Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.
Anyway, enjoy.
Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been
What Makes a Monster?
Damnit! Piper thought to herself, as she found herself flying through the air as a result of the magical 'explosion' before her; she vaguely registered that her sisters and allies were in a similar position, but, right now, she only had the time to focus on her own problems at the moment. In a desperate attempt to regain her balance, Piper spun wildly in mid-air, trying to reorganise herself so that she landed on her feet rather than hit the ground head-first, only partially succeeding as she managed to land on the ground so that her left arm took the brunt of the impact.
The arm hurt, of course, but given that the alternative was for her to have possibly broken her neck, she considered an arm to be a fair trade-off; the limb didn't even feel that badly damaged, so she could at least continue to hold her own in the struggle. Glancing around, Piper was relieved to note that most of her allies appeared to have gotten out of the situation relatively unharmed. Buffy, Angel, Spike, Doyle, Belthazor and Paige's enhanced healing had probably already attended to any injuries they may have sustained, while Phoebe and Willow seemed to be in a similar state to her; dazed and somewhat bruised, but otherwise OK.
Well, Piper mused, allowing herself a slight smile as she gave Phoebe a brief thumbs-up while shakily getting to her feet, that went as well as I could have expected…
Then she actually saw what was standing at the centre of the earlier magical 'explosion', and amended her thoughts from 'relieved' to 'downright shocked'.
Standing at the location where the damaged Adam and the bleeding Source had once been located was now only a single being, looking significantly more dangerous than either of its counterparts ever had. The creature was wearing a long black cloak, stretching back from its shoulders to reach down to its feet, the cloak almost seeming to be a part of its body.
As with Adam, the right arm was mechanical while the left arm was a demon's arm, but unlike Adam, the left hand seemed to be almost pulsing with dark red energy, reminding Piper uncomfortably of a warlock charging an energy ball without actually channelling the energy into the ball. The rest of the creature's body also mostly resembled Adam's in terms of the balance between its organic and mechanical components, the only significant difference being that he now had goat-like feet as opposed to Adam's human ones.
The creature's face, however, was distinctly different from both its 'predecessors'. Whereas the Source's face had appeared fundamentally human, albeit disfigured and distorted, and Adam's had been nothing more than a hideous amalgamation of man, demon and machine, this creature's face resembled nothing more than a hideous beast, looking almost like a combination of a dog and a lizard, with dark 'scales' covering its face and sharp teeth in its mouth.
"Oh my God…" Willow whispered off to one side, as she and the others staggered to their feet, staring in shock and terror at the creature before them. "It's… it's horrible…"
"Indeed," the creature stated, its voice deep and artificial as it looked at them. "I am the future. I am your death. I am… the Dark."
"Sorry; 'the Dark'?" Paige said, looking sceptically at the thing in front of her. "That's a bit of a stupid name, isn't it? I mean, talk about overly melodra-"
Before she could finish her sentence, the newly-named Dark had raised his mechanical hand, flexed his fingers, and sent Paige flying off towards a distant wall, leaving Angel with just enough time to dash towards her and take the impact of her body with his own before she could hit the wall.
"Do not mock me, Paige Matthews," the Dark stated simply as he looked at the dazed witch/Whitelighter hybrid currently in Angel's arms. "I am more powerful than anything you have ever faced; you have no chance of defeating me."
"Really?" Buffy asked, smiling slightly as she glanced over at Piper. "Did that sound like a challenge to you, or is it just me?"
"Nope; that was a challenge all right," Piper responded, as she raised her hands and flexed her fingers in preparation for the upcoming confrontation. "Shall we show this sucker why that probably wasn't the best idea it's ever had?"
"Oh yeah…" Buffy chuckled, as she reached over to pick up a recently-discarded sword, smiling nonchalantly as she glanced over at her allies; Willow was currently heading for the exit- clearly she had concluded that, right now, her own magical abilities wouldn't lend anything distinctive to the upcoming fight- but the rest of their little group were all prepared for battle, Doyle having taken Willow's dagger while Spike clutched his axe and Phoebe and Paige raised their sword and dagger respectively.
"So, 'Darky'," Phoebe stated grimly, wincing slightly at the unintentionally racist-sounding remark- if it wasn't for the severity of both the situation and the villain that they were currently facing, she might have even tried to apologise- before continuing, "care to give up while you've still got some of your dignity intact, or still willing to try against all of us?"
The Dark didn't even reply; raising his mechanical arm, he casually clicked his fingers, and suddenly he had a large gleaming sword stretching from his wrist, practically crackling with dark energy as he generated an energy ball in his other hand.
