Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters used in this story except Celeste who is not even in this chapter. No matter. On to the story!
Attacks
Darkness cloaked both Blade and Buffy as they finished their night's patrol and crept stealthily towards the warehouse. Neither made a sound as they walked, years of practicing stealth evident in their movements.
Other than the first incident, the night had been pretty quiet. A few unlucky vampires quickly and quietly dusted before they could even realize what was happening. No more magic tricks had occurred. Just a few ordinary dustings.
As they neared the warehouse, Blade froze suddenly. Buffy froze immediately, silently thanking any gods out there for not running into him. Running into your partner when he was just gaining respect for your abilities was not the best impression to leave. She looked up at him quizzically, watching as light from the warehouse reflected off his sunglasses. She followed his gaze, her own eyes narrowing in concern as she saw the flickering lights.
"Does that – "
Her question was cut off as he raised his hand, impatiently motioning her to be quiet. She stopped talking abruptly, understanding his want for silence. As he studied their surroundings, she closed her eyes and allowed to senses to open up completely. She had shielded them slightly during patrol, for the constant presence of Blade and his unfamiliar "feel" had sent her Slayer Sense nuts.
As soon as she opened her senses up, she almost reeled in shock. She could feel vampires all around. More than she was used too. Hell, more than she had fought in a long time, if ever. Her eyes snapped open and she looked back at Blade and realized that he knew they were surrounded. Knew that there were vampires all around.
She walked up to him, her steps silent. He glanced down at her, and their eyes met in silent agreement. She motioned towards the back of the warehouse and he nodded, abruptly moving towards the front doors. Buffy rolled her eyes as she sprinted towards the back, wincing as she heard the crashing of the warehouse doors. Sounds of gunfire started, crashing and screams adding to the sudden noise.
And I thought that *I* liked to make an entrance. He puts me to shame.
As she neared the farthest end of the warehouse, she glanced quickly around before scaling up the gutter. She scaled it as quietly as possible, doing everything in her power to make a surprise entrance.
Right, like they're not expecting me or anything. They're not gonna be as surprised as they were last time. It won't be all sunshine and daisies to get past them. Oooo, open window!
Thanking her luck, she grabbed the windowpane and slowly pulled herself up, making sure as little of her as possible was visible. She peeked in and allowed herself a small smile as she saw Blade fighting against the vampires and – she had to admit to herself – doing it quite impressively. Though he was King Broody, he knew his stuff. He knew how to fight.
She pulled herself the rest of the way into the window, realizing her mistake immediately as she lost her balance momentarily and began plummeting towards the close yet metal catwalk. Her cover would be so screwed. Yet, right before she hit the catwalk, a pool of air seemed to grow beneath her and cushioned her fall. She landed on the catwalk with barely a sound. She stood there, frozen for a moment, as she pondered what had just happened.
Did I do that? Did I *know* I could do that? She thought in confusion as she stared at the spot she had landed. But she did not have long to think about it, though, as her attention was pulled to Blade. He was still fighting well, but she could tell he was losing ground – and fast. She pulled a stake out from beneath her jacket, not noticing the faint green glow that enveloped her hands. She took a deep breath and looked at the ground far below.
Alright, time for the Slayer skill. And…off I go!
She jumped off the catwalk, plummeting to the ground. She hit the ground with a thud, causing eyes to swivel towards her. She smirked at them, eyes roaming the fight as she looked for one person in particular. Their eyes met, coldness exerting from both. "Hello boys. Did you miss me?"
A group of vampires immediately split off from the ground attacking Blade and went after her, fangs bared. She rolled her eyes as they neared her, thinking that vampires were never original. Always thought with their fangs, never with their heads. One vampire, ahead of the others, leapt at her and was immediately dusted by the stake in her hand. Abandoning the stake and the now-dusted vampire, she back flipped, catching another under the chin and knocking him back. She landed in a defense stance, pulling out a knife from a strap around her ankle.
They attacked in force now, coming all at the same time instead of one by one. She blocked their punches, scoring a hit every now and then with her knife. Body parts flew around her as she hacked off bits and pieces of them. Her usual quips were absent from the fight – there were too many vampires surrounding her to bother using up breath to form words.
