Disclaimer: I own nothing besides the original characters, Joss and Mutant Enemy are the lucky ones.
Summary: Angel and his group took out the Thorn, but they opened up a whole new can of worms.
Pairings: Spuffy, Fresley, D/OC. Others might present themselves.
Warning: There will be cursing, violence and a smidgen of sex in this story.
A/N: Be advised, the format might shift a little as the story goes, I'm still learning how to write in this style, I'm use to doing everything in a screen-play format.
Chapter Five: Not even for a scooby snack?
The Coven - Two Months ago
The Scoobies resembled a bee swarm, as much as they were buzzing around the house, making travel plans, informing slayers of the goings on in Los Angeles. Buffy was oblivious to all of it; after she had dropped the bomb about this being as Xander had put it "The Big One", she had started ordering everyone into action. Now she had time to reflect on the things she'd seen in her coma. No one could fully grasp what the PTB had shown her. Not the doom and gloom apocalypsey stuff. That was everyday fair in their group, even if this was for all the marbles. She'd seen most everything that had been happening while she was out.
Not just with the Scoobies, but Angel's group also. The joy at seeing Spike alive was bittersweet, because she could do nothing but watch as he struggled with his decision to remain in L.A. She supposed she should be angry at him; but she understood why he'd done it. He wanted to prove, not to anyone but himself, that he was worthy of the moniker she'd given him that night; before Sunnydale went into the ground.
'...my champion'
It had been an hour or two after the first showed itself; declaring it's imminent victory in the battle ahead. Unable to get back to sleep, she closed her eyes, willing her mind and body to rest; the cot shook as Spike got up and started towards the stairs. She propped herself up, worried he might be self-conscious about sleeping in the same bed as her. Worried if he displayed too much affection, she might shut herself off. Not because she didn't care, but because now was not the time for mushiness.
"Where are you going?"
Spike turned around, holding a pack of cigarettes in one hand, and his zippo in the other.
"Nowhere luv, couldn't sleep, thought I'd go grab a fag."
Buffy rubbed her head, causing it to ruffle and stick out, Spike licked his lips at the action. It was true he couldn't sleep; the main reason being it was hard to control himself, being so close, even after her sleeping in his arms the night before. He'd like nothing more than to say
"Sod the world, lets you an' me go find a nice quiet place and shag til' the world ends, whad'ya say?"
Of course she wouldn't, and he didn't truly believe he would either. But the way she looked, it was hard for a cold, red-blooded English demon to keep his hands to himself.
'Now she's pouting, does she know what that little upturned lip does to me, wait, wa's she pouting about?'
"Wa's wrong?"
Spike took three long strides and knelt next to the cot, using the back of his fingers to straighten her hair, and caress her cheek. He was worried she had lost the resolve she'd had when he'd woken up earlier. Damn nightmares, he'd dreamt of being thrown through the air and laning on a rack of shoes, they'd all tumbled off and drenched him in pointy, yet stylish stiletto heels. His attention was drawn back as she shrugged and patted the cot lightly.
"The bed'll get cold."
Spike's eyebrows turned up at that, a hint of a grin on the side of his lips. She was exhausted, and not making a lick of sense.
"Slayer, 'm room temperature; the beds gonna stay just as cold or hot as I leave it."
Buffy cocked her head, reaching out to rub his forearm, she whispered.
"I can't get to sleep if you're not here, just go ahead and smoke by the window."
Spike's eyes bulged at that, remembering one time he'd been found smoking in the bathroom. All the junior-slayers had been pounding to get in. Buffy had barged in, snatching the cigarette from his lips and tossing it into the toilet. She had declared the next time she found him smoking in the house, it would be his ashes littering the floor.
"Buffy luv, you hate me smoking in the house."
Buffy nodded lightly, her eyes closing she put her hands on her pillow and dug a hole for her head to lay.
"I know, but I'm willing to overlook that in favor of having you near."
Spike smiled, although she couldn't see it.
"Whatever you say luv, Spike does whatever his slayer wants."
Buffy yawned, sleep coming easily now that he wasn't leaving.
"Don't you forget it mister."
Spike laughed, going to the window and propping it open, he lit his fag and blew the smoke out, not wanting to offend her, even if she had said it was okay.
"Bossy chit, won't let her lapdog stray too far."
