Part Nine
“Why are we stopping here first?” Sharna asked Giles, as he turned the key to his apartment door. “Shouldn’t we be going straight to the tunnels?”
“I am not going unprepared,” Giles stated, pushing the door open and slipping inside.
“If this creature is as strong as you say, then what do you hope to...” She stopped when he opened his weapon’s chest, “Quite a bit, I would gather. So,” she morphed into her human appearance and smiled, “the Watcher is a warrior too. I’m impressed.”
Giles smiled shyly and took up several weapons, “W-well, I can take care of myself, if...if that’s what you mean.”
Sharna wrinkled her brow and frowned slightly, “Yes, but the Slayer and I will be fighting this creature. You don’t have to-”
“I know,” Giles said, simply.
“I don’t understand. Why put yourself at such perilous risk, if you don’t need to?”
“Because I choose to.” Giles finished packing his bag and smiled at the look of concern on the demon’s, ‘human’ face, “Besides,” he quipped, “ ‘Wheel of Fortune’ was a repeat anyways.”
Sharna cocked her head at the human and sighed, “I don’t think I’ll ever understand humans. But I know one thing...”
Giles paused and turned to her, “What?”
She leaned in and kissed him gently on his lips, “You are definitely NOT like the others.”
He grinned, as the hurried to his rent-a-car, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
****** The gang met at the Restfield Cemetery shortly after sunset. Giles began passing out weapons, when Professor Walsh and her Commandos joined them.
“What are they doing here?!” Sharna snarled, morphing into her feline form, and taking up a defensive posture.
“I asked them to come along,” Buffy explained to both an angry Watcher and Tempora demon, “They might be able to help us stop the creature.”
“THEY,” she growled, menacingly, “are the ones who caused this! And I’m not leading them, so they can capture more of my-”
“They aren’t here to capture anyone,” Giles gave a hard look at Professor Walsh, “Correct?”
“Our prime objective is to capture or kill, Project 314,” Maggie tried to assure the demon, “Everything else is just-”
“Gravy,” Forrest said, snidely.
“That’s enough,” Maggie reprimanded, “We have our objective.”
“And yours is to stay out of my way,” Sharna growled, never taking her eyes from the young commando.
As the group entered the Mausoleum, Xander turned to Buffy and quipped, “That went well. Don’t ya think?”
“Yeah,” Buffy sighed, slipping down into the hidden passage way under the crypt, “We’re one big happy family.”
“One big, happy, homicidal family,” Xander retorted.
“It’s a shame Spike’s not here,” Giles grumbled, “He’d feel right at home.”
****** “Keep my ear to the ground,” Spike huffed, as he skulked through the cemetery, “What the bloody hell do they want me to listen for? Traipsing around this lousy town, playing ‘good guy’. And for what? So I can look like a soddin’ idi-”
GROWL.
“-ot?” Spike reacted as only a survivor could...he ducked and rolled out of the way of the swinging claws. “Hey now!” he shouted, dodging the ferocious swipes of the creature, “Watch where you use those things!”
“Demon!” the creature growled, advancing at a furious pace. “Die!”
“Hang on,” Spike’s mind raced, trying to figure a way of escape, “You should try looking in the mirror...”
He was met with a howl.
“Or not,” he shrugged, turned and raced toward the only place he could think of...
Underground.
****** “Listen,” Buffy instructed her friends as they walked through the underground tunnels, “you guys just concentrate on getting the demons to safety. Let Sharna, Riley and I handle 314.”
“You don’t have to tell us twice,” Xander nodded, “Actually, you don’t have to tell us once...”
They entered a large juncture. Buffy could hear several voices rising and falling in the distance. Around, on all sides of the juncture, were four tunnels, “Which way do we go,” Buffy shook her head, “The voices seem to be coming from every direction.”
The demon looked cautiously at the Commandos, and Professor Walsh, “Understand this,” She said carefully, “I’m putting my trust in you. ALL of you. If you attempt to betray that trust...”
“We won’t.” Giles insisted, “I promise you.”
They approached a large room, where the sounds of many voices emanated from. The Feline Demon pushed open a large metal door-like structure and slipped inside. Buffy gasped at the sight...
Demons.
Demons of all kinds, huddled in the large, dank room. Angry. Scared.
