It was a seriously pissed off Clarissa who reached the safety of her underground lair some forty-five minutes later, her remaining henchvamps, a handful of minions, and the redheaded witch still in tow. Her incredible fury at losing her lover was only heightened by the sight of Crispin McDermott sprawling in the chair she had set up as a throne in the cavern she used as a meeting hall for her gang.
“You!” She snarled at the warlock. “This mess is all your fault, you lousy punk. I’ve lost most of my people because you assured me that this worthless lump of a witch would back us up. Fat lot of good she did…”
“Hey, just a minute,” the witch whined. “I saved you from Buffy. She was going to tell them everything, Crispin, honestly.”
“That’s a filthy lie!” the vampire screamed at her. “You sat on your sagging ass and let us get ambushed, you decrepit old slut! How did that bleached blond crusader know where we were going to be? I’ll tell you how. That ho-bag is ratting us all out to her buddies. You should let me slice her jugular open right now.” Clarissa moved closer to Willow, one hand extended, seemingly intent on doing just that.
The warlock had other plans however, and a blast of bluish light knocked Clarissa away from Willow. Hissing, the irate vampire looked as if she would throw herself at him, but the expression on his face was enough to make her pause.
“That will be enough of that, I think,” Crispin said coolly. “The witch belongs to me and it’s my place to punish her…or not,” he added as Willow began to show signs of panic. “That’s all right, my dear. I’ll protect you from the nasty old vampires.”
Willow scurried behind her master and grasped his outstretched hand, holding on for dear life. Crispin smiled benevolently at her and stroked her hair. Turning back to Clarissa and her vampires, his face hardened into a scowl
“I’ve had about all I can stomach of your bungling, you miserable excuse for a demon-spawn. You were instructed to do something as simple as eliminating a handful of children and you failed even that little task.”
“Now, just a minute, pal.” Clarissa bit back at him. “You and your demon buddy keep sending us into ambushes and telling us how simple it’s going to be. I haven’t seen your pale, skinny ass out there in the firing line just once. That Slayer bitch is a hell of a lot tougher than
anybody bothered to tell me. I’ve lost Karl, and now I’ve lost Terry- all because you guys sold me on this soft little burg with almost no resistance. So as far as I’m concerned buster you can take condescending attitude and shove it where the Sun don’t shine!”
“Is that a fact?” the warlock sneered back at her, his voice taking on an uncharacteristically working class tone. “Let me tell you something, you revolting little bloodsucker…”
Willow; who was trying to snuggle a little closer to him, momentarily interrupted his impending tirade. Enraged at the unwanted attention, he turned his fury on the witch, callously backhanding her across her mouth with great force. She stumbled backwards, tripping over her feet and landing in a heap on the cavern floor, mouth bleeding from a cut. As tears as started to well up in her eyes, Crispin snorted with contempt and turned back to Clarissa, who appeared to be as disgusted with Willow’s plight as the warlock was.
“Now that we have that little soap opera out the way, spanky, shall we get back down to business?” she said in a more conversational tone. “For instance, what do you think the Slayer is doing while you’re busy slapping Witch Hazel there around?”
Whatever the warlock was going to say in response died on his lips as a new voice broke into the conversation.
“That’s all a matter of interpretation now, a’int it?”
The assembled group turned to see Buffy the vampire Slayer, sword in hand, flanked by a tall dark haired man brandishing a battle-axe, and the bleached blond vampire who had been giving all them so much trouble lately. It was the latter who had spoken.
“Personally,” he added with a smirk on his face, “ I do believe she plans to kick your collective asses. But then again, that’s just me.”
**
The first one to recover from the shock of being surprised in their sanctuary was Crispin, who instead of addressing Buffy, turned on Clarissa.
“Idiot! Can’t you do anything right? What did you do, leave a trail of breadcrumbs for her to find?”
The vampire leader was aghast. “It’s not my fault, dammit!” Casting around desperately her eyes settled on Willow, who was once again cowering behind the warlock. “She did it! She’s sending signals to her buddies with witchcraft!”
“She’s lying, honey. I swear to God,” the witch whimpered again.
This time however, Crispin seemed to have no patience left with her. “Shut your mouth, bitch. If I wanted your opinion, I’d ask for it.” Turning back to the others, he shot a cold look at Buffy.
“Well, well. The incomparable Miss Summers, I presume. Not quite the introduction I had in mind, but beggars can’t be choosers.”
