Strange Place to Live:
Holy Matrimony
by Cynamin

"Don’t tell me
it’s not worth fighting for
Can’t help it
There’s nothing I want more."
~Everything I Do I Do it For You
Bryan Adams

Buffy followed the obvious path of destruction, frantic to find Angel. Though she tried not to think about it, her mind was filled with images of him bleeding somewhere, dying, or worse, dead. Angel was still stronger than the average human, probably always would be, but he’s lost his vampiric strength in the months past. Buffy could kick his but now, and tonight there were things out her that could kick

hers.If the torn apart landscape wasn’t enough evidence of where those she was tracking had gone, the stench certainly was. It had faded some (thank goodness) but it still filled her senses like something horrible. As the sunlight faded completely from the sky, Buffy followed her nose, hoping that it would lead her to Angel.

It led her to a road. Suddenly the visual trail disappeared, and the smelly one had been masked by the scent of asphalt and car exhaust. Buffy yelled briefly in frustration. She tried calling out to Angel once again, but once again received no response. *Where do I go from here?*

She didn’t mean to say that out loud, but she got a response this time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the response she wanted.

"You, Slayer, are going nowhere."

Buffy sighed. "You know, I’m really not in the mood for this," she said softly before turning to face the vampire.

Vampires. Lots of vampires. They had come up behind her while she was staring at the road. Now they surrounded her and stopped both her escape and her continued search. A quick inventory showed Buffy would never have enough stakes to get them all.

"Well, we’re in the mood, so you’ll just have to deal," the lead vampire said.

Another battle was engaged.

Angel awoke an indeterminate amount of time later. He was laying in one of Sunnydale’s factories. No sunlight shown through the windows, having long since faded from the sky. His head was pounding, and he ached from multiple bruises and scrapes. The zombies, apparently, had been none too careful in dragging him to this place. Still, he was in one piece, which was an unexpected pleasure.

The zombies were arrayed all around the room. They were still, only their eyes in rotting watchfulness showing that he never left their attention. Some stood, some sat, some lay at odd angles that no living body could accomplish, but all watched him.

One thing Angel knew for sure was that he could not stay here. Tonight was the night where he needed most to be with Buffy and everyone else. None of them would be able to stand on their own tonight. Biting back a moan of pain, Angel climbed to his feet.

Immediately the zombies seemed to return to life. Those standing seemed more alert, those sitting or laying down clambered awkwardly to their feet. As Angel moved, they moved, subtly shifting so that their intentions were obvious. For now, whomever or whatever had raised them did not intend for them to kill him. Their only intention seemed to be keeping him here.

Staying here, however, was the last thing on Angel’s mind. He knew that what the zombies had in strength they lacked in speed and agility. If he could take them by surprise, find a weak part of their circle, he might make it out of the building.

Quickly Angel surveyed his options. He took note of where the most "lazy" zombies were. Far gone to decay, they had not yet risen to their feet. Without a second thought he dashed for the prone zombies, hoping to reach the freedom that beckoned from the doorway beyond them. He prepared to jump over the zombies still struggling to their feet . . .

. . . and met a wall of flesh instead. Moving far quicker than he would have thought possible, the most mobile of the zombies had closed the distance between them and him, forming an impenetrable barrier between him and the exit. As Angel tore into the zombies closest to him, none of them moved from their new positions.

The zombies never fought back, just stood and blocked Angel’s way. They took a lot of damage before they fell, but fall they did. For everyone that did, though, another took its place. There seemed to be an endless supply of them, and Angel was quickly tiring of what was sure to be a hopeless fight.

Suddenly, the zombies dropped where they stood. They were like puppets whose strings had been cut crumpled, awkward forms. Whatever had animated the zombies was gone.

For a moment Angel breathed deeply in relief, but only for a moment. The zombies had most likely been dismissed by whoever had raised them in the first place. He never dropped out of a battle stance as he waited for whatever had stopped them to make an appearance.

Make an appearance he did, separating from the shadows near the entrance to reveal a young, brown-haired man.

Angel relaxed finally. "Kenneth," he said calmly, "you couldn’t come any sooner?"

The demon hunter smiled slightly. "I think I came just in time, he d"eclared, looking at the dead bodies strewn about the factory. "Come on. Your friends need my help as well."

"Giles!"

The creature’s tentacles were quickly making their way into the cramped living room. Willow flailed wildly with the only weapon she had available to her - the remains of a chair - trying to beat one of them back. Xander was facing off another with a kitchen knife. Cordelia was standing back and throwing things at it, miraculously avoiding hitting any of the rest of them.

"Just hold it off a little longer!" Giles called back, quickly pulling books off shelves, flipping through them and discarding each one in turn.

