Chapter 12
3 Hours, 32 Minutes
"I'm pretty sure I said if I ever saw you again, I was going to kill you," Angel said quietly.
"That's the thing," Darla said softly. "We both knew that was a lie. You had half a dozen chances to kill me between the massacre and then to do so. You never came close."
"As I recall, I set you on fire," Angel said.
"And didn't stick around to finish the job," Darla said. "See I know what a dark place you were in. Everybody within an inch of you did. But I know you too well. That's why I knew that Wolfram & Hart's evil plan was a waste of time. They said wanted you dark, not dead. And you were pretty dark those last few months. But even then, you couldn't stop being the hero. Even at your absolute worst, you kept trying to do the right thing. It's why you wanted to go to the Home Office."
"I'd be quiet if I were you," Angel looked a little bothered at this.
"That's what that whole quest was about," Darla said sweetly. "You were prepared to go on a suicide mission if it meant you could punch the devil in the nose. And like everything else, it didn't work out the way you thought." She paused. "You know, you never bothered to tell me what it was that got you worked up that night?"
"Darla, keep your mouth shut."
This was the tone that usually told anybody that you needed to stop poking Angel. Only the vampire who'd created him would feel free to ignore it. "Did you tell your friends what you saw that night? Did you tell them what you did afterward?"
"I have to ask. Are you a natural blonde?"
It was pretty clear that both vampires had been so focused on each other that they had forgotten Faith.
"I'd stay out of this little girl."
Faith smiled sweetly. "Angel. You remember why we came this way to begin with?"
Angel clearly had. "This is my mess to clean up."
"I think you need to remember our roles in this. You are the hero who saves the damsels in distress. I'm the woman who takes out the trash."
Angel considered this for a second.
"You've given her far too much of your time." Faith said. "Besides, I need to start to paying off my debt."
Angel began to stalk off. "What, you're not gonna wish me luck?"
"We both know you don't need it."
Darla looked like she was going to follow him. Faith took the opportunity to punch her in the stomach.
"We haven't properly met. I'm Faith, the vampire slayer."
There was a momentary look of confusion on Darla's face. "Funny, Angel never mentioned you."
"I doubt the two of you have done much talking between him staking you and you coming back from the dead," Faith said. "And you're right about Angel being a hero. He has this thing about giving people second chances when they keep disappointing him."
Darla actually blinked at this. "I'm guessing you tried to kill him once."
"Twice, actually." Faith said. "The first time, it was after he'd tried to save me. He thought there was a good person there, even when I didn't. He had a soul when I didn't think I had one."
Faith was pretty good at reading people and she could see that Darla was trying not to show this registered.
"I know that he killed you the first time he came to Sunnydale," Faith actually found herself looking sympathetic. "You must have felt so betrayed. Him choosing Buffy over you. Thing is, he felt guilty about that too. Probably why he worked so hard to save you, even though he knew better. That's the thing about champions. They never give up, even when they should."
"And this is where you tell me that it's not too late, that if you can be saved, so can I," Darla said, affecting a bored tone.
Faith chuckled. "You know, I actually used that same line when I was holding a friend of Buffy's prisoner. And she threw it back in my face. Said I was a lost cause."
Darla was thrown by this a little. "But clearly she was wrong."
"No, she was right. I had to die to realize the error of my ways, and even then I was determined to ignore it," Faith smiled. "I always was a slow learner."
Darla was clearly unsettled in a way she hadn't been by Angel.
"The difference between people like us and people like B and Angel is that they never give up on the people they care about," Faith said. "Sometimes the cost is big but they keep doing it. People like us, we've given up on ourselves long before they have. We just don't want to admit that they might be right about us."
"Is that why you sent Angel away?" Darla said carefully. "Because you're going to let me go?"
Faith shook her head. "You lived four hundred years as a vampire, got brought back from hell as a human, spent months tormented Angel before getting sired again, and now you're back doing the same thing. You've more than used up how many unlives you have. I'm a horrible, wretched excuse for a human being but even I can't bring myself to feel you deserve another chance. No, I'm getting my hands dirty because Angel's suffered enough already. He doesn't need to see you die again."
Darla clearly had been expecting this. "You don't need to hide that you're going to enjoy this," she added.
"You could always just surrender. Make it easy on yourself," Faith said.
Darla's smile actually had humor in it. "You forget how many times I've been dead. I have no desire to go back there any time soon."
Faith actually smiled back. "I was in a coma for eight months. Not the same thing, of course, but it really does suck, pun not intended. I can't imagine having to go back there again."
The Slayer and vampire looked at each for a moment. Either one of them could have taken the advantage to kill the other, but somehow both knew that they weren't going to.
"You seem a decent woman," Faith said. "I hate to kill you."
"You seem a decent woman," Darla said. "I hate to die."
The dance began.
3 Hours, 11 Minutes Remaining
"I thought you said you knew how to fly this thing!" Tilly shouted.
"I'm twenty years old and had my license for four months. You were expecting the guy from Magnum?"
There had been a helicopter in the mall and Pete did know how to fly it. Of course that had not remotely solved all of their problems. They had geographic coordinates for where Dawn Summers was, but helicopters have neither autopilot nor maps that use latitude and longitude. Willow could sense Tara from a distance but somehow she didn't think telling their new friends to travel by aura was going to be the kind of thing that helped and it wasn't like that directions from the ground were the same as those a thousand feet up – much less at night.
All they knew for certain was that it was going to happen at a drop zone on the outskirts of San Jose. Beyond that, they were relying on an amateur pilot and a military helicopter that had a compass sophisticated enough that they could fly the right way. Maybe.
"You know, when I became mortal, there were many ways I pictured dying," Anya said in what for her was a quiet tone. "A fiery helicopter crash did not even make the top ten."
"It is a bit too ordinary for people who grow up on a Hellmouth," Cordelia admitted.
"You're not exactly exuding confidence in the pilot!" Vic was gripping the seat with knuckles that didn't look like they could get any whiter.
"You've known him longer than we have. How much confidence should we have in him?" Willow asked.
