Disclaimer: I have e..ner..gy! I have e..ner..gy! I have e..ner..gy! I have energy!! (Inside joke people. But anyways, Buffy ain't mine;)

This chapter is a little late in popping up, sorry about that. Let's just say that if you understand the inside joke, you understand why!

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Chapter 34

"Okay," Xander asked the war room at large, "What's the sit-rep, people?"?"

"That I'm not going to lose my dinner because all the video feeds from the slayers stopped thrashing around. Thank God!" Dawn answered inanely.

"All the girls that were on patrol at the time that the spell went off are accounted for," Giles told him, "We have multiple injuries but only four deaths."

"I've got my people running interference on the media for those girls that dropped in public" Dawn got down to business, "Stories about epilepsy and stuff."

"I guess Buffy and Willow did something," Andrew interjected, "Cause the feed from Faith is back to normal too."

Everyone in the room turned to look at Faith's screen to see if they could see what was going on. They heard Buffy and Willow yelling in the background and then Faith and stood up and yelled something about a demon, and all hell broke loose. A bright flash of light shot past Faith's sight and the whole screen became a roil with black clad, snarling vampires.

Xander looked around the war room again, "So…ideas…anybody…?"

…..

Willow rolled her eyes as a few of the vampires came at her. She held up her hand, palm out, smirking as the shield she'd constructed insulated her from the charging vampires. Smacking into it at a full run, the vampires instantly burst into flame and were dusted.

Safe for the moment, Willow turned her attention to the chaos that had engulfed the bunker room. A virtual wall of black-clad vampires separated her from Buffy and the rest of the recovering slayers. She knew through the link that Buffy was surprised, but okay. Willow could also hear Faith yelling insults, so she assumed that she and her squad were alright for the moment.

"The girls," Buffy's voice gasped into her head, "the one's in the pits!"

Cursing under her breath, Willow remembered. The girls that had been used as sacrifices were still encased and completely vulnerable, suspended in the four pits located around the room. They were a perfect meal for any vampire and right now Faith and her slayers were too busy trying to save themselves to help anyone out. Deciding on a plan of action, she ignored the vampires scrabbling at her shield. She extended both hands out and threw up shields over the top of the pits. Now any vampire trying to get at them would find it an impossible task as long as Willow was alive. Which, she admitted to herself as she looked over at the inter-dimensional demon roaring in the middle of the room, isn't a guarantee right now.

"Buffy," she called, "that demon you let through? I don't think it's very happy right now!"

"I told you," Buffy rolled her eyes and pushed out as she responded, "I just pulled the stupid rope!"

Willow watched as a large batch of vampires was flung up into the air as a result of Buffy getting up onto her feet.

"Hey B!" Faith's yell interrupted, "If you've got any of that super power stuff left, I think we could use it right about now!"

"Buffy do this," she mocked, casually backhanding a vampire. The blow broke its neck and sent it sailing into his companions. With the space now cleared, she continued grumbling, her eyes glowed a vicious gold, "Buffy do that. How come," she leapt into the air, flying over the heads of the vampires below. She landed in the middle of the formation and finished her gripe, "nobody ever does anything for Buffy?!"

Stepping from the small crater she had created with her landing, she swiped at the few tendrils of hair sticking to her face. The first thing when we get out of here: hair products, maybe even a cut. Stupid braids. Sindel, I'm not.

"Dramatic entrance as always, B," Faith snarked, as she slashed at a vampire who had finally gotten over his surprise at Buffy's entrance.

"You should always go with what you're good at, Faithy," Buffy smirked back at her.

"Drama?" Faith returned the insult while punching a demon.

"Saving your ass," Buffy retorted easily.

"Keep dreaming," Faith sneered.

"And who was calling for help a second ago?" Buffy flicked her gaze over the room, "There's not that many of them…," she trailed off suggestively.

