Disclaimer: As if they could ever come up with something like this!
Apologies: There're a whole bunch of excuses I could give for why this is late, but I won't. All I'm going to say is "I'm sorry," and leave it at that.
Author's Notes: Well, this is it, everyone. The Seacouver storyline finishes with this part (mostly). I hope you enjoy it. As well, you might like to be listening to Disturbed (your choice of CD/songs) while reading the fight sequences. It came in real handy for me while writing them!
Warning: Character death(s) ahead. I'm just not saying whom. You have to find that out for yourself!
Gratitude's: Harry2 and Superfan your reviews were a delight to read, as well as whomever else I forgot to mention! And El Chacal, it was because of your latest "nudge" that I got the last 2/3 of this written in one night...thank you!
Twilight Unicorn: The Vampiric Unicorn (who can't quite believe there's only TWO parts left of this story!)
Part 26
Seacouver: Seacouver Park, 8:19pm, Day 12
He continued to watch the rain, and as a bolt of lightning dazzled his eyes...he sensed it: a malevolent presence behind him. Before he had time to react, slender hands wrapped around his throat and squeezed with surprising strength.
A venomous voice of the female kind then hissed out, "You are not my childe! Where is he?"
"I'm right 'ere, Love," a familiar male voice with a cockney accent said before the hands around his throat were suddenly gone as the woman cried out in surprise and anger.
The Ancient Immortal dropped to the ground gasping for breath. Deep gouges on his neck bled profusely where his assailant had been holding him before she had been forcefully pulled away. Curious and wanting to prevent further injury, Methos turned onto his side so that he was half-sitting, half-lounging, and watched what was happening while the scored wounds on his neck healed.
Methos spotted Spike and Drusilla struggling a good distance from him. Before he could give warning they slipped in a puddle on the slick cement floor, and fell with bruising force to the ground. He winced in sympathy, and watched as the two glared at each other on the ground where they lay, a few feet separating them. Both vampires rose slowly to their feet while never breaking eye contact.
Spike said after a moment, his expression determined, "If you're goin' after everyone else to get to me, Dru, it's not goin' to work."
The vampiress tilted her head to the side, a few strands of dark wet hair falling into her face, and studied her childe. Her voice sing-songish, she observed with a knowing sidelong glance at Methos, "You didn't tell him, naughty man!"
Keeping his gaze focused on Drusilla, the other vampire inquired tensely, "What didn't 'e tell me, Ducks?"
Dru seductively moved step-by-step towards Spike, stopped before him, and cupped one side of his face in her hand. Her eyes dark and mesmerizing beneath her lashes, the vampiress murmured compellingly as she then trailed one finger along his jaw-line, "Come back to me, my Spike...or become Forsaken."
The vampire jerked back, a snarl on his lips, and insulted fury blazing within his eyes. In a near growl, Spike snapped out in irritation and indignation, "You've 'ad your chance, Sire. Ya won't get another! I made my choice when I let you go after torturin' Angel, Dru. You know it, and even said it then: you've lost me. I'm mated irrevocably to Dawn, now. Ya can't change that!"
But for the falling rain a deadly silence fell, then with a low growl Drusilla lashed out suddenly, and savagely raked her nails across one side of Spike's face. His head snapped to the right, blood already trickling down from the wounds on his left cheek. He slowly turned back to stare at her. With promised retribution, the vampiress snapped out in a clear and lucid voice as her childe set his cold gaze against her burning one, "Then you are Forsaken, and shall loose all you hold dear!"
Spike's eyes turned to an icy blue that chilled to the very core of one's being, and said through gritted teeth in promise, "You'll not 'arm her, Drusilla. You'll be dust before you touch 'er!"
With a snarl, Dru's face shifted and changed to that of the vampire, and said cold-heartedly as she began to calculatingly circle around her childe, "That's not for you to decide, Forsaken. You have no more say in what I do to you and yours any longer."
