Disclaimer: Buffy, Faith, Giles, Willow, Cordelia, Spike, Oz and Xander are the creation and property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Mira Roukas is mine, however.
Author's Notes: Thanks to Teresa and Ra for helping me brainstorm and edit this. Also, I crave feedback. That's NovusSibyl@aol.com. Thank you. Push the button, Frank.
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Part IV - The Rainbow
Gunfire? What the fuck?
"What was that?"
"Was that a - "
"Did you hear that?"
"QUIET!"
They shut up. Heh. Still got it.
Of course, by this time, the gunshots - or whatever - have stopped.
"Shit. Mira - any luck with the chains?"
Rattle rattle rattle. "No. I'm sorry."
Great. Just freaking great. We're going to die. The vampires are going to come back and kill us all and then Hiisi will rise and kill everyone else.
"Miss Rosenberg!"
"What?"
"Calm down, please."
Who the hell is she to tell me to - calm down, Willow. Deep breaths.
There's a clatter from above - like when they brought Oz in. This time, there are six vampires and two people, trussed up and being dragged more than walking.
The worst part is, I know who they are before I even see them.
"Hiya, Giles."
"Hallo, Willow."
"Hey, Wills."
"Hi, Xander."
"Hey Giles."
"Hello, Oz."
"Hi, Giles."
"Faith."
"Xander."
"Hi, lady."
"Hello, sir. Sirs."
"I hate to interrupt such thrilling conversation, but maybe we should try and get out of here?"
"Well, I'm open to any plans you have, Willow."
"Yeah. 'Cause our plan didn't work well really."
Xander sounds funny, too. This is - God, please don't let us die.
"It perhaps would have worked if you weren't drunk," Mira snaps.
Drunk? Oh, fuck, Xander. I should have figured it out. We really are doomed.
"Drunk is good," Xander mumbles. He's probably close to passing out. "Demons...can't read yer mind if you can't think straight."
"I'm sorry, Willow," Giles says softly, over Xander's mutterings. Yeah thanks, Giles. He's always sorry, but there's nothing sorry can do about it.
"How much has he had, Giles?"
"Willow..."
"How fucking much?"
Giles sighs. "I'm not sure. More than I thought."
"You let him do this?"
"Yes, well I didn't have a choice much, did I?"
Oz rattles his chains, urgently. "Bickering ending anytime soon? I'd like to get cracking on one of those really great escape plans we used to come up with all the time."
It's Faith's turn to be morbid. "Those were Buffy's department, remember?" she asks, not quite managing to keep the jealousy out of her voice.
"She sure had some half-assed plots in that brain of hers." Xander again, slurring even more than before.
"What, are you on some kind of alcoholic IV drip, Xand? You're getting worse by the second."
"Losing the adrenaline rush. Buffy...she was great. She coulda kicked ass. She coulda saved us." He sniffles. "Not me."
"Oh, *do* let's get nostalgic," Giles snaps.
"HEY! Everybody shut UP!"
I've never heard Oz yell before. *Never*. His voice echoes back weirdly.
"Oz is right. We'll never get out of here if we don't stop acting like teenagers. Giles, Xander, does anybody know you're here?"
"No, I'm afraid."
"Great. Dammit, why couldn't you stay away?"
"We were trying to save you. Maybe some gratit - grati - thanks, huh?"
"Xander, we were safe until you showed up. They couldn't have killed us or else their ritual wouldn't work."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Hey, wait. It won't work anyway. We're not all here," Faith says after a second. "I mean, I wasn't even out of my coma when this Hiisi got killed and - well, Buffy was still alive."
"I wish," Oz says, a pensive frown on his face. "The vampires gloated about it on the flight out here. That's what the new Slayer is for. They're gonna use her life energy to substitute for Buffy." He glances at Mira. "Sorry."
She shakes her head. "The vampires actually told you their plans?" she asks, trying not to laugh. I guess it's a good thing someone finds the hidden humor here.
"Yup. They tend to do that, you know."
"How bizarre."
I try to tell them to shut up and come up with a plan, but even as I open my mouth, the vampires, all ten of them, come back. The tallest one, who looks barely human, even for a vampire, is carrying a long red knife and a brass jar covered with some kind of runes. Hiisi's ashes must be in there, God only knows how they got them.
Time's up. We lose.
"Who wants to die first?" the lead vampire, the one with the knife, asks. How polite.
I can't help but giggle. Neither can Faith or Mira or Xander. That just pisses them off, but since they're about to kill us, who the fuck cares?
"You. Slayer."
"Which one? There's two of us."
"Three, if you count the time Buffy and I switched bodies," I point out.
"Silence. Take her," he says, pointing at Mira with that knife. "Her blood will tear the veil between worlds and call out to our Master."
