Fanfiction: Requiem

Dawn and Willow were having a similar revelation in the GAP at the same moment. It was eerie; the music kept playing, and the lights stayed on, but no one was in sight. Customers and employees alike had simply vanished without a trace. Buffy’s younger sister decided not to worry about something that she had no control over and started stuffing items into her already bulging bags. Willow, on the other hand, was more concerned. After so many years of fighting by Buffy’s side, she knew when trouble was afoot.

“This is awesome!” Dawn noted, picking a red blouse from its rack. “What do you think of this? Cute? Or too gaudy?”

“I think,” Willow responded, “that something bad is going on here. We need to find Buffy, or-and I can’t believe I’m saying this-even Faith. This is just too weird.” She took the blouse from an objectionable Dawn and hung it back up. “And don’t steal.”

Dawn was about to grab the blouse again just to irritate the witch, but they both turned towards the entrance of the store as Xander and Andrew came skidding to a halt, out of breath from running.

“Where’s Buffy?” Xander asked between breaths. Andrew just sat down.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Willow said. “This is turning into the Mall of Doom. Whose idea was this, anyway?”

Dawn sheepishly tried to become invisible.

“It doesn’t matter who thought of it,” said Xander, checking over his shoulder as he spoke to make sure that no people had magically appeared out of thin air. None had. “We just need to get the hell out of Dodge. Do you have any idea where Buffy went?”

Willow thought back. “She said something like, ‘I’ll be right back,’ and that was the last I heard from her. Those are her bags by your feet. Your guess is as good as mine.”

“My guess is probably a lot worse, actually.”

Dawn finally entered the conversation again. “Do you guys always talk this much when you’re in trouble? We could’ve been out of the mall by now, you know.”

“Either way,” Willow continued, acting as if Dawn hadn’t spoken, “strength in numbers is our best bet. You haven’t seen Faith, either, I take it?”

“She was with Giles, I think,” Andrew added from his spot on the floor. “Um?I think Principal Wood was wandering around by himself like a lost nerf from Alderaan, though.”

Only Xander understood the reference, but the girls got the gist anyhow.

“He’s a good fighter, right?” Dawn was looking for acknowledgement from someone, even Andrew, at this point. “I mean, he can take care of himself?”

“He was pretty beat up in the fight against the First,” Andrew said. “He almost died.”

Willow, Xander, and Dawn exchanged worried glances.

Robin had been morosely walking from store to store with no real agenda in mind. He hadn’t even entered any of them; he was content just to hang his head and think things over, especially things that dealt with Faith. More than anything, he wanted Faith to be comfortable around him, but her natural defenses were so high that deconstructing them brick by brick would take a lifetime. After he had seen Faith pull Giles into the antiques store, he knew that he could not win against her burning desire to protect herself from pain, so he hadn’t bothered pressing the issue by following her inside.

He had analyzed the situation from every possible angle, trying to discover whether he could’ve done something differently; a word or an action that would have prevented the relationship from disintegrating into something that could barely even be considered friendship.

Faith occupied Robin’s thoughts to such an extent that he could think of little else. He did not notice the startling lack of people in the mall. He did not notice the dead silence or the guards that occasionally walked past. He wasn’t paying attention when several guards began following him at a distance. At one point, he heard their footfalls behind him, but when he turned around, only emptiness greeted him. Warily observing the mall out of the corner of his eye, he began walking again, uncertain of what was transpiring.

The next time he heard footsteps, he ignored them.

What he couldn’t ignore was the blow to the back of his head that came a moment later. Stars erupted in front of his eyes as he fell to the floor, landing heavily on his stomach. His unhealed injuries from earlier that week flared in response to the blunt trauma, but he forced himself to roll over so that he could block the next attack.

No attack came. Robin unconsciously began scooting backward as three guards with the snarling, animalistic faces of vampires growled at him.

“Didn’t expect vampires to be running a mall, did you?” the one in the center asked, his yellow eyes drilling into Robin’s. “Think you’re hot shit, running around with the Slayer?”

Robin spat at the vamps, unable to speak but unwilling to be inactive. The center vamp, the leader, smiled and kicked Robin directly in the ribs with nearly enough force to fracture them. Robin writhed on the ground, clutching at his side, as the vamps laughed maliciously.

“We’ve heard the most disturbing rumor,” the leader continued, leaving Robin on the ground. “Apparently, the Hellmouth in Sunnydale collapsed on itself a few days ago. Now, I don’t know how that’s possible, but if it’s true, I bet that little blonde-haired bitch was behind it.” He dusted off his uniform. “Yeah, we know all about Buffy. Tonight, she dies for what she did. And since you’re right here, you can act as bait.” He leaned in close to Robin’s prone form. “How does that sound, sweetheart?”

Robin, never one to give up easily, delivered a backhanded blow to the leader’s face, knocking him backward. The other two vamps were on him immediately. The last thing he saw was a boot coming towards his face.

“B-but, it can’t be. I thought-I mean, I saw-you’re dead. You’re not real.”

Buffy, reacting adversely to the appearance of the thing that looked like Spike, had pushed herself up against the wall in the shadowy bathroom. Her mind was moving at a million miles per hour, and yet her lips couldn’t seem to form the words properly.

Spike smiled a bit, but he didn’t move any closer, not wanting to risk scaring Buffy any worse than he already had. “As far as I can tell, Buffy,” he started, “I’ve been dead as long as you’ve known me.”

“That’s not-“

“Hold on, love. Let me finish.” He took a small step forward, holding his hands up to show that he meant no harm. “Yeah, I guess you could say I died. I got dusted. Ceased to exist, y’know?” Buffy slowly nodded her head, her eyes wide. The low light turned Spike’s handsome face into one cut from stone. “So it was Hell for me, and it was the least sodding fun I’ve ever had. Terrible. Pain and all that ‘eternal damnation’ gets bloody boring after a while. I guess the cosmic balance is still over in the negative column for me, which is why I didn’t get the whole ‘poppies and posies’ place that you told me about.”

“You’re…really you,” Buffy said, realization dawning on her face. She had barely been listening to a word he’d said. Every detail was exactly as she remembered, from his bleached-blonde hair to his dusty overcoat.

Spike looked at his hands, then back at Buffy. “Last time I checked, yeah. But, to make an incredibly long story incredibly short, I was released. And,” he said, putting on his biggest smile, “here I am.”