"Let us begin," he stated.
With that, he hurled the energy ball at the group before him, almost instantly nonchalantly folding him arms to watch his handiwork…
"Energy ball!" Paige yelled, nearly instinctively raising her hands. As soon as she'd spoken, the energy ball turned into a whirl of blue lights, moved towards Paige, and she subsequently hurled the ball back towards the being that had created it.
"Nice," Angel grinned in approval as he glanced over at Paige as the Dark was sent staggering backwards by its own energy ball.
"Thanks-" Paige began, just before Willow suddenly grabbed her around the waist and hauled her off to the right just before another blast from the Dark struck her; a quick check-over was all his opponents needed to confirm that the Dark's chest was slightly singed by the attack, but he was otherwise unharmed.
"Bold, but foolish," he stated nonchalantly as he looked at Paige as she and Willow lay on the ground, both slightly winded from the sudden dive. "I am eternal, Miss Matthews; as I have already attempted to make clear to you, I cannot die."
"Really?" Buffy asked, flexing her shoulders and neck as she stared at the figure before her. " 'Cause, funny thing… you said something like that only a few seconds ago, and I believe that I just told you that it sounded like a challenge to me."
"Which reminds me," Piper spoke up, as she, Buffy and Angel stepped forward to glare at the Dark, Piper raising her hands once more as Buffy and Angel clenched their fists in preparation for the upcoming fight, "we never actually officially accepted the challenge; shall we do so now?"
"Absolutely," Angel grinned, as he and Spike, as though on some pre-arranged signal, shifted into their vampire faces, glaring with a broad grin at the creature before them, Doyle simultaneously assuming his Brachen countenance as he glared at their opponent.
With that, the two vampires and the Slayer- Doyle may have been stronger as a demon, but he freely acknowledged that the others had more raw power than he did- lunged towards the Dark, Buffy striking the creature's throat with a kick while Angel and Spike rammed the Dark's shoulders with the palms of their hands. The blow may have almost hurt the combatants more than the Dark- Spike in particular; he'd been unlucky enough to strike the Dark's metal arm- but it had the desired effect; the combined force of no less than three supernaturally-enhanced beings striking him simultaneously sent the Dark staggering backwards, briefly knocking him off-balance.
"Oh yeah…" Piper chuckled, as she flicked her hands at the creature before her, smiling in approval as a small chunk of metal broke off the Dark's metallic arm where Spike had dented it. "This is gonna be interesting…"
She just wished she was as confident inside as she was trying to project to everybody else. Against something as powerful as the Dark, the only spell she and her sisters had that might even have a chance of putting the sucker down was that thing they'd whipped up on the way over here to destroy the Source, and she had no idea if it would be anything like strong enough to vanquish something as powerful as the Dark seemed to be.
Physical strength was a possibility, of course, but since this guy had just taken punches from Buffy, Angel and Spike without showing any signs of long-term damage, Piper somehow doubted that they could exert anything like the necessary raw power that might be needed to put the Dark down that way…
The net result was that, if they didn't come up with something fast, Piper doubted that she and her allies would come out of this fight alive.
As Riley hurried back towards Lowell House, his weapons clutched in his hand as he glared grimly ahead, he tried not to think too much about what he'd have to deal with when he reached the Initiative base.
If what he'd seen of the 'team' that Buffy- the name made him sick to his stomach; he couldn't believe he'd ever felt anything for somebody who would actually defend a vampire- had gathered together, they were dealing with a vampire, two demons, and… whatever Buffy and that long-haired brunette were (They weren't anything he knew, but Riley knew for a fact that Buffy couldn't be that strong if she was normal, and that woman must have done something to him that accounted for him suddenly being in the cupboard).
It's not going to be easy, Riley mused to himself as he moved to open the door before him, mentally preparing himself for what he'd have to do when he reached his headquarter, but, if Buffy has to die to protect the Initiat-
His train of thought was suddenly cut off when something suddenly struck the back of his head, sending him staggering forward briefly before he regained his balance and spun around to strike at his opponent. He barely had time to register that he was looking at another of Buffy's 'allies'- this one a rather striking-looking brunette who seemed to be about her age- before she struck him in the face once again, sending him staggering backwards just as Forrest and Graham entered the house behind him.
