Title: Cry Havoc Once More
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: First four series of Buffy with some elements of five and six.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy. I would buy it but I am broke.
Summary: The final battle is about to be joined and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Friends will become enemies and enemies will become friends. A look at the final battle and the path that lead to it. (Multi Crossovers)
AN: Generally I really like Buffy and I usually write B/X fics, but for this fic I have decided to incorporate and focus on one aspect of Buffy's personality that I usually overlook or tone down. Also no Glory or Dawn.
AN2: OK. I understand how everyone believes that Xand and Tara are not evil, just remember there is still well over a decade between 'now' and the confrontation in the first chapter. All will become clear in time. *Smirk* :) As Robert Jordan says, 'read and find out'. Thanx for the reviews.
AN3: There are depictions of post-rape victims in this chapter. While I have never met any rape victims, something I neither condone or wish upon anyone, I imagine that it is the most traumatic even of a person's life and that they would have serious trust issues afterwards. This is what I am trying to portray here and I apologise if I fall short of the traumatic reality.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Present, 2015~
Faith finished sharpening her swords and moved on to cleaning her armour. She had followed this ritual every night since the battle had begun, three days prior. She slowly ran the cleaning cloth across one of her shin guards, absently noticing the pattern. Each of the spikes was shaped into a thorn or bramble and the leather was engraved with the intertwining leaves of dozens of species of plants with thorns from roses to brambles. The bracers had a different design, with poison oak and poison ivy leaves engraved around the edge of the leather and etched along the edge of the blades. They also had large dragons inlayed in the centre of the leather. The design on her shoulder guards at first looked like chaos, but when you looked closely it was a giant battle scene, reproduced in miniature, with tiny figures frozen in the midst of combat.
Faith realised that she had been lost in the designs when someone was at the tent flap. She told them to enter, and the laundry boy dropped off her leathers and left. She looked at her now clean armour and wondered if she would get to fight the third Slayer. She really wanted a go at B, but Xander had indicated that he wanted to kill her himself. Subconsciously rubbing the almost invisible scar across her abdomen, Faith studied her armour, remembering the day that she had died, wearing armour that became the model for her current set.
********
~The Past, Late 2003~
Faith stood waiting to enter the arena. She was dressed in her full battle armour, two spiked shin guard, two bladed bracers, two one handed swords and full, spiked shoulder guards. When she had made it into the demon competition two moths prior, the organisers had decided that, due to the fact the demons had natural armour and weaponry, Faith would be allowed to use armour and weapons. The gate in front of Faith opened and she cracked her neck before stepping through.
When she jumped down into the pit, she saw her demon opponent for the first time. She swore silently to herself and knew that one of the big punters had arranged this match because they lost big on one of her previous four demon matches. The demon she was facing was powerful, with four arms, which had serrated beak like structures in place of hands, and tough armour like skin. Faith fought hard, harder than she usually did, the kind of fighting she usually saved for stopping, or bringing about, an apocalypse. Faith madly used her bracers to block blows, parrying with her swords, until she saw an opening.
If she was fighting a vampire or almost any other demon she would have won easily at this point, but she forgot that his demon had four arms. She drove one of her swords deep into the demon's abdomen while blocking an arm with the other, that's when one of its lower arms slashed across her stomach. Pushing through the pain, she used her two swords to decapitate the demon while it was still ripping through her flesh. Now that the match was over, doctors rushed into the pit and carried Faith off to their medical facility that was better equipped than most major hospitals.
While they were more than willing to let you die in the pit, once the match was over the organisers went to extreme measures to heal and keep the fighters healthy. The surgeons worked for hours repairing the damage done to Faith and did a good job, however at one point during surgery Faith's heart stopped. While they managed to get it started again strait away, no one involved fully grasped what this event meant, they were more concerned about how long Faith would be out of the pit.
Meanwhile, halfway around the world, a young teenage girl suddenly felt remarkable good, an unexplainable sense of strength and euphoria. Little did she know that she had just been called as the Slayer and that she would be dead in under a month.