She dusted vampire after vampire, but each was replaced by two more. Soon, she felt herself begin to tire. Her strikes were not as perfect, her aim just a tad off. Suddenly, a lucky punch caught her by surprise and she stumbled backwards, into the waiting arms of another vampire. She fought him off, but another vampire grabbed her knife and threw it out of her reach. Another vampire grabbed her arms and wretched them behind her. She could not hold back the gasp of pain from escaping, causing those around her to grin. Rope was roughly tied around her arms, pinning her hands behind her.
"Does that hurt Slayer?" one of them asked.
She glared at him, refusing to answer him. He chuckled and pushed her forward. She stumbled and fell straight to the ground, her reflexes the only thing that stopped her from slamming face-first into the pavement. Her body tucked into a ball and she rolled over her shoulder, wincing as her arms scraped against the ground. She landed partially upright until a kick to her ribs caused her to fall to the ground. White spots appeared in front of her eyes at the pain, but she tightened her lips, not allowing the pain to be acknowledged.
She blearily rose to her knees, shaking her head to clear the fogginess from it. She glanced over to Blade – he was in the same predicament she was. She struggled with her bonds for a moment before a voice broke the silence and caused her to freeze in her efforts.
"Looks like both of you are in quite the situation there," a voice said dryly. "Of course, anyone affiliated with the Slayer does tend to have that happen to them."
She recognized the voice. The coldness, the lethal undertone…she knew the voice. She stood there, motionless for a moment before slowly turning around to face the owner of the voice. Her face paled as a man stepped out of the shadows of the room. He was different from what she remembered. A long jagged scar ran across his temple, which contrasted harshly with the tweed he still wore. His eyes glinted coldly at her but as she stared at him, memories floated back to her. Memories of what he had done.
Her own eyes turned ice cold and her hands clenched into fists behind her back. She paid no heed to anyone else in the room but him. Everything else was forgotten.
Blade watched her, watching as her entire body tensed up, so taut that he could swear she would break in half. He looked into her eyes and found himself astounded by the hatred he saw there. He knew that hatred. He saw it every time he looked into the face of Deacon Frost. Into the face of the monster that killed his mother.
"What the fuck do you want, Travers?" Buffy hissed, her eyes narrowed into slits. He shook his head at her, clicking his tongue as he walked towards her, yet still keeping a safe distance between them.
"Language Slayer, language," he said. "What would Mr. Giles say? Oh, that's right. He's dead. Not much he can do for you now."
Tears started welling up in her eyes at the mention of her Watcher, but she forced them back, refusing to give him the satisfaction that he affected her. She pushed the words to the back of her mind, not letting them bother her.
"How did you get in here?" she demanded. "This place was protected…"
"By a spell done by an amateur, obviously," he replied calmly. "Anyone could have taken that spell done. Even a person who has not studied that long with magic. Yet another thing you've failed at Ms. Summers."
She broke eye contact with him, looking down at the ground. Even though she was determined not to let his words affect her, a small part of her could not help but rebel. Everyone she had ever loved, it seemed, had gotten hurt. Because of her. Maybe she wasn't such a great Slayer. Maybe she was only a bringer of death, a bringer of pain.
With extreme effort, she forced the thoughts out of her head. She slowly looked back at him, fury welling up in her eyes like a fire had been lit. "Look who's talking, Travers. Weren't you once head of the Council? What happened with that? Why aren't you in charge anymore? Oh yeah. That's right. They kicked your ass out."
He lurched forward, catching her across the face with a slap. Her head snapped to the side, absorbing the impact of the slap. She stayed frozen for a moment before, with deliberate slowness, she turned her head to once again stare at him. She met his hatred filled eyes with her own cold orbs, daring him not to move. He stared at her, teeth clenched at the look of contempt she gave him. Yet, he did not allow himself to lose control again. He knew that he held the trump card. A slow, secretive smile crossed his face as they stood facing each other.
"You're right. The soddin' idiots "kicked my ass out" as you so charmingly put it. Yet, did you ever find out the reason why, Ms. Summers?"
The question took her by surprise and she could not stop the questioning look from crossing her face. They never really told me why. And I didn't question it. Figured as long as he was gone, that's all that mattered. It didn't matter how or why.
