********************************TRAppED*******************************
Forty-Seven: The Strength Within
By Annie
2003-07-16
************************************************************************
Day Thirty-Seven.
6.35 p.m.
"Colonel!" Buffy tried again, standing surrounded by Initiative soldiers before their leader; who was currently opening up the backpack filled with weapons and magic supplies that she had brought with her.
"Shut up," he snapped, the irritation on him becoming even clearer in his voice as he kept un-strapping and then unzipping the bag before him, giving her an impatient glare. Looking back down he shook his head and added: "You've got some nerve, lady."
"You HAVE to listen to us," she stated, but the man before her paid no attention to her words as he began to pull out the contents of the backpack; starting with a stake, which he stared at as he spoke up once more:
"You think you and your friends can just keep waltzing into a government instillation, brandishing weapons like..." Pulling out a large, pear- shaped, hollow object with a thick wick on top he frowned. "Like..." he said, seemingly struggling to find a word fitting enough, but unable to.
"It's a gord," Willow offered helpfully, giving a small nod when the colonel turned his gaze from the foreign thing in his hands and to the redheaded woman standing a few feet away.
"It's a magic gord," Giles filed in, looking just a bit sheepish at the other man's clearly skeptical expression, before it changed into cool disbelief as he looked from one to the other.
"What kinda freaks are you people?" he asked, sounding truly astounded that four - by the looks of it - adult humans would even think the word magic, much less utter it in a room full of strangers.
With guns and ability to lock them in a padded cell for the rest of their lives.
It was truly astonishing.
"Adam is here, colonel, IN the Initiative," Buffy merely replied.
"Nice try," he grumbled; having put the gord down he came around the table by which he had been standing, to face her.
"Those overcrowded containment houses of yours - courtesy of Adam," she now said firmly. "He's pulling a Trojan horse on you. He's just waiting..."
"Every INCH," the colonel cut her off, "of this instillation is under constant, twenty-four hour surveillance."
"Including the secret lab?" Willow wondered innocently.
"Including everything!" the colonel replied sharply, looking incredibly convinced of it for a few seconds before he looked at Buffy, regretful to have to ask - but knowing that he did - he said: "What secret lab?"
"The one Adam's been using," she answered. "The one built for the final phase of the three-fourteen project." The colonel now looked utterly perplexed and Buffy sighed. "And you have no idea what I'm talking about," she then added.
"I know everything that goes on around here," the colonel assured, though the Slayer looked all but convinced and he continued: "A tick on a mouse couldn't get in without my knowing it. And if Adam wants to try, we're ready for him!"
"Jolly good," Giles said, taking of his glasses and rubbing his eyes tiredly before he added: "How exactly do you plan to get close enough to Adam to remove his power-source?"
Buffy raised her eyebrows questioningly and the colonel wavered for a short moment, then replied:
"Hit him simultaneously with multiple tazer-blasters. Incapacitate him with as much voltage as we can muster."
"Great plan," Xander nodded. "That's right up there with duck-and-cover."
"I've seen Adam hit with tazer-blasts," Buffy stated. "He feeds on it. And now you're gonna provide him with an all-you-can-eat buffet?"
"Are you telling me my business?" the colonel demanded, incredulously; but that made the young blonde take a step forward as she answered with a voice chilled with rising impatience:
"This is NOT your business; it's MINE. You, the Initiative, the boys at the Pentagon - you're all in way over your heads, messing with primeval forces you have absolutely no comprehension of."
"And you do?" the colonel asked with a trace of humor in his voice that got on her nerves more than anything the narrow-minded excuse for a human standing before her had said or done so far.
"I'm the Slayer," she replied. "You're playing on MY turf."
The colonel huffed.
"Up there, maybe," he then said. "But down here I'm the one who's in control."
There was the sound of a blaring warning signal as the lights went out.
The final phase had obviously just been put into progress.
Buffy felt her heart skip a beat.
Spike.
Where was he?