"I didn't know he could fly one of these things until an hour ago," Vic admitted. "Then again, the faster we get there, the quicker we head into certain death so maybe a fiery crash would be better by comparison?"
This was the first time since they had met these three soldiers that any of them had shown sign of just how scared they were about what they were heading into. Buffy assumed that bravado and adrenaline had been carrying them for the last few hours and now it was starting to wear off.
"How long have you and your friends been in the military again?"
"You do know we're not the rat patrol or the lost platoon," Tilly said. "None of us want to fight in a war. We just wanted to pay for college."
"And you didn't ask questions at the training involved?" Willow asked.
"$20,000 for eight weeks work," Pete said again.
Anya considered this. "You should have held out for thirty."
"We'll remember that for next time," Vic said.
Xander was really going to like this bunch. "For the record," Buffy said. "I've seen trained soldiers who haven't dealt with this kind of weirdness over a period of weeks as you have in just a few hours."
There was a pause. "Does that say more about us or less about our fighting forces?" Vic asked.
"Vic, take the damn compliment," Tilly said resignedly.
"They're telling us we're handling this supreme weirdness extremely well," Pete said. "I'm guessing that's because we've known these complete strangers for less than four hours and haven't asked a single real question about why the military has kidnapped a thirteen year old girl from a town known for next level shit in the first place."
"Or why a girl our age has the power to tear through a military enhanced door as if it were tissue paper," Vic said.
"Or how the redhead over there seems to have communicated with her girlfriend two towns over without using her telephone. Twice." Tilly pointed out.
The women looked at each other. "I guess they wouldn't have made it in Sunnydale," Willow said. "When weird stuff happens they don't just pretend it's just gangs on PCPs."
Their three new friends began to laugh. "Did I say something funny?"
"What drug gang worth its salt would be able to make a living in a town with forty thousand people?" Tilly asked. "Any cartel worth its salt would send three guys at most and concentrate on LA."
"If that's the cover story in Sunnydale, your police department is monumentally stupid!" Vic said, chuckling.
Now all the Sunnydale women began to smile. "No argument there," Buffy said.
"Once we save your sister, you're going to tell us exactly what all this is about," Tilly said.
"In small doses," Pete clarified. "I'm pretty sure the whole thing at once will give us the worst kind of sensory overload."
"Hard to say they don't deserve that," Cordelia said. "Both parts of it."
"Of course that does mean that we have to survive the next part," Pete said slowly.
"It's not going to be an easy fight," Buffy admitted.
"Um, that's not what I meant," Pete said slowly. "Okay, this is your classic good news-bad news situation."
"Can we have the bad news first?" Willow said resignedly.
"I'd prefer the good news." Anya said. "How often do we get any of that?"
"Okay, according to the coordinates you gave me, we may be able to reach our destination in about fifteen minutes," Pete said.
"That's relatively good news," Buffy said. "So naturally the bad news must be far worse."
"Oh it is," Pete assured them. "If I'm reading this gauge correctly, we're going to run out of fuel in about five minutes. I'm going to have to set us down really quickly."
"Okay, that's bad but we've dealt with worse." Cordelia said.
"Like the fact we're over water right now?" Willow said.
"That was the bad news." Pete said. "Because there's an excellent chance if land appears, we're going to be over water when it shows up."
Anya looked around. "Drowning has never been on the list either," she said finally.
CAMP
2 Hours, 58 Minutes
Angel really wished he hadn't left Faith behind. It wasn't because he didn't think she couldn't handle Darla; it was because he felt an obligation to handle the problem that had plagued him the previous year.
But right now he had to keep a promise to the woman he loved. Which was starting to look like it might be more difficult than he'd thought.
Whoever was leading this enterprise – the Watchers, the military, whatever – they had clearly prepared for a major rescue effort. It was looking like there were anywhere from forty to fifty soldiers down there and at least a dozen demons. And there was a perimeter of some major electronics surrounding Dawn, and whether it was military or magical, it might cause him problems
He hoped that his friends were able to do something about it.
Gunn looked at the clock. "Looks like we're going to have to be the cavalry on this one," he told Tara.
"I thought as much", she admitted. "I'm not as powerful as Willow, but I think I can give you some cover to go in."
"How much hand to hand do you have?" he asked.
"Not much. Then again, half of the enemy seems to be human, so I think we have a better than even than chance," Tara told them.
Gunn nodded. "That trick you did with the fire a few minutes ago?"
"I messed up."
"Try to mess up some more."
It had been awhile since Faith had been a fight with an adversary this worthy. She was wondering if it was worth to try some psychological ops on Darla.
"So you created Angel and he chose Buffy over you," she said as she swung.
"If you're trying to bait me, I'm past that now," Darla said as she parried.
"Actually" she swerved, "I needed you to know I get it," she said as she ducked. "It stinks always being B's sloppy seconds."
"You want to start a club?" Darla told her.
"Seriously," she paused. "Why did you come back? I know Angel. We both know he keeps his word."
Darla could have taken advantage of this, but she actually seemed willing to fight fairly. "I was made an offer."
"One that you couldn't refuse? No judgment, I've been made the same ones but we both know they have strings attached."
Darla swung back. "Tell you what, you survive this; tell him I have a message."
"Maybe you'd better give it now. I don't intend to let you have any last words", Faith took a lunge.
Darla considered this. "Fair enough. It's not like it'll mean anything to anyone but him and me."
She said three words. Faith nodded. "He knows what that means."
"He'll know who it is." Darla said. "I don't know how it's possible."
BABABA
"All right," Buffy said slowly. "There's a chance we might be able to all get out of this alive and relatively intact. But it will require that all three of you trust us and don't ask questions until it's over."
"Let's see. Surviving over answers.." Pete pretended to think. "I'm pretty sure where we all lean on that."
Willow had figured this was coming. "You sure about this?" she asked Buffy.
"We all know you're a long way from just being able to float a pencil," Buffy said.
"If this works, I'm not going to have much in reserve for whatever they have in store," Willow reminded her.
"That's my department," Buffy said.
