Destiny Lost
#1: In the Space of a Heartbeat
Authors: Sonya and Erin
E-mail: sonyajeb@swbell.net OR carynsilver@yahoo.com
Rating: PG-13
Category: B/X, AU, action/adventure, romance
Summary: An accident seconds before being chosen causes the Slayer Essence to skip Buffy, leaving her a normal girl. Then, a year and a half later, her mom's new job and her parents' divorce brings Buffy and her mother to Sunnydale, where Buffy comes in contact with the world of the night and a young man dedicated to its destruction.
Disclaimer: We do not own Buffy or any of the original characters or ideas from the show. They all belong to Joss, Mutant Enemy, etc. All we own is our own creative genius (unless that's too strong a word :) and any characters we make up.
Distribution: Sure, just let us know where it is!
Feedback: Love it! We want to know your likes AND dislikes. Flames are the only thing we do not accept.
Spoilers: Basic BtVS mythology and vampire/slayer lore
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 18
The Bronze
"Shit!" Xander cried, trying to push his way past the screaming crowd and reach the stage where Willow stood. As he knocked people over and elbowed his way through the masses, Xander scanned the room for other possible danger zones. His eyes immdeiatly landed on Spike and a group of vamps who were already catching some of the teens on the edges of the crowd and starting to feed. Meanwhile, Willow had grabbed the band's drummer, a blonde girl with eyes as wide as saucers, and snapped her neck brutally. She giggled as she let the lifeless body sink to the floor. Things here were quickly spiralling out of control and Xander just didn't know what he could do about it by himself. Where were Angel and the others when he needed them, anyway?
Finally, Xander managed to make his way to the stage and was about to take the battle to Willow when a hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him around. Xander thought it was Angel or someone for a minute, but was surprised to find a fairly normal looking young girl with longish brown hair and a sweet smile. He assumed it was one of the frightened teens from the crowd, though why they'd be trying to talk to him was a mystery. "What is it?" Xander asked, concerned. "Are you alright?"
The girl smiled. "More alright than you're going to be, sweetie."
Xander was confused. But before he could ask her what she meant, another girl walked up to her side. This girl wore all black and had an entire arsenal of weapons strapped to her sides. Xander gulped, dropping into a defensive stance. "Who are you?"
Rambo-chick grinned and suddenly her right hand had changed shape, elongating and turning into a whip of sorts. "Your worst nightmare," she said simply.
Xander didn't wait for her to attack, instead he took the offensive and lunged forward, barreling into her midsection and tackling her. Once they hit the ground, Xander jumped to his feet first, though she quickly followed suit. Xander lashed out with a kick to her side and followed up with a snap kick that caught her in the jaw, snapping her head back sharply. But before he could press the attack, the brunette walked over to stand beside her friend and grinned. Suddenly, her face began to change shape, her forehead sloping and her mouth and nose elongating into a snout. Hair began to grow all over her body as she almost doubled in size, her jeans and tshirt ripping open. Soon, she was huge, covered in hair and growling in the back of her throat. Her eyes glowed with a yellow light.
The she-wolf took a step forward, using her greater size to intimidate Xander. Lashing out with her claws, she swiped at him. Xander jumped out of the way, but was just a little too slow. The edges of her claws caught him across the chest, leaving five bloody gouges running across his body. Xander winced, trying to ignore the pain. He could hear Willow laughing from the stage, but ignored it. He had all he could handle with the two girls in front of him.
The girl in black cracked her hand/whip at Xander, managing to wrap it around his throat. It pulled tight, dragging Xander to the ground as the life was slowly choked out of him. He clawed at the whip, trying to get it off of him. The girl just laughed cruely. "This one was all too easy," she told her partner as Xander began to slowly pass out from lack of oxygen. But before he could succomb to the darkness, Xander managed to reach a hand into his boot, pulling out his boot knife and crawling to his knees. Xander took aim and threw the knife, watching with satisfaction as it embedded itself up to the hilt in the she-wolf's side. The creature howled, taking a step back and looking down at the knife in shock. Xander knew that the blow wouldn't kill the creature, but at least is took her out of the fight for a little while.
