She shook herself out of her Spike-trance and climbed up as he had done, as all the warriors were now doing. “Quiet. Stay down. Do not move,” she admonished Annie sternly and the girl nodded guiltily as she plastered one hand over her mouth.
The tall vamps raced up the crates like they were nothing. One of them threw her head back and let out a shrill battle cry, which Buffy assumed was meant to draw more of the creatures from elsewhere in the ship. She cringed – she didn’t want to leave Annie alone there, but she’d rather fight the demons further away from her daughter, less chance of Annie being discovered or hurt.
With one last glance back at her daughter, Buffy leapt down one, then two, then three crates, drawing her scythe back as she went. The first vamp that reached her was met with a deadly accurate swing of her weapon, which severed its head cleanly from its shoulders. Even before the red sparkling dust could settle there was another one there. She could see from her peripheral vision that Spike and Riley were also engaged with two or three of the tall, extraordinarily strong vamps. Where had they all come from so quickly? Then Buffy realized they were emerging from the crates themselves. Her heart sank. There had to be … hundreds of crates in here. Did they all have a vamp sleeping inside?
Buffy kicked one vamp that was standing on the crate below her in the jaw. She finally had the height advantage if she could keep them at least one step below her. Even as that one stumbled backwards and tumbled down the tall, make-shift stairs, another one lunged at her. Buffy swung, but missed its neck, severing one arm and embedding the scythe into its ribcage. She tugged hard to free her weapon, but the vamp grabbed the handle of the scythe with its other hand to keep her from pulling it back. She was afraid that she’d lost it – and without that she knew she stood little chance against these Otherworldly demons. Poking sharp sticks through the heart of a vamp was one thing, but to try and get it into their eye seemed ridiculously impossible.
Buffy’s mind raced and she suddenly remembered the stun gun on her hip. She held onto the handle of the scythe with one hand, refusing to let go, and un-holstered the gun. She let the vamp pull her towards it, bringing the weapon up at the last moment and jamming the gun, with electricity jumping wildly on the end, into the Red’s chest.
The vamp shuddered and dropped to its knees in pain. Buffy yanked the scythe out of its torso and swung at its neck. It disintegrated with a hollow sighing sound and sparkling dust settled atop the crate it had been on. The glittery dust from that vamp had scarcely settled before three more were there. They were a little more wary now, but they were coming all the same. She holstered the gun again and held the scythe with both hands, her timing needed to be perfect. She waited. They each put one foot on the crate just below her and then they all three leapt as one, springing off their lower legs and sailing towards her. She swung hard in a wide arc, catching two of them cleanly in the neck and decapitating them. The third was hit in the shoulder, but fell onto the crate that she was standing on and Buffy drew back and came down on its neck with a savage blow.
Spike had worked his way over to her as he fought. He could see she was tiring, as were the other warriors. There were too many Reds for them to defeat. “Let’s go! Get out!” he screamed at her and the rest of them. He retreated back up to the top walkway that ran around the perimeter of the hold, grabbed Annie’s arm, and began dragging her out of the mêlée.
“No!” Annie yelled at him. “The book!” she exclaimed, pointing to the now abandoned table far below. “It’s the key to the Gem of Amarra! The scroll must be the decoder ring!” she told him hurriedly.
Spike’s brow furrowed and he looked down at the table. “The Gem of …” he muttered to himself before looking back at Annie. “Are you sure?”
“Yes! We have the same book at home, but not the scroll!” Annie assured him even as he swung his sword at the neck of an approaching vamp and dusted it.
“Finn!” Spike yelled at Riley, who was about ten feet away and engaged with several of the vamps. “Get everyone out!”
Riley didn’t acknowledge him, but Spike knew that he heard and would follow his order. Putting Annie back in her hiding place, he jumped up on the crates then back down to where the Slayer was still battling. “Get the girl and get out. Go back to base!” he ordered her as he took over fighting the vamps she’d been warring against.
“What about you?” Buffy questioned as she continued to swing the scythe at the necks of the approaching Reds.
“Can you ever do one blasted thing I say without questioning my bloody orders?” he huffed as he dusted another vamp.
“Maybe if you let someone in on your idiotic plans they wouldn’t blow up in your face so much!” Buffy shot back as the pair continued fighting the seemingly never-ending horde.
“My plans wouldn’t blow up if you would just do as I bloody well say!” he insisted. “Never had a problem with my plans ‘til you came back and mucked them up!”
“Oh, excuse me, Mr. Hitler! I didn’t mean to question your supreme authority!”
“Herr,” Spike corrected her.
