"A Crimson Sky of Warning" by Shadow Master
(BtVS/Mortal Kombat Universe/Others)
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my works. Therefore I would appreciate it if no legal action were taken against me by anyone. I can promise you that you won't get even a tenth of the money you're looking for because I'm not exactly well off financially.
Note 1: In terms of timeline this happens during the episode "Graduation Day: Part One" and in terms of the Mortal Kombat Universe this will happen many months before the beginning of the tenth tournament. By this I mean it will follow the events of Mortal Kombat 1 pre-retcon courtesy of MK9 but I will be using some of MK9's content in order to flesh things out. After all in the first Mortal Kombat game only the bare minimum background was given on each character and only a paragraph or two if they succeeded in beating the game. My story will have MORE.
Note 2: Since I am going to try to prevent this from becoming a simple rehashing of the MK storyline or BtVS episodes there is going to be deviation from established canon. Sometimes it will be only a little and sometimes it will be a lot. It will depend on what will make the story more interesting. If you are displeased with deviations in canon of any sort then I suggest you turn around and find another story to read. If you don't mind deviation from canon then please continue reading and I hope you enjoy my story.
Note 3: Due to a whim of my muse I will be incorporating characters from other fighting games but these will not be complete canon copies. It would be more accurate to call them dimensional analogues/counterparts of the characters from the games that you all know. Think of it like the 'What If?' comic books that Marvel Comics did for awhile. The broad strokes of the character, their appearance, will remain pretty much the same but I will be adjusting/altering their histories and perhaps a few other things to make it so that they mesh better with the story I want to tell. I can assure you that I will do my best not too stray too far from canon, certainly not enough to make them completely different characters, but I ask for a little flexibility from you the readers.
A Crimson Sky of Warning
Business District, Sunnydale, Xander's POV
You know, I almost hope Anya survives if only to see if she actually manages to become all the way human again, he thought as he walked down the street in the direction of 'The Magic Shop'.
Things had been weird since the former Vengeance Demon of Scorned Women had been rendered fully human but he couldn't exactly say he was completely opposed to it all. It was like a train wreck that you just couldn't take your eyes off of because every minute it was something new. Either she said something in class that caused everyone to turn and look at her, wondering where the hell she'd gotten that answer, or stumbled over certain human behavior quirks that the rest of them navigated through without a problem.
Still, she'd managed to give them a leg up on the whole Ascension business so that'd been of the good, but trying to convince him to abandon his friends to save their own skins… not so much. He kinda understood where she was coming from, of course, since, up until a little before vamp Willow got mojoed into their reality, Anya had been a demon that'd lived a very long time. With that came the power to get herself out of trouble in the blink of an eye or the fact that she was a Vengeance Demon took her off the menu for a lot of demons that liked scarfing on humans. To suddenly find herself human again, with all the limitations, feelings and needs of one, had to be a pretty nasty jolt to the system. With new problems popping up daily with no end in sight, he was surprised that Anya hadn't just decided to jump off a cliff and end it all. Sure, he, as a human born and bred, didn't have an issue with the problems life threw at him but then he'd gotten used to them.
Anya had just gotten it dumped on her like shower water suddenly going ice cold.
Well, here's hoping she manages to push herself through it, he thought as he entered the business district of Sunnydale. It might be hard but once she gets through the bad stuff, she'll see there are some good things about being human too.
With that thought his mind drifted back to the reason he was going to the Magic Shop in the first place and he had to shake his head in rejection of it. They'd been getting ready as best they could for the Mayor's Ascension and he'd personally been overjoyed to find out that Angel had FINALLY done the honorable thing and broken off romantic relations with Buffy. He wasn't quite sure why it'd happened now and not a week or two after the two started dating each other but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Sure, he had to look all sorry for her and give condolences since if he didn't Willow would give him 'The Look' followed by the cold shoulder for a few days until he apologized to Buffy, but on the inside he was doing the Snoopy Dance.
Now, though, a shot from Faith with a poisoned arrow had Deadboy all sick, so naturally Buffy was devoting a big handful of the Scooby gang's resources to finding a cure. In his opinion they should just wait until AFTER the Ascension to try to get Lord Forehead back into something resembling good health and not just because he didn't like the guy. He also wanted it done this way because he knew what this was: a distraction. The Mayor wanted them to waste time looking for Angel's cure so they'd have less to devote to stopping his Ascension, making it that much more likely to succeed. Weighing the two problems against one another, with a giant demon destroying Sunnydale on one side and a single souled vampire on the other, he really didn't think it was much of a choice.
Sadly both Buffy and Willow were living the delusion that they could solve both problems without too much trouble so he had no choice but to play along.
Hopefully once they see that Deadboy's a goner they'll focus on what's really important, he thought as he trotted along even as he had a sickening feeling that denial would be his girls' mantra for a good long while.
He was just passing by a darkened alleyway when he found himself being yanked and then thrown, ending with him crashing into the side of a dumpster that was so very much of the OW. Fortunately he was no stranger to pain and fighting alongside Buffy had given him greater resiliency than most, so it didn't take him too long to get his head straightened out.
What he saw though had him wishing he'd taken a weapon from his private stash with him and damn what'd probably happen to him if the girls found out about it.
"Hey, boytoy! Fancy meeting you here," Faith said as she looked at him from the entrance to the alleyway, a sadistic smirk on her face.
Keep it together! Keep her talking! "Yep! Life's just full of surprises!"
"Got that right. So how's B handling the one I gave her earlier?" Faith asked as she began to saunter towards him like a jungle cat stalking its prey. "She gone nuts yet?"
"Kinda. Big into the whole 'find a cure for the poison' thing right now," he replied as he began to back away at a pace equal to Faith's approach.
"Figured she would," Faith said, noticing his pace but doing nothing to alter the balance between them. "With Red and G working the books, I wouldn't be surprised if they found it. In fact I hope they do."
Not good.
Baddies who pull the poison routine usually boast about how the good guys'll never find the cure in time, if at all. They didn't actually HOPE for their plan to go belly up! The only reason he could think of why Faith would want Angel to get cured was because it'd somehow benefit her or the Mayor or the both of them. If he was right then he needed to fish for more info and hope that somehow he managed to get away from the turncoat Slayer so he could tell the others about what he'd found out.
"Really? Kinda seems counterproductive poisoning him then hoping he gets better," he said casually as he let his eyes look about for some kind of weapon. "What's your angle?"
A little direct but his current situation was making thinking straight a little hard so he'd decided to go with the direct approach.
"My angle, Xan, is that the only cure for the poison going through Deadboy's body right now is Slayer blood. A LOT of the stuff," Faith replied, her smirk widening into a smile. "Like say enough to fill a short bottle blonde body."
This bothered him because he knew that even if he told Buffy what he'd learned, it'd do more harm than good because the love-addled Slayer wouldn't hesitate to give herself up to save the 'love of her life'. The only other alternative would be to somehow grab Faith and feed her to Deadboy but that'd be a little easier said than done seeing as how the girl in front of him had the backing of the Mayor at the moment. Wouldn't surprise him to find out that Wilkins had some vamps or some demon tailing Faith with orders to step in if she was in trouble or to kill her if it looked like she was going to return to the side of the angels. Buffy'd cream them eventually but not before Faith pulled a fade and got away.
"Kinda risky using that kinda poison, isn't it?" he asked, hoping to learn enough to improve the odds of the good guys. "I mean it kinda puts your head on the chopping block."
"Please! Like B's capable of serving me up for her boyfriend," Faith replied, not sounding worried at all. "Even if she was, she hasn't got the skills to take me down. Not ruthless enough. Me? I got no problem bringing that kind of pain."
