The Hunted: Ascend if You Dare...
by Mooncalf
Disclaimer: Buffy The Vampire Slayer and related characters are owned by Joss Whedon, WB and Mutant Enemy. I can only take credit for the new main characters I have created and various other vampire minions which may wander into my stories. I created them, so they are mine. Don't sue as this is just pure fanfic.

*****Chapter Two - Ascend If You Dare...*****

Eventually they reached the Mayors office. It was easy enough to pass security at the front desk…knocking out the security guards wasn’t as hard as they’d thought. Then they headed up the stairs to the office. The place was securely guarded by what seemed to be a group of human guards…but Angel informed them that at least half of them were vampires. They decided that the best course of action was to set a trap.

The main guards were by the front door of the office. They noticed Willow and Cordelia approaching slowly, in a heated argument.

‘Look, those guys downstairs definitely said this was the place.’ Cordelia said.

‘I bet they were lying. This place looks far too official for a kissagram.’

‘Well, this is the address, this is where they sent us and I’m guessing this is where we’ll get a tip.’ Cordelia grabbed Willow’s arm and pulled her towards the door. One of the guards stopped her.

‘The Mayor won’t see anyone.’ He said, barring their path.

‘The Mayor?’ Cordelia put on her bimbo voice…did she need to put one on? ‘Wow, we get to kiss the Mayor.’ She looked at Willow and Willow just smiled slightly, feeling foolish. ‘Do we get to kiss the guards too?’ Cordelia flashed a smile at the guard and stepped closer to him. He smiled back dopily.

The second guard stepped up to them and nudged his colleague. ‘No one gets in.’ He said gruffly. ‘I mean no-one.’ Cordelia smiled brightly and elbowed Willow, urging her to join in and rectify the situation. Willow, seeing her help was needed, stepped forward and looked at the second guard innocently.

‘Not even me?’ She said shyly. The guard shook his head slightly, as if deciding whether to allow her in or not. ‘Pretty please?’ Willow smiled broadly, she could see the guard was falling for it. Now they just had to convince the other two.

Just around the corner at the end of the corridor Buffy peeped round and watched for a moment. She turned back to the others.

‘It’s going well…I think, now we just have to wait for the signal.’ She peeped around the corridor again. The other two guards had obviously taken interest. Cordelia was pouting at three of them and playing with one of their ties, while Willow tried to keep smiling at the fourth. She put one of her hands behind her back and gently beckoned the others over.

‘Are you sure no-one gets in?’ She asked the guard sweetly and clenched her teeth in a fake smile.

‘No ma’am.’ He said politely, looking down at the floor to avoid her eyes. ‘Rules are rules.’

‘Rules can be broken.’ Said Buffy. As the guard looked up she kicked him in the face, knocking him to the floor. Angel grabbed one of the guards that surrounded Cordelia, while another of them grabbed her.

‘Buffy!’ Cordelia yelped as the guard held her tightly. ‘Help!’

Buffy was busy fighting with the guard she had kicked to the ground…for some strange reason he hadn’t given up yet. Oz was fighting with the other guard while Xander tried to pull Cordelia away from the guard that held her. Suddenly Five more guards came running down the corridor towards them…all wearing game faces. Thought Buffy as she delivered the final punch to the guard’s face and dropped him to the floor, she turned to face the oncoming vamps.

She grabbed one of the vampires and began to wrestle with him; Angel, Oz, and Giles did the same. Willow grabbed the book from Wesley for safekeeping. Wesley decided he was better off standing back.

One of the vampires grabbed Xander and pulled him away from Cordelia, who was still held firmly by the guard. Cordelia was left with no option but to call for help from Wesley.

‘Wesley! Wesley, help me!’ She screamed. Wesley stood further back as one of the other guards was thrown out of the fight by Buffy.

‘Wesley! Do something! Help Cordelia!’ Xander yelled, still struggling to fight off his vamp. Wesley made no move to help Cordelia; then the ejected guard who had now decided not to give up on the fight jumped him. Xander struggled free from the vampire that held him and pulled Cordelia from the guard. He dragged her over to where Willow was standing with the book.

Cordelia crouched beside Willow and caught her breath. Xander placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder; then he grabbed Willow’s crossbow and ran back into the fight, resuming his wrestling match with the vampire he had fought earlier.

**********

Inside the Mayors office Faith was growing agitated, they could hear the fight raging outside.

‘What if they get in?’ She asked.

‘I’m immortal, remember.’ He said, smiling as if nothing was wrong.

‘But I’m not. There’s no way I could face all of them at once.’

‘They won’t get in. Obviously you underestimate my guards. I know them.’

‘Yeah, well I know Buffy.’

Outside Xander was still fighting his vampire, he had broken his crossbow and was left with no choice but to try and stab the vamp with its broken remains. Angel was now at war with two vampires, as was Buffy. Oz was dealing with two of the remaining guards with Giles. They seemed to be winning. Suddenly Buffy shot one of the vamps with her crossbow; he exploded into a cloud of ash. The three remaining guards stopped fighting and stared wide-eyed at Buffy. Obviously they had no idea that they were working with vampires. They ran down the corridor and left the gang to concentrate on the vamps.

Inside the office Faith decided that she’d had enough of listening to the inevitable. They weren’t going to win; not now Buffy was here. She stood up and headed for the door.

