Somewhere In Between
by tainted_blood_chylde
Rating: PG
Faith ran to the house and bolted the door. It wasn't getting in, she ordered the remaining potentials upstairs. She wished to God Catherine would hurry up, that amulet needed to be gotten to Willow as soon as they could. The First's army was larger than they had anticipated. Riverside was only five miles out of Sunnydale, about an hours drive from the Howdy Drive Inn. The Towns people had made effective work of holding the remaining Ubervamps up until sunrise. Still at least half of the army were in the sewers and heading this way. With the sun down, they were going to be attacking the remaining civialians and officers before moving on.
They had to keep them contained. Catherine was right about the amulet of Ra, it could be used to close the hell mouth. She just hoped to God she got it to Willow in time. The first few splinters appeared in the door and she felt her heart beat quicken, screaming before the door flung open and she was hurled against a wall. Faith quickly got to her feet and prepared for battle, too late. The Ubervamps fell to ashes and she looked behind the debris to see Buffy standing smiling at her.
"Honey I'm home" she joked before running into Faith's arms.
Faith was horrified and didn't want to believe it. "Is it.. Is it really you?" she sobbed.
"Don't ask me why, don't ask me how. I don't know. All you need to is that I'm here" she said as she looked at Faith and put her hand on her face and calmed her. Faith choked as the hand placed on her face quickly moved to her throat and began to choke her.
"And I'm very pissed off!" the First yelled as its eyes glowed red from Buffy's beautiful face. If it had kept on talking in that sweet voice, looking at her with those innocent eyes, Faith would have been crippled but it made the mistake of changing into an ordinary vampire with Buffy's voice. She punched it in the face and started to throw punches at it. The battle got very heated and it went through several faces until Faith finally got it on the floor and buried a knife in its chest.
It changed suddenly into Buffy's form and started choking and crying. "How could you..? Faith.. I love you.." it choked in her voice as a tear ran slowly down its face. That sweet lovable face. Faith shuddered and backed away, covering her ears.
"I'm not listening!" she screamed.
"Why.. would you.. Faith.. it's mm-me.. I'm so.. sorrr..y" Buffy said as she slipped out of Faith's reach and fell onto the floor motionless. For one horrorifying moment Faith doubted it was really the First, usually it got up and kept on fighting but this felt different. What was going on? She ran to her side and picked up her head.
"Buffy?" she asked hurriedly.
"Sorry, I just love that gag" the First said as it watched Faith coddling Giles' broken body. "I caught up to him about twenty minutes ago. You should have saw the way he cried like a baby when I pretended to be Dawn. He really was a fuddy duddy" it laughed before disappearing and going upstairs to see Rona and Margret who were trying to open the attic door.
Giles' Journal
I really didn't expect the end to come like this, in my years as watcher I always thought that I could find a way to help my charge complete her destiny and that at least until I was an old grey haired man like my father, that I would at least see the end of my days with quiet reflection and regret over losing a young girl to her duty. In my time I have lost friends and lovers.. at an enormous cost. I've watched three young very capable woman die. Idia Cohen, Kendra.. and now my beloved Buffy. I am truely sorry that I was not the watcher I was supposed to be and I apologise to you once again Buffy. I hope you think we've done our best.
Love you all.
Rupert Giles
Willow and Catherine ran into the lobby of the old library. It wasn't that far behind them and both girls, despite Catherines strength were having trouble running with the heavy chest.
"We need to get out here fast" Catherine said as she dumped the chest and ran to the main doors.
"We can't leave it!" Willow called to her.
"We don't have a choice!" Catherine said. "It's either the box or you, and I kinda think we need you more than that!"
"Then help me open it" Willow reasoned.
"Fine" Catherine said as she lifted the axe from a dead potentials hand and wacked at the large metal box cracking it open. Willow quickly put her hand inside the box and picked out the amulet.
"Thank you" she said smiling cruelly at Catherine before standing up and putting it in her pocket. "That damn box has been shielding it from me for the last five centuries" she smiled before blasting a ray of lighting in Catherine's direction, the young slayer quickly dodged it and ran in circles around the First before aiming the axe quickly at her head and snatching the amulet out of her hand. Seconds later, Anya's head rolled onto the floor beside her feet and Catherine looked at it in horror.
