Chapter 37

Days of Thunder

A/N: Chapter thirty-seven of the series. A huge apology for the delay, but this new year came with lots of more work and some well deserved hiatus sponsored by some old friends of mine visiting.

Here is a new chapter and a long one it is. If there is anyone out there still reading this or waiting for more chapters let me know. I will finish this story and I hope it will be faster than the previous ones.

Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss Whedon and the parties involved in airing the shows. Original characters are mine.

Feedback: Sure, that's be great.

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London, England

The Watcher's Council

December 2017

The earthquake hit harder than any other before in London's history, as everyone inside the Council felt. As the destruction began, Giles was flung into his desk and slammed on it, losing consciousness in the midst of it all.

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Giles' mind returned in time and replayed one event displayed privately when the others in his office where more busy looking at the screen. A blink on his personal battle station appeared and he knew it was an urgent matter, for very few people had access to his station.

He'd sat on it and placed on the set of headphones from Xander's station, not wanting anyone to hear what was about to happen. He frowned when Xander turned around, knowing he very well couldn't hide anything from his son, but he didn't care anymore if the boy heard.

The image soon appeared and a man well over his sixties appeared, his face not kind and a bead of sweat already on his forehead.

"General." Giles said as soft as he could, and breathed easier when he saw Xander didn't turn around.

"Rupert." General Ross replied as he signed something on a board that was handed to him off screen.

"Glad you finally noticed our silent page." General Ross frowned. "I believe you know what is going to happen now."

"How much time do we have?" Giles asked, his voice revealing his exhausted state.

"Not much." The man seen in the locator screen replied. "The existence of supernatural hostiles has been leaked, and the situation is quite dire, as you already know."

"My people is already on it." Giles said.

"That's even worse." The general said back. "There was an open channel conversation between a local policeman and his superior discussing the actual existence of vampires. Later on, the voice of Mrs. Elizabeth Summers was heard on the same wavelength, encouraging the authorities to work along in order to defeat the turok hans."

"Her name's Buffy."

"I don't care if her name is Betty, Rupert." General Ross coldly said. "Your slayers are going public, and you and I agreed to keep them undercover. Many districts of London are on fire and several explosions have erupted throughout the city. I heard some unidentified civilians fell to police fire, and several officers have been brutally murdered because of the fucking vampires. You know what is going to happen."

"I need more time."

"There's no time, Rupert." The general said, sighing. "You know as well as I do that we will have to take charge."

"We had a deal."

"Yes, but you and I knew such agreement wouldn't be useful in times of war."

"Is that what this is?"

"Open your eyes, Rupert, if the threat is not contained it's quite likely it will soon move over to the rest of the continent." General Ross rubbed his eyes. "I don't want that to happen. London may already be lost, but I won't let the rest of the UK to burn, or the rest of Europe."

Giles sighed and shook his head.

"How much time do we have?"

"I've already spoken with the prime minister." The general answered. "There's a bit of resistance from the local authorities, but it's only a matter of time till he declares a state of martial law."

"How much?" Giles repeated.

"I do believe it will happen in the next two hours. Could be less."

"I won't be able to get all my people inside."

"I know. We'll use rubber bullets the first ten minutes, Rupert, out of respect for you."

"Infantry?"

"That wouldn't be useful at all, would it?" General Ross said. "We're going in with the RAF."

"What?"

"Three simultaneous strikes, Rupert. The first one will be several assault teams going in with TAV's, second wave will be the RAF showering the city with rubber bullets, making all human hostiles go down, twelve minutes later, the RAF will engage the last assault."

"What will it be?"

"Napalm. Lots of it."

"You can't be serious."

"I've always been serious, my old friend." The general said. "You have two hours to get your slayers and watchers back inside the safety of the council. After that, we'll take over."

"Very well." Giles said, slouching back on his chair.

"Two hours, Rupert. I'd advise you to get your people back inside in less than half an hour."

"Right." Giles whispered.

"Good night, Rupert."

"Good night, General."

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The slayers already relocated within the Council scrambled for cover wherever they could find it. The entire building shook as if it were inside a gigantic blender, barely withstanding the force of it.

Tense minutes went by, the windows exploded and the electricity failed as the tremor reached its climax and suddenly stopped.

Everyone in Giles' office took a few moments before daring to stand up and check on each other. Xander stood still, crouched on the floor, waiting to hear or smell something out of the ordinary as he checked his father's head. Giles slowly came back and blinked twice before he remembered what was happening.

"Is everybody all right?" Giles asked, coughing behind his desk. All replied positively and he focused his sight on his son's tense body.

