Title: Vengeance Satisfied is Justice Served 10/11

Author: 3D Master

Feedback: 3d.master@chello.nl

Website:

Rating: R

Keywords: X-over BtVS/The Crow, drama, action.

Time frame: S7, starts during dirty girls.

Summary: Buffy has a choice to make: Xander or Spike? Who gets to live? XanderZone Challenge response.


Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its characters do not belong to me, but to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy Productions. The Crow and related concepts are created by James O'Barr.


Vengeance Satisfied is Justice Served


Chapter 10: Vengeance


"So, how's the spell coming?" Xander asked gently of Willow. They were sitting in the kitchen, like everyone else taking a breather. Giles was sitting next to them, Kennedy as well, an arm slung around the redhead's waist. Faith was sitting across from Giles.


Willow shook her head, enjoying the feel of Kennedy's arm tightening in support. "Sorry, Xan, I haven't yet figured it out. I'm working on it though," Willow was forced to admit.


"No matter, you'll figure it out, I know it. Restoring the Slayer line isn't a priority anyway," Xander answered Willow softly. "The damage of the imbalance is already done, the First is here without the need of his Bringers giving him that ability. The only thing restoring the Slayer line now will do, is remove the ability to activate all the potentials, and since we're not going to do that, it won't change much."


"Except eliminate the First's ability to win," Giles cut in somewhat disapproving. "I would say that makes it a priority."


"No," Xander replied, and looking around the little room. He checked back an forth, making sure nobody was listening in, and then said softly. "There's another way to restore the balance." The group around him frowned and tried to think of what he meant.


"If Buffy's dead . . ." Kennedy figured it out first, "the imbalance started with her, and it ends with her."


Xander nodded, the others stayed silent, contemplating the consequences. Xander turned and looked at Faith. She leaned back a bit, as she realized what Xander was asking, but didn't want to acknowledge it. The others looked over at Faith, with a similar look. "Y-you want me to kill Buffy?" Faith asked weakly.


"If it starts to show we're going to lose the battle," Xander said softly, the concept felt like a big giant anvil hanging above them by a thin thread. "If one of the crows is destroyed . . . kill Buffy . . . with her gone, the First can't do what it wants. It's army can always be wiped out with heavier weapons . . ." Xander paused a little, that sunk into everyone's minds. What Xander meant with his euphemism was that the entire town of Sunnydale, and everyone and everything in it, could be vaporized with a nuclear bomb. "The world's militaries, our own in particular will be watching, but it might take a little time dispatching the proper weaponry, and getting clearance. If the First gets to use Buffy the way he wants to in the mean time . . . we can't afford that happening."


"And this isn't because you want Buffy dead anyway?" Kennedy had to ask, there was no accusation just a calm appraising.


Giles raised his eyebrows questioningly. "You know me," Xander stated.


Willow shook her head, "No, to Xander his own needs and desires have always come second place to the big picture, although on occasion they may have fallen in sync." Willow and Xander locked gazes, and volumes were spoken, that the others couldn't understand, but Willow and Xander smiled at each other afterwards, as if some kink in their friendship had been ironed out.


Xander turned back to Faith, and the dark slayer gave a hesitant nod.


There was knock on the door, and before they could bid whoever in, the door flew open, emitting an excited Dawn. "He's here," she told them.


"Well, it's about damn time," Xander returned with a grin, and the group got up from their seats. They entered the living room, with a lot of potentials and soldiers relaxing, and through the window they saw a newly arrived humvee, and a familiar figure who had just gotten out, along with one less familiar figure, and two completely unknowns.


Xander smiled, and the group quickly crossed the room. Buffy who was hiding in a corner, saw it too, and tentatively walked along, but didn't dare go along with them all the way. Xander left the house and walked toward the blonde man. "Well, well, if it isn't Riley 'Cornbred' Finn himself," Xander said sourly. Some of the soldiers perched in the tents around them snickered with amusement. Although they called one of their highest officer's similar nicknames, always with respect, none dared to say it to his face.


"Nice to see you too, Xander 'I like to electrocute myself' Harris," Riley returned the insult with dark face. They sized each other up, while the others, most notably the women looked somewhat shocked. Then they broke in smiles, and clasped hands.


"It's been awhile Riley, about a year," Xander said with a smile. "And Mrs. Sam Finn, always a pleasure to meet you," Xander added and took her gloved hand and put a kiss on the back of it.


"Why thank you, sir," Sam answered somewhat flattered, while Dawn rolled her eyes.


"Watch it, Harris," Riley commented with a grin. "You try to seduce my wife, and I will have to beat you up."


Xander chuckled amongst female groans, and said, "You couldn't hit me if you tried."


"Men," the women said in unison.


"You think so?" Riley asked with a predatory grin. Xander shrugged.


"Guys, this is not the time . . ." Giles tried, but Riley's fist already flew at Xander. He grabbed it though, and squeezed until Riley groaned. After letting go Xander shook his hand to get circulation going again, looking surprised at the smiling Xander.


"Dying and resurrecting has its perks," Xander commented.


Riley's eyes widened, and then he grumbled, "All right, that's it, if you people ever send me an invitation for a funeral, I'm not coming, because you'll be up and about in no time."


"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Dawn said and then took a step forward and hugged the blonde man.


Riley returned the hug, and said, "Hey, squirt, how have you been."


"Pretty good."


"I would suggest a little respect for the resident Sumerian expert, Mr. Finn," Giles said with impeccable pronunciation, resetting his glasses.


Dawn removed herself from his hug, and Willow added, as she hugged Riley as well, "Yeah, do not use her as a sex object."


"Spoil sport," Dawn said with mock resentment.


Sam looked at her and added, "You must understand, if you try anything with /my/ husband, I will have to gouge out your eyes."


Riley and Xander shared a look, then made Giles part of it, and all three said, "And they complain about us."


As Willow and Sam went to their greeting, Riley asked, "So . . . where's Buffy?" The faces of the people in front of him went sour. His face suddenly lost the smile, and said, "She isn't . . .?"


"No, she's inside," Xander answered with a grim tone, "she's a great fighter and all, but she's no general."


"And since Giles over there pushed her into being a general," Dawn added pointing at Giles, "let's just say results were disastrous."


Giles raised his hand, and answered deadpan, "I plead innocent on the count of being possessed, literally." Riley and Sam looked at the group with astonishment.


"So I had no choice but to take over," Xander added, and turned around, starting to go inside.


"Instead of going with the flow, and accepting it, she's wallowing in self-pity. Just ignore her," Willow suggested with a pained face, "probably better for her that way."


Sam walked over to Willow, as the group turned around to go back inside the house. Riley joined Dawn, as he looked painfully at her, combined with his smile to Dawn, his face looked more than a little awkward. Sam took in Kennedy, and asked Willow, "You and Tara broke up?"


Willow's face blanched, and looked down in pain. Kennedy slung her arm around Willow's shoulder and answered for her, just a little bitter, "No, Tara is one person that didn't get resurrected."


"Oh," Sam said - a 'sorry' that felt patronizing wrapped in that one word - realizing Riley's tactless joke about funerals and resurrections probably hurt Willow more than she had let on. A hurt that she was pretty certain this new friend - and even girlfriend? - had been keenly aware of.


*****


"So," Riley said, looking at Buffy sitting in her room. He was due for the briefing of the commanders, and he was aware that Buffy was not invited to that meeting. She was expected to be present at the briefings the commanders gave to the sub-sections of warriors. Buffy looked up and at him, then returned to staring at the floor. "It's safe to say, things didn't work out for you." He gently walked into the room, and sat down next to her.


"What happened?" he asked, after a few moments of silence. "They told me of some of your decisions, and . . ."


"They're stupid," Buffy said with bitterness. "I know what they think, I suppose you agree with them."


Riley shrugged, and said tenderly, "You took a unit into a house that was almost certainly a trap, which had only one narrow entrance and exit."


"My decisions could have been better, don't you think I know that?" Buffy complained half crying. "Xander's been bashing me over the head with it every chance he gets."


"But I don't get it," Riley told her, still gentle, but defensive. "You never made such mistakes when I was here."


"I did," Buffy whispered almost imperceptibly.


"What?"


Buffy looked up and looked at him. "I did, on occasion, but I still listened to my friends then," Buffy choked on her confession, tears streaming fully down her face now. "I pushed them away, stopped listening to their advice, because I didn't think I should, because I didn't think they would . . . because I'm the Slayer, and I'm supposed to be saving them, protecting them, leading them . . ."


"Buffy," Riley started.


"Go," Buffy interrupted him. "Just go, you still belong there, making decisions . . . I . . . just go."


"Okay," Riley said and got up off the bed, and walked away, throwing one last look at his ex.


*****


"Any suggestions, comments, questions or improvements: now is the time to voice them, not when we're in thick of it," Xander started out inside Willow's room where the commanders had gathered. Denise was there, as well as Riley, Sam, Willow, Giles, Wood, Dawn, Kennedy and Faith. The other two crows were sitting on a chair in a corner, several more army commanders were there, as well as three mages from the army, who had already gotten acquainted with Willow and been put under her command. They were rounded around a small table. They all nodded. Xander continued, "The First has reinforced his army. It's got a nice big black obsidian demon with bat-like wings. We don't have time to go research every book in existence to see if anyone knows it. We'll have to take it out with common sense. We have to expect it to be at least bullet-proof. I wouldn't be surprised if its armored hide is enough to take a few shells, and the First has seen our tanks, it's not stupid, this thing /will/ have ranged striking ability." Xander pauzed for a moment, and looked around the group of people sworn to defend the Earth, letting that tidbit seep in. "The biggest problem is, that it's been laying eggs, and its babies are about one meter fifty tall, and have some nasty claws. Luckily they don't have the same hide yet. Most of them haven't yet hatched though, and the First isn't yet ready to open the Seal, for one thing, it doesn't have a souled being it can bleed out over it."


"Why don't we attack them right now?" one of the military commanders asked.


"Too well fortified," Xander answered calmly, the other crows nodded. "Plus we need the tactical advantage of the sun, at night we have too many disadvantages. Robin, how are the potentials coming along with the guns?"


"They can't hit an eye on a fly at fifty meters," Robin answered with a confident smile, "but they won't be blowing their own, or any of our heads off."


"Good. You, Dawn, and Faith will each be leading a squadron of them," Xander explained, and Dawn perked up, not quite believing what had just been said, and finally understanding why she was here. "A fourth and final one will be part of the protection for Willow, the mages, and the other magic users, giving them time to do their spells, than one will be lead by Kennedy."


"Do we really need the little girls?" one of the commander's asked.


"Yes, we need the girls," Sam bit at him, a little annoyed. A few of the other women gave the guy an evil eye as well.


"Hey, a few are barely fourteen, it's not gender," he defended himself.


Xander looked at the guy, and told him calmly, "They're tough. Some of those 'girls' watched their parents get slaughtered in front of their eyes, and managed to escape a grown demon twice their strength with their hides in tact. When you guys arrived here they could have decided to get the heck out of here, and leave everything to the people with the big guns, but their still here, some of them itching for some payback, and risking their lives for their and all of our lives. /They're/ /ready/. If you have more doubts, remember that when I, and Willow here was their age, we were facing apocalypses on a weekly basis and guess what? You're still alive."


The man shut up.


"Good," Xander said, and looked around the group for more objections. None came. "There are a few possibilities, depending on the First's actions. Now I've antagonized the bitch, messed with her mind some, so I'm pretty sure I know what she'll do, but we'll keep any of her other actions in mind. With every scenario, there's one thing we have to do first." Xander folded open the map on the table, and then tapped the highschool. "The Seal, we'll have to take it and Turok-Han it contains out."


"Wait," Riley spoke up. "You want to open up that thing, setting ten thousand of them free, in order to take them out and make sure they can't be set free?"


Xander looked at him, "Exactly. If our battle with the First's forces takes till dusk, and that bitch can open the seal then, we'll get ten thousand of the buggers attacking us in the back. They have to be taken out. That's one you don't have to worry about. Me, Alex, and Eric will take that one."


The whole group looked astonished, and Giles was the one to ask, "Three of you against ten thousand if not more of them?"


"Yep," Eric grinned from the corner. "All ten thousand to the slaughter."


Alex added, his visage adding to the frightening concept, "Don't expect there to be anything left of the school though."


"No," Wood moaned. "I just built the damn place."


"Sorry, Robin, it's got to go," Xander told him with an amused evil grin. "We can't rule out the possibility that the First might try to open up the Hellmouth itself during the battle, if that happens, the Turok-Han have to be gone by then . . . god, I'm probably the only guy on the planet who gets to blow up his highschool twice." Willow grinned widely at that, part of her wishes she had a greater part in the destruction of the Sunnydale High this time as well.


The group surround Xander looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Did I ever tell you, you're a lucky bastard, Xander," Riley commented at last.


"I died, painfully I might add," Xander returned deadpan.


Riley shrugged. "Lucky /dead/ bastard," he corrected himself. There were several laughs, and chuckles.


"Wait," one of the mages piped up, "Isn't the seal the Hellmouth?"


Giles shook his head, "The Hellmouth is at ground level, the Seal is several meters below."


"Hmm," one of the mages hummed in a drone. "My sources say there should be an ancient Pagan temple there."


"Transformed into a church, and bulldozed away to make room for the new school's foundations," Xander replied to him.


