Title:
The Sidestep Chronicle – Kitty (Part 53)
Author: Katharyn Rosser
Feedback: Constructive criticism always welcome.
katharynrosser@hotmail.comSpoiler Warning: Pretty limited. The story occurs in an alternate universe though reference is made to events that occur in both realities.
Summary: The conclusion of the battle against the Master.
Disclaimer: I still don’t own any of the copyrights or anything else associated with BTVS. All rights lie with the production company, writers etc, etc. I am making zilch from this series of stories.
Rating: 15
Couples: VW/T
Notes: This part is a direct continuation of Part 52.
Thanks To: Anyone who I actually forgot so far in all of this.
The Sidestep Chronicle
Kitty
By
Katharyn Rosser
Tara dropped the piece of pipe that she had smashed the window with, after she had using it to clear the sharp remainders from the frame. As she looked down she saw one of those just miss Faith. She could have kicked herself for not having thought of that. But she didn’t have time. What Faith was doing with the big guy she had no idea, though knowing the Slayer, she thought fondly, dating him was probably the answer. At least once which seemed to be all it took.
In her other hand were the ingredients to the masking spell. She passed her hand over the new opening and allowed them to fall into the room, dispersing as they flittered down towards the floor. As they slowly drifted down she took the opportunity to check the stakes that she had laid out beside her, whilst the dust and leaf fragments fluttered towards the floor... “Cadria… hide them with your breath,” she whispered and the powder starting to burn coldly releasing plumes of harmless but thick smoke into the club. Coverage was easy. Now for the tricky part… “Felta… show those that live the dangers that they face.” She blew another, smaller, concoction down into the already thick smoke, twinkling as it drifted downwards, spreading way beyond the size of the amount she emptied and adhering to the those below.
And everyone that it touched seemed to glow. The vampires would not notice the difference but she, Faith and the guy… assuming he was even alive, they should… and yes there. As the combination of spells started to work together she had a perfect outline in the smoke, clear as day. One, two, many, many, lots. Vampires. She picked up the first stake and targeted the one that was behind Faith, just letting her know that she was ready and playing the game with the Slayer.
Waiting for her chance to get down there and make sure that nothing happened to Willow.
She had no idea which was most important to her.
But she had a good idea which should have been.
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Willow heard the noises from upstairs. She saw others in deeper parts of the basement realise that what was happening was not just some snack choosing to resist. They started to push past her to get up there. Were they going out of devotion to the Master? Fear of him? Lust for action? Or for blood? One called to her from the other end of the row of cages. Tanya wasn’t it? It was so hard to remember all the new faces around here. She had so little interest in learning the new names. Once she had known every one of the Master’s servants and soon it wouldn’t matter anyway. The Kitten would deal with it.
The Kitten and that bitch of a Slayer.
Later for that one.
“Willow,” Tanya said her voice betraying fear. Fear here in the Master’s very lair. Of him? Perhaps… but Willow thought it was the very idea of an assault on the lair itself. It had always been sacrosanct. “Willow we are under attack!”
“I’m playing now,” Willow told her pointing to the young woman whose bared chest she straddled, whose cheek she stroked. But her victim hadn’t cried out for a little while. Willow looked at her. Possibly she had gone too far too fast.
I had, she realised,
forgotten how fragile they were. Especially when they had been here so long… kept alive for the fun of it.Oh well it was all just camouflage. The girl would never have lived long. The Kitten could not complain about that after she had let Miss Kitty have the wounded mouse. It was just the same. Willow might not even tell her. Besides… last playtime in the Bronze. That had to mean something. She had wanted it to. But it had just been to keep up appearances. Her heart really wasn’t in it.
“Willow, she’s dead! The Master is under attack. We all are. Come on!” Tanya grabbed her arm, pulling her off the bloody corpse.
Willow spun her head round, smiling but with the demon inside her given full licence to deal with the thing that dared to touch her. She drove her razor sharp nails into Tanya’s chest, grasped her heart and pulled. Human flesh, living human hearts, would have offered more resistance to that – Willow had tried it. Vampire’s bodies were so fragile inside. Dead… rotting from the inside out.
But they would always recover.
Tanya looked on as her heart was pulled from her torso and Willow held it, the stolen blood running down her hand, up for her to see… “Willow…” she gasped.
The pain must be lovely. Humans gave up when you did that to them… Willow smiled and bit into the rancid heart, sucking the second hand blood from it and shrivelling it in less time that it would have taken to beat. At least when Tanya was still mortal. She laughed, dropped it on the floor and as she stood up, as Tanya reached desperately for it, lowered the heel of her boot onto it, feeling the squish and then hearing the desiccation of the vampire as the narrow wooden heel pierced the already dead tissue.
She looked around, no one had seen them except the human… and she wasn't going to tell was she. “One less for the Kitten to play with,” she told the corpse and winked wondering what the young woman would have thought of that. Willow helping the humans!
The dead woman didn’t react. So Willow kicked her in the head and made for the stairs, licking the blood of Tanya’s heart from her lips.
Sometimes it was impossible to get a reaction out of anyone.
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Stakes were striking down from above, and nearly every one of them seemed to find its mark. It was sort of hard to tell, but there were glowing shapes in the mist and some of them seemed to be disappearing with the whoosh of desiccation. Faith assumed that both the shapes and the kills were due to Tara. The smoke was helping them, as Tara had promised, and still being able to see their targets was a neat trick and big plus. She could see well enough to fight and her opponents were disappearing as she beheaded them, whilst Tara rained destruction on them from above. Larry was bleeding from three big scratches and a few small wounds but like some big, enraged, bear was still fighting on… driving vampires back with his cross, faithfully watching her back as she had told him to, and sometimes managing to drive them into her path where she could finish them off. And when she had beat some of them down he was often there to plunge his stake into their hearts and finish them off for her.
They were working well together.
