TITLE: THE PRIZE 8

TITLE: THE PRIZE 8

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! Rated R for violence and adult themes. Set in season 6.B/X pairing. Giles is Buffy's watcher who now works for the Council once more. Anya gave her life to save Buffy in the fight against Glory. Dawn is still here and Willow is with Tara. THE FORREST. Buffy watches the sun go down as they loose the trail they had been following. Giles kneels and tries to find another print but." It's as if it just vanished?" Buffy looks around. " Giles from the thing you described it should be heavier than a tank and we've lost its trail?" John tells them." The Shamash village is somewhere around here maybe there's someone there that could help us?" Giles pushes his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. " If what you say is correct surely they would be the last people to talk to?" Buffy looks at Giles and he can see the anger building behind her eyes. " I don't care what you do! I say let this thing have the lot of them.. But the Sheriff is mine!" Giles tries to calm her down. " I know you're angry Buffy but we can't just let this creature run rampant! What if innocent..." She cut him off with a glance and his soul quaked at the venom he saw in her words." These 'people' used and abused other humans just because they had the power to do so! Then when someone stepped in and tried to stop them they..." She almost lost control and began to cry again but her resolve stood fast." They murdered him and hid the evidence in the ground like the dogs they are!" The sound of hands clapping drew their attention towards a man standing in the shade of some trees. " Very nice Slayer! I really got into the whole' angel of vengeance ' thing you've got going there but what about Xander? Do you think he would want you to turn into another Faith? And what of this thing when it's finished snacking on the town do you think it will stop there?" She glares at him." The Sheriff and his men must pay!" Spike flicks his cigarette away then moves towards the group. " Oh don't you worry pet I have plans for the good Sheriff! Plans that would make Angelus puke!" He took the shotgun from Buffy and gripped her shoulder. " Don't worry Slayer you will find Willow, stop this Godzilla Wanna be and I'll take care of Sheriff Vince and then we can take Xander's body back to SunnyHell. Then maybe I can take over from where droopy left off? " " Spike, Willow's dead! The creature tore her up with the other two deputies!" He looked at her." Where did you get this? Those two heroes were trying to rape her but I couldn't break my shade to help. Then the creature from the slack lagoon came rolling in and played mix and match with their bodies, but it picked Red up like a plaything and carried her off." He looked from Buffy to Giles. " I thought you knew?" Giles looks down the track the creature had vanished on. " Why would it rip those two apart yet let Willow live?" Spike shrugs then places the barrel across his shoulder. " Give up watcher, maybe he fancies redheads? Or maybe he wanted a snack when it wakes up." Giles turns to reply but before he can an arrow pins Spike to a tree." Jeez! What is it with these people and shooting arrows into me?" " Nobody move or the Billy Idol clone gets a one way ticket to Dust city!" Spike yells into the darkening forest. " Hey! I'll have you know he copied me.. Smart ass!" SHAMASH VILLAGE. Willow is talking to Pony about the history of her people." We arrived with the people called First ones to use words for power. They were the descendants of the Annassasi." Willow looks quizzically at her. " We were taught they disappeared from their homes in New Mexico hundreds of years before white invasion." Pony smiles. " Ah yes white mans history of the red man. If it weren't so pandering I'd scream! " Pony watches as Grey Owl tells Willow. " The first tribes to talk of the Annassasi told the white man they came from the stars and returned to them many centuries before the white man even dreamt of new lands to conquer. The Annassasi left behind a legacy that became their legend and a relic that became our millstone." The wizened old man raised his arms and began his tale. " The last of those that were there to see the Annassasi leave were given a stone that came from their home. As soon as the first of the Shamash people touched the stone they were instantly fused with the stone. This is where we received our gift, and our curse." Pony asks Willow. " Alexander, was he descended from any of the first nations?" Willow thought for a minute then shrugged. " I really can't say Pony, he never talked about his family." She blushed as she recalled." I know they weren't very good parents... He did say once about a dream he had when the first... I mean he had a dream about his father telling him he was the last of his line and the line ends with him." Pony blanches and Grey Owl clasps her knee." You were not to know little one." Grey Owl turns to Willow. " Your young friend appears to have been the last in a long line of Shaman vessels." He nods." It is said that at one time there were a tribe of Annassasi decedents living, hidden, amongst the white eyes. They took on their form and even hid their offspring so well even they didn't know what they were till they came of age." " Just what is a vessel? The people we work for told a friend that they suspected Xander was something more than we could imagine." Willow felt the track of a tear as it slid down her cheek at the memory of her childhood friend. Grey Owl turned to Pony and nodded. Pony stood up and held out her hand. " Come there is something we should show you." She bowed to Grey Owl then guided Willow down the hallway and up to a room that emitted a green glow through the gaps in the door. Pony stopped and thought how to give her thoughts life." Know that we did not have any idea this would happen. We only tried to help one that gave his all for our people and paid the ultimate price. Had we known we would have told him not to touch the crystal." Pony opened the door and Willow's scream cut through the peaceful night. END OF 8