DISCLAIMER: No I don’t own them, but if I did the world would be a better place.
SUMMARY: This is a story of lost identities and the struggle to discover who it is you really are.
AUTHOR’S NOTES: Buffy and her friends are to start off on their trek to Sunnydale, but there are many obstacles along the way.
SPOILERS: Anything and everything.
DISTIBUTION: This story’s for all.
FEEDBACK: Thank you so much to everyone who has given me encourgement. Please keep it coming, it's what keeps me writing.
RATING: R

~*~*~*~*

There’s a difference between wishing vengeance on someone and taking it.
-‘Deep Down’.

~*~*~*~*

Home.

Sunnydale.

The very word sent an irrepressible chill down Buffy’s spine, made hot, sharp needles stab over her insides. Angel’s palm fell comfortingly to rest at her back, but she wasn’t aware of it as she concentrated on her best friend’s face, which held a dour certainty.

“What… what did you just say?”

Willow Rosenburg ducked her small head, red hair falling in a curtain over her pretty elfin features.

“That’s where Wesley’s going”, she repeated, going over each word slowly and surely.

Cordelia twisted her face disbelievingly, finding Willow’s words difficult to comprehend in her half-awake state. “Are you… sure?”

“He has to”. The witch hastened to explain. “The Summoning involves large amounts of energy. A-a power source, I suppose. Not to mention a basis of pure, unholy saturated evil.”

“Good stuff”, Spike offered, raising a hand in approval.

Willow ignored him. “Los Angeles obviously doesn’t generate that much in its current state. But Sunnydale –“

“Home to our very own Hellmouthsville”, Xander finished, mouth twisting downward in disdain as he hitched Danielle up into his arms. “How very convenient for him. Considering he’s about to open it”.

“It’s not only him”, Buffy reminded him dully. “He’s with Wolfram and Hart now. More than enough backing power to get himself inside Sunnydale’s gates safe as houses”.

“Guess they recruited him at the right time then”.

Faith frowned, fluffing her dark brunette hair distractedly. “Why did they?” she wondered aloud. “Recruit him, I mean. It’s not like a big ol’ powerful law firm all deep in the wacky would need someone like Wes along for the ride.”

Willow folded her arms, unconsciously a protective gesture. “I don’t understand it either”, she admitted. “Wesley can’t have that much power that Wolfram and Hart need him to do their bidding. And it can’t come without a price on either side.”

“They obviously need him for something”, Cordelia mused. “The Summoning? That’s what’s got Wes all in a jonesin’, isn’t it?

“When is it enough for you guys?” Xander grunted, growing more irritable by the second. His complete lack of sleep certainly wasn’t helping the matter. “Those lawyers already have a vice like power over the entire state. Most likely the world, if anything I’ve heard is even *marginally* close to the truth. What the hell does it take to satisfy you people?”

Spike snorted. “Why do you look at me when you say that, Harris?”

Xander’s deep-ridged scowl deepened even more. “Well gosh golly gee, let me think about that, Spike. How do we even know you’re not here working as an agent for them, huh?” he demanded, placing Danielle down on the floor so he could move closer to the slouched Englishman. “Seems to me you show up at a pretty damn crucial moment, and conveniently have information you’re more than willing to share”.

Spike rolled his eyes. “Right, because I would put myself in the middle of people who *hate* me and risk all my parts for that sodding law firm. Who, I’ll have you know, aren’t exactly big on the vampire population at the moment.”

Xander’s expression was murderous. “Well God knows you haven’t screwed with us before”.

“Guys will you stop it!” Willow Rosenburg shouted. Danielle cowed at her mother’s tone, and shuffled against the closest body, which happened to be Faith’s. The brunette slayer surprised everyone when she swept up an arm and pulled the small child up onto her lap.

“I don’t think either of you realise HOW serious this is!” Willow continued to explode. “We’re talking the end of the WORLD here”.

Cordelia sighed. “Not like we haven’t seen that before”, the seer muttered.