********
"No! Absolutely not!" Xander said emphatically into the phone. "I don't care what you were. She does not trust you; she may never trust you again. *Pause* Look Willow, I know you love her, but she is still fragile and she needs people she trusts. That is me, not you. *Another Pause* You know what? Fuck you, Wills. She was repeatedly raped by her fucking brother and all you care about is getting her back into the sack. I swear that if you come near her before she wants to see you, which may be never, I will not be kind to you, hell I'll kill you if I have to. Same goes for Buffy. Goodbye."
Xander slammed the phone into its cradle. He turned from the phone and walked through the very spacious New York apartment. Xander himself had redone the interior design so that it allowed for a reasonable size dojo in addition to the usual bedrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room. Xander walked into the dojo and watched as Tara worked on her quarterstaff forms under the instructions of her teacher. Tara was still afraid of people due to her experiences. Six months ago, Xander had rescued Tara from being kidnapped by her abusive family. She had suffered over two months of constant beatings, torture and rape. Xander had personally made sure that they would never do anything like that ever again. He had kept them alive for five hours, and that was saying something as many of the things he had done could quickly kill the victim. To his utter disgust, they had started begging for death after only twenty minutes, before he had even gotten into the swing of things.
Even now, six months down the line, Tara would not interact with others unless Xander was present or close by. To make it easier on her, Xander had hired only heterosexual women to interact with Tara, thereby taking any perceived pressure of sex out of all equations, and he also required them all to come to the apartment, so that Tara would not have to be exposed to a lot of people. While Tara had her own bedroom, it was not unusual to find her sleeping with Xander in the middle of the night. This was not sexual, however, it was because he was her safe place, where all the pain and memories faded away and she could forget those horrible two months.
Xander always made sure that the instructors knew the rules before they ever came into contact with Tara. One of the major rules regarded touching. There was to be no touching without Tara's consent and the trainer had to explain the reason for the contact and what they were going to do before hand, if it was a ritual or something that happened often, then the expiation can be skipped once Tara is used to it, but she must still be told what was going to happen.
The quarterstaff instructor left and Xander went into the kitchen to cook lunch, with Tara sitting on a stool at the counter, quietly watching him. He noted that she looked at him from under her hair, with her head bowed, like she used to when she was first introduced to the Scooby Gang. While they ate, Tara enjoyed the comfortable silence and the familiar presence that came from Xander. She still saw the gentle young man who would die to protect her.
What she did not see, as it never appeared when she was around, was the jaded man that he had become. Whenever he fought it was viciously, almost as if he became a berserker, the fabled Norse warriors who went into a battle rage that made them strong and brutal. He searched relentlessly for anything that he though might help her, techniques that could be taught to him, as her protector, or Tara herself; spells that could possibly help, people to teach her magic, either defensive or offensive. (AN: that's where you use magic to swear at people a long way away. Just kidding.) It did not matter to Xander where the help came from or what it would cost him, as long as it could protect Tara.
The new instructor arrived after lunch. As a Christmas present to Tara, Xander had offered to get an instructor for her in anything she wanted to learn, strangely she chose knife throwing. Xander explained the rules one last time to the new instructor then showed her into the dojo. Xander went to the far side of the dojo to perform his sword routines while Tara and the new girl got started. After a while he switched to his meditations, first looking inwards and then looking outwards. Xander was suddenly pulled out of his meditative trance by Tara's voice.
"No."
Xander opened his eyes and saw the new instructor holding on the Tara' wrist while she was trying to pull away. In an instant, Xander bolted across the room, grabbed the new instructor and slammed her into a wall with her arms pinned behind her.
"What? I was just trying to show her something." The instructor pleaded.
"I told you. Ask first and never without her permission. You have to earn her trust, she's been through more than you can imagine." Xander growled.
"Like what?" The instructor shot back.
She had live a fairly rough life (by normal not Sunnydale standards) and though that she had seen a lot.
"Do you want me to show you? You want to be afraid for the rest of you life?" Xander said, anger dripping from his voice.
"Xander, no." Tara squeaked.
Xander looked over at her and saw fear in her eyes. He quickly released the instructor.
"You're fired." He said, before turning to face Tara.
As he turned, the former instructor quickly gathered her stuff and left.
"I'm sorry, Tara. It's just I get so angry when someone tries to hurt you. All I want is to protect you." Xander said.
It was the sincerity in his eyes that made her believe him, as well as some instinct that told her that he would never have gone through with his threat.
They spent the rest of the afternoon just quietly sitting with each other.
