Never the Same
Chapter 6 – Together, we can do anything.
DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, and Harry Potter to J.K. Rowling. I don't own anything…
RATING: PG-13 (T) to R (M) - violence, language, angst, horror, possible mild sexual interactions, etc. If you can watch BTVS/AtS and read HP, I doubt you'll have any problem with this story.
TIMELINE: Sequel to "Out of the Blue" and "Red Horizon" (Part 3 in the series), and begin where we left in "Red Horizon" chapter 39, and a bit before BTVS season 7, though it's almost completely AU, with many changes from the real plot.
SUMMARY: BTVS/HP crossover. Sequel to RH. "You can run but you can't hide, evil finds you everywhere. Peace and quiet can no one provide, who said life was ever fair?" Starting over is something that definitely falls into the 'easier said than done'-category. Buffy and Remus are doing their best to move on, and get used to the changes and the new turn their life has taken, but it's not easy...especially not when living on a Hellmouth.
CENTRAL PAIRING: Buffy/Remus
OTHER PAIRINGS: Willow/Tara, Xander/Anya
Special Thanks to: My Beta – CharmedChick
"How do you think Buffy is?" Xander asked, looking upstairs where Remus had disappeared with Buffy minutes ago.
"She looked like a wreck when she came in," Anya supplemented.
"Thanks, An," Faith sighed. "I think we all saw that."
"Why isn't she at the hospital?" Tara wondered. "They'd be able to fix her, right?" She looked at Giles, who started to clean his glasses.
"Well, yes, I suggested it to Remus, but he...eh...sneered at me. I don't think he likes me very much."
"Don't you get the feeling...that he's a little bit...overprotective?" Willow wondered.
"Over Buffy?" Joyce said. "Yes. But I think that's good. He takes care of her," she sounded pleased. "Although I would have preferred it if he'd let Giles take her to the hospital. But I know Buffy and hospitals don't really agree...so maybe that's why. Buffy picked a good man."
"I'm more worried that she needs protection in the first place," Faith said. "I need another experienced Slayer, not someone who falls apart when faced with danger."
Willow and Xander gave each other looks. "Well...Buffy's not one to fall apart without good reason. She has always...you know, she's strong," Xander said. "Whatever the First did...or said to her...it must have been tough."
Faith sighed. "Yeah. Probably. Still, I'd rather have her down here, healthy. Not up there, speaking crazy nothings and being generally useless."
"She's not useless!" Willow protested. "She's just sick. She can't help it."
"I know she can't help it - I didn't mean to make it sound like that. But at the moment, she is useless, unwillingly or not," Faith finished. "And who's keeping an eye on the three little pigs?"
Xander snorted. "That's your namefor the potentials? The three pigs?"
"I'll change it to the seven dwarves when more show up," Faith said. "And when I'm out of Fairytales...well, hopefully, they will have grown up enough so stupid nicknames aren't needed. Although right now, I doubt it."
"They're talking about us, aren't they? Buffy wondered, from where she was curled up in Remus' arms. Remus lips twitched. It had only taken a few minutes for him to fix the worst of Buffy's wounds, and then after a long talk of what happened, Buffy felt a lot better, and was more than equipped to fix the rest herself. They wouldn't even scar.
"Well..." Remus stretched out his senses to the sounds downstairs. "I think Annabelle, Kennedy and Molly are arguing whether to watch the '102 Dalmatians', 'Independence Day', or 'Robin Hood.'
Buffy snorted. "The Potentials, right?"
"Yeah. Let's see...ah! Your mum is admiring my overprotectiveness, and the rest of the group wonders about your state of mind."
Buffy guffawed loudly at this.
"Well...I guess we should go down and reassure them." She snuggled up closer to Remus. "But I don't really feel like it. On the other hand, it would be nice to shut them up."
Remus kissed her softly. "Can it wait?"
Buffy grinned. "Oh, yes, it can wait..."
An hour later, Remus and Buffy finally decided they should go down and face the music, Remus going first.
"Remus, my man!" Xander said, standing up, as Remus entered the living room, setting himself down in one of the free chairs in front of the telly. "How are you? And how's Buffy? Is she still...you know?" He made a circling motion with his index finger by the side of his head.
"She's just fine, Xander, thank you," Buffy herself said dryly, as she came into the room.
