Title: You Forgot To Mention Hell, Horatio
Author: JR
Email: JRR42@yahoo.com
Rating: PG-13 for language.
Status: Complete
Warnings: Nope. Not this time.
Category: Crossover with Highlander
Disclaimer: All other characters belong to their respective owners and are used without permission. This story is not intended to infringe upon any copyrights, nor is any profit being made from it.
This is what happens when you get involved with too many different fandoms.
Universe setting: For you Highlander fans, this story takes place sometime after ‘Archangel’ (sorry to all those Richie Forever people). Please forgive me for playing with the timelines of the shows, but hey, it’s fan-fic and I can do that ;-)
Thanks: As always, to Carrie, and to Marius, the oak and the ash to my birds in the forest.

Protected by their suits, Giles and Xander had traversed the flame-filled corridor. It wasn’t so bad, once they overcame their initial fear of being burned despite the fire gear. Bursting through the archway into the main chamber, the Watcher and the teenager came to a halt as they got their first look at the lair of their foes.

Truth be told, Giles was more than a little dismayed by what he saw. The destruction was nowhere near what they had hoped for earlier that morning. Only now did the Watcher see the basic flaws in their grand scheme.

The fire itself was not as fierce as they had intended. As they had suspected, the poor ventilation in the cavern created a lack of necessary oxygen to feed the flames. What they did not anticipate, however, was the high concentration of ash left behind by the dusted vampires. Clumped in places, the residue acted like a blanket, smothering the flames and preventing their spread.

While the fire had wiped out what Giles assumed to be the majority of the vampires in the room, there were still well over a hundred of their number left frightened and fighting amongst each other. Through the crowd, the librarian caught a quick flash of metal and realized that it was probably Adam brandishing his sword. He could not, however, find any trace of Willow.

Apparently, neither could Xander. Before Giles could react, his teen-aged companion ran off shouting his friend’s name. With a berserker’s fury, Xander dove into the fray, using the wooden stake he had so carefully protected against the flames to clear a path.

In his haste, Xander misstepped. Unable to recover his balance, the teen’s heel slid off in one direction while his upper body went in the other. As a result, he ended up flat on his back amidst the flaming puddles of oil on the floor. Shaking his head to clear away the disorientation and pain from his hard impact with the ground, Xander managed to pull himself together.

Giles was unable to prevent the instinctive gasp that escaped his lips as he spied Xander sprawled on the ground. As it happened, the teenager had fallen into a pool of oil that was still burning. Although the teenager’s flesh was protected by the fire gear, the flickering orange and yellow flames licked upwards around Xander’s prone figure.

“Xander, you’re on fire!” Giles called out over the din of the fray. While the teenager’s heavy coat and fireman’s overalls provided protection from the danger, seeing the student on fire was nevertheless unsettling. Looking down, an expression of horrific surprise appeared on the young man’s face as he realized his situation.

Before he could think twice, Xander heard two vampires snarling loudly as they fought each other not three feet away from him. The teenager’s arms and legs flailed as he desperately attempted to scuttle out of their oncoming path. More by accident than by design, Xander’s foot slipped on the slick ground. However unintentionally, his boot kicked up a few fat droplets of smoldering oil -- right onto the leg of one of the nearby vamps.

Even as he backed away from the pair, Xander’s eyes were fixated on the spot were super-heated oil caused the denim of the vamp’s jeans to smolder and smoke. It gave him an idea.

Skimming his hand through one of the still-burning patches of oil, Xander gathered some of the flaming substance into his cupped palm. Even with the thick gloves he was wearing, the heat quickly reached an uncomfortable temperature for the skin underneath. In an effort to expunge the unpleasant sensation, the teenager tossed the super-hot contents in the direction of the nearest vampire. Unaware of his own impending doom, the vampire kept struggling against his brethren as he burst into flames. Due to their near-wrestling hold upon each other, the first vamp ignited his sparring partner, too.

Seeing the devastating effects of Xander’s dumb-luck, the teen and the librarian stared at each other across the distance that separated them. As if of one mind, both men leaned forward to collect more of the deadly ammunition from the ground.

With their transformation into living, walking catapults, the stalled battle slowly began to turn in the Slayerettes’ favour.

Although the ingestion of Eleni’s blood was slowly returning some of Angel’s strength, he was nowhere near recovered enough to even think of trying to break free from the chain binding him. That fact was enough to leave the vampire with little else to do but watch helplessly as Willow approached the stage with a determination he had only witnessed once before in his long years. In fact, seeing the trail of dusted combatants she left in her wake, Angel experienced a sharp sensation of deja vú. It was just like the time when Willow had ventured into Hell itself to come to his rescue.

Only when the teenager neared the stage did her emerald eyes finally break away from her friend’s haggard face. Turning her gaze off to his right, Willow finally got her first up-close look at the vampiress responsible for Angel’s torment. A cold expression appeared on Willow’s normally friendly face.

The pain she was experiencing from Adam’s nearby presence was shunted aside by pure hatred as Eleni recognized the girl beneath the mask.

“You!” she hissed.

“Get him down,” Willow ordered. Although her voice was muffled by the oxygen mask, her words were, nevertheless, understandable.

“And who are you, child, to threaten me? In just a few moments, you will be bowing before me, begging to serve me,” Eleni countered haughtily, only to draw a snort of disbelief from her teenaged opponent.

“And what’s the weather like on your planet?” Willow questioned incredulously . “You haven’t looked around much lately, have you? The only reason I’m gonna be bowing in a few minutes is to look through your ashes for loose change. Now let him go.”