TBC
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: First four series of Buffy with some elements of five and six.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy. I would buy it but I am broke.
Summary: The final battle is about to be joined and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Friends will become enemies and enemies will become friends. A look at the final battle and the path that lead to it. (Multi Crossovers)
AN: Generally I really like Buffy and I usually write B/X fics, but for this fic I have decided to incorporate and focus on one aspect of Buffy's personality that I usually overlook or tone down. Also no Glory or Dawn.
AN2: OK. I understand how everyone believes that Xand and Tara are not evil, just remember there is still well over a decade between 'now' and the confrontation in the first chapter. All will become clear in time. *Smirk* :) As Robert Jordan says, 'read and find out'. Thanx for the reviews.
AN3: There are depictions of post-rape victims in this chapter. While I have never met any rape victims, something I neither condone or wish upon anyone, I imagine that it is the most traumatic even of a person's life and that they would have serious trust issues afterwards. This is what I am trying to portray here and I apologise if I fall short of the traumatic reality.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Present, 2015~
Faith finished sharpening her swords and moved on to cleaning her armour. She had followed this ritual every night since the battle had begun, three days prior. She slowly ran the cleaning cloth across one of her shin guards, absently noticing the pattern. Each of the spikes was shaped into a thorn or bramble and the leather was engraved with the intertwining leaves of dozens of species of plants with thorns from roses to brambles. The bracers had a different design, with poison oak and poison ivy leaves engraved around the edge of the leather and etched along the edge of the blades. They also had large dragons inlayed in the centre of the leather. The design on her shoulder guards at first looked like chaos, but when you looked closely it was a giant battle scene, reproduced in miniature, with tiny figures frozen in the midst of combat.
Faith realised that she had been lost in the designs when someone was at the tent flap. She told them to enter, and the laundry boy dropped off her leathers and left. She looked at her now clean armour and wondered if she would get to fight the third Slayer. She really wanted a go at B, but Xander had indicated that he wanted to kill her himself. Subconsciously rubbing the almost invisible scar across her abdomen, Faith studied her armour, remembering the day that she had died, wearing armour that became the model for her current set.
********
~The Past, Late 2003~
Faith stood waiting to enter the arena. She was dressed in her full battle armour, two spiked shin guard, two bladed bracers, two one handed swords and full, spiked shoulder guards. When she had made it into the demon competition two moths prior, the organisers had decided that, due to the fact the demons had natural armour and weaponry, Faith would be allowed to use armour and weapons. The gate in front of Faith opened and she cracked her neck before stepping through.
When she jumped down into the pit, she saw her demon opponent for the first time. She swore silently to herself and knew that one of the big punters had arranged this match because they lost big on one of her previous four demon matches. The demon she was facing was powerful, with four arms, which had serrated beak like structures in place of hands, and tough armour like skin. Faith fought hard, harder than she usually did, the kind of fighting she usually saved for stopping, or bringing about, an apocalypse. Faith madly used her bracers to block blows, parrying with her swords, until she saw an opening.
If she was fighting a vampire or almost any other demon she would have won easily at this point, but she forgot that his demon had four arms. She drove one of her swords deep into the demon's abdomen while blocking an arm with the other, that's when one of its lower arms slashed across her stomach. Pushing through the pain, she used her two swords to decapitate the demon while it was still ripping through her flesh. Now that the match was over, doctors rushed into the pit and carried Faith off to their medical facility that was better equipped than most major hospitals.
While they were more than willing to let you die in the pit, once the match was over the organisers went to extreme measures to heal and keep the fighters healthy. The surgeons worked for hours repairing the damage done to Faith and did a good job, however at one point during surgery Faith's heart stopped. While they managed to get it started again strait away, no one involved fully grasped what this event meant, they were more concerned about how long Faith would be out of the pit.
Meanwhile, halfway around the world, a young teenage girl suddenly felt remarkable good, an unexplainable sense of strength and euphoria. Little did she know that she had just been called as the Slayer and that she would be dead in under a month.
********
"No! Absolutely not!" Xander said emphatically into the phone. "I don't care what you were. She does not trust you; she may never trust you again. *Pause* Look Willow, I know you love her, but she is still fragile and she needs people she trusts. That is me, not you. *Another Pause* You know what? Fuck you, Wills. She was repeatedly raped by her fucking brother and all you care about is getting her back into the sack. I swear that if you come near her before she wants to see you, which may be never, I will not be kind to you, hell I'll kill you if I have to. Same goes for Buffy. Goodbye."
