New Paths

Buffy climbs quickly up the fire escape until she reaches the roof. Making a beeline towards the roof entrance, she hesitates for a moment debating on whether or not Riley would be smart enough to booby trap it with explosives, too. Sending up a silent prayer, she takes a deep breath and kicks in the door while launching her body out of the way, just in case.



“Cocky bastard.” Buffy snarls as she hops up and darts into the opening. “You’re going down, and going down hard.” Following the guiding arrows on her band, Buffy quietly works her way down the different levels of the building, wanting to scream in frustration each time she hits the area Tara should be in, but is obviously at a lower level. Wondering why none of them had thought to see if there was a way to do an up and down arrow on the fucking bracelet instead of just the regular directional arrows.



Buffy bites back the urge to yell at the top of her lungs as the building rocks with an explosion. “Idiots. Hope nobody got killed.” Buffy mutters, darting back to the staircase. No longer worrying about making any noise, hoping that Riley would be distracted by whatever’s happening at the front entrance.



***



“Fuck me!” Faith coughs and waves her hand at the dust and debris as she picks herself up off the ground. “You boys okay?”



“Yeah.” Gunn shakes his head to clear it, wincing at the slight pain coming from it.



“Careful.” Wesley looks at the gash on the side of Gunn’s head. “Looks superficial, but head wounds always bleed a lot.” Wesley pulls off his shirt and starts to rip it into sections, folding up to make a bandage before using the rest to tie it to Gunn’s head. “That’ll hold until we can actually get you bandaged up.”



“Tweed?” Faith questions, helping Giles up.



“I’m fine. Just got the wind knocked out of me.” Giles starts jogging towards the door, the soldiers already darting in ahead of them.



Faith runs in, darting pass Giles noticing Angel already up on his feet and shaking his head, pressing his hands against his ears. Thankful to see the vampire didn’t get dusted, she watches as the soldiers start to methodically search the warehouse. Looking down at the bracelet, Faith darts towards the area Tara should be, yanking the door open and frowning when there’s nothing in there but an old desk half broken down. Spinning around and locating the stairs she takes them four at a time to the next floor, not really surprised to find Angel hot on her heels.



“I’ll go up to the next level and look in the same area.” Angel offers. “We can check more that way if we alternate floors.”



“Go.” Faith nods darting down the hallway as Angel continues up the stairs.



***



“Looks like your friends have come to save you… to bad they’ll be late.” Riley strides menacingly towards the witch, watching as her head slowly lifts. When blue eyes glare at him angrily, he smirks. “I bet you’re wishing I’d undo your gag about right now, aren’t you?”



Tara growls in her throat as she glares at the… creature that used to be her girlfriend’s boyfriend. Eyes widening in shock as there’s a loud explosion and she can feel the building shaking from the blast, Tara unconsciously looks around the room again for something, anything to help her. Silently cursing the fact that there’s nothing to levitate and send towards Riley. Knowing that’s one thing she can do without actually saying a spell.



Riley spins around and darts back out the door before shaking his head. “You probably killed half your men, Corporal. Idiot.” He shakes his head again before spinning back around and striding towards the witch. “Time for some pain.” His artificial mechanical eye glimmers evilly as he steps forward and backhands the witch laughing as she slams into the wall and slumps forward. “Oh, no, no, no. No passing out on me already. I want you to FEEL what I’m going to do to you. Every single, painful cut, break and bruise.”



***



Buffy whimpers and drops to her knees as an incredible wave of pain shoots through her body. “Oh, God…” Buffy doesn’t even look at the bracelet again, she takes off down the stairs dropping down two more flights and almost literally barrels into Angel coming up the stairs. Ignoring him, she rips the door off the hinges and runs to the room she knows in her heart Tara’s in.



“FAITH!” Angel bellows as Buffy launches herself into the room, knowing the bastard is in there. “SIXTH FLOOR!!!” Angel doesn’t wait but flies down the corridor, sliding and darting in, his eyes widening as he watches Riley flick Buffy off his back like an irritating Chihuahua. When he sees the Polgara spike coming out of his arm as he turns back to a semi-lucid Tara, Angel doesn’t think, he launches himself in front of the witch, crying out as the spike pierces his heart. In that split second before he dusts he turns and looks at Tara. “Sorry… Promise to love…”



Tara’s feels her eyes filling with tears as she sees the shame and sorrow in the vampire’s eyes before he dusts. Nodding her head and hoping he realizes she’s forgiven him for the way he acted as she watches him turn to dust.



