"She is dead."
The words woke the room up. Angel looked up from his place on the floor, slumped against a wall. Giles blinked, his first movement since Angel had spoken those dreadful words. And one voice rose over the rest.
"She is dead," the voice confirmed from the open door.
Nine heads snapped towards the sound and stared at the tall, redheaded woman with a little girl by her side.
"And you will join her," the woman continued with a grim smile. "If you don't do as I say. Get ready to fight. Because tomorrow, the fight will come. We attack at dawn."
Angel rose with a deadly grace from his place. "My sister Steph," he introduced. "And her daughter, Deidre."
Steph gave them a brief smile and nodded.
"You had a vision," her mother said. "You found her."
"Yes, mother," she confirmed. "He didn't let her live."
Angel's eyes got as cold as eyes, and a blank look settled on his face. Then he looked at Deidre and the Scooby Gang in the couch. "You four," he said. "Take care of Deidre. We will need the others on the battlefield."
Xander gave him a puzzled look. "Aren't we going to fight?" he asked.
Angel just looked at him. "Not this time," he said softly. "We have three powerful vampires and no Buffy. I can't let you go into battle with your skills. No one can protect you. And you can't fight by yourselves. But my family, I and Giles can. We're going up against them. If we die, you're the only ones left to fight."
The room was silent.
-#-#-#-
She was a dark shadow. Fitting, as she was a child of the darkness now. One with the night, dressed in a dark, fitted clothes. The sword given to her rested next to her as she sat hidden inside the warehouse, and in her hand she had a crossbow with quite a few arrows resting on the wooden floor.
She had to be prepared. They would come at dawn, or so Stephanie had told them. And thank lord Willow and the others weren't coming with them. She liked and respected them, they were her friends, but they were no warriors.
Buffy looked out over the place, filled by vampires. Probably over a hundred. It would be hard for Angel and the others to defeat them. But then, they had her. One perk with being a vampire was the extra strength to her slayer strength. And of course that the vamps couldn't feel her
anymore. She could feel them though. Buffy seriously wondered if Caliam knew what he had done.
Caliam. She could see her sire having a serious make-out session with Drusilla, while Spike watched with jealousy. Buffy felt truly sorry for him. Dru had turned him against his will, by love. And now she had thrown him away for their great grandchild. That sure was a punch in the face. But then again, he stayed with her.
Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted as her enhanced hearing picked up the sound of six persons coming towards the building. She quickly slipped outside. Time for some betraying of her new species.
-#-#-#-
Antonio Marciano struggled to keep his still strong animal instincts from overpowering him. He truly hated being a werewolf. Especially as he never had any memory of what he had done in his moonself.
His hand gripped the longsword he carried, his body tense. But that was what all the others did too. They were after all six against an unknown number. And that was never good, even if they all were trained in martial arts.
Then it happened. One second he'd been walking next to Stephanie, in the next he was dragged into a dark alley by a black-clad woman. He struggled to get loose and to his surprise she immediately let go.
"Listen," she snapped. "There's about a hundred vampires in the warehouse. Spike, Dru and
Caliam have their place in the back, on some kind of stage. You have to attack at the same time. Do it through the main entrance. I'll back you up."
To his surprise he felt himself nodding in agreement.
"Good," she said and turned to go.
"Wait!" the words came from his mouth before he knew it. She paused, her back still towards him. "Who are you?" he asked confused.
She turned her head, an amused smile playing on her lips. "Let's just say...," she started but paused. "I'm a friend." Then she mysteriously just disappeared, leaving him staring after her. Antonio turned and ran the others.
"I've met someone!" he gasped. Everyone in the group gave him weird looks.
"Uh," Maeve said. "That's nice, but can we talk about your love life later?"
He looked puzzled, then everything cleared. "No, not that way," he said hurriedly. "Someone grabbed me just a moment ago. She told me there's a hundred vampires in there, and that we should attack through the front door. Then she said that she would back us up."
Angel looked at him with a faint hope in his eyes. "Who was she?" he asked hopefully. "How did she look?"
Tony shook his head. "I don't know," he replied. "It was dark, and she was dressed in black. She only told me that she was a friend."
Giles nodded. "OK," he said. "But now's the question: can we trust her?"
"Yes," Steph said quickly.
Maybe a little too quick. Antonio looked at her. She knew something he didn't.
"Why?" Sandro asked quietly. "Did you see something?"
With something close to relief, Stephanie nodded. "My visions," she answered. "I've seen her in them. She's on our side."
"Well, that's good," Maeve said. "But we have to get going. The sun will rise soon."
The team started to go again, with Angel as a leader.
-#-#-#-
Caliam smirked as he felt his childe enter the warehouse again. It was a well known secret that a sire could 'feel' those he had sired. He had known she was there all the time. But he wondered why she didn't come down. Scared, he guessed. It was kind of confusing being turned.