"Dear Lord, don't let those be the last words I ever hear," Mira mutters as a group of vampires unchain her.
"Your tongue will go first..." the vampire leader snarls, running his finger along the blade of the knife. As he does, there's a rumble - it sounds funny, like it's coming from far away, but the ground shakes slightly.
"What the - ?"
"Merely a storm! Your puny god seeks to frighten us with his tricks."
"Wait a moment and you'll see what my God can do," Mira says in a whisper so soft I can barely hear her.
"What?" the vampire asks, leaning close. "A last request?"
"Yes. Die." She tears her arms free, then shoves the palm of her right hand into his face. Then the vampire's head explodes.
What happens next is - well, I can barely describe it. Mira dances around the vampires - not literally, but she moves so gracefully it's almost like dancing. Somehow she gets a hold of a torch and starts burning the vampires. At least that's what I think at first, then I realize it's not a torch that's burning - it's her hands...
"The rainbow..." Faith murmurs, catching on about half a second after I do.
Mira's hands are shooting flame like a fan - green and blue and yellow and red and white jets are arcing out and catch the vampires like dry kindling.
They're screaming. I've never heard a vampire scream before. But I don't feel sorry for them. All I do is think of Buffy and I start grinning like an idiot as their dead flesh burns and melts every time Mira so much as pokes one of them.
And then, just like that, it's over. The last vampire goes up like a firecracker - pop pop pop - and then dusts out. Mira pants a few times and stares at her hands. The fires shorten and then die down.
"Bitching."
My head is racing, I can't even be sure who said that. Maybe it was me.
Someone rattles their chains. "Little help here?"
Xander. Figures.
"So...that's it? I was thinking something more climatic," Oz says while Mira works at breaking my chains. Sweet that she thought of me first. Or maybe I was just the whiniest.
At that point, the door that we were all pulled through explodes. Considering the door was solid iron as thick as my wrist, that's pretty impressive.
"That works," Oz says when the boom boom boom echo stops.
A man in combat armor - flak jacket, helmet with plexiglass shields, all that crap - steps through what used to be the door. He's carrying a rifle that's almost as big as I am. The goon stops and stares down at all of us, then starts laughing. Oh, just perfect. I know that laugh.
"Great timing, Spike."
The vampire stops dead in his tracks and lowers the big ugly rifle he's carrying. "Oh, bloody priceless. I should take a picture."
"Who is this?" Mira asks, a grimace on her face. She must sense him.
"Hello, what have we here?" Spike asks in return, smiling down at her. Oh, God, this is going to get bad. "You must be that precious new Slayer I've heard all about."
"He's a friend of ours. A really good friend," I say, hoping the others will play along.
Of course they do. And of course Xander screws it up after a couple minutes.
"Yeah. Real old, real pale kinda friend," he says as Mira is breaking the chains holding him to the wall. He's the last one still tied up.
"What?" Mira drops Xander and he slips, still held up by one shackle. "You're a vampire?" she snarls, dropping into a crouch.
"That's right! I'm the meanest damn vampire in town and it's been too bloody long since I killed a Slayer to prove it." That badge must be getting to his head.
"Not today, worm," Mira snaps back, then frowns and reaches out for the wall to steady herself.
"What? What's - " That's when I feel the tremors. A cloud of dust falls down on us all from above.
"Oops. Looks like it was a load bearing door," Spike says, glancing up at the cave ceiling as tiny rocks start to come tumbling down. "Well, my work here is done. Ta-ta!"
"Dammit! Come back here, you filthy - "
"Mira! Stop."
Damn, she's fast. She's already halfway to the bottom of the stairs before I can get a word in.
"What? He's getting away!"
"Xander! We can't get him loose."
She stares longingly up at the doorway, but only for a second, then races over to help us, dodging falling rocks and not even getting her hair mussed up.
It's a close call, but we manage to carry Xander out - and half-carry Faith, who's not in much better shape - before the cave comes crashing down on our noggins.
* * *
Epilogue - Now What?
"So...does this sort of thing happen often around here?" Mira asks, staring at what used to be a hill overlooking the ocean. Spike is long gone, naturally.
"About once a week, more or less."
"Hm. Sounds like fun," she says, not-quite-smiling.
"You'll outgrow that pretty fast."
"Hate to interrupt, but I'm really really really drunk. Can someone carry me home?"
Xander. Alcoholic Xander. I don't even want to think about that now.
"We're not too far from my place. You can crash there. You too, Oz, Giles," Faith says before I can get a word in. Not that I had anything coherent in mind. It's the pettiness principle.
"Cool. Got anything to eat? All they gave me on the way out here were stale Whoppers. I prayed for death."
And off we go, almost just like old times. Almost.
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