He blew a smoke ring as he shook his head. Buffy smiled absent-mindedly, his words infecting her sleep.
"My Spike..."
Spike chuckled, amused with her declared ownership over him, woman had him by the short hairs, and she knew it.
"...my Wiliam..."
His chuckling ended as she whispered this, adoration coming out as she said the words. He took a big puff on his smoke, willing his heart to ignore the rumblings of an unconscious girl.
Buffy spoke one last thing before sleep fully claimed her, with as much conviction as she'd told him they were gonna win she uttered.
"...my champion."
Spike's heart stopped, well technically it had stopped about 123 years ago, but it felt like it had. He flicked the cherry into the wash sink, threw the butt out the window and shut it; then proceeded to climb in behind her, wrapping his arms around her. He sent up a silent prayer, knowing no deity would waste their time on a creature like him.
'Don't let me muck it up again, let me make her proud'
When she woke up in the morning, Spike was already upstairs, getting some O-Neg and arguing with Giles over who had better guitar; The Who or The Stones. In the end they agreed that Pete Townsend was a god when it came to anything involving strings. Buffy wondered idly if that meant he was good at marionettes. She didn't get a chance to discuss what she'd said. She wanted to tell him that although she wasn't quite awake, she hadn't been sleeping either. Buffy held onto the belief that they'd be able to work out their problems after the impending apocalypse. That had been incredibly stupid on her part, she realized that now. The last image she saw in her vision, was Spike and Angel crashing into the roof of the hotel Willow had told her about.
Buffy knew it wouldn't kill them, unless they landed on a stray piece of wood, but she still worried...wasn't it odd how sometimes the vampires seemed to just fall on an errant tree branch, or a box of crates, splintering it and doing her job for her. Giles never seemed perplexed by it though. Maybe she should start tallying how many vam..okay, Buffy really needed a cup of coffee, and a nice hot shower. She took Dawnie's head off her lap and placed a cushion under it, than scooted off the couch where her and Dawn had curled up while everyone else made plans. Her sister had cried, muttering thanks to whoever had seen fit to wake her up. Dawn squirmed, sensing the loss of contact, she jerked up, her eyes locking onto her sister.
"What's going on?"
Buffy knelt in front of her, planting a kiss on her forehead.
"I'm just grabbing a shower, sponge baths don't quite compare with a nice steady stream of scalding hot water."
Dawn grunted, laying her head back down.
"Just be glad it was me doing the sponging, Andrew must of volunteered at least a dozen times over the past month alone."
Buffy did a double take, as if her sister had just grown a second head.
"But Andrews so...so..."
"Effeminate, prissy, not to mention insanely adoring of Spike. I guess you can't judge a book by it's cover."
Buffy shook like when you get a little bit of throw up in your throat.
"Okay, now I really need a shower."
Dawn laughed, getting up she squeezed her sister for what must have been the hundredth time that day.
"I'm really getting tired of you not being around."
Buffy cradled her head, swaying them both back and forth.
"I always come back though."
Dawn pulled back enough to regard Buffy.
"So far, but that doesn't mean you can take all the chances you want Buffy. You just woke up from a year long coma, just promise me you won't slay anything for a while."
"Dawn, were about to get involved in the biggest fight since pure demons got expelled out of this dimension, I have to be on the front lines."
Dawn let go of her sister and threw her hands up, frustrated with her sister's willingness to put herself in danger.
"There's plenty of slayers now Buffy, you're still the leader, you can still run the troops, please just wait until your ready before you start fighting demons again. I never ask you for anything, Buffy."
Buffy glared at her sister, recalling a certain Jimmy Choo handbag Dawn had wanted to order from a shop in L.A., at the time that money would have covered one months groceries, and some of the electricity bill. Dawn knew exactly what she meant by that glare, and had a retort prepared.
"This is important Buffy, I'm just asking you to give yourself time to recover. I can't lose you again."
Buffy knew her sister was right, it would be a while before she could so much as lift a stake, let alone use it. Her body felt like jello, wobbly and soft, but the slayer inside her had rested long enough, it wanted to kill something. In the end, she needed to be a sister first, and a slayer second. Her mother would say that, and she'd rarely if ever steered them wrong.
