Title: Demons from the past
Rating:PG-13
Disclaimer:Not smart enough, or enough money so it ain't mine. DAMN YOU WHEDON!
Summary: My first real sequel, all others have been fakes, kind of an AU of S7 so a bit more original than most.
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Willow could barely feel the sweat crawling down the valley in-between her shoulders. She had to concentrate, to keep control, because if she got distracted, the energy humming through her would be lost, and too time consuming to recover. At the moment, the group needed all power she could give them.
Lightning shot down from the night sky and sizzled two bringers running towards them.
In response her muscles tensed and more sweat poured down her body.
Frying evil minions was hard work.
Especially for a long period of time, she felt like this had been going on for hours. Things were going wrong left and right, yet they still were holding the line pretty well. The attack itself came upon them suddenly and disoriented them, but the group had responded in time.
That had been twenty minutes ago and they were still fighting. Luckily no one on their side had died yet.
Willow blinked
Almost no one.
The force of another lightning bolt slammed a bringer through an already crumbling tombstone.
The battle was in one of the oldest cemeteries in town, which was saying something considering how many there were in Sunnydale. It was amazing that with the number of people who died around here every night you'd think someone would get suspicious.
Searching for her next target Willow's eyes darted to a demon making its way through the battle towards Dawn, who was currently fending off a vampire. Before he could strike, an axe that had been lying on the ground harmlessly inert, suddenly came to life and cleanly lifted the demons head from his shoulders.
She had to stay focused, her control was waning. The old voice was getting harder and harder to ignore with the more power she used. For the last few weeks Willow had been keeping a thread of self control, and now today it was starting to stretch even more so.
Two more bringers met a death by lightning.
No one was winning, though it didn't seem like it. The enemy, bringer, vampire and demon, was falling like waves against a rock. With having two slayers, five trained watchers, one witch, the scoobies and assorted potentials, they were kicking some major butt. The only problem was there were just so many of them, when one was cut down there was two to take it's place. The pressure was slowly building and they couldn't keep this pace, if it continued they would be overwhelmed soon. Because of this the group was kept a safe distance from achieving there goal.
The goal being eliminating the three black robed figures in front of them, on their knees, surrounding a patch of dead earth. It didn't look all that threatening when you thought about it, well except for the fact they were in a cemetery, at night, and their eyes are glowing deep red.
The six foot circle of hardened dirt, surrounded by green grass and trees, where nothing had grown for years, and would never grow again, was were a slayer killed a demon. A very old, a very strong demon. So strong that the slayer died shortly afterwards from her wounds. To add even more weight to the matter, she was the fourth slayer to die at the hands of said demon.
They had gotten word from Spike...
They had gotten word that the trinity were going to summon it to give them an edge in the stalemate the followers found themselves in. In true style the scoobies and assorted fighters had formed up and set out to stop the three demons as fast as they could. The goal was to stop them so they couldn't complete the summoning. If all had gone as planned they would have been able to take the trinity out and not have to worry as much. But things didn't always go as planned. They had marched out, all of them, and the walk there had been done in complete silence. Mainly because of the two who were walking in front. A demon and a slayer.
After what had happened a few weeks ago, things had been tense. Willow had been the one asked to go tell Spike…Slice-n-dice the new terms of their interaction. He only looked at her as she spoke, at least she though he did, can't really tell when you have a mystical hood blackening out your face. She could almost see his reaction, not only to what the witch was saying, but also to how she was acting. Willow wouldn't say anything to anyone but with everything going on around her she found herself with a bit more anger directed towards him because of what she had learned. And apparently she wasn't very good at hiding it. When she was done he merely turned and disappeared, his quiet words hanging in the air.
"Hate it when I'm right."
It always hit Willow how much had changed in the last month. She wasn't really talking about the new additions, though there had been a few, two new watchers complete with two new slayers in training. But that was nothing compared to the change when the group learned the truth. She and Anya seemed to be ostracized from everyone in one way or another except for Buffy. The group, on whole, were more obedient when taking orders, but no more friendly. Faith took the news rather indifferently, everything considered. The rogue slayer was least affected probably because, well, she was already outside the group.
The few meetings with Slice-n-dice were almost exhausting. The potentials were curious though frightened, the watchers were indifferent, Giles glared anytime he was present, and Xander refused to be in the same room. Dawn had surprisingly been the quietest about the whole thing. Not giving opinion or declaration of her feelings on the matter. The only ones that would even talk to him was the vengeance demon, a rehab witch, a rogue slayer and Buffy. Willow almost thought seeing him, was hardest for her friend. The witch would sometimes see Buffy put a glance his way that was filled with so many sad things her heart ached. From what she saw, Slice-n-dice wasn't doing so well either, leaving immediately once he was sure no one needed him, making sure he didn't give anyone a chance to speak to him, especially Buffy, and from what little he gave away, he seemed sadly resigned, like they had verified something to him.
She flinched when she remembered what had happened.
"WILLOW!"
