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Heart's Desire	By : PencilNeck Category: -Buffy the Vampire Slayer > FemmeSlash - Female/Female > Buffy/Faith Views: 9582 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 20
- 21
- 22
Chapter
21:� This Woman�s Work

The rumbling of the earth.�
They can hear it over the com chatter.�
They can hear it over the whirring of the blades and the whine of the
engines.� It digs into their skin.� Pulses with their heartbeats.� Waves of deep bass and roaring static.� It is the sound that terror makes.

Faith leans out, looking down at the beast.� The high clouds of ash and spew can�t hide
the glowing red that spills from its mouth.�
Trailing down the mountain, leaving a charred emptiness.�

�A-Team, ready for drop.��
Her voice doesn�t betray her.� The
fear doesn�t slip out with the words.

�That�s everyone.�
Just waiting on the Wiccas.� Stand
by for go.�� Xander�s voice is not so
clever.

�Standing by.��

Faith drags her eyes away, and pulls her body back into the
helicopter.� Looks around at her
team.� They�re nervous.� Silent.�
She should say something.� Some
heartfelt speech about good triumphing over evil, about courage and honour and
fighting the good fight.� She flips up
her visor, and inhales.� Hoping it comes
out right.

�OK.� We are a
go!� Repeat, we are a go!�� Saved by the death knell.

Faith stands.� Watches
her team scramble, hooking into the rappel lines.� She checks the lines.� Checks her harness.� Checks the ties that hold the scythe to her
back.� Looks up at the girls.� At their faces lit by the glow of molten rock
and metal.�

And she dives.� Down
through the swirling gasses, through fire in the sky.� Into the abyss.

***********************************************

�A-Team is in position.��
Faith�s voice cuts through the hiss of the com, breathy and low. �

Buffy looks up, squinting.�
Watching as hundreds of black shapes fall from the sky, soundless and
dark as night.� Disappearing almost as
their feet touch ground.� A glimmer of blue
against a black sky.� The shield is
holding for now.� The plan is
working.� The plan is good.

She looks back at her team.�
They�re ditching the harnesses, attaching the oxygen canisters.� Pulling supplies and weapons from their kit
bags.� Everything else gets left
behind.� The group sets up at their
perimeter.� A jagged crack in the
mountain, made by heat and pressure.�
Still glowing with fire.

�B-Team is in position.��
Buffy�s hand reaches for the hilt of her sword.� Something to hold on to.�

The other team leaders call in their status one by one.� So many girls.� Not enough.�
Buffy hears the trembling voices crackle into her ear.��

She waits.� Body
tense.� The temperature and anxiety
making her sweat.� Eyes drift up to the
fire above where the heat is unbearable, and the poison filling the air makes
eyes water and lungs strain to breathe.�

She looks down.� Pasto spreads out its streets and
houses in a tangle below.� The evacuation
order was given days ago.� But some
lights are twinkling up at her.� If the
shield fails�� If everything fails, it
will be the first city to fall.

�OK, people!� Visual
is up.� Phase Two is a go.� Repeat. A go.�� Xander�s voice comes out strong.�

Crouching low, Buffy moves out of position.� She signals to her team to follow her in.

She whispers, forming the words under her breath.� It�s become her thing.� A mantra.�
A tribute.�

�We�ll go be heroes.��

***********************************************

Willow can
fly.� She figured it out in Brazil.� It�s a physics thing.� You just have to do a little rearranging, on
an atomic level.� At first she hovered
about an inch.� Then she could sorta
float a few feet up.�

Now she�s way up, just below the clouds.� Safe in her little air bubble, watching the
action way down there.� She can hear them
all just fine.� No need for suits and
intercoms.� She�s more comfortable in her
jeans and peasant blouse, and rubber makes her look hippy.�

The shield looks strong.�
She inspects it carefully, redistributing the energy where needed,
feeling it flow through her as she touches it lightly, guiding it.� Listening to it.

Energy has a voice.�
She figured this out in Brazil
too.�

She hears Xander.� His
voice is louder than energy.� Less
crackly.

Willow
concentrates her thoughts downward.�
Probing through the rock and the earth, seeking the source.� The reason for all this.

