Everything either belongs to Joss or it should, no infringement is intended and no profit is to be made. When you get right down to it I'm not really worth suing anyway unless you want a share of an underpaid civil servants wages and it just wouldn't be worth the hassle trust me.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Island of Briole – Ecuadorian Coast – November 2004
The Scourge were highly regimented, well trained and fanatically motivated. Like the majority of demon associations and clans they hated humanity but unlike most others they were still prepared to adopt ideas from them in order to ensure victory. Their militaristic, not to say deliberately fascistic uniforms and organisational structure borrowed heavily from what was clearly the most praiseworthy human society they had witnessed over the years, and a willingness to use artefacts, especially techno-mystical Weapons of Mass Destruction, was a clear indication that they were rational and perfectly happy to abandon age-old tradition for the sake of achieving their goals.
Although not a threat on the level of Wolfram-Hart, or even Twilight who only really rated as a first class opponent in the wussier of the alternate Earths, the Scourge nonetheless were on a completely different level to most foes slayers had dealt with over the years. They had no archaic notions of chivalry holding them back and were rightly feared by all that had encountered them. Even the Circle of the Black Thorn treated them warily and tried to maintain as amiable a relationship as possible, they knew they could defeat the Scourge but it might take years and it would be expensive in terms of both blood and resources, frankly it was better for both groups to ignore the other so they did.
People fought back all the time, Scourge Soldiers fell in battle regularly but they easily replaced their losses and they always kept coming, never faltering from their righteous mission to purify demon-kind of the taint of humanity. They would ensure that when the final war to take back this world began that the demons that had lived and ruled here first would be uncorrupted and therefore victorious.
Well that was the plan anyway, reality as it often is was pretty far removed from there and all their ideological indoctrination, discipline and self-belief was frankly no substitute for the unpleasant truth that even the best soldiers can still be badly shaken and disorientated by a surprise attack and that more importantly it was bad policy to bring a knife to a gunfight.
The first of the Scourge to die had been chasing down a woman that had been trying to hide and were now making a desperate dash for the forest. The Commander had issued a well-received order that it was permissible to have some "fun" with the half-breed scum as long as you killed them afterwards and the soldier was spurred on by the opportunity that the female presented. He had nearly caught up on her when a black clad figure kneeling in nearby undergrowth suddenly popped up not ten yards away and shot him twice in the chest then once in the head with a silenced pistol dropping him like a stone.
The Lister female nearly ran into two more of the black clad figures and screamed before they could tackle her, one putting a hand over her mouth and the other flipping up the night vision goggles which had been concealing much of her face and putting a finger to her lips in the universal signal to be quiet.
Her facial features indicated she must have quite a lot of human DNA in the mix because she was barely recognisable as being of the Lister Clan and she gawped as more of the strangers started appearing, silently deploying into position to both left and right, the ones further away barely shadows in the deepening darkness than surrounded the glow given off by the burning township. The one holding a hand over her mouth released it once she stopped trying to struggle or make noise and the other one smiled and gave her a wink.
'Who are you?' the half-breed woman whispered, barely mouthing the words.
'Exterminators' the nearest replied. 'We heard you've got a Scourge Infestation' she said bringing up a small rifle and casually snapping a bayonet into place. She looked away and seemed to be listening to a muffled voice on a radio headset. 'Village is secure on all approaches' she announced quietly then listened again to a further transmission. 'They're only carrying melee weapons' she added, her smile broadening into a grin. 'Denise spotted the officer, she's going to take him down then we hit them hard.'
'Just like fucking Pylea in the glory days' the other said happily. 'Keep your head down or you might get it accidentally blown off' she advised the half-breed as the first girl lowered her night-vision goggles into place again. 'Oh Goddess I love my job' she said enthusiastically as she chambered a round and prepared to move.
Crawling along the beach nearby Denise stealthily reached an upturned rowing boat that was ideally placed as cover and rose to a squatting position behind it. A Scourge Commander, easily recognisable by his rank insignia was conversing with a trio of underlings whilst the rest of his troops searched through the remains of the buildings. Standing orders were to take any enemy officers alive for interrogation where practical and it was a great opportunity both to do that any try out the latest toy from Knox.
Denise unhooked a grenade from her belt and pulled the pin getting it ready to throw. The trigger mechanism was supposedly all fixed now after a couple of design failures and letting the lever spring away arming it.
A sudden burst of fire on the other side of the settlement indicated the second death of a Scourge Soldier that day as one practically tripped over a gunslayer that was moving into a firing position surprising both of them. The Commander's head snapped around just as Denise neatly pitched her grenade better than fifty yards right beside him who saw it land and opened his mouth to yell just before it went off. It wasn't half as visually spectacular as a nice Incendiary Grenade and nowhere near as noisy as high-explosive but it was very effective. A flash of electric blue light burst forth once a tiny explosive charge ruptured the casing and released the spell contained within.