Feeling his back hit brick wall, he realized he'd reached the end of the alley and with Faith blocking the only way out, he was in quite the pinch. Looking around he spotted a wooden baseball bat lying amidst a nearby pile of trash and quickly picked it up, bringing it into a ready position. He knew it wasn't much as a weapon but it'd be better than going hand-to-hand with the treacherous Slayer and, if he got a lucky blow to the head, he could bolt for the street before she recovered. Sure, with Slayer speed she'd probably prove capable of catching up to him before he got more than a few blocks but if he found a good hiding place, he could wait her out.
Patience wasn't exactly something she had a lot of, after all.
Going with his instincts he lunged forward, betting that she wouldn't expect him to go on the offensive given the superiority complex he'd seen Slayers exhibit. Still he waited as long as he could before swinging the bat, but even with so little warning, he was disappointed to see the baseball tool pass the dark haired teenager by without so much as scratching her nose.
"Strike one, Xan!" Faith declared, sounding rather amused by his effort.
Lining up his next shot he tried to do a feint, make her think he was aiming for one spot when in fact he was aiming for another, but his lack of practice caused that to be a failure.
"Strike two boytoy!" she said mockingly as she caught the end of his bat for a moment before shoving it aside. "Feel like giving it one more try?"
If she's doing the whole baseball thing, she's going to be the one to go on the attack, he thought as he tried to cram as much thinking into the few seconds he had. Might as well play to my strengths.
Looking over Faith's shoulder, he let his eyes widen a bit before he eased back into a more relaxed posture, as though a great weight had been taken off his shoulders. He could see this causing the wheels in the dark Slayer to turn as she tried to figure out the reason for the sudden change in his mood so he went for the cherry on top.
"About time you got here!" he said, making sure he sounded just the right level of relieved. "Mind if I tag out?"
"Really? The 'what is THAT' trick?" Faith asked, sounding MOSTLY disbelieving of his act.
"Sure… it's a trick. You just go RIGHT on thinking that, Faith," he said, putting his award winning lopsided grin on. "It'll just make things all the easier for Buffy to KO you."
He could see the growing indecision on her face eroding away the cocky certainty she'd had but he had to wait. Until she actually took her eyes off of him, he couldn't afford to make a move or else her Slayer speed would let her dodge his attack. As the seconds ticked by the tension and anxiety within him threatened to pierce the mask he'd put on but lady luck took pity on him. A second later Faith began to turn to look behind her and, luckily, did more than simply look over her shoulder so when he was confident that the timing was right, he made his move. Moving with all the speed he could manage he closed the gap between him and the dark slayer, bringing the baseball bat up for the strongest swing he could manage. He was almost upon her when either her instincts or her senses informed her of the danger he represented, so he swung.
Yet he aimed not for her head but rather her upper right leg.
She did try to dodge the swing but all she could do was keep it from being more than a glancing blow.
It caused the Slayer pain but it was not enough to stop her from counterattacking as he received a potent right hook to the head. The world shuddered out of focus and his thoughts with it, leaving him vulnerable until all righted itself, letting him know he was on the ground, his baseball bat nowhere close by. The part of his head where the punch impacted hurt, pulsed, but he shoved it aside as he got back to his feet as swiftly as he could since being on his feet would be more defensible than sitting on his butt. His feet were unsteady as was the rest of him but he refused to give in so easily. Drawing upon all of the instincts and bits of knowledge that he'd inherited from Halloween's soldier costume, he brought his hands up, making it clear he would fight still.
"You got balls, boytoy, big ones, but that lucky shot is the last one you'll get in against me." Faith said, her voice having taken on a much more serious and angry tone. "Time to feel some pain!"
A battle began that served to harshly and painfully show him just how big the gap was between an ordinary human and a Slayer. He did his best, no one would be able to dispute that, but the speed and strength he had was a full league beneath what Faith was capable of. Indeed, the only time he succeeded in connecting with her was when she chose to block or if she hit him at the same time, though he only remembered half of those. It was a powerful kick to his stomach that sent him flying backwards to the very brick wall he'd been trapped against minutes ago but, when he tried to get to his feet, the pain proved too much to overcome. His mind nearly blanked out during one of his attempts, forcing him to stay in a crouched position as Faith stalked towards him.
"Gee, Xan I'm flattered but I've got a better idea," Faith said as a sadistic smile came over her face. "If putting B's fuck toy in his sick bed distracts her this much, then putting you in the ICU will make thinking impossible."
She was really going to do it. She was going to do it and, considering her discipline problems, it wasn't entirely out of the question that she might accidentally beat him to death.
"NO!" he declared as he fought against the protests of his body.
"YES!" Faith declared, mockingly mimicking him. "As in YES you are going to get the crap kicked out of you and YES you will get to find out what it's like to wear a full body cast!"
Through some miracle he managed to get to his feet even as his body threatened to rob him of consciousness in protest to the stress being placed on it. Objectively he knew that in the shape he was in, the odds of him defeating Faith might as well not exist since even bringing his arms up into a fighting stance was horribly difficult. Still, if he was going to lose, he'd lose while giving it his all, making his opponent fight for every inch of territory she wanted.
"You've got guts, boy toy. Not much brains but guts," Faith said as she took up a fighting stance of her own. "Let's see how far guts gets you."
With that the fight resumed but it was quite the stretch to call it that because, even with all his willpower being put into his movements, he was barely at half the speed and strength he'd been at after losing the baseball bat. As such Faith had no need to dodge or block his blows because they had not the force behind them to do any damage to her body. In return, though, she toyed with him, striking blows meant to cause pain rather than achieve victory, until darkness began to creep in from the corners of his vision. Nevertheless, the same stubbornness that made him work towards becoming a better man than Tony Harris also fought to keep unconsciousness from claiming him. On some level his soul knew that to give in was to be like Tony and that alone made it work to keep that from happening, though it was anyone's guess how long it'd hold out.
"Time to clock out, boy toy," Faith said, sounding like she'd have her fill of fighting. "I'll be sure to let Willow know you gave it your best shot. I wonder how well she'll do."
Willow.
Even the concept that the evil Slayer might come within eyesight of his best bud caused all that he was to rebel with one absolute position reverberating throughout his being.
All at once something happened that he could not fully describe or even comprehend but, when his vision suddenly snapped into crystal clarity and his pain became significantly numbed, he chose not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Moving with speed of purpose he moved before Faith could comprehend that something had changed in him, slamming his right fist into her jaw. Surprisingly enough he actually managed to stagger her with the blow, causing her to take a couple steps backwards before recovering. He almost allowed this oddity to bring about hesitation but just wrote it off as an adrenaline surge that people sometimes had in life or death situations. Pressing his attack, he did his best to land as many blows as he could before she could adjust to the new circumstances and turn the tables on him. Blows to bone took priority, with ones to the head being mixed in to keep the Slayer from focusing long enough to turn the tide.
In the end he gathered all of the strength he now possessed and channeled it into one final uppercut that took the teenage girl off her feet entirely before gravity brought her back to the ground. It was gratifying to see that so potent had been his punch that Faith's jaw muscles twitched with the pain she felt. It was almost comical to watch. Before he could say something snappy to make himself appear more confident than he actually was, his newfound clarity and numbed pain began to drain out of him. It was not happening like a running river but rather like a gas tank from a car that'd sprung a leak, so instead he remained as still as he dared as he waited to see if the dark Slayer would continue the fight or if his surprise counterattack would prove enough to make her call it a night.
Like so many people who were confronted with the unknown or the incomprehensible, Faith got to her feet and ran away into the night.
That didn't mean he was safe, though.
