Enjoy....oh, yeah...this is it. :-)
CRASHING DOWN (OR - QUITE A RIDE)
All Giles could think about was, if he survived, the amount of money
he'd have to put out to repair the damage to his house. Sure, it was only
Spike and another demon at the moment, but he knew it was going to get
much worse. And he cursed himself for not doing the "reversing a vampire's
invitation" spell. He watched as Riley approached Spike, feeling a surge
of glee. Spike was about to get his head ripped off.
"You know what I can do to you." Riley said to him.
"Yeah, but you're not going to." Spike responded. "I think the Watcher's
house needs some redecorating. Move in boys."
Riley grabbed Spike by the shirt, and was ready and willing to kill
the vampire, but he just…stopped. He had no idea why. Spike brushed past
him, more demons coming in behind him. Buffy and Faith stood in front of
everybody, but they knew that if they stayed here, they'd die. They all
would.
"What do we do?" Tara asked, practically yelling. She clung to Willow,
scared out of her mind.
"Get to the roof!" Buffy yelled.
They all moved faster than they thought possible. Wesley quickly grabbed
the bag of weapons he and Giles had put together, and Anya tossed Xander
his gun. Riley stayed still. Willow knew he had the disk, but there was
no way she was going back for it. They had bigger problems, and it would
have to be worried about later. On their way up to the roof, Faith spoke
to Giles.
"Get a back door." She advised. "Cause when we get to the roof, there's
that pesky problem of getting down." She stared at Buffy now.
"Did you have a better plan?" Buffy asked.
"I'm just sayin'. Gotta start planning ahead now."
***
Riley knew he could take out quite a few of the things. Which was the
one benefit to his altered condition. Yet…no motion. He hated watching
everyone run for their lives, and that he couldn't for anything about that.
Why couldn't he?
*I'm waiting on you, brother*
Adam's voice rang through his head. This wasn't good.
*What are you doing? *
*Making sure you don't do something foolish. Now come, there are things
that must be done*
His legs began moving involuntarily, and kept doing so no matter how
hard he tried to fight it. He wasn't in control of his own body.
*What are you doing to me? *
*You think I didn't know you wouldn't voluntarily join me? I allowed
you to access the full extent of your upgraded programming, but I made
sure you would assist me*
How could he have underestimated Adam? Well, dwelling wouldn't do any
good, because he had, and he couldn't change it now. But he knew right
then and there he couldn't live like this; as what he was now. He made
sure he still had the disk. It could still work, and if the opportunity
arose -
Adam's voice interrupted his thoughts. *We have demons to release*
He kept walking. He was Adam's puppet, and all he could do was watch.
And listen. He could still hear the growls of the demons fighting their
way into the house, as well as see the ones who were waiting to get their
hands on the gang, pacing outside. He was about to make things worse. And
he didn't have a choice.
***
Joyce was sitting on the front steps of her house when she saw the group
of demons, led by Spike, moving down the street. She had been thinking
about what happened earlier in the day, not believing her daughter had
reacted the way she did, and that she pushed her away.
'What did you expect to happen, Joyce? She loves her and as much
you don't want to admit it, Faith loves her back.'
It was still a mistake. They would be under a lot of social pressure,
and Faith…well, she was unnerving to Joyce. As much as the girl might have
been changing her life around and finding fulfillment, there was still
that chance that it would all fall apart, and Buffy would be in the line
of fire.
She was a pessimist. Could anyone really blame her? Plus, she was almost
stabbed. But she and Buffy had finally had an open relationship, and now
it was ruined. All she knew now was that a gang of demons was probably
heading to hurt her daughter, and they would never talk again if she lost
her.
She didn't want that to happen. She got up and started to head for
her car. She didn't know what she was doing exactly, but she was tired
of sitting back and not doing anything. Then she saw Angel running in the
direction the demons had gone.
"Angel!" She got in, and drove out into the street.
"You should get inside."
"Is she in trouble?"
"Joyce…"
"Is she?"
Angel nodded. "She will be."
