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 19
The Bronze
The screams had lessened. Most of the innocents had been evacuated, and those who hadn't were beyond help. Angel staked one of Spike's minions, and turned to face his next opponent. He heard a roar and whirled around just in time to see a strangling Xander hurl a knife at a huge werewolf. The wolf cringed back, but Xander was beginning to lose consciousness in the deathgrip of the other girl, who Angel knew without a doubt to be one of the members of the Order of Taraka.
In vamp face, Angel picked up a nearby table and charged the werewolf. He bashed the table into its huge skull, stunning the creature and breaking the table. Tossing the ruined table to the side, Angel grabbed the wolf and half-carried/half-drug it closer to Xander. Using all of his preternatural strength, Angel pushed the beast into the girl with the whip-arm, knocking the girl forward and loosening the choke-hold she had on Xander.
When the girl hit the floor, Angel was already charging. He scooped up the knife that had been in the werewolf's side and used it to saw through the appendage that held his friend. The girl screamed as blood came rushing out of what was once her arm. The blood stained Angel's trench coat. He could smell it. That made him hungry. And being hungry, made him all the more angry.
Angel took a few steps over to the writhing girl, took her head in his hands and snapped her neck. A little dazed, Xander got to his feet. He looked a little green when he stepped in the sticky blood.
"What *are* these people?" Xander asked.
"The Order of Taraka," Angel explained, eyeing the werewolf to see if she was going to awaken any time soon. "A group of bounty hunters -- some demon and some humans with special gifts. Obviously Spike and Willow planned to take us all out tonight."
"Anything else I need to know?" Xander asked.
"Only that there's one more somewhere that no one's been able to locate," Angel said. "And with the way our luck's going, that one's probably the most powerful."
Xander touched the bruises forming on his neck. "If these two were the wimps of the trio, I'd hate to meet the powerful one."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I'm never going to help you, so you might as well just let me go!" Buffy said. Her show was obviously fake, however, seeing as she was strapped down to a large table and completely at the mercy of the sorcerer who called himself Nathan.
Nathan walked over to her very slowly. "Letting you go isn't an option, my dear, but I do love your show of spunk there. Very brave to challenge me when I've so obviously got the upper hand."
"What is it you want?" Buffy cried. "I don't have any special powers or anything."
A calculating smile curved his lips. "You don't know, do you?"
"Know what? That you're a sick-o who's trying to play with my mind?"
Nathan grabbed her by the hair and pulled hard. Tears sprang into Buffy's eyes.
"You shouldn't call me names. If you make me mad I won't be gentle."
Buffy just stared at him, hatred in her eyes.
"You have powers, my dear Buffy," Nathan said, running his hands down her bound arms with a light, cold touch. "You were to be a Slayer. I would have thought you'd know, seeing as you're obviously involved in that world."
"What?" Buffy whispered, unbelieving.
"It's true. Any one of them could have told you, I'm sure. Sonya only got the powers because of your unfortunate little accident. She stole your destiny from you."
"Why are you telling me all this, and how do you know?" Buffy demanded. Feelings of shock and betrayal slipped into her heart. Could they have known and not told her? No! Mr. Giles, maybe, but not Sonya, not Xander...
"Telepathy is one of my many powers," Nathan bragged. "One look in all your minds, and I knew all that I needed to. And what luck that I realized who you were before the contract on your life was fulfilled." He began to cough and clutched the edge of the table for support. "The latent power in your soul will be enough to make me strong again. Your essence will bind my magic into my body, and keep it there for all time. No longer will I be plagued with this weakness."
He walked over to where his magic supplies were piled and pulled out a large, shiny knife with an ornate hilt. He walked back over and held it out. "This will do nicely." He lowered the blade until it touched the tender skin of her neck. Buffy couldn't move. She wondered where Xander was right now, and wished they hadn't left things so badly.
Suddenly, the door to the factory burst open with a loud bang. Willow -- her face mostly healed but still looking a little juicy -- strode into the room on her high heels and demanded, "What the HELL is going on here?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Willow was gone, Oz helped the remaining band members off the stage and led them to the door where Giles and Sonya were helping people leave. They were pretty much the last living people in the club -- all the others had escaped, were dead or were undead.
"Now what?" Oz asked Giles and Sonya.
"Where's Buffy?" Giles demanded. "Did you leave her in there?"
"She's not in there," Oz protested. "She never came back from the bathroom. Isn't she out here with you?"
"We haven't seen her," Giles said. His face paled. "Now what are we going to do?"
Sonya looked at her Watcher in surprise. Why did he care about Buffy all of a sudden? She thought back to the last time she'd seen Buffy. The blonde girl had disappeared awfully fast from the hallway in front of the bathroom. Then a thought struck her. The window in the hall had been open. Before she could change her mind, Sonya blurted all this out, ending with, "I thought she'd gone back to the table with Oz, but ... do you think she could have been kidnapped?"
