Buffy didn't know what stunned her more. The way Darla landed flat on her ass at her feet or the fact that it was Faith who put her there. The only one more flabbergasted seemed to be Darla.
"There can only be one Slayer at a time!" She cried.
"Boy have you been out of the loop," Faith replied, sending a roundhouse kick into Darla's jaw. "I guess being dust particles will do that for you." She looked up at Buffy. "Hey, B."
Buffy shook off her amazement and struck out at Dru, who was still holding her by the throat. She'd have to deal with Faith later.
* * * * *
"Good lord," Wesley said, just after he vaporized a vampire.
"What now?" Max asked as Liz and Cordelia worked fervently to free him.
"Faith," he replied grimly.
Max followed his gaze to the young woman who was fighting beside Buffy. Fighting just like Buffy, he realized. Only she looked like more of a street fighter while Buffy seemed more in control.
"Is she one of the good guys?" Max asked.
"Considering she held me captive and tortured me for hours, I'm probably not the one to ask." Wesley replied. He turned to Angel. "You brought her here?"
"I thought we might need her," he replied. "It looks like I was right."
Wesley nodded grimly and took a viscous swing at the nearest vampire.
* * * * * *
Michael was ready to explode. He was cracking vampires over their skulls with a mace but they just kept coming. What was killing him was that he knew he could vaporize them but because he still didn't have total control over range he was afraid to. With vampires and allies mixed together he didn't want to accidentally take out some of the Pod Squad or the Scoobies. So he had to be satisfied with brute force.
* * * * * *
Isabel didn't know how much longer she could hold on. She had never used her powers for so prolonged a period and she was on the verge of collapse. She looked over at her brother, still chained up. He couldn't be more conspicuous if he had a target painted on his chest. But Liz was at his side, working feverishly to free him and her new friends were fiercely protecting her so she could do it. Isabel had resented Liz's intrusion into her life in the beginning but Max had been right about her. She really would die for him. Just like Alex had more or less died for her. Died because of her. She wished she had appreciated him more when he was alive. But thinking of him, and thriving on the grief that still filled her, gave her more strength. She dredged up some more energy and she launched another attack.
* * * * * *
Maria felt pretty useless. She was almost out of holy water, which didn't do much anyway, except keep the vampires at a distance. She didn't have any special alien powers and Liz, her comrade in normalcy, had abandoned her to join her new Superfriends. It was weird, Maria often thought of herself as a freak-magnet. If any weirdoes came into the Crashdown, they inevitably took a table in her section. She wondered if Liz had the same ability. Only hers was supernatural freak-magnet.
* * * * * *
Kyle and his dad had developed a rather smooth working system. Kyle used his strength, momentum, and wrestling training to send any vampires that went after him spiraling at his dad. While his dad waited with a poised axe. The pile of dust at his feet was growing quite large when their system hit a snag. A vampire finally caught on and attacked the sheriff from behind.
"Dad!" Kyle shouted, sprinting for his father as the sheriff wrestled with the vamp. Kyle had just reached him when the creature burst into a cloud of dust. Kyle blinked and Valenti turned around and found Maria, blowing on a jagged piece of wood.
"Color me impressed, Deluca," Kyle said.
"Even Earth girls can kick ass," she replied with a wide, shiny Maria smile.
* * * * * *
Willow knew Tara was getting tired. She also knew that Tara would never let her know. People thought Tara was meek but Willow knew better. She knew how strong she was, how determined.
Willow knew they had to get everyone out and soon. She could see that Buffy's new allies were starting to falter. She also saw Faith make her grand entrance and decided that if Faith was their salvation then they were in deep trouble, indeed.
* * * * * *
Faith was having the time of her life.
You worry too much
You make yourself sad
You can't change fate so don't feel so bad
Enjoy it while you can
It's just like the weather
So quit complaining, brother,
No one lives forever.
She'd been locked up in the pen so long she couldn't remember the last time she had a real challenge. And pounding on vamps was her favorite form of recreation. It was what she was born to do. But she also knew she couldn't let the adrenaline rush get to her. It was when that blood lust burned inside of her that it spilled over onto everything else around her. That was when she lashed out at potential friends, when she forgot that she was suppose to be one of the good guys. That's when she heard the Mayor whispering in her ear the loudest.
The Mayor had been the closet thing to a father that she'd ever had. He'd been evil, sure, but he'd also been good to her. And he had never asked her to do anything she didn't want to do. He had tapped into her dark side. Then Angel tapped into her good side. He knew what it had been like to be evil, but more importantly, he knew what it was like to feel the guilt for all those deeds.
When he sent for her she didn't even hesitate. And now here she was, in the thick of a hot battle and there was even music playing like a sound track to her destruction. It was like a mini reward for her turning away from evil.
