Fic: The Sacrifice Play
Title: The Sacrifice Play
Author: Wyndewalker
Xover Fandom: World War Z
Series: 5 Apocalypses Xander Never Faced
Challenge: twistedshorts August-Fic-A-Day - Day 7, 2013 Trope Bingo Round 2 - DEATH fic
Author's note: Tissues are pretty much a requirement for this story.
Rating: PG-13
Warning: MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH - THIS IS NOT A HAPPY ENDING STORY
Word Count: 2,631 according to Word
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to World War Z or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All rights belong to their owners and I merely borrow the characters for your amusement.
***WARNING MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH***
Summary: Considering what we do I've always thought we had a pretty good handle on what to do in case of apocalypse. It turns out we didn't. We didn't have any more of a clue than the rest of the world.
Samira sat quietly at the console she'd been manning when this nightmare began. She wasn't actually doing anything; nothing useful anyway. She was simply cycling her monitor through all the security cameras they had access to around the world, though she was deliberately skipping the ones inside the Council building. She didn't need to see the creatures her friends, her fellow Slayers had become. If she was looking for something she didn't know what it might be. She just needed something to distract herself from the muffled sobs coming from some of the younger Slayers in the room; from the thumps and shrieking cries of the creatures still trying to get into the Slayer Command Center after several hours.
After nearly seven years of being a Slayer Samira had begun to think of herself as being pretty close to invincible. The apocalypse happening outside was a sharp reminder that Slayers were not invincible; that they could not beat everything. She was practical though. She would not cry for something that could not be changed. All she could do now is wait until the White Knight gave her an order, a task no matter how hopeless to strive to fulfill.
*******
Becky sat huddled in the corner of the Command Center farthest from where the zombies who used to be her friends and teachers were trying to get in. Tears were streaming silently down her cheeks but she ignored them to try and comfort the two baby Slayers cuddled up next to her. Giselle, barely eight years old, had cried herself to sleep though she still shivered in fear. On Becky's other side ten year old Kamiko was wide awake, her gaze trained on the only door into the room, flinching every time there was a particularly loud thump or shriek from the zombies outside.
She didn't want to admit it but Becky knew they were trapped in here; that they were going to die in this room. She'd heard Researcher Strathairn telling Xander that the zombies were drawn to magic, to the Slayers themselves. That they were a liability now rather than a help. Becky didn't think she'd ever forget the cold look in Xander's eyes when he told the man to keep his mouth shut or he'd find a way to feed him to the zombies without risking the rest of them. She believed he would do it and apparently so had Strathairn because he'd backed off to sulk in another corner of the room. The vicious looks he'd gotten from other Slayers in the room told Becky she wasn't the only one to get what he'd been implying.
Knowing that Xander was still protecting them, even in this hopeless situation, cemented her already fanatical loyalty to him further.
*******
Jacob Strathairn seethed in the corner he'd been banished to by that jumped up Yank whelp Harris. Jacob had been with the Watcher's Council for nearly thirty five years now. If anyone should be in charge it should be him. Unfortunately he knew that Harris had the loyalty of every Slayer in the room. Any move to takeover without their support was doomed to failure.
The worst thing in Jacob's mind was he was convinced that without the presence of the Slayers the zombies would have long since given up trying to get in. He and Harris, as the only normal humans, would have a chance at escaping. Possibly even finding other survivors. Instead they were going to starve to death in this room because of Harris' blasted morals.
*******
Vi paced restlessly around the Slayer Globe. Hanging from the ceiling while slowly spinning on its own, it was easily four times the size of a classroom globe. Willow and Andrew had magicked this one to show the location of every living Slayer in the world. Most of the time it was a bunch of glowing dots and you either touched one or called out a Slayer's name to get more precise information.
She'd watched as the dots slowly went dark one after another. She'd watched as the lights for Buffy, Faith, Kennedy, Chao-ahn, Caridad, Rona, Shannon and all the other Potentials who'd survived against the First went out. She was the last of them now. The senior most Slayer. She felt her gut twisting at the thought of all her friends, her sister Slayers being dead. No. Worse. They were zombies. Vi glanced over at Xander where he sat with his head bowed, the monitors on the consoles around him all showing various parts of the Council building. Some were empty, but several of them showed the zombies their friends had become. She looked away. She didn't want to see it.