Willow considered this. "This is going to be a lot easier if you start taking us down now," she said carefully.
"I'm really hoping you have more in mind that gravity saving us," Vic was, understandably, starting to sound nervous.
"There will be, and it's going to help matters that the load's going to be a little lighter in a few seconds."
Everybody got what Buffy was saying at the same time, but only Vic and Tilly made an effort to move. In any event, it made no difference; by the time they had, Buffy had abandoned ship.
"Is she always like that?" Tilly asked.
"It gets to be annoying after a while," Anya said resignedly.
"Don't worry, she'll be fine," Cordelia assured them. "She never likes drowning."
Pete was rethinking the no-questions policy but a moment later he had a good reason to lose focus. Because even though he had been steering the plane downward, it was also moving a lot quicker that it could under its own power.
"You know that old saying 'God is my co-pilot?' Vic said slowly. "I'm starting to believe that might not be far off here."
Buffy had known she was going to be facing some major issues even as she decided to jump. Her Slayer strength had helped her survive higher falls and she'd been a good swimmer even before she'd become one. The one factor she wasn't sure about was just how strong the current would be and how quickly she could get acclimated to swimming at night.
The answer to the latter was, pretty damn quick. The former was the tides were tough but her strength was going to be enough for her to power through. The only question was, how quickly would she be able to find where they were holding Dawn.
And that question was answered even before she'd finished clearing her eyes of water. Because she could smell the smoke and she could see the fire. Her friends had made themselves known.
Who knows? Maybe Angel will have saved her before I get there.
2 Hours, 41 Minutes
"We have to accelerate the timetable," Travers said firmly.
"It's going to take at least another hour just to get the drone into position," the General told him from over the phone.
"You do hear what's going on around us?" Travers said in an understated voice.
"The conditions you asked for required a specific instrument. You wanted this done precisely."
"We're past that." Travers told them. "We need the fallback."
There was a long pause at the other end. "We agreed to this to minimize collateral damage," the general reminded him.
"General, if this doesn't happen as soon as possible, we may never get a chance to eliminate the target."
The pause was more interminable. "I can't do what you're asking without authorization from up to the food chain."
"Wake up whoever you have too," Travers snapped. "If this doesn't happen in an hour, it will all be for nothing."
He hung up before he the military responded. He got on his walkie-talkie. " All units, hold your positions as long as you can."
"Does that mean even if they're horizontal?"
Travers blinked. He had not wanted to hear that voice again any time soon.
"Rupert?"
When Giles had learned exactly what Roger Wyndham-Pryce had planned for Dawn Summers he had decided to throw away any rule he'd ever had about dark magic.
He knew that Angel and Faith were already on route and that the reinforcements were not only on their way but more than capable of handling the combined forces with little effort. That was, in fact, the precise reason he had decided to violate that rule.
Wesley had concurred. Even assuming his father was being truthful in the terms he laid out – something neither he nor Giles believed Roger capable of being in any regard – there was a decent chance this was decision held by the elders but not the rank and file. And there was no way in hell any of them were going to allow Travers the chance to slither away into the darkness, not after everything he'd put them all through well before today.
So they had found the location and teleported their a little more than an hour ago. They had not informed anyone else of their decision. Wesley had felt slightly guilty about that – it was exactly the kind of bull-headed decision that Angel had made over and over and that he had cautioned against – but in the past several months he had come to realize that sometimes you had to make these kinds of decisions no matter how illogical they were. The Council had been his weakness the same way Darla was Angel's. Sometimes you had to give in.
They also knew that they were going to have be fighting people that had once been their friends. That had also been one of the reasons they had decided to go in on their own. Angel was a champion, Buffy and Faith were Slayers and their friends were all heroes but they did have the moral compass about hurting human beings no matter how evil they were. In Faith's case, both were concerned that she might either hesitate at doing what needed to be done or act on her impulses. Neither was sure which would be worse for her. But they knew that their friends were heroes, and that sometimes you needed to keep your hands bloody in order that they could keep them clean.
Neither Rupert nor Wesley had been entirely shocked that a few of the Watchers who had been assigned to this task had the same level of faith in Travers that they did. Two had surrendered without even having to have a punch thrown. One had offered to show them where there was a hole in the line. Those were the exceptions, and neither was shocked by that, either: considering how 'delicate' this was, they had expected the Council to take the most loyal members of the bunch with as few exceptions as possible. Most of them were still on the front line.
Indeed, some of those people had been friends of Wesley's and it had bothered him that he'd had to beat several of them bloody. With each one they made sure that they were magically restrained. Both men were capable of violence but there was little point in killing these good but flawed men and women.
Travers, on the other hand…
'I'm going to make you an offer, Quentin," The Ripper was talking now. "Release Dawn this moment, and then you and what's left of your council can go to one of those nice retreats that we know you have. I suggest the one in Oslo. Buffy isn't fond of the cold, so I can probably persuade her not to waste her energy hunting you down there."
"If that's the carrot, I'd had to know what the stick is," Travers' voice remained level.
"You don't get the benefit of a carrot, Quentin," Giles said carefully. "The question is whether the stick you receive is lit on fire. That is what you will get if you do not release Dawn in the next five minutes."
"You'll send the Slayer to fight your battles," Travers said tiredly.
Wesley shook his head. "Why would we make it take easy for you? No, we'll do it ourselves. Trust me , we are very capable of it."
"I don't know how we could have gotten so well-versed," Giles said thoughtfully.
"It certainly wasn't anything we learned from you," Wesley agreed. "Four minutes, Quentin, or we find you ourselves."
Travers had no intention of giving up the ship. "Activate the weapon."
"Easy, easy," Cordelia said.
"I'm pretty sure she can't hear us when she's like that," Anya said cautiously.
"Call it projecting," Cordelia said.
"You sure you want to know what this is all about later?" Tilly said.
"I'm assuming there will be one."
Vic was pretty sure the helicopter was starting to make the kind of gasping sound you only heard in Bugs Bunny cartoons when airplanes were about to run out of gas. If it had a similar result, he didn't think any of them were likely to complain.
