Reset

By PSUBrat

Author's note: Some dialogue was borrowed from "Grave" written by David Fury.

Confrontation

Warren spun around to see who belonged to the voice behind him. Damn! It was that librarian turned shopkeeper. Wasn't he supposed to be in England? How did he find out where they were? No matter. He would take care of things. This was just a small distraction and he could use the shopkeeper to his advantage. He heard a moan coming from Amy's direction. He assumed she was coming to. "Amy, why don't you hold onto Dawn here, while I show Mr. Giles why he shouldn't have come."

Giles fixed his eyes on Warren and said sharply. "You stupid, impetuous boy. Do you really think that I'm afraid of your threats? I'm not like Amy. I won't cower to you."

"You have no idea what you're getting into old man," Warren threatened, "You're not going to walk away from this. None of you are." He pulled Dawn's hair tighter as she tried to squirm away from him. Amy was taking too damn long to get the kid. Hadn't she woken up yet? He glanced over to where Amy had been laying but she was gone. "What the…"

Warren's distraction gave Giles the opening he was looking for. "And you have no idea who you're dealing with," he said charging at Warren. Giles thrust his sword into Warren's stomach, burying it up to the hilt.

Dawn used that moment to kick Warren in the legs. She heard a sickening crunching sound. Had she just crushed the bones in his legs? She was stunned. How in the world could she do these things? What was wrong with her?

"Halfrek," Giles yelled, "Take Dawn and get out of here now!"

Halfrek, who had been hiding in the shadows, ran towards Dawn. She ushered the girl towards the exit. On their way out, Dawn noticed a still unconscious Amy lying in a heap, tied up. "How did she get that way?" Dawn asked Halfrek as she tried not to stumble through the darkened passageways.

"Don't worry about that right now, sweetie. We just need to get outside because I have a feeling this is going to be very messy."

***

"Anya," Giles said with trepidation in his voice, "figure out a way to get the others out of their cages. I'm going to take care of Warren."

"Giles," Buffy shouted, "he's behind you!"

Giles whirled around just in time to take a vicious blow to his arm that was meant for his head. The blow had knocked him off balance, enough so that he tumbled to the ground. "Bloody hell," he thought, "at least I'm not unconscious, as usual."

"You idiots," Warren said while removing the sword from his stomach and standing over Giles, "I've told you how many times now that you can't hurt me?" Raising the sword over Giles he said, "I can hurt you though." He swung it down towards Giles' head. Something stopped him mid-swing.

Buffy stood next to Warren. Her hand was wrapped around his wrist. "I guess we just don't listen," she said as she kicked the sword from Warren's hand.

Giles rolled to his left and stood up quickly. It was going to take all of them to defeat Warren, if he was as strong as he said.

"Slayer," Warren sighed, "I'm not ready to kill you yet. You need to suffer first." He was still in control and he wanted her to know it.

"Bring it on pathetic boy," she stated calmly, striking a defensive pose.

***

While Buffy distracted Warren, Giles assisted Anya with the cell doors.

"Do you have a plan Giles?" Tara asked, after he freed her.

Giles nodded. He looked at the small group hoping that it wouldn't be the last time they were all together. Xander was hugging him now. "Xander, please," he begged trying to untangle himself from the over zealous boy, "We have a lot of work to do if we want to get out of this alive."

"I'm sorry," Xander sniffed, "It's just so good to see you!"

"Yes. Right. And I'm happy to see all of you as well but we need to concentrate." He looked over at Willow. She looked away as soon as she met his eyes. She was avoiding his gaze and hadn't said one word to him. "What in the blazes," he thought wondering why she wouldn't look at him. Something was wrong but he didn't have time to figure it out.

***

Finally the Slayer had asked for it. Grinning excitedly, Warren went to punch her but she ducked. She used a spin kick to catch him in the gut and then punched him in the face. She hoped her kick had hit the spot where Giles had stabbed him. Would it matter? He stumbled backwards laughing. She didn't like the course this fight was taking. It felt like he was still toying with her.

