Chapter Five


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Buffy’s look of surprise quickly turned to one of boredom.

“I really haven’t got time for this now,” she got out, crossing her arms and giving the trio of geeks a piercing glare.

“Do it!” Warren said to Jonathan and a moment later, Spike went crumpling to the floor, letting out a cry as he held his hands to his head.

She sent a worried look in his direction and then turned back to the Trio, anger burning in her gaze. Her eyes flicked to the small device in Jonathan’s hand and then back to Spike – and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that whatever it was, it was causing the chip to trigger.

“Kinda busy right now,” she remarked, feigning boredom – but watching their every little movement.

“Yeah, we saw,” Warren replied with a little smirk and the other two snickered at his words.

Her eyes narrowed and then went wide with surprise as she suddenly came to a horrible conclusion: there was a camera somewhere in the shop.

“You know, I should break you for your little stalker cameras,” she threatened, taking a step forward.

“I’d like to see you try it, Slayer,” Warren retorted and she raised an eyebrow half in amusement. She took another step forward but was halted when a nod to Jonathan had Spike crying out in pain. She glanced at him quickly and turned to the Trio again, fixing her hard gaze on Jonathan. She was glad to see him shrink a little under her gaze and she turned to Warren, crossing her arms across her chest.

“Can we get this over with? I’ve got better things to do with my time.”

When all three snickered at her words, she rolled her eyes and tried to remind herself that they were not demons, not strong enough to take the best of her.



She sent another glance in Spike’s direction – glad to see that, even though he remained on his knees, he seemed less in pain than before – and turned back to the Trio, her eyes turning deadly.

“Let’s do this.”

They shared a look and then Warren stepped forward, surprising her with his eagerness to face her. She stepped forward until she was only a few feet from him and placed her hands lightly on her hips, waiting for him to speak.

His punch threw her for a loop and she stumbled to the side, wide eyes taking in his figure, trying to understand where his sudden strength had come from. Maybe he had just got lucky - maybe she was a bit worn out from her full-out fight with Spike. Righting herself quickly, she launched herself at him and landed a punch square on his jaw. He recoiled with the blow but without any sign of pain, he turned back to her and smiled widely.

A moment later, she was on her back on the floor, wondering how the hell she had got there. She turned her head, meeting Spike’s pained – and slightly worried – look, and then flipped herself to her feet, squaring up against Warren. She heard Spike getting slowly to his feet beside her and knowing he was at her back made her square her jaw, tightening her fists into tight balls. But then Jonathan hit his device again and Spike went to the ground with a thud, the pain knocking him unconscious and leaving her feeling strangely vulnerable.



“Right then,” she murmured, turning back and focussing her attention on Warren. Before he could say anything, she took several long strides, caught him by the collar and sent him flying into a set of shelves. She sent a twisted grin in the direction of his friends – now looking slightly more worried than before – and stalked over to him, catching him before he could right himself and punching him across the nose.

He staggered back into the shelves but then smiled grimly, wiping the blood from his nose and smearing it across his face. He lashed out with a kick that sent her flying across the room and as she quickly got to her feet, her eyes went wide with surprise: something had made him extra strong.

“Oh dear,” she muttered to herself, squaring herself up for the next shot.

He launched himself at her and almost sent her flying to the floor but she was able to use his momentum against him to send him flying into another shelving unit. When a large crystal fell to the floor and smashed, she gave a slight grimace but quickly turned her attention back to the matter at hand.

A quick glance to her right showed no sign of movement from Spike – but slightly more encouragingly, no sign of backup from the other two members of the Trio: it looked like it was just her and Warren. Rolling her shoulders to loosen them and folding her hands into fists, she smiled grimly and turned to face Warren once more.



Their fight turned serious now and she threw herself into it, using every little bit of skill she possessed to find his weak spot. She had noticed early on that although he was stronger, he did not have the same sort of skill she had achieved after years of being the Slayer and she used it to her advantage – implementing speed and clever tricks to throw him off. It was working but he was still getting in too many hits for her liking.

“Go on, Warren!”

She turned to glare at Tucker’s brother and he cowered back behind Jonathan, watching the action from a safe distance. Rolling her eyes, she turned back to Warren and spun into a kick that threw him off balance.

“And here was me thinking you’d be weaker after your foreplay with Spike,” Warren sneered, lashing out with a backhand that caught across the jaw. She clenched her jaw and returned with her own heavy punch, causing him to stagger backwards.

“Oh no, that just got me warmed up so I could kick your ass,” she said sweetly, spinning and sweeping his legs out from underneath him. He fell to the floor and she followed quickly, pressing her foot to his throat. Instead of succumbing though, he just smiled, took hold of her foot and flipped her to the floor.



Deciding that any amount of playing nice just wasn’t going to work, she scrambled over to one of the half-destroyed shelves and picked up a large piece of wood, turning to face Warren with a grim smile. His eyes went wide in surprise for the briefest of moments before she flung the wood at him, catching him around the head and sending him to the floor with a thud.

She moved forward cautiously but when she had safely ascertained that he was unconscious, she righted herself and crossed her arms across her chest as she turned to give his friends an unimpressed look. The two sent each other a worried look and for a moment, she thought they might run.

“We, erm, we should go,” Jonathan mumbled, shuffling forward with Tucker’s brother – what was his name again? – close behind.

“Ya think?”

The two shuffled forwards, obviously unnerved by her, and grabbed an arm each, hauling Warren to his feet and supporting him – just about – between them.

“And don’t come back,” she warned as they made their way to the door as quickly as they could, “Or you’re all getting that treatment.”

Eyes went wide and their pace picked up a tiny bit more until finally, the door was swinging shut behind them and she let out a sigh of relief.