Oz looked serious. "Either kidnapped, or dead."
"Look," Giles ordered, "whatever happened to her, we can't help her now, but we'd better get in there and help Angel and Xander."
Suddenly, a large number of Spike's gang who had decided the hallway might offer more prey stood in front of them.
"Or maybe we should help ourselves," Oz said, pulling out his squirt gun.
Then they all heard a loud roaring sound and an unnatural wind picked up inside the building.
Uncaring, Sonya pulled a stake from her bag and flung it with perfect accuracy at one of the vamps. It disappeared into dust. The other vamps started running.
"Am I that scary?" she wondered aloud.
"No," Oz said, "that's scary."
She looked behind her, back toward the bathrooms, and saw huge, orange tongues of flame licking the walls. Identical flames had appeared in the main part of the club as well.
"Get out!" Giles yelled, herding the two teens toward the door.
"But what about Xander?" Sonya yelled.
"He and Angel will have to take care of themselves. There's nothing we can do for them now."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Willow, my darling," Nathan said, pulling the knife back from Buffy's throat. "You're early."
"Lucky I was," Willow replied, stalking over to the other side of the table. They faced each other with Buffy between them. "I think the Order would like to know about this. You abandoned everyone else in your group to focus on healing yourself with someone you're supposed to be killing."
Nathan shrugged. "She'll die either way."
"I'm not paying you to make yourself stronger. I'm paying you to kill the five thorns in my side, including her."
"Gillian and Kate will take care of the others," Nathan said, gesturing toward the magic fire. "See..." His voice trailed off as he actually looked at the scene in the Bronze for the first time in several minutes. He saw his girls fallen -- Gillian was dead, and Kate was unconscious, slowly bleeding to death. None of the targets had been eliminated.
"You were saying?" Willow asked snidely.
Nathan howled in rage. His girls were dead -- or as good as. He began chanting the words to a spell that he'd only use for a last resort. The flames in the fireplace jumped in response, and moved through the magic portal he'd created. Seconds later the Bronze was ablaze.
"You moron!" Willow yelled, slugging the sorcerer in the jaw and breaking his concentration. "Spike's still in there!"
Nathan hit the ground, hard, and looked up at Willow with a deadly glare. "I would have been able to keep him safe, but you broke my concentration. Now the fire is only under it's own control. I hope your Spike knows how to run."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Spike saw the flames he knew that he'd stayed too long at the party. He didn't see Willow anywhere, but he knew that the red head could take care of herself. She wasn't weak like Dru had been.
The blond vampire ran for the nearest window, and started smashing it with a nearby chair. Some of his minions rushed over to help. The window was small and raised. Spike had to jump for it. When he grasped the sill, strong hands grabbed him and pulled him the rest of the way out. He looked up to see Seth, one of his best lieutenants.
"Good job," Spike said approvingly. "Bloody great job, actually."
They looked back in the window, but the flames were already touching the other vamps. Several of them exploded as they watched. Spike shrugged at the screams. "Let's get back to the factory. We'll find more hired help later."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Giles, Oz and Sonya stood a few yards away from the blazing building. They could hear sirens in the distance. A crowd had formed behind them made up of escapees and onlookers.
"Where's Xander?" Sonya asked for the millionth time.
Giles just watched. He wanted more than anything to see either of his friends come out, but with each second that ticked by he had less and less hope. Especially for Angel -- fires were deadly for humans, but even more so for a vampire, soul or not.
Then they all heard a loud creaking and groaning noise.
"Uh oh," Oz said under his breath.
Giles echoed the sentiment in his own mind. There was a loud crash as the roof of the Bronze gave way to the fire and caved in.
"No!" Sonya screamed. Oz gripped her shoulder in sympathy. Giles closed his eyes against the pain in his heart. They stood that way for a few minutes. The fire trucks came, and the professionals trained their hoses on the building, trying to stop the blaze. Huge billows of smoke and steam rose from every place the water hit the flames.
"Hey, look at that..." The cry came from somewhere in the crowd behind them. Giles opened his eyes and saw two silhouettes approaching out of the haze. It was two men supporting each other as they walked. As the figures got closer, their features became more distinguishable.
"It's them," Giles breathed, sending thanks to the higher powers that had granted them this miracle.
Xander let go of Angel when the pair reached their friends. He leaned down and gave Sonya a hug. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.
"It's OK," Sonya replied, tears clogging her voice. "I'm just glad you're alive. Nothing else matters. But if you ever, ever scare me like that again..."
"That's a real threat, man," Oz said. "I wouldn't test her."
Xander laughed, and then his smile faded when his searching eyes didn't find the one person he wanted most to see. "Uh... guys, where's Buffy?"
