CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Sorry I'm late…
Faith finally calmed down enough to sit down on the cell bed for more than a five minute stretch. She watched Kylie and Stacy huddled together on the other dungeon cell bed. It appeared that the other women had fallen asleep from the exhaustion and stress from everything they had endured. Faith could only wish for such a rest as her mind was racing. She was trying to think of a way to escape. She tried to think of what Buffy or Michael would do in this situation. She sighed as she depressingly thought that neither one of them would have allowed themselves to get caught like this.
Faith blamed herself for the whole situation—for Madison's and Lisa's death and for what she had a pretty good idea of what her and her Potentials were going to face. She wanted to kill that Paymon bastard at the first opportunity. She knew that she could probably take him, but she also knew that she would probably die shortly after. Even with the desire for revenge still burning inside her, she was still responsible for Kylie and Stacy and her dying taking out that bastard Paymon wouldn't help them unless she could spring them in the confusion. That was asking for a lot of things to come together, what she needed was to stay alive and protect them. She would have to endure whatever happened to her for them and hope for the opportunity to maybe at least get Kylie and Stacy out.
You've done some pretty nasty stuff and been in bad scenes before … How could this be any worse? Faith thought trying to comfort herself as she had a pretty good idea what Paymon was going to do to her by the way he looked at her. She knew that she could probably take whatever he dished out, but she knew that Kylie and Stacy—especially Stacy wouldn't be able to survive it.
Faith lost track of time while lost in her thoughts, she was brought back to reality when she heard loud voices outside the cell. She got up to look out the small view port in her cell door. She craned her neck to see what was going on.
From what she could see, she saw a large group of demon warriors gathered down the corridor. She could she them laughing and saw some of them gesturing towards their cell. Faith got a real bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Oh God! I thought I could handle it … Deep breaths … Think of something else ... Think of Michael … Survive, so you can find him … Just focus on surviving.
Faith saw the demons turn and walk down the corridor towards their cell. She moved away from the door and over to where Kylie and Stacy were asleep. Faith quickly and roughly shook both women to wake them up.
"Kylie … Stacy … Wake up now!" Faith said in a loud whisper trying to wake them up.
Both women opened their eyes groggily.
"Wh… What's happening?" Kylie asked worriedly.
"The guards are coming … Whatever happens stay behind me and remember your first duty is to survive." Faith said to both women in a serious tone.
Kylie's and Stacy's eyes widened with fear at Faith's words and they moved to the far end of the cell away from the door.
Faith stood between her teammates and the door and waited. She could hear the guards getting closer to the cell. Faith tried to concentrate, but she was scared. She probably had a better idea of what was going to happen to all of them than Kylie and Stacy did, but in this case ignorance would have been blissful. Her thoughts went to Michael … she wished she could see him again. Faith heard the guards sticking the key into the cell door lock and she took another deep breath and tried to ready herself.
The cell door opened and there were four demon guards standing in the entrance. Faith saw the looks in their eyes and she knew it was going to be bad. She could see the guard's eyes look her and the other women over and they were licking their lips.
One of the guards spoke, "I want this one!" pointing at Faith. "She looks like she would be fun to have."
"Idiot!" One of the other guards said slapping the head of the guard that was pointing at Faith.
That guard continued, "…That is their leader … She is for Lord Prince Paymon. She is not to be touched. From what I understand the Lord Prince is preparing his chambers to 'entertain' this human slave."
This caused the other guards to look and leer at Faith's body and laugh at the thought of what their Lord Prince was going to do to her.
Faith swallowed hard and tried not to show any fear. She continued to stand between the guards and Kylie and Stacy.
The first guard then pointed at the terrified Stacy, "How about that one then? She is pleasing to the eye and has an innocent look to her."
One of the other guards said, "I don't know how innocent she'll be after we've finished with her." This caused all the guards to laugh and look at Stacy and lick their lips.
Stacy's eyes widened even more with fear and she tried to move back further into the cell, but there was nowhere to go to. The guards started to move into the cell. Faith stayed between them and Stacy and Kylie.
"Come on boys … Why would you want to have her? I can show all of you how to party and have a real good time." Faith said trying to sound lusty.
She needed to deflect their attention from Stacy as she knew that Stacy wouldn't probably survive the entertaining these bastards had in mind.
Faith kept up the act, "Come guys … I could probably show and do things that you haven't even imagined."
Faith could see that she was getting the guards' attention with her act, but their fear of their Lord Prince was greater that their desires.
"Enough! Now move aside!" one of the guards shouted.