Willow whirled to include her in her wrath. “No we HAVEN’T seen this before. I don’t know which ones of you were actually LISTENING to me before when I explained to you WHAT the Summoning is, but this is worse than ANYTHING we’ve ever faced. Anything Buffy stopped back at Sunnydale, and anything the vampires have done since then. If Wesley even comes CLOSE to pulling this off, then the lives you all hate so much now are only going to be much much worse.”

Everyone went silent as Willow’s voice subsided and the redhead sagged back against the back of the sofa. Her daughter seemed quite content on Faith’s lap and buried her face in the slayer’s shirt, closing her eyes against the rest of them.

“Hey kid, it’s ok”, Faith whispered to her.

A strange look crossed Willow’s face, and she looked even more upset that she had been only a moment before.

At last Spike broke the silence.

“This is serious to me if you expect me to go trotting back across the countryside to that bloody sinkhole”.

Cordelia sighed painfully. “What makes you think you’re getting a guest pass?” she murmured.

Spike gestured around the room, mindful of Willow’s penetrating glare. “Look around, princess. Buffs there needs all the help she can get, and unfortunately, not many of you have supernatural blood in your system, ‘cept perhaps Glinda and our little miss trigger-happy there”.

Faith didn’t move her head as she leant across the tiny tabletop and smacked him over the underside of the skull.

“He’s right”, Buffy admitted quietly as the blonde vampire cried out in indignation. Willow and Faith’s collective abilities were the best they had.

She exhaled heavily.

But it wouldn’t be enough.

“Uh, I have an interesting question for our audience tonight”, Gunn spoke up quietly, waving a hand impatiently as he stepped forward from his position in the shadows. “What the hell do we do about Wesley once you get to Sunnydale? You gonna kill him?”

Angel frowned. “He’s still human”.

“By whose judgement? Yours”, Gunn scoffed. “Yeah, that always blows over well. There’s only one solution to this, man. Wes deserves to die.”

Buffy had noticed almost immediately after meeting Gunn that he had one straightforward tapered view of how he saw everything, and this was one of those things she didn’t see them changing his opinion on. His thirst for vengeance for whatever Wesley had done to him was so deep-rooted in his personality that he wasn’t willing to face the possibility that there wasn’t just one option here. She got that.

She had been faced with similar decisions before. And as she had told her friends, her position as the slayer meant she made the ultimate verdict. She made the distinction between right and wrong. She’d done it when she plunged a sword through Angel’s unbeating heart, even when she had loved him with all her soul. She’d done it when going after Faith, who had once been her closest friend and sister slayer.

Wesley was no different.

But then it wasn’t really her decision this time, the way she saw it. She had made mistakes, and what right did she had to illustrate her authority here, when she didn’t know the man Wesley had become when under Angel’s employment, nor afterwards and the crimes upon humanity he had committed?

“It isn’t up to us”, the small blonde said slowly, conviction filtering through her voice none of them could mistake.

Gunn turned to look at her charily. “What the hell do you mean by that?” he asked sharply.

Buffy sighed. “It *means* that this isn’t your decision. You don’t just get to decide whether or not Wesley lives or dies because you hold a grudge.”

“No” Cordelia spoke up. “But he deserves to die because of what he’s done. He’s a murderer, Buffy. I know you haven’t been around, but *I* have. You don’t know Wesley like we do. Prison might work in someone like *Faith’s* case, but Wesley is going to destroy the world here.”

Faith coughed loudly, while Willow said, “Uh, been there, done that”.

Willow pursed her lips into a tight line when she held everyone’s attention again. “That’s right. I killed people and I tried to end the world. Death isn’t the alternative here. Gunn, I know you’re used to thinking with your fists and I respect that. But there’s something deeper here. Wesley might still have a chance”.

“And if he doesn’t?” Gunn prompted, surprised and if little impressed by the bold confession of the tiny frail-looking redhead.

“If he doesn’t, we’ll do what we have to do”, Buffy said softly. “Either way, I can promise you the world is not going to suffer because of somebody else’s selfish actions. Not this time.

“I won’t make the same mistake twice”.

~*~*~*~*

Wesley’s back was rigid as he surveyed the darkened city beneath him severely, and for one swift, single moment his hardened years slipped away and he was filled with a sense of something resembling guilt for what he was to do.

