|
|
(This is original story written by Chris Kenworthy, based on the Buffy characters, who he does not own etcetera etcetara...)
"Thanks to your help," Xander reminded the student witch. "You and Vanessa and the rest of your friends."
"Any reports from the field?" Cordelia asked, her voice steady and somewhat flat. "The vampire I let go?"
"He went straight to his barracks on Crawford Street," Amy reported. "Told the story to a bunch of his friends, things started getting a little panicky. In the end, he was debriefed by his Captain, who took a trip down to the town courthouse - presumably to consult with Fireking and council. The official story is that the rumors of a Slayer in Sunnydale are completely unfounded, but the lower-ranking vampires are talking - ALL of them."
"Exactly what we were hoping for," Xander decided, smiling. "No official attempt to hunt out the 'Slayer,' but all kinds of impact on the vampire populace. Not bad at all, huh Cordy?"
But Cordelia didn't seem to be celebrating at all yet. "Kathryn's family? The Blakes??"
"Entirely forgotten in the confusion of the Slayer reports, we think," Amy said. "We're keeping a look out, hoping to get them undercover before the council can take them in, but based on the hope that that won't happen, they're safer outside the Resistance."
"Good." Now Cordy allowed herself to smile. "And with that note, Xander and I had better get ourselves out from undercover, show up back in the building in time for any surprise inspection at sunrise."
"Are you sure you're ready to go back out there?" Xander asked. "You're looking awfully tired, Cordelia. That fight - the strength spells and all - I think they took a lot out of you."
"I'm exahausted," Cordelia confirmed. "But I don't have any choice, now do I?" Somewhat unsteadily, she got up, and started walking towards the door.
"Oh, before you leave, Xander," Amy broke in quickly. "Any word from the Slayers?"
"No," Xander admitted, frowning. "Neither Buffy nor Willow have checked in with Elysium since the whole mission began.
* * * *
"Willow!!" Buffy screamed again. Her friend was nowhere in sight now, and Buffy knew that her exclamation could do nothing to help save the life of her best friend, thrown so senselessly off a fissure precipice in the unforgiving Himalayan mountains.
Neither could going down into the chasm herself, Buffy realized with a jolt of dread. As much as she hated to realize it, there was nothing that any of them could do but stick the jump themselves and save their own lives to continue on with the mission.
An idle, sardonic thought ran through Buffy's mind at that thought. With two Slayers, a warrior vampire, and a demon hunter on the mission, they had managed to let both of their watchers die. That had to be some kind of horrible record. At first it was always the Watcher who protected and guarded the Slayers, but Buffy knew that there was a level of protection that ran the other way too.
A kind of protection that Buffy hadn't been too good at providing, now that she thought of it. Giles had been vampied, Tojo had been caught by the Limbo horror and now trapped on the Hellmouth, and Willow, the only watcher that Buffy had left had fallen pointlessly off of a mountain cliff. So caught up was she in these thoughts, Buffy didn't almost realize it was time for her to do the jump herself. But she managed to avoid the kind of disastrous mistake that Willow had literally stumbled into.
In the air, above the chasm, Buffy indulged in a single look downwards. Willow was already lost to view. The rock walls formed by the sides of the fissure were solid and sheer, and stretched downwards to an unbelievable extent. There was no way that anyone could survive a fall like that, Buffy thought again. Willow was doomed. By the time she landed on the snow at the other side, Buffy was crying freely, and it had to be her imagination that she heard little tinkles as her tears, frozen, shattered against the crisp snow. It wasn't really cold enough for that to happen, after all.
Buffy fishhooked and came to a stop quickly, seeing that Angel had done the same thing. Lora and Marea quickly followed them across the chasm, and Buffy edged back, trying to get one more look at her friend's final resting place. She could hardly even see the bottom. No, no-one was getting out of there, not unless they had...
...wings. As if to mock her pain, a large bird fluttered out of the chasm - a solid, strong hunting owl. It flew straight towards the party, and Buffy's face hardened in anger. "Get away, y'dumb bird," she exclaimed, swinging a ski pole pugnaciously in the direction of the bird of prey.
"Hoo?" The owl exclaimed with what seemed like surprise, hovering just out of the reach of Buffy's weapon.
"I said vamoose!!" Buffy repeated, shoving herself forward on the skis in an attempt to scare off the owl, or get into combat distance with it, or something, It hovered back away, but didn't leave entirely.
"Buffy!" Angel repeated, and she realized that he had been saying her name several times but she hadn't registered. This time, a kind of supressed joy in the vampire's tone had clued her in. "Owls like that aren't native to this area - that's a California wood owl."
"So??" Buffy repeated, flabbergasted.
"So... Willow?" Angel called out questioningly. The owl perked with reaction at the name and flew halfway towards him.
"The bird... is Willow?" Marea repeated, feeling as confused as Buffy felt.
