Buffy paced the
large room at their makeshift ‘command central’ as she looked over her army.
Scanning her eyes over each of them, she made sure that every one of them held
an adequate weapon. Each fighter either held a weapon. Buffy couldn’t
help but feel drained when she wondered how long the battle would last. Besides
that, she was tired of losing people she loved. How many would die fighting
this? She hated to think of the worst outcome, but after so many years of being
the slayer, she had to think that way.
“Are we ready?”
Buffy questioned with a voice that showed she would lead them through this.
“Um , so soon?”
“The battle has
already started , guys. And guess what? We’re late. They aren’t going to wait
for us to train and prepare,” Buffy replied firmly. “It’s time.”
“You heard her,”
Dawn said, proudly going to stand beside her sister. “Let’s go.”
The groups began
to assemble and slowly leave the safety of the hotel. Spike walked past, and
Buffy felt uneasiness in her stomach. The last time they had walked off into
battle together, Spike didn’t walk away.
“Spike,” she said
suddenly, and he turned to face her.
“What is it Buffy?”
He asked, a little concerned by the discomfort in her voice.
“Um…” Her eyes
drifted to the Immortal who was standing on the other side of the room,
watching her. “Nothing,” she replied with a sigh and walked out into the cool
night air before he could say anything.
* * *
“Strange,” Xander
commented once outside. All the fighters had their weapons raised and ready to
attack. “This is war, yet I see no opposing side.”
He was right.
There wasn’t a sign of any demons near them.
“Everyone, watch
your back,” Faith warned, stepping to the front of the small crowd. “They’ve
gotta be ‘round here somewhere.”
“Buffy?” The
Immortal asked softly, coming beside her. “Are you okay?”
She turned to him
with a weak smile, but determined eyes. “I will be. As long as I come out of
this without having myself a nice new gravestone,” Buffy replied a bit
nervously.
“You’ll be fine,”
he assured her and she smiled.
“Thanks,” she
stated kindly and shared a soft kiss with him.
Angel and Spike
stood side-by-side, jealous easily seen on both of them as they watched Buffy.
“She can do better,”
Angel muttered aloud.
“Not our choice mate,” Spike replied.
Though he didn’t think so at all. Buffy could do so much better than the
Immortal.
“Have we switched?
Are you being the rational one?” Angel asked the younger vampire.
Spike rolled his eye. “I’ve always been the more level headed peaches,
after all, I don’t wear lifts, like a poofter,” Spike smiled as he let the last
word roll of his tongue.
Angel glared at Spike. ‘Maybe he’ll die’ He thought to himself.
‘Maybe he’ll STAY dead’
“Faith,” Robin
said, walking up to stand beside her.
“Hey.”
“Watch yourself
out there tonight,” he told her.
“Same to you,”
she told him and smirked a little.
“So, do I get
some kind of pre-battle gift?” Wood asked, a sly smile on his lips.
“Maybe after,”
she said, raising her eyebrows and walking off with a smirk.
The gang had all
begun talking, seeing as how no one spotted any demons.
“Um, guys…” Dawn said suddenly after hearing
something.
Buffy had heard
it too and perked her head up. Buffy turned her body so she was facing the
silent group. As she scanned the darkness, no one noticed the shadowed demon
that was making its way closer.
“Buffy, watch
out!”
After that, none
of them had time to concentrate on anything but the demon in front of them.
Because not too long after the first demon made its appearance, many others
jumped the gang.
Now and then,
they each stole looks to see how their loved ones were doing. So far, everyone
was holding their own.
A demon had made
Buffy drop her sword and now held her by the neck. She was kicking at it, but
it wouldn’t loosen its grip. The demon suddenly fell to the ground as his back
was sliced open. Buffy looked over to her savoir after she picked up her sword.
“Thanks, Xand,”
she said sweetly. He nodded and they both got back to their fighting.
After a while of
tiring battle, both sides were holding up. Suddenly, a large vehicle pulled up
that caused Buffy to stop her fighting for a second.
After a moment, a
dozen or so soldiers came piling from the vehicle and began to fight the
demons. The last two people to emerge were Riley Finn, and his wife Sam.
“Its captain
cardboard,” Spike triumphantly announced.
“Shut up Spike,” Xander yelled back.
“Riley?” Buffy
asked, trying to keep demons from cutting her to pieces as she walked toward
him.
“Fight now. We’ll
explain later,” Sam said as she joined the fight. Riley went in behind his wife
and began to fight his own battles.
Shrugging, Buffy
went back in, throwing her sword in a demon’s chest. ‘My life isn’t complicated
enough…’ she thought to herself.
* * *
“Buffy, I can’t!”
Dawn yelled in response as she backed up and slowly sank down. “My arm!”
Dawn’s arm had
been sliced, not enough to do real damage, but enough to hurt her fighting arm.
“Xander!” Buffy
yelled as she kept her attack up. “Get with the protecting!”
Without
hesitating, Xander took a stance in front of Dawn, attacking anything that come
near her.
