Here We Come To Save The DayBy Karen
Chapter ElevenDawn woke slowly and reluctantly, wincing at the sharp pain in her head. Her arms sang with pain and tension as they lay trapped beneath her, but when she tried to ease them free all she succeeded in doing was twisting the muscles in her shoulders. Her eyes flickered open and she focused, with difficulty, on the white tear streaked face of Kit lying a few feet away. Kit shook her head slightly, stalling the flood of questions that sprang to Dawn’s lips, and flicked her eyes over Dawn’s shoulder to indicate they were not alone. Dawn kept perfectly still and moved her eyes slowly around to try and get her bearings. From what she could see, she lay in some kind of basement on a rough earthen floor. There were no windows on the two walls she could see, but there appeared to be dark, ominous stains on the walls and floor, indicating that for the people who normally visited the basement things did not have a happy ending. She looked back to Kit and mouthed silently, “Are you alright?”
Kit blinked once and gave a small smile, Dawn returned it and then mouthed again, “The others?”
Kit’s face fell and a lone tear slipped down her cheek to disappear into the roots of her hair. Dawn’s mouth went dry and her heart froze in her chest as she tried to understand Kit’s reaction. She tried desperately to recall what had happened in her last few conscious moments and although she knew that Connor and Dru were fairly badly beaten she was nearly sure they were alive when she last saw them. Her face darkened as she thought once again of Riley’s betrayal and she made a silent vow to herself that if anyone she cared about was hurt there would be a serious smacking coming to the ex-farm boy.
Kit’s eyes widened in fright suddenly and then Dawn was yanked, yelling with pain, to her feet. She nearly lost her footing as she was pulled round to face her antagonizer and then she found herself looking once more into Riley Finn’s cold eyes. As much to her own surprise as to his, Dawn didn’t waste a second and jumped up to bring her forehead hard between his eyes, taking the yell of pain and the sharp crack of the bridge of his nose giving way as an indication of a job well done. Slightly dazed, she staggered back and watched Riley stumble away from her, clutching his face and swearing loudly as blood began to pour between his fingers.
Dawn laughed as he blinked at her through tears of pain and rage and said mockingly, “You’ve lost your edge, Ri. That’s payback for the slap you gave me, come over here and we’ll start working off the debt you owe Connor and the others.”
Slowly Riley straightened and then he took his hands away from his blood soaked face to leave the blood flowing freely over his lips. His big hands clenched at his sides as he visibly fought to control his temper, then he said in a low voice, “What are you? You aren’t human, you can’t be, no one recovers from two head traumas like you’ve had in one night. The way I hit you, you should have been out for hours.” His lip curled in disgust and he spat angrily, “What the hell are you?”
Dawn drew herself up proudly and moved forward to stand beneath the weak light of the single light bulb. Her hair was plastered to her head on one side with her own blood, on her left cheek an angry bruise was forming in direct competition with the livid colors of the black eye that grew above. Her lips were dry and cracked and along her jawbone ran another fierce bruise, courtesy of the punch she had taken from the soldier earlier. Spike’s duster hung off her shoulders in black, dusty folds and was spattered here and there with the blood of various demons and humans that she had encountered that night. The clothes underneath were ripped and shredded where she had battled for her life and here and there her flesh shone palely through, still seeping with blood in places.
Dawn met Riley’s eyes and gave him a warm slow smile as she rolled her shoulders to ease the cramp in her bound arms, “I’m Dawn Summers and I’m beyond you in every way, Riley.” She took a fast step towards him and laughed as he took an instinctive step back, “Still scared of things you don’t understand Riley? It must be hell for you to even get out of bed in the morning.” Dawn narrowed her eyes and hissed, “Now I’m getting bored, where the hell are Connor and the others?”
Her head turned as a foul smell wafted from the corner of the room and a voice that made her skin ripple with disgust spoke, “We’ll take you to the other sacrifices soon, Key.”
Dawn scowled and wrinkled her nose, “Xander? Is that you? Jeez, change the socks occasionally why don’t ya?”
The smell picked up noticeably in strength as a wave of sheer animosity so palpable Dawn could almost taste it washed over her.
