Faith in surprised joy.
"You're here. How, what? " Buffy looked overjoyed at her friends return but confused as well.
"Sure am B."
"There's no time for this Buffy." Cordelia said annoyed. " I can appreciate the questions but we got to get the hell out of here. Cordelia gathered up Willow and swung her over her shoulder with ease.
"Can you guys walk?" Tara, Amy, Oz, and Anya all nodded their assent.
Faith walked over to Giles and picked him up and threw him over her shoulder. She patted his ass. "Don't worry G, I won't take advantage of your vulnerable state."
Anya pointed at the downed soldier. "Bring him. I think I know who he is." And her eyes narrow. < He's going to be in so much trouble >
Xander shrugged his shoulders and easily picked up the unconscious Mr. Finn. The group was making their way to exit when Buffy suddenly stopped the group. She looked around eyes wide.
"Where's Angel?"
The soldiers moved down the street keeping to the shadows, Forrest taking the lead with the unconscious Angel slung across his shoulders.
"What the hell man?"
Forrest turned around and looked at an irate Graham. "What." He asked.
"You left Riley behind. Why?"
"This whole mission is a royal fuck up and you know why?" Forrest poked Graham in the chest. "Riley is a fucking loser as a leader. Walsh gave us a direct order and we didn't do it cause he wanted to play the big fucking hero. She's going to have our Asses for this. Something like this could mean our career. It's not like we can just move to a different base. We are stuck here. We got to do our best cause our only promotions will be through the initiative." Forrest was breathing hard at the end of his diatribe.
Graham got in his face. "Listen up fucker. Were going to drop your boy off at the base and then were going to move and get our captain back. When we do, I hope he kicks your black ass!"
Graham stormed off leaving Forrest and the other soldiers behind.
"Sire, Sire." The young vampire broke into the bedchamber of Spike and Drusilla. He saw his sire nearly naked, with only a light sheet covering his slender form. His companion stirred slightly, a smile visible through the curtain of her dark hair.
"There better be bloody good explanation 'ere mate," Spike muttered. Ignoring the presence of his child he stood up and grabbed his jeans.
The vampire could not help but smile in excitement. "The workers found the treasury sire."
"Is the Gem there?" Even spike could not feign disinterest in the possibility of finally discovering the powerful Gem of Amara.
"No one has entered the treasure chamber, just like you ordered." Spike could not help but smile. They'd never be masters if they weren't willing to risk a little death threat. Oh well them being spineless meant fewer dominance plays from the minions.
The two of them strode into the large central chamber of the underground temple. Workers appeared to be talking excitedly amongst themselves. The minion took Spike to the newest opening.
Spike stepped through the entrance and breathed deeply of the imprisoned air. He looked around at mounds of gold, silver, and gems. Those things he ignored. He opened his vampire senses, letting his instincts guide. It was a little trick Dru taught him. They led him to a small bowl piled high with gems. Rummaging around in them, he found a simple gold band, with a teardrop shaped emerald set in it. Lifting it to the light he found himself hypnotized by its beauty. For a single moment, spike felt a poetic urge. It really was beautiful. He squelched it with vigor. Such thought were unmanly, and UN spike-like.
"So you're the itty, bitty bauble with all the powers," he murmured.
He walked back into the main chamber. All of the servants crowded around him, trying to get a good look at the gem. One of them asked, "What now boss?"
Still mesmerized by the Gem, Spike slipped the ring on his fingers and smiled. "Don't worry mates, the party is just starting. Plenty of favors for everybody."
"Where's Angel?"
Everyone could hear the note of panic in Buffy's voice. Xander and the others looked around. Angel was gone and the sirens were drawing closer. Tara said, "I think I saw one of those masked soldier guys take him."
"We have to look for him. Track them." Buffy looked around trying to find a trail she could use.
"We don't have time Buffy. We got to get Giles and Willow out of here."
"But, But." Buffy's eye's shone with worry.
"But nothing." Buffy could hear the note of command in Xander's voice; command that had not been there when she last saw Xander. "We'll get everybody safe, then we can question the Boy Scout here, and we'll find out what happened to Angel." Xander shook the unconscious commando on his back.
Buffy nodded and the reunited scoobies took off into the night, sirens on their heels.
Darkness closed around him. He'd been imprisoned for so long. Millennia. Then the ring that was the key to his prison was picked and cracks began to show in his prison. He could feel the mind of his releaser, chaotic, passionate, and filled with a dark obsession that straddled love and hate.
Extending his senses beyond the ring bearer, he found many weaker minds.
Unsuitable minds.
Then he found her. A mind that rushed with thoughts, feelings, emotions. He could feel her insanity. Taste it. The mind was almost child-like in her malevolence. Innocently cruel.
And so very easy to manipulate.
It was a mind that needs order. That sought it. Normally her lover imposed that order, but now he would impose it.
He whispered dark secrets into her thoughts. Told her of pathways that had not been walked in thousands of years. Spells of ancient power, whose words of command had not been uttered since the days of True Demons, when his kind walked the earth, lowest of the demon races.
His people would rise. Blood would pour from the heavens, and night will blot out the sky.
Drusilla slowly stretched like a cat and came awake. Immediately she noticed that Spike was not next to her and whimpered plaintively. Pulling off her covers she slunk over to her dollhouse naked and snatched up Miss Edith. Miss Edith would comfort her until Spike came back. He could always calm the voices.
Aside from Spike, Miss Edith was the only thing that could soothe both her beast and her demons. Walking back to their shared bed she flung her self onto it. She cuddled the worn doll began to whisper to it. The way a teenager would whisper to her friend.
"Me thinks our spike has found the pretty ring." Dru stared at her doll and cocked her head, listening to the doll as it whispered in her ear. "Miss Edith," she giggled with false shock. "That's quite the naught thought. Spike will love it."
Spike entered his chamber in the underground temple, a pensive look on his face. He had the ring of Amara now. He could not be killed, yet beyond finding the ring he hadn't thought of a plan. Besides kill the slayer of course.
Drusilla watched as her lover played with the emerald ring on his finger. "Spike," she laughed. "Miss Edith gave me the nastiest thoughts."
"Tell me all 'bout it luv, but for gods sake put on some clothes. You'll distract the minions." Spike sat in the corner of their bed as he watched as Drusilla grabbed a black lace skirt and a pearl gray corset. An outfit like that wouldn't do much to prevent the minions from being distracted. He watched her as she dressed, tracing the lines of her beautiful but emaciated features with his eyes. Drusilla had started starving herself while being tortured by Angelus. After she was turned, her body never recovered the weight. Spike had tried everything to get her to look better, but nothing worked. He hated that she looked as frail as she did, even if he knew it was a lie.
"Spike?" Drusilla drew out his name with kittenish purr distracting him from his thoughts. "Don't you feel different here Spike? Stronger? Doesn't your blood sing here?"
Spike considered for a moment. "I 'ave been feeling extra peckish now that you mention it luv. Why is that? What's 'ere?"
Drusilla danced around the room slowly swaying to music only she could hear. "This is the lost temple to Amara, the Blood God. The god of vampires." Leaning down conspiratorially she whispered, "Miss Edith whispered to me where the secret holy places are, places with awful magic secrets. Magic's to make us better, to make us stronger. Secrets lost to the night and the stars don't tell secrets." She looked at Spike with her sad expressive eyes. "The stars don't tell secrets but Miss Edith does."
Spike was in shock. Accidentally he had stumbled upon the holiest site in vampire mythology. Lost for thousands of years it contained ancient lore that had been lost to vampire magi ages ago. He began thinking furiously. Even with the Gem of Amara he wasn't sure he could take the blond slayer and all her friends. She was different than the others. Her friends gave her strength. Perhaps the magic's in this temple could even the playing field, give him the necessary edge. Spike could feel his blood rise as he thought about Buffy. She was strong, beautiful, and bold. Spike had killed a number of slayers in the past, stalked them, watched them, hunted them and he wanted none more he wanted Buffy Summers. He fingered the gem of Amara. The golden slayer was going down.
"Show me where these secrets are, Dru." Then he laughed, "but first. Give Spike a taste." The he threw on the bed and leapt on her. Together they laughed and rolled around. Just another happy couple doing some blood play.
Forrest, Graham, and the rest of the soldiers snuck back on the initiative base. The two leads were shooting evil looks at each other and the soldiers in between were distinctly uncomfortable.
Forrest entered the main chamber of the initiative and began shouting orders to the scientists. "We bagged ourselves a vampire, and he's a real old one too." He handed the unconscious Angel to some guards who dragged him off to a holding cell.
One of the scientists turned to the soldiers and said, "When he wakes up we'll begin prepping him for surgery. I'm eager to test the next generation of behavioral modification technology."
Professor Walsh walked over to the returning soldiers. "Where is Captain Finn?" Her voice was even and seemingly unconcerned, but the tightness around her eyes belied her concern. Riley was like a son to her.
Graham saluted. "Ma'am, we encountered a pack of nearly two dozen vampire hostiles along with the polgaras. Sandwiched between them were a group of civilian hunters. They would have been slaughtered, so Captain Finn made a command decision to attempt a rescue and abandon the primary mission of recovering the polgara bodies. He was knocked out in the ensuing battle. The second in command felt it necessary to leave before he awoke." Graham spat out the last part, undisguised contempt for Forrest in his voice.
"Civilian hunters! Who were they?" Dr. Walsh's voice grew cold at the mention of how her mission had gotten screwed up. "And where are my dammed polgara bodies. I-We need them for research."
Forrest jumped in. "We don't know who they were. The hunters were mostly girls. And oddly enough the vampire we brought in was working with them. One of the hunters was a tiny blond girl, I think I've seen her around campus, and the vampire didn't leave her side until the end of the battle." He paused for a second and his voice took on an admiring tone. "I've seen lots of strange things working for the initiative but this group did things I ain't never seen before. A couple of the girls seemed as strong as vampires and a few were doing MAGIC!" He shook his head. "I read the reports about practitioners but I didn't believe them until I saw these girls in action. One shot FIRE from her hands."
Another soldier piped up. "I saw one girl. A real looker dressed in all white. I don't know what she did, but she stared down several vamps. Craziest damn thing I ever saw."
"Forrest I want you to take your men and recover those polgara bodies. Recovering them is our first priority." Dr. Walsh said in a clipped tone.
Graham stepped forward. "What about Riley. He's still out there and who knows who has him."
Professor Walsh's voice sent chills down his spine. "Captain Finn has screwed up my mission. He will be dealt with at the proper time. You have your orders."
"Yes ma'am." A muscle throbbed Graham's jaw as he fought back a retort.
"Our night ain't over yet guys. Lets move out." Forrest shouted.
When the scoobies reached Giles apartment, Xander continued to give orders. "I'm throwing sleeping beauty in the bedroom. Faith you revive Giles. Cordy see what you can do about Willow." Xander disappeared into Giles bedroom, Anya trailing behind him
Buffy noticed that Xander, Cordy, and Faith seemed to move like a well-oiled machine. Like they've been working with each other for ages. Which surprised Buffy, since the last time she had seem the group, Cordy and Faith couldn't be in the same room with each other without it devolving into a screaming match.
Faith moved to lay Giles down on his couch while Cordelia laid Willow down on the lazy boy. Oz silently grabbed a chair from the kitchen and set up shop next to Willow. He silently started stroking her hair. The only sign of Oz's worry was tightness around his eyes.
Amy and Tara's eyes widened when they saw Faith place her hands around Giles head and a pulse of barely restrained power seemed to emanate from her hands. To the mystically tuned witches, Faith seemed to radiate power. It was an ancient, primal power that had nothing to do with the essence of the slayer that should have permeated the raven-haired woman. "What are you doing," Amy asked
Faith smiled, "I'm checking G here to see if he has any head injuries."
Tara spoke up shyly. "He w-w-wasn't hit in the head that I saw."
Faith laughed. "Have you ever known Giles to ever not have a head injury?" She looked at two tired witches. "Are you two doing okay?"
"Me and Tara are both okay. We're a little tired but it's nothing rest and some lovin' won't cure." Amy jutted out her chin. "Do you have a problem with me and Tara," and she lifted up their entwined hands.
Faith let out a deep throaty laugh. "Your gonna realize how funny that is in about twenty minutes."
Giles slowly opened his eyes, and immediately patted his jacket for his glasses. "Looking for these," a very familiar voice called out and glasses were pressed into his hands. Placing them on his face he blinked and looked at the face of his rescuer.
"Faith?"
"The one and only." Faith smiled down at the befuddled watcher. "Cordelia is over there checking out Little Red and Xander is in your bedroom chaining up a captive. We're back."
"How," Giles sputtered, "we tried every spell we knew and we couldn't find you anywhere in time or space. The spells all worked, you- you just weren't there." Years seemed to melt off of Giles as he took in the fact that his three lost children were back safe and sound.
Faith stopped smiling. "There's no easy way to say this," and she looked at Cordelia, who gravely nodded in confirmation, "So I'm just going to come out and say it. We, Xander, Cordy, and I, are the Three."
"That's not possible, The Three are ancient demon hunters dating back thousands of years. Their legends are numerous. A whole section of the council library is devoted to their exploits in this dimension and a dozen others." Giles began furiously rubbing his glasses. "How can this be true?"
Faith shrugged her shoulders. "It is true. It's also a very long story. Xander will tell it when he gets back."
"What is it honey?" Amy asked Tara. Amy had seen that Tara had recognized the name. "What are The Three?"
Tara looked at Faith with wide eyes. "They're exactly what Giles said they were. They are immortal demon hunters with fearsome reputations. Of the three, one is a warrior, one is an oracle, and one is…" Tara was so shocked she couldn't even finish who the last member of the triumvirate was. Giles looked just as awestruck.
Giles sighed. "I assume you are the warrior, Faith."
"Sorry G, that honor belongs to Xander."
Cordelia spoke up from where she was doing something to willow. "I am the Oracle."
Giles eyes grew like saucers. Turning to Faith, "that must make you The-The-"
"The Goddess." Faith smirked. "Come on, like you didn't see that one coming."
Anya followed Xander into the spare bedroom. Her eyes were wide and she was cracking her knuckles like bad caricature of a nazi interrogator, although considering her age, perhaps it wasn't a caricature. Xander shot her a quizzical look as he deposited Riley on the bed and proceeded to use some handcuffs to imprison him to the bed.
"I so don't want to know why Giles has spare handcuffs in his bedroom." Xander laughed.
"I do not see why you find that surprising. Giles is an attractive man for his advanced age. Bondage play is also an satisfactory form of sexual pleasuring."
She was surprised to hear Xander mutter, "don't have to tell me that."
She continued. "I myself might have decided to pursue him but I would like to have a mate closer to my physical age to help me when I have my brood of squalling children." Anya looked at Xander suspiciously. < I know him from my demon days. But where? > Then she snapped her fingers. "Venice, 1584. You were at that party I attended when I was trying to curse that ridiculous tutor."
"Anyanka?" Xander blinked in surprise. "Didn't you try to convince my wives to curse me for, and I quote ' the travesty of forcing two lovely and strong women into the indignity of polygamy'."
She looked sheepish, "lovely, you, uh, still remember that, great. But how could you be four hundred old, and be Buffy and Willows friend from Sunnydale. I don't get it."
"What am I doing here. What are you doing here? You're a vengeance demon. Shouldn't you be out harassing husbands or something?"
Anya shook her head sadly. "I lost my powers thanks to a stupid wish by that idiot woman-child Harmony. I am mortal now, and I'm stuck as a eighteen year old in college." The she perks up. "My major is business. I wish to be a day trader. The stock market is almost as stimulating as wreaking vengeance." Then she narrowed her eyes. "Now who are you, because there's no way you could be Buffy and Willow's friend that I have heard so much about?"
"We're the Three. Cordy is the Oracle, Faith is the Goddess and I am the warrior."
Anya grew white. In her long life she had heard of the three. Just about everyone in the demonic underworld has heard of them. D'hoffran was terrified of attracting their attention. The Source left them alone. Their reputation was by turns fearsome and heroic. They seemed to want nothing more than to live their lives in peace, yet repeatedly they found themselves embroiled in demonic battles across more than a dozen dimensions. She stuttered, "Why didn't you kill me when I tried to have you cursed."
"Easy." Xander grinned. "Faith was real drunk at the party and thought you were funny as hell. She and Cordy had a good laugh about cursing me." Then he grimaced. "Thanks to you, I spent the next century and a half listening to my wives threaten to sic you on me if I misbehaved."
Anya thumbed her finger at the door and said, "I will attend to Mister Lying Soldier Man here. You go back out there and talk to your friends." She smiled. "I bet you have been waiting a long time to see them again."
"You have no idea." Turning he stopped at the door. "Are you sure you don't need any help?"
Anya snorted. "Please. This is an American soldier, not a Noreth demon. Of course I can get him to talk. The day I needed the wish to wrestle information from a man is the day I kill myself." She shook her head, muttering about a lack a faith.
Xander smiled and made his way to the door. Before he opened it, Anya called out, "she's one of them, isn't she? Buffy. She's like you, an undying one." Anya's voice was soft and filled with maturity and sadness that would have surprised her new friends.
Xander's shoulders sagged. "Yes she is."
"She won't be able to kill, to take heads." It was a statement, not a question.
"I know. She doesn't have that kind of instinct. Killing demons and vampires to protect the world is one thing. Slayers don't have the instincts to kill in the cold blood required to take heads. Their instincts are a mother's instincts. Violence in the service of protection."
"What will you do?"
Xander sighed. "Train her. Hope I can override her instincts." Saying that with finality Xander left the room, an aura of sadness surrounding him.
Anya starred after the immortal. He seemed so unlike the person Buffy and Willow had described to her. He's funny and his eyes certainly sparkled with the life they described but they also showed sadness and wisdom that seemed to have no place in such a young face. Eyes that she saw in the mirror every day.
Anya understood better than anyone else what time could do to a person. Immortality doesn't change a person; time merely strips away layers until the immortal stands bare, purified by experience until they are more themselves than they ever could be with a simple mortal life span. Who they were was crystallized the way carbon was pressed into diamonds. And in both cases similar means were used. A great deal of pressure. As she thought she wandered over to the bathroom and filled a cup of water. Coming back she stared at the peacefully unconscious Riley Finn. She smiled at him, her eyes tracing his muscular frame encased in dark fatigues. < It's true what they say. Women do love men in uniforms > Smiling contentedly, she flung the water in his face waking him up.
Sputtering, Riley came wake and tried to wipe the water from his eyes. He swiftly found out that he was bound to the bed. Anya smiled and purred, "Riley we need to talk."
She didn't need powers to make a man talk.
Willow could feel energy pour into her. It was cool and seemed to carry with it the sense of fog and rain. It washed into her depleted reserves filling her up. She could feel her soul drink in the power, greedy for anything to take away the terrible emptiness that results from expending too much magic.
As she drew on the force, feeding her, a deluge of images assaulted her mind. She saw herself older, stronger, fighting beings that were neither demon nor human. Some seemed to have the strength of slayers, others hideous forms that combined beast and man. The world around her was torn apart by war and chaos. Then the images shifted.
This time she stood at the grave of Oz, the stones of the grave worn down with time. Tears dripped from her face as she traced the letters of his name. Turning around she walked away, images in fog following her out of the cemetery. Willow tried to catch hold of those images to see whom she was with, but the people kept slipping away like quicksilver through fingertips.
Slowly her mind began to awaken. She blinked open her eyes and found that she was laying on Giles easy chair. A blurry figure came into focus. "Cordelia?"
The young woman before her smiled, "Miss me?"
Tiredly, Willow said the first thing that popped into her mind. "Not really." Then she smiled and added. "It is good to see you again, though."
"But I bet you missed me," a familiar voice called out from the bedroom door. Willow looked up and surprise widened her eyes as she saw Xander, an older looking and much better dressed Xander, walk across the floor. Eyes on Willow he knelt by where she was sitting. Willow blinked away tears as her mouth moved without sound. Xander whispered, "were you always this pretty?" tracing her thin jawline with a finger he whispered again, "and were you always this thin?"
The dam broke. "Oh goddess, is that really you Xander, are you really here. We tried to find you. We really did. I learned all kinds of hard locator spells and we cast them and they never worked. I was so worried we'd never see you again." Willow reached forward in a blur and grappled Xander in an iron-grip and buried her head in his shoulders. She began to shake and whisper, "I missed you so much Xander. Your home now. It can be like it was before you disappeared."
Xander held willow and murmured, "Just like it was. Same as always." Only Tara and Cordelia sensed the tension in his shoulders and the pain in his voice as he whispered his platitudes.
Giles got up off his couch with a groan. "It is indeed good to see you three again Xander, but…"
"…You have questions," Xander continued. "Cordy and Faith have been telling you strange things and you don't know what to believe."
"That about sums it up," Giles said.
"What happened Xander?" Buffy asked. "I can feel that Faith isn't a slayer anymore. I can't sense her the way I used to. And she says that she's not a slayer anymore but how's that possible?"
"Since Anya is questioning soldier boy on the whereabouts of Angel, I can give you the short version of what happened to us." Xander looked around and saw he had the full attention of the whole group. He met the eyes of his wives and they each gave him a strengthening nod and small smile. "It all starts with the night the sisterhood of Jhe tried to open the hellmouth. I assume that everyone remembers that night."
The group gave a collective shudder as they each remembered the hell of that night.
Cordelia's lungs burned as she ran down the corridor of Sunnydale high. Oz was right behind her and gaining fast. She could practically feel his hot werewolfy breath bearing down on her. She could definitely hear his claws scratching at the floor as he chased her.
She just had to get to the library.
As she raced down the hallway she contemplated how she got to this point in time. What she realized was that this was all Xander Harris's fault. He had to go and find someone else to be happy with, while she was stuck with the rich losers her daddy wanted her to date. So while Xander was happy with the slut slayer Faith, she was running through the hallway of Sunnydale High because her date wasn't man enough to stand up to Jack and 'Katie' when he decided cordy would make a good zombie date. This was so Xander's fault.
Xander would have stood up to him.
And that is what pissed her off the most. She would have never dumped him if her father hadn't threatened to cut her off for dating 'beneath her'. Going against Harmony and the others was one thing but her daddy was a whole different game. Xander was a good guy and Faith treated him well. He seemed to really like her and Faith clearly like him based on his loss of virginity on first date while she had held him off for nearly eight months. Despite how mad she was, she still wanted Xander to be proud of her, wanted to be the sort of woman he could love. Which was why, when she found out about the 'cake', she raced to the high school to stop to them.
She did stop jack but in the process managed to attract the attention of Were Oz who had somehow escaped his cage. These stupid heroics she had done tonight were so completely his fault, for being someone she could respect and emulate. As her lungs burned and she poured on the speed to make it to the library she realized one very important thing.
Xander Harris was at fault for everything. That has ever happened. Ever.
Buffy ducked another flailing tentacle. The sisters had opened the hellmouth and the gate beast had emerged. Giles and Willow were sitting within a protective circle chanting a spell that should seal the hellmouth and send the beast back. Buffy and the others just had to make sure they got that chance.
Buffy dodged around Angel, who had been sent flying. Worriedly she saw him fly into the opened locker that Oz had escaped from earlier that night. Angel rolled to his feet and swayed a little and stumbled out. Seeing that he was basically okay, she turned to check on Faith and Xander. Xander was hacking away at a thick tentacle with an axe while Faith was working on trying to blind one of the hell beasts many heads. Buffy breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone seemed to be okay for the moment.
Of course that's when all hell broke loose.
Giles suddenly stood up and broke the protective circle. Raising the Amulet of Jhe, he began walking toward the beast, the incantation pouring from his mouth in an unrecognizable voice.
At the same time Cordelia burst through the doors screaming something about Oz. She was looking behind her and not at the beast in front of her.
Buffy saw everything in slow motion. A tentacle reached out and snatched her up and started dragging her to one of its mouths. Xander screamed in wordless rage and rushed to save his ex- girlfriend. He leapt astride the tentacle and began wailing on it with his axe. Buffy saw Faith mutter something under her breath and went to help Xander. While she was distracted, a second tentacle snuck up behind her and wrapped around her waist.
Buffy was running forward to help her friends when the spell reached a crescendo and Giles belted out the final stanza. White energy poured from the amulet and raced past Buffy and writhed around the hell beast and the three captives.
A flash blinded everyone in the room.
When the white cleared from her eyes, Oz was unconscious, Angel and Willow were dazed, and Giles had passed out on the floor.
And Xander, Cordelia, and Faith had totally disappeared.
"We had no idea where you guys had gone," buffy shook her head. "What made it worse was that whatever caused Giles to finish the spell had altered it so we couldn't track you magically."
"Indeed," Giles added. "I have no idea where that spell came from. It was certainly not one I ever learned."
Xander shrugged. "I guess we'll never know. What I do know is that the spell had some sort of temporal component because we ended up more than three thousand years in the past."
Faith added, "That wasn't even the worst part."
Angel came awake slowly. He felt an ache where the stun blast hit him when he dragged himself to his feet. The room he was in was a plain white room. One wall was clear and showed a hallway filled with similar cells, each with one or more creatures in it. His nostrils flared as he inhaled the scent of his prison. Antiseptic and bleach assaulted his senses. Hospital. It smelled like a hospital.
Moving to the clear wall, he rapped it with his knuckles and found that it seemed to be made of strong plexiglass. Just then he heard the distinctive sound of gears as a hole opened up in ceiling and a bag of preserved blood dropped out. Angel picked it up and sniffed it but he could detect nothing through the plastic bag.
"It's drugged," came a harsh whisper from next door. "I seen some vamp from down the hall drink from the bag. She passed out and some bitch and her soldiers took her and she never came back."
"What happened to her?" Angel whispered back
"Don't know. Probably some experiments or some shit like that. These guys have a serious Frankenstein complex. I think they got cameras somewhere around here too because they always seem to know when a vamp breaks down and drinks the blood."
Angel's stomach took that moment to rumble.
He was hungry.
Xander opened his eyes. He knew he was alive cause of the pain that seemed to radiate from his pores. He seemed to be lying on the grass and the sun was shining. Groaning he sat up and looked around. Everywhere he saw grass and a few trees and hills. Lots of hills. Then he remembered the hellmouth.
He also remembered Faith and Cordelia. Panicking and saw both of his girls lying near him. Faith was wearing her leathers from the night before and Cordelia wore her standard expensively tailored dress. Both girls seemed to be waking up, Cordelia slightly faster than Faith.
She brushed the grass off her dress. Her voice quavered as she called for Xander. Xander could tell how scared she was by her voice. Cordelia made a point to never show fear around Faith. She didn't want the slayer to think her a coward.
At the same time Faith slowly came awake and blinked weakly in the bright light. She saw cordelia and moaned, "Great the bitch queen got dragged along with us." She rolled her eyes and swayed slightly.
Cordelia's eyes widened and she hissed, "what did you say you skanky bitch."
Faith strode up to Cordelia. "I said It's your fucking fault that we're," and she looked around, "where ever the hell we are." And then Faith took a swing at Cordelia's face before Xander could interfere.
And promptly hurt her hand.
Drusilla led spike down a dark spiraling staircase that lay within a hidden passageway in the temple. They both shifted into their game faces in order to better see in the darkness.
"Its not much farther Spike." Drusilla clapped her hands like a child excited for Christmas. She skipped the last few steps and started down the hallway at the bottom of the stairs. Spike smiled as he followed his ladylove down the hall. He loved seeing her this happy.
At the end of the hallway was a great door bound by runes that radiated black, blasphemous power. Spike felt right at home. Then he took note of the solidness of the stone door and blanched. "Dru, luv, how the hell are we going to get past that door."
Drusilla giggled. "Miss Edith whispered the words in my dreams. All that I must do is whisper them to the door." Spike strained his vampire hearing in order to hear the whisperings of Drusilla. He couldn't tell what language she was speaking. The words themselves seemed to flit across his consciousness but he could not hold onto their meaning.
With a great grinding sound the door slid open revealing stale air and cold, dark room on the other side. Drusilla walked into the room, spike a few short steps behind. Drusilla clapped her hands and whispered a short spell. Diffuse light spread to every corner of the room revealing its contents. Spike let out a long low whistle as he took in the contents of the room. Scrolls and spell books were piled like candy treats on an ancient stone table. Gems and jewelry dusted the ground and the whole place stank of magic. Spike walked over to the table and grabbed one of the spell books. He opened it excitedly and started to read. His smile quickly turned into a frown and he dropped to book, and picked up another one, then another. Growling he slapped all the books off the table and screamed in rage.
"Bollocks!" He yelled. "Bloody hell Dru. All these spells are in Sumerian. I DON"T SPEAK BLOODY SUMERIAN," Spike screamed, bloody spittle flying from his mouth.
Drusilla quavered in fear as spike vented his rage on the contents of the room. "I know Spike," she whispered. She watched as he raged. The girlish part of her recoiled in fear while her demon wallowed in his dark glory.
Ever mercurial, spike calmed down after seeing how much he was scaring his Dru. "What do you mean you know? We don't know any vampire sorcerers who speak Sumerian."
Still scared, Drusilla whispered, "I know who we need. She's trapped in a prison of gold and lost in the fallen hall." She began whispering directions in spikes ear and slowly spike started to smile.
"I had lost all of my slayer powers," Faith said. Her eyes darkened as she remembered those long ago memories. Xander and Cordelia reached out together and drew her in to their embrace. The others were surprised at the level of casual intimacy the three of them had. The coiled up together so comfortably and easily. It did not take an empath to figure out they shared some sort of special bond. "I felt so useless," she whispered. "The only thing I ever thought made me worth more than these," and she shook her breasts, "was gone. I thought for sure Xander was going to leave me and go back to her," and she shook her thumb at Cordelia.
Buffy reached across the table. "I know what its like, Faith. The council has a ritual where they use drugs to take away a slayers power and put them through a series of tests for god only knows what reason. They did it to me after you three had disappeared. " She smiled ruefully and added, "I wasn't exactly at my best then."
Xander nodded sagely. "The crucimentum. There actually is a good reason for it, but the council has screwed it up. They've forgotten what the actual point of the exercise is."
Buffy was about to interject angrily when Giles asked, "How do you know about that Xander?"
