Wesley's eyes fluttered slowly open and he grimaced in pain, his arm was throbbing again, he took a moment to remember what had happened last and then it came to him. He frowned in confusion, why was he still alive, surely Angelus would have killed him by now. Wesley lifted his head painfully up looking blearily across the room.
"What" he whispered. Angelus was several feet away on his knees, head in his hands, he looked like he was crying, and then it occurred to him.
"Angel?" Wesley called cautiously. The vampire looked up, his eyes red with tears. He shook his head in bewilderment. "I'm" he stuttered, "I'm sorry" he rocked back and forth, "I'm sorry" he repeated over and over. Wesley sat painfully upright, well it was safe to say the painkiller was wearing off. He suddenly noted the other watcher nearby.
"Giles?" he crawled over to him. The man was clearly unconscious. Head drooped onto his chest, his complexion deathly pale. Wesley checked his pulse, breathing a sigh of relief to find one. He looked down at the watcher's stomach finding the cross bolt still lodged there, a soaking of blood pooling around it. It didn't look completely life threatening but it wasn't the nicest of sights to see.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" Angels murmurs came from behind him.
"Angel" Wesley turned to him, "Angel, I need your help." The vampire looked up at him.
"I'm sorry" he muttered, "I'm sorry"
"Angel, listen to me" Wesley raised his voice. The vampire was silenced. "We need to get to the portal to help the others, Giles needs medical attention." He looked back at the watcher beginning to fear for his health. "You have to do something for me, ok?" The vampire nodded. "Go to Giles' car, there's a small brown bag in there, bring it back here." The vampire nodded and headed off to find the package. A small whimper escaped the unconscious watcher's lips then.
"Giles" Wesley gently shook the mans shoulder. "Giles speak to me." The older watcher's eyes fluttered opened and closed and he groaned.
"She's gone" he croaked, "Jenny. She's." His eyes opened fully and he stared across the room to the body which lay there.
"I know" Wesley looked into the depths of the watcher's eyes and saw nothing but pain there. "Giles look at me." The watchers eyes focused unevenly on the other man, it was clear to Wesley he was in shock.
"We're going to get back to the hellmouth and our world and help Buffy, remember the Master?"
"Buffy?" Giles struggled to get up but found himself being pushed gently back down.
"Hey, slow down, we'll sort you out first and then go" Wesley almost felt like slipping into the other mans state of mind, complete despair. "Angel has gone to get that bag of supplies you so handily stole"
"Angel" Giles' eyes darkened with rage, and he scowled across the room, "Angelus" he cried, voice barely audible.
"No he's Angel again" Wesley said, suddenly not sounding too sure of himself, there wasn't actually any proof the vampire had been re ensouled. "He has a soul again now"
"That demon never did have a soul" Giles ground through his teeth, obviously feeling the stab of the crossbow bolt. He took a slow and shuddery breath and closed his eyes.
"No" Wesley shot, shaking the man's shoulder with his good hand again, "Giles stay awake." He pleaded but it was no use, the watcher had slipped back into unconsciousness once again.
Within a matter of minutes the vampire returned and handed the brown bag to Wesley silently. The watcher rummaged inside finding several useful items. A couple of bandages, antiseptic, butterfly stitches, needle and syringe and a half empty vile of morphine. Wesley tried to remember the amount Giles had given him and figured he'd give the watcher about the same.
"Angel you have to help me give him this, I can't do it one handed" Wesley looked over to the vampire who seemed to be staring incoherently at the corpse of Jenny Calendar.
"I'm sorry" he muttered again.
"Angel!" The vampires head jolted up and looked over to the watchers. "Snap out of it" Wesley's patience was running thin. "We don't have time" he sighed, voice softening, "I know you're sorry, but right now I need you with me and focused. We need to help Giles and then get to the hellmouth." Angel nodded and came over, taking a shaky breath to compose himself. He stared at Giles' unconscious form for a moment and then looked back to Wesley, the guilt written plainly across his face.
"Give him 5ml of this" Wesley placed the syringe, needle and vile in front of him. "Then we need to get this bolt out and dress the wound." Angel filled the syringe and slid it into the watcher's arm pushing the plunger. Wesley knew the effect would be almost instant.
"Hold his shoulders" The watcher instructed taking a tight grip on the wood of the bolt. Angel did as he was asked and looked back at the man.
"I'm sorry" Wesley said wrenching the arrow free and Giles' scream echoed down the halls into the darkness of the night.
>> >>
"Buffy there's too many" Willow struggled to say as vampires surrounded them. The slayer spun a kick taking out a couple of vamps at the same time. She grabbed her friend's hand hauling her inside. They rushed down the corridor of the chard remains of their high school.
"I would say, barricade the door" Xander puffed as they ran, "But I don't think that's possible seeing as there is no door." They sped on into the blackness and Willow chanted something. Suddenly light sprung up around them as they entered the remains of the blasted library.
"Impressive" They scooted to a halt in what use to be the doorway. "Your witch friend has potential." The Master stood before them, his twisted features grinning at the four of them.
