Cirrus was deeply troubled. During the hunt, the battle, and the joy of having Faith once more she hadn’t noticed the chills that ran along her spine. They were driving her insane by morning though, jolting through her body as she paced in her shaggy wolfen form, much to Abraham’s dislike, in the back of Oz’s van. Faith ran her fingers through the soft black fur when ever Cirrus settled in one spot, calming her for the moment. Then she would go back to pacing. Bad. Something very, very bad had happened.
Tallus rubbed his head. He looked around. It was bright, too bright for one so used to the crimson darkness of the world of his father. He blinked. There was a sign nearby. Welcome to Sunnydale, it read. He knew the name. Tallus approached the white line on the asphalt carefully, and when his six toes just barely touched its edge, he tried. He thrust his fist forward, only to be beaten back swiftly by a sudden rush of energy. The barrier was already in place; Tallus had been exiled.
Pikes were driven hard into the rocks. From the cracks there poured great clouds of fiery steam, and they seared Xander’s face and hands. Tears of pain streaked down his blistering cheeks and he paused for a moment. Then the whip, a thing made of many small metal sections that allowed it to be flexible, danced across his naked back. The boy jumped and returned to work as the blood trickled down his aching body.
Willow awoke to the sounds of high pitched, shrieking laughter. Then she became aware of the cold, rough, skeletal hands groping her. The price one pays for being sexy, she thought as she kicked randomly. A demon screamed and she heard a splat. It had collided with the back wall of the room she was in, and her sudden display of power cause the others, tiny imps, they were, to back off and shudder in fear. The young witch sighed.
“ Okay, you guys have had your fun. Now are you going to help me or what?”
The blonde Slayer was only barely conscious. The cheers from the masses woke her soon enough though and Buffy realized she was in a coliseum. The demon soldiers, fat and sweaty, their faces pig-like and twisted, deposited her in the middle of the battleground. From the opposite gate, another girl emerged. She looked human enough, but their was something unnatural about her feel when she got close to Buffy.
“ Let the fight begin!” a harsh voice cried from somewhere.
The girl leaned in close. “ Don’t worry, they won’t let you die. Throw the fight and I’ll get you out of here,” she whispered.
Before the words could even sink in though, she had the Slayer by the throat and she flung her to ground about six feet away. Buffy shook her head, trying to vanquish the last of her dizziness and then leaped to her feet. The scent of bones and skin and blood rose from the dirt floor, fume-like. It made her head hurt. The girl advanced again, but didn’t get within reach of Buffy before she halted and stood perfectly still. The blonde was about to take her chance and cause some revenge damage, but she felt a sudden pull upward and was lifted off her feet. It took a second to sink in, but as she was tossed around like a ragdoll by hands that didn’t exist, Buffy discovered she was dealing with a telekinetic.
Luckily, the girl couldn’t keep her concentration forever. Buffy leaped on her the second she was back on the ground. She pinned the girl, straddling her and holding her with strong legs, and let fly the punches as though she were working the bag back at the library. Her opponent’s face was bloodied quite soon and she kept crying out something the Slayer couldn’t understand. Then Buffy’s arms froze. In mid-swing they were suspended and she couldn’t move them at all. A great scream went up from the audience as they encouraged their champion.
“ Would you just fucking listen to me?” she hissed at the Slayer. “ Let me win, otherwise you’ll have to kill me and then you’ll never get out of here.”
“ Why should I trust you?” Buffy asked through clenched teeth.
“ Who else do you think you can trust here?”
There was no change in Buffy’s expression, but the girl could feel her give in. She focused her mind and threw the Slayer one last time, bashing her blonde head against a torch post at the side of the arena.
“ Stop! That the Slayer is out!” the harsh voice cried again, signaling the end of the fight. “ Missy continues reign as Champion!”
The crowd went absolutely insane.
A later start than they had intended brought the crew in Oz’s van to the edge of their small Hellmouth at dusk. It was like smashing into an unyielding brick wall, trying to enter the town. The airbags saved Oz and his father from harm, and in the back, Cirrus broke Faith’s crash into the side and one of her ribs in the process.
“ It’ll heal quick, really, I’m fine,” she lied after they had climbed out.
The entire front end of the van was smashed, and it reminded Abraham of a crashed soda can. He made a mental note to buy his son another one. Faith approached the white line cautiously and curiously and tried to pass into the city. No, something was definitely there, blocking their entrance. It was solid and it made her skin tingle to touch it. She tried again and again, beating on the barrier until her knuckles bled and Cirrus hobbled over and pulled her away.
“ You’ll never get in that way. It’s magic you know.”
The four looked hastily about them for signs of the speaker.
