Hours of research had not prepared Tara for the true horror of the creature she faced now. Until that moment the wendigo had simply been a monster of nightmares. She realized it had never truly dawned on her that she might actually one day be stood in front of it, staring up into the furiously burning eyes as it wrenched its claws free of Kennedy's flesh, bringing the slayer to her knees. Tara swallowed hard, feeling oddly numb. Likewise beside her Willow had turned into a statue, gawping up at the beast. Then suddenly she snapped to attention, grabbed Tara's torch and aimed the beam at the wendigo's face. It immediately recoiled with an angry screech and crashed backwards into the metal racking surrounding them as it covered its face with its hands. It crouched down and roared at them, eyes strangely luminous in the shadows. Willow aimed the torch at its face again and it turned tail and fled.
"What…?" Tara started, brain scrambling lamely to process events that were rapidly spiralling out of control.
"Photosensitive." Willow replied breathlessly, shoving the torch back into Tara's hands. She dropped to her knees beside Kennedy and reached out to her, but Kennedy was already struggling upright and pushed her off.
"I'm fine." She said stubbornly, grabbing a metal shelf and pulling herself to her feet.
"You are not fine." Willow replied, standing beside her. Kennedy pressed a palm against the wound in her side and grimaced.
"I will be. Come on, we have to get out of here." She staggered away in the direction of the doors. Willow and Tara exchanged a look, then hastily followed either side of her, ready to support the slayer if needed.
Across the site Buffy and Cat were making their way out of a similar building bemoaning yet another fruitless search when they were halted by Buffy's phone vibrating frantically in her pocket.
"You think they figured out how to kill it?" Cat asked as Buffy withdrew her phone and answered.
"Hello?"
"Buffy! Quick! We think something's happened to Kennedy, Willow and Tara!" Dawn immediatley began babbling as the phone was answered.
"Willow? Isn't she with you?"
"No! She left! She's with Kennedy and Tara. I tried to call them to say we figured it out but Kennedy hung up and-"
Cat turned away from a thoroughly confused Buffy and the sound of her yammering sister when another noise caught her attention. A faint shout from across the site and a screeching she knew all too well. The sound of some sort of drama combined with Dawn's nervous babbling set her sprinting away from Buffy and in the direction of the disturbance, putting two and two together and fearing the worst.
The uneven ground hampered her speed and more than once she had to leap over discarded glass bottles and other debris or risk breaking an ankle. She heard the wendigo again, louder now, and pinpointed the building it was coming from. Looming dead ahead amidst a cluster of low single storey admin buildings surrounded by waist height metal railings. She didn't want to lose time circling the warehouse to search for the way in, and so decided to take a shortcut. That building was just close enough to the warehouse…
She ran as fast as she could, fairly flying over tarmac and concrete, jumped up onto the railing and used it to springboard herself up onto the roof of the building and keep running.
Somewhere in the back of the warehouse, where the shadows were darkest, the wendigo had decided to give its food another go. One was wounded, after all.
"He's coming back." Kennedy announced, hearing the snarl and the sound of feet thudding against the concrete floor. She shoved Willow and Tara forwards, then came to a halt behind them. "Go on, get out of here!"
The wiccans paused and looked first at each other, then at Kennedy, unsure of what to do. Silver eyes gleamed in the darkness behind the slayer.
"GO!" She shouted, feeling the warning prickle of her slayer sense.
One of the windows high above exploded inwards as a dark shape crashed through. Cat fell through a rain of glass, felt her stomach climb its way up her throat as she went into freefall and the ground rushed up to meet her. She summoned her sword with one hand, reached out with the other to grab a metal shelf as she sped past. She swung herself forwards, tucked into a roll as she hit the floor and came up standing just ahead of the bewildered group.
"Heard you needed assistance?"
"Yup, wendigo." Willow pointed beyond Kennedy. As if in response the monster gave an angry screech and barrelled towards the disturbance. Kennedy threw herself sideways out of the path of the oncoming wendigo as Cat rushed to meet it head on, drawing her sword as she went. The saya clattered onto the floor as she dropped it and swung her blade. The wendigo caught it in his hands and wrenched it towards himself, bringing Cat with it as she refused to let go. He roared in her face. She wrinkled her nose and responded with a headbutt.
As Cat and the wendigo fought, Tara attempted to get between a squabbling Willow and Kennedy.
"-Stoppit, let me see!"
"Goddammit, Willow, I'm fine." Kennedy slapped the redhead's hands away from her side.
"I really don't think this is the time…" Tara said, motioning to the ongoing fight.
"You're going to need so many shots and all sorts-"
"I don't need shots." Kennedy interrupted, whipping off Willow's scarf and tying it around her stomach to staunch the flow of blood. "Better?"
"No! That was a present!"
Buffy dashed into the warehouse, following the noise of the fray and the argument. Her trainers churned up the years of dust that coated the ground as she ran. She raced by Kennedy, Willow and Tara and headed for Cat and the scrapping wendigo though the reaper seemed to be holding her own, ducking and weaving around the monster as he swiped and grasped. The wendigo snarled as he saw Buffy and leaped upwards, scrambling over shelves into the shadows high above.
