Freedom
Episode 21 (Part I)
Sunnydale, California:
Buffy Anne Summers was the vampire slayer. The one girl in all the world chosen to fight the forces of darkness. She had lived longer than any other slayer had and had even died twice. She had come to Sunnydale in 1997, where she learned that this small town, which wasn't even on the map, was located upon a Hellmouth. The Hellmouth is a mystical portal that connects this dimension with other hell-like dimensions.
Buffy awoke with a horrible feeling in her stomach. She knew that today was the end, the end of the world, the end of her life. She was no where near prepared to face the greatest evil that the world had ever known, especially since she knew her friends wouldn't be there to help.
Willow, Xander, Anya, and even Spike had gathered into the family room. Buffy could tell that the four of them were nervous of what was to come. There was a knock at the door. Buffy opened it and there was Giles and the three potentials.
"Good morning, all," Giles greeted, smiling.
No one said anything. Giles knew that they were as nervous as he was.
"We must get down the high school," he said.
"What for?" Xander questioned.
"We have to be there when the seal is broken," Giles said.
"Oh, so we get to be right at the hellmouth," Xander said, "I always wanted to die at the Hellmouth."
"Buffy, you do know that you will be the one to face this evil," Giles said, "We will all back you up as best we can, but none of us have the strength and abilities to face it."
"I know, Giles," she answered.
Buffy turned to her friends and smiled.
"I know we won't make it today," she began, "I just wanted to say that I love you all. I'm glad you were here to help me during everything that I've ever faced. Thank you."
Buffy's friends came to her and gave her a big group hug, even Spike.
"Thank you, Giles, for being a great watcher. You have been like a father to me," Buffy said, smiling with tears in her eyes, "I would have gotten no where without your help."
"Your welcome, Buffy," he said.
Everyone hugged and smiled. They all said their goodbyes to each other. The greatest battle of their lives would begin in less than an hour.
"We must go now," Giles said, "It will begin soon."
Outside Sunnydale High:
"Oh my go!" Willow exclaimed, "Where's the school?"
When the gang arrived at the school, there was nothing there but a large area of dirt. In the center was a large round thing.
"That's the seal," Spike said from under his blanket.
"There couldn't be clutter in the way for the evil to escape, so it was destroyed," Giles informed.
Buffy looked up at the sky. Slowly, the moon was moving in front of the sun. It was getting dark.
"It's begun," Buffy said.
In a few minutes, the moon had completely covered the sun. It was now as dark as night. Spike pulled the blanket off of himself.
Buffy looked towards the seal and six figures formed in front of it, the Master, Drusilla, the Mayor, Adam, Glory, and Warren.
"It's been a while," Buffy said.
"It has," Warren replied, "But we're all ready to kick your ass all over this town."
"This is it, slayer!" the Master shouted, "The end is here."
With that said, the ground began to shake. The gang fell over, so did the six. A large cloud appeared directly over the seal. Energy came from the cloud and struck the seal. It began to glow.
"Here it comes!" Giles shouted.
The energy began to get unstable as more of it hit the seal. The ground shook more violently and no one could stand up.
"I'm ready for this!" Buffy shouted.
The six smiled as the life energy that they had gathered filled the seal. It was making the seal unstable, which was planned.
"Only a few more seconds," Drusilla said, smiling.
The earthquake finally stopped and Buffy stood up. She pulled her sword out of the scabbard and ran at the six. She brought it down on the head of Warren. Instead of disappearing, his head was sliced in two.
"Oh no!" the Master said, "We are no longer invulnerable to attacks!"
Buffy smiled as Warren's body fell to the ground. She brought the sword around and swung it at Drusilla's neck. Her head flew across the seal and turned to dust. Her body fell, but was dust before it hit the ground.
"Who's next?" Buffy asked.
The rest of the gang ran forth and the battle had begun. Spike, Xander, Anya, and Willow were keeping the Master occupied. Spike's features changed as he began beating the Master. The Master easily knocked away all four of them. He closed in on them while they lay on the ground.
The others weren't doing so well against the remaining four. The were getting their asses beat down. In a matter of minutes, they had the entire gang surrounded on the ground.
"It can't end this way," Giles said.
Suddenly the remaining for Big Bads began to scream in pain. Something was happening to them. They were burning up from the inside. Within a few moments, they were nothing but ashes.
"The threat isn't over yet," Buffy said, standing up.
She was looking at the cloud of energy above the seal. The energy was increasing. She brought her eyes down to the seal. The dark energy had almost completely covered the seal. Buffy stared in horror as the last of the seal was covered.
