1. Prologue: Alliances & Enemies

Into the Abyss By Bill Gopher and Iceflame55 

Disclaimers – Buffy and Co belong to Mutant Enemy and Joss Whedon, we're just borrowing them for a while. We promise to put them back when we're done G .

Pairing – B/W

Rating – PG (I think, I always got it mixed up with PG13) There is violence in this story, Buffy isn't selling Tupperware here! G .

Spoilers – Lots! This takes place about midway into Season 2, after that everything else is totally fair game for whatever our evil minds will come up with! EG 

**Prologue:**

**Alliances and Enemies**

Dru was broken out of her reverie by one of her minions who was bleeding all over the floor in front of her. "Mistress, I'm sorry, but the attack failed. The Slayer is still alive."

Gliding to her feet, Dru moved around the nervous minion and stopped behind him, leaning in close. "That's okay my pet." Dru said softly in his ear as she shoved a stake through his back and into his heart. There was a brief look of surprise on the minions' face before he turned to dust at her feet.

"Oooohhhhh," Dru said as she started to sway back and forth, "The nasty Slayer's beginning to get Miss Edith upset now Spikey. How can we get daddy back if he still has his horrible little soul and the stars aren't whispering to me anymore!" Dru began to sway left and right when two arms wrapped themselves around her from behind.

"That's okay luv, we'll figure something out for Angelus."

"Nooooo!" Dru wailed as she collapsed into Spike's arms. "Miss Edith says that we'll never get daddy back if we don't get help!"

"Help?" Spike asked in game face, "What kind of help?"

A cruel smile played across Dru's face, "The kind of help the nasty Slayer can't fight...magick help! And Miss Edith's told me where we can find it! Oh this is soo goody!" Suddenly Dru bounced out of Spike's arms and started dancing by herself, "Soon we're going go have daddy back!"

An insane laughter filled to the room and Spike shivered slightly at the sound.

Cotinued in Chapter 1


	2. Chapter 1: Beginnings

**Chapter 1:**

**Beginnings…**

Walking into Sunnydale High School, Buffy saw the red hair of her best friend, Willow, and frowned as she saw Xander standing next to Willow. Hiding her thoughts as she walked up to Willow, "Hey Will! You look all chipper this morning."

"Hey Buff!" Leaning conspiratorially close, "How'd last night go? Were there any smoochies?" Willow asked with a grin, eager to hear about Buffy's date with Angel last night.

Ignoring Xander's frown, "Sorry, no smoochies to talk about Will. It was a Slayage busy night." Buffy sighed. "There were vamps a plenty and 2 demons as well."

Grinning broadly, "Well there's always next time!" Willow said cheerfully. Willow's good mood evaporated as she saw Principal Snyder walking towards the three of them.

"Move along here people, this is a place of education, no thinking and talking in the hallways!" Snyder said loudly over the bullhorn he was carrying. Seeing Summers and her troublemaker friends, Snyder walked over to them. "This goes double for you three. I would think some of you would want more time studying and less time chatting on school grounds." Snyder said pointedly as he looked at Buffy Summers. Seeing something from the corner of his eye, Snyder strode quickly towards another group of students.

"Well that was an un-fun way to start the morning," Buffy remarked.

"Gotta agree with you there Buff, a troll free morning would have done me good. But there's always the sugary-induced happiness option!" Xander chimed in.

Laughing softly, "Yeah that's always an option, but some of us have a figure to worry about and I for one do not need extra sugar-induced energy. But I'll keep it in mind just in case." Buffy said as she hefted her books.

"Later Xand!" Buffy said as Xander moved off to class, "Are you up for some Slayage tonight Will?" Buffy asked impulsively. "We could hit the Bronze afterwards."

"Really?" Willow beamed, knowing how Buffy tried to keep them away from the Slaying as much as she could. "That'd be good and besides, Bronzing is always good for post-Slayerage relaxation you know." Willow said with mock seriousness.

"Well we don't want ruin that now do we?" said Buffy with equal mock-seriousness.

"Master...we have captured an intruder," said the demon. The demon that spoke was well over 7' feet tall and equally wide, its metal skin gleamed dully from the candlelight in the room.

Irritated, the Sorcerer stopped reading and turned around to look at his servant. "And the problem is what?" he asked exasperated. "My instructions are perfectly clear and even something as stupid as you can understand them. All intruders are to be terminated."

"Yes Master, but she says she was invited by you," the demon replied simply.

Both eyebrows raised, "Did she? Then bring my 'guest' here!"

Turning, the demon disappeared and reappeared several minutes later carrying a tall, female vampire by her neck, her feet never even touching the floor. "Master...your guest."

Walking around the demon and his 'guest', "Since I seem to have forgotten inviting you into my abode. Remind me again why is it you are here...at least before I tell my servant to pull your head off."

"Oh that's easy my luv. I'm here because my Miss Edith told me that you are having problems with that nasty old Slayer and that I should help you because it will get our daddy back!" Dru said in her singsong, little girl voice.

Pausing to work his way through vampire's declaration, "Ahem, would you like to try telling me that again, this time in English? As much as I enjoy riddles as much as the next man, I do not have time for yours."

"Why I've come to help you with the Slayer of course!" Dru's voice dropped down so it was barely audible, "The stars have been talking to Miss Edith about your little search for the sword." Seeing the Sorcerer was close enough, Drusilla started to walk her fingers slowly up his chest. "I'll help you get your demon's sword so you can open a Gate and you help me with a pesky little spell."

"I see and this 'pesky, little spell' you need removed. What is it?" The Sorcerer asked warily.

"I just need you to get rid of a nasty little soul on our Daddy." Dru said her in singsong voice.

"And does this other vampire have a name other than Daddy?" the Sorcerer said distastefully.

Dru started to rock in place, "Why Angelus of course!" was the simple reply.

Frowning mentally the Sorcerer thought about the name Angelus for a minute before he made a connection. "Ahh, I see. Yes, I remember him." A small smile flitted across the Sorcerer's face, "Very well, we have a deal. You will distract the Slayer from my search by the Hellmouth and when I have the sword I shall remove Angelus' soul. However, I will need something...a personal object or piece of clothing. Something of that nature in order for me to cast the spell on him."

"Oh Goodie!" Dru squealed like a little girl.

"Take the vampire and release her outside," the Sorcerer said dismissing both the vampire and his demon-servant.

**Later that night…**

"So tell me Buffy, how has the kissage been with Angel?" Willow asked as she leaned close to Buffy.

Smiling back at her friend, "Living vicariously through our best friend much?" Buffy asked with a smile taking any sting out of her reply.

"Hey! It's the duty and obligation of best friends to share all kissage and smooching details!" Willow replied solemnly before her serious face cracked and they both started laughing.

"Well being that it's a duty then, I guess I'll have to suffer and spill then."

However before Buffy could reply her Slayer senses warned her and she pulled out a stake. As she did a form flew out of the dark at her. Dodging her attacker, Buffy kicked him in the knee and as he stumbled past, her stake flashed down and into his heart. The vampire exploded into a cloud of dust.

Before Buffy could say anything 2 more vampires moved out of the dark. "What's this? A vampire get-together?" Buffy said as she glanced around looking for Willow and spotted her hiding behind a tree.

"Your time is over Slayer!" snarled one of the vampires before charging. Ducking under his first swing, Buffy launched her own series of punches that hit the vampire in the head several times and followed up with a high kick that threw the vampire backwards into his companion. Both vampires landed in a heap, before fighting to separate and get to their feet. "Do you guys get a handbook filled with such played lines like "get her" and "your time is over" or do you think of them all by yourself?" Buffy quipped.

"Get her!" the first vampire yelled as both of them charged the Slayer at the same time.

Buffy waited for the quicker of the two vamps to reach her first and dodged left as her foot slammed out into the vampires stomach doubling him over. A quick stab with her stake and he exploded into dust, Buffy felt a hard punch hit her on her head, stunning her as she fought to keep her hands in front of her. When Buffy heard Willow yell and saw the vampire had seen Willow and was chasing after her. "Oh no you don't!" Buffy yelled, running full tilt and tackling the vampire to the ground. Grabbing the vampire Buffy flipped it onto its back and threw punch after punch into the vampires' face. "No." Punch "One." Punch "Touches." Punch "My." Punch "Friend!" with a final punch to the vampire's face Buffy pulled out another stake and dusted the vampire.

Getting up Buffy looked for Willow and saw she had climbed a tree about 10 feet away. Standing up, "Willow are you ok?" Buffy called out when she heard Willow yell, "BUFFY! LOOK OUT!"

Before Buffy could react she felt a sharp pain in her back by her shoulder. Crying out in pain and falling to her knees Buffy saw the point of a blade sticking out the front of her shoulder only to hear something fly by just where her head had been a moment ago. Standing up and turning around, Buffy saw a large vampire standing in the open. Buffy could see he had dozens of throwing knives on two crossing bandoliers and a curved, one-handed sword in his hand.

Stalking closer towards her. "Your time is done Slayer, for I shall go down in the Annals of Clan Assamite with your death!"

"Talk, talk, talk! Blah, blah, blah! Can't you guys come up with something original once? Look at me," Buffy said as she dodged the vampires' attacks, "I spend lots of quality time working on my puns," Buffy said as she landed two hard kicks to the vampires' head. "And do I get any credit or thanks! Nope!" Grabbing the vampire's sword arm as he lunged at her Buffy held it in place before slamming her palm up into the vampires' elbow shattering it.

Screaming as it dropped the sword, Buffy pulled out her last stake and jammed it into the vampire's chest and the last vampire exploded into dust. Falling to her knees in pain, Buffy felt Willow's hands on her back.

"Oh my god Buffy! We have to get you to a hospital, you're bleeding all over your back!" Came Willow's worried voice.

Leaning back into Willow's grasp, "No can do Will. But I'm going to need your help...you're going to have to pull that blade out of my shoulder when we get home. But I need you to grab the vamp's sword and give it to me."

Willow's eyes opened extra wide, "What? Pull it out?" Willow moved over to where the sword was and pulled the heavy weapon over to Buffy who easily picked it up and used it as a crutch to push herself up.

"Will, a little help would be good." Buffy said, trying not betraying the pain she was feeling.

Instantly Willow was by Buffy's side and felt Buffy wrap her good arm around her shoulders. "Come James, once around the block and straight home." Buffy joked weakly. "I can't go home like this, can I crash at your place? It'd be kinda hard to explain to Mom all the blood I'd be leaking over the floor."

"That's no problem, my parents are out of town for the next week." Willow replied.

Rosenberg home 

Willow pulled out her house keys and opened to door letting them both inside and steering Buffy towards the bathroom.

"We're gonna need dark coloured towels, some hot water, a needle and some thread...oh and a pair of scissors." Buffy ticked off the mental list of things she'd need to have Willow get as she sat on the bathroom floor weakly.

Willow came back a few minutes later with most of the items and turned on the hot water in the tub, filling it partially.

"Get a towel near you and then I need you to grab the blade in my back and pull it out. Once you pull it out push the towel against the wound tightly, okay?"

"I don't think I can do this Buff." Willow said, as she felt queasy.

"Yes you can Will, I know you can do it and your the only one who can!" Buffy felt Willow's hand shake on the blade, "Just breathe Willow, in and out...okay?"

"I'm sorry Buffy," Buffy heard Willow say when the knife was pulled out of her shoulder and Buffy fought not to scream.

Breathing heavily, "Okay…well the hard part's over." Buffy tried joking.

Several minutes' later Willow had cut off Buffy's jacket, shirt and bra, leaving Buffy only dressed in her black pants. "Okay you're doing great Will. Now you need to pull the towel away from the wound and look to see if there's anything inside the wound. If there is, you're gonna have to get it out, otherwise it's not going to heal and just get infected."

Willow began to feel lightheaded at the thought of seeing more of Buffy's blood. "Buffy, I'm not feeling..." Willow trailed off as everything started to turn gray and she fell forward.

Before she could hit the bathroom floor, Willow felt Buffy catch her in her arms. Opening her eyes, Willow saw the towel Buffy had on had fallen off leaving her exposed to Willow's gaze and at the sight of a partially naked Buffy Willow fainted...again.

When Willow came to she looked around wildly for Buffy and saw her sitting next to her. "You okay now Willow?" Buffy asked as one hand was running through Willow's hair.

"Yeah. But, how'd I...but you're hurt you shouldn't have carried me...I'm sorry!" and Willow broke into tears.

"Hey, its okay Willow. If I were you I'd have fainted a long time ago." Buffy said trying to cheer her friend up.

Slowly Willow stopped crying, "I'm sorry Buffy," Willow started to say more when she was cut off.

"Don't be sorry Willow, there's no reason. What you did was a lot to for me to ask for, even for a friend." Buffy said as she slowly let go of Willow.

Thirty minutes later Buffy was now stitched up after several more false starts when Willow almost fainted as she tried to stitch the wound on Buffy's back. Walking down the stairs Buffy was now dressed in a pair of red sweats and button down shirt.

"Hey Will, you okay?" Buffy asked as she saw Willow lying down on the couch.

"Yeah, I've just never done 'that' before." Willow replied weakly. Her stomach still bothering her. "Next time can we try and not have a next time? That was not a fun."

"So where can I find a pillow and a blanket? 'Cause I really feel like I could sleep a million years here."

Willow looked shocked at Buffy's question, "Where do you think you're sleeping Buffy?"

Buffy started to shrug before grimacing as a bolt of pain stabbed her shoulder, "The couch of course, where else?"

"Buffy Summers! You are not sleeping on the couch! You are sleeping with me..." Willow suddenly turned scarlet as what she said hit her. "Uhhh, that is you are sleeping in bed with me..."

Buffy almost laughed out loud at Will's first sentence and had to bite her cheek so she didn't laugh when Will tried explaining herself again.

"That is, you and me, that is you and your best friend, will be sharing my bed. In a non-lesbian type sex type way," Willow got out, "ButitsnothatyournotprettyandallbutIonlymeantsleepandnotthesexandstuffandgodIaminsuchtrouble!" Willow suddenly blurted out.

Buffy had to stop and puzzle out the Willow-babble a minute as she watched Willow turn even redder, if that was possible! "Willow, that's what I thought you meant. I didn't think you were trying to hit on me." Buffy walked over to Willow and put her good arm over Willow's shoulder.

Walking to Willow's bedroom Buffy stepped inside, "Hey when'd you upgrade Will?" Buffy asked as she nodded towards the queen-sized bed.

Distractedly, "Hmm? Oh! I was tired of the old bed and I convinced mom I needed a new one for my bad back."

Looking down at Willow, "Will...you don't have a bad back." Buffy said as she looked at her friend.

"Well no, not now! But there's always the possibility I will though!"

"Aha. I see. Well I'm not gonna complain, I don't get to sleep on a queen sized bed very often!"

Willow moved onto the bed and under the sheets and noticed Buffy was still standing by the side of the bed. "What's up Buff?"

"Maybe this isn't a good idea, I think I hear the couch calling my name Willow so I'll go." Buffy said suddenly nervous and unsure why.