An idea Illyria had bought with her from her original timeline the Neural-Intercept grenade was another triumph of techno-mystical hybrid weaponry, when it goes off every synapse in the brain of anything within roughly ten yards suddenly goes completely haywire, their entire nervous system suffers a sort of involuntary systems failure and after a burst of excruciating pain they hit the dirt unconscious though twitching violently as random neurons start to fire causing muscle-spasms. A few minutes after what Knox called the "blue flash of death" the brain would eventually "reboot" and the subject would regain consciousness with the mother of all migraines but otherwise unharmed except for the embarrassment of having likely soiled themselves.
'Open fire' Vi was already bellowing into her headset microphone as the grenade flew through the air. Nearly two dozen carbines and a single light-machinegun opened up in response the latter sending a stream of tracer fire ripping into the Scourge ranks as Charlotte scythed it left and right. It wasn't as accurate as the carbines and was more likely to jam but a two-hundred round belt of ammunition made it all worthwhile as far as the girl was concerned.
Hundreds of rounds tore through the air in the first few seconds and chopped nearly a third of the entire Scourge contingent to pieces before they even registered that things had just gone very wrong indeed. Those girls who hadn't fired used the distraction to move up closer and began throwing grenades of their own white-phosphorus this time as much for the psychological effect of the blinding flash and shower of sparks as the horrific damage they caused.
'Advance' Vi ordered into her headset microphone and the gunslayers started to move. It said much for the training and professionalism of the Scourge that they were already starting to recover from the shock of the attack and had scattered and dropped for cover where they could. Other demons might have considered it cowering in fear but in reality getting out of the way of automatic fire is merely good policy and it meant the opposition would have to get in close to clear you out, the only problem was that the girls coming for them had plenty of experience at clearing out demons that had gone to ground.
Bodies already littered the ground, the blood of slain Lister's now mixed with that of the Scourge as it soaked into the ground. The former had tried to protect their loved ones with machetes and farming implements and had failed against well-drilled troops with swords, and now the latter found themselves inordinately even more outclassed in the weaponry stakes.
Angel and Connor arrived just as a skirmish line of slayers began to move into the township, walking slowly carbines shouldered and firing short bursts to maintain their control of the situation. 'I think we should sit this one out' Connor stated as he watched one of the girls nearby giving cover-fire eject an empty magazine and reload her rifle, grinning maniacally as she did so and excitedly yelling "Woohoo!" as she started firing again.
'Good plan' Angel agreed wholeheartedly. Neither father nor son were usually the kind to sit back, Connor especially liked to throw himself into a fight at every opportunity, but they were both sane enough not to get in the way here. The gunslayers looked like they knew what they were doing and besides which there was an awful lot of supersonic lead being sprayed around.
The Scourge were built tough, nothing short of a head-shot would drop one immediately but the gunslayers were used to dealing with equally resilient foes on Pylea and practiced putting a full-auto burst through each opponent, their own superior strength making the control of the bucking weapon's recoil very easy as they advanced, smoothly gunning down anything in their path that looked hostile.
Such was the chaos of this kind of warfare however that it wasn't always possible to kill everything before it got close enough to be a threat and as Vi who was leading from the front rounded a corner a Scourge Soldier seemingly appeared from nowhere and swung a broadsword at her head. Superior slayer reaction times kicked in and she parried the blow away with her carbine, the impact knocking it away as she stepped back. Her opponent was trying for a second strike when Vi smoothly drew her pistol and shot him right between the eyes, her expression barely changing as she did so.
Her carbine lying on the floor clearly smashed and unusable Vi went old-school and unhooked her scythe from her backpack holding it in her left hand pistol in her right. 'You alright Chief?' a girl asked with concern.
'No I'm not' Vi replied. 'I signed for that rifle, they'll take it out of my pay' she joked. 'Come on gunslayers let's finish this!' she called out. 'Maintain fire discipline' she added, she didn't want anybody getting shot by their own side now that things were getting increasingly hectic.
By the time the Scourge Commander stopped twitching and regained consciousness it was all over bar the bayoneting of those of his troops who were either only wounded or playing possum, a short-lived cry of pain nearby caused him to open his eyes and he found himself looking up at several figures standing over him. One flipped up night-vision goggles to look him in the eyes, the fires of the burning huts providing enough light to barely do so. 'Slayers' he moaned, who else would a bunch of what were apparently teenage human females be?
'Well fuck me, it's the master race' the girl replied and with a vicious grin on her face bought the heel of her combat boot smashing down on his face breaking his nose and knocking several of his front teeth loose. Orders said to take him alive, completely undamaged wasn't part of the deal. 'Scourge faggot' she continued and gave him a couple more kicks in the ribs to keep him nicely subdued. 'Hey Chief, new grenades work' she told another slimmer girl who had just walked over, pulling off her helmet to reveal short red hair underneath. 'What do you want done with the other two here?' she asked, indicating the other two Scourge Soldiers that had been stunned by the Neural-Intercept Grenade and were now also showing signs of life.
Vi thought about it for a few seconds. 'They were here to slaughter everyone on the island including the children' she said eventually. 'When they can stand upright find some volunteers for a firing squad and put them up against a wall' she ordered.
The Commander coughed and spat out some of the blood in his mouth. 'You won't win' he gasped. 'We'll never give up' he declared, though he would have probably felt more confident about it if a couple of the girls hadn't started giggling in response before they tasered him and trussed him up with bailing wire.
