Title: One For All (5/?)
Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link. Plus, archived at
Rating: I'm gonna go say PG.
Spoilers: Up to Graduation, then AU version of events after that.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to the almighty Joss. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: Thanks to Xander's sacrifice, the Slayer and Slayerettes can live normal lives... until now.
Author's Note: Read the previous parts -- including the prologue -- or this is not going to make any sense whatsoever.
* * *
Xander grunted as he slammed into the shelf-lined wall of the Magic Box, smashing the shelves to splinters. Blinking vinegar out of his eyes and pulling frog legs out of his hair, he staggered to his feet.
He groped blindly for a weapon, finally closing his hands around the shaft of an axe. Twirling the massive weapon, he leaped back into the fray, chopping off Valkorr's arm as he held Faith up by the throat.
"Thanks for the save, X," Faith said as she dropped to the ground in a crouch
Valkorr backed away cautiously, his heel knocking the Orb of Thesulah they had attempted to use. Valkorr blinked and bent down, picking up the Orb with his remaining hand, chillingly unconcerned about his missing arm.
"Rather crude device," Valkorr said, holding up the Orb of Thesulah, "but... ingenius nonetheless." He clenched his hand into a fist, crushing the Orb easily. "Such a thing could prove... inconvenient."
BOOM!
Valkorr stumbled back and to his left. Leaning heavily on the counter, Giles snapped open the double-barreled shotgun and fumbled to reload the weapon.
Valkorr snarled, and with a sudden splurt of demonic ichor, a new arm suddenly sprouted from the stump, covered in green blood. He flexed his new arm experimentally and said, "This is growing tiresome. I _will_ have your souls, Slayers. It is only a matter of time."
"Fall back!" Xander shouted, waving the other two back. "Faith, help Giles!"
Faith nodded and hauled the Englishman's arm over her shoulders. She head for the back room, Giles stumbling along beside her.
"Eat this, asshole!" Xander snarled, pulling out his "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" and extracting the pin. He hurled the grenade at Valkorr and stepped back, slamming the door behind him.
The explosion shook the entire building, but Xander didn't waste any time. "Sewers, now!" he ordered, already prying open the sewer entrance. They hurriedly clambered down the ladder and limped away.
"Where we headed, X?"
"Airport," he said curtly. "I called in some backup when the strike mission went FUBAR."
"Backup?" Giles blinked at him, not certain he had heard correctly.
"Yeah," Xander said. "Don't worry. They'll take care of him. I hope."
*Don't let me down, Finn,* he thought fervently, *or you'll be picking us up with a sponge.*
* * *
"Ahh," Faith muttered as she clambered out of the manhole, pulling Giles up behind her, "fresh air."
"Yeah," Xander said, climbing up behind her, "makes you wonder how the vamps can stand living there."
"Heh," Faith said with a trace of humor, then winced. "Damn, I haven't hurt this bad since..." she trailed off.
Xander nodded, "I know."
The three of them staggered onto the deserted air strip, taking shelter in a hangar. Security at Sunnydale airport -- as it tended to be everywhere in Sunnydale -- was pretty lax.
"Where is this backup?" Giles asked, looking around.
"They'll be here," Xander replied firmly.
"Well, they'd better get here soon," Faith said, "'cause I see V on the way here... and he's not too happy."
Xander straightened and grabbed the nearest likely weapon -- a large wrench -- and readied himself for the upcoming ordeal. Faith armed herself with a similiar-sized pipe, and Giles opted for a power drill.
"We're screwed, ya know that, right?" Faith commented idly.
"Oh, yeah," Xander replied conversationally, "but we can at least make him work for it."
"Indeed," Giles said bravely.
"You are fools," Valkorr said with a derisive snort. "Come, then, and meet your doom."
"Well, hi, Doom," Xander quipped. "Lemme introduce you to a friend of mine. Incendere!"
Valkorr stepped back from the flames, then snorted again when the fires flickered and faded. "Harmless trickery. Is this all that the great Hunter has to offer?"