Buffy rushed forward to hug Spike, but her arms passed right through him. She involuntarily gasped at the sensation of having her arms inside the image of Spike, but she quickly pulled away from him again.

“You’re here…just not…here,” she said.

Spike put on his best hurt face. “Hey, I’m workin’ on it! Can’t have everything all at once, now, can we? Bollocks. Anyways,” he said, annoyed that he’d gotten off-topic, “your friends are in trouble. I was released to make sure that you save them. And yourself.”

Spike put on his best hurt face. “Hey, I’m workin’ on it! Can’t have everything all at once, now, can we? Bollocks. Anyways,” he said, annoyed that he’d gotten off-topic, “your friends are in trouble. I was released to make sure that you save them. And yourself.”

Buffy was still openly staring. “You know that I love you, don’t you? Why did you say that I didn’t love you right before you died?”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Focus, Slayer. Trouble! Danger! Friends! Vampires! We can do the whole ‘lovey-dovey’ thing as soon as this is taken care of, I promise.”

“Fine,” said Buffy, obviously discontent with the situation, “but this doesn’t make sense. Why would you be released to ensure that I stay alive?”

“The higher-ups in Hell love you, Buffy. You’ve sent more demons there in the past few years than anyone else. You have to live so demons go to Hell.” Spike sounded confused at the last part. “At least that’s what I was told. Either way, I’m here, you’re here, and you need to go now. We’ll talk later; technically, I think I’m supposed to go back to Hell after this, but they can sod off without me. I’m back. For good.”

Buffy, trying desperately to keep from making another move to grab what she knew wasn’t really there, nodded her head. The whole situation was so overwhelming that all she wanted to do was just sit down. But she couldn’t. Not yet.

“So what’s the what, then?” she quietly asked, pulling herself together.

“Oh, some stupid wanker vampires dressed up as mall security guards or something. Not the most clever vampires, either, but there’s lots of them. At least twenty, maybe more, depending on whether or not Faith’s gotten into the action yet.”

“Okay. So…I guess I should go now.”

“Yeah.”

“All right.”

Buffy turned and opened the door, but before she stepped through, she had one last thing to say. “Spike?” The vampire regarded his blonde-haired lover with honest eyes. “Don’t leave me again, okay?”

Spike smiled and put his hands in the pockets of his overcoat. “Not if I can help it, love. Not if I can help it.”

The GAP had turned into the unofficial headquarters for the rest of the crew. Having not seen Buffy for the better part of the past half hour, they all figured it would be best to stay together in one location to avoid casualties. Faith and Giles had shown up only a few minutes after Xander and Andrew, but that still left Robin and Buffy out in the mall somewhere.

“No one’s seen Robin?” Faith asked for the fifth time, obviously concerned but unwilling to put her feelings into a more blatant statement of longing. She’d almost watched him die before, and if she had anything to say about it, she would never come that close to losing him again. Unaware that she was biting the nails of her left hand, she waited for an answer.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Giles said, still trying to be comforting.

No one else said anything. Xander and Andrew had taken positions at the front of the store, keeping a lookout for anyone else. Willow and Giles were discussing some sort of plan, but without Buffy and Robin, they couldn’t do much besides wait. Leaving was out of the question.

Xander turned away from the entrance to speak. “Maybe I’m just going crazy, but wouldn’t it be better to at least be searching for the others? The odds of either of them just randomly chancing upon the GAP are pretty slim.” He adjusted his eye patch. “If we just stay here, we’re cornered. At least out in the mall we have a chance to fight. Or run away.”

“Tactically, that makes sense,” Andrew said, nodding.

“What do you know about tactics, Andrew?” Giles replied, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ve watched the crew of the Enterprise go through situations just like this one,” the Trekkie argued. “They always try not to get cornered in one area. That’s just bad.”

“He’s got a point,” Faith said, already moving to leave, propelled by her concern for Robin. Buffy could take care of herself; Robin, still healing from his recent wounds, was another matter. “Let’s move.”

“I’ll second that notion,” Willow stated, going to stand by Faith. “But does anyone even know what’s going on? This whole place feels icky, but I can’t figure out why.”

Dawn’s sarcastic reply came first. “Um, could it be because of the entire lack of people?”

Willow shot Buffy’s sister a look. “It’s more than that. Someone has to be behind the absence of customers and employees. It’s unnatural. And just plain old irresponsible. Shame on the mall staff.”

“Well,” Giles said, placing his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose, “I can’t figure out the situation, either, but if we’re all agreed, we should be off.”

“Not so fast.”

Everyone turned to stare at one of the mall security guards, smiling smugly.

“You’re friends of Buffy’s, right?” he asked, reaching for his walkie-talkie.

Faith immediately stood up a bit taller. “What’s it to you?” she asked, tensing up and preparing to fight. She didn’t want to blatantly attack a guard that hadn’t done anything wrong, but she got the impression that this guy was up to things that were a few county lines over from good. “Mind telling us what’s goin’ on, asshole?”

The guard brought the walkie-talkie up to his mouth, but he hadn’t pressed the transmit button yet. “Don’t you worry about that,” he said, his face transforming into that of a vampire. He snarled, flashing his fangs, and began quickly speaking into the mouthpiece.

Faith bolted forward, but at that exact moment, a blur came hurtling from the aisle outside and tackled the vampire to the ground, scattering the walkie-talkie.

“Hey, guys,” said Buffy Summers, on her feet already and preparing to dust the vamp. She gave a little smile to the group. “Miss me?”

The vampire lunged forward, arms out, reaching for Buffy’s throat. The Slayer easily avoided the clumsy attempt. Having battled the ultra-tough Ubervamps for the past few weeks, a single, normal vampire seemed even more pathetic than usual. But as she pushed the vamp to the ground a second time, she realized that she hadn’t thought to bring along any stakes. With the Hellmouth closed, it hadn’t even occurred to her that they might run into vampires, let alone an entire cadre of them. Buffy looked to Faith for assistance, making a stabbing motion with her hand. As the vampire got up once more, this time in a fighting stance, Faith ran back into the store, searching for anything made of wood.