"I just love it when you guys do all the work for me" The First said as it took on her Watcher's form and laughed before disappearing.
Xander's Journal
Oh it's getting close. I never meant for any of this, if I hadn't have.. if only we'd listened to Spike. I can't be seeing all of this right now. God that kid was only fifteen years old. This can't be happening. Where did Anya go? I don't understand. I want things to go back to the way that they were. I want to close my eyes and be warm in my parent's basement with everyone watching road runner cartoons. I want to be getting yelled at by Giles or.. beaten at basketball by Dawn.. Or even just frowned at by Buffy. Let them leave me in the rain.. Just God.. please stop this. They didn't do anything to deserve it. Just please let me be 16 and back at school and watching some pretty girl go by while I'm on my skate board and have it be nothing more than that. Let my Anya be here now. Just please stop this nightmare. Bring in Riley and the troops. Just help us God, please help us.
Willow's lungs were burning, how long had it been since she'd lost sight of Catherine? She ran down the hall and into the main lobby, she nearly tripped over something. "Oh God!" she sobbed as she looked down at Anya. The box was empty. Catherine must have been here. There was a symbol written on the side of the box, similar to the one that Catherine had on her necklace. It was a message.
She ran out of the library and down the steps. She had to get to the church, that's where she would find the others or at least some survivors. She ran along the streets and threw a grenade into the street behind her and killed two vampires who were gaining on her. Two seconds later she was running in a straight line to the church door. She pushed it open and went inside. Backing away she went to the alter.
"Thought I'd find you here" The First/Kennedy said. "Then again you always were so predictable, that can get annoying real fast." She picked up an axe out of Rona's dead hand. "The other one didn't go down so easily" she said as she pointed to Faith's body laying just a little behind her. Willow felt all hope drain from her body, Catherine wouldn't be much better off. She swallowed hard and backed away from her.
"What's wrong honey? Don't you want to hug me? I've been gone so long, don't you want to make up for lost time?" It said as it changed into Tara and back to Kennedy. "It was so unfair, we barely even got a chance. Willow please don't be so far away, it's so cold here in the dark. We miss you, come be with us, join us. We love you" it said as it changed back to Tara.
"Stop it! Stop using that voice!" Willow cried.
"Stop what? Stop loving you? Well I'm sorry Willow but I do, it was my love for you that got me killed wasn't it? All I wanted was to love you and be with instead I got killed helping you and your 'friends'. It should have been YOU in front of that window!" it screamed at her in Tara's voice.
Willow broke out crying, the sword in her hand laying useless at her side. "Please stop this."
"But where are they now Willow? Where's your precious Buffy?" it said as it changed back to Kennedy and walked over to her. "They couldn't quite look at you the same after what you did to me could they? Couldn't quite trust you enough not to crazy and snap on them. Doesn't really matter, one way or another the world is ending, and it's all thanks to you my selfish little witch. You just had to have her back didn't you?" it said as it morphed into Warren and then to Buffy. "All because you loved me, must just kill you to know that Faith got there first" she smiled before quickly disappearing and leaving Willow alone.
"Rona!" Faith called as she ran into the church, Margret hadn't stood a chance. She was dead by the time that Faith had gotten there. She ran in through the door and nearly tripped over the body of the girl laying at her feet. She looked up and saw Willow standing there, bitter tears falling down her face. "Willow!" she said urgently. "Where is everyone else?"
"It was you!" Willow snapped bitterly as her eyes turned black and veins grew in her face. "All this time I thought it Spike, that she was keeping herself away because she wanted him. But it was you, all the times I tried to touch her, all the times I tried to get close but she held back, it was you! She was waiting for you!" Willow yelled at her.
"Willow stop this, we don't have time" Faith said as she backed away from the Red head.
"I know, we're out of time Faith. It's history. Nothing is left for us to fight for anymore, I can't find Catherine, it's too late. The only thing I can do know is have the satisfaction of putting you in the ground before the world drags me to hell with it" Willow said before she blasted an energy bolt at Faith and started squeezing the life out of the young slayer.
