Title: A Breed Apart
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Some, mostly early series.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy. I would buy the show but I am broke.
Summary: On her first day at Sunnydale High, Buffy finds an odd kinship to a fellow student and something she never knew about herself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Taking the second that came after one vampire was killed but before the next stepped up to face her, Buffy glanced around. Willow was a whirlwind, her Katana flashing in the pale light, decapitating and dismembering with every move. Giles and Kendra fought back to back, his Rapier flashing as he thrust and parried, dusting vampires with every thrust due to the small wooden inlays in the thin blade, while she methodically cut down every vampire that got within range. Xander, well he danced. That was all she could really determine before the next opponent was upon her and she was fighting again.
Buffy and Xander moved with the same fluid grace. While Buffy's broadsword flowed, with a speed that seemed impossible when seen with such flowing movements, taking out vampire after vampire, often when the vampire thought it was outside her range, making a beautiful, if deadly sight, however it was Xander that was the one to watch. With his Quarterstaff spinning so fast that it seemed to be nothing but a blur, Xander broke bones and used the ends of the staff as stakes, taking out the vampires that surrounded him. He moved from position to position without effort, one moment seeming venerable as he attacked and the next having an impenetrable defence. Some moments his staff seemed to hold still in the air as his body flipped and kicked around it. Eventually one of the vampires was able to blindside him, while he was taking out four of its comrades simultaneously, and disarm him.
Drawing his reserve sword from its sheath, he continued to fight, but without the grace of his preferred weapon. Sensing a slight advantage a group of forty vampires rushed him, swamping him with shear numbers. By the time he was dead, so were thirty nine of the vampires, several having had their throats ripped out by his fangs as he went down. The fortieth vampire was instantly cut down by Willow. At the death of her best friend, the redhead charged into the mass of vampires, as Buffy slowly began to back up the slope behind her, internally mourning the loss of her mate but not letting the grief overwhelm her. Willow, without Buffy's self control, let her rage control her, slashing at the vampires with abandon and carved a swathe of destruction before she was taken out by the vampires' en mass. Ten minutes later, Giles fell when a vampire, who had taken Willow's Katana, shattered his Rapier and slit his throat, almost severing his head, and then shoved the sword so deep into Kendra's back that a foot of blade exited between her breasts.
Buffy kept killing the vampires with a vengeance, but they still forced her to retreat by their shear weight of numbers. What she saw when she reached the top of the slope shocked her to the core. Swarming up all sides of the pyramid that she was stand at the apex of, and for miles in every direction, as far as her Slayer enhanced eye could see were vampires. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of vampires. She was so shocked that she unconsciously dropped her defences.
'How could there be so many?' she thought as a vampire sunk its teeth into her neck, ending her life.
********
Buffy shot upright, her petite body covered in sweat. Looking hurriedly around she saw, despite the darkness, that she was still in her bed, in her mother's house and her husband was lying next to her.
"What's the matter?" Xander asked, having been woken by the waves of terror and shock that had passed though their mating bond.
"I had a nightmare. An endless army of vampires killed us all. There were millions of them, Xand." She whispered, burying her face in his bare chest as he wrapped his arms around her.
"Shush, baby. It was just a dream. We're all ok. It's alright." Xander said.
"It felt so real." Buffy said.
The next few hours were spent with Buffy sobbing and whimpering, the words for pain and loss in the Dampir language, into his chest as he whispered and purred reassurances to her.
********
Joyce came down for her morning coffee and saw Xander and Buffy at the dining room table. Buffy was field stripping and cleaning her MP-5/10 while Xander was checking over a pistol. Xander noticed Joyce and her indicating to the kitchen with her eyes.
"Want a Coffee?" Xander asked, getting a negative grunt from Buffy.
Xander followed Joyce into the kitchen with a sigh.
"She had a nightmare again, didn't she?" Joyce asked, having been tipped off by her daughter's actions.
"Yeah." Xander replied, remember the other nightmares and Buffy's ritual of cleaning her MP-5/10 after each one.
"It's been over three months. Sometimes I wish she never dressed up as a soldier, all those memories of battle. At least they don't come too often."