“Insolent child. I will en…” The voice cut off on an angry exclamation as Dawn rolled her eyes and sighed impatiently.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, is there any chance we can pick this up at all? I haven’t eaten all night, I still have lots of papers to get in for tomorrow and, no offence, but I’m starting to smell as bad as you.”
Dawn dimly registered Riley’s gasp of horror and Kit’s fear filled scream as the hidden figure slowly moved forward into the light, but all her attention remained on the most butt ugly demon she had ever seen in her life. He stood at least nine feet tall, gray with putrid weeping sores covering his misshapen body. One eye was set considerably lower than its mate on a face that seemed to be a dumping ground for facial features and the thing’s mouth hung slack, revealing sharp teeth, weeping with strings of discoloured saliva.
Dawn grinned, “Hello handsome.” She paused a beat and her grin widened. “Not!”
Kit scrabbled back frantically as Chanic moved towards Dawn with a growl but Dawn stood her ground and remained smiling up at the creature.
She raised one delicate eyebrow. “Well, I can see why you have a burning desire to be a big bad, not exactly a face a mother could love is it?” She sniffed delicately at the air and crinkled her pert little nose. “And a leper too? Man, you were so not there the day they handed out luck, huh?”
Kit screamed as the demon’s hand shot out and wrapped itself around Dawn’s throat to lift her kicking and cursing into the air. The growling from the demon rose in intensity until the very walls seemed to shake with it and then suddenly the vicious noise was abruptly cut off. Dawn was dropped suddenly to the floor and she rolled with the impact to bring herself up at Kit’s side. She lay panting for a minute and then met her friend’s incredulous eyes, Kit watched as one long denim clad leg rose into the air and Dawn’s combat boot waggled teasingly into the air. For a moment she didn’t understand and then her eyes nearly bugged out of her head as she saw the long silver blade attached to the end of the shoe. Dawn coughed harshly and rasped, “Gotta love Spike.”
The girls turned their heads as a long howl sounded from the demon and then they both gagged as a steaming pile of innards fell from between the creature’s hands that clutched at his stomach and hit the floor with a splash. There was silence for a few moments and then the huge body sank down on top of it’s own intestines and lay still. Dawn struggled into a sitting position and stared thoughtfully at the blade winking in the dim light as she wiggled her feet, “Damn, these things are sharp!”
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Connor was having a very bad night. He remembered nothing of being shot or beaten, so when he woke to find himself in the dark, with a broken rib, covered in bruises and one eye stuck shut with his own blood it came as somewhat as a surprise. The even bigger surprise was finding himself waking up, upside down and naked over a steaming pot of what looked like oil. He gave a low, heartfelt moan “Oh hell, not again.”He turned his head painfully at the sound of a low chuckle and saw Carlos chained against a wall. The dark haired boy looked slightly bruised but mostly unharmed. Connor was also not amused to note that Carlos also had all his clothing on. He twisted his head around and saw Drusilla chained against the opposite wall, still unconscious and covered in blood. He sighed deeply; she also still had all her clothes attached. “Damn it, why is it always me?”
Carlos found a weak grin somewhere deep inside himself. “This happen a lot?”
Connor paused in flexing his wrists against the chains holding his arms behind his back, “You have no idea.” He tilted his head up towards the ceiling and sighed as he saw thick metal chains biting into his unprotected ankles. That was really going to chafe later. He allowed his head to flop back down and his body to spin in a slow easy circle from the momentum of his movements as he continued to address Carlos. “This is the third time in six weeks.” He paused as his body swung slowly away from the other boy and then continued petulantly as they made eye contact again, “And it’s always naked. Why do I never get to keep my clothes?” There was another pause as he swung around and then he said in an anxious tone as Carlos came into to view again, “They didn’t burn them did they? My mother gets really pissed if they get burned.”
This time Carlos’ grin was more spontaneous as he fought back a giggle at the sight of a naked seventeen year old boy, hanging upside down over scalding liquid worrying more about his mother’s reaction to the possible destruction of an outfit than his own imminent and painful death. “They threw them over there. I think they’re ok.”
Connor waited until his body swung into position and then stared intently into the gloomy corner Carlos had indicated. He squinted his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh thank the Powers.”
There was a silence of a few moments as Connor gently swung to a standstill and then Carlos burst out unhappily, “They took the girls, I don’t know if they’re ok.”
