Disclaimers, et al, in Part 1 --
*********************
IN HARM'S WAY
by Yahtzee
Yahtzee63@aol.com
*********************
Part 4
"We got trouble," Anya said.
"Right here in River City," Xander muttered back. The guy in front of him -- the vampire in front of him -- glanced backward, an unpleasant gleam in his eye.
In the back of the store, Harmony folded her hands across her chest and lifted her chin. "I should say, I was having a good Christmas. It's gone downhill now that I've run into you."
"I'm as not-thrilled to see you as you are me," Spike snapped, "so what say you come back for your little movie some other time?"
"You know, Spike, you're this big, bad vampire, or at least you used to be," Harmony said. "And you've been all these places, and you've done all this stuff, and maybe the entire rest of the world is your turf. But the mall is MINE."
"Harmony, are you okay?" Gregory said, leaning out of the Tai Chi section. "Oh. Uh, hi, Spike."
Spike remembered Gregory, a candy-assed little suckup, destined not to make it more than five years after his death even if he was lucky. But Gregory wasn't sucking up right now. He was looking at Spike with a decidedly unfriendly glare -- as were the other vampires in the store.
"When did vampires start hanging out at the mall?" Spike wondered aloud. "Time was when we preferred crypts. Desecrated altars. Studio 54. Nobody's got any standards anymore -- not that you had many to begin with, Gregory, but if you're pandering to Harmony, you've come down in the world."
"I think you're the one who's come down, Spike," Gregory said. His words, and Harmony's brilliant smile of gratitude, ignited a not-entirely-unwelcome rush of rage within Spike. "Harmony's given us the Slayer."
"Given you the Slayer?" Spike looked sharply at Harmony, whose smile was suddenly a little less brilliant. "Well, isn't that interesting --"
"Now this town is ours again," Gregory said. "What have you done for us lately?"
"It's not what I've done," Spike said. "It's what I'm about to do."
Xander wasn't able to hear what was going on in the back of the store, but he got the gist of it as Spike went demon-faced, grabbed the vampire near him and threw him over the video racks and into an enormous poster of Sean Connery. As Anya yelped in surprise, and Sean and the vampire fell to the ground together, Xander said, "Houston, we have a problem."
"No, you do," said the vampire in the front of the line, shifting into vamp mode himself. The Suncoast clerk screamed and hit a yellow switch on the wall; lights began blinking, and a computerized voice began speaking:
"Security to A-57. Security to A-57."
And all hell broke loose.
Harmony screamed, "You -- big -- bully!" and punched Spike in the nose. Spike barely flinched before shoving her sideways into the wall, sending box sets flying throughout the store.
The vampire in line grabbed Xander's sweatshirt; Xander kneed the guy hard in the groin. As it turned out, some nerves were apparently even more sensitive after death; the vampire fell over, groaning. Anya yelled, "Spike? I think we should be leaving!"
"The fun is just getting started!" Spike said as he smashed the Kubrick box set into -- and almost through -- the face of a vampire who had run to Harmony's side.
Security guards came jogging toward the store. Harmony, jumping up from the floor, cried out, "Mall fight! Let's do some damage!"
The vampires all cheered and began rushing out of the store. A couple of them pounced on the security guards. Others started clutching at passers-by. "Spike!" Xander yelled over his shoulder. "All that slaying you wanted to do?"
"I'm on it!" Spike yelled as he ran forward, a grin on his face.
Anya slid her backpack off and swung it, hard, into one of the vampires who'd grabbed a security guard. It slid sideways, which allowed the shaken guard to grab his gun and fire. The vampire fell over -- not dead, of course, not even down for long, but out for a moment. Anya looked back at Xander and Spike, who had caught up with her outside Suncoast. "Wood. We need wood. NOW."
"No problem," Xander panted, as he slugged another vampire. "We're at the mall. We can get anything at the mall, right?" All around them, people had begun screaming and running -- and, unbelievably, grabbing stuff from the stores. "We can today, anyway."
Spike grabbed the dazed Gregory on his way out of the store and smashed his head into the mall directory. It cracked satisfyingly as Gregory fell in a heap. "Sounds grand. So, where's Stakes-R-Us?"
"Uh --" Xander racked his brains. Where did you get wood at the mall, anyway? "Pier One! Now!"
Pier One, fortunately, was only three stores to the left -- the direction in which most of the marauding vampires were headed. A small kiosk in the middle sold golfing equipment; as they ran past, Spike grabbed up a putter. "Little more like it!" he yelled, swinging it solidly into another vampire's head; she fell, screaming, over a nearby railing and down two levels to the bottom floor.
"Spike! You bastard!" Harmony yelled. She was actually running after them, in full vamp face, utterly furious. "She's wearing my jacket! I'm never getting the stains out of it now!"
