Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Storm Sewers
Faith stands over the wooden box and smashes the padlock off with her boot. She kneels before it and swings the lid open to reveal several hundreds pounds of plastic explosive connected to a detonator and timing device. The timer counts down. Faith runs, diving into a murky sewer water, just as the bomb explodes with a tremendous fireball. The pressure wave tosses Faith around like a matchstick.
Pagean Temple/Shadow Valley Vineyard
As Buffy stares at the ancient weapon embedded in the rock, the trapdoor above slams open and Caleb stalks down the stairs.
“So…you found it. Not impressed. ‘Cause the question now, girly-girl, is can you pry it from solid rock before I come over there and----“
Buffy reaches and casually lifts the Axe. She holds it up and turns toward Caleb who stops in his tracks, for the first time uncertain and fearful.
“Damn…” Caleb says.
End of Days/Pagean Temple-Present
Buffy wrestles with Caleb as he tries to get control of the scythe from her. She recovers and whacks him in the side of the head with one end of the weapon, then hits him in the gut with the other, then again with the blade----three shots fast.
Caleb let’s go and Buffy leaps backward. He rushes her and unleashes a punch that shatters a stone column to dust on contact.
“You’re not slipping out of this fight, girl. Can’t you see? You can’t stop me. I can just keep going back for more. It’s like being re-born.”
Buffy lunges at Caleb with the scythe and this time he ducks under its blade, avoiding contact.
Buffy presses the attack, swinging and thrusting. Caleb can’t be touched.
He smiles and stands upright----a target.
Buffy swings the Axe blade right at his neck and Caleb, without looking, shoots a hand up and catches the scythe in mid-swing, stopping it cold. With his other hand, Caleb punches Buffy so hard she flies into the far wall, sending up a cloud of dust. She drops the scythe on impact.
Caleb holds the scythe up for all of a split second, as Buffy kicks it from his grip and catches it in the same motion. She spins, catching Caleb behind the knees with the scythe’s shaft and lifting him off his feet. He crashes to the dusty floor. Buffy spins the scythe, stake-end first, and thrusts it downward straight at Caleb’s throat. He catches it an inch above his face and twists hard, flipping Buffy over. Now it’s her turn to hit the ground.
Caleb leaps to his feet and Buffy staggers to hers just in time to receive a devastating punch to the face. It sends her reeling backward. Caleb just keeps hitting her, a maniacal on his face.
Buffy tries to defend herself but she’s running out of steam.
She lies on her back on the floor, writhing in pain as Caleb circles her, not even out of breath.
He raises his scythe for the killing blow.
Suddenly, he drops it. He looks at his chest and pulls an arrow out, tossing it to the ground.
“Now who in the hell was that?”
He puts a foot to Buffy’s throat and turns to look.
“Me,” Cordelia Chase says, a loaded crossbow aimed. “Now let her go.”
“Those things won’t kill me.”
“I know.”
“Then why try?”
“To save her life.”
He lifts the Slayer with a fierce grip and throws her, making her land with a wall and pillars on top of her.
“Buffy!” she yells, and then looks back at Caleb.
He starts forward.
She shoots, putting one through his throat and another through his gut. He doubles over in pain. She lays the crossbow on the ground and pulls out a sword. He looks up, as she raises her sword that Angel had given her. Then she slices him in half. She puts her sword and crossbow in her black bag, which is by the stairs.
She runs towards where Buffy is buried. She starts digging, tossing rumble aside. She soon finds her and drags her into the middle of the Pagean Temple, gently laying her down. She then kneels at her side.
“Buffy? Buffy,” she calls.
Buffy soon starts to come to.
“Buffy. Buffy, can you hear me?”
“Cordelia?”
Buffy slowly opens her eyes to see her.
Cordy figures she’s okay now, so she helps her to her feet.
A loud noise sounds and Faith knows something bad happened in the sewer tunnels.
“Faith,” Buffy says.
They rush to the sewers as quickly as they can, running side by side, Cordy’s bag over her shoulder, desperate to find the former Dark Slayer.
Sewer Tunnels
They run towards the mucky water, seeing her there.
Once there, Cordy pulls her out and gently lays her down on the ground. She checks for a pulse on the side of her neck, as Buffy kneels beside them.
“Faith?” Buffy calls.
Cordy finds that she’s alive. She takes her fingers away.
“Faith, can you hear me?” Cordy calls.
Faith groans, coming to and then coughs. Cordy sits her up, as she coughs, to help her and make sure she’s okay.
Once finished, Faith realizes who’s there with her.
“C?” she questions.
“Long story,” Cordy says. “Now let’s get to Buffy’s.”
Summers' Residence
Everyone looks at the front door, as it opens. Xander and Anya both walk slowly up to the former Queen C. Willow runs right up to her, hugging her, happy to see her. Xander is the second and last person to hug her. Anya just stands there, staring her down.
