***

I was on the move with the limping ogre not far behind me. The monster was fast and strong obviously one of the warriors of the breed. No wonder Antonio was sure I would fall to this one. Two vampires rose in front of me and I dodged between them. Yelling "Stop Him, he'll kill us all." the ogre stopped only briefly to snap both their necks before continuing the pursuit. Ogres aren't good at telling friend from foe. I could see Buffy on her knees with Antonio doing some kind of magic on her.

Screw Puffy " The Other Sneered "we got worries of our own, if she can't hack a simple magic hurler, she's too soft for this work anyway."

I wanted to tell her to shut up, but survival was an immediate concern. I realized that Kruger was herding me further away from Buffy and I remembered the crack Tony had made about the Pyrotic. If her friends were dying because I was playing patty cake with this jerk-off then I would never forgive myself.

Spinning I tried to attack him again. He took a solid kick to the groin and burped. He grabbed at me and I moved to stab him again. Too late, I realized that the grab was a feint. His huge fist squeezed shut on my hand hauling me high into the air. I felt the bones of my hand grinding together around my now useless knife. I thought about screaming.

"Oh fuck this, let me handle this one." I started to laugh. The sound like was the grinding of metal gears. My hand came up and punched at the ogre to get his attention.

"You think little girl punch will hurt Kruger" The thing grumbled harshly in a bass register.

"No ya big lard ass I just want a good look at those puny looking eyes of yours." The Other gave him the finger or at least I thought that was what she was doing until I saw the nail on the middle finger growing until it was ten inches long. She pulled our arm back and thrust forward with mechanical action. The nail shoved through the socket piercing the eyeball and securing itself in the meaty space beyond. Then with a savage jerk she yanked her fist free of the mess and blood and then plunged her newly minted finger nail / hat pin into the ogre's other eye. The creature screamed again this time high and prissy sounding.

"Just like a man get your hands on a real woman and you go to pieces in front of her." I sneered. I broke off the fingernail inside the skull of the thing. I dropped to the ground and backed away from the creature that was weaving around the room and screaming holding both his hands over his ruined eyes. I looked at my right hand covered in blood. Shrugging my shoulders, I licked the blood off. I believe in the old saying, waste not; want not.

"Ugh" I had to agree ogre blood while potent is not very tasty. In seconds my ruined left had and the finger nail on my right were back in shape. I looked around. Kruger was still searching blindly for me. On the other hand, maybe he was just blindly raging; I headed toward him to finish the job when the room exploded with heat and fire. Flaming death was coming my way.

***

Buffy was dying. Over an over again. Sometimes a vampire that got lucky would end her life. Sometimes, one of the major bad guys she had dealt with would kill her. Once or twice, she saw Angel taking her life and raising her into darkness. Nevertheless, each time Antonio would pull her back from the brink and run her through another death.

Antonio's laughter was the only constant through it all. His laugh gloated and mocked her. She hated mocking by anyone. She reached down into the primal darkness of her soul. There it was the dark place she had seen before when fighting Sonja in the landscape of the mind. She reached down into that place and something reached back, grabbed her and allowed cold dark energy to flow into her.

Antonio was immediately aware that something had changed. When the girl rose from the floor and started toward him.

"How? You should be crawling before me." He looked at her with real vision and saw pulsating vévé wreathing her face. They were in the shape of voudou tribal markings older then the eldest of magic.

She spoke not with the voice of the Californian teenager she was, but in the voice of the culmination of thousands of years of slayers that had passed before her.

"Your magic means nothing; you mean nothing. "

"I will kill you." The now panicked mage screamed backing up and away from the relentlessly stalking slayer.

"I am The Slayer, I am Death. You're nothing but a child pretending to power beyond your ken."

She reached toward the now terrified mage. Suddenly, the door at the back of the chamber blew off its hinges. It came hurtling into the room. Antonio reached out with his mind, grabbed the door, and hurled it at Buffy. She moved and twisted impossibly. The door sailed over top of her and headed toward Sonja who dropped to the floor even as her dance partner flailed over top of her. The door smashed into him. It picked him up and hurled him over against the far wall where door and ogre came to a fiery rest.