"Buffy Anne Summers! You will get yourself into this bed right now! I am not having my best friend, who is hurt, sleeping on the couch! No sirree bob!" Willow said firmly.

Sighing defeat as Buffy saw Willow turn on her Resolve Face, "Okay Will, the bed it is then." With that, Buffy slid onto the bed and under the covers and the lights went out.

Buffy was just starting to relax and drift off when she heard Willow's voice.

"Buffy you know what I meant downstairs about the bed-sharing, right?" Willow asked.

"Isn't it a bit late to be asking me that now that you've invited or should I say ordered me into your bed?" Buffy teased.

Buffy heard unintelligible sounds coming from Willow, "It's okay Will, I understood what you meant. You can relax now, I'm not having gay-type thoughts of ravaging you in your own bed here."

"Oh well that's good, I mean bad or something, I mean its not like your not pretty or smart or I wouldn't think of you that way if I was thinking of you in a lesbian sex type way if you if it weren't for the fact that your my best friend and I'm going to shut up now and sorta die of humiliation here." Willow pulled the covers over her head, blushing furiously in the dark and feeling rather stupid

Biting back a groan of pain as she turned onto her bad shoulder so she could face Willow, "Will, you need to relax. It's okay, really." Reaching over Buffy pulled the covers back to reveal Willow's face. "I shouldn't have teased you and I really understood what you meant. So go to sleep and stop worrying... Its not like best friends can't share the same bed together."

"True. And thanks Buffy."

Both women drifted off to sleep minutes later…

**The Next Morning…**

Buffy opened her eyes to the morning light that bathed the room. Comfortable where she was, Buffy snuggled closer when her brain suddenly asked, Snuggle closer to who? Looking down Buffy saw Willow draped partially over her, Willow's arm was clutched possessively over her waist and Willow's leg was tangled with own.

Buffy continued to mull her options of how to extricate herself from Willow over in her head as sleep claimed her again.

Willow's first thought as awareness hit her, was how warm and soft her pillow was. Snuggling closer to her warm pillow, Willow felt a tickle of warm air on her ear. Opening her eyes suddenly Willow was greeted by Buffy's sleeping face just inches from her own and Willow noticed she was laying half on Buffy's body and tangled in-between her legs. Willow blushed as she removed her hand from just under Buffy's breast, when Willow noticed Buffy's arm was draped over her back as well.

Slowly and carefully Willow extricated herself from Buffy and slid out of the bed. Willow saw Buffy start to toss and turn before she pushed several pillows next to Buffy who seemed to calm down again as she wrapped herself around one of the larger, fluffier pillows

Tip-toeing out of the room and walking down the hallway to the bathroom Willow turned on the shower, "God was that bad! Can you imagine Buffy's face if she woke up with me all over her?" Willow stripped and stepped under the hot water.

Checking the clock Willow walked over to the phone and started to dial Mr. Giles' house. The phone rang several times before Willow heard Giles' voice, "Hello?"

"Mr. Giles, this is Willow."

"Good morning Willow, now what has you calling me at such an early hour today?"

"Well Buffy ran into a vamp and she got hurt last night..."

"Is she alright?" Giles asked concerned for his young Slayer.

"Yeah, but this vamp was kinda weird and we wanted to talk to you about it."

"Come by the Library early this morning Willow so you and Buffy can tell me everything."

"Okay, we'll see you at the library then Mr. Giles." Willow hung the phone up and walked up to her bedroom.

Willow walked into her bedroom and found Buffy still sound asleep. Sitting down on the bed, Willow gently shook Buffy's good shoulder. "Buffy...Buffy! You have to get up, it's almost time for school."

"Don' wanna," Buffy mumbled and pulled the covers over her head.

"Come on Buff, you don't want to miss another fun-filled day at school do you?"

Pulling the blankets down under her nose, "You're kidding me right? Fun-filled and Sunnydale High School don't belong in the same sentence, I think it's a rule somewhere."

"The bathroom's the first door on your left and the linen closet's right across..."

15 minutes later found a slightly damp Buffy sitting and eating hot cereal in the kitchen with Willow sitting across from her.

Both Buffy and Willow were finding it difficult to look the other in the eye, Well she hasn't said anything, so hopefully she doesn't remember me using her as a giant teddy bear in bed last night! Willow thought nervously.

"We should probably call Giles about last night." Buffy finally spoke up.

"Already done Buffy. Mr. Giles said to stop into the Library early." Willow replied cheerfully.

"Yeah? Well I guess we better head on over and fill Giles on what's new, maybe he can figure out what that vamp was." Buffy picked up her cereal bowl and drank the last bit of milk in it. "Ready?" Buffy asked as she stood up.

"I just have to stop by my house for a sec and pick up some clothes, I don't think Snyder'd be too thrilled to see me in sweats."

**Sunnydale HS**

**Library**

Giles controlled the urge to start pacing as he waited for Willow and Buffy to arrive. Finally the door swung in and Giles heard Buffy and Willow talking as they walked in. "Good morning ladies. Now what is this news you had for me this morning?"

Buffy walked over the large, oak table and tossed the long, curved sword she'd had hidden under her knee length grey, leather jacket with a loud clang.

Giles' eyebrows shot up in surprise, "I see, and was there anything else about this vampire other than this sword?" Giles asked as he picked the sword up, "Interesting, it appears to be an Indian Tulwar and in excellent condition no less."

"A wha?" Buffy asked.

"Oh yes, the Indian Tulwar is quite a deadly blade. Now you say that your attacker had this Buffy?"

"Yeah, that and a load of throwing knives. He was weird though, right before he attacked me with the sword he was telling me about how he was gonna get into the annals of the asamight or something." Shrugging lightly, "It's not like I had time to have a conversation with the vamp, you know?"

"The vampire said Assamite?" Giles asked and when Buffy nodded yes, "Hmmm, I remember something about that name, but I can't recall it at the moment. I'll have to research it, can you stop by during lunch? I should have the information we need by then."

Several hours later Giles was looking through the last of his books on vampire clans and cults when he turned the page and saw **"Clan Assamite"**, as he read further Giles paled and stood up starting to pace. Walking to his office Giles picked up the sword, searching one side he turned it over when he saw the small crest of a dagger over a crescent moon. "Oh dear," Giles uttered as he sat down.

**Library**

Buffy found Giles in his office as she came in, "Giles?" Buffy called out.

Pushing his glasses up, "Buffy, good you're here." Giles said as he stood up. "I believe I found something about the vampire that attacked you. It seems that the vampire that attacked you belonged to some cult of vampire assassins."

"What? Why are vampire assassins coming after me? Don't I have enough problems just with the local vamps and demons in this place?" Buffy asked angrily.

Adjusting his glasses, "Yes, well, it seems you've acquired another one. Someone wants you dead and very badly, at that. This 'clan' of vampires hires themselves out as professional assassins for the demon world. According to what I've been able to decipher about them, the only thing these fanatical assassins fear is failure."

"So how do I stop them then? It's not like I can just keep killing every new assassin they send after me forever!"

"Do not joke Buffy. These assassins are quite deadly." Giles admonished Buffy. "I would suggest you increase your training with Angel as well, I will add some new techniques to our sessions that may be of some help. If anything their attacks will become more intense as they begin to send their more experienced assassins after you. Also I would suggest that you try to avoid patrolling alone at night and have Angel patrol with you. I know that you normally only carry a stake with you, but until this problem with the Assamites is resolved I'd suggest you start carrying a few more weapons with you as well at all times."

Buffy blinked several times in surprise at Giles suggestion, especially about carrying weapons.

"Why don't you stop by my house after school, I believe I have few weapons that you might find useful."

"Sure," replied Buffy, not really feeling sure about anything.

**End Chapter 1**


	3. Chapter 2: First Blood

**Chapter 2: ****First Blood**

**Old Chapel Ruins**

**Outside Sunnydale**

Six cloaked figures stood in a circle, "This Slayer will not be the easy kill we were led to believe Brothers."

"Agreed," came another voice, "Taragan did manage to injure her, surely though she cannot face us and win."

"You saw her, she barely broke a sweat killing Taragan!" Came a shrill voice.

"**SILENCE!"** The first voice thundered as the room fell silent, "Since you fear her Kerron, you will be the bait tomorrow to lure the Slayer into out trap."

"The rest of you ready your weapons and yourselves and pray to Allah for the strength and skill to overcome this Slayer."

"Yes Lord," came the groups reply.

**Restfield Cemetery**

**Same Day**

Walking patrol through the Restfield Cemetery, Shaking her head Buffy patted the stake in her pocket when she felt her Slayer Sense go off. "You can come out Angel, I know you're there."

There was a long silence, that was finally broken as a tall, dark figure stepped out of the shadows.

Buffy started to smile when she suddenly sensed the figure wasn't Angel, Buffy saw the figure suddenly twirl something above it's head and throw it. Dodging to her left Buffy started to move into a tuck and roll when she felt something wrap around her legs and she fell.

Looking down Buffy saw a bola wrapped around her knees and pulled out a knife. Something caused her to look up as another bola wrapped itself around her arm and the balls came together slamming into her wrist numbing it, the knife fell from her nerveless fingers.

"Damnit!" Buffy yelled and she moved her good hand to grab the knife as the figure moved back into the darkness and Buffy saw a second figure come charging at her. Whipping her hand up with the knife in it Buffy started to cut at the bola that held her legs together. Buffy saw the other figure was only a few yards away and threw the knife into the vampire's knee causing him to stumble and fall.

Reaching behind her Buffy drew the short sword strapped onto her back, with one quick move the blade sliced through the steel wires around her knees and stood up in time to meet the now angry vampire. Buffy saw the vampire was carrying a sword and stepped towards the vampire as he swung at her head. Parrying the vampire's attacks, Buffy waited for an opening. Finally Buffy noticed the vamp tended to put too much into each lunge, leaving himself vulnerable. This time instead of parrying, Buffy pivoted sideways at the last moment and the blade cut thru the space she had been in. Using her sword to push the vampires blade away from her Buffy leapt up and landed a spinning kick to the vampire's temple stunning him. As she landed Buffy moved behind the vampire and swung down, slicing through the Achilles tendons on the vampires' leg and he collapsed in a heap screaming. As the vampire fell, Buffy pulled out a stake and quickly dusted the vamp looking around for his buddy but saw nothing but shadows.

Omar watched the Slayer carefully as she fought his student and not even a few minutes later, Omar watched the Slayer kill his student after crippling him. Having seen what he wanted for tonight, Omar leapt away into the deep shadows and headed back to his lair to discuss this night's events with Khalif.

Dusting herself off Buffy heard running footsteps and turned around to see Angel running towards her, "Buffy!"

Stopping short Buffy saw Angel was a bit worse for wear; his black duster jacket was torn and cut in several places and his shirt was sliced open. "Angel, are you okay?" Buffy asked.

"Actually I was going to ask you that? Did you run into anything?" Angel asked as he looked Buffy over carefully.

Sheathing her short sword, "No, just a couple of vamps. Nothing I couldn't handle, what about you though?"

"That's good. I ran into a pair of demons hunting around some old mausoleums, seems they were looking for something, but I don't know what." Angel answered as they started walking.

Buffy and Angel wandered for the next few hours only finding 1 newly risen vampire, "Angel I'm gonna call it a night. Whatever was going to happen didn't so I figure I'll catch up on some Z's."

"Ok. I'll take another walk through the cemeteries in case something decides to show up." Angel leaned in to kiss Buffy and got a quick hug before Buffy pulled away and headed home.

**Jenny Calendar's home...**

"Willow, you have to learn to split your attention. You can't just focus everything on one thing, otherwise you'll leave yourself vulnerable to being attacked by a second attacker or you'll be too busy countering one spell and miss his real attack on you."

"I'm trying Miss Calendar. I'm just not getting the hang of it." Willow said dejectedly.

Smiling at her young pupil, Jenny summoned an image of Buffy as 2 blue balls materialized; one flying at Buffy and the other blue fireball flew at Willow. Without thinking Willow cast a Shield spell over Buffy just as the fireball hit it, dissipating and dodging the fireball that flew at her. Willow threw a green fireball of her own and saw it slam into the bull's-eye of the target next to Miss Calender, there was a loud BANG, as the training session stopped. "Yippee! I did it!" Willow yelled as she jumped up and down excitedly.

"Very good Willow! I told you you could do it, you just needed some motivation. We'll call it a night, because you'll feel exhausted by the time you get home. Your working magickal muscles you didn't know you had." Seeing Willow nod, Jenny walked over and ruffled Willow's red hair. "You did good Willow. Stop by tomorrow same time and I'll show you some new applications for the spells you already know."

"Okay Miss Calender." Yawning suddenly, Willow felt tired.

Jenny led Willow to the front door, "Good night Willow."

**Continued in Chapter 3**


	4. Chapter 3: Trials & Tribulations

**Chapter 3: ****Trials and Tribulations**

**Sunnydale High School**

Giles walked into the cafeteria looking for Buffy and saw her sitting at a table on the other side of the room. Ignoring the looks from the other children Giles walked over to Buffy's table and saw Xander and Willow at the table as well. Clearing his throat, "Miss Summers, it has come to my attention that you have an overdue library book. Please have it brought back no later than 4pm today." With that Giles turned and left the cafeteria just as he saw Snyder walk in.

Leaning over towards Buffy, "Does that mean what I..." Willow stopped talking when she saw Principal Snyder standing at their table. "Uh yes?" Willow asked nervously.

"Ahhh! All the juvenile delinquents in one place. Just how I like them." Turning his attention to Summers, "Miss Summers. I see you were late again this morning, that is the 4th time in the last 2 weeks. I'll be contacting your mother about your continued tardy behaviour and about suspending you the next time it happens." Smiling, Snyder turned and walked away with a cheerful lift to his step.

"Geez Buff, that's harsh," said Xander as he stuffed a roll in his mouth.

"Personally I think he's a frog in search of a lillypad." Buffy said when she saw Willow's face. "Sorry Will, I forgot. My bad."

"No, it's good. I need to deal with my froggy issues!"

Reaching over Buffy took Willlow's hand, "That's the spirit Will, meet that fear head on..."

"And run as fast as possible in the other direction I say!" Xander chimed in and got a dark look from Buffy.

"Xander, don't help." Buffy said annoyed at Xander's attempt at humour.

"Hey Buff, you know what they say; 'Into every garden a little rain must fall,' although in Will's case I think it'd be frogs..." Xander said as he fell into a fit of laughter at his own joke.

Buffy slammed her foot down on Xander's toes and Xander jumped up only to have his legs ram into the bottom of the table causing him to fall backwards and launch all the trays on the table into the air before they landed on him with a loud clatter as they hit the floor.

"I think Xander's done with lunch Will, what do you think?" Buffy said in an innocent voice

"I guess so." Willow replied. "I didn't think Xander was that clumsy anymore though..." Willow said to Buffy as they walked out of the cafeteria.

"I did want my brownie though." Willow mused.

"You can have one of my mom's homemade cookies if you help me with my math homework tonight,"

"That sounds suspiciously like a bribe, how do you know I'm bribable?" Willow folded her arms dramatically, "I could be the uncorruptable-type you know, like Kevin Costner in _The Untouchables_, only a woman."

