The Seventh Slayer

By Kantayra

Chapter Seventeen

Later, when Ajaya tried to recall exactly what had happened as they tried to storm the Watcher’s Council headquarters, she found that everything was a blur. She dimly remembered flying shrapnel – some of which had apparently caught her in the leg, screams – those must have come from the Velik Demon that had been impaled through the shoulder, and lots of blood.

She and Buffy both made it inside relatively unscathed, though, along with a good portion of Gamma Team. The D’vorak in command – Jeren, Ajaya quickly figured out – regrouped those of his squad that had made it through while Buffy bound Ajaya’s leg.

The Slayer turned vampire was quite concerned for Ajaya’s well being, but she shrugged it off, saying that the wound was healing as they spoke. Ajaya wondered in the back of her mind when exactly she’d developed this strong, confident battle persona.

“We’re heading for the control room,” Jeren informed them, his antennae twitching in nervous anticipation. “Hopefully, Theta Team will meet us there, and we’ll be able to attack from both sides. If not…”

The statement didn’t need to be finished. They were all very well aware of the fact that they were trapped on the inside of a magical barrier, all their allies unable to assist them.

The building shook around them as they made their way through the maze of book-lined hallways, but they met no resistance.

“Think they’ve pulled back?” Jeren asked Buffy.

“Either that, or we’re walking into some sort of trap,” she agreed with his caution. “But I’m betting on the former. They didn’t have the advanced warning to plan anything too complicated.”

Ajaya’s immediate thoughts went to the traitor, and she nearly spilled what she knew before biting her tongue. She was debating the pros and cons of revealing her knowledge when they turned a corner and encountered a hallway full of Watcher mercenaries, verifying that it had indeed been a retreat and not a trap.

Buffy, Ajaya, and the whole of Gamma Team dove off to the sides to avoid the in-coming laser fire.

“What do we do now?” Ajaya yelled to be heard over the shriek of weapon’s fire and the resulting explosions. There was no way they were going to be able to break through the line the Watchers had set up.

“Cover your ears!” Jeren shouted at her from across the hallway.

“What?” Ajaya was confused.

Buffy saw what was happening, though. “Cover you ears,” she repeated, grabbing Ajaya’s hands and covering them for her.

Ajaya didn’t question her, grabbing her ears so tightly she couldn’t hear a thing. She saw that all Gamma Team was as well. In fact, the only two people that hadn’t done so were Buffy and an eerily beautiful, pale woman from Gamma Team that really hadn’t been doing much until now.

As Ajaya watched, the strange woman opened her mouth and looked as if she were…singing? She looked at Buffy curiously and saw her friend sniffling slightly at what was obviously beautiful music.

For a second she was tempted to uncover her ears and hear for herself, but Buffy caught this and fastened her hands over Ajaya’s, forcing her ears shut.

The unusual incident only lasted a few seconds, before the woman shut her mouth and gestured that all was clear.

Ajaya uncovered her ears to discover that the sound of fire from the other side had completely stopped. She stepped out into the hallway after Buffy cautiously to find all their opposition asleep.

“Bind them,” Jeren ordered, removing a pair of magical shackles from his belt and putting them around the wrists of the nearest mercenary. “Good job, Siobhan.”

The pale singer merely flashed him a small smile and a slight blush before locking up the mercenary she was attending to.

“Half-Banshee,” Buffy explained to Ajaya’s curious look as they also locked up their newest prisoners of war. “Her voice only incapacitates, not kills.”

“Oh,” Ajaya said softly, “and you…?”

“I’m already dead,” Buffy responded with a small smile. “She doesn’t effect me.”

All the unconscious Watchers were quickly and efficiently bound in the shackles that would keep them motionless until the counterspell was uttered.

The team continued down the hallway, Buffy taking the point and Ajaya right behind her.

“We should be nearing the control room now,” Jeren informed them as he melted the metal elevator door in front of them. “Just one floor down.”

“We’re first,” Buffy informed Ajaya, attaching the rope to the carabiner on her belt and making sure Ajaya did the same. “You ready?”

Ajaya nodded nervously, and then they dove into the black metal conduit below…

* * *

“I suppose it was only a matter of time…” The irritated mage rolled his eyes and gestured for his two compatriots to reform the circle.

Spike scowled at him but couldn’t help a wicked grin from slipping upon his lips when the portal opened before him.

“Run for the building, Lioness,” Spike ordered Isabelle. “’ll jus’ be a minute…”

She really didn’t feel like arguing since things were still exploding all around them…although the fire coming in her direction did seem to be lessening. She ran straight for the door.