"Take that!" somebody else yelled, striking out at Forrest with a surprisingly efficient kick. Forrest was naturally good at his job- it would have been stupid for him not to be when they were dealing with beings who were naturally far stronger than any normal human- and yet this guy was somehow able to not only hold his own against Forrest, but actually hurt him in a fight…
If it wasn't for the fact that vampires always shifted to their real faces when fighting, Riley would almost have assumed they were dealing with the aforementioned bloodsuckers here, but as the man's face was normal, he wasn't sure what to think…
Then one of the other men standing there- a tall man who had a subdued military bearing, like he had been a soldier once but hadn't done it for a long time- disappeared in a brief swirl of white lights, reappearing behind Graham to launch a powerful strike at the back of his head, and Riley instantly reevaluated the danger he and his friends were now in.
Whatever these things were, they were not human.
Riley didn't hesitate; reaching into his jacket, he pulled out his taser gun and fired it directly at the man who'd just done the 'teleportation' trick. As the man screamed in pain, his four 'allies'- if such a term could apply to people who'd actually help something that wasn't human- turned around to lash out at Riley. Unwilling to have any human corpses to deal with- he couldn't afford to attract attention to himself or his associates at this point- Riley simply kicked out at the blonde woman- she'd struck him so far as the least effective fighter-, striking her in the chest and sending her staggering backwards.
"Move!" he yelled over at Forrest and Graham, as the three remaining traitorous humans looked anxiously over at their dazed allies; like any idiotic animal, they spent more time concerned with any loud noises rather than focusing on their target. "We have to get down to the base immediately!"
As professional as ever, Forrest and Graham didn't stop to question his new orders; they both just dived past their would-be attackers, dashed through the open door to the base- Riley noted that with no small degree of anxiety, but pushed it aside; that just proved that his presence in the Initiative's headquarters would be needed now more than ever-, hurried down the stairs…
And his eyes widened in horror at the sight of the battle being waged before him in the main entrance hall, as Buffy and her 'allies' clashed with a monstrous amalgamation of machine, human and demon. Even as Riley watched, the demon with spikes all over its face launched a punch at the creature, followed closely by the red-skinned 'Belthazar' launching one of those energy ball things- Riley wished he knew how they did that; he wouldn't have minded access to that kind of weapon himself- at the thing in the centre of the circle formed by Buffy's 'team'.
Shit, Riley groaned as he studied the creature in the middle of the room.
Just when he thought he'd understood what he was dealing with- a bunch of vampires and demons who'd allied themselves with a bunch traitorous humans of who'd betray their own kind for power- something like that sucker had to show up and make everything even more complicated.
Damnit, he mused silently to himself, as he reached into his coat to pull out his taser gun, now I've got to deal with the bigger guns before we can get onto tackling those traitors to humanity…
"Move in!" he yelled over at his colleagues, raising his gun above his head as he glared at the group of abominations below him. "Focus on the big one, but take out anybody else if you can!"
With that said, the three soldiers charged down the stairs towards their adversaries, Riley leading the attack on the large creature in the middle of the room, his taser raised before him as he dashed through a gap between the various combatants around him…
Only for the figure to reach up without even looking in his direction, grab Riley by the neck, and hurl him away towards a distant wall as though he wasn't even worth the effort needed to turn around and see if he was actually dead.
"What the… Riley?" Buffy yelled, as she spun around to look at the new arrivals; she couldn't believe that Riley was stupid enough to come down here after everything he'd seen them do. "What the Hell are you guys doing here; this is way out of your league-"
"Don't lie to me any more, you freak!" Riley yelled at her, as Forrest and Graham joined, taking up position on either side of him, their guns clutched in their hands as they aimed it at the small army of freaks and traitors before them. "Human or not, you're all monsters! If humanity is ever going to survive, you and your kind all have to die, and we're the only ones who can actually do anything about it!"
"Geez, melodramatic much?" Paige muttered to Willow, even as she and the other members of the Scooby/Charmed/Angel Investigations team glanced anxiously between the soldiers and the Dark, who was looking at the new arrivals like he wasn't sure what to do with them. "Y'know, didn't you ever read X-Men when you were growing up? Not everything that isn't entirely human is going to try and brutally murder the species when they're sleeping…"
"SILENCE!!" the Dark suddenly roared, launching a lightning blot from his fingertips that struck Spike directly in the back and sent the vampire flying into the wall; evidently he wanted to kill them in a head-on confrontation rather than just taking them out while they were distracted.
"Hoo boy…" Doyle muttered, as he glanced in the direction of their dazed 'ally' as he lay on the floor. "That's gotta suck…"
Buffy was about to say something to add to that particular comment- she was thinking of commenting on how it wasn't exactly much worse than what Spike had done to some of his victims back in the day- but a sudden yell from Riley distracted her; evidently he'd recovered from the Dark's initial attack and still hadn't learned his lesson.
