CH.46

When they arrived back at the house, they had gained another potential. Her name was Violet. Seeing this Ryan turned to Lyndsey. "Get the basement set up for the beds. Soon, I imagine we're not going to have a lot of room to move around. See about buying the houses around this one and I'll set up an early warning system for them. It won't detect the First but anything else is free to try it."

He turned to Buffy who was getting ready to patrol. "From now on, everyone you see gets a handshake or a simple pat on the back. We don't want any slip-ups with the First."

She nodded and informed everyone of the new protocols. He started laying down warning wards and spells. Every now and then he felt a gentle probe to his power, he smirked and tried to lure it into attacking now that he was ready.

After a while, it backed off, Willow, Tara, and Lyndsey set up a link that's now constantly checking for probes and attacks. There were a few, but after it sensed they were more than ready it left them alone.

The days went smooth, Xander was getting a migraine from the constant girl chatter, but he was always eating nowadays anyway, so he couldn't complain too much if he was always up to here it. His body was becoming denser as time went on as well. He now weighed a good three hundred and fifty pounds of solids compact muscle.

Outwardly he gained a six-pack and a little more sleek of a physic and sharper features. He looked less like a tired college student and more like an Olympic swimmer. He could also bench press half a ton easy. He tried going farther but the bar broke in half.

After a few days, one of the girls that showed up, Eve was her name failed the pat test by Buffy, but the first didn't seem to notice as it was to busy asking questions on safety. Ryan sent Buffy a message. (Let it think we don't know, we feed it false information on arrival times and have Lyndsey pick them up instead. It'll save as many as possible before it finds out. Try to cheer up any of the girls it talks to without letting them know.)

She sent back. (Agreed, notify Willow and the rest of the main scoobies.)

Ryan nodded and led the First to their new bunks in the basement. They shared it like a dorm and trained in the back yard. Ryan sent the message to everyone about the plan. Once they were aware they went a little out of the way to mention arrivals and patrol hours.

One day, Althenea called the house about a potential that slipped their radar, Buffy went to investigate and came back with a frown. She told him. (We found her body, it seems it's time for plan B. Send the message and bitch slap it for me.)

He smiled and told everyone in charge of the change of plans. Willow and Tara made their way upstairs, they had already started feeling morning sickness and weird cravings. He didn't want them around to see what happens next, so they took a portal to Devon to wait.

He walked downstairs and started telling them their new and improved training schedules when he was close enough he put his hand behind his back and made a fist.

Lighting it on fire, he gestured to the girls with his left hand to look at a posted schedule, when the First went to look he punched out and cracked it upside the head hard enough to make it shimmer and it's form fade somewhat.

Buffy came downstairs talking."We knew you were in the house from the day you stepped foot in it, that punch was for the poor girl that you had killed and impersonated. We found her dead in her hotel room today, we've been looking since we found out."

Ryan hit it again while it was still stunned making it fade more. Buffy continued."That was for picking this fight, well congratulations. You've now got our attention, soon enough you'll have your Apocalypse and when it starts, I'm going to slaughter as many of your little pets as possible!"

The First moved away before he could throw another punch and started taunting. "My armies are infinite, and congratulations, tonight you're all going to die by the first of many of my soldiers. Enjoy yourselves because when the sun goes down, he'll feast on your precious potentials."

It vanished after that, the girls started asking so many questions until Buffy told them. "Enough! We are at war and we used it's own ploy against it, in doing so more than twelve girls were saved, it was injured, if only a little and we know it's next move! Stop your whining, you were never in any danger, not even to yourselves. Now cut the crap and go train, the schedule is real."

They grumbled but complied, Ryan went and got Willow and Tara back, picking up the potentials the coven were watching over in the process. When they were back at the house, they went upstairs to settle one of their current cravings.

Kennedy showed up not long after their trip to heal a while back and challenged him to make her feel good. After the end of the challenge, he left her panting on the cot in Willow's room. When Willow saw her little lover's current predicament she looked at her husband who shrugged. "I didn't physically touch her with any part of my body, she should be like that for another hour or so. You remember how it feels I'm sure."

