Chapter Twelve: The end of the world as we know it?
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West eyed the teenager and his cane without much real terror.
"That's you're weapon? Surely you don't think you can take us all on, all alone."
Spike smirked. "Not alone."
Xander, Cordelia, and Oz attacked simultaneously.
Dawn was shocked. "Oz!"
***In Faith's kitchen, Buffy and Spike watched Oz digest the news that his family was going to bring hell to earth.
"Huh."
"Evil's all well and good, Oz, but they're taking it too far. It's not just puppies and kittens that are going to suffer. Hell's hell, and I don't know if you've heard, but vampires are pretty damn impure. Let the real demon's out to play, and food shortages are the least of our worries. Think about that."
Silence.
"It's going to be the new moon," Buffy continued. "I'm not really sure when that is, but it should give me enough time to put my counterattack in motion."
"Which is what?"
Buffy glanced at Spike. "That's not important. The point is, you need to pick a side. It's a ''with us our agin' us'' kinda thing."
"You'll kill them?
'Them' "Yes. That seems like the safest bet."
He thought for a minute.
"Not Dawn. Leave Dawn out of it, and I'm in."
"Fine," Spike said. "Your little girlfriend'll be fine."
He missed the way Buffy bit her lip.***
--Dawn tried to pull Oz off of Anya, but he threw her away from him and drew a stake. The older vampiress caught his wrist and snapped the stick. She landed a blow across his face that sent him staggering back. Xander caught her from behind, and after a brief struggle, Anya thew him against the cage. Cordelia jumped her, and Oz started back into the melee, chair leg in hand.
Meanwhile, Spike and Wesley were grappling on the floor, in clear sight to the vampire in the cage.
Buffy watched the fight in horror. The younger vampires and the Slayer wouldn't last long against West and Anya. And once Dawn decided that her boyfriend had betrayed her, things would only get worse.
She looked around herself at the circle. She couldn't stand up without breaking it, and she didn't know how much assistance she could provide in the field of battle, anyway. The first, aborted attempt at the spell had left her woozy.
There was a harsh cry from the teenager as West got in a bite. Spike managed to throw him off, but his neck was bleeding profusely.
He's already weak, Buffy thought. Because of me. And now he's going to die, instead of me.
It's what Slayers are supposed to do. You're immortal. He should be the one to die. That's the way these things work.
No.
Grim-faced, Buffy brought her hands out in front of her, bloodstreaks up and the Orb of Weelo in her right hand.
"By the power of this blood, raeran," she whispered. "The essence of the warrior cast back the demon, daemna. Bloodthirst immortal, dieysta immortalie. Destroy the demon. Daemno nix..."
West had grabbed a chair, and was using it to block Spike's jabbing cane.
At some point in the scuffle it had broken off, and the end was now a
jagged point.
Every now and then the Slayer got in a close shot, but somehow the vampire always managed to block him. Buffy had been right. These things were too good. He was in way over his head. And he was running out of blood and breath.
Xander, Cordelia, and Oz fought Anya as a unit, stepping up and dropping back. Cordelia jumped back to avoid a kick, and knocked into the research table. She glanced down.
"Oh, that's nice."
Anya snarled at the two men gripping her arms. "Traitors. You turn against your blood??"
Cordelia stepped up. "No. They turn against your blood." Her hand snaked out, and shoved the pencil through Anya's ribcage. "Entrails are gross, and so are you."
She stepped back, and Anya's shocked expression fell away in a puff of dust.
There was a screech from the corner. The three shook off their glaze and looked at the charging Dawn.
"Right," Oz said. "We're gone." He bent down as Dawn ran at him and caught her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. He ran out of the room, girlfriend still screaming and beating at his back. Her screamed obsenities echoed down the hall.
(Later, she forgave him and they made their way down to Brazil and spent many happy years drinking the blood of South Americans.)
Cordelia grinned at Xander. "Well, that was actually kinda--"
"Look."
She turned. Buffy was chanting again, and Wesley had Spike pinned against a bookshelf.
The vampire's breath was cold against Spike's sweaty skin. "Well now," the creature murmered into his ear. "It's been a while since I last drank of a Slayer's veins." The hold tightened. Spike's breath sped up.
"My only regret is that you won't live to see hell."
"More's the pity," the Slayer gasped out. "I hear it's lovely this time of year."