Connor cricked his head from side to side and tried to relieve the uncomfortable build up of blood that was slowly filling his head. He winced as the pounding ache in his head increased and said distractedly, “Don’t worry they’ll be fine.”
Carlos pulled angrily at his chains and shouted in a mix of fear and anger, “How do you know that? They beat you guys up and smacked Dawn around.”
That got Connor’s attention. “They hit Dawn?”
Carlos sighed, relieved to have finally got some kind of a reaction. “Yeah, that big guy hit her so hard that she passed out.”
Connor snorted and said with absolute conviction, “Then be thankful we’re down here and she’s elsewhere waking up, because when she does, it is not going to be pretty.” He cocked his head again and appeared to listen intently for a moment. “Has the screaming started yet?”
Carlos opened his mouth to reply and then could only shout in horror as Connor’s chains suddenly fell loose from the ceiling and left him plummeting into the vat of boiling oil. The boy twisted sharply in the air and, with a move that started by defying gravity and finished with smashing most of the laws of physics, managed to send his body past the lip of the container and crashing heavily to the floor. There was a muffled grunt as his broken rib received a heavy pounding and then he was bouncing to his feet and moving swiftly to stand in front of Carlos.
The other boy closed his mouth with an audible snap and then his eyes followed suit as Connor’s naked ass filled his vision. He swallowed several times to ease the dryness in his mouth and managed to say reasonably calmly, “How did you do that?”
Connor kept his eyes on the door that was opening slowly. “I’ve had a lot of practice.” His tone of voice changed entirely as a tall figure strode through the opening and down the short flight of stone steps, “Oh no, not you again. What do you want now?”
Riley stopped a cautious few feet from Connor and glared at the naked teenager menacingly. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could Connor smirked and nodded at the blood still caked onto the former demon hunter’s face, “Dawn’s woken up then?” His eyes went past Riley to the doorway as Dawn and Kit were shoved roughly through and to the floor. His face lit up. “Hey sweetie.”
Dawn scrambled to her feet and then stood still long enough to allow Kit to pull herself up before making a beeline for Connor. She was within three feet of him when she realized he had less on than when they first met and the slight chill in the basement air didn’t seem to be affecting him at all.
She stopped suddenly and gave a long appreciative whistle. “Well, he-llloo!”
Connor grinned at the lusty look his girlfriend was sending him and flexed his stomach and chest muscles. “Hello yourself.”
Dawn, not to be outdone in the nonchalant stakes, shrugged and said coolly, “Well, it’s not how I pictured our first time, but I’m game if you are.” She turned to the increasingly unhinged Riley and tilted her pelvis towards him. “We have a few moments before we kick your ass, right? Could you just give me a hand getting my pants off. . .?”
Riley’s face flooded with fury and he shoved Dawn unceremoniously away from him. Connor took the opportunity to step forward and snap a heavy kick into the back of the older man’s legs, sending him heavily to the floor. He brought his foot back to slam into the side of the man’s skull and then paused as Kit gave a short, terrified scream. Dawn turned her head and saw another soldier holding her friend in one brawny arm and a handgun in the other pressed against Kit’s temple.
Connor moved back as the soldier said quietly, “You have three seconds to step off.”
Dawn shook her head in disgust as Connor backed up against the wall by Carlos and Kit was shoved to the other side of the room to fall into Drusilla’s lap. For a moment Dawn thought the vampire was still unconscious, but one eyelid lifted and dropped in a wink and she bent her legs slightly to pull the shaken human girl protectively into her body. Dawn risked a quick glance at Connor and saw he had also seen the slight movement from his father’s childe. Dawn felt the tension in her chest ease slightly and she met Riley’s eyes with renewed confidence. “Ok, the gang’s all here. Get on with it, what’s the sitch?”
Riley glared at the still defiant girl. “You just don’t know when to quit, do you? Just like her, a bitch right up till the end.”
Dawn fought down the brief surge of panic that her sister was no longer amongst the living, again, and eyed the tall soldier disparagingly. “Bite me Finn. Get on with whatever it is all this is about and let’s finish it.”
Riley grinned coldly. “So eager to die? Another thing you and Buffy share.”
