The Dark Gifts
Chapter IV
"Who the hell are you?" Faith said annoyed. "The name's Daemon. And you're about to meet your maker." Daemon smiled evilly and attacked the group. Buffy attacked from the left and Faith from the right. They both threw punches and various kicks from each side. Daemon blocked a few kicks but was thrown backwards into a bunch of crates. "Let's get out of here guys!" Jessie yelled as they headed for the door. "You're not going anywhere!" Daemon appeared in front of the door. "How'd you...?" Buffy said as they all backed up. "Don't worry about it. Soon it won't matter!" Daemon said as he charged at them.
Ryan ran, jump-kicked Daemon backwards. "You guys get out of here now!" Ryan yelled as Daemon attacked him. He swung his halberd at Daemon nearly hitting him but failed to do so. Everyone ran back towards the door. Daemon picked Ryan up by his neck. "Child! Did you really think that you could hurt me? I will crush your skull with my bare hands!" Daemon threw Ryan into a wall nearby and started after the group. Everyone's breath quickened as Daemon got closer. "You have seen too much and you cannot leave this place alive!" Jessie and Louise looked at each other nodded. "Let's go!"
Jessie and Louise ran at Daemon throwing multiple kicks and punches. "Hold your ground!" Faith yelled as she and Buffy ran to help out their fellow slayers. Xander, Giles, Darius, and the other slayers ran to Ryan's side. "Ow...ow!" Ryan complained as they helped him up. "Son of a bi..." Daemon looked up and saw the group helping Ryan up. "You'd be wise to watch your mouth, Child! I'm not done with you yet!" Buffy, Faith, Jessie, and Louise jumped on Daemon knocking him to the floor with them on top of him. "Guys, move it! We can only hold him down for so long!" Buffy yelled. The floor rumbled loudly.
"What the..." Louise's statement was cut off by Daemon throwing them all off him. "You cannot defeat me! I will catch and destroy you all!" Ryan regained his health and was ready to fight. He pulled out from Giles and Darius and jumped down to the floor. "Correction, you're gonna try to catch and destroy us all..." Ryan brandished his axe as fire could be seen in his eyes "or die trying." Faith, Buffy, Jessie, Louise and the other slayers went to Ryan's side looking strong. "Cause' without a team, you ain't got shit." Faith said as Ryan cast a sideways glance at her with a smirk. Daemon's anger grew fast.
"You think that just because you seem to have friends who will help you that I don't? Think again!" His voice grew more demonic as he raised both hands and the ground started to crack. A hand shot through the floor and everyone screamed. It looked like zombies were being raised from the grave. As they appeared the group huddled closer. The appearance of these new monsters was really destroying everyone's hope and beliefs in winning this fight. Ryan started forward clutching his axe tightly. "I don't fight flunkies. I fight the master and I intend to kick some ass!" Ryan charged at Daemon slashed at him.
The others began to fight these zombies like creatures from what looked like the bowels of hell. Daemon brandished his own skeletal sword and countered Ryan's attack. Everyone ran about fighting and helping each other. Even Xander was holding his own. A pair of eyes watched the group with intensity. "You're strong Ryan McCarthy. But I bet looks can be deceiving." The voice whispered while perched atop some crates shrouded in darkness. "Someone's here." Ryan looked around but quickly blocked Daemon's attack. As if he spoke the words aloud all slayer types looked around freaked.
Daemon went to stab Ryan in his stomach but Ryan evaded mostly, losing a few buttons of his shirt, then Daemon grabbed Ryan with two arms and delivered a smashing blow to the chest with one arm and smashed him aside with the skeletal sword's broadside sending Ryan flying. Daemon hovered over him with his sword over Ryan's heart. "Did you really think that you could beat me? I am the supreme ruler of all. Fear me or feel my wrath!" As Daemon was about to stab Ryan one more time with his sword a figure jumped out off the crates and spinning heel kicked Daemon away from Ryan. Everyone looked in Ryan's direction to see a boy about 16 years old and of African American decent standing there. "You! I thought I had gotten rid of you years ago!"
The boy stared at Daemon with a glare. "What's the matter? You act like you've seen a ghost?" The boy said with a smirk. Daemon growled angrily and charged at him. The boy reached behind his back and pulled out a bow staff. Daemon slashed at the boy and he countered by blocking and then giving a hard strike to Daemon's chest. "You used to be faster and stronger than this. What happened to you?" The boy said in a mock voice. "You'll pay for that comment with your life!" The boy swung his staff at Daemon but he caught it with his two bottom arms and managed to get it away from the boy.
"Hey give that back!" The boy yelled angrily. "Wonders never cease. You can't beat me now and you couldn't beat me then. You failed to beat me even when your family's life on the line." Daemon laughed evilly. The boy's anger grew instantly and he ran at Daemon throwing various kicks and punches. Daemon blocked the attacks with the boy's staff. Buffy and the others came over to help Ryan up. They all watched as Daemon fought this mysterious teen. "We should help him." Jessie said looking at the fight between the boy and Daemon. "Why does he look so familiar though?"
Faith jump kicked Daemon in his back allowing the boy to leg sweep him and grab back his staff. "Thanks." The boy said as he and Faith rolled over some crates. "Who are you anyway and how do you know him?" She asked looking over her shoulder at Daemon. "Raheem McKnight at your service. We've got a little score to settle that's all." He said as he stood up and cart wheeled over one of the crates they were hiding behind. Daemon growled angrily and charged at Raheem as Faith joined the fight. Buffy, Jessie, and Louise looked back and forth between the fight and Ryan. "Go ahead, we got him."
