The Seventh Slayer

By Kantayra

Chapter Twenty Seven

Every so often, a moment occurs. An important moment. One in which lives are changed – for the better or worse – and you realize after that moment has passed that nothing will ever be the same again, no matter how much you wish you could go back.

For Spike, it had been shortly after his torture session with Glory when he suddenly started actually caring about the people around him, instead of just their importance to him.

For Willow, it had been the day that she discovered that her powers no longer controlled and defined her, that she herself was strong…and finally able to move on from the tragedies of her past.

For Xander and Anya, it had been a casual realization one day that it hadn’t just been coincidence that they’d become involved in the first place, that there actually was something real there between, something that they couldn’t deny.

For Dawn, the knowledge of what it truly meant to be the Key.

For Buffy, finally looking into her former enemy’s eyes and realizing that, yes, she did love him, and it wasn’t wrong in the slightest.

For Nicolas, accepting that he was a vampire but could still be himself despite it and stop living in the past.

For Fletcher, the grim realization that he’d never be able to truly change the Watcher’s Council from within and that his own path lay elsewhere.

For Xeris, the day he first heard of Velik liberation and remembering what the word ‘free’ meant.

For Monica, reluctantly turning away from her confining family and moving out on her own.

And, for Alex…

Until that moment, he would have said it started with the death of his parents, or maybe with Nina’s. That the grief had changed him, and there was no coming back.

But this moment…this was the real thing. He could tell by the way it sunk down into his bones.

At that moment, the three Slayers rushed him from all sides while simultaneously the Mages were raising some sort of magical weapon and the other Watchers were raising very physical weapons.

But he didn’t really notice any of this. It seemed insignificant to him. Because at that moment, Isabelle’s eyelashes fluttered open, and she looked up at his face with a tired smile.

“Knew you’d come for me,” she whispered weakly.

And suddenly his actions all made sense. The entire time he’d been sneaking about, planning to free Isabelle, he’d been half-convinced he was crazy. After all, he really didn’t stand a chance. And he had been working for this all along. Why on earth would he want to stop that?

But now…now he suddenly realized that he could never have lived with himself if he’d just stood idly by, could never have let them kill this Slayer in his arms.

He looked up just as the first Slayer reached out to catch him…and growled.

Isabelle gasped in astonishment when his features contorted, demonic veins marring his nose and cheeks for an instant as his eyes flashed a deep red. Isabelle was abruptly reminded of her most recent dream, except Alex’ features looked less vampiric now and more…like the carving above them. Half Vengeance Demon, her mind supplied.

The Slayer facing him was startled, of course, but killing demons was second nature to her. However, as she tried to touch him, a blinding flash sent her flying backward across the room. The other two Slayers met with similar fates.

To Alex, it all seemed to be happening in slow motion, a simple magical repulsion spell all needed to throw them off one by one…although, in the back of his mind, he was dimly aware that he should be speaking the words of the spell for it to work.

The Mages at the center of the room were a greater problem, however. The few simple curses he’d picked up over the years could never stand against their power. As the Mages raised up a powerful he magical field, he really wished he had some help in this…

* * *

Buffy finally reached the trapdoor, tossing one of the Watchers’ guards over her shoulder as she did so. Fortunately, not too long ago, all the Watchers’ weapons had suddenly – and inexplicably – stopped working. The SCBI group had been just as surprised as the Watchers had, but they hadn’t hesitated for one second to take advantage of that fact.

Buffy looked down into the opening and swore when she realized it was too far down for her to jump and not be seriously injured in the process. She looked around for a minute, searching for anything to attach the carabiner on her belt to…

And suddenly the world swirled around her. She staggered dizzily for a second and then reopened her eyes to find – what on earth?

The SCBI group blinked in stunned silence when they suddenly found themselves down in the temple, all the Watchers they had just been fighting gone. The Watchers in the temple looked equally confused for a moment.

