Title: The Sacrifices
Author: mispel
E-mail: PG-13
Summary: Fighting continues. Spike and Harmony struggle. Buffy finds out about the cluster, which goes missing.
Spoilers: Early season 7
Disclaimer: I own no one and nothing
Feedback: It's not easy to improve without feedback, so let's have some.
A/N: Takes place in early season 7, not long after Beneath You and Same Time, Same Place.
Previously: Xander and Dawn tried to return the kidnapped child. Buffy forced Harmony to help her. Spike developed an interest in the cluster. A demon delivered another baby to the cult. Anya and Halfrek interrupted the demons' ritual. Buffy joined the fight.
Chapter 14: Displacement
As Buffy, Anya, and Halfrek fought the demons, Spike emerged from the tunnel. He stood for a moment mesmerized by the battle going on and the strange, gray blood flowing. Anya had chopped off the tentacles of the robed beastie charging her. Then she stuck the beastie in the eye. So familiar. This was what he used to enjoy. Once upon a time, Spike would have mucked in just for the hell of it. Wouldn't matter on whose side. Just to shed some blood. Now Spike's eyes followed the sight, but he held back. He wasn't good for anything any more. He had a way to fix that, though, if he could only find it. Tearing his eyes away from the bloodletting, he looked around. Just as he saw it, he heard a grunt and someone slammed into his back.
"Woops!" Harmony said. Seeing how Spike's eyes shifted away from her, searching, she changed her mind. "Not woops! I mean: Aha!"
Spike hardly even looked at her. He just shoved her off him like she was some extra, unwelcome weight he had to shed.
But Harmony wasn't that easy to get rid of. She scrambled after him and tackled him. Grabbing him around the legs, she brought him down. Spike hardly seemed distracted. He kicked at her and got loose. But she was persistent. She grabbed his foot so he lost his balance then jumped on him.
Harmony spotted the cluster sitting pretty on a pedestal. Climbing over Spike, she tried to reach the cluster first. Spike grasped her around the waist and swung her aside so she landed in a blood puddle.
"Oh, yuck. I hate you!" she yelled.
Slimy and mad, Harmony threw herself at Spike just as he got his hands on the jewel. They both slammed into the hard cavern wall, but Spike held on to the cluster. He head-butted her in the face and ran to the tunnel opening. She followed. But when she came close, Spike elbowed her then kicked her hard. Harmony fell backwards, and Spike crawled upward through the tunnel.
Halfrek was swinging a demon by its arms and having way too much fun with it. She let go of him and he careened into two other demons. Only a few demons remained standing. Buffy finished off one by throwing a rock at his head. Anya and Halfrek killed the rest with the languid moves of two cats playing with dead mice.
"Oh, we should do this more often. It's so invigorating. All my veins are pulsing," Halfrek said as she looked around at the bodies and the blood.
"It's good to flex our muscles from time to time," Anya said feeling only some of the same high. She envied how Halfrek could still enjoy the simple things in demon life. A little carnage and mayhem and she was as happy as a demon in a bloodbath.
"Sure, lets try not to do it on the side of good, though," Halfrek said looking at Buffy as she picked up the baby from the sacrificial, stone cradle. She went over looking at Buffy critically. Halfrek was probably revving up for a faultfinding marathon of Buffy's parenting and baby-holding technique.
While they were preoccupied, Anya noticed something else: Spike's back as he started to crawl out of the cavern and into the tunnel. Harmony was sprawled on the ground nearby. Just as Harmony was getting up, Anya pushed her back down and followed Spike.
Amidst demon corpses and gray blood, Buffy had picked up the baby girl from the stone table, getting a good look at her for the first time. She had the cutest curly hair, and her face was a dark red from all the vigorous crying she had been doing. After Buffy held her for a while, the baby stopped crying. The child wore one tiny white sock on one of her tiny, adorable feet. Buffy considered how close she must have been to rescuing this kid earlier that night.
"Were you leaving me clues? Tiny, little smartie. Now try not to be too precious, OK. Oh damn, look at your cute little face and your cute little pink outfit!" Buffy exclaimed knowing she was doomed.
"They are not toys you know? They are not dolls you play with then cast aside," Halfrek lectured.
Baffy just stared. Halfrek looked serious though as she eyed the baby. She had her demon face on - blood-spattered no less - and her words were more than a little creepy. Buffy tried to remember that her vengeance niche was pro kid, sort of.
"So, is that why you were flexing your vengeance muscles down here, because of your kids in peril deal?" Buffy asked trying to confirm Halfrek's kid friendly attitude.
"That and these Michila idiots are the traditional enemies of all vengeance demon kind. We kill them. They fear us, and rightly so. Why do you think they were hiding down here too afraid to get their own sacrificial goodies?" Halfrek said and indicated the baby who smiled at her unexpectedly. "How adorable."
Buffy looked at the kid worriedly and turned the baby a little so she wasn't looking at the vengeance demon.
"What are they, like forgiveness demons?" Buffy asked as she checked the baby over looking for any ouchies. The baby had some kind of weird, purply liquid staining her clothes but nothing else.
"Bite your tongue, there is no such thing!" Halfrek said disgusted by the thought. "They kill vengeance demons and for every one they kill, we kill a hundred of them. But look at this mess. It's hardly worth it. They are just overgrown worms. Did you see how easily their arms pop off?"
Halfrek made a plucking motion with her hand and Buffy grimaced.
"Yeah and blech."
"They grow back. Obviously not right away," Halfrek said as she looked around at their unmoving bodies littering the floor of the underground cave. "And not if they are dead."
"How do they get your guys if they are just worms," Buffy asked.