The vampiress had made a full revolution around the other, and stopped some feet away from in front of Spike when she finished speaking. For a moment, no one moved, then Spike drew in a deep breath and let it out gradually. He slowly reached into one of the pockets of his coat, and said grimly before striking out, "Then you give me no choice, Love."
With movements too fast for a mortal eye to catch, the vampire lunged forward while pulling out a stake from his coat pocket. In the instant before he made contact with her, Dru clasped her hands around Spike's own, preventing her true death. They crashed to the floor, both fighting for dominance of the piece of sharply pointed wood.
A feral growl escaped Drusilla as she forcefully kicked Spike away from herself, and swiftly rose to her feet as the other vampire rolled to a standing position. They warily circled each other, neither wanting to initiate the next round. After several seconds, Spike imperceptibly narrowed his eyes, then spun around to kick Dru with his full strength in the stomach. The vampiress staggered back before lunging forward with an inarticulate cry. Again they crashed to the ground.
Rolling on the floor further into the amphitheater, they stopped with Dru lying on top of Spike...and with no warning: he head-butted her. As she shook her head, stunned, he flipped them until they had switched positions, grabbed both her hands with one of his own, placed them above her head, and positioned the stake firmly over Dru's heart...going through cloth, and touching skin.
They stilled, each looking the other in the eye.
Drawing in a shuddering breath to fortify himself for what he was about to do, Spike said softly, sorrow and regret in his voice and tingeing his eyes, "If I 'adn't of fallen for Dawn, I would've gone back to you...but it didn't 'appen that way. Goodbye, Dru. I 'ope you find peace in whatever afterlife you end up in."
As he finished speaking, Spike sharply pushed the stake into Drusilla's heart. The understanding acceptance and gratitude in the insane vampiress' eyes, as well as the serene smile upon her lips, before she fell to dust was terrifying to behold. For long moments, Spike lay in the dust that was his Sire, a look of one whom is lost upon his face. Then he drew in breath sharply, and bowed his head in silent agonized grief.
Unnoticed by the remaining vampire, Methos rose to his feet, his wounds healed. Slowly he made his way over to the grieving man, and knelt by him. Almost hesitantly, he placed a comforting hand on Spike's shoulder, and said softly, "I'm sorry."
Spike became motionless, then with an infuriated roar, he twisted around and backhanded the Immortal. Methos went flying several feet back before crashing to the ground, dazed. Before he could understand what was happening, the vampire was on him, punching him repeatedly in the face. Weakly he fought to deflect the blows raining down on him. Dimly was he aware of the words being yelled at him.
"YOU BASTARD! WHY DIDN'T YA TELL ME ABOUT THIS? YA 'AD NO RIGHT! I SHOULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW FOR INTERFERIN' IN VAMPIRE BUSIN—!"
With a grunt of effort, Methos pushed the vampire off of him. Quickly getting to his feet, he ducked the blow Spike aimed at him. Yelling with fury, Spike whirled around to attempt to hit the Immortal again...and stilled. A very sharp and lethal sword was resting with deceptive lightness against the vampire's throat.
His voice filled with warning, the Ancient Immortal said softly in a manner that had not been heard in millennia's, "Strike me again, vampire, and Dawn's mate or not, you will be dead...permanently. Understood?"
Forcing himself not to swallow, Spike ground out, "Yes," before the sword was removed yet kept out in view. Warily moving away from Methos after a moment when nothing happened, the vampire said with suppressed anger, "You've got a lot to answer for, mate. Me 'n' Joe 'ave been lookin' for you."
Brow furrowing in confusion, Methos asked, "Why?"
Nostrils flaring as he kept himself from physically reacting, the vampire snapped out, "Because you bloody disappeared on us you bloody prick, and Joe's furious at you for lyin' to 'im, too!"
Standing ramrod straight, the Immortal said indignantly, "I did not lie to him, only omitted part of my plans for the night! I did exactly as I said I would, then left to come here."
