CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

You can't hurt me!

It didn't take Michael long, after finding the dead body of the potential in Stacy's room and seeing that Faith's transponder was getting further away, to realize that things were going from bad to worse. He wasn't sure what had and was happening, but he suspected that The First was involved somehow.

With the possibility of a confrontation with The First, he needed to get his equipment first rather than take off after Faith. He sprinted back to the computer room to extract Adriana's storage module and inserted her back in his helmet. He made another quick stop to grab his weapons as he brought Adriana up to speed on the unfolding situation. He grabbed his MA5 and the plasma pistol and then doubled-timed it to the vehicle bay. The transponder was getting further out of range, which didn't leave him any time to stop and explain to anyone what was going down—it was all happening too fast.

He made his way quickly across the vehicle bay towards the tarp covered vehicle and quickly pulled off the tarp. He was greeted by the vehicle he had built several years ago. It looked and performed very similar to the Warthogs he was used to, but used this dimension's available technology. He had hoped to get a mini-gun mounted in the back, but had never gotten around to it. He didn't hesitate as he jumped in and started the vehicle. Adriana was already opening the loading bay door and the outside security gate remotely. He peeled out of the loading bay and headed for the security gate and road, catching a glimpse of Buffy and Willow as they came rushing into the vehicle bay.

"Adriana… Send Buffy a message and let her know what's happening. Let her know that Stacy has probably taken Faith and that I'm in pursuit." Michael said quickly as he navigated the Warthog and tried to get re-familiarized with her road handling.

"Yes Michael." replied the always reliable Adriana.

As he sped down the road trying to catch up with Faith's transponder signal, Adriana spoke urgently, "Michael… I was able to find the uncut footage of that video that was sent to you. There's something you should see."

"I don't think this is the time for it." Michael said grimly as he tried to concentrate on his driving.

"It's important." Adriana said and he could hear the urgency in her voice.

"Okay… Go ahead." he said with a sigh not really wanting to view again the video of Faith with those other men as it was burned into his memory.

The video display came up again on his helmet display. It was a challenge watching the video and keeping an eye on the road, but if Adriana considered it important, Michael knew that she wouldn't waste his time on something frivolous.

This time the video started off by showing two men carrying in a clearly intoxicated and barely conscious Faith into a room. There were three other men waiting and they all started laughing as the two men carrying Faith explained how they had picked her up at some seedy bar and after giving her a few "special" drinks they were able to bring her for the video session. Michael had to tell Adriana to stop the video as the men started to undress Faith as his rage was building and was distracting him from his driving.

"Those sons of bitches!" he muttered angrily. He wanted to kill all those bastards in the video for what they had done to her.

"Just so you know Michael … I have identified all the men in the video and have made sure that their electronic records are trashed. They will be having some interesting times with the IRS and FBI for the next few years … Also the company that produced and hosted the video has just had a problem with its financial records is scheduled for a forensic audit by the IRS … I don't think some of their more 'colorful' financial backers will be too happy with this type of investigation." Michael could hear the self-satisfying tone in Adriana's voice as she explained how she had extracted her pound of flesh.

"Thanks Adriana … Have all copies been erased or destroyed?" he asked feeling some small measure of satisfaction at the revenge being taken on those men.

"I have deleted all electronic copies. I have also written a Trojan program, so that if any copy of the video is ever uploaded to any computer network it will be deleted." Adriana replied with a sense of self-satisfaction.

"Thanks Adriana. I mean it … I don't know what I would do without you looking out for me."

As he said it he felt the sadness well up as he knew that he would soon have to find out what life would be like without her.

"Just do what you always do … Go save Faith." Adriana replied.

Michael pushed down harder on the accelerator and tried to catch up with Faith.

oOoOo

Stacy drove the car up to the area where the entrance of the Hellmouth used to exist. The sun had set and darkness was upon the area. As she pulled up, the headlights of her car lit up the area and she saw a large number of vampires gathering. She exited the vehicle and looked around wondering what was going on.

"They're here to provide some protection." a female voice said from behind her.

Stacy spun around and was greeted by The First who was now using the image of Kylie. She was shocked and felt a wave of anger build as The First used the image of her former comrade and friend that she had murdered as a blood offering. Stacy pushed those feelings aside and would deal with that later as there were more important matters to deal with.

"Why do I need protection? I'm stronger than a Slayer." Stacy said questioningly and getting a little suspicious of The First's motives.

The First gave her a serious look, "The Spartan is coming…"

Stacy's eyes opened wide at the mention of Michael. "How? How did he find out?" she said in disbelief.

The image of Kylie shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I don't know, but he is coming fast. You don't have much time."

Stacy started to have some doubts, "Maybe I should just kill Faith now and it will be over?" she said.

"NO!" yelled The First. "Faith and that bastard child must be thrown into another dimension."

Stacy's doubts were surfacing and she was about to question The First when it screamed at her, "YOU SERVE ME! YOU WILL OBEY ME!"