The woman in black saw what he had done to her friend and hissed angrily, drawing the whip tighter around his neck. Her other hand began to change shape as well, turning into a dagger with a viscious looking serrated blade. Grinning, she began to advance on Xander's weak form. But by that point, he was already losing consciousness...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Giles stood motionless for a minute. Willow was up on stage -- he could hear her over the microphone -- but Giles was, for once, stymied as to a course of action. With the Order of Taraka here, things had just gotten more difficult. He needed to start getting the innocents out the back door, but he also needed to warn the others. Then Angel was there, standing next to him.
"I've got to tell you something," Angel said urgently. "It's about the spell."
"There's no time for that now!" Giles replied. "This little party has gone from bad to worse. The Order of Taraka is here. You've got to warn Xander."
"And Sonya," Angel added, "she's probably a target, too."
"Sonya's here?" Giles questioned. "Bloody hell! I thought she'd come to her senses and stayed at home."
"Sonya?" Angel looked at Giles askance.
Giles nodded. "You're right. Of course, she wouldn't."
"I'll warn the others, but there's something else," Angel said. "It's about Buffy."
"Not you, too!" Giles exclaimed. "What is it about that girl that has everyone so befuddled?"
Angel was speechless for a second. Then he continued. "No, I mean that she's vital to the spell."
"No, only a potential Slayer can..." Giles' eyes widened as the full weight of the vampire's words impressed itself upon him.
"Buffy is a potential Slayer. She has the correct genetic makeup for us to use in the spell. The Essence will come to her this time. It only skipped her because of a debilitating accident," Angel explained. He kept glancing into the other room. He needed to get in there, but Giles had to know this first.
Light dawned in the Watcher's eyes. "That's why her name sounded so familiar at first. I couldn't place it at the time, but... Buffy Summers was to be Slayer before Sonya!" Giles grabbed the sleeve of Angel's trench coat. "If you see her, get her to me. I'll get her out of here."
"Right," Angel said. "I'm going back in there. I'll get word to Xander and the others about the Order."
"Be careful," Giles warned. "The two girls wear the rings, but the Order always travels in threes, and I've yet to see the third. It may be a nasty surprise."
"Anything Willow and Spike have planned is a nasty surprise." Angel turned to go. "Don't forget to waste the vampire guards outside the doors before you rush the innocents outside."
"Of course..." Giles started, but the vampire was gone.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sonya came out of the bathroom when she heard unusual noises coming from the main part of the club. It had only been a couple of seconds since Buffy had left. Sonya expected to see the other girl still in the hallway, but she wasn't there.
(Must have been running...) Sonya thought.
Sonya heard soft footsteps from behind her and spun her chair around, coming face to face with a vampire. He growled at her, obviously thinking that she would be easy pickings since she was crippled. Sonya grinned, her hand pulling a stake out of her purse. The vamp paused when he saw the stake, but decided to attack anyway, rushing her and knocking her chair to the ground.
Sonya grappled with the vamp, using her slayer strength to keep him at bay. After a moment, she saw the opening she needed and plunged the stake through his heart. He burst into dust.
Gasping, Sonya turned away from the dusted vamp and looked over to where Giles should be posted. He wasn't there. The back door burst open, and Giles stumbled in covered in vampire dust. When he saw Sonya, some of the worry vanished from behind his eyes. He was holding an empty crossbow.
"There were two guards, but I dusted them," the Watcher quickly explained, helping Sonya back into her chair.
"Right," Sonya nodded, all business now. The tactics drilled into her by her Watcher moved front and center in her brain. "You move faster than me. Go in and start leading people out here. I'll watch for more vamps at the door and herd the sheep outside."