"I just wanted you to take care of that puny little mess you made." Faith shrugged off the suggestion that she and her team might need Buffy's help and waved a negligent hand toward the demon in the middle of the room.

"I keep telling you people," Buffy snapped, hands on her hips, "I just pulled the rope!"

"Blah, blah, blah," Faith teased, waving her hand in a talking motion.

"Hey!" Lucky yelled at them, "Are you two going to fight or trash talk. Cause it looks to me like we," she gestured to herself and the rest of the team, "are the only ones killing anything around here!"

There was a roar from said demon that drew their attention before Buffy could respond to the last insult. Then, before their surprised gaze, the demon reached out with one of its six taloned hands and snatched a vampire from the mix. It drew the screaming vamp into its grasp. White mist escaped from the vampire as it shriveled up and turned to dust. The demon sucked the mist into its body through its mouth and then roared again. The slayers watched wide eyed as it grew almost a foot and began flinging lightning into a wall, shattering cement blocks.

"I don't know," Faith admitted as she knocked another vampire back. "Maybe we don't wanna send this one back, B. I could get to like it if it keeps killin' off vamps."

"Bad, bad, bad!" Willow's voice yelled into their minds, causing all of the slayers to flinch. "If it does more of that then it's gonna get all big and…with the lightning…and…and everything'll go all kablooey!"

"Tone it down, sweetie," Buffy suggested. "You sound like you've had one too many mochas."

"Right, sorry," the witch apologized and slowed down her explanation. "We can't let the demon kill anymore vampires. It's absorbing their power!"

"How big can it get, Red?" Faith had a really bad feeling about this.

"It's like a big empty pit," Buffy felt the horror that Willow was feeling as she looked at the demon through magickal sight echo across their connection. "Like a big, black bottomless pit of destruction and death."

"Well that's certainly not a good thing," Buffy admitted out loud. "Okay, Faith, if you and your team take care of the vamps, Will and I'll deal with Sparky, deal?"

"Cool," Faith grinned and gave one last parting shot, "You should always clean up your messes, ya know?"

"Bite my…," Buffy started.

"Not that this isn't extremely entertaining," Willow interrupted the quip, "but we've got work to do right now."

"Ruin all my fun," Buffy huffed and turned back to the problem at hand. Namely, one inter-dimensional demon standing in the center of the room.

While the battle raged on around her, Buffy studied her opponent. "He's really not all that big. Not mayor size. And no snake. Total plus right there." She eyed the eight foot tall, bulky, six armed creature and shuddered. "The green skin and that red eye in the middle of his forehead makes me think Christmas experiment gone wrong. Like a nightmare version of a Christmas tree," she sent to Willow.

"I really wouldn't know," Willow told her. "My experiences with Christmas trees were limited to the occasional holiday spent at Xander's house or yours and made for t.v. movies viewed at two in the morning on the Hallmark channel."

"Very sad recollection of your childhood," Buffy said.

"Not really. It just means that if we ever come across a demon that looks like a menorah, I'll be the first to know." The witch watched in interest as a few more vamps fry themselves on her shield. They were like mosquitoes with a bug zapper. "But if we ever come across a demon that looks like a dreidel, you're on your own. That song just gives me the creeps, 'Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel….,' Ugh!"

"Okay," Buffy placated, finding herself a little freaked out by Willow's ramblings despite herself. She walked over to casually kick a vamp that had disabled one of the slayers, sending it flying and earning a look of gratitude from the girl. "But what are we gonna do about this one that's in the here and now?"

"Hmmm," Willow mused, "well, the first thing we need to do is clear this room out. I'm over the vamps playing the gamma rays to this stupid thing's Incredible Hulk. Where did they come from anyway?"

Buffy eyed Willow suspiciously, "You've been spending way way too much time with Xander." She laughed as Willow stuck her tongue out at her. "I think there's some kinda passage or something. Best guess? No clue. Although less with the odd ponderings and more with the ideas that save the world, please?"