"Will, when it comes to my Mom's Double-Fudge Chocolate Chip cookies you crumble at the very mention of them," Buffy said mock-smugly.

Her mouth watering at the thought of Buffy's mom's cookies, "What time do you want me to stop by?" Willow asked.

"Stop by after the meeting. If you're nice I'll even let you stay for dinner."

**Sunnydale Library**

**Late Afternoon**

Pushing the doors to the Library open Buffy and Willow walked inside. "Hey Giles, what's up? You found something more on that vamp?" Buffy asked.

"Yes I did."

Buffy looked at Willow in time to see her sticking her tongue out at her, "You keep that up and someone'll bite that tongue someday Will." Buffy said with a smile.

"You wish!" Willow retorted.

Buffy saw Miss Calender and Xander were already sitting and waiting for them to arrive. Grabbing a seat Buffy sat down and Willow took a seat by Xander. "So glad you could join us Buffy," Came Giles' dry British voice.

"Hey I got held up! It's not like were talking end of the world saveage I'm late for."

"Well now that everyone is here..." Giles walked over to the table carrying the sword from the now very dead vampire and laying it down on the table. "It would seem that someone wants you dead Buffy. According to my research, the Assamite's are not your typical vampires,"

Willow spoke up, "Not typical how?" she asked.

"It seems that they are a clan of assassins for one. They don't Turn just anyone into a vampire according to what I've been able to find, but rather it is a 'gift' for years of service. They allow themselves to be hired out as assassins by vampires and other supernatural beings, and it is something they have proven to be very good at. In fact, they've almost never failed, there have been a few exceptions of course. But as a rule failure would mean death for the assassin."

"But why would Buffy be targeted now? Most of the vampire's she's faced are all history and they didn't exactly seem all that loyal to each other," asked Willow.

"Very true Willow, most of them are dead. But not all I'd wager, plus she has put a dent in quite a few attempts in opening the Hellmouth. One of the smarter ones may have decided taking Buffy on directly wasn't in his best interest." Giles replied.

"So where does that leave me then?" Buffy asked concerned.

"For right now it means you'll have to be on your guard. I've a few contacts I'm waiting to hear back from, perhaps they will be able to give me some more information that will be of use to us." Giles answered.

"Rupert, do these assassins only go after their target or do the rest of Buffy's friends need to be on the alert as well?" Jenny Calender asked.

Taking his glasses off in a nervous gesture, "I don't know if they'd consider her friends as targets as well," Giles answered Jenny's unasked question, "and if that is the case then it might be wise if Willow and Xander went out during only during the day and stayed indoors during the night."

"Hey! I can take care of myself Giles," Xander said as she puffed his chest out.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, "Be that as it may Xander, however you will stay inside at night! Buffy cannot be effective and take care of herself if she is worrying about you being attacked or worse."

"What's worse than dead?" Xander asked cluelessly. "That's pretty much the end of the line there." Xander got a kick in the shins, "Ow!" he yelled.

"Being vamped would come under 'worse', Xander!" said Willow.

"Oh," Xander said feeling a little deflated.

Frowning Willow turned toward Miss Calender, "But what about my training?"

"Don't worry Willow, your training won't stop. I have a few things in mind that may help you keep off the vamps radar." Miss Calender replied reassuringly.

"Hey Buffy, at least on the positive side if you're going to be dead, you won't have to worry about studying for Miss Kramer's geometry test this week!" Xander said cheerfully.

A look of hurt and anger passed over Buffy's face, standing up Buffy grabbed her jacket and walked out of the Library.

Xander felt a hard smack to the back of his head, "Hey!"

"What is wrong with you Xander? That's not what Buffy needed to hear from a friend!"

Xander looked over to see a very angry Willow, "But that's not what I meant, I was just joking. You know, trying to break up the doom and gloom here."

Xander felt another blow to the back of his head again, "Xander sometimes you are so stupid!" Willow said angrily before grabbing her stuff and running after Buffy.

Willow caught up with Buffy a few minutes later, slightly out of breath, "Hey Buffy!"

"Hi Will," came Buffy's flat reply without even looking at her.

"Buffy, I'm sorry about Xander, he's an idiot sometimes, actually a lot of the time, but he usually means well."

Shaking her head, "He's right in a way though. Even we manage to figure something out with these vamp-assassins, I'm still not going to see my 18th birthday. So what does it matter?"

Willow grabbed Buffy's arm and pulled her around, "You stop that Buffy! It does matter and you're not going to die anytime soon!"

Smiling sadly, "Yes I am, we both know it. It's just a matter of time is all. Well at least you won't have to waste your time helping me study." With that Buffy turned and started walking quickly away.

Angry at Buffy's depression, Willow ran in front of Buffy. "Buffy Anne Summers you stop this pity party right now! You are going to graduate high school and as long as I'm around I'm not letting you die anytime soon!"

A small smile crossed Buffy's face, "Is that so?"

"Yes!" Willow answered strongly.

"Well then who am I to say no when Willow has spoken." Grabbing Willow into a hug, "Thanks Will." Buffy said softly before letting go of Willow. "You up for drowning the depression under some choclatey cookie goodness? Mom baked another large batch today."

Linking her arm with Buffy's, "Yep! Let's go. And later we'll go over that math test..."

"Will!" Buffy mock-whined. "I'm the Slayer I don't need to study!"

"Well Miss Slayer...you do! I'm not letting you turn into a female version of Xander!"

"Ewwww! That was a visual I could have done without!" Buffy said with a grimace.

"You know what I meant!" Willow said as she gently slapped Buffy on the arm.

"Yeah. Now hurry I think I can smell those cookies from here!"

**The next night...**

"You sure you want to be out here tonight Will?" Buffy asked as they walked through the graves of the cemetery.

"For the third time yes and you're stalling...What is a Tangent in terms of sine and cosine?"

Before Buffy could answer she saw a vamp jump out of the darkness and grab Willow throwing her to the ground. Buffy felt the heat of anger and grabbed the vamp by the neck, throwing him off of Willow.

Pulling out her stake, Buffy intercepted the vamp as it charged Willow again and jammed her stake into its heart. A short scream and a cloud of dust were all that remained of the vampire.

Turning back towards Willow, "You okay Will?"

"Yeah, just a little sore." Willow said as she got up off the ground.

Khalif nodded to himself as he saw how the Slayer defended her little "tag along" friend. So much the better, she'll be distracted by her friend and easier to kill. Khalif thought smugly at rubbing this victory in Omar's face. With that thought Khalif signaled the 1st group to attack.

"So a tangent is the opposite side divided by the adjacent side of the triangle," Buffy was saying as four vampires charged out of nowhere. "Damn!" Ducking under the arms of the first vamp Buffy jammed her stake into the heart of the vampire behind him. Buffy felt something hit her from behind, making her stumble slightly and blocked the kick from another vampire. Grabbing the vampires' foot Buffy twisted it hard to her right and heard a SNAP as the vampire cried out in pain and fell to the ground. That's two down! Hopefully they didn't notice Will.

Willow backed up from the vampire that stalked towards her. "Uh, nice vampire?" she asked as he looked around desperately for something wooden.

"Sorry but I just love eating little girls," the vampire growled as he moved towards his prey.

Calming herself Willow called the magick to herself and created a ball of green fire in her hand behind her. "Are you really, really sure about that? Your friends look like they could use some help you know."

"Yes I am!" the vampire yelled as he suddenly charged.

Willow watched the vampire charge her and brought the fireball in front of her throwing it to meet the vampire's charge. As the fireball hit it engulfed the vampire in green flames and in a matter of moments the vampire screamed as it turned into dust.

"See I told you you should help your friends!"

What! That's no tag-along, she's a Witch! Since when does the Slayer Hunt with allies? Khalif thought angrily. No matter. I must tell Omar of this development though, we cannot fail, if we do the alternatives are not pleasant. "But if I kill the Witch that will make it much easier when I go after the Slayer," smiling evilly, "Yes, that will work quite nicely."

Buffy looked around and saw Willow walking towards her, a feeling of relief swept over Buffy as she saw Willow looked uninjured. "Hey Willow, you okay?"

"Yep! Willow - 1 and Vamp - 0!" Willow said with a grin.

"Glad to hear it. I think that that's enough patrolling for tonight though. Let's head back in."

"You sure? I'm okay and it's kinda early to stop patrolling." Willow asked as they walked towards the exit of the cemetery.

"Yeah, plus I think that attack was it for the night..." Buffy stopped walking suddenly as she felt her Slayer sense go off and looked around. Off towards some mausoleum's Buffy saw several figures moving around. "Will, stay here!" Buffy whispered before running towards the figures, keeping to the shadows as she did.

Pulling up behind a large tree about 10 feet away, Buffy peeked around the tree at the figures. She could see that the figures were tall with dark blue skin, Demons! But what are they doing or looking for?

"Was it there?" a familiar voice asked and the demons stopped, turning to see a vampire in a black duster walk out of the shadow of the nearest mausoleum.

One of the demons snarled, "Go away vampire, your kind isn't welcome here."

"Awww, now that's not very nice and here I wanted to help you guys out." the vampire replied with a smile that bared his fangs.

"Nezzoharborath, not like your kind! When he return, he will kill you all!" Asgaroth, the leader of the demons replied.

The vampire started walking slowly in a lazy circle towards the demons, "Nezzo eh?" And Buffy saw the vampire clearly for the first time and gasped inadvertantly as she recognized him, even in 'Game Face'. "Angel?"

The closest demon whirled around at Buffy's whispered voice and charged her, it's claws bared.

Drawing her sword Buffy blocked the demon's attack with its claws and dove between its' legs, coming to her feet behind it. As she rolled to her feet Buffy turned and swung the sword at the back of the demon's legs and the blade sliced cleanly through, severing one leg at the knee and the demon toppled over. But Buffy was already on the move running toward the closest of the demons.

To Buffy's surprise Angel attacked the nearest demon with a kick to its head and then Buffy was too busy fighting to see Angel anymore. Parrying the attack from one demon, Buffy kicked another and rolled to her left to give her some room when there was a loud **WHOOSH** behind her and an explosion threw her forward head first into a tree.

Willow had heard Buffy call her name before she ran off towards some old crypts. Uh oh! There must be some trouble over there! Willow realized as she moved to follow Buffy. Stopping suddenly Willow opened herself up and looked for any magick she could tap into. Seeing a smallish ley-line nearby, Willow "grabbed" the line and opened a connection to it, feeling the magick flow into her. Satisfied she was ready now Willow moved quickly towards where she saw Buffy was last when she heard the sounds of fighting up ahead.

Just as Willow was nearing the fighting a large, blue skinned demon seemed to pop out of nowhere and Willow fell backwards trying to avoid it's claws. Scared, Willow reacted with the first spell that came to mind, **_"Ergane Incendium!"_** Willow' voice boomed loudly and a basketball sized ball of blue flame flew from her hands towards the demon. With a loud **WHOOSH** the ball completely engulfed the demon incinerating it and continuing on its path before exploding just in front of 2 other demons 10' feet behind the first one. The blast picked Willow up and threw her backwards as she felt her head hit something hard and Willow saw stars.

Angel had heard from Willie that some demons were looking in the old crypts for something, a weapon of considerable power that was hidden away somewhere. He had spent the last several hours waiting when he finally saw some demons searching the crypts here.

Angel saw one of the demons must have gotten wind of Buffy and attacked her, Oh well, so much for the stealthy way! Angel had thought as he attacked the demon's leader, Asgaroth. Angel thought things were under control, Oh great! Willow! he thought sarcastically Can things get any more complicated? Angel was thinking just as he saw Willow cast the flame spell and dove through the doorway into a crypt.

Stepping out of the crypt, Angel saw the demons had been burnt to ashes along with everything else nearby. Looking around nervously Angel finally saw Buffy lying on the ground about 20 feet away.

Buffy started to sit up quickly and stopped, leaning back down her head pounding. "God, did someone get the license plate of the truck that hit me?" Buffy mumbled.

Willow got to her feet and saw her spell had gone wrong and frantically looked for Buffy. Seeing a body lying a little ways out of the blast Willow ran towards it full tilt, regardless of how much she hurt. Seeing it was Buffy Willow fell to her knees and pulled Buffy into her lap. "OhgeezI'msosorryBuffyitwasthedemonhestarteledmeandIhadallthismagickandyouhavetobeokayorImnevergoingtoforgivemyself!"

Willow was rewarded with a large smile from Buffy, "Can you say that again Will? But this time lots slower please!"

Willow hugged Buffy tightly, "You're okay!" Willow cried out as she held onto Buffy not wanting to let go.

"Yes Will, but oxygen becoming an issue here. Can you ease off the hug a little?"

Instantly contrite Willow let go of Buffy. "Sorry." Willow said with her head down.

"Will, I said ease off a little on the hug. Not let me go." Smirking, "So you cast a little spell there?"

Willow held Buffy against her, feeling better now that she knew Buffy wasn't furious with her for her spell almost killing her. "Yeah, I sorta put a little more energy into it than I meant to."

Turning her head Willow saw it was Angel, "Angel, Buffy's hurt can you..." Willow never finished.

"Willow are you crazy? That spell almost fried Buffy and me! What were you thinking?" Angel asked, angrily cutting Willow off.

"Leave it alone Angel!" Buffy yelled, "It was an accident," and winced as her yelling made her headache worse.

With that Angel picked Buffy up easily in his arms, Willow felt a flash of jealousy as she watched Angel walk away with Buffy. Willow sat there for several moments trying to decipher her feelings, before just giving up and following them finally.

**Assamite Lair**

**That Night…**

Khalif walked into the underground lair and headed directly for Omar's chambers. Seeing the doorway Khalif walked past the assassin standing guard, unannounced.

"Omar, we have a complication with our target," Khalif stopped as he saw Omar feeding on a human and waited for him to finish. A minute later, the human fell to the floor and Omar turned to face him. His dusky skin and sharp-featured face was marred by the blood smeared on his mouth and running down his neck.

"What is it," Omar asked impatiently, "that you cannot wait for me to finish my meal?"

"The Slayer has allies, and one of them is a Witch." Khalif replied simply.

Khalif was rewarded with a look of surprise on Omar's face, "What? A Witch...here?"

"Yes here." Khalif said smugly. "We will have to revise our initial plan to include removing the Witch as well."

Smothering his initial surprise Omar's mind worked furiously, "Perhaps there is another way to kill the Slayer," Omar said calmly as the germ of an idea came to him. "What do we know of the Slayer's family?"

"Family?" Khalif asked. "You know the Law. Families are off-limits unless it is cleared by an Elder to take such actions."

"Unless the situation is dire and the target will escape termination," Omar finished. "I would say this complication makes our situation dire and since there is no Elder to contact. I say we use the Slayer's family as a weapon against her."

"No! That is not acceptable and I will not be a part of such a dishonourable act!" Turning around angrily, Khalif took one step when he felt something slam into his back. Khalif only had a moment to realize he had been betrayed before he exploded in a cloud of dust.