Xander started, and Valkorr smiled, "Oh, yes, I've heard about you. I could sense the Slayer essence in you at our first meeting, though I did not understand it. A few inquiries revealed a rather sketchy account of your exploits, Hunter. I must say, your soul will make quite the centerpiece for my collection."
"You'll have to come get it first," Xander said snidely, "or were you planning on boring us to death?"
"As you wish."
"Aw, crap."
* * *
Willow blinked at the ringing cell phone. *God,* she thought, flushing and looking around to see if anyone saw her, *I fell asleep!*
Shaking that thought away and stifling a yawn, she picked up the phone, "Hello?"
//Willow, it's Abbey.//
Abigail Matzeder was a CSI investigator for SPD and a friend of Buffy's. Willow didn't know her all that well, though, so the call puzzled her.
"Ab? What's up?"
//Somebody blew up the Magic Box.//
"They blew up Rupert's place?!"
//Yeah.//
"A-as in 'Boom' blew up?"
//Willow, you're babbling.//
"S-sorry, it's just... Rupert! I-is he...?"
//We can't find him... or any parts of him.//
"Oh, God. H-have you told Buffy yet?"
//I tried. Her phone line's busy.//
"Oh. W-well, I was just about to head home. I-I can swing by her place."
//I'm sure she'll appreciate it.//
* * *
"Aw, damn..." Xander said as he tried to get back to his feet. Valkorr casually backhanded Faith, sending her sailing through the air. She slammed into a small Beechcraft and crumpled to the ground with a sickening thump.
"F-fulmenos venite!" a voice called from behind Valkorr.
KRAKA-THOOM!
Valkorr slumped to the ground, clearly stunned by the lightning bolt, and Xander looked up, "Tara."
The witch smiled faintly, "In trouble again, Alexander?"
"As always," he cracked. "What... what are you doing here?"
"Th-this can w-wait," she said. "We should go. Now."
He shook his head, "No. Not... leaving them."
She glanced over at Faith and Giles, then clasped her hand in his. Abruptly, he realized what she intended, and he nodded. Combining their power, the two levitated Faith and Giles toward them, and they hurried away as fast as they could... a sort of half-walking, half-running hobble.
* * *
Graham Miller shifted uncomfortably. The C-130's turboprops hummed and throbbed, vibrating the entire craft, but that wasn't the cause of his discomfort.
He glanced across the cargo bay at the other men... and the strange looks they'd been giving him ever since they'd taken off.
Odds were, they were wondering the same thing he was. HST activity in Sunnydale had _plummeted_ when the program started, forcing the move to San Francisco. Why were they being called back there _now_?
And the weapons and equipment that had been assigned to this mission... this was a _hell_ of a lot of firepower for one HST.
"Agent Miller," the pilot called, "we're approaching the LZ now. Looks like there's some kind of activity on the strip."
"What?" Graham rose and clambered over to the cockpit. "Let me see."
After squinting for a moment, he turned back, "Sergeant, glasses."
When the NCO handed him the field glasses, he looked again... and swore. "Gear up, people. HST activity on the LZ. We're going in hot. Roll out on touch down."
* * *
Xander looked up and grinned.
"What the bloody hell is that?" Giles yelled over the engine roar.
"C-130 transport," Xander yelled back. "That would be the pizza I ordered!"
"_WHAT_?!" Giles stared at him as though he had gone insane.
The aircraft touched down briefly, and the rear loading ramp opened. Figure tumbled out of the plane one by one, eventually joining in a cohesive formation.
The commandos dropped into combat formation and opened fire on Valkorr, who stumbled back under the sustained gunfire. At Xander's urging, the four of them made their way to the unit.
Xander searched the faces until he found one familiar one, "Miller! Where's Finn?"
"He couldn't make it. Suvolte demon in Chechnya. What's this HST's capabilities?"
"Rapidly regenerative," Xander said. "Cautious around fire, but not hurt too badly by it. I hit this guy with a blessed grenade, and he still kept coming."