A sneer on his lips, Spike said tensely, "Well that's all fine and dandy, but now Dawn's missin', an' we 'ave no idea where she is."
"What?"
His expression and tone of voice one of disgruntlement and frustration, the vampire answered, explaining as he stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets and kicked a rain puddle beside him for no reason but to release some of his emotion physically, "She ran off when I went to look for you at 'er request. Joe's got 'is people lookin' for 'er."
Methos sat down abruptly, unease and dawning realization showing on his face. Spike watched as the Immortal began to figure out all the pieces of the puzzle and put them into a whole picture. The vampire started slightly when Methos looked at him suddenly, his expression fierce and his eyes golden. In a tone that demanded answers, the Ancient Immortal asked sharply, "Drusilla was a Seer, correct?" At Spike's nod, he continued, saying half to himself, "So is Cassandra," then inquired, "Do you remember what you and Dawn told me and Joe about your first encounter with Drusilla? She mentioned something about her other sister would face Dawn, not her."
Spike cursed as he realized what Methos was implying. He asked grimly, "Ya think Dawn's gone to face Cassandra, then?"
His eyes filled with mirthless humor, the Immortal replied, "It's the only logical conclusion. Drusilla and Cassandra must have met up at some point, and decided to combine their resources for a better chance at success."
The vampire turned away, cursed more violently than before, then stilled, looking alarmed. Whirling around to face Methos, he saw that the Ancient Immortal felt it as well. Their gazes locked as Spike said bleakly, "We're too late!"
Just at that moment, Spike's cell phone rang. Quickly fumbling it out of his coat pocket, the vampire answered, and heard a very welcome voice say grimly, "I found her."
Relief made the vampire's knees go weak, but he remained standing as he asked urgently—immediately catching Methos' attention, "Where is she?"
"Currently chasing a white wolf around the dock warehouses...a wolf that happens to be Cassandra, by the way."
"Yeah, we'd just figured out that that was what she was doin', jus' not where," Spike commented, then added as he glanced at Methos, "an' I found the bastard."
Joe chuckled, then said dryly, "I know. Chris contacted me after he talked with you. You gave him quite a scare."
The vampire snorted in amusement, then said seriously, "What do you want us to do?"
"That's up to you guys," Joe answered, "but I'd recommend going after Dawn."
"That's what I was thinkin'," Spike admitted. "We'll see you there?"
"Damn straight you will!"
Seacouver: Well Insulated Dock Warehouse (Inside), 9:37pm, Day 12
Within a warehouse, two Immortals fought a life and death battle, their swords ringing with each strike. A dance of lethal grace were they as they moved back and forth across the ground in absolute darkness but for the relentless flashes of lightning from outside. The only other sounds within the storehouse was the steady streams of rain coming down like miniature waterfalls through holes in the roof, and the creaking and groaning from the building as it fought a slowly losing battle against collapsing and tearing apart from the sheer force of the winds alone.
A stillness settled over the two for a moment as their blades locked together at the hilt. Breathing slightly uneven, Cassandra asked contemptuously, "Tell me, girl, what can possibly make you think you will win this battle? I have millennia's on your few years of life!"
Panting heavily for breath as she glared at the older Immortal, Dawn gasped out, "Because...there's...more...to me...than...being...Immortal," before breaking away from the other woman.
More strokes fell in the near darkness before they locked blades again. Cassandra continued the conversation by inquiring condescendingly, "And what are you, little girl?"
A grim knowing smile traced Dawn's lips and darkly lit her eyes as she answered simply, suddenly not out of breath at all, "'Though I look it, I'm not actually human," and once again moved away from the other Immortal.
Ire flashed within the older woman's eyes as she followed after Dawn and attempted to strike the younger female, but stilled suddenly as an ear-splitting shriek of metal and wood being rent asunder filled the air. Dawn stopped as well, and both turned their faces up to the ceiling, before diving to the ground in opposite directions...seeking whatever shelter they could find as the roof was ripped off of the storehouse as easily as a pop-top on a soup can.
