Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Michelle, Katy, and Morgan.
Author's Note: I will be writing a sequel though I will try to use less people as then it's easier to write. As to Faith's assessment here in this chapter, sorry if you're a Xander fan but to me it'd fit her in this particular instance.
CHAPTER 31-IT HAD TO BE YOU
The former nerds extreme outburst caught everyone off guard, no once more so than Spike, as he barely had time to lean back away from Spike, who whimpered a bit in protest, before Andrew slammed into him and wrapped him up into the tightest hug that he could manage. Angel couldn't help but grin and do his best to hold back a laugh at the look on Spike's face as he tried to extricate himself from Andrew's grasp. Dawn however couldn't help but grin and then double over laughing at the sight, something that both Giles and Buffy found odd, with the former doing his best to hide his shock at the sight of the still alive vampire while for the latter all color drained instantly from her face before he eyes began to fill up with tears, just as her mouth was trying to form words.
"You can let go of him now Andrew," Angel said with an amused smirk on his face, a smirk that received an angry glare from Spike, before he stepped forward and pulled Spike back and out of Andrews grasp.
"S…Sp…," Buffy began to mumble almost incoherently as the tears began to slide down her cheeks as she brought two terribly trembling hands up until they finally found a home on both sides of Spike's face. Silence reigned and time seemed to freeze as Buffy gently stroked Spike's cheeks, and he couldn't help but close his eyes and smile at how good it felt. When he opened his eyes again Spike could see the indecision in her eyes, hoping beyond anything that it was indeed him that was standing in front of her and not some copy while a small part of her seemed to be furious at him. Guessing and hoping that it was the former rather than the latter he spoke.
"Hello pet, fancy meeting you here," Spike whispered softly under his breath straight to Buffy as they were locked in each other's gazes and no one else in the room existed to them but each other.
"Spike…is it, really you," Buffy managed to choke out through the tears as she trailed her fingers down from his cheeks, past his collarbone, over his chest and down his stomach.
"In the flesh luv," Spike shot back in a whisper with his best randy smile before she surprised him, rearing back with her fist and driving it straight into the middle of his face.
"Ow…bloody hell slayer, what is it with you and my nose, if I didn't know better I'd think that…," Spike howled in pain and surprise as he reached up to clutch as his pained nose before Buffy shocked him again. Before he could finish his angry howl Buffy's hands snapped up and wrapped around his head before violently pulling him down into a kiss that had he been human, would have done much more than simply take his breath away. Standing nearby Angel felt an odd pang of jealousy, but was surprised at how quickly it passed.
"Wow," Katy said with a look of awe on her face as she wiped away a single tear while still keeping the point of her sword close to Giles' throat.
"Ya got that right," Andrew chimed in with an in heaven smile on his face as his eyes were brimming over with tears and after several seconds he found that he could not hold his enthusiasm in any longer and he screeched with joy and hugged the person closest to him, which unfortunately for him just so happened to be Angel.
"Um…Andrew, let go of me…now," Angel said with a forceful but polite tone to his voice as he managed to wedge the former villain away long enough to see Morgan descend the stairs and stand beside Connor, another bolt loaded in her crossbow.
"Oh…uh sorry," Andrew mumbled back in fear before he smiled his most genuine and harmless smile as he backed away from Angel towards Giles.
"What now dad," Connor asked with a concerned look on his face as he and Morgan backed up to stand beside him.
"The situation hasn't changed Angel, we still can't let you cast the spell," Giles interrupted with a rather stern and disapproving scowl on his face as he stepped back away from Katy and turned to Angel.
"Says who," Dawn asked with an indignant frown on her face as she stood up to the former watcher and glared straight at him.
"Me, you forget Angel that you're outnumbered, it would be stupid to," Giles began to say with a very skeptical and scathing sneer on his face as he aimed his anger straight at Angel before he was interrupted from above.
"No…I think that it'd be stupid if you two kept fighting like five year olds while we were surrounded by vampires," Gwen said with a nervous but yet still sarcastic tone to her voice as she slid down the railing and landed beside Angel, giving him a shrug of her shoulders towards the doorway.
"Surrounded by…oh," Angel started to ask with a totally clueless expression on his face before they stopped fighting long enough to turn and see that most of the club was now taken up by a seemingly endless army of the undead.
"You should be dead," The Immortal snapped in shock and anger as he picked himself up out of the debris and glared across the room.
"You to, however neither one of us seems to be in the Deeper Well," Illyria replied with an emotionless expression on her face as she climbed through the hole in the wall.
"I will never go there, I will never be defeated," The Immortal announced with a very certain and confidant tone to his voice and look on his face as he approached Illyria.
"You are a coward, even I…the great Illyria, was defeated and sent to the Deeper Well, and you are not greater than I," Illyria shot back with a very serious and determined look on her face before one of the Sabatin demons slashed her across her back, leaving a semi deep wound and shredding what was left of her clothing.
"I am not a coward, the rest of us were stupid to only fight amongst ourselves, we could have ruled all dimensions, instead we started a futile civil war and lost everything," The Immortal said with an angry and frustrated look on his face as he kept his gaze locked straight ahead at Illyria's nude form.
