Buffy and Co. don't belong to me. Please don't sue. By the way, the character's Eric, Max, Bob, and Blake are my creative property so please refrain from using them.
Part One
Buffy stalked though the halls of the sorcerer's mansion with Xander and Giles tip-toeing behind her in the darkness. She berated herself for allowing them to come with her. If this sorcerer could work magic like Amy could, they were going to be in trouble. Although Giles was certain that Buffy's inate Slayer resistance to magic would protect her now, she was not so certain. She couldn't quite buy into Giles theory that her resistance had been weakened by the out of control love spell.
She thought of that rather embarrassing day when she had thrown herself at a certain friend of her's only to be promptly turned into a rodent. Buffy gave Xander a dirty look in the dark. He caught the look but misinterpreted it.
"What, do you hear something?" he whispered to her.
"No," she replied with an impish smile. "I thought I smelled a rat."
"A rat? What?"
"Forget it. We've got to find Willow and Cordelia. They
must be somewhere in here."
Giles touched her on the shoulder.
"What are we going to do when we find them? I-I-I'm still sure that he won't be able to use his magic to affect you mentally, but some powerful sorcerers are reputed to be able summon the elements to do their bidding."
"What Giles means," Xander explained, "is that the Wizard of Oz in there might start chucking fireballs at you."
"Yes, succinctly put Xander. So what is our plan, Buffy?"
Buffy stuck a mock thoughtful pose, tapping her finger against her chin. "Let's see, how about I bust down the door and throw a stake in his heart before he say Abracadabra? Think that'll work? Huh?" Xander skewed his face at her sarcasm and Giles seemed no more impressed.
"Buffy, stakes only work on vampires. This sorcerer is fully human so far as we can tell."
"Stakes through the heart kill humans just as dead as vampires, Giles. Now come on. We have to stop an evil sorcerer from summoning one of those Old Ones you seemed so wigged about, save our friends, and get to the mall before they close so I can pick up those shoes."
Giles buried his face in his hands and moaned.
"Well, Giles at least she has her priorities straight."
"Thank God for small favors."
"Come on you two," Buffy ordered as she began to move further down the hall.
* * *
"Dammit! Why do I always get captured?!" Cordelia whined.
"Probably for the same reason that I always get stuck with you. Bad karma," Willow answered sarcastically. She bit the words out more harshly than she intended but Willow had ample reason to be upset. She and Cordelia were bound to their chairs in the damp torchlit cavern beneath the mansion. Across from Willow, Oz also was tied to his chair but was unconscious with his bruised and bloodied head lolling down towards his chest.
"Oz," Willow begged hopefully. "Oz, wake up. Please wake up! Oh, why'd you have to fight them so hard? Oz, don't die!" Tears began well up in her eyes as she tried to imagine a life without the kind brave young man who stepped in front of bullets and battled zombie warriors all for the love of her.
Despite her best attempts to vilify Cordelia, Willow could see the concern and caring in her face.
"Willow, don't worry. Buffy'll get here soon. She always does. Well, usually. She'll save us. Oz'll be alright."
From the other end of the cavern, laughter could be heard. The two girls looked towards their captor as he finished the last inscription of the summoning circle. He turned to them still laughing. Around him stood his zombie minions armed with assault rifles and submachineguns.
"I don't think you girls quite understand the game plan here."
Cordelia tried to put on a brave face as she defiantly answered the sorcerer.
"Of course we do. You're going to sacrifice us virgin girls to some dark god- or something. It's all pretty trite. I mean, hello, it's been done before!"
Leaving behind his zombie guards he approached the captives.
"You're right. It has been done before. I've already done it!" From his robes he withdrew a vile of dark red liquid. "The reconstituted heart's blood of six virgin girls. I made sure I had that before I even came to this godforsaken one-Starbucks town. No, you three are here for a very specific purpose." He approached Cordelia running his cold hand along the curve of her neck and down to her bosom. "Although I could think of some better uses I could put you to." He quickly yanked his hand back as Cordelia tried to bite him.