"Anything?" Giles asked, and Xander knew the question was directed at him.

"There's no gas leaks." He replied. "Can't hear much because of the noise, but I hear strong heartbeats throughout the building. Can't smell any blood."

"Good, the back up power should activate any minute now."

"Something's wrong." Xander suddenly said. "I am hearing things I didn't before."

"He's right." Willow said, standing up and brushing her clothes. "I can feel something different in the environment."

"Good or bad?" Giles asked.

"Do you even have to ask?"

"Right, on a scale, how bad?"

"About three thousand and four."

"In a scale of one to ten?"

"Yup."

"Not good then."

"Giles, are you allright?" Buffy's voice was heard.

"A little shaken up, but still alive, you?"

"We're ok, do you know what happened?"

"An earthquake, dear."

"Well, duh, but is there a reason why there should be a damn earthquake right now?"

"Probably a side effect caused by the very existence of the turok hans."

"Not reassuring."

"I didn't mean to be reassuring."

"Wow, you sure do sound grim right now, what happened?"

Giles scratched his head and knew he had to rely what he'd discussed with General Ross a few minutes ago. He looked at everyone inside his office and coughed to get everyone's attention.

"The army is two hours from entering the conflict."

Even those who weren't actually looking at him turned their heads and several expletives were muttered.

"Shit." Buffy ran her hands through her hair.

"Precisely."

"Wait, how do you know that?"

"Have some connections." Giles said, and ignored the way Xander's head was tilting to the side.

"Cryptic. Why do we have two hours?"

"Something to do with the prime minister and the superintendent."

"The PD doesn't want the army playing with their toys, I presume."

"You presume correctly. When martial law is declared, the superintendent will most likely lose his job."

"And?"

"We have to do something, immediately."

"I'm on it."

Giles nodded and frowned when the electricity kept blinking above them.

"Is that supposed to be doing that?" Willow asked.

"Doing what?" Xander asked as well.

"Seems like our power plant was damaged as well." Giles replied. "Without electricity we'll be an easy target inside."

"We have to get out of here." Xander said, clear and strong.

Giles paid attention to Xander's quickly standing form. "What did you say?"

"We have to get out of here. It's not safe anymore." Xander repeated, as he quickly helped Willow to her feet.

"What is going on?"

"Heard something else." Xander said, ushering everyone out of the office. Giles struggled to move as quickly as his son requested, no lights around to see where he was going.

Willow's cell suddenly rang and she fumbled a bit with it before opening it and listening. She went paler than before and shouted to get everyone's attention.

"What now?" Buffy asked.

"The slayers called and said a large crack had appeared on SL4, they said something was moving down there."

"What?" Both Willow and Giles asked out loud.

"Seems we have a slight pest problem."

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Buffy looked at her daughter and at her sister. They nodded and without any word, they turned around and looked outside the window.

"We won't get very far with those things closing in on us." Dawn noted as she saw a dozen turok hans approaching the building.

"And is it the right thing to do?" Annie asked.

"Seems like it." Buffy replied. "Like your grandfather said, dear, without electricity we'd be caught inside."

"Meaning?"

"Imagine all the slayers and all of us running wildly in the cramped stairs." Buffy said. "Turok hans coming from beneath and locking us all in the upper levels."

"We could be safer here." Dawn also said.

"Don't think so." Buffy shook her head. "Remember what Giles said. The army will pull the kiddie gloves off and will strike with all their strength."

"Looks like we'll have to clear an escape path." Dawn said. "Thinking of something?"

Buffy looked outside the window again and remained in silence for some seconds.

"We could fight our way out." She said. "But we would be wasting precious time."

She suddenly thought of something and looked at the two women besides her.

"If I asked you to stay behind you wouldn't do it, right?" Buffy asked her daughter. Annie smirked and crossed her arms.

"Thought so." The slayer replied. She looked at her sister and didn't even had to repeat the question when Dawn mimicked Annie's actions.

"God, I must be crazy, but come along, I've got a plan."

She quickly walked to the door and stood there.

"Everyone! I have a plan!" She shouted. "Since there are still slayers out there and we'll have to go down and lock ourselves in one of the two sub levels, we're going to clear a path so we can get there safely."

"Uh, remember the other turok hans below?" Xander said. "We'll have to leave this place before it becomes a giant trap."

"I don't think that's the wisest course of action." Buffy replied. "Can't lose much time, but I believe we should lock ourselves in Sub Level 1 and fight from there."

"What?"

"It's close enough to the surface to escape and far enough from the other sublevels to organize a fight against whatever may come out of there." She revealed.