"Fine, fine," Willow scoffed, "just clear out the vermin so we can get to work. They're starting to stink up the room from bouncing off my shield." The witch flinched and waved a hand under her nose as another flung itself at her, leaving behind the stench of charred meat. Eww!

"No need for us to do anything." Buffy smiled and then glanced up at the platform bolted to the wall four stories above their heads.

As she watched the first of the teams that had been struck down outside the room ran out onto the platform. They had to send a few injured girls back to the shield, but there were still over thirty-five slayers left in the outer part of the compound. The ones that first arrived surveyed the situation and spotting Faith and her group, quickly jumped down and joined in the fight.

"Avoid the middle!" Faith yelled out as the squads began making headway through the mass of vampires. Overwhelmed, the demons quickly began falling back, trying to get to the hidden entrances that they'd arrived through. "You getting all this, X-man?" Faith asked.

"No worries, Faith," Xander's voice in her ear was as clear as if he were standing right next to her. "I'm glad the rest of the cavalry got there. The Merlins say the shields a limited thing. They've got some major pressure building up from the inside. Not sure how long they can keep it from shredding." She could here the smirk in his voice as he finished up, "No pressure or anything."

"Riiiight. My guess the pressure's from B's pet demon. Girl's gotta quit keepin' those." Faith glanced over at the multi-armed demon. "The vamps are about mopped up here. We can lend a hand, but I'm hoping B and Red have some sort of master plan."

"Since when did those ever work," Xander snorted.

"To true, X-man," Faith laughed out loud at the thought of some of the weird stuff that they'd had to do back in Sunnyhell, "to true."

Buffy ignored the one-sided conversation Faith was having and concentrated on the demon. "Why isn't it doing anything?" she asked Willow. "I mean it's snatching up the occasional vamp and destroying all our eardrums with that stupid roaring, but it's not really coming out and fighting or anything."

"It might still be disoriented," Willow mused, "you did just pull it through a really tiny hole into an entirely different dimension."

"Nag, nag, nag," Buffy folded her arms and groused, then noticed something really bad, "now what the he…Stop her, Willow!"

While they'd been planning one of the slayers, a brunette, had disregarded orders and made her way toward the demon and, with a yell, attacked it. She actually managed to get in a good slice with her sword, but it didn't matter. The sword didn't even come close to cutting through the thick skin of the demon. With another ear-shattering roar, the demon backhanded her. There was almost a hush as the slayer went flying through the room to land with a wet smack on the far wall. Buffy flinched in sympathy, the girl would lucky if she woke up within the next few months. A shattered skull was nothing to mess with, even for a slayer.

"Shit," Buffy swore and leapt over the slayers and the few remaining vamps that fought on the ground. "This is over."

With the last of the vampires cleaned up, the other slayers got a front row seat as Buffy landed and stalked up to the demon.

She stopped just out of arms reach and cocked her hip to the side letting her right hand rest casually on her hip. "We wouldn't have to do this if you'd have let go of the rope."

The demon's lower limbs swung, trying to reach her. The slayers flinched anticipating the worst. Instead they gapped as Buffy lifted up her hands, grabbed the massive fists and stopped them in midair.

Girl's a total trip. Always was a bit ridiculous watching her go at it. But damn can she fight. Faith watched on as Buffy held strong against the towering demon nearly twice her height. She flinched as Buffy's kick landed. Demon or not, getting kicked in the balls just hurts.

Faith chuckled as she caught Xander's reflexive groan in her ear at the action. She shook her head as the demon barely reacted to the well placed kick.

Frowning at his less than stellar reaction, Buffy let go of his arms. She heard Faith yell a smart comment about her opponent's lack of anatomy and scowled. Like I really need the advice from the peanut gallery right now?

"Aren't we going to help her?" Tina, one of the other squad leaders, asked Faith.

