Chapter 6
Later on that morning, Buffy spoke to the assembled Potentials. She paced as she spoke, and she could feel the tension in the room. Not all the girls were glad she was back, and some of the newbies didn't trust her at all.
"I hate this," she began. "I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I that there's evil, that it's growing, and I hate that I was Chosen to fight it. I wish, a whole lot of the time, that I hadn't been." She flashed a wry smile. "I know a lot of you wish I hadn't been, either."
Kennedy and Vi smiled a bit, others looked embarrassed.
"But this isn't about wishes," she went on, looking at their faces. She saw how young they were, how frightened. "This is about choices. I never had one. I was Chosen. And I accept that. I'm not asking you to accept anything. I'm asking you to make your own choice. I believe we can beat this evil – not when it comes, not after its army is ready, but now. Tomorrow morning I'm opening the Seal. I'm going down into the Hellmouth and I'm going to finish it once and for all."
They shifted, some gasping, others shaking their heads: Another stupidly aggressive plan of Buffy's. She's going to get herself killed.
"I've got strong allies: warriors, charms, and sorcerers, and I'll need them all. But I'll also need you. Every single one of you."
She looked at each one in turn. She memorized their faces. She read their hearts. "So now you're asking yourself, 'What makes this different? What makes us anything more than a bunch of girls getting picked off one by one?'
"It's true none of you has the power Faith or I have. I think both of us would have to die for a new Slayer to be called, and we can't even be sure that girl is in this room. That's the rule. So here's the part where you make a choice.
"What if all you could have that power? Now. All of you. In every generation one Slayer is born because a bunch of guys that died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men." She pointed to Willow, and said things that made Willow so uncertain:
"This woman is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rules. I say my power should be our power. Tomorrow Willow will use the essence of this scythe, that contains the energy and history of so many Slayers, to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a Slayer, will be a Slayer. Every girl who could have the power, will have the power. Who can stand up, will stand up.
"Every one of you, and girls we've never known, and generations to come… They will have strength they never dreamed of, and more than that, they will have each other.
"Slayers. Every one of us.
"Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?"
Down among the dead men, into the cavern Buffy, Faith, and a few of the girls went as more followed. And Spike, with the amulet around his neck.
"Not to be a buzz kill, love," he said, "but my fabulous accessory isn't exactly tingling with power."
"I'm not worried," Buffy told him.
"I'm getting zero juice here," he went on. "And I look like Elizabeth Taylor."
"Cheer up, Liz," Faith said to him. "Willow's big spell doesn't work, won't matter what you wear."
"I'm not worried," Buffy repeated. But her voice said otherwise, and the others gazed in horror as they moved to the precipice. It looked out over an endless cavern. And in that cavern…
Thousands of Turok-han.
"I'm not worried," Buffy said, practically catatonic.
"Really?" whispered Rona. "'Cause I'm flashing back to Xander's whole bathroom speech."
"Buffy?" Amanda asked shrilly.
Buffy closed her eyes. "Now Willow now Willow now."
"Buffy?" This time Amanda almost screamed.
"I'm not worried!" Buffy proclaimed. "As long as Willow can work the spell before they … see us."
As one the vamps caught sight of the girls. Screaming, they charged.
"Willow," Buffy whispered.
…
"Sweet fancy Moses," Amanda gasped.
Buffy and Faith beamed at each other.
"You feel that?" Faith asked the Slayer.
"I really do," Buffy told the Slayer.
Faith looked ahead. The Slayers steeled themselves – dozens of them, ready but uncertain, pumped and hanging on … hanging in. Hanging tough. "Everybody, hold the line," Faith ordered.
"These guys are dead," Vi said coolly.
The first wave of vampires hit, frenzied evil spilling over the girls in a blur of teeth, axes, spears, talons, and muscles and no fear of pain or dying. They swarmed, enormous killing things, and the Slayers went into action.
Roundhouse kicks, uppercuts, sidekicks, leaps – punching and twirling in a battle dance such as the world had never seen before. They were to the Power born. Each Slayer, cloaked and anointed in the power, burned bright as they fought back the horde, slaying as if they had been doing it all their lives.
The Chosen, the valiant, heroes every one, the Champions of good, beating them back.
Spike held off others, but there were so many – the army of darkness was endless. But he fought, waiting for the amulet to bestow power, not waiting to wade into the war and hold the line. It was brutal, dark, and bloody. It was why there were Slayers, and why they were here, shimmering with Power.
On the precipice – the Pride Rock of Doom in the endless cavern – Buffy hovered near the edge, fighting every vampire she could touch. She tossed a Turok-han over the side, staked another, then took a couple of brutal hits.
A fearless warrior jumped through the Seal opening: Kennedy, shouting, "Buffy! Catch!" She hurled the scythe at the blonde.
Buffy caught it in mid-flight, not even looking back, and dispatched two vamps immediately. Kennedy was attacked and jumped high, kicking hard – pummeling the enemy with her newfound powers.
"Oh, I could get used to this," she exulted.
