Title: Sunnydale Heroes – Part 6 of 7

Author: Wicked Raygun

Summary: AU. Superpowers change everything in this reinterpretation of "Welcome to the Hellmouth" and "The Harvest". Mild B/A, B/X and W/X.

Disclaimer: Based on characters created by Joss Whedon. I am merely borrowing them to put on a puppet show. Watch them dance.

Notes: This is not a crossover with the show 'Heroes.' This is merely me borrowing a concept I find intriguing and adding it to characters I love.

Also I have very little desire to do a word-for-word rewrite of the first two episodes of BTVS. Those kinds of stories seem a little pointless to me. Anyways, any inaccuracies that come up between my story and the actual episodes have to do with either a deliberate choice on my part, or me just not caring that much. Part 1 will have the most in common with the script, since it's slightly inevitable. After that, the story really does become mine.

Also, thanks go out to my beta readers, Grey Wizard and Alun Lewis.

Distribution: Ask and you shall receive. Just email me and I'll get back to you quickly using new-fangled technology. See, I get email on my phone now. Surely jet packs and flying cars are just around the corner.

The power was amazing.

As a vampire, he had been fast and strong to begin with. But now that he had the Master's blood working its dark mojo on his system, he felt truly godlike. His senses were sharper, his speed and strength had increased, and somehow even his phasing came to him easier, and it had been practically instinctual before.

Cain smiled.

All that was left was to feed, free the Master, and turn his friends. Xander had already shown that he was like him – well, not exactly like him, but still powerful. Willow, sadly, was still weak. But he had a gut feeling that as a vampire, with her sharp mind, she could be something fearsome. And if not, well, he could just kill her later.

Cain, followed by a group of vampire minions loyal to the Master, arrived at the Bronze. He spotted the doorman and smiled disarmingly at him.

"I.D.," the doorman asked in a bored voice.

Jesse's face shifted, revealing his true nature. With inhuman speed, he grabbed the doorman by the throat, pushed him against the wall, and lifted him, inches above the ground.

"Okay. But my driver's license doesn't really match my face, anymore, man. I've had some work done."

The struggling doorman, merely stared back in fear and shock as Jesse growled and moved quickly toward his bare neck to feed. Soon enough, the doorman was no more. When Jesse dropped the corpse to the ground, he stood back and shivered in pleasure.

"Whoo! What a rush!"

Back in his prison, The Master sat, waiting for his release. To pass the time, he thought of his new child.

He had a good feeling about Cain. He was still young and reckless, to be sure, but then all children are at first. In time, though, who knew what darkness he could unleash. And with his powers, he might even be able to start his own family some day. That brought a proud smile to his face.

The Master wasn't greedy, after all. Well, not too greedy. Avarice did have its pleasures. Still, perhaps he could give his son something on the East Coast. He hadn't been in New York very long himself, but he found the city to be absolutely delightful. Darla could help him out with that.

Speaking of which, she seemed absolutely taken with the boy. As far as he knew, she hadn't felt this strongly about another vampire since her dear, sweet Angelus, he thought with a sneer.

The Master shook his head, trying to clear away that thought. No sense in thinking on such unpleasant things, especially today, when he would finally be able to walk free and stalk the night again.

He thought again of Cain and Darla.

Wouldn't it be something if those two kids got together?

His smile turned nostalgic. That would be lovely. She'd had such bad luck with men in the past, and he just wanted her to be happy. Still, he wouldn't push things. Oh, no. It was best to let these things work themselves out naturally.

And then the Master felt something powerful flow from his toes to his fingertips. Yes! That must be his son, taking his first life. It was a shame he couldn't see for himself. Oh, well, no matter. He would just find a way to make it up to the boy.

His new son had given him a gift after all. He was already a little stronger, and soon he would be able to escape.

"Now, it begins."

Cain sauntered into the Bronze. If he was feeling great before, he was a walking orgasm now.

"Alright, you guys know the deal. Spread out, block the exits – you know, try to keep the carnage on the field – and absolutely no feeding. That's my job."

The vampires, except for Darla, moved to their tasks. As they walked away, he spotted Cordelia dancing with some of her own minions.

"Darla, hang back a moment. I need to see a girl about a dance."

Darla moved in front of him, a furious look on her features.

"What are you doing?" she asked with a hiss. "You're supposed to be feeding. Not puffing up your own ego."

"Hey, relax," he said softly, with a charming smile. "It's just a dance. No need to be jealous."

She scoffed. "My, my, aren't we being a presumptuous little boy."

