Brave New World
Chapter Eighteen
The Mayor blinked at the three who faced him. The battle raged on behind them, but there was something oddly silent about the place. As though the sound had been switched off. All Buffy could hear was the shallow, high-pitched wail of the wind as it whistled past her.
The Mayor's attention flickered from them for a moment, to watch the fight behind them.
"How'd you get her to betray me?" he asked conversationally, looking down at them.
Buffy was startled for a second, wondering what he was talking about when he was faced with three rocket launchers. But then it hit her; he meant Faith.
"You did," she called up to him. "After what you did to that woman and child."
He nodded slowly, as though it were no surprise to him.
"I thought there was something wrong with her," he said, then glared down at Buffy, Wes and Doyle. "I know her, you see. You'll never understand her like I do, y'know. She's made a mistake; I won't hold it against her. One day, she'll realise this was wrong. She'll make it up to me."
"Won't that be a little difficult if you're dead?" Wes asked icily.
"Dead?" the Mayor answered, chortling.
"Are you blind, man?" Doyle asked in disbelief. "We're pointing rocket launchers at ya!"
"Oh, those," he said.
His eyes darted to some point beyond them and Buffy opened her mouth to call out the order when he lunged. They turned, following him with their rocket launchers. They heard Anya scream, Doyle call her name. Their eyes followed the Mayor's head as his body sliced through the battle, knocking Dawn and Andrew to one side. Willow and Tara were oblivious, backs to the Mayor as they shot bolts from their crossbows at the demons. The Mayor's mouth snapped open, then slammed down.
Around Willow's waist.
"Willow!" Buffy screamed.
Tara turned with a cry and grabbed for Willow's hand with both of hers. But Willow was tugged away from her as the Mayor's body hit the ground and flew up again, tail snapping around him to peer at Buffy from the middle of the battle. The shock sent Tara tumbling to the ground, where she landed with a thump.
"Tara!" Doyle yelled, starting to make towards her.
But Wes pushed him back, struggling to hold up his rocket launcher with one hand as the other grabbed a handgun from the holster at his side. He took quick, careful aim and a demon that bore down on Tara crumbled to the floor. Dawn shoved another Skilosh to the side and slipped an arm under Tara's hauling her up as Tara stared in horror at Willow. Willow struggled in the Mayor's jaws, his mouth holding her delicately.
"We can't," Doyle said. "We can't shoot him. Not when he's got Will."
"I know," Buffy snapped.
"What do we do?" Wes asked, shoving the gun back into his holster and grabbing hold of his rocket launcher with two hands.
Buffy gaped at Wes. Answers, he was looking for answers. She didn't even know the answers. And she was leader. Oh, God, she'd screwed up. She looked toward the battle; the demon's were starting to fight back harder, taking advantage of the others shock. They were barely paying attention to the fight, hacking senselessly at the demons before them.
Everyone but Faith.
She was staring up at the Mayor, fists clenched, ignoring everything about her.
"If we shoot him in his… tail," Buffy said, practically babbling in her worry. "He might drop her."
"It's too far to fall!" Doyle cried.
"A broken arm's better than a broken neck!" Wes countered fiercely.
"I'll take the shot," Buffy said, aiming her rocket launcher at the Mayor's tail.
Willow squeezed her eyes shut. Ignoring the rotten stench of the Mayor's breath, ignoring the fact that one tooth slid against her side as it pierced her sweater. She opened her eyes briefly to see Buffy aiming the rocket launcher. She caught her best friend's eye for a second. Willow knew what Buffy was going to do. Willow let her head roll back, bracing herself for the fall. But it didn't come. Instead, she heard Tara scream someone's name.
Faith's name.
Spike blinked the blood out of his eyes and ducked a blow to the head, unintentionally allowing another vampire to slam a boot into his side. He groaned. He suspected he already had some broken ribs and a good old kicking to them wasn't helping any.
He straightened up, his first curled around a stake and connected to a jaw in a vicious uppercut. He brought the stake down to the vampire's heart and it exploded into dust.
Spike glanced up at the remaining three vampires, two guys and a girl. Usually not too much for him. But right now, Spike was seriously wondering about his options.
"C'mon," he rasped. "Let's get this over with."