�Oh! Ow!�� It touches
her, searing against the inside of her skull.�
It�s familiar and it flips her heartbeat for a moment.� A tinge of anxiety, mixed with anticipation
and a heavy revulsion.�

Evil.� A concentration
of very powerful evil.�

Willow pulls her
thoughts back.� Steadies them, putting
them back in her head the right way round.

Evil has a voice too.�
She�d figured this out long before Brazil.

It had been music, once.�
Soothing and sweet and so long ago.

Willow is no
longer a fan.

***********************************************

Faith checks her GPS.�
Nearly there.� She blinks away the
sweat stinging her eyes.� Feels it
pooling in the folds of her gear.� The
closer they get to the core, the heavier the air is around them.�

She leads her squad further down the tunnel.� No need for stealth now.� They�ve killed the lookouts.� Killed the guards.� Killed everything that stood in their
way.� They�ve carved a path of blood
through this mountain and it�s worn them down.�
Breathing heavy, sticky and dehydrated, arms sagging with the weight of
their weapons.� And it hasn�t even started.

The blaze of red that lights the cavern has changed.� There�s a thick intensity in the air, and the
light dances on the walls in patterns of orange and gold.� The core.�
Faith signals a halt.� They�re in
position.� They can rest.� She holds up two fingers.� They acknowledge.� Some sit.�
Some lean against the wall.� Some
shake their arms and legs, trying to work moisture away from skin.� She takes her canteen from her belt, and
pushes the straw through the slot in her helmet to sip at it.� Passes it around.�

Faith does another headcount.� Forty-one.�
Four girls short.� She knows this,
of course.� She heard them scream.� Watched them fall.� Left their bodies behind to burn.

With a sigh, she checks her watch.� Time�s up.��
She signals her troops.� They jump
up.� Check weapons and oxygen
levels.� And stand ready.

�A-Team in position.�

�Copy that.� Stand by
for Phase Three.�� Xander hesitates.� �Casualties?�

�Four dead.� Two
injured but mobile.��

�Then you�re lucky.� He clears his throat.�

�Yeah.� Lucky
us.�� There�s
no time for this.� Keep the lines
clear.� Let the others get through.� �Standing by for go.�

She moves through to the front of the pack.� There�s no need for words now.� No clich�, no rousing speech is going to
prepare them.� Make them stronger than
they are.�

�ALL TEAMS!� We are go for Phase Three!�
Repeat, we are go!�� Xander yells into her ear.� But it doesn�t hurt.� She doesn�t hear words.

She hears a battle cry.

***********************************************

First is the heat.�
Blinding.� Physical.�

Second is the stench.�
Sulfur, and choking decay.�

Third is the roar.�
Fire, rupture, and the gathered masses.

Fourth is the exultation.�
The Destroyer comes, bringing pain and terror and beautiful writhing
agony.

He will unlock the gates, and free them all.�

Last is the knowledge.�

It�s found in a hail of arrows.� A cloud of righteousness, raining upon their
armies.� Cutting them down.� Stinging like hope.�

It�s found in sharp steel, and
thunderous fists.� In the intruders�
faces, glowing with intent.� So alike to
the pure ones they�ve tortured, sacrificed, killed, or eaten.� But these are not innocent.�

These bring only death.

***********************************************

Hordes.� Legions.� Swarms.�

Buffy�s never really thought about what those words
mean.� What sheer numbers they contain in
so few syllables.�

She�s thinking about it now.�

Ripping her sword across red, scaly flesh.� Swinging it over her head, slicing cleanly
through bone and skin.� Ducking a
mace.� Rolling under the hooves of
another, jabbing upwards and tearing the blade past sinew. �She�s killed so many.� But there are more.� There�s always more.

She wipes the blood from her visor, smearing red into
pink.� It�s a moment�s pause.� A breath.�

A mistake.

A glimmer of steel catches her eye, and she twists her body
down and left.� She can hear the blade
singing as it passes.�

She spins around, slashing as she goes.� Two fall before
she�s stopped turning, thick hands caught at their throats.� She pushes her sword into the chest of
another, pushing it deep and letting it shred down to the stomach.� She yanks it back, flipping it down and back
and feels it tear into the gut of the monster behind her.

Hordes.� Legions.� Swarms.��

Don�t stop.� Don�t
think.� Just chip away at the evil until
it crumbles.��

Slaughter good.� Sword
bloody.

