A/N: Chapter 27 is here, I know its a little short but I hope you like it anyway. Don't forget to leave a review and tell me what you think because it really makes me smile! Any typos are mine. Well, enjoy!
Carpe Noctum
Chapter 27
Gunn, Lorne, Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Wesley round a corner running from Golden's gang when they run straight into another mob in the process. They look up and the people part, making way for Faith to step up.
"Hello again, children. I believe you've met my friend." Faith says with Jasmine's voice. Gunn's chest aches to see Faith on the other side and under Jasmine's control.
"Okay is it me or does that get creepier and creepier every time it happens." Xander questions, shivering at the wiggins he feels coming on. As if Jasmine and her maggot face wasn't scary enough.
"Oh its not just you, trust me." Cordelia informs him before taking a few steps back. She wants to be as far away as possible, like different city away or different country away.
"This way!" Willow shouts, pointing toward a tunnel in between the two they're running from. She's a fan of not dying, so through the middle passage it is.
xxxxxxx
Buffy dodges a swipe of the demon's pincer and kicks out, hitting the demon in the chest. She tries to focus all her attention on its movements, using that useful stuff Giles used to teach her and train her to be so good at. She delivers a hard blow to the demons head but it gets up and throws Buffy across the room causing her back to slam against the stone wall. She scrambles to her feet just in time for the creature to scurry over to Angel as he stands in front of Dawn and run its pincer through his gut. Wesley pulls Dawn out of the way as Angel slumps to the ground.
"Angel!" Buffy shouts fearfully as Angel's body hits the ground.
"Little mice. They always soft inside." the creature says smugly. Buffy picks up Angel's sword and charges the creature, stabbing it's arm and cutting off part of the demon's pincer.
"Wretched little—" the demon screeches, ripping the sword out of Buffy's hands and hovering over her with it. "Time to go dead, mouse." it coos, bending down to stab her. Thats when Wesley charges the demon, slamming all his weight into the creatures side, but the demon quickly knocks him away. "Wait your turn, talky!"
While the demon yells at Wesley, Angel picks up the pincer Buffy cut off the demon and stabs the demon in the neck with it, letting its blood run down his hand. The demon screams in agony and falls to the floor with an audible thump.
"Little soft yourself in there." Angel quips, stepping over the body to Buffy and extending his hand out. Buffy takes it and he helps her up as the demon says its last words.
"Devourer...this meat...I give...unto thee." the demon breathes, before slumping to the floor completely and letting its head roll to the side. Dawn runs over to Buffy's side wrapping her arms around her sister as Wesley walks over to them.
"That creature, it came from a world that's worshipped Jasmine for millennia, a world that we can reach through this." Wesley explains, holding up the blue sphere.
"What?" Angel questions and Wesley smiles slightly. Hope alight in his eyes.
"I think the universe just handed us our first break." he replies and Angel sighs gratefully. Finally, something.
"That's great, now maybe if we could get out of here that'd be nice." Dawn says and Buffy nods in agreement.
xxxxxxx
"I really hate today." Xander whines, looking periodically over his shoulder as he, Willow, Cordelia, Lorne, Fred and Gunn run through the sewers fleeing Faith and her band of Jasmaniacs. If someone would have told him a couple days ago that he'd be on the run from Jasmine, he would have laughed in their face. Everything had been so unreal, he feels as though his time under Jasmine's influence was like a dream but now he realizes it was all a nightmare, just like this day.
"More worried about tomorrow myself." Gunn admits, seeing a corner and gesturing the others to follow him. They've got to cover more ground if they want to get away from Faith. He knows for a fact she's got good instincts and if they don't switch it up, she'll know exactly where they're going. "Come on!"
xxxxxxx
"No inscriptions, no markings of any kind, no moving parts, far as I can tell." Wesley observes as he studies the small sphere in his hand intently with Buffy and Angel watchign closely.
"So this high priest holds the true name?" Angel asks, attempting to confirm Wesley's musings. Wesley nods vigorously.
"Exactly." he replies, looking between Buffy and Angel.
"What else do we know about him?" Buffy questions and Wesley grimaces slightly. With a bit of common sense he can already tell what this keeper may be.
"I'm just guessing that he's bigger and meaner than our big, mean friend over there." Wesley supplies and its Buffy's turn to grimace. Why does everything always have to be bigger and meaner than the big mean thing they have to fight in the first place.
