Chapter 41- Apocalypse, War and Blood

-Buffy-

Angel's car and Gunn's truck are parked down the street from the warehouse. We all carry weapons. I have a nifty ax and my ever present stakes. Angel has his favorite broadsword. Gunn has his hubcap axe. Wes and Giles carry short swords and daggers. Willow and Tara carry only small daggers. Their real weapon, our real weapon, is their magic. Fred has a cross bow and a short sword but she's not going to be in the middle of the fight either. Angel says she's gotten good with a crossbow and should be able to help protect Willow and Tara.

"Ok, Willow, you're going to try and take care of the magic thing, right?" I ask walking beside the red head.

Willow nodded. "If we succeed you'll feel it, the problem is, so will she. You won't have much time once the spell is cast."

Willow and Tara have found a spell that will nullify all magic cast in an area. It's our best hope. If it fails, well, I hope we take Her Immortalness with us.

We sneak into the warehouse from a skylight above. There's so much noise from all the demons on the floor that they can't hear our relatively stealthy entrance. Willow and Tara take up their position at the back of the catwalk in a dark corner. They busily set up candles and herbs while the rest of us move forward. I look over the metal railing at the scene before me.

I don't think I've ever seen so many demons in one place. The concrete floor of the expansive warehouse is nearly covered in demons. They are all talking, shouting or readying weapons. This isn't the un-armed, un- prepared mob we faced a week ago. These guys are ready to go to war. That's okay; we're ready to go to war too. There is a large demon with gray mottled skin standing on the dais at the front of the building. It appears that he took Dulek's position as General.

There's a disturbance in the air. It gets that wavy look like when the heat comes up off the pavement. The Oracle steps through the disturbance and stands on the dais next to Gray guy. She's got this golden skin, really golden like the Oscars, and there are swirly blue-green tattoos painted all over her skin. Her dark hair is up and she wears a deep blue toga. She's actually really pretty in that other worldly way. There's a moment where I panic, I have to fight her? Then the Slayer in me takes over. I can do this. I have to do this because if I don't, there's no place far enough that Dawnie can run. I glance over at Angel on my right side. Gunn is on my left. Wes and Giles are just behind us. Fred has a position in the corner where she can use her crossbow to the best advantage. Angel smiles at me. He whispers the words "I love you." I whisper "I love you" back to him. He knows that. It's not why I say it. I say to give him strength, to give him courage and a reason to fight. I know he says it for the same reasons. I look down at the Oracle standing on the dais. It's time.

"I've got to hand it to you; you know how to make an entrance." I shout.

The Oracle looks up at me in shock. She can't believe someone had the audacity to crash her party. "Slayer, you're supposed to be dead."

"Well, we have one thing in common then." I retort.

"You can not stop me, Slayer. You can not even hope to delay my plans. I am all knowing, I am all seeing-"

"This explains why you didn't know I wasn't dead." I interrupt.

"Quiet, lower being and I will spare you." The Oracle says.

"You know, I failed the quiet part of the exam. Sorry." I do handstand on the railing of the catwalk and jump down, landing in a crouch among a pack of stunned demons. I notice Gunn, Angel, Wes and Giles all follow my lead, only no handstand. I always do have to make it pretty.

I spring up out of my crouch, ax already whirling. I cut one demon in half at his knees, another at his waist and cut a serious gaping hole in the chest of another. There is a second where the demons are to stunned to do anything. I use the time to surge forward toward the dais and the Oracle.

Angel is a few feet away from me cutting down demons as fast as he can. He is momentarily covered in demons. I hear a feral roar and there's a splash of blood. He fights his way up from under the mountain of demons, slicing and dicing as he goes. He smiles at me through bloody vamp teeth. There's a cut on his forehead that's dripping blood. I see a demon raise a sword over his head out of my peripheral vision. I turn and block it with my ax handle just in time. The blade slips off the wooden handle and slices into my upper arm. I vamp out and push through the pain, slicing the demon's sword arm off.

From somewhere behind me a mace clobbers the small of my back. I stumble to my knees. I can feel the blood drip into the waistband of my pants. Dammit my stakes are going to get all bloody and slick, not to mention a pair of my favorite pants. The same mace shatters my left shoulder. I scream in agony. I've got to get up; they are going to kill me down here. I shove up off the concrete with my right hand. The shattered bones of my left shoulder grind together. I don't know how I can hear this sound with all the other sounds of battle going through me, but I can. I slice up with my ax as I shove myself to my feet. The sharp blade catches on a demon's pelvis bone but then slices through cleanly. Two halves of one demon lay on the floor.

I glance up at the catwalk. Fred is still up in the corner of the catwalk shooting demons with her crossbow, and doing a fair job of it. I jump and launch a spinning roundhouse kick at a vahrall demon on my right. He stumbles back. I swing my axe one handed and cut deep into his neck. I don't have the power to cut all the way through with my left shoulder shattered the way it is. I pull the axe blade out of the vahrall's neck. I shove the pointed handle of the axe back into the heart of a vamp, he dusts before I can turn around.

