Buffy & The Four Ch. 04

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!"

"Nice to see you, old chap."

"What the hell are you doing here?"

The thin sorcerer looked hurt. "What, no 'thanks for saving us, Ethan'?"

Giles' face darkened. "No. You never do anything without some malicious reason and so until I find out what that is I'll reserve my gratitude."

"Oh, Ripper, you wound me!" he said, clapping a hand dramatically over his heart. "Whatever my reasons for choosing to intervene, you did need my help."

With Willow out of it, her spells had ended and now both Oz and Faith were released. The stocky little man bent down to check on the sleeping Tara. Beside him, glass crunched under Xander's feet as he moved to the shattered window and peered out into the night, rubbing the new lump on his forehead.

"Aren't you worried about Veruca?" he asked the guitarist.

"I'm always worried about Ru," the little man smiled, brushing the hair from Tara's face. "The fall will have hurt, but she'll be okay. Furious, but okay."

"Oh," Xander said. "Werewolf thing, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Giles strode over to lend Faith a hand to stand up, but kept his eyes on his countryman as though he were expecting betrayal at any moment. Which he was. "Why Ethan?"

"Patriotism?" the sorcerer suggested with a smile. "Couldn't let us get our butts kicked by the Yanks now, could I? It'll be bad enough when they thrash us in the Olympics, so it's nice to win one now and again."

"Ridiculous," the Watcher snorted. "Your intervention was timely, I'll grant you that, but hardly selfless, I'll wager."

"Oh, you know me too well. Where's the fun in it if you are just going to blacken my character every time we meet?"

"Blacken your character? I think you do that very well yourself."

"Touché. Now, I would suggest that we retire to a different locale before the babes awake."

Dawn was trying to cover her nakedness with her blouse, but could not stop herself from drawing attention when she asked, "Why?"

The delighted leer she got from the sorcerer sent shivers of disgust through her. "Because, you exquisite nymph, the spell I used is rather temporary and they'll come round pretty quickly. Particularly this young woman," he said, indicating Anya. "I don't think it would be safe to be here when they do."

"Couldn't we just tie them up?" Faith suggested.

Giles shook his head. "Buffy and Willow, yes, but not Anya. She would simply teleport out of the bonds." He fixed his old friend with a piercing stare. "As much as I am loathe to admit it, Ethan's right."

At the words, the sorcerer beamed with pleasure like a schoolboy earning praise from his favourite teacher.

Giles frowned in disgust and moved over to kneel beside Buffy. She was still lying crumpled where Dawn and Faith had left her, but was breathing normally. The bruise on her cheek would heal very quickly and he wasn't concerned about that. He looked over his shoulder at Dawn.

"Can you find the essence Tara created? This would be a good opportunity to cure Buffy."

"Already gave it to her," the teen said, going pink with embarrassment.

"You did?"

"Ahuh."

Faith crouched beside her Watcher. "Do you think it worked?"

"Difficult to tell until she awakes. It will probably take effect slowly, rather than immediately, I expect. It took the essence of Hate quite a long while to overpower her, and so it will likely be the same sort of timeframe for the Love to work its cure."

"Does that mean we can't take her with us?"

"Yes," Ethan said, a shade too quickly. "The Daughters of Gaia can track her with the Hate inside and that would not do. Not do at all."

Giles' face darkened as he spun and strode over to grab the sorcerer by his shirtfront. "What exactly do you know about all this?"

"Relax, Ripper, old chum. I'm helping, aren't I?"

"I'll let you know when I've decided," Giles snapped. "Now, tell me what you know, and how."

"You never did understand me, did you, Rupert? You think that because I worship chaos that I only do evil."

"You do."

"No, you see that is where you are wrong. Just as Janus, bless his name, has two faces, Chaos has two sides. It is not all about doing evil to annoy the 'good'. It is about causing havoc in any plans. They do not have to be lawful and godly to be worthy of meddling with. After all, if an evil scheme to conquer the world succeeds, then that brings a law and stability of its own perverse kind, does it not? Nothing is black and white, Ripper, only grey. I live to ensure that grey continues."

"Hey Oz," Xander said. "You got insurance on this place, 'cause we've kinda remodelled it for you."

The guitarist looked around at the debris of his room and shrugged.

"Time is passing, people," Ethan warned.

"Yes, we'd better go," Giles sighed, releasing the magician and reluctantly casting one more glance at Buffy.

With that, Xander and Oz picked up Tara and carried her gently out into the corridor. Giles stared at Ethan for a moment before the English sorcerer turned and left, followed by the Watcher. Dawn finished buckling her jeans and hurried after Giles. As she left the room a hand reached out, grabbed her by the hair, and yanked her back inside.

"OW!" she protested.

Faith released her hair and stared long and hard into the young girl's watering eyes. "It's him, isn't it?"

Horrified that the Slayer had put two and two together, Dawn shook her head. "No, of course not! I, ah... I mean, it's him what?"

"Don't even go there, Dawn. I've got Slayer hearing, I heard you."

"You did? Oh."

"Ahuh, Oh. What the hell are you thinking?"

A defiant look crossed the young girl's face. "What do you mean? I love him. Is that so bad?"

"I DARE you to say that after Bee find's out."

The defiance was replaced by desperate horror. "You're not going to tell her are you?" When Faith just glared, she tried another tack. "You can't tell her anyway! If you do I'll tell her what you and I did on the sofa!"

The glare became suddenly icy and menacing, causing the young girl to backtrack rapidly. "Scratch that. I didn't mean that. I'd never tell Buffy anything about that. I enjoyed it... and hope to do it again, sometime. But Faith, you can't tell her! Please! She'd have a fit."

"She'd go postal, more like." The denim clad young woman shook her head and sighed as she folded her arms. "Fuck Dawn! How could you be so stupid?"

"Hey! It's not stupid to love someone. You just can't understand that because you never have. But it's Giles, Faith! He is so wonderful. So smart, so handsome, so..."

"So Buffy's Watcher. My Watcher."

The teen made a hurt-little-puppy face. "Well, yeah, but..."

"No buts. I'm telling you that if your sister ever finds out about this we may have to open the Hellmouth just to find someplace less dangerous to hide."

"So... you won't tell her, then?"

"No, I," she put emphasis on the I, "don't have a death wish."

"Thanks. Faith?"

"What?"

"I really do love him, you know."

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"I think we should have possessed the Marx brothers, instead," Ruth sighed.

"Do you know who cast that spell?" Kim asked.

"No, but I'll make them pay when I find out," the young Goth promised.

The Daughters of Gaia were in their dorm room, sat in a circle on the floor. In the middle of them was a bronze bowl of swirling water that Kim had cast the scrying spell upon. Together they had watched the battle in the little apartment, and all had been certain that it would go their way until the mystery man had joined the fray. When the last of the possessed had slipped unconscious, the spell had cancelled and the Daughters were unsure of what happened after that.

"Maybe we should just take them on ourselves," Jody suggested. "Ruth is way more powerful than Willow now she has the Machina Demonica as backup."

"I could have just done that to start with!" Ruth snapped. "Heck, I could have just put a curse on them or made their skin split open! But I want them to suffer. It will trouble them much more knowing that it was they who attacked their friends. It will hurt them much more knowing that they did all these things and couldn't stop themselves. I want both Summers' sister and that redheaded bitch to feel anguish at what they have done. Don't you get that?"