"It's where the Master got stuck," Willow explained. "Ancient vampire that wanted to open the Hellmouth seventy years. He got stuck until he arose seven years ago. We took care of him. The Seal actually solves a little riddle I never had an answer too. I never quite figure out why the Master got stuck in first place. He didn't seem like someone in a rush and screw up a spell, he probably didn't know about the Seal he was practically on top of when he did his magic . . ."


"Willow, you're babbling," Xander said with an amused smile. She looked up at him shocked, and then looked down mortified and gave an apology.


"Shit, this is getting more problematic by the moment," one commander commented. "Hellmouth, /and/ a Seal? With ten thousand pre-historic vampires locked inside. Wonder why they just didn't dig themselves out?"


"They're prehistoric, thus stupid?" Faith dead panned.


Willow shook her head, "No, the Seal, and its magic, produces a barrier they can't pass, they can't reach the floors or the walls. I feel bad for whoever served as bait to get them in there. Whoever built the seal needed a perpetual energy source to keep it functioning long after they were dead, so they had the Seal siphon power off the Hellmouth; which leads back to the Master. When he did his magic it interacted with the Seal's magic, the Seal was built to contain vampires, Master is a vampire, so the magical barrier extended upward and sealed him the same way it sealed the Turok-Han below . . ."


"Honey," Kennedy prompted Willow who seemed about ready to go off on another tangent. "Are you quite finished making everyone else here feel stupid using your superior intellect and magic knowledge?"


Willow jolted a little in surprise, then looked around the room, and apologized, "S-sorry, I babble when I'm n-nervous."


"Ok, after that history lesson," Xander started up, giving Willow a smile. "Let's continue first with something I think can stay universal in all our scenarios. Fall back positions." Xander moved his hand over the map and put his finger on one. "Sunnydale Memorial Hospital, we can bring the wounded there as well, the doctors left most of the stuff behind. Medics will drool, the best field hospital ever, and its well-defendable. We'll need to secure it, keep it under guard before the battle starts."


"I think Lieutenant Grymes and his unit are best suited for that job," Riley interjected, giving a nod to the man in question. Xander looked over, and Grymes nodded his acceptance.


"What about the First?' one commander put in. "Do we something for him yet?"


"Yes," Xander answered him. "But that's classified. Willow knows, she's the main thrust for the First. Non-magic users don't need to know. I can't risk the First being able to shake those demons that animated Tara from his wrists, and an animated corpse of one of you telling the First our plans for him." The man nodded, accepting that answer, as did the others.


"All right then," Xander continued, "Now we can start on some real strategies . . ."


*****


A short while later in the kitchen after the briefing with the commanders, and their briefings to the soldiers below was over. Dawn had just finished her briefing to her unit, several of them had decided to go to bed, the people still present couldn't sleep they had said. Anya too was present, although she wasn't part of Dawn's unit; she even wouldn't be fighting tomorrow, she'd be a nurse in the hospital, helping the medics, along with Andrew. To Dawn's surprise, and good spirits, the potentials took her as their commander without protest or even a snide look, but her good spirits were now being crushed by other concerns. "This just isn't fair," Dawn complained, to the people present, a few potentials from other units had joined the kitchen group in the mean time. "Tomorrow I go into a battle with oh, /only/ the First Evil. I command the unit, I'm going to be prime target, I'm probably going to die facing off against the most horrible monsters the bitch could come up with, and I'm still a virgin."


"What?" Vi asked a little surprised Dawn would come up with this now: with them. It wasn't exactly uncommon knowledge that Dawn didn't really like the potentials, one or two exceptions aside, even if she was their commander now.


"Yeah, I mean, none of the soldiers would do it, they'd be too afraid they get put in jail afterwards," Dawn complained more. "So here I am, healthy sixteen-year-old girl, lots of hormones, and I'm probably not even going to get the best experience in life. My number just has to come up, three years running, three apocalypses, no special powers, no guardian angels, I'm doomed, and me still a virgin."


"I know what you mean," Anya practically wailed, "Xander has been busy making battle plans, and I just know Faith wants him, I know that look she gives him. I used to look at him like that, heck, sometimes I still do. The look of a predator . . ." Everyone looked at her astounded. "I so shouldn't have called it break-up sex, I should have called it tying-me-over-so-we-can-start-again sex. Now, I'm sitting here, at the end of the world, and no sex for little old me!"


"What the hell are you talking about!?" Dawn told her angrily. "You're twelve hundred, not twelve. Any of those soldiers /can/ legally fuck your brains out."


"But I don't know any of them," Anya complained.


"So what?" Molly asked equally incredulous. "Dawn here is a proper virgin and she's willing to screw one of the soldiers, and you're telling me, that after all the sex you sprout from your mouth, you wouldn't have sex with a perfectly good, patriotic, heroic soldier!?"


Anya opened her mouth to speak, closed it to think, repeated the process, and then said, "You have a point." Anya got up and walked through the door to the living room. The people in the kitchen could easily here Anya's loud cry, "Who here wants to have sex with me? Can we do it in one of the tents? Always wanted to do it in a tent another time. Xander brought me to ten orgasms in a tent."


Dawn dropped her head to the kitchen table in frustration, her hands moved to a strangling position. "Sometimes," she groaned out.


The others chuckled until Vi said timidly, "I-I'm in the same predicament . . . I'm n-not a lesbian or anything, b-but this might be my last night, a-and I-I s-say . . . well, why not?"


Dawn looked up and over at Vi incredulously. Then she frowned and seriously started thinking about it. "Uh . . . no, sorry," Dawn said, kicking herself for chickening out. Casual lesbian sex was just too much too handle, even if she was going to die.


"Hey, there's always Andrew," Molly suggested innocently.


Dawn snapped her head to her left, looking at Molly, her mouth half open, and then said, "I'm so gonna die a virgin."


"B-besides," Amanda said from the other side of the table, listening into the conversation with interest. "A-Andrew would have the same problems the soldiers have."


Molly turned her head to Amanda, and asked surprised, "He's not fourteen?"


Amanda shook her head, "Nineteen."


"You're kidding me, right?" Molly asked in disbelief. "The guy who thinks a vulcanologist is someone who studies Vulcans and not volcanoes? That childish, little twit is nineteen?"


"Yep," Amanda answered, and then got an idea. She looked over at Vi, and said, blushing deeply, "You know, I'm a v-v-virgin, a-and . . . uh . . . w-w-will . . . uh . . ." Vi looked over at Amanda, blinked, and then smiled, her eyes widening. She jumped off her stool, walked to onto the walking space, and held out her hand. Amanda quickly jumped off her stool and hurried over, grabbing Vi's hand. The two looked nervously at each other, and then went off to find a private place.


"Well," Molly commented with an evil grin, "You blew that one."


"Don't I know it," Dawn groaned out.


*****


Xander undressed in his room, getting ready for bed. He still needed sleep it seemed, although Xander was certain he could last without it, at the moment he just felt like sleeping. His crow was sitting on the night stand, picking away at something to eat Xander had gotten for him. Xander doubted the bird needed to eat, but like himself, it seemed to want to eat.


There was a knock on the door, and it opened, revealing Faith. Xander looked at her, and said, "I thought I told everyone except the guards to go to sleep. Everyone needs to be fresh tomorrow."


"Not everyone can sleep right now, Xander, and I need less sleep anyhow, we should smash some vending machines and get some energy drinks in the morning," Faith answered, smiling weakly, incapable of letting her eyes wander over his naked torso. "I want to talk to you."


"What about?" Xander asked curtly, as he sat down on the bed.


"Your accusation, I'm not a power tripping psychopath, Xander," she told him with some certainty. She took a few steps forward and continued, "I admit, your resurrection and saving our lives drove home just how fantastic a man you really are - yes, man - but I've come to that conclusion a long time ago." Faith took a little break, looking at Xander's face, gauging his reaction. He stayed cool somewhat. "You spend three years in jail, and you have a lot of time contemplating things, Xander, I suppose that's the point. I've known for a few years now, I was stupid to consider you just another male - which to me equated loser back then - who wanted a go and then a second one - last week has only showed me I was certifiable back then already." Faith paused and then gently walked over to the bed. Looking carefully for a negative reaction she sat down next to him. "Xan, I know I would have tried mending my friendship with you without your super powers, and down the line, who knows . . . if Anya weren't in the way . . ."


Faith looked up into Xander's eyes, and felt his brown, much darker now, eyes pierce her soul. *Damn, those eyes,* she thought, they seemed just too all seeing, she didn't dare omit even a small part. "At least," she started her confession, finishing it with some confidence, "if I had worked up the guts to talk to you, and apologize." She pulled something from her pocket and handed it to Xander.


He looked at it, his eyebrows raised in confusion, and asked, "An unopened pack of cigarettes?"


"Yeah, I got them from a vending machine outside the hospital, on my way to find Buffy after me and Willow dropped Shannon off," she explained coolly.


"You smoke?" Xander prompted, completely not understanding.


"No," Faith answered, and realized Xander just didn't understand. "Look, it's like this, I come past this vending machine, right? I see the smokes, realize I still have a few coins in my pocket and I think; 'Buffy and the others will never let me smoke around the squirt, in prison people smoke, good reason why I do now, I can just smoke and I'm forced away, into the basement, or out into the garden, and I don't have do the whole awkward meeting and apologizing thing with you all, until after this whole mess is settled.' So I buy the smokes, next thing I know you've got a sword through your chest, and me and everyone is on such an emotional, and physical roller coaster ride that I completely forgot about them."


Xander looked down at the cigarettes again, then at Faith, then down at the cigarettes, and then back at Faith. Faith had her eyebrows raised, waiting somewhat in anticipation on his reaction. The reaction she got was one she had never seen coming; Xander laughed. He wanted from looking at her to a full blown hysterical belly laugh in one go.


"What?" Faith asked, somewhat hurt and not amused.


Xander fell back on the bed, and screamed out with laughter, tears forming in his eyes. "I'm back bad Slayer Faith," Xander spluttered out through his laughter, "I buy cigarettes . . . risking cancer . . ." Xander laughed harder, before suddenly stopping. He frowned and asked, "Do Slayers get cancer?" Then he laughed again, harder then ever, and he barely managed, " . . . because I'm afraid to talk and apologize."


"That's not funny," Faith answered, crossing her arms and pouting like a little child.


Xander saw her trying to get up, and fell back again, laughing harder, spluttering out further, "Look at me, tough super chick, but I'm really just a coward, a big, fat, yellow chicken." Xander mimicked a chicken, most horribly through his laughter. "So I smoke to turn everyone away from me, away from my smelly breath."


Xander's laughter was catching, and no matter how hard Faith tried to resisted, a few hiccups slipped through her composure, and before she knew it, she was laughing as hard as Xander. Two laid there, just laughing, and laughing. Finally the crow was fed up with it, and cawed loudly, disapproving of the ridiculous scene.


Xander sat up some leaning back on his arm, and told the bird, "Spoil sport." Faith's laughter was reduced to hiccups slowly and she too sat up. The heads of both of them came closer unconsciously, and Xander looked down at her turning away from the bird. Faith and Xander were caught in the moment, the laughter had relieved most of both their gloomy moods, most of Xander's almost perpetual anger and fury. For a moment he just looked at her face, matured since last time he had seen her, and he realized she was more beautiful now then ever, and not just her looks. The pathological bad girl was gone, in its place was a matured woman who had seen the deepest pits, and had climbed from it. He couldn't resist and dipped down, gently kissing her lips, closing his eyes for a moment to savor the taste.


Faith looked into his eyes, surprised. This was /so/ not what she had expected. Not when she left prison, not now. Xander Harris? She wondered. She hadn't thought he'd even be interested, she hadn't thought a guy like that could possibly still be free . . . or free again as the case may be. She hadn't thought she would even be attracted to the guy, still or again. Lust had once been the only attracting factor, like it was with all guys back then, just a good lay, that was all a guy could be. But now, emotions raced through her body she had never contemplated, emotions she previously would have ruthlessly pushed aside.


Xander was equally surprised. He had thought he resented this woman too much to ever be interested in her again. An occasional friendship letter to the prison not withstanding. Yet here he was. The looked into each other's eyes, disbelieving, and then they kissed again. Their kissed deepened, soon tongue was involved, and they crowded closer together. The Crow shook his head, and then flew off doing who knows what, as Faith started taking off her shirt. The two moved sideways, so they actually lay along with the bed's long side, and they shimmied up to the pillows. Faith threw her shirt away, landing behind the bad. Too used to being on top, out of the fear of being down below, she gently pushed him down, and curled on top of him.


She sat up, reaching for the button of her pants, and she said, "This time, we're going to take it slower. I want you so bad right now."


Still fuddling with her pants, Faith dipped down, ready to kiss Xander on the lips. Something gripped Xander, a cold sweat, a panic, a terror. He went rigid, and Faith didn't notice it. Something inside of him acted of its own accord. His legs pulled up rapidly, underneath Faith's stomach, and as his legs pushed upward, he yelled out, "GET OFF ME!"


Faith sailed through the air, shocked, and crashed against the wall. She slumped down, and got up, looking at Xander, who was sitting up, and looking over at her in shock. Faith swallowed, but was unable to get away the grief that was welling up inside her. Tears streamed from her face, and she grabbed her shirt. She walked toward the door, halfway she turned to face a still shocked Xander. "I-I suppose I deserved that." Then Faith left.


"Faith, wait," Xander tried, coming to life, struggling off the bed. "Faith! DAMN IT!" Xander clenched his hands into fists, and threw them down. He sat back on the bed in defeat, wondering about what to do.