With his wounds gaining ground against his will, it'd only be a matter of time before he was completely helpless and the helpless never lasted very long in Sunnydale, especially after night fell. Remembering a phone booth on the street he'd been walking down before Faith had grabbed him, he began to make his way toward it, hoping he'd last long enough to call Giles and have the man come pick him up. Sure, the man's car was older than the country and barely made the posted speed limit but he didn't exactly have another option at the moment. He couldn't call Missus S because, even though she knew about the things that went bump in the night now, he didn't want to worry her with how he probably looked right now. Cordy might be willing to talk to him now but it was mostly just 'preparing to avert our imminent deaths' talk rather than the old 'we are boyfriend and girlfriend please don't tell anyone' talk. He didn't see her willing to get into a car and drive to someplace Faith had been to pick up the walking bruise that he was at the moment.
He made it to the phone booth, got inside and closed the door, hoping that if some vamps or a demon did come at him it'd provide him with some sort of protection. Reaching painfully into his pocket he took out the needed coins, slipped it into the phone and then dialed the library's phone number. It took three rings but then it picked up to bestow upon him the Brit's familiar voice accent and all.
"Sunnydale High School Library, how can I help you?" Giles asked in the proper way he always did when he didn't know who was calling.
"Giles… it's me…" he said, unable to keep the growing pain he was feeling from creeping into his voice. "I need you to come… pick me up."
"Xander? What's wrong?" Giles asked, instantly sounding concerned and probably attracting the attention of the others in the library with his tone.
"Had a close encounter… of the Faith kind…" he replied, not having the energy to think up something a little less worrying. "Managed to get out of it… but I'm pretty banged up. Don't think I'll be able to make it back to the library on foot."
"Tell me where you are and I will come get you." Giles ordered even as the sound of a tinkling key chain and movement entered the background.
He rattled off roughly where he was using street names and the stores he was closest to. Not the sort of answer Giles would probably have preferred but the Brit knew Sunnydale well enough to know where to go. After promising not to leave the phone booth, he hung up and waited patiently for the former Watcher to arrive while still keeping an eye out on the immediate area.
As the pain continued to creep upwards in intensity and his ability to remain both conscious as well as aware dropped, he allowed himself some small amount of satisfaction.
He'd faced off against a Slayer and managed to send her packing.
Not bad for the normal guy.
Sunnydale Hospital, Willow's POV
You are SO in big trouble, mister! she thought as she entered the hospital and made her way to where Xander was getting patched up. From here on I'm not letting you out of my sight for one SECOND!
They'd all been there when her best friend had called to tell Giles that he'd gotten attacked by Faith and in the blink of an eye her imagination had run away with her, producing one horrific scenario after another. She'd been a little reassured that Xander had apparently managed to get away from the skanky Slayer but only a little bit. She'd tried to bulldoze her way into going with the former Watcher but he'd pointed out that there had to be a reason why Faith had been in that area of Sunnydale and that they should check it out. She'd protested, saying that Buffy could do that, but the man had pointed out that her growing magical talents might reveal something the Slayer could not sense. Reluctantly she'd agreed but made it clear that she was going straight to the hospital afterwards and that he wasn't to let Xander leave until she got to see him. She knew that if Xander managed to leave the hospital before she got there, she'd wind up having to wait until tomorrow sometime to find out precisely how bad he was hurt. Xan never liked letting others see him hurt or fuss over him. Had to be a guy thing because to her it felt perfectly natural to help out the people you cared about when they'd been hurt somehow.
It was still a sad thing that the Scoobies had gotten hurt often enough that they all knew where to go to find the nurse or doctor in charge of tending to their wounds. Most of the hospital staff just nodded at them as they passed, not protesting or throwing proper procedure and rules at them. It made her kinda wonder just how much they knew about the dark side of Sunnydale and what the Scoobies did to fight against it. Mentally shrugging, she let the thought slide off into her subconscious as she turned the corner and spotted the door to the room where Xander was being examined. Crossing the gap in record time she pushed the door open but stopped in her tracks when she saw her best friend sitting on the examination table.
"Xander…" she said, unable to say more as she took in the many sign of injuries.
Bruises, cuts, stitches, bandages, band aids and one arm in a sling made it clear that while, Xander had gotten away from Faith, the bitch had worked him over VERY good.
"It's okay, Willow, I'm okay. Just going to be a little more colorful for Graduation Day. That's all," Xander said, looking at her with his right eye almost completely swollen shut.
"While I would have to say that Alexander is downplaying things a bit, Miss Rosenberg, I agree that it's not bad enough to keep him from attending his high school graduation ceremony," the doctor said, adding in his bit of reassuring words. "Considering the sheer number of bruises and cuts, I'm rather relieved that there weren't any broken bones. Still, he'll need to take it easy for a week or two until the swelling goes down and then after that he'll have to come in so the stitches can be removed. Make sure he takes his meds and he should be right as rain before you know it."
"Don't worry. You tell me when he needs to take them and in what amount and I'll make sure it happens," she promised, looking Xander right in the eye with her best Resolve Face.
"Willow!" Xander whined as he no doubt was remembering past times when he'd gotten hurt or sick and she'd made herself his official nurse.
The lack of an official nursing license or anything really resembling official medical training meant naught.
That was what she used the internet and the library for, after all, and she'd done a pretty good job researching the proper treatments if she did say so herself.
"Don't you 'Willow' me, Alexander LaVelle Harris!" she declared, using his middle name to make sure he knew she meant business. "I know you! You'll say you'll take the pills or rest and then the second I'm out the door, you'll just go and do whatever it was you'd planned to do before you got hurt or sick. Well, not this time buster!"
She saw him slump and knew that she had him right where she wanted him.
It didn't take long after that to finish up with the doctor so, with the prescription in hand, they left the room, heading for the parking lot where Oz was waiting for them with his van. Things might be a little rocky between the two of them thanks to The Fluke but they were getting better, with everything going back to being okay looming encouragingly on the horizon.
That was assuming, of course, that they all survived the Mayor's Ascension.
They made it to the waiting room just inside the doors of the hospital but sitting there waiting for the two of them was the entire Scooby gang looking up with a variety of expressions on their faces. Shock, concern, fear and, in Buffy's case, a lot of anger. She could only imagine that after seeing Angel get hit with Faith's arrow, seeing another person she cared about seriously hurt by the evil Slayer only motivated the blonde that much more to take the traitor down.
"I'm gonna kick her ass!" Buffy growled after she finished her not so subtle visual once over of Xander in order to make sure he was okay.
"No, you're not," Xander said in surprising opposition to the idea.
"What?! Why not!?" she asked in perfect sync with Buffy.
"Because she came out and told me that sticking an arrow in Deadboy and thrashing me were both distractions," he replied, not wavering even a little under the two glare assault. "Besides which, she dropped some useful but dangerous info."
"What information did she give you?" Giles asked, looking interested in anything that could be helpful.
"Apparently the key ingredient to getting Deadboy back on his feet is a couple pints of grade A Slayer blood," Xander replied, sounding like he'd been reluctant about spilling this. "Might've just been hyping it but Faith seemed to think the bottle'd need to be drained dry for it to work."
Hearing that, she could see why her best friend had been reluctant to share the information because, if Angel really did need a body full of Slayer blood, then it'd mean Buffy'd die if she wanted her star crossed lover to live. For a moment she wondered if it could be done in sessions rather than all at once. Maybe Buffy could give the maximum that was safe, wait a couple of hours for her body to replenish what she'd lost and then give the maximum again. The only problem with that was that the graduation ceremony was coming up fast, leaving them precious little time to get ready, much less have Buffy recovering from significant blood loss.
"Fine. If Angel needs Slayer blood, I know how to get it." Buffy said in a tone that she could honestly never recall hearing come from her blonde friend.
Given how Buffy didn't look like someone who was ready to serve herself up to be fed on by a poisoned ensouled vampire, that only left… Faith. While not personally against the wild bitch getting some payback, she wasn't sure she was entirely okay with the idea of willingly and purposefully putting another human being on the menu. They were the good guys, right? That meant they only did what was right and honorable. Being a party to murder… that… that couldn't be right, could it?
