Adult-FanFiction.org : Buffy

Welcome To My Parlor	By : cdog21 Category: BtVS Crossovers > Misc - Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 9251 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe and characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. The Spider-Man universe and characters are the property of Marvel Comics and their related corporations. I do not earn any money writing this.

Chapter List
- 1-The Adventure Begins
- 2-Assassins and Rituals
- 1
- 2
Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters or settings. At this point there isn't really any original names or places anyway.
Harris Residence

Later
After getting all of the kids back to the school and making sure that they would be okay, the gang decided to call it a night after the evening's festivities. A fact that Xander was more than grateful for as he climbed out of his Halloween costume and threw it into a corner. Making sure that everything is set out for in the morning Xander climbs into bed, turning off his lamp before lying down. It doesn't take very long before all of the tension in his body to be release as he slowly starts to drift off into a deep sleep. The loud snoring that follows shortly after, a signal to anyone listening that the teenager turned superhero-for-a-night was unconscious.
In the corner of his bedroom the Halloween costume sat in a haphazard pile on the floor. However, it was as Xander began to fall asleep, that fate decided it was time to throw another curve ball. To an outside observer, the pile of clothing would appear to be slowly melting before finally taking on the appearance of a large mass of black goop. The black mass remains still for a few minutes, after reverting back to its natural state, as it silently studied its new surroundings for any threats to its safety. With all quiet, it begins to slide across the floor towards the figure asleep on the bed. Climbing up the side of the bed and underneath the covers, the black goo begins to cover Xander's entire body as it moves upwards from his feet. Covering him entirely the goo remains stationary as it begins to break down and absorb the clothing that he is currently wearing. Once its task is complete the black goo reshapes itself to match Xander's clothing and skin tone exactly. As it begins to enter its own state of rest, the creature ponders on both its' new environment and new host.
The entire ordeal only takes a few minutes to begin and finish. The only sign that Xander gives, as to whether or not he was aware of what was going on, is to turn over to snuggle his face further into the comfortable pillow.

An endless ocean of black water moves back and forth with the current. In the middle of this dark ocean is a single tiny island covered with the most purest color of white sand. The steady sounds of crashing waves forces the island's lone occupant to suddenly awaken.
Looking up into the grayish sky Xander immediately takes not of the fact that he's no longer in his bed. Sitting up to look around a sense of panic begins to fill him as he realizes that he is completely alone in this strange place.
With no obvious signs of civilization or any other masses of land at all Xander is forced to just sit there and study his new environment. Crawling over to the shoreline, he watched the water flow back and forth with the tide. Reaching into the dark liquid and dipping in a finger he finds that the liquid feels thicker than water should, like the fluid was made of syrup. Pulling his hand back out, the liquid remains attached to him as he watches it slowly slide off his hand and fall to the ground. His next surprise comes when the fluid literally slithers away from him back into the ocean. All around him the sounds of crashing waves cease as the water surrounding the island turn completely calm and still. In front of him the water begins to ripple and bubble as a hand reaches out of the water. A full body follows the hand soon after as it stands on top of the water looking at him.
The figure is humanoid in shape and seemingly made of the same fluid as the surrounding ocean. The being is male in stature, solid black in color, and has large eyes that are completely white. If he had been able to rationally think about what was going on, he might have realized that the figure in front of him looked almost exactly like he did but a few short hours ago.
For a few minutes the figure and Xander are content to simply stare at each other, when it suddenly begins to stagger towards him. Quickly climbing to his feet, Xander tries to back away from the figure when he realizes that he's still stuck on an island surrounded by the weird black ocean. With no choice but to stand his ground, Xander waits for whatever the creature is going to do. As the black figure stops walking to stand in front of him it observes him again for a moment, before raising it's hand and reaching out for Xander. With no room to try and move away, Xander can only watch in horror as the figure's hand reaches up… and gently caresses his cheek.
"… Xan…der."

"AAARRRGGGGHHH!"
Shooting up in bed, screaming and thrashing around, Xander looks around wide-eyed seeing that he is once again back in his bedroom. Calming himself down he climbs out of bed to go downstairs to get something cold to drink. Sitting in front of the TV is his father, Tony Harris, passed out drunk like always. Getting his drink of water he heads back upstairs to bed.
'That was seriously freaky. I wonder what the hell that thing was.' he pondered before laying back down. Once again it doesn't take long for the grasp of the sandman to take Xander.
The symbiote bristles visibly for a moment as Xander's skin and night clothes shift colors to black before returning to normal.
It realized that meeting with Xander in such a way had been too confrontational for their first encounter. A strange creature appearing in front of him, in an already alien environment, had set his fight or flight instincts on high. Next time it tried to initiate contact with its host a more familiar setting for him would be for the best. And maybe instead of taking on his appearance it should assume one of the female's appearances. Before it tried approaching Xander in his dreams, the symbiote had noticed that many of the thoughts floating through the boy's mind focused a lot on a certain group of women. Buffy, Willow, the occasional Cordelia, and the very rare Joyce Summers were main topics of his thoughts. Ranging from intimates encounter to fights for life and death. From hanging out with friends to being around family. None of his thoughts focused on one thing from moment to moment save for the fact that those women appeared in each one in some grouping or another.
'Yes, it will be for the best if our next encounter is in one of their forms.'

Over the following days things pretty much fell back into their normal pattern for the Scooby gang. The day after Halloween the group met up in the library and were going over the events of the night before. Willow mentioned that she had still been trying to pass through walls several times through the night. Thanks to her possession, Buffy had gained an increase in her knowledge and fluency of the French language along with a new appreciation for the art of knitting. In Xander' case he told them that while he still had the memories of being Peter Parker, none of them had any readily practical use to them.
For the most part, Xander had been correct in his assessment of the memories in his head.
The imprints on Xander that had been left behind by the possession were things that could not be noticed straight away. However, it didn't take more than a few days for the gang to realize that Xander had indeed kept something significant from the Halloween fiasco. While the memories Xander had gained were useless, somehow he had inherited Peter's keen mind for scholastics. Whatever it was that had been left inside him after the possession, changed Xander's attitude towards hitting the books. At one point in time Xander used to struggle with the concepts that they would cover in class, even with Willow's tutoring, but now problems that would have once been difficult for him to even understand, let alone solve, were now proving to be easy to handle.
Tacked on to Xander's sudden grasping of his curriculum was a fast growing interest in the field of science. Chemistry, biology, physics, it didn't matter. All of them absolutely fascinated Xander and his imagination was suddenly filled ideas of what he could accomplish with it.
Even with the furor over Xander's increased brain processing, things eventually fell back into the normal pattern of going to school hanging out in the library, then heading off for patrol. The repetition was broken when a face from Buffy's decided to pay an unexpected visit. Billy Fordham an old friend, and former crush, of Buffy's showed up at their school one day claiming that he had moved to Sunnydale with his father and would be transferring to Sunnydale High. While his sudden appearance was a surprise to Buffy the biggest surprise came from his revelation to Buffy later that same night.
Walking home from the Bronze, Buffy and Ford had come across a vampire trying to sneak a quick meal from some helpless woman. Snapping into action Buffy sent Ford off to try and find help while she slipped into Slayer mode. The fight had ended unsurprisingly quick with the vamp becoming dust to the wind, but when she turned around to head for Ford Buffy had been startled to find him already there watching her. His announcement that he had already known who she was had come as a great shock for her. The fact that it meant she wouldn't have to lie to someone else that was so close to her relieved any lingering tension she might have had about Ford's arrival to Sunnydale .
Unfortunately things weren't as they appeared when it came to Ford. With a little prodding from Angel, Willow eventually discovered that Ford had been lying to everyone about why he was there. Ford's real agenda was to trade Buffy's life to Spike and in return he would be turned into a vampire and saved from his inoperable brain tumor. In the end his planned failed and Buffy escaped. Keeping to their bargain Spike and his minions savagely attacked Ford and turned him. Two days later Buffy was forced to perform her duty and destroy her old friend's demon possessed body.
While Buffy dealt with the fallout over Ford's betrayal, Giles's own past caught up to him with the return of Ethan Rayne.
In their youth Ethan, Giles and the group they were a part of regularly used black magic for fun and for personal gain. One of their favorite past-times had been the summoning of a demon called Eyghon the Sleepwalker. Once summoned the group had taken turns allowing the creature to posses their unconscious bodies. According to Ethan it brought about an extraordinary high for the one possessed. During one of the summoning parties, Eyghon managed to break free from his containment and gained control of their friend, Randall. They were eventually successful in exorcising the demon from their friend's body, but by then the damage was already done and Randall died. This event splintered the group and sent them down their own paths, Giles's eventually leading to him returning to his Watcher heritage and taking over as Buffy's Watcher years later.
To Giles's horror, it turned out that Eyghon had been hunting down the members of their little group to make them pay for toying with him. Eventually leading their friend Phillip to come to Sunnydale to try and warn Giles, but Eyghon had followed him and before he could warn him of the closing danger he was slain and his body possessed by the demon. The gangs later confrontation with the creature led to Jenny Calendar being possessed by Eyghon, with Ethan escaping during the commotion from the fight.
After taking full possession of Jenny he attempted to kill Giles while he was at his apartment, but Eyghon was interrupted by Buffy's arrival. Eyghon left and went after Ethan, tracking him down through the mark that each of them had tattooed to themselves. Eventually finding him at his former store he did not attack him as Ethan had since removed the demon's symbol with acid. However his attention had been turned to Buffy, whom Ethan had tattooed with Eyghon's mark earlier. The two of them had fought until Giles had shown up and offered himself in place of Buffy. The demon tried to kill Giles until Angel intervened and began to choke Eyghon. In danger of dying, Eyghon jumped to the closest "dead" body, that being Angel's. However, Eyghon had to face the demon within the vampire. The two demons fought, and Eyghon was defeated and expelled from Angel's body. Without a host, Eyghon then crumbled to ashes and died for good.
The event had left things strained between everyone for a while, but eventually things had begun to heal for everyone.
Except for Giles and Ms. Calendar's relationship. Having Eyghon possess her strained the already new relationship, but the continued thoughts that more things in his past might come back to harm her again had forced her to distance herself from him. A fact that had continued to depress him still.