Giles nodded and moved into the main part of the Bronze. Soon Sonya had all she could handle in getting the scared kids out the back door without making too much noise and alerting the other vamps.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Oz watched Xander squaring off with the two girls, but he didn't think he'd be much help there. Then he saw Spike and his vamps attcking the teens, but Oz knew that he couldn't win a fight with almost a dozen vamps, either. Oz was definitely feeling a bit out of his element here. But then he saw the redhead, Willow was her name if he remembered correctly, slowly killing off the band, one girl at a time. Maybe he could do something to help them. Oz pulled a small water gun from the purse that Buffy had packed and grinned, making his way to the stage. The crowd had thinned out by now, which meant that Giles and Sonya were doing their job well, and Oz reached the stage in no time, jumping up and facing Willow. "Leave the band alone," he demanded, raising his gun.
Willow raised an eyebrow, her hands still wrapped around the bass guitarist's neck. "Why ever would I do that? I'm having too much fun."
Oz didn't reply, instead he aimed his water gun at her face and fired, a stream of holy water shooting out and hitting her right in the eyes. Willow screamed, dropping the band member and raising her hands to her face, which was now smoking. "You son of a bitch!" she yelled after the smoking stopped, removing her hands from her blistered and burned face and glaring at Oz. "You'll pay for that."
She tried to lunge at Oz, but he simply raised an eyebrow and sprayed her again, causing her to fall back and scream again.
Willow didn't try for a third time. Instead, she jumped off the stage and ran out of the Bronze. "Let the Order of Taraka deal with them," she muttered, trying to ignore the painful agony that was her face. "I never signed up for this torture." Willow kept running, making her way back to the Factory.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nathan watched it all from his window in the black fire. Things were going well. His girls were doing their stuff, and the body count was rising. He began to whisper words from the language of the ancient Druids -- his ancestors. He could feel their power growing in his body. It whipped around his robes with an unnatural wind.
As he gazed at the fire, he felt like he was at the Bronze himself. He repeated the ancient words to the strengthening spell over and over again. Kate and Gillian fought with a renewed ferocity.
Nathan ended the spell, and a coughing spasm wracked his thin body. It almost doubled him over. The sorcerer reached into the inner folds of his robes and pulled out a small leather bag filled with a blue powder. He took a pinch of the powder and tucked it under his tongue. As his saliva moistened and dissolved the powder, the coughing spasm stopped and he felt strong again.
That was the only drawback to his awesome power. The physical human body wasn't meant to hold that much magic. It burned it up from the inside, and certain measures had to be taken.
Nathan looked back at the fire, pushing thoughts of frailty out of his mind. Now was the time for strength, not weakness.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Buffy regained consciousness some time later. She didn't know where she was, but her head hurt, she was very thirsty and she was bouncing. She opened her eyes to see plaid.
"What the..." Then she realized she was staring at someone's back -- someone wearing a plaid shirt. She twisted her head around and saw they seemed to be approaching an old, abandoned factory. They went inside, and Buffy was laid roughly on a large, oak table. She could now see that her kidnapper was a vampire.
"Tie her hands and feet. We must make sure she cannot escape."
The vampire did as he was bid, and Buffy -- weak and losing blood from the wound on her head -- could do little to stop him. She craned her neck and tried to see who else had spoken. A tall, lanky man with a shock of shaggy dark hair and long black robes moved into her line of sight.
"Who are you?" she asked.
His smile made his thin face a mass of wrinkles. Buffy shuddered. Though he seemed young, something about him gave her the feeling that she stared into the eyes of something beyond time itself.
"I have many names," the man said in a calm and almost pleasant voice. "But you man call me Nathan."
"What do you want with me?" The words came out sounding more frightened than she'd intended.
"That remains to be seen." Nathan rubbed his thumb over a ring on his index finger. The ring was silver and had a weird symbol on it that Buffy did not recognize. "A contract has been put out on your life..."
Her chin quivered. Who could hate her enough to do that? Willow's insane, jealous eyes from the fight two nights before came into her mind.
"Move along, Seth," Nathan said to the vampire. "You've gotten her here, now you'd better get back to the club to help the others finish off the rest of the goodie-goodies. I'll take care of this one."
Seth nodded and obeyed orders.
Nathan moved closer to Buffy and stroked her hair with one cold, white hand. She shivered.
"You're a strong one," he muttered, almost to himself, but she could hear him. "You don't know it, but you have the potential for greatness. And your greatness can enhance my own..."
