Oliver followed Tommy downstairs and into the music room. As they made their way down the elevator shaft and into the large cavern underneath Wayne Manor, Oliver felt the rush of adrenaline coursing through his body. Flight or flight.
He wouldn't flee, but he was upset that he hadn't been given the choice to fight alongside Buffy.
If he'd not given into his fear, would she have asked him to go with her?
It was a question he was fairly certain, might never be answered as he took the final steps into the Immediate area where everyone was now congregated together. Then the portal opened and the blue demon emerged, with a sinister grin on his face.
Almost as if he was enjoying their pain.
"It is time." The demon bellowed and then pulled out a glowing orb from his robes, and everyone watched as it levitated over the water and then there were several gasps, as it shimmered along the cavern walls before images formed in the mist...
Images of Buffy, Spike and Malcolm.
Malcolm was dressed in his League gear, his bow and quiver full of arrows slung over his back.
Spike had a sword, and was wearing his usual long black leather trench coat. His face was still a bit banged up, but he looked tons better.
Buffy, had on her fighting leathers, with two katanas strapped to her back and a crossbow attached to her side—a small pouch of arrows slung around her hip.
They were making their way near a cavern entrance when Malcolm spoke up.
"This is the only entrance in or out of the mountain. We've taken out the scouting patrol, but there will be more inside. How many, I don't know precisely. When I was here before there were twenty guards that watched the outer amphitheater and the inner chamber where the pit is located, holds another twenty easily."
Buffy sighed and nodded.
"You both go in first, create as much destruction as you can."
"And you?" Spike asked with interest.
"I need to get to the pits." Buffy replied. "There is one goal here, Merlyn...to get to the inner chamber."
"And once we are inside?"
Buffy didn't answer directly, but she did say, "Let me worry about that. No matter what happens, don't interfere, got it?"
Both vampire and human nodded reluctantly and then Buffy gestured for Malcolm, who opened the doorway to the Demon Head's lair.
The group watched stunned as the three of them: Malcolm, Spike and Buffy—took out everyone in their path. By the time they'd reached the inner antechamber, all three were beat up a bit, but looked relatively alright.
The inner room however, was empty.
Buffy's gaze narrowed as she turned and scouted the perimeter.
"This is too easy."
In that moment, she heard at least twenty arrows knocked back and she gazed upwards as she noticed Ra's men surrounding them.
They had the high ground.
Then there was a deep voice, that was laughing at them.
"Did you really think, Malcolm? That you could lead a team into my home and defeat me?"
As Ra's emerged from the shadows, Bruce growled deeply at seeing his old mentor and nemesis alive and well.
"I figured it was worth a shot."
"You never were good with taking orders, Malcolm. When I indicated you were to abandon your son, then hand over your daughter? You refused time and time again. Why was that?" Ra's taunted.
"Because I'll never willingly hand over my children to you!" Merlyn spit out. "You may have owned me, Ra's...but I will never allow my children to be used by you. You destroy everything you touch."
"That's the way of the League, Malcolm. You knew this when you asked for my help. You wanted to punish those who and taken your wife away. You got your wish, perhaps not in the way you'd assumed you would."
Malcolm didn't reply, as he glanced over at Buffy and Spike—who were glaring defiantly at Ra's.
"And the vampire with a soul. How touching that is." Ra's chuckled before his blue eyes settled on Buffy. "And the Slayer. Not the one I'd originally thought, but it matters little. You must know child—you cannot defeat the Demon's Head."
"Yeah, I've heard that same diatribe before. I'm too powerful to be killed...I'm too evil...blah...blah...blah...don't you think you idiots could come up with some new schtick. Bored now."
Oliver couldn't help but smile at how fearless Buffy was, even in the face of overwhelming adversity.
"This is my home, Slayer. You caught me unawares before. You won't be so lucky here."
"Wanna bet?" Buffy grinned and then Spike launched himself towards Ra's, as several arrows were shot in succession at them. Oliver watched as Buffy dodged, deflected and cut down as many attacks as she could, but when the first arrow hit her leg—she buckled and Oliver felt his fists grip and her shout of pain.
She continued to move towards the pit as she took hit after hit, all the while Ra's was battling Spike while Merlyn was behind a pillar, trying to take out as many foes from above as he could.
As Buffy reached the pit, Ra's swung his sword—blocking Spike's blow and then kicked him across the room...his body crumpling against the cavern wall, as he groaned in pain and with lightening precision, Ra's launched his sword at Buffy at the same time she was fighting off several attacks at once and Oliver shouted, "No!" as Ra's sword penetrated Buffy's back and stabbed her through her abdomen.
Blood poured out onto her leathers and her hands were stained with it, but she turned around and faced a Ra's with a manic grin on her face.
"You're defeated, Slayer."
Buffy glanced back at the edge of the pit and shook her head in triumph.
"You really don't know what a Slayer is, do you idiot?" She wheezed on a gasp.