Faith moved aside slightly and the guards started to pass by her and reach for Stacy. She was trying to scramble up the cell wall and she started to cry and scream as the guard's hands reached for her.
Faith didn't hesitate as she stepped into a guard at the back of the pack and in one quick smooth motion drove her knee into his mid-section. As the guard doubled over holding himself, she put her hands together and brought them down like a club across the back of the guard's neck. Faith heard a satisfying crunch when she did that.
The remaining three guards were caught by surprise. They were momentarily disoriented as they had to shift their mind set from one of appeasing their lusts to now defending themselves.
Faith took advantage of their surprise and attacked the guards using short jabbing blows with her fists and quick kicks to keep the guards off balance. Kylie jumped one of the guards from behind and she tried to hold on, but the guard managed to grab a hold of Kylie and throw her against the cell wall knocking the wind out of her. Stacy was frozen in fear as she had lost control when she saw the guards coming to take her away.
Faith kept fending off the guard's blows and landing some good quality shots of her own—taking out a couple more of the guards, but she knew this was a losing cause as she could hear the alarm being raised by the guards shouting and heard more guards running down the corridor towards their cell.
Five guards arrived at the cell door—Faith could hear more coming down the corridor—they quickly appraised the situation and stormed in. Faith knew it was the end as she was now badly outnumbered, but she kept fighting.
One of the guards had a club and caught her across the head. Faith was stunned and then the guard clubbed her again in the head and she fell to the ground.
Faith was barely conscious, but she could register that the guards were continuing to strike her on the ground. She took another blow in the head from a heavy boot and she thankfully lost consciousness and did not feel being dragged out of the cell or her clothes being ripped at.
oOoOo
Michael became conscious of where he was. It took him a moment to gather his bearings. He found himself on a forest world, it had a dank deathly look to it. There was a light mist hanging on the floor of the forest. It gave the whole place an eerie look to it.
He did a systems and weapons check. Whatever "modifications" that Virgil had made to his battle armor, it seemed to have hardened the systems against the EM fields of inter-dimensional transport. His suit systems barely registered any impact as compared to before.
He still had the beacon on his NAV system and the signal was coming in even stronger now. The NAV system showed he was about 10 kilometers from the beacon. It wasn't too far for him and he didn't hesitate as he started to jog to the NAV point. He didn't want to waste any more time as the sun was starting to go down.
oOoOo
Kennedy and the remnants of her team found themselves in a bad situation. After hearing the shots and Dana's screams, Kennedy had vainly called for her on the com channel with no reply. Melissa made the suggestion that they should get out of here. Kennedy hated to leave, but it made sense.
The group turned around to head to the portal point to open the way home when out of nowhere this fog came up and started to envelope them. The fog cut them off from where they needed to go to open the portal. Kennedy didn't want to stand around and wait for whatever took out Dallas and Dana to get her and the rest of her team. She and the rest of her team started moving to where the fog wasn't the thickest and were now moving backwards to keep an eye on the fog as it seemed to be following them.
Kennedy had hoped that maybe they could circle around and get to the portal point, but the fog seemed to be herding them. She and the other women had their weapons unslung and the safeties off.
As Kennedy and her team moved backwards through the woods, she realized that they were moving further and further from their portal point and that the sun was getting ready to set. When it got dark, they would surely be boned by whatever was out there in the fog.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a large rock formation that seemed to push out of the floor of the forest. There were huge boulders and it looked like there might be cover there that they could use.
Kennedy whispered to Melissa and Trisha, "See those rocks over there … Start making your way over there … Get ready to run just in case and make sure to find some cover."
The other two potentials nodded their heads in understanding and the group turned their direction to make their way to the rock outcropping.
The fog seemed to figure out what they were doing and it shifted direction as if it was trying to keep them away from the rocks, but Kennedy was going to have none of that.
"Run!" Kennedy yelled and they all made a sprint for the rocks. They reached the rocks ahead of the fog and found that the rock outcropping formed a long narrow cul-de-sac. There were large rocks at the entrance of the cul-de-sac that she quickly directed Melissa and Trisha to take cover behind.
Kennedy quickly made a note of their defensive position. There was only one way in, but only one way out. The rocks surrounding the cul-de-sac were at least 15 feet high and smooth so there was no way of climbing up and over. They did have cover and they had weapons and some ammo. The plan would now be to wait out what was out there until morning or until someone back home came through to look for them.
She was starting to feel somewhat optimistic. They had a relatively good defensive position. The fog seemed to stop advancing on them. It couldn't get any worse.
