"Why should I believe you? How do I know I can trust you?" Buffy demanded.
The boy gave a small shrug and shoved his hands in the pockets of his pants. "Because I have an honest face?" Spike almost chuckled at that, but he could feel how tense Buffy was, and decided that if he wanted to stay in her good graces, he should probably keep his amusement to himself.
"Look," the boy continued, "we're wasting time standing around here and arguing about whether or not I'm trustworthy. I'll go alone if I must, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to save your sister. There's only one person in that building I care about protecting, and she's not it."
Buffy opened her mouth to give him a nasty retort, but Willow laid a hand on her arm.
"Maybe you should go with him," she suggested. "If Dawn really is in danger, you'll never forgive yourself if she gets hurt."
"I can go with you," Spike added, "that is, if you want me to."
"But what about the girls?" Buffy asked. "What if this is a trick to lure me away from them so the First can attack?"
"I can drive the girls home," Willow offered. "They'll be perfectly safe with me."
"Are you sure?" Buffy asked, giving her friend the same unreadable look that she had the night she'd entrusted Spike's care to her. Willow felt her anger begin to rise, simmering just below the surface of her calm demeanour.
"Buffy, do you think I'm incompetent? Do you think I can't get from point A to point B without dissolving into a fit of insanity? How can I prove to you that I've gotten better if you won't trust me?"
"It's not that I don't trust you, Wills," Buffy assured her. "I'm just not sure if you're battle-ready yet."
Willow's ire began to boil. "I took care of the monster Anya left for those college boys. I could have incinerated the Bringers that attacked the house the night you fought the Ubervamp. I'm ready to fight. I'm ready to do what it takes to win."
The ferocity and determination on Willow's face showed the girls exactly how frightening and intimidating the normally quiet woman could be. The Slayer stared at her best friend, taken slightly aback by her sharp-tongued retort.
But this was just the proof Buffy needed. The corners of her mouth turned up in a satisfied smile. "Be safe," she told Willow, and with a curt nod to Spike, pushed past the boy in the doorway and began running hard towards the high school, her companions close on her heels.
After the three blonds had left, Willow didn't move, afraid that if she did, whatever crazy dream she had just had would dissipate and she would be left facing a very angry Buffy.
"Did you win?" Kennedy asked, frightening the witch out of her fear-induced coma. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"I, uh, think it was a stalemate," she muttered.
****
Jade and Amanda followed Dawn up the main staircase, the Bringers and the vampire close on their heels. Though she had been in worse situations than this, Dawn knew that without Buffy here to save them, the plan she'd haphazardly concocted was their only chance of escaping with their lives.
Their path twisted and turned down hallways, climbing up and up to a place where the Bringers hopefully hadn't had a chance to explore yet. Jade paused a moment to smash in the glass case on a fire axe and take it as a weapon.
The steel felt good in her hands and gave her more confidence than she had. With a determined smile, she raced after her friends.
****
Buffy pushed her muscles to the limit, making her legs cramp and her lungs burn under the strain. She could hear the solid pounding of Spike's Doc Martens not far behind her, and it was reassuring.
Soon she was running on cement instead of grass, and she made a wide turn onto Glen Avenue. For a moment she considered hijacking a lonely motorcycle that someone had foolishly left in a shady parking lot they passed. But the time it would take to hot-wire it they could make up by jumping a few fences.
Her boots once again found purchase on the yielding comfort of grass, but only shortly. Buffy leapt at someone's nicely kept white picket fence, her hands grasping the slopes of the boards and her superior strength, combined with her fear-induced adrenaline, allowed her to clear the fence all in that one smooth movement.
Spike followed her lead, but instead of vaulting the fence, he used his vampire agility to simply leap over it. Faster than a speeding bullet, he thought to himself, then scolded himself for sounding like the Whelp.
The boy had a little more trouble with the fence, but after the first few they encountered, he was soon flying over them with equal parts grace and speed. The three of them crossed through some two dozen yards, and on the last, they found themselves in the high school's football field.
Buffy's heart leaped into her throat, remembering a night so many years ago when she had raced through this same field to save her friends, and found herself too late. Getting into Slayer mode, she withdrew Mr. Pointy from its sheath at the small of her back. It was the only gift Kendra had ever given her, and it had served her well.
It was also the stake she would use to kill Drusilla. And she would kill Dru, she vowed, to avenge her fellow Slayer's death.
She found these thoughts clouding her mind as she kicked in one of the back doors and strode into the evening-black gym. Spike entered right behind her and hovered just behind her right shoulder. The boy brought up the rear, withdrawing two hooked daggers, perfect for penetrating beneath the ribcage and tearing into the vital organs.
The only weapon Spike had brought was himself - his fangs, his night-vision, and his fierce love for Dawn. He vamped out and surveyed the enormous room. There were retractable bleachers against the left wall, benches along the right. Straight ahead of them were the locker rooms, equipment room and the coach's office; in the corner, double doors leading into the hallway.
Though he had spent a good two months in the annals of the building's basement, Spike had never ventured into the upstairs corridors. He would have to entrust any stratagems to Buffy - he'd take care of locating their quarry.