Silver Mound Cemetery

Sunnydale, CA
Flying through the air, the vampire's body comes to a sudden stop as it slams hard into a tree. Collapsing back to the ground, it's entire body flared up with pain for a moment before he was on his feet again and running back toward the fight. A trio of fledgling vamps had come across Buffy, Willow, and Xander as they were on patrol in the cemetery. The surprise turned out to be on them as Buffy proceeded to beat the three demons senseless.
Xander and Willow are sitting on top of one of the many tombstones enjoying the nights entertainment with a box of popcorn.
Buffy ducked the punch being thrown from behind as she slammed a foot into the chest of the female vampire in front of her. The second vampire threw another punch, but was blocked by her forearm and followed up by a powerful palm strike to the demons face. With it distracted by the blow, the stake to the heart was no problem. The vampire that she had thrown into a tree grabbed Buffy from behind trying to hold her in place for his companions attack, but as the she-demon closed in Buffy leapt up and locked her legs around the woman's neck. Using her arms to give her leverage, Buffy slides free from the male's grip while at the same time bringing the trapped woman over her head and slamming her into the other vampire's face.
"Hey, Buff, heads up."
Turning towards Xander's voice, she snatches the incoming sword from the air even as she closes into finish the fight. As the two vampires stand back up to try and continue their attack, Buffy swings the sword with deadly accuracy decapitating both demons and turning them into dust.
A smile graces Willow's face as she watches the end of the fight and takes some more of the popcorn.
As Xander reaches in to the bag to grab another handful of the popcorn a… shudder… passes through him, the same feeling that people say is the feeling of someone walking on your grave. As the sensation passes he suddenly realizes that there is something moving behind him as he grabs Willow's arm and leans them both forward and off of the tombstone. The claw attack from the previously hidden vampire misses entirely as they duck out of harms way. Willow stumbles away from the attacking demon and over towards Buffy, but Xander was too close and is unable to escape the oncoming attack.
However as the vampire tries to attack him, everyone is stunned by what transpires.
As the claws of the demon come close to his face Xander's body unconsciously leans to the side dodging the blow. A second attack gets the same results as Xander's body moves on automatic and leans to his right instead. The vampire's third attack is met with the same failure as the others as he moves his head backwards causing the nails to pass his face by mere inches. If Xander's mind had more of its higher processing functions, rather than the simple Fight or Flight function, a feeling of surprise would have come over Xander. With his adrenaline pumping through his veins, Xander is unable to realize just how easy it is for him to dodge the demons attacks. The vampire throws another punch toward him, but Xander slaps the hand away as he delivers a punch of his own to the demon's nose. Rocked back from the powerful blow the demon is forced to bend over as a sudden strike slams into his gut. The rising knee to the blood demon's face raises it back to an upright position as a feeling of pain and surprise swells within as a stake slams into its heart.
A jittery Xander turns around to look at the shocked faces on Buffy and Willow.

Giles's Apartment
"So let me see if I get this straight. Xander dodged the vampires attacks and then slayed it, correct."
A frantic Willow jumped up "Yes, but he was moving way too fast. Like he was Speedy Gonzales or something."
"Willow's right, Giles. The way Xander was moving was almost Slayer like. I mean I can do what he did, but it was like he wasn't even trying." a more sedate, but no less worried Buffy added.
"… I wasn't trying." Xander whispered in the corner
After watching their best friend eliminate the vampire with such little effort the gang had decided that an immediate visit to Giles would be for the best. If something else was starting to happen to him then they needed to know about it beforehand.
"I was reaching for the popcorn and then all of a sudden I got that feeling like when someone is walking on your grave. It kinda freaked me out. Next thing I knew I realized there was something coming up towards me and Will so I grabbed her and ducked out of the way. When I got up the thing was already attacking me and I just dodged, but it wasn't right. Every time it tried to hit me I just dodged out of the way. It felt like my body was on autopilot whenever it moved, but it was me doing the moving, like I knew exactly what to do to keep it from hitting me. I kept dodging it until I got an opening and I went on the attack and bada-bing bada-boom no more vamp."
Giles was deep in thought over what they had told him, until a sudden thought hit him. "Xander, could it be possible that you may be developing abilities along a more physical path."
"WHAT!" the trio chirped.
"Well, ever since Halloween your school work has improved at a ridiculously fast pace. The improvement has been to such a fantastical degree that you're practically a completely different student. I've been taking the time to research some of the costumes that Ethan had sold lately, yours in particular, in case of something being left behind. And from everything you said it seems like you've begun to develop Spider-Man's… what was that called…"
"Spider-Sense." Xander answered
"Yes, his Spider-Sense. From what I've read his perception of everything speeds up to such a high degree that things just seem to move at an incredibly slow pace and making it seem… "
"…Like he can see the future. I know all that, but shouldn't this have started happening sooner. I mean it's been what almost a month since then and it's just now kicking in."
"Well you should remember, Xander, your penchant for schooling didn't kick until several days later. Maybe the physical changes your beginning to experience just needed a sufficient amount of time in order for them to reach this point. You must understand that increasing one's computing abilities is vastly different from altering a human body. In comparison it's great deal more difficult to rewrite a person on a genetic level than it is to rewire a person's brain to be more efficient.", Giles clarified
"I guess you're right. Although it is starting to make me wonder as to whether it'll keep going or not."
"What do you mean keep going." Willow asked
"Well look at it this way, Will. If it stops with the Spider-Sense then we'll have an extra warning when things go down. If I do wind up with the proportional strength of a spider and all that jazz then Buffy gets even more back up. Hell she could probably take a night off every now and then."
"If it means that you can stay even safer and I get help on top of that, then I'm all for it." Buffy said as she moved over to sit next to Xander and place her head on his shoulder. Willow followed suit and the trio sat on the couch hugging each other.
"Well if it helps me keep my girls safe then here's hoping that I get the total package."

Spike's Warehouse

Later
Spike paced back and forth on the floor of the factory base. Dru was busy playing with her damn Tarot cards at one end of the long table in the center of the room while Dalton, a weak, pathetic excuse for a demon, was busy translating ancient text at the other end.
"Well, I'm not sure. It could be...deprimere... ille... bubula... linter." he said squinting at the writing
Spike shook his head before he walking over and paged through a translation book. "Debase, the beef, canoe."
Dalton looked up at him and gave a goofy smile. Spike looked at the floor and shook his head again as he suddenly punched Dalton in the face, knocking the vampire's glasses off.
"Somehow I don't think that's right." Spike said as Dalton picked up his glasses and returned to reading.
"Spike, come dance?" Drusilla asks as she holds out her hand
"Would you please give us some peace? Can't you see that I'm working?" Spike responds in anger.
Drusilla pulls back away from him as begins to pout and whine like a puppy.
"Oh, I'm sorry, kitten. It's just this manuscript. It's supposed to hold your cure, but it just reads like a bunch of gibberish. Even the big brain here can't make heads or tails of it." Spike says as he comes over to her side.
Drusilla puts her hand to her head.
"I... I-I need to go change Miss Edith." She takes a few steps before putting her other hand to her head as well before collapsing to the ground. Spike rushes to her, puts his arms around her and pulls her back up.
"Oh, forgive me, Love. It's just that I can't stand to see you like this." he apologizes as places her on the couch. "We're running out of time and the bloody Slayer keeps getting in the way! Whenever I turn around there she is mucking up the works."
Drusilla gently caresses his back, "Shh. You'll make everything right. I know it."
Spike looks into his lover's eyes as places his hands around her neck and gently pulling her into a passionate kiss. Their embrace is interrupted by Dalton's whining.
"Um, well, it looks like Latin, but it's really not. In face I-I'm not even sure it's, it's a language, actually, I..."
"I'll tell you what to do… MAKE IT A LANGUAGE! Isn't that what a transcriber is suppose to do!" he roared.
Dalton flinched. "Well, not exactly..."
"I want the answers!" Spike growled as he grabbed the shirt of the cowering vampire and pulled him closer.
"Spike let him go."
Glancing over his shoulder, Spike notices Drusilla entering the room. "Why not, luv? Some people find pain…" the blonde vampire punched Dalton in the stomach, doubling him over, "…very inspirational."
Drusilla looked up from her cards. "Because he can't help you. Not without…" she says as she points at a card, "…the key."
"The key? You mean this book is in some kind of code?"
Drusilla nodded and giggled. "Yeah."
Spike shoved the academic vampire back into his chair before striding over to Drusilla is standing. The mad seer shows off a card with the picture of a mausoleum on it. "Is that where we'll find this key?"
A nod from Drusilla is all the answer he needs.
"Alright then I'll send the boys, pronto!" Spike laughs as he pulls Drusilla into his arms and starts twirling her around. The oddly normal shrieks of laughter pour out of her.

Sunnydale High School

Morning
The annual career fair was going on and dozen of students where in the lounge writing. Xander walks into the lounge, standing still for a moment as he looks around at some of the myriad of displays being set up, before walking over and getting the packet to sign up for the career aptitude test. Buffy and Willow have already found a table and he can see that they have already started filling theirs out.
"And how are my two favorite ladies doing this fine sunny day." he said as he plopped down in the vacant seat next to them.
"Fine if it wasn't for this stupid test. Ugh! I shouldn't even be bothering with this. It's all moot for me. No matter what my aptitude test says, we already know my deal is." Buffy huffed
"Yup, high risk, below minimum wage…" he replied
"…Pointy wooden things."
"Then why are you even taking the test?" said Willow
"Because it's Principal Snyder's hoop of the week. He's not happy unless I'm jumping. Believe me, I would not be here otherwise."
"Well…maybe the results will surprise you. Like you could be an astronaut or something." Willow said trying to cheer her up
Another groan was Buffy's response

Sunnydale Cemetery

Evening
Buffy is walking through the tombstones as she does patrol. She pauses for a moment thinking that she head something, but continues on, scanning the area around her as she does. She stops again when she hears clinking noises. She follows the sound of clinking to a nearby mausoleum, noting the light coming from inside. She looks at it and sees light coming from inside. Walking over to the entrance she pushes the door open a bit and peeks in. Buffy blinks for a moment confused as she watches Dalton chipping away at the wall, before exposing a chamber behind it. He reaches in for something as Buffy pulls her head back out and closes the door. A few moments later Dalton opens the door and steps out.
"Does 'Rest In Peace' have no meaning to you people? Oh yeah, I forgot. You're not a people."
Another vampire comes up behind her, but having already sensed him, she turns around and delivers a powerful kick him to the stomach. An elbow strike to the head follows, along with another kick in the gut. The vampire takes a swing at her, but she grabs his arm twists it in place. She strikes him twice in the face and uses the arm she is holding to flip him on to the ground. Before he has a chance to recover she dropped to one knee and slammed her stake into his heart. Standing back up she looks around for the other vampire, but she sees no sign of him.
"One down… and the other one gets away."

SHS Library

Afternoon
Giles walks over to the center table, where a pile of books are laid out across the large piece of furniture. Buffy enters as he is looking over the large tome he has in his hand.
"Hey Giles what you doing?" she says as she unconsciously sneaks up behind her watcher
"Oh… um… good morning Buffy."
"Morning to you too. So what's with all the books."
"This is nothing too important. I've been, uh, cataloging and indexing the Watcher diaries that cover the last couple of centuries. You couldn't begin to imagine how numbingly pompous and long-winded some of these Watchers were."
"Wow… knock me over with a feather."
"Anyway I trust that last night's patrol went well."
"Mmm kinda. There was a vampire breaking into this mausoleum, and when he came out I tried to see what he was up to, but he had backup. By the time I got finished with his bodyguard the other one was long gone.
"They were stealing?"
"Yeah! They had tools, flashlights, the whole shebang. What does that mean anyway? Shebang?" as Buffy continues her train of thought Giles begins to pace back and forth. "She bang what? Now that's just gonna bug me all day. Okay Giles, you're in pace mode. What gives?"
"Um, this vampire who escaped, did you see what he took?"
"No, but I could take a guess and say it was something old."
"That's hardly helpful, Buffy. And I assume that you made no effort to try and find out whatever it was that was stolen."
"Jeez don't have a cow, Giles! I just figured it was, you know, your regular everyday vampire hijinks."
"And, what if it wasn't? This could be incredibly serious! I mean, if you had just made an effort to… to be more thorough in your observations, then this wouldn't have occurred."
"Well excuse me. If you don't like the way I'm doing my job, then why don't you just find somebody else to do it? Oh wait, that's right, there is no one else. As long as I'm alive, there is not gonna be someone else. Wait a minute. There you go, Giles! I don't have to be the Slayer. I could just be dead.
"That wasn't very funny, Buffy. You'll excuse me if I don't laugh. Base jokes aside, right now we need to concern ourselves with finding out what it was that was stolen from that mausoleum last night."

