SECOND CHANCES

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created.

Author's Note: Hope everyone's enjoying this.almost done.thanks for the reviews.I might write a sequel to this.depending on fan reaction.thanks again for reading.



CHAPTER 17-Shocks, Surprises, and One Big Mutha.



Xander couldn't see what was inside the room from his vantage point halfway down the hall but from what he could see he knew that what Connor had found wasn't even close to what he had expected. Whatever it was Connor stood in the doorway for a few seconds, seemingly trying to figure out whether whatever was inside the room posed a threat to him or not. Xander was about to call out to him when he saw Connor's body jerk to attention before diving to the floor, just as a red bolt of lighting rushed over him and slammed into the wall where he had once been standing. The thought of running back to get Buffy flashed quickly through his mind, but it was quickly replaced by another, crazier idea. "I should get Buffy.wait.that's what I always do.not this time Harris.this time you're the hero," Xander thought with a scared look on his face before the look changed to his bravest one. As he rose to his feet he could hear the sounds of a struggle coming from the room. With a large sigh and shrug of his shoulders Xander took off in a run, getting to the doorway just before he had to duck back out of the way as a heavily robed figure went sailing by him, finally slamming into the wall and then collapsing to the floor in a heap. Xander hesitated in the doorway for a few seconds as he pondered what he saw in the room, Connor fighting valiantly against four heavily robed figures while a fifth seemed to be apart from the others, readying what sounded like a spell. "Oh no you don't," Xander shouted triumphantly as he rushed across the room and caught the robed magic user completely off guard, in fact right in the middle of a particularly hard part of the incantation, as he leapt onto the guys back and used his momentum to send the robed magic user towards the nearest wall.



Xander jumped off of the robed magic user as he slowly slid down the wall, knocked unconscious from his head colliding with the wall. On the other side of the room Connor was completely oblivious to Xander even being in the room, let alone the fact that the carpenter had taken out one of the magic users for him. With a slightly triumphant sigh and smile Xander was about ready to congratulate himself when he was almost knocked off of his feet as the hotel shook beneath him. "What the hell was that," Xander shouted fearfully as he turned back towards Connor, just in time to see one of the robed magic users abandon his attack on Connor and charge his way.



* * * * * * * *



"Wes look out," Faith shouted breathlessly before the Fyarl demon grabbed Wesley, pinning his arms to his sides and making the knife that he had been holding clatter to the floor, and proceeded to smash right through the wall. Faith started to follow, choking through the cloud of old plaster, but was stopped just short of the now gaping hole in the wall as the Fyarl demon charged back through the hole and slammed its shoulder into her chest, sending her flying back up against the far wall. She shook her head angrily and was about ready to leap back to her feet when the Fyarl demon growled at her and flung Wesley straight at her.



Rather than let Wesley slam headlong into the wall Faith moved to catch him, and almost instantly regretted it. Instead of catching Wesley like she had intended her left foot slipped and the force of his body crashing into her sent the pair right back up against the wall. Seeing an opportunity the Fyarl demon growled loudly and charged towards the pair. The demon was just about ready to stomp on a surprised Wesley when a giant shudder rocked the hotel, causing the Fyarl demon to stagger around as it tried to regain its balance.



"Faith, are you.," Wesley spat out painfully as he pulled himself up to a kneeling position, ignoring the sharp pain in his shoulder. Beside him Faith rolled over onto her back before muttering her response.



"I've been better," Faith muttered sarcastically, with a hand to her temple, as she sat up and smile faintly at Wesley. Wesley started to form a reply but was cut off by an angry growl from the Fyarl demon as it regained its balance and took a step towards them.



Gathering its feet together the Fyarl demon jumped halfway across the room and landed in between Faith and Wesley, much to its evil delight. The demon then reached down and grabbed Faith arm before it started to squeeze with all its might, delighting greatly with the look of intense pain on her face. She was about to scream out in pain when Wesley scrambled over, retrieved his knife, and buried it hilt deep in the Fyarl demons back. In the end Faith's scream was drowned out by the pain and anger filled howl of the Fyarl demon as it tried in vain to reach the knife and wrench it from its back. In its vain attempt the Fyarl demon flung Faith back out into the hallway.



"Faith," Wesley yelled angrily with a hint of fear in his voice as he scrambled after Faith and got to her just as she was struggling to sit up with a dark bruise already forming on her arm. For a short time his watcher training took over and he tried to get Faith to stay seated, but in her exuberance and anger she brushed him off and bolted to her feet.



Drawing her own knife Faith rushed back into the room before she began to slowly stalk the injured Fyarl demon, watching as it slowly spun in circles while it tried to pull Wesley's knife from its back. She waited for a few seconds before she caught the break that she had been waiting for. With a small yell she pounced onto the demons back and wrapped one arm over its shoulder while with the other hand she drove the point of the knife straight into the Fyarl demons neck. From out in the hall Wesley watched in both worry and excitement before he saw the Fyarl demon stagger around as its blood gushed out of the wound in its neck. With one great and final shudder the Fyarl demon swayed wildly to one side before it collapsed headlong into the wall, causing the knife jutting out of its neck to be driven in even further. For her part Faith released her hold on the demons neck and had scrambled away and ended up in a backwards crawl position just beside Wesley as the Fyarl demon breathed its last.