Another light on the globe went out extinguishing another piece of hope in her heart.
*******
Considering what we do I've always thought we had a pretty good handle on what to do in case of apocalypse. It turns out we didn't. We didn't have any more of a clue than the rest of the world. And now humanity is on the brink of extinction, of being turned into zombies.
And these aren't the old school rotting and shambling corpses of late night B-movie horror flicks. These bastards are fast and they're not looking to feed on us. They bite you then move on to their next victim. Their only purpose is to spread whatever it is that makes them what they are.
There's an intelligence in them too. Not human. Probably not even demonic but it was there. Every time I look at the monitor on my right Willow is staring back at me through the security camera. It's not my Willow though. It's not the painfully shy, too smart for her own good girl I grew up with. It's not the calm, confident scarily powerful witch that she grew into. It's not my best friend looking back at me. It's something Other and I know there's no escaping it.
We're trapped in this room and, even if I was willing to sacrifice the mini Slayers which I'm not, I know none of us would make it out alive. When we took over this building and decided to make this our Central Command Center Willow used some serious runic magic to make it a fortress. It would take a magic user of Willow's level or *higher* to breach the protections. And considering she's... she was practically a Goddess that's not going to happen. Unfortunately though it's those very protections that are drawing the zombies now. That was why they hadn't dispersed to find other prey.
Looking around I can see they're all waiting for me to make a decision; to find us a way out of here. I don't know how to tell them there is no way out. Even if Willow and Dawn were still capable of making portals where would they go that isn't already infested with zombies; where they wouldn't be drawn to the massive flux of magic?
It's funny. When the group of us were making up all the rules and protocols that should be followed in worst case scenarios we all thought we were being paranoid. We thought there would never be a need for such desperate measures. After all we'd stopped the First Evil with barely a hope and a prayer. With a plan so slapdash it's a surprise even now that we won. But the Soldier still lurking in the back of my mind insisted we needed a last ditch plan and sadly, scarily none of the other Scoobies had disagreed with me once they'd gotten over the shock of what I'd suggested.
Now I just have to man up and make the decision.
******
Rolling his shoulders in a futile attempt to relieve the tension in them, Xander glanced at the monitor trained on Willow. He couldn't help shuddering at the white clouded eyes staring back at him, at the grotesque snarl twisting her pixie face.
"Goodbye, Willow-girl," he murmured rising to his feet. He crossed the room to where Vi was obsessively watching the Slayer Globe. Xander's heart constricted painfully at the sight of the almost dark globe. He swallowed thickly. "How many are left, Vi?"
Her dead gaze was answer enough, her words just made it that much more real. "Besides us? One. There's one Slayer left outside this room. Anna Cavendish is somehow 100 miles off the Atlantic coast of the US. Xander," her voice cracked with emotion, "there are no new Slayers being Called. None. We're the last."
Tugging her gently into a hug, he rested his chin on her head, holding her tightly. "I know. This thing, whatever is turning everyone, I think it's either man-made or," he took a deep breath, "or more likely its natural."
"What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?" Strathairn demanded, jumping up from his seat. Instantly Samira, Katja, and Jackie were between him and Xander. The man stopped in his tracks but didn't back down either. "How can you possibly call whatever is happening natural? The undead are walking the streets in droves. There is something decidedly supernatural at work here and you are a blind fool if you don't see that."
"You don't understand how the wards on this building work, do you?" Xander asked almost casually.
"What does that have to do with anything?" He blustered.
"Nothing that is not naturally dead is allowed within the wards without the express verbal permission of the ward holder. If someone were to die of something supernatural in the building - a vampire bite, demonic poison, anything that could possibly cause a body to be taken over by an outside entity the wards immediately transport them to a secure building on the far side of the campus." Xander pulled a small glowing blue pendant from inside his shirt. "If anything was attempting or had managed to breach those wards this would be red and far too hot to touch right now. Everyone outside this room and whatever is animating them is *not* magical or demonic or supernatural in anyway. Jackie, bring up the footage of Caritas in LA, The Blue Foot in NYC, and Frankie's in London. Put them on the main screen."