"Stupid bint," Spike growled, drawing the club back to see if he could smack her skull hard enough for decapitation. "Shouldn't have let me catch on to your game --"
"Spike!" Xander screamed. Spike wheeled around to see a cackling vampire dangling Xander over the railing -- and the long drop to the bottom -- by one ankle. After the first thrill of anticipation, Spike realized that, technically, he ought to helping Xander out.
"Damn," he muttered, and turned away from Harmony.
The cackling vampire gave Xander a good, pre-death shake -- before being grabbed by Anya. She pulled backward fiercely, hissing, "Get my boyfriend back over here!"
In response, the vampire let go of Xander -- just as Spike lunged forward and grabbed him. Furious, Anya threw the vampire to the ground and smashed into his face with the high heel of her boot.
"Oh, honey, gross!" Xander said as Spike pulled him back over the side. "I mean, thanks, but -- gross --"
"Get prissy later," Anya said. "Get wood now."
They ran into Pier One, where a surprising number of looters seemed interested in scented candles. Xander, Anya and Spike all ran toward the back. "Furniture, furniture --" Xander said. "Yes!"
"We're gonna kill vampires with papasan chairs?" Anya said.
"At last they're good for something," Xander said.
But Spike was shaking his head. "No, no, no."
"What?"
"This is rattan!" Spike said. "You can't bloody stake someone with bloody rattan, now, can you? And what is this? Wicker? What kind of crap furniture do they sell here, anyway?"
"Uh, crap, basically," Xander said. "Damn!"
"Food court," Anya said.
"You're hungry?" Xander said.
"Panda Express!" Anya yelled, grabbing both Spike and Xander to start towing them toward the door. "Chinese food!"
All three of them yelled the next word together: "Chopsticks!"
They ran out of Pier One into the mall corridors -- and total bedlam. People scurried about with merchandise stuffed in their clothes, under their arms. At least a dozen fistfights were taking place on the top level alone -- and, at least as far as Xander could tell, none of them involved vampires. But there was one body lying still on the ground near the sporting-goods kiosk. From the corpse's already-pale skin, Xander was guessing somebody had had a snack. Over the PA, the song "Sleigh Ride" was playing in strange accompaniment."We gotta stop this," Xander said.
"They're headed down," Spike said, hurrying toward the escalators. Sure enough, Harmony and some of the others were running toward the lower levels, shoving people out of their way as they went.
Xander and Anya started after them; Spike instead jumped up onto the railing of the up escalator and began running down it with inhuman speed and balance. He went a couple of steps past the group of vampires, then around and swung the club into their midst, clotheslining quite a few. Harmony was among the few who managed to duck.
"You just can't accept that I've moved on, can you?" she taunted.
Spike rolled his eyes. "Every time I think you can't get stupider -- aghh!" The upward motion of the escalator railing had smacked him into one of the fiberglass candy canes. Harmony laughed and ran away as Spike stumbled onto the down escalator and into Xander and Anya..
"Very smooth," Xander said. "I'm so glad you're here to help us out with this."
"Yeah, I'm sure you'd have liked to handle that plummeting-to-your-death bit on your own," Spike said. "Where the hell is this panda restaurant?"
Anya towed the guys to their feet as they got to the bottom of the escalator. "Food court's to the left," she panted. "Panda Express is against the far wall --"
Several of the vampires were reinterpreting the term "food court." Xander looked around in horror at the four -- no, five -- vamp attacks he could see. "Oh, damn. You guys go --"
"Xander?" Anya cried over her shoulder as she and Spike ran toward Panda Express. "Don't get heroic!"
"Too late," Xander muttered, picking up a chair and swinging it into one of the attacking vampires' back. She dropped her victim -- who sank to his knees, pale but alive -- and sprang at Xander. Xander, who knew very well that discretion was the easiest part of valor, sidestepped her neatly, allowing her to fall into the trash bin.
"Smooth move, Tess!" Harmony called. She was helping herself to some TCBY yogurt, while another vampire helped herself to the TCBY clerk.
"Bitch," Tess growled. She leapt off the ground and -- to Xander's shock and relief -- ran past him, away from the fight and Harmony. Xander shook his head and took off toward one of the other feeding vampires, chair in hand.
Anya skidded to a stop at the Panda Express counter; Spike didn't bother with skidding, but just vaulted over the cash register to land in the serving area. The terrified staff just stared at them both. "Chopsticks!" Anya said, breathless. "We need chopsticks!"
The clerks just stood there, stupefied. Spike rolled his eyes and started rummaging through the bins himself -- then held up a small, plastic tool and stared at it. "What the hell is this?"
