SUNNYDALE POLICE DEPARTMENT
BARRICADED SUSPECTS; 01:07 AM
"But what do they want Dawn for?" As Robert turned down the dirt road, Officer Koch's patrol unit closely behind his own, Spike asked the question that was on all of their minds. "I mean, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Kidnapping definitely doesn't go along with the general theme the First established last year after all."
"What'd you do with camera boy?" Faith didn't want to deal with the subject of the First right now. With her mind totally set on Dawn, she hadn't even bothered to ask how he ditched the rather annoying little man to make room for Kennedy next to Spike in the backseat of his car. "He decide Sunnydale was a little too weird for him and pack off back to la la land?"
"He's riding with Koch, figured it might be a little crowded in here for him." After proceeding down a long dirt driveway, they came upon the house. Multiple Sunnydale Police, county sheriff and California Highway Patrol units were already on scene, the spotlights from their vehicles brightly illuminating the rickety old house. It was two stories with chipped, faded white paint, boarded up windows and the bringer's truck parked outside.
As the group exited the vehicle, Robert placing his own spotlights on the house as well, Spike was appalled at the sight in front of them. "You know, these bad guys have no sense of style anymore. "You'd never have caught Dru and me in a place like this." He continued thinking about his statement. "Okay, well a couple of times but those were really bad years and a guy has to have a roof over his head."
Robert could see the Sunnydale PD S.W.A.T. van with the team gearing up outside of it. Sergeant Myers waived him over to his car where it seemed as though they had established something of a temporary command post. Faith, Spike and Kennedy followed him. Officer Koch and the cameraman were close behind them. "Robert, Koch and Smith say you did a good job with the other two vehicles, though from the sound of it, I doubt these guys are going to be real willing to talk to our hostage negotiator once he arrives."
"Yeah, you can pretty much count that out," Robert agreed.
"We're not sure how many of them there are," Myers continued. "I counted eight getting out of the truck when I pulled up here but they may very well have hooked up with some more of their people inside the house. S.W.A.T. is getting prepped and will be ready to go in as soon as the chief tells us we have a go."
"So what, you just want us to sit back and wait for you guys to handle things?" Kennedy spoke up before any of the others "Our friend is in there, who knows what those guys are planning to do with her. We can't just sit back and do nothing!"
"Who's this?" Confused, Sergeant Myers looked at Robert.
Before Kennedy could spout off another comment, Spike put his hand across her mouth, muffling what was likely another smart retort. "She's a little girl who has had far too much excitement for one night and is just saying some wild things."
"So anyways," Sergeant Myers moved. "There are two entry teams going in, one from the front and one from the back. They're going to sweep the house, kill anything that doesn't give up and rescue the girl." The Sergeant made the whole thing seem so simple.
"It won't work," it was Faith's turn for the negative comment. "Your people don't know how to fight them. Guns work fine at first but there's going to be more of them in there than you can deal with by using a bunch of fancy pancy shooting and gadgets. You need people who've fought these things before."
"Sarge," seeing the anger swell in Myers' eyes, Robert knew he had to jump in before Faith started saying more things he would likely regret in the future. "Maybe we should give the hostage negotiator a little bit of time once he arrives. You never know, he might be able to talk them out. Anything's better than more killing and violence, we've already had quite enough of that tonight."
The sergeant nodded. "That's a good point Robert. I'll tell S.W.A.T. that they're on standby until the hostage negotiator gives the go. He should be here any minute now. In the meantime, if you could keep your friends out of my sight, it'd be greatly appreciated." Myers walked off. Faith clenched her fist, her nostrils flaring as she started to walk up behind him but was held back by Robert. It wasn't something she had wanted to do anyways, just something that would have given a temporary sense of release.
"Robert you have to let us go in there," Faith pleaded. "Spike, Kennedy and I can get Dawn out and not in a way that's going to end up in a bunch of cops getting their asses handed to 'em by the bringers." Looking at his expression, she didn't feel as though she was getting through to him. "Robbie, if you guys go trotting off in there trying to be heroes, Dawn dies. Whatever the bringers are up to, whatever they need Dawn for; it's not going to be the police that stop them."