"True, but this was different. It was not Soldier Gal's memories, it was a nightmare about an endless army of vamps."
Glancing into the dining room, Xander saw Buffy finish checking the barrel for obstructions and begin to reassemble the gun.
"I just wish I could do more for her." Joyce said sadly.
"You're her mother. She needs you to be you. We try and take care of the rest." Xander said.
"Xand, I'm gonna patrol the sewers. You coming?" Buffy called.
"Yeah, I'll be right up to get ready." Xander replied.
Joyce puttered around the kitchen, worrying about her children. Both Buffy and Xander were strong, physically, but Xander seemed to have an extra emotional resilience above and beyond Buffy. She was glad that they had each other. By the time they had returned to the kitchen, Joyce had prepared a number of water bottles and laid out a small pile of high energy bars. Her children accepted the rations with a smile, looking quite different than they had only a few minutes ago.
Both Buffy and Xander were in similar gear. The both wore green camouflage cargo pants, with pockets bulging slightly indicating extra weapons clips, which were tucked into their black combat boots. Their dark green t-shirts were covered by a black combat harness which contained two knives, one with a wooden blade and the other with a steel core covered with silver, attached with their hilts downwards, with various small bottles of holly water, experimental sprays of silver nitrate solution, bottles of mace, grenades and other paraphernalia were located in the small pockets of the harnesses, to which they added the energy bars. Their wide belts were covered with loops containing stakes, crosses with sharpened ends, more spare clips, radios and a few other knives. On their right hips rested their sidearms, a Desert Eagle .44 for Xander and a MK-23 SOCOM for Buffy, and they attached the water bottles to their left hips.
Buffy's broadsword rested on her back, with it's hilt protruding over her right shoulder, while Xander had his quarterstaff on his back, with his backup sword, a Wakizashi, a smaller version of the Katana, in an inverted scabbard alongside. They both wore green camouflaged caps, and their exposed skin, their arms, necks and faces, were covered in green and black camouflage paint. Buffy had even put something in her hair, which was pulled back in a ponytail, to darken it and take away its natural shine. Buffy carried her MP-5/10 with a familiarity and assurance that spoke of reliance on the weapon, while Xander carried his H&K G3 rifle in a more business like manner. With the black crosses that hung on chains around their necks to finish the effect, they looked a fearsome sight but Joyce still saw them as her children.
"Alright. Now remember, be careful, make sure any demons are really dead and if you get in trouble, head for daylight." Joyce said in her motherly voice.
"Yes mom." Buffy and Xander chorused, an odd sight in their hunting gear.
Joyce escorted them down into the basement, to the armoured sewer entrance they had set up there.
"Have fun." Joyce said as Xander followed Buffy down the ladder.
"We will." Xander said, before Joyce closed and locked the sewer access.
********
'Sierra Alpha, this is Sierra Golf one. Comeback, over." Buffy said quietly over the radio.
"Sierra Alpha, go ahead. Over." Came Kendra's voice over the radio.
"Sierra Golf One and Two in the Run at access point Bravo. Over." Buffy said.
"Rodger, Sierra Golf One. Sierra Tango on Route Echo-Niner-Bravo, T plus fifteen. Over" Kendra replied.
"Copy that, Sierra Alpha. Inform Sierra Bravo that we're rendezvousing with Sierra Tango. Over and out." Buffy finished, nodding to Xander who had tuned his radio to a different channel.
"Sierra Tango One, Sierra Golf Two. Comeback, over." Xander said.
"Sierra Tango One, over." Came the voice of Captain Michael Stands.
"Expect rendezvous with Sierra Golf One and Two at point Gamma on your patrol route. Over."
"Rodger. ETA, twelve minutes. Over and out."
Tapping Buffy on the shoulder, Xander pointed down one tunnel, indicating ten second branching tunnel coverage. They began to slowly walk down the indicated tunnel, their rifles raised and constantly sweeping the sewers for hostiles. Every thirty seconds or so, Xander or Buffy would turn and walk backwards, covering the tunnel behind them. They killed about a dozen vampires with their alternating explosive tip and tracer rounds before they approached the rendezvous point, working off some of Buffy's fear from her dream.
