Author's note: Hey sorry for the delay in updating but I've got my nursing finals coming up which means REVISION! So this chapter kind of ends funny but that's why this is part one, part two will follow on directly after this but I didn't want to keep anyone waiting any longer. Thanx for the reviews and please keep them coming. They're my brain food and without them I'll starve :-)
Disclaimer: I own nothing Joss owns everything!
Chapter 30 (Part one)
Panic shot through the room as everybody heard what Faith said. The screaming outside had begun to die down and all that could be heard was roaring and shouting. The Scooby's ran to the window while Buffy and Faith headed for the door.
What they saw when they got outside shocked them. Several Garou lay wounded, smoke streaming from burns on their bodies, their screams had died down to pained whimpers. Fire was spreading through the camp and some Garou's where armed with buckets of water, desperately trying to get it under control. In the sky above them they could make out three large shape that where circling the camp. The only thing that Buffy could describe them as was large bats, although even that didn't come close.
"What the fuck!" Faith cursed, looking around at the chaos. She saw that Drake and a number of other Garou's where armed with crossbows and where trying to shoot them down. Two of the Drachna's managed to avoid the crossbow bolts, however one of them wasn't so lucky, a couple of bolts struck it's wing and it began to spiral to the ground. The Garou where ready for it and ran to where it had landed, quickly throwing a net over the dazed creature. The other Drachna's saw what had happened, and began to dive bomb the camp, throwing glass vials onto the Garou's below. As soon as the vials hit them the Garou's fell to the ground screaming, smoke pouring from their skin.
"It's silver…………..they're full of silver everybody take cover." Faith shouted in realisation. Everybody dived for cover as the Drachna's swooped down again. Throwing the vials at everyone they could see. Being the only person that was unaffected by the attack, Buffy saw her chance, snatching a crossbow from the ground she ran into the centre of the camp drawing attention away from the Garou's behind her.
The Drachna's, thinking that she was another Garou, moved in on her. She ignored the vials they threw as they hit off her body. Taking aim with the crossbow, she waited until one of the Drachna's was almost upon her before firing. The arrow struck the Drachna between the eyes killing it instantly, she side stepped as it's body fell to the ground beside her. Quickly reloading the crossbow, she managed to wound the third Drachna in the arm before it knew what had happened. The Drachna faltered as it realised that the person before it wasn't a Garou, panicking it veered away from her and began flying away. Faith, seeing her chance broke her cover and jumped onto the Drachna's back preventing it from flying any further. She changed into her wolf form and sunk her teeth into it's neck causing it to scream in pain, she winced as the sour taste of it's blood filled her mouth.
The Drachna screeched and began bucking, trying to throw Faith off but she held tight, keeping it grounded. Buffy carefully aimed the crossbow at it's chest and fired. The arrow hit it's target, puncturing the Drachna's heart and turning it to dust.
Faith jumped off at the last second and landed on her feet beside Buffy. "Good work B." she said once she changed back into her human form.
"Couldn't have done it without you baby." Buffy replied, smiling at Faith. The Drachna that they'd managed to capture began screeching in anger as it realised what had happened to it's friends.
"You will all pay for this slaves!" It spat struggling to free itself from the net. "Lord Olmeck will pave the way for the new world, one where we are strong once again." It preached. "Praise Lord Olmeck, praise Lord Ol-."
"For God's sake shut up." Turk said, his foot connecting with the Drachna's face, knocking it unconscious. "Now that's much better." he exclaimed.
"You got that right." Drake said. "Better lock that thing up, we'll see what we can get out of it when it wakes up." he said gesturing at the Drachna. He turned to address the rest of the camp who had gathered round them. "I think the meeting can wait till later, for now we'd better tend to the wounded and clean up this mess." He ordered. They all nodded and the crowd began to disperse as they went off to do their tasks. "Well that was unexpected." Drake said to Buffy and Faith, who had came over to stand beside him.
"Yeah, what I want to know is how the hell did they find us?" Faith asked. "I mean there's no way they would have known we where here and none of the guys would have said anything." she said adamantly.
"Wesley." Buffy said in realisation.
"What?" Drake and Faith said in unison.
"Wesley, the only other person it could have been was Wesley and he's the only one of us that isn't here."
"Shit!" Faith cursed. "If it was Wesley you know what this means?"
Buffy sighed heavily "Yeah and I thought things couldn't get any worse."
