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. I don't own any story or non original characters mentioned here.
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: Major apologies for the long wait on this fic. My muse has been going off on tangents and this fic got overlooked for about 8 months.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~The Past, Early 2005~
Xander packed the last of the suitcases into the back of the Taxi. It was the day after Joyce Summers' Funeral and he, along with Tara and Faith, were leaving Sunnydale again. Xander turned and caught a full arm slap with full Slayer strength behind it to the side of his face, sending him sprawling across the pavement and bitumen.
"YOU BASTARD!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!" the irate blond Slayer screamed with amazing lung capacity for such a petite woman. "How dare you even imply that I did not know her. She was my mother, and you will never know how mu.."
"Silence!" Tara said commandingly, and magically stopping Buffy's voice.
Buffy stared in shock at the Blonde Witch, whose eyes had gone black.
"You really did not know how truly special she was, or how lucky you were. You had everything that we ever wanted in a home life, and you have no idea how many times you almost fucked it up!! Xander and I both stopped your mother throwing you out when you were acting like a total bitch. You better hope we never meet again, or you will regret it." Tara's soft voice held anger and power beyond anything that Buffy had ever heard before.
"Ditto." Faith added as she and Tara helped Xander into the taxi.
Tara waved her had at Buffy as the cab pulled away, releasing the Slayer's voice.
********
~ The Present, 2015 ~
Xander looked over his army, now only ninety-seven thousand strong, but Buffy's army had also been cut down by attrition to about the same size. The battle had moved in the three weeks since it had started, as attested by the seventeen mile long swathe of broken and bloody ground. Although the battle had moved, neither side had gained any ground; the battle had just rolled sideways as the ground became unsuitable for battle. The crucial stage of the battle was just beginning. Before, with so many combatants on either side, it had simply been kill everyone from the enemy camp you can. Now strategy was involved, and that made the battle more dangerous. Two days ago both sides had started 'night' raids into enemy camps and now the battle lines were visible, as opposed to the multi mile fronts when the battle had started.
Most days Tara, with some of their Army's finest commanders, directed the battle from a small hill behind Xander's lines, using runners or radios to communicate with the field commanders (more often using runners as it is harder to get a message from a runner, alive or dead, than to pick it up off the airwaves). The five best immortals, of the fifteen who had survived so far, stood guard whenever Tara was directing the battle. On some occasions, Tara joined in the battle, but now she never stayed more than three feet from Xander, knowing that as the numbers of the armies reduced, Buffy and her elite would be gunning for Xander, Tara and Faith. Tara's flair for directing battle had come from Xander's soldier memories, which had been shared ten years ago.
When Tara was not directing the battle, the duty felt to her protégé, a wand witch in her late twenties, who had a brilliant mind and the courage to fight, as well as lead. Yes, Hermione Granger was one of their best strategists.
Tara stood on the hill today, and while Xander was glad she was safe, he missed being near her. Xander cracked his neck and looked at Faith.
"You ready?" he asked.
"Always, but don't we have a fight to start?" Faith replied with a grin.
Xander just shook his head. As he slowly drew his Claymore, Faith let her swords roll over the back of her hands in a tight circle, first the left then the right sword.
"For Tara!" Xander screamed, raising his sword over his head.
"For Tara!" his army echoed.
The tide of darkness descended on the shield of light, who stood stunned for a second then raised their own war cry and charged.
"The Light!"
The two armies clashed and the sound of battle raged. Through a small gap Xander saw a familiar figure.
"Faith! Keep an eye on the left, I'll be right back." Xander called.
Xander approached the figure as it sliced one of his demons in half, not that the demon mattered to Xander.
"Hey Deadboy." Xander challenged.
Angel whirled to face Xander, his trademark duster swirling. Angel brought up his bastard sword (couldn't help myself, the guy's a prick) and an axe. Xander simply nodded, sheathed his Claymore and drew his Axe and Mace; he wanted to face Angel in a fair fight. They closed the distance, the Black Knight facing off against the Champion.
********
"Faith! Keep an eye on the left, I'll be right back."
Faith grunted when she heard Xander's shout, partly from what he said and partly because she was blocking a powerful blow with her left hand sword. Twisting, and slicing the opposing demon's guts open, Faith glanced to the left flank of her section. There she saw a fifteen year old girl laying waist to demons and vampires.
'The third Slayer. Damn, how does the X-man do that?' she thought, rushing to intercept her.
