Chapter 43

The Wall

A/N: Chapter forty three of the series.

Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss Whedon and the parties involved in airing the shows.

Feedback: Sure, as you wish.

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London, England

The Watcher's Council

December 2017

Wesley, Illyria and Connor had arrived when the steel doors of the Council had already been shut. They had cursed and felt useless when feeling the vampires running amok inside the building.

Illyria had even tried to pry one of the steel doors off, but the Council had built those doors to last, and had even been tested by her.

"Our security has turned around and bit us in the ass, right?" Connor asked, as he had once again tried to rip the doors next to Illyria.

"It is useless." Wesley said. "You shouldn't exert yourselves. When the turok hans are done with everyone inside, we'll be the ones left standing."

"You seem certain that everyone inside the structure will perish." Illyria mentioned. "What makes you so sure?"

"Are you not feeling how many turok hans are inside?" He asked. "Without being able to feel them, and trapped in closed quarters, the slayers will have a hard time fending them off."

"Slayers are stronger."

"But they get tired." Wesley countered. "A turok han will last longer, and locked inside, there is no sunlight to harm them. There is no napalm to get inside."

"Well, out here, we're sitting ducks with the dragons circling the city." Connor said. "So, shouldn't we be a bit more worried about winged death up there?"

"They haven't seen us yet." Wesley replied. "Or smelt us. The fire is probably exciting them, and I guess the army will soon send them more toys to play with."

"When you speak like that you freak me out, man." Connor said. "The fire excites dragons? Gross."

"Why hasn't this city exploded yet?" Illyria asked, looking around. "This fire doesn't end, and the flammable fuels you use should have been ignited already."

"Safety measures." He answered Illyria's question. "When the fires began, the gas supply must have been shut off. When the army decided to throw napalm, I guess they must have already purged most of the volatile gas out of the underground tunnels."

"Oh."

"Now, what are we going to do?" Connor asked. "Should we try to get inside the same way the turok hans did?"

"That's an option, but..."

Wesley's words were cut short when he heard and saw the steel doors slowly opening.

"Looks like they managed to find a way to override the security system." Wesley said. "Come on, let's get inside."

They had already gotten inside when some turok hans began leaping out of the windows, and some others were more accurately tossed out.

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Buffy Anne Summers wished flying was one of the slayers' powers.

Her mind raced unchecked through the past thirty seconds, when she'd seen her daughter in the very same room where watchers and slayers were fighting and dying against turok hans. She'd seen her daughter slay and had been complimented by a fellow slayer.

But when she'd tried to get her daughter to safety, the usual had occurred, and both of them had been tossed outside through one of the recently opened windows.

She had fallen like this before, her body and mind remembering every moment of the downward spiral. The sudden lack of solid ground under her feet, the fleeting moment of weightlessness and then the quick and harsh pull of gravity towards the hard cement below.

She heard her daughter's scream as the girl tried to grab her mother's hand, and Buffy twisted and kicked in mid air to get away from the vampires and closer to her child. The moment her hands met a sudden idea clicked on Buffy's mind, and she wondered if she had the time to pull the stunt. Using her strength and slayer speed, she quickly pulled her daughter to her and embraced her, twisting in mid air and shooting her hand out to grab the nearest vampire. True to their instincts, the moment she grabbed something, the vampire twisted and bit into her arm.

Buffy smiled and pulled her arm behind, still twisting and effectively making the vampire twist as well and grab her.

She thanked God for small favors as she was sure the turok han was trying to bite her while on her back, and like a cat, Buffy ignored all her instincts telling her to turn and fall on her feet.

The actions had taken her less than three seconds, and half a second later, the turok han, Buffy and Annie smashed into the floor in front of the Council's main entrance.

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Faith kept fighting on level 4, angered at the thought of being caught so easily on a trap and double worried because of Robin's unconsciousness. She knew he was still alive because they were still fighting, but she also feared there were much more turok hans coming out of the hole in the Council's bottom and there weren't enough slayers to fight them. She had seen five slayers dead already and her mind had flashed once again to the cavern back in Sunnydale.

'Too bad I don't have the amulet anymore.' She thought as she ducked and heard the whoosh of the sword one of the turok hans had picked up. Desperation began to set in and she kicked the vampire as hard as she could, feeling her leg numb from the violent impact and turned to keep fighting. She frowned when she didn't hear the distinct thud of an enemy hitting the ground or the wall, and a sudden gust of very warm air made her turn around. To her surprise, the windows were no longer covered by steel and some slayers had begun tossing the turok hans outside. Faith instantly knew that was a foolish idea, because the vampires would survive the fall and would only run back inside, but it was buying them time.

"Everyone! Fall back to the center of the room!" She shouted. The remaining slayers and watchers nodded and made their way towards the center. Once they were all inside the circle, Faith ordered them to push outside and send the turok hans out of the building.

Unknown to her, the vampires thrown off the building were falling next to a slowly recuperating slayer and her daughter.

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A four story fall wouldn't kill a slayer, but it would stun her to the degree of being open to any attack and quite vulnerable. Buffy knew that from the moment she'd been airborne, but the safety of her daughter had been first and foremost, causing her to improvise and use the turok han as a landing device.

Seconds after their fall, both Buffy and Annie had rolled from over the mangled turok han and stretched, feeling the bones pop in place and the ache of the sudden impact dissipate.

"Are you all right, mum?" Annie asked, surprising Buffy with the easy way she moved even after falling from that height.

"The wind got knocked out of me, but yeah, I'm all right." Buffy said, clutching her chest, sure she had broken a rib. "Now, the next time I tell you to run for cover, what will you do?"

"Mum, come on..."

"I said, what will you do!" Buffy shouted, feeling her patience evaporate.