He kneed Wesley in the crotch. With Slayer strength.
The vampire sunk to his knees, and Spike kicked him onto his back. He grabbed his cane from the floor and put a boot down on West's chest.
"You know," he said, panting. "I really don't like you."
He drove the cane into his chest.
Spike wobbled a bit when his screaming footrest crumbled to dust, but strong hands caught him before he fell.
"Good riddance," Xander opined. "Now maybe you could get the girl out of the cage before she kills us all?"
"Huh?" Spike looked dazedly at the book cage
...where Buffy was deep in a trance, muttering the words of the spell.
"Buffy!" He pulled himself out of Xander's arms and flung himself at the door. "Buffy, stop!"
"Emoga die daemnae. Nix lea daemnae cor..."
"She's almost finished," Xander said behind him.
Spike kicked the latch. It held fast, and he was weak. He looked over his shoulder at the brunettes standing uncertainly. "The key! It's on a chain next to the door in the office!"
Cordelia instantly disappeared into Jenny's empty office. Spike took a few steps back and rammed his shoulder against the hinge. It made a loud noise, but nothing else.
"Emogadae. Belea daemna. Mogean di della..."
Buffy raised the knife to her arm.
Cordelia ran up behind Spike and shoved the key into the lock.
The knife slid across her skin, leaving a dark trail...
Cordelia fumbled with the key.
...It started to drip.
The Orb began to glow.
The door came open, and Spike dove in.
The first of the drops fell towards the dusty floor within the circle of salt.
...They hit the Slayer's leg.
Spike grabbed the glittering, light bulb of an orb out of Buffy's clenched hand and hurled it at the wall.
It shattered into stardust, and Buffy jumped.
"Wha--?" She looked around, gasping with discharged power. "Did I do it?"
Spike grabbed her face and turned her head to him.
"No. I did." He crashed his lips down onto hers.
Xander put an arm across Cordelia's shoulders as they watched the two blondes suck face.
The former Slayer sighed. "This is so typical of her."
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@the end@
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...Except for the
Epilogue
"...So you see, Rupert, Spike's not actually a delinquint."
Jenny shrugged.
"He's a vampire slayer."
Giles sipped his tea. He looked over at his son sitting on the couch. "I see." He turned back to Jenny. "Is there a cure?"
"Uhm, no. It's a sacred destiny, not a disease. Sorry."
He nodded. He took another sip. He'd put a healthy dose of alchohol in the brew this time. Thank heaven. "And you, you're a..."
"Watcher."
"Right." Back to Spike. "Do your friends know, er, what you are?"
The blonde fidgetted. "Just Faith and Angel. And, um, Willow Rosenburg, for some reason."
Giles looked concerned. "Have you told Elizabeth?"
Jenny and Spike looked at each other.
"Uh..."
###
The small redheaded girl adjusted her miniskirt and walked into the gravestones. She found a nice spot, and stood there for a second, looking annoyed, before saying very clearly:
"Help! Help! This graveyard is dark and scary, and I'm just a defenseless and attractive teenage girl, all alone! I hope nothing tries to hurt me, because I don't know how to fight!"
There was a second or so of waiting silence, then a whispered, "Do it again!"
She cast a scathing look in the direction of the bushes from which the prompt had come, then sucked in a breath.
"Golly, I'm scared! I'm all alone in the graveyard with my size two ass and 32C! I'm completely defenseless!"
In the bushes a brunette sighed into his hand. "Could she be worse at the bait game?"
His companion, who was wearing a headset, said, "It's not really her forte, Angel. Cut the girl some slack."
"Remind me again why you aren't out there, while she lies in wait?"
"You remember. Where I shove the skirt if you try to put it on me?"
The boy winced. "Oh. Right."
"Besides, her bra size isn't--" she stopped when she noted her friend's too-eager face, "--any of your business," she finished.
"Oh, no. What will I do," came the continuing, monotonic cries from the redhead. "I'm still wandering around all alone in the graveyard."
There was no response. The brunette girl in the bushes scanned the perimeter with the binoculars around her neck. The redhead cast yet another glare in their direction. Her fists clenched at her sides.
"I'm O negative! I'm in a miniskirt! I'm seventeen, scantily clad, and very attractive! I'm yummy! Come suck my blood!" she screamed, abandoning all attempts at subtlety.