Stepping over the pile of dust Omar opened the door to his quarters. "Go and summon the others, there has been a change in our plans." Omar walked out of the room and took several steps before he stopped and turned around toward the guard. "Oh and clean that pile of dust in my quarters before I return."

Fifteen minutes later Omar stood in the meeting room looking at the seven other assassins in the room. "There has been a change of leadership. I, Omar ali-Hazef Hussein, am now in charge. There will be no more attacks on the Slayer for the time being, instead I need to know about the Slayer's family; who they are and where they can be found."

Omar looked at each of the vampires and saw no dissent, "Then go! Find out what I need and we shall have the Slayer!"

**Continued in Chapter 4**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

Angel's Mansion

1 Hour Later…

Willow had let Angel tend to Buffy as she tried at first to meditate and center herself. Think calm, relaxing thoughts. Willow thought to herself as she struggled to calm the magick that flooded through her now as well as her own chaotic thoughts.

Bit by bit, Willow felt the nervous energy slowly fade, That's good. Just relax...pleasant thoughts Willow started to drowse off when she sensed Angel walk into the room.

"Yes?" Willow said slightly unfocused as she struggled to come out of her deep meditations.

"What were you doing out there tonight Willow?" Angel asked, his voice a deadly calm. "Are you trying to get Buffy killed? Because you're doing a good job of setting that up!"

"I was out with Buffy tonight as backup. And no I'm not trying to get Buffy killed! I was there to help her, it's not like she can fight those assassins all by herself. She's going to need our help and I didn't exactly see you there!" Willow felt the calm she'd achieved start to crack under her anger.

Angel stopped his first reply as Willow's words sank in, "Assassins? What are you talking about Willow?"

"Assassins. Some clan of vampires that call themselves Assamites have targeted Buffy, they came after her two nights ago." Willow replied, realizing Angel didn't know about the assassins after Buffy.

"Well what did you tap into tonight Willow, because that spell was way over-powered for just that one demon."

"Oh, I found a minor ley line and just tapped into it to give my magic a boost when I saw Buffy disappear. I figured she'd need all the magickal help she could get if it was those assassins again." Hopping off the chair she was sitting on, "All you have to do is make a connection to the magick line, siphon off some of the energy and..." As Willow suddenly realized something. "Ooops!"

"Ooops Willow? OOOPS!" Angel started pacing, "There are three things I never want to hear; Ooops, Willow and magick in the same sentence! What ooops!"

Blushing, "I just realized I didn't close the connection..." Willow replied quietly.

Sitting down on the floor, Willow calmed herself and took stock of the magick around her. Seeing the connection, Willow reached out with her "hand" and gently severed the connection.

"Look Willow, I know you wanted to help Buffy but tapping into magick lines like that is really dangerous. I'd hold off doing that again until you've studied and practiced some more, because it's not only dangerous to you but to everyone around you. Okay?"

Nodding in agreement, "Okay." Willow replied and yawned widely. With the connection gone now Willow felt exhausted and stretched inside like never before and started to tip over. Two hands caught her before she fell and Willow drifted off, "Buffy..." Willow mumbled with a smile and fast asleep by the time Angel had laid her down on the couch.

The following evening…

Giles' townhouse

"Well, now that everyone is here..." Giles said, beginning the meeting when he saw Xander raise his hand.

"Excuse me, but does deadboy have to be here? This is a Scooby meeting, not an undead party." Xander griped.

In an overly patient tone of voice, "Yes Xander, Angel does need to be here. He needs to know about what he may be facing with Buffy, in addition he has some information on the vampire assassins who have targeted Buffy as well." Giles answered.

"I was able to find the name you gave me Angel, it seems..."

"Hey! I was here too when you spoke to Angel Giles!" Buffy interjected.

Sighing softly, "Yes you were," Giles said patiently, "Now as I was saying, Nezzoharborath is a Greater Demon Lord of the Abyssal Planes. As for what he might be looking for, it isn't clear. Although he was banished from this plane after a titanic battle that defeated his forces and forced him out of this Plane and back to his own. So perhaps there was some magick item that he had collected and now needs."

"I think for the time being until we know more it would be best for us to concentrate on the present threat, the vampire assassins." Turning his head to look at Angel, "Angel do you know anything about these vampires? My research has been rather spotty with information on this group." Giles asked.

"These aren't your everyday, run-of-the-mill vampires. The ones that get chosen are tough, smart and don't make the same mistake twice. They're completely ruthless when it comes to killing anyone who's in the line of fire when they attack. The Assamites are also very secretive about themselves. There are rumours of a secret, city-fortress they have somewhere in the Middle East, but anyone who's gone looking hasn't come back."

"Is there any way to stop them Angel?" Buffy asked.

"Yes, but it's almost impossible though." Pausing for effect, "You have to kill so many of them that they deem you a target of too high a risk. Once that happens they have a ban on you and they will never accept a contract on you again."

"And how many times has this happened Angel?" This time Willow asked.

"Maybe 3 or 4 times at most. The last one they called a ban on was The Master, and it took him 25 years to convince them he was too dangerous to hunt."

"Great!" Buffy said sarcastically. "It's not like I really have that much time to waste on killing enough of them that they let me alone."

"Yes. Well. It would seem we have some things to consider then." Giles interjected into the silence.

"We need to consider something else as well Giles. Since Nezzoharborath is in the Abyssal Plane, who's directing the demons to search for whatever artifact he's looking for?" Angel asked out loud.

"One of the demons' minions?" Willow suggested. "If that's the case, why don't we find out where he his and go after him?" Willow asked. "I mean Angel already said it'd take a while to stop the vamp-assassins, so why not get rid of this minion so Buffy's not worrying about having to fight both of them?"

"Sounds like a plan to me." Buffy said firmly. "At least I can take care of this guy. Is there anything you can do to find this demon's minion Willow?"

"I don't know. If this minion is a demon, I can try a demon locating spell. It'll show the location and type of every demon in Sunnydale."

"Good. Can you cast it tonight Will?" Buffy asked.

"Sure."

"Giles. I'll need you to research what ever it is this minion is looking for so we can get it before he does." Buffy said in her take-charge mode.

"Hey it sounds like we've got a plan here!" Xander said as he slammed the book in front of him closed and Giles winced.

"I'll see if Willie's seen anyone new lately," Angel volunteered and disappeared out of the Library.

Seeing they were focused on this plan, Giles retreated into his office and took out several books from his private stash of rare occult books and started reading.

"Buffy, can you clear a space on the table?" Willow asked as she pulled out a large map of Sunnydale.

"Consider it done," Buffy said as she moved the books stacked on this side of the table to the other side. "There you are Will."

Spreading the map of Sunnydale out on the table, Willow pulled out of her pouch a crystal on a chain, and two different coloured powders, placing all of them to the side of the map. Taking a small bowl out of her backpack, Willow added a small amount of each of the powders to the bowl and started mixing them as she chanted softly under her breath. After several minutes Willow stopped and looked up. "Okay. We're ready here."

Taking a handful of the powder Willow sprinkled the powder over the map and watched it glisten and sparkle as it slowly fell. Where the powder touched the map and there was a demon, a coloured spot would appear.

Everyone moved closer to the map to look at it. "Okay Will! Nice mojo you've got going!" said Buffy with a broad smile, proud how far Willow seemed to have come under Miss Calender's tutelage.

"Hey, I'm a bad ass Wiccan!"

"So Will, what do you see?" Buffy asked as she looked over the map.

"Hmmmm." Willow studied the different lights, Vampire nest, demons, demons, vampires... "Hmmm, now that's odd." Willow said out loud as she saw there was one odd spot on the map that seemed to be empty of anything; magickal or demonic.

"Hmmm? What's the hmmm Will?" Buffy asked.

"The hmmmmm is this spot here." Willow pointed to an area just outside of Sunnydale city limits.

Frowning as she looked at the spot Willow was pointing to. "I don't get it Will, what's the big about that spot?"

"There's nothing there, that's what." Willow answered. Seeing Buffy wasn't understanding what she meant Willow continued, "Think about it Buffy, this is Sunnydale and there are demons everywhere, right?"

Buffy nodded.

"So, why is this large area completely blank? No demons or anything." Willow saw understanding dawn on Buffy's face. "So why would there be **nothing** there..."

"…unless something was hiding," Buffy finished.

"So what are we going to do now that we know where he is Buffy?" Xander finally asked after getting lost in the magick conversation between Buffy and Willow.

"Tonight we wait and let Giles do his research thing and Angel find out what he can from Willie. Tomorrow we'll start doing some recon and try to narrow it down." Yawning and feeling tired, "And on that note I think I'm gonna call it a night." Buffy said with another wide yawn and shook her head trying to clear the fuzz out of her brain.

"Why don't you walk Buffy home Willow? Cordelia said she'd try to stop on by and we'll...uh..put the books away in the stacks. Right!" said Xander.

Looking Xander over a few times, "Are you sure you're alright Xand? I don't remember the last time you volunteered to do anything work related…" Willow said with a suspicious feeling over Xander's suddenly helpful mood.

"Who me?" Xander said with an exaggerated innocent look. "I'm always volunteer guy!"

Yawning again, "Well that's nice Xander," Buffy said as she fought to stay awake. Walking over to Willow Buffy picked up her backpack, "Come on Will, let's motor."

"Okay," Willow said doubtfully as she looked at Xander one last time before following Buffy out of the Library.

Feeling herself drifting off mentally, Buffy put her arm over Willow's shoulders as they walked.

Willow felt herself bear more and more of Buffy's weight as they continued to walk and slowly neared Buffy's house. Looking over at her Willow saw Buffy's eyes were barely open and made a quick decision. "Change of plans Buff. We're going to my house."

Shaking her head, no, "I can make it Willow." Buffy said, enunciating each word slowly and carefully.

"No Buffy." Willow said with a firm voice. "We're going to my house, it's only a block away."

Buffy took one look and saw Willow had pulled out Resolve Face version 2 and surrendered. "Okay Will, to your house we go." Buffy smiled tiredly.

Willow carried Buffy into the house and upstairs to her bedroom. Lowering her down onto the bed, Willow undressed Buffy down to her sports bra and underwear, putting Buffy's clothes to the side.

Following suit, Willow stripped out of her clothes and pulled on a large knee-length nightshirt and slid into bed next to Buffy. Willow had just gotten comfortable when she felt Buffy's arms wrap around her and hold her close. Willow felt herself blush as she felt Buffy's breasts against her back and Buffy's breath on her neck.

Not wanting to wake Buffy Willow didn't slip out of her grasp, "Night Buffy".

"Night Willow. I love you." Buffy replied sleepily as she snuggled closer to Willow and drifted off to sleep.

End Chapter 4


	6. Chapter 5: Hide and Seek

**Chapter 5:**

**Hide and Seek**

Spike and Dru's Lair

"Spikey! The stars are just all whispering to me tonight!" Drusilla said as she danced by herself.

"Are they? And what are they saying Pet?"

"Oh they're saying that soon the nasty Slayer will be gone and so will her Witch-kit." Pouting suddenly, "I'll miss the Little-Tree though Spikey."

"I won't. Damn annoying she is, I'll be glad to see both of them gone."

Spike walked out, leaving Dru behind to her dance. His mind was busy turning over the last bit of info he'd gotten about what the Sorcerer was looking for.

"So the damn sorcerer's trying to get his hands on the Sword of Chaos and open a Gate. We'll just have to see about that, I'm not quite ready to move into Hell just yet. I've gotten kind of attached to the walking Happy Meals."

Pacing back and forth in his chambers, the Sorcerer fretted. Damn! Everything up until last night was going exactly as planned. And now suddenly there's someone in this little dustball who has the audacity to challenge me! ME! AND kill my minions! "No matter, I should have the Sword soon and then...then I'll be unstoppable!"

Giles looked up from the book he was reading, his eyes tired from all the books he had looked at so far. Looking over Giles saw the Codex and pulled it out, opening it and starting a new search for any clues. As he was scanning the pages Giles stopped as something caught his eye and started to read a passage that seemed new;

"_On the fifth night of Hecate's Moon, before the Second Millenium/One of Hell's Gates will be opened/Chaos will be sown in the Valley of the Sun. _

_But the Chosen One and the fire child of Gaia will enter the Gate into the Abyss/There they will end the Chaos and seal this Gate to the World of Man for all Eternity."_

_Thus spoke the blind hermit of Coronado on his deathbed and recorded by William of Dragna, Scribe to His Holiness, the Bishop of Florence in the year of our Lord 1353._

This is strange, The Chosen One is obviously Buffy...but who is this fire-child? And this prophecy is rather unusual to say the least as well. As Giles started to look for any further clues about that passage he heard a noise behind him. Whirling around Giles saw Spike leaning in the doorway smoking a cigarette. Grabbing a Cross off of the desk Giles held it out in front of him. "What are you doing here Spike?" Giles asked angrily as he kicked himself mentally for being so distracted he never heard Spike until it was almost too late.

"Hey there mate, relax! I'm just here to talk, if I wanted a snack I wouldn't have come here."

"And what are you here to talk about Spike?" Giles said angrily.

"Well it would seem that we have a common problem." Spike said taking a long drag of his cigarette.

"Oh and what would that be?"

"The Sorcerer," seeing no response. "The guy who wants the Sword to open the Hellmouth,"

"And why are you here telling me this Spike? It's not like you really care about something like that." said Giles.

"Well there are a few reasons," taking a last drag on the cigarette, Spike put the cigarette out on the bottom of his boot. "For one, I rather like this world as is; you have loads of Happy Meals on legs walking around, Manchester United and football for starters..."

"Please, don't insult my intelligence Spike. That's not the real reason, is it?" Giles said as he reached out to grab a stake off of the desk.

"No. There's also this annoying problem with Poofelus, you see my Dru wants her daddy back. Now me? I'd prefer Brood Boy over there to Poofelus any day, that and the whole end of the world thing tends to upset my eating habits..."

"Get to the point Spike!" Giles snarled.

"Fine! Dru is working with the Sorcerer to keep the Slayer too busy to stop him, in return he'll strip Angel of his soul right after he lets his demon master into this world." Taking another cigarette out Spike lit it up, "Now I trust this guy about as far as I can throw him."

Giles paled as he realized the implications if a Demon Lord made it into this world. "And you want us to help you stop him. Why?" Giles asked suspiciously.

"I told you! I like this world as it is and I'm not in any hurry to start slumming it in the Abyss thank you! Here I don't have to fight everyone else for me dinners. Which is where you and your precious Slayer come in and stop this idiot."

"So is that all you've come to tell me or is there something else?" Giles asked while he moved forward forcing Spike back.

Putting his arms up in front of him, "Hey! Stop that!" When he saw Giles relent and back off slightly, Spike put his arms down and shook his duster as if shaking something off it.

"I want an out for me and Dru. We leave and don't come back." Seeing Giles nod, "Oh yeah, this Sorcerer needs something called the Sword of Chaos...it belonged to a Demon Lord or something and it's the last piece he needs to open a Gate. Dru says he's real close to finding it."

"Well you've done what you came to do Spike. Now I suggest you leave before you wear out what little welcome you have here." Giles said threateningly.

"Right then, I'll be going. You just remember this conversation in the future, here?" With that Spike quickly moved out of the library.

