Part 27: The Line I Have to Cross
#
It was routine, really, all too routine an occurrence in a place like Sunnydale. The nurse at her station was jarred out of reading her newspaper by the howling of the emergency monitors. A glance sufficed to tell her that one of the critical patients had just flat lined, the equipment that monitored him screaming for human assistance.
Barely ten seconds later a doctor and three nurses were in the patient's room, doing their best to bring the dying man back from the brink. Adrenalin was injected directly into his heart. Electrical shocks were prepared to jumpstart the failing muscle. Oxygen was forced into his uncooperative lungs.
They all knew, though, that it was rather hopeless. None of them knew how this man had held on as long as he had. It was a minor miracle that he had survived his trip into the hospital, not to mention the many days he had hovered on the edge here in this bed. He was too broken, too damaged. Even if he had somehow managed to come back he would have been crippled for life. As it was, though, that life seemed about to be cut short.
They kept on fighting for his survival, did everything they could to help him cheat death for yet another day, another hour, even another minute. They all feared, though, that Angel O'Connor's luck had finally run out.
#
Buffy inched back from the battle, desperately trying to regain control of herself as the presence of Jackson King roared through her blood like a storm front. The wolf woman, Julia, seemed unaware of the new combatant, pressing her advantage against a suddenly distracted opponent. The battle went on all around them, SDO agents fighting against the attackers called Team 666 and Jackson King attacking whoever came between him and Buffy.
Her nightmare was coming true, Buffy realized, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"No," she whispered, her arms working almost on automatic to block Julia's attacks. "Please, no!"
"It's too late to stop," Julia growled, misunderstanding her words. "This has to end and we are going to end it!"
She pushed again and Buffy was too distracted to stop her in time. One of her claws broke through the Slayer's defense and left a deep, bleeding wound on her shoulder. Buffy stumbled back, crying out with the pain.
Jackson King was close enough to hear it, close enough to see it happen.
"You will die for this," he screamed, throwing two SDO agents aside like puppets. Only a heartbeat later he was upon Julia. The wolf woman sensed him at the last possible moment, but was too slow to fend him off before his first blow thundered right into her face.
King's world had narrowed down to this creature before him, the one who had dared to hurt his mate. She would suffer for this. He paid no heed to her attempts to defend herself, the small cuts her claws managed to make inconsequential. Again and again he drove his fists into her body, the sound of breaking bones and cries of pain like music to his ears.
"Stop it," Buffy pleaded, not trusting herself to get any closer. "You're killing her."
He did not even hear her.
She kept one hand pressed against her wound, watching helplessly as Jackson was busy killing Julia. The wolf woman was a bloody mess already, barely fighting back anymore, helpless before the fury of the Huntsman. Jackson was clearly not interested in stopping before she was dead. Buffy wanted to stop him, but she was certain that, should they touch, she would only join him.
With a cry of rage another of the attackers, the one whom Buffy had thought knocked out just minutes ago, came to his comrade's aid. He looked like a vampire, his face distorted, and the punches he threw at Jackson told of his more than human strength.
Buffy saw Jackson take a punishing blow to his face and something inside her snapped.
"Get away from him," she heard herself scream, leaping forward into the fray once more. Power thundered through her body, seeming to increase exponentially with every step toward her mate. She saw the wound on Jackson's forehead, a cut caused by the blow he took, and she could see it close right before her eyes. Her own wound did not bleed any longer, either. She could almost feel the skin knitting back together.
They fell into a fighting rhythm without so much as a word between them, the wide grin on Jackson's face the only sign of his joy upon having her by his side. The attacker was strong, maybe strong enough to have given either of them pause in a one-on-one battle. Against both of them, though, he did not have a chance. He fell to the ground, bleeding and broken, and Jackson raised his fist for the killing blow as Buffy found herself grinning, almost tingling with anticipation.