Willow smiled at the fond memories of feather torture and light bondage. From then on Kennedy joined them, every now and then for their nightly activities. He ended up sleeping with her one day when Willow and Tara were to busy to play. She didn't change her opinion on men though, she did make an exception for him.

She started having Willow and Tara do a menstrual spell on her that temporarily removed the need for monthly shots or pills. With him at full strength again, a lot more potentials we're being saved. Lyndsey had bought most of the neighborhood at this point. Most of the residents felt the changes in town and were leaving anyway.

The night of the First threat came and bringers surrounded the house. The twenty-plus potentials were frightened. The Turok-Han showed up not long after, the warning alarms went off when it stepped foot on the lawn.

Ryan waved a hand an turned it off. It broke down the front door, Willow and Tara put up a temporary shield, while Ryan monitored them for the First's probes. After the vampire hit the shield a couple of times, Buffy yelled. "Run!"

They slaughtered their way out the back yard and ran for the local library building site. Xander led the girls into the lot. Willow told them. "Ok, everyone spread out and take your positions and don't make a sound."

The new girl Rona asked."That's the plan? Spread-out? That thing is going to kill Buffy and then it's going to come after us! For all we know, it's killing her right now."

Kennedy announced. "Or, it could just skip that part and come straight here."

Everyone looked where she was looking to see the Turok-Han standing there staring at them. Some of the girls got ready to fight, while one of them, Chloe was saying. "No, No, no, no, no."

Willow stopped them from engaging as the spotlights came on all around them. Willow told them. "Just watch. It's showtime."

The girls turned to see Buffy, Ryan, and Tara standing on a raised platform in the spotlight. Buffy started talking to the vampire. "Looking good, doesn't it? They're trapped in here, terrified, meat for the beast. And there's nothing they can do but wait."

She did a front flip off the platform. When she landed she continued talking. "That's all they've been doing for days, waiting to be picked off. Having nightmares about monsters that can't be killed. But I don't believe in that. I always find a way. I'm the thing that monsters have nightmares about. Right now, me and you are going to show them why. It's time. Welcome to Thunderdome."

Andrew smirked. "Two men enter, one man leaves."

Buffy and the Turok-Han began trading blows, it was fast and powerful, she had skill and with. It through a pinwheel punch at her that she dodged, only to get kicked in the side. She retaliated with a jump kick and knocked it back a few steps. It became a slugfest of trading punches.

Dawn spoke up next to Willow. "This, you planned this, letting the barrier fail, meeting it here, you and Buffy."

Willow smiled."Buffy wanted to show them that it can be beaten and killed. Xander came up with the place and Ryan, well you'll see."

Back in the thunder dome, Buffy was punched into the scaffolding that the girls were on. One of them dropped a crossbow, Buffy took advantage and caught it before firing it into the vampire's chest missing the heart.

It came after her, so she grabbed a metal pole and hit it once then pole-vaulted towards the trailer. She dropped the metal pole and picked up a pickaxe. She swung it and missed the vampire, giving it the chance to shove her into the side of the trailer. It took the pickaxe away from her and started to beat her into the scaffold again.

When they were under it, the vampire through her up into the rope layer. When she landed it followed her up by climbing the beams. She stood up in time to be picked up by the throat. She reached down and snapped the arrow that was in its chest then shoved the broken piece in its eye and kicked it off the scaffolding. When it landed it struggled to get up.

She looked at Ryan and nodded. He walked to the edge of his own raised platform and jumped. He landed beside the vampire across the lot. When he landed, his feet shook the earth. Buffy started talking again. "I said welcome to the Thunderdome but I never said I was your opponent for today's match. You see, when you entered the house uninvited, you broke his only rule, never put his wives in danger. Now you answer to the thing even gods fear."

Ryan grabbed the Turok-Han by its head. "Those of you with weak stomachs turn away because its death will take the rest of the night."

He began with a light beating, tenderizing the vampire's flesh. He did so for the next hour. Then he broke its arms and legs, ensuring no escape. He started with the feet next. Slowly, bit by bit, he crushed and pulverized its lower body, until half of its body was little more the paste.

Its internal organs were pushed up into its chest, it was screaming in agony now. He peeled the flesh from its arms and hung it up by tying its arm skin around its neck and hanging its body on a post. Then he started pulling out salt, holy water and alcohol.