*****


Kennedy moaned, as her orgasm shuddered through her body. A moment later Willow's head appeared from under the blankets, her lips still glistening. Kennedy grinned and kissed Willow deeply. Then Willow lay next to her and they embraced.


"Better go to sleep now," Kennedy started with a smile. "If Xander finds out we disobeyed orders, he'll lynch us."


"Mmh," Willow answered with a bright grin, and snuggled closer. But asleep she wouldn't fall, and Kennedy noticed.


"Still thinking about the restoration of the balance spell?" Kennedy whispered concerned.


Willow looked up, and in Kennedy's eyes, and then whimpered, "I can't do it. We've been researching, and researching, and combining spells, and . . . still nothing that would do the trick."


"Well, how about making it from scratch?" Kennedy asked Willow.


Willow lifted herself on her elbows and looked shocked at Kenned. "From scratch?"


"Yeah," Kennedy asked, looking into Willow's eyes, "I mean whoever performed the first spell . . . ever, he or she must have created that spell from scratch right?"


"Do you know how difficult is to just combine existing spells, especially lots of them to create a big one?" Willow asked incredulously. "A super spell like this, from scratch? I can't do that. I don't think anyone has ever done that; big spells are all recombinations of smaller ones."


"You can do it, Willow, I /know/ you can," Kennedy assured her with pride in her eyes. "You can do anything."


"I don't know," Willow said.


"Yes, you can. Remember what you told me about not getting black eyes?" Kennedy asked the scared redhead.


Willow nodded, "Xander suggested that."


"This is the perfect opportunity. Tomorrow after the battle, you'll make this spell, powerful, but all different than you're used to," Kennedy said softly, Willow blinked. "We've been searching in all this black magics . . ."


"But," Willow interrupted the dark-haired girl. "Slayer, big dark magics, weapon big dark magics . . ."


"Exactly," Kennedy interrupted again, her confident smile never wavering, "that's what we're going to change isn't it? No more demon Slayer, now a hunter from light, so we go with magics the exact opposite, drenched in light, and nature." Willow shook her head uncertainly. "You can do it, Will. You're /my/ girlfriend," Kennedy said excited. "Look, I don't want to lose you. So you try, if you /really/, /really/ can't make the spell, fine, but we're not giving up before we even try. If you've made it, and you say it /really/, /really/ is too dangerous to try and cast, fine, then so be it. We go back, and go less modest, I'm certain just putting the slayer essence into Faith, but leaving it demonic in nature is much less difficult."


Willow nodded, and lowered herself to Kennedy. "What if I burn out? Tear the magic in me asunder? If it's too much and I try anyway," Willow whispered a little scared.


"Why do you ask?" Kennedy asked. Willow shrugged. "You afraid I'm going to leave you or something?"


Willow shrugged again. "You seem, well . . . excited . . . when I use it."


Kennedy looked at Willow, hurt, "I can't be proud of my girlfriend's abilities?" Willow shrugged, looking apologetically. "I'm not a power junky, Willow," Kennedy told her a little sourly. "Especially not after last week. I've seen what Buffy has become, I've seen glimpses of what this power did to you, and Xander . . ."


"What about Xander?" Willow prompted somewhat taken aback.


"He's fantastic Willow, I'm certain he's going to lead us to victory, but he isn't exactly Mr. Sunshine anymore, is he?" Kennedy said softly, looking deeply into Willow's eyes. "He's in this state of perpetual fury, so angry, I've hardly seen him laugh, or smile, or make jokes, and when he does . . . I don't know, there's something missing, there's something in his eyes . . . something cold . . . something calculating." Willow nodded, she'd seen it too, but hadn't really been willing to accept it. Kennedy finished up, "Anyway, the power doesn't matter to me, it's just an add on. I want you, I didn't go after you with a vengeance because of your black eyes . . . I might as well admit it, the only thing that matters to me is lips that can make me come like a freight train, and the moment I saw yours . . . I just knew I had to try them out, so just don't fall into a coma. You're in a coma, and I'll dumb you in an eye blink to go find some new lips . . . got it?"


Willow chuckled, and then laughed a little, "Got it. I'm staying awake ma'am, to service your vagina's every whim."


"Good," and then both girls giggled, and snuggled closer, Kennedy's hand wandered down.


"Let's go to sleep, Ken, tomorrow is a long day, especially if I got to make that spell," Willow murmured, and Kennedy retracted her hand, and smiled.


*****


Faith stalked through the kitchen, tears streaming down her face. Dawn, Molly, Dominique, and Bryn, another potential, sat at the table playing Monopoly. Faith stalked by them without noticing and went outside. Dawn looked up at her, fist clenching, fighting to make a decision. "Hey, Dawn," Molly called out, when Dawn didn't take her turn. "Hey, commander in chief or whatever the bloody hell you yanks call it, it's your turn."


"Daw?" Bryn asked.


*Damn it,* Dawn thought to herself. *I've got the hero syndrom, I just know it. I've been around bonafide heroes for too long. I hate her, I should just be able to enjoy seeing her in pain, but noooo. Xander, why the hell did you have to call me extraordinary?* With a sigh, ignoring the others she got up and walked after Faith.


"Uh, ok then," Dominique said, and then looked at the board. "I'll throw for you, ok? Right then."


Dominique picked up the dice and threw it. Then she picked up Dawn's shoe, and started moving it, "One, two, three, look at that, right on top of my hotel, damn, Dawn, how unlucky, you'll have to pay up."


"But there are four dots," Bryn said confused looking at the dice.


Dominique moved her finger to the dice and pointed at dot for dot, counting, while Molly grinned evilly, "One, two, three, three dots."


"You forgot that one," Bryn said pointing at the fourth dot. Dominique looked at her with an annoyed look.


"Piss off, Bryn," Molly told the other girl, how looked taken aback. She picked up the dice and threw it. "One, two, three, four . . ." Molly counted. She saw she was standing on Dawn's four houses, "five." She grinned evilly at Bryn, and said, "Your turn."


Bryn blinked, and then her face brightened, getting the idea.


*****


"What's going on?" Dawn questioned the dark Slayer outside in the garden.


"None of your business," Faith spat.


Dawn stayed behind Faith, and said, "Fellow commander in the army of life, worried about performance, I think it is my business."


"Don't worry, this won't affect my performance," Faith told her a little angrily.


"What happened?" Dawn demanded, fed up of being pushed aside by the 'special' people. Xander had showed her she was more than the girl sitting in the corner doing nothing, except read.


Faith sighed, and turned around, explaining, "Xander decided exact his revenge on me and give me my dues. Nothing the matter, I deserved it, moving on."


"Faith, you're crying like a little girl," Dawn told her. Faith turned her head away, no matter how hard she tried, the tears kept coming. She cursed her traitorous eyes. "Now what happened, details."


"He faked being interested in me, kissed me and everything," Faith started, still looking away, not noticing the pain flickering in Dawn's eyes. "Took off my shirt, and just as . . . he just kicked me off him, made it very clear he wanted nothing to do with me. I get it, ok, I hurt him, I shouldn't have put my hopes up for any kind of rekindling of friendship, let alone thought he really was interested in a sickening thing like me. You don't have to rub it in."


Dawn shook her head, annoyed as hell. "You're no fucking better then the rest of them . . . were," Dawn amended the last part, having seen their reaction to her and her being their commander. They seemed to have gotten better. Faith looked at her pained. Dawn shook her head as she encircled Faith, saying, "Me, me, me, me, me, all about me, because I'm chosen, and I'm this, and I'm that, and it's all about me. It couldn't possibly be about anyone else." Dawn turned around, now on Faith's other side. Faith herself turned around herself, and looked shocked at Dawn. "Nothing but a selfish, uncaring bitch. No capacity to place herself into someone else's shoes, because after all that's not necessary, it's always about me. Puke."


"What are you talking about?" Faith blurted out without comprehension, her eyes drying up as she was shocked out of her crying.


Dawn shook her head in annoyance, crossing her arms across her chest. Faith was struck how much she looked like Buffy who often liked to take on a similar pose. "I suppose you were straddling him, if he kicked you /off/ him, right?" Dawn asked her angrily. Faith nodded. "Tell me something, last time you two really met, before you returned, when was that?" Dawn positively spat out.


Faith was taken aback, trying to answer, "I . . . we were . . . I . . ."


"Strangling him to death?" Dawn prompted. Faith nodded. "You were straddling him, right? Sitting on him, your hands down, wrapped around his throat and squeezing." Dawn mimicked strangling someone down below.


"H-how do you know that?" Faith asked incredulously.


"We talk, about everything. I've become more than Buffy's sister to him, I'm his friend.

I'm the only one he could talk to, and vice versa, because Willow was busy wallowing and self pity, and the rest of them were all basking in their 'look, at me, I'm chosen' moods. Who could possibly care about a few 'normal' people, fighting this fight for seven years on, eh?" Dawn told Faith bitterly. "He dismissed it as a joke, you know that?" Faith shook her head. "He never talked to anyone about it, no one ever bothered to talk to him about it, or hold him, or comfort him, or anything. I was too young back then, but the others . . . It was just Xander getting himself strangled, right? He just carried on, ignoring it. But do you think, it would have no affect on a man, if something, or someone five times stronger than him sits on him, and casually and slowly squeezes the life out of him?"


"I . . . they . . . he never?" Faith whispered, the respect he had for him growing even more.


Dawn took a step closer and looked Faith directly in her eyes, "Answer me, do you think it might be possible, that he might have been so afraid back then, he gained a trauma? Think it might be possible, that somewhere in his subconscious, in the memory of his very body, there laid that trauma dormant? And then you with your insensitive horndog mood went to sit on him, in the exact same way you sat on him when you were strangling him to death, somewhere there was an instinctive fear, and terror released that screamed 'death, bad, get her off', and he just lashed out instinctively, hmm?"


"Oh, god," Faith whispered.


Dawn never took her angry gaze off of Faith's eyes, and she said, "Yes, 'oh, god', and then you run out on him, woe is me, and left him there trying to make sense of everything, living in some half then, half now state. Real nice of you. Selfish."


Faith's head slumped, guilt running through her body. Dawn looked at her, and felt her bottom jaw tremble, as she took the girl in. She shook her head 'no'. It wasn't supposed to be like this. But she'd be just as selfish wouldn't she? Damn, she was his friend first. "You could be good for him, you know," Dawn said softly, trembling.


Faith looked up, shocked, looking into Dawn's pained eyes. "You love him," she whispered.


Dawn nodded. "Do you?" she whispered almost imperceptibly.


Faith struggled, trying to figure out how to answer. Finally she settled on, "Don't know . . . I could."


"Fun girl, can be not serious, similar background as him, same bad youth, and abusive parents," Dawn was still half reasoning for herself. She had to do this, hoping she made the right choice. "You're selfish though. You want him to be your rock. You don't want a father figure anymore, like the Mayor back then. You don't want someone fawning over you, taking care of you like a little girl, buying you gives, you want something else. You want someone who can hold you, can protect you, can guard you. Someone who would never stop reminding you of what you once were, always there to catch you if you should threaten to fall. A rock, am I right?" Faith looked questioningly at her. "When you sit in a corner doing nothing, you have a lot of time on your hands to just look," Dawn explained to the slayer. "I'm right, aren't I?"


Faith nodded. Dawn lifted her head a little, and asked, "You know what the problem is with a rock? Enough time passes by, enough water flows around it, and it erodes, and then cracks. Seven years, Faith. Seven years he's been everyone's rock, he can't take much more."


Faith shook her head violently, "No, he's strong, he's not going to . . ."


"Oh, god," Dawn interrupted the Slayer, running on an adrenaline streak she hadn't expected she could muster. "You've idolized him, you think him super human or something? Underneath the immortality he's just a human being, Faith. Like you, like me, like Buffy, like everyone else in that house, except Spike." Faith looked at her, part of her not willing to believe what the other part had already known. "Wake up, Faith. He died, and was so filled with pain, grieve, anger, hate, and rage that he brought himself from the dead. The only way for you to be right, they only way he can't be ready to crack is if he's cracked /already/!"


Dawn took a deep breath, steadying herself. "Faith, if you want him, if you want it to last, if you want to make something out of you two, /you/ will have to become /his/ rock."


"What!?" Faith blurted out. "I can't do that, I can't even . . . I can't . . . I'm not . . ."


"Then don't bother, you'll only end up destroying him, yourself, or the both of you," Dawn told her sternly. "You wanna have a relationship with him Faith, it'll have to go both ways. You'll have to take care of him, the same way he takes care of you. Equal partnership. If you can't do that, than you need friends and lots of therapy, not a lover."


"Since when did you get to be an expert on relationships?" Faith asked dumbly.


Dawn snorted, answering, "I'm Buffy Summers' sister." She left it at that, as if that explained everything, and Faith seemed to take it in stride. Dawn took one final step closer, and looked Faith straight in the eyes, narrowed her own and said in a low voice, "One final thing: you hurt him, I'll hurt you, worse than anyone or anything has ever done before."


