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“Now,” Spike said grinning as he got off the R.V, “this is my kind of place!” he laughed.

Buffy got off and eyed the scene with awe. The tavern was a huge squatted building. Fires burned freely in the dirt as bikers howled and raced their bikes around the bonfires in circles, shooting guns into the air. Spike clicked his tongue in amusement and sauntered off towards the bar. The others filed off the R.V. in stunned disbelief.

“Place looks jumping, B’,” Faith commented wryly. Buffy turned an accusatory look at Xander, who just threw his hands up in defense.

“Don’t blame me. This place wasn’t in Rand McNally,” he responded defensively. Seething, the blond Slayer turned her gaze back to survey the anarchy.

Giles cleared his throat, and commented, “Buffy, I’m not entirely sure this is an appropriate environment for Dawn to be exposed to.” He started as a particularly loud war whoop ended in a biker knocking another biker off his bike with a two-by-four. “Or for us, for that matter,” he added as an afterthought.

Alec snorted slightly. “Somehow the idea of leaving her in the bus all by herself doesn’t appeal either,” he replied. Dawn carefully scooted closer over to him for security.

“I don’t like this, Buffy,” Angel stated grimly.

Buffy looked over at him. “I’m sure you’ve seen worse in your two hundred plus years,” she replied dryly.

Angel furrowed his brow in thought.

“Not in this country,” he denied, then admitted, “Calcutta, maybe.”

Buffy snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Place is like Tarantino’s wet dream,” Alec commented sourly. “Anyone sees Salma Hayek start dancing with a boa, we flee.”

“Speak for yourself. I’ll take Salma with fangs any day,” Spike countered licking his own fangs.

“Look - we’re here, let’s make the best of it. Dawn,” Buffy turned around to regard her sister, who was still trying to lurk inconspicuously in Alec’s shadow, “stay close, and don’t look anyone in the eye,” she frowned at the girl’s attire and reached over to zip her sweater vest closed, “and keep yourself inconspicuous,” she added.

Dawn squirmed and eyeballed her sister’s outfit, consisting of one of her trademark mini-skirts and a tight fitting shirt.

“Look who’s talking,” she retorted. Buffy’s face darkened but didn’t say anything.

“Nobody is touching you, Dawn,” Alec vowed in a tone that promised impending violence, “nor any of the rest of you. You have my word; the first hands that come upon you will be relocated to the floor with their owner’s head following right behind them.”

Everyone turned to stare at him as Spike laughed.

“What, all by yourself then, mate?”

“If need be.”

Faith whistled low as she took in the brutality around them: there had to be over a hundred heavily armed, psychotically violent bikers and truckers around them. She then proceeded to examine Alec’s expression and came to one inescapable conclusion: if Alec felt any of them were threatened, he’d slaughter every last one of them.

“Dusk, bro, I say this with affection, respect, and the voice of experience of a convicted mass-murderer - you need to lighten up,” she stated simply.

“Seriously,” Buffy commented.

“Right, I can see the headlines in the post now – ‘Deranged Englishman massacres bar patrons; many found bludgeoned to death with stick removed from the assailant’s own arse’,” Spike teased with a grin, slapping his friend on the shoulder, “ ‘Meanwhile, all the waitresses and booze went missing; the Englishman’s best mate is currently under investigation.’ ”

Alec relaxed at his friend’s humor, his fists unclenching. Buffy sent Spike a look of gratitude, the vampire nodded and then continued his diatribe.

“Come on then, let’s GO already. Before all the good strippers are taken,” he barked out and, half-dragging his lover behind him, Spike strode to the bar doors like a kid in a candy shop. Angel sighed and headed back onto the bus, not really in the mood to watch Buffy and Spike’s antics. Willow grabbed Alec’s arm.

“Don’t you leave my side for a minute, capiche?” she demanded.

Dawn grabbed his other arm.

“Yeah, me either,” she put in.

Alec smiled wryly and turned to his father. “Shall we?” he asked.

Giles sighed. “Very well, once more into the breach.” With a sigh, he took off his glasses, guys with glasses tended to get bothered in places like this, and, tucking them away, followed Alec towards the bar, Xander and Anya following.

