RATING: R, for violence and sexual situations
PAIRING: B/A
SPOILER WARNINGS: Everything up to and including mid season three
SUMMARY: When a new evil strikes, Buffy and the scoobies must team up with an unlikely ally to release a reluctant champion from the clutches of hell. (Now doesn't that sound good?)
DISCLAIMER: Contrary to public opinion I am NOT Joss. And, oh yeah, they're all his.

Chapter One

She stood there, with her back to him, unable to move. Her breath seemed too quick and shallow in her own ears, her eyes wide and wild as cold sweat trickled down her face.

His cool hands rested lightly on her forearms, restraining her without using the least bit of force.

"Do you love me?" He whispered in her ear, his cool breath sending shivers up and down her spine.

"Y-yes," she stuttered. She felt her knees begin to buckle as his gentle touch on her arms became a death grip, sharp nails digging bloody half moons in her soft skin.

"Do you trust me?" He demanded, his voice hissing in the tell tale sign that his face had changed.

Her mind screamed out like the trapped animal that she was. Her heart beat a panicked rhythm in her ears as the stench of blood on his breath hit her face. She could feel the rush of blood running through her body, well aware that he could too.

"Yes," she said even as her mind screamed out denial, every fiber of her being shrieking with terror.

She closed her eyes at the sound of his soft chuckle, unwilling to meet her death head on. She shuddered once as his fangs buried, with the slowest of motions, into her skin.

Buffy awoke with a start. For a painfully long, disorienting moment she had no idea where she was.

"Damn!" She muttered as she realized she was in her own bed in her very own room. "Why can't I have nice dreams about Freddy Kruger slashing my throat out like a nice, normal person?" She demanded of no one in particular. No one in particular, after a great deal of thought, decided not to answer that.

"Damn!" She cursed again, putting a great deal more emphasis to it this time, as she glanced over at her clock radio. Four more hours of night left for her to toss and turn in. She shuddered at the thought.

"Might as well get some work done," she muttered as she climbed out of bed. She dressed quickly, hiding stakes, holy water and other vampire nasties in various places along her clothes. As an after thought she reached for the long sword her Watcher had given her, securing it firmly against her back. Giles would be so proud, she told herself, making a small unhappy face at the thought. She shrugged, the night was already shot for her, might as well give someone a happy. She contemplated that unselfish thought as she silently climbed out her window.

Buffy glanced up at the steel gray skies. Her Slayer instincts told her dawn would come in a little more than an hour, the gray cloaked sky was just a sneak preview of the light show the rising sun had to offer.

She sighed with regret, shifting the heavy sword digging at her back, three hours worth of patrolling and not a vamp in sight. It's true what they say, she thought, no good deed goes unpunished. All she wanted to do was release a little penned up hostility, couldn't the vamps just give her that?

Reaching one of her favorite graveyards, pausing only to contemplate her own mental health at actually HAVING a favorite graveyard, she heard the familiar sounds of a scuffle.

"Well finally," she murmured, edging cautiously forward. She rounded several inconveniently placed tombstones, and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what they revealed.

Well what do you know, she thought, they started without me. She moved with feline grace closer, to gawk at what the Slayer handbook would easily consider a miracle. Someone was fighting her battles for her.

A black cloaked and hooded figure was systematically hacking away at four, very unhappy, vampires. The Slayer in her watched with appreciation the lightning speed in which the stranger turned the vamps into something a vacuum cleaner could handle.

The stranger twirled with cat-like grace, his cloak whipping at his attackers' faces, momentarily blinding them. A stake appeared from nowhere to plunge itself efficiently into a cold vampire heart. The vamp stared at his chest with disbelief, to Buffy that moment always seemed to last forever. The vamp exploded into a cloud of ash, as Buffy sighed ruefully. Nothing lasted forever.

The Slayer tore her attention from the ash floating away in the wind, back to the Stranger who had easily decapitated a bloodsucker's head with a single, swift motion. The body crumbled to dust before it even hit the ground

Buffy eyed the evil looking blade in the stranger's hands enviously, now why couldn't Giles let her play with something like that?

The Slayer leaned on a headstone, watching what proved to be great entertainment, and wondered absently how in the world anyone could see anything with that hood over their face. She twisted a blond lock of hair between her fingers, grimacing as the two remaining vamps decided to work together against their attacker.

You should have tried that when there were four of you, the petite blonde mused. Nevertheless a stake slipped into her grip with a flick of the wrist, just in case. An enemy of my enemy is a friend of mine, she remembered reading that somewhere. It seemed to ring true in this case as well. She advanced with a stake in hand as the two vamps attacked the stranger from opposite sides, rushing at him with intent to kill. She was still too far to help but close enough to truly be awed as the dark figure leaped through the air over a stunned vamp's head, twisting to decapitate it from behind, even as another hand flew to stake his unfortunate blood brother. The two vamps crumbled to dust before the acrobat's feet ever touched the ground.

