To Conquer Death
by Rainne
Part Eight
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Giles could hear the phone ringing as he tried to unlock to door of the Magic Box, but the lock was stuck and he had to fight it to make it open. By the time he arrived at the telephone, the answering machine had already picked up. It whirred a bit as it sent its outgoing message, and then the microphone kicked on, blaring the incoming message to everyone in the room.
"Yes, hello, I'm trying to reach Mr. Giles. My name is Cassie Singleton and I'm... uh... I'm in a club with Buffy Summers... and there's been... something terrible has happened, and please, please, I need to talk to you -"
Giles snatched up the phone. "Cassie? Cassie, this is Mr. Giles. Are you saying you're a Potential Slayer?"
"Yes," she replied. "Oh, Mr. Giles, it's terrible, it's terrible, they're dead — they're all dead!" She broke down crying into the telephone.
"Cassie, please, calm down. Where are you calling from and who's dead?"
"London. I'm in London. My Watcher brought me here last week from Sydney to train with some of the girls here. And they're dead — all the Watchers and some of the girls — all of them. It blew up. The building. It blew up right in the middle of London and we were standing out there watching it happen and we couldn't do anything for them."
"When?"
"About four hours ago," she sobbed.
"Who is with you, Cassie?"
"Um, Lani Kolinana, from Honolulu, Hawaii; Chimi Mishika from Tomi Village, Okinawa; Ivanka Kolenitska from Warsaw, Poland; Kerry Roberts from Miami, Florida; and Mishi Bugante from Bacolod City, the Philippines." After listing the names, Cassie sounded a bit calmer, which had been Giles's intent.
"All right, Cassie, where exactly are you?"
Cassie gave a harsh laugh. "In a pub off Portobello Road. We've enough money between the six of us to keep one room for a week and a half if we only eat twice a day."
"All right, Cassie, then be calm. The six of you stay where you are. I'll wire some funds this afternoon, and someone will be to fetch you by the end of next week. Stay low until we find out what's going on. And for God's sake, don't use your real names. Someone might know them."
"We're not," Cassie replied quickly. "We've told everyone we're on school holiday, and we're using different names. The room's under Katie Bell."
"All right," said Giles. "Just remain calm. All right?"
"Stay calm. Got it. Thank you, Mr. Giles," she said before she rang off.
Giles turned to the crowd assembled behind him. "'The Chosen One shall initiate the destruction of the Watchers,' she said." He looked at the three Watchers who were currently being held by Slayers and vampire. "Well, I don't know which Chosen One it was, but it certainly was managed. That was one of the six surviving identified Potential Slayers. She and her companions witnessed the Council building exploding. All the Watchers and Potentials inside perished."
"Well, good," came a voice from the doorway. "That makes the last part of my job so much easier!"
Everyone turned to see the polite and unassuming Dobson standing in the doorway.
"Dobson?" Birdwell exclaimed. "What are you talking about?"
"Dobson?" Faith repeated. "Wait a minute... I remember you! I thought you looked familiar earlier. He told me your name was Greene."
"Huh?" Buffy said. "Faith? You know her?"
"Yeah. She showed up at the prison with the papers that got me released. Her spokesmoron said the Council had decided I was rehabilitated enough and I was needed in Sunnydale, so they pulled strings to get me released."
"Well, I had to get you here somehow, didn't I?" Dobson inquired. "I couldn't very well kill you in prison. Too many witnesses. Thank you, by the way, Mr. Giles, for letting me know I missed some of the girls. It shouldn't be too hard to find them. Six terrified girls all huddled together in some hole somewhere in the bottom of London, should give off quite a scent." It laughed, and slowly shifted form to its true demonic aspect.
Birdwell, Smythe and Charles all fainted immediately, and the creature laughed as it whipped out a lightning-fast tentacle, wrapped it around Smythe's left leg, and pulled the hapless watcher to him. Before Buffy or Faith could move, a second tentacle had whipped itself into the unconscious man's mouth and down his throat, tearing him apart from the inside out.
Both Slayers went for weapons immediately, as the demon laughed. "Foolish humans! You think only you can be chosen? For I am the Chosen One of the Karvuil, and it is my mission to destroy the Council and all its remnants before I die!"
"Karvuil?" Giles said to himself, then suddenly dashed upstairs to grab a book.
Buffy tossed an axe to Dakota, who charged into the fray with little thought for personal safety. She took a tentacle to the side and was flung into the wall. Her head struck solidly and she fell in a heap into the floor. Willow grabbed Janna as another tentacle headed their way, and dashed for the door to the exercise room. The tentacle missed the young Potential and instead got Birdwell, who was coming to and trying to scramble to safety. Xander grabbed Charles by the arms and pulled her into the corner under the stairs to the loft. Tara ducked behind the stairs with them and began to cast a protection spell around the Slayers. Faith and Buffy both sent crossbow bolts into the demon, which shrieked in anger and pain.
