Chapter 25

Victoria ran up the stairs to her room, slamming the door closed behind her, even though she knew there was no one else in the house, which made the act futile, and more than a little childish. She was angry enough, though, that she really didn't care. She crossed the room to her bag, pulling it aside to reveal her recurve bow and its quiver of arrows. She strung the bow quickly, pulling the string taut, checking its tension and that the bow was not damaged during the long ride from Oakfield to Sunnydale. Satisfied, she pulled her long leather duster around her shoulders, sliding her arms down the sleaves. She pulled her dark hair out of it's messy ponytail and pulled it back tightly into a tighter one, making sure that there was no way her hair could fall into her eyes. She didn't need her vision to compromised, not today.

Victoria bent and tightened the laces on her boots, knowing that she would need to be stealthy in order to be able to avoid Angel becoming aware that she was following the gang. She picked up her quiver of arrows, counting how many she had. There were twelve. She made a mental note of that, before she slung the quiver over her shoulder, tightening the straps so that they were tight. She picked up her bow, and slid it into her quiver, reaching over her shoulder to make sure that it was secure. Victoria stretched her arms and legs, calming and centring herself, trying to push her anger at Angel and his over protectiveness to the back of her mind.

Feeling calm, or at least, calmer than what she was, Victoria picked up a couple of her stakes, and slid them into her belt, before moving towards the window. She pushed it open, stepping carefully out onto her balcony, glancing around at the darkened backyard of the mansion. Her senses were on overdrive as she climbed over the balcony railing, and stepped onto one of the tree branches. Victoria climbed down the tree, before she glanced around the yard, letting her senses go as she locked onto her sire. She grinned, before running off into the night.

BtVS BtVS BtVS BtVS BtVS

It didn't take long for Angel, Buffy, and the rest of the Scoobies to get to the same place that they had seen the Bantha demons. The remains of the fire were still there, the ashes still the same green colour. Glancing at their watches, they settled down to wait. Angel rolled his eyes and groaned when he saw Spike approaching him.

"Angel, we need to talk."

"Spike, we're about to face a dangerous demon, now is not the best time."

"Angel, don't be a poof, this is important." Spike growled his voice deadly serious. Angel sighed and walked away from the others so they were out of earshot.

"If you keep saying no to Victoria, she'll hate you, Peaches. You're pushing her away. She is ready, and if you don't start letting her come out with us, she'll go out alone, and be even more likely to end up hurt or dusted. Remember, she's been living by her own rules for the last hundred years or so, she hasn't had to obey rules, or listen to what anyone else has to say." Spike said. Angel sighed, and looked at his grandchilde.

"I know, Spike, but I can't, I can't let her get involved with this. It's like I go to say the words, and there is a lump in my throat and I can't talk."

"Angel, like she said earlier, she's been fighting demons and vampires for fifteen years. Fifteen years ago, you were living in alleyways and sewers feeding off rats and sulking, Buffy was running around in pigtails, Willow, Cordy and Xander were playing in sandboxes, I was living of two people a day and looking after Dru, and Giles was living with his head in a book, not that that's changed. What I mean is, by rights, she is the most experienced fighter out of all of us, against demons anyway. You should give her a chance."

"I know." Angel admitted.

"Angel, Spike, get over here. Now." Buffy yelled. They two vampires whipped around, jaws dropping simultaneously as the ground beneath the circle of Ashes cracked open, forcing the Scooby gang to back away as the earth seemed to crack open until there was a gaping whole in the ground, a bright green light shining from it. A large hand reached up from inside the hole, latching onto the side of the hole, followed by a second. The Piranha demon hauled itself out of the gaping hole in the ground, letting out a low roar.

The two vampires ran back to the group, standing beside their respective girlfriends as the rest of the gang raised their weapons. The demon looked down at them, and snorted, using his hand as a club to know Giles, and Xander to the ground. Giles hit his head on a gravestone and slumped to the ground, unconscious, while Xander groaned, winded.

Buffy threw her sword up at the demon, aiming for its vulnerable side, but the demon deflected the blow with its arm, knocking the sword away, with the weapon only leaving a very shallow cut on its arm.

"Damn" Buffy cursed as the demon swiped again, this time knocking Spike, Joyce, and Cordelia. Willow ran to Spike's side and helped him back up, while Cordelia and Joyce scrambled back fearfully. Xander got to his feet and staggered over to them, looking up at the demon's face.

"What do we do?" he asked Cordelia.

"I don't know, Xander. This is Buffy, Angel, and Spike's show. He's too fast for us."

"Agreed," Xander said as the demon swiped at the others, wincing as Spike pulled Willow back as she narrowly avoided getting scratched.

BtVS BtVS BtVS BtVS BtVS

Victoria hurried through the cemetery, stakes drawn, and senses alert. She had encountered two vampires, both newly risen. They had taken her no time to dust, and now she was following her sire's trail. She crested a large hill, and let her jaw drop. She could see the large Piranha demon, standing over the gaping hole in the ground that it had obviously crawled out off. She winced as the demon swiped at Cordelia and Joyce, knocking them down. She could see Giles sprawled on the ground beside a tombstone. She hoped he was only unconscious; she rather liked the stuffy Englishman. Victoria chewed on her lip as the demon swiped again at the gang, narrowly missing Willow. Her mind was churning with possible ways she could help. It could see the gang, and was using that to block any attempts they made of piercing the skin of its vulnerable area. Spike flung an axe at it, and the Demon easily caught the weapon, throwing it back at the vampire. Spike flung himself at the ground to avoid being beheaded. The axe hit a tree and embedded itself into the bark.

