Summary: Down! The Slayer wants up!

Crossover: Bastard!!, Slayers

Disclaimer: I don't own Bastard!!, Slayers, or Buffy the Vampire Shagger. Although, if the respective owners want to swap for a couple of CDs that's fine.

Feedback: Yeah, baby!

Pre-fic comments:

* * *

Willow looked at Giles and Xander in stunned disbelief. "Guys, that note is /so/ a trap. I can't believe that you let her run off alone like that!"

"I did attempt, at least, to convince her to have someone accompany her," Giles defended himself.

"Queen Buffy made it very clear that she doesn't need my help," Xander shrugged. "What about when she told you to shut up, Willow? Who's been helping the G-man do research? You. We forgot that she was Queen C at her old school, I guess."

"Be that as it may," Giles interrupted, "I've found some more on this revivification business."

"But she's walking into a trap," Willow said plaintively. "We have to help her!"

"Like she said, she's the Slayer," Xander said.

"Er, er, the Latin for this passage is translated from Sumerian, and rather badly at that. Closest to the Master actually translates to 'nearest', meaning physically, uh, the person or persons who were with him when... he..."

Giles trailed off as the penny dropped. He, Angel, and Buffy had been running as quickly as possible from the blast radius. Xander had been in the same cavern as the Master when the ancient vampire had been dust-er, skeletonized.

"It is a trap," Giles realised.

Several vampires appeared in the bookcases, all armed with some sort of weapon.

"Just not for her," the librarian finished.

The vampires dogpiled them, hampering Xander who couldn't cast spells at them without harming Giles or Willow. If he cast Demona Crystal at this range, he'd probably get caught in it himself. Panic rose in him, causing him to forget several spells he could have used.

Stupid Slayer, running off like that! Who'd she think she was, Lady Muck or something...

* * *

Buffy rushed into the Library, finding it in a dismal state. Several books were lying around, the furniture was in varying states of disrepair, and the large table in the middle was tipped onto its side. She moved over to it as she heard a groan.

"Hey, Buff," Willow said muzzily, staring bleary eyed at the Slayer. "Told ya it was a trap. Vampires."

"Where are the others?," Buffy demanded desperately. She had to rescue them!

"I-I don't know," Willow said shakily. She got up, a hand on the table. "Look, I don't know what your problem is, or why you're playing with Xander's feelings like this, but, but stop it! Because he's my friend, and you shouldn't use people like that to make Angel jealous, and if you'd been nice like you were /before/ that holiday in LA, you would have been here to help us all!"

"We, we just have to think," Buffy stalled, trying to downplay Willow's anger and grief. She needed to keep the redhead as a friend -- she had thought that Willow wouldn't mind what she had done. "Where would they have taken them?"

"If they do any vampirey things to Xander, I'll, I'll," Willow said, trying to think of a suitable punishment that wouldn't hurt Joyce. Joyce was nice, she'd never done anything to Willow and it wasn't her fault that Buffy had... gone astray.

The Slayer turned, looking at the hacker seriously. "Why did they take him and Giles, and not you?"

"Giles said the ritual was, um," Willow explained, trying to recall the Watcher's words. "Close. You know, to Fangface. Uh, when he died. Physically, and Xander was right in the cave and you guys were running through sewers and I, I was in class because duh, school! And--"

"The one who was with the Master when he died," Buffy interrupted, seizing on the pertinent information. "We need to find out where."

* * *

Things weren't quite as nice for Xander and Giles. The younger man had awoken with an /abominable/ headache. He would have untied himself, but he was chained, hanging upside down, with his hands firmly tied together. He would have tried to cast a spell to free himself, but he was gagged.

"MFFF MFF MFFFFFFFFF," he attempted to yell.

Looking around desperately, he saw Giles tied up with rope at the side of what looked like a warehouse. The Master's bones were laid out on a bier directly below him, with a vampire who had been a black preacher in life standing at the head of the bier.

"Witness to our Master's wretched demise," the vampire said. He had great stage presence, as he drew a long, wicked looking knife from his robes. "He will breathe his last this night. The blood that pours from his throat will bring NEW LIFE to the old one. We gather for his resurrection. For the dawn of this new hell."

Xander gave a mental cheer as one of the congregation of vampires disappeared in a poof of dust, his colleagues joining him in his state of permanent death. He'd never thought that he'd be happy to see Buffy, after that Captain Hairgel jealousy dance.

The conveyor his feet were tied to started to move with a jerk. He twisted around, to see Deadboy pulling it along to a raised platform. Willow was standing next to the souled vampire. The first thing Willow did when the trussed up Xander reached them was untie the gag.

"Ahhh, it's good to be able to speak again!," Xander gasped. "Hands, Willow?"

"You stay here," Angel commanded. "I'll get Giles."

Willow untied his hands next, before pausing. "Uh, I can't untie your feet, because then you'll land on your head, and that probably wouldn't be too good for you."

"That's okay, Wills," Xander said with a vicious grin. He looked at the sharply delineated shadows thrown on the floor, and at the preacher vampire and Buffy who were currently evenly matched.

Xander gathered his power, which was quite an exercise with all his blood flowing through his head. "DISFANG!"

His shadow, cast on the floor, rippled as several silhouettes of dragons with sharp edges grew out of it. They flew across the floor to the shadows of the vampires, chewing, biting, and ripping at the vampires' shadows.

Buffy and Angel blinked as their opponents started developing missing chunks of flesh, taken by opponents they couldn't see. The victims also started to move more jerkily, making it extremely simple for the Slayer and the souled vampire to dust them.

Giles made his way over to Willow and Xander as the last of the vampires dusted, the shadow dragons vanishing. Xander looked mildly tired.

"Well, wasn't that fun?," the Englishman asked. "Angel, do come over here and untie Xander's feet."

The Irish vampire acceded, lowering the teenager to the ground as Buffy began to systematically bash the Master's bones to dust with a length of timber she'd ripped from the wall.

"I hate this hellhole," Buffy announced.

"With that, I'll agree," Xander said, rubbing circulation back into his feet. He'd just about screamed when they'd touched the ground.

* * *

Post-fic Comments:

Buffy isn't quite so emotionally tied up with the Master, this go around. I think you can guess why.