-tink!-
-tink-. Against the pavement. Xander smiled as Spider’s eyes grew wide. She kept her focus on him, using all the training her mind had ever absorbed.
-tink-. -tink-. -tink-. -tink-.
Her eyebrow started to twitch as the instinct to look down began to overwhelm her. She calmed herself, breathing deeply. -tink-. Slow, rhythmic breath. -tink-. Her eye twitched to the side, only for a moment.
Xander smirked, enjoying the use of his enemy’s tactics against them.
Finally she gave in to temptation and looked at the source of the sound.
When she looked back at Xander, he was gone.
She stared out into the darkness surrounding her. Slowly, the hatred in her eyes faded away to something else: fear. She began slashing at the darkness wildly, screaming as she did so. She stopped in the centre of the room, the light shimmering down her long hair. She stared wide-eyed into the darkness.
She twirled around, then back again - always convinced that he was behind her. Sweat dotted her brow and traveled down in itchy trails as she fought to keep it out of her eyes, scanning the darkness wildly for any motion.
“Where are you!?” she bellowed into the black, panic coming over her. As powerful as she was, she looked small and fragile now, the way a tree looks massive but a single leaf like nothing at all.
Light bathed the room for a quick moment and she thought she heard a door close.
She spun around to face it, her blade in front of her.
The window in the door stared at her like one great luminescent eye pinning her in place. Her breath was still tight in her chest and her hair clung to her face, which was now drenched in a fresh smattering of panic sweat. She didn’t know where it had come from, but she could feel the chill of it on her skin and the salt of it on her lips.
She tried to hold the blade in front of her steady, but it wavered as adrenaline shook her nerves until her arm quivered. The blade wavered back and forth like a tuning fork.
And there was quiet.
She let out a slow sigh of relief and lowered the sword.
“Fuck,” she cursed, then stormed toward the door after him.
-click-
She turned around and bumped right into Xander.
He plunged the sword into her. She let out a small, almost inaudible yelp.
Her head fell forward onto the nape of his neck, and he could see the sword protrude from her back.
Her mouth and eyes opened wide in a look of pure shock. He removed the sword and laid her carefully onto the pavement floor. Blood gushed from her open wound and she stared up at her killer. Her mouth opened as if she was about to say something, then closed, her lip gloss shining in the intense light. Her eyes gazed upward, then they rolled into her head.
Xander stepped into the darkness. Finding the door, he exited the room, sliding his sword along the floor as he went.
In another part of the building, Genblade and Alpha walked toward their destination. Suddenly, alarms began blaring from everywhere.
Alpha looked downward, as if briefly mourning.“You know what this means.”
Genblade’s eyes filled with disappointment. “That the Black Womb has bested Spider.”
Alpha slammed him against the stone wall, pressing his arm against his neck.“Never! Never call him that AGAIN! I am the Black Womb now! Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Master,” Genblade said quickly, avoiding angering his creator anymore. He did a small bow as Alpha let him go. “I am sorry, Master. It will not happen again.”
“Go, Genblade. Stop 08276 from ruining my plans. Do whatever it takes.”
“Yes, Master,” Genblade replied, pulling at his shirt.
He turned and jogged back down the corridor the way they had come.
Alpha turned to face a door marked REACTOR and walked in.
Alarms ringing in his ears and electric surges shooting up his side from where Spider had cut him, Xander ran up the halls in a constant state of pain and confusion, not even knowing if he was headed in the right direction. He came to a four-way intersection and tripped, despite all his attempts to keep his steady pace. He fell to his knees. Pain shot through them as the spots where he had skinned them became irritated again. He clenched his teeth to fight back a yelp and suddenly, the alarms just... stopped. He stood up and turned slowly, looking in each of the three directions and back the way he came.
Out of the corner of his left eye, he thought he saw something.
When he looked down that hallway, it was gone. Something ran past the hallway in front of him. He felt the breeze of speed as the person passed by. A cackle of insane laughter echoed through the hallways, making it impossible to tell which direction it came from.
“Genblade,” Xander said under his breath. He raised his sword to eye-level, prepared for the oncoming battle. Beads of
