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 8c:
It was all happening at the same time, and for a moment the world seemed frozen. Amy was attempting her bid for freedom, holding the vampire's forearm in both her hands and trying to push it far enough away to get her head free. Roger had pressed the trigger releasing the crossbow bolt, his other hand holding his coat up, forming a shield against flying glass. Xander had been tackled by a vampire; he wrapped his left arm around it's head, restricting it's attempts to bite into his side, his other hand still firmly clenched around the stake. Faith was about fifteen feet in the air beginning her descent, left hand straight out palm open seemingly guiding her path, her right hand readjusting its grip on her stake, right leg bent at the knee, left leg trailing behind.
Then time caught up with everyone simultaneously.
Xander swore as the force of the vampires attack lifted him bodily off his feet, and was taking both of them on a trajectory that led directly at the window he'd been peering through only minutes earlier.
Roger's sharp wince of pain was audible, as part of his hand got cut as it brought his coat to its final protective position. His eyes never leaving the crossbow bolt as it sliced through the air towards the vampire, cutting through it's left shoulder. It's feral eyes suddenly turning on him, realising he'd been the source of it's pain.
Amy felt the vampire holding her suddenly leap backwards as though it'd been shoved. The momentary distraction giving her the time to free her head from it's grasp, and attempt to get out of range.
Faith was still grinning as she saw Amy wiggle out of the vampire's clutches. She noticed it's attention had left Amy now, but it was still looking forward and not up. 'Probably staring at Roger' she figured, spotting the wound in it's left shoulder. Bracing herself for impact, she aimed her hand for the creature's right shoulder, preparing to announce her presence to the fight.
Faith's leap was inch perfect. Her left hand caught the vampire's right shoulder as she'd intended. This allowed her to aim both her knees into it's face as she attempted to control the fall. Her left knee made contact with the demon's face, while her right collided with it's injured shoulder. Her intention was to create enough force that it'd take both her and the vampire away from Amy who could then re-arm herself. She wasn't sure where Amy was, but herself and the demon ended up rolling down the street in a mess of limbs.
Amy had almost gotten free. She'd got her head loose, and was in the process of ducking and rolling away, when a firm hand grasped her wrist. Looking up she realised it was the vampire, suddenly the vampire got yanked backwards dragging Amy with it. Landing on it's legs, she was dragged by the momentum of the vampire and the slayer. Once they came to a stop though, the vampire released her wrist realising that it'd need both hands free to stand any chance of survival, Amy rolled away to the side to check on the others.
Xander had gone through the window, taking the vampire with him. He had a firm grasp of it's neck and was refusing to let go. The vampire was bleeding from several places on it's face, from where Xander had made sure at least part of the demon had struck the window first. It was attempting to stand up, trying to force Xander off of it, powerful blows were raining down on his ribcage but he refused to let go, knowing if he did so then the fight would be a hell of a lot harder. The people in the bar had started diving for cover as soon as they'd come through the window. This did allow him access to a lot of broken furniture. But none of that was as designed for this type of combat as the stake he still firmly held in his hand. Discovering that at this angle it was practically impossible to get a heart shot he did the next best thing. He began plunging the stake into the creature's side repeatedly.
Roger had seen Faith, Amy and the vampire roll off in one direction; and Xander and his opponent roll off in another. Unsure who to help first he automatically began reloading his crossbow. When he looked back up, Amy was fiddling with her coat, seemingly trying to free her other stake. Faith was beneath the vampire, but seemed to have her legs locked round it's waist, refusing to let it escape while she punched it in the face. Turning he quickly ran towards the window that Xander had disappeared through, and aimed his crossbow inside. What he saw amazed him.
Xander was standing now, the vampire still in a headlock and Xander was attempting to stab him repeatedly in the side. This was being made more difficult by the fact that the demon was holding his wrist tightly. Refusing to let the wood get close enough to cause injury. 'How the hell is he doing that?' Roger thought to himself. 'He's not a Slayer yet he seems to be fairing okay in a wrestling match.'
