A/N: Well thanks for everyone who reviewed answered my questions. They really helped!! ;-) Anyway, two reviewers suggested something for the sequel...:-)...They were pretty good ideas...and I MIGHT just use it!!! Bwahahahaha!!! On to the fic!!!!

Chapter Twenty: Time Check

One hour more to go...

Max inhaled deeply before walking out into Terminal City's main area. Everyone was there, talking, waiting, listening...anticipating. This day may be their death day, but in a way, a hell of a lot of them were more than excited for this fight. It had been a long time since they had a proper shoot-out. This was just the perfect excuse for them to let loose some of the unused fuel inside their genetically engineered bodies.

"Everyone here?" She asked, standing beside Alec who was wiping his Glock 18 clean.

There was a chorus of 'yeahs'.

"Alright, I already gave you your designated locations." Max said, her eyes scanning the crowd. "Be sure to do each of your own tasks. I want your full cooperation on this one." She glared at them. "As I have said to you many, many times before. We must not let anyone get left behind."

"We're one big happy family," Alec piped up with a teasing grin. "So, watch your team mates' back, alright?"

"Look after each other," Max said in a softer tone. "It's the only way we can win."

"Yeah!" the crowd yelled out.

"If worst comes to worst, and they decide to bomb us. We've stolen a couple of vans, and bikes for you guys to use if this does happen. And then we will all head to this exact address." Max pulled out a slip of paper. "12th street, the abandoned St. Louise Pier, Warehouse 12, Vancouver, Canada. Memorize it."

Forty minutes more to go...

Time to be the perfect soldier.

And Alec knew it too, because his face had gone blank. His mask had gone up. He then spoke, in a strong commanding voice that made everyone stop talking and look at him. He had their full attention now.

"This is it people. Our day of reckoning has come. It's time to prove to the people who made us, just how powerful and downright dangerous we are. It's time to show them, that their creations were a success. They wanted to make the perfect soldier, a human weapon. They wanted to make the perfect killing machine. And so far, we've fulfilled every single one of them." Alec met everyone with cold, emotionless eyes. "Show them no mercy."

Terminal City burst into roars of approval, followed by the distinctive clicking sound of everyone cocking their guns.

It was time for battle.

"Dust 'em all girls!" Buffy heard Faith yell behind her as they sprinted down the canyon brandishing their weapons with extreme

capability. Their Slayer potency bursting from them.

The Ubervamps collided with them with forceful ire and fury-filled strength, effectively living up to their title of power. Buffy wielded her scythe and cut through the mass of vampires, rapidly beheading them and turning them quickly into dust. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that her sister Slayers were kicking ass, and not bothering to take names.

Faith was swearing loudly as she killed everything that moved around her.

Spike's face had contorted to it's own vampiric visage as he took care of the small number of Bringers that had intermingled with the vampires, their eyeless, bald heads clearly visible from where she stood fighting.

One of the Ubervamps holding a dagger that one of the Slayers dropped managed to land a good hit on her right forearm where she bled red. This only fueled her anger. "I forgot to tell you that may favorite color isn't red." She hissed, and stabbed the vamp straight through the heart, making him dissipate quickly into a fine layer of ashes.

But Buffy was not in the mood to admire it's fineness as she caught a number of Vamps heading upstairs.

She was about to go after them when a hand grabbed her, and flipped her on her back. She jumped up swiftly, kicking a very ugly Bringer to the floor and killing it hurriedly as another vampire barged into her.

"Spike!" She yelled out, gesturing her head to the stone steps were more vampires were ascending.

"Don't worry!" Spike yelled back after staking an abnormally huge Ubervamp. "Giles and the others will take care of them!"

The rain had started to pour.

This barely fazed the lower X series but to the X5s and the X6s, they were starting to complain about it. And they were taking out their complaints on Seattle's little army.

"Damn, I hate rain!" Jewel whined loudly, shaking the droplets of water from her face before punching a Sector cop right in the middle of his face, breaking his nose with a loud crack. The man cried out in pain, dropping his gun, and clutching his nose in agony.

Jewel rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a big baby," she said snatching the gun from the damp ground and tossing it to an X6 who had no firearms. "Your nose was kinda big anyway."

The cop glared at her and attempted to kick her in the midsection. She, however, caught his foot before it hit her and she twisted it around, before ending his pain by shooting him quickly in the head.

The sound of helicopters overhead took her attention from the ground and up into the sky. About a dozen Blackhawks were circling Terminal City's rooftop, and Jewel shouted out a warning to Max who was fighting nearby. "Max! Heads up!"

Max dropped her last prey to the floor before looking up. "No worries, boo. Alec and the others are getting restless waiting for the birds. They've got the snipers hot and ready."

"Cool," Jewel remarked before plunging back into the battlefield.

Giles fingered his sword nervously. So far, they hadn't had a run-in with any of the vampires yet, and that only added to his nervousness instead of the relief he was supposed to feel. He almost wished that they would come up here already...he stopped himself. You should not be thinking of things like that, old man. Sunnydale is not a place to wish for...horrid things.

"Oh no!" Andrew gasped behind him in a tiny voice. "They're here."

