Fic: Souls, Slayers... and a Scythe???
Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3
Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)
========================
Chapter 5c:
From the second they'd walked into the cave, Faith's Slayer Sense went on edge, 'There's something there,' she figured, 'not enough to set it off properly but just something keeping it at a warning level.' She recognised this as a familiar feeling. 'I definitely felt like this in Sunnydale. Didn't really notice until after I'd left, then it was there in force when I'd returned with Willow. It's like the humming that you don't notice until it stops.' That reminded her of when she'd had to work in the laundry room in prison, the sound of the machines going all day, 'Made your cell seem especially quite in the evenings,' she figured. 'God I really hope this isn't a warning for a hellmouth.' She thought to herself. 'Not that I'd got the vibe when in Cleveland, the more I think about it the less I believe Cleveland is a hellmouth.'
Shaking the thoughts off, she continued to lead the way, Roger and Amy behind her, Xander taking the rear. She found herself clenching her fists involuntarily as she walked further into the darkness. "How big is this cave meant to be?"
Amy replied from somewhere behind her. "I don't know. Samson never said. Why?"
"Cos even my eyes can't see an end to this tunnel."
"Your eyes?" Roger questioned, "I realise that I haven't got the perfect vision, that I had in my younger years, but the cave is virtually pitch black."
Amy quickly corrected him, "The Slayer has eyes designed to take in all possible light. She doesn't just fight vampires, Roger; she was designed to fight them."
"And yet we still don't know by who." Roger grumbled from just in front of her.
"That's what we want to find out." Came Xander's voice from the back.
"How you doing Xan?" Faith asked, the talk about vision made her realise exactly how Xander must be dealing with their situation.
"Vampires are nocturnal." Amy continued the lesson, ignoring the other conversations.
"Being sunlight un-friendly, you'd expect that." Roger lightly teased.
"I can see Amy's coat. Good job she was wearing something light. As long as I've got something to focus on I think I'll be okay." Came Xander's voice from the rear.
"Cool." Faith replied as she listened to Amy continue her lecture.
"Which means that whoever designed the Slayer made sure that she wouldn't suffer any obvious weaknesses when compared to vampires. They made sure she could compete physically in all aspects of a challenge. The Slayer is stronger, faster and more skilled than any vampire. A Slayer that was as blind at night-time as the rest of us, would be easy pickings for any vampire. Well, not easy so much... easier would probably be the best term."
'Dunno about that.' Faith thought to herself. 'Still reckon vampires have some better senses than us. Reckon on hearing we're pretty much matched. Fang may have had better night vision than me, but whether that's due to a mix of age, power and experience rather than just the standard vamping gifts, I couldn't say. And whether it's just me, but I personally don't think my sense of smell got any better once I was chosen. As for the rest of the skills...' She was interrupted by a question from Roger.
"So why the vampire slayer? You said yourself that their were lots of creatures stronger than vampires? Why not design someone able to kill all of them too? Or do they get demon-name slayers of their own?"
"That's what we hope to discover when we find out the origin."
"We might find that vampire slayer was a name given later." Xander shouted from the rear.
"Huh?" Faith found herself saying.
"Well think about it. I dunno if it was the hellmouth, but as for other demons, we probably ran into two or three a week. Whereas with vampires we'd be staking from five upwards a night. Maybe they just got the name cos that's what they dealt with most often. I mean most of Faith's skills would come handy in a physical fight against almost any demon."
'Damn straight.' Faith thought.
"Sure there may be a few that could take her out, using superior strength, skill or speed. But on the whole, they in turn, then suffer from being weaker in other areas."
'Actually even vampires could outdo us in stamina,' Faith thought bitterly. 'Guess not having to breathe makes things a lot easier in the long run.'
"It might be that the Slayer is simply the best combination of attributes, that they can actually put inside a human being without requiring them to become a demon." Amy offered as a plausible explanation, "I've heard of human/demon crosses being especially powerful in certain aspects. In fact, when I was studying my ancient civilisations, I considered the hypothesis that some of the legendary stories from more famous historical figures could have been the result of such pairings."
"What?" Both Faith and Xander said simultaneously.
