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Author's Chapter Notes:
many thanks to those of you kind enough to stick with me. Thanks as well to those kind and enthusiastic people who leave us the crumbs of their reviews..

Banner by edgehead and I love it:)
Giles grinned at Ethan: they sent out their thoughts, checking every closet and room in the building. The two slayers were totally alone in that great hotel. Now they could have some fun.

‘One each,’ Ethan smiled. The look on his face as he raked his eyes up and down Buffy made her feel sick. Giles was looking at Faith the same way.

‘I prefer them virgins myself, I do so love the screaming; but as you say, one each.’

‘Funny,’ Faith replied ‘but that’s sort of what we thought as well… One each…’

Ethan’s eyes became hooded: these silly little girls should be scared but they looked more like predators, cats who have seen a mouse.

Morgana put the last crystal in place, sealing the hotel from any more intruders and Cathy crushed the crystal holding the spell disguising the reinforcements under her boot.

The battle was on.

Ethan and Giles looked around in horror as hundreds of slayers appeared from nowhere. No wonder the children hadn’t been scared, they weren’t alone at all.

A group of soldiers came running down the stairs; Giles thought he recognised one of them, but he couldn’t believe that all his carefully laid spells to keep Riley and the slayer at each other’s throats had failed. His magic didn’t fail, couldn’t fail. He was too good for that to happen. He tried to strengthen the spell, to turn the soldiers against the slayers and the vampire that was in front of him, but it wasn’t working. He could feel the spell bounce off some sort of force-field and hit Ethan.

Ethan couldn’t think properly. Who was friend and who enemy? It made him feel sick and confused. Ethan started throwing spells around, trying to hit the women. He knew they were against him, women were always against him.

The ants crawled all over the floor, huge pincers reaching for everyone and everything. One of them caught a column and crushed it into dust.

‘Ugh, what a way to spoil a picnic, who would be stupid enough to bring ants?’ Buffy quipped at Faith who just grinned as she took her scythe to the nearest creature’s neck.

‘They die, same old way, cut off their heads. If you can reach…’ She laughed as Buffy missed one and caught its mandible instead.

Riley and his men started shooting at the ants but bullets seemed to bounce off most of their armour: they seemed impervious to normal weapons. A flame thrower kept them at a distance as the sharpshooters took more careful aim at the heads and eyes. One stray round got through a soft space on the thorax, spurting out greeny-blue blood over the walls.

‘Aim for the thorax!’ Riley yelled to his men and they altered their aim accordingly, scoring hit after hit, the green goo going everywhere, covering walls and people alike. The screams coming from the ants were sickening. One ant had caught a slayer in its mandibles and was squeezing hard. Spike could see the girl struggling: a shot from one of the soldiers brought it down and a second slayer used her scythe to cut the girl free. She leapt to her feet and back into the fray.

The slayers were coming in thick and fast, using their swords and scythes to decapitate any and all ants that got in the way.

Giles and Ethan ran straight for Buffy: take her out and the enemy would falter. They started chanting, red light extruding from their out-stretched fingers. It was sickly and evil looking. It shot forward: the light hit Buffy and she screamed. Buffy could feel her powers diminishing, she screamed again at the pain as it riddled her body. She had never felt anything like it.
Spike heard her shout above all the noise that surrounded them. He twisted the head off of the ant he was fighting and ran across the bodies of others to reach his beloved Buffy. She had collapsed on the ground, and seemed unable to stand.

But it didn’t have the effect on the slayers Giles expected. They didn’t falter, they rallied. Faith was yelling above the din to get their butts into the fight and take out the demons. She ran towards the two sorcerers, killing the demons in her way.
Ethan had his hands around Buffy’s throat and was squeezing the air from her lungs. Giles was laughing evilly and grabbed Buffy; pulling her roughly to her feet, he reached for her breasts, kneading and pinching them through her shirt, his hands cruel and vicious as he nuzzled into her neck.