He was weakening though. She could see it every time her own battles allowed her the chance to check on him… but the numbers against them were thinning down too. The smoke had allowed Faith to hunt those that were too far away to see her. But now the smoke was beginning to thin too. She wanted to get Larry out of there… but the door was far away… through far too many vampires to get him out… or to ask him to go himself. So instead…
She looked up, shouted “Tar! Get down here would ya? It’s getting hairy as Giles’s mole.”
Larry was under attack again and this time they seemed to be getting the better of him, the cross, where was the damn cross? She lashed out with the axe, again halting a whisker from his neck – this time she was beheading the vampire that had been attacking him. “Larry,” she said. He looked up, too determined to quit until someone dragged him down. Or knocked him down. That was why she needed Tara. She couldn’t fight them all alone; she couldn’t be the only target for them – as much good as the witch was doing from up there. She couldn’t be the only target and she had to put Larry out of the fight. “Stay down,” she finished and even as he started to raise the question she smacked him in the jaw as hard as she could. He went down like a sack of potatoes and she knew that he was safe enough as long as she and Tara didn’t die. “Sorry.”
The vampires had far more to think about than unconscious big guys – even ones whose dates had cute brothers. Faith intended to make sure that they did – and that she got a proper look at that date. Grimly determined she turned and rammed a stake through the chest of a vampire that had been sneaking up on her, the smoke almost all gone now, just perversely clinging to the floor, like mist. It would cover Larry that was good. Though something was disturbing it behind her, pushing the smoke away… she felt the air pressure increase.
And there was Tara behind her… hands full of stakes… but emptying quickly as her lines of sight expanded.
I didn’t,Faith realised,
even hear her land, Tara reached into her bag, four more vampires dusted, another with a stake in its eye and pulled out yet more stakes… how many could she have left?
Wrong question she thought as she looked at the gathering vampires, focused on them now, their vision unimpaired. They still glowed to her though. Whatever Tara had done to their eyes was still working. Wouldn’t hinder her from killing the vamps though and that was all that mattered.
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There weren’t really supposed to have been so many of them here. Not nearly so many and though even Larry had been able to fight them, showing that none of the vampires they had met so far was truly powerful, numbers were going to get them in the end. That would be all it took. If any of them actually caught up to her whilst Faith was otherwise occupied the Slayer would be on her own.
Willow would be on her own too.
Willow and Faith on their own in the same place. Bad, bad, bad.
It was then that she heard the call from the side of the room, Faith followed the sound, as did several of the vampires. Faith wouldn’t know what it was though… or rather who it was. It was a shout – no one could be seen. “They’re in the basement… after the supplies.” Willow. Willow had shouted. She had distracted them. They recognised her voice, they trusted it as one of authority… even though there was no one doing anything in the basement. It was working.
It certainly got their attention. Threaten their home and they would fight. Threaten their food… and all hell broke loose. Over half the vampires headed down to the stairs that the voice had shouted from. Tara didn’t take the chance to hit the others, the ones that remained – instead she targeted those that were leaving – heading for Willow, because if they realised that she was lying – or she started to fight them… surprise would only get her so far and each of them could be as powerful as she was. Half of those that were heading off to defend the food fell before they even reached the staircase Those stairs were clear across the other side of the club. Willow would have to do whatever she was intending to do to the rest of them by herself. No way to get there. No way she could abandon Faith. No way that she could take Faith close to Willow, not with the controlled fury that the Slayer was demonstrating in her fighting.
Tara wondered for a split second if Faith would be puzzled by the helpful distraction. But it was clear that there was no time for that now. If anything those others leaving just focused the others more intently on the source of the stakes. Wary now they formed a half circle around the pair of them, both of them moving to avoid treading and tripping on the unconscious Larry. Faith had her axe… Tara reached in the bag and found just two more stakes, she took them out, showed them to Faith. “W-We might have a problem here.” She’d had thirty when she set off. Nearly every one of those had dusted a vampire. And there were still so many left.
And no sign yet of the Master.
The Slayer tossed her the stake from her own pocket as the vampires grinned, realising that only three of them need die on the way to the witch. That still left four… Without speaking they backed up under the edge of the platform, avoiding the possibility of attack from above. The vampires followed them – of course. “Do you think-” Tara was about to suggest that they should wait, but Faith, being Faith, had then set off in the other direction. Right at them.
“It’s been a hell of a life Tar… see you on the other side.” Faith lifted her axe and threw it at her target, splitting its skull open. That vampire might not be dead but it sure as heck wasn't getting up anytime soon. Tara let one of her stakes go then grimly held onto the other two as the target disappeared in a flurry of dust. She realised what Faith was doing… she was deliberately trying to fight them all… she was trying to save Tara.
Maybe not sacrificing herself, but on the other hand not exactly looking after number one either.
But there was still one coming. Faith looked back, still fighting, a desperate look on her face as she saw the vampire bypass her to head for Tara. But fighting three others Tara knew that there was nothing that Faith could do about it. One of Faith’s opponents fell before the vampire coming for Tara had crossed half the distance but the other two had somehow tripped Faith and she was, briefly, sprawled on the floor.
The vampire grinned and knew that Tara wasn't going to try and use the stake… leaving herself defenceless. It probably thought that she would be afraid to miss. And it was right. With the stake anyway. Stretching out with her mind she wrenched the axe from the mush of the fallen vampire’s skull and brought it towards her hand. It lodged in her attacker’s back and as it reached back, trying to get the head out of its spine she punched out with the stake, pulling it back quickly to save it from being consumed and caught the axe before it could fall halfway to the ground.
She saw Faith, recovering, stretch out her hand and tossed it back towards the Slayer who rolled, caught it by the handle and was on her feet with an acrobatic flip… another vampire minus a head. And then there was just one…
Which fled. Faith walked over to her, gave her a cheery ‘I knew we could do it’ sort of smile and helped her to her feet.