#1: In the Space of a Heartbeat
Authors: Sonya and Erin
E-mail: sonyajeb@swbell.net OR carynsilver@yahoo.com
Rating: PG-13
Category: B/X, AU, action/adventure, romance
Summary: An accident seconds before being chosen causes the Slayer Essence to skip Buffy, leaving her a normal girl. Then, a year and a half later, her mom's new job and her parents' divorce brings Buffy and her mother to Sunnydale, where Buffy comes in contact with the world of the night and a young man dedicated to its destruction.
Disclaimer: We do not own Buffy or any of the original characters or ideas from the show. They all belong to Joss, Mutant Enemy, etc. All we own is our own creative genius (unless that's too strong a word :) and any characters we make up.
Distribution: Sure, just let us know where it is!
Feedback: Love it! We want to know your likes AND dislikes. Flames are the only thing we do not accept.
Spoilers: Basic BtVS mythology and vampire/slayer lore
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 18
The Bronze
"Shit!" Xander cried, trying to push his way past the screaming crowd and reach the stage where Willow stood. As he knocked people over and elbowed his way through the masses, Xander scanned the room for other possible danger zones. His eyes immdeiatly landed on Spike and a group of vamps who were already catching some of the teens on the edges of the crowd and starting to feed. Meanwhile, Willow had grabbed the band's drummer, a blonde girl with eyes as wide as saucers, and snapped her neck brutally. She giggled as she let the lifeless body sink to the floor. Things here were quickly spiralling out of control and Xander just didn't know what he could do about it by himself. Where were Angel and the others when he needed them, anyway?
Finally, Xander managed to make his way to the stage and was about to take the battle to Willow when a hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him around. Xander thought it was Angel or someone for a minute, but was surprised to find a fairly normal looking young girl with longish brown hair and a sweet smile. He assumed it was one of the frightened teens from the crowd, though why they'd be trying to talk to him was a mystery. "What is it?" Xander asked, concerned. "Are you alright?"
The girl smiled. "More alright than you're going to be, sweetie."
Xander was confused. But before he could ask her what she meant, another girl walked up to her side. This girl wore all black and had an entire arsenal of weapons strapped to her sides. Xander gulped, dropping into a defensive stance. "Who are you?"
Rambo-chick grinned and suddenly her right hand had changed shape, elongating and turning into a whip of sorts. "Your worst nightmare," she said simply.
Xander didn't wait for her to attack, instead he took the offensive and lunged forward, barreling into her midsection and tackling her. Once they hit the ground, Xander jumped to his feet first, though she quickly followed suit. Xander lashed out with a kick to her side and followed up with a snap kick that caught her in the jaw, snapping her head back sharply. But before he could press the attack, the brunette walked over to stand beside her friend and grinned. Suddenly, her face began to change shape, her forehead sloping and her mouth and nose elongating into a snout. Hair began to grow all over her body as she almost doubled in size, her jeans and tshirt ripping open. Soon, she was huge, covered in hair and growling in the back of her throat. Her eyes glowed with a yellow light.
The she-wolf took a step forward, using her greater size to intimidate Xander. Lashing out with her claws, she swiped at him. Xander jumped out of the way, but was just a little too slow. The edges of her claws caught him across the chest, leaving five bloody gouges running across his body. Xander winced, trying to ignore the pain. He could hear Willow laughing from the stage, but ignored it. He had all he could handle with the two girls in front of him.
The girl in black cracked her hand/whip at Xander, managing to wrap it around his throat. It pulled tight, dragging Xander to the ground as the life was slowly choked out of him. He clawed at the whip, trying to get it off of him. The girl just laughed cruely. "This one was all too easy," she told her partner as Xander began to slowly pass out from lack of oxygen. But before he could succomb to the darkness, Xander managed to reach a hand into his boot, pulling out his boot knife and crawling to his knees. Xander took aim and threw the knife, watching with satisfaction as it embedded itself up to the hilt in the she-wolf's side. The creature howled, taking a step back and looking down at the knife in shock. Xander knew that the blow wouldn't kill the creature, but at least is took her out of the fight for a little while.