"Any weaknesses?"
"Unknown," Xander said, then frowned. "Wait, electricity. Maybe. It seemed to stun him pretty badly earlier."
Graham nodded and turned to his troops, "Tasers!"
Meanwhile, Xander sidled over to Tara and asked, "Think you can pull off another lightning spell?"
She frowned, "I'm not the one who nearly died a moment ago."
He grinned, "Good."
Graham glanced at Xander, and at his nod, the commando bellowed, "Fire!"
Dozens of electrical stun bolts blasted out at Valkorr, who howled in pain.
Joining hands, Xander and Tara both incanted, "Fulmenos venite!"
Twin lightning bolts lanced down from the cloudless night sky and struck Valkorr. The demon's cry grew louder, and he sank to his knees. Out of his mouth flew ghostly images that shrieked away in all directions.
One slammed into Xander's chest, passing through him, and he suddenly saw a kaleidoscope of nonsensical images... and blacked out.
* * *
"Buffy? Are you there?" Willow called.
After a long moment, the door swung open. Buffy smiled weakly, "Hey, Willow. What is it?"
"Abbey tried to call you, said your phone was busy. What's wrong, Buffy?"
Buffy shook her head, "N-nothing. Just a... prank call and a nightmare, so I left the phone off the hook. What's up?"
"Oh, w-well, Abbey said someone blew up Rupert's store."
"Oh, God," Buffy gasped, suddenly wide awake, thoughts of the mysterious phone call shoved to the back of her mind. "Was anyone hurt?"
"They don't know."
Buffy nodded, "Look, I'll head over there, see what happened. You head on home, okay?"
"O-okay."
* * *
When Xander blinked his eyes open, he saw Graham and Tara standing over him, concerned looks on their faces.
"You're all right," Tara sighed in relief.
Graham smiled, "Good thing too. I'd hate to explain to Anya that you'd be missing her and Finn's wedding because you got killed on my watch."
"So..." Xander mumbled, "we got him?"
"Yeah," Graham said. His face turned worried, and he asked hesitantly, "What _were_ those things?"
"Souls," he said curtly. Sitting up, he looked around, "Faith? Giles?"
"Medic's tending to 'em," Graham replied. "He'll be over to check on you in a moment."
Xander waved it off, "I'll be fine. This op getting the official cover up?"
Graham nodded. "I'll handle it."
"Good. Here's a piece of advice..."
* * *
"I'm Lieutenant Miller, military attache to the NSA."
Detective Stein frowned, "What do you want?"
"To tell you what happened here," Graham said. "As far as you or the press is concerned, there was a firefight that started when a drug deal turned ugly. Some barrels of jet fuel ignited, causing the destruction you see there," he pointed at the crater where Valkorr had met his end. After a moment, he added, "They were dealing in PCP."
Stein frozed and paled, then nodded slowly. "Right. Gang-related. PCP."
*Damn!* Graham thought, surprised. *Harris was right. It actually worked!*
"Is that all, Lieutenant?"
"Yes, Detective."
* * *
"So, who were those guys, X?"
"Yes, Xander, I'm most curious about that myself."
"They're part of a group called the Initiative," Xander replied. "They were planning to set up in Sunnydale, but with the Hellmouth closed, they moved their operations to San Fran. Things went to hell when one of their little projects got out of hand, and the unit was officially disbanded."
"Then how is it they have access to such... resources?" Giles asked, frowning.
"They were _officially_ disbanded," Xander repeated. "In reality, they just got shuffled around a bit, and their mission was redefined. Now, they're under the NSA so they can operate outside the States, and their sole job is the extermination of Hostile Sub-Terrestrials." At their blank looks, he added, "That's bureaucratspeak for demons."
He sighed and rolled his neck around, working out the kinks, then said, "Look, I promised Tara I'd meet her at her hotel later, so I'd better get going."
* * *
Author's Postscript:
Thanks to Garrett once again for beta reading this. Now, if I can just figure out what to do with the plot bunnies I've dropped here...
Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link. Plus, archived at
Rating: I'm gonna go say PG.
Spoilers: Up to Graduation, then AU version of events after that.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to the almighty Joss. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: Thanks to Xander's sacrifice, the Slayer and Slayerettes can live normal lives... until now.
Author's Note: Read the previous parts -- including the prologue -- or this is not going to make any sense whatsoever.
* * *
Xander grunted as he slammed into the shelf-lined wall of the Magic Box, smashing the shelves to splinters. Blinking vinegar out of his eyes and pulling frog legs out of his hair, he staggered to his feet.
He groped blindly for a weapon, finally closing his hands around the shaft of an axe. Twirling the massive weapon, he leaped back into the fray, chopping off Valkorr's arm as he held Faith up by the throat.
"Thanks for the save, X," Faith said as she dropped to the ground in a crouch
Valkorr backed away cautiously, his heel knocking the Orb of Thesulah they had attempted to use. Valkorr blinked and bent down, picking up the Orb with his remaining hand, chillingly unconcerned about his missing arm.
"Rather crude device," Valkorr said, holding up the Orb of Thesulah, "but... ingenius nonetheless." He clenched his hand into a fist, crushing the Orb easily. "Such a thing could prove... inconvenient."
BOOM!
Valkorr stumbled back and to his left. Leaning heavily on the counter, Giles snapped open the double-barreled shotgun and fumbled to reload the weapon.
Valkorr snarled, and with a sudden splurt of demonic ichor, a new arm suddenly sprouted from the stump, covered in green blood. He flexed his new arm experimentally and said, "This is growing tiresome. I _will_ have your souls, Slayers. It is only a matter of time."
"Fall back!" Xander shouted, waving the other two back. "Faith, help Giles!"
Faith nodded and hauled the Englishman's arm over her shoulders. She head for the back room, Giles stumbling along beside her.
"Eat this, asshole!" Xander snarled, pulling out his "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" and extracting the pin. He hurled the grenade at Valkorr and stepped back, slamming the door behind him.
The explosion shook the entire building, but Xander didn't waste any time. "Sewers, now!" he ordered, already prying open the sewer entrance. They hurriedly clambered down the ladder and limped away.
"Where we headed, X?"
"Airport," he said curtly. "I called in some backup when the strike mission went FUBAR."
"Backup?" Giles blinked at him, not certain he had heard correctly.
"Yeah," Xander said. "Don't worry. They'll take care of him. I hope."
*Don't let me down, Finn,* he thought fervently, *or you'll be picking us up with a sponge.*
* * *
"Ahh," Faith muttered as she clambered out of the manhole, pulling Giles up behind her, "fresh air."
"Yeah," Xander said, climbing up behind her, "makes you wonder how the vamps can stand living there."
"Heh," Faith said with a trace of humor, then winced. "Damn, I haven't hurt this bad since..." she trailed off.
Xander nodded, "I know."
The three of them staggered onto the deserted air strip, taking shelter in a hangar. Security at Sunnydale airport -- as it tended to be everywhere in Sunnydale -- was pretty lax.
"Where is this backup?" Giles asked, looking around.
"They'll be here," Xander replied firmly.
"Well, they'd better get here soon," Faith said, "'cause I see V on the way here... and he's not too happy."
Xander straightened and grabbed the nearest likely weapon -- a large wrench -- and readied himself for the upcoming ordeal. Faith armed herself with a similiar-sized pipe, and Giles opted for a power drill.
"We're screwed, ya know that, right?" Faith commented idly.
"Oh, yeah," Xander replied conversationally, "but we can at least make him work for it."
"Indeed," Giles said bravely.
"You are fools," Valkorr said with a derisive snort. "Come, then, and meet your doom."
"Well, hi, Doom," Xander quipped. "Lemme introduce you to a friend of mine. Incendere!"
Valkorr stepped back from the flames, then snorted again when the fires flickered and faded. "Harmless trickery. Is this all that the great Hunter has to offer?"
