Ch.35

Life goes on and soon we found Spike had turned a dozen or so people into vampires because the First was messing with his head. He ended up locked up in the basement of the Summer's residence where I'd spelled the chains to hold even the strongest of demons physically. Still, Spike needed questioned for his new form of psychosis and we needed animal blood to ween him off the human blood he'd been drinking which makes him more animalistic.

I felt a ripple of power the night we brought Spike back so when Willow said she'd go with Tara to get the blood from the butchers shop, I asked Willow if the power I felt last night was her using dark magic. She shook her head saying she hadn't used it since back then. I grunted. "Then either another witch with extremely powerful dark magic is in town or something big is going on with the hellmouth. It was powerful enough to set me on edge at a distance."

Willow frowned saying she didn't feel it and Tara shook her head as well so I turned to the direction I felt the power ripple out from. "The school over the hellmouth. I'll go check it out since Spike is tied up and I've no desire to hear him prattle on about the First appearing as Buffy."

I got a call an hour later from Buffy saying Andrew was found buying blood at the butcher shop. I told her. "I think I know what I felt and why he needs blood. Come to the school basement and get Robin on your way down."

I brought out my claws and thirty minutes later Buffy and Robin found me creating loud sparks. I gestured to the room as I put my claws away. "Down here is tricky. The walls move so I figured I'd make it easy on you."

They walked in and saw Johnathan Levinson's body. I walked in behind them. "Yeah, that was about my reaction as well. Fun fact, this is where Sineya died to defeat the last old one Maloker. Her body fell right here and now there's a demonic manhole cover from hell here. Neat huh."

Robin went to touch it and I caught his wrist, shaking my head. "This this is radiating pure evil like a faucet. Who knows what that'll do to you. It sets my nerves on edge so no touching."

He grunted. "What are we talking here?"

I grunted. "Let's just say if it were radioactive half the town would be glowing by now and it's concentrated here."

He pulled back fast and I smirked while waving a hand and incinerating Johnathan's body. "Someone else killed him and I got their scent. If it was this Andrew kid then odds are the blood is because the other one didn't have enough in him for whatever was planned. This is a portal seal."

Buffy said. "To hell."

I nodded. "And other places. The hellmouth is merely what you get when the barrier between dimensions is thinnest. With this seal nothing comes through either way, but if it were removed it'd be like LA where demons come through everywhere and humans occasionally fall through into demon dimensions or are kidnapped. Only this is a natural hellmouth so a lot more places, darker and older places, can be accessed more easily."

Buffy asked. "Places like the First's dimension?"

I nodded slowly and Robin asked. "The First?"

I grunted. "The First is the first being that came from the nothingness of this reality. Before light, before worlds and stars, there was just empty space filled with energy and magic. It was born from that darkness and became the embodiment of all evil. It's the reason humans and all sentient beings have evil in them no matter how minute or large. It is in everything like life is in everything. Two sides of the same coin."

I stood up. "It was destroyed eons ago by a champion working for the Powers That Be, a faction of gods who for whatever reason want humanity to survive and not necessarily beat demon kind, but keep them from overrunning the earth and returning to the time of the old ones."

He asked about Old Ones and Buffy told him. "Jurassic demons that ruled the world. I thought you knew all this from your ancestors?"

He shook his head. "All I was told was that my mom was a slayer who fought demons and my family had been demon hunters since the time of Moses or something."

I grunted. "Moses was a crock of shit. Your family is older by more than you can imagine, kid. Sineya was the First slayer for a reason and she defeated the Old Ones allowing man to seal them away because they couldn't be truly killed. They were immortal like I am and unlike me they'd reform if there was nothing left so their remains were sealed up along with their essence in a supernatural prison. Sineya and I spent almost two years slaughtering the old ones that didn't kill and eat each other or hadn't been killed by me in my crazed state."

Robin asked simply. "What can I do to help then?"

I grunted. "Evacuate the school if you're smart. Whatever did this, Andrew or not, it's not going to be an easy fix and things are going to get worse before they get better."

He asked curiously. "How much damage are we talking here?"

Buffy sighed. "Demons, invisible people, flying monkeys, fake things becoming real, real things becoming fake. Witches, human sacrifice, talent shows."

I grunted. "On fast-forwards except the talent show. I've no concept of that. Anyways, basically the laws of physics will get so key and people turn into psychopaths fast. The longer they're here the more violent humans will become and the more people that'll die."

I covered it up with dirt and we left. Back at the house Willow had knocked Spike out to keep him from killing Andrew which I confirmed with a whiff is the one that killed Johnathan in the basement. Night soon fell and Bringers attacked.