‘You smell so sweet, is that why vampires keep coming back to you? Perhaps I should have a taste,’ he kissed her roughly.

‘I always wondered what she’d feel like,’ he grinned, ‘she seems to like demons, we could both make her scream.’

‘Not before I kill you, you couldn’t!’ Cathy was in front of them. She threw a dagger at Giles, but it turned to a snake half way across.

Ethan laughed and kept squeezing her throat. Spike appeared behind him. This was no tame lap dog but a master vampire in full fighting mode and protecting his mate. Giles had never understood that bond, and he didn’t understand it now when Spike twisted Ethan’s head viciously, just snapping the man’s neck. Willow had managed to make it behind the action to within touching distance of the former watcher. She put her hand, almost lovingly, on his back and started chanting the words that would strip him of his powers. It was obvious when they had left him. A black ooze went seeping across the floor, looking for somewhere to hide. Buffy threw her head back in a move that Spike’s nose knew only too well, breaking Giles’ just as she use to break his. Unlike William the Bloody, Rupert Giles had no super-healing powers and Spike didn’t need preternatural hearing to hear the bone crack. Another move Spike knew well freed Buffy, her elbow jabbing Giles hard in the groin, making the man double up in pain, even Spike winced with the venom she put into the manoeuvre. And Giles was on the ground. Willow used a pair of handcuffs to secure him, and a second binding spell to prevent his powers returning.

The slayers and soldiers had taken care of the ants.

‘Will the handcuffs hold if him if he gets strength back?’ William asked.

Willow blushed. ‘They withstand slayer strength,’ she said, looking at Kennedy with rose tinted cheeks.

‘In that case pet I may just borrow them from you at some point.’ He gave her a dirty grin and went to help Buffy up from where she was rubbing her bruised breasts.

‘I’d offer to do that for you but I don’t want my face slapped,’ he smirked and heaved Giles up from the floor by his cuffed hands, little caring how much it hurt the man’s shoulders. He shoved Giles down by the side of Ethan. Both men were bloodied and bowed but Ethan’s neck seemed to fixing itself.

‘Got a second set of cuffs?’ Spike asked and caught them with one hand as Kennedy tossed them to him.

‘They also stop magic use,’ she said, making a deeper red appear on Willow’s cheeks. Spike just burst out laughing at the thought of them getting wild together.

‘TMI,’ Faith added with another laugh. ‘Way too much information!’

The slayers and soldiers were signalling those hidden to lower the wards. It was safe to come out. First through were Dawn and Martin. Martin took one look around him and started dealing with the wounded, setting up a triage in the room there and then. There weren’t too many. One soldier had a nasty bite on his leg, but although it was deep, the bone was intact and he shouldn’t lose the limb.

Morgana and Septamus looked down at the ex-watcher and their friend.

‘You really have let us all down Rupert,’ Septamus started, ‘we thought that giving you a second chance was a good thing, but you have betrayed everyone, even your own slayer.’

‘Why shouldn’t I? She was never much of a slayer, off shagging the undead, forsaking her vows and birthright…’

‘Ah yes, but she never took the vows: seems you forgot that as well as the handbook in your eagerness to give her a second rate education.’

‘There were vows? I was supposed to be vowed?’ Buffy looked up from where Spike was checking her over. Dawn was a little worried, her slayer strength hadn’t yet fully returned.

‘If you weren’t up to strength pet, what’s with the watcher’s broken nose and bruised family jewels?’

‘That was me, Buffy Summers, just pissed off.’ She winced as she felt the bruise on her back for the first time.

The pair watched as the lighter bruising began fading as her slayer abilities returned and they looked around the room. Slayers and Initative were clearing up the dead and debris; Clem was hugging Baya close. He had been so worried for his mate. Chara was holding onto its Daddy’s neck with an unbreakable grip, the little family safe under a slayers’ protection.

The battle was over.





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