“Save the customary James Bond type villain speech, pal. I’ve heard it before. Still not impressed, even with the European accent,” Buffy scoffed at the warlock.
McDermott merely chuckled. “Well, then my dear,” he said suavely as he took a step backward and laid a hand on Willow’s shoulder. “Let’s see if you’ve heard of this…”
Before anyone else in the cavern had time to react, the witch mumbled a quick phrase in Latin and suddenly the area immediately surrounding her and the warlock was covered in smoke.
Buffy instinctively leapt towards the space that the two had occupied but was met with nothing but a wall of thick, burning clouds that drove her back on Spike and Xander, who were both having troubles of their own.
The vampires, not needing to breathe, had been less inconvenienced by the spell than the two humans and had managed to launch a counterstrike of their own. The remaining minions desperate to escape, had found themselves cut off from the exits and had hurled themselves at Spike, apparently in the vain hope that they could overpower him and then flee. Spike had managed to stop them for the moment, but Buffy could tell that they’d get past him soon.
Xander though, was in far worse shape. As the smoke quickly dissipated, Buffy could make out the forms of Clarissa’s three female henchvamps circling him, looking for an opening to attack. Currently he was keeping the two blondes away with his axe, but the dark haired one was already halfway around him. It was painfully obvious that he wasn’t going to last very long at those odds. Cursing to herself, she decided that Spike would have to deal with his problems unaided for the moment, and hurled herself against Xander’s opponents.
Crashing into the older blonde, Buffy managed to unbalance the younger one as well, as the two females went sprawling onto the cavern floor, as the Slayer threw a series of lightening fast punches. Xander, momentarily relieved from having to protect himself from three directions at once, tried to take advantage of her distraction and decapitate the brunette still moving behind him. Unfortunately, the younger vampire that Buffy had hit now stumbled into him and knocked him off balance as well. Wasting no time, the vampire behind him kicked the axe out of his hand and then slashed him across his left shoulder with a razor sharp claw.
Xander let out a curse as he went down on the floor, blood oozing from his shoulder wound. The vampire, smelling fresh blood, moved in for the kill without bothering to notice that the Slayer had regained her own balance. Buffy leaped over the prostrate form of her friend and blocked the vampire’s killing stroke with her left arm, and at the same time brought her right hand, which contained a wooden stake, towards its heart. As the vamp exploded, Buffy had to duck to avoid breathing in a cloud of dust.
Seeing that they had lost the advantage, the two remaining females fled across the cavern and though the mouth of a tunnel. Spike, just putting the last minion to the stake, was unable to prevent their escape. Suddenly Buffy found herself alone except for her two companions. The vampires were all either dead or gone. The Slayer swore aloud as she realized that Clarissa was one of the missing.
“Damn. That bitch pulls more escape acts than Houdini. Did either of you guys see where she disappeared to?”
Xander shook his head and then grimaced at the effort. “Sorry, Buffy I was a little busy getting my shoulder dislocated.”
“Oh, geez, Xander. I’m sorry,” she said worriedly, noticing for the first time just how bloody his shirt was. “That looks pretty bad.”
“I’ll live,” he grunted, obviously in a lot of pain. “Just let me catch my breath for a minute and I’ll be good to go.”
“Yeah, right, Harris,” Spike put in as he extended the carpenter a helping hand. “You look like you’d last about two rounds with a one legged girl scout right about now.” The tone in his voice was typically acidic, but the quick glance he shot at Buffy told her that he really didn’t think Xander was in good shape.
“No, Xan,” she said quickly. “I think you’ve done enough for now. I’ll feel a whole lot better knowing that I don’t have to face Anya with news of your untimely death.”
Xander pushed away Spike’s still outstretched hand and struggled to his feet on his own. It was clear that he was making a point about how fit he was. “But-“ he started to object.
“Decision’s final,” she cut him off in mid-sentence. “They’ve got a pretty big head start on us as it is and we’re not going to be able to watch our backs and yours too. You’re a liability right now, Xander. I’m sorry but that’s the truth.”
Although it was blatantly obvious that she’d hurt his feelings, he nodded his acquiescence. Spike said nothing but from his manner, there was no doubt that he agreed with her. They all knew she was right
“Can you make it out all right on your own, or do you want Spike to go with you?” she asked, hoping she hadn’t been too harsh.