"Here it comes!" Buffy shouted.
With that, the seal exploded. The force of the explosion knocked Buffy back into her friends. She knocked them all to the ground. A large cylinder of energy shot up to the sky. The energy was black, which stood for pure evil.
"I am here!" it shouted.
Out of the beam of energy came a figure. It was the size of a normal man. In fact, it looked like a normal man. It had two arms, two legs, a head, two eyes, a nose, all the stuff that a human would have. His left eye had a large scar over it, preventing him from seeing and his other eye was completely black. He was bald and there were scars all over his head and face.
"I can feel it," Buffy whispered, "I can feel the evil radiating from him."
Malvagio floated above the destroyed seal. He smiled as he thought of all the destruction that he would cause. He looked around at this town. That's when he looked down, down at the group of people near the seal.
"Slayer!" he roared.
Buffy drew her sword from the scabbard. She was ready to take anything that he dished at her. She looked up at this evil. Malvagio was smirking.
"This place is too alive for my liking!" Malvagio shouted.
With that, he raised his arms and then brought them down. Just like that, Sunnydale was a burning hell. Everything was either burning or completely destroyed. Homes and other buildings lay, destroyed, on the ground.
"That's much better," he spoke, "Now slayer, this is it. This is where you die."
A bolt of energy flew from his arm towards Buffy. She dove out of the way and rolled on the ground. The dark energy barely missed her. It created a large crater where it hit.
"You can't dodge everything I throw at you!" Malvagio shouted, "Forces of darkness arise!"
The ground shook once again, but not enough to knock anyone down. Hands shot up from below the ground. Soon, the hands were able to pull up the rest of the vampire. This group of about thirty vampires was not ordinary vampires. Their eyes were completely black, just like Malvagio.
The second battle of good versus evil had begun. These were the toughest group of vampires that the gang had ever faced. Buffy was faring well against the vampires. She just swung her sword and beheaded several of them. The others dusted several more, but they were getting pretty beat up.
Buffy looked over her shoulder to see how they were doing. Giles had several cut all over his face and arms. All the slayers-in-training were injured in some way. Willow had a large cut across her forehead. Xander and Anya were covered in small cuts on their arms. Spike was missing a hand. Tears began to form in her eyes as she watched her friends getting beat down.
She quickly returned her attention to these super vampires. She sliced two more of their heads off and they turned to dust. Buffy kicked a few down into the large hole where the seal once was. She heard them scream as they fell. She realized that there was one left. She swung her sword at the head. With a clean swipe, the head was gone and it turned to dust, which blew away in the light summer breeze.
"You are good, Slayer!" Malvagio snickered, "But not good enough. The time will come when you must face me head to head. I will see you later. This world is just too alive. I will be back within a matter of hours."
With that, he disappeared. Buffy sighed. She collapsed to the ground. Giles, Xander, Willow, Anya, and Spike ran to her.
"Oh my god, what happened?" Willow questioned.
"She's exhausted," Giles said, "She needs to rest. She needs some water."
"Shouldn't we just carry her back to the house?" Anya asked, "Oh wait, never mind."
"We have no place to go," Giles said.
Willow returned from her water search. She was empty handed.
"Nothing," she said, "There's no where to get water."
Buffy's eyes started to flutter and they opened.
"Ow, what happened?" she asked.
"You passed out from exhaustion, Buffy," Giles informed, "You should be alright now."
"Where'd he go?" Buffy questioned.
"Oh, Malvagio," Giles began, "I'm not sure. He just disappeared."
"We have to find him. I can't let him do any more damage," she said.
"It's too dangerous, Buffy," Giles informed.
"I know where Malvagio is," Willow said suddenly.
"Where?" Giles asked.
"He's in Rome," Willow answered.
Everyone stared at her, confused.
"How…how did you know that?" Giles questioned.
"I can see him in my head. I guess that maybe because I was evil before, I have some sort of connection to him," she replied.
"Then we hafta go after him!" Buffy exclaimed.
"He'll be back here again, Buffy," Giles informed.
"I know that," she replied, "But that's the problem. He's not gonna come back until he destroys everything. We need to go there."
"And how do you plan to get us there?" Giles asked, "The airport is destroyed."
"We have Willow," Buffy put in.
"But Buffy, I'm not nearly powerful enough to get us all there," Willow argued.
"All of us don't have to get there," Buffy went on, "I'm the only one that really needs to go. Giles, I'm gonna need you and Willow as back up."
