Part 5
#
The Fifth Circle of Hell was, for the most part, empty wasteland, looking as if a huge fire had razed everything to the ground just hours or minutes before they walked through it. The ground was hot, Buffy's makeshift shoes barely enough to let her walk on it, and occasionally they saw flames and steam erupting from holes in the ground.
"This is more like it," Buffy said in a sarcastic tone. "We only had to travel through four circles to find the fire and brimstone."
The air was filled with sooth and ashes, staining their skin and demon-hide clothing. Buffy found herself sweating profusely, envying Angel for his cool skin. Then again the heat gave her an excuse to snuggle up against his coldness, which was not exactly a bad thing.
"We should be reaching the city of Dys soon," Angel said, not too fond of the landscape either. Too much fire for his taste. "That's when things are going to get difficult, I fear."
Buffy nodded, knowing what Dante had written about Dys. If even half of that was true they were in for the most difficult part of their journey yet. She shook her head to dispel the bad thoughts. Their journey through the Fourth Circle had spooked her a lot, she did not want to go through anything like that ever again.
Odds were, though, that she would not get her wish.
Time had long ceased to have any meaning for them in this place without the cycles of night and day. It might have been hours since their crossing the river when they first spotted the city on the horizon. It might as well have been days. Both had stopped counting, trying not to think of what the world might be like when they finally got out.
Dys was surrounded by gray walls on all sides, giant fortifications that would make one think they were defending against the most terrible of enemies. Only they both knew that these walls were not meant to keep attackers out. Their true purpose quickly became evident when they heard the first screams hailing from inside. Screams that, even after several years in Hell, sent shivers down Buffy's spine.
"I really don't want to go in there," Buffy mumbled, though neither of them slowed down their steps. Bitter experience had taught them that there was no such thing as shortcuts in Hell. Looking at the gray walls towering before them Buffy knew that there would be no circling around them. The only way to pass through the Fifth Circle of Hell was to through Dys. Everything else was just a waste of time.
"Getting in might be a problem," Angel said, looking up the walls. "According to Dante the Furies at first refused to allow the travelers entry. Only when the guide intoned the name of the Lord did they open the gates."
Buffy unconsciously fingered the small silver cross she still wore around her neck. Thankfully Angel had given her a sturdy chain along with it on that long ago night when they had first met, otherwise she would probably have lost it long ago. As it was it had proved quite useful against a few of the demons they had encountered. Hell's denizens were not any fonder of the cross than your average vampire.
"I don't think we can storm the gates with a single cross, can we?"
"Unlikely."
The Fifth Circle was the last stop for all those who had allowed rage and anger to control their lives and both Buffy and Angel could feel it in the very air around them, had felt it ever since they had crossed the Styx. Aggression was hanging in the air like a fog, getting worse the closer they got to the city. It was making Buffy irritable, evident in the sudden impulse to snap at Angel for dismissing her idea so casually.
She got herself under control. The last thing they needed was to let themselves be controlled by their anger. God knew there was still more than enough between them to turn really ugly should they allow their aggressions free reign, but none of that mattered anymore. They had laid their ghosts to rest these last few years, or most of them anyway, and Buffy would be damned before she allowed some hellish whammy to tear open the old wounds.
As they neared the walls the screams got louder and they could see flames spewing forth somewhere inside, great gusts that reached toward the crimson skies and rained sooth down on them. Looking at the stuff clinging to her arms and legs Buffy actually wished for a return to the Third Circle and its perpetual rain fall. She quickly clamped down on that thought. Who knew who might be listening here in Hell.
After what felt like some more hours they finally spotted the gates. They were almost as tall as the walls themselves and broad enough for an army to walk through side by side. They were also tightly shut and glowed a dull red, giving off enough heat to make Buffy dizzy even from a hundred feet away.
"Okay, I don't think we can go in through there," she said, taking a few steps back, desperately wishing for even a hint of a cool breeze and finding nothing.
Angel's head snapped around to look at her and she saw a flash of irritation in his eyes, but he swallowed back the words he had almost said and cleared his head. This place was really getting to them.