"Alright, I'll hold off on the actual fighting until I'm back in shape, but that means I'm also gonna have to take a break from research, so your gonna have to take a break from patrolling and handle all of my duties there."
Dawn guffawed at this, laughing in an absurd way.
"You never do research, your always, "How do I kill this thing?", then you get all warrior princess on everyone."
Buffy didn't bother to respond, she just gave Dawn a look that implied, if you think your going patrolling while I'm not around, you must have just had your brains sucked by a hell-goddess.
Dawn put her hands on her hips and glared daggers.
"I don't care if you are a slayer, you are so not even human."
Buffy smiled and made her way to the bathroom. She might not be in form yet as far as slaying was concerned, but her big sister muscles hadn't atrophied at all.
Slayer Base Camp - Outside L.A. - One Week Later
Little sisters were such a pain in the butt, being all protective with their sad little puppy eyes. Who knew it would take this long for 'The Slayer' (Okay, so what if there were hundreds, she was still top dog.) to bounce back from something as little as a coma; Faith had been back to her usual violent self almost as soon as she woke up from hers. Of course Giles was the one who had pointed out that she'd been practically skewered, where as Faith had just been stabbed in the gut. And she'd only been under for a few months, not a whole year. So here she sat, cooling her feet while everyone else was suiting up to breach the city limits of Hell-A. She'd be barking orders and pacing back and forth, waiting for them to make contact, than she'd start pulling her hair out. The only thing that made it bearable was the exact same look mirrored in Dawn's face. She edged to the end of her seat and put her hands on her knees.
"You still worried about me, or are you ready to get out there and kick some demon ass!"
Dawn put down the book she'd been reading, chewing on her pencil she acted as if she was weighing the options. She removed the pencil and shook her head, scrunching her face as she picked her book back up.
"Nah, still love you too much to let you get yourself killed."
Buffy pouted, falling into her chair she picked up her radio and spoke into it.
"Slayer One, sit-rep, over."
The line crackled to life as Faith's voice emitted from the tiny box.
"Doing just fine B, all teams are entering urban areas as I speak, over."
"Good to hear, report back at first sign of hostiles, over."
"You got it boss."
Buffy stood up, walking to the flap on the tent she pulled it across and stepped out into what should have been a bright sunny Cali day; but the clouds were so thick that it might as well be midnight, surprisingly there was no rain, but plenty of lightning strikes. Buffy looked to the sky as she spoke into the walkie.
"Wicca One, Sit-rep, over."
Nothing came over the line, Buffy started to worry until a hesitant reply came back.
"Buffy, what's a sit-rep?...over?"
It amazed Buffy that Willow could hover hundreds of feet off the ground, staring across all of L.A., ready to lay waste to any demon who attacked, yet she still sounded like the girl she'd met in high school, albeit more assured of her abilities, but not vein.
"How's it going up there Wills."
"Oh fine, I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary, except all of Sunset Boulevard looks like a construction site. Actually, a lot of the town looks like that."
Buffy grinned, Willow really was one of a kind.
"Chaos and destruction are two of the main ingredients for apocalypse Wills, I picked that up in the slayer handbook."
Willow's voice sing-songed out of the radio, speaking in the way a child would the first time they saw Santa at their local shopping mall.
"Oooh, did it have a recipe for dusted vamp."
The slayer laughed, her friends really did know how to lighten the mood.
"As a matter of fact it did, marinate in holy water, cook over an open flame, then skewer with a small stick."
"(Rosenberg giggling) How are the soldiers doing?"
The slayer cringed, her friends also really knew how to dampen said good mood. Riley had been put in charge of the army evacuation and containment of L.A., his experience with Sunnydale and demons in general had made him the perfect candidate to deal with what the government had described as a mass terrorist occupation of L.A. Of course when questioned as to the nationality of the terrorists, the White House's lips had sealed up pretty quick, deeming it classified at the time. She was glad to have the back up from Riley and his squads, as long as they realized this was her stadium, they were just the visiting team.
"Let me check, Cavalry One, Sit-rep."
Buffy waited a few seconds expecting a reply, then realized she'd forgotten to signal end of transmission; stupid kid sister with the no having fun and not being within earshot of people.
"Over."
Riley's voice instantly came over loud and clear.
"All squads have secured perimeter around infested area, pilots are ready to start aerial patrol of Los Angeles, my men and women are ready to go, over."