“ What business do you think you have in there anyway?”
Cirrus, who never did enjoy surprises, was becoming agitated. “ There are people in there. We need to get them out.”
“ And just how do expect to make it yourselves? That is a demon realm in there, just thought I’d let you know.”
“ We’ll make it,” Abraham stated, shifting into the massive fire-furred werewolf to punctuate he statement. Cirrus raised and eyebrow at him. “ Well, it my not be battle, but we do need to be persuasive here,” he whispered.
“ Strong wolves can fight, the three of you might do well, but what of the girl?”
“ I’m a Slayer, I can handle myself. Now are you going to hide forever, or are you going to get down here and help us?” Faith spoke the words in her hard-to-ignore challenging voice.
There was a thickly leafed tree nearby, and from the perfect cover of its upper-most branches, the speaker flew. He crossed the distance gracefully and landed on taloned feet before them, smirking as they took in the sight. His skin was smooth, darkest blue in color, with just a touch of purple on the insides of his wings. He was lean, but well muscled, as all demons are, his hands carried two fingers and a thumb, each of them bearing a glittering claw, and his feet bore three clawed toes each. His eyes were straight red, no pupils. The brightest part about him was his hair. A great shaggy shock of it grew down the center of his head between the two short horns and continued to fall down the middle of his back, and it was whiter than newly fallen snow.
“ If you’re quite through,” he said after a minute, “ I am Tallus the LightBearer.”
“ Cirrus,” the black werewolf replied, nodding.
“ Oz,” the boy said simply.
“ Abraham.”
“ Faith.”
“ I’m sure it would be a pleasure to meet all of you if it were under more positive circumstances,” Tallus said. “ Now, I suppose is the time for talk, since action is a bit... hindered... at this time. And you obviously will need the benefit of my knowledge if you are to get anything done once inside.”
“ Er... yeah...” Cirrus said, gritting her teeth. His superiority complex was torturous.
“ What’s in there?” Faith asked, nodding her head in the direction of the town.
“ As you can see, the Hellmouth. But the city you knew is being used as an illusion now. A top covering. Beneath it, behind the wall, is the world I come from. What you would call a demon realm. It’s run by Overlord. He’s a foul one, but he’s got all the power. Under him are the Four Wise Ones. They’re the ones that work the spells, such as this one that meshed the worlds together.”
“ Why Sunnydale? Why mesh in the first place?” Oz inquired, cocking his head to the side.
“ The demons live off the energy of crystals mined from the caverns in the realm, but the crystals are not at all easy to get. They produce a super-heated and toxic gas that fills the hollow rock surrounding the veins. When demon miners would break the stone, they would be blasted by the gas. After a while of exposure, it kills. They wanted humans to mine instead. They chose Sunnydale because of the Hellmouth, it was the easiest place to push into. I don’t know how, something about the spell’s energy and the natural energy of this place matching up.” Tallus smiled as he anticipated their next question. “ And no, the demons aren’t more resistant to the gas than humans. We have... mutants,” he breathed the word ashamedly, “ half-human, half-demon that hold up better than the purebloods when mining.”
Abraham asked the next question. “And why are you not in there with the other demons? Why do you seem to want to stop this Overlord?”
“ Human heart,” was his only reply.
Angel stalked down the dirty streets of the strange city, trying to fit in. Basically throwing threatening looks to everyone he came across. There was a commotion in one building, and he heard a familiar scream. Rushing in, he was just in time to put on his game face and snatch Cordelia from the paws of a lusty vampiric mob.
“ Back off,” he hissed. “ I saw her first.”
“ See Angel, you do love me,” she insisted once they were away from the crowds.
“ Look, if you want to make it through this alive, you’ll call me Angelus and pretend you don’t enjoy being with me.” He paused to growl at a passing goblin. “ If anything here suspects that I’m not up to code as a vampire, who knows what they’ll do to us both.”
“ Or there is another way... You could make me a vampire too,” she said, brushing the hair away from her neck.
“ No! Cordelia, you have no clue what you’re asking...”
Cordelia’s face grew dark. “ Angel,” she spat. “ You will do this to me. You will or I’ll make sure they find out about you. I’ll make sure they never let you see Buffy again.”
The vampire nearly dropped her, he was so shocked. The battle in his head began, the greater good and against his own need. It didn’t go far before it was interrupted.
“ Angel,” she whispered. “ I’ll make sure they torture that little blonde bitch, right in front of y-”
She moaned as he bit her and drained. His heart raced, warm human blood, it had been so long. Centuries, if one counted his time in Hell. He felt her heart slow and it was paradise, it was the damn the garden of Eden, being in her neck. There is no spiritual bond like the one formed when a vampire drains his victim, except the bond formed between and Sire and his offspring. He only vaguely remembered it from before, but all the memories came back like a tidal wave as she fed off his slashed wrist. When he felt dizzy, he pulled her away, and she fell to the ground. She was dead.