I feel a dagger or maybe claws skitter across my ribcage. I spin on my heel, swinging the ax with me. A demon vaguely resembling a large bird, or the raptors on Jurassic Park, hisses and jumps nimbly out of the way. He lurches at me again. I feint, trying to avoid those razor sharp claws. I can feel the stickiness of my cold blood coating my right side. This is not how I thought I would die. I always figured vampire first and then when Angel turned me, I figured a clean stake to the heart. I didn't want to be picked to pieces by a demon squad. I wonder briefly if they'll auction my pieces on eBay. Oh come on, like they wouldn't? I'm the one and only Vampire vampire slayer.

I'm being backed into a hoard of demons that Gunn is taking on solo. He seems to be doing a damn good job. The bird thing is doing a good job of keeping me on my toes. It's just a matter of time before the bird gets me, or the hordes behind me. If I can stay alive a little while longer, Willow and Tara will have cast their spell and Angel will have a chance to kill the Oracle. Angel, where's Angel. Oh God, I can't see him. He's got to be okay though. I'd feel it if he wasn't, wouldn't I? Focus Buffy, bird thing in front of you, demon horde behind you. Stay alive a little while longer. The bird makes a swipe at me with his claws. I jump back, but I'm not fast enough. He slashes across my chest and stomach. Fire burns through me and the whole place goes silent, only it doesn't. I can see there should be noise, the clang of swords, screams of agony, there just aren't any. And I think maybe Willow did her spell. Things are getting black around the edges. I fall to my knees and then my hands. I close my eyes against a blow that never comes.

Cool, beautiful hands are lifting me up. Angel pulls me against his chest. He tilts my chin up with his fingers. "Quitting already?" he asks.

I shake my head. "Bird thing-"I hold my hands over my stomach. I think my intestines are trying to slip out. I don't really need them though, do I?

"Buffy, I need you to keep fighting." He looks through me, into me, into my very soul. He takes his jacket off and calmly, tightly knots it around my split open middle. I nod.

I pick up my axe and brace my back against Angel. We can fight this together and if we don't, then at least I get to die with him. I always knew I'd die young. It's part of the Slayer gig. It would have been nice to spend forever with Angel though.

There's a ripple that goes through the warehouse. I don't know how else to describe it. It's got to be Willow's spell. I glance up. The Oracle is still standing on her dais watching the battle raging below. She's only about 50 yards away, but its 50 yards covered with demons. I tap Angel on the shoulder. "I've got an idea. I need to get to that dais fast." I whisper my "plan" such as it is to him. This is so gonna hurt. I push the pain to the back of my mind again. I'm the Slayer, this I can do. This I have to do. I can worry about intestines spilling and whether it will kill me or not later.

"Buffy, are you sure?"

I nod. "Trust me. I spent every summer of childhood doing this with my older cousins. I've got this."

Angel makes a foothold with both of his hands. I step into it. Angel pushes up with his hands; I shove off of his shoulders. Pain arcs through my body. I feel like I'm being torn in half. Even so, Vamp reflexes and agility makes this so much easier then it used to be in the swimming pool. I flip through the air and land in a crouch on the dais. Her Immortalness actually looks surprised. She waves her hand in the air and then looks confused. She tries it again. Thank God for Willow's spell.

"So how'd you go from dead to vampire?" I slam a punch into her stomach. She blocks the roundhouse I was going to follow up with. She's strong.

"I wouldn't be much of an Oracle if I couldn't take back a day and prepare my own demise." She responds coolly. We could be having tea for all the ruffled she is.

"There is that. I've been meaning to talk to you about the time folding, day swallowing thing." I say as I dodge an uppercut and catch her in the ribcage with a front kick. She grabs my ankle and twists. I lose my balance and hit the dais hard. I hear more bones in my left shoulder crunch. Blood gushes from my sliced open abdomen.

The Oracle bends down to look at me lying broken and bleeding on her stage. "So you're the one he gave up his humanity for? I expected you to be...special."

"And you're the one that took away my memories of a perfect day." I say shoving myself off the floor and into her face. I reach up and grab a handful of dark hair. I slam her nose into my knee. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that." I say as I shove home my bloodied wooden stake. She dusts, like every vampire. The vamp dust clings to the sticky wet blood that covers my body. I collapse on the dais and lay there. I can hear the sounds of battle around me. The Oracle is dead but the battle is still going on.

I roll onto my right side. Angel and Gunn are less then 5 yards from the dais. All around them lay bodies and parts of demons. They are both covered in blood and gore, some of it their own, thankfully not all of it. Angel seems to be doing well, but I can tell Gunn is wearing thin. Even though it hurts, I've got to get back into this fight. I roll up to my feet. I lost my axe somewhere. My fingers loosely grip a stake. I jump down to the floor and it jars every bone in my body. I grit my teeth against the pain and wade into the war.

It's a blur, most of it anyway. I keep hitting and punching and kicking and the room keeps getting darker and darker. At some point I fall. I tell myself to get up. Myself doesn't listen. It's kind of funny, Angel thinking I'd be his legacy. It looks like he'll be mine.