Suddenly there was pain in Faith's eyes, and she said, "I won't hurt him, not ever again. I've spent three years in jail for what I did, and I would have stayed there much longer. I turned myself in for what I did, I've spent three years contemplating my every move, my every decision. Apart from those I killed, I hurt Xander more than anyone else, how could you possibly think I would ever dare hurt him again?" Dawn was at a loss, for one thing she wanted to cut into what sounded like a load of bullshit, and yet the girl's eyes . . . "I'm sorry," Faith restarted. "I know I sounded like a whiny kid, and I know I deserve your mistrust, but it just hurts. It hurts, that's all. God, that sounds even worse. I'm sorry, ok? I know you're the ones who really got hurt, not me, I know it. I will /not/ hurt him." Faith didn't wait for an answer, she turned around and started walking.


"Faith!" Dawn called out suddenly. Seeing the pain in Faith's eyes had left a profound impact on her. Faith hesitated and then turned around. Dawn took a step forward, and then very slowly reached out her right hand. Faith looked up at Dawn, her eyes filling with emotion. This girl that she had hurt so much . . . or at least would have hurt so much if she had been present then, but who remembers and feels as if it /did/ all happen to her, was offering he friendship. Faith took the offered hand, and Dawn shook it with a grudging respect. "Think about what I said," Dawn said, and then let go of Faith's hand and went back inside.


Faith stared ahead, thinking. Could she? Could she be his rock? His confidante? Could she live with seeing the broken side of him? The human, vulnerable, weak side? Or did she really need an inhuman man who never hurt, and would always be there for her, no matter what? Should she just try? No, she had to be more certain, she wouldn't hurt him again, she wouldn't crash and burn their relationship just because she had hoped for the best. Without warning she flashed back to when she first found him as his resurrected self, the hug they shared, so intense, so . . . mutual. "I /can/ do it, I'll learn along the way," she whispered, in her mind's eye still seeing her hug him.


She turned around, and went back into the kitchen, noticing the foursome playing their game. "YOU'VE BEEN CHEATING!" Dawn accused in angry shock, pointing at her three companions.


"Prove it," one of them commented.


"Give me that dice!" Dawn called out loud, grabbing the cube-shaped object. "You will lose," she stated ominously, "and you will the know shame of not being able to beat me even while cheating! You will be humiliated, and degraded, and you will live with your shame for the next eighty years till the day you die!" Dawn's finger rose into the air as if she was about to say 'Eureka' and state the smartest thing ever, instead she said loudly, "FOR /I/ AM THE MONOPOLY QUEEN! And tomorrow you will grovel, you will kneel, and beg mercy from your goddess, namely me!" The SiTs laughed out loud. "Yes, laugh it up! Go ahead, while you still can!"


Faith shook her head, smiling, and wondering how the girl could go from so smart, to . . . that.


*****


Xander sat on his bed, mind numb, still trying to figure out just how it could have gone that bad. He noticed the door to his room opening, and saw Faith slowly walking in. She was so beautiful, that nervous smile of her. "Hi," she said, her cheeks still a little puffy from her earlier tears.


"I'm sorry, I didn't mean . . ." Xander started hopeful.


"I know," Faith interrupted and slowly walked over. "Dawn put some things in perspective for me. Since when did she get so smart? Or for that matter so scary?"


Xander grinned, give chuckle, and said, "I don't know. She can read Sumerian too." Faith's eyebrows raised. Xander looked up at her, "That's a girl with many hidden talents, mostly I think, because most of us forgot to look, even I'm guilty of that, until this year. She was just Buffy's annoying little sister, and we never bothered to see her as anything else, while she grew up completely unnoticed."


Faith walked over to Xander and sat down next to him. She slung her arm around his waist, startling Xander a little. He looked at her, and she said, "I guess we lay off on the sex for now, until your body's reacquainted with me, and it's learned I'm not out to kill you, huh?"


"I suppose," Xander answered, feeling very uncomfortable. He had no idea what to make of this.


"Wanna talk about it?" Faith asked, feeling equally uncomfortable, no idea if she was doing the right thing.


"Must be torture for you," Xander said taking a guess. Faith raised her eyebrows. "Three years in prison, no man to please you, now you're out, nothing but hunks around you, and the one guy you're interested in, the biggest hunk of all, is so scared of you he kicks you across the room. You must be ready to pop."


Faith smiled at him, and said, "I'm sorry, Xan, but have you seen that sergeant sitting in the couch, ooh. And I've seen Wesley, all rough stubble, smoking! Then Gunn, all black and bald head, made me wonder if what they say about bald men is real, made me wonder what they say about black men is real, made me wonder what in blazes a combo does to a girl. Nope, sorry to shatter your illusions, X, but you're no where /near/ the hottest guy in the region."


Xander folded his arms across his chest, and pouted, "Well, see if my body gets less scared anytime soon with that attitude." Xander wiggled a scolding finger at Faith, and added, "No sex for you any time soon, missy."


"No matter, I've got fingers, and I've got the biggest hunk of all in my hand; Angel himself," Faith said joking, and roared out a mocking scream of pleasure. She looked at Xander and saw his face completely bland. "Oh, sorry, I shouldn't have, not him, I . . ." Faith tried to apologize.


"No," Xander cut her off, holding up a halting hand. "It would have been funny, if I hadn't met the bastard today."


"He was here?" Faith asked surprised.


"Killed his own son, Faith," Xander told her. "Did some very bad things, yeah. Was going to do a very bad thing, but fuck it, the guy grew up in a hell dimension. He was screwed in the head, but he could still have been reached. Had him reincarnated, he's out there, somewhere. Worse, he killed more for his own selfish gains, he wanted his own little gang back, so he wiped their minds of all memories of Connor. He just tore out their minds, so they were before the gang was so split, so he could have them back, because he wanted to see them 'shine' again." Xander made a face, and shook his head.


"No, he wouldn't . . ." Faith whispered in disbelief.


"Now he /runs/ Wolfram & Hart," Xander added coldly.


Faith looked up at him despair. Xander looked over at her, saying, "This doesn't reflect on you, Faith. It was his choice, he was the bastard. He's not you, even if he did put all the effort in reaching you. You're not him, you won't slide back, you don't have a demon inside of you."


"Yes, I do," Faith told him almost accusingly.


"No, you've got the essence, not an actual self-thinking demon," Xander reassured her.


Faith was silent, shaking her head a little, and then said, "I know a diversionary tactic when I see one, Xander. Used them myself often enough, we were going to talk about something."


"What was that again?" Xander asked innocently.


"Your body's reaction to me," Faith provided.


Xander sighed, and said, "I don't want to talk about it. It just is, it'll pass."


"Ok, some other time then," Faith told him, a sneaky smile on her face.


Xander smiled, and shook his head, "So, tell me, what did I miss while I was away?"


*****


Later that night


"Hey, Kim!" Spike whispered to the potential on guard at the top of the stairs. "Please, talk to me, pet. I'm one of you, one of the bloody good guys, one of the white hats, one for all, and all for one, and all that."


"Shut up," she told him softly.


"Please, Kim, Xander is wrong, I'm not evil," he whispered softly. "I've got a soul, remember? I'm misunderstood."


"You said Xander was evil, you saw him, you knew who he was, you lied," Kim accused, not noticing she was already falling for it.


"I did it for you, for all of you, for Buffy," Spike pleaded sweetly, while he thought, *Jackpot, finally one who doesn't just keep her mouth shut apart from an occasional 'shut up.'*.


"Don't you understand? I saw a guy who was supposed to be dead. Most likely demon-animated, probably a minion of the First. I felt for the whelp, Kim. It broke my heart; most likely his body was defiled and he was working for the side of evil, and he would want me to take him out, or he was a good guy after all. But considering his actions, how could I possibly risk him infiltrating in our group and kill us all? I couldn't take that risk, Kim." Spike's voice broke perfectly. "It was such a hard decision, but in my view, it was better to potentially kill one innocent, than hope for that off chance, and let you all meet him, lull you in a false sense of safety, and then watch him kill you all. I couldn't bear the to see you all get killed. I admit it freely, I was wrong, he really is one of us, but I'm not evil."


Kim peered down in the darkness and contemplated his words; they made sense. Could she have made such a hard decision? And Buffy had said he was one of the good guys. Granted, she had been proven wrong on many occasions, but certainly not her lover?


"Kim, I can prove it, please," Spike pleaded with puppy dog eyes. "If you come down here I can prove it, luv."


"I don't know," Kim whispered.


"You better know, Kim," Spike said, his voice changed to a confidence building one. "Tomorrow you'll be fighting the big bad of big bads. You have to make decisions yourself. Think about it, I prove I'm a good guy, and Xander will be pleased, so will Buffy, and Faith, and there will be another fantastic fighter ready to fight for the mission. Isn't that incredibly important?"


Kim thought it over, and then said, "You better not try anything." Slowly Kim came down the stairs, turning on the light down below. Spike flinched back at the sudden brightness, and started to furiously blink. When Kim reached him, he had managed to adjust.


"Ok, so how are you going to prove this?" Kim asked him.


"You have to get closer," Spike told her. He had backed up as far as he could go, making the distance he could reach seem much smaller. "Closer, closer Kim." Kim came closer. "In an inner pocket in my coat, Kim, there's the proof reach for it." Kim nodded, shuffled forward, and reached her hand behind the collar of his called.


Suddenly, faster than she could react, Spike vamped out, lunged forward and bit her in her neck. Kim's eyes widened in shock, as Spike dragged her down. Just as she was starting to scream, she went below him, and he dropped himself over her, muffling her screams with his body. He drank, and drank, savoring the blood of the innocent little girl. He gulped it down with greed. Finally, when he felt her life giving away, well after she stopped screamed, he sat back up in the narrow confines of his movability. He pushed back, the changes restricting his movements. "Come on," he whispered looking back, check just how close he was to the small nail staking out of the wood. With one final shove he felt the sharp point enter the back of his neck. Instantly he felt copious amounts of blood flow from the wound. Grinned he leaned back over, and let the stream of blood drop right on Kim's mouth. "Come on, pet," Spike whispered hopefully. "Drink, you're my last chance." He watched the blood poor into the girl's mouth, and then finally a swallowing motion. Kim did it instinctively, not even realizing she was doing it, even so close to death her body was fighting for life it could no longer keep, and it didn't want to drown.


"That's it, drink it all, drink more, drink all of it. I don't want you lying here for three days before you wake up," Spike whispered with an unholy twinkle in his demonic eyes. "That's my girl, swallow it all." Then her body stopped swallowing, and then it stopped breathing.


Spike sat back, and waited, hoping he wouldn't have lost too much blood before his wound healed up.


An hour later, Kim vamped out, her yellow eyes opened and she sat up. She looked left and right, and said, "Sire?"


"Yes, I'm your sire, your master," Spike whispered with glee. "Ssh."


"We kill, so much life upstairs. It will be a slaughter," Kim whispered.


"No, free me first," Spike hissed softly. "They can't hear us, we'll hunt, we'll kill, but later. You know better, you know those upstairs can kill us, they have too great numbers, too much firepower."


Kim seemed confused at first, shook her head, and said, "Right." She stood up, and as she started work on Spike's bonds she asked, "Why am I having difficulty thinking? Kiilll. Bllood."


"You haven't fed yet, you hardly have blood in your system, we'll change that, soon, just hurry up, pet," Spike whispered urgently.


Another fifteen minutes and Kim had freed Spike. "Good, luv, now we do some sneaking," Spike whispered to her.


Slowly, silently the two vampires went up the stairs, wincing at every creak. Spike very gently pushed open the door, and looked around. Nobody awake in sight. Slowly they crept into the living room, and Spike knew this is where things got critical. They went around, the stairs, and Spike froze when he heard a loud grumbling. He looked back, and Kim gestured to her stomach, and shrugged. Nobody stirred, Spike felt relief going through him, relief that humans didn't have as sensitive ears as vampires. Slowly they crept up the second stairs, and then snuck toward the bathroom. A light came on under a door, and Spike's eyes widened. Rapidly, and silently he went over, pulling Kim along, and went into bathroom. He closed the door just in time and listened.


He heard the girl murmur half asleep, and the sound as if she was rubbing her eyes. Her footsteps were getting closer and closer. Suddenly Spike's eyes widened in revelation. "Bollocks," he whispered in irritation, "She needs to pee, or take a dump."


Spike looked around, at the window leading out. "Why don't we just eat her?" Kim asked, far louder than Spike would have liked.


"Sssss, come on," Spike hissed, and went to the window. He opened it gently, and looked out. He pulled his head back just in time or a soldier would have noticed him. The girl's footsteps kept getting closer and closer. "Why are they looking up?" Spike whispered in frustration.


"Demons with wings," Kim clarified softly.


Spike looked over, and whispered, "Bloody hell." He looked at the door, and the approaching footsteps. He looked back out the window at the soldiers, and where they were looking. "Out, to the roof, now," Spike hissed, pushing Kim out the window. She deftly grabbed the wall to the right with her claws. Spike dove out, and did the same to the left, just as the door to the bathroom opened.


Spike heard the girl yawn, and then murmur sleepily, "Who left the window open?" Spike's eyes widened, and started climbing quickly. He gestured heavily to Kim, who took her leisure time. Finally she looked over to him, when he over took her, and he made desperate gestures for her to hurry. Spike pulled himself on the roof, and flattened himself, just as he heard the window slide closed loudly. Next to him Kim pulled herself onto the roof. Down below, Spike heard the rapid movement of someone turning around who was standing on grass, undoubtedly looking up to check out the sound of the window closing. He held his breath, good thing he didn't actually need to do any breathing, because the clock was ticking. He sighed in relief when he heard the soldier look back around.