Spike's Warehouse
With an almost casual attitude, Spike holds a large golden cross sitting on top of a black pillow. On the face of the cross are dozens of letters written in an archaic form of Latin. While the relic does little to impress the master vampire, the power flowing off of the ancient relic is easy to detect in such close proximity. "So this little trinket is what all the fuss was about, huh."
"It hums, all powerful and dark. I can hear it singing to me." Drusilla sighed
Walking up behind the two master vampire Dalton cuts in. "Um n-now that we have the cipher I'll be able to translate the text with no problem. But boss what about the slayer? She almost blew the whole thing for us. She's gonna be trouble.
"You don't say?" Spike responds sarcastically. "Trouble? She's more than just some trouble, she's the bloody thorn in my BLOODY SIDE!" a powerful kick destroys a table as emphasis. I'm tired of playing patty cake with this little girl."
A growing look of concern begins to grow on Drusilla's beautiful visage
"As long as that bitch is breathing down our necks we're never gonna be able to complete the ritual for your cure." Spike pauses in his tirade to take in a deep breathe before letting it out slowly. "What I need to do is bring in the big guns. They'll take care of our little slayer once and for all."
"Big guns?" Dalton asks confused
"… The Order of Taraka."
"The bounty hunters?"
While Dalton and Spike had been speaking Drusilla dealt three tarot cards. On one is the picture of a Cyclops, another holds the image of a centipede and the third of a panther.
"They're coming to my party. Three of them."
Spike walks back to the bed to look at the cards Drusilla had placed down. A confident grin shining on his face.
"Uh, yes, but... The Order of Taraka, I mean... isn't that overkill?
Looking out one of the windows Spike stares at the blue sky. "Nope, I think it's just enough kill."

Sunnydale Cemetery

Early evening
Buffy swings open the metal gate of the mausoleum and walks in, shining the flashlight around. She looks around for a moment before heading to where she saw the vampire last night, Giles follows behind her.
"May I?" asked Giles reached for the flashlight.
"Sure fine by me." Buffy responded as handed the flashlight over.
Giles smiled before turning on the flashlight and walked over to where the wall has been broken into. "It's a reliquary. Used to house items of religious significance. Most commonly it's a finger or some other body part from a saint." Buffy has a disgusted look on her face as she raises an eyebrow in response. She stands over to the side as Giles begins scanning the rest of the room with the flashlight. He stops when he sees the name on one of the burial chambers. "Du Lac. Oh good lord."
Buffy's spirits drop hearing Giles's response . "Have I told you lately how much I hate it when you say that?"
Giles turned around to face her, his face ashen. "Josephus Du Lac was buried here. He belonged to a religious sect that was… excommunicated by the Vatican at the turn of the century. He's alleged to have written a book said to contain rituals and spells that reap unspeakable evil. However, it was written in an archaic Latin so that nobody but the sect members could ever understand it."
"Excommunicated and sent to Sunnydale. There's a guy big with the sinning. So what's the problem?" Buffy shrugged
"Do you remember the book that was stolen from the library by a vampire a few weeks ago? When your friend Ford had first arrived?"
"Yeah."
"The book that was taken was written by Du Lac. Damn it! With everything going on with you children after Halloween and the stuff with Eyghon I completely let it slip my mind. The vampires must have taken something from Du Lac's tomb. And I'm afraid that whatever it is, just might be capable translating the text."

Heading back for the school, Giles and Buffy joined an already present Willow and Xander to try and figure out what the vampires have planned. Giles walks out of the stacks with a National Geographic in his hand, the three teens waiting on him to tell them what's going on.
"Josephus Du Lac was both a... uh theologian and a mathematician." setting down the article for the three of them to see "This article describes an invention of his, it was called 'The Du Lac Cross'."
"Seems like a weak name for something so important. Me myself , I would have added an 'amazing' or 'super' in there." Xander joked, everyone simply staring at him and his lame attempt to make a joke.
"Yes, well be that as it may, the Du Lac Cross was more than just a mere theological symbol. The markings on it were used to understand certain mystical texts, to… decipher the hidden meanings and so forth."
"So are you telling us that the vampires went through all of this trouble… for a decoder ring?", Buffy questioned
Giles pauses for a moment taken aback by Buffy's question, "Um… actually, yes, I-I suppose I am."
Willow looked back up from reading the magazine, "According to this, Du Lac destroyed every cross except the one that was buried with him."
"Why destroy your own work?" Buffy asked her Watcher
"Perhaps he was afraid of what might happen if it had fallen into the wrong hands." Giles said before he started pacing back and forth
"I bet it's a fear we're gonna get to experience for ourselves up close and personal." Xander put in.
A frown started to grow on Giles face, "Unless we can find a way to pre-empt their plans."
"How?" asked Willow.
"By learning whatever it is that's in the book before they have the chance. Which means we can all expect to be here late."
"Goody! Research party!" Willow beamed
"Speaking of which, I really have to bail. But don't worry I promise I'll be back bright and early tomorrow and ready to slay."
"Buffy, this is a matter of some urgency."
"I realize that, Giles. But, you have to admit, I kinda lack in the book area. I mean, you guys are the brains, I'd only be here for moral support anyway."
"That's untrue, Buffy, you totally contribute. You can go for the snacks!" Xander added
Buffy turns around and looks to Willow for some help.
"She should go. You know… t-to gather her strength so she's ready to beat up whatever the baddie is."
"Perhaps you're right. There may be fierce battles ahead." Giles finally relents
"But Twinkies are a vital part of my cognitive process!" Xander groans
Buffy gives him a smile before heading for the exit. "Sorry, Xan. Someplace I have to be."
Giles and Xander share a look with each other before turning back to the article.

Spike's Warehouse
"Boss I've finally finished the translation."
Spike looked over from his magazine to Dalton's quivering form. "Well is that so?" he asked. The demon nodded, even as his eyes nervous. "And you're absolutely sure about that?"
"…Yes sir."
"About bloody time. So when can we get this little shindig on the road?"
"Well, according to the text it has to be tomorrow night," Dalton replied.
Over on her bed Drusilla deals out her tarot cards. The card of the Cyclops appears bringing a smile to insane vampiress. "He's getting close to the little ducky. See him coming she won't."
"Well there you go. The Slayer and all her little friends lined up for the slaughter and nothing to get in our way. wall!"

Cruisers Ice Rink

Later that evening
Buffy skates along by herself, Angel watching her from the stands. She does a crouching maneuver, but wipes out and slides across the ice stopping by the sidewall. As she starts to get up a large one-eyed man reaches down, grabbing her around her neck and lifting her off of the ice. He pushes her down against the railing and begins to choke her. Buffy tries to pry his hands away from her throat as she struggles to breathe. Angel comes running across the ice, sporting his game face.
Closing in he leaps across the distance and tackles the attacker, knocking him off of Buffy. Angel lifts the hunter to his feet and delivers a powerful punch to his face. The man isn't fazed by the blow and returns with a double-fisted punch to Angel's stomach, sending him flailing back into the wall. The Vampire With a Soul bounces off of the wall and jabs him in the face again, but the bounty hunter just shrugs the blow off. He punches Angel in the face and gut, making him stagger back into the wall again. The bounty hunter grabs Angel by the throat and lifts him in the air. Buffy comes skating toward them at a fast pace. Jumping up she grabs a net that's hanging there and uses it to swing herself around and position her Foot, so that as the blade of the skate hits him it slices his throat. He lets go of Angel and grabs his neck, blood quickly flowing from the fatal strike. He manages to take a few steps onto the ice before he collapses, dead.
As the couple move to check over each other, Angel's attention is drawn to a ring on the bounty hunter's left hand. A terrifying realization comes over Angel about the man's identity and what this means for Buffy.

SHS library

Morning
"I'm afraid that Angel was not overreacting, Buffy. This ring is only worn by members of a group called The Order of Taraka. It's a society of deadly assassins dating back to long before King Solomon." Giles explained with a serious look on his face as he examined the ring. "Their code is to sow discord and kill the unwary."
"Assassins? Why would I have assassins after me?" Buffy asked now slightly afraid.
"Because you're the scourge of the underworld?" Xander offered up as explanation
Buffy shrugged her shoulders in response.
"I don't know…" a sense of despair weighing down on Giles. "…But I think it would be for the best if we could find a secure location for you to stay. Somewhere out of the way until we can decide on what our next course of action will be."
"Giles, you're the second person that's said head for the hills. What's going on?" Buffy asked fear now beginning to become apparent on her face.
"Buffy they are a force unlike anything you have faced before. Unlike vampires they have no earthly desires, save for collecting their bounty. They find a target, and… they eliminate it. You can kill as many of them as you like, it won't make any difference. Where there's one, there will be another, and another. They won't stop coming until the job is finished." Giles stopped to polish his glasses before continuing, "They employ both human and demon operatives. You will never know when one is coming. You will only know who they are just before they attack."
Buffy whispers softly as she looks at Giles, "…But where can I go?"
Giles can only turn away from her pleading gaze. Seeing that her Watcher can't give her an answer, Buffy turns and walks out of the library.
Giles's words float through her mind has left her paranoid of everyone around her. Walking down the hall she jumps when a boy barges through the doors in front of her. Walking through the school entrance and down the hall she scans the students moving around her, paranoid about them looking at her. The police recruiter looks at her, and she stares back. A teacher comes down the stairs in front of her and looks at her as he runs a comb through his hair. Several students walk past her, giving her the occasional glance. Behind her a guy with blue hair comes walking at a quick pace. She hears a locker slam behind her and spins toward the noise, noticing the guy quickly heading toward her, she grabs him by the front of his shirt and shoves him into the wall.
"I promise you won't even get the chance to try!" says an agitated Buffy
The teen looks at her confused. "Try what?"
"Uh... I-I'm sorry."
"I'm still not too clear on what I'm supposed to try."
"Nothing. I just… God I'm so sorry." she said as her face points to the ground
She moves away from him, before looking both ways down the hall and heading off in the direction she was originally headed.
The boy moves away from the wall and shudders, "She should really cut back on the caffeine."

