We all just stood there and stared for a moment. "This... this wasn't just some random snatch," Faith said slowly. "Stinks of a planned abduction by the bad guys. As, well, as undoubtedly kick-ass as each of the four of us are in a regular scrap-out, none of us exactly have the kind of extra-super powers that would come in handy chasing after a dragon with just about no time left."
"I agree," I said slowly. "And that's probably why neither Willow nor Illyria were able to break free right away. Maybe they were targeted with some kind of extra magic, and the dragon was just sent to make sure that we wouldn't be able to help either of them right away." I growled deep in my throat. "They took Illyria because they suspected she was important to whatever we were going to the hotel for, and Willow to keep her from using magic to save her quickly. Or something like that."
"Or maybe they thought Willow was the key one; it doesn't really matter," Buffy pointed out. "The thing is, now we need to figure out a... hey!" Fred had just appeared with us.
"Oh, hi, glad I found you. It's still not easy to track anybody this close to the dimensional instability," she said in greeting. "Ummm..."
"Did you see what happened?" I asked immediately.
"Not exactly, but close enough," she said. "Cordy is doing her best to follow the dragon - I was with her for a bit there. Willow is unconscious and looks hurt, but not critical. Illyria is encased in some sort of stasis bubble. Cordelia's gonna find out what it does with them and report back. Wesley's popped back to the wizard's school to confer with Virginia... we thought you might need a bit of extra help with this one... no offence."
"None taken, luv," Spike muttered. "So, we just wait here and see what they have to say?"
"Maybe fall back a bit," Buffy suggested, pointing the demons still guarding the Hyperion gate, who seemed to be noticing something in our direction.
"Yeah, they'll be able to orient on me..." Fred mentioned, "just don't move quickly, because I can't 'scroll' very fast right here. Oh, hey Doyle, what's the word?"
"Things getting more dire," Doyle reported unhappily. "The horde is causing more and more damage, all across the city. Death count's gotta be, well, there's no way to be sure exactly." He shook his head, frowning. "I know you don't like to hear this, boss, but..."
"No, it's okay." I assured him. "Doesn't help to sugarcoat the ugly truth... Oh, dammit! Like we didn't have enough bad news!"
Several of the others were surprised at this exclamation from me, until they realized that Lilah had just appeared a few feet away. "What the hell do you want?"
Lilah smirked her usual 'in charge and loving it' smile. "Just wanted to let you know that my offer is still on the table, for about five more minutes. You agree to help us find the sword of Bosh Ma-ahd, and all of this goes away. We'll let your friends go and everything. It's a good offer, Angel cakes." She grinned and laughed softly after delivering the faux endearment.
I gritted my teeth. "I think I should probably 'let you know' that right this second would be a good time to blip out... and stay well away from us!"
She laughed out loud. "Or what? You can't hurt a dead woman, Angel, I mean literally in this case. It's fun hanging close to you, and this way I get to eavesdrop on whatever you're planning. Got a way to stop me?"
"Um, I think I do," a new voice announced. Cordelia strode towards Lilah, her right hand held out in front of her, and glowing with a fierce white radiance, like she had glowed several years ago when she was still alive. Lilah flinched at the light and tried to back away, but she couldn't move as quickly as Cordelia could advance on her, and just before my girl, (metaphorical possessive there,) was close enough to touch her Lilah blinked out.
"Um, thanks," Spike pointed out. "Not sure you needed to go to such extremes just to take brow-boy here at his word..."
"No, Angel was right," Cordelia said, the glow fading almost instantly. "We need to be able to plan without getting overheard. Okay, the dragon seems to have a lair not too far from here, and it's dropped Willow and Illyria there. In what used to be the upper floors of a ruined apartment tower. The bad news is, superstructure has collapsed enough that the stairways are completely blocked and of course the elevator is ruined. You could try climbing up what's left of the outside of the building..."
"But then we'd be exposed, and at a disadvantage if Draco boy tries to attack us from the air."
"Yeah," Cordelia nodded somberly. "I'm hoping that Wesley's idea is paying off, because things look more than a little dire otherwise... ohh, speak of the Rogue demon Hunter..." Exactly how she knew that he was coming several seconds before Wesley popped in I'm not sure, but, well, pop in he did. "What's the word?"