"They use traps and trickery," Halfrek said evasively, probably not wanting to reveal any vengeance demon vulnerabilities. "They are low demons, the lowest, hardly worth anyone's notice until they started worshiping the Denekari beast. They think they found their creator or something. It's just a bunch of smaller demons worshiping a bigger demon because it looks a little like them. And old Denekari is just a mindless animal. It eats them more than half the time at these ceremonies. The cluster is their big offering to try and appease it."
"So why do they need the babies?" Buffy asked. Willow's research had been a little vague about that from what she remembered.
"Oh, to sacrifice, but not as an offering. The babies are like beacons. The anniversary of the day they discovered their deity is the day of birth of these poor children," Halfrek explained accompanying the word "deity" with air quotes. "Their blood is used to lure the snake beast to this place. The purple stuff is scented to draw the beast. When it mixes with baby blood the Denekari beast finds it intoxicating. Can't resist."
While Buffy was listening to the disturbing lecture, a motion on the edge of her vision drew her attention.
As Xander hung back, Dawn went into the hospital lobby first. She went right over to the desk and started babbling loudly. The receptionist tried to get her to give some information, but Dawn sounded hyper and talked a mile a minute about a sick grandmother, and how she was baking cookies, and they burned, and other nonsense. The receptionist showed superhuman patience. Xander mentally hyperventilated. While the receptionist was preoccupied with the headache Dawn was giving her, Xander sneaked through the lobby unnoticed.
Without even turning her head, Buffy could see Harmony sneaking around the edge of the cavern toward the exit. She was tiptoeing, a little hunched over, like a cartoon character, hoping not to be noticed. Buffy rushed over and grabbed her by her sleeve.
"Harmony! What do you think you're doing!" Buffy yelled.
"Helping!" Harmony yelped, surprised.
"I know how you can help, come here and lean on this stake," Buffy said as she bumped her hip to indicate the stake peeking out of her belt.
"I helped you be all heroic and save the baby," Harmony whined.
"So did the vengeance demons, you don't see me thanking them. By the way, thank you guys." Buffy said turning to Halfrek then she looked all around and didn't see Anya anywhere.
"Where did Anya go?" Buffy asked vaguely worried.
"You might ask where did Anyanka and Spike go?" Halfrek said meaningfully. Her face was now human again and had a knowing look.
"Spike?" Buffy wondered.
"He took it! Spike, that thief, that cheater, that double-crosser. I'll kill him!" Harmony screamed getting loose from Buffy's grip.
Following Harmony's eyes to an alcove, Buffy confirmed that the jewel wasn't in its place on the imposing pedestal. Halfrek went closer and saw that it wasn't anywhere on the ground either.
"What does it do?" Buffy asked. She considered that in his state of mind, Spike might have just wanted something shiny. But she had a bad feeling that there was more to it. And she knew that she could always trust a bad feeling.
"Do? It's worth a lot of money is what it does, duh," Harmony told her then started to leave.
"Why does Spike want it?" Buffy asked, blocking her path.
"Are you having a blonde moment? Money! I just told you," Harmony said, waving her arms in exasperation.
"No. It's something else." Buffy was sure of that. In her arms, the baby girl squirmed uncomfortably, reacting to all the tension.
"Too bad you and your veiny, demon friends massacred all the slithery dudes or they could tell you," Harmony told her. Buffy looked around at the dead demons and the dead demon parts.
"Did you see mouths on those guys, sweetie? Did you hear a peep out of them when we ripped their arms off? They don't talk, honey," Halfrek pointed out and for once her extreme condescension seemed perfectly appropriate.
"Halfrek, you know about the jewley thingy?" Buffy said focusing on her now.
"Of course I do. What vengeance demon worth her soul wouldn't."
"So?" Buffy prompted her.
"It grants wishes."
"Damn."
"What? Are you worried that a crazy vampire might make a wish that isn't to your liking?" Halfrek mocked.
"Yes, I am," Buffy answered seriously.
"I would be too. If I wasn't an incredibly powerful demon who delights in deserved, human suffering," Halfrek said and smiled sweetly.
"Thanks for your help," Buffy said mostly sarcastically.
"No need for thanks. They killed quite a few vengeance demons to add to their collection of wish stones. They just glom them onto that thing," Halfrek explained matter-of-factly.
"That's why they kill vengeance demons, for the necklaces you guys wear," Buffy realized.
"There are other wish stones, but ours are the most prized," Halfrek boasted.
"It's not as cute as my baby," Harmony said as she peered at the baby who leaned its head over Buffy's shoulder.
"You don't have a baby, you ditz!" Buffy said turning the baby away from Harmony.
Halfrek shrugged at all the nonsense and started to wave her arm as prelude to teleporting.
"Where are you going?" Buffy asked her.
"To find Anyanka."
"And the cluster." Buffy accused worried that Halfrek was going to get the incredibly powerful wish-ball for herself, and that while holding the baby, Buffy wasn't in a position to stop her.
"Don't worry your tiny, blonde head. Vengeance demons can't use it. We have our own," Halfrek touched the pendant she wore around her neck. "They kind of cancel each other out," she explained.
"Then what does Anya want with it?"
"Paperweight? A gift to ingratiate herself to D'Hoffryn. My idea, by the way. Or she might be up to some good deed again." Halfrek looked appalled at the last idea. "I really can't stand around here and talk."
Halfrek was about to teleport when the ground shook and she almost fell over. Buffy wrapped her arms around the baby more securely and wondered if there was a safer place to stand if the ceiling started to come down, like a doorway. Somewhere above ground. Maybe one of the doorways at her house.
To be continued