"Buffy, I know you are upset with Faith's actions and betrayal, but giving her to Angel-" Giles said, sounding like he thought his former Slayer was being a bit irrational.
"Is balancing the scales, Giles," Buffy said, not giving so much as an inch from her position. "She stabbed us in the back, is working for someone who plans on killing everyone in Sunnydale and gets off on carnage and mayhem. Time for karma to come around and bite her in her leather clad ass!"
"So… what's the plan?" Xander asked, sounding like he wanted a better solution to their problems but couldn't think of any so he'd go with the flow for now.
"We get back to the library and Willow goes online," Buffy replied as she began striding for the door with the rest of them following close behind. "Look for any apartments or houses that got snatched up in the last month, anything being paid for on City Hall's dime, because if her last dive was any hint she's not going to be paying for her new pad out of her own pocket."
"I can cross reference the local realtor records with municipal funds," she thought as her mind began to draw up a way to find out where Faith was currently hanging her hat.
"Do it," Buffy ordered with an edge usually reserved for demons that seriously pissed her off. "I'm through being on the defensive!"
This is not going to end well, one way or another, she thought as they left the hospital for the library.
Sunnydale High School, Library, Xander's POV
This is gonna cost us somehow, I just know it, he thought as he continued to search through the book for something that'd give them an advantage going into the Ascension.
After all, if Buffy was going to risk everything to get her undead boyfriend on his feet, then they had to make up the difference somehow. So far, though, they were just finding more of the same: no survivors, bigger than life and pure demon. Definitely not something he was looking forward to facing but he was loyal to his friends so he'd stand by their side no matter the danger. After all, the alternative was to high tail it like Anya had and that wasn't for him because, even though he'd survive, it'd be a living death if even one of his chosen family died because he hadn't been there to save them.
"Yes. Right, right," Giles said from his office before leaving it.
"Something about the demon?" he asked, turning away from the book he'd been leafing through with one hand.
"Local villagers near the volcano site make reference to the legend of 'Olukai', which may be a bastardization of 'Olvikan'" Giles replied as he went up the stairs to the center shelf of books.
"Who's Olvikan?" he asked as he got out of his chair and followed.
"I know it's a demon, a very old one…" Giles replied as he looked through a specific section of books for the right one. "I might have a picture."
As he looked at some of the titles of the books they were thumbing through, he had to marvel at how none of the other students and some of the teachers ever clued into the truth. It was like someone cast an SEP spell on them and, considering they belonged to a Watcher, that was a distinct possibility.
"It's a good thing no one ever wanted to check out any of these books, huh?" he asked as he tried to figure out what dust collecting volume Giles wanted.
"Yes, very convenient…" Giles replied before reaching out for a specific book. "…ah. Here it is."
"Come on, Olvikan," he said like he was rooting for his favorite baseball player up at bat with the potential for a grand slam.
Page after page was turned and he knew enough about the language the book was written in to be able to spot Olvikan if it was there. It took a couple dozen pages but eventually they hit the mother lode in the form of a page that clearly had the right name in the upper right hand corner along with a fold out page on the other side. He figured it had to be just some length of stats or footnote info or just the author's weird ass way of laying everything out. Unfolding out the hidden page, he found his opinion changing again and again and again as he found out, much to his horror, that it wasn't stats the folds were concealing.
It was SIZE.
"We're gonna need a bigger boat…" he said as he compared the drawings of the humans with the drawings of the demon Olvikan.
Based on what he saw, getting swallowed in one bite was a distinct possibility for anyone unlucky enough to get in the large demon's crosshairs. It was BIG, VERY BIG, and one thing he was certain about was that the weapons they had in the cage weren't going to even put a dent in the thing, never mind actually kill it. Sure, if they got lucky they might manage to take out an eye with one of the swords but that presumed that they'd be able to get close enough to slam it home without being eaten.
Even for Buffy it'd be a tall order.
"Not necessarily," Giles said, sounding like he was trying to convince both of them that there was still hope. "Size is not necessarily indicative of power or strength. Much like Achilles of myth, it may possess some weakness we can exploit to our advantage."
"More research?" he asked, trying to figure out the right course of action.
"Yes. Now that we have found this, it narrows down the criteria and will allow me to find further details that much quicker." Giles said as he began to pluck books off the shelf that looked to be from the same period as the picture as well as the same part of the world.
It took a couple of minutes since Giles had to stop to think every once in a while but they had a nice stack of books to go through. With practice born of familiarity Giles put the books that were written in English next to his chair while he took the rest. Hours passed as he leafed through every page, trying to make sense of the old way of writing the author used but, thankfully for him, the past two plus years of experience as a Scooby meant he was up to the challenge. Eventually though fatigue began to chip away at their focus so he got up and went to coffee vending machine in the teacher's lounge. The thing must've been installed in the seventies judging by the look of it but it still put out the coffee when you put in the necessary change. Poured it right into the paper cups that came with the machine and, while he had a feeling it could be used to peel paint, he hadn't heard of any teacher's keeling over dead after drinking a cup.
It didn't take him long to make it back to the library and, just like he left it, the man was still nose deep in the books he'd taken off the shelf looking for answers.
"Any word from Buffy?" he asked as he walked to the research table.
"Not yet," Giles replied without taking his eyes off of what he was reading.
"Here's your coffee," he said putting the ex-Watcher's cup down next to him. "Brewed from the finest Columbian lighter fluid."
"Thank you," Giles said, taking a gulp of the cup's contents before scrunching his face up in disgust. "Horrible."
Of course this reaction didn't stop the man from downing the rest of the cup's contents.
"Aren't you supposed to be drinking tea, anyway?" he asked, figuring that not drinking tea had to be close to sacrilege for a Brit.
"Tea is soothing," Giles replied as he resumed flipping through the pages of the book he'd been reading. "I wish to be tense."
"Okay, but you're destroying a perfectly good cultural stereotype there…" he said with his usual humor, trying to lighten the mood if only a little.
"Look through the Kippler volumes," Giles said as though he hadn't heard a word. "Any reference to the Demon Olvikan… powers, weaknesses, hat size… there's got to be something."
"You still battin' zero?" he asked, sounding a little surprised at the lack of progress. "But I mean, in cricket?"
"So far," Giles replied, sounding unhappy himself with the results of his efforts, "but don't give up."
Picking up the sound of expensive sounding shoes approaching the library, he had a feeling about who was coming their way and he was right when Cordy appeared in one helluva huff.
"Cordy. Wassup?" he asked, wondering what had her in such a bad mood.
"I demand an explanation." Cordy exclaimed, sounding like she'd missed a sale on some one of a kind items.
"For what?" he asked, not able to come up with any reason why she'd need an explanation.
"Wesley!" she replied as though it should've been obvious.
"Uh… inbreeding?" he replied as a sort of question since his opinion of the wet behind the ears Watcher was pretty low.
"So very funny. Any minute now I'm sure to laugh," she said sarcastically before turning to Giles. "I just got off the phone with him. He could hardly speak, he was so upset. He said there'd been a fight, or something and he said he was leaving the country."
"Shall I feign remorse?" Giles asked with little if any regret.
"Just tell me what's going on." Cordelia asked with honest pain in her voice.
"Buffy has quit the Council." Giles explained allowing some gravity to enter his voice. "She'll not be working with Wesley from now on."
"But he's her Watcher!" Cordelia objected as though it was impossible to be the Slayer without a Watcher.
"Buffy no longer needs a Watcher," Giles said, making it clear that the two occupations were exclusive not joined at the hip.