"I will run for cover." Annie whispered. "I'm sorry, mum, I didn't want you to get hurt."

"Being sorry gets people killed, Anne." Buffy said, hiding her fear with anger. "You wanted my life? This is it. This is what happened for years before you were born and years after. My job gets me to see dead people every night. My choices gets even more people killed, but it's all for the mission. I can't worry about you while I'm doing my job, and if I worry about you I can't fight the mission, dammit!"

Annie could only look away, ashamed and feeling sorry for not listening to her mother.

"Now let's get back inside and find a way to get out of this mess!" She said and began walking back in, not bothering to hear her daughter's reply and dragging her by the hand.

"Uh, mum..."

"Not. A. Word."

Annie cringed but had to make her mother see what she was seeing.

"Mum, look around!" She shouted, causing Buffy to turn around. The slayer was about to shout at her daughter when she noticed the rest of the fallen turok hans stand and begin circling them.

"Oh great." Buffy stomped her foot on the ground. "Damn. Damn!"

Annie felt even worse, knowing she had brought this on herself, and had dragged her mother next to her.

"I'm really sorry, mum." She whispered. "I didn't want this to happen..."
"It doesn't matter anymore." Buffy said. "It's better that it's the two of us." Buffy pulled Annie's hand and placed her behind her.

"We'll have to fight alone." Buffy said. "We're too far down for anyone to listen to us."

"Let's make a run for it." Annie said.

"Too far, but you're right, we're going to have to run for it." Buffy replied. "Since it'd be stupid to be in denial anymore, I'm gonna have to trust you."

Buffy turned around and hazel eyes met blue ones.

"If we get out of this alive, remind me to tell you a story, ok?" Buffy said. "Of someone I met years ago. Someone who had eyes just like yours."

"Mum?"

"Now, what side are you more comfortable in fighting?" The slayer asked. "I personally feel better if I fight on the right side, since I'm right handed, but you're right handed as well so..."

"The left's all right." Annie replied, looking at the menacing vampires closing on them. "Mum, can I ask you something?"

"What up, kiddo?"

"Why were you so upset when I wore that leather jacket?" Annie asked. "It was yours, right?"

Buffy hesitated and looked at the vampires surrounding her. She sighed and remembered all those nights when Spike had been by her side and had helped her patrol, feeling the same sense of security she had now with her daughter by her side.

"No, kid, it wasn't mine." Buffy replied. "It belonged to a slayer once, and later on to a..., to someone close to me."

"It was dad's?"

Buffy smiled and tried to imagine Angel in the long black duster.

"No, dear, it was someone else's."

"Oh." Annie shrugged. "You'll tell me who it belonged to?"

"Let's get out of this together, and I'll tell you."

Annie nodded, and without waiting for her mother's signal, Annie launched a vicious attack against the nearest turok han on her left. The motion surprised both Buffy and the vampire, and the slayer smiled when she saw Annie adjusting to the battle field, striking as if she was left handed.

Buffy seized the opportunity and struck against the turok hans on her right, managing to kick one of them and tossing it against three advancing turok hans. She turned around to give her daughter the heads up but Annie was already advancing between the clutches and bites of the primitive vampires.

Buffy saw Angel's fighting style on her daughter, undoubtedly passed along by Connor's teachings and their constant spars, and Buffy felt pride in her daughter and decided she'd train Annie herself.

Yet the two of them didn't get too far because turok hans were still falling from the Council's windows, unbeknownst to the slayers fighting up there.

"Annie! To the side!" Buffy shouted, wanting her daughter to escape rather than find herself in the middle of a turok han army. Annie did jump to the side, but found herself immediately surrounded by vampires. Buffy began panicking and forgot the plan and went to aid her daughter. She punched and kicked fiercely and managed to find her way towards her daughter, but once again, without her 'spidey' sense, she was wide open for sneak attacks. A turok han slammed both his fists into Buffy's upper back, sending her straight to the ground and smacking her lip on the cold cement. Buffy tasted blood and was disoriented for a second, but managed to sweep the legs of her attacker and slammed her knee on it's face, smashing it inwards. She crawled on all fours, trying to get the impulse needed to get through the increasing wall of turok hans surrounding her daughter.

On the other side of the vampire wall, Annie kept punching and kicking, but she soon found out that Connor's stomach was far softer and a more vulnerable spot than the turok han's abdomen.

She punched hard again, and felt the satisfying crack of the vampire's nose and neck, and kicked it on the groin, sending him flying against the gathering vampires behind him.

Beginning to feel tired, Annie looked everywhere, trying to find a way to leave the maze suddenly formed by many vampires. She even sought the ground, looking for a make shift weapon or anything to use against her enemies. She didn't even want to call out for her mother, thinking she might have managed to get into the building and would come out any second wielding a large sword or a wicked looking knife.

She threw more punches but the turok hans were already invading her personal space and she once again regretted having left her home earlier in the afternoon.

One of the turok hans threw a punch at her kidney and doubled her backwards from the pain. Another one punched her face and she almost lost consciousness.

Strong and defiant, Annie struggled to stay upright, but the impact to her head had done little to aid her balance and she had to kneel in front of the vampires.

"Sod it all." She coughed. "Muum!" She screamed.

Kicking and punching, Buffy had already peeled the skin off her knuckles, trying to make her way through the mass of vampires in front of her. Exhausted and bleeding, Buffy picked up a large piece of rock and threw it at the vampires with all her strength. She felt something tear in her lower back, but her effort paid off, as a clear view of her daughter was shown in front of her.

Instead of a sigh of relief, an almost inhuman shriek of horror escaped Buffy's throat when she saw a turok han open wide his mouth, his large fangs gleaming with the light of fire, and closing it around Annie's neck.