***
6.48 p.m
Spike swam out of unconsciousness with effort. Bright lights stung his eyes and he felt that his wrists were tied to the arms of the hard chair he was seated in. It was made of steel... The room slowly grew focused and he stared at the two beings working at some sort of table with some sort of... He blinked, resting his head back and trying to stay awake. Everything was pounding. His thoughts, his throat, his heart...
He opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling.
Something was terribly wrong.
He could feel a pulse, steadily making its way through the veins of his whole body. He could feel it because his vampire senses told him of it, he could hear the throb of the muscle in his chest as clearly as though he had his ear to the skin and flesh and nerves covering it.
Impossible.
He couldn't be alive and dead at the same time.
He still had his supernatural sense of smell, of instinct and of hearing... He could hear the brawl going on somewhere outside the thick concrete walls which surrounded him.
He tried to speak, but couldn't.
A wave of panic rose from some shadowed corner and he drew an unnecessary breath as the two beings turned their heads to him.
Zombies. Clearly zombies. Or something not far from it.
He swallowed, looking around him for some way of getting out of his bonds, but his body wouldn't work with him.
"What have you...?"
He had to produce every last ounce of willpower to be able to say those three words, his voice so strained that it broke from the effort and one of the zombies, the female, slowly approached him with a rather emotionless smile on her lips.
Her eyes were white and he thought he recognized the unclear features of her face, but he couldn't place her.
"It won't be long now," she said. "He'll be here soon and then..."
Trailing off she backed away again and Spike stared at her.
"Spike!"
Buffy? He tried to turn his head to her, but couldn't, and soon enough she was at his side.
Buffy didn't think she'd ever been so relieved in her life.
"Are you okay?" she asked and he met her gaze, fighting to speak, but failing. "What happened? Spike?"
He moved his eyes in the direction of the two zombies and Buffy turned her head that way, staring at them with growing disgust as she immediately recognized her former patroness and slight idol, Professor Walsh. Buffy couldn't understand how she had ever been as foolish as to have such high regards of someone who had seen to the birth of the threat she was about to face. There was no time to dwell and so she merely shook her head before turning her gaze back in Spike's.
"Tell me how to get you loose," she said, leaning forward slightly and observing the contraption to which he was fastened. "Spike? Why won't you answer me?"
"Because he can't," Adam's voice replied and she straightened her back as she whipped her head his way.
He was coming from across the room, seemingly having appeared through a large hole serving as a door - a wall now slowly sliding back to its original position covering it.
I recognize that, Buffy thought, remembering the place where she had spent a few nights on a mattress.
She must have also looked quizzical because Adam un-bashfully went on with his explanation to her previous question.
"He's at the first stage of transformation... He can't do much of anything right now."
Buffy furrowed her brow and then looked down at Spike. There was a tube sticking out of his right shoulder and it was pumping red liquid into him. Blood...
"What are you doing to him?" she asked, voice trembling with ill-hidden worry and Adam smiled.
"Improving him. You see, he was too strong - in the uncontrollable way - and so I thought I'd make him into something more my taste... The blood weakens him gradually, you see. His being isn't supposed to have it running through him like that. His old heart... who knows what might happen to it? He will be part of my plan, he is worthy enough... as you would have been."
Buffy shook her head at him.
"Well, sorry, but I don't jump through hoops at command. And I'm afraid you'll find out just how little my friend here appreciates that kinda leisure as well," she stated, glancing at Spike as her self-confidence seemed to be returning. It would be all right, just as soon as she could get him out of there. Looking back at Adam she finished: "I've never really been one to toe the line."
Adam watched her for a moment then replied:
"Oh," before he made a small nod with his head, adding: "Kill her."
Someone grabbed her from behind in a tight grip and she realized who it was. Forest. Her heart sank as she felt the strength in him amplified by a hundred since he now was part demon.
"I thought you'd never ask," the previous soldier growled as Buffy began to struggle to get loose.
Adam left the room with one final - seemingly very pleased - look around.