The building had lost its battle with the storm.
Seacouver: Well Insulated Dock Warehouse (Outside), 9:42pm, Day 12
A van sat near the warehouse where the two Immortals fought, the people inside anxiously waiting and watching all that was happening within and without the building. A battered black jeep pulled up beside the van, and two figures stepped out. Quickly, they ran over to the van and clamored into the now open side door.
As Spike slammed the door shut, Methos said to Joe as he wiped water out of his eyes, "Sorry it took us so long, but we had a tree fly into us on the way here. Spike's bike got totaled in the process."
"At least you're here," Joe said tensely, "and I still have a bone to pick with you...but now's not the time. Dawn's inside that warehouse battling Cassandra as we speak, and you just missed watching the roof peeling off of the building. We thought we'd be crushed for a moment before the wind blew it another direction." The two immortal men turned to the small television the Watcher had just pointed to as Joe added, "When we realized where they were going to be, my guys hacked into the surveillance of the building and activated it so that we would know what's going on."
"'Ow the Hell do you know what's goin' on when you can't see a bloody thing," Spike exclaimed in irritation after a moment of watching brief flashes of dark grainy images against black nothingness on the screen. "Why don't you jus' go in there?"
"It's not their place," Methos pointed out. "They're not like the Council in that regard."
The vampire snorted, and said derisively, "I'm gettin' that," then asked seriously, "So wha' do we do now?"
"We get to go in there and try and stop this fight before Dawn losses her head," was the straightforward answer. "She's still my student, and that gives me the right to take her place."
Spike nodded curtly, then stepped out of the vehicle. As Methos began to follow, Joe stated bluntly and seriously to the Immortal, "You do realize that she took your place in this battle purposefully, Adam. By the rules, you may not have a choice but to let her do what she's doing."
The Ancient Immortal's head was bowed – whether against the rain or the weight of knowledge could not be said – as he answered softly, gravely, "I'm well aware of that, Joseph. I just pray to whatever god of Good will listen that it will not mean the end of her life," then was gone.
Seacouver: Well Insulated Dock Warehouse (Inside), Same Time as Above, Day 12
Dawn groaned quietly and shook her head, and then realized that was not such a good idea as stars suddenly flooded her vision and a ringing filled her ears.
"Oh, God. Not good," she moaned, then slowly sat up...only to realize that she was pinned under several large pieces of wood and metal. Frowning, and with a grunt of effort, the Immortal Slayer pushed the heavy objects off of herself. Staggering to her feet, she swayed for a moment as she regained her sense of balance. A strange feeling made her turn her head. Her eyes widened as she saw Cassandra running towards her with madness in her eyes and sword raised for a death blow. Dawn dropped to the ground like a rock as the older Immortal rushed by overhead, her momentum too great to stop. As Cassandra skidded on the now drenched ground to keep herself from going further, the young Immortal rose to her feet and gave a shriek of fury. She had had enough.
"God, you're just like a dog with a bone: you just won't quit! But I'll tell you something, bitch: I won't just lay here and take it. I've—," Dawn stopped suddenly as a familiar presence came over her at the same time that the bite mark on her neck tingled. Her eyes narrowed coldly upon the one before her as she said firmly with finality to one of the two men cautiously coming up behind her, "Don't you dare interfere, Uncle. I chose this fight fully knowing what I was getting myself into. You can't stop me."
The youngest Immortal present watched as Cassandra's face twisted into one of deep loathing and revulsion. In a voice filled with disgust, the woman hissed at her, "You claim kinship with him?"
Dawn stood rigidly straight, her chin lifted proudly as she said, "Yes, I do. My mom and dad consider him a brother, meaning I have every right to call him my uncle."
Her face twisting further in abhorrence, Cassandra spat out, "You're worse off than I thought, girl, to say that. I will show you none of the mercy I thought to when I take your head...then his."
