FIC: The Ravages Of Hell (30/32)
The demon dominating the cavern was huge, perhaps nine feet tall but with enough muscle packed onto its broad frame to somehow make it seem squat. Its face was a thing of nightmares, red eyes colder than ice were set deep in a face that reminded Faith of the ubers they'd fought back in Sunnyd, but none of them had a pair of ram's horns sticking out of the top of their heads like this thing did. "Fuck," she muttered, an icy finger crawling up her back, "he's so ugly even I'd turn him down!"
"What is he?" Xander whispered.
"Il Hemo Rex." Faith glanced towards Angel. She was shocked to see her hero actually looked scared, an expression she'd never seen on his face before. Angel shook himself and glanced towards first her and then Xander. "The Blood King, the demon whose bite to a human created the first uber."
"How do you know that?" Xander whispered.
"I don't know," Angel shrugged. "Never even heard of him before, but as soon as I saw him my demon knew."
"Your demon's talking to you?" Xander shuddered. "So comforting."
"See those three three-pronged holes in the wall behind Godzilla?" Faith pointed behind the prowling growling monster.
"I'd rather fight Godzilla," Xander muttered.
Faith ignored that accurate assessment of their current screw-up. "We must have to put the tridents in there to close the breach between our dimension and theirs."
"In that case," Xander licked his lips. "You two give me your tridents and I'll get them in."
Angel's gaze snapped to the Sunnydaler. "You can't be serious!"
"Hey, if you think I can do a better job than you and Faith fighting Goliath, let's hear it," the one-eyed man responded. "You two keep him off my back while I get rid of the tridents, after that, we run for it, it won't be able to follow us into the tunnels, it's too big."
Faith grimaced before coming to a decision. "Fine," she threw her trident to Xander. She looked towards Angel. "Unless you've got a better idea."
Finally Angel sighed and shook his head. "Using Xander's ideas, how low can I sink?"
"Hey!" Xander protested as he caught Angel's trident.
Giles gasped as Ethan's blood spewed all over him, his friend\rival's screams echoing in his ears as his corpse fell on him. Giles bared his teeth at the monstrous demon looming over him, helpless to do anything but await the killing blow.
And then a black-haired blur was between him and the demon, and a pair of gentle yet firm hands pulling him out from under his friend's corpse. He glanced up to recognise the potential now Slayer scarred by Caleb so long ago. " Shannon," he gasped.
"Yes sir!" The Slayer pressed his broadsword back in his hand. "Kennedy says you're to stay with Caridad, Colleen, Chao-Ann, and I, sir, we can't afford to lose you."
"Bloody girls," Giles muttered, eyes tearing at their fierce loyalty. He growled as his attention returned to the rampaging army encircling them. These buggers thought they could hurt his girls?
Not if he had a damn thing to say about it. Not a bloody word.
"Go!"
Faith and Angel surged forwards at Xander's shout. Angel grunted as the demon caught him with a foot to the face, the blow flinging him back down the tunnel they'd just come from. Faith shook her head, typical man, running out on her. "Hey big guy," she blew the demon a kiss, "wanna piece of this?" The demon roared before charging her, flinging a haymaker that would have decapitated her if she hadn't ducked under it. "Guess that's a yes then!" Leaping forward, she connected with a heel to the knee. "Shit!" she leapt back when pain flared through her leg at the impact. "This is not going -, ugh!"
The demon snatched hold of her by the throat and flung her into the wall while simultaneously swinging around to backhand Xander to the ground. Things were not going well.
Faith struggled to her feet as the massive demon charged her. At the last second she darted to the demon's right, teeth gritted as she side-kicked the apparently armoured demon in the gut. Pain flared through her scalp when the monster snatched hold of her swinging hair and flung her to the ground. Faith rolled out of the way of a stomp to the face but was unable to avoid a rib-cracking kick to the stomach. Faith was helpless to do anything other than roll in a ball as the monster advanced on her.
"Lying down on the job, Faith?" Suddenly Angel was on the monster's back, one arm wrapped around the demon's tree-trunk thick neck while the other smashed punch after punch into its face.
"Says you," Faith spat out blood before pulling herself up in time to dive back down when the mammoth demon managed to fling Angel from its back, the vampire bouncing off the wall behind her.
"Shit," she was only back to her hands and knees when the demon grabbed her by the back of her neck, its grip as hard and cold as stone, lifted her back to her feet, and flung her face-first at the wall. Faith managed to hit it feet-first and ran up it, leaping off to somersault into a drop-kick that crashed into the demon's vault-sized chest, knocking it back a step or two. Faith landed in a crouch beside the beast, she grinned briefly as she saw Xander crawling towards the far wall, blood leaking from his forehead. Damn he was tough.
"Christ!" Her smirk turned to a scream when the demon's fist smashed into her shoulder, knocking her to her knees. Before she could recover her footing, the demon was on her, his heavy fists slamming into her back again and again, pounding her into the ground.
Faith screamed as she rolled onto her side and kicked out blindly, hoping to gain some respite from the brutality. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Angel follow her earlier move and crash a dropkick into the behemoth's chest. The vampire landed between her and the monster. "Faith?"
Faith smiled at the concern in her hero's voice even as she struggled to her feet. "Me? I'm just peachy keen." She grinned as Xander shoved the last of the tridents into the wall and the monster suddenly evaporated.
