Slayer and Shadow

Chapter 27

Standing in the abandoned warehouse, Dawn Summers watched with a certain amount of awe as the coven witches wove their spell. She had seen a lot since moving here to be with her older sister, Buffy, but THIS was new.

Twelve witches chanted, magical energy visibly crackling in the air. In the center of the circle they formed the two vampires stood, energies swirling around them. The combination of energy made one's skin crawl, and Dawn fought back a shiver.

Giles was keeping a lot of his plan a secret, but this part Dawn understood. The coven was using the connection between Amy and Dru and the Dragon to try to summon the beast here. Which was cool, if deeply deeply scary...

A streamer of energy splatted against the roof, leaving a long scorched trail. "Balance the energies," the old witch yelled, "we need to be careful."

"Yes, the spell might fail," Amy agreed as she watched them work. "And you could explode," she added thoughtfully.

"Could we make them explode?" Dru asked her eagerly. She clapped her hands, "The explosions are so pretty!"

"Not now love," Amy patted her cheek, "later."

THEY were scary too, in Dawn's opinion. She knew vampires were homicidal, but she was used to Willow, who was at least sane. The vampire lovers were most deffinately NOT. Worse, Dru kept looking at her and licking her lips...

"Dawn?" Buffy walked over to her.

Biting back a sigh Dawn nodded to her often overbearing and overprotective big sister. "Yes?" she asked politely.

Buffy looked slightly pained at that reaction. "Look, I know I can't talk you into hiding out until this is over," she admitted.

"Besides, where would I hide?" Dawn added.

"There is that," Buffy conceded, "but if things go to hell tonight, don't help out. Get out of here and keep running."

Dawn's eyes widened. "It's THAT bad?" she asked.

"I don't fully get Giles' explaination," Buffy admitted, "but this thing is much more than a dragon. It's incredibly powerful, and the only thing really limiting it is that it has to deal with the limits of a body."

"Like, if it uses it's full power it'll explode," Dawn guessed.

"Exactly," Buffy nodded. "So if we fail to stop it here, run and keep running."

Dawn nodded reluctantly. "Don't do anything stupid or self sacrificing, all right?" she asked after a moment.

"Do my best," Buffy said, not exactly making that promise.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Faith looked over at her lover Tara, feeling more than a bit anxious as the other woman knelt with the witches and helped with the spells. She knew her lover had to be part of the circle, she was one of the few witches powerful enough to do this, but it still worried her.

Jenny Calandar smiled up at her tiredly. "She'll be fine," she reassured her.

"You can't promise that," Faith started as they heard a... beastial sound in the distance. "Shit," Faith muttered.

"It's coming," Giles agreed grimly. "Is everyone ready?" he called.

"NO," Willow snapped, "but that's never stopped us before."

There was a loud clang at the closed warehouse doors were struck once. There was a pause, then the whole side of the building was torn off with a loud screech of rending metal.

"Heeeeres Johnny," Dru muttered.

The ground shook as the dragon advanced into the warehouse, the massive beast looking around in anger. It saw the witches circle and the vampires and growled deep in it's throat.

"I think you can stop the summoning now," Amy noted dryly, and at the same time the witches' chanting changed.

"You dare summon me," the dragon Tiamat growled out, "you are either supremely brave or utterly stupid."

"Or both," Dru offered, "it's not mutually exclusive."

Everybody pretty much ignored that.

"Great dragon, demoness," Giles said as he stepped forward, "we ask that you cease harming Sunnydale and leave in peace, or we will have to take action."

Tiamat actually laughed. "Take action? What would you DO puny morsels?" she scoffed, her nearly one hundred foot long body twisting around them.

The chanting continued in the background, the witches building power for something.

Keeping the dragon's attention Giles continued, "We would stop you, creature."

"But we are merciful, creature. Leave this place, do no more harm and we would spare you," Jenny offered seriously.

"MERCY," the dragon sounded offended by the very word. "The only mercy I will grant would be a quick death."

"Just to be sure, you aren't giving up?" Buffy asked dryly.

"Never!" Tiamat shot back.

Faith found herself wondering why the dragon wasn't attacking them, then realized it was probably Dru and Amy's presence. Maybe it couldn't hurt them?

Then Tiamat belched fire, killing THAT idea. Several witches screamed as the flame skimmed across a invisible shield, that promptly faile. Several women were burned, yet shockingly carried on with the spell.

"Hey! Not so close!" Amy yelled.

"Hmm. Bacon," Dru sighed, sniffing the air.

Ignoring the bullets splatting off her scales Tiamat frowned as she studied the circle and the energies crackling there. "What are you doing?" she wondered, trying to sense what they were casting.

Then with a crackle of energy a swirling, glowing portal appeared. It kind of hurt the eyes to look at it, like it was fundamentally wrong...

"Home..." Tiamat breathed out.

"Hey! You said you were going to..." Amy started just as Buffy raced up to her.

Faith grabbed Dru at the same time, then before either Vampire could react they were lifted up and carried to the portal. "No, you wouldn't dare..." Dru started.

"Ahhh!" Amy just wailed as she and Dru were pitched into the swirling nothingness.

"You..." Tiamat growled.

"You are bound together," Giles quickly encouraged the beast, "by spell and blood. Do as your nature commands!"

Tiamat moved towards the doorway, then looked back a moment. "I will go," it agreed, "but understand this: If I am summoned again, this world and everything in it, will burn."

Faith actually shivered at that, delivered in such a cold, deadly voice.

Before anyone could respond Tiamat advanced to the gateway. There was a flare of light as the massive creature simply dissolved into energy, then poured through the opening only to disappear.

"Shut it!" Tara yelled as the witches quickly changed chants yet again. In a moment, the swirly portal was gone.

"Medics!" Giles yelled as he and Jenny rushed over to the burned and wounded witches.

Faith stayed back, knowing dick about medicine. As did Buffy, for similar reasons.

"That was anti-climatic," Faith finally offered.

"I WAS sort of expecting us to have to hammer it awhile before it went through," Buffy admitted dryly.

"That was..." Dawn started.

"We know, we know," Faith cut her off.

Dawn pouted. "At least that's over with," she said.

Buffy smiled grimly, "There IS still the army of monsters rampaging around the city."

"Buzz kill," Dawn sighed.

"All right, we have the injured on stretchers, we're getting out of here now," Giles said briskly, as he and Jenny got everyone moving.

"Why are we rushing?" Buffy had to ask even as she helped with a stretcher.

"Over the past while there have been several tears in the fabric of reality," Giles noted grimly, "I'm rather worried Tiamat will simply rip her way back into our reality."

Faith looked at where Tiamat had disappeared and gulped. "Right," she agreed, "let's go."

To be continued...

Notes: YES, just sending Tiamat home is anti-climatic. I concede that.

The problem was that when, in canon, Buffy fought a similar entity in human form, Glory proved almost unstoppable. Construction wrecking balls, Thor's hammer, they all staggered her but barely hurt her. She only died from reverting to human form and being snuffed.

Then consider that Tiamat is a DRAGON. The power increase would be massive I expect. So short of equipping Buffy & team with rocket launchers or something... I didn't see how they could fight her. So out-smarting was it.