"I think I have an option," he said gruffly. "It's a good thing that Virginia had the items available, and that she was willing to put them to use on our behalf."
"What items?" Spike demanded suspiciously. "I told you, Percy, I'm not wearing no enchanted gizmos; no necklaces or bracelets or any of that..."
"Oh, do shut up Spike," Wesley snapped. "It was funny before, but that chorus is now quite past the point. If bearing a magical talisman is the only way to survive and complete the mission, then you will put it on. Come on, we need to get to the portal quickly."
"Portal?" Buffy asked, as Wesley led the way, not by walking or drifting slowly, but jumping with a pop about forty feet away and waving for those of us on foot to catch up.
"It would take a bit to explain that," I muttered lamely, as we sprinted off, mostly away from the hotel, but that was probably for the best at the moment. It wasn't long before we arrived at another blank wooden portal, this one mystically dead in a way that I could somehow tell.
"Count off the four corners, and then mark these runes upon it," Wesley told me, making the magical letters appear glowing in midair near his hand. I recognized the first step from the more detailed instructions that Virginia had given me earlier, but wasn't quite sure about the glyphs until after I had finished writing them with a scrap of chalk onto the door... then I guessed that they might be part of an incantation to activate the portal for receiving, instead of sending us somewhere else.
Sure enough, after only seconds, a small pile of long thin objects appeared with a soft bang, and the glyphs disappeared from the doorframe slowly after. Some of the deliveries were fairly typical looking weapons, but... I picked one of the other items up... it looked like a long thin strip of leather, embellished with ward carvings, tiny jewel studs, and gold plating. "Umm, what the heck do we..." I turned and stared at Wesley. "You've gotta be kidding me."
"Not really," he said, shaking his head. "Belts of Ammana-lohr. I realize that you may feel slightly foolish putting them on, but they will endow each of the four of you with flight, the ability to shoot power bolts, and other abilities that will serve you quite in good stead against the fire-wyrm. The weaponry is all enchanted, blessed, or composed of mystical metal... the better for attacking a dragon with."
"Umm," Fred cleared her throat softly while the four of us started looking at the belts, and the enchanted weapons. "I've heard of these belts before, Wesley, and they're a channel for metaphysical power, not a source or battery for it. We don't have any reservoir for them to draw on; it would require..." she trailed off. "Ohh, are you thinking of..."
"Yes, I was just getting to that point," Wesley mumbled a little sheepishly. "As bona fide spirits from the great beyond, each of the four of us intrinsically represent mystical forces, and our resonance with the ether can be used to sustain the, um, the artifacts. We will, however, need to temporarily bond, each of us four ghosts with one of you, for the time that you're using the belts. It might be an unusual experience, er, for all of us, but there seems to be little other ch-" Now incredibly embarrassed, Wesley changed the subject by seizing on a triviality. "And the four Lohr belts are not interchangeable; this one, for instance," he indicated the belt that Spike was holding, "is Calyx, embodying the iconic force of water, and would better be worn by one of the, um, the Slayers. Probably Buffy."
I decided to try cutting through the confusion. "Maybe you should direct us all on who should wear which belt... and you're doing this, Spike - no argument." Turned back to Wesley. "Each of us have to pick one of you ghosts to team up with?" He nodded. "Um, Doyle, how about it man?" I knew that Doyle would be very uncomfortable 'joining' with any of the others... he didn't know Buffy or Faith at all really, and the one time he'd met Spike while alive Spike had tried to kill him... not that that put Doyle into a very exclusive group or anything...
"Be happy to," Doyle said.
"Actually, I'm over my objection," Spike muttered softly, at almost the same time. "Always kinda wanted to be able to fly on my own, or nearly... This one?" Wesley nodded at him. "Alright." Spike buckled one of the belts around his waist.
"Umm... how about you and me, Cordy?" Buffy said a little tentatively, and I knew it was a little like falling on a grenade for her. She and Cordelia had never gotten along really well, but she had to know that Faith disliked Cordelia and Cordelia disliked Spike. Cordy nodded, a little uncertain herself.