"It's a spork," Anya said. "They only have sporks?"
Spike pulled himself up, eye to eye, with the manager. "I just want you to know, for the record, that if I could kill you with this -- spork -- I'd do it. Spend a lot of time envisioning how that would work, will you? I haven't got time to think through the details myself." He jumped back over the counter. "Now what?"
"Save Xander!" Anya said, pointing in his direction. He was surrounded by four vampires, all of whom were closing in.
"Do you have to put it like that?" Spike said, even as he started forward. He grabbed another chair and smashed it against the floor so that it broke into so much metal. Spike grabbed the two longest pieces and jumped back into the fray.
"About time!" Xander panted. He'd been kicked in the face, and blood was running down his temple.
"Take a bar," Spike said, tossing one to him. "Start swinging." Instead of taking his own advice, Spike simply wrapped his fist around his bar and punched a vampire in the jaw. The crunch of bone was audible even over the screams of the crowd and the still-cheery PA music.
Xander did just that, slashing the two closest vampires across their chests. Each of them hissed and drew back -- they weren't that seriously hurt, but it was still more than they were looking for. Xander feinted toward them, and they bolted. Just as he started to feel sort of impressive, he realized they weren't running away from him as much as they were running toward the panicked, defenseless people everywhere else in the mall. "Oh, God, this is horrible."
"Speak for yourself," Spike said, using his metal bar to further pummel the semiconscious vampire at his feet. "I don't know when I've had this much fun."
"Where's Anya?" Xander said.
Anya had found another mall directory; as vampires jumped and looters shouted and people fled all around her, she was running her finger down the store list, talking to herself. "Radio Shack. No. Sbarro. No. Spencer Gifts. No." As Xander and Spike ran to her side, she looked over at them, disgusted. "Do you realize that there is no wood at the mall?"
"Don't know how I ever missed it before," Xander panted. "You okay?"
She was already studying the directory again. "T -- U -- oh, wait. Wait! Williams Sonoma!"
"Let's move --" Xander said.
They ran down to the next level. Fortunately, yet again, the vampires had moved with them. "You think they're headed out?" Anya called as they raced down the escalator.
"If I know Harmony, she's going straight for The Limited," Spike said.
"Hope you're right," Anya said. "It's right next door."
As he ran, Xander dazedly noticed that some places -- Camelot Music, Bath and Body Works -- were getting looted like crazy, while others were being left almost alone. Payless, for instance. "That figures," he muttered to himself. "Nobody wants to try on shoes during a riot."
Williams Sonoma, from the look of things, was in the latter category. Only a few shoppers were inside, and most of them seemed to be attempting to hide behind display racks of extra-virgin olive oil. Some of those shoppers screamed as the three of them came tearing into the store. "It's all right!" Xander said. Behind him, a big-screen TV, apparently pushed over the third-floor railing, came smashing down to the ground. "Um -- amend that to -- it's gonna be all right."
Anya grabbed the clerk behind the counter and said one word: "Spoons."
"In the back, to the right, by the cutting boards," the clerk whimpered.
Anya and Xander ran to the back; sure enough, dozens of wooden spoons were clustered in canisters all around. Anya dumped several into her backpack as Xander started tucking them into his pockets, his waistband, anywhere. "Spike?" Xander yelled. "You gonna get armed or what?"
"Oh, I'm armed," Spike said. Xander and Anya looked over to see him standing on a table in the cutlery section; he was holding up an enormous meat cleaver that looked like it could take the head off a cow. "Now, we've got ourselves a party."
Inside The Limited, Harmony twirled in place in front of a few of her new girlfriends, modeling her new sweater, stepping neatly over the dead store manager. "So, what do you think? Be honest. I mean, I always looked good in pink before, but maybe my complexion's changed, what with being dead and -- Spike!"
From his place alongside the sale rack, Spike grinned. "Honest opinion?" he said, lifting up the meat cleaver. "It DOES make you look fat."
The vampires all screamed -- at any rate, all but the one nearest Spike. The cleaver swung through her neck, decapitating her and smashing her into dust.
Harmony bolted. Spike took off after her. "Leave her alone!" one of the other vampires cried, and began to run after him -- but was stopped by Anya, who plunged a spoon handle deep into her chest, dusting her.
"This is more like it," Xander said, as he polished off one of his own. "Glad we could -- ugh--"
"Xander, what's wrong?"
"Got vampire up my nose," Xander said, sneezing. "Come on, let's finish this."
Harmony and Spike were both out of sight by the time Anya and Xander got into the corridor; however, Spike's handiwork was evident. Little piles of dust created a trail back out through the mall. Once Xander and Anya got to staking in earnest, the surviving vampires soon realized that playtime was over. Soon, the only vampires they could see were running away.
