"What?" Spike demanded, feeling the warm blood running out of the gash on his forehead and down his pale face. He quickly wiped it away and faced Adam with his face proud.
"I have the power, the capacity to take out that chip that is lodged in your brain," Adam paused, a cruel smile on his face, "it's what you want, isn't it...more than anything...anyone?" he added, leering.
Spike paused, licking his lips. The whole clearing seemed to be standing still, waiting for him to decide, the world on pause. He looked briefly over the group that surrounded him, anticipating his every word and move...
Oz, he didn't really have anything against him before the argument...but now?
Xander, well, he didn't really care much for him...never had...
The Slayer. Buffy. She lay on the grass, struggling to get up, pale, bleeding from the head...she had nearly killed him so many times...
Willow was kneeled nearby, fear but determination on her face. He gazed at her, pain in his eyes. She looked back at him, pleading. He felt his heart jump.
Looking away from her, he saw Xander slowly crawling toward the blaster. Spike gave a slight nod in his direction and knew what he had to do. A small, roughish smirk played on his lips as he turned back to Adam.
"So, you'll take this chip out of my brain if I follow you?" He said, his voice and face deeply interested.
"Spike, no!" Willow cried out, her face twisted with the pain of betrayal.
"Yes," Adam growled, "so, will you join me?"
Spike vamped out quite suddenly, his razor sharp teeth tearing his own lip viciously as he grinned, "sorry, Adam, as tempting as that offer is, I don't think I can accept it."
With the element of surprise on his side, he quickly spun around and kicked Adam square in the chest, knocking his backwards. At that moment, Xander leapt up, blaster in hand and fired, managing to shock and knock down himself but seemed to have no affect on his mutant target.
"You idiot!" Spike hollered at the dazed looking Xander, seeing the colour of the taser blast, "that was the tranquilizer setting!"
Adam's laugh was like stones grating together, "you think you can harm me with a tranquilizer blast? Or even a blast at all?! You forget who made me...who I am," with a sudden roar, he knocked Xander to the ground. He looked at Spike and returned the smirk, "well, it's a pity you don't want to join me, but that's okay, I don't really need you..." then, suddenly he stood tall and bellowed into the forest about them, "attack!"
To the groups shock, dozens of vamps and demons poured out from behind trees and bushes, seeming to have almost materialized out of thin air.
Buffy grabbed a stake from her coat and dusted the nearest vamp and engaged in a rough fight with a demon who grabbed her from behind.
Willow made do by snapping a branch off a nearby tree and plunging it into the chest of an attacking vamp. She gasped as 5 others began to advance on her but Xander leaped in front of her with a large cross. They quickly recoiled.
"Thanks," she breathed as he placed the cross firmly in her hand and went off quickly to help Oz who was having some troubles of his own.
Spike seemed to be having heated arguments with the vampires that he was battling and Willow watched in satisfaction as he plunged a stake deep into the chest of one of his foes.
"Yah!" Buffy yelled as she bravely attacked Adam. She pummeled his torso with her powerful fists but he simply snatched her up by the shoulder and push her violently away. She bit her lip and held the new gash in her arm but leaped up and kicked back powerfully.
Oz leaped to her assistance but caught a blow from Adam in the chin and was thrown to the ground. He rolled over and kicked an advancing vamp in the chest and staked him as he struggled to his feet.
The Slayer continued her persistent punches but Adam gave a growl of anger and shoved her right into a large tree. Her eyes rolled back in her head, exhaustion from her profuse bleeding and constant beatings overtaking her body. She slumped down to ground with a soft gasp.
Spike continued sparring with various demons. But now that the Slayer, the real problem, had fallen Adam turned to Spike. The two looked at each other with fierce eyes before engaging in their own fight. Willow watched helplessly as Spike was tossed down like a rag doll, time and time again.
Willow whipped around, her eyes panicked. Her friends were all falling one by one...and what could she do? Nothing? No. The spell? Not yet...something told her to wait for the best moment..."the heat of the battle, when all is evened" the book had said. But her friends needed help now...
She looked about her more closely and seized a fallen branch, the closest remotely hard object near her. She took it, ran up and rather lamely pounded Adam on the back with it. He turned at her with a grimace and lashed out with one of the spearlike retractable bones in his arm. She yelped and jumped back. The blade barely grazed her cheek but drew blood.
She stumbled away as a vampire, drawn by the blood ran toward her. Spike kicked him suddenly from behind, sending him crashing down on a tree branch. With a cry, the beast was reduced to dust. She grabbed his arm and pulled him close to her.
"Look, I've a spell that may stop Adam...but I need you to keep the vamps and demons off of me until I can complete it, okay? I need to be in the middle of the action to perform it."
He had never heard her this firm, her voice this urgent. He nodded sharply, "be careful," he added.
"If I'm careful, we won't live," she snapped back. She sat down boldly in the center of the turned battlefield and carefully arranged five beautifully polished but dull and lifeless charms about her. She hesitated, then closed her eyes and began to slowly chant the incantation. The stones about her began to glow softly, then brightly. They slowly rose into the air, humming and spinning about her until they looked more like blurry lights than anything.
Her voice grew louder and louder in her mind and the battle scene about her was spinning or maybe she was spinning and quite suddenly the noise was completely blocked out.
She jerked forward and opened her eyes and saw a flash of brilliant white and felt a violent blast of heat on her skin. Someone screamed and then all went black.