Security-vamp tried the cautious approach this time, jabbing instead of charging. Buffy blocked the blows easily. She slowly sidestepped so that eventually she was facing the GAP and the vampire had his back to it. Jumping over a low, sweeping kick, Buffy glanced into the store just as Faith snapped a wooden hanger over her knee, breaking it into two jagged pieces. She tossed one to Buffy and kept the other for herself, trying to get an angle on the vamp’s heart. Just as she was about to make an attempt to stake him from behind, Faith noticed another security-vamp running towards the store. Deciding to let Buffy handle the first vamp, Faith moved into position to intercept the second.

The newcomer delivered a perfect snap kick that would’ve broken Faith’s nose had she not blocked. The sheer force of the kick drove her backwards even through her block, though, until she had her back to the railing, a lucky break that barely saved her from falling to the ground floor. Her antagonist came at her again, and she ducked under his punch to get away from the railing. Off-balance, the vamp turned just a bit too slowly and received a hanger through the heart instead of another chance to fight. Faith saw Buffy deliver a vicious roundhouse kick to her vamp’s knee, sending him to the ground yet again. She quickly staked him with the other half of Faith’s hanger amidst a cloud of dust. “That was fun,” Faith said, admiring her improvised stake. “Let’s do more.”

Buffy coughed and started to dust herself off as the rest of the group came to stand outside the store.

“You’re kidding,” Giles said, outraged. “A mall security force comprised of vampires? What’s the world coming to?”

“Next it’ll be Vampire Car Wash,” said Xander. “Then Vampire Circus.”

“Will the elephants at the circus be vampires, too?” Andrew asked, hands in his pockets.

Everyone gave him exasperated looks. He shrugged his shoulders in response.

“How is this even possible?” This from Willow. “A mall full of vampires?”

“I imagine it’s quite a good set up, actually,” Giles explained. “An endless procession of people to feed on, and most of them would never suspect the guards of being involved in strange, blood-sucking murders. The vampires must wait until the mall closes, then they pick off any stragglers who haven’t left yet.”

Faith interrupted. “This is a great explanation and all, but Robin’s still in the mall somewhere. We need to find him. Now.”

“Agreed,” Buffy said. “First things first, though. We need better weapons than these hangers. Dawn? You always pay attention to how malls are planned. Where’s the sporting goods store?”

“Oh! I know this!” Dawn scrunched up her face, thinking of the location. “It’s near that weird Hot Topic store in the South Wing, I think.”

“So we hit that first, pick up whatever we need, and then we find Robin?” Faith asked, anxious to get moving. She would’ve taken on the vampires without weapons in her desire to find Robin, but she knew the chances of winning without them were nearly nonexistent.

“Right,” Buffy replied. “And we need to hurry.”

They all took off running through the empty mall, Faith and Buffy in the lead.

One short minute later-courtesy of empty walkways and sprinting-they arrived at the sporting goods store. Faith wasted no time; she immediately headed over to the glass cabinet where the hunting knives were kept and shattered it into hundreds of pieces with her elbow. Some of the glass cut her bare arm, but she didn’t even notice, too busy picking out the best knives: one large, serrated six-inch blade for massive damage and a smaller, compact knife that she put inside her back pocket as a last resort.

Buffy, always one to try for the quickest possible kill, set about finding herself some makeshift stakes. Bats were probably too large to get through a vamp’s chest; knives were messy and weren’t really ideal unless used for decapitation, and Buffy, unlike Faith, would rather have a cleaner dusting anyway; there was a sophisticated-looking bow and arrow set, which could cause some damage, but it was much more difficult to fire than the crossbow that Buffy preferred. Thinking that nothing in the store would suit her purposes, she was about to give up when she spied a wooded training staff hanging on the wall over the register. She quickly retrieved it and gave it a few spins to test its balance and sturdiness. It would do, but it needed some slight modification first. Within minutes, Buffy had whittled away the ends of the staff into sharpened points with one of the knives that Faith had neglected to pick up. Now it was a staff and a double-edged stake, as well. Perfect.

Xander opted for a wooden baseball bat since stakes never seemed to work properly for him. This way he could pummel the vamps until Buffy or Faith could finish them off. Andrew, apparently deciding that phasers and blaster rifles were not standard sporting goods fare, copied Xander and took a bat, too. Giles picked up the bow that Buffy had neglected. He was a bit rusty with his archery skills, but he figured that even if he couldn’t get a killing shot, he could at least distract or possibly disable some of the vampires. Without heavier weaponry like swords, he knew it would be pointless for him to try to keep up with the two Slayers in the thick of the battle.

Dawn, arguably the least effective in combat, didn’t know what part she would take in the fight, so she grabbed a lightweight pool cue. Not a weapon that would do any significant damage, but it would be sufficient to give a vamp a good thrashing before one of the others could help her out. Willow stood by and watched everyone frantically run about the store. She had no need for physical weapons since she’d memorized most of the more potent anti-vampire spells over the past years. Simple spells such as casting fire were easy to conjure and worked well, and that was all she needed, along with a few other surprises she had up her sleeve.

“Let’s get this party started,” Faith said, the large knife held casually in her right hand. She instinctively held it upright in a traditional knife-fighter’s stance; anyone who entered a fight holding a knife downward was either inept, downright stupid, or both. Held downward, a knife could accomplish little but superficial slash wounds since it lacked the leverage to do any deeper damage. Faith knew that a knife held point up was much more effective for killing blows, such as driving the tip straight into an opponent’s stomach to shred his or her internal organs.

Buffy, all business, led the rest of the group towards Faith. “Okay, here’s the plan,” she began. “No one makes a move until we figure out what the vamps are up to. If we hit them too soon, they might kill Robin in retaliation, so everyone keep calm. Giles, I want you on the upper level. Keep the vamps distracted with arrows. Dawn and Willow will cover your back up there. I assume distance isn’t a problem for your spells, Wil?”

“What? Distance? A problem for me?” the Wicca quipped. “Don’t bet on it, mister.”

“Good,” Buffy responded, turning to Xander and Andrew. “You two are coming down to the ground floor with me and Faith. And I think that just about covers it. Questions? No? All right. Let’s do this.”