“OH NO YOU DON’T!” Faith screams as she catches Angel turning to dust and Riley start to draw back to use it on Tara. Flying in she captures his arm and with the momentum of her body spins him around as she forcefully breaks the spike.



“You, fucking…” Buffy snarls as she’s finally able to stand, a quick glance to make sure Tara’s more or less alright, seeing the quick nod from her lover, she jumps on Riley’s back as Faith tries her damnedest to rip his arm from his body.



“Oh, my…” Giles slides to a stop outside the room before hurrying towards Tara, wincing at the bruising showing all along the side of the witch along with the bloody nose and lip. Knowing there’s going to be a hell of a bruise on the woman’s face when he gets the gag off. Working to try and untie it, he finally gives up and pulls out a knife. Flicking it open, he carefully cuts the gag and gently eases it from her mouth before quickly cutting through the bindings on her arms and legs. Sliding off his blazer he carefully wraps it around Tara’s shoulders. “We need to get you to the hospital.”



“No.” Tara finally gets the single word out around her dry, scratchy throat. Reaching up with a shaky hand she wipes the blood away from her nose and mouth as she watches Buffy, and the woman she assumes is the other slayer, Faith work on tearing Riley apart.



“You can’t kill me… I’m human and slayers don’t kill humans.” Riley roars loudly as he forcefully slams Faith against the wall while trying to reach around with his good arm to dislodge Buffy from his back.



“You obviously don’t know your fuckin’ history. I’m Faith, the bad slayer that’s killed two humans. And I hate to tell ya’, but you ain’t fuckin’ human no more.” Faith snarls as she digs her fingers into the mechanical eye, tearing the flesh on her fingers but finally ripping the item away with a screech of metal and a cry of pain from the ex-soldier.



As Wesley, Gunn and the soldiers arrive at the room, they watch in disbelief as the two slayers fight the behemoth with everything in them, slowly tearing him apart piece by piece.



“Buffy…” Tara whispers hoarsely, not wanting her lover to kill the hybrid, knowing ultimately that it will do irrevocable damage to the slayer. “Let them… finish him…” Tara nods towards the doorway and the soldiers ready to pounce with a single word from anyone.



Buffy fights the rage inside her as she looks at Tara, the bruised, bloody and misshapen face still visible, her other bruises now covered by Giles’ blazer. “Faith.” Buffy simply whispers the slayer’s name before looking back at the soldiers. “I want him dead… and in a million pieces. And so help me God, if you don’t clean up your mess…”



The Corporal nods his head. “Get him, men.” He steps back and clicks to get the Captain and tell him that they had captured Finn and what the slayer wanted done with him. Knowing the best way to do it is with either hand grenades or a rocket launcher. They had a testing room that should withstand the blast down in the Initiatives headquarters.



One of the soldiers steps up and presses a taser gun, that’ll literally shoot 500,000 volts of electricity through Finn’s body, up against the base cortex of his ‘brain’. “On the count of three, release him and step back so you don’t get any of this going through you. It would definitely kill you.” He warns quickly.



“YOU CAN’T DO THIS!!” Riley screams at the top of his lungs as he tries to fight loose from the two slayers that are holding him captive.



“Watch us.” Buffy snarls. “If you had any balls, I’d kick them so hard, they’d lodge in your fucking nostrils. But I know the pea-sized balls you had were taken away at the same time they did the rest of their experimentation. Not that you were ever a man to begin with.”



“On three… One, two, three…” The soldier presses the trigger as both women release Finn and step back away from him.



“AAARRRRGGGHHHH…” Riley’s one good eye rolls back in his head as his body convulses heavily with the electricity going through him, short circuiting all the computerized equipment inside him.



“Shit…” Faith blinks and takes another step back as she watches as milky white fluid, an oily substance and God only knows what else starts to pour from the hybrids eyes, nose, ears, mouth and the eye socket she’d ripped the mechanical eye from.