"No!" it screeched. "I am the Chosen! I am the last! It is prophesied! The Chosen One will initiate the destruction of the Watchers! It is written in books as old as time!"
"Buffy!" Giles shouted. "Faith!" They both turned to him and he waved his book at them. "Its heart is in its lower abdomen! Pierce the heart!"
Both Slayers aimed for the thing's lower abdomen and shot simultaneously into different parts of it. When the thing didn't immediately go down, they both reloaded and shot again. It began to teeter, and they both shot again. It began to look like a large, horrifying pincushion. Finally, after a fourth volley, the thing gargled out its last breath, fell to the floor, and died. Buffy glared at the horrifying corpse. "They said initiate, moron. They didn't say complete."
All was silence in the magic shop for a long time. And then Faith went to Dakota. "Are you okay?"
Dakota's eyes fluttered briefly, and she groaned. "Anybody get the number off that truck?"
Faith laughed gently and held up two fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Which one of you?"
"Oh, boy." Faith took Dakota by the hands, hauled her to her feet and led her to the table to sit. "Her brain's a little rattled, Giles," she said to the Watcher, who was slowly descending the staircase.
Willow and Janna came out of the back room, looking very shaken. Faith looked over at the witch. "Hey, Red, can you do anything about those bodies?"
Willow nodded shakily. "Yeah." With a glance at Giles, who nodded at her, she walked over to the carnage by the front door. "Incendere." The three bodies disappeared in a puff of flame.
Faith blinked. "Wow. You've come a long way from floatin' pencils, huh, Red? Ya know, my grandma could do that kinda stuff. I remember, when I was little, she used to make pictures to make me laugh."
Willow blinked, absorbing the new knowledge that Faith came from witchy blood, then suddenly she gave Faith a small smile. It was time to heal wounds.
Dakota was looking a little woozy. "Buff?" she murmured. "Did we win?"
"Yeah," Buffy replied, "We won."
"Oh," Dakota mumbled. "Go us." Then her eyes rolled back in her head once again and she passed out.
Janna looked up at Giles. "What now, Giles?"
Giles turned to Charles. "Well, Miss Charles? What do you think?"
Shakily, she stood and shook her head. "I think, Mr. Giles, that I shall return to Europe, go to the south of France and live the remainder of my life quietly in seclusion on my family's estate. Good day." She stumbled out of the shop and down the street.
Willow went to Xander and Tara. "Are you guys okay?"
Tara nodded and moved slowly over to the table to sit down.
Xander grinned. "Just a knock on the head. I've proved the hardness of my skull before, right?"
She hugged him carefully. "I'm glad you're okay," Willow whispered.
Buffy stepped away from Dakota and drew Willow into the workout room and into her arms. "Baby, are you okay?"
Willow nodded, then suddenly she let the events of the last couple of days hit her and she began to cry. Buffy held her tightly and waited for the tears to stop, then kissed her thoroughly. "I love you, Willow. I love you."
"I love you too, Buffy. God, I love you so much." They embraced, lips meeting and tongues gently wrestling for dominance. Willow let Buffy win, then, and melted into her embrace.
The sound of a throat clearing brought them back to the world, and they turned to the door. Dakota stood there, leaning against the doorpost. "Hey."
"Hey," Buffy replied.
"You guys need to come back," she said. "There's a lot of stuff that still needs to be worked out. We... I need you to come and hear about it."
"Dakota?" Willow asked. "What... are you..."
"Leaving?" Dakota's face creased in a sardonic half-smile. "Yeah. It's time. I'm in the way of your relationship and you can't grow together in a healthy way with me in the mix."
Buffy nodded. "I've been expecting this for a while now."
Dakota nodded back. "I know. Come on. We've gotta talk business."
The Scoobies were now gathered around the table, waiting for Buffy and Willow to join them. Dakota sat down again and Faith gently applied an ice pack to the back of the vampire's head. Giles cleared his throat. "There are six Slayer Potentials in London, keeping a room at a pub off Portobello Road. They and Janna are all that is left of the identified Slayer line. All pains must be taken to ensure their safety — this is a task which is as important as guarding the Hellmouth. Therefore, I must ask you, Faith, as an active Slayer, to take charge of these girls until we can figure out how to go about training them. There... there is a manor in the Cotswolds which is owned by the Watchers' Council. You might take them there. There will be a skeleton crew of staff there, but all the Watchers should have been in London today."
"Not a bad idea," Faith said. "I'll do it. But you gotta tell me how to get 'em there. I know from Cotswolds like I know from downtown Tokyo."
Giles nodded. "Then that's taken care of. Now, Janna, we promised to return you to your family, and this we will do. Dakota, would you be willing to transport her home to... wherever her family is?"
"Georgia," Janna whispered softly. "Statesboro, Georgia."
Dakota nodded. "We'll leave tonight," she stated firmly.
"And life resumes," Xander said softly. "I wonder if Bruce Wayne ever felt kind of let down once the adventure was over."