"Nah." Faith set the tip of the Scythe on the ground and leaned on it casually. "B's old-school. Don't wanna cramp her style."

"B?" Tina scrunched a brow.

"B, you know?" Faith smirked at the confusion on the other woman's face, enjoying her reaction, "Buffy."

"You mean…?" There were a few moments of silence and then whispers began to break out among the team. "That's…Buffy Summers?"

"In the flesh," Faith confirmed. "Though she usually dresses a lot better." Shrugging, she turned her attention back to the fight, whistling, "Watch and learn, kiddies. This is how a Chosen One takes care of business."

The chosen one in question was shaking her foot a little. That thing has skin like a rock, she whined. Whoops, she ducked as he got his act together and came at her, gotta pay attention here. As they traded blows, Buffy immediately started evaluating her opponent. 'Kay so big, fast, skin like concrete and strong. This is just gonna be fun! Her hits landed, but it didn't flinch. The skin felt more like an exoskeleton under fists, causing her forearms to take a serious beating.

What are you waiting for, B? Faith wondered as she watched Buffy and Sparky go at it like prize fighters. So far, neither was winning, but Faith could tell Buffy was frustrated. She knew both combatants were working at a level above the average slayer. The blow that the demon dealt told her that he wasn't anything to mess with. She watched Buffy attack him like a normal demon, flinching when it finally got a blow in.

Buffy head snapped back absorbing the blow. Swinging one of it's arms, it knocked into her chest. She flew back through the air, stopping when she hit the cement wall. Ow! Mother…someone get the license plate of the freight train… She loosened herself from the crater she created and shook her head. Wait, do trains have license plates? Her head throbbed. I'm kinda wishing for unconsciousness right now. She blinked as blood trickled down onto her eyelashes. Through the dust and blood, she watched dazedly as Sparky made his way toward her. Then all she saw was fire.

"I don't think so," Willow muttered as she sent a jet of flame from her fingertips. It landed between the demon and a flattened Buffy, distracting him and sending a few slayers dropping to the floor for cover. "Mine," she informed him as he turned to glare at her, "I've got these weird territorial issues. She belong to me, buster."

This time he didn't roar, just sent lightning crashing into her. As she watched it come at her, Willow smiled wickedly. The fire only sparked and smelled of ozone as it hit her shields. Thank you, Teacher. Willow reached out, swirling the excess magick into her hands and flung it back into the demon's face.

A horrific screech echoed from his mouth as the demon stumbled back and clawed at it's face. Willow actually thought she might have damaged it for a moment and then it lowered it's arms, charging straight at her. It moved a lot faster than expected and Willow barely had enough time to firm up her shields. The demon was almost upon her when it was stopped cold, gasping as the air was driven out of it by the fist in it's stomach.

"Now, I'm pissed," a dust covered Buffy informed the wheezing demon. She shook her hair, sending bits of concrete clattering to the floor, and let it stagger back.

"She always did lead with her chin," Giles' voice came over the link as Faith chuckled. Faith was mildly impressed. She hadn't even seen the other slayer recover and move across the room. It seemed Buffy was finally getting serious.

"Keep it busy for a minute, Buffy," Willow told her as she shook herself to recover from the near miss. "The upgrades are nifty-keen, but I still need to learn to use them. I need some time to study something," she continued.

"Oh sure," Buffy drawled back, "Keep it busy. No problem at all."

"As long as you keep it from absorbing any more power than we should be able to contain it," Willow said.

"Yeah," Buffy shrugged, "I really don't wanna think what this thing would be like after a few more vampy snacks, much less after a few slayers. Leave it to me then, I'm good at distracting."

"That you are," Willow leered and then got back to business. She had a plan…okay, a vague idea anyway. It was gonna be a little tricky on the magickal side.

"Alright, Sparky," Buffy addressed her opponent, "Let's get back at it."

She received a coughing roar as her reply. The demon recovered and came after her. "Grrrrr! Arghh!" She sneered, "Can't you guys come up with some new lines?"