Drake looked at the pair of them in confusion. "Who or what is a Wesley?" he asked.
"Wesley's a person, he's a watcher. He was working with us until he said some….stuff…..and I had to kick him out." Buffy explained.
"Wait he's a watcher?" Drake asked, Buffy nodded in reply. "He wouldn't happen to be the watcher of the slayer that hurt Faith?" Again Buffy nodded in reply. "Shit, why doesn't that surprise me. What did he say that made you kick him out?" he asked curiously.
"He was willing to let Faith die. He also contacted the watcher's council and told them about her, which means that they will probably send a team out to capture her." Buffy said, her voice hard, the memory of Wesley's betrayal filling her with anger.
"I'm gonna kill him and then I'm gonna kill that stupid slayer of his." Drake growled, his eyes flashing in anger. "Nobody messes with my family."
Faith placed a calming hand on his arm. "Join the queue D, you ain't the only one that wants a piece of him."
Drake sighed, reigning in his temper. "I suppose we'd better tell the elders, and man are they gonna be pissed." They all looked at each other in concern, before heading towards the hut.
OUTSKIRTS OF SUNNYDALE
"So the slayer has joined forces with the Garou's." Olmeck said thoughtfully, pacing up and down the room. "Why does that not surprise me." He stopped pacing and turned to face Wesley. "Well watcher, if what you say is true then it would appear that Kennedy was right. However I will await the news from my Drachna's first, before I make any long term arrangements for you." Wesley shuddered at the grin that appeared on Olmeck's face.
"What if the Drachna's don't come back?" Kennedy asked curiously.
Olmeck's grin grew. "That's how I will know he's telling the truth. The Garou's will most certainly kill them, I have no doubt about that."
"Why send them in the first place?" Wesley asked quietly, flinching as Olmeck's lifeless gaze once again centred on him.
"I want the Garou's to know that we know there plans." he said. "I like my enemy's to have a chance to surprise me. If we went in to battle knowing what they where going to do, well, let's just say that it takes the fun out of slaughtering them, My Drachna's are just stirring up the hornet's nest." he grinned evilly and stepped closer to Wesley. "Of course it also ensures that the slayer and her friends will know that you've betrayed them, leaving you nowhere else to go, should you decide to try and leave our pleasant company of course."
Wesley shook his head in agreement "O-of course." he stammered.
"Good man." He said. "Kennedy shall show you to your room. I suggest you get rested, as we have a busy night ahead of us." With that said he turned away form the pair of them and left the room.
"Well that went well, he likes you." Kennedy said cheerfully.
Wesley looked at her incredulously. "He does!"
"Well duh, it's obvious, c'mon I'll show you to your room." she said leading him down the hallway.
"What did he mean when he said we have a busy night ahead of us?" he asked.
"For a watcher you ain't very smart are you. Tonight's my ceremony, Olmeck's gonna give me his power and I'm gonna become the vessel." she said proudly.
"That would mean that the battle is tomorrow." he said worriedly.
"Yup, so you'd better get some sleep." she said. "Don't look so worried Wes, you don't have to fight or anything tomorrow, there's more than enough of us to take out Buffy and the other's, you can just lay here and chill, and we'll come and get you after the battle. And we won't have to live in this crummy place anymore, we could live anywhere we wanted, seeing as we'll be like the demon version of the royal family. Isn't that cool!" she exclaimed.
"Uh…….yes…..cool." Wesley said awkwardly.
Kennedy brought them to a stop in front of a door on the opposite side of the hallway. "Well this is your room, mine's just across from yours." she said, pointing over her shoulder. "It isn't very fancy but like I said it's just for tonight. Just think this time tomorrow we could be living in a palace." she said excitedly. Wesley smiled awkwardly at her. "I'd better let you get some rest." she said and turned to walk away, he watched her walk down the hall before opening the door to his room. He was about to enter when he heard Kennedy calling to him.
"Wes you don't have to, but……I'd really appreciate it if you came to the ceremony tonight." she said. "It's kind of a big thing for me."
"I'll be there." Wesley promised. Kennedy grinned at him.
"Great, I'll come and get you when we're ready." she said, before turning and heading back towards the room where Olmeck was.
