Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the World of Darkness, and while it'd be nice to own those things, I have no claim on them and I doubt I ever will. Dangit. I make no money off of this, okay!?
Hey guys. Sorry this took so long to write out, but I've been busy. My computer suffered a terrible, horrible hard drive failure and I needed to reformat the whole thing, so I've been busy trying to get everything to work again.
Anyway, here you go, enjoy.
Jack Morris sat meditating in his hotel room, enjoying the peace and calm that came with the familiar act. Relishing every tiny sensation that ran through his body, from the feeling of air filling his lungs, to the slight itch on his forehead, he felt all the tension he'd accumulated flow out of him. Dressed only in loose clothing, even without footwear, Jack enjoyed the peace of mind, however long it may last.
Hearing a light tap on his door, he stood up slowly and stretched. He walked up to the door and bent down a bit to look through the peephole.
Before he could actually take a decent look, however, a slender fist bust through the door, ensnaring his shirt and pulled him through the ruined door. He landed with a grunt on the floor of the hallway, looking up at his assailant.
"Buffy Summers, I presume." He spoke snidely, smiling slightly at the former Slayer.
Beth snarled, kicking out at Jack, who rolled out of the way and jumped to his feet. Her foot embedded itself into an unoffending wall, forcing Beth to take precious moments to remove it. Stomping towards Jack, she snarled threateningly as he retreated in a defensive stance. Lashing out at him with her fist, Jack grabbed her arm and used her own momentum against her, flipping her down the hall.
Turning and running as quickly as he could, he burst out the doors of the hotel and ran around the side, quickly climbing up the fire escape. He crouched down and stilled himself, listening as carefully as he possibly could as he heard the hotel doors slam, and Beth's scream of frustration.
Tensing his muscles, Jack readied himself to pounce down. As he halfway expected, Beth stalked catlike, swiveling her head back and forth, trying to find him. Just as she got into position, Jack launched himself down, slamming his feet into her chest and sending her crashing to the pavement with a grunt.
Beth leaped to her feet, her face assuming its demonic form as she launched herself at Jack. Using his superior training to his advantage, Jack anticipated her attack and twisted out of the way of each one, slapping Beth's hands aside with only as much force as was needed to keep her off-balance.
Apparently angered beyond reason with her inability to effectively attack an impossible enemy, Beth launched every one of her punches with more and more force, but despite her efforts, Jack picked up no injury.
Despite everything, however, Jack was beginning to tire. His considerable training could stand against her attacks for hours, but Jack was still just a mortal and Beth wasn't. Jack would tire out fairly quickly, Beth wouldn't.
Slapping her hands away from his throat, Jack went on the offensive, lashing out with carefully controlled kicks and punches, not to injure Beth, for that wasn't something he was really capable of with his human strength, but to buy himself a little more time.
Beth, taken off guard by the sudden change in tactics, found herself unable to retaliate as Jack kicked her in the jaw, making her see stars and staggering her. Shaking her head, she growled as she heard Jack running away, his bare feet slapping on the pavement.
Jumping to her feet, she chased after the martial artist, her vision clouding over with rage. Screaming incoherently, she chased after Jack with all the rage of a rabid wolf. Despite Jack's small head start, she quickly began closing the distance as Jack redoubled his efforts in his escape attempt.
Running back inside the hotel, Jack ducked through the kitchens, grabbing a butcher knife from the rack, and went on without a single pause in his step. Bursting out the backdoor of the hotel, knife tucked away from his body in his left hand, Jack considered his options. Running down one of the darkened streets, Jack turned into an alleyway just ahead of the former Slayer.
And he ran straight into the arms of a plain-looking red haired man. Beth slid to a stop as the man shoved Jack off of him.
He crossed his arms, looking at the former Slayer with a smirk.
Beth took a step back, and Jack took the opportunity to get back to his feet. Glancing between the man and the vampire, Jack gripped the butcher knife in his hand even more tightly as he considered his next move.
The man spoke. "Well, well, well. I hope you've been keeping yourself busy, girlie. Want a second round, hm?" He spoke snidely.
Beth snarled, then turned and ran as fast as her undead legs would take her.
Jack turned the stranger, who was looking at Jack with appraising eyes. He gripped the knife, readying himself in the event he had to use it.