Buffy's heels skidded to a stop with shock. No one could do that. God knows she couldn't do that. Hell, she thought, not even Xena could do that.

"Where have you been all my life?" She wondered softly. The cloaked figure whirled in her direction. With a sudden pang of fear Buffy realized that no one could have possibly heard her from so far away.

The cloaked figure charged at her, his evil looking sword brandishing wildly as the distance between them grew impossibly shorter.

Buffy tensed into a fighter's crouch, her mind spinning franticly. Why would anyone so intent on killing vampires want to attack her?

"Very impressive fighting you did back there." She complimented with a slightly exaggerated drawl to her tone. Going on a Cordelia attack tactic seemed ridiculous, but with the way this guy fought she was willing to try it. Throwing her most radiant smile into the mix, she stood there awaiting a response.

The stranger skidded to a stop. "Human?" He demanded, with a heavily accented voice.

"Huh? Oh, you mean me. Yeah, I'm human," she said proudly. It was sure good to be human.

The figure stopped as if considering something, then pressed forward. "Good. Cirta be proud when I kill human."

Buffy's green eyes bulged with surprise as the vicious blade she had been eyeing before came rushing at her. She narrowly ducked the blow, wincing at the shrieking rush, as the sharp blade sliced cleanly through the air.

"Wait," she panted, stepping back. This didn't have to get ugly, "human- good. Vampire- bad." She tried, then ducked again as the blade came much too close for comfort to her neck. "Oh, hell!" She cursed, "I knew you were too good to be true."

With a quick twist she pulled out the long sword that had been digging at her back the entire night. It was considerably slimmer than her attacker's blade, but she felt confident it would hold its own. "I really didn't want to have to do this," she told him as she wiggled her sword threateningly.

The stranger swung his sword at her in response. She pounced cleanly to the side and deflected his blow with her own blade. The shock was incredible, she felt the tremor reaching all the way to her shoulder blades.

As she peered down she discovered her magnificent sword had been reduced to something the size of a butter knife.

"You broke my sword!" She accused. "Giles is gonna kill me." She moved fast at that point, reminding herself that she actually wanted Giles to get to her first. She ducked and rolled behind a headstone, pulling out a small dagger from her calf-high boots. She lunged to the side of the headstone just as the ferocious sword clashed against the pale stone, emitting an impressive display of sparks. A chunk of rock dropped unceremoniously to the ground.

Beautiful, the Slayer thought sarcastically, it can cut through rock. She lunged again, this time with intent to hurt. She slid to the ground, wincing as small rocks and pebbles dug into her stomach and breasts, driving her dagger home she smiled as it embedded itself in the stranger's calf with a satisfying clang.

Clang? That wasn't the right sound. She rolled quickly to her feet, taking her wrinkled dagger with her. This was beginning to become disturbing. She moved to a fighter's crouch unsure as to what to do next, on impulse she grabbed a vile of holy water and smashed it against her attacker's body. There was no effect.

"I didn't really think you were a vampire, but it was worth a try," Buffy muttered as she backed up slowly. Running was not an option, she had known that as soon as she'd seen this guy move.

Her mind reeled as it offered and dismissed tactics with lightning speed, all the while edging away from the slowly advancing threat.

She absently noted that the sun had finally risen, her attention fully on her attacker. She frowned, the stranger had stopped moving, and suddenly he twisted to face the rising sun. With a gut-wrenching scream, he burst into flames.

Buffy froze, too stunned to think about moving. Somewhere in the back of her mind she noted that the flames had even consumed the sword she had coveted a half-hour earlier.

"Nice exit," she finally said as she began to make her way home.

"There she is!" Willow cried out from out of her boyfriend's embrace, motioning towards Buffy. The entire group was standing together, chattering on the neatly trimmed lawn of the Sunnydale high school. Willow in Oz's arms, and Cordelia in Xander's.

"More like there she isn't," Xander replied, noting the dark circles under her eyes. "What happened to you?"

Buffy looked at them with a pang of jealousy, they all seemed so happy. Willow and her budding relationship with Oz, and Xander... Well his and Cordelia's disturbing fixation with utility closets seemed to make him a happy man these days. She was happy for her friends, it's just that seeing them with their significant others made her loss so much more pronounced.

"Was it that dream again?" Willow asked sympathetically.

"No, well yeah that too, but..."

"Dream? What dream?" Scott asked as he snaked his arm around Buffy's slender waist from behind. "It wasn't about me, was it?" His eyebrows wiggled suggestively.

