What's up with Amy?
Buffy fell into the Seal of Danzathar, landing cat-like on two feet. She scoped out the area, trying to find the female Ubervamp that Xander had seen in his vision. Buffy looked down into the pit that formerly housed a couple thousand Turok Hans. She took a big huff and jumped down in.
Buffy looked around her, surprised that she wasn't being attacked by something. She sighed and cracked her knuckles. "Not really in the mood for a vampenger hunt, but hey." She walked in a straight path until she bumped into a Powers That Be-ish looking guard that looked about as fast he was muscular. He stood right before a hole in the wall that must have lead to deeper realms of the Hellmouth.
Even with Buffy's new abilities, this dude looked like a decent challenge. However, he had a friendly demeanor to him and was already a bit wounded from a previous battle, so she decided to lay off the roundhouse kicks for now.
The guard noticed Buffy's friendly posture. "Welcome to the one-hundred floor dungeon!" he said as if the dump was like a tourist attraction. "May I help you?"
Buffy raised a brow. "One-hundred floor dungeon? Sounds all epic and dangerous."
The guard laughed. "Yes, it quite is. Each floor is...or was a prison to a particular breed of the Oldest Ones. Creatures that are unable to choose anything but pure carnage and mayhem are trapped in here for eternity."
"Chaotically evil" Buffy said matter-of-factly, her girlish charm finally resurfacing after all these years. "That's what it's called...when monsters are like that."
"Hmm. Interesting term."
Buffy nodded. "Yeah. Learned it from this gay geek named Andrew. Anyhow, I was wondering if I could go there, check things out? I'm a lot stronger than I look. I know, vampire slayers - not all that special to you cosmically worthy types, but I just got this wicked cool upgrade and - "
The guard chuckled. "I'm all about free will, so you can go in if you want to, but it would be against my personal recommendations. There's just no way ANYBODY could fight off a hoard of female Ubervamps. The only thing that's keeping the world somewhat safe right now is this mystical barrier that protects any of these old-timers getting through."
Buffy thought for a moment. "So how'd that she-vamp escape then, hmm?" She pointed to his wound.
Jeff looked away while Buffy took notice to his wound. He seemed very embarrased by the fact. "Well, uh.. evil has been winning for a good two years now. When that happens consistently, the barriers fade just enough for one of the Unclean ones to escape."
"So the fate of the world really does hang in the balance" Buffy commented. She folded her arms and looked up at the guard who was much, much taller than her. "Never really realized that until now." She smiled.
The guard laughed. "I like you...you got spunk. My name is Jeff. What's yours?" He held out a hand for her to shake.
"Buffy" she said while shaking his hand. A long moment had passed before the slayer suddenly started cracking up.
"Huh. What's so funny?" Jeff asked, honestly bewildered.
"Oh, it's just that people usually make some sort of witty retort when they hear my name. I guess it's not too freakish sounding when you have YOUR job." She batted her eyelashes.
Jeff laughed with Buffy. "Oh, you're such a flirt. I think I'm blushing..."
Their conversation was temporarily halted by the sudden apperance of a baby male Ubervamp being tossed out of the mystical shield behind Jeff. Instinctively, Buffy caught the little guy in her arms, but promptly dropped the sinister infant when she realized what it was.
She looked up at Jeff, noticing how cool he was about the whole thing. "Oh God. This must happen a lot..."
He laughed again. "Male Turok Hans are immediately rejected by their mothers when they're born. Since they're not one of the OldEST ones, they're not bound to the properties of the shield and so they get thrown back here at limbo headquarters."
She looked down at the crying little bundle of ugliness. "And here I thought I've seen the last of these guys. God, can't those bitches be lesbos?"
Jeff shook his head. "They reproduce asexually. You'd have to kill of all the female Ubervamps to stop the male ones from forming and I'm sure you already know the consequence of THAT happening." Jeff sighed. "Whether we like it or not, in just a few more years this place will be chock-full of male Ubervamps. Just like before."
She looked down. "All these damn rules about good and evil. Don't you wish you could just wave your hand and kill' em all?" Buffy did just that while gazing at the baby Ubervamp with so much disgust. She then watched in horror as it exploded to dust right before her.
Jeff backed away. "Whoa momma! You just got rid of that thing by just...doing whatever you did there." ... "Still shouldn't go in here, though" he quipped.
Buffy caught her breath, trying to recover from that charcoal feeling that naturally came by using so much of her demonic Slayer power.
Jeff put a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I should be. I probably can't do that often. I mean, that was just a male one right. A baby male to boot." She looked at Jeff. "I'm here to slay that female Ubervamp you fought, but it's not going to be easy. I'll have to hold back a lot of my power while kicking ass at the same time."