"Well, does he have to leave the country?" Cordelia asked, sounding like she wouldn't mind if the green Watcher stayed. "I mean, you got fired and you hang around like a big loser, why can't he?"
"Cordelia!" he exclaimed not liking the fact that his ex had insulted a man he saw as a surrogate father figure.
This proved to be enough to stop her pleas.
"We're trying to stop a massacre here," he said, trying to convey that they had more important things to worry about. "You wanna give us a hand?"
Cordy waited a minute before nodding in the affirmative.
Of course this didn't stop her from muttering that it was typical that Buffy would do something selfish without consulting the rest of them.
As much as he had to agree that Buffy tended to act like the alpha and do what she thought was right rather than handling things by democratic vote, there was another side of things. His soldier memories told him that a combat unit couldn't be handled by vote. Sure, they could strategize together and pool ideas but when the curtain went up it had to be Buffy all the way.
He just hoped it didn't wind up biting them all in the ass one day.
Crawford Mansion, Buffy's POV
Entering Angel's bedroom, she hated seeing him like this, body being ravaged by the poison in his undead veins, but fortunately she had the cure. She knew that the others would try to stop her if they knew what she had planned and that was why she'd made it look like she wasn't prepared to go that far. Fortunately for her Willow always thought the best of her so, when she'd said that she wanted to be alone with Angel, the redhead hadn't hesitated for a moment.
Sitting down on the bed she put her hand on his shoulder, causing him to startle awake and look at her. She could see the suffering in his eyes, the difficulty telling reality from fantasy because of the crap messing with his mind, but he still focused on her.
"Buffy… it's you?" Angel asked as though he wanted confirmation of what his eyes were telling him.
"It's me," she said, not knowing how else to put it.
"I didn't want to go without… seeing you…" he said, apparently convinced that the time for final goodbyes had come.
Her pain spiked at that but she refused to let this be the final day for him, even if he'd broken up with her a short while ago. Her heart still sang for him and refused to let him go when there was still a way for him to remain among the living.
"Angel, I can cure you," she said, wanting to make it clear and impossible to misunderstand.
"It's okay…I'm ready…" he said, clearly thinking that she was deluding herself.
"Angel, listen to me," she said as she reached down to help him up. "Sit up."
It took a bit of work but she eventually managed to get him up into a sitting position where she could look him straight in the eyes.
"You're gonna live. You have to live," she said, making it clear she would not settle for anything less than that.
"What do I—" Angel began to ask before she cut him off.
"Drink," she said and, when it looked like he didn't quite comprehend, she pulled off her jacket and pulled one of her tank top straps aside. "Drink me."
It took a tick for him to fully clue in but the reaction was pretty much what she'd been expecting.
He jerked away from her.
"No," he said, making it clear he had no intention of feeding.
"It's the only—" she said, trying to make him see that there was no other option.
"Get away!" he exclaimed, getting off the bed, swaying a bit as he tried to stay on his feet.
"It'll save you," she said, making it clear that that was the only result she cared about.
"It'll kill you," he said, making it certain he only cared about that potential consequence.
"Maybe not, if you don't take it all…" she said, quietly omitting the fact that, according to Faith, Angel would need to take it all.
"You can't ask me to do this," he said, refusing to give into the demonic instincts he'd been fighting for so long.
"I won't let you die. I can't," she said, conveying the emotions that still burned bright within her. "The blood of the Slayer is the only cure."
"Faith…" he said, putting forth the only alternative.
"I tried to… I killed her," she said, remembering the sight of her lost sister being carried out in the back of a passing truck, a knife wound in her gut.
"Then it's over," he said, hope vanishing from his eyes as briefly as it'd appeared.
"No," she said as though her word held the same authority as GOD.
Moving forward, she tried to back him to the wall so that he'd have no choice but to do what she wanted but he pushed her aside and left the bedroom as quickly as he could without losing his balance. Too bad he only made it five steps before he stumbled into the coffee table, scattering the items on top of it, causing some of them to fall to the floor. Striding quickly towards him before he could recover and put some more distance between the two of them, she jerked him to his feet, never letting go of his arm.
"It's over!" Angel yelled trying to shatter her resolve.
"It's never over. I won't let you die," she said before trying to force him closer to her exposed neck. "Drink."
"Please…" he pleaded, obviously not wanting to slide into a bloody ditch he might never find his way out of.
Looks like I'm going to have to KO his reason so his instincts can take over, she thought as she brought back a fist and slammed it into her ex-boyfriend's face.
He almost left his feet but managed to sway back to her with an uncomprehending look on his face so she slammed another fist into him to clue him in.
It didn't save him, though, as punch number three caused him to vamp out, meaning she was halfway to her goal and just needed to push things just a little further. Grabbing him by the head she forced his mouth down to her neck and wasn't disappointed when she felt him bite into her neck and begin to feed. She'd only ever been fed off of once and that'd been by the Master but this was different since the need was greater in Angel than it'd been with the Master. Feeling Angel pull her closer, she lost her balance, causing the both of them to fall to the ground, causing her to wince in pain, causing her muscles to spasm so hard she shattered the table.
As the draining went on fear began to creep into her as she felt herself getting weaker by the moment and she realized that, despite his refusal earlier, he was now firmly in the grip of his blood thirst. She knew that she'd walked into here willing to go all the way but now that she was faced with it, she didn't want to die. With what strength she had left she tried to force him off but she barely managed to move him an inch, never mind come close to wrenching him off of her. Again and again she tried to push him off but her strength was waning and the blood loss was getting to the point where she began to hallucinate. She began to see the room in the asylum her parents had tossed her into rather than the living room of the mansion Angel had chosen to shack up in. It was a place she'd come to hate both because she'd known all during her stay that she wasn't insane as well as the fact that they kept her doped up on meds to keep her docile. Meds that'd kept her weak as a kitten and distorted the world around her to the point where her mind couldn't reach a consensus on what to do or even why she should do it.
Seeing the fake asylum world around her, only briefly flickering back to Angel's mansion, she remembered one of the more bizarre nights she'd spent in the straitjacket. She'd been lying in her bed, wrapped good and tight in her straightjacket, when the door to her room opened up. She'd looked in its direction, wondering what nonsense her mind would come up with and only raised an eyebrow when hooded monks with skull-beaded belts marched into her room, numbering five in total. They'd taken up places around her bed, the darkness keeping her from seeing their faces, and began chanting in a language she'd never heard before. She didn't remember much of what happened after that but the next day everything'd returned to the usual routine of shrink sessions and drug cocktails.
As the world began to dim around her, she hoped at least that her death would have meaning in that Angel would live. He could do the heavy lifting parts of the plan that she wouldn't be around for. Still the Slayer inside of her refused to leave without venting her fury for the world to hear and so, with all the strength she had left, she let out a hoarse primal scream. This proved to be the tipping point as the darkness surged forward and then she knew nothing.
Saw nothing.
Heard nothing.
Nothing at all.
Sunnydale Hospital, Xander's POV
No other thought occupied his mind except: is Buffy still alive?
Following Giles, Willow and Oz into the waiting area of the hospital, it didn't take him long to spot Angel looking troubled but very much better than he'd been the last time he'd been asked to babysit after the vamp had gotten hit with the poisoned arrow. It didn't take a genius to figure out what'd happened and it pissed him off to know that Buffy was in the hospital to put Deadboy back on his feet. He'd hated the vamp since day one, partly because Buffy'd been infatuated with him and because of what Angel was, and it'd only gone down a bit once he lost his lust for the blonde Slayer. To him a vamp was a vamp was a vamp and having a soul inside didn't change things at all. Still, with his best bud Willow and Buffy firmly in support of Deadboy, he'd been forced to keep things as civil as he could bring himself to be.
If Buffy had died because she'd saved Deadboy, he'd have one less reason to keep his opinions to himself.
