Rainbow Over Sunnydale Chapter

By Joseph Black

Disclaimer:  Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters.  Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters.  Anyone else belongs to me.  I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

Spoilers: Buffy to present.  Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

Authors note 1:  I am adjusting the Buffy time line slightly, this fic starts just after "Never Leave Me", moving things back about a month.

Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting.  So anytime you see this '{*} anything inside is in a foreign language.  And if you see this [*] it's some ones thoughts.

Authors note 3: Don't panic with the listing of Complete that I put up.  This was always the first part of a longer series.  The other parts should be shorter than this so it won't take as long to get through them.  Think of this a season with this being the two-hour season opener!

Notes to Reviewers:

Bolo: I always liked Xander's choice when it came to weapons too.

Warren:  Thanks.  Too often on TV or the Movies they don't really portray what a trained team of soldiers can do.

Catlimere: I agree with you about Spike, I think that he understood Buffy better than she did herself clear back in Season 2.  Of course when you have over a hundred years to observe human nature something has to rub off.  I also didn't think what they had in Season Six was a romance.  They used each other pure and simple.  I was surprised though when Buffy managed to figure it out then end the romance.  Of course she could have figured how Spike would respond to that seeing what he did when Dru broke it off.

Harry:  Never would have guessed that you like Faith.  She is coming, it will just be a little while.  On the plus side she is showing up a lot earlier than I had originally planned.  You can be assured that you are not the only Faith fan out there.

John:  Here you go.

Krismarief:  For someone who doesn't like Cliffhangers you sure write enough of them.  Here you go I hope you like it.  By the way welcome to the 'Ryan rather than Bartlett; club.

JA Baker:  Thanks.  I have no doubt that the council would kill anyone they thought they had to.  Don't start feeling bad for Xander yet, he has a ways to go.

Dorothy:  Spike always filled an important slot in the group.  He was the one who told it like it was no matter what it cost.

Ack:  Here you go!

Thanks to all that reviewed.  Constructive criticisms always welcomed.  Flames cheerfully ignored.

Buffy didn't wait, she squeezed the trigger of her crossbow, and then pulling her sword she charged.  Two Bringers went down, the first collapsed like a puppet with it's strings cut.  The second fell over backwards into two of his comrades with the quarrel buried to its fletching in his sternum. 

Ding threw the shotgun to his shoulder and started shooting.  He wished he had brought the Marlin, with how tightly they were packed he could be dropping two or three a shot, not to mention that he could have fanned the rounds.  Evgeny also started shooting and quickly emptied his piece.  Tragutti had a problem though.  He had been directly behind The Slayer when they had deployed into the room and he was afraid to shoot in case he hit her.  He got a good look though at her in action.  He was amazed; he had taken saber at the university.  He had only ever been mid-ranked in the class mostly because the sport of fencing, like many of the tournament martial arts had little to do with using a sword seriously.  Buffy had obviously not taking any fencing.  Though he had one arrogant instructor that he wish Buffy would run into.  Tragutti quickly came to the conclusion that he was a goalie, his job was going to be to kick Bringers back into play if they got out of Buffy's area, so he contented himself with that.  He was a better goalie than a fencer anyway.

There were four Bringers left after everyone finished shooting, Buffy was moving into the doorway to the chamber beyond so Ding and Evgeny moved in on them.  Most people don't appreciate exactly how good of a hand-to-hand weapon a long-arm made.  They had heavy metal barrels, and in the case of the 870 a solid wooden stock.  Ding held the weapon in the guard position and as the first of the brown robed figures moved in he butt stroked him in the gut before he could get into knife range, then stepping forward brought the gun butt up into the face that was leaning over and blasted him backwards.  The other figure was more cautious and Ding and the Bringer began circling each other.