But not for much longer. With a grin, he realized the key to true happiness.
“ You should indulge yourself more often Angelus...” he chuckled as he picked up his new companion and took her away.
“ Psst! Hey girl, you awake yet?”
Buffy sat up and rubbed her head. Then she looked for the source of the voice. In the tiny barred window between their cells, the Slayer saw the face of the girl she had fought earlier. She walked over and stood on a stool to be closer to the window.
“ I told you they wouldn’t let it be a fight to the death if you were losing,” she said. “ They want to see you fight more first.”
“ If all my opponents are like you then there won’t be much to see,” Buffy replied. “ Who are you?”
“ They’re not all like me. Overlord just wanted to see if you could take the champion. You see, he’s never really dealt with a Slayer before. He wanted to know how powerful you were and if it was safe to keep you around. My name’s Missy. I’m a quarter demon, so I’m a bit more of a challenge to fight. Some fluke in the genes gave me psychic abilities and as a mostly-human I’m alot smarter than the general population here.”
“ So what’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?”
“ Daddy lived here. He was half-demon, grandpa was full demon. All over them mated captive humans, heroes mostly, women, the companions of men who ran foolishly through random gateways and ended up here, hoping for fairytale glory and getting nothing but a quickie and death. Well, that’s normally how in goes. My father raped my mother. My brother and I were considered too human and Overlord kept us locked up. He used me in the coliseum and my brother in the mines. The last I heard was ages ago, my brother broke free and fought Overlord, but his magic was too substantial for my brother to defeat. The word from the imps is that he was encased in stone and put in a chamber under heavy guard. Overlord has done that to his more fearsome enemies in the past.” Missy inhaled and exhaled deeply. Buffy could tell from that alone how much the girl had loved her sibling.
“ Well, that aside, could you tell me what happened? How did I get here?” the Slayer queried.
“ Overlord tried doing this before, that was when my brother stopped him. He’s been wanting humans to work the mines for him, and so he had his servants, the Four Wise Ones, merge the worlds. Basically, he sucked you all in. The Hellmouth was the easiest place to do it. He was going to go for a more heavily populated area, but he grew impatient and didn’t want to wait until his power rose. Now that he’s established within your world, it won’t take long for him to expand his hold to cities near your own.”
“ So we’ve got to stop him.”
Missy looked worried. “ You have no idea... I mean, Overlord is godly!”
Buffy was unimpressed. “ And these Wise Ones, how do they operate?”
“ They tap into Overlord’s power and direct it to the areas he wants.”
The Slayer grinned wickedly at her new friend. “ I think I’ve got a plan.”
“ Well? Did you find her or not?” Willow shouted at the imps. They really weren’t that scary, she realized. All you had to do was be forceful.
“ Y-yes Mistress...” the scrawny little hook-nosed orange one stuttered. Mistress... Willow liked that. “ We brought her, and her friend. She insisted.”
The girl it was talking about and her male companion were led in by a stumpy, fat demon with a missing leg. The redhead went to her immediately and embraced her.
“ Amy! I’m glad you’re okay.”
“ It’s good to see you Willow. Especially now, with things being the way they are,” the other witch replied. “ This,” she said, motioning to her friend, “ is Gary. He’s a witch too.”
“ Warlock,” the skinny boy corrected.
“ Fairy,” Amy shot back. Gary blushed and looked to the ground.
“ Larry’s younger brother,” Amy whispered to Willow. The redhead laughed and nodded.
Then she turned to the imps. “ Okay, we have oodles of magical power. What do we do now?”
A lime greenish sort of gremlin began to speak in her rough, raspy voice. “ We will take you to the edge of the barrier that separates your world from ours... From there, we will tell you the spell. The rest is up to you.”
“ One more thing!” Willow called as the gremlin waddled out the door.
“ Yes child?”
“ Why are you helping us?”
The crone-demon sighed. “ There are many things wrong with this world. Overlord has caused nearly all the problems. He treats and allows other to treat my people, the Small Ones, like pets and slaves. We’ve had enough. We’ll see Overlord dead yet.”
And the crone led the three witches from the hut.
It was dark, almost pitch black. The only light shed was the glow of four pairs of eyes, Tallus’, Cirrus’, Abraham’s, and Oz’s. Faith clung close to her lover, a feeling of creeping uncertainty tingling in the back of her head. She knew Cirrus could feel it too. The werewolf twitched every minute or so.
