A/N: *Please do not distribute or post this story anywhere without my permission.* Thanks to cookiesarefood for her betaing skills.

Omega Rising

I stare in disbelief. "Buffy?"

Chapter 7: Genesis

There is only one being alive now that knows how all this began. He is Meletian of the tribe of Poj'daiya. This species of demon is not aggressive. On the contrary, they are so reclusive that, by the time Dr. Maggie Walsh captures one, they haven't been sighted in North America in almost 300 years. There was a time when those like Meletian were plentiful. But only eleven of the Poj'daiya remain in Fall 2000, and this is a spot of fortune that went unnoticed by humankind for most of its reign. Unfortunately for humanity, Dr. Walsh is a determined woman. She's been given wide leeway by the military officials overseeing the Sunnydale Initiative base. For months, she has labored on project 314, searching for the final piece to complete her masterpiece.

It is pure chance that leads Graham to spot Meletian while on routine patrol. Aware of the boon that such a creature would be to her project, Dr. Walsh orders him to be captured. Once in the Initiative compound, Meletian is immediately taken to the surgery suite. The members of the Poj'daiya tribe possess four eyes each, and Maggie thinks they would be quite a nice addition to her project. She calls this project Adam because that was the soldier's name in life, before he was killed by a demon the Initiative failed to control. She tells herself that Project 314 is her way of honoring Adam. She will preserve his life, one way or another. And if he comes out a little more demonic than he would have liked, well that's all right. She's giving him advantages—like these additional eyes.

What happens next she could not have predicted. How could she have? No credible information on the Poj'daiya tribe exists to reference. She knows only what the Initiative scientists can tell her. They measure electro-magnetic current. Skin acidity. Body temperature. Response to painful stimuli. Ability to communicate. All of which lead her to believe the demon can be safely sedated and his eyes harvested. From behind the glass, she watches as the doctor makes his first cut. Excitement blooms in her stomach. This turns to dismay as blood sprays from the wound, its upward angle causing it to fly at the face of Dr. Linus. The medical team jumps back in alarm, and a nurse begins carefully toweling the blood from his bare skin. By then, of course, it is too late.

The smallest drop of blood clings to Dr. Linus's eyelashes, dangling for a few seconds before slipping along the corner of his eye. Linus blinks, and the blood spreads, coating the fragile ocular membrane. The pain is immediate. Screaming, the man falls to the floor. The horrified nurses rush toward him, dropping to their knees. They try to pull his hands from his face because they can see his fingers digging under the eye. Still hysterical, the doctor manages to pluck his eyeball from the socket. Maggie Walsh rushes from the observation gallery and into the room. "For God's sake, sedate him!"

Before anyone can react, the doctor shudders once and lies still on the floor.

"Paul?" Walsh cries shrilly, to no response. Turning furious eyes to the trembling medical staff, she demands, "What the hell just happened?"

The nurses shake their heads in stunned disbelief. On the floor at their feet, Dr. Linus twitches again, unnoticed by the crying staff and the infuriated Dr. Walsh.

Walsh turns to the older nurse. "Get Dr. Angleman. Now."

The nurse nods, running from the room.

Below them, Linus sits up, his remaining eye rolling up toward the two women. His right eye dangles limply against his chin. Unconcerned, the now deceased doctor grips it and tears it away from his face. The wet shredding sound of his extraocular muscles tearing from the gaping socket draws Maggie's attention. "Paul!" She exclaims, dropping to her knees beside him. "Oh my God."

Reaching for her, Dr. Linus tugs her closer. Unaware of the danger, Maggie goes willingly, her strong fingers holding his hands. "It's going to be okay, Paul."

The young nurse also stoops to their level, forcing herself to look at her supervisor's ruined face. "What can I do?" Her voice shakes.

"Get some gauze—" Dr. Walsh's last word becomes a shriek as Dr. Linus leans in close and sinks his teeth into her arm. Panicked, the nurse grips Dr. Walsh under her arms and yanks backward. Maggie's arm springs free, bleeding freely where the doctor has bitten a chunk from her forearm.

The zombie leaps after them, catching the nurse around the ankle and dragging her leg to his jaws before she can kick free. She cries out, kicking repeatedly against the impossibly strong hold he has on her. Beside her, Walsh, who had been intent on running from the room for help, finds her limbs losing coordination. Sobbing and screaming, she collapses to the cool tile. Her body falls into convulsions before she can put the pieces of the puzzle together. She never knows the hell she unleashed on earth, although it is difficult to say whether she would care if she did. What is certain is that she got exactly what she had hoped for with Project 314. Its legacy would linger on well after her death.

Hours later, Riley Finn makes his way across the campus. As he turns up the walk to Lowell House, he thinks he spots motion in his peripheral vision. He pauses, his eyes searching the tree line for any sign of disturbance. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, he continues on his way.