Willow… was all Tara could think. Where was Willow?
“Maclay!” Someone called out from above them. Tara recognised the voice.
The floor of the club was clear of anything but bodies and warily retreating vampires as they peered out from under the edge of the platform. To see the bottom of one of those big cages, suspended from the ceiling.
“
Miss Maclay. I know that’s you.” The voice was desperate. More than that. It was Snyder.
“You know him Tar?” Faith asked, looking up at the little man in the cage.
“School vice-principal,” Tara said, wondering where the controls to lower the cage were and if they had time to look for them.
“The toad?” Faith asked, looking up at the workings of the cage herself.
Where was the Master?
“Hey!” Snyder called in response to the jibe.
“Yeah,” Tara admitted, too tired, too scared and too wary of everything else to worry about showing the proper respect to a teacher.
“Right,” Faith replied, putting the stories together with the terrified man she could see in the cage. She held up the axe and sighted along the blade.
“Faith-”
“Hey no-!”
Tara winced even as Faith flung the axe at the rope, severing it. Oh… as they said… dear.
The Slayer didn’t wait to see the result, going straight after the axe where it fell. No way that they could afford to lose their weapons now. Tara knew that there were still vampires around, was looking for them as the cage fell.
Where was the Master?
Where was Willow?
The cage hit and being heavy wrought iron it didn’t stop. Snyder’s shout as the cage had fallen, and grunt as it hit the floor, transformed into a scream as it fell right though the floor. Tara watched it disappear, saw the rotten wood supports beneath the shattered floor.
They would have to get him later… after they had found their way down to wherever he was. The Vice-Principal was still shouting from below. At them. For help. General panic really. She couldn’t blame him. But the space down there was lit. He had as good a chance as the rest of them.
“Maclay get me out of here!”
Tara backed off from the hole and headed over to Faith who had successfully retrieved her axe.
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Willow had managed to get three of the would-be saviours of the food supply as they had rushed down the stairs. The others she had picked off, feigning a hunt for the attackers through the virtual labyrinth of storerooms and recently added tunnels under the place. She had even freed a few humans. That had given her story veracity and it had given the vampires something to actually hunt.
So she in turn could hunt them.
Only one of them had actually realised what was going on and fought her. A fight that she would have won. Apart from the fact that a huge iron cage had fallen through the floor and squished the member of the Brethren, now her enemy, underneath it.
“Weird,” Willow said, looking up at the hole in the roof. She thought, as she looked that she had seen a flash of the Kitten’s hair up there. She sniffed. She could smell the Kitten.
She was still there.
She was still alive.
Willow knew that anyway. She knew that she would be able to tell if anything happened to the Kitten. And the Kitten would know if anything happened to her. That was just the way that it was.
There was another smell though. Fear. Finally she looked at what was in the cage that had so conveniently vanquished her enemy.
“Oh.”
“Help me out of here!” the little man demanded of her.
It was almost going to be fun. He thought that she was going to help him? Oh no. Now he was looking at her. He probably saw her skin. He probably saw her outfit… He definitely saw her smile.
“You’re in a big cage,” she told him, running her fingers along the bars, pulling the equally big key from around her neck. “Willow’ll let you out.” She found the lock and slipped the key into it.
He backed up against the far side of the cage, suddenly seeming less interested in getting out of it.
She would free him from everything… but quickly. She had other places to be. The Kitten to look after.
“Willow will set you free.”
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Snyder’s shout from downstairs was quickly strangled off, but they both knew that it was him. Without a word Faith and Tara set off in what they knew was going to be a vain attempt to do something for him. What choice did they really have? Not much of one. And even that was taken away as they exited from under the edge of the platform and something incredibly fast and strong swooped down over its edge to grab Faith from Tara’s side, yanking the Slayer right up onto the platform before either of them was able to make so much as a sound.
Tara had reacted, once Faith was pulled from beside her, by stepping back under the wooden platform and grasping her stake tighter. Then when no further attack was forthcoming – just the noises of a struggle from above – she cautiously stepped out from under the edge herself.
Nothing.
She moved quickly beyond the edge of the platform, knowing she was widely exposed to whatever danger had already visited Faith. Looking back above her she saw that bestial thing… a vampire… a very old and powerful vampire, holding Faith’s head in its grip. To her credit Faith wasn't even struggling much – even though her eyes were wide and panicky. One slight twist, Tara knew, and Faith’s head would pop off like a cork from a bottle.
And it, he, the Master grinned at her, looking around at the evidence of the battle that had raged in his domain. The almost total lack of minions they had left to serve him.
And I still, Tara thought,
have a stake. But with Faith there… held in that deadly grip.
She would do it anyway. Just as the Slayer’s eyes told her to. The faintest nod that Faith could manage. But it was in the eyes really. They had known it might come to this. A decision. One of their lives in exchange for his.
One of their lives to save thousands more. Millions perhaps. To avenge as many again.
Tara’s family.
Vengeance is yours Tara. Not yet Daddy. Shut up.
She made her way, slowly and carefully up the steps to the level that he was on. He had not moved, and though he had seen her down there, below, he had waited until she had come to him before he chose to speak.
“Ahhh,” he said. “The Slayer and the Witch, all in one go.”
Tara said nothing, fingering the stake in her hand. Seeing her motion, The Master just laughed.
“You think I fear that? That I use your Slayer as a shield. I’m disappointed.” He held Faith up by her neck, a crushing grip of iron, and held her out at arm’s length, offering Tara a chance to stake him. Wide open.
She took what he offered as Faith wanted her to, and the next thing she saw was the Slayer, impaled with the stake through her shoulder. He was so fast. So fast. Too fast? But Faith couldn’t groan. Couldn’t cry out, because like a lover’s caress he had the Slayer in his headlock again, head twisted. He might bite, snap or…. He reached for her shoulder where the stake was buried deeply.