The Slayer was amazed at the shear volume of ‘other worldly’ life that apparently inhabited Sunnydale. “I didn’t know there were so many demons living here.” She shook her head.
“Did you think they would send out greeting cards to you?” Xander pointed out, “You are the Slayer.”
“SLAYER?!” one of the demons shouted, backing up and glaring at the Tempora Demon, “You brought the Slayer here?!”
“She’s here to help us,” Sharna explained, “Right now, she is our ally. You have to trust me.”
“And what makes you think she won’t turn on us when we defeat this creature?” another demon asked, scooting her child behind her.
“Because,” Buffy explained, “I gave my word that I wouldn’t. And I won’t.”
“What if that’s not good enough?”
“It’ll have to be.”
There was much debate in the hall. Half demons, vampires, and other non-humans, argued with one another with no one reaching an agreement.
“We don’t have time for this!” Buffy shouted.
“You’re damn, bloody right,” Spike puffed, stumbling into the room, “We have to leave right now!”
“Spike?!” Buffy paused, seeing the panicked look on the vampire’s face, “It’s coming, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he nodded quickly, “and damn fast too. So, if you have one of your splendid ‘Buffy’ plans, you so love to come up with, you’d better share it real soon.”
Buffy inhaled for a moment, then switched gears into Slayer Mode, “Okay,” she directed, “We’ll split up into three groups. This thing can’t go after all of us. Xander...I want you, Anya and Willow to take the group of the adult demons. Bring some Commando with you for support. Giles...you, Professor Walsh and the rest, take the kids out of here. Try and get to the surface as quickly as you can. Riley, Sharna and I are going to try and lure 314 away from you. If this works, and you guys get to safety,” she said, pointing to the small group of Commandos, “come back down and help us. We’re probably going to need it.”
Forrest looked at the Slayer angrily, “Who died and put you in charge?!” Then turning to Maggie he asked, “We aren’t going to follow this ridiculous plan, are we?”
Professor Walsh saw the look of determination in Buffy’s eyes and replied, “Yes we are. Right now, these.... ‘people’ need our help.” Before he could argue, she added, “We can’t fight this thing if we have to concern ourselves with the safety of others.”
“These aren’t ‘others’,” Forrest huffed, “They’re Sub-T’s. They aren’t even human!” His ranting was stopped when a small demon-child tugged on his shirt.
“Dem’kor arratune?” Teela asked, looking up at him with large, frightened eyes, “Sempore tieno at toon la ti?”
The young man looked down at the pleading child.
“She asked,” Sharna translated, “if you were going to save her and her family. Shall I tell her...no...that she doesn’t deserve to live, because she isn’t human?”
Forrest, once thought he knew his purpose in life. To fight evil. And that evil was the demon threat. Now, looking down at the innocent child, he began to wonder...
“We’d better go. While we still can.”
The Tempora demon smiled slightly, “Congratulations. You’ve just become a better person.”
“Buffy,” Giles asked, concerned, “Are you sure that you want to take this thing on by yourselves?”
Buffy looked at Giles...her Watcher, her mentor, her friend...and sighed, “No. But we don’t have much of a choice.” As Giles, Maggie, and the other broke off in their groups, Buffy said, “Be careful. If this thing decides to go after you guys instead of us, you won’t be able to fight it.”
“How’s about running like maniacs?” Xander offered.
“That’ll work....I hope.”
Giles paused at the entrance way. He turned back toward Buffy, who was readying her weapons, and gave a ragged sigh. Somewhere in the pit of his stomach, he knew this might be the last time he would ever see the young woman again. Buffy Summers; a girl he had watched grow from an unsure teenager, coming to grips with her destiny, to a beautiful woman, determined to save the world...again. He knew that the day he dreaded most, could come at any time. The day she would be slain herself.
He only prayed, today was not going to be that day.
“Buffy...” he began, wanting to say so much, but knowing he neither had the time, nor nerve to do so.
Buffy smiled, as though she knew everything he wanted to say, without him uttering a word, “I know.”
The look they shared, summed up their entire four years....they were going to make it. And if not...they were willing to die trying.
But the important thing was...they were going together. Even if they had to be apart.
Giles disappeared into the corridor, leaving Buffy, Riley and Sharna alone....awaiting their fates.
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