He covered its body from head to pulpy toe in salt, every now and then he would splash holy water on its painful areas. Eventually, it's body was a burnt, bleeding, agony of a mess. More than one of the potentials picked their guts out.

The vampire started to make clicking squeals. He turned to the potentials announcing. "Do you all hear these sounds it's making now? Those are its native tongue, it's begging for its retched existence right now. So, who wants to deliver it peace?"

Half of the girls that puked spoke up saying they did if only to stop it. The Buffy yelled. "How quickly you forget, this is war! It would kill and slaughter each and every one of you with a smile on its face. We hold no quarter for our enemy because it would do the same."

Ryan smiled and made a few clicks of his own. When it heard him, it started squealing like a stuck pig. Ryan turned to the scaffolding and yelled. "So, how did you like the show? You of all beings, should know the limits of my mercy towards enemies. Just remember this, when you finally do take a corporeal form, this will be your fate."

The First/Eve sneered. "When I do get my form again, I'm going to rain hell down on you, that'll make this look like Christmas."

Everyone saw its pissed off face. Ryan smiled. "You should stick around and see the sunset with us, I hear it's going to be a blast. It's only a couple minutes away, so enjoy the show, because I could literally do this all day."

He took out the black goo that he used all those years ago to preserve Buffy's body and covered the important parts of the vampire's body. Namely the head and heart and some of the chest area.

He stood back as a few moments later the sun packed the horizon and the vampire started to melt a little instead of fully burning. It lasted until a full hour after the sun rose when he finally crushed it's skull saying. "I can't claim to have been around as long as the First, but there is one thing that every demon throughout every dimension, will agree on. I am the scariest thing that has ever walked this realm, since the beginning."

The First looked thoughtful and left. Ryan returned to the slayer group, where he was treated with fear. Even Lyndsey finally told him. "Remind me never to piss you off. I've seen your memories and I knew this might happen, but it's different somehow. The memories lacked a certain bloodlust that you're caring about right now."

Ryan shrugged and walked over to the girls. Willow and Tara were both really pale right now, they hadn't been able to watch, but they couldn't escape the sounds, not when he was doing it as a warning to the First to stay away from them.

They headed back to the house, but few would find sleeps purchase. Buffy told the potentials when they were calm again. "He may not fight every battle for us, but I'll be damned if you shame him because of what he does to protect us."

Ryan told Buffy after her speech. "Go get Spike, if you need help just say my name."

He led Willow and Tara upstairs and brought them some snacks, while they ate in silence he gave them massages. If it wasn't so necessary to show the girls that the real monster was on their side, he would've preferred to keep that part of his past locked away. He knew he was cruel to non-humans and he liked most of it, if for only a bit.

But his past was a bloody one and his wives already knew it, so when they asked him to do again what he did all those centuries ago, he agreed so long as Willow and Tara didn't watch him do it.

They happily agreed and Buffy got her little showdown, now the girls were more afraid of the monster in the house than the monsters outside. Buffy would fix that soon enough and they should become a lot more confident from here on out.

Xander's evolution was almost over now so he'd be joining them for training soon enough. Giles spent a few days teaching him how to not break everything he touched and they learned he can no longer hug until he masters his body. He hugged Buffy once and she came out bruised by accident, they healed her and told him that intimate actions weren't aloud unless he wanted dead bodies on his hands.

Needless to say, he pursued control with a single minded determination now. Lyndsey spent most of his down time fixing and setting up the houses around them. They now had several houses they could fill up with potentials.

Everyone was doing the pat test now, it had left a big impression on the girls. Buffy picked up spike from the firsts Christmas lot cave and started taking him on patrols with the girls. Every now and then Dawn would join them, when she wasn't in her own training with Willow and Tara.

She could now do what Willow could her first year of college. She picked everything up fast, but spent a lot of time with Tara and Willow on the subtle arts of self control. Xander was spending time doing the same and so they made a small group out of it.

One day Althenea called with a message that there was a potential in town they didn't know about. Willow did a spell to find her and it landed on Dawn, Ryan snorted. "The spell finds latent untapped energy, she's the key, odds are she's also a potential anyway. Do the spell again, I'll block Dawns energy and we'll see if there is another."