Spike closed his eyes, braced himself and then concentrated every last shred of his power to get his wrists freed from their bonds. His eyes shot open when he heard the unmistakable noise of some sort of machinery being turned on and judging by the situation they found themselves in he was willing to bet is was not a device used for good or healing. He was right. The female zombie had picked up a hand-sized saw, its blade was now rotating furiously on a direct impact course with Buffy's forehead.
However, as the zombie came closer Buffy was finally able to maneuver her out of the way by kicking her feet up and hitting the former on the chin, making her drop the saw before she stumbled backwards. Hitting one of the tables behind her back-first she fell to the floor in a heap.
Forest was next in line. Spike observed the scene for a few more seconds and then remembered why he still wasn't doing anything else but that of acting as the unwilling audience. Closing his eyes again he was on the verge of praying for a miracle when he felt a jolt of energy surge through him and before he knew it he had broken the clasps of the steel bars holding him down. He blinked as the fatigue following this event quickly overcame him and as he tried to stand up he once more found himself failing.
Buffy fought the demonoid with a skill Spike thought he had rarely witnessed in her. He understood, suddenly, that she could bring herself into even deeper focus than when she fought simple vamp fledglings or a stray monster. It was like a light had flicked on somewhere in the back of his brain as he felt as though he witnessed her fight for the very first time.
Or maybe, something remarked, you haven't wanted to recognize it before this moment. Maybe her clear power has always shaken you up, Spike. Because hers is a heritage, hers is the essence of her very self. Your strength is stolen... and with the tip of anything sharp it can end just as quickly as it began.
So can hers, he replied, watching her be thrown mercilessly to the floor.
He clenched his jaws together, took a very small breath and when three of the longest seconds he had ever experienced expired his work paid off as he scooted forward on the seat of the chair and suddenly he fell through the air, landing with a thud on the floor and feeling the pumping of his heart gently coming to a stop.
He saw flickering dots in front of his eyes and he couldn't move, lying sprawled on his right side he couldn't see what was happening to Buffy either.
Right then she was thrown onto one of the operating tables by Forest.
She only knew of one more moment facing a fiend when she had felt as helpless - and that had been when the Master sunk his teeth into her neck.
Okay, Buffy, don't let it take over; you have to keep a clear head. No need to panic, just...
But then the chilly hands of Professor Walsh and her helper grabbed her legs and arms and she felt like she couldn't breathe anymore. So this was it? Was this the death of a Slayer? Not even eye to eye with real competition?
"Is that it?" Forest taunted, his stinking breath slithering across her nostrils and she glared up at him. "Is that all you got?" he added.
"No," Spike replied for her and she felt a small smile spread across her lips, "she's got me," he added and Professor Walsh and the goon were torn away.
"Vampire looking to play hero," Forest murmured, letting Buffy go. "How original."
Just as he was about to advance Buffy sat up and easily directed a well- aimed kick to his head. Getting him out of the way for a few moments she jumped off the table and ran up to Spike.
"I need to get to Adam, like, NOW," she said and he nodded. "Are you able?" she added and he smirked.
It was answer enough for her and she practically sprinted the way Adam had left.
***
7.19 p.m.
The power coursing through her was nearly painful as it linked her with the Slayer's who had walked the Earth before her.
She was barely aware of what she was doing as she spoke words she knew the meaning of, but of which she could not speak the language. Her voice was shared with her kin through the ages and she saw flashes of their faces before her eyes.
Adam was now facing her, and she showed him exactly what it was he was up against. No weapon in the world could, in that moment, have frightened her. As he fired his she once more spoke and the bullets were caught in the shield those words produced before her, rippling the air with waves as though it was actually water.
Adam changed from machinegun into a small missile launcher, but with one wave of her hand the threat turned into three white doves, splitting up and flying in different directions.
She felt the calm sail through her easily and she knew what she was supposed to do.
Making the arm which Adam had so demonstratively turned into a weapon retract to being simply his hand again she faced the demon and as he tried to hit home with his punches she avoided them as though he was doing them in slow motion. Then she retaliated. It seemed as everything in one moment was pacing almost excruciatingly sluggishly to in the next second be flashing passed her.