Willow's Rage
She has to pay. I don't care about anything anymore, I learned a long time ago the best way to get rid of pain was to inflict it. I loved Buffy with all my soul, I've helped her through everything. The Master, Angel, her mother, Riley, hell even the Spike thing and I never made a move for fear of driving her away. I don't know why this is happening, why I'm squeezing the life out of this woman. My friend, My Ally, My Rival. I was always jealous. I'll admit, she got to have the greatest connection in the world to my best friend, my dream. She got to be a slayer with her, got to share her dreams and even was in her body. I hate myself for falling into darkness again. But then again the world has fallen into darkness. I mean it's like that Michelle Branch song... "God knows even angels fall..."
Buffy walked upstairs and raided her closet for a few essentials and changed into a warmer coat and took some food from the fridge and all her favorite weapons and loaded them into the car. There had to be survivors somewhere. Someone had to be left, they couldn't have killed everyone in a week, there still had to be some people left. She would find them. Maybe Catherine was still around, or at least a new slayer would have been called. With Faith gone... it was a dead cert.
She packed herself into the car and took off down the road, stopping every few blocks to investigate shops and killing off the random vampires she encountered along the way. None of them said much, just that the war was over and that she had lost. She moved on to the next town, she found it in flames. No survivors, but she did find something, Giles and Margret in one of the houses. They looked like they had been left there for days. Sobbing she left them where they were and moved on. There was no one left in the entire town. She moved on to the church where she found the remains of a few bodies. No way of telling who they were, no way of knowing how to identify them.
She left and moved on into the car and onto the next car. Three weeks had past before she finally reach New York. Nothing. The place was empty and Vampire infested. She was alone, and on the sixth week, Buffy Summers, gave up and wept.
How long had she been running? Catherine had no idea, the six civilains she had gathered up were slowing her down. She dodged the first blow aimed at her head and used her axe to return to the Ubervamps favor, taking his head off in one quick blow. It didn't take long to kill these things when you had to get better at slaying in a hurry. She put the amulet around her neck and ordered the people to the church before firing a hellfire bolt into a regular vamp's chest. Many of the demons that normally lay hidden or underground were running around the streets picking out victims like they were happy meals.
She snapped a Solvoties neck and stabbed another which she could not identify before running to the church. This was hopeless, she had to find Willow. The First had to be lying, they had to get away from here somehow, regroup. Anything. Where was the watcher when she needed him?
Charging into the church she quickly slammed the door before turning to see Willow choking the life out of Faith. "You can never understand what she meant!" Willow was ranting insanely. Quickly Catherine ran up to her and smacked her square in the jaw with her fist.
"Stop this!" she yelled as Faith started gasping for breath.
"I suppose you had a turn to huh? Everyone gets her but me, well if I can't have her, no one will!" Willow snapped before shooting fire at Catherine.
"Look out!" Faith said before jumping and pulling Catherine out of the reach of the blaze. Two of the civilians weren't so lucky.
"Officer Brady take her down!" Catherine instructed as the town sheriff took out his gun and started blasting at her. Willow dodged a few bullets but one skinned her arm causing her to slow down for a second.
"Willow!" Buffy voice yelled. "What are you doing?" she demanded as Willow's eyes went back to normal and she looked back at Buffy.
"Buffy I-I-I wwas t-this.." Willow stuttered as she clutched her wounded arm.
"You were what? Trying to kill everybody? Look at what you've done!" she yelled as she pointed at the bodies. "You're no different from a vampire!"
"Buffy no!" she cried. "This wasn't, I thought you were.. Oh God! What have I done?" Willow sobbed before she turned and looked at the bodies and at Faith.
"Made a very stupid mistake" the First/Buffy said as it shoved its hand through Willow's chest and began to squeeze.
"Go, please, I'm sorry" Willow said as her eyes began to glow.
"Shit!" Catherine and Faith said in unison before running out of the room as Willow used her last breath to erupt the church into flames.
"What are we going to do now?" Catherine said as they watched the building burning and the remaining potentials caught up with them. Faith looked behind her to see Molly helping to support a wounded Xander to the meeting spot. The sheriff and the others looked at Faith for an answer, she looked down at the amulet and frowned.
"We win this war for Buffy" she said simply before picking up an axe and killing a demon that jumped down at them from the tall building behind them.
