Dawn/Amanda (HL) - Prompt #59 (Fight)

Title: Is she really human?
Author: -Andy-
Rated: FR15
Disclaimer: BtVS belongs to Joss Whedon, Fox Television, etc. Highlander belongs to Panzer/Davis and a bunch of others. SG-1, O'Malleys and its occupants belong to whomever owns Stargate.
Prompt: #059, (Fight).
Word count: 1,361 (17 of 100)
Note: This is set in the universe of my ficlet Gone, and occurs immediately after Prompt #056.

Cutting through a back alley near O'Malley's, Dawn hurried back to the hotel. The smell of garbage was a bit over powering as she picked her way around dark puddles of unidentifiable substances. She didn't think the blonde would call her, that hadn't really been her goal, but the shocked looks on the faces of the men with her had almost been worth it. No, she just wanted to mope in the privacy of her own room. Maybe room service could even find her a carton of her favorite flavor of ice cream.

There were times when she really wondered if it was worth it. Usually when Amanda was busy doing something with Duncan. On really bad days she came really close to setting out on her own. But she knew that if something ever happened to Amanda and she wasn't there to prevent it, she would never forgive herself. The older immortal was her one real weakness and she wasn't ready to give her up yet.

The buzz of another immortal hit her as she stepped out of the alley. Before she could react, something hit her left shoulder, knocking her backwards into the alley. A row of trash cans brought her to a stop as she collided with them.

Clutching her burning shoulder in shock, Dawn lay in the slush. Groaning, she attempted to get to her feet, pushing her back against the rough brick of the alley wall. She couldn't stop her muffled scream as whatever had struck her shoulder was dragged against the wall in the process. Reaching frantically for her shoulder, Dawn attempted unsuccessfully to remove the object.

She just barely heard the sound of steel scrapping against the ground. Looking towards the alley entrance, in the dim light Dawn could barely make out a ragged figure blocking her escape. Something metallic and swordlike hung from one hand. She shivered in her wet clothes as it headed menacingly towards her. Letting go of her shoulder, she reached into her soggy jacket for her sword.

She just barely managed to get it out and in front of her in time. Blocking the larger blade, as it was swung with enough force to remove her head, she could feel the shock as the two blades connected with a loud crash. The pain in her shoulder was distracting her, she knew enough not to stay in one place in a fight. Gritting her teeth, Dawn ducked under the next swing from the dim figure and out into the center of the alley.

There was no finesse, no skill in the way her foe attacked her with a large machete. There'd been no warning, no ritual challenge. This was a fight to the death in its most basic and brutal from.

She couldn't quite make him out in the dim alley light but from the smell that occasionally reached her she assumed it was someone who made no attempt to be a part of normal society. She wondered how many immortals disguised themselves as homeless people. Something to ask Joe Dawson about, if she ever survived this encounter.

She knew she couldn't outlast him. He wasn't much taller but he weighed at least four times her own weight. Every blow from his machete seemed to echo through her body. She could feel herself getting weaker as she lost blood, her movements constantly pulling open the wound in her shoulder, the metal object still embedded in it preventing her quick immortal healing from working and keeping her slightly off balance. If she wanted to survive she would have to do something drastic to finish it while she could still stand.

This was only her third real fight in the years since Amanda had declared her trained, but the others had been more about skill, not endurance, against immortals her size. Fights with women who'd seen her as an easy way to get at Amanda and weaken her. This one was something completely different. She had no idea why she'd been attacked though the few mumbled words and curses she'd heard during their fight made her feel nauseous.

"Green. glowing..." he muttered more than once as he swung at her.

Although Dawn was glad for the endurance training Amanda had insisted on over the years, she didn't have any spare breath to ask him why he'd attacked her. She was too busy trying to stay alive.

At the end of her strength, she finally saw an opening. Without thinking about the pain or damage he would inflict on her even if she succeeded, Dawn stepped forward, straight into the path of his blade. She couldn't prevent the grunt that escaped, but she continued towards him, driving her sword through his chest even as he pulled his machete free from her side, the sound of it leaving her flesh something she knew she'd never forget.

She couldn't risk that he would recover before her. Stumbling back, she watched him slump to the ground. Taking a shaky breath, pushing the thought of what she was about to do deep into the back of her mind, Dawn raised her sword and cut through his neck with as much force as she could manage with one arm, almost stopping as she felt her sword collide with the bones in his neck.

"There can be only one." she whispered, before collapsing in a heap next to him, sword still tightly gripped in her hand, no energy left. Even the gathering force of her unnamed foe's Quickening failed to bring her back to consciousness.

---

When she came back to herself, she could feel something was slightly different. As if there were an added dimension to her memories. But not the overwhelming feeling of wrongness she'd gotten following her last two immortal battles. Those immortals had not been evil but they had been extremely ruthless in their pursuit of power. She'd felt off balance for weeks after each, as their life-forces integrated with her own. This one, even though he'd attacked her, had somehow left behind in her mind a refreshing feeling, almost of innocence.

Cautiously getting to her feet, Dawn gasped in pain at the object still in her shoulder. The Quickening had sped up her healing even more than normal, fixing her injured side, but her shoulder seemed to be resisting. She needed to get back to her hotel and call Amanda.

Trying to ignore the headless man who'd come so close to ending her life, Dawn slipped her sword into its hidden scabbard in her jacket. Cleaning it would have to wait till later. Before stepping out of the alley, hoping no-one noticed the state of her shoulder or the other obvious signs she'd been fighting, Dawn looked back at the body in the alley. "It would be so much better if they dissolved like demons." she said, hoping no one would call the cops before she made her escape. There was no way anyone could have missed the mystical light-show involved in a Quickening.

Between the reaction to the quickening, and her body attempting to deal with her still impaled shoulder, Dawn's trip back to her hotel was a long, stumbling, hazy walk. Her luck held out most of the way, the roads and sidewalks of Colorado Springs almost empty in the damp, cold evening.

She didn't hear it coming, but she certainly felt it. Crossing the street a block from her hotel, Dawn's path collided with something large and metallic. The force of the collision threw her into the side of a car. Struggling to get to her feet, she couldn't seem to get them to cooperate. Hearing a horrified gasp, she looked up. Seeing a tall blonde woman staring down at her, in her confusion she wondered what Amanda was doing there. She didn't remember calling her but she wasn't going to worry abut it.

She struggled to reach up towards her but couldn't find the energy. "Amanda, can we go home now? I'm having an extremely bad day." she said.

Before unconsciousness claimed her for the second time that evening, she heard a distant male voice ask "Who's Amanda?"



My TtH100 Prompt table