FIC:: Darkness Has Been Postponed (14/14)

["C S Armitage" <soren_nyrond@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here endeth the fic

 
TITLE: Daybreak Has Been Postponed (14/14)
AUTHOR: Soren Nyrond
DISCLAIMER: All characters in this part belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy -- etc etc as in part (0/12). Some ideas have been borrowed for elsewhere to illuminate this story: they did once belong to Other Companies (and still do, I imagine), but since they are by way of being generic concepts, Idon't think anything's awry.
SUMMARY: Okay -- Final Battle part 1-- smoochies nil(?); punchies some
ARCHIVING:: Please wait till this is through
SPOILERS: None - none of this ever happened in the ME-world
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Molto gratitude for the constructive feedback. And Save The Snippets !!!
  


 
DAYBREAK HAS BEEN POSTPONED

By Soren Nyrond

Part Thirteen - "Tha . tha . That's All, Folks - "

 

 

"Come on !"

Faith was doing the best she could but Giles was dizzy from the blow to thehead and Xander was assigned to getting C clear. And who knew how B and Red were doing downstairs ?

She kicked the irritating littler guy in the head again (although it reallydidn't seem to be having enough effect and she was seriously considering steel-toe-cap in the gonads full strength, even if it might kill him). The other one finally got out of the corner where she'd put him (no-one was going to hit Giles like that and not get some Serious Pain) and she kept him in her eye, too. Mind you, she noticed that her even-more-abbreviated-than-usual skirt was playing its role in keeping the boys distracted.

Then she heard feet on the stairs.

"Baling time, people - *now*!!"

 

Samantha was in the tatters of her clothing - which basically meant scraps of a blouse, and a skirt that looked like the moths had made of it their Centennial Feast. And Buffy had to admit, one sports-bra and matching briefsapart, she wasn't much better off.

"I don't want to hurt you," she said, softly, looking for any sign of intelligence in the younger girl's eyes.

"I want her to hurt you, though," Travers said.

There was no way past her to him, though, and no way for Willow to reach Elspeth, and already the chanting was starting up again.

 

And then an angry and high-tempered Prom Princess dropped in, followed by her pet Zeppo. The chanting took on a slightly hysteric tone as they proceeded to quarrel, apparently unconscious of the fact that they were in the midst of demonic rituals intended to bring Dark Powers to Earth and subjugatethe whole of humanity.

"I could have been hurt -- !"

"Hey, if you'd dropped when I said -- !"

"He was wearing corduroy -- ! If you think I'm landing on a guy wearing corduroy - !"

 

But before he could adapt his tactics to this new arrival, Quentin Travers,heir-presumptive to a great deal of Dark Power in his own right, found a very unwelcome (though not totally unexpected) face dropping in.

Rupert Giles dropped from the same window, more collectedly, and looked round.

"Well, a nice welcome - have the demons been told about the change in arrangements, Quentin, or were you going to let them arrive before you explainedthat their meals were going to fight back ?"

 

Faith decided enough was enough - she rushed both boys, cracked their headstogether with all the force she could muster, and then vaulted to and through the window, to see what fun she could find down below.

Buffy and - surprisingly -- Samantha were engaged in what looked like a tits-out cat-fight in the middle of the floor, while Red and another girl were squaring off. Xander and C were back-to-back threatening anyone who camenear, and Giles was .

The sight of Quentin Travers took Faith well over the edge - with a bansheescream she made straight for him, pushing aside anyone in the way. She chopped three people down before she'd even noticed that they were leading the chanting, and was only blocked by one more.

 

 

Godfrey Trenchard had been willing to sacrifice people, even a part of his soul, but nothing Travers had ever said had led him to think he would have to face a Slayer in combat. And this wasn't just any Slayer - this was Faith Spencer, who'd gone Rogue - and after her there was Buffy Summers, who had put away three Master-grade vampires and countless lesser minions as well as closing a HellMouth on as many occasions.

"Eep," was all he could think of to say, as he fainted.

 

Rupert Giles would have liked to have been there, too - but faith could cope, and he could see another way to end this. 

"Xander - Cordelia - !!"

The three of them thrust through to Elspeth and Giles wrenched her hads free of their bonds and thrust a book at her.

"Page 294 - it's book marked ! Start at canto 11 !"

Then he went for the ties on her feet while Cordelia and Xander saw that disturbance was minimal.

 

Willow wasn't happy with this - the other girl (a Watcher-student, she guessed) was pretty good on the spell-craft, trying alternately to bind her andblind her -- and her own range of impromptu ripostes was starting to run dry.

Then suddenly she froze as, behind Giles' back she saw a plume of Darkness begin to materialise.

"Look out !"

 

Buffy didn't want to hurt Samantha - after all, if she could turn her back to the Light, that would be another Slayer in the balance against Travers and the Council. But it wasn't easy - Samantha was far from being a good fighter, but she was good enough to stop it from being easy to subdue her.