Adam stared up at her.
"How can you...?" he began, but she cut him off, grabbing a tighter hold on his throat as well as the one of his wrists that had been lifted to deliver a strike, and answering:
"You can never hope to grasp the source of our power."
There was a moment of time standing still, she was sure of it, and then the scene had changed as she buried her fingers deep inside the monster's chest, touching the spine before she felt the heat of his artificial life. Clasping it tightly she ripped it out of him and it glowed in light green as she let it rest on her palm.
"But yours is right here," she added to her previous sentence, Adam making a small noise as he crumbled to the side.
Dead.
A hundred voices whispered her name, a hundred voices called to her over the barriers which separated her from them; they touched her from the other side.
Raising her eyes as the uranium flowed up in the air her mouth once more spoke with the joined voices of what constituted her ancestors and then the core folded in on itself shining with bright, white light and was in the next second swallowed by the air.
It was over.
Sister, a voice said gently. Sister, we are waiting for you. Buffy, you will be welcomed. You will be resting with us. When the sun rises, sister... When it rises.
"Buffy."
His voice was coming from far away and then his fingers gently slid into her locks and rested against her cheek, the way it had so many times before, and she was ushered back to reality as the bond with those passed was broken and she was alone in her body once more.
She fell forward, and he caught her.
**************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** ******************
This chapter has contained explicit conversation from the BtVS episode Primeval; all rights to writer David Fury. ( and thanks, Dave, for not banning this kind of use of your work.) *kiss*
Wow, it's getting hot in here! :) Hehe, nah, but it really is. It's so hot you'd rather just take your clothes off! Okay, neways. ;) *grin*
Hope you liked this chapter. Not a lot for my imagination to do, really, except for the rewriting, of course. Well, I still hope you enjoyed it. I wanted to tie the Adam part of this story up good and proper. Plus, it's the second last episode, so. I'm still not sure if I should do my version of Restless. We'll see about that, k? Thanks for all the encouragement I've gotten already, though!
Special and sizzling thanks to Night (*smiles* I try my best. *wink* And heh and hehe!) ;), wolf116 (hope this was all right for the whole Spike's dramatic capture solvation...!) :), Captain (It's just great to hear from ya again and as said, not sure about Restless quite yet - but thanks for the confidence!) :), gattaca (Sorry to not quench your desire for Spuffy with this chappy, girl.) :( :), Carol (The plot got kinda sqeezed into its original form in this chapter I suppose... Hope you still approve.) :), Erica (Haha, I agree about the Riley-schmuck thing - and for the rest of it...we'll see) ;), Renee' (Happy birthday! Well, four days too late, I know, but still! ;) Hope you had a good one and yup, DVD collection is my very humble hands. :) The guards...well, just two guards, kinda... Two whatever that were there... I skipped the Forest being there bit, to point it out I mean, but yeah, one of the guards could very well be that little nasty. Glad you liked and your welcome for the b-day gift, it was the least I could give ya, right?) ;), Leanne (Thanks for the Willow comment, that warmed! And hehe about the Xander being punched in the nose. AND the bod of a god comment. *wink* Spike is, as you could tell from this chapter, just fine and dandy now. Oh, and thanks for the Anya correction, it has been taken care of and yeah, total and utter goof! That was REALLY cool, about the reviews and yeah, go you! Thanks for making me a part of that very special moment, girl, it's neat to be that figure!) :P, Rachel (aw, great that you think so! Well, sorry if I disappointed veering it kinda straight back to the original thing... And that was some kinda wonderful to hear, that this is one of your all time faves! Thanks a lot and trust me, I can barely believe it's almost done either! *tear*) :( ;) and maribel (yeah, well, you never know what lurks in the minds of madmen, right? ;) Glad ya like and hope this chapter was what you had hoped... Well, at least nothing less than what you expected!) -
To ALL thanks a lot for continuing support. I know it's been a while now and I can't say how great it feels to see you back after a new installment! I hope you're still digging it! ;)
See ya next time, then?