"So what, I'm stuck with tutor girl?" Faith asked, although I saw a bit of a glint in her eye... she and Fred had gotten along pretty well when Faith had been working to stop the Beast and my evil other half.
"The hell you are," Spike put in, and I laughed... Fred had always been his favorite. "It doesn't have to be boys with boys and girls with girls, does it?"
"Um, no I don't think so," Wesley said, a little surprised by the notion. "Might be slightly odd for us, since we'll be aware of your bodies in the same way you are. Don't think it'll work the same way, since we ghosts don't exactly have bodies anymore." He shrugged and looked at Faith. "One more joint venture?"
"Yeah, might as well," Faith said, shaking her head. "You kinda owe me one, after all."
The four of us had all put the belts on by this point. "Okay, now how does it work?" I asked nervously.
"Kind of like this," Doyle said, and all of a sudden I was aware of several things, of Doyle's irish laugh in the back of my mind, and the belt around my waist pulsing with metaphysical power. It only took the briefest effort to think of it - and I shot up into the sky, hovering about twelve feet above the others.
"Come on, we don't have any time to lose!" I called. The rest of the ghosts blinked out (or was that blinked in?) one at a time, and soon the belt squad was airborne. They had all re-armed themselves from Wesey's gear as well, Buffy carrying a long spear, Spike a heavy war axe, and Faith had a two-handed broadsword scabbarded on her back, along with possibly smaller items that any of them might have hidden. I hadn't taken any new weaponry myself... the mithril sword would do just fine for dragon fighting, and I was quite used to it by now.
"I'll lead the way," Buffy called, suiting flight to word, except that her words sounded halfway more like Cordelia's than Buffy's own.
As we flew along, there was a crack that sounded like lightning, and a soft rumble as part of an already levelled building collapsed into further rubble. I looked around, confused, and saw Faith looking with annoyance at Spike. "What?" he replied with the usual insouciance. "Had to try out this power bolt thing beforehand to see how it worked. What's the other power or powers we get, Percy?"
Faith shook her head in a gesture of annoyance that did seem very characteristic of Wesley, though it was harder to recognize with her. "Only one extra ability, and it's different for each of you, er us, based on the belts. Buffy has curative talent, which means that she should go and make sure that Willow is all right as soon as an opportunity presents itself. Angel, as the bearer of the earth Lohr, has the bond breaker at his disposal, which hopefully will be able to free Illyria from confinement, as well as possibly get the rest of us out of any tight spots we might blunder into during melee with the dragon."
"And?"
"We have the fire Lohr, providing a flame shield which should be a quite useful defense against a dragon's most notorious attack mode."
There was a pause there, during which Spike seemed to be trying to work it out for himself. "Okay, Water, earth, fire... wind! Okay, I've got wind Lohr right? What does that give me, then?"
Faith cleared her voice. "Umm, neither Virginia nor 'my' research was able to determine the specific ability for the wind Lohr. But I imagine that the two of you will be able to figure it out in short order. Just be careful not to hurt any of the rest of us while you're experimenting!"
Spike considered that. "Will do. Oh, and Faith, don't get too attached to ol' Wes. Illyria still needs his help, remember." He smirked a little as if that was a witty comeback.
Buffy turned back to roll her eyes at both of them, slowly coasting to a stop. "Okay, you guys. Once we round this corner, we'll be in sight of the dragon's lair, and probably the dragon. Anybody got a suggestion as far as strategy goes?"
"Well, starting with the simplest possible," Spike said slowly, "how about a direct assault? Keep at it, with any form of attack that seems to be hurting it, including our hand weapons and energy bolts, until someone can score a killing blow?"
"That sounds a little risky, even with our power-ups," I decided. "Wouldn't hurt to have Illyria's raw strength on our side... and she can probably jump far enough to stay in combat even with a flying dragon. I think I should try to get past the dragon, into the lair, as soon as possible, and use this 'bond breaker' to set Illyria free."
"Okay," Faith nodded. "Spike and I will cover you as best we can. Buffy, what about you?"
