Slayer Hunting
Part 3 Of Visionary
by Chaoseternus
Chapter 18: Mistakes
'He's going to kill me,' Dawn shrugged inwardly, 'I don't want to die, I haven't really lived but I have annoyed him far too much, if he is given the time he will kill me as part of the ritual and if he isn't, he will kill me just because of the sheer annoyance I've caused him'
'He wants to; he has certainly stopped himself so many times. Perhaps it would be a good thing, with me dead he can't complete the ritual'
'But I don't want to die, I want to live, and… and I don't want to cause Buffy so much pain, she would not survive it, not his time. The others, they would mourn but they would survive'
'But Buffy…'
'No, I have to live for her; I have to trust that they will be able to get to me in time, save me and keep the Earth safe. I have too…'
'But I'm afraid, afraid that they will fail and because of me, the Earth will be destroyed. I can't have that on my conscience, not again. I have to trust'
'But is she still alive? Are they still capable of coming to my rescue?'
'They must be, they have to be'
'Did he just…?'
'Anubis is annoyed, good. He's made a mistake, is restarted the ritual, I've annoyed him enough that he's making mistakes'
'Well done girl!'
'Now all I need to do is keep him making mistakes until Buffy comes to rescue me or he's run out of materials. Hopefully the former, if he runs out of the necessary spell components then I will die'
'I don't want to die'
'Come on Buffy, where are you?'
Gunfire rang out again and Buffy cursed, grimacing as the loud strident sounds rang through her sensitive ears, the bullets shattering Jaffa armour, killing the last of Anubis's lesser soldiers, leaving only the supersoldiers.
Around them, the bulk of the soldiers fell back, their job done but a grim handful, mostly from the SG-teams but a handful of determined volunteers of the Initiative Demon Hunting teams surrounding the specials, deliberately acting as a body shield as the assorted witches, demon hunters and the Slayer as they swiftly, but carefully ran, crouched so as to minimize their target profile, into the lone council owned building which rested above the hellmouth.
Brilliant bolts of energy spat out the door, dropping the first soldier, his badges marking him as a member of SG-11 to the ground, a hole blasted into his skull, dead before he hit the ground.
Buffy grimaced, in this line of business, death was an inevitability, but damn, did she hate it. She knew she would be having nightmares over that one.
Carefully reaching into the pockets of her fatigues, she removed a small mirror, similar to those dentists used but with a darker, less visible handle. Carefully, she glanced around the wall, using the mirror.
Her hands stung and she shook them, glaring at her mirror where it fell to the ground, smoking and melted.
'Okay…' she mused, 'somebody really knows how to shoot in there'
"Trouble," she said, whispering to O'Neill who was right behind her, his weapon raised to cover her, "we've got a good shot in there, better then most supersoldiers"
O'Neill grimaced, "could be approaching the end of his life, we've wondered if they had brain enough to gain experience but…"
"So," Buffy shook her head, "we have an elite supersoldier. Perfection itself"
"Ideas?"
"Not many," she shook her head, "I would say shield but the witches need to maintain their strength just in case we need to do a hasty reseal"
"Right," O'Neill mused, "flash bangs… disrupt his targeting enough to get some swords in place?"
"Could work,"
"Then lass," a Scottish voice sounded behind her, "we go first"
"Aye," Methos added, "and if we die, please drag our bodies to safety, it's a pain in the arse coming back in the middle of a fight"
Buffy and O'Neill shot each other startled 'what the fuck?' looks but it was too late, the flash-bangs were already flying and the two were already racing through the door, swords raised.
Shooting each other wry 'later' looks, Buffy and O'Neill followed them into the corridor, knowing that a swift wave of further troops would be following swiftly behind them