“You know, this place looks kind of interesting,” Anya commented.

Xander frowned at her. “Remind me to never, EVER, let you pick where we go on a date,” he replied before entering the smoky bar.

Spike grinned like a happy puppy as he took in the chaos flowing around him. The bar was stacked with every kind of degenerate and manner of scum imaginable. The bleached vampire inhaled the scent of decadence deeply, relishing every moment. The lights in the bar were dim, which was a good thing because nobody wanted to get too close a look at the bar’s inhabitants. There was some sort of mariachi band playing in one of the corners, but there weren’t any strippers, much to Spike’s chagrin and Buffy’s relief. But some of the waitresses wore outfits that made Buffy’s look downright puritanical in comparison.

The group carefully headed to a table in a darkened corner. There was a very intoxicated patron resting in one of the chairs. Spike strode over to him and, without missing a beat, shoved the comatose patron out of the chair to slump onto the floor. Picking up the chair, he swept the table clean of beer bottles, cigarette butts, and various other objects. They crashed to the floor, shattering loudly, as Spike grinned and plunked down into the chair, throwing his boots onto the table.

Buffy eyed him, but grabbed a seat next to him. Dawn sat next to her, followed by Alec, Willow, Xander, Anya, Giles, and Faith. Spike leaned his head back and snapped his fingers, beckoning to a particularly buxom waitress.

“Drinks, sweets. Whiskey, and keep it coming,” he demanded. The waitress nodded, and smiled flirtatiously at him, earning a very dark glare from Buffy. She then turned and left to get the drinks. Spike turned back to the group.

“I could become a regular,” he quipped.

Buffy snorted. “Yeah, cheap booze and a bar ho for every table.”

Several pairs of eyes turned to regard the petite blond Slayer in surprise.

“I’m telling mom you said that,” Dawn threatened.

Buffy shot her a withering look and went back to glaring at Spike, who was having too much fun, watching various bar fights to notice. The drinks arrived without incident and Spike helped himself to a double. He held the brimming glass up in a toast.

“Here’s to you, and here’s to me, and may we never disagree,” he turned and flashed the Slayer a smile, “and should we ever disagree, screw you, here’s to me.” He downed the shot and slammed the shot glass onto the table as Buffy hit him on the arm hard enough to make him wince. “Goh! That’s good!” He grinned and began pouring himself another.

Alec leaned in onto his elbows and poured a drink for himself as he eyed his friend. “Is there an AA for vampires?” he asked wryly.

Buffy glared at Spike and answered.

“Yeah it’s called ‘touch that bottle again and you're cut off!’ ” she bit out.

Spike stopped in mid-pour, regarding the Slayer with a horrified look, not noticing that the glass was now overflowing into a river of whiskey that spilled out and flowed across the table to splatter upon the dirty floor. With a sigh, Spike put the bottle down and poured the shot glass out onto the floor.

“Bollocks,” he muttered.

“That’s better, lover. I’ll make it up to you later.” The Slayer smiled at him and kissed his cheek.

Spike snorted in derision.

The laughter from the group died as a shadow fell over the table. They all looked up to regard an absolutely huge biker, clad in leather and very drunk, leering covetously at the women at the table.

“Hey, there, sweet things,” he muttered drunkenly.

Alec looked up at the biker and growled – a deep, primal sound, like a wild animal getting ready to pounce. Buffy placed a restraining hand on his arm as Faith got up from the table.

“I got this one,” she assured them all, smiling prettily.

“Faith…” Buffy warned.

Faith waved her off as she cozied up to the drunken behemoth. The drunk frowned as he belched into Faith’s face.

“Don’t want ya, yer damaged goods,” he growled, pointing at the scar on her face.

Faith grinned, and wrapped her arms around the biker’s neck.

“Not everywhere,” she whispered seductively. The drunk smiled, showing several missing teeth. The dark-haired woman leaned in, as if to kiss him, then, jerking his shoulders down, she slammed her knee up high and hard into his crotch. There was a slight crunch and everyone at the table winced.

Spike blanched. “Ouch,” he put forth mildly.