Spike fought as he never had before. Amanda, Vi, everyone was pumped, armed, and filled with it. War cries echoed over the frenzy. Faith, Buffy, vamps, and Slayers leaped at each other above the heads of the warring crowd. A sprawling, brawling, mob: Armageddon.
Having breached the line, some of the vampires saw the Seal opening and scurried up it. More followed.
Robin and Giles heard them coming. Giles had rolled a cigarette – traditional last one before battle – and offered it to his comrade in arms. Robin declined. One last drag for Giles, and then he stamped it out.
They hoisted their swords to the ready.
In the atrium, Xander and Dawn prepared. She turned to Xander and said, "You were going to take me to Oxnard?"
He shrugged. "I know some people there." He added, "you're in my blind spot."
She gingerly but swiftly changed sides with him.
In the north hall, Andrew and Anya geared up for the fight. "I think they're coming," Andrew said.
Anya nodded, swallowed. Her heart was pounding so heard she could barely hear her own voice. "Oh, God," she said. "I'm terrified. I didn't think. I just figured you would be terrified and I would be sarcastic about it."
Terrified indeed, Andrew whispered, "Picture happy things. A lake. Candy canes. Bunnies."
Anya's eyes narrowed. "Bunnies. Floppy, hoppy, bunnies," she said. Her sword came up, all fear gone.
The Turok-han made it up and through the Seal. They came barreling down the hall towards Giles and Robin, whose blades were up in defensive positions. Vampires to the right of us, vampires to the left of us, volleyed and thundered.
They were a matched pair of warriors who fought expertly. Giles scored a beheading, but they were only managing to hold them off, being driven slowly back.
In the cavern, as Spike fought off in a corner, he was startled by a surge of power from the amulet on his chest. "Uh, Buffy?" he called, but she was in the heat of battle. "Whatever this things does, I think it's …" He cried out and dropped to his knees, stunned by pain.
Buffy was oblivious, because the army of the bad was not getting smaller. She watched a Turok-han leap on a young Slayer and tear into her. The girl went down.
Faith battled her way over to Buffy's side, exhausted but game. She said, "Think it's too late to talk this thing out?"
Buffy called out to the girls, "Keep the line together! Drive them to the edge! We can't let them-"
Pain.
Unbelievable pain.
She looked down to see the point of a sword extend from her belly, then retract. She had been run through.
Silence covered her thoughts. Vaguely, she realized that Faith was tackling the vampire who had stabbed her. Then, Buffy fell slowly to the ground, face first.
"Buffy?" Faith cried, running to her sister Slayer.
Buffy gazed up at her and rasped out, "Hold the line." She held out the scythe to Faith. There was a moment, then Faith took it. She stabbed the vampire behind her without looking at him. The she got crazy with battle frenzy, and started taking them out one by one.
A vampire got her around the neck from behind, then more joined it, dogpiling her. Her skin tore and the stench of the monsters assailed her. She tasted blood. Looking around, she saw Rona and shouted, "Rona!"
As she was buried beneath the vampires, she tossed the scythe to Rona – who took it and started hacking.
They were here. They were driving them apart – Andrew to the North Hall, Anya down the adjacent hall that led outside.
Okay with the dying, not with the pain, Andrew thought. Okay with that … not so much. God, I am so scared.
Then a Bringer went down, holding out his sword like a limp noodle, as another Bringer jumped on him with a knife.
Anya slashed one, dropped it. I'm winning!
I'm terrified!
And then another one came from the side. She turned-
-Mrs. Xander Harris, that is who I'll be…
-Aud.
-Anyanka.
-Anya Emerson.
-and the Bringer gutted her. He stabbed her repeatedly.
And she was dead.
-Forever, Anya.
Spike.
Searing pain wracked his body. He tossed away a vampire as confusion and pain contorted him. He clutched his stomach, burning from the inside out.
Amanda dropped right in front of Buffy, eyes wide. She was dead. Two more Slayers fell. Kennedy was backed against the wall, her weapon knocked from her hand. She was steadying herself, preparing.
On the ground, her vision hazy with pain, Buffy looked up to see black boots, long black legs in black suitpants, the edge of a leather duster … a face topped by dark, spiky hair.
For a brief minute she thought Angel had gone back on his word. That, once more, he had come to save her. But, of course, it was The First.
Not even Angelus could manage to put that much evil in his eyes.
He clutched his chest. "Ooh, ow, Mommy!" The First mocked her. "This mortal wound is all itchy!" He leaned in and said softly, "Now you know how it feels, lover. You pulled a nice trick." He smirked and added, "Hey, you came pretty close to taking me down. What more do you want?"
Buffy pulled herself up on her hands, shaking with fury. She wasn't done yet. "I want you… to get out of my face," Buffy told him.
Then she rose: Resurrection. The First backed away, vanished.
Sweaty, bloodied, hair in her face, Buffy took a step forward. Two stumbling, hunched steps later Rona saw her and threw the scythe. Buffy caught it, and stood a little straighter.
She screamed, swinging the back of the weapon like a bat. She knocked five vamps back and over the edge in one blow.
