The Seventh SlayerBy Kantayra
Chapter Sixteen“ALL PERSONNEL. REPORT TO THE WAR ROOM IMMEDIATELY.”
“Who? What? Huh?” Isabelle thrashed about, fighting off the vicious soft cotton foe that had attacked her in her sleep.
“Emergency,” Ajaya responded, quickly tying her long, ebony hair back with a scrunchy. “We have to get to the war room.”
Isabelle defeated her mortal foe with a triumphant kick that sent her falling off the bed sideways. “Huh?” she blinked blearily, giving her sheets one good last shake just to make sure.
“You’re not a morning person, are you?” Ajaya joked wryly. “Get dressed. We have to go.”
“Ugh,” Isabelle groaned, grabbing the baggy sweatshirt from the chair beside her bed and pulling in on over her pajamas. “Too. Early. For. Sarcasm. Where’s. Coffee?”
“No time for coffee,” Ajaya practically bounced up and down in the center of the room, eager to go. “C’mon, get dressed!”
“Am dressed,” Isabelle insisted, slipping on a pair of sandals as she got out of bed. “Let’s get this over with already…”
Ajaya cocked an eyebrow in her direction. “That’s dressed?!” she exclaimed in disbelief, taking in the worn pajama bottoms, lumpy sweatshirt, flip-flop sandals, and tousled bed hair.
“It’s as dressed as I get at six in the morning,” Isabelle countered, shoving Ajaya out the door. “And we are stopping for coffee…”
Thankfully, coffee turned out to be not much of an issue since there were about a dozen pots of it lined up against the wall of the war room. There were also several dozen surly vamps surrounding said coffee, but Isabelle shoved her way right through them with ease. Fortunately, none of them was foolish enough the stand between the Slayer and life-replenishing caffeine for long. Otherwise things could have gotten very dusty very fast.
Fletcher was looking more nervous than usual at the front of the room, quite possibly because of the fact that Buffy had to physically restrain Spike from killing him. She didn’t bother to defend Fletcher from the verbal assault of brutal deaths he would endure once Spike finally got to him, though.
Ajaya couldn’t help but smile sympathetically when Fletcher winced at certain references to the fate of his nether regions.
“Coffee. Good.” Isabelle moaned, downing her first cup in one gulp. She’d at least had the foresight to bring seconds, thirds, and fourths as well. “Hold these,” she handed two of the precariously balanced cups to Ajaya, “and they’re mine so don’t drink.”
Ajaya realized the true peril of her situation and held the tempting beverages out for Isabelle placatingly.
“Is that everyone?” Fletcher was trying to call the meeting to order.
“Except everyone who had the common sense to sleep through the alarm,” Alex grumbled under his breath.
“Right then,” Fletcher ignored his overly irritable companions. “This is important, people,” he silenced the few groups that were awake enough to talk amongst themselves.
“Better be,” Buffy scowled at him and then dodged to the left just in time to block Spike’s latest assault on Fletcher.
“Oh, knock it off already,” Fletcher said to Spike with a weary sigh. “You’re obviously perfectly awake if you’re trying to kill me.”
“Wasn’t my sleep you interrupted,” Spike growl before giving Buffy a lascivious leer.
She rolled her eyes and put her hand over his mouth to shut him up.
Fletcher shuddered slightly at the unwarranted information he’d just received and turned to the group. “We attack at noon,” was all he said.
Silence.
Absolute and complete silence.
And then: “Who’s going?” That was Monica.
“What about treaty violations?” Dawn.
“Do we have permission?” Willow.
“Are we sure this isn’t a trap?” Alex.
“Who stays to watch headquarters?” Xeris.
“Why do we have to wait ‘til noon?” Spike.
“Noon our time or their time?” Ajaya demanded clarification.
“Our time,” Fletcher informed her with a slight bemused smile on his face. “I suggest everyone prepare. Everyone on active duty goes. Meet your team leaders in an hour…at their rooms?” Several nods. “Meeting adjourned.”
And this there was a flurry of excitement and everyone scattered.
“Wait a minute…” Isabelle said, downing the last cup of coffee and finally fully waking up. “We’re attacking…?”
“The Watcher’s Council,” Ajaya tugged her back to their room. “We have to get ready.”
* * *
“Good. You’re on time.” Alex held the door open and ushered them inside.
Xeris and Nicolas were already waiting, although Nicolas didn’t seem much more awake than Isabelle was.
“So now we’re just waiting for Monica and—” Alex was cut off by the sound of low moans from the room above. He swore under his breath.
“Sounds like we’ll be waiting all month,” Nicolas joked lightly, sparing Isabelle a tired smile when she sat wearily in the seat beside him.
“Those two never give it a rest, huh?” Isabelle chuckled at a particularly loud scream.
“At least you don’t have to live beneath them…” Alex grumbled.
“Oh, like you and Nina were any better—” Nicolas began before breaking off suddenly when he realized what he was saying.
Alex didn’t even flinch. Ajaya watched curiously as he noticeably held the reaction back. Still, he didn’t flinch.
The awkwardness of Nicolas’ faux pas was broken by a knock at the door. Alex opened it to let Monica come in.
“Sorry I took so long. I was—” She paused and heard the sounds coming from upstairs. “…Apparently not the last one to arrive…”
“I would call them up and yell at them,” Alex shook his head, “but I doubt it would do any good, so they’ll just have to miss the debriefing.”