"Part of the same long story. How 'bout I finish the story before the big questions start." Xander sounded a little annoyed. "Okay," he began, "so we were lost and we had no idea where. First thing we decided to do was to try and find a phone or a map. Just about any sign of civilization would have done. All we found were some villages with really unfriendly natives, jabbering about in a language none of us had ever heard. We weren't welcome in the towns so we had to live ended up living in hills and caves while we tried to figure out what we were going to do."
Faith patted Xander's hand and smiled at him. "We would have died if it weren't for Xander. His soldier skills starting coming back to him I guess cause of the stress, the survivalist parts of it anyway. He hunted for us. A poor chick from south Boston and a rich princess," at that Cordelia snorted, "don't exactly have what it takes to survive in the hills."
"It wasn't just the soldier skills. The leftovers of my hyena possession became active and I started to draw on its instincts heavily in order to provide from my pack." As Xander spoke, his eyes began to shift to a feral yellow.
"We were becoming worried for Xander," Cordy said as she took up the story. "He was sinking deeper into in the animal side of his nature. He was starting to lose speech, and we couldn't do anything because we weren't near civilization and we had no real place to go."
"That's when we met her."
"Anya, what the hell are you doing?" Riley struggled against his bonds. "Where Am I? What government do you work for?"
Impassively, Anya cocked her head. "What makes you think I work for any government, Riley? After all, you're just a teacher's aid. Or maybe you're not just a teacher's aid? Maybe your like James Bond." She thumped her foot authoritatively and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. "I think you were hiding your soldiery skills in order to get me in the sack and inflict lots of orgasms on me. I've seen James Bond movies before. He always uses his sexual prowess to mess with the heads of innocent femme fatales." Anya appeared less than disturbed about the thought of inflicted orgasms.
"Orgasms?" Riley's voice began to grow higher as he began to believe that a madwoman who wanted to molest him sexually was imprisoning him. "Anya," he said soothingly, "why don't you let me go and we can talk about this calmly and rationally. No orgasms need to be inflicted on anybody."
"Rationally," she screeched, "I LIKED you. You have a pleasing shape and straight teeth. Now I find out you're a demon hunter. Probably like to hunt innocent vengeance demons just doing their job." She shook her head. "I had high hopes that you would give me lots of orgasms. I, in turn, would give you as many orgasms as your inferior male sexual organs and refractory period could stand. Quid Pro Quo, just I like learned in my capitalistic business classes."
Riley watched Anya vent in her rage. Her skin was flushed and her eyes seemed to shine with both hardness and innocence in a beguiling combination that he had a hard time removing his gaze from. She was different from just about any other girl he had met back in Iowa or here in Sunnydale. Then he started focusing on what she was saying. "What do you mean by demons?"
"Please," Anya waved her hands, "your squad was clearly after the polgara's. Same as my friends and I. Even the incompetent US government couldn't stay ignorant of the supernatural forever. Whom do you work for?" Suddenly she got excited, "I bet it's the CIA. Its always the CIA in the movies."
"I don't work for the CIA Anya." Riley sighed. "MI-6?" she asked hopefully.
"Anya," Riley said exasperated, "MI-6 is British. Besides we're attempting to compete with the British. They're much more advanced in this field than we are." He said without thinking.
"AHAH," Anya crowed, "You do work for part of the government."
Dammit Riley muttered to himself. She had him. All his counterintelligence training and an eighteen-year-old girl bested him. It was those damn beguiling eyes. Some cool secret agent he was. "Fine Anya. I really do work for the government and I'll tell you what I know."
Anya smiled widely. Perhaps there was still hope for many orgasms. He was after all very attractive. "Darn right you will. First off, your men took a friend of ours, who happens to be a vampire. Where would they take him?" Anya then added, "Riley, as much as I like you, if you lie to me, you'll live a long time before you die. I've forgotten more about torture than your superiors could ever prepare you for." That last part was said, not in the voice of Anya the excitable ex-demon, but the dangerous tone of Anyanka, the demon saint of scorned women.
The woman walked into the campsite the three of them had been using for the last week. Xander was curled up near the fire. Faith watched him worriedly since he had not spoken in more than three days. Meanwhile Cordelia alternated between watching Xander and engaging in a staring contest with Faith. Each young teenager radiated visible hatred for the other, hatred that could only develop between two women who loved the same man. Both of them noticed the female stranger at the same time. The woman wore a deep cloak that hid her figure and gender. Only the cascade of Obsidian hair that hung past the cowl of the cloak told she was female.
Faith stood up and snatched the axe that had come through the portal with them. She could feel the heaviness of the weapon she had once been able to wield with ease. The woman raised a single smooth had and said in strong clear voice, "I mean you no harm Faith."
She was speaking perfect English.
"How the fuck do you know my name? And how come your speaking English."
"That is a very good question, but not the most important question." The woman circled around the fire moving towards Xander. Drawing back her hood the woman revealed a beautiful olive face. Faith was shocked at how young to woman appeared. She seemed barely older than Dawn, fourteen at the oldest. Yet the smile playing about her eyes and mouth conveyed great age and wisdom well beyond her physical years. "The real question is, why am I speaking a language that won't exist for more than three thousand years."
Then the too-old youngster began to laugh.
"The chick did something to Xander's beast, causing it to subside and. Xander actually started talking again." Faith spoke in awe of the mysterious woman that appeared in her camp. "Then she laid down the real ball buster. She said we were more than three thousand years in the past, in ancient Turkey."
Xander took over the story again. "She offered to take us in, give us a place to stay while she looked for a way to get us home. We didn't exactly have a lot of options so we went with her. She seemed to be a powerful sorceress masquerading as a child." Xander laughed softly. "We had no idea what we were getting involved with."
The four of them made their way along a dirt road to the city where the sorceress said she lived. The terrain seemed to be pass by at an unnatural speed as the mysterious sorceress led them, and Xander had the sneaking suspicion that she was using magic because although the trip seemed to take all night, he knew there was no city within one nights walking distance. Yet as the sun crept over the horizon and lit the sky pink, the sorceress led them to a great walled city by the ocean. Xander stood in awe as he guessed the walls had to be at least sixty feet tall and manned by dozens of soldiers. As the keenest eyed soldiers spied the travelers, shouts began to ring out.
"The princess has returned!"
"Alert the king!"
"Prepare her honor guard!"
The three from Sunnydale stood in shock as the great gates opened and more than a dozen guards formed up. The princess, head held high, told the lead guard to make ready rooms and suitable clothing for her guests. Clapping a hand to his breast he left to comply. She led the three into the city and smiled breathing deeply of the sea and city air.
"Welcome Faith, Xander, and Cordelia to my home."
"Welcome to Troy."
"Good lord." Giles rubbed his glasses in shock. "You were in Troy. The actual city of Troy that was besieged by the Greeks after Helen was kidnapped. That girl, the princess, she was Cassandra the prophet wasn't she? The prophet cursed by Apollo to always speak true prophesies but never be believed."
"Well that's what they say about Cassandra, but the truth is a little different." Cordelia muttered. "And the siege started about a month after we got there. Cassie decided to put us to work and lucky me, I became one of the handmaidens for Helen." She rolled her eyes as she told the story. "And she so wasn't even that pretty."
Xander coughed, "Yes she was." Cordelia narrowed her eyes at him while Faith just smiled. The others could tell this was a long- standing argument between the two of them.
"Good Lord." Giles watched the byplay, rapidly shifting his eyes from Cordelia to Xander.
"I think you broke Giles." Buffy joked. "Bottom line this sorceress-princess person opened a portal back home and here you are."
The three gave each other looks. "Not exactly buffy." Cordelia said warily. "Cassandra couldn't get a portal open."
"Well then how did you get home," Willow said leaning forward, "was it a talisman, cause that could explain why none of our spells worked. The talisman could have a counter-signature that threw off our spells."
"None of the spells worked because our auras are different than you remember." Xander shifted in his seat uncomfortably.
"I don't get it," Amy said, "Aura's are virtually immutable. What could possibly change your aura enough to fool a spell directing by Willow?"
"You guys lived it, didn't you?" Oz's voice rang out, surprising everyone. They had forgotten about the quiet werewolf who sat watching the whole exchange. "You didn't find a portal. You just lived every day until you caught back up with us. You found some way to not age." The normally impassive werewolf sounded truly amazed.
That was enough to send Giles, who was still muttering to himself, into a dead faint.
"Cordy, try and wake up Giles." Xander sounded amused.
Willow shook her head, "No, No, that's not possible. You would have to be more than three thousand years old." She bit her lip, her eyes tried to meet Xander's and she silently begged him to deny what Oz said. It was just too big. The gulf was just too wide. < Just like it was > She could hear her own words mocking her. She silently begged him to tell him it wasn't so.
He couldn't meet her gaze.
"I don't understand," Buffy said looking around. "You didn't find a portal. You lived all that time just so you could meet up with us again. You three are all immortal and three thousand years old?" Buffy looked at the three of them and several things clicked into place. The way Xander and Faith looked older. The way he fought, as well as Faith and Cordy's mysterious abilities. The ease with which they acted around each other. It all made sense.
"That about sums it up," Cordelia said. "Blows the mind doesn't it."
Willow was still shaking her head in shock. "How did you live that all that time? No anti-aging spell can keep some one as young as you three are for that long." Willow latched on to the issue of aging mechanics, rather than think about what Xander being that old meant for them and their friendship.
"We didn't use magic, at least not for aging. We each sort of lucked our way into different versions of immortality." Faith looked a little uncomfortable. "I managed to find a piece of Ambrosia, the last piece ever given to mortals. I was real sick at the time and it was the only way I could stay alive."
Tara's jaw dropped. The bit about ambrosia went past the others but not her. Forgetting to stutter she said in awe, "you weren't kidding before. You really are a goddess."
"Honey, what are you talking about?" Amy looked confused but pleased that her girlfriend showed some spine.
"Ambrosia is the food of the gods. If a mortal eats it, they literally become a god themselves."
Xander limped into an ancient stone room carrying Faith in her arms. He had passed all the tests, defeated all the beasts that lay between him and the Ambrosia that was Faith's only cure. The former slayer was so light in his arms. Wasted muscle clung to her body, and her few remaining hairs were dry and brittle. Cancer had devoured her body in the space of a few months. It was through sheer stubbornness Faith had survived as long as she had.
Xander searched the room quickly, as Faith was racked by coughs that left her throwing up blood on the ground. Spying a golden bowl resting on a great stone pillar, Xander quickly grabbed it and brought it to Faith. There were only a few small pieces of amber fruit left in it. Scooping it up, Xander held it over Faiths mouth and with a silent prayer fed it to her. The transformation was immediate.
Faith packed on weight and her wasted limbs became smooth and toned. Greedily grabbing the bowl she began to lick the sticky ambrosia juices. Her hair became thick, lustrous, and darkened to her normal raven black. Faith stood up and stretched like a great cat. She could feel the primal divine spark flowing through her body and fixing the damaged organs. Fixing her gaze on Xander, she uttered only a short phrase in a throaty voice that seemed to caress Xander physically, each word drawn out painfully and sexually.
"I feel gooood."
Silence filled the room. Everyone looked at each other in shock. Its one thing to hear that your friends were magically transported to the past. They live on the Hellmouth. Stuff like that is bound to happen. It's a whole new thing to find out that one of your friends is literally a god. The witches were especially shocked. It was entirely possible that some of the spells they used called on Faith's power.
Buffy was surprised but she asked the one thing that was on the mind of everyone at the time. "Faith, what are you the goddess of?"
Faith smiled. "Bet you could guess B."
"I don't even have to think about it. Lust. You're a lust goddess." Buffy laughed. She knew faith too well. She watched the nearly unnatural level of sexual desirability oozing from Faith and smiled. She hadn't changed at all.
Nodding, Faith added, "and predators. Lust and predators." Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Giles wake up but stay silent. Then she turned to willow.
Willow got up and began pacing back and forth. "What are you guys doing," she began agitatedly, "we're sitting here and your asking what kind of god Faith is? I mean our friends have been gone for six months and we find out that they've really been gone for thousands of years; I mean how did Xander and Cordy survive. Did they find a pot of leprechauns gold, and get a wish?" she asked bitterly. "Everything's different, they're different. How can we even be friends with them now? Their lives are so much bigger than us." Breaking down, she whispered, "Everything's Different. Bigger."
Everyone could see Willows agitation, but only Tara really saw. The young empath could feel the anger, the frustration, and the fear that blazed off Willow. Tara was surprised to see just how insecure the redhead was. She had always seen willow as strong, someone she could emulate. But there was so much insecurity that lay just under the surface and so much of who Willow saw herself as was connected to her friendship with Xander. Then Tara turned her gaze to Xander, the other half of the equation. He blazed with power and confidence but tendrils of fear spread from his aura like a spider web. Beyond all the other emotions Xander shone with white-hot pure love for Willow. Tara could feel the connection between the two, a connection that even a gulf spanning thousands of years could not break. It brought tears to the sensitive girl's eyes. She could feel how much Xander cared for Willow. That single emotion seemed to overwhelm every other part of his aura.
Xander approached the crying redhead. Kneeling in front of her he asked, "Do you really think that I could ever forget you Willow." Meeting her eyes he said, "I know it's hard, I know this makes things between us weird, but we will always be us. Do you believe me?" Willow nodded. "Willow, I've lived for so long I've forgotten what my parents sound like, what the house I grew up in looks like. But through all that I never forgot your face, the sound of your voice, the way your hair looked in the sun in the morning before school. You and Buffy, you're my anchors. There were times when I wanted to give up, to curl up and die but I didn't because I wanted to get back here, back to my family." Xander's voice shook with emotion. Tara smiled as she saw their auras flared up twin white blazes of friendship, the tinges of fear gone.
Willow smiled and in a weak voice said, "We're still going to be friends? You're not going to disappear again now that you're a cool globe trotting demon hunter?"
"No, We're here to stay." Then Xander smiled wickedly. "In fact I have a little announcement. This might be a little too much excitement all at once, but we got married."
"You and Faith got married?" Buffy asked. Buffy always had a soft spot for the younger-now older slayer. She was happy that her two friends got together.
"Actually, I married both Faith and Cordelia."
For the second time that night the room was silent. The Oz spoke for the whole group. "Wow." Willow was about to ask another question when she was interrupted.
"This is all very moving, but I know what happened to Angel. At least I think I do." Anya walked out of the bedroom, leading a still handcuffed and very chastened Riley Finn.
"Riley!" Willow said surprised.
"Riley!" Buffy echoed.
"Riley," Anya said shaking her head in disgust. "Can you believe that this, this…MAN is a member of the soldier group we've been worried about? I have expressed my extreme displeasure with him and his duplicity." Anya kicked Riley in the ankle angrily.
Buffy walked over to the prisoner. "What are you doing in my town Finn?" Buffy began poking her finger in the soldier's chest.
Riley shifted as Anya kicked him again while he answered. "Seriously Buffy, do you really think that the United States government would find out about the Sub-terrestrial threat and not do anything about it. We used statistical analysis and figured out where the greatest concentration of US Sub-T's gather and it was here." He shrugged his shoulders, "so we set up the Initiative here." Shaking his head, "I cannot believe that you girls are demon hunters. You need far more training and equipment to deal with this threat. You are all in over your heads."
The entire group took a step back. Xander winced as he watched Buffy's hazel eyes darken. "Now you done gone and pissed her off."
Buffy stepped forward and picked up the larger soldier and lifted him up and growled, "No, you're over MY head." Shaking Riley she said, "Now I want to know where Angel is and what your group is doing in my Hellmouth."
"Jesus Christ," Riley yelled as the diminutive slayer manhandled him easily. "Your vampire friend would have been taken to the lab. Our scientist will want to use behavior modification technology on him. We don't usually get to work on vampires as old as he is. " Please, "he begged, " put me down."
Buffy dropped him unceremoniously on the ground and repeated her question, "What are you doing in my town."
"We're a group called the initiative. We've been collected from every branch of the armed services from the air force to the marines. Since this place seems to have the most supernatural activity, we came here so we could capture and study sub-terrestrials in order to assess their threat level to national security. Dr. Walsh is the head of the project." He shook his head, "because of the logistical problems with so many branches working together, the Feds decided to go with a civilian head."
"That can't be pretty." Xander said sympathetically.
"Sometimes its not," Riley agreed.
Xander got a speculative look on his face and called out, "Buffy, I got an idea."
Buffy, Giles, Faith, and Cordelia walked over to Xander. "What is it, Xan?"
"I think we can use these guys. They got lots of funding and from what I saw nifty weapons when they have the guts to use them. With your problems with the council it might be helpful to have a secondary source of help. We can go introduce ourselves and show them some of what we know. They might be willing to accept help. Worst comes to worst at least we won't be tripping over each other which will make patrolling easier."
Cordelia interjected, "Actually Xander, Buffy quit the council and Giles was fired after the crucimentum. That means they need the help more than ever."
Buffy and Giles looked at her in surprise. "How do you know that Cordelia. Those events transpired after you three took your sojourn into Troy. Which by the way I still want to speak to you three about." Giles asked.
"I know stuff now." Cordelia said with a mysterious smile.
Giles looked at cordelia for a moment, searching her face for the secrets she evidently carried. "I agree with you, Xander, up to a point," he cautioned. "Many of the books I have and things I know should not be given to the military. They cannot be trusted with the power. At the same time they have a great deal of resources to call upon and we never know when we might need the extra help."
Cordelia shivered. "I think we're going to need them soon."
"You have a vision C," Faith asked solicitously. That more than anything convinced Buffy that everything Xander and the others said were true. Before, Faith and Cordelia wouldn't help each other if they were drowning. Now they seemed so comfortable with each other it startled Buffy every time she saw it.
"No, just a feeling."
Xander said, "your feelings are more accurate that just about anybody else's certainties Cor so we'll be careful." Looking at the others he said, "so we are in agreement. We ask for help but keep things close to the vest." When the other nodded he looked up and called out to Riley. "Captain. I have a proposition for you. You take us to where we have our…friend," Xander kind of strangled out the last word, "and we'll share what we know about demons and vamps with you."
"Xander, are you sure that's a good idea," Willow said.
Sending a quirky smile to Willow Xander said. "Trust me." Turning back to Riley, he said, "So do we have a deal Captain?"
Riley look at the faces of the determined group and took their measure. At first glance they didn't seem like much. A group of pretty girls, a middle aged man, and a young man about his age. They hardly seemed like hardened demon hunters. Yet a skinny blond had picked him up over her head, the sultry brunette had punched a vampire so hard he cracked a statue in half, and three of those girls demonstrated practical knowledge of magic beyond anything he read about in defense reports. And only God knows what Anya was capable of. In the end, despite the misgivings Dr Walsh would have, it wasn't a hard question to answer.
"We have a deal."
"Excellent. Buffy, Giles, and Cordy will come with me and we'll bring back Angel safe and sound." Xander looked a little unhappy at the thought. "Everyone else stay here." Faith looked like she was going to argue when he added, "Faith, we only NEED to show them ONE slayer. Everything else we can figure out later." Getting his meaning she sat back down.
As the group was walking out the door, Riley stopped and turned around. "Uh Anya."
"Yes," Anya replied sweetly.
"Would you like to, uh, go out some time when this is over?" Riley rushed out.
Anya smiled widely then frowned. "Do you promise to not lie to me any more about your profession now that you know I also hunt vampire and offensive unintelligent demons of all sorts."
Riley sighed. "Yes, I promise."
"Good. You may pick me up at eight o'clock this Friday in order to woo me." Anya said firmly.
"Oh I think I am going to like her," Cordelia said appreciatively.
Spike picked his way through the rubble of the high school. < Bloody Drusilla and her bloody premonitions > Looking around he tried to orient himself within the rubble of the school. He had been to the school only a few times, and always out to kill Buffy. He wasn't exactly familiar with the layout of the school, looking for the stinking trophy case. Wandering around for a while he muttered to himself about taking up with a crazy woman. Finding the ruined remains of the corridor he saw melted fragments of trophy cases littering the ground. < A Hah > he silently crowed.
For about fifteen minutes he searched the ground looking for one trophy in particular. A cheerleading trophy.
"You blew up the high school?" Xander said laughing. Buffy nodded. As they walked to the campus of UC Sunnydale, she had been sharing stories about what happened while they were gone.
She shrugged her shoulders, "It seemed like the thing to do at the time. The mayor was going to ascend and there was nothing we could do about, until he transformed. Of course he was transforming into something the size of a dinosaur so giant explosion seemed to be most efficient thing to do."
"Ascensions are nasty," Xander agreed. " And they always end in great big explosions."
"You've seen one before?"
"Sure, Pompeii," Xander said mysteriously.
Riley watched the two friends reminisce and decided to interrupt. "Buffy, back there how did you pick me up?"
The slayer looked at him suspiciously. Seeing that he seemed to be asking in genuine curiosity and not some ploy to pump her for information, Buffy answered him. "I'm the slayer." When he didn't react right away she elaborated. "You know one girl in all the world. Super strength, speed, ability to kick ass and look good while doing it. Any of this tracking," she said incredulously.
Riley shook his head. "Some of the vampires we caught mentioned something about slayers but we attributed that to some sort of cultural bogeyman. That's you?"
Buffy threw up her hands. "God, you guys are so far out of your league. I can't believe you've never heard of me. I mean I'm like famous in the demon world. Only slayer who survived a certain death prophecy. Twinned the slayer line. Killed the vampire called the worst of the worst. Any of this familiar," she asked exasperated.
"Umm, sorry no." Riley said sheepishly.
In an exaggerated whisper Xander leaned over and said, "I think you've offended her. She hates it when she's not recognized."
Quickly changing the subject seeing the glare Buffy directed at Xander, Riley asked, "I see you got a wedding band on, Xander. Are you and Cordelia married?"
Cordelia answered for him. "Yup we're married. Have been for a while now," she said evasively.
"I noticed that raven haired girl wore a wedding band too. Whom is she married to?"
Xander smiled. "I'm also married to Faith." Seeing Riley's jaw drop he continued. "It's kind of complicated."
"I guess so," Riley answered surprised. "They both want to be married to you?"
"Hello," Cordelia interjected, "Standing right here. And Xander is a great husband." Seeing Xander's smirk, she amended, "and by great, I mean adequate."
"But it's not even legal here in the US." Then Riley looked at them suspiciously. "Your not Mormon are you."
Xander laughed. "No, we're not Mormon. The three of us took a trip to Africa and we had a…a sort of unofficial marriage ceremony with a tribe we met there." Xander shrugged. "We love each other and in the society we married in, I could have as many wives as I could afford." Smirking Xander added, "So Buffy, I got room for at least one more, wanna get married?" Xander nimbly dodged out of the way as Cordelia tried to slap him in the head while Buffy laughed. Xander added seriously, "It may not be legal here in the US but we are married to each other in our hearts and that's what matters. The three of us have had a hard life; we've been through a lot together. It was natural that we would fall in love." He shrugged his shoulders. "They fill me up inside. Beyond that, everything else cultural hang ups."
Riley shook his head, "Married to two women like that. Your either lucky or insane."
Buffy said to Riley, "I've known him for longer than you. He's pretty much both."
"Faith, I have to say something to you." Willow said to the dark haired goddess.
"What is it Little Red." Faith said from the kitchen where she was rummaging through Giles refrigerator looking for beer.
Looking at the others in the group, Willow snuggled against her quiet boyfriend drawing strength from him. "I wanted to tell you that I was sorry." Before Faith could interrupt she continued. "I treated you really badly when you started dating Xander and I wanted to tell you that I was sorry for the way I treated you."
Faith turned around and looked at Willow. "We're cool. I understand why you did it. Or at least I eventually figured it out." She shook her head. "It took me years to figure out why you were so mean to me, but for you it's only been six months. Fucks with your head don't it?"
"You understood?" Willow echoed.
"Sure. You saw what happened when Xan broke up with Cordy and you wanted to protect your oldest friend. You didn't want him to be hurt by me the same way Cordy hurt him. And you were probably right. I most likely would have hurt Xander. I really love him, but at the time I was messed up in the head. It took me a long time to get well. At least with Cordy if it hadn't been for her father, she would have stuck it out with him."
"I never understood what he saw in Cordelia."
Faith sighed and walked over to Willow. "Willow, you have to let this thing with Cordelia go. She is not the person who fell through that portal all those months ago. She's not the spoiled princess who broke the heart of your best friend and left him." Faith smiled, "better than anybody I know how much fun it is to hate Cordelia Chase, but let it go. The cordelia that was worth hating was a mask that got stripped away a long, long time ago. The three of us have dealt with our issues. They're over for us and they should be for you."
Willow smiled at Faith softly. "Xander's not the only one who's different now."
"Yeah, well after three thousand years, wisdom was bound to sink even into my head. I was messed up for a long time and Xander and Cordelia helped to heal me. Now I understand myself. I fit into my skin." Faith smiled, and it wasn't the seductive man killer smile she so easily cultivated. The only word that could sum up this smile was serene.
"Your not the only one who's more comfortable in their skin."
Faith really looked at Willow for the first time since she got back to Sunnydale. She saw the shorter hair, the more fashionable clothes, and smiled. "Better be careful Willow. If we keep bonding like this, we might end up friends."
"Can't have that, can we." Shifting gears Willow asked, "About that whole aging thing, how did Xander and Cordy do it? I know about you and the whole god thing, which by the way still freaks me out, but how did they not age."
"Well Xander is sort of a long story, which he'll tell when he gets back." Then Faith smiled sadly, "As for Cordelia. It's a large part of why she different now. She's…either blessed or cursed depending on how you see things."
"I don't get it. Cursed? Why haven't you broken it?"
"It's not something you can break Willow. Cordelia is the living vessel of an exiled Power That Be."
"The Power of Destiny to be precise."
"That old vamp just broke down and drank the spiked blood," one of the camera operators called out.
"Excellent," replied the lead surgeon. "Grab him and prep him for the implant."
Forrest stretched his back. Polgara demons we heavy and he and his men had just carried their corpses back to the base where lab technicians could dissect them. He saw some commotion and walked over to see what was happening.
"Forrest, we're just about to take that vamp you brought in to surgery. Wanna come?"
Without saying anything Forrest just smiled and followed the scientist and other soldiers down the corridor, safe from their prisoners by clear plastic shields. The beasts jumped and howled at the soldiers while vampires up and down the corridors flipped them off. Stopping at the cell of the old vampire, Forrest shook his head as he entered. The vampire lay sprawled out on the floor, the bag of blood torn savagely. Tainted blood was smeared about the vampire's lips.
"I figured an old one like this guy would be smarter than this," Forrest said sadly.
"I am." Moving faster than the soldier could react, Angel flipped to feet and snaked his arm around Forrest's neck. "Anyone try anything stupid, and I'm snapping Captain Overeager's neck. Got me?"
Spike fondled the small trophy in his hand. It was half melted and deformed by the heat of explosion that leveled Sunnydale High. Spike thought it didn't look like much, certainly not the key to his translation problems but Dru was convinced it could help. She told him to break it so break it he did.
The resulting soundless explosion rocked spike back. When dust cleared from his vision he saw an attractive but middle-aged brunet sitting on the ground dazed. Spike grabbed the woman and pulled her to her feet. "You a sorcerer?" He asked gruffly.
The woman shook her head, dazed. "Daughter, where is my daughter."
"Listen bitch, I asked you a question. Are you or are you not a bloody sorcerer who can speak Sumerian."
"Ye-Yes, I'm a witch and I can speak Sumerian."
Spike smiled. "Then you'll have to meet your daughter later. I got a job for you." With that, the bleach blond vampire sank his teeth into Catherine Madison's soft throat.
"This is it?" Xander asked in disbelief. "Your grand cover scheme is to hide as a FRAT HOUSE."
The five of them stood in front of the frat house the Initiative used as their primary base and Xander was rubbing his temples. "I can't believe this." Scowling at Buffy, "And you say that I am insane."
"Hey, I call 'em as I see 'em," Buffy replied.
"Children, and I can't believe that I have to refer to you as one, Xander," Giles said reprovingly, "can we please focus on the larger issue here. We need to figure a way in."
"That's not a problem," Riley answered. "Since I went missing on an op, my unit should have radioed that I went missing while they looked for me. Except," he added bitterly, "I doubt that my second is looking too hard."
"Will having visitors cause a problem," Giles asked.
"Yes, but I should be able to smooth it over."
"Lets go then."
The group started forward with Cordelia hanging back. She was worried. Normally only people or demons could have destinies or fates but in rare cases so could buildings and areas. And in this frat house threads of fate wove themselves in a net that caught the souls inside in a dark bind. The only thing that gave her hope that the initiative had not totally lost itself to its fate was that Riley Finn shone with the strength of a man running headlong into his destiny. Hopefully the soldier won't trip and fall before he completes his destiny like so many others that she witnessed in the past. Although she stretched her powers to gain some sense of what lay before them Cordelia could not. The strands of Fate ran like a knot that she could not unravel and that worried her. This plan of Xander's was not going to end well. She could feel it. Sighing she ran to catch up with the others. In centuries that have past for them many things have changed, but at least one has not.
Everything was still Xander Harris's fault. Everything.
Xander and Buffy took the lead as they strode towards the frat house moving swiftly now that they had a goal clear in site. As they neared the front door, a soldier opened it from the inside and pointed a gun at them.
"Halt." The soldier seeing that the two in the lead refuse to stop and not noticing Riley in the back said, "You're entering a restricted area. If you continue I will shoot you."
"Hey buffy, you want me to show you a trick?"
"Please."
"Now you see him," Reaching the guard Xander snatched the gun from his hands with lightning quick reflexes. Reversing the gun Xander struck the guard across the temple with the butt of the weapon, dropping him unconscious to the floor. "Now you don't."
"Neat trick."
Catching up to Xander and Buffy, Riley said "you know I could have gotten us past him."
Xander shrugged his shoulders. "Probably." Looking around the nearly empty fraternity house Xander asked, "So where do we go from here."
"That way," pointed Cordelia. Riley looked at her in suspicion.
"How do you know that?"
"Never underestimate what I know Corncob." She replied crossly. "You'll always be wrong."
Shaking his head in disbelief at the weirdness of these people Riley said, "she's right, the stairs are that way. It's safer than taking the elevator for you four. The stairs don't have automated defenses."
They make their way to the stairs, and Xander shakes his head once again. "Who ever came up with this mission has read too many comics. Which of course I can appreciate but still, a secret lair beneath a frat house just seems…"
"Tacky," Cordelia supplied.
"Thanks, hon. that was what I was going for."