“I don’t need any help from Captain Peroxide,” he bit back at her. “I’m not a baby. I can get our of a tunnel by myself, you know.”
He started to go back the way they had first come in but stopped before she the Slayer could turn away.
“Oh and Buffy?”
“Yeah, Xander?”
“Kick their asses,” he grinned at her and limped off into the blackness of the tunnel.
Smiling wanly at that show of encouragement, despite herself she looked over at Spike.
“Do you have any idea where they went to? I mean, you know these tunnels, right?”
The vampire nodded. “Yeah, I’ve a got a pretty good idea how this place is laid out. I’d say by the smell of things that Red and her boyfriend hoofed it up the same tunnel that Harris just went out. They must have gotten by us during the smoke and mirrors act. That leaves those two over there.” He pointed to the other side of the cavern.
Buffy could barely make out the two openings, sitting within ten feet of one another. They were both narrow, but certainly big enough for a female vampire to get through.
“Oh, crap on a stick,” she muttered, not wanting to have to make any more decisions.
“Why, Slayer,” Spike said, the faint outline of a smirk on his lips, “I had no idea you had such a potty mouth on you. Somebody should wash out it with soap…or something.”
“For the last time, Shut the hell up Spike,” she muttered in annoyance, not having the time or energy for his usual banter.
“Fair enough then, pet,” he replied, getting down to the business at hand. “Looks like we split up from here. Which one do you want, right or left?”
“Like it really matters.”
“You have a point there, luv,” he agreed with her, and with that he charged in to the one on the right, leaving her alone in the near dark.
“Jerk,” she said to an empty cavern and headed into the other tunnel in search of the escaped vampires.
***
The tunnel that Buffy found herself in, was little more than a roughhewn hole through the rock that twisted and turned every few feet. At one point, she was forced to her hands and knees to navigate the treacherous passage when it became too cramped for even her slight frame to walk upright in. There was no telling how long it was, or even where ended up, but Buffy pushed herself forward through the darkness as fast as she possibly could. There was no way that she was going to let that pack of sleazeball vamps get away from what they had coming to them tonight.
Her efforts were seemingly rewarded as she reached a wider opening in the tunnel that was better lit than the section she was currently in. Scrambling through it, she attempted to get to her feet, but was met with a powerful blow to her face that knocked her backwards against a wall of what turned out to be a fairly spacious and partially lit cavern. She had been hit so hard in fact that for a few moments she thought she was going to black out. Even as she struggled to hold on to her consciousness and regain her balance, a part of her Slayer trained mind wondered why her unseen opponent hadn’t bothered to finish her off with a killing stoke by now. Her curiosity was immediately sated by the cackle of a familiar and highly irritating voice.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Muffy the vampire layer.” Clarissa said in her customarily mocking tone. “Kind of walked into that one, now didn’t you? I always said that you weren’t all that…oooph.”
The master vampire was cut short in the middle of her gloating as Buffy managed to take advantage of her mistake and drive a fist into her stomach, which forced her back a feet, and gave the Slayer enough time to regain her equilibrium.
“What’s the matter, Vanessa?” She taunted the vampire. “Slowing down in your old age?”
“For the last time, you underdeveloped barbie-doll, the name is Clarissa,” Clarissa snarled back, even as she launched a combination of a right hook and a left undercut.
“Yeah, yeah, like a pile of dust really needs a name.”
Buffy dodged back along the edge of the cavern wall just out of reach of the vampire’s furious but largely ineffectual assaults. Now that she had her breath back, she had time to study her enemy’s combat style first hand. She wasn’t impressed.
“Awwwww” she continued to tease. “Is that the best you can come up with?” Blocking a kick with her left foot, she threw an elbow into Clarissa and sent her sprawling towards the wall. Quickly, she moved forward to press her advantage but the vampire proved to be very agile and merely scrambled up the wall instead of crashing into it.
“Is this a little bit better for you, sweetie?” Clarissa purred at her as she launched herself full-bore at the Slayer.
It was a powerful attack, and against most opponents, it probably would have succeeded on pure ferocity alone. But Buffy was not an average fighter, even when compared to other Slayers, and she nimbly dodged the vampire’s charge and delivered a full roundhouse kick that knocked her back yet again.
“Okay, this is seriously starting to bore me, Corissa,” Buffy taunted her, hoping to goad her into a fatal mistake.