In response, he trailed his fingers gently along her jaw, his fingertips softly phasing in and out along her skin, causing her to shiver. It felt almost like sparks.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Still, it is just a dance. It's the least I can do, before I rip out her spleen and show it to her." Cain smiled at her. "I promise, I'll be thinking about you the entire time."

Cain walked off, laughing softly to himself, leaving Darla standing there, unsettled by his actions.

His timing was perfect. Just as the current song Cordelia was dancing to was ending, he approached her. A new slower, darker tune could be heard as the next one picked up.

Fitting.

Cordelia was about to walk off to her table, when he gently grabbed her hand and pulled her close to him, leading her back to the dance floor.

"Hey! Hello! Caveman brain! What are you doing? And what the hell kind of fashion statement is that thing on your head?"

"Shut up," he told her gently, not caring about her objections, instead pulling her even closer.

Something about the way he said that did something to her. A nice little shiver went down her back.

"Well, just one dance."

Buffy tried the door, while Giles checked the doorman's pulse. He shook his head after a second, and, of course, the door was locked from the inside.

"Damn it! We're, too late!"

"Can you break it down?" Xander asked.

"No, not this thing. At least, not quickly. Uh, you guys try the back entrance. I'll find another way in.

"Right!" Giles said, and began to move off with Xander and Willow.

"Wait!" Buffy handed Willow her bag full of stakes, holy water, crosses and other various vampire slaying accoutrements.

"Just get people out the back. Don't go all X-Men on me. I mean it," she said, a glare punctuating her point.

Reminded for a second about their powers, Xander got an idea. He turned to Willow, and asked, "Doesn't the Bronze have a skylight?"

"Yeah."

Xander smiled and turned toward Buffy, who caught on quickly.

"Need a lift?"

A few moments later, Xander floated horizontally while holding Buffy's hands, her feet a good twenty feet to the Bronze rooftop. After seeing the particularly thick windows of the skylight, she had insisted on the current height. She could have just as easily smashed the windows in with her fists, but this felt more dramatic to her, and would hopefully keep surprise on her side for a few more seconds.

"Are you sure about this?"

"No, but let's do it, anyway," Buffy said, with a nervous chuckle.

She tried to look up into Xander's eyes.

"Let go."

After some brief hesitation, he did.

"Bombs away."

And the Slayer was unleashed on the Bronze.

Cain had a dilemma. Just which part of Cordelia's biology should he rip out?

Oh, sure, the heart might be a classic, but he had already done that once and didn't feel like repeating himself so soon. Just because he was new to murder, was no excuse for slacking off. After all, he intended to be good at it.

He smiled a short moment later, as he was suddenly hit with inspiration. Her eyes would look so beautiful rolling along on the floor. The thought was so pleasing, in fact, that it triggered his demon face without him realizing it.

And, unfortunately, Darla had instructed one of the minions to turn off the music and bring up the lights, which they did, at just that moment. When that happened, Cordelia got a good look at his true face, and screamed. It was so impressive and unexpected that he didn't even get a chance to grab her as she ran off as he reflexively covered his ears. Enhanced hearing had its downsides, as well.

Annoyed, he turned toward the stage to see Darla there, smirking.

"Well played," he admitted in a quiet voice.

Darla, in full demon face as well, stepped up to a microphone, and spoke over the din of confused voices.

"Tonight, the restoration of an ancient terror is at hand. The Master shall rise and bathe the world in eternal darkness," Darla said to the crowd, in a tone of voice one would use to inform someone of the probability of rain in a weather forecast.

"Those of you here tonight, will, sadly, not get a chance to see this brave new world. But you can take comfort in knowing that it was your life force that brought ruin to all that you hold dear. The carnage will be quick, but far from painless. You can struggle, if you like. In fact, we insist. It won't do you any good, of course, but it really does make things more fun for us."

The patrons of the Bronze simply stared at her, some in dumb shock, other in open-mouthed horror.

"Cain, start the killing," she told him sweetly.

Cain smiled. "Well, since you asked so nicely."

With a sudden movement, and a horrifying growl, he grabbed a girl standing next to him. He pulled her neck to the side so violently, that it actually snapped. Although she was technically still alive when he started to feed, she blessedly felt nothing. When she was drained, Cain dropped her body to the floor.

"That never gets old," he said giddily, and then launched himself onto another victim.

By this point, people had started screaming and trying to run away. Some, in their panic, even managed to trip others and trample them. The vampires all smiled at this, as they picked out people to hand over to Cain who kept feeding and feeding.

