Loving Eternally: Chapter 5
by Lisette
Legalese: See Chapter 1 for disclaimers and ratings.
Crouching in the shadows, Buffy stayed against the walls of the dark businesses, her eyes locked on the three that strolled down the sidewalk in front of her - acting as if they owned it, without a care in the world. Biting her lip, she reached inside her long leather duster and fingered the tip of a sharpened stake; she wouldn't let anything happen to them. She wouldn't fail her friends.. this time. Then again, the three were not making it easy on her as they walked as if they owned the night, laughing and talking so loud that their voices echoed back to her.
The next generation. That was what they were - a continuation of her and her friends, untouched by darkness. Alex was beautiful, taking the best attributes of Xander and Anya, with a bright and loud personality that spoke of her parents - yet she was obviously her own person as well. And Will - he was a cutie with that wild, spiky red hair and lanky frame - obviously a bit of a nerd like his mom had been, with her same eagerness while somehow balancing it with Oz's traits. And Riley... he seemed to be everything that she wasn't. Tall to her petite frame, dark to her fair complexion, looking so smart and proper with his glasses, but exuding a quiet and friendly aura in comparison to her more outgoing and outrageous personality - or so it was before. The three had obviously grown up together, happy and without being surrounded by death. She was jealous of the opportunities that they had and didn't even know.
But then, as Buffy noticed a group of guys approaching from the other direction, she knew that it was her job to maintain that for them. Her senses going wild, Buffy slowly straightened as the group crossed the street, obviously planning to intercept the three friends who remained oblivious to the obvious threat. Sighing, Buffy quickly abandoned her hiding spot and advanced on the trio. "Hey guys," she called out in greeting. As they turned towards her in surprise, she casually unbuttoned her coat and began reaching for a hidden stake. "Listen, I need you to-"
"Anne!" Alex cried out, interrupting her as she clapped her on the back. "Where did you come from?" she chirped as the group of guys stopped a few feet away, finally gaining Alex's attention. "Oh, hey-"
"Are you sure these are them?" a tall guy with a long, black ponytail asked his buddies, eyeing the group as he ignored Alex's greeting.
"Those three are," a short, muscled blond guy nodded. "Drusilla said to bring them to the docks - alive," he added, frowning slightly.
That finally caught their attention as Will slowly eyed the six to their four - the six creepy looking guys to the four of them - clueless and without a single means of defense. "Hey, I think that there's been some sort of mis-"
"And the blonde?" a fat, pimpled guy asked as he licked his lips appreciatively, his eyes traveling up and down Buffy's slim form.
Grinning, the short blonde nodded at his friends. "Dinner," he laughed, winking at Buffy.
"Oh, give me a break!" Alex cried out in disgust, stubbornly crossing her arms across her chest. "Dinner? How disgusting and.. and... disgusting can we be here?" she fumed as she tapped her foot angrily.
But as the group of thugs began to advance, Will gently but firmly grabbed Alex's arm and began to push her behind him, Riley doing the same thing with Buffy. "You girls better get out of here," he muttered quietly, his brow creasing with worry.
"Oh, please!" Alex retorted as she shook Will off. "Don't pull that macho crap on me! I'm the one who's going to be a cop! I'm perfectly capable of-" she broke off as the thugs finally morphed, showing their true nature. Instantly Alex's words turned into a strangled scream as she dove behind Will, accidentally ramming Buffy and sending her to the ground.
Grunting, Buffy looked up and watched as one vampire backhanded Riley, sending him flying as another lifted Will by his neck, strangling him as two more converged on Alex. And then as she was yanked roughly to her feet, Buffy saw that she had two to herself: the fat pimply one and another one that looked like a vamped out Scarecrow. "Showtime," she muttered, avoiding pimple's sharp, gnashing teeth with a backhand that broke his nose and a knee to the other that sent him to the ground in agony. Turning, she quickly flew at the vampire who held Will in a quick roundhouse that dropped the vampire and sent Will to his knees, gasping for breath.
Moving like a well-oiled machine, Buffy reached for her stake and dusted the downed vampire before turning to Alex's aid. Moving faster than the girl's eyes could follow, Buffy unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks before using her stake to cause ash to explode around them. Without pause, she was backtracking, finishing off Pimples and Scarecrow before advancing on the short, blond ringleader. Grunting, Buffy shoved him against a nearby wall and held him there, a stake pointed at his chest. "I want you to bring a message to Drusilla," she ordered, watching as the vamp nodded his head quickly in fright. "Tell her that the Slayer's in town and that these kids and their families are under my protection. She messes with them and she messes with me!" she hissed as she released him, pushing him sideways so that he stumbled and tumbled on the sidewalk. "Go!" she ordered, her voice sending him scampering away, soon disappearing into the dark night.
Sighing tiredly, Buffy sheathed her stake and turned to see Alex and Riley crouched around Will, the latter holding his throat painfully as all stared at her in wide-eyed amazement, frozen in shock. Groaning, Buffy slowly stepped forward, only to watch as the others scuttled back a bit - not that she blamed them. Instantly the cold mask dropped down once more as Buffy began buttoning her duster. "Is everyone alright?" she asked quietly.