Wesley entered his room and saw that Kennedy wasn't lying when she had said it was nothing fancy. The only piece of furniture in the room was the bed and the covers looked as if they hadn't seen a washing machine since they'd been made. He didn't know if he could spend ten minutes here let alone a whole night. The adrenaline that had powered him since he had arrived here had gone and he was exhausted, gingerly lying on the bed he pondered how he had managed to end up in this situation that he couldn't escape.
GAROU CAMP
"WHAT!" An elder roared from inside the hut, a few of the Garou's outside stopped to look towards the commotion, before quickly returning to their work.
"Marcus calm down." Another elder said.
"Calm down!" The elder named Marcus growled. "All our planning has been for nothing! Our enemy know we are here and they know every move we are going to make and the battle is tomorrow! And you want me to calm down!" he shouted angrily slamming his chair back against the wall as he stood up and slammed his hands down on the table.
"We shall just have to create another plan of action." The elder next to him reasoned calmly.
"We shouldn't have to!" Marcus shouted, he gestured towards the Scooby's. "These humans have caused us the ultimate betrayal." he spat. The Scooby's flinched back from his gaze as his eyes burned yellow in fury.
"Hey! These people are my friends they had nothing to do with this so back off!" Faith growled, standing up to face Marcus. Drake got up to stand beside Faith, encase things turned ugly.
"And how do we know your friends aren't here to spy on us. What makes them any different to the other slayer and his watcher!" He asked angrily.
"They saved my life, if it wasn't for them I'd be dead by now!" Faith exclaimed. "They tried to help me even though they didn't know me, so now it's time we helped them."
"Faith is right Marcus, these people shouldn't be blamed for the actions of others." The elder beside him said. "They have given us no reason to mistrust them, now if you can't calm down I suggest you leave before you say or do something you regret." he said.
Marcus visibly tried to gather himself together and quietly sat back down at the table. "I apologise for my outburst." he said, nodding towards Faith and the Scooby's. Seeing that the threat had passed Faith sat back down beside Buffy, who took her hand and squeezed it gently.
"Okay." Buffy said. "It's obvious that we've lost the element of surprise. The only part of our plan that is going to change will be positioning." she said firmly. "Giles it would probably be best if you get on the phone to the coven now. The sooner the town is evacuated the better." she said throwing him her cell phone, Giles nodded and left the room to make the call. "Xander did you bring the plans of the school?" she asked.
"Sure did." he replied. He pulled the plans out of his bag and spread them on the table so that everyone could see them.
"Okay, the original plan was to set up a perimeter of fighters around the school, stopping the Drachna's from even reaching it, but that plan's gone out the window." she said. "What we'll need to do is place people inside the school, as a second line of defence, encase any Daywalker's make it past those outside." she explained.
"What about those sewer systems?" Marcus asked, pointing at the blue prints. "If a group of us was down there we'd be able to come up behind the Daywalker's and surprise them." He offered. "That way they'd be covered from all sides."
"Yeah." Faith agreed. "We could post people on top of the school and a couple of the surrounding buildings that are high enough and arm them with crossbows. They could get rid of the Drachna's that will be attacking from the air and pick off the Daywalker's on the ground." She said. "The arrows seemed to work today."
"Ooh what about petrol bombs?" Cordelia suggested. "You could throw them at them from the roof." she said.
"Hey she's smart and beautiful, that's a great idea." Drake said, causing Cordelia to blush.
"Okay so it seems like we've got most of the bases covered. Can anyone think of anything else that we're missing?" Buffy asked, looking round at the occupant's of the room.
"What about Olmeck and Kennedy?" Oz asked.
"Kennedy's mine." Buffy answered quickly. Faith could feel Buffy's hand tense inside hers and gently ran her thumb over the back of Buffy's hand reassuringly, Buffy smiled at her to let her know she was okay and squeezed her hand gently.
"Olmeck will probably sit back from the battle. He likes to watch the destruction his army is causing." An elder explained. "It is the only reason he has lived this long, he only enters the battle when the enemy has been severely weakened."
"Maybe but I don't think he's jus gonna sit back and watch Kennedy get slayed." Faith said in concern. "If you go after Kennedy chances are he'll come after you B. Me and Drake will take care of him, won't we bro." Faith said, glancing at Drake.
"Hey sure thing." he agreed. "We'll watch your back Buffy."
"Well that answers that question." Marcus said. "Has anybody got anything else to add?" he asked looking round the table.
