In the storage building, meanwhile, Buffy and friends saw the flames outside the window. "Damn," Giles said. "I'd hoped I wasn't right."
He was interrupted by the sound of Buffy's pager. Buffy pulled it out, and said, "Yes! Willow came through!"
On the pager it said "BAK DR 8 ST".
"Okay," Buffy said, "our way out is through the back door onto 8th Street. Better get ready; it could get nasty in here." The three of them put cloths over their faces to protect themselves from smoke inhalation, and Giles checked a small fire extinguisher that he'd brought with him.
"Let's hope Principal Snyder doesn't decide that today's the day to inspect the school's fire precautions," Giles commented. "Explaining why I took the library's fire extinguisher out of the school building might be difficult."
"At the moment, Snyder is the LEAST of our worries," Buffy replied. "Let's concentrate on freeing those prisoners and bugging out of here before things get too hot."
They ran down the stairs and found the prisoners where they expected. The vampire Harry Cortland was on guard outside the door, but Buffy staked him without even pausing. A chorus of voices rose from the prisoners when Buffy opened the door and hurried them out, key phrases being "kidnapped", "crazy Satanic cultists", and "think they're vampires".
Then, before the group could get to the exit from burning building, Buffy saw the vampires Simon, Abraham, Reginald, and Rachel coming up behind them.
"Get these people out, NOW," Buffy hissed at Giles and Xander. She turned to the vampires and planted herself on the spot. "Okay, vamps, you've got two choices. Those people are leaving, no matter what. We can either walk out after them, or we can stay here, fight each other, and we all BURN together. So which will it be?"
"Kill her!" Simon ordered, and as the vampires started to move toward her, Buffy muttered, "I hadda give them a choice."
Suddenly, the vampire named Abraham shouted "STOP!" He looked at Simon. "Is THIS what your leadership has gotten us, Simon? Destruction while fighting a useless battle? I'm leaving, so that SOMEONE will be able to pass on the true ways of our kind."
"No one deserts me," Simon retorted, "NO ONE!", and he pulled out a stake and attacked Abraham.
"I can see this is one of those private family things," Buffy said as the two vampires grappled. "I know what that's like; my parents are divorced. Why don't all of you just stay here, work it out, take as long as you need; I'll go wait outside the building."
"I'm afraid I cannot allow that," Reginald said. "Simon said I should kill you."
"Aren't you a little old for 'Simon says'?" Buffy replied. "All this kill the Slayer, no, Simon SAYS kill the Slayer stuff is SO juvenile."
Ignoring her, Reginald continued, "And if Simon wants your death, I shall provide it," and he and Rachel attacked Buffy.
Buffy struggled with the two vampires; assorted punching, grabbing, kicking, etc. occurred, as flames and smoke spread closer to them. But finally, Buffy got her stake in position. "Hey, Reggie," she said, "here's a new game. Buffy says, drop dead." She staked Reginald and he crumbled to dust; Rachel, seeing this, backed away from Buffy fearfully.
The cloth over Buffy's face had been pulled off during the fight with Reginald. She was seized with a fit of coughing from the spreading smoke, and was then seized from behind by Simon, who'd killed Abraham. Buffy struggled in Simon's grasp, but he was strong, and she was weakened by the smoke.
"Now YOU have a choice, Slayer," Simon said to her. "Let me change you into a vampire, and you will serve the Great Ones at my side and live eternally. Or you can die now, to feed me. You have lost, regardless; my followers are destroyed, but I will create more, as many as I need, and I will STILL be victorious."
"I don't think so; there's the little matter of a blazing inferno all around us, if you hadn't noticed."
"I will escape the flames," Simon said calmly, "but YOU will not escape me. So choose, Slayer; death as a human, or eternal life as a vampire?"
"Forget either," Buffy replied. "Dying is 'been there, done that'. And becoming a vampire, the food sucks, or vice versa, the pay's lousy, and my Mom would get really annoyed if she had to keep writing 'Buffy couldn't go to school because of sunlight' notes."
"You talk bravely, Slayer, but I can sense the fear beneath your bravado. Now, no jokes; choose. Will you join me?"
"No jokes? Fine. Then, in all seriousness, and with all due respect ... go to Hell."
"Then die, Slayer." Buffy made a final attempt to break free, but couldn't. Simon leaned in to bite her; Buffy whispered a last "Goodbye, Mom; Angel, I love you" and braced herself for Simon's bite.
Buffy felt a sudden wetness. She thought it was blood, her blood, and then Simon yelled and jumped back from her as if he'd been burned. Buffy looked up and saw Xander, holding the empty bottle from which he'd thrown holy water on Buffy and Simon.
Buffy grabbed Simon. Saying "When I say 'go to Hell', I MEAN it!", she flung him into the nearing flames. He caught fire and, with his cry of "NOOO!" still ringing, he was destroyed.
"Buffy, let's go," Xander called. "Giles is getting the prisoners out, but I told him I had to come back to make sure you were safe."
Buffy wearily looked at the last vampire left, Rachel Levine, who was hovering uncertainly between Buffy and the flames. Buffy realized who she was, and muttered "Oh, forget her. She's that doctor from the hospital; she's been a vampire for, like, one day." Buffy turned back to Xander to leave, and gasped; Xander had been clipped on the head by a beam loosened by the fire, and was lying unconscious on the floor.