"There has to be another entrance," he looked down the length of the walls. "Some kind of exhaust vent or something."
"Do demons need exhaust vents?" Buffy eyed the gray barrier in front of them warily. "They seem to be blowing off most of their heat straight up."
"Look, you got a better idea?" Angel shook his head again. "Sorry, I didn't want to snap at you."
"I know. Let's try to get through this before we're at each other's throats!" She made a step, then blushed. "In the non-kinky way, I mean."
That actually managed to produce a smile from Angel. "I got that."
So the Slayer and the vampire continued looking for an entrance into the burning city of Dys.
#
Buffy was not sure why her mind insisted in replaying that particular memory right now. The Fifth Circle of Hell was not exactly among her fondest recollections. She had thought things were rough traveling through the fourth, but it had only gotten worse from there.
Come to think of it, maybe it was somehow fitting that she remembered that now. Because things were definitely looking worse.
The whole town was going mad. They had left the Bronze and reached Sunnydale's main street when they saw the first signs of chaos, people running in all directions, pure fear on their faces. They also saw demons. Quite a few actually, none of them even trying to hide.
"They are unmasked," Angel whispered, looking around. "All the demons and monsters, all the things that have passed for human."
"They don't look too happy about it," Oz growled through his wolfish snout, barely able to pronounce the words.
"I guess they figure if they can't hide, why try?" Faith smirked. "Looks like we'll be plenty busy tonight, B."
Taking a stake from her jacket, Faith wasted no time jumping a vampire running past them and buried the wood in his heart. The creature screamed and exploded into dust, but there were more of them. A lot more.
"Some of us have to contain the demons," Buffy said, taking a stake from Faith for lack of her sword. "We also need to figure out what is going on here, though."
She looked at the others. "Oz, Cordy, go to Giles! Maybe he can find out what is going on here. Willow. Any witchy stuff you can do?"
The redhead looked uncertain. "I haven't done this long, Buffy. I can only do some very basic spells and such."
Someone screamed close by. "Do what you can," Buffy told her. "We have work to do!"
Faith and Angel joined her as she ran for the source of the screams. All around her the town was erupting, demons coming forth from the shadows wherever she looked. Most of them looked angry, very much so. Angry that their disguises had been ruined, angry that everyone could now see them for what they are.
Buffy saw her own reflection in a shop window, her eyes glowing with a mixture of their natural demon amber and the same silvery glow she saw in Faith's eyes. Her forehead had changed, too, showing something very similar to the vampiric ridges Angel had. Was this a permanent change or just a result of the spell?
Whoever had done this would have some explaining to do. Buffy, just like pretty much everything else hanging around Sunnydale that was not quite human, found herself pretty angry.
#
Part 6
#
Rupert Giles was one of those human beings that could get so engrossed in a book that the world around him completely disappeared. It would take a thunder crack or a very bright explosion to tear him out of the pages, make him aware that there was actually something else around him than yet more books. To be fair, though, only someone paying very close attention would have heard the faint screams coming from outside. Giles did not.
What he did hear, though, was the very insistent knocking on his door.
"Coming," he yelled, habit forcing him to make sure that stake and crossbow were close to the door, just in case this nightly visitor should prove to be of the vampiric kind. When he opened the door, though, he found himself facing not a vampire but a werewolf.
"Oh God!" He stumbled back, grabbing the crossbow by instinct and lining it up on the creature in front of him. There were some noises coming from the wolfman, but with adrenaline pounding in his ears Giles was not able to make them out as words.
Thankfully the appearance of yet another visitor prevented him from actually shooting.
"Chill, Giles!" Cordelia stood in front of the werewolf. "That's Oz, okay? And he isn't going to eat anyone tonight." She frowned and turned toward the boy in question. "You won't, right?"
Giles swallowed, just able to understand the growled response that sounded very much like a yes. Getting back to his feet he put the crossbow aside, not without a certain amount of hesitation.