"Where's Spike?" Anya said.
"Who cares?" Xander said.
"He saved your life," Anya said. "Xander, if something had happened to you --"
"Yeah?"
Anya looked down at the ground. "I wouldn't like it."
"I'm moved," Xander said dryly. But the funny thing was -- he was moved, at least a little. For Anya, that was downright mushy. "Never fear. Mr. Clairol's probably doing something wholesome, like murdering his ex-girlfriend. We'll catch up with him back at Giles'."
"Why are we headed to Giles' house?"
"He's got to hear about this," Xander said slowly. "I want to know if -- if this means what I think it means."
Despite both his and Xander's fervent wishes, Spike was not murdering Harmony. He had given her a good chase, but she managed to lose him somewhere in Macy's. Disappointing though this was, he still had plenty to do -- he decapitated at least five more vampires before the rest of the undead cleared out.
Spike swaggered out of Zales' Jewelers after dusting the last vampire and helping himself to a sharp new watch. He took a long look around him. Humans were still running around, screaming, grabbing items from almost every store. Shop windows were smashed, trash bins had been upended, and clothes and bags were strewn around the floor. One of the escalators was making a very strange humming sound and sending sparks flying. A small fire seemed to have started in the movie-theater concession area, and the sprinkler systems over there had kicked in. Over the PA system, Elvis was crooning "Blue Christmas."
"I love the holidays," Spike said.
"This totally sucks," Harm said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I mean, he coulda just said, you know, you're looking good, or something. He didn't have to be a total creep about it."
"It's hard for some people to admit they're wrong," Gregory said, putting an arm around Harm's shoulders. "He's probably still so torn up over losing you -- over wasting his chance --"
"He's hanging around with the Slayer's friends," Tess said. She was staring at Harm and Gregory, fists clenched. "That's gotta mean something. We ought to figure out what that is, instead of sitting here while Harm goes crybaby on us."
"Back off, Tess," one of the other vampires said. "What do we care about the Slayer's friends? We got the Slayer." The other vampires murmured approval, and Tess's expression grew still darker as Harmony nodded.
"I don't care where he goes or what he does anymore," Harm said. "I really don't. I'm moving on."
Gregory smiled at her. "You're so brave."
Tess stomped out.
Buffy lay still in her cage in the center of the gym, her breathing slow and even, her heartbeat steady. Nobody -- not even a vampire -- could have guessed that she was, in fact, awake.
In the last day or so, Buffy realized, the drug had started to lose some of its effect on her. It still knocked her out -- but not as deeply, nor for as long. Her Slayer's body, ever adaptive, had begun compensating for the tranquilizer's effects. Buffy thought she might have been able to throw off the drug entirely by now, if only they hadn't been draining her blood, over and over.
As it was -- she could hold on.
And when her friends came to get her -- when Angel came through that door again -- she'd be able to help them.
Soon, she promised herself. They'll be here soon.
"The top story tonight comes from Sunnydale; just when you thought Pokemon fever was over, a riot breaks out in the mall. That's right -- the Sunnydale mall was overrun with panicking, rioting shoppers tonight, an incident management attributes to parents crazy to get their hands on Pokemon toys, such as the whimsical Pikachu --"
Willow looked up from the TV when she heard the door open; her mouth dropped open at the sight of Anya and Xander, disheveled and dirty. "Xander! Did you get caught in the toy riot?"
"If that was a toy riot, I never want to see a real one," Xander said wearily. "That riot had real moving parts. Not for ages under three."
"It was more like a vampire riot," Anya said.
"Vampires?" Giles said, stepping out of the kitchen. "In the mall?"
"Maybe two, three dozen of them" Xander said. "And they weren't scared of anything, at least not until Spike got the meat cleaver."
"Spike had a what?" Willow said.
Giles shook his head. "Let's stay focused, shall we? You say they attacked openly --"
Xander nodded. "I've never seen anything like that. Giles, it's like -- it's like they knew."
"Knew what?" Willow asked.
"You mean -- they knew that Buffy would not be there to stop them," Giles said quietly.
"Yeah," Xander said. "But, that could mean a lot of things, right? Right?"
Giles nodded, but his face had gone pale and still. He slowly lowered himself into a nearby chair.
"Oh, no," Willow whispered. "No."
"God DAMN, what a party that was," Spike said, swinging merrily through the door. "And here I thought Boxing Day wasn't celebrated in the States."
"Spike, this is not the time," Giles snapped. "We have -- more pressing concerns --"
"The way I see it, your troubles are all but over," Spike said.
"How do you figure that?" Xander said.
"All that noise at the mall tonight, you know what that means?" When the others just looked at him blankly, Spike smiled. "Your Slayer's alive."