Buffy paused a moment, then let a fierce grin come onto her face as she hovered. "Yeah, if you're going in Angel, then I'll back you up. Make sure that Willow's okay, though I don't think I want her helping us out with this unless we have no other choice - she has to conserve her power."
"Alright," Spike said, and we arranged ourselves silently into a new formation... Faith in the lead, and Spike flanking her closely on the left. I flew a little further behind Faith, and to the right, and Buffy brought up the rear. We passed around the edge of the building and saw the ruined apartment tower that Cordelia had mentioned, and the large dragon, flying near the top of it, apparently waiting for us. Though I'm not sure it was quite expecting us to be flying... if a dragon can show an expression of surprise, then this one very nearly did a double take.
"Let's try a simultaneous blast," Spike suggested, and after a moment of non-verbal consensus, I lifted up my hand and focused the energy from the belt. Four streaks of slightly different colored energy rocketed into the head and neck of the huge reptile... and though the thing snarled in frustration, it didn't seem to be too badly hurt. I had been afraid of that. Dragons are really tough, resistant to most forms of attack. These 'energy bolts'... they might be useful in finishing the fight, but to get that far we'd need to soften it up a lot with other forms of attack.
"Okay, let me try this," I said, and drifted toward the dragon, then broke into a headlong dive, blade first, There was what looked like a small weak point in the scales, a mere crack, in one of the beast's foreclaws, where the roots of two talons met. I slashed at it, and the silvery blade dug in deep. "Alright, now careful..." Twist the blade, slash sideways and out... and the sword came free, pulling a chunk of dragon scale as big as a shield out by its roots. The dragon howled in pain, and I flew back as quickly as I could... it bashed at me with the wounded claw, and hit me, but the impact was light because it didn't have any leverage and I was already moving back away from the attack, rolling with the punch - or maybe flying with the bash. The dragon seemed to think about that, and tried to grab me between both claws, but I was long gone. Still, the fact that it learned so quickly was disquieting - we wouldn't be able to fool it with that factic again.
And then the dragon screamed again, much louder. I spun full around to see what was happening, and saw Spike hovering beneath the dragon's underbelly, dodging a spray of hot steaming blood and looking for another place to strike. While I had been distracting the best with a relatively small strike, Billy Idol had been going for the high stakes. It figured... and probably he had the right idea. The dragon was trying to dive down on Spike and bite him or catch him between its forelegs, but Faith made a big show of trying to get into attack position at the side of the wyrm, just behind the 'shoulder' where its foreleg connected up - another notorious weak spot - and with that distraction, Spike was able to zip off and Faith backed away too. Dragon now seemed to be quite incredibly pissed off and wore an expression like 'Just what the unholy hell do you flying knights think you're accomplishing?"
I shared a mischievous glance with the others, and we started to move as if by unspoken agreement. The sensation was quietly exhilarating... I had fought co-operatively with each of these people one at a time, (as well as fighting against each of them at one time or another,) but never with even two of them together as a team before this mission, and certainly never while airborne. Did the fact that we were all wearing the Lohr belts help with the teamwork factor... or was it the fact that we were all possessed by ghosts at the moment? In any event, Buffy and I drifted towards the mouth of the dragon's lair, close enough to back each other up but not to be attacked together, neither taking our attention off of the dragon itself. Faith and Spike flew in the other direction, ready to attack at the dragon's tender spots if it should focus on either of us.
Suddenly the dragon launched itself into action, coming straight for me, smoke curling from the tips of its nose and mouth. Doyle's presence in the back of my mind whispered calm, and I felt myself rise ever so slowly into the air. The dragon snarled viciously, stretching out a claw, apparently so that it could swipe at Buffy en passant, and two seconds after what I would have thought was the last possible moment of evasive action, Doyle switched off the flight spell. I dropped through the sky kinda like a big panicky stone, but the tactic definitely got me out of the path of the flames the dragon snorted, and beyond range of any bite attack. After falling about forty feet, Doyle let me turn the flying engine back on, and several seconds later we stabilized far below the action.
I had a pretty good view from down there actually, as the dragon, surprised by my sudden plummet, tried to slash at Buffy, catching her on the arm a bit but getting a good poke in the claw for its trouble. Spike got lashed by its tail as he tried to sneak up behind the beast, but it didn't seem terribly bad, and Faith got a good slash in at one of the rear legs.