With a modified horse kick, she leapt up and slammed her heel into her opponent's cheek. He staggered to the side and shook his head. Not falling like she had wanted, but it still stung. Buffy set herself up and then leapt back into the fray. It was fun to let herself lose control after so long. She had finally found someone she didn't have to hold back on. It felt great!

"I don't suppose you're able to follow this?" Xander asked Faith. The only bad thing about the visual spell was that while the watchers were able to follow exactly what the slayers on the ground saw in real time, they still weren't always able to keep up with it. They'd had some success with slowing down the replay for after action reports, but they still often needed to rely on the slayers interpretation on the events.

"I'm getting a little bit, Xand," Faith admitted, "but only bits and pieces. Whatever B and Sparky are doing, it's way above my pay grade."

"Hate that, don't ya?" Xander wondered.

"It grates a bit, yeah," Faith chuckled, "but I'm five by five. Damn, that had to hurt…"

Faith watched as Buffy and Sparky stepped back into reality with a rush and Buffy literally ran up the demons chest, snap kicking him in the chin. The momentum from the kick sprung her backwards, flipping off of him to only disappear again. The demon hissed as it stepped forward, disappearing as well. They'd been going back and forth like this for about ten minutes. Faith knew they had to be moving at an extremely high rate of speed. Something even her slayer enhanced senses weren't able to follow. Unable to keep up, she and the rest of the slayers shoved themselves back to the edges of the room, trying to keep out of the way.

Willow was still standing off to the right of the pits, her shields shimmering a pearlescent white as they fluctuated. She hadn't moved from her original position, her gaze fixed on the tear in the dimensions that was still visible in the middle of the room. Her other shields were still present over the pits that the baby slayers were in.

Faith watched on the fight rage on thankful that Willow's shields held firm. Now if B'd hurry her old ass up and finish Sparky off, we can go home and party.

"Alright Buffy," Willow broke into Buffy's concentration, "I've think I've got it figured out."

"Give me a sec," Buffy huffed. Slowing down a little she blocked Sparky's arms and seeing an opening, began a quick series of centerline punches to his chest. As he grunted and tripped back, he opened himself up further to an attack. She dropped into a horse stance, drew a deep breath and shot both fists out together with a loud, "Ki!" Even with her fists being only an inch away, by focusing her power, she sent him shooting back to slam against the concrete wall. Thankfully, it was reinforced and he only created another crater.

"Your turn, ugly," the slayer jibed as she stood back up. She turned her attention to Willow. "What do you need, sweetie?"

"I need you to draw him back to the tear," Willow informed her. "We can't slay him. His destruction would release all the power he's got stored up."

"Boom?" Buffy questioned and frowned.

"Small nuclear sized boom," Willow confirmed. "So if killing is out, then we've gotta put him back where he belongs. If you can shove him back through the hole then I think I can close it up behind him. But we've got to hurry, 'cause it's naturally repairing itself all by it's little lonesome."

"'Kay," Buffy swallowed as the demon pulled itself out of the concrete and came back after her. The thing just didn't stop. It wasn't necessarily stronger than her, just bigger and really tough. She was gonna have to change tactics to get it to follow her. Breathing deeply once more, she set herself and watched with impassive eyes as the demon came straight at her.

"That's different," Lucky spoke by Faith's side as they watched the fight together.

"Yeah, I thought she had him after that last punch," Faith replied, "but he came back. B must be switching tactics."

"Hmmm," Lucky mumbled as they watched the demon charge at Buffy.

Faith was expecting them to flash out of view once more, but this time Buffy didn't move forward to engage the demon. Instead, she let him come at her and then just seemed to flow out of his way. The demon's arms blurred as he punched and grabbed at Buffy. It was as if she was one step ahead of him, slithering out of grasp. Faith knew enough martial arts to realize what Buffy was doing, recognizing it as a soft style of tai chi chuan. It wasn't a style that she had ever seen Buffy use before.