***********************************************

It takes two people.�
One to carry them.� The other to
fight their way through.� Of course some
try to be brave, limping and hobbling and dragging themselves back.� But they�re the ones that don�t make it.� They�re the gazelles.�

Kennedy tries to protect them.� Loading the crossbow.� Aiming for the throat.� Pulling the trigger.��

She doesn�t miss.� She
doesn�t fumble.� Load, aim, fire.� It takes seconds.�

Getting the injured behind the line.� Back to the Safe Zones set up in the
tunnels.� Where Meds and magicks are
waiting to fix them up, and send them back.�

�Z-Team, got two more coming your
way.�� Xander�s all hoarse and
breathy.�

�I see them.�� Load,
aim, fire.� Without blinking.� Eyes on the target.� �Clearing a path.�� Load, aim, fire.

The first injured girl gets through.� Kennedy doesn�t spare a glance.� She knows it�s Renee
being gently lowered to the makeshift gurney.�
Her escorts are winded from sprinting through the battle.� Hands on their knees, taking deep stilted
breaths.�

Renee doesn�t breathe at all.� There are people working on that.

�Renee?� Is she
alright?�� She can hear Xander�s
voice.� It doesn�t distract her.�

She can hear shouting around her.� Calling for water and sutures and hands to
keep Renee�s body still.� No time for
painkillers.�

Load. Aim. Fire.�

�She�s alive, Harris.��
They brought her back.� Good.

Renee groans in pain.�
But she doesn�t scream.� Some of
them scream.

Kennedy hears Xander exhale.�

�You know, I thought we were clear about this whole �not
dying� thing.��

�Sorry, Sergeant.�
Won�t happen again.�� Renee tries
to cover up the fear.

�Better not.��

Hearing Xander�s relief, she smiles.� Keeping the rhythm.� Load, aim, fire.

It takes seconds.

Seconds to watch as the second escort team is
overpowered.� As they get ripped to
shreds by hungry teeth and claws.�

They�re the gazelles.

And there are just too many damned lions.

***********************************************

Faith swings the scythe over her head in a wide arc.� Cutting a path.�

�Stay tight!�� Faith
calls through the com.� �Backs to the
wall.� Nothing gets through!�

She doesn�t have to check.�
These are her girls, her team.�
They�ll follow orders.�

�Force them to the centre!��
She�s reminding them.� There is a
plan.� They have a purpose.� They�re not alone.�

She learned this from Giles.� His calm, soft voice has reminded her of
these things.� It always helps her in
battle.� And in those quiet moments.

When she�s afraid.

***********************************************

�Look at me!�� Dawn
holds the girl�s head in her hands.�
�You�re fine!� You�ll be fine!�

The girl stares out into nothing.� Blank.�
Safe now in this artificial bubble filled with breathable oxygen.� But not really here at all.

�You�re a Slayer!��
Dawn�s voice gets growly and stern.� She slaps the soldier out of her shock.� �Damnit, you�re a
Slayer!�

The girl blinks, the first sign of her slow return.

�Tell me.�� Dawn gets
on her knees in front of the girl.�
�It�ll be okay.�

Her eyes focus on Dawn.�
Her lips move.� But nothing comes
out.

Emma watches from the corner of her eye.� Wrapping another arm, suturing another
wound.� Her hands work without the
company of her brain.�

She watches the girl�s lips.�

�Oh my�� Emma forces
the bile back down.� It�s too awful.

�What is it?�� Dawn
whips her head around.� Notices the
sickened look on Emma�s face.� �Do I want
to know?�

Emma shakes her head.

Dawn turns her focus back to the girl leaning against the
tunnel wall.� Puts the canteen to her
lips and forces her to sip.

�They�� The girl
tries again; her vocal chords better now they�ve been whetted. �She�� I couldn�t stop them��

�It�s not your fault.��
Dawn tries to comfort the girl.

�I�� Monsters�� The girl chokes it out.� �They��
Bones.� Gnawing on her bones.� I��

Dawn can�t find words for that.� They don�t make words for that.� She can only stroke the girl�s hair and let
her cry it out.� Let her vomit or scream
or punch at the wall.� Whatever she needs
to do to get through it.

Because Dawn has to do her job.� Because there�s no place for sympathy in
war.�

The girl�s not injured.�
She�s going back in.

***********************************************
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Heart's Desire