Thanks, man, I said to Doyle internally. Nice tactic.
Happy to help any way I can, he assured me. Mystical vibes, dragon evasion tactics - I've got it all.
I laughed at that. It's weird to think of you being inside me like this. What's it like for you?
A little bit as if I were alive again... and the hero of the story. Which means we'd better get back to the good fight huh?
Buffy met me on my way back up, and we surveyed the situation. The dragon had passed the lair entrance on that strafing run, but it was turning around for another try. "Whatcha think?" she asked softly.
"Not bad, but not too good," I decided. "Nobody tries to sneak up on it from behind without figuring out a way to avoid that tail."
"Yeah," Buffy agreed, turning around in midair to survey the dragon in mid-motion. "Helluva wicked range of motion it's got with that thing." I nodded soberly.
"Okay," Spike muttered as he flew up to meet us, shaking out his slightly battered limbs. "I've been thinking about this." For the first time, I could hear Fred's speech pattern coming from him. "I know you want to go and make sure that Willow is okay as soon as possible, Buffy, but I'm not sure that's a good idea right now. There's a whole lot of difference between the two of us working together to fend off the dragon and keep it from going back into its lair, and three of us. And there's plenty of reason for Angel to be the first one to go in... Illyria's help here could mean a world of difference, much as I hate to admit it." That last sentence sounded like Spike speaking for himself, not Fred.
"Yeah, I see your point," Buffy agreed reluctantly. "Wills should be okay for a little while longer, but if I leave you two out here with the dragon alone, one of you might get hurt."
"And that's another point," Faith put in. "If we do get tagged and you're here, you can use the healing mojo on us, or on yourself, right? As long as Cordy isn't about to run out of metaphysical juice."
"I'm not sure I want to try going in myself just yet anyway," I mentioned. "Let's see if we can do some damage with all four of us working together."
"Okay," Spike said, nodding. "Well, it's finished turning around. Any ideas for a good tactic?"
I thought furiously. "It's not used to this any more than we are... it may have fought people on the ground, but never flying through the air."
"Hmm... maybe other dragons," Faith put in.
"Still not really the same thing. Uhh... Faith, are you okay with being the decoy out front? You've got the heat shield, but it's still dangerous... it'll probably try to bite you or catch you in its claws when it realizes that toasting you doesn't work."
"Let it try," Faith insisted, hefting her sword meaningfully.
"Okay... Spike, you go from below again, Buffy from above, and I'll try to approach by the side. And... and I guess we'll see what it does!"
We split up into formation. And quickly it became clear why sometimes time spent coming up with intricate plans is wasted - the dragon simply refused to orient on Faith. For some reason, it was determined to make a strafing run on Buffy. She tried to fall back just a little and let Faith attract its attention without moving too far out of position, but it seemed to me that that just wasn't going to work. "Just go float behind Faith," I called to her. "You'll see enough action soon." With more than a little ill grace, Buffy zipped along to do that. The dragon just kept on going for her, hardly seeming to notice that someone else was in the way now.
It blasted out a big snort of blazing fire right on cue though... not sure if it was trying to roast Faith in passing, or aiming at Buffy behind her or what... but the fire and heat splashed away from Faith, and even the flames that were well to the side didn't pass her... that fire shield on her belt was big and tight, which was good to know. And the dragon was so surprised to see its fire bouncing that it didn't so much as flinch away as I came swooping in and slashed viciously at the thin scaled behind its front leg. It flinched good and hard afterward though.
I never saw the dragon's arm snap back and pin me, for a long moment, against the rough, scaly skin, further back from where I'd made my incision. When I came back to my senses, I was once again falling through the air, and had to concentrate hard to stabilize before slamming hard into a streetlamp. This is getting to be a bad habit, man, Doyle deadpanned inside my head.
On my way back, I suddenly realized that I had an opening to slink into the lair and try to use the bond breaker on Illyria. The dragon was still chasing Buffy, with Faith and Spike doing their best to harry and wound it as much as possible without being hurt badly themselves. And all of them were well away from the lair entrance.