"Leave this one to me boys." She told the demons, who backed off.
"So, you're Faith?" the teen said.
"Yep, and you're the third." Faith said, slashing at the other Slayer.
"Name's Cat." She said, blocking Faith's slash with her fighting stick.
Cat launched an attack with her sword, while putting her fighting stick away, and drawing a wicked looking dagger.
"Heard this was yours." Cat said, parrying a blow with the dagger.
"Just want you to know I'll get that back." Faith said.
Faith and Cat let lose, Slayer versus Slayer.
********
~The Past, Early 2007 ~
Xander, Tara and Faith approached the manor house carefully. Word on the street was that the residents were evil, they had killed indiscriminately and were said to be inhuman. Those less concerned with the court system and Jeopardy, those who knew what lay in the darkness, said that it housed one of the three largest repositories of mystical knowledge in Great Brittan, along with the Watchers Council and a School that no one seemed to know where it was located. For the last two years, ever since Joyce Summers' funeral, the three of them had searched Europe, searched for anything that would help their 'family' to survive, to help Tara most of all. While they had found many weapons and spells and such, the search had been generally fruitless, till they had learned about the manor in front of them.
Sneaking up to one of the second story windows by way of the balcony roof, Faith jimmied it open and they climbed inside.
"Sounds like a meeting downstairs. Want to crash?" Faith whispered.
Tara nodded shyly, Xander just smirked. Xander pulled a crossbow off his back and they stalked to the door. The door led to a small walkway that looked over a large hall. In the hall a large group of people in black robes stood facing a 'man' seated on a large chair on a small podium. The 'man' in the chair had a head that looked like it was half snake and was preaching about purity and extermination of the 'Muggles' and killing some person called Harry Potter. After about a minute of the speech, Xander got bored and shot the 'man' through the heart with his crossbow.
"Man, that guy was boring the hell out of me!" he said loudly.
"They killed Lord Voldermort. Get them!" one of the black robed figures said.
The mass of black robed figures turned and pointed what looked to Xander to be long, thin, blunt stakes.
"SILENCE!" Tara commanded, and the black robes all lost their voices.
With a wave of her hand, Tara summoned all the wands from the shocked black robes. Some of the black robes charged.
"All yours Faith." Xander said casually.
Faith just smiled and intercepted the dozed charging black robes. They were all down in under ten seconds, with broken bones and such. They quickly herded all the, now complacent, black robes into a small storage room with only one door and no windows. Tara spelled the door so that only one of the three of them could open it.
"Tara, look for the library. Faith, have a look around." Xander said.
After an hour, Tara had found the library and they were moving out the books, with the help of the thirty odd prisoners that they had released. The prisoners seemed ecstatic that the snake-man was dead. One, a young woman almost twenty by the name of Hermione Granger had explained about the Wizarding World and how the black robes were Deatheaters. Thirty minutes later, they had removed all the pertinent books and the former prisoners were going back to their lives. Hermione and several of the others said to contact them if they ever needed any help, and left contact details.
********
~ Present, 2015 ~
Xander spared a second to spit into the ashes that used to be Angel, returning his Axe and Mace to his belt and drawing his Claymore as he did. Angel had simply underestimated the former Scooby, not having seen him in action for over fifteen years.
"Told you I'd be there." He said to the ashes as he turned away, decapitating a demon that was about to attack him as he did.
********
Faith snapped Cat's arm, causing her to drop the dagger. Faith forced Cat back by a brutal assault, which Cat barely deflected with her sword. Faith kicked Cat, a spin kick but as she kicked Cat she dropped her body low opposite to her kick, supported by one bent leg, sheathing one sword and grabbing the dagger as she spun. Cat reeled from the kick long enough for Faith, a veteran of the Tournament, to drive the dagger into Cat's heart.
"Told you I'd get this back." She whispered, before pulling the dagger and letting Cat drop.
Faith put the dagger in the back of her pants, pulled her one sheathed sword, and started laying waste to the enemies around her.
********
"Damn!" Buffy screamed.
She was standing on the hillside directing the battle, and had just seen Xander kill Angel and Faith kill Cat. Two of her best warriors had just been cut down.
"Get me my weapons, and some light armour." Buffy ordered.
"Buffy, wait. The day's almost over, you wont reach the battle in time to do any good." Giles said.
Buffy went off in a rage, basically leaving Giles and Dumbledore to direct the battle.
'Agh. When did everything go so wrong?' Buffy thought to herself.