SHS Library

Afternoon
"I wish there was more that we could do for her." Willow huffed as she was going through a large volume on the counter.
Giles walks out of his office cleaning his glasses. "Well for the moment we're doing all that we can. The best thing for us to do right now is to figure out what was in that book that was taken."
"I know, Giles. It's just that I-I've never seen Buffy look so… defeated. She just took off to who knows where."
Xander walks into the library, "Well where ever she went it wasn't home. I must've let the phone ring I don't how many times, but no one picked up. I hung up when I remembered that Mrs. Summers is out of town."
"Well maybe she just unplugged the phone." Giles offered
"Giles this is 16 year old girl where talking about here." Xander said with a roll of his eyes
A nod from Willow followed in agreement.
"Well, perhaps my words of caution were a little too… alarming."
"No, you think." Xander's sarcasm easily noted
After she had left the library, Buffy had walked through the slowly darkening streets of Sunnydale. No real thought of a destination in mind. Eventually, Buffy's path lead her back to her house. Afraid of what might be waiting for her inside, she glanced around the neighborhood before she starts walking again. Arriving outside of Angel's apartment not much later, she tried to turn the knob, but it's locked. A little application of slayer strength remedies her problem and she enters.
Moving further into the apartment, she tried calling for Angel to see if he was home or not. With no response, she looks around as she continues in and passes an elegant antique armoire. Finally she finds his unmade bed, and slowly walks over to it and sits down. Taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Buffy tries to forget about the day's events. A moment later she lays herself down on the bed, resting her head on his pillow and curling up. She hugs her arms close to her heart before she falls asleep.

SHS Library

Morning
Giles is in his sitting at his desk studying a book . He pauses for a moment to pick up the phone and start dialing before resuming his earlier task.
"Hello Xander?"
… …
"No, no, I-I haven't heard from Buffy yet. I-I think it would be for the best if you should go over to her house and check to see if she's there yet."
… …
"Well right away would probably be the best."
… …
"I-I don't know, get Cordelia to drive you."
He hangs up without waiting for Xander's response. Picking up the book he's been reading he heads back into the main room. He sees Willow asleep in front of the PC, her head resting on the keyboard. He closes his book and crouches slightly, gently placing his hand on her shoulder to wake her up.
"Willow?" he whispers
Willow wakes with a start and sits bolt upright, "Don't warn the tadpoles!"
"Are you alright?"
"Giles, what are you doing in my room?"
"It's the library, Willow, not your room. You fell asleep."
"Oh! I…" she squeaks out in embarrassment
"Don't warn the tadpoles?"
"I... I have issues with frogs. Listen I'm sorry I conked out."
"That's nonsense, Willow. You've gone quite beyond the call of duty. But be that as it may I think I may have found something… unfortunately."
"You did?"
"Yes, I found a description of the missing Du Lac manuscript. It's a ritual, Willow. Now, I haven't managed to… um…. decipher the exact details, but I believe the purpose of the ritual is to
restore a weakened and sick vampire back to its full strength."
"A vampire like Drusilla?" worry creeping into her tone
"Exactly."

Summers Residence
Pulling up in front of Buffy's house, Xander and Cordelia climb out of her car. Cordelia complaining still going on since she picked him up ten minutes ago.
"I still can't believe you. You dragged me out of my nice comfy bed for a ride? What am I, mass transportation?"
Xander stops short and turns back to Cordelia. 'The oh so many jokes I could tell', he thinks. "While that comment could be taken in so many ways, I'm just gonna let it go okay."
"Oh, great, so now I'm your taxi and your punching bag."
"Oh c'mon Cordy, you can give just as good as you take. Besides who else can keep me on my toes when it comes to trading witty barbs."
Climbing up the steps to the porch he knocks on the door. With no answer he tries to look through the glass to see if he can see any signs of someone being there.
"Buffy!" Xander yelled. When he doesn't see anyone stirring inside he walks over to the front window.
"Xander if she didn't come when you knocked on the door, yelling her name out like she's a puppy isn't gonna do anything either. Let's just get out of here, I still want to get some beauty sleep."
"You're beautiful enough, Cordelia. Besides if you wanna be a member of the Scooby Gang, sometimes you gotta be willing to be inconvenienced every now and then."
"Oh, right, because I lie awake at night hoping you tweakos will be my best friends."
With no sign of anyone coming to open the door, Xander starts looking for an open window to try and crawl through. The large windows in front proving to be a no go.
"And that my first husband will be a balding, demented homeless man."
Xander eventually finds one of the side windows to dining room unlocked. "Buffy could be in trouble." he says as he starts climbing in through the window.
"And what if she is? What exactly are you gonna do about it? If you haven't noticed Buffy's the one with the super powers around here not you."
"Well, that may be true, but at least I care enough to make sure. I know that you've got your issues about things, but I thought you were a better person." Xander answers her as he opens the front door for her.
For a moment Xander's comment surprises her. "Fine what do you want me to do."
"Alright I'm gonna go check upstairs. I want you to look around down here and see if you can find anything that might tell us if she even came back last night."
Cordelia comes in and closes the door behind her and begins her task. Xander climbs the stairs still calling out her name.
Cordelia twirls her keys around her finger as she walks into the living room and looks around. She starts to head for the dining room when she hears a knocking at the door and goes to answer it. Opening it, a man is standing there in a gray suit and tie with a large case in his hand.
"Good day, ma'am. My name is Norman Pfister and I'm a consultant with Blush Beautiful Skin Care and Cosmetics. I was wondering if I might interest you in some free samples?" the smiling salesman says holding up the large case.
Cordelia's face lights up at his comment, "Free?"
She steps aside to admit him and closes the door.

"Buffy you up here? Oly oly oxen free."
Xander slowly walks around the upstairs of the house pausing at Joyce's room before continuing on. He walks into Buffy's room and sees that her bed is still made. Moving over to sit on her bed he picks up her stuffed pig "Mr. Gordo" and smiles. He keeps looking around her room for a few minutes still playing with the doll before setting him down and reaching for the picture on her stand.
It's a picture of the three of them, taken a few days before Buffy left to spend the summer with her dad in LA. As he's leaning over to put the picture back he gets that feeling like someone is walking on his grave, as a sense of dread passes over him. Standing up he looks around for a moment before he quickly leaves the room. As he starts to walk back downstairs to check up on Cordy he can hear her voice talking with someone.
"…Do you have anything in raisin? I know you wouldn't think so, but I'm both a winter and a summer." Cordelia asked picking out a nice lipstick.
"Nine ninety-nine, tax included," Norman spoke in a completely even tone. "Say, are there any other ladies of the house around?"
"Nah, they're not at home right now," Cordelia answered, checking out some mascara.
A dark gleam appears in his eye as he slowly begins to approach Cordelia, her back to him as she keeps trying out the makeup. Before he can get too close Xander comes back down the stairs.
"Buffy wasn't upstairs either. Who's your new friend?"
"Oh this is just Norman. He sells makeup."
"Oh…really." For some reason Xander's stomach feels ill just looking at the salesman.
Cordelia turns back to Norman to ask him about his eyeliner, but instead swallows a scream as she notices a worm run along the man's cheek. She begins to back away from him as she watches another mealworm crawl across Norman's cheek and into his right ear. Her arm is suddenly grabbed and she finds her self pulled behind Xander as he moves in front of her to protect her.
"You know what, Norm, I don't think we're gonna be buying anything you're selling."
The "salesman" smiles before he rushes Xander and Cordelia. Moving Cordelia away from them Xander throws a powerful fist at the advancing creature, but when it connects the salesman collapses into a large pile of mealworms. It's only momentary as the demon quickly reassembles itself.
"C'mon Cordelia we've got to go."
He breaks into a run, grabbing Cordelia and leading them away as Norman transforms into a mass of mealworms once again and gives chase. Xander and Cordelia run into the kitchen and head for the back door, but Norman is already there waiting, just finished reforming. Cordelia screams, and Xander grabs her hand pulling her back in the other direction. He opens the door to the basement and they hurry in, locking the door behind them. The worms are starting to crawl in from under the door, but the two teens stomp on the ones that get in.
"Okay this isn't gonna work. We need something to cover the bottom of the door with." before he can tell her to go find something Cordelia hands him a roll of duct tape she found hanging on the wall.
With that problem taken care of the teens head down into the basement to see if there's another way out, but unfortunately the windows prove to be too small for either of them to fit through. Xander sits down to try and figure out a way for them to get out. Cordelia alternates between pacing back and forth in an agitated state or sitting down complaining. They sit there for about an hour, but it eventually starts to become too much for Cordelia to handle.
"Cordy would you just calm down? You're starting to give me a headache."
"Why should I, when all you're doing is just sitting there. You should be thinking up a plan to get us out of this."
"Well, Ms. Chase, for your information that's exactly what I'm doing. In fact I already came up with a couple of ways by the time we got downstairs. The problem, is the fact that the only options we have immediately available cause too much damage to Joyce's house. And while I am all for getting rid of worm bait and getting the hell out of Dodge, destroying her house in the process isn't something I'm willing to do just to solve our little predicament."
"Are you nuts or something? Just what the fuck am I supposed to do? Waste away down here with you? Ha, no thank you!" Cordelia yelled and she started to head for the stairs.
Xander jumps up to block her path, "What are you doing?"
"Duh, I'm going to see if the freak is gone!"
"And if he's not?"
"Oh that's right! You wanna just sit here until you can think of something that won't scuff up the floors or get the carpet dirty."
"I'm sorry if I don't want to cause some serious property damage to my best friend's house. And let's not forget which genius it was that let the assassin inside the house in the first damn place. I mean really, Cordy, didn't your parents ever tell you not to talk to strangers."
"HE LOOKED NORMAL!" she screamed
"Well what exactly were you expecting. A little tattoo on his forehead that says demon or maybe one of those personalized business cards 'Norman Evil Demon Assassin For Hire'. All it took was the prospect of a free makeover, and you were licking his hand like a big, dumb dog!"
"You know what? I can't take this anymore I'm leaving."
Xander raises an eyebrow at her, ready to let her go. She stops at the foot of the stairs and faces him again.
"I'd rather be worm food than keep looking at your pathetic face!
"Well go ahead I'm not stopping you anymore. Besides it'll give me a chance to figure out a way to get rid of our unwanted house guest without blowing things up."
"I bet you wouldn't! In fact I bet you'd let a girl go off to her doom all by herself!" she accused him as she moved closer to him
Xander moved closer to her as well, "To be honest no I wouldn't, but then again your not just any girl Cordelia."
Standing so close to each other, their eyes lock together for a moment before they throw themselves at each other. Their lips locked together as they kissed deeply, passionately. It goes on for several seconds before they suddenly release each other and stare in shock.
"We need to get out of here." Xander muttered
Cordelia nodded agreement as they both head for the stairs. They stop at the top as Xander suddenly has an intense look on his face. It kinda reminds her of the face someone makes when they're trying to hold something in…or force something out. It only lasts for a moment before he lets out the breathe he was holding.
"What was that about?"
"Huh? Oh… I was trying to get my Spider-Sense to go off again. When I was upstairs earlier it went off, that's why I came back so quickly. I'm trying to get it to work now, but it's a no go. I guess we'll just have to do this the old fashioned way. "
Reaching down Xander grabs one end of the tape and pulls it off. There aren't any worms on the other side so Xander unlocks the door and opens it slowly. They both poke their heads out and look out into the room for any sign of the assassin. Xander steps out and peeks around the corner down the short hall to the dining room. The coast seems clear, so Xander starts moving for the front door with Cordelia following a few feet behind him. The two teens make it safely to the front door, but Cordelia remembers she set her keys down when she was trying out the makeup products. Xander cracks the door and keeps looking around outside to see if he can see the demon anywhere when his Spider-Sense goes off. Turning around he reaches out for Cordelia to keep her from walking into the trap, unfortunately the only part of her his fingers were able to find purchase was on the collar of her button up dress. The sudden yanking reels Cordelia away from the danger, but it also pops the four top buttons off.
Before she even has a chance to yell at Xander for manhandling her she sees what he was protecting her from as the assassin in worm form starts to rain down from the ceiling. Xander already has the door open and the two of them run from the house. Without her car keys they keep running down the street and head back for the library. Eventually Cordelia has to stop and catch her breathe giving Xander a chance to see if it had decided to follow them, which thankfully it didn't .
"Damnit, Xander! You left my car back there with the worm guy." Cordelia told him with dread
"Last time I looked, Cordelia, bugs don't eat cars. I'm pretty sure that you car is gonna be just fine." Xander sighed
"Oh yeah, well what about what you did to my dress? Look at it!" she yelled at him.
And of course he did except that while she was trying to show him the buttons that had been ripped off, his attention had been drawn to the tantalizing amount of cleavage she was showing. The lacy white bra she was wearing wasn't helping things out either as it was contrasting against her tanned skin. His inner pervert was even informing him that he could see her dark nipples shadowing through.
Of course that was when she decided to look back up at him and see exactly where his eyes were drawn.
"Pervert!" She growled, covering her breasts with one arm as Xander turned away.
He gave her an apology as she took the shirt he was offering and buttoned up. "So what now?"
"Same plan, we head to the school and tell Giles what happened. Hopefully he's heard from Buffy by now."