Kennedy thought she could hear something moving in the fog. She couldn't make out what was there. There was still enough light from the setting sun that it appeared that the fog was starting to thin out. She let out a slight sigh as it appeared that maybe they had avoided trouble.
As the fog started to thin out she could start to make out what appeared to be red glowing eyes—lots of red glowing eyes. The fog continued to dissipate and she could now make out forms attached to the glowing red eyes. She saw that the forms were four-legged creatures. The fog cleared enough to see the creatures staring at her and her team. Kennedy was looking at large creatures that looked like a cross between a wolf and a demon.
These demon-wolves bared their sharp teeth and started snarling at the women. There were lots of these creatures—it had gotten worse.
"Shit!" Kennedy said and opened fire with her weapon. Melissa and Trisha started firing as well.
The demon-wolves charged towards their defensive position…
oOoOo
Lord Prince Paymon was in a foul mood as he made his way down to the dungeon cells. One of his servants had reported about a "disturbance" with the female prisoners. He had been happily preparing his chambers with the appropriate implements and devices along with the necessary chains and shackles to "entertain" the female leader. He had been anticipating his night's entertainment with her and all that he was going to do to her, now he was heading down to the dungeon followed by his personal guard.
He arrived as his guards were dragging his prized prisoner unconscious from the cell and saw them ripping at her clothes.
"ENOUGH!" the Lord Prince bellowed.
The guards immediately jumped up and away from Faith's body as their Lord Prince approached them.
"What is going on here?" he demanded.
One of the guards started speaking trying to explain what had happened, "My Lord Prince … This prisoner attacked us and tried to escape … We had to defend ourselves and put this creature in her place."
Paymon walked up to the cell stepping over Faith's unconscious body. He looked in the cell and saw one female curled up in the corner holding herself with her eyes wide open. He saw the other female lying against the cell wall, that female was slowly moving. He had a pretty good idea of what had happened. He turned around and stepped back into the corridor. He motioned to the Captain of his personal guard that had followed him down. The Captain came to attention in front of his Lord Prince.
"What is it you want my Lord Prince?" the Captain asked in a humble tone.
The Lord Prince looked at the dungeon guards that had ruined his evening, "Gut them and then cut off their heads … make sure they suffer." he said nonchalantly.
Paymon's personal guards didn't hesitate as they moved in quickly and dragged the screaming dungeon guards off to their fate.
What a shame and waste, Paymon thought as he bent down to look at Faith's unconscious body.
What a nice form she has … I would have enjoyed myself immensely … I would have loved to have tasted her, he thought as he continued to leer at Faith's body.
That's when he noticed under her torn shirt just above her left breast a marking on her skin. He moved the shirt enough to see the marking. It was a number—113. He shrugged as it meant nothing to him. Maybe it was of some significance where this female came from. Maybe he would ask if the she recovered.
"Have this prisoner put back in her cell." Paymon ordered the remaining fearful guards.
As the guards jumped to obey their Lord Prince, he thought again, I do hope she recovers as it would be such a waste.
oOoOo
Kennedy and her team were blazing away with their weapons. They were trying to maintain fire discipline—as they had been taught—to conserve their ammo, but there were so many of these demon-wolves and it took several rounds to put one down.
The creatures kept charging into the cul-de-sac position and Kennedy and her team mates kept driving them off.
"I've only got two clips left!" Melissa hollered to Kennedy.
"Three here!" yelled Trisha.
Kennedy only had three spare magazine clips for her weapon left. She looked around. They could fall back further into the cul-de-sac as it was narrower and there were still rocks to take cover behind.
It will force them to bunch up closer, she thought.
"Melissa … Trisha … Fall back I'll cover you!" Kennedy yelled.
She watched as the others moved to fall back. The creatures sensed something and started moving forward and Kennedy fired a long burst from her assault rifle, forcing them back for the moment. Once she saw that Melissa and Trisha were in position, Kennedy made a dash for them. She made it to cover, but could see the creatures moving up the cul-de-sac slowly.
"What do we do when we run out of ammo?" Trisha asked trying to keep the panic from her voice.
"I don't know about you, but I'll use whatever is handy as I don't plan on dying here." Kennedy replied.
The demon-wolves made another rush, Kennedy and her surviving team members resumed firing…
oOoOo
Michael was now about 3 kilometers from the beacon according to the NAV system. It had been a quiet jog through the woods—nothing moved and no sounds. The eerie feeling given off by the woods didn't bother him—this place was an amusement park compared to the Hellmouth.
His concern grew as his audio sensors started picking up the faint sounds of what sounded like gun fire and it appeared to be coming from the general direction of the beacon point.
It can never be easy … can it? Michael sighed.
