Author's Note: Spiraling away from Spiral here, though I still borrow a couple of stray phrases. Take a look at what isn't happening.
Disclaimer: Daria, Buffy, the original characters: Glenn, Joss, me.
X X X X X
Faith ducked down as more arrows came flying in.
B yelled, "Willow!"
Willow, with Tara looking over her shoulder, was flipping through a book of spells. "Working on it!" she yelled.
Meantime, B and Spike shoved some kind of machine against the door. Faith picked up the hammer and tossed it to B when she was done, then got her souvenir flail. The Doc moved behind the counter, with Xander's help. Then he and Anya hit the floor, too.
There were chopping sounds from outside. "They're tryin' to break down the windows!" Faith yelled, and yanked Dawn away from one of the outside walls. Right after, an axe came through the boards about a foot from where Dawn had been. Faith grabbed the axe and jerked it from whoever was on the other end, then tossed it near Xander. He picked it up.
"Coulda been you instead of the window," Faith said as she threw the axe. "Stay back." Dawn gulped and moved back with Giles and the rest.
Another knight was attacking B. Spike punched the guy, then yelled and started holding his head. But that gave B her chance, and she took it.
B had it under control there, Willow and Tara were still working on their spell, and everyone else was trying to stay down, so Faith took the flail and started pounding away at every hand and weapon she saw. They managed to collect two more axes and some kind of mace that way, and she was fairly sure she'd broken a couple of hands as well.
Unfortunately, she couldn't be everywhere at once, and another knight smashed through, closer to B than her. Older man. He stopped as soon as he saw B, pointed his sword over at Dawn, and said, "The Key" in one of those voices that make you realize the person's never not taken anything seriously.
B charged him and hit the sword with the hammer as hard as she could. It smacked into the gas station floor. While the guy was distracted with B, Faith came over and bopped him over the head with the business end of the flail. He went down like a bag of wet sand.
By now, the witchy pair had figured something out. Willow's eyes went black and scary and she chanted, "Enemies, fly and fall. Circling arms, raise a wall." Then she lifted her arms and light spread out from them. Faith ducked, but the light didn't bother her at all. Once it was past, she looked outside. About a dozen knights were getting up and dusting themselves off, while a couple others started pounding on Willow's force field.
Faith raised her eyebrows. "Nice job, Red," she said.
Willow seemed surprised by the unexpected compliment, but before she could say anything B asked her, "How long will it hold?"
"Maybe half a day," she said, then came over to look out the window. Whatever she saw, she wasn't too happy about, "Or till Heckle and Jeckle punch a hole through it."
The Doc stood up and asked the obvious question, "Who are these people?"
"They call themselves the Knights of Byzantium," B said bitterly. "They want to stop Glory -- but instead of doing it the hard way, they just figure they'll kill Dawn and call it a day."
"Because she's the Key," the Doc said. "I get it, now."
"How did you know that?"
"When Cameron Kim mentioned it back in Mr. Harris' apartment," the Doc said, "Dawn was scared -- and scared for herself. Don't worry. Miss Kim didn't seem to notice. I think she was a bit too busy being thrown against a wall to notice much of anything else right about then. And I'm not going to tell her."
"I didn't think you would," B said. Then she went over to look over the knight Faith'd knocked out earlier. "Good job," she said when she stood up. "You hit him just hard enough."
"What do you think I am, an amateur?" Faith said. "I figured you'd either wanna ask him questions are use him as a hostage. Anyway, I gave up that whole killin' people thing."
"So far, so good," B said.
"I doubt very much they'll negotiate," Giles said, struggling to stand up. The Doc went over and made him sit down again.
"Then that leaves door number one," B said. "We interrogate him. So, let's get him nice and secure, slap him awake, and find out exactly what this bastard knows."
X X X X X
Cameron Kim looked up from tearing out the knight's throat to see at least a few dozen others bearing down on her from one direction -- some them starting to raise bows -- and the RV and Dr. Vaughn's car disappearing in the other.
She immediately shifted back into pronghorn form and ran after the Winnebago. Before she got very far, though, she began to feel arrows come whistling past her. Shit. If she stayed on the road, she'd be an easy target.