While Xander and Cordelia had been having their encounter with the Tarakan, Buffy had come across and unexpected companion of her own. While she had been sleeping at Angel's, Buffy had been attacked by a woman around Buffy's own age that had proved to be just as skilled and powerful as she was. After a short, but nonetheless impressive, fight the girl introduced herself as Kendra. It turned out that Kendra was a vampire slayer.

"Giles. Ohhhh Giles!" Buffy called distraught as she entered the library. She took in Giles reading a book over by the table. "I think you and I have some thing we need to talk about. Like the fact that you didn't tell me there was another slayer running around."
Giles winced at Buffy's tone. "Buffy, sit down." The original slayer continued glaring at him before sliding into a chair. "I promise you, Buffy, that I had no idea that there was another slayer. If I had I would have told you. I would never have held something of this magnitude from you.."
Kendra walks into the library not long after Buffy and studies her new surroundings, walking around the room before coming to stand near Buffy. As Giles and Buffy are talking about the sudden appearance of a new slayer Willow comes bouncing into the library with a smile on her face. Kendra immediately marches around Buffy to intercept her.
"Hi guys." Willow says in greeting
"Identify yourself!"
Willow is taken aback and her smile quickly fades into a frown.
Buffy moves herself in-between Kendra and Willow, "Calm down newbie. This is Willow, my friend."
Kendra glances at Willow, a look of puzzlement in her eyes. "…Friend?"
Buffy nodded to her, "Yeah. As in person you hang with? Amigo?"
"I don't understand."
"You weren't dropped on your head as a baby were you?"
"Kendra, there are um…a few people, civilians if you like, who know Buffy's identity. Willow is one of them and they also…um…spend time together, socially." Giles interrupts
"And you allow dis, sir?"
"Well, uh…"
"But de Slayer must work in secret for security."
"Yes, of course, but with Buffy however, some…flexibility… is required."
Buffy gives Giles a look at his comment.
"Why?"
Willow interrupts them as her confusion gets the best of her, "Hi, guys. Um w-what's going on?"
"Apparently there's been a really big mix-up." Buffy comments to her as she sits across from Willow.
"Yes, it would seem that somehow that a… uh… another Slayer has been sent to Sunnydale."
"But how's that even possible?" Willow asked
"Well to my knowledge, it's not. A new Slayer is only called after the previous Slayer has died. And…good lord! You were dead, Buffy."
"It was only for like a minute. I wasn't even dead dead, just kinda dead."
"Apparently it doesn't matter for how long you died, just the fact that you did. And with your death was the activation of the new slayer, Kendra."
Kendra turned wide eyes on Buffy, "You died?"
"She was drowned, but one of her friends revived her by performing CPR." Giles collapses into a chair as he takes his glasses off. "To be honest, nothing like this has ever happened before. I… I'm actually quite stumped on where we go from here."
"What's to be stumped over? It was a mistake, she isn't supposed to be here, so she goes home!" Buffy turns to Kendra before continuing, "Look, no offense, I really don't mean this personally, but I'm not dead and frankly having you around here is creeping me out a little."
"I cannot just leave. I was sent here for a reason. Mr. Zabuto said all de signs indicate dat a very dark power is about to rise in Sunnydale. He believed dat dere would be a better chance of success if the forces of darkness did not know I was present."
Before Kendra could answer, Giles whispered, "Drusilla." The three girls looked over to him, as he continued, "We found a ritual from one of Du Lac's work, it's used to restore a weakened master vampire back to full strength. The only thing working in our favor is the fact that the ritual must be completed on the night of a new moon."
"Um, Giles… that's tonight." Willow said eyes wide with concern.
"Good lord! At least now I now why the Order of Taraka suddenly showed up. It makes sense, since with Buffy being preoccupied by the assassins, Spike would be free and clear to perform the ritual and restore Drusilla to her full strength.
The door to the library blasted open as an out of breathe Xander and Cordelia ran in. Kendra went rigid, and looked down.. "Speaking of the Order," Xander said, apparently having heard Giles's words, "We just had a little run in with the freakiest… hello." he trailed off as he finally noticed Kendra.
Kendra continues to look at the floor, humbling herself before Xander.
"Forgive me, children. Xander, Cordelia I'd like you to meet Kendra… The Vampire Slayer."
"You know I can just hear the capital T on the." he joked
"Yes, well apparently after Buffy drowned, by all forces concerned, she was dead and the slayer essence passed on. Even though you were able to save her, Kendra had been activated as the next slayer by that time."
"Wow…" Xander said before turning to face Kendra, "…So slayer huh? How's that working out for you?"
Kendra tried to respond to him, even trying to half way glance at him. But she became flustered and very much aware of Xander's physique, the muscles showing underneath the short sleeve shirt, the muscles of his legs covered by jeans. Her halfway glance up also made her aware of something else covered by those jeans. "I… uh… tank… um, I mean, sir, um…. I will be of service." Buffy rolled her eyes in disgust.
"Well, it's good to help people out" Xander answered with a smile.
"Xander, this… um, assassin you and Cordelia encountered, what did he look like?
"Pretty much like a walking talking buffet for fish!" Cordelia spat
"Xander, what is it with you and bug people?" Buffy asked with a grin
"Oh, but this is different. Praying Mantis lady was a bug, this was a guy of bugs, there's a big difference you know. I tried to hit him at first, but he just kinda broke down into a pile of worms. That's his shtick, guy one second and a mass of bugs the next."
"Well the important thing is that the two of you are safe. But this is just further proof that we are under attack. All of you must be tremendously careful."
"…Actually Giles I kinda left something out. While we were at Buffy's, bug guy tried to set a trap for us. I don't know why he let me pass, but when Cordelia tried to go back for her keys he tried to attack her. Right before he did… my spider-sense went off. In fact while I was looking around upstairs for Buffy it went off when he came in the house."
"What is dis spider-sense?"
"Last Halloween everyone got changed into whatever costume it was they were wearing. Xander went as a comic book character called Spider-Man. After it was over everybody changed back, but lately things about the character have been mixing in with Xander. He's been getting really smart lately, like Willow smart, and he was moving really fast once when he slayed a vampire. It was almost as fast as I could move." Buffy informed Kendra
"…Really?"
"Yeah, the only problem I have is that right now I can't really control it. In the comics Peter Parker could use it to tell if their was danger around before he even got into whatever situation he was in, but for me it seems like it's by reflex only." Xander explained
"You know speaking of traps" Buffy looked up and settled her gaze on Kendra, asking her, "There's one thing that's still bugging me though." Buffy smirked but didn't notice the glares Cordelia and Xander were giving her. "How come you attacked me?"
"Because I tought you were a vampire."
"And why is that exactly?"
"I had good reason to teenk you were a vampire. Did I not see you kissing one?" a little anger seeping into Kendra's tone.
Willow stood up in defense of Buffy, "Buffy would never do that . . ." but then Willow frowned, ". . . except that sometimes you do that." Buffy gave Willow a look of confused betrayal. Willow didn't see the expression as she continued, "But she only does that with Angel… right?'"
"Of course!" Buffy answered
"Angel?" Kendra asked with a frown. "Do you mean Angelus? I've read about him. He is a monster."
"Actually that's not true anymore." Giles said cleaning his glasses
"He's got a gypsy curse now." Buffy explained.
"He has a what?"
Xander explaining, "A long time ago Deadboy bit someone that he shouldn't have and her family decided to stuff the soul of the guy he was, before becoming a vampire, back inside the body." Xander explained
"He looked to me just like anodder animal when I..." Kendra started, but stopped the moment she saw Buffy turn her head and glare at her.
"When you what!" Buffy hissed, closing in on the other Slayer. "When you did what!"
Kendra swallowed, as she could feel the hate radiating off of Buffy. "…When I locked him in the basement of dis dingy bar dat faces eastern." she explained, seeing Buffy's eyes widened with fear and rage.
Before Buffy had a chance to demand that Kendra take her to Angel, Xander walked up behind her. "Buffy I know what you're planning to do so just be careful. We know that at the very least bug guy is still out there so be on the lookout."
She offers him a smile before she grabs Kendra's hand and leads her out of the library.
'I got a BAD feeling about this.', he thinks as he watches Buffy drag Kendra out of the room

Willy's Bar

45 minutes later
Breaking the lock on the door, Buffy walk into the basement room.
"Angel?"
Kendra walks inside of the cage where she left him and looks around, "No ashes."
"What?"
"When a vampire combusts, it leaves ashes on de ground."
"Yeah, I already know the drill."
"So I did not kill him." Kendra calmly stated
"And I don't need to kill you." Buffy growled
Kendra took a step closer, "You could try."
Turning away from her, Buffy walks back up the stairs. Kendra follows shortly after. Reaching the top Willy walks out of a door leading to the backroom.
Kendra quickly lashes out grabbing the short man and pushing him against the bar counter.
"Doesn't anyone just say 'hello' where you come from?"
Kendra looks at Buffy before turning back around and slamming Willy against the counter again. Rearing back about to punch him, Buffy reaches around to grab the second Slayer's arm.
"Dis one is dirty! I can feel it!" Kendra exclaims
"That's really good for you, Percepto Girl, but we're not gonna get anything out of him if he's, oh, say… unconscious." Grabbing Willy to get his attention Buffy asks, "Where's Angel?"
"My buddy Angel? What you think I'd let him fry? I saved him in the nick! He was about five minutes away from being a crispy critter."
"So, where'd he go?"
"Uh, he said he was gonna stay underground. Y-You know, recuperate."
"You wouldn't be lying to me now, would you Willy?"
"I swear on my mother's grave! Should something fatal happen to her, God forbid."
"Den he is alright. We can return to your Watcher for our orders.
"I don't take orders. I do things my way." Buffy said as she let go of Willy
"No wonder you died." Kendra whispered
"Fine, let's get out of here."
They start to leave and head back when Willy steps away from the bar.
"Hey, I gotta ask you two something." Buffy and Kendra stopped, and turned around. "Has either of you girls ever considered modeling? I have a friend with a camera and he's really good. Strictly high-class nude work. You know, art photographs. But naked."
Buffy and Kendra exchange a look and just walk out without a word.

