Champions All
by W/T4Eva
Soul Mates
[reviews]
Buffy walked around the area of where she was sure those Christmas trees had been on sale that year. "It's around here somewhere," she said. "There's a hole..."
Buffy disappeared into the said hole. Giles and Vi rushed over and looked down. They were relieved to see that Buffy was all right. She was already on her feet dusting off her clothes. "Stay up there," she called. "I'll check this out."
"Take this," called Vi dropping an axe into the hole. Vi had insisted on joining the patrol and had chosen an axe to carry. It had seemed a silly choice to Buffy because a potential wasn't strong enough to wield it effectively. However as she picked up the axe and looked around Buffy was grateful that Vi had brought it along.
"Keep watch up there," Buffy called. "Don't let anything sneak up on you while you're looking down the hole. It is dark and there are still vampires around Sunnydale."
Buffy walked around the cave. It seemed to be part of a cave network. Goodness knows how far it leads she thought, probably right under the town and into those caves by the Hellmouth where I met the Master. Buffy heard movement behind her and turned quickly but saw nothing. She had learned to trust her instincts however and stood on guard with the axe with her back to a rock wall.
After a few moments and having failed to sneak up on Buffy the bad guy walked around the corner of one of the passages leading into the cave. And what a bad guy! This thing was so ugly it made a vampire look pretty even when it had its vamp face on. The interesting thing was it had fangs rather like a vampire.
As the creature stopped in front of her Buffy started her usual taunting, as usual not really considering whether it was a good idea. Generally Buffy liked the other guy to make the first move. Of course that sometimes meant taking the first hit.
"So what now? After failing to sneak up on me you're going to ugly me to death?" asked Buffy. The creature didn't reply, it only snarled. Perhaps it can't talk thought Buffy. I wonder what it is.
With great speed the creature moved forward and punched Buffy. Or it would have done had Buffy not moved very quickly. It struck hard enough to strike chips out of the rock face. Buffy moved aside as fast as she could but even so barely escaped the grasp of the creature as it struck again with its heavily clawed hand. She struck at it with the axe but only caught it a glancing blow as it dodged aside.
Now the creature was upon her, raining blow after blow. Buffy concentrated on keeping hold of the axe and avoiding or diverting the blows, which in the main she did successfully. Finally the creature achieved its first aim as it knocked the axe from her grasp. Buffy was ready however as she had seen what the creature was trying to do.
As the creature completed the swing of its fist to knock aside the axe Buffy was ready to stab inside with the wooden stake which she brought out from her sleeve. She rammed it into the creature's heart, or at least where the heart of most creatures would be. This time however she hadn't bought the winning ticket. The creature stopped, stood back, plucked the stake out its chest and roared, apparently unhurt.
Buffy wasn't fazed by what had happened. Even with vampires it sometimes took more than a simple wooden stake to take them down. She remembered Kakistos and thought, this thing's far older than Kakistos. Now why do I think that?
Thinking never stopped the slayer from acting. Whilst the creature was busy roaring and showing off his immunity to a wooden stake Buffy had rolled aside and was facing the creature once again with the axe in her hands.
Suddenly there was movement and noise behind the creature as Vi dropped down into the hole. The creature turned at this new threat, forgetting for a moment the far greater danger in front of him. Buffy gave it no time to recover as she took its head off with the axe. To her surprise it immediately dusted. Guess it was some kind of vampire after all she thought.
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The three Halliwell sisters and Willow had come downstairs to the front room to plan their next move. It was now getting late and Willow was worried that another meeting was coming to an end and nothing had been achieved. She seemed to be no closer to seeing Tara.
"OK, said Piper, "what are the alternatives?"
"Well," said Willow. "I came here because I heard that you'd been to a higher plane yourselves. I originally hoped you could take me to see Tara. I never thought you could bring Tara to see me."
"Could we do that?" asked Piper of her sisters. "You're part Whitelighter Paige, could you take us there, or at least take Willow to see Tara wherever she is?"
"I could take Willow to where we went before, the Whitelighter place," said Paige sounding doubtful. "But I don't know how to find a particular person up there. If I go to the Whitelighter place they'll probably jump on us straight away."
"We could use a spell to take us to a particular person," said Phoebe. "We've done it before."
"Yes," said Piper, "but not to a dead person. I'm worried that doing a spell to go to heaven or wherever is a fancy way of committing suicide. I'm not interested in buying a one way ticket." As she said this she saw the expression on Willow's face. Quite clearly Willow would be happy with a one way ticket if it took her to Tara. "Anyway we can't be sure where we'd end up if we tried that," she added.
Willow sat and listened to the Halliwell sisters talk through their problem, her problem she corrected. This is so like when the Scooby gang used to sit around and discuss how to deal with some big bad she thought, or when she and Tara...Willow broke off her thoughts and swallowed and concentrated on something else before she became too choked up to think straight.
"How do we know..." started Phoebe but stopped as she saw Leo's orbing light appear in the middle of the room. However Leo wasn't alone.