“Hair? There’s something in my hair?” she questioned, using one hand to run through her hair, even as the other fighters retreated from the large room and back out onto the deck.
Spike rolled his eyes, both warriors still swinging at the approaching vamps, injuring them, dusting them, or knocking them back down the stairs as they came within range. “Hitler wasn’t a bloody mister, Slayer – Herr Hitler! Did you attend high school at any point in your life? I know you were there for the parent-teacher night, but I mean actual lectures.”
“Very funny, Spike. I never took German … I took Spanish! Maybe I should call you Señor Franco instead.”
“Generalíssimo Franco,” Spike countered with a smirk.
“Yeah, well, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still valiantly holding on in his fight to remain dead!” Buffy quipped. “You on the other hand, are perilously close to getting on my last nerve and becoming un-undead.”
Spike gawped at her a moment, surprised she’d gotten his classic Saturday Night Live reference … from back when SNL was actually classic. He recovered quickly, though, turning back to the fight with the charging demons.
“And here we are back where we started this dance, where you threaten to dust me but never can quite get ‘round to it,” Spike shot back as he swung his blade and decapitated two of the approaching demons with one blow. “Better time management, pet, that’s what you need.”
“Who the hell died and made you the fucking king of the world?” Buffy retorted through clenched teeth as she continued swinging her weapon at the red-eyed vamps.
“You,” Spike informed her as he took a swipe at another vamp’s neck.
Suddenly more vamps attacked at once than the two could defend against. Two of the demons got past the swinging weapons of the warriors and knocked Buffy to the ground. One of the powerful demons tried to dig its long, talon-like nails into her chest in an effort to exhume her still-beating heart. Luckily for her, the beast’s nails couldn’t pierce the flak jacket. Buffy struck it in the jaw with her fist and its head jerked slightly to the left, then its bright red lips curled into a cruel smile.
“Sssslayer…” it hissed as it dropped its mouth down towrds her neck.
Buffy struggled under it as she raised the scythe and prepared to swing down on the vamp, hoping that she could stop the powerful weapon before it cut into her own flesh. Before Buffy could swing, though, the vamp froze, its face contorted in pain, then burst into bright red glittery particles of dust which settled down and stuck to her damp skin.
“Wow, you could bottle this stuff and sell it as booty dust,” she quipped as she jumped back to her feet just as Spike drew his sword away and turned back to the still-approaching army of vamps.
“Get the bloody hell out, Slayer!” Spike insisted again. “I’ll be right behind ya.”
“No! You’ll be right with me – c’mon, Spike! Let’s go!” Buffy retorted.
“Bloody fucking hell, woman! I’d forgotten what a bloody bossy bitch you are! Can you do one soddin’ thing I say? Get the girl and go!”
Just then Annie started screaming. Some vamps had finally realized that they could come around from the other direction and surround the two remaining warriors. “Annie!” Buffy cried as she left Spike’s side and leapt with more power than she knew she had left in her up from crate to crate until she reached the top where Annie was hiding.
There were three vamps surrounding the girl. Annie was holding them at bay with the stun gun, its electricity crackling a warning the vamps understood perfectly as she swung it back and forth in an arc at them. Buffy dove at the tall, red-eyed demons, but only managed to knock two of them away from Annie. The Slayer tumbled down onto the ground with the two large vamps, all three rolling to a stop against the wall of the hold a few feet away.
Before Buffy could find where she’d dropped the scythe or get to her feet, she was being hauled up by the nape of her neck like a kitten. The large male vampire held her up to his eye level and studied her like she was a bug, tilting his elongated head this way, then that.
“Put me down you overgrown beanstalk!” Buffy demanded as she kicked hard at the demon’s nether regions with her booted foot.
The vamp grunted slightly, but didn’t drop her. “Sssslayer…” he hissed at her and Buffy rolled her eyes.
“Do you all have lisps? Do they not have speech therapists where you come from?” she wondered as she pulled the stake from the scabbard at her side and stabbed the vamp in the eye … the wrong eye.
The creature screeched in pain and clutched at the stake with his free hand, but his grip never loosened on Buffy’s neck.
“Damn it…” Buffy muttered as she pulled the stake out and jabbed it in the other eye.
Finally she was dropped, covered again by a dusting of red glitter. But of course, it wasn’t over. The other vamp that she’d knocked down, a tall female dressed in a ridiculously small, ‘UC Sunnydale’ cheerleader uniform, was ready and waiting. The barely-dressed cheerleader hit the Slayer with an iron fist, sending Buffy flying into the air and hurtling backwards. She landed on the hard floor ten feet away with a bone-crunching thud. Buffy shook her head to clear the ringing in her ears and the stars that flashed in front of her eyes. Even through the pain that was shooting through her, she could hear Annie screaming again.
