Many thanks for the positive comments. Sorry for the delay in posting this part - sometimes RL bites me in the arse.
Buffy gripped the steering wheel, staring at the demons. There were at least a dozen of them and more were joining the party. Though they didn't seem to be in any hurry to attack. In fact they were just standing around, chatting and laughing as if they were at a summer barbecue. Guess who's the steak, she thought grimly.
She scanned the street; it was lined with shops and restaurants, their doors and windows smashed, and unlikely to provide much in the way of cover. Buffy resisted the urge to stomp on the gas and plough through the demons; they'd rip the car apart as if it were made of cardboard. Going back wasn't an option, so...
She switched off the ignition and looked at Willow. "Will, maybe you should-"
"Sit here like a good little slayerette while you go out there alone?"
"Actually I thought it'd be better if you stayed here to protect them." Jerking her chin towards the back seat, she avoided Willow's knowing gaze.
"Sure," Willow said, an undercurrent of anger belying her light tone. "While I'm at it why don't I slit your throat and serve you up with fries and a side salad."
Buffy flinched.
"We go together, Buffy. It's the best chance we have."
Unable and perhaps unwilling to argue, Buffy nodded. "All right."
"Are you two crazy?" Jean poked her head between the front seats. "You can't take them on. Just turn the damn car around."
"And go where?" Buffy said, turning her attention back to the demons.
"Anywhere!"
Willow patted Jean's arm. "Don't worry. We'll be okay. But, er, if anything should happen to us, it'd probably be a good idea to skedaddle."
With the headlights off the near full moon lent the demons a surreal quality. For a second Buffy wondered if she was dreaming, caught in one of her nightmares. A whimper from behind her broke her reverie. She noticed the demons had stopped talking and were now eyeing the occupants of the car with open hunger.
"Key's in the ignition," she said over her shoulder. "Ready, Will?"
"Let's kick some demon booty," Willow said, slapping a fist into her other palm. She looked about as threatening as a lion cub.
Suppressing a smile, Buffy popped the trunk. Slayer and witch exited the car simultaneously, Buffy racing to the rear to retrieve the weapons she'd smuggled aboard the plane; having a witch for a friend sure came in handy.
As she grabbed a short sword and a stake she glimpsed Willow on the right side of the car unleashing crackling firewhips in both hands. Wielding the whips like a matador, she looked magnificent.
Buffy hurriedly retraced her steps to join her friend, each either side of the car bonnet. The pair confronted the demons, and in that instant the tableau froze as both sides assessed the other. Buffy felt her spine tingle, felt the familiar intoxicating heat fire her nerves and muscles. She never felt more alive than when she was fighting for her life.
She blinked. The tableau cracked; the demons roared in concert and charged.
The first vampire ran straight to her. She sidestepped neatly and decapitated him. The next two were more cautious and stopped short, flanking her. She propelled herself into a no-hands cartwheel between the two and came up behind them, whirling. She managed to decapitate one, but the other landed a solid punch to her face. Reeling, she dodged another punch and slammed her sword into the vampire's gut. He doubled over and she followed through with a stake to the back. Shrieking, he crumbled into ash.
Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy glimpsed two vampires already on fire and flailing their arms about. Willow was holding others at bay by keeping the whips moving constantly.
Buffy surveyed the demons approaching her, focusing mind and body. The easy bit was over; now that the demons had her measure there weren't going to be any more quick kills.
They seemed leaderless and when they attacked, it was in a disorganised fashion, without any apparent strategy. All the better for me, she thought. She engaged them, fighting with deadly precision and staking or beheading each demon as quickly as possible.
Soon her hair and eyelashes were coated in ash, and her ears rang with vampire deathcries. She'd slain at least a dozen demons but they kept coming...and she was beginning to tire.
She spun and landed a roundhouse kick on a skinny yellow demon. Snarling, it slashed a clawed hand at her face. She leaned back just enough to avoid the claws and kicked it in the stomach while it was off balance. One slice later and another headless demon lay on the road.
Swinging around, she came face to face with a one-eyed purple monstrosity. Ropes of saliva dripped from its mouth.
"Eww. You kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Its single red eye narrowed.
She smiled sweetly. "Not that you'll be seeing her again. Ever." Feinting, Buffy jabbed her stake at its eye. As the demon blinked she thrust her short sword at its belly, but before it could connect, a purple paw grabbed her arm and whipped her around.
