Greetings to all that are here. I'm guessing that a lot of you are angry about Angel being cancelled so I've decided to rub salt in the wound by, um, I mean try and ease the pain in some small way by writing this.
Disclaimer: I do not own Angel or anything that falls from the brain of the mighty Joss Whedon. Also, if I've ripped off someone else's idea then please tell me and I'll think of something else. If this has happened then I apologise.
All that matters.
By Richard Paul
Chapter 1: Surprise
The streets of Rome, somewhat surprisingly, shone brilliantly due to the unimpressive looking street lamps. The streets themselves however were all but deserted, most people were either fast asleep in their beds or had crammed themselves into assorted bars or clubs that were littered about the town.
Buffy couldn't sleep. The reason for this being a mixture of the uncomfortably warm temperature, and the fact that the assorted chaos of the past few months had passed, and she and Dawn had finally moved into their new apartment, (which although being somewhat smaller then her old house, was not filled with chittering potentials fighting for the bathroom), and lives in Italy had brought back thoughts that she'd had no time to dwell upon recently.
There were now hundreds, maybe even thousands of slayers all over the world. Each of them was slowly being located by Giles, (and a handful of watchers who had avoided a fiery death) and were being taught about their power, their destiny, how to use a stake. When this fact first occurred to Buffy, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Like Faith said, 'you gotta live like a person'. Two months on, this still seemed like a beautiful dream that she'd soon wake up from.
There were also those that didn't make it. A short stab of sorrow hit Buffy as she remembered those that had been lost, Molly, Eve, Amanda. One second she'd been a conventional teenager with a cheery personality and a history of pounding her classmates, the next she'd been a bloodied corpse on the floor.
You can't blame yourself for that, Part of Buffy's mind uttered, they knew the risks, and if you lead people into a battle, some of them are going to die, remember?
Unbidden, an image of Spike's encouraging speech, which had brought her back from the edge of despair and helped her to win the final battle, sprang to her mind. She banished it. It was still to painful to think of Spike. In spite of what he had said, she did love him, and he'd died before that love could truly amount to anything.
He knew the risks too, and he wouldn't want you to blame yourself, or feel miserable.
"Yeah, yeah." She responded to the pestiferous thought.
She had no intention of hanging up her wooden stakes for the rest of time. But for now, it was nice to live life without the fear of Demons leaping out of the shadows, or unexpected surprises. Rome seemed to have an aura of calm that made a welcome change to Sunnydale's aura of impending doom.
"Buffy?"
Buffy jumped at the sound of the familiar voice, with shock and sudden joy flooding threw her, she turned hurriedly and saw the face of Spike, whose face appeared to be revealing similar emotions.
It was impossible, her mind uttered after the shock had died down somewhat, he was dead.
"Spike?" Her voice, chocked with emotion, was barely able to utter the word, "is that…"
The appearance of shock and joy on Spike's face dropped abruptly, in its place was a smug, almost sinister grin.
"No, not really." he said as he waved a hand effortlessly through a nearby lamppost.
Buffy's emotions changed as abruptly as 'Spike's' facial expression. The joy was replaced by anger, as well as recognition. She was looking at the First.
She scolded herself for the slip up briefly, before returning her attention to the Spike shaped evil in front of her. The fact that it had chosen to show itself as Spike angered her, mainly because it brought back more painful memories, (which was precisely why the First had chose it.)
"I'm surprised you've got the nerve to show your face around here." Buffy said, her voice filled with grim satisfaction.
The First barely flinched.
"I have to admit, I was surprised by that fancy trinket of yours. Very inconvenient. Set…"
"Inconvenient? We kicked your ass, as well as the asses of your army turned dust. I'd call that a little more then inconvenient; humiliating maybe."
"The sun kicked my arse." Traces of anger and impatient were slipping into the voice, "All you and your group of upgraded whores did was stumble about feebly until the necklace thing started working. Besides, if you'd have let me finish, I would have said that all you did was set me back a couple of months."
"And how is that? There are slayers all over the world now, you're not…"
Buffy's voice was cut off suddenly by a familiar, low pitched growling that sent an icy chill up her spine. Quickly regaining her composure however, she looked in the direction of the sound for the beast that had made it.
"Tell me something Buffy, have you ever heard the expression, don't put all your eggs in one basket?"
Buffy's gaze returned to the First, grim realisation was sinking in.
"You don't think I would have been stupid enough to keep all the beasties under the seal did you? Come on Buffy, give me some credit."
Buffy wasn't listening. The growling had grown louder, and was coming from more then one place. Her first instinct was to run, to regain the higher ground as she put it, but it soon occurred to her that the Turukhan surrounded her, and running would just mean running straight into one.
"Call me petty if you must love," The First seemed to be resisting the urge to laugh, "But I thought a little vengeance might make me feel better."