"What about me Buff?" Xander questioned.
Buffy never got to answer because more vampires came from underground. This time, they wielded weapons.
"Oh great," Buffy murmured.
She picked her sword up off the ground. And swung at a vampire carrying a sword. She sliced the arm hold the sword, and then went for the head. The head came off with a clean swipe and it dusted.
"Giles, watch out!" Willow shouted.
Buffy spun around in time to watch Giles get a spear to the gut. He fell down in pain.
"No!" Buffy shouted.
She threw the sword at the vampire that had speared Giles. The sword spun through the air and sliced the vampire in half. She ran to Giles and bent down besides him.
"Giles, I'm sorry," Buffy said.
"It's not your fault, Buffy," he told her, gasping for breath, "It's the evil."
Willow and Xander came running over. Willow bent down, tears in here eyes. She checked for a pulse.
"He'll be okay for a while," Willow informed, "But if we don't get him to a hospital, he'll die."
"But the hospital was destroyed along with everything else," Xander informed.
"Get him to LA!" Buffy shouted, tears in her eyes, "I'm going after it! Willow! Get us there!"
"But I don't know if I can," Willow argued, "I don't think I'm powerful enough."
"You can do it, Will," Buffy encouraged, "Do it for Giles! Do it for everyone in the world!"
Willow didn't respond. She started chanting. Buffy didn't know what language it was. Most likely some ancient language. Magikal energy enveloped the two women.
"Xander!" Buffy shouted, "You're in charge! Get Giles to LA!"
"I finally get to be in charge!" Xander exclaimed.
He turned to face the slayers-in-training and Anya.
"Alright, we have to get Giles to LA," Xander commanded.
The magical energy continued to swirl around Willow and Buffy. Willow continued chanting as the two disappeared from Sunnydale.
Rome, Italy:
The energy stopped swirling around them. They were no longer in Sunnydale anymore, but the buildings all looked the same. They were all destroyed.
"We're here," Buffy said, "Good job, Will!"
"Thanks, but now I'm exhausted," Willow replied.
"Willow, I'm gonna go into town and go after Malvagio," Buffy said, "Tag along after you've rested up."
"Alright," Willow said.
Buffy ran off. She headed up the path into the center of Rome. Willow watched her friend disappear up the road into Rome.
Buffy ran up the road. Stopped cars sat where they had been destroyed. Pieces of buildings lay all over the road. She looked out off to the sides of the road. Farmland and animals had been burnt to a crisp.
She made her way through the city gates. People were running towards her in fear and panic.
"What the hell are you doing here?" one old man questioned, "The city is being destroyed! You are going the wrong way!"
"No," Buffy replied, "This is my job, my duty. I will not run in fear from this evil."
"Suit yourself," the old man replied.
Buffy walked through the huge crowds that were trying to escape their destroyed city. Up ahead, she saw that the other half of the city was beautiful. It hadn't been harmed yet. That's when she noticed him, Malvagio. This evil being was firing dark energy from his arms at everything, totally destroying everything in his path.
"Hey loser!" she called to him.
Malvagio spun around at the voice. He looked down to see her, the slayer. He smirked.
"You came all this way to try and stop me?" he questioned, "Your efforts will fail you!"
He waved his arm and a group of about ten vampires appeared in front of Buffy, blocking her way. She drew her sword and the fight began. Malvagio turned back to his work, to leave her fighting his vampires.
They all rushed her at once, fangs bared. She swung the sword at the first two, slicing them in half. The next one got his head sliced clean off his shoulders. She tripped two and stabbed them through the heart.
Two more came at her. She swung the sword and the one ducked and the sword struck the remains of a building. It was stuck. Buffy didn't have time to pull it out, so she fought them with her hands. She snapped one's neck. Another, she smashed his skull into a stone wall. Both dusted.
Buffy pulled a stake out of her pocket and one of the vamps impaled itself on it. She spun around and staked the one behind her, without even looking. She went back to the sword and yanked it out of the building. Swinging it around, she sliced the head off the last vampire.
She ran up the street after Malvagio.
"Is that the best you could do?" she yelled.
Malvagio turned around, stopping his destructive path.
"What!" he shouted, "You defeated my minions!"
"That's right!" she smirked.
He pointed his arm at her and a beam of dark energy flew at her. Buffy didn't have enough time to dodge it. She knew that this would be the end. She had failed to save the world, just as the prophecy stated.
Suddenly, someone grabbed her waist and dove out of the way. She landed on her side, gasping. She turned to see who had saved her.