The large wall-sized screen immediately split into three grainy images showing the inside of well-known demon bars. There wasn't a single demon left alive in any of them. Some of them had been so badly ripped apart it was impossible to tell what they'd been originally.
"This is not supernatural," Xander reiterated. "That makes it either man-made or natural and I don't know which is worse but there is nothing we can do to stop it. There is no way out of this room but the door that currently has twenty zombies trying to break it down. The only reason they haven't gotten in is because I activated the foothold wards. Nothing gets in; nothing gets out until I take them down."
"This is madness! There has to be a way out of here," Strathairn insisted.
"There isn't, you cowardly dog," Samira snapped baring her teeth at him before turning to Xander. "What do you require of us, Knight?"
All seven Slayers in the room were on their feet now, watching him, waiting for one final order. He couldn't put it off any longer.
Xander walked over to the geometric design painted on the wall placing his hand on the white center panel. "Authorization Senior Watcher Xander Harris, the Slayers' White Knight, The One Who Sees, the Heart, Zeppo."
The panel shimmered then disappeared revealing a safe-like opening. Reaching in, he pulled out a tray holding four orbs. Each was a different color - red, blue, brown and white - representing the four elements. He walked back to the center of the room so that he was standing at the eastern point of the crossed stake and Scythe design on the floor.
"Vi, Samira, and Becky, as the three Senior Slayers please join me. Vi is South. Samira is North. Becky is West. Take an orb and state your name."
Recognizing this was part of a ritual, they did exactly as he said. Waiting until they were all in place, Vi reached for the red orb.
"Senior Slayer Violet Hughes," she said in a strong voice though her eyes gleamed wetly.
Samira picked up the brown orb, her face and voice serene. "Senior Slayer Samira."
Becky took the blue orb clutching it tightly. At 15 she shouldn't be a Senior Slayer for another three years but now she was the third oldest Slayer in the world. Her voice trembled as she spoke, "Senior Slayer Rebecca Thompson."
Xander took the white orb for himself, passing the tray to Kamiko who held it solemnly. "Senior Watcher and Director of the International Council of Slayers and Watchers Alexander Harris."
A light wind swirled through the room ruffling hair and clothes before a clear shimmering dome snapped into place around the four of them. The ritual circle was complete. Xander took a deep breath.
"This is the first step of the Scorched Earth protocols. Until now the only people to know of their existence has been the Senior Council. These protocols require the agreement of three Senior Slayers and the senior most Watcher in the Council building which is why there is always a Watcher on duty in this room. We never expected to ever need these protocols. This is not a Hail Mary play. This is not a last minute miracle.
"The Scorched Earth protocols were created in case we lost and the Slayer line was compromised. With the final step of this ritual the Council building will go off as if it was hit by a 50 megaton nuclear bomb except without the radiation and EM pulse. It will level Cleveland and bury the Hellmouth. When the building goes every Slayer alive or dead who is not already ash will self-immolate. This was to keep you out of demonic hands. Now it will be that many less zombies for any survivors to fight."
"You bastard! You can't do this," Strathairn shouted rushing the shield. Katja grabbed him before he could make contact, throwing him into the wall. He was still conscious but didn't get back up, the fight gone out of him.
"What do we do?" Vi asked.
"Drop your orb," he replied. "When the last orb breaks the building goes."
Vi hesitated only a brief second before letting hers go. Samira practically threw hers to the ground. Becky flinched as each one hit the floor shattering. Sobbing, she brought her gaze to Xander's who smiled sadly giving her brief nod. Becky closed her eyes and opened her hand allowing the orb to roll off.
Xander held out the final orb but didn't drop it yet. Instead he made eye contact with each of the girls. "It has been my honor and privilege to serve and slay with each and every one of you. You are all my girls and I truly wish that I could save you all from this fate; that there was something I could have done to prevent all of this."
Squeezing the Air orb tightly, Xander sent his thoughts to the one living Slayer not among them.
::Anna, honey, it's Xander. I'm so sorry but if you're near people you need to get as far away from them as fast as you can. It's not safe for them.::
He felt a rush of fear, sadness, and acceptance from the fourteen year old. For a brief moment he could see through her eyes; see what she saw as she ran towards the edge of what looked like an aircraft carrier.
"Goodbye," he said.
The last orb dropped from his hand.
The end.