His rational mind – something that had disappeared a long time ago now – struggled to be heard, but the voice of vengeance was much louder and forceful, and it did not desist.

The moment passed.

The young woman who lay even now bound and unconscious in the room directly below him, slumped over the hard concrete floor, was another thing he neglected to feel culpability for. She was yet another pawn in his plan, a small insignificant figure in this game, this game of cat and mouse that would draw to a close with none of them able to anticipate the true extent to his victory.

They thought he was *their* pawn, Wolfram and Hart, they thought he belonged to their pitiful, meaningless plans.

Fools.

But time would make them see. Because for now, now he needed them to believe that, he needed them to believe they were the ones in charge.

They would see.

But not until it was much too late.

He descended the stairs briskly, the large, once stately interior of the building around him now dust-ridden and crumbling, and he turned towards the door that held his prisoner, guarded by a stern looking vampire. Wesley’s shrewd gaze noted he was armed almost immediately.

Wolfram and Hart may have hated the vampire population, but they weren’t entirely opposed to using them in instances such as this.

As he turned to command the guard stand down, his way was abruptly blocked by the slender, calculating figure of Liliah Morgan.

Her icy brown eyes fixed him in place, and the cruel smirk that seemed to be forever constantly on her mouth tugged at her lips.

Wesley met her gaze square on with his dull grey eyes.

“Lilah”, he pronounced her name dryly, though he was sure she could already sense his ever-increasing desire to get out of her company.

He was sure she had that effect on a lot of people.

“Wes”, she responded acridly. She gestured to the doorway behind them in a careless fashion. “Little sis isn’t what you’d call conscious right now”.

Wesley sighed tiredly. “I thought we made the agreement I was going to take care of this particular undertaking.”

Lilah puckered her lips unflappably. “Yes, you came to that conclusion, anyway. I suppose it has that ring of irony attached to it, doesn’t it? The sister of the slayer you swore to protect, locked away by your own hand to cause mass destruction to the world. Yep, definitely sounds like irony to me.”

“Funny how much I seem to care”.

Lilah smiled, but it was really more of a grimace, and she slapped him none-too-gently on the chest. “I’ll leave you to your duties, I suppose. You’re getting good at the black-mask routine. Don’t be too harsh on her though. We want to get her to Sunnydale in one piece, remember?”

Wesley sneered. “But of course”.

Not that it would much matter in the grand scheme of things what happened to Dawn Summers. Her sister was the one who mattered. Dawn was merely the means they used to get to her.

The pretty brunette Summers glared up at him with narrowed, hard eyes as he entered, that reflected something akin to the hatred he could feel in himself.

“So you’re awake after all”, he murmured flatly.

She didn’t respond, but he hadn’t really expected her to.

The room reminded him of his cell with its stark coldness as he stepped over the threshold and closed the door behind him, eyes fixating on the delicate features of the young woman on the floor.

She seethed back.

“If this is something to do with my sister, you can forget it right now, you prick. I don’t know anything about her.”

Wesley’s expression didn’t change. He towered over her and he saw a movement of uncertainty flicker behind her eyes. So she was afraid of him. Good. That made things easier.

“It’s not about what you know”, he told her impassively. “This is about what you are worth to her. Despite what you might think, it’s still a great deal.” His mouth twitched just slightly. “Luckily for me.”

Dawn’s lips curled away in distaste. Her bonded arms were propped up on her upraised knees, and she shifted from the pain of the rope cutting into her soft flesh. Her heart was thundering impossibly loudly in her chest, and she could feel the sweat rising on her palms.

But she’d be damned before she let this bastard know any of that.

“You’re really that sure that she’ll come for me?” she spat hatefully.

She tried to hold onto it, but he could see her bogus outward attitude beginning to melt away.

Wesley only shook his head, with a dim, certain smile.

“Oh, I think I can count on it”.

~*~*~*~*

“Will, what are you doing?”

Willow glanced up at the tired, weary face of Xander Harris as he crossed the threshold into their temporary room.

