Chapter 28
Napalm
A/N: Chapter twenty eight of the series.
Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss Whedon and the parties involved in airing the show. Original characters are mine.
Feedback: Sure, as you wish.
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London, England
December 2017
Piccadilly Circus resembled a roman arena.
Buffy, Faith and Wesley stared at the spectacle displayed in front of them.
Few seconds went by before they realized they had to take action. Buffy was about to jump into the fray when Wesley's hand held her back.
"Let me go!" She shrieked. "We have to help those people!"
"I know." He said, straining to make his voice heard over the screams and the approaching sirens. "But there are also four injured slayers and there's three of us against thirty of them! Think!"
Buffy looked at Wesley's eyes and then back at the chaos in front of them. Her slayer instincts screamed at her to fight and kill the vampires, but common sense screamed back she had to take the hurt slayers back to the Council.
"You two…"
"No." Wesley interrupted her. "The three of us have to go back and regroup. It doesn't make sense if you fight alone. Three of us couldn't do a thing. One of us would be like committing suicide."
Buffy's conscience screamed and struggled to fight, but she took a deep breath and realized Wesley was right.
"Fine." She said, climbing back to the car. "But we can't do nothing. Faith, call Giles and…"
"Already ringing." Faith replied. Seconds later, Giles answered.
"Where are you?" He asked. "Just received some news regarding a fire and…"
"We're safe and on our way back." Faith said. "But Piccadilly Circus and the surrounding areas are being destroyed by at least thirty turok hans."
"Dear God." Giles gasped. "Right. Three packs of slayers will be sent right this moment."
"Good. See you in five."
She hung up and noticed Wesley looking at her.
"What?" She asked.
"There are thirty primitive vampires attacking London." He said. Faith looked at him as if he had grown another head.
"Well, duh."
"There were no signs of this." He continued. "No disturbances. No warnings. You can't feel them."
"There's a point to it?" Faith asked.
"Wait." Buffy said, her eyes still on the road. "I get where he's going."
"Good one of us does." Faith said.
"Something very weird is going on here." Buffy said. "He's right. We should have sensed the turok hans the moment they set foot in here. We should be able to feel them this moment. Yet we can't."
"Meaning?"
Buffy turned her eyes and stared at Faith's.
"Looks like we were meant to be caught by surprise."
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"It doesn't make sense." Giles said, looking at Buffy.
Behind them, the four injured slayers were admitted in the Council's infirmary to be taken care of. Faith and Wesley stood behind Buffy, the three of them looking at the head watcher.
"Ask any of the slayers." Buffy said. "Ask them if they feel the turok hans. There are thirty of those Nosferatu wannabe's and we haven't felt them. I sped by them in my car, saw their eyes and still couldn't feel them. What is going on?"
"We believe we were meant to be caught by surprise." Wesley said. "Except I can actually feel them."
"What?"
"That's why I asked to join them." Wesley continued. "Seemed odd a slayer was caught unaware by a vampire, as it happened to the four back there. I do feel them, as Illyria does."
"You asked her to stay behind." Giles said, understanding dawning on him.
"She could feel them if they came." Wesley said. "It's the same with Spike. I felt him but no one else did."
"And any witch in the coven is more than capable of feeling the power of thirty turok hans." Giles said. "Yet they still haven't sent any warning. We are all getting aware of this because of the news."
"Any turok han caught on film?" Buffy asked.
"Not yet." Giles replied. "But sooner or later a cop or a fireman will run into one. This is all over the news, and I worry about the slayers getting caught on film again."
Giles' cell rang again and the faces of the four fighters revealed dread at hearing it. Giles answered and his face confirmed their doubts. Wesley felt a shiver run down his spine and he looked at the nearest window. Buffy looked at both men and both she and Faith understood.
"There." Wesley pointed outside the window. Different columns of fire began to spread throughout the city. Giles closed his cell and his face was paler than ever before.
"That was Willow." He said. "There have been more confirmed attacks. The turok hans are storming London."
"What? How?" Buffy asked.
"The slayers heading to Piccadilly Circus saw them as they were on their way." Giles answered, looking for a chair to sit on. "Said they couldn't feel them."
Giles looked at the two slayers and felt the need to throw up.
"We were wrong." He whispered. "We thought they would focus their attack on us, like they did thirteen years before."
Buffy didn't know where to look at. She heard Giles' words and remembered how the Senior Partners had focused their attack on the alley behind the Hyperion.
Odds were they would focus their attack on the Council, instead of taking it out on the entire city.
"Their focus is the Council." Wesley said, his eyes still fixed outside. "But they're trying to lure us out."
"What?" Giles asked.
"Think about it." Wesley replied. "Your slayers can't feel them. The obvious thing would be for us to wait for them on our turf. Inside the Council. Safe. But if they begin attacking the city and everyone living in it, they're forcing us to go out and fight them on uneven terms."
He turned around and looked at them.
"They want you out of the safety the Council provides." He said. He pointed behind, forcing their eyes to follow his finger. "If you go out there, you may save lives but lose some slayers."
Wesley turned around and stared at the tendrils of smoke rising up to the sky.
" And if you don't attack, London will go out in flames."
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Dublin, Ireland
December 2017
Angel was slowly but surely building a lovely drunken stupor.
The bar he was currently visiting had gratefully surprised him when a beautiful redhead with freckles appeared half an hour ago and was shamelessly flirting with him.
He of course knew she was a vampire, but he didn't care. It seemed the ancient fame of once having been Angelus still carried some weight in the old world. The red head clad in black leather had walked inside the bar with an obvious fledgling and had dismissed the git as soon as she'd seen the once master vampire.
Angel was enjoying the undivided attention of the beautiful vampire when the patrons and clients of the bar fell silent. He looked above the vampire's head and saw what had caused such silence. His eyes grew as two round plates as he saw the images of a burning London on the tv screen perched atop the bar's counter.
He roughly set the redhead aside and ignored her objections as he quickly walked to get a closer look at the screen.
What he saw made him feel ashamed for the first time since he'd left London, as he caught sight of a turok han running amok in the screen.
No one in the bar could believe what they were seeing, but since they were more distracted by the fires, they didn't notice the primitive vampire running around.
Angel's soul screamed while another voice laughed.
He cursed himself for being so weak, and hoped his wife and daughter would be safe until his return.
End of Chapter