"Wouldn't surprise me." Angel reasons. Every new evil's always going to be bigger than the last big bad. It's just how it works. "What about—" Angel cuts off as he hears something in the distance. The sound of people moving through passages in the sewers. Buffy seems to notice too.
"Guys, something's going down." Buffy warns, squinting into the cavern's entrance suspiciously. She has a pretty good idea who it is who could of found them and she knows that isn't remotely of the good.
"Something?" Dawn squeaks nervously. How many somethings can there be in this sewer. She hates somethings.
"Something bad." Angel says, frowning before looking toward Buffy. He knows she knows. It's plainly written on her face. Fear and guilt.
"Faith." Buffy and Angel say in unison, before snapping their heads back toward the entrance. They can hear her, close by.
"We need to find the others." Angel tells them. He can't leave his people out there and he knows Buffy can't leave hers either. Adn then he realizes somehow during this entire time together, her people became his. Buffy can't help but feel the same way. Angel's people became her own the moment they all fought together, side by side and she knows she cant leave them behind.
xxxxxxx
"This is getting really old." Cordelia declares as she follows, Gunn, Willow, Fred, Xander, and Lorne around another corner in the maze of sewer lines. They've been running around blind for the past fifteen minutes with nothing but a couple yards of sewer line separating them from Faith and Jasmine's mob of followers.
"Oh god, are we dead yet?" Lorne mumbles and Willow purses her lips for a moment before shaking her head.
"Don't think so." she tells him and Lorne shifts a brow.
"And why is that again?" he wonders and Willow opens her mouth to speak when Gunn interrupts.
"If we can just find-" Gunn starts to say but Cordelia looks up and points in front of them.
"Angel!" Cordelia shouts and Gunn nods to himself. She pretty much finished his sentence for him. Thats exactly who they need to find.
"Yep, if we can find him and Buffy-" Gunn begins to say but Fred touches his shoulder and shakes her head.
"No she means its really Angel." Fred replies, eyes wide as she looks past him looking for Wesley. She wants to know if he and Dawn are okay.
"And Buffy!" Willow exclaims, relief coloring her tone.
"Buffy!" Xander calls out and Buffy waves them over.
"Guys!" she yells, gesturing them to walk past her and file into the cavern. Fred rushes in behind Lorne and Willow to see Wesley pacing back and forth, holding an ominous blue sphere. She starts to walk over to him and he looks up before opening his arms wide for her.
"Wesley." she breathes as she dives into his arms. He pulls her close and kisses the top of her head comfortingly. Fred pulls away and gives him a small smile before backing away from him slightly as he starts to pace again.
"No words. No word magic." Wes mutters, scratching his chin and staring into the cerulean sphere. The words keep playing back in his head as he tries to connect them, to figure out how to tap into this old world.
"Buffy, it's Faith. She's here." Xander says as he comes into the demon's lair right after Fred. Buffy nods.
"I know." she replies as Angel closes the door behind Buffy as she brings up the back.
"And, uh, the National Guard, I think." Lorne comments as he leans against the door to help secure it. The door lurches as Faith and her mob slam into it on the other side.
"Aah! No!" Fred squeals before she runs over to help Buffy, Willow, Lorne, Angel, Cordelia and Dawn hold the door.
"Will, can you work with the mojo?" Xander questions and Willow nods, taking a few steps back and holding her hands up.
"Hold on guys." she tells them, starting the spell she hopes might help.
"No word magic—powerless. Much more power in... blood magic?" Wesley mumbles, touching the wound on his head and brushing his bloody fingers on the glowing surface of the sphere. The orb glows brighter before shooting out a beam of light and opening up a portal. "Angel, I got it!" Wesley says excitedly, gesturing toward the swirling portal barely a few feet away.
"Ok, I'll hold this. You guys get going!" Angel tells them, staring at Buffy as they hold the door down beside each other. Before Buffy even has time to argue, Wesley shakes his head.
"No. No! We can't go. Not all of us! Only you!" he explains and Angel looks over to him, his brow raised and confusion written all over his face. What does Wes mean 'only you'? He cant leave them. They have to go with him.
"What are you talking about?" Angel questions, the confusion evident on his face.
"That thing's world, the atmosphere will kill us." Wesley says, walking over and taking Angel's place at the door. "We can't help there."
"But—" Angel starts to protest but Wesley shakes his head, interrupting him.
"Someone who knows the truth has to live through this." Wesley tells him sincerely and Angel's brows furrow.
