Spike lunged to his left, plunging the scrap of sheet metal into the demon's side, rolling out of the way of the ax that thudded into the concrete where he'd been a moment before and rising sharply to head-butt another demon, kicking him in the chest when he stumbled backwards.
"Spike, catch!"
Spike flicked his eyes towards the sound of the voice. Brunette, rain-blurred...
... throwing a sword at him.
Spike dropped his metal scrap and caught it one-handed, flowing with his momentum to decapitate the demon attacking from the side.
"Thanks, Blue..."
"Hardly," a voice behind him scoffed... and Faith surged up, her blade whirling as she took out two more demons. "Drink this, I'll cover you."
A bottle slammed into his chest, and Spike caught it before it fell. The label said "Snapple", but he rather doubted that the dark red contents were fruit punch. Faith sent body parts flying around them as Spike raised the bottle to his lips.
Oh, god. Spice. Heat. Darkness... power. So much power. Spike threw the bottle down, gripping his sword with two hands, feeling the surge shoot through his muscles. He swung his blade.
"That was human blood." Two more demons crumpled to the ground. "Your blood."
"Yeah, well." A disembodied arm sailed out from Faith's direction. "I do all kindsa good shit now. Killin' demons. Blood donation."
"You're a regular Girl Scout." Spike feinted to the left, dodging an incoming horn.
"Fuck that, I'm the Troop leader. Even came here on a schoolbus..." Two demons detatched from their lower bodies, and Faith grinned. "... but you should see our merit badges."
Spike processed that a moment, sword still flying, allowing his hearing to focus on something besides the grunts of the demons. Feminine voices had added to the cacophony... shrieking, screaming... Slaying.
"Is..."
"She's not here, Spike, and she's not coming. Concentrate."
Spike faltered a moment, and took a club on the shoulder. Faith groaned, crunching her elbow into a demon's face.
"Put your self-pity back in your pants and kill shit. I don't have time to explain why."
"She's okay, though?" Spike yanked his sword out of a demon's chest and sent it straight into another one's side.
"Better than you!"
"Oh, that's not saying a lot, under the circumstances... bloody hell, is that the sun coming up?"
The light in the alleyway was growing brighter by the moment, banishing shadows, seeming to come from everywhere...
"That's not the sun," Faith grinned, shoving her boot heel into a demon who'd been distracted by the growing brilliance. "That's Willow."
------------------
Andrew hefted his duffel bag, casting a longing glance at two little tropical-themed bars that flanked the terminal hallway. He was thirsty as hell, but he doubted the Watcher's Council would understand him stopping for a Smoothie.
He hailed a cab, tossing his bag inside, sliding in...
... and being violently pushed to the other side.
"You don't mind if I share?"
The hot brunette from the plane. He'd noticed her when she walked by to go to the bathroom... fabulous ass.
"Uh, normally I'd be really... well, you don't want to go where I'm going..."
"On the contrary." The brunette removed her sunglasses and glared.
"Oh, hey, Buffy," Andrew squeaked. "I, uh, I..."
"Tell the nice driver-man where to go, Andrew."
Andrew gave the instructions with a deep sigh, regarding Buffy fearfully. "That's a, that's a real nice color on you, it brings out your eyes..."
"Stuff it, Andrew. Where are we going?"
"Buffy, you are not supposed to be here..."
"Yeah, I caught that. You say a bunch of cryptic stuff about Angel being in trouble, then you get a phone call, then you tell me it was a false alarm but oh, you've gotta go meet some friends right now... with an overnight bag... how stupid do you think I am?"
"I figured you'd be glad to get back to your big date with the Spike-Bot."
Buffy recoiled, stunned. "Don't call him that!"
"Why not? Same principle, isn't it?"
"It is not the same -- don't try to distract me! Where the hell are we going? Is Angel in trouble?"
"Angel..." Andrew sighed. "Okay. Um, Angel got put in charge of the L.A. office of Wolfram & Hart."
The color faded from Buffy's face. "He what? Is he Angelus again?"