Buffy shifted through the lonely streets with the bundle of food in her arms, the sun was just rising over the water. She made her way back to the harbour sweage tunnels, how long had she been here? She'd lost complete track of time. Days just bled into to one another and more than ever she just wanted to give up. She had learned that Angel was somewhere in Singapore hunting down some kind of demon with the ability to turn back time. She guessed he was looking for a miracle. She had found only a handful of survivors so far.
Nikki, a seventeen year old student who'd been on holiday with her family when they were attacked. Stewy, a thirty six year old fireman from Boston, and Gorgina, a four year old girl she found hiding in an old church basement waiting for her mother.
It gave her some hope at least. They gave her something left to fight for, Stewy had wanted to come with her on the scavange but she insisted he stayed behind to protect the other two. After everything that had happened she thought it's stupid to hide her identity any longer. At first Stewy was angry, blaming her for the way the world was, but after a few weeks and a few late night heart to hearts, when she finally brought herself to talk about Giles and Xander and Willow, he began to warm to her. It was hard to think about it. She still hadn't mentioned Faith, she still didn't know what was happening. She only knew she had to keep on trying. Every day they searched for survivors, the night was spent resting and avoiding detection. She took out as many as she could but it made little to no difference.
So far she had not been contacted by the First, whatever was happening, it was happening somewhere very far from here. She would have to leave in search of it soon, but not now. She needed to build up some kind of force first, but with every passing night, it was more and more difficult.
"Bout time you got back Buff" Stewy said as he pulled the hatch back.
"Good to see you too" she smiled before she climbed over the barracade and through the tiny opening that was only fit for her or Gorgina to pass through. It was handy to keep vampires out of the way. She passed him the bag and he started to rummage through it and pulled out the map that Buffy had found.
"Great!" he said before lighting the candle near the self-made desk he had erected as he sat down and started sketching out the route they were going to take to get to Mexico.
"Any broadcasts?" Buffy asked Nikki.
"Not a one, we picked up something last night but it was faint and we couldn't get an exact copy of it" she said before handing Gorgina some crisps.
"Where are we going now?" the little girl said as she looked up at Buffy.
"Somewhere safer than this" she said. Her time in Portland was growing thin, they would notice someone was slaying here and soon they would come looking for her. She had to keep going, had to keep searching. Faith was gone, she saw the body herself. There had to be something she was missing.
"Can you tell me another story?" she said innocently as Buffy sat down and took her on her knee. Stewy raised an eyebrow as he looked up from his desk and BUffy looked at the wall before smiling sadly and telling Gorgina a story.
"Into each generation a slayer is born, one girl in all the world with the strength and skill to stop the monster and kill them. One girl who will keep the world safe and protect all the little children.." she began as the young girl hugged herself tighter to Buffy's chest and began to fall asleep.
Dawn awoke suddenly, she was alone in the house. Looking around her cautiously she ventured down the stairs, she walked into the kitchen where she found Spike alone snoozing on the table.
"Hello?" she said as she nudged him.
"Blood hell!" he said as he bolted awake and stood in a fighting stance. "What's going?" he demanded.
"I don't know, last thing I remember I was in my room.." she said quickly.
"Buffy.." he said as memories came flooding back to him. He ran to the basement. Empty. There was some blood stains on the floor but that was all, no sign that she'd been there.
"What's happeing? Where are we?" Dawn demanded as her voice quivered.
"I don't know, but we're gonna find out" he said before walking over to her and getting on his knees in front of her. "I didn't do this, I swear to you.. it was..." he said with pleading eyes that were filling with tears.
"Spike!" she said before crying as well as she wrapped her arms around him furiously and hugged him. "I know, this isn't your fault. None of this is our fault. The First tricked you, I know that now. It was.." she began.
"Kennedy," Spike interrupted.
"Yes, she tricked them, Xander didn't mean to hurt you. He thought that.." Dawn said as Spike whiped the tears from her eyes.
"I know what he thought, but it's okay now, whatever it is, we can warn them now" he said before standing up.
"No We can't" she said dismissively.
"Why not?" he questioned as he pulled on his boots.
"Because we're dead" she informed him before trying to lift up a coffee mug and having it pass right through her hand.
Faith's Journal
It's been two days now since the First opened up the seal and here's what we know.