Giles watched as Spike quickly left, satisfied he wasn't coming back Giles headed back to his books to look up this Sword of Chaos. Hopefully Angel will have something, like where this is tomorrow. I have a feeling time is moving against us...

Rosenberg home

The next morning

Willow heard someone ringing the doorbell in her dreams over and over and over, until finally she forced one eye open and realized that the doorbell wasn't a dream. Forcing her brain to start working Willow noticed her body was molded against Buffy's and she could feel every curve of Buffy's body against hers. Willow blushed even more hotly when she realized Buffy's warm hand was under her nightshirt and held her waist tightly.

Trying to be careful not to wake Buffy, Willow carefully disengaged herself from Buffy pushing several pillows next to her. Slipping out Willow grabbed an old cotton robe and slipped it on as she walked down the stairs to the front door. Pulling her long hair back from her face Willow opened the door to a dusky skinned young woman.

"Uhmmm…" Willow said unable to come up with a name.

"It be Kendra...Kendra de Vampire Slayer. I'm a lookin for Buffy and her mom say she here. Can I come in?"

"Uhh, yes," said Willow as she opened the door to let Kendra in. "You're looking for Buffy?" Willow asked, still feeling a bit fuzzy and not completely awake. "Well she's upstairs in my bed."

One eyebrow went up at Willow's comment, "Oh really? Well dat must a been a recent happening, yes?"

"Huh? Well yeah, we just went to bed last night."

"Well is dis a Slayer thing, you and Buffy?" Kendra asked pointedly.

Willow stopped for several moments to think about the last few minutes of the conversation and blushed a deep red as she suddenly realized what it sounded like. "Oh wait, no! That's not what I meant... There's no Buffy and me, it was just us sleeping...friend-like is all."

"So sleepin wit Buffy was what friends do here then?" Kendra asked, confused by the mixed signals she was getting.

"Nononononononono! I did not have sex with Buffy...period!"

Shaking her head, "So you didn't be havin sex wit Buffy then?" Kendra asked confused still.

"No! No sex!" Willow said blushing even redder as she remembered how she woke up in Buffy's arms.

"Okay den, can you wake her up? I've news about de Sword..."

"Yes. You stay here and I'll go wake up Buffy...who I did not have sex with!" Willow said in a rush as she ran up the stairs.

Several minutes later a slightly tousled looking Buffy came down the steps, followed by Willow. "You have some information about some Sword?" Buffy asked.

"Yes, but we should go to your Watcher first so I not be tellin dis twice."

"Fine," Buffy said with a frown, "we'll go see Giles first. You ready Wills?"

"Yep! That's me!" Willow replied a little too cheerfully.

Sunnydale HS

Library

Xander raised his hand, "So what you're saying then is that this Sword of Kaos thingie belonged to some demon that wants to come back here? And if we don't find it first, the world's doomed...everlasting apocalypse, etc, etc?"

"Yes, dat not quite what me been sayin exactly. But yes dat be right." Kendra said with a frown.

"Very good, thank you Kendra." Giles said as if he was speaking to his favourite student. "That information will be most useful."

Kendra pulled out a stake suddenly just as Angel walked into the library. "Dis be good, now we havin the vampire here!"

Buffy shot Kendra a dark look before turning back to Angel. "Angel, what' brings you out in the daytime?"

"I think I have the location of the Sword, but I can't get to it," Angel said as he held out a folded piece of paper towards Buffy. Taking the paper from Angel's hand, "The sword they're looking for is in a old mausoleum over in a cemetery on the outskirts of town, but with the sun up..." Angel trailed off.

Smiling, "Thanks Angel. Kendra, Willow and I'll go check it out."

"No, dis bein' a job for Slayers, not your friends. We should go alone." Kendra said with a scowl.

Turning back to face Kendra, "Going alone would be stupid and Will can handle herself, she's coming." Buffy said firmly.

"She's not a Slayer. We'd just be havin' to looking out for her." Kendra said just as stubbornly, looking towards Giles for support on this.

Giles saw Xander start to say something and walked over to where Xander was sitting and put his hand on Xander's shoulder as he shook his head, no. "This is between them Xander, don't try and help."

Buffy walked right up to Kendra's face, "This is my town Kendra! You're the visitor here! That means we're doing it my way and Willow's coming with! You can either stay here or come along, you choose." Turning around Buffy took several steps towards the door and stopped, "Will, you ready?"

"Yep!" Willow said as she caught up with Buffy and both girls walked out.

Kendra looked at Giles who only shrugged his shoulders, "And dis is how you Slayer does tings?" Kendra asked out loud.

"As a matter of fact...yes." Giles replied.

Growling angrily, "Fine!" Kendra said angrily as she left to follow the Slayer and her friend.

Andragoras Mausoleum

Outside Sunnydale

Kendra had been keeping silent the entire time and watched Buffy and Willow as they walked to where the Sword was hidden. Kendra noticed how the two girls seemed to walk next to each other almost touching, but not quite and how Buffy's gaze seemed to linger on the other girl when she wasn't looking. Confused at this behaviour, Kendra sped her pace up and caught up with Buffy. "Buffy, can we be talkin alone a moment?"

With a small frown, "Sure," Buffy replied and followed Kendra a few paces away from Willow. "What is it Kendra?"

"Why does you really be want'n Willow here?" Kendra asked, her arms folded across her chest.

With her hands on her hips Buffy stopped and looked at Kendra with a scowl, "I want Willow here because she's a Witch and we might need her magick to help us out, plus she can take care of herself. Why?"

"Well I watched you two as we walked and before at the Library. You always standing close to her, you look at her a lot when she not seeing you...I was tinkin you had another reason you wanted her with us."

"Oh..uh...well, we're just friends is all." Buffy said as she felt flustered suddenly. "But I want Willow here 'cause she can be a big help with the magick if we need it."

"So you bein jus' friends is why you neck is red?" Kendra said with a raised eyebrow. "Well if she can help us, then I be okay wit her along." With that Kendra started walking again.

They arrived at the mausoleum several minutes later and stood there looking at the plain stone mausoleum that showed signs of age and wear.

Standing in front of the Andragoras mausoleum Buffy looked at Willow, "Sense anything Will?"

Closing her eyes Willow opened herself up, looking for any magickal wards or warning spells. After a minute Willow opened her eyes, "Nope, nothing there."

"Okay then," Buffy said as she looked over at Kendra, "You ready?" and saw Kendra nod yes.

"You stay here Will. Let us go in first and see if it's clear or if there's something inside. K?"

Both women walked up to the stone door, which had no knob or hinges, only a length of chain dangled from the top of the door. Looking at each other they nodded and grabbed the chain, pulling it taut. "On three," Buffy said. "One, Two...Three!" With that both women pulled with all their strength and slowly the door began to slide forward inch by inch. Buffy saw the door sliding towards them when it suddenly tipped forward, grabbing Kendra Buffy pulled her away from the door as it fell over with a loud **_SLAM_** where they had just been standing.

"'Tanks Buffy." Kendra said with her first smile.

"Welcome, now let's go and get ourselves a sword." Buffy said as she stood up, dusting herself off. Buffy walked over the door and stepped into the mausoleum and back out again. "Buffy? What's wrong?" came Willow's voice.

"I can't see my own nose in there. We need some light."

Walking over Willow took out a vial and moved to the threshold, throwing the vial down Willow heard it shatter, **_"Occulum!"_** there was a flash and a green light filled the room. Backing up, "Better?" Willow asked with a smile.

Walking behind Kendra, Buffy stopped next to Willow. "Show off! You enjoyed that, didn't you?" Willow's only reply was a smile and Buffy followed her fellow Slayer into the crypt.

The first thing Buffy saw was a large stone sarcophagus in the center of the room when a horrible smell assaulted her nose. "Icckkk! Wad is dat?" Buffy said as she held her nose.

"I not be noin, but it come from dat pool of ooze next to da stone coffin." Kendra replied, her hand over her nose as well.

Buffy took two steps and stopped, looking down Buffy saw the floor was littered with bones; human and animal. "Uh oh!"

Library

1 Hour Later…

The doors to the Library flew open and in walked three women all covered with slime, "You see that's the one thing I hate about Slayage, it's the constant destruction of a perfectly good set of clothes!" Buffy complained.

"Not to mention the slime!" Willow said as she wiped her face for the 100th time.

Everyone in the Library looked up when they heard the doors but a few moments later they were assaulted by an unbelievable stench coming from the three women.

Xander waved his hand in front of his face, "Geez Buffy, couldn't you have taken a shower before you guys came back? Or is this some new Slayer perfume "Ode de Stink"?

Steeling himself against the smell, Giles walked over to the three. "Did you get the Sword?" he asked.

"One slime covered, prophecy filled Sword." Buffy quipped as she handed the large, two-handed sword to Giles.

"Ahhh, yes." Giles said as he took possession of the sword. "I believe I'll leave you so I can clean this off..."

Jenny stood up, "I think I'll help you Rupert, that looks like a two person job!" With that Jenny followed Rupert out the back of the Library.

"Hey Buffy, it looks like that slime bath drove all the adults away. I wonder why?" Xander asked.

"Because they have more sense than we do?" Oz said dryly.

Buffy, Willow and Kendra looked at each other before each threw a large glop of slime hitting Xander.

The Sorcerer watched as Dru wandered into her lair, several spots of blood marring the white dress she was wearing. His hand shot out and an invisible hand grabbed Dru by the throat lifting her up into the air, her feet kicking.

"You have failed me vampire! Give me one reason to let you live!" The Sorcerer growled.

"Miss Edith was just telling me we have a way to get the Slayer and your precious sword!"

"And how was Miss Edith going to get the Sword before I rip your useless head off?"

Smiling insanely, "Why the Slayer's Mum of course!" She's so nice and tasty and that nasty Slayer will do anything to get her back!"

Lowering the insane vampire to the ground, but not his hold on her. "So you want an angry Slayer to go hunting you down?"

"No silly!" Dru said in her sing-song voice. "The Slayer and her friends will be after the assassins who will have taken her mum..."

"And while they're distracted I get the Sword," the Sorcerer said as he thought carefully for a moment. "Yes, that could work!"

"Very well. You have 48 hours to get the Slayer's mother, once you have her..." The Sorcerer pulled out a vial with a greenish powder in it from a pouch at this waist. "Use this. It will tell me you have her and that the Slayer is on her way for the meeting to her Mother back."

The Sorcerer waited until Drusilla reached for the vial, "Fail me this time and I will personally make sure you spend the rest of your un-life suffering torments that you cannot begin to imagine!"

Grabbing the vial from the Sorcerer, "And how do I use this?" Drusilla asked, unconcerned by the Sorcerer's threats.

"Throw it on the ground outside..." smiling evilly, "during the day and I'll know."

Continued in Chapter 6 


	7. Chapter 6: Choices

**Chapter 6:**

**Choices**

"Finally! Now what is it that is so important you felt it necessary to contact me?" Omar snapped out.

"I know a secret! I know a secret!" Drusilla said as she walked in a circle.

"And what secret is that?" Omar asked, trying to mask his nervousness around the insane vampire. Damn she gives me the creeps!

Looking up at the ceiling as she walked, "Someone's been naughty and broken their rules!"

A cold shiver went down Omar's back. "Oh really?" he asked as he reached for the knife on his hip.

Stopping her walking, Dru looked over at the head assassin, "Yes Omar. Miss Edith told me what you did and you've been a naughty boy!" Dru said as she walked behind Omar, "but that's okay, we likes naughty boys!" Dru breathed softly into his ear.

"What do you want?" Omar growled out, wanting nothing better than to kill her outright.

"We have a way for you to get yourself the Slayer!" Drusilla said cheerfully.

"And how's that?" Omar asked, his anger forgotten and his curiousity peaked.

"Thru her Mum silly!" Dru crooned.

"Her mother? Hmmm," Omar mused. "That could work very nicely and we can then have the Slayer walk into a trap of our making!"

"And I know where to find her!" Clapping his hands once, "Very good! You have served the Order well Drusilla!" Omar turned to make preparations.

"Don't fail Omar! There are things far far worse than your masters waiting for you in Ansharr if you do!" Drusilla voice drifted to him. Spinning around Omar saw the cave was empty.

* * *

After leaving Kendra and Willow back at Willow's house, Buffy walked towards her house. As she walked into the yard Buffy saw the front door was open. Pulling out a stake Buffy ran towards the house.

Pushing the door open the rest of the way Buffy peered inside and silently stepped into the house. Her stake ready, Buffy steeled herself as she started searching the house. As she walked into the living room Buffy saw that it was a mess. Tables and lamps were thrown about. Where's mom?

Heading to the stairs Buffy walked up the stairs like a wraith, without a sound. Heading straight for her Mom's room, Buffy pushed the door open and only saw the bedroom furniture. Moving back out Buffy checked the rest of the rooms, finding nothing waiting for her or what she feared before heading back downstairs.

After searching the rest of the house, Buffy walked back into the living room, a knot forming in her stomach when the phone rang. Grabbing it, "Mom?" Buffy said nervously.

"No Slayer, this isn't mommie." a man's voice said sneering. "She's a little tied up, hehehehe!" the voice said as it laughed at it's own joke.

Equal amounts of anger and fear rushed though her, "You hurt her..." Buffy started to say.

"And you'll do what? Maybe we'll just send her back to you on the new liquid diet!"

Buffy felt her heart freeze at that threat. "What do you want?"

"We want you. Be at Pier15 at the docks in 2 hours, there's a warehouse and you come alone." The voice threatened. "You listen to us and when you show up at the warehouse we'll let your "mommie" go unharmed, you try and double cross us and "mommie" here'll be dinner." With that Buffy heard the line go dead and a dial tone.

Buffy listened numbly to the dial tone for several seconds before shaking her head angrily. Damnit girl, think! Okay, first thing is to get help and that means Giles... Dialing Giles' number Buffy heard the phone start to ring on the line.

"Giles, those vamps grabbed Mom!" Buffy said urgently.

"What? Meet me at the Library and we'll work on a plan to get her back." Giles said, his British reserve kicking in.

"No! They said they're watching me and I'm not taking any chances. I just wanted to let you know."

"No Buffy! It will be trap! You can't..."

"Of course it is and I'm going alone!" With that Buffy hung the phone up and grabbed the extra set of car keys before running up the stairs to her bedroom.

Pulling out a large black duffel bag out of her closet and throwing it on the bed. Buffy opened her footlocker and started grabbing weapons, holy water and stakes, stuffing them into the bag. Satisfied she had enough Buffy zipped the bag shut and walked out of the room and back downstairs. So they have someone watching me...hmmm. An idea suddenly popped into her head and Buffy smiled as she started dialing Willow's house.

"Hello." Buffy heard Willow's voice.

"Will, I need you to come over to the house as fast as you can. But you have to do something first..."

Fifteen minutes later Buffy heard the back door open as she waited. The air in front of her seemed to shimmer and then Buffy saw Willow appear. "Hey!" Buffy said smiling and getting a quick hug from Willow. "I take it the spell works,"

"Yep! One bad-ass Wiccan ready to rock and roll!" Willow said with a smile before turning serious. "Are you sure about this though?"