Buffy's body tensed in response. A touch as intimate as a hug from someone who wasn't HIM felt alien. Scott's face dropped, obviously feeling the rejection. As he started to lift his arm away Buffy stopped him with a forced smile. "Only the good parts," she lied. This relationship wasn't working, she realized that from the beginning. Scott was nice, sweet and funny, but he just wasn't HIM. She would make it work, though. She was the Slayer, she reminded herself, that meant she could do that sort of thing.

Buffy raised her eyes with new resolve to meet Willow's. The observant redhead hadn't missed the dark shadow passing over her best friend's face, experience had taught her exactly what that shadow meant.

"Giles wanted me to tell you to meet him at the library. Something about overdue books." Xander added, noting the question in Scott's face.

Buffy rolled her eyes at the clumsy attempt, but played along, "sure. Will, you want to come with?"

Torn for a moment between her boyfriend and her best friend, the redhead nodded without much enthusiasm. Making a small, over dramatic face, Buffy conceded, "why don't you come with us, Oz?"

Buffy had to laugh as the happy glow returned to Willow's face. That girl was so easy to please.

"Come on, Cordy. We're going with them," Xander told her.

Cordelia ripped her attention from the early morning rays that were warming her face, "what? Why?"

"Because I asked you nicely," he answered blithely, completely ignoring the fact that he hadn't asked her at all, "and that doesn't happen very often."

She wordlessly conceded, allowing him to manually drag her into the school building.

Scott watched as the diverse group of teens disappeared in the shadows of the open front doors, musing, like many before him, how much like a gaping, hungry mouth they looked. "Strange people," he muttered to himself, somewhat hurt that no one thought to invite him along. He absently shrugged it off and walked to class.

Giles shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "what exactly did he say, Buffy?" He asked for the third time.

"Was this before or after he tried to kill me?" She asked sarcastically.

"He said something after?" The librarian asked, intrigued. Catching her dirty look he coughed, failing miserably to cover up his embarrassment.

She sighed dramatically, but yielded just the same, "after I told him he threw nice punches he asked if I was human."

"In those words?" Giles demanded.

"Well, no. It was more like 'human?'" She attempted to imitate the stranger's accent, much to Xander's amusement.

"So this guy was German?" Xander asked cheerfully. They all ignored him, but he was used to that.

"Then he said something about Cirta being happy about him killing me. Conversation was sort of moot from there on."

"Interesting..." The librarian mused.

"Giles, the guy nearly killed me! He wastes four vamps in the blink of an eye, goes on to attack me, breaks my sword. Then bursts to flame when the sun comes up, and all you can say is 'interesting'?"

The librarian stared at her, the Slayer's outburst catching him by surprise. "Yes, of course you're right I apo..." His eyes narrowed suddenly. "You broke my sword?" He demanded, "Buffy, that was an antique!"

"Well she was trying to stay alive at the time," Willow said, jumping to her friend's defense.

Giles eyed his charge sourly, but let the matter drop. "I'll look up this Cirta character and see what I can find."

"I've got some free time during fifth period, so I'll scope the net," Willow told him. She glanced sideways at her boyfriend's eggplant colored hair, "you'll help?"

The multi colored head bobbed up and down in agreement. Willow beamed.

"Good, it's settled then. We meet here after school." They all nodded their agreements as they made their way to class.

"What are we going to do?" Cordelia asked Xander.

"What we always do, Pinky, get the donuts."

She eyed him coolly. "Great, not only are you people going to get me killed, I'm gonna get fat in the process."

Buffy smiled at them fondly as she watched them leave, then turned to Giles. "I had that dream again," she told him when the room had emptied out.

He looked at her with sympathy in his eyes, "do you want to talk about it?"

She shook her head. She'd told him only the sketchiest of details, but nothing of the way the dream made her feel. "I wanted to know if you found something, some prophecy?"

He shook his head sadly, "sometimes your dreams are just that- dreams."

The Slayer's shoulders drooped with disappointment, "I'd better get to class, then. You know, before Snyder decides to put me on detention just because, or something like that."

Giles nodded his agreement and watched with haunted eyes as his crestfallen Slayer left the room.

Buffy pushed open the library's swinging doors. Her mood had brightened up considerably during the last several hours, her history teacher had called on her in class and she'd blurted out a semi-correct response, not to mention she'd managed to turn in a math assignment on time. Things were definitely looking up. One look at the group of people sitting by the great mahogany table made things flop back down again.

"What's wrong?" She demanded, her body tensing involuntarily. She lovingly fondled the stake buried in her sleeve. Not much of a chance for vamps in broad daylight, she mused, but then again not many things could survive a nice, sharpened stake.

"Buffy, sit down." Giles said motioning to a pulled up chair.

