"Buffy, you're sure you know how to use that?"

"Positive"

"It's just that, well it's not very traditional, is it?"

"Giles, relax." Wrapping her two fingers around the trigger, she squeezed it almost tentatively. Almost immediately a short jet of fire streamed from the weapon, startling Buffy. Instinctively jumping back, she released the trigger, a mixture of shock and awe evident on her face. "Flamethrower… very cool."

"Yes, but whatever happened to a good old stake?" Removing his glasses, Giles pulled a cloth from his pocket and began to wipe them. He could never hope to keep up with the teenagers of this age. There recklessness and lack of… common sense.

"Oh come on!" Swinging round to face Giles directly, Buffy grinned, the flamethrower swinging with her, pointing straight at Giles. He took in a sharp gasp of air and stepped round to the side of Buffy, laying a hand on the flamethrower as he came around, lowering the head of it. "This'll make my slaying ten times more efficient."

Giles gave her a sceptical look. "I wasn't aware there was a problem to begin with."

"Well… there wasn't." Buffy lowered her gaze and frowned. As much as she hated to admit it, Giles was usually right about this sort of thing. Stupid Giles and his right-ness.

"Then I think we'd better save this until we're attacked by giant plant demons."

Buffy's eyes widened and she looked back up at Giles. "There are giant plant demons?"

It never ceased to amaze Giles how gullible Buffy could be sometimes. Of course after 4 years training her, he'd grown accustomed to not answering her wilder questions. "Where did you even get that… thing?"

"Xander got it."

"Of course he did." Giles sighed and placed his glasses back on and placed both of his hands on the flamethrower, taking it from her. "Shall we resume weapon techniques?" He could already see any excitement that was once present in Buffy's face, evaporate in seconds.

"You really know how to make a girl feel special don'tcha?" Buffy folded her arms and collapsed into the nearest chair to her, staring bleakly at Giles as he crossed to the weapons cabinet. I bet no one else has to put up with as much crap as I do.

"Grothello! Accept my offering."

Somewhere on the other side of Sunnydale, lay a young girl chained to a stone slab, small cuts and bruises all over her body. She yanked hard on the chains that bound her to the slab, her eyes wide with panic as she gazed up at the… thing that was approaching her. In her mind she knew she was dead, she knew she could do nothing to help herself. But there was still that sinking feeling in her gut that told her she was going to be in a hell of a lot of pain before she even got close to dying.

"I hope you know that what you're dying for is a good cause. Ever heard of the slayer?" The woman shook her head vigorously, a tiny squeak of fear escaping her lips. "No? Not in the slightest?" The figure seemed to give her a puzzling look, but it was hard for the woman to tell with the lack of natural light around. "Oh well, we haven't really got that much time to lose, so if you don't mind. Just lie still and try not to make too much of a fuss." The figure approaching her stopped by her side and began muttering something under his breath, some sort of foreign language. Hell, she'd never heard it before. But her attention was caught on the long knife held in the figures right hand. Up above the clouds seemed to part and the moonlight shone through onto the stone slab, illuminating it in a brilliant shine. Symbols on the slab began to glow a blood red colour in a circle around her body. "Accept this sacrifice." The woman looked up towards the figure as he began to speak and she caught her first glance at his true face now that there was light on it. Her lips parted and she shrieked at the sight before her. Quick as a flash, the figure's hand twitched and he raised the knife, plunging it into one of her eyes, her following screams filling the night air.

A/N – Cue to the Buffy title sequence!

Okay, so this is hopefully the first part in a story that I hope will play out in an episodic format.

Hey, who knows, if this one goes well, I might start writing an entire season. But let's not get ahead of ourselves too early.

So sit back, read and enjoy. Feedback is greatly appreciated.