Giles cursed.

"Whoa!" Wood exclaimed. "There's a lot of them!"

"No surprise," Giles said taking out the first one that approached them. "I estimated about twenty-thousand of them all in all."

Andrew was counting the number of vampires he was taking down. "Hey!" he grinned. "I'm getting a kick out of doing this!"

Giles rolled his eyes when suddenly, he found himself kicked to the ground. The vampire's face drew closer to him, and for a second, he was frozen. This is it...he thought somberly...I'm going to die...And the vampire disappeared in a cloud of dust, to be replaced by Wood's concerned face. "Are you alright man?"

"I'm fine," Giles replied, shakily standing up and fixing his glasses just in time to see a Bringer dressed in nothing but a black cloak raise a very long knife behind Wood. "Robin! Look out!"

Wood spun around, but it was too late. The Bringer had stabbed him right underneath the ribs.

Giles helped him up before killing the said Bringer.

A few feet in front of him, Andrew and Anya were holding up their own pretty well, while cheerfully talking about some er...disturbing things. "You have to make sure that the girl is all comfortable around you before actually proceeding to the next level." Anya was saying as she waved around her axe.

Andrew was nodding as he took out several vampires while screaming in surprise every time one came charging at him.

It was during this time that Anya fell.

"Anya!" Andrew shouted, rushing to her side, unable to stop the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

One down from the Scooby Gang.

Hidden behind several metal crates, Alec and his team were cautiously adjusting their snipers, aiming them carefully on the impending choppers. "Take out the drivers," he commanded.

"With pleasure," Mole drawled.

And they pulled their triggers.

"Mission accomplished," Alec said with a smirk as the drivers of the choppers fell from their helicopters and into the sky. The five Blackhawks then started to lose control, and the passengers struggled to take control of the driver's seat. They were too caught up in their panic of trying to gain control of the helicopter that they failed to notice several X5s standing at the edge of the rooftop, holding grenades.

"Toss 'em boys," Alec ordered.

The X5s took aim, and threw them expertly on each of the helicopters

There was a loud explosion.

And the Blackhawks burst into flames.

"Our job here is done, my friends." Alec said in a lazy tone. "Let's go join the party downstairs, shall we?"

Buffy sucked in her breath as the first of the new Slayers fell. Many were already sporting cuts and bruises, but they were still standing strong. She hoped that not many more would follow. "Girls! Don't give up!" she screamed, and suddenly all she could see was stars.

And all she could feel was pain.

She glanced down to her body and saw a sword sticking out right through her stomach, and it was glistening with her blood. With a gasp of pain, she pulled it out and tossed it aside. Heat was spreading through her body and she was slowly losing focus of her surroundings.

As she fell, Faith darted to her side. "B? You okay?"

She shook her head and handed Faith her trusty scythe. "Hold the line." She whispered.

Faith squeezed her hand. "Hang in there B." she whispered back before going back to fighting.

Buffy shuddered as the temperature dropped.

She opened her eyes and saw – herself...the First. "Slayer, Slayer, Slayer." She tutted disapprovingly. "Did you not take what I said seriously?"

"The Slayer lives her life alone and she will die that way."

"No I won't!" Buffy hissed, her anger overtaking the pain she was feeling.

"You may be gifted by such great power...but you are still a mortal." The First taunted, circling her like a hawk. "And mortals bleed...they die." The First smiled sardonically at her before dissipating.

And this somehow, gave Buffy enough strength to stand up and fight again.

"I will not die!" She said through clenched teeth. "I won't."

Max was starting to tire. Many of her brothers and sister had already fallen, and she was doing the best that she could to defend them and to keep her emotions intact. But there was only so much stress an X5 could take. And she was certain that it wouldn't be long until she would finally break.

She snapped the neck of the nearest combatant, and proceeded to the next. The adrenaline that had been pumping through her a few minutes ago was slowly starting to fade.

"Hey," a deep voice spoke behind her. "Need any help?"

"Alec," she breathed in relief. "I don't think I can take much of this anymore..."

"You're knight in shining armor to the rescue!" he said with a wry grin, reloading his Glock and shooting everything that was dressed in a uniform.

Together, the two danced across the battlefield rapidly fulfilling their duties as the perfect soldier. Lydecker would've been pleased. The kills that they made today would've made any Manticore official proud. Unfortunately, if there were any Manticore officials around, they would've been dead.

The transgenics had not forgiven them for doing this to them.

Being betrayed by your own Command was something that they were not particularly fond of.

I wonder when we'll be able to live a normal life. Max thought in midst of the battle. A normal life where we won't see so much blood anymore. Where we won't have to watch our backs every now and then. Where we'd be free...

Right now, we're nothing short of genetically-enhanced supersoldiers locked in our own city...a cage that kept us from doing anything we want. And for a while, this cage had become our home...


And the home that we had come to love is now slowly meeting its destruction...

A/N: As you probably all know by now, I have never been to Canada and so I just made up the address: 12th street, St. Louis Pierre etc...I'm writing fiction people, so you'll just have to imagine a place like that exists!!!

One more chap to go...

Hehehe!!!