"Tara!" said Willow jumping up and putting her hands to her face as the tears began to flow.
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Faith finished climbing up the emergency ladder and sat down on the fire escape landing. She hadn't seen any humans out and about for the past hour. Nobody to rescue for the moment she thought. She glanced at her watch and worked out that she'd been in LA for about five hours. It seems a lot longer she thought.
The watch was her watch now. On the way to LA she'd wondered about getting clothes, money, food and all that but it hadn't been a problem. She taken a lot of loot off the vampires she'd killed. One group of three had a truck load of stuff which she'd taken over after dusting them and had parked nearby. She wouldn't be in want of anything all the time this darkness lasted.
Since Faith had arrived in LA she must have killed thirty vampires and demons she thought. Word was going to be out that the Slayer's in town. She knew she should be worried but she wasn't. Let the demons and vamps do the worrying. THE SLAYER'S IN TOWN! YEAH!
Faith had deliberately let it be known who she was. I can't be everywhere she had decided. If I can make the demons and vamps watch their backs they won't have so much time to kill people. They might hold off on attacking a few girls in case it's the slayer. Anyway she thought, it's about time I went to see Angel. He'll know what's causing all this and Wesley will probably be researching ways to stop it. I should work with them.
Suddenly Faith spotted movement below. A running girl and a group of four, no five people or things were chasing her through the streets towards the square directly beneath Faith's position. Faith jumped up and slid quickly down the ladder towards the ground.
The girl ran though the square and into an ally on the other side. The five pursuers came behind, somewhat strung out by the chase. Faith allowed the girl to go past and then came out of the darkness and hit the first pursuer. Her first thought was that it was a human and she pulled her punch. Then she realised that it was one of the creatures who had been hunting down the potential slayers.
They may have been human once Faith thought but they're monsters now. She stopped restraining herself and set about killing. She took out the next two arrivals before she realised she was not alone. The running girl had returned to fight by her side. She'd taken care of the first enemy who had only been stunned and then took on one of the remaining two killers as Faith disposed of his last companion.
Easier than killing vamps thought Faith, much easier. She looked at the bodies lying around and found that she had no regrets. They looked like five human bodies lying on the ground but when alive the eyes had been empty and stitched up, even though they didn't seem to have any problem seeing.
"Thanks for the help," said the other girl. Faith looked at her. She was attractive with long dark hair, maybe a Latino background and perhaps even shorter than Buffy she thought. A trained fighter, which is what Faith would expect if the girl was a potential slayer.
"That's OK, you did pretty well yourself," said Faith. "They're not exactly vamps. You're good, you could probably have taken them all out without my help."
"Oh, I know I could have taken them," said the girl. "I just thought having them chase me through the streets was the quickest way to find you. I heard there was a slayer in town. The description said dark hair so I knew it was you Faith."
"I don't think we've met." said Faith.
"No we haven't," said the other girl holding out her hand. "Kennedy, Kennedy the Vampire Slayer."
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"That's it," said Buffy, looking over Giles' shoulder at the illustration in the book. "It's even uglier than that in real life, or real death. What is it?"
Giles explained that the creature was indeed a vampire, an ancient ferociously powerful and savage vampire called a Turok-Han, a sort of Uber-vampire. It was much older than the normal vampire. It was a sort of Neanderthal vampire. It had always been assumed that they were a myth or at least that they had died out. Reputedly vampires feared them.
"Oh no," said Xander. "Buffy's the one the vampires are afraid of, well, most vampires anyway." He didn't pursue the subject further however as Buffy glared at him.
"So it shows up now, just when The First is stirring. Not a co-incidence I think," said Buffy.
"I agree," said Giles. "It's more than likely that the Turok-Han is here as an agent of The First. There may be more."
"Um, did you slay it?" asked Annabelle nervously.
"Oh yes, thanks to Vi. She was very brave." replied Buffy who explained about Vi's sudden intervention to distract the vampire.
Vi gave a quick guilty look at Giles who knew very well that she had slipped when trying to see into the cave but had said nothing. "She took its head off with the axe," she said. "One sweep and it turned to dust."
"But if we meet any more we must remember an ordinary stake won't kill it," said Buffy. "I put a stake right into its chest and it pulled it out again. But the good news is it isn't any cleverer than the average dumb vampire. It may be even dumber."
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Dawn Summers was walking home. She knew Buffy wouldn't approve but she had thought it urgent to do something quickly to make the house secure, so after Buffy had gone on patrol she had persuaded Xander to give her a lift over to Anya's place. Meanwhile Xander had gone on to try to see Amy.
Both Dawn and Xander thought they had a better chance of getting Anya's help if Xander wasn't involved. Dawn was convinced that Anya still had strong feelings for Xander but she was equally convinced that Anya would be the last person to admit that those feelings were other than ones of vengeance.
The problem was that Anya wasn't home. Dawn had waited a half hour but then decided to go back home. Besides she thought Anya might be on the other side of the world on some vengeance job. I could be here for days.