CONTINUED PART FIVE
*********************
IN HARM'S WAY
by Yahtzee
Yahtzee63@aol.com
*********************
Part 4
"We got trouble," Anya said.
"Right here in River City," Xander muttered back. The guy in front of him -- the vampire in front of him -- glanced backward, an unpleasant gleam in his eye.
In the back of the store, Harmony folded her hands across her chest and lifted her chin. "I should say, I was having a good Christmas. It's gone downhill now that I've run into you."
"I'm as not-thrilled to see you as you are me," Spike snapped, "so what say you come back for your little movie some other time?"
"You know, Spike, you're this big, bad vampire, or at least you used to be," Harmony said. "And you've been all these places, and you've done all this stuff, and maybe the entire rest of the world is your turf. But the mall is MINE."
"Harmony, are you okay?" Gregory said, leaning out of the Tai Chi section. "Oh. Uh, hi, Spike."
Spike remembered Gregory, a candy-assed little suckup, destined not to make it more than five years after his death even if he was lucky. But Gregory wasn't sucking up right now. He was looking at Spike with a decidedly unfriendly glare -- as were the other vampires in the store.
"When did vampires start hanging out at the mall?" Spike wondered aloud. "Time was when we preferred crypts. Desecrated altars. Studio 54. Nobody's got any standards anymore -- not that you had many to begin with, Gregory, but if you're pandering to Harmony, you've come down in the world."
"I think you're the one who's come down, Spike," Gregory said. His words, and Harmony's brilliant smile of gratitude, ignited a not-entirely-unwelcome rush of rage within Spike. "Harmony's given us the Slayer."
"Given you the Slayer?" Spike looked sharply at Harmony, whose smile was suddenly a little less brilliant. "Well, isn't that interesting --"
"Now this town is ours again," Gregory said. "What have you done for us lately?"
"It's not what I've done," Spike said. "It's what I'm about to do."
Xander wasn't able to hear what was going on in the back of the store, but he got the gist of it as Spike went demon-faced, grabbed the vampire near him and threw him over the video racks and into an enormous poster of Sean Connery. As Anya yelped in surprise, and Sean and the vampire fell to the ground together, Xander said, "Houston, we have a problem."
"No, you do," said the vampire in the front of the line, shifting into vamp mode himself. The Suncoast clerk screamed and hit a yellow switch on the wall; lights began blinking, and a computerized voice began speaking:
"Security to A-57. Security to A-57."
And all hell broke loose.
Harmony screamed, "You -- big -- bully!" and punched Spike in the nose. Spike barely flinched before shoving her sideways into the wall, sending box sets flying throughout the store.
The vampire in line grabbed Xander's sweatshirt; Xander kneed the guy hard in the groin. As it turned out, some nerves were apparently even more sensitive after death; the vampire fell over, groaning. Anya yelled, "Spike? I think we should be leaving!"
"The fun is just getting started!" Spike said as he smashed the Kubrick box set into -- and almost through -- the face of a vampire who had run to Harmony's side.
Security guards came jogging toward the store. Harmony, jumping up from the floor, cried out, "Mall fight! Let's do some damage!"
The vampires all cheered and began rushing out of the store. A couple of them pounced on the security guards. Others started clutching at passers-by. "Spike!" Xander yelled over his shoulder. "All that slaying you wanted to do?"
"I'm on it!" Spike yelled as he ran forward, a grin on his face.
Anya slid her backpack off and swung it, hard, into one of the vampires who'd grabbed a security guard. It slid sideways, which allowed the shaken guard to grab his gun and fire. The vampire fell over -- not dead, of course, not even down for long, but out for a moment. Anya looked back at Xander and Spike, who had caught up with her outside Suncoast. "Wood. We need wood. NOW."
"No problem," Xander panted, as he slugged another vampire. "We're at the mall. We can get anything at the mall, right?" All around them, people had begun screaming and running -- and, unbelievably, grabbing stuff from the stores. "We can today, anyway."
Spike grabbed the dazed Gregory on his way out of the store and smashed his head into the mall directory. It cracked satisfyingly as Gregory fell in a heap. "Sounds grand. So, where's Stakes-R-Us?"
"Uh --" Xander racked his brains. Where did you get wood at the mall, anyway? "Pier One! Now!"
Pier One, fortunately, was only three stores to the left -- the direction in which most of the marauding vampires were headed. A small kiosk in the middle sold golfing equipment; as they ran past, Spike grabbed up a putter. "Little more like it!" he yelled, swinging it solidly into another vampire's head; she fell, screaming, over a nearby railing and down two levels to the bottom floor.
"Spike! You bastard!" Harmony yelled. She was actually running after them, in full vamp face, utterly furious. "She's wearing my jacket! I'm never getting the stains out of it now!"
