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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~The Past, Early 2005~
Faith leaned up against the wall watching. She had been staying with Xander and Tara for over a month now and Tara was starting to trust her. The years that she had spent in the Tournament had taught Faith a few things, namely patience and self control and she had not asked or expected anything from them, and because of that she had given and gotten more than she had expected. Faith had been accepted into the household, almost as a sister, and provided security and protection, in return she got acceptance and love, something she had always craved.
Faith noticed something between Xander and Tara and it always reminded her of that Billy Joel song 'Matter of Trust'. They may joke about it sometimes, but the trust they showed each other ran deeper than any connection she had ever seen between two people, even hatred which ran deep.
Because of that acceptance Faith just stood despite the demon in the house, particularly this demon. Xander had left explicit instruction for her not to do anything to the demon, which looked human, until after the ritual and out of sight of Tara.
Faith watched as Xander and Tara performed one of the final stages of the ritual, their blood contribution. Each made a small cross on the inside of their left wrist, pouring a small amount of blood into the ceremonial bowl. When the required amount was given, the demon waved his hand over the cut, sealing it in a cross shaped scar.
The demon mixed the blood and other ingredients in the ceremonial bowl, chanting as he went. After a few seconds, Xander and Tara began to fall asleep, almost floating backwards till they were lying on the floor. Out of each of their slumbering forms came a kind of mist. The mists had an ethereal quality and were mostly a luminescent sliver colour but there were also areas of dark blackness. As the two mists rose, Faith realised that the mists were representations of Xander and Tara's Souls. When the mists reached about five feet above the slumbering forms, with almost invisible threads tracing back down to the bodies, the two distinct mists began to send off streamers to each other, intertwining the two Souls.
After a while, the demon constantly chanting, the two Souls had merged into a single body of swirling mist, and new streamers were starting to come off the edges. Faith watched as the mist separated into two again, with most of the silver elements floating above Tara and most of the black above Xander. The glowing sliver mist, with thin trails of blackness coursing through it slowly began to descend towards Tara's body, while the black mist that had larger trails of sliver, than the black trails in Tara's, began to descend towards Xander. Just before they entered the bodies, Faith noticed that there was a thin silver streamer that connected the two bodies of mist, which became invisible as the mist entered Xander and Tara's bodies.
********
Faith re-entered the apartment after 'escorting' the demon out. Personally she liked it when the bodies disintegrated; it prevented a number of messy questions, plus this particular demon had kept her in captivity, forcing her to fight for her life. Before she had left the room, Xander and Tara had come around from the spell induced coma, and Xander seemed to be taking the darkness quite well, forging the anger, pain and anguish into a force that could be harnessed. Tara had been more her old self, not shy exactly but the terrible burden had been lifted, the only remnant being a slight wariness around her eyes, but trust was extended to Xander and Faith.
As Faith entered the kitchen area, she found Tara looking sad and Xander hanging up the phone with a pain filled expression.
"Joyce is dead." Xander said quietly.
Faith was rocked to the core by this news. Everyone who had ever been a part of the Scooby Gang had seen Joyce Summers as their substitute mother figure, just as Giles had been the father figure. All of the teenagers, except Buffy, had not had a strong maternal influence till they had met Joyce.
Xander was from a household where he was ignored when he was not beaten, similar to Faith's own upbringing before she hit the streets, except he had not suffered as much physical abuse and no sexual abuse, unlike Faith. Willow's parents had been constantly absent, more interested in their own lives that that of their daughter. Oz's stoic exterior was just a way to cover his lack of maternal or paternal influences, growing up basically on his own, while Tara's upbringing was on the same level as Faith's, although she was not sexually abused as a child. Tara and her mother had been treated like slaves by her male kin and her mother had died at a fairly early age. Joyce Summers had become the mother the Scooby Gang never had.
"Pack your things. We're going to the funeral." Xander said, leaving to pack his gear, followed by Tara.
"At least we can say goodbye." Faith whispered before heading to her room to get her gear together.
********
~The Present, 2015~
Xander glanced around and saw Tara struggling slightly against seven vampires and a large demon about seven feet away through the swirling throng of battle. Xander sheathed his Claymore on his back and drew his Axe in his right hand and his mace in his left. He waded through the anarchy of battle attacking anyone and anything that got between him and Tara. Tara was whirling her quarterstaff so fast that it blurred but Xander could tell she was on the defensive and, from the small trickle of blood running from her nose, it looked as if she was magically tapped for the minute.
