Part 7
Hyperion Falling I
"Surprise!" Hallie said with a smile as she, James and a still bleeding Ronald teleported straight into the room Billy and Dana were in.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Billy asked frowning staring at the door Dawn had disappeared out through only minutes before.
"The maniacal teenagers downstairs were about to find us. We had to go somewhere, so I thought we could check up on you," Hallie shrugged.
"That damn little...when I get my hands on him I'm going to rip his fucking lungs out and break every bone in his body!" Ronald said still holding his wrist trying to stop the bleeding.
"You mean hand, Ronald. You've only got one left, remember?" Hallie reminded him and the doctor shot her a furious look. "Oh, don't be so touchy."
"What happened?" Billy asked looking at Ronald's wrist.
"One of the kiddies squashed his hand," Hallie said chuckling. "And what's that all about?" she asked when she noticed both of Dana's legs were broken and she was gagged to stop her from screaming.
"She misbehaved," Billy simply said. "But don't worry, with her healing powers she'll be walking by morning."
"You mean crawling," Hallie said dryly. "You're overestimating slayer healing powers I'm afraid."
"Oh, no, I repositioned her bones, and they're almost completely glued back together. The reattachment of the bones though is quite painful so I had to shut her up somehow," Billy explained.
"Weren't you just the perfect gentlemen," Hallie said with a disgusted look on her face. "If I didn't have bigger fish to fry I'd dismember you this second."
"I'm sure you would," Billy only said before telling them: "You can't stay here."
"Why? Are you expecting company? Or are there more dreadful things you want to do to that slayer? Because if you do I wouldn't mind watching," James said looking at Dana with a smile.
"Just leave," Billy pointed towards the door.
"Fine, there's enough room in this hotel for all of us," Hallie said rolling her eyes and headed out the door, followed by Ronald and James. When they were in the hallway, the demon let out angrily: "That pipsqueak, who does he think he is?"
"Well, if it's any comfort to you while he was torturing the slayer, we managed to wound one of the brats and get the slayer lost downstairs," James pointed out.
"Good point, James," Hallie said with a smile. "I mean, what has he done so far?"
Dawn played with her doll on William's bed, smiling at her and petting her dirty hair. The slayer paced in the room, contemplating their situation, while Liam watched her from his bed with a tired look on his face. William followed her movements as well with one of his hands wrapped protectively around Dawn's shoulders. The watcher-in-training was slumped in an armchair while Willow stood on the edge of William's bed, looking like a school girl paying attention in class.
"So there's at least three other people in this building besides us," Buffy said. "One of them can dismember at will, but he lost a hand. It was a he, right?" she looked towards Liam. She hadn't really had much time during her brief encounter with the killer hands to analyze them.
"It looked like a man's hand," the teenager looked towards the bloody mass on the night stand hesitantly.
"It was a man's hand," William said with a definite tone. He, unlike the others, had had enough time to analyze every strip of skin on the hand while it had cut him with the knife.
"Okay, good. There's the dismembering guy and a...what-cha-ma-call-it," Buffy looked at Wesley who rolled his eyes and said:
"A warlock or a witch or a demon with magical powers."
"That's narrowing it down," the slayer said frustrated.
"We know there are three. Two men, one woman. We just don't know what's what," Willow pointed out.
"At least it's nothing large," Liam said putting his hands under his head. "The shape on the floor was human size. And I doubt a demon would be wearing women's heels."
"You'd be surprised," Wesley said with a smile.
"One thing's for sure, we all have to stick together," Buffy said. "That means we're all staying in one room."
"That's for the best," Liam admitted. "You're always welcomed in my bed," he added with a mischievous smile.
"Right," Buffy met his innocent gaze with a frown. "You better watch your mouth, ponytail, or you're sleeping on the floor tonight."
"Whatever you say, darling," he said closing his eyes.
"Would you stop calling me that?" Buffy asked frustrated.
"Of course, darling," Liam said with a smile.