"You see I've been studying this whole Slayer- phenomenon," he continued, "and I've read the prophecies and I've realized that I don't have a chance in hell of killing her. It's just not my destiny. But of course she's the Slayer so she's going to figure out what I'm doing and try to stop me. And of course she just happens to live in the one place on earth with enough spiritual energy to accomplish my spell of summoning. So I decided I needed some bargaining chips to deal with her, namely you three."
Suddenly he seemed to have a faraway look in his eyes. "And I believe I'm going to be doing some bargaining here very soon." Motioning to his heavily armed zombie guards he ordered them up the stairs back into the mansion. "Our guests have arrived. Go keep them company." The zombies all stopped as if unsure of themselves. "That means kill them! And seal the door behind you. I don't want her to have an easy time getting in here after she destroys you all." They seemed to better understand those orders as they all proceeded up the stairs, weapons in hands closing the heavy steel reinforced door behind them. The sorcerer opened his mouth as if to say something but Cordelia quickly interrupted, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"No, no! Let me guess. 'Good help is so hard to find.'"
"Hey! That's my line!"
* * *
Buffy stopped her small party, waving them to be quiet.
"I think I heard something. Like a door closing somewhere."
"Hey, why isn't Oz here?" Xander asked. "I mean Willow's been kidnapped, you'd think he'd at least show up for the rescue party. What's with that guy?"
"I did try to contact him," Giles replied, "but I was unsuccessful. Besides, I believe he had something else he needed to do tonight."
Xander was incredulous. "More important than saving Willow and Cordelia? More important than preventing some super powerful demon from eating Sunnydale and taking over North America? I mean, what, did he have to color his hair or practice with his band-which sucks by the way?"
"Xander, you're just going to have to trust me on this. Oz would have been more of a hindrance than a help tonight."
"Shut up you two! Something's coming." Buffy peered down the corridor to see the two approaching shapes. "Looks like zombies, Giles. I can tell by their funky walk." Reaching back into Giles bag of equipment she withdrew a small shortsword. "I'll be back in a second after I've decapitated them. They can spend the next few hours trying to find their heads."
As she rummaged in the bag, Xander tried to look around her through the dusty darkness at the two shadowy forms.
"Uh, Buff, I don't think you should just go charging down-" He saw them bring their rifles to bear and pushed Giles and the Slayer into an alcove as muzzle flashes and the roar of gunfire filled the hallway.
Over the sound of bullets Buffy screamed at the top of her voice. "What is this?! The Forces of Darkness are _not_ supposed to have guns!"
"This cover's not gonna last long!" Xander yelled back. "They get a little further down the hall and they're gonna have a clear shot at us!"
"Giles! Any suggestions?!"
Crouching against the wall with his hands covering his ears Giles tried to think of a solution.
"If I had a few hours to study and prepare I could probably find a spell to confound the zombies but as you can see-" Giles was cut off as a another zombie burst through the wall wrapping its arm around his neck. In its other arm it held an assault rifle which it tried to bring to bear on its captive's friends.
Xander grabbed the rifle pinning it against the wall as the zombie fired. Buffy was quick with her sword, lopping off its gun arm.
"Giles!" she warned but he had already predicted her next action. He ducked his head as Buffy swung her blade, decapitating the zombie. Xander pried the severed hand off the zombie's rifle and took aim against the still approaching gun-toting undead.
Their bullets wizzed past his head but he carefully and calmly fired a number of quick bursts aimed at their chests. Xander's bullets ripped into them tearing their flesh to ribbons. Yet they still continued their forward, mindless movement. Quickly changing tactics, he fired at the rifles themselves and the hands holding them. One of the zombie's rifles went skittering across the floor but the creature continued to advance, seemingly oblivious to the loss of its gun. The other zombie's fire began to track towards Xander until the gun cut out as it expended the last of its ammunition. Suddenly Buffy was in Xander's field of vision. Sword in hand, she charged the zombies and began to swiftly and methodically hack them apart, starting with their heads and continuing with their arms and legs.