Evgeny had gone back to his Spetsnaz's roots.  He had brought his entrenching tool with him when it looked like Col. Stanley had been packing everything in the armory.  He dropped the shotgun and brought the sharpened shovel up and waded into the two demons.  He fainted high with the shovel on the first one and as it's arm went up with its knife he changed the direction of the shovel and connected with the side of its knee, all but severing it.  The other Bringer came in with its knife swinging at the Russian Sergeant; Lushilov turned his body to take the blow on his front body armor.  Thankfully the knifes that the Bringers used was fairly thick bladed so the Kevlar of his armor stopped most of the blade penetrating, allowing only about a half of an inch to pierce his body.  With the knife trapped the Bringer had no defense when Evgeny brought his entrenching tool down on the middle of its head.  Evgeny didn't bother to watch the results; he simple dispatched the injured Bringer at his feet and then turned to see if anyone needed help.

Buffy had taken down about six of The First's servants and was mostly into the far room when she suddenly found herself parrying another sword.  Kenshin and Buffy faced each other for a second, then went back to back and began working the room like they had been fighting together for years.

The last Bringer finally moved.  Ding thrusted forward with the Barrel of the shotgun and caught the Bringer in the face.  It still swung with its knife, but it just caught the barrel of the shotgun marring the bluing.  Ding kicked it in the knee and then when it went down he slammed the butt of the shotgun into its face.

Cory Unger as instructed hosed the first Bringer down with his soaker.  It did nothing but get the Bringer wet.  The nice thing about an MPK is that it is light enough to carry one handed.  When the water didn't slow it down Unger simple dropped the squirt gun and shot the thing in the chest with the SMG.  Johnson had simply gone with the SMG instantly using short three round bursts on anything that got past Kenshin.  Between the two of them they accounted for eight or nine of the enemy.  Unfortunately there was more than that.  Unger pulled his combat knife out and was getting ready to go hand-to-hand with three of them; only now there were two.  The civilian guide was pulling his battle-axe out of the back of the third one.  Xander and Cory went shoulder to shoulder against the remaining two.

It was over a minute or two latter with Covington holding a bleeding shoulder and looking down at the head less corpse that had been about to slit his throat a couple of seconds before.  Turning to Buffy he said, "Thanks, I owe you one."

Buffy nodded.  Turning she headed back the way she had come.  Reaching the chamber she saw that Ding and the troopers had already broken Spike out of his chains and had him laid out on the ground.  She gasped when she saw the carvings in his chest and the bruises on his face.  Reaching into a fanny-pack she pulled out a unit of blood and held it up under Spikes nose.  Spikes eye's snapped open and he grabbed the plastic bag and bit into it.   Ding and the others were a little repulsed by it, but understood what she was doing.  The others came into the room, besides Covington only Buford Summers was bleeding from a scratch on his neck. With most of the rest having body armor decorated with knife slashes.

Spike finished the blood and looking up at Buffy he said weakly, "Took you long enough Slayer."

Buffy smiled, "It's hard to find good help now a-days."

"And we work cheaper than most," Ding supplied.

Spike squinted and looked at all of the people in uniform and asked, "Initiative?"

"Why does everyone think we work for those guys?"  Ding asked the ceiling.

"I'll explain later Spike," Buffy told him, "We need to get out of here."

Benton leaning over said, "I'll carry him out," and picking up Spike he put him into a firemen's carry.

"Thanks Benton," Ding said, then noticing Covington said, "What happened to you?"

"A bringer got in past my guard.  I'll have to practice with the manual of arms more when this heals," the British Major replied.

The unit moved back to the entrance with Buffy and Kenshin acting as rearguards.  Benton and Summers, the two biggest of the commandoes present went up first and making sure that there was no one waiting for them.  Then they helped pull the wounded up.  After that everyone else had climbed out of the chamber, Buffy was the last up. 

"We need to get Spike back to my house and the wounded to the hospital," Buffy stated.

"My shoulder isn't that serious, and I would prefer not to have to answer awkward questions about how I got stabbed," Covington stated.

"This is Sunnydale," Buffy told him as she helped Spike to his feet, "Nobody asks awkward questions, they don't want to know the answer."

The 600 block of Front St.

Sunnydale CA

26Oct2002

2135 hrs

Frayne Murphy, Clark decided if nothing else could drive.  He managed to keep all four wheels of the Explorer on the street as he sharply cut around corners.  Clark for his part shifted so that Annabelle could get out from under him.  Once she was clear she crouched against the door and whimpered.  Clark was too busy paying attention to the surrounding streets to tear her the stripe he wanted to.  Thinking about it for a second he decided it wasn't his job to do that anyway, she was Buffy's problem.  "Rainbow Six to all stations.  We got her and she's alive.  I think that Trifawhaterver guy had her.  I managed to knee cap him but he may be back up by now so watch out.  Base we are on our way in."

