NOTE
: This story is set within an alternate Buffyverse. Faith has stayed with the Scooby gang and has become Buffy's secret girlfriend. Dawn is now nineteen and at college. Willow and Tara are still together.
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Reacting like lightning, Ru leapt onto Anya's back and clung on tightly with a chokehold. The demoness grasped a handful of her hair and tried to drag her over her shoulder, but the tenacious werewolf could not be dislodged. Trying another tactic, Anya spun in a circle, hoping to fling the girl from her back, but Ru just wrapped her legs around Anya's waist and adjusted her hold so that she now had one hand free to beat the woman about the head.
"Stop that!" the furious demon shrieked, between blows.
Veruca took no notice and continued to knock Anya's head left and right. Then, with a feral snarl, the sleazy little blonde pulled the demon's head to one side and sank her teeth into Anya's neck.
Heaving the door that now lay on top of her body to the side, Faith was just in time to roll sideways to avoid Buffy's stamping foot.
"Whoa, Bee! Take a chill pill, will ya!"
Reversing her roll, the brunette narrowly avoided the next stamping foot, and gained enough free space to flip to her feet.
"Hey, can't we talk about this?" she tried, hoping the banter would distract the possessed Slayer. It didn't and only a swift duck enabled her to avoid being decapitated by her girlfriend's sword.
"Buffy!" Willow snapped, angrily. "We're not supposed to kill them, just turn them!"
"Like I give a rat's ass what I'm supposed to be doing!" the blonde hissed, glancing back at the Wicca.
It was enough distraction for Faith to jump forward and snag both hands onto Buffy's sword arm. Giving a heavy yank downward, she slammed the arm into her rising knee and jarred the weapon loose. With a kick, she knocked it under the bed just as Buffy's other hand smacked a fist into her face.
Oz and Xander charged Willow. The witch only just managed to raise a hand in time and the two men bounced off a shimmering barrier like they were on bungee cords. "Easy, guys," she purred. "I always wanted you two to fight over me, not with me."
Giles kept himself between the possessed and Dawn and Tara. He instantly assessed the situation in the terms of who was the biggest threat. Normally, without question that would be Buffy, but Faith was here and the two Slayers were occupied with each other. He knew that under her own control Buffy would take Faith down, but while possessed she seemed to be too unfocused and angry to use her greater skill effectively and so the fight could go either way. That left only Anya and Willow to consider, and it really wasn't a contest; the witch's magic was too dangerous to ignore.
As Willow turned to deflect Oz and Xander, the Englishman snatched up the blanket from the bed, whirled it like a matador's cape, and flung it over the Wicca's head.
As he did so, he was also fighting a little voice inside that was telling him that it was stupid to try to incapacitate such a dangerous enemy, and a killing blow would be the better option. It was a nagging itch in the back of his mind, but it was growing louder and harder to ignore.
Buffy parried two kicks. "C'mon, Faith, let's settle this once and for all, okay?"
"Settle what?" the brunette gasped, blocking a blow to her stomach and then one to her head.
"Who's the better Slayer, of course," Buffy grinned, ducking a punch and driving a knee into her girlfriend's belly.
Faith doubled up, but still managed to turn away the hand that made a grab for her hair. Staggering backward, she whirled her arms to block blow after blow as Buffy advanced. "You've got a real chip on your shoulder about that, huh?"
"Not really," she replied, spinning a roundhouse that Faith ducked. "I know I am the best, I just want to prove it to you."
In a variant of the manoeuvre that Faith had earlier used on Anya in the corridor, Buffy flung an arm out to seize hold of Faith's wrist as she threw a punch. Holding on and spinning inside the brunette's reach, Buffy coiled the arm over her shoulder and then twisted her hips to throw the Slayer across the room.
"See?" she said, happily.
Giles was about to club Willow unconscious with a karate chop while she struggled to free herself from the blanket. Unfortunately, he did not get the chance because Faith slammed into him and they both crashed into Xander, who was just returning to the fray.
Going down in a heap, they quickly rolled apart and leapt to their feet.
Buffy somersaulted forward and landed directly in the centre of the three. From there, she spun into a deadly roundhouse kick that struck Faith in the face, knocking her back over the other side of the bed again. With the same momentum, her foot arced round to strike her Watcher in the chest and bounce him off the wall before finishing by driving into Xander's belly and doubling him up.
Her blonde hair bobbed as she rolled over the young man's back, grasping him as she went, and then judo throwing him at Oz. The little orange-haired man could have dodged, but that would have left Xander with a nasty impact into the wall, so he took the brunt of the collision and they both went down.
"And the Slayer picks up a spare!" she cried, balling a fist and dragging it toward her body in a double jerk. "Woo-hoo-hoo!"
A high-pitched shriek made her spin, but Dawn had already launched herself at her sister. The teen barrelled into her and they both spun backward over the bed, crashing down on top of Faith who was just getting up.
On her back with Dawn landing on her chest, Buffy easily snatched hold of her little sister's raking hands, holding them away from her face. "Wow, Dawnie, you're quite the little firebrand, huh? And what the hell are you doing without any clothes on?"
The teen didn't answer, just spat directly into her sister's open mouth. Buffy flinched when a huge, slimy gob of cum splashed into her throat.
