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(This is original creative material copyright Chris Kenworthy, based on characters that he has no right to owned by someone else blah blah biddy blah...) |
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Xander tried to approach the intruder more carefully, but he was already moving with too much momentum to stop quickly. 'Willow' stepped back and extended a shapely leg forward to trip him, but Xander managed to step around it.
"Hey, what's..." Willow strode in from the front door, and froze in shock as she caught sight of her double. "Eeek!"
Xander charged towards the fake Willow again, putting his right hand solidly on her right shoulder and pushing firmly back, trying to push her into the coffee table, as she had done to Oz. As Xander touched and looked at her, the disguise faded away and he saw Michelle as she was. The vampire girl seemed to bend backwards under Xander's push for a few seconds, but then she moved her feet back, braced herself against Xander's effort, and let her right arm fly towards Xander's throat, her sharp fingernails leading. Xander dodged back, remembering how Kendra had been killed in one strike that same way.
Suddenly a clatter of sounds indicated more participants in the struggle. Xander looked over towards the front hall, and saw the two demons he remembered from the Autumnal Equinox, engaging Willow, Cordelia, and the witches in combat.
Meanwhile, something moved from the corner of his eye towards Xander. It was Michelle, holding the iron stake in a attack posture. Xander couldn't think of any other defense, and he froze in horror as the Slayer-Vamp bore down on him. But Michelle turned aside and spun away from him at the last moment. Buffy let go of her hold on Michelle's sleeve, smiled, and let fly with a roundhouse punch, all of her weight behind it, that almost staggered the vampire girl.
Gennor flew a beam of heat from his focus gem towards Cordelia, but she ducked under it, and someone's coat went up in enthusiastic flames. Cordelia shot out a kick at Gennor's power gem, and gaped in surprise as Gennor's body winked out of existence for a second.
Meanwhile, Rancid was charging Cordy. One of the younger witches, a pretty tawny-haired girl, tossed the flaming jacket to Cordelia, in such a way that she could catch it by a safe portion.
"Huh?" But Rancid was almost upon her, and suddenly Cordy understood - she threw the flaming jacket firmly over his head.
Gennor was taking aim again. Vanessa pointed at him and muttered a word, and his body winked out of existence again. The gem dropped to the floor, and Cordelia dashed over and stepped firmly on it. There was a soft 'crack,' and Gennor did not reappear.
Cordelia turned back to Rancid, but Darrell was ahead of her. He pointed at the demon and called out a short phrase of gibberish. Rancid's body burst into enthusiastic flames, slowly shrivelling away.
"Do not move!" Michelle called out. Xander turned towards her, realizing that he had gotten distracted by Cordelia's fight. Michelle was behind Buffy's back, holding Buffy's right arm up behind her in an armlock and pointing something, probably the iron stake, poised behind Buffy's heart. Xander realized with a sinking feeling that it was the exact same hostage position that Buffy had put Michelle into, when she had first braved Kaliya's hideout to determine Rupert Giles' fate.
"One wrong move and she gets it! You understand?"
Xander backed away, giving Michelle space, but also very definitely blocking off any possible path from Michelle to the living room windows. Willow caught the hint, and edged through the living room to cut off the dining room as a possible retreat.
"Don't do anything stupid, Michelle," Xander said, trying to be soothing. "Put the stake down, and you can just walk away. I promise you that, do you understand?" Xander wondered how many of the others could see through Michelle's 'Willow disguise' by this point, but he couldn't worry about that right now. "You want to get out of here alive, don't you? We're not trying to back you into a corner, but your goose is cooked if you do anything to Buffy; you've gotta realize that."
Michelle moved herself and Buffy towards the front hall. "Move aside," she ordered roughly.
"No," Cordelia said quietly. Willow gasped.
"Move aside, or she dies right now!" Michelle called out, fury coming into her voice.
"No!" Cordelia said, more confidently now. "You get out of this house alive with Buffy, and she's as good as dead. You know that, we know that. Let her go, and we'll be glad to let you pass. Kill her now, and you're sealing your own fate. I'm willing to bet that you're not that stupid."
"I am that loyal, oh daughter of serpents," Michelle spat. "It matters not what happens to me. Only that Summers dies."
"Really?" Buffy herself gasped. "Then why haven't you done the deed already?"
"I am obliged," Michelle responded, twisting into the armlock so that Buffy groaned in pain, "to try to survive this matter as well as succeeding in it."
"EINHH!" Buffy brayed, in a passable imitation of a game-show buzzer. "I don't buy that one. You're not the type to give your life for a simple mission."