"U-unless I'm mistaken," he began, "there isn't a full moon tonight, so how ..."
"That's the question we came to you for," Cordelia huffed, dropping on his couch. "This has been the most terrible night, let me tell you. First everyone around me goes Halloween, then people start screaming as if they haven't been living in a town with more graveyards than all of America combined for years and ..."
"Cordelia, slow down, please!" Giles rubbed his eyes. "What is going on?"
"Oh, okay. We were dancing at the Bronze. Well, the others were dancing. Seeing as I haven't exactly been the most wanted girl around here since that terrible mistake called Xander Harris I was ..."
"Cordelia!"
"Again with the yelling!" She shook her head. "Okay, so everyone was dancing and suddenly they all went 'Grrr' on me. Angel slipped into his fang face, Oz here got all furry, Faith's eyes got replaced with silvery headlights, you get the picture."
Giles looked a bit confused.
"Or maybe you don't. Okay, Buffy was being the bossy take-charge girl again and she theorized that everyone around here who isn't quite human suddenly got unveiled or something. We saw a lot of vampires on the street and none of them are looking very much human right now."
Slowly understanding Giles went over the things Cordelia had said. "So there is something that strips all the supernatural beings of their ability to hide behind human masks, is that what you're saying?"
"Pretty much. Come to think of it, I'm the odd girl out once again. All the others are demons or monsters or something. Even Willow got all weird."
"Willow?"
"She got black eyes and little sparks flying around her hands. Actually that's kinda pathetic. I mean if you're gonna turn into a demon or something couldn't it at least be something better than little sparks flying around your hands? Not that I would ever turn into a demon. Eew!"
Giles sighed. He had been very much worried when Willow had told him she was practicing witchcraft and wished that she could just have stopped after that fiasco with the restoration spell for Angel. Unfortunately the redhead was naturally curious and except for making sure that she did not get her hands on any of the more dangerous books in his possession there was not a whole lot he could do about it.
This was not the time to worry about that, though. Right now they had to figure out what was happening to them.
"They all transformed at the same time?" He looked at Oz. "And you are still ... yourself? Not a mindless animal?"
"Pretty much," Oz growled.
"He stinks, though," Cordelia wrinkled her nose. "He got splashed by a car on the way here. Wet fur isn't exactly a fashionable cologne, you know?"
"We have to research this. My guess would be that someone cast a spell over the town. If we can find out what kind of spell it is we might also find a way to reverse it."
"Great," Cordelia sighed. "Dusty books again."
#
"Amy!"
"What?"
Buffy looked at Willow, who had suddenly come to a stop. The redhead had trailed along with Buffy, Faith, and Angel, who were busy taking out as many of the vampires and demons running loose in Sunnydale as they could.
"We should go see Amy," Willow repeated. "Not to put down my own capabilities as a witch, not anyone can levitate a pencil after all, but Amy is way more experienced. Maybe she can figure out what is going on here."
Angel dimly remembered Buffy telling him about someone called Amy once. It had been during their journey in Hell when they had shared their past experiences and adventures with one another. Of course Buffy had had a lot less to tell than Angel, but it had stuck with him.
Buffy also needed a moment to remember who Amy was. They had never been more than loose friends, or at least she thought so. She did remember that the girl had been a witch, though. Crafty enough to enchant all the women in Sunnydale with a love spell, sending them scurrying after Xander. By accident, that was. Turning Buffy into a rat, now that had not been an accident.
Looking around at the chaos still holding sway over Sunnydale Buffy quickly came to a decision. They could not handle all the demons that had been unleashed by this strange magic, whatever it was. There were just too many of them. She hoped that Giles would find a way to resolve this, but if he did not ...
"Trying can't hurt, I guess," Buffy shrugged. "Faith, Angel, you think you can hold the fort?"
She was none to keen on parting with Angel, but someone needed to try and keep the demons under control. Neither Faith nor Angel had ever met Amy, which left Buffy and Willow to look her up while the others kept fighting.
It was at times like these that she hated her logical thinking.