Just out of sight, Meletian collapses against a tree. He grasps the still seeping cut on his forehead with one giant, four-fingered hand. His muscles are still weak from the sedation, but he ran to avoid being seen by the human. Poj'daiya do not have the kind of compassion humans are capable of, and he feels no sadness for the extensive loss of human life he's witnessed during his escape. Still, he knows he has made a mistake, leaving the caves and his mate, Jiteewa. He'd been captured and would probably be dead, were it not for the unique toxin in his bloodstream. Pulling himself upright, Meletian starts for home on shaky legs. He does not look back.

Inside Lowell House, Riley enters the access code to take the elevator to the Initiative. As the elevator descends, the young soldier smiles to himself. He is planning to meet his girlfriend for lunch. Things are going quite well with Buffy, he thinks. Still smiling, Riley looks up as the ding of the elevator announces his destination. The doors open.

XXXXX

On the final day of her life, Willow Rosenberg walks quickly across campus, mentally preparing for her first test of the semester. She's got the options for the essay question narrowed down to four topics, all of which she's confident she understands. Buffy's performance on the exam seems less certain, given that she's still in their room, trying to cram 10 extra minutes of studying in before sprinting across campus for class. So engrossed is Willow in her concern for her best friend, that she doesn't notice right away that someone has stepped into her path. It's only when a palm drops onto her shoulder that she looks up. Recognizing the face from her dorm, Willow asks, "Jason?"

Jason doesn't look good. His eyes are bloodshot and the skin around his lips has started to take on a blue tinge.

Alarm blooms in her mind seconds too late, and the thing that used to be her classmate sinks his teeth deep into the side of her neck. Blood spurts from her throat and coats Jason's face. The scent of it excites him and he gnaws harder, shredding the muscles that allow her to support her head.

She never has a chance to scream. Her books tumble to the ground, a few loose papers escaping and becoming coated with thick red drops of blood. Willow takes a final terrified breath as her limp body falls to the ground. The zombie follows his meal, hunching over her corpse and pulling at her wound with his blood-stained hands.

XXXXX

Tara doesn't know where she's going. Nowhere out here is safe, and her dorm is crawling with them. She's racing across the quad, darting past former classmates and teachers. Everywhere people are screaming, clawing at each other, starting to run only to collapse yards later. She sees a clear direction and runs, unconcerned where she's going except to get away. One of them shambles into her path, and she can't stop fast enough to avoid plowing into him. They go tumbling over one another, and she hits the ground hard on her left shoulder. Squealing in pain, she doesn't have time to move before he is on her. She struggles, trying to keep his mouth away from her skin, but it's a losing battle. Her arms are weakening, and he sinks closer and closer, his coppery breath making her nauseous.

Just when she can no longer hold him at bay, a firm foot strikes him in the temple, and he is propelled several feet away with the force of it. Buffy yanks her roughly to her feet and dusts her off. "Did he bite you?"

Dazed, Tara submits to Buffy's searching hands without response.

"Tara," Buffy's voice is commanding and she tries to focus, "did he bite you?"

"N-no," she manages to say before the slayer is pulling her along the campus, plowing down every screaming student and clutching zombie in her path.

They reach Buffy's dorm room, and she finds herself shoved inside. "Stay here!"

Tara nods quickly, and Buffy's eyes bore into hers. "I mean it. Don't leave. Don't open the door unless you hear my voice. And be as quiet as you can."

"I w-will."

"Tara," Buffy promises as she goes to the door, "I'll be back for you."

Then she's gone, and Tara flips the lock. Struggling, she drags the dresser over to block the door. Alone in the room, she crawls into Willow's bed and covers her ears with her hands. The sounds of screaming cannot be drowned out.

XXXXX

Crouched in his car, Giles surveys the path he would have to take to his front door. His neighbors, Ben and Clara, are crouched near his doorway. The two have managed to capture a cat and are fighting over its intestines, yanking fistfuls of gore to their mouths. To reach safety, he'd have to navigate past the two of them, get his key into the lock and get in, slamming the door behind him before any bites could occur. The other option is to steal through the courtyard, to his bedroom window, which faces the opposite side of the apartment. Of course, he doesn't know what may be in the courtyard. It could be teeming with the dead. After watching his former neighbors for another few moments, Giles steels himself. He's going to chance the bedroom window.

As quietly as possible, he opens his door and lowers himself into a crouch on the curb. Ben and Clara are still preoccupied. Giles remains hunched as he darts to the side courtyard, hoping for the best. He finds the little boy who used to live next door to him, who is recently deceased. The child looks up at him for a moment, and it almost looks alive, save for the strange tinge to its skin. Backing away, Giles decides he'll have to try for the front door. He has no weapons, but at least the other two won't be focused on him. He rounds the corner, his little neighbor stumbling after him, to find that Clara has picked up his scent. She's standing between him and his apartment, salivating heavily with bits of cat stuck to her jaw.