Three more zombies came around the corner right in front of Buffy as she finished hacking the limbs from the last zombie. Two of them opened fire instantly. The third continued to walk forward as if it hadn't seen her yet. Buffy's Slayer enhanced agility went into overdrive as she dodged the hail of bullets. Leaping close in, she grabbed the third oblivious zombie and shoved it into the other two. Xander tried to take aim at them but couldn't get a clear shot with Buffy in the way. In the confusion she severed one of the zombie's gun arms and quickly followed it up by cutting off its head.
Leaving the semi-active zombie she began to carve up another one, litterally disarming it. As she began another swing the decapitate it, her Slayer instincts began to scream at her. The third, and still active zombie was bringing its rifle around towards her. It's burst of bullets ripped into the second zombie as she dodged to the side. Xander had a clear shot as she moved. He flicked the selector switch on his rifle over to full auto and let loose a stream of bullets at the creature. It's head disappeared in a hail of gun-fire, but it continued to blindly fire its weapon. Buffy easily dodged the wildly firing gun and hacked off the arm holding it. The last zombie with its head on its shoulders grabbed at her with its single arm but she dismembered and decapitated it with fast, fluid movements. The other two still moving undead soon found themselves completely dismembered as Buffy skillfully moved among them.
No sooner had she finished than gunfire filled the hall once again as two more zombies appeared behind the Slayer and her friends, far down the hall. Buffy dived for cover as the bullets stiched across the ground towards her. From her protected alcove further down from Xander and Giles she called to her friends.
"Again, I am so open to suggestions and helpful tid- bits of advice!"
Xander ejected his spent clip and looked back at the body of the first zombie from which he had claimed the gun. From the hole it had made in the wall he could see it wandering around with only one arm and headless. On it's belt it had extra clips for the rifle, but it had already wandered mindlessly to the far end of the room beyond the hole. Bullets continued to fill the air around them.
Giles looked up at Xander hesitantly.
"Um, Xander. I'm no expert at these things, but what is that appendage directly beneath the gun barrel?"
"Gun? What gun?" Xander looked at his rifle and did a double take. Getting over his sudden shock he looked back at Giles. "Yeah, I think you're right. Fire in the hole!" He looked around the corner and fired down the hall. There was a muffled thump from the rifle's undermounted grenade launcher and then a great explosion followed by a blast of heat and air from down the corridor. The gunfire stopped.
Buffy peered down the hall from her alcove. She blew a singed strand of hair from out of her face and walked back towards Xander and Giles.
"Not the traditional method of battling zombies but effective," she congratulated Xander.
"Thanks!" he replied, clearly elated at her praise.
Giles looked between them with perplexed look on his face.
"What?!"
"So you been holding out on me or what, Xander? When did you become mister crackshot gun guy?"
"What?!" Giles asked again.
"I don't really know. I mean I told you I still remember a lot of stuff from that whole Halloween-Soldier thing. And when I grabbed this rifle it just felt natural. I was going Rambo before I even knew what I was doing."
"What?!"
Buffy looked at Giles. "What's wrong with him?"
"We were kinda close to the blast and Giles didn't open his mouth when the concussion wave hit, so his ears are ringing."
"Dammit all to bloody hell! My ears are ringing! What did you say?!"
Buffy ignored him. "We better get moving. Giles said that this guy is going to cast his summoning spell when the full moon rises so we don't have much time."
"What?! Oh forget it! We'd better get moving! We don't have much time!"
"C'mon, Giles!" Buffy yelled as she helped him to his feet.
As they started down the corridor, the last headless, one-armed zombie came out into the hall and started wandering helplessly. It bounced from one side of the hall to the other as it blindly shambled towards them. Buffy calmly finished dismembering it and proceeded on.
Xander stopped to strip the still moving torso of its extra clips, and rifle launched grenades. Giles looked on disapprovingly.
"If you're going to have anymore pyrotechnic displays please warn me first."
"But I did Giles! 'Fire in the hole.' Don't you ever watch old war movies?"
"I can't hear a word you're saying."
"Oh." Xander thought for a moment as Giles followed Buffy down the hall. "Hey, England sucks! And your jacket smells like moth balls!... Yeah!" Giles obliviously continued on and Buffy only shook her head in resignation. Pleased with himself, Xander followed, reloading the rifle as he went.