Cordelia paused. "I think we should leave now."
For a moment, none of them quite understood. Then Pete looked at the horizon and still wasn't sure. They were over land to be sure, and the gauge was pointed to E. But they were still in the air…sort of. They were clearly floating – that was the only word possible – about three feet off the ground.
Vic turned around. Willow's expression was focused on something that none of them could see. Her pupils were also black and her hair had taken on the appearance of someone who had just gone through a full body shock of static electricity. "How long can she keep this up?" he asked carefully.
"Not very long." Anya answered.
"Ladies and gentleman, the captain has turned off the fasten your seatbelt signs. All passengers would do well to head the nearest exit," Pete said. "In other words, EVERYBODY OUT NOW!"
2 Hours, 14 Minutes Remaining
"I'm pretty sure we're here," Xander said.
"I can smell blood and smoke. Clearly the party started without us," Spike said.
"I'm new to these kind of things. Is that good or bad?" Fred asked Jonathan.
"I can still hear bombs bursting in air. The fight's still going on," Xander said.
"Clearly absent one major combatant. Hang on," Spike hit the gas and veered the car to the side of the access road.
Xander saw what Spike looking at next. Buffy was running in the same direction they were.
"She might get there faster if we don't pick her up," he reminded Spike.
"That's not what I'm worried about," Spike said grimly.
Xander was looking towards the horizon. "No, I think the womenfolk are fine."
"They usually are, but what makes you…" Spike trailed off.
Now Fred saw it. There was a helicopter hovering about three feet of the ground and several people were evacuating.
"I believe the line you're looking for is: 'I know, but I never studied law,'" Jonathan said calmly.
"Somewhere Isaac Newton is looking at an apple that's going upward," Fred said, shaking her head.
"I hate to ask, Winnifred, but how long did you spend in Pylea before you realized the laws of physics were more casual suggestions than anything?" Spike asked
"Probably the second sun should have been my first clue," Fred admitted.
"Willow always loved the Road Runner," Xander said detached. "I realize we're in a rush but considering everyone we care about is in that helicopter…"
"Not a problem," Spike heading towards the chopper.
"I think you can let go now," Anya said.
Willow didn't seem to have heard. Then a split second later the helicopter hit the ground, and immediately afterwards Willow collapsed.
"I really hope that they don't bill us for that," Vic said before running over to the women.
Willow was starting to climb to her feet. Her pupils were normal and her hair had fallen to her sides, but Cordelia was slightly concerned about the small stream of blood flowing from her nose she seemed unaware of.
"Remind me…not to do that again…anytime soon," Willow was sounding normal near the end of that sentence.
"You really are stupidly heroic," Cordelia said as she tried to help up her former nemesis.
"Look who's talking," Anya said.
Cordelia blinked. "About?"
"They say I can be selfish and outspoken," Anya said. "But I always tell the truth. If I had a ticking time bomb that could blow my head apart at any moment, I'd think that's something my friends are entitled to know about."
Willow was slightly baffled. Cordelia, however, was having trouble making eye contact for the first time in – ever. "This isn't the time," she said carefully.
"Yes, I'm very familiar with how you and your fellow heroes operate," Anya said. "I imagine you thought the appropriate time to tell Angel that your visions were killing you would be just after they blew out the back of your skull."
Now Willow's attention was fully on Cordelia.
"She's exaggerating," Cordelia said.
"No, for once I'm understating the case," Anya reminded her. "1100 years as a supernatural being. Human beings are not built to carry the kind of psychic visions that are meant for demons. It ends in two ways: they go insane or their head explodes from the stress. They can mask it for a while" Anya looked dead at Cordelia, "even from the people who know better, but eventually it becomes so blatantly obvious that you would have to be a complete idiot to not notice that person is deteriorating. Then again, maybe your friends aren't that bright."
Cordelia was starting to feel the kind of guilt she'd been hiding for a while, so she when back to Queen C. "Who died and made you my nursemaid?"
She did not expect the answer she got. "Joyce Summers."
Even Willow was blindsided by that.
"Look I get it. I'm not very good with emotions. When you spend a millennia as a vengeance demon, you fall out of the practice," Anya said. "And I don't particularly like having to care about so many people who have no problem throwing themselves into the line of death on a nightly basis. I certainly shouldn't feel that way for the girl who, however inadvertently, cost me my immorality. The old Anyanka would have loved seeing you die slowly and in excruciating pain." She paused. "But Anya Jenkins knows the hole in everybody's lives you leave if that were to happen. And the man that she loves knows that Xander would never recover from it."
Cordelia wasn't sure he'd heard right. "But you're going to marry him."
"Oh, he doesn't love you the way he once did. I'm secure in his devotion to me," Anya said matter-of-factly. "But I also know why you made that wish. You were in the intense kind of pain that only your first real love can ever cause you. Most of my clients called on me because they felt they never could get over it. I rarely was called upon by someone on their third husband."
"You haven't answered my question," Cordelia said.
"He took Anya to the prom, but he paid for your prom dress," Willow answered "He might not love you anymore but we know he'll always care for you. And neither he nor anyone else wants to lose you any sooner than you have to." She paused. "Besides, I don't think I'm speaking for myself when I say we've gone to enough funerals this year."
"Even for the President of the 'I Hate Cordelia Fan Club?" Cordelia tried to deflect.
"That club was dissolved after you took a rebar through the chest," Willow said sheepishly. "Apparently we realized we'd exceeded our mission statement."
Cordelia considered this. "Can we finish saving Dawn before this goes any further?"
"Why not? One damsel in distress does seem the quota for all Sunnydale residents," Anya said. "Besides, the big strong men have arrived. I think we are obligated to look in need of rescue."
"I thought that was only when Buffy showed up," Cordelia said.
"The first day we were here we put Xander through a lot," Anya said. "I think the last few hours have given him too much stress."
At that moment Xander finished closing the distance. "Whose bright idea was is to take a helicopter to a rescue site?" he asked Anya.