"Get in. And don't argue."
He didn't.
***
"Shit. Shit. Shit." Faith cursed. They were on the roof with no place
to go, and the demons were coming.
Xander was firing his gun, safety off, but the bullets weren't having
any effect. He had a passing thought that Adam probably had engineered
their flesh to simply absorb them. Buffy and Faith grabbed the demon that
had broken the front door, and tossed him off. They needed to get to the
ground. They couldn't maneuver or defend themselves where they were.
"Suggestions? Like, now? Anyone?" Buffy asked.
"How far is it to jump?" Xander asked, hitting a demon in the head
with the butt of his gun.
Faith looked down. "Depends. How many bones are you willing to break?"
"We could use magic to lower everybody down." Willow said.
"Yes, but how long would that take?" Wesley asked.
"Uh…awhile." Tara admitted.
"That would leave you fairly drained, I'd imagine, and we can't afford
that." Giles said.
"We have to do something." Anya said.
They were getting continually pushed back, further to the edge. Buffy
saw a table with Giles' plants sitting out on it. She kicked it over, and
grabbed the two of the supports, which held it up. She pushed it hard into
the demonic crowd, causing some to fall. And in the next second, luck shined
down on them.
They all jumped when a rope flung up, and caught to the edge of the
roof.
"How'd this get here?" Willow asked.
"Who the hell cares? What do you say we start climbing down it?" Faith
asked hurriedly.
"I'm with her." Xander agreed, taking the initiative first, and going
down.
"Who's next?" Buffy asked.
"You and Faith go." Willow said.
Wesley waited until Xander reached the ground, and then tossed the
bag of weaponry down to him. Tara was quietly reciting a spell. It might
have been wishful thinking, but it seemed like the demons were being held
back some. Willow watched, somewhat amazed, and Giles turned to Buffy and
Faith.
"Go. We'll see you on the ground."
"You heard the man, B." Faith said, swinging over the ledge.
***
Xander caught the bag, but then felt hands grab his arms. Roughly. They
dragged him away from the house, and he saw Initiative soldiers pointing
their guns at him. Graham walked forward.
"Let him go. That's an order."
The confused men did as they were told.
"You…the rope?" Xander asked.
Graham nodded. "I'm changing the mission objective." He said to his
men. "The Slayers and their friends are not the threat. They are." He pointed
to the angry demons, coming ever closer. "We helped this happen. We have
a duty as soldiers to fix it and protect the civilians of this town. Are
there any objections?"
The men were silent, and then they focused their weapons on the approaching
hostiles. And began firing.
"We appreciate this, really," Xander said, "but bullets don't work."
"Spread them out. Switch to blasters. Knock 'em out." Graham told his
men. He then unhooked his from his side, and handed it to Xander.
Buffy and Faith hit the ground, seeing the commandos. They quickly
figured out that the soldiers were helping, and weren't going to turn away
help. Questions were for later. Faith reached down into the weapon bag,
grabbed a sword, and tossed another to Buffy. They made sure the gang was
still coming down, and ran into the fray
A scaly looking demon, brown blotches covering its body, was hit by an electrical blast. It dropped to its knees, and Faith immediately took its head off. Behind her, Buffy jammed her sword right through one's heart. She turned to Faith and grinned.
"Now we're gettin' somewhere." Faith said.
Buffy spotted Spike, vampiric face on, moving toward her. Her face-hardened,
she handed her sword off to Faith, got out a stake, and moved toward him
too.
"Ready, Slayer?" He asked.
"I'm gonna kill you."
She kicked his knees, and everything else just got blocked out.
***
"Chaos is interesting when it begins, as well as when it ends." Adam
said.
He, Riley, and the other half of his demon force had taken out the
soldiers left behind in the complex. Blood and bodies were everywhere.
In pieces, and whole. If Riley had still been able to vomit, he would have
been doing so. He had been a very active participant in the slaughter,
and he knew everyone asked themselves this, but it seemed like a more important
question to him right now.
'Why me?'