And then everyone’s attention turned to the central altar when Alex finally collapsed with a loud crash.

A blink.

And then the fight broke out anew, Lily and Melissa uniting their energies to disrupt the Mages’ spell while the rest of the team took out the Watchers – whose weapons were also useless – and the three Slayers.

Buffy grabbed built-like-a-tank, Ajaya pale-and-tall, and Spike short-and-African, keeping the Watchers’ Slayers away from the rest of the fights where they could do the most damage.

Lily and Melissa still were holding their own against the three Mages…but just barely. Under normal circumstances, their wards would’ve given way almost immediately to the three powerful magic-users, but the recent ritual had worn the Mages out. Not to mention that strange ebb of magical energy that still rocked through the room from time to time, throwing them all off their game.

Lily frowned slightly. She knew she recognized that magical signature from somewhere, but it was distorted now, impossible for her to place.

The Watchers themselves were faring quite poorly. Nicolas and Monica alone had been left to deal with them, but it was still a slaughter…in metaphorical terms, of course. They needed to take everyone they could alive in their efforts to cure the Witches…

However, they were greatly outnumbered, if not outpowered. The constant distraction this provided allowed one to slip past them, around the battles with Slayers, heading purposefully for the center of the room, eyes locked on the unconscious pair atop the altar the entire time…

The bitch had lost him any respect he’d ever had with the Council, and nothing he could ever do would make up for the fact that he had handed a Slayer over to the enemy side. Not to mention that filthy demon friend of hers; he had warned Fitzpatrick to kill the traitor the instant they had Isabelle, but Fitzpatrick had insisted that he could have other uses.

West shook his head in disgust. Demons were abominations, no good for anything unless they were dead. They were all fools for not having killed this one instantly, him and all his kind…

The skeletons at the corners of the altar didn’t want to give up their blades easily. The only time their hands ever released the four daggers was during rituals.

West struggled a bit, trying to get one skeleton to let go, and finally just ripped the weapon – and the skeleton’s arm as well – clear off the altar. His eyes narrowed to cold black slits, he turned to face the reposing pair…

And found one of them not so reposing after all.

“Y’know,” Isabelle commented, “I was hoping I’d get another shot at you…”

With a howl of rage, West lunged at the vile, demon-consorting whore, blade slashing right at her gut.

Isabelle was still weak from the drain of the ritual, but instinctively she still managed to twist to the side and out of harm’s way. She grabbed West’s wrist as he fell past, twisting his hand as she did so.

With a gasp of pain, he fell prone on the floor, his own blade buried deep in his chest.

Isabelle let out a little sigh of relief when she saw his body finally go slack and the life fade from his eyes. Then, she turned to check on Alex.

His features were human again now, and she was pretty sure none of the SCBI team had seen his change. In fact, it was right as the group of all their friends appeared that Alex’ face shifted back to normal and he collapsed in a heap, like a marionette whose strings have been cut.

She was a bit concerned as she approached him, but he was still breathing and his pulse was slow but steady. She pushed his shoulder back a bit, rolling him over onto his back so that his unconscious position wasn’t so uncomfortable. He didn’t stir in the slightest, seeming completely drained. Isabelle was still a bit confused as to why he had passed out, but she wouldn’t worry about it now because he seemed fine, almost like he was just…sleeping.

One hand reached out to brush his hair back from his forehead before she even knew she had done it. She felt a blush rise up on her cheeks even though there was no one there to see it. How warped am I, she chided herself, that I find the guy who kidnapped me cute?

Still, despite everything he’d done to her, she couldn’t see him as evil. Needing to be slapped around a lot, yeah; but all in all…

* * *

Across the battlefield, Lily and Melissa were starting to crumble under the opposing forces of the three Mages. However, none of them had anticipated what happened next.

Buffy and the Slayer she was fighting crashed into the magical barrier surrounding the three. The combined impact of the power of two Slayers – and one with vampiric strength on top of it – warped the force field, creating a massive hole where the collision had occurred.