The Immortal Slayer smoothly slid into a ready fighting stance with her sword raised before her as she said grimly with slowly growing command, "I'm not the one losing their head tonight, Cassandra, so get over yourself and fight me!"
With a snarl, the older Immortal woman promptly raised her own sword and struck, only to be deflected. As the two fought, Dawn heard Spike call out desperately behind her, "Dawn, no," as Methos said bleakly to the vampire, "You can't interfere. She's made her choice."
"To Hell with choices, she's my WIFE," came the anguished and incensed response to the oldest Immortal's words.
Dawn pressed her lips firmly together as she pushed what was happening behind her out of her mind to concentrate on the woman before her. Cassandra was good, she had to silently admit. The woman had had three thousand years to perfect her skills, so that was in her favor. But she was the Slayer, which was in her favor... however, that was not all she was. If only she could somehow access that part of herself!
Time passed, yet it did not. Each stroke and strike of the sword felt like the first and the last at the same moment. Nothing else existed but what was happening in that precise second, and the possibilities of the next. Time was irrelevant. Yet time did pass.
As if from a great distance, she heard Methos shout at her, "Quit playing with the woman and get it done with, Dawn! Remember who you are, and do what you must to live."
Dawn shook her head, as though coming out of a dream, and gazed keenly at the one she fought. She could see the madness lurking beneath the surface...just as she had whenever faced with Drusilla. She knew such madness could not be cured, except by death, and felt sorrow for the fate of this woman. She hesitated on the next strike, and felt the sting of a cut on her jaw. Her resolve to destroy this woman returned with a vengeance.
In a matter of a few strokes, Dawn had Cassandra kneeling on the ground before her, the wind whipping strands of long hair that had escaped her braid in her face with stinging force. The older Immortal looked up at her in bewildered shock, then growing realization as she felt the blade resting against her throat. With clear unease, the woman glanced at the sword before her...and received another shock as she saw it was not metal, but a fiery ruby hue of crystal. Drawing breath in sharply, the shapeshifting Immortal looked up and whispered in sorrowed awe, "You are the one who shall end the Game! Forgive me, for I doubted what I saw in vision was true...for how could it be?"
"It is not for me to forgive. I'm not the one you've wronged," Dawn replied quietly, calmly, ignoring the question just posed. "Use this moment to pray to whatever deity you worship for mercy, Cassandra, because I won't give you any. Your time has come. There can be only one, and you are not it!"
With those words, Dawn raised her sword high as Cassandra bowed her head in resigned acceptance. The sword fell with deadly precision...and Cassandra was no more.
Dawn collapsed to the ground, shaking, and her face ashen as she slowly began to assimilate what had just happened. As she numbly gazed at the mist starting to form around her and the corpse beside her, she became aware of a voice worriedly calling her name. In a daze, she looked up to see Spike standing some ways off from her, gazing at her apprehensively in concern while Methos grimly held him there. Seeing where the ancient Immortal was staring, the Slayer glanced down, and blinked.
The mist about her had grown rapidly...too rapidly. She had witnessed Buffy take a Quickening before, and this was nothing like that. Unsteadily, she rose to her feet. Once standing, she felt an unusually warm trickle of something wet slowly making its way down her jaw to her chin. She raised her hand, brushed at it, and came away with blood: her blood, on a wound that had not yet closed...but should have.
A sudden feeling of something not right overcame her as she truly took a look at the mist now thickly surrounding her. She could not see anything but the mist...a mist that should not exist in this torrential rain. Lightning flashed dangerously close overhead, and then again a second later. She felt strange, as though her spirit was too immense for her body. A tremor shook her as her eyes closed, and she bowed her head. The angle of her head was just right for a single solitary drop of blood to pool on her chin...and fall. Time stood still, the very weather holding its breath, as the blood dropped down into the mist.
The Immortal Slayer's eyes snapped open suddenly, and all she had time to say in realization was, "Oh, God. Why now," before she became nothing but green mist and light. She was the Key once more.