SHS Library
After having returned to the library Buffy and Kendra had joined in on researching what they could about the Tarakans. Buffy was currently reading through a book with pictures and information on known Tarakan assassins trying to find Xander's bug guy. Said Scooby was sitting across from her at the table reading through another book dealing with the order's history . Kendra was currently conversing with Giles over by the racks talking about some book she had read.
A hand on her shoulder brought her out of her day dream. "Buffy, its time for us to go."
Looking at the clock she sees that it's time for her and Xander's scheduled meetings for career week. "Hey Giles me and Xander have to head out for the career fair thingy."
"Best make an appearance then."
"C'mon Xander lets go see what our futures hold." The two teens quickly gathered their things as they left the library, with Buffy turning right, while Xander headed left.
Walking down the hall Buffy comes across Willow, who is staring at the career fair name display with a frown. "Hey Will, what's up?"
"Nothing. I-I just want to know what I did wrong. I mean this isn't suppose to be the kind of test you fail, u-unless you're a sociopath."
"I'm sure its nothing, I mean look at it this way at least you don't have to go to the…" Buffy pauses as she looks over the list to see where she has to go, "… law enforcement seminar."
Before Willow can comment, two men in gray suits walk over to the chatting teens.
"Ma'am are you Willow Rosenberg?" turning to faces them, Willow slowly nods as a response. "Very good. Could you come with us, please?"
"Excuse me?"
"Please, this way Ms. Rosenberg."
Buffy smiles at Willow's wide eyed gaze as the two men take her by her arms and guide her over to a curtained-off area of the lounge. They pull the curtain aside for Willow to steps through as they allow them to fall shut behind them after they follow her inside. A waiter in a white jacket and black bow tie holds an hors-d'oeuvre tray up for her.
"Try the canapé'. It's excellent." Recruiter 1 says from behind her
Willow shakes her head to the waiter, and he immediately departs.
Looking around the room she notices two other occupants besides herself. One is a boy with blue highlights in his hair, the other she recognizes as Warren Mears a classmate in her science class.
"What is all this?" Willow says, a hint of panic escaping into her tone.
The second recruiter steps forward, "You've been selected to meet with Mr. McCarthy, head recruiter for the world's leading software firm. His jet was delayed by fog at Sea-Tac, but he should be here any minute. Please, make yourself comfortable."
Willow moves to take a seat by the man with blue highlights, "But I never even got my test back."
"The test was irrelevant. We've been tracking you for some time."
"Is that a good thing?", a worried Willow asked
"I would think so. We're extremely selective. In fact, there were only two other Sunnydale students to have met our criteria."
Without another word the two recruiters turn and leave through the curtain. Willow is a bit stunned, but stays nonetheless. The student sitting next to her on the couch is studying another tray of canapé'. He notices someone sitting next to him and turns to look.
"Hi, I'm Oz… canapé'?"

Buffy sits down at the front of the classroom, already wishing for the whole thing to hurry up and be over. As the students finish filing into the room and taking there places a woman dressed in a Sunnydale PD uniform walks in and closes the door.
"Good morning everyone. My name is Officer Patrice Williams. Now I'm gonna be taking attendance so listen up and answer when I call your name. Eric Richards…", a blonde boy sitting in the back raised his hand. "… Michelle Simmons.", a girl two seats away from Buffy answers.
"Is there a Buffy Summers here?"
Buffy raises her hand in response. She watches as Patrice calmly puts the attendance clipboard down after marking her present. Her eyes quickly grow wide as she quickly draws her gun and aims it at her. Buffy's supernaturally enhanced reflexes allows her to react in a flash as she rushes the recruiter pushing her weapon, and the hand holding it, up into the air as the first round goes off. Panic sets in throughout the classroom, as people start to run for the room or try and duck for cover. Buffy continues struggling with the assassin, as another round goes into the ceiling. She slams a knee into the woman's gut causing the assassin to drop the gun and fall to the floor. Taking the opening granted, Buffy dashes from the room through the open door, nothing on her mind except to get away. Patrice gets to her knees and pulls out her backup gun. Taking aim she fires several shots at Buffy as she dives over a table in the lounge. She stands up again and looks around at everyone.
"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" she screams at the people around her.

'Oh frabjous day, callooh, callay!'
For the last 10 minutes Xander had been standing outside the room for his scheduled seminar. Apparently the speaker had gone to the bathroom and would be "right back". And thus here he was with a dozen other students forced to wait. As he was waiting, Xander noticed Willow and a guy walking out of a room down the hall and since his previous engagement was otherwise stalled, he decided to burn the time with his best friend.
As he gets closer to them, several shots sound out from further down the hall before only silence is heard. Suddenly Buffy appears from around a corner as she rushed down the hallway towards them, the assassin coming into view and taking aim. Once again Xander's new abilities kick in, as with a sudden increase in his speed, he reaches for Oz and Willow and yank them to the ground. He reaches up and pulls a frozen Amy Madison down from her open locker just as several more shots are fired. Buffy easily dodges them from such a distance, but had Xander not reacted in time Oz, Willow, and Amy would have been struck by several of the bullets. Missing her quarry momentarily Patrice continues down the hallway after her. She pauses against the wall to peek around the corner and down the hall, before continuing on.
"Are you guys okay?" he says checking them both over
"Uh-huh."
"We just got shot at. That was just… wow!" Oz said, clearly on an adrenaline high
He looks over to Amy who had yet to respond as she stares down at her hands.. "Are you okay, Amy?" He stops for a moment to let her answer, but realizing that she's probably still shocked from what almost happened he snaps his fingers in front of her eyes bringing her back into focus.
"…What?" she whispered
"I asked if you were hurt."
She shakes her slowly before staring at her hands again.
"Alright you guys stay here. I'm going after them and see if I can't give Buffy a hand."
Racing down the hallway and around the corner Xander sees Buffy and Kendra standing off against the assassin, who has now taken Jonathan Levinson as a hostage. The standoff only lasts for a moment before the assassin tosses Jonathan at the twin Slayers and flees from an exit behind her.

SHS Library

Afternoon
"She was definitely one of the Taraka gang, Giles, and way gun happy." Buffy commented
"Well at least we can be grateful that none of you were hurt."
"I-If it wasn't for Xander me, Oz, and Amy would have been killed." Willow added
"At this point I can honestly say I've never been more grateful for one of Ethan's stupid pranks. But I'm afraid that a little extra speed isn't going to be enough for us this time. I-I've finished discovering the remaining keys to Drusilla's cure. The, uh, the ritual requires that, her sire be present, and it must take place in a church on the night of the new moon."
The assembled group suddenly begins to grow concerned.
"But de new moon is tonight."
"Exactly. And I am positive that the assassins were sent here in order to kill Buffy before she could interfere with the ritual."
Buffy moved over to stand beside Giles, "Giles when you said they need Drusilla's sire. You mean the vamp that made her, don't you?"
"…Yes."
"Buffy, what is it?" Willow asks after seeing the forlorn look on Buffy's face
"Angel… I mean Angelus… he's Drusilla's sire."
"Shit." Xander muttered
"They must have gotten to him after Kendra locked him up in Willy's basement." Buffy turned to Giles as fear began to creep into her voice, "This ritual w-will it…"
"…Yes, I'm afraid so." he answered in response to her unfinished question
Buffy lifts her gaze from the floor, a cold look passing over her face. "That is it!" she hissed. "If they want to play things that way then fine. No more Ms. Nice Slayer!" Everyone stared at her , surprised looks on all of them at her outburst. "Tonight is Spike's last night on this planet. Giles, we need to find where this ritual is gonna take place and fast!"
"Don't worry, Buffy, we'll save Angel." Willow says as she hops onto her laptop
"Angel? But our priority must be to stop Drusilla!" Kendra says as she becomes flustered by Buffy's concern for her boyfriend
"Look, you've got your priorities, and I've got mine. And for right now they mesh. So, are you gonna help me stop them or are you gonna get out of my
way?"
"Fine, I will help you." she eventually sighed

Spike's Warehouse
Angel's prone form is bound to a bed in Drusilla's room, his arms spread wide to the two poles. Drusilla walks into the room with a small chest. She runs her hand across the lid of the elegant wooden box labeled 'Holy Water'. Singing quietly to herself she removes the lid and takes out a small crystal pitcher as she sits on the bed next to him and uncorks it.
"Daddy," Drusilla said in a whimsical tone. "I remember my daddy, he was nice. He used to bring me presents." she pours a small trickle onto his chest as it steams and burns him. Angel jerks his head back screaming out in pain. "But then the mean old Angel-beast made daddy go away." more of the offending water is poured on him, ripping another scream from Angel.
"Oh!" Drusilla exclaimed happily, the sound of his pain bringing joy to her unbeating heart.
"Careful there, love. We're gonna need Droopy there if we want to make you strong again." a voice rings out from by the entrance.
Spike walks over to stand beside the bed near Drusilla, a look of amusement on his face as he stares down at Angel.
"Is it time, Spike?", she asks as she turns to her lover
"It sure is, Dru. I just came to get you and our "guest" , so we could head on out. Pretty soon you'll be as strong as ever and then we can have all the fun we want.", he brushes the back of his hand against her cheek before leaning down and kissing her.
Angel grimaces slightly at the publicly display of affection, but it quickly passes.
"And as for you well… sorry to say that you won't be around anymore. I almost think I feel bad about it, it was kinda nice getting the family back together again. On the other hand I think it was just a bit of indigestion." Spike joked

SHS Library

Evening
Buffy and Kendra are inside of Giles's office getting more stakes ready for the upcoming battle. Kendra calmly watches as Buffy sits their angrily whittling away at a stake before she turns away from his sister slayer to watch the other outside the windows. Buffy's friends were busy getting ready for the fight and trying to figure out where Spike would be. With her keen hearing she hears Giles complain about there being 43 different churches in Sunnydale. She looks over towards the table and sees Xander gathering weapons of all types and Cordelia loading up several crossbows. She tilts her head in confusion as she watches Cordelia sneaking glances at Xander every now and then. She turns her attention back to Buffy as she tosses her finished stake into the growing pile
"You have an interesting group of friends."
Buffy looks up from her whittling and smiles at Kendra, "And I wouldn't trade em for the world."
"And you are okay with dem being a part of this?"
"No, but at the end of the day we depend on each other to keep everyone alive. I'm not always gonna be on my A-game and having someone backing me up helps even the odds. Besides, friends watch out for each other, even when you don't want them to."
"Hmm."
Outside in the main room, Giles is pacing back and forth as he goes through another one of the tomes in his collection. This particular one was turning out to prove much better luck as an entire chapter was based entirely on the Order of Taraka's members. Turing the page Giles finds a drawing of the bug demon that had attacked Xander and Cordelia earlier.
"Xander, if you could come here for a moment. I believe that I've finally found the assassin that attacked you earlier."
The three teens walk over to have a look.
"According to this, he can only be killed when he's in his disassembled state. Somehow we are going to have to figure out a way to keep him from reforming long enough in order to destroy him."
A beeping noise alerts Willow to her search results being finished. Moving to look over what came up, Willow suddenly gets an ecstatic look on her face. "Ooh Ooh! Guys I found em, I found where they might be ."
Buffy and Kendra walk out of the office just as they hear Willows proclamation.
"Where are they, Wills?", a hint of urgency in the slayer's tone
"All I had to do was enter in some parameters for the search like churches that are closed down, being renovated, not holding mass. It took the 43 churches in Sunnydale and narrowed them down to 6. It's still kind of a big number, but at least it's something…right?"
"It's more than something, Wills.", her blonde friend offers, "Now all we gotta do is figure out which one is it, then it's game on."
"…Angel!" Kendra says suddenly, the group turning around to look at her. "When I came across him he was threatening de weasel at de bar, I tought he wanted to eat him, but if Angel is good then…. "
"Then it probably means Willy knows where Spike's gonna perform the ritual.", grabbing a sword from the table and several of the stakes she starts to head for the exit, "C'mon Kendra we got a little man to beat up!"
Kendra starts to follow her sister Slayer when Giles screams out, "Buffy wait!"
"We're running out of time, Giles!"
"I know, Buffy. But except for the woman earlier, there have been no other attempts by the Tarakans to get to you. I fear that after their earlier failures, Spike will be keeping them close by in case you show up. At the very least there will be two of them… be careful, Buffy."
With a firm nod the two slayers head out for their destination.

