"Did I come at a bad time?" Bacchus asked as he walked towards Buffy.
"Leave. Now." Buffy ordered, trying to summon up as much courage as she could.
Instinctively, she shielded Tara with as much of her own body as she could. Bacchus looked down at Tara's face and then smiled.
"Well, that's interesting. I haven't seen one of those in a while. It always astounds me to see that they know to apply their war paint. It must be instinct. Or perhaps, perhaps a little bird told them." Bacchus said as he reached down and picked up Poe.
"Put him down! I'm warning you!" Buffy yelled.
"Or you'll what? Shout at me some more? Please." Bacchus said, as he began to pet the frantically cawing Poe, "There, there, good bird. Did you know that your friend there's power comes from this filthy flying rat? That if it were to die, that she would lose her power and just be mortal again. And with those wounds, I don't think she'd last very long."
"You do it, it's THE last thing you'll ever do." Buffy growled.
Bacchus placed two fingers about Poe's neck, "It's not a good feeling is it? To be powerless. To not be able to fight or even run. You can't even protect a bird from me. Such a little thing, it's barely worth the effort."
Bacchus then smiled and sat Poe down on the ground and pet the bird again. He smiled at Buffy and faster than she could see, jerked Tara from her grasp and held her high in the air by the throat.
"Put her down!" Buffy screamed in horror, trying to stand, and only getting to one knee.
"Come on Slayer, stand. Save your friend from me." Bacchus grinned backing away while still holding Tara.
Buffy grunted in pain and barely stood, though she soon fell back to one knee. Bacchus laughed at her and then traced a claw around Tara's neck. With a chilling smile, he turned back to Buffy.
"You know, I've always wondered something about these crow wraiths. How long would it take them to completely regenerate say…nine pints of blood?" Bacchus mused as he licked the spot he ran his claw over.
Buffy stood again and did not fall this time. She glared daggers at Bacchus and actually took a step. Bacchus smiled immensely.
"Good, now take another before I bite into her sweet, succulent, little neck." Bacchus said running his fangs along Tara's tender flesh.
Buffy took another step, and then another, before faltering and going to her knees again.
"Oh Slayer, you disappoint me. You were doing so well. Can't you save her? Come on hero, save her." Bacchus smirked, biting ever so softly into Tara's neck.
Tara groaned in her unconscious state as Buffy stood again, fire in her eyes. Her back hurt like hell, it was hard to walk, and her hands were sliced open, but she was FAR from broken. She took another step, then another, then another. She broke off into a small run and leapt in the air, going for a jump kick. And she was batted away as Bacchus easily sidestepped the maneuver.
Buffy grunted in pain when she hit the ground and looked up again, seeing Bacchus drinking from Tara. Buffy scanned the area for something, anything. She found a stone, rounded and not very large, but it was all she had. She threw it as hard as she could right at Bacchus's ugly face. He caught it and threw it back, hitting her square in the nose. As Buffy clutched her nose in pain, Bacchus withdrew his head from Tara's neck and issued forth a deep, throaty, laugh.
"Now I must say, I haven't even been challenged yet and I already enjoy this. This is the most fun I've had in a century or more." Bacchus bellowed.
"Go to Disneyland once in a while then." Buffy grunted in pain as she tried to stand again.
Bacchus looked at Buffy and smiled, before he looked ahead when the lights shined on him. The black Desoto screeched to a stop in the middle of the graveyard, and Spike exited the vehicle fully vamped and smoking a cigarette. He was also carrying a shotgun that he always kept around, just in case he needed it. Hell, he was going to shoot Buffy with it as little as two years back.
"Well, if it isn't the man himself. Bacchus right?" Spike asked, showing a lot of his trademark cockiness.
"William the Bloody." Bacchus grinned, tossing Tara to the ground.
"Spike'll do just fine, mate. And what's this I see? You picking on my girls? 'Cause if you are, well that's not very gentlemanly of you." Spike smirked, the wounds on his stomach already sealed.
"I have no quarrel with you or with anyone of my own kind." Bacchus stated, sizing up the much younger vampire.
"True, but see, I got this real nasty habit of picking fights with my kind. I really get into it. Gets the blood all fired up. Now how about you step away from my friends there and then you can keep your head squarely on your shoulders before I blow it…"
The gun was sliced in half by Bacchus's claws so quickly he didn't have time to blink.
"…off. Cute trick." Spike mused before he was slapped into the windshield of his car.
"You're amusing. I'll give you that." Bacchus smiled as he lifted Spike and threw him into the air like a ragdoll. Spike landed with a thud and before he knew it, Bacchus's foot was on his chest, "Would you die so that they might live?"