"You know, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't make fun of my job. I do sort of like it." Riley said crossly taking the stairs two at a time.
' Riley if your going to work with these people, you will have to get used to making fun of your chosen profession. Lord knows I have," Giles said wearily.
Meanwhile Buffy just smiled. It was good to have Xander back. Her load already seemed lighter.
Coming to the door, Riley said, "Let me go in first in order to smooth things over wit-"
Before he could finish, an alarm sounds within the complex. Throwing open the door, Riley shouts. That's the signal for when Sub- T's escape their holding cells. One must've gotten loose." Riley ran through the door with the others hot on his heels.
Cordelia could sense the stink of Fate all over the complex. She shivered. It was not a good idea to ally themselves with these people. They were all ripe for a fall. Reading the currents of destiny she raised an eyebrow. Whoever was trying to escape blazed with power of someone on a righteous path. She realized who it was. Xander wasn't going to like that at all. Oh well.
Ahead, the group fell in with the soldiers who were training guns at the door leading to the containment cells. Xander had a sneaking suspicion about who the mysterious escapee was. They were waiting when one of the soldiers noticed the late arrivals.
"Finn! Riley, over here." Graham walked over to the group while keeping an eye on the door. "Who are the civvies?"
"These are some of the demon hunters we helped tonight. When I was left," and Riley glared at Graham, "they took me in and we, uh, compared notes." Riley reddened as he remembered the interrogation by Anya. "I'm going to talk to Walsh about bringing them in. They know their way around demons. We can work together and do both our jobs better."
Just then the door to the containment area burst open and Angel stepped through holding Forrest as a body shield, ready to snap his neck if provoked. "Nobody move. I just want to leave," Angel shouted. "Your buddy here doesn't need to get hurt." Then he saw buffy and his eyes widened. "Buffy?"
"Angel."
Xander sighed. She had that glazed look in her eye again. The only thing she was going to be seeing for a while was Angel. So he stepped forward and shouted, "everybody lower your weapons. Nobody's gonna to be breaking the necks of anybody."
"Who the hell are you and how did you get down here. This place is a restricted area." Dr Walsh said as she exited her private lab. Then she saw Riley and dropped her pen in surprise. "Captain Finn, its good to see you again. Did you bring these people here." She asked crossly.
"Yes ma'am I did. These people are demon hunters. They encountered the same group of polgara that we did."
"Yes, I heard about your adaptation of my orders. I am very displeased Riley."
"I apologize ma'am but our first mission is the protection of United States civilians. Besides when I was unconscious they took me in. They didn't leave me behind where any hostile could have found me and killed me," he added grimly. "Besides while they might lack our military precision," he turned to Xander with a smirk, "they know their way around demons. They even have several witches in the group. That vampire is a member of the group."
"Really, witches." Dr. Walsh became very interested in hearing that. The spell she had been adapting for use in the project was not working out well. Perhaps the aid of several trained witches could help her with the spell. "Lower your weapons. Everyone, calm down." Turing back to the others, "So who exactly is the leader of this expert demon hunting group."
Rupert Giles stepped forward and answered. "I am. My name is Rupert Giles. I am the watcher/advisor for the slayers Buffy Summers and Faith…Harris." Xander nodded in agreement with Giles
"The slayers." Maggie Walsh appeared interested despite herself. "Are these two young women the slayers?"
"Buffy is," and Giles pointed to the love struck slayer. "Faith is at my home."
"Interesting. So my rash Captain Finn decided to bring you in on our little secret. So what's your first impression of the group?"
"It's quite a …a setup. Your men are certainly very efficient and well trained. I do think you might be making a slight mistake with your doctrine of capture instead of kill, at least with vampires and other intelligent demons."
"It is a necessary step for understanding our opponents. By understanding the biology of these creatures we can devise more effective counter-agents to them. Besides," and her eyes shined with fervor, "these creatures often have muscular and organ systems many times more efficient that humans. I've made great strides toward gene therapies using Sub-T DNA."
Giles removed his glasses and looked grimly at the head of the initiative. "The organization that I used to work for has many documented cases of beings who chose to engage in breeding programs between demons and humans. It always ends up badly. No matter how noble your purpose is, it always ends up badly."
"Why is that?" Margaret asked coldly
"Because," Angel interrupted having followed the conversation, "when you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss stares back." Dr. Walsh was about to reply when she noticed just how haunted Angel looked when he answered.
"Very well Mr. Giles, I will give your advice its due consideration." Abruptly changing the subject Dr. Walsh said, "I think this illustrates the importance of joining our groups together. With your older knowledge and our greater understanding of scientific principals we can more effectively reach both of our goals."
"I agree," Giles replied.
"Excellent." Turning to Angel she said, "I'm sorry I don't know your-"
"My name is Angel."
"Angel could you please let Forrest go, I promise no one here will hurt you." Angel dropped Forrest unceremoniously to the ground. Riley smirked at the downed soldier who rubbed his throat where the vampire had grabbed him. "Angel, since we are all friends now I don't suppose I could enlist your aid in some experiments. We never get vampire volunteers."
"I won't go under the knife for you," the big vampire replied while walking towards Buffy.
"Nor would I ask you to now that I understand you're an ally. It would just be a few non-invasive experiments involving strength and reflexes. I would also like to take a few X-rays and facial tests to see if I can pinpoint how your faces alter."
"I don't see a problem with that," Angel answered cautiously, "as long as no more spiked blood is involved, and your boys don't try to shock me again."
"Excellent. We can get all of you set up with voice recognition for our basic systems in a few days after some background checks are ran on you. Thank you for bringing back captain Finn safe and sound. Now if you'll excuse me," she said dismissively, "I have to get back to work."
The group was a little surprised at the rapid dismissal by the professor so they left, led by Cordelia who spared no time in getting out of the complex. Once outside and on the way back to Giles apartment she turned to the others and said, "we have a problem. That group is so far down the path to its fate, I'm not sure anything can stop it."
Dr. Walsh stalked back into her office, heels tapping on the floor rapidly. She slammed the door shut and in a fury threw over her chair and tossed several files off her desk. HOW DARE THAT MAN. How dare some stinking Brit that looked like a librarian come in here and starts lecturing her about the goals of her life long project. If some of the things that she had discovered were available a few years ago her son might not have- No, No. She wasn't going to fall back down the path of self-pity. The things she did were for a greater purpose. Her name would be known. Other people, children, will not suffer the same fate as her son. She would save lives. Soldiers would no longer die on the field of battle.
Tiring from her tantrum, Margaret Walsh turned back over her chair and sagged in it thinking about the past and turning over the words of Rupert Giles in her mind. Every time a small voice whispered in her mind that he might be right, she pictured her son.
It's amazing how much the Abyss can look like a boy dying in a hospital bed.
Riley wrapped the towel around his waist. The night's bruises were only beginning to show but by tomorrow he would look like a pretty rainbow of pain. So he decided to take a nice hot shower alone since most of the guys had already gone to bed.
Turning on the water, he heard the door open and close again. Peaking around the corner he saw Forrest taking off his shirt. Guess he wasn't the only one to decide on a late night shower. "Forrest," he said flatly.
"Riley."
Riley decided to get the pissing contest out of the way right now. Establish who was still boss. Walking over to Forrest he said, "I know what you did. You left me behind."
"How do you know that?"
"Because no one else on this team is a big enough dickhead to do it." Stepping forward Riley got in his face. "I need to know that the men I work with can be trusted. We're alone out here. We got nobody but each other. I trusted you. I figured even if we didn't like each other you would still back me up when push came to shove. But you didn't. You left me to die." Riley shook his head sadly. Then suddenly Riley punched Forrest in the face knocking him down. Towering over him, Riley finished. "If you ever pull a stunt like that again with me or any men under my command I will break your legs and have you up on charges. Do you get me?"
"I get you."
"I get you what?"
"I get you, Sir." Forrest spat out.
"Good," Riley said satisfied. " Now get the hell out of here and let me shower in peace. With that he turned around and left Forrest sitting on the floor, bleeding from the corner of his lip.
As the group of five walked back to Giles apartment, Xander and Cordelia dropped back and let Buffy, Angel, and Giles take the lead. By this time it was nearly four o'clock in the morning. It was a calm clear night that seemed to give lie to the fearsome reputation of Sunnydale. Better than anyone Xander Harris knew just how much danger was lurking in the shadows of this small California town.
Cordelia looked at him. "I talked it over with Faith, and we're going to do it soon." Xander sighed and looked angry but stayed silent. "I know you don't like him and you don't think he deserves it-"
"Do it," Xander interrupted. "It'll make her happy. She deserves some happiness even if it's with him."
The couple walked in silence for a while, hands entwined. Xander's eyes followed Buffy as she walked along side of Angel. Every so often she would glance shyly at him and Angel would return the glance with one of his own. Xander watched her sun-kissed blond hair twist around her swanlike neck. He watched as her golden tan skin flushed slightly when she met Angel's gaze. Xander had known some of the most beautiful women in the world and was married to a pair of them, but-
He had forgotten how beautiful she was.
When they got back to the apartment, the group found that Tara and Amy were curled up together on the couch, looking impossibly cute. Willow and Oz were gone, presumably to their shared apartment and Faith was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Faith," Buffy whispered.
Xander and Cordelia replied back in unison, "she's out hunting." Then Xander clarified. "Since one of Faiths dominions is predators, she actually gets even more jittery when she doesn't get a good kill or eight every so often." Smiling Xander added, "and you remember how she was before."
"Wow." Buffy looked impressed.
Giles walked over to Xander and Cordelia and hugged both of them. "It is good to have you back, but I must get some sleep. If you have nowhere to stay, you're all welcome to sleep here until you find something."
Cordy smiled and hugged Giles back tightly and said, "Thanks, we'll find something tomorrow." Then her eyes twinkled. "And we'll be sure to tell you all about our travels later."
"I look forward to it." Giles walked into his bedroom and promptly backed out rubbing his glasses vigorously. "Anya is asleep in my bed," He whispered savagely. "Naked. I'll be in the guestroom." Shuddering Giles walked into his spare room muttering under his breath.
Xander, Cordelia, Buffy, and Angel stood around in the silent apartment looking at each other. The Xander broke the silence. "Buffy, I know why your leg and nose healed tonight during the fight. And I bet it's not the first time that's happened."
Buffy shook her head while Angel looked on in surprise. "It's not. A few months ago, I was fighting a vampire named Sunday. I was feeling a little down and she got the jump on me. She snapped my arm. A few hours later my arm was fine. Since then I haven't even really had minor injuries from my patrols."
"Why didn't you ever tell me this?" Angel asked worriedly
"Let me ask you something." Xander asked. "Have you had a near death experience lately?"
"I'm the slayer. I've had several."
"I hate to tell you this Buff, but one of those near death experiences was more of an actual death experience."
A light dawns in Angel's eyes. "Buffy's one of them isn't she?"
Xander nodded while Buffy looked between the two men annoyed. "I'm one of what?"
Angel turned around and said. "Buffy, you're an immortal. Immortals are regular people who after they die by violence become nearly impossible to kill. They stop aging right at the point they died. If what Xander is saying is true then you will be eighteen forever."
Buffy looked stunned but the shocks kept coming. This time from Xander. "When Angel says nearly immortal, he really means nearly. Short of something completely disintegrating your body, only one thing can kill you. Decapitation."
Buffy began to pace back and forth. "I don't understand. I can't die now. I'm not going to age anymore. But how is this possible. I mean the last real near death experience was when I got caught in the explosion at the high school. I was flung by the blast and hit my head on a tree. I was out for hours."
Xander was nodding his head in agreement. That could very well be her first death. Then he noticed the look of horror on Angel's face. "Angel," he said sharply. "What is it?"
"It wasn't the explosion at the high school. It was before, when I was poisoned." A look of understanding passed by Buffy while Xander looked on in confusion.
Buffy clarified for Xander, "Back when we were trying to figure out how to stop the mayor, he sent an assassin to poison Angel with something that could kill vampires. The only cure was the blood of a slayer. So I…"
"…Let him feed on you." Looking at Angel. "He drank too much and killed you."
Defensively, Angel said, "I got her to the hospital as fast as I could. I thought I got her there in time."
"I did recover awfully fast from the blood loss. The next day I was ready for the fight with the mayor." Buffy seemed calm at first finding out that it was her one true love that may have killed her. Then everything from the whole night crashed down on her and suddenly sat down. The battle, the initiative, the return of her lost friends, and now this. Immortality and eternal youth. Everything a young person could ever want. She'll never lose her looks, she'll stay healthy forever, and her body will never grow weak and infirm. Yet why did she feel like she was being burdened by yet another responsibility?
Xander, seeing that Buffy was being overwhelmed by the information, knelt down in front of her and grabbed her hands. "Buffy look at me." Obediently Buffy looked at Xander. He smiled at her and said; "Being an immortal come with its problems Buffy, but there are so many good things about it too. I'm an immortal too. That's how I lived for so long. You'll see so many great things Buffy, travel to exciting places. You now have all time in the world to take up whatever hobby you want. You know that cool fighting stuff I did against the vamp tonight?" Buffy nodded her head. "Its called Sinanju. I learned it in a small fishing village in Korea, two thousand years ago. There are so many things in this world, and immortals like us are the only people who can do and see all of it."
Buffy looked hopefully at Xander. "Really?" Then she got a suspicious gleam in her eye. "What did you mean by Immortality came with problems?"
Xander sighed. He had hoped to get to this part a little later once Buffy had gotten used to the idea. "Well there is the little thing called The Game…"
Xander stood outside of Giles apartment. Buffy had reacted to the game and the idea of taking heads poorly. So here he was outside giving her some breathing room while Angel and Cordelia calmed her down. Xander shook his head. He remembered his initial reaction to finding out he was an immortal and his hand absently reached down and rubbed his abdomen where he received the gut wound that issued him into immortality. He could still smell the blood and smoke that mingled together as he stood on the walls of Troy repelling the Greek invaders. He had his soldier memories, but they never conveyed how much real war STANK. Burning bodies, blood, filth from the bowels of the dying. He shuddered. If Methos hadn't been playing doctor and discovered him coming back to life before being thrown on the funeral pyre when he did God only knows what might've happened. He could have been burned and buried alive. As Xander looked at the sky, the same stars that shone over the ancient city he had been reborn in, he remembered his teacher' who at the time was already ancient, his advice and mentoring. Methos was never the greatest swordsman or warrior. He was however a master of strategy and survivor without peer. He was more a father to Xander in the few years they were together than Xander's real father had ever been. He hoped that he could do right by his teacher, and by Buffy. She wouldn't be the first immortal he had trained but the others usually listened to him because Alexander of Troy was one of the most ancient and respected immortals. They see an immortal that seen the rise and fall of civilizations. Buffy would see the kid who'd sleep through US history, and not the man who had served in the continental army and been drinking with Ben Franklin. Xander heard the door open behind him.
"Hello Angel." He said without turning around. "How's Buffy doing?"
"She's okay. Cordelia is inside talking with her. Shooed me out saying something about girl talk."
Xander cracked a smile. "Your in trouble now. Every time Cordy and Faith decide to do some alone time girl talk, I end up either spending a ridiculous amount of money or fleeing the country. A few times both."
"I heard about the time travel/immortality thing. Must be a hell of a story. Congrats on the double marriage by the way."
"Thanks. Are we done with the small talk now."
"I think so. She's not going to be able to take heads."
"You think I don't know that. I saw the look in her eyes when I told her about the game. She's just going to have to get over it or she's going to die." Xander turned around and faced Angel. "I can't fight her battles for her."
"Why not. She fights enough battles for everyone else." Angel stepped up to Xander. "Vampire bodies dust. Demons don't look human. She will never be able to gut an immortal in single combat, look at their eyes as they kneel before her, and coldly take their head."
Xander shrugged his shoulders, seemingly unconcerned.
"How the hell can you be like this? Are you so old, so dead inside that you can't help a woman you claim to love."
Xander's eyes flashed yellow. "I do love buffy. I will always love her. Don't ever talk to me about the problems will have Buffy as an immortal. It is because of you that she has them." Xander shook as his own beast threatened to throttle the souled vampire. "Did her blood make you high. I've heard that immortal blood can give quite a buzz. Mix that with slayer blood and I bet you're just jonesing for another taste. I bet you still dream about the feeling you got when your teeth slipped into her neck."
Angel growled and slipped into game face. "Don't ever accuse me of loving what I did to Buffy. It was about an inch away from rape and her blood still burns in my throat. But that's not what pisses you off. You still hate me. Still jealous I got there first."
"Its not about that. I'll always carry a small torch for Buffy but I am very happily married. Besides I am her friend first and foremost. Its about you, and about England."
"England?"
"I was there Angel. I walked through the church that you desecrated when you decided to turn Drusilla. I saw the bodies. Blood dripped from the walls. The stained glass windows looked like they were weeping blood when you were through. Cordelia cried for a week because of the psychic impressions you left behind because of your little games. I understand you better than buffy ever could. She sees you and she sees the soul. I see the trail of bodies that you left through Europe. She's heard stories about the scourge. I saw the scourge in action. She thinks Jenny Calendar and Acathla were the worse you'd get. You and I, we know better. We both know you were just warming up. I followed you for a decade before I couldn't stomach the death that surrounded you and Darla. I ached to kill you but Cordelia said I couldn't. Said that you mattered for the future. So I've lived with it, but I don't have to like either it or you. And excuse me if I hate the idea of you being with a woman I care a great deal about."
"You think I don't know that I don't deserve buffy. I do know that. And you think that I don't think about what I did to Dru and all my other victims. I do. And I'm sorry you saw my fun and games first hand. But I have enough burdens on my own without carrying yours as well." Angel turned around and walked off. "Tell buffy I'm going home and I'll see her for patrol tomorrow night." He paused for a moment, "Oh, and Xander. Regardless of what you might think about me, I'm not your enemy. I am glad you and your family are home, both for buffy and Willow's sake, and your own. I'll see you later." With that final thought still hanging in the air, Angel melted into the night.
And Xander continued to stare into the night sky.
The future Mrs. Dawn Harris raced down the hallway to her first class of the morning. Normally she wasn't late but she had spent a little too much time daydreaming about where she was going to be that night. She ran into her homeroom and leapt into her seat with seconds to spare before the bell rang.
"Guess where I am going to be tonight," she said to Janice, her current best friend who sat next to her.
"Where." Janice sounded bored. She was getting a little too old for Halloween but she couldn't get an invite to the party she really wanted to go to. It irritated her just a little bit of course, that dawn seemed to have a real plan for Halloween.
"At a dinner party being thrown by Xander Harris. You know my sisters friend that I talk about all the time." Dawn threw back her hair and her sapphire blue eyes shone with unrestrained happiness.
"I thought you said that he dropped out." Despite herself, Janice was intrigued. Dawn talked a lot about her crush with Xander Harris. Supposedly he had dropped out with is girlfriend early last year before he was supposed to graduate from high school. He sounded like a real loser to her.
"He did." Dawn knew that Xander's disappearance was hellmouthy related but not the specifics. Of course she couldn't tell that to Janice. "He came back a few days ago. And get this, He and his roommates < don't tell her his roommates are girls > bought a house in Sunnydale Hills. They're totally rich now. They wanted to get all their friends together to celebrate them being back from where ever they are. Which includes me," she added smugly.
"That is cool." Janice was impressed and not bitter or jealous. Nope, not at all.
"I know. My mom is getting me a new dress and everything." Dawn bounced up and down in her seat. She thought she had lost her chance with Xander when he disappeared. But now he was back and she wasn't wasting another minute.
She is going to tell Xander that she loved him tonight.
Thomas Thorne raged in his warehouse. Four days he'd been trapped here. Somehow that bitch slayer healed her broken leg and managed to get back up. Between her, those soldiers and her friends, they managed to kill two-thirds of his army. The nine minions that remained were a mixed bunch consisting of some of his smartest and luckiest minions. At least most of the stupid and young ones were the first to die. He needed to find a way to bring his roster back up. He needed more troops, but every time he thought about leaving his lair he got a cold feeling. Fear. Fear of the slayer, and fear of her friends and he hated that. He was a master. He should be beyond such foolish, such mortal emotions. He paced back and forth in the warehouse as he thought about what to do. He was trapped for the day by the sunlight, which added nothing good to his disposition.
Alicia watched Thomas with barely disguised disgust. She could remember several hundred years ago Thomas had seemed so strong, so powerful. She had been the one with the fear back then. Her supposedly noble husband had taken a liking to beating his pretty young bride. Thomas had ridden into her town and immediately she was taken in by his power and brutality even as mortal. There was one she thought would protect her. Instead he made her a vampire, able to protect herself. Her husband took several days to die after she was changed and his sanity lasted even less time. Now after the debacle in the cemetery she could see his weakness. Now she was the strong one. He had grown soft, weak over time. His powerful clan was reduced to a handful of vampires as well as herself and Thorne. He hadn't even left his lair to hunt in three days. He was the picture of a leader whose authority was disintegrating around him. She was disgusted with him and with herself for staying with him. But in a town ruled by the slayer, what else could she do.
Just then the warehouse door slammed open and vampire destroying sunlight shined in. Thomas protected his eyes and shouted. "Who the hell opened the door?" He looked around for the stupid minion that opened the door but he easily accounted for all of them.
A cockney accent called out, "That would be me mate. You remember your old pal Spike, don't you?" Spike walked into the room from outside the warehouse, Sunlight streaming around his lean form. Spike looked around and laughed. "Your coming up in the world Tommy. Last time I saw you, you were living the high life off nazi gold in Switzerland. Now you're living in the warehouse district of Sunnydale. Nice." Spike gave Thomas thumbs up. Then he turned to Alicia and leered at her. "Hullo pet. Thomas doesn't look like he's supporting in the lifestyle to which he promised. I don't see the furs and diamonds you wanted. Spike thinks maybe you need a new sugar daddy."
Thomas was stunned. "How-What, your standing in sunlight Spike?"
Spike flipped off Thomas, the Gem of Amara gleaming on his middle finger. "This little bauble lets me get a tan."
Thomas didn't understand the rings significance, but Alicia Killdare did. "The gem of Amara," she breathed in awe.
"Got it in one luv." Spike walked further into the warehouse and shut the door with a backwards kick. "You got your ass handed to you by that bitch Buffy," and before Marcus could rebut Spike quickly added, "no shame in that mate. She's a tough bitch to kill."
Marcus growled, "I broke her leg but a minute later she was standing on it good as new. That isn't tough. That's fucking unnatural."
Spike appeared a little surprised, but quickly shrugged, "bitch has a new trick. Have a few new ones me self. Anyway moving on. Gather 'round boys and girls, uncle spike's got a story."
Buffy hated eating alone but alone she was. Anya had ditched college to spend the whole day panicking about her date with Riley. Apparently, in Anya's long life the one thing she hasn't done was date. Willow was in class. The crazy redhead was taking what seemed like a hundred units worth of classes. Oz was, well wherever he went when he wasn't with Willow. Tara and Amy were doing some kind of Wicca research, and Xander, Faith, and Cordelia were getting ready for the party they were throwing that night. Thus Buffy was eating alone.
As she ate she thought about all that had transpired in the last few days. They had submitted to all of the checks required, and now they had preliminary access to the initiative base beneath the frat house. Complete with badges and pagers. Despite her misgivings, it was pretty cool to now have the level of backup they now had. Even if something about Dr. Walsh gave her the creeps.
Meanwhile the hellmouth seemed quieter than ever. When word got around that a goddess who likes to hunt vampires and demons had moved into town just about every little baddie decided to take time off. Faith seemed to love what her rep did to the hellmouth. And she wasn't even around that much at night. Faith had gotten a job in LA as a high-class stripper. Xander said it was because she needed to absorb lust from people on a regular basis. It was her divine source of food. Buffy could not believe how matter of fact Xander seemed about his wife being a stripper. It just weirded her out. But then again everything about their threesome marriage did.
Meanwhile the other two parts of the bizarre marriage Xander and Cordelia had spent the last few days overseeing their new home and furnishing it with things shipped to them from their other homes around the world and storage. The three had moved into a beautiful home in Sunnydale Hills, the upper—upper class area of sunnydale. They also weren't letting people over to their home until the grand unveiling, which was going to be tonight. All in all, things seemed to be looking up for Buffy and the rest of the scoobies. That worried Buffy.
Things never went right on the hellmouth.
Drusilla stared unblinkingly at the still, pale form of Catherine Madison. Spike brought the body back to the temple and laid it in a special alter room that Drusilla found and insisted she lay in. Normally vampires rose after a single night but Catherine lay in state for two days and one night and still had not stirred from her deathsleep.
Spike walked into the room and watched Drusilla stare intently at Catherine. "Still 'asn't stirred, 'as she?" He growled. "Bloody bint is taking too damn long to wake up," then he shook his head, "just like a damn woman."
Drusilla turned to Spike and placed a finger to his lips. "Shush, she's sleeping. Miss Edith says she'll wake soon enough and the party will be gloriously gloomy."
"Whatever you say luv." Spike rolled his eyes. He loved Drusilla but she could be frustratingly patient. He wanted to get started with the maiming and the violence. Of course he couldn't really since he needed a bloody translator to figure what the hell exactly he was supposed to do.
A few moments later Catherine Madison's body began to twitch. Drusilla laughed and started to clap like a kid at a show. Then Catherine got up and her face shifted into gameface. But not the game face of other vampires. It was similar, but somehow deeper and more hollowed, more sinister than the game faces of other vampires. Her eyes were red instead of the standard yellow and she seemed to glow with power.
"I know what must be done." Catherine's voice was velvet and steel. She took off confidently down the hall towards the room filled with all of the magic. Easily opening the door with a short phrased hissed in Sumerian, Catherine Madison smiled upon the piles of magic books.
"Best get started reading. The books won't read themselves." Spike spoke from behind her.
"That's where you are wrong sire. That's exactly what they are going to do." Catherine stretched out her hands and spoke in Sumerian. The books shined darkly and then the words bleed from the page and crawled up her arms. The ink sunk into her skin, and when she turned around her eyes were orbs of blackness that seemed to swallow what little light was in the room.
Drusilla clapped. "Miss Edith says that there are no more secrets left, they're all inside you." Then she pouted and asked innocently, "Can I open you up? I so wanted to learn secrets."
Catherine bowed to Spike. "The secrets are yours sire. I am merely their unliving vessel." Then she began to speak in the far away voice. "Long ago, during the time of the first ones, vampires were among the lowest of the demons. Yet when the greatest True Demons were sent away from the earth, Vampires alone managed to find a way to stay…"
Amy lay on Tara's bed, a book across her chest. She was supposed to be studying Renaissance history, but something was distracting her. Tara was playing with her hair again. There was something so damn sweet and seductive in the way the shy blond would chew on a few strands of her hair as she scribbled in her notebook. Amy knew that she was working on some sort of new spell. It was odd. The only time Tara's shell seemed to slip away was when she was working her magic. Tara was a truly gifted Wiccan and her skill shined through any other uncertainties or esteem issues she might have.
"How's the spell going?"
Tara looked up. "Fine, and its not a spell. It's a potion I want to mimic the effects of sunlight on vampires. I can't seem to get the ingredients right. My mom showed me a similar potion once, when I was little. I just wish I could remember what she used."
"Your mom." Amy's voice was curiously flat.
Tara looked sharply at Amy when her heard her voice. She took a moment to quickly read Amy empathically.
<Shamefearpainangerjealously>
Tara immediately realized what happened. She got up and walked over to the small bed and curled up next to Amy. "I'm sorry baby. I forgot about your mom."
Amy smiled softy at Tara. "Its not your fault you had a great mom. Just when you talk about learning magic from your mom, it really hits me. I would have liked my mom to teach me magic. You know, instead of what she actually did."
Tara knew all about Amy's mom and what happened with the cheerleading tryouts. She could not imagine how a mother could do that to her own daughter. Her own mother had been a lovely and quiet woman who tried her hardest to pass on her hereditary magic's to her only daughter.
"At least your dad is a great guy. He didn't even care when you c-c-came out of the closet." Tara stuttered. "M-My dad disowned me when he found out."
"I think we both may have gotten a little screwed in the parents department." Amy kissed Tara lightly on the lips. "I think you need a break from all the deep thoughts and studying." She whispered seductively in Tara's ear. "Release some tension."
Tara moaned lightly as Amy's mouth drifted to her pulse point. "This is why my dad disowned me, I temptress."
"And you love it."
Tara would have replied, but by then she was much too busy.
"See, it turns out that a long time ago, vampires were the weakest of the demon races. Then when the world was sealed off from the old ones, vampires became the most numerous of remaining demons. Most vampires were weak, barely stronger than the mortals they hunted. Some shamans in Africa created the slayer to protect humanity from them about that time. But some vampires were better, stronger than others. A master race if you will. One day the thirteen greatest of these master vampires got together. Seems they wanted to preserve their knowledge in case the slayer or something else ever killed them. Good thing they did, cause eventually they were all killed in the legendary flood. But before they did they created the Books of Blood, the sum total of their unique magic's, powers, and prophecies about the end of days. They hid the books so that when a vampire bad ass enough to deserve them came along, they could be found."
Spike paused in his story and found Thomas hanging intently on his word, despite himself, along with Alicia and the remaining vampires in their gang.
"Eventually, a vampire did. Vamp by the name of Amara. Turned out Amara was just the type of badass the founders were looking for. Even went one step further and found a piece of Ambrosia and ate it, turning him into the first and only vampire god. Anyway he discovered the Books of Blood and set himself up a nice little thousand year Reich. Eventually though a group of champions led by the slayer and the watchers council brought his kingdom down. Since they found out the hard way that they could not kill Amara, the greatest sorcerers bound his spirit to his ring and sank it and his temple into the earth. For all their power they could not destroy it, they could only hide it from the world and pray another bad ass didn't find it. For the past six thousand years it has lain hidden from the world."
Then spike leaned forward and power seemed to roll off him. Every vampire was awed by his presence. They could feel the emotion that poured from his words as an almost tangible force that drew them in.
"A new badass has found the Temple. Me, and I'm bloody well going to use its power to destroy the slayer and all her little friends. We vamps used to rule and we will again." Then William the Bloody smiled widely. "Want in?"
The sound of Thomas's laughter echoed in the nearly empty warehouse.
