Of Birds and Slayers

(Lost prophets – Cry me a river)

It was starting to rain when The Phoenix reached her destination. Spencer’s Hills was a cliff overhanging the ocean, there was nothing but earth and rocks on the ground. Zane had chosen an empty place to accomplish the Sublimination. He was standing there, barechested, Kennedy next to him. She was muzzled and tied up.

“Hi sis, glad you came! I would have regretted killing your girl. Good choice by the way, she’s pretty nice!” Zane grinned sardonically.

“Let her go!” Shannah shouted. She was soaked wet, the rain was pouring down heavily, but that was the last thing she was caring about right now.

“Okay!” And he threw the poor Kennedy on the side. The brunette clenched her teeth and walk towards her brother.

“Don’t worry sis, it’s not gonna be long.” The tall man threatened. The twins turned their head when they heard screeching of tyres.

“Well well well! You brought your fan club with you! How sweet!” Zane was mocking at his sister. “I don’t care, but if they try to intervene I’ll kill them is that clear?”

“Shannah!” Buffy called.

“Buffy, stay away! It’s my fight! Don’t try anything against him!” The dark girl screamed back. She turned to face her brother and started changing.

“Let’s began the hostilities...” Zane said before changing too. Faith weaved to come closer to Kennedy and untied her up.

“They’re gonna kill each other! They’re both Phoenixes and only one must live!” Kennedy screamed.

“We can’t do anything...” Faith muttered.

Meanwhile, the Phoenixes’ changes were done. Shannah was on one side, her white wings fully opened, her claws out, and her black eyes. On the other side, there was her brother. His change was slightly different than Shannah’s one. He had black crows wings, red eyes and fireballs in his hands. Buffy, Faith, Xander, Anya, Giles, Willow, Kennedy and the potentials were captivated by the scene in front of them. The storm rumbled in the distance, and the two twins attacked each other. Shannah was quicker and managed to hurt Zane’s face. But he threw one of his fireballs in the girl’s stomach and she landed several meters away.

“He can hurt me...my healing power doesn’t work with him...” she thought out loud.

“It wouldn’t be fun if we healed all the time!” Zane smirked before throwing another fireball to her. She dodged it and flew off to recover a little from her wound. But her twin joined her in the air. He tried to punch her but she blocked his attacks. She responded with her sharp claws and touched him several times, but not enough to knock him out. She was bleeding a lot, and her head was slightly spinning, but it was the fight of her life, she couldn’t drop it. One of the fireballs hit her in the back and the force of the attack made her fall heavily on the ground. She felt her bones break and soon they started to rebuild themselves. There was now a big hole in her tank top, and a gigantic second-degree burn in her back.

“Is that all you got?” Zane landed and knelt next to her. “I’m disappointed!”

“Shannah!” the young brunette heard Kennedy scream. Her thoughts were confused and she was exhausted, but she had to stand up and kick this fucker’s ass. She couldn’t let down, she had to live. Face against the ground, she stared at Buffy, Faith and Kennedy.

‘I must live for them, they need me.’ She let out a scream were rage and pain were mixed and stood up.

“It’s not over yet!” She shouted before throwing herself on Zane. She fought like a fury, and soon Zane was outflanked. He tried to fly off but his sister stuck her claws in his left ankle. He shrieked with pain and fell on the ground. Shannah took all the force left inside her and run him through with her metal claws. He made a jolt and looked at her straight in the eyes. There was blood pouring out of his mouth. Shannah couldn’t hold back her tears.

“I’m sorry...” she mouthed, her voice stuck inside her throat. Zane’s gaze slowly became blurred and finally he died. The other rushed towards her, but she turned her face towards them and screamed.

“Back off!”

They all stopped dead in their tracks, in disbelief. Shannah’s still black eyes opened wide when she felt an awful pain inside her, and all of a sudden there was like an explosion. The earth around the twin burnt and a kind of halo surrounded them. The teenager let out another long scream of pain and her body began to burn while a red steam was coming from Zane’s body. The potentials were moaning with fear and the Chosen Two were afraid that they could lose Shannah.