“Do you know?” he asked her. “I think you hit bone,” he went on, then looked at Faith and asked her, “what do you think Slayer?” he moved the stake in the wound, and from the look in Faith’s eyes, the strangled cry that she let out Tara had to guess that he was right.
Faith…
“I think I’ll save the Slayer for later… I’m only in the mood for a little bite now. Something to take the edge off.” He looked at Tara. “Come to me.” His command was softly spoken and though Tara had no intention of obeying it, somehow she found her feet moving and she
wanted to be there at his side. Because he wanted it. His grin was obscene and she knew what he was doing to her.
Compulsion. He was using a compulsion on her. But there were ways around that sort of power. It wasn’t a spell. It wasn’t magic. It was a talent. A learned skill. To resist it a person just had to have somewhere that they would rather be… more than at his side. In his grip. She shook her head and allowed her mind to drift to another place, another time – with another vampire. One specific vampire.
Thank you Willow.
Her feet stopped moving within a couple of steps and even Faith managed to smile through the pain she was feeling. So long as one of them was fighting then there was still a chance. Tara met Faith’s eyes and there was a silent promise, an understanding. Maybe even a plan… It was going to be a simple plan. Bide your time and when the time is right… kick him in the nuts. They’d both been surprised before just how many things that seemed to be effective against. Of course ‘nuts’ was a relative term… not everything had them in the same place. And still it seemed to work. If it was male… then a sharp kick would do the trick.
“Awww, you’d rather be somewhere else would you?” The Master asked her. “That’s nice.” It was rhetorical of course and she said nothing, feeling the fog lift from her mind briefly. Holding Faith by one hand again, this time he reached out with his hand, palm upturned, hooking his talon tipped fingers and beckoned to her. “Come to me.”
To resist him this time she was forced to submerge herself in the vision of a room, a house, maybe it was her family’s house. The family he had killed by his presence here in Sunnydale. She was there, with Willow. Willow was on the bed beside her and they were kissing… sunlight streaming through the window and caressing them both…
It was so clear. It was so sweet and pure. It was… perfect.
“You have something you want very badly… very badly.” The Master shrugged. “It’s good to want things that you’ll never have. It brings despair and despair makes the blood taste sweeter.”
“I w-will have her…” Tara told him, still caught up in the protective confines of the dream, confused by it – which was the only reason she was saying that. But it was a fine line. The dream was almost as alluring as he was. If she let herself submerge too far into it then he could just simply step over and snap her neck. Rather than have her go to him.
“Her? Mmmmn, maybe I should leave you for…” The Master’s eye must have been caught by something moving behind her. “Willow. Just in time.” His vile grin, all pointed teeth and red gums, widened with the recognition of his favourite and with barely any effort at all he threw Faith over the balcony. “Catch.”
Tara spun, looking down there after the human missile. Willow had nothing but contempt for the Slayer. With Faith hurt, seemingly useless to them, Tara knew that she couldn’t rely on Willow to protect the Slayer. And she couldn’t rely on Faith not to try and kill Willow… of course she couldn’t, Faith didn’t even know who Willow was. Just another vampire.
The Slayer shaped missile was neatly sidestepped by Willow and landed in a heap beside the vampire. No attempt to control the fall. No in-flight cry. Nothing but air being forced from her lungs as she landed heavily. Faith was out… if not dead. Or playing along with more courage than Tara could imagine. Willow nevertheless delivered a vicious kick to Faith’s stomach that the Slayer didn’t react to either. Unconscious, she had to be – but Willow didn’t do anything else to her then.
The kick… she had not been pretending. Willow had really meant that, and Tara was even more worried for Faith.
And for herself without the Slayer to help her.
“I have something for you Willow, something you might like to play with even more than that Slayer,” he called and Willow as already making for the spiral stairs, the unconscious Slayer left where she had fallen, and then Tara felt a little hope. Willow knew all about not leaving enemies behind her.
“I like to play,” Willow told him, her eyes fixed hungrily on Tara as she came to the Master’s side, mouth slightly open, tongue moving round her mouth. “Would you like to play with me?” she asked Tara, grinning as the Master looked on.
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Willow ran her fingers down the soft leather of The Master’s tunic. She was the only one of his brood that dared to touch him without invitation. It was one of the things that set her apart.
The Kitten was frightened. She should be. This was the final test… this was where they found out if she was all grown up yet… this was where the Kitten became a Kitty. If she could hunt and kill the Master…
Tara shook her head in response to her last question, which disappointed Willow. The Kitten always wanted to play. That was what made her so special… but this wasn't the time for her. Willow could understand that, but she also knew that she had a part to play if the Kitten was going to succeed. With the Slayer injured and the Kitten unarmed, Willow knew that she had to do something.
“We’re going to have such
good fun…” Willow told her licking her own lips as she went and stood next to the quivering Kitten. Oh Willow liked it when the Kitten quivered. She loved to make her quiver even more. She ran her finger, that same finger, down the Kitten’s jacketed arm… then inwards to pull back the edge of her jacket and drive her hand in there feeling the Kitten’s clothed flesh beneath her fingers. Moving and circling the Kitten… nibbling on her ear. “Such fun…” she said out loud.
“You’ve wanted this one for a while haven’t you Willow?” The Master suddenly interrupted playtime with the question.
Immediately she was wary, the Master did not speak except when he had a point to make, a lesson to teach or something he required. Willow, grinned at him, thinking that expression might be an answer that would suffice. He had a talent for sniffing out lies. So she did not cease her indignities on the Kitten, playfully biting her neck but not puncturing the skin, pleased that the Kitten actually cringed, that the Kitten could still fear her. Delightful. Even if she would never do that without the Kitten asking her to. She could smell the fear. Taste it…
So delicious.
Looking up from the Kitten’s skin she could see that The Master still expected an answer. So she gave him one, the only one that she could give. “Yes… isn’t she pretty Master?” She cupped Tara’s breast possessively and squeezed until the Kitten gasped.
