The Chosen

Author: Tiffany
Send Feedback To: Tsparkle14@aol.com
Disclaimer: Some of these characters (Willow, Xander, Giles, Spike, Anya, Buffy, etc) are property of Joss Whedon, I don't own them, blah, blah, blah. The occasional demons come products my whacked out imagination. The other characters are people who have foolishly allowed me to use their name and manipulate them in my fic however I choose. Hahaha…

"Uh-oh," Josh muttered, getting into a fighting stance and preparing for battle.

As if that was his cue, one of the demons lunged at him.

Josh kicked him in the stomach, putting all his strength into it. The demon didn't even flinch. This was bad.

The demon swung his fist, and in his state of shock, Josh didn't duck. The demon's fist connected with his face with a sickening crack, and sent him sprawling across the ground. It hurt like hell, but he refused to give up.

Josh got slowly to his feet and faced the demon again, ignoring the blood and searing pain he felt on his face. He relaxed and focused.

The demon stumbled closer to Josh, and Josh noticed how jerky and unsteady the demon's steps were. The demon got within range and swung his fist at Josh again. This time Josh ducked. The demon continued to try kicking and punching Josh, but Josh ducked, dodged, and blocked every move.

The other demons and the girl vampire just watched this.

Josh realized that, despite this demon's brute strength, he had very little as far as fighting skills. The trick would be finding its weakness. So Josh continued dodging the demon, while using every opportunity he got to try punching him in certain spots in search of some reaction. Finally he stuck his stake in the demon's lower back, and it howled in pain.

"Gotcha!" Josh cried as the demon fell to the ground and ceased to move.

Josh turned around, facing the other demons, ready to fight. But none of them moved. Finally the vampire started clapping. The other demons joined in, smacking their big hands together, obviously not in full control of their coordination.

Josh was completely lost.

The clapping stopped.

"Congratulations," the female vampire said with a smile. "You passed the test."

A test? Josh thought. What the-

Before he could finish that thought, the girl removed a red, leather pouch and poured a bit of sparkling dust from it into her hand. She stepped forward and blew the dust into Josh's face. He felt himself getting lightheaded. I fell right into a trap he realized as he felt himself falling, falling, but he never felt himself hit the ground. By then everything was black.

*****

one of Sunnydale cemeteries

Maggie, Jordy, Stacy, and Lisa walked through cemetery, listening for any type of noise, but hearing nothing.

"So you still don't remember anything, huh Stacy?" Jordy asked.

Stacy shook her head. "Nothing. Isn't that weird?" she asked.

"Give it time," Jordy replied. "You'll remember soon enough. Are you sure you should be out patrolling though?"

"Yeah, I feel perfectly fine actually," Stacy smiled.

"Good," Jordy said with a nod.

"I still don't get why I'm here patrolling instead of out at the only good club in town. It was my idea after all," Lisa grumbled. She'd been sulking all night about that.

"Josh thinks you should work on your power. You know that," Jordy replied, reasoning with her. Lisa continued to pout.

"Is Josh your leader or something?" Stacy asked.

Nobody answered right away. They hadn't really talked about it. Josh had just naturally taken the leadership role and they all felt comfortable giving it to him.

"I guess you could say that," Jordy answered.

Maggie, who had been bored with all this, started humming a tune loudly. Jordy and Lisa both recognized it as a song from Les Miserables. One that Maggie had sang many times.

"Maggie! You'll scare away all the vampires!" Jordy whispered.

"You're kidding, right? They don't know we're in Sunnydale. They don't even know who we are," Maggie said. "If a few of 'em hear some humming, they'll come to scope it out. They'll see four seemingly defenseless girls and boom. I'll lead them right to us." Maggie continued humming, slightly louder this time. Jordy sighed.

Just then, 2 vampires emerged from the shadows in front of them.

"What did I tell you?" Maggie asked.

Then, one by one, thirteen more vampires appeared from spots all around them. The four girls clustered together and stared in shock as the vampires came closer.

"You were right," Lisa whispered harshly to Maggie. "Led 'em straight to us."

back at the Bronze

Tiffany sat alone at the table, watching Fiona and Rachel dance. It was a good song and she started tapping her foot without thinking about it.

Suddenly she shivered for no apparent reason. She noticed Rachel, still dancing, shivered at the same time. Weird… she thought, but she shook it off and picked up her soda glass. Just as she brought the straw up to take a sip, her body shook violently and the glass fell to the floor and shattered into pieces.

When the shaking subsided, Tiffany looked up to see Rachel standing in the middle of the dance floor, completely still, her dancing partner holding her arm, asking if she was okay. Rachel and Tiffany locked eyes and they both knew something was wrong. Tiffany scanned the room, searching for Josh… when she realized he hadn't come back inside. Oh no…

Rachel seemed to notice the same thing at that exact moment and they both rushed towards the exit door.

*****

the cemetery

Jordy and Maggie pulled out their stakes out and studied the vampires that closed in around them. No way out. They would have to fight.