Willow did so and we followed the rotten egg smelling light to a girl who was walking to the house anyway. Dawn recognized her immediately. "Amanda, it's you!"

Amanda looked confused."What's me? And what is the smelly light coming from my chest? I was coming to find your sister, I think I need help. She always seemed like she knows what she's doing and then there's the rumors that she takes care of spooky stuff. I have a spooky thing and need some help."

She filled them in on a vampire that attacked her at the school and they let her know she was a potential slayer. Amanda led them to the class room with the vampire in it and Tara walked in alone. A quick look and she walked out, when she was about to close the door again the vampire dropped from the ceiling and attacked.

She grabbed it by the throat and had Amanda kill it. On the way out, they ran into a horde of bringers, which Willow and Tara promptly slaughtered. They walked away from the hundred or so bodies covered in blood from head to toe. Amanda was a little freaked until she killed a few herself and Dawn was having her own mini slaughter.

When they got back to the house and washed up, Ryan called Buffy and told her of the events. He told her of his plans for Dawn next and she gave the ok. After Buffy's group got back she and Dawn said their goodbyes and Ryan sent her, Willow and Tara to Devon to get away from the Hellmouth for a while and give them a break from the corrupt energies here.

Amanda joined the potentials with a story of her first kill and shared it like an epic of old. A couple days later Giles was back from picking up a Chinese potential called Chao-Ahn and he was taking the girls into the desert with Xander coming along as a second driver.

They've had their own vision quest thing to do. Ryan stayed at the house in case of emergencies popping up, that is until Willow and Tara came back by portal. Willow felt someone in town trying to hex her and came back to find out who it was.

Ryan couldn't be more happy to see them, even under the circumstances. He noticed their stomachs had a small bulge to them and he sent them both an image of the past. It was of them standing in a field with light flowery dresses on and flower wreaths in their hair. They looked to be very far along in their pregnancies, they smiled and kissed him for the image then got to work on their locator spells.

Buffy came upstairs from the basement a few minutes after their arrival and announced Spike's chip malfunctioning. She called a flower shop Riley told her about and was given the run around. She took Spike to look for a way in the old initiative base while Tara and Willow set out on their own hunt.

Ryan stayed at the house and was subjected to Andrew's constant Babel until he removed his mouth. Andrew finally shut up and watched movies with Anya. Ryan went to find Lyndsey and have a beer while he waited. Willow and Tara could handle themselves and while he could remove Spike's chip, he wasn't sure he should when Spike still had his trigger that the First seemed to be using.

Later that day, he felt powerful magic go off nearby. He asked Willow telepathically what was wrong. She told him. (Tara just turned Amy into a rat again, she was the one trying to hex me.)

Laughing, he told Lyndsey and they shared a chuckle until Willow and Tara showed up. He went to see to their needs and left Lyndsey to his own lonely misery. Ryan sighed but told him. "We need you here for now and soon enough, we'll need her here as well. Just a little more time, trust me."

Lyndsey nodded and Ryan sighed. "It could be worse, you could've forgotten your feelings for her like it lost mine."

Lyndsey shuddered and nodded drinking more with a wry smile on his face. Ryan went into the living room in time to hear Anya tell them about a call from Britain. "The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Giles's head about to get real friendly with an ax."

Ryan snorted. "I'm sure Jenny stopped it, and besides, I shook his hand the day he came back. He probably thought nothing of it and gave Jenny a good shag for saving his life. Then she probably gave him a great one for not dying. Either way, it's a moot point."

Everyone quoted down and Willow turned to Tara saying. "I want a shag now!"

They left for their room and Ryan was told. "You can watch, but we're having our fun now." He sat down on the cot and enjoyed the show while drinking a few beers.

Giles and Xander's group got back to the house just before dawn, followed by Buffy and Spike. Ryan noticed the changes and asked. "So, they couldn't repair the chip?"

Buffy shook her head. "They told me that they could repair it or remove it. I had them remove it, we can't risk it malfunctioning again. Not while we're about to fight one of our biggest battles ever."

Giles was less than pleased, but kept it to himself when Buffy went on. "It was my call and I made it, end of discussion."