Anya paced back and forth as she waited for Riley to arrive. She wore a simple green dress that hugged her slender form. She impatiently looked at her watch and fumed. She was ready fifteen minutes early for her date. Cordelia had told her that she should keep Riley waiting for a while to 'keep him enticed,' but Anya didn't want to do that. It was all well and good for Cordelia to say that. She was immortal, but Anya wasn't one anymore. She wanted to get things rolling. After all she had a mere sixty years of productive living left. That was nothing!
Then the doorbell rang and she rushed to open the door. Riley was on the other side, looking distinctly uncomfortable in a shirt and tie. He had in his hand a dozen red roses. At first Anya was going to rake him over the coals for being on time, but then she noticed his eyes. Those earnest, puppy dog like eyes that begged her to like him and she melted. Not that Anyanka, the demoness of scorned women would ever admit to being a softie for a MAN!
"Are these for me?"
Riley's face reddened. "Umm, yeah they are. I know it's a little goofy, but I was raised to bring flowers to a first date."
Anya smiled. "I love them." She took the flowers and motioned for Riley to come in as she looked for a something to put them in. While she looked, she asked Riley, "So where are we going tonight? I expect some high class wooing to make up for you lying to me."
"Well, I have reservations at the nicest French restaurant in town and then dancing. You do like French food don't you?" Riley appeared a little nervous."
Anya smiled and took his arm to lead him out the door. "I love everything about the French. Their food, their culture, their revolutions. Everything they do is so much fun."
Riley blinked in surprise. Their REVOLUTIONS?
Dawn bounced up and down in impatience. She looked in awe at the house that Xander was living in. It was huge, like three stories huge. And it was set a hundred yards behind a huge fence with a gate. It was on a huge plot of land with giant trees that shaded most of the grounds. She very consciously smoothed her black dress down and looked at her mom, who smiled at her indulgently. Her mom didn't get it. She thought she just had a crush on Xander, but it wasn't that. They had a connection. Xander understood her.
Meanwhile Joyce Summers covered the fact she was pretty impressed as well. She knew a little about the missing three's adventures and clearly what they had been doing was quite lucrative. The house was an old one, probably belonging to one of the founding families of Sunnydale. It was on a large number of acres, although how much she couldn't say.
Joyce and Dawn were still deep in their respective thoughts when the door opened, revealing Cordelia in a rather unusual dress. She wore a white gown that sent little shivers of sound through the air when she moved. It was cut and styled like a woolen Greek gown, although it was clearly made of much finer material. Silver bracelets wrapped about her tanned, toned arms and a matching Tiara gathered up her hair that had been curled into ringlets. She smiled warmly at the two guests. "Joyce, Dawn. We're so glad that you have arrived. Xander is just ending the tour for everyone else."
Joyce just shook her head as she crossed the threshold with dawn in tow. This polite Cordelia was so different from the one that she remembered dating Xander back during their junior year. Of course she knew that she, Xander, and Faith, of all people had some sort of weird group marriage thing going on, so she must have really changed while she was gone. Joyce knew some of what had gone on, while not really understanding the particulars. She let Cordelia guide her into the large marble foyer and up the brass staircase onto the third level. She saw the whole group assembled at the end of the hall. Her eyes sought out Xander and Faith. She had yet to see either of them since they had gotten home. She found Faith first. She wore an identical gown to Cordelia, except that hers was made of black silk and the bands in her hair and arms seemed to be made from dark green jade. She was laughing at something Willow just said to her. Cordelia was clearly not the only person to have changed over time. Faith radiated confidence and self-assurance. Joyce knew the difference between the real thing and the front the Faith that she knew put up.
She looked around and saw everyone except for Giles. "Where is Rupert?"
The whole group laughed. Then Faith answered. "When G found out that we had several books that were lost since the burning of Alexandria, he disappeared into our library and none of us seen him since."
Buffy added. "He's pretty much in watcher heaven right now. Nothing but moldy books as far as the eye can see."
Then she saw Xander duck his head out of a room and call out her name. "Joyce, Dawnie," he said, clearly pleased they had come. "Get over here. I'm getting ready to show the gang my carpentry room."
Intrigued, Joyce made her way over, Dawn quickly skipping ahead. Buffy murmured a quick hello to her mother. Joyce could tell that she was nervous about something, but what she couldn't tell. Then she walked into the room Xander disappeared into and stopped in amazement. The room was filled with half finished pieces of furniture. Lathes and carving tools littered several workbenches that covered three of the walls. Xander smiled proudly as he showed the room off to the crowd. "Xander," Joyce said in awe, "these pieces are magnificent."
"They should be. I've spent enough time on perfecting my skills." Xander said proudly.
"Of all the things that you could learn to do, why carpentry?" Buffy seemed surprised. She had done some reading on the three and carpentry seemed so mundane compared to their legendary exploits.
Faith looked about to cut off the question but Xander silenced her. "I went through a really dark period in my life a while ago. Some stuff had happened to me and I couldn't deal. The three of us were traveling through China, and a Taoist carpenter took me under his wing." Xander looked at his hands. "I discovered I could make things too. It was kind of nice to find that out."
Everyone seemed to understand what Dawn was saying except for Dawn. She didn't seem to understand. She was wandering around the room when she spied a completed hope chest. It was crafted of polished oak with suns in various states of rising and setting carved along the lid. She sighed. Breaking out of his funk Xander smiled. "Do you like that Dawn?"
"I love it."
"Its yours." Dawn looked at Xander in shock. He smiled. "Its carved full of suns, Dawn. Who do you think I made it for?"
Dawn was struck speechless. Joyce said, "Xander we can't accept this gift. It's too much. That must have taken months."
"Years actually. Taoists take their time to carve. And don't worry about the gift. I want Dawnie to have it. We have gifts for everybody. In our travels we've found a bunch of things that can really help the group and we'll pass them out after dinner." Xander smiled indulgently at the group. "Merry Christmas."
"Before we have dinner, I have something that I want to tell you mom." Buffy sounded serious. "I waited till tonight because I wanted to have everyone else around to answer any questions you'll have."
Cordelia smiled at Buffy and Joyce. " Lets take it down stairs in the living room. This isn't the place for that talk.
As Joyce walked down stairs, her anxiety built. She had the nagging feeling that something was going to changer her world. And she wasn't going to like it at all.
Thomas Thorne looked around the enclosed heart of the temple. He and Alicia had been led by Spike into the warrens of the hidden resting place of Amara. He could feel the age of this place. The holiness. Spike led the two of them down winding stairs into the very bowls of the temple. He silently led them to a room that seemed out of place within the temple. It had a natural organic feel. Pillars carved in the shape of forms twisted in pain held the ceiling in place. In the center of the room a pool of blood roiled and hissed with power. Catherine Madison and Drusilla were waiting for them.
Spike turned to Thomas and Alicia and smiled. "Once, a long time ago, a master vampire wasn't a title given to just any vamp who could string two minions together. It was a title given to vampires who mastered the abilities innate to the demon within. Too bad those powers have been lost to the centuries." Then spike smirked. "Until now." He motioned to Catherine. Catherine produced a silver chalice encrusted with moonstones and sapphires. She dipped it into the well of blood. Holding the chalice forth she said, "drink from the hearts blood of Amara. It will awaken your sleeping gifts."
Thomas motioned for Alicia to be the first to drink. Shooting a wry look at her lover and sire, Alicia lifted the chalice to her lips and drank deeply. She involuntarily shifted into game face and shadows seemed to gather around her briefly and shroud her hollowed vampire face for a moment before swirling away. Looking at Thomas, she smiled. "Its safe, Tommy. I've never felt better." She extended her hand and several shadows in the corner of the rooms gathered into tentacles that writhed and thrashed around the room. She purred, "Well that's new. I like it."
Thomas grabbed the chalice from Catherine and drank it down in a gulp. He could feel the hot blood course though his veins working its will upon his body. The aristocratic vampire sank to his knees. Power flared around him and he fought back to his feet and roared.
Spike stepped in front of him. " Feels good, don't it. It gets better mate. A lot better.
Joyce was right. The news did change her world. And she didn't like it. The group was sitting in the Three's living room. Relics from more than three thousand years of life surround her but she saw none of it. Her mind spun in circles as she grappled with information that had thrown her world into chaos. Immortality. The daughter she worried about every night was going to live forever. Or at least had that potential. There was still something to worry about. That Game that Xander mentioned. She watched her young daughter. Her daughter that was always going to be young. She saw the pain in her beautiful blue-green eyes. Eyes that reminded her of her father. Eyes that led to Buffy's creation in the first place. Dawn had those eyes too. Dawn. She looked at her youngest daughter and saw the girl welling up with tears in her eyes.
"No, No," the young girl murmured. "It's…what's your saying. It's not possible. Your lying." The girl's lips quivered with unrestrained emotions. "Its not supposed to be like this. Buffy is supposed to be just the slayer. And-And you're supposed to be normal. Normal like me. This was going to be…this night was supposed to be different." Dawn turned and ran out of the room a trail of sobs behind her.
Joyce stood up to go after dawn, when Xander intercepted her. "Don't worry. I'll bring her back." He smiled comfortingly at Joyce.
After Xander left, Joyce turned back to the others. "So honey, how are you doing?" She looked at Buffy. "I can't imagine what is going through your mind."
Buffy smiled weakly. "I'll be okay. Xander has started training me to fight immortals. And I have my friends." With that she looked up at the ever-silent Angel and then to Willow and the others.
"I'm glad honey." Joyce smiled comfortingly at her daughter. Then Joyce changed the subject. "So exactly how does this group marriage thing work?"
"So what's the game plan?" Thomas asked the other four master vampires that were in an upper chamber of the temple. This particular room has several comfortable chairs in it. Clearly it had been some sort of planning chamber back when Amara ruled. The five of them sat around looking at each other when Catherine spoke up.
"This temple is a focusing point for dark energy. It can take the energy released by pain and death and store it, redirect it to a very specific purpose." She smiled. "It's like a battery for human sacrificial energy. Thanks to the sacred geometry of this place and the power of the Hellmouth, any people we kill in, lets say, a thirty-mile radius around the temple is shunted here and stored to power the domain of ever night."
"What's that," Alicia asked.
Spike grinned widely. "This is where it gets good luv."
"The domain of ever night," Catherine continued. "Is a mystical shield that will cover an area around a hundred miles in every direction of this temple. It only has one power, but it's a biggie. The shield covers against sunlight and prevents the need to be invited in. You can't even see the shield. But when its up vampires have free roaming privileges. Day or night."
Thomas looked intrigued. "So how did we get this magic shield up?"
"That's the best part mate. Alls we 'ave to do is lots of killing. Store up enough power and Cathy 'ere can set the spell. Then we have our own little playground filled with happy meals on legs."
Drusilla let out a childish giggle. "We'll be able to stay up all night and watch daddy sun play with momma moon. And kill all the day long."
"That's right pet," Spike cooed. "We can kill who ever you want." Then he turned to the others. " We're going to need more minions. Between yours and the ones Dru and I have snatched up, we have a good beginning but we'll need more. We've cooked up a plan to get lots of death done. But we are going to need a lot more minions.
"Lets go recrutin'." Alicia looked very eager to test her new powers.
"Dawn?"
"Go away Xander." She turned away from him and pouted. She hunched her shoulders like she was trying to disappear. "Just go away."
"Why." Xander asked. He followed Dawn into the library using her scent to track her through the large house. "I thought you liked me?"
She turned to face him, her red-rimmed eyes narrowed in anger. "I did. Back when you were normal. Like me."
He sat down next to her. "Now I'm not normal? Is it because I'm an immortal like Buffy?"
"That and the age thing." A hundred emotions clouded Dawns face. "It's just…Xander, I thought you were going to be the guy for me. In a few years I would be eighteen and faith would've dumped you. Then we could have hooked up. I had it all planned out."
Xander chuckled. "You thought Faith was going to dump me."
Dawn smiled tremulously. "Well sure. Lets face it. You're a geek."
"Got me there. You know I used my knowledge of the future to pad my comic book collection." He smiled. "Have three first edition issues of Superman number one. Mint condition." He grew serious again. "I understand your having issues. We are all feeling it. Do you know how weird it is too see your face after so long?" He chucked her under the chin and smiled. "Weird and good."
"I hate being the normal one." Dawns voice dropped. "Now you and Cordy are all cool and have nifty powers. Faith always had them. Now this new thing with Buffy." She sighed. "I feel invisible, like nothing will ever get me noticed. Like I'll never be the important one."
"Sucks don't it." Xander smiled. "I've lived a long time, but I still remember when I couldn't stake a vampire to save my life. When my girl friend could arm-wrestle me into submission. I hated it so much, sometimes I was actually jealous of Angel." He snorted. " Then the immortality thing kicked in, and I thought here it was. Now I finally got something cool of my own. You know what happened?'
Dawn shook her head, entranced by his monologue.
"My friends kept dying. I started taking huge risks thinking that I could survive anything. I'd take arrows, sword thrusts, anything to keep the people I cared about alive. I survived everything the war could throw at me, but nothing I had, no skill I possessed could keep them all safe. What kind of hero was I that I couldn't save the people I cared about? This was what being a hero was all about? Remembering that I couldn't save everyone? Was this what Buffy lived with?"
"My teacher noticed and talked to me about it. A depressed immortal is one that's easy pickings and he wanted my head firmly attached to my shoulders. He told me that being a hero wasn't about saving everybody because you can't. No one can. It was about will. About the desire to do something even when everything around you said it was impossible. It's about realizing sometimes all the power in the world can't help you." He poked Dawn in the center of her chest. "Its about heart. Buffy's not perfect but she has heart. Her power isn't in her arms or the amount she could bench press. It's her compassion, her love. You have that same heart Dawn. It comes from your mom. It's that strong Summers heart. Be proud of what you have and who you are Dawn. Don't worry about not being able to stake vampires or kill dragons. That's not what makes you worthwhile." He bent down and kissed her forehead. "Be a doctor Dawn, save lives that way. Be a lawyer and stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves. You can be whatever you want Dawn because I don't need to see the future to know that your life will shine as brightly as your namesake."
Dawn blushed and looked down. "Thanks Xander."
He held out his hand and lifted her up. "Lets get back to the party. And if you want, I can show you a few martial art moves so you can pick on your big sister." He smiled. "How 'bout I show you how to breathe."
"Breathe?"
Xander nodded gravely. "Breath control is the core of every martial art." His eyes twinkled and he bent down conspiratorially. "I bet you'll even pick it up faster than Buffy. She's a little slow sometimes."
Dawn giggled. She whispered back. "I think it's the hair dye."
Lisa Meyer rushed about her house. She had a hundred things to do, and Mitchell was sitting on his ass again watching TV. Tonight was Halloween, the only night of the year that was actually quiet in Sunnydale and her two children wanted to go out. Unfortunately both had the chicken pox and couldn't go out trick or treating. And she'd been hearing about it all night. She had just bent over to pick up a toy her daughter left out when the doorbell rang.
She rushed to answer the door thinking it was going to be some late kids. When she opened the door she saw a young woman- a sense of vertigo overcame her and when she blinked, she saw it was actually a young girl. The child wore a dress that looked about a hundred years old and was carrying a ratty doll that looked the same age.
The young child smiled widely, and Lisa was hit with slight vertigo again. As Lisa stared into the girls pale face she heard herself ask, " what do you want sweetheart."
The girls soft British voice said, " I'm here to trick and treat."
Although normally she was careful to not let anyone in after dark, she felt herself say the words, " I invite you in." The little girl drifted like a dream into the small house. Lisa just blinked as the little girl focused her too-old eyes on her and asked, " Where is the rest of your family, they should see my trick too."
"In the living room." And walked off to lead the trick or treater deeper into her home.
Drusilla smiled and followed eagerly behind. Her trick would be a glorious one.
Riley had never seen a more erotic sight than the one he was witnessing at that moment. He and Anya were at the bronze, the only dance club in town, after they ate their fill of French food. They had a small table in the back and Riley had just gotten a drink for Anya. She was using her straw to suck the rum & coke out of her small glass. And that was the genesis of this most erotic scene. Apparently Anya had no gag reflex. Her beautiful pursed lips were draining the glass of all its liquid by deep throating the straw. Gulping, Riley asked, " Would you like to dance?"
Anya looked up and for the first time all night seemed to get nervous. " Umm, I don't really dance. I don't know how."
"Huh." Riley was confused. On their date Anya had unceasingly talked about all of the places she had gone and things she had seen. For someone as widely traveled as she is, to not know how do dance was surprising to say the least.
"Well, like I said, I went a lot of places for work." She looked down, and her confidence seemed to vaporize. " I didn't have a lot of time to socialize."
"What exactly did you do?" Riley was curious. Anya had talked a lot about where she had gone, but was very evasive about what she did there.
"Mostly I worked for the man who took care of me." Anya answered evasively. " He did a lot of work in the demon underground. It was important work and I didn't have time to goof off."
"That's too bad, you must've not had a lot of time for fun stuff." Riley shook his head
Anya shrugged her shoulders. " That's true. But he still helped me a lot. My village was kind of old fashioned. I was married to a man who… He took me out of a bad situation. He taught me the skills to survive in a world were women were second-class citizens. Showed me the world. I owed him."
"Anya. You didn't owe him service forever." Anya just smiled. " It sounds like he made you into what he wanted. Not what was best for you. If he didn't let you have the fun or live the life you deserved as a young women, he's just an ass." He stood up and stuck out his hand. " Since I am not an ass, I want you to have a good time. Now come on, lets dance."
"But I don't know how," Anya whined.
"Don't worry about it. Let me lead."
As Riley led Anya onto the dance floor she muttered, " Just like a man, always wanting to lead." Despite her protestations, by the time she got there, a smile could be seen on her face from across the club.
"So there I was, just sitting under the tree, when some guy walks up to me and says, hey kid wanna try out for a movie. I was bored so I said sure. I get to the auditorium where they're having tryouts for whatever movie their doing. I had no idea what film we were trying out for. I did notice that they had everybody divided up into groups of three, two guys and a female. I was talking with my group, when this nerdy looking guy in a beard walked up to us and handed out scripts. He told me that this was a space opera that he was putting together and the character that I was reading for was a smuggler named HAN SOLO!"
Xander looked at the table where he was regaling the group with a story prompted by Dawn's question about the coolest thing that has ever happened to him. The jaws of everyone at the table just dropped. Even Angel seemed impressed by the story. Oz actually made an expression. " I about died and went to heaven right there. I so wanted that part. But it was destined for Harrison Ford."
"Damn right it was," Cordelia answered primly
"You actually met George Lucas," Dawn asked excitedly. One of the things that she liked about Xander was their shared love of science fiction. " Was he cool. Did you do anything for the movie since you didn't get the part?"
"Met him. Hell, faith and I worked for ILM for a while. We busted our ass for a NEW HOPE and the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. I even got to play a storm trooper." Xander said calmly.
"Why not RETURN?" Willow asked.
Xander shuddered. " I hate Ewoks." Dawn shuddered with him.
"Cordelia, what were you doing while they were working." Joyce asked.
Cordelia scrunched her face as she tried to remember. " I was working in Milan in '77 as a fashion designer."
"I have a weird question." Willow asked out of the blue. " If you guys simply caught up to us in time, why didn't you just show up six months ago, like the day after the sisterhood." Willows question silenced the table. They all looked at the three expectantly. " You three could have just slipped back into the group and we wouldn't have…wouldn't have worried." She finished quietly.
"That would be my fault," Faith said sheepishly. " One of Xander's immortal students is a skilled planes walker. Derrick had sent a message asking for some help about eight months ago. I figured that the dimension that he was in had a time dilation of about a day there to a week here. We were gone for about eight days so I figured two months-plenty of time. Turned out, the dimension had a time dilation of a day to a month. Eight days equaled eight months, six months past when the young versions of us disappeared."
"And on that embarrassing note, lets go back into the study." Cordelia said. " We have gifts for everyone to celebrate our homecoming." She smiled at the group. "We've been waiting a long time to give them to you."
Dog Tag hated Halloween. He was a man of action but thanks to this stupid vampire tradition he wasn't out there killing all those people wandering around like they owned the place. Instead, here he was with his minions, buddies of his from Nam that he turned and they were watching television and talking about whether or not Christopher Lee would make a good vampire. Damn it he was a predator, a vampire, and most importantly a Green Fucking Beret.
Sometimes during these quiet moments he thought about how he was turned. He remembered the tiny tunnel dug out by the Charlies. He remembered the surprise that he felt when he encountered the wizened little ancient demon feeding in the tunnel he was exploring. The demon certainly wasn't supposed to decide the foreigner was worthy of turning. Dog Tag loved his new freedom. Hell, he hadn't been the nicest mortal, and as a vampire, the whole fucking world became Charlies for him to kill. It didn't take long before he turned some of the more talented soldiers and formed his own vampire unit. They ran drugs and guns for twenty years out of north Vietnam before the Hellmouth beckoned him. So now here he was wasting his talents, but he couldn't leave thanks to the energies of the hellmouth.
He hated the fricken' hellmouth.
His thoughts turned over in his mind as he watched his men drink blood from bags and laugh at the antics of movie vampires. His boys were losing their edge. They already lost two men to that pretty blond slayer. He was about to yell at them when the door to their crypt flew off its hinges and into the room. A beautiful blond vampire walked in. She wore a charcoal gray suit and her white blond hair was bound in a tight braid.
"You lead this group," she said. It wasn't a question. Dog tag could tell she already knew the answer.
"What's it to you bitch." He smiled. She was a smart looking one with her fancy dress and spiffy haircut. She also looked like she couldn't fight through a wet paper bag. He'd seen plenty of prissies when he was in the military and he could smell she was one too. Typical. She was the reason why bitches and fags shouldn't be let in the military. And she wanted to give him orders. No fucking way. He stood up and walked over to the slight female vampire.
"I have a proposition for you." She began. " Your group vampires are very impressive. Not many vampire leaders have the foresight to turn military types, let alone green berets and Navy Seals. I know that you have a lot of power and formidable skills but you have done nothing since you arrived at the hellmouth of any consequence. I represent people who can give you structure and command-a reason for being. Give you all the power and more that you could ever want." Alicia Killdare eyed the vampire in front of her. She could tell that he didn't like the idea of taking orders from a woman. Over the centuries, she'd met more than one human and vampire who had similar issues. She hoped she could restrain her more homicidal impulses while she 'convinced' him. She would hate to have an accident with her new powers. She also eyed him appreciatively. If she could train out his more mysogystic impulses, he might make a suitable replacement for Thomas. Certainly one she could control.
"Oh really." Dog Tag raised his eyebrow. " My boys and I work for ourselves, nobody else. We 'specialy don't take order from women." He punctuated his words with a swift punch aimed at her jaw. A strong action designed to show her who was boss.
The blow never landed. The slight female vampire lifted up her hand and caught his massive fist. Somehow her strength was enough to completely stop his forward momentum. She smiled and squeezed his fist. Dog Tag gasp as he felt the bones in his hand crumble. As he fell to his knees Alicia whispered, " When I was mortal, my husband used to hit me. Nobody hits me anymore." As his buddies leapt up to defend him she lifted her other hand and tentacles of darkness writhed out of the corners and wrapped around them. Shifting her grip, she lifted Dog Tag off the ground with one had. Smiling Alicia told the surprised vampire, " I think you'll find that the group I work with has a lot to offer. Now will you come peacefully, or will I have to get angry."
The shaken Dog Tag could only nod in acquiescence.
Anya snuggled deeper into Riley's embrace. She and Riley were walking back to her apartment since it was nice out. She convinced Riley that they were safe on the streets Halloween night. Anya lived in a nice part of town, thanks to power of the wish before she lost it. She had easily used her powers to grant herself a nice place with all the money and furnishings she wanted.
Now riley was walking her back to her apartment after a most successful date. The farm boy turned special ops soldier pleasantly surprised her by his sweetness and solicitousness. For the first time since she lost her vaunted immortality she felt safe with a man besides Giles. Aud had never really liked men after what Olaf did to her. She loved him, took care of him and he cheated on her with some cow who was more likely drop a boy for him. Her centuries of work with D'hoffran made her like men even less than before. Giles had shown her kindness and understanding during her adjustment to mortality. That was why she agreed to stay behind and help against the mayor's ascension despite the odds she thought they'd face. But Riley, Riley was something different. Not an older man who was drawn in by the seeming youth of her face and wanted to help and protect her because of her fragility. No, Riley thought she was pretty and interesting. He listened to her and asked questions about her life and her work that made her think about things and the way D'hoffran treated her that had never occurred to her before. In short he acted like she mattered to him, not a worker or a trophy, but as a person and she liked it.
Meanwhile Riley focused on the petite woman he had wrapped in his arms. He had enjoyed dancing with her tonight, and talking with her more. She had such a beguiling blend of innocence and age, it captivated him the way she acted, motioned, saw the world excited him. He even liked her frank speech and bluntness. As a military man, he could appreciate her upfront ness. He carefully looked around to make sure that no vamps or anything was around. He didn't like having to walk four blocks back to Anya's apartment but she wanted to walk. That was another thing. Anya seemed to have absolutely no fear of death; it was like nothing could scare her. She wanted to walk, so walk they did. She actually told Riley that a vampire attacking them on Halloween would be 'tacky'.
It was about the time where Riley was thinking he was pleased at the level of non-interference they were getting from the nightlife when a low whistle rang out from an alleyway nearby. Riley reached behind his back and gripped his collapsible baton with a wooden tip but didn't bring it out.
Three vampires walked out of the alley. Riley recognized the lead as the vampire that knocked him out in the graveyard fight several days ago. Immediately he pulled Anya behind him.
"Anya," he whispered savagely. " When I tell you to go, run to your apartment. I can hold off three vampires…for a while. I get there when I can." Then he smiled at her. " I had a good time tonight."
"So did I," she replied tersely. " Which is why I am not going to let you do something stupid before I have had my way with you." She reached into her purse and pulled out a lighter. Riley looked at her incredulously. She shrugged. " You'd be surprised what I can do with a Zippo. Now can we leave so I can get on with seducing you?"
Riley perked up and snapped out his baton. " On three we break for your apartment," he said while eyeing the approaching vampires. " One, two…THREE." Riley and Anya both started to sprint forward the half a block to her apartment. Two of the vampires ran with unnatural speed to head off the rushing couple. Anya murmured a quick spell under her breath and flung the Zippo at the vampire in the lead. Glowing with potential energy it struck him in the chest and burst on him. The vampire dusted in a blaze of fire that seemed to consume him from within. The other vampire tackled Riley.
Rolling on the ground Riley flung the vampire off him and blindly grabbed for his wood tipped baton. The vampire rolled to his feet much faster than Riley and kicked the downed soldier in the ribs.
Anya searched her purse for something she could use on the vampire beating up her potential boyfriend. She flung things randomly out of her purse as she cursed her lack of a second lighter. She was no pyromancer so she needed a focus for fire and heat based magic. Someone like Amy Madison could create fire at will, but Anya needed something she could bring the explosive potential out of. And she did not have anything on her.
Then she heard the footsteps behind her and cursed herself for not remembering the third vampire. Without turning around she began to run forward only to be stopped up short by the vampire's cold hand on her arm. The iron like grip turned her around and she drew in a sharp breath as she beheld the vampire before her.
He was a lord among vampires. Power seemed to radiate from his very being. His smile shone like a thousand watt bulb. She was entranced. Her heart beat faster and a smiled played about her lips as she beheld his magnificence. < Magnificence? Wait. This isn't normal. Why am I feeling this way > a small voice asked in her mind. A very small voice since the majority of her mind never felt an attraction like the one she was experiencing at this moment.
Meanwhile Riley had struggled to his feet and was trading slugs with the other vampire. A savage kick by Riley snapped the kneecap of the vampire and as he dropped to the ground, Riley drew out a backup stake and smoothly dusted the vampire. Turning around he saw Anya seemingly hypnotized by the large vampire.
Thomas Thorne saw the rushing Special Forces soldier and pushed Anya directly into his path. The dazed ex-demon ended up on the chest of her Riley. She shook her head, clearing her mind of the foreign influence. Riley unceremoniously pushed her off himself and leapt to his feet.
"Stop." The vampire's commanding voice slowed Riley's charge. Thomas put all his power behind his newly developed powers of command. Riley stumbled but kept going. Again Thomas shouted, " Stop." Again Riley shook his head, dazed, but kept going.
"Didn't you know," Riley grunted, " I'm from Iowa. We're too dumb for mind control."
Riley punched Thomas in the face, throwing all his weight behind the blow. Thorne staggered but kept to his feet. Riley followed up with a series of strikes that would shatter the ribs of an ordinary vampire. Thorne grunted but seemed to hold up under the stress. He knocked Riley to the ground with one powerful strike and stood over the prone soldier. Just then a group of kids and parents walked around the corner of block.
Thorne smiled. " Another time warrior. We will meet on the field of battle and you won't be able to hide behind children." Then he turned around and in a feat that would make Angel proud, disappeared into the night.
Anya bent over Riley, concerned for him. " That was very stupid Riley. I am very displeased. You could have been killed and I wouldn't be able to get any orgasms out of you." She smiled softly at him, her stern tone moderated by the concern in her gaze.
Riley just groaned and rolled his eyes. " Thanks a lot. And here I thought you liked me for my over developed cow milking skills."
Anya smiled as she helped him to his feet and guided him to her apartment. " If your good at milking, I have this great massage technique I could teach you. I learned it in India and it involves the prostate. The first thing you have to do is…"
The large living room of the mansion was decorated with the paraphernalia of a three hundred lifetimes. Sword from every corner of the globe lay preserved in cases. Paintings from world famous artists graced the walls. Over the fireplace hung the stuffed head of a gryphon that Xander had hunted in Mesopotamia.
The group filed into the room and looked around wondering what could be the gifts that Xander and the others seemed so eager to distribute. Giles took up position near a bookcase. Amy and Tara curled up together on the sofa. Joyce and Dawn took positions at the other end of the same sofa. Oz and Willow shared a large easy chair and Buffy and Angel took center stage near the large oak coffee table. The whole room seemed to carry an air of expectancy, like the world was just waiting to change. Into what, they could not say.
The Three were the last to enter. Faith and Cordelia, looking like Greek princesses flanked Xander. Xander himself carried a large cherry wood chest, balanced easily in his two hands. Smiling at the group, he put it down in the center of the room and looked around. Then he nodded at Cordelia.
She began to speak. " Over the years the three of us have come across many objects of power. Some of those items were destined for others. Others were lost or destroyed. The things in this chest are things that we can use to help us hold back the darkness." She looked at the group. " These things belong to you. I can feel it," she finished.