When Cain dropped his latest victim to the floor, he heard a loud crash, and saw Buffy fall from the skylight onto a pool table. She scanned the crowd, her eyes finally settling on the bloody symbol on his forehead.

"I'm, sorry. You were in the middle of something?" she asked with a smirk.

"Oh, look, it's the new girl," he said with a playful leer.

"Kill her!" Darla commanded the other vampires. She turned to Cain. "Keep feeding."

"Okey-dokey," he said with a mock salute.

While Buffy began taking on all the vampires that rushed her, Cain had set his sights on a cute-looking red-head that he was pretty sure he'd shared a history class with last semester.

With his speed now faster than ever, he rushed over to her. She was standing with a group that was futilely trying to open one of the exits. He grabbed her by her hair and pulled her into his clutches.

With a chuckle, he lowered his fangs to her neck.

"Let. Her. Go."

Cain looked up to see a nerdy-looking kid that he vaguely recognized from around school, but whose name he couldn't quite place.

"Sure, why not."

Cain dropped the girl, and then grabbed the kid by his throat, the entire action happened in the blink of an eye.

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but you're a complete non-entity around school, aren't you?"

He lifted him up in the air, and started to squeeze. When the kid started to make gagging noises, he chuckled.

"I guess you saw the bad man trying to hurt the pretty girl, with who – well, let's not kid ourselves here – you have absolutely zero shot with, and you must have thought to yourself that you want to play hero. Hey, I get it – perfectly understandable. I read comic books, too. But here's the problem with that, though. In real life, twerps like you are just meat for the strong. And, buddy, they don't get much stronger than me."

Cain laughed.

"Say, goodbye, Hero."

But then the kid abruptly vanished into thin air.

After a few moments of amazement, Cain scoffed to himself.

"Okay, that's it. I'm lodging a complaint at the next PTA meeting. The lunch lady is definitely putting something funky into the jell-o."

Then there was a loud noise, and suddenly a voice called out, "Everyone, get out, now!"

The terrified crowd didn't need to be told twice and, within seconds, a throng of people had converged on the voice, where a rear entrance had been opened. Many of them ran right past Cain. He took the moment to grab another victim and drain him as well.

Buffy, meanwhile, was feeling more than a little out of practice.

She could remember that night of the dance back at Hemery so clearly. There, she had been at the top of her game. Vampire after vampire came at her then, too, only to be put down quickly with a punch, a kick, and a stake to the heart. She even took one down with a somersault, and somehow managed to stake another while she was doing a one-handed cartwheel. She had been particularly proud of that.

But here in the Bronze, she was fighting for every inch of ground. Here, vampires were dying, too, but not as fast as she needed them to. And she wasn't exactly dazzling them with her superior gymnastics skills, either. Her muscles ached, her vision was slightly blurred, she couldn't even feel her left foot at all, and her face was one long, dull, throbbing ache that was going to be with her in the morning, she could already tell.

Assuming the World didn't end, of course.

And since when in the hell, did that become her responsibility? Okay, a vampire invasion she could handle. Some undead punk, with delusions of being Dracula wanted to throw down? Hey, not a problem.

But this?

She was standing at the Mouth of Hell, which was about to open and spew out, well, Hell on Earth. And, frankly, she was feeling a little inadequate.

"Move to Sunnydale. It's a nice quiet town!" she said to herself sarcastically, punctuating her last word with a swift kick to a vampire's chest.

Without a conscious thought, she plunged her stake behind her, catching a vampire sneaking up on her in the heart and dusting him. Buffy had never been particularly good at sensing the undead, but in a fight like this, she swore she could almost feel the attacks about to come.

And that would be useful, if there weren't so damn many of them.

Buffy was able to spare a moment to see Jesse finishing off another student. Another life gone, another person she couldn't save. And the Master was one step closer to opening the Hellmouth.

A simmering rage took hold of her. She sized up the last of the vampires fighting her. There were four of them.

There wouldn't be for long.

At that moment, it suddenly didn't matter how many of them were left. They were in her way, so they were all dead. They came at her, but somehow, their attacks felt clumsier, their punches felt weaker, and their movements felt slower.

She dodged, punched, stabbed, kicked and in barely thirty seconds, all four of them were piles on the floor.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer didn't even wait for the dust to settle before she went after the Vessel. She had to stop him. Nothing else mattered.

She threw a flying kick at his back, only to sail right past him.

He barely looked up from his meal. She tried to attack him again and again, but still nothing.