Neither spoke until several moments after they were both sure that the Fyarl demon was good and dead. And when one finally spoke up it was Wesley, seemingly speaking for the both of them with both the content of his question and the feelings behind them. "Are you okay," Wesley said with a worried and slightly pained look on his face as he slowly brought a hand up and began to softly caress Faith's cheek with the back of that hand.



"Well other than the freaky bruise that I'm already starting to get on my arm I'm fine.what about you," Faith started to say loudly in her usual sarcastic tone before she turned to look at Wesley with a worried and somewhat scared look on her face as her voice softened and her gaze locked onto Wesley's.



"Fine.," they both said softly in unison as the distance between them quickly decreased until their lips met in relief and happiness.



* * * * * * *



Even though Gunn had thrown himself on top of her Fred still got enough of the dust, dirt, and plaster cloud to cause her to feel like she had coughed up a lung trying to clear her breathing. Nearby Gunn had taken a deep breath and let it go quickly as he heard a pained groan from beside him. Reluctantly he sat up and then crawled over to investigate, but only after making absolutely sure that Fred was alright. He hadn't gone far when through the clearing haze of dust and dirt he could see Lorne trying in vain to push a table off of him. "Lorne.you okay," Gunn called out in between harsh coughs as the dust cloud continued to settle around him.



"I'll be fine once we get rid of big ugly and gruesome up there," Lorne said fearfully as his gaze turned upwards and Gunn suddenly remembered the large figure that he had seen through the haze before the dust and dirt cloud had hit them.



While Gunn was making sure that both Fred and Lorne were all right Angel had successfully managed to defeat any and all mercenaries that had crossed his path. And because of that he had stopped fighting them and set about trying to put out the fires that they were continuing to start. All that ceased however when the giant shudder tore through the hotel. He had only taken a few steps when he saw the cloud of dust and debris rapidly advancing towards him. With but a quick thought he dove to the floor behind an overturned table, mere seconds before the cloud hit.



Spike and Buffy had ended up fighting almost back to back against the mercenaries, with each watching the others back, making sure that neither was caught unawares. More than once Buffy had to remind Spike not to kill any of the mercenaries, especially those that were aware of Spike's status as a vampire and so were using their flaming torches as weapons against him instead of using them to start fires. Spike was just about to give Buffy a hand back up off of the floor, after she had tripped over the body of one of the unconscious mercenaries, when the shudder hit. Buffy was about to deck another mercenary when Spike grabbed her around the waist, pulled her close, and then turned his back towards the approaching cloud of dust and debris, all the while trying to cover Buffy up as much as possible.



Giles hadn't had to good of luck ever since leaving Cordelia's side and most likely would have been knocked out if not killed had Dawn not remembered some of her training and landed a sharp kick to that particular mercenaries jaw. In fact Giles didn't even notice as the mercenary slowly slumped to the ground with a joyous Dawn standing overtop of him. When the shudder hit Giles was just about to scold Dawn and tell her to go and stay with Anya and Cordelia, but he barely had time after that to try and realize what had happened before the cloud of dust and debris hit them.



When the shudder hit Cordelia cried out in pain and Anya half screamed mostly out of shock. Almost instinctively Anya reached out and cupped one of her hands over Cordelia's nose and mouth and put her other hand over her own mouth and nose just before the cloud of dust and debris enveloped them. When Anya cautiously opened her eyes to look around the first thing that she could see what a frazzled and dust covered Willow staggering towards them through the clearing cloud of dust and debris, coughing as she went. "Willow.what happened," Anya said quickly as she tried to keep her hand as close to her mouth as she could while still allowing her to be clearly understood.



"I.I don't.what's wrong with Cordelia," Willow choked out quickly as she knelt down beside Cordelia and Anya.



"I don't know, Giles said for me to stay with her until he got back, but now I can't see him.and I'm afraid.," Anya started to say with an exasperated look on her face before the look changed to one of a quiet fear.



"Hey.what's going on.where's Connor.where's Giles," Cordelia chipped in angrily as had she not been injured she would have thrown a huge hissy-fit, so in the end she resorted to glaring up at Willow and Anya.



"I don't.wait there he is.right next to that mountain of a demon," Anya said cheerfully at first with a relieved smile on her face as she finally located Giles before her look changed to a serious and slightly confused one as she finished her observation. Willow was about to ask a question when all three women suddenly jerked to attention, with Cordelia only able to gasp as her eyes grew wide in both fear and panic, mouthing the last few words of what Anya had just said.