Willy's Bar
Not long after leaving the library, Buffy and Kendra arrived at their intended destination. Bursting through the door, Buffy watches as Willy jumps behind the counter, a look of terror in his eyes as he sees the two girls walking towards him. Deciding that discretion is the better part of valor he turns around to run, but the Slayers were much faster. Crossing the small distance with little effort, Buffy grabs him by the back of his jacket and yanks him off his feet.
"Alright Willy time to spill your guts.", Buffy growled before lifting him from the floor and tossing him against the bar counter.
"Please don't hurt me! I'm just a simple business man!", Willy whimpered
"I'm gonna give you one chance and once chance only , Willy. Where… is… Angel?", she emphasizes with a sudden jerking
"Ah! Honest! I don't know where Angel is!"
"Alright what about the ritual Spike has got going on?"
"I-I don't know anything! Everything's been real hush hush y'know."
"Just hit him, Buffy. It might loosen his tongue." Kendra says
Buffy smiles at Willy as he pales at the suggestion, "She likes to hit things."
"You know what, I think I did m-maybe hear something about this r-ritual. Yeah, I-I... it's all starting to come back to me."
"Good…now show me!" Buffy says as they drag him from the bar.
Buffy and Kendra are eventually led to a large church on the outskirts of town. It seems they're in the right place as, four vampires patrol the outside of the building.

Further down the street Xander, Cordelia, Willow, and Giles trail out of sight of the two slayers. Having realized that Buffy and Kendra alone wouldn't be enough to go against the Tarakans and whatever else Spike had planned, Xander had convinced the other Scoobies to try and follow after Buffy. Already knowing where she was headed the gang had waited across the street in an alley, and was rewarded only a couple of minutes later when Buffy and Kendra frog marched Willy out of the building. Trying not to follow too closely they almost lost sight of Buffy and Kendra several times, but eventually they were able to catch up to them when they arrived at a church on the outskirts of the city.
Watching as Buffy and Kendra crouch behind a large bush and peer through, Xander tries to find a way to get their attention without alerting the vampires outside. Spying the pebbles around his feet Xander tosses several of them at the pair before one luckily, or unluckily in this case, beans Buffy in the back of the head.
Even from 20 feet away they hear Buffy's quiet yell of pain, who turns around to find four faces staring at her.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she whispers
"Trying to keep you two from getting killed." Xander whispered rather loudly
Buffy glares at him, before she turns to Kendra and whispers for her to stay put and wait for her, before moving around the bush and out of view of her fellow slayer
"Are you guys crazy, what if something had happened?"
"Buffy, you and Kendra aren't gonna be able to handle go in there alone and expect to walk away afterwards. If you guys go in there by yourselves then I can guarantee that someone isn't coming back. At least this way you two don't have to worry about watching your backs while you fight your way to Angel."
"Alright, but I want you guys to wait for the right moment before you bust in."
"And what'll be the right moment?" Xander asked
She smirks a little before she replies "Trust me, you'll know", before moving back around the bush and over to where Kendra and Willy are kneeling.
She whispers something to Kendra and after waiting a moment for the guards to walk around the building the three of them cross the street and entered the church. Not five seconds after they pass through the doors several vampires walk out of the shadowed corners and follow them inside.

Inside the church, Drusilla and Angel are chained together just in front of the altar. Spike walks up the main aisle leading to the altar with a swaying incense carrier. The carrier sending the smoke wafting through the entire room. Sitting in the pews and standing along the walls of the room are several vampire minions, up near the front where Drusilla and Angel are standing, the two Tarakan assassins wait in guard.
Spike continues walking around the room as he reads the ancient language from Du Lac's book. "Eligor. I name thee. Bringer of war, poisoners, pariahs, grand
Obscenity."
He turns back to the altar where Angel and Drusilla are standing. Drusilla's left hand is wrapped around Angel's right, tied together above their heads.
"Eligor, wretched master of decay, bring your black medicine."
Spike sets the censer down on the altar and, grimacing from the pain, picks up the Du Lac Cross with his gloved hand.
"Come", holding up the cross upside-down, "Restore your most impious, murderous child."
He grabs the downward-pointing tip of the cross with his other hand and yanks down, pulling out a dagger. He lays the rest of the cross back on the altar.
"From the blood of the sire she was risen."
He takes Drusilla's left hand…
"From the blood of the sire, she shall rise again."
…and with one swift stroke he stabs the blade through their hands. Angel screams in pure agony. A blindingly bright pink light emanates from their joined wounds as a pulse of energy spreads out, and then the light dies back down to a faint glimmer as Angel's strength begins to flow from his body and into Drusilla. She droops backward in ecstasy, at the feeling of Angel's energy moving into her and restoring her.
"Right, then! Now we just let them come to a simmering boil, and remove to a low flame." Spike jokes as he slams the book close and tosses it over a shoulder
The doors suddenly burst open Willy barges inside and strides into the nave with the vampires escorting Buffy and Kendra following close behind.
"It's payday, pal. I got your Slayer."
"HAVE YOU LOST WHATEVER YOU CALL A MIND! WHY THE HELL DID YOU BRING THE SLAYER HERE!" Spike yelled
"Y-You said you wanted her.", the fear evident in his voice
"In the ground you pinhead! I wanted her DEAD!"
"S-Sorry, I thought I heard it was one of those, you know, dead or alive deals."
"You heard wrong, Willy. And whose this anyway?"
"I am Kendra De Vampire Slayer."
"Well is that so. Looks like it's gonna be 2 for 1 dinner night then."
While Willy and Spike had been talking Buffy's gaze had been locked on to Angel the entire time, "Angel."
Spike looked back for a moment, before turning to Buffy, " Yeah, I know. It bugs me too, seeing him like that. Another five minutes though and Angel will be dead, so no skin off my back. But don't feel too bad for Angel though, slayer, he's got something you don't have."
"Oh yeah. And what's that?", a defiant look still in Buffy's eyes
"Five more minutes. Patrice, if you would be so kind."
The female assassin draws her gun with a grin, and takes aim at Buffy. Suddenly the door of to the side bursts open and the vampires holding Buffy in place are dusted. With a vicious kick, Buffy knocks the gun out of the woman's hand and follows up with a devastating punch knocking her to the ground. The growing confusion allows Kendra her chance to break free as she slams her right foot into one of the vampire's knees shattering it. The vampire lets go of her arm and collapses to the floor in pain, allowing the slayer to use her freed appendage to deliver a powerful haymaker to her remaining captor and knocks him out.
Buffy and Patrice circle each other as they prepare to fight. The assassin tosses her arms to the side and blade slides out from each sleeve. The vampire that had been holding Kendra gets up from the floor next to them and starts to reach for Buffy when a bolt impales him. He falls and turns to ashes while Giles looks on from the door, still holding the crossbow. Buffy and Patrice begin to fight hand-to-hand. The Tarakan thrusts one blade, then the other at Buffy, but she catches her arms and holds them up as she slams a knee into Patrice's stomach. Buffy follows up with knee strike as she rushes forward and slams into her with a flying double-kick to her face that sends Patrice flying back into the wall.
Seeing that Buffy's attention is on the assassin, Spike tries to attack her from behind, but Kendra intercedes as she leaps over Buffy and lands an overhand strike to Spike and knocks him back. Spike throws a punch at Kendra, knocking her down, and she scrambles to avoid his follow-up kick. Spike tries two kicks, which Kendra easily blocks. Kendra ducks a swing to her head and lashes out with a swing of her own , but Spike grabs her arm in mid-swing and flips her over and onto a table, smashing it. Kendra lays on the ground as she lets out a pained breath. Spike reaches down for her, but Kendra kicks up with both legs into Spike's face and makes him fall backward to the floor. They both scramble to their feet again as Kendra slams a roundhouse kick to Spike's face knocking him back to the ground.
Another vampire tries to get involved in the fight between Kendra and Spike, but Giles stops him as he tries to swing the crossbow into the vampires face, but before it can strike him the vampire grabs it, as the two begin to struggle over it. Rearing back Giles kicks the vampire in the nuts causing him to release the crossbow. Willow jumps up onto his back and starts choking him with her arm as she leans back causing the vampire to follow along. With a clear shot, Giles reaches into his jacket and slams a stake into the vampire's heart turning him to dust.

A female vampire cries out suddenly before vanishing into dust. Since the start of the fight Xander has been easily picking off preoccupied vampires with his crossbow. Just as he is about to fire at another one that trying to get at Buffy, he suddenly shudders. The sensation causes him to look over to his left and spot Norman standing near the back of the room watching the events going on and waiting for his chance.
"Hey, larvae boy!" drawing Norman's attention to him, "Yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you, you big cootie!"
Norman smiles and starts after him. Seeing that his attention is focused solely on him, Xander scrambles for the doors and carefully steps through as he slams them closes them behind him. He carefully steps over the trap as Cordelia finishes pouring the puddle of liquid adhesive on the ground in front of the door.
"Welcome, my little pretties!" Xander mocks as he notices their prey beginning to fall for the trap
Norman begins to slide under the crack in the door as more of the mass of mealworms starts to get stuck in the adhesive. Almost instantly, Xander and Cordelia begin to stomp on the pile of mealworms and continue doing so for the next couple of minutes.
"Die! Die! Die!" Cordelia screams as she keeps stomping the already crushed demon
Xander puts his hand on her lower back to calm her. "I think he did, Cordy."
Cordelia pauses to look at what remains before the two run off to help with the main battle.

