TITLE: Slayer's Knight 10 AUTHOR: STEPHEN HOWE
E-MAIL: sh01@bigpond.com.au
FEEDBACK: Sure.
DISTRIBUTION: Ask and ye shall receive!
DISCLAIMER: All characters
belong to Joss! He created everything! Set in season 6.Some spoilers but mostly AU. Xander has discovered his
destiny only to have it ripped away from him. Dawn is still here .Set just
after the battle with Glory THE HOLDING CELLS.
Riley watched the
three Wendol as they prowled up and down the entrance to the old club called
the Bronze. Torrance crawled back up the street and squatted beside him. "
There's four more inside and most of the females look okay." He looked to
Buffy. "But the Wendol must have been hungry so you had better hold your stomachs
as we go in." Buffy gets worried when, after several
minutes, they still haven't made any move to attack. Just as she's about to
question Riley over it she hears someone moving up behind them. She lets her
breath out as she hears Faith whisper. " Don't get your panties in a knot
princess it's only me , your ever faithful stand in." She turns to Riley.
" Xander forgot to tell you today's code." When she sees the look of
confusion pass over his face she knows she's been had. " But you already
know it don't you." She hits her fist on the ash fault and proceeds to
leave cursing Xander under her breath. Just then the one sound she prayed
not to hear sounded. They all jumped as the horns blared from over by the high
school. Then three of the guards ran towards the school whilst the other two
stood out front and watched them depart." Now!" Riley tells his men and
they attack quickly beheading the guards and making their way inside. Faith
blocks her nose again as she scans the room." They look okay I'll get back
to Xander now." But as she turned to go Riley grabbed her arm. "
We'll need you and Buffy to help get these women back to the safe house
Faith." She looked at how the women baulked at the touch of them men and realized
he was right she looked back to the old school and said. " When you get
back I'm going to open up a can of whoop ass on Ya Harris!" Buffy was busy helping release the prisoners and it wasn't till
she had the last one blinking in the sunlight that she realized why the guards
left. She glanced at Faith then at Riley. " We have to go help
them." Faith and Riley looked at each other as she
began shouting. "Well I for one am not going to stand by and let them
die!" Faith grabbed her arm and it took all her Slayer strength to hold
her. " B, this is what he wanted. He wouldn't have done this if he didn't
have a way in and out in mind!" Buffy thought for a second then clicked her fingers. " His
old escape route! He used to ditch school by going out through the old
maintenance room next to the library, then sneak back before the end of
day." Her eyes pleaded with them and Riley gave in." Okay Torrance
and the rest of us will take the captives back while you three go help the
white Knight." Angel nods. As does Faith and Buffy hugs Riley. "
Thank you." She tells him and he blushes. " Just don't any of you get
hurt? Xander would kill me if you did." THE OLD
SCHOOL Xander eased open the still functioning
door a crack and saw two guards pacing outside of the remains of the
Library." Right there are two at the moment now what we do is I will go
inside the room with one other while the rest keep the Wendol off our backs.
Then we fight our way clear get out through here and run like Maurice Green
back to the horses, clear?" They all nod then draw their swords.