She turned back in time to see Spike help an injured Velik Demon back out through the portal and out of the war zone. However, he was at her side again within seconds. It really was amazing how fast vampires could move when they set their minds to it…

“Buffy went this way,” he sniffed the air lightly, gesturing to the door. “They’ll’ve pro’bly cleared the way for us already. You up for a bit ‘f a run, pet?”

“Lead the way,” Isabelle agreed with a devil-may-care grin.

They came upon captives and many blast sites, but it looked like their allies at least had made it through the gauntlet unscathed.

However, when they reached a critical juncture in the hallway, they found that the ceiling had completely caved in.

“Oh, bloody hell!” Spike swore, shoving at a support beam and finding it unmovable.

“What do we do?” Isabelle asked, wide-eyed. “Y-You don’t think they were…under there, do you?” Her voice cracked slightly with worry.

“No one’s under there,” Spike assured her. “No blood. We’ll jus’ have to go around…”

He took off down the hallway in the opposite direction, Isabelle right on his heels. They raced around the corner…to find four Watchers with guns caught completely by surprise.

With a roar, Spike charged right into them, just as they reached their triggers to fire…

* * *

Buffy and Ajaya hugged the elevator wall ten feet to the side of the opening and all the laser fire that was currently shooting into said opening.

Jeren and a human Ajaya didn’t know clung to the ropes further up, swearing at the rather unpleasant predicament they were in. In this compromised position, there was no way for them to take advantage of Siobhan’s powers, and so they were stuck on a level playing field again…or an unlevel one, considering that their only entrance was being constantly riddled with bullets and explosions.

“Go down?” Jeren suggested to Buffy.

She considered it for a second. “Sounds like a plan,” she finally agreed.

Jeren signaled for the rest of his team to remain where they were before he, Buffy, Ajaya, and the human began climbing down, making a wide berth around the opening to the elevator shaft by the control room.

Buffy successfully managed to hook the ropes around a beam on the wall, allowing their natural decent path to remain free from danger.

They jogged back over to the side when they reached the elevator door below the control room, and Buffy took a deep, unnecessary breath.

Jeren moved over and once again melted the door with the acidic secretion from his antennae. Buffy pulled him off to the side and to safety almost instantly, and the four of them waited nervously for a second. Two.

Cautiously, Buffy leaned over to look through the door.

“Clear,” she informed them in a cautious whisper, not wanting to alert any Watchers that may have been around the corner.

They quickly detached from the ropes and took control of the new hallway. Apparently, it really was abandoned since the Watchers were expecting an attack from above, not below.

“So now all we have to do,” the human commented, reloading the power strip in his laser rifle, “is somehow get upstairs without using the elevator…no problem.”

“Do you know any back routes?” Buffy asked Jeren.

He shook his head. “The map Fletcher drew,” he unfurled the paper in question on the table they’d requisitioned, “shows that that elevator shaft is the only way to and from the control floor.”

“What about air ducts?” Ajaya asked.

He antennae, regretfully, deepened their greenish color. “Unfortunately, we don’t have maps of the vents,” he said apologetically. “We’ll have no way of knowing where we’re going.”

“So we’re better off now, how?” the human asked sarcastically.

“Well, for one, we’re not being shot at,” Buffy retorted. “And I think we’re forgetting something very important here, people.”

“What’s that?” Jeren turned to look at her curiously.

“When in doubt, blow something up.”

* * *

Spike had tackled the first two Watchers before they could get off their first shots. Their rifles each went flying from their hands at the force of the vampire’s impact in a way that told Isabelle that he had spent way too much time practicing that move.

The other two took aim at the vampire, obviously not having even noticed her presence.

She quickly informed them of the error of their thinking in a physical way. Two quick shots from her laser rifles, and the rifles flew from the Watchers’ hands.

“You’re—!” one of them exclaimed in disbelief and recognition at the sight of her, but she punched him out before he could finish. The other Watcher she knocked unconscious in a similar way.

She proceeded to bind them with those handy-dandy magical handcuffs they’d all been given plenty of as she watched Spike enjoy struggling with his two assailees way too much.

He was obviously half-throwing the fight just for the fun of dragging it out longer. Otherwise that one Watcher would never have gotten him in the headlock from behind, and the one he was ‘play tussling’ with would have long ago have been rendered unconscious.

“Ahem,” Isabelle coughed loudly, reminding him that they were in a hurry.

He gave her a sheepish look and disposed of his two ‘playmates’ in a heartbeat…if he’d had one, that is.

She waited impatiently while he secured the two unconscious men, hoping for the umpteenth time that this vampire wasn’t the traitor because, damn, what a fine waste of a perfect lickable male body that would be!