"DIE!" the Iowan farm boy roared, as he, Forrest and Graham brought up their taser guns and charged towards the Dark, firing the guns directly at their adversary. The electrical charges struck the Dark's cloak and armour, spreading rapidly across his body like the electrical attack he'd just launched at Spike…
The only noticeable difference was that, in this instance, it didn't actually do anything to the Dark; if anything, he seemed to actually absorb the electrical energy that was launched at him, channelling and redirecting it into his mechanical components as he stared mockingly at the soldiers.
"A pathetic attempt, my 'friends'," he stated grimly. "Let us see how you fare against… THIS"
With that, he rapidly raised his arm and hurled a brilliant blue energy ball at the soldiers, the three new arrivals only just managing to dodge the attack as it struck the wall behind them.
"Ah, nuts…" a voice said from the top of the flight of stairs that led to the Initiative's only currently known entrance and exit.
"Leo?" Piper said, glancing grimly up at the exit, feeling simultaneously relieved and frustrated as she saw her husband and the rest of their new allies standing there; they may have back-up now, but given that none of the new arrivals actually had any powers that they could use in combat- Leo's ability to orb wasn't quite what they needed right now-, she wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing.
"What; you guys still want to help these… these things?" Graham said, looking up in surprise at the new arrivals. "We kicked your asses up there, and you're asking for another round of-?"
Whatever Graham might have been about to say was something that would always remain a mystery; as soon as he had turned to look at the entrance, the Dark, apparently unconcerned about the temporarily-distracted Slayer, vampires, witches and demons around him, walked straight up to Graham and punched right through the soldier's chest with his mechanical arm.
Glancing over at his supernatural-based foes, the Dark chuckled slightly as he pushed Graham's body off his arm, leaving it to fall to the floor as he walked back towards the group in the middle of the room, Riley and Forrest clearly being regarded as not worth his effort.
"Out of respect for your talents, I shall give you this one chance to live," the Dark said, his eyes narrowed in a manner that contradicted the friendly tone in his voice as he studied the Slayer, the vampires, the witches and the demons who'd banded together to take him down. "You have witnessed my power, and thus know that you cannot defeat me; leave now, and you shall not die today."
"Uh… didn't we already get told something like that?" Buffy inquired, glancing over at the others. "I mean, he was saying we couldn't kill him earlier, but now he's actually giving us the opportunity to leave because we allegedly won't be able to take him down…"
"He does seem to be going on about how we can't win this fight an awful lot for somebody who's indestructible," Phoebe put in, staring critically at their new enemy, hands on her hips. "Y'know, I'm starting to wonder who he's trying to convince here; us, or himself?"
"Shall we find out?" Belthazor inquired, raising his hands to form another energy ball.
"Oh yeah," Piper stated, flicking her hands at the Dark just as Belthazor launched the energy ball at its target. On their own, the two attacks may not have managed to make a significant impression on their opponent, but together they seemed to make more of an impact; at the very least, a crack emerged in his mechanical arm where the two attacks had struck him.
"How do you like that?" Buffy smiled, giving Piper a quick thumbs-up of approval at the attack, before she turned to look at Angel and Spike. "We've got a crack in his armour- literally, I might add-; let's do it!"
With that said, the three warriors charged at the Dark, Angel and Spike grabbing both his arms as Buffy launched a powerful kick at his chest. The sheer force of Buffy's attack, coupled with the strength of the two vampires on either side of him, not only managed to dent the metal that composed part of the Dark's body, but also to the already-damaged metallic arm that Spike was currently holding. The arm still didn't break- clearly the magic holding it together was remarkably powerful- but the crack that had been formed by Piper and Belthazor's earlier attack became even larger, exposing some of the circuitry within it.
"Wires!" Paige yelled, waving her hand towards the crack, smiling broadly as the wires from within the damaged arm appeared in her hand, leaving the Dark staring in shock at the sudden injury.
"Oh yeah!" Buffy yelled over at the witches, as she, Angel and Spike continued to pummel the large demon/machine hybrid before them, Doyle jumping in with the occasional blow himself as the fight continued. "Chew on that, you son of a-"
"NOBODY MOVE!" a voice suddenly yelled from one of the corridors that connected up to the side of the main entrance hall.
"What the…?" Cordelia asked, turning to look in confusion at the source of the voice, only to groan as she realised who was actually standing there; what appeared to be every soldier currently remaining within the Initiative, aiming their weapons at the Dark and his opponents with a clear lack of concern for which side they actually hit.