It was on her way back home that Dawn had run into Amy who had also not been at home and had not yet seen Xander. Dawn therefore explained about The First and the need for protection at the Summers home.
"I might be on the hit list of The First as well," said Amy. "It knows I work with you guys after that spell with the coven the other night."
"Perhaps your coven could do a protection spell for your place as well," suggested Dawn.
"What coven?" asked Amy. "After what happened they all left town. I'm the only one left. I'll have to do all the spell casting myself."
"Are you staying?" asked Dawn.
"Oh yes," replied Amy. "Once you've been a rat very little frightens you any more. Besides I've lived here all my life. You can't be a native of Sunnydale without being threatened by nameless evil monsters from time to time."
Amy agreed to pop by when she had sorted out a suitable spell and first applied it to her home. Before she went on her way she told Dawn about her deal with Anya over the Magic Box.
"So you see I've no intention of being chased out of here," Amy concluded.
Dawn arrived home to find that both Buffy and Xander had returned and the gang had started researching without her. She insisted on being given a full account of what had happened.
"Turok-Han," said Dawn enthusiastically looking at the picture and the article in Giles' book. "That's something new we can research. They can't be all that tough or they wouldn't have disappeared. I bet they've got some special weakness."
"I think their special weakness is the same as their strength," said Giles. "They have more animal and less humanity than a regular vampire. Hence greater strength and speed but less intelligence and ability to communicate. Like a lot of extinct creatures."
"Now that's a word I like," said Xander. "Extinct, at least as far as vampires are concerned."
Molly and Annabelle exchanged glances, impressed. This was not the reaction they expected from people who had just found out about the threat from a new or rather old type of monster.
Buffy took Dawn aside to ask for an explanation for her trip out. When she had explained Buffy surprised Dawn by raising no complaint beyond a frown. In fact all Buffy said was "You'd better tell Xander you've spoken to Amy. Leave a message for Anya on her answer phone."
"Demons have answer phones now?" asked Dawn.
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Willow found she couldn't move. She'd said "Tara" when she first saw Tara appear and her mouth had then dried up. She literally couldn't speak, she just stood and stared. Even had she been able to she didn't want to do anything to break the spell. Spell? Was it real? Was it really Tara or was it some deception? Was...
"Willow?" asked Tara. "Is it really you? Are you...are y y you all right? Are you well?"
As she spoke Tara moved towards Willow and, without her knowledge Willow's feet moved her towards Tara. Suddenly they both moved and flung their arms around each other, hugging as tightly as they could. Willow was certain, this was Tara, this was really Tara. Tara knew it was her Willow. Whatever had happened since that horrible day in Buffy's house she would always be 'her' Willow.
Willow and Tara stood and hugged each other in silence for a very long time. Both had their eyes closed and neither noticed that the room had quietly emptied around them. The Halliwells went into the kitchen for a family conference and to question Leo about what had happened to result in Tara being produced so dramatically.
"Well done Leo, you did the right thing," said Paige.
"That's pretty obvious isn't it," said Phoebe.
"I hope you're right," said Leo. "In the end it seemed to be the best thing to do. I hope it all turns out all right."
"What happened?" asked Piper. "Did you persuade the elders to change their minds? Gramps said you were talking to them for us."
"Not exactly," said Leo. "My information was a little out of date." Leo explained that he had been briefed all about Willow Rosenberg by the Elders and by Alec, a Whitelighter who worked with the Devon coven in England. Alec had known the basic background about Willow and what she had done and about the help she had received from the coven to try to get over the dark magic.
What neither the Elders nor the coven had expected was that Willow would make such a good recovery from the dark magic and in such a short time. Since the day when she had been persuaded to stop by her friends she hadn't touched dark magic again. This was very unusual.
"So the elders have been keeping a close watch on her since then?" said Phoebe. "How do they do that? Do they watch us the whole time?"
"The watching was done by covertly by a Whitelighter who had some previous knowledge of Sunnydale and the people involved," said Leo. "And no, the elders don't monitor your every move. This was just a special case in view of what had happed."
"Anyway it appears Willow was correct in thinking she had a soul link with Tara," continued Leo. "Tara hadn't moved on and we think her link with Willow has played a vital part in the healing process."
As things stood there had been an impasse explained Leo. Tara should move on but would not because she would have to leave Willow behind, maybe permanently. Because of the soul link neither the Elders nor anybody else could force the issue.
"So what happens now?" asked Phoebe, "how long can she stay? Phoebe had in mind the limit that applied to their mother and grandmother at Piper's wedding. She was already thinking ahead. How would Willow react when Tara had to go?
"No, no limit," said Leo smiling. "She can stay, well...permanently."
"She's been resurrected?" asked Paige. "After all you said!"
"The Elders have decided that Tara is a perfect candidate to be a Whitelighter. The soul link and her help in Willow's recovery proves that. Tara's agreed to become, if fact has already become, a Whitelighter, " Leo explained.
"And Willow's a powerful witch who very definitely needs a Whitelighter," said Piper.
"Who needs this Whitelighter," corrected Paige.