"Think how many characters, according to stories, were part God. Their mother had been impregnated by Odin or Zeus or some other mythological being, and the child grew up to have the strength of a god, or the head of a bull and so on. What if it wasn't the work of gods playing with mankind, but instead simply the offspring of a demon-human union? I was considering how I could work that into a thesis to submit for my course when I got the recall to the Watchers."
"Can't say I'm up on the history of gods and so on. But couldn't they have just been the offspring of Gods like the stories said?" Xander offered.
"Who'd ever believe in stories about Gods?" Amy chuckled to herself. "Far more likely to be a demon."
"It does seem the more likely explanation," Roger offered. "But I'm not writing off the possibility of gods yet. I mean a few weeks ago I probably would have, but then again a few years ago I'd have laughed at the possibility of demons. I think I'll keep an open mind."
As Roger and Amy continued to discuss it, both Xander and Faith were strangely quiet.
'He's gotta be thinking the same thing I am.' Faith thought. 'I mean he was there. We've only come across one being said to be a god and that did not end well.' Faith continued with her own thoughts as she led them down the tunnel. 'Unless he mentions it first, I will not bring it up.'
"So... what if the Slayer is simply one of these people that are descended from gods or demons or whatever else there could be?" Roger asked.
Faith tried to get her head around that possibility. It seemed Amy was too, as she soon offered a counter argument "That would only work for the first one. She'd display the powers. But wouldn't explain the others."
"They could all be descended from the first one." Roger offered. "Remember the running in families thing?"
"I thought we discounted that?" Xander called from the back.
"Hang on." Faith slowed her pace, as she turned to ask the question. "What running in families thing?"
"Oh yeah." Amy remembered, "That reminds me, was any of your family a potential?"
"Was any of my family a what?"
"Potential." Amy patiently explained. "It's technically what you were before yo..."
"I know what a potential is. Had to share a house with enough of them." Then muttering under her breath. "Got more privacy in prison." 'Though,' she reasoned to herself 'that's probably cos the in-mates got scared of you after a while. Whereas the wannabe slayers all looked up to you in awe.' "I don't get the family thing."
"Basically," Amy began.
"Forget basically." Xander called from the back. "There is no real basic to any of it. I take it you wouldn't know if your mother or any of your aunts or anything were potentials?"
'Making a few assumptions about my family there Xan?' "I haven't seen any of them since I was called." She answered.
"Have any siblings or cousins who'd have been teenagers on the day of Willow's spell?" Amy asked.
"Not that I know of." She answered truthfully. 'My family was never the closest thing. God knows I wouldn't have put it past my dad to cheat on my mother when I was a kid. My mother's sister used to hang around, but I couldn't even tell you if I had any more aunts and uncles; never mind cousins.' Her inner thoughts almost distracted her from what was in front of her, in fact it was her Slayer sense slipping into a more 'active' mode that caught her attention. "Shit." she said, stopping suddenly.
Roger walked directly into her back.
"What?" Amy asked excitedly. "Remembered a cousin that falls into the right age range?"
"No. Look."
As they all grouped around they began to notice what Faith was point out.
The tunnel had opened up into a giant underground cavern. It seemed to span out in lots of directions.
=====
Roger hated this, this was probably the worst situation he could imagine being in.
They'd had no torches with them, so returning to the jeep was a waste of time. Instead they'd decided to rely entirely on Faith's eyesight to guide them to the demon. If that hadn't been bad enough, Xander had decided to inform them that the cavern was giving him a 'definite wiggins'. Faith had commented that her Slayer sense, had been 'wiggining her' since they entered. 'Whatever the hell a slayer sense is.' Roger thought to himself.
The pairings weren't giving him too much comfort either. Amy had been ushered in front of him by Xander, so that she could rely on the Slayer to protect her. He'd been paired with Xander. Faith had quickly drawn stakes out of her shirt. Xander pulled a knife out of his back pocket.
'Armed..? No-one told me I had to be armed.' Roger thought to himself, remembering his shotgun back at the villa he suddenly thought. 'Wish ole Bessie was with me now.'
Realising what he'd done he suddenly froze to the spot. He closed his eyes. He opened them again. Luckily nothing had changed, there was no weapon in his hand. Xander was looking at him questioningly. He offered a sheepish smile and gestured him to keep moving.