She lunged at him and sent him flying into the wall.

"Okay," he growled, "this is starting to bore me."

He raised his hand. A blue lightening bolt leapt from it and into Buffy. She was thrown back, landing with a loud thud. It had knocked the wind out of her. She winced in pain as she moved to get back up. "Is this for real," she asked herself. It was like something Darth Vader would do in a Star Wars flick.

"Don't make me do that again. I want to kill you slowly and a few more of those will certainly fry you. Then I wouldn't have any fun."

"The only fun you're going to have, Warren, involves being a butt monkey for some prison inmate."

He howled with laughter. She was insane if she thought a prison would hold someone like him. "Buffy, you silly, silly girl," he hissed at her, "that's not going to happen."

"If you say so," Buffy growled as she rushed at him again. But before she could reach him, she found herself unable to move. It was the same spell that had stopped her earlier. "Damn," she thought, "now what?"

***

"Are we all clear on what to do," Giles asked them. Four heads nodded back at him. "Good. Then let's go."

Buffy had just been knocked to the floor when they got their weapons. She was getting ready to charge at Warren again but suddenly she was frozen.

"Now," Giles yelled.

The four of them rushed at Warren hoping to catch him off guard. Before Warren could react, they had him pinned down. Tara looked over at Buffy and said a few words, freeing her. The Slayer ran to help the others.

Giles took off his glasses, looked at Warren and said, "Vincire!" He raised his hand and pointed his index finger at the crazed young man as a green light shot out of him and wrapped around Warren's body.

Buffy and the others pulled themselves off Warren when they realized he was stationary. As they backed up, Warren's body began to rise. They all stared. Finally, Buffy asked what the others were thinking. "Uhm. Giles? How did you do that?"

"Borrowed magic from a coven in Devonshire. They came to me when they felt a dangerous magical source begin to rise here in Sunnydale. A dark force fueled by hate. Then of course," he continued trying to avoid Buffy's gaze, "there was the call from Angel."

"Angel," Buffy asked, eyes widening, "why did he call you?"

Giles reached for his glasses to clean them when he realized he had removed them prior to placing the binding field on Warren. "Buffy, please do calm down."

"What? I'm all calm…and stuff," she said defensively.

"Angel called to warn me that Cordelia had a vision that you were in trouble." The look on all of their faces told him that they were not aware of their former friend's capabilities. "Is now a good time to tell them that she's also half demon," he asked himself. No. Best to just get to the point.

"You see," he continued, "she has visions now and could see that you needed help. They tried calling the Magic Box several times to reach you or any one of you but no one answered. After trying your home, they became worried and called me."

"So you just decided to come here all hyped up on magicy goodness," Xander asked.

"Not quite. I guessed that Cordelia's vision and Buffy's disappearance were connected to the dark force that was rising here. So I went to the coven and asked them for assistance with this problem. They discussed it and decided that the best course of action was for me to come here quickly to help defeat it. And the only way to do that was by them giving me their powers. They're just a loan, really."

Suddenly a shockwave went through the air, knocking all six of them across the room and onto their backs. Warren stood up and brushed himself off. When were these idiots going to learn not to mess with him? "You know what? I've been going about this the wrong way. I've decided that the best way to do this is to kill you all quickly. You bore me. And so does your pathetic excuse for powers."

Warren chanted in a language that only Giles recognized. "Not good." Giles said aloud.

"Giles what's he saying," Buffy demanded.

"Oh. Not much. Something about a plague of demons and such."

Buffy just stared at Giles.

***

Outside the cave Dawn and Halfrek stood waiting for the battle to end. Dawn was becoming increasingly concerned for her sister and for the safety of the others. She couldn't bear the thought of losing Buffy again, especially with Spike gone. She looked over at the demon that was watching her intently. "Why aren't you helping them?"

Halfrek looked stunned by the girl's words. She looked away.

"You have powers, don't you," Dawn demanded with an angry voice. The demon still wouldn't answer her. "If I had powers there's no way I'd be standing out here while my sister and her friends fought for their lives."

