everyonelives | i'm leaving you my last curse

( Stefan takes the brunt of the force, piles of rocks having cascaded down on top of them.

Senses kick in as she tests her limbs and her caved-in surroundings. )

Gotta say, this isn't a compromising position I wanted to be in today. ( She's been punched for less. But, the humor helps the shock. She's able to slide enough out from under him as she gets her bearings, twists a shoulder, flexes. ) Think we can burst up Little Mermaid style, but it'll hurt.

[Stefan makes a face at that suggestion but before he feels his phone begin to vibrate in his pocket. He shifts one hand, trying to maintain the balance of the rubble on top of him.

He phone tumbles out of his pocket, colliding with the ground and revealing a screen that is ... entirely shattered.

So yes, the call is going to go to voicemail.

Stefan has bigger things to worry about anyway.]

It also might hurt other people nearby. I think I remember hearing Dawn's voice before things exploded.

Dawnie wasn't that nearby, was she?

( Was anyone? He tries to maneuver a little more, wishes she could prop her head up, find out what's around. Who. )

Pretty sure, it was just me, you, and a lit cigarette.

( Which is not lit anymore. And her hands not burnt. Or it is and it's under the bruising.

Most people were inside. Or upstairs. Out back. She mentally goes through it. )

Lee ( Leeandra ) and Clara were on the lawn kicking the soccer ball.

( Wholly uninterested in American Thanksgiving. They all received various versions of the same lecture. Colonialism. Smallpox. Death. Mixed histories but the points got across. )

I heard Dawn talking to someone. She was on the phone with Jeremy, and then she asked someone what they were doing.

[That question, right before something explodes? Stefan doesn't have a good feeling about it.]

Do you think the girls were far enough away to be out of the range of the blast?

[Which is the question he asks just before he hears a scream.]

( Doesn't mean she's near them, though, if he heard her. Faith didn't, but now that makes Dawn unaccounted for. Along with everyone else. )

Far enough away from the Jenga tower we're under. Come on. On 3.

( 1, 2, (STR check 17) )

[Aw, they match (also 17), and the combined force of their super strength shoves the rubble up and over just enough that there's a space roughly human shaped enough for them to crawl forward.]

There. Go, go.

[When they do emerge above the rubble, they see the Slayers Faith mentioned, injured and surrounded by another trio of vampires. Though One already has his fangs in Lee's neck as she tries to fight him off.

Init:
Stefan 19
Faith 13
Slayers 7
Vamps 2

Stefan surges out of the hole, zipping both he and Faith over at vamp speed, before trying to slam Two off the side towards one of the trees (3 vs 2), which succeeds but he doesn't have enough momentum to get him far enough away.]

( Faith loves a good zoom-up. There's nothing like it, not even being a slayer.

She targets One first, but has no weapon, stake, or anything else. That's fine. She tries gripping One's shoulders to rip them off of the bitten slayer, but the angle's a mess and she's just been nearly blown up, so it's an (8) )

[One just barely manages to wrench out of Faith's grasp (10), but it manages to distract him from drinking his fill which is for the best. It gives Leeandra the chance to slam her elbow up into his nose (7 vs. 7) even if she doesn't manage to get herself free.

Clara, rallied by the appearance of reinforcements, turns on Three with a one-two combo (1 vs. 17), but woofs as she tries to deliver information. "They came out of nowhere!"

One throws Leeandra away from him (20 vs. 18) to contend with the bigger threat, rearing on Faith with a hard right hook (2), but the angle is all wrong so that probably doesn't connect.

Two comes back at Stefan (18 vs. 16), catching one of his legs and slamming Stefan to the ground before coming down on top of him. Three comes back at Clara (3 vs. 12), but she dodges out of the way, trying to look for something she can use as a weapon.

Stefan flips Two onto the ground beneath him (14 vs. 11), and slams a punch to his face.]

Where the hell did you come from?

( Faith woofs it herself with a (nat 1), having watched Clara miss her attempts, witnessing Leeandra's bleeding neck, and having been blown up. Is that a ringing in her ears?

Faith rushes forward to tackle One and take him down with her toward the tree-line. She needs wood! (nat 20) If that doesn't land a branch in his heart, I don't know what does. )

[You can't disagree with the dice. The tree branch shoves through his chest and One starts to desiccate beneath her.