"Sierra Tango One, Sierra Golf Two. Two in from South East. Over." Xander transmitted a minute before they reached point Gamma.
"Rodger Sierra Golf Two. Two in from South East. Over." Captain Stands replied.
Thirty seconds later, Buffy and Xander joined up with the ten men of Sierra Tango squad.
"Majors." Captain Stands said, saluting.
Buffy and Xander both returned the salute. When Colonel Henson had arranged for the military team, call sign Sierra Tango, to work with Buffy and Xander, he had given them Field Commissions, Buffy as an Infantry Major, technically in charge of the team, and Xander as a Major in Military Intelligence, for onsite intelligence on demons, as his knowledge was more extensive that Buffy's. Buffy and Xander did not make major changes to the team, leaving the Captain run it in most circumstances, only really stepping in for Apocalypses or with information to kill the more bizarre demons.
The rest of the Scooby Gang were classified as Civilian contractors but they had earned the trust of the military team in engagements and were designated Sierra Golf. The military operations control centre that supervised the team at the base was designated Sierra Bravo while the library went by Sierra Alpha. Sierra Tango continued its patrol, using the point to drag method. Whenever there was an intersection, the pair on point would cover the branching tunnels and then they would go drag till the next intersection, when the next pair took over.
********
Buffy and Xander climbed up the ladder and out into the basement of the Summers house. Buffy smiled at her mother, who was lowering the shotgun that she had been pointing at the hatch, having rushed down when the alarm attached to the ladder had gone off.
"How was the patrol?" Joyce asked.
"Uneventful." Xander replied, popping his neck.
"Ugh, I need a shower." Buffy said. "Wanna join me?"
Xander took one quick look at the shotgun in Joyce's hands and started stammering.
"At this stage, I think Xander would rather have the use of his legs." Joyce said cheerfully, with a smile on her face. "You run along, Buffy. He'll be up later."
Xander gulped as Buffy left the room, very disconcerted by Joyce's smile.
"Want some coffee and fresh brownies." Joyce asked.
A grin broke out on Xander's face. All's well that ends in food, that was his way of thinking.
TBC.
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Some, mostly early series.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy. I would buy the show but I am broke.
Summary: On her first day at Sunnydale High, Buffy finds an odd kinship to a fellow student and something she never knew about herself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Taking the second that came after one vampire was killed but before the next stepped up to face her, Buffy glanced around. Willow was a whirlwind, her Katana flashing in the pale light, decapitating and dismembering with every move. Giles and Kendra fought back to back, his Rapier flashing as he thrust and parried, dusting vampires with every thrust due to the small wooden inlays in the thin blade, while she methodically cut down every vampire that got within range. Xander, well he danced. That was all she could really determine before the next opponent was upon her and she was fighting again.
Buffy and Xander moved with the same fluid grace. While Buffy's broadsword flowed, with a speed that seemed impossible when seen with such flowing movements, taking out vampire after vampire, often when the vampire thought it was outside her range, making a beautiful, if deadly sight, however it was Xander that was the one to watch. With his Quarterstaff spinning so fast that it seemed to be nothing but a blur, Xander broke bones and used the ends of the staff as stakes, taking out the vampires that surrounded him. He moved from position to position without effort, one moment seeming venerable as he attacked and the next having an impenetrable defence. Some moments his staff seemed to hold still in the air as his body flipped and kicked around it. Eventually one of the vampires was able to blindside him, while he was taking out four of its comrades simultaneously, and disarm him.
Drawing his reserve sword from its sheath, he continued to fight, but without the grace of his preferred weapon. Sensing a slight advantage a group of forty vampires rushed him, swamping him with shear numbers. By the time he was dead, so were thirty nine of the vampires, several having had their throats ripped out by his fangs as he went down. The fortieth vampire was instantly cut down by Willow. At the death of her best friend, the redhead charged into the mass of vampires, as Buffy slowly began to back up the slope behind her, internally mourning the loss of her mate but not letting the grief overwhelm her. Willow, without Buffy's self control, let her rage control her, slashing at the vampires with abandon and carved a swathe of destruction before she was taken out by the vampires' en mass. Ten minutes later, Giles fell when a vampire, who had taken Willow's Katana, shattered his Rapier and slit his throat, almost severing his head, and then shoved the sword so deep into Kendra's back that a foot of blade exited between her breasts.