Amy had picked up her other stake and was running back to aid Faith. Just before she got there however, she saw Faith grab the vampire by its neck and unhook her legs from around it.
Faith manoeuvred herself so that the demon was exactly where she wanted it. Holding it by its collar she lifted it up to full arm's stretch while she bent her knees inwards towards her body. Suddenly it's eyes opened, showing Faith it was beginning to recover from the beating she'd given it. As it focused on her she smiled, and glanced down at where her feet were located. It eyes followed hers, to see her feet placed firmly on it's chest. She winked and blew it a kiss, before straightening her legs and throwing it ten feet through the air, towards the wall it'd first been holding Amy against. The creature slammed into it, grazing it's skin as it fell to the floor.
Amy just watched as the creature soared towards the wall. Turning back to Faith, she saw the Slayer flick herself to her feet, seemingly effortlessly. Faith strolled over, eyes squinting as if concentrating on something else for a brief moment; suddenly she relaxed and put her left hand on Amy's back, guiding her towards the vampire. She put her hand down and brought Amy's right hand back up, which was still clenching a stake. Faith winked at her and went over and lifted the vampire to it's feet. It hissed at her, so Faith hit it in the face again.
Gesturing for Amy to come closer, Faith readjusted her own grip so that both the vampire's hands were held behind its head against the wall by her own right hand. Faith's left hand was holding it by the throat, not allowing it to move even slightly.
Amy walked over, getting close enough to smell the creature's breath.
"Go on." Faith told her, nodding towards it's heart.
Amy closed her eyes, praying silently to herself. Scared, she plunged the stake in rather nervously, watching as Faith released the creature as it turned to dust. Gulping hard she realised that she'd just staked her first vampire, 'The Watcher's really didn't prepare me for that.' she thought.
"So how'd it feel?" Faith asked starting to walk away from her.
Turning to face the other direction, she began to follow Faith when the sight of the broken window reminded her about the other two. She wondered about how the guys were fairing, when she was distracted by a shout from above them.
Meanwhile, inside the pub.
Roger had climbed in through the broken window, carefully trying to avoid glass and remains of furniture. He saw where Xander was struggling with the demon. He walked behind it unsure whether to fire or not. Xander looked up and shook his head, indicating that Roger shouldn't fire. Roger rummaged in his coat looking for a stake, to help aid, his friend, the first thing his fingers discovered was the knife he'd concealed earlier. He was debating internally about whether that would help, and was just putting the crossbow onto one of the remaining unbroken tables, when Xander took a sudden look behind over his own shoulder.
Xander checked behind and noticed the corner of the wall, where the entrance came inwards slightly. Making sure the creature's head was fully locked in place he ran backwards towards the wall, the demon's head impacting with a sickening crack. Satisfied Xander let go, letting it drop to the ground.
Roger looked around at the bar's patrons. Several looked like they were going to be sick. All looked disgusted with the event. Roger was fighting the urge to inform them that it wasn't a human. But decided that killing someone, and then denying their right to live as your defence, probably wouldn't go down very well. He also figured that the vampire is essentially a corpse, if the cops come and its still there, all it has to do is lie still while they got arrested. These and more worries were continually going through his mind, checking on Xander to see what he was thinking he was quite shocked.
Xander was over by the bar, talking to the bartender. Who in the circumstances was doing his best to not look scared of him. 'Figures,' Xander thought to himself, 'I guess that was quite an impression.'
The bartender kept glancing under the counter a few feet to his left. 'Probably where he kept the phone, or a shotgun.' Xander reasoned. Digging into his pocket, he tried his best to ignore the bartenders flinch when he did so.
Xander took all but one note out of his wallet, "Here's some cash for the damages, should be enough to at least cover the two windows."
"Two windows?" The bartender repeated nervously.
Xander pointed over to where he'd entered the building. "That one... and there's another upstairs." The bartender took the money carefully and stood facing him, still not entirely sure what to do.