"Angel… that's you." Buffy whispers and Angel's eyes rove over all his friends and finally stop on Buffy. And his unbeating heart breaks for them. For her.
"I can't." he replies, his voice choked. He can't just leave them behind.
"Hearts get in the way, right?" Fred asks smugly and Angel tries to blink away the tears he can feel forming. He knows for sure if he leaves them here, they'll die. There's no way they'll be able to get away, not with that many coming at them and Jasmines power behind them. Buffy's strong but she wont be able to protect them all.
"Go on dead boy, we got fighting for our lives to do here." Xander says jokingly, a smirk on his lips and Angel nods before running full speed ahead toward the portal.
"Angel, wait!" Wesley yells and Angel turns around just in time to catch the sphere Wesley tossed to him. Angel takes one last fleeting look at his friends before turning and jumping into the portal. "We can't hold it." Wesley acknowledges as the portal closes and he turns to the others.
"At least not for long." Willow adds, before going back to chanting. "Protegunt hostes hinc comminus servo off."
"Time for the big fight scene." Gunn grunts pushing away from the door, rolling his shoulders back and cracking his neck as he prepares. He doesn't want to be taken off guard.
"We've gotta be ready to let them in." Buffy says as she keeps her shoulder securely pushed against the door. She wishes she could protect them, keep them from whats about to go down.
"Do we have to?" Lorne moans and she nods sympathetically. She knows Lorne doesn't like violence, unfortunately there isn't any alternatives. They're all going to have to fight.
"We don't have much of a choice." Buffy replies and Lorne sighs heavily, taking a deep breath and facing the door apprehensively. He knows the minute they come rushing in, none of them is really going to have much of a chance, especially a demon from Pylea who doesn't know the first thing about physically battle. In short, he's pretty much screwed and he knows it, but he'll go out the way he came into the world, with a song in his heart.
Xander, Willow and Buffy exchange a look with one another. They all know its bad, and not just bad but bad bad. They've been doing this together for so long they feel like they at least have to try and fight back. Buffy smiles softly at her two best friends. The two people who have stuck by her, even when she didn't want them to and she's so grateful for them, for everything, almost everything, they've done.
But in that instance she almost wishes none of them had ever met, that she had never come to Sunnydale and messed their lives up. Maybe they would have all gotten out of this life long before it broke them to the point where none of them could ever be fully healed and her heartbreaks a little when she sees them nod at her and break off to get ready for the fight, determination and a grim resignation in there eyes.
Xander makes his way over to Cordelia as Buffy holds down the door and Willow keeps chanting away. And that's when he realizes, not only does he love Buffy and Willow but all of them and he prays to whoever will listen that everyone of them will make it out, even if he has to be left behind. Because right now he knows he'd give up his life for everyone in this room, especially the woman in front of him.
"Hey. So where do you think I can trade in my white hat?" Cordelia jokes and Xander is silent. walking toward Cordleia and pulling her by her waist, tangling his fingers through her hair and kissing her with everything inside him. When they pull away Cordelia's breathless and she's panting ever so slightly, wide eyes and love in her eyes and Xander knows that if he died now, he might kind of actually be okay with it. Knowing Cordelia cares about him is all the courage he needs to face what's on the other side of that door.
"Alright. Count of 3—" Gunn says, as everyone moves into position and Willow slows down her chant to a whisper, ready to stop at a moments notice. "1, 2—"
Faith kicks down the door and her mob of Jasmaniacs rush into the room, each one charging at Wesley, Lorne, Xander, Willow, Dawn, Buffy, Gunn and Fred. Dawn's eyes widen in fear as they pour in and Wesley keeps his eyes focused, anticipating an attack on himself or Fred. He has to keep her safe.
"Well now it's a party." Gunn grunts as he and the others move in, weapons raised and fists flying. All he knows is he ain't going out without a fight and a fight is exactly what he's gettin'.
xxxxxxx
Angel furrows his brows as he looks around at his surroundings perched on a cliff's edge. The landscape is harsh, rocky and grey and he's encircled by hundreds of the same kind of demon from the sewer, all clicking angrily at him and crawling closer through the silver haze hanging around them. He looks warily at his every side looking for an escape root that doesn't involve fighting hundreds of demons but he doesn't find one. He can barely see anything over their insect like legs and hard leather like skin. They're everywhere. He takes a deep breath and one last look around.
"Oh hell."