Before either of them can reach him, the door is yanked open. Spike barrels out, gleefully smashing Giles's antique letter opener into the back of Clara's skull. The zombie crumbles, and Giles wastes no time leaping over her and dashing inside.

"Sorry, little bit," Spike calls to the dead child shambling ever closer, "better luck next time!"

With that, he slams the front door in its face. He throws off the blanket he's wearing with a flourish.

Xander has thrown his arms around Giles's torso, hugging him for all he's worth. The watcher pats him gently on the back before he addresses the vampire who saved his life. "Thank you, Spike. That was well timed."

Dropping the bloody letter opener on the watcher's desk, Spike takes a seat in Giles's favorite chair. "I can't very well let you be eaten, Rupert. You're the bloody brains of this operation. Someone's got to figure out how to fix this thing."

Listening to the fingers of his dead neighbors scrape desperately at his front door, Giles thinks the situation might be beyond fixing.

XXXXX

It's dark by the time Buffy slips silently through the halls of her dorm. Her weapons bag is slung across her back, and she carries a short ax in her right hand. She quickly dispatches three of the dead who block her path to her room. At the door, she taps as lightly as she can and whispers, "Tara, it's me. Open up."

"Buffy?" Tara's timid voice is barely audible.

"Yeah, come on, we gotta motor."

There's a scuffle as Tara drags something heavy away from the door, and then she opens it and peers out. She already knows the answer to her question, but she has to ask anyway. "Did you… did you find Willow?"

Buffy's face falls, but she holds herself together. "I'm so sorry, Tara."

In her heart, she'd already believed her girlfriend was dead. But the confirmation hurts. Tears spring to her eyes, and she backs in to the dark bedroom.

Buffy follows, visually sweeping the hall before stepping in. "We really have to get out of here."

"I know." Tara snatches up her backpack and yanks it open. Rushing to the dresser that belonged to Willow, she reaches in the top drawer and shoves several bags of magic supplies into her bag. She opens the second and takes out a worn sweater that Willow loved to sleep in. That joins the herbs and candles. "Let's go," she says shakily.

Buffy nods and pokes her head from the room. Tara follows, stopping only to grab the framed photo of her and Willow from the desk closest to the door.

In the hall, Buffy hands her a crowbar. Tara looks at her fearfully. "The campus is crawling," Buffy whispers as they creep down the hall, "if something comes at you, just swing as hard as you can for the head. It's gotta be the head, okay?"

Tara nods, sticking close to the slayer's back. At the top of the stairs, Buffy knocks a zombie down the first flight and leaps after it. Landing gracefully, she plunges her ax through its forehead and retracts. Scurrying after her, Tara tries to stay out of the way as Buffy grapples with five more. One momentarily gets past her, and Tara swings the crowbar with all her might, connecting solidly with the dead coed's face. The zombie goes to its knees, its clawed fingers still trying to reach for her legs even as it falls. Swinging again, she connects, and the zombie goes down. This time is stays down.

"Nice," Buffy compliments, already leading the way toward the exit. They step into the darkness of the quad, and the door clicks softly behind them. Zombies are scattered everywhere, moaning pitifully as they sniff for fresh food sources. "Uh oh," Buffy mutters.

XXXXX

Buffy's ax soars through the air and imbeds itself in the face of the newly deceased Ben. His body falls next to the little neighbor boy and his dead wife. Xander has been watching through the privacy screen in Giles's door, and now he yanks it open for the two women to run through. Inside, they close the door and replace the three boards they've used to strengthen it.

"Buffy!" Giles draws her into his arms, and Xander quickly joins them. They huddle together for several long moments.

Spike draws up next to Tara. "Red?"

She just shakes her head dumbly. Xander breaks away from the group, sobbing now.

Blinking back tears, Giles looks down into his slayer's sorrowful face. "Were you able to get back to your house?"

Buffy manages to nod. "She… she wasn't there."

"It's alright," Giles says, holding her close again. "We'll find her."

XXXXX

As the sun sets on the third day after the outbreak, only twenty-seven humans remain alive in Sunnydale. They survive in pockets, emptying their pantries and stockpiling their weapons. Buffy Summers stands before one such pocket, an ax casually leaning on her shoulder. Almost everyone she knows is now dead, including her best friend and possibly her mother. Twelve people and a vampire are assembled in Meyer Sports and Tackle, all of them looking up at her with varying degrees of fear on their faces. Buffy's gaze falls on each of them for a moment before she takes a deep breath and says, "Everything's going to be okay."

XXXXX

Next up, what you've all been waiting for! B and F actually interact. :D

Thanks for reading, please let me know what you thought. :)