The first of the beasts came into view. The vampire leaped over a nearby car. As it landed, it seemed to grin sadistically at Buffy, showing its numerous sharp fangs.
A second one appeared behind her. This one was armed with a knife that was stained with dripping blood which suggested recent use.
I'll kill him first. Thought Buffy as she noticed this.
Turukhan appeared all around her now; they had formed a crude circle around her. Each of them was hissing and snarling at her, waiting for the First to give the order to rip her to pieces.
Buffy examined her surroundings again, this time looking for anything she could use to propel herself out of the circle, a car, a bench, anything. There was nothing.
"Goodbye Buffy." The First said, (making no attempt to hide the satisfaction in its voice,) before vanishing.
The first of the Turukhan came at Buffy; the beast launched an unsuccessful kick at her head before attempting to land a punch at her chest. Buffy hastily moved forward and to the left, thereby evading the blow and placing herself next to the beast. Once there, she drew a stake from her jacket pocket and drove it through the Turukhan's ribs.
The Vampire exploded in a cloud of dust. The primal satisfaction that accompanied the kill was cut short as the remaining Vampires, angered by the slayer's victory, charged at her.
She dealt the closest one a kick to the face which sent it spinning to the ground with a cry of pain. She was less successful at blocking the other attacks however.
A blow to the ribs sent her flying backwards and skidding across the pavement. The Turukhan ran after her. She sprang to her feet more quickly then they had anticipated however, and their surprise allowed Buffy to drive her stake into another Turukhan's chest. The dust blew quickly away from the battle zone.
One of the vampires grabbed Buffy's arm and bit into it. She suppressed a scream, but her stake fell to the floor. She landed a punch to the Turukhan's head, his teeth left her arm, causing a new wave of pain as they went.
A second beast drove its fist into her face, sending her flying backwards once again, this time into a brick wall. The barrier gave slightly as Buffy collided with it.
Pushing herself off of the floor was harder then before, and blood trickled from her mouth as she did so.
The Turukhan wasted no time; one of the creatures quickly reached her position and placed one hand on her forehead, another on the back of her head. Buffy knew what was coming, she tried to release her head from the grip, but it was too late.
The vampire twisted, and Buffy's neck snapped with an audible crack. A new round of triumphant growling accompanied this as the surviving Turukhan examined their kill.
To be continued. Also I'm pretty sure I'm spelling Turukhan incorrectly so if someone knows the correct spelling, please tell me.
Disclaimer: I do not own Angel or anything that falls from the brain of the mighty Joss Whedon. Also, if I've ripped off someone else's idea then please tell me and I'll think of something else. If this has happened then I apologise.
All that matters.
By Richard Paul
Chapter 1: Surprise
The streets of Rome, somewhat surprisingly, shone brilliantly due to the unimpressive looking street lamps. The streets themselves however were all but deserted, most people were either fast asleep in their beds or had crammed themselves into assorted bars or clubs that were littered about the town.
Buffy couldn't sleep. The reason for this being a mixture of the uncomfortably warm temperature, and the fact that the assorted chaos of the past few months had passed, and she and Dawn had finally moved into their new apartment, (which although being somewhat smaller then her old house, was not filled with chittering potentials fighting for the bathroom), and lives in Italy had brought back thoughts that she'd had no time to dwell upon recently.
There were now hundreds, maybe even thousands of slayers all over the world. Each of them was slowly being located by Giles, (and a handful of watchers who had avoided a fiery death) and were being taught about their power, their destiny, how to use a stake. When this fact first occurred to Buffy, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Like Faith said, 'you gotta live like a person'. Two months on, this still seemed like a beautiful dream that she'd soon wake up from.
There were also those that didn't make it. A short stab of sorrow hit Buffy as she remembered those that had been lost, Molly, Eve, Amanda. One second she'd been a conventional teenager with a cheery personality and a history of pounding her classmates, the next she'd been a bloodied corpse on the floor.
You can't blame yourself for that, Part of Buffy's mind uttered, they knew the risks, and if you lead people into a battle, some of them are going to die, remember?
Unbidden, an image of Spike's encouraging speech, which had brought her back from the edge of despair and helped her to win the final battle, sprang to her mind. She banished it. It was still to painful to think of Spike. In spite of what he had said, she did love him, and he'd died before that love could truly amount to anything.
He knew the risks too, and he wouldn't want you to blame yourself, or feel miserable.
"Yeah, yeah." She responded to the pestiferous thought.
She had no intention of hanging up her wooden stakes for the rest of time. But for now, it was nice to live life without the fear of Demons leaping out of the shadows, or unexpected surprises. Rome seemed to have an aura of calm that made a welcome change to Sunnydale's aura of impending doom.
"Buffy?"