‘Where do you think you’re going missy?’ The Mayor asked. Faith stopped at the door, irritated. Not being a freelance slayer anymore was starting to get to her. She thought, but she turned to the Mayor and smiled sweetly.

‘Just outside boss, to see what I can do.’

He frowned as he studied the expression on her face. He sat back in his chair, relaxing. ‘Okay, you can go.’ He finally said, grinning like a sly fox.

She turned and placed her hand on the door handle. She yanked open the door, still deep in thought.

Suddenly she noticed what was happening outside. Buffy was kicking a vampire in the stomach, each kick backing him further into the wall. Angel seemed to be boxing with another vamp, Giles and Oz were taking on the third vamp and Xander was being wrestled to the ground by the fourth vamp. Occasionally Cordelia was hitting the fourth vamp with a cross, trying to help Xander. Wesley was crouched in fear at the other side of the corridor with Willow leafing through the pages of a white book.

Faith slammed the door behind her and ran past the brawl; she grabbed Wesley by the arm, pulling him down the corridor. ‘Come on weasel boy, we’re getting out of here…new start and all that.’

‘What…Buffy!’ He yelled as she dragged him down the corridor, through the fire exit door, up the fire escape and towards the roof. Buffy stopped kicking the vampire and dusted him with a single shot from her cross bow. Then she headed after Faith.

‘Will, which way?’

‘Fire escape…up to the roof.’

‘Try and get rid of those vamps and if I’m not back in five minutes…start the spell.’ Buffy said as she ran after Faith and Wesley down the corridor.

**********

Faith threw open the door to the roof and pushed Wesley out. He protested but she ignored him and shoved him to the edge. He looked over the side at the drop and winced. Turning back to Faith he pleaded with her for his life. ‘You’re going to kill me aren’t you? Please don’t! The Watchers council would never forgive you…they, they’d hunt you down at every turn until you…’

‘Where can we get down?’ She ignored his whining.

‘…what?’

‘Where can we get off the roof without going downstairs?’

‘I don’t know…but I thought you…’

‘I’m not going to kill you Wes. I’m not working for Mayor Wilkins anymore, okay? I was sick of him bossing me about…’ Buffy reached the top of the stairs and silently spied on Faith and Wesley. ‘…you see, I like being my own boss…and I like being a slayer, and I can’t be either with him as my boss. You know how I see it Wes?’ He shook his head as she began looking around for a safe place to get down. Buffy prayed she wouldn’t notice her. ‘I think that if I could just get away…away from Buffy, from Giles, from Mayor Wilkins…just away from Sunnydale to forget all that happened, I could have a fresh start. You know?’

‘It doesn’t work like that Faith.’ Buffy said, stepping out from hiding, deciding that the time had come to sort everything out once and for all.

‘Buffy, I don’t want to have to fight you…if you let me leave we won’t have to, and no-one will get hurt.’

‘Someone’s already been hurt…don’t you remember, you killed a man Faith.’

‘That was an accident, you know that…you were there!’

‘Is that why you tried to blame it on me Faith, because I was there?’

‘It doesn’t matter anyway…it’s in the past now. I’m gonna start a new life somewhere else with my Watcher.’ She grabbed Wesley and went to walk past Buffy. Buffy held out her arm to bar her path, Wesley wriggled free and ran down the stairs.

‘Oh no, you’re not going anywhere.’ She said. They stared at each other in fury, neither of them wanted to fight, but they both felt that they had to. Buffy needed to prove that she was doing the right thing, and Faith had to exorcise a few personal demons…

**********

Downstairs the fight was coming to an end. Xander was fighting the last vampire while Cordelia tried to pull him off. The vampire threw Cordelia off his back and put his hands round Xander’s throat. Just as Xander began to choke Angel staked the vampire and Xander was covered in dust. He got to his feet slowly and brushed the dust off himself.

‘Thanks dead boy.’ Angel just gave him a look; then he noticed Buffy was missing.

‘Where did she go?’ He asked worriedly. Xander walked over to Cordelia and pulled her up off the floor, she smiled gratefully. ‘Willow, where?’ Angel asked again, looking more worried.

‘She went after Faith, up on the roof.’ Angel started down the corridor but Willow grabbed his arm. ‘She wanted us to wait here for her. She said that if she wasn’t back in five minutes we should start the spell.’

‘If she’s not back in five minutes she’ll be dead.’ He said hollowly.

‘She knows what she’s doing, Angel. She told us to stay here and we’re going to.’

**********

Up on the roof Buffy and Faith were in a stand off.

‘You can’t stop me leaving B. I need a new start.’

‘Don’t you even feel a little bit guilty about what you did?’

‘No.’ She lied. ‘He shouldn’t have been there B, it’s that simple. He shouldn’t have been in our way.’ She turned away from Buffy. Buffy grabbed her shoulder.

‘Don’t you dare turn away from me until we sort this out!’ Faith whirled round to face her and pulled a knife from her pocket.

‘Don’t touch me!’ Buffy stared at the knife in horror, she never thought Faith would pull a weapon on a human…but she had been proved wrong about that once before. Suddenly realising that she couldn’t let Faith keep getting away with it she pulled out her crossbow and aimed it at Faith.

‘You wanna play, let’s play.’

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