“What brings Queen C back to Sunnydale?” Xander asks.
“If you’re here to cause trouble, just leave,” Anya tells her.
“I think she’s here to help,” Buffy announces. “She saved my life and helped Faith. We owe her one.”
Anya laughs.
“Cordelia? Her? Helping? You have got to be kidding me.”
“I’ve changed,” the former Cordette leader tells her.
“It’s true. She has,” Willow agrees.
The Battle
Two days later, the battle against the dead bone things that used to be vampires and The First begins.
Anya and Andrew fight side by side, while Cordy fights on her own turf. Xander does likewise as his first ex. Buffy and Faith fight side by side. Spike and Willow fight on their own, too.
Suddenly, Buffy falls to the ground, stabbed with something from behind, but there’s nothing in her. Blood shows on the shirt she’s wearing.
The First appears as Buffy saying, “Ow. That hurt.”
“Buffy!” Faith yells, fighting one of the creatures. Faith has seen her fall to the ground.
Meanwhile, one of the creatures sneaks up behind Anya. It stabs her in the back and she falls to the grounds, as it pulls it out of her.
“Anya!” Cordy yells, rushing forward, as she fights the creatures off left and right with her sword, trying to get to her.
A few minutes later, she kneels by her, stops the bleeding, and patches it up.
A few minutes later, she hears Buff yell something.
Everyone around her starts running out, as Buff yells, “It’s collapsing! Everyone get out!”
Buff takes one last long look at Spike, he smiles at her, he turns to dust, and then she leaves. Faith is right behind her, leaving a moment later.
Xander looks around the best he can, just standing there, searching for his second ex.
“Anya! Anya!” He calls out.
Nothing. There’s silence. Then there’s a voice.
“Xander, to your left! We’re over here!”
That voice. He will always know that voice. He will cherish it with all of his being. It’s his Secret Eyes. Cordy. She’s the one that has called to him.
He follows her voice, guessing where it has come from. Where his Queen and An are located at.
Once he sees them, he rushes over and kneels by them.
“What happened?” he asks.
“She’ll be alright. Just get her out. I should be right behind you. If I’m not, come back and find me,” she replies.
He rushes out the best he can, carrying the former Vengeance Demon in his arms.
Once she’s on the bus and he sees Cordy isn’t around, he runs back inside.
“Cordy! Cordy!” he calls loudly.
He’s desperate to find her. After all, she’s his Queen and Secret Eyes. He can always look into her eyes and know all of her secrets. She will tell them all. She holds so many secrets in her eyes. But then again, it isn’t high school. This is the real world now. It could be different now with her. After all, she isn’t the same as the high school Cordy he grew to love.
He runs as fast as he can, seeing her. He has only seen her, because he has heard her first. She’s screaming in pain, fingers to her temples, moving around as if hits her. He knows from Willow that she has visions. He figures that his is one of them. He hasn’t expected it like this, though. For her to be in so much pain, but still hang on.
He carries her the best he can, as the vision continues.
Faith looks around at everyone.
“Where’s X?”
Dawn points to the entrance of Sunnydale High.
“There he is.”
Willow hurries forward to help, knowing from how she’s acting she’s having a vision.
A few minutes later, they’re all in the bus, Willow driving, as Sunnydale disappears. At the same time, Cor keeps on screaming as the vision continues, She keeps her fingers to her temples, screaming, back arching, as it lasts even longer.
A mile outside Sunnydale, Willow stops the bus. She goes over to where Cor lays, the vision starting to ebb away. Will gives Xan a bottle of water and Advil.
“Give these to her. And I guess I don’t have to tell you to be gentle. Nobody speak loud. It’ll hurt her more. She gets migraines after her visions,” she tells them.
The bus drives off, heading for LA. Will figures that’s where Cordelia’s vision is located at.
“What did you see?” Xan half whispers.
She takes a couple Advil and drinks some water. She looks at him, slowly sitting up.
“I…I saw…Angel.”
She looks at Buffy when she says his name.
She continues, still gazing at the Slayer.
“He…he’s chained.”
She puts a hand to her temple, trying to see things more clearly.
“It’s a house. I see…Oh, God. Holtz.”
Half an hour later, Cordelia Chase walks into the house, the others in the bus.
She aims a crossbow at his chest, half a foot away.
“Let him go,” she says.
“Why should I let hi----“ he has to break off, as she shoots him in the leg with an arrow.
While he’s in pain, she uses a rebar nearby to release him. She then helps him out.
Buffy takes over, once she sees the May Queen helping him.
Buffy helps him into the bus. They then drive to the Hyperion Hotel, Will driving.
Angel soon gets better, Holtz goes back to his own time, and everybody lives as happily ever after as they can. After all, LA may not be the Hellmouth, but there are plenty of things out there.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