The dark-haired Slayer threw her stake and impaled a vampire running by, a smile on her lips. In some strange way Faith seemed to be enjoying this. Or maybe Angel's talk about her being touched by a higher power had inspired her somehow. Buffy still was not sure what made Faith tick half the time.
"Sure, leave the bad guys to us," Faith said, her smile never breaking as she playfully elbowed Angel in the side. "Me and the big guy will teach them to stay in at night. Just don't complain if we don't leave any for you, B."
"I won't!" Buffy smiled at her sister Slayer. "Come on, Willow! Let's visit Amy!"
"Be careful, beloved," Angel told her.
"Always!"
#
"There they are!"
Amy and Xander were running for their lives. Not from the demons, though some of them had shown an interest in them a little earlier. No, now it was a group of upstanding Sunnydale citizens who seemed to have decided to take no shit from the monsters suddenly appearing in their midst. Upstanding citizens who had torches and shotguns at home and heroically decided to go after a young girl with glowing purple eyes instead of the scary monsters that were eating people left and right.
Both Xander and Amy were so busy running that they only noticed that they had run straight into a dead end when they almost hit the wall.
"Not good," Xander muttered.
About a dozen men were coming toward them, half of them armed, all of them looking very much angry and scared. Which was not a healthy combination, Xander mused.
"We've had enough of monsters in our town," one of the man growled at them. "Time to do something about it.
Xander found himself surprised when he stepped in front of Amy, facing the advancing guys.
"Why don't you start doing something about the big monsters with the long teeth. Or can you only take on frightened girls you've got outnumbered ten to one?"
"No girl I know got purple eyes," another of the men said. "Out of the way, boy!"
"Now wait a minute and ..."
Xander was cut off when he was hit in the face with the butt of a shotgun. Stars exploded in front of his eyes and his knees buckled, the hard concrete rushing up to meet him. He dimly heard Amy yelling something about the goddess Hecate and there was the squeaking of a rat somewhere close by, then everything went dark.
TO BE CONTINUED
#
The Fifth Circle of Hell was, for the most part, empty wasteland, looking as if a huge fire had razed everything to the ground just hours or minutes before they walked through it. The ground was hot, Buffy's makeshift shoes barely enough to let her walk on it, and occasionally they saw flames and steam erupting from holes in the ground.
"This is more like it," Buffy said in a sarcastic tone. "We only had to travel through four circles to find the fire and brimstone."
The air was filled with sooth and ashes, staining their skin and demon-hide clothing. Buffy found herself sweating profusely, envying Angel for his cool skin. Then again the heat gave her an excuse to snuggle up against his coldness, which was not exactly a bad thing.
"We should be reaching the city of Dys soon," Angel said, not too fond of the landscape either. Too much fire for his taste. "That's when things are going to get difficult, I fear."
Buffy nodded, knowing what Dante had written about Dys. If even half of that was true they were in for the most difficult part of their journey yet. She shook her head to dispel the bad thoughts. Their journey through the Fourth Circle had spooked her a lot, she did not want to go through anything like that ever again.
Odds were, though, that she would not get her wish.
Time had long ceased to have any meaning for them in this place without the cycles of night and day. It might have been hours since their crossing the river when they first spotted the city on the horizon. It might as well have been days. Both had stopped counting, trying not to think of what the world might be like when they finally got out.
Dys was surrounded by gray walls on all sides, giant fortifications that would make one think they were defending against the most terrible of enemies. Only they both knew that these walls were not meant to keep attackers out. Their true purpose quickly became evident when they heard the first screams hailing from inside. Screams that, even after several years in Hell, sent shivers down Buffy's spine.
"I really don't want to go in there," Buffy mumbled, though neither of them slowed down their steps. Bitter experience had taught them that there was no such thing as shortcuts in Hell. Looking at the gray walls towering before them Buffy knew that there would be no circling around them. The only way to pass through the Fifth Circle of Hell was to through Dys. Everything else was just a waste of time.