"Well I was thinking, how about if we placed a protection spell on the library, you know so that nobody could get in, just encase any of them manage to get past you guys. I mean it wouldn't stop them forever, it would just buy us a few seconds to stop them getting in." Willow said
"Do you think that could be done?" An elder asked.
"My friend told me that she knew about a protection spell that could do that." She said, the rest of the Scooby's looked at her quizzically. "Tara." she said. And there looks turned to those of realisation, except Faith who still looked puzzled.
"Whose Tara?" she asked.
"She's an empath, and she's a powerful witch. Everyone else met her when you where….out of it." Willow explained.
"Cool." Faith said. "Hell if she can do the mumbo jumbo stuff and you trust her, then she's in. If she wants to help that is."
"Well, I think the only thing left is to split everyone up into four groups." Buffy said. "If group one take the inside of the school, group two take the school grounds, group three, the sewers and group four the roof."
"Sounds okay to me." Faith said.
"Agreed." The elder's said.
"I think we've set a new world record for drawing up battle plans." Drake exclaimed. "What was that about ten minutes?" he asked jokingly.
"Hell that was the easy part, the hard part will be splitting people into groups." Faith said.
"Don't worry yourselves about that we'll take care of it." Marcus said reassuringly. "We know the abilities of our clan member, they will all be assigned to the correct groups." he assured.
They all looked towards the door as they heard footsteps approaching and saw Giles enter the room. "How are you all getting on in here?" he asked.
"We've just finished." Buffy said.
"What!" he exclaimed. "So soon?"
"Yeah Giles, done and dusted." Xander said. "All we've got to do is put the plan into action."
"But I was only gone for a few minutes." Giles said.
"Yeah about that, we should probably get these guys to make our plans from now on, cause when you normally do it, it takes forever." Cordelia said. "And I mean forever." she added to the rest of the room.
"There is nothing wrong with being thorough." Giles said defensively, glaring at Cordelia. "Anyway, I managed to get in touch with the coven and they are preparing the spell as we speak, Sunnydale and the surrounding area should hopefully be fully evacuated by tomorrow morning." He explained.
"That's good news, we don't want any innocents getting caught in the crossfire." One of the elders said. "We do not want history repeating itself." he said gravely.
"What do you mean?" Giles asked.
"The last time our kind fought with the Drachna's it was centuries ago." Marcus explained. "The village where the battle took place was raised to the ground by the Drachna's and many innocent people where killed. Back then our kind had lived in the village alongside the humans, unbeknownst to them of course. When the battle broke out and they saw what we really where they where terrified and fled. The Drachna's of course lost the battle and a large number of Garou survived, however the villagers returned with reinforcements and hunted our kind down like animals. Only a handful of Garou survived, it was only by luck that we weren't wiped out."
"Why didn't they try and defend themselves against the villagers?" Willow asked.
"It is not in our nature to kill humans." he answered simply. "From then on our kind has lived apart from humans, people are scared of things that they don't understand and to some violence is the answer. Which is why we don't want to risk any humans seeing our true form." Marcus said, the rest of the elders nodding in agreement. "We would either end up dead, dissected or as a circus attraction."
"I know what one I'd prefer." Faith said, everybody looked at her incredulously. "What, I happen to like the circus!" she said defensively. Buffy merely shook her head in amusement.
"On that note I say meeting adjourned." Marcus said. "We have plenty to busy ourselves with, and plenty to organise for the battle tomorrow. Would you like to stay for dinner?" he asked the Scooby's.
"I'd love to but I want to go home and see my mom, you know what with the probable end of the world tomorrow." Buffy said.
"I'd better go and see Tara, see if she is able to do the spell." Willow said.
"We understand." The elder next to Marcus said. "You will no doubt want to spend time with your families."
"We appreciate your offer nonetheless." Giles said. "We shall come back before dawn and travel with you to the school."
"We'll have everybody ready to move out, we will just await your arrival. So until tomorrow, Mr Giles." Marcus said, shaking Giles's hand.
"Until tomorrow." he replied.
Everybody stood up from there seats and began filing out of the hut. Buffy noticed that Faith was hanging back slightly. "Faith, are you coming, I mean you don't have to you can stay here with your brother if you want….."
"No I'm coming with you B, I just want to have a quick word with D, before we leave. I'll meet you in the car okay." she said reassuringly, Buffy nodded and followed the others.