Grinning he rose to go to her. If she didn't come to him, he would go to her. She had been a good fuck. Maybe they could repeat it. And this time, she would be alive and awake. It was no fun fucking if your partner just lay there like a piece of dead meat.
He made his way through the crowds of vampires and up the stairs to the place she was hiding. Caliam stepped closer to her on soft feet. Then he noticed the sword and the crossbow. And he understood, but he didn't know how. She was one of them, but wasn't. The weapons could only mean one thing. Her pesky little friends were on their way here to take revenge. And that meant only one thing to him. Time to go back to Italy.
Caliam quickly managed to get out of the building without anyone noticing. Sure, he was all for a fight, but he really liked staying alive too. And while thinking that, he slipped away through the night.
-#-#-#-
Buffy readied her crossbow as she heard the team by the entrance. Then she let two arrows fly, piercing two guards. And at the same time, Angel and the others burst in, attacking the vamps. With a bitter smile, she let herself look at him. Dressed in black with his hair disheveled and with an angry expression in his face, he looked as handsome as ever. She would miss him.
Then she started to fire her arrows, sending another bunch of vampires into dust. By now, vampires attacked the team from everywhere. Even Spike and Dru had joined the fight and her friends had split up.
Angel was fighting his way towards Spike and Dru, while Giles and Steph guarded the exits. Alessandro was fighting with a deadly skill in the middle of the floor, while Maeve kept herself busy by the wall.
She fired her last arrows and took a quick look at the situation. The team had taken out quite a few opponents, but it was time for her to join the fight. Maybe she could find Caliam and make him pay...
Then she made a double take. Caliam! He wasn't in the building anymore. And worse, she could feel a lone vampire disappear fast through the sewers. Her sire had managed to escape.
She shook her head. There was no use thinking about that now. Buffy grabbed her sword, vaulted down and attacked the closest vampire, who gave her a surprised look. And even as he turned into dust he spoke.
"Traitor," he whispered.
Buffy felt a sharp pang of guilt, but shook her head and attacked the next vampire. And soon she stood eye to eye with Spike.
"Slayer," he drawled. "So you've finally gathered enough courage to fight me again."
She shrugged. "I thought you needed some rest," she said.
Spike's eyes hardened and he snarled at her. Then he attacked. In the next second, their swords clashed together. Their movements were graceful and fast, like fighting cats. She hissed as his sword nicked her on the arm, suddenly grateful she had declined a coat. Spike grinned, but the grin quickly disappeared as the hurt skin miraculously healed and her face morphed into the game face.
"You're one of us!" he exclaimed.
She made a swipe with her sword and caught him by surprise. His head lost its place and flew through the air to disappear in a faint dust rain. "Yes!" she growled, then managed to calm down enough to make her new real face disappear.
Then she attacked again. A quick glance towards the place she'd seen Drusilla just a moment ago told her that the ancestor of Angel had gone down and an unnecessary deep breath told her that someone had played a little bit with fire. She ignored it and attacked the last remaining vamps. The deaths of their leaders and the fire had made them think about their own immortal mortality and had fled the place.
Buffy killed the last vampire with a hard kick, sending him into some sharp pieces of wood. With a sigh she straightened up. Now, there was just one thing left to do. And it was the hardest of them all. She felt eleven pairs of eyes in her back and she glanced their way, ignoring the sticky, warm feeling of the fire behind her, already ruling over a third of the building.
And there they were. Alessandro, Maeve, Stephanie, Antonio and Giles, Willow, Xander, Oz, Cordy and Deidre entering from the front with the rising sun at their backs. Her eyes paused at Deidre and looked deeply into her eyes. The girl calmly met her look and gave her a slight nod. Then she let her gaze roam over Angel. Tired and sweaty from the fight, he still was a beautiful sight for her eyes.
He took a step forward as their eyes met. And at the same time Willow uttered what they all thought. "Buffy!" she exclaimed softly.
Fighting an urge to go to them, to just let herself sink into their love, she smiled sadly. "Buffy," she repeated to herself. Then she did it. She turned and started to walk away. Away from her friends and the love of her life.
"Why?" Angel's voice tore through the air, sending daggers of pain into her heart.
She turned around a last time and looked sadly at them. Then she let her face morph into the now familiar gameface.
Gasps and faintly mumbled 'no!s' reached her sensitive ears and eyes suddenly became terrified, somewhat sad and understanding. She let her face disappear and walked away. And as she disappeared out of sight, she caught the sound of Angel's voice in a whisper.
"I love Buffy. I always will."
A tiny smile crept onto her face then disappeared to be replaced by a mask of pure pain. "I love you too," she softly mumbled.
Then she disappeared into the sewers and her prepared flight path.
The End