"Aw, nuts…" Xander groaned, as he glanced over at Leo. "Y'know, it's at times like this that I really wish our plans would just work out the way they're meant to go for once…"
"Everyone down on the ground, NOW!" one of the soldiers yelled at the group of people before them. "We're all armed and we're not afraid to use these weapons!"
"Oh God…" Phoebe sighed, as she glanced over at Willow. "Why is it there's always at least one person who cannot accept that what they're capable of won't be enough to deal with the current problem?"
"Who knows?" Willow replied, shrugging slightly before she turned to look at the soldiers before her, raising her hands in a calming gesture after making sure she wasn't holding a weapon right now. "Look, if everyone would just calm down for a few seconds, maybe we can talk-"
"I am the Dark; I do not talk," the Dark said, an almost scathing tone in his voice as he stared at the soldier who'd just spoken. The combined Sunnydale/Los Angeles/San Francisco residents could only assume that he was more interested in this group right now because they were larger; the soldiers definitely couldn't put up more of a fight than they were at the moment. "What I do… is kill."
Raising his arm- his damaged mechanical one, Doyle noted; it might be worth considering whether there was a reason he used that one other than to show that his loss of it wouldn't have that significant an effect on him-, the Dark launched a brief burst of electricity at the soldiers before him, each of them suddenly being linked and shaking as a result of the blue energy suddenly coursing through them. Those who'd been there were reminded of the Judge's initial attack on the Sunnydale mall before his destruction; those who hadn't been just thought it looked very unpleasant.
To their credit, however, the Initiative soldiers refused to back down; even with the pain that must have been practically consuming their bodies, they nevertheless raised their weapons, still clutched in their hands, all of them pointing at the Dark's approximate location.
Unfortunately, the area where the guns were currently aimed at would also include the location where Buffy, Piper, Angel and their respective teams were standing.
"DUCK!" the three leaders yelled, spinning around to look at their friends as the soldiers fired their guns. The bullets were only being launched at random, but there were so many of them that it would have been impossible for the Dark to have come through the assault untouched. As the assorted teams watched the sight before them, trying to stay low enough to avoid any stray bullets- for the moment, the soldiers seemed to be concentrating their fire on the Dark, clearly identifying him as the greatest threat- the electricity linking the soldiers suddenly terminated, as though the Dark was too busy trying to cope with the mass of bullets currently being fired at him to 'worry' about a small detail like that.
For a moment, as they watched the powerful demon being sent staggering backwards by the mass of gunfire that was currently being directed at him, Buffy and the others thought that maybe, just maybe, the soldiers might be able to pull it off and defeat the Dark for them.
Then the demon regained his balance, the bullets started to just bounce off his body rather than send him staggering backwards, and he assumed a stance that made it clear to all watching the scene before them that he was not going to be taken down by just a bunch of bullets.
"ENOUGH!!!" the Dark roared, hurling the oncoming bullets up into the air with a single wave of his hand as he glared at his opponents. "THIS FOOLISHNESS WILL END NOW!!!"
With that said, he raised one hand high into the air, a dark blue glow suddenly emanating from the clenched fist. As the Dark's assorted opponents scrambled to their feet, the Initiative base began to shake and shudder all around them, as though it had suddenly become the centre of a miniature earthquake.
"You believe you mere mortals can match my power?" the Dark stated as he stared over at the Initiative soldiers, a broad smirk on his face as he studied the people who had both created and been manipulated by his two respective 'components' (It wasn't the best term to describe what Adam and the Source were to the Dark, but it did the job as well as any other word could have; parents didn't work at all). "Now witness my full strength, that you may better understand the scale of your foolishness!!!"
As his current opponents watched the sight before them, everyone who might have been able to do some damage in a head-on attack too dazed by the recent assault to actually do anything about it, the Dark opened the fist he'd formed, releasing a burst of energy that seemed to pass straight through the walls, triggering what could best be described as a localised earthquake right in the vicinity of the soldiers who'd been preparing to fire at the powerful demon once again. Before any of them could react, the walls behind them had collapsed as though something had given them a powerful kick, sending rubble flying and crashing into various soldiers in a manner that clearly didn't leave many of the people immediately in front of it standing.
Not even Xander could find the energy to make a joke of any kind about the fact that they didn't need to worry about evacuating the rest of the people in the Initiative; given the power the Dark had displayed so far, it seemed like a safe guess that anybody left in the base had joined this last desperate attack against such a powerful foe, only to meet their deaths in a matter of seconds.