"Faith, you know you don't have to convince me of anything."
That answer took her by surprise. "I don't? So you just let me ramble on with that big long speech because?"
"I like the sound of your voice," Robert shrugged. He didn't have a real reason. "Look, you'll have to circle through the woods to the back of the house. We've got people watching it but you'll probably have an easier time slipping in unnoticed. I'll stick close to Myers and the negotiator when he gets here, try to buy you all as much time as I can."
"Thanks Robbie," with a soft and genuine smile on her face, Faith reached out and gently squeezed one of his hands in her own. It was one of the little things Faith had a habit of doing without even realizing what it did to him. Knowing that she didn't even realize it, it was something he couldn't ever bring himself to call her on.
"Not a problem Faith. You'd better get going," she turned to walk away when her cellular phone rang from her back pocket. With everything that had been going on, she had forgotten about it being there. When she pulled it out and glanced at the neon blue display, only two words were displayed, 'Ringing' and 'Dawn'.
She couldn't move fast enough to press the send button and put the phone to her ear. "Dawn?" She heard nothing on the other end. "Dawn, is that you?"
"Faith," Dawn's voice on the other end was sheepish and tired.
"Yeah Dawn," she sat down on the hood of Robert's patrol car. "Yeah, it's me, I'm here, we're all here. Robert, Spike and Kennedy."
"Kennedy's okay?"
"Uh, yeah, she's fine," the fact that one of the first things Dawn said was to ask about another person took Faith by surprise. It seemed that she would be more worried about herself at this time. "I mean, had kind of a bumpy ride but she's none the worse for wear. How are you?"
"Okay, I guess, I mean, they haven't stabbed me or cut my innards out or anything, that's a good sign isn't it?" Faith chuckled and Dawn continued before she could answer the question that was mostly intended in jest. "I'm scared Faith. They keep saying that they need blood; they're working on some kind of ritual. You know, the last time someone needed my blood for some type of ritual, it wasn't exactly one designed to clean up the ozone layer."
"I know Dawn, just hang on, we're going to get you out of there," Faith did the best she could to reassure her. Even though she wasn't sure about their chances of success, she did promise herself one thing, Dawn would make it out of there. "Dawn, can you tell me where you are?"
Dawn was silent for a moment as Faith sensed she was looking around, trying to determine as much as possible about where she was being held. "It's one of the rooms upstairs, there's a few I think, I'm not sure which one it is. Most of the bringers and the other guy are downstairs I think."
That caught Faith's attention. With an alarmed expression on her face, she stood up off the hood of the car and almost began pacing. "Dawn, what other guy? We thought it was just the bringers."
"There's someone else. I just saw him for a second, he told me it wouldn't be long now. He called himself Brother Gabriel, I can't remember anything else, they carried me up the stairs right after that." Dawn's voice got softer, as if she was growing increasingly afraid that someone might hear her.
"Okay Dawn," this new information did not factor well into Faith's plan as she had to consider unknown information to be the worst case scenario. "Just hang on, we'll be right there." She put her hand over the end of the phone and handed it in Robert's direction. "Talk to her, if she remembers anything else, call Spike, just keep her occupied long enough for us to get in there and kick some ass." Robert nodded and pressed the phone to his hear.
The Slayer turned her back and walked away from him. She joined up with Spike and Kennedy who were already walking into the dense trees that surrounded the house on all sides. "You guys have a bad feeling about this?"
"Oh, what's there to have bad feelings about? Only an evil looking house with a bunch of evil guys piled up inside," both Faith and Spike shot Kennedy snide glares after that remark.
Spike then smiled. "My kind of place."
Robert placed the phone to his ear, unsure of what he should say. Keeping people calm while others went in to rescue them from the belly of a beast wasn't exactly his forte. "Hey Dawn," he scolded himself for coming up with such a truly non-impressive way to start a conversation.
"Hey Robert," he couldn't blame Dawn for not doing any better given her circumstances. Although the two of them knew each other, conversation hadn't exactly been something the two of them had had a great deal of time for.