"Stupid bint," Spike growled, drawing the club back to see if he could smack her skull hard enough for decapitation. "Shouldn't have let me catch on to your game --"
"Spike!" Xander screamed. Spike wheeled around to see a cackling vampire dangling Xander over the railing -- and the long drop to the bottom -- by one ankle. After the first thrill of anticipation, Spike realized that, technically, he ought to helping Xander out.
"Damn," he muttered, and turned away from Harmony.
The cackling vampire gave Xander a good, pre-death shake -- before being grabbed by Anya. She pulled backward fiercely, hissing, "Get my boyfriend back over here!"
In response, the vampire let go of Xander -- just as Spike lunged forward and grabbed him. Furious, Anya threw the vampire to the ground and smashed into his face with the high heel of her boot.
"Oh, honey, gross!" Xander said as Spike pulled him back over the side. "I mean, thanks, but -- gross --"
"Get prissy later," Anya said. "Get wood now."
They ran into Pier One, where a surprising number of looters seemed interested in scented candles. Xander, Anya and Spike all ran toward the back. "Furniture, furniture --" Xander said. "Yes!"
"We're gonna kill vampires with papasan chairs?" Anya said.
"At last they're good for something," Xander said.
But Spike was shaking his head. "No, no, no."
"What?"
"This is rattan!" Spike said. "You can't bloody stake someone with bloody rattan, now, can you? And what is this? Wicker? What kind of crap furniture do they sell here, anyway?"
"Uh, crap, basically," Xander said. "Damn!"
"Food court," Anya said.
"You're hungry?" Xander said.
"Panda Express!" Anya yelled, grabbing both Spike and Xander to start towing them toward the door. "Chinese food!"
All three of them yelled the next word together: "Chopsticks!"
They ran out of Pier One into the mall corridors -- and total bedlam. People scurried about with merchandise stuffed in their clothes, under their arms. At least a dozen fistfights were taking place on the top level alone -- and, at least as far as Xander could tell, none of them involved vampires. But there was one body lying still on the ground near the sporting-goods kiosk. From the corpse's already-pale skin, Xander was guessing somebody had had a snack. Over the PA, the song "Sleigh Ride" was playing in strange accompaniment."We gotta stop this," Xander said.
"They're headed down," Spike said, hurrying toward the escalators. Sure enough, Harmony and some of the others were running toward the lower levels, shoving people out of their way as they went.
Xander and Anya started after them; Spike instead jumped up onto the railing of the up escalator and began running down it with inhuman speed and balance. He went a couple of steps past the group of vampires, then around and swung the club into their midst, clotheslining quite a few. Harmony was among the few who managed to duck.
"You just can't accept that I've moved on, can you?" she taunted.
Spike rolled his eyes. "Every time I think you can't get stupider -- aghh!" The upward motion of the escalator railing had smacked him into one of the fiberglass candy canes. Harmony laughed and ran away as Spike stumbled onto the down escalator and into Xander and Anya..
"Very smooth," Xander said. "I'm so glad you're here to help us out with this."
"Yeah, I'm sure you'd have liked to handle that plummeting-to-your-death bit on your own," Spike said. "Where the hell is this panda restaurant?"
Anya towed the guys to their feet as they got to the bottom of the escalator. "Food court's to the left," she panted. "Panda Express is against the far wall --"
Several of the vampires were reinterpreting the term "food court." Xander looked around in horror at the four -- no, five -- vamp attacks he could see. "Oh, damn. You guys go --"
"Xander?" Anya cried over her shoulder as she and Spike ran toward Panda Express. "Don't get heroic!"
"Too late," Xander muttered, picking up a chair and swinging it into one of the attacking vampires' back. She dropped her victim -- who sank to his knees, pale but alive -- and sprang at Xander. Xander, who knew very well that discretion was the easiest part of valor, sidestepped her neatly, allowing her to fall into the trash bin.
"Smooth move, Tess!" Harmony called. She was helping herself to some TCBY yogurt, while another vampire helped herself to the TCBY clerk.
"Bitch," Tess growled. She leapt off the ground and -- to Xander's shock and relief -- ran past him, away from the fight and Harmony. Xander shook his head and took off toward one of the other feeding vampires, chair in hand.
Anya skidded to a stop at the Panda Express counter; Spike didn't bother with skidding, but just vaulted over the cash register to land in the serving area. The terrified staff just stared at them both. "Chopsticks!" Anya said, breathless. "We need chopsticks!"
The clerks just stood there, stupefied. Spike rolled his eyes and started rummaging through the bins himself -- then held up a small, plastic tool and stared at it. "What the hell is this?"
"It's a spork," Anya said. "They only have sporks?"