"Getting in might be a problem," Angel said, looking up the walls. "According to Dante the Furies at first refused to allow the travelers entry. Only when the guide intoned the name of the Lord did they open the gates."
Buffy unconsciously fingered the small silver cross she still wore around her neck. Thankfully Angel had given her a sturdy chain along with it on that long ago night when they had first met, otherwise she would probably have lost it long ago. As it was it had proved quite useful against a few of the demons they had encountered. Hell's denizens were not any fonder of the cross than your average vampire.
"I don't think we can storm the gates with a single cross, can we?"
"Unlikely."
The Fifth Circle was the last stop for all those who had allowed rage and anger to control their lives and both Buffy and Angel could feel it in the very air around them, had felt it ever since they had crossed the Styx. Aggression was hanging in the air like a fog, getting worse the closer they got to the city. It was making Buffy irritable, evident in the sudden impulse to snap at Angel for dismissing her idea so casually.
She got herself under control. The last thing they needed was to let themselves be controlled by their anger. God knew there was still more than enough between them to turn really ugly should they allow their aggressions free reign, but none of that mattered anymore. They had laid their ghosts to rest these last few years, or most of them anyway, and Buffy would be damned before she allowed some hellish whammy to tear open the old wounds.
As they neared the walls the screams got louder and they could see flames spewing forth somewhere inside, great gusts that reached toward the crimson skies and rained sooth down on them. Looking at the stuff clinging to her arms and legs Buffy actually wished for a return to the Third Circle and its perpetual rain fall. She quickly clamped down on that thought. Who knew who might be listening here in Hell.
After what felt like some more hours they finally spotted the gates. They were almost as tall as the walls themselves and broad enough for an army to walk through side by side. They were also tightly shut and glowed a dull red, giving off enough heat to make Buffy dizzy even from a hundred feet away.
"Okay, I don't think we can go in through there," she said, taking a few steps back, desperately wishing for even a hint of a cool breeze and finding nothing.
Angel's head snapped around to look at her and she saw a flash of irritation in his eyes, but he swallowed back the words he had almost said and cleared his head. This place was really getting to them.
"There has to be another entrance," he looked down the length of the walls. "Some kind of exhaust vent or something."
"Do demons need exhaust vents?" Buffy eyed the gray barrier in front of them warily. "They seem to be blowing off most of their heat straight up."
"Look, you got a better idea?" Angel shook his head again. "Sorry, I didn't want to snap at you."
"I know. Let's try to get through this before we're at each other's throats!" She made a step, then blushed. "In the non-kinky way, I mean."
That actually managed to produce a smile from Angel. "I got that."
So the Slayer and the vampire continued looking for an entrance into the burning city of Dys.
#
Buffy was not sure why her mind insisted in replaying that particular memory right now. The Fifth Circle of Hell was not exactly among her fondest recollections. She had thought things were rough traveling through the fourth, but it had only gotten worse from there.
Come to think of it, maybe it was somehow fitting that she remembered that now. Because things were definitely looking worse.
The whole town was going mad. They had left the Bronze and reached Sunnydale's main street when they saw the first signs of chaos, people running in all directions, pure fear on their faces. They also saw demons. Quite a few actually, none of them even trying to hide.
"They are unmasked," Angel whispered, looking around. "All the demons and monsters, all the things that have passed for human."
"They don't look too happy about it," Oz growled through his wolfish snout, barely able to pronounce the words.
"I guess they figure if they can't hide, why try?" Faith smirked. "Looks like we'll be plenty busy tonight, B."
Taking a stake from her jacket, Faith wasted no time jumping a vampire running past them and buried the wood in his heart. The creature screamed and exploded into dust, but there were more of them. A lot more.
"Some of us have to contain the demons," Buffy said, taking a stake from Faith for lack of her sword. "We also need to figure out what is going on here, though."
She looked at the others. "Oz, Cordy, go to Giles! Maybe he can find out what is going on here. Willow. Any witchy stuff you can do?"
The redhead looked uncertain. "I haven't done this long, Buffy. I can only do some very basic spells and such."