"She's bait," Lucky whispered, her eyes narrowing, causing Faith to send her a swift glance and then widen her own eyes in comprehension.

Buffy slapped another of Sparky's hands out of the way and drew in another deep breath. Years of training with Master Shin aside, "pushing hands" with a six armed, eight-foot demon that was out to kill her was a little hard. Tai chi had always been one of the hardest forms for her to master while studying.

"There he is," Willow crowed into her mind, "do it now!"

Buffy was actually sweating now, this being one of the first times in five years she was able to cut loose. She resisted the urge to wipe her brow and jumped up, slamming both feet into Sparky, sending him flying backwards. Landing flat on her back, she flipped up into stance automatically.

"That's a little ridiculous," she snorted. The demon and gone into the hole alright, but it had shrunk a little and he'd gotten stuck. She walked over to him, "Stupid thing," she picked up her foot and kicked at him some more, "go in!"

"Kick his ass, B!" She heard Faith roar with laughter as the demon refused to budge.

"Shut up," the slayer snapped as she kicked him again and again, finally pushing him all the way through. "Now I need a pedicure," she groaned.

"'Scuse me," Willow not so gently pushed her aside as she rushed forward to clamp a hand on both sides of the tear, pulling it together. Sewing an inter-dimensional hole back together was not an easy thing to do. It was like weaving her shield, only twenty-times harder 'cause the silly little magick threads really didn't want to stick together.

"Feelin' the love here, Will," Buffy grumped and folded her arms.

"Uh-huh," Willow replied absentmindedly.

"So it's true," Faith sauntered up to them as Willow finished up her ministration, "Red finally got you to go automatic?"

"Don't start, Faith," Buffy snarled. She was feeling a little touchy right now. She'd fought the good fight, brought down the bad guy, and now Willow was totally ignoring her. No smoochies at all.

"Ah, come on, B," Faith leered, "Tell mama Faith all about it…"

"Grrrrr," Buffy growled.

………….

Author's Note:

I've got all things really cool things to say about the story and how it evolved all that crap but I'm so tired from running around today that I'm just gonna drop. So I guess I'll just save them for the next chapter. Hope you liked this one and I appreciate all the reviewers and trackers. Oh, and my beta is a very patient and wonderful person for having to put up with someone like me!

Horse kick: also known as a butterfly kick or xuanzi circle, composed of a twist of the body while both legs are lifted from the ground and swung around, while the torso remains as horizontal as possible. It is an advanced maneuver that requires the use of the whole body and the strike can occur with either leg. The maneuver is used, with different modifications, in multiple types of martial arts.

Center line punch: The most commonly seen interpretation emphasizes attack and defense along an imaginary vertical line drawn from the center of the practitioner's chest to the center of the enemy's chest. The human body's prime striking targets are considered to be on or near this line, including eyes, nose, throat, solar plexus and groin

"One-inch punch": Wing Chun practitioners believe that because the elbow is behind the fist during the strike, it is thereby supported by the strength of the entire body rather than just a swinging fist, and therefore has more impact. A common analogy is a baseball bat being swung at someone's head (a round-house punch), as opposed to the butt end of the bat being thrust forward into the opponent's face (wing chun punch), which would cause far more damage than a glancing hit and isn't as easy to evade. Many skilled practitioners pride themselves on being able to generate "short power" or large amount of power in a short space. A common demonstration of this is the "one-inch punch," a punch that starts only an inch away from the target yet delivers an explosive amount of force.

Pushing hands: or sticky hands, is a name for two-person training routines practiced in internal Chinese martial arts such as Baguazhang, Xingyiquan, Tai Chi Chuan (Taijiquan), Liuhebafa, Quan Fa, and Yiquan.

"Death is not the greatest loss in life.

The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."

-Norman Cousins 1912-1990