random fight scene
by Kest
October 2002
"Tell me again why we're here?"
Buffy kicked her heels on the headstone while Xander prowled restlessly behind her. The night was mild, the moon at half mast in the sky. The trees of the graveyard rustled with a breeze that was gently cool on her face. It was kind of peaceful, all in all. She kicked the headstone again. Allan, family of three. Mom, dad, and grandma. It had a cozy feel to it.
"We're looking for a vamp Spike told me---" She glanced at Xander curiously as he wore a path in the grass behind her. "What's up with the stalkiness?"
Xander rolled his neck, hopped a little in place. "I don't know. I can't seem to stop." He didn't seem particularly concerned. His expression darkened. "And what does Spike have to do with this?"
Buffy fingered her stake. "He had a line on some vamp who might know about the new evil hunting us from below." She used the voice of flippant nonchalance she reserved for that which scared the hell out of her. Unnamed evil creeping around beneath them wasn't exactly terror material, not in her world, but it would be nice to get the scouting report on what exactly she was dealing with.
"How convenient."
She sighed irritably. "He's not exactly in a position to go all Brutus on us."
Xander gave her a look, which she ignored. She hopped off the headstone and rubbed her arms. It was a little cold these days.
"Forget it. He's not going to show." She flipped her stake up and caught it, disgusted. Then she stilled as there was a rustle in the trees behind her. "Xander---" she started, as a big-ass vampire--one of the biggest she'd ever seen--burst from the trees and sidelined Xander to the ground.
"Shit." She could barely see Xander under the mountain of undead flesh. "Try not to kill him," she called to Xander helpfully. "We, um, need him alive," she muttered as she joined the fray.
She dislodged the vamp with a twist move on his arm, and before she could properly get her feet under her again, he was up and lunging forward. She heard Xander scramble up behind her as she blocked a punch, delivered one of her own, and landed a nice heel kick to the vamp's chest which sent him staggering backwards into the brush. Xander was up by then, if a little dazed.
"I'm going to circle him around--try to grab his arms." She thought she saw him nod, hoped he'd heard her and wasn't just shaking the butterflies away, and then the vamp was back.
He was as big as she'd first thought. Big and ugly and very mean. She wondered if this was indeed a doublecross on Spike's part--or if he wasn't even the right vamp. But as he dodged her quick jab and grabbed her elbow on the follow-through hook, she saw the black mark tattooed on the inside of his forearm. Spike had told her to watch for that.
He twisted her arm and she felt something pop. Damn. The pain drove her to her knees, but she managed to kick his legs out from under him. He fell heavily to the ground. She rubbed her upper arm and shook it out--just a slight sprain--and when the vamp was up again Xander was ready and waiting behind him. He grabbed his arms and yanked them back.
Snarling, the vamp tried his best to dislodge him. They whirled a bit, and Buffy caught her breath as she tried to gauge the next opening. She heard a woof as the vampire backpedaled Xander against a mausoleum wall, but then she was there with a stake in her hand aimed at his heart.
"I assume you know what this is for," she said. The vampire eyed her warily. Behind him, his arms still locked with the vamp's, Xander smiled weakly. She sent some mental reassurance his way.
"So talk," she said. She pressed the stake against his flesh, through the ratty-ass black t-shirt he was wearing, and the vampire winced.
"About what?" He glared.
"Evil," she said. "Beneath us."
The vampire smirked at her, and oh, she had the urge to dust him right then, information or no. She pressed a little harder. "I hear you're one in the know," she tried again, appealing to his sense of hipness--whatever that entailed in demon world.
"If I were, Slayer," he hissed out the word, "I wouldn't tell you."
"Melodramatic much?" she countered.
He grinned at her--and yeah, that was always a disconcerting sight, having a vampire grin at you in full game face. All those teeth. She focused on his eyes instead, which were sickly yellow. "You've got exactly five seconds to start--"
With a wrench the vampire freed his arms, and in the split second before she could react, he grabbed her head between his hands and pulled her forward roughly. She had an inane thought--oh god, he's going to kiss me; what is it about me--and then the vamp burst into dust before her. He'd deliberately impaled himself on her stake.
"Whoa," she said, as Xander stumbled forward into the space left so suddenly and dramatically empty. She lowered her stake hastily and caught him. They stumbled a bit then steadied, and she tucked her stake back into her waistband as Xander brushed himself off. She looked down at herself, covered in vamp dust. She swiped at it disgustedly.
"Well that was a waste of time," she said.
"Not really disagreeing with you," Xander replied, but he didn't sound too pissed, considering he'd just been crushed between a stone wall and a being of the undead.
"That was also a little creepy," she added.
"Again, no disagreement on this end. You think he did it on purpose?"
She nodded. "As much as I can't imagine a vampire killing himself for some greater cause--even an evil one--it seemed like that to me."
They reached the Allan family headstones and her weapons bag. She should probably stick around, patrol some more, but the night felt quiet again, and she wasn't getting any vamp vibes from the surrounding area. "I'm thinking showers are in order," she said, wondering if the dust was in her hair, then quickly stifling that thought.
"I'm with you there," Xander said feelingly. He paused. "I mean, not with you, as in--"
"I know." Buffy quirked a smile at him.
They crossed the graveyard into the lamp-lit street. A very dissatisfying night, all told. She didn't like the idea of vampires banding together for any reason, but when unnamed evil was involved---
Well. That was a thought for tomorrow. Post-shower. And maybe ice cream.