BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

FIRST THINGS FIRST

BY JOE TENGLER

CHAPTER ONE

The battle for the Hell Mouth was over. Buffy and her friends had beat the first evil, but it had cost them a terrible price. Anya, the ex-vengeance demon had been killed, and Buffy had lost Spike. Her second vampire lover had burst into flames, enabling Buffy to get the upper hand. As Buffy surveyed the damage to Sunnydale, her sister Dawn walked up to her. "What are we gonna do now, Buffy?" Buffy just smiled.

As the dust blew through the hole in the ground that had once been the town of Sunnydale, California, the first evil wandered through the crater, smiling at the damage. "It was a grand battle." The evil thought. "And I will have my revenge on the slayer….slayers." The evil thought back to the battle, to see if it could figure out exactly where and when it had lost the battle. "That witch is to blame for this!" Thought the evil. "If it weren't for her….." The first evil stopped in it's tracks. "That's where I need to concentrate! The witch!"

A year and a half later, a lot had changed in the lives of Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Xander, and Giles. After beating the First Evil, Buffy had needed a break, and she got one. A nice long break in Rome. There Buffy had met The Immortal, who had helped her get Dawn some proper Schooling, and had helped her deal with the void in her life left when Spike had died. But now, Spike was alive again, and Buffy wondered if she would ever see him again.

But now they were all in Cleveland, where there was another Hellmouth. Giles had opened a new Magic Box, and was running it with Xander. Even Though Willow loved Kennedy, she had let her go, when Kennedy was chosen to be the liason between the Slayers and the new Watcher's Council, which had taken Kennedy all the way to England and far away from her her. Willow was still adjusting to life without her lover, and not adjusting well. Buffy's sometime nemesis, sometime ally Faith was on an extende vacation wwith Robin Wood, trying to patch up their relationship, which had hit a few snags since it's initial strong start, and Buffy wasn't sure their issues could be worked out.

But this would all have to wait. There was a test coming, and Buffy wanted to see how her new protege would handle it.

Two teenagers were walking hand in hand under a starlit sky. Suddenly, there was a crash behind them, and they turned around to see a vampire running towards them. The girl screams, but quickly recovers. She kicks the vampire in the gut, sending it flying through the air. It crashes into a garbage dumpster and the girl leaps towards it, holding a stake. Using incredible strength, she throws the stake at the vampire. The stake impaled the vampire right in the heart, ending it's existence.

"What the heck was that?" Asked the boy. "Vampire." Came a voice from behind the garbage dumpster. "Vam….pire." Replied the boy. "As in Dracula?" Buffy stepped out from behind the dumpster, a smile on her face. "Actually, I've met Dracula. Kind of a wuss, actually." The boy, figuring this was just a bunch of girlpower Mensa garbage, said "whatever…." And was soon gone.

"He left!" Exclaimed the girl. Buffy the vampire slayer looked at the girl sympathetically. "All part of being a slayer, Helena. You will learn to expect that boys will be somewhat harder to come by, now." Now she looked sternly at Helena. "You will also learn to harness your new powers"

Helena had come to them shortly after they had arrived in Haridon, a suberb of Cleveland. She had been chased by a gang of teens who were harassing her, when suddenly she saw Buffy. Buffy jumped in the middle of the teens, making short work of the biggest of them before the others ran off. Helena explained that she had nowhere to go. Her mother had recently passed away, and her father had left years before. Buffy promised Helena she could stay with them in the Magic Box's spare room. It wasn't until a few nights later, when Willow was performing a locater spell for new slayers that they realized that Helena had imbued with the powers of the slayer. Since then, Buffy had been diligently training Helena in her new powers.

Helena looked at Buffy. "Just out of curiosity, Buffy." Asked Helena. "What?" "Well, I was just wondering why no one bothered to tell me that before?" With a mischievous smile Buffy replied "We didn't want to scare you off!" Both girls laughed as if they were two normal young ladies out for a night on the town. "Besides, Helena…" said Buffy. "What?" Replied Helena. "Well, I've seen the way you look at Xander!" Helena just smiled as they continued to walk. As they are talking and walking, they didn't see that they were being observed.