For an endless moment, it was all Lois could do to stand and stare at the space where Clark had been. To have had an epiphany and realize that she was having feelings she’d never had before was a little overwhelming. To realize that Clark was gone, possibly lost to the one creature who should never have him was sickening.
In Lois’s experience, most men were not good people. It wasn’t just that she spent most of her days working with politicians and criminals. From her father admitting that he’d never wanted a daughter and that she was never going to measure up, to the coworker who had slept with her and then stolen her award winning story, Lois’s track record with men had been abysmal.
Sometimes she had wondered if it was something about her that made men leave with such astounding regularity. Betrayal after betrayal had left its mark; she’d been unable to trust anyone in more than two years.
Somehow, and Lois wasn’t sure how, Clark had managed to cut through that veil of mistrust. Lois had the feeling that on his own, he never would have left her if he’d had a choice.
He hadn’t been allowed that choice. The thought filled Lois with the beginnings of slow smoldering anger.
The lights went out, and there was the sound of a explosion from the floor above them. Snapping out of her moment of paralysis, Lois exploded into motion even as the emergency lighting reluctantly flickered on.
Another flight of stairs, and then Lois found herself at the door to the third floor. It was badly bent inward, as though something had been thrown against it from the other side. Lois grabbed the door handle and hissed as she realized that it was hot.
She pulled with all her newfound strength, and the door flew backwards, banging loudly as it began to fall down the stairwell.
After checking to see that no one was waiting for her on the other side, Lois stepped quickly into the hallway.
She wasn’t going to let anyone choke her from behind again. She had too much to accomplish.
The entire floor looked like a disaster area. Gurneys were laying on their sides, the wheels still spinning. Paperwork had exploded out across the floor, leaving litter and detritus as far as Lois could see.
The nurses’ station still had a nurse sitting at the desk. It wasn’t until Lois stepped a little closer that she could see the blank, vacant stare of the woman, or the unnatural angle of her neck. The woman was dead, and probably had been for several minutes.
Most of the doors on the floor were firmly closed. The patients had likely done the smart thing and hidden when they’d heard the sounds of conflict outside. Lois could hear the sounds of movement and muffled sobbing behind some of the doors.
The door to Robin Wood’s room was completely gone, burst completely to splinters.
Lois hesitated before turning the corner. All she could hear were several sets of labored breathing and the sounds of the wind whistling.
The inside of the room was worse than the hallways had been. There was very little that remained recognizable; much had been tossed out the open window or outright destroyed in the midst of the minutes long fight between the witch and the Slayers.
The floor was littered with bodies. It took Lois a moment to realize that most of them were alive.
There was no sign of Clark or the witch.
“What happened?” Lois asked in a low undertone. There was always the possibility that the witch was hiding somewhere nearby.
“Your boyfriend kicked our asses,” Buffy said, grimacing as she tried to lever herself to her feet using a scythe Lois hadn’t seen her entering the hospital with. It was bloodstained on the end.
Glancing around at the group of girls, most of whom were recovering and slowing rising to her feet. “In forty five seconds?”
“Less than that. Amy had time to give orders,” Willow said. The witch had blood running out of her nose and down on her chin, and she looked exhausted. “And he spent most of that time trying to get to me.”
“Two seconds,” Buffy said, staring at the devastation around them. She looked as though she was in shock. “Twelve slayers and the most powerful witch in the western hemisphere and he beat us in two seconds.”
“Where did they go?” Lois asked.
“When Amy saw he wasn’t getting through Willow’s shield, she had him fly her out.” Buffy wouldn’t meet her eyes as she said it, and Lois had the feeling she was lying. Lois found herself staring at the weapon Buffy was leaning against.
There was something about the blood on the end of the Scythe that repelled her. At least when vampires died, they died in a clean explosion of ash and dust. This was something more visceral, more human. “Did you get the witch?”
Buffy shook her head.
“Then where did the blood come from?” Lois asked suspiciously.
For a long moment Buffy didn’t speak. When she did, she didn’t look Lois in the eye.
“Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do.”
“You hurt Clark?” Lois asked, suddenly horror stricken. Her mind went blank. “How is that even possible?”
Buffy took a step toward Lois and said, “This was made for us, back when the Slayer line was first created.”
Lois could feel it now, a sort of dark, compelling pull toward the weapon. It hummed, as though it recognized her, and Lois felt a momentary impulse to run her hand along the grain of the weapon’s shaft.