Someone screamed close by. "Do what you can," Buffy told her. "We have work to do!"
Faith and Angel joined her as she ran for the source of the screams. All around her the town was erupting, demons coming forth from the shadows wherever she looked. Most of them looked angry, very much so. Angry that their disguises had been ruined, angry that everyone could now see them for what they are.
Buffy saw her own reflection in a shop window, her eyes glowing with a mixture of their natural demon amber and the same silvery glow she saw in Faith's eyes. Her forehead had changed, too, showing something very similar to the vampiric ridges Angel had. Was this a permanent change or just a result of the spell?
Whoever had done this would have some explaining to do. Buffy, just like pretty much everything else hanging around Sunnydale that was not quite human, found herself pretty angry.
#
Part 6
#
Rupert Giles was one of those human beings that could get so engrossed in a book that the world around him completely disappeared. It would take a thunder crack or a very bright explosion to tear him out of the pages, make him aware that there was actually something else around him than yet more books. To be fair, though, only someone paying very close attention would have heard the faint screams coming from outside. Giles did not.
What he did hear, though, was the very insistent knocking on his door.
"Coming," he yelled, habit forcing him to make sure that stake and crossbow were close to the door, just in case this nightly visitor should prove to be of the vampiric kind. When he opened the door, though, he found himself facing not a vampire but a werewolf.
"Oh God!" He stumbled back, grabbing the crossbow by instinct and lining it up on the creature in front of him. There were some noises coming from the wolfman, but with adrenaline pounding in his ears Giles was not able to make them out as words.
Thankfully the appearance of yet another visitor prevented him from actually shooting.
"Chill, Giles!" Cordelia stood in front of the werewolf. "That's Oz, okay? And he isn't going to eat anyone tonight." She frowned and turned toward the boy in question. "You won't, right?"
Giles swallowed, just able to understand the growled response that sounded very much like a yes. Getting back to his feet he put the crossbow aside, not without a certain amount of hesitation.
"U-unless I'm mistaken," he began, "there isn't a full moon tonight, so how ..."
"That's the question we came to you for," Cordelia huffed, dropping on his couch. "This has been the most terrible night, let me tell you. First everyone around me goes Halloween, then people start screaming as if they haven't been living in a town with more graveyards than all of America combined for years and ..."
"Cordelia, slow down, please!" Giles rubbed his eyes. "What is going on?"
"Oh, okay. We were dancing at the Bronze. Well, the others were dancing. Seeing as I haven't exactly been the most wanted girl around here since that terrible mistake called Xander Harris I was ..."
"Cordelia!"
"Again with the yelling!" She shook her head. "Okay, so everyone was dancing and suddenly they all went 'Grrr' on me. Angel slipped into his fang face, Oz here got all furry, Faith's eyes got replaced with silvery headlights, you get the picture."
Giles looked a bit confused.
"Or maybe you don't. Okay, Buffy was being the bossy take-charge girl again and she theorized that everyone around here who isn't quite human suddenly got unveiled or something. We saw a lot of vampires on the street and none of them are looking very much human right now."
Slowly understanding Giles went over the things Cordelia had said. "So there is something that strips all the supernatural beings of their ability to hide behind human masks, is that what you're saying?"
"Pretty much. Come to think of it, I'm the odd girl out once again. All the others are demons or monsters or something. Even Willow got all weird."
"Willow?"
"She got black eyes and little sparks flying around her hands. Actually that's kinda pathetic. I mean if you're gonna turn into a demon or something couldn't it at least be something better than little sparks flying around your hands? Not that I would ever turn into a demon. Eew!"
Giles sighed. He had been very much worried when Willow had told him she was practicing witchcraft and wished that she could just have stopped after that fiasco with the restoration spell for Angel. Unfortunately the redhead was naturally curious and except for making sure that she did not get her hands on any of the more dangerous books in his possession there was not a whole lot he could do about it.
This was not the time to worry about that, though. Right now they had to figure out what was happening to them.