“Buffy, hate to say this, but we’re
getting our asses kicked,” Angel yelled with annoyance in his voice.
Buffy looked
toward his direction as she finished off another demon. He was right. Everyone
was bleeding somehow, and were all looking worn out.
“Robin!” Faith
yelled as she watched a demon wrap its claw around his neck and snapped
it. His lifeless body fell to the ground.
Buffy watched
wide-eyed, and a few others turned to see.
When Sam turned
to see what the yelling was about she saw Wood’s body. She opened her mouth to
say something, but nothing came out.
Looking down at
her stomach, she saw the sword that had just been embedded into her lower
abdomen.
Falling to her
knees, Sam struggled to keep alive. Riley rushed to her side and was cradling
her in an instant. Buffy fought as hard as she could to keep the demons away
from the couple so Riley could try and save her.
“Sam? Come on,
this isn’t how it ends for you,” he told her firmly. Blood began to drip from
her mouth and a weak smile appeared.
“Fight for me,” she
told Riley. She didn’t ask. She
told.
“Sam? Sam, come
on, wake up…” Riley felt tears on his cheeks, but remembered her last words.
She didn’t want him to give up. Letting her body fall, he took her rifle and stood up. Standing back-to-back
with Buffy, he fired the gun, killing
demons everywhere.
Faith had also
begun to release her rage harder than before.
“Buffy!” Xander
cried out as more demons approached him and the young brunette behind him.
“There’s too many!”
Buffy stopped
fighting to see that they were now outnumbered. All of them were injured in
some way, even if it was just a small cut or a few bruises.
Buffy thought
long and hard before she called out her decision. “Everyone, stand down!” She
yelled and began to retreat herself. Everyone, minus Wood and Sam, got the
wounded and ran as quickly as possible back to the Hyperion. Once inside,
Angel, Buffy, Spike, Faith and the Immortal held the doors closed in case of
attack.
“We need to
barricade the doors,” Angel muttered.
“Done,” Willow said as she waved her hand, creating a yellow haze in
front of the door.
Buffy ran over to
Dawn. “Let me see,” she ordered, picking up Dawn’s arm softly. “It’s just a
cut…nothing major.” Buffy stood up, feeling too pressured and rushed as the
injured looked to her. “We need medical supplies for these cuts,” Buffy told
Angel.
Giles looked
up. “In the blue travel sack,” he shouted. Buffy stared at him. “Given our
track record in recent times, I thought it a prudent move,”
* * *
Buffy made her
last stop at her sister’s room to make sure she was sleeping okay. Walking back
downstairs, she smiled weakly to the people in the room: Angel, Spike, Faith,
Riley, and the Immortal.
The Immortal
walked over to her and carefully placed a kiss on the top of her head, and
Spike’s and Angel’s muscles visibly tightened at the gesture.
“Riley…I’m so
sor-” Buffy started.
“Don’t, Buffy,”
he said weakly. Tears were still falling down his cheeks when he looked up to
them. “I’m just gonna…” He didn’t even finish before he went upstairs, taking a
room close to the other soldiers.
Buffy looked over
to Faith, who had an unreadable expression on. “Faith?” Buffy asked softly.
Faith looked over to her with a smile and craned her neck a little.
“So, B,” Faith
started, no pain apparent in her voice. “When’s the next battle? That one kind
of got me on an energy high.”
“Faith…” Buffy
started. Why wasn’t she grieving or showing any pain at all.
“I’m kind of
beat, so I’m gonna go crash,” Faith announced and quickly went up the stairs.
Buffy looked to
the Immortal. “Can you go talk to her?” She asked him.
“Of course,
Baby,” he said and kissed her forehead before retreating upstairs.
Buffy turned to
Angel and Spike.
“‘Baby’?” Spike
asked with a smirk.
Angel was also
suppressing a grin and Buffy rolled her eyes. “It’s a pet name,” Buffy
explained. “You know like ‘pet’, ‘luv’…and so on,” Buffy said and sat down.
Angel and Spike
both smiled as they sat down near her. She thought it would be good to send the
Immortal up so she could talk to Angel and Spike, but for a while it was just
silence
* * *
Upstairs, the
Immortal walked in to Faith’s room and stood against the closed door. “So,
Faith…how are you?”
“Peachy. You?”
She asked, pain a little apparent in her voice.
“You don’t have
to build this wall,” he told her softly. “If you miss him then-”
“Why don’t you
quit preachin’ and give up with the shrink act? I’m fine. Robin and I had a
‘thing’…nothing more.”
“And you aren’t
upset at all?” He asked, a little skeptical.
“I’m happy for
the guy,” Faith lied. “He gets a free ride out of this livin’ hell, right?”
* * *
Angel decided he
would finally break the silence. “Does he make you happy?” Angel asked finally.
“Who? The
Immortal?” Buffy asked and sighed. “What is this? Intervention with a slayer?
I’m fine.”
“He didn’t ask if
you were fine,” Spike said softly. “He asked if you were happy.”
