Puppy part 3.

Same Disclaimer as on part one.

            The thunder and lightning continue to crash outside as we stare at one another.  She finally breaks the silence.

            "Angel, huh?  Funny name for a vampire."

            I smile slightly without meaning to.  "There's a lot about me you don't know."  She stands, returning to the pile of books we had only recently abandoned.

            "So tell me," she replies so softly at first I thought I was hearing things.

            "I don't think so," I say, and she looks back at me, as I try to hide the expression on my face.  That closed look I'm so good at.

            "Then why bring it up?"  she shuts the book she had just picked up, and turns to face me.

            I'm honestly not sure.  With all the weirdness in my life lately, I haven't felt able to trust anyone.  Not like a lot of people are predisposed to trusting vampires, anyway.

            I stand as well.  "Why don't we keep trying to find out about the Master.  There's not much time left."

            "Well, I wasn't the one who was all with the distracting," she retorts, an angry blush creeping up her neck.  "Fine.  Let's just get to it."

            Sneaking into the back of the Factory, we hesitate behind the large entry doors, and stare in abject horror at the sight of a small human girl being probed by machinery, tubes funneling her blood out into a glass held by one of the Master's minions.

            "To a new age!"  the Master booms out, and drains the cup dry as the other vamps echo his statement. 

            Buffy chooses this moment as her time to move.  Handing me a stake, she whispers, "try not to fall on this," and starts attacking the vampires closest to us.

            "Wait!" I answer but it's too late, and now I have no option but to help.  I step swiftly over to the cage where the humans are being held, and break the lock on the door.  With a "hurry, hurry," I urge them out.  They need no convincing, and dash for the door.  Two of them stay behind to fight, and I recognize them as the other "white hats" that had been working with the Watcher.

            I wade in with them, and stake quite a few vampires myself before hearing the voice I did not want to hear behind me.

            "Uh oh, Puppy got out."

            I whirl to face her, and she's got her game face on, so I oblige and put mine on as well.  As we rush each other, something heavy slams into me, and I hit the floor hard.  Xander stands over me, and tells Willow, "No time for this now, love, get the slayer!"

            Willow throws me a kiss through her fangs, promising, "later, bad boy."

            As they both head for her, Oz and Larry, the two kids that had stayed, surprise Willow by waving a cross in her face, and as she growls at them, drag her back toward the now vacated cage.  Intent upon his prey, Xander dogs the Slayer and doesn't see as his mate is resolutely slammed into a large broken beam and quickly dusted.

            I see, though, and offer her a toothy smile as her last words float away with her body.

            "Oh, Fu….."

            Something in the back of my mind urges me to turn around, now! and I do so.   Buffy is locked deep in hand to hand combat with the Master, as Xander approaches her from behind.  She doesn't notice him, or the wicked looking knife he wields.

            "Buffy!  Behind you!" I yell, and she whirls, kicking out incredibly fast with her legs, and knocks Xander back into my waiting arms, and he too is quickly dispatched to join Willow, my sharpened stake plunging through his back with a violent thrust that reaches his dead heart.

            Shaking the dust off, I run to help the Slayer.

            The Master has her in a headlock, and she is flailing about, gouging and puching anything she can reach.  She has been disarmed, and as I can do nothing but gape, the Master begins to twist his hands, determined to break her fragile neck.

            Buffy and I lock eyes.  Her hands reach out, and without any conscious thought I flip the stake toward her.  She plucks it from the air as if it were a frisbee, and with one massive thrust impales it through the ribcage of the Master.

            His hands stop turning, and he staggers away from her in shock.

            We watch as his features begin to crumble, and as his knees hit the floor, the rest of him follows suit.  A few seconds later, the only thing left is a pile of dust.

            The few remaining vampires hightail it out of there before Buffy can realize there are any left, and kill them as well.

            I hear nothing, and I notice a ringing in my ears.  A wooshing sound fills the small room, and Buffy and I collapse to the floor, clapping hands to our heads, trying to protect them from the noise.  As blood begins to trickle out of my ears, all light in the room coalesces into one single figure.

            The figure of a young woman, whose face holds a very displeased expression.

TBC.