Her attempt was rewarded by an inhuman snarl of rage as the master vampire charged straight ahead with no thought of anything except pulling the Slayer apart piece by piece. Whirling
so fast that no human could have followed her movements, Buffy sidestepped her and plunged a stake through her back and directly into her heart. Gasping in shock, the vampire turned to face her kiler.
The expression of utter disbelief on Clarissa’s face was so exaggerated that Buffy almost had to suppress a giggle. It never ceased to amaze her how they all thought that they were always going to win.
“But…it’ not fair,’ she whined. “I wasn’t ready for my close-up yet…” Whatever else she was going to say remained a mystery.
“Well, that’s one down,’ Buffy murmured to herself as her most recent antagonist exploded into a cloud of dust. Looking around her surroundings though she realized that she already had another problem.
“Okay, where in the hell am I and how do I get out of here?” she asked to the now empty cavern. She was greeted by a resounding silence as she faced a small cavern that had no fewer than six small tunnels branching off from it.
“Oh, crap,” she muttered and wondered if anybody had bothered to invent a six sided coin yet.
****
Spike raced through the cramped tunnel he was in, paying little heed to rough hewn dirt walls as his leather coat frequently brushed them. He was on the hunt now, and the scent of the two blonde female vamps he was chasing was thick in his nostrils. A part of him realized that Buffy was probably facing the ringleader right now, but any concerns he had for the Slayer too a back seat as he came to a wide spot in the tunnel and straight into an attempted ambush. Attempted only however, as Spike had been expecting something along those lines, having reasoned that neither one of them was going to outrun him for long.
It was the older of the two that struck, trying to throw him off balance with a raking claw, which he easily blocked. She tried again, and then reeled backwards as he caught her fist with one hand and smashed the other squarely into her face. Slowly and methodically, he drove her into the cavern, repeatedly blocking her kicks and punches, which were growing more desperate by the moment. She clearly wasn’t much of a fighter and she was certainly no match for a warrior of Spike’s ability.
“Damn it, Sunny!” she suddenly screamed. “Help me!”
It was at this point, that Spike noticed the younger female, cowering in a small niche’ of the cavern wall. When she made no move to help her mate, the other began berating her at the top of her lungs, even as Spike continued his assault.
It was only a matter of time before she slipped up, and when she turned her head to call the girl a ‘stupid and worthless little bitch’, Spike brushed her arms aside and twisted her head right off her neck in one fluid motion. As she dissolved into a cloud, he turned his attention to the young fledgling, who was now sobbing in terror.
Spike advanced on the girl, who was still not attempting to either defend herself or even flee and whose name he remembered was ‘Sunny.’ This would be about the easiest kill he had ever made. All he had to do was to take the stake from his coat and plunge it into her chest. It would be a mercy, really. And yet, for some strange reason that he wasn’t even sure he could articulate to himself, he hesitated.
Maybe it was that she presented him with no challenge, something Spike had always craved in a fight. Perhaps it was the fact that she was so weak and helpless that there was no sport or pleasure to be found even in ridding the world of a dangerous predator. Of course, if Spike were to be honest with himself, he’d have to admit that the real reasons were totally alien to his natural demonic nature. Pity. Pity…and guilt. After all, she had been there the night he had rescued the ‘niblet’ and her mate from the Hollywood vampires. While he had borne absolutely no responsibility for her safety, he damned well knew that if it had been Buffy in his place that night, she would have made sure all those kids had gotten home in one piece, instead of ending up like they had done.
This is getting to be bloody ridiculous, he thought to himself. Vampires weren’t supposed to give a brass farthing about anything but themselves, least of all some chit who’d been stupid enough to get caught after he’d told them to get out of there. It did bother him though, and the fact that it bothered, him bothered him even worse. He was changing. He knew it and it scared the …well Hell was probably not the right term for it, but whatever it was Spike was not enjoying the sensation. Realizing that he didn’t have any more time to waste with his uninvited crisis of conscience he made a decision, figuring that if it was the wrong one, it certainly wouldn’t be the first he had made in his 150+ years of existence. After all, nobody was perfect, not even the Slayer.
Putting the stake away, he approached the sobbing vampire and held out his hand to her.
“It’s all right, luv’ he said as gently as he could. “I’m not going to hurt you today.”
