Well, so much for this being a 2 part chapter. It's a 3 Part chapter. I'm uploading both part 2 and 3 at the same time, so, yeah.
Queen Boadicea: man, i aint gonna end the story with 'closing the hellmouth'. That's been overdone waaaaaaaayyyy too much. I promise, an original ending
All i can say about this one is
Warning: It's long
Warning: The rating for this chapter has been upgraded to MA15 or R18 (Australian ratings) for the reason below....
Longest, and i think, pretty gruesome fight scene in this section of the chapter. You'll see why the fight scene is needed in part 3 of The Ripple Effect, Chaos Theory.
Everything that happens in these chapters (Ripple effect), have an effect on some other event (that's why it's called the ripple effect), so, this chapter will be referred to a lot in the future.
Chapter 37
The Ripple Effect
(Chaos Theory)
Part 2
One Day Later – 5.00 P.M
Steve felt privileged to be here, on top of the Hellmouth when everything was going down. He had been hearing the rumours for months before hand, that something was coming, and that it would change the face of the earth forever. Every demon community had been abuzz with the news for at least a year now, ever since the most powerful demons still remaining on the face of the planet had sensed something. Right now, he was in the thick of it. He was apart of a revolution, one which would wipe most of humanity from the earth and change the world back to something similar to the demon age. He had learned of The First Evil back in his home of Mexico through a demon which could turn itself incorporeal at will. Apparently, it was an agent of The First, and it had been recruiting. If it deemed any demon or vampire fit enough to serve The First, the demon gave instructions. His had been to come to Sunnydale and join in the legions of vampires already serving The First.
Steve turned around only to see his own face looking back at him from across the room. A perfect image of himself was standing on the other side of the room.
"You know what I am?" the image of himself said.
"Yes I do. The First Evil," Steve replied to himself. He watched as the image of himself smiled and began to walk slowly across the room towards him.
"Good," it replied in an up-tone voice while morphing into the image of a blonde haired girl. "Do you know who this is?"
"The Slayer, Buffy," Steve replied at the image of the Slayer.
"Good. When the sun sets, they'll be patrolling the town, in force… I want you to find them, and get caught," The image of Buffy Summers said.
Half a day later - Summers' Residence – Sunnydale – California
Buffy, Tara, Willow, Oz, Daniel, Connor and the Three Potential Slayers had just stepped into the last rays of sunlight. They emerged from the dark confines of the Sunnydale High School after investigating the Hellmouth and making sure that nobody or nothing was messing around with it. They had agreed to send groups out to check on the Hellmouth while the others who remained at the 'base camp' researched ways to close it, hopefully permanently.
"Now it gets interesting," Connor heard Buffy say as she looked towards the setting sun over the horizon. With a little discussion, they had agreed on positions to set themselves up on to observe every point of access into the school, and therefore the Hellmouth. That way, they could identify anything going in, and more importantly, anything that came out. They had all made sure that they were armed to the teeth before setting out from the base camp.
Two hours went by before Connor sensed anything. He was across the road from the entrance to the High School, and he saw a lone vampire walking down the middle of the road and carefully making it's way up to the front entrance to the ruined High School. He obviously was a newly sired vampire, as he didn't try to use his instincts and stay in the shadow, away from the streetlights. He looked over to the werewolf Oz who was the closest person to him, and with his enhanced vision, he saw that Oz was looking back at him. He saw Oz make a gesture with his hands signalling to come to him. Silently Connor made his way from bush to bush, tree to tree in the darkness of night, the vampire never knowing he was there. He came up behind Oz and squatted down beside him.
"What do you think?" Oz said to him. Connor looked through the bushes towards the vampire, which was just standing in front of the High School, looking around.
"He's waiting for someone," Connor replied.
"Just what I thought," Oz replied. Connor sensed movement from the werewolf and looked to see that he was text messaging someone, obviously Buffy and/or the rest of the patrol group to alert them to the vampire at the front of the school. Buffy and Willow had insisted that they all carried mobile phones to make it easier to communicate, and call for help from the 'base camp' if it was needed. "Everyone's commin around. We're waiting ten minutes, and if no one shows up, we all take the vampire alive," Oz whispered to Connor after receiving a reply on his mobile phone. Connor liked the idea of taking it alive, that way they could interrogate it. He originally didn't have a high opinion of the Vampire Slayers, and he thought that they were too stubborn and didn't really use much of their intelligence when hunting vampires. His time in Sunnydale with Buffy and Faith had changed those opinions greatly, but he still thought that they liked to stab things first and ask questions later.