Everyone responded.  Frayne could see the gates to the warehouse when suddenly a huge form appeared in his path to block his way.  He pumped the brakes and managed to avoid going into a spin.  As the SUV came to a stop the huge thing rumbled,  "General John Clark, I would have words with you." 

Clark popped up through the moon-roof and looked the speaker over.  "[You know, he does sort of look like a rhino.]" He thought,  "Crudge right?  What can I do for you?"  He asked while placing the SMG on the roof of the SUV.

"Should I pot him for you General?"  Ardel Sherwood's voice asked through the radio.

"Lets find out what he wants first," Clark replied quietly.

" I am indeed Crudge. You are the leader of the strongest force in this town.  Since you are aiding The Slayer eventually you will be the person who will be giving shelter to Anyanka.  I have no desire to fight or to kill either you or your men.  I ask you to turn Anyanka over to me now to avoid this."

"Think you can take us huh?"  Clark asked curious.

"You are but human, I have fought armies and been victorious.  As I said, I have no desire to cause your death."  Crudge confirmed.

"Ardel, could you shoot that concrete bollard at the gate?"  Clark requested.

"Yes sir," Ardel replied.  An instant later the deep boom of the anti-material rifle rolled out.  The concrete bollard was a concrete pillar about four feet high and five inches thick painted yellow that protected the gate from trucks.  The top foot of it suddenly shattered as the .5 inch SLAP round slammed through it.  Crudge cringed at the sound, then looked at the wreckage of the bollard.  "It seems that you are not only a formidable opponent but also an honorable one," Crudge rumbled as he slowly and carefully stepped out of Frayne's way.

As the drove past Clark, who even though he standing on the back seat of the Explorer was still below the top of the demon's head carefully watched him.  "I do not look forward to the renewal of hostilities between us," Crudge told him.

Clark shrugged, "Then why renew them.  Dieing to fulfill a contract that is impossible isn't the brightest move.  Think about it, you don't seem to be that bad of a person, it would be a shame to have to kill you," As they drove back into the compound.

Highway 35

Outside San Bernardino CA

26Oct2002

2105 hrs

Willow stood back up.  Pat cursed and brought his gun up while shouting, "GET DOWN!" Before he could pull the trigger he noticed that her hair had gone pure black.  Soma and his crew obviously noticed the change too because they stopped shooting too.

Soma, giving himself a shake screamed, "Don't just stand there! Kill her!"

O'Day brought his gun up to start shooting as Willow just waved her hand in front of her and said something he couldn't hear.  He got two shots off that spranged off of rocks before the gang-bangers opened up on Willow.  Pat looked over expecting to see Willow blasted backward in a spray of red.  Instead she was just standing there. In front of her were thirty or forty bright pinpoints of light, with more being add to the collection every second.  Pat suddenly realized that the spots where the bullets that were being fired at Willow, that she had erected some kind of force field.  "[Okay, magic does have some uses]," he thought.

Willow suddenly floated up off of the ground till she was hovering three or four inches in the air.  She waved her hand again and said clearly' "Heat."

Up the hill Soma and his crew suddenly screamed and dropped their guns as if they had become hot.  Pat thought about that for a second then dived back behind his rock as the bullets in the guns up hill began cooking off.  One of Soma's men began screaming as the bullets from his MAC-10 ripped into his calves.  The remaining five scattered.  Willow who was halfway up the hill waved her hand a third time and ordered, "Stay."

Pat stuck his head up from behind the rock when the rounds stopped cooking off saw vines and branches reach out and grab Willows opponents and hold them spread eagle.  Soma began screaming in pain as he was grabbed leading O'Day to believe what ever grabbed him had a good number of thorns.  Aaahh, too bad.