A sudden though came, unbidden to Victoria, and she grinned. Piranha demons have very high level of eyesight, but the rest of their senses were rather poorly developed. Eliminate its eyesight, and he was fair game.

Victoria pulled her bow from her quiver, double checking her string, before she plucked two arrows from her quiver. She notched the arrows, using her left had to separate the arrows as she held the bow horizontally.

"Hey, Pea brain," she yelled at the top of her voice. Startled the Piranha demon turned to face her.

Just as Victoria let go of the arrows.

Victoria grinned as the arrows whistled through the air, before embedding themselves into the Piranha demon's eyeballs. The demons roared in pain, raising both its hands to it eyes, trying to remove the deeply embedded arrows.

BtVS BtVS BtVS BtVS BtVS

The entire Scooby gang, with the exception of Giles, who was still unconscious, spun towards the noise when they hear Victoria's yell, and their jaws dropped in unison when they saw the small vampire standing on top of the hill, overlooking the scene, bow drawn, and arrows notched, then released. Their shock only increased when the arrows embedded into the Demon's eyeballs, effectively blinding him. Green blood seeped from his eyes and Buffy shook her head, pulling herself out of the shock, before grabbing Angel's axe from his lax grip, and hurling it home into the skin beneath the demon's left arm. The demon screamed in pain, before exploding into a mass of green blood and goop, effectively covering the gang, pulling them from their stupor. The largest pieces of the demon fell into the hole in the ground he had crawled out of, which glowed green, before closing over, like it had never existed.

"Oh, ewwwww. I knew there would be and explosion of green gore. This is going to take forever to get out of my hair." Cordelia gasped. Spike wrapped his arm around Willow protectively, before she pushed him off.

"Spike, you smell of demon innards." She teased. Xander laughed, before Cordelia smacked him in the arm.

"You don't smell so peachy clean either Xander." The cheerleader told him. Buffy and Joyce approached Giles, who was stirring on the ground. Angel, however, was walking up the hill towards Victoria, who had a sheepish expression on her face.

"Um, hi Angel," she nervously said.

"I told you to stay at home." Angel said, his eye's flashing gold.

"So much for getting a thanks-for-saving-our-collective-backsides" Victoria mumbled under her breath.

"You could of gotten yourself killed, Victoria."

"Angel, I was well and truly out of range. If you hadn't noticed, I do not have green goo all over me, unlike some other vampires here. There was no way he could have gotten his claws on me. Besides, between me yelling out, and then shooting him in the eye, then Buffy killing him, he didn't have time to claw me."

"You deliberately disobeyed me, Victoria."

"Angel, I lived by my own rules for a hundred years. I don't like having rules, not ones that I know are pointless."

"I know, Victoria, and I know that you're ready, it's just that, well, I don't want you to be hurt. Part of me, it still sees you as that helpless little girl that Angelus pulled into that Alley and hid from the men her father had sent after her, the one with her neck cut open"

"That girl hasn't existed in a long time, Angel."

"I know, but she still lives on in my head, especially if Angelus has anything to do with it."

"Angel! Victoria! Little help, please," Willow yelled from the bottom of the hill, causing both vampires to whip around. Obviously the fight had been watched, because there were now twenty or so Bantha demons approaching the group from the other side of the cemetery.

"Angel," Victoria murmured, tapping Angel's shoulder. Angel looked at Victoria, before he looked behind them, where another five stood, armed with spears and knives. Angel turned to face the ones that were close, drawing his sword as he turned. Victoria went behind him so they were back to back as she focused on the ones that were threatening the rest of the gang. She notched another arrow to her bow and raised it, shooting one of the demons down as they attacked.

She shot down five in quick succession as Buffy, Xander, and Spike, began to fight their way though the mass of demons. Cordelia had produced a crossbow from her handbag, and was shooting at the demons, while Willow threw little balls of fire at the demons. Victoria could tell, just by listening, that Angel had dealt with the five that he had been fighting as he turned around so he was facing the rest of the group.

Victoria fired one last time, shooting a demon clean through the chest, as a calm fell across the cemetery. The fight was over. Giles staggered to his feet, having been protected by Joyce, who was carrying a crossbow like Cordelia. Angel led Victoria down the hill.

"Neat work with the arrows in eyes thing, that was cool. Could you show me how to do that?" Buffy was grinning, reassured that her watcher was alright.

"I don't know, how long have you got, Buffy?" Spike grinned

"Why does that matter?"

"Victoria's been shooting arrows since she was what, ten, maybe eleven. We're talking Human years here as well.

"I was Seven, actually, Spike. Don't worry Buffy; he's just still sore that I beat him when we were playing archery one time."

"You were twelve years old. How would you feel if you're best friend's twelve year old sister beat you at archery."

"Obviously the boys didn't tell you that I've been beating them since I was ten."

"Those bastards." Spike cursed, scowling. Willow took one look at him, and giggled.

"Aww, poor Spikey." She laughed.

"Could we go home now? I think some tea would stop everything from spinning, though maybe not." Giles said, clutching his head and swaying slightly. Buffy moved to her Watcher's side, sliding herself under his arm, while Joyce took his other side, and they led the way from the cemetery as the Scooby gang slowly made their way back to the mansion.

A.N. Yay, finally the action scene that I promised. I hope you enjoyed it. The next chapter should be up next Friday, though I might need to change my update day to Saturdays because I go back to school on Monday (after six months off, gah) On the same note, updates might slow down a little, but I will try to update as often as I can.

Reviews also encourage more frequent updates.

R.W.