Sonja rose from the floor and looked to where The Slayer was pursuing Antonio. She looked to the back of the chamber where she could see the rest of the Scoobies.

She ran across the room and slid through he hole. Once there she witnessed a chilling sight.

Spike was hanging from the Pyrotic's grip. Xander was crouched on the floor covered in ash and mason dust. He had obviously been standing next to the door when the Pyrotic had blown it off the hinges. She went to pick him up, but he waved her away one handed.

"I'm fine, get to Spike he's finished if that thing has a good grip…." Sonja nodded and ran toward the fire demon and the struggling vampire in his grip. Spike's coat was smoldering in its grip. Sonja kicked a discarded axe into her grasp and continued her march toward the pair. The pyrotic was pulling Spike closer as though for a kiss.

"Hey Flame-Boy, hands off." She whirled like a dervish; her axe sliced through the hand of the thing. A tiny pop of flame was the only reaction as the arm holding the vampire severed at the elbow and dropped him to the floor. Spike rolled clear. He snatched up a sword lying on the ground, crammed all three feet of it into the Pyrotic's stomach, and then dragged it viciously to the side.

"Both of you get out of the way." Willow screamed. Her eyes were completely dark; the vampires rolled out the way as she focused her magic on the Pyrotic for a moment. It stood there with its belly cut open; a worm-like creature was writhing inside as it tried to pull itself free of the carcass surrounding it. Willow whirled her head around and glanced at a wall. There was a rumble and the wall exploded. A jet of water streaked outward. The high-pressure fountain of water picked up the Pyrotic and carried it struggling and screeching back into chamber beyond.

***

It is unclear who was more shocked by the sight of a screaming waterlogged demon being thrown across the chamber. Buffy or Antonio, it was clear however that Antonio was the first to recover and thrust the knife out again. This time, fire ripped through Buffy's body.

"I have watched many die of Fever, Slayer, it is quaint that one so powerful could have been taken by something so simple, but it will suffice for ridding me of you." He moved toward the struggling girl and poised above her. He pulled his arm back for a final strike against the girl on the floor before him. Suddenly, a movement in the corner of his eye alerted him to danger. He reached out with his mind and grabbed the first thing it could find. There spinning in the air was Sonja's switchblade. "You didn't think that this feeble thing would stop me did you." He sneered.

"Nah, I was just trying to distract you for a few crucial seconds." Sonja supplied casually. He snapped his head around. Buffy's well-driven fist smashed into his brow. He spun around and ran right into Doctor Martin's patented heel. Sonja had vaulted the altar and sent her foot smacking into his face. The mage's head snapped backward. "Kind of hard to summon the old black magic when that head is ringing ain't it Tony." Sonja Sneered

He tried to rally and found himself running into Buffy's fist again. Her soulless and possessed smile was as cold a thing as Sonja had ever seen.

"Pretentious magic hurler with delusions of grandeur." She noted casually as she launched another blow right to Antonio's face.

The mage reeled further back, flailed at her with his knife and succeeded in slashing her arm.

She backed off and, looking around for a weapon, caught sight of the Pyrotic raising weakly from the floor where it had been deposited by the force of the gusher that had thrown it into the room. She shot a look at Antonio and Sonja answered her silent plea.

"Go, I'll keep him warm for you." Sonja called and watched the Slayer head for the weakened demon. She then turned back to Antonio and brandished her retrieved switchblade. "Alright, big-boy, time to dance."

They began to Fight, their knifes clashing together and bouncing off of each other in complete violation of all traditional knife fighting discipline. Giles would record in his Watcher Chronicles that it was like watching two people fence with very short swords.

Buffy headed to the creature getting slowly to its' feet and launched herself at it. Her kicks forced it back against a wall, where she pinned the freakish thing by jamming her foot into its throat.

"Somebody want to throw me an axe or sword." She screamed. The Pyrotic began to whimper as Spike tossed her his sword. She caught the sword and in one smooth seamless move cut the Pyrotic's head off. Then she dug the blade into the gapping belly wound and pulled out the worm that was inside, hurling it and the sword away. The headless, powerless corpse dropped finally to the ground.

The Fight between Sonja and Antonio had worked its way to the altar. Xander ducked under the duelers to reach his beloved. He pulled her from the altar with much screeching and whining.