Xander slammed the phone into its cradle. He turned from the phone and walked through the very spacious New York apartment. Xander himself had redone the interior design so that it allowed for a reasonable size dojo in addition to the usual bedrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room. Xander walked into the dojo and watched as Tara worked on her quarterstaff forms under the instructions of her teacher. Tara was still afraid of people due to her experiences. Six months ago, Xander had rescued Tara from being kidnapped by her abusive family. She had suffered over two months of constant beatings, torture and rape. Xander had personally made sure that they would never do anything like that ever again. He had kept them alive for five hours, and that was saying something as many of the things he had done could quickly kill the victim. To his utter disgust, they had started begging for death after only twenty minutes, before he had even gotten into the swing of things.
Even now, six months down the line, Tara would not interact with others unless Xander was present or close by. To make it easier on her, Xander had hired only heterosexual women to interact with Tara, thereby taking any perceived pressure of sex out of all equations, and he also required them all to come to the apartment, so that Tara would not have to be exposed to a lot of people. While Tara had her own bedroom, it was not unusual to find her sleeping with Xander in the middle of the night. This was not sexual, however, it was because he was her safe place, where all the pain and memories faded away and she could forget those horrible two months.
Xander always made sure that the instructors knew the rules before they ever came into contact with Tara. One of the major rules regarded touching. There was to be no touching without Tara's consent and the trainer had to explain the reason for the contact and what they were going to do before hand, if it was a ritual or something that happened often, then the expiation can be skipped once Tara is used to it, but she must still be told what was going to happen.
The quarterstaff instructor left and Xander went into the kitchen to cook lunch, with Tara sitting on a stool at the counter, quietly watching him. He noted that she looked at him from under her hair, with her head bowed, like she used to when she was first introduced to the Scooby Gang. While they ate, Tara enjoyed the comfortable silence and the familiar presence that came from Xander. She still saw the gentle young man who would die to protect her.
What she did not see, as it never appeared when she was around, was the jaded man that he had become. Whenever he fought it was viciously, almost as if he became a berserker, the fabled Norse warriors who went into a battle rage that made them strong and brutal. He searched relentlessly for anything that he though might help her, techniques that could be taught to him, as her protector, or Tara herself; spells that could possibly help, people to teach her magic, either defensive or offensive. (AN: that's where you use magic to swear at people a long way away. Just kidding.) It did not matter to Xander where the help came from or what it would cost him, as long as it could protect Tara.
The new instructor arrived after lunch. As a Christmas present to Tara, Xander had offered to get an instructor for her in anything she wanted to learn, strangely she chose knife throwing. Xander explained the rules one last time to the new instructor then showed her into the dojo. Xander went to the far side of the dojo to perform his sword routines while Tara and the new girl got started. After a while he switched to his meditations, first looking inwards and then looking outwards. Xander was suddenly pulled out of his meditative trance by Tara's voice.
"No."
Xander opened his eyes and saw the new instructor holding on the Tara' wrist while she was trying to pull away. In an instant, Xander bolted across the room, grabbed the new instructor and slammed her into a wall with her arms pinned behind her.
"What? I was just trying to show her something." The instructor pleaded.
"I told you. Ask first and never without her permission. You have to earn her trust, she's been through more than you can imagine." Xander growled.
"Like what?" The instructor shot back.
She had live a fairly rough life (by normal not Sunnydale standards) and though that she had seen a lot.
"Do you want me to show you? You want to be afraid for the rest of you life?" Xander said, anger dripping from his voice.
"Xander, no." Tara squeaked.
Xander looked over at her and saw fear in her eyes. He quickly released the instructor.
"You're fired." He said, before turning to face Tara.
As he turned, the former instructor quickly gathered her stuff and left.
"I'm sorry, Tara. It's just I get so angry when someone tries to hurt you. All I want is to protect you." Xander said.
It was the sincerity in his eyes that made her believe him, as well as some instinct that told her that he would never have gone through with his threat.
They spent the rest of the afternoon just quietly sitting with each other.
TBC