If he had never joined the military, never been good enough to be selected…oh,
but what good was this doing? He still had the disk in his uniform front
pocket. There was no reason to change clothes anymore. But he couldn't
control his actions, so how was he supposed to get it into Adam's drive?
Riley looked at the only humans still left alive. The scientists. Adam
was saving them for the soon to be escapees. The white coat wearing men
were standing, close together, trembling like cowards. Riley had a feeling
they wished they had never created Adam now. A part of him was saying that
it served them right.
Adam went over to the main control system, and opened a panel that
revealed a bright green button. He looked at Riley. "Would you like the
honor?"
"No."
Riley felt himself moving again.
"I don't think I'll ever understand emotions. They seem to be rather
troublesome."
Riley reached out and hit the button. All the cages fields lowered,
and the demons cautiously joined the others. When they saw they weren't
going to get punished, all their gazes turned to the scientists.
Those that had mouths, smiled twisted, evil smiles as they moved to
get revenge.
***
Buffy, Faith, Xander and the commandos had driven the major fighting
away from the house, so when Willow, Tara, and Anya stood on the ground
waiting for Giles and Wesley to come down, it was relatively safe. Willow
was still in shock over the spell Tara had cast. Not only had it kept the
demons at bay, but then it carried the creatures up into the air, very
high, and dropped them to the ground. Willow was standing next to the bodies.
All their necks were broken.
"How did you do that?" Willow asked.
"I'm a little more…powerful than I said. But…but you have more raw
power than I ever had at the beginning."
"And it's good she is. She saved our lives." Anya commented.
"How powerful?" Willow couldn't believe it.
"I don't know…uh…really. It just takes concentration. Like, see how
the fight's all mixed? Buffy and the soldiers, Faith, for me to do something
by myself…I don’t think I could. Too big."
Willow realized at that moment just how little she knew about Tara,
and how much she wanted to learn. Tara was powerful, that was obvious.
Probably better magickally too, but Willow didn't care. She loved her,
and together their spells were focused and almost always worked. There
was definitely a connection between them.
She reached for Tara's hand. "What if you had some help?"
Tara beamed at her, her fear that Willow would be hurt by her secret
vanished, and they got to work as the two ex-watchers joined them.
***
Faith and Xander had ended up side by side, him doing the electroshocks
while she finished the job. She had a demon by the neck, and twisted, killing
it. Xander turned up the blaster to the highest setting, and this didn't
just shock a demon, it did a full on electrocution. Bodies were smoking
on the ground. Problem was, the juice was almost gone.
"How ya doing, X?"
"Gotta say my self esteem is at a high point."
He discarded the weapon as he got one last shot off. They were pretty
much in control of the situation. There was definitely strength in numbers.
Faith gave him the second sword, and he was feeling pretty good about himself.
"Be careful with that thing, okay? I don't need you dyin' on me." Faith
said cautiously.
"No problem."
Faith kicked a demon to the ground, when she realized that they were
being encircled.
"You know, I heard snuggling…no wait. That's for warmth." Faith shot
him a look. "What? I joke when I'm about to die."
"Well I'm going out swinging." She went to rush them, when she heard
an engine.
All the demons growled, and those not quick enough to move out of the
way, got hit and flung into the air. One found its way onto a tree branch,
staked. The bright headlights forced Xander and Faith to cover their eyes,
and then they saw Angel and Joyce run out.
"What kept you?" Xander asked Angel.
"Hold it." Faith said. "You brought her here?"
"He didn't have a choice." Joyce said.
"Whatever. I think the wiccans are by the house. They could use protecting.
You should go with him, Mrs. S. It's safer over there."
"No. Where's Buffy?"
"She's fine." Xander assured her.
"But she'd flip if she knew you were here." Joyce didn't move, so Faith
just sighed, and pulled out a retractable blade from her pants pocket,
and handed it over. "Stick close to me."
***
Spike gave Buffy a pretty vicious uppercut, and her head snapped back.