"Buffy!" Xander chuckled nervously. "Didn't see you there."
"Obviously," Buffy said calmly, sitting down in Remus' lap. "What are we watching?"
"Independence day," Annabelle grumbled. "Kennedy hits hard."
Molly gave Buffy a curious look, along with Kennedy (after the latter had given Annabelle another rather hard hit). "So you're the other Slayer, huh?" Kennedy asked, looking Buffy up and down.
"Yep," Buffy said brightly, trying to ignore Kennedy, who's inspection made her feel a little like a caged animal at zoo. "That's me."
"Can you do that cool cracking thing too?" Molly asked, making Buffy frown.
"Cracking thing?"
"Apparition," Remus explained, and Buffy lit up in understanding.
"Oh, that. Yeah."
"Remus found you, huh?" Molly said, sighing dreamily. "He found me too. He's really brave, isn't he?"
Buffy tried not to laugh. Remus had told her about the Potentials after their 'snuggling' sessions, and the way he'd described their personalities had her cracking up. She now realized he had been pretty accurate in his explanation.
"Yeah. He is."
"Well," Kennedy wondered. "Why didn't you 'crack' yourself away then? Would have saved us a lot of trouble."
"Saved you a lot of trouble?" Buffy raised her eyebrows. "I had the feeling it was Remus who found me, not you. What did you do?" 'I have a feeling little Ken needs to be taken down a notch or two...'
"Yeah. Saved him a lot of trouble then," Kennedy corrected herself. "Whatever."
"It wasn't a lot of trouble, really," Remus said. "I needed to get out, stretch my legs, have some alone time. It was nice. Although I wish I would have been informed the minute I stepped into the house."
The Scoobies looked a little guilty at that.
"You still haven't answered my question," Kennedy said, her nose up in the air.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "It's kind of hard to apparate when being tied up to a wheel and cut into by a knife. Or when you're being tortured by an ancient vampire."
Kennedy quieted at that. "Oh," she just said.
There was a few seconds of uncomfortable silence- the only sounds came from the television.
"You know, Buffy," Joyce finally said. "What happened to your wounds? You were hurt really badly when Remus brought you in- there was blood everywhere."
"Oh, Remus worked some wonders with his magic - fixed me right up," Buffy explained, waving it away like it was nothing.
Molly's eyes grew huge. "He did that? Wow...he really can do anything..."
Remus snorted. "Eh, not really. I just stopped the bleeding, and then Buffy did the rest herself."
"Buffy did it?" Willow wondered.
"Yeah. I can do magic too, you know. And I worked as a Healer- it wasn't a big deal."
"A Healer?" Joyce sounded confused. "Like a doctor? I thought you hated hospitals?"
"Oh, I don't hate hospitals, per se," Buffy shrugged. "Just being a patient. I hate feeling helpless under someone else's care, you know. Now, being the one taking care of the patient, that's another thing. Then I'm in control and holding the instruments." She frowned. "Or wand. Whatever."
Willow smiled at Buffy. "Well, I'm just glad you're feeling better," she said, earning herself a smile back.
"Thanks, Will."
"So...there's two Slayers?" Rona, the newest Potential frowned, as Molly nodded.
"Yep. Buffy and Faith- she's the one that picked you up at the bus station."
"And one of them is English?"
"No," Vi, a red-haired Slayer shook her head. "Buffy's boyfriend's English. She just lived there for awhile. But I heard that they're not from our England."
"What do you mean our England? There's more than one England?" Chloe, another Slayer In Training asked, confused.
"Buffy and Remus - that's her boyfriend- he's really brave and really hot, by the way- they're both from a parallelish dimension," Molly said. "And they can both do magic."
"Well, I for one, prefer Faith," Kennedy spoke up. "She's way cooler than Buffy. I mean, when we- Annabelle, and Molly and I - first got here- several weeks ago - Buffy had gotten herself kidnapped by one of the Bringers, and Remus had to rescue her. She seems rather weak and pathetic. I bet I could take her."
Molly snorted. "Yeah, right, Ken. In your dreams, maybe. She's still the Slayer. And Remus would never date anyone like that."
Kennedy rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. I think you're going a bit overboard with your hero-worshipping. It's obvious Buffy's got Remus wrapped around her little finger."
Molly pouted.