"It is not a mission," Michelle responded. "I must do this, to secure the safety of my mistress. She can not see what must be done, but I can."
"Ah, I see," Buffy gasped. "Trade your own puny little life for that of the Slayer. Like the chess that your mistress plays - trading a rook for a queen is a net benefit."
"Oui."
"But there's one big problem with that plan," Buffy argued. "You see, I'm not the Slayer right now." Michelle nodded. "Of course, you know that already. Did you time this move because of it? Yeah. The old 'kick the Slayer when she's down' line of thinking." Buffy chuckled.
"But it's not the same thing this time. You see, there's a new slayer this time. If I die, Cordelia stays the Slayer. She's not as good as me at my peak strength," Buffy smirked over at Cordy with good-natured superiority, "but she seems to be doing well enough. She took those Tarakans out, and that isn't easy, now is it? If you go through with this, you're giving up your life, to trade Cordelia for me." Cordelia's face fell for a fraction of a second, then reverted to a brave composure.
Buffy took stock. She didn't think Michelle had been looking in the right place to notice Cordelia's moment of panic. That was good, because it certainly seemed as if there was some serious problem with Cordelia and the Slayer-ness. A problem big enough to make this whole line of persuasion a foolish bluff. Well, Buffy could bluff with the best of them. "Doesn't seem like that good of a trade now, does it? Wouldn't you be better off to walk away, and protect Kaliya with your own life on another day?"
Michelle froze, her hand trembling on the stake, besieged by indecision. Buffy racked her brain for some other approach to use on Michelle, but couldn't think of anything. It seemed as if all the others were similary blanked out.
"Excuse me?" a faint voice called out from the porch.
"Giles?" Cordelia said in disbelief. Looking back and forth from ghost-Giles to the porch, she quickly amended "I mean, vamp-Giles... or something..."
"Vamp-Giles?" Vamp-Giles called out. "Good enough, I suppose. Am I right in suspecting that you're in the middle of a difficult situation with Michelle?"
"YES!" everyone within the house but Michelle called out at once.
"May I come in? I have come to ensure that she doesn't make a treacherous mistake?"
"You want to save Buffy?" Cordelia asked incredulously. "From her?"
"Yes."
"Come in," Buffy groaned.
Vamp-Giles walked into the front hall. "You know that Kaliya doesn't want it this way, Michelle," he announced confidently. "Put down the stake."
"It's gone too far, Monsieur Giles," Michelle whined back. "Rancid and Gennor are dead, because of this. I have to see it through."
"No!" Giles called out. "You have to follow orders, Michelle. Drop the stake and come with me."
With a small squeak, Michelle dropped the stake and walked out of the room. Buffy walked over to Vamp-Giles. "Thank you."
"I didn't do it for you. I did it for Kaliya. She is the one who will kill you - no-one else."
"Do me a favor," Buffy snapped. "If Kaliya wants a piece of me, she can come and get it any time. But tell her this for me," and Buffy drove a stake into Giles' chest, well off to the side of his heart. "Stop bragging about killing me, until you've done it - and I don't have to listen to it anymore!"
* * * *
"I apologize, Madam," Michelle said nervously. "I decieved your servants, and betrayed the trust you placed in me to go against your direct wishes."
"Nonsense, my dear," Kaliya said. "You were doing what you felt you had to do to ensure my safety. You were probably justified, too."
"What?" Michelle and Giles said at the same time.
"I must let go of my arrogant pretenses. Whatever victory we can get against our enemies, we must seize, never mind if it fits my need for prestige. If you could have taken Summers out, you should have."
"And you tell me this now??" Giles exploded.
"But not at the cost of your own life, my dear," Kaliya continued. "I could not have reconciled myself to such a Pyrrhic victory." And she gave Michelle a tender kiss on the cheek.
* * * *
"Okay, we have a transpossession spell organized," Giles announced. "Buffy and Cordelia must form the ends of a transfer chain, four people in all, holding hands over special conductors to enable the transpossesed spirits to return. Do we have any volunteers for the transfer chain?"
"Here!" Willow and Xander called out at once.
"Good enough," Vanessa said. "Willow, you cross hands with Buffy over this," and she put a metal plate into her hand, "and put this in your other hand, which you'll join with Xander when everything is ready. Xander, you take this one and Cordelia."
In about a minute, they were all arranged and ready. Willow, already holding Buffy's hand in her left, joined her right hand to Xander, who was holding hands with Cordelia...
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