She obeyed, peering at her friends' faces. Under closer observation it seemed that Xander and Cordy were as clueless as she was. The pretty redhead who called herself Buffy's best friend stubbornly avoided her eyes. Oh god, she thought, if Willow can't look at me it has to be bad.

"Am I gonna die again?" She asked bluntly. The effect was like sticking a pin in a highly inflated balloon. Suddenly the quiet room burst into sound as Willow and Oz almost fell over each other to assure her that she was firmly among the living, while Xander was loudly proclaiming his objections at being left in the dark just because he wasn't a computer geek. Cordy, however, decided that the best course of action was to nibble quietly on a jelly donut. At this point Buffy fervently agreed with her as she grabbed one for herself before the May Queen could munch them all up.

"That's enough!" The quiet librarian snapped, the seriousness of his voice pushing them back into the awaiting arms of a dark, gloomy mood. "Buffy, Willow and I ran across something when we looked up Cirta's name." He rushed on ignoring the question in her eyes, "we couldn't find any mention of her in any of the Watchers' diaries."

"So that would mean that either she's very old or very new," Cordelia interrupted, obviously very pleased at her newfound logic.

"Or that she's got a very different name she's hiding under," Xander argued, unable to resist proving his girlfriend wrong.

"Actually she doesn't," Giles began, ignoring the beaming Cordelia on general principal.

"But you have found her eventually," Buffy murmured. "This morning you didn't even know that she was a 'she'." Buffy knotted her fist into a hard white ball, what did it matter how they got their information? There was something that Giles was deliberately not telling her. Something big.

"Yes, we have. Apparently Cirta existed before the Watchers, before the slayer." The Watcher looked deep into his Slayer's eyes, wanting her to be very much aware of the gravity of the situation. "She was created in a time when there was no man, only chaos. A time when demons walked the earth." Buffy stared at him, his words hypnotizing her into a trance where no one existed, but her and her watcher. "She ruled them all, Buffy. She was in many respects the Devil incarnate."

"What happened?"

Giles shook his head, "the book I found wasn't that clear. It only says that eventually, when mankind came along, they somehow joined together with demons to defeat her."

"I take it she wasn't a very nice ruler," Xander murmured.

Buffy's eyes narrowed with suspicion, "if this she-devil existed before the Watchers, how come they have a book on her?"

Giles exchanged a guilty look with Willow, "this isn't Watcher lore," the redhead said as gently as she could. "It's demon lore."

The Slayer's green eyes widened, "HE gave it to you."

Willow nodded briefly and went back to staring at Giles. There was more to this, Buffy could feel it. "So she's back and she wants to have it all again, yadda, yadda, yadda. Cut to the chase."

"It's not that simple," Giles told her softly. "She wants it all this time, and that means no humans."

Buffy almost choked on that one, "she's out to kill the entire human race?"

"She's already begun doing just that. I've been getting reports from European and Asian watchers, apparently that black cloaked man you met last night has several hundred twin brothers all over the world, they've been busy wiping out whole sections of the continent. They're the ones who are preparing for the day of Cirta's return."

Xander's eyes widened, "for once Sunnydale is the last to hear about a coming evil."

Buffy paled visibly, the thought of something she couldn't beat multiplied by several hundred had shaken her to the core. "So how do I stop this thing?"

Giles and Willow exchanged another look. Here comes the clincher, Buffy thought.

"You can't." Willow said flatly. "You're not the one who's supposed to fight her."

"How long has this killing humans spree been going on?" Xander asked suddenly.

"A little over four months," Willow replied, looking him straight in the eyes.

A horrible suspicion flooded Buffy's mind even as Giles began explaining, peering over at Xander she knew he was thinking the same. Oh god, she thought, I can't ever win. "There's a prophecy in these books, Buffy. As clear as I've ever seen one. It tells all about this situation, all about how to beat it."

"All about HIM!" Buffy suddenly lashed out, "this started when I sent HIM to hell. Tell me that's just a coincidence, Giles! Tell me!"

The Watcher shook his head, "I can't do that Buffy. It is related to him, but so is the way to stop this." He rushed on, afraid his Slayer would fall apart before his eyes. Wishing more than anything that he could spare her this, "the prophecy, it speaks of the return of the Angelic One."

"Read it to me." She said flatly.

Giles raised his eyes to meet hers in an attempt to read what she really wanted, but they were unfathomable. "What?"

"I said read it to me!"

"It's in ancient Latin."

"Then translate it. Read it now!"

Another look passed between the Watcher and the Hacker, and then he was Buffy's. "In the age of innocence no longer found, the age where two fight evil- no longer one. She shall rise. It will be the fallen angel who shall set her free," Giles paused to look at her, and swallowed hard. "On the day he shall be sent to hell by his love's own hand, that day shall mark her rising. Her success or fall depends on the fallen one, for as long as he remains in hell humanity has no champion." He stopped reading, his eyes searching his Slayer's for any sign of emotion, "it goes on babbling about humanity, mentioning Angel a few times as the savior, others as the spawn of hell."

