The Nightstalkers
folder
AtS/BtVS Crossovers › Het - Male/Female
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
17
Views:
3,302
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
AtS/BtVS Crossovers › Het - Male/Female
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
17
Views:
3,302
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or any of its characters. . Nor do I intend to make any profit from this story.
9
FIC: The Nightstalkers (9/?)
“How about Penn?” Gunn suggested as the meeting to discuss what target to attack next continued into its second hour. “He’s the only one of Ripper’s major allies who goes off alone.”
“His schedule’s way too unpredictable for us to set a trap without having someone tailing him,” Cordelia pointed out before smirking. “Are you volunteering?”
“’Kay,” Faith broke the tense silence that followed the cheerleader’s put-down. “So what we gonna do? I ain’t sittin’ ‘round twiddlin’ my thumbs waitin’ for Ripper to strike back.”
“I think we can all agree that keeping Ripper off balance is a good idea,” Xander put in. “Question is how?”
“I might have an idea,” Wesley put in, tone characteristically tentative. “We make an example of the most high-ranking ‘Wanna-Be’.”
“We cant!” Jonathan let out a shocked squeak. “Wanna-Bes are humans.”
”Yeah, they’re humans.” Faith nodded. “They’re humans who chose to work for vampires. Vampires don’t have a choice being evil, Wanna-Bes do. In my book, they’re worse.”
”But killing humans,” Amy shook her head. “We’ve never killed humans.”
”Word to the wise,” Faith replied. “Demons aren’t the only evil out there. And I’ve killed plenty of humans – a telekinetic assassin in Texas, a Kentuckian cannibal family, a necromancer in Calgary, and a Voodoo priestess in New Orleans.” Faith hid a wince at Jonathan’s shocked expression. ‘Kay, maybe she shouldn’t have been quite so blunt.
Thankfully Gunn plunged into the stunned hush that followed her revelation. “Guy’s working for the baddest dog in the pound I ain’t waiting ‘round to ask if his heart’s beatin’ or not. Way I figure it, live or dead, his heart’s rotten to the core.”
“During the second world war,” Wesley’s more measured tone followed Gunn’s, “the French resistance were almost more aggressive pursuing the Vichy French, collaborators, then they were against the Germans, reasoning such action discouraged collaboration.”
“That was a war!” protested Amy.
“But this isn’t?” Harris looked towards the remembrance wall. “Try telling them that.”
Harris wasn’t subtle, but he seemed to have got the point across. “Hitting City Hall during the day makes more sense,” Cordelia volunteered. “That way they can’t send for reinforcements except,” the cheerleader’s nose wrinkled, “through the sewers.”
Faith shook her head. “I don’t have a problem killing evil humans. Problem is, we don’t know if any human employees that Finch might have are in on it and I ain’t takin’ the risk of killing innocents.”
“Night-time it is then,” Wesley looked towards Xander. “We’ll need the layout of City Hall to plan our attack.”
“Yeah,” Xander looked towards Jonathan.
“Faith,” Wesley whispered in her ear, “Trick running Finch’s security won’t be a problem will it?”
”No,” Faith felt an icy finger work up her spine at her memories of Trick, “no problem at all.”
* * *
The moment the meeting broke up, Faith rose and hurried towards Jonathan. “Hey Jon,” she forced a bright smile even as her insides twisted, “I thought we could maybe talk?”
“About what?” Jonathan’s voice trembled, his eyes looking everywhere but at her. “About what it’s like to kill another human?”
“Johnny,” she reached to stroke his cheek only to pull away at his heart-rending flinch. Jesus, did he think she was gonna hurt him?
“I’ve gotta go.” Shocked and hurt into immobility, she could only watch as Jonathan hurried out of the conference room. Tears formed in her eyes. The one decent guy she’d felt anything for and he didn’t want her. No surprise there, all Wes’ fine words were crap, she was worthless.
* * *
Tears blurred Jonathan’s vision as he stumbled to his room, oblivious to his friends rushing around him. The first girl to ever notice he existed. Beautiful, confident, strong. She was dazzling and he hadn’t even questioned why someone like her would be interested in a nobody like him. And now he had his answer, there was something inherently wrong with her.
He realised he’d stopped by his door. Reaching out a trembling hand, he opened the door. “We need to talk.”
Jonathan gasped as a strong hand slammed into his back between his shoulder blades, knocking him to his knees inside the room. Looking up at his assailant, he squeaked a protest. “You can’t do this! Get out!”
The door slammed shut behind his intruder. “I don’t think so,” Gunn replied. He gasped as the big demon hunter grabbed him by his shirt and yanked him to his feet. “Not until I’ve explained a few things.” Jonathan opened his mouth to repeat his demand for the African-American to get out. “Shut it. Look at you man,” the black’s nostrils flared disdainfully, “you should be worshipping the ground Faith walks on. Instead you treat her like crap!”