* * * * * * *



To say Lilah Morgan was simply furious was a tremendous understatement. After not being able to reach even one of the robed magic users inside the hotel now she found herself unable to reach any of the mercenaries that were inside the hotel. Under heavy guard she had gotten out of her limo and had walked around to the front of the Hyperion, mostly just to make sure that not everyone had abandoned her and that she still had control of at the very least the snipers that had entrenched themselves in and on the surrounding buildings. She was only somewhat relieved that she could see more than one of the snipers in their positions, but what troubled her even further was the fact that those snipers that she could see didn't really look like they were even paying attention to what was going on in the street down below let alone what was happening across the street at the Hyperion. "What the hell is going on here," Lilah growled angrily as she grabbed the nearest mercenary by the collar and pulled him close.



"What do you mean.," the mercenary stammered out with a confused and somewhat scared look on his face as he tried his best to not look Lilah in the eye.



"What I mean is why in the hell are my snipers removing themselves from their positions and why can't I raise anyone inside that damn hotel," Lilah shouted loudly right into the face of the mercenary, which caused the mercenary to flinch slightly. A voice from behind answered her question.



"Because the senior partners are unhappy with you Lilah.and have put me in charge," the voice said with a hint of excitement and revenge before Lilah felt the hot point of a knife slide into her back.



* * * * * * * *



"What are you still doing here.I don't need your help," Connor asked for the second time with a very angry and impatient scowl on his face as Xander backed up a step with his hands up in a defensive manner and a small smile on his face.



"Hey, the G man sent me to help you find something to help Cordelia, now I don't usually help old girlfriends like this but for Cordy I'll make an exception," Xander said with a slightly defeated look on his face as he slowly began to look around the room, even going so far as to pull one of the unconscious robed magic users off of a pile of debris, to search for something to help Cordelia.



"What.Cordelia was never your.she wouldn't.she couldn't," Connor said with a thoroughly confused look on his face as he seemed to not be able to accept even the thought of Cordelia and Xander ever being boyfriend and girlfriend.



"She would and she did.but that was back in high school.she's obviously moved up.or should I say.down.the scale since then," Xander said jokingly with a slightly sarcastic tone to his voice that was completely lost on Connor, who seemed to be about ready to explode from a combination of anger and confusion. But before Connor could do anything to Xander a loud and ear shattering scream tore through the hotel.



* * * * * * * *



"What the fuck was that," Faith exclaimed with a shocked scowl on her face as she helped Wesley up off of the floor. After the defeat of the Fyarl demon the two had entered into a kiss that only ended when they heard the scream.



"Sounds like Cordelia, there must be more trouble downstairs.let's go," Wesley said with a very worried scowl on his face as he sighed heavily and looked down at Faith, who returned the concerned look. Seconds later, after retrieving their knives from the Fyarl demons body and wiping the blood off, they tore off back through the hotel, back the way they came until they arrived at the top of the stairs that led up from the lobby.



What they saw there would not be easily forgotten, although by now for the both of them they had seen and done so much that much of it had bled together so this night would probably end up much the same. There was a large demon, of a type and variety that no one in the lobby had any clue about, Spike and Angel were completely clueless about what they were facing, forcing them to spend most of their time and energy just trying to keep the others safe from the rampaging demon.



"What the hell is that.," Faith exclaimed loudly with a look of confusion on her face and a small hint of fear in her voice.



"I don't know, but whatever it is it's to dangerous to stay here.we have to kill it," Wesley shouted back with a matching look of confusion on his face and fear in his voice.



"So what do we do about it.you'd need a fucking nuke to take that thing out," Faith said back with a frustrated scowl on her face as she and Wesley then had to dive to the floor to avoid being decapitated as the overly large demon hurled a broken table past them.



"Sorry.but I don't think we have one of those.guess we'll just have to do this the old fashioned way.," Wesley shouted back as he momentarily looked at his knife before continuing, "But we'll need something a lot bigger than a bloody knife to do it.."



"There's that accent again, if I didn't know better I'd swear that you had.other.more enjoyable.things on your mind," Faith said with an audible snicker and a broad smile on her face as she shook her head and allowed a grinning Wesley to help her to her feet.



"There'll be plenty of time for that.later.watch out," Wesley started to say with a small snicker back as he and Faith began to hastily run down the stairs before they hit the bottom step and dove again to the floor to avoid another broken table.



"Again with the table.seriously you should really think about branching out.because this is getting really old really fast," Faith taunted in her usual mocking manner as she crawled over to Wesley and pulled him along as they began their frantic search for weapons while one mistake by Spike got him the back of the demons hand to the chest that sent him flying back through what was left of the office.



"Spike.," Dawn and Buffy shouted fearfully as they watched Spike's almost limp body go crashing through glass and wood alike. Buffy and Dawn hesitated for a second as one half of their instincts told them to go and help Spike while the other half told them to stay and fight. In fact they got so wrapped up in listening to their instincts that neither noticed when the overly large demon turned its attention to them and swung its massive arm their way.



"Buffy.," Angel shouted desperately at the top of his lungs as he jumped to push Buffy out of the way, only to end up receiving the same punishment that Spike got, however with Angel he landed hard on Spike just as the younger vampire with a soul was struggling to sit up.



"Angel.no.," was all that Buffy could get out before everything went black.



END OF CHAPTER 17