Fueled Enchantment

Chapter Twelve


“RETREAT, RETREAT!” The blondest Buffy screamed. She used hand motions that Faith knew, back in her dimension, ones all the Scoobies had learned. She hauled her now unconscious partner back toward the knoll.

Faith knew right away what was happening. She grabbed Angel and her team grabbed unsouled Spike, and they retreated . The others saw what they were doing and backed toward thell. ll.

In the bunker the Council had set up they tried to revive the vampires. The Grimali Queen had not moved much, so far, and the portal had not quite closed.

The witches applied ointments to the vampires ears while chanting.

“Well, crap!” Cordy yelled, stillringring through the binoculars. “You know those tentacles with the round head? They’re mouths. With lots of sharp teeth. And they stretch really far.”

“Thousands of them.” Giles gasped. He grabbed his binoculars.

“So, what’s the new plan?” Faith asked

“Distance weapons,” said dark haired Buffy.

“Wall of fire,” married Buffy said.

“Let’s try distance weapons.” Blondest Buffy joined dark haired Buffy at her stand of arsenal. They began firing. Faith and married Buffy joined in.

“The trunk is impervious. Cripes, what is this thing made of?” Dark haired Buffy asked.

The vampires began to come around, but looked dazed and disoriented.

“We’re slowing it down,” Dark Buffy said. “But those tentacles are hard to aim for, the way they weave around.”

“Could we net it?” One of Angel’s men spoke.

“Do we have a net?”Giles said.

Married Buffy looked at Willow. “What about that spell you did–when you rescued me from that wetware team, years ago. Remember?”

Willow and Tara stared at eacher, er, and quickly turned to the coven. They consulted for some time.

“We can do it, but we will need to get the Queen circled with the vine. We’re going to transport the vine here, we will need to get you to tie it around her. Just distract the Queen while we do it.”

The vampires, still shaky, began to join the women.

“The witches are transporting a vine that can be used for a binding spell. The same one Willow and Tara did on a wetware team that was sent to kill me years ago. If it will hold the Queen, we can shear off the tentacles with artillery.” Giles said.

“Sounds too easy,” said unsouled Spike. “What’s the bad news?”

“The bad news is you need to get within a couple of yards of her.”

“And try not to get sliced by those teeth.” Cordy said.

“Right.

“One team will have to pull the vine together and tie it.”

“We can do that.” Angel said. “As long as this ear magic holds out, we’re good.”

A short while later the teams had the vines.

“Let’s do this,” Blondest Buffy said. Her eyes locked with her Spike’s.

They headed to the Queen, one team member holding the vine, the other with weapons in both hands. Dark haired Buffy continued to shoot at the tentacles, to provide a distraction.

The Queen was aware of them, and tentacles slashed at them as they worked feverishly to circle her with the woody vine.

A shout came from Angels crew, drawing attention of the other teams. They saw one tentacle head, gnashing, and lots of blood.

“We’re around.” Blond Buffy yelled at her Spike, who was chopping at tentacles with a sword and dagger. “Let’s see e cae can help Angel’s team.”

They fought their way to Angel to find unsouled Spike hacking at a tentacle while Faith fumbled with the woody rope, trying to tie and use her sword at nearly the same time.

Angel lay in a pool of blood, while Gunn, also bleeding, stood over him, defending against two bloody tentacles. Buffy and Spike split up, Buffy defending Faith, Spike joining Gunn over Angel’s prone body.

“It’s done,” Faith yelled into her head set. “Fall Back! Fall back!”

The teams retreated to the knoll, one of the Spikes carrying Angel. The coven was working the spell. Cordy, followed by Anya and Xander, who were providing medical assistance, rushed to them.

Cordy screeched when she saw Angel, and elbowed Blondest Buffy out of the way. “I always knew you’d be the death of him, you bitch!” She sank down next to Angel and began cooing at him while Anya and Xander got to work.

“Jeez, I’m not even the right Buffy,” Buffy muttered, and then watched as the spell started to take effect, the vines multiplying, and twining all the way up, pulling the tentacles up into an immobilized bunch. Without the balancing effect of the tentacles, the stalk like body began to sway, and finally lost balance under a barrage of fire from the distance weapons.

An hour later, the Queen was nothing but a stinky smoldering pile. The witches were able to perform one last spell, a dispersion spell that disintegrated what lef left of the Queen.

“You teams head back to the council house. The Coven and I will finish the dispersal and inspect the area for any anomalies. Good job, everyone. Thank you.”

Angel was deposited in bed with mugs of warm human blood to help him heal while Cordy hovered around.

LA Spike grabbed Buffy. “The garage,” he whispered. “Brass tub awaits us.” They quickly disappeared.

As they were driving off, unsouled Spike and Buffy entered the garage and flagged them down. “How about a lift, mate?” Unsouled Spike asked.

“Sure. Where’re you headed?”

“Train station in town.”

“So, you’re not returning to your old dimensions?” Buffy asked.

“No reason to return there. Nothing for either of us there,” Spike said.

“I don’t expect I’ll live to see another birthday, back there,” the dark haired girl said.
Buffy noticed she was holding her Spike’s hand tightly, like he was a life line.

“I don’t blame you. Or judge you. Wish you the best.” They took them to the train station where they got tickets for London.”

“You’re going to need pass ports. To get out of the country.” Spike said.

“Already taken care of, mate. Amazing what the Council can do when they think it’s ol’ Rupert’s idea..” He grinned a cheeky grin and flashed two blue passport books.

The two couples bid an affectionate good bye and went their separate ways.