"You're being so childish," the slayer said annoyed. "You guys take Liam's bed - since his royal highness doesn't feel like getting up - and Willow, me and Dawn will take William's. Is that okay with you?"
"Of course," Wesley said and William nodded in approval.
"If someone could just please help me up," William said and Wesley and Buffy came to his side gently rising him off the bed. He winced in pain a few times, but he eventually made it okay to the other bed. Buffy brushed away the hair from his face and smiled at him. "I'm sorry about the bloody bed sheets," he whispered.
"It's okay, that much we can take from the other room," Buffy assured him.
Dawn got out of William's bed and went back into his arms in the other bed.
"You have to sleep with Buffy and Willow," he tried to make her understand.
"No. Spike," she said hugging him.
"That's it!" Wesley suddenly realized. "William the Bloody. Spike. He's it!"
"Do I turn into a hero? Like him?" William pointed towards the already sleeping Liam.
"Not that I know of," Wesley shook his head. "You'll kill two slayers and fall love with a crazy vampire named Drusilla who's going to be your sire."
"But the demon...he said I'll fight for my soul one day, because of a woman," William reminded him.
"Then that is part of a future I have yet to know," Wesley didn't dismiss the idea.
"Hopefully, it is part of some future," William sighed.
"Good Spike," Dawn assured him with a little frown that made her face look even more adorable.
"I believe you, little one," William told her with a smile and laid a sweet kiss on her forehead and she snuggled in his arms.
"I'll just sleep in the armchair," Wesley offered so Dawn could sleep in William's arms.
"Are you sure you don't mind?" William asked gratefully.
"No, I've slept in worse conditions," he had after all spent most of his life in dormitories and not all had been as cushy as the ones the Watcher's Council provided its future elite with.
"I'll stand guard. I can't sleep anyway," Buffy told them, urging Willow to go to sleep. "Oh, sheets," she remembered and quickly ran in the other room and came back with a bundle of sheets, throwing them Willow's way. Putting aside the bloody ones William had been covered in, Willow wrapped herself in the clean sheets and almost instantly fell asleep. As Wesley did the same, Buffy continued to pace in the room, lost in her own thoughts, looking down at her shoes and analyzing and reanalyzing their situation from all perspectives, occasionally glancing towards the sleeping teenagers. After a while, when her racing thoughts had slowed down, she realized she wasn't the only one still awake. William, either because of his wounds, either because he had slept for far too long that day, didn't seem to able to close an eye either.
"What are you thinking about?" William asked when her gaze settled on him and he knew the fact he was still awake had finally occurred to her.
"A plan. How we could get out of here alive," Buffy answered in a hushed tone, not to disturb the others. "And then how we could destroy that Mak-something demon."
"Maybe it's best if we leave this place in the morning," William suggested as the slayer neared his side of the bed and sat down cross-legged in front of him so they could hear each other better.
"Running wouldn't do us any good. Only maybe buy us more time," Buffy said shaking her head. "But who says they won't attack us directly once they see we want to leave the hotel? We have to beat the lackeys if we want to take on the big boss."
"Aren't you scared at all?" William asked fascinated by her immense courage.
"It doesn't really matter, does it?" she shrugged. "I'm here and there's no other way out of this jam then going through these things. Besides, even if I do make it home after this little adventure, this is exactly what's waiting there for me too. Except there I have a nice stuffy Englishman who always points me the right way."
"You're the bravest woman I've ever met," he confessed with a smile.
"Don't you feel threatened? Most guys are," Buffy admitted. "When I was defenseless every guy in my highschool would've given his right arm to be my boyfriend and now they all look at me as if I'm a big freak just because I can kick their collective asses with a hand tied behind my back."
"No, I don't feel threatened at all," he told her. "Actually I think it's quite wonderful. You are like a modern Joan of Ark."
"Well, I wouldn't say that...," Buffy said obviously flattered by his comment.
"A warrior woman, as tough as any man," he was already writing poems about her in his mind.