Angel wiped a hand over his face. "Yeah, that won't scare them away."
Faith squinted into her binoculars. "Actually, I don't think it is." She passed off the binoculars. "I think they are."
Angel took the goggles and peered into the shadowed cemetery. There was something going on a few lawns away.
"What the...?"
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"This is not how I want to spend my nights!" Cordelia squealed, kneeing a fleeing vamp in the back. "I bought this t-shirt! And then I died!"
Buffy grabbed a vamp by the shoulders and flung him into Xander's waiting stake. "You're welcome to leave at any time, Cordy."
Another fledgling looked at her, puzzled. "Hey, why are you--"The rest of his query was lost in a cloud of ash. Spike waved it away.
"These guys really need to work on the banter," he said, looking around. "What, is that it? Used to take me an hour to clean out a nest that size."
Buffy came over and stood beside him. "Funny what three turncoats can do."
He grinned at her.
Xander and Cordelia gave each other a look.
"You know what? We're just gonna head back. You can mack in the graveyard all by yourselves. C'mon, Xander."
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"So, how was it?"
Spike grimaced. Buffy patted his head. "That bad, huh?"
"No, actually it was pretty good. ...Until you came up."
She giggled, and shifted on the stone. "Oops. I guess he probably wasn't too happy about that whole bloodsucking creature of the night thing. Should I flee California?"
"No, actually," Spike said. He looked up at the stars for a second before turning back to the vampire beside him. "He wants you over for dinner tomorrow."
Buffy blinked. "What?"
"He felt just awful about not, oh, what'd he say ...'respecting his guest's dietary needs.' He told me to ask you what type of blood you'd prefer for next time."
Buffy threw her head back and laughed. Spike watched with interest. "That is too good. What d'you think he'd say if I told him his son's?"
Spike grinned back at her. "Probably hit you over the head with a fryin' pan. I'll tell him cow."
"And I'll tell him thank you." She took his hand and studied it. "You're dad's not so bad," she said casually.
"Yeah, when he's not kickin' me out of the house," Spike muttered. He watched Buffy trace a vein up his palm and over his forearm. Her finger ducked under the leather of his sleeve, and she stopped.
She looked up at him, mildly annoyed.
"Are you ever going to give that back?"
He grinned at her and flexed his shoulders within the worn leather duster.
"Not on your life."
"Undeath."
"Whatever." He stood up. "C'mon, luv. Let's go save the world again."
She got up off the stone bench and followed him back into the high school, where both of their destinies were waiting to be discovered.
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"Tell me you two weren't groping out there."
"We weren't groping out there," Spike parroted.
Willow shot him a look that told him exactly how much she believed that. Faith's face had almost the exact same expression. She nudged the brunette beside her.
"Angel, could you please tell them to grope on their own time?"
"Grope on your own time," he muttered, focusing on the page in front of him. "...second Industrial Revolution..."
There was a snort. "I hear it sucked. Shouldn't we be studying demons and stuff?"
Faith rolled her eyes. "Oh, look. Evil girl wants to help."
Cordelia glared at the teenager. "Could you please stop calling me that?" She turned to the two blondes. "Buffy! Tell her to stop calling me that!"
"Stop calling her that."
The door to Jenny's office opened, and she and Xander came out, each carrying at least six books.
"I just don't think we can trust this translation," he was saying. "When I was in the Council, it was considered an inferior copy."
"This isn't a translation," Jenny replied. "It's in the original Germanic. I think it's got the answers we're looking for, but I can't make heads or tails. I was hoping that you--" she saw the blondes. "Spike! Where have you two been?"
"Not groping."
As Jenny started the now-standard responsibility lecture she'd adopted from Giles, Buffy realized the redhead was looking at her oddly.
"What?"
Willow cocked her head.
"I really like your hair."
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The End.
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Wow. I actually finished something. Pret-ty exciting. I'm very impressed
with me.
Thanks everybody for all the lovely reviews and e-mails I recieved over the course of this fiction, if not offering advice, at least reminding me that people were impatiently waiting for updates. Especially through the Overworked and Writers' Block periods.
Due to a lack of inspiration, several other wips in the works, and uncertainty regarding future internet access and free time, I won't be doing a sequel. You, however, are welcome to.
~Star Mouse
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