He double checked his pulse rifle and shotgun and double-timed it towards the sound of the gun fire…
As he got closer to the beacon point, his motion sensor display started showing targets—lots of targets. His suit's threat analysis computer started immediately cataloging and identifying hostiles and friendlies. There were a lot of red hostile targets, then three green friendly targets appeared. He was at least 700 meters from their position. The NAV system was plotting that the friendlies were about 400 meters from the beacon position. He changed his approach direction to come up behind the friendlies and provide support.
oOoOo
"I'm out!" Melissa cried out.
Trisha yelled, "Last clip!"
Kennedy was on her last full clip as well. They had put up a hell of a fight. The cul-de-sac was littered with demon-wolf bodies, but there were still more of the creatures coming.
The end was near and the women would fight as long as they could. Kennedy was pissed off that she never had a chance to say good-bye to Willow.
She heard as Trisha fired her last round and then her weapon suddenly stopped firing and was making the "click" "click" sound indicating an empty magazine. Kennedy grabbed the barrel of her assault rifle ignoring the pain from the heat of the barrel. She was getting ready to use it as a club and her adrenaline was making her ignore the pain. Her other team mates followed suit. The demon-wolves now sensed that the danger from this prey had lessened and slowly advanced towards their meal.
The demon-wolves moved closer and Kennedy could see that they were getting ready to pounce to strike them down. She watched as two of the demon-wolves sprung up launching themselves towards her and the others. She tensed and her grip tightened on her assault rifle as she got ready to hit back. Everything was moving in slow motion and she knew she was looking at death coming at her.
Suddenly there was a loud buzzing sound and Kennedy and her team could only look in shock as the leaping demon-wolves were shredded in the air and their remains fell to the ground. This was followed by a loud deafening explosion in the pack of demon-wolves at the entrance of the cul-de-sac.
Kennedy, Melissa and Trisha turned around and could only look in awe as they saw the Spartan on top of the rocks behind them holding his pulse rifle.
The Spartan spoke to the women, "Sorry I'm late…"
oOoOo
Michael had reached the position just in time to catch two creatures pouncing on the friendlies. He fired a quick burst from his pulse rifle to eliminate that threat and used the last grenade from his grenade launcher to clear the pack at the mouth of the cul-de-sac.
He was a little surprised when he looked at the friendlies and immediately recognized Kennedy.
"Sorry I'm late..." was all that he could think of to say at that moment.
He could see their shock and surprise, but there was also the look of relief that help was here.
"Better late than never." Kennedy said not hesitating as a smile came to her face.
"How? Where did you come from?" Melissa asked overcoming her surprise and shook.
"Long story and I don't think we want to stick around … How are you on ammo?" Michael asked as he kept an eye on the hovering pack of predators.
"We're out … I'm hoping you're packing." Kennedy replied.
"I've got over half a clip for my rifle, that was my last grenade and I got a few rounds left for my shotgun … Other than that everything is a walk in the park."
Michael could see on his motion sensors that the creatures had moved back as they were now unsure of their situation and how to respond. He had them off-balance and he wasn't going to give them a chance to regroup. He quickly evaluated the situation and his available options. He briefly considered using his dimensional portal device, but he didn't know if he could take everyone with him in one trip and he wasn't leaving anyone behind, so that left one way out of here for everyone.
"Where are we heading to? I have the beacon you setup plotted on my NAV system." Michael asked Kennedy.
"We have a portal point within 50 meters of where the beacon is. We need to get there and say the return spell to open it and we can go home."
Michael quickly planned out his and their next moves, "Here's the plan … Stay close and we move towards the beacon. When I say run … you run like something scary is behind you as there will be. You get to your portal point and do what you need to do to open it and go through. I will cover you and draw those creatures to me … Got it?"
The three women nodded their heads in understanding.
"Good … Get ready …" he said.
He could see the women tense up.
"Go."
They moved quickly out of the cul-de-sac with the women staying close to Michael. As they moved, he spun from side to side sweeping his weapon to cover the creatures, but he didn't fire—not yet.
He could see the creatures on his motion sensors, some of them were now regrouping and moving up to try and flank the group. He turned and fired a short burst in that direction. He didn't worry about hitting them—just keeping them distracted and disorganized from attacking and buy him and the others time to get away was the point.
The darkness slowed the group's movement towards the beacon. Michael turned on his helmet lights to help the women see and activated his light amplification systems to see the creatures clearly in the dark. Even with the lights it was slow going—at least for Michael—for the group as they made their way closer. He fired the occasional short burst from his rifle while keeping an eye on the ammo counter.