The man smiled, as if sensing his hostility. "There's no need for concern, sir. I've no intention of harming you today. I simply wish to know why it is you were being chased by that...thing."
Jack shrugged, replying. "Hey, I haven't a clue. She decided to knock my door down. Probably not a chance in hell of me getting my security deposit back, either. Ah well."
The man chuckled. "I suppose not. A word of advice, sir. Don't stick around out here at night. Despite your obvious prowess, you're hardly armed well enough for this neighborhood."
Jack nodded. "Yeah, I got that. Thanks anyway."
Turning and walking back towards the hotel, Jack reached into a back pocket and pulled out a small radio. Pushing the send button, he spoke into it. "Wolf One this if Fox One, over."
"Fox One, Wolf One copies. What's your status, over?" Oz's voice floated out over the radio.
"Tired as hell, Wolf One. Bogey is still loose, and very strong, over."
"Fox One, Hawk and Blade are tailing the bogey. Blade keeps cracking bad jokes, over."
Jack chuckled. "Roger that Wolf One, tell Blade to keep his mouth shut or she'll hear him coming, over."
Xander's voice floated over the radio. "Oh quiet down Fox, at least I can keep the mood light, Yoda tricks don't cut it you know." There was a pause, then added on. "Over."
Jack rolled his eyes. "Just watch your head, Blade. I'd hate to be the poor sucker drafted into stapling it back on you, over."
Xander replied with a chuckle. "Copy that. We'll move in on the bogey at 0600, we don't want her getting away this time. Just be ready Fox, over."
Jack sighed, then sent his reply. "Copy that, over."
Tucking the radio away, Jack walked back into the hotel, replacing the knife in the kitchen and walking back up to the room. Gathering his things, he hoped they'd be ready in the morning.
The sun rose over the horizon, wakening some of the citizens of Sunnydale from their slumber. For the denizens of the night, they all went hiding, waiting for nightfall so they might prey on new victims.
Except for one. Xander Harris of the Brujah Clan was busy preparing for war, while fighting off the fatigue that came with being active in the daytime. While he could move about without too much trouble, it would get worse the longer he was up, so everything he'd planned had to get done as soon as possible.
Checking over his shotgun, and placing the katana across his back, he looked over at Allandra, who was cleaning her rapier. Nodding in satisfaction, she picked up the sheath and hooked it to her waist, sheathing the sharp blade as she did so.
Looking at the window, where the rays of the sun were stopped by a thick layer of dark paint, he could see around the edges at the deadly light, trying to blaze its way into his home.
Feeling his instinctive fear well up at the thought of what he was about to attempt, even planned for, he ruthlessly quashed it. Taking a deep, calming breath, he mentally reviewed the game plan.
1. Jack playing bait by setting up in a hotel room and they'd subtly let the underworld know about it. Check and done.
2. Trail Buffy back to her lair so they could storm it and take her out permanently. Check and done.
3. Attempt this during daylight hours, when she'd be a little weaker and unable to retreat. Not exactly easy, considering Xander himself was as vulnerable to the debilitating effects of daylight as Buffy, if not more.
It was a daring plan. It was a risky plan. It would be the plan that would work because Buffy would never anticipate it in a million years. Even when Buffy was human, she always sought to fight the vampires when they were at their strongest, always at night. It never occurred to her to attack when she'd be the strongest and they'd be weaker, not expecting an attack.
Even Angel, when he was still a vampire, knew the merits of attacking his vampire enemies during the day. He'd done it a few times, before his redemption and reward.
Nodding to Allandra, Xander triple-checked his equipment, gathering his courage. "We're going to end this, here and now. Can ya tell I'm not looking forward to it?" He spoke, with a slight grin that didn't reach his eyes.
Allandra nodded, her expression sympathetic. "I understand your fear, Xander. You'll be facing down someone you once cared about, and we don't know if we'll all be coming back."
Xander nodded. "Yeah, I mean, before, it never really sank in, cause Buffy would somehow just let us not really dwell on how it was gonna go. I just hope we get this done real quick, I don't wanna fry."
Beth growled to herself.