Connor and Oz were on the vampire's right side as he faced the road from the front of the Sunnydale High school. He noticed movement to the vampire's left, opposite them and his enhanced night vision could tell that it was the two Witches, Willow and Tara, and the other werewolf, Daniel. He watched as they moved around, perpendicular to the vampire and facing the front of the High School from across the road. He noticed more movement and saw that it was the three Potential Slayers, and that they had situated themselves opposite Oz and himself. He peaked his head above the bushes and saw that Buffy had placed herself next to Connor and Oz a fair distance away, her back on the side wall of the High School. If, when they all charged, Buffy ran to block the entrance to the High School, they would prevent the vampire from making a run for it into the High School.
He heard what would have been a very quiet humming sound to the ordinary person, but was actually quite loud to him and looked to Oz. He was listening into his phone and in a moment he closed it and placed it back into his pocket.
"That was Buffy. When she starts to move along the front of the building and gives a signal, we all charge the vamp as fast as we can and take it alive," Oz said to Connor. Connor saw Oz get out a small sword and he could tell that he was uncomfortable with the weapon.
"You are uncomfortable with the weapon?" Connor inquired.
"Usually I just wolf-out when things get tough," Oz replied. "Not used to the weapons."
"You can control the ability to become a werewolf," Connor said, inquiring but knowing the answer. There was a moment of silence as the pair glanced through the bushes towards the vampire.
"Went to Tibet. Came back here. Went to Tibet again," Oz said. Connor just nodded, not knowing what was special about the place called Tibet. He guessed it was a place of great mystical energy and teachings. "What about you, what's your story?" Oz questioned.
"Son of two vampires. Raised in a Hell Dimension. Came back here. Put Angel on the bottom of the ocean. Came here," Connor replied. He saw that Oz just nodded his head slightly and smiled. He glanced towards Buffy and saw that she was moving along the front of the High School. "She's moving," Connor said, but noticed that Oz already knew.
Once Buffy waved her hand towards the vampire, Connor leapt into action and was surprised to find that Oz wasn't too far behind him. He leapt over the bushes they were hiding behind and ran towards the vampire, two large knives in hand. He saw that others had emerged from their hiding places and that they were all converging towards the vampire. The vampire seemed startled and confused and didn't know which way to turn, eventually figuring out that people were coming from all sides, giving him no way to escape. Connor reached the vampire first and ducked under a punch that was sent his way. He lashed out with the two swords to the vampire's legs, surprised that the vampire leapt out of the way of the blades. He was readying to swing his short sword again when a fist hit the side of the vampire's head, sending it stumbling sideways. Suddenly out of no where, a crossbow bolt appeared in the rear of the vampire's leg, sending it to the ground. Connor looked up to see the other werewolf, Daniel, walking towards the vampire with a crossbow raised to it.
"That could have hit me," Connor said to him.
"It wasn't going to. Expert marksman with a crossbow since I was sixteen," Daniel replied. Connor pointed the sword to the vampire's neck, the tip resting an inch away from the exposed skin. The vampire was trying to get up again, but another crossbow bolt from Daniel in the other leg stopped it's attempts. The Potential Slayers as well as the Witches approached and they all stood around the vampire.
"Who were you waiting for," Buffy demanded, stepping towards the vampire with a stake in her hand. She bent down and held it towards the vampire's chest. The vampire was obviously scared, probably from the fact at how quickly they had all emerged from behind cover and taken it down. That didn't stop the vampire from giving them all the silent treatment however, it was scared but it wasn't talking. Connor saw the point of the stake begin to dig harder and harder into the vampire's chest. He saw Daniel put the crossbow to the back of the vampire's head as it knelt down on the ground.
"That crossbow won't kill me," the vampire said, obviously speaking to Daniel.