"You stay here and protect Stacy," Jordy told Lisa. Lisa nodded.

Jordy ran forward and took on two of the vampires while Maggie fought another two. Meanwhile, several of the others rushed at Lisa and Stacy.

Lisa put out her hand and the first vampire flew backward into another one. She heard a growl from behind her and turned around, throwing another vampire into a tree.

Stacy winced and prepared to fight if necessary. Stacy looked at Lisa and saw that she was already breathing hard. The moving people around thing took a lot out of somebody.

"Hey Mags, now would be a good time for your power!" Jordy called as she ducked punches from both her vampires, causing them to hit each other.

"Kinda busy right now!" Maggie huffed, staking one of her vamps, and watching as it was replaced by two more.

Jordy stood up in between her 2 vampires, and used a stake in each hand to dust them.

"Three down-" Jordy started. And then she watched in horror as still more vampires emerged from the trees. "You've gotta be kidding me…" Jordy muttered, starting to fight another set of vampires.

One of Maggie's vampires grabbed her by the throat and threw her into a tree.

"Maggie!" Jordy cried. But she couldn't do anything about Maggie right now. She was having enough problems with just trying to fight off the four vampires that had ganged up on her.

Lisa did a roundhouse kick, to a vampire that had gotten to close. She punched him, then turned away and used her powers to push another one of the vampires away. Then another, before gasping for breath, collapsing to her knees.

"Oh boy…" Stacy mumbled, watching as two vampires approached her. She winced and prepared for the worst when, seemingly out of nowhere somebody jumped in front of her and started fighting off the vampires that had been seconds from attacking her. Stacy studied his back (since that was all she could see)… the leather jacket, that bleach blonde hair…

"Spike?!"

*****

Buffy's old house

Paige flipped through one of the many old research books Giles had lent them. Searching for anything useful.

"You don't have to help you know," Quiller told Paige with a smile.

Paige nodded. "I know… but I want to help."

Sarah shrugged, "Whatever you say," she replied, knowing if she had a choice she'd be elsewhere.

Quiller picked up another book and used her power to scan through it. "Nothing I could find," Quiller said, handing the book to Grace for further inspection.

"Cheater," Grace muttered jokingly, taking the book. "So where's Mari?" she asked Sarah.

"Helping Giles with some big project." Sarah answered. "Don't tell her I told you, but I think she's Giles' favorite."

Grace had stopped listening before Sarah had started, instead she had turned to the window, unable to shake a creepy feeling that she was being watched. She thought she heard a shuffling in the bushes outside the house.

"Hey, did you guys hear-" she started, but she was interrupted as the front door was kicked in and crashed to the floor…

Tiffany reached the exit door first, and pushed it open, rushing out into the alley. She noticed a few things in a short amount of time.

First was the big ugly demon that was currently… melting in the middle of the alley.

"Ew," she muttered, wrinkling her nose at the awful smell coming from the melting demon.

Second was the stake in the demon's back. It had a "J" carved into it. Josh's stake. But he was nowhere to be seen.

Third, she noticed the scuffling noise coming from the sidewalk just around the corner of the alley. The next second she was running toward the noise. She heard the door open behind her as she ran.

Just as Tiffany rounded the corner she saw, only a few feet in front of her, two demons dragging an unconscious Josh, followed by two other ones. They were all led by the vampire that Josh had gone outside to stake.

She came to a screeching halt, as the demons turned and looked right at her. Then she took a deep breath and rushed forward, jumping to kick the demon in the chest.

The demon didn't react at all. Instead he looked at the vampire. She rolled her eyes and waved her hand at him. The demon nodded, smiling goofily and backhanding Tiffany who went flying back into Rachel, just as she turned the corner. Both of them slid across the ground.

Fiona, Willow, and Xander, who had seen the two Slayers run outside, and followed, ran around the corner. They stopped, helping Rachel and Tiffany up. Then they all pulled out their stakes and attacked the demons again.

This time the demons dropped Josh, who landed with a thump.

As the others took on the demons (carefully blocking their punches), Rachel went straight for the vampire. With a few swift kicks, and a stake to the heart, the vampire burst into dust, and the little pouch that had the sparkling dust, landed on the sidewalk.

The demons, seeing their leader dusted, ran away liked scared little puppies.

"Yeah, run away you little sissies!" Xander shouted, shaking his fist at the retreating figures.

Fiona, Tiffany, and Rachel gathered around Josh, checking his injuries.

"He's breathing," Fiona pointed out, relieved.

Willow, noticing the little red pouch, picked it up and carefully poured some of the contents into her hand. She sniffed it carefully and her eyes drooped. She shook it off.

"Sleeping dust," she informed them

"Like the stuff the Sandman uses?" Xander asked. They all stared at him. "Uh, pretend I didn't say that," Xander added.

"Think they used it on Josh?" Rachel asked.

Willow nodded, seeing the shimmery dust around Josh's eyes.

Just then Josh stirred and his eyes opened very slowly. "Hey," he muttered, confused.