Xander opened the chest and pulled out the first item. Some sort of shrived hand or paw with a thin silver chain wrapped around it to make the item into a necklace. Xander held it up and grotesque shadows danced along the wall.
Oz's eyes widened as he caught the items scent. It was a shriveled wolfs paw. Almost involuntarily his hands itched to snatch the thing from Xander's hand.
"This is a wolf talisman. An Indian shaman made it and enchanted it to make it a conduit for wolf spirits." Xander smiled. " I don't know everything that it does, but I do know that it gives a werewolf control over their shape shifting abilities." He tossed it to Oz. " Wear it in good health."
"Thanks," Oz said simply. Willow looked from Oz to Xander in shock and pleased amazement.
Faith pulled out the next item. It was a thin tube about six inches long that seemed to glow coppery in the firelight. Symbols moved and flickered along the tube like carvings of licking flame. " This wand was made in Greece by the pyromancer Heraclitus. Its filled with the liquefied and distilled essence of fire elementals." She threw it to Amy.
Amy held it in her hand and marveled at it. It was slightly warm to the touch. Like it had been left out in the hot sum all day long. " What does it do?"
"It'll enhance your fire powers." Faith smiled, " but practice outside. We're not insured yet."
Cordelia reached into chest and pulled out a thick tome. She smiled at Tara. " This is a tome that was given to me by a dear friend of mine. She was lost during the witch burnings in Europe." Cordelia wiped a tear from her eye. " One of the last things she told me was that her book of shadows should go to the most deserving witch we could find. We can't think of anyone we'd rather give it to." She handed the book to Tara.
Tara thumbed through the book and her eyes widened as she saw the spells and potions. " The witch who owned this…these spells…how could she die? How could anyone kill someone so powerful?"
Cordelia smiled sadly. " Everyone has a time to die, and she respected hers."
Xander pulled a beautiful broadsword, golden filigree covering the hilt and runes etched along the blade. " Giles, this blade is the sword of Acadia. Crafted by the fey folk more than a thousand years ago. It acts as a battery for magical power, so even if you aren't a natural witch you can cast some spontaneous spells. The sword is also capable of cutting through illusions and protective wards."
Giles took off his glasses and took the sword with shaking hands. " Xander, this…I don't know what to say. This gift is more than I could expect."
"Don't worry about it." Xander smiled at the watcher.
Cordelia pulled out a small medallion from the chest. Without words she tossed it to willow.
Willow turned the silver medallion over in her hands and gasped. " This a kabalistic amulet. The secret names of God are inscribed on this in Yiddish." Willow shook her head. " I can't take this, the amount of power…No one should have this thing."
"What can that kabbieblastic thing do?" Buffy asked.
"With the proper incantation in the language and enough power behind it, nearly anything." Willow said softly, never taking her eyes off the talisman. " The words on this talisman are the foundation of reality, in Jewish lore these are the words that God uttered at the beginning of time to create the universe."
"Willow we trust you with it. If we didn't we wouldn't have given it to you." Cordelia knelt in front of Willow. " Rabbi Loew wanted this to go to someone deserving. You are that Willow. Never doubt that."
Willow searched Cordelia's face and then gave a weak smile. " Okay."
"And with that little drama out of the way," Faith said, " We get to the final actual present for the evening. She pulled a sword out of the chest and she held it out to buffy.
The sword was of Chinese design, a tai chi sword. It was straight with a slightly curved tip that flared out. Chinese characters flowed up and down the blade. The entire weapon's bearing gave the impression of water, of flowing. It almost seemed to shine like it was a little wet with fresh polish. Buffy gave a few practice swings and marveled at the weapons balance. " Wow."
"That sword was made during the warring states period of China. A blacksmith-sorcerer crafted it to hunt dragons. It can pierce the hide of any supernatural creature or demon, and dusts vampires like wielding a stake. There is almost nothing on this plane that this weapon can't kill. Even a god." Faith said smiling.
Xander smirked. " Try not to lose it."
Vampires were milling about the large central chamber of the Temple of Amara. Spike stood with his four original master vampires and Dog Tag on a raised dais. He turned to Thomas Thorne. " You separate the vamps with potential from the really stupid ones?"
Thorne nodded. " Dog Tag and I weeded out the truly stupid vampires from the ones that at least show a glimmer of intelligence and promise. Our great kingdom won't be dragged down by dead weight."
Dog Tag, the newest master vampire nodded in agreement. " My boys and I made sure that any vamps with military training and some common sense won't be in the ritual." He shrugged. " The rest don't matter a whole lot." To Dog Tag, any vampire who wasn't military trained wasn't worth the blood used to turn them.
Drusilla giggled and turned to her lover. " Can I keep one for a pet Spike?" She battered her girlish eyes at him. " I promise to walk him everyday and feed him lots of schoolchildren."
Spike rolled his eyes. " Sure pet. Whatever you want." Then he turned to Catherine Madison. " Begin the ritual."
Catherine began to chant in a language that was old when the temple was newly built.
Faith walked up to Joyce and smiled at her. " Don't worry. This won't hurt at all." She took Joyce's head in her hands and closed her eyes. Then they flew open and the whole group saw swirling red chaos in them. A soft glow appeared in between her fingers.
Joyce felt nothing at first, then warmth that seemed to start at the outer edges of her head and gradually moved inward. There was a pressure in her mind that seemed to build, build, and then drain away. She gasped with relief and then faith took away her hands.
"What did you do?" Joyce rubbed her temple.
Faith looked wearily at Joyce, lines of age showing around her eyes. " You had a tumor growing in your brain. It probably would have killed you in a year or so, if I hadn't healed you."
Joyce looked to buffy and dawn in horror. " Tha-Thank you Faith, I don't know what to say."
Faith smiled. " Just be yourself. And don't get sick again. Healings wicked hard."
{Catherine's chant began to rise. Her eyes became empty pools of shadow as the words tripped off her tongue. Spike smirked as he saw several vampires fall to the ground as the change came over them. Involuntarily, all the vampires burst into game face. And those faces twisted and began to bulge}
Cordelia walked over to angel and Faith went to her side. Xander rolled his eyes and found a corner of the room. He might have agreed to this for Buffy's sake but he didn't have to watch it.
"Come here Angel." Cordelia's soft voice mysteriously carried to every corner of the room.
Angel stood up cautiously. If his heart could beat, it would be racing. He knew that Xander's wives didn't hold the same level of animosity that he did, but something tickled the back of his mind. This, whatever was about to happen, was going to be momentous.
"Your gift isn't an object, because to someone like you, most possessions are meaningless." She looked to Buffy. " The things you want, love, acceptance, happiness, are denied to you because of the curse. The curse cannot be easily broken because no mortal caster can permanently anchor a soul. Only the creator can do that." Then Cordelia smiled at Faith. " The creator or a god like Faith here."
{Screams echoed about the main chamber as vampire bones broke and reformed. Spines cracked and limbs lengthened. Spike laughed over screams of pain that gradually became roars of hunger}
Faith and Cordelia joined hands and closed their eyes. Then an amazing transformation overtook Cordelia. Those who had seem her use upper level powers knew that her eyes transformed into smoky gray orbs when her powers were active. This time the transformation went beyond her eyes. Her long hair and eyebrows became drained of color. They took on the same smoke color as her eyes. Cordelia opened her mouth and gray mist rolled out and swirled around Angel.
Closing his eyes Angel inhaled the smoke into his long dead lungs. He could feel the magic doing something, spreading its energy throughout his body. He sank to his knees as the magic and divine power worked its passive magic on his mind, body and soul.
Finally the magic mist faded from around Angel and he stood up weakly. The first thing he did was seek out Buffy. Her tear- streaked eyes watched him holding her breath; she stared like she could not believe her eyes. In a few short steps he caught her in his arms and she sagged against him.
"Is it true, is his soul really anchored for good?" She asked from within his chest.
Xander walked forward and nodded. " Its true all right, Angelus ain't coming out to play no more, is he Angel?"
Angel stared hard at Xander while hugging buffy close. " No, Angelus is gone for good."
Xander and Angel met each other's gazes. They held that pose for a second and then they each nodded. They still didn't like each other, but they could pretend…for at least one night.
Then Xander walked over to the chest and pulled out a number of glasses and a decanter filled with a glowing green liquid the consistency of snot. Placing the glasses on table, he filled each one with the unappealing drink.
"There is no magic, no power that can keep a person alive forever short of ambrosia or forcibly stealing the quickening of an immortal by magic. But there are things that prolong life and health. This," and he held up the bottle, " is the blood of a Mohra demon."
"The demon assassins." Giles asked curiously. " Aren't they are supposed to be very rare?"
Cordelia snorted. " Sure they are, unless you happen to piss off the demon lord of their home dimension. Then they pop out of the frinkin' woodwork. But that would be a long story," she added sheepishly.
Faith retorted, " well if you hadn't-"
"Girls, focus," Xander shouted in exasperation. " I'm trying to get to the part were the blood will grant everyone here extended life spans and really fast healing."
Then he turned back to the group. " Morhra demons are nearly impossible to kill, and their blood grants limited regeneration power to mortals that drink it. Plus it will triple maybe quadruple your life span's." He turned to Joyce and Giles. " For the two of you, it will actually reverse your aging process slightly as the rejuvenating powers of the blood restore your health, metabolism, and muscle tone. We think it will give you the physiques of someone in their mid thirties. Not a huge difference, but one you'll feel and others will definitely notice. And of course you'll stay that way for a long time." Xander looked around. " These glasses are here for you. There is enough for everyone here except for the three of us, dawn, buffy. And Anya of course if she wants it." Xander looked around. " You don't have to do this. Long life spans can be wonderful, but a burden. When the people you care about start to die…" Xander got choked up and couldn't continue.
Faith took over. " It might be a little selfish but we don't want to have to do that with any of you for a long time. But like Xan said, it's your choice. A long life ain't always roses and parties."
"Hey," dawn asked indignantly. " How come I don't get the cool drink?"
"Because," Cordelia answered compassionately, " your twelve. The blood would have too much of an unpredictable effect on you since you haven't reached your full growth." Then she smiled, " when your ready, if you still want it, it'll be there for you."
Joyce stared at the glass in front of her. For what seemed like the millionth time that night, her mind swirled in chaos. Youth, vitality…it was staring her in the face. Joyce didn't like to think about it, but she knew that Hank had traded her in for a younger model. She was getting older, and aging sucked for everyone but especially women who were judged by their looks. She had two teenaged children, and the recent growth spurt by dawn really hit home that she wasn't a young mom anymore. But she was wise enough to realize what Xander said was true. The world was changing, and would change faster and not always for the better. Did she really want to see it, watch the world maybe go down in flames? Watch one, maybe both of her daughters march off to fight everyday. Then a single thought crossed her mind and she reached for the glass and downed it in a single gulp. None of those things mattered. Not aging, not the sad state of world affairs. She was a mother and she needed to be there for her daughters. No matter how long they lived, they would always be her daughters.
And they will always need their mother.
One by one, each one of the Scooby's took the glass in their hand and drank the life giving blood, each for their for their own reasons.
None of them knew it, save for perhaps Cordelia, but a new legend was being born. One that will echo down through the pages of history. Only their choices would tell whether it was a remembered fondly or one remembered darkly. Destiny and Fate danced on the edge of a pin for each of them.
{Spike surveyed his new shock troops. The vampires who were subject to the ritual were changed. They were at once both more and less than vampire minions. Stronger, faster, more in tune with their combat instincts, they were also now barely intelligent and paced like the caged animals they now resembled. Regressed vampires, they would obey the commands of any true master vampire who gave them orders. They had no wants, no desires besides blood and violence. William the Bloody was going to write his name across world with the blood of Buffy the vampire slayer. He had his troops now. His Turok- Han}
Buffy stepped out of Abnormal psychology and took a deep breath. The fresh scent of grass and trees waffled around her. A huge smile broke across her face. She'd had a good weekend. She and Angel had spent the nights getting to know one another. Really getting to know one another. No holds barred.
Angel had held nothing back about his past or his feelings. It was as though his permanently anchored soul had broken some sort of emotion barrier. Angel talked for hours, more than Buffy had ever heard him share before. He smiled and talked about the first time he met the badly dressed demon called Whistler and the first time he laid eyes on Buffy; about the years of pain and far between moments of bittersweet joy; about meeting the Rat Pack for the first time in Vegas.
Neither of them could ever have anything resembling a normal life. She was an Immortal now and Angel was still a vampire. They would spend their entire lives fighting in one way or another. They would never be able to have children or the white picket fence, but they could have each other.
For Buffy that was enough.
She was happier than she had been in a long time. Not many people knew it, but she often still had nightmares about the time Angelus roamed. She still thought about Jenny Calendar and how scared she was for Giles when he went after Angelus alone. Buffy had been feeling the darkness close in around her lately, but since the return of Xander and the others, despite the shock of her new status, she had slowly been regaining happiness and vitality that had slowly been eroding after night after night of fighting for her life and the future of the world.
Angel was only part of it, though. This immortality gig came with its own share of problems, but, for the first time in a long time, Buffy could see the light at the end of the tunnel. She might actually live to be older than twenty-five, and get to go farther in her life than LA. In every way, her life was looking up.
"So, details," Willow asked excitedly. " How are you and Angel doing? Is it good? I bet it's good."
Buffy beamed, her smile lighting up her face. " It is good. It's nice, you know, to finally be able to be with Angel without the angst, and just be…happy."
The two of them walked along the tree-lined paths of UC Sunnydale. For Buffy the trees were greener, the grass was fuller and there were actually birds singing. She was goofy in love.
Willow just smiled. It was good to see her friend so happy, she had been really down lately. Xander had helped a lot to put the spark back in her eyes and the smile on her face. For that matter, back on to her own face as well.
She and Xander have been meeting every morning since the three of them had gotten back, in an effort to rebuild their friendship. It hurt Willow to realize that the man she once knew better than anyone else on the planet was now a nearly complete mystery and the girl she had hated for her whole life now knew him better. Willow was resolved to change that.
Willow and Buffy walked to the University Union building where they normally met Amy and Tara for lunch on campus. They were surprised to see the couple already waiting for them.
"Buffy, Willow, let's go get lunch, " Amy told the pair. " We got out of class early, and we want dirt on Angel."
Buffy laughed and started to nod before a frown appeared unexpectedly on her face. Suddenly, she burst forward, past the three surprised witches. Buffy ran with full Slayer speed, blurring past several other students. She had just seen something. Something that should be impossible.
Spike was walking around the campus. In broad daylight.
Anya turned around trying to find the warmth that was Riley and found it missing. She lay in bed for the moment before deciding to catch her wayward man. They had decided to skip school that day and to spend it in bed, and he was breaking the pact.
She sighed and got up. The weekend had been really good. She and Riley had spent a lot of time together during the day and at night, after his patrols, he would come over and spend the night. For such a white bread guy, Riley had possessed more than adequate sexual skills in bed. And Anya was gratified to discover that Cosmo did not lie about his…hand size, which had proved to be an excellent predictor.
She smiled as she thought about that first night. The night of Halloween, she bandaged his wounds and then tried to seduce him. The way he stuttered and stammered was so cute. He told her that he wasn't expecting anything from her that night.
Then, of course, there was the look on his face when she smirked and said she was.
She put on a thin silk robe and walked out into the kitchen, where she found Riley…actually cooking in her kitchen. He was even singing as he whipped up some eggs and bacon.
"You know, Riley, I actually have to worry about cholesterol now. Bacon and eggs are not conducive to living forever."
"We're all going to die sometime, Anya." The soldier answered cheerfully, " Might as well do it full and on good tasting food." Riley smiled as he watched Anya's face light up in laughter. She was so beautiful. Her svelte form looked so nice in thin bathrobe.
She frowned slightly.
"What's wrong Anya?"
"I have been less that forthcoming with you, Riley. I hate hypocrisy in men and I will not be a hypocrite myself."
Riley sat down at the small table in the kitchen. " You know you can tell me anything."
"I'm not eighteen, Riley, and I'm not even a hundred and eighteen. I am eleven hundred and twenty one years old. I was a demon of vengeance for more than a thousand years. I was born human in a small Scandinavian fishing village. When I was nineteen, I found out that my husband had been cheating on me because I was unable to provide him with a male heir. D'Hoffryn the demon lord of vengeance found me and gave me a new purpose and job. He transformed me into a demon of vengeance and I wreaked havoc on men for mistreating women for long, long time." She smiled bitterly. ", It wasn't like there was ever any shortage of work."
Riley paled and stood up. ", You're a demon? He whispered. " I don't understand. Last night…"
"I was," Anya replied softly, " but I lost my powers. And now I'm the same as everybody else. Human. Just like you." She put a soft hand on Riley's larger, calloused one.
"Did you ever…kill people?" Riley asked the question, dreading the response.
Anya looked away, unable to meet Riley's gaze. " Yeah, I did." Riley jerked away and she rushed to continue. " Riley, I really like you, more than any man I've ever met. I didn't exactly get the best impression of you guys, but you're a good decent person and I want to keep seeing you." She looked at him hopefully.
"I…I can't be here right now." Riley turned around and walked out of the apartment.
Anya watched him walk away, tears winding a path down her face.
Spike felt the sun warm on his face for only the second time since he had received the Gem of Amara. He had refrained from using the Gem for the last several days because he wanted to lie low to avoid the Slayer's attention. Plus, a bunch of the demons and vamps in town said a new power was taking the place over and they were rumored to be the Three. Even Spike wasn't crazy enough to tackle them. But today was D-day. Today was the day the blood bath was going to start.
In order to transfer the sacrificial power to the temple, the vampires had to kill or feast with their bare hands. They couldn't just plant a few bombs and rack up the energy; no, they had to feel the blood pour like wine from the veins of their chosen prey. Like the old days, when vampires roamed the world like the prides of great cats. So the plan was pretty simple. The vamps were going to go out tonight and paint the town red. But Spike wanted an early start, so he took off.
Spike shaded his eyes and looked around. Kids were wandering around without fear for what lurked in the dark, and the bleached vampire was disgusted. They knew nothing about what walked among them. He shifted into game face and grinned, as he considered the expressions their faces would soon be wearing.
They soon would learn all about things that go bump in the night. And some that went bump in the daylight, too.
Spike walked up to a couple eating on the grass. When they looked up to see who was approaching, the male smiled. " Nice makeup job. You in the drama club?"
"Sorry mate. I'm in the 'killing you now' club." Before either of them could react, he snapped their necks.
Chaos erupted. Girls erupted into screams and panic caused students to begin trampling each other in their rush to get away from the blond vampire. He grabbed several more people and ripped into them. A pair of men tried to tackle the now blood splattered demon. Two big burly football player types, who expected the thin vampire to be bowled over easily.
They were sadly mistaken, as Spike not only remained unmoved; but also tossed them both aside with contemptuous ease. Spike grabbed one thick-necked athlete and ripped his throat out. Blood geysered from the swiftly pumping artery and splattered several nearby students. At the same time, Spike shoved his hand through the chest of the other football player and pulled his heart out.
Tossing the organ behind him, the blood soaked vampire looked for a new victim.
He found it, in the form of Buffy Summers. The Slayer rushed up the cement walkway. Her first attack was a flying kick that carried her close to a dozen feet through the air.
Spike spotted it from the corner of his eye and barely managed to evade the blow. Buffy landed gracefully and immediately spun around in a defensive position.
"I don't know how you're doing this, but I'm going to kill you Spike."
"Please Slayer, try. I do so want you to try," the vamped out Spike answered.
Buffy tried to shift her breath to match the way Xander told her how to breathe. Sinanju, the martial art Xander was trying to teach her was predicated on proper breathing style. Buffy already felt calmer as the soothing breath strengthened her limbs. She launched a devastating combination that had worked on Spike on the several occasions they had previously clashed. Powered by sinanju and Slayer strength, she expected to blast past his defenses.
She was sadly mistaken.
Spike reacted with astonishing speed and grace. He blocked blow after blow, moving with a level of speed that Buffy had never seen before. His body was blur and contorted into amazing positions as he dodged and retaliated. His blows seemed to come from a thousand different directions at once, at a speed that Buffy could barely register.
"Pick up some new tricks there, pet?" Spike punched Buffy in the face, the ring of Amara cutting a deep furrow in her cheek. His eyebrows rose when it sealed up, leaving only a thin trail of blood.
Buffy smiled. " You have no idea." Outwardly, she was calm, but inside she was worried. Spike's fists had felt like sledgehammers. Even after deflecting several of his strikes, she could feel her arms tingling from the force of his blows. And more of his hits were sneaking past her defenses. She could feel that at least one of her ribs was broken, although the tingle in her side let her know that her Quickening was quickly solving that problem. He had not been this strong when she fought him last year, when he came to town for a love spell to get Dru back. It was like he had been supercharged, somehow.
She snapped a branch off a nearby tree. Spike didn't even try to stop the blow that drove the branch into his withered poet's heart. He just smiled as Buffy gaped at him. Then he launched a backhanded blow that launched her through the air and knocked her to the ground. She tried to struggle to her feet, but with the wind knocked out of her, it was proving to be damn hard.
"Did I forget to mention that I've picked up a few new tricks myself?" The British vampire gloated in that special, annoying, and completely Spike-like way. He absently rubbed the ring he was wearing and Buffy took note " We're going to be at this all day, luv, and I got better things to do. People to kill and all that."
Spike bowed to Buffy as she lay stunned on the ground and turned around. He ran to a hedge and jumped over it with a single graceful bound. He then ran down the street, blurring past the pedestrians.
His parting words were, " I'll be seeing you, pet. Trust me on that."
Riley paced back and forth as Dr. Walsh told him about the murders on campus an hour before.
"I don't understand," she said while shaking her head. " Vampires are not supposed be able to do what this one did today. He killed at least five people and severely wounded many others. Miss Summers was able to drive him off, although she muttered something about not being able to dust him. The strength and speed he demonstrated in combat were well above the norms established by Mister Angel, and he is not a weak vampire."
Riley could only shake his head in shock.
"I can only theorize that this vampire is either older than Angel, or perhaps some sort of mutation on the standard vampire strain."
Riley shook his head. " That's not what Buffy told me. I heard her say that she had met the vampire before. His name was Spike, and he's younger than Angel and has a reputation for viciousness that is second to none."
"Really," Dr. Walsh raised an eyebrow. " She neglected to tell me that."
"She probably just forgot."
"No doubt."
"Ma'am. Dr. Walsh." A young soldier ran up to the professor. " There's something going on in the pens. It's the vampires."
Dr. Walsh turned to the soldier and motioned for an escort. " Take me."
"Xander, it's not possible. Simply not possible." Giles shook his head. Several days after drinking the demon's blood, the Watcher already looked five years younger. The slight gut he had acquired over the years had evaporated and the careworn lines in his face likewise had started to become less prominent and disappear.
As soon as she had finished alerting the Initiative, Buffy had gone to Xander's mansion and told him what had happened. He called Giles and the three of them were conferring about the new Spike.
Buffy shivered. " I'm scared," she admitted. " I've handled Spike before, but whatever he did to himself, if I hadn't been you know… what I was," Buffy still couldn't say Immortal, " Spike would have had his hat trick."
"We'll figure it out and we'll get the bastard." Xander soothed her jangled nerves. " I still think it's the Gem of Amara."
Giles jutted out his chin. " And I still say, it's not possible."
"Of course it is," the ancient immortal replied. " Just about anything's possible. Even the Council used to remember that."
"Xander, I am telling you that there are no reliable Council records of vampires being able to walk in the sun. The scepter of Imhotep, the Ankh of the Midnight Sun, the Gem of Amara, they're bloody myths. They don't exist. The Council knows that," he retorted sarcastically.
"Ever hear of the vampire magus called Valentino?" Xander asked Giles. The Watcher was surprised by the apparent non sequitur.
Giles nodded slowly, a sneaking suspicion as to where this was leading, growing in his mind. There were certain Council records that predated the early purges that Ripper had sneaked a few peaks at. If Xander was about to say what Giles thought he was going to say, then not even the Council knew the full exploits of the Three.
Buffy just snickered at the vampire's name.
Xander shot an annoyed look at Buffy. " You think his name is funny, Buff? Val was an ancient vampire; he looked like Kakistos did when he came to Sunny D last year. He was about twenty five hundred years old back then and more than one Slayer was tucked under his belt." Buffy shot him a horrified look. " Oh, it gets better. He was a mage and rumored to be the last disciple of Amara, the god of vampires. He was a true master vampire and he knew spells that could keep vampires alive in sunlight. And, yes, I know it's true Giles, because I saw them in action."
"Xander, I…" Buffy sounded like she was trying to apologize to the ancient Immortal
Xander ignored the beginnings of the Slayer's apology and the presence of her Watcher as his voice began to grow distant...
The Immortal known as Alexander of Troy relaxed within the garden of his villa. The well-manicured garden was exceedingly comfortable in the hot Mediterranean sun. The scent of flowers hung in the air and fruit hung heavy on the vines and trees that filled the large private garden. The freshly painted frescos glimmered in the morning light.
With care, he smeared soft oils on the back of his wife, Cordelia. He massaged her naked shoulders, working the oil into her tanned, muscled skin. Leaning forward, he nibbled lightly on the back of her neck. She leaned up against him on a marble bench that sat near the center of the garden
"Do you know how much I love you?" he whispered
"I've forgotten," she smiled, " I think you have to tell me for a few hours. Just to remind me, of course."
Xander took his wife into his arms and was about to count the ways he loved her with kisses when an embarrassed cough caused him to look up.
Tomas, the ten-year-old slave child of a housekeeper, stood beneath the archway entrance to the internal garden; He appeared shame faced that he had interrupted his masters in so compromising a position. " M-M-My lord and lady, a senator is here to see you."
Xander sighed and motioned for the boy to let the politician through. The Immortal was surprised to see his old friend, Lucien Agrippa, step through the archway. The senator eyed the slender, retreating form of the slave.
"You do have the loveliest toys," he murmured
Xander winced. " Don't say things like that. I'd hate to have to kill you."
The senator shrugged. " I'm not here to debate the rights of slaves. There are bigger things in play."
"How come you never come just to visit?" Xander joked. Lucien Agrippa was one of the few senators who stood for him when the Caesar revoked his general-hood. It was part of a power play by the immortal soldier, Darius. Lucien was a man of principle in a land where principles were too often for sale and for that, if not his appetites, Xander respected him.
"I must sincerely apologize to you, Alexander-and your lady wife for this interruption, but Rome needs you. Our colonies in Spain are being attacked and the local guards can't handle what's happening." The old soldier turned massive landowner looked at them to assess their reaction. He was less than pleased with what he saw.
Xander rolled his eyes. " Rome has legions and generals enough, without dragging me into the middle of it. Besides, I think the senate made what they think about my leadership skills abundantly clear when they stripped me of my command. Others can handle the barbarians and bandits you're having your little tiff with. So, my answer is, no."
"If it were simple barbarians, I wouldn't be here, " the roman senator sighed. " Let me rephrase the statement. " The Council needs you."
"You're a Watcher," Xander said in surprise. He turned to Cordelia. " Did you know that?"
Cordelia shrugged and gave a knowing smile.
"Yes, I am a Watcher. We need you, Alexander. I know you care about Slayers. All of our archives show that you take their welfare quite seriously." The senator sat down on the bench opposite the lovers and sighed, appearing suddenly decades older. " It's gotten bad."
"You lost a Slayer." Xander appeared grim.
He shook his head. " We haven't lost one slayer, Alexander. We've lost seven slayers in the past four months. It's the worst debacle in the history of the Council." Lucien lost his stoic countenance. " The last was the daughter of my brother. She was a child of rare beauty and wit. She would have been a powerful lady of Rome."
"Had fate not willed otherwise," Cordelia interjected.
"As she often does," Senator Agrippa smiled without humor. Visibly gathering the mantle of leadership about himself, he continued. " We need the man written about in the Chronicles. We need the man who marched to Carthage and tore down the walls of that dark city and slew the vampire general, Hannibal.
"We need you."
Xander stood up and pulled Cordelia up with him. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. She better, than anyone else, understood the price Xander payed for being the warmaster that he was. The pain, the nightmares, the eternal what-ifs; It was that pain which caused him to allow himself to be exiled away from the heart of power for the first time in more than a thousand years. He would not easily enter that arena again. But she also knew her husband.
And he had a soft spot for Slayers.
One quick glance between the married couple and she knew his decision.
"I will go to Spain."
The Senator smiled. " The Council has a great deal of power within the Senate. We can get your command back."
Xander leaned back and asked, " So what can you tell me about this vampire warlord?"
"He's ancient for one. He is just about the oldest vampire any of us can find in the journals. Six months ago, he fled the land of the Hebrews. Supposedly, there is a new sorcerer who has risen there, and along with his disciples, takes a rather dim view of the undead." Lucien frowned. " We've tried to recruit him, but all he said was that his destined role lies along another path."
"Leave him alone," Cordelia told the Watcher. " Seriously. He's beyond you."
"I was so arrogant. I thought in a thousand years I had scene all that life had to offer." Xander shook his head and whispered, " I had no idea how was wrong I was."
In a stronger voice, he told Giles. " The whole legion I took to Spain was wiped out nearly to a man. I thought that I would only have to worry about fighting battles at night and I had done it before with the legions, but somehow, vampires attacked us during the day. You might think that you known fear, Giles, but you haven't. Imagine staring at a legion of vampires in game face, sunlight reflecting on their yellow eyes, just before the command was given to rush your position. Then, imagine that, day after day, with men disappearing in the night only to be fought by friends the next day. Our supply lines were overrun and we starved along with everything else. The whole thing was a nightmare.
Giles just shook his head. He vaguely knew about Valentino from the Council archives on the Three. It was one thing to read about their tales in books and reports, but it's something else entirely to hear about it from the lips of the man who was there. There was passion and pain in his voice, emotions that cannot be conveyed through secondary sources. " How did you defeat him?"
"Cordy and I, along with an Amazon tribe that worshiped Faith, ended up tracking him to his lair and destroying his power center. That ended most of his outstanding spells and his servants went back to being just regular vampires." Xander shrugged. " Everything else was just mopping up."
Buffy said from where she was sitting, " History is all well and good, Xander, but what the hell does this have to do with Spike and him going all not dusty?"