As I made my way quietly towards the ruined building, I kept a close eye on the action, and blinked in surprise when I saw a tornado funnel materialize about the dragon's tail, pulling it from side to side and off its course. And then came Spike's voice yelling "Wind Lohr kicks ass! Whooo - tornado power!" And then the dragon's claw clenched around his legs, and Faith had to dash over and help him hack his way free.
Once into the mouth of the lair entrance, things quickly got dark and very strange looking... rooms and corridors of the apartment building had been smashed together and opened up at odd angles. Suddenly, as I rounded a twisting passageway, there was a soft blue light, outlining a largish cavern. The source of the light was a glowing ellipsoid bubble, about six feet long and a little over two feet in cross section, which had to be the stasis container that Cordelia had mentioned. The thing that I had to free Illyria from.
First, I looked for Willow, and found her crumpled into a heap nearby. She was badly hurt yes, but stable, and I breathed a sigh of relief at that. I wasn't about to move her yet, but Buffy would need a light source when she came in after her. That was something that none of us had thought of.
I turned back to the light, focusing on the confining bubble, and frowned. Okay Doyle, any idea how to do this bond breaker thing?
Not really, his voice replied. Should be as simple as concentrating, like the flying and the power blast.
I thought about that for a second, and then pointed at the bubble, visualizing the magic substance evaporating away and disappearing. Nothing. Well, maybe that wasn't quite the right concentration pattern... it was supposed to be a breaker, right? I tried again with a slightly more impressive imaginary fate for the stasis field, rupturing into many tiny pieces that flew a short way before fading out. Leaving the lair in deep darkness.
For a few seconds I just stood there, feeling stupid. I hadn't realized that the twisting passageway of the dragon's entrance absorbed quite so much of the light here. My eyes are very good, like those of most vampires, but really intense darkness can still blind us, and this qualified; or at least I was about as good as blind. There were a few patches of not-quite-as-black around, but I wasn't even sure what they meant.
"Angel? Angel, what is your condition? Where am I? What has happened to the others?" It was Illyria's voice, and that meant she could see well enough to recognize me, or distinguish my breathing or smell or something. Well, Illyria could do just about anything, so it kinda figured that..."
"You and Willow were attacked by hostile magic and carried off by the dragon," I told her. "Spike, Buffy and Faith are fighting the dragon now. I'm fine, just a little disoriented... your stasis bubble was the only light source in here and now it's gone. Can you see at all?"
"Yes, I am generating my own light source... iit must be a variety that your eyes do not detect." There was a short pause. "Is that any better?" An eerie violet radiance appeared for a second, outlining a feminine, muscular, armored figure, and then there was a bluish pop and it faded out. "I don't believe I can generate a light source for you. Extend your left arm and I shall lead you out."
I thought about that. The tunnel floor had been rough and would be hard going, if I tried to walk it blind except for Illyria's help - and we both needed to get out as soon as possible. "No, I think I have a better way." I floated up several feet in the air. "I have a good sense of spatial mapping, so if you just tell me which direction I need to fly in, I think we can make better time this way."
A pause. "Very well. Rotate two point three radians to the right, and bear up point four radians."
"Um, okay, but for future reference degrees would be better. And yards, if you have to give any distance measurements please."
She was able to give me directions without me crashing into any walls, and after we'd navigated a few twists my own night vision was back in service and I was able to tell her I didn't need the instructions any more.
We got back to the lair entrance at about the same time and looked out, trying to figure out as much as we could about the state of the fight. Apparently, somehow the dragon had been distracted from Buffy, because now it was Spike who was zipping along ahead of it. (There would be someone who had to lead the dragon in most of the possible battle formations we could come up with, I supposed, because the dragon's own instinct was to chase and destroy a single opponent with a head-on assault, and none of us were really strong enough to withstand such an attack.) He seemed pretty burned and battered... probably Buffy couldn't get to him and heal him without both of them getting flamed. Faith was trying to cut some tears in one of its wings, while Buffy was floating above it and trying to stab her spear into its back... probably aiming for a weak spot in the scales where the tail emerged.