"Plus, you saw her after Remus rescued her- that vamp beat her up good," Annabelle said.
"So there's a vampire out there, capable of killing a Slayer with almost no effort?" A blonde Potential, Eve, supplemented.
"Well, she was taken by surprise," Molly muttered, but was ignored.
"And what are we doing about it?" Eve continued. "Just sitting here, waiting to be picked off one by one? If one of the actual Slayers couldn't fight it, what chance do we have?"
"Well...Buffy never stood much of a fighting chance," Annabelle said. "From what I've heard, she was tied up."
"She never should have allowed herself to get tied up in the first place," Eve exclaimed. "Do these...Scoobies have any kind of plan? You know, any kind of plan to keep us from dying?"
Silence.
"I didn't think so."
"Eh...hi!" The Potentials peeked in through the door-opening, interrupting. "Can we come in?" Molly wondered. "I'm feeling a little peckish, and so is Rona."
"And we have some questions," Eve said.
The Scoobies shot each others a look. "Sure."
"So," Kennedy asked, hopping up beside Faith. "What do you know?"
"Eh...we know a lot," Willow said timidly. "I mean...what do we know, Giles?"
"We've got squat," Anya summarized.
Buffy sighed, before giving Remus, who was rubbing her shoulders, a grateful smile. "Well, squat's not gonna cut it. What about the uber-vamp?"
"The vampire time forgot?" Xander asked.
Buffy nodded. "Yeah. Time may have forgotten him, but I sure won't." She shuddered. "Although personally, I felt the verbal torture from the First Evil was way worse."
"Well...it's called the Turok-Han," Giles said. "And normal stakes won't kill it."
"Great!" Kennedy exclaimed. "So we know what doesn't kill it. What does?"
"Yeah!" Eve agreed. "What are you people doing to protect us?"
"Everything in our power," Faith said, making Chloe snort.
"Well, then your power source must have been cut short."
Giles sighed, and cleaned his glasses. "There is one avenue that we haven't tried yet- "
"Giles!" Anya hissed, protesting.
"Beljoxa's Eye," Giles finished. "It's an oracle type creature that exists in a dark dimension."
"More like an internal vortex," Anya corrected.
"So...this Bojox' eye thingy might know what we need to know?" Buffy summarized.
"Yes," Giles said.
"But there's no guarantee," Anya cut in.
Faith hopped down from the table. "I'll take anything I can get. We're running out of time."
Later, the Potentials all gathered up in the basement for training. Vi immediately began stretching, while Molly reached out for a stake. Chloe went straight for the punching bag along with Kennedy.
"Is that punching bag of leather?" Annabelle wondered out loud. Kennedy rolled her eyes, but ignored the vegan-girl, as did everyone else. They had gotten used to Annabelle's ways by now.
"What are we all doing here?" Eve said.
Kennedy let out a frustrated cry. "It's called training. Didn't your watcher ever teach you the word?"
Rona cut in. "I never had a watcher. I only just found out what I was - or what I might be - after those crazy-ass monks came after me."
Eve glared at Kennedy. "I meant why are we all bothering? It's not like we can make a difference."
Molly spoke up. "We've gotta try. We gotta keep our reflexes sharp. Oops." She dropped her stake, making Eve snort.
"And then what?" Eve said. "What are we supposed to do about it? Not one of us is remotely prepared to be activated as a new chosen one."
Kennedy rolled her eyes. "Speak for yourself. I feel pretty prepared. In fact, as I've already told you, I bet I could take Buffy's place with no problem."
"It doesn't matter what we feel. One of us will only be activated if Faith dies. She's the actual Slayer- the one the Slayer line rests on." Eve said. "Faith will die, sooner or later, and when that happens, one of us is going to be the next Slayer, with the weight of the world on her shoulders. It could be anyone. Especially since there's so few of us left. They'll just run through each one of us, one after the other. Kinda creepy, huh? All we do is wait around for each other to die. It might just be my personal opinion, but I feel the Slayers can't protect us from the First."
"And I can almost feel the positive energy flowing," Buffy said dryly, as she stepped down the steps, into the room, followed by Remus.
"Where's Faith? I thought she was going to train with us," Kennedy frowned.
"Plan's changed," Buffy said. "Faith had to go find a new Potential. You get me instead."
Kennedy sighed. "And what are you going to do? Teach us how to get kidnapped?"