Jeff nodded, getting what Buffy was saying. "Yeah, too much power really does throw folks off. It's hard not to get corrupt, ya know? I'm proud of myself, you don't know how many times the First tries to get me to give up my current status and become a 'higher' being. Geesh."
Buffy gulped. "Well, in a few months I don't think I'm even going to have a choice whether or not to be corrupt." A lightbulb turned on in her head. "Heavens to Buffy, maybe that's what the First wants to turn me into - a New One?"
Jeff stared in space, not really understanding what Buffy was talking about. "So, you were looking for the Ubervamp that escaped, right? She's right over there." He pointed to his left.
Buffy followed his finger with her eyes and noticed the female Ubervamp from a far away distance. The monster was just like Giles had described, fully naked with unrealistic, comic book-like boobs. Xander would be in heaven. The Ubervamp also appeared to be on her back with her legs spread, like she was either giving birth or having sex. Buffy really hoped that it wasn't the latter.
The slayer wanted to stay and chat with Jeff, ask him about the breeding cycles of Ubervamps and such, but that would have to come later. "Jeff... if you see me again and I'm irredeemably evil, don't be afraid to kick my ass, okay?" She waved bye to the guard and starting to walk toward her new nemesis.
"Here we go" Buffy said under her breath while she approached the monster.
Buffy waved her hand and telekinetically threw the two Bringers that were kneeling in a praying position in front of the female Ubervamp. She then threw her scythe like a boomerang and decapitated the two minions. As soon as the weapon was brought back in her hands, she tried to jump kick the Ubervamp, but it rolled away with a speed that Buffy never seen before. The monster then stood up on two feet and roared at Buffy.
"You really should have been on the pill" Buffy said while noticing the vampire's visibly pregnant stomach. She was trying to distract the vampire with one of her infamous quips. It wasn't working though, and the slayer was slashed three times in the chest with lightning-fast carnage. Blood spewed everywhere and her boobs began to hurt like hell, but the attack was far from fatal.
The Ubervamp tried to claw Buffy again, but she concentrated and allowed her new power to take over. She effortlessly side-stepped away from the swipe and followed through with an axe kick to the back of the bitch's neck. Buffy had to use some of her extra power to slay this thing, but too much and she would cross that line and never return good again. Even that simple side-step was risky, and Buffy had to keep thinking of her friends and family while fighting.
Buffy used her shield power to block one of the Ubervamp's split-second roundhouses. She was about to telekentically toss the tramp away from her, but halted when she thought that it would send her over the edge. Buffy instead lashed out a regular-ol' slayer kick to the vamp's face. However, her ankle was promptly grabbed and the petite slayer was tossed three-sixty into a nearby stalagmite.
"Okay, that hurt" Buffy said rubbing her shoulder, although she was happy that she could still feel pain. She didn't want any broken ribs though, so she decided to heat up the ante a bit. "I can control myself" she whispered. The vampire dashed toward Buffy in a super-speed blur, but the slayer grabbed the top of the stalagmite and spun around, kicking the Ubervamp away by using her own speed against her.
"On second thought, to hell with control." Buffy then bicycle kicked the vampire back a few feet and followed through with some scythe-slashes to her neck while she couldn't block. Buffy finished off the combo with an uppercut, which sent her opponent flying upward. Before the Ubervamp came down, Buffy held her sycthe upside down and watched with glee as her enemy fell right on top the stake portion.
Just like Anya said, the double x Ubie didn't dust, but it was now very, very weak. Since Buffy had hit a natural weak spot, the vamp's strength and speed were greatly drained. With just a whisk of Buffy's hand, the stalagmite she crashed into hovered into the air, becoming a stalactite. Buffy then waved her fingers downward and the stalactite broke on top of the Ubervamp's head. The monster collapsed on the ground, knocked out cold.
In a blink of eye, Buffy lost focus and shifted her eyes toward Jeff. With her opposite hand, she was about to choke the righteous guard from a distance. The slayer caught herself at the last second before delivering the fatal blow. "Oh God, what am I doing?" she cried while stepping back from all the violence.
Buffy looked down at the female Ubervamp and placed the scythe in her hand before grabbing the monster's wrist. "I'm sending a message to all those teenage girls that talk about killing themselves." She was about to make the Ubervamp stake herself, but chickened out when she remembered what Anya had said. Once a lady Turok Han kills herself, the female power will be completely eradicated in a human. The human closest to her when it happens. But how much power would this take away, exactly? Like she was before or like she was NEVER before? A normal girl without any powers whatsover. She always wanted to have her own life, but not being a slayer?! That just wasn't who she was. Buffy couldn't have that, so she tried to think of something else instead. "A-ha!" she declared.