'That was fucking dumb. That was so fucking dumb.' He thought to himself. 'I wouldn't have just gotten the weapon either. In fact, having a weapon materialise in your hands and then getting chewed out by the others would have been the best that could happen to me. It was more likely I would have had to face the Wish-demon. Alone.' he added, shivering a little at the thought.
"Xan?" He asked quietly. Xander turned to face him. "Got any other weapons?"
"You've had training?" Xander said, sizing him up.
Roger decided to be honest. "Did some boxing in my school days. Nothing much physical since then. Used to go shooting..." At that last comment Amy turned around. 'Glad I can't see her face well in this light.' He thought, imagining the look of disgust she would be wearing. "A lot of the ruling clas..." He decided it wasn't worth it.
"All I've got are a few spare stakes. You can have one if it'll make you feel safer."
"Sure," Roger replied taking the stake. 'Where the hell is he storing these things? Why hasn't he got anything better?' he thought looking at the piece of wood in his hand and imagining exactly how ineffective it would have been if Sannus had wanted to kill them.
"You want one too?" Xander offered to Amy.
"Sure." Roger watched as Amy took one, it looked far more natural in her hand than it did in his.
"Chill. No one's expecting nuffin. Chickette probably just lots of Watcher tips drummed into her over the years." Faith said.
'How?' Roger thought, then remembering the discussion on a Slayer's night vision. 'She probably saw my face clear as if we were back at the hotel.'
Thoughts on Faith's superior eyesight reminded him that Xander's lacked depth perception. And that meant that of their two, he was the one who should be relied upon to watch their backs. 'Great,' he thought to himself. 'If something comes I have to inform Xander where it is and hope I can attract Faith's attention. Would have been far better with Bessie.' he thought.
'As long as I didn't accidently kill the creature we came here to see.'
"Is it me or is it getting colder?" Amy asked from in front.
'She normally complains about the heat. Thought she'd be happy with a little chill factor.' He reasoned. "Can't tell myself." he answered.
Xander stopped on the spot. Then Roger watched as Xander started making small steps in each direction. "Colder this way?" he queried.
"Follows the vibe I'm getting... definitely stronger that way." Faith added.
"So what do we think?" He heard Amy ask.
"Follow it." Xander replied.
"Agreed. Power's probably where the demon is."
"So do we really want to go that way?" Amy asked exactly what Roger had been thinking. Roger nodded to show his agreement to the others.
Xander and Faith looked at one another, "We don't have time to lead you both back out and then find this place again."
"We haven't been in here that long." Amy asked.
"What Xan's trying to say... is that we're not sure of the way back"
"What?" Roger blurted out, a bit too loudly for his own liking. Looking around suspiciously to see if anything was there that could have heard him.
"We were always coming to see the demon. I thought you'd be interested in that, Aims?" Xander tried.
"That was before it started getting cold. And both of you started to sense our surroundings. It just seems rather scary now."
"We're lost?" Roger asked again.
"I think I could lead us out."
"You think?"
"I just gotta head away from the vibe. And keep my eyes peeled for anything I might recognise."
"I've got a good sense of direction." Xander offered, "The entrance should be over that way-ish. That's the way we came, mainly straight if you ignore a few diversions."
"And if we know where the path is I should be able to recognise most of it."
This wasn't helping Roger's state of mind. "This is turning out to be one of those films, where they all get trapped with a killer."
"It's a wish demon."
"It might wish us dead."
"Then we won't be facing it." Xander argued.
"And can I say for the record, me and Cyke have a record of going against the killing demons and surviving."
Roger couldn't stand any more and was beginning to get more and more hysterical. "Great so we die, and you two are the scared survivors who find comfort in each others arms."
Xander and Faith gave each other a look. Roger tried to identify it but couldn't, "That wasn't supposed to be giving you ideas you know." he shouted.
"Well they know where we are now." Amy reasoned.
"Look," Faith tried, "if you want we'll go see the demon and you two can remain here."
"No." Xander said decisively.
"Now it knows we're here. No way." Amy argued.
"So what do you want to do?" Xander said. "In or out?"
Roger stared at Amy, 'Wis... not falling for that again... would be easier if I could see her face to have an idea of what she's thinking.'