He chuckled at her look, realizing at once that she had not been told the truth. Possibly that she had not even been given a real reason. "The truth is, Ms. Summers, is that I have never been particularly fond of you. In fact, I detested you from the moment that you were called, which only grew when you arrived in Sunnydale. You refused to listen to the Council. You went against all the rules in the Slayer handbook. You were dangerous. That just could not be allowed."
"Yet, no one in the Council was willing to do anything about that. It left me to take matters into my own hands. I hired a team to watch over you and you're friends. Watch over their doings, their successes, and their failures. I watched as all of you started to grow apart and move away from each other. That gave me the chance to make my move."
"I visited your watcher first. He, surprisingly enough, was less than thrilled to see me. We exchanged words over a cuppa. He did not even notice when I switched cups with him, giving him the one I had so carefully spiked."
Buffy's faced turned paler as his words sunk in. Her face twisted into a mask of shock and anger. "You killed him. You poisoned Giles."
He held his hands up in mock surrender. "Guilty as charged. The hospital was more than happy to cover up the poisoning. They were getting a whole new wing for the building, you see. Did not want to lose that new wing. I knew the best place to start was with the watcher. He was the one that started the mess. If he had trained you as the guidebook had stated none of this would have happened."
"The guidebook is shit," she spit out, her hands shaking in rage. "Slayers are people, not machines to do your bidding. We're people, Goddamn you!"
He ignored her outburst and continued with his story, relishing the anger and shock that swelled around her. "He was just the first though. We needed to get rid of all the people that were close to you at that time. I took advantage of the opportunity when I found out about the trip you and your friends were taking. A nice vacation to take a break from Sunnydale. Away from your destiny."
"But you screwed things up for me again. You lived through the crash. I should have known that it would be more difficult to get rid of you."
He watched the conflicting emotions cross her face, her attempt to cover them up completely gone. Her control was gone. A red haze of anger covered her vision as she stared at the man that had so calmly set up the murder of all of those she held dear. She did not even notice when her hands snapped the rope that held her. She did not notice herself lunging towards him with a snarl good enough to rival a vampire. All she saw was the look of surprise on his face as her hands encircled his neck. She did not even hear his wheezing as he fought to take a breath.
Suddenly, she was being pulled away by someone just as strong as she. She cursed and screamed, fighting in vain to escape the person clutching her tightly. Quentin Travers fell to the ground on his hands and knees, taking deep shaky breathes to get air back into his suffering lungs.
"Ah, ah, ah," whispered a voice in her ear. "Not yet, Slayer. We've got things to do before you can play."
The voice in her ear caused her to fall back to reality. She glanced at the still huffing Travers, eyes widening as she realized what she had almost done.
"Oh my God," she whispered. The voice chuckled.
"He can't help you now, babe."
Something hard hit her over the head and suddenly, she was falling to the ground as darkness overtook her. Before she passed out, her eyes fell on Blade. Her voice rumbled softly deep within her throat and her eyes went black. A slight green slow once again caused her hands to glow as she thought of Blade and Karen.
"Protect."
With those whispered words, she succumbed to the darkness. Frost, who had pulled her away from Travers just moments ago, picked her up easily and cradled her against his body. He turned away from the shaking form of Travers and glanced at Blade with disinterest.
"Kill him," he ordered. The vampire closest to Blade smiled wolfishly and grabbed the knife that had been taken away from Buffy during the fight. He swung it towards Blade's neck –
And screamed suddenly as a flash of green overtook him. The blade dropped from his hand and landed before Blade as his body dissolved into ash. Everyone, including Blade, stared at the ash next to him. For a moment, no one moved. But, suddenly, the moment was shattered. Three of the vampires around Blade attempted to stab him with the stakes that lay around him but they too turned to ash.
"What's going on?" Frost demanded, looking towards Travers. "Why can't they kill him?"
"He's protected by magic," Travers explained, his voice harsh as bruises sprung up on his neck. "Foreign magic. That's not hers. I can't break it."
Frost glared at the man. "You're fuckin' lucky that you still have a use, old man. Or else I'd have you killed right now."
With that, he spun around and walked out of the warehouse, carrying Buffy with him. The other vampires glanced at each other for a moment before following Frost out. Travers stood there momentarily before following suit, not taking a backwards glance at the half-vampire that watched them leave.