#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 19
The Bronze
The screams had lessened. Most of the innocents had been evacuated, and those who hadn't were beyond help. Angel staked one of Spike's minions, and turned to face his next opponent. He heard a roar and whirled around just in time to see a strangling Xander hurl a knife at a huge werewolf. The wolf cringed back, but Xander was beginning to lose consciousness in the deathgrip of the other girl, who Angel knew without a doubt to be one of the members of the Order of Taraka.
In vamp face, Angel picked up a nearby table and charged the werewolf. He bashed the table into its huge skull, stunning the creature and breaking the table. Tossing the ruined table to the side, Angel grabbed the wolf and half-carried/half-drug it closer to Xander. Using all of his preternatural strength, Angel pushed the beast into the girl with the whip-arm, knocking the girl forward and loosening the choke-hold she had on Xander.
When the girl hit the floor, Angel was already charging. He scooped up the knife that had been in the werewolf's side and used it to saw through the appendage that held his friend. The girl screamed as blood came rushing out of what was once her arm. The blood stained Angel's trench coat. He could smell it. That made him hungry. And being hungry, made him all the more angry.
Angel took a few steps over to the writhing girl, took her head in his hands and snapped her neck. A little dazed, Xander got to his feet. He looked a little green when he stepped in the sticky blood.
"What *are* these people?" Xander asked.
"The Order of Taraka," Angel explained, eyeing the werewolf to see if she was going to awaken any time soon. "A group of bounty hunters -- some demon and some humans with special gifts. Obviously Spike and Willow planned to take us all out tonight."
"Anything else I need to know?" Xander asked.
"Only that there's one more somewhere that no one's been able to locate," Angel said. "And with the way our luck's going, that one's probably the most powerful."
Xander touched the bruises forming on his neck. "If these two were the wimps of the trio, I'd hate to meet the powerful one."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I'm never going to help you, so you might as well just let me go!" Buffy said. Her show was obviously fake, however, seeing as she was strapped down to a large table and completely at the mercy of the sorcerer who called himself Nathan.
Nathan walked over to her very slowly. "Letting you go isn't an option, my dear, but I do love your show of spunk there. Very brave to challenge me when I've so obviously got the upper hand."
"What is it you want?" Buffy cried. "I don't have any special powers or anything."
A calculating smile curved his lips. "You don't know, do you?"
"Know what? That you're a sick-o who's trying to play with my mind?"
Nathan grabbed her by the hair and pulled hard. Tears sprang into Buffy's eyes.
"You shouldn't call me names. If you make me mad I won't be gentle."
Buffy just stared at him, hatred in her eyes.
"You have powers, my dear Buffy," Nathan said, running his hands down her bound arms with a light, cold touch. "You were to be a Slayer. I would have thought you'd know, seeing as you're obviously involved in that world."
"What?" Buffy whispered, unbelieving.
"It's true. Any one of them could have told you, I'm sure. Sonya only got the powers because of your unfortunate little accident. She stole your destiny from you."
"Why are you telling me all this, and how do you know?" Buffy demanded. Feelings of shock and betrayal slipped into her heart. Could they have known and not told her? No! Mr. Giles, maybe, but not Sonya, not Xander...
"Telepathy is one of my many powers," Nathan bragged. "One look in all your minds, and I knew all that I needed to. And what luck that I realized who you were before the contract on your life was fulfilled." He began to cough and clutched the edge of the table for support. "The latent power in your soul will be enough to make me strong again. Your essence will bind my magic into my body, and keep it there for all time. No longer will I be plagued with this weakness."
He walked over to where his magic supplies were piled and pulled out a large, shiny knife with an ornate hilt. He walked back over and held it out. "This will do nicely." He lowered the blade until it touched the tender skin of her neck. Buffy couldn't move. She wondered where Xander was right now, and wished they hadn't left things so badly.
Suddenly, the door to the factory burst open with a loud bang. Willow -- her face mostly healed but still looking a little juicy -- strode into the room on her high heels and demanded, "What the HELL is going on here?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Willow was gone, Oz helped the remaining band members off the stage and led them to the door where Giles and Sonya were helping people leave. They were pretty much the last living people in the club -- all the others had escaped, were dead or were undead.
"Now what?" Oz asked Giles and Sonya.
"Where's Buffy?" Giles demanded. "Did you leave her in there?"
"She's not in there," Oz protested. "She never came back from the bathroom. Isn't she out here with you?"
"We haven't seen her," Giles said. His face paled. "Now what are we going to do?"
Sonya looked at her Watcher in surprise. Why did he care about Buffy all of a sudden? She thought back to the last time she'd seen Buffy. The blonde girl had disappeared awfully fast from the hallway in front of the bathroom. Then a thought struck her. The window in the hall had been open. Before she could change her mind, Sonya blurted all this out, ending with, "I thought she'd gone back to the table with Oz, but ... do you think she could have been kidnapped?"