"I don't know," Xander replied. " But I think it's connected. Something about your story just made me think about Valentino." Bitterly, Xander said " It's not one of my most treasured memories, so I'm going to go with my instincts on this one and say its important. There aren't lot of vampires with the skills to use the spells that are probably protecting him. And all of them are beyond the parlor tricks of Drusilla. And, if he actually found the Gem of Amara, then things are going to get even worse."
"Then Spike has found a new magic buddy." Buffy didn't sound happy at all.
Giles said what was on all their minds.
"We need to find out who it is and what they are planning."
Spike wandered through the streets of Sunnydale. Splattered in blood, he kept to the shadows. Finding a dark corner, he hid from the sunlight. While it didn't burn him any longer, it still stung his eyes.
"Thorne was right," he muttered to himself. " Bitch has found some new tricks." He stared at several drops of blood that graced the Gem of Amara where he scrapped Buffy's face and remembered how it had healed in moments. Intoxicating odors waffled from the blood, a slight hint of ozone tainting the scent. Hesitantly, he licked the blood off the ring and moaned slightly. The blood spread warmth through his system and he felt a little dizzy. Spike had tasted the blood of more than one Slayer, but this eclipsed them all.
This blood tasted like power.
High from the few drops he had imbibed, Spike went off to find some more people to kill. After all, it would be a shame to waste this feeling.
Dr. Walsh moved down the corridor at a smooth clip, with Riley following right behind. The demons in the clear cells clawed at the walls with a variety of appendages. The young soldier led them to the end of the cellblock. All the vampires were kept within close proximity to each other, in order to 'assess the socio/cultural dynamics of the most common sub terrestrial type within a prison setting.'
When she reached the vampires, she stopped up short. Vampires had a relatively small number of responses to being imprisoned. Dr. Walsh believed the limited affective responses of vampires were due to changes that occurred when a human was infected. Most went stir crazy and devolved to a more primitive state from hunger and a lack of stimulus.
These vampires weren't doing any of the limited variety of behaviors that they had catalogued during their studies. In fact, the affective demeanors changed nearly simultaneously in all of them, at the same time.
They were calm and could even be described as serene. The vampires were all chanting in unison, perfectly in harmony with one another, " The lord will come on rivers of blood, the lord will come on rivers of blood, the lord will…"
"Amazing," Dr. Walsh murmured. " They seem to be showing signs of hypnotic suggestion. I thought that was impossible to do to vampires." She turned to Riley. " I want three patrols tonight, led by you, Forrest, and Graham. I want more specimens, and I want a wider sample. Something is happening and we need to know what it is. See if you can get a few members of this demon-hunting group to go with each group. Witches may have a unique perspective on this situation."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Dr. Walsh turned to the young soldier that had attracted her attention in the first place. " Private, I want you to get a tranq rifle." She pointed at a vampire that looked like a curvaceous blond chanting along with the rest, a particularly vapid expression on her face. " I think I'll dissect that one to see if any physiological changes have occurred."
The vampire coded hostile seventeen, better known as Harmony Kendall, never took notice until soldiers entered her cell and shot her full of tranquilizers.
Riley silently motioned to two of his men, signaling to them that they needed to separate and recon the area ahead. The pair nodded and broke away from the group. He and his men, plus Tara and Faith, were hunting through the port/warehouse district of Sunnydale. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the two civilians and began to contemplate how different they truly were from each other.
Faith wore form-fitting black leather pants that hugged all of her very impressive curves. Heavy dark makeup contrasted with her pale features and gave her a seductive gothic look that had more than one soldier more than a little distracted. However, for the few that dared to approach her, she quickly established that she was a taken woman.
Riley shook his head, half in admiration and half in wonder. He still could not figure out how Xander had managed to rope both Faith and Cordelia into marrying him, but more power to him if he could keep them both satisfied. Riley could barely keep up with the voracious sexual appetite of Anya.
Anya.
He shook his head as his thoughts turned once again to beguiling woman who, in the span of a few days, had turned his heart and head completely upside down. Demons were supposed to be ugly and green, slimy and foul smelling. Not beautiful and beguiling, with a slender waist and musical laugh. They definitely weren't supposed to be lovable.
With a savage wave, Riley motioned for Faith to come over and forced thoughts of Anya out of his head. Faith sauntered over with a sexy swish from her hips.
"What's the stitch?"
Although her voice was bored, Riley could tell that very little was escaping the notice of the dark Slayer. Her heavy lidded eyes flickered back and forth as she scanned the area.
"Are you sure that this Intel is good? We're not getting anything, and if we go back with nothing, Walsh will have my ass. Our three patrols are off their normal routes based on what your girl had to say."
Faith smiled. " Cordy is the best seer I've ever seen. She has…kind of a direct connection to some powerful forces. If she says that something is going to happen out here in the docks, then it will." She frowned a little. " Although her visions weren't as clear tonight as they normally are." She shook off the momentary lapse and laughed throatily at the scowling soldier. " Have a little faith, Riley. Does the body good."
Riley was about to answer when his radio crackled to life.
# Captain Finn, Captain Finn #
Riley held the radio to his mouth. " This had better be good. We're supposed to be maintaining radio silence," he snapped.
# Sir, # the voice replied. # We just heard over the police radio, there is a violent crime scene in your area. Lots of blood and Walsh thinks it sounds like it could be a vamp attack. #
"And how are we going to get into a crime scene? We don't exactly look like the FBI." He was about to argue further when Tara tapped him on the shoulder and shook her head. " Never mind, we'll handle it."
Riley got off the radio and asked Tara. " Okay, why did I agree to go to a crime scene, when we have no authority to seize jurisdiction and we looked like paint ball rejects?"
Tara smiled and Riley was struck by how pretty the shy blond was when she didn't hide behind her hair. " I've been studying this spell called Faerie Seeming. It sort of combines an illusion and a low level mind control spell to make a group of people look like something entirely different." Tara had spent the weekend studying the spell book Cordelia had given her. Part journal, part book of shadows, the tome held sorceries of such power, Tara could hardly believe that Cordy had turned it over to her. The Faerie Seeming was among the least of the powers, yet Tara knew the spell would tax her limited powers to the max. Of course, she didn't tell Riley that.
Riley looked doubtfully but nodded to the men. " Okay guys, lets go play cops and robbers."
Forrest hated graveyards. The very idea of walking over ground where dead people were buried weirded him out. And in a town where the dead tended to crawl out of grave, his neurosis was even more heightened. At least he had his first real command, away from that candy-ass, Riley Finn.
Of course, having civilian demon hunters on his team wasn't improving his mood any.
At least Harris seemed like he knew his way around the military. There was a sort of quiet confidence about Xander that lent him an air of authority that eclipsed all of the military leaders Forrest had served under.
And he could fight, too.
Forrest could hardly believe his eyes when he saw Xander sparring the other day against several of his men who were known to be the best in the company in hand to hand. Xander had flat out owned them on the practice mat. He seemed to hardly move, yet, time after time, the men went flying. And by the end of the match, he wasn't even breathing hard. He didn't move like a martial arts master.
He moved like he fricken' invented the martial arts.
If Xander Harris reluctantly impressed Forrest, Buffy Summers, the Slayer did anything but. His eyes shifted to the Slayer in question as he thought about her. She was wearing a purple tank top and dark shorts, while her streaked blond hair was pulled into two short pigtails. She looked like a cheerleader out on a midnight stroll. Totally unprofessional. When Forrest told her she couldn't go out like that, she told him she wanted to 'play bait' tonight. He decided to let her.
Mostly because the look in her eyes, when he told her she looked stupid in her outfit, terrified the young soldier.
But the person he really reserved his venom for was the witch in the group. The redhead, Willow Rosenberg. God, she was annoying! Dr. Walsh had insisted that each of the groups have a witch in it. She wanted to know if any of them were picking up any vibrations that might explain the weird behavior of the imprisoned vampires. Of course, he couldn't have gotten the shy blond or the practical brown haired girlfriend of said shy blond. No, he had to get the motor mouth/- redheaded best friend of one of the Slayers and Harris. She was a twitchy, fast talking girl who had no business being on a serious op.
At this very moment, she was validating everything he thought about her. She was watching the graveyard they were in with exaggerated glances in every direction. Nervously, she patted down her pouch of combat ready spell components and looked around. She looked like she couldn't find her ass with a locating spell, let alone do something useful.
The cemetery they were in, Rest View, was located in downtown Sunnydale. Just that thought was enough to make Forrest shake his head. This was the only damn town he knew that had so many cemeteries, they had to be in the in the center of the damn town.
He sent three members of his eight-man patrol to perform a short sweep to see if any newbie vampires had risen tonight.
God, he was bored.
The only thing worse than having a civilian witch on the team was the fact he was out here, freezing his ass off, thanks to intelligence provided by another witch. And not even real Intel, just some weird vibes or visions or something.
Of course, at that moment, the universe decided to thumb his nose at Forrest. Across the street, the whole squad heard the screams of multiple women at a nearby cafe.
Maybe it was better to be bored.
Cordelia Chase shivered as she watched the WELCOME TO SUNNYDALE sign. She, Angel, and Amy were with the squad lead by Graham. Their mission was to watch the entrance to Sunnydale, in order to spot any influx of vampires or demons coming into town. Cordelia exhaled and watched the little cloud as it formed from her breath. She wished she could blame the weather for the shiver, but since her empowerment at the hands of Cassandra, the cold didn't do much to her.
No, her shiver was because she had made the mistake of trying to sense Graham's destiny. All she wanted to do was try and get a feel for the mystical acoustics in the area, to see if the Hellmouth was affecting her abilities, and she thought he would have a nice bland destiny fitting the soldier's pleasantly bland personality, but the overpowering nature of Graham's destiny shocked her. He was going to die, and he wasn't going to do it easily.
It will come through pain and fire, and he would die alone. Cordelia could feel that he was rushing headlong towards his destiny and there was little she could do to save him
She drew the white leather of her coat around her body as she watched the soldier speak to the men under his command and set up a perimeter for their little stakeout. Graham was a nice looking, pleasant soldier. He didn't show any real leadership skills the way Riley or Forrest did, but he was good man. Looking up from his work, he caught her eye and smiled. Cordy blinked back tears and sent a little smile back in his direction.
It was times like these when she hated her life, and hated Cassandra for giving her this burden.
Cordelia Chase ran up the narrow winding tower where Princess Cassandra had sequestered herself. Torches in Brackets lined the walls and sent flickering shadows dancing along the narrow stairs. She sighed. Being the handmaiden of the crown princess of Troy was a powerful responsibility, and one that the former head cheerleader had only slowly grown accustomed to. But now, she and Cassie were fairly close friends, much closer than Cassandra and Faith, who used to work as the Princess' maid. Eventually, Faith moved to working with Helen. As a child of Sparta, Helen's personality was much more like Faith's and Cordelia. Cordy just hated Helen.
So, when a soldier called on her to say that the princess needed her immediately, she came running.
Reaching the top of the staircase, she knocked on heavy door. Slowly, the door creaked open and revealed the wan form of Cassandra. The apparently un-aging girl looked like time had finally caught up with her. The twenty four-year-old girl with the too-old eyes looked like she had not slept in a week. Beneath her tanned form, a gray pallor had settled in. Her cheekbones were heightened by the large amount of weight she had lost. She smiled when she saw her friend.
"Sit down, Cordelia." Cassandra said in English. That surprised Cordelia. Cassandra had been insistent that the three travelers learn the language of the Trojans. Only rarely in the past ten years had any of the three used English. Mainly, it was used for conversations they didn't want overheard. Cordelia sat down in a thickly padded chair in the well-appointed room.
"I was worried, Cassie. When Lyse told me that you needed me right away, I feared the worst."
Cassandra smiled wanly. " Don't worry Cordy. I'm as well as can be expected." Walking over to a small table, she lifted up a copper tea service and motioned over the pot of water, using a simple spell to bring it to boil. Making simple tea for the two of them, she brought over a pair of cups and took the seat opposite Cordelia. " I'm tired, Cordelia," she began.
"Tired of what?"
Cassandra shifted the conversation. " Did you know my twin brother was killed, two weeks ago?"
"Is that why you hid yourself up here?" Cordelia looked worriedly at her friend. Cassandra looked like she had not eaten in several days
"Partly. My brother was also what you would call a seer. He refused to give prophecies to the other side after they blamed him for Achilles' death, so they killed him." Cassandra looked sad and sipped the scalding tea. " Now all that he was, all the power that was within him, has flown into me. It has been…difficult to handle the influx of energy."
"I don't understand. You and your brother shared powers?"
"I'm not a sorceress, and my brother was not a magus." Cassandra looked sadly at her friend. " I'm going to tell you a story, and even for you, it will be a difficult one to believe."
Cordy snorted. " Yeah, right. I'm thousands of years in the past, trapped in a war that most people don't believe ever really happened, and you think your little story is going to bother me."
Cassandra floated a secret, seductive smile. " There are Powers in the world, powers that were given dominion over the world by the creator. Older than the true demons, older than the ancient gods, these beings possessed great abilities and used their massive intellects to oversee all the aspects of creation they possessed power over. These beings were neither good nor evil, but beyond moral limitations enforced by mortals…"
As Cassandra talked, her low voice caused images, flashes really, of times long past and worlds barely hinted at to flash past the corner of Cordy's eyes. Cordelia shook her head, as Cassandra's voice seemed to grow farther and farther away. She reached for the tea to take a strengthening drink.
"…One of these beings, these Powers, possessed dominion over the tapestry of destiny- the best and brightest futures of all things in the multiverse. As time went on, over the millennia, the Power began to see the conscious beings as more than chess pieces on the cosmic board. This power of destiny began to use his abilities to give power to the mortals, free will to decide how they would live their lives. The other Powers-That-Be grew angry and demanded that he live among those he seemed to care so much about. With his powers, he divided himself in twain and placed his essence inside the bodies of my ancestors. Eventually, they were passed to my brother and I. We grew up and learned of the power that flowed within us. With my brothe'rs death, the remaining energy has gone to me." Her sorrowful gaze held Cordelia's. " And that power is killing me. I was not meant to have this power. You were."
Cordelia shook her head and the room spun around. The fires lighting the small chamber danced like tavern girls she had seen entertaining the soldiers. What was happening to her?
"I poisoned you," Cassandra answered Cordelia's unspoken question. " I could not take the chance of you denying the power. I'm giving you my power. I will become a mortal woman." She leaned forward and captured Cordelia's failing gaze. " I am sorry my friend, so very sorry. Perhaps you'll forgive me? Even destiny can't see into the heart."
With that final statement, Cassandra, daughter of Priam, and princess of the besieged city of Troy, kissed Cordelia full on the lips. Had anyone been watching, they would have seen a light gray mist flow from Cassandra into the mouth of Cordelia.
And a new Power was born.
"Cordelia. Cordy, are you okay?" A concerned Angel shook the reminiscing Power on the shoulder.
She smiled sadly at Angel. " I'm fine, thanks, Angel. Just remembering an old friend."
"Why were you muttering 'Not yet, I haven't'?" The much taller Angel gazed with concern at Cordelia.
"Just remembering why I hate her so much." Cordy answered while gazing sorrowfully at Graham.
Angel looked confused but nodded, accepting that whatever was going on with the powerful seer was going to stay with her.
Cordelia peered at Angel, no longer overwhelmed by the force of her memories. She noticed that a thin film of sweat was covering his face. " Are you okay?" She waved her hands around his face, " You're looking paler than normal."
Angel sighed. " I feel something tugging at the edge of my demon. There's something out there that's calling to the vampire in me, but I think my soul's blunting whatever it is. I've been feeling it all day, and its been getting stronger, like a heart beat." He stared into the night sky. " Just pulsing away."
Cordy looked as though she was about to ask Angel another question when Graham walked up smiling. The seer frowned and turned away so the soldier couldn't see the sorrow in her eyes. He asked, " Everybody holding up here alright?"
Angel and Cordelia nodded their assent, but Amy answered negatively. " I don't like being this far away from Tara," she muttered. " She's going to need me. She doesn't like to go out alone."
"I'm sorry, but you know that we needed to make sure that every unit has their own spell caster with them." Graham looked apologetically at the lesbian witch. " It's important that we get witches to all of the hotspots, to see if they notice anything using their witchy stuff."
"I know," Amy replied bitterly, " but I don't have to like it."
Graham put his hand on her shoulder and stared at her. " Amy, I swear everything will be alright, and so will Tara."
Amy softened and was about to respond when Cordelia suddenly shouted.
Dozens of figures walked with frightening slowness out of the fog coming from the freeway
Their chant could easily be heard
"The lord will come on rivers of blood, the lord will come on rivers of blood, the lord …"
The whole street where the bar was located was blocked off with police barricades. Red and blue strobe lights twirled around, casting weird shadows around the area. Riley and his unit stopped about a block away.
"Tara, are you sure you can pull this off?" Riley looked nervously at all the police. This was exactly the sort of textbook scene they were instructed to avoid in the Initiative. Now they were walking into the middle of the damn thing
"Yes." Tara answered shakily. Now that she was actually faced with the prospect of using the advanced magic, she was terrified. What if it didn't work, what if-?
A thousand what ifs crossed her mind but she clamped down on the little voice in the back of her mind that called her a failure, a voice that sounded like her father. Summoning all of her power, she began a chant that was already old when the standing stones of Stonehenge were newly built.
Mirrors of Erisod,
Mists of Avalon,
Clothe these forms,
Let those of simple minds,
See the lords of law from this land.
Tara concentrated on forming the illusion of several FBI agents. She tried to summon all of the information she knew about the FBI and she drew on some odd memories. Sweat broke out across her forehead as she rode the wave of the invisible force of magic. She remembered sitting at the feet of her mother as Tamara McClay gently showed her the joy of Wicca, the bliss and the responsibility of calling on the goddess both within and without for power. She could not tame the energies, and she did not try. Instead, she gave in to them, allowed them to shape itself to her will. It was a uniquely passive, yet commanding way of using magic. It bent to her will because she didn't ask anything of it.
Then she sagged, and one of the soldiers caught her. " It's done," she murmured wearily.
"Okay. I want you five to set up a perimeter, see if you can find any tracks or external clues about whether or not this was a vamp attack." Riley motioned to the three remaining soldiers. " You guys and Tara, come with me. We're going inside and check out the crime scene."
"I'm gonna stay out here. I got something I need to do." Faith looked at the others as if daring them to try and give her an order to the contrary and pulled out a cigarette.
Tara nodded and the five of them walked the rest of the way and crossed the police line.
A uniformed officer stopped them. " I'm sorry, you can't be here right now. This is the scene of a very serious crime."
"We know that officer…" Riley leaned forward, " Samuels. I'm Special Agent Riley Finn and these are my associates. This is the latest in a string of mass killings of a particularly violent nature. The FBI is taking over this investigation." He looked apologetically at the officer.
The officer blinked in surprise. " I'll need to see some Id."
Riley produced his driver's license, which had taken on the form of a FBI badge. Tara held her breath as the cop scanned the badge, because she wasn't sure the illusion would hold, but he merely nodded and waved then through. The troop of agents walked past the police officer. A plain-clothes detective walked up to officer Samuels.
"Who were those people?"
"FBI."
"'Bout damn time the feds looked in on this town." Then the detective shook his head. " Is it jut me, or does that guy in the lead look like a dead ringer for Agent Mulder?"
"It's not just you."
Giles slammed the book shut and let out a Ripper-ish growl. He should be out there with the others right now, testing out his new, strong body and sword. He loved books, but the slight reversion in his age had left him with a desire to go out and prove himself, as he had in his youth.
But he agreed with Xander. Reluctantly, he acknowledged, but the newly returned Immortal was correct. Someone needed to stay and research Spike's new little talisman. Buffy had made a sketch of the ring and he was trying to match it with some rubbings that had been made of some of the more famous vampire centric rings.
But, unfortunately, none of them matched.
Giles thought for a moment, rubbing his jaw.
"Of course," he muttered, as inspiration struck. " Robinson."
Reaching for the phone in the library, he quickly dialed an overseas number. " Robinson," he said, when the phone was answered. " This is Ripper. Do you still have access to the restricted section of the Council library?" The Watchers Council had gone under numerous changes in administration over its many thousands of years of history and the most recent had been a few years after the Valentino Wars. After each purge, there were many books that the new version of the council would restrict access to, so that most of the members wouldn't know the full history of the Council, including its occasional lapses and errors in judgment. After all, that might encourage some members to question the current policies of the inner council of the Watchers, and nothing good would come from that. Geoffrey Robinson was a librarian who had nearly full access to all of the volumes in the Councils repositories. He also happened to be an old drinking buddy of Ripper's.
Giles paused for a moment to hear the answer. " Good. I need you to do something for me. Go to the back of the section on vampire armies if you would. Yes, that's the one. On the upper left hand shelf, there should be a book bound in black leather with the three starbursts embossed on the cover. Can you fax me a few pages?" Giles then rattled off what he was looking for. " Thanks, old friend."
Giles thought for moment, before adding another request. " I also need everything you have on the Three, circa roman era." He rolled his eyes. " Just do it, Geoff. I'm protecting my Slayer."
Dog Tag watched the pack of snarling Turok Han and the five members of his vamped Special Forces team with an air of detached interest. He and his squad were hiding in an alley behind one of the main streets of Sunnydale. He wanted to reiterate the instructions one last time before letting loose the carnage.
"Remember, go for the kill. We don't have time to feed. We just want to up the juice for the big mojo." He smiled. " We'll be able to feed all we want later." He looked at a huge SEAL with poster boy blond good looks. " I'm looking at you, Jackson." Jackson was a Vietnam vet turned vampire with a penchant for taking souvenirs from the body of his victims.
"I just want the Slayer," he murmured in a soft New York accent. He fingered a necklace of dried parts that encircled his neck. " I don't have any Slayer bits."
"And you won't tonight either." Dog stared hard at his second. " Remember what Spike said. She's got some new healing tricks. No fightin' her. If she shows up, just shoot her and pray that slows her down."
The huge blond vampire growled. " That is cowardly. I want to feel her bones shatter in my hands and take her tongue as a trophy."
"If you have a problem with my orders, we can settle this right here." Dog held up his hands and with a cracking sound, his fingernails twisted into wickedly curved talons. " You can kill me and drink from the cup of master hood. That is, if your feeling really lucky." He stared hard at his subordinate. " You want that?"
Jackson stared at the shorter man, considering his chances. Finally he looked away. " You're still the boss...like always, Dog."
"Like I was sayin' before, once we get the field up and active, we can have some fun running her down." Dog Tag smiled viciously. " Maybe this healing thing of hers is a good thing. After all, if she can get back up after being drained, then she's like the holy fricken' grail."
He surveyed his troops. " You know what needs to be done. So MOVE!!!" He shouted the last word. The lesser vampires flew into action with the military precision they possessed even before they were turned.
Meanwhile, the Turok Han started forward at the sound of the master vampire's voice. With an unsteady gait that relied on moving on both two and four feet, they shuffled forward and their oversized jaws snapped at the air randomly.
Dog Tag smiled as he heard the sweet sounds of screams coming from street in front of the alley.
Graham blinked and took a second look. Dozens of vampires, all chanting in unison, were melting from the fog. He looked around and saw that the rest of his men were just as pole-axed, at both the sight and number of the HST's approaching. Even the witch seemed started by the numbers that had appeared. Cordelia, too, seemed shocked, even though she had been the one directing their deployment.
"Is this why you had us come here?" He whispered to her. " You knew these things were coming?"
"Yeah, sure I did," Cordy muttered back, sarcastically. " I said to myself, Hey, let's surprise the soldiers with an army of hypnotized vampires!" She rolled her eyes at the soldier. " Of course, I didn't know that these things were coming. I just knew that *something* was going to be here."
"Guys, whatever is affecting vampires is getting stronger." The group turned to look at Angel, as he spoke in a quiet, but urgent voice. He had shifted into game face and the moonlight reflected eerily off his yellow demon eyes.
"You have to fight it, Angel," Amy replied worriedly. " We have enough problems, without you going all serial killer-y."
"Trust me," Angel replied grimly. " I am fighting it. It's just… hard," he whispered.
Cordelia grabbed Angel's face roughly and stared at him. Her eyes flashed gray momentarily, and then she smiled. " Your soul is still holding."
Graham looked a little confused at the exchange. No one had told him anything about how Angel was different than other vampires. All Graham knew was that he had been told the dark haired demon was an ally. " Everyone have their blasters?" The Initiative had equipped everybody with the military issue blasters, even the civilians. On their lethal setting, they made a pretty effective tool for killing vampires. Plus, it was a much safer method than getting in close combat with them.
Cordy and Angel lifted theirs in acknowledgment, but Amy just shook her head. " I don't need a blaster," she stated firmly. She held up her bronze wand and her eyes began to glow, as though they were actually radiating heat. " I have much better tricks to use."
"Suit yourself." Graham shrugged his shoulders. As far as he was concerned, you were better off with whatever weapon you were most comfortable with. " Ready guys?"
The soldiers nodded, drew their weapons and prepared to fight for their lives.
Faith watched as the good little soldiers started looking around for clues. She snorted and took a deep drag from her cigarette. She watched the tip of her cigarette, as the brightly glowing cherry-red tip grew ever larger and ashed it. Dropping the cigarette, she ground it beneath her heel.
One of the officers approached her, and with her finely honed deific sense of male lust, she knew he was going to try and pick her up. Deciding that feeding on his lust wouldn't be worth the hassle of having to listen to his half-assed pick-up lines, she flipped him off, flashing her wedding ring hand, and showing the poor schmoe she was a taken woman.
Sometimes being a helluva fine piece of ass was a real trial.
Always had been. Probably always would be. Oh well, that was a divine burden she was prepared to live with.
As Faith walked toward an alley where she could do some goddess stuff without being seen, she thought about life and how wacky hers had turned out to be. Slayer, goddess, and part of a legendary triumvirate with the two people she loved and needed most in the world. Hell, when she was growing up, she figured she would have been knocked up as a teenager and a high school dropout. Maybe she would be dead, cause she used to hang with some hard people in Southie. Back then, she didn't think she would have had much of a life, and didn't really think she deserved much of one, either.
It had taken her a lot of time to get over her past because, hell, even gods could have issues. Time took care of the most overt scars; love from her family took care of the deeper ones.
But it was the Amazons who had helped her the most.
Oh, she knew why Xander hated the Amazons, and could even sympathize with most of the reasons. But they *needed* her. They were all alone in a hostile world with Greek city-states, and later the Romans, surrounding them on all sides. Artemis only dealt with her favorites among the tribes. A few other goddesses like Aphrodite and Athena poached a few of the others. But Faith took in all the unwanted ones, the abandoned ones. In helping them, she helped herself heal. The act of being needed, being trusted with the fragile faith of those women, helped to transform her into a responsible goddess and someone who was fully able to accept the love of her family.
Gods need worship to make them stronger. They fed on it, relied on it for their greatest powers, and often times became addicted to it. Faith wouldn't be honest with herself if she didn't admit she missed the feeling, the rush of essence gathered and flavored by the rituals of faith. But she had love and a family. The time of gods was truly over and she was okay with that.
Faith wrinkled her nose as she entered the alley. The sickly sweet scent of trash and stale soda and urine wafted together and assaulted her hyper keen predatory senses. Kicking an empty can down the length of the alley; she found a relatively clean piece of wall to lean up against. She was going to try and open her divine sense to get a sense of magical currents running over the Hellmouth. If something was affecting vampires on the Hellmouth, she should get something.
Closing her eyes, she centered, found the divine spark with her, and shunted some of its energies through her five senses and her mystical other senses.
< OilysickpaindeathBLOOD >
Faith gasped and sagged against the alley wall. The assault against her senses continued, unabated. The red oiliness of the dimensional portal's power was the first and nearly overpowering sense that she experienced. Summoning her reserves she plunged into the current of corrupt energies, in an attempt to get at what lay underneath. Faith could taste a hint of otherness, of something beyond the overpowering stench of the Hellmouth.
Diving into the power of the mystical gateway, Faith sought out the underlying energy. She wallowed in it. Her eyes widened when she got her first taste of the blood magic that lay underneath. < God, Xander was right! > She remembered where she first tasted similar magics. It was in Spain, when the Three came to end the reign of Valentino's army. It was the taste of HIS power center.
Xander was going to be pissed.
There weren't many things that could crack the ancient immortal's iron resolve, but reminding him about one of his greatest failures as a soldier and a leader was one of them. If Spike had found a book of spells or a talisman that Valentino had been using, he would be exceptionally difficult to be stopped. He might be impulsive, but Spike was never stupid.
Once again, Faith gathered her divine power and prepared to send a mental message to Xander and Cordelia. They would need to know what was going on. She wiped her brow. She was cursedly tired. Even her passive powers, like opening up her senses, taxed her more than it should have. It took so damn long now to recover her strength, since she no longer had any worshipers. Now, with the healing she gave Joyce and Angel, and some of the power expenditure in weaving the wards around their new home as well as the home of their friends, she was starting to feel the strain. Shaping the thoughts carefully in her own mind, she readied herself to seek out the minds of the other two members of the Three, minds she knew as well as her own.
She was so involved; she nearly missed the snarling Turok-Han that jumped her.
The inside of the bar was dimly lit, and police tape covered the entrance to the bar. Riley and the others ducked beneath the tape, and looked around the bar. Bodies were everywhere, piled on each other haphazardly, like logs on a woodpile. Pools of gore and feces covered the floor. The full-length mirror that ran the length of the bar was shattered into small fragments. Cracked pool sticks lay in the hands of several of the dead.
Tara was immediately sick. The sensitive empath turned a grayish green and vomited in the corner. The sickly smell of blood, urine, feces, and alcohol combined together to form a uniquely horrifying scent that the young demon hunter had never encountered before, and she was unable to handle it.
Riley and the pair of soldiers with him had very much the same reaction. Riley pushed down his gag reflex through force of will and started to examine the crime scene.
"There's a lot of blood. Seems like too much for vampires," Riley observed dispassionately, as he started poking around, looking for clues. He consciously spoke in a flat tone of voice. He couldn't let these corpses be people. They didn't have jobs or families. They had no one who would miss them. As long as he had to examine this scene, he needed to force himself to think that way. He didn't have a choice. " These claw marks don't look like vampire claws. Vamp claws are way too stubby to make injuries like these. Tara, are you picking anything up?"