"Yeah. The vamps called me after I was home and it's the middle of the day. That means they have someone watching the house, I'm not taking any chances with Mom's life."

"So while they pay attention to you, I'm gonna sneak in and get your Mom out. Right?"

"Right Will. I'll keep the vamps very busy so they shouldn't even notice Mom's missing until it's too late."

Buffy watched as Willow mumbled some words she couldn't understand, the air shimmered and once again Willow was invisible.

**Giles Townhouse**

Giles swore viciously after Buffy hung the phone up. Calming himself, Giles called Jenny, Xander and Oz telling them to meet him at the Library for an emergency when someone started pounding on his front door. Opening the door angrily, "What! Giles asked when he saw it was Kendra. "Yes?" Giles said as he reigned in his temper.

"Meester Giles. The girl Willow got a call from Buffy and disappeared. I tink she's usin' magick to get away from me."

Frowning, "Unfortunately that's probably the case. It seems Buffy does indeed have a plan to get her mother free." Seeing the puzzled look on Kendra's face, "I'll explain on the way to the Library."

**Outside Pier 15 warehouse**

**1Hour Later…**

"Okay Will, time for you to go get Mom…and be careful!" Buffy whispered softly. Checking her weapons on her, Buffy was satisfied she was as ready as possible and headed towards the front entrance to the warehouse.

Buffy opened the large door to the warehouse and stepped inside letting her eyes adjust a moment to the dim light. "Well I'm here!" Buffy said loudly.

Buffy watched as a vamp walked out of the shadows, "I see you've followed our instructions. Good. Now..."

"Now where's my Mom?" Buffy said cutting the vampire off.

"She' fine." The vampire said. Buffy saw the vampire wasn't very tall, but he was wearing dark clothing and his face was covered except for his eyes.

* * *

Willow had been walking around the warehouse for several minutes when she heard voices coming from a room up ahead. Moving as quietly as she could Willow saw the door was open and walked inside. Her first sight was that of Mrs. Summers who was tied and gagged in a chair in the center of the room. Standing in front of the chair were 2 vampires arguing.

"Hey! I'm hungry and she's here. I say we have ourselves a snack!" said the first vampire.

"You heard what that Omar guy wants. He said, "watch her." Not eat her." The second vampire said annoyed.

"Yeah and what he don't know won't hurt him none either!"

"No way! I'm not getting dusted by him or his pals because you got the munchies, so just chill Ralph."

"Look Norton, he's not here and he's gonna be too busy with the Slayer, so by the time he gets back we'll have bailed."

Norton stopped talking, "What was that? I thought I heard something." As he looked around the room.

Willow saw the first vampire looking around and tossed the fireball at him. The ball hit him in the chest and instantly he was consumed by blue fire that reduced him to ashes.

Willow saw his companion stand there with a confused look on his face, "Ralph?" the vampire said before looking up and seeing a redhaired girl only a few feet away when he felt something hit him in the chest and he followed his friend into dusthood.

* * *

Marco had been watching the Slayer this whole time when he suddenly felt someone using magick nearby. What the...? Yelling, "She's double-crossed us!" Marco ran towards the room they had the Slayer's mother in.

Buffy heard the other vamp from the shadows call out, I guess they spotted Will, hopefully Will and Mom'll be out of here before the other vamp arrives. Buffy tilted her head sideways, "Gee vamp-boy, you having problems?" she said sweetly.

With a snarl Omar launched himself at the Slayer only to see her dodge his attack and pull out a short sword that was on her back.

Calming himself Omar drew his scimitar, "Well little Slayer, you think you may have gotten your mother away, but you won't be going anywhere!"

"Won't I?" Buffy quipped as she blocked the vampire's first attack and his follow up, her only answer was a snarl from the vampire and Buffy grinned.

* * *

Willow ran over to Mrs. Summers and started trying to untie the ropes that held her. It took several tries on a few of the knots, but she finally had Mrs. Summers untied, unfortunately she wasn't conscious.

Shaking her gently, "Mrs. Summers, Mrs. Summers! You have to get up!" Willow heard running footsteps and sensed magick nearby, and called up a Shield over her and Mrs. Summers just as she saw a vampire run into the room.

Black lightning shot out from his hands and crashed into her Shield. Willow saw a look of surprise on the vampire's face as his attack was blocked and Willow summoned a fireball throwing it at the vampire.

"Hmmmm, huh?" Willow heard Joyce mumble groggily. "What's going on?"

Putting more energy into her Shield, Willow turned to see Joyce trying to get up. "Mrs. Summers you were attacked and we're here to get you out."

Willow felt her Shield blocking the attacks from the other vampire, but Willow could feel each attack was hitting harder.

"Who is that?" Joyce asked as she saw the deformed man by the doorway.

"It doesn't matter. What you are going to do is run for that other door and then keep going until you get to a Police Station."

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's happening!" Joyce said stubbornly.

"What's going to happen my dear is your both going to die." Marco said casually.

Turning around to face the vampire, "Not today we're not." Willow said grimly.

* * *

Buffy felt herself starting to tire, the vampire's attacks were relentless and only her Slayer strength and her skill with the sword had kept her alive so far. There's gotta be something to throw this guy off his game, Buffy thought intently as she moved in a wide circle, keeping her distance as she tried to figure her next move.

Buffy saw Omar charge her and launch another series of quick slashing attacks that she fended off when it finally hit her about the vampire. He doesn't mix it up any, he's only been making his attacks with his sword and nothing else… A grim smile crossed Buffy's face as she understood the vampire's weakness and how to use it against him. "Is that the best that the 'Master Vampire Assassin' has got?" Buffy said mockingly. "Geez, I gotta tell you I've seen 2 minute old fledglings with more skill than you've been using so far." With that last dig, Buffy saw a look of hatred on Omar's face as he charged her, yelling. Buffy sidestepped the blade as it swung down and her right foot lashed out sideways, catching the vampire in the stomach, doubling him over.

Dancing back Buffy bounced lightly on her toes, "I guess if you're the best the Assamites have got, I don't have a lot to worry about now do I?" Buffy said and set herself up waiting for Omar's next attack. A moment later with an inarticulate scream Omar charged her and Buffy parried the scimitar, pushing it away and leaping up, her foot snapped forward catching the vampire in the nose, breaking it. As she came back down Buffy immediately dodged to her left as the scimitar passed through the space where she had been moments earlier.

Not waiting this time Buffy made the first move and swung her sword at the vampire, as Omar parried it Buffy immediately dropped low and spun around to her left, the blade flashing as it sliced deeply through Omar's right thigh. Gripping his bloody leg, "You miserable human scum! I'll drain you for that, or maybe I'll just turn your friend and let her do the job for..." Omar never finished the sentence as Buffy feinted a slash to the vampire's left side before she suddenly swung her fist holding the sword into Omar's face twice and blood & teeth flew about.

As Omar staggered back, dropping his scimitar, his hands holding his face Buffy ran the sword through his heart, letting go of the sword as Omar collapsed to the ground.

**Sunnydale H.S. Library**

"So Buffy just ran off to face these vamps without any help?" Xander asked

"Yes. Although she seems to have taken Willow along with her." Giles replied somewhat testily.

"So what do we do then?" Oz asked. "She has to know it was a trap."

Giles finished reading a passage from one of his more obscure texts when something made him look up, "Oh dear." As Giles saw Drusilla and two other vamps on the second floor when the library door exploded in showering them with wooden fragments.

* * *

"Willow, what is going on here?" Joyce asked not understanding what was happening.

"Oooph!" Willow grunted as one of the vampire's spells hit hard against her Shield. "Mrs. Summers, this is not a good time for a conversation…" Willow said as she 'Looked' for any Ley lines she could tap into.

Joyce grabbed Willow upset and shook her, "What do you mean…" Joyce was saying as she saw Willow's eyes open. As fast as she grabbed Willow, Joyce let her go. "What the heck are you? Your eyes…" Joyce said unable to continue as she stared at the black and silver coloured eyes of Willow.

Ignoring Mrs. Summers, Willow felt her Shield start to collapse just as she found a Ley line and 'grabbed' it. A moment later Willow felt the earth's energy flow into her Shield, strengthening and reinforcing it. Moving her hand over Joyce's eyes and speaking one word; **_Strigare!_** With that Willow watched as Mrs. Summers collapsed, asleep and she turned her attention to the annoying vampire. An idea came to her about how she could end this fight and Willow readied her counter-spell. Willow didn't have to wait long as the vampire-mage created another energy ball and threw it at her. Collapsing her Shield, Willow transferred all of the magick into her counter-spell and created a net that caught the energy ball and flung it back at the vampire-mage.

The ball hit the vampire-mage in the chest and enveloped him in a corona of green flames that devoured him, leaving only dust a minute later. Passing her hand over Mrs. Summers face Willow murmured one word; **"_Antare"_** and Mrs. Summers eyes opened, "Willow? What happened?" she asked.

"Oh, uh…you must have hit your head when you…uh, fell. You made it away from the kidnappers when I found you." Willow replied glibly. "Let's get you home safe." Willow said as she led Mrs. Summers out of the room and pulled out her cell phone and dialed a taxi service. "The taxi should get you home quickly," Willow explained. "I've got to go," Willow said as she started to leave.

"Go? Go where? You should come with me! You've already done enough craziness today!"

Shaking her head, "No, Buffy needs me." With a that Willow headed back into the warehouse.

"You're a fool Slayer! Did you really think this was all there was?" Omar bragged.

Buffy just looked at the vampire, not understanding.

"While we wanted you dead, we also acquired what we wanted from the start!"

A light went off over Willow's head and her eyes opened wide. "Buffy! The Sword! They went after the Sword while we were here!"

Angry at herself for falling for their distraction, "Say Goodnight Gracie." Buffy said and the vampire's eyes widened just as the stake entered his heart and he exploded into dust.

Leaning heavily as she stood up, "Is Mom safe?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, I saw her get in the taxi and came right back here. But we have to get to Giles..."

"Then let's get going, maybe we can still get there in time."

**End Chapter 6**


	8. Chapter 7: Sacrifices

**Chapter 7: ****Sacrifices**

**Sunnydale H.S.**

**Library**

Buffy and Willow ran into the Library and stopped, there were books strewn about everywhere. "Will, go check..." Buffy trailed off as she suddenly saw Kendra's body lying on the floor. Running over Buffy dropped to her knees and saw Kendra's throat had been slashed open and she was lying in a pool of blood.

Buffy heard Willow's gasp as she saw Kendra. "Will, go see if you can find anyone else." Seeing Willow hesitate, "Go!" and Buffy saw Willow start to move away.

The door to the Library flew open, "FREEZE!" came a woman's firm voice. Turning around Buffy saw a black, female SPD officer with her gun pointed at both her and Willow.

"You! Redhead! Lie down on the floor." The officer said as she kept her eyes on the blonde girl by the body.

Buffy saw Willow look to her and she nodded, "Go ahead Willow."

Seeing the redhead lying on the floor, "Okay blondie, move slowly away from the body.." the Officer ordered.

"It's not what it looks like..." Buffy tried to explain when there was a flash of light that exploded in front of the cop. Buffy saw the cop grab her eyes and tackled her to the ground, wrenching the gun out of her hand and tossing it across the room. A quick rabbit punch to the cop's temple and she collapsed in a heap.

Getting up, Buffy saw the cop was unconscious and looked back to see Willow standing up, "Was that you Will?"

Willow just smiled back smugly at Buffy.

"Nice spell. Let's go before her partner comes looking for her," said Buffy.

Looking back at Kendra's body, "Yeah." Willow replied softly as she started to follow Buffy.

Heading down the hallway Buffy and Willow made several quick turns, trying to put as much space between them and the Library. "Where do we go now?" Willow asked as they walked calmly out the back of the school.

"Angel's. We can't go home, at least not right now. That's the first place the cops will go."

**Sunnydale Memorial Hospital**

**45 minutes later…**

Buffy walked down the hospital hallway, keeping her head down and the hood pulled over her head. Seeing the room, Buffy stepped inside and saw Giles standing by a bed.

Buffy saw the monitoring equipment on either side of the bed and she could hear the steady **BEEP BEEP** coming from them. The window shade was closed, darkening the room and Buffy walked over to the side of the bed opposite Giles.

Miss Calender was lying in the bed, her head was bandaged and a large bruise was visible on her left cheek. There was a needle and tube in her arm going to the bag of clear fluid that was hanging next to her bed.

"Giles, how is she?"

Buffy saw the worried look on Giles face, "The doctor's say she's in a coma and the longer she stays in it..." Giles stopped unable to finish.

Buffy walked around to Giles and hugged him. "She'll be okay. I'm sorry I wasn't there..."

"It's not your fault, you had to save your Mother and if you had been there you might have been killed as well."

"What happened?" Buffy asked.

"The Sorcerer sent his minions after the Sword. Somehow he found out where we had it."

"And Kendra?" Buffy asked. "I found her..."

Giles eyes hardened, "That was Drusilla. After we were attacked Kendra was fighting them off when Drusilla called them off. She killed Kendra after she mesmerized her somehow. After that things get a bit blurry as I was hit in the head. We should go, the longer you stay here the better the odds are that someone will recognize you and call the Police. Where's Willow?" Giles asked.

"Back at Angel's mansion, I thought it was safer if we split up since the cops are looking for the both of us."

Buffy replied as they left the hospital room. Keeping her eyes down, Buffy walked with Giles quickly down the hallway and towards the elevator.

Buffy kept walking next to Giles avoiding the doctors and nurses roaming the hallways when she ran into someone. Looking up Buffy saw a young woman with flame red hair and wearing a long white doctor's coat, the nametag read **_"Charlie McGhee."_**

"I'm sorry, I guess I wasn't paying attention." Buffy apologized.

"No problem. I do that all the time." Charlie said smiling at the young blonde woman.

"Let's be off Buffy." Giles said quietly and the two of them made their way out of the hospital.

**Angel's Mansion**

Angel, Giles, Oz and Cordelia stood arrayed on one side of the large table and Buffy and Willow stood on the other. "So," Buffy began, "what you're saying is that now that this Sorcerer-guy has the Sword he can open a gate to bring his boss here?"

"That's rather short, but yes. That's correct. And if he manages to open the Gate, the only way to close it will be from the other side." Giles added.

"So is there some way we can track this sorcerer down?" Oz asked.

"Probably not, knowing you lot!" came a British voice, "But then it helps if you have a card up your sleeve..." Spike said as he walked into the room.

Buffy pulled a stake out and moved towards Spike when she heard Giles shout, "Buffy stop!"

Turning her head, "Why? Bleach-boy needs to meet Mr. Pointy!" Buffy said angrily, wanting nothing better than to be rid of this pest once and for all.

"Because Spike's been secretly helping me." Giles admitted.

"WHAT!" came the chorused reaction from everyone.

"Yep, I made a deal with Giles there. He lets me and Dru go and I give him the information he needs about Dru and her plans." Spike interjected.

Giles saw the angry glances directed his way, especially from Buffy and Willow. "Sometimes in order to defeat evil one has to make distasteful choices. This was one of those times Buffy."