They both responded at the exact same time.
"Lets get it over with."
"Go back, get torches and come back."
"Where would be we get torches at this time of night?" Amy questioned him.
"So we wait for tomorrow night."
"To find a demon that we aren't completely sure is the right one? You're actually suggesting wasting another day?"
"What's another day, its been six weeks." 'Shit, insensitive or what.' Roger thought to himself, glad he couldn't see Xander's face. "Maybe Samson has a torch we can borrow."
"Even if we get out, get a torch and, for those that want to, get back in again tonight." Xander said evenly, "That's wasted a lot of the night. And we know you can only enter at night-time. What if we get trapped here?"
"And with three votes to one, I say we continue." this from Faith.
"Okay," Roger conceded reluctantly. "Let's do it."
"The vibe seems to be coming from that way." Faith stated, taking the lead.
=====
Amy was relieved when they finally reached a wall. Faith was staring at it. Roger was leaning on it regaining his breath. "Rest time?" she asked.
"Nah." Faith said, "The power / demon / whatever is setting my Slayer sense off, is coming from behind this wall."
"And it's noticeably colder," Xander said.
Amy hadn't noticed. The fact that they might be on a time limit had made everyone pick up the pace a little. Xander looked okay. She was exhausted and could see Roger felt the same. 'So we didn't grow up chasing vampires, or get magically empowered.' she reasoned.
"Stay." Faith shot off.
"Want company?" Xander called after her.
"You look after them. I'll be faster on my own. I promise not to do anything too stupid." And with that Faith darted round a corner.
Amy walked over to the wall and collapsed against it. "Cold." She said, as he arm touched it.
"Yeah... feels good." This came from Roger who was spreading as much of his back across it as he could.
"Just..." Xander looked lost. "Catch your breaths. But keep your eyes peeled. Tell me, if you see anything, even if you think it's only likely to be Faith." He said, readjusting his grip so he had a stake in one hand and a knife in the other.
Amy looked at her watch. 'About five hours til sunrise. Hope Faith finds something.' With that she settled in and tried to regain her breath, in case Faith came back and they had to move fast.
=====
End chapter 5c:
========================
Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3
Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)
========================
Chapter 5c:
From the second they'd walked into the cave, Faith's Slayer Sense went on edge, 'There's something there,' she figured, 'not enough to set it off properly but just something keeping it at a warning level.' She recognised this as a familiar feeling. 'I definitely felt like this in Sunnydale. Didn't really notice until after I'd left, then it was there in force when I'd returned with Willow. It's like the humming that you don't notice until it stops.' That reminded her of when she'd had to work in the laundry room in prison, the sound of the machines going all day, 'Made your cell seem especially quite in the evenings,' she figured. 'God I really hope this isn't a warning for a hellmouth.' She thought to herself. 'Not that I'd got the vibe when in Cleveland, the more I think about it the less I believe Cleveland is a hellmouth.'
Shaking the thoughts off, she continued to lead the way, Roger and Amy behind her, Xander taking the rear. She found herself clenching her fists involuntarily as she walked further into the darkness. "How big is this cave meant to be?"
Amy replied from somewhere behind her. "I don't know. Samson never said. Why?"
"Cos even my eyes can't see an end to this tunnel."
"Your eyes?" Roger questioned, "I realise that I haven't got the perfect vision, that I had in my younger years, but the cave is virtually pitch black."
Amy quickly corrected him, "The Slayer has eyes designed to take in all possible light. She doesn't just fight vampires, Roger; she was designed to fight them."
"And yet we still don't know by who." Roger grumbled from just in front of her.
"That's what we want to find out." Came Xander's voice from the back.
"How you doing Xan?" Faith asked, the talk about vision made her realise exactly how Xander must be dealing with their situation.
"Vampires are nocturnal." Amy continued the lesson, ignoring the other conversations.
"Being sunlight un-friendly, you'd expect that." Roger lightly teased.
"I can see Amy's coat. Good job she was wearing something light. As long as I've got something to focus on I think I'll be okay." Came Xander's voice from the rear.
"Cool." Faith replied as she listened to Amy continue her lecture.