A.M.L, Annie.
Forty-Seven: The Strength Within
By Annie
2003-07-16
************************************************************************
Day Thirty-Seven.
6.35 p.m.
"Colonel!" Buffy tried again, standing surrounded by Initiative soldiers before their leader; who was currently opening up the backpack filled with weapons and magic supplies that she had brought with her.
"Shut up," he snapped, the irritation on him becoming even clearer in his voice as he kept un-strapping and then unzipping the bag before him, giving her an impatient glare. Looking back down he shook his head and added: "You've got some nerve, lady."
"You HAVE to listen to us," she stated, but the man before her paid no attention to her words as he began to pull out the contents of the backpack; starting with a stake, which he stared at as he spoke up once more:
"You think you and your friends can just keep waltzing into a government instillation, brandishing weapons like..." Pulling out a large, pear- shaped, hollow object with a thick wick on top he frowned. "Like..." he said, seemingly struggling to find a word fitting enough, but unable to.
"It's a gord," Willow offered helpfully, giving a small nod when the colonel turned his gaze from the foreign thing in his hands and to the redheaded woman standing a few feet away.
"It's a magic gord," Giles filed in, looking just a bit sheepish at the other man's clearly skeptical expression, before it changed into cool disbelief as he looked from one to the other.
"What kinda freaks are you people?" he asked, sounding truly astounded that four - by the looks of it - adult humans would even think the word magic, much less utter it in a room full of strangers.
With guns and ability to lock them in a padded cell for the rest of their lives.
It was truly astonishing.
"Adam is here, colonel, IN the Initiative," Buffy merely replied.
"Nice try," he grumbled; having put the gord down he came around the table by which he had been standing, to face her.
"Those overcrowded containment houses of yours - courtesy of Adam," she now said firmly. "He's pulling a Trojan horse on you. He's just waiting..."
"Every INCH," the colonel cut her off, "of this instillation is under constant, twenty-four hour surveillance."
"Including the secret lab?" Willow wondered innocently.
"Including everything!" the colonel replied sharply, looking incredibly convinced of it for a few seconds before he looked at Buffy, regretful to have to ask - but knowing that he did - he said: "What secret lab?"
"The one Adam's been using," she answered. "The one built for the final phase of the three-fourteen project." The colonel now looked utterly perplexed and Buffy sighed. "And you have no idea what I'm talking about," she then added.
"I know everything that goes on around here," the colonel assured, though the Slayer looked all but convinced and he continued: "A tick on a mouse couldn't get in without my knowing it. And if Adam wants to try, we're ready for him!"
"Jolly good," Giles said, taking of his glasses and rubbing his eyes tiredly before he added: "How exactly do you plan to get close enough to Adam to remove his power-source?"
Buffy raised her eyebrows questioningly and the colonel wavered for a short moment, then replied:
"Hit him simultaneously with multiple tazer-blasters. Incapacitate him with as much voltage as we can muster."
"Great plan," Xander nodded. "That's right up there with duck-and-cover."
"I've seen Adam hit with tazer-blasts," Buffy stated. "He feeds on it. And now you're gonna provide him with an all-you-can-eat buffet?"
"Are you telling me my business?" the colonel demanded, incredulously; but that made the young blonde take a step forward as she answered with a voice chilled with rising impatience:
"This is NOT your business; it's MINE. You, the Initiative, the boys at the Pentagon - you're all in way over your heads, messing with primeval forces you have absolutely no comprehension of."
"And you do?" the colonel asked with a trace of humor in his voice that got on her nerves more than anything the narrow-minded excuse for a human standing before her had said or done so far.
"I'm the Slayer," she replied. "You're playing on MY turf."
The colonel huffed.
"Up there, maybe," he then said. "But down here I'm the one who's in control."
There was the sound of a blaring warning signal as the lights went out.
The final phase had obviously just been put into progress.
Buffy felt her heart skip a beat.
Spike.
Where was he?