Xander started, and Valkorr smiled, "Oh, yes, I've heard about you. I could sense the Slayer essence in you at our first meeting, though I did not understand it. A few inquiries revealed a rather sketchy account of your exploits, Hunter. I must say, your soul will make quite the centerpiece for my collection."
"You'll have to come get it first," Xander said snidely, "or were you planning on boring us to death?"
"As you wish."
"Aw, crap."
* * *
Willow blinked at the ringing cell phone. *God,* she thought, flushing and looking around to see if anyone saw her, *I fell asleep!*
Shaking that thought away and stifling a yawn, she picked up the phone, "Hello?"
//Willow, it's Abbey.//
Abigail Matzeder was a CSI investigator for SPD and a friend of Buffy's. Willow didn't know her all that well, though, so the call puzzled her.
"Ab? What's up?"
//Somebody blew up the Magic Box.//
"They blew up Rupert's place?!"
//Yeah.//
"A-as in 'Boom' blew up?"
//Willow, you're babbling.//
"S-sorry, it's just... Rupert! I-is he...?"
//We can't find him... or any parts of him.//
"Oh, God. H-have you told Buffy yet?"
//I tried. Her phone line's busy.//
"Oh. W-well, I was just about to head home. I-I can swing by her place."
//I'm sure she'll appreciate it.//
* * *
"Aw, damn..." Xander said as he tried to get back to his feet. Valkorr casually backhanded Faith, sending her sailing through the air. She slammed into a small Beechcraft and crumpled to the ground with a sickening thump.
"F-fulmenos venite!" a voice called from behind Valkorr.
KRAKA-THOOM!
Valkorr slumped to the ground, clearly stunned by the lightning bolt, and Xander looked up, "Tara."
The witch smiled faintly, "In trouble again, Alexander?"
"As always," he cracked. "What... what are you doing here?"
"Th-this can w-wait," she said. "We should go. Now."
He shook his head, "No. Not... leaving them."
She glanced over at Faith and Giles, then clasped her hand in his. Abruptly, he realized what she intended, and he nodded. Combining their power, the two levitated Faith and Giles toward them, and they hurried away as fast as they could... a sort of half-walking, half-running hobble.
* * *
Graham Miller shifted uncomfortably. The C-130's turboprops hummed and throbbed, vibrating the entire craft, but that wasn't the cause of his discomfort.
He glanced across the cargo bay at the other men... and the strange looks they'd been giving him ever since they'd taken off.
Odds were, they were wondering the same thing he was. HST activity in Sunnydale had _plummeted_ when the program started, forcing the move to San Francisco. Why were they being called back there _now_?
And the weapons and equipment that had been assigned to this mission... this was a _hell_ of a lot of firepower for one HST.
"Agent Miller," the pilot called, "we're approaching the LZ now. Looks like there's some kind of activity on the strip."
"What?" Graham rose and clambered over to the cockpit. "Let me see."
After squinting for a moment, he turned back, "Sergeant, glasses."
When the NCO handed him the field glasses, he looked again... and swore. "Gear up, people. HST activity on the LZ. We're going in hot. Roll out on touch down."
* * *
Xander looked up and grinned.
"What the bloody hell is that?" Giles yelled over the engine roar.
"C-130 transport," Xander yelled back. "That would be the pizza I ordered!"
"_WHAT_?!" Giles stared at him as though he had gone insane.
The aircraft touched down briefly, and the rear loading ramp opened. Figure tumbled out of the plane one by one, eventually joining in a cohesive formation.
The commandos dropped into combat formation and opened fire on Valkorr, who stumbled back under the sustained gunfire. At Xander's urging, the four of them made their way to the unit.
Xander searched the faces until he found one familiar one, "Miller! Where's Finn?"
"He couldn't make it. Suvolte demon in Chechnya. What's this HST's capabilities?"
"Rapidly regenerative," Xander said. "Cautious around fire, but not hurt too badly by it. I hit this guy with a blessed grenade, and he still kept coming."