The biker’s face had turned a very deep red, his mouth flopping open, gasping like a fish. Faith continued to drive her knee into the convulsing biker, twisting and grinding it with all her slayer strength and still smiling prettily.

Alec looked on in horror as he quickly took a glass and put it before Spike demandingly. Spike, who had been watching the spectacle with the morbid intensity one views a train wreck, looked down, confused.

“Excuse me, mate, but your sister just said-”

“Shut up and pour, Spike,” Alec retorted quietly, cringing in empathetic pain as the grinding sound took on a distinctly pulpy, popping sound. Spike obeyed quickly and Alec downed the shot, exhaling hard.

Faith stepped back from the purple-faced man.

“Guess I’m not the only one that’s ‘damaged goods’, huh, big boy?” she asked.

Placing a finger against the drunk’s forehead, she pushed slightly and he fell backwards into a whimpering heap. The table applauded, even Giles who was just now removing his hand from within his jacket.

“Well done, Faith,” he complimented. Faith smiled and shrugged,

“He just wasn’t my type,” she shrugged. Buffy shook her head and offered her hand to Faith, who slapped it.

“Nice one, Faith,” she admitted.

“Girl power,” Faith responded, wryly.

Spike, still looking a little more pale than usual, poured her a drink and pushed it towards her.

“Here, love, you’ve earned this.”

Faith stared at it for a long time, before pushing it away.

“Thanks, but no thanks, I don’t need it,” she smiled at Buffy who nodded approvingly.

Buffy then noticed Giles frowning down at the wooden table.

“See something interesting?” Buffy asked wryly.

Giles shook his head. “I’m sorry, it’s just… there’s something odd carved into this table.” He continued frowning as Buffy came over to peer at what had so disturbed Giles.

“Like what?” Xander asked wryly. “ ‘For a good time, call Spike’s mother?’ ” He laughed as Spike whipped a bottle cap at him.

Buffy leaned over Giles’ shoulder and frowned, making a face.

“What IS that?” she asked pointing at the symbol consisting of a circle of eight eyes surrounding a central eye, the entire thing enclosed in some sort of triangular pattern. Giles pursed his lips in thought.

“It’s the symbol for Beth Gul-Abz,” he informed them.

“Gul-Abz? I know him. Horrid creature. Awful manners, never could keep his eyes to himself,” commented Anya, the name having perked her interest.

Alec frowned. “What would a demonic glyph be doing, carved into a table in a bar in the middle of New Mexico?”

Giles shook his head. “I don’t know, but I think we’re about to find out.” Raising his eyes past Alec’s shoulders, he peered at something over on the other side of the bar. Slowly, the group turned to see what had caught his attention.

Nine men entered the bar from behind a curtain. Each dressed in red robes, with the symbol of Beth Gul-Abz, emblazoned in green in full on the back. They wore black hoods and huge full-face masks made to look like a giant eye.

Giles slowly got out of his seat. “I think it’s time to leave,” he commented.

“Yeah, I’m getting that sense,” Buffy agreed and followed the former librarian.

Carefully so as not to draw attention to themselves, all of them rose from their chairs. Suddenly, a gong sounded and the massive wooden doors closed, sealing the bar shut.

Xander blanched. “Does this mean happy hour’s over?” he joked weakly.

“I know I’m suddenly feeling pretty unhappy,” Alec replied.

“Again, speak for yourself, mate,” Spike retorted, “I sense impending violence.”

“Do you think I would speak for you, ya prat?”

“Who are you calling a prat you-?!”

“Guys!” Buffy hissed, silencing the bickering friends as the din in the room quieted down and one of the robed men stepped forth. Unlike the others, his robe was a deep purple, his mask not one eye, but eight eyes surrounding a large singular one. He lifted his mask and spoke.

“Greetings, my friends. Tonight, you are privy to a very special honor. Tonight, as the rest of the world hides behind false pretenses of generosity, their so called ‘Christmas spirit’, we, true men of action, revel in our own spirit.” There were a few drunken cheers at this, as the man gestured for silence.

“You ask for drink, and he provides!” More cheers.