"Which means that whoever designed the Slayer made sure that she wouldn't suffer any obvious weaknesses when compared to vampires. They made sure she could compete physically in all aspects of a challenge. The Slayer is stronger, faster and more skilled than any vampire. A Slayer that was as blind at night-time as the rest of us, would be easy pickings for any vampire. Well, not easy so much... easier would probably be the best term."
'Dunno about that.' Faith thought to herself. 'Still reckon vampires have some better senses than us. Reckon on hearing we're pretty much matched. Fang may have had better night vision than me, but whether that's due to a mix of age, power and experience rather than just the standard vamping gifts, I couldn't say. And whether it's just me, but I personally don't think my sense of smell got any better once I was chosen. As for the rest of the skills...' She was interrupted by a question from Roger.
"So why the vampire slayer? You said yourself that their were lots of creatures stronger than vampires? Why not design someone able to kill all of them too? Or do they get demon-name slayers of their own?"
"That's what we hope to discover when we find out the origin."
"We might find that vampire slayer was a name given later." Xander shouted from the rear.
"Huh?" Faith found herself saying.
"Well think about it. I dunno if it was the hellmouth, but as for other demons, we probably ran into two or three a week. Whereas with vampires we'd be staking from five upwards a night. Maybe they just got the name cos that's what they dealt with most often. I mean most of Faith's skills would come handy in a physical fight against almost any demon."
'Damn straight.' Faith thought.
"Sure there may be a few that could take her out, using superior strength, skill or speed. But on the whole, they in turn, then suffer from being weaker in other areas."
'Actually even vampires could outdo us in stamina,' Faith thought bitterly. 'Guess not having to breathe makes things a lot easier in the long run.'
"It might be that the Slayer is simply the best combination of attributes, that they can actually put inside a human being without requiring them to become a demon." Amy offered as a plausible explanation, "I've heard of human/demon crosses being especially powerful in certain aspects. In fact, when I was studying my ancient civilisations, I considered the hypothesis that some of the legendary stories from more famous historical figures could have been the result of such pairings."
"What?" Both Faith and Xander said simultaneously.
"Think how many characters, according to stories, were part God. Their mother had been impregnated by Odin or Zeus or some other mythological being, and the child grew up to have the strength of a god, or the head of a bull and so on. What if it wasn't the work of gods playing with mankind, but instead simply the offspring of a demon-human union? I was considering how I could work that into a thesis to submit for my course when I got the recall to the Watchers."
"Can't say I'm up on the history of gods and so on. But couldn't they have just been the offspring of Gods like the stories said?" Xander offered.
"Who'd ever believe in stories about Gods?" Amy chuckled to herself. "Far more likely to be a demon."
"It does seem the more likely explanation," Roger offered. "But I'm not writing off the possibility of gods yet. I mean a few weeks ago I probably would have, but then again a few years ago I'd have laughed at the possibility of demons. I think I'll keep an open mind."
As Roger and Amy continued to discuss it, both Xander and Faith were strangely quiet.
'He's gotta be thinking the same thing I am.' Faith thought. 'I mean he was there. We've only come across one being said to be a god and that did not end well.' Faith continued with her own thoughts as she led them down the tunnel. 'Unless he mentions it first, I will not bring it up.'
"So... what if the Slayer is simply one of these people that are descended from gods or demons or whatever else there could be?" Roger asked.
Faith tried to get her head around that possibility. It seemed Amy was too, as she soon offered a counter argument "That would only work for the first one. She'd display the powers. But wouldn't explain the others."
"They could all be descended from the first one." Roger offered. "Remember the running in families thing?"
"I thought we discounted that?" Xander called from the back.
"Hang on." Faith slowed her pace, as she turned to ask the question. "What running in families thing?"
"Oh yeah." Amy remembered, "That reminds me, was any of your family a potential?"
"Was any of my family a what?"
"Potential." Amy patiently explained. "It's technically what you were before yo..."
"I know what a potential is. Had to share a house with enough of them." Then muttering under her breath. "Got more privacy in prison." 'Though,' she reasoned to herself 'that's probably cos the in-mates got scared of you after a while. Whereas the wannabe slayers all looked up to you in awe.' "I don't get the family thing."
"Basically," Amy began.