"You have been corrupted by the flesh of these lesser beings, you should have ruled them, yet you did not, you hid amongst them, like a worm," Illyria shot back with an equally angry look on her face as she dropped down to a knee as behind her the Sabatin demon that had attacked her readied another strike.
"Perhaps, but unlike you I am still alive," The Immortal said with a very taunting tone of voice as he knelt down in front of Illyria and gently caressed her cheek before venturing further down.
"For now," Illyria said back with a fed up and slightly sickened expression on her face as she reached out and grabbed a hold of The Immortal by the wrist and spun him around, straight into the oncoming attack from the Sabatin demon. The demon's long claw skewered him through the stomach and then a strike from another demon severed his head. Illyria would have silently celebrated had she not been struck by the discharge of The Immortal leaving his latest shell. The resulting implosion caused by both of their deaths decimated the Sabatin demons that The Immortal had used for protection as well as leveled half of the building adjacent to the club.
Whistler couldn't remember why he had chosen the name Whistler for this realm. He really didn't like to whistle and to top it off he wasn't very good at it. He had always found those two facts odd but guessed that at the time he had thought that Whistler would make a good name. Before he had found Angel and set him on the right path he had tinkered with the idea of changing it but decided against that after Angel turned out to be a success. Nearby Lorne sat hunched over in the back seat of the van, doing his best to summon up enough courage to face Angel and the others again after his I'm out speech back in Los Angeles. When the small explosion occurred in the building next to the club Lorne's fears became an afterthought as his more heroic tendencies got the better of him. Lifting his head up he took in the crumbling building and just had to go and make sure that no one had been injured in the blast. He raced across the street without looking before nearly passing out when he recognized the first body that lay at his feet, that of Buffy's boyfriend, The Immortal.
"Okay, I'll take the hundred on the right and…," Spike started to say with a fair amount of sarcasm before Angel interrupted.
"Not that again, how about we just fight," Angel said with an annoyed plea as he pulled Spike back away from Buffy momentarily before the two stood shoulder to shoulder and readied for the attack.
"Dawn get behind me," Buffy shouted in alarm with a tone to her voice that Dawn knew that there was no discussion.
"Where's Willow," Kennedy growled with an unhappy but determined look on her face as she got into a fighters stance and waited for the attack to come.
"Somewhere safe, Groo…make sure that Michelle and Willow are safe, they have to complete the spell, no matter what happens to us they have to finish setting up that spell, otherwise her death will have been for nothing," Angel said with a very commanding edge to his voice as he said it back over his shoulder to Groo, who hesitated at Gwen's side for a bit before he nodded his head and raced back into the darkness.
"Friends of yours Angel," Giles asked with a weak smirk on his face even though Angel could smell the fear coming off of the former watcher.
"Nope," Angel answered curtly with an unhappy scowl on his face before Morgan flinched and pulled the trigger of her crossbow, dusting one of the vampires before it could even open it's mouth to utter something in surprise. Shrieking in surprise and fear Morgan fumbled with the second bolt, with her injured arm not helping any, before the lead vampire growled and ordered the attack to commence in a language that Buffy didn't recognize. "Okay people, let's go to work," Angel said with a very serious tone to his voice as Spike was able to keep from making any side comments before the first wave of vampires came close.
Xander ducked away from the first wave of vampires, barely avoiding the fate of one of the new slayers as she was overwhelmed and died before she could even scream. Vi struck back with as much force as she could, dusting two before getting a chair smashed across her back. Rhona saw Vi go down but couldn't go and help because one of the vampires grabbed her arm ad pulled her away as she fought against another that was charging hard straight at her. Kennedy came to her rescue and tackled the vampire that had grabbed her arm, staking him in the middle of a particularly profound curse, which allowed Rhona to fall back onto the top of one of the tables and be ready to drive her stake up through the heart of the vampire that was charging towards her.
Working unnaturally well together the trio of Spike, Buffy, and Angel held steadfast as the vampire army descended on them. Dawn did her best to stay out of the range of the swords and other weapons that were flying everywhere, though she contributed to the fight by picking up a few stray pieces of wood and dusting the few vampires that got by Buffy and Spike. Nina leapt into the fight by holding two crossbow bolts in her teeth with the rest tucked underneath her arm and firing them off as fast as she could. The tip of each crossbow bolt was specially constructed so that they would explode upon impact, releasing the highly concentrated holy water inside. Connor backed Morgan up the first few steps of the stairway before he took his position directly at the base of the stairs, determined to not let anything pass. Morgan used the cover that Connor provided her to get a good aim, firing into the crowd of vampires that surged at them.