“You ask for flesh, and he provides!” He gestured to the waitresses who were now clad in silken robes as well. The crowd cheered again as Buffy felt her muscles tensing up, Alec and Spike slowly moving behind her to flank.

“And now,” the robed man spoke, “we, the priests of the all-seeing lord, give you something else.” He pointed to a large patch of bare floor, the only patch of bare floor, Buffy realized with a start.

“We give you the honor of witnessing,” he raised his hands high, “His ascendance!”

“Oh, goody, an ascendance, that’s always good!” Buffy said with a snarl, and a moment later she was proven right as, with an explosion of wood and cement, the floor erupted, spraying wooden debris across the crowd. Spike grabbed Buffy and shielded her; Alec threw his coat over Willow and Dawn, as Xander, Giles, Faith, and Anya dropped to the floor. Spike was the first to turn around and look.

“Oh, bloody hell,” he muttered. Slowly, the others turned as well.

A huge orb covered in pink bulbous flesh, easily seven feet in diameter hovered over a gaping hole in the floor, eight eyes set on some sort of stalks writhed and crackled. It had no facial features save a single large pulsating eye and a gaping maw full of dagger-like teeth. It drooled and hissed as it regarded the crowd with its eight eyestalks.

The priest lowered his arms and beamed.

“And now, you, most unworthy sacrifices, may give as well… your lives,” he hissed. And the creature struck.

A ray of red light erupted from its central eye, incinerating bar and bar patron alike. People screamed and fell out of their chairs, scrambling to get away from the hovering monstrosity. Spike and Xander, with a running leap, dived behind the bar, taking cover; Alec upended the table, using it for cover as Willow and Dawn huddled behind it. Giles, Faith, Anya, and Buffy huddled behind some shattered chairs as the gurgling laughter of Gul-Abz echoed through the room as it began to feed.

Anya caught Buffy’s eye.

“Those eyes shoot death rays, one touch and you’re killed instantly,”

Buffy nodded. “Thanks, Ahn, I noticed.” She turned to Giles. “How can we fight this thing?”

The Watcher shook his head. “I haven’t the faintest idea, but we’d best think of something quick!” He turned to check on Alec and the girls, relieved to see that they seemed unharmed.

The sounds of screaming and crunching bone filled the room. Alec wrapped the girls’ heads tightly in his arms, burying their faces in the safely of his body and shielding them from the sight.

“Don’t look,” he whispered. Willow and Dawn huddled against him, both petrified by the suddenness and brutality of the attack. The young man cast a look over their barricade, and immediately ducked back down, looking ever grimmer than he had earlier.

“What’s happening?” Dawn asked.

“You don’t want to know,” he replied quietly. There was a scream followed by a meaty crunching sound, stopping the screaming abruptly. Dawn shuddered and burrowed her head against Alec. He held them tightly and flinched as another blast from the creature sailed over their heads to incinerate part of the wall.

Alec turned suddenly, hoping that perhaps the creature had created them an escape route. His face fell as he saw that the stone wall had been scorched, but was still entirely intact. He threw a look over at his father.

“We’re going to get annihilated if we stay here much longer!” he yelled.

Giles nodded. “I’m open to suggestions,” he yelled back.

Anya grabbed his arm. “Challenge him!” she whispered fiercely.

“What?!” Giles asked, askance.

“Challenge him! Gul-Abz is a blowhard, challenge him to a stand up fight and he’ll consider a point of honor to vaporize you face-to-face.”

“Great! Who wants to be the person that gets his attention?” Faith yelled.

“I do!” Alec cried out and got up.

“Son, no! We’ll take him together!” his father called out.

“Not a chance, Dad, you need a distraction and a chance to marshal your forces and I want a piece of this guy. I’m taking him now!”

“Alec!” Willow and Dawn both cried out as he made his move, suddenly Alec swooped down low and captured Willow’s mouth in a fiery kiss full of passion and `intensity, even as he held both girls close to him.

“Stay safe!” Alec insisted to them both when they pulled apart. Willow was breathless and stunned, Dawn looked… conflicted.

“Dusk…?’ Dawn whispered.