He looked so much older these past few days – since Buffy’s return. Something about Buffy had always affected him that way – matured him, made him more responsible. Whether or not it was the fact she that had brought big scary demons into their lives or not, Buffy changed him, and for that the slayer had gained respect from Willow that had nothing to do with her ability to wail on a vamp and make with the smart-assed punning at the same time.

The redhead shifted from her cross-legged position on the carpeted floor. “Well, magic, Xand”, she told him dryly.

Xander looked adorably frustrated. He had a lot of different faces she liked, though happy-face was by far his best look. And why was it that over the past few years she had begun to notice irrelevant little details like that about him?

Okay, focus here, Rosenburg.

“Yes, I see that”, Xander responded tightly. He was eyeing her warily, and something stung inside her. Does he still not trust me to harness the power, even after all this time?

“But why? You said yourself that you can’t locate Wesley because the barrier spell around this place makes your spells go wonky”.

Willow straightened, drawing in a deep sigh. “Right. I said that. Which is why I’m not doing a locator’s spell. It’s… something else. For… Angel”.

Xander managed to look even more perplexed than he had before. “Huh?”

They both knew Angel was human, despite Buffy neglecting to mention it to them, which frosted Willow more than she cared to admit. But she had sensed it the day he came to their door, and after a small inward debate had reported it to Xander, though whether the fact was going to enforce new jealousy in him was moot.

It had become pretty darn obvious there was still something between Buffy and Angel beyond simple history.

Which was why she was doing this spell.

Though she couldn’t be certain Xander would see things in the same terminology.

“Downstairs, we discussed going back to… Sunnydale”, Willow started hesitantly. “How the only ones in the group who would be able to cross into the town would be Buffy and Faith, being the slayers, Spike as a vampire, and… me, obviously.”

Xander nodded carefully. “Right. I get that.”

Willow looked down, sifting her hands through the sage she had scattered in a pattern across the floor. “Well… it isn’t going to be enough, is it? Wes wants to do this by force, and we so clearly don’t have that kind of power among us. Angel… is needed. I’m going to cast a protective glamour around him, allowing him to enter the Sunnydale barrier unharmed.”

She went silent, waiting for his reaction.

A funny look crossed Xander’s face. “Okay. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but is that the reason you’re doing this, or is it just for Buffy’s big fat yenning?”

Willow frowned. “Well… maybe… But the point is Spike was right when he said down there that we need all the help we can get. Besides, do you really expect things to go any other way? Buffy… needs Angel. The way…” she let the rest of her sentence trail off, unfinished.

Xander got it. “She still loves him”.

Willow nodded, mutely. She ran her fingers agitatedly through her hair.

“I don’t want you to go”.

He said it so suddenly her head jerked up. Her throat burned.

“I… You know I have to”.

Xander shrugged. “Okay then. Bobbity up some more of that mojo so I can go too. I can’t…” His hands fell loosely by his sides as if he couldn’t find the words. “I don’t want you to go”, he finished lamely.

Willow blinked, and rose to her feet. She didn’t want to cross the sage and risk the possibility of having to start the spell over, but she couldn’t stay where she was.

Her palm fell to rest lightly on his arm, and she stopped only just in front of him. “Hey”, she said, forcing her tone to come out light. “Xand… Grown woman, remember? I can take care of myself just fine.”

A look crossed his face. “Not always”.

She winced painfully, and nodded. “I know”, she murmured. “But I won’t be alone. I have Buffy, and Angel… and everyone else backing me up. Xander, it’s not your responsibility to take care of me. I know you have this vision of yourself as my protector… *our* protector ever since… it happened. But it can’t be that way forever. We… this thing we have, can’t last forever.”

Xander’s head whipped up. “What? How can you say that?”

Willow sighed, pulling her hand away, heart clenching. “I just mean… you’re my best friend. You’ll always be my best friend… you’ll always be there. But not… like that. What we have… it isn’t going to be the kind of love you want forever. One day… you’ll want more”.

Xander stared at her for a long time as if he couldn’t quite believe what she had just said. “What?” he burst out at last. “When did I ever give the indication that I wanted *anything* more?” he demanded. “Willow, what we have is something I would trade my left *arm* to keep. I never wanted anything else”, he muttered quietly.