The two Slayers crashed to the ground, each struggling for dominance…and knocking the feet right out from under the three Mages as they flailed and kicked.

Lily and Melissa blinked at their good fortune and then struck with all they had, binding the three Mages in place.

Buffy’s battle had since traveled over twenty feet away, so the two were easily able to place magical restraints upon the Mages – restraints which had been produced by the entire coven, and thus couldn’t be broken out of.

So that just left…

Ajaya. She caught the Slayer she was fighting squarely in the ribs, her fist stinging with the force of the punch.

The other girl staggered back but still managed to counter with a roundhouse kick. It caught Ajaya right in the jaw, and she had to fight with all her strength to remain conscious. Only her sixth senses allowed her to leap back just in time to avoid being bashed over the head by one of the now-useless laser rifles.

Ajaya was on her feet again now. She dodged two more swings and searched frantically for any weapon to defend herself with. Her eyes suddenly alighted upon her opponent’s waistband and the stake there.

She paused intentionally for just a second, giving the other girl just enough time to take really good aim. Just as she struck downward, both hands gripping the rifle like a bat, Ajaya tucked and rolled, escaping the brunt of the hit and acquiring the stake at the same time.

“I om no wampyr,” the other girl said in terribly accented English.

Ajaya plunged the stake right into her heart nonetheless. “Just for reference,” she retorted, “stakes work on humans just as well.”

With a gasp, the other Slayer was no more.

Ajaya looked up just in time to see Buffy snap tank-girl’s neck. Monica and Nicolas had effectively shackled all the Watchers they could get a hold of.

The last Slayer that was still fighting Spike noticed this at the same moment Ajaya had. She did a quick flip backwards to avoid Spike’s last blow, but then – to everyone’s surprise – dropped to her knees, holding her hands up in the air.

“’S it jus’ me,” Spike began, torn about whether to attack again, “or is she surrenderin’?”

Buffy nodded with similar confusion and slowly approached the girl, cuffs out.

The Slayer merely nodded, and Buffy quickly closed the wristbands, freezing the Watchers’ Slayer in place.

“And that takes care of everything,” Buffy breathed out a weary sigh, “except…”

“Are you all right?” Isabelle was softly asking the waking Alex back on the altar.

He frowned and blinked for a few seconds. “Isabelle?” he asked in confusion. “What happened? I had the strangest dream and…”

“You went all veiny and demony,” she informed him.

His brow furrowed further. “But I can’t…” He broke off when he realized that he was now surrounded by his former teammates.

“The Witches weren’t around to remove your immunity to the shackles,” Monica said coldly. “You saw to that.”

“So help me,” Lily hissed, her face a pure mask of rage, “if weren’t not in time to save my moms… You won’t live a day longer, Harris.”

Melissa was merely baffled by why everyone was so furious with her brother. “What’s going on here?” she demanded.

“’Ere, pumpkin,” Spike wrapped one arm around her shoulder and led her away from the spectacle in the center of the room, “there’s a few things that’ve happened lately that you might not wanna find out ‘bout with a big crowd…”

“Alex,” Buffy said solemnly once Melissa was out of hearing distance, “I’m going to have to ask you to give yourself up.”

He looked around for a way to flee for a second, but Isabelle caught his hand. “Just give in for once,” she encouraged him. “It’ll be all right…” She looked up to Buffy. “He saved my life, you know. And he was the one that stopped the Watchers’ guns and brought you here. I saw it.”

A few skeptical looks at that.

“How?” Nicolas demanded of the man he had thought was his friend.

“I don’t know,” Alex shrugged.

“And we’re supposed to believe you now?” Monica retorted.

Alex refused to comment but allowed himself to be shackled – even though the cuffs did nothing more than to restrain his hands – and led back through the tunnels to the jet.

The battle was won.