Surprising herself Katy actually held her own, though that was greatly due to her position in the club, being situated directly at the end of a long line of overturned tables. Thereby forcing any vampire that wanted to do her harm to have to come straight at her, negating any attempt by the vampires to gang up on her. After first being very nearly scared out of his own skin David rebounded, shocked out of his stupor by the scream from one of the dying new slayers that Buffy had brought with her. Dragging himself back up to his feet David used the railing for support and fired off two crossbow bolts before he tried to pull another one out of his quiver but his hands were shaking so terribly that he ended up fumbling the entire quiver over the side of the railing and down the floor below. Staving off a heart attack at the shock of losing the bolts David fumbled around on the inside of his coat, almost blowing his toes off when he tried to pull the shotgun out of its special spot without unclasping it first. He first noticed Katy holding her ground by the tables but saw that the vampires were starting to shove the tables out of the way on their way to her. Knowing that it wasn't a good development David carefully took aim and fired, hoping to hit one of the vampires, but he was so nervous and so shocked by the sound and concussion of the first shot that he fell backwards, blowing away one of the light fixtures hanging from the ceiling instead.
With a quick squeeze of Wesley's hand, and an unspoken wish that he not die, Faith launched herself into the battle, using the hand railing for support she bounded over it in one fluid motion before using several vampires to cushion her fall. She intended to hurry to Angel and Spike's side, helping them fend off the majority of the vampires. However her plan was diverted when she saw Xander and Giles being quickly pushed back by the vampires that had been diverted away from the main three. Despite starting to get on in years Giles held his own, well enough for Faith to wish that she had met him during his Ripper days. She had learned about those days from Wesley's memories, when the then young watcher to be had studied up on the man that he would be replacing. Xander however still seemed completely out of his element, bashing the vampires with anything that he could get his hands on, from table and chairs to beer bottles and drink cups. The memory of their time together flashed through her mind as she watched him take a small sip from one of the beers before he smashed it over the head of the nearest vampire. He had done the job for that night, allowing her a release for all of her pent up anxiety and emotions. However in her mind he could only rise to that level, good enough for her for one short bit of time but for anything permanent she would need a real man. Wesley followed her up by hurrying over to the edge of the railing and picking off any vampire foolish enough to get in her way as she rescued Xander from the clutches of two vampires, staking one and snapping the neck of the second, before she helped Giles to dust a third vampire. Once that was done Faith next turned her attention to helping Katy, who was fighting valiantly but her inexperience was showing and she had received more than a few cuts and scrapes in the early going and was starting to weaken and lose ground. Rather than fight at her side Faith instead chose to try and help lighten the load on the embattled young slayer, striking hard and fast into the side of the column that was threatening her. Wesley smiled in respect and admiration at her actions before some of the vampires broke off from the main force and charged up the stairs nearest to him. He blew away the first vampire before the next one managed to knock the shotgun out of his hands. Acting quickly he managed to avoid a right hook but couldn't move fast enough afterwards and was tackled backwards into some boxes of drink cups being kept near the bar in case they ran out.
She blocked out the melee that was happening in the club and concentrated on the task at hand, correctly aligning the spell components as well as drawing the proper markings on the floor. Michelle watched her closely, visibly trembling as the battle waged on, her mouth whispering one hope and prayer after another. Luckily for them both the vampires hadn't noticed that either were even there yet, but both knew that their luck wouldn't last forever and that they had to be ready when it ran out.
"Michelle, come help me move these tables," Willow shouted as loudly as she dared to the young slayer, who almost dropped her crossbow in shock before she turned around, blushing a very dark red in embarrassment.
"O…okay, not to bother you but why are we moving these tables," Michelle replied with a very nervous smile on her face before she laid her crossbow down onto one of the tables and hurried over to help Willow move the tables.
"I need to draw some more runes and sigils on the floor and they were in the way, besides when the spell is finished I'm going to go all Dark Phoenix for a bit, and I don't want anything around me that I could hurt someone," Willow replied with a warm smile on her face as the two began to move the tables, just as Groo materialized out of the darkness.
"Angel sent me to protect you, do you acquire assistance," Groo announced with a proud and determined smile on his face as he took up a defensive position nearby.
"Thank God," Michelle whispered with relief under her breath at the thought that she wouldn't have to protect Willow and the spell all by herself. She was excited about guarding this important piece of the plan but wasn't to sure just how good of a guard she would really be and hoped that it wouldn't be to bad.
"Not yet Groo, just stand watch, I'm almost through here," Willow replied with a thankful smile on her face as she looked up at Groo just as she and Michelle finished with the last table.
Spike and Angel had been separated from each other but continued fighting hard, ending up fighting back to back with Buffy and Connor respectively. Morgan quickly ran out of her crossbow bolts as she fired at anything that moved, several times almost hitting Spike and Angel in the process. When she ran out she had tried to lean over and grab the bolts that David had dropped but she had lost her balance and fallen to the floor. Scrambling back up to her feet she slid the knife out of her belt and almost began to hyperventilate as the first vampire swung under the stairs and rushed at her. She tried to slash at him but he blocked it and held fast on her arm, grinning like a jackal that had just caught its next meal. Panic coursing through her veins Morgan did the only thing that she could think of, bringing her knee straight up into his groin. He instantly let go of her arm and crumpled to the floor. Morgan began to revel in her triumph but was stopped almost immediately by the figure that calmly walked through the front door of the club, looking like she was out for a Sunday afternoon picnic, complete with Miss Edith.
END OF CHAPTER 31