"And we're just supposed to let Drusilla walk away after murdering Kendra?" Buffy said in amazement.

"Yes." Giles answered simply.

Grinning broadly, "Dru bagged herself a Slayer? I'll be damned!" Spike said with a wide smile.

Spike never saw the punch from Buffy that rocked him back or the uppercut that lifted him up and into the wall behind him. Staggering to his feet, "Hey now..." Spike started to say as he looked up and saw a book case hovering over his head when it dropped on him.

"Buffy! Willow!" Giles said sharply. "Enough! Spike, for the moment, is an ally." Giving an angry look to Buffy and Willow, "I want you two to go to the Library and into my office, there is a fist-sized blue diamond and a book underneath it. I need both of those things before we can face this Sorcerer. In the meantime Oz...Angel, if you would dig Spike out I believe he might know where the Sorcerer plans to open the Gate."

* * *

Willow saw the black and white SPD car parked in front of the school and turned her head to look at Buffy. "Any ideas on getting in?" she asked.

"Yep, in my frequent escapes from here I found another way in. Follow me."

Willow followed Buffy to the side of the school where there was a vine-covered grating and watched Buffy pull it open and hold it. "After you Will. Just crawl in and go straight."

Peering in the darkness Willow hesitated, "Gee Buffy, you take me to the nicest places," she said before crawling forward into the darkness. Willow found herself moving into the basement and stood up. "Hey how come I never heard of this Buffy?"

"One of the advantages of being a juvenile delinquent I guess." Buffy said with a smile as she stepped next to Willow.

"Come on, the Library's not far from here."

"Will, you keep an eye out and I'll go grab the stuff from Giles' office. Okay?" Buffy asked.

"Okay," Willow replied as Buffy headed into Giles' office.

Several minutes passed and Willow was starting to get fidgity, "Come on Buffy! Hurry up!" Willow said to herself.

"So, the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime. Eh, Rosenberg?" Willow shivered at the sound of that voice and turned to see Principal Snyder standing only a few feet away. "I always thought you were different than those other slackers you hung out with Miss Rosenberg, but I can see I was wrong." Willow watched Snyder start to pace back and forth. "So what do you have to say for yourself Miss Rosenberg?"

Willow started to stammer nervously, "Well it's not like that...and Buffy's good...she's good people and..."

"Who are you trying to convince Miss Rosenberg? You or me?" Snyder said smugly. "There are three words in the English language I love saying more than anything else. Do you know what they are?" Snyder said as he started to walk in a slow circle around Willow. An evil smile crossed Snyder's face, disfiguring it into a hideous caricature. "You. Are. Expelled."

Willow felt the blood drain from her face. "B-but we haven't done anything wrong!"

"Wrong! You and that low-life, slacker Summers are ruining this school and this little 'incident' is just what I need to get rid of you and her. Inciting the students to think for themselves! That's just what this school doesn't need. Independent thinkers! Hah!" Snyder said as he stopped in front of Willow.

Willow felt a slow burn inside her as she listened to Snyder's tirade, "Buffy Summers is nothing more than a low-level street thug and this school...no this planet will be better of without..." Snyder trailed off suddenly.

"What this planet will be better off without is people like you!" Willow said angrily, unaware that a corona of flames had started to flicker around her and now started to intensify. "Buffy Summers is a good person and I'm lucky to have her as my friend! If it weren't for her you'd be dead!" Willow said hotly as the corona spread around her now burned a bright red.

Buffy heard voices just as she grabbed the last item and stepped out of the office in time to see Willow and Snyder. "Willow!" Buffy said loudly as she ran to her friend's side.

"You have no idea of who you are messing with!" Snyder said nervously as he backed up towards the library doors.

"You..." Willow started to say when she felt a hand on her shoulder and stopped. Turning her head, Willow saw Buffy next to her.

"Hey Will. Interesting new look you've got going here."

Her eyebrows dropped in frown, "Hmmm?" And Willow looked down and saw her Aura was glowing brightly. Startled, Willow damped her Aura back down, "Whoops! I guess I was a little angry."

A small grin flitted across Buffy's face, "Just a little?" she asked. Turning her attention to Snyder, "And why are you still here?" Buffy asked as Snyder turned and hurried out of the room.

Snyder ran down the hallway and stopped after turning the corner, pulling out a cell phone and hitting a button on it. The phone rang several times before being picked up, "This is number 10, tell the Mayor I have good news." With that Snyder hung up.

"Let's jet Will, before Snyder comes back with the cops."

**End Chapter 7 **

**A/N – Chapter seven's kinda short, but you'll see why in the upcoming chapters which will be quite longer…**


	9. Chapter 8: Revelations

**Chapter 8: Revelations**

**Angel's Mansion**

Buffy and Willow walked into the mansion, "We got the stuff you wanted Giles." said Buffy, "And Willow scared the snot out of Snyder too!" Buffy said with a grin while she watched Willow blush.

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?" Willow asked.

"What? And give up the only piece of blackmail between friends? Not!" Buffy said with a smile. "How much time do we have before this Sorcerer-guy can open this Gate, Giles? Buffy asked as she started to pace.

"Well from what Spike has told me and my own research...he can start the ritual anytime in the next few hours. But we must stop him before he completes the Ritual..."

"Okay. You and Will put your heads together and get what you need when we confront this guy." Buffy said in full Slayer mode, "Oz, you start packing the weapons so we're ready to move." Turning to face Angel, "Angel..."

"I'll scout out the areas we have figured where he might start the Ritual." Walking over to Buffy, "We'll get him Buffy," Angel leaned down and kissed Buffy on the cheek and walked out having the strange sensation that something had changed between them. Shrugging the feeling off Angel headed towards the sewers.

"And you Buffy?" Willow asked, curious what Buffy was up to.

"There's a few things I need from home. I'll be back in a few." Buffy said and headed out of the mansion for home.

**Summer's Residence**

Buffy started up the walkway as her Mom's Jeep Cherokee pulled into the driveway. Getting out of the Jeep, "Buffy! Where have you been? The Police were here asking questions and I've been looking for you."

"Let's go inside Mom. I'll explain it to you..." Buffy stopped and pushed her Mom to the side as a Vampire jumped out at them.

Blocking the vampire's first punch, Buffy followed up with a quick series of punches to the vampires' head that knocked it backwards, stunning it. Whipping out a stake Buffy jammed it into the vampires' heart and watched it explode into dust. "Must of been a scout for Dru." Turning to face Mom, Buffy saw a shocked look on her face. "You okay Mom? We need to go inside now."

"That deformed man just exploded! What's going on here?" Joyce asked confused.

Buffy took her Mom's hand and guided her into the house not answering, stopping in the living room Buffy turned and faced her Mom. "Okay Mom. That deformed guy wasn't a guy, he was a vampire." Taking a deep breath, "And I'm a Vampire Slayer."

Scratching her head, "A what? Are you sure it wasn't a disease or something he had?" Joyce asked.

"No mom. He was a vampire." Buffy answered.

"Then what about that girl at school, was she a vampire too?" Joyce asked with a confused look on her face.

"No, she was a Vampire Slayer like me." Buffy replied.

"So you didn't kill that girl." Joyce said with a sigh of relief.

"Of course not!" Buffy said indignantly.

Sitting down, "Have you tried not being a-a Slayer?" Joyce asked, feeling overwhelmed suddenly.

"No Mom, it's called Fate, Destiny, whatever you want." Turning Buffy ran up the stairs to her bedroom and pulled out her extra stakes, holy water and the silver short sword from inside her trunk. Putting the extra stakes in a shoulder bag, Buffy slung the sword onto her back and adjusted it so it was easy to grab before heading back down stairs with the bag in hand.

Buffy saw her Mom stand up, "We should call the Police now that we know you're innocent," her Mom said as she walked into the kitchen and towards the telephone.

"What? You thought I did it? Geez Feel the lovin' in this room." Buffy said hurt. "We can't call the Police, we don't have any proof. Just my word." Buffy said as she caught up to her Mom inside the kitchen.

"But the Police will be able to help you." Joyce said as she picked up the phone.

Buffy slammed her hand down on the phone switch hook, disconnecting it. "If you get the Police involved, you'll just get them hurt."

"Well you're not going hurt these vampires, right?" Joyce asked putting the phone down.

"I'm a Slayer Mom, not a Postal Worker. That's what I do. Slay Vampires." Buffy explained patiently.

Joyce moved over to the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of scotch and a glass, pouring herself a drink. "Well isn't killing them wrong?" Joyce asked and then took a deep drink from the glass.

Exasperated, "Mom, they're not alive…they're already dead! Cops can't fight demons, that's my job, it's what I do."

"Can't you do something else?" Joyce asked, "Like knitting or something?"

"Go have another drink," Buffy said angrily and turned towards the kitchen door. "I don't have time for this."

Throwing her glass across the kitchen, Joyce caught up with Buffy, grabbing her and turning her around. "Don't you just walk away from me! You can't just drop something like this on me and expect me to accept it like's it nothing!

"Yes I can, because I don't have time right now, you just have to accept it!" Buffy shouted back.

"Well you will make the time to explain it to me! Because I don't understand!" Joyce yelled at her daughter.

"Don't you get it Mom? Open your eyes! What do you think has been going on for the last 2 years? The fights, the odd occurrences...How many times have you washed blood out of my clothes and you still haven't figured it out?"

"Well I say it stops now!" Joyce said angrily.

"No, it doesn't stop! It never stops! Do-do you think I chose to be like this? Do you have any idea how lonely it is? How dangerous? I would love to be upstairs watching TV or gossiping about boys or... God, even studying! But I have to save the world...again."

Shaking her head, "This is insane! Buffy you need help, help like before. And all this will just go away."

"I'm not crazy...I never was and nothing is going to just go away! I can't pretend like you that none of this is real. Right now what I need is for you to chill."

Shaking her head, "I'm not letting you out of this house."

Coldly, "You can't stop me." Buffy said.

"Oh, yes I can." Said Joyce as she grabbed Buffy by the arms to hold her.

Breaking her Mom's hold, Buffy shoved her backwards and into the kitchen island. Turning Buffy walked to the door and opened it.

"Don't you walk out that door Buffy! If you do, don't bother ever coming home!"

Staring hard at her Mom for several moments Buffy walked out the door knowing she had crossed a line and there was no going back.

**Angel's Mansion**

Willow noticed the dark mood Buffy was in as she walked into Angel's mansion, "Hey Buff, get what you needed from home?"

"Yeah, everything I needed." Buffy said in a flat tone of voice. Shaking her head slightly Buffy jammed all the hurt she was feeling away and hiding it behind a mask of cheerfulness. "How about you? Are you all ready for this?"

"Yeah, I'm as ready as I'm ever gonna be." Willow answered as she saw Buffy hide whatever it was that was bothering her.

Buffy turned as she sensed Angel walking into the mansion, "What'd you find Angel?"

Angel heard Buffy's abrupt tone of voice and his frown, "I've got the Sorcerer's hiding spot. It's about 2 miles outside of Sunnydale, south-east of here."

"Would that be over by the jailhouse built by the original Spanish settlers?" Giles asked as he walked into the main room.

"Wasn't that place used for Witch trials back in the 1600's?" Willow asked.

"That's the one Giles." Angel replied. "And yes Willow, that's right."

"Well we know where this Sorcerer-guy is, is everyone ready?" Buffy asked as she looked around the room. Seeing everyone nod, "Then let's go bag ourselves a Sorcerer."

Oz raised an eyebrow slightly at Buffy's hurry, but decided to say nothing right now and picked up his weapons, following Buffy out the door.

Buffy walked over to Giles and pulled him aside, "Giles, I just want to let you know I told my Mom about me being the Slayer…"

With a knowing look on his face, "I take it she didn't respond well to the news?" Giles asked.

"No." Buffy started to fidgit as she stood, "Just do me a favour and talk to Mom if things go bad…okay?"

Giles placed his hand on Buffy's shoulder, "Things won't go, bad, as you say. We'll all be coming home Buffy." Giles tried saying reassuringly.

Buffy gave Giles a dark look and shook her head, "No we won't and you know it." With that Buffy walked off to catch up to the others leaving Giles behind.

**End Chapter 8**

**A/N - Okay, this was another short chapter, but trust me, the next chapter is a monster! >:)**

**A/N 2 – Charlie McGhee in chapter 7 was a reference to "Firestarter", originally played by Drew Barrym**ore.


	10. Chapter 9: Confrontations

**Into the Abyss**

Chapter 9

Stopping Buffy saw a small house about 100 yards away and turned to look at Angel. "That's it? That little thing is where this Sorcerer-guy is staying?" Buffy said incredulously.

Nodding, "Yeah, the house is just the entrance to the lower levels." Shrugging, "Who'd think there was anything more underneath that?" Angel asked.

"Are we going in there with 'guns blazing' as it were, or are we trying the James Bond route?" Oz asked calmly.

"Fine." Buffy said flatly, ignoring Oz and she pulled out the slim wooden staff that was sharpened on either end. "You guys stay here," Buffy said before walking toward the house.

Willow looked at the others, waiting for someone to say or do something. "What are you guys doing?"

"Buffy said to wait here and she is…like, the expert on things vampy." Said Oz.

Willow looked at Oz, "Yeah? And when has that ever stopped us from being there?" Willow said before grabbing a crossbow and running after Buffy.

The rest of the Scoobies looked at each other and grabbed a weapon, and ran after Willow and Buffy.

* * *

The Slayer walked up to the door and kicked it hard twice. The second kick sent the door flying off its hinges into the house and she stood in the doorway looking at 15 **very** surprised vampires. "Hey boys! Is this a private party or can anyone stop by?"

The vampires stood startled for several seconds before charging the girl that dared to enter their lair, except for one vampire who noticed the way the girl stood in door, confidently holding the odd looking staff and chose to run instead.

The Slayer dropped into a ready stance as the vampires charged her….

* * *

Willow ran into the house expecting to see Buffy in trouble, instead all Willow saw was a cloud of dust surrounding Buffy and 14 piles of ash on the ground. "Oh…" Willow said as she realized Buffy was okay and didn't need her help.

Buffy heard Willow behind her and turned around, "Hey Will. See? No problem."

"Damnit Buffy and what if you were in real trouble? By the time we got here you could have been hurt..." Willow trailed off at the lump in her chest at the thought of Buffy being hurt.

Buffy saw the serious look of worry on Willow's face and instantly regretted what she said.

"You're right...I'll try," Buffy was saying as Giles, Angel and the rest of the Scoobs burst into the house. "Better late than never?" Buffy said with a grin, "I've already called the maid to clean up the mess in here," Buffy joked.

"Any sign of the entrance down?" Angel asked, all business as usual.

"No, but I haven't had time to look either." Buffy replied.

With that everyone spread out, searching the room when Xander's yell, "BINGO!!" rang out. Everyone moved over to where Xander had been digging though a large pile of clothes, jewelry, suitcases and other odds & ends. Underneath was a large square, wooden door with a metal ring in the center set into the door.