"No," someone screamed and both of them found themselves airborne, flung away from their intended victim by some unseen force. Buffy had half a second to see one of the remaining three members of Team 666, the only one with no outward sign of being other than human, gesturing at them, the air wavering around his hands. Then she met the wall hard, her head bouncing back from the impact.
The crimson fog that had descended on her brain was wiped away by a flash of pain and Buffy could think straight again, at least for a moment.
The situation was quickly deteriorating, she realized. Burke and his people seemed to hold their own more or less, but she saw quite a few of their number down, lying on the floor unmoving. The attackers had done a thorough job of wrecking the warehouse and flames were quickly spreading. Julia and the vampire half-breed were still down, but the remaining three seemed to be taking up the slack.
Jackson was getting back to his feet and Buffy could feel the roaring in her blood threaten to blot out her thoughts again. She had to end this and fast.
She moved, pouring all her concentration into the physical part of what she had to do. No thinking! No feeling! Just doing! Julia was trying to get back to her feet and Buffy ran by herwithout slowing down, tackling her to the ground again in the process. Jackson was already back up and, seeing her, headed towards her. Buffy did her best to ignore his presence calling out to her, closing her eyes. This had to end. Now.
Moments later she crashed into him, driving her elbow into his belly with every bit of strength she could muster. The air was driven from his body and he fell back, clutching what had to be at least one broken rib. There was no telling how long it would remain broken with his healing powers enhanced by their proximity, but it bought her a few precious seconds.
She kept moving, fearing that pausing even a moment to catch her breath would spell the end of her self-control. One of the SDO agents was about to have his head torn off by the reptile-looking member of Team 666 and moments later she was there, knocking him aside. The man hissed at her, but she was already gone again, heading towards her next target. The guy who had thrown her and Jackson against the wall loomed before her, seemingly taken by surprise by her speed, and she delivered what she hoped was a knockout punch before he could defend himself.
Fortune deserted her then, though, because the final member of Team 666 tackled her to the ground. His face was strangely distorted, as if mother nature had been unable to decide whether to make it human or any of half a dozen demon species Buffy could think of. Moments later she stopped thinking, though, because he grabbed her by the shoulders.
His touch burned like acid and Buffy screamed as it ate away at her skin.
Someone was there to help her and for a moment she feared it was Jackson. Then she saw Riley, though, hitting her assailant in the face with the butt of his assault rifle. He turned to look at her, relief on his face when he saw that she was more or less all right, only to be attacked in turn.
"Stay away from her," Jackson screamed, tearing into Riley like a buzz saw.
Buffy tried to get back to her feet, but weariness was descending on her like a heavy blanket. The pain from her wounds, the call in her blood, the smoke that was quickly filling up the staging area, it all came down on her like a hammer and she stumbled, her balance shot to hell.
One of Riley's colleagues tried to help him, but Jackson barely paid him any heed, swatting him away with a blow that almost caved in the man's head. Buffy saw him land a kick that broke Riley's leg, the young man screaming in pain. Her eyes moved around the room, taking in the many dying and wounded, those already dead. She had seen Jackson kill at least two men, kill them just because they were in his way. Now he was killing Riley.
Sheer determination brought her back to her feet and close to Jackson, her hands reaching out to touch his face. He turned to look at her, letting up on his relentless assault on a bleeding and unconscious Riley. She looked into his eyes, fighting the effect his presence had on her as best as she could, and tried to find ... something. Something that would tell her this could be fixed. Something that would give her hope that she would not have to do this.
The bond between them roared to life with their touch and Buffy imagined she could see right into his mind. His eyes were blazing with rage and joy, the carnage of the battle and the closeness of his mate all that mattered to him. In a heartbeat Buffy saw everything that he was, a boy brought up by the Council and raised with only one thing to give his life meaning. The battle against the dark, nothing else mattered.