And then he was gone; Dawn and Willow reached out for him even as he vaulted over the table and made a bee-line for Beth Gul-Abz.

“What the hell is he doing?” Buffy cried out.

“What he does,” his father replied forlornly, white-faced and afraid for his son’s life. Giles shook himself hard. “He’s buying us some time, Buffy, make good use of it!”

“Brother or not, I’m going to kill him,” Buffy growled angrily as she turned to yell across the bar at Willow. “Wills!”

Willow didn’t respond; she was still staring at the spot that Alec had been, looking terrified.

“Willow!” Dawn hissed at her, tearing her eyes away from Alec’s efforts to get to the demon. Willow turned to face her, looking confused.

“He’s going to die…” Willow whispered in shock.

“Panic later! Right now Buffy needs you!”

Willow whipped her head around to look at the blonde Slayer. “What are we going to do?” she cried out.

“You still got that trick with the watch Wills?” Buffy asked.

“Yes! Yes I do!” Willow’s face lit up.

“Good, get it ready, we’re going to need it!”

Willow nodded and turned to Dawn. “Okay, Dawnie, you need to stay down during all this, but we’re going to go kick some demon-ass,” she instructed her.

“What about Dusk?” Dawn asked fervently.

“Don’t you worry, Dawnie, he’s going to be okay - nobody messes with my boyfriend.”

“Yeah…,” Dawn muttered to herself, turning away from Willow, who had begun to prepare a spell, “…all yours.”

Alec weaved his way towards the demon, using debris and corpses as cover as he serpentined his way towards his target. A machete-wielding cultist attacked him suddenly, and Alec responded with a roundhouse punch that broke the man’s jaw and sent him spiraling to the floor. Alec caught the discarded weapon from mid-air and tumbled the last few feet towards the demon. One of the creature’s eyestalks rotated to regard him and Alec sliced the eyestalk clean off.

The demon roared in rage and rotated to face Alec.

“Who dares?!” it demanded.

“I do, you git!” Alec responded and drove the blade deep into the side of the creature. It screamed in pain and fury and, with a crimson burst,: shot Alec with one of its death rays.

“ALEC!” Buffy cried out.

Dawn shot her head up to look, terror-stricken, as Giles reached into his jacket and removed what appeared to be a monstrously huge revolver and took aim.

Miraculously, Alec was not slain; instead he stood his ground, holding both hands out in front of him to block the beam. The skin on his palms began to blacken and blister as Alec’s eyes filled to pools of darkness. Beth Gul-Abz turned a second eyebeam, a third, and a forth, focusing them on the young man who gritted and took it, even as he was slowly being pushed backwards by the onslaught.

“Son…” Giles whispered, aghast at the sight as the flesh began to burn and crisp off his son’s arms. He could feel the heat of the creature’s burning rays from where he was and he was pretty far away. Alec was in the center of an inferno.

Alec gritted his teeth, he could feel that his eyebrows had burned away and his hair was beginning to coil and smoke, the flesh on his face was beginning to blister from the attack.

“Why am I always getting set on fire?” Alec rasped to himself as the creature added a fifth ray to the attack, driving him to his knees.

“Burn,” Beth Gul-Abz burbled. “Die.”

Just got to buy them a little more time Alec thought to himself, the pain of it all making it very difficult to think clearly.

A pair of deafening gunshots rang out - so close together they sounded like a single shot - and two of Beth Abz’s eyestalks exploded in a shower of muck. Two beams went out and Alec was able to catch his breath as the others stopped long enough for Beth Abz to regard this new threat.

“Beth Gul-Abz, you are hereby challenged to open combat,” Giles declared simply as he took aim for a third shot, his gun still smoking. “ Do you accept or do you yield?”

Alec flashed him a look somewhere between disbelief and ‘are you out of your friggin’ mind?’.

There was a long silence.

“Your challenge is accepted,” Gul-Abz burbled.

Giles cautiously stood up and surveyed the damage. Bloodstains, piles of ash and other signs of destruction pervaded the scene. The demon hovered, drooling, its multitude of remaining eyes focused on him with uncomfortable intensity, its gaping maw smeared with blood, the stumps of its severed eye stalks and the machete wound in its side leaking foul-smelling ichor.