As they approached, he swiped out with a clean motion, decapitating the first without trying.
But even he realised it was clumsy; a vague slash in the right direction and it was merely luck that the axe didn't hit the wall instead of the vampire's neck. As he twisted back to face the final two vampires, a boot hit the side of his face and slammed him across the hall into the wall. He groaned, dimly aware of the smudge of blood left as he slid down the wall.
God, he ached all over. If there had been two less vampires than there were, the fight would be over now and Spike could sit there and wait for a while. The others might have turned up for him or he could have rested for a time until he grabbed something to protect himself and strode out into the sunlight.
But there hadn't been two less vampires. That was the whole point. He heard them chortled and blinked away the blood in his eyes to look at them in time to see a fist cut through the air and hit him squarely on the nose, slamming his head back into the wall again.
He had started to breathe, anything to concentrate on to stop himself slipping into unconsciousness. But his eyes refused to comply and shut stubbornly.
Which was probably the best thing that could happen, because a wobbling image of Willow sharpened rapidly in his mind's eye.
He had to get out of this. If he got out of this looking like shit, at least he would be alive. And he really wanted to get out of this.
Forcing himself to listen intently, he heard the small sounds of people moving, the sound of clothing scraping over skin. He heard and felt one vampire approach him. His hand tightened around his axe, his feet pressed into the floor. As the vampire's fingers brushed against his shirt to haul him to his feet, Spike pushed himself up, using the wall to support him. He took advantage of the vampire's surprise and slow reaction to bring the axe down sharply and defeat one more opponent. He breathed heavily, looking toward the final stunned female vampire. He lifted his axe, tilted it and swung.
But her frightened expression twisted into a snarl. She caught the handle, twisted it round with sudden speed and force and thrust it into Spike's stomach.
Spike stumbled back into the wall again, sliding down and leaving yet another bloodstain.
Buffy's attention left the Mayor when she heard Tara scream. She watched as Faith pushed another demon to one side and jumped, strong hands clamping down on the Mayor's lower lip.
"What the hell is she doing?" Doyle demanded.
"Oh my God," Wes muttered, watching wide eyed as the Mayor shook his head, trying to dislodge Faith.
"Take aim," Buffy instructed.
"What?" Doyle gasped.
"Take aim," Buffy repeated. "Faith will save Willow. Be ready to end this. Do it, dammit!"
Exchanging glances, Wes and Doyle took aim and drew in long breaths.
Willow's scream was heard by all below them as the Mayor shook his head wildly.
"Faith!" she screeched. "What are you doing?"
"Saving you," Faith gritted out, hauling herself up, gripping the Mayor's lower lip with one hand, the other pushing against his upper jaw.
The Mayor growled as Willow whimpered. His mouth gave under Faith's strength as she forced it open. She lifted her feet, slamming her boots into the Mayor's scaly flesh, grabbing hold of his upper teeth with both hands and pulling herself up, so that she was holding his mouth open. Willow tightened her desperate hold on the Mayor's lower teeth and cried out as he shook his head.
"Go!" Faith yelled, reaching out a hand to Willow.
Willow grabbed it, fingers trembling and Faith yanked her up, not giving Willow a chance to gain a grip on the slippery pink gums before she pushed her sharply and Willow tumbled backwards as Faith returned her hand to holding the Mayor's mouth open.
Andrew leapt forward, attempting to catch Willow, but only succeeding in being knocked over, cushioning Willow's fall with his own body.
"It's not too late, Boss!" Faith yelled, voice echoing down his throat. "You can stop this! You can stop all this now!"
The Mayor didn't move for a moment. Then suddenly, he snapped his head sharply to the side and slammed his jaws shut. Faith was dislodged and the power behind his shake of his head sent her banging into the Hellmouth temple. Her head cracked against it, her eyes shut and she slid down the marble into a heap on the ground.
"Move!" Buffy yelled.
The others scrambled away from their fights, pushing and shoving their way to the perimeter of the battle. Tara held up Willow and Dawn supported Andrew.
"Now!" Buffy cried.
The rocket launchers exploded in unison. Faith's eyes fluttered open once more to see her Boss blown to a million pieces before she slipped into unconsciousness.