"Forget basically." Xander called from the back. "There is no real basic to any of it. I take it you wouldn't know if your mother or any of your aunts or anything were potentials?"
'Making a few assumptions about my family there Xan?' "I haven't seen any of them since I was called." She answered.
"Have any siblings or cousins who'd have been teenagers on the day of Willow's spell?" Amy asked.
"Not that I know of." She answered truthfully. 'My family was never the closest thing. God knows I wouldn't have put it past my dad to cheat on my mother when I was a kid. My mother's sister used to hang around, but I couldn't even tell you if I had any more aunts and uncles; never mind cousins.' Her inner thoughts almost distracted her from what was in front of her, in fact it was her Slayer sense slipping into a more 'active' mode that caught her attention. "Shit." she said, stopping suddenly.
Roger walked directly into her back.
"What?" Amy asked excitedly. "Remembered a cousin that falls into the right age range?"
"No. Look."
As they all grouped around they began to notice what Faith was point out.
The tunnel had opened up into a giant underground cavern. It seemed to span out in lots of directions.
=====
Roger hated this, this was probably the worst situation he could imagine being in.
They'd had no torches with them, so returning to the jeep was a waste of time. Instead they'd decided to rely entirely on Faith's eyesight to guide them to the demon. If that hadn't been bad enough, Xander had decided to inform them that the cavern was giving him a 'definite wiggins'. Faith had commented that her Slayer sense, had been 'wiggining her' since they entered. 'Whatever the hell a slayer sense is.' Roger thought to himself.
The pairings weren't giving him too much comfort either. Amy had been ushered in front of him by Xander, so that she could rely on the Slayer to protect her. He'd been paired with Xander. Faith had quickly drawn stakes out of her shirt. Xander pulled a knife out of his back pocket.
'Armed..? No-one told me I had to be armed.' Roger thought to himself, remembering his shotgun back at the villa he suddenly thought. 'Wish ole Bessie was with me now.'
Realising what he'd done he suddenly froze to the spot. He closed his eyes. He opened them again. Luckily nothing had changed, there was no weapon in his hand. Xander was looking at him questioningly. He offered a sheepish smile and gestured him to keep moving.
'That was fucking dumb. That was so fucking dumb.' He thought to himself. 'I wouldn't have just gotten the weapon either. In fact, having a weapon materialise in your hands and then getting chewed out by the others would have been the best that could happen to me. It was more likely I would have had to face the Wish-demon. Alone.' he added, shivering a little at the thought.
"Xan?" He asked quietly. Xander turned to face him. "Got any other weapons?"
"You've had training?" Xander said, sizing him up.
Roger decided to be honest. "Did some boxing in my school days. Nothing much physical since then. Used to go shooting..." At that last comment Amy turned around. 'Glad I can't see her face well in this light.' He thought, imagining the look of disgust she would be wearing. "A lot of the ruling clas..." He decided it wasn't worth it.
"All I've got are a few spare stakes. You can have one if it'll make you feel safer."
"Sure," Roger replied taking the stake. 'Where the hell is he storing these things? Why hasn't he got anything better?' he thought looking at the piece of wood in his hand and imagining exactly how ineffective it would have been if Sannus had wanted to kill them.
"You want one too?" Xander offered to Amy.
"Sure." Roger watched as Amy took one, it looked far more natural in her hand than it did in his.
"Chill. No one's expecting nuffin. Chickette probably just lots of Watcher tips drummed into her over the years." Faith said.
'How?' Roger thought, then remembering the discussion on a Slayer's night vision. 'She probably saw my face clear as if we were back at the hotel.'
Thoughts on Faith's superior eyesight reminded him that Xander's lacked depth perception. And that meant that of their two, he was the one who should be relied upon to watch their backs. 'Great,' he thought to himself. 'If something comes I have to inform Xander where it is and hope I can attract Faith's attention. Would have been far better with Bessie.' he thought.
'As long as I didn't accidently kill the creature we came here to see.'
"Is it me or is it getting colder?" Amy asked from in front.
'She normally complains about the heat. Thought she'd be happy with a little chill factor.' He reasoned. "Can't tell myself." he answered.
Xander stopped on the spot. Then Roger watched as Xander started making small steps in each direction. "Colder this way?" he queried.