Now it was Angel’s turn to look on in shock. The vampire was left wondering if Willow had somehow been possessed in the time he’d been held captive, because the witty retorts the redhead was tossing out were very unusual for her. Not that Angel lacked respect for his friend’s sometimes off-the-wall humour, but at that moment, Willow sounded more like she was channeling Buffy -- or Xander for that matter -- than her normal self.

“If you won’t kneel before me,” Eleni growled, despite the fact that she was unable to slip into her game face, “then you will *die* where you stand!”

Like Willow, Angel thought that the vampiress was either unaware or uncaring of the protection spell that surrounded the young witch. Almost too late, he caught a glimpse of the ceremonial dagger Eleni was holding in the hand out of his line of sight.

“Willow, look out!” Angel shouted, trying to warn his friend of the danger.

Instinctively reacting to his cry, Willow’s eyes flew up in Angel’s direction. At that same moment, Eleni pulled back her arm and thrust the knife towards her enemy’s stomach.

Surprisingly enough, only one small thing halted Adam’s rapid descent into insanity. Through the smoke and partially visible bodies in his line of vision, the Immortal caught sight of something shiny and glimmering in the near distance. Curious as to what was brilliant enough to be visible through the din in the room, Adam switched his body to fight on ‘auto-pilot’ while taking a more focused look on the bright object.

As he did so, he became aware that the light was attached to a person rather than just a simple object, and that the person was actually coming closer to Adam’s position. Only when the oddly dressed figure had almost reached his side did the Immortal’s memory return from the long-distant past.

“Where’s Willow?” Xander questioned. His words drew Adam’s attention away from the reflective stripe on his fire-retardant jacket that so fascinated the Immortal. It was only then that Adam remembered who Xander was and, more importantly, what they were there for in the first place.

It was a struggle, but eventually Adam dredged up his last conscious memories of the battle. He cursed silently to himself, having lost all track of time while he was out of it. Giving the smoke-filled chamber as much of a once over as possible in the current conditions, the Immortal ventured to guess that it must have been more than a few minutes.

‘What did the boy ask?’ Adam struggled to recall. ‘Willow. She should have been back long before now. ‘Damn,’ he reckoned. ‘She must be in trouble.’

“Willow?” Xander’s muffled voice queried again as the teenager efficiently set a vampire on fire by brushing against it.

The much older man gestured first toward the stage, then to himself before pointing back at the stage. Nodding his understanding, Xander took a step to follow the Immortal, but Adam quickly nixed the idea. Holding up a hand to halt the teen, Adam pantomimed a staking motion to clarify what he expected the young man to do.

Even partially concealed by the mask, Adam did not miss the unhappy, almost defiant expression on Xander’s face. Nevertheless, the teenager did as he was told, punching the closest vampire before plunging his now-flaming wooden stake through the undead woman’s heart. Seconds later, Giles appeared at Xander’s side.

Satisfied that the pair were holding their own, Adam ran off through the smoke in search of Willow.

It was, ultimately, Angel’s cry that saved Willow’s life. Although her eyes sought out those of her bound friend, the terrified tone in his voice made the witch take an involuntary step in his direction. As a result, the knife Eleni thrust at Willow’s midsection only grazed the teenager’s side, rather than burying itself in her stomach.

Still, the cut was deep enough to wrench a cry from Willow’s lips as one hand automatically flew up to cover the throbbing gash at her waist. The redhead reeled backwards as the icy-hot agony of a deep cut raced through her nervous system. Disoriented by the pain, Willow lost her footing, falling rather ungracefully on her backside.

Despite the smoke and the distance, Angel could clearly make out the rich crimson of Willow’s blood as it seeped through her fingers. The knowledge that she was wounded terrified the hanging vampire. ‘Get up, Will!’ he prayed silently, helpless to do anything else.

Eleni smiled coldly in the knowledge that she had injured her foe. She smelled blood -- albeit more figuratively than literally given the smoke in the chamber. With all of her grand visions of ultimate power in smoldering ruin, the vampiress was hell bent on making sure that she would at least have the small satisfaction of killing both Angel and his mortal paramour.

“And now, puta, you die,” Eleni sneered, pulling the dagger back to make another thrust with the knife.

Xander was everywhere, flying against his opponents like a man possessed. Whether by stake or by using his fists to back his opponents into the waning flames of the fire, he was determined that not one of the remaining vampires would escape from the room.

It was a lofty goal, but sadly, an unrealistic one.

When Adam left his key position by the entrance to the tunnel to go after Willow, it became simply impossible for Giles and Xander to keep all of their undead foes contained within the confines of the arena. Nevertheless, the librarian and the teenager gave their all as they attacked with every means at their disposal.

Already giving a hundred and ten percent, Xander kept going, trying to coax an even better performance out of his bruised and battered body. Out of the corner of his eye, however, the teenager caught sight of a handful of vampires fleeing down the corridor. It was so much of a distraction that the vampire he was currently fighting managed to land a clean right hook to Xander’s face. Not only did the punch stun the teen, but it also knocked his oxygen mask askew as well.

Momentarily denied the compressed air he had been breathing, Xander’s eyes watered over. The heavy scent of smoke and burnt passion fruit was overwhelming. Choking and gasping from the unbreathable air, Xander struggled to re-adjust his mask while simultaneously holding off the vampire one-handed. It was no easy feat.

He only hoped that Cordelia was having an easier time of it than he was.




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