Reaching down Angel grabbed the ring and pulled the door open, peering into the darkness he could see a set of stairs leading down. "Down we go then..." Hefting his axe Angel started down the stairs. Oz broke out the 2 torches he had brought with him and using a lighter set them blazing. One torch he gave to Giles who headed down and he kept the other torch for himself. One by one everyone started down the stairs except for Willow and Buffy.

Reaching over Buffy put her hand on Willow's arm, "I really didn't mean to scare you Will, I've just got some things on my mind."

Willow put her hand over Buffy's, "I understand, but...just...please be more careful, okay?" Willow saw Buffy nod before she headed down the stairs.

* * *

Buffy stopped at an intersection and looked both ways, but didn't see any demons. They'd already fought their way through two demon ambushes in the last 10 minutes. "Let's stop here a minute everybody," Buffy said as she stopped the group to let them catch their breath a minute. "Xander, you okay?" Buffy asked as she walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm good to go Buff," Xander said as he tore a sleeve off his shirt to bandage the long cut on his arm.

"Good," Buffy said and she started to walk away. "Xander?" Buffy asked as a thought just occurred to her, "Don't be too much the hero. Cordelia'd kill me if I let you get hurt." With that Buffy walked over to Willow, ignoring the surprised look on Xander's face.

Willow saw the tired look on Buffy's face as she headed over and without thinking opened her arms up, hugging Buffy as she walked over to her. "Are you okay Buffy?" Willow asked quietly.

"Yeah, I've..." Buffy started to say and shook her head angrily. "I'll be fine," Buffy said brusquely as she let go of Willow and her Slayer side took over.

An angry look came over Willow's face, "Don't give me that missy! I'm your best friend, don't try snowing my like you do with Giles or Xander and I can see you're hurting right now! Buffy...look at me," Willow said as Buffy tried not to look at her. "Buffy, I'm not trying to bust your chops, but I thought you realized by now you can let your guard down with me..."

Sighing loudly Buffy stepped back into Willow's arms, "I'm sorry Will. I've just got a lot on my mind and sometimes it's hard to switch out of Slayer-mode with everything right now."

"Just be careful Buff." Willow said before she backed up and walked over to Oz.

As Willow bandaged one of Oz's cuts, Willow suddenly stopped as she felt a build-up of magick someplace close by.

"Willow?" Oz asked, "Are you okay?" Oz asked again as he gently shook Willow's arm until he saw Willow realize he was talking to her.

"Uh, sorry. Something's going on though, I think it's started..." Willow explained before she turned towards Buffy. "Buffy!" Willow called out to Buffy and she saw Buffy turn to look at her, "The Sorcerer's started I think, I can feel a strong build-up of magick somewhere that away..." Willow said pointing to the right. "We have to..."

"hurry," Buffy finished. "I know." Turning back to Angel, "Angel, you head down there and see what's waiting for us. I'll bring the rest behind you, k?"

"Giles, Xander, Oz. Come on. We've got to get a move on, we're running out of time."

"Roger that, Buffy." Xander replied as he and Oz walked past her. Giles stopped by Buffy, "We must stop the spell from being completed at any cost Buffy...So if we..."

"Don't go there Giles! I'm not leaving anyone behind, so don't bother wasting your breath. I already know the parable "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," and that's not an option." Seeing Giles was going to protest, "No! If he casts the spell we'll deal with it then, so just drop it." With that Buffy turned on heel and headed down the hallway at a fast run.

* * *

Angel quickly moved down the hallway and slowed down as he heard voices. Peering into the open doorway, Angel saw 3 demons inside the room playing craps and at the far end of the room was a staircase leading down. Switching to game-face Angel casually walked into the room, "Hey there fellas!"

A green-skinned demon stood up suddenly, "What you do here? You kind no wanted!!"

"I'm the tax collector, I'm here to get your high occupancy taxes for this upper-level establishment. The boys on the first floor okayed me to come on down here you know."

The three demons looked at each other confused at the large words, "You go now! No stay for taxes! We no let any-one here, this is orders from Boss!" the green-skinned demon answered proudly.

Walking forward casually, Angel kept his sword behind his back. "If I leave my boss is going to send the Tax Auditor and she's not as patient as I am." Nodding to himself, "If she has to come here, there 's going to be lots of unpleasantness going on." Angel said stopping just 5 feet away from the three demons. Angel heard footsteps behind him and smiled to himself.

"Who Tax Auditer? We no afraid of little girl!!"

Jerking his thumb back towards the doorway, "That's her." Angel said simply.

All three demons turned to look at the young blonde girl, just in time to see a spear seemingly materialize in the chest of the right-hand demon.

Staggering back, the demon collapsed and Angel jumped forward his sword swinging down and quickly slicing the green demon in half.

The green demon smiled as nothing happened for several seconds when it suddenly slid into two pieces and hit the floor with a wet THWICKK sound. The third demon; a blue scaled demon leapt at Angel with its claws bared.

Angel parried the blue demon's attack with the sword and swung the sword at the demons' arm, only to see the sword bounce off the armor on its arm as sparks flew at the contact. Several crossbow bolts hit the demon as well, bouncing off the demons armor uselessly.

Buffy arrived by Angel's side now carrying a double-bladed battle axe and proceeded to swing at the blue demon and see it shrug off her heaviest blows, with a grim look on her face. Switching tactics Buffy started hitting the demon with the flat of the axe-blade and managed to land two blows to the demons' head stunning it. As it reeled back Buffy ran behind the demon and used the axe-handle to cut off the demon's ability to breathe. Reaching backwards the demon wasn't able to grab Buffy or focus its attention on her alone as Angel continued to attack it and crossbow bolts continued to hit the demon. Slowly the demon started to weaken and before it went limp. Dropping the axe Buffy grabbed the demon's head and viciously twisted it hard with a loud SNAP echoing in the room. With that Buffy dropped the demon and walked away.

Angel paused as did Oz and Willow as they saw the look or lack of one on Buffy's face. All three looked at each other with worried expressions on their faces.

Angel and Oz came to the same conclusion, which was to leave Buffy alone for now and talk to her later. But Willow headed straight for Buffy who stood at the stairway. "What's wrong?" Willow asked quietly as she stopped just behind Buffy.

"Nothing Willow," Buffy said in a dead voice.

"It's not nothing Buffy. I saw that expression on your face." Willow paused searching for the right words, "It was like Buffy was gone and only the Slayer was there..."

"So?" Buffy asked angrily as she turned to face Willow. "What's the problem? I mean that's what everyone needs right now…right? Well, you got what you wanted and the Slayer's come to town!"

"That's not what I wanted or what we need right now. What we need is Buffy to help us out, not the Slayer."

Buffy grabbed Willow and pulled her towards the back of the room, "Don't you get it?!" Buffy hissed. "We can't win this battle with Buffy. She's going to be too worried about her friends to concentrate on doing what has to be done and for that you need the Slayer!"

"No I don't. I need Buffy." Willow said simply.

Buffy grabbed Willow by both arms sharply, "You don't get it do you Willow? We're not all making it out of here, we're on this guys home turf and he's going to have every advantage in this fight! If any of us make it out alive it'll be a miracle!" Buffy said with a look of both anger and pain on her face.

"Buffy, that's the risk we take all the time only this time the stakes are higher than usual. But do you really think that Xander or Giles or Oz or even me don't understand that? We figured that out the day we met you and found out that vampires are real!!"

"But…!"

"No buts Buffy. This isn't a game and we know it. If we don't stop him, no one else can or will…I'm gonna go check on Oz." With that Willow turned and walked away.

Willow saw Angel walk over to the doorway and her eyes widened as she saw the Glyph above the door. "Angel, NO!" Willow yelled a half-second too late as Angel was suddenly thrown back and slammed into the wall across the room, falling to the floor, his back smoking.

Slowly Angel picked himself up off the ground, "You couldn't have warned me 5 seconds earlier?" he asked.

"It's not like it was gonna kill you deadboy!" Xander joked mirthlessly.

Before Angel could reply Giles stepped in between them. "Xander, why don't you go take a look at the drawings on that wall."

"What drawings?" Xander asked. "It's blank..."

"Exactly. Now go!"

"Willow can you break that spell?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah," Willow answered distracted as she pulled out two small bags of powder and mixed them. Chanting softly Willow threw the mixed powders at the doorway and yelled, "**Arbane P'ah!!**" there was a flash as the powders hit the doorway and then the doorway flashed in a violent explosion of a colour. When it cleared Willow looked at the door and tossed a rock through it and nothing happened.

"Nice going Willow! You go with the Witchy Poo Power!!" Xander said as he walked passed Willow and headed down the stairs.

Angel stopped Xander and started forward, stopping at the top stair he looked at Willow. "I'm not going to go flying backwards this time am I?"

"Nope, the spell's broken. But the one that cast it will have felt me break the spell on the stairway..."

"Then he knows we're coming, so let's not disappoint him." Buffy said confidently. "Angel..." and Buffy gestured to the stairs.

Angel took a firm grasp on his sword and headed down the dark stairway, only his being a vampire with their night vision kept him from falling down and killing himself on the small steps of the circular staircase.

"Careful how you walk down, the steps are made so that if you're in a hurry you'll fall and end up either getting hurt or dead." Angel announced to the others as they came down the stairs.

Buffy was the first out of the dark stairway and blinked several times at the bright light as she tried to get her eyes used to the light. Buffy felt herself get bumped twice before her eyes were back to normal and she could see clearly. But what she saw made her freeze; the stairway had opened up onto a large landing about 15' feet above the floor of the room. Stepping forward Buffy stopped on the top step and looked out into the massive room that was easily 150' across and twice as long, the ceiling loomed above them in a dome shape with stalactites of different sizes on the ceiling. There in the center of the room was a raised pedestal that the Sorcerer was standing on, in front of him was a large brazier with smoke rising from it.

"Greetings Slayer and company, to the beginning of the end. I would have invited you to stay, however I've misplaced the welcome mat and neither am I a gracious host!" The sorcerers voice boomed throughout the room. As the sorcerer stopped talking, a large metal gray demon walked out into the room and stepped in front of the large raised pedestal the sorcerer stood on.

As Buffy took a deep breath there was the sound of rock breaking and Buffy turned her head towards the noise in time to see a skeletal hand and arm punch their way out of the stone wall nearby.

"On three," Angel started.

"Three" the Slayer said and jumped straight down into the large group of skeletons below. Bracing herself the Slayer landed feet first on top of a skeleton and pile drove him into the ground. The Slayer heard a thump as Angel landed next to her a moment later. Her axe and mace flashed as she waded into the mass of skeletons. A part of her mind noted that they were all armed and in some cases were still wearing armour as her axe severed bony limbs and her mace shattered skulls, rib cages, arms or whatever else when she hit. The Slayer saw the first group of skeletons was now nothing more than a pile of shattered bones and dust lying on the ground and the stairs were clear. Calling up to the others, "Let's move it down here!" The Slayer yelled as she saw a skeleton out of the corner of her eye who was trying to sneak up on her. Parrying the sword with her axe the Slayer kicked the skeleton in front away from her and whirled around, her mace coming up and blocking the sword stroke that would have hit her in the head.

A quick swipe with the axe and the Slayer saw the skeleton's head bounce away, but that wasn't going to be enough the Slayer knew. The skeleton hesitated a moment and Buffy took that moment to shatter it with the mace with 2 hard blows. The Slayer saw Giles, Xander, Oz and Willow next to her now. "Okay, follow me and let Angel and me handle most of them. You worry about the stragglers and above all, KEEP WILLOW SAFE!"

"I'm not a child Buffy." Willow said angrily.

"No, you're not. You're all of 16 right now," The Slayer said sarcastically. "And if you die, we can't stop the sorcerer! So yes, you will listen to me or I'll tie you up and throw you over my shoulder!"

"Fine. But don't think we won't be talking about this later..." Willow said before walking away and over towards Xander.

Satisfied Willow would listen, the Slayer headed over towards Angel and moved into the new group of skeletons, just behind she could make out another set of skeletons but her attention moved as the fighting required her full attention.

Willow was fuming inside over Buffy's overprotective streak, but she was 'being good' and staying out of the fight, all of which gave her the time to see something was going on. Watching Willow saw this new group was lined up but staying back when she heard a voice call out "DRAW! AIM!" and Willow realized what they were doing. "BUFFY!! THEY HAVE ARCHERS!!"

"LOOSE!" And a cloud of arrows arced up and then down towards the group.

Running towards Xander and Oz, Willow through up a shield around the three of them just in time to see the arrows shatter against it.

Just as she finished the skeleton closest to her, Buffy heard Willow yell about archers. Looking up Buffy saw a cloud of arrows heading in her general direction. "Oh shit!" Buffy cursed as she dove for the shield she had knocked away from a skeleton a minute ago.

Buffy threw the shield up in front of her even as she pulled her body behind it and bit back a scream as she felt an arrow sink into her leg. Looking at it Buffy saw the arrow had gone through her calf and grimaced. Buffy snapped the back half of the arrow off and put it in her mouth, biting down on the shaft. With that Buffy grabbed the front of the arrow and pulled it out of her leg with a muffled scream. Buffy tossed the arrow away from her and spit out the piece in her mouth. Grabbing a bandana from her pants pocket, Buffy wrapped it around the wound on her leg tightly.

Standing up Buffy looked around for Angel and the others. She didn't see Angel, but Buffy breathed a silent sigh of relief when she saw Willow was okay, as was Oz and Xander. Giles finally came into view a moment later as he fought his way out of a crowd of skeletons, Buffy could see Giles was covered in small cuts, none of which looked too serious. There was a loud yell from behind and Buffy turned to see a very pissed off Angel cutting his way through the last of the skeletons. Buffy saw at least 4 arrows sticking out of Angel, but none had hit his heart thankfully. "Come on!" Buffy yelled towards the other before charging into the group Angel was fighting with. Buffy stood next to Angel as they waded into the middle of the skeleton archers, slaughtering them. Several minutes later, the last skeleton archer now lying in pieces, Buffy leaned against Angel feeling the cuts and bruises all over her body.

The rest of the Scoobs were here as well and only a group of 20 demons stood between them and the sorcerer Buffy noted. Looking for Willow, Buffy saw her a few feet away and felt a smile crack the dark mood that hovered over her.

"You've done very well Slayer! Better than I had ever anticipated, but then you didn't really get this far all on your own, now did you?" Taking a dramatic pause, "But it's all going to be for nothing!!" With that the sorcerer lit the brazier in front of him and green flames shot out of it.

"You up for this Angel?" Buffy asked as she saw Angel rip an arrow out of his shoulder.

Angel morphed into game-face, "What do you think?" Angel asked right before charging into the demons blocking the way, the two-handed sword that he had acquired flashed in the light and a demons head bounced away.

"I guess so," Buffy murmured and ran to catch up.

Oz and Xander hesitated as they looked at the demons blocking their way. Xander winced as something slapped him on the back of his head.

"Well, what are you waiting for, Christmas?" Willow said, her hands on her hips and an impatient look on her face.

"Indeed." Giles said and they all ran towards where Buffy and Angel were up ahead.

**End Chapter Nine and Concluded in Chapter Ten**


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