She saw how he was taken by the Huntsman, how this blinding force of light took possession of him in an explosion of pain and near-orgasmic pleasure. It had not felt like this for her, she realized. For Jackson, though, it had been a crucible. The Huntsman, freed for the first time in hundreds of years, had taken to him like a firestorm to a dry forest, burning away everything that he had been, making him little more than a chalice for its power.
There were times when Buffy feared what being the Slayer was doing to her. Times when she found herself looking at other people like they were nothing but prey, evaluating how she could best beat them should they turn out to be dangerous. Times when she could not sleep because the night's patrol had seen too little combat, too little hunting. Times when she felt like the Slayer was taking over and everything that had been Buffy Summers would simply disappear.
She saw her every fear manifested in this young man before her and tears rolled down her face.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice drowned out by the fighting. Jackson looked at her, confusion evident on his face.
Buffy's hands tightened around his head and then twisted.
#
Daniel Stone's head was still ringing from the blow the blonde girl had given him, but he was back on his feet and quickly surveyed the scene around him. The warehouse was an inferno and would not hold much longer. The SDO agents, though hurt and scattered, were fighting with desperation now. Two of his people were down and hurt, the others not looking too great either.
Then he saw the blonde girl that had almost knocked him into the middle of next week. Saw her hovering near that other super-soldier, the one who had torn both into Daniel's team and his own people with a strength and ferocity that had caused even someone who had survived Project Inferno to flinch.
Daniel did flinch when she grabbed his head and snapped his neck with a single movement.
For a moment he was frozen, trying to figure out what to do now. This could be their chance. The enemy was in disarray and one of their strongest had just bought it. He decided against it, though. The warehouse could come down on them any moment now and his team was hurt. They had done good here today, hurting the enemy, destroying their base, getting a good view of their capabilities. It was time to regroup.
"Fall back," he yelled at his people, running toward a semi-conscious Julia at the same time. From the corner of his eyes he saw Allan glare at him, seemingly not content with the battle ending already, but Daniel paid him no heed. A moment later Allan headed toward Joshua, helping the wounded man back to his feet. Daniel grabbed Julia and quickly hoisted her up.
The SDO agents realized the attackers were leaving and did not put up much of a fight to keep them from doing it. None of them wanted to stick around in this flaming coffin, either.
#
"Time of death ...," the doctor began, only to be interrupted when the man he had been about to pronounce dead suddenly convulsed.
Angel arced of the bed, his entire battered body gripped by a seizure strong enough to break bones. His scream, barely muffled by the respirator's tube stuck down his throat, caused all of the medical personnel to flinch back in fear.
Moments later two male nurses were moving in, looking to restrain this man who should not have been able to move for the life of him. Both of them were big men, strong enough to subdue even the most difficult of patients. Both of them were flung away like puppets, though, as Angel rose and ripped right through the many wires and tubes fastened to his body.
"This is impossible," the doctor managed to say. This man was crippled, even the slightest movement should have been beyond him. Not to mention that he had been dead for at least five minutes. Then he, too, found himself in the way of this impossibly revived man and moments later his consciousness failed him as his head made painful contact with the wall.
#
Buffy had dropped to her knees, the burning warehouse around her fading away as she cradled Jackson King's body close. Unseeing eyes were staring up to her, set into the face of a young man whose life she had just ended.
"I'm sorry," she muttered over and over again. "I'm so sorry."
"Ms. Summers," Burke yelled at her, appearing by her side. "We have to get out of here."
He knelt down to pick up Riley, slinging him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Buffy did not react to his presence at all, looking like she was in shock. For a moment he marveled at the paradox this young girl was, the fiercest fighter he had ever seen one second, a grieving child the next. This was no time for psycho-analysis, though.
"Come on!" He grabbed her by the arm and she did not resist as he pulled her along, her eyes still riveted to the lifeless body of Jackson King. She had killed him. A human being and she had killed him.
A small part of her mind wondered why she could still feel the presence of the Huntsman somewhere at the edges of her perception.