“Charming… I’m sure you’ll enjoy her Willow. Or have you enjoyed her already?” he asked.
That stopped Willow, but only briefly. She lathed her tongue along the Kitten’s soft neck and removed her hand from within the coat. The Kitten, if anything, was shaking even more now than she had been before. “Master?” Willow needed time… time to think. Time to plot a way around this trap that he was setting for her. As she had feared once… he really did know. But how much? Did he suspect her already? Of more than just playing with the Kitten?
“I seem to remember that when I sent The Three to crush my enemies and bring me their bones that the last of them came back and told me an interesting tale about a witch who could throw stakes with magic… kissing you, mmm?” His question was so precise that there could be little doubt what was in his mind. Betrayal. And he wasn’t worried. Not at all. It was two against one… and he didn’t fear that at all.
Nor should he. Willow knew what he was capable of. What his traps, verbal or otherwise were like. There was the hole, lined with stakes… all she had to do was fall into it. Or avoid it. “She’s nothing but a toy Master.” Tara shuddered beneath her fingers as she said the words.
What was the Kitten afraid of? The Master? That Willow might now be telling the truth to him? That she meant nothing like as much to Willow as Willow thought she did to her?
“She,” The Master gestured at Tara, “Seems to think otherwise Willow.” He came up to them and Willow could smell the blood of those he had so recently fed upon as he spoke. “She burns when you tell her that. Have you lied to her… or are you lying to me my dear?” He cupped Tara’s head in a mockery of a gentle caress before transferring it to Willow.
Willow’s eyes flicked to the spiral staircase where the Slayer had reappeared, waiting for something. She twisted the Kitten’s head violently, exposing her neck for a real bite offering it to the Master but intending no more than that the Kitten should be able to see her ‘friend’ the Slayer waiting there. The Kitten had to know that the Slayer was back in the game… and it was all a big game. Even though Faith had ducked back when Willow had noticed her. “You see your fate Witch? Are you ready to face always?” she asked.
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Fate, Tara heard the word. Fate? Faith… And ‘Always’? Willow knew what the word meant. It was Tara’s way… not Willow’s which was eternity. Always… Her Willow was ready for her to act… but she had to make the move. They were all here… But she had no weapon. Neither did Willow.
But what chance did they have without weapons? Against him?
“I told you Willow… I’m not hungry. I’ll have the Slayer later. Please do go on though…” he gestured at the exposed neck.
“I just ate,” Willow told him.
Tara knew that he wasn’t going to accept that from a vampire of Willow’s reputation and desires. She just waited for someone to try and bite her, searching her mind for something that she could use against him. There were spells, powerful spells, that she could use, but if they went wrong then Willow, Faith, all of them would be at risk… This wasn’t such a crisis point yet. She knew that she could push him away. Then it would be three against one. But she wasn't at all sure that three was enough. He was stronger than the Slayer, even when Faith was uninjured - quicker than Willow by far and had his own powers that might match hers.
“I insist Willow. I really do,” he told her with a gracious forcefulness of command.
He was going to make Willow either prove herself or betray him… and that meant he had no fear. Well he should. Tara felt Willow bend her head towards her neck, expected a whispered word to signal that she should do something… anything. But the whisper did not come. Instead Willow licked the place she evidently intended to bite and Tara felt a hand on her behind – not doing anything, until those teeth started to clamp and the Master smiled, apparently satisfied. The hand tightened in signal or in play… Tara didn’t know. But whatever it was way past time.
She forced the air around herself to condense into a hard shell, the breeze blowing Willow’s hair into her face as more air rushed in to fill the gaps, and then pushed out with it. Willow was forced from her and against the rails of the balcony. When it reached The Master he seemed to resist it… then like a man standing upright in a gale he was gradually pushed back by the force of her will, shifting from the thickening of the element to simply applying pressure to him. Far more than she would ever manage with her muscles.
Her neck suddenly hurt… Willow
had bitten her. She hadn’t drunk though… but she had bitten, or perhaps her teeth had been pulled into her skin when the air pressed her backwards. Now wasn’t the time to worry about that. Slowly she pushed the Master backwards, until he was at the top of the staircase, staring at her as if interested or even fascinated by her tricks. But the effort, on top of everything that had gone before, was draining her… sweat beaded on her forehead and eventually he stopped taking steps backwards and took one towards her instead.
“Impressive. Futile but impressive. Do you know what I’m going to do with you now? I’m going-”
Then there was a boot in his face from the recess at the top of the steps “I don’t care.” Faith spared Tara a glance and a quick smile before she turned back to him and landed a flurry of kicks and blows that had him moving back once more, the surprise telling. He was still reacting to the previous kick when the next punch landed. “You really do like to talk don’t you?” Faith asked, smashing her elbow into his midriff and dancing back out of his enraged grasp. “Shame about how you have nothing worth hearing.”
“Willow,” he shouted, “kill the witch. Now.” No taunts, no threats. Just a voice filled with command. And an unspoken promise that he would deal with the Slayer himself.
Tara turned and looked at the vampire she loved, still not absolutely sure that she would not obey. If The Master had used a compulsion on Willow… then to survive, for them to survive she might have to kill the vampire.
Could she do that? If she had to?
--------------------
The order washed over Willow like a wave, then retreated. That wasn’t nice. That wasn't how things were supposed to be in the Brethren. How was he going to show her the value of loyalty when he tried to control her mind? Tried to make her do something that she did not want to? It was a betrayal of the Order. And he didn’t trust her. That much was clear.
With good reason actually – but it was still not nice.
She just shook her head, partly to clear it, pleased to see that her refusal made him mad… and that caused him to attack the Slayer with even more ferocity, managing to land a blow that she had not anticipated on her wounded shoulder. The Slayer yelped, then twisted to try to protect the wound from further attacks, angling it away from him, always rolling to that side when the punch came, softening anything that landed over there. But that made her more predictable – and for all her reflexes she wasn't even as fast as Willow. Willow could read her like a book… and the Master was so much faster than Willow anyway.