Oz looked serious. "Either kidnapped, or dead."
"Look," Giles ordered, "whatever happened to her, we can't help her now, but we'd better get in there and help Angel and Xander."
Suddenly, a large number of Spike's gang who had decided the hallway might offer more prey stood in front of them.
"Or maybe we should help ourselves," Oz said, pulling out his squirt gun.
Then they all heard a loud roaring sound and an unnatural wind picked up inside the building.
Uncaring, Sonya pulled a stake from her bag and flung it with perfect accuracy at one of the vamps. It disappeared into dust. The other vamps started running.
"Am I that scary?" she wondered aloud.
"No," Oz said, "that's scary."
She looked behind her, back toward the bathrooms, and saw huge, orange tongues of flame licking the walls. Identical flames had appeared in the main part of the club as well.
"Get out!" Giles yelled, herding the two teens toward the door.
"But what about Xander?" Sonya yelled.
"He and Angel will have to take care of themselves. There's nothing we can do for them now."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Willow, my darling," Nathan said, pulling the knife back from Buffy's throat. "You're early."
"Lucky I was," Willow replied, stalking over to the other side of the table. They faced each other with Buffy between them. "I think the Order would like to know about this. You abandoned everyone else in your group to focus on healing yourself with someone you're supposed to be killing."
Nathan shrugged. "She'll die either way."
"I'm not paying you to make yourself stronger. I'm paying you to kill the five thorns in my side, including her."
"Gillian and Kate will take care of the others," Nathan said, gesturing toward the magic fire. "See..." His voice trailed off as he actually looked at the scene in the Bronze for the first time in several minutes. He saw his girls fallen -- Gillian was dead, and Kate was unconscious, slowly bleeding to death. None of the targets had been eliminated.
"You were saying?" Willow asked snidely.
Nathan howled in rage. His girls were dead -- or as good as. He began chanting the words to a spell that he'd only use for a last resort. The flames in the fireplace jumped in response, and moved through the magic portal he'd created. Seconds later the Bronze was ablaze.
"You moron!" Willow yelled, slugging the sorcerer in the jaw and breaking his concentration. "Spike's still in there!"
Nathan hit the ground, hard, and looked up at Willow with a deadly glare. "I would have been able to keep him safe, but you broke my concentration. Now the fire is only under it's own control. I hope your Spike knows how to run."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Spike saw the flames he knew that he'd stayed too long at the party. He didn't see Willow anywhere, but he knew that the red head could take care of herself. She wasn't weak like Dru had been.
The blond vampire ran for the nearest window, and started smashing it with a nearby chair. Some of his minions rushed over to help. The window was small and raised. Spike had to jump for it. When he grasped the sill, strong hands grabbed him and pulled him the rest of the way out. He looked up to see Seth, one of his best lieutenants.
"Good job," Spike said approvingly. "Bloody great job, actually."
They looked back in the window, but the flames were already touching the other vamps. Several of them exploded as they watched. Spike shrugged at the screams. "Let's get back to the factory. We'll find more hired help later."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Giles, Oz and Sonya stood a few yards away from the blazing building. They could hear sirens in the distance. A crowd had formed behind them made up of escapees and onlookers.
"Where's Xander?" Sonya asked for the millionth time.
Giles just watched. He wanted more than anything to see either of his friends come out, but with each second that ticked by he had less and less hope. Especially for Angel -- fires were deadly for humans, but even more so for a vampire, soul or not.
Then they all heard a loud creaking and groaning noise.
"Uh oh," Oz said under his breath.
Giles echoed the sentiment in his own mind. There was a loud crash as the roof of the Bronze gave way to the fire and caved in.
"No!" Sonya screamed. Oz gripped her shoulder in sympathy. Giles closed his eyes against the pain in his heart. They stood that way for a few minutes. The fire trucks came, and the professionals trained their hoses on the building, trying to stop the blaze. Huge billows of smoke and steam rose from every place the water hit the flames.
"Hey, look at that..." The cry came from somewhere in the crowd behind them. Giles opened his eyes and saw two silhouettes approaching out of the haze. It was two men supporting each other as they walked. As the figures got closer, their features became more distinguishable.
"It's them," Giles breathed, sending thanks to the higher powers that had granted them this miracle.
Xander let go of Angel when the pair reached their friends. He leaned down and gave Sonya a hug. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.
"It's OK," Sonya replied, tears clogging her voice. "I'm just glad you're alive. Nothing else matters. But if you ever, ever scare me like that again..."
"That's a real threat, man," Oz said. "I wouldn't test her."
Xander laughed, and then his smile faded when his searching eyes didn't find the one person he wanted most to see. "Uh... guys, where's Buffy?"