Xander was about to protest when Giles spoke instead.

"It's a good option." He said, placing his hand on his son's shoulder to ease him. "Since I don't think we'll be able to leave the city before the army sprays us with napalm…"

Several yelps and 'what's' were heard and Giles hushed them all with a motion of his hand.

"Yes, I said napalm, our main concern now is to get all slayers back here, bring as many civilians as we can find on the streets and camp on SL1, to present a more organized battle front from there."

"Have Faith on the link." Willow suddenly said. "Since you were so busy making plans, I thought it'd be best if she knew what is going on."

"Good, put her on speaker, please." Giles said. A sharp static was heard and then the quick breaths of Faith were heard.

"Faith? Where are you?" Giles asked.

"A few blocks from the Council." She replied. "Fortunately, the policemen have stopped shooting at us!"

"Well, we have a more immediate problem." Buffy said. "The Council is being surrounded by quite a lot of turok hans, and the earthquake just sent our electrical system to hell."

"What earthquake?" Faith asked, huffing to keep her breath in. "Are you high?"

"What do you mean what earthquake?" Buffy frowned. "The one that hit us a few moments ago!"

"Didn't feel a thing!" Faith replied. "What are we going to do?"

"Hang tight, I will open a safe way for you and your slayers to get in." Buffy said and walked out of the room, Annie and Dawn behind.

"Wait, were are you going?" Giles asked. He only heard a muted 'out' as the three women were already inside one of the elevators.

"Let's hope they don't get stuck inside." Willow said, and immediately felt her arm yanked out from behind. "Hey!" She whimpered. "What's going on?"

She looked to her side to see Xander dragging her out of the room with Giles on his other hand.

"Son, what…?"

"We have to get down there." Xander answered. "We'll take the stairs to give Buffy the time she needs."

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Inside the elevator, Dawn, Buffy and Annie were in silence seeing the red numbers diminishing.

"The earthquake wasn't natural at all, right?" Dawn asked, looking at their reflection on the steel doors.

"Not at all." Buffy sighed.

"Shit. Can't have a five minute break?"

"Not in my line of work."

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"Calm down, Xander, you're dragging us!" Giles said, as Xander took the stairs down, leaping three to four steps down.

"I'm going to fall down!" Willow yelped, trying to keep with Xander's mad dash.

"There's no time." Xander calmly replied.

"Bloody hell." Giles said, almost out of breath. His analytical mind supplied the logic underneath the two front attack. The vampires had launched a surprise attack, luring out the slayers, attacking them while distracted, and as they were confused and on the run, they attacked the main building.

"Do you think we'll be able to outrun them?" Giles asked, feeling the pressure increase on his chest.

"Don't know." Xander said, and quickly turned around to face his father. "Don't like how your heart is banging in there, pop."

"We are running down the stairs." Giles huffed. "How do you expect my heart to sound?"

"Like Will's." Xander replied. "She at least has good condition."

"She's thirty years younger." Giles replied. Xander's only response was a harsh laugh.

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Roaring out of the Council's garage on board of the Mercedes Dawn had nicked earlier, not knowing why they were once again inside the car.

"Uh, still not getting it, Buff." Dawn said. Buffy only smiled and plugged again her ear piece.

"Faith, are you ready?" She said into the piece.

"Yeah, we already saw the turok hans and it doesn't look nice, so… wait, a car just sped by, someone is still in the city…!"

"Don't worry." Buffy interrupted. "That was us. Just be ready."

"We're ready." Several voices were heard on her earpiece.

"Wait for my signal." Buffy said.

"What is it?"

"You'll get it."

Buffy removed the earpiece and threw it back. Annie looked at her mother's eyes through the rear view mirror and saw resignation in them.

"Looks like you're in this, kiddo." Buffy said. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this, and after you see what we have to do I hope you'll think about what I do more seriously."

"Do what?"

Buffy turned around, and smirked at her daughter. Annie and Dawn frowned when Buffy didn't reply and instead pressed harder the gas pedal. The three thousand pound car began accelerating and quickly surpassed the seventy mph mark.

"Uh, Buffy, we're going straight back at the Council." Dawn timidly said.

"I know."

"And there must be, like, thirty turok hans between us and the front door."

"I see them."

"Uh, and yet we're going faster."

"Yeah."

"Is there something you're not telling us?"

"This thing has passenger airbags, right?"

"What!" Dawn shrieked.

"You know how I said I'd find a way to get them inside safely?" Buffy said, smiling and still pressing on the gas pedal. "You two should really tighten the seatbelts."