"You doing all right?" Robert realized too late what a stupid question that in fact was. Of course she wasn't doing all right.
"Yeah, as good as could be expected I guess, given the whole being kidnapped thing," Robert smiled. It must be a good thing that she was at least able to make jokes about it.
"I'm sorry Dawn," Robert knew he wasn't the best person to be doing this. Even Spike could probably hold a better conversation with her than he was able to. "I guess I just not very good at this. Wish I could say something to help but the only thing I keep coming up with in my head is that Faith will be there any minute."
"I know Robert and you don't have to say anything to make me feel better. Just anything to pass the time would be helpful," Robert knew she was hinting at something that he missed.
"So what do you want to talk about?"
"There's something I've been wondering about actually."
"Shoot."
"How'd you and Faith first meet?" That was definitely a story good enough to kill the time until Faith rescued her and several hours afterwards.
***
It did not take the three of them long to sneak past the police officers keeping an eye on the back door. As Faith and Kennedy readied weapons and flashlights, Spike delivered a swift kick to the old, splintered wooden door. With a louder crash than he had wanted, it flew off its hinges, literally shattering as it impacted against the bland concrete floor of the house. Faith, with dagger in hand, poked her head inside the open doorway, scanning it for any activity from the bringers, surprisingly seeing none.
The Slayer stepped inside, Kennedy following behind her with a burning flashlight and Spike bringing up the rear. They walked into a long corridor, a set of stairs to their left and a door several steps ahead of them to the right side. "You two get upstairs," even though she knew where Dawn was, Faith suddenly felt drawn to checking out the other door. "Get Dawn and get out of here."
"No way!" Kennedy protested. "No way you're going to go wandering around here all alone." When they were outnumbered as it appeared they were, she felt that strength in numbers was definitely the way to go.
Faith looked over her shoulder. She said nothing but the eye contact she made with Spike said much more than needed to be. Spike could tell a thing or two about Slayers and the look in the eyes of this one told him she wouldn't be dying today. "Come on Kennedy," he put his hand on her shoulder and began to walk upstairs as Faith continued towards the other door.
"We're not just going to let her go by herself!"
"Yeah we are, she'll be fine."
Faith listened to the sound of their footsteps disappearing up the stairs as she cautiously stepped into the adjoining room. Ordinarily, she imagined it would be like much of the rest of the house, concrete floors, moldy wooden walls with flaking yellow paint and discarded wooden furniture adorned by cobwebs were the same as she had seen in the hallway they had entered from.
It was one object that was out of place here, one object she knew made this room more important than the others, at least as far as the bringers and the First were concerned. In the center of the room, surrounded by a pentagram drawn in white powder, with burning candles placed at each of its points was a golden podium. Faith guessed it was about three feet tall, adorned by rows of black and white jewels that wrapped around it. Above the flat surface atop it, red and black waves of energy swirled about, wrapping into a helix.
"Yeah, nothing good can be going on here," Faith remarked to herself as she went in for a closer look. It was a closer look she was apparently not destined to have. From the two doors that led into the room, bringers surged forth, weapons drawn and pointed towards her. Intermixed with them were several vampires in full battle form, snarling as they appeared in their full demonic form. The Slayer was instantly in a defensive stance, holding her dagger and poised to strike as the bringers and vampires surrounded her. "So, fifty against one, those odds sound about right for my life." The tension increased as they simply stood around her, prepared to strike but not making any aggressive movements that prompt her to attack first.
"So you must be Faith," she couldn't see where the voice with the slight Midwestern tinge had come from, only that is was from behind the rows of bringers and vampires that had surrounded her. Then, as the bringers directly in front of her parted, making way, she could see the speaker. A tall man, dressed in the garb of the bringers but with the hood over his cloak not obscuring his face, marked by short brown hair and similarly colored dark brown eyes. "The Slayer," he looked her over, almost feeling her breath as the rate of her breathing increased.
"Well, glad you know who I am," Faith did not let her guard down as the man with his arms held behind his back approached her. Every instinct she had told her this man was evil, not necessarily a difficult decision to make. "Don't suppose you'd want to do me the honor before the killing starts."