"Follows the vibe I'm getting... definitely stronger that way." Faith added.
"So what do we think?" He heard Amy ask.
"Follow it." Xander replied.
"Agreed. Power's probably where the demon is."
"So do we really want to go that way?" Amy asked exactly what Roger had been thinking. Roger nodded to show his agreement to the others.
Xander and Faith looked at one another, "We don't have time to lead you both back out and then find this place again."
"We haven't been in here that long." Amy asked.
"What Xan's trying to say... is that we're not sure of the way back"
"What?" Roger blurted out, a bit too loudly for his own liking. Looking around suspiciously to see if anything was there that could have heard him.
"We were always coming to see the demon. I thought you'd be interested in that, Aims?" Xander tried.
"That was before it started getting cold. And both of you started to sense our surroundings. It just seems rather scary now."
"We're lost?" Roger asked again.
"I think I could lead us out."
"You think?"
"I just gotta head away from the vibe. And keep my eyes peeled for anything I might recognise."
"I've got a good sense of direction." Xander offered, "The entrance should be over that way-ish. That's the way we came, mainly straight if you ignore a few diversions."
"And if we know where the path is I should be able to recognise most of it."
This wasn't helping Roger's state of mind. "This is turning out to be one of those films, where they all get trapped with a killer."
"It's a wish demon."
"It might wish us dead."
"Then we won't be facing it." Xander argued.
"And can I say for the record, me and Cyke have a record of going against the killing demons and surviving."
Roger couldn't stand any more and was beginning to get more and more hysterical. "Great so we die, and you two are the scared survivors who find comfort in each others arms."
Xander and Faith gave each other a look. Roger tried to identify it but couldn't, "That wasn't supposed to be giving you ideas you know." he shouted.
"Well they know where we are now." Amy reasoned.
"Look," Faith tried, "if you want we'll go see the demon and you two can remain here."
"No." Xander said decisively.
"Now it knows we're here. No way." Amy argued.
"So what do you want to do?" Xander said. "In or out?"
Roger stared at Amy, 'Wis... not falling for that again... would be easier if I could see her face to have an idea of what she's thinking.'
They both responded at the exact same time.
"Lets get it over with."
"Go back, get torches and come back."
"Where would be we get torches at this time of night?" Amy questioned him.
"So we wait for tomorrow night."
"To find a demon that we aren't completely sure is the right one? You're actually suggesting wasting another day?"
"What's another day, its been six weeks." 'Shit, insensitive or what.' Roger thought to himself, glad he couldn't see Xander's face. "Maybe Samson has a torch we can borrow."
"Even if we get out, get a torch and, for those that want to, get back in again tonight." Xander said evenly, "That's wasted a lot of the night. And we know you can only enter at night-time. What if we get trapped here?"
"And with three votes to one, I say we continue." this from Faith.
"Okay," Roger conceded reluctantly. "Let's do it."
"The vibe seems to be coming from that way." Faith stated, taking the lead.
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Amy was relieved when they finally reached a wall. Faith was staring at it. Roger was leaning on it regaining his breath. "Rest time?" she asked.
"Nah." Faith said, "The power / demon / whatever is setting my Slayer sense off, is coming from behind this wall."
"And it's noticeably colder," Xander said.
Amy hadn't noticed. The fact that they might be on a time limit had made everyone pick up the pace a little. Xander looked okay. She was exhausted and could see Roger felt the same. 'So we didn't grow up chasing vampires, or get magically empowered.' she reasoned.
"Stay." Faith shot off.
"Want company?" Xander called after her.
"You look after them. I'll be faster on my own. I promise not to do anything too stupid." And with that Faith darted round a corner.
Amy walked over to the wall and collapsed against it. "Cold." She said, as he arm touched it.
"Yeah... feels good." This came from Roger who was spreading as much of his back across it as he could.
"Just..." Xander looked lost. "Catch your breaths. But keep your eyes peeled. Tell me, if you see anything, even if you think it's only likely to be Faith." He said, readjusting his grip so he had a stake in one hand and a knife in the other.
Amy looked at her watch. 'About five hours til sunrise. Hope Faith finds something.' With that she settled in and tried to regain her breath, in case Faith came back and they had to move fast.
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End chapter 5c:
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