Time was, she was the Slayer, she could beat damned near anything fate, destiny, or a really cruel god with a bad sense of humor could throw at her. Then she'd been captured and enslaved by the Tzimisce Clan, but still, even they used the talents given to her by being the Slayer in an offensive, often deadly capacity.
Now, she truly realized how badly she let her skills go to waste. If a simple human, no matter how well trained he was, was able to keep up with her, run from her, and eventually escape with that.... person's help, then she'd done several things wrong. She hadn't practiced or trained, thinking it was foolish, after all, she was superior. She was a Tzimsice and, even better, that pitiful thing known as a soul was thrown away like a piece of trash.
Which brought her to her current situation. She was busy pummeling a punching bag as fast as she could, smacking it with her full strength and skill. Strength she had in abundance, skill she lacked. While the punching bag was beginning to rip and tear under her relentless assault, even her previous, human self, would have been able to break the chains holding it to the ceiling and floor, sending it flying, by now.
Landing one final, powerful punch, the bag gave way and shattered, spilling its contents on the wooden floor of her small, warehouse apartment.
Glancing at the windows, feeling that the sun had risen, and yet, unlike her former, only Tzimisce self, she wasn't as weakened by the time of day as she would, should, have been. A combination of the leftover power of being a Slayer, combined with the bottomless depths of darkness that came with being a demon, provided her the energy she needed to fight off the effects of being active in the day. Granted it wasn't pleasant, but she at least wasn't rendered helpless.
Getting ready to rest for the day, she went over to her fridge and considered her options for her meal. 'Hmm, blood taken yesterday from a homeless man, or blood taken from the last Slayer Spike and I killed seven months ago. Tough choice. Homeless blood is fresh and strong, and this is the last of the Slayer's blood I have, but I need a pick me up for a couple of days.'
They'd had a fun time with her. They kept her alive for a full week, slitting her wrists and draining her of her blood, but only just enough to keep her alive. They stored that blood, freezing it so they could enjoy the fruits of their harvest for a full year. It must have been sheer hell for her, being brought to the brink of death repeatedly, then nursed back to health, and then repeating the horrid cycle.
Beth and Spike loved every minute of it. Until Beth accidently drained a little too much and she died. Spike's response was to just shrug, saying 'Always a Slayer around. We can repeat this process with the next one.'
By the hells, she missed him.
Taking the plastic bottle of Slayer's blood in her hands, she was just about to twist the top open, when a sudden crash happened downstairs.
Blinking suddenly, she bolted down the stairs to meet a scene she never expected in her entire fifty-eight years of unlife.
Her entire time spent as a vampire had made her complacent. An enemy never walked into her home unless she invited them or she was expecting them. She did not expect Oz's van to crash through the wooden warehouse door from the west side, and all of her enemies spilling out all at once, aiming various weapons towards her.
Xander had that katana of his, along with a shotgun carried in both hands. Oz climbed out of his van wielding his axe, Jack followed, his bracers and shinguards in place, over his jean jacket and jeans. Allandra strode out, rapier in hand, wings fully extended from her back. Vanessa got out last, a short sword in each hand.
Xander aimed his shotgun at her, and dropping the bottle, she dived to the floor of the warehouse, hiding behind a set of crates.
Xander swore, knowing now that Beth was out of sight, she'd move to attack from above, or from behind. Allandra stayed right behind him, searching the warehouse with her senses.
Vanessa, Jack, and Oz also looked around carefully, trying to find the place the turned Slayer would strike out from next. Vanessa stopped, looking at a group of crates, and signaling with her hands Beth's position to the rest of the group, they slowly moved in towards the fallen Slayer.
Beth decided to try and turn the tables by lifting up a wooden crate twice her size. Since it was empty, it wasn't too heavy to her undead body, and she easily lofted it up and over the pile of crates she was hiding behind.
Xander's eyes widened as he saw the crate fly towards him. "Look out!" He screamed, and shoving Allandra to the floor, the crate missed them by inches, landing on the concrete floor and shattering into a thousand pieces. Rising back up to a kneeling position, he fired his shotgun at the position the crate came from, and was rewarded with a howl as the pellets hit the fallen Slayer.
Beth was on the move in a flash, quickly abandoning her cover and moving on, hiding behind a support beam. She cautiously looked around the corner, only to be rewarded as Xander took a shot at her, the shotgun pellets sparking off of the metal of the pillar as they bounced off.