"I am called Brother Gabriel," the man said plainly as he towered over the Slayer. "Servant of the First Evil, disciple of Caleb." His voice did not hide that he was quite proud of those qualifications.
"Hate to tell you," Faith carried a smug grin on her face. "But one of your bosses is the dead and the other one, well, not really sure what happened but I think it ended up being scattered all across the hellmouth."
"Evil cannot be defeated," Faith sighed as she felt a long and drawn out speech from Gabriel coming, on the plus side, his stalling before the fight began was giving Spike and Kennedy enough time to get away with Dawn. "You can kill its servants, you can scatter its essence across the darkness of the hellmouth but you cannot defeat evil. Evil lives in every living thing; in the tiniest of children, in the actors, the businessmen and the grandma who sits on her front porch knitting a blanket. The First Evil is the embodiment of that evil."
"And it's gone," Faith tacked a low point onto the end of his speech.
"Not for long," Gabriel did not hesitate in his reply. "Soon the First Evil will be reconstituted, stronger and more powerful than ever before." He extended one of his hands, keeping the other behind his back and gestured to the podium. "Magic is tricky thing. Everything must be in perfect alignment for this spell to work and now, we lack only the final component needed, to reconstruct the First."
Now everything was beginning to make sense. She knew Dawn was different from everyone else and it didn't come as a big surprise that blood with that kind of power would be needed for a ritual like this. "Hate to tell you pal, but your hostage has probably already been rescued so you can toss whatever spell or ritual you wanted to perform out the door." She cocked her head sarcastically. "'Cause it's not happening anymore."
Gabriel broke out
laughing. Faith suddenly realized there
was more than she understood going on and everything was not as it seemed. "I'm afraid you've gotten it quite wrong Faith. She was of no interest to us, aside from
serving one useful purpose." Their eyes
locked as Faith's concern and fear began to rise. "To bring you here. This spell is an ancient one, one that has
never been used in all the thousands of years evil has existed,
there was never a need for measures such as this to be taken." Gabriel smiled as Faith began to realize what
was happening hear. "But surely you
didn't think, something so ancient and so perfect
wouldn't have a plan for bringing itself back if it ever were to be
defeated. It is the blood of a Slayer
that is required, more specifically, the blood of a Slayer whose soul has been
touched by evil."
Faith's strength did not falter, despite being faced with overwhelming odds, her courage did not diminish. "You want my blood, Brother Gabriel, come and get it."
With the same evil grin on his face, he reached behind his back, drawing the standard dagger of the bringers, running the sharp blade across one of his fingers as he looked Faith in the eye. "Gladly." As he advanced, blinding light filled the room, drawing Faith's attention to both of the doorways. She could barely see the silhouettes of the people as the lights attached to the barrels of their sub-machineguns were powerful enough to all but keep them hidden from sight.
"Police! Down on the ground!" The S.W.A.T. officer in the lead of one of the entry teams shouted as the officers spread across the room, surrounding the bringers and vampires. Faith could see Robert with them, their eyes caught as he kept his pistol aimed at the group of enemies. "Down on the ground now!" The team leader reiterated.
The distraction provided by the teams of police officers was all the time Faith needed. In a flash of speed, she snapped the wrist of the closest bringer, taking his dagger into her hand and stabbing him through the chest at the same time she stabbed another bringer on the opposite side with her dagger. The bringers reacted, as did Gabriel, all of them beginning to attack Faith.
This was all the motivation the police officers needed, especially as a group of bringers and vampires surged outward towards them. The barrels of their guns lit up as the fully automatic weapons blazed to life, slicing down the ranks of bringers as the bullets sliced through them. Robert took targets of opportunity as they came to him, shooting down any bringer that got to close, all the while trying to watch Faith's back. It didn't seem as though she needed the help however, she was fighting off the groups of bringers as they attacked, making the whole thing seem effortless.