"That's our Angel," Xander murmured, "you gotta love him."

"Shut up, Xander!" Cordelia snapped. Surprisingly he did as he was told.

"It clearly says Angel will have to be let out of hell for humanity to survive this." Giles said directly to Buffy. He sighed ruefully as he noted her glazed eyes, the girl was a million miles away.

"So you're gonna trust a book written by a demon, given to you by a demon to spring a demon out of hell?" Xander demanded, jumping to his feet with fury.

"No, I'm not, Xander. That's why I contacted the council, they confirmed this prophecy. This is real."

"Angel gave you this book?" Cordelia asked softly, a horrible thought flashing through her mind. "Wouldn't that have meant that he'd have read it first? That he'd known that he was going to be sent to hell by Buffy?"

That question managed to cut through even Buffy's trance. She stared at Giles, dreading his answer. "No, he wouldn't," he said firmly, speaking directly to his young charge rather than to the girl who had asked the question. "I researched with him many times, before," he left that hanging, "he couldn't read Latin."

"That doesn't mean you can give him a 'get out of hell' free card." Xander yelled, his hate for the dark vampire shining through every word. "He deserved what he got."

"You foolish boy!" Xander gasped as the quiet, tweed clad librarian suddenly became a stranger to him, suddenly realizing he had gone too far. "Do you think for one moment I would let him out if I thought there was another way? Do you think I wouldn't like to run him through myself the moment he steps out of hell?" The teen's dark eyes met the Watcher's gray, and tried to flinch away. "After what he did to all of us, after what he did to Jenny, I'd love nothing more than to kill him myself. To make him suffer like I've suffered, to watch him die a thousand times over." They all stared at him with shock, watching him transform from Rupert to Ripper, and back again. "But humanity is worth more than my own desires." He said quietly, with near perfect control.

Buffy stood, suddenly unable to breathe right in the stale library. She needed fresh air, she needed space, and she needed to get out of the library and into the sun right now. "Buffy?" Willow called after her softly.

She turned to face them, her friends. The ones who had kept her sane throughout those long shattering weeks since her lover had gone. "It was supposed to have lasted forever," she told them quietly, unsure herself as to what 'it' meant exactly.

They watched the library doors swing silently after her. "I guess even forever has to end sometime," Cordelia mused philosophically. They all stared at her. "What? I can be deep!"

* * *
Chapter Two
Buffy leaned against the school's brick wall for support. Her chest heaved, gasping for air as her face tilted up directly at the high, afternoon sun.

The sound of her own grating lungs was in her ears, and a myriad of dancing colors played behind her closed eyelids. Her mind reeled, forcing out any thought but one: Angel.

His name played over and over in her mind; the way she had whispered it with reverence the night he told her that he loved her, the way Giles had hissed it with contempt ever since Jenny died. The way she had screamed it with ecstasy the night they had...

"Buffy?"

The Slayer jumped, whipping her eyes open. "God, Will! You scared me!" She snapped at the timid hacker.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to see how you were doing."

"Oh, I'm just peachy!" The Slayer retorted, peeking over at her best friend she decided it was a safe a place as any to dump her frustrations. "Why him, Will? Why should HE be so important?" To anyone but me, that is, "why should the world literally rise or fall depending on his being there?" Her voice was now as plaintive as a child's, her eyes wide as if seeking the simplest of answers.

Willow shook her head, there were no simple answers. "I don't know. We should have suspected something when we realized the demon Acathala depended on him to open the Hellmouth, but we really had no way of knowing." Chalk it up to a divine joke, the clever hacker thought bitterly. A man's work is never done, not even after he's tossed into hell by the woman who loves him.

Buffy sighed like the sound of her soul tearing apart, "I think about him in there, Will. I think about the centuries he spent in torment."

"It's been four months, Buffy," the pretty redhead reminded her gently.

Blond hair flew from side to side, as the tiny Slayer shook her head violently, "no. Time passes differently in there. A few days out here is like a person's lifetime in hell."

Willow gasped, her face becoming deathly pale, "then that would mean four months is like..." She left it hanging seeing her friend's eyes snap shut with remembered pain.

"I thought it would last forever," Buffy whispered through clenched teeth.

"What would?" Willow asked as gently as she could.

"Everything!" The Slayer began pacing restlessly. "Our love. His life." She stopped abruptly before the already dizzy hacker, "our hell."

Willow began to wring her hands nervously, her silky hair effectively hiding her face like a curtain. Oh God, the Slayer thought, there's more.