Kendra jumps over Spike when he tries to knock her legs out from under her. She tries going for another roundhouse kick, but he blocks it. He uses the momentum of the block to spin around and slam his fist into her again.
Patrice gets back up and comes for Buffy. She ducks under a kick from Buffy and lunges toward her with her blades, but Buffy easily blocks her before knocking her arms away. She tries to swing at Buffy's face with one, but Buffy ducks out of the way and hits her with a kneeling kick, knocking the assassin away from her.
Kendra swings at Spike, but her strike is blocked. Spike lands another punch on her.
Buffy punches Patrice in the face and sends her staggering back into the wall again.
Spike punches Kendra again, and follows up with a roundhouse kick. She hits the floor and scrambles back up again.
Buffy notices her getting knocked around, "Switch!"
Bending over, Kendra rolls across her back and takes her place fighting Patrice, immediately landing a punch and knocking her into the wall for a third time.
"I'd rather be fighting you anyway.", Spike remarks
"No problem because the feelings mutual." Buffy retorts before going on the move. She blocks his first punch, before retaliating with a kick to his face and another one in the gut. He doubles over and falls to the floor. Lifting her leg to try and hit him, Spike catches it before it connects and lifts it on to his shoulder, to keep her from using it, as he stands back up. The following left and right punches are captured in his hands, as he holds her in place with no way to defend herself. At least that was the plan until she reared back and slammed her forehead into Spike's nose forcing him to release her.

Patrice throws Kendra over a knocked-over pew and climbs over after her. She swings at Kendra twice, but misses both times when Kendra ducks. She swings again and this time slashes her in the arm. Kendra grabs her wound and looks down at it.
"Dat was me favrit shirt! Dat was me only shirt!" the anger evident in her voice
Now Kendra is really mad, as she unleashes a flurry of blows at the assassin. She lands a kick on Patrice in the back of the knee, causing her to lose her balance. She grabs Patrice by the arm and throws her into a cabinet in front of the organ, smashing it to pieces and finally removing her from the fight by knocking her out. Kendra runs over to join the others.

Buffy blocks a punch from Spike, followed by another, but then he lands punches to her stomach and face. She blocks his next swing and holds his arm while she punches him twice in the face. Grabbing his coat she twirls him around before launching him over several pews and into the wall. Behind another pew Willy peaks around at the carnage. Spike growls as he stands back up, out of the corner of his eye he notices Willy trying to sneak out of the church. He rushes over and grabs him by the back of the neck.
"And just where do you think you're going?"
Seeing that Spike is preoccupied, Buffy seizes the opportunity to run to the altar and pull the dagger out of Angel and Drusilla's hands.
"This is all your FAULT!" adding a shake for emphasis
"N-Now, there's a way in which this isn't my fault!"
"They tricked you."
"Mmm hmm! They were duplicitous!"
"Well, then I'll only kill you just this once." Spike says right before going into game face and going for the bite
"Spike!" Drusilla cried out weakly
Spike stops before biting Willy and looks over at her. He sees Buffy trying to free Angel and interrupt the ritual. Letting go of Willy he rushes over to the altar as he grabs Buffy by the shoulders and shoves her to the floor. He slams a powerful backhanded fist into her face as she tries to get back up, knocking her down again.
Looking around at the devastation in the room and taking in the quickly dwindling state of his minions, Spike realizes that his plans have gone to hell and that a hasty retreat is his only option. Grabbing one of the torches lining the walls of the room, Spike throws it into a pile of old drapes, the dry fabric quickly igniting.
Reaching up he quickly unlocks Drusilla, causing both she and Angel to collapse to the floor. Quickly catching his lover, Spike lifts the weakened vampire in his arms and begins to run down the aisle towards the exit.
Buffy, finally climbing back to her feet, watches as Spike tries to flee the battle. Leaning down she grabs the censer from the altar and begins swings it over her head by its chain. The vaporizes quickly gains speed and power as she releases the chain and launches it at Spike. The projectile flies through the air and with supernatural accuracy Slams into the back of Spike's head. He is struck with such force that Spike is sent careening into the church organ. The old keyboard console quickly collapses under his and Drusilla's weight, burying the two master vampires underneath. Buffy gives a satisfied nod before quickly moving over to pick up Angel. Slinging him over her shoulder to support his weight, she jumps down from the raised platform as the fires begin to spread throughout the room.
Kendra runs over and helps her sister slayer to move the injured vampire from danger.
The others run out of the church as the three of them make their way up the aisle and out the other door. Buffy glances to her right for a moment and notices that the wreckage of the organ has been engulfed in flames as well.

Sunnydale High

Afternoon
The next day things started to return to normal for everyone. For the most part everyone had forgotten about someone shooting up the school. Save for Oz and Amy who were hanging out with Willow and Buffy in the lounge, Oz to figure out what was going on and Amy because she wanted someone to talk with.
Xander found himself walking down the hall for the library for a place to do some quiet studying. Stepping out from her locker, Cordelia sees Xander and immediately turns away from him to start walking in the other direction. Realizing it's the perfect chance for them to clear the air, Xander runs down the hall and stops her.
"We need to talk."
Cordelia rolls her eyes and crosses her arms as Xander gestures toward one of the empty classrooms. Xander pauses for a moment to look back and forth down the hall to make sure no one sees them going in together, before following her inside. The two of them stand a few feet from each other, both fidgeting with their hands in nervousness.
"We don't have to pretend like we don't see each other every time we meet in the hall." Xander said after taking in a deep breath
"Right. Okay. Why shouldn't we pretend?"
"What happened between us, at Buffy's house, there's a totally rational explanation for it."
"Yeah, there is. You're a pervert."
"I'm a what?"
"Yeah! First you assault me with your lips and then you rip my dress open so you can stare at my breasts!" Cordelia accused him taking a step forward.
"Sorry toots, but wrong answer. I may have kissed you, but you were just as eager to kiss me back. And as for the dress, I already told you I was sorry. By the time I realized something was about to happen the only thing I could reach on you in time was your collar. Popping your tits out was, while a very pleasing sight, not my intention when I grabbed you!" he yelled back as moved in a little closer.
"As if! I bet you've probably been planning this for months!"
"Right, I hired a Latvian bug man to kill Buffy just so I could get you in a situation where I could kiss you. I hate to burst your bubble, Cordelia, but you don't inspire me to spring for a dinner at Red Lobster.
"Fine! Whatever.", Cordelia starts to away, but turns back around stepping even closer to him than before. "The point of this conversations is this: Don't try it again!"
"I didn't try it the first time!", he says after taking several calming breaths. "Listen, Cordy, all I want to do is just clear the air between us so things can go back to normal."
Cordelia moves once again, the distance less than a foot between them, "If you ever say a word about this to anyone…"
"And just who exactly am I gonna tell? It's not as if The Enquirer is knocking down my door."
"Then it's erased!"
"It never happened!"
"Good."
"Good!"
"Good!"
The two teenagers stare into each other's eyes for a moment, before grabbing each other in another mad passionate kiss.
This time they didn't break it off.

Tonight The Bronze was packed as the band was in a rare form. Everyone was having fun hanging out with friends or relaxing as they listened to the music. There were people dancing all over the place. Some where off to the side and in their seats swaying back and forth, but most where in the middle of it all on the dance floor. In the thick of it was Buffy and Xander slow dancing. The slayer's every movement graceful and very sensual.
Their bodies pressed against each other as Buffy turns around and spoons in against Xander, pulling his arms around her waist. Buffy grinds her hips back against his as they continue dancing together. She reaches up with her hand and gently strokes the side of Xander's face. Turning around in his arms, Buffy tilts her head up to his, close enough that with only a slight movement forward their lips would be connected
"Xander? Did I ever thank you... for saving my life?", Buffy whispered to him
Xander's eyes widen as it finally hits him why this seemed so familiar. Stepping back, Xander holds Buffy at arms length.
Their gazes remained locked as she gently shrugs his arms off of her. The Dream Buffy begins to slowly circle around him like a predator stalking its prey. As she moves around him, Xander realizes that all of the other occupants of the club have vanished from sight, leaving just the two of them. The Dream Buffy and Xander continue to study each other as she stops to stand in front of him again. She looks just as she did the night she embarrassed him and even though it still bothers him sometime to think about her doing that to him he could never have denied how much it meant to him when he thought it was real. She looks just as beautiful and sensual as the real Buffy did.
"That's why we chose this form" Dream Buffy said as she interrupted his thoughts. "We wanted to approach you again, but we needed to do so in a way that you would not find threatening. We chose Buffy's form because of the intense feelings you hold for her, although perhaps we should choose another." Dream Buffy finished before she began to morph into another shape.
"Would this one please you?" she said as it assumed Cordelia's form. A tight red silk dressed hugged her body and showed off every curve of Cordelia's impressive figure. The low neckline exposing the tops of her large breasts.
The being keeps her shape for only a moment before shifting forms and settling on Willow in the outfit she wore on Halloween, "Or maybe this one would be more appealing."
If he were to be honest with himself, all three of them looked drop dead gorgeous and if this had been one of his regular fantasies he'd probably try all three of em out. For some reason though, something about this dream didn't feel right, not one single bit.
"Well I can tell your not me since by this point there would have been naked jell-o wrestling.", he earns a true smile from the woman standing in front of him, "So would you mind telling me just what you really are?"
Dream Willow steps closer to him as she wraps her arms around him, "…We are your conscience…"
"…We are your passion…" she say as she shifts into Cordelia
"…We are your strength…" Dream Buffy says
The Bronze literally swirls from view before being replaced by a familiar one. Once again Xander finds himself on a the island in the middle of a vast black ocean, except this time he isn't out there alone.
Staring into Dream Buffy's eyes he suddenly realizes who she is or at least who she represented. "…We are your Other!" she finishes as she pulls Xander down towards her and they begin to kiss each other passionately.

Leaping from his bed, Xander looks around in confusion. The strange dream or vision still clearly in his mind, he moves around to try and calm himself down. He stops to stand in front of his full length mirror as he runs his hands over his face wondering to himself just what the hell is going on. As soon as he finishes the thought a cold trickle begins to run down his neck, the sensation soon follows down his arms and legs.
Removing his hands from his face, Xander is stunned into silence as he watches his reflection. Slowly, a black liquid begins pouring over every inch of his body. For a moment panic begins to set in as the fluid crawls over his neck and covers his face. Fears about being unable to see, or more importantly breathe, are laid unneeded because even though his entire face is being covered by the alien substance his lungs fill with air just as easily as any other time he has taken a breath. The darkness he was also fretting over soon fades away to reveal his room like normal. Looking back into the mirror he can see himself or what he hopes is himself, simply standing there as the fluid continues to flow over his skin. Eventually it settles down and begins to assume a very familiar shape as the spot where his eyes are begin to form two large white eyes. The material on his chest shifts in color also as a familiar symbol of a fictional character morphs into place.
Eventually the suit settles down and takes on a cloth like appearance, even though it is a thousand times more durable, and completes it's change. And there for the first time in almost a month, Spider-Man has made a return appearance to Sunnydale.
Taking in his new appearance and finally realizing what's been going on all along the first words out of male Scooby's mouth is a comical and worrisome, "Oh boy."

Drop me a review on what you thought. I tweaked a few things in the previous chapter from reviews so you guys do help when it comes to writing this story.
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