Spike looked over to Kim in irritation and gestured wildly for her to follow him. She shrugged. They shimmied quickly to the other side of the roof, stopping right behind the chimney, and Spike checked out the looking patterns of the soldiers below, and the ones sitting in the trees. "When I gesture go," Spike whispered, "we jump across to the other roof, make /no/ sound, and hide behind the other chimney, got that?"


Kim nodded. Spike nodded once in satisfaction, and then made a gesture. Immediately the two gestures got up, and jumped. The made the distance easily, landed, a small noise, and immediately ducked low. Spike heard a few soldiers jerk around, but no alarm sounded. He sighed in relief. The quickly moved across the roof to the other side. Now only those in the trees could spot them, and those down below if they lowered themselves too soon. They performed the jump-and-duck routine twice more, before lowering themselves behind a hedge, and snuck away.


*****


Vi, and Amanda came stumbling down the stairs in the morning and watched Faith and Xander preparing their breakfast.


"Oh, hi," Amanda mumbled a little uncertain.


"My, my, you two are glowy this morning," Faith told the two, sipping her coffee. They blushed deeply. Xander looked back at them, and smiled.


"W-we, uh . . ." Vi tried, blushing deeper.


"Had sex?" Xander supplied with raised eyebrows.


Both of them went beet red, and then Amanda muttered, "Y-you're not mad?"


"Why would I be?" Xander asked confused, just as he finished smearing a sandwich.


"I . . . that is . . . uh," Amanda blurted out and her sentence crashed and burned, along with her composure.


Vi came to the rescue, asking, "How about you two? Slept well?"


"Fantastic," Faith said with a serene smile. "We slept together," she added casually.


"You slept together?" Amanda asked incredulously at Faith's casual tone.


Vi erupted afterward, "And you talk about it like it's nothing . . . He's that bad? I thought Anya said he was a Viking in bed? Or was that a King?"


Xander turned around, shaking his head, he clarified, "We lay next to each other, unconscious; thank you very much." Faith looked over her shoulder at Xander and raised her eyebrows, mouthing, 'Viking?' Then her smile widened in secret anticipation, while Xander almost imperceptibly shook his head. Their quick interaction went on simultaneously with the following.


"Ohhhhhh!" Vi exclaimed in revelation, and then blinked, quickly getting mortified.


"You /slept/ together," Amanda added, wide-eyed with revelation, and then started to go red.


"Oops, sorry," Vi murmured at Xander apologizing for her goof, and the resulting insult.


"God damn, Xan," Faith commented with mock horror. "One lesbian two-woman orgy, and their minds plunged right into the gutter. It's disgusting!" Vi and Amanda went right back to beet red, and beyond.


"I know," Xander added, shaking his head disapproving. "Really, it should be forbidden. It will be destruction of us all. Every teenager thinking about lesbian sex should be locked away." He tsked several times, and Faith nodded gravely. Vi and Amanda had no idea what to say, they just sputtered something.


"Hey, we're just messing with you two. Lighten up," Faith reassured them with an amused smile, then sipped more from her coffee, as Xander bit into his sandwich. Unable to get rid of their blush, the two teenagers went about getting themselves breakfast, with a smiling Faith and Xander watching them.


*****


Later, around noon


The living room was filled with everyone who could fit. In the middle Xander, Willow, Giles, Faith and Riley stood, looking around the room with mounting confidence. Eric, and Alex were two who were off to the side. All three crows had their faces back on, ready for the fight, giving scary visages, that made everyone glad they were on their side.


Xander took in Willow's face, and Giles's. Both were ready, he could see it, he had fought along side them to often not to know there looks. They were confident they were going to win. "Good," Xander said, looking over the crowd one final time. "So everyone know what he or she has to do?"


Buffy detached herself from a wall, and wormed herself to the middle, "I don't. I've been with the meetings and all, know what needs to be done, but I don't know where I belong."


"Nobody told you?" Xander asked a little surprised. He went over all his decisions, and all the things that were to be done, and suddenly realized it had slipped. She was supposed to be in Faith's unit, but several people's objections, among others his own, even though he hadn't voiced them before it came from others, not even to himself, had lead to the decision that Buffy would not be fighting in the battle, but be part of the medical crew. Problem was, the medical crew by then was set, and knew what to be done, and he realized they all had forgotten to add Buffy to the crew roster. "Oh, sorry, Buffy, we had a slip up, I think. You're part of the medical crew, you'll be in the hospital, nursing along with Anya and Andrew." Anya gave Buffy a smile and a quick wave as she looked over shocked.


"Wh-what?" Buffy asked incredulously, feeling hollow. "No, I'm the Slayer, I belong in this fight."


"No, you don't," Xander stated calmly, the heat of this discussion without her had passed long last night, he wouldn't get worked up over it. "Yesterday, Buffy, you've shown without a shadow of a doubt, you are unable to be a team player. You can't follow orders, you go off on your own endangering others. You'll be nothing but a liability. You're in the hospital, nursing the wounded, very important work as wall."


Buffy felt as if a chasm opened up beneath her, and she fell down, and down. This couldn't be happening! She was the Slayer, she needed to fight, she had to fight. "No, Xander," Buffy said, tears forming. "I have to fight. I'm the Slayer, I belong in this fight. I have to fight, it's my duty." Buffy shook her head in denial, Xander was going to say something, but she went first, "I've been doing this for almost eight years! This is more that Slayer destiny! I need to fight, I can't sit back, I'm a Slayer for Christ sakes!"


She looked pleadingly at Willow, but she looked away. Then at Giles, who gave her a cool stair back. "Riley, tell 'em!" Buffy went to her last hope. Some people watching the spectacle were looking with sadistic glee, others - Faith and Dawn among them - looked away, not really able to look at the humiliating spectacle.


"Sorry, Buffy," Riley answered her calmly. "I was one of those who was against putting in the hospital, but this is a team sport, under a hierarchy. Your unit comes first, and the decision is made, and even I can't say there is no merit in the decision what so ever."


Buffy looked at him with pain in her eyes, she heard the words, but she couldn't fully comprehend them. She shook her head. "No! I have to fight, please?" Buffy asked feeling worthless.


Xander looked away from her, and then looked at the stairs leading to the basement. He remembered how he felt when the others tried to shun him out of this. There was no way he wasn't going to make Buffy pay, but he realized now was not the time. This wasn't making her pay, this was nothing. And there was still a very powerful weapon in that basement that could make a difference, but had no wielder, because he was packed with weapons already, Alex and Eric would be flying, and Faith had her Scythe. Plus a sadistic side of him, realized the questions he would have to ask, would be humiliating in their own right. He looked back at Buffy, he was the only one who could change the decision. "Can you follow orders?" Xander asked coldly.


"Yes! Yes, I can follow orders!" Buffy exclaimed hopefully.


"Every order? You can't go off on your own, you stick with your unit, you fight alongside them, you can't see them as normal people, you have to see them as equals, as Slayers, no ordering them around unless your unit commander is dead, got that?" Xander asked her again.


"Yes, I promise, I swear I will follow orders," Buffy answered him, the room stayed quiet at the spectacle.


"You'd be in Faith's unit Buffy, you'll have to follow her orders," Xander told her forcefully, pointing at the dark-haired slayer. Buffy looked over, and Xander added, "If she orders you, to take off your clothes and have sex with a few Bringers in order to distract them, would you?" There was sniggering all around, and Xander chose to ignore them, focusing on Buffy who looked back at him shocked. "Because if she does give you that order, you're expected to follow it to the letter."


"I will follow that order," Buffy stated both weak and strong at the same time.


"Than go down to the basement, Buffy," Xander told her. "There's a Troll God Hammer there. You remember it, don't you? The weapon that could bring down a Hellgod, albeit weakened? It still needs a wielder strong enough to actually be able to pick it up."


Buffy nodded, happy, and humiliated all at once. "Yes, sir," she answered, and quickly went to the stairs. She was glad Xander didn't decide to rub it in, humiliate her even more in front of the others, but she had felt the stinging of the questions, the cold anger in those frightening eyes. That weapon had brought down a god. If she had taken it with her to Caleb, she could have smashed him to a pulp with a few, if not one well-aimed swing. Once more dwelling on just how bad she had screwed up, and how Xander managed to take her down another peg when she thought she couldn't be taken down anymore, she failed to notice Spike's absence. She focused on finding the weapon, and realized that the others had put it here somewhere after her death. She wracked her brain, and remembered where they had put it before the fight with Glory. She went over and found it was in the same place. She pulled the hammer out of the box and admired it for a moment, taking several practice swings. She turned around, going back to the stairs, and her eyes went over the chains that had held Spike.


Buffy's eyes widened, and then charged up the chairs, just hearing Kennedy state that she was missing one person, Kim, undoubtedly after Xander had asked if everyone was accounted for. Buffy burst back into the room, and called out loud, "Spike's gone!"


Xander turned and looked her directly in her eyes, while Faith said, "Kim guarded Spike last night, the last shift. I forgot to assign someone else this morning."


"SON OF A BITCH!!" Xander roared out in anger, and smashed his fist through the table unconsciously.


"I cannot believe you underestimated him," Riley stated, not with malice, but not without accusation either. "Why didn't you just dust him?"


"Why didn't you? I had my reasons, I did not underestimate /him/," Xander spat at him, while his fury rose and rose. "I overestimated the potential . . . I underestimated Buffy's brainwashing with 'he has a soul now.'" Xander turned around and lifted a pay-attention finger in the air, "LISTEN UP! EVERY VAMPIRE IS EVIL, SOUL OR NO SOUL, YOU FINALLY GET IT YET!? I KNOW OF ONLY ONE SOULED EXCEPTION THAT STATES THE RULE, AND /TRUST/ ME, EVEN THOUGH HE'S PROBABLY NOT PURE EVIL, HE'S NO LESS OF A SICK SON OF A BITCH!!"


Then Xander stalked over to the door angrily, and told his fellow Crows, "Let's go." The people remaining in the room gave each other a look.


*****


The humvee rode along the road straight for Sunnydale's military base. "Ok, are you two /certain/ you can fly those things?"


In the back, Eric and Alex grinned, sending a shiver down the driver's spine. "You haven't been listening, we're /certain/ we can /not/ fly those things," Eric answered him.


"Right, but the pilots who /have/ flown them do," the Lieutenant - one Dennis Stiles - driving the vehicle repeated their words for them. He shook his head. This was nuts - little teenage girls fighting along side them, teenagers successfully fighting apocalypses on a weekly basis for seven years straight, and now two of them were going to fly helicopters they had never flown before, hell they had never flown any helicopter before - what had he gotten himself into? Perhaps he should have accepted that transfer after all.


"You have to distract them," Alex said, unnecessarily really, but with urgence. "They've quadrupled the guards, placed them everywhere, there's no way we can get to them unseen without them focused on something else. We don't have to worry about bullets, but the gunships do."


"Don't worry, distraction is my specialty," he told them. The crows them opened the door and jumped out of the moving vehicle, closing the door behind them, and casually running onward as their feet touched the floor. "Damn," Stiles muttered seeing them do that. He put the pedal all the way down and drove straight at the main gate of the military installation. The guard got out of his little cubicle and waved at him, he already saw several guard towers swivel their guns at him. He rammed the break all the way down, and the came to a sliding halt.


He leant in full uniform out the window displaying a plastic name tag, and yelled, "What's wrong with you man, open up!? This is of vital importance to national security!"


"Uh, who are you again, sir?" the guard asked dumbfounded, holding a registry.


"Who am . . .!? I'm lieutenant Stiles of course!" he barked out as an order. "Now let me in!"


"Uh, sir, you're not on my list, in fact there's nobody on my list," the guard said befuddled.


"WHAT!?" Stiles yelled out in utter shock. "Damn it, man, let me in. This is of vital importance, this is no time the follow every single little rule."


"Sorry, sir, but you must be cleared first, didn't . . ."


"Listen, private!" Stiles barked at him, authority dripping from every syllable, "I've got clearance, those halfwit bureaucrats just forgot to call it in. Now let me, or do you want me to harass the president with details like this!?"


"N-n-no, sir . . . actually sir, yes, I do, orders from the base commander, sir," the soldier answered timidly.


Stiles opened the door to his car, got out, and before the guard knew what was happening, he was lifted off the floor by his collar. "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND!? We could be headed to the biggest catastrophe since nine eleven, and you're asking me for a measly clearance call!?"


"Sorry," the man whimpered.


Stiles put him down and roared out in frustration. He reached through the open window for his cell phone, and while inside he peaked through the windows, noticing several guards were already showing interest in just what was going on. He came back out, turned on his phone, and dialed a random number. Just as the non-existent tone was about to become audible, he yelled out, "GOD DAMNED BUREAUCRATS!" He hung up at the same time, keeping the phone on though. "Pick up, damn it!"


"Get me the president!" Stiles roared into the phone. "I'm Stiles halfwit, I'm the guy in charge of the California situation!


"What do you mean he's not available!? What could be so important he's . . . SEX WITH HIS WIFE!? It's noon!! And California is on the fritz!?!?!" Stiles roared out, in frustration and rage. "LUNCH BREAK!!?!?!? PULL HIM OFF THE OLD HAG, HE'LL BE GLAD!!"