Sonja kept up the fury of her attack knowing that the second she gave him an opening Antonio would unleash the fury of his mind and magic on her. Their blades clashed together and clashed hard back and forth as sparks flew from the contact and the two combatants began to sweat blood. Finally, Sonja caught Antonio's blade against her own. Their muscles tensioned and swelled.

Suddenly Sonja stepped to the side. As Antonio's weight carried him past her she snagged his arm and brought the razor sharp knife in her hand up through the arm of the mage. Antonio screamed high and loud as he held the stump that had until second ago been his hand. The hand and the blade inside of it sailed through the air and landed in the hands of the Slayer.

Buffy held the Ashanti high over her head. "Willow now!"

Willow gathered her strengths once more and focused all her might on the blade. It glowed brightly as she sent her mind into it and she saw the souls that had been bound to it. They were screaming, in pain, forced to power something that had killed them without ever understanding why.

She saw the connections to the blade and she shattered them with her force of will.

It is done!" she screamed and fainted on the spot

Sonja grabbed the mage. "Hey Anton looks like you dropped something let me help you pick it up" She turned him around and shoved him toward Buffy. Buffy raised the knife high again and shoved it inside his body. Then turning the hilt in her hands, she shoved the blade deeper inside his guts as the blade began to glow fiercely. The mage stepped back and began screaming and clawing at his body and flesh. His whole form seemed to swell with the force of its pain and torment.

Realizing at the last moment that this would be a bad one, Buffy screamed at the rest of the team to get down. She began to run from the altar. Even as she turned, Sonja ran into her full force, tackling her to the ground. A loud explosion ripped through the chamber. Magical energy roiled through the room bathing them all in unnatural light.

When they all rose from the floor there was no sign of either Antonio or the blade. There was gore as Xander quickly discovered that it covered both Anya and he head to foot.

"I hate gore, can't these guys ever die without sliming me." Sonja and Buffy rose from the floor with much coughing and choking on dust and crap.

"Just for future reference, a simple Buffy get down would have more then sufficed." Buffy said casually as she dusted her self off

"Who are you kidding you were loving that tackle." Sonja smiled as she slipped her sunglasses back into place.

Giles and Tara limped into the chamber. She gave a frightened cry when see saw Willow cradled by Spike's arms. He gave a quick shake of his head to show that everything was OK. They all surveyed the damaged chamber. Buffy moved to her Watcher's side and checked him over. "You look like hell."

"Feel like it too. I had hoped he might have left something behind?"

"No, he said something about screwing with reality, but I was in a lot of pain so I can't be sure."

Sonja looked at Giles "Don't look at me I was busy being chased by an ogre."

"Well we shall have to be on our guards for the next few days at least, rather a lot of power was unleashed today and that can't be good. And if what this Melfis told you was true, Hell taking an interest could well be a bad sign that our victory may be short lived."

"Well at lest we all made it out of this one safe and sound." Xander smiled and hugged Anya closer cradling her as she favored the leg that did not have a stab wound in it. "Speak for yourself, You don't have a stab wound in your leg." She exclaimed petulantly.

"Talking about that…." Giles turned on the teen "Xander what even possessed you to do that ridiculous and dangerous stunt in there. You could have gotten yourself killed."

Buffy looked sternly at her friend "Xander were you being dangerously heroic again."

Sonja was more to the point. "How did you convince the Pyrotic to blow open that back door, They aren't the most co-operative of beings."

The two girls started giggling uproariously which left Spike to answer them. "Let us just say that Moon rise came early to Sunnydale this evening."

Xander snarled at Spike, "One more word an I'll pry that chip from your skull with a dull ice pick."

Spike smirked rebelliously and sauntered out of the chamber with Xander in hot pursuit practically dragging the limping Anya behind him.

"Mooning an enemy, Not the most conventional approach still not with out precedent."

Tara could spot a lecture a mile away but fed him the cue anyway. "Really Mr. Giles whatever do you mean." She helped him to his car as he expounded on Classic battle philosophy.

Sonja tuned to Buffy bewildered. "Are they always like this?" The Slayer smiled "Sometimes they get really nasty"

***