"But I'm betting a bolt through your brain will hurt like hell," Daniel replied.
"Who?" Buffy queried again, pushing harder on the stake. A large amount of blood could be seen staining the vampire's shirt as Buffy pushed the stake harder.
"Okay, okay. I'll talk," The vampire said. Buffy withdrew the stake and Daniel moved the crossbow away.
Steve the vampire didn't have the same faith in The First's words as he did before he set out into the town earlier that night. The First had promised that the Slayer and her group would not kill him, but now he wasn't so sure. He was kneeling down on the sidewalk in front of the ruins of the Sunnydale High School with the Slayer staring him straight in the eyes. Behind her, he could see the image of a young girl sitting on the steps leading up to the entrance to the High School, looking at him. He knew that it was The First, watching over everything. Pain was throbbing through his body from the crossbow bolts in each of his legs and the hole that had been etched right above his heart by the pure force of the stake being pushed into his chest. S
"I was told to come here, to meet someone, I don't know who, who was going to tell me what I needed to get ready for Friday," Steve heard himself saying, just as The First had instructed him to.
"What's happening," a short young man with red-brown hair forcefully asked.
"I don't know. All I know is that something big is going to happen here at the Hellmouth on Friday, that's it. I was meant to find out more tonight, before you all showed up," Steve said. "You're not going to kill me are you?" he asked the group, but especially the Slayer.
"You're already dead. Kill him," the Slayer said to the young man holding a sword to his neck.
Connor raised the sword to swing at the vampire's neck, when the vampire did something none of them had expected. He started shouting to something that he thought was there.
"You said they wouldn't kill me if I cooperated," he shouted towards the steps. "You said they wouldn't." Connor looked towards the steps but saw nothing there. He saw Buffy spin around and look at the vampire. Connor brought the sword down severing the vampire's head from the rest of it's body and turning it to dust. He was sent sprawling forward, through the disintegrating vampire, to the ground from a force behind him.
Connor quickly got himself to his feet and immediately looked behind him. He could see a red hooded figure standing on the sidewalk, looking at all of them. He saw movement out of the corner of his eyes. When he turned, he saw black hooded figures emerging from the shadows as if they were made from the shadows themselves and he knew that they were Bringers. A manhole cover in the middle of the road popped out and five Turokhan Vampires emerged from it. Around them, four more black hooded figures shimmered into existence, obviously being Syophers. Connor turned down the street and saw a group of vampires moving towards them as well, and he knew that they were hopelessly outnumbered and surrounded. Immediately, everyone, including Connor closeted in one group, all facing outwards, all ready to attack.
"Giles, we're-going-to-need-some-help-out-the-front-of-the-High-School," Connor heard Willow saying into her mobile phone.
The Bringers, Turokhan and Vampires quickly formed a loose circle around them, and Connor was itching to get into the action and get the fight over and done with already, although he was fairly confident that he wasn't going to like the results of the encounter. He knew that both He and Buffy, and possibly the Witches could easily evade the group surrounding them and make a run for it, but the others couldn't, so therefore he couldn't abandon them. Beside him he heard a loud growling and snarling sound and looked to see that Daniel had disregarded his crossbow and was in the process of transforming into his Canine side, and it sent a chill up Connor's spine. Maybe there was hope of getting out of this alive after all. The two Witches, Willow and Tara were in the middle of the cluster that they had formed and he could hear that they were quietly chanting something.
"Wait until we're done," Connor heard Willow say to Buffy.
"They're not going to wait until you're done," Buffy replied referring to both Oz and Daniel and the Bringers, Turokhan and Vampires surrounding them.
A number of events all happened at once. Daniel and Oz completed their transformation into their werewolf sides and charged forward with the intent on ripping everything that resembled a Bringer, Vampire or Turokhan, to pieces. The red cloaked figure gave the order for the Bringers, Vampires and Turokhan to kill the Slayer and her allies before disappearing in a light show of red, black and blue. Willow and Tara completed their spell, sending the two front rows of enemies surrounding their group sprawling backwards, temporarily incapacitating those behind them.