"In a heartbeat….well metaphorically speaking." Spike growled unable to move.
"For both of them?" Bacchus asked.
"Yeah." Spike said gritting his teeth.
"Why? Why would you die for either of these women?" Bacchus asked.
"They don't treat me like a freak." Spike replied.
"The Slayer kills our kind." Bacchus stated.
"Yeah, but I figure most of our kind need it." Spike answered.
"I have no true interest in the crow wraith, but I have lots in the Slayer. So tell me, would you die for her?" Bacchus asked, staring Spike straight in the eye.
"Yes."
"Would you be my prisoner? My slave?"
"Yes, you ugly piece of shit."
"Could I torture you? Tear open your innards and pour salt in them?"
"The answer is still yes."
"Now, answer me this truly, why would you, a vampire, ever die for a Slayer?" Bacchus asked.
"Because I love her." Spike replied.
Bacchus's foot came off of Spike's chest.
"Then take her and love her one last time, because when we next meet, she will die." Bacchus said as Spike began to stand up.
"You could kill all of us now." Spike stated.
"Ah, but that wouldn't be fun. Besides, I know what it is to be one of us, and love one of them." Bacchus replied before virtually disappearing from sight.
"Fast little bunny rabbit ain't ya?" Spike mused before walking to Buffy's side and kneeling, "Are you alright, pet?"
She replied by punching him right in the eye, "You stupid son of a bitch! He could have killed you! He might have by the way he was talking!"
Spike merely growled, "Bloody Hell woman! I would have died for you! God I swear, all I heard ever since I hooked up with your soddin' lot was about how disgusting and loathsome and evil I am, but when a guy gets a soul and tries to do something genuinely heroic he gets punched!"
Buffy wrapped her arms around him and buried her head in his shoulder. Something shot through Spike then. She wasn't mad at him. She was scared for him.
"I don't want to lose you." Buffy admitted as small tears came from her eyes.
"Then you never will, luv. I'll be with you 'till the end. I love you, but right now we need to get you and Tara and her idiot bird in my car and back to your place before some other nasty thing comes around and decides to take a bite out of you." Spike said, shaking her.
"Right, right. You get Tara and Poe. I'll get in the car." Buffy said, shaking off the events of the last few minutes. She crawled to Spike's driver side door and into the passenger seat.
Spike sighed and limped over to where Tara lay, with Poe back at her side again.
"That one's gonna give herself a heart attack before she's thirty." Spike mused as he picked up Tara and walked back to the car with Poe walking along at his side, "Women huh? Craziest lot God ever put on this world."
Poe cawed, seemingly saying something in crow-speak. Spike of course had no idea what it was (he only spoke English and Fyarll after all) but could reason it was a caw of agreement, so there was only one way to reply.
"Amen to that."
"So where's the ship at?" Agent J asked, looking around in the forest where he stood with K, "And man K, I'm warning you, if Bigfoot comes outta nowhere that is just it! You can find yourself another partner, because I can't handle any Pacific Northwest Bigfoot bullshit."
"Well you might have to. According to Dr. Benton Quest, Bigfoot is an extraterrestrial." K replied looking at the small machine in his hand.
"Now how the hell do you have all this information?" J asked.
"I read tabloids." K replied, "Seems our ship is this way. Wait, that way."
"You're going to get us lost like those kids in that movie." J said, following K through the foliage.
"What movie?"
"Blair Witch."
"Oh I don't watch horror movies. They upset my stomach." K said as he bent a tree limb out of his way.
"You can handle swimming inside a giant cockroach, but some low budget, indie movie makes you a little queasy?" J asked, as the limb hit him right in the face.
"Watch the limb there, sport." K warned.
He stopped and looked around seeing nothing. J trudged up to him slightly out of breath.
"What? Why ya stopping?" J asked, "You did get us lost didn't you?"
"No, just the proton emission tracer says that the ship is right here. Must still be cloaked." K said looking around again.
"Whoa, whoa, I read through the files when you were taking a leak at that gas station. Predator ships usually burrow." J stated.
"That's just the big ones. This is a shuttle. None of this makes any sense." K said, "Predators always come in bigger ships, not shuttles. Shuttles are just used to ferry them around a few hundred miles of each landing. Why would a lone shuttlecraft land on a planet, while the mother ship hangs back at the other end of the solar system?"
"Runaway?" J theorized.
"Predators don't usually run away. Order is instilled at an early age. This just doesn't add up." K furrowed his brow.
