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Alexandra Harris

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  I was so relieved to see that I'd caught up to him that I hardly considered that leaping out of the bushes in front of a Slayer was a bad idea.  Luckily for me, Blake didn't hack my head off.  "Xan!"  He yelped, surprised.  I grinned and held up the rock I'd grabbed a minute earlier.

  "Cavalry's here. Cavalry's a short chick with a big rock, but it's here!"  I announced.  Blake smirked and held a stake out to me.  I tossed my rock aside and took that instead.  "That's better."  I said with a smile.  His face turned grim and he started walking again in that annoyingly long-legged stride.  I scampered to keep up.

  "You're not here to fight, Xan."  Blake said, in his take-charge-super-man voice.  "You get Ms. Giles out and you run like hell, understood? I can't protect you."  He pulled the cloth off a nice shiny sword.  "I'm gonna be too busy killing."  I raised my eyebrows at the weapon.  My stake felt so....unshiny next to it.  Blake always got the cool weapons.

  "Now, that's a new look for you."  I commented. 

  "It's a present for Angela."  He said in a low voice.  I seethed inwardly at the mention of the vamp bitch.  I knew I had to tell Blake about the spell Will was going to attempt, but I could hardly get the words out of my mouth.

  "Will."  I blurted.  "Uh, he told me to tell you..."  Possibilities flashed through my mind.  If I told him, he would delay. He wouldn't fight as hard as he should.  But if I lied...

"Tell me what?" 

"He...he's going to try the curse again."  I spit out.  Blake froze and looked at me.  "If you can keep her distracted long enough, we might have a chance."  I saw the glimmer of hope in his hazel eyes and decided that I'd done the right thing.  It'd been a close thing though.  I shivered to think how close I came to keeping silent. 

    The final battle between Blake and Angela was about to begin when I got up enough spine to burst into the scene.  Blake had told me to wait a minute before coming in so he'd have a chance to clear a path for me.  Personally I think he just wanted to make an entrance.  I did as I was told, ducking past Blake as he fought a minion and heading for the next room, searching for Ms. Giles.  I ignored the sight of Drew kicking Spike's ass, not really caring what had the crazy brunette and his short bleached ho at each other's throats. 

  I soon found Ms. Giles in a room behind a curtain.  The poor woman was bruised and battered, tied to a chair, her head laying limply back.  "Ms. Giles!"  I rushed to her side.  "Ms. Giles!"  She managed to lift her head a bit and blink at me.  I went around the chair and started on the ropes holding the older woman in place.

  "Xan?"  She mumbled. 

"Can you walk?"  I asked hopefully.  I didn't think I'd be able to carry her if she couldn't.  That'd put a cramp in our "running like hell" plans. 

"You're not real."  She grumbled.  I looked at her.  It didn't look like they'd taken her brain out, but hey neither did Egyptian mummies.

"Sure, I'm real."  I said, hoping she would get a grip on reality real soon.

"It's a trick. They get inside my head, make me see things I want."  She slurred stubbornly.  I finished with the ropes and moved around to look her in the face. 

  "Then why would they make you see me?"  I pointed out.  I saw her think about that, then smiled slightly.

  "You're right. Let's go."  I winced at the noise she made as I lifted her from the chair and managed to get her arm around my neck and my arm around her waist.  We carefully made our way back out to the main room and headed for the door.  I checked to see how Blake was doing and winced as Angela landed a kicked to Blake's midsection.  I could tell that the Slayer wasn't into the fight.  I momentarily regretted telling him about the possible resouling. 

  In the corner I saw the fight between Spike and Drew winding down.  As I watched, Drew finished Spike off with a vicious uppercut and turned to help his sire before the bleached vamp had even hit the floor.  I groaned as I saw that Blake was facing off against two Master vampires.  There was nothing I could do while still toting the semi-conscious Watcher.  I hurried us outside and looked for a safe place to put Ms. Giles so I could go back and get my ass kicked trying to help.  I finally set her down in the middle of a patch of sunlight on the overgrown lawn and turned to race back to the fight.

  I hurtled around the corner and into the room and came face to face with a scene out of my nightmares.  Blake was on the ground, sword through his midsection and a hysterical Angela was kneeling beside him.  I stared frozen, then, as the statue of Acathla spewed forth the beginnings of a portal.  It was too late.  I couldn't move, even when Drew, his eyes demonic yellow advanced on the sobbing Angela and grabbed her by her long brown hair that quickly turned to dust when the mad vampire staked her.

The portal continued to grow larger and I wondered just how I would die.  I got my answer as the world was slowly sucked into hell.  Drew turned his attention to me and smiled.  I shivered, but did not run.  Why bother?  We'd all be dead in a moment, why not fall to a demon I knew?  He stalked towards me, continuing until he towered over me.  His yellow eyes bored into me as his hand caressed my cheek.

  "The stars whispered your name to me.  They said you were the rain...the sea..."  He whispered.  I sighed.  Was a little sanity in your killer too much to ask for, really?

  "Whatever.  Just off me already."  I insisted, impatient.  I even tilted my head to show my neck to him.  Strangely I felt no fear.  A calmness had settled over me.  I knew that I could do absolutely nothing to stop what was coming.  And so I just went with the flow.  Drew clucked his tongue at me and tapped my nose as if I were a naughty pet.

  "They told me to make the spell ready.  I listened and they said I would have a reward!"  He picked me up effortlessly and spun me in the air.  When he set me down he spent a moment groping my chest before remembering what he was doing.  I stood impassively, noting the growing rumble coming from the growing portal.  Inwardly I sighed.  The end of the world was taking way too damn long. 

  "Spikey was a good girl, but I shall forgive her for that."  He rumbled and started dragging me over to the vampire slumped against the wall opposite Acathla.  Then, while I stood impatiently, he pulled a leather pouch from the pocket of his tight leather pants and opened it.  He grabbed a handful of sparkling dust and cast it at the wall over Spike's head.  "Edro!" He shouted happily.  Far more quickly than the damn portal of doom behind me, the wall shimmered and opened into another portal.  Drew grinned hugely and grabbed up Spike by her short white hair and tossed her through the portal.  Drew then turned to me.  "You must go!  Must go now or yellow boots will sing and he will make our heads go POP!"  He suddenly whimpered, holding his head.  "Go!" 

  With that, I was flung through the portal.  There was a fierce wind and flashing lights that were all very overwhelming, then there was the sudden stop at the other end.  I blinked at the dirt I was face down in and wearily raised my head, groaning.  "Why aren't I dead yet?  Was the end of the world thing just false advertising?"  Keep joking, Xan.  Jokes will make everyone you know and love not dead.  I thought a little crazily.  I managed to look up far enough to see a pair of jaunty yellow boots that no one but a severe fashion victim would ever wear.  "I'm in hell aren't I?"  I said with a sigh.