"Tougher," she said chuckling.
"I know I'm not brave, I can't even believe all this nonsense about me turning into a vampire and saving the world someday," he confessed.
"I think you could be a great hero someday if you try hard enough," she spoke in the most convincing of tones. "Anyone can be one. A little superstrength, a healing ability, sure it helps - maybe makes it almost too easy for me- but all you really need to be a hero is a little belief in yourself. And that much I got."
"For some reason, him I can picture as a hero," he gestured with his head towards Liam. "Then again I can also picture him as a blood thirsty vampire."
"I can definitely see his future in the blood sucking business," the slayer agreed chuckling. "So what do you do back home? Do you have like a school or something that you go to?"
"I'm home taught. My mother's health isn't the best and I'm all she has in the world," he explained. "I like to write poems and I hope to be published one day."
"Really?" Buffy said smiling. "Tell me one of your poems."
William prepared to recite one of his creations to her, when Liam grunted and turning towards them and half-standing up from the bed told William:
"You speak one word and I swear I'll hurt you. I'm in no mood for bloody poems and you, Joan," he looked at Buffy. "Go the hell to sleep if he's awake. There's no need for the both of you to be up. And don't make me stand up from this bed and put to sleep myself."
"Grouchy, aren't we?" Buffy said amused not moving from the floor. Liam threw himself back on the bed, sighing exasperated. Dawn stirred in William's arms, bothered by the bed's sudden movement. William looked at Liam with a frown.
"Go to bed," Liam told the slayer in a commanding voice.
"Make me," Buffy replied holding his gaze. She didn't expect him to suddenly jump over William and Dawn, land on other side of the bed smoothly and grab her by the arm, rise her up in his arms and sweep her off to her bed. She struggled in his arms, trying to free herself. "Let me go!" she yelled at him and he told her with a smile:
"Sure, darling," and dropped her in her bed from over a foot above it. She gave him an annoyed look and threw a pillow after him, but it instead hit the sleeping Wesley, startling him awake. "Is that how you want it then?" Liam picked up the fallen pillow and threw it back at her, hitting the sleeping Willow with it. The redhead woke up and still half-asleep looked around confused wondering what was happening. Seizing the occasion, Buffy stole her pillow and threw it back at Liam. A full scale pillow fight erupted and no one was spared, not even the wounded William.
"Oh, look, they're having a great time," Ronald scoffed as he looked through the mirror Halfrek had turned into a window to the teenagers' room.
"I'm getting hungry," James said staring at Ronald's bloody wrist.
"Don't even think about it," the doctor told him with a frown, hiding his wrist in one of the pockets of his jacket.
"Do I look like a seven eleven?" Hallie asked as she observed the teenagers pillow fighting in their room. "You're a free vamp, New York's a big city, go kill someone," she suggested. "It's not like I'm keeping you here."
"Fine," James stood up. "But if anything happens...let me know."
"Whatever," Hallie who was deep in thought waved her hand at him in a dismissing gesture.
"I wish you'd let me eat one of the brats," he told her staring at the mirror.
"You'd be dead now if you tried," Ronald pointed out. "They're sticking together. You stood a chance when they were split up, but now..."
"You are only a vampire, James. And unfortunately the slayer eats the likes of you for breakfast," Hallie pointed out and the defeated James left the room.
It was morning, barely after sunrise, when Dawn sneaked out of William's arms and out of the room. Everyone was asleep. Wesley, who had been assigned the last watch of the night, had fallen asleep in his armchair while looking over the Hyperion's register. She made her way to the next floor where, in the dark corridor, she stumbled over James who was just coming in from a night of hunting. He looked at her with a surprised, but victorious smile. He neared her, trying not to scare her into running away.