If she weren't a Slayer, she would of spit her own blood out of her mouth
from that blow. She retaliated with a blow to his face, flipped her
stake around, and hit him again. Blindly, he grabbed her by the shirt,
and flung her to the ground.
"Oh look. Your mum's here."
"She's what?" Buffy asked, flipping up.
"I won't kill her. Can't speak for any of the others, but if she's
still alive, I'll give her your body personally."
She punched him in the chest repeatedly, and then round-housed him
in the head. He did a little roll, as he hit the ground, and she was overtop
of him in an instant. She grabbed his hand, and bent his fingers back,
feeling satisfied when she heard the snap. He growled in pain.
"Bitch."
"Bastard. I should've killed you as soon as you got that chip. If it
wasn't for you, Riley wouldn't have ended up like what he is now."
"Why do you give a damn? You've got a new toy. She's the biggest bitch
of them all." He grabbed her throat, squeezed, and stood up.
"He's not human. He's lost that forever." Buffy croaked out.
"It's not all it's cracked up to be. He's gonna have a lot of blood
on his hands." The ground started to shake. "What the hell?"
Buffy kicked him in the lower regions, and he let go of her throat.
She picked up her stake off the ground, and was prepared to finish the
job. But then it shook again.
***
Wesley was in the midst of firing a crossbow at a vampire when the shaking
began. His shot missed, but Giles shoved the sharpened edge of his staff
into the vampire, dusting him.
"What's going on?" Wesley asked.
"I have no idea."
The demons were as confused as they were.
***
Joyce was knocked to the ground by a horned-creature, and it bent down over her, baring its fangs.
Faith ran and tackled it to the ground. "Bad move."
Xander was by Joyce's side as Faith wrestled to get the upper hand with the demon. "Are you okay, Mrs. Summers?"
Joyce got up, an angry look on her face. "Help her hold it down."
"What?"
"Xander."
"Yes, ma'am."
He went to hold its legs as Faith held its arms. Joyce leaned over
its chest, and held the knife above her head. And then she drove it into
the demon's heart. As Xander and Faith felt the body go limp, Faith turned
to Joyce, suitably impressed.
"Nice. Wicked accurate too."
Joyce allowed herself a grin. "Thanks."
"You made the…oh." Faith smiled. "No problem. It's what I do."
The ground shook beneath them.
***
"What are you doing?" Angel asked, tossing demons aside left and right.
"Just keep them away from us." Tara said calmly.
"You heard her!" Anya screamed at him.
She and Willow clasped hands, and she began to recite a spell in Latin. Willow didn't know why, but she knew the words, and began to say them with Tara. They closed their eyes, and the ground began to shake. They didn't feel it. Just kept chanting. Over and over. The shaking got more violent.
A white light enveloped the witches, and got larger and larger. It moved over Giles' entire property. Everything was blinded in light. Demons howled, screamed…combusted. Every single one within the light's reach, evaporated. When they were done, both girls were breathing heavily.
When they opened their eyes, everyone was looking at them. Especially the dumb-founded commandos.
"What?" Willow asked innocently.
***
"It destroyed any soulless creature within Giles' property." Tara explained.
"Ooh. Did it get Spike?" Willow asked hopefully.
"No." Buffy muttered, clearly pissed. "He took off before the light."
"So that's it, right? We won?" Xander questioned everyone.
"I don't think so." Buffy said cryptically.
"Come on, B. We did it." Faith was ready to celebrate.
"Spike said something about Riley having a lot of blood on his hands.
Where did he go, anyway?"
"Jackson, radio the base." Graham said quickly.
"Home base, this is Team Alpha. Come in, over." Jackson waited. Nothing.
"Just static, sir."
"What is it?" Joyce asked.
"It's Adam." Graham said.
"Goddamn it!" Faith screamed, and then threw up her hands. "Let's do
this."
"Okay. Angel, Faith, Xander, and I will go with the soldiers." Buffy
said. "Will and Tara, you guys need rest. Mom, you'll be fine here. Anya
-"
"Don't worry, I don't wanna come. But if you come back and Xander's
dead -"
"Love you too, honey." Xander said sarcastically.