Giles isn't really dead and the First has him somewhere in the vineyard and no one around here has any idea how to get him back. But we're gonna try.
We are down to twenty four Potentials from the sixty nine we had two days ago and every town from Riverside to LA is under attack.
The demons have began and open feeding frenzie and the Government has declared a state of emergency, Riley and the gang are doing their best to evacuate any and all civilians but with every country and town in the world being attacked it's kinda hard to keep up. It's like someone rang the international dinner bell for the vamps.
The watchers council are gone and Angel's skipped town. We are alone.
Willow's gone and Xander's turned into a basket case. Andrew is nowhere to be found and Catherine thinks Anya is lost as well but won't say how she knows. We've retreated back to Sunnydale to the Summers house. I don't really know what I'm going to do. The First has us all on edge. No one knows what is real or not anymore.
Plan was to do something with this amulet but none of us know how to use it. We're lost. I'm so lost, I tried to contain the vamps but there were too many. I'm not ready for this. Oh God please bring back Buffy. I need her more than ever now..
Catherine's Journal
I didn't know that things could get so bad, so hopeless. That witch was our only real chance, now she's gone. I got a visit from the First about two hours ago, it was bragging that Giles was already dead and how we were fools and shouldn't bother trying to save him. Blah Blah Blah. I have to admit I'm lost. I can't trust anything I see anymore. But I know I killed that girl. Everytime I think about it, I feel sick. But I can't tell anyone. Not after I saw the look on Xander's face. I need help, I need to get that Watcher back. Faith is falling apart on me and the situation is getting out of control. We need to regroup. We need another slayer..
Dawn's Diary
I know this is pretty pointless, no one's even here to hear me. I can't hold my pens so, I guess talking senselessly to the bathroom mirror does the same job. I miss my sister. I want Giles. The only person I'm here with is Spike and I don't understand why, did the First kill Buffy? I have some weird scars on my arms and I don't know what they mean. I thought that I wasn't the Key anymore, so why did the First bring it up? Where is everyone? I mean if I was a ghost, wouldn't there be people running around or something? It's completely deserted here. There aren't even people in the street, no monsters, no p-pods. Nothing. This can't be my house. It can't. There's music playing, it's something of Faith's. We can't shut it off. It just plays. From what I can tell everyone left about thirty minutes ago, but I can't find anyone. Giles' tea pot was still warm. Spike is trying to concentrate on lifting things up but it's useless. I just wish I knew what was going on.
"This is so touching" The First/Anya said as it walked into the living room and stared at the defeated faces. More than half reached for their weapon and stood ready to attack but the First made no move towards them.
"Where is he?" Catherine demanded.
"Where's my amulet?" it demanded.
"Not negociating, where's Giles? If he isn't dead already" Faith spat at the First.
"Ooooh, my little Faith getting a bit snappy?" it said as it changed into Buffy's form. She flinched.
"Stop the games" Catherine said harshly as she pulled out a knife from her back pocket.
"Or what?" It mocked her before it switched back to Anya's appearance. "You'll kill me?" it laughed. Catherine looked shaken.
"Oh God" Xander sobbed as he looked at the form it had taken.
"Oh yeah" it giggled. "Bet you're sorry you walked away now" it said as it changed into Giles' form.
"Now I suggest everyone just calms down so we can discuss this sensibly and rationally so we can reach some sort of arrangement. The last thing we need now is to be hasty" it said as it looked at them. The Potentials backed away in horror.
"I mean come on!" it snapped as it changed into Kennedy's form. "You gonna let the fact that I'm pure evil get in the way of making a deal?" it said as it put its hands on its hips.
"I mean, it's what about what's making the best decision for everyone in the long term. This is more about survival than doing the good thing" it said before taking on Andrew's form and nodding at them.
"No deal" Faith snapped before Catherine threw a Dagger at it.
"Now Now, Play nice, the last thing we want is to put anyone's heart out" it said as he transformed into Spike.
"Get out of here" Officer Brady snapped as he pulled out his gun.
"Bloody Hell" it said as it rolled its Spike's eyes. "I'll come back, when you've all had a bit of time to cool it" it said before vanishing and leaving the group looking slightly disturbed.