TO BE CONTINUED
#
It was routine, really, all too routine an occurrence in a place like Sunnydale. The nurse at her station was jarred out of reading her newspaper by the howling of the emergency monitors. A glance sufficed to tell her that one of the critical patients had just flat lined, the equipment that monitored him screaming for human assistance.
Barely ten seconds later a doctor and three nurses were in the patient's room, doing their best to bring the dying man back from the brink. Adrenalin was injected directly into his heart. Electrical shocks were prepared to jumpstart the failing muscle. Oxygen was forced into his uncooperative lungs.
They all knew, though, that it was rather hopeless. None of them knew how this man had held on as long as he had. It was a minor miracle that he had survived his trip into the hospital, not to mention the many days he had hovered on the edge here in this bed. He was too broken, too damaged. Even if he had somehow managed to come back he would have been crippled for life. As it was, though, that life seemed about to be cut short.
They kept on fighting for his survival, did everything they could to help him cheat death for yet another day, another hour, even another minute. They all feared, though, that Angel O'Connor's luck had finally run out.
#
Buffy inched back from the battle, desperately trying to regain control of herself as the presence of Jackson King roared through her blood like a storm front. The wolf woman, Julia, seemed unaware of the new combatant, pressing her advantage against a suddenly distracted opponent. The battle went on all around them, SDO agents fighting against the attackers called Team 666 and Jackson King attacking whoever came between him and Buffy.
Her nightmare was coming true, Buffy realized, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"No," she whispered, her arms working almost on automatic to block Julia's attacks. "Please, no!"
"It's too late to stop," Julia growled, misunderstanding her words. "This has to end and we are going to end it!"
She pushed again and Buffy was too distracted to stop her in time. One of her claws broke through the Slayer's defense and left a deep, bleeding wound on her shoulder. Buffy stumbled back, crying out with the pain.
Jackson King was close enough to hear it, close enough to see it happen.
"You will die for this," he screamed, throwing two SDO agents aside like puppets. Only a heartbeat later he was upon Julia. The wolf woman sensed him at the last possible moment, but was too slow to fend him off before his first blow thundered right into her face.
King's world had narrowed down to this creature before him, the one who had dared to hurt his mate. She would suffer for this. He paid no heed to her attempts to defend herself, the small cuts her claws managed to make inconsequential. Again and again he drove his fists into her body, the sound of breaking bones and cries of pain like music to his ears.
"Stop it," Buffy pleaded, not trusting herself to get any closer. "You're killing her."
He did not even hear her.
She kept one hand pressed against her wound, watching helplessly as Jackson was busy killing Julia. The wolf woman was a bloody mess already, barely fighting back anymore, helpless before the fury of the Huntsman. Jackson was clearly not interested in stopping before she was dead. Buffy wanted to stop him, but she was certain that, should they touch, she would only join him.
With a cry of rage another of the attackers, the one whom Buffy had thought knocked out just minutes ago, came to his comrade's aid. He looked like a vampire, his face distorted, and the punches he threw at Jackson told of his more than human strength.
Buffy saw Jackson take a punishing blow to his face and something inside her snapped.
"Get away from him," she heard herself scream, leaping forward into the fray once more. Power thundered through her body, seeming to increase exponentially with every step toward her mate. She saw the wound on Jackson's forehead, a cut caused by the blow he took, and she could see it close right before her eyes. Her own wound did not bleed any longer, either. She could almost feel the skin knitting back together.
They fell into a fighting rhythm without so much as a word between them, the wide grin on Jackson's face the only sign of his joy upon having her by his side. The attacker was strong, maybe strong enough to have given either of them pause in a one-on-one battle. Against both of them, though, he did not have a chance. He fell to the ground, bleeding and broken, and Jackson raised his fist for the killing blow as Buffy found herself grinning, almost tingling with anticipation.