"Ewe" Cordelia look to the ancient vampire, "No offence. But you really do need to get some anti aging cream"
"Hey" Buffy turned to her, "I'm supposed to make to puns." Cordelia smiled at her as she smiled back.
"Slayer" The Master announced, "It's very nice to see you again, yet so different from the other one." He moved towards them but they stood there ground. Fearless. The ground beneath them rumbled and a familiar yet chilling sound met there ears. Tentacles reached from the gaping crack that was the mouth of hell and the hideous creature emerged shaking its three heads in unison.
"When you and your friends are dead I will rule with world" The Master said, "And no one on this earth will be able to stop me"
"There is one person" Buffy chirped happily. The vampire looked at her questionably. "Me." She cried taking a flying kick at the demon. The three friends scattered as the seven vampires appeared before them. Blades collided and bolts were released in a frenzy of attacks from the friends. Xander curved his newly acquired blade around and sliced the neck of one of the seven. It burst to ash in a second.
"I dusted one" Xander observed, "They can be dusted" he half celebrated as he was faced with another and the blade was knocked from his grasp.
The slayer pummelled and kicked out at the Master failing to reach him as he blocked her blows. She found herself forced sideways and to her knees.
"Buffy!" Willow nearly screamed her name grappling to hold her own.
"Oh God we're all gunna die aren't we" Xander was thrown backward by a violent punch.
"We need help" Cordelia found herself on the floor. Suddenly a burst of energy hit the room and three figures appeared in a flash from space tumbling to the floor in a heap of moans and groans.
"We're here to help you" Wesley's head popped up and he struggled, standing upright, one arm still bound tightly to his body, his face fixed in a defiant expression. He pulled the other watcher up next to him. Giles' face was a mix of grief and determination, his shirt stained thickly in blood from an arrow wound now taut with bandages. The vampire's expression was ridden with guilt but he stood assertively beside the watchers bravely as they were.
"Angelus" The Master smiled, unaware of the vampire's changed state, "How nice to see you again."
"It's Angel" The vampire revealed a crossbow from behind his back and shot it. It missed it mark embedding into the shoulder of the vampire, but it said what it needed to as hell broke loose around them. Buffy continued her battle with the Master, giving and receiving blows. The watchers sped to Xander, Cordelia and Willow who where preoccupied by the seven, now six vampires that was soon to become sixty by the amount headed to the school. Angel tacked the hell beast at a running jump using his new blade he hacked into the creatures' skin.
Giles and Wesley swung their blades around in unison dusting three vampires in one. Three down, three to go. Xander blocked blows from another falling back to the floor from where he had been. A hefty boot came into contact with his ribs and he stifled a cry. The vampire jolted backward then, an arrow protruding through its neck, Cordelia's figure stood behind it welding a crossbow. Xander pulled himself upright stabbing the sword up into the demon's torso. It stumbled sideways. Willow shot another arrow at it, the demon spun in confusion and Wesley's blade sliced cleanly through its neck, dusting another. They turned to the last two in a frenzy, blades hit undead flesh another decapitated. The final vamp blocked Giles' blow and sent him sprawling to the floor. The others were on it in seconds, bolts rained down and it was stunned for a moment. Wesley severed it head and it was dust.
Angel gripped the beast as it bucked and shook its head with vigour, he slashed it eyes and it howled in pain and the other two heads snapping at the vampire. He turned to see the slayer struggling. Her punches were weakening and the Master gaining the upper hand, he was too fast for even slayer speed. Buffy found herself flying backward into a nearby support and wreckage came crashing down. The Master was above her in seconds his teeth bared in a smile.
"So this is how it ends" he whispered cruelly, she looked obliviously up at him, fighting for consciousness.
"Buffy" A familiar voice came to her ears and she looked sideways. Giles spun his sword rapidly across the floor to her and she grasp it, plunging it upward into the demon's body. The Master stumbled backward in shock and it gave her enough time to finish him. She withdrew the blade and swung it swiftly through his neck. A shriek passed his lips as body disconnected with head and as if in slow motion his body disintegrated into ash.
The hell beast howled and retreated tentacle's wrapped around its vampire attacker. Angel's voice accompanied it as he was pulled downward toward the hellmouth and ultimately hell. Giles dived forward to the hellmouth as the beast disappeared, his hand grasped the vampires just in time leaving him half hanging through the crevice. The watcher ignored the tearing pain of his stomach and his eyes met the vampires for a moment.
"Angel!" Buffy's voice came from far across the room as she struggled to stand.
With a cry of agony Giles pulled him up and out leaving the vampire paralyzed with shock on the floor, he stood up shaking and holding his wound, fearing that his insides might just fall out there and then.
Buffy was at Angel's side by then. "Giles?" the vampire cried.
"Don't" The watcher didn't turn back he just walked away to the other four standing a few metres away.
"I'm so glad your back" Buffy's voice came and Giles could almost see her fussing over the vampire, he turned to look, finding his slayer almost directly behind him.
"Thank you" she wrapped her arms around him and he grunted in pain.
"For what" he stuttered out, "You saved the world, we should be thanking you"
"No" the slayer interrupted him, she turned to the others standing around and adressing them, "We saved the world!"