"Try to lead it past here," Illyria called out to Spike. "If I try to jump such a great distance, the Wyrm may evade past my ability to correct in mid-trajectory."
Spike shot a look over his shoulder at both of us, hesitated a moment, and nodded. After describing a wide arc in mid-air, he came out of it at top airspeed and on a course that would take him right past us, the dragon right behind him. I stood silent, not wanting to do anything that might upset Illyria's plan, and watched as she leapt across the empty space and landed astride the dragon's neck, just behind the head.
I took to the air then, wanting to be nearby to provide support to Illyria's effort if I could, and called to Buffy, "I think the dragon has become the hunted, not the hunter. See if you get an opening to heal Spike, and then go get Willow."
Buffy blinked in surprise, and then nodded, seeing the value in the suggestions. "What's the lair like?"
I could have kicked myself, forgetting to mention it first thing. "Dark! You'll need a light source - I needed Illyria to help lead me out."
Buffy considered this for a moment, or maybe it was Cordelia. "Switch weapons?" She hefted the spear sideways, looking at my sword.
"Um, why?"
With a grin, she drifted close, snatching the sword away by its hilt and tossing me the spear in exchange. With a moment's effort, the blade started to shine with silver radiance. "Mithril always has luminous potential. I have enough leftover glow-power to trigger it, even while fueling the water Lohr."
Cordy - it figured. "Okay, good luck!"
"Hey!" Buffy called my attention to the action just in time to see the most important moments. Illyria had been riding the dragon's neck just behind its head, waiting for the beast to get tired of trying to buck and toss her away, and now she brought her hands up, fingers linked into a double fist, and brought them crashing down on the back of the dragon's head.
It had to be a horrible blow... the one that the rest of us hadn't been able to drive home with all of our magic weapons and energy bolts and special powers. The dragon screamed, in pure agony, and spasmed in mid-flight, desperate now to shake Illyria loose. As far as I could see, the demon didn't care - she had done what she came to do, and casually hopped off, to land on a rooftop more than forty feet below like she was jumping off of a bus. Feeling the need to do something to justify my presence, I shot off an energy bolt with as much power as I could muster, aiming for the place where the dragon's skull was probably already cracked. The additional howl of pain was pretty satisfying.
Faith flew down to join me, as Buffy tended to Spike's injuries. "I think it's mortal, now," she said hoarsely. It took me a second to realize that she was talking about the dragon's injuries: mortally wounded. "But if it lands in a frenzy like that, could do a lot more damage before it finally croaks."
"Hmmm." I had to think about that. "Yeah, you're probably right."
"Someone needs to go and put it out of it's misery," Spike said, taking a deep breath. "Angel?"
"You offering?" I looked over, and he shook his head at me. Past him, I could see Buffy heading for the lair entrance, my sword tucked into her waistband.
"It's your job, el Capitano. You called it, back when we first saw the dragon down in the alley. Well, now you've got your chance."
I looked at Faith, but she shrugged slightly. "He's right... well, not about the stuff in the alley maybe, because I wasn't there for that and don't know," she said. "But I think this is something you have to do."
I looked down at the dragon, flying lower, thinking about perching on a building well away from Illyria. Now that the tide of battle had apparently turned, my enthusiasm about killing a dragon had turned into reluctance. As evil and deadly as the creature might be, it was rare and beautiful, and dragons were pretty much an endangered species throughout the cosmos. How could I destroy one? And why did it have to be me?
But there wasn't really time to argue. "Alright," I muttered, hefting Buffy's spear. Now it looked like a good thing for me that she had suggested this switch... her weapon was more suitable for delivering a death blow than the sword would have been.
I flew down through the gray sky, orienting on the dragon, which heard me coming and turned around to face me, determined to at least go out fighting as hard as it could. I respected that. On the other hand, things would be easier if I could capitalize on the fracture that Illyria had already dealt it, which meant that I had to come at the thing's head the other way. A short series of energy bolts stunned it long enough for me to land standing up at the very far edge of the neck - for about a fifth of a second. It really didn't like me standing there, which I could understand considering that Illyria had been in pretty much the same position when she struck.