"Yeah, like all this is so logical." J mused, "Hey K, how close are we to the shuttle?"
"Around, fifteen, twenty meters. Why?" K asked.
"Well if we're so close, couldn't we be attacked right now?" J asked in reply.
"That is a possibility, junior." K replied.
"Great. So uh, how many Predators does one shuttle usually hold?" J asked, looking around nervously.
"Anywhere from one to ten." K stated.
"Don't you think we should have some back up then?" J asked.
"Who? Frank?" K said in reference to the small alien dog.
"I see your point. Still, the only thing I know is that we've been talking loudly for the last few minutes while we're near a cloaked ship that potentially holds one to ten extremely pissed off intergalactic hunters." J said nervously.
"Yeah, and your point?"
"We're not dead yet."
"I hadn't noticed."
"Seriously K. I mean if you were a Predator, would you let just anyone snoop around your ship?" J asked.
"Not really. That means one of three things. One, they're all out hunting. Two, there are less of them than we think. Or three, we're already surrounded and they're ready to blow holes in us any minute." K replied.
At which time, both men looked around as crickets chirped in the vicinity.
"Let's keep moving." J said.
"Good idea." K replied.
"Oh Goddess! Tara!" Willow shouted as Spike walked in carrying her lover.
Kennedy was hot on her tail, "What happened?"
"Was it Bacchus?" Xander asked, walking up slowly.
"No…well not at first. It was our other demon…I think." Buffy walked in carrying Poe.
"Well if it wasn't, now we have three Big Bads to deal with." Spike mused tiredly.
"You came out of it alright." Robin said, walking out of the living room and glaring at Spike.
"Yeah. Wasn't fun though." Spike glared, "In fact it hurt like hell and I'm in no mood for a chest beating contest right now."
Willow was rubbing Tara's face as Spike still held her with Kennedy right at her side.
"Tara? Baby?" Willow asked, almost tearfully.
"Can you hear us?" Kennedy asked.
"Nhhh….head...hurts." Tara said weakly, her eyes still closed.
"Spike, we need to get her upstairs." Willow said panicky.
"Yeah, move it bottle blonde!" Kennedy ordered.
"WILL YOU PLEASE GIVE ME A MINUTE?" Spike turned to the two of them, vamped out before closing his eyes and reverting, "I'm sorry, I'm just a little tired and in quite a bit of pain. I'll take her upstairs and you can baby her all you like."
"Here, she might want this." Buffy said, handing Poe to Kennedy before she limped to the couch.
Xander walked to Buffy and helped her to the couch as Spike carried Tara upstairs with Kennedy and Poe in tow. Willow opted to stay behind with the rest.
"What the hell happened out there?" Willow asked a little shocked at the severity of everyone's wounds.
"Yeah Buff, we don't usually see you this beat up. What happened?" Xander asked.
"We got our asses kicked. Hard. It was a demon, like one I never saw before. At first it was invisible and it was shooting all these blasts around. Tara had a hole blown in her. Then it was all visible and proceeded to beat us down." Buffy answered.
"Oh God Buff your hands." Xander said, looking at the wounds there.
"Grabbed this blade thing he had on his wrist. My hands hurt, but I wouldn't be sitting here if I hadn't grabbed it. Slayer healing will take care of it." Buffy mused.
"Still you probably need some First Aid. You have a kit around here?" Robin asked.
"Look under the sink." Willow said.
"I am so glad I sent Dawn away. Connor too. That thing would have killed him if he had run on it by himself. It was really tough." Buffy said.
"How'd you beat it?" Xander asked.
"I have no clue to be honest. It just walked away. Then Bacchus showed up and played around with us too, and then poof he leaves too after Spike saved us." Buffy related.
"And he didn't charge you?" Xander asked before getting a glare from Buffy, "Sorry, still not used to the whole soulful Spike thing."
Robin walked back in with bandages and antiseptic and sat beside Buffy on the couch, "Here, put your hands up."
Buffy didn't argue at all and let her wounds be cleaned and dressed.
"How did he save you guys?" Xander asked.
"I think it was mainly one of Bacchus's mind games. He held Spike down and asked him if he'd die to save us. He said yes." Buffy said, before looking at her bandaged hands, "Great. Now I have mitten hands."
"I'm going to go upstairs…Tara she probably…" Willow started to stammer.
"Go. She needs you." Buffy said to her friend.
Willow hurried up the steps as quickly as she could and ran to their room. Kennedy was sitting on the bed by Tara with Poe on her lap. Willow came in and hugged Kennedy from behind and looked down to Tara, still a little teary eyed.