She pulled back. “You stabbed Clark with a magical weapon. I thought he beat all of you in two seconds.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” Buffy said. “Once Willow went down, Amy would have slaughtered the rest of us, and there wouldn’t have been anything Clark could do to stop her.”
“At least you are using his name now,” Lois said. “What did you do, stab him in the back?”
The expression on Buffy’s face was indictment enough.
“He knew I was coming,” Buffy said softly. “Even with the compulsion, he could have stopped me.”
Willow spoke for the first time. “He could have done more damage to the rest of us too. He could have broken arms, cracked skulls…even without killing us. Part of him is still in there, fighting.”
The witch was slowly wiping the blood off her nose with tissues from a dispenser beside the sink.
“You knew that and still tried to kill him?”
“I gave it my best shot,” Buffy said. “As hard as I hit him, I should have cut him in half. He’s incredibly tough.”
“How could you do that?” Lois asked. “Clark was innocent.”
“No he wasn’t.” Buffy said. “Clark was a hero. He could have ducked out of the way if he’d wanted to.”
She was saying that Clark would rather die than continue to be used to hurt other people.
“But you--”
Buffy’s expression hardened. “I did what had to be done. “
“This whole thing…” Lois began, but she stiffened as she realized that four of the bodies hadn’t begun stirring.
Four teenage girls were dead.
“They actually managed to hold Amy off until we got here.” Buffy said. There was a quiet pride in her voice.
It must have been to distracting for Amy to try to freeze five Slayers at the same time. It was likely why she’d thrown Kennedy out the window.
Faith approached the overturned bed in the corner. She gave a quiet hiss, then rushed toward the spot on the other side.
“Robin is still alive!” she said.
Willow and several of the others rushed forward to help.
“Being a Slayer isn’t about flashy powers or kicky boots,” Buffy said softly. “It’s about sacrifice. Sometimes it’s a pretty crappy life.”
In her eyes, Lois could see a look of remembered pain.
The Slayers set Robin back on the bed.
“He’s ripped some stitches, but I think he’ll be ok.”
“Sometimes, though, it’s worth it.” Buffy said as she watched Faith hugging the man on the bed. “And of course, there are always the flashy powers and the kicky boots.”
***********
The sounds of sirens alerted them that time was running out.
Buffy glanced at Willow, then gestured to the others.
Everyone began filing out of the room quickly.
“You’re just going to leave them here?” Lois asked, gesturing toward the bodies of the fallen girls.
“The police will take care of them,” Buffy said quietly.
“And Robin?”
“The official story will be that terrorists attacked the hospital and that the girls’ martial arts team were visiting their principal when it all happened.”
“And several of them died trying to protect him.”
“It’ll give them the chance to be recognized for the heroes that they were.” Buffy glanced back at the bodies of the fallen girls and sighed. “That doesn’t happen very often in this line of work.”
With the other girls gone, Buffy slumped, and Lois could see the pain in her eyes.
“I should have seen this coming,” Buffy said. Her expression hardened. “It’s not going to happen again.”
With that she was out the door, and Lois was following her.
They exited the stairwell on the second floor, with Willow in the lead. The doorways Clark had sealed popped open as she passed them, and the girls ignored the stares of patients who were slowly and reluctantly peering out of their rooms.
They exited out a little used southern entrance, and from the sounds of things the sirens were all out of the front entrance, so far at least.
Several police officers had been killed, and the last thing Lois wanted to do was be around a group of angry, trigger happy cops who were first on the scene.
The bus pulled around the corner, swerving dramatically. A moment later, it pulled in front of them, almost hitting Willow who scowled and shook her fist at them.
The doors opened, and the young girl who was driving grinned at them.
“Dawn!” Buffy said. “I told you to wait by the bus, not take it on a joy ride!”
The younger girl shrugged. “I suppose you’d have rather walked all the way across LA.”
There were dents on the front of the bus that hadn’t been there before, and it suddenly the reason the group used a one eyed driver was becoming more clear.
“You left her with the bus?” Lois asked.
If Angelica had been around, she’d have relished the chance to take another hostage.
“Willow warded the bus a few days ago.” Buffy said. “Same deal as the demon bars. If you aren’t looking for it, you won’t notice it.”
The one eyed man gestured, and the girl reluctantly got out of the driver’s seat. The rest of the girls loaded quickly onto the bus.
A moment after Lois slid into the bus and the one eyed man shut the door, red flashing lights appeared from behind them.
Lois froze. They didn’t have time to be stopped by the police. Clark was wounded somewhere in the middle of all his enemies and he needed their help.