***
6.48 p.m
Spike swam out of unconsciousness with effort. Bright lights stung his eyes and he felt that his wrists were tied to the arms of the hard chair he was seated in. It was made of steel... The room slowly grew focused and he stared at the two beings working at some sort of table with some sort of... He blinked, resting his head back and trying to stay awake. Everything was pounding. His thoughts, his throat, his heart...
He opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling.
Something was terribly wrong.
He could feel a pulse, steadily making its way through the veins of his whole body. He could feel it because his vampire senses told him of it, he could hear the throb of the muscle in his chest as clearly as though he had his ear to the skin and flesh and nerves covering it.
Impossible.
He couldn't be alive and dead at the same time.
He still had his supernatural sense of smell, of instinct and of hearing... He could hear the brawl going on somewhere outside the thick concrete walls which surrounded him.
He tried to speak, but couldn't.
A wave of panic rose from some shadowed corner and he drew an unnecessary breath as the two beings turned their heads to him.
Zombies. Clearly zombies. Or something not far from it.
He swallowed, looking around him for some way of getting out of his bonds, but his body wouldn't work with him.
"What have you...?"
He had to produce every last ounce of willpower to be able to say those three words, his voice so strained that it broke from the effort and one of the zombies, the female, slowly approached him with a rather emotionless smile on her lips.
Her eyes were white and he thought he recognized the unclear features of her face, but he couldn't place her.
"It won't be long now," she said. "He'll be here soon and then..."
Trailing off she backed away again and Spike stared at her.
"Spike!"
Buffy? He tried to turn his head to her, but couldn't, and soon enough she was at his side.
Buffy didn't think she'd ever been so relieved in her life.
"Are you okay?" she asked and he met her gaze, fighting to speak, but failing. "What happened? Spike?"
He moved his eyes in the direction of the two zombies and Buffy turned her head that way, staring at them with growing disgust as she immediately recognized her former patroness and slight idol, Professor Walsh. Buffy couldn't understand how she had ever been as foolish as to have such high regards of someone who had seen to the birth of the threat she was about to face. There was no time to dwell and so she merely shook her head before turning her gaze back in Spike's.
"Tell me how to get you loose," she said, leaning forward slightly and observing the contraption to which he was fastened. "Spike? Why won't you answer me?"
"Because he can't," Adam's voice replied and she straightened her back as she whipped her head his way.
He was coming from across the room, seemingly having appeared through a large hole serving as a door - a wall now slowly sliding back to its original position covering it.
I recognize that, Buffy thought, remembering the place where she had spent a few nights on a mattress.
She must have also looked quizzical because Adam un-bashfully went on with his explanation to her previous question.
"He's at the first stage of transformation... He can't do much of anything right now."
Buffy furrowed her brow and then looked down at Spike. There was a tube sticking out of his right shoulder and it was pumping red liquid into him. Blood...
"What are you doing to him?" she asked, voice trembling with ill-hidden worry and Adam smiled.
"Improving him. You see, he was too strong - in the uncontrollable way - and so I thought I'd make him into something more my taste... The blood weakens him gradually, you see. His being isn't supposed to have it running through him like that. His old heart... who knows what might happen to it? He will be part of my plan, he is worthy enough... as you would have been."
Buffy shook her head at him.
"Well, sorry, but I don't jump through hoops at command. And I'm afraid you'll find out just how little my friend here appreciates that kinda leisure as well," she stated, glancing at Spike as her self-confidence seemed to be returning. It would be all right, just as soon as she could get him out of there. Looking back at Adam she finished: "I've never really been one to toe the line."
Adam watched her for a moment then replied:
"Oh," before he made a small nod with his head, adding: "Kill her."
Someone grabbed her from behind in a tight grip and she realized who it was. Forest. Her heart sank as she felt the strength in him amplified by a hundred since he now was part demon.
"I thought you'd never ask," the previous soldier growled as Buffy began to struggle to get loose.
Adam left the room with one final - seemingly very pleased - look around.