This would be good… The Master will kill the Slayer and she and the Kitten could kill the Master. Two birds and just with the one stone. Because now there was no going back. She had aligned herself against the Master. Her Master. And his retribution would be long, lingering and painful. One of them had to die. Now, before she became that one.
She planted a hurried kiss on the Kitten’s lips, driving him even more wild and causing him to hurt the Slayer again. A kiss that was worth it in so many ways.
Weapons, they needed weapons. She rolled over the railing to the floor below, landing smoothly as a cat seeking to protect her precious Kitten.
---------------------
Tara saw Willow disappear and suddenly felt very much alone. Willow had resisted the Master’s attempt to control her and Tara was proud of her for that, not to mention thankful, but where was she going? They should be together now.
What had that ill-timed kiss meant? Goodbye?
She turned her attention back to Faith. The Slayer was locked in a titanic battle, but she was starting to come off worse. The Master had recovered from his surprise and when Faith had paused, considering her options, it had become he, rather than she, that was dictating the course of the fight. Maybe even toying with her. So fast… Tara could hardly see him move. Faith was having better luck but she couldn’t stop every one of his attacks. Those she couldn’t dodge, she tried to block… those that she couldn’t block landed hard and she was already bleeding from her face as well as her shoulder – her injured shoulder which he was attacking more than any other point of her body. And each time he struck Faith there he forced a cry of pain from her.
Quickly it became clear that he was playing with her, tiring her out. Opportunities for him to make the kill came and went. Missed or ignored as he drove her backwards. And Faith never could even try to counterattack. When she tried, a leg sweep to try and trip him to the floor, he simply stepped over her. He was that fast. Stepped over her then drove his fist down into the deep wound once more. It came away bloody and he held it up to show Tara. Laughing at them both. Less a laugh than an evil snarl that just betrayed amusement. Then he stepped back and allowed her to stand again.
Faith quickly went down again though, clutching her shoulder, after another blow and he licked at his bloody hand, tilting his head as if weighing the value of her blood and perhaps finding it wanting. He slowly followed Faith as she scrabbled backwards, not standing this time, seeking something, anything that she could do. The Slayer slammed a foot up towards his groin and he just grabbed it, twisting her leg till she made a sickening cry that barely masked the snap of tendons and dislocating of bones. If not worse.
Enough… way more than enough. Tara knew that she had to step over the line that she had always drawn for herself. But he was too close to Faith. She pushed at the air in front of him, distracting him from Faith so that he dropped the Slayer’s leg and met her eyes, reading the challenge, the resolve that she hoped was there. It was going to look a damn sight less impressive if he saw the fear that actually riddled her. Fear for Faith. Fear for Willow. Fear for Sunnydale if she messed up now. Fear for what this might do to her… going this far. Fear of the darkness. He came for her. Closer, closer…
And now. She made tiny gestures with her hands, concentrating on him… something that old ought to burn up a treat. “Ignis Incende Maxima” She wasn’t sure of the Latin but she knew exactly what it was she intended and that was what counted.
Keep the tinder dry Tara. Yes sir. Dry as bone.
The flames caught on his clothes, fanning up into his face and burning that visage into an even more horrific contortion. It was hurting him. And he deserved it… He deserved pain. His whole leather tunic was on fire, though it should not have caught so easily… but there was only his face and hands exposed and though they were being damaged he was not burning up. He wasn't vanishing in some puff of dust, consumed by his own evil. And he was coming for her still, snarling. Great. Just great, now she had a flaming vampire attacking her… so much better than one not at all on fire.
He swung at her, but the speed of the attack must have been dulled by his pain. If he had tried to attack her with the ferocity that he had directed at Faith then there would be nothing left of her skull but shattered remnant stuck around his fist. For a moment he looked surprised at just how ineffective it had been. Then he got over it and came at her again. She doubted that he would allow the pain to slow him again.
Just as the smoke triggered the sprinklers up above them.
------------------
Was this really it? An entire attack and all that there was in here that might kill a vampire was three pool cues and that axe. Willow had paused just long enough look at the fascinating wound that must have been caused by that axe. Ben was it? Ben had his head split like a lump of wood. Right down to his neck… but both sides of his face were still moving. Almost together. Both eyes focused on her as she hefted the axe and finished the job.
Why, Willow wondered,
did I never think of that?A snack on the unconscious White Hat who’d been responsible for killing her once upon a time was attractive. But there was no time, she could see the Kitten backed up against the railings of the balcony and she could see… was that the Master?… flailing around in front of her. On fire. That might just do for him.
Until the sprinklers came on. She hadn’t even known this place had them, or who had maintained them if it had. But The Master was nothing if not prepared, and as she strode back to the stairs, ascending them and taking in the scene from the top, he was nothing more, right now, than incredibly pissed. And totally focused on Tara.
The Slayer was on the ground between her and the Master with her leg bent beneath her at an angle unnatural angle. Some kind of delicious pain she must be in. And she’d missed it. The Slayer was also between her and the Kitten. Knowing that she was going to hate herself tomorrow evening she tossed a cue at the Slayer, not even waiting to see if she caught it, but hearing no clatter as she then moved past Faith and behind the Master.
His senses must still have been up to the job, even as his extinguished clothing hissed and crackled under the water and he started to turn. Willow’s eyes fixed on his smouldering, malformed ears. That had to hurt… she had never really played with ears that much… apart from slicing them off. That seemed to hurt… but did burning? Matches and candles had always been her limit. Her arm was wrapped around the cue, holding it about a third of the way down the shaft from the grip. Overhand with the grip held level by her elbow. She jabbed it forward, missing his heart as he turned to face her but piercing his torso all the same. He hissed at her, reaching out towards her, thwarted by the distance… until he began to advance along the cue, passing the wood further through himself.