As if her power communicated itself to Faith, the Dark Slayer kicked her way out of the dogpile and rose as if from the dead – also bloodied, yet also unbroken.
The tide turned then. The Power surged in all the slayers, and it used them to force the vamps back, many of them falling over the edge, and at least one Slayer going with them.
But they were on the offensive now. They were pushing and screaming as if reborn in the might throes of power. As they battled to save the world.
Spike staggered under the Seal opening, paused, and said "Oh, bollocks." Energy shot up from within him, straight through, like a geyser. It pierced the seal and burst through Robin Wood's office floor.
It narrowly missed the still-prone Willow. She watched in astonishment as the brilliant plume crashed through the ceiling. It bathed her in sunlight and she murmured, "I didn't do that."
The sun hit Spike hard. He was pinned, pain and something else building inside him. He called out to his dearest love: "Buffy…"
She saw him and raced over. "Spike!" she shouted – and had to dive out of the way as a prismed ray of pure, soulful sunlight blasted out of the amulet and into the cavern. In an instant, thousands of vampires were incinerated.
Then the teeming cavern began to tear apart: walls crumbling, rocks tumbling like bombs. The ground shook and the foundations roared.
"Everybody out! Now!" Faith yelled. The girls fought their way to the exit. Everything was shaking.
Buffy came to Spike. He remained pinned in place, energy still blasting from him. "I can feel it, Buffy," he murmured.
"What?" she asked, choking with emotion. She fought to keep present, to be here for him. She didn't want him to die alone.
"My soul." He gazed at her with wonder. "It's really there." Grinned faintly. "Kinda stings."
As the cavern fell, Buffy tried to stay with Spike, but he said to her, "Go on then!"
Buffy shook her head. "You've done enough, you can still-"
"No," he managed, burning. "You beat 'em back. It's for me to do the cleanup."
Faith called from the entrance of the cavern, "Buffy, come on!" She ducked some falling debris and disappeared from the entrance, leaving Buffy alone with Spike. Debris plummeted around them as well.
"Gotta move, lamb," Spike said tenderly to her. "I think it's fair to say school's out for bloody summer."
The cavern was collapsing at the top and bottom, the actual school falling in on the vampires. "Spike," Buffy begged.
"I mean it. I gotta do this." His hand was held up, frozen in his pictus of revelatory pain. Buffy took her own hand, interlocked it with his. After a moment, both of their hands burst into flames.
They ignored the fire, looking at each other. "I love you," she told her friend, shaking.
And there it is, then. That girl, Cassie, she told me she would say it. She didn't tell me how, or when, but it's been said. Now I can go. He smiled kindly. "No, you don't," he told her. "But thanks for saying it."
A quake rocked them, and Spike pushed her away. "It's your world up there. Now go!"
She looked at him, then went, bolting for her life while Spike gazed at the destruction in front of him. He smiled wickedly, saying, "I want to see how it ends."
The Slayers ran out of the Seal room and through the halls. Their footfalls clattered as they raced from the collapsing building.
Giles was helping Robin, who saw the girls and said to him, "The bus! Get 'em on the bus!"
"Everybody!" Giles yelled to them. "This way!"
Toward the buses, and final safety, Kennedy was helping Willow. Dawn was pulling Xander, who was calling out, "Anya! Anya!"
Beneath the debris and fallen Bringers lay a still form, who would not be leaving – the fallen heroine, Anya.
Near her, Andrew was completely dumbfounded as he stabbed his attacker. The Bringer fell down dead, Andrew's sword in his chest. Andrew was bloodied but alive, and completely astonished by that fact. "Why?" he murmured.
A Slayer rushed to him, grabbed him, and hauled him out.
The bus was outside the high school as the structure collapsed. Robin shut the door and peeled out.
At the very back, alone in the crush, Dawn searched for her sister. "Buffy," she murmured.
Buffy headed for the door out of the basement, but it was blocked. She moved quickly to the stairs.
Below, in the cavern, Spike smiled. He was gonna die a hero. Die a Champion. Die good.
Then, a hand reached out and yanked the amulet off his neck.
Chapter 7/the Epilogue, will not be posted until October 21st. This is because of the cliff-hanger ending of this chapter. I'm posting this on my Yahoo! groups, and don't want anyone to find out the ending before anyone else. The world will find out at the same time. So, you'll all have to wait until then!
Allen Pitt: I suppose you're right about the thing with Robin, but I wanted to make a point that it's Angeldoing it, in defense of his Childe/Grandchilde. I like the comraderie that developed between the two vampires on Season 5 of Angel, and wanted to explore it a bit sooner.
White Wolf 3: Good point about the mansion. I didn't think of that, but it makes perfect sense. And, I realize there was some discontinuity - I think it stems from the fact that I took all these scenes that worked out rather perfectly on the show, added Angel to them - and it didn't quite work as well with him there. Also, I'm not a fan of Kennedy. As she says, she's kind of a brat - and I can't stand her. So I cut large portions of her "internal dialogue" as it was written in the novelization. That left me with some rather gaping holes in the resulting scene(s).
Thanks all for reviewing, you guys are great! MCP