"Actually, that's on them." Anya gestured to their colleagues who were still trying to salvage what they could from the chopper. "One of them knew how to fly it and figured it would make things easier."
Xander looked at them. "These are the recruits who were guarding the switch. How much did you tell them about everything?"
"Very little," Willow said. "All they care about is that they were used in relation to Dawn's kidnapping and they felt a need to redeem themselves."
"And they didn't have any follow-up questions?"
"Oh we have many questions." By now the three recruits had walked over. "A ridiculous number that is growing by the second."
"But there's a time and a place for everything," Tilly said. "And I think we agree both of those come after we finishing rescuing Dawn." She paused. "Rescue Dawn. Sounds like a good title for a film."
"We can discuss who gets to play me in the film later," Xander said. "How far away is the drop point?"
"About a mile, give or take," Pete said. "And considering the explosions seem to be getting louder by the moment, I suggest we start moving."
He looked at Willow cautiously. "You in any condition to move after…that?"
"At this point, I'd just slow you down," Willow admitted.
Xander knelt by his oldest friend. "How long do you think you'll need to recharge?" he said quietly.
"A while," she owned. "Making sure we didn't crash took a lot out of me."
"You know the next part is isn't just chivalry," Willow nodded.
He looked at their new recruits. "One of you needs to stay behind," he said. "I don't think they're going to send anybody your way and normally Willow doesn't need a bodyguard, but in this case better safe than sorry."
"I'll do it," Tilly said.
"Why doesn't that shock me?" Xander said. He noticed her sidearm. "How good a shot are you?"
"Good enough," Anya answered. Cordelia nodded in agreement.
Xander considered this. "I don't know what we're going to be going up against or what they might send at you. Whatever they do, you cannot let them come too close."
Tilly took this in. "Will a head shot take them down?"
Xander actually gave the question some thought. "It might. But it's going to have to be clean. They get within fifty feet, take Willow and start running."
He walked over to the other men. "What could you salvage?"
There was one AK-47, two Magnums each with three clips and a flare gun.
"You got any experience with any of these?" Pete asked.
"You might say that" Xander said with a small smile. "You guys?"
"Both of us managed to get to sharpshooter in our training," Vic said. "But targets don't shoot back."
Xander looked at Cordelia. "You did tell them that firearms are the least of the problems we'll be having with the enemy?"
Pete answered. "She told us that you grew up in Sunnydale. Two years ago, your high school blew up in the midst of a solar eclipse that was isolated entirely over your town. We assumed that some of the things that kicked your asses growing up wanted more than just your lunch money."
Xander looked at them. "When this is over, can we have a longer conversation? I have a business opportunity I'd like to propose."
"As long as it isn't Amway, no problem," Tilly said.
Angel had gotten into within sight of Dawn when he began to hear what was definitely a mechanical sound.
He'd never been good when it came to placing the sound of machinery but it sounded like a combination of a Sherman Tank and a Fyarl demon. He remembered the story that Buffy had told him about the science project the Initiative had spent so much time and energy working on and wondered if they'd managed an upgrade in the last year.
As it turned out, he wasn't that far off.
From what he understood Adam was some kind of hybrid of demon-machine and man. What he was now looking at was clearly just a machine but it had been designed to have the form of a demon. He had a feeling this was what Frankenstein's monster might have looked like had it been designed in the last few years.
"Somehow I don't think hitting you will do much," he said to himself just as its eyes started to flicker.
If Angel weren't a vampire, his reflexes would not have been nearly spry enough to move out of the way. As it way, a split second after he had jumped to one sign, there was a giant scorch mark where he had been standing.
"As if this wasn't complicated enough," he said just as the eyes began to flicker again.
1 Hour, 57 Minutes
"Hey Slayer!"
Buffy had rarely been more grateful to hear Spike's voice – and even more so to see that he was behind the wheel of a car.
"Guess I was wrong. Dripping wet isn't your best look," Spike said deadpan.
"You gonna mock my appearance or do something to help?" Buffy said.
"I figured I do both," Spike said before he pulled over. "Door's unlocked."
Buffy got in. "Jonathan," she said with a nod. "Glad to see you're okay."
"Only by your terms," he said as they sped off. "I have to ask, is being held prisoner for extended period part and parcel of what you and your friends went through back then?"
Buffy gave a sad smile. "Maybe you would have been better off transferring to a different school when I moved to town," she said sincerely.
Jonathan shook his head. "Maybe. Or maybe I would have moved to a town that was only oblivious because we weren't on a Hellmouth."
They heard another explosion.
"This may be a dumb question," Buffy asked. "Is there any chance that when you enhanced yourself last year you actually remember anything involving fighting?"
"Fighting no," Jonathan said carefully. "But there was never anything wrong with my brain. And I have a sinking feeling as to what your friends might be heading into."
"You mind sharing with the unenlightened?" Fred asked.
"He's talking about some version of Adam," Spike said. "Which would actually make more sense than some of the shit we've dealt with the last few years. We all know the government loves both redundancies and recycling. And I'm pretty sure they didn't just turn Adam into scrap metal when you ripped out its power core."
Jonathan nodded. "Good news is, I don't think it's an upgrade," he told Buffy. "From what I remember from Walsh's schematics – and that did stick with me – the project had been in the works for at least two years."
Fred was thinking like a scientist. "But after a prototype fails, isn't the next step to learn from your mistakes and build a better model?"
"Not if your model gained sentience and tried to create a human-demon army," Buffy said. "They won't make that mistake again."
"Any time soon," Spike corrected. "But that's tomorrow's problem. They're going to try and come up with a safer destructive force. Something that has nothing close to a mind of its own."
"Probably some kind of remote controlled version," Jonathan agreed. He paused. "Though of course, they're still fixated on size."
Buffy turned around and saw what he meant. Then again, even from here it was hard not to.
"Should I hit the brakes before you get out?" Spike asked.
"I've already leaped out of a moving vehicle in the last half hour," Buffy said. "It gets old faster than you'd think."