"Buffy, there's more." Willow said hesitantly, missing Buffy's almost amused expression as she rolled her eyes heavenward searching for the propagator of the huge joke being played on her.

"Yeah, I kind of figured that." Willow stared at her with almost caricature question marks in her eyes. "Never mind. Go on."

The pretty hacker stared at her long and hard, "we have no idea as to how to get him out," she finally blurted, leaving Buffy to choke a bit on that one.

Buffy's mind suddenly conjured up the image of a capsized boat. So much for smooth sailing, she thought miserably. She shook her head to clear away the metaphor, "but the book," she finally managed to sputter. "Giles said it was so clear."

Willow nodded ruefully, "it was, as far as to what we're supposed to do. It doesn't say anything as to how we're supposed to go about doing it." She winced at the remembered frustration she and Giles endured as that little revelation popped up. Talk about hell in hardcover.

"But there's always the net, and..."

Willow shook her head, "I've been searching the net for the past two months, ever since you came back and told us what happened. There was nothing about a person being brought back from hell."

"But they're always being brought back in the movies," Buffy argued lamely. "That's got to be based on something."

A smile flashed briefly on Willow's lips at her friend's warped reasoning, she did hit close to the truth, however. "It is. It's based on demons being summoned. He had a human soul when he was," she floundered for a moment, "sent." She finally said.

"It's alright, you can say it. When I sent him to hell." She raised her hands quickly to ward off the hacker's denials, "I've dealt with it, Will. So what happens now?"

"Now it's Giles' turn. He's just started his research so it should take awhile." She peered into the Slayer's green eyes sympathetically, "something will come up, Buffy, it always does."

"Yeah," she murmured sarcastically, "that's what I'm afraid of."

Willow smiled as she pulled her friend into an embrace, only to be joined a moment later by another set of arms.

"Xander!" Willow protested loudly, as his bear hug combined with the Slayer's threatened to choke the life out of her.

"I saw group hug potential, and couldn't resist," he explained as he pulled the two girls into an even tighter embrace.

"More like copping a feel potential and your hormones couldn't resist," Cordelia informed him from not very far away.

A quick peek over Xander's shoulder showed the gang was all there. Buffy wondered idly how long they had been standing there, but found, to her surprise, that she didn't mind even if they had heard the entire conversation. Secrets were a long lost thing among these people whom she considered to be her best friends. Even Cordelia.

"Since we're all here," Buffy said as cheerfully as she could after gently disentangling Willow and herself from Xander's bear hug, "we might as well go Bronzing." She glanced up at the early evening skies, "I'd say we got about three hours before it opens."

Giles frowned, but that was expected. "Bronzing? Buffy, I don't think..."

"Oh, no mister." Buffy said as she wiggled a parental finger in front of the librarian's face. "No Bronzing for you. Not until you finish all your school work."

The Watcher smiled at her weak attempt at humor, as always amazed by the resiliency of her soul. "I meant that I would need help. Willow and Oz to swim the net..."

"Surf." Oz corrected absently.

"You and Xander to help read the books," he went on, ignoring Oz's computer speak. "Cordelia to," he floundered, looking at the May Queen's expectant face, "to bring refreshments." Her expression darkened as she muttered something about librarians and their ungrateful ways.

"What language are the books?" The Slayer asked patiently.

"Well some are in Gaelic, others in Greek, and..." He sighed with resignation, already aware this was a loosing battle.

Buffy smiled winsomely, "well there you go then. All languages neither I nor research boy can read. As for net-swimming, somehow after two months I doubt Will and Oz will be able to come up with anything new."

The librarian turned to slowly face the redheaded hacker, his complexion pallid. "You've been searching for two months?" He demanded.

To their overall surprise she lifted her chin defiantly, "call it a personal project," she said quietly, daring him to challenge her.

He blinked at her unexpected resolve, "and you found nothing?" He asked, deciding maturely to confront her on the issue on another, less sensitive day.

She shook her head as Buffy went on blithely, "as for refreshments, there's always the donuts Xander and Cordy got from before." She paused to look at the pretty brunette, "you did leave him some strawberry jelly ones, didn't you?"

"Nope," Cordelia said spitefully, "I finished them all up." With her little revenge all played out, she turned to leave in a huff.

Buffy shrugged as she looked at the forlorn librarian, "sorry Giles. Good luck on the research, though."

The Bronze was packed to the brim that night, being the only decent place to hang in all of Sunnydale that was no great surprise. What was a surprise, however, was Oz's ability to get them in free of charge.

"The band has certain advantages," he said cryptically when asked how he managed to accomplish that particular half miracle. It was rumored that the Bronze owner didn't even let himself in for free.