"No," someone screamed and both of them found themselves airborne, flung away from their intended victim by some unseen force. Buffy had half a second to see one of the remaining three members of Team 666, the only one with no outward sign of being other than human, gesturing at them, the air wavering around his hands. Then she met the wall hard, her head bouncing back from the impact.
The crimson fog that had descended on her brain was wiped away by a flash of pain and Buffy could think straight again, at least for a moment.
The situation was quickly deteriorating, she realized. Burke and his people seemed to hold their own more or less, but she saw quite a few of their number down, lying on the floor unmoving. The attackers had done a thorough job of wrecking the warehouse and flames were quickly spreading. Julia and the vampire half-breed were still down, but the remaining three seemed to be taking up the slack.
Jackson was getting back to his feet and Buffy could feel the roaring in her blood threaten to blot out her thoughts again. She had to end this and fast.
She moved, pouring all her concentration into the physical part of what she had to do. No thinking! No feeling! Just doing! Julia was trying to get back to her feet and Buffy ran by herwithout slowing down, tackling her to the ground again in the process. Jackson was already back up and, seeing her, headed towards her. Buffy did her best to ignore his presence calling out to her, closing her eyes. This had to end. Now.
Moments later she crashed into him, driving her elbow into his belly with every bit of strength she could muster. The air was driven from his body and he fell back, clutching what had to be at least one broken rib. There was no telling how long it would remain broken with his healing powers enhanced by their proximity, but it bought her a few precious seconds.
She kept moving, fearing that pausing even a moment to catch her breath would spell the end of her self-control. One of the SDO agents was about to have his head torn off by the reptile-looking member of Team 666 and moments later she was there, knocking him aside. The man hissed at her, but she was already gone again, heading towards her next target. The guy who had thrown her and Jackson against the wall loomed before her, seemingly taken by surprise by her speed, and she delivered what she hoped was a knockout punch before he could defend himself.
Fortune deserted her then, though, because the final member of Team 666 tackled her to the ground. His face was strangely distorted, as if mother nature had been unable to decide whether to make it human or any of half a dozen demon species Buffy could think of. Moments later she stopped thinking, though, because he grabbed her by the shoulders.
His touch burned like acid and Buffy screamed as it ate away at her skin.
Someone was there to help her and for a moment she feared it was Jackson. Then she saw Riley, though, hitting her assailant in the face with the butt of his assault rifle. He turned to look at her, relief on his face when he saw that she was more or less all right, only to be attacked in turn.
"Stay away from her," Jackson screamed, tearing into Riley like a buzz saw.
Buffy tried to get back to her feet, but weariness was descending on her like a heavy blanket. The pain from her wounds, the call in her blood, the smoke that was quickly filling up the staging area, it all came down on her like a hammer and she stumbled, her balance shot to hell.
One of Riley's colleagues tried to help him, but Jackson barely paid him any heed, swatting him away with a blow that almost caved in the man's head. Buffy saw him land a kick that broke Riley's leg, the young man screaming in pain. Her eyes moved around the room, taking in the many dying and wounded, those already dead. She had seen Jackson kill at least two men, kill them just because they were in his way. Now he was killing Riley.
Sheer determination brought her back to her feet and close to Jackson, her hands reaching out to touch his face. He turned to look at her, letting up on his relentless assault on a bleeding and unconscious Riley. She looked into his eyes, fighting the effect his presence had on her as best as she could, and tried to find ... something. Something that would tell her this could be fixed. Something that would give her hope that she would not have to do this.
The bond between them roared to life with their touch and Buffy imagined she could see right into his mind. His eyes were blazing with rage and joy, the carnage of the battle and the closeness of his mate all that mattered to him. In a heartbeat Buffy saw everything that he was, a boy brought up by the Council and raised with only one thing to give his life meaning. The battle against the dark, nothing else mattered.