"How is she?" Giles asked, sounding like a worried father.
"She's fine. She's sleeping," Angel replied, causing everyone present to relax a bit since the unfavorable bullet had been dodged.
"You seem all right too," Oz pointed out what all of them had been thinking since they'd seen the vamp on his feet.
"So what happened?" he asked, wanting to hear it from fang's own mouth.
"We left her, she was fine?" Willow replied, revealing that at the least she'd knowingly left Buffy alone with the sick vamp.
Not a smart move considering how loco the two of them got when reason left the building due to their feelings with one another.
"Did Faith-?" Willow asked, sounding like she thought something must've happened.
"Faith's out of the picture." Angel replied as guilt crept into his features. "Buffy put her in a coma."
"And…" he said, wanting the vamp to at least verbally admit to what he'd done.
"Buffy cured me… made me…" Angel said, unable to actually spit it out.
Giles had no such problem.
"You fed off her." Giles said with the utmost seriousness.
"Yes," Angel replied, looking ashamed and actually not trying to excuse his scummy actions.
"How much?" Giles asked, likely trying to figure out just how bad off Buffy was at the moment.
After all 'alive' and 'strong enough for graduation day' were two different things.
"She's going be fine," Angel replied, trying to make things seem less serious than they really were.
Not on his watch.
"Well, it's just good to know that when the chips are down and things look grim, you'll feed of the girl who loves you to save your own ass," he growled out in the most hurtful way possible.
He took it as a small victory when no one, much less Deadboy, could say anything in the vamps defense. He'd have preferred it if he wasn't the only person to bust Angel's chops but he'd take what he could get considering the crowd he was with.
"You'd best go, Angel," Giles said, breaking the silence that'd developed. "We can watch over her."
"I don't want to-" Angel said, sounding like he'd prefer to stick with them until they got the all clear to visit Buffy from the doctor.
"The sun will be up soon." Giles pointed out, glancing in the direction of the doors they'd just passed through.
This was enough to get Lord Forehead to give up and, as he watched the vamp leave, he could only say one thing. "Gosh, I'm gonna miss him when he leaves town."
He got an elbow in the ribs for his trouble from Willow but he'd expected that so he didn't make a big deal of it. The redhead had always been a big supporter of Buffy's relationship with Angel and had found the whole idea of a Slayer falling for a good vampire to be romantic. As a result any time his snarking crossed the line in her mind she let him know about it in a very effective way. Still, at least Deadboy was leaving town and, assuming the next person she chose to lock mouths with had a pulse and was human, he'd root for its success right next to Willow.
"Let's see how Buffy's doing." Giles said before advancing towards the nurse's station.
He listened when G-man and one of the nurses started talking but a part of his mind was working the probabilities and the possibilities of the big day coming down the road at them. Best case scenario was that Buffy's Slayer healing would have her bouncing back to full strength in time for graduation so she could still take the lead position in taking down the Mayor. It was a little iffy but she'd managed it before so there was no reason she couldn't do it again. The worst case scenario was that she'd be weak as a kitten for a couple days, forcing them to rewrite any plans they might have had bouncing around inside their heads to compensate for the missing Slayer. He seriously hoped it wasn't the latter because with him still on the mend it'd all ride on the newly healed Deadboy to do the heavy lifting. Considering the fact that graduation was happening during the daytime, Angel would have to stick to the shade. The only shred of hope was that things'd follow the usual route dark rituals went and either spontaneously generate some storm clouds or bring about an eclipse.
Of course if that happened then it'd also mean that any vamps on the Mayor's payroll would also be able to come out and play, putting the numbers against the Scoobies.
Here's to your health, he thought as they finally got permission to see Buffy. For all of our sakes.
Sunnydale High School, Library, Willow's POV
"That's the basic plan," Buffy said as she laid out the plan she had in mind for graduation day. "So… am I crazy?"
It'd been a huge weight off their shoulders to see Buffy walk out of nowhere looking under her own power albeit looking visibly weak but not quite teetering on her feet. She'd asked about Angel but Oz had told her that he'd left a while ago to avoid sunrise. It'd been then that the blonde Slayer had given the call to bring everyone in because she was finally ready to go to war hardcore style. They'd all gotten into their cars and reconvened at the library, waiting only a dozen or so minutes for the others to get there thanks to the wonder that was the cell phone. Once everyone was assembled Buffy laid out a plan that even he had to admit was pushing the envelope pretty far, even for a Slayer.
"Well, 'crazy's' a strong word—" she said, not wanting to take the wrong side.
"Let's not rule it out, though," Giles said, cleaning his glasses and looking a little taken aback.
"You don't think it can be done." Buffy said, looking at her former Watcher.
"I didn't say that," Giles said putting his glasses back on. "I might, but I haven't yet."
"Okay, well, I personally don't think it's possible to come up with a crazier plan." Cordy declared with her usual lack of tact.
"We attack the Mayor with hummus." Oz proposed with his usual lack of emotion or telling expression.
"I stand corrected," Cordy said, looking like she couldn't believe someone had actually taken her up on her dare.
"Just keeping things in perspective." Oz said, stepping back to let things continue.
"Thank you. My point, however, is crazy or not, it's pretty much the only plan." Cordelia said with reasonable politeness. "Besides, it's Buffy's and she's slay-gal, you know. Miss Like-to-fight, so…"
"I think there was a 'yea' vote buried in there somewhere," Xander said, falling into his old routine with Cordy in terms of verbal sparring.
"Well, I need you all on board. Especially you, Xander," Buffy said, looking at her best bud. "You're kind of the key to this figure here."
Everyone was a bit surprised but Xander was the most thrown.
"Key? Me? Okay, pride… humility… and here's the mind numbing fear," Xander said, using humor like always to cover up what he was really feeling. "What do I have to do?"
"Do you still remember any of your military training from when you became soldier guy?" Buffy asked, sounding like it was important that he did.
"Ooh! Rocket launcher?" he asked, guessing that that is what she wanted him to get for her.
"Rocket launcher's not gonna get it done." Buffy replied, shaking her head in the negative. "It took a volcano to kill one of these things last time."
"Buffy, all of this is dependent on your being able to control the Mayor." Giles said, reminding his former Slayer of one of the critical components of the plan. "How do you plan to do that?"
"Faith told me I'd have to play on his human weakness," Buffy replied, sounding a little off. "That's the way I'm gonna get to him."
"Faith told you?" she asked, unable to understand how the treacherous Slayer could tell anyone anything in a coma. "Was that before or after you put her in a coma?"
"After." Buffy replied, not surprised at the question.
"Oh," she said before writing it down in her mind as just another bit of Hellmouthy craziness.
"The Mayor's weakness," Giles said, looking like he was contemplating what the weakness could be.
"Right," Buffy said, confirming what she'd already told them.
"Which is what?" Giles asked, looking like he was hoping for some elaboration.
"You know, I do all this planning, I'm in charge even though I'm not feeling my best, and now I'm supposed to come up with every little detail…" Buffy said defensively, proving conclusively that while occasionally possessing some strategic talent, she still had much to learn.
Looking at the rest of the Scoobies, she could see that, like her, it felt kinda good to see their friend falling back into her usual ways despite the significant blood loss. After the moment passed, though, it was time for them to see if they could develop the idea Buffy had presented before them a little further.
"Well, let us think," Giles suggested before allowing them all to do just that.
"Angel, you hung out with him the most," Oz said, turning to the souled vampire standing far away from the windows. "Is he afraid of something?"
"Well, he's not crazy about germs—" Angel replied, sounding skeptical about that being useful to them.
"Of course!" Cordy exclaimed as though the metaphorical light bulb had just popped on above her head. "That's it! We attack him with germs!"
