Into the Abyss
by Rainne
Part Eight
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"He's wearing me down," Maisri whispered to Faith. "I'm no gonna be able to hold this thing up much longer."
"Then that's it," Faith whispered. "I'm gonna have to go in for the kill."
Dakota turned stricken eyes toward Faith, but she didn't move — she was too busy putting pressure on the gash in Buffy's thigh, trying to make the bleeding stop. The blonde Slayer herself was unconscious, having taken a magic bolt to the head.
Thus far they had been relatively successful in their battle — no one had died, anyway — but the magick students were worn out from casting and the Potentials and Slayers were worn out from fighting the little demons Rothschear had been calling up. Thus far, they had managed to defeat everything, but the last one had claws which had provided Buffy with the nasty slice out of her leg.
There were, for the moment, no little demons and no mage-bolts flying through the air. There was only silence. The defenders were foxholed behind furniture and doors, as well as a protective shield Maisri was holding, but as she had said, she was wearing down and the shield would soon fall. When it did, Faith knew, the killing would begin in earnest.
There was only one solution. Rothschear would have to die. Unfortunately, in order to kill him, Faith would probably have to kill Willow as well.
Faith wrapped her fingers around the hilt of her hunting knife and drew it from its sheath at the small of her back. She took a deep breath, looked over at Dakota, and winked. "Love ya, babe," she whispered, knowing in her heart that there was a better-than-even chance that she was about to die. She peeked carefully through the crack between the two overturned tables they were currently hiding behind and located Rothschear, who was sitting at the bottom of the staircase, looking a bit winded.
"He's getting tired," Faith murmured to Maisri. "If I don't make it, try to rally the girls. A few more good blows should finish him off." She took a deep breath then, and sprang over the tabletops, charging at Rothschear, hunting knife at the ready.
She never made it. A mage-bolt flew at her, striking her directly in the stomach. She was thrown back through the room, slammed head-first into the wall, and slumped to the floor next to Giles, who'd been knocked out in the first round. Xander came out from behind a door to check on her and nodded grimly that she still had a pulse.
A collective gasp ran through the room, and then suddenly there was an outburst of anger from the far back of the room. "Hey! You can't do that!"
Nicki Roland, the young Partner trainee who'd run to get Maisri, stood up, pure fury written on her face. She stepped forward, apparently heedless of her own safety, and advanced toward Rothschear, who was wearily trying to summon his magicks against her. She was joined a moment later by her partner in mischief, the equally-angry Nicole Jackson. Nicole slid her hand into Nicki's and suddenly a bright nimbus of power glowed into being around the two of them.
Maisri gasped. "That's it!" She turned to the children. "All of you! We have to work together! Pool your power!"
The rest of the girls suddenly poured out of their foxholes, all establishing skin-on-skin contact with one another, Nicki at the point. The young Partner trainee's eyes began to glow a bright yellow. "That's it," she snarled, and her voice echoed strangely. "I have had enough!" She raised one hand toward Rothschear, focused her will precisely as she had been taught by Maisri, and slowly began to close her fingers into a fist. Rothschear gasped, and Willow's body arched suddenly. "You come out of her!" Nicki ordered, and the disputed body shook again. "You come out! You come out right now and answer for your sins!"
Nicki's fist clenched hard, and the made a sudden snatching movement as though ripping something out of something else, and the blackness was abruptly snatched from Willow's body, leaving only a pale, red-haired figure slumped on the floor. The darkness somehow took substantial form in front of the gathered girls.
::Fools:: came a voice from all around them. ::Do you think you can stop me? You are nothing! You are maggots compared to the awesome might of my power! Fear me, for I shall destroy you!::
Nicki looked the blackness in the face and faked a yawn. "Bored now," she responded, and with a sudden surge of power, she punched a hole right through the center of the darkness. With an anguished scream of failure, the dark figure broke apart and melted away into nothingness.
The surge of power left Nicki as the girls' hands all dropped away from one another and she swayed, nearly falling before being caught by Kerry Roberts. "Whoa, kid," Kerry said with a grin, easily picking the young Partner up and carrying her to a chair. "Relax."