Dawn snorted. “Ya wanna know what else we share? A low tolerance for boredom and stiff soldiers with stakes up their asses, so unless you want to get kicked to the curb by a second Summers hottie, make with the confessions. Git-face.” She glanced at Connor and said proudly, “That’s a Spike-ism.”
Connor flexed his wrists testing the chains binding them and flashed a smile. “I guessed.”
Riley snarled at Dawn and stepped towards her, pushing his face into hers. “You’re going to die and I’m going to be there, laughing my ass off.”
Dawn frowned in disgust, “Well, shit, you stole my line.” She turned her head as the door to the room opened yet again and her mouth fell open in surprise. “Hey, didn’t I kill you already?”
The demon filled the doorway and made his way silently into the room as Riley gloated, “That’s not Chanic, this is his brother, Buonce.”
“Be-yon-say? That’s kinda a pansy ass name, isn’t it?”
Carlos smirked at Dawn’s giggled remark as Riley scowled and the demon paused in his dramatic entrance for a moment.
The young brunette sniggered again. “So what’s your deal? I thought you liked ‘Independent Women’?”
The last remark even raised a smile from Kit, as she pressed back against Dru in terror when the demon passed by her feet. Buonce came to a halt before Dawn and lowered his massive head to look her in the eye . “Your sister and your friends gave you to us before they died, to ensure they died a quick death. You might consider following their example.”
Dawn cocked her head to one side and considered the demon for a moment and then cut her eyes towards Connor. He eyed her back with a slightly confused look on his face, Dawn looked back at the demon, “Excuse me?”
“Your sister and your friends gave us your identity in exchange for a quick and merciful end, unlike the one that will be given to you and your followers.”
Connor stepped forward slightly and coughed. “Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt but are you sure you have the right people? You did snatch the Slayer, right?”
Dawn nodded and said helpfully, “Short, blonde, kinda pouty? Probably arguing with a tall, blond dead guy.”
Connor cocked his head to one side. “There might have been a dark haired dead guy behind them, he’s got crunchy hair and sulks a lot.”
The demon growled as Dawn picked up the conversation again, “Only the people you say you killed don’t sound anything like my family. If they’d went to their painful deaths swearing revenge from the other side, then, yep, they would be mine, but the whole caving like a pack of cards and wimping out deal, not really them. Sorry.”
Carlos piped up from the floor, “There would have been an old British guy, cleaning his glasses and asking for a cup of tea.”
Connor nodded. “We have one of those too, except ours is younger and he bitches at the others a lot. Oh, speaking of bitches, my mother. Half demon, really cranky about stuff like dust and blood on the floor? Ring any bells?”
Kit couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her lips at the _expression on Riley’s face and the sheer look of murderous rage on the demon’s. Dawn beamed happily at the two of them and cocked her hip as she studied the flood of color to Riley’s face. “Aww, what’s up, Ri? ‘Ickle Dawnie not falling for the big steaming pile of BS that you two want me to buy? You think I wouldn’t feel it if they had died? Get real.” She straightened up, “Now, cut the tormenting of the damned routine and cut to the chase. What’s all this about?”
Riley shook his head as though trying to clear it and then all the bitterness and rage he had stored inside him for so long came flooding out. “I want you to hurt. I want you to feel just a fragment of the suffering and agony that I felt because of you and that bitch sister of yours. My wife left me after we came back to Sunnydale, said that wherever we went and whatever we experienced together would never be just us, there would always be Buffy looking over our shoulder.” Tears of self-pity rose in his eyes as he shouted, “I couldn’t blame her for that. I lived in the shadow of that dead bastard for months. I knew what it was never to feel that you were valued for who you really were, always a pale imitation of another man.”
Dawn said nothing, just watched as her sister’s former lover exploded apart at the seams. “I tried so hard to be what she wanted, what you all wanted, but it was never good enough. There was never any room for me when Angel’s ghost was still a part of everything.”
Connor turned to Dawn and raised an enquiring eyebrow. “He knows Dad is just living dead and not actually dead, right?”
“Ummm. . .I think so.”
They both turned back to watch Riley as he paced restlessly back and forth and then Dawn rolled her eyes. “Ok, as fascinating as this little trip to ‘Woe-is-me-ville’ is, can we get to the actual reason we’re all here?” She nodded at Buonce. “Your turn now.”