* * *
The cavern rocked from the explosion above in the mansion. Willow and Cordelia were startled in their chairs and even unconcious Oz stirred at the noise. The sorcerer seemed unfazed by commotion as he continued to sprinkle a glittery dust around the summoning circle.
"Zombies are just no replacement for demons," the sorcerer muttered. "Just cannot depend on them to do anything."
Oz moaned in his chair. He blearily raised his head and looked around with his one good eye. One half of his face was terrible bruised and the other eye had swollen shut. "Where are we?" he weakly asked. "You guys okay?"
Willow smiled in spite of the tears that streaked her face.
"We're fine Oz," she tried to put on a brave face for him. "Just hold on. Buffy's on her way."
"Why are crying Willow?"
"Oh, Oz! They hurt you so bad!"
"Yeah. I guess I do look like a mess. But this is nothing. You should have seen what happened to me after our band played the junior high school dance. I tell you, those seventh graders are serious about their music. And when they don't like you, they let you know."
Somehow Willow found she could still laugh between the tears. The sorcerer continued to mutter to himself as he finished with the circle.
"It's my own fault. I shouldn't have let those damn Serbians blow up my gargoyles." He turned to his trio of captives. "But no matter. It should take the Slayer a few minutes to get in here. And the full moon will be coming over the horizon within a few moments so it looks like I win after all!"
Willow's head jerked up at the mage's words.
"Oh, God! The full moon! Oz!"
Oz raised his own head at the sound of his name and looked around.
"Huh? What?"
* * *
"I think this is where they came out at," Buffy told her friends. They stood before the cellar door peering down into the darkness. Giles shone his flashlight down the stairs while Xander held his rifle at the ready. Giles stopped the light when it glinted off something at the foot of the stairs.
"I-I think I see a door at the bottom."
"Let's go then. We're running out of time." Buffy led the way down with Xander and Giles following close behind. When they reached the bottom they were met with a giant reinforced steel door. Buffy put her ear to the door. She could hear the muffled voices of Willow and Cordelia from inside.
"Well?" Xander asked anxiously. When she looked up at him, she could see the worry apparent on his face. He had kept his nervousness in check up to this point. The lives of two of the most important people in his life were at stake in this, but he had put those feeling aside to help her. Just like he had done so many times before. Their adventures had always had a happy ending, or at least what passed for happy in Sunnydale. But she wondered what would happen to her relationship with Xander when the day came that she finally failed to stop the forces of evil from killing her friends. The night the vampires had kidnapped everyone in an attempt to resurrect the master, she had seen a preview of the bitter and resentful man Xander would become if she failed.
"They seem to be okay. Willow and Cordelia are arguing about something. We've got to figure a way through this door."
Giles touched her on the shoulder and she turned to him.
"Do you hear the sorcerer? Has he begun his spell yet?" he asked.
With Giles she was getting more than a preview. She had failed to save the woman he loved and though Giles would deny to his dying day that he blamed her for it, she knew it was her fault. Teresa, Jenny, and who knows how many others had died, all because she couldn't bring herself to stake the demon that now inhabited Angel's body. He had stood before her beaten and at her mercy, the stake in her hand. But she couldn't bring herself to do it.
Buffy turned away from him as she fought down the rising guilt.
'Time for self-pity later, Summers,' she berated herself, pushing her feelings deep down, to be dealt with at a more appropriate time.
"I don't think so, Giles. I can't hear him."
"NO," they all heard through the door. "BUT I CAN HEAR YOU!"
* * *
"What are you talking about Willow?" Cordelia asked plaintively.
"I'm talking about the full moon." Willow lowered her voice down to a whisper so the sorcerer couldn't hear her. "Remember last month, with the werewolf?"
"Uh-huh."
"Remember who the 'it' turned out to be?"
Cordelia paled as she looked over at the oblivious Oz.
"Omigod! Omigod!! What're we gonna do?!"
"Shut up Cordelia!" Willow never got tired of saying that and she seemed be getting a lot more opportunities lately. "You're gonna get us killed!"