"Urgh! Why you little...!" With hardly any effort, she bucked her body and threw Dawn away. She choked on the sticky mess and sat up hacking, a fraction too late to react when she saw Faith's fist plunge down.
Untangling himself from Xander, Oz leapt toward Willow just as she cast the blanket aside. She snapped her head around and lifted a hand. "Stay out of this!"
A small ring of eldritch flame shot from her palm, expanding as it flew until it was nearly a foot circular when it hit the young man in his chest. It passed harmlessly through him and out his back, then disappeared, but left a glowing pentagram on his T-shirt. The force of the spell flung him backward until he slammed into the wall, where he stuck. It felt like a huge weight was pinning him in place and, no matter how hard he struggled, he could not get free.
"Willow!" Tara cried.
The redhead gave her a sorry shrug. "Don't worry baby, it's your turn in a moment."
She could feel Tara gather magic around her as the blonde spoke the incantation, "By Hera's light and Gaia's will..."
"I don't think so," the possessed Wicca said, wagging a finger at her lover. "Sleep!"
Tara gasped, closed her eyes and slid to the floor.
Anya slammed herself backward into the wall, crushing the breath from Ru and making the singer release her bite.
"Get off of me!" the demon shrieked furiously, reaching around and tossing the werewolf across the room.
Ru struck the wall beside the window and crashed to the floor. She was obviously tougher than she looked because, even though the impact would have stunned a normal person, she was able to almost instantly spring back to her feet. "I'm going to rip your fucking throat out, you demon bitch!"
Her angry gaze switched from Anya to Willow when the redhead said, "Remember when you tried to eat me? The time has come for me to get a little payback."
Before the werewolf could move, Willow's eyes turned black and she flicked her hand as if she were swatting a fly. An invisible force struck Veruca like a full speed eighteen-wheeled juggernaut and she was smashed out the window to disappear into the darkness before falling the four storeys to the ground.
An arm reached around the witch and grabbed her tightly, pinning both of her arms to her chest. In the same instant, another hand shot around and clapped over her mouth.
"Hey, Red. You gonna quit that soulless mojo and play nice?"
Willow kicked and struggled, but Faith was far too strong.
Anya spun to help the witch but was double-teamed by Xander and Giles, who barrelled into her and drove her forcefully against the wall. Despite the fact that she was nowhere near the size of the two men, she was immensely stronger than they were and threw them away with ease. They both hit the opposite wall hard and fell to the floor, dazed.
"Behave, would you?" she scolded. "I'm not having a good day and am getting a little cranky! First Buffy ruins my dress, and then Faith nearly pulls my arm out of its socket! As if that was not bad enough that rabid bitch has bit me! And it hurt, too!"
She put her hands on her hip and glared at her boyfriend. "Remember what Bjorn of Borg said in that show you watch, but pretend that you don't? 'Resistance is a few tiles.'"
Xander tried to stand but was too dizzy; he had hit his head quite hard. Not hard enough to let a pop culture legend get mangled so badly though. "Er, that's Locutus and it's 'Resistance is futile.'"
She blinked as she processed that. "Oh. That does make more sense. I didn't really understand it, but thought that it was a work related reference, you being a builder, and all. I just figured tiles were very very difficult to fix in place."
With that, she turned her attention away from the two men and strode over to Willow and Faith. The Slayer used Willow as a shield between them, but Anya just took hold of each of Faith's wrists and began to slowly prise them off the witch. The Slayer strained, but Anya really was stronger.
The moment her mouth was free, Willow hissed, "Dolere!"
At the witch's Latin command, agony flared within the Slayer, making her collapse backward in torment. Every nerve ending in her body felt like it was being poked with an electric cattle prod.
Willow stepped free and turned to survey her handiwork, folding her arms in satisfaction as she did so. "That evens the score for the trash can, I think."
Faith bucked and contorted in spasms of unbelievable pain.
After glancing across the room to see the unconscious form of Buffy, Anya turned to Dawn, Giles, Xander, and the still stuck Oz. "That's your last chance gone. We've won and that's that."
"Sorry, but I beg to differ," said a cut-glass English accent from behind her. Both the demoness and the witch turned to look at the doorway.
The man there was obscured by a roiling black cloud that looked like a mini thunderstorm. It boiled and swirled, illuminated by bright red flashes of light as it swelled and spilled into the room. Coils and tendrils left the main mass, writhing forward like searching tentacles.
"Oh no!" Willow gasped, recognising the spell, but too late. One of the arms of smoke curled about her body, crackling with red sparks as it did so. She struggled, but more tentacles latched onto her and she was soon smothered in sparking fog that drained her of magic and caused her to slump into sleep.
At the same time, the fog swirled and undulated over to Anya, who swiped a fist at it, breaking one of the tentacles. The cloud just gathered back immediately and snaked around her, too. In a fiery cascade, the red sparks flew and crackled as the spell drained her and put her to sleep alongside the witch.
Giles stared in disbelief at the figure as the black smoke disappeared. The handsome man it revealed smiled at the look of shock on the Watcher's face.
"Hello Ripper."
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Giles was almost too astounded for words. "Ethan!"