The group exited the store, heading for the exact center of the mall, where they all assumed the vampires would be waiting. Not wanting to fight individually, the vamps would probably now resort to the numbers game, intent on overwhelming any resistance that Buffy and Co. could muster. Giles, Willow, and Dawn broke off from the main group upon reaching the wide, open area that overlooked the main plaza of the lower level. The four wings of the mall-one for each direction of the compass-all converged at the plaza, easily the largest single area of the entire structure. A fountain bubbled in the very center, surrounded by classy black benches that were made of metal. Spreading out from the fountain in a large circle were a bunch of the small palm trees, lights twinkling from their concrete pots. And there, encircling the fountain, were the vampires, intimidating in their identical uniforms, making them seem even less human than usual.

Giles and his two cohorts stayed low to avoid being noticed while the remaining four fighters walked tall to attract the attention of the vamps. Buffy led her group to an escalator, doing a quick head count of their enemies as she and the others were carried downward. She counted at least twenty, and assuming that the vamps had at least a small back-up plan, that made the total probably somewhere in the area of twenty five. Not really the odds that Buffy was hoping for. Although regular vampires were almost ridiculously easy to defeat after the Ubervamp ordeal, taking on five or six of them at a time would still be an extremely difficult endeavor.

“Well what have we here?” one of the vampires, most likely the leader, mockingly called out. “Lost your way, Little Red Riding Hood?”

Buffy stopped walking about fifteen feet from the security-vamps. She heard Faith, Xander, and Andrew fan out to the sides, staying close. “That’s a new one,” Buffy retaliated. “And what do you know? I’m not even wearing red.”

Some of the vampires growled in the backs of their throats, a low, disturbing sound, but the leader held up a hand for silence, leaving the trickling fountain water as the only sound in the otherwise deserted mall. Buffy pointedly made a motion as if she were looking at an imaginary watch, then she yawned, trying to force the vampires to admitting whether they’d captured Robin or not.

“Think you’re funny, Slayer?”

“Not funny. Bored.”

This time it was the leader who growled, his arms quivering with rage. “Fine. You want to play rough?” he asked. He turned his head to the side and yelled, “Bring him out!”

From the left side of the plaza came three more security-vamps, hauling a barely conscious Robin Wood behind them. Faith started forward, murder in her eyes and in her heart, but Buffy grabbed her arm, mouthing “wait” when Faith angrily turned around. Buffy noticed that Faith’s breathing had quickened in only those few seconds; she was a barely-contained ball of anger now that she’d seen what the vamps had done to Robin, but even Faith couldn’t last long if she rushed over twenty vampires at once. The trio of vampires deposited Robin at the leader’s feet. Buffy cringed; Robin was bleeding from his nose and mouth, not to mention a gash that had opened up on his forehead. His eyes flickered open, but they didn’t focus on anything. His breath was shallow, and he was holding his side as if he’d received a blow to his ribs.

“Still bored?” the leader taunted, a smile playing across his demonic face. “I guarantee you that we weren’t when we kicked the shit out of your friend here. It was more fun than I’ve had in a good, long while.”

Faith tried to reason with the leader, trying to contain her rage. “He’s not a part of the fight. Just let him go.”

“I have a better idea.” With that, the leader grabbed Robin by the shirt and roughly hauled him to his feet. He wrapped his left arm around Robin’s throat, holding him in place. “How about watching this guy die?”

The leader gave a short, malicious laugh and sunk his fangs directly into Robin’s neck. Faith was already in motion, halfway to the leader before his teeth had even sunk in. Buffy was a step behind, followed by Xander and Andrew. The vampires closed in on the small group. The battle was on.

In one instant, the leader of the vampires was tearing the flesh and drinking the blood of the man that the Slayer had been so adamant about saving. The next instant, he felt a cold, solid object slide underneath his rib cage. He broke contact with the limp man, allowing him to fall to the floor with a thud. The leader looked down at his ribs, and there, wedged upward, was the bottom of a knife blade, its handle held by a slender, trembling hand.

“You like that feeling?” Faith asked, her eyes wet with emotion and rage. “That’s just the beginning, motherfucker.”

With that, Faith twisted the knife and yanked it free, amidst a spray of dark, vampiric blood. The leader howled and fell to the ground in a heap, clutching his bloody side. Faith, unconcerned about the coming opposition, leaped down on top of the vampire, intending to keep stabbing until there was nothing left but mangled skin and viscera.

But before she could take her revenge, six vampires running with supernatural speed, not content to take Faith one at a time, converged and tackled her off the leader and down to the hard, tiled floor.

Buffy saw Faith go down, but she wasn’t in a position to help her at the moment, concerned as she was with eight security-vamps. The other ten or so vampires had most likely broken off from the main group to attack Xander and Andrew, who were hopefully able to handle the onslaught with the help of Giles and Willow.

She snapped her attention back to her present predicament: how to defend herself against eight enemies. Her mind was running through possible plans of action when the vamps suddenly closed in a circle, intending to trap her with their superior numbers. Buffy instinctively swung her sharpened staff in a wide arc, cutting the chests of several vamps and sending the others backward in an uncoordinated retreat.

“What, you guys just attack with no opening insult?” Buffy mocked, keeping her foes at bay with the staff. She occasionally tried for a quick staking, but the vamps had learned their lesson and kept jumping backwards to avoid getting dusted. Buffy decided to press the issue, hoping to draw a few of them closer. “You guys suck at being vampires. Can’t even take on one little Slayer. It’s just-“

She had to cut the finish of her insult short as one vamp stepped forward, fangs dripping spittle. He opened with a roundhouse kick that Buffy ducked. She delivered a kick of her own when the vamp recovered, sending him flying into several of his companions. That was the opening she needed. Instead of charging forward to attack the ones that were stunned from the attack, she moved directly backward, easily staking a vamp that hadn’t anticipated Buffy’s move. She drove her staff through his chest and directly into his heart, instantly dusting him and leaving her with one less vamp to fight.

Noticing another vamp closing in from her left, she swung her staff upward, the pointed edge catching the undead security guard right under the chin, the soft tissue there no match for the sharpened wood. His throat gushed blood as he frantically clutched at his neck, trying to stop the flow. He stumbled backwards right into one of the potted palm trees; Buffy followed him and skewered him with the staff, momentarily pinning him against the cement pot before he disintegrated in a shower of dust. She was in the process of turning around when she was roughly shoved into the pot by another vamp, this one female. Buffy’s head connected with the solid pot, making an audible cracking sound and plunging her into unconsciousness for a split second. When her eyes focused a moment later, she discovered that she’d dropped her staff, leaving her with no weapon against the remaining vampires that were closing in fast.