Willow stared up at him. “Not Anya?” she challenged softly. “I know you still loved her, when we left that night. You were… so quiet after that, for so long. After…” Tears sparked behind her eyes. “After I was raped was the moment you came back to me. It was like you let Anya go, but I know you never did. You just settled for what you could have with Dani… and with me.”

Xander took a step back as though she had physically slapped him.

“No”, he said bluntly. “No, you don’t get to say that to me. I *never* settled for you. Will… remember the day we met? It was the first day of kindergarten, and you didn’t know any of the other kids.” A faraway smile drifted over his face. “I just had my first introduction the bottom of a toilet seat by Larry, and I found you sitting by yourself in the playground, under the slide.”

His palm rose to rest gently against her cheek. “You know what changed that day? For the first time in my life… Suddenly I got to feel like I belonged to something. I had a real family.”

He closed his eyes. “I miss Anya. Every day. But… she was never a part of me like you are. But that night Dru and Angel’s lackeys put you in a coma? That was the day I realised I loved you.”

He smiled gently, and he held out his arms. “No matter what you try, or say, you’re stuck with me. I’ll always be here, and I’ll never want anything more, because I’ve got all I want right here”.

Willow felt a tear streak down her face as he pressed a soft, tender kiss to her forehead.

“Okay?” he whispered into her ear.

Willow nodded, and a sob escaped her throat as she flung her arms around him, clinging to his firm, familiar presence and burying her face into the warm crook of his neck.

“Okay”, she choked, nodding her head frantically to let him know she didn’t doubt him. How could she ever doubt him?

Xander felt his own chest tighten as he allowed her the fleeting moment of comfort. Because it comforted him too. To know she was there. Willow was always his comfort, his solace. When he was a kid she had been his escape from the other scary parts of his life – his parents drunken fights and harsh words. And again when he was older, when demons and vampires and darkness became such a big part of his reality, Willow became his night-light, his sun in the darkness.

Only now she couldn’t reassure and comfort him, she couldn’t make reality go away. Because she was about to disappear into it – and there was no way to be sure she was coming back.

~*~*~*~*

Buffy tapped her fingers against her knee, to a tune only she could hear, struggling to appear outwardly relaxed.

Spike’s eyes stayed on her across the room, noting her agitation, her distance from him. Clearly she wasn’t too concerned with him deciding to up and escape, because she knew as well as he did that he could be out the door before she had the chance to move.

Buffy had taken up Spike-sitting an hour ago, out of guilt more than anything else, for leaving Faith alone with him for so long. Only now she could feel herself starting to regret it.

“You know, I won’t bite, luv”, he drawled, stretching lazily in his chair. Least they hadn’t tied him up like Angel had wanted.

Buffy tilted an eyebrow. “Really?” she responded, voice sour. “I could have sworn you were calling yourself ‘vampire’ these days.”

He rolled his eyes. “You know, if we could get past this epic ‘Spike’s evil, so gear up with the old and tired insults trip’, that’d be grand”.

Something flashed behind her eyes.

“Oh, we’ve suddenly decided we rate that kind of treatment, do we?” she snapped fiercely. “Maybe you could have put that on your list of things to do right above ‘killing innocent people’?”

He pursed his lips. Did he ever remember the bird to be this damn annoying? “All right, so I’ve made some mistakes since the invasion”.

Buffy snorted at his use of the word ‘few’. Spike continued to glare at her.

“Not like I’m alone in that department”, he defended. “Since when did I hear an apology along the lines of ‘oh, sorry I left you all to get snacked on, and trolloped off someplace for some quality alone-time and moping.’ Taking a leaf out of Angel’s songbook, are we? Guilt and brood until the day’s done, but waste a few dozen years until you get up off your arse and actually do something about it.”

His hand shot up, and he feigned sudden realisation.

“Oh, but that’s right. Now you’re fucking the bastard, you figured you’d filled your guilt-trip quota and deserve a little happiness while the rest of the world suffers back down at ground zero. Gotta hand it to you slayer, I didn’t think someone toffee-nosed as you could travel that low enough down, but I guess you proved me wrong, didn’t you?”