"Wrong, slayer," hissed another purple demon almost identical to the first one, even down to the drooling mouth. It spat at her and Buffy instinctively raised her arm to block the incoming lugie, which left her wide open for the stomach punch which followed a second later. Pain exploded in her solar plexus and her vision blurred, but somehow she managed to stay on her feet. She lashed out blindly with the sword and heard a bellow.
As she stumbled, long purple arms wrapped around Buffy's waist from behind, trapping her arms against her body and lifting her from the ground. She snapped her head back and struck a bony chin, but the demon didn't let go. She hung in its arms, helpless, and saw mommie dearest coming towards her. Acrid yellow blood stained her stomach and her red eye bulged in its socket; she looked majorly pissed.
Buffy renewed her struggles, wriggling like a landed fish, but the demon's grip was like steel and she couldn't get any leverage. The she-demon drew nearer, flashing a toothy grin, but even as she took another step, a golden whip circled her thick neck and coiled tight. Howling, the demon clawed at her throat but succeeded only in burning her fingers. The firewhip held fast and the smell of charred flesh drifted to Buffy's nose. Despite her predicament, she winced in sympathy. The demon fell to her knees as the firewhip tightened and sank into her neck.
Without warning Buffy was released. The demon shoved her aside and ran to its mother, but it was already too late. Growling, it spun and rushed her, but in its rage the demon was careless. Buffy launched a perfectly timed snapkick at its face, and as it lurched back she dispatched it with a swing of her sword.
She glanced at her friend, but her gratitude turned to horror as she watched a vampire take advantage of Willow's distraction to dart in close and backhand her. The firewhips vanished, and Willow went down like a felled antelope.
"Willow!"
Buffy fought to get to Willow, wielding sword and stake with reckless fury, but there were too many bodies between them.
She wasn't going to make it.
Catching a glimpse of the vampire bending down to Willow's neck, Buffy screamed. "No!"
As if in answer a lean figure hurtled out of the night towards Willow. He yanked the vampire off her and snapped the demon's neck as if it were a stick of celery.
And he wasn't alone.
Multiple gunshots echoed in the night air, accompanied by arrows raining on the remaining demons. Three vampires disintegrated and more shrieked in pain. Buffy ducked and crouched beside the car, her heart pounding. Guns scared her more than demons ever would.
She watched a human army of maybe twenty people close in on the demons, overwhelming them. Within minutes the few surviving demons had scattered into the shadows.
Buffy stood, a tad befuddled by the battle's swift end. Limbs trembling with unexpended energy, she tucked the stake into her waistband. She peeked into the car, was reassured by a thumbs up from Jean, and tottered over to Willow.
"You okay?" Buffy said, trying to give her friend a onceover in the moonlight.
Panting, Willow nodded. "That was...bracing." Something trickled down her neck.
"You're bleeding!"
Willow put a hand to her neck. "It's just a scrape. I don't think he got his fangs in, thanks to..." she peered up at the young man supporting her elbow, "cute rescue guy. Hi."
He stared at her. "Willow, it's me, Connor."
"Oh, hi Connor."
Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Friend of yours, Will?"
"Never seen him before," Willow stage-whispered.
"Sure you have. When you came down to...whoa." Connor slapped his forehead. "The memory wipe, it must have affected you."
"Memory wipe?" Buffy said, immediately suspicious. She was fed up with anybody and everybody messing with her head. She tugged Willow away from him. "Who are you?"
He hesitated.
Her suspicion skyrocketed. "It's a simple enough question."
Connor looked from her to Willow and back again.
"I'm Angel's son."
Buffy couldn't help it; she giggled. "Yeah, good one. Just one teensy weensy little problem with that scenario, Angel's a-"
"A vampire. I know. So was my mother."
Funny, thought Buffy. He looked perfectly sane, yet the words coming out of his mouth couldn't possibly be true. Could they? Angel would never...
"That's not possible," she said flatly.
Connor lifted his chin. "Well, I'm standing right here so obviously it is."
"Only if we assume you're telling the truth, Pinocchio."
He frowned. "Pinocchio?"
"Hey, hey," Willow said. "Guys, let's not lose our heads here and say something we'll regret." She wiggled her eyebrows at Buffy.
"What's a Pinocchio?" asked Connor.