1 hour, 47 Minutes
Faith admitted Darla was better at this than she'd expected. But she'd also been in this game long enough to think that the vampire wasn't fully committed to this. She had been fighting hard, and it had been a hell of a workout but Faith hadn't seen full combat against a vampire of half of Darla's experience in two years. She knew she'd left at least one or two openings that another vampire – an Angel or a Spike – would have been able to take her life.
"This should have been over by now," she shouted to Darla after the most recent attack. "Are you trying as hard as you can?"
"Are you?" Darla asked.
Faith actually stopped at this. Darla clearly could have killed her but apparently she was deciding to play fair for a change.
"I know you said you went into this to spare Angel's feelings," Darla told her. "I think you know him well enough to know that no matter how this turns out, he's going to feel guilty."
"I also know that's kind of his default mode," Faith joked. "But yeah. I've taken the blood of a couple of innocents. Not nearly as many as you…"
"You'd need to be undead to do that," Darla joked.
"But I guess I have caught feelings." Faith considered this. "I answered your question. You answer mine."
"I've only been a vampire again less than a year. Before that I spent six months as a human with a soul. I thought I'd shed most of that baggage after the massacre at Wolfram & Hart."
"Maybe not. From what I hear, you spared Morgan and McDonald." Faith paused. "Killer to killer, if I'd been there I'd have gutted them and let the rest live."
Darla considered this. "I'm starting to get Angel and Spike's attachment to Buffy. We do have more in common than you'd think."
"It's the cops and criminals bit," Faith admitted. She thought for a moment. "You knew, all those times Buffy danced with Angel and Spike she was more than willing to let them get away if someone else was in danger."
Darla considered this. "There has been a lot of screaming and explosions. And you know, killing me is technically a distraction from the larger mission."
Faith nodded. "Of course, we both know that if I let you go, you're going to come back and cause a lot of trouble for Angel later on."
Darla didn't even pretend to deny it. "We both know he'll want to handle it himself anyway. It's who he is."
Faith couldn't deny that either. "This probably doesn't need to be said but stay away from Sunnydale."
Darla looked shocked Faith had even suggested it. "You really think I want to go back to the town I met my first demise?"
"I did. Revenge can often blind us to logic." Faith told her. "And we both know Buffy won't hesitate if you do."
The two women stared at each other with the kind of respect that only hunter and prey can have – though both would no doubt insist they were the former.
"Give him my message," Darla said as she took off.
"Five by five," Faith said as she went in the other direction.
Angel had never been a fan of technology before he had officially returned to the real world. What he was dealing with now was enough to truly make him learn that electricity had never been discovered.
Whatever this mechanical monster was, he couldn't even get near enough to take a swing at it, never mind figure out its vulnerabilities.
Then he sensed before he saw Buffy. She was flying through the air and hit it dead on.
"Ouch," she said carefully.
"Please tell me that was part of your plan," Angel said matter-of-factly.
"I have an idea what this thing was modeled after," she told him. "I needed to see if it was as fast."
Both of them saw its eyes flicker and both dodged, though in opposite directions.
"Is it?" Angel asked.
"Adam would have crushed me the moment I got close to it," she told him. "This is just a giant one-trick pony."
Again they both leaped away.
"It's a hell of a trick," Angel said as they came back.
"All right. The old model had its power source in the spinal column," Buffy said. "Tear it out and it goes down like the metal lump it is."
"So one of us needs to play possum and allow the other to get on its back," Angel said.
"And seeing as you're the flammable one in this case let me be the one it chases," Buffy said.
Angel couldn't argue with the obvious. "For this to work we need to get it to in a closed space," he said.
"You've seen the lay of the land, where should I let it chase me?" Buffy asked.
Angel thought for a second, dodged another blast, and came to a conclusion. "There was a bunch of vehicles about two hundred feet in that direction," he said.
Buffy nodded and looked at the creature. "Beep-beep," she said and ran off.
1 Hour, 34 Minutes
It did not come as a shock to either ex-Watcher that Travers had not surrendered himself; the man was a survivor and he knew that there were very few scenarios involving these two men that he came out alive.
Nor was either man surprised to see that as soon as they had gotten within shouting distance of Dawn, Quentin had revealed his new toy. Wesley was only momentarily paused by the fact that the council seemed to be using the mechanical equivalent of a demon and then only because of how advanced it was. "Travers wouldn't even let us typewriters for the journals," he remembered as they had watched.
Both men knew the smart thing to do was to weight for the Slayer to arrive and provide enough of a distraction. It took slightly longer than they had anticipated, but eventually Buffy did arrived and she began to lead the creature on a merry chase.
"I'm guessing that's our cue," Wesley said.
"You're assuming she even knew we were there," Giles said as they closed the distance.
"Knew, no. Hoped, maybe," Wesley said. "Besides, if these traps are some version of what the Watchers use, we might be the only people who can free Dawn."
They had made it to the target where Dawn was being held prisoner. Compared to just a few months ago, the Slayer's sister was remarkably calm. Giles reminded himself that when this was over he was going to make sure both Summers sisters went through some version of trauma counseling. He didn't know how he'd find someone capable – he wasn't going to go near anyone connected to the current Council – but there were qualified people.
He looked at the cage Dawn was in. "Is this mechanical or magical?"
"As far as I can tell, mechanical," Dawn had been gagged but she'd managed to work it free of her mouth. "Took you guys long enough."
"They did put up a fairly heavier guard then we're used to," Wesley said. "Sorry we keep meeting like this, Dawn."
Dawn shrugged as best as she could give how securely she was bound. "They seem to have hired the complete Slayer's enemies list to get me. I figured it would take more of an effort. As far as I know, the gate's controlled by some kind of lock. You made need Buffy or Angel to break it down."
"As always I'm playing second fiddle," Faith said.
For the first time Dawn looked a little uncomfortable. "Um, guys…"
"She's playing for the good guys again," Giles assured her.
"Not that I blame you for your doubts," Faith said as she moved up to the door.
Dawn shook her head. "No, actually it makes sense. I mean, none of the people who have been holding me prisoner would considering hiring you to work for them, even part time. I mean, no offense."