Spike closed his eyes, braced himself and then concentrated every last shred of his power to get his wrists freed from their bonds. His eyes shot open when he heard the unmistakable noise of some sort of machinery being turned on and judging by the situation they found themselves in he was willing to bet is was not a device used for good or healing. He was right. The female zombie had picked up a hand-sized saw, its blade was now rotating furiously on a direct impact course with Buffy's forehead.
However, as the zombie came closer Buffy was finally able to maneuver her out of the way by kicking her feet up and hitting the former on the chin, making her drop the saw before she stumbled backwards. Hitting one of the tables behind her back-first she fell to the floor in a heap.
Forest was next in line. Spike observed the scene for a few more seconds and then remembered why he still wasn't doing anything else but that of acting as the unwilling audience. Closing his eyes again he was on the verge of praying for a miracle when he felt a jolt of energy surge through him and before he knew it he had broken the clasps of the steel bars holding him down. He blinked as the fatigue following this event quickly overcame him and as he tried to stand up he once more found himself failing.
Buffy fought the demonoid with a skill Spike thought he had rarely witnessed in her. He understood, suddenly, that she could bring herself into even deeper focus than when she fought simple vamp fledglings or a stray monster. It was like a light had flicked on somewhere in the back of his brain as he felt as though he witnessed her fight for the very first time.
Or maybe, something remarked, you haven't wanted to recognize it before this moment. Maybe her clear power has always shaken you up, Spike. Because hers is a heritage, hers is the essence of her very self. Your strength is stolen... and with the tip of anything sharp it can end just as quickly as it began.
So can hers, he replied, watching her be thrown mercilessly to the floor.
He clenched his jaws together, took a very small breath and when three of the longest seconds he had ever experienced expired his work paid off as he scooted forward on the seat of the chair and suddenly he fell through the air, landing with a thud on the floor and feeling the pumping of his heart gently coming to a stop.
He saw flickering dots in front of his eyes and he couldn't move, lying sprawled on his right side he couldn't see what was happening to Buffy either.
Right then she was thrown onto one of the operating tables by Forest.
She only knew of one more moment facing a fiend when she had felt as helpless - and that had been when the Master sunk his teeth into her neck.
Okay, Buffy, don't let it take over; you have to keep a clear head. No need to panic, just...
But then the chilly hands of Professor Walsh and her helper grabbed her legs and arms and she felt like she couldn't breathe anymore. So this was it? Was this the death of a Slayer? Not even eye to eye with real competition?
"Is that it?" Forest taunted, his stinking breath slithering across her nostrils and she glared up at him. "Is that all you got?" he added.
"No," Spike replied for her and she felt a small smile spread across her lips, "she's got me," he added and Professor Walsh and the goon were torn away.
"Vampire looking to play hero," Forest murmured, letting Buffy go. "How original."
Just as he was about to advance Buffy sat up and easily directed a well- aimed kick to his head. Getting him out of the way for a few moments she jumped off the table and ran up to Spike.
"I need to get to Adam, like, NOW," she said and he nodded. "Are you able?" she added and he smirked.
It was answer enough for her and she practically sprinted the way Adam had left.
***
7.19 p.m.
The power coursing through her was nearly painful as it linked her with the Slayer's who had walked the Earth before her.
She was barely aware of what she was doing as she spoke words she knew the meaning of, but of which she could not speak the language. Her voice was shared with her kin through the ages and she saw flashes of their faces before her eyes.
Adam was now facing her, and she showed him exactly what it was he was up against. No weapon in the world could, in that moment, have frightened her. As he fired his she once more spoke and the bullets were caught in the shield those words produced before her, rippling the air with waves as though it was actually water.
Adam changed from machinegun into a small missile launcher, but with one wave of her hand the threat turned into three white doves, splitting up and flying in different directions.
She felt the calm sail through her easily and she knew what she was supposed to do.
Making the arm which Adam had so demonstratively turned into a weapon retract to being simply his hand again she faced the demon and as he tried to hit home with his punches she avoided them as though he was doing them in slow motion. Then she retaliated. It seemed as everything in one moment was pacing almost excruciatingly sluggishly to in the next second be flashing passed her.