I almost fell off... I think I had to use a little 'flight' power to keep my balance actually, and even so ended up sprawled with my arms and legs and chest landing on the rough scales, and getting scratched painfully here and there. Lost my grip on the spear, and it really should have fallen down, but it kinda bounced and I was just able to grab it with one hand.
The dragon tried a few more unpredictable maneuvers in the hope of jostling me loose, then apparently ran out of pep for such energetic tactics. I got laboriously up to my knees and one hand, then crawled a little further up as careful as I could, wincing at the fresh cuts that the hard scales were opening. Readied the spear... and felt, very oddly, that I had to say something. "Sorry, bud... not sure if you knew that you were working for the bad guys... maybe you liked it. But I gotta do this." And I plunged the shaft of the spear against the wound on the back of the dragon's head.
It went in, a long way, and I pulled it out a little bit, shifted it to the side and pushed in again. From the dragon's throat came a strangled kind of gasp, and then its body stiffened and stopped moving. That was it.
I wrenched the spear back out, or most of it. A remarkably large chunk of the point had broken off and presumably was still embedded within the dragon's brain - no time to get it back out now, and it'd be an incredibly messy task anyway. I took the shaft anyway, not sure why, and leapt for the open air, meeting up with the rest of the gang as they got organized, more or less. Illyria was standing on a rooftop nearby, and Spike was just taking off with Willow riding piggy-back style on his shoulders... he probably wouldn't be able to go at top speed like that, but it seemed like a better way than any other to get her back to the hotel, as long as our dear departed friends could keep the Lohr belts working.
"We've lost time," Willow mentioned, a worried tone in her voice, and not just because she was perched on top of a flying vampire. "If Wolfram and Hart arranged this diversion, they've probably also been scrambling to get every possible demon and vampire back to the Hyperion, ready to stop us if they can.
"I'm not sure, I don't hear much of an increase in the background noise," Illyria put in, running underneath us. "There is something planned, but I'm not sure how much of the horde it involves."
"Which means it might be something even worse," Faith muttered. "Damn, I didn't quite think that was possible."
"Well, we've come this far," I said. "And I assume that you girls are determined to stay in this no matter what? Spike and I knew that our lives were probably forfeit when we declared war on the circle, but the three of you - you have the other Slayers to think about, and the new Watchers network to build. Maybe you should just..."
"No," Buffy said, quietly but with that unutterable conviction in it. "Your team may have made their choices earlier, but I've made mine by now. Wiping out the circle of the Black Thorn was a worthy goal, win or lose. So is trying to save you guys - save the whole city, from this army. And we have a chance to redouble on your victory now, to beat back the rising dark so far it won't know what hit it - thanks to Illyria. Live or die, I'm in."
"Me too," Faith chimed in almost instantly.
"What the hell?" Willow laughed nervously. "'Once more into the breach.'"
"'We few, we happy few,'" Spike recited dryly. I felt like I was missing something... especially as his eyes moved slightly to watch Buffy sidelong. It looked like a single tear would fall from one of those eyes, until he blinked it away. Must have been a bit of dust that he had flown into.
Pretty quickly we were back at the Hyperion hotel, and I fired several blasts of energy at the guardian warrior demons as soon as they were within sight... just as Buffy and Faith did the same - I think all three of us had done it on a whim and none of us guessed that anybody else would do the same thing too. Spike couldn't easily raise his hand to fire with Willow still on his shoulders, but he narrowed his eyes and a tornado appeared, throwing the bodies of the demons around for good measure.
As soon as I touched down, there was a subtle blinking sensation and Doyle was no longer in the back of my mind - I looked around and saw that all of the ghosts had seperated now, which meant that the Lohr belts were useless. Well, we had gotten some good use out of them.
Illyria leapt down from a balcony and turned to me. "The talisman?" I extracted it from a pocket and handed it to her, and an intense red glow spread out from the pendant and homed in on Illyria's outline. She waved a hand, and there was a subtle shimmer in space, lagging a few centimeters behind her every motion. "Excellent."
"Tally-ho!" Spike called, leading the way to the hotel doors.
"Did you just call me what I think you called me?" Faith quipped.