Andrew slipped out from behind the stairs. God forgive him for not going with them, but he had to find that Knife, Willow said it wasn't important. He knew better. Grabbing the book from Spike's room he hurried himself into the kitchen, pausing slightly as he looked at the slayer's body laying on the table. He stifled a sob and wiped away the tear that was falling down his cheek.
"Good people are going to die, girls. Maybe even me, and probably you," he remembered her saying to him when they tried to close the seal.
"I'm so sorry Buffy, I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I just wanted to be a part of something, to have a purpose in my life" he sobbed as he pulled the knife out from the drawer.
"You always had a purpose" the reply came as he turned around to see Buffy sitting up from the table. No wait, Buffy was still laying on the table. But another Buffy was sliding off the bench from beside her. It was the First.
Andrew backed away from her and gulped. "Stay back" he said as he held up the knife.
"What's the matter? You're not afraid of little me are you?" it said as it morphed into Johnathan. "Ah the knife, you have no idea how long I've been looking for that. Little box Willow put it in really worked like a charm. Of course her and Buffy were the only ones to know where the damn thing was to be hidden. Lucky thing I got you" he smirked.
"You stay away from me!" Andrew threatened.
"Oh Andy baby. You dont think I've already become very familiar with that knife?" The First/Johnathan said as it let changed its form to include the stab wound with blood pouring from it that Andrew had inflicted on his dead friend.
"Please just go away" he pleaded.
"Not without the knife" the First/Johnathan said sharply.
"Why didn't you just take it yourself?" he sobbed. "Why did you need me?"
"Because you pathetic little fool, there's writing engraved in it that I cannot touch. I needed a vessel to do my work for me, that and I do just feel like being lazy every once in a while" it smiled.
"You can't have it!" he said before running out of the room and towards the door.
"Where's that noise coming from?" Dawn said as her and Spike looked upstairs towards the kitchen. It sounded like voices. Both of them bolted upstairs to see Andrew holding a knife and talking insanely to nothing.
"The First must be here" Spike said quietly.
"Where's he going?" Dawn asked as he ran down the hall.
"I don't know, but I'll find out!" Spike said as he followed Andrew down the hallway. Dawn was about to follow when she noticed Buffy's body laying on the table and her own a little further past it on the floor. She felt sick.
"You don't have a choice" it laughed at Andrew.
Dawn noticed the hands on her body starting to move and finally it stood up. She shrieked in horror as the body walked towards her and looked at her for a moment and smiled before walking past her and lifting a knife from the table and venturing out into the hall towards Andrew.
"Spike!" she screamed.
Spike looked down the hallway to see Dawn holding a knife and stalking up behind Andrew. "WHat are you doing?" he said.
"Spike it's not me" Dawn called to him as she appeared in the doorway to the kitchen.
"Are you okay?" The Body asked Andrew as the First vanished.
"Dawn! How did you? Weren't you?" he stuttered as he bolted past her and into the living room.
"Where are you going?" The Body said snugly as it smiled and followed him.
He ran into the kitchen and saw that Dawn's body was missing, he sighed and smiled with relief. "Dawnie!" he said as he walked over to her his arms open, ready to embrace her. "We all thought that you were..." he began but was cut off midsentence.
"Dead?" The Body smiled as it buried the knife in her hand into his chest and yanked the ritual one out of his hand as he fell lifeless to the floor.
"No!" Dawn screamed as she looked at the vision in front of her. Spike tried to punch the body but it was useless, his hand only passed right through it. Dawn reached out and attempted to swing her body around. "Why?" she screamed.
The body turned and faced her, only this time all the carvings in its face were gone. "Because I can" it replied simply before turning and walking away.
Nikki ran quickly back to the Shelter. She had no idea how far Stewy was behind her, it had become an unsaid rule with everyone that if you lost sight of the other person in your Duo you had to leave them and get back to base. The world had become too dangerous a place for search and rescue. Buffy needed these bandages, and Nikki wasn't going to let her down.
She scaled the six foot wall easily and ran along the river bank, demons found it harder to track them that way. Or so Buffy claimed, it had worked for her so far, so Nikki didn't argue. She pulled out her crossbolts and loaded up her crossbow, they were gaining on her, she could smell them. It still astounded her.