Buffy jumped at the sound of the familiar voice, with shock and sudden joy flooding threw her, she turned hurriedly and saw the face of Spike, whose face appeared to be revealing similar emotions.
It was impossible, her mind uttered after the shock had died down somewhat, he was dead.
"Spike?" Her voice, chocked with emotion, was barely able to utter the word, "is that…"
The appearance of shock and joy on Spike's face dropped abruptly, in its place was a smug, almost sinister grin.
"No, not really." he said as he waved a hand effortlessly through a nearby lamppost.
Buffy's emotions changed as abruptly as 'Spike's' facial expression. The joy was replaced by anger, as well as recognition. She was looking at the First.
She scolded herself for the slip up briefly, before returning her attention to the Spike shaped evil in front of her. The fact that it had chosen to show itself as Spike angered her, mainly because it brought back more painful memories, (which was precisely why the First had chose it.)
"I'm surprised you've got the nerve to show your face around here." Buffy said, her voice filled with grim satisfaction.
The First barely flinched.
"I have to admit, I was surprised by that fancy trinket of yours. Very inconvenient. Set…"
"Inconvenient? We kicked your ass, as well as the asses of your army turned dust. I'd call that a little more then inconvenient; humiliating maybe."
"The sun kicked my arse." Traces of anger and impatient were slipping into the voice, "All you and your group of upgraded whores did was stumble about feebly until the necklace thing started working. Besides, if you'd have let me finish, I would have said that all you did was set me back a couple of months."
"And how is that? There are slayers all over the world now, you're not…"
Buffy's voice was cut off suddenly by a familiar, low pitched growling that sent an icy chill up her spine. Quickly regaining her composure however, she looked in the direction of the sound for the beast that had made it.
"Tell me something Buffy, have you ever heard the expression, don't put all your eggs in one basket?"
Buffy's gaze returned to the First, grim realisation was sinking in.
"You don't think I would have been stupid enough to keep all the beasties under the seal did you? Come on Buffy, give me some credit."
Buffy wasn't listening. The growling had grown louder, and was coming from more then one place. Her first instinct was to run, to regain the higher ground as she put it, but it soon occurred to her that the Turukhan surrounded her, and running would just mean running straight into one.
"Call me petty if you must love," The First seemed to be resisting the urge to laugh, "But I thought a little vengeance might make me feel better."
The first of the beasts came into view. The vampire leaped over a nearby car. As it landed, it seemed to grin sadistically at Buffy, showing its numerous sharp fangs.
A second one appeared behind her. This one was armed with a knife that was stained with dripping blood which suggested recent use.
I'll kill him first. Thought Buffy as she noticed this.
Turukhan appeared all around her now; they had formed a crude circle around her. Each of them was hissing and snarling at her, waiting for the First to give the order to rip her to pieces.
Buffy examined her surroundings again, this time looking for anything she could use to propel herself out of the circle, a car, a bench, anything. There was nothing.
"Goodbye Buffy." The First said, (making no attempt to hide the satisfaction in its voice,) before vanishing.
The first of the Turukhan came at Buffy; the beast launched an unsuccessful kick at her head before attempting to land a punch at her chest. Buffy hastily moved forward and to the left, thereby evading the blow and placing herself next to the beast. Once there, she drew a stake from her jacket pocket and drove it through the Turukhan's ribs.
The Vampire exploded in a cloud of dust. The primal satisfaction that accompanied the kill was cut short as the remaining Vampires, angered by the slayer's victory, charged at her.
She dealt the closest one a kick to the face which sent it spinning to the ground with a cry of pain. She was less successful at blocking the other attacks however.
A blow to the ribs sent her flying backwards and skidding across the pavement. The Turukhan ran after her. She sprang to her feet more quickly then they had anticipated however, and their surprise allowed Buffy to drive her stake into another Turukhan's chest. The dust blew quickly away from the battle zone.
One of the vampires grabbed Buffy's arm and bit into it. She suppressed a scream, but her stake fell to the floor. She landed a punch to the Turukhan's head, his teeth left her arm, causing a new wave of pain as they went.
A second beast drove its fist into her face, sending her flying backwards once again, this time into a brick wall. The barrier gave slightly as Buffy collided with it.
Pushing herself off of the floor was harder then before, and blood trickled from her mouth as she did so.
The Turukhan wasted no time; one of the creatures quickly reached her position and placed one hand on her forehead, another on the back of her head. Buffy knew what was coming, she tried to release her head from the grip, but it was too late.
The vampire twisted, and Buffy's neck snapped with an audible crack. A new round of triumphant growling accompanied this as the surviving Turukhan examined their kill.
To be continued. Also I'm pretty sure I'm spelling Turukhan incorrectly so if someone knows the correct spelling, please tell me.