One of the vampires made a mistake, he overextended in a thrust of the sword he was carrying, allowing Tara to smack the sword away, breaking the vampire's wrist at the same time and counterpoint hitting the side of the head of the demon that was attacking her from the rear. This allowed Tara time to stake the disarmed vampire with the end of her quarterstaff while Xander, who had just arrived at her location, decapitated the demon with his axe and crushed the scull of a vampire with his mace. Tara staked the skull crushed Vampire then forced three vampires back, whirling her staff extremely fast, Xander took this opportunity to calmly place his axe and mace though their loops in his belt, crescent kick a nearby enemy vampire and draw his Claymore. He stepped in, fighting back to back with Tara, her staff and his sword equally deadly to anyone who tried to attack them.
Out of the corner of his eye, Xander spotted Faith fighting beside on of their two dozen senior most commanders, who had seventy-three mid-level commanders directly under her. Getting back into the fight directly in front of him, Xander idly noticed that small connection that he had with Tara, the subconscious reason he had looked for her moments ago, and still a slightly strange feeling even after ten years.
********
~The Past, Early 2005~
The funeral of Joyce Summers was a fairly large affair, especially since it was being held after dark. Buffy, Giles and Willow stood in a small clump in the front of the crowd. Opposite them stood Xander, Tara and Faith. Near the Sunnydale gang stood the LA gang, Angel, Wesley, Cordelia, Gunn and Fred. Graham, with a small security detachment, and the other four surviving members of the HC stood near Xander's group. Among the crowd, Oz and Spike were also noticeable, but there were many adults that Joyce had know, mostly through the Gallery, and a fair number of teens that Joyce had helped in her volunteer work as a crisis counsellor. The silence and the tension in the air felt like it could be cut with knife.
After a few minutes, the priest did his part of the funeral and asked of anyone who wished to speak about the deceased. For a long moment, no one moved, and then Xander made his way to the podium.
"Joyce Summers was an amazing woman who will be deeply missed. I know that for us younger adults, like Faith, Tara, Willow, Oz, and myself, even to Graham, Mickey, Paul, Adam and David, although to a much lesser extent, Joyce was like a mother to us." Xander said, indicating to the Scooby Gang and the former HC members as he named them.
"For most of us, our home lives were precarious at best, downright awful in some cases, but when our group, the Scooby Gang came together, we were family. Joyce was the mother, she pampered us and made us feel loved, Giles was the father, answer man and the one we could turn to when we had problems. Faith, Tara, Willow, Oz, Cordy and I joined Buffy, Joyce's daughter, as the siblings of the family.
"Things were not always easy in this makeshift family but Joyce meant more to her adopted children that anyone else in the world and we realised how lucky we were to have met such an amazing woman who selflessly cared for all those around her, something I don't think that her own daughter appreciated as much because she had never seen the darker side of parent/child relationships. Joyce Summers was a true ray of light in the darkness that often seemed so black, she gave selflessly of herself and never asked anything in return. Her death is a tragedy and the world is a poorer place without her in it."
Xander stepped down from the podium into a contemplative silence. He walked back to Tara and Faith, wrapping an arm around Tara. The crowd began the procession of placing a rose on Joyce's casket as the filed past, as everyone, except Buffy, thought that Xander had said everything that needed to be said.
Buffy on the other hand was just angry, in her mind the only one who was entitled to speak were Giles, because he had ended up marrying Joyce, though she chose to keep her own name, and herself as she was Joyce's daughter. End of story. Other reasons why she was angry, though she did not admit to them, ranged from Xander's appearance with both Tara, acting intimately, and Faith, the homicidal rogue bitch Slayer to the fact that he had effectively said that she did not understand her own mother. Buffy practically threw her rose on the casket and stormed out of the cemetery in a rage as the other mourners drifted off, Giles and Willow following Buffy.
Xander, Tara and Faith walked back to the motel that they were staying at for this short stay in Sunnydale in silence.
"Pack your things. We're leaving in the morning." Xander said as they arrived at the adjoining rooms they were staying in.
"We heading back to New York?" Faith asked.
"No." Xander said. "We're going to Europe."
Xander put his arm around Tara and they went into their room to comfort each other on the loss of their mother figure, laving Faith to enter her room and deal with it alone.