The demon drew himself up proudly. “You are here to pay for the sin of destroying the raising of the Great and Terrible Ofethe, Destroyer of Light and Worlds, Bringer of Darkness and Fear, Savager of Lesser Beings.”
There was a short silence as Dawn and Connor digested the speech and then Dawn scowled thoughtfully. “Ofethe, did you say?” She eyed the massive demon doubtfully “Are you sure it was us? Only I think I’d remember someone with that many handles.”
Connor nodded beside her and drawled, “And just for the record, I’m the Destroyer, ok?”
Dawn gave him a quick smile. “Of course you are, sweetie.” She poked her head around Buonce’s body and called over to Kit. “Does any of that sound familiar to you?” Kit shook her head; Dawn gave an exaggerated shrug and turned to Carlos, “Anything?” Carlos shook his head. Dawn gave an exasperated sigh and said sorrowfully, “I’m really sorry, but we just don’t have a clue who you’re talking about.” She stepped to the side and leaned casually against Connor’s shoulder as she continued, “You know how it is, you vanquish one Savager of Worlds, you vanquish them all.”
Connor nodded in agreement. “Uh-huh, you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve got back from slaying one vicious Harbinger of Doom only to have to turn right around and go out and do the exact same thing a couple of hours later. It’s hell on the axes, I know that much.”
“SILENCE!”
The two teenagers rocked back as foul breath and demon spittle flooded over them and Buonce joined Riley in competing for the ‘Most Unhinged Being’ in the room awards. “YOU KILLED MY MASTER’S FOLLOWERS AND YOU STOLE HIS SACRIFICES, YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES.” The demon’s eyes glowed a furious purple for a moment and then his voice lowered to a harsh whisper, “You killed the Master’s followers as they ran in splendid and divine array in the woods and then you slew the high priest as he was helpless and unarmed in your hands.”
Connor blinked. “That sounds familiar.” His brow furrowed as he thought furiously for a moment and then he made a triumphant noise in his throat. “First night at camp, right? The big angry thing with the swords and wailing humans.” He nudged Dawn encouragingly in the side. “You remember honey, we blew up the last couple of demons in that boat house thing.”
Dawn rolled her eyes. “Oh, that’s what this is about? Jeez, you guys really need to get a life. Look, here’s how it works, you’re the bad guys, you do evil stuff and try to kill people and then the good guys. . .” She broke off and inclined her head towards Connor and her two friends on the ground, “That’s us, by the way, we come along and try and stop you. You guys always start it and if you lose a few demons along the way you’ve no one to blame but yourselves.” She squared off to the demon currently giving her issues and said flatly, “So where the hell do we come in? And what’s with the snatching of the parentals?”
Buonce snarled, “A foot soldier escaped from the slaughter and reported to me that the Key and its allies had destroyed the raising and annihilated his brethren. He died from his injuries before he could tell all he had seen but before he crossed to the other side he was able to give me one last hint. He spoke the word ‘Slayer’.” One long arm gestured towards Riley. “We stumbled across him by accident, he was whoring in a vampire den, desperate for the feel of each new dead mouth on his flesh. When his connection to the Slayer was established, we took him in and made him anew, feeding his hatred for the Slayer and her allies and thus creating a creature unique in his hatred and knowledge of the Chosen One. We knew if anyone could bring us the Key it would be Riley.”
Dawn gave a long slow nod. “Ok, that makes sense, but now you have me you don’t need anyone else. Where are they?”
Buonce’s lips curled back from his mouth in a terrible parody of a smile. He gestured to the wall Carlos was chained to and, quite suddenly, it was no longer there. Dawn gasped as she stared at the familiar faces of her family, and she barely registered Connor’s dash behind her as he realized he was still naked. She took a hurried step forward, only to be brought up short by Riley’s hand in her hair.
Buonce watched as she was dragged back kicking and cursing and then he heaved a sigh of satisfaction “You are the Key, there is no doubt, but you do not have the power alone to punch through the walls and bring my Master forward.” Dawn gave a low moan as the demon moved forward to lay a hand on Anya’s head. “There is some powerful blood amongst this group. We shall require all of it.”