Annie and Dawn shared a look of insecurity and fear before tightening their seatbelts.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Buffy Summers' airlines." Buffy said, laughing. "We are about to make an emergency landing on the airport of crash city."

"Are you crazy?" Dawn asked, laughing.

"Just doing my job."

The slayers outside the Council received their signal, as a Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren crashed into thirty turok hans and the front of the building at ninety five miles per hour.

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"Wooohoo!" Buffy said as she kicked off the door of the mangled car. She slowly crawled out of it, a huge smile on her face. Moans came out of the not so destroyed vehicle as Dawn and Annie disentangled themselves from the deflating airbags. They stared at Buffy, their eyes throwing daggers as they carefully walked away from the crash.

"Who's ready for ramp two?" Buffy asked, ignoring the several distorted and mutilated corpses of the turok hans around them. The car had crashed all through the main foyer, and had stopped a few inches short of the elevator shaft, where two holes in the steel doors signaled the entry point of two already dusted turok hans.

"Can't say that wasn't fun, but, uh…" Dawn scratched her face, and frowned when her hand came up slightly tinted red. "How to say this? Oh, right, uh, are you out of your fucking mind?"

"Come on, we had to get inside." Buffy said, walking closer to her daughter and inspecting her. "Besides, you two have survived worse."

"That was cool, mum." Annie said, as Buffy was checking her face and head for wounds.

"It was, wasn't it?" Buffy replied, a smile on her face. After she made sure her daughter had no serious injuries, she turned to check her sister.

"Let me see that." Buffy said, noticing her sister cradling her forehead.

"It's nothing, you stupid twat."

"You don't even know what that word means." Buffy replied. "Come on, let me see."

"It's nothing." Dawn said, but leaned her head so Buffy could take a look at it.

"For once, you are right, it is a small cut." Buffy said. "Knew that hard head of yours would be useful one day."

"Bite me."

"Oh, behave."

"What happened here!" Giles' voice distracted the three women and they turned to where he stood, panting on the stairs.

"We heard a crash!" Willow said. "And now you… where you attacked?"

"Nope." Buffy said, smiling as she saw the slayers coming from the hole in the building's foyer and right behind Willow, Giles and Xander. "It was a signal, and I believe the girls got it."

"Quite a scandalous signal." Giles said, still unable to catch his breath but smiling when he saw Faith and the other several slayers managing to get inside the building.

"Hardcore, B!" Faith screamed. "Way to go!"

Many cheers were heard as the slayers rushed inside, frowning when Xander stepped in their way.

"You can't go upstairs!" He yelled. "You don't know what happened but we need you all to go to SL1, right now!"

Faith looked at Buffy with a questioning look.

"We'll bunk in there and reorganize there." She said. "Since we don't have any electricity, we'd be an easy target in the upper levels."

"The slayers heard something as soon as the earthquake stopped." Xander said, still not letting go of the redhead's arm. "The floor on SL4 cracked and they reported a large crack on it."

"And?"

"I can hear what's down there." Xander said. "And from what I can hear, the things down there are the same things out there."

He pointed his finger out, and beyond the destruction caused by Buffy's impromptu arrival, several turok hans began surrounding the Council.

"Bugger." Annie said.

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Somewhere in London

"This violence is acceptable." Illyria said, as she ripped off the head of a struggling turok han in her grasp.

"That's the tenth vampire we've been able to find." Connor said, standing on top of an abandoned car. Wesley walked near them and looked around, nodding.

"We should have found more by now." He said. "I can only guess the slayers listened to us and returned to the Council."

"That would explain the absence of half breeds." Illyria said. Wesley frowned upon hearing her words, but said nothing about it. He instead turned to Connor and jumped atop the car.

"Haven't felt any of them as well." Wesley said. "Your tracking skills are far better than mine, have you seen something?"

"Other than unorganized mayhem and no focused tracks? Nothing."

"Looks as if they were only released to destroy." Wesley said. "The perfect trap."

"And the slayers fell for it." Connor replied. "Looks like you were right."

"It doesn't amuse me." Wesley said. "Many lives were lost, and the battle is merely beginning."

"So, what are we going to do?" Connor asked.

"We go back."

"To the Council?"

"I guess that would be where the battle has been relocated."

"Lead the way, then."

Wesley jumped down the car, and looked at Illyria. He saw something in her blue eyes he'd seen in the past years, and he wondered if he was going crazy again.

End of Chapter

A/N2: Days of Thunder is the title of a late 80's or an early 90's movie, I really don't remember that well. It's a movie about cars and crashes, as this episode depicts.