Chapter 51
Brimstone
A/N: Chapter fifty one of the series..
Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss Whedon and the parties involved in airing the shows.
Feedback: Sure, as you wish.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Outskirts of London, England
December 2017
A light rain was falling over the tired slayers and watchers huddled in a semi erect building left standing after the attacks of both the vampires, dragons and lately, the initiative.
Explosions were heard every once in a while, but they were becoming scarce and more spaced in between, meaning one side was winning the battle, and every one inside that building knew whose side it was.
Still, every once in a while few slayers went out, to see for themselves how the situation was progressing, and some even went out just to dance in the rain, wanting a way to vent their anger and worries, all under the careful watch of the huddled vampires crouching in the rain.
"Finally got some help from above, huh?" Willow said as she walked next to Buffy, who was leaning next to a rather large hole in one of the walls of the building, looking outside at her slayers in the rain.
"What?" Buffy asked, not knowing exactly what Willow was talking about.
"The rain." Willow said. "There are too many fires, but maybe the rain will extinguish some of the lesser ones."
"It should also cover our tracks." Xander said, coming up behind both women and handing them cans of 7up to each one of them.
"These are warm." Buffy complained as she held the can at arms length and slowly opened it. The can gave off a loud hiss and bubbles and liquid gathered in the small opening.
"And were you trying to pull a Bart Simpson and send me to a coma?" Buffy joked. "I swear, if this thing had exploded, I would have kicked your ass."
Both Willow and Xander laughed but tried to keep it quiet, seeing the bunch of friends sleeping on the floor.
"When are you going to wake them up?" Xander asked as the laughter died.
"Don't know." Buffy shrugged. "Was thinking about looking for the Initiative HQ and warn them of the not coming dawn."
"Still got our cell phones." Willow offered.
"Nah, Riley won't pick up phones right now." Buffy nodded towards the sky, and noted the lack of air traffic on it. "His planes have already fallen. Short of a nuclear attack, I don't know what he will do."
"So, you plannin' on going and talking to him?" Xander inquired. "Face to face?"
"From what mom said, I guess we could join forces, even if he is so adamant against it." Buffy said. "We could surely use their guns and rifles if what I saw in the vision is real."
"Was it so large, the army?" Xander asked.
"Huge." Buffy honestly replied. "Monsters I had not seen since that time in the alley. Several more dragons. Things I can't describe."
"We're looking at the worst scenario possible, then." Xander sighed, and he unconsciously approached Willow, who willingly stepped into his embrace. Buffy sighed as well, and wished she would have someone to lean unto.
"My God, Angel." She suddenly remembered. "Where could he be?"
"I could try a spell, y'know." Willow said. "Try to track him down."
"He can take care of himself." Buffy frowned. "But I guess we could warn him about not coming near."
"Maybe we should use those tracking spells and search for someone else." Buffy answered after thinking about it. "We shouldn't worry too much about him, but we should worry about the crazy girl he turned ages ago."
"Dru?" Willow asked.
"Mom said she's the leader of the army." Buffy nodded. "If we know where she is, maybe we'll know just how far away the army is."
"Can't be far."
Buffy turned around and saw Wesley standing in front of the hole in the wall.
"Can feel them." He announced. "The army is coming."
Buffy stared at him and then at the ever present female company Wesley kept. Illyria nodded as well.
"Damn, we'll have to hurry and set a camp with the initiative." Buffy smacked her hands. "Ok, Xander, please wake everyone up. We'll have to quicken our step and find camp base."
Xander did as instructed and Buffy turned to look at Wesley.
"How much time do you think we'll have?" She asked.
Wesley turned to look at Illyria and she frowned.
"Not much." He replied.
Buffy nodded and hurried up to help Xander and Willow wake everyone.
---------------------
Commander Finn received the latest report from a seriously mangled pilot, who had managed to eject minutes after the hell fire from a dragon had incapacitated his jet and had made it back to base camp.
Barely.
"Our missiles do squat to them, Commander." The man spoke and Riley could hear the air whizzing out of the man's lung. "They're fast, sir. Damn fast. We couldn't properly lock on them and…"
A severe coughing bout attacked the soldier and Riley dispatched him, not knowing if the pilot would survive.