Shadow Valley – California – November 2007
'All I'm saying is that yelling at Vi and Angel down the telephone wasn't all that constructive' Willow told Buffy calmly, trying to get the message across without causing another outburst of fury. Fortunately the door to Buffy's office was closed and the room was soundproof because she had really given the two of them a piece of her mind with plenty of volume backing it up.
'Dawn could have died' Buffy replied sharply. 'That portal thing wasn't tested, she went to an island full of killer demons, Angel had no right to ask her to do it and Vi shouldn't have gone along with it' she fumed.
'Dawn is an adult, it was her decision and it's not like they had a lot of time to think about it' Willow pointed out. 'They were already too late to save dozens of lives, what would you have done?' she asked rhetorically. 'I know you Buffy you would have snatched up your scythe and gone yourself because it's the right thing to do.'
'We're not talking about the cavalry arriving just in the nick of time to save the settlers like some old western' Buffy retorted, 'we're talking about my little sister' she said. 'She's like... she's like a part of Mom I still have left' she continued quietly. 'She should be here so I can look after her, not opening holes in the space-time whatchamacallit to go to warzones.'
'Continuum' Willow told her. 'And it's not like she got within a mile of any fighting' she noted. 'Dawn was probably in more danger most every week living on the hellmouth.'
Buffy scowled at her friend. 'Don't you go trying to rationalise this away' she said.
Willow sighed. 'Well at least you didn't yell at Dawn' she said.
'That took a lot of effort' Buffy admitted, 'especially when she told me she was just about to portal back to the island with a shipment of food and medical supplies' she continued. 'Yes I know that's a good thing but I know her and now she's playing with her new toy they'll be no stopping her.'
'So I guess Enyo gets what she wanted' Willow replied evenly.
'You mean "Pathfinder" or whatever the hell she calls it' Buffy responded. 'If it wasn't for that Scourge Commander squealing it was Wolfram-Hart that told them about the island I'd think it was all a set up' she said. 'I thought it was a little too coincidental that Illyria junior and her megalomaniac mommy happened to be away when someone needed a portal in a hurry but I guess the story ties together, what was it that Giles called it?' she asked.
'War by proxy' Willow replied. 'We're not fighting each other face to face but we're both backing others to do it' she said. 'We armed the Pyleans and so Wolfram Hart are helping out anyone that opposes us' she continued. 'If it wasn't for the heads-up we got via Drusilla, the first we would have heard about Briole would have been the Scourge counting coup that they wiped out the people Angel and his people once saved.'
'Your enemies enemy is your friend' Buffy observed. 'I just wish I was certain of some of our friends.'
Willow nodded. 'Well if it helps your faith in your suspicious nature I found out something just before I walked in on your phonecall that you might find interesting' she said. 'I think Illyria and Enyo are plotting just not the way you think they were.'
Buffy let her head slump. 'Okay Will, what's the news?' she asked.
'Well you know that now we're set up here you planned to go ahead with the idea of electing an Advisory Council of Slayers' she began.
'Right' Buffy replied.
Willow looked out of the window. 'Guess who's already put her name forward as a candidate?' she asked. 'Red hair, weird blue eyes...'
Buffy blinked. 'You mean Enyo' she responded. 'But she can't she's...'
'Not a slayer and therefore not eligible?' Willow interrupted. 'Okay you could argue that but Rebecca Wyndham-Pryce is a slayer and that's the name on the nomination form.'
'She's not human' Buffy pointed out.
Willow crossed her arms. 'She's got the slayer gene, she was activated, she's got a soul and she can wield a scythe' she noted. 'Her power is demonic but technically so is yours, taken from a demon and put into the first slayer by the Shadow-Men.'
'It is so not the same' Buffy contended.
'That's your opinion but the fact remains that unless we retrospectively changed the rules to specifically exclude her, her name is going to be on the ballot paper' Willow told her.
Buffy mouthed an obscenity then her expression shifted to a smirk. 'She still has to win enough votes' she said. 'What are the chances?' she asked rhetorically.
'Geez Buffy think of all the unsuitable people that have won elections' Willow replied evenly. 'She's already up and running on her campaign and it's clever because she's making a joke out of the issue that others will try to use against her' she said. 'That's how I knew about it, one of the girls was laughing about a poster someone had stuck on the notice board' she said. 'It looked just like a real Bush/Cheney one except it's got the crossed scythes logo instead of the Stars and Stripes in the corner.'
'What did it say?' Buffy asked.
'Rebecca/Enyo 2004' Willow replied. 'Why vote for the lesser of two evils?' she quoted.
Buffy laughed despite herself then grimaced. 'I've got this vision of Illyria hiring Karl Rove as an election advisor for her hellspawn' she said.
Willow rolled her eyes. 'Oh come on she's not that evil' she replied.
Note from the Author:
Sorry for the delay in this chapter and the fact it's a tad shorter than normal. I'm wrestling with writers block at the moment :-(
This chapter may get rewritten later when I get my muse back, I'm not sure it's up to my normal standard (which isn't necessarily too great to start with).