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. I don't own any story or non original characters mentioned here.
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: Major apologies for the long wait on this fic. My muse has been going off on tangents and this fic got overlooked for about 8 months.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~The Past, Early 2005~
Xander packed the last of the suitcases into the back of the Taxi. It was the day after Joyce Summers' Funeral and he, along with Tara and Faith, were leaving Sunnydale again. Xander turned and caught a full arm slap with full Slayer strength behind it to the side of his face, sending him sprawling across the pavement and bitumen.
"YOU BASTARD!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!" the irate blond Slayer screamed with amazing lung capacity for such a petite woman. "How dare you even imply that I did not know her. She was my mother, and you will never know how mu.."
"Silence!" Tara said commandingly, and magically stopping Buffy's voice.
Buffy stared in shock at the Blonde Witch, whose eyes had gone black.
"You really did not know how truly special she was, or how lucky you were. You had everything that we ever wanted in a home life, and you have no idea how many times you almost fucked it up!! Xander and I both stopped your mother throwing you out when you were acting like a total bitch. You better hope we never meet again, or you will regret it." Tara's soft voice held anger and power beyond anything that Buffy had ever heard before.
"Ditto." Faith added as she and Tara helped Xander into the taxi.
Tara waved her had at Buffy as the cab pulled away, releasing the Slayer's voice.
********
~ The Present, 2015 ~
Xander looked over his army, now only ninety-seven thousand strong, but Buffy's army had also been cut down by attrition to about the same size. The battle had moved in the three weeks since it had started, as attested by the seventeen mile long swathe of broken and bloody ground. Although the battle had moved, neither side had gained any ground; the battle had just rolled sideways as the ground became unsuitable for battle. The crucial stage of the battle was just beginning. Before, with so many combatants on either side, it had simply been kill everyone from the enemy camp you can. Now strategy was involved, and that made the battle more dangerous. Two days ago both sides had started 'night' raids into enemy camps and now the battle lines were visible, as opposed to the multi mile fronts when the battle had started.
Most days Tara, with some of their Army's finest commanders, directed the battle from a small hill behind Xander's lines, using runners or radios to communicate with the field commanders (more often using runners as it is harder to get a message from a runner, alive or dead, than to pick it up off the airwaves). The five best immortals, of the fifteen who had survived so far, stood guard whenever Tara was directing the battle. On some occasions, Tara joined in the battle, but now she never stayed more than three feet from Xander, knowing that as the numbers of the armies reduced, Buffy and her elite would be gunning for Xander, Tara and Faith. Tara's flair for directing battle had come from Xander's soldier memories, which had been shared ten years ago.
When Tara was not directing the battle, the duty felt to her protégé, a wand witch in her late twenties, who had a brilliant mind and the courage to fight, as well as lead. Yes, Hermione Granger was one of their best strategists.
Tara stood on the hill today, and while Xander was glad she was safe, he missed being near her. Xander cracked his neck and looked at Faith.
"You ready?" he asked.
"Always, but don't we have a fight to start?" Faith replied with a grin.
Xander just shook his head. As he slowly drew his Claymore, Faith let her swords roll over the back of her hands in a tight circle, first the left then the right sword.
"For Tara!" Xander screamed, raising his sword over his head.
"For Tara!" his army echoed.
The tide of darkness descended on the shield of light, who stood stunned for a second then raised their own war cry and charged.
"The Light!"
The two armies clashed and the sound of battle raged. Through a small gap Xander saw a familiar figure.
"Faith! Keep an eye on the left, I'll be right back." Xander called.
Xander approached the figure as it sliced one of his demons in half, not that the demon mattered to Xander.
"Hey Deadboy." Xander challenged.
Angel whirled to face Xander, his trademark duster swirling. Angel brought up his bastard sword (couldn't help myself, the guy's a prick) and an axe. Xander simply nodded, sheathed his Claymore and drew his Axe and Mace; he wanted to face Angel in a fair fight. They closed the distance, the Black Knight facing off against the Champion.
********
"Faith! Keep an eye on the left, I'll be right back."
Faith grunted when she heard Xander's shout, partly from what he said and partly because she was blocking a powerful blow with her left hand sword. Twisting, and slicing the opposing demon's guts open, Faith glanced to the left flank of her section. There she saw a fifteen year old girl laying waist to demons and vampires.
'The third Slayer. Damn, how does the X-man do that?' she thought, rushing to intercept her.