Spike pulled himself up, eye to eye, with the manager. "I just want you to know, for the record, that if I could kill you with this -- spork -- I'd do it. Spend a lot of time envisioning how that would work, will you? I haven't got time to think through the details myself." He jumped back over the counter. "Now what?"
"Save Xander!" Anya said, pointing in his direction. He was surrounded by four vampires, all of whom were closing in.
"Do you have to put it like that?" Spike said, even as he started forward. He grabbed another chair and smashed it against the floor so that it broke into so much metal. Spike grabbed the two longest pieces and jumped back into the fray.
"About time!" Xander panted. He'd been kicked in the face, and blood was running down his temple.
"Take a bar," Spike said, tossing one to him. "Start swinging." Instead of taking his own advice, Spike simply wrapped his fist around his bar and punched a vampire in the jaw. The crunch of bone was audible even over the screams of the crowd and the still-cheery PA music.
Xander did just that, slashing the two closest vampires across their chests. Each of them hissed and drew back -- they weren't that seriously hurt, but it was still more than they were looking for. Xander feinted toward them, and they bolted. Just as he started to feel sort of impressive, he realized they weren't running away from him as much as they were running toward the panicked, defenseless people everywhere else in the mall. "Oh, God, this is horrible."
"Speak for yourself," Spike said, using his metal bar to further pummel the semiconscious vampire at his feet. "I don't know when I've had this much fun."
"Where's Anya?" Xander said.
Anya had found another mall directory; as vampires jumped and looters shouted and people fled all around her, she was running her finger down the store list, talking to herself. "Radio Shack. No. Sbarro. No. Spencer Gifts. No." As Xander and Spike ran to her side, she looked over at them, disgusted. "Do you realize that there is no wood at the mall?"
"Don't know how I ever missed it before," Xander panted. "You okay?"
She was already studying the directory again. "T -- U -- oh, wait. Wait! Williams Sonoma!"
"Let's move --" Xander said.
They ran down to the next level. Fortunately, yet again, the vampires had moved with them. "You think they're headed out?" Anya called as they raced down the escalator.
"If I know Harmony, she's going straight for The Limited," Spike said.
"Hope you're right," Anya said. "It's right next door."
As he ran, Xander dazedly noticed that some places -- Camelot Music, Bath and Body Works -- were getting looted like crazy, while others were being left almost alone. Payless, for instance. "That figures," he muttered to himself. "Nobody wants to try on shoes during a riot."
Williams Sonoma, from the look of things, was in the latter category. Only a few shoppers were inside, and most of them seemed to be attempting to hide behind display racks of extra-virgin olive oil. Some of those shoppers screamed as the three of them came tearing into the store. "It's all right!" Xander said. Behind him, a big-screen TV, apparently pushed over the third-floor railing, came smashing down to the ground. "Um -- amend that to -- it's gonna be all right."
Anya grabbed the clerk behind the counter and said one word: "Spoons."
"In the back, to the right, by the cutting boards," the clerk whimpered.
Anya and Xander ran to the back; sure enough, dozens of wooden spoons were clustered in canisters all around. Anya dumped several into her backpack as Xander started tucking them into his pockets, his waistband, anywhere. "Spike?" Xander yelled. "You gonna get armed or what?"
"Oh, I'm armed," Spike said. Xander and Anya looked over to see him standing on a table in the cutlery section; he was holding up an enormous meat cleaver that looked like it could take the head off a cow. "Now, we've got ourselves a party."
Inside The Limited, Harmony twirled in place in front of a few of her new girlfriends, modeling her new sweater, stepping neatly over the dead store manager. "So, what do you think? Be honest. I mean, I always looked good in pink before, but maybe my complexion's changed, what with being dead and -- Spike!"
From his place alongside the sale rack, Spike grinned. "Honest opinion?" he said, lifting up the meat cleaver. "It DOES make you look fat."
The vampires all screamed -- at any rate, all but the one nearest Spike. The cleaver swung through her neck, decapitating her and smashing her into dust.
Harmony bolted. Spike took off after her. "Leave her alone!" one of the other vampires cried, and began to run after him -- but was stopped by Anya, who plunged a spoon handle deep into her chest, dusting her.
"This is more like it," Xander said, as he polished off one of his own. "Glad we could -- ugh--"
"Xander, what's wrong?"
"Got vampire up my nose," Xander said, sneezing. "Come on, let's finish this."
Harmony and Spike were both out of sight by the time Anya and Xander got into the corridor; however, Spike's handiwork was evident. Little piles of dust created a trail back out through the mall. Once Xander and Anya got to staking in earnest, the surviving vampires soon realized that playtime was over. Soon, the only vampires they could see were running away.