So she veered off into the desert, zigzagging as best she could. A look behind her showed a couple of knights starting to chase after her, but they were held back by one of the others (Pronghorns had excellent eyesight -- much better distance vision than humans.) That they didn't chase after her didn't mean they didn't send arrow after arrow in her direction, not stopping until she was a good half mile off the road and they couldn't see her any more.
Cameron stopped to catch her breath, and looked around. Far off in the distance, she could see a building -- and it looked like an RV was parked behind it where it couldn't be seen from the road. It must have broken down
The knights, by this point, were certainly keeping an eye out for any animals, or people, who appeared out of place -- or probably, even those who looked like they belonged in the middle of California. She didn't dare try to sneak up as a mule deer or mountain lion, making the assumption that the knights would probably shoot first and ask questions later.
She wasn't angry at the Slayer, or even Daria Morgendorffer, for not coming back for her. Self-preservation was the name of the game, and if they'd tried to rescue Cameron they could have been caught or killed themselves.
Still, it did leave her with something of a practical problem: She was alone in the middle of nowhere, without so much as a canteen -- and her cell phone was still in her purse, in the car. She'd never get close enough to it, not with those knights around.
Which meant her only way out of here was a long and arduous journey over the land -- and her animal forms weren't much better suited for that than she was.
Speaking of which: The knights seemed to have figured out that the Slayer and her friends were holed up in there. They quickly ranged themselves around the front of the building and started shooting arrows inside.
A few of them moved around the back, though they satisfied themselves with a quick look through the car and trailer. Cameron guessed they figured the people trapped inside weren't going anywhere.
Unfortunately, without the people trapped inside, neither was she.
She was going to have to try to help them escape.
How, was the question.
X X X X X
Daria came to in the middle of an abandoned building of some kind. Everyone who'd left on the road trip out of Sunnydale was there, except for Cameron Kim. Willow and Tara were studying a book of some kind. Dr. Vaughn was looking at Giles' shoulder, which appeared to be bandaged up. Dawn simply looked scared. "Faith does this on purpose. I know she does," she said.
Buffy said, "Huh?"
"It's like we're playing a game of can-you-top-this. I summoned her, last time, as we were moving down the road at a pace slightly greater than a snail's. Her response is to bring me out again in the middle of this abandoned building. Which, if I'm correct, was not actually our destination."
"We could do without the sarcasm," Buffy said.
"Sorry. It builds up inside me. I have to let it out at periodic intervals, or I'll explode, leaving shards of cynicism all over the place that would be sharp enough to fell a bull elephant. I have too high a regard for humanity to allow that to happen." Buffy's expression grew even more irritable. "And on that note, what's going on here?"
Buffy told her. "It appears my timing was perfect, then," Daria said. "Faith was a good deal more useful during that fight than I would have been." Daria had confidence in her abilities, but she would have balked at climbing onto the roof of a moving Winnebago. Faith apparently hadn't had to think twice. "So if we're still under siege, why call me in? I'll do my best when the shield collapses, but --"
"Because the shield isn't going to come down for several hours yet," Buffy said. "Faith brought down their leader when he broke into the building a couple of hours back, and we've been grilling him ever since."
"Did you obtain anything useful?"
"Unless you consider a sneering attitude about how killing my sister is really the will of god and would be for the benefit of all mankind, so not only should we not be resisting them, we should be doing it ourselves, no."
"I suspect," Daria said, "That if God truly wanted someone dead he could do it more directly than by sending a lynch mob of renaissance fair rejects."
"True. Also doesn't help us a whole hell of a lot. Faith decided to bring you out because right now we need your brains more than we need her fighting skills." Hmm. Faith was smart; Daria knew this. So either Faith had told them that for some reason, or that's why Buffy thought Faith did it. Didn't matter. She was here either way. And, she supposed, a different perspective couldn't hurt.
"How many knights are out there?" Daria asked.
"At least three dozen, no more than fifty. Way too many for us to be able to fight our way out, even, if we were at full strength."
"So we're looking for alternatives to a quixotic last stand."
"Desperately," Buffy said.
Daria thought. "Since they want Dawn, is it possible they'd stop if she weren't here?"