"Leave this one to me boys." She told the demons, who backed off.
"So, you're Faith?" the teen said.
"Yep, and you're the third." Faith said, slashing at the other Slayer.
"Name's Cat." She said, blocking Faith's slash with her fighting stick.
Cat launched an attack with her sword, while putting her fighting stick away, and drawing a wicked looking dagger.
"Heard this was yours." Cat said, parrying a blow with the dagger.
"Just want you to know I'll get that back." Faith said.
Faith and Cat let lose, Slayer versus Slayer.
********
~The Past, Early 2007 ~
Xander, Tara and Faith approached the manor house carefully. Word on the street was that the residents were evil, they had killed indiscriminately and were said to be inhuman. Those less concerned with the court system and Jeopardy, those who knew what lay in the darkness, said that it housed one of the three largest repositories of mystical knowledge in Great Brittan, along with the Watchers Council and a School that no one seemed to know where it was located. For the last two years, ever since Joyce Summers' funeral, the three of them had searched Europe, searched for anything that would help their 'family' to survive, to help Tara most of all. While they had found many weapons and spells and such, the search had been generally fruitless, till they had learned about the manor in front of them.
Sneaking up to one of the second story windows by way of the balcony roof, Faith jimmied it open and they climbed inside.
"Sounds like a meeting downstairs. Want to crash?" Faith whispered.
Tara nodded shyly, Xander just smirked. Xander pulled a crossbow off his back and they stalked to the door. The door led to a small walkway that looked over a large hall. In the hall a large group of people in black robes stood facing a 'man' seated on a large chair on a small podium. The 'man' in the chair had a head that looked like it was half snake and was preaching about purity and extermination of the 'Muggles' and killing some person called Harry Potter. After about a minute of the speech, Xander got bored and shot the 'man' through the heart with his crossbow.
"Man, that guy was boring the hell out of me!" he said loudly.
"They killed Lord Voldermort. Get them!" one of the black robed figures said.
The mass of black robed figures turned and pointed what looked to Xander to be long, thin, blunt stakes.
"SILENCE!" Tara commanded, and the black robes all lost their voices.
With a wave of her hand, Tara summoned all the wands from the shocked black robes. Some of the black robes charged.
"All yours Faith." Xander said casually.
Faith just smiled and intercepted the dozed charging black robes. They were all down in under ten seconds, with broken bones and such. They quickly herded all the, now complacent, black robes into a small storage room with only one door and no windows. Tara spelled the door so that only one of the three of them could open it.
"Tara, look for the library. Faith, have a look around." Xander said.
After an hour, Tara had found the library and they were moving out the books, with the help of the thirty odd prisoners that they had released. The prisoners seemed ecstatic that the snake-man was dead. One, a young woman almost twenty by the name of Hermione Granger had explained about the Wizarding World and how the black robes were Deatheaters. Thirty minutes later, they had removed all the pertinent books and the former prisoners were going back to their lives. Hermione and several of the others said to contact them if they ever needed any help, and left contact details.
********
~ Present, 2015 ~
Xander spared a second to spit into the ashes that used to be Angel, returning his Axe and Mace to his belt and drawing his Claymore as he did. Angel had simply underestimated the former Scooby, not having seen him in action for over fifteen years.
"Told you I'd be there." He said to the ashes as he turned away, decapitating a demon that was about to attack him as he did.
********
Faith snapped Cat's arm, causing her to drop the dagger. Faith forced Cat back by a brutal assault, which Cat barely deflected with her sword. Faith kicked Cat, a spin kick but as she kicked Cat she dropped her body low opposite to her kick, supported by one bent leg, sheathing one sword and grabbing the dagger as she spun. Cat reeled from the kick long enough for Faith, a veteran of the Tournament, to drive the dagger into Cat's heart.
"Told you I'd get this back." She whispered, before pulling the dagger and letting Cat drop.
Faith put the dagger in the back of her pants, pulled her one sheathed sword, and started laying waste to the enemies around her.
********
"Damn!" Buffy screamed.
She was standing on the hillside directing the battle, and had just seen Xander kill Angel and Faith kill Cat. Two of her best warriors had just been cut down.
"Get me my weapons, and some light armour." Buffy ordered.
"Buffy, wait. The day's almost over, you wont reach the battle in time to do any good." Giles said.
Buffy went off in a rage, basically leaving Giles and Dumbledore to direct the battle.
'Agh. When did everything go so wrong?' Buffy thought to herself.
TBC