Giles spent the next day trying in vain to speak Mandarin to Chao-Ahn. It got to the point where Willow just put a translation spell on him, now he speaks and even reads every language she could except Ryan's. His vocal cords weren't evolved enough to get a word out, not that he didn't try repeatedly.

A few days later Buffy and Xander came home excited about their respective dates. Buffy was going on one with principle Wood and Xander was going to one with a girl he picked up at the local home depot. A little while after they left, Ryan came downstairs and interrupted a small meeting. "So, Willow, Tara, are you ready for our date? I've set reservations at Osteria Francescana in Italy. We'll be there and back in a flash if needed, so don't have a heart attack. Everyone needs down time, every now and then. Go see Jenny, she's waiting to take you on your own special evening out."

Kennedy asked. "Can I come as well?"

Willow took her hand an told her. "This is our time, while-"

Tara interrupted her." Go find something to wear, just remember, tonights about our relationship with Ryan."

Ryan sighed. "Andrew, I got the flat screen in the basement, there's twenty pizza's ordered and your movies are ready, remember to share and let the girls pick every now and then. Money is on the kitchen counter, and if there's trouble, Lyndsey is a yell away."

Giles tried to argue. "Now is the time we should be buckling down! We should-"

His phone rang interrupting him, he answered and several ye mam's later he was on his way to Jenny. Smirking Ryan made a portal to Osteria Francescana and they stepped through. They arrived just outside the restaurant and headed inside. The hostess asked them. "What name are you reserved under?"

Ryan smiled. "Titan."

With a quick bow, the hostess led them personally to their candlelit terrace. They were seated and ordered their meal minutes later. They talked about everything from the babies, to music, and massages. To their plans for after the big fight. Ryan told them. "After it's over and the Hellmouth is resealed or destroyed, I was thinking of maybe going on a vacation for a while. I could show you the different dimensions and realities I've visited in person. We could even help out some alternate versions of you and maybe have our own little getaway. When the babies are born, I'll build an inter-dimensional bar, so that beings of certain power levels or know how could have a place to relax. We could even take the helping people thing further into the multiverse if you wanted. We aren't bound by most rules and very little is remotely a threat to us anymore. The babies will be protected and you both could help Buffy expand her slayer army father out."

Tara asked. "What happens to this dimension now that the First is trying to tip the scales?"

Ryan sighed. "If Buffy is successful, then we'll start systematically waging war on evil throughout the world. She needs to build the power base for it though and that takes time."

Willow commented. "How are we supposed to know when she needs our help, if we're so far out?"

Ryan sighed. "You may not have realized it yet, but the barrier I placed on this world limits the power we can use at any given time. Once we're outside of the barrier, you'll be able to sense her at all times, even from other realities. We are apart of nature and life itself, we can sense all life when we aren't hampered by our own powers. It's why Glory wasn't able to lash out with more power, the barrier I put up is strong enough to affect us a lot, what it does to those weaker is actually a lighter punishment for being here."

Willow was a little excited to test her powers outside the barrier and Tara was excited about settling down somewhere safe. Kennedy asked. "If you're so powerful outside the barrier then why did you stay in the first place?"

Ryan looked at Willow and smiled. "I had a very compelling reason to stay. She's was the light in my darkness, eventually, she attracted another light and together they lit up my world."

Tara and Willow smiled and held hands, after the meal, he took them on a gondola ride through Venice. When they'd started to get tired, he brought them home to rest. After putting them to bed, he headed downstairs to see how the other's night went.

Buffy told him about principle Wood being the child of a slayer. "I didn't even know slayers could have children! Should I be careful from now on or do I want to have a child?"

Ryan shrugged. "That's up to you and your partners to figure out. Personally, I'm looking forward to my kids running around."

Xander went on about his date being a demon. "She tied me up and tried to sacrifice me to the Hellmouth! Luckily I was strong enough to get out of it and fight her off. She went on about picking sides and I told her I'm on the side of the slayer and the titan. When she heard that, she flipped and ran away as fast as she could. I don't think the demons in town know they're in your new territory."

Ryan told him. "Spread the word then, let them know I'm in town and I'll soon be going on a demon slaughtering rampage. It'll be funny to hear about their reactions at least."

They said goodnight and headed to bed not long after that.