“State your terms,” Gul-Abz demanded in a gurgling voice.

Giles swallowed. “Myself and my compatriots versus you and your followers.” He gestured to the priests and waitresses, and, shooting a look at Alec, added, “And the return of my son.”

Oh, Dad, no….! Alec thought to himself, knowing instantly what was about to happen. The creature rotated one of its eyes again and took aim.

“NO!” Giles roared as the creature fired upon his son, kneeling on the ground, too weakened to get out of the away. The blast sent Alec flying backwards through the air to crash into the wall, hard. Debris broke free from the impact and came tumbling down, burying the boy from sight.

“Come and die,” Beth Gul-Abz said, laughing.

“You are going to suffer for that,” Giles promised whisper soft.

“Yeah, yeah he is,” Buffy assented as she got up and looked around - they were outnumbered three-to-one by cultists, which consisted of all the robed men, the waitresses, and everyone else who hadn’t already been slaughtered.

“All right. Let’s do this,” Buffy addressed the demon. The creature’s lipless mouth pulled back into something resembling a grin and Buffy turned her head slightly over her shoulder.

“Spike?” she asked quietly

And without warning, Spike leapt up from the bar, baseball bat in one hand and a bottle of booze in the other. Gul-Abz focused on him in surprise.

“Batters up!” Spike roared, his face changing in his fury over Alec. He tossed the bottle into the air, it went up, then came down, and with a grunt; Spike swung the bat, hitting the bottom of the bottle sending it propelling towards the creature. The creature’s eyes widened in surprise as the bottle sped towards it. Buffy dove out of the way.

“He shoots!” Spike yelled… and with a war whoop, Xander popped out from behind the bar, wielding a pump-action shotgun. He took aim and fired. The bottle exploded and ignited, becoming a flaming missile. The creature roared as the fiery projectile took it dead center in its huge central eye, imbedding deeply into the soft tissue, still burning. The creature screamed in pain as it thrashed wildly, attempting to dislodge the burning rocket.

“…He scores!” Xander replied, yelling triumphantly. He slapped Spike a high-five as the other reached for another bottle.

The priests recovered from their surprise and attacked. Giles, Faith, and Buffy rushed to meet them. Faith snapped a kick out catching a third behind the head. Giles punched out a forth and Buffy a fifth. Spike came up from behind the bar with another bottle as Xander cocked the gun.

“Pull!” Xander cried. With a grunt Spike hurled the bottle high into the air. Giles saw it and instantly understood their intentions.

“Down!” he yelled. Buffy and Faith disengaged from their fights and leapt away. Giles did the same. The remaining priests and waitresses stopped what they were doing to gaze uncomprehending at the bottle that arced high over their heads. Xander took aim and fired, the bottle exploded, showering them with glass and fire. They screamed and a flaming priest ran from them, flailing madly.

Faith grinned as Giles got up, and, without warning, received a kick from an enraged, badly scorched waitress. The Watcher fell to the ground and she raised a boot to stab at him with her heels… but Buffy plowed hard into her, slamming her into the wall with a crunch. The woman fell to the ground unconscious. Buffy stopped to help her father figure to his feet.

“What’s a matter? Can’t hit a woman?” she wisecracked. Giles smiled grimy and lashed out past Buffy’s shoulder to smash a woman’s face with his gun, knocking her backwards and causing her to drop the switchblade she had planned on sliding into the Slayer’s ribs.

“Wherever did you get that idea?” Giles asked, shrugging.

A loud roar interrupted them. They turned to see that Gul-Abz had finally dislodged the burning glass shards from his eye and was regarding them with murderous intent.

“Can you keep the cultists busy?” Buffy asked Giles. After receiving a nod, she turned and called out to the other Slayer.

“Faith! Weapon!” She looked around to find the girl busy beating a priest to a pulp. The priest reached out and grabbed for a knife on the floor. Faith’s face twisted into a feral snarl as she pulled back a flattened palm, ready to drive it into his throat with killing force. Buffy froze as she watched her wrestle with her homicidal tendencies, the scarred Slayer hesitated as horror dawned onto her face at her near loss in control, and then, with another snarl, she yanked the man’s head up and smashed her forehead into his brow, sending him tumbling into unconsciousness.

