The Ultimate
Betrayal
by jamies_lady
Summary:
After the Battle in LA Riley brings news to Buffy which will change
things for ever.
Goes VERY off canon after the Battle of Sunnydale
Chapter 23
Cathy looked around the darkened Panic room. There was
one in each Slayer House, and this one was no different in design.
Bunks along either wall, table down the middle, bathroom at one end and
kitchen beside it. Sealable door, and supplies, magical and tinned
foods, in a cupboard. Weapons along each wall above each bunk. The
basics needed for the slayers in any situation. The main difference was
that this room had blood in it, everywhere. The bulkhead lights had
been smashed and the broken glass crunched underfoot. The door had been
torn off its hinges. There was blue and purple goo down one side of it
and the arm from some demon or other flopped and wriggled on a spike
driven through it. She could hear shouting and screams from through the
doorway. They didn’t sound either human or female. In fact they sounded
decidedly male and non-human. Cathy and Mary surveyed the scene again,
not wanting to miss something obvious and advanced slowly. There was
nothing around them to give them away. In fact the only thing they
could see through the door were mounds of Vampire dust and bits of
demon. They made their way to the stairs carefully, slowly, not wanting
to bring any attention to themselves.
Then there was Caitlin, wrapped in a blood stained blanket with a
shield of white light around her and Cordy standing over her looking
pissed.
‘Where’s Buffy?’ Cathy asked. Cordy just pointed further up the stairs,
from where the inhuman screams were coming from.
Mary picked up the bundle that was Caitlin and she didn’t make a sound,
just lay like dead. The sheet was dripping with blood and goo, not all
of it human. Mary readjusted Caitlin and started back to the portal.
‘I’ll carry her back through to The Hyperion and come back,’ she
whispered to Cordy.
‘There’s no need to come back,’ Cordy said in her normal tone, ‘Buffy
only needs one of you to fetch her.’
‘But the demons?’
‘Dead, or at least the last will be by the time you get there.’ Came
the short reply and Cordy vanished in a bright white light, blinding
the two slayers for a moment.
Mary turned and carried the badly wounded Caitlin through the portal,
into the waiting arms of Martin. He hurried them through to the medical
unit.
Spike could smell the blood coming from her. He could also hear her
heart beating, slowly, too slowly. Poor girl was in a bad way. He hoped
that Martin could do something, perhaps they would have enough blood to
replace what the girl had lost. Luckily, because they’d all been
feeding him, they had plenty of slayer blood on tap.
Cathy watched as Mary vanished and then followed the sounds of the
screams. They were more female than male and sounded more human than
inhuman. She put on extra spurt of speed, desperate to rescue Buffy
from whatever was attacking her. The scene she found chilled her to the
core. There were no demons, no vampires left alive. Every single one
had been ripped to pieces. Buffy stood in the middle of the mass of
gore and guts, stabbing herself with a knife over and over again.
Screaming, not with pain but with anguish and anger. She didn’t look
like just Buffy either: there was a shadow of something on her, the
first Slayer interposed over Buffy’s features. They, she, was crying
and screaming, not noticing anything around her.
Cathy called out to Buffy but she didn’t seem to hear. The first slayer
was in total control. When Cathy looked closely she could see little
fangs peeping through Buffy’s lips. She watched as the slayer part
seemed to step back and fade, leaving just Buffy who promptly fainted.
Cathy caught her before Buffy collapsed completely and heaved her up
over her shoulder in a fireman’s lift, carrying the unconscious slayer
towards the portal and home.
Coming through the portal with a bleeding Buffy failed to seal the
doorway. It took an unbleeding Summers to close them so Dawn waved a
hand in the direction of the lights and they went out leaving an empty
space behind. His niblet was getting to be powerful little spellcaster.
All eyes, however, were on Buffy. She was still unconscious, hanging
like a sack over Cathy’s shoulder.
‘She was taken over by the first Slayer, fangs and all,’ the girl said,
‘she’d killed everything in sight and was screaming, and there were
fangs,’ she repeated. ‘I have never been so scared, not even in the pit
that was Sunnydale. She was terrifying: I told you there were fangs?’
‘There were bits of demon everywhere,’ she added as Johnson and Xander
put Buffy carefully onto a gurney and wheeled her towards the medical
room. Spike was using what strength he had to follow on, hobbling from
one piece of furniture to the next. He couldn’t believe that his Buffy
was hurt, she wasn’t supposed to be hurt. He could smell the blood and
something else, it reminded him of…
‘Get Clem!’ he shouted at Xander and hurried into the room where he saw
Martin lifting a still unconscious Buffy onto a bed. He growled as the
man started undressing HIS slayer to examine her for wounds, never mind
that he was keeping her decently covered or Willow was doing most of
the undressing; no man should be touching her like that.
Willow noticed the growling and smiled to herself. ‘Seems our Spike is
getting territorial.’
Martin glanced across at the vampire. ‘I have to undress her, I have to
see where she's hurt, but I'll be careful.’
‘You had better be,’ Spike growled out loud and allowed Dawn to give
him a seat where he could see what was happening but was well out of
the way.
Clem arrived slightly out of breath and ran straight into Spike.
‘What you want, Xander said you needed me?’
‘That smell, do you know what it is? Cause I think…’
Clem hurried over to the little group before Spike could even finish;
he recognised the blue goo and the distinctive smell of a Seraga demon,
the bringer of essence. No wonder Buffy had been going all original
slayer on them. The blood would allow the original slayer to make her
appearance.
Clem looked at poor Spike. ‘It’s good to see you Spike,’ he said, ‘and
you were right, it is Seraga blood on her. She needs it cleaned off
quickly and thoroughly, then she should wake up her old self again.’
Spike was still cursing his near useless legs as Cathy picked her up
and headed for the showers. They could hear the water running as the
girl cleaned Buffy off, Willow holding the towel to dry her when they
were finished.
Buffy looked so tiny asleep on the bed. She looked delicate and fragile
and not the amazing warrior she was. Spike pulled up his chair and sat
holding her hand.
‘Come on pet, I'm sorry I was a prat, but come back to me baby,
please.’ His finger found the ring on her finger and started fidgeting
with it. Spike never could sit still for long.
Buffy started to come round; hearing his voice, she thought it a dream
and started crying. She didn't know if she could continue in a world
where Spike didn't want her...