"Xander! You bastard! I'll kill you for this!" She screamed at him.
Xander yelled back. "Right back at ya, Buff!"
Allandra, Jack, Oz and Vanessa closed the distance between themselves and Beth, readying themselves to come at her from all sides. Beth struck first, jumping out and attacking Vanessa. The pair of them faced off, and despite the fact that Beth was unarmed and Vanessa was carrying two deadly weapons, Beth managed to get the upper hand with her surprise attack.
Jumping past Vanessa's first, nearly feeble swipe, made completely in surprise, Beth slammed her fist up into Vanessa's chin, sending the living Slayer flying back and smacking into the floor. Even as Vanessa flipped back to her feet, Jack engaged the undead Slayer from behind. As his fist descended down towards her back, Beth turned, anticipating such an attack and throwing the martial artist with his own momentum. Jack managed to turn the toss into a roll, using that same momentum to return to his feet in a flash.
Oz swept at Beth with his axe, his face emotionless, his every move controlled and precise. Beth ducked under his first strike, bent over backwards to avoid the second, and just before he could make a third, she grabbed his axe by the shaft and twisted it out of his hands. She slammed her forehead into Oz's nose, and just before she could follow it up with a decapitation, Xander's shotgun rang out again and clipped her shoulder.
Growling as the pellets slammed into her shoulder, Beth moved off again, keeping a grip on Oz's battleaxe. She quickly found cover again behind a set of crates, and she concentrated on healing her wound.
Xander pumped the shotgun, discarding the empty shell which fell to the floor in a clang that was extremely loud in the suddenly silent warehouse. Allandra circled around the crates, her blade extended as Oz, Jack and Vanessa circled around the other side.
Beth strode towards Allandra, Oz's axe in hand as she moved into a combat stance. "Didn't I already kill you, girlie?" She snarled.
Allandra bared her teeth. "I got better." She moved in, swinging her blade at Beth's neck. Beth quickly parried the blow with the axe, and swung around with a blow that would have decapitated the new demoness, but Allandra parried with a quick move and swept under, striking towards Beth's stomach. Beth twisted out of the way and smashed Allandra's face with a palm, pushing her back to lie on the floor.
Raising the axe to finish off Allandra, Beth stopped abruptly when she heard a loud growl.
Oz was standing there in his full fledged werewolf form. He flexed his claws and growled at Beth, leaping forward at the scared vampire.
Beth moved as fast as she could, using her own supernatural speed to stay ahead of the werewolf, Beth managed to gain some ground as she ran, but still, she could practically feel Oz's breath down her neck. Looking out the corner of her eye, she managed to spot Xander trying to get a good shot at her with his shotgun.
Changing direction suddenly, she dived behind another set of wooden crates, turning around and baring her fangs on the werewolf. All seven foot, half ton bulk of him.
She had that niggling thought in the back of her head that this was a bad idea. Swinging the axe with as much speed and force as she could muster, she hit the crates to her right side, causing the entire stack of crates to fall down on top of the rampaging werewolf. Six foot long metal bars rolled out of one of the broken crates.
The remains of the crates began to move, and Oz emerged snarling. Beth anticipated this, however. Like a small lumberjack, she swung the axe into Oz's unprotected back. He howled in agony and dropped to the floor as his spine was severed, all of his limbs twitching, refusing to obey the commands his mind gave them.
Beth smirked, twisting the axe slightly so Oz would be paralyzed until it was removed and he managed to heal the wound. "Down boy!" She spoke laughingly.
She picked up one of the bars, twirling it like a quarterstaff as she emerged from her hiding place, smirking confidently. She was instantly attacked by Vanessa, both her short swords whirling towards her in a dance of death.
Beth matched every move the living Slayer made. Now with a weapon in her hands, Beth managed to parry and counter every attempt Vanessa made to find an opening in her defenses. With a quick series of attacks, Beth hit Vanessa in the left arm, forcing the ebony Slayer to cry out as her as her arm went numb and she was forced to drop the blade. Swinging around with the follow-up, Beth hit Vanessa on the side of the head, knocking her out.
On the sidelines, Xander growled with the lack of a good shot. One shotgun blast would probably take Beth down for the count, but if he tried to shoot as it is all he'd do is injure or kill one of his friends.