"Good to hear, just remember, you are only to engage the enemy if the forces number more than a few hundred, over."
"Understood general, over."
Riley had deemed it necessary to give her a call sign, saying that his people wouldn't like taking orders from a civilian, even if said civilian could beat them unconscious...blindfolded...with one arm behind her back...with a Wiffle ball bat.
She was anxious, and not because of the battle, that was refreshing compared to the whole lying in bed for a year thing. But eventually they'd make it to the Hyperion, the last place she'd seen Spike and Angel. The chances of them being there were slim as hell; but it was the only lead she had.
This whole being couped up at command would be so much easier if he was here to spend time with. He'd make an even bigger deal about having to sit it out than her, chain smoking and uttering British curses. Even though he wouldn't really mind as long as he gotta spend time with her. Xander was still in Europe, trying to enlist the help of slayers who had declined their first invite to train. Giles had flown directly to Washington to brief the president, THE PRESIDENT; as to what was going on in California.
Andrew had been delegated with the task of keeping the witches at the coven informed, should the need arise for them to join the fray. Of course Willow could signal them telepathically in a second, but they didn't tell him that; the guy needed to feel... well, needed. So it was just her and Dawn at base camp, along with the healers and witches they'd picked up along the way, not to mention the small security force Riley had requested she post along the perimeter of their base.
I mean jeez, there was still a good handful of slayers, along with Wood, keeping watch and minding the store so to speak; why bother with regular humans. But she'd given him that one thing, just so he wouldn't feel put out. She might need the extra firepower, although she hoped not. They had ten squads entering the city from different points, fifteen girls in every group, most of the team leaders were girls who'd survived the collapse of Sunnydale; and being so near to where they'd first got their power put them on edge, which was good; they all needed to be on edge, cause things were about to get very hairy.
She started to walk back into the tent, ready to promise they'd stop by Jimmy Choo's and grab that purse, if Dawn would just let her kill a few demons; than Faith's voice came over the radio.
"Attention Chosen-One, we have engaged hostiles, over."
Finally, at least she could hear the satisfying snap of some poor vamp getting his neck broken, than his head being torn all the way off, and the disintegration that would follow...wow, she really needed to get out more.
"How many are there Slayer One, over."
No answer followed, long seconds ticked by until Buffy suspected Faith might not have heard her.
"I repeat, how many..."
Riley's voice interrupted her; cutting through and making her radio hiss.
"Buffy."
Buffy came through the tent, signaling Dawn over so she could hear what was going on.
"What's up Cavalry One?"
"Ther...aybe thous...instruc...shou...we engag..."
"I didn't hear that Riley, what..."
Buffy heard Willows voice, not through the walkie, but telepathically, as if she were right in front of her.
"Oh god, Buffy"
Buffy ran out of the tent, hoping to see any sign of her goddess like friend.
"What's happening Willow?"
"There's thousands of them Buffy, they just started coming out of buildings, out of the sewers, there all headed toward our squads."
"Do what you can Wills, try and thin their numbers."
"I'll try Buffy."
Buffy shouted into the radio, hoping to get through the static on Riley's end.
"Cavalry One, assist Slayer squads one through ten, immediately!"
"Conf..med, troops and ve..ciles will en..age!"
Dawn put her hands on her arms, rubbing the chill that had settled there.
"I just hope that's enough."
Buffy ignored her as she spoke into the walkie.
"Slayer One, Cavalry is coming, I repeat, Cavalry is coming; manage as best you can while they make their way to you."
The only sound coming out of the walkie was the hiss of the small speaker. Buffy turned to her sister, her eyes pleading with her.
"Dawnie, if I don't get out there..."
"Go ahead, I understand."
Buffy grabbed her by the shoulders and hugged her close.
"I'm coming back, I swear."
"I know."
Buffy turned to one of the slayers who'd just entered the tent, worried about the other squads.
"Veronica?"
The girl straightened up, ready to serve.
"Yes Ma'am?"
"Get me my Scythe."
A/N: Damn, even I can't wait to see what happens next. Remember, any grammar mistakes of the characters is their fault, not mine. And any descriptive grammar errors, well, sue me. Next well check back with Angel and Nina, as well as see what Giles is up too in D.C. Read and review, I'm so lonely... ;)