"I'm gonna get us killed?!" she hissed incredulously. "I'm not the one who turns into a 500lb bloodthirsty wolf- man!"
"I said shut up!" It just seemed to get better everytime she said it. "We can't let that magician guy know!"
The two girls screamed as the sorcerer turned from his preparations, his voice booming unnaturally loud.
"N0, BUT I CAN HEAR YOU!"
* * *
"Looks, like we've been made boys! Stand back!" Xander and Giles took a few steps back from the door. Buffy tried the opening mechanism but it was locked tight. She surged with all her strength, trying to force it open but to no avail.
"I'LL TELL YOU WHAT! JUST WAIT UNTIL I'VE FINISHED WITH MY LITTLE RITUAL HERE, AND I'LL LET THE RED HEAD AND THE BOY GO! I'LL EVEN KILL THE ANNOYING ONE FOR YOU!"
"You sonovabitch!" Xander railed against the door. "Don't you hurt her!" He backed up from the door and leveled the undermounted grenade launcher at it. Buffy saw what he intended to do and forced the rifle away.
"No, Xander! You'll bring the whole house down on top of us. You'll kill us all!"
"Well what are we going to do?!"
* * *
"'Kill the annoying one?'" Cordelia looked around the cavern in bewilderment but the only other people there were Willow, Oz, and the sorcerer. "Hey! You're talking about me!" From beyond the steel door, she could hear Xander's angry voice. Her heart skipped a beat at hearing it. She had done this scene dozens of times since meeting up with Buffy and her crew, but everytime she still worried that maybe it would be her last scene. And this time she had started to worry that she wouldn't see Xander's handsome face again. Well not handsome exactly. Maybe more like puppy-dog cute, in a stray, mangy, flea- ridden, puppy dog way.
'Oh who am I kidding!' she admitted to herself. 'I love that moron!'
"Xander! We're in here!"
"They know where we are Cordelia!" Willow spoke impatiently. It was her worry for Oz that made her so short with Cordelia. She was staring at Oz who had begun to grunt and double over in pain.
Suddenly the sorcerer looked up from his preparations. "It's time to begin."
* * *
"Just give me a second, Xander! Let me think!"
"Um-um I think I might have an idea," Giles
interrupted. "A door is only as strong as the walls it is built around. You may not be able to punch through a steel door, but look at these walls." Giles put his hand to a patch of crumbling stone to the side of the door. "Yes, if I had a half an hour with a pick-axe I do believe I could make an opening."
Xander was not going for it.
"Giles, we don't have a pick-axe and we don't have two minutes much less a half hour!"
"No," Buffy answered. "We've just got me. Gimme some room you guys!" As Xander and Giles backed off from the wall, Buffy settled into a fighting stance before it and began to breath deeply. From the other side they could hear the chanting begin and a scream of pain.
* * *
"Aagghhh!!" Oz screamed as the first pains of the change began to overtake him. The sorcerer continued his spell, intoning the words and sprikling the ingredients. Willow stared on in horror as she watched Oz transform before her. Cordelia was too stunned to scream, so transfixed she was with the radical change Oz was undergoing. The clothes that he wore began to rip and tear, and the stout ropes that bound him snapped like strings.
'I wonder if he's going to try and eat me again?'
Willow found herself thinking.
The chair that Oz was sitting in came apart as the werewolf freed itself. The change was complete. The terrifying animal eyes looked around and settled on Willow. Strangely unfrightened she looked back into them and for just a moment found the soul behind them. Then the contact was broken when the eyes turned away and found the chanting sorcerer in his circle. The creature gave a howl of fury and charged.
* * *
Buffy took another deep breath and then let loose an air splitting roundhouse kick that shook the stones on impact.
"Goddammit!" she yelled in pain limping away from the damaged but still intact wall. "That hurt!"
"Buffy!"
"I know, Giles! 'We're out of time!' Shut up and let me vent!" She struggled to stready herself in front of the wall, favoring her good leg. She took another deep breath and prepared to attack the stonework again when the howl of a beast reverberated through the door.
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