The witch paled, but bravely bit her lip and opened her self up to the empathic echoes from the murder scene. " So much pain," she whispered, as the echoes of the victims' emotions reverberated through her. " Riley, these peopled died in mortal terror. Whatever did this seemed unstoppable to them. They came in through the door, here and in the back. They started ripping into these people like they were nothing. They were so hungry, but…" Tara blinked and bit her paled lips hard. "…S-s-something didn't want them to feed. The just wanted the blood, the terror." She looked up at Riley, and the soldier was surprised to see how hard her eyes had become. " My mother told me about magic like this. It's about as evil as it gets. It's called Blood Magic and my mother told me it's the oldest form of magic used by people. It works by sacrificing the life energy of living beings. A good Blood Mage uses their own blood, but bad ones use the life force of others."
"Can you see any pictures or anything?" Riley asked vaguely, not really sure what to ask the blond Wicca. He didn't really know how this gift of Tara's worked.
"N-n-no," she stuttered shamefully. " I just get feelings'n'stuff," she murmured. Then her eyes widened. " Faith! Outside! We need to help her!" The normally shy witch shook off her uncertainty and raced outside.
Three Turok Han came at Faith from three different directions. One scrabbled down the wall over her head, its claws leaving furrows in the bricks. Two others came from opposite ends of the alleyway and charged at her.
Reaching up, Faith grabbed the proto vampire looming over her head and ripped him off the wall in a feat of phenomenal strength. She then slammed the struggling creature into the wall on the other side of the alley.
With catlike reflexes, the creature pushed himself off the wall and slashed at the brunette with his claws. Faith expected the claws to skitter off her divinely hardened skin. After all, she had been shot, stabbed, burned, and in one painful episode, placed on the rack, and almost nothing had actually left an injury. So, Faith was quite surprised when she felt the claws shred through her tee shirt and leave bloody rakes across her stomach.
Even as one Turok Han clawed at Faith, the other two rushed towards her. One leapt on her back and latched onto her shoulder with steel- like fangs. As the final creature rushed towards her, Faith tapped into her godly powers and sent a golden blast of energy barreling into it.
As the creature turned to dust, Faith felt a trickle of blood run down her neck from the vampire on her back. Throwing herself against the wall with all her strength, she crushed the Turok Han's ribcage and heard the distinctive pop of a dusting vampire.
Focusing on the vampire in front of her, she threw a punch that propelled the vampire down the alley. Flashing forward, she leapt on the creature and devastated it with a rapid-fire series of blows. Finally, with divine power burning through her veins, she ripped through his steel hard ribcage and pulled out its dried heart.
"God Damn, that was hard," Faith muttered as she focused energy on her wounds. Tingling warmth spread through her body as her neck and abdomen wound sealed up. The goddess then leaned up against the alley wall and took a few deep breaths, while pondering the vampire like creatures who just attacked her. They stunk of blood magic to her godly senses. Their auras were much like vampires but not totally. It was that new aura that allowed the claws to break her divine shield. Something had mutated those demons into something new. That worried her because she hadn't seen anything like them before in her life.
And if she hadn't seen it in three thousand years, it was worth worrying about.
A sharp crack broke Faith from her reverie. She looked up and extended her mundane senses. There were at least a half dozen more of these creatures attacking the Sunnydale PD. And if she had a hard time with three of them, they would be impossible for the mortals to deal with. Even Tara and the soldiers would be hard pressed against the proto-vampires. Faith started down the alley, when a green hued wall suddenly sprung up in front of her.
The wall was crafted from translucent green energy. Ripples covered its surface, spreading like the ripples in a pond. Faith shifted her vision into the magical spectrum, in order to find the weak points of the wall. She could easily batter down the magical construct.
A cold voice called out from behind her. " I wouldn't do that, if I were you."
Faith slowly turned around. She saw Catherine Madison standing at the far end of the alley. " Why the hell not?"
Catherine smiled. " Because I'll be forced to kick your ass."
Faith smiled cockily and rolled her neck around, cracking it. " Bring it on, Bitch." She projected an aura of confidence she wasn't feeling. She was tired as all hell.
"Can't do too much damage," Catherine told the goddess. " After all, I need you for a spell." Fire licked around Catherine's fingers and heat seemed to radiate from her eyes.
She smiled brightly, " Well, at least, I don't need all of you," she purred.
The soldiers under Graham's command unleashed a hail of withering fire from their blasters. Dust choked the air as the first rank of vampires disappeared beneath blue bolts.
Amy aimed her wand and channeled her gift through the bronze talisman. Fire rushed from the tip and caught and dusted half dozen vampires in a fiery holocaust.
Cordelia's eyes turned to gray mist as she fired seemingly randomly into the crowd. Yet every shot found the heart of a target and dusted a vampire.
Once the first group died under a hail of fire, it seemed to snap the other vampires from their trance. En masse, they rushed the soldiers, moving with vampiric speed. The soldiers fired again but this time, the fire found far fewer targets.
The preternatural reflexes of the vampires easily evaded the blue lightning that spat from the guns. As the tide of vampires rushed forward, Graham gave the order to switch to baton-stakes.
Amy managed to get even more vampires with her wand, as fire rushed from the tip like a movie flamethrower.
As the number of vampires thinned, and the soldiers prepared to meet them hand to hand, Cordelia stood up from where she was hiding and called into being a curved sword that seemed to blend the qualities of sabers and scimitars. The words Fate Reaver along the edge flashed and she shed a single tear as she took a moment to contemplate her weapon. It was a terrible thing; to call up the blade of endings, for a person who was killed by it had their thread removed from the fabric of destiny, effectively destroying their soul or spirit for the rest of time. They would never get to the afterlife, to whatever reward or punishment awaited them, and they would never re-enter the cycle of reincarnation and seek another chance of life. They just cease to be. She murmured an old war prayer from the time of the Trojans and leapt to meet the vampires.
Forrest and Xander look at each other for one moment and then rushed together to the high brick wall separating the graveyard from the street. The whole team heard screams from people on the other side and the unmistakable crunch of cars hitting each other and wheels squealing on asphalt.
Forrest stared unbelieving, as with a short hop, Xander leapt to the top of the brick wall and easily balanced there. Slowly, Forrest climbed up beside Xander and looked out over the wall.
The scene beyond was one of utter chaos. Cars had slammed into each other as pale primitive looking vampires ripped doors off their hinges and savaged the drivers inside. Meanwhile, vampires in military fatigues strode along the sidewalk, ripping into customers from various coffee shops and boutiques that had been open late.
"Jesus," Forrest swore softly.
"Xander, what's going on?" Buffy called up.
"It looks like the vampires are rioting." The dark haired Immortal shouted down. Xander looked over at Forrest. " So what are we going to do, fearless leader?"
Forrest was stumped. They clearly needed to stop the vampires, but secrecy was supposed to be paramount for the Initiative. How could they save these people's lives, and stay hidden? As he was busy turning those conflicting thoughts over in his mind, he heard the shouts of people from even farther away and the wail of police sirens, as they started to answer calls they were wildly unprepared for.
Xander took pity on the inexperienced leader and sighed. " Forrest, we don't have time for games or fancy tactics. We need to just save those people. Take your men, Buffy and Willow and start taking back the city, street by street."
Forrest nodded numbly without looking at Xander. " What are you going to do?" When he didn't get an answer, he turned to look at Xander.
Xander was gone.
"Damn it," he muttered. Dropping down to the ground, he motioned for everybody to come over. " Listen, the blasters don't have a long effective range, so we're going to have to get in close."
"So not a problem," Buffy replied cheerfully.
"For the rest of us, it might be," Forrest, answered impatiently. " Anyway, does everybody have a fully charged weapon?"
Everybody nodded except for Willow.
"I don't use guns, but I have my component pouch."
Forrest rolled his eyes. " You going to be able to kill vamps with it?" He asked, with the slightest hint of a sneer.
"Oh definitely," the witch assured him.
"Fine," he said flatly. " Then we're leaving."
Forrest led the group out the gate of the cemetery into the carnage outside.
Naomi Dawson locked up her health food store. She had stayed later than she normally did, since the receipts wouldn't add up. The store was finally making money, and it was a good thing, too, since she and her husband was expecting their first child in five months. She fumbled for her keys and dropped them.
Bending over painfully she reached for them and was startled to hear the police sirens heading in her direction. Sunnydale was a weird place, but quiet, too, and she didn't have any complaints about the town. She quickly looked up and saw a dozen people walking down the street, standing together like a gang. The leader appeared to be a young man in his mid twenties, with shocking blond hair and a cruel look about his sculpted face. He met her gaze and smiled.
"Kill 'er."
Catherine Madison smiled as Faith rushed the vampiric sorceress. With a whispered word, she flung Faith against the green glowing wall. Ripples spread across the wall as the energy absorbed the impact.
Then, Catherine flung blasts of fire at Faith. Rolling to avoid the white-hot bursts of flame, Faith charged back down the alley and body slammed Catherine.
The sorceress flew backward into a large trash bin. The force of the blow dented the bin and caused it to slide down the alley. Faith moved to stay on top of the vampire. If it was one thing she has learned over the years, it was to press the advantage with spell casters. She started to rain blows against the vampire, only to learn that the sorceress had erected some sort of bluish barrier that soaked up Faith's most punishing strikes.
Catherine threw a surprise punch that knocked Faith backwards. Faith got up slowly, visibly drained. Catherine held out her hands and sent a cone of fire rolling over Faith. Faith twisted away from the fire but she reacted too slowly, and the edge of her coat caught fire. Faith rapidly whipped off her leather coat and flung the flaming garment onto the ground.
"Bitch, I wore that coat to Woodstock." Faith patted down the few remaining embers that lay on her clothes. " You like fire so much, try some of this." Faith sent a bolt of golden energy hurtling towards Catherine. Unlike the blast used against the Turok Han, this one was a sickly yellow bolt of energy. It was representative of how weakened Faith had become.
Catherine merely smiled at the energy that flew at her. With a swift motion and a flash of bluish power, she reflected it back to Faith.
The brunette goddess was caught totally off guard. Even as weak as the bolt was, no one could be able to reflect a bolt without divine energy of their own. Faith tried leaping out of the way, but she had been caught off guard by the deflection. Her blast must have been even weaker than she thought, if it could be reflected so easily. The blast caught her in the shoulder and sent fiery spasms throughout her body.
Faith fell limply to the ground and lay there. Catherine approached slowly, and with a Herculean effort, Faith rolled onto her back. She tried to struggle to her feet, but a swift hand motion and a telekinetic burst knocked her back down.
"Pathetic," the sorceress hissed. " My divinations told me that you would be a formidable opponent. You were nothing of the sort." She bent down near Faith and began muttering in Babylonian. Her hands took on a translucent appearance, and with a feral smile, she shoved them towards Faith.
And then Faith Harris, three thousand year old goddess of lust and predators and protector of the Amazon nations, began to scream.
Riley, Tara, and the soldiers ran outside and stopped to witness the carnage. Although the battle had been going on for a few moments, vampires who had snuck up on them had downed a huge number of police officers. In addition to the vampires, pale primitive looking Turok Han loped amongst the carnage, feasting on the caged public servants and remaining soldiers.
Tara paled and pointed out the Turok Han. " The bar, it was those things that killed those people."
Riley nodded grimly. " Right." With a swift motion, he fired his blaster at one of the proto- vampires that noticed the latecomers. The crackling blue bolt knocked the creature backwards, but failed to dust it.
With a word and a gesture, Tara shot a ray of sunshine from her hand that vaporized the creature. She smiled shyly at Riley.
"Nice job," he said approvingly to the quiet blond. Then he looked at his men. " What are you guys waiting for, an engraved invitation?"
The Initiative agents looked at one another and then started to wade into battle.
Riley began to fire his blaster at vampires randomly. As he did so, a small voice in the back of his mind wondered where Faith was.
Giles watched as the fax machine spat out paper after paper on the ring of Amara, the temple, and the Three.
He gathered up the papers and began to go through them carefully, making notes until he came across an ancient sketch of the ring of Amara. Giles goggled.
< Why the hell isn't this in the main archive? >
Giles shook his head at the idiocy of Council politics. A frown of derision became a crease of worry as he realized that Buffy's drawing and the rubbing looked almost exactly alike.
"Oh bloody hell," he muttered. " This is going to be a problem."
The front door bell rang surprising him from his dark reverie. Padding to the front doorway, Giles gripped his blade tightly and prepared a spell.
He flung the door open to reveal…
Oz, shirtless, putting on his pants.
"Hey, have you seen the news?" the taciturn werewolf asked. " It's a madhouse out there."
Angel worked his way through the vampires with contemptuous ease. The twin stakes he wielded in his hands dispatched the vampires with regularity. As he whirled around the dust, he pondered why these vampires were dying so easily.
The vampires seemed to move with unusual sluggishness and did not fight with the usual ferocity that newborn demons normally did.
Which was fine by him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cordelia flying among vampires, seemingly everywhere all at once. In one place, she saved the life of a young soldier. In the next moment, she decapitated a vampire across the field that seemed intent on trying to drain Amy. Every motion seemed to carry her to the place where she was most needed at any given moment.
Meanwhile, Amy was destroying vampires by the handful, channeling fire through her pyromancer's wand.
Yet, despite the skill and numbers by which the vampires were dying, more kept coming in droves, while the defenders were getting tired.
A scream ripped through the air and Angel paused in his killing. He turned to see a young Initiative soldier shaking, darkness leaking like oil from his eyes and nose. Then a dark tentacle ripped its way free from his chest.
Angel gaped. In two hundred and forty odd years, he had never seen its like.
From behind the soldiers and inside the town of Sunnydale, a puddle of shadows detached itself and coalesced together, revealing a slender young woman with white blond hair, dressed in a charcoal gray pants suit. The master vampire Alicia Killdare
Silently, she raised her hands and Turok Han melted from the shadows. Light from streetlights reflected off their yellow eyes. Silently, the proto vampires loped forward toward the soldiers.
And then, the battle was rejoined.
Forrest led his group through the cemetery gate with his weapon up. He started firing upon the vampires as soon as he got a good target. The other soldiers followed suit.
Disregarding her blaster, Buffy drew the Tai Chi sword that Xander had given her, seemingly from nowhere. One of the first things he taught her was a simple Immortal ability to create a 'sword space', a place to hide her weapon, no matter how revealing her clothing might be. Hopping onto the nearest crashed car, Buffy smoothly decapitated a Turok Han who had been attempting to get at the elderly female driver within. Looking around, Buffy saw carnage everywhere.
Women and men were shrieking as vampires and Turok Han ripped into them with fang and claw. Windows were broken and bodies lay in puddles of blood everywhere. There were so many opponents; Buffy could hardly decide whom to attack. Shrugging her shoulders, she flipped off the car and rushed the nearest creature, which happened to be a tall blond male vampire in combat fatigues. He was holding a woman by the throat with a single muscled arm.
Jackson saw the pretty blond Slayer rushing him and the Special Forces soldier reacted instantly. He hurled the woman at Buffy. While the Slayer evaded the injured woman, the vampire drew his knife.
He wanted his trophy.
Xander circled around the battle; drawing upon every ounce of Sinanju training he possessed to remain concealed. His eyes watched the battle carefully. His hands ached for battle. He wanted nothing more than to hunt down every last one of these things and destroy them, but he stayed his hand.
He wanted their leader.
Riley raced around the battleground, firing at the Turok Han at every opportunity, as were the rest of his men. The only problem, though, was the toughness of the strange new vampires. The blasters barely seemed to stun them even on lethal setting. It took concentrated fire for several moments to kill even a single Turok Han.
As he ducked behind a stopped police car, Riley tried to look for Faith. The wild Slayer should have made her presence known by now. Riley worried about her. Faith had a way of worming her way into your heart. It was her ready smile and dirty mind that bonded the beautiful Slayer to the soldiers in her team. She was like another guy, only one that was far easier to look at.
A piercing cry rent the air; one that came from the alley down the street from battle. Riley frowned. He'd had no time to cross the war zone to find out what was wrong. He couldn't leave his men.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tara fling a vampire away from her with the power of her mind. The creature flew into the wall of the bar and slumped down, stunned. Following up on the vampire, she shouted a word and the creature vaporized in a burst of flame. Turning, she shot a glance at Riley. He noticed right away how pale she was and the fine lines of weariness at the corner of her eyes.
While he was distracted for a moment, a Turok Han jumped on his back.
Cordelia spun around, a veritable dervish of death. Her sword licked out, finding purchase in various vampire bits. Dust choked the air as she rode the wave of destiny around the battle.
Cordy smiled as she fought. She wasn't one to get into fights, normally. Faith and Xander were far more skilled at the killing arts, but it was nice to cut loose and lose herself in the fight, every once in a while. Fights have destinies all their own, and Cordelia was as much a master of it as she was the master of the destinies of mortals.
Even so, she was getting tired. In addition to fighting, Cordelia was creating a zone of providence around the battle. She was weaving luck and probability to make the battle easier for the people on her side and harder for the vampires.
She saw the shadowy master vampire tearing through the troops, displaying a level of strength that impressed even the jaded Power.
In another part of the battle, Graham had scooped up a second blaster and was wielding them both against the shadow manipulating vampire and her legion of silent Turok Han. He was like a new man in the battle. Powerful and skilled, he looked as great a warrior as any she had ever seen. Cordelia watched him, worriedly. She could feel his death rapidly approaching and knew, with the certainty only a Power could have, that his fate was inevitable.
Xander finally found his leader.
Beneath the shadowy overhang of a now abandoned coffee shop lurked a short broad, shouldered vampire in green camouflage fatigues. He watched the battle with the detached air of an expert military commander. Two Turok Han crouched at his feet, like a pair of hunting hounds.
Xander drew a curved scimitar from his sword space and melted from the shadows.
The vampire just smiled. " I was wondering when you'd show yourself."
Xander arched one eyebrow in surprise. " You knew I was there?"
Dog Tag shrugged and tapped his nose. " Not a lot gets by me, anymore." Lifting his hands they seemed to flow like melted wax and reformed into a pair of long claws.
"Crap," Xander muttered. " Not another master vampire."
"You know of us?" Dog Tag said, surprised.
"I killed the last master I ran into," Xander smiled.
"Well," Dog smiled. " Now I get to return the favor." He idly reached down and scratched one of the Turok Han behind the ear with a claw.
"Kill."
Amy burned yet another vampire. She had long ago slipped her wand into her pocket. It had grown too hot for her to handle, so she was forced to burn the vampires one by one. Which happened to be tiring work. Finding a lull in the skirmish, she took stock of the situation. She, Angel, and Cordelia were all still up and fighting. Graham had completely switched personas from quiet soldier, to vampire killing commando.
Aiming both blasters at the blond vampiress, Graham fire bolt after bolt of electricity at her. She evaded the first two, but was then caught by the third. The blast caused her to collapsed into a mass of shadows that faded away.
The last thing Amy saw was the vampiress smiling.
"Well, look at my little girl. All grown up. At least you didn't get fat, again."
Amy's back stiffened. The voice was even colder than before, but it was still all too familiar to the teenage witch.
She turned around slowly.
"Mamma?"
Jackson leapt forward and swung his knife in an exaggerated overhand motion. Buffy evaded the blow only to walk into a strike to the throat with his opposite hand. She fell back, gagging. The tall blond vampire grinned and pressed his advantage. He slashed her across the belly, tearing a hole through her lavender shirt and red drops of blood splattered across the ground.
He laughed for a moment until he saw a thin network of sparks seal off the Slayer's wound.
"Bet you weren't expecting that." Buffy laughed at the expression on the vampire's face. She frowned. " I spent a lot of money on that shirt!" She snapped a kick into his face, forcing him backward. She spun rapidly and launched another kick that flipped him over a car behind him. Following up, Buffy rolled over the hood of the car and whipped her sword around, cutting through the vampire's shirt and digging into the dead flesh beneath.
"I am so tired of things ruining my shirts!" Without any finesse, Buffy started flailing at the vampire, the finely crafted sword slicing through the car as though it was made of foil.
Vainly attempting to escape the raging Slayer, Jackson started to think poorly of his idea of getting a slayer trophy. He kicked Buffy and used his greater weight to drive give him some breathing room. Throwing himself backwards, he placed the chopped car between himself and Buffy. Drawing his gun, he drew a bead on the Immortal Slayer. " I think we should continue this at another time, slayer."
The vampire was shocked to see that Buffy didn't even blink, when she was forced to stare down the barrel of the gun. In fact, she smiled. Then, before Jackson could react to what Buffy was doing, she flung a stake at his heart.
"Guns don't kill people…"
As Jackson was disintegrating, his failing ears heard
"...Mr. Pointy kills people."
The pair of Turok Han threw themselves at Xander in a snarling fury. Flourishing his sword, Xander spun himself through the air using the unraveling ribbon technique from Sinanju. Twisting like an acrobat, he spun his sword and sliced through the vampire bodies. Landing past the partially diced vampires, Xander whirled around and faced them.
One of the Turok Han was missing an arm and the other clutched at stub where his hand should have been. Xander grinned. The maimed vampires rushed Xander again.
Splaying his hand like a spider, Xander slapped the leading Turk Han in the chest lightly. The creature's rib cage collapsed. Screeching, the first Turok Han dusted.
With a howl, the handless proto-vampire threw himself at Xander. Its good hand raked Xander across the chest. The creature was so enraged that it was a simple matter to decapitate it with a simple flick of his blade.
"Impressive," the military dressed vampire conceded. He seemed unperturbed - as if he spent every evening in the center of battle. " But I think you'll find that I'm a little harder to kill."
"I doubt it." Xander leapt forward, and blade crossed claw.
Tara saw Riley fall, a Turok Han latched to his back like an enormous leech. The creature had sunk its teeth into the meaty shoulder of the commando. Riley fell to the ground and rolled about, trying to dislodge the vampire. Looking around, Tara saw that all of the soldiers were in similar straits.
The Turok Han, although few in number, were incredibly hard to kill. The blasters were ineffective, unless the vampire was struck multiple times.
The Turok Han only needed one try to kill or maim.
< No! >
Tara shook her head. She had spent too much time being around men who frightened her, men like her father and brothers. Then, she came here and met Amy, and through her, Giles and Xander and the Initiative soldiers. In the few days she had known them, they had cared more about her than her real family ever had. She would be dammed if she was going to let them all die!
She reached deep within herself and found the drained core of her magic. Guttering like a dying flame, she drew on its power one last time. Magic rushed along her nerves, and magic words rose unbidden within her mind, a spell placed within her unconscious by her new Book of Shadows.
There were many dimensions attached to this one. Many were realms where demons held sway. In fact, most were. In some weird sort of balance, the dimensions swayed by good were fewer but they were stronger in their own way. One of those dimensions was a realm that contained pure positive energy. Using her Book of Shadows, the blond witch found a way to open a gate to that dimension. Unfortunately, she didn't have the time to set up a gate circle. So, she used the next best thing. Her own body.
As Tara chanted, a white blue corona of light began to blaze around her. On the final word of power, the corona pulsed outward.
Riley could feel the teeth of the proto-vampire in his shoulder. The creature was so eager to feed; it didn't even bother reaching for his neck. It just wanted to find flesh beneath its fangs. Its iron hard claws dug rows in his back, and the injuries it caused burned.
He threw himself backwards in a feeble attempt to free himself, to no avail. As he lay on his back, trying to smash the creature into the concrete, a blue-white flash filled his vision. He closed his eyes tightly against the burning light.
Then, he felt relief as the vampire on his back let him go and the creature began to screech. The screech reached a fever pitch right before Riley heard the distinctive pop of a dusting.
Riley groaned and opened up his eyes. He struggled to his feet and looked around to see that his men are similarly disoriented.
"Tara?" Riley croaked. From the corner of his eye he saw the crumpled form of the blond Wicca. Rushing over, he felt for her pulse. As he did so, the men started helping up the few surviving members of the Sunnydale Police Department.
"What happened?" Tara asked fuzzily.
"You saved us." Riley smiled at her. " You done good girl."
"Tell that to my head," she muttered too tired to be meek. She wiped away a trickle of blood from her nose that had started to bleed when she invoked the mighty spell. The trail of red liquid stood in stark contrast against her pale skin and limp yellow hair.
Riley helped her to her feet, and she sagged against him. Riley drew her close and lent her some of his warmth. As he did so, he felt the twinge in his back and his shoulder where the vampire had gouged and bitten him.
Tara felt Riley tense. " A-A-Are you okay?" she stuttered. The meekness was back.
"Fine." As he felt the red stickiness start to run down his back, he amended. " Well, I'm not completely fine, but I'll live till I get back to base."
"What about the team medic?"
"That's him." Riley pointed to a dead soldier, lying near several piles of dust
"Oh."
"Captain Finn." One of remaining soldier ran up to his injured superior. " I was looking for Slayer Faith, 'cause...Uh...I was-" the young man blushed, " kind of worried about her. I remembered that, just before the fight, she went down that alley," and he pointed. " So, I went down there and I didn't find her." The soldier stopped, a worried look plastered across his face.
"Well, what did you find?" Riley asked impatiently.
"Blood," he whispered. " Lots of blood."
"Mamma?" Amy's voice dropped and became almost childlike. She looked at Catherine and gaped at the game face she now sported. " Oh god, you've been turned."
Catherine just smiled and licked her lips. " I decided to drop by and see my precious girl while on a little errand." She opened her hand and an orb of energy pulsed steadily with the regularity of a heartbeat appeared, cradled within it. " Picked up this neat little thing," she laughed and held against her shirt. " Tell me the truth, does this match my clothes?"
Amy stepped forward, the confusion at seeing her mother rapidly disappearing beneath blind rage. " You're behind what's wrong with the vampires, aren't you?"
"I do good work." Watching her mother's hand close around the orb of power, Amy saw it vanish to some other dimension. " Now about your behavior," Catherine said, her voice dripping with false motherly sweetness.
Amy didn't say anything in reply. She just drew out her red-hot wand and focused her power through it. With a whoosh, reddish flame covered Catherine Madison. Amy kept her power going for a full minute before her wand became too hot to handle. Hissing, she dropped the wand and clutched her burned hand.
When the flames cleared, Catherine still stood, not smiling. " You ungrateful little freak," she shrieked. " You think I can't protect myself from my own power. Or the power of my daughter? I trained in my abilities long before you *ever* showed up to ruin my life. BURN!"
Black flame coiled from Catherine's hand. On reflex, Amy crossed her wrists in front of her face and shrieked a word. The word came, half remembered, from deep within her mother's memories.
One of the most horrific parts of Catherine's possession of her daughter was the psychic imprint left on her soul. Amy could still remember elements of her mother's life, fragments of glorious high school days lived and discarded, memories of her father and a life once happy, and finally memories of spells - magics dark and light, alike.
She used one of those spells now, and flung every ounce power she had remaining, behind it. A pale moonstone colored shield flared weakly around her. The black flames from Catherine's hands licked at the edges of the shield. Amy's anti-fire shield took a lot of punishment and barely held against the full force of her mother's might.
Finally, inexorably, the shield began to crumble.
Graham whirled around, bluish bolts flying from the twin barrels of his blasters. The Turok Han he was aiming at disappeared into a cloud of dust. Calmly, the soldier turned to the next one, and then to another one after that. His lungs burned as he fought, his entire body continuously in motion as he surveyed the battleground around him.
His mind was clear as he laid down a field of killing fire that kept the vampires away from him. Everything seemed so clear, the details of the battle standing out perfectly in his mind. The Turok Han circled silently around him and his few remaining soldiers. Of the eight others who had started with him, only three survived uninjured, and two others were alive but unable to fight.
Three weren't going to be moving ever again.
From the corner of his eye, Graham saw Amy disappear beneath a storm of black flame. Suddenly, everything started to slow down. He saw a flare of whitish light within the black flame surrounded the young witch. Instinct told him that she would not last beneath the onslaught. His earlier words began to echo in his mind.
< I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I guarantee it. >
Without thinking, Graham shouted to Angel. " Cover me!"
The vampire nodded grimly and launched himself into the mass of Turok Han. Graham broke free of his killing circle and rushed to the place were Catherine Madison was calmly engulfing her daughter in flames. As he headed towards the two, Graham began firing bluish bolts of power from his guns at the vampiric sorceress.
Catherine wrinkled her nose in contempt as she spared but a single hand to raise a shield, which absorbed the blasts. With barely a passing thought, she reflected the bolts back towards Graham.
Although he managed to evade most of the blasts, one of the reflected strikes grazed Graham and stunned him.
Gritting his teeth, Graham pushed past the pain, as he had learned to do many years before, and kept running forward. Dropping his shoulder, like the collegiate offensive lineman he had been, Graham barreled into Catherine, knocking her flat on the ground and away from Amy.
The aura of black flame ceased, revealing a disheveled Amy, kneeling on the ground, with only the faintest halo of the blocking shield still clinging to Amy's form.
"You will pay for that, little soldier," Catherine hissed. She rolled to her feet with the predatory grace unique to vampires, her eyes slit with fury and her lips twisted into a snarl.
"Get out of here, Amy! Take the other guys and leave. Now!" Graham said, his eyes never leaving the vampiric witch. The young witch nodded hesitantly. Intent on giving his people as much time to escape as possible, Graham jumped on Catherine again and started punching her with one hand, while fumbling for his wooden-tipped baton with the other.
The sorceress flung him away with a blast of telekinetic power. Blind with rage, she never noticed that her daughter, Cordelia, and the remaining soldiers as they fled the scene. She focused all her attention on the downed soldier.
She threw out her hand and hissed, " Pain!"
Graham groaned as his nerve endings instantly burst into what felt like fire. His muscles spasmed in agony and he arched his back. Blindly, he reached out, searching for his blaster and praying that it had been dropped within reach.
After what seemed like forever, his hands closed on the grip of the weapon and he raised it. Catherine smiled at the trembling soldier. It was plain to see that it took all his concentration just to hold the weapon straight.
"It doesn't have to be like this," she cooed. " You can stay young, healthy and strong, forever. All you have to do is nod your head and the pain will end."
For an absurd moment, Graham entertained the possibility.
"I don't think so," he finally forced out. Squeezing the trigger, he fired a full strength bolt into Catherine's face. She shrieked in surprise when the bolt struck her and she clutched at her face with taloned hands.
Graham struggled to his feet and hesitantly started to move as fast as he could away from the wounded vampire.
He had moved no more than fifteen feet before a blanket of dark flame suddenly enveloped him.
