Here We Come To Save The DayBy Karen
Chapter Nine“So let’s re-cap shall we?”
Kit and Carlos exchanged looks at Dawn’s irritated tone of voice and edged back behind the pool table as the dark haired girl began to pace up and down, stomping on the floor like she bore every square inch a personal grudge
“We’ve lost the others, found Dru, the ENTIRE demon population of Sunnydale is running riot, a squad of demon hunting soldiers are also running around shooting anything that moves, slayed a small percentage of bloodthirsty fiends to get to the ONE demon we know of that might know where our families are, he won’t tell us anything and now we’ve lost our one means of transportation.”
Connor and Clem exchanged looks, uncertain where she was going with her angry speech
“Uh-huh.”
“Yep, that sums it up.”Dawn threw her hands in the air in frustration and gave a muffled scream through clenched teeth
“Aaargh! This night just sucks!” She grabbed her axe and whirled on her heel, the duster swinging out around her body as naturally as it had done on Spike. She pointed the weapon at the battered demon on the floor
“I’m having a shitty night and you haven’t made it any easier. Time to die.”
Connor hopped off his perch on a bar stool and snagged his girlfriend around the waist as she stormed by him, snatching the blood-encrusted axe away with the other
“Oh no you don’t.”
Dawn batted at his arm as he swung her effortlessly round and walked her away from the yelping demon
“Let me go!”
“You can’t kill him!”
“I damn well can! Let me GO!”She twisted the skin on his wrist and slipped out of his grasp as he yelped and his hold loosened, then gave a loud screech as he grabbed for her coat and instead caught a handful of her long hair, yanking her head back
“OW!”
“Calm down!”Connor ducked as she swung blindly at him and let go of her hair to wrap both arms tightly around her as he pulled her tightly against his body.
“You pulled my hair! You BASTARD!”
Kit, Carlos and Clem looked on with wide eyes as Dawn struggled against Connor’s grip and the two continued to yell at each other
“Do you think I should do something?”
Kit smiled at the nervous demon she had grown fond of in the last year or so and patted his arm consolingly
“When Dawn’s like this, it’s best just to leave her alone until she gets it out of her system.”
Carlos watched as Connor snarled in pain as Dawn raked her booted heel over his shin and slammed an elbow into his side. Connor used his heavier body mass and pushed her forward to bend facedown over a table
“Boy’s got cojones.”
“I should really do something.”Kit winced as Dawn flung her head back and caught the bridge of Connor’s nose
“Rather you than me. I sure don’t wanna get in the middle of that.”
They all turned as Dru sidled up and tucked her slim, white hand into the crook of Clem’s arm
“Little brother and my Princess are afraid and hurting, the air shimmers with their fear.”
Clem twitched and took a step forward but Dru held him back
“No, they have more in them than humanity, they must soothe their other selves as well. Leave them to burn up the terror and let me help the poor puppy….”
Clem frowned down at the innocent looking creature
“Pu-pu-puppy?”
Kit and Carlos glanced around the floor and then exchanged confused looks. Kit spoke in a worried tone
“There’s a puppy here? It’s not hurt is it?”
Dru began to sway and turned her head to stare down at the captured demon
“Yes, the poor puppy suffers, but it’s alright. Mummy will make it better.”
She glided over to the demon and lifted its snarling face in her small hands until she stared into its eyes
“Ssh, my dear. Let Mummy kiss it better, look at me. Look in Mummy’s eyes, be in me, be in me.”
The Clem and the two teenagers watched in amazement as the snarling stopped and the demon relaxed into Dru’s hold. The vampiress smiled in triumph and whispered softly
“Show me Daddy.”
Fred.
Fred screamed as she was thrust unceremoniously through a doorway and into a dimly lit room. She blinked uncomfortably as her eyes adjusted to small amount of vision after hours of nothing but inky blackness.
“What’s going on?”
She jumped as the door to the bare room slammed shut behind her and then jumped again as the by now familiar demonic voice spoke directly into her ear
“Pain. My pet hasn’t fed in so long.”
Fred stumbled as she swung round trying to locate the owner of the voice but there was nothing in the room but four walls and the air
“I don’t suppose this pet is fluffy and kitteny is it?”
The door crashed open again and a snarling, feral beast flung itself through the door. Fred yelped and fell over onto her butt
“Didn’t think so.”
The creature stood quivering inside the doorway, sniffing the air, then gave a low growl, fixing hungry eyes on Fred and roared viciously
“Lo..lo.look, y’all don’t want to do this.”
The small, dark haired woman scuttled back on all fours and huddled by the wall as the huge demon advanced on her
“My friends are gonna be really angry if you touch me.”
She gave a scream as the dark, brown creature swiped at her with its talons and managed to roll under its arm to the relative safety of the middle of the room. As she scrambled to her feet she cast a desperate look around the room for anything that could be used as a weapon. There! She twisted as the creature lunged for her again and yelled angrily
“Hey, stinky-end-of-the-world-guy, get your scaly butt in here and fight your own battles.”
She dropped to her knees and shot through the demon’s legs, crying out as it managed to open a deep gash on her thigh with a wild slash of it’s claws. Fred rolled over the floor and snatched the long splinter of wood off the floor, she watched with wide eyes as the demon rushed towards her and made herself wait until the last possible moment to strike, Cordelia’s words on how to fight for your life echoing in her mind
<If you only have one shot and one shot only, go for the maximum amount of pain in the shortest possible time. Be quick, be strong and, above all, want to really KILL the sonofabitch>
The demon reared over her and Fred thrust up between its legs with her makeshift weapon. The initial scream of agony was abruptly cut off as Fred rammed the wood in as far as she could and then kicked out to send the demon crashing to the floor. She rolled to the side, ignoring the stab of pain from her own injury, and backed away in a crablike position from the pain-maddened creature on the floor
“I won.”