"We'll live," Will croaked, fingering his throat as his friends helped him to his feet.
"Good. Can you make it home alright?"
"Well, yeah, but-" Riley began as Buffy turned and began walking away. "Anne?"
"You better hurry!" Buffy called out in response before melting into the shadows.
With wide eyes, Alex turned and looked at her two friends before quickly yanking them in the direction of Riley's house - the closest to their location. "You heard the girl!" she ordered, dragging them down the road as her eyes skipped back to Riley. "And you know, you weren't kidding when you said that there was something about her," she muttered, limping slightly amongst her bruised friends. "Definitely weren't kidding."
"So, what are we going to do?" Joyce asked quietly, breaking the bleak silence that had fallen over the group.
"What do you mean what are we going to do?" Xander asked, all eyes turning to him as he slowly massaged his forehead. "As I see it, we have two options: we either let Drusilla come in and kill us off like sitting ducks or we fight as we always have."
Sighing, Giles slowly nodded his head. "For once, Xander's right," he agreed. "And with Angel, this new slayer, and all of us, we should be able to-"
"Okay, is the age thing affecting everyone here?" Anya interrupted in her usual blunt way, standing up and taking center stage. "I mean, yes, we do have Angel and the other slayer on our side, if she even gets here in time," she amended, ticking the points off her slender fingers, "but us? Help fight?" she laughed as everyone fidgeted uncomfortably. "Hello people!" she singsonged. "Haven't you looked in the mirror lately? We're old!" she pointed out, and then with a small smirk she turned towards Giles and Joyce, "and they're really old. What help can we be?"
Wincing, Xander looked up at his wife and then shrugged at the others. "The tact issue has been a long battle - all uphill-"
"Dad! Mom!"
Surprised at the chorus of voices from the hallway, the parents were in the process of getting to their feet as Riley, Alex, and Will burst into the living room, staggering into the arms of their respective parents, all talking at once.
"Whoa, whoa!" Joyce cut in above the cacophony of voices. "What happened?" she demanded as she watched Willow and Oz worriedly inspect Will's bruised neck, Xander and Anya probe Alex's ankle, and as she and Giles inspected a small gash on Riley's forehead.
"We were attacked," Riley muttered grimly, a deadly silence falling over the group.
"And I know that this is going to sound crazy," Alex continued, her eyes wide as her dad draped a reassuring arm over her shoulders, "but they were monsters - something out of one of Will's movies!"
"Worse," Will rasped, massaging his throat as he noticed the looks the parents seemed to be sharing. "Hey, we're not making this up! We would have been toast if it hadn't been for Anne!"
"Anne?" Giles cut in quickly. "Who's Anne?"
"Some girl that we met at the Bronze tonight," Alex explained, watching her parents thoughtfully. "She's French - and even though she's a good head shorter than me, she kicked ass-"
"The new Slayer," Angel guessed, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"Who's he?" Riley quickly fired back, eyeing the stranger suspiciously.
"Dead-"
"Angel," Willow interrupted, glaring at Xander before forcing a smile. "He's an old friend."
"Can't be that old," Alex added, eyeing the guy. He looked a little older than her own age, and hot in a dark and brooding sort of way.
"Yeah, well can we get back to the fact that we were attacked by monsters tonight that wanted to eat us?" Will cried out shrilly, pointing to his bruised neck.
"Vampires," Oz automatically corrected as half the room turned to glare at him. "What?" he asked, shrugging casually. "Don't you think that it's obviously a little too late to hide that by now?"
"Well yeah, now it is," Xander muttered darkly as he felt his daughter tense beneath his arm.
"Vampires?" Alex scoffed even as a deadly silence fell over the room.
His eyes narrowing, Riley turned to his parents, the accusation in his brown eyes all to apparent. "You knew about this? About these 'vampires'? And didn't tell us?"
"Yes, well," Giles fidgeted as Joyce lay a consoling hand on his arm.
"Honey, we never wanted for you to have to know about them," she replied honestly, including all of the kids in her gaze.
Shaking his head, things began clicking into place as he saw the pain in his mom's eyes. He knew that he should stop, let things rest - but he couldn't now. Not with so much of the past a lie. "Sunnydale's big, dark secret," he guessed, nodding at his friends' parents. "It wasn't gangs that killed off half of the senior class, was it? It was those monsters!" he accused. And when he got no response, Riley knew that he had guessed correctly. "And those things killed my sister," he continued, watching as his mom blanched, tears stinging her eyes. But strangely, it wasn't just his parents that reacted to his words. No, everyone did - even the stranger with the strange name. "That's why you all lied - because they killed her," he accused as he slowly backed away, bumping into his friends at the hall entrance.
"Ry-" his mom began, cut off as the doorbell rang. Frustrated by all of the mixed emotions that were swirling within him, Riley threw a frustrated glance at the door. And in that instant, everyone realized their mistake of sheltering their children from the truth for so long: they had been raised with no fear of the dark and what it would always conceal.
"No!" they all yelled as Riley leaned back and called out an invitation to enter by habit. In that instant, hell broke loose as the lights went out and the house was swarmed. Once more, screams marked the night in the small town of Sunnydale, California.