They found themselves a nice semi-private booth for Cordelia's benefit, in case any of her friends decided to show up. "It's not that I'm embarrassed to be seen with you," she told Xander. "It's just that I don't want to be not embarrassed just right now." Buffy chuckled softly to herself. By the time Xander's mind would finish working that sentence out, Cordy would probably give him another impossibility to mull over.

Xander had gotten the last laugh, however. He had managed to drag Cordy out onto the dance floor, where she was bravely teaching him how to move in what she referred to as "normal human being dance". From Buffy's point of view she was having little to no success, as Xander's arms and legs waved about like something from a National Geographic mating ritual flick.

Willow was chattering happily to a half-zonked Buffy and a very interested Oz about the latest pagan sites she'd found on the net. The band, which was currently making the most noise at the Bronze, although in Buffy's opinion Cordelia's yelling at Xander came a very close second, abruptly stopped playing once they'd finished their song. Oz excused himself and walked up to center stage.

"What's he doing?" Willow wondered aloud.

Buffy rolled her eyes. The girl couldn't possibly be that naive, this was the exact same scene as in every sixties teen movie ever made. "I don't know, Will." She said, unwilling to ruin her friend's surprise. If Willow didn't watch the right kind of movies, that was her problem.

Oz turned his back to the awaiting crowd, explaining to the band exactly what he wanted from them. They weren't the 'Dingoes', but they'd do.

"Willow," he turned back to the crowd, his eyes straining to view his love, "this is for you," he said as he began to pluck at his guitar.

Willow's lips formed a bewildered O, and Buffy choked back a laugh. Elvis would have been so proud, she thought, wiping away at a mock tear.

Sitting by my monitor / Thinking about nothing else but you / Dunno if it's right or wrong / Knowing there's nothing else I can do.

"It's really very," monitor? "Good." Buffy whispered over to Willow. The redheaded hacker paid her no mind, as she watched her boyfriend with stars in her eyes.

The sweat on my face / mingling softly with my tears / I know I should have told you / about my hopes and dreams and fears.

Buffy sighed and averted her eyes, refusing to look at the love-struck hacker. "It's like staring at the damn sun," she muttered to herself. Her breath suddenly caught in her throat as her eyes beheld someone she thought she'd never see again.

"I'm going out for some fresh air," she told her otherwise occupied friend.

"Ah-hum, fine Buffy," her otherwise occupied friend replied, obviously not hearing a word of what was said to her.

Buffy made her way through the Bronze crowd through the Club's back door and out into a dimly lit alley. She savored the cool air on her bare arms for a moment, allowing the beautiful evening to cleanse her body of all the tension she'd been in for much too long. Once that was done she promptly delivered a vicious back kick straight into the groin of the man standing behind her.

She spun around to face him as he rolled to his feet, a pained expression on his pale, delicate features. "What are you doing here, Spike?" She demanded, a stake already at hand.

"Now is that any way to greet an old friend?" He chided her gently, eyeing her approach warily.

"No, but then again you don't fit that category anyway." She delivered another kick, which sent him sprawling. Still, other than lift himself from the asphalt he made no other move.

He watched her carefully, wondering for a moment how she managed to hide stakes and other various artifacts in her outrageously tight outfit. It's a Slayer thing, he concluded. He shook his head, clearing it of disturbing thoughts before he'd find himself on the wrong end of a stake. "I've got some news for you, pet."

She didn't seem to hear him, "you promised you'd stay away, Spike." She said, grabbing him by his shirt collar. "You said you'd take Dru and never come back."

Spike had to fight back a throaty laugh. She'd been the Vampire Slayer for this long and she still believed promises made by a demon? "It's important, ducks." He tried again as she pinned him to the wall, her knee viciously connecting with his groin. He groaned, she was having a little too much fun with that particular area of his body. "It has to do with Cirta."

She seemed oblivious, too far-gone in her own violence to listen to him. "This time you're going down, Spike," she hissed at him hatefully. Her hand moving with lightning speed, fully intending to kill.

He ducked with a yelp, the stake shattering against the wall where his chest should have been. With a growl he punched her stomach, unwilling to remain the scapegoat to her frustrations any longer. He moved a safe distance away from her as she doubled over with pain, only to tense back into a fighting stance with a fresh stake in her hand.

Where did she keep those things? One had to wonder. She advanced towards him slowly, her eyes promising murder as she raised the stake. "This has to do with Angel!" He yelled at her, playing his one Trump card.

He heaved out an unneeded sigh of relief as the Slayer stopped dead in her tracks. "If you're lying to me..." She began menacingly.

He raised his hands with his palms to her in the universal symbol that he was unarmed, "this is too bloody important for me to lie about, Slayer."

She looked at him, wondering why a century old vamp would want to look like Billy Idol. She leaned against the ally wall, occupying herself by tapping her fingernails against the sharp end of her stake. "Then why don't you tell me all about it," she almost purred, keeping a wary eye on him the entire time.