Jack sprung in at the same instant his student went down. Allandra moved in beside the martial artist, parrying Beth's steel bar with her rapier, unnatural strength meeting unnatural strength. Jack moved in behind Beth, kicking her in the back, causing Beth to stagger just long enough for Allandra to drive her rapier completely through Beth's stomach, impaling her on it.
While certainly graphic, and painful, the injury didn't take Beth out of the fight. The sharp blade missed Beth's spinal column, which would have been a debilitating injury, but as it was, it merely took Allandra's blade out of play. Gripping Allandra's arms with her left hand, she swung the bar at Allandra's chin. Allandra managed to move enough to keep her jaw from being shattered, but the bar still clipped her chin and forced her to let go of her weapon.
Jack kicked out at Beth's knee from behind, trying to stagger the former Slayer. Beth swung around, still impaled by the rapier, and tripped Jack with the bar as she had once tripped Giles with the quarterstaff so long ago. Allandra reminded Beth of her presence in the next moment, slashing across the back of Beth's neck with her short, half-inch claws. Unfortunately, they weren't sharp enough to go deeper, or the fight would have ended right there.
Beth twisted about, ramming the bar into Allandra's stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Xander growled from the background, moving around, trying to get a clear shot. Allandra stumbled back, holding her stomach, gasping for breath while Beth took the time to duck behind another set of crates.
Beth smiled with the exhilaration of battle. Grabbing the hilt of the rapier sticking out of her stomach, she yanked on it, wincing as it came out, covered in her blood. Throwing it to the side, she ducked as Xander's shotgun went off, perforating the crates where her head was an instant before. Turning to confront Jack and Allandra once more, bar in hand, she was surprised as Jack went fully on the offensive, landing a blow on her face. Recovering quickly, however, she swung under, landing a blow on Jack's ribs. As the martial artist stumbled, she whirled around behind him, landing a blow in the middle of his back, resulting in a sickening crunch.
Jack went down like a sack of potatoes. Allandra screamed incoherently and launched a punch at Beth's jaw. Beth ducked under it, using the bar to trip Allandra and then tried to impale her on it with the follow up. Allandra twisted out of the way, slashing at Beth's right leg with her claws, causing the vampiric Slayer to grunt. Beth kicked Allandra on the side of the head, and the former elf lay still.
Xander found himself the last man standing. While everyone else was still alive, they wouldn't be so if he fell, Beth would probably find nice and inventive ways of killing them. Aiming his shotgun right between her eyes, he pulled the trigger, sending a burst of death towards the former Slayer.
And yet, somehow, Beth managed to be somewhere else when the pellets reached her location. Beth ran to his left, Xander quickly followed her path and kept shooting. Crate after crate crashed and splintered as his missed shots destroyed the fragile wood.
Inevitably, Xander ran out of shells, and Beth stood there, smirking at him, steel bar in hand. Grimacing, Xander dropped the shotgun, drawing his katana.
"Just you and me, Xand. I'm sure you've been looking forward to a little one on one with me for years, hm?" She licked her lips, reverting to her human face as she did so.
Xander rose the katana in a defensive stance, the point of the blade pointing directly at Beth. "This isn't quite what I had in mind back in high school, you know, Buff. I was thinking more of a boyfriend-girlfriend capacity, not an immortal enemy kind of capacity."
Beth smiled, and yet it didn't quite reach her eyes. "The offer still stands, you know. You can take Spike's place, we can go around and party. Ever been to New York, Xand? Helluva nightlife."
Xander shrugged. "I'll make arrangements to go sometime. Though, it's not going to be with you."
Beth pouted. "Pity."
With that, she swept forward, still in her human guise, swiping out with quick, light attacks, which Xander parried easily. Swiping towards her face, she ducked under it and viciously rammed the bar into his stomach, and quickly smacked him on the side of the head with all the strength she could muster.
Xander staggered, his vision going blurry, feeling the Beast within awaken and rage at the injury. Bringing the katana back up, he parried Beth's next attack, which would have impaled him on the bar, and he backed up, busy parrying every attack Beth made as he devoted a corner of his mind to healing the wound on his head.