Utterly bewildered and still in the throes of panic, the girl shrank away from his touch, but when she realized that he was not threatening her, she took his outstretched hand and allowed herself to be pulled up to her feet. She stared at him for quite a long time, before asking him the inevitable question.
“What do you want?” It was pretty obvious what was going through her mind at the moment.
To the victor belong the spoils.
“Not that, pet,” he told her.
“What then?”
“Up to you. You’ve got a ‘get out of staking free card’, just this once. But it’s only good for tonight. My advice to you, for what it’s worth, is to catch the first midnight train to anywhere but here that you can. After today, there won’t be any place in this town that the Slayer won’t be looking for you and what’s left of your lot. Savy?”
Sunny gulped a bit but nodded.
“Right then, how about doing me a favor and pointing out where the rest of your pals are hold up. There’s got to be some more of them lurking about, yeah?”
She nodded again and immediately began heading down the tunnel in the opposite direction that he had come from. It narrowed and widened at various intervals, finally emptying out in a massive cavern, which contained the openings to an uncountable number of tunnels. For some odd reason, the place felt familiar to Spike.
“Is this it then?” he asked her.
The female vampire shook her head and pointed to one of the wider passages. “Clarissa used to go down that one every once in a while when she was meeting with the Warlock. Lysette told me once that the Big Boss lived there.”
“That Malthusian bloke?”
Sunny shrugged. “I guess. I’ve never seen him, though.”
Spike nodded. “Okay, Princess. You’ve earned your reprieve. Make use of the head start.” He waved his hand in the direction of one of the other tunnels.
She started to go but halted for just a second to say “For what it’s worth. Thanks for not staking me, I mean.”
Damn, me if she doesn’t remind me of somebody right now, Spike thought. And then he remembered who it was. Harmony. Damn it, that’s the last bint in the world I want on my mind right about now.
“No trouble at all, luv. Glad to oblige. Just remember what I told you.”
“Yeah, I will. And good luck,” she added as she vanished into the darkness.
“And don’t think I’m not going to bloody well need it,” he muttered to himself. ”Oh well, Spike my boy, nothing ventured nothing gained, as mater used to say.”
Steeling himself to meet, well the devil only knew what, Spike began to carefully traverse the passageway. He’d never faced a Malthusian before and had no idea what to expect. Of course, if he were to be the least bit cautious, he knew that should be heading back to where he had last seen Buffy and try to find her. Together they would probably have a far better chance against the unseen demon, but then again, caution had never been one of Spike’s strong suits.
Unlike the other tunnels, this one did not wind around much at all. Instead, it grew wider and straighter as he progressed. It also went downward and it seemed to grow warmer the further down he went. Spike continued on for quite a while until finally it opened up into a cavern that was even larger than the previous one. Not even hesitating for a second, he marched through the opening and discovered that the place was also extremely well lit by what seemed to be hundreds of torches, ensconced on the walls. And it was at this precise point that Spike realized that he had been here before.
“Bloody Hell,” he swore as a blast of heat caught him and nearly drove him back out of the cavern. Regaining his balance in his customary catlike fashion, he moved forward to the source of the heat, already knowing instinctively what it was. His worst fears were realized when he saw a gaping trench in the floor, which was widening by the second. It hadn’t happened in nearly two years but it was a sensation he remembered only too well.
Someone, or some thing, had opened the Hellmouth.
As he moved forward towards the unholy thing to investigate, he could hear chanting coming from directly in front of him. Within a few moments, he had located the source of the chanting, a small huddled figure in front of the widest part of the trench. Whatever it was, it made no attempt to stop him as he inched closer, or even to show an awareness of his presence. That for some reason, only served to seriously tick the vampire off.
Clearing his throat in an exaggerated manner, Spike loudly announced his arrival. “Well, mate, looks like you’ve got some company. Feel like playing the proper host, and serving some tea n’ biscuits?”
The figure had stopped the chanting but did not turn to face him. A bit irritated, Spike tried again. “What’s the matter, didn’t your mother ever teach you any manners? Don’t you have anything to say?”
At that moment, the figure began to turn. “Why yes. Yes I do,’ it said in a vaguely familiar voice.
Before Spike could speak again, the creature had revealed itself to be a wizened little man with a shock of nearly white hair, wearing a pair of horned rimmed spectacles and a crisp black suit. Just the way he had appeared nearly eight months ago.
“Hello, there Spike,” Doc said to the totally shocked vampire. It’s been a while. How’s the boy?”
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