Prologue

Rain pounded angrily on the roof of the dilapidated building, thunder shaking the very foundations of the structure. Almost everyone slept with the exception of a handful of people sitting in the lobby around a large, crackling fire. Xander, Dawn and Buffy were curled up on the enormous gray couch that might have once been blue. In one of the two fluffy green chairs situated in the lobby, Willow sat with a sleeping Kennedy dozing on her lap. Faith occupied the second of the green chairs. Though they sat in silence, waiting, every once in awhile someone would yawn and then everyone else would follow suit. Each one of them desperately wanted to crawl up the stairs and plop down on their beds, but they were needed when the newest arrivals came.

Giles had been gone for a few weeks, traveling about collecting new Slayers to train. Most of the time Buffy accompanied him on his travels, but this time he had insisted that she take a break and catch up on her rest. She had been incapable of getting more than two hours of sleep on any night, so here she sat in the cold, dank lobby of the building that they had roughly patched together to employ as a makeshift headquarters. Buffy's eyes glanced around at the walls, distracted by the dancing shadows the fire was creating along the walls. In the silence, she could hear the breathing and gentle snores of the many girls inhabiting the many rooms of the ramshackle hotel. They had come so far since Sunnydale and the hellmouth. She only hoped they would still come further.

Suddenly, a pounding came at the door, interrupting the stale silence and causing a few of the small group to stir. Dawn stood first, trudging over to the front door and wrenching it open. Her eyes drooped with exhaustion and boredom, and her body sagged with an invisible weight. At first, there seemed to be no one standing in the jet darkness of the doorway, but a thin bolt of lightning split the night in half, lighting up the outline of a person at the door. Dripping wet, Giles stepped into the dim light of the lobby, followed by a handful of girls who awkwardly lingered by the entrance.

"Come in, Come in," Giles bid, waving the girls further inside. "No need to be shy."

The small group of girls varied greatly in appearance, stature, and attitude. One girl had her hair twisted into two ponytails at the back of her head, each end fanned out towards the front. She wore a pink tube top trimmed in black, low-rider jeans, a leather jacket, and some black plastic flip-flops. She was the shortest of the girls and possibly one of the youngest. Another girl stood nervously, chewing on long strands of her hair and tugging on the ends of a frayed sweater. She was a little taller than average and looked to be about 17. Three other girls, who didn't seem any weirder than normal, tensely waited. The last girl, standing at the back of the group, was the one who caught Buffy's full attention.

Standing at full height, she was at least six feet tall, overshadowing all the other girls and Giles. She was outfitted in a crisp suit of black with a purple dress shirt with sleeves that hid her hands. Her eyes were deep pools of an unnaturally beautiful sapphire and her bed-head hair was a violent pitch black and similar to a style Hitler once had, yet her head was shaved all over except for a small strip on top. Momentarily, the girl relaxed enough to try a half-smile, which showed Buffy glinting teeth with almost vampire-like canines. For some odd reason, Buffy could not detach her gaze from the girl, actually, more of a woman.

Shaking from her daze, Buffy spoke. "Finally, you're back. Could have been sooner though. I thought you used to always be about being on time."

Buffy guided the girls up the squeaky stairs of the hotel, making no attempts to be quiet.

Pointing around the end of a second hall, she spoke. "These will be your rooms. Pick one and goodnight. Training begins in the morning."

As soon as Buffy was sure the girls were squared away into their rooms, she tiredly stomped downstairs. The group formed a small circle around the fire and began speaking in gentle whispers.

"How was the trip?" Dawn spoke first.

"Oh fine, fine. A bit tiresome after about the fiftieth trip, I'd say, but all together fine," Giles answered, taking a moment to remove his glasses and wipe the rain from them with a handkerchief.

"They seem very well…untrained. Just more frightened girls. I just hope we have enough time to train them before some big bad comes along," Faith added to the conversation.

"That's the Scoobies for you, always about the business. What about the girls? Maybe we should take them out tomorrow for a break. I mean, some of the girls could use one," Willow said, changing the subject to something a little more lighthearted.

"I guess we could. Town isn't too far. And we could look at the mall, Will. I could use some shoes and…" Buffy replied, talking animatedly.

During their friendly exchange, not one of them noticed two sapphire eyes watching sadly from between the stair rails. Those eyes watched intently, blocking out the voices, transfixed only on the movements and gestures of emotion. The girl, Solaris, could have watched the friends for hours, overwhelmed by a strong feeling of jealousy and heartache, but soon everyone was way beyond exhausted and began stumbling towards the stairs. Solaris stood, blanketed and hidden by shadow, and crept back upstairs and into her new bedroom. Exhausted, she plopped down on the enormous, beaten mattress on the floor and let her thoughts swim around her head as her eyes drifted shut and she fell into a fitful sleep.

Intro – Theme Song by Nerf Herder