Beth smiled in triumph. No matter what Xander Harris had become, he would never be able to compare to her. Now she'd finish off the foolish Brujah and torture him, and turn him to her side. She was sure he'd make a fine demon.
Closing the distance again, the pair of vampires used all the powers at their disposal. Beth used all of the skill she could access from being a Slayer, and Xander used his full strength and the Discipline of Celerity.
It wasn't enough.
A quick riposte sent his katana flying, clattering on the floor. Beth's followup was an uppercut strike, sending Xander flying through the air, his vision clouded over by his own blood running into his eyes. Growling, he sealed the wound, and wiped his face, just to see the former Slayer stalk up to him catlike, grinning as she wound up a strike that would have shattered his arm.
He managed to twist out of the way, Beth's vicious attack missing by a hair's breadth. Beth growled as Xander used Celerity again and dodged behind a set of crates. "Coward!" She screamed at him.
Xander was starving now. Celerity was an expensive Discipline, and he'd been forced to burn off a lot of his stored blood just trying to survive Beth's assaults. The only consolation is that Beth too, would be at least hungry, but unfortunately she hasn't had to burn off half as much as he did in the fight.
Looking around for anything that might help him neutralize the former Slayer, his fears increased as she heard Beth's nonchalant voice around the stack of crates he was behind. "Come on Xander. Give it up. You're nobody, you're nothing. You never had a chance against me. You can still join with me, Xand. Don't make me kill you."
He looked over, seeing the staircase Beth had come down to his left. 'Wait, what's that splash of red there?' He rubbed his eyes, refocusing his vision. 'Her blood bottle! Hope this is good stuff, and not poisonous or something.'
He snatched up the bottle, moving as quickly as he could behind another set of crates. He heard Beth's frustrated growl, as she slowly tracked him like a bloodhound. "Now you're pissing me off, Xander. You and your little Slayerette gang mark two waltzed into my home, messed up my hair, interrupted my sleeping time, just so I can teach you a lesson in fighting!? Come on out and I'll finish the job!"
Xander snorted lightly, twisting off the cap and swallowing the blood as fast as he could. After all, he's got nothing left to lose.
Pain shot through his body, and a scream was forced from his mouth. Beth ran up, smiling as she saw Xander fold up and collapse on the floor. "See, you made it easy on yourself." She spoke with a hint of relish in her voice.
Every single one of Xander's muscles stretched and tensed, and he groaned as he felt some of them snap and repair themselves, only to snap again. His spasms lasted a full minute, Beth not really knowing why he suddenly fell like this, but she liked the expression of sheer agony on his face.
Then she looked down and saw the empty bottle. Her emotions went from disbelief, to shock, to anger, to sheer rage in less than two seconds. Growling now, she twirled the bar and prepared to impale the treacherous young Brujah with her weapon.
Xander's eyes shot open as the bar descended towards his chest.
A fist wrapped itself around the bar, inches from his chest and its movement stopped dead.
It took Xander a full twenty seconds to realize it was his fist. Beth swung down as hard as she could to impale him on the bar and he caught it.
He caught it.
Pulling it away from him, Beth backed off preparing another attack. She swung down at him, but Xander hopped to his feet and avoided the strike. The two vampires circled each other, Beth enhanced by her many abilities learned through her changes of state, and Xander enhanced by the charged Slayer's blood working through his system, coursing through, refining, strengthening him.
Beth swung at Xander's face, but just like previously, he caught the bar in his hand and held it immobile. Hissing in frustration, she kicked out at his shins, and Xander backed away, throwing the former Slayer over his head and tossing the bar aside as Beth went flying.
Even as Beth landed on her feet, Xander was already moving. By the time Beth retrieved her bar, Xander was standing beside his katana. By the time she took three steps towards his position, he kicked it into the air and caught it in his hands, bringing the blade to bear on the raging undead Slayer. Her first strike he parried, sparks went flying as the bar met the katana's edge. Swinging with newfound strength and speed, Xander felt the Beast within recede, now that his body was full of blood, his hunger sated.
His mind clear, he swung again and again, the sharp katana slowly cleaving chunks of the steel bar away. Beth's strikes grew more and more desperate as Xander's ruthless attacks began to chip away her defenses, while she desperately tried to find an opening in Xander's own.