Buffy's eyes narrowed. "You know, Kennedy, I'm rather sick of your attitude. If you think you're so much better than us, why don't you leave the room?"
"I don't think," Kennedy said. "I know. I could take you easily. I haven't seen you do a thing around here, except making out with your boyfriend."
"Really?" Buffy drawled. "Since you're so sure of yourself, why don't you and I spar? If you win, well, then I'll let you do whatever you want around here. If I win, I want you to shut your mouth and do as you're told. Deal?"
Kennedy smirked, looking the short Slayer up and down. "Deal."
Buffy just raised her eyebrows. "Well, get going then. I don't have all day."
Kennedy's eyes narrowed, and she rushed towards Buffy.
SMACK. BAM. BOOM. SMACK.
"OUCH!" Kennedy cried out, as Buffy caught her in a headlock and then threw her to the floor. Before Kennedy had time to react, Buffy was standing over her, a stake over her heart.
"If you were a vampire, you'd be dead. Lesson number one: Never underestimate your enemy. Lesson number two: Don't let appearances fool you."
Buffy stepped of a thoroughly humiliated Kennedy.
"Now," she said. "What did you learn by watching Kennedy and I spar?"
"That we shouldn't mess with you?" Chloe said, voice shaking nervously. The other Potential's laughed nervously, all the while looking at Buffy in a new light: With respect.
Buffy's lips twitched. "Well, I guess so. But what I meant was, that when Kennedy rushed at me, it was obvious she had no plans of attack, which made it easy for me to throw her off. Also, her right side was left unprotected all the time- that weakness would have been easy for me to use. That I'm also physically stronger than her doesn't matter. Often, the demons and vampires we face are stronger. But strength isn't everything. It's how we use it - our strength and agility and all the rest of our resources - that determines the outcome of a battle. That's lesson number three."
Suddenly, Faith came storming down the stairs.
"Get away from them!" She exploded.
"Who? Get away from who?" Buffy said, confused, backing out of Faith's way, as the dark haired Slayer walked into the room, pausing in front of Eve, who gave her an innocent look.
"What's the problem, officer?"
"I said, get away from them now," Faith said through gritted teeth.
"Faith, what did Eve do?" Buffy wondered. "Except for being annoying."
"That's not Eve. Eve's dead."
All the potentials nervously backed away from 'Eve,' who stood up.
"Oops! One more down. Oh, well, can't save 'em all, can ya? Thanks for the slumber party, girls. It's been real fun the last couple of nights. I learned a whole lot- "
"Shut up, and get out," Faith exclaimed.
Eve smirked. "Or you'll do what? I'll be sending a guest over to visit y'all later on tonight, after the sun goes down of course. I think you know him. Buffy. Try and make him feel welcome before he rips y'all to pieces. Bye."
And in a flash, she was gone, leaving a thick silence behind. Buffy closed her eyes in frustration. Her small step forward her lesson had made became three steps back as the fear was back, redoubled. Great.
A few hours later, the Scoobies had once again gathered in the kitchen.
"It's my fault?" Buffy said quietly. "It's my fault the First Evil is here?"
"Buffy, you couldn't have possibly known," Remus tried, but Buffy interrupted him.
"It doesn't matter! It's still my fault! I came back from the other dimension and that interrupted the balance and gave the First Evil its chance to settle! That's what it said, right, Giles? Beljoxa's eye?"
Giles cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Well, yes, that was the gist of it."
Buffy sank down in a chair, burying her face in her hands. "I knew things would have been better if I'd never returned. Ever since I came back, things have sucked," she muttered. "In both dimensions."
"Don't think like that," Joyce said. "None of us blame you. Right?" She looked around at the others, who gave each other uncomfortable looks.
"Well...of course not," Willow said. "Of course we don't blame you...but..."
"...it's still my fault. On my shoulders." Buffy looked up, seemingly utterly defeated.
"Don't, Buffy," Remus said softly, settling down on his knees beside Buffy's chair. He was talking so silently that no one in the room could hear him, besides Faith. "It's not your fault. Get yourself together. I need you- we need you- strong, and alert. Not filled with self-doubt. It might be because of you that the First Evil's here, but it doesn't help anyone if you fall apart. If you do, you let it win."
"He's right," Faith said. "The damage has already been made - "
Remus gave her a glare. That really wasn't helping.