Buffy moved so fast he barely saw it, and then she had her fist tangled in his shirtfront and him out of his chair, back slammed roughly against the wall. He felt her strength course throughout his body as her grip tightened like a vice, and it sent a thrill shoot down his spine.

“Just like old times, isn’t it, pet?”

Inside he knew he was goading her purposefully, just to let her feel a little of what he was feeling right now. But lurking under the surface somewhere was a tiny spark of shame, and he struggled to ignore it.

“I know what you’re doing!” she spat into his face. “And you know what?” She released him, and he dropped back against the kitchen cabinets. “It makes you even more pathetic.”

He fixed his blue eyes on hers coldly. “Takes one to know one, I suppose”.

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you really think what you have with Angel will last, you stupid bint?” he burst out intensely. He forced his next words to be calm, but he could feel the heat rising in his chest. “He knew it before, he ended it. What makes you think anything has changed, apart from the fact that you can shag as much as you soddin’ please, and not have to worry about bloody Angelus popping up in the middle?

“Things *haven’t* changed”, he said, emphasising his words heavily. “The things you’ve done… the person you’ve become. I know that person. Think he does? Think Peaches can see past that innocent little girl he fell I love with?”

He stared at the girl he still bloody loved – after everything – he was still fucking besotted with her and she would never love him back, not like she did Angel. And he almost regretted what he had just said to her by the look that flashed across her face.

He knew then she had had the same thoughts herself, the same doubts and he wanted to tell her that he had just made them up, just said them to hurt her, cut deep into her soul like she had done to him.

But he couldn’t.

For the rest of his life he would wonder what she had been about to say in response, as her words were interrupted by the front door slamming, and Faith’s wayward, curvy figure slinking into the room.

She jingled the keys in her hand pointedly. “Got the car”, she reported, dark gaze flitting between them in puzzlement.

Buffy nodded, eyes unwavering from Spike’s face. “Okay.”

Faith frowned. The woman wasn’t stupid. “Uh, want me to go get Angel and Red then?”

Buffy shook her head. “No. I can do it.”

She disappeared a moment later, leaving a broken looking Spike and a perplexed looking Faith in her wake.

“Okay”, Faith muttered. “What the hell was that?”

~*~*~*~*

The recent rain had made the road-surface cold and slick, and Faith shifted impatiently, leg cramping and her insides buzzing for action as she tapped her craftily made double-pointed stake impatiently against her thigh.

Buffy was quiet and subdued beside her, head bowed down as her eyes focused firmly on the ground. She had been like that since they left the apartment, and they had been waiting in this spot for almost half-an-hour now.

Buffy had had no apparent difficulty getting into Los Angeles, but getting out again, and with the addition of four other people and a conspicuous as hell Chrysler, was going to be a challenge. So they had to play it a little differently. Buffy and Faith served as the distraction, while Angel, Willow and Spike got the car through the gates. Well, that was the plan in theory, anyway. It was clear there were going to be a lot more obstacles along the way.

Faith sighed heavily, leaning her weight against the pile of shipping crates that concealed them carefully behind.

“Okay”, she hissed at last, unable to tolerate the long stretches of tapered silence any longer. “Spill it, Summers. Worry over little sis isn’t the only thing driving you here. What’s the sitch?”

When Buffy still failed to speak up, she decided to try an even blunter tact than before. “What did Spike say to you?”

Buffy frowned, eyes lifting in the first time in at least twenty minutes. “What?”

Faith made a sound of exasperation. “Tick tock. We don’t have a lotta time to make with the fruitless denial right now. That was some *hyper*tension back there, B, and even I could sense something was funky. What happened?”

Buffy frowned, shrugging her shoulders reticently. “I just… He said that… that Angel and I could never work out”, she muttered. “That things stand just like they did before.”

Faith frowned. “What, are you out of your mind? Of course things are different. You’d have to be deficient, or… *Spike*, to figure otherwise.”

Buffy gave a small, broken smile. “What if he’s right?” she whispered. “Everything that happened before… it just seemed destined that Angel and I not be together. Maybe… it just isn’t meant to be”.

“You’re trippin’, Buffy”, Faith said tiredly. “How many excuses are you gonna give before you let yourself have this?”

