Chapter 12:
"Buffy, behind you!" I hear Satsu shout, and I throw myself backwards, smashing into a vampire that had been trying to attack me from behind. I whip around and kick it in the gut, sending it flying backwards into one of its buddies. I frontflip over the head of another vamp and twist around as I hit the ground, impaling the vamp with my stake. I'm pounding on another one before the one I just staked has a chance to disintegrate.
"B! Here!" Faith shouts, and I toss my stake to her. She plucks it out of the air and stakes her vamp with it, only to toss the stake to Kennedy when she calls.
We're doing another teambuilding exercize, because Giles doesn't feel that we're comfortable enough working together to go scouting out demon camps yet. Basically, we have to do patrol tonight, but we're only allowed to have one stake, so we have to all work together to keep each other from dying when only one of us can have the stake at a time.
Niko has the stake now, and she quickly kills two vamps in rapid succession while yet another one scratches me with its claws. I wince, but I turn around in a circle quickly and plant a back-spin kick in his gut.
"Niko!" Kennedy calls, and Niko tosses the stake to her. Kennedy loses her opportunity when she has to reach for the stake, however, because Niko didn't get it close enough. I see the vamp recover and go for Kennedy's neck. She's not watching the vamp, she's got her eye on the stake. Everything happens in slow motion. My right crescent kick knocks my vamp to the ground, and I take advantage of his condition to turn and run towards Kennedy. I throw myself into overdrive and I put on every ounce of speed I can muster.
I know I'm not gonna get there fast enough, so I shout out loud, surprizing the vampire just long enough for me to catch up and throw my arms around his middle in a bone-crushing, body-jarring tackle worthy of the NFL. Kennedy doesn't get the memo, however, because the next thing I know, I feel the stake stabbing into my leg as I fly by her, taking the vamp with me. I scream out in pain and clutch at the area around my neck.
I see the vampire recover from my tackle, so I rip the stake out of my leg and drive it through his heart. Blood is pouring out of the hole in my leg, and I have to bite back screams of pain as tears flow freely from my eyes.
"Buffy!" Faith screams. She picks up the vamp she's fighting and slams him down on a sharp branch on a tree, dusting him, then suddenly appears at my side. "Fuck!" She curses as she puts pressure on my wound.
"Fuck, Buffy! I'm sorry!" Kennedy says as she drops to my side. Satsu, Niko and Marian all rush over as well. Luckily, there seems to be a lull in vampire activity right now.
"Come on, we need to get her back to Slayer HQ." Faith says as she picks me up and starts running for the exit of the cemetery, the rest of them right behind us.
...
"Willow!" Kennedy calls out as she and Faith carry me into Willow and Kennedy's shared room.
"What's up?" Willow asks from the kitchen.
"Buffy got hurt!"
Willow doesn't even bother running. She just teleports into the room as Faith sets me down on the couch. I roll my eyes.
"Take the dramatics down a notch, guys." I groan. "It's just my leg. Now, if it was my stomach, or my heart, or a lung, then we'd have something to worry about. But it's just my leg."
Willow chuckles.
"Really, it's no big deal." She agrees. "I can just have the muscles reattach themselves to each other, then heal the epidermis, and she'll be good as new."
"Then do it already." Faith growls.
Willow chuckles again and heals me. It hurts like a mother fucker, but once she's done, I stand up to show them that I'm alright. Faith pulls me in and holds me tight.
"You never know, she coulda severed an artery or somethin', ya might've bled out."
"Or I could have gotten an infection and died a horrible death that way." I add sarcastically. But Faith doesn't catch the sarcasm.
"Exactly! Any number of ways you coulda died, Buffy."
I push Faith away. "Faith, I have survived far worse than a stake to the leg. Need I remind you that I got my own stake through my stomach once? I've been drained to the point of passing out twice by vampires, I've jumped off of a hundred-foot tower, been pummeled by a demonic cyborg, turned invisible by a sciency ray-gun type thing that would have turned me to slime if I'd stayed that way for long, pummeled numerous times by a hellgod, nearly eaten by a giant bug demon thing whose babies possessed my friends and mother, almost had the humanity literally burned out of my by a demon that no weapon forged could kill, placed under Dracula's thrall, and almost eaten by a giant worm demon. I think I can handle a stake in the leg."
"A stake?" Willow asks. "Then this was-"
"Friendly fire." I confirm. "It was an accident, though."
"But who-?"
"I did it." Kennedy answers, hanging her head in shame.
"You didn't notice me." I say. "I don't blame you."
"I do, though."
"Come on, Kennedy, it was an accident. It happens to everyone. I mean, I haven't told anyone but Faith this, but... I accidentally killed a human a while back."
"What?!" Willow shrieks, backing away.
"Willow, it was an accident. Just like when Faith killed Finch. It was an accident. I beat myself up over it for a long time, and I dealt."
Faith looks up at me. "Thought you said you still beat yourself up over it, B?"
I sigh. "Well, I mean, yeah, I still beat myself up about it, because, I mean, come on. I killed a human. But I do know that it was an accident, so his face doesn't haunt my dreams every night anymore. Some nights, yeah, but not every night. Kennedy, no one died, and my leg is fine now. Compared to some of the shit I've been through, this was nothing more than a flesh wound. It's not even going to scar."
"But still, if I'd been just a second faster I'd have staked the vamp before you-"
"No, if you'd been a second faster, you'd have gotten me in my back and punctured my heart or stomach. I'm glad you weren't a second faster, otherwise, we wouldn't have gotten back to Willow in time to heal me. Your strength has always been precision, not speed. Speed is my thing. Point is, I saved you, you didn't kill me, everyone's fine. We're Slayers, not gods. We're going to get hurt, we're going to make mistakes, and sometimes, those mistakes will cost lives. It's not good, it's really sad, but it's life. Without death, life wouldn't mean anything, what we do wouldn't mean anything. This time, no lives were lost, and that's good." Buffy put a hand on Kennedy's shoulder. "I know that we don't exactly always get along, and you pretty much hate me right now because I left five years ago, but I don't believe for a second that you stabbed me on purpose. It was an accident. Deal with it and move on."
Kennedy sighs and nods. "Okay." She agrees.
Faith stands up. "Look, Buffy, you can sugar coat it all ya want, but this is exactly why we're doin' these exercizes. If some shit like that happens when we're out on this mission or somethin', we're all dead. Every one of us knows it. Ken, you're a good fighter and all, but you know as much as I do that Buffy is the best Slayer we got. Not to mention, she was the last one to have the full power of the Slayer. That Kendra chick that came after Buffy only got half the power 'cause Buffy came back, and so I only got half of it, 'cause Buffy's got the other half. Buffy and me are the only two Slayers called by the normal way, everyone else is the result of some spell. Means Buffy and me are really the only true Slayers, so if one of us goes, we're in a bad spot, especially once we're ass deep in demons and vamps. You can't fuck up like this out there in the field. You do, and I'll kill you myself."
"You're just saying that. You wouldn't actually do it." Kennedy says. "Though, honestly, knowing how demons treat Slayers at their mercy, I think I'd actually prefer you to do it yourself."
Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but I just couldn't seem to get anything more to come out on it, so I guess this is kind of a filler chapter. Things'll pick up soon, though, if I can ever ditch this damned Writer's Block.