Behind him now the Kitten held out her hand and Willow, unable to pass her the other cue, or to do anything with it herself, just let it fall. It never hit the ground, somehow whirling past the advancing Master and into the Kitten’s grasp, which quickly mirrored her own. Again the Master was not about to let himself be staked, twisting… so that the second entered him from the back and drove forwards.
And he found himself stuck.
It was like he was on rails… He couldn’t turn, his own bones stopped that… instead he just kept forcing his way along the cues, even when they both took an end of each and pulled them apart. His determination and his body pushed them back together. “We’re a family Willow,” he hissed. “You know the penalty for betraying the family. Betraying me.” He was still coming.
“You get spanked?” Faith suggested from behind Willow, resting on the cue like a crutch, her leg trailing behind her.
Now that had to hurt… shame that the Master hadn’t done a little better there and finished her off. Not that the Slayer would be much of a problem now that she was crippled. If the Kitten would let her… she could put the Slayer out of her misery. She was virtually helpless… and it would be a merciful death.
Like Miss Kitty and the mouse.
Faith grabbed the railing alongside her with her damaged arm, wincing as she did so and twirled the cue into an en garde position… And for a moment Willow thought that the Slayer was coming for her instead… but the cue went straight past her side, not by much, and into the Master’s chest. Dead on. “Eight ball… corner pocket,” Faith grunted.
A roar erupted from his throat. For as long as he had one.
And the way he went… very pretty…. Desiccated bones remaining… an arm defying gravity for seconds to stretch out for the real object of his wrath.
But she had survived him… and beaten him. She and the Kitten.
Oh and that damned bitch of a Slayer.
---------------
Tara looked at the back of the Master’s skull. It really didn’t look a lot different from before when the skin had been stretched so tightly across it. Water dribbled over the contours, almost in slow motion as she and Willow maintained the weight of the bones in their grasp and Faith jerked the killing pool cue out of his chest cavity, causing some ribs to snap and fall to the floor. The Slayer leaned once more on her retrieved crutch and the Master’s outstretched claws collapsed, captured at last by gravity.
She had done it. She had killed him
Justice.
They had done it. They had killed him.
Vengeance.
And… It seemed like an anti-climax right now. She had killed a vampire… the only vampire she had ever really wanted to kill. But there were still others. There was one in front of her. Willow… What about Willow? She let go of the cues and Willow followed her lead. What was left of the Master collapsed in a heap at their feet. Willow’s eyes were drawn to the fallen skull, flickering back to Tara. Seeming about to speak before –
Tara screamed. Whether it was a warning, a command, a plea she wouldn’t remember later. Faith had taken the cue from under her arm again, drawn it back and her intention was clear. “Faith no!”
The cue drove forwards towards Willow’s back… her beautiful back… and at the scream the Slayer hesitated… just for split-second. That was all it could have been, then made her decision to ignore Tara and then the movement started again. The cue seemed relentlessly to be sliding through the air, it all seemed so slow after the speed that everything else had happened. But that split-second, that warning had been enough for Willow. The cue stuck in her top which was so tight it could only have been millimetres from her skin, Tara heard the rip, but the movement the vampire had made caused it to miss her lovely, cool and pale body. Caught in the material the cue was trapped and a second later it was snatched from Faith’s grasp and held, lengthwise across the Slayer’s throat by the enraged vampire.
Willow pinned Faith to the floor, astride her after the Slayer had collapsed. Faith seemed resigned to accept her fate as Willow pressed. Neither of Tara nor Faith had really expected to survive this – certainly not both of them – and now there was no fight left in the Slayer. The tank was empty of fight, long since refilled just with pain. But there was no condemnation in her eyes for Tara’s warning to Willow.
Which was just one more reason that she had to stop the vampire from killing the Slayer.
Tara stepped around the side of Willow and put her hand on the vampire’s chest, shoving her back, but meeting superhuman resistance. There was no moving Willow when she didn’t want to be moved. “No,” Tara said keeping up the pressure.
“She tried to kill me,” Willow’s accusation was clearly directed at Faith rather than Tara.
“You’re already dead,” Faith gasped. “You just haven’t…ugh… had the sense to fall down yet.” Defiance oozed from her body language as well as her words.
“No.” Tara said again. That second time it was so clearly a command that Willow actually seemed to jump. “No.” Softer that time. Then Tara leaned in and kissed her cheek. “No Willow.”
Willow seemed to ignore the kiss, but Tara knew that really she hadn’t. It had saved Faith’s life. The vampire dropped the cue with disgust and stood up, striding away to the stairs as Faith was kept from trying to pursue, pressed to the floor by Tara. For her own protection. “I don’t like her. Leaving now Kitty,” Willow called as she left. Tara had no clear idea who she meant – could the vampire mean her? “You’ll want to destroy those bones Kitty… or else he’ll be back to play another day,” and then Willow was gone. Where could she go though? This place and Tara’s apartment were the only places that she had.
Please… Be there later Willow… I need you.Kitty?
Tara gave the cue back to Faith who was slowly pulling herself up the railings. They had to get out of here, with Larry, wherever he was, before any stray vampires turned up. They weren’t in good enough shape to take on even one that was freshly crawled out of a grave. Then she gave some thought to Willow’s parting instruction and looking at Faith neither of them had the energy to doubt what they had been told. “You think that the skull would be enough?” she asked Faith. If they had to be sure to keep him gone… Would that be enough? Perhaps if they took that they could come back for the rest.
“You asking me?” Faith spat blood. “I never heard of a vampire being brought back.” But to Tara it didn’t sound to be the big thing on Faith’s mind.
“I have…” Tara told her, looking at Willow exit the building.
Faith must have realised what she was saying about that particular vampire. “Take the skull… we’ll crush it.”