Giles and Willow, meanwhile, had their hands full on the second floor. From their viewpoint, the battle was extremely surreal; because the mall was so big, the sounds of the fighting just rebounded off into nothingness. Usually the fights they’d been in were noisy and frantic, but this one appeared to be progressing in slow motion so far below. This didn’t stop either one of them from moving quickly, however. Giles had managed to dust one vamp that had been harassing Xander, and he’d also managed to distract a few others with non-fatal shots. Willow had spent most of her time using her magic to levitate Robin Wood up to the second floor. Since he was barely conscious after getting bit, Willow thought it would be best to get him away from the fighting, lest he become an easy kill for a vampire. He now lay some feet away, attended by Dawn. The witch turned her attention back to the melee going on below, trying to see where to direct her spells.

She saw Faith struggling underneath at least five vamps, Buffy cornered by about the same number, and Xander and Andrew fighting back to back with their baseball bats against seven or eight. Something didn’t make sense.

“Giles!” she said loudly to get the ex-Watcher’s attention. “Weren’t there more vampires just a second ago?”

“What?” Giles returned, loosing another arrow, this one going clean through the head of one of Buffy’s vampires, sending small bits of bone, blood, and brain matter all over the floor. The vamp went down, bleeding profusely from his head, but he was up a second later, still intent on the ultimate prize: the original Slayer.

“We’ve got vamps missing in action, Giles!” Willow repeated. “There were-“

“Oh, bloody hell.”

Willow followed Giles’s pointed finger and saw four vampires leaping up the escalator, jumping farther than any human possibly could, uniform both in their outfits and their actions. They reached the top and began running, intent on destroying the distracting humans that had been pestering them from above.

Giles frantically notched another arrow. Willow raised her hands and started a spell.

“We’re gonna die, Xander! Like the Rebel forces at the Battle of Hoth!”

Andrew desperately swung his bat and connected with a vampire’s face, sending it spinning in an ornate spiral before it crashed to the ground. He held the bat straight out, trying to keep other vampires at bay.

“Shut up, Andrew!” said Xander, dealing with the vampires on his side. Standing back to back afforded the duo a small measure of security, but they were also dealing with too many vampires to really be effective. Lacking superhuman Slayer traits or Wiccan magic, they could only rely on their fighting skills and each other-which wasn’t that big of a comfort to either of them. To make matters worse, Xander’s field of vision was limited due to his eye patch, and he had to compensate by moving his head back and forth constantly to keep all the vampires in his view.

“Where’s Buffy? Where’s Faith?” Andrew’s voice was high-pitched. “We need a Slayer!”

“I know, Andrew! Shut up!”

As several vampires collaborated to form a single charge, a huge fireball flew down from the upper level, crashing into the vampires and lighting them all on fire. Everyone, vampire and human alike, stared at the spectacle. The fireball, which turned out to be a vampire covered in flames, got up and stumbled about, waving its arms and screaming in agony. Xander looked up and saw Willow casting spells while Giles wrestled with three other vampires. This soon-to-be-dust vampire must have fallen over the railing all the way to the floor in confusion after being lit aflame by Willow’s fire incantation.

The other vampires that had been unlucky enough to be the landing pads for the moving fireball were all rolling on the ground in pain, trying to extinguish the flames before they grew too big. Xander-and everyone else in the immediate area, alive and undead-watched as the flaming vampire that had started it all ran across the plaza in the general direction of the fountain. He ricocheted off benches, palm trees, and even some vampires that were closing in on Buffy before turning into ashes mere feet from his goal.

Now there were many vampires on fire due to the stupidity of one.

Xander and Andrew hefted their bats and started capitalizing on the distraction.

Faith was being crushed by the collective weight of numerous vampires. Her hands were pinned beneath her chest, preventing her from using them to gain some sort of leverage. The bloody knife she’d been clutching had scattered under a bench, too far out of reach for her liking. She felt a crushing blow come down on her kidneys, most likely a knee or elbow, and she winced, struggling to free herself. Grunting with exertion, using all of her strength, she lifted herself and the vampires off the ground, but only for a moment. However, that one moment was enough time for her to free her right hand, allowing her to move it in a limited space. She immediately began inching it towards her back pocket, intent on getting to her last-resort knife.

Her hand was almost there when a fist came down and slammed her head against the floor. Stars erupted in front of her eyes, and she could feel the unmistakable stickiness of her own blood running down the side of her face. Blinking rapidly to clear her vision, harboring the pain and using it to fuel her anger, she finally came in contact with the knife, and her fingers wrapped around its handle. But before she could get it free, a hot, musty voice breathed into her ear.

“C’mon, girlie,” the female voice said. Faith felt a hand caressing her neck. She tried to get rid of it, but couldn’t move far enough. “All outnumbered, and nothing you can do about it. You humans…you never learn.”

The vampire gave Faith’s neck a slow lick, savoring the taste. Through her tongue, she could feel Faith’s pulse.

“There’s nowhere you can go, honey,” the female continued, her breath moist and warm in Faith’s ear. “We’ve got you trapped. And it looks like I get to have the first taste, you poor, sad, little girl.”

Faith felt the needle-like tips of the vamp’s fangs on her neck. She put all her remaining strength into one colossal effort to free herself, but she felt suddenly weak. In one eternally long moment, the vampire pierced Faith’s skin and deeply sunk her fangs into Faith’s neck, slowly sucking the hot blood of a Slayer. The vampire was even pulling on Faith’s necklace, strangling her victim even as she fed. Faith, clenching her teeth against the pain of having her blood literally sucked from her body, knew she had precious little time. She could already feel her own blood spilling from the vampire’s mouth and over her exposed neck, turning her necklace’s silvery finish dark crimson.

She forced herself to look straight ahead, trying to focus on getting the knife out. But there, standing not ten feet away, was someone who couldn’t possibly be alive.

Spike? Faith thought, her hand still trying to wriggle free of her pocket. I’m hallucinating. That’s it. Hallucination, then death, and bye-bye Faith.

Spike was staring straight into her eyes, and suddenly she heard his voice in her head. Time seemed to slow as the words, clear as if they’d been spoken aloud, entered her mind.