The woman in black saw what he had done to her friend and hissed angrily, drawing the whip tighter around his neck. Her other hand began to change shape as well, turning into a dagger with a viscious looking serrated blade. Grinning, she began to advance on Xander's weak form. But by that point, he was already losing consciousness...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Giles stood motionless for a minute. Willow was up on stage -- he could hear her over the microphone -- but Giles was, for once, stymied as to a course of action. With the Order of Taraka here, things had just gotten more difficult. He needed to start getting the innocents out the back door, but he also needed to warn the others. Then Angel was there, standing next to him.
"I've got to tell you something," Angel said urgently. "It's about the spell."
"There's no time for that now!" Giles replied. "This little party has gone from bad to worse. The Order of Taraka is here. You've got to warn Xander."
"And Sonya," Angel added, "she's probably a target, too."
"Sonya's here?" Giles questioned. "Bloody hell! I thought she'd come to her senses and stayed at home."
"Sonya?" Angel looked at Giles askance.
Giles nodded. "You're right. Of course, she wouldn't."
"I'll warn the others, but there's something else," Angel said. "It's about Buffy."
"Not you, too!" Giles exclaimed. "What is it about that girl that has everyone so befuddled?"
Angel was speechless for a second. Then he continued. "No, I mean that she's vital to the spell."
"No, only a potential Slayer can..." Giles' eyes widened as the full weight of the vampire's words impressed itself upon him.
"Buffy is a potential Slayer. She has the correct genetic makeup for us to use in the spell. The Essence will come to her this time. It only skipped her because of a debilitating accident," Angel explained. He kept glancing into the other room. He needed to get in there, but Giles had to know this first.
Light dawned in the Watcher's eyes. "That's why her name sounded so familiar at first. I couldn't place it at the time, but... Buffy Summers was to be Slayer before Sonya!" Giles grabbed the sleeve of Angel's trench coat. "If you see her, get her to me. I'll get her out of here."
"Right," Angel said. "I'm going back in there. I'll get word to Xander and the others about the Order."
"Be careful," Giles warned. "The two girls wear the rings, but the Order always travels in threes, and I've yet to see the third. It may be a nasty surprise."
"Anything Willow and Spike have planned is a nasty surprise." Angel turned to go. "Don't forget to waste the vampire guards outside the doors before you rush the innocents outside."
"Of course..." Giles started, but the vampire was gone.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sonya came out of the bathroom when she heard unusual noises coming from the main part of the club. It had only been a couple of seconds since Buffy had left. Sonya expected to see the other girl still in the hallway, but she wasn't there.
(Must have been running...) Sonya thought.
Sonya heard soft footsteps from behind her and spun her chair around, coming face to face with a vampire. He growled at her, obviously thinking that she would be easy pickings since she was crippled. Sonya grinned, her hand pulling a stake out of her purse. The vamp paused when he saw the stake, but decided to attack anyway, rushing her and knocking her chair to the ground.
Sonya grappled with the vamp, using her slayer strength to keep him at bay. After a moment, she saw the opening she needed and plunged the stake through his heart. He burst into dust.
Gasping, Sonya turned away from the dusted vamp and looked over to where Giles should be posted. He wasn't there. The back door burst open, and Giles stumbled in covered in vampire dust. When he saw Sonya, some of the worry vanished from behind his eyes. He was holding an empty crossbow.
"There were two guards, but I dusted them," the Watcher quickly explained, helping Sonya back into her chair.
"Right," Sonya nodded, all business now. The tactics drilled into her by her Watcher moved front and center in her brain. "You move faster than me. Go in and start leading people out here. I'll watch for more vamps at the door and herd the sheep outside."