He cocked his head to the side, in a very animalistic motion, tuning his demon to the pulse of human heartbeats. Quick - no, pounding. Definitely pounding. He looked up. About…forty feet above them, and a little ways North.
But there was something else, too. "One vamp," he whispered, not wanting to make too much noise and alert the Bringers to their presence. "And by the sounds of it there are at least twelve, maybe fifteen of the First's lackeys buzzing about."
Buffy nodded solemnly, suddenly wishing that she had a full arsenal at her disposal. One to five odds weren't very good, especially when one member of your team has questionable combat skills.
She turned to the boy. "What's your name?" she demanded. He squirmed uncomfortably under her gaze. "Well?"
As he opened his mouth to reply, Spike stiffened. Buffy immediately forgot the boy and turned to him. "What is it?" she asked.
"Bringers, headed this way," he replied.
"How many?"
But before he had a chance to answer, the gym doors burst open and five Bringers stormed in. The boy readied his knives, turning the curve of the blades to his backhand. Buffy brandished her lone stake in front of her, for all the good it would do. Spike made plans to disarm one of their enemies and take its weapon for himself.
The eyeless Bringers moved towards them, a silent wall of mass destruction. Buffy tensed and tightened her muscles like a wound spring, preparing to pounce. The boy stepped up to her left side, and Spike flanked her on the right.
He growled, a deep resonating sound that Buffy felt down to her bones, and suddenly she felt stronger, more prepared. With Spike by her side, she felt anything was possible.
Their enemies rushed them, but they were ready.
****
"This way!" Dawn cried, turning into one of the empty classrooms. Amanda recognized it as the chemistry lab, but her brain was too laden with fear to even attempt to guess at Dawn's plan.
The three girls dove into the room, and Dawn slammed the door closed behind them. Her hands searched frantically in the dark along the wall until she found what she was looking for.
With a grunt, she yanked on a lever, and there was a cacophonous buzzing, not unlike a fire alarm. An emergency light bathed the room in a red aura, and a lock-down procedure began.
Metal shutters slammed down over the windows, the door was clamped shut - airtight, they knew. Jade's ears popped as a negative air pressure was created, so that when the door was opened, air would rush in, not out.
"It's in case of chemical contamination," Dawn explained. "Buffy's friend Xander was in charge of building the school - he told me about this. This room is completely locked down; we'll be safe for a while."
"How long is a while?" Amanda asked.
Dawn shrugged. "Long enough to make a plan," she replied.
Jade hopped up onto one of the counters, wedging herself between a sink and a gas spout. She kept the axe in her lap, not wanting to let it out of her sight in case she might need to use it in a hurry.
"So, plan away," she said. Her and Amanda both looked at Dawn expectantly. She fidgeted under their scrutiny.
"Well, this is kind of as far as I got. I'm not a plan-maker. I'm a get-in-the-wayer. This was just the product of spending too many nights hanging with my sister's friends."
"So, what," Amanda asked, panic creeping into her voice, "we just wait until those creeps get tired of waiting for us to come out and break down the door?"
"I'm with Amanda. We need to prepare for battle," Jade piped in.
"Wait, I never said anything about a battle," Amanda corrected.
Jade hopped from her perch, swinging the axe deftly in her hands. "No, but we obviously can't just wait here for them to come and tear us to pieces."
Amanda visibly quailed at Jade's terminology, and Dawn crossed her arms over her chest. "Why don't we lay off the theatrics for a while Jade. I think we're all scared enough as it is without you making things worse."
"Me making things worse? I'm the one who said we should just fight that vamp. If we had, we would've been out of here before the Bringers even knew we'd been here. It was your idea to run, so it was you who got us into this mess!"
"What?! No way, I'm not the one who's been all 'smash, kill, destroy'! If anything, you're the one we should be blaming. You had to go explore the blood on the floor - that's probably what alerted the vamp that there was more food to eat!"
"Oh, please! That is the lamest accusation I've ever heard."
"Uh, guys…"
"Well at least I don't pretend to be someone I'm not. I mean, look at you! You're carrying around that axe like some kind of warrior. But warrior you're not. And your clothes? You might be trying to look like some kind of bad-ass, but you're not one, you poser!"
"POSER! I can't believe you just called me a poser!"
"Well I can't believe -"
"Guys!!" Amanda yelled.
"WHAT?!!" they yelled back, eyes slitted and hands balled into fists.
"Help?" she whimpered. The girls whipped around to find their friend in the clutches of another vampire, the night janitor lying dead on the floor.
Just then the door began to shake under the vicious attack of the Bringers. Dawn thought idly, 'Out of the frying pan, into the fire,' before retrieving the stake from her bag and lunging for the vampire.
****
The first Bringer went down quickly, it's throat slashed by the boy's blades. Blood spilled onto the floor, and Buffy was reminded of prom night back at Hemery, when she'd battled Lothos and burned down the gym.
Spike snatched up the felled demon's knife and immediately leapt into the fight. Though weapons weren't really his style, not having one put him at a disadvantage. He plunged the ceremonial blade into the closest Bringer's chest, grinning in satisfaction as it slid in to the hilt and blood came oozing from its mouth.