Before long, he dropped his latest meal to the floor and licked his lips.

"I'm kind of bad with names. Buffy, right?"

"Jesse," she answered coldly.

He smiled. "Actually, it's Cain, now. Jesse went bye-bye."

Buffy winced.

"So you're a Slayer, huh? That's cool. I dig strong chicks."

"Sorry. I tend to like my guys to be a little less bumpy-faced."

"See, that's just prejudiced. You shouldn't knock it, 'til you try it."

"Pass."

Cain chuckled for a moment, and then launched a devastating punch that Buffy couldn't block. It literally went right through her defenses and landed solidly on her face. She was knocked back, and had to shake her head to clear the ringing.

"You'll have to cut me some slack. I'm new to the whole evildoer thing. This is where we fight, right?"

Buffy drew her hand slowly across her lip, wiping off a small trickle of blood.

"Yeah. This is where we fight."

And then she launched her own attack.

There were simply far too many students rushing to the back entrance. The Bronze had apparently been packed that night. And the panicked masses weren't exactly moving in a calm and orderly fashion.

Giles weighed his options for a moment before he yelled to Xander and Willow.

"There's too many of them. I'll try and open the other door."

He grabbed the fire axe they used to open the first door and ran into the mass of people, disappearing quickly and leaving Xander and Willow to direct the madness.

"All right, everybody out. Stay Calm. Hey! Stop shoving people, Mister! You'll get your turn, too!"

Willow had apparently found her inner warrior princess, since she was taking to this quickly.

Xander, on the other hand, was fidgeting constantly. He kept trying to find Jesse, but couldn't spot him. Despite what Giles had told them, he was sure he could talk some sense into him, if he could just reach him.

The crowd was starting to thin out a bit, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain to his side. Xander crumpled to the ground, and his stake went flying from his hand to roll along the linoleum floor. He looked up to see Darla, smirking down at him.

"Hey, Xander. Miss me?"

She punched him in the face this time, and Xander had to consciously fight off the urge to just black out. Somehow, he managed to wrap his arms around the vampire in an awkward manner. Holding tightly, he used his power to blast up into the air as fast as he could.

They were stopped by the ceiling.

Gravity brought them back to the floor, in a pile. It did more damage to her, then it did to him, but she was a vampire and could take a lot more than he could, so she stood up first.

"That – was a mistake."

"Get away from him!"

Willow, seeing Xander in danger, threw up her hands at Darla and tapped as much of her power as she could.

And, apparently, that was a lot.

The vampire was hit with a powerful wave of energy that flung her all the way across the Bronze and into the far wall, which she smashed into and then through, leaving a considerable hole.

Xander got up next to Willow and stared at the damage.

"Xander?" she asked weakly.

"Yeah?"

"Did I just knock down a wall?"

"Yes. You did. You really did. And I'm very proud of you."

"Oh. Okay." Willow paused for a moment before speaking again. "Xander?"

"Yeah?"

"Little wobbly."

And sure enough, Willow looked like she was about to fall over. Xander caught her, and pulled her into a hug, to keep her from collapsing and to reassure himself that she was okay.

"That's okay, Wills. You did great."

"Better than Jean Grey?"

"Way better."

"That's nice," she said, with a slight slur. She snuggled a little into Xander's arm. "This is nice."

"Uh, Wills?"

"Hmm?"

"Bad guys."

"Oh, right." She shook her head, to try to clear some of the vertigo she was experiencing. It seemed to work, at least a little.

Giles came back, looking stunned. The fire axe was hanging limply at his side.

"Did she just knock down a wall?"

"Yeah. Wasn't that cool?"

Giles blinked. "Er, y-y-yes. Q-quite."

Xander turned his head to spot Jesse fighting with Buffy. With his powers, it was painfully one-sided.

"Giles, take Willow. I got to stop Jesse."

Without waiting for a reply, he placed Willow into his arms, and went off.

"Xander! Wait!"

Buffy was not feeling good. She had just taken far too many hits. Her tactics had changed as well.

Blocking Cain's attacks was impossible, so now she was simply dodging anything and everything he threw at her. Cain wasn't a trained fighter, thankfully, but he was still fast. Occasionally, she would attempt a kick or a punch. But, inevitably, he would simply let it pass through him and chuckle.

She was getting real sick of his smirking.

Initially, she thought to work her way behind him, to try for a surprise attack, but whenever she got close to pulling it off, he would simply dive through her, and reorient himself.