Adam stared up at her.
"How can you...?" he began, but she cut him off, grabbing a tighter hold on his throat as well as the one of his wrists that had been lifted to deliver a strike, and answering:
"You can never hope to grasp the source of our power."
There was a moment of time standing still, she was sure of it, and then the scene had changed as she buried her fingers deep inside the monster's chest, touching the spine before she felt the heat of his artificial life. Clasping it tightly she ripped it out of him and it glowed in light green as she let it rest on her palm.
"But yours is right here," she added to her previous sentence, Adam making a small noise as he crumbled to the side.
Dead.
A hundred voices whispered her name, a hundred voices called to her over the barriers which separated her from them; they touched her from the other side.
Raising her eyes as the uranium flowed up in the air her mouth once more spoke with the joined voices of what constituted her ancestors and then the core folded in on itself shining with bright, white light and was in the next second swallowed by the air.
It was over.
Sister, a voice said gently. Sister, we are waiting for you. Buffy, you will be welcomed. You will be resting with us. When the sun rises, sister... When it rises.
"Buffy."
His voice was coming from far away and then his fingers gently slid into her locks and rested against her cheek, the way it had so many times before, and she was ushered back to reality as the bond with those passed was broken and she was alone in her body once more.
She fell forward, and he caught her.
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This chapter has contained explicit conversation from the BtVS episode Primeval; all rights to writer David Fury. ( and thanks, Dave, for not banning this kind of use of your work.) *kiss*
Wow, it's getting hot in here! :) Hehe, nah, but it really is. It's so hot you'd rather just take your clothes off! Okay, neways. ;) *grin*
Hope you liked this chapter. Not a lot for my imagination to do, really, except for the rewriting, of course. Well, I still hope you enjoyed it. I wanted to tie the Adam part of this story up good and proper. Plus, it's the second last episode, so. I'm still not sure if I should do my version of Restless. We'll see about that, k? Thanks for all the encouragement I've gotten already, though!
Special and sizzling thanks to Night (*smiles* I try my best. *wink* And heh and hehe!) ;), wolf116 (hope this was all right for the whole Spike's dramatic capture solvation...!) :), Captain (It's just great to hear from ya again and as said, not sure about Restless quite yet - but thanks for the confidence!) :), gattaca (Sorry to not quench your desire for Spuffy with this chappy, girl.) :( :), Carol (The plot got kinda sqeezed into its original form in this chapter I suppose... Hope you still approve.) :), Erica (Haha, I agree about the Riley-schmuck thing - and for the rest of it...we'll see) ;), Renee' (Happy birthday! Well, four days too late, I know, but still! ;) Hope you had a good one and yup, DVD collection is my very humble hands. :) The guards...well, just two guards, kinda... Two whatever that were there... I skipped the Forest being there bit, to point it out I mean, but yeah, one of the guards could very well be that little nasty. Glad you liked and your welcome for the b-day gift, it was the least I could give ya, right?) ;), Leanne (Thanks for the Willow comment, that warmed! And hehe about the Xander being punched in the nose. AND the bod of a god comment. *wink* Spike is, as you could tell from this chapter, just fine and dandy now. Oh, and thanks for the Anya correction, it has been taken care of and yeah, total and utter goof! That was REALLY cool, about the reviews and yeah, go you! Thanks for making me a part of that very special moment, girl, it's neat to be that figure!) :P, Rachel (aw, great that you think so! Well, sorry if I disappointed veering it kinda straight back to the original thing... And that was some kinda wonderful to hear, that this is one of your all time faves! Thanks a lot and trust me, I can barely believe it's almost done either! *tear*) :( ;) and maribel (yeah, well, you never know what lurks in the minds of madmen, right? ;) Glad ya like and hope this chapter was what you had hoped... Well, at least nothing less than what you expected!) -
To ALL thanks a lot for continuing support. I know it's been a while now and I can't say how great it feels to see you back after a new installment! I hope you're still digging it! ;)
See ya next time, then?
A.M.L, Annie.