Stiles growled, with the guard next him looking completely dumbfounded, having no way what to make of it. "Then get me the Secretary of Defense, get me the general, get me anyone of those halfwits sitting on their asses!!!! JUST GET ME SOMEONE THIS IS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE!!" Stiles lowered his phone, and screamed, "FUCK!" Stiles walked over to the hood of the humvee and theatrically let himself fall forward, banging his hand gently on the metal. "HALFWITS! ASSHOLES! Sometimes I could just shoot them all!" He pulled out his gun and pointed it straight in the air and as a demonstration, fired off a shot.


"SIR!" the guard said urgently, gesturing calm with his hands, getting a little afraid. "Perhaps you should just calm down."


"CALM DOWN!?" Stiles roared out, and got up, getting right in the guard's face, his eyes darted around suspiciously covering that he was checking the process of drawing all the guard's attention to him. "HAVE YOU NOT SEEN THE NEWS!? LA CUT OFF EXCEPT OUTGOING SIGNALS!? REPORTS OF BLOTTING OUT THE SUN, THAT JASMINE BITCH!? DIDN'T YOU SEE HER ARABIAN COMPLEXION!? WAKE UP, MAN, MUSLIM EXTREMISTS!"


"Uh, seen some . . ." the guard tried.


"IT WAS AL QAEDA, MAN, THINK!!" Stiles roared out hysterically. "HALLUCINOGENIC DRUGS, THEY POISONED THE WATER SUPPLY!! HAD EVERYONE BRAINWASHED, THEY EVEN GOT TO THE GOVERNOR!!" Stiles put his fingers close together and held them right in front of the frightened man. "THIS CLOSE, WE CAME THIS CLOSE TO LOSING IT! DO YOU THINK IF THOSE BASTARDS WERE THAT WELL ORGANIZED THEY DON'T HAVE BACKUP!? THE NUKES ARE NEXT! I KNOW IT! AND YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN!?"


Suddenly Stiles switched to a suspicious glare and said softly, "Say, you're not letting me in, you want me to calm down, you could still be brainwashed, /you/ could be Al Qaeda."


"I'm not man, just following commander's orders," the guard said starting to freak out.


"Perhaps /he/ is Al Qaeda," Stiles said with suspicion.


"No, man, we got robbed, that's why the . . ." the guard started.


Stiles whirled around, grabbed him by the collar and with insane eyes, he yelled, "YOU LET AL QAEDA ROB THE NUKES!? I KNEW IT! THEY HAVE NUKES, WE'RE DOOMED IF YOU DON'T LET ME IN, MAN!"


"We don't have any nukes!" the guard answered desperately.


"WHAT THEN!!?"


"Some guns, a few explo . . ."


"DETONATORS! THEY'VE GOT THE DETONATORS FOR THE NUKES!" Stiles screamed into the phone, after raising it to his face. "GET ME THE FUCKING PRESIDENT NOW, MAN, THEY'VE GOT THE DETONATORS!"


*****


Eric and Alex in the mean time, had snuck into the hangar. The diversion had gone perfectly, everyone only had eyes for the maniac at the gate. They had tranquilized the people in the hangar with darts, after a touch on one of technicians heads they had proceeded with rapidly arming two Apaches. Their superior strength allowing them to move the armaments rapidly and on their own. "Damn, that guy is good," Alex commented shaking his head, his crow giving a soft caw of approval.


"Yeah," Eric answered, as they climbed into the cockpits. Their birds sat perched on the machines tails waiting. As they touched the controls a flash tore through their minds. They closed the cockpits, put on the helmets with the mikes, and Eric said, "It's annoying as hell, but sometimes this touch telepathy stuff really comes in handy."


"Most definitely," Alex agreed, as they went through the pre-flight check, then started the Apaches. Alex quickly got out of the cockpit, letting the machine start up, and went over and pushed the button that started opening the roof up, and the rapidly returned to the helicopter.


*****


"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU PEOPLE, YOU LET AL QAEDA WALK OUT OF HERE WITH THE DETONATORS!! YOU'RE ALL GOING TO GET COURT MARTIALED!!" Stiles roared out, banging his fist on the car. "FUCK LOOK AT THAT, YOU EVEN LET THEM JUST FLY OFF WITH APACHE HELICOPTERS!!"


The guard and the guards suddenly looked dumbfounded to the hanger and saw the roof opening. They heavy sounds of the rotor blades echoing in the hangar almost deafening by now, as the machines rose into a view.


"Catch," Stiles said, and threw the phone. The guard turned around and startle he reached out and caught the phone, even as Stiles got back into the humvee. He gave the guard a smile and a wave as he started the engine, and then sped off backwards. He used the hand break to throw the car around, and then sped off.


"ALARM!!" the guard roared realizing they'd been had, as the Apaches flew away over the fence.


*****


Xander stood above the seal. His Crow perched on his shoulder. He nodded a few times, and then stretched out his hand. He pulled out a knife, and made dip on his finger, and wiped the blood away with the knife before it could be pulled back into the wound. He felt the wound close instantly, and he shook the knife until the drop of blood fell down, and landed on the seal. That was all that was needed from his potent super charged blood, and the seal flowed open instantly, emitting light until it was completely open.


He walked down the newly visible chairs, and continued till he was at an edge. Down below there was a large cave filled with the Ubervamps. He got a hand grenade from his coat, pulled the pin out and threw it down. It exploded right at head height, and several of the Turok-Han were blown to bits and then dust instantly.


The things roared, and looked up as Xander lifted one hand above his head and waved, yelling out, "Hey, screw heads, I'm up here!" The things roared and started up the winding stairs, as well as climb the walls. Xander grinned and then started running back, pulling his Katana from its sheath on his back.


Back out the Seal, he turned around and waited. A minute later the first Turok-Han reared its ugly head, and Xander lopped it off. As he did with the next, and then the next. The vamps pressed themselves through the seal with ever greater numbers, and Xander was forced to do a dance routine, severing a head there, stabbing the sword through a heart there, keeping it out of the fight for a short while, a severed arm there, a leg turning to dust there, a vamp backhanded across the room on the other side. But mostly it were heads that rolled, or at least would if they didn't turn to dust before they hit the floor.


Eventually though, the numbers were too great, and Xander turned around and walked through a narrow corridor and up a first set of stairs. He unslung his M16 from his shoulder, standing on a platform half-way the full height of the stairs, that wrapped around and went up in the opposite direction and he waited. A moment later the Turok-Han arrived, and Xander let loose as they tried to come up the stairs. The machine gun fired an enormous stream of bullets, and Xander aimed for the neck and heads of the monsters. A bullet didn't take them out, but twenty bullets utterly destroying their necks and heads was enough to dust even the toughest vampires. Turok-Han died, and died, and died. It was a slaughter, as Xander calmly kept pumping the bullets in the prehistoric vampires. Xander noticed with a grim smile that hardly any Turok-Han was going for any of the catacombs, too consumed in their hatred for him it seemed, and the those that did go, probably were searching for a way around to get him, not flee away. Not that the very few who did mattered, the sun was out, if they tried to get out they'd burn, the few who would stay inside till nightfall would hardly make a difference and could be hunted down later.


After several minutes of continued fire his gun was out of ammunition, and he threw the gun away into the onrushing vampires. He pulled his sword back out, and sliced off another head. He went backwards up the stairs quickly, the blade singing through the air, happily slicing and dicing Turok-Han.


Xander reached the exit, a red-orange door, and passed through it, slamming it shut behind him. The Turok-Han slammed into it but he was too strong. He saw a few small groups of them who had found away around coming at him from either side. He pulled the rigged crossbeam down quickly, trapping the ones behind the door for now, and sliced into the other onrushing monsters. Several were dust before they even knew what happened, but more came as banging on the door increased signaling it wouldn't hold long. As Xander sliced down, severing a leg, he pulled out a shotgun from his gun with his other hand. He put it on a Turok-Han's chest, and it looked at it questioningly. Xander pulled the triggering, and shredded heart and cartilage spread from its back, before the hole that was left was too much and it turned to dust. Xander slung the gun over his shoulder, while he severed a claw from its arm. He pulled the trigger and one vampire's head exploded, causing it to go dust. Xander whirled around, and decapitated a few more of them, before turning and running down the corner, faster than the Turok-Han could follow.


Down the corridor, a rocket launcher stood waiting and he picked it up, and laid it over his shoulder. He turned around facing the Turok-Han and waited. The door tore open, and then the beam broke and broke down, just as new groups of them came rounding the corners on either side of the door. Xander grinned, "Bye, bye." He pushed the firing button, and the rocket shot away. The beasts looked astonished at the projectile and then it hit the main group right at the door. With a powerful explosion a dozen of them were dusted instantly, others were shredded half-way to death, and others were tossed around like rag dolls. A hole lot of the tumbled down the stairs. Quickly Xander got one of the three remaining and waiting rockets and loaded it. Again he fired, a little over the Turok-Han this time, so it crashed right into stairs. With another explosion, more monsters died, and the stair case crumbled down. Xander loaded another rocket and fired right into the advancing vampires, and blew away another dozen of them.


They were getting to close now, and Xander pulled out a pistol, and fired at where he knew the gas line leaning to the chemistry room lay behind the wall. Xander grinned evilly, it payed off to know the blueprints by heart, having built the place. The gas exploded and giant stream of fire flushed out across the hallway, burning up Tuok-Hans left and right. Xander gained time to pick up the last rocket and load it. He pulled out his sword with one hand, and killed two Turok-Han who had been just past they inferno when it erupted. Xander turned around and ran, putting some distance between himself and vampires. He whirled around and knelt, the weapon back on his shoulder. The prehistoric monsters were ducking underneath the stream of flame, but most of them just tore through a wall on either side of the flame, went around the flame, and crashed through a door flowing back into the hallway from both sides. Xander pushed the button, and another explosion followed not much later.


Xander threw the now useless rocket launcher into the crowd, turned around, and ran again. A little further the next weapon lay waiting in the middle of the corridor. He pulled up the nozzle and turned to face the vampires. As they got closer, Xander fired, a large plume of flame came from flame thrower setting the Turok-Han ablaze and dusting them not much later. Xander moved from left to right, blanketing the entire hallway, making it impossible for the beasts to come to him. But they decided on the same tactic as before, tearing through the wall. Just as Xander was going to be surrounded by the monsters returning to the hallway behind him, he dropped the nuzzle, turned around and ran. The vampires returned to the hallway, while others moved across the now free hallway, apart from the fires, which killed some of them. Xander pulled his gun back out, and looked back, aimed and fired at the gas cannister of the flamethrower. It exploded and a new sea of fire killed dozens of Turok-Han.


Xander had finally reached the end of the hallway, and leaned back against the closed blinded double doors. "Come on!" Xander taunted the Turok-Han who had paused finally realizing Xander had run out of weapons, and they wanted to savor killing the thing that had killed so many of them. Then the mass of them surged forward, roaring out their lust for the kill. Just as they were about to reach Xander, he pushed back, the doors opened, and he stood right outside of the threshold. The sun came poring in, lighting up about five meters of the corridor, and the vampires roared in pain, as the sunlight erupted them in flames and killed them.


Xander's crow, waiting for him, sitting on a fence behind him, cawed his approval. Xander grinned as the Turok-Hans who were standing just outside of the suns reach. The things roared in anger, and then Xander pulled out the trigger. He waved them goodbye, and pushed it. The first explosion sounded, followed by the rumbling of the second, and then the third. Xander quickly turned around and walked away from the danger zone, and then turned back around. He saw some of the vampires being shredded by the explosions, before the insides of the school crashed down, and not long after the entire school crumbled down.


"Oh, yeah," Xander commented looking at the smoking ruins. He looked at the trigger, and its second button. Xander grinned, and looked back at the school. If he had set the explosives right, and he had, the second set wouldn't have gone up with the first. He pushed the trigger again, and there was a giant explosion, and then a cone of rock, debris, and dirt shot upward, and out from the middle of the school, and then came down around him.


The debris had been shot outward, to make sure it didn't refill the newly created crater, which exposed the seal to the sun above. The seal which was still open, now had sunlight streaming inside it, and not a single one of the remaining thousands of Turok-Han that were inside the Seal cave could get out without burning to death instantly.


Xander turned around at the approaching sound, and said, "Perfect timing." The two Apaches flew over Xander, the crows detaching themselves from the tail, and hovered in the air. Xander's own crow joined them.


The helicopters hovered over the exposed seal, and started firing. Missile after missile streaked down, entered the opening and then shot downward along the stairs and down into the cave. Explosion after explosion rocked the cave, destroying hundreds Turok-Han with everyone. After a minute, the helicopters stopped their firing. Then two bigger missiles detached themselves and went down the seal. They did not go down to the Turok-Han but hit the now weakened rock walls. With two might explosions the walls came crumbling down. Two more smaller missiles came from the gunships, one from each, hit the edge of the seal, and the explosions completely obliterated it. Then the helicopters backed off, as the rumbling grew.


Xander grinned as debris was thrown up, and then pulled down. The Seal cave lost its structural integrity, and started collapsing in on itself. Whatever Turok-Han were still alive would be completely crushed as giant pieces of rock dropped on top of them. The school was pulled down, and down, and Xander had some difficulty remaining standing, but eventually it stopped. Where the school once stood, now was a shallow crater, filled with debris in all shapes and sizes. Xander grinned at it, and noticed, *Perfect cover.*


He looked up and over at the two Apaches and gave them a thumbs-up sign. From somewhere a black shape came into view and arrived in the middle of the two helicopters. The demon punched one hand in either helicopters side, and tore it open. The helicopters veered off, and went down, crashing down close together, in a garden on a house across the street. A few explosions, and fire, and the wrecks stayed put. The giant demon casually walked to the street. Xander jogged onto the street as well. Eric and Alex freed themselves without much difficulty and jogged over to Xander before turned around to look at where the demon remained. Their crows came circling above them, as the demon laughed heartily.