"I'm human," Angel gasped. "I can feel my heart beating!"
"No way!" Faith beamed at her mentor. "Fuckin' A! Whoa!" she shuddered as the floor shook and dust started to fall from the ceiling. "Looks like this place is falling to pieces. Xan!" Faith glanced towards the Watcher. "Time to hustle, dud- oof!"
She gasped as Angel crashed shoulder-first into her already aching mid-section, the force of the blow knocking her off her feet. Her mouth opened to ask the former vampire what the hell he was playing at.
And then a huge boulder slammed into the man lying sprawled where she'd stood, crushing him underneath, and her soul ripped into a thousand pieces. "ANGEL!"
Giles hit the ground as a Beastman crashed a gnarled fist into his chest, winding him. In an instant, Shannon was between him and the demon, the Slayer's expertly-wielded blade slashing through.
Mid-air.
Giles blinked as his exhaustion befuddled brain struggled to comprehend what had happened. The demonic army had suddenly melted away.
But what a terrible price. Giles' heart shattered as he looked around, the once lush grass now copper-brown with Slayer blood, girls lying dismembered across the battleground, the piteous screams of the dying and merely wounded tearing at his conscience. "They did it."
Giles nodded at Caridad's whisper, of his protectors her and Shannon were the only two who remained. "It would appear so."
"Mr. Giles?" Shannon pointed to the left.
"Good lord," Giles moaned at the startling sight of beasts more nefarious than any vampires heading towards their position. "Journalists." Camera crews to be exact, maybe as many as a dozen of them. He looked towards Caridad. "Dear, get as many Slayers as you can to assist me in holding these buggers back, only don't use any with any sort of medical training. They're needed here."
Xander stared fuzzily at the scene before him. A hysterically sobbing Faith was trying to lift a huge rock off Angel's clearly crushed body, a boulder so large that four Slayers wouldn't be able to shift it. Forcing his legs under his control, he started towards the beautiful brunette, all the while shooting worried looks at the chamber's cracking ceiling.
"Faith!" he had to shout to be heard over the chamber's quaking. "We have to leave here! Now!"
Xander's voice died when the Slayer turned to him, a chilling look of insanity in the Bostonian's pool-like eyes he'd only seen once before. Of course that was the time she'd damn near choked him to death, so not a good memory. "You wanted this!" She screamed. "You're glad he's dead." Xander opened his mouth to deny the accusation. Once sure, but not now.
The Slayer's elbow crashed into his chest before he had the chance to utter a word in his defence. The force of the blow lifted him off his feet and dumped him on the ground five feet away. Tears of pain blurring his vision, Xander reached into his ankle holster and pulled out the tranq gun he'd used twice during his time in Africa to bring in rouge Slayers.
He squinted as he aimed the gun at the oblivious Slayer, more than conscious how the volatile beauty would react if he made a mess of this. After a final lick of the lips, he squeezed the trigger.
The supernatural warrior shuddered as the dart thudded into her neck. Xander's heart dropped as the Slayer yanked the dart out of her neck, and turned to him, glaring eyes impaling him. "Oh crap."
"You son of a bitch!" Xander backed off as the beauty advanced on him. "I am gonna rip your fuckin-." Suddenly Faith's eyes dulled and her face slackened. Then she fell face first onto the ground beside him.
"Couldn't she have done that before I filled my shorts?" Xander muttered as he climbed to his feet, picked up the limp Slayer and slung her over his shoulder. As always with the Slayers, he was surprised just how light the ebony-eyed beauty was. Stepping out of the tunnel, he heaved a sigh of relief when he found the pits that had obstructed their way had disappeared. "That's one problem solved. All I have to do is get out of here before the whole place collapses." He stumbled as the chamber shook. "And before Faith awakens and objects to my whole 'me Tarzan, you Jane act'."
Women's lib had a lot to answer for.
"That is to say-."
"GILES!!!!!!!"
The urgency of Willow's mental scream caused Giles' skull to reverberate with enough force to almost bring him to his knees. "Bloody hell, woman," he muttered, "calm down." Although Willow's distress did at least give him opportunity to break away from dealing with Satan's sidekicks, aka the media. "Kennedy," he glanced towards the bloodied but still resolute brunette, "keep them back." The Slayer nodded. "Oh and should they give you any hassle, don't be shy about them in their place. Afterwards we can always chalk any injuries up to misfortune."
Giles started through the battleground, careful not to look away from the dead, dying, and wounded. He'd brought them all here, he couldn't demean their sacrifice by not bearing witness. "Riley," he smiled when he found the young soldier, uninjured save from a swollen jaw and cut above his left eye, "have you seen Willow?"
"Over by the big oak," the young man directed.
"Thank you," he nodded, "thank you for everything." He hurried over to find Willow crouched beside a slight female sat limply against a giant oak -, his eyes widened in recognition. "Faith!" his heart jumped. "You're alright!" His eyes narrowed as he noted the dullness in the Slayer's usually luminous eyes. "What's wrong with her?"
"She's drugged," a teary-eyed Willow responded.
Giles looked around, heart thumping in sudden terror. "And Xander where is he?"
The Wicca's gaze snapped to him. "I just found her here, no Xander, no Angel. I don't know where either of them are!"