She whispered the words in disbelief and then got to her feet and shouted the words again in triumph
“I WON!”
She hammered on the thick, wooden door with her fists and yelled at the top of her voice
“Hey, mister! I broke your pet, y’all might wanna come and get him fixed up. He looks a little peaky.”
She stepped back so as to be behind the door when it opened, clasping her trembling hands into a tight double fist as she shouted defiantly
“Come on, you son-of-a-bitch, come in here and get your animal and see what I’ve got for you.”
She shook her hair back and grinned at the demon on the floor as it tore frantically at it’s own body to remove the alien object
“Who says I can’t fight?
In The Dark
Gunn breathed a sigh of relief as he listened to Fred’s cocky words. He had nearly gone insane when he’d heard her terrified scream come over, what he assumed were loud speakers, and his heart still raced with fear and anger at the overheard battle. He turned his head towards the sound of Angel’s voice as the vampire spoke
“She’s ok, thank the Powers, she’s ok.”
Spike’s voice answered him
“’Course she is, bin trained by the best ain’t she?”
“Thanks Spike.”Spike grinned at the surprised pleasure in Angel’s voice and couldn’t resist it. He put a just the right amount of sneer into his reply
“I meant the cheerleader, you tosser.”
“Oh. I knew that.”Buffy giggled at the annoyance in the older vampire’s tone and felt her muscles untense as she allowed herself to relax since she had first heard Fred scream. When the demon had taken the one person in the group that wouldn’t have any useful skills or powers if let out of their chains, she had really thought it was over. They had listened in tense silence as Fred had screamed for help and then the growls and snarls of her opponent had all but drowned her out. Buffy had shut her eyes and felt tears leak from under the lids as she heard the scream of incredible pain echo through the black room and then her head had snapped up and her eyes had stared unseeingly into the dark as Fred had yelled her victory at her captor.
Thank God
The Slayer laughed again as Willow spoke with only a slight tremble of relief in her voice
“So how long have you guys known she was Supergirl anyway?”
The Bronze.
Connor put all his weight on Dawn to keep her down and yelled angrily in her ear
“Would you quit it already?”
Dawn bucked up, scrabbling for purchase on the smooth wood beneath her and sobbing with rage and frustration as she failed to shift Connor in the slightest
“Get off me!”
“Not until you calm down.”Connor tightened his hold on her as she bucked furiously against him again and yelled in a manner very reminiscent of his father
“What is your PROBLEM?!”
Dawn twisted beneath him again and then yelped as her arm twisted the wrong way in his grip. She felt the tears spring from her eyes, then abruptly all the anger and fight went out of her and she laid her head on the table and just cried. Connor frowned and lifted his head slightly to stare down at her, he waited a few seconds and, convinced the tears were genuine and not a cunning plan to fool him into letting her go thereby inviting a huge ass kicking, pulled her unresisting body up and turned her into his arms.
Dawn held herself rigid for a moment and then as the firm loving arms around her broke down the last of her defences slumped against him and sobbed all her fear and frustration out. Connor stared with panicked eyes over her head and tried desperately to think what his father would do in this situation. He frowned slightly, that was no good, Angel would call Cordelia or Fred and make it their problem, doing a fast disappearing act into the sewers into the bargain. Connor craned his neck to catch the eyes of one of her friends and was rewarded with the sight all of them industriously staring at the ceiling and pretending that they’d been temporarily struck blind to the sobbing young girl. Great.
Ok, don’t panic. You face the scum of the dimensions everyday of your life, one crying woman is nothing. Rub her back, that’s soothing right?
He circled her back slowly with his hand and winced slightly as more forceful sobs shook her body. His hand jerked away as though burned and he scowled
Idiot! Right. Take control of the situation, MAKE her stop!
Connor gripped Dawn’s upper arms, forcing her away from his body and shook her slightly
“Stop it! You’re being st….” He stopped himself in time remembering what happened the last time he had called her stupid and said hastily “ This isn’t helping. Stop it!”
His voice rose in desperation and his chest tightened as he looked at her stricken face, streaked with her blood and tears. He cursed violently and yanked her back against him, cradling her head tenderly
“Please stop, I don’t know what to do. I don’t like to see you hurt, stop it. Please.”
He pulled her against him as tightly as he could and whispered again
“I don’t know what to do.”
Dawn shuddered and burrowed against him as she felt him begin to tremble with emotion
“Hold me. Just hold me and don’t leave.”
Connor sighed with small relief and backed them up until he felt the back of his legs hit a chair. He sat down and then swung Dawn onto his lap, holding her like a child
“That I can do.”
Carlos watched his friend sob in the arms of her boyfriend and reached to clasp Kit’s hand gently in his as her eyes filled with sympathetic tears for Dawn’s pain“She’ll be ok now.”
Kit nodded “I know. Do you think we’ll find them?”
They jumped and gasped as Druscilla came up silently beside them, gave them a sly smile and said with a giggle
“We already have.”
Carlos frowned
“What?”
The vampire stretched up onto her toes and twirled joyfully across the ruined club singing lightly
“I’ve found my daddy and there will be cuddles and smacks before bedtime.”
She giggled and spun in a tight circle, her white dress flaring out around her ankles
“Oh yes, cuddles and smacks and we shall play with the naughty teddies in the woods. Grrr.”
Dawn lifted her head from Connor’s shoulder
“We’ve found them?”