"They all transformed at the same time?" He looked at Oz. "And you are still ... yourself? Not a mindless animal?"
"Pretty much," Oz growled.
"He stinks, though," Cordelia wrinkled her nose. "He got splashed by a car on the way here. Wet fur isn't exactly a fashionable cologne, you know?"
"We have to research this. My guess would be that someone cast a spell over the town. If we can find out what kind of spell it is we might also find a way to reverse it."
"Great," Cordelia sighed. "Dusty books again."
#
"Amy!"
"What?"
Buffy looked at Willow, who had suddenly come to a stop. The redhead had trailed along with Buffy, Faith, and Angel, who were busy taking out as many of the vampires and demons running loose in Sunnydale as they could.
"We should go see Amy," Willow repeated. "Not to put down my own capabilities as a witch, not anyone can levitate a pencil after all, but Amy is way more experienced. Maybe she can figure out what is going on here."
Angel dimly remembered Buffy telling him about someone called Amy once. It had been during their journey in Hell when they had shared their past experiences and adventures with one another. Of course Buffy had had a lot less to tell than Angel, but it had stuck with him.
Buffy also needed a moment to remember who Amy was. They had never been more than loose friends, or at least she thought so. She did remember that the girl had been a witch, though. Crafty enough to enchant all the women in Sunnydale with a love spell, sending them scurrying after Xander. By accident, that was. Turning Buffy into a rat, now that had not been an accident.
Looking around at the chaos still holding sway over Sunnydale Buffy quickly came to a decision. They could not handle all the demons that had been unleashed by this strange magic, whatever it was. There were just too many of them. She hoped that Giles would find a way to resolve this, but if he did not ...
"Trying can't hurt, I guess," Buffy shrugged. "Faith, Angel, you think you can hold the fort?"
She was none to keen on parting with Angel, but someone needed to try and keep the demons under control. Neither Faith nor Angel had ever met Amy, which left Buffy and Willow to look her up while the others kept fighting.
It was at times like these that she hated her logical thinking.
The dark-haired Slayer threw her stake and impaled a vampire running by, a smile on her lips. In some strange way Faith seemed to be enjoying this. Or maybe Angel's talk about her being touched by a higher power had inspired her somehow. Buffy still was not sure what made Faith tick half the time.
"Sure, leave the bad guys to us," Faith said, her smile never breaking as she playfully elbowed Angel in the side. "Me and the big guy will teach them to stay in at night. Just don't complain if we don't leave any for you, B."
"I won't!" Buffy smiled at her sister Slayer. "Come on, Willow! Let's visit Amy!"
"Be careful, beloved," Angel told her.
"Always!"
#
"There they are!"
Amy and Xander were running for their lives. Not from the demons, though some of them had shown an interest in them a little earlier. No, now it was a group of upstanding Sunnydale citizens who seemed to have decided to take no shit from the monsters suddenly appearing in their midst. Upstanding citizens who had torches and shotguns at home and heroically decided to go after a young girl with glowing purple eyes instead of the scary monsters that were eating people left and right.
Both Xander and Amy were so busy running that they only noticed that they had run straight into a dead end when they almost hit the wall.
"Not good," Xander muttered.
About a dozen men were coming toward them, half of them armed, all of them looking very much angry and scared. Which was not a healthy combination, Xander mused.
"We've had enough of monsters in our town," one of the man growled at them. "Time to do something about it.
Xander found himself surprised when he stepped in front of Amy, facing the advancing guys.
"Why don't you start doing something about the big monsters with the long teeth. Or can you only take on frightened girls you've got outnumbered ten to one?"
"No girl I know got purple eyes," another of the men said. "Out of the way, boy!"
"Now wait a minute and ..."
Xander was cut off when he was hit in the face with the butt of a shotgun. Stars exploded in front of his eyes and his knees buckled, the hard concrete rushing up to meet him. He dimly heard Amy yelling something about the goddess Hecate and there was the squeaking of a rat somewhere close by, then everything went dark.
TO BE CONTINUED