Xander leaned over the bar, the bartender stepping back instinctively. Xander pointed at one of the fridges, "And four of those small bottles of coke please." The bartender took them out and handed them over wordlessly. Xander was about to speak when they both turned at the sound of the audience gasping.
Roger was watching Xander the whole time, trying to ignore the nervous glances that came from the other pub-goers. 'He's paying for this shit..?' he thought incredulously. 'We're just saved some lives, I can't believe we have to pay for doing that.' He also turned when the gasps started.
Looking at where one woman was pointing, he saw the vampire starting to move. He quickly walked over to her, putting her behind him for safety. The vampire had raised one arm now, trying to move it to a place where it could be used to get to it's feet. The neck making sickly cracking noises whenever the shoulders moved too much. 'This is making me nauseous.' Roger thought, 'And I know it's not human.'
Turning quickly to attract Xander's attention he found he was no longer at the bar. 'Crap if he's gone the toilet we're all dead.' Roger figured, ushering the people away from the moving corpse. It was on one elbow now. He was wondering if he could shout to Faith when suddenly Xander appeared on the other side of him, casually taking a swig from the bottle of coke.
"Thank fuck." Roger said automatically.
Xander smiled, and pulled Roger away from the woman he'd been protecting. Handing Roger his crossbow, he waved a hand in the direction of the corpse. Roger gave him a look that asked if he was insane.
Sighing Xander walked over to the corpse and kicked it in the back; causing it to fall back over.
Roger walked up, behind Xander. Taking aim at the creature's back he pulled the trigger when it was pointing towards where he thought the heart was. The bolt went directly down, sticking into the demon's torso. Then it standing to crumble, until nothing but dust remained. Then the bolt fell over, the body having slowed it down so that it barely chipped the tiled floor. Xander smiled at him, and passed him one of the Coke bottles.
A shout from outside drew Xander's attention he went to the window to see Faith and Amy looking up.
Roger remained where he was, bending down to pick up the bolt, he paused letting his fingers run through the dust, as if to confirm it was real. "So that was a vampire, eh?" he mumbled aloud.
Hearing the people repeating his vampire comments, he quickly picked up the bolt, and made his way to the entrance, only giving a brief look back to confirm they hadn't left anything behind.
Outside, Faith and Amy were looking at the window above. The guy that had tried to speak to Faith, was standing at the window just muttering the same phrase over and over. "Holy Fuck. Holy Fuck. Holy Fuck."
Xander walked up to them, glancing upwards at the window. "Admirer of yours, Faith?"
"I think he might have been once." Faith responded, taking the bottle Xander was offering her. Amy took a long gulp of the one she'd been passed.
Xander smiled at Amy, then turned back to Faith. "You leave this impression on every one you meet?""It's a gift." She muttered, as Roger joined up with them drinking from his own bottle.
Xander took a last look around them, the broken windows on each floor of the pub, the trashed furniture, the people staring open mouthed muttering about vampires and other monsters, the pile of dust in the alley. "Guess our work here is done." He said loudly so that the crowd could hear.
"Poser." Faith hissed back.
"I'm not the one who dived through a first floor window to impress a guy." Xander teased.
"If little things like that are gonna shock him, then he's not worth my time. He couldn't have handled me anyway." She responded back.
"True."
"So any hotties impressed by your window-smashing entrance?" Faith asked.
Xander paused as if giving it some thought, "I didn't check. Roger seemed to be doing okay... until he forgot to finish the vampire off anyway."
"You did kill it right?"
"Course we did, what did you take us for, amateurs?" Xander smirked.
"No... you were the old timer group."
"Har har." Xander deadpanned.
Faith looked back regretful, "I liked that place too... was lively, could have gone there again... if we hadn't trashed it."
"The people seemed a bit jumpy to me."
"Really... a guy with an eyepatch gets into a fight and his friend dusts him... what did they have to be nervous about?" She asked sarcastically.
Amy and Roger followed them down the street. Hearts still racing, trying to ignore the bickering in front of them. Both thinking the same thing. 'At what stage of your life, does this become a normal night?'
End chapter 8c