"Oh my God…" Paige whispered, staring in shock at the bodies before her, unintentionally speaking for the rest of the team as they viewed the sight in front of them with horror. "So many people… and he just… just…"
She couldn't even finish, but none of them needed her to.
Even after everything they'd seen in their lives, there was still something horrifying about something that could cause the deaths of so many people so cold-heartedly.
Before any of them could respond to the Dark's latest atrocity, Forrest and Riley- they'd been standing at the opposite end of the room from the rest of the soldiers, and so had come away from the Dark's last attack relatively unharmed- screamed in rage and charge for the Dark once again, their weapons raised as they raced towards the man who'd just destroyed what had to be at least most- if not all- of the soldiers within the Initiative in a matter of seconds.
The Dark barely even needed to think about it; as Riley reached him, he grabbed the Iowan commando by the arm and hurled back the way he'd come, his arm twisted in a significantly unpleasant manner between the wrist and the elbow. In almost the same motion, the Dark's broken metallic arm was thrust directly into Forrest's chest, the serrated metal edges of the torn metal digging into his body and clearly penetrating several vital organs in the process.
It was all so fast that Forrest didn't even have time to scream; one minute, he was alive, and the next, his corpse was hanging limply off the end of the Dark's mechanical arm, looking like some grotesque pin-up.
"Oh God…" Willow whispered, raising one hand to cover her mouth as she stared in shock at the sight before her, as the Dark casually threw Forrest's body away to join the corpses of the other Initiative soldiers. "I… I think I'm going to be sick…"
Turning to look at his only remaining adversaries, the Dark smiled casually.
"Now do you see the foolishness of attempting to defeat me in battle?" he asked, raising a critical eyebrow at the assorted supernatural warriors standing before him. "I have overcome multiple opponents in a matter of seconds; what can you all possibly do to defeat me?"
"Good question," Buffy said simply, flexing her shoulders as she stared at the figure before her. "Why don't we find out?"
Glancing back at Angel, Spike, Doyle and Belthazor, she jerked her thumb towards their opponent. "Well, we're the muscle here; shall we show this guy what we're made of?"
"Let's," Spike said, grinning broadly as he stared at the creature before him.
As though his words were a signal for all four of the others, the team's five powerhouses instantly charged towards the Dark, Doyle and Belthazor lashing out whenever the Dark was already distracted- their weaker strength made a head-on assault from them impractical at best- while Buffy, Angel and Spike delivered the more damaging blows.
The Dark still wasn't down for the count, but at least he was having trouble keeping track of them all; evidently his magic depended on him having a moment to actually do anything about the situation he was in, otherwise he would have cast another spell to deal with his attackers.
He may be powerful, Buffy mused as she and Angel launched simultaneous powerful kicks at their current foe, striking him in the chest as Doyle and Belthazor kicked out at a leg each, but let's see how he copes with these kind of numbers.
In the end, it was moments like this that convinced her that the Watcher's Council had long made a mistake by insisting that the Slayers worked alone; only with numbers did she stand a chance against foes like this creep.
As she watched her new friends fighting desperately against an opponent that combined the worst aspects of both their respective magical worlds, Phoebe knew that this was it.
If they didn't try now, they were never going to win this fight.
"Quick!" she yelled over at Piper and Paige, as Angel narrowly ducked under a blow from the Dark's remaining intact arm. "While he's distracted, we have to try the vanquishing spell!"
It was a long shot, Phoebe knew, but right now they didn't have much of a choice; if they were ever going to defeat the Dark, given his clearly vastly superior physical strength to even their best fighters, the vanquishing spell was their best chance of success.
"Right," Piper said, nodding briefly at her sister before she reached into her pockets and pulled out a small bunch of crystals. Glancing up at Paige, the club owner was relieved to see Paige nod in confirmation at her; evidently her new little sister remembered and was ready for her part in their current plan. As Buffy, Angel, Spike, Doyle and Belthazor lashed out with a multitude of punches and kicks at the Dark- Belthazor and Doyle may have lacked the raw strength of their allies, but they were still strong enough to make a significant impression on their foe, and right now the important thing was more to keep him distracted rather than to actually stop him- Paige raised her hand, her eyes narrowed in resolve.
"Crystal!" she yelled, waving her hand as the crystals in Piper's hand instantly turned into white lights and flew towards her.
"Circle!" she added, redirecting the lights to form a circle around the Dark.