She saw how he was taken by the Huntsman, how this blinding force of light took possession of him in an explosion of pain and near-orgasmic pleasure. It had not felt like this for her, she realized. For Jackson, though, it had been a crucible. The Huntsman, freed for the first time in hundreds of years, had taken to him like a firestorm to a dry forest, burning away everything that he had been, making him little more than a chalice for its power.
There were times when Buffy feared what being the Slayer was doing to her. Times when she found herself looking at other people like they were nothing but prey, evaluating how she could best beat them should they turn out to be dangerous. Times when she could not sleep because the night's patrol had seen too little combat, too little hunting. Times when she felt like the Slayer was taking over and everything that had been Buffy Summers would simply disappear.
She saw her every fear manifested in this young man before her and tears rolled down her face.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice drowned out by the fighting. Jackson looked at her, confusion evident on his face.
Buffy's hands tightened around his head and then twisted.
#
Daniel Stone's head was still ringing from the blow the blonde girl had given him, but he was back on his feet and quickly surveyed the scene around him. The warehouse was an inferno and would not hold much longer. The SDO agents, though hurt and scattered, were fighting with desperation now. Two of his people were down and hurt, the others not looking too great either.
Then he saw the blonde girl that had almost knocked him into the middle of next week. Saw her hovering near that other super-soldier, the one who had torn both into Daniel's team and his own people with a strength and ferocity that had caused even someone who had survived Project Inferno to flinch.
Daniel did flinch when she grabbed his head and snapped his neck with a single movement.
For a moment he was frozen, trying to figure out what to do now. This could be their chance. The enemy was in disarray and one of their strongest had just bought it. He decided against it, though. The warehouse could come down on them any moment now and his team was hurt. They had done good here today, hurting the enemy, destroying their base, getting a good view of their capabilities. It was time to regroup.
"Fall back," he yelled at his people, running toward a semi-conscious Julia at the same time. From the corner of his eyes he saw Allan glare at him, seemingly not content with the battle ending already, but Daniel paid him no heed. A moment later Allan headed toward Joshua, helping the wounded man back to his feet. Daniel grabbed Julia and quickly hoisted her up.
The SDO agents realized the attackers were leaving and did not put up much of a fight to keep them from doing it. None of them wanted to stick around in this flaming coffin, either.
#
"Time of death ...," the doctor began, only to be interrupted when the man he had been about to pronounce dead suddenly convulsed.
Angel arced of the bed, his entire battered body gripped by a seizure strong enough to break bones. His scream, barely muffled by the respirator's tube stuck down his throat, caused all of the medical personnel to flinch back in fear.
Moments later two male nurses were moving in, looking to restrain this man who should not have been able to move for the life of him. Both of them were big men, strong enough to subdue even the most difficult of patients. Both of them were flung away like puppets, though, as Angel rose and ripped right through the many wires and tubes fastened to his body.
"This is impossible," the doctor managed to say. This man was crippled, even the slightest movement should have been beyond him. Not to mention that he had been dead for at least five minutes. Then he, too, found himself in the way of this impossibly revived man and moments later his consciousness failed him as his head made painful contact with the wall.
#
Buffy had dropped to her knees, the burning warehouse around her fading away as she cradled Jackson King's body close. Unseeing eyes were staring up to her, set into the face of a young man whose life she had just ended.
"I'm sorry," she muttered over and over again. "I'm so sorry."
"Ms. Summers," Burke yelled at her, appearing by her side. "We have to get out of here."
He knelt down to pick up Riley, slinging him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Buffy did not react to his presence at all, looking like she was in shock. For a moment he marveled at the paradox this young girl was, the fiercest fighter he had ever seen one second, a grieving child the next. This was no time for psycho-analysis, though.
"Come on!" He grabbed her by the arm and she did not resist as he pulled her along, her eyes still riveted to the lifeless body of Jackson King. She had killed him. A human being and she had killed him.
A small part of her mind wondered why she could still feel the presence of the Huntsman somewhere at the edges of her perception.
TO BE CONTINUED