"Where's Spike?" Anya said.
"Who cares?" Xander said.
"He saved your life," Anya said. "Xander, if something had happened to you --"
"Yeah?"
Anya looked down at the ground. "I wouldn't like it."
"I'm moved," Xander said dryly. But the funny thing was -- he was moved, at least a little. For Anya, that was downright mushy. "Never fear. Mr. Clairol's probably doing something wholesome, like murdering his ex-girlfriend. We'll catch up with him back at Giles'."
"Why are we headed to Giles' house?"
"He's got to hear about this," Xander said slowly. "I want to know if -- if this means what I think it means."
Despite both his and Xander's fervent wishes, Spike was not murdering Harmony. He had given her a good chase, but she managed to lose him somewhere in Macy's. Disappointing though this was, he still had plenty to do -- he decapitated at least five more vampires before the rest of the undead cleared out.
Spike swaggered out of Zales' Jewelers after dusting the last vampire and helping himself to a sharp new watch. He took a long look around him. Humans were still running around, screaming, grabbing items from almost every store. Shop windows were smashed, trash bins had been upended, and clothes and bags were strewn around the floor. One of the escalators was making a very strange humming sound and sending sparks flying. A small fire seemed to have started in the movie-theater concession area, and the sprinkler systems over there had kicked in. Over the PA system, Elvis was crooning "Blue Christmas."
"I love the holidays," Spike said.
"This totally sucks," Harm said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I mean, he coulda just said, you know, you're looking good, or something. He didn't have to be a total creep about it."
"It's hard for some people to admit they're wrong," Gregory said, putting an arm around Harm's shoulders. "He's probably still so torn up over losing you -- over wasting his chance --"
"He's hanging around with the Slayer's friends," Tess said. She was staring at Harm and Gregory, fists clenched. "That's gotta mean something. We ought to figure out what that is, instead of sitting here while Harm goes crybaby on us."
"Back off, Tess," one of the other vampires said. "What do we care about the Slayer's friends? We got the Slayer." The other vampires murmured approval, and Tess's expression grew still darker as Harmony nodded.
"I don't care where he goes or what he does anymore," Harm said. "I really don't. I'm moving on."
Gregory smiled at her. "You're so brave."
Tess stomped out.
Buffy lay still in her cage in the center of the gym, her breathing slow and even, her heartbeat steady. Nobody -- not even a vampire -- could have guessed that she was, in fact, awake.
In the last day or so, Buffy realized, the drug had started to lose some of its effect on her. It still knocked her out -- but not as deeply, nor for as long. Her Slayer's body, ever adaptive, had begun compensating for the tranquilizer's effects. Buffy thought she might have been able to throw off the drug entirely by now, if only they hadn't been draining her blood, over and over.
As it was -- she could hold on.
And when her friends came to get her -- when Angel came through that door again -- she'd be able to help them.
Soon, she promised herself. They'll be here soon.
"The top story tonight comes from Sunnydale; just when you thought Pokemon fever was over, a riot breaks out in the mall. That's right -- the Sunnydale mall was overrun with panicking, rioting shoppers tonight, an incident management attributes to parents crazy to get their hands on Pokemon toys, such as the whimsical Pikachu --"
Willow looked up from the TV when she heard the door open; her mouth dropped open at the sight of Anya and Xander, disheveled and dirty. "Xander! Did you get caught in the toy riot?"
"If that was a toy riot, I never want to see a real one," Xander said wearily. "That riot had real moving parts. Not for ages under three."
"It was more like a vampire riot," Anya said.
"Vampires?" Giles said, stepping out of the kitchen. "In the mall?"
"Maybe two, three dozen of them" Xander said. "And they weren't scared of anything, at least not until Spike got the meat cleaver."
"Spike had a what?" Willow said.
Giles shook his head. "Let's stay focused, shall we? You say they attacked openly --"
Xander nodded. "I've never seen anything like that. Giles, it's like -- it's like they knew."
"Knew what?" Willow asked.
"You mean -- they knew that Buffy would not be there to stop them," Giles said quietly.
"Yeah," Xander said. "But, that could mean a lot of things, right? Right?"
Giles nodded, but his face had gone pale and still. He slowly lowered himself into a nearby chair.
"Oh, no," Willow whispered. "No."
"God DAMN, what a party that was," Spike said, swinging merrily through the door. "And here I thought Boxing Day wasn't celebrated in the States."
"Spike, this is not the time," Giles snapped. "We have -- more pressing concerns --"
"The way I see it, your troubles are all but over," Spike said.
"How do you figure that?" Xander said.
"All that noise at the mall tonight, you know what that means?" When the others just looked at him blankly, Spike smiled. "Your Slayer's alive."
CONTINUED PART FIVE