"None taken," Faith said as she began to pull at the door. "Honestly given our track record I wouldn't consider working with them."
Dawn nodded. "I'm sorry Giles. You too, Wesley. I know it must hurt to see your old friends on this side of things."
Even in her state of being held prisoner she was capable of compassion. "I'm still processing it, honestly," Wesley admitted. "I assume you know my father was one of the men instrumental in your abduction."
By now Faith was working on freeing Dawn from her chains. She paused. "Damn," she said. "And I thought my family situation was messed up. Sorry, Wes."
Coming from Faith that meant more than Wesley thought possible. "I've had my issues with my father for a very long time," he said. "Still it's one thing to be a bad parent, and quite another to betray whatever oath you have."
"Travers gave me a version of that speech before he moved me here," Dawn said. "Try not to rip my arm off when you do this?" she mumbled to Faith.
"Sorry," the Slayer muttered and then proceeded to work a little slower. "Just curious, was it better or worse than the speech I gave when I took you and your mom prisoner last year?"
Dawn actually considered it. "Same level," she answered. "Though yours was more relatable. I could see there was actual pain there no matter how misdirected. Travers was just giving a personal version of duty first."
"Ends justifying the means," Wesley admitted. "That old chestnut."
"It would be weak even if you know he hadn't done it before," Dawn reminded them.
"Did he tell you he actually hadn't?" Dawn nodded. Giles sighed. "The man never learns."
By now Faith had gotten the last manacle off. "David Copperfield makes this look so much easier when he does it," she said.
Dawn stepped out. "You want to hold a knife to my throat for old time's sake?" she asked.
"Not my style anymore," Faith said as they both got out of the cage.
And just as they were breathing a collective sigh of relief, the walkie-talkie Wesley had practically forgotten he was carrying gave off a burst of static.
3 Minutes Earlier
Travers had exercised discretion and retreated into his vehicle the minute he'd heard the voice of Rupert on the other end. There were going to be repercussions to this beyond what he had expected. If that idiot Roger hadn't meddled -
His phone rang.
"After this over, lose my number," the voice on the other end said. "I don't care how many connections you have with the government; this is our final conversation."
Travers waited.
"The Secretary gave permission," the three-star general said. "We've scrambled an F-15 bomber. It'll be over the site in ten minutes."
Travers breathed a sigh of relief. "I appreciate what you've had to do."
"Don't," There was utter contempt in a voice that was traditionally one of deference. "Even if this goes perfectly, you've signed the death warrants of at least twenty innocent soldiers. And whatever collateral damage there is that blood's on your hands too."
Travers looked straight ahead. "My hands have been filthy for years. I can take it."
NOW
The voice on the other end was definitely military. "All units, we have a Code Six! Evacuate posts ASAP! Target will be hot in seven minutes1"
All of them looked at each other. "I'm guessing this is Travers' contingency plan," Giles said.
"We have to get as far away from here as fast as possible," Faith said. She looked at Dawn. "I realize you're a little big for piggyback rides…"
"How much would I slow you down?" Dawn asked.
"Less if we keep arguing." Dawn climbed on.
Faith looked at Giles. "Can you still hotwire a car?"
Giles decided to ask how Faith had learned about Ripper for another time. "I saw some jeeps a few yards back. Let's hope Travers hasn't taken all of them."
By now Buffy had led Angel right into that den of same vehicles. Buffy had leapt on to the hood of one.
The lumbering monster machine was right on her tale. Just as it was about to crash into it Angel managed to climb on its back.
"How deep?" he shouted.
Buffy was now holding the monster steady. "Punch down as hard as you can!" she shouted back.
Angel wasn't sure how far into the monster he'd managed to reach until he heard what only could be described as a crunch. He then yanked as hard as he could. Whatever he pulled out wasn't radioactive – it was clearly some kind of electrical device – but the effect was the same. The massive creature collapsed and fell down, crushing the engine of the car.
"I know it's tempting but try to avoid banging until we're safe," Faith said.
"Yeah, I'm always happy when my pain and suffering are used for them to make another love connection," Dawn said.
Buffy blinked several times.
"I know. Officially I'm the one who got your sister out," Faith said. "I'd say let's not make it weird, but even I know how freaky this is for just about everybody."
Buffy ran to Dawn and hugged her tightly.
"I'm glad to see you too," Dawn was trying to sound cool, "but please remember I've spent much of the last several days tied up. Not fond of being held tightly right now."
Buffy immediately released her. "I'd ask if you were okay but we both know what a dumb question that is, including the fact that I'm asking it."
Dawn gave a small smile. "I was never worried."
Everybody cocked an eyebrow.
"All right, there were moments when I was freaked. But once you're held prisoner by a Hell goddess, everything else kind of seems trivial by comparison," Dawn said.
"I realize that we should be savoring this moment, but sadly we don't have any time," Wesley said. "Travers has scrambled some kind of aerial assault and we have less than five minute before this place is incinerated."
Faith looked at the jeeps. "Well that leaves us with two vehicles to use. Get everybody else on the line. Tell them to get out of here as fast as possible."
Giles headed to the car.
"And Buffy, could you let Giles drive? I'd rather not escape all this only to have you crash into the lamppost." Dawn said.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "That happened one time." Dawn just looked at her. "That was caught on a traffic camera." The look went on. "In Sunnydale."
Tara and Gunn were in the midst of going through the last round of vampires when one managed to leap onto Tara.
Gunn tried to pull him off but was hit on by two more.
Tara was trying to summon a ball of fire but the vamp had gotten a hand around her throat.
Just then there was an explosion of dust.
"Why do you witches never stay in your own lane?" Spike asked as he pulled her to her feet.
Tara took a moment and pointed to Gunn, who by now had managed to take out the first vampire.
The second was charging towards Tara.
"Get away from her, you bastard!"
A blast of magic came and the second vampire exploded.
Willow immediately dropped down. Tara ran over and saw that there was a group behind her.
"Baby, you alright?" she asked.
"She expended a lot of energy making sure we landed safely. She'll be fine." Cordelia said.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Xander said. "According to Buffy, the Watchers apparently had a fail-safe that involves an aerial assault on this location in T-Minus five minutes."