Gingerly Tara bent and picked the skull out of the pile of wet bones and shoved it in her bag, then slung her arm around Faith’s good shoulder and helped the Slayer out of the lair with the cue serving as a makeshift crutch once more. Larry, fortunately, had either been brought round by the water or he’d had the good sense to stay down during the fighting.
As they exited into the, sort of, fresh air of the street with Larry holding Faith up on the other side, Faith stopped, looked at her, paused. “You’ve been boinking that?” Her meaning was clear… Willow.
Tara didn’t bother trying to explain her choice, the attractions or the dreams. Let alone the love that, perversely, she had to admit to herself that she felt. She just nodded.
“Girlfriend… people say that I have bad taste… but yours really sucks.”
----------------
The sun was high in the sky by the time Tara made it back from Mr Giles’s to her own apartment. Hers? The City of Sunnydale’s. The Mayor’s. And where did that leave her? She had been working for an evil man to destroy an even more evil beast. It was easier to remember how she had justified that herself than to imagine how she would continue to do so now.
Her whole reason for being here had evaporated beneath the heavy hammer that Mr Giles had provided for crushing the Skull of the Master, fading away even as she scattered the pieces and the dust in a dozen different places as she walked home. A piece here, a piece there. He had recognised the ritual to which Willow had undoubtedly been referring. And he had cause to fear it. They all did. But without a skull no one who knew of it could do a thing to bring the Master back.
Sunnydale was free of him. It really was.
But Sunnydale was not free.
And they were all alive. Or as alive as they had been before the events of that night. Willow… wasn’t. But she was Willow and the vampire had not only survived… she had helped… and she had spared Faith when told to. Reluctantly, with disgust even. But spared when she could have choked or drunk the Slayer’s blood with ease. An ambition she had revealed over and over. To kill a Slayer. Especially since Faith had come to town.
And she didn’t do it, because I asked not to.Faith had been taken to the ER by Jenny whilst Mr Giles had taken the opportunity to lay into Tara, as the relatively uninjured one… as if it had just been her choice to leave him behind. Would they have won if he had been there? Perhaps, but to her what mattered was that they had won anyway. Regardless. So he was annoyed. But they were all alive. Even Larry, the unknown quantity. Of course, with them all being alive he made as much of Faith’s injuries as he might have done her death. Tara had just stayed silent and weathered the storm until it faded and he, finally, congratulated and hugged her in an uncharacteristic burst of emotion that had surprised them both.
Faith hadn’t told him about Willow when they first got back obviously.
She’d left him there after the phone call from Jenny that updated them on Faith’s condition… not too bad, all things considered. On a scale of ingrowing toe-nail to snapped neck. Faith, obviously, had refused to reveal to the doctors where she had received such an obvious beating to the doctors. Or just how she had got stabbed in the shoulder. Or even how her leg had been wrenched. The police wouldn’t understand or be able to do anything even if they could. Justice had already been done.
It really, really had.
And what did that leave her? When justice or vengeance was done what did that leave? Her job? Mystical flunky to someone almost as bad as the Master… helping him to attain a status that would make him far, far worse? At least for the next couple of weeks… until she beat him to it.
Her friends? Faith would very likely tell Mr Giles about Willow and that would be that. If Faith wasn't sent after Tara herself, then she would be sent after Willow. The last of the Master’s favourites. A killer a hundred times over. A thousand. After dispensing her own justice, how could Tara even try to deny them theirs?
Especially given… Oz. Whom Willow had admitted killing when she had described finding the werewolf. ‘Admitted’ was not the word… taunted her with it when she had mentioned it.
No they would want their revenge. Tara opened the bedroom door. So what she had left was…
Willow. The vampire was there… she hadn’t abandoned her which was good because Tara needed to be held now. She needed that so badly that she would go through anything that Willow wanted just to get to that.
Or maybe she could just… ask?
“Hey Kitty,” Willow said to her as she opened the door.
Willow didn’t ask about Faith. She didn’t ask what had happened afterwards. She didn’t even ask if they had attended to the Master’s bones – about which she had warned them. Willow just didn’t care about any of it. Just her Kitty. Those two words had made that so clear that Tara wanted to cry.
And me… what do I care about now?Just her. Willow.
What Willow had said finally twigged in her brain… Willow had never called her that apart from that once before leaving the Bronze. It had always been ‘Kitten’ before…occasionally Tara. And now she was ‘Kitty?’ She asked Willow the question with her eyes and the vampire smiled and told her.
“You’re all grown up now… my big bad hunter… My Kitty,” Willow explained the rite of passage.
“Yours?” Tara wondered as she allowed Willow to gently undress her aching, bruised body and slip it under the covers to be wrapped in her own cool naked body. Yours… Was Willow really saying that? Acknowledging it?
“You told me that Kitty. That you were mine.” Willow told her, touching the multi-coloured bruises with almost gentle wonder. “You’re hurt. All bruised and tender.”
Tara ignored that obvious statement and lifted the pendant over her head, placed it over the lampshade and then relaxed for the first time in hours. Years maybe. Willow gently rubbed the place where the pendant had hung. Unmarked but so painful still. Then she kissed it and some of the pain went away. She relaxed into Willow’s embrace which just seemed so natural. “Why didn’t you kill Faith?” Tara asked a few minutes later.
“Close your eyes Kitty,” Willow said, rubbing at Tara’s temples with strong hands and finding just the right spot to soothe the hangover from the magic that Tara nearly always suffered. A preventative cure.
“Why?” Tara repeated, wanting an answer from her.
“You told me not to,” Willow whispered… sounding slightly disgusted with herself. Or at least as if she should have been.
“And if I told you that you were mine too?” Tara asked, wondering how long that attitude would last in her Willow. And how far it might go…
“Then I’d be that too Kitty.”
**************
by mollyig » Wed Jun 19, 2002 4:42 am 
)... you rule! Keep up the great work!