Buffy’s frown deepened at this unusually perceptive remark.

“You need to let go of the past”, Faith continued. “Believe me, I know that more than anyone. You know all this already, you don’t need me repeating it.” A wicked smile tugged at her lips. “You know all this if what went down last night is any clue”.

Buffy’s stared at her. “What!”

Faith smirked. “Like I tell ya. Walls are thin. Apparently the ceiling is too”.

Buffy opened her mouth, but Faith waved her off. “Relax, okay. It was only Blondie and me down there, and unless he wants his face smashed in, he ain’t mentioning it to no one. Got it?”

Buffy nodded, beyond grateful she had found friendship in this woman who knew so much more than what she let on.

“Got it”.

The two lapsed into comfortable silence, but it wasn’t for long.

Faith’s dark eyes narrowed, and she leant over further to see beyond their hideaway, squinting into the darkness.

“Guards”, she muttered under her breath, glancing at Buffy in the corner of her eye. “Sentries, probably. Three of ‘em. You ready to rock and roll?”

Buffy nodded. “Let’s do it”.

The two slayers moved forward like the shadows themselves, mimicking each other’s movements and moving with the grace and skill of the beings they hunted.

“Head’s up!” Faith cried, and two of the three vampires whirled at the interruption into their nightly routine in surprise.

Faith immediately flew into a high kick, sending the closest vampire’s head back with a loud crack. She grunted in satisfaction, ducking a few pitiful blows before jabbing her stake into his chest with a drive that penetrated his heart easily.

The dust settled across the vampire behind him, who lunged on her in rage, but soon found himself struggling to keep his sluggish brain focused on her as she punched and kicked him with a speed he had no hope to match.

Buffy dealt with her own vampire in a similar manner, taking him out with an ease that she wouldn’t have believed in her first years of training. But the fact that these vampires were pitifully under trained was going to help along their intentions immensely, and she didn’t pause to dwell on the thoughts.

Three vampires taken, Buffy and Faith swept forward through the night, headed intently toward the gate which both knew was guarded heavily.

They came to a halt at a corner, and both took turns peering around to determine their next move.

Faith clenched her fist tightly in the other. “I say we take them all”, she said confidently. Buffy hesitated, and then nodded. “Okay. You see the others?”

Faith glanced around, shaking her head. “No”.

“Then we have to assume they’re nearby.”

“Good enough for me”.

Without waiting for Buffy to consider changing her mind, Faith stuck her fingers in her teeth, and gave a long, shrill whistle.

She grinned, the whites of her teeth shining through the darkness. “Just wait for ‘em to roll in”.

Not a moment later two vampire guards strode cautiously over to their position. It was just too easy sometimes, Faith thought, but not with a measure of guilt.

“Hey boys”, she called sweetly. The vampire’s heads instantly flew in their direction. She blew them a kiss. “Catch us if you can”.

The vampires lunged at them as a collective unit, hissing inhumanly as they descended upon them.

Faith lunged for them, and she could feel the sweep of air as Buffy followed her lead. It felt good to be in the lead for once. Faith dodged a blow from a redheaded female vamp, and jabbed out her fist, connecting with the vamp’s solar plexus. The vampire hissed through her teeth, and thrust her foot forward in a vicious sidekick, catching Faith soundly in the gut.

Faith staggered, shoulder slamming into the wall, and changed tactics, spinning into a roundhouse kick that landed vampgirl in the head. Her grin grew wide as she drew out her stake, and rammed it into her heart.

“Faith!”

Buffy’s voice came as a warning moments before she was dealt a blow in the head. It caught her off guard, and Faith stumbled again, unprepared for this sudden offensive and copping a hard ran of blows to her body.

Buffy was also having difficultly. If the vampires were amateur in their experience, their numbers more than a little made up for it.

She was assaulted by vampires on every side of her body, and struggled to give out as good as she got. Vampire’s tugged at her hair and her clothes, and she let out a howl, before leaping high into the air. She soared over their heads, buying herself a moment or two. She glanced over and saw Faith was in the midst of her own affray, and frantically her gaze drifted around.

Something, anything…

Yes!