"- the First is already here- let's make the best of the situation, alright?" Faith finished, either not noticing, or not caring, of Remus look.
Buffy took a deep breath. "You're right. Both of you, no matter how it came out. We need to focus, on the First Evil. So...we need a plan. Anyone got one?"
"What do you think they're talking about?" Chloe wondered. The potentials were sitting cramped together on the stairs.
Annabelle shrugged. "Don't know. Don't care. We're all going to die soon anyway."
"Hasn't anyone...you know...tried to...spy on them?" Vi wondered.
"Yeah," Kennedy said. "But Remus has set up some kind of silencing charm. Can't hear a thing. And don't you start," she warned, as Molly opened her mouth, presumably to begin another one of her 'Remus is a hero' speeches.
Molly frowned. "I wasn't going to," she muttered, even though that was a lie.
"We should run," Vi suggested.
"And go where, Vi?" Kennedy wondered. "As much as I hate to admit it, but it's probably safer here, inside, with the Slayers, than out there."
Molly smirked. "Guess your tune has changed now when you got your arse kicked by Buffy?"
Kennedy glared. "That's not it at all."
"Well, I think we should. Run, I mean," Chloe said nervously, twitching her hands. "The First Evil...it was here. Right among us, living in the house, for days, with no one any the wiser."
Vi shuddered. "It could still be here. It could be any one of us."
The kitchen door opened.
"No," Buffy said, stepping out, along with Remus. "It can only take the form of dead people." She inwardly shuddered, remembering all too well the First Evil's taunts in the forms of her best friends.
Rona snorted. "Yeah, well there'll be plenty more of those soon enough. We're dropping like flies here."
"Hey!" Buffy interrupted. "Look, I know you're all scared. You know what? I am too, but we need to stick together. Okay, we're stronger that way. We cannot afford to fall apart now. We've come up with a plan. Willow, Tara, Remus and I are going to try to make a barrier to keep the vampire out. I have a feeling he doesn't need an invite."
"Try?" Rona cried. "You're going to try?"
"You heard her," Kennedy said, not really daring to speak up against Buffy again, even though she felt the same thing as Rona did.
"And what if that doesn't work? What if that monster gets through?" Chloe wondered, biting her nails nervously.
"We'll deal with it," Buffy said.
"Deal? Fight, you mean? How?" Rona wondered. "You beat Kennedy easily, and she's the strongest of us. And the vamp beat you. So what are our chances?"
"Lesson number four," Buffy said with a frustrated cry. "Don't underestimate yourselves. Don't underestimate your abilities. And what makes you so sure Kennedy's the strongest? As I said before, the winner is not determined by strength. And definitely not by ego."
Kennedy gave her a long, dark glare.
"Give up," Chloe suggested. "Can we do that? Surrender, I mean, so it won't kill us?"
"Didn't you hear a word of what I just said?" Buffy cried. Remus took hold of her arm and lead her back into the kitchen, to the Scoobies. Tara and Willow was whispering softly in a corner, gesturing wildly, presumably about the barrier spell.
"It's no use, Buffy," Remus said. "They're all worked up. There's nothing we can do to reassure them now."
A few minutes later, the sun set. Several Bringers had already encircled the house, and the occupants of Revello Drive were all gathered in the living room.
"Why aren't they doing anything? Attacking, I mean?" Molly asked Remus.
"They don't want in. They're here to make sure we don't get out."
Annabelle shuddered. "We're like trapped rabbits in a cave, waiting to be slaughtered..."
"Annabelle!" Buffy snapped. "You're not helping. Everyone, grab a weapon. One you can handle," she added, trying to ignore Rona's muttering about how it wasn't any use. "Remus, come with me. It's time."
Remus followed Bufyf to the hallway, where Tara and Willow were standing.
"Ready?" Buffy inquired.
"As ready as we'll ever be," Tara said, grabbing Willow's hand. Willow grabbed Buffy's, and Buffy grabbed Remus'. Suddenly, there was a shout from the living room.
"It's here!" Anya said. "So...start working your mojo."
The four magical users nodded towards one another, and then started chanting. The rest of the gang stood in the living room doorway, watching them.
"Caerimonia Minerva, saepio, saepire, saepsi..."
The door burst open.
"Saepio impedimentum!"