Buffy kept killing the vampires with a vengeance, but they still forced her to retreat by their shear weight of numbers. What she saw when she reached the top of the slope shocked her to the core. Swarming up all sides of the pyramid that she was stand at the apex of, and for miles in every direction, as far as her Slayer enhanced eye could see were vampires. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of vampires. She was so shocked that she unconsciously dropped her defences.
'How could there be so many?' she thought as a vampire sunk its teeth into her neck, ending her life.
********
Buffy shot upright, her petite body covered in sweat. Looking hurriedly around she saw, despite the darkness, that she was still in her bed, in her mother's house and her husband was lying next to her.
"What's the matter?" Xander asked, having been woken by the waves of terror and shock that had passed though their mating bond.
"I had a nightmare. An endless army of vampires killed us all. There were millions of them, Xand." She whispered, burying her face in his bare chest as he wrapped his arms around her.
"Shush, baby. It was just a dream. We're all ok. It's alright." Xander said.
"It felt so real." Buffy said.
The next few hours were spent with Buffy sobbing and whimpering, the words for pain and loss in the Dampir language, into his chest as he whispered and purred reassurances to her.
********
Joyce came down for her morning coffee and saw Xander and Buffy at the dining room table. Buffy was field stripping and cleaning her MP-5/10 while Xander was checking over a pistol. Xander noticed Joyce and her indicating to the kitchen with her eyes.
"Want a Coffee?" Xander asked, getting a negative grunt from Buffy.
Xander followed Joyce into the kitchen with a sigh.
"She had a nightmare again, didn't she?" Joyce asked, having been tipped off by her daughter's actions.
"Yeah." Xander replied, remember the other nightmares and Buffy's ritual of cleaning her MP-5/10 after each one.
"It's been over three months. Sometimes I wish she never dressed up as a soldier, all those memories of battle. At least they don't come too often."
"True, but this was different. It was not Soldier Gal's memories, it was a nightmare about an endless army of vamps."
Glancing into the dining room, Xander saw Buffy finish checking the barrel for obstructions and begin to reassemble the gun.
"I just wish I could do more for her." Joyce said sadly.
"You're her mother. She needs you to be you. We try and take care of the rest." Xander said.
"Xand, I'm gonna patrol the sewers. You coming?" Buffy called.
"Yeah, I'll be right up to get ready." Xander replied.
Joyce puttered around the kitchen, worrying about her children. Both Buffy and Xander were strong, physically, but Xander seemed to have an extra emotional resilience above and beyond Buffy. She was glad that they had each other. By the time they had returned to the kitchen, Joyce had prepared a number of water bottles and laid out a small pile of high energy bars. Her children accepted the rations with a smile, looking quite different than they had only a few minutes ago.
Both Buffy and Xander were in similar gear. The both wore green camouflage cargo pants, with pockets bulging slightly indicating extra weapons clips, which were tucked into their black combat boots. Their dark green t-shirts were covered by a black combat harness which contained two knives, one with a wooden blade and the other with a steel core covered with silver, attached with their hilts downwards, with various small bottles of holly water, experimental sprays of silver nitrate solution, bottles of mace, grenades and other paraphernalia were located in the small pockets of the harnesses, to which they added the energy bars. Their wide belts were covered with loops containing stakes, crosses with sharpened ends, more spare clips, radios and a few other knives. On their right hips rested their sidearms, a Desert Eagle .44 for Xander and a MK-23 SOCOM for Buffy, and they attached the water bottles to their left hips.
Buffy's broadsword rested on her back, with it's hilt protruding over her right shoulder, while Xander had his quarterstaff on his back, with his backup sword, a Wakizashi, a smaller version of the Katana, in an inverted scabbard alongside. They both wore green camouflaged caps, and their exposed skin, their arms, necks and faces, were covered in green and black camouflage paint. Buffy had even put something in her hair, which was pulled back in a ponytail, to darken it and take away its natural shine. Buffy carried her MP-5/10 with a familiarity and assurance that spoke of reliance on the weapon, while Xander carried his H&K G3 rifle in a more business like manner. With the black crosses that hung on chains around their necks to finish the effect, they looked a fearsome sight but Joyce still saw them as her children.