You had the power to walk away anytime, came Spike’s voice. Nothin’ to stop you.

Faith, her mind cloudy, thought the words familiar, and she closed her eyes. Instantly, she knew her response: I stopped me. I got…dangerous…for a while. She opened her eyes, meeting Spike’s unflinching gaze as her blood pooled around her head.

You over it? he asked, in Faith’s head, his mouth not moving as he stood silently against the wall.

More or less, Faith heard herself say in that other place. She knew that this wasn’t right. Everything was moving too slowly, and Spike’s presence spoke for itself.

What’s the less?

The usual stuff. It’s all old hat, man. Just don’t forget who’s on top.

That, I suspect, would be you, Spike continued, his eyes boring into Faith’s as she was quietly being killed.

You got that right, she replied, still not saying a word. She could feel her life ebbing. What the hell was going on?

Then show me.

What?

I said show me. Show me what you’re bloody capable of. Show me the drive that puts you on top. Show me what made you so sodding dangerous. Let’s see a good spot of violence, love. Do it.

Spike disappeared from the mall, his image deteriorating as Faith watched, awestruck. Strangely motivated to survive, she felt herself grasping the knife, and she realized that she had to make every movement and every moment count. She wrenched the knife free of her pocket.

As her vision was beginning to go black, Faith somehow found the strength to reach around and violently jam the blade directly into the vampire’s right eye.

Faith screamed in pain as the vampire’s fangs were torn out of her neck, causing more blood to spill out of the two wounds there. But Faith’s scream was completely drowned out by the female vampire’s. All the security-vamps leapt away from Faith as they stared, horrified, at the small knife sticking out of the eye socket of their companion. The vamp’s yell was so loud that Faith instinctively covered her ears as she hauled herself under a bench for safety, in no condition to fight a puppy much less an entire cadre of vampires. Hands trembling, unsure of whether to leave the knife in or pull it out, the vamp was bleeding profusely, the blood flowing freely down her face and onto the floor. The other vampires that had been attacking Faith forgot she even existed, morbidly fascinated by the grim spectacle that had been Faith’s last, desperate bid for life.

The female fell to the floor, writhing in pain, her immortality more of a curse tonight that it had ever been before.

“Take it out!” she screamed at her friends. “Take it out!”

Faith closed her eyes against the sight as the vamp’s right eye was crudely torn from its socket amidst an obscene spray of gore.

On the other side of the plaza, Buffy had been capitalizing on the distraction that the flaming vampire had caused. He’d bumped into a few of her attackers, but unfortunately they’d been able to douse the flames by quickly jumping into the fountain. Now Buffy was facing wet, enraged security-vamps, but she’d been able to reclaim her weapon during the chaos, and now the odds were firmly in her favor once more. Previously, she had been able to dust two vamps; that was nothing compared to what she did next.

Hearing Faith’s scream over the cacophony, not content to play defense again, Buffy rushed forward, swinging the staff like a bat and catching one wet vamp in the face, sending an explosion of blood and water into the air. He spun into the vamp next to him, sending them both the ground, and Buffy moved on, heading towards a trio who had positioned themselves around one of the black benches. Two of the three opted for side kicks that Buffy backed away from, the third hopping up on the bench in preparation for a flying snap kick. Noting the opening, Buffy planted the staff firmly on the ground, slightly blunting one of the sharpened edges as she did so, and launched an immense kick that connected with the vamp’s chest, sending her flying off the bench and directly into a cement pot. Buffy heard a distinct crunching sound, most likely the vamp’s spine cracking under the punishment.

The other two vamps rushed forward as Buffy ducked, grabbing the staff in the center and pushing it forward into the vampires’ stomachs. They both doubled over, and Buffy staked one of them in the back, sending dust all over the floor, as she drove her knee into the face of the other, shattering his nose and sending blood everywhere. Supernatural senses working overtime in her desire to help Faith, Buffy heard a heavy footfall behind her, and without even looking, she drove the staff backward, feeling it come in contact with something solid. She turned, seeing a vampire clutching at his stomach and the staff sticking out of it. Forcefully ripping it free, she used her other hand to throw the vamp face-first into the steel bench. His head ricocheted off with a clang as his body landed right next to the vamp with the broken nose.

Buffy twirled the staff as she turned to face what was left of the other vampires she’d been fighting. The ones she’d injured would be out for at least a few moments more, affording her enough time to take care of the ones that were still a threat. One of them, the one that Buffy had struck across the face, made a feint, and Buffy fell for it, going to block a blow that never came. Instead, she was viciously punched in the face by a vamp that had cleverly been flanking her. She rolled with the punch to lessen the shock, remembering to keep the staff firmly in hand. Her mouth busted open, and she felt a steady trickle of blood down her chin, but she ignored it, going on the offensive once more. Using their own tactics against them, Buffy feinted as if she was going to stake the vamp who’d hit her, but instead, she lunged the other way and cleanly dusted the male she’d previously hit in the face.

Quickly reversing her direction, she moved out of the way just in time as one vamp dived past, looking for a tackle and finding nothing but air. He stunned himself by careening into the fountain’s concrete base, and before he could regain his footing, Buffy had stabbed him through the heart, ending his stint as one of the world’s worst security guards. She absentmindedly wiped her mouth as she considered her next move. None of the vamps seemed to be in any mood to make an attack. She found several still on the floor, bleeding from their wounds or otherwise incapacitated. Only two were standing, glaring at her through their demonic eyes. That just wouldn’t do.

“Bring it on,” Buffy taunted, putting the staff through an intricate series of movements that showed her ease with the weapon. “Don’t be scared. Unlike you, I don’t bite.”

Neither vamp made a move, so Buffy sighed, rolling her eyes. She chanced a fast look at how the others were doing. Faith appeared to be safe for the moment, huddled under a bench as approximately six vampires gawked at the blood-soaked area where a seventh vamp was rolling on the ground, screaming in utter torment. Buffy noticed that one of the vamp’s eyes was missing, and she immediately decided to check on Xander and Andrew instead. Amazingly, the two were doing quite well for themselves, only having to contend with about two vamps apiece by this time. Feeling that they must’ve had some help from Giles and Willow, Buffy looked up to the second floor. Giles was in the midst of a fist fight with one vamp and another, on fire, was running all over the balcony. Willow, her hands aimed at the vamps harassing Xander and Andrew, caught Buffy’s eye and gave a hurried thumbs-up before launching a shockwave that sent a vampire crashing through a plate-glass display window.