Buffy ran to Xander, but she couldn't tell how badly he'd been injured. "If I had a doctor here... " she muttered, then she thought of something. "You, vampire," she said to Rachel, "you were a doctor; check him out. Check him and I'll let you live!" Reluctantly, Rachel examined Xander, and said, "No sign of major trauma; it looks like he was just stunned. It should be safe to move him."
Buffy hoisted Xander up, and said to Rachel, "Come on, I said I wouldn't kill you now, so let's just get out of here." With Buffy carrying Xander, she and Rachel got to the back door, looking at each other warily the whole time. Buffy went out the door, but Rachel stopped there; the outside was in direct sunlight, and Rachel couldn't leave the building.
"Damn," Buffy said. "I know I agreed, but I didn't realize... I'm, I'm sorry," and she left with Xander, while Rachel just stood there, trapped between burning in sunlight and burning in the flames.
"Buffy, what happened?" Xander said as he awoke. "Not that I'm COMPLAINING about being in your arms, mind you..." Willow and Giles had come up to Buffy and Xander, and were asking similar questions.
"Xander got a little knock on the head," Buffy told all of them. "Nothing serious, at least according to the vampire doctor."
"The VAMPIRE doctor? Have I just given LOTS of blood samples?" Xander asked.
"No, it was just... never mind, I'll explain later," Buffy said.
Fire engines were finally approaching, and Giles said, "The prisoners are all safe; let's move away from here before we have to explain ourselves."
"Good idea," Buffy added. "I've got enough burnt-down buildings on my permanent record already; I don't want Snyder to blame me for this fire, too," and she and her friends headed hastily away.
Meanwhile, over in Spike's lair: "Torcher," Spike said, "you know that inescapable fire you set up? That Slayer girl escaped from it."
"What?" Torcher replied. "She couldn't have... She did? But Simon didn't escape, right?"
"If all I wanted to do was defeat Simon, I wouldn't have needed to betray the Slayer, would I? That was the whole POINT, to get her at the same time."
"Don't worry, Spike; my next fire will get her for sure."
"I've given ENOUGH second chances to screw-ups," Spike said. "Besides, I've gone off the idea of fires. So I don't need YOU any more."
"Please, Spike, one more chance, that's all I ask," Torcher said. "I've got some chemicals left I didn't use; I can..."
"You've got chemicals left? Then by all means, let's use them up," Spike said. "Drusilla, love, do you want to watch Torcher here get a taste of his own medicine?"
"Ooh, that sounds like fun," Drusilla replied. "Do you have some really NASTY way to torture him?"
"Drusilla, love, for the last time, his name isn't Tor-ture, it's Torch-er. Oh, just come with me, we'll burn him, you'll get the idea."
"BURN me? Spike, please don't..." Torcher begged.
"And you shut your hole," Spike interrupted. "I am NOT spending eternity trying to explain to Drusilla what your bloody NAME is. I'm burning you, and that's it." And Spike dragged a still-protesting Torcher off, with Drusilla following.
When Buffy and friends were safely away from the burning building, and waiting to rendezvous with Angel in an appropriately sunlight-free spot, Buffy said, "So, everything went okay with all of you? Giles, you said you got everyone out okay?"
"Yes. Though it might have been faster to get them out if Xander hadn't..." Giles began.
"YOU were just about ready to go back to help Buffy when I did it first," Xander interrupted, adding to Buffy, "I did help you, didn't I?"
"Things WERE getting a little hot when Xander showed up," Buffy said to Giles, then turned to Willow. "How'd it go with you, Will?"
"I, um, I managed to figure it out," Willow said. "Those incendiary bombs were pretty straightforward, wiring and chemicals and stuff. It wasn't too hard to disarm a couple of them to make your escape route. Giles should get the real credit; he was the one who found out from that Prof Higgins guy that Spike was using someone named Torture to try to get rid of both you and Simon."
"But Willow checked the list of criminals and determined that that actually referred to Torcher McGee the arsonist," Giles said, "and she found out about the robberies of incendiary chemicals and other components. It was that which indicated to us HOW Spike was going to attack both Buffy and Simon, by setting off the fire at Simon's headquarters during our supposed joint attack. Knowing that enabled us to take precautions."
"Anyone notice how Angel didn't do much?" Xander asked.
"I think I persuaded Spike that his plan was succeeding, by my convincingly distraught reaction over Buffy's supposed fate," Angel pointed out as he appeared.
"So I guess it was more convincing than the LAST time you tried to persuade Spike of something," Xander said.
"Come on, guys, let's not start ANOTHER war," Buffy said wearily. "Simon's gone, the vampire war is over, let's go back and rest. At least today's Saturday; no school to deal with. Oh, and tonight we've still got to finish one detail; that city councilman may rise as a vampire."
"Plus you still have to deal with Spike at some point," Giles pointed out. "Since he presumably is now the sole leader of the vampires in Sunnydale, he is going to be a dangerous adversary."
"LATER," Buffy said emphatically. "Even Slayers don't have to do everything in one day. Besides, Spike did fail again; there's no barbecued Buffy on today's menu. Maybe he'll realize he can't kill me, and he'll just leave town or something. He could do that, right?"
"Yeah, right," Xander said sarcastically, "and maybe I'll start dating Cordelia."
"Much as I hate to agree with Xander," Angel said, "in this instance he is correct. Spike won't give up; he WILL come after you again."
"Then I'll stop him again," Buffy said firmly. "Or WE'LL stop him. Like the song says, I get by with a little help from my friends."
"And for once, I actually AGREE with your taste in music," Giles commented.
The End
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