The FBI agent seeing that Soma and Co. was fully occupied ran over to check out Andrew.  He skidded to a stop and saw the blood soaked shirt.  He felt for a pulse on his neck and was rewarded with one.  It was weak, and getting weaker, but it was there.  "Willow!" he called up the hill to were Willow was slowly approaching to the ambushers, dragging it out, seemingly enjoying their fear.

She stopped and turned to face back down the hill. For the first time O'Day realized that her eyes had turned into inky black pools with no whites visible at all.  "Don't even try to stop my O'Day, they deserve everything I'm going to do to them."

"I agree with you completely, but I thought you should know that right now Andrew is still alive.  He isn't going to last much longer so if you have a way to get him to a hospital quickly and you don't use it then they didn't kill him, you did."

Willow sank back to the ground and closed her eyes, her face a mask of concentration.  After a couple of seconds her hair went back to red and when she opened her eyes they were once again green.  Pat groaned as just that fast, they went back to black and she started to turn back toward Soma.  O'Day looked down at Andrew and said, "Sorry kid, I tried."  Looking back up to see what Willow was going to do when she finished turning back he started.  Did she just wink at him?

Willow walked up to Soma, who she saw had been grabbed by a blackberry bush, he stared at her and whimpered.  "I don't have time to deal with you as you deserve to be. Lets do this instead."  She reached out and placed her thumb in the center of Soma's forehead and pressed.  He felt a brief flash of warmth and nothing else.  Willow moved and repeated it with each of the gang-bangers in turn.  When she was finished she muttered something quickly in Latin then turned back to her captives. "I have bound us together.  When you are released I want to get your friends to a hospital then I want you to find a nice policeman and have him arrest you.  I want you to confess to every crime you have ever committed and when you get in front of a judge I want you to ask for the maximum punishment he can apply.  If you don't do this, or if you get out of jail before your full sentence is served thru that mark I will know, and I will make sure to clear time so we can have a nice, long, chat."  Willow turned then hurried back down the hill.

When she got to where Pat and Andrew where she said, "We are going to have to go back to Sunnydale, I don't know any of the LA Hospitals well enough to get there."

Pat suddenly nervous asked, "How are you planning on getting us here?"

Willow smiled, "Relax it's something I learned how to do from the Coven I studied with in England last summer.  Pick up Andrew and hold on to him," she ordered.

Once he had done that she grabbed onto his shoulder and they disappeared in a soft bang of imploding air.

O'Day stumbled as he found himself on a level sidewalk instead of a hillside.  Looking around he realized he was standing outside of Sunnydale General's Emergency Room.  He started moving quickly toward the door glancing back to make sure that Willow was with him, she was.  As he slammed thru the automatic doors he called out, "I have a gunshot victim here!"

Pat was actually impressed by how fast the emergency room crew sprang into action.  It wasn't even ten seconds later that they had Andrew on a gurney heading into one of the trauma rooms.  The doctor in charged called out on seeing how much blood he had lost, "Get four units of plasma working on him stat.  Get the x-ray set up but I don't know if we'll have time.  Palmer, get up to room 515, Dr. Sanchez is sleeping there with her kids, wake her up and ask her if she'll assist with this. She has more experience with gunshots than I do.  Okay people, lets do this," he finished that statement by pulling the curtain around the space that they had moved the gurney into."

The admitting nurse came up to Pat and Willow and said, "I'm going to need some information on the victim."

Willow sat down on a chair and put her head into her hands.  O'Day was concerned so he handed the nurse his FBI ID and said, "Wait one."

He kneeled down next to Willow and quietly asked, "Are you okay?"

Willow sobbed, "No, I thought I had better control than that,"

Pat tried to get more out of her but she wouldn't answer any more questions.  O'Day got up and absently answered some of the nurses questions, trying to figure out what to do about Willow. 

"I called the local police Inspector," The nurse said, "We are required in the case of gunshot wounds.  They said they have someone coming out."

Pat nodded that he understood and tried to get Willow to talk about it for a couple more minutes.  When that failed he decided that he was need to get a hold of Clark and hopefully get one of her friends down here to help her deal.  He didn't understand it, he thought she had done great.  He was going to see what effect her show had had on Soma; if it worked he wondered what Willow charged?