A shield flickered to life, and everyone breathed out a sigh of relief.
"It's working!" Chloe exclaimed.
"For the moment," Vi added.
For several minutes, the shield held up. Then Tara fell to her feet, and the shield flickered.
"Keep concentrating!" Buffy yelled to Willow, who looked as if she wanted to go to her girlfriend's side. "She's fine!"
"I'm fine," Tara agreed, being helped up by Xander. "Just...temporarily out of magic."
"We won't be able to hold it much longer," Remus said, noticing the barrier flickering again, as the Turok-Han threw itself against it.
Buffy gulped, feeling the pressure too. "Run," she finally said. "Everybody, run."
Barely a minute after they left, the barrier broke, and Remus, Buffy and Willow rushed to the back, towards the others, who were in the backyard, finishing of the last of the Bringers.
"Go! Go! Go, people!" Faith yelled, starting to run. "Follow me!"
"Are they following?" Molly whimpered.
Remus shook his head.
"Just the vamp," he said, trying to reassure the girl.
"That's what I was afraid of," Molly gulped.
"FASTER!" Faith yelled from uo front. "WE NEED TO GET TO THE SAFE PLACE!"
"We have one of those?" Molly wondered out loud, before she suddenly tripped on a bump in the street and fell. Remus hastily stopped.
"Remus!" Buffy yelled.
"KEEP GOING!" Remus called back, helping Molly to her feet. "I'LL HANDLE IT! Can you stand?"
"I think I twisted my ankle," the girl muttered, letting out a cry as she put pressure on her foot. Remus cast a quick look backwards. The Turok-han was closing in. Remus pulled out his wand, and shot of a 'stupify' spell, that hit the Turok-han, who stopped in his track.
Molly gasped in delight. "We're safe?"
"No. That won't hold him for long. Hopefully, it will let us catch up with the others though."
Suddenly, the vamp started moving again. Molly let out a scream.
"Apparently, I was wrong," Remus muttered. "Grab hold of me," he demanded. Molly quickly did as she was told.
"We're going to do the cracking thing again?"
"Yeah. Hopefully," Remus said. He was still feeling rather drained from the spell, and the full moon had only been days ago. He quickly concentrated...
CRACK!
CRACK!
Remus lost his balance, and fell to the street, dragging Molly with him. Faith let out a yell, as she had to jump over them.
"I hate when you do that!" She exclaimed. "A little warning, next time."
Remus swore. He'd meant to get them directly to the safe place, but apparently, his energy had just been enough to get them to the front of the line. Which meant they'd soon fall behind again, considering Molly's wounded ankle.
Buffy caught up with them, panting. "Thank Merlin. I was so worried until I heard the crack. I would have though you'd taken her further, though."
"That was my intention," Remus said. "Can you do a floating spell on her? I'm feeling rather...faint."
Buffy placed a hand on his forehead. "You're burning up. Think you can make it?"
Remus gave her a tired smile. "Yeah. I've been through worse."
"Good to know," Buffy muttered, pulling out her wand and pointed it at Molly, who, a second later, floated up in the air. Molly giggled in delight.
"This is so wicked!"
"Glad you think so," Buffy said, starting to run again, giving Remus worried looks every once in awhile. Luckily enough, he seemed to be able to keep up rather well, even though his breathing sounded labored. 'I'll have to check on him later...when we're safe...'
"I never should have let you do the barrier spell so soon after the full moon," Buffy said. "It was a bad idea."
"It was a good idea," Remus countered. "You couldn't have known I would have to apparate."
"Yeah. There seems to be a lot of things I couldn't have known, but should've," Buffy muttered.
After what seemed like an eternity, they reached their destination.
"This is the safe location?" Rona exclaimed as they climbed over scaffoldings.
"Not just any safe location. This is the future site of the Sunnydale Library, to be constructed by yours truly. If I ever get back to work, that is," Xander added under his breath.
"Somehow, that doesn't reassure me much," Kennedy sneered, almost back to her former sassy self, now when she'd kicked some Bringer-ass.
"Don't worry," Willow said. "Buffy and Faith have a plan. A crazy plan, but a plan."
"That doesn't reassure me, either," Vi said, gasping in surprise as Molly settled down beside her, floating down from the air.
"Where did you come from?"