"Everyone, get back!" Phoebe yelled instantly, looking anxiously at her boyfriend and her assorted new allies; she wasn't sure whether the vanquishing spell would vanquish something that wasn't evil, but given that she was talking about two vampires and two half-demons, she thought it best not to take any chances. Fortunately, one call was all that was needed; as soon as they heard the seer's yell, Angel, Buffy and Spike leapt backwards, Belthazor grabbing Doyle's arm and shimmering the two of them out of harm's way at the same time.
As soon as their allies were out of harm's way, Piper seized her chance.
She freely admitted that this was a long shot by any stretch of the imagination- there was no way of knowing if this spell would have worked against the Source, to say nothing of against something that was possibly even more powerful than him- but, at the moment, they didn't have much of a choice but to try.
"NOW!" she yelled over at her sisters. Instantly she, Paige and Phoebe began to chant, a wall of white energy instantly springing up from the crystals they'd just planted around the powerful demon.
"Prudence, Patricia, Penelope, Melinda," Piper began.
"Astrid, Helena, Laura and Grace," Paige continued.
"NO!!" the Dark screamed, as his entire body began to burn, flames spreading all over his body as he stared in shock at the sisters and their allies as they stood around him. "YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME!!"
"Halliwell witches stand strong beside us…" all three sisters continued, staring grimly at their current adversary, their hands linked as they channelled their magical energies through each other.
"Guess what?" Cordelia interjected, glaring at the Source as the chanting continued behind her. "We're doing it anyway, asshole."
"… And vanquish this demon from time and space!" the Halliwells concluded, unconcerned about the 'exchange' between the demon and the former cheerleader as they stared grimly at the sight before them, their eyes narrowed as they watched their spell take him apart.
"NNNNOOOOoooo…" the Dark screamed, his hands pathetically stretched out before him as the whirl of white energy surrounded him, compressing around his body as the flames ignited in a burst of light that could have rivalled the sun in terms of intensity…
Then the light faded, leaving only the crystals that the Halliwells had thrown there earlier lying on the floor; not even the Dark's ashes were left.
"Damn…" Buffy whistled as she studied the sight before her, before glancing over at Paige with a grateful smile. "Gotta hand it to you guys; when you want to kill the demons, you really kill 'em."
"We try," Paige said nonchalantly. "Besides, I'd definitely say you guys helped us out here; I doubt we'd have pulled it off without you all softening him up and keeping him… 'occupied', to say the least… beforehand."
"As you said; we try," Buffy replied in an equally nonchalant manner as she indicated the crystals lying on the ground before them. "Gotta say, though, your method does have its perks; don't need to worry about cleaning up the corpse, for one-"
"Freeze!" a voice yelled from off to the side. "Everyone get down on the ground and put your hands where I can see them, now!"
"Oh God…" Angel groaned, as he and the others turned to look at the source of the voice; Riley Finn, clutching a gun in his only working hand as he stared grimly at the young man before him. "Look, Riley, you've already been thrown about the place so often I'm surprised that more of your bones haven't been broken by this point; don't you think you're quite finished making an ass of yourself by now?"
"Yeah, I gotta admit, Angel's got a point; you couldn't actually win this one even if you were at full health," Paige added, looking critically at the soldier. "I mean, your left arm was pretty severely broken by the Dark, your right leg seems to be twisted into a very unpleasant angle, and there's blood all over the left side of your head from where you hit the wall; what makes you think you could take out any of us?"
"Shut up!" Riley yelled, shifting his gun's aim to point at Paige. "You're all demons and race traitors! I have to kill you all! It's the only way to protect everybody!"
"Riley…" Buffy sighed in frustration as she looked at him, "you're potentially a decent guy, we get that you think you're doing the right thing, and if things had been different, we might have been able to feel sorry for you…"
Then, before Riley could say anything else to react to that, Buffy had stepped forward, grabbed the gun in his hand, yanked it away from him, and punched him in the face, sending him collapsing to the ground with a bleeding nose.
"Unfortunately," the Slayer concluded as she looked down at his unconscious body, a neutral expression on her face as she studied the man she'd thought was just a teaching assistant, "things are the way they are, and all I see when I look at you is a git who can't accept that he's been told is right may be wrong."
"They're all-!" Riley protested, waving his hands desperately at Angel, Spike, Belthazor and Doyle, all of whom were still in their demon faces.
"What; 'not human'?" Willow practically spat as she glared at Riley. "And that automatically makes them bad people? This may be a newsflash for you, Mr Finn, but there are plenty of human beings out there who're absolutely terrible examples of humanity; is it really fair to assume that demons aren't good people just because they've got spikes all over their faces, or because their skin's red rather than 'the human norm', or some other crap like that?"