"Pretty little girl," he hummed as he closed in on her. "I won't hurt you. I just want you to meet a few friends of mine. What the...," he looked at her confused when her eyes started glowing brightly in the dark. He took a few steps back just as the glow engulfed the girl's entire face and a beam of bright energy shot out of her eyes, setting James on fire. The vampire screamed and ran down the corridor aflame banging on Billy's door, but he wouldn't answer, so instead the burning James ran up the stairs and up two floors until he reached Halfrek and Ronald. Halfrek looked at James with a frown and quickly turned out the flames that were eating at his flesh.
"Stay out too long?" Ronald asked amused.
"No, it's the girl...," half his skin was covered in severe burns, his clothes had melted on his body in some regions. But the skin was already begin to heal itself.
"The slayer?" Halfrek asked confused.
"No, the little one. She was wondering down the hallway on the second floor. I thought my luck had changed," James shrugged. "I wanted to grab her and bring her up here, but she...started glowing and then she set me on fire with her eyes."
"With her eyes?" Halfrek was skeptical.
"Yes, with her glowing damn eyes," James remembered the girl with a shiver.
"It seems our demon benefactor has been keeping us in the dark," Ronald stated what was on all of their minds.
"Well, yes, the girl...," Hallie thought about all of her encounters with Dawn - the one she had known - and of the events that preceded her appearance in the slayer's life. Makhran had unhinged them from time only moments before their deaths, so Hallie had caught more than two years of Dawn's life. "She was a key. I remember Anyanka mentioning it. A hell goddess tried to open the gates to another dimension with her blood. If she was subjected to only half the spell that transformed her into a human being, that means she can probably use some of the energy she was made out of as a weapon. Interesting."
"I just got torched alive and all you can say is interesting?" James scoffed.
"On the contrary, my fine roasted friend," Hallie said with a smile. "The time for games is over, it's time we hunt down those little brats and end their miserable lives."
"Now there's a plan I like," Ronald stated with an evil smile.
"And they believed you?" Billy asked Dawn as he gave her a chocolate bar. The little girl nodded as Dana watched her hungrily from the corner of the room.
"Rat," Dawn repeated chuckling holding up her bandaged finger. "Big rat," she said in a more angry tone staring at Dana.
"I'm afraid that's Dana for you, always a bad bad girl," Billy said with a smile. "But what can we do? Someone needs to kill Makhran and that won't me or you, sweetheart. You're too young to be playing with sharp things. However, you are not too young to open up a little dimension."
"Not young," Dawn repeated and made a wide gesture with her hand. "Older than the world."
"I hope I'll look as good as you at that age," he told her chuckling.
"Billy young. Still," she assured him with a smile.
"Now, I wanted to talk to you about your friends," Billy said. "You see, they are all deep down so sad."
"Sad," Dawn repeated with a saddened gaze. "Why?"
"Well, two of them are going to turn into monsters and that's enough to make anyone sad, don't you think?" he asked in a compassionate tone. "And the poor slayer...she just breaks my heart. A girl like her, the horrors she will have to face. It would be best if she were free, don't you think?"
"Free," Dawn nodded.
"And do you know how we can free them all?" Billy asked and the little girl shook her head. "We make their hearts stop beating, and then they fly away and are happy forever," he made a gesture with his hands as if something had risen from his chest and flown away. "You want them to be happy forever, don't you?" he asked and Dawn nodded.
"How could you have fallen asleep?!" Buffy asked Wesley incredulously.
"I just dozed off for two minutes, when I opened my eyes she was gone," Wesley explained.
"We should've told her not to wonder off anymore, but we didn't...," Willow remembered.
"Let's go find her," William said standing up from the bed, still a bit out of it, but feeling much better than he had the previous night.
"We'll split in two groups. Liam and Wesley you check the hotel, me, Willow and William are gonna check outside," Buffy said. "Maybe she got hungry and went out on the streets."
"Oh god, I hope not," Willow said and they all headed out of the room. When they reached the front door of the Hyperion, it was locked. Buffy tried to force it open, but no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't even able to make it budge.
"Something's wrong here," the slayer said under her breath.
"Show's over, kiddies," a female voice echoed in the hotel. "Take a bow and prepare to die."
End Part 7