"How do we kill it?" Xander called without tearing his attention away.

"I . . . I don’t . . ." Another book tossed aside.

"Giles!"

"Just hold it off!" he cried back. "Just until help arrives!"

The Scooby gang fought, and prayed for the arrival of Buffy.

Buffy wasn’t faring any better. She fought the vampires to a stand still, staking one or two where she could, but mostly just hoping to stay alive. She didn’t know how long she’d been fighting. She was caught in a rhythm now, an endless rhythm of hit and dodge. The vampires swept her up in their deadly dance.

Suddenly one of the vampires caught her by surprise, catching her blow and using its own momentum to throw her to the ground. She saw stars as her head struck a rock and rolled to prevent serious injury. The roll caused the vampire going after her to stumble as he overshot his mark. Buffy sprang to her feet again, ready to continue.

She wasn’t as ready as she thought. The sudden movement combined with the head blow caused her vision to swim, and the number of vampires seemed to triple. Buffy blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision as even now blood from the wound on her scalp dripped into her eye.

The vampire who’d thrown her growled. Buffy saw him running straight at her and rose one of her few remaining stakes to catch his impact. Her hand was empty, however, the stake having been dropped in her fall. The vampire and the Slayer struck the ground together.

Buffy fought against the vampire who pinned her to the ground to little effect. From this position her blows had little strength behind them. She didn’t give up, though. She never would.

The snarling face of the vampire suddenly exploded into ash and Buffy coughed as it fell around her. She rolled back to her feet, more cautiously this time, to lay eyes upon her rescuer.

The dark haired woman waved briefly with a grin of acknowledgment, then joined the man next to her in fighting another vampire. Seeing that the two of them could handle themselves, Buffy went after the nearest unoccupied vampire. The three of them made short work of the remaining vampires. Those that did not fall before the renewed onslaught finally ran for their lives.

The three humans stood together for a moment, catching their breath. Buffy wiped the blood from her face and the woman leaned against her husband with a slight limp.

"See?" she said with a laugh. "I told you Sunnydale wouldn’t be boring."

In spite of the gravity of the situation, Buffy grinned.

The creature made a strange sound like one of pain and inched farther into Giles’s living room.

"We’re hurting it!" Xander cried.

"Um, hello? If *we* were hurting it, why would it keep coming closer?" Cordelia replied.

The group fell silent at that, continuing to fight without pause. The creature was bleeding from wounds they’d given it, but had not slowed. It made the noise again, and trembled.

"I think the cavalry’s arrived."

Angel and Giles made their way to Giles’s house in record time. They were not prepared for what they saw when they arrived, though. A squid-like creature - a massive, demonic, squid-like creature - had its tentacles through the front door of Giles’s house. It was both attacking those within and retreating from one who attacked it from outside.

A young, red-haired woman in a long coat struck at the creature’s armored body with a sword. Its tentacles occupied inside the house, it could not strike back at her. Already it bled from multiple wounds, a thick black ichor dripping down its sides.

Angel ran to join the battle, but Kenneth held back for a moment. "Who..?"

"Fight now, introductions later!" the woman called. Glancing up only briefly from her battle.

The newcomers needed no further encouragement. Angel strode in next to her, no weapons handy, content to just pummel the creature to death. Kenneth stayed back, using his magic instead to weaken the creature.

The three of them fought outside alone only briefly before their numbers doubled. Buffy and her rescuers joined in without a word as they saw what was going on. Knives, stakes, fists, magic and a sword all struck against the monster. It shuddered beneath their blows. Trapped between two sets of attackers, it could not advance or retreat. Still, it fought long and hard against its inevitable death.

As its body writhed, trying to twist away from them, it briefly revealed its unarmored underbelly. That was all the opening the defenders needed. Several weapons entered that vulnerable target, and the creature let out a final scream before slumping to the ground, not to move again.

For a long moment silence filled both courtyard and house. Then Xander’s voice echoed through the doorway.

"Is it dead?"

Buffy laughed in relief, leaning against Angel and more than thankful that they were all alive. "I don’t think anything can survive what we all did to it," she replied.

"Buffy!"

"Yup, that’s me. Angel’s here too, and Kenneth, and . . . umm . . . ."

"Robin Cunningham-Baker and her husband John, and Colleen Cunningham," Angel finished, pointing to the vampire hunting couple and the swordswoman in turn.

"Are introductions made?" Giles asked a touch testily from inside. At everyone’s acknowledgment he continued. "Good. Then let’s get this . . . thing out of my house please?"

Everyone laughed. Relief, joy, fatigue - it was all there. They’d done it. They’d all see another sunrise.

Epilogue

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