"I do."
He smiled.
"Buffy." Joyce said.
"Mom, Faith and Xander told me you saved their lives. You don't know
how grateful I am for that. Though probably not as much as they are. But
Adam…if you thought these things were bad, multiply him by a million bazillion.
I just wanna know you'll be safe."
"I…love you, Buffy. I need you to know that."
Everyone looked around as Buffy hugged her mom. "I do know that. Love you too. Thank you for being here."
Before another word could be said, Buffy took one look at Giles and Wesley, got their silent assurances, and the group split up.
***
Graham punched in the code to open the doors that was a back way into the complex. As soon as they opened, he smashed the panel with his gun barrel, so they wouldn't be able to close. It was pitch black inside, except for the blinking of various panels. Adam had turned off the lights.
"Anybody feel like they've been zapped into an Alien movie?" Xander
asked.
"I wish I were in a movie. Then I couldn't really die. You getting
anything, Angel?" Buffy said.
"They're everywhere." He said in response.
"Yeah, that helps." Faith said.
The commandos were fanning their weapons around the room, listening
for the slightest movement. Then it came. Several figures were running
past them toward the moonlight, and they had no idea what was going on.
Then the lights switched on.
"Where are you going?" Spike practically screamed at what they now
saw were retreating demons.
A vampire stopped and turned around. "We got the kills we wanted, now
we just want to get the hell out of here. Best of luck man."
"You bloody, ungrateful cowards!"
Faith wanted to laugh. Spike was scared as hell. Her good mood was
gone quickly, though, because they all saw the bodies. The blood, the carnage,
the…enjoyment. They got their kills all right, and they had fun.
"Relax, Spike. We still have our own personal army." Adam said.
The group looked from Adam, to Riley, and then their gazes shifted
upwards to the catwalk, where the other half of Adam's experiments stood,
snarling. They began jumping down.
"I'm gonna be sore in the morning." Faith said, running to meet her
opponents.
"You're going to be sore?" Xander asked incredulously. "What about
me?"
Graham ordered his men to get more blasters from the weapons locker.
One of the demons knocked it over, busting it open, simply making the blasters
easier to access. But Jackson took a clawed hand in the stomach. Two of
his fellow soldiers shot filled the demon's head with bullet after bullet,
and not even the "super skin" was enough to keep it alive. Everybody was
then armed with blasters.
***
They split off. Xander went with Angel, Buffy with Faith, and each pair
took a side of the complex. The commandos took the center. Adam had moved
up to the catwalk, and was watching the fight. Riley hadn't moved, and
Spike was trying to hide behind any group of demons he could.
"How do you wanna handle this?" Faith asked Buffy.
"We take out the demons first. Adam doesn't seem to want to join in
the fun, and I'm in no rush to go up against him."
"That's why I love ya, B. Your strategies are so simple." She zapped
two demons in rapid succession.
Buffy smiled, flipping a demon over top of her. "Right back at ya.
Riley still has the disk, anyway."
Faith looked. "He's coming over here. Maybe you better ask him for
it. Oh…and what the hell happened back at the house."
***
Adam watched Riley approach the slayers from his position.
"Let's make it interesting."
***
"Riley…what's going on?" Buffy asked slowly.
"I'm sorry." He said before delivering a punch to her chest that sent
her careening across the room.
Faith's eyes widened. "You played us the whole time, didn't you?"
She rushed him, but he grabbed her by the shirt. "Adam is…" Faith struggled,
but reached her hand down to get the disk. Riley knew this, and was fighting
Adam all he could. When Faith got the disk, he lost control, and skewered
her side, tossing her down.
The disk skittered out of her hands, and ended up about five feet away
from Buffy. She was still disoriented, so she crawled slowly, towards it.
Riley was just a smidgen faster and about five seconds away from stomping
on it.
***
Angel and Xander grabbed one of the last demons by its arms, and
shoved it into a cell with others that they had either fried or snapped.