Buffy kicked the knife from the grasp of the Bringer she was fighting and gave it a solid roundhouse to the face, sending it reeling back a few feet. Then she stepped in close and slammed the heel of her hand into its face, cracking its nose and pushing the bone into its brain, killing it immediately.
Only two Bringers were left, but these had hung back, and Buffy soon saw why. Each brandished swords that flashed with some form of magical fire. One of the demons reached out and touched the tip of his blade to a bench, and fire spread down the metal and onto the wood, quickly consuming it.
Buffy took a quick tally. Spike was highly flammable, and both she and the boy would at the very least receive first-degree burns from getting too close to the flaming metal. The only things they had to fight with were close-combat weapons, and those simply wouldn't do.
The Bringers began edging closer to them, and Buffy felt Spike twitch beside her. Fire made him nervous, especially after she'd burned a church down around him, which ended with him charred and wheelchair-bound.
Then she had an idea. "Cover me," she said, and ran towards the equipment room. The Bringers turned towards the sound of her feet thumping against the ground, and though they couldn't see her, she knew they could hit her if they got the chance.
But they didn't. The boy threw one of his daggers and it found purchase in the shoulder of the Bringer closest to Buffy. The force of the impact caused the demon to lose its balance and it hit the ground, giving Buffy the extra time she needed to break the lock on the doorknob and push her way in.
Spike rushed the other Bringer, moving so quickly it didn't have a chance to react. He lashed out, sliced its stomach, then darted out of range. Blood began seeping from its wound, but it took no notice, instead swinging the sword dangerously close to Spike's face.
Buffy came out of the equipment room then, pushing an activity cart ahead of her. Basketballs, ski poles, tennis rackets, bows and quivers…in the Slayer's hands, it was her arsenal.
She pegged the Bringer attacking Spike in the back of the head with a basketball. Then she tossed a ski pole to the vampire. He wasted no time in impaling the demon, forcing the blunt-tipped weapon (it is a school, after all) through layers of robe, skin and muscle, and then through the gaps in the ribcage to pierce its heart.
The other Bringer had gotten to its feet and attacked the boy, grazing his arm with the flaming sword. He cried out in pain, but the cry soon turned into one of anger and rage as he wrenched the weapon from his enemy's grasp and turned it against him.
Buffy saw the bloodstained tip of the sword just before the Bringer's body burst into flames. It screamed - a raw, primal sound, since it had no tongue to articulate with. The boy pulled the blade from the body and the scream died as it hit the floor, chunks of charred flesh falling off with the impact.
"You okay?" Spike asked the boy, who only nodded as he gingerly touched his burnt and bleeding arm. Then both males turned to Buffy, clearly looking to her to make the next decision.
"Grab some weapons. We're heading out."
****
The vampire used Amanda as a shield, knowing the girls wouldn't go through their friend to kill it. This only served to piss Jade off. She could only watch as the vamp lashed out at Dawn, sending her sprawling across the floor.
Dawn wiped blood from her nose, and glared at the vamp, who tossed her blond hair over her shoulders and grinned. The girl sneered and could almost hear the growl she wanted to let loose.
'Just one hit', she thought, 'and she'll let go of Amanda.' She exchanged a look with Jade, and they both thought the same thing: rush her.
Dawn climbed unsteadily to her feet, trying to make the vampire think she was out of the fight. Jade hefted the axe clumsily, appearing for all the world like she didn't have the strength to cleave the demon's head off.
"Leave us alone!" she squeaked, making sure to add a sniffle at the end. Make her think she's won, make her think she's won… The vampire grinned, bloody fangs glistening in the red ambience lighting, before her face descended on her captive's neck.
In the instant the vampire turned her attention from her next meals to the artery pulsing beneath Amanda's skin, Dawn and Jade ran at them, knocking them over. Amanda landed on top of the she-vamp, loosening its grip on her. Smartly, she rolled away while she could, and watched in awe and fascination as Dawn plunged her stake into the demons' heart.
The vampire screamed, then burst into a cloud of dust, causing Amanda to cough. The three girls stared at one another, the pounding on the door echoing the pounding of their hearts.
Then the sound of creaking metal invaded the room, and the girls winced. Amanda covered her ears, and Jade looked back to see a hand creeping between the loosened hinges and the wall.
She walked calmly over to the door, and slammed the flat head of the axe against the door, effectively amputating the Bringer's hand. It fell lifelessly to the floor, and an unearthly scream resonated in the hall.
"What's going on?" Amanda whispered, drawing herself into a ball. Dawn looked on her with sympathy, but had no words to explain it. Except maybe…
"Vampires are real. So are a lot of other monsters, like werewolves and ghouls. Sunnydale is the epicentre of all things evil - this school is built on top of the Hellmouth, a portal to, well, Hell."
The girls stared at one another, one wide-eyed, the other hesitant.
"Well, I suppose that explains a lot," Amanda replied. Then she smiled wanly. "I guess this means we fight, huh?"
"We fight," Jade confirmed. "But we need a plan."