He was reaching for his phone when movement by the door caught his attention.  Two men were coming in; the first was in a suit, tall, brown hair and eyes, stocky, but in a powerful way rather than chunk of who ever that had been up on the hill that had vanished.  The second one was blond, slightly shorter than the first, but broad, probably had played football in high school.  He was in a Sunnydale police uniform so Pat assumed that these were the locals.

The pair went up to that admissions desk and talked to the nurse who pointed to where they were waiting by the emergency room.  As the pair came toward them he saw the plains clothes man put something of a goofy look on his face.  Pat did something similar with his 'good-ol'-boy' look with his Zapata Mustache and his cowboy boots.  People who underestimated him because of it usually didn't get another chance to regret it. 

"Inspector O'Day?"  He said as he came up to him.  The other one moved so that his lead was not in the line of fire if had to do anything.

"That's me," Pat confirmed.

"Lt. Jonathan O'Connell," he introduced himself, "This is officer Thurman," he introduced his companion.

Pat nodded to both men, "This is Willow Rosenberg.  I was escorting a prisoner to LA when we were attacked outside of town.  My prisoner was hit but we managed to get away.  Ms. Rosenberg was a material witness that was going along with me."  O'Day noticed that while he nodded at the appropriate times Lt. O'Connell's attention was fixed on Willow.

"Ms. Rosenberg are you alright?" He asked solicitously.  When he got no response he asked again slightly sharper, "Ms. Rosenberg?  WILLOW!" He barked sharply.

Willow head shot up and looked around, green eyes wide, she finally settled them on the tall detective.  "Are you alright?" He asked gently.

Pat noticed that he was making a motion with a hand that would have been hidden from Willow, glancing around he spotted a third cop ducking into a fire stairway with a shotgun behind his back.  Pat gave the cop a real good look.

"I'm fine," Willow assured the cop, "Just a little shaken up is all."

"That's understandable considering. Owen, you know Willow don't you?  Why don't you keep her company while I talk to the inspector," O'Connell ordered.

Owen Thurman nodded and sitting down next to Willow began, "So Willow how have you been doing?"

Pat allowed himself to be lead to a couple of feet away, still close enough to keep an eye on Willow and the other cop.

"According to your admission papers the person shot is Andrew Wells," O'Connell began.  "We have a warrant out for his arrest, he was arrested when he tried to rob a theme park near here.  Then he and a partner escaped from jail during an earthquake last year."

O'Day shrugged, "We have him on an interstate flight charge.  When he is up and around I need to take him back to LA for arraignment."

"Can I at least talk to him?"  O'Connell requested.

"I can't let you do that, even if he regains consciousness.  He would have to have a lawyer present, which he doesn't have." O'Day countered.

"Look at this," O'Connell pulled a picture and handed it to O'Day.

It was a picture of a pretty blond at a party.  O'Day frowned; he doubted that the detective carried this because she was a family or friend.

"Her name was Katrina Silber, we fished her out of the Sunnydale River last year.  The coroner declared the death a suicide." O'Connell said.

"You doubt it?" O'Day asked, handing back the photo.

"I did the initial investigation, if she committed suicide then she managed to bash the back of her own head in then throw herself into the river," O'Day replied grimly.

"How did the local coroner miss that?" O'Day asked perplexed.

"He is one of the last holdovers from the Wilkins administration, where the primary qualifications a person could have were cleanliness, competence, and corruptibility, with the last two being in direct proportion with each other."

"Let me guess, this coroner is one of the least corruptible people on earth," O'Day supplied.

"Well at least the State of California," O'Connell agreed.  "We get a lot of bodies around here, if one comes in with everything its supposed to have he tends to class it either as misadventure, or suicide, the last three before Katrina were misadventure. I guess he wanted some variety.  I doubt I'll be able to get the case reopened, but if I can't, at least I can give the girls parents some peace."

Pat was in a quandary, "What makes you think that Wells had anything to do with her death? Assuming that she was killed."

"Wells was part of a gang.  It was him and two others.  Katrina had been the girlfriend of one of the others, he's disappeared right off the face of The Earth."  The way he said it left no doubt in O'Day's mind that he wasn't expecting him to pop-up again either.