"Connor, protect Willow and Tara," Buffy said before turning around and charging towards the enemies who were on the ground from Willow and Tara's spell, intent on killing as many as she could as long as they were on the ground. The three Potential Slayers followed her, slashing and hacking at anything they could. It was only a matter of moments before their enemies had recovered and were fighting back against Buffy and the Potential Slayers, who were doing remarkably well considering that they had no special abilities so to speak and that they only had had a limited amount of training with either Faith or Buffy. Connor remained behind and it wasn't long before a couple of bringers came their way. He risked a quick glance behind him to see that the witches were working on another spell. He took two steps up to the oncoming Bringers and dodged the first blade that came slicing through the air towards his neck. He ducked below the next one and brought his two swords up as he rose again. He dodged the next knife that was coming towards him, leaving an opening in the Bringer's defences and he stabbed his sword into the Bringer. He didn't even have enough time to register that he had delivered a fatal blow to the Bringer before he had turned around and stabbed the other one in it's chest. He sensed quick movement behind him and he swung around again, seeing that the Bringer was bringing it's knife down towards him from above. He used the flat side of his sword in his left hand to deflect the Bringer's arm and drive it down. With his other hand, he brought his sword up and decapitated the Bringer. A powerful blow was delivered to his back and he was sent forward, tripping over the falling body of the Bringer that he had just killed. At once, he rolled around onto his back to see that a Turokhan vampire was crouching down in a predatory stance and approaching him snarling. He just had enough time to see the face of another Turokhan that appeared in his vision above him before he rolled out of the way of it's foot coming down to slam his head into oblivion. He quickly got himself upright and he realised that he was caught between the two Turokhan.
Connor's right shoulder was facing one Turokhan, his sword and most of his body facing the vampire. His left hand was held back, and the sword held lower, ready to swing it around behind him if that Turokhan attacked first. He just had enough time to step backwards and bring his sword up, cutting deeply into the mid section of a vampire that attempted to charge him from the side.
This step backwards had propelled the Turokhan behind Connor to leap into action and it charged towards him. Connor quickly turned and arced both of his swords diagonally through the air towards the Turokhan. The first sword missed the Turokhan altogether, but the second had enough force and speed to cause a deep gash in the Turokhan's shoulder, sending it sprawling backwards in pain. Before Connor knew what was happening, two arms wrapped themselves around his body from behind. Connor used all his strength to push backwards, this only caused the Turokhan which had a death grip on him to trip over, bringing Connor down with it. He was trapped on top of the Turokhan when he felt a sharp slicing pain in his neck, and he realised that the Turokhan had bitten in. He struggled more, but he couldn't move from the Turokhan's grasp. He dropped both of his swords and grabbed onto the Turokhan's arms that were wrapped around him and attempted to pull them away. He saw another Turokhan coming towards them and when it was close enough, he kicked out with his foot, sending it sprawling backwards onto the ground. He gripped the Turokhan's arms with all his strength and with a yell, pried them away from his body enough to get free of the vampire. Quickly, he rolled off the vampire, picking up one of his swords as he did so. He got onto all fours above the Turokhan and put the sword to it's neck and pushed as hard as he could. At first, the sword didn't seem to have any effect, but eventually with a loud thunk, it went through the Turokhan's neck, turning it to dust.
Connor glanced towards the two witches to see that a hemisphere of energy was flowing around the pair, protecting them from the Vampires, Bringers and Turokhan who attempted to attack them. That wasn't his concern though, his concern was the three large black hooded figures floating across the ground towards the pair.
"Syophers," he muttered under his breath. He grabbed his other sword from the ground and got up. He had only taken a step towards them when he was confronted with three more bringers. He dispatched them easily enough, only to see that Tara's hands were glowing white and her palms were pointed towards one of the Syophers. In the blink of an eye, the Syopher was sent flying backwards through the air at break-neck speeds across the street, knocking down anything in it's way. It impacted against the hand-rail on the steps of the ruined Sunnydale High School and broke the hand rail off of it's fastenings into the concrete steps.
