NOTE : This story is set within an alternate Buffyverse. Faith has stayed with the Scooby gang and is Buffy's secret girlfriend. Dawn is now nineteen and at college. Willow and Tara are still together.
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Willow watched as the lead singer of Shy rolled her head and stretched her neck. It was an animal like gesture that reminded the witch of how Veruca had moved toward her in the science lab, intending to eat her. The redheaded Wiccan didn't trust the blonde as far as she could throw her, and that wouldn't be very far. Well, not unless she used magic, anyhow. As tempting as that thought was, she needed the girl's help, for now.
Standing in the courtyard of the old hilltop monastery, Veruca closed her eyes and breathed in the lingering traces of Tara's scent. It was now so faint that not even a bloodhound could have followed it. Not much of a problem for someone who had been a werewolf as long as she had, though.
"They took her in there," she said, pointing at a side door to the huge building.
Willow hated to even talk to Oz's new girlfriend, but she had to know. "Is Dawn with them?"
The lycanthrope ignored her. Willow tried again. "Veruca? Was Dawnie taken in there, too?"
The blonde sunk her hands into the pockets of her large black leather coat. "Maybe. Maybe not. Why should I tell you? I've done my bit and found your dikey girlfriend."
Faith stepped between them, looking at Veruca. "Okay, then. Tell me. Was Dawn with them?"
"Drop dead. If you want to know, why don't you just walk your cheap slut ass in there and find out?"
Faith shook her head and laughed. "I like you, girl. You've got balls. But, a word to the wise," she leant in close and lowered her voice. "Snipe at Willow and she's probably just going to get pissy and not speak to you." Her tone developed a deadly edge to it, "Raise your hackles my way once more and I'm gonna rip 'em off and shove them down your throat. Got that?"
They held each other's gaze for a moment until the blonde girl looked down. "Yeah. She's in there, too."
Faith reached out and patted her shoulder, "Good doggy." She turned her back on the singer and looked at Willow. "Ready to go and get our girls?"
The redhead looked surprised. "What? I thought the plan was to find them and then get Buffy and the others?"
"Sure. We could do that. But remember this, Red. The last girl the disciples got their hands on was gangbanged almost senseless and then they tried to carve her up with a dagger. Want them to play with your squeeze while we wait for backup?"
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Buffy looked at Oz. He shook his head, indicating the scent had petered out, and they began to return to where they had split from the others.
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The monastery door flew inward and was immediately followed by the diving form of Faith. Executing a perfect forward roll, she sprang to her feet in the middle of a mixed group of vampires and disciples. They had been waiting for her, but the ferocity of her attack took them by surprise. In their book, one unarmed woman had no business attacking nearly twenty large men. That was just not how things were done.
Evidently nobody had bothered to explain this to Faith. Her fists and feet began a whirlwind of deadly blows. Several men were disabled before the rest of them were quick enough to respond, then a sea of bodies closed around her.
The light from the shattered doorway reached only a small way into the dim room. The vampires were able to attack without fear of the sun. Outside in the courtyard, the witch planned to change that.
"Thespia gather unto me the gift of the heavens. Bind it upon my command; Vitreus Repercussus Sol!"
A patch of air above Willow's head shimmered and turned to a sphere of glass. Like a lightning rod it seemed to attract the sunbeams from the area around her and trap them inside itself. The witch lowered one arm to point into the gloom, "Light the Darkness!"
A foot wide beam of pure sunlight shot from the mystical globe and lanced into the room to illuminate the fight. The human disciples barely noticed it as they battled with the Slayer. The vampires were not so lucky. Five of them that were near enough to Faith to be caught by the beam screamed with unholy agony as their flesh burst into flame and consumed them.
On a balcony over-looking the fight, Spike turned to Angelus and the Shepherd. "Bloody Hell! That's not cricket! The bleedin' wench is cheating! Better get some of the lads to block the doorway with a table!"
Angelus put a hand on his arm to stay him. "Not yet. The Witch hasn't walked into the trap. We need her to step between the sigils. Give it time."
"Give it time? Between that Wiccan bitch and the brunette bint we're not going to have any vamps left! And the disciples are getting their arses kicked without her breaking a sweat!"
"Yes, but you know the good thing about vampires?" Angelus smiled. "We can always make more. All that matters is that we have two of the ingredients. I'm disappointed it's not Buffy, but Faith's blood will work just as well. A Slayer's a Slayer."
Willow had incinerated all the undead that were stupid enough to get in a line with the doorway; now she needed to get closer to help. Casting a black look at Veruca, who was just hovering near the entrance watching, the witch walked through the threshold with smoke beginning to coil upward from her clenched fists. When she took the first step into the room, a vampire leapt toward her. She lifted her hand and a column of flame blew him against the far wall, leaving nothing but a sooty mark.
If she had stood where she was, she would have been okay. But she took one more step. As her foot touched the floor, a mark that was drawn in faint charcoal erupted with a blazing blue light. One the ceiling above, its twin did the same and a spiral of lightning leapt between them. Willow screamed in agony as the mystical trap short circuited her powers. Blazing energy crawled all over her body and she crumpled to the floor. A vampire snarled and pounced upon the fallen woman.
"Dammit!" hissed Veruca.
She didn't care if Willow got torn apart, but she knew Oz would. Against her better judgement, she found herself racing forward and barrelling into the blood sucker. They tumbled across the floor in a flurry of flailing arms and legs. As she rolled free, she wished she had the werewolf's strength whilst human.
Angelus clapped Spike on the back. "Spikey, my boy, you amaze me! You told me you'd capture the She-wolf, but I didn't think you'd lure her here to do it!"
As his face morphed into the vampire, Spike sneered at the sarcasm. "Sod off, you bloody prat! I'm not letting the lads have all the fun!" With that, he vaulted the railing and dropped the twenty feet to the fight below.
The L.A. vampire turned to the Shepherd, "Get rid of the trail and then feel free to join in." He leapt down to follow Spike.
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Oz came to a halt. Worry etched itself onto his usually stoic face. Buffy knew instantly that something was wrong. "What is it?"
"The scent's gone."
"Oh, okay. We'll backtrack again."
"No, not run out. Gone. Suddenly." He closed his eyes and sniffed the air. "Not just Dawn's. I can't smell Ru, either. That's almost impossible."