"You're thinking teleportation?" Willow asked. Daria said she was. "No. I don't have that kind of directional control yet. And we couldn't get her anywhere near a safe distance away."
"Being a mile out in the desert, or even a mile up, up the road, wouldn't be, you know, much better than where she is now," Tara said.
So that avenue was out. "Is the shield completely impermeable?"
"Yes," Willow said a little irritably.
"Calm down," Daria said. "I was thinking of the way you phrased the spell -- that enemies were to fly and fall."
"So, your idea was that we go out and throw things at them?" Buffy asked.
"That's one possibility," Daria said.
Willow said, "Good idea. But the only way anything's getting through the shield is if it comes down. Whether it's the two stooges out there doing it, or me."
"Does it have to be the entire shield?"
Frowning in thought, Willow said, "No. I can open doorways and close them again. Fairly quickly, too."
"They're ringing the whole place," Buffy said. "Most of them are out front, but there are enough around back that we couldn't sneak out."
"I hadn't thought about that. Too bad. It would be quite a surprise for them if they waited for the shield to come down and found out we weren't here any longer."
"So, what's your thinking?" Buffy asked.
"What I'm thinking is, why should we let the two priests try to disintegrate Willow's shield? Let's go out there, have Willow open a hole and we can pull them inside. Then we can render them unconscious. If nothing else, that'll give us at least as much time as takes for the shield to fall on its own, which should be . . ."
"At least another eight hours, give or take," Willow said.
"How big do these doorways have to be?" Buffy asked.
"What did you have in mind?"
"Arrow slits," Buffy said. "Give us a way to throw things at them while making it hard for them to throw back."
"That, that would work better if we had anything to throw at them." Tara said.
From the back of the room, Dr. Vaughn said, "We have the entire contents of a Winnebago. And whatever's in my trunk."
"Do you really think throwing a spare tire or a frying pan will cause an armored knight much damage?" Giles asked.
"It's better than the non-damage we're causing them right now," Buffy said.
"If we denude the two vehicles of everything capable of being thrown," Daria said, "They're going to figure out we're up to something."
"Yeah," Buffy said, "But I'm betting that won't be the first thing they think of. They're more likely to think that we're setting up for a long siege, not getting ready to chuck frying pans at their skulls. Well, Will?"
"I'm not sure," Willow said. "I can try, and if it doesn't work, we can move on to something else."
"In the meantime, I like Daria's suggestion about disabling the priests. Worst-case scenario, they back off, but if they back off, they won't be trying to bring down the shield. While we're out there, Will, you can try the arrow slit idea."
"So, that helps us in the short run," Dr. Vaughn said. "What about the long run?"
"I'm still working on that," Buffy said.
"Maybe we could call for help," Daria suggested.
Right then, Spike walked into the room. "General destruction back there still isn't saying anything useful," Spike said. "I had to stuff the gag back into his mouth to get him to shut up. He says one more think about what a great idea it'd be to kill the bit, I'm gonna kill him, I don't care how fucking big a headache I get. And calling for help. Great idea. You expect the Knights of Byzantium to come rushing to our aid? Only one out there likely to be even halfway on our side is that Kim bint, and that's assumin' she's not halfway to Los Angeles by now."
"I wasn't suggesting we scream," Daria said. "Dr. Vaughn, did you bring your purse?"
"Yes," the psychiatrist said, grinning. "And I think I know where you're going." She reached into it and pulled out her cell phone.
"And who are you suggesting we call?"
"How about Angel?" Giles asked. "I realize he and Wesley and Cordelia might not be able to do much damage, but --"
"I actually hadn't been thinking Angel," Daria said, "Though I suppose it can't hurt. Here's my reasoning," Daria said. "Here we are. Ten innocent people, out for a drive in the country, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a gang of heavily armed men attacks us. One of us is injured, and our RV is damaged, but we somehow manage to reach the shelter of this gas station when they surround us. And now, here we are, waiting for them to make their next move -- and it's terrifying how they're just sitting there, waiting."
"Is there a point to this little revisionist fable of yours?" Spike asked in an annoyed tone.
"Patience, grasshopper," Daria said. "My point is, and forgive me if this violates an unwritten rule of being a Slayer, but I was thinking we might use Dr. Vaughn's cell phone to call the police."