Let's have a party
There's a full moon in the sky
It's the hour of the wolf and I don't want to die
* * * * *
"Is that Faith?" Anya asked Xander as he wrestled with a vampire that was trying to get the axe out of his hand.
Xander caught a glimpse of the slayer when the vamp started swinging Xander around like a dog with a chew toy.
"Looks like her," he said.
"She's quite pretty," Anya remarked. "I can see why she was the first female you had sex with."
The vampire shook his head like he misheard her and Xander used the distraction to punch the vamp in the face.
"Do you still find her attractive?"
Xander hit the vampire with his other fist and shook his head.
"Her whole, I'm-going-to-ally-myself-with-the-demon-snake-Mayor-and-kill-everything-in-my-path-phase was really a turn off."
"But I thought you liked women that had an edge to them. I thought you liked the fact that I'm an ex-demon," she said, hitting the vampire over the head and knocking him to his knees.
Xander swung his sword and lopped the head off the vampire, causing it to burst into a cloud of dust.
"An edge, Anya," he assured her. "Not an arsenal full of daggers."
"Then I shouldn't pull her hair out or use any other form of female territory marking techniques?"
Xander glanced at Faith pummeling what was left of a vampire.
"Probably not."
* * * * * *
Darla was tired of it all. She had wanted to kill Angel and Buffy with her own hands but failing that, seeing them dead by any means would suit her just fine. She managed to get away from Faith, who was having a grand time tearing apart some of Darla's less intelligent minions. Now she was focused on Max Evans who was still strung up while his little girlfriend worked to free him.
She pulled out a knife and walked in front of the boy, making sure that he could see her. Liz looked up from her work and saw her. She started shaking her head.
"This is for Kathleen!" Darla shouted as she flung the blade at the young man's heart. Liz screamed and jumped in front of her boyfriend. But true to form, Angel was there. He stepped forward and took the blade in the shoulder.
Darla walked up to him and smiled.
"How does it feel?" She asked him. "Having all your girls in one place?" She nodded toward Dru, Buffy and Faith. "You broke all our hearts in one way or another."
Angel grabbed her by the shoulders.
"I said that the next time I saw you I would kill you."
"Promises were never your strong suit, lover." Darla said and then she twisted the knife, literally. Angel fell to his knees and Darla turned and beckoned to Dru. "Come on, Drusillia. I'm through with this town."
Angel stumbled to his feet and looked down at the blade protruding from his shoulder. It hurt like hell but it wasn't meant to kill him, just cripple him for a moment. Angel pulled the blade out and took a step toward them but he wobbled a bit and almost lost his balance. He knew immediately what she'd just done to him.
"Are you OK?" Liz asked him. She'd seen him take a more impressive beating but he had taken this for her and he suddenly looked sick.
"Yeah," he said, "But we need to get out of here."
She nodded and went back to work on freeing Max.
Wesley went to Angel and examined the wound that Darla had given his vampire friend. His brows furrowed and he put his finger in the wound and then licked it.
"Oh, I did not just see that!" Gunn cried. "Don't tell me you're developing a taste for blood now, are you English?"
But Wesley ignored him. He looked up at Angel.
"The blade was poisoned. It had—"
"I know," Angel said, gritting his teeth and ripping the blade out. "We need to get out of here, there isn't much time."
Wesley looked at his friend solemnly and finally nodded.
"We'll get people out the way Faith got in."
* * * * *
Ethan was scanning the room frantically while he waved a stake around rather ineffectually.
"Where did Darla go?" He demanded.
Spike looked around and saw the blond disappear around a corner with Drusillia trailing behind her.
"Dru baby!" He called out but she ignored him and followed Darla out. "Well that was uncalled for. You think she's still steamed about my trying to stake her the last time she was in Sunnydale?" He shook his head. "And deserting the ship when things aren't going her way? That girl's gone soft."
"They left?" Ethan said, frantic.
"Looks that way." He said. "If you were expecting more from Darla then boy were you—"
"We have to get out of here," Ethan cried. "If she left that means—"
* * * * *
It sounded like ice cracking.
Max looked up and immediately knew what was happening.
"Liz!" He shouted. "Get out of here!"
"We're almost there," she said, still grinding away at the chains binding him to the wall.
"Liz—"
There was an explosion that shook the entire building. Then another and then another. Angel fell over. Cordelia screamed.
"Good lord," Wesley whispered.
"The roof," Ethan screamed. "She rigged the entire roof—"
Human, alien and vampire alike all instinctively looked up.
Suddenly Max felt the chains slither off of his wrists.
Then the cement roof crumbled above their heads.