“At the moment?
No. Because my sister is hurt, I lost two people today, and now I’ve got two
very annoying undeads that won’t back down,” she said with mock-annoyance.
“That’s not what
I mean, Buffy,” Angel said and sighed. “I mean…does he make you happy?”
She didn’t answer
but just looked down.
“Do you love
him?” Spike asked again, and Buffy didn’t answer. Instead, she looked up.
“How do I
answer that Spike?” she snapped. “I don’t know if its love. I don’t know if I
CAN love,” She turned her head to face Angel. “I told you that already.”
Angel looked at Buffy. “You did?”
“The cookie dough?” Buffy reminded him.
“THAT’S what that was about?” Angel replied shocked.
“I’m very confused here,” Spike interrupted. “There was cookie dough
involved when you two kissed before I died saving the world?”
“No, I’m the Cookie dough,” Buffy argued turning back to him.
“Is this some kind of kinky fun?” Spike asked, utterly lost.
“Ugh!” Buffy sighed, as she got up to leave. “You just don’t
understand…”
* * *
It was hours
after the intervention Spike and Angel had given Buffy. She lay in the bed, the
Immortal’s arm around her as he slept. She turned her head slightly. And when
she was sure he was asleep, she carefully took his arm from around her waist
and put it back on his side of the bed. After sighing, she adjusted herself a
little closer to her side, near the edge.
The question of
‘do you love him’ had lingered on her mind since Spike had asked it before.
The Immortal was
nice, and seemed well, perfect.
But she didn’t
know if she wanted perfect. She wanted a little away from ordinary.
She wanted…
Well, she just
wouldn’t think about that.
* * *
The next day,
Buffy sat, looking a little tired at the table. Looking out one of the windows,
she saw that the demons had given up on the barrier.
“Hey, Will,”
Buffy said softly.
“Yeah?” She
looked up from her small breakfast.
“I need you to
research….”
“On what?” She asked, narrowing her
eyebrows.
“These
demons…they’re everywhere, Will. Find something that could help us defeat them
all at once. Or maybe make them weak.”
“That’s a lot to
look for,” Willow stated.
“Can you handle
it?” Buffy asked with a smirk.
“Unless we’ve
stepped into the Twilight Zone,” Willow said and smiled brightly. “I’m on it.” Willow
paused for a second.
* * *
Buffy was in a
smaller room by herself, trying to get away from the noise of everyone else.
Slowly, the door opened as Spike and Angel stepped in.
“Hey,” Buffy
said, a weak smile coming forth.
“We just wanted
to make sure you were okay after what happened yesterday,” Angel said gently,
referring to the deaths of Wood and Sam.
“Actually, I
wanted to know,” Spike said proudly. “He just followed.” Angel slightly turned
his head to give Spike a deadly glare.
Buffy couldn’t
help but smile as she stood up. “Well, I’m fine,” Buffy said, but not as
strongly as she would’ve like.
Suddenly, Andrew
burst through the door. “Buffy, Dawn was calling me names, and then she
threatened to do a spell that would turn me into a goat!” Andrew whined.
Buffy raised her
eyebrows. “Could she make you a mute goat?” She asked, only half joking.
Andrew whined a
little more, and then pouted as he ran the opposite way down the hallway.
The three left in
the room shared an amused smile and began to exit the room. Angel was first to
walk out. As Spike made his way out the door, Buffy lightly grabbed his arm.
Looking concerned, Spike turned back to her.
“What is it?” Spike held himself back from saying
pet. She wasn’t his anymore.
Buffy mentally
took a deep breath, and then gave him a small smile. “It’s nice to have you
back,” she said quietly. Spike held
back the joy. It was her first kind words since they had been re-united. He was
about to say something, but was cut off by Buffy pulling him into a small hug.
Before he could respond to the embrace, she pulled away and walked out into the
hallway, leaving a confused Spike behind.
Spike looked to
the doorway Buffy had just walked through. “Let’s play with Spike some shall
we?” He muttered in a mocking voice. “Bloody hell,” he whined as he went after
the woman he loved.
“Buffy?” The immortal had come from behind her, just
as she reached the end of the hall.
“Oh, hey,” Buffy
said and smiled nervously. The Immortal gave her a quick kiss and pulled her
into an embrace.
Spike walked round the corner of the hall, just in time to see The
Immortal and Buffy kissing. A shudder hit his back. Angel walked round after
him. “Spike, I nee-” Angel stopped as he saw what Spike did. Buffy had her back turned on them, as the
Immortal still held her close. As the Immortal rubbed Buffy’s back lightly, his
expression turned cold as he watched the two souled vampires from afar.
The more he
thought about the relationship Buffy had with the two, the deadlier his glare
became. Spike caught a glimpse of the
Immortal’s face. “He’s up to something,” Spike muttered.
“He’s always up to something.” Angel replied as he turned to leave.
Spike smirked. “That he is,” The vampire rolled his eyes and walked
after his grand sire.