"Any weaknesses?"
"Unknown," Xander said, then frowned. "Wait, electricity. Maybe. It seemed to stun him pretty badly earlier."
Graham nodded and turned to his troops, "Tasers!"
Meanwhile, Xander sidled over to Tara and asked, "Think you can pull off another lightning spell?"
She frowned, "I'm not the one who nearly died a moment ago."
He grinned, "Good."
Graham glanced at Xander, and at his nod, the commando bellowed, "Fire!"
Dozens of electrical stun bolts blasted out at Valkorr, who howled in pain.
Joining hands, Xander and Tara both incanted, "Fulmenos venite!"
Twin lightning bolts lanced down from the cloudless night sky and struck Valkorr. The demon's cry grew louder, and he sank to his knees. Out of his mouth flew ghostly images that shrieked away in all directions.
One slammed into Xander's chest, passing through him, and he suddenly saw a kaleidoscope of nonsensical images... and blacked out.
* * *
"Buffy? Are you there?" Willow called.
After a long moment, the door swung open. Buffy smiled weakly, "Hey, Willow. What is it?"
"Abbey tried to call you, said your phone was busy. What's wrong, Buffy?"
Buffy shook her head, "N-nothing. Just a... prank call and a nightmare, so I left the phone off the hook. What's up?"
"Oh, w-well, Abbey said someone blew up Rupert's store."
"Oh, God," Buffy gasped, suddenly wide awake, thoughts of the mysterious phone call shoved to the back of her mind. "Was anyone hurt?"
"They don't know."
Buffy nodded, "Look, I'll head over there, see what happened. You head on home, okay?"
"O-okay."
* * *
When Xander blinked his eyes open, he saw Graham and Tara standing over him, concerned looks on their faces.
"You're all right," Tara sighed in relief.
Graham smiled, "Good thing too. I'd hate to explain to Anya that you'd be missing her and Finn's wedding because you got killed on my watch."
"So..." Xander mumbled, "we got him?"
"Yeah," Graham said. His face turned worried, and he asked hesitantly, "What _were_ those things?"
"Souls," he said curtly. Sitting up, he looked around, "Faith? Giles?"
"Medic's tending to 'em," Graham replied. "He'll be over to check on you in a moment."
Xander waved it off, "I'll be fine. This op getting the official cover up?"
Graham nodded. "I'll handle it."
"Good. Here's a piece of advice..."
* * *
"I'm Lieutenant Miller, military attache to the NSA."
Detective Stein frowned, "What do you want?"
"To tell you what happened here," Graham said. "As far as you or the press is concerned, there was a firefight that started when a drug deal turned ugly. Some barrels of jet fuel ignited, causing the destruction you see there," he pointed at the crater where Valkorr had met his end. After a moment, he added, "They were dealing in PCP."
Stein frozed and paled, then nodded slowly. "Right. Gang-related. PCP."
*Damn!* Graham thought, surprised. *Harris was right. It actually worked!*
"Is that all, Lieutenant?"
"Yes, Detective."
* * *
"So, who were those guys, X?"
"Yes, Xander, I'm most curious about that myself."
"They're part of a group called the Initiative," Xander replied. "They were planning to set up in Sunnydale, but with the Hellmouth closed, they moved their operations to San Fran. Things went to hell when one of their little projects got out of hand, and the unit was officially disbanded."
"Then how is it they have access to such... resources?" Giles asked, frowning.
"They were _officially_ disbanded," Xander repeated. "In reality, they just got shuffled around a bit, and their mission was redefined. Now, they're under the NSA so they can operate outside the States, and their sole job is the extermination of Hostile Sub-Terrestrials." At their blank looks, he added, "That's bureaucratspeak for demons."
He sighed and rolled his neck around, working out the kinks, then said, "Look, I promised Tara I'd meet her at her hotel later, so I'd better get going."
* * *
Author's Postscript:
Thanks to Garrett once again for beta reading this. Now, if I can just figure out what to do with the plot bunnies I've dropped here...