Maisri, freed of having to hold the barrier, ran to Buffy and focused her will on the bleeding. It had already slowed considerably, but now it stopped, and Maisri bound it up temporarily with the sleeve torn off her own shirt. Dakota took the opportunity to run to Faith's side.
The dark-haired Slayer's eyes were open, but she was obviously not seeing anything in front of her. She was breathing shallowly, and there was a pool of blood beneath her body. "Faith?" Dakota whispered. "Oh, god, baby, what... are... oh, God, Faith..."
"Kotie?" Faith whispered. "'Zat you?"
"Yeah, baby, it's me," Dakota whispered, taking her hand. "I'm here."
"Cold," Faith murmured.
"I'm sorry, baby..." Dakota's tears were flowing freely now, leaving faint traces of pink down her cheeks as they fell.
Then she felt a hand close on her shoulder. She looked up to see Xander kneeling next to her. "Dakota," he whispered. "If you... if she... would she... be like you?"
She looked down at the crumpled body, not comprehending, then suddenly realized what he meant and looked up at him with new hope in her eyes. "Probably," she said, a desperate wish on her face. "Oh, God, Xander, probably!"
"Then do it," he told her, reaching back to touch the stake in his back pocket. "Do it. Save her." And as he watched her lean over, gameface, and sink her fangs into her lover's throat, he prayed to whatever Power might be listening to desperate pleas today that his guess was right and that he would not have to use that stake.
Dakota drained Faith — it was a terrifyingly easy thing to do, with the amount of blood the Slayer had already lost, and then put her own wrist to her mouth, biting down hard to make her blood flow.. She put her wrist to Faith's mouth and let the blood flow, having to hold her lover at first. Then suddenly Faith's hand came up and clamped down on Dakota's wrist, holding onto her and sucking the blood out on her own. Dakota let her go as long as she could, then wrenched her arm away. Faith fell backwards and lay, gasping, and Dakota held her hand, speaking soft words of encouragement to her as her body fought its way though the vampiric transition.
Buffy regained consciousness in time to see Dakota bending over Faith, but her concern for Willow overshadowed any worry for those two. She verbally bludgeoned two of the Potentials to help her over to where Maisri was treating Willow, who was slowly returning to consciousness with apparently no memory of anything after working the spell.
Buffy collapsed next to her. "Willow."
"Hey, honey. Guess I screwed up, huh?"
Buffy sighed. "If you ever do anything like this again, I'm going to... I'm going to... well, I don't know what I'll do. But you won't like it."
Willow laughed weakly. "Sorry."
"Oh, hell, I'm fine. You'll probably owe Giles a car detail and about a thousand baked cookies, though."
Willow groaned, remembering her "will be done" spell that had caused her to be in such a debt the last time. "Not again."
"Mhm. And Faith, too, I'm sure. You — he — whatever... she got slammed into a wall."
"Ouch."
And then a shadow fell over them. They both looked up to see Dakota standing there, looking down at Willow. "Hey."
"Hey," they both replied.
And then Faith stepped into their line of view. There was something odd about her, though they couldn't tell what it was. Then Buffy gasped. "Faith! Are you...?"
Faith nodded. "Kotie changed me. She had to — I was dying. But it's okay. Apparently it works for all Slayers."
"Wow." Willow sighed. "I'm really sorry."
"Don't worry about it," Faith waved it away. "Honestly, Red, I think it's better. This way, I'll be able to stick with the Academy longer. And we'll both be here to watch you two sit on the south lawn in the sunshine when you're eighty and yell at the kids about how you never acted like that when you were their age."
The four of them shared a laugh, and then Dakota picked up Buffy and Faith picked up Willow, and they carried them upstairs to the suite they'd been staying in. "I called the doctor in," Faith said. "He'll be here in half an hour or so to stitch everyone up. Until then, you guys rest."
The two daywalkers linked hands and, with a smile back at Willow and Buffy, left the room.