Connor's distraction cost him dearly though. He felt a sharp pain in the side of his waist, where he looked down to see a Bringer's knife lodged. He swung his sword around in his right hand and stabbed behind him, hearing the sound of metal slicing through flesh. The Bringer fell to the ground, leaving it's knife embedded in Connor's side. Connor looked up to see a Turokhan coming towards him. He put both of his swords into his left hand, and with one swift movement and a sound which he didn't recognise as his, he pulled the Bringer's knife out of his waist and hurled it towards the Turokhan. The knife went tumbling through the air and implanted itself right in the Turokhan's forehead. The vampire's eyes went wide and it's body went still before it fell to the ground, not moving.
Connor grasped both of his swords again just in time to stick them into a vampire which was charging at him. He withdrew both of his swords and swung them in opposite directions towards the vampire's neck, cutting his head off like a giant pair of scissors. Another Turokhan stepped cautiously towards him, and Connor could see that it was badly injured. He took a step forward to strike out at the Turokhan when he heard a loud growl and saw a large grey blur spear-tackle the Turokhan to the ground. He saw the werewolf tearing into the Turokhan beneath it before the Turokhan kicked it off. Connor used the opportunity to behead the Turokhan while it was on the ground. He dodged a sword which was swung at him by a vampire, but he didn't have time to counter-attack the vampire as he turned and dodged another blade from another vampire. Using his enhanced strength, he leapt over the vampire in front of him and drove his sword straight through the vampire's chest, effectively wounding it and taking it out of combat for a while. He beheaded the next vampire, and he sensed a quick movement towards him from his right. He turned and raised his arm to swing his sword down on the bringer that was approaching him, but he winced and slowed as he did so due to the injury on his waist. That extra millisecond that it took to bring the blade down was enough for the Bringer. It's knife got through Connor's defences and slid into his mid-gut. The Bringer arced the knife upwards and drew it out. The Bringer wasn't in time to dodge the sword that was coming towards it from Connor and it was cut across it's chest as Connor sunk to his knees.
He looked down to see that he had already lost a large amount of blood due to the first wound he had acquired from the Bringers, and now it was gushing out of him like a running river. His hands clutched the stab wound on his stomach, trying to keep as much blood in as possible. He saw a vampire coming towards him and he attempted to pick up his sword from his kneeling position, but he was moving much too slow. He saw a foot coming towards his face, and he was knocked back onto the ground, his nose and various other bones in his face broken. He lay on the ground expecting the final blow to come from the vampire, but he saw a long-haired brunette figure attack the vampire, and he realised that it was one of the Potential Slayers. He tried to get up, but he didn't possess the strength to do so. Connor lay there and watched as the Potential Slayer attempted to battle the various Vampires and Bringers who attempted to attack both of them. He made a mental note to thank her if he survived this, as he was truly moved. He had never thought much of the Potential Slayers, he could tell that they were usually scared from the fear he could smell coming off of them, but this demonstrated that at least one of them had strength, at least one of them wasn't afraid to face up to the forces which they were fighting against. He watched as the training that she had been put through over the years by her Watcher carried her through the battle. He watched as she protected him against the bringers and vampires which longed to taste his blood. Connor watched as a vampire sneaked up behind her and drove a sword through her chest. He watched as she looked down at him, blood coming out of her mouth. He watched as her chest stopped rising and falling, and her face and extremities went pale. He watched as her body fell to the ground and landed beside him.
"Thankyou," Connor weakly said as he turned his head towards hers. He watched as the words sunk into her mind and then everything that was keeping her alive seemed to stop functioning.
"Shannon," he heard a female voice scream. He saw another female figure above them as he eventually got weaker and he found it hard to keep breathing. He watched as another one of the Potential Slayers came into his vision, moving towards the body of her now dead friend. He heard the sound of a number of vampires turning to dust, and he looked to his side and in a moment he saw Buffy Summers kneeling down above the body of the Potential Slayer beside him. A magickal blast of energy streaked above him from the direction he had last saw Willow and Tara in.
"She's dead," Connor weakly said to Buffy.
"Oh my God, Connor," Buffy said as she moved over to him. Her face was bloodied and he could see a number of lumps on the Slayer's body where they shouldn't be. Connor was now struggling to keep his eyes open, and the last thing he saw before darkness took him was that of Buffy Summers rising to her feet, spinning around and swiftly beheading a Turokhan Vampire which had been approaching her from behind.
And now on to part 3.