"Fuck off," Two snaps back at him, and Stefan decides that it's not worth it fishing for information. He shoves his fist down into Two's chest and fishes out his heart (16 vs. 6). He then pushes up, looking over to Leeandra and moving closer to get a hand over the wound in her neck.]

You alright?

["Managing. What the hell happened?"]

That's what we all want to know.

[Clara takes another swing at Three (14 vs. 3), and Three stumbles to the ground, before rearing back up at her to try and get his hands around her neck (8 vs. 8). Clara manages to hold her ground, but one hand does close around her throat.

"Help," she rasps as she tries to peel him off.]

( Faith uses her movement to grab another tree branch off before rejoining the fray. )

I got you!

( She flanks Three and aims for his heart. (13) )

[Three tries to wrench out of the way, but Clara holds him in place as Faith's branch strikes home (3). The body drops to the ground and the four of them pull in closer, just in case someone else comes out of the trees.

"Do you think there are more?" Lee asks.]

Probably. We need to be careful.

( Faith checks over Clara, makes sure nobody took a bite out of her. )

You good? ( to Stefan. ) Vamps blow things up now.

Couldn't have been all vamps. Otherwise how did they get inside?

[Most vampires need to be invited in, and Slayers, despite Stefan's presence in the castle, are very careful about who they give that too.]

There have to be humans involved.

Rarer, humans and vamps holding hands. You think they targeted the slayers?

( They had to have. This unholy alliance. She makes sure Leeandra is also okay. She considers something. )

Maybe we send em packing. Just in case there's more. Get away, let the other cells know what happened?

I have to go back inside, see if I can find Dawn.

[And Buffy. And his brother. He needs to try and get to the people inside, the people he can't see. He doesn't want to run the other way.

Lee glances down at her watch. "What time is it in Star City? Mia might be up. She can do damage control with the other cells."]

You two stay here, keep an eye out. Stay outta the way. Call Mia. Anything goes tits up, you call it. 911. And, you get screams? You run. Okay?

( She lets go of Clara's shoulders, turning back to Stefan.

She wasn't talking about running, but letting the other two slayers make tracks. Having them there won't hurt if shit hits an even bigger, hotter, fan. So, she steps up. Like she always does. She barely even feels sore. )

I'm right behind you, Hero Hair.

[Lee and Clara toss them a salute before heading off toward the trees for additional ammo. Stefan gives Faith a nod in return, before making his way back towards the front of the castle.]

We'll have to move slow. In case the rubble shifts.

I'll take your lead. ( Time to talk strategy. ) Let's count it. Buff. Danny. Bonnie, the wolf. Dawn. The marrieds. Gone with the Vamps. Your brother. The others. Think some girls were still upstairs. ( But she was up front. ) You had hungry ones, too. So, fourteen not including ours. With ours, thirty.

( Thirty could be buried. Or dead. )

[Stefan nods, keeping that number in mind. He knows that Buffy was in the kitchen when he left, and if she still had been when the explosion happened ...

... He can't think about that right now. He needs to focus. He tries to ignore the rock sinking in his stomach and makes his way closer to the nearest piece of rubble.]

I'll lift, you let me know if we're clear.

[Perception checks please, for as they work their way through.]

You got it.

( Perception 14 to start. )

[It takes some time as they work their way though slowly. The heavy outer walls provide the most casualties, it seems. Each body they manage to pull out features a broken neck or crushed chest. Each of them a Slayer, each of them so young it makes Stefan's chest ache.

But none of them are a member of their dinner party.

Eventually they make their way into one of the hallways, where the walls are thinner and it's more likely there'd be survivors.]

Can anyone hear us?

["Over here!" The voice comes from somewhere nearby, but he can't quite pinpoint where, not yet.]

( Death's never easy. Faith lived on the other side of it for a long time. She worked toward her redemption, broke out, and has been doing penance ever since.

She has to turn away from a particularly gnarly flattening. But, she stays the course.

One more perception check for good measure (11). Does Faith recognize the voice?

[No, actually. Faith does not. Stefan doesn't either, but it's hard to tell sometimes without a face to attach to it.

As Faith scans the rubble, she sees one of the nearby pieces shake, just slightly. Almost intentionally.

"Please! I don't know what happened, but I'm not good with small spaces."]

Stefan.

( Carefully, steps over to where the rubble shakes. )

Give me a hand?

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