Suddenly, a carbon-copy of Faith materalized in Amy Madison's kitchen. It was a dark-blue shadowy figure that was a mere echo of the brunette Slayer, but still looked just as dangerous as the original. A few minutes later and "Faith" had found Amy comfortably positioned on her living room sofa, playing a Nintendo gameboy. "You're coming with me" Faith said, but she still had Buffy's voice. Before Amy could react to what was going on, her arm was grabbed and she was teleported to the Hellmouth.
The figment then vanished into a puff of black smoke as Amy tried to adjust to Bizarro Buffy. "Ooh, you're gonna kill me after all. Somebody's got BALLS." Amy laughed.
"No...worse. I'm gonna take away your bitch, bitch." Buffy quickly hopped backwards out of the way and then she telekinetically forced the Ubervamp to stake herself while Amy stood right next to the vamp.
After the Ubervamp turned to dust, Amy's entire posture instantly changed. She WAS standing there with her hands on her hips like she owned everything in the world, but now she simply looked around meekly, like a high school freshman at a drunken frat party. "I-I'm scared" Amy said, trembling. "AIEEEEE, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!" Amy jumped behind Buffy and pointed down at the newborn Ubervamp, only this one was female.
Buffy shook her head at the sight. "And people wonder why I'm pro-choice..." She was about to wave her hand and make the little Ubie choke herself, but lowered said hand when she realized that Amy's bitch power had already been drained. She couldn't do this again to another person, since she already sort of crossed the line of morality. Assuming there was such a thing anymore. Thinking quickly, Buffy grabbed Amy's hand and dashed the other way, the echoing voice of The First breaking her concentration.
The voice was cryptic and creepy, with all her friends screaming at once as a vision of Buffy appeared before the two girls. The slayer saw herself killing Xander and Faith and feeding off their flesh like a rabid hyena. But while she was doing so she...felt nothing. Not satisfaction, not hatred or pain. Just nothing. And then the vision slowly warped into a hospital scene with The First chanting "Humanity slipping...slipping away" while the Evil took on the form of her mom giving birth to Buffy, next to the Ubervamp giving birth to her daughter.
Buffy did her best to ignore The First's psychosis, running through the incorporeal vision until she and Amy reached a dead end. She looked high up at the cliff's peak. She'd have to use her new power to escape out of the pit, but doing that might speed up her transformation into a Chaotically Evil slayer. She decided that she can't use ANY of her slayer powers, not yet anyway. "Amy! We have to get out of here. Can you cast a levitation spell, or something?" She already knew the answer, but she had to try. Buffy had never given up on herself, maybe this whole thing was a test to see if she could extend that discipline to others.
"Magic is bad for you" Amy said quietly, avoiding eye contact with the much stronger blonde. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I don't think we can fight this thing, Buffy."
Buffy sighed. She figured as much. She tried to hold on to the ex-bitch/witch while silmutaneously climb up the pit, but that just wouldn't work without the aide of Slayer powers. Just when all hope seemed to be lost, a familar figure tapped her on her shoulder.
"Jeff!" Buffy cried out, turning around. "You know a way out of this hell hole?"
Jeff laughed. "I've created an emergency exit in case something like happens." Jeff looked behind him and noticed three Bringers guarding said exit. Behind them seemed like just another mere wall, but if people went through they'd be transported out of the pit. Jeff blinked. "How did they know...I know the First is omniscient and all, but I didn't even say anything!"
Buffy gulped. "Their powers must have grown somehow. But it doesn't matter. Jeff, fight them off so we can get out of here!"
Jeff sighed. "Buffy- I c-can't."
Oh brother. It was just one thing after the next. "What do you mean, can't? They're Bringers. They're like itty bitty gnats as far as eternal darkness goes."
Jeff shook his head. "No, Buffy -If I destroy anything, and I mean anything- I'll lose my status as a warrior for the Powers That Be."
Buffy shook her head. "You moron! They're evil...you're good, kick their ass!"
Jeff sighed, noticing three more Bringers approaching them from the other direction. He grabbed a flying knife sent to his head and threw it back down. "It's never that simple. I-I don't know if I can explain it now."
Buffy blinked twice. "So basically, we're three incredibly powerful beings who can't use their three incredibly powerful powers for three incredibly different reasons?"
Amy nodded. "Yeah, that about sums it up" Jeff added, ducking another airborne knife.
"RUUUUUUN" Buffy shouted to her allies. They had no other choice.
NEXT CHAPTER: What's up with Giles?