Buffy whimpers as she slides down beside Tara, reaching for her lover but afraid to touch her as she looks at her. Closing her eyes as Tara falls into her body. Wrapping her arms gently around her back, Buffy presses a soft kiss to the top of her head. “We have to get you to the hospital and looked at right away.”



“Love you.” Tara whimpers quietly as the room darkens and she passes out, happy just to be in Buffy’s arms again.



“Where’s Angel?” Gunn finally questions softly, realizing the vampire was nowhere to be seen.



Faith watches as the hybrid finally collapses onto the floor, a useless mass of metal, demon and a few human parts. “Pretty much right there beside that piece of shit.” Faith waves towards the dust pile on the floor. “He’s gone… completely gone, right?” Faith stares at the soldier.



“Yes, ma’am.” He sighs in relief as he looks over what used to be Riley Finn. “We were hoping the added power would take him out, but we weren’t sure.”



Giles looks at the soldiers. “I want him completely dismantled. Everything that isn’t human I want destroyed. Or what was done here today to it, will be done to every single one of you… by my hands.” Giles snarls angrily, his eyes flashing as Ripper makes a rare appearance. “Faith, can you go with them and make sure…”



“I’m on it.” Faith nods, a small grin crossing her face at the sight of the Englishman showing a set of brass ones. “Boys, I’m sure you’ll make sure that she gets to the hospital and taken care of.” Kneeling besides Buffy, she looks at the blonde slayer. “Is it okay if I come to the hospital afterwards?”



Buffy looks up with tear-filled eyes and nods her head. “Thank you, Faith.”



“No thanks necessary. Take care of your girl, B.” Faith orders watching as Buffy nods again and slowly rises with the witch in her arms.



Gunn and Wesley lead the way, jogging down the stairs. “Put the top down, it’ll be easier for her to get in and out without having to worry about the top.” Gunn comments as Wesley slides behind the wheel.



Wes nods his agreement and the two men work on securing the top as Buffy and Giles make their way out of the building.



Buffy carefully settles in the front seat with Tara on her lap. Closing her eyes she sends up a silent prayer to whoever might be listening to look out for her lover that hopefully the majority of the wounds are superficial and no major damage was done.



Giles hops out of the vehicle and runs into the emergency room before Wes had completely pulled to a stop. “Severely beaten woman with possible internal injuries outside, help!”



Doctor Garry looks at two orderlies and one of the nurses, waving them to follow as she hurries after the obviously English man. Sparing a glance at the odd group of people she watches as the small petite blonde carefully maneuvers out of the vehicle with the other woman in her arms. A quirk of an eyebrow at the obvious strength of the woman that looks like she might weigh all of a hundred pounds soaking wet settles the other woman carefully on the gurney the orderlies roll out.



Buffy holds onto Tara’s hand and jogs besides the gurney as the orderlies roll Tara into the hospital and the Doctor and nurse examine her lover.



“Ma’am, you can’t go back here.” Garry looks up into watery hazel eyes from where she was looking at the passed out blonde’s pupils for dilation.



“I know.” Buffy whispers, the tears falling. “My life is in your hands, Doctor. I want her back and in one piece.”



Garry nods her understanding, seeing the absolute love and pain in the woman’s eyes before she turns and looks at the nurse. “Vitals?” She questions roughly as they push their way back into the emergency trauma.



Buffy feels her shoulders slump as she stares at the swinging doors they took Tara through. “Is one hundred over sixty normal for a regular human, Giles?”



“It’s a little low for most people, Buffy. I don’t know what Tara’s normal blood pressure is. She’ll be fine. She’s a fighter and has you to come back to. She won’t give up, no matter what.” Giles offers softly, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as he steers her towards the waiting room.



“I… I have to call mom and let her know what’s happened.” Buffy rubs a hand roughly over her eyes. “And have her bring Tara’s medical information. I’m sure someone will be by for us to fill out paperwork for her.”



“I’ll see to it.” Giles gently urges Buffy onto a couch, watching sadly as the slayer curls up in the corner with her arms wrapped around her legs and her face buried against her knees. “She’ll be fine.” Giles murmurs again, not knowing if he’s saying it for Buffy or himself as he makes his way back to the hallway and the pay phones.