Buffy stumbled back to her feet, her eyes scanning the ground for the scythe, as she retrieved the stun gun from its holster at her side. The cheerleader-vamp that had thrown her took two long strides towards Buffy, her arm cocked back, ready to strike again. Buffy summoned her determination and jabbed the gun against the vamp’s bare midriff, ducking the vamp’s fist, and pulled the trigger. The large female crumpled down as her body convulsed with the voltage. Buffy sprinted past the downed demon back towards Annie, who was now shrieking uncontrollably.
The male vamp in front of the girl slapped the stun gun from her hand, sending it skittering across the floor and out of reach. The demon, who apparently fancied itself a flower-child, wearing a tie-dyed t-shirt over too-short blue jeans, picked the screaming and struggling girl up with one hand. The Woodstock-reject began to laugh gleefully just as Buffy reached them and tackled him around the hips, sending all three of them tumbling onto the ground and crashing against the wooden crates. The hippie struck out at Buffy, whipping her head to the side with a savage blow as she struggled to get Annie back behind her. Before she could recover from that strike, the lovechild hit her again, just as she got Annie pushed out of the way.
Buffy’s head was spinning and for a moment she wondered if it was still attached to her body or if it was actually rolling across the floor like a bowling ball. The hippie-vamp knocked the stunned Slayer onto her back and straddled her with its body. Buffy flailed wildly and tried to kick it off, but it was too strong and she was too disoriented and weary. She hit up at it with her fists, but her blows were ineffectual against the larger, stronger, and fresher adversary; she was nothing more than an annoyance to it.
The vamp could smell victory. He threw his head back and let out a shrill (and apparently trademarked) war cry announcing his triumph over the Slayer. When the flower-child looked back down, preparing to drink from the one and only Slayer he had ever met, he suddenly gasped in shock. His ghoulish features glittered in the air, hanging there momentarily before giving way to gravity. Buffy choked on the dust she inhaled as she tried to sit up and waved a hand in front of her face to disburse the crimson motes so she could breathe. She expected to see Spike standing above her smirking, but what she saw instead was Annie. And she wasn’t smirking. She was terrified.
Her daughter clutched the stake tightly in her right hand, just as Spike had shown her, and had jabbed with all her strength into the vamp’s left eye when he'd dropped his gaze back down from the ceiling. Annie now looked like she was about to pass out, throw up, or both, her eyes wide with fear, her chest heaving with shallow, labored breaths. Buffy shook the cobwebs out of her brain and scrambled to her feet. Pulling Annie with her, she retrieved the stun gun the vamp had knocked from her daughter’s hand, as well as her scythe, and then turned to look for Spike.
He was all the way on the other side of the ‘arena’. The book and scroll that had been on the table were tucked under one arm as he fought towards the exit on the other side of the ship with the other. More vamps were scampering up towards Buffy and Annie. There was no way she could get by them and make it over to help him.
“Let’s go,” Buffy commanded. She started dragging Annie by one hand as she held the scythe at the ready with the other.
“But Spike!” Annie objected, her eyes drawn to the platinum hair on the other side of the hold, which was easily visible even in the low light.
“He’ll be ok. He said to go, we need to go!” Buffy argued, pulling her along faster. Then they were out the door and on the deck. She couldn’t see any of the others – they must’ve followed orders and left the ship, gone back to base. She started down the deck towards the gangplank, moving as quickly as her throbbing head would allow as she dragged her daughter behind.
Just as they got to that passageway that bisected the deck, several of the tall Jacks stepped out, blocking their path. Buffy swung at one, dusting it, but the rest didn’t seem to even notice or care as they started towards the humans. Buffy began to back up, turning quickly to check for an escape route, when more of the Otherworld vamps came up from behind, trapping her and Annie between them. The demons’ eyes glowed bright scarlet in the low light; it was beyond creepy and, with so many of them so close, the whole area looked like it was bathed in a fine layer of blood.
Buffy quickly looked over the edge – it was a good twenty foot drop to the dark water below and who knew what was in the water? It might be their only option though.
“Damn it…” Buffy murmured as she backed Annie up against the open railing of the ship and let go of her daughter's hand so she could hold the scythe with both hands, ready to strike.
“Take your stun gun,” Buffy directed her and Annie pulled the gun from the waistband of Buffy’s jeans where she’d stuck it when she picked it up.