"Don't be foolish," Halfrek shot back, "you don't know what you're talking about. I'm going to be in enough trouble for just being here."

Dawn couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could that woman be so calm while her friend could be dying? Dawn couldn't stand out here any longer. She had to go help, somehow. She slowly began making her way back into the cave. Halfrek had her back to her so now was as good a time as any to sneak back in. A stick cracked under her feet and she froze at the sound.

Halfrek turned around and quickly walked over to Dawn. "Just where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to help them."

"I don't think so," Halfrek said grabbing Dawn by the arm. "My job is to keep you safe and that's what I'm going to do."

Anger was building up inside of Dawn. She thought she was going to burst. She grabbed Halfrek's hand to fling it off but instead she sent her flying through the air. "Oh. My. God." A voice inside her head told her to run back into the cave to help.

Halfrek started picking herself up off the ground. Dawn looked at her and looked at the cave opening. She ran back inside, not sure how she was going to help them but knowing that she had to.

***

Buffy and her friends were in the middle of fighting a horde of demons and vampires when Dawn arrived. Her sister had staked about six vampires while Giles battled with a chaos demon. Buffy looked around after staking her seventh to make sure everyone was holding their own. They were. Good. That meant she could go after Warren.

As Buffy started to make her move, she was knocked to the floor. She managed to get the demon off her and kill it by breaking its neck. They just kept coming and she was getting tired. If she was tired, then the others had to be as well. She wasn't sure that they could keep this up much longer. The more demons they killed the more appeared out of nowhere.

Warren just stood and watched with a content smile as the battle raged on. Surely these demons would make short work of the Slayer's friends. He knew that Buffy would be fine. Afterwards, all he would have to do is kill her himself. This was much better than his original plan, much, much better.

On the other side of the room, Xander cried out in pain as a Toth demon threw him against the wall. Buffy couldn't reach him in time. She watched helplessly as the demon gored him. Xander sunk to the floor holding his stomach and looking pale. The blood seeped out from under his fingers and stained his shirt.

"Xander! No," Anya shrieked. Shaking with anger she picked up a sword and charged at the demon, cutting it in two. She dropped the sword and ran over to her former fiancé, heedless of the demons surrounding her. Tears were running down her face. She put his head in her lap and wept. Was he still alive? She couldn't tell. "Please don't die Xander," she whispered to him. She was so busy trying to make sure Xander wasn't dead that she didn't notice the vampire creeping up on her.

"Leave my friends alone," Dawn yelled as she jump kicked the vampire. He landed on his back a few feet away from her. He growled at her as he got up but she hit him and sent him flying again. The vampire came to rest at Buffy's feet. She kneeled over him and rammed the stake through his heart. Nothing but dust.

Buffy looked over at her sister in amazement. Where had she learned to fight like that? Had she been paying attention at the training sessions? Wait! Only a slayer could do something like that! Okay. No time to think. She picked up an extra stake and threw it at Dawn. Dawn grabbed it out of the air with slayer like reflexes. "Definitely gonna have to talk to Giles about this," she mumbled to herself as she flipped a demon over her shoulder.

***

"Giles," Anya screamed, "Can't you do anything to stop this with your borrowed magic powers?"

Still fighting with the Chaos demon, Giles glanced over at Anya and said dryly, "I'm a little busy at the moment, Anya. But perhaps you could come over here and fight while I try to save us."

"I can't leave Xander," she cried, "not like this."

Willow didn't know what to do. She needed to help her friends but she didn't want to risk returning to the dark majicks. The situation was growing more dire by the minute. Xander was down and maybe dead. She had to do something and fast. She turned to Tara and grabbed her hand. "Barrier spell," she whispered. The other witch nodded in agreement. Tara lowered her head and said a few words. Suddenly the demons were on one side of the room and they were on the other side. The Chaos demon rushed at them but bounced off the invisible shield harmlessly.

"I-I don't think I can hold this long," Tara stammered.

"Hold it as long as you can Tara," said Willow giving Tara's hand a squeeze. She then turned to Giles, "I have an idea."

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