The girls ran over to help Faith and this new stranger. "Dark gifts? Not this again!" Raheem yelled after he thrown into a crate containing the Dark Gifts. "You really are evil." He added quickly dodging Daemon's skeletal sword. "It seems that you are outnumbered and therefore you won't win." Buffy said looking up. "Don't flatter yourself. It seems my time to leave has come. This is not over. I will be back and I will destroy you all! Especially you!" He yelled looking directly at Raheem. Raheem ran at Daemon and lashed out but Daemon had disappeared before the attack went through. "I was soo close!"
Faith pressed her hand against Ryan's ribs to see if there was any damage, Ryan left out a moan and Faith said.
"Yeah... there are definitely a few broken." Ryan looked at her
"I just can't get a break can I?"
"I think you got a few actually."
"Ha ha ha, that's not funny." As they were leaving they noticed the giant shadow dog had appeared, stood there during the fight and then disappeared, how pointless.
Meanwhile they returned to there library/HQ and got talking to Raheem, and he told them of his past meetings with Daemon. Giles interrupted every now and then to ask questions and they learned a lot of information, just nothing that helped a lot. But they did discover that the Dark Gifts are called The Dark Gifts for a reason, if you use one it turns you slightly evil and if you use more and more of them you get both more powerful and more evil.
"I actually know of a case were someone used them for good but became evil..." Giles spoke then adjusted his glasses. "...There was a hero, a great saviour to earth, not actually human he was of an ancient race that is stronger than human but even in his race he was considered to be the strongest. But eventually he met his match, an evil demon lord brought hordes of Demons to earth and the only way this hero, was able to defeat them was by using several Dark Gifts giving himself enough power to defeat the demon threat. But his lust for power took over him and he absorbed every dark gift he could find until eventually he just disappeared...just like that, one day he just vanished."
They all stared at Giles for several moments until something came crashing threw all the windows. Everyone jumped up and saw the attackers, they were vampires. And there were a lot of them, also Daemon floated, he wore armour this time. It was grey and twisted.
"You will all die this time!" Daemon looked at everyone and gave a roar to signal his vampire's to attack.
The Vampires were falling quickly but more vampires jumped into the windows at a faster rate. Darius had snuck out of the room to pick up some 'toys' for fighting vampires. When he burst back into the room he had a pistol in his hands and started
Shooting vampires. The bullets he used were the latest in anti-vampire technology and had UV-rays on the inside, which killed the vampires on contact. After he used up all the rounds in his pistol he dropped it and took up a sub-machine gun that had been on a strap over his shoulder. This quickly dispatched a lot of vampires and gave him time to get out of the library. He ran threw a hallway until he reached a stairs, he was on his way to Ryan's room were he was letting his ribs heal. As he reached the top of the stairs he saw three or four vampires running in to Ryan's room. When he got into the room he saw Ryan being pinned by six vampires while a few more cheered on as Daemon gave Ryan punches to the face.
Darius threw a UV grenade, which killed most of the vampires. Only Daemon and two others remained. He took a thin black bag from his bag and threw it to Ryan. Ryan opened it and took out two short swords just in time to defend against a blow from Daemon who had been stunned by the grenade.
Meanwhile downstairs the slayers were fighting the rest of the vampires who were slowly losing numbers. A vampire ran at Buffy who grabbed him by the chest and threw him to the floor. She turned to meet two more and quickly punched them. Faith had a stake and was dispatching vampires like it was a game and she knew all the tricks. The rest fought and fought until they were either fighting someone else or injured. Raheem had been pinned to a wall by two vampires who kicked and punched him but he was rescued by Faith. He then punched a vampire behind her and climbed up a bookshelf to tackle a vampire who had been throwing things down at the slayers.
Buffy and a slayer named Alison ran after a few vampires who were heading to Ryan's room. When she arrived in the room she found it empty bar the vampires she had chased which she soon dispatched.
Ryan was on the roof with Daemon and Darius. Ryan used every trick and chokehold he could think of to give Darius a chance at shooting Daemon. But Daemon was nearly unaffected by the blasts of a shotgun-Darius's final gun. Eventually Daemon grabbed Darius and threw him off the roof, he luckily landed on a tree and was barely hurt. Ryan ran at Daemon and punched him in the gut several times, Daemon got two hands together and smashed Ryan on the head.
Buffy looked around,
"They must have him!" the two ran out of the room into the hall, something moved in a tree outside a window down the corridor. They saw Darius trying to get loose of some bush he was stuck in.
"Where's Ryan?" Darius saw Buffy and said
"On the roof!"
Buffy turned into a maintenance door that would take her to the roof. While running up the stairs something slammed into the door and left a good dent. Buffy ran faster as she guessed Ryan needed help.
When she opened the door she saw Ryan and Daemon Taking turns punching each other in the face. Ryan's clothes were ripped and Daemon's armour was torn off. They were both slightly crouched and then Daemon leaned over Ryan and grabbed his waist from behind. Ryan grabbed Daemon around the knees and lifted with all the strength he could muster. Daemon came crashing to the floor. Daemon kicked Ryan in the gut. Ryan landed at his Halberd and picked it up. He swung it like a baseball bat and it connected with Daemon and got stuck in his arm.
Buffy snapped out of her trance and ran at Daemon and punched the back of his head, then his jaw and then his cheek. Daemon fell backwards.
"You...humans...amaze me...this...thing...you call...hope...is...your strongest...weapon...you can defeat anything with it...but if I die...I shall have the last laugh!"
His hands shone red as telekinetic energy found a suitable target. The red glow shot into the air and came back down into the area but moved to fast for it to be followed by eyes. Daemon collapsed.