The sound of Dawn's voice quickly snapped her back to the present. She could feel that her hold on the magic had started to flicker out, and with renewed intensity she concentrated on sending another bolt into the crowd of rushing followers.
As the Witch focused bringing death from above, the battle around them raged. The group had formed themselves in waves, the slayers leading the way, the more experienced behind them, and the potentials forming a circle around the witch.
Xander, Anya and Dawn were nearby to help keep them from panicking and helping out while the watchers were taking care of what the slayers didn't have time to dispatch.
Both of which were back to back in the middle of the horde fighting non stop.
Moonlight glinting off the various swords and axes cutting through the air, Willow noticed that the two slayers were slowly making there way to the target, whose chanting had gotten louder as the resurrection spell progressed. Making a snap decision she summoned her reserves and sent out a surge of power. Almost a mirror of what had happened what seems like a century ago, the enemy crowd parted in front of the occupied slayers.
The redhead's heart leapt when she saw Faith take advantage and make a dash for the Trinity, Buffy close behind covering her back.
A thousand different hopes went through Willows mind in a second.
She hoped the trinity were too busy and involved in there spell to stop the slayers, she hoped the followers were in too much disarray to stumble back in their path, she hoped the two would be able fight the three powerful beings, she hoped his death would mean something. Willow's eyes focused on the two slayers running through the pathway carved out by the crowd of black robed bodies. The sword Faith carried glinted in the moonlight.
And in the second the slayer raised the weapon to strike one of the kneeling figures, time seemed to slow to a crawl.
If one of the three died, then any the advantage the followers had would be lost if not reduced significantly. Then they would have a chance. They would have a chance at winning now that...
Now that Spike was dead.
All this rested on the blade that was arching through the air.
The same blade that exploded before it could make contact with the kneeling trinity member.
The shards shot out skewering a few bringers and impaling Faith in the shoulder, bringing her to the ground. Willow felt the world crumbled into her heart and sink it into her gut.
She watched the red energy trail outline a bubble guarding the trinity.
In the moment the witch saw the light in everyone who wasn't fighting for their lives dim. And in that moment the fight changed from determination, to desperation.
The corridor the redhead opened had closed and she blankly saw Buffy fight her way to Faith. The injured slayer now with no weapon fought with nothing but her skills.
With the formation broken and their whole plan crumbling around them, Willow could see more and more of the followers get through the line and encounter less resistance, in effect pushing the outer line closer to the potentials. She saw one of the new slayers in training fall dead from a slice to the neck. The flow of magic that she had been calling on from outside her had dissipated as moments passed.
She saw Jarod take a knife to the leg only to be saved by Giles.
Taking all this in Willow couldn't help think it was doomed from the beginning.
This whole plan.
This whole attack was fated to fail from the start.
He had seen it coming. She didn't know how, maybe the on rush of wind might have warned him. They had been walking toward the area when he summoned some kind of magic and parted the crowd behind him, pushing them out of his path as the swirl of dark magic fire tossed him backward twenty yards and into a mausoleum which promptly, after receiving structural damage from the hit, collapsed loudly.
They didn't have time to check on him before the followers attacked.
And now they were fighting just to get out alive. She had to do something. She had to make his death mean something. All that pain, all the strength and death, everything he had gone through because of them, because of her, couldn't all be put out with one act, made meaningless in one second. She had to make it mean something.
The thread snapped and something deep inside Willow unlocked. Something that had been put down there long ago, something dark and dangerous that her anger now unleashed.
The red head could feel her eyes blacken.
Calling on that dark place inside her, where a rage lived, she summoned the dark magic within her. Her thoughts turned simple and terrifyingly sadistic. Her vision tunneling, ignoring everything around her.
trinity is in a bubble, I crush bubble, I crush trinity
Determined the witch walked out from behind the circle of panicked potentials, lightning no longer coming from the sky, flew from her fingertips, killing followers in her way.
They had come here, killed people she new, wanted to kill them all, who gave them the right, what right did they have.
She could feel the blackness seep into her hair.
With a curt, forceful gesture she divided the crowd once more, sending followers into various hard objects around her, leaving a clear view of the three, now standing raising their hands to the sky. Willows face turned into a snarl as she sent out a stream of dark magic into the bubble, trying to force it to crush those inside.
Immediately the witch could feel the feedback, but pressed even harder. Willow could almost see the group still fighting on, with more ease now that the pressure had lessoned some, and were backing away. Willow could almost see every Bringer or demon that ran at her immediately get fried by the energy around her.
The feedback was building, becoming more and more painful, and in some small rational part of her mind she realized that soon it the feedback would explode, putting them all in danger.
But at the moment…
she just didn't care.
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AN: Well those of you who actually read my story before might recognize some of this. I'm working on the next chapter and have most of it written out, just a few more base decisions to take care of.
I also have a good idea about what's going to happen for the next two after that so hopefully I'll get those out to you guys.
But before any of that can happen you people need to review cause I've got nothing. And being the commander of Oompa Loompas has to mean something.
SO REVIEW DAMNIT.
Or I'll have my minions steal your left shoe.