“She’s killed people!” he protested. “That might not mean anything to you, but it does to me!”
He gasped when the African-American’s eyes hardened and he pushed Jonathan into the door. “Wake-, no grow up!” the African-American stuck his face in his. “Do you think this is a game? Do you think those Faith killed are innocents? That they wouldn’t rip your heart out as soon as look at you? This isn’t a fairy tale and we’re not the knights of the round table! This is real life and we’re in a war!” Suddenly the African-American stepped back, disgust written across his face. “I don’t know why I’m wasting my time here. I should be going to Faith’s using this to get myself back with her.” Jonathan scowled, Gunn chuckled grimly. “Oh yeah, you still like her. Unfortunately you make her happy, so I’m not going to make a move. But sort this out and fast or I will.”
* * *
“Are you ready?”
Faith started as Wes’ voice crackled in her newly-acquired earpiece. Forcing thoughts of her disintegrating relationship aside, she stared up at the looming building before her. “Yeah,” she whispered, “I’m ready.”
The plan was simple enough, she mused as she shot her grappling hook up onto the fourth floor ledge and began climbing up. She’d break in through one of the upper windows. At roughly the same time, the resistance group would hit the building at its front and rear entrances, and the sewers, hopefully diverting the vamps downstairs.
It was the ‘hopefully’ that worried her. Faith scowled as she cut a hole through the nearest window and climbed into a darkened room. If the vamps didn’t buy into their diversion, she’d be left alone in a building filled with demons.
Always a fun place for a gal with an empty dance card to be.
Quelling her disquiet, Faith turned on her pencil-light to find she was in a dusty storeroom. Making her way to the door, she whispered into her ear-piece. “I’m in position, Wes.”
“Understood. Good luck.”
“Thanks.” After easing the door open, she crept into the dimly-lit, drably-carpeted corridor beyond. A smile tugged at her lips at the sound of alarms going off. It seemed things were all going to plan.
Now all she needed to do was kill a man.
A dead weight settled on her chest. Whatever Johnny thought, she didn’t like killing. But every person she’d slain had preyed on the helpless, people she was sworn to protect. Just like Finch, a politician who turned a blind eye to vampires, co-operating with them so it was easier for them to do what they wished.
Reaching a stairwell, she crept down onto the second floor where she knew Finch’s office was. She started onto the floor, easing the stairwell’s iron-grey door open.
A foot slammed into the door, trapping her head between the frame and the door as she peeked through the gap. Dazed, Faith slumped against the door frame, helpless to prevent a hand roughly snatching a hold of her hair and flinging her onto the corridor carpet.
Faith grunted as she hit the corridor on her shoulder before rolling up to confront her adversary. And then her world slowed to an almost dead stop.
“Trick,” she whispered. Faith froze as she recalled the frenzied hours spent tearing through Boston demon dives vainly searching for Bel when the demon and his sire had snatched her. And finally finding her ravaged body.
The vampire took advantage of her momentary shock to drive a right into her forehead. Head ringing, Faith dropped to one knee before diving out of the way of a follow-up kick at her face.
”Ripper wants you for himself, he has a real thing for Slayers.” Trick’s smile could have chilled the sun. “So I guess this will have to be our little secret.”
Faith didn’t bother with a reply, choosing instead to concentrate of surviving. After rolling away from a stomp to the back, she kipped up to her feet. Trick snarled before throwing a right she slid inside before crashing a forearm into her adversary’s face.
The demon stumbled backwards before retaliating with a leaping crescent kick. Faith responded by hooking her arm around the creature’s ankle and pulling up.
The vampire fell with a roar, crashing headfirst to the ground. Faith’s hand darted into her jacket for her stake. Her fingers were closing around the stake when the demon was up and on her, fists and feet flying.
Faith winced as a heel kick crashed into her left thigh. Snatching hold of her attacker’s leg under the knee, she twisted her body at the waist throwing the demon off-balance and into a fire extinguisher fastened to the cream painted wall.
Trick growled and ripped the extinguisher off the wall, flinging it at her. Faith dropped to the ground, the projectile flying overhead and into the wall behind. Faith forward rolled to the vampire’s side and leapt up, grabbing the demon around the mid-section and belly-to-belly suplexing him into the glass cabinet to the side.
The cabinet shattered on impact, crashing down on top of them. “Shitttt” Faith writhed in agony as the cabinet’s wooden frame smashed into her left knee. Ignoring the pain, she repeatedly elbowed the vampire lying beside her in the head before snatching up a shard of glass and dragging it across the beast’s throat.
Faith let out a relieved sob as the demon exploded into dust. Finally it was over. The last of Bel’s killers was dead.