Idly her mind registered the hentai nature of their semi-clad combat. Thenagain there was a curiously balletic quality to it as well. They had attuned to each other's style, and blow and counter, feint and evasion, spirit and physicality, flowed and swirled as though possessed of independent life. She ought to have been Samantha's better - indeed, she knew that she was- but this had ceased being about main force: she realised that her true purpose was to break the control the Darkness had over her new friend. 

And there was the additional problem that fighting like this, half-dressed,was, no matter what Buffy's better sense told her, highly arousing. It was like the mock-fights she and Willow had, right before they dived on each other's bodies for some serious loving. Skin rubbed against skin, and subtle scents were starting to rise. Images not of combat waved before her eyes and she had to catch herself from falling under their erotic spell.

But there was no way that she was so far gone that she would miss her red-headed lover's voice. Buffy heard the warning, back-flipped out of Samantha's grasp (idly back-elbowing two potential foes as she recovered her feet),and saw the Darkness as it built in strength. There was no question aboutit: that took priority.

 

Xander and Cordelia weren't exactly blissful about it either. But given that Giles seemed to have Elspeth clear, they decided that discretion called for getting the Freddie-Uncle out of the immediate vicinity.  

"Bale . ?" Both said that same thing at the same time, and both decided that acting on the suggestion was an excellent idea.

 

Suddenly Buffy saw an alternative - one which they had never tried - and she ducked a blow and then went body to body with Samantha.

Their half-clad breasts brushed and Buffy saw that the electricity hadn't just jolted through her veins: life flared in Samantha's eyes.

"Life, and the Life of all before the life of One," she said, hoping they were the right words.

Samantha's face flushed and she looked round.

"Where am I ?"

 

Faith glanced round, saw the Darkness, assessed the fact that the others seemed to be free to handle it, and then Slayer-instinct clicked in.

She brushed Quentin Travers' hand aside, and clamped her own hands on his wrists. Then she rolled back, pulling with her hands, and, as she fell, pushing with her feet, to vault him clean over her. He landed hard, confused. 

Struggling up, he felt the loss of inner power and, glancing down, he saw that Elspeth Jennings was free, and incanting and that Samantha Rose was no longer under his power, that the energy lines from them were broken. Which meant that his Dark Masters .

Faith rolled back up, found Travers apparently in a standing coma, and went for neck and thigh.

"Here, bad boy - chew this !!"

She took three steps towards the Dark form, by now the size of a broad pillar, but otherwise featureless, and threw Travers.

 

Giles joined in with Elspeth Jennings on the closing part of the binding ritual they were using. Their words coincided with Quentin's merging with the pillar of Living Dark.  

For an instant he seemed to become one with the Dark - he seemed to grow totwice his size, eyes glowing fire-red, hands becoming bestial claws.

Suddenly there was an immense inward wind and then a flood of light. Around the hall, students and Circle members slumped as the arcane power of the Lucovores was ripped from them, and Travers seemed torn in half, as the darkness he now embodied fled back to wherever it had come from.

Samantha fell into Buffy's arms, and the others - Willow, Faith, Cordy and Xander - found no opposition as they surveyed the scene.

 

 

"Willow," Buffy said. "How strong do you feel - strong enough to . "

"To get us home - I think so."

"Giles - we're leaving. This place - these people - can tidy up for themselves."

"But . "

Suddenly Giles felt his enthusiasm wane. Even without Quentin there were quite enough people here who wouldn't exactly welcome back a man whom the Council had cast off. And if the flight of the darkness also meant that the Bowland area was no longer cut off from England then doubtless the Army andpolice would be moving in, with questions. And five adolescent Americans weren't going to be easy to explain: Giles was well aware of just how unimaginative his own country's authorities could be, when they were looking into unexplained phenomena.

Faith flipped off the stage and got to Cordelia.

"Come on, C - home and some loving will set you right."

Xander was in despair, until he saw that Samantha was looking more conscious than some of the others. He offered her a hand up and then let her drapeher hardly-clad body round his own. Perhaps he could take a souvenir home.

Giles put his arm round Elspeth - "What will you do now ?"

"No idea," the woman said: "They were going to sacrifice me, you know. Andthere will be a lot of questions."

"All aboard that's going !" Buffy ordered. Willow was tracing the last bitof the circle, and the blue glow as already forming. "Sunnydale, one way,express service. We're out of here !!"

 

 

 

EPILOGUE:

"This is the BBC News Headlines at -.  

"Government spokesmen confirmed today that the mysterious events reported from Bowland, in the Midlands appear to have come to an end shortly after midnight last night.

"Now over to Martin Hollinshead, outside the Home Office in Queen Anne's Gate - Martin - "

"Thank you, Colette. The Emergency Reaction Committee have announced that the Army teams from the Catterick and Lancaster barracks have re-established contact through the affected area, and early indications are that there has been no loss of life. Vague reports speak of impenetrable walls of darkness but the exact cause of this three-day phenomenon is unknown. The Minister of State is due to visit the area later today and we hope to know morethen.

"This is Martin Hollinshead, at the Home Office, returning you to the studio."