The commandos were handling the rest. Just to be on the safe side, though,
Xander hit the keypad combination, and locked them in there. He picked
up his blaster off the ground.
"Xander!" Angel yelled, seeing Riley close to Buffy, who was about
to smash all of their hopes.
Xander reacted quickly, sending a jolt Riley's way. It was enough to
make him stop, so Angel ran and grabbed the disk off the floor.
"Get it into Adam." Buffy said to him. "Hurry!"
Riley kicked Buffy in the stomach. Again, and again. Xander went to
check on Faith. Angel, using his vampire acrobatics, jumped up to the catwalk
in one fluid leap. He and Adam stood toe to toe.
"Why is that so important?" Adam asked.
"Let's find out."
Adam threw a punch that Angel dodged easily. The cybersoldier was strong,
but he wasn't that fast. Angel was, and he leapt over and behind him, grabbing
onto Adam's neck. The disk was still firmly in Angel's hands. Adam couldn't
shake him, so he backed up banging Angel hard into the wall. Into a panel.
"Self destruct in T-Minus One Minute." A computer voice spoke.
Adam flipped Angel over back in front of him, and Angel stayed on his
feet. He saw the drive, and jammed the disk into it. Adam immediately started
to shake, but knocked Angel off the catwalk.
Riley had been just about to crush Buffy's head with his foot, and
then he felt the connection break. Buffy was wheezing, trying to breathe.
Riley looked up at Adam, and his eyes darkened. He moved up the stairs
to him.
"I always hated having a brother."
With all the strength he had, he tore Adam's head clean off.
"T-Minus forty-five Seconds."
Riley ejected the disk from Adam's drive, and looked at it in his hands.
***
"Is she okay?" Faith asked.
"Yeah." Xander said. "It's almost over."
They both saw Buffy struggling to her feet. And someone else, coming
behind her.
***
"Riley, no!" Buffy yelled to him.
"You have to get out. This place is gonna blow." He looked at her sadly.
"I can't live like this."
"I'm sorry! For letting this -"
"It wasn't your fault. Just be happy. I know I will be when this is
over."
"T-Minus Twenty seconds."
Before she could say another word, he had entered the disk into his drive, and began to shake. He closed his eyes and waited. Buffy looked at him for one more second, and began to turn her head to search for Faith. What she saw instead was Spike coming at her with a rather large lead pipe. He pulled back, and swung at her head.
Then…blackness.
***
Despite her injuries, Xander had to hold Faith back.
"Let me go! Buffy! That fucking son of a bitch!"
Spike wasted no time at all, and sprinted out into the night. Angel had scooped Buffy into his arms.
"T-Minus Ten,"
"Nine,"
Tears were burning down Faith's face. They had to run.
"Eight,"
"Seven,"
"Is she dead?"
"Faith, we all will be if we don't go. Come on!" Xander screamed, dragging her.
They all ran out of there, the commandos behind them, as the countdown continued to lower. They kept going, and going, and going, until they finally dove behind some bushes. Then Lowell House erupted, fire burning the building all around.
But Faith didn't care. She took Buffy from Angel's arms, and felt her pulse. She was alive.
"Don't you do this to me, damn it! Wake up. I can't do this without you, you hear me? I love you, B and this isn't fucking fair!" She laid her head on Buffy's chest. Angel and
Xander silently looked down at Faith, who was quietly repeating two words.
"Wake up, wake up, wake up…"
Angel put his hand on her shoulder. "We need to get her to a hospital."
Graham switched on his radio. "We need fire trucks, and an ambulance over at…"
***
Back at the house, they were trying to clean up. But the mess just ended up looking semi-organized.
"You think they're okay?" Joyce asked.
"Judging from that big boom…I'd say they won. Unless they didn't…get
out in time…" Anya worried.
"I'm sure they're perfectly safe." Wesley assured.
"They've all faced situations like this before." Giles added.
"What could possibly happen?" Tara asked.
The phone, sitting on the floor, began to ring.