Bringing the katana down with his full strength, he cleaved the bar in two, leaving Beth with two, two-foot long pieces of metal to parry the ancient blade with. Improvising, she used them as fast as she could, and she found with two weapons she could more effectively attack him.
However, whatever blows she landed didn't seem to affect Xander much. Whereas before they gouged open wounds, or broke bones, now they merely bruised, bruises which healed almost as fast as she could inflict them.
With a feint, Buffy managed to slap the katana out of Xander's iron grip, and swinging as fast as she could, she sank the bar in her right hand into his chest, emerging out his back. Xander howled in pain, but he grabbed the bar in her left hand and wrenched it. With that superior, inhuman strength, Beth found herself unable to hold onto the weapon, and Xander whirled around in a blur.
The next thing Beth knew, she was impaled on the bar. Only where her strike had failed to injure Xander in a debilitating way, his went straight through her spine. Her body refused to respond to her commands. A strange kind of peace washed over her, knowing that now, finally, it was over. She was finally going to die.
Xander picked Beth up with his left hand, using his right to yank out the bar lodged through his torso, stained with his blood. Bringing her closer, until they were face to face, he spoke quietly. "I'm sorry Buffy. But this is the way it's got to be."
With a turn, he threw her as hard as he could towards one of the boarded up windows of the old warehouse. She crashed through them, unleashing a scream. She cried out in agony as she faced the thing she'd avoided for the last sixty years.
She fell into the light of day.
Xander watched with a sort of sick fascination as Beth helplessly screamed as the bright sunlight burned away her flesh, burning away her clothing and body. For a brief moment, the screams stopped, and only her bones were left, allowing Xander to catch a glimpse of just how many changes Beth had made to her own skeletal structure. Then that too, crumbled into ash, and the bar clanged onto the ground, even the blood on it burning away in the harsh light of day.
Moving over to his friends, he first started with Oz, who was still adorned with the axe in his back. Carefully, he pulled it out, backing off as the werewolf tried to bite his leg off at the inflicted pain. Waiting until the wound sealed itself, Oz took deep breaths, trying to remain in control. When he'd succeeded, he finally began the process of reverting to his normal, human form.
"You alright, Oz?" Xander asked.
Oz shook his head. "No, but I will be. Give me time."
Moving on to Vanessa, he patted her cheek gently to wake her. Her bleary eyes opened, and she croaked out a question. "Did we win?"
Xander smiled a little bit at the ebony Slayer. "Yeah, we won. We're going to need a month of a vacation, but we won."
Vanessa smiled up at him a little bit. "Good. You wouldn't happen to have some aspirin on you, would you?"
Xander shook his head. "Nope, sorry, I'm fresh out."
Nodding and wincing, Vanessa slowly began climbing to her feet.
Xander moved onto Allandra while Vanessa checked on Jack. Caressing her face gently, she moaned in response. She opened her eyes to see Xander's lightly smiling face. "Hey beautiful. You about ready to join the rest of the world?"
Allandra smiled up at him. "Only if you're in it. What happened to Buffy?"
Xander sighed, and looked away. "I killed her. She's gone. I just hope the real Buffy is happy that I managed to do it."
Allandra sat up and hugged Xander, and he wrapped his arms around her, the both of them letting the tension drain away.
Vanessa's cry shook them out of their reverie. Almost as one, Oz, Allandra, and Xander staggered over to where Vanessa was sitting beside Jack's limp form.
Jack twitched, his face scrunched up in pain. Vanessa's face was covered in tears. Jack managed to say five words that would change his own life forever.
"I can't feel my legs."
From the abandoned church, Ifrit watched. He rose to his feet, smirking as an idea came to him.
Lifting his hands, he traced out a complicated pattern, his fingertips leaving trails of fire in the air. When the pattern was complete, the design spun away from him, shrinking and contracting until it resembled little other than a ball of flame.
The ball began spinning, and it coalesced into a simple pendant, framing a blood red stone the size of a fist.
Calling the pendant to his hand, it flew through the air and Ifrit caught it almost negligently. Polishing it on his shirt, he smiled.
"Mister Morris, I believe I have an offer you can't refuse."
There ya go guys, enjoy. Please, review. Please please please please please! It makes all the difference!
See you later.
Nick.