Buffy then began to whisper something in a language Oliver wasn't familiar with, and then three black men—in some kind of tribal robes—appeared from the ether and stood in a semicircular pattern around the back of the pit.
"Who are you?" Ra's demanded angrily.
However, the men didn't reply—but they too started to chant loudly, the same exact words Buffy was whispering; and Buffy kept repeating the words, until a final arrow shot her through the chest.
Screams of horror rent through the caverns at Wayne Manor, and Oliver felt tears falling from his eyes and he collapsed to his knees in anguish—just as Buffy fell backwards into the pit...
...and then several things happened at once...
Ra's yelled at his men to take down the remaining intruders, who kept chanting...
The greenish liquid from the pit began to bubble and hiss uncontrollably...
A large Shadow emerged from the back of the cavern and settled like a cloying specter over the pits, obscuring the Shadow Men completely...
The ground started to tremble, as if an earthquake was shaking the very foundations of Ra's lair...
Then there was a deafening silence, which instantly pervaded over everything for the space of about a minute, until a cacophonous explosion blasted the pit apart just as Buffy remerged, her eyes feral—her body healed...
And then the Shadow melded with the Slayer, and her piercing screams settled over everyone watching the scene in terror...
The force of the power caused Buffy's body to be thrown up against the wall of the cavern as her mouth opened in a blood-curdling rent of the most excruciating pain—and she unleashed a malestrom of power—completely obliterating the pit as her head flailed from side to side. Faith gasped as the visages of Sineya and Buffy kept merging and separating from each other—the Primeval Slayer and the Chosen One battling for dominance.
"Oh my God." Willow gasped out, as Buffy continued to scream; her hands clawing at her face and body—blood pouring from the wounds and then healing just as quickly, all the while Buffy continued to thrash and wail...
When her body finally collapsed on the floor—seemingly spent from the power surge and release, the ground finally stopped moving and then Buffy lifted her head and snarled...
...enraged...
Then she disappeared in a cloud of smoke and reappeared above, taking out Ra's men one by one as Merlyn shot an arrow at Ra's in the chaos, and superficially pierced his right leg at the knee.
His grunt of pain was rather satisfying.
It was getting harder to get a clear view of the devastation as the shadows kept appearing and disappearing along with the screams of Ra's men as they were picked off one by one by Buffy.
Ra's broke off the arrow shaft and stood, grabbing a weapon as Malcolm tried to take another shot—but the Demon's Head cut it down effortlessly. Several more shots were made by Merlyn and each time Ra's deflected them, as carnage fell all around them. Spike, who had finally shaken himself back to fighting stock, grabbed a weapon of his own to take on Ra's...but as he made to move to engage the head of the League, the shadows coalesced and then Buffy was standing there...bloodied—but it was clear the blood wasn't her's.
When the expected confrontation finally occurred, between Slayer and the Demon's Head—it was clear it was going to be over relatively quickly as Ra's couldn't get a clear shot at Buffy. She kept teleporting in and out of shadow, until she had Ra's by the neck and a blade shoved through the man's stomach.
Her feral growl ripped through the chamber, and both Spike and Malcolm watched in abject fear and awe as Buffy kept Ra's in front of her.
"Buffy?" Spike whispered and the Slayer snarled and gnashed her teeth at Spike, warning him not to come closer.
Spike put his hands up and took a hesitant step forward.
"Slayer..."
Buffy just pulled Ra's righter into her body, using his wounded self as a shield.
"It's done, Slayer," Spike pleaded, "Time to send the monster back to hell."
Hazel eyes were darkened. It was clear that Buffy was no long fully in control. Spike glanced warily at Merlyn, who didn't know what to do.
"Let him go, Slayer."
"No!" Her voice rasped out, but it wasn't Buffy's voice...
"Sineya." Faith whispered in horror.
"Buffy?" Spike asked again, and Buffy shook her head, even as she gripped her hand around Ra's neck tighter.
"Noooo!"
"Listen Slayer, I don't have time for cavewoman Buffy right now. We need to get Ra's back to where he belongs. He needs to be punished."
Buffy's eyes shot to the now destroyed pit and she tilted her head at it, before dragging Ra's over to its edge. She glanced down and back to Spike before she grinned evilly—all teeth and wild eyes and then she tumbled backwards into the abyss with Ra's, as Spike yelled for her to stop—while everyone in the batcave screamed out in shock.
Spike and Merlyn ran over to the edge of the pit, but there was nothing there. No Buffy, no Ra's.
"Where did she go?" Spike demanded.
"I have no idea."
Glancing up, Merlyn was taken aback by the three Shadow Men—who were standing there, staring at them both. The one in the middle grinned, and then spoke...
"She has returned the Demon to Purgatory. The pits are destroyed and the Demon's Head is no more."
"How do we get her back?" Spike yelled.
"It is not for you to decide, vampire." The man replied, accent heavy as he swayed slightly. "The time of the primeval one has returned."
Spike took a surprised step back, as the man grinned again—and then he along with his companions, disappeared.