A fire escape ran not three metres above her head, jutting out from the side of the building nearby. Her eyes darted along it, noting its lack of stability as a soft breeze made it begin to sway.

Buffy Summers felt a real smile light her face.

Too perfect.

She drew in a deep, steadying breath, and sprinted across the open terrain, praying to God there were no sentries in the overhead gate towers that could see her, and were armed.

Her feet pounded heavily on the gravel, and she could feel her heart jerking uncomfortably fast inside her ribcage as she ran with all the speed of the warrior inside of her.

She went with the momentum, and launched herself head-on up the side of the wall. She could see the vampires already beginning to pursue her, and hopefully they were so stupid, they would never realise what she was up to until it was too late.

There was no point wasting time in case they did.

The vampires were below her now, and it would only be a moment before they were upon her.

Her fingers latched on to the base of the ladder, sharp rusty metal cutting into her skin. She ground down on her teeth, and heaved herself up. The ladder had already begun to screech.

With one, hard jerk, using all of her slayer strength, the ladder wrenched from its casings. Buffy dodged through the air to the side, flipping swiftly through the air, and the ladder fell behind her. A loose wire caught at her shirt, and Buffy yelped as it tore into her flesh, going deep.

She landed in a roll on the hard concrete, skidding painfully across it and finally coming to a stop when she thudded into a nearby alley wall.

Cries of pain that were anything but human echoed into the night air, as the vampires beneath were crushed by the weight of the fire escape.

It probably wouldn’t be enough to kill any of them, but it had cut down their numbers severely. Buffy’s head rose up and she slowly staggered to her feel, noting the dwindle in their attack.

Faith was faring quite well, and facing off against the last few vampires, dividing her attention equally between them. But Buffy could already see the movement under the ladder, and the shouts from above as sentries were put on alert.

And as if on cue the steady roar of an engine filled the air, before a heavy black Chrysler appeared from the night, squealing to a jerky stop on the pavement a few yards from where she stood. She could barely glimpse her friends through the tinted glass but she knew it was them.

“B!” Faith shouted.

Buffy nodded, clutching at her throbbing wound as she stumbled towards the car. They only had a minute to get through the gates, only a minute before more vamps arrived and cut off their way. And she wasn’t willing to contemplate what would happen to them if they were caught.

And then suddenly, something hard and cold impacted the side of her head, and Buffy found herself meeting the earth head-on, the taste of copper blood filling her mouth, the dirt from the earth filling her nostrils.

“Buffy!” Faith yelled again, voice in panic, but then there were more grunts and slaps, and Buffy knew she was trapped in another fight.

Buffy struggled to lift her head, when another blow met the side of her body. She cried out, barely identifying it was the toe of somebody’s boot, driving hard into her ribs.

Hot, putrid breath fell over her ear, and she heard the cold raspy voice as it spoke to her. “Might want to rethink that nasty trick now, hey sweetheart”.

Buffy turned, heartbeat thundering, to see the fanged face of one of the guards as he leered into her face. She drew up a fist, scarcely connecting with his cheek, and the vampire grunted.

“You’ll pay for that, bitch”.

“No, really, Buffy’s more of a giver”.

The hard, dangerous voice came from above, before the scattered remains of the vampire’s dust fell across Buffy’s fallen form.

Buffy blinked up into the aggressive narrowed eyes of her lover, and felt nothing but relief.

Most people would be intimidated by the dangerous, violent expression currently across his face, but as soon as his gaze fell on her his expression softened.

“C’mon, love”, he murmured.

Angel’s hand fell to her shoulders, and he lifted her to her feet, so her body weight was supported against him.

Buffy could already feel her joints healing and the dizziness in her head begin to fade, but she allowed him to lead her to the car, which had Spike waiting tersely behind the wheel. Faith was spread across the backseat, panting heavily, face blood streaked, and Spike made himself get in one fleeting reassuring look at Buffy’s face before he stepped on it.

He ran the vehicle straight at the closed gates.

They crashed through, sparks flying and everyone wrenched unceremoniously forward. Then they were cruising along the highway with the car in relatively good shape, and Faith swore from the back.

“That was freakin’ AWESOME!”

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