The group was at the 150 meter mark, from the portal point and the ammo counter was showing ten rounds left in the pulse rifle. His motion sensors showed a mass of red hostiles moving up on them.
"Get ready to run!" he yelled.
The mass of red hostiles started moving faster…
"Go!"
Kennedy, Melissa and Trisha sprinted towards the portal point somehow keeping their balance over the rough terrain. Michael moved just fast enough to keep himself between them and the creatures. He fired the last rounds of ammo from the pulse rifle. In one smooth motion he put the pulse rifle on his back with his right hand and pulled the shotgun off with his left hand. His timing was good as one of the creatures leaped at him and he took it out with a blast from the shotgun. He quickly loaded a spare shell keeping count—8 rounds … 3 spares.
The three women ran for their lives. They could hear the snarling and the gunshots. Melissa got to the portal point first. She was winded, but she recovered quickly and said the return spell.
"Patefacio is limina, domum!"
She watched as the portal opened. She turned and saw Trisha followed by Kennedy coming up fast. She could see in the distance the Spartan still holding off the demon-wolves. The other two women got to the portal point winded, but more importantly they were still alive.
Kennedy told Melissa and Trisha to go through. The women looked at Kennedy with concern.
"Go! I'll be right behind you!" she ordered. The women stepped through the portal.
Kennedy turned towards Michael and yelled, "MICHAEL! TIME TO GO!"
oOoOo
Willow had been sitting in the training area waiting for news from Buffy or for Kennedy to get back. Buffy, Riley and 20 Potentials had gone through a portal to find Faith and her team about 3 hours ago. Xander and Giles had wandered by several times to check with her on any changes.
Willow was tired, but she couldn't sleep. She was just going to sit in the chair and wait. Maybe she would just close her eyes to rest them.
Suddenly a portal started to open in the training area. Willow jumped and was wide awake as the portal formed. She was nervous and hopeful. That feeling quickly turned to shock and fear as Melissa followed by Trisha came through the portal. They were both dirty, out of breath and scared.
Willow was over to the two potentials in a flash.
"Where's Kennedy?" Willow asked with concern and fear growing inside her.
"She's right behind us … We were attacked by some sort of demon-wolf … So many of them we lost count … Dana and Dallas are dead." Trisha said catching her breath and relieved to be back home.
Willow was scared now. She had already lost Tara, she couldn't lose Kennedy.
Melissa said, "We found Michael! He's coming behind Kennedy!"
Willow was so wrapped up in her thoughts, concerns and fears that she tuned out and missed what Melissa had said.
oOoOo
Michael heard Kennedy yelling it was time to leave. He didn't hesitate as he turned and started running towards Kennedy and the portal. His motion sensors had a huge mass of red hostiles racing for him—he had 2 rounds left in the shotgun.
He waved at Kennedy to go through the portal. He saw her go through as he ran towards the portal.
oOoOo
Willow was scared as Kennedy still hadn't come through the open portal yet. That fear turned to relief as she came ran through.
Willow didn't hesitate and stepped up towards the portal. She didn't want whatever was chasing Kennedy to come through into their world. She hollered, "Iste claudatur limina, nunc"
Kennedy saw Willow as she came through the portal and it took her a moment to realize what she was doing and what was happening. She hollered in horror, "Willow! No! Don't close the portal yet!"
Willow turned looking puzzled by Kennedy's behavior.
Kennedy saw that Willow didn't realize what was happening. She yelled, "Michael is right behind me!"
Willow's eyes widened as she realized what was happening and what she had done. She and the others could only watch helplessly as the portal began to close.
oOoOo
Michael was racing for the portal. He was so close to home. He could hear the creatures coming up fast on him. They were faster than he thought.
His helmet display had the portal marked, but something was wrong. He could see the shimmering of the portal start to destabilize—he realized it was starting to close.
Damn it! I'm so close!
He kicked in some more speed. He knew it was going to be close. His audio sensors heard one of the creatures getting close—bearing down on him. He could hear it snarling looking for a meal.
Michael trusted his instincts and timing and dove towards the portal. He turned his head slightly and caught motion out of the corner of his eye—the creature had leaped as well. It was trying to follow him through the portal. There was no way he could let that happen.
As he dove through the air towards the portal he rotated his body in mid-air—like only a Spartan could do. He was now going backwards and fired his shotgun taking out the creature. The recoil provided a little extra boost to his momentum. He made it through the portal as it closed.
He came out of the portal backwards sliding across the training area floor, luckily not hitting anyone. He eventually came to a sliding stop before hitting the far wall.
Michael was home…