Despite the chaos of the bringers attack and the gun fire around them, Faith and Gabriel focused on each other, everything else around them becoming mute. They closed on each other. Gabriel swung his knife, slicing through the air above Faith's head as she ducked to avoid the attack. She dropped low to the ground, sweeping her leg and knocking Gabriel's out from under him. As he fell to the ground, Faith sprung to her feet, knocking his dagger away with the weapon she had taken from the bringer and cut him across the neck with her own dagger. Blood squirted from the room, splashing across her face and clothes. As his dying body collapse and the bringers continued to fall around them, the energies over the podium dissipated. "Scatter!" Was Gabriel's last order to his remaining followers.
On cue, the vampires and remaining bringers who had not been cut down by gunfire pushed their way past the police officers, making a break for the two available doors. Robert rushed to Faith but she stopped him from being concerned about her before he was able to ask if she was all right. "Go," was all she said, prompting him to follow the other officers after the bringers. She was not far behind.
***
The bright light from the camera was almost more than Sergeant Myers could stand. This cameraman was almost more than Sergeant Myers could stand. It did at least help him pass the time while waiting to hear from the entry teams that had been authorized to go in once two of Robert's friends reportedly rescued the hostage from the building. "So after I graduated from the academy, I was offered a patrol position in Sunnydale. That was about eight years ago. Let me tell you, seen some damn strange things in this down. I was working this night-shift, three years ago or so and this big hole just like opened up in the sky and this dragon thing came out –" the sound of another officer's voice cut his interview short as the cameraman panned away to see what was going on.
"There they go!" The officer announced. Coming from every possible exit of the building, the men in dark robes bolted from the house with officers on pursuit. Sergeant Myers with the always enthusiastic cameraman followed. After a moment, Robert and Faith were the last to emerge from the front door of the house. They watched the frenzied scene of officers trying to chase them down.
"Not much we're going to be able to do," Robert conceded, placing his pistol back in the holster after reloading it with a fresh magazine. From behind the nearby group of police cars that had been left unattended, Spike, Dawn and Kennedy emerged, the two young ladies smiling.
Dawn ran to Faith, wrapping her arms around her. "Glad to see you're all right," she commented with an innocent smile which Faith returned as best she could.
"Same for you brat," realizing they wouldn't likely be of anymore use to the officers trying without a great deal of success to run down the bringers, they all decided a few minute's rest was in order and sat down on the porch of the house. Spike glanced around as the other officers still struggled and chased the bringers.
"How long are they going to keep this up?"
"I doubt much longer," Robert for one knew that, although the bringers were a threat, they had done the most they could to stop them for one evening. With Faith having killed their leader, it would take them a while before they could try anything again.
"So is this just a normal night on the job for you?" Kennedy looked up at Robert as she leaned back on her hands.
"No," Robert shook his head. "Usually I write a lot more speeding tickets, harass a lot more teenagers and spend a lot more time at the donut shop," Robert successfully managed to sum up every stereotype about police officers in a single sentence. "On the plus side," he glanced at his watch. "Still about six hours left to get all that done."
The chase and struggle between the bringers and officers winded down after approximately fifteen minutes. Robert and Faith helped subdue one, having to slam him on the hood of a patrol car once he was handcuffed and began struggling. Four were captured in all and taken downtown.
"Might be fun booking those guys in," Dawn observed as the last patrol car with a bringer in the backseat left the scene. "Emergency contact, The First. What do you do for a living, minion. Any health problems, no eyes." The approach of Sergeant Myers to the group put an end to Dawn's comments.
"You did good work tonight Robert," the Sergeant admitted. With a few notable exceptions, this ranked among some of his weirder nights but he was impressed with the way Robert had handled himself during the situation. "And you've got some good friends," that brought a smile to the face of Kennedy and Dawn. He looked at Faith and Spike, both of whom just seemed to want to get away from here. "I'll need the two of you to fill out some statements. No big deal, just some standard stuff."
"Right, no sweat," after this morning, Faith didn't care what she needed to do, so long as it got her out of here, into a hot shower, followed shortly by a bed. The Sergeant walked away, leaving the five of them standing around. Robert began walking to his car, pulling the keys out of his pocket. "So what's the plan now supercop?" Robert had an idea.
GO TO ENVOI