"Great," Buffy said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. "We'll get him cornered and then you sneeze on him."
"No, no, we get a canister of ebola virus, and, and, or it doesn't have to be real, we could just have a box that says 'ebola' on it, and we could chase him… with the box…" Cordy said, sounding really enthused at the start before realizing that she wasn't going to sell anyone on this plan.
"Okay, I'm starting to lean towards the hummus offensive," Xander said, clearly believing it had a better chance of working than Cordelia's plan.
"He'll never see it coming…" Oz said, not giving anything away with his voice or his face.
"Faith." Angel said suddenly but with a look that implied he thought he might be onto something.
Everyone looked to him when they began to think the same thing, though their interest would die a quick death if they didn't get more details.
"Faith. You think?" Buffy asked, a little uncertain about her ex-boyfriend's suggestion.
"At the hospital, he was grieving," Angel replied, sounding more sure with every word he spoke. "Seriously crazed, and not just in a homicidal, I-wanna-be-a-demon way. She's his weak link."
Buffy looked to be thinking on that for a moment but a minute later she nodded, having reached a decision.
"Okay. Good. I can work with that," she said, looking like she had a plan and was confident about it.
"You haven't an enormous amount of time," came a voice no one present save Cordelia want to hear even a peep of at the moment.
Turning towards the entrance to the library, she saw Wesley standing there looking like he knew he wasn't welcome but at the same time thought he should be with them.
"Hey, it's Mister States-the-Obvious!" Xander declared with heavy sarcasm.
"The Council isn't welcome here," Buffy said in a very final manner yet with a bit of snark. "I got no time for orders. If I need someone to scream like a woman, I'll give you a call."
"I'm not here for the Council," Wesley protested before coming across as genuinely honest. "Just tell me how I can help."
This was a bit of a shock because, if there was one thing that'd been a constant from day one with Giles' replacement from the Council, it was that the young Brit didn't have a single original thought that his bosses didn't put there. It'd been obvious to them that the reason Wesley had been chosen was because he was blindly obedient to his bosses no matter what orders were handed down. To suddenly be confronted with a Wesley that wasn't whining for them to listen to him and actually sounded like he wanted to help… was something of a curveball.
"Oh, you are SO classy." Cordelia said in awe before turning to the rest of them. "Isn't he just so classy?"
"It's a start," Buffy said, sounding like she thought the man had just taken a step in the right direction.
"So there is something I can do?" Wesley asked, looking hopeful at the blonde Slayer's comment. "Besides scream like a woman?"
"There's plenty. Chores for everyone," Buffy said before addressing the group as a whole. "Okay, this is how it's going to lay out: if I remember right the sun's going bye-bye once the curtain goes up."
"'Darkness will follow, the day become night…'" Wesley quoted from one of the books they'd been reading researching for info on the Ascension.
"An eclipse," Buffy said, putting forth what she thought it meant.
"That puts me back in the game." Angel said, looking glad that he wouldn't be sidelined.
"Yes, it does. I need you and Xander working in sync here," Buffy said before looking back and forth between the two guys. "Can you guys handle that?"
Personally she thought it was a bit iffy and it'd only get worse with every bit of snark that got flung one way or the other. Xander hated vampires. Simple as that. The only reason he didn't raise too big a stink about Angel working with them was because he knew that neither she nor Buffy would like it if he made too big of a deal about it or tried to stake the souled vampire. Could the two of them work together? Probably.
"I'm still Key Guy, right?" Xander asked, looking like he was worried that he'd been demoted in less than ten minutes.
"Right," Buffy replied with a nod of her head.
"Great, then Angel—in his non-Key Guy capacity—can work with me." Xander said with a smile and she could tell he loved the fact that he had something over on his former romantic rival.
"What fun." Angel said in perfect deadpan.
"Hey, Key Guy's talking—" Xander said, already trying to put his authority to use.
"Oh, good, let's bicker!" Buffy exclaimed with sharp humor. "That'll work great. You're like little old ladies."
Even she had to admit that when Xander and Angel got into it they did sound like a pair of cranky old women bickering with each other.
"Let's get this done people." Buffy said, looking at each of them in turn conveying the seriousness of the situation with every word.
With that each of them began to divide up to handle their respective tasks as the Slayer handed them out. It was a tall order for them, with many of the jobs being attempted for the first time, but that was nothing new. Ever since she'd first met Buffy she'd experienced something new every other day so, while there was still some anxiety, fear and doubt, she had the confidence to push on through.
All of them would do their best and just like before they'd come out on top.
Somehow.
Harris House, Xander's Room, Xander's POV
It was not the prettiest of sights but he came out of it better than he had any right to, considering the fact that he hadn't been in prime condition for the post graduation Ascension. With only one good arm and a body that was feeling numb despite the painkillers he'd been given beforehand, he'd been at a disadvantage. Thankfully a Winchester 1887 shotgun and as much ammo as he could possibly carry without it being a hindrance proved to be enough to keep him from becoming vampire chow or the newly ascended Mayor's first meal. Nevertheless he considered it something of a small miracle that none of the Scoobies had died… even if some of the students who'd been fighting hadn't been so lucky. He didn't know the exact number of dead but he knew that at least Harmony, Larry and Principal Snyder were definitely going to need gravestones before the week was out.
Still, it could've been a lot worse, he thought as he tried to imagine what'd have happened if the explosives hadn't gone off when they were supposed to or if none of the other students had fallen in line.
If it'd been the Scoobies alone and the explosives hadn't gone off, the Mayor would've steamrolled over the whole lot of them before gobbling up everything edible he could've gotten his snakey mouth around. Animals, people and some of the more tasty demons would've been on the menu as the ascended human worked his way up to the pinnacle of his pure demon power. Would it have been the end of the world? Probably not because one demon, no matter the size, would not be able to face off against the entire arsenal of the United States military. After all back in the day the Old Ones had never seen a nuclear weapon, never mind find out whether or not they had the ability to withstand such an explosion. Most likely, until he gathered an army or mastered whatever arcane powers he had, Wilkins would create a buffer zone around his claimed territory. Using whatever demons still lived to patrol the borders and repel any invading force, the Mayor would grow in strength until no one would be able to stop him.
I know it probably doesn't mean much from the other side guys but… yours were lives spent, he thought as he turned away from the mirror he'd been inspecting himself with. Not wasted.
It'd been a little over three weeks since the Battle of Graduation Day and, while he would've preferred to have been out on the road for his cross country trip a week ago the doctors had insisted he wait. According to them, the wounds from Faith's beating needed to heal a bit more before it'd be safe for him to drive and it had the plus of giving the few scrapes he picked up afterwards time to heal too.
Now he was good to go and had his bag packed for the trip.
All he needed was his car.
He'd come home from the battle to find his car with more than a few dings as well as the back window bashed all the way in. Seeing as how non-demonic crime was virtually nonexistent in Sunnydale, he knew that it could only have been Tony Harris who'd busted it up in one of his drunken rages. Why the man, and he used the term loosely, had felt the need to vent his anger on his car he'd been unable to figure out but he had known that he wasn't going to drive across the USA with that kind of damage. So he'd called his Uncle Rory and asked the man to come pick it up, drive it back to his garage and do what he could to get rid of the dings as well as replace the window. Fortunately, while not a saint, Rory was a good enough person that he'd done as asked and today was the day for the pickup.
Walking as silently as he dared down the hallway, he found it a pain in the ass that he had to get up this early but it was the only way he could be sure to get out the door without either of his DNA contributors noticing. Sure, they were probably sleeping off last night's booze but he'd learned the hard way in the past that it was hard to predict just how out of it they'd be as well as what could wake them up. He'd gotten some extra practice in the area of creeping thanks to going out on patrol with Buffy so he considered it time well spent when he succeeded in making it down the stairs and to the door. With a careful click he unlocked the door and slipped through the gap.