Everybody shot to their feet. "What about them?" Willow asked.
"They're in the middle of hotwiring some cars," Xander said. "We, however, have a slightly bigger problem. Because it's ten minutes back to our vehicles running at top speed."
Willow looked at Tara.
Tara looked worried. "Baby we've never been able to do something like this before."
"Look on the bright side," Willow gave a small smile. "We screw up, it won't make a difference."
The three recruits looked around. "What are they talking about?" Pete asked Cordelia.
"I don't know but it's not going to be much fun," she answered.
Both witches got to their feet. "Everybody get us as close to us as possible," Willow said.
The newcomers to the group watched as everybody did just that. "Um, unless you want to die horribly in the next four minutes, I suggest you come over here," Spike told them.
The three of them did so very reluctantly. "What's about to happen?" Pete asked.
Willow and Tara reached into their pockets and began to chant in a language that only Anya recognized. "Xander," she said to her fiancée. "Could you not hold my hand right now?"
"Um, why?"
There was a huge flash.
PERIMETER
There was a second flash and everybody blinked several times. Except for both witches, who immediately collapsed in a heap.
"This makes the concept of the transporter beam far less appealing," Jonathan looked very queasy.
He wasn't alone. Everybody looked a little ill.
"Why didn't you want to hold my hand?" Xander asked.
"Because if the spell had gone wrong, there was a good chance we could have all been fused together in a giant mass," Anya said.
Cordelia turned her attention to Willow. "When she regains consciousness I'm going to yell at her for the next half-hour."
"Let's make sure we live that long first," Spike said. They had gotten to where the cars were. "They're gonna have a headache when they come out of us. I'd like to make sure they all still have them."
Gunn and Xander grabbed Willow and hauled her to one of the cars. "I think we're all going to have squeeze in."
Fred had stayed with the car and had taken everything that happened remarkably well. "All right, there are twelve of us. Jonathan, you'd better get in her with us. Your body mass is small enough that we can make room for at least two more."
"I've never been so grateful for being short," he said. "Anya, I assume you want to ride on this."
By now Spike was holding Tara over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. "That's three times I've saved her this past year." He looked at the other car. "Angel'll be pissed if I dent his ride." He grinned. "Another bonus."
He shouted at the three recruits. "All aboard, Yanks."
"I'd say we didn't sign up for this, but I don't know when we signed on to any of this," Tilly said.
"Really wished they left the chopper intact."
"How much time do we have?" Faith shouted.
Giles had hotwired the jeep and they were tearing out of the lot.
"One minute," Giles said.
They could hear the sound of aircraft over head.
"Perhaps a bit less." He slammed the accelerator.
"Target sighted," came over the walkie-talkie. "Final countdown commencing. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2…."
The explosion was targeted to hit a small area but that didn't mean that both cars on the road didn't feel the reverberations of the impact.
Fred almost on reflex turned her head around. The area behind them was a giant mass of fire.
"I've heard of scorched earth," Xander said. "I just never thought I'd come this close to be part of it."
"Look on the bright side," Cordelia said simply. "Somehow I think this is going to be a lot harder for the powers that be to just say this was an action pulled by gangs on PCP."
"Also we did rescue Dawn and get away with our lives," Anya pointed out.
Xander shrugged. "And it's not even Tuesday."
AUTHOR'S NOTES
I wanted to see Faith go head to head with one of the master vampires. And in a weird way she and Darla have more in common than you'd think. Given their respective adventures by the end of Season 2 of Angel, they are two sides of the same coin. (I couldn't resist The Princess Bride quote.)
I did consider having Faith kill Darla at the end of this battle, but I thought it would be more interesting to leave her alive. I won't tell you what the message is yet, but I have an idea for a sequel to this series and if I carry on with it, it won't be that far removed from what the major big bad of Season Three for Angel was.
Speaking of sequels I intend to have the next story include Vic, Tilly and Pete. We rarely get to see 'normal people' in the course of the Slayer-verse and I actually am liking the idea of people being able to handle the truth much easier than the rest of the world did. (I loved the idea of the logic when it came to popping that PCP theory we first heard floated back in 'School Hard'. ) I also saw them dealing with everything with a certain rational.
I had planned for the Anya-Cordelia confrontation over Cordy's visions when I first wrote this series. It made the most sense; Anya understands better than any of her friends just how dangerous visions are to a normal human, and she knows in her heart that even though Xander doesn't love Cordelia any more, he would hate to lose her. I'm going to be working on a solution.
The Watchers always have a contingency plan. Multiple ones, I would imagine. In the case of Travers, it was more to make sure he could escape than anything else. I considered having a showdown between Wes, Giles and Travers but there was already a lot going on.
The quote for the record is from one of the wonderful Wile E. Coyote-Road Runner cartoons. At the end of one of them, after the Coyote has yet again suffered a horrible pain, he sees the Road Runner standing on a cliff that is not attached to anything. He holds up a sign that says: "I wouldn't mind, except he breaks the law of gravity." The Roadrunner holds up a sign that is the punchline that Jonathan quotes at the end.
I've used the idea of a model of Adam as an end boss at the end of one of my Buffy fanfics before and I figured I'd use a more primitive version here. I also wanted to give some advice to Jonathan in regard to the aftermath of Superstar; considering that the information he had on Adam was essential to killing him, I figured he'd hold on to that.
Was the actual rescue of Dawn somewhat anticlimactic? That was intentional. I preferred the idea of going to humor rather than some epic final battle and I loved the idea of Faith being the one to set her free. And part of me did like the idea of Dawn just dealing with this is 'another day, another abduction', which sadly is close to how things are in Sunnydale. And yes, I couldn't resist another 'Buffy is a horrible driver joke'.
I planned the idea of calling in bombers as the final act deliberately. Partly because I thought I'd stretched the countdown as far as I could, but also because I wanted there to be repercussion this time. In the epilogue, there are going to be consequences for a change.
Only the Epilogue remains. Read and Review!