"Alright. Now remember, be careful, make sure any demons are really dead and if you get in trouble, head for daylight." Joyce said in her motherly voice.
"Yes mom." Buffy and Xander chorused, an odd sight in their hunting gear.
Joyce escorted them down into the basement, to the armoured sewer entrance they had set up there.
"Have fun." Joyce said as Xander followed Buffy down the ladder.
"We will." Xander said, before Joyce closed and locked the sewer access.
********
'Sierra Alpha, this is Sierra Golf one. Comeback, over." Buffy said quietly over the radio.
"Sierra Alpha, go ahead. Over." Came Kendra's voice over the radio.
"Sierra Golf One and Two in the Run at access point Bravo. Over." Buffy said.
"Rodger, Sierra Golf One. Sierra Tango on Route Echo-Niner-Bravo, T plus fifteen. Over" Kendra replied.
"Copy that, Sierra Alpha. Inform Sierra Bravo that we're rendezvousing with Sierra Tango. Over and out." Buffy finished, nodding to Xander who had tuned his radio to a different channel.
"Sierra Tango One, Sierra Golf Two. Comeback, over." Xander said.
"Sierra Tango One, over." Came the voice of Captain Michael Stands.
"Expect rendezvous with Sierra Golf One and Two at point Gamma on your patrol route. Over."
"Rodger. ETA, twelve minutes. Over and out."
Tapping Buffy on the shoulder, Xander pointed down one tunnel, indicating ten second branching tunnel coverage. They began to slowly walk down the indicated tunnel, their rifles raised and constantly sweeping the sewers for hostiles. Every thirty seconds or so, Xander or Buffy would turn and walk backwards, covering the tunnel behind them. They killed about a dozen vampires with their alternating explosive tip and tracer rounds before they approached the rendezvous point, working off some of Buffy's fear from her dream.
"Sierra Tango One, Sierra Golf Two. Two in from South East. Over." Xander transmitted a minute before they reached point Gamma.
"Rodger Sierra Golf Two. Two in from South East. Over." Captain Stands replied.
Thirty seconds later, Buffy and Xander joined up with the ten men of Sierra Tango squad.
"Majors." Captain Stands said, saluting.
Buffy and Xander both returned the salute. When Colonel Henson had arranged for the military team, call sign Sierra Tango, to work with Buffy and Xander, he had given them Field Commissions, Buffy as an Infantry Major, technically in charge of the team, and Xander as a Major in Military Intelligence, for onsite intelligence on demons, as his knowledge was more extensive that Buffy's. Buffy and Xander did not make major changes to the team, leaving the Captain run it in most circumstances, only really stepping in for Apocalypses or with information to kill the more bizarre demons.
The rest of the Scooby Gang were classified as Civilian contractors but they had earned the trust of the military team in engagements and were designated Sierra Golf. The military operations control centre that supervised the team at the base was designated Sierra Bravo while the library went by Sierra Alpha. Sierra Tango continued its patrol, using the point to drag method. Whenever there was an intersection, the pair on point would cover the branching tunnels and then they would go drag till the next intersection, when the next pair took over.
********
Buffy and Xander climbed up the ladder and out into the basement of the Summers house. Buffy smiled at her mother, who was lowering the shotgun that she had been pointing at the hatch, having rushed down when the alarm attached to the ladder had gone off.
"How was the patrol?" Joyce asked.
"Uneventful." Xander replied, popping his neck.
"Ugh, I need a shower." Buffy said. "Wanna join me?"
Xander took one quick look at the shotgun in Joyce's hands and started stammering.
"At this stage, I think Xander would rather have the use of his legs." Joyce said cheerfully, with a smile on her face. "You run along, Buffy. He'll be up later."
Xander gulped as Buffy left the room, very disconcerted by Joyce's smile.
"Want some coffee and fresh brownies." Joyce asked.
A grin broke out on Xander's face. All's well that ends in food, that was his way of thinking.
TBC.