“Willow, can you do anything to put out the fire?” Faith asked hopeful.

“She has to go through this to become the Phoenix, the only one.” Giles said. Kennedy was standing only a few meters to where Shannah was floating.

“Please hang on, you can do it!” she was crying. Five long minutes went by and Shannah was still burning. None of them knew how was the girl because they couldn’t see clearly through the halo and the flames. All they knew was that she was suffering very much. Then there was a second explosion, more violent than the first, and the group was hurled on the ground. No more screams.

“Everybody stays behind!” Buffy ordered, and nobody moved. There was a thick smoke and the Slayer was almost blind. She focused on every move or sound she could get from around her. A heartbeat. This was a heartbeat she was hearing.

“She’s alive!” Buffy yelled to the others and walked carefully towards the sound. She was lying there on her belly, alive. Buffy was relieved to see Shannah breathing, but also disturbed to notice the girl was naked.

‘Her clothes probably burnt during this helluvah thing.’ The Slayer thought. She knelt next to Shannah and shook her slightly. She glanced at the brunette’s tattoos and blushed.

“Shannah! Come on wake up” she whispered. No reaction.

“Shannah! Please wake up!” Buffy said a little louder, shaking the girl’s shoulder. Suddenly, the Phoenix caught Buffy’s arm violently, which made the blonde girl jump. The teenager opened her eyes and stared at Buffy who was now quite worried about Shannah’s behavior. She looked deep into those two fully black eyes and tried to calm the fast beating of her heart.

“Shannah, it’s me Buffy. It’s okay! You’re not in danger anymore.” After a moment, Shannah released her grip on Buffy’s wrist.

“Sorry. My head’s fuzzy.” The girl muttered. She sat up and noticing Buffy’s blushing looked down at her naked body.

“Fuck...Sorry for that too. Do you have any piece of clothes somewhere?” Shannah asked confused and Buffy nodded. The smoke was starting dispersing and the two girls could see the Scooby gang’s figures several meters away.

“Uh...don’t move I’m on it!” Buffy rushed towards her friends screaming “Need clothes here, give me anything you’ve got!” Shannah would have laughed of her situation if she hadn’t been feeling so disturbed...and different.

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Shannah looked at the sunrise. People were chatting around her, asking her questions, but she didn’t really listened to them. She had survived the Sublimination. She was the Phoenix, the real one. She stared at her brother’s body for a long time until she felt a hand take hers.

“Shannah, we’re going now...are you coming or-” Kennedy said quietly.

“I have to bury him.” The Phoenix cut her, more coldly than she wanted.

“Okay...” The Latino girl replied, in a neutral tone. She was turning away when Shannah caught her arm.

“I’m sorry, for everything...” The potential looked into her eyes, she could read her fear into them. “W-would you...let us another chance?” Shannah babbled.

‘She looks so lost and frightened... so fragile...” Kennedy thought. She put her hand on the young brunette’s face and stroke it softly.

“We’ll talk about that when you’re back, okay?” the SIT answered calmly. Shannah nodded and looked at the girl walking away.

A few meters away, the Chosen two were having a silent conversation. The past days had been really hard, for both of them, and a lot of things had changed. Faith’s face was crestfallen, and the look in Buffy’s eyes was worrying her very much. The blond girl had not got over yet the previous night’s events. The Rogue Slayer looked down and mustered all her courage.

“Are you okay?” she asked nervously.

“Fine...” Buffy replied in a calm tone.

“So...what are we gonna do now?” the brunette looked deep into Buffy’s eyes.

“We’re going back into the vineyard. Caleb has something, don’t know what, but it’s ours.”

‘I didn’t mean about the war...okay, Faith let her some times...But what if we die during the Great Battle? Come on girl, you have to tell her before it happens. Later...yeah, after this mission.’

“Okay, you can count on me.” Faith sighed and followed the group to the cars.

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