There in the street, about ten meters away from the three crows, several hundred of the things kids were flapping in the air. Just behind him a small army of Bringers stood, bearing modern weapons. Behind them two portals opened, and poured out more and more of them.


Alex cocked his head, and commented, "I think we may have underestimated the number of his ground forces."


"Ya think?" Xander asked deadpan, and Alex shrugged.


The First appeared next to the demon, and with a triumphant grin mocked, "You killed my army of Turok-Han, oh whatever will I do." Then it cackled evilly.


"We still in the game," Eric asked softly and calmly.


Xander grinned, cocked his head to Eric and said softly, "Notice how the new arrivals don't carry modern weapon, probably because they don't exist in whatever dimension he pulled them from."


The First yapped on, "I knew you little bastards wouldn't be able to resist taking out the Turok-Han all on your own. Damn crows, always so damn adamant about righting the wrongs." The First laughed out loud, "So now there are only the three of you. With you three gone, the rest will be easy pickings."


The Crows grinned as they saw on two taller houses on either side of the street, a soldier come into view, each carrying a rocket launcher on their shoulders. "WRONG!" Xander yelled out loud. Soldiers rose from behind cover in the debris field of the school, having snuck there after it was thoroughly destroyed. From side streets the different units of potentials and soldiers emerged, all armed to the teeth, both before the First's army, and also behind it.


On the side of evil, everyone looked a little surprised, but by no means worried. At that moment the soldiers with the rocket launchers fired, and two rockets streaked straight at the demon's back, and his folded wings. "What!?" the black, giant demon with his gold eyes exclaimed, looking back at one of the two launchers, but missing the second. The rockets impacted on the things back and exploded, shredding its wings and sitting it afire. The demon roared its pain and sank to its knees, its babies screeching out in indignation, and the Bringers growled from their throats at their wounded commander. The First was so enraged it seemed she was going to explode, and then disappeared. The demon sat up, and checked the charred, and still burning remains of his wings, but other than that he hardly had any damage; a few scratches, and a little singed hide - not that that was visible on its black shiny skin. "YOU BASTARDS!!" it roared out in rage, "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG IT TAKES TO REGROW THEM!!?"


Xander took a step forward, and said, "Mmmh, let me guess, just long enough for us to kick your ass?"


"Was that smart?" Alex asked as the demon sucked in breath through his nose like a bull.


"We'll know in a minute," was Xander's answer.


The demon pointed up at a subsection of about fifty of his children and roared, "YOU KILL THE BIRDS!!"


*Go,* Xander thought up at the crows, and they turned and flew off in a direction, the demons in pursuit.


"The rest of you, ATTACK! KILL THEM ALL FOR THIS INSOLENCE!!" the demon roared out in indignation.


Xander felt the units of soldiers and potentials tense, as the Bringers came forth. Gunshots rang out, and the Demon looked over, seeing the children he sent after the crows being fired upon from the roof tops. After three hits, one of them went down, and golden plasma erupted from his wounds and soon consumed him. It impacted on the street as a yellow fiery ball that quickly vaporized.


Xander looked over at Riley, and he gave a nod, the order had been given.. One of the rocket launchers fired a new rocket, this time at one of the advancing children, and it got blown to bits. The demon grumbled and pointed his hands at the rooftops.


"Three . . . two . . . one . . ." Xander counted down. There was a rumble, and a crash. And the demon looked down, the advancing Bringers slowed down, looking around at the sound. Suddenly there was another crash, and the walls of the nearest houses shattered, one tank coming from each hole. The flew a short distance to the air, and then crashed down, crushing Bringers. They drove onward, driving over a large amount of Bringers, who desperately ran for their lives, and dove aside. The two tanks crossed each other, and circled the demon, killing a large amount of the modernly armed Bringers with their action. Now they were in between the Crows and the demon, and their turrets turned to point directly at the demon. It just sneered. "Now we found out just how tough this thing is," Xander said with a grin as the gunfire in the direction of the crows increased, as well as the painful shrieks from the flying demons.


Both tanks fired together, right on target. The shells exploded, and with a roar the demon was thrown back. It landing in the midst of the Bringers, crushing two of them. It got up though. There was some visible damage to the thing's outer skin, but it seemed to only make him more angry. It growled, its eyes glowed with maliciousness, as two more of the flying demons were shot down with missiles. It pointed its hands at both tanks, and the golden dots in his hand glowed. Two bolts shot out, and with two mighty explosions the tanks were reduced to rubble.


"Shit," Xander commented as he pulled two pistols from his coat, his fellow crows did the same. Xander then yelled with everything he had, "ATTACK!!! Riley! Heavy weapons concentrate on it! Keep the tanks moving!" Riley nodded and he gave the less loud orders through his microphone to everyone, while at the same time people with guns popped up from hiding places and started to fire. The already visible units did the same. The flying demons shrieked and dove forward, shooting same golden energy bolts from their hands as did the big demon. Although far less powerful they were effective anti-personal weapons none the less. A few of them were shot down, as the crows' gunshots started taking out Bringers and the children alike.


The Bringers had to fight outward diagonally, a large portion of them going toward the debris of the school. As they past building that the tank came through, windows were smashed outward in it in two levels, and moments later crossbow bolts came shooting from it, hitting the Bringers, who returned fire with their own crossbow bolts, a few gunshots, and also fired those bolts in arcs through the air at the people shooting at them from behind cover. Faith and Buffy came walking out of the hole, and Faith sliced Bringers to pieces with her magic axe, and with one arc from the Troll hammer several Bringers heads were smashed in, while others were thrown meters and meters through the air in deadly arcs.


The big, black demon growled as he saw that most of the Bringers were being slaughtered, good thing there were a lot of them. His children did better shooting down soldiers but they too were being killed. Xander and the crows in the mean time had reached the bringers and shot them, or broke them with their bare hands, and Xander using his sword as well. The black demon casually pointed his hands at the house from which Dawn's unit was firing. The Summers girl noticed it and yelled, "Run!" Her unit started dispersing, but Xander knew they'd never made it. At that moment a rocket hit the demon, and imbalanced it. It roared in frustration as a second missile hit it, and then a third.


The final two tanks could be heard, and from side streets, their shots rang out. The demon staggered under the assault. It got up and looked angrily from where the shots came from, but the tanks had already moved on rearming for a new assault.


The heavier weapons were rearming, and finally the demon got some relief. It had been kept imbalanced, but by no means was it slowing down. It laughed evilly now, and pointed his hands at the roofs holding the rocket launchers.


"Buffy!" Faith called out to her fellow slayer, who looked over. "Test out that weapon of yours on him, keep him busy while they rearm." Buffy nodded, mowing aside several bringers with the Troll God weapon, and then she reached the demon. With a blood curdling scream she swung the weapon with all her might. The demon was startled and looked at her, and smiled at the silly hammer. The hammer hit it, and it roared in pain as the almost three meter giant was thrown across battlefield several meters, crushing a few of the bringers going the other way. The Bringers quickly dispersed and focused on the potentials shooting and stabbing at them. One potential got stabbed in her heart and went down instantly.


The demon sat up half, holding the side of the body where the hammer had struck. Buffy roared, and smashed her hammer across its face, its head snapping back at the impact, and slid back another meter. Buffy got optimistic, and she felt good too. It was nice not to worry, not to think, just let loose. Xander was probably right in his assessment that Slayers were foot soldiers, not generals. She grinned and swung the hammer in an overhead strike, when the demon sat up. With just his torso up, his head was still level with Buffy's, and it grabbed the hammer part of the hammer with its hand. It seemed to wince for a moment, but it had the hammer in a solid grip, Buffy couldn't budge it. She looked in shock as cracks started forming in the hammer. "THAT'S IT! The demon growled in irritation, as the hammer was crushed more, and he yanked it effortlessly from the Slayer's hands. He grabbed the hammer with both hands and squeezed, the hammer got crushed, it's handle broke, and at the same time it said, "YOU INSIGNIFICANT INSECTS! I'M GOING TO CRUSH ALL YOU LIKE THE BUGS YOU ARE!!!" Luckily for Buffy he was sitting in an awkward position, so he could make his threat literal. Instead he just punched, and his fist hit her face. Buffy didn't even get the opportunity to scream in pain, as facial bones crushed on impact. Her head snapped back with such force the tendons in her neck were pulled so tight she couldn't open her mouth. She was catapulted across the battle field, bounced across the street several times, breaking bones, and finally smashed in the outer wall of a house. The stone cracked, and so did Buffy's rips. She slumped to the ground where darkness claimed her. Were she a normal human, she'd be dead.


"BUFFY!" Dawn yelled out in shock, and angrily started shooting down more of the flying demons. Several others had seen Buffy's defeat as well, including Xander.


The demon was standing again, and marched to the middle of the road, and stretched out its arms to either side. The yellow orbs in his palm charging with a low wine. The tanks came into view from side streets on either side of the demon, exactly were he was aiming. It had listened to the tell tale sound of the tanks' tracks, and it had guessed right. It fired its energy bolts, and moments later both tanks were blown up. The demon immediately aimed up at a roof that held a soldier with a rocket launcher and fired. The resulting explosion blew away half the roof. Down below, Sam and Riley Finn were taking out Bringers with machine guns, and one block of wall came crashing down, right on top of Riley. Sam was pushed aside and fell down. She scrambled up, calling out, "Riley? Riley?" When she finally so him, his body crushed underneath the large amount of stone, she knew he hadn't survived. "NO!" she roared and continued firing at the bringers.


The demon chuckled as it casually walked a few steps toward the debris field of the school, pointed one hand and fired. The bolt flew impact somewhere in the middle and exploded, killing a large amount of soldiers with on blast. It turned around, and pointed a hand at the house that Faith's unit had used for cover. A good amount were out in the streets fighting Bringers on a personal note but there were still girls in there. A lot of them ran out, but as the house was almost completely destroyed many of them lost their lives.


Dawn's unit had reached that side of the battle, having killed most of the lesser amount of Bringers who had gone their way. Part of her unit was constantly firing up at the flying demons, the rest focusing on the ground forces of the First. The debris from the house came flying about, and Vi saw a particular large piece flying directly at them. She grabbed Amanda and pulled her along. "Come on!" she urged, and the other girl complied. They ran, and dove behind a piece of debris from the school, narrowly avoiding the piece of concrete. Vi came up, pistol aiming at the Bringers from behind the rock and fired. "We got them, come on Amanda!" Vi shouted firing away, and then reloading her gun. "Amanda?" She looked down, and saw Amanda lying there lifeless, blood from the corner of her mouth, and several charred holes in her body. Vi stayed silent for a moment, looking down at her, disbelieving, and then with a scream she took Amanda's gun and started firing at the demons above her that had gotten her first. The fury propelled her adrenaline rush, and her aim was true. Demon after demon she shot through their heads and the came falling down. Out of bullets, she looked around, and pulled a shotgun, with a hand still attached to her. She removed the hand and continued firing. Aware of Bringers coming at her she fired at them to. But there were to many of them, and her shotgun did not fire on automatic. When they were almost on top of her, she became aware of presences next to her. Automatic gunfire, and the Bringers started dying in front of her. She looked up, and saw Wood whose unit had just come in fire away. Vi quickly returned to shooting.


In the mean time the demon was chuckling. Soon they would all fall. Xander reached him, the other crows close as well. Xander rammed a kneed in the things upper leg, and felt his knee shatter, and immediately start healing up. With a growl the demon looked down. "The blonde bitch was mine," Xander hissed up at him, and jumped up in an uppercut. His fist hit him in the chin and he was forced to take a step back. Xander ignored his shattered hand, which was healing already. Alex and Eric came from the side and both did a leg sweep. The demon growled in indignation as it was pushed off its legs and it landed on its ass. The crows ignored their own mending broken bones and attacked the demon.


It roared and lashed out its hands, sending Eric and Alex flying through the air. It was up surprisingly quick for its size and bulk, and pulled Xander by his shoulders off the floor. With a roar it smashed its knee into Xander's gut . . . and straight through. It came out the other and, and the demon laughed, as Xander weakly looked up. "I guess this means your little birdy is dead, huh?" the demon laughed, pulled his kneed out, and bashed Xander casually aside.


The demon looked around, his attacks and turned the tide he knew, and looked up to find the last remaining rocket launchers. "I'm not done with you yet," Xander's voice called out, and the demon looked back amused. He watched Xander get up from his position amongst the Bringers and warriors for light fighting each other. Xander snapped the neck of one, and then advanced on the demon, his wound closing up.


"What the heaven?" the demon looked astounded as Xander straightened and walked better with every moment as his wound healed. Xander threw a punch, and the demon grabbed. "I'll take care of you when your bird really is dead," it said, and casually cost Xander aside.


The demon saw the new group arrive at the school debris, and pointed his hand that way. With a mighty explosion, something impacted on the demon's hide. It staggered, annoyed and looked over at the sours. Some house away a shield shimmered, and a redhead with black eyes looked directly at him. The cavalry had arrived. The other mages were firing energy bolts mostly at the black demon's kids and their aim was true.


