Almost three years have passed and Shadow Dancer has not appeared! I sure do wish the author would come back and continue this most intriguing tale!!!

THE END! well, i'm a little thrown off by Spike being alive, he just popped in out of no wheres but def looking forward to the next part! (hopefully with more Faith?) :)

This was very well written and eagerly awaited, so glad you took the time to bless us with it ;p, can't wait for more.

LOVE&HEARTS

aLI

Thank you, my friend.

Wonderful i love Faith!

Thank you.

Excellent!!! ;-)

Great fight scenes and great characterization for everyone involved.

Loving this story. ;-)

Many thanks, as always.

Nice.

Thanks :)

Oh and she should have killed them all ;)

I thought about it, but that the non-coms were all just standing around made it seem too close to murder. lol
thanks.

This was a beautiful chapter- you just seem to write these scenes so well!

And I especially can't wait for the Buffy vs Dragon smackdown [and as to wether or not Buffy gained strength from the transformation].

Thank you very much.

Great chapter! You have brought it all together in such a way that the reader has no choice but to live each step a Slayer makes. Did I say great already? yep!

Thank you very much.

Looking forward to Buffy and Faith's battle. Excellent therapy for rape when the rapist gets beheaded by the former victim. I hope you also cover the ramifications to the lycan community at the results of the Council's upheaval. The price of war is high, but the price of defeat even worse. Eager for more, thank you so much.

Thank you, great comments. If this keeps up, I may even develop an ego. (Impossible! scream those that know me.)

Finally, were getting to see the apocalypse that the Vampire Council has ignited, and I have to say that it's MAGNIFICENT!!!!!

Looking forward to seeing Buffy stomp The Dragon's ass into the ground, and then feed her through a meat grinder before incinerating the remaining scraps of flesh. ;-)

Great work, man. Looking forward to the next part!

Wow, great compliment.

I'm sensing that you'd like Buffy to be absolutely thorough. (Should she actually win, that is.)

Thanks again.

Very good battle commentary.

As for Xander's "At what cost?", I'm sure even he knows the cost would be higher if they did nothing. Some wars have to be fought sooner rather than later.

Thank you. After rereading it, I think I might have made him sound a little too soft, but dead kids could have that affect on anyone.

Absolutely amazing dude no joke, you pull out all the stops when you get into the zone don't you? lol, i can't wait for the next update totally on the edge of my seat!

Ali

Thank you, I was hoping it came out alright.

jesu cristo! That speech/roar combo at the end got me all pumped to fight!

THE SLAYERS SHALL KICK ASS.
As is decreed by me.
=)

Thanks for reading, now I just have to deliver.

Re: Faith misdirecting The Dragon (TD)...that's what I figure is going on, too. I'm surprised that TD seems to be falling for it, given her centuries of experience. It would seem that she's worrying about the wrong one having too much arrogance. I wouldn't be at all surprised that even with Faith's ability to keep TD from digging too far into her mind, Willow and others have been helping Faith send specific information to TD, and TD just doesn't realize she can't detect the magic yet (arrogance again leading her to think she can detect any and all magic).

I forgot to mention earlier that your method in which you brought Giles and Xander (2 males) in as members of the Slayer Set was brilliant. The earlier combining of Willow and their essences with Buffy to defeat Adam logically should have had a very significant and permanent effect in the series, but Whedon didn't take advantage of it. For example, that could have been the main reason Willow was able to perform the Activation-of-all-the-Potentials spell.

Padma should have realized he ought to be sending in spies right about now. Yeah, they'd likely fail...but I think he'd do it anyway.

Now then, be honest...you intentionally put in Dawn's imagery about the Cavalry Boots just to be really, really mean. Ack!!! I'm going to be joining Buffy in therapy.

(BTW, I really liked the 'naming' byplay between Buffy and Andrew. That seemed so in character for both of them.)

Thank you again, the essence bonding of Giles, Willow, and Xander was an idea from Greywizard, so that is where the brilliance belongs. I agree that it should have made a difference in the show, but if they were all sensitive to her, then I guess it would have been hard to have Buffy descend into depression.

Great comments as always.

I hope Faith is pulling a Patton on the Dragon, meaning making the other side think she was doing the planned invasion and training as much as Patton did to fool the Germans into thinking he was in charge of the European invasion. Misdirection on the idiots who would think themselves gods.

I imagine there are still a great deal of Nazi ghosts waiting for Patton at Calais. Inflatable tanks, too cool.

Re: the naming of the new Slayer "pack"
If it helps, I searched "animal group names", and there are some group names I find surprisingly appropriate.

My favorites / no particular order:
Set of Slayers (Multiple meanings. Also Egyptian god Set (note1))
Bite of Slayers (how ironic!!!)
Tribe of (reminds me of Amazonian warriors)
Swarm of (good alliteration, too)
Coven of (normally for witches I think it fits Slayers too)
Pounce of
Crash of
Destruction of
Chain of
Pandemonium of
Cohort of (in addition to Zebras, this also applied to a Roman military unit. 1st Cohort=800men, other Cohorts=480 men each)


The old standbys:
Pack of
Band of
Troop of
Army of


Out of hundreds of animal group names, here's a selection of some of the more appropriate names I found. Some of these are pretty funny when tied with Slayers...
cats (generic): Pounce, Nuisance, Clutter, Glorying, Glare
cats (undomesticated): Destruction
midges: Bite
rhinoceroses/rhinoceri: crash
crows: murder
mice: mischief
tigers: ambush
zebras: cohort
swans: bevy
horses (generic): Stable, Troop, Team
lions: pride
Porcupines: Prickle
parrots: pandemonium, company
hounds: brace, suite
deer (males): brace
herons/bitterns: siege
Bobolinks/Whiporwills: Chain
sparrows: host
whales: school, pod
badgers: set, company, colony
seabirds (generic): wreck
bullocks: drove
goldfish: troubling
mosquitoes: Scourge
.
(note1: Set=originally Egyptian god of the desert. Since Sineya is also associated with the desert this group name would have a TRIPLE MEANING. Set was also associated with great strength, and also considered Ra's main hero/savior/heir, fighting every day against Apep=a very evil demon, the deification of darkness and enemy of light
--http://www.egyptiandreams.co.uk/set.php )
.

Holy Christmas, I feel like I should pay for this much work. You are a scholar and a wonderful person. I will tell you that the name I choose for the groupings will come from your list. Some of them are great (pandemonium/cohort/swarm), some are just too funny (mischief/murder/crash), and one in my opinion was perfect. Thank you very very much.