Buffy looked like a blur as she ducked, dodged, and weaved around all of Cain's blows. But the truth was that she was starting to slow down. And she just didn't know how much longer she could keep this up.

Buffy heard a whoosh, and then saw Xander crash into Cain at high speed. Buffy lifted up her stake to throw it at Cain, but when she finally had a clear shot, the stake passed through him and clattered on the floor.

She grunted in frustration.

Cain, on the other hand, was more amused and smirked down at his old friend on the floor.

"Xander! Buddy! Long see, no time."

"Jesse, man, you gotta stop this before it's too late," Xander said from his place on the floor, wincing with every other word.

"Ah, I see you didn't get the memo. I'm not Jesse anymore. I'm Cain."

Xander shook his head, refusing to believe that. "No, you're not. I know there's still a part of you in there."

Cain just laughed at him.

"Okay," he said, still chuckling a little. "Let's deal with this. Jesse was an excruciating loser who couldn't get a date in the sighted community. Me? I'm a god."

Cain suddenly spun around and sent a vicious kick to Buffy's face. She had been using the distraction to try and get him from behind. The kick sent her crashing into a pool table with such force that a chunk of it splintered off.

"With excellent hearing," he amended.

A moment later he caught a crossbow bolt in the air, leveled at his chest.

"And awesome reflexes."

Cain dropped the bolt to the floor and turned toward Giles, who was frantically loading another shot.

"Excuse me, but we were talking here," he said, before grabbing a chair and flinging it at him.

Willow, who had been behind Giles, panicked and unconsciously used her power to shield them both. The chair hit the invisible wall and shattered. But the effort, so soon after her last use, left her on her knees, exhausted.

"Willow!" Cain said, in a beaming voice. "I never knew you had it in you. You go, girlfriend!"

Xander and Buffy maneuvered themselves so that they all surrounded Cain in a triangle. Giles, who didn't move, kept an eye on Willow and his crossbow leveled at Cain.

He just smirked at them.

"You guys are really missing the big picture here. The Master's gonna rise tonight and rip this town a new one. That is happening. Nothing is stopping that, because nothing is stopping me. The way I see it, though, you guys can be there with me to see it. Nobody else can do what we can do. We'd be gods among gods."

Cain took a moment to look at Xander and then Willow. And the next words he spoke, sounded so much like their old friend, that it hurt them profoundly.

"I know how much your lives suck. How it hurts everyday, just to keep going through the motions, and pretending that it's okay to have folks who ignore you, or yell at you – or worse. It doesn't have to be this way. I mean, look at what we can do! We have freaking superpowers! If that isn't a clue that we were meant to always be together, then what is?

"So what do say, Xand? Wills? We kill these two idiots, and then we Three Amigos spend the rest of eternity living it up?"

Willow shook her head, as a tear ran down her face, while Xander looked like he was moments away from doing the same.

Xander looked down for a moment, and then pulled out a stake from behind him.

"You're really not Jesse, anymore, are you?" he said sadly, as he finally made eye contact with the monster wearing his friend's face.

Cain scowled at them, his earlier amusement now gone in the face of their rejection of his offer. He watched as they closed in on him slowly.

"Is this it? Is this your master plan? You all gang up on me, and do, what, exactly? Watch me kill you, one-by-one? You guys are kind of forgetting that I'm untouchable."

"You're forgetting something, too," Buffy said. "The dawn."

With a blur of action, Buffy threw a microphone stand at a heavily tinted window. And from this broken window poured a bright light right into Cain's eyes. He gasped as the light blinded him.

And then he felt a sudden pain in his chest.

Cain looked into the Slayer's eyes for a moment, not quite understanding what happened. How did she suddenly appear in front of him?

"I'm sorry, I couldn't save you. But I'll take better care of your friends. I promise," she told him sadly.

And then Cain crumpled into dust.

The Master was ecstatic. He was nearly free. All he needed was one more life, one more soul, and then he could finally break through to take his rightful place as leader of his kind and enslaver of humanity.

He laughed as his fingers probed against the wall, keeping him imprisoned. His fingers seemed to almost break through.

And then it was gone.

And that could only mean one thing.

"What? No! Nooooo!"

Back at the Bronze, four sad figures stood over a small pile of dust. They had won. The world had been saved. But the cost had been too high.

"Well," Xander said, decided to break the ice, "nothing's ever going to be the same, is it?"

Willow nodded at his words, but Buffy and Giles merely shared a look and then shrugged.

They knew better, after all.

End of Part 6