"Hey, you scared him off!" Cat protested, eyes roving the darkness. Scratching and clanging echoed throughout the warehouse from the back of the building.
"He's outnumbered." Tara said.
"Not as big and bad as he thinks!" Willow announced smugly.
"Spread out and find him." Buffy announced. Cat looked sideways at her in disbelief.
"Uh…Sorry, don't you watch horror movies?" She asked.
"Giles and the others are on their way. They'll be here soon." Buffy said, turning to face the group. "In the mean time we need to make sure the wendigo doesn't escape."
"Or, you know, kill us." Cat added.
"Buffy's right, though." Kennedy told the shorter woman. "If he gets out, what if we can't find him again?"
"Wait, did they find a way to kill it?" Tara asked.
"Something about piercing it with fire?" Buffy said, frowning and shaking her head. "Somehow."
Willow glanced down at Cat's sword as the blade caught the light of Tara's torch and an idea began to form.
"We could set the sword on fire and stab him?" She suggested.
"We will do no such thing!" Cat retorted, scandalised.
"Why not?" Willow demanded.
"You'll break it!"
"It's magic, it'll fix itself."
"I'm not willing to test that theory!" Cat moved back, blocking her blade from sight with her body. "Besides, swords aren't flammable. We have no oil, and no way of setting it on fire."
"We have magic." Buffy said and the group fell silent.
"Ugh, fine!" Cat grumbled. "What's the plan?"
Xander braced himself against the dashboard of the car as Giles took another corner well over the speed limit. Dawn shoved the big duffle bag crammed with weapons against one of the rear doors to avoid being impaled as she and the bag were rocked around in the back of the vehicle.
"You know, we probably wouldn't have to speed if you hadn't made us look for the silver bolts!" She cried. "We had enough stuff already."
"I told you, silver is good against most demons and creatures of darkness. We may as well hit the wendigo with silver and fire together." Giles replied, spinning the wheel again and careening around another corner so fast Xander was sure he felt two wheels leave the road. "And we're speeding so we can get there fast."
"Water is wet." Xander retorted, thudding back into his seat.
"Dawn said the others were in trouble. I'm sorry if my driving offends anyone but this is a dire situation." They screeched onto another street and shot towards a chain link fence surrounding their destination. "Are you both wearing seatbelts?"
"You're only just checking that now?!" Dawn asked.
"Giles, there's a gate there." Xander said, staring dead ahead as the car continued to pick up speed.
"I know." Giles replied, risking a quick glance at his companions.
"Giles, it's chained up." Xander added.
"I know, hold on."
The car sped forwards and slammed into the gates hard enough to rip the chains free and keep going.
"Jesus Christ, man!" Xander yelped, staring at the watcher behind the wheel. Giles finally allowed the car to slow.
"Where do you think they are?" He asked, ignoring Xander.
"He's coming! He's coming! Stop him!" Cat shouted desperately, charging through the warehouse after the wendigo as he raced through the shadows towards the open doors.
Kennedy and Tara immediately sprang into action, Tara halting in the doorway and channelling magic into her hands as Kennedy ran to meet the wendigo, dropping one shoulder to ram it into his chest. Instead she met air as the wendigo jumped up, clearing first the slayer, then the Wiccan before either of them could do much more than register surprise. They both whipped round to watch as the wendigo landed and continued to run out into the open.
"Goddammit!" Buffy cried, sprinting past them through the doors with Cat and Willow keeping pace.
There was a squeal of tyres and a bang as a beat up old grey corolla slammed on the breaks and spun round, smashing the side panel into the wendigo so hard the creature flew backwards through the air several meters and crashed back down to earth. Buffy skidded to a halt by the bewildered wendigo, blinking at the car.
"Giles?"
Sure enough three doors opened and out scrambled Giles, Xander, and Dawn. Dawn dragged out the heavy bag of weapons and rushed passed the wendigo to the others as they left the gloom of the warehouse for the slightly lighter outside.
"Sorry we took so long." Giles said to Buffy. She was about to answer him when the wendigo flipped onto its feet and pounced at the man, knocking him backwards to the ground. Buffy kicked it off the ex watcher and it rolled several paces, came into a crouch and rounded on her with a snarl.
"Kennedy, here's your crossbow." Dawn said, ignoring the commotion behind her. She held out the crossbow with one hand, allowing the bag of weapons to slip from her other shoulder and hit the ground with a loud thud. "Giles made us bring the silver bolts in case they're more useful than the standard ones."
Giles gave a startled shout as he was picked up and thrown away by the wendigo, landing with a loud 'oof' on the concrete mere feet away from the group.
"Giles!" Tara cried and rushed to his aid.
"I'm just gunna go help Buffy…" Cat said and rushed the slayer and the wendigo.
"Willow, you need to get the bolts hot. We need them to be on fire, and then Kennedy? You have to hit him in the heart." Dawn continued as though nothing had happened.