A chill breeze sweep briefly through the area. The black werewolf felt her Slayer shiver, and she pulled her close, into the warmth of thick, dark fur. Faith sighed as she snuggled further in, hoping the others wouldn’t notice her lack of vigor. A second breeze swept through. Then a third. Then Oz noticed where they were coming from.
“ Wait a minute,” he said. “ Watch the barrier.”
Their eyes focused on the city limits before them, where they knew the wall of energy was. A few more short winds came, then it became a continuous one. They blinked, thinking at first their vision was getting fuzzy until they realized it was the wall itself, glazing over and taking physical form.
Then it began to open.
“ Wake up love, our friends are here...” Angelus cooed into the sleeping vampire’s ear.
“ Mm... Angel?” Cordelia whispered, half-awake.
He set her on her feet gently, supporting her until she could stand on her own. She was weak. She hadn’t fed since his wrist, and she would need blood soon. Fortunately, there was good blood standing right in front of them.
“ Look baby... Willow and a couple of her geeky friends... Don’t they just make you hungry...?” he asked her, awakening her thirst as only he could.
Cordelia opened her eyes halfway, dreamily, almost sensually, looking at the three teenagers who formed their circle at the border between worlds. She couldn’t make out the details of what they were all doing, but it looked like some sort of spell. Not that she cared. She closed her eyes to tiny slits, zeroing in on Willow’s neck.
“ Mmmmm....” she muttered. “ Dinner time.”
The vampires advanced.
The three witches wound down their chanting and separated as the air before them began to open. Willow’s eyes lit up at the sight of the group who just happened to be standing on the opposite side.
“ Oz! Cirrus! Faith!” she cried out.
“ Willow!” Oz cried back as his gray wolfen body lunged through the gateway just in time to knock his girlfriend out of the way of the pouncing Angelus.
Amy screamed as Cordelia’s cold fingers closed around her neck. Gary fainted. Cirrus saw Angelus strike, wearing his game face, falling to the ground as Oz moved his target with a massive hug, and she wasted no time in leaping into the demon world as well. The black werewolf landed right on the vampire’s back. Faith and Abraham of course rushed forward as well, and soon the scene became a full-fledged brawl.
Cirrus beat Angelus to the ground, tearing at him. Unfortunately, she forgot that sometimes vampires have claws too. He hit her directly in the face. The blood streamed down into her left eye and she was forced to back down. Angelus coiled back, ready to strike, but was intercepted by Faith, who delivered a kick that landed perfectly against his nose. The vampire staggered back, then glanced to his side, just in time to see Cordelia shove the big red werewolf aside and bite into Amy’s throat. She shivered as she drank, experiencing the ecstasy of warm blood for the first time. She reminded him so of Dru. Oz cut it short all too soon though, clawing her from the back and pulling her, forcing her to let go of her victim. Angelus bounded over to her at that second, wrenching her from Oz’s grip, jumping to a nearby rooftop, and fleeing hastily.
“ Ta ta! It’s been fun kids!” he laughed gleefully as they ran.
“ Is everyone all right?” Abraham asked.
“ No...” Amy and Cirrus moaned in unison.
Abraham, who had considerable healing abilities, took care of most of the wounds. Amy turned out to be the lucky one, for vampire bites, even though they are right on the vein, never bleed after the vampire has finished feeding, so she lost no extra blood. Cirrus, however, was another story.
“ I can’t see out of the eye...” she breathed.
“ That’s going be a nasty scar,” Abraham told her. “ Keep hope, this may just be temporary. At least you’re not completely blind.”
She said no more about it, but it was clear that she was not happy. In fact, to Faith, she seemed to be ashamed of her wound.
Gary, returning to consciousness, broke the short silence.
“ So what do we do now?”
“ We find Buffy,” Cirrus growled. “ And we fight.”
“ Hey! Pig-boy! Get your smelly ass over here!”
The guard glared threateningly at Missy and gave a small snort. Feeling up to her challenge, he sauntered over to her cell. Then Buffy reached out between the bars of her own cell door and beat him over the head with a metal stool leg that she had broken off.
“ Get his keys!” Missy hissed.
Buffy dragged his hips closer and quickly ripped the ring of key from his belt. The Slayer opened her own cell, then Missy’s.
“ What now?” she asked the psychic.
“ You wanna fight Overlord?”
Buffy nodded.
“ Then we go to his tower. Follow me.”
Sneaking away from the arena was hell. Troops of soldiers, most of them meaner and bigger than the simple swine they had taken out inside, circled the building frequently. Skirmishes did occur, one rendering Buffy a bit bloody. The freak had broken her nose. Somehow though, the two managed to reach the bone-made tower in roughly one piece. Then they heard a familiar cry.