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~The Past, Early 2005~
Faith leaned up against the wall watching. She had been staying with Xander and Tara for over a month now and Tara was starting to trust her. The years that she had spent in the Tournament had taught Faith a few things, namely patience and self control and she had not asked or expected anything from them, and because of that she had given and gotten more than she had expected. Faith had been accepted into the household, almost as a sister, and provided security and protection, in return she got acceptance and love, something she had always craved.
Faith noticed something between Xander and Tara and it always reminded her of that Billy Joel song 'Matter of Trust'. They may joke about it sometimes, but the trust they showed each other ran deeper than any connection she had ever seen between two people, even hatred which ran deep.
Because of that acceptance Faith just stood despite the demon in the house, particularly this demon. Xander had left explicit instruction for her not to do anything to the demon, which looked human, until after the ritual and out of sight of Tara.
Faith watched as Xander and Tara performed one of the final stages of the ritual, their blood contribution. Each made a small cross on the inside of their left wrist, pouring a small amount of blood into the ceremonial bowl. When the required amount was given, the demon waved his hand over the cut, sealing it in a cross shaped scar.
The demon mixed the blood and other ingredients in the ceremonial bowl, chanting as he went. After a few seconds, Xander and Tara began to fall asleep, almost floating backwards till they were lying on the floor. Out of each of their slumbering forms came a kind of mist. The mists had an ethereal quality and were mostly a luminescent sliver colour but there were also areas of dark blackness. As the two mists rose, Faith realised that the mists were representations of Xander and Tara's Souls. When the mists reached about five feet above the slumbering forms, with almost invisible threads tracing back down to the bodies, the two distinct mists began to send off streamers to each other, intertwining the two Souls.
After a while, the demon constantly chanting, the two Souls had merged into a single body of swirling mist, and new streamers were starting to come off the edges. Faith watched as the mist separated into two again, with most of the silver elements floating above Tara and most of the black above Xander. The glowing sliver mist, with thin trails of blackness coursing through it slowly began to descend towards Tara's body, while the black mist that had larger trails of sliver, than the black trails in Tara's, began to descend towards Xander. Just before they entered the bodies, Faith noticed that there was a thin silver streamer that connected the two bodies of mist, which became invisible as the mist entered Xander and Tara's bodies.
********
Faith re-entered the apartment after 'escorting' the demon out. Personally she liked it when the bodies disintegrated; it prevented a number of messy questions, plus this particular demon had kept her in captivity, forcing her to fight for her life. Before she had left the room, Xander and Tara had come around from the spell induced coma, and Xander seemed to be taking the darkness quite well, forging the anger, pain and anguish into a force that could be harnessed. Tara had been more her old self, not shy exactly but the terrible burden had been lifted, the only remnant being a slight wariness around her eyes, but trust was extended to Xander and Faith.
As Faith entered the kitchen area, she found Tara looking sad and Xander hanging up the phone with a pain filled expression.
"Joyce is dead." Xander said quietly.
Faith was rocked to the core by this news. Everyone who had ever been a part of the Scooby Gang had seen Joyce Summers as their substitute mother figure, just as Giles had been the father figure. All of the teenagers, except Buffy, had not had a strong maternal influence till they had met Joyce.
Xander was from a household where he was ignored when he was not beaten, similar to Faith's own upbringing before she hit the streets, except he had not suffered as much physical abuse and no sexual abuse, unlike Faith. Willow's parents had been constantly absent, more interested in their own lives that that of their daughter. Oz's stoic exterior was just a way to cover his lack of maternal or paternal influences, growing up basically on his own, while Tara's upbringing was on the same level as Faith's, although she was not sexually abused as a child. Tara and her mother had been treated like slaves by her male kin and her mother had died at a fairly early age. Joyce Summers had become the mother the Scooby Gang never had.
"Pack your things. We're going to the funeral." Xander said, leaving to pack his gear, followed by Tara.
"At least we can say goodbye." Faith whispered before heading to her room to get her gear together.
********
~The Present, 2015~
Xander glanced around and saw Tara struggling slightly against seven vampires and a large demon about seven feet away through the swirling throng of battle. Xander sheathed his Claymore on his back and drew his Axe in his right hand and his mace in his left. He waded through the anarchy of battle attacking anyone and anything that got between him and Tara. Tara was whirling her quarterstaff so fast that it blurred but Xander could tell she was on the defensive and, from the small trickle of blood running from her nose, it looked as if she was magically tapped for the minute.