"What the fuck?" Spike growled out as he turned to Merlyn, and the other man just seemed as lost as he was.
"We need to get back to Gotham, Spike."
"I need to find Buffy."
"Look Spike, we need help and I for one have no intention of going after Miss Summers in the state she's in. We need backup."
Spike sneered, but couldn't disagree. He had no idea where to look.
The image then faded from view, and once severed—Bruce pulled his wife into his body as she began to cry.
Dawn, Willow, Thea and Moira were all in tears too...
Oliver however, knew exactly what the shadow man had meant.
"Buffy's on Lian Yu?"
"No!" Faith hissed in shock. "There's no way."
"The mortal is correct in that Miss Summers took Ra's to his fate. He is however, incorrect in that she will remain there."
"How?" Oliver demanded. "How do you know this?"
D'Hoffryn chuckled, and then looked over his shoulder at the raised platform in the water and he smiled widely. When Oliver followed his line of sight, his breath hitched at the woman crouching on the rostrum.
"Buffy?"
All eyes turned as one, and Dawn gasped as she saw her sister watching them all with a wary gleam in her eye.
"Buffy!" Dawn cried starting to rush over to her sister, but Faith held her back—her eyes never leaving that of her sister Slayer, who looked far more prehistoric than Buffyish.
"Dawn!" Faith hissed lowly, "stay calm."
Buffy continued to watch them, her head tilting from side to side as she listed back and forth on her feet...her gaze measured and focused.
"How did she get here if the pits were destroyed?" Faith bit out to D'Hoffryn.
"She is Shadow now. She can pass seamlessly through the portals of the shadow world."
"Are you saying she's no longer human?"
"No. She is more than human," the horned blue demon clarified, "more than she was before. She has merged with the Shadow Demon, and the essence of the primeval one. Only time will tell if Miss Summers is stronger."
"I don't understand."
"If she can't emerge victorious over the darkness, Slayer—it will consume her." D'Hoffryn explained. "It will eventually drive her mad."
"Fuck." Tommy whispered as Oliver couldn't take his eyes off Buffy, as she continued to canter back and forth, her eyes unblinking as she kept staring at them all.
"What can we do?" Willow asked worriedly and D'Hoffryn chuckled again but didn't reply as he turned to Faith and said simply, "Our deal is done, Slayer. I believe you have something that belongs to me?"
Faith glowered but held out her hand and the Sword of Strega appeared. Oliver and Tommy's eyes widened in recognition as Faith handed over the weapon. Before D'Hoffryn left, Faith grit out, "I know you know how to help her." Faith gestured at Buffy. "Why won't you tell me?"
The Lord of Vengeance sighed before he glanced down at the sword in his hand knowingly.
"Slayer, you know how to help her. You've always known where the true Power of the Slayer comes from and her line will forge a new path for millennia to come."
Faith's eyes widened as a portal opened and D'Hoffryn vanished just as Faith extended her hand and the Slayer Scythe appeared. Clasping her hand on it instinctively, she handed it over to Willow, who didn't need to be told twice.
Kneeling down on the cavern floor, Willow started to chant...
As before, the second before the Scythe activated, Willow whispered out, "Oh my, Goddess."
The light power of the Scythe echoed through the cavern with a blistering intensity. Faith felt the power surge through her to the astonished looks of everyone, and then the entirety of all the Slayers who had merged with her in her fight against Danthalzar reappeared in the ether...
...thousands of years worth.
As the power reached Buffy, she screamed...the Shadow trying to hold sway as the two opposing forces of the Slayer's powers fought for control.
Light and Dark...
And then another form appeared on the podium...
...Sineya...
"She is mine!" The voice hissed. "I am the primeval one! I am the Slayer!"
Buffy's body bowed and her mouth opened again as she cried out in agony.
"Nooo!"
Buffy's voice pierced through everyone there and Faith turned and faced Sineya, her expression fierce and forbidding.
"Let her go!"
"Nooo!" Sineya crouched down over Buffy, as the specter's of the other Slayers hovered over the water...waiting...
"The line of Slayer's belongs to me!" Sineya hissed.
Faith cowed back at the venom in the primeval one's voice, but then something astonishing happened...
Buffy stood up and growled out, "No! I am the Chosen One! This is my Destiny!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
As the power of the Scythe continued to swell, Buffy clenched her hands and Faith saw her taking a deep breath before she thrust them out and in that split second...the entire line of Slayer's melded into Buffy and cast out Sineya and the Shadow Demon...who roared with anguish before it was banished, along with the primeval one...back to the darkness.
And Buffy collapsed onto the dais, completely unconscious, leaving everyone completely stunned and speechless, but it was Oliver who reacted, and reached Buffy first as he lifted her gingerly into his arms.
If he hadn't been sure of it before this moment, he was now without question.
Buffy Summers was his...
Ignoring the myriad of looks being sent his way, Oliver walked with purpose back through the caverns and up to the Manor. He just had to figure out how to get Buffy to forgive him for being such an idiot.