"He speaks," Tiffany smiled, relieved.

*****

Stacy stared in shock at the vampire who had just saved her. Definitely Spike. Stacy got over her shock in time to fight off the demon that tried to jump her.

Lisa gathered her strength again and started fighting, curious about the guy who had just joined them.

One by one Jordy, Lisa, Stacy, and Spike dusted the vampires, but they kept on coming. Just when it seemed hopeless, a voice rose over the noise of the fighting. Somebody was singing. In Latin.

The demons stopped moving, then slowly gathered together and started to walk away, back into the shadows.

Everybody looked at the tree Maggie had been thrown into. She was slowly getting to her feet, continuing the song. When the last vampire disappeared into the shadows, Maggie stopped.

"Nice one!" Jordy called, running over to Maggie along with everybody else.

"Yeah, what was that?" Stacy asked.

"A spell I've been working on," Maggie grinned proudly. "Should send them back where they came from."

"Who the bloody hell are you people?" Spike asked, amazed after witnessing both Lisa and Maggie's powers.

"I think the question is, who the hell are you," Lisa said, more as a statement than a question.

The girls turned to the blonde vampire, waiting for an explanation.

"Can I get a glass of ice?" Fiona asked the bartender, 10 minutes later.

He shrugged and filled a glass with ice.

"Thanks," Fiona smiled, took the glass and walked back to the table. She handed it to Rachel who dumped it in a few paper towels and closed up the ends with a rubber band. Rachel passed it to Tiffany, who handed it to Josh. Josh put the ice pack over what was now a very puffy black eye, wincing at the cold.

"That looks pretty bad," Willow said, wincing along with Josh.

"Yeah, why don't you heal it?" Fiona asked, looking at Tiffany.

"I'm not supposed to use my powers for scrapes and bruises. Only life or death situations," Tiffany replied. "It's kind of an energy eater and the PTB doesn't want us to mis-use our powers."

"There's something that's been bugging me…" Josh started. They looked at him expectantly. "How did you guys know I was in trouble?"

"Willow and I just followed Fi," Xander answered.

"And I followed Rachel and Tiffany," Fiona added.

"I can't really explain it…" Tiffany said

"We got these shiver thingies and then a weird feeling and we just knew," Rachel put in.

"But apparently Rachel can," Tiffany added.

"That's weird," Josh replied.

"Or maybe not. It could be that connection thing the PTB was talking about," Rachel suggested.

"Yeah, but we've been in trouble before and this never happened," Josh said.

"Oh!" Tiffany straightened up, looking excited. "What if your psychic powers are starting to work?"

"I knew it! You can read minds!" Xander said, pointing at Josh accusingly.

"Not really," Josh replied.

"Not yet," Tiffany corrected.

"He's working on it," Rachel explained. "We're all working on our powers and Josh is working on his mind control and mind reading abilities. In time he'll be able to do a lot of cool stuff."

Josh's eyes turned glassy and he stared into space, completely unaware of what was going on around him.

"Speaking of Josh's powers…" Tiffany said.

Fiona waved her hand in front of Josh's eyes. He didn't respond. "What's wrong with him?" she asked, worried.

"Nothing. He's just getting a message from Elisa," Rachel shrugged, used to this.

Josh blinked, dropped the ice pack, and stood up.

"I hate to ruin the party, but we've got trouble," Josh said grimly.

*****

Stacy waited a second, until Spike pulled out a cigarette. She realized Spike wouldn't introduce himself so she would have to. She sighed.

"Slayers, this is Spike," she said. "Spike, meet the Slayers."

Spike nodded. "Plural, huh?" he mumbled, the cigarette in his mouth, trying to light it.

"You mean William the Bloody?" Lisa asked.

"Oh, so you've heard of him… don't worry though, he's got a-"

"-Chip in his head," Jordy finished for her.

"We know all about poor wittle Spikie," Maggie said in a baby voice, smiling smugly.

Spike glared. "Anybody got a light?" he asked.

Jordy pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and stepped on it. "Don't you know those things can kill you?" Jordy asked, a small smile on her face.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Lisa asked.

"Oh, you know. I was in the neighborhood," he shrugged. They all looked at him, waiting for the real answer. "And bored out o' my bloody mind," he added.

Stacy watched him and she couldn't help feeling bad. After Buffy had rejected him, Spike had turned to Willow for comfort. It didn't take long for Spike fell for Willow. When Tara left, Willow was crushed. She went through a major bad girl phase, during which she and Spike had had a fling. But Willow came to her senses with the help of Xander and dumped Spike. Stacy hadn't seen him since.

Stacy was broken from her reverie as she heard a black car with tinted windows roar past the cemetery. What's their hurry? Stacy wondered.

*****

Back at the old Summers' house, Grace struggled to open her eyes. She managed to open them a little bit… and she could faintly make out the room. It was a disaster. They had tried so hard… but the demons had been too much… She saw Sarah slumped against the wall and Quiller lying under the overturned table. Where's Paige? Grace thought, before slipping back into unconsciousness.

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