No one said anything as the lights from the police car shown slowly through the windows. Lois found herself freezing, as though the police wouldn’t be able to see her if she didn’t move, even though her profile was undoubtedly highly visible.
Both patrol units pulled to the front of the bus, and Lois began to relax.
She froze again as the patrol cars stopped in front of them. The flashing red lights gave the eight men exiting the two cars a hellish look. The men retrieved shotguns and rifles from the trunks. From the grim looks on their faces, they didn’t intend to take any prisoners.
They headed straight toward the bus, and Lois felt herself becoming more tense. In the enclosed confines of the bus, Slayer speed and strength wouldn’t matter much. They’d be sitting targets trapped by thin walls of metal and glass.
Lois eyed the doorway speculatively. She was strong enough to push her way through it, but it would slow her down. By the time she got outside, the police officers would have a bead on her and it would be too late.
The men split, moving to both sides of the bus.
Lois tensed, ready to drop to the floor. Angelica had already turned FBI agents to her cause, so why not the police as well?
The men continued walking past them, heading for a delivery entrance to the hospital. From their posture, it appeared that they hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary, even though they’d moved to avoid walking into the bus.
Willow was frighteningly powerful.
Lois glanced over at the red headed witch, who was holding the hand of the brown haired Slayer Clark had saved. She looked exhausted, and there were dark circles appearing under her eyes.
They waited for several moments after the police had entered the delivery bay doors before the one eyed man started the engines.
“Where are we going?” Lois asked Buffy, who had sat down beside her. The Scythe she had been carrying was nowhere in evidence, and Lois couldn’t see it anywhere else on the bus.
“We’re going to rescue Clark.” Buffy said soberly. She glanced over at Willow who had her eyes closed. “As long as he stays in the city, Willow can find him any time she wants.”
“What if she takes him out of the city…to Shanghai or something?”
“Things get more complicated,” Buffy said. “But I don’t thing she will, not for the long term anyway. Your vampire Angelica seems to be trying to get political influence here, and that means she’s going to need him here.”
Lois sighed. “Any idea what we’re going to do when we get there?”
“We have to take Clark out of the equation any way we can, if we’re to have any chance at all.” Buffy said.
Lois noticed that Buffy had finally started calling Clark by his name.
“I’m not going to go along with hurting him,” Lois said. “He’s been hurt enough.”
Willow extricated herself from the other girl’s embrace and walked toward the front of the bus. She whispered into the ear of the one eyed man.
“I’m sorry for what I had to do.” Buffy said quietly. “I’m even more sorry for what I may have to do. Believe me, I understand what it feels like.”
“How could you possibly?” Lois asked, irritably.
“I had to stab my first love in the chest and sent him through a portal to hell in order to save the world.” Buffy said. She sighed and stared down at her hands. “I don’t think I’ve ever really gotten over it.”
She looked up after a long moment and said,” It’s the worst part of the job. You have to make choices that no one should ever have to make, and you know that if you don’t a lot of people…maybe all the people that there is will die.”
Lois didn’t know what to say.
These people were fanatics, willing to sacrifice everything in pursuit of what they saw as the greater good. It had left them emotionally damaged. Looking back through the bus, Lois could see the shadows of fear in everyone’s eyes, coupled with anger and pain.
They’d kill Clark, if they thought it was expedient, rather than let him be controlled by a monster. If Buffy was right, and Clark had chosen to allow himself to be stabbed, he might even think the same way.
All of them were heroes.
Luckily, Lois wasn’t. She hadn’t lost that spark of humanity that let her look beyond the numbers o see the value of a single human life.
Or even a single inhuman one.
Lois wasn’t going to let them hurt Clark, no matter what Buffy thought was going to happen.
Willow was exhausted, and the witch Amy couldn’t be any better off. That left the majority of the fighting to the rest of them.
They didn’t stand a chance against Clark. No one did, except Lois.
According to the terms of the spell Clark was under, he could not be forced to hurt Lois. Neither Angelica nor Amy could either.
Lois wasn’t sure whether that applied to any of their minions.
All in all though, it meant that she was the one with the best chance of stopping them. She would be the one to free Clark from slavery.
Being under a compulsion wouldn’t matter if the people who controlled you were dead.
The thought of killing again should have brought back traumatic memories, but for once, Lois had a different set to counter it with.
The dead in the emergency room, the dead nurse, four dead little girls…they all cried out for vengeance.
Lois was going to be the one to give it to them.