Buffy sighed in relief and called out the other woman’s name again. Faith shook her head, clearing it, then whipped her head around to regard Buffy, nodded curtly and snatched up a pool cue.

“Catch!” she called out tossing her the stick, Buffy caught it and snapped it in two jagged pieces over her knee; lashing out with one half of the cue, she caught a priest against the face, sending him spinning to the ground. Parrying a few blows from another cultist Buffy caved his face in with a backhand and sent him to join his comrade on the ruined and bloody wood floor.

“Willow, NOW!” she yelled.

Willow heard her call and, closing her eyes, took some dirt from the floor and sprinkled it over her watch.

“Goddess Hecate, hear my plea! Bestow upon Buffy time’s greatest speed! Temporis Celeritus!” She finished the spell and looked at her Kermit the Frog watch.

Dawn eyed her uncertainly, then her eyes widened in amazement as the hands on her watch began to move forward, first slowly, then faster and faster.

Buffy began to glow with a green light. She grinned at the witch, and with a blur of motion, attacked, her movements too fast to follow. She made a beeline for the snarling creature whose eyes widened in shock at the human blur. It snapped at her futilely as Buffy blurred and, suddenly, somersaulted beneath the creature, where she crisscrossed her arms and, with a grunt, plunged the makeshift weapons into the creature’s soft underbelly. It wailed in pain and thrashed from side to side, it's jaws snapping.

Buffy roared back. “That’s for my brother, you son-of-a-bitch!” She stabbed and tore at the creature, opening huge ragged wounds; gouts of blood erupted out from the beast’s body, nearly drowning the murderous Slayer, who continued to stab and snarl heedlessly.

Unexpectedly, with a complimenting explosion of debris, a charred fist smashed its way up from under the wreckage at Buffy’s back. The blond Slayer gasped in shock, snapped off the pool cues in Beth Abz’s body and rolling out from under him to crouch next to the rubble, grabbing at the hand.

“Alec!” she cried out, pulling hard at the charred hand.

Beth Gul-Abz pulled himself together and took aim at Buffy, who was finally standing still long enough for him to get a shot in, when a large chunk of his body just exploded. He screamed and whirled around to face this new attack.

“You. Will. Not. Hurt. My. Children!” Giles yelled, firing round after round into the beast after each word, blasting huge gooey chunks out of it.

The demon aimed one of his eyes at the Watcher.
“DAD!” Alec cried out as he was dragged, charred and mutilated, out from the wreckage by his sister. Desperately, he lashed out with a tendril of darkness and the eyestalk that had been targeting his father fell to the floor, neatly severed.

“Run interference, sis!” Alec cried out as he charged out into the fray.

Buffy gaped as she watched Alec change from a scorched ruin of a human being with a gaping wound in his chest, to being perfectly healed in a short span of steps.

“How-?” she began to ask but an attacking cultist interrupted her and she resigned herself to pummeling now and asking questions later.

“Hey, prat! We’re not done, yet!” Alec called out, lashing out with another shadow tendril that eagerly consumed the creature’s flesh where it struck, dissolving it into nothingness.

Beth Gul-Abz wailed in agony and Alec readied himself for the kill shot when, suddenly, the high priest leapt up from behind a shattered jukebox and plunged a wickedly curved knife deep into Alec’s shoulder.

“Alec!” Dawn shrieked, having come up from behind the table and doing her best to see what was going on in the dimly lit bar. She hadn’t seen Alec use his shadow powers, but saw him get stabbed, and the sight of it had her ready to leap over the table and begin killing these people that had hurt him and her family.

“Dawnie, no!” Willow cried out, holding her back.

Alec whirled on the priest, a hand grabbing the one holding the knife, keeping it there rather than pulling away, the other hand grabbed the priest’s shoulder.