"No pressure." Kennedy muttered, loading the bow. "Are we sure his heart's in the usual place?"
"You'd better hope so." Dawn replied.
"Just keep shooting him until he's dead." Willow told the slayer. Dawn handed over the leather pouch of bolts to Willow, then grabbed a sword for herself from the bag she had brought along.
"Great. We'll try and get him into a position for you." The teen said, and then ran forwards to join her sister and the reaper in fighting the wendigo.
He was twisting and turning every which way, trying to find an opening to flee the fight, sensing he was vastly outnumbered now that the others had turned up. Cat and Buffy were having none of it, forcing him to stay put and fight them.
"Dawn, no, get back!" Buffy cried as the wendigo swiped. He caught the teen on his forearm and used the momentum to throw her aside. Dawn yelped as she hit tarmac and rolled over backwards.
Cat caught a flare of light out of the corner of her eyes and glanced over to where Kennedy and Willow were standing. The silver bolt was aflame and winched back and the slayer was taking aim.
"Buffy, grab 'im." Cat said. As one they seized an arm each of the wendigo and wheeled him about to face Kennedy. Buffy heard the thrum of the bowstring, heard the whistle of fletching as the bolt cut through the air towards the wendigo, who gave an angry roar and pulled her from her feet with tremendous strength into the path of the oncoming projectile. She twisted out of the way in mid-air, felt searing heat across one bicep, heard a thunk as the bolt struck something.
She landed in a crouch and glanced down at herself to see the bolt had opened a line across her arm. It bled freely but she didn't think it was too bad. Could have been worse. The bolt was buried in the rear passenger door of Giles' car, still burning bright.
Kennedy and Willow paused, still mid action pose with Willow handing over the next bolt, as the wendigo sighted angrily on him.
"Uhoh…" Kennedy murmured, seconds before the creature roared at them and started forwards.
"Quick, load it, load it!" Willow told the slayer desperately, thrusting the bolt at her. "Hurry!"
"I am hurrying!" Kennedy snapped, shoving the bolt into position and drawing back the string.
"Hurry faster!"
Buffy and Cat threw themselves into the path of the charging wendigo but he barrelled straight through them, intent on getting to Kennedy. Buffy struck the ground and saw stars. Cat rolled to her feet as she landed and sprinted after him.
The second she saw a flare of light Kennedy grabbed the front of Willow's coat and shoved her as far away as she could. The wendigo slammed straight into the slayer, knocking her from her feet. It was like being hit with a freight train. Or so she imagined in the brief seconds she was airborne. Then they hit the ground and the shock drove the air from her lungs, set the gash in her side throbbing and bleeding again. But already the wendigo was rearing back with a startled shriek, her crossbow bolt buried in his chest. Kennedy tossed aside the crossbow, jerked upright and grabbed the bolt, twisting it further inside the monster. Smoke leaked around the shaft, streamed from his mouth as he burned up from the inside. He gave a single scream of pain and then, without warning, exploded into ash, leaving Kennedy holding a blackened, spent bolt. She coughed in surprise, turned her head and spat ash onto the ground.
"Well," Giles said, climbing to his feet and limping towards her, "at least it's an easy clean up."
"I'm so glad vampires don't explode." Buffy said, pulling a face as she looked over Kennedy, who was covered in ash and still sat on the ground, looking thoroughly disgruntled. Buffy offered her a hand up which Kennedy gladly accepted, wincing as she was hauled onto her feet.
"We should go get you patched up." Cat said. "I've got some duct tape back home."
"Very funny." Kennedy replied drily.
"We should call the police." Tara told them. "There are…dead people in there. I think." She gestured behind herself to the warehouse the wendigo had been hiding inside.
"You think?" Dawn asked.
"There was a skull." Willow said with a shudder.
"Wow…" Dawn said quietly. "Did you touch it?"
"No!" Willow cried, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"Call the police." Giles said loudly, interrupting them before they could get side tracked. "We'll tell them we were exploring and stumbled across the skull. Anyone with injuries we can't properly explain," here he eyed up Kennedy and the scarf wrapped around her middle that she had started to bleed through, "I will drive home or to the hospital. Make sure you don't have any weapons on you. And try to be convincing when they turn up."
"Yessir." Cat said, vanishing her sword.
Dawn, Tara, Willow and Cat stood in front of the warehouse watching as Giles' car sped away through the gates and out onto the road, heading back to the Summers/Rosenberg/McClay household. Kennedy flat out refused to be driven to the hospital for a proper check-up, insisting she could patch herself up. As the sound of the engine faded into the steady hum of late night Cleveland Cat turned to face the others.
"So. What's the story?" She asked.
"Photography shoot?" Dawn suggested.
"Great idea but…where's your camera?" Willow raised an eyebrow at the teen.
"Ghost hunting?" Tara said.
"There aren't any ghosts." Cat pointed out.
"They don't know that." Dawn replied. "It's definitely creepy enough, even without a wendigo hanging around."
"Sounds good to me." Willow said and sighed as she pulled her phone from her pocket. "Guess we'd better call the cops then…"