Molly grinned. "Magic. Remus saved me. Again. Buffy helped." She added, as Remus gave her a reproachful look as he sat down on Molly's other side.
Suddenly, the flood lights came on, and everyone turned their heads, and found Faith and Buffystanding on an edge, overlooking the open area.
"You're all trapped," Buffy began. "The odds are against you. You have no means of fighting. No means of escape. So what do you do? Give up? No. You still stand strong. Even though you'll probably die doing it. Why? Beacuse we don't give up. Never give up. You must have..." She grinned. "Faith."
"Thanks, B," Faith said. "Why, hello there," she added, as the Turok-han came rushing towards them. "We were just wondering where you got to. Buffy likes speeches," Faith said, turning her attention to the potentials, while Buffy kept the Turok-han somewhat occupied.
"Personally, I prefer the kicking ass part, but, hey. We all have different hobbies. You doing alright, B?" Faith wondered, wincing, as the Turok-han flung her twenty feet away.
"Peachy," Buffy said, standing, and brushing herself off.
"Good." Faith grinned. "My turn."
For the next few seconds, the Turok-han and Faith sparred, before even Faith was flung away, landing beside Buffy, swearing wildly. Buffy helped her up, shaking her head in mock-scolding.
"You really need to work on your manners."
The potentials gave them incredulous looks. They were about to be killed and they were bickering?
"Together?" Buffy asked.
"I think so," Faith nodded.
Together, they jumped off the wooden platform they'd been on, landing several feet below, in front of the uber-vampire who sneered at them.
"Now," Buffy said. "Let's finish this, bitch."
"Who needs working on their language now?" Faith sing-songed.
"What can I say," Buffy said, making a round-house kick at the vampire who stumbled a little. "I got caught up in the moment." Buffy then pulled out her wand, whispering a spell at herself which made her float up in the air several feet. "Accio crossbow!" She then yelled, and the crossbow landed in her hands, right before her first spell ended, and she started to fall back down, landing steadily on her two feet.
"Show-off," Faith muttered, punching the vamp in the face, making him stumble back into Buffy's line of fire. Buffy grinned and shot of an arrow which impaled itself in the vamps heart. Faith didn't waste any time. Both she and Buffy knew that wasn't enough to kill the Turok-han, but the arrow at least paused the vampire in its steps, giving Faith a chance to strike. She jumped and kicked the vampire to the ground, but he reacted quicker than expected and threw her up, several dozen feet in the air, through the scaffold platform, on which Faith got a grip, and she dragged herself up, moaning slightly in pain.
"Look out!" Buffy yelled as the vampire scaled the platform to get to the vampire Slayer, and he grabbed her around the throat, strangling her, making Faith choke as she struggled.
Buffy quickly rushed towards them, jumping onto the Turok-han's back, making the vampire drop Faith, who immediately turned around and pulled out the arrow of his chest before jabbing it into his eye. The vampire roared in pain, and threw himself backwards, crushing Buffy, still on his back, between himself and the ground.
Buffy quickly pushed the vampire off of herself, and grabbed the end of a barbed wire which Faith reached out towards her. Together, they slipped it around the vampire's throat, pulling hard, effectively severing its head, and making it explode in a cloud of dust.
Faith and Buffy stood, looking up at their audience.
"See?" Faith croaked, her throat still a little sore. "Dust. Just like the rest of them. Nothing is impossible to kill."
"We don't know what's coming next," Buffy continued, slipping an arm around Remus as he and the other Scoobies climbed down, joining them in looking up at the potentials, who, for once, were completely silent.
"But we do know it's going to be just like this. Hard. Painful. But in the end it's going to be us. If we all do our parts, and believe in it, we'll be the ones left standing." She grinned, and slipped her other arm around Faith, who was standing with her arm around Willow, with her arm around Tara, with her arm around Anya, with her arm around Xander, with his arm around Joyce, with her arm around Giles. "Together, we can do anything."
The potentials all smiled at each other, as they climbed down, with Vi helping Molly, and walked out of the construction site after the gang, still with their arms around each other, laughing and joking. Trust amongst friends was back.
A/N: Hope you like it! Please REVIEW! And for interested extra-fanatical readers, a "Hogwarts yearbook" page has been put up at my website and can be accessed from the "Out of the Blue"-series page. 'Til next time: Please REVIEW!
/Ida