"Of course!!" Buffy muttered to herself. "God, I should have realized that you were prepared for anything, huh, Will? You had a shapechange spell ready in case you... no, in case anyone got in trouble up here on the mountain slopes, am I right?" Buffy didn't know how much Willow could understand her, but the owl seemed to nod. "Okay. Well, we've lost the black pudding, sure enough." The acidic demon scourge was filling the opposite lip of the chasm now, where they had come from, but as much as it slipped down into the chasm, Buffy felt sure that it couldn't fill it up and come up this side. Soon enough, it would die - wouldn't it?
"Yeah," Lora confirmed. "So it's back on down to the rendezvous point with Eddie??"
"Yes, sounds good," Buffy confirmed. "And carefully, those of us still on skis rather than wings. We've just lost our margin of error, not that we knew we had one."
"What is next?" Marea asked. "The Hall of Heroes?"
"I'm gonna have to leave you guys hangin' for a bit, I think," Lora said. "Go off hunting on my lone with Talbott. This was a great score, but I don't think the rest of the tasks are going to have enough action for me. I'll be backing you up for the finale, though. Winter Solstice, Sunnydale California. Right??"
"Where is Talbott, anyways?" Angel asked, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. The last time he had noticed Lora's canine sidekick was in the helicopter ride up. There was no way he could have made that ski jump on his own, either...
"Oh, he's around," Lora said with a smile. "You don't need to worry about ol' Tab. He's a spirit dog, remember? Ain't nothin' that could kill him yet." Sure enough, the dog was running beside them as they skiied down the mountain.
"Well, getting back to the original question," Buffy puffed. "There's one thing I think we need to do before we start looking for the Hall of Heroes."
"What's that, Buffy?" Marea asked with an interested look on her face.
It was a long time before Buffy could answer. "Find another Watcher."
* * * *
Xander rolled over and put his arm around a young woman. She was lying under the same covers as he was, facing away from him, and wearing only skimpy, light pajamas. Xander snuggled closer, wrapping his arm tighter around her smooth, well-toned shoulders, pressing his chest up against her back and his legs next to her slender thighs. He buried his face in her hair, delighting in the fresh, aromatic scent it had. Was Buffy using some kind of vanilla shampoo now?
Buffy?!? Yes, when Xander yanked his eyes open, there was no mistaking the straight and silky light brown hair, the curve of her cheek that he could just barely see from this position, the shape of her figure under the covers. That was Buffy, all right.
Which meant that this had to be a dream. Being very careful not to pinch himself, Xander settled himself down again, wanting more than anything in the world to just appreciate this reverie a little longer.
"Mmmm," Buffy moaned softly and happily, shifting slightly in his embrace. Her shoulders wiggled as she breathed out air and for just a second, the rear end of her pajamas touched Xander's lap. With an effort, Xander forced himself to stay calm and sleepy, stay in the dream.
"That's okay, Buffy," he whispered softly. stroking her hair as she dozed. "Just sleep, so I can lie here and have you in my arms.
"Okay, Xander," Buffy whispered back sleepily. "Sing to me?"
"Uh, sure." He wasn't sure if that was something to do with a dream she was dreaming or a real request, but he didn't see any reason not to grant it anyways. "Sleep, my love, and peace attend thee, all through the night. Guards and escorts God will lend thee, all through the night..."
"Thas' nice," Buffy muttered. Suddenly, she tensed in his arms, and turned over on her back, staring up at him. "Oh, my god, Xander!! This isn't a dream!!!"
"What?" Xander muttered, confused. "What do you mean, it's not??"
"Silly." She whapped him playfully on the arm. "Don't you recognize Elysium when you're in it, yet?"
"But..." Xander's mind was refusing to accept this yet. "It does kinda look like Giles' guest room. But, if this is really Elysium... how did we arrive here instead of the living room? And how is it that I can..." Xander trailed off, morbidly afraid that if he even mentioned the fact that he could touch Buffy, could feel her with his own skin, it would somehow suddenly be taken away from him.
"How we can touch each other? I don't know," Buffy admitted. "And I think it was a dream, at first. I was dreaming of you, and you were dreaming of me, and somehow that brought us both in here, together." She reached out her hand towards Xander's, and caught it somewhat nervously, but her grip was firm and solid on his skin. Smiling with incredible relief, lifted her lips up towards him and kissed him firmly and passionately.
"I've been waiting to do that for months, young master Harris," she joked once the clinch was finally over.
"Is that all?" Xander shot back. "So, have Giles and Jenny gotten the alignment solved, or is this a one time thing because we dreamed our way in?" he wondered, running his hand around Buffy's waist.
"We'll have to ask them. Later," Buffy decreed, and sank into her boyfriend's comforting embrace.
Click here to go back to the Sunnydale Under Siege home page.
|
|
|
|