Sparks flew up as steel hard vampire claws crossed the Damascus steel of Xander's scimitar. The battle between the two raged fast and furious. Xander was careful to stay away from the deadly claws of the master vampire. The natural weapons-crafted by blood magic- would heal fiendishly slow, even on Immortals.
Around them, the battle slowly began to dissipate as the soldiers and Scooby's began to turn the tide away from the vampires.
Dog Tag's grin split his face as he fought the ancient immortal to a stand still. He bled from many small wounds, but his skin had deflected all but the most savage of blows by Xander. One of the powers he gained from becoming a master was the pale skin with the strength of marble.
In turn, Xander bled from several wounds that resisted being healed by the power of his Quickening. Knowing that the vampire before him was every bit capable of dealing a deathblow to the Immortal, Xander pressed the soldier vampire hard, forcing him back.
Dog Tag frowned as he stumbled a little. Shifting one claw back into a hand, he reached behind his back and pulled out a gun he had concealed in the small of his back. Throwing himself into a roll that carried him away from Xander, Dog Tag began firing at the wounded Immortal.
Xander wove a net of flashing steel with his sword and sparks danced around his body. Dog Tag kept on firing, his long years of practice giving the vampire deadly aim, but he was unable to see how many shots were hitting because the sparks and smoke was obscuring his vision.
When the gun emptied and the smoke and sparks cleared, Dog Tag gaped. Xander still stood, his smoking sword held loosely in his hands.
Xander had deflected all of the bullets with his blade.
"That was a little irritating." Xander said, smirking. He advanced forward holding his sword out. " Look around, your men are dead, those things have all been destroyed. You are alone."
Dog Tag growled. " Those were good men," he snarled. We'd been together a long time. There'll be a reckoning, boy. Once we get the shield up and running, we'll *own* the Hellmouth. And you'd best watch out, 'cause then your ass will be mine."
This time it was Xander's turn to growl. He ran forward and swung his sword through the soldier vampire's neck.
Or, at least, that was the plan.
As Xander swung his sword at his opponent, Dog Tag dissolved into a pale mist. In a rage, Xander waved his sword ineffectually through the fog, the blade harmlessly passing through the wisps. The cloud then began to rise into the air.
"Willow!" Xander shouted. " Wind!"
Willow's eyes widened when she saw the vampire dissolve to mist. Everything the past three years had taught her about vampires and the Hellmouth told her that what she just saw should be impossible.
Vampires simply could not do that.
Then Xander shouted for wind and Willow's mind snapped back to the present, as she fingered the Kabalistic amulet that was Xander and the women's gift to her. Weather was a difficult arcane art to master, because it invoked all four of the classic elements.
Eyes narrowing, Willow fixed her face in her classic resolve mode and began to chant in the primal tongue of the creator. Drops of sweat appeared on her forehead as she bent all her magical might to creating a witch wind.
Slowly, the wind began to pick up and whip Willow's hair. She continued chanting and the wind began to slice through the fog that had been the vampire. She took the smallest moment to smile at her victory, but after a moment, her smile faltered.
Another power was countering her magic. She could feel something at the edge of her senses clamping down on her energy. The wind flickered and weakened. Willow poured more energy into the spell.
"You are not going to beat me," she muttered.
The mysterious 'Other' opposing her apparently begged to differ. Its energy rose and fought Willow. She fought back, tooth and nail, but the other being simply had more power. Slowly, the wind began to die and the vampire fog managed to drift away, unharmed.
Even as the wind died, the being pushed further, using the channels opened by Willow's use of magic to attack her.
Willow choked up. A presence started to close around her. Darkness filled her lungs and she sank to her knees. Pain fired through her nerves and Willow marshaled all her strength to drive out the attacking force.
She failed.
The redhead slumped to the ground, unconscious. Buffy was at her side a second later and tried waking up the flame-haired Wiccan. Worriedly, she felt Willow's neck for a pulse and found one that was weak and thread-y. She could see Willow's eyes twitching beneath the closed eyelids.
"Come on, Will, wake up," she murmured worriedly.
"Let me try." Xander suddenly appeared from nowhere and knelt beside the girl who was once his oldest friend. Buffy watched in bewilderment as Xander found a spot on her neck and pressed down hard. Willow's body jumped.
"What are you doing?" Buffy demanded. " That's making her worse!"
Xander began to talk softy as he found a second spot on the base of her wrist. " Most people don't know this, but magic runs through a person's body just like the impulses in a person's nervous system. It gathers in points called chakras. They're sort of mystical nerve clusters. When a person cast spells, it opens up the chakras and makes them more vulnerable to psychic attack." Xander, with all his training in emotion control, could not keep a note of worry from creeping into his voice. " Don't you die on me, Will," he demanded in soft voice, " If you do, you'll never get your Barbie back."
Buffy watched the face of her downed friend. Nothing Xander was doing seemed to be working. Willow lay, too still, on the ground. In the background, she could hear Forrest and another soldier talking on the radio, summoning help, but she ignored the conversation. Nothing mattered, except for the still body of the first friend she made in Sunnydale. " It's not working, Xander."
"I know." Xander looked at Buffy with a dark expression in his eyes. " Whatever is attacking her isn't giving up. I'm going to have to do something a little more drastic."
"Which is?"
"This." Xander Harris, the Immortal Trojan warrior and general, was one of the most ancient Immortals to still walk the earth, and he knew many things. He might have no skill with magic, but he had learned a great deal of the manipulation of breath and the energy it controlled, what the Chinese called chi. It wasn't quite the same as magic, but a skilled practitioner could accomplish many things that would seem magical to the unskilled.
One of those things was the ability to enter the astral plane.
Xander closed his eyes and, suddenly, his form slumped against his friend. Buffy stared in horror at Xander's prostrate body. Her eyes narrowed and she made her way to the soldiers talking on the radio.
"I need to call Cordy." She told Forrest.
The black officer shook his head. " Civilians aren't authorized to use our radios," he told the blond Slayer snidely.
Buffy grabbed Forrest's shirt and jerked his face down to her eye level.
"I'm not asking."
Amy, Cordy, Angel and the handful of surviving soldiers ran as fast as they could, the screams of Graham chasing them away. Tears traced their way around Cordelia's sculpted face. She had known that Graham was going to die, but even after more than three thousand years of seeing destines fulfilled, she still could not bring herself to accept the death of anyone as necessary to the tapestry of the multiverse.
For Amy, there was simply grief and guilt. Graham had sworn that he would keep her safe and he had, at the cost of his own life. Mingling with the emotions surrounding Graham's demise, were the thoughts about her mother. She was back, no longer trapped wherever she had been since Amy's sophomore year of school. And she was both more powerful and more insane than ever before. Her strength had made a mockery of Amy's powers. Catherine had deflected Amy's fire with hardly a thought, while Amy's shield barely stood against her mother's black fire.
As Amy ran, the fear she felt about her mother began to change and darken into hatred. Memories flickered through her mind. Her mother telling her she was fat, worthless, a useless sack of flesh. Her mother hadn't done a single kind thing for her in all her memory. Unseen by all, the spark of Amy's pyromancy that lurked within her soul began to blacken and char.
Hatred was the greatest fuel for a fire-user's power. And the most corrupting.
Finally, the group began to slow as they put a good deal of distance between themselves and the witch vampire. The survivors looked at each other. None of them had managed to escape unscathed from the battle. Even Angel bore wounds that would take some time to heal.
The crackle of the radio startled the group. The radio operator spoke quickly into the mike, giving a swift assessment to the person on the other line. Eyes widening, he quickly handed the small microphone to cordelia.
"The Slayer wants to talk to you."
Cordelia took the mike and listened in shock as Buffy relayed the events that had just transpired. The seer began to swear. Loudly.
"I'm going to kill him," Cordelia muttered. " But first, I'm going to grab his ass off the astral plane and then I am going to make him sleep on the couch for a month." She knew that Xander, despite the ability to travel to the astral plane, wasn't very strong there, because he had no gift for magic. Only his formidable willpower and the strength provided from his Quickening gave him any sort of edge in the mental plane. And whatever was attacking Willow was going to be much stronger than her erstwhile husband.
Cordelia Harris gave the long-suffering sigh recognizable to all women who've had to bail out their husbands, who didn't think things through.
"Listen," she told the others. " I have to do some magic and I need you to protect my body. I should only be gone for a few minutes." When the others nodded their understanding, she sank to a full lotus position on the ground, for once, heedless of the damage she was doing to her clothes. She took a few deep breaths and her eyes glowed white for a moment. Her chin dropped to her chest.
The moment Cordelia's mind vanished, Amy started to walk away. She called back, " Angel, tell Cordy that I've gone back to my dorm room."
"It's not safe to be out. There are still vamps around," Angel reminded her.
Amy smiled and twin flames burst in her eyes. " I doubt that will be a problem."
Angel stepped back in more than a little fear. He had never felt comfortable around Amy and the expression on her face frightened the souled vampire. It was completely devoid of feeling.
Turning around, Amy walked off. Angel failed to realize that Amy's fire was as black as her mother's heart.
Tara knelt in the blood stained alley in shock. < What could do this to Faith? > She noticed Faith's charred leather jacket and remembered that Faith had mentioned how much she liked that one.
Faith was a god. There was almost nothing that could hurt her on the level that she was picking up in the alley. There was so much ambient pain; she was getting flashes, despite trying to clamp down hard on her gift.
"There's no way she could have lost this much blood and survive," Riley whispered. " No way at all."
Tara looked up in confusion and then remembered that riley and the others thought Faith was simply another Slayer. He had no clue about the ambrosia or Faith's divinity.
"Slayers are tough," she answered delicately. " I've seen Buffy lose more and be well enough to fight in a few days." A small lie.
Riley looked skeptical. He looked around and listened to the far off sirens. " We can't stay here. Even in Sunnydale, the cops are going to notice this," he told the others. " If, IF, Faith is still alive, we'll look for her later. We need to get away right now and meet up with the others, first, and assess our losses from the Op."
Tara wanted to argue but knew that what Riley was saying was true. Besides, she wanted to check up on Amy. She could feel that something was wrong with her love. She nodded her agreement with the solider, and the group disappeared into the night.
The astral plane was a plane of the mind. Strength could not be found in the arm or the leg. It was a matter of will power. A person was only as strong as their thoughts. It was a place without borders and boundaries. It was a place for spirits and demons.
A place for gods.
The Astral plane surrounding Sunnydale and the Hellmouth was tainted a dark reddish color. The auras of all the livings lit up the Hellmouth like a pattern of stars. And that night, fading stars represented the dead and dying of the riot that had taken place that night.
Hungry black mist surrounded the red energy that was Willow Rosenberg. Tendrils attached to whitish stars that hung within Willow's aura. The mass pulsed as the dark cloud fed on Willow's lifeforce.
She tasted like strawberries.
Unnoticed by either force was the Hyena that loped along the star lined path. The Hyena was translucent, except for the tracery of blue lines that gave it form. Lightning crawled along its body and it's eyes narrowed when it saw the dark cloud devouring the witch.
With a mighty bound, the Hyena leapt into the black mist and latched onto it with jaws strengthened by love for the starry red mist.
The tentacles shrank and retreated. The red mist strengthened as the dark force momentarily stopped feeding. The black mist swarmed like a cloud and quickly wrapped around the Hyena. The darkness seemed to pulse with pleasure as it fed on the Quickening of the Hyena.
The Hyena struggled against the mist with all its stubbornness and instincts, but it was no match for the dark mist. The struggles slowed, then stopped. The Hyena hung motionless.
It was then the white mist arrived.
Along with the white mist came the unpleasant sensation of timelessness and power. The dark mist felt the weight of destiny approaching and it seemed to curl in on itself. It could remember its beginning, before it had power, and it could taste the possibility of its ending. It could feel the possibility of it not existing.
The mist recoiled and shrank. The concept of its own mortality shook the mist to its core. Although it had been thousands of years since it last had a body, it knew that its time was coming. And this new visitor, that brought with it such disquieting images, frightened it.
The darkness fled before the approaching white mist.
The blue Hyena weakly loped to the side of the starred filled red mist and slowly licked the red mist. The red mist felt love and safety emanate from the predatory creature.
The red mist faded away slowly, till only a ghost of its memory remained, imprinted on the terrain of the Astral. The Hyena turned around and felt itself surrounded by the white mist.
< I love you, you dork-head >
< Back at you, Cordy >
The two beings felt each for a moment, wallowing in the naked display of emotions to one another. It was impossible to hide how you felt about another being while in the astral plane. Emotions were as easily felt as skin was in the real world.
Then they both turned away and disappeared.
The darkness gradually lifted from Willow. She blinked, because the streetlight now shone directly in her eyes. She focused on the two faces in front of her and they resolved themselves into Buffy and Xander.
"Whaa…" she groaned weakly, " happened?" She pushed herself up off the concrete with trembling arms. She felt as though she had just run a marathon. All her muscles shook and she could feel emptiness inside where her magic reserves should be.
Xander smiled and pushed back a stray lock of hair. He looked like he had aged several years in only a few minutes. Lines stood out in sharp relief around his eyes and fatigued showed in them. " You left yourself open to magical attack, and something decided to seize the opportunity. Cordy and I sent our minds to the astral plane to save you." His eyes flicked over to Buffy. " Thanks for the call to Cordy, Buffster."
Buffy smiled back cheekily. " Don't thank me, yet. Cordelia sounded *pissed*."
Xander looked pained. Cordelia's tongue had only sharpened, after three millennia of practice, and she could be *very* cross when she thought he was risking his immortal neck. He foresaw a long period of couch sleeping, unless he appealed to their lusty better third, Faith.
Forrest walked up to Xander, an unusually grave expression on his face. " Xander, Riley's on the phone. He wants to talk to you."
Xander read the expression on his face and shuddered. Forrest wasn't the warmest guy but there was sympathy etched on his face. He took the phone, " Xander here."
# Finn here. We got ambushed outside the murder scene. Faith wandered off right before the fight. She disappeared and there's lots of blood. Too much blood. #
"What?" Xander sat down hard in the middle of the street. The chaos around him vanished and his chest tightened. Faith was missing? " That's not possible."
# I'm sorry Xan. She w-is a hell of a woman Xander but there must be three liters of blood in the alley here. She's a tough Slayer but…#
"Riley."
#Yeah? #
"Shut the hell up." Xander snapped the radio closed. Buffy and Willow wandered over cautiously. They could tell Xander had gotten bad news, but not what was so bad.
"What happened?" Buffy asked. Willow just put her hand on Xander's shoulder.
"Faith's missing," he answered dazedly. " Lots of blood. Riley thinks she's dead."
Willow and Buffy traded looks. Tentatively, Willow asked, " Can, uhh, can Faith even die like that?"
Xander shrugged. " Vampires, no." He smiled. " Not a vampire's been turned that can give Faith a challenge. But something else…" Suddenly, he stood up and closed his eyes.
< Cordy? >
< Yeah, Xander? >
< Faith's missing and presumed dead or seriously injured. >
< WHAT!!! > Xander winced as he felt the rage and fear in Cordelia's mental voice. It was a twin to his own.
< I'm guessing you didn't see anything. Can you sense her?>
Long Pause
< Yes, but not totally. I know that she's still alive, but something's different about her and I don't know what. >
< Looks like another famed rescue mission by the Three. >
< Normall,y we *do* the rescuing. We don't generally *need* the rescuing. >
< It's happened before. >
< I Remember Carthage. > Xander could feel the shame in Cordelia's mind. That period of time wasn't easy for her, and she hated being reminded of it and her moment of weakness. < How could I forget getting kidnapped by Hannibal and tied half naked to a sacrificial altar >
< Hey. You looked, good tied up and half naked. It was very Conan the Destroyer > There was a long pause, and then Xander's voice came again. < I'm just saying that Faith and I came for you then, and we'll come for her now. That's all > Xander's mind sent a soothing thought through the connection to Cordelia, then broke off his mental connection and refocused on Buffy and Willow.
"Forrest," he called out. " I need to go home. I'll meet you at the base in one hour, and we can plan what to do next."
The black soldier merely nodded as he conferred with the other pair of teams
He turned to Buffy and Willow. " You two come on."
"Where are we going?"
"Off to war."
Amy made it back to her dorm room in record time. Students had gathered in the pool hall to watch the news about the Sunnydale riots, but she ignored them. She made her way to her small cubical that she shared with another girl, who was out of town for the week.
Quietly thinking that she was grateful for the lack of prying eyes, she went to her bed and pulled out a small wooden box from beneath it. The box was without seams, and Amy was forced to dive deep into her mother's memories for the command word to open it.
Magic was emotion. It fed off the feelings of the caster, which is why mages needed to have a great deal of emotional control. Leakage could seriously disrupt or change spells. It was kind of like the Force from Star Wars, in that respect. Dark emotions could swallow a caster whole, while positive emotions could lift up a caster to heights undreamed of. Amy was feeling very dark, indeed, at that moment.
Amy opened the box. She had realized that she was going to have to learn some of the dirtiest magical tricks her mother knew, in order to fight on any sort of level playing field with her. She had resisted doing it for so long because she was terrified she could end up like her mother, but now, after being face to face with her worst nightmare-her mother back and turned- she realized that she couldn't play softball anymore.
Inside the box was a leather-lined tome. It was the Book of Shadows for the entire Madison line. Most of the spells in there were benign and ones that she had already learned. The real power of the Madison Book of Shadows was the pyromantic techniques that had been passed down from Madison daughter to Madison daughter for more than five centuries. The ability to manipulate fire was the only ability the Madisons ever manifested. Most of those techniques were dark, ways to manifest fire that drew on the darkest emotions in the human spirit. Black fire, the draining fire, the clinging greenish balefire, these powers and more were all possible using the dark arts of Madison fire magic.
And it was high time she learned all of them.
Faith woke up in the darkness. Her whole body ached in ways that it hadn't in centuries. Cold iron manacles bound her wrists and ankles to what seemed to be a stone wall. Not even the smallest trace of light could be found in the cell.
Faith couldn't remember the last time she had been captured by an enemy. The last thing she remembered was the bitch vampire casting a spell and her skin bursting open like ripe fruit. She could remember her fading consciousness as torrents of blood rushed from her body. Hell, she didn't even know why she was still alive. Even gods could be exsanguinated-it was just damn hard to do it to one.
On top of everything else, she had a monster of a headache. Her temples throbbed in time with her own heart.
She tested the iron bonds around her wrists. They were solid and, at her baseline level of Slayer like strength, they were unbreakable. Faith attempted to tap into her divine power and snap the iron. It was something she knew she could do. She had, after all, performed greater feats of strength for longer periods of time in the past.
Except, nothing happened.
Faith frowned and next attempted to invoke a simple power, to see in the dark. She reached inside herself and tried to tap into the divine spark. It was an ability she had invoked a thousand times over the years and it never failed to work.
Until now.
Absolutely nothing happened. Faith couldn't even feel the power start to work. It was like something had damped down her divine power.
Then, in a moment of absolute terror, she realized what had happened. It was the strangely familiar headaches that tipped her off.
It was her Slayer sense going haywire due to the enormous quantity of vampires being around. She hadn't had her Slayer sense triggered in more than thirty two hundred years. The divine spark had driven out the remaining embers of the Slayer spirit.
Suddenly the slayer spirit was back again, which could only mean one thing.
The divine spark was gone.
Faith was mortal again.
It was a sad group that made its way back to the Harris mansion. Each was lost in their own thought.
Xander was simply devastated at the thought of losing Faith. After three thousand years of being together, one of the few things that scared Xander was the thought of losing either of his wives.
Cordelia was simply ashamed of how poorly her visions had served the Initiative and the Scoobies. Her powers were normally much more accurate. She didn't know how she'd ever show her face around the Initiative base again.
The others simply turned over in their minds the horrible debacle that had resulted from the simple mission. Never had the Scoobies had a evening turn out so badly.
When they reached the front gate, they noticed that the riot didn't seem to come this far into the town. No fires lay burning; no cars were crashed in the middle of the street, and no bodies lay in the streets, savaged by Turok Han and run of the mill vampires. The whole area was eerily silent with the distant echoes of helicopter whirling and police sirens heard in the distance.
Xander stepped to the locked gate and swiftly tapped out the code that deactivated both mechanical and magical defenses of the Harris Mansion. The group stepped through, their thoughts turned grimly to their lost friend and the many slain soldiers. The night was not supposed to have ended this way.
Xander was worried, although he kept his face schooled in an emotionless blank. Although his heart wailed at the thought Faith might be dead or dying, he could not let those feelings overwhelm common sense. Wordlessly, Cordelia caught his hand and he shot a grateful smile to the exiled Power.
When they reached the front door, Xander and Buffy were struck by the Buzz and that told them an Immortal was nearby.
"Xander…" Buffy called out warningly.
"I know," he replied. Willow looked at them in confusion, and he clarified. " Buffy and I can feel another Immortal, but we don't know if it's a friend or not. It's usually not," he added grimly to Buffy.
Buffy stepped forward, but Xander held out his arm. " I'm your teacher, Buff. It's my job to go in first." The Slayer narrowed her eyes at the perceived slight against her fighting skills, but she silently stepped back and Xander walked through the entry way first. One thing that Xander has already taught her was that slayer strength and speed mean squat to someone with centuries of muscle memory and training on their side.
Xander drew his sword and quietly glided down the hallway. He motioned for the others to be silent and cocked his head, testing the air with his keen nose.
Buffy was surprised to see Xander narrow his eyes in distaste, but slam his sword away. He sighed. " It's okay. I know who it is." He turned and told Cordy, " Alex is here." By his tone, this 'Alex,' whoever they might be, wasn't high on Xander's list of favorite people.
Cordelia look surprised. " Why would Alex be here?"
"Lets go find out." With shoulders set like a warrior going off to his death, Xander led the group to the library. Where Buffy was subjected to the most disturbing sight she had ever seen in all her years as a Slayer.
Giles sat in a deep leather bound reading chair, a tall brunet in a shirt that had more cloth missing than present straddling him, while Oz looked on in quiet amusement.
The woman was busy kissing Giles face. His glasses had half slid off his face and he was too busy reciprocating to realize anyone had entered, at first.
At first.
Upon noticing that he had an audience, Giles paled and thrust the woman off, causing her to drop to the ground with a resounding Thump! that would have caused a less shocked group to burst into peals of laughter.
"I-I-I can assure you," Giles stammered, as he jumped to his feet. " This is not what it appears to be."
"So, who called a bloody meeting?" Spike yelled as he hopped the last few steps down into the inner sanctum of the Temple of Amara. He wore his customary clothes, minus the leather coat that had been his trademark for the past twenty-five years, and looked severely put out.
He found the entire group of recently elevated Master vampires, along with their servants, meeting inside the cavernous heart of the temple, standing around the well of blood that dominated the center of the room. Turok Han crouched along the edges of the room, just outside the radius of the magical light that illuminated the chamber.
"I did, Spike." Catherine Madison stood in front of her sire, displaying none of the servile attitude that had characterized her previous behavior. Drusilla stood next to her, jerkily hopping from one foot to the other as she stared at the sorceress.
"Granddaughter's been bad," she whimpered. " Lying to the stars she was, the stars and Miss Edith."
"What did you do to Dru?" Spike growled.
"Nothing," Catherine replied calmly. " She can merely feel the coming of the Master." The vampire sorceress cupped her hands together and an angry red-black orb of cracking energy appeared between her hands. As soon as the orb coalesced, she hurled it into the well of blood.
The Master vampires stared in fascination at the well, hoping to see something in the churning turmoil, as the blood began to bubble.
"What the 'ell are you talking about, you crazy bint?" Spike hissed. " I'm your bloody master and sire."
Catherine smiled cruelly. " Do you really think that all of this has been *your* idea, Spike? You? The vampire with such a short attention span, you couldn't come up with a decent plan and pay attention long enough to follow through, and kill the Slayer? Not very likely," she snorted in derision.
Extending her hands to encompass the room and all of the vampires, she spoke loudly enough for all to hear clearly. " No, my true master has been pulling you strings and the strings of your pathetic little girlfriend."
Spike stepped forward, but Dog Tag and Thomas Thorne stepped between him and Catherine. " Spike," Thorne cajoled, " Don't do anything stupid. The master will be coming soon and as the holder of his ring, you will be given a special place in his council."
"Of course," Dog Tag rasped, " If you don't, we'll just have to find someone else." He let out a sharp laugh. " Gee, I don't know how we're going to do that."
"He's coming," Drusilla, whimpered, " all fierce and dark, he is. He's going to be so hungry and Miss Edith doesn't want to be eaten all up."
The bubbling of the well of blood began to increase and grow more agitated. A single huge Bubble grew and expanded. A dark form could be seen huddled inside the bubble.
The vampires seemed to understand that they needed to move back and, as almost one being, they took a step back while they watched the happenings.
With a pop that startled both the master and servant vampires, a grayish black form crouched at the rim of the well of blood. Stringy gray hair hung from a head that only seemed vaguely human. Skin hung slack on a form that looked starved and dry.
But despite its withered looking body, the being totally captured the attention of the vampires. All of the Masters present could feel the power radiating from his body. It almost felt like a drug designed to get their demons high. It was intoxicating.
Shadows flew off the walls like black silk ribbons and wrapped themselves around his body, thickening into deeply folded robes. The ancient vampire unhurriedly stood up and met the gaze of each of the vampires. His face was impossible to discern from beneath his hood of shadows. He made a swift arcane gesture and several screams rent the air as nearly a dozen of the lesser vampires standing around simply burst into dust. The dust hung in the air for a moment and then flew towards the ancient vampire as if attracted by magnets.
The watching vampires couldn't see the exact transformation, but the figure before them quickly swelled and his body rapidly gained weight and filled out. None of the vampires could yet see his face. They started to become nervous as they started to wonder whom, if anyone else, was going to be next.
"They were weak," the ancient vampire said, answering the unasked question. " I will not tolerate weakness among my disciples." The vampire's voice came out smooth and strong, with a deep bass tone that reverberated through the underground hall.
"And who are you mate, that you get disciples?" Spike's cocky tone carried through the hall. The vampires surrounded him parted like the red sea when the mysterious vampire approached. Spike shifted nervously as his cocky demeanor evaporated before the other being's quiet malevolence.
The vampire drew back his deep hood and everyone gained his or her first good look at the powerful vampire who had so mysteriously appeared before them. He was a tall barrel-chested African man with dusky black skin and long gray hair, more akin to a lion's mane, which hung past his shoulders. His eyes glowed with wisdom and power. Most of the vampires in the crowd involuntarily shifted into game face as the demons inside them grew in strength
Reaching out, he grabbed Spike's ring hand and rubbed a calloused thumb over the green gem-capped ring. " It has been a long time since I have seen that ring, William," he said quietly. " It saved me you know. It saved me when the slayer came with her army. When my body was destroyed, it kept me safe." He released Spike's hand and captured his gaze with a fearsome stare. He looked out over the crowd. " It is good to see so many of my descendants gathered here." His voice carried clearly over the group. " To answer your question, William, I am Amara."
"Your God."
Buffy stared in awe. The others, with the exception of Xander and Cordelia, were in a similar state of shock. Seeing the buttoned down Englishman in such a compromising condition was a shock. It went against everything they saw their mentor to be. Especially since the woman appeared to be enjoying herself.
Willow was the first to get over her shock. She stared hard at the woman for a long moment. The woman was definitely stare-worthy. While not a classically beautifully woman, she was definitely striking.
First of all she was tall. Now that she was standing up, everyone could see that she stood as tall as Xander, an inch or so above six feet, and that was in flats. Secondly, her body straddled the line between feminine beauty and unseemly muscle. Her shirt left enough exposed to see that her back and abdomen were exceptionally lean and ripped. Thick muscles, which would not have been out of place on a female bodybuilder, rippled along her arms. Leather pants clung to legs that were sculpted pillars of strength. Her hair hung in an ebony cascade of ringlets. And her face was a combination of fine bones, high cheeks, and sculpted facial muscles.
But it was her eyes that were the most captivating. They were the color of copper pennies and seemed to be set perfectly within her tanned and fit body. And they were boring into Xander with barely restrained hostility.
"I've seen you somewhere before, but where was it?" Willow mused aloud.
"Rolling Stone," Oz helpfully supplied.
Willow snapped her fingers. " That's right. You're the lead singer of that new all girl rock band, Snake Charmer. Sybil Raven. You're supposed to be really good."
"Voice like Melissa Ethridge, guitar chops like Jimmy Hendrix, and a body like a porn star." Sybil added, smiling. She looked to Xander, and in a voice dripping with sugary falseness, she said, " I'm shocked, simply shocked, that you wouldn't keep up with my exploits. After all I thought I was your favorite."
"I never taught you to be so open," Xander replied calmly, although his voice was laced with bitterness and pain. " It's stupid for an immortal to make themselves famous. We depend on secrecy."
She shrugged. " I like music and I suck at keeping secrets. It's how I met Ripper here, back in the seventies. He was quite the hard core little rock rebel, back then."
Buffy interjected. " You knew Giles back, back when he was…you know."
"A pissed off wanker," Sybil laughed. "Yep, I did." She looked fondly on the Englishman, who had since recovered his equilibrium. " And when I came here to borrow a book of prophecy and ran into Rip, looking all yummy, well…"
"In front of Oz," Xander yelled, exasperated. Around this woman, he seemed to lose all traces of calm centeredness he had displayed since he got back to town.
"I didn't mind. I love her band," Oz answered. " Plus, still trying to get that E-flat diminished nine and when the girl said she learned how to pick from Jimmy and Slash…" He shrugged. " I'll live with a lot."
"Besides, when, exactly did you get the right to tell me what to do?" Sybil challenged. " Oh wait, that's right. *Never*," she continued bitterly, her coppery eyes boring into Xander.
The others could sense that this had the feeling of an old argument. Cordelia just stared in sadness as she looked between the two of them.
"Xander, who is this girl? She's clearly more than just some musician. Is she an Immortal like you and Buffy?"
Xander just nodded.
"Aren't going to tell them who I am?" Sybil challenged. " Worried they won't love you anymore, after they find out what kind of person you really are?"
Xander just sighed. " I don't have anything to hide, Alex. I only do in your mind." He turned to look at the group and met their gaze, one by one. All of them had the same question burning obviously in their gaze. " Gang, Giles," he said. " This is Alexandra Harris."
"My daughter."