One of the vampires made a mistake, he overextended in a thrust of the sword he was carrying, allowing Tara to smack the sword away, breaking the vampire's wrist at the same time and counterpoint hitting the side of the head of the demon that was attacking her from the rear. This allowed Tara time to stake the disarmed vampire with the end of her quarterstaff while Xander, who had just arrived at her location, decapitated the demon with his axe and crushed the scull of a vampire with his mace. Tara staked the skull crushed Vampire then forced three vampires back, whirling her staff extremely fast, Xander took this opportunity to calmly place his axe and mace though their loops in his belt, crescent kick a nearby enemy vampire and draw his Claymore. He stepped in, fighting back to back with Tara, her staff and his sword equally deadly to anyone who tried to attack them.
Out of the corner of his eye, Xander spotted Faith fighting beside on of their two dozen senior most commanders, who had seventy-three mid-level commanders directly under her. Getting back into the fight directly in front of him, Xander idly noticed that small connection that he had with Tara, the subconscious reason he had looked for her moments ago, and still a slightly strange feeling even after ten years.
********
~The Past, Early 2005~
The funeral of Joyce Summers was a fairly large affair, especially since it was being held after dark. Buffy, Giles and Willow stood in a small clump in the front of the crowd. Opposite them stood Xander, Tara and Faith. Near the Sunnydale gang stood the LA gang, Angel, Wesley, Cordelia, Gunn and Fred. Graham, with a small security detachment, and the other four surviving members of the HC stood near Xander's group. Among the crowd, Oz and Spike were also noticeable, but there were many adults that Joyce had know, mostly through the Gallery, and a fair number of teens that Joyce had helped in her volunteer work as a crisis counsellor. The silence and the tension in the air felt like it could be cut with knife.
After a few minutes, the priest did his part of the funeral and asked of anyone who wished to speak about the deceased. For a long moment, no one moved, and then Xander made his way to the podium.
"Joyce Summers was an amazing woman who will be deeply missed. I know that for us younger adults, like Faith, Tara, Willow, Oz, and myself, even to Graham, Mickey, Paul, Adam and David, although to a much lesser extent, Joyce was like a mother to us." Xander said, indicating to the Scooby Gang and the former HC members as he named them.
"For most of us, our home lives were precarious at best, downright awful in some cases, but when our group, the Scooby Gang came together, we were family. Joyce was the mother, she pampered us and made us feel loved, Giles was the father, answer man and the one we could turn to when we had problems. Faith, Tara, Willow, Oz, Cordy and I joined Buffy, Joyce's daughter, as the siblings of the family.
"Things were not always easy in this makeshift family but Joyce meant more to her adopted children that anyone else in the world and we realised how lucky we were to have met such an amazing woman who selflessly cared for all those around her, something I don't think that her own daughter appreciated as much because she had never seen the darker side of parent/child relationships. Joyce Summers was a true ray of light in the darkness that often seemed so black, she gave selflessly of herself and never asked anything in return. Her death is a tragedy and the world is a poorer place without her in it."
Xander stepped down from the podium into a contemplative silence. He walked back to Tara and Faith, wrapping an arm around Tara. The crowd began the procession of placing a rose on Joyce's casket as the filed past, as everyone, except Buffy, thought that Xander had said everything that needed to be said.
Buffy on the other hand was just angry, in her mind the only one who was entitled to speak were Giles, because he had ended up marrying Joyce, though she chose to keep her own name, and herself as she was Joyce's daughter. End of story. Other reasons why she was angry, though she did not admit to them, ranged from Xander's appearance with both Tara, acting intimately, and Faith, the homicidal rogue bitch Slayer to the fact that he had effectively said that she did not understand her own mother. Buffy practically threw her rose on the casket and stormed out of the cemetery in a rage as the other mourners drifted off, Giles and Willow following Buffy.
Xander, Tara and Faith walked back to the motel that they were staying at for this short stay in Sunnydale in silence.
"Pack your things. We're leaving in the morning." Xander said as they arrived at the adjoining rooms they were staying in.
"We heading back to New York?" Faith asked.
"No." Xander said. "We're going to Europe."
Xander put his arm around Tara and they went into their room to comfort each other on the loss of their mother figure, laving Faith to enter her room and deal with it alone.
TBC.