Her movements were getting easier, over the last few weeks she had noticed a definite change in her capabilities, her strength, her stamina, even her senses seemed to have been magnified somehow. She was too scared to acknowledge what that could mean. If Buffy was right about the Slayer thing, then the only explanation was that she had been Chosen.
An Ubervamp lunged at her and she tumbled halfway down the hill with the beast trying to bite at the closest artery. She pulled out her stake and stabbed him in the back, the force of him rolling onto it helped to penetrate his thick-armour. Ashes. She stood up again and increased her pace, the other wouldn't be far behind. She reached the river and jumped into the cool water, diving deeply she reached the tunnel and swam the twenty feet to the other side where she re- emerged and gasped for breath.
"Bout time you got back" Stewy said as he put his hand out for her to grab.
"Speak for yourself" she smiled, glad to see her friend was otherwise unharmed. She let him pull her out of the water and they walked into the main cavern with the supplies.
"Did you get them?" Buffy asked as Nathan, a med student from Ohio took the old bandages off her leg and took the new ones off Stewy. "Thank God" she sighed. It had been about four days ago since she had been stabbed by an Ubervamp on her way back with food for the others. Their numbers had reached a grand total of twenty-seven people. They were still looking, but the chances of finding them were getting slimmer by the day.
"We should be ready to take off on the train tomorrow morning" Nathan told Buffy as he cleaned and dressed her wound.
"That's a relief" she smiled weakly, Nikki knelt beside her and gave her a piece of chocolate. "Thank you" she smiled as she took it from her.
"Buffy, will we find anymore people tomorrow?" Gorgina asked innocently.
"Maybe, I hope so" she smiled.
"I have to talk to you" Nikki announced and Buffy looked at her in surprise.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I'd rather tell you alone" she said as she looked at the others. As if taking a hint they vaccated the room and Nathan lifted Gorgina and they went into the main serving area.
"What's wrong?" Buffy asked in a worried tone.
Nikki paced the room for about twenty minutes and finally sat down beside Buffy. "I think the other slayer out there is dead, probably has been for a little while" she said, her voice shaking slightly.
Buffy frowned and cleared her throat. "How so?"
"Because I think I'm a Slayer, have been probably for the last two weeks" she said quietly.
"I don't understand" Buffy said.
"Oh come on B," she said and Buffy flinched. "I'm the best scavanger here next to you, I've managed to get out of situations and ambushes that have claimed the lives of several young men. What else can it be?" Nikki said as she searched the older girl's face. "Face it, Angel is gone, we haven't had any other broadcasts from the Alpha squad in weeks. The other slayer is dead, we're all that's left."
Faith's Journal
Something's really wrong here. It claimed Giles wasn't dead, yet it took his form. I could have sworn it was him in that house. The death toll keeps rising and we are losing more people than we can afford. The televisions finally stopped working today. Last reports were there was an army of some kind digging itself out of a hole in Russia, Ireland, Wales and South Africa. Turns out there was a lot more of these seals than we thought.
The normal vampires are working with the Ubervamps. The human population is taking in serious casualties and it looks like we are running out of time. I wish to god the Powers would stop in and give us a hand. I tried contacting Angel but apparently after the Ubbies hit LA they killed half of his team. It's so hard to think that I only saw them a week ago.
They last said something about a time shifting demon, I guess he's gonna try to go back and fix it so we had warning. I don't know how. Everything seems so hopeless. The only that keeps me going is Catherine. She's my only rock.
Whistler's Report
The situation is as follows. The First has caused some kind of interference in time and our people have been working around the clock to fix the problem.
As of now we know that Buffy is trapped somewhere in a place between our world and an alternative future. Her kid sis and the souled up vampire, and I'm not talking about Angel, are trapped in some kind of Limbo.
Angel's off in search of Optigell, a time controlling demon. Now as of yet in our own world. Giles, Anya and Andrew are dead. It's a sad an unfortunate fact but it seems to be getting worse now that the Witch Willow has been trapped in her own alternative reality with the potential chick Kennedy.
Now it all boils down to the last three. Xander, Faith and Catherine. Now I'm not a big fan of this Catherine girl myself. She's a bit too much, the council's pet but she does know how to form a plan. I'm still gathering forces. This First is smarter than we thought. I just hope I can get to Faith in time..
...continued in part 41...