Prologue

Riding along with his older brother down an empty highway in eastern Montana, Sam Winchester got a call on their deceased father's cellphone. He glanced over at his brother questioningly as he flipped the device open, "Hello?" He asked.

"John Winchester?" Responded a British accented voice on the other end.

"His son, Sam." Replied the young man, "My father is…unavailable."

"We feared as much…" The voice trailed off, "Listen, I don't have much time to explain right now, but there is a hunt you and your brother are needed on. More will be explained when you reach the address I'm about to give you."

Sam wrote down the address and confirmed it with the caller, who then hung up. "So what's the deal Sam?" Asked Dean from behind the wheel of the 67' Impala.

"I don't really know, guess we'll find out when we get to Sunnydale."

Upon hearing the town name, Dean slammed the breaks of the car, causing it to fishtail wildly on the dark, lonely highway. "I must be hearing things, cause I thought you just said Sunnydale." Dean said, looking seriously at his little brother.

"Yeah. Sunnydale, California. Why, something wrong with that."

"Oh yeah, lots of things wrong with that. It's not in Dad's journal, but I heard him talking to another hunter about it a long time ago. I remember because I could hear the anxiousness in both their voices. When it was founded, the Spaniards gave it a nickname, Boca del Infierno, Mouth of Hell. It's a small town of less than 40,000 with a death rate to rival Chicago and New York, most of them being from neck puncture wounds with the bodies being drained of blood. Then a couple years ago, the rates started to drop, I asked Helen about it, but she just told me to forget about Sunnydale."

"Well, someone called Dad, intending to ask him to go, we should at least check it out."

"Yeah, I was afraid you'd say something stupid like that."

Chapter 1

In the back yard of 1630 Revello Drive, Buffy, Giles, and Xander were training the potential slayers on how to fight. Dawn Summers, Buffy's sister, stood on the back deck, watching the class. The tall teen sensed something was off, but couldn't tell what. "Yo, D!" Called Faith from the back door. "You get the feeling that something's wrong? Like we're bein watched?" Asked the Bostonian.

"Yeah, I've been getting that lately, just attributed it to The First and the Hellmouth though. You think it's something more?"

"Might be, I wanna check out the neighborhood just to be sure."

"Alright." Replied the teen, stepping to the edge of the deck she called to her sister, "Hey Buffy! I'm getting kinda bored just hanging around. Mind if I take a short walk? I'll take Faith with me."

The blonde glanced over at her sister, then shrugged, "Sure, just be careful both of you, take weapons…you know the drill."

Soon the two young women were walking through the deserted streets of the small town, checking houses every now and then to be sure they were empty. "So, Faith, do you think we'll win? And survive?"

The former rogue vampire slayer looked at the teen. She had to admit, she was impressed with how well the girl hid her emotions, but reading people, and demons, is something that a slayer was just naturally good at. Faith could tell that underneath the tough façade that Dawn was worried, not just for her own safety, but for all the others as well. I wonder why B hasn't talked to her? Wondered the warrior girl. "I think we're gonna be fine Dawn. We have the scythe now, and B, Gman, and Red are working on a plan. I'm predicting minimal casualties…we'll be five by five."

The girls rounded the corner and were surprised to see a black muscle car sitting in front of one of the houses. They got close enough for Faith to scope out the building using her enhanced senses. "Humans, two of em."

"We should take them back to the house. Both to question them and for their own safety." Dawn said, glad she had brought along the blaster that Buffy had taken from the Initiative.

A few minutes later, Faith and Dawn were headed back to the house. Both men were unconscious and tied up in the back seat of the Impala, which Faith was driving. "You know, D? You're good at the whole planning thing. Now, if we don't like what these guys tell us, we got a sweet ride to cruise around in."

"Well, that wasn't really part of the plan, but it is a nice car." Dawn replied with a smirk.

Sam and Dean woke up in the basement of a house, each brother found himself tied securely to a chair. There were voices around them talking, "Well, they aren't vamps…since they didn't make with the poof in the sunlight." Said a cute red head.

"No and they aren't bringers either, since they still have use of their eyes and mouths." Added a well-built young man sporting an eye patch.

"Looks like we can start with the questioning." Said a short, blonde woman.

"Oh, they're awake. Right, shall we then?" Asked a middle age British man.

"Who the Hell are you people?" Asked Dean suddenly.

"Hey! That's supposed to be my line." The blonde pouted. "Since you asked so nicely, my name's Buffy. And you are?"

Dean raised an eyebrow, "Buffy? Really, you're going with Buffy?"

"Are you really making fun of her name right now, Dean?" Sam asked exasperated.

"Yeah, Sammie. You got a problem with that?" Dean shot back.

"We are kinda tied up right now. You know, at their mercy. Ring any bells? So maybe you should shut the Hell up and let me talk."

"They must be related. They act just like Princess an' the Nibblet." Said a man with platinum blond hair in the corner.

"What!? We do NOT act like that!" Buffy and a tall, brunette teen protested.

"Wait a moment Sam and Dean…Winchester?" Asked the Brit.

"Yes…" Sam replied.

"Oh my! I'm sorry about the welcome, but I was told you might be arriving…before the Council was destroyed."

Later on everyone was gathered in the living room, learning a bit about the newcomers as well as filling them in on the current situation. "Okay, I understand most of this, being in our line of work…some of the things we've seen, like jobs suddenly being done with no trace of the other hinter, it makes sense. What is hard to understand is the different breeds of vampires." Sam said.

"Yes, I imagine that would be news…and I'll explain it as best I can, quickly." The Brit, who they now knew as Giles said. "Over two centuries ago, all hunters, you gentlemen, as well as slayers, and a few other organizations, simply took on any vampire they came across. However, due to differences in the vampires and the different hunting methods required, this was a losing battle. The different groups came together and worked out a…game plan, if you will, you hunters chose to hunt the vampires that are considered to be an alternate possibility for human evolution, only killable by beheading, being burned, or with The Colt. The Helsing organization chose the Nosferatu, the vampires written of by Bram Stoker in Dracula. There is a man in New York, half-human, half-vampire and goes by the name Blade, he fights a breed that are turned due to a parasite. Then there is the slayer and the Watcher's Council, we hunt the breed that Spike is from, a deceased human body possessed by a demon basically. Any questions?"

"Just one." Dean replied, "With all people from all these groups having our ears to the ground, how come we've never run into other groups?" He asked.

"Every one of these organizations has a main headquarters, that headquarters has a coven of witches near them, that coven tracks the people they're responsible for to keep them from any confrontations. There have been meetings, such as this, where members from different groups are sent to fight together, but it has been found out, that when they just happen to meet, there is often violence." Willow explained, having learned from her time in the Devon coven.

"Alright, I guess all that's left is, what are