"You okay Faith?" Drake asked seeing the troubled look on his sister's face.
"Could we maybe talk somewhere more private." she said, glancing over at the elders' who where now talking amongst themselves.
"Yeah sure." he said. "We can go to my tent."
Faith silently followed him out of the hut and across the camp. Drakes' tent was situated near the edge of the camp, and was identical to the others. He opened the flap and let Faith enter first. She could see that it had a full sized double bed and a small table that seated two. There was also a small stove for cooking, although knowing her brother, she knew that it was never used. Back home he always lived off takeaways or she had to do the cooking for them, unless they both wanted food poisoning, again.
"So what did you want to talk about Fai?" he asked concerned.
Faith hesitated while she tried to think of what to say. "You know how I had a run in with the other slayer, Kennedy." she said, Drake nodded. "Well, she used a slave disk on me." she said quietly. "She……..she made me kill people." Faith looked down at her hands, not wanting to see the disappointment on her brothers face.
Drake let Faith's words sink in, he could feel the anger building inside of him, until he wanted to hit something or someone, preferably Kennedy. "Faith, look at me." he said, trying to keep the anger from his voice. Faith reluctantly raised her head to meet his gaze and flinched at the anger she saw there.
"I'm sorry" she said.
"Fai I'm not angry at you." he said. "You did nothing wrong okay, it's this Kennedy bitch." he spat. "She'll pay for what she's done to you." he vowed.
"You don't understand that's not what bothers me." she said. "What bothers me is that I enjoyed it, and I'm worried I'll lose control and kill again."
Drake realised what she was getting at. "You're worried you'll end up like dad." he stated.
"Yeah." she replied quietly.
"Listen dad was different." he said. "He was never right in the head, they should have killed him long ago, then maybe mom and Teren would still be here. Believe me when I say this Faith you are nothing like dad."
"Well tell me why I have the bloodlust!" she shouted. "I keep seeing and hearing those people in my head, and every time I wake up from those dreams I have the urge to kill again. It's tearing me up D." Faith ran a shaky hand through her hair, Drake looked at her worriedly.
"Does Buffy know?" he asked, Faith shook her head. "You have to tell her Faith."
"I don't know how, I mean my biggest fear is that I'm gonna wake up from one of these dreams and that the bloodlust will be too strong and I'll hurt her."
Drake was shocked by his sister's revelation. "What if it's a side effect from the disk?" he asked. "What about the elders they're bound to know something."
"I don't want them involved, you saw what they did to dad, I don't want them to jump to conclusions and do the same thing to me." she shuddered.
"I see your point, what about this Tara person, that Willow knows? She might know a spell or something that could repress….urges……and stuff, I mean it's worth a shot, right?"
Faith looked at him thoughtfully, "Yeah I never thought of that." she said. "Suppose I could give her a call, after the whole battle thing of course. I mean everyone's got enough on their plate without me adding my troubles to them, again." she sighed.
"Hey remember your not alone Faith, I'll always be here for you, you know I love you right." he said pulling Faith into a hug.
She hugged him back tightly. "Thanks D, I love you too ya big doofus."
"Hey who are you and what have you done with my sister." he joked. "But seriously don't mention it, it's what big brothers are for, but you've got to promise me that you'll tell Buffy, and if it gets worse tell me okay?"
Faith sighed. "Okay, I promise, I'd better head back cause the guy's are waiting for me." she said.
"One more thing before you go. Do you think you could put in a good word about me to that Cordelia chick, cause she was hot!" he said grinning at her.
Faith laughed. "What am I gonna do with you, I suppose I could put in a good word or two, make you appear like a semi-respectable person."
"You have to promise to leave out all the embarrassing stuff."
"Hey I ain't promisin nothin." she said as she headed out of the tent.
"Don't make me tell Buffy about that incident with the beehive." Drake threatened, Faith turned round and looked at Drake as if to say 'you wouldn't dare', he merely grinned evilly at her and she damn well knew he would.
"Geez okay okay I promise." Faith said. "No need to pull out the big guns." she turned and headed across the camp, towards the car where the Scooby's and Buffy where waiting.
"Sleep well Fai." he called "don't let the bed bugs bite", Faith responded by throwing a rude finger gesture over her shoulder, causing Drake to laugh.
Tbc.
A/N: I'll promise I'll try and get part two typed up as soon as I can :-)
