slayer_fray | Nov. 14th, 2005

Mel's spent the weekend hanging in the suites with Mikey. And she hasn't once thrown a waffle iron across the room. Now she's outside striding through the woods.

When Harth died, Mel shattered. She was fourteen and had suddenly lost her best friend, twin brother, her everything. She couldn't face Erin's accusations and had run out on to the streets, rather than try and live her life without him.

A couple demon bunnies try to attack her, but she dispenses them without a second thought, knocking them flying back into the woods and not even noting the crunch sound they make when their tiny bodies hit trees or the ground. Occasionally, she hits a tree, usually with enough force to crack the wood.

When Loo died, she was beyond breaking. She was furious. Loo had adored her, idolised her, trusted her, and she'd not been there to stop her so-called 'ally' from snapping the five year old's neck. Mel as she once was would have shattered again, but now she used that anger, that woe, to give herself strength. She waged a war. And she won.

She barely seems to react to any of her surroundings, until one of the trees starts to fight back.

Now this is more like it.

A branch swings around and catching the unsuspecting Slayer across the midsection, sending her flying backwards about ten feet. Grinning, she whips out her scythe and runs straight back to it, slicing at the branch and leaping up into the tree.

Steph's dead. Steph's always been dead, as long as Mel's known her. This is nothing new. Lilly's dead. The Flash is dead. Delia's dead. It's easy to forget this with most of them. Steph always seemed so full of life. She enjoyed her existence. She was talking about boys she liked, and racing skaterugs and she was so sweet. She didn't want to move on, she wanted to come with Mel and fight some demons and help with the mission.

More branches whip at her, but Mel is ready for them. She finds the fight, lets it flow through her, becomes the Slayer again. Hands grab branches and swing her through the tree, feet kick off from the trunk and the branches, and her scythe flashes as she slices through wood.

Steph could have gone to her own world. Barry seems to think so. She's gone before, as a ghost, but only left for a matter of days. Mel thinks it's much more likely that Steph's moved on. To whatever it is waiting for her after. Steph, essentially, has died. And Mel led her to her death.

This is what she was born to do, made to do. Her movements are fluid, quick and although seemingly random, absolutely controlled. Mel never inherited the subconscious memories and moves from the tens of thousands of Slayers making up her lineage: they passed to her brother. All Melaka has is speed, strength, and stamina, not to mention a sacred scythe and a protective amulet.

She told the Flash – Barry, she was sorry. She lied. Thing is, she would do it again. Maybe. It's right that she went to get the amulet. It's right that prevented it from further weakening the division between that Hell and her own world. She saved the world. And if Steph had been able to come with her, she would have been glad of the help.

Twigs bite at her skin, slash at her face. Branches curl around her ankles and wrists and she has to yank them free. At one point she throws up an arm just in time to block a three bladed knife being sent straight at her face.

Before she left, she told him she'd look out for Steph. Again, a lie. When Mel leads people into battle, she leads them to die. She can't keep people alive when the world's at stake. That's not how she works. Where the rutting hell did this tree get sai from? But Steph was a superhero. She knew the risks, told them willingly and wanted to help save the world.

Mel deflects more blows, but takes her share as well. The tree wraps sinuous whip-like branch ends around her scythe and attempts to pull it out of her hands, at the same time attacking her with other weapons, no doubt stolen from others who chose to engage it in combat. She keeps her grip firmly and twists out of the way of its attacks, taking some scrapes down her side.

Where Mel had gone wrong was to trust the spell. It was the magic. The rutting magic that sent her and Harth and didn't let Mikey and Steph through. Jonny didn't – no, she won't pass blame - Mel didn't do enough research into the spell. She didn't think it through enough. She didn't do enough planning. She just jumped into the job, went for the action without planning it through. She was stupid.

One of the sai cuts into her leg, but she rips it out and now has two blades, for the few seconds before a large branch that swings heavily towards her, catching her across the hips and sending her flying again. She somersaults in the air, throws the sai into the ground out of the tree's reach and runs back in.

That's what hurts really. Not the fact that she is gone, not the fact that it was Mel she tried to follow, but that it was all for nothing, all pointless. Aand with a little bit of thought, Mel could have saved her. Now, Mel feels the sting of not having a Watcher. Maybe she had, he could have helped her work out the spell, figured out that it would only work on Slayers, stopped her from trying to take two of the most important people in Mel's life with her. What if it had been Mikey?

Lost in her thoughts, Mel continues to fight the tree.