Buffy considered her foes once more, decided that they were too cowardly to attack, and just hurled the staff with all her strength right into the chest of one. His confused face disappeared a moment later as he collapsed into a small pile of dust. The staff clattered to the floor. The remaining vampire looked at the staff. He looked at Buffy. Buffy shrugged her shoulders. The vampire looked at the staff again, weighing his options. Apparently thinking that using the staff against the Slayer would be a bad idea, he left the weapon on the ground and came at Buffy using traditional techniques instead. She managed to block all of his strikes until he unexpectedly altered his methods and drove a knee into her stomach. She couldn’t help but fall to her knees, all the air having been driven from her lungs. The vamp, pressing his luck, went for a swift roundhouse kick that would’ve knocked Buffy out, but she brought her forearms up and blocked at the last second.

Angered that his attack hadn’t worked, the security-vamp reached down with both hands, intent on lifting Buffy by her hair so that he could bite her neck. Buffy waited until the last possible second, then, with a speed that defied normal human abilities, she grabbed one finger on each of the vamp’s hands and snapped them. A silent scream came from the vampire’s mouth as he regarded his mangled hands. Buffy spun in a circle, toppling him off his feet with a sweeping kick. He fell hard, cracking the back of his head on the immovable floor. Not wasting any time, Buffy grabbed her staff, and, feeling particularly angry, gave it a brutal golf-like swing that shattered most of the vamp’s precious teeth. He coughed blood and Buffy put him out of his misery.

The security-vamp leader had been attempting to navigate his way through the different fights without getting staked, bludgeoned, or stabbed-again. His side had nearly stopped bleeding from Faith’s knife strike, but it was extremely tender and caused him pain every time he moved even an inch. He’d managed to avoid Xander and Andrew’s slug-a-thon on the far side of the plaza, he’d snuck behind Buffy’s back as she was busy staking another vampire, and he had no intention of heading upstairs to tangle with the fearsome Witch and Watcher tag-team. That just left the brown-haired girl. She was lying on her side under a bench, bleeding from various wounds, attempting to avoid any further contact with the undead security force, which had severely dwindled in number since the fight began. Fewer than twelve vamps were left out of a group that had consisted of nearly twenty five, and most of these twelve were either in the process of being dusted or crippled in some way or another.

Making his way around the outer perimeter of the plaza, staying well away from the fighting, the leader began making his way towards Faith. He would have his revenge on the girl who had ruined his hard work; he’d rip her throat out. As he approached her position, he noticed that her attention was focused solely on the few vampires trying to get her out from under the bench. She was doing an admirable job of keeping them at bay with desperate kicks while she held her hand to her bleeding neck wound. Her other hand was holding something, but he couldn’t make it out. Whatever it was, it was irrelevant. He began striding towards the bench, intending to take her completely by surprise. He was just about to reach out and grab her when a voice interrupted his plan.

“Hey, mate,” the voice said. The leader turned around. A man in a dusty black trench coat was staring him down. “I have two words for you: sod off.”

“Fuck you,” the leader retorted, snarling, his blood lust far from satisfied. “Who the hell are you anyway? Where’d you come from?”

“I’m no one,” the blonde-haired man said. “At least that’s what my sodding teachers always told me. But I’m not who you should be worrying about.”

“Oh, really?” said the vampire, snorting his irritation with this new person that spoke way too much. “Then who should I worry about, you damn Brit?”

The man just inclined his head, nodding at someone.

“Her,” he said, smirking.

Immediately realizing his mistake, the leader spun around, only to come face to face with a bloody, ravaged, and very, very pissed off Slayer. He saw that the other, blonde-haired Slayer was taking care of the vamps that had been pestering the brown-haired one. Before he could react, Faith shoved the object she’d been holding in her other hand directly into his chest, driving straight through his ribcage until the point of the knife had exited his back. Trying to stumble backwards but unable to do so because Faith was still holding the knife handle tightly in her hand, he dumbly stared down at the blood gushing from his chest.

“Remember when I said that what I did to you before was only the beginning?” Faith asked, a look of absolute hatred on her face. She began slowly twisting the knife, using what was left of her strength to open the wound to disgusting proportions. The leader screamed and lashed out at Faith, but she didn’t even blink when he struck her across the face. Instead, she pushed the six-inch blade a bit farther in and gave it one last, savage twist, tearing through bone and internal organs. Blood splashed all over the front of her shirt, but she didn’t even notice, never taking her eyes from the vampire’s. “Well this is the end, fucker.”

With that, Faith began pulling out the knife inch by agonizing inch. The only thing holding the leader on his feet at this point was Faith’s sheer willpower, not allowing her enemy even the small comfort of being able to roll on the floor. She could feel the knife’s serrated edges ripping and shredding the leader’s skin as she withdrew it. His blood was everywhere; though vampires couldn’t technically die from blood loss, they could be made so weak that death seemed like a blessing. Her shoes, her pants, her shirt, her hands…everything was literally soaked in gore, but she reveled in it, taking her revenge on the vampire who had tried to kill Robin, the one person she cared about more than anything else in the whole world. In a final effort, Faith yanked the knife free as she fell to the ground, too weak from her own injuries to do anything else.

The leader, convulsing from the pain of having a knife shoved completely through his chest, collapsed in a crimson heap, blood running from his mouth as well as his midsection. His blank eyes stared up at the ceiling. Spike sauntered over and surveyed the damage that only Faith was capable of. He could actually see the tiled floor through the hole in the vampire’s chest. The vampire reached up, trying to grab Spike’s leg for comfort, but his hand passed right through Spike’s incorporeal form. Spike was no stranger to violence considering his checkered past, but even his worst acts of torture would be hard-pressed to compete with what Faith had done. The wound was actually filling with blood, so huge was the hole. Spike just shook his head, looking over to where a blood-soaked Faith was curled up in a ball on the floor some feet away. Seeing that she was out of trouble for the moment, his attention came back to the husk of a vampire that was mumbling incoherently as blood bubbled up from his mouth.