Her blood chilled as she heard the sound of a door opening behind her. She looked up to see a man she recognised from the local papers as Allan Finch walking out and carrying a big revolver. The politician’s hand trembled but mostly he pointed the weapon at her.
“How about Penn?” Gunn suggested as the meeting to discuss what target to attack next continued into its second hour. “He’s the only one of Ripper’s major allies who goes off alone.”
“His schedule’s way too unpredictable for us to set a trap without having someone tailing him,” Cordelia pointed out before smirking. “Are you volunteering?”
“’Kay,” Faith broke the tense silence that followed the cheerleader’s put-down. “So what we gonna do? I ain’t sittin’ ‘round twiddlin’ my thumbs waitin’ for Ripper to strike back.”
“I think we can all agree that keeping Ripper off balance is a good idea,” Xander put in. “Question is how?”
“I might have an idea,” Wesley put in, tone characteristically tentative. “We make an example of the most high-ranking ‘Wanna-Be’.”
“We cant!” Jonathan let out a shocked squeak. “Wanna-Bes are humans.”
”Yeah, they’re humans.” Faith nodded. “They’re humans who chose to work for vampires. Vampires don’t have a choice being evil, Wanna-Bes do. In my book, they’re worse.”
”But killing humans,” Amy shook her head. “We’ve never killed humans.”
”Word to the wise,” Faith replied. “Demons aren’t the only evil out there. And I’ve killed plenty of humans – a telekinetic assassin in Texas, a Kentuckian cannibal family, a necromancer in Calgary, and a Voodoo priestess in New Orleans.” Faith hid a wince at Jonathan’s shocked expression. ‘Kay, maybe she shouldn’t have been quite so blunt.
Thankfully Gunn plunged into the stunned hush that followed her revelation. “Guy’s working for the baddest dog in the pound I ain’t waiting ‘round to ask if his heart’s beatin’ or not. Way I figure it, live or dead, his heart’s rotten to the core.”
“During the second world war,” Wesley’s more measured tone followed Gunn’s, “the French resistance were almost more aggressive pursuing the Vichy French, collaborators, then they were against the Germans, reasoning such action discouraged collaboration.”
“That was a war!” protested Amy.
“But this isn’t?” Harris looked towards the remembrance wall. “Try telling them that.”
Harris wasn’t subtle, but he seemed to have got the point across. “Hitting City Hall during the day makes more sense,” Cordelia volunteered. “That way they can’t send for reinforcements except,” the cheerleader’s nose wrinkled, “through the sewers.”
Faith shook her head. “I don’t have a problem killing evil humans. Problem is, we don’t know if any human employees that Finch might have are in on it and I ain’t takin’ the risk of killing innocents.”
“Night-time it is then,” Wesley looked towards Xander. “We’ll need the layout of City Hall to plan our attack.”
“Yeah,” Xander looked towards Jonathan.
“Faith,” Wesley whispered in her ear, “Trick running Finch’s security won’t be a problem will it?”
”No,” Faith felt an icy finger work up her spine at her memories of Trick, “no problem at all.”
* * *
The moment the meeting broke up, Faith rose and hurried towards Jonathan. “Hey Jon,” she forced a bright smile even as her insides twisted, “I thought we could maybe talk?”
“About what?” Jonathan’s voice trembled, his eyes looking everywhere but at her. “About what it’s like to kill another human?”
“Johnny,” she reached to stroke his cheek only to pull away at his heart-rending flinch. Jesus, did he think she was gonna hurt him?
“I’ve gotta go.” Shocked and hurt into immobility, she could only watch as Jonathan hurried out of the conference room. Tears formed in her eyes. The one decent guy she’d felt anything for and he didn’t want her. No surprise there, all Wes’ fine words were crap, she was worthless.
* * *
Tears blurred Jonathan’s vision as he stumbled to his room, oblivious to his friends rushing around him. The first girl to ever notice he existed. Beautiful, confident, strong. She was dazzling and he hadn’t even questioned why someone like her would be interested in a nobody like him. And now he had his answer, there was something inherently wrong with her.
He realised he’d stopped by his door. Reaching out a trembling hand, he opened the door. “We need to talk.”
Jonathan gasped as a strong hand slammed into his back between his shoulder blades, knocking him to his knees inside the room. Looking up at his assailant, he squeaked a protest. “You can’t do this! Get out!”
The door slammed shut behind his intruder. “I don’t think so,” Gunn replied. He gasped as the big demon hunter grabbed him by his shirt and yanked him to his feet. “Not until I’ve explained a few things.” Jonathan opened his mouth to repeat his demand for the African-American to get out. “Shut it. Look at you man,” the black’s nostrils flared disdainfully, “you should be worshipping the ground Faith walks on. Instead you treat her like crap!”
“She’s killed people!” he protested. “That might not mean anything to you, but it does to me!”