He'd seen the reports, and had seen the action taking place, and as much as he didn't want to accept it, Buffy had been right.
They were falling like flies.
And the absence of vampires in the ground was alarming. He'd heard the radio feeds and he'd known there were at least three hundred hostiles on ground level, but his soldiers had yet to find or engage one of them.
Yet alone a sighting.
He flipped towards the several reports, feeling a bit of despair coming and quickly shaking it off. He had to remain calm, and he couldn't do it since the prime minister and the king himself had been calling periodically to know what was happening.
That, plus General Ross was on his way to base camp, to supervise why it was taking him and his so called experts this much time to regain control of the city.
"Sir, some news from the outside perimeter." A soldier entered his tent and stood firm, saluting his commander.
"Go ahead."
"There's been a sighting, sir." The soldier spoke.
"At ease, soldier." Riley said. "What is it about?"
"The sentry identified a contact, sir." The soldier said as he stood firm. "A lone contact. A man, sir."
"Do we have positive ID?"
"Yes sir." The soldier handed Riley a blurry photograph. Riley nodded and dismissed the soldier. Commander Finn frowned when he saw the image, quite clear even though it was taken in the night and from quite a distance.
Riley growled as he crushed the photograph and tossed it away.
"Angel, what the hell are you doing here?"
---------------------
Buffy and Faith had decided to run ahead and try to find the base camp on their own, not wanting to thin the herd, in a manner of speaking, and move faster on their own.
Annie had wanted to be with them, but Buffy figured the turok hans had not attacked because of her, and against all her wishes for her daughter to have a normal life, she'd left her daughter in charge of leading the slayers and watchers to them.
As soon as they would find the base camp, Buffy had clarified.
Together, both slayers moved as fast as they could, heading to where Willow had been able to pinpoint the nearest location where she could feel Riley.
"Something's not right." Buffy said as she sped through the abandoned and charred streets of outer London.
"Glad to have you on board, B." Faith said, also running as fast as she could next to the other slayer. "What tipped you off?"
"Not like that." Buffy replied, leaping completely above an abandoned car. "Can't shake this feeling that something is completely wrong."
"Way to state the obvious." Faith chuckled. "Well, we're almost where Willow told us we'd find the…"
Both slayers stopped completely in their tracks, not believing what they were seeing.
Base camp was there, but there was no movement and there were no soldiers anywhere on sight.
"Talk about your ghost camps." Faith said, but immediately frowned. "Or is that ghost towns?"
"There are also ghost ships." Buffy said. "Found one of them six years ago."
"Really? What was in it?" Faith asked.
"Duh. Ghosts."
Faith humph-ed and remained quiet when she realized there was something indeed wrong. Buffy didn't know what to do, and didn't want to be caught by surprise. Holding her arm out, Faith understood the signal and stood still.
"Anyone here?" Buffy called out loud. "My name is Buffy Summers!"
Seconds ticked by and no response came.
"Subtle." Faith whispered. "What was that all about?"
"Want to be shot by paranoid soldiers?" Buffy whispered back. "Want them to know it's friends. Or whatever we may be."
Faith nodded and then screamed as well.
"Ahoy! Anyone there?"
Buffy frowned but joined in the shouting.
More seconds went by and no one answered.
"What do you think?" Buffy asked. "They're taking the undercover thing too far?"
"Don't think so." Faith answered. "There's no movement at all. Shouldn't they have a scouter or something like that?"
"Probably." Buffy shrugged. "That looks like the main tent, let's go check it out."
Faith nodded and both made their way into the largest tent erected on the field. They carefully peeked inside but found no one in it.
"Weird." Faith said, walking freely inside the tent. "Looks like they left in a hurry."
"Not good." Buffy said, looking around. "Not good. We shouldn't be here."
Buffy grabbed Faith's arm and tugged her out, only to be greeted by a pair of eyes she hadn't seen in too long.
"Hello, lover. Leaving so soon?"
Buffy shivered. She knew that tone, and it wasn't the tone she'd heard for the past fourteen years. It was a tone she'd heard more than twenty years ago, when she was still young and had felt heart ache for the first time in her life.
"Hello, Angelus."
End of Chapter.