Buffy's face burned. Was he mocking her? She stepped forward, but they were interrupted by an asian guy toting a shotgun.
"Connor, man, time to move before the uglies come back."
Connor nodded. "Casualties?"
"Ben's got a dislocated shoulder and Riko lost a couple mouthfuls of blood. Nothing serious. We got lucky."
"Okay, round everyone up and we'll head back."
The guy snapped his gum. "Sure. Just one little hitch in that masterplan - lady in the car won't come out."
"I'll get her," Willow said hastily. Before Buffy could stop her, she'd left with the asian guy in tow.
Staring after Willow, Buffy wished she could follow her. She needed time to think, time to consider whether Connor was telling the truth. But leaving would've meant backing down, and that wasn't in her nature. And she'd just remembered the reason she'd come to L.A.
"Where's Angel?" she asked.
He dropped his gaze. "He's still MIA."
"Oh." She fought back the threatening tears.
"But we're not giving up on him yet."
Buffy nodded.
Breaking an uncomfortable silence, Connor said, "You're a pretty good fighter."
She didn't answer.
"A slayer, right? From your sparkling personality, I'm guessing you must be Buffy."
Buffy rounded on him. "And what do you know about me? Or slayers for that matter."
A mischievous smile hovered about his mouth. "Only what Faith told me."
"Faith! She's here?" She didn't know whether to feel annoyed that Faith had beaten her here or relieved that she wasn't the only slayer in town.
"She said you'd come. The way she talks about you, it's like you're Jackie Chan and Wonder Woman all rolled into one. She seems to think you're the only one who can save our collective asses." His speculative gaze rested on her. "I hope she's right." And he loped off towards a group handing boxes out of a restaurant.
Buffy called after him, "So no pressure, then." He didn't turn around. She pivoted and strode to the car, muttering, "Knows who Jackie Chan is but not Pinocchio...the youth of today."
Jean was standing next to Willow, saying, "I thought you were just kidding before. You know, when you said you were a witch." The girls were plastered to her side, staring up at Willow in awe.
"Not me, mommy," piped Abby. "I knew she was a real witch."
"You did not!" Melissa said.
"Did too!"
"Girls, girls," Jean said with an embarrassed smile. "We'll talk about this later." She glanced at Buffy. "What do we do now?"
Buffy shrugged. "Guess we tag along with the wild bunch."
"Are you sure that's the best thing to do?" Jean said in a low voice.
"They seem to know what they're doing," Buffy said, observing the way their rescuers gathered supplies with a minimum of fuss. She stiffened as she saw Connor coming their way.
"Mind if we use your car?" he asked Willow.
"Oh, it's not mine. It's a rental, which...really doesn't matter right now," she said, noticing his bemused expression. She smiled brightly. "Help yourself!"
He shook his head a little and glanced at Buffy. "If the two of you don't mind walking, we've got a couple of injured who could use a ride."
Over his shoulder Buffy saw a muscular guy wearing a sling and a white-faced Japanese woman with a bandage on her neck. She held back her flippant response. "No problem."
"Thanks." Connor signalled the others, and they began packing the trunk with as many boxes as would fit. In no time at all, the wounded had been loaded into the back and Jean was in the driver's seat with the girls beside her. Buffy felt about as useful as the unlit streetlights.
As the car began crawling along the road everyone took up guard positions around the vehicle. Buffy found herself bringing up the rear with Willow.
She snagged Willow's sleeve. "You're not buying this miracle birth fantasy, are you?"
"Why would he make up something like that?"
"To annoy me?"
"He doesn't even know you, Buff."
Buffy shot her a sidelong glance. "Why're you defending him?"
Willow shrugged. "He did save my life...and he gives off the good vibes. Plus you have to admit there's a family resemblance; they both have broodface."
"Broodface is not a genetic trait. And vampires don't give birth, it's like...a rule."
"Says the woman who's been resurrected more times than...well, anybody on the planet. You should know better than anyone that rules can be rewritten or even," she coughed, "ignored."
Buffy pouted. "Well, I don't trust him."
Willow fell silent for several paces, then said, "Is that because you don't believe him or because you do?"
It took a moment for Buffy to understand. "Will, this isn't about me."
"You sure about that, Buffy?" She sped up, leaving Buffy feeling unsettled and a little lost.