“Well, not entirely,” Isabelle joked to Nicolas, trying to cheer him back up.
He put his hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter at Alex’s irate look.
The evil glare turned to Isabelle, and she flashed him a brilliant smile. More swearing under his breath.
Then, he managed to compose himself and began. “Lily will not be joining us. She’s still under intense medical supervision.”
Monica frowned. “Still?” she said in disbelief. “It’s been over a week…”
“I’m not at liberty to release the details,” Alex informed her. “However, this means that we’re nearly unarmed magically. As a result, we’re not on the front lines of this one.”
“Oh?” Monica raised a curious eyebrow in his direction. “Buffy won’t like that…”
“That’s Buffy’s problem,” Alex retorted. “We’re holding the outside perimeter along the north side.” He lit up the image of the map of the Watcher’s Council headquarters on the computer screen before him. “We have to hold the checkpoints here, here, and here.” He pointed to the screen. “Anyone tries to get through, we subdue them and hold ‘em prisoner. We should have the muscle power to handle this easily what with the two new Slayers and their…”
“Spike!”
“…supervisors,” Alex flinched and spoke right through the cry from upstairs.
Monica frowned and looked at the attack plan. “How long have we been working on this?” she demanded, noting the intricacies of the map.
“It’s been a contingency for three years now,” Alex confessed. “Never thought it’d come to this, though…”
“The Watchers have given us no other choice,” Xeris said calmly.
“Still,” Ajaya sighed, “war sucks.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Are we taking the jet?” Monica finally broke the awkward stillness broken only by the sounds of Buffy and Spike above.
“We aren’t,” Alex shook his head. “We’ve got one of the fighters. We’ll head out just as soon as we’re all here…”
Twin screams of ecstasy from above. And then silence.
“Think they’re done?” Isabelle asked curiously.
“I should hope so,” Alex said, frowning at his watch. “We’re going to be late if they’re not.”
They waited for a bit, but the upstairs remained silent.
“They’re coming,” Nicolas commented, hearing the noise of feet on the stairs long before any of the humans.
Sure enough, there was a knock on the door only a minute later.
“Sorry we’re late,” Buffy breezed into the room, her cheeks more flushed than any vampire’s should be. Spike merely leaned back against the doorway lazily and watched the group disinterestedly. “Did we miss everything?” she asked apologetically.
“Yup,” Alex agreed with a small smile. “We’re on our way out now. I’ll let you know in the air…”
* * *
“Not another one!” Isabelle complained as yet another stone wall loomed before them.
“Yes, another one,” Spike said with a small smile, leaping to the top with feline grace, “an’ prob’ly another twenty or so after it…”
“Thanks for the pep talk, coach,” Isabelle gave him a mock scowl and joined him at the top of the wall.
Together they leapt back down onto the grassy field on the other side of the wall.
“So we just get to hang out in the English countryside while everyone else has all the fun?” Isabelle finally demanded, panting heavily from trying to keep up with his grueling pace.
“Lovely job, innit?” he said with a slight scowl. “Buffy’s been after these wankers for years, and now she has to sit on the sidelines while all the real action’s goin’ down…? Not bloody likely.”
“What do you mean?” Isabelle asked, frowning.
“What I mean is there’s no way she’s jus’ gonna sit this one out,” he informed her.
“But Alex said—”
“Yeah, an’ Buffy’s so good at takin’ orders.” Spike rolled his eyes.
“So she’s going to—?”
“Yeah.”
“And you’re cool with this?” Isabelle asked in disbelief.
“’Course I am,” Spike said, giving her a conspiratorial smile, “’cause we’re gonna go help her…”
* * *
“Get down!” Buffy pushed Ajaya’s head back into the ground when an explosion sounded right beside them.
“This was a bad idea,” Ajaya insisted for about the hundredth time.
“I know,” Buffy agreed, a resolved expression on her face, “but, hell, like that’s going to stop me…”
They dove behind another barricade as gunfire riddled their previous position.
“We’re not going to make it,” Ajaya informed Buffy.
“I’d like to see them try and stop me,” Buffy retorted.
Another explosion beside them.
“Well, there you see it,” Ajaya pointed to the melting shrapnel.
“Not even close,” Buffy shook her head. “Look, there’s Gamma Team. We can hook up with them.”
They dashed and darted through the rubble-strewn field, coming up behind the small unit located less than a hundred feet from the front doors.
The D’vorak Demon in charge looked at Buffy and Ajaya’s approach with disbelief and disapproval, but shook it off.
“How close are we to getting inside?” Buffy demanded, diving to the ground beside him, Ajaya close on her heels.
“The mages are working on it,” he informed her, gesturing to the three individuals of various species Ajaya was not familiar with holding hands and chanting.
Buffy nodded and watched the magical battle occurring before them. Streaks of green and red energy exploded in golden sparks as each side threw everything they had magically at the other.
The cadence of the chanting behind them increased in intensity, and slowly a fiery blue portal opened before them, breaking a hole through all of the Watchers’ mystical barriers.
“Let’s move!” the D’vorak in command shouted.
“Once more unto the breach,” Buffy muttered under her breath before she caught hold of Ajaya’s hand and the two of them ran through with no way of turning back…
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