The First could have had Faith easily killed at any time, but that was not its plan. The First wanted to cause Michael as much pain as possible as revenge for everything he had done to thwart its plans. By killing Faith, Michael would suffer sadness and sorrow, but humans had a damned way of eventually coping with or overcoming loss. If Faith and their child were lost in another dimension, the Spartan would know despair and helplessness and would continue to look for them—his pain would never go away—knowing that they could be alive and out there somewhere. The First wanted the Spartan to suffer and keep on suffering.

The First calmed down slightly and smiled at Stacy, "The ceremony has already been started to open the dimensional portal … I have picked a particularly hellish dimension for Faith and her child to spend the rest of their lives in."

The smile on the image of Kylie took on an even more sinister look as it thought of what lay in store for Faith and her unborn child.

Stacy had no choice in the matter as she was committed now and Michael was on his way here. She moved to the trunk of the vehicle and popped it open. Faith was just starting to regain consciousness as Stacy dragged her roughly out of the trunk and shook her.

"Stand up bitch! You're time here is coming to an end." Stacy taunted.

Faith continued to try and regain her focus and as she did, she saw that things weren't looking too good for her. She recognized that they were standing where the entrance of the Hellmouth had been and that there were vampires surrounding them, but the most troubling sight was seeing Kylie. Faith now understood how Stacy was stronger than her—she was working with The First.

Faith could see that she was in a bad situation, but as she studied Stacy and the vampires looking for an opportunity to exploit, she thought she could detect an undercurrent tone of worry and maybe even fear. There was only one person on this planet that could cause that much fear in such a large group.

"Michael's on his way here … Isn't he?" Faith said smirking at Stacy and the image of Kylie.

That got everyone's attention and Faith knew that she had to play for time.

"Michael is so going to kick all your asses and kill all of you … Especially you Stacy." Faith taunted.

"Shut up whore!" Stacy ordered.

Faith ignored Stacy as she continued to stall and play for time, "I mean… You're seen Michael angry before, but I mean this time it will be ugly. I think it might be Old Testament wrath of God type anger." Faith started to smile and laugh.

"SHUT UP BITCH!" Stacy screamed and slapped Faith across the face.

"Enough!" yelled The First. "She's trying to stall … Get her to the circle. It's almost time!" the image of Kylie said.

Stacy dragged Faith to the circle drawn into the ground and where two vampire priests were kneeling besides it and mumbling some sort of chant. Faith tried to fight Stacy's powerful grip as she was dragged towards the circle, but Stacy was just too strong and Faith was still feeling the effects from the blow to her head.

oOoOo

Michael drove like a madman through Sunnydale. It took all his quick reflexes to avoid traffic and pedestrians and keep the Warthog from flipping at the speeds he was driving. He had Faith's IFF transponder on his tracker and his NAV system was giving him a range to it. As he made his way through Sunnydale, he suddenly realized where they had taken Faith—the Hellmouth. As he quickly closed the distance, red hostile targets started popping up on his sensors—a large number of hostile targets. He pushed harder on the accelerator to try and get more speed and close the distance.

The vampires guarding the ritual area saw the lights of a vehicle approaching them at a high speed. They were at first a little puzzled, but that quickly turned to alarm as they realized that the vehicle wasn't going to stop or slow down. The realization of who was approaching sent a chill through the vampires, but they did not run as they had sworn themselves to serve The First.

Michael didn't even consider slowing down as he literally hit a group of vampires that were guarding the area around the Hellmouth. He hit and ran over or sent flying about five vampires. The rest scattered and he drove on to the empty lot where the rest of the hostiles and Faith were located. Michael saw Faith being dragged by Stacy and another female barking orders and directing the vampires—that had to be The First. He drove through the area at high speed and as he passed through he hit the brakes and spun the wheel to turn the Warthog quickly back around. As the vehicle turned quickly, Michael could feel two of the vehicle's wheels start to leave the ground. He quickly countered by leaning the opposite direction, using his weight to try and compensate to keep the vehicle from rolling. He felt the wheels hit the ground and grip and the 'Hog' shot back the way he'd come running over and knocking aside more vampires.

Faith continued to struggle against Stacy as she was being dragged by Stacy. She saw Michael driving a strange looking vehicle through, hitting and running over vampires. She watched as he sped through again running over more vampires and as he tried to do another sharp turn to circle back, she could only watch in horror as the vehicle started to flip and roll.

oOoOo

Michael passed through the area again and knew that he had to get out of the 'Hog' to help Faith and deal with The First. He made another sharp turn and could feel once again the wheels leaving the ground, but this time he used his weight to go with the roll. As the Warthog started to roll—he leapt out. He noted with some grim satisfaction as the rolling Warthog crushed two more vampires that failed to get out of the way in time.

Michael hit the ground standing and had his MA5 assault rifle out in one quick smooth motion. There was no delay or hesitation as he picked out the closest vampires and fired short bursts into their faces. He moved quickly towards Faith, Stacy and The First.