Haroldson whispers. " Today is a good day! And don't any of you lag
behind. " He grins." You wouldn't want to miss your place in Valhalla
would you?" Xander and the others slip into the hallway
and attack the Wendol, just as the last guard falls another walks down to see
what the noise is. He sees the humans and lifts his horn up sounding the alarm
before they could silence him. Haroldson shouts at Xander. " Go give the
lady a haircut son! We'll hold them off here for you." Xander forces open the doors and pales at the sight of all the
heads the Wendol have taken hanging from the ceiling like Christmas
decorations. He sees a few of his men and several of the townspeople's as he
makes his way to the Hellmouth. He sees the obese form of the Queen her head
decorated with the teeth of people sacrificed to her. He moves slowly until he
sees her eyes light up and she growls a warning. Two of the largest Wendol he
had ever seen turn and charge him. He dodges the first then guts the second as
it gets close, before he swings his sword in an arc cleaving it's head from
it's body. He watches both the queen and the other Wendol trying to gauge what
they will do. The Wendol charge him and Xander runs towards the
wall then uses it to back flip over the giant and take its head from behind. As
the creatures green blood covers Xander he searches the room for the queen and
finds her over by the Mouth dropping heads into the pit and drooling a blue
liquid from her mouth into it. Xander walks towards it." Hey this is school property! On
behalf of the class of '99 and the Municipal and Shire Council of the city of
Sunnydale I order you to cease and desist all occult activity!" The beast stops its casting and tilts it's ugly head to
one side." Whattttt?" It hisses at him. She holds the last of her
offerings in one hand." With this I will open hell on to your world young
Knight." As she talks Xander slips a dirk from up his sleeve and prepares
to stop her. She holds it up high and screeches out the rest of her curse in a
language dead before man was a glint in some monkeys eye." You know I wish
I had a dollar for every time I've heard some whacked out freak spout off the
same crap and d'ya know what?" He readied his arm as she shrugged her
shoulders then threw the knife." They always loose!" The knife hit the
head and it spun out of her hand and into a dark corner of the building. Her claws clicked
together as she stalked towards him. " I guess I'll have to use yours
then!" She hissed. Xander raised his sword and steadied his footing then called out
to her. " Sorry but I'm kinda attached to it now and I don't think Buffy
'd like it if I brought it back all banged UP!" She charged him before he
finished his last words and he, narrowly missed her swinging claws. He slashed
at her and took a horn off the left shoulder causing her to scream out. She flashed her oversized teeth at him and
the blue bile began to run down her mandibles. Xander decided he needed to end
this quickly before any aid could come to her. He charged and she swung at him clipping
his side, opening it up to the bone. She laughed at his pain but not for long. She
failed to see his sword as it swung down cleaving her head from her body.
Xander rolled the body over the edge of the Hellmouth and yelled. " Give
my regards to Mayor Wilkins!" Before he placed a rag around her head and
carried it off. As
he exited the building Haroldson glanced at him. He took in the green blood
that covered most of his body and the red stain oozing across his side."
Well I got my souvenir lets book!" The knights killed the last of the
Wendol and hurried out of the school and prayed the Wendol hadn't found their
horses. As they rushed out they found Buffy, Angel and a pissed of Faith
standing by them surrounded by dead Wendol. Xander saw the death glare coming from Faith and stood behind
Buffy as he held up the prize." I got the bitca's head so lets.." He
jumped on to his horse before Faith reached him and she mounted hers. "
Just wait till we get back Harris! You are one dead puppy dog!" Xander glanced over at Buffy who was checking
him over from her horse. " Don't look at me Xand! It's your fight."
She noticed the blood and turned pale." She didn't bite you did she?"
Xander shook his head
then noticed the wound. " Crap! It must have been those damn claws of
hers." He leered across at Buffy." See what I mean about cutting your
nails? I scratch easy." Buffy grinned." Well it's easy to see you're
okay so what say we get the hell out of Dodge before they realized where we
are?" They rode off as fast as they could and
Xander felt a sense of well being he hadn't felt for a long time. He noticed
Haroldson had a nasty gash on his arm and he berated him. " Jim how many
times do I have to tell you to call out when you're hurt!" He signaled to
the others and they dismounted while Faith looked at Haroldson's wound."
You know it's a lot warmer than I thought it would be at this time of
year." Buffy grinned at him as she lifted his shirt. " Well Xander,
when we get back to civilization it's going to get a lot warmer." Her
smile vanished when she began cleaning the wound off. A coating of blue oily
liquid was inside his wound. " XANDER! I thought you said she didn't bite
you!" He turned slightly to look at the gash and she could see the
sweat running off his face. "She didn't! She just scratched me." He
grinned at her. " Buffy I'm as fine as a day at the beach. Now lets get
going before they catch up." They rode hard and fast, arriving at the encampment
just before mid-day. Willow, Dawn, Cordelia and Giles were waiting out the
front as they rode in Xander staggered off his horse and threw the Queens head
to Riley. " Mount that above the forward defenses." He winked at
Dawn. " That should make 'em panic!" He then realized they were still
there. " What the hell are you still doing here?" Dawn looked around
for support before telling him." Willow, Tara and Giles stayed back and I
thought you'd need my help too!" Xander kicked at a rock and ran a hand
through his long black hair before glaring angrily at the group." Did
every freaking one go deaf? Or just terminally stupid? " He pointed to the
gate. " Now get your buts out of here before..." He suddenly went red
in the face and his hands gripped his throat. " Gnn ... Shitttt!"
They looked on in horror as thick black blood poured from his mouth before he collapsed,
shaking, on to the ground. END OF 16