Her physical form was no more...yet thought and emotion remained. As though from a great impassable distance, the Key sensed those it loved and called friend and family, and felt their fear, confusion and anger.
"I'm alright," the Key sent to those whom feared for it, and were connected by blood and bond to its former physical form. "All will be well. Do not worry. I am safe."
When it had finished speaking, the power it had used to communicate recoiled upon itself, overwhelming the Key. As it fought for control over a source of power that it could barely remember from the time before it had had physical form, another vaster power came to its aid. As the Key slowly assimilated its own power once more into itself with the assistance of this new greater power, the higher power spoke.
"What do you want?"
The Key thought, and answered.
"I want to be myself: able to use my power to its fullest, yet be able to remain with those I have come to call friend and family in my physical state."
The other power responded.
"We can do this, but at a price. Are you willing to pay the price?"
"What do you want from me, and who do I speak to?"
"We are they whom you know call the Powers That Be, and we ask only that you be our Champion, to call upon when we need to."
"So you are the ones my family serves. Very well, I will be your Champion in return for the freedom to use my powers as I wish, and retain my physical form when I desire to."
"As you have spoken, so shall it be. The Key you were, and the Key you shall remain. Dawn Summers you once were, and Dawn Summers will you be again. Our Champion we call you: Bearer of the Sword of Light of the element of Fire. Let this element and its sword become a part of you forever more, until the ending of time and beyond. Through this element may you be joined to all elements and be one in all things."
Power beyond comprehension flowed through the Key as the Powers That Be sealed their pact, making it unbreakable. The green mist that was the Key in incorporeal form shifted and changed, becoming flames of resplendent hue. Within the flames, a humanoid form began to appear. Old yet young, a woman yet a girl still, did this form seem to those watching. Clothing of softest silk and reddest color came into being upon the figure swathed in flames. A sword of crystal and flame appeared before the woman, thrumming with unspoken potential.
Slowly, the woman's eyes opened, to reveal deep indigo orbs that were wise beyond the years expressed in the woman's countenance. A wondering look upon her face, she reached out and took the sword into her hand, and the flames surrounding her disappeared. Gracefully, she turned to face the two men standing within the ruined building, and asked softly, "How long?"
Clearing his throat to speak, the oldest Immortal answered, saying, "Around fifteen minutes."
The Key nodded her understanding, then sheathed the sword she held in the scabbard that suddenly appeared upon her back. A sound made her turn to the other man.
Spike gazed at her uneasily, unsure as he asked, "Nibblet?"
A brilliant smile took over the woman's face, as she said while rushing into her love's welcoming arms, "It's still me, Spike."
"Thank God," was all that the vampire could say as he clung with bruising force to his wife.
A discreet cough beside the couple made them turn to see Methos gazing at them apologetically, as he said, "I'm sorry to break this up, but we need to get going. I don't doubt that the proper authorities will be here soon enough to investigate whatever was going on here."
Dawn pulled away reluctantly, and commented, "You're right. Let's go." As the three immortal beings made their way to meet with Joe, and go to their respective vehicles, the Immortal Slayer/Key added, "Also, we need to get to Sunnydale. Stuff's going on there that we can't arrive to stop, but we can help with the aftermath of. At least I hope so."
Next Part: Sunnydale. (wildly out-of-control sinister laughter) You've no idea what you're in store for!
Author's Notes 2: (wipes sweat off of brow, and gives a relieved sigh) Phew! That was the hardest thing I've ever written yet. It was also the one element (Dawn's first Quickening) this entire story was so simply based upon (roughly three years ago) when I started writing this behemoth! I hope the long wait for this moment was worth it for all of you, 'cause it sure was for me.
P.S.: If you wanna know how Spike got to Methos as timely as he did, read the first of the Swords of Light: Interludes titled "Where's Methos?" that I'll be posting tomorrow. Let me know what you think, 'cause it's been a while since I've done a one-shot!