"Andrew is one of the last sources that I can tap.  I had the boy friend profiled from what we could find out about him and he fits the profile of someone who might of done it.  I want to talk to Wells and find out if he knows what happened.  I can talk to the DA about getting him immunity if he would talk to me."

"Okay, I'll talk to him.  If necessary we'll see about getting him a lawyer too."

"Thanks," O'Connell said.  Taking out a pen he said, "Okay, lets start at the beginning and give me what happened out on the road."

O'Day began answering questions, just not telling him about force fields and teleportation spells.  And telling O'Connell that a good Samaritan had given them a lift back to town and had left before he could get any information out of him.

About ten minutes after the Sunnydale PD had left there was more commotion at the doors to the Emergency Room door.  Ding, Buffy, and a bunch of the commandoes were bringing someone in who was holding a bloody bandage to his shoulder. "We have a stabbing victim here!" Buffy called.  The number of people who responded was less than when they had brought in Andrew, but it was still fast and professional.  O'Day noticed that the admitting clerk didn't ask Buffy any of the questions that she had asked him, nor did she pick up the phone and call the police the way she had done with him.

Once the injured person, Pat thought it was the British Major, was seen to a room Buffy looked around the room and spotted Pat and Willow.  "Willow!" she called out concerned and headed over.

Willow looked up and seeing Buffy she launched herself at her.  The two met and hugged with Willow saying things to Buffy that he couldn't pick up.  He noticed that Buffy was rubbing her back and saying soothing things back.

The outside doors opened one more time and Clark and Giles with the three potentials in tow came thru.  Clark spotted O'Day immediately and came over.  "What happened?" He asked.

"We got jumped outside of town.  Willow got us out of there, Andrew got shot though, and he's in surgery now.  I was just getting ready to call you."

Buffy came over more than half supporting Willow, "I'm going to take her home and let her get some sleep."

Both men nodded.  Clark, smile on his face asked, "I got a request from the President earlier."

Buffy's eyes went wide, "What does he want?"

"He's going to be in the neighborhood tomorrow night and would like to meet you and any of your group you would car to bring after his meeting."  Clark could barely contain his smile; yeah the look on her face was priceless.

The First's Lair

Under the Tree lot

Sunnydale CA

22Oct2002

2300 hrs

Trifurcates limped into the chamber.  He found his host in the guise of the one called 'The Mayor', gazing at the empty chains, oblivious to the corpses of its servants scattered around the chamber.  Of the vampires he had left he saw no sign, so they were probably gone too.  He had much to learn of this new world he found himself in. 

Pulling himself up in front of The Mayor he said, "{You should have let me kill the prisoner when I wanted to.  I doubt he will be very useful to you anymore.}"

The Mayor didn't even turn and look, instead he just said, "{He was useful as bait.}"

"{It seems your bait has been taken}," Trifurcates said smugly.

"{That happens sometimes when you set the hook}," The Mayor replied calmly, as if everything had gone according to plan.

Trifurcates pulled himself up to as an erect a posture he could manage given the pain in his legs, "{Don't give me that, you underestimated them too.  We both paid for it.  Though I have an excuse, I've been dead for the last two thousand years}."

The Mayor looked at the vampire lord for the first time and replied, "{You can think what ever you like}."

Trifurcates looked around at the carnage that had been wrecked on the cavern and asked, "{What are we going to do for revenge for this}?"

The Mayor looked around and seemingly noticed the deceased Bringers for the first time.  "{They did do a good job didn't they?  I guess they do deserve some reward for their efforts}."

Trifurcates scowled angrily, "{Rewarded?  They must be destroyed for what they have done}!" He thundered in great consternation.

Tapping a finger on his chin The Mayor looked off into space completely ignoring the histrionics of the vampire. Snapping his finger he looked toward the vampire and said,  "{I know!  In times like these a girl deserves to be surrounded by her family!}" 

Trifurcates for his part was convinced that his boss was insane.

Next Up: Imhotep's Key:

            Anck-Su-Namun is back, and she has discovered that the key to bringing back her dead
             love is living in Sunnydale. (Part II of Rainbow in Sunnydale.)