"And if you even think about listing vampires or something like that as an example of how demons aren't people, than you're going to lose any right you have to even try and convince us to let you live," Buffy added, folding her arms as she stared at Riley. "You're a racist, Riley; you need to accept that. Demons are people too, you know; most of them would be perfectly happy to get by making a living in the world without actually trying to conquer it at the drop of a hat."
"They're all monsters!" Riley protested as he stared back at Buffy. However, it was easy to note that his words lacked the conviction he'd possessed when he started speaking; unfortunately, Buffy couldn't be sure whether that was because he was starting to understand the point she was trying to make or just because his earlier injuries were finally catching up to him. "They all must die, don't you get that? It's the only way the world will ever be safe!"
Sighing in frustration, Buffy glanced over at Piper, raising a frustrated eyebrow as she looked at the witch.
"Do you get the impression he isn't listening to a word I say?" she asked the witch pityingly.
"Yep," Piper nodded.
"Well then," the Slayer said resignedly as she walked towards Riley. "Just one last thing for you to think about, Farm-Boy; if we were 'evil'…"
Mid-sentence, she spun around right in front of Riley, her foot striking the side of his head, sending him collapsing to the ground in a heap.
"You'd be dead instead of unconscious," Buffy stated simply as she looked at Riley's unconscious body, before stretching slightly and looking back at her friends. "Somewhat over-the-top, I know, but it got my point across at least."
"Ouch…" Paige winced, as she glanced at the unconscious body before her before looking back at the Slayer. "Remind me not to make you angry."
"Duly noted," Buffy smiled back at the half-Whitelighter, before her eyes narrowed and she looked back down at Riley. "Well, with pretty much everyone else in this place having been apparently killed, anybody have any recommendations about what we do with him and Walsh?"
"Loony bin," Anya said bluntly.
"Excuse me?" Leo said, looking over at Anya in surprise.
"Well, we can't just let them go with what they know; who's to say they won't refuse to learn their lesson from this mess and try again?" Anya pointed out, her tone of voice as casual as though she was just discussing something on television rather than the outcome of a man's life. "Best bet seems to be stick them in the nuthouse under false names and claim that they're suffering from delusions that demons exist and they're part of a group created to fight; who's going to take them seriously in a mental institution, and how's anyone meant to find them?"
For a moment, the rest of the team looked uncertainly at each other, each of them contemplating the upsides and downsides of doing what Anya had suggested, until, finally, Angel sighed.
"She makes a good point," he said, as he looked down at Riley. "After all, most of the Initiative members probably ended up dead when the Dark triggered that earthquake attack of his; Professor Walsh and Mr Finn here are probably the only surviving members here in Sunnydale. Even if there's somebody higher-up in the pecking order who they're meant to report to somewhere in… I dunno, Washington or wherever these people hang out… is it really likely they'll be that concerned about finding out what happened to a bunch of people who've screwed up this badly?"
Cole nodded grimly.
"It works, you can't deny that," he said, as he looked back at Phoebe. "It's a bit more… extreme than we like to use for humans who get caught up in this whole thing, true, but it's not like they're innocents who got involved by chance; they're professionals who made a mistake and don't seem all that willing to listen to anybody telling them that they're wrong. At least this way we can make sure we won't have to deal with them trying to set up something like this all over again; if everybody involved in the project's vanished, maybe whoever's in charge will realise they shouldn't try something like this ever again."
"Right then," Buffy said, as she reached down to haul Riley's unconscious body over her shoulder, "now that we've got that out of the way, I guess we've only got one little question… what do we all do now?"
Looking between each other, the joint teams of the Scooby Gang, the Charmed Ones, and Angel Investigations knew that it was a valid question.
After the events that had happened here, their lives could never be quite the same as they would have turned out without this alliance against their mutual foes…
But, with each of them having each other to call upon if they ever needed help- because Buffy, for one, was convinced that there would come days when some back-up would be needed to deal with some of the problems they tackled on a daily basis; she could never have defeated the Dark without the help of everyone in this room- how would things turn out?
One thing was for sure, though; whatever else was going to happen, it was going to be very interesting to see what the aftermath of this alliance was on their respective lives…
AN: If you want to know the answer to that little question, stay tuned; in the upcoming epilogue, we jump forward a few years to see just how this whole thing affected the lives of our favourite supernatural heroes, now that they all have each other to depend on when push comes to shove