"Little witch," the demon hissed and took a step toward the witch, who was charging another attack mumbling in some other language. The pink with purple, and orange ball grew larger and larger in Willow's hand. Finally she fired it, and the demon didn't even bother trying to avoid it. The blast rocketed the best, it yelled out at the pain, and welcomed it. Once the blast was over it grinned, he had been hurt a little, but still nothing came close to bringing him down. He laughed and pointed his hands at the group of magic users, and his golden dots glowed.


"Behind me, now!" Willow screamed, and a lot of soldiers fighting just in front of her and the mages, obeyed immediately. The golden blast of the demon shot across the distance and impacted on Willow's shield. She took a step back at the powerful impact. She looked out, and saw the blast had taken out some Bringers, but equally soldiers who had not made it behind her shield. Right then, the blast form the demon's other hand impacted, and Willow staggered back, trying to keep her balance.


Willow's eyes turned black again, and she started charging another ball, as the demon laughed and fired bolt after bolt. "Help me," she ordered, as the blasts on her shield wracked her body. The mages stopped firing at the flying demons, and focused their magic on the shield. Immediately they staggered under the onslaught of the demon's raw power. Willow lost control of the ball of energy and it sizzled out, and she was forced to focus her power on the shield.


"We can't keep this up forever," one of the mages warned. The firing stopped, and Willow looked. Her eyes widened. The demon was laughing heartily, and had both of his hands out, slowly charging a large ball of energy.


"Oh, my god," Willow whispered in fear.


Xander staggered to his feet, a Bringer stuck a knife in his gut and looked surprised - however far that's possible without eyes - when Xander seemed to feel nothing. He grabbed its head, snapped its neck and then pulled the knife free. He looked over and saw the demon charging the ball of energy, laughing, and then over at the frightened magic users behind the shield. He needed an answer, he needed it now. He surveyed the battle scene, people were dying, demons were dying, and then his eyes felt on the nearby half destroyed Apaches. He pulled his sword out, and ran killing several Bringers. Then he jumped over the Bringers and landed next to the two wrecks. He killed a few Bringers that were in his way, and grabbed the M230 Chain Gun from the least damaged helicopter, and pushed it around facing the battle. "Come on," he hissed, as he reached in the half-destroyed cockpit. He switched the buttons for the gun, nothing happened. "Work," he sad giving the machine a good beat with his hand, denting the outer skin. "Come on, baby," he said trying again, but nothing happened.


He dropped the gun, and went over to the other gunship. Once again he reached into the cockpit, and started switching the activation button for the chain gun. "Please, sweetheart, don't fail us now, you're not fighting other creators here, but demons, come on," Xander whispered. Somewhere deep in the wreckage something rumbled, the battery came to life. The gun sparked with electricity. "Yess," he hissed giving the helicopter an appreciative pat. He pulled the gun, but it wouldn't turn. He tore, and the gun was ripped from its mounting, and Xander took a step and turned himself toward the demon, his back against the wreck.


*Return,* Xander said with confidence, and called out, "HEY! YOU! BLACK FELLA! I TOLD YOU I WASN'T DONE WITH YOU YET!!"


*****


Close by the crows heard the mental summons. They had been leading the demons around, giving strategically placed soldiers on roofs the opportunity to shoot them down. From fifty-five only fourteen demons were left. The crows had had several close calls, and one of them got singe by one of the blasts, but they were just too agile. Now they turned around and flew right at the demons. For a moment they hesitated, surprised at the turn of events. The crows twisted around the demons, all three scratched the eyes out of one. In panic they started firing wild, while the crows flew right in the middle of the others. Some of the others tried to hit the crows, another set of them tried to hit the blinded ones who were now threatening their lives. It was chaos. When the crows had come out the crowd of demons of the other end, nine were falling down from the sky their internal plasma burning them up. The remaining five were picked off by the soldiers not long after.


*****


*Damn it,* Xander thought, the damn thing was standing turned away from him. Not even his strength, Xander knew, would be able to keep the gun steady. He needed a wider target, he needed the thing to face him. "YO! YOU WITH THE STUMPS!" Did Xander saw him react a little. He grinned and said, "STUMP BOY!"


The demon's energy ball disappeared as its hands balled into fists and turned slowly around. "/WHAT/ DID YOU CALL ME!?" the demon growled out in rage.


"YOU ARE HARD OF HEARING, AREN'T YOU, STUMPY?" Xander called out at the top his lungs, seeing the demon turn further toward him and started to advance. Several soldiers in the way who recognized the gun, and knew what it was capable of started walking out of its line of fire, dragging any potentials who had no idea what was coming along.


"YOU INSIGNIFICANT, HOW /DARE/ YOU!!!?" the demon raged slowly walked toward Xander in barely contained fury. It raised his hands and started charging new energy blasts.


"Ever had depleted uranium for lunch, stump boy?!" Xander asked out loud, and he moved a free electrical wire to make contact with the wire that sent the signal to fire from the cockpit. The gun went off with a deafening roar, Xander struggled to keep it straight, being pushed back against the helicopter. His spine was being crushed, and it hurt but he wouldn't let go. At 625 slides per minute, 30 mm depleted uranium incendiary rounds were fired across the distance to the demon. Bringers that were in the way, were shredded like tissue paper, pieces of them shooting left, other pieces right. The rounds, the most powerful armor piercing rounds to date, smacked into the demon's chest and exploded with a blossom of fire, and yet even they could not pierce the demon's skin, but every impact created small star-shaped cracks on it. At over ten rounds per second, the demon had no way to answer or get out of the way. More and more starship cracks formed on its armor, and he backed up, staggering back under the onslaught, yelling out in pain. Ten seconds after Xander started firing the gun and the helicopter gave up, and fired no more, but that were still over a hundred rounds.


The demon staggered back further, and then sank to its knees growling out in pain. Xander threw the gun aside and walked forward, overlooking the battle. "FAITH! NOW, SEVER ITS HEAD!!" Xander then made eye contact with both Alex and Eric, and they gave a nod.


Faith heard Xander's calling, while she was fully in her element of killing one Bringer after another. Almost annoyed she looked up, and looked around, and watched the demon who was completely out of it. She hacked a Bringer aside, kicked one to the ground and used it as a step up. She jumped, high over the bringers and turned around her axis in mid air. The demon, still holding his chest in pain, looked up, and muttered, "And Axe? What do . . .?" That's as far as it came, when Faith's axe sliced through its neck like a hot knife through butter. The head sliced clean off, and sailed through the air. Faith grinned predatory at the body, and saw the golden plasma spray gently from the neck, and also start coming from the cracks on its chest. The head gave a groan, and then exploded with a small bang. Faith looked back at the body. Where his children were still soft, and could be consumed by their internal energy, his body was hard, and the pressure was great. Faith's eyes widened, turned back, and ran, screaming, "TAKE COVER!! IT'S GONNA BLOW!!"


Bringers and humans alike, took one look at the ticking time bomb, and ran for their lives. Xander saw it, and ran into the crowd toward the demon. He grabbed Dawn, and two more girls and turned around shielding them with his body. Alex grabbed two soldiers, while Eric pulled Faith off her feet and did the same. Then the demon exploded with a mighty explosion, the shockwave sending everyone down to the ground. Eric got a piece of the demon's hide stuck in his back that would have killed Faith, and the other ones protected by the crows were similarly protected, since most living beings in range (which were mostly Bringers) were dead now.


Faith pulled the piece of armor from Eric's back, and he sat up, saying, "Thanks, I don't think I could have reached it."


Faith grinned at him, and said, "Thanks, I don't think I could have survived it."


"No problem," he said, and got up. He walked over toward Xander pulled out his guns and starting to kill the still numerous demons in the sky. Faith too returned to hacking and slashing the Bringers to pieces.


Xander got up, and pulled Dawn to her feet. "We got it," she commented with a grin, he face smudged with blood, and several slashes from where her own blood seemed in her torso and arms.


"There are still too many," Xander commented, looking around and seeing the demons fire from above, and the Bringers fight below. He saw several more soldiers fall, and took several steps toward the middle.


"Exactly, you've lost, Harris, he's done too much damage already," his own voice commented from his side. He turned around and looked the First in his own form, except the First's face painting was still perfect, while most of his was smudged out. "You and your crows will slaughter all my bringers, and all his children, but that won't do you any good. I'm not here to kill you or your army, I want the weapon. And you know as well as I do that Faith won't last much longer. Too many of my minions, and unlike you she will grow fatigued sooner or later. Only one of them have to walk away with the weapon, and you will all lose." The First laughed after his taunting.


Xander watched Alex and Eric come closer reach him and the first, and he pushed Dawn and the potentials away, gesturing for them to rejoin the fighting behind his back. They obeyed and left, while Xander stayed quiet. "What's the matter? No more wisecracks?" the First said with a wide grin.


"Nope," Xander stated in a defeated tone, while he saw the two crows behind the first grin evilly.


"Well, this is unexpected, don't think this is as much fun . . . Oh, well," the First replied, and then grinned evilly again. "Doesn't matter . . ."


"Boo," Eric called, with his widest most insidious grin.


"Am I supposed to be scared," the First asked mockingly turning to face the other two. There was flapping of wings, and all of them looked up to see the crows circle right above the four.


*Now, Willow,* Xander thought, sending the thought across the battlefield.


On the other side, Willow looked over, and grinned. She stretched out one arm, and outstretched her hand. Her eyes turned black and she said powerfully, her voice carrying ominously across the battlefield, "Sha ka ri, timas grinadanos, tandro."


An energy dome flickered into existence around the First and the three crows, surrounding him. "What?" the First called out, and tried to teleport. He stayed put, right where he was.


Xander's grin returned full, and he spoke, "You are afraid a being would evolve powerful enough to kill you, but you fail to understand, we're already here." Xander's grin widened, as the First smashed his force against the shield.


On the other side of the battlefield Willow staggered, but kept her hand pointed at the First. The First looked, and the Bringers turned to face Willow and the mages as one. "Keep them off of, Willow," Kennedy ordered, as she and the potentials under her command moved forward, and pointed their guns and the Bringers charged.


Xander finished his speech, "We transcended death, we're beyond you now."


The First bashed against the dome again, and it flickered under his power. Willow staggered, and her telepathic voice reached Xander, *Hurry, Xan, I can't keep this up much longer.*


Eric grinned evilly, as the three crows raised their hands in the air, and stood on equal distance in a circle. He told the First with a wide grin, "You're Bringers aren't the only power of three that can summon something." Energy started charging between the three crows hands, first as red bolt-like discharges, which arced up dome-like. Then the space between the bolts filled with red energy moving upward serenely, joining together between the three birds who were busy with a complex flying pattern.


The First bashed against the dome again, and then another time. A ball of energy formed between the crows and increased in size. Then something came through, that quickly grew bigger, and formed, yet formless. Twin golden orbs that seemed like eyes, but seemed to dull to belong to something aware of itself formed in the mass of energy. Feather-like constructs of energy formed around, something that looked like a beak, yet a mouth, and yet a snout was there as well. It had a crow-like quality, and yet it was more of just ball of energy. Then a growl came from the energy ball, as if it came from the very fabric of space and time itself, and it carried far beyond the battlefield. The First looked up at the sound, and her eyes widened in shock. "Meet vengeance," Alex answered with a grin.


"Goodbye, bitch," Xander told the First, and then the crows dove down with a caw, moving through the First and curled outward before slamming into the ground. Vengeance itself followed the crows, and plunged into the First Evil. She screamed, the sound carried in itself pain, and terror, and suffering and horror the likes of which no human could comprehend. The scream went through bone and marrow and stopped the battle cold in an instant. It traveled onward, carried on by the energy being that was the first, and the energy making the molecules vibrate to produce the sound, the scream was carried around the world in an instant. No being on the planet did not here the scream, no being could not feel the horrors that the scream entailed, and yet none could fathom its true pain. The scream even penetrated the veils of several dimensional realms close by Earth's dimension, and beings there heard it. And then the First's form was shredded, and exploded outward, the coherent form reduced to blotches of energy. The dome of energy generated by Willow shattered as if it were a child's toy, and the remains of the First showered the battlefield like fireworks before disappearing into nothingness.


As her magical dome collapsed, Willow felt the jolt. She grabbed her hand in pain and she staggered forward, threatening to tumble over. Kennedy caught her just in time, and as she steadied the redhead, she asked worried, "You ok?"


"Fine, I'll be fine in a minute, just a little exhausted that's all," Willow replied weakly, smiling at Ken, and unable to resist giving her a quick kiss on the nose. Then they looked back at the battlefield, startled at the screams. The Bringers had grabbed their heads, and screamed to the heavens. Then their brains exploded, it burst open their eyelids, and splatted out the back of their heads, and then they dropped to the floor, all dead.


"Unexpected," Xander commented looking at the gory mess, lots of the human fighters were covered in the Bringer brains, "but pleasant."


"Ya think?" Alex told him with raised eyebrows, as their respective crows landed on their shoulders. Then a roar of joy and victory erupted from the fighters for the side of light. The only ones that were left, were the remaining fifty or so children of the black demon. Their wings flapped, and they just looked down at the battlefield. Then they gave each other look, then shrieked and fled. Flying away.


The humans watched them go for a moment, wondering what to do. Xander called out, "HUNT THEM DOWN, LEAVE NONE ALIVE, THEY ARE TOO DANGEROUS AS ADULTS!!"


The fighters gave an approving sound, and started running to their vehicles two streets away to give chase.


Next Chapter 11: Justice