***
Warmth. Something liquid and warm was slowly dripping down her brow. She opened her eyes slowly, hearing someone moaning and discovering it was herself. She gazed about at the carnage surrounding her and bolted up. Her friends...were they okay?
In panic, she managed to stand. She saw nothing but small piles of dust and badly mutated demon bodies, a good thing, but where were her friends? If she something had happened to them...she gasped as she came across a huge blown out section of the ground. There was nothing left but the grass and plants about it looked badly scorched. She smiled grimly to herself. Just as the book had described. The leader dead as well as the followers. The spell had worked and now Adam existed no more...
"Will, are you okay?"
She jumped at the sound of the familiar voice.
"Buffy," she cried, running over to her friend and hugging her tightly, "you're okay...I was so worried and I-" she stopped, unable to continue speaking.
Buffy smiled, limping and nodded, "I know, I feel the same way..." the two girls gazed over the dead demon bodies, stakes and other various weaponry and body parts laying around.
The Slayer gazed at the huge gap in the earth and looked at her friend, eyes wide, "Adam...you killed him?"
Willow shuddered, feeling something welling up deep inside of her. Buffy touched her arm, "I didn't mean to-"
At the edge of the scene, something suddenly stirred. Buffy reached for a nearby stake but Willow recognized the moan.
"Xander?" she looked at him, bruised and bloody but very much alive, "you're alive," she whispered happily, running over and embracing him and Buffy both. Then a thought hit her, "what about the other two? What if I killed them?!" Her voice was high and nearly hysterical, "I knew I shouldn't have done that spell! What if I-"
He shook his head firmly and looked at her, "You can't blame yourself. You did what you had to. And I bet they're fine. I just don't know...Buffy, woke me up with her talking..."
"But Spike and Oz?!" she persisted, pulling on his arm.
"I didn't exactly see much during my state of unconsciousness, but if Spike didn't make it, I guess that means we won't have much to look for..." he sighed heavily. Willow pulled away from him and stumbled across the clearing, her head buzzing.
A sudden, raspy cough startled her. She saw a figure slumped by a tree and ran toward it, leaving Buffy and Xander staring after her.
"Oz!" Willow shrieked. She ran over to him, tears in her eyes. He hacked up blood.
"Oh no, please, no..." she bent over him and gently rolled him over onto his back. He looked up at her and smiled weakly.
"Don't worry...no lung damage, just lots of nasty scrapes and bruises and badly cut tongue," he soothed, sticking it out slightly with a smile to show her.
She tried not to cry, feeling so much overwhelming relief to see him okay.
"I don't look that bad do I?" Oz joked softly. He lifted a hand hesitant then gently began to stroke her hair. Her tears of relief fell onto him but he didn't bother to brush them away.
"No, you look great," she finally whispered back. She closed her eyes briefly, feeling his fingers stroking her cheek. So familiar...so right. She felt momentary bliss. This was what she wanted, what she needed....
"G-d, Will, I love you," he said, emotion breaking through on his face.
She felt hot tears rolling down her cheeks and she gazed into his hazy eyes, "I love you too," she whispered softly, breaking down and kissing his hard on the lips, "I always will..."
Presently, she felt the eyes of someone else on her back. She slowly turned, blinking in the dark of early morning.
"Spike..." she whispered. But no regret struck her, just...guilt. She stood, gently stroking Oz's hair. He nodded and gestured toward Spike,
"Go to him," he croaked.
Willow nodded subconsciously and walked toward the vampire, her eyes wet with fresh tears that she couldn't explain. He gazed at her, looking deep into her. She stopped in front of him, head bent down.
"I'm sorry," she said simply. He nodded slightly and looked down with her.
"I...I just-" she began, feeling as though she should say something.
"No," he said softly, cutting her off, "don't explain. I know."
She nodded numbly and brushed the hot tears away. He hesitated, looking toward the horizon, "almost dawn, I've gotta go..."
"Go?" she repeated, "are you leaving?"
"Nothing for me here now," he said ruefully, "the Slayer's right..Sunnydale isn't my town. There's the whole world I've got to explore. Maybe I'll catch up with Dru, see how things went with that fungus demon..."
"But the implant-" she stuttered.
"Fuck it. I can manage, hey, I've put up with your damn Scooby gang long enough," he replied callously. He smiled at her and gently cupped his cold hand beneath her chin so that their eyes met, "I love you, Red," he said evenly. He hesitated a moment, eyes focused on her lips but finally he just took his hand away from her face.
She pursed her lips as he turned and slowly began to saunter away.
"Spike!" she cried out. He turned and gazed at her, "thanks," she said softly, not certain why.
He smiled slightly and nodded. Then he continued on his way, duster swishing behind him.
Willow watched him become smaller and smaller in her eyes, then eventually disappear, gone forever, perhaps, swallowed by the skyline.
Slowly, she walked back to Oz and helped him sit up so they could watch the sunrise together in silence.
Xander came up behind them and collapsed in a heap nearby, moaning in pain and exhaustion. Buffy joined him, not moaning quite so much about the pain but rather, Xander's complaints.
Will gazed around her with a small smile. The Scooby Gang. Okay, so some people were missing and perhaps that would be how it always was...but in her heart she felt only peace at the moment.
She closed her eyes and sighed contentedly, feeling the warmth of the blazing rising sun on her face...
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Oz said in her ear.
"Mmm..." she nodded, opening her verdant eyes and smiling as he held her close, "it is."
***
PS: Yes, sorry me again, ruining the feeble mood that I did/didn't manage to create. I had another small part to go after this to make it more conclusive. Should I add it? TELL ME! :)=