He didn't bother pulling the door closed again afterwards since he figured since the sun was up Tony and Jessica would be safe enough.
As he walked his way in the general direction of Rory's place, he wondered what exactly he'd do first once he was out on the road. It wasn't like he had a list of places he planned on visiting or a map with a route laid out. Sure, there were some popular tourist spots and some famous cities he planned on visiting but nothing more than that. Maybe Rory would know some places in California that were worth seeing before he went someplace else looking to see what there was to see.
The giggle of a little five year old girl walking side by side with her mother brought him out of his thoughts as the duo strolled down the street, completely carefree. He couldn't help but grin at the sight because it was sights like these that made fighting the good fight worthwhile: knowing that because of him and the Scoobies the clueless people could continue living their lives in peace. All the bangs, scrapes and hospital time were worth it if no one else'd lose their brother like he lost Jesse. He knew they couldn't save everyone, couldn't be everywhere at once, but if they managed to hold off Armageddon then that was a whole lot of lives saved in one fell swoop. It'd balance the scales and keep the number of people they saved higher than the amount of people that'd never see their families again because no one was there to save them.
Makes me wish there was some way to take the blinders off of everyone's eyes.
He was certain that if demons and vamps became public knowledge, it wouldn't just be the Watcher's Council, whatever obscure divisions the major governments had and vigilante groups like the Scoobies fighting the good fight. Police, military and every person willing to stand up to do the right thing would take it to the monsters that preyed upon those allied to the light. Together they'd be able to root out every demon, every vampire and every species traitor kicking them out of the dimension or putting them into unmarked graves. Sure, some of the people in authority and some bleeding hearts would probably want to treat the nonhumans like criminals but he figured a few screw ups would blow that delusion clear out of their heads.
Yeah… and while I'm at it maybe I should wish for world peace and the cures for every major disease on the planet.
The same monsters he wanted to take down were the creatures that'd been smart enough to bribe, blackmail, intimidate or somehow control key people to keep their existence confined to myth. Like the saying went, 'the best trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist'. Anonymity, being invisible, was vital to the power the demons held and they knew it. So any time it looked like some credible proof might make its way into the public eye, they made sure it disappeared and the people responsible for getting it vanished.
At least that's how he had it figured.
It didn't take more than fifteen minutes for him to get to the front gates of Uncle Rory's property and, after pushing the buzzer, he waited for the only semi-respectable member of the Harris line to come let him in. Looking through the holes in the gate, he could see that Rory had a smattering of cars on the lot that looked to be in various stages of repair but none of them looked like they were beyond hope. It was a decent living, taking vehicles that most people thought were beyond repair and making them look like new, and Rory had been doing it for a little over ten years. Sure, the profit wasn't all that great since almost every dollar either went back into the business or into paying the bills but it was an honest day's work. Rory had definitely been at it longer than any job Tony or Jessica had ever been hired on for and that spoke volumes when it came to the rest of the Harris clan.
"Well you're lookin' better." Came a deep voice he knew all too well. "How's the arm?"
"No pain, no problem Unc," he replied, seeing his uncle walking towards him.
He loved his uncle but there was one little quirk that had him grinning every time they met: the man was a true blue 'Magnum P.I' fanatic. He had closets full of Hawaiian shirts, had the mustache on his face and had his hair done up just like Tom Selleck had his done in the TV show. Sure, Rory looked like Magnum in his fifties but that didn't stop the man from dressing the same way every day and keeping the mustache.
"Sounds good," Rory said with a smile as he pressed a button that opened the gate. "You know it's a good thing Tony busted up your car the way he did."
"Really? I thought you said that you're gonna personally kick his ass for abusing such a classic." he said, walking up to his uncle and shaking his hand like they always did.
"I was until I decided to give it a once over to make sure that asshole brother of mine didn't do more damage than we were seeing." Rory said as they began to walk towards the garage where the car was waiting. "Good thing I did, 'cause there was damage that would've had you smoking to a stop just short of Oxnard. I don't know how he did it but Tony managed to crack a cylinder head. You would've been able to make it out of town fine enough but halfway to Oxnard you would've noticed something was up and then the engine would've given out with you getting a mouthful of smoke."
"Damn. Gonna cost extra?" he asked, knowing they'd agreed on a price when his uncle had picked up the car.
"Nah. You're family, besides it would've been a shot to my pride as a mechanic to let you drive out of Sunnydale with a cracked cylinder head." Rory replied, sounding like he'd have been in a mood for a week if that'd happened.
"Then here's the money for the work," he said as he pulled a wad of money from his back pocket and slapped it into his uncle's hands.
Rory took a look at the money, counted out about a third of it then held it out for him to take.
"What's this?" he asked, not understanding why his uncle would return the money.
"My contribution to your road trip," Rory replied, shaking the money as if insisting that he take it. "Travelling isn't cheap and I want you to get as far as you can before snagging a temp job to boost your funds back up."
"I can manage, Unc. You earned this money. Keep it," he said, not wanting to take charity or deprive he man of his hard earned money.
"Just take the damn money, Xander!" Rory ordered, starting to sound a little annoyed. "You're already a better man than Tony ever was. You don't need to turn down presents to prove it. Just take it in the spirit its being given."
For a moment he considered refusing again but a glare from Rory finally made him take the third of his payment back and put it into his pocket.
"Fine, but I'm getting you a good present from my road trip to balance things out."
"Whatever." Rory said as they reached their destination.
Looking at his car, it looked good as new with only faint signs that it'd ever been banged up in the first place. It was the one thing you could always say about his Uncle Rory: the man did quality work. Doing a quick walk around, he had to admit that, while his car might not be what most teens dreamt of buying one day, that didn't change the fact that it was his. A little slice of freedom he could enjoy so long as it had a tank full of gas and kept up the necessary maintenance. He might change the color, add some accessories on the inside, but aside from that he'd keep the girl just as she was.
"Filled her up before you got here," Rory said, tossing him the keys from next to the rack where quite a few were hanging. "You have fun and try not to get into more trouble than you can get out of."
"Hey, you know me, Unc: I don't go looking for trouble-" he said with a tone of familiarity.
"-It just seems to know where to find you." Rory said with a smile and equal familiarity.
A sloppy salute later between the two of them put an end to the goodbyes and he opened the driver's side door tossing his bag inside before following it in. With the turn of a key the engine came to life and, while it was an impressive rumble like most manly car engines, it was still pleasing to hear.
"See you on the flipside Unc." He shifted the car into reverse, "Stay safe."
With that he was gone and taking the first steps on a trip that'd make sure that when he returned to Sunnydale, he'd be a different man.
And so it begins.
Neither member of the Harris family noticed that perched on a tree overlooking the elder Harris' business was a large bird, larger than any that avian experts had ever classified, with multicolored wings and two curling horns on either side of its head. It watched as the car drove out of its field of vision with intelligent eyes and then took to the air for it had important news to convey to a friend.
It was a time that he had been told to watch for since the travelers crossed the Atlantic centuries ago.
To the humans below there was no bird in the air but rather dark clouds that were beginning to form and winds that had once been a gentle breeze were growing in strength.
Such was the way of a world that no longer believed in the old ways.
Such was the way of a world where only a few still spoke his name and followed the traditional practices.
Contrary to what some of his kin often said it was necessary in order for the humans to grow strong and while they would no longer be worshipped they would never be forgotten.
Note: Yes I know that this wasn't all that much different from the canon episode please keep in mind that this is a push off point. Things will get better I promise you. I just needed a departure point to get the ball rolling. Plus the sharper among you will have no doubt spotted some of my little clues so hopefully they'd snagged your interest. Please be patient and I'll do my best to make sure you're rewarded.