Giles nodded and moved into the main part of the Bronze. Soon Sonya had all she could handle in getting the scared kids out the back door without making too much noise and alerting the other vamps.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Oz watched Xander squaring off with the two girls, but he didn't think he'd be much help there. Then he saw Spike and his vamps attcking the teens, but Oz knew that he couldn't win a fight with almost a dozen vamps, either. Oz was definitely feeling a bit out of his element here. But then he saw the redhead, Willow was her name if he remembered correctly, slowly killing off the band, one girl at a time. Maybe he could do something to help them. Oz pulled a small water gun from the purse that Buffy had packed and grinned, making his way to the stage. The crowd had thinned out by now, which meant that Giles and Sonya were doing their job well, and Oz reached the stage in no time, jumping up and facing Willow. "Leave the band alone," he demanded, raising his gun.
Willow raised an eyebrow, her hands still wrapped around the bass guitarist's neck. "Why ever would I do that? I'm having too much fun."
Oz didn't reply, instead he aimed his water gun at her face and fired, a stream of holy water shooting out and hitting her right in the eyes. Willow screamed, dropping the band member and raising her hands to her face, which was now smoking. "You son of a bitch!" she yelled after the smoking stopped, removing her hands from her blistered and burned face and glaring at Oz. "You'll pay for that."
She tried to lunge at Oz, but he simply raised an eyebrow and sprayed her again, causing her to fall back and scream again.
Willow didn't try for a third time. Instead, she jumped off the stage and ran out of the Bronze. "Let the Order of Taraka deal with them," she muttered, trying to ignore the painful agony that was her face. "I never signed up for this torture." Willow kept running, making her way back to the Factory.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nathan watched it all from his window in the black fire. Things were going well. His girls were doing their stuff, and the body count was rising. He began to whisper words from the language of the ancient Druids -- his ancestors. He could feel their power growing in his body. It whipped around his robes with an unnatural wind.
As he gazed at the fire, he felt like he was at the Bronze himself. He repeated the ancient words to the strengthening spell over and over again. Kate and Gillian fought with a renewed ferocity.
Nathan ended the spell, and a coughing spasm wracked his thin body. It almost doubled him over. The sorcerer reached into the inner folds of his robes and pulled out a small leather bag filled with a blue powder. He took a pinch of the powder and tucked it under his tongue. As his saliva moistened and dissolved the powder, the coughing spasm stopped and he felt strong again.
That was the only drawback to his awesome power. The physical human body wasn't meant to hold that much magic. It burned it up from the inside, and certain measures had to be taken.
Nathan looked back at the fire, pushing thoughts of frailty out of his mind. Now was the time for strength, not weakness.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Buffy regained consciousness some time later. She didn't know where she was, but her head hurt, she was very thirsty and she was bouncing. She opened her eyes to see plaid.
"What the..." Then she realized she was staring at someone's back -- someone wearing a plaid shirt. She twisted her head around and saw they seemed to be approaching an old, abandoned factory. They went inside, and Buffy was laid roughly on a large, oak table. She could now see that her kidnapper was a vampire.
"Tie her hands and feet. We must make sure she cannot escape."
The vampire did as he was bid, and Buffy -- weak and losing blood from the wound on her head -- could do little to stop him. She craned her neck and tried to see who else had spoken. A tall, lanky man with a shock of shaggy dark hair and long black robes moved into her line of sight.
"Who are you?" she asked.
His smile made his thin face a mass of wrinkles. Buffy shuddered. Though he seemed young, something about him gave her the feeling that she stared into the eyes of something beyond time itself.
"I have many names," the man said in a calm and almost pleasant voice. "But you man call me Nathan."
"What do you want with me?" The words came out sounding more frightened than she'd intended.
"That remains to be seen." Nathan rubbed his thumb over a ring on his index finger. The ring was silver and had a weird symbol on it that Buffy did not recognize. "A contract has been put out on your life..."
Her chin quivered. Who could hate her enough to do that? Willow's insane, jealous eyes from the fight two nights before came into her mind.
"Move along, Seth," Nathan said to the vampire. "You've gotten her here, now you'd better get back to the club to help the others finish off the rest of the goodie-goodies. I'll take care of this one."
Seth nodded and obeyed orders.
Nathan moved closer to Buffy and stroked her hair with one cold, white hand. She shivered.
"You're a strong one," he muttered, almost to himself, but she could hear him. "You don't know it, but you have the potential for greatness. And your greatness can enhance my own..."