"This is not a dishonorable way to die, flower," said the Immortal. "It is a warrior's death." Approaching Buffy, he grasped the handle of his katana with both hands and raised it above his head, preparing to drive the katana straight down through her heart.
Here I go oh God Dawn I'm so sorry Angel Willow anybody please forgive me oh God oh God. Buffy closed her eyes. She knew there was no way she was going to survive this.
Suddenly, she heard a whistling sound that started from the dining hall's doorway and went straight over her head.
"What the--?" Buffy heard the Immortal ask. She opened her eyes and looked up at the Immortal. He had lowered his sword by his side; he was not even looking at her anymore. Instead, his attention was focused on a crossbow bolt that had embedded itself in his shoulder. He looked in the direction from where it had come.
"I'm starting to regret the decision to send my guards home tonight," the Immortal commented. He casually pulled the crossbow bolt out of his shoulder as though he were pulling a pen out of his pocket. Buffy saw a little blood stain surrounding the hole in his white jacket. Nothing serious, but Buffy was relieved nonetheless to see that the Immortal was, in fact, not invincible.
"Step away from the Slayer." Buffy recognized the voice from the doorway immediately. It was the voice of one whom she had known for the past eight years. A voice that at this moment, she was very glad to hear.
The voice of Alexander LaVelle Harris.
"Xander," Buffy muttered weakly. The Immortal must have heard her; he looked at her in surprise then looked back at the man with the crossbow.
"Oh, I see. So this is the great Xander Harris. It's a great honor; Buffy's told me a lot about you."
Buffy rolled over on her side, so as to see him. Sure enough, it was Xander; the dark hair, the eye patch, all of it. His hair was longer since she had seen him last; it came down to nearly shoulder length, and he had a thin beard. He was dressed in brown corduroys and a blue long-sleeved button-up shirt. In his left hand, he held a crossbow; in the other, he held a sword.
Xander watched as the Immortal stepped over Buffy (who by this time was surrounded by a pool of her own blood that had oozed out from underneath her) and slowly approached him.
"Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Bruce Campbell?"
Xander was surprised at the Immortal's question; apparently the Immortal really knew his films, the cult classics as well as the old classics.
"Yeah, it's been mentioned to me a couple times." Xander did not mention that he was in fact a big fan of Campbell's and that Army of Darkness was one of his favorite movies.
The Immortal smiled and nodded as he approached. "You know, it's going to be difficult to take me in a sword fight when you have no depth perception. You won't be much good to her dead; if you walk away now, I'll let you live."
"Not going to happen," Xander replied without hesitation.
"So be it." The Immortal was now within ten feet of Xander.
Dropping his crossbow on the floor, Xander grasped his sword with both hands and lunged at the Immortal. The Immortal blocked it with his katana with no effort. The blades clashed a few times, but because of Xander's lack of training (as well as the lack of his left eye), it wasn't long before the Immortal was able to use his katana to twist Xander's sword out of his hands; it clattered to the ground several feet away. The Immortal held his katana to Xander's neck.
"I admire you for your bravery and nobility in trying to rescue the Slayer. But it has brought you nothing but your own demise." The Immortal slowly drew his sword away from Xander's neck, preparing to deal the killing blow, but stopped when he suddenly felt cold steel on his neck. He turned, and to his great surprise, saw Buffy standing there, holding her katana to his throat. He could see her blood dripping on the floor behind her feet. Despite this, she had fire in her eyes.
"Get away from my best friend, you son of a bitch."
--
D'Sulok lunged at Faith. Faith coolly stepped to the side, and brought the Scythe close enough that it barely (and easily) sliced D'Sulok in the ribs as he ran past, staining that part of his robe black.
D'Sulok growled in pain, and then turned and stepped toward Faith, glaring at her with his yellow eyes.
"So, the she-mortal has an enchanted blade, does she? Too bad she hasn't seen me at my best yet." Faith stepped forward, and swung her Scythe…only to have D'Sulok stop it by grabbing it by the handle with his right hand. Faith tried to pull it out of his grasp, but she couldn't budge it. He tried to do the same to her, but the power of the Scythe was enough to help her keep her hold on the handle.
Finally, he shoved the handle away from him, knocking Faith away from him. She skidded to a stop ten feet away. She got right back up, as the reptilian demon lumbered up to her.
Fool me once, shame on you. Faith swung the Scythe again. As she predicted, D'Sulok brought up his right arm to once again grab the weapon by its handle. However, this time, Faith pulled it back and down so that instead of the handle landing in D'Sulok's hand, the blade went through his arm; robe, bone, and all.
The arm fell to the ground, with black blood spurting out of the stump onto the ground. D'Sulok howled, and Faith pulled the weapon back toward her body.
She did not swing it this time. Instead, she jammed the stake end directly into D'Sulok's chest. D'Sulok stopped howling and started gurgling. His black blood started dripping out of his mouth, and Faith knew that she had won the battle. She turned back toward Giles.
"See, G? He wasn't so hard!" She saw Giles smile at that.
D'Sulok knew he was done for, and when the she-mortal turned her back, an opportunity for revenge presented itself. He did not waste it.
"Faith, look out--!" Giles did not give the warning in time.
Faith suddenly felt intense pain; it started in her midsection and immediately spread to the rest of her body. She couldn't help herself; she screamed.
"What the fuck?" she yelled. She looked in front of her, and saw that blood (red blood) and pieces of entrails had sprayed the floor immediately in front of her, and she immediately knew before she even looked down at herself that they were her own.
When Faith had turned her back, the dying D'Sulok had executed his last desperate (and very well calculated) attempt to kill her. He had swung his large tail just right so that it skewered Faith through her back; about a foot of it was sticking out of her abdomen.
Giles watched her with horrified eyes as she looked up at him, her face betraying the surprise and anger she felt.
"I don't fucking believe it," he heard her mutter.
--
Author's Note: Okay, I know a few of you probably just took a shotgun to your computer monitors, but please try to hang on; there's only a few chapters left. I will probably be concluding the four fights in the next chapter, and then proceeding to tell the final part of the story. I more or less have it all planned out.
Remember that Joss has no problem killing off major characters…did I imitate him well?
As many of you can probably tell, I'm a bit of a film buff. If any of you are fans of the Evil Dead trilogy (which includes Army of Darkness), you may have noticed the tribute that I paid to it, not just in the dialogue exchange between Xander and the Immortal, but also in the clothing that Xander wears: throughout the Evil Dead trilogy, the character Ash (played by Bruce Campbell, who does indeed look remarkably like Nicholas Brendon) wears a blue shirt and brown pants.
As usual, please leave feedback.