Spike seemed to sense her rather ill-timed ogling and gave her a seductive little smirk. “Enjoyin’ the view, Lioness?” he teased.

“Immensely,” she informed him.

He laughed. “Love a Slayer with no shame,” he informed her. “We could use more like you.”

“Our unconscious friends here would disagree,” she pointed out.

He was about to respond when suddenly he froze, his head shooting up into the air.

“What?” Isabelle asked, alarmed, but he raised one hand to quiet her. She watching him silently for a second as he looked around, his brow furrowed.

“What is it?” she finally demanded when he had gone for far too long without explaining himself.

“D’you hear anythin’?” he asked her curiously.

“Yeah,” she said sarcastically. “Lots of explosions.”

He shook his head. “Somethin’ quieter, somethin’ nearer…”

She rolled her eyes and was about to tell him to hurry his lazy – but very cute – ass up when she heard in as well. A slight clanking sound that seemed to be coming through the wall beside them.

“What is that?” she frowned, approaching the wall.

He shook his head and then looked down at the guards. “What were they doin’ here?” he pondered. “We’re nowhere near anythin’ strategic…”

“That we know of,” Isabelle pointed out.

Spike nodded in agreement. “There’s somethin’ here. Somethin’ they were tryin’ to protect…”

* * *

Alex sighed and activated his communicator once more. “Buffy, are you there? Buffy, respond right now! I’m getting sick of this, dammit!” He slammed his fist into the dashboard of the plane in frustration.

“All quiet on the Love Birds’ front?” Nicolas commented, watching his friend release an impressive string of invectives, some in languages even he didn’t know. He figured they were probably demon dialects that Alex’ mother had taught him.

“Why don’t they ever follow orders?” Alex complained. “They always do something like this. Always! And I even split them up and everything, but no…they still manage to run off into the thick of things!”

“And dragged the Slayers along with them,” Nicolas added.

Alex rolled his eyes. “They’re Slayers. They’re meant to die in stupid ways,” he said a bit bitterly.

Nicolas frowned slightly. “You don’t mean that,” he insisted. “What about Buffy?”

Alex sighed. “All right, I suppose I don’t,” he agreed, rubbing his eyes. “But why did I have to get stuck with the uncontrollable vampires?”

“Tough luck,” Nicolas shrugged. “At least they’re not in the squad.”

Alex nodded and turned back to his communicator. “Rho Team?” he demanded. “Do you have anyone held back in reserve? It seems several of my people have been, er…incapacitated.”

Gibberish indistinguishable to anyone less fluent in Standard Demonic than the two men present came from the communicator.

“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver,” Alex responded. “Take up positions eight and twelve now. And hurry. The Watchers’ defenses look like they’re about to crack any minute…”

* * *

“Ready,” Tyler – formerly ‘the human’ – said, putting the last of the charges in places.

“Get back, everyone,” Jeren ordered, ushering them all out the door. He backed out of the room as well, hitting the detonator before diving under a sturdy metal table beside Tyler and Ajaya.

The explosives that littered the ceiling of the room all blew up in perfect unison, causing the floor of the room above to cave in.

Debris and wounded people fell in through the gaping hole in the control room floor in a frantic, confused cacophony.

“Now!” Jeren ordered.

The four of them rushed up through the hole, just as the rest of Gamma Squad – listening in on Jeren’s communicator – rushed through the elevator entrance.

The fight was over before it had begun, and the Watchers all held up their hands in surrender, allowing themselves to be shackled.

“Tyler,” Jeren ordered, “get back out. Tell them we’ve taken the control room, and there are injured in here. We need to get down that shield so we can communicate with—”

At that moment, his communicator chirped with the first voice from outside the forcefield bubble they’d heard since they entered.

“Jeren, you there?” Fletcher’s voice demanded.

“Here,” Jeren agreed, waving Tyler off of his mission. “We’ve just taken the control room. They are injured Watchers here.”

“We’ll send medics right in,” Fletcher agreed. “Our witches just got the shield down.”

“Have we won then?” Jeren demanded.

“Looks like it,” Fletcher agreed. “But don’t let your guard down just yet…”

* * *

Spike banged on the wall that seemed to be emitting the strange noises. A hollow echo rang back at him.

“There’s a secret room in there,” Isabelle realized.

“We have to get in,” Spike agreed, banging around, trying to find the opening.

Isabelle helped him search, and soon the faux candlestick she grabbed twisted to the side. They both watched as the wall slowly rotated inward on a hinge that was all but invisible when the door was closed.

“Get ready,” Spike said, aiming his laser rifle. “We have no way of knowin’ what’s in there…”

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