* * *

Lily sat in the center of the circle, waiting.

The three Mages had done her the convenience of committing suicide the instant they were freed in their cell. Still, no one knew how they’d managed it with their magics bound and no weapons on their persons. But those that have practiced magic that long always picked up a few tricks, and Lily figured that was how they’d managed it.

So now, there was nothing between her and control of the Opprimitae before her.

She’d nervously entered the small room where her two moms and their familiar had first been captured. True to form, another Opprimita broke off from the one in Aida and lunged at her. However, she’d frozen it in place with a simple halt in a long-dead demon dialect.

Way too many hours of research had given her an extensive knowledge of just how every spell would impact the magical creatures.

She had then proceeded to sit in the center of the circle her moms had been using and placed the empty coffee can in front of her.

She had no assistants. It was too dangerous, and they were all too inexperienced.

She began in a low chant, reciting the words of power and form of these ancient creatures.

Slowly, the Opprimita that she had frozen earlier turned to face her, looking like a moving tar-slick as it slithered along towards her.

For one second, they faced each other, and Lily could almost make out the outline of a woman’s face in the ‘head’ of the thing. There was a brief tension while Lily silently prayed to every Goddess she knew that her spell of control had been successful…

And then the Opprimita dove into the coffee can, shrinking down to a little black dot right down at the bottom.

She waited a moment…and then saw the three slip out of Willow, Aida, and the familiar. They also paused to look at her in recognition before diving inside. The four all together didn’t look any bigger than the one.

Lily watched the three frozen figures nervously, still slightly worried that she’d missed something, that they wouldn’t wake up right, that they’d…

The familiar blinked first, frowned slightly in confusion, and then shook his head. He got one look at Lily, the coffee can, and the still-frozen Willow and Aida before muttering something under his breath about why he ever bothered to visit this dimension in the first place and vanishing to go home with a blinding flash.

Willow and Aida began to stir just after he was gone, but Lily was distracted at that moment by the arrival of half a dozen more Opprimitae. She guessed they were the ones from the Witches that had been down in the control room. They had taken longer to get to her because they’d had a slightly longer trip to make.

Willow and Aida watched the oozing black creatures vanish into the coffee can curiously. And then they noticed who was beside it.

“Lily!” two delighted squeals of joy rang out at once, and Lily abruptly found herself in the embrace of her two moms…who really had no right to be this strong at their ages.

“Hey, moms,” Lily said, sniffing slightly in relief.

“Y-You’re all better, honey?” Aida brushed her hair back from her ear.

Lily nodded. “The portion you made worked perfectly,” she agreed. “I’m completely back to my old self.”

“But how…?” Willow began, frowning in confusion and looking around them, feeling that something was off. “We just finished it…” she added uncertainly.

“You’ve been out for over twenty-four hours, mom,” Lily informed her. Several more Opprimitae slunk into the room as she did so. “These things,” she gestured to where they were settling down into the coffee can with their companions, “they’re called Opprimitae. They possessed you – froze you in place. We just finally figured out how to get them out.”

Willow and Aida peered into the can and watched the little, black spec there speculatively.

“Trust me,” Lily insisted, “they’re the most trouble we’ve had with magical entities in years.”

The two old Witches watched another stray slink into the room as well.

“Uh…how many of them are there?” Willow asked curiously.

“Rough count, five thousand,” Lily grimaced.

“And you have to wait here until they all crawl into that coffee can?” Willow inquired.

“Oh no,” Lily shook her head, “they’ll come to me wherever I am. I just want to stay here until all the ones in the mansion find me. I don’t want to confuse them by wandering all over. They could get lost in the plumbing or something.”

“Opprimitae in the plumbing?” Aida tried to gauge whether or not Lily was teasing her.

“There were nasty stories in the books,” Lily insisted. “Trust me: we so don’t want to deal with that.”

Willow and Aida exchanged a suspicious glance. And laughed.

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