“Bloody Yank vampires,” Spike said, shaking his head and disappearing once more.

The vampires were being systematically destroyed. Xander and Andrew, screaming like maniacs and waving their bats in the air, had actually chased a few vamps up the escalator right into one of Willow’s well-timed fire spells. Giles, wielding one of his arrows, had joined Buffy in dispensing of the last of the vampires near the fountain. Spike, unsurprisingly, was nowhere to be seen, but then again, only Buffy actually knew that he was back; Faith, still bleeding on the floor, thought him a hallucination. Dawn had done an admirable job of protecting Robin, smacking one or two vamps in the face when they got past Giles and Willow.

As Buffy dusted yet another vamp, she surveyed the carnage that surrounded the group. Broken glass and broken bodies were strewn about, Faith’s among them. Numerous injured vampires were wailing in pain, injuries too severe to be shrugged aside. Some stores had had their glass windows shattered courtesy of Willow’s powerful shock waves. The fountain’s previously pristine water had turned a rather repulsive red color due to all the blood that had been spilled in it. Scorch marks from flaming bodies were all over the floor, not to mention huge smears and puddles of blood. The entire plaza was an irreparable catastrophe.

Giles stuck his improvised arrow-stake into a vampire’s chest not three feet away. He flashed a small, somber smile before moving on to his next target. Buffy dropped her staff; it clattered to the floor. Exhausted and still bleeding from her mouth, she wandered over to the bench nearest to Faith and sat down. Faith, hearing the noise of Buffy’s footsteps, opened her eyes and gazed up at her friend.

“Faith, are you-“

“Is Robin okay?” Faith interrupted.

“He’ll pull through,” Buffy said, noticing that Dawn had propped Robin up against the railing on the second floor. “He looks better than you do at this point. Are you all right, Faith?” Buffy reached down to grab Faith’s shoulder, and for once, Faith didn’t shrug it off.

“You know me, B.,” Faith said, trying to smile and failing miserably. She spit up a bit of blood. “Five by five, all day, everyday.”

“Still, we should probably get you to a hospital.”

“Did we win?” Faith asked, closing her eyes again.

Buffy looked around again before answering. She saw Giles toss one vamp face-first into a garbage can and then stake it with his arrow. He started looking for more vamps, realized there were none, and started walking towards Buffy. Willow was riding the escalator down to the bottom floor, leaving Andrew, Xander, Dawn, and Robin up above. There were no more vampires to be seen, except…

“Yeah,” Buffy finally answered. “We won.”

“Do you…do you see the vamp that bit Robin anywhere? Did someone dust him?”

Faith’s eyes remained closed, but the concern in her voice made Buffy realize how violently Faith would fight to protect those that she cared for.

“He’s over there,” Buffy quietly said, helping Faith turn in the direction of the gruesome, bloody body that was trying to crawl away. Buffy had purposely left that one alone, feeling that Faith would need some sort of closure, considering that the vamp had nearly killed Robin. Buffy passed no judgment on what Faith had done to that vamp; put in Faith’s position, Buffy knew she would have done the same thing.

“Give me a stake, B.”

Buffy motioned for Giles to bring her the staff. The ex-Watcher obliged, handing Buffy the staff and wincing at Faith’s battered form at the same time. Buffy cleanly snapped one of the sharpened ends off the staff and knelt down to place it in Faith’s hand. Willow came walking up at that moment, concerned for the bloody mess that was probably the most dangerous Slayer in the world. Faith, her hand wrapped around the stake, managed to get to her hands and knees, her motives all too clear. They all watched silently as Faith, unable to stand, crawled towards what was left of the vampire that had caused her so much emotional distress.

Leaving a small trail of blood in her wake, she finally made it to the vampire, who was using his hands to pull himself across the floor. Faith’s left hand wrapped around the vamp’s ankle, holding him in place. He turned his head to look over his shoulder, terrified that Faith had come back to torment him again. The two, battered and beaten, stared at each other for one timeless second…then Faith lifted her right arm as high as it would go and drove the stake straight through the vampire’s back and into his pulsing heart. He made a choking sound, his eyes rolling back in his head as he quietly dissipated into dust. Faith, having avenged Robin, dropped the stake and fell into unconsciousness.

Buffy, Willow, and Giles rushed forward to make sure that Faith hadn’t killed herself through overexertion. Anyone in such a state should have been saving his or her energy, but Faith wasn’t just anyone. She would always fight and never quit until her task was finished. And now it was.

Outside, Spike was enjoying his first night back on Earth. Though he couldn’t actually feel or smell anything due to his ghost-like form, he could tell that the night was nice. The leaves were rustling in the trees, indicating a crisp summer breeze, one that pushed small pieces of garbage absently through the deserted parking lot. A half-full moon hung peacefully in the starry sky, shedding dream-like rays across the urban landscape.

Spike suddenly felt the need for a cigarette, then cursed his intangible form when he realized he wouldn’t even be able to pick one up. The doors of the mall swung open, and he directed his attention to the people coming out.

Andrew and Willow came out first, holding the doors for everyone else. Dawn followed next, dragging several full bags of stolen merchandise. No one had been able to convince her that stealing was wrong, their logic lost on Dawn’s teenage mind. Besides, she figured that she’d earned it, considering the “emotional scarring”-as she called it-that she’d been subjected to. Xander came next, apparently advocating Dawn’s opinion on stealing by hauling a small fortune in comics for himself and Andrew. Last out were Buffy and Giles, supporting Faith and Robin, respectively. Spike was amazed that Faith was even able to walk after all the blood she’d lost, but then again, her drive was so strong that he should’ve known better than to doubt her ability.

They all passed by, a procession of some of the best, most dedicated people he had ever known. They took their beatings and their faults in stride, always striving to make themselves-and the world-better bit by bit. No one noticed Spike, cloaked in darkness, wrapped in his thoughts. As everyone trailed away towards the distant van, he noticed that Robin and Faith, although they were both exhausted and bloody, had moved close together so that they were able to wrap their hands together as they limped into the distance. Spike smiled, glad that at least one good thing had arisen out of all the fighting and two near-deaths.

He gave one last, long look at Buffy before melting into obscurity. He knew she loved him. And he loved her.

“Be seein’ you, love,” he said, evanescing into the night. “Be seein’ you soon.”

THE END

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