He gasped when the African-American’s eyes hardened and he pushed Jonathan into the door. “Wake-, no grow up!” the African-American stuck his face in his. “Do you think this is a game? Do you think those Faith killed are innocents? That they wouldn’t rip your heart out as soon as look at you? This isn’t a fairy tale and we’re not the knights of the round table! This is real life and we’re in a war!” Suddenly the African-American stepped back, disgust written across his face. “I don’t know why I’m wasting my time here. I should be going to Faith’s using this to get myself back with her.” Jonathan scowled, Gunn chuckled grimly. “Oh yeah, you still like her. Unfortunately you make her happy, so I’m not going to make a move. But sort this out and fast or I will.”
* * *
“Are you ready?”
Faith started as Wes’ voice crackled in her newly-acquired earpiece. Forcing thoughts of her disintegrating relationship aside, she stared up at the looming building before her. “Yeah,” she whispered, “I’m ready.”
The plan was simple enough, she mused as she shot her grappling hook up onto the fourth floor ledge and began climbing up. She’d break in through one of the upper windows. At roughly the same time, the resistance group would hit the building at its front and rear entrances, and the sewers, hopefully diverting the vamps downstairs.
It was the ‘hopefully’ that worried her. Faith scowled as she cut a hole through the nearest window and climbed into a darkened room. If the vamps didn’t buy into their diversion, she’d be left alone in a building filled with demons.
Always a fun place for a gal with an empty dance card to be.
Quelling her disquiet, Faith turned on her pencil-light to find she was in a dusty storeroom. Making her way to the door, she whispered into her ear-piece. “I’m in position, Wes.”
“Understood. Good luck.”
“Thanks.” After easing the door open, she crept into the dimly-lit, drably-carpeted corridor beyond. A smile tugged at her lips at the sound of alarms going off. It seemed things were all going to plan.
Now all she needed to do was kill a man.
A dead weight settled on her chest. Whatever Johnny thought, she didn’t like killing. But every person she’d slain had preyed on the helpless, people she was sworn to protect. Just like Finch, a politician who turned a blind eye to vampires, co-operating with them so it was easier for them to do what they wished.
Reaching a stairwell, she crept down onto the second floor where she knew Finch’s office was. She started onto the floor, easing the stairwell’s iron-grey door open.
A foot slammed into the door, trapping her head between the frame and the door as she peeked through the gap. Dazed, Faith slumped against the door frame, helpless to prevent a hand roughly snatching a hold of her hair and flinging her onto the corridor carpet.
Faith grunted as she hit the corridor on her shoulder before rolling up to confront her adversary. And then her world slowed to an almost dead stop.
“Trick,” she whispered. Faith froze as she recalled the frenzied hours spent tearing through Boston demon dives vainly searching for Bel when the demon and his sire had snatched her. And finally finding her ravaged body.
The vampire took advantage of her momentary shock to drive a right into her forehead. Head ringing, Faith dropped to one knee before diving out of the way of a follow-up kick at her face.
”Ripper wants you for himself, he has a real thing for Slayers.” Trick’s smile could have chilled the sun. “So I guess this will have to be our little secret.”
Faith didn’t bother with a reply, choosing instead to concentrate of surviving. After rolling away from a stomp to the back, she kipped up to her feet. Trick snarled before throwing a right she slid inside before crashing a forearm into her adversary’s face.
The demon stumbled backwards before retaliating with a leaping crescent kick. Faith responded by hooking her arm around the creature’s ankle and pulling up.
The vampire fell with a roar, crashing headfirst to the ground. Faith’s hand darted into her jacket for her stake. Her fingers were closing around the stake when the demon was up and on her, fists and feet flying.
Faith winced as a heel kick crashed into her left thigh. Snatching hold of her attacker’s leg under the knee, she twisted her body at the waist throwing the demon off-balance and into a fire extinguisher fastened to the cream painted wall.
Trick growled and ripped the extinguisher off the wall, flinging it at her. Faith dropped to the ground, the projectile flying overhead and into the wall behind. Faith forward rolled to the vampire’s side and leapt up, grabbing the demon around the mid-section and belly-to-belly suplexing him into the glass cabinet to the side.
The cabinet shattered on impact, crashing down on top of them. “Shitttt” Faith writhed in agony as the cabinet’s wooden frame smashed into her left knee. Ignoring the pain, she repeatedly elbowed the vampire lying beside her in the head before snatching up a shard of glass and dragging it across the beast’s throat.
Faith let out a relieved sob as the demon exploded into dust. Finally it was over. The last of Bel’s killers was dead.
Her blood chilled as she heard the sound of a door opening behind her. She looked up to see a man she recognised from the local papers as Allan Finch walking out and carrying a big revolver. The politician’s hand trembled but mostly he pointed the weapon at her.