"I'd rather talk to your Watcher, luv."

The murderous look leaped back to her eyes, "I don't give a damn what you'd rather be doing. You talk to me!"

"What luv, don't you trust me?" He asked mockingly, unwittingly echoing her dream.

His pale face lost even more color as she lunged at him with unstoppable speed, he swallowed hard as the stake leveled with his unbeating heart. "Only as far as I can throw you," she said sweetly. "Luv," she added in the most insulting tone she could muster.

He pushed her away with a snarl, well aware he was able to do it only because she allowed him to. "Damn it, Slayer," he snapped, "this is too bloody important for stupid games."

She seemed unruffled, "yeah, you said that already. Tell me about it."

He looked around cautiously, the moon playing wild shadows against his platinum hair. The alley was satisfyingly empty. He slid down to a more comfortable position on his haunches, and rested his elbows on his knees. From his new position he looked up at Buffy urging her to do the same. She sighed mournfully as she perched herself against the opposite wall, this was going to take a while. So much for Bronzing.

"This Cirta chick, your Watcher told you she's for offing humanity?" He asked bluntly, trying to assess the depth of her knowledge.

Buffy shrugged indifferently, "so what's it to you?"

He smiled savagely, the girl was obviously aware of what was going on. Maybe this wouldn't be as hard as he thought. "Normally not much," he answered truthfully. Sure he liked humans in general, and they made for good meals, but in times of need he wasn't one to be picky. He could live off some animal if need be. "Only she's got a thing for vampires as well."

He frowned as he watched one delicate eyebrow arch in amusement, "that so? Now why would anyone have a thing for vampires?"

"Well how should I bloody well know what goes on in a demon's psyche?" He demanded, loosing his temper. This time both eyebrows shot up, "other then my own," he amended. "Look pet, all I know is that the last time she was here, a few vampires and humans got together and managed to put her out of business." Her eyes were unreadable. "So now she's out to get the bloody lot of us," he went on, trying to get a reaction out of her.

"Fine," she conceded, staring deep into his feral eyes. "So what do you want?"

His eyes widened in disbelief, "have you not been listening?" He grated. "Was I talking to the walls here?"

He stopped as she rose to her feet, "you have nothing new to say to me, Spike." She told him as she deliberately turned her back to him.

"I can tell you about Angel," he called after her.

She stopped as he knew she would, "what about Angel?" She asked with flat, even tones, still refusing to face him.

He could see the tension in her back as she awaited his response, "I know how to get him back," he told her quietly.

"Oh good, Buffy, you're back." Giles said with a perfunctory glance her way. He leaped from his chair as his mind digested what it had just seen, "Spike!" The librarian gasped.

"It's so nice to be remembered," the tall blond vampire told Buffy in conversational tones.

"Shut up!" She snapped at him as she pushed him further into the library. "He knows how to get Angel out of hell."

"What? How? Why?" The librarian fumbled, edging to keep the desk between him and the ruthless demon.

"See ducks, I told you I wanted to talk to you both together. Now I have to tell the whole bloody story all over again."

"I told you to shut up!" Buffy said as she shoved him towards a chair.

He twisted to face her, his demon rising to the occasion. "And I told you this was too important to play games!" He snarled at her, making very sure his fangs were clearly in her line of vision.

"Fine," she said sullenly, "I'll play nice." His face reverted back to its human facade making Buffy wonder if there were any ugly vampires.

"That's all I ask," he said pleasantly, sitting down across from the very agitated Watcher. "As for your 'what's' and 'why's'," he said, looking directly at Giles, "I think you already know the answer to those." The man stared at him, helplessly clueless. "Bloody hell, man! Remember Cirta?" He held out a hand to ward off the librarian's questions, "you people aren't the only ones with knowledge, you know. When someone who isn't the Slayer starts offing us, we like to know what's going on."

Giles nodded, having regained his wits he sat down warily across from the vampire, "that only leaves the 'how'." He said coolly.

Spike nodded, reaching for his inside pocket he pulled out several folded sheets of paper, "tell me what you think," he said intently.

Buffy and Spike stared at the librarian as he read through the papers, taking his own sweet time at it. She wondered how anyone could stay so focused, as each minute increased the tension in the quiet room. Finally Giles raised his head stare at Spike with awe.

"Where did you get this?"

"From a friend. Is it for real?" The librarian nodded. "Right then," he said, rising to his feet, "Dru and I'll be here tomorrow night, and we'll all bust the Slayer's ex out of hell." They stared at him, their mouths' agape. "What?" He asked as he reached the swinging double doors, "you didn't think I'd let you wankers have all the fun, did you?"

Go to Part 3