"No, he's not. When I saw him a few months ago..."
Andrew trailed off, realizing his mistake. "Uh..."
"You saw Angel a few months ago? In Rome?"
"No, Angel was in Rome a couple weeks ago, this was when I was in L.A. Look, Buffy, there's something else you should know..."
"Angel was in Rome? You went to L.A.?"
"We're getting ahead of ourselves. Look, Angel started working for the big bad company, trying to do sort of a, y'know, infiltrate-from-within thing. But, uh, we didn't know that, or whether we could trust him..."
"And no one told me."
"Look, if Angel was Angelus and you knew it, you'd have run off to L.A. the first chance you got. We had... really good reasons... to suspect that Wolfram & Hart was trying to lure you there."
"What really good reasons?"
"They, uh, they sort of, uh, made something that you, uh, would have been very interested in..."
"Some kind of weapon? What?"
"Uh, you could say that... look, I should start from the beginning, I..."
"Andrew, repeat something after me. 'When I am cryptic, Buffy crushes my windpipe.'"
Andrew gulped. "When I am cryptic, Buffy crushes my windpipe."
"Continue."
"Look, you had a semi-normal life for the first time in forever! Training Slayers, going out with your boyfriend, taking care of Dawn... Giles thought... see, okay, this is gonna shock you, but..."
"Oh, 'Giles thought'. What a shock that it's Giles trying to..."
"He thought you deserved the rest! And Buffy, you needed it!"
"So you guys just let me... left me in a daydream, huh? Give little Buffy her pink plastic vacation in the pink plastic Buffy Dream House?"
"Giles said... he said they'd ripped you out of Heaven once... and there was another thing, Buffy, I really need to tell you..."
"Heaven?" Buffy snapped. "Heaven? Prancing around Rome with the Spike-Bot, feeling guilty, feeling useless... you call that Heaven?"
"You just called him the Spike-Bot."
"I did not!"
"Yes you did!"
The cab stopped and Andrew paid him, feeling Buffy's glare boring holes into the back of his neck as he dropped his duffel bag on the sidewalk, pulling weapons out.
"How in the hell did you get that on the plane?"
"Cloaking spell." Andrew held up an armful of sharp things. "Which do you want?"
"What are we fighting?"
"Massive demon horde."
"I don't see a massive demon horde."
"We only got a general location from Lorne. Willow will notice us in a minute and tell us where to go."
"Willow's here?"
"Willow, Xander, Faith, Robin, Kennedy, a slew of bussed-in potentials..."
"Everyone knew about this but me."
"Well... you and Dawn..."
"Oh, now I'm in the same category as Dawn? Someone to get left out of the loop, locked away from the fights, for her own protection?"
"Well... maybe now you know how it made her feel." Andrew froze. "Buffy's here."
"I know I'm here, you..."
"Willow says walk north, she's casting a brightness spell, we should be able to see it in a few blocks."
Buffy sighed heavily. "Gimme a sword."
They walked north, the sound of warfare growing louder. Buffy's jaw set into a determined line.
"Aww, I've missed that," Andrew sighed.
"Missed what?"
"Your 'about to kick some ass' face. It's really adorable."
Buffy glared... then her eyes widened.
"Andrew."
"Yeah?"
"Dragon."
Andrew whirled. "Oh my god, that's awesome. Y'know, I wonder if Peter Jackson ever saw a real one, 'cause wow, his art team was right on the..."
"Andrew, it's headed right towards us."
"Y'know, now that I really think about it, the Uruk-hai bear a freakish resemblance to... what kind of demons they got in New Zealand?"
"Andrew! There's someone... riding it! Stabbing it in the head!"
Andrew looked up. The dragon soared towards them, magnificently, majestically backlit by rays of Willow's brightness spell, nearly obscuring the identity of its black-clad rider, whose sword shone almost as brightly as the gleam of his bleached, platinum hairdo...
"And he said he didn't know how to make an entrance," Andrew chuckled.