“Annie, if anything happens to me, you’re gonna have to jump, ok? Jump feet first, hold your nose, then swim to the beach and find somewhere to hide. Spike will find you … ok? Someone will find you… don’t come out until someone you know comes to get you,” Buffy instructed.
“No, Mama … I don’t…” Annie began, looking down at the black water. It looked a million miles away.
“Do not argue with me! Do as I say!” Buffy commanded as she swung the scythe at the first vamp to come within reach then, out of habit, stabbed the stake into the chest of one coming from the other side
.
The vamp shrieked in pain, but didn’t dust. When it yelled, all the vamps on the deck descended on her at once. Buffy went down in a heap as fists and feet hit and kicked at her mercilessly.
“JUMP!” she yelled at Annie as she tried to get back up, punching and jabbing with the scythe at the feet and legs of her attackers.
A steel-toed boot connected with Buffy’s chin, then another with her temple. Her head rocked on her shoulders and bright lights flashed in her field of vision. She couldn’t tell if Annie had jumped or if she was still there; she couldn’t see anything but feet kicking at her between bursts of stars exploding in front of her eyes from the pain.
She tried to stand, to get over the railing to jump herself, but the whole world seemed to be spinning and tilting. She could feel bones snapping in her ribs, her back, and her face as the vamps continued to punish her with a gleeful brutality.
“Annie …” she murmured, her voice barely audible, “…jump.”
Then one last boot crashed violently down on her forehead, cracking her skull, and the stars stopped exploding, everything stopped hurting, the world stopped spinning as a dark shroud began to descend over her. Buffy fought to stay conscious and rolled away from the vamps who were now gloating over their prize, all of them screaming that shrill war cry announcing their victory.
As she rolled towards the side of the ship, she hit something solid that was blocking her path. She pushed harder, but it didn’t move; she pushed even harder, unable to focus on what it even was. Finally, whatever was blocking her disappeared. She flattened her body as she dragged herself on her stomach, headfirst, under the bottom rung of the railing and slid her torso over the edge and against the side of the ship. One of the vamps grabbed her foot, trying to thwart her escape. Buffy kicked as hard as she could as she struggled to get away. She could feel herself starting to be pulled back up onto the deck and, at the last moment, her boot slid off her foot, freeing her. The Slayer tumbled head over heels towards the black water below.
Buffy’s only thought as she fell was to hold onto the scythe and she grasped it with both hands, holding it against her chest as she plummeted towards the abyss of dark water. She hit with a violent slap that drove the air from her lungs and then she felt herself sinking. She tried to swim, to get back to the surface, but her limbs suddenly felt leaden and refused to cooperate. She took an involuntary breath, sucking the salty water into her lungs, then began to choke under the water, pulling more of the liquid in.
The darkness she’d been fighting now engulfed her under the waves. Her mind drifted with the current, lingering on the thing she worried about most – Annie … Had she jumped? Did she make it to the beach? Please let her be alright. Please let Spike find her… please…
**~**
{{ Click here to hear King of Anything - Sara Bareilles on YouTube }}
Oh (oh oh oh)
Oh (oh oh oh)
Oh (oh oh oh)
Oh (oh oh oh)
Keep drinkin' coffee
Stare me down across the table
While I look outside
So many things I'd say if only I were able
But I just keep quiet
And count the cars that pass by
You've got opinions, man
We're all entitled to 'em
But I never asked
So let me thank you for time
And try to not waste any more of mine
Get out of here fast
I hate to break it you babe
But I'm not drowning
There's no one here to save
Who cares if you disagree
You are not me
Who made you king of anything
So you dare tell me who to be
Who died
And made you ing of anything
Oh (oh oh oh)
Oh (oh oh oh)
Oh (oh oh oh)
Oh (oh oh oh)
You sound so innocent
All full of good intent
You swear you know best
But you expect me to
Jump up on board with you
And ride off into your delusional sunset
I'm not the one who's lost
With no direction, oh
But you'll never see
You're so busy makin' maps
With my name on them in all caps
You've got the talkin' down, just not the listening
And who cares if you disagree
You are not me
Who made you king of anything
So you dare tell me who to be
Who died
And made you king of anything
All my life
I've tried
To make everybody happy while I
Just hurt
And hide
Waitin' for someone to tell me it's my turn to decide
Oh (oh oh oh)
Oh (oh oh oh)
Oh (oh oh oh)
Oh (oh oh oh)
Who cares if you disagree
You are not me
Who made you king of anything
So you dare tell me who to be
Who died
And made you king of anything
Who cares if you disagree
You are not me
Who made you king of anything
So you dare tell me who to be
Who died
And made you king of anything
Let me hold your crown, babe
Oh oh
Ah