I killed them all in the front with my claws while Buffy saved Andrew only for Spike to be taken. Andrew fainted and was tied up downstairs while we dealt with the cleanup. The only thing that was broken mostly was the window so Xander was irked which I incinerated the dead bodies of the bringers after taking their weapons. I got a call from Richard and told the scoobies as Xander swept up the ashes. "The Watchers council was blown up but the Ten Rings managed to save most of them including Quinten Travers and most of the artifacts the council had in it's vaults. Several low level watchers and dozens of the junior watchers in training were killed though so they've no leg to stand on. They're in Atlantis and safe but they'll be forced to leave after the battle. The watchers council aren't welcomed there and it wouldn't end well if they came here."

Anya agreed. "That's sensible, we should go too."

I shook my head. "It wouldn't end well for them because I'd kill them all, not because the First would."

They went quiet and I walked out of the house to the back porch to get some air. Buffy joined me after a while and I sighed, answering her unasked question. "They chained Sineya to a cave and let a demon violently violate her inside. It had no physical form but it didn't need one. It twisted and changed her until she wasn't the innocent girl they'd captured. The shadow men as they called themselves, later became the first watchers and treated slayers like their renewable weapon against evil, forcing them into a life of violence and early graves over and over again because they were too much of cowards to fight their own damned war."

I looked to her and told her coldly. "Every female born in Sineya's line were slayers the council used, including my daughter, Sin. The guardians who took her and the weapon Sineya had, lost her to the first watchers when they kidnapped her looking for a new weapon. If they come here Buffy, I won't care that they want to help, I will kill them and I'll go through even you to do so if I have to."

She sighed herself and leaned against my side. "We don't need them right now. We know about the First and we can always call to get more information, but I do need you, here, now and focused on the mission."

I pulled her into my arms and kissed her head. Go to sleep, get some rest. If the Bringers come back or something happens you'll hear me long before they reach the house. I'll patrol the area and keep the house safe. Tell Dawn and the others to get some sleep as well."

She nodded and kissed me before thanking me. I grunted and began circling the house until the morning. We reburied the satanic manhole cover when Johnathan woke up and when we got back, Willow and Tara used a locator spell to try and find Spike and the First. An explosion happened and the First tried possessing Willow, firing a paralysis spell and Xander broke the bowl which dispelled the First's connection to Willow.

I'd taken the spell hit for Buffy and shook it off before Willow collapsed crying. Tara and Buffy held her while she cried until I picked he shivering form up and set her on the couch saying I'd go hunting for Spike myself since it was his blood on the ropes in the school basement. I opened the door as Buffy said she'd come with me and we found Giles with three potential slayers. I nearly reached to kill Giles with a growl when Buffy shoved me back saying not him.

I grunted and told her I needed air alone before passing Giles who got the fuck out of my way. A full day of sunlight and half a night later I went under an old Christmas tree lot and a Turok-Han was there. It tried to bite me and I made a crater in a wall with it's body, killing a dozen bringers as well before finding the First and Spike. It pretended to be Spike, but I ignored it and broke his rope. I brought him out only to see Buffy fighting the Turok-Han so I opened a portal and sent Spike to the house basement before grabbing the Turok-Han and throwing it back into the wall.

It broke and the cave started to collapse so I grabbed Buffy and jumped twenty feet up, clearing the hole in time for half the field to collapse and the sun to come up. Buffy was injured so I put the watch on her and she healed rapidly while Giles ran over. I growled and Buffy grabbed my arms, putting them around her so I couldn't hurt him without hurting her first.

I struggled internally and had a psychotic break with my animal instincts again, forcing them to stop while I just glared at Giles with anger. Buffy knew something happened because I was panting and I never get tired. I told her to drop it when she asked and instead told them. "Spike's back at the house in the basement and it'll take a while for the Turok-Han vampire to crawl out of all that. Their bones are as hard as steel and incredibly fast healing so it'll be back soon. Let's head home."

She nodded and Giles apologized for what was done, saying he wasn't with the council anymore and he hadn't known about any of it. I waved him off. "It doesn't matter now. We have bigger problems because that Turok-Han means the First has an army of them. Something no one is prepared to face."

We got back to the house and found the potentials in the kitchen so Buffy welcomed them to the war room. I told them about the Turok-Han, how Maloker made them as his last middle finger to the world for driving the old ones into extinction or out of this dimension. I told them how I faced an army of them while Sineya fought Maloker which was why I'd been unable to save her. I told them the characteristics of the Uber vamps as Buffy called them.