“Ready to become a martyr?” Alec asked the man, grinning evilly. The priest had a brief chance to look afraid, before Alec used the knife in his body, and his grip on the other man as leverage as Alec pivoted and propelled the man past him, slamming a hand across the back of the priest's head to send him stumbling right into the snarling and snapping demon.

The priest cried out once as the drooling jaws whipped around to face him, and lunged. There was a splash of blood and Dawn paled, sinking back behind the barricade, her hand over her mouth.

Alec grunted and fingered the wound in his shoulder, which had gone icy numb, before lashing out with a fist, catching another priest across the face. Buffy rushed over to help him, gently easing him back behind some chairs, the spell had begun to wear off and she was startling to feel drained.
On the other side of the bar, the creature continued to thrash and wail, but its strength was rapidly draining. Faith brought her foot up under another pool cue, and propelled it to Buffy. She caught it and took aim.

“Hey, Blinky!” Buffy yelled. The creature snarled and turned to her, trying to regard her with its scorched, ruined central eye.

Buffy hefted the pool cue. “Watch this!” And with a grunt, she hurled the makeshift spear straight at the creature. It had time to shriek once before the pool cue buried itself all the way into its already severely damaged central eye, skewering it; the beast roared in rage and began spinning in circles. Buffy cocked a grin and turned back to Faith and Giles, her eyes widening as she realized that the priests had regrouped and were quickly cornering the two.

Buffy took three steps towards them… when the huge wooden doors of the bar imploded in a shower of splinters as the R.V. came ramming through the bar. She caught a quick glance of Angel behind the wheel; he cut the wheel sharply and gunned the engine, bearing down on the injured demon. It turned its remaining eyes to regard the headlights of the huge R.V. in shock before the massive vehicle rammed into it, driving it with punishing force across the bar. The demon screeched one last time before Angel hit the brakes and sent the creature flying through the air to slam into the stone wall, where it exploded on impact, oozing a trail of ichor as its shattered body slid down the wall, before coming to rest upon the floor, looking no more impressive than a deflated kickball.

Angel leapt out of the driver’s side door, game face in place. He moved hurriedly to Buffy.

“How’s my timing?” he queried.

“Perfect,” she replied, offered him a weary grin before turning to the other priests.

Faith and Giles had used the distraction well; they had regrouped and were currently mounting a punishing counterattack. Half a minute later, it was all over. The cultists laid in various stages of hurt along the bar room floor.

Buffy looked around. “How are we doing?” she asked wearily. Willow, Dawn, and Anya peeked up from their hiding places.

“We’re okay,” Willow called out a little shakily. Spike and Xander stood up from behind the bar, Spike's face reverting back to normal.

“That was FUN!” The vampire whooped, grinning happily. Xander gave him a sideways glance.

“You’re a real sick guy, you know that right?” the young man stated. Spike grinned and nodded vehemently.

“Uh-huh” he responded, chuckling, as he threw his fist into the air. “We came! We saw! We kicked their bloody arses!” he cried triumphantly.

Buffy smiled and shook her head affectionately, then her eyes widened as she saw Alec struggling to his feet.

“Alec,” she whispered, rushing over to help him stand. He waved her away.

“I’m all right. Just feel like Dead Man Walking,” he smiled wryly. Willow and Dawn rushed over to him, hugging him tightly. He exhaled hard and rested against the girls, stroking their respective hair gently. For a moment, there was a perfect bliss within him, and he felt at peace.

Suddenly Dawn pulled away, horrified.

“You’re bleeding!” she cried out. Willow pulled away and gasped at the stream of blood oozing out of Alec’s shoulder. He looked down and shrugged, unconcerned, reaching up and, with a twist, snapped the handle off the knife and began digging around his shoulder for the blade.

“Damn thing’s fouled on the joint; it’s all bent up, gonna have to dig the sodding thing out by hand,” Alec grunted and winced as he worked at the wound.

“Balls of British Steel, mate, that’s you,” Spike complimented him with a grin.

“It’s just a scratch.” The younger Giles laughed, then winced as the icy numbness was replaced with a fiery agony.

"Or… not,” he finished weakly, smiling before sagging to a heap on the ground and into darkness, chased by the panicked cries of his friends.





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