Faith heaved a huge sigh of relief as she saw Michael leap from the rolling vehicle landing safely. She noted with immense satisfaction as Michael moved towards her taking out more vampires, but Stacy was still dragging her towards the ritual circle where the vampire priests were still chanting to open the dimensional portal. She continued to fight and struggle against Stacy's powerful grip on her to slow or delay their approach to the circle.

Michael had either killed or scattered the vampires that were closest to him. He saw Faith being dragged by Stacy and saw the other female figure standing by some sort of ritual circle. He shouldered his MA5 on his back and pulled the Covenant plasma pistol off his hip. He could feel his pulse slow down and everything around him start to move slower as his "Spartan Time" kicked in. Now that he was in that zone, he could feel his anticipation grow as he could plan and pick out his movements along with determining and prioritizing the threats. He knew that he would only get one chance at the First and then he would have to quickly take out the rest to save Faith.

"Get ready Adriana..."

He was slightly surprised as he saw a dimensional portal begin to form around where two vampires were kneeling and Stacy was dragging Faith to—he wasn't going to have much time at all. He could only hold down the plasma pistol trigger for a maximum of 20 seconds to overcharge before the pistol would automatically discharge to prevent the pistol from overloading and blowing up. Michael pressed and held the pistol trigger. He could hear the pistol begin to hum and see the green plasma charge build up.

The First watched the Spartan approach closer and pull out a strange looking weapon. It saw the portal forming and Faith being dragged closer to the circle. The First was not worried, as nothing could harm it—it was eternal, but something didn't feel right and it felt something it had never felt before. The First found itself starting to back up slightly. It didn't even consider leaving, it wanted to be here to witness its triumph over the Spartan and it wanted to gloat and enjoy this moment.

Even though The First was feeling caution and wariness as the Spartan moved closer, it couldn't help but taunt him, "You can't expect to hurt me with a glowing green light…"

"With this … No…" Michael replied releasing the trigger and feeling the weapon release its plasma charge.

Faith, Stacy and the vampires still around were all momentarily stunned as they saw a bright green ball of fire move at high speed towards The First. They all saw the ball of fire pass through The First and hit the forming dimensional portal.

Michael saw the plasma charge pass through The First and hit the opening dimensional portal. He had known that was a possibility due to The First's positioning, but it was the only shot he had and he had no choice. Michael along with the others saw as the plasma shot hit the forming portal, causing it to quickly expand and destabilize—what looked like lightning streaks of energy shot out of it. The plasma charge was interacting with the dimensional portal and not in a good way, but he didn't have time to worry about it.

Adriana was monitoring the situation and as soon as the plasma charge had passed through The First, she started scanning the fluctuations in its EM field and adjusting the energy shield on Michael's battle armor to bring into the required alignment. Adriana noted in satisfaction as she matched the shield frequencies and polarized the shield to activate.

"Michael! You're good to go! You've only got one minute!" Adriana cried out.

Michael didn't waste a second and sprinted towards The First.

The First saw the Spartan running towards it after the strange green ball of fire had gone through it, but it wasn't worried as nothing could harm it. Even though the shot had done no harm, The First felt strange—it had never felt like this before.

The Spartan was now facing it and The First laughed off the Spartan's feeble attempts to fight it. The First saw the "113" on the Spartan's armor and noticed the smaller winged eagle symbol with the letters "UNSC". The First was still smiling as the Spartan drove his fist through its face…

oOoOo

Faith watched with extreme satisfaction as she saw Michael drive his armored fist through the head of The First. She saw Michael pull his hand from the head and then give the remains of the head a good twist to make sure that The First was dead.

As this was happening, she heard Stacy howl in rage and pain, she quickly realized that the Potential must have been connected to The First somehow and was feeling its death. Faith suddenly felt the iron grip on her weakening and she struck back catching her captor across the face. Stacy was rocked backwards from the blow and was now bleeding from her nose.

"Not so strong now… are you BITCH!" Faith said with a mix of satisfaction and pent up anger. She struck again landing more blows on Stacy causing her to stagger backward.

Michael looked down at the remains of The First and it was quite evident that whatever The First was, it looked quite dead now. He quickly refocused on Faith's situation and looked up and saw with satisfaction that she was striking back and getting in some good shots on Stacy. It was apparent that whatever power that The First had given her was now fading. Michael suddenly realized that there was now a newer and more immediate problem—neither woman was paying any attention to the dimensional portal that had been hit by the plasma charge.

The portal was rapidly destabilizing—it was expanding and contracting to different sizes. The surviving vampires were now fleeing in terror as they saw the Spartan "kill" The First and the now out of control dimensional portal. The only ones closest to the destabilizing portal were Faith and Stacy as they continued fighting and struggling with each other. Michael started to cry out to warn Faith to move away from the portal when it suddenly expanded—engulfing and swallowing both women.

He saw the women disappear in a flash in the expanding portal. As if that wasn't bad enough, it now appeared that the portal was now closing after taking them. Michael didn't hesitate. He sprinted towards the quickly closing portal and at the last moment dove through it as it closed—leaving behind a quiet and empty field.