"How is she?" Willow asked.
"She's slipping in and out of consciousness and she probably doesn't feel too good, but she's healing. I've never seen her hurt this badly before." Kennedy admitted, more than a little scared at Tara's situation.
"Neither have I, but she'll be fine. She's our girl." Willow said, trying to alleviate her own fears.
Kennedy looked up at Willow and pulled her down into a kiss, "Yeah. She is."
"Hey, I'm going to be right back okay? I need to do something." Willow stated suddenly.
"Okay, I'll watch her….I mean we'll watch her." Kennedy said, petting Poe.
Willow walked out of the room and down the hall to the room where Buffy and Spike slept. Willow knocked on the door and got no response. She knocked again and still no answer.
"Spike? Can I come in?" Willow asked.
She got a half awake answer which she thought sounded like a yes.
Willow walked in and found Spike lying on his stomach in bed, still dressed in his clothing from earlier in the evening. Willow looked at him for a moment before speaking.
"Hey Spike, are you awake?" she asked.
"Slightly. Again, I'm sorry for snapping at you downstairs. There you got your apology, so scat." Spike growled.
"That's not what I'm here about." Willow said, shuffling a foot, "I wanted to say thanks, for saving Tara…Buffy too…but mainly Tara. That sounds so selfish of me now that I look back at what I said but…"
"You're babbling." Spike said, still lying down.
"Sorry."
"It's not a problem."
"Thank you." Willow said, without babbling.
"…You're more than welcome Red." Spike replied.
Willow smirked, "You're not such a bad guy when you have a soul."
Spike groaned, "Yes I am. I'm bad. I'm evil."
"Not even if you tried." Willow smirked again.
"You got me."
"You want anything? Blood? A beer?" Willow asked.
"No, I'm good…thanks though Red." Spike said, sounding half asleep.
"Okay, well…goodnight." Willow said as she started to walk out of the room.
"On second thought, a mug of blood wouldn't be half bad right now. Just crumble some Wheat-A-Bix in it to give it texture."
"Ew."
"Eh, it's the life I chose Red."
Spike smirked as heard Willow leave and go downstairs to get him some blood. It had taken three years and he'd worked his ass off and even gotten a soul to do it, but he was finally getting something he craved from these people. Acceptance.
"Do me a favor, sport. Throw a rock." K said as he and J walked along.
"Like now?" J asked.
"Yeah. Right in there." K pointed.
"That where you think the shuttle is?" J asked.
"Yeah. Throw a rock." K replied.
J picked up a rock and tossed it in the air.
"Oh and you might want to step to the side." K added.
J did just that as the rock clanged against metal that wasn't there and a large plasma burst hit the ground where J stood previously.
"Damn it K!"
"What? I told you to step to the side." K said, "Automatic firing sequence anytime anything comes in contact with the ship while it's cloaked without putting the proper code in."
"Okay Sherlock, what now?" J asked.
K pulled out his Series IV De-Atomizer and fired at the ship producing a small explosion as he did.
"The guns are always on the port side. Let's go." K said, walking towards the ship.
"Whoa. I can make it out a little now that we're closer." J said.
"Not a perfect lightbend is it? Still it can't be picked up by the usual sensor arrays. Now let me see, the access to this thing should be right around…here." K said putting his hand up to the solid object. He reached into his right pants pocket and produced a small cylinder like object.
"What's that?" J asked.
"Skeleton key." K said feeling around and then placing the key in a slot on the ship. A door suddenly began to open and light shined out below the ship.
"How come I never got one of those?" J asked.
"You have one. Right pocket. Standard issue. Did you read the manual at all?" K asked.
"Ha ha. There is no manual." J stated.
"Okay you got me. And they're not standard issue. These things are technically illegal." K replied.
"Why's that?" J asked.
"Sends a surge of energy into the door system to make it open up. Sometimes it follows the wrong pathway and goes to the engines making the ship explode." K explained.
"And you're still alive, how exactly?" J asked.
"Ready to go in?" K asked.
"Sure, let's go get killed. After you." J smiled.
"Why thank you." K said as he began to walk up the steps of the shuttle. He stopped dead in his tracks, "This just got worse."
"Why? Is it a Predator?" J said, looking up the steps in front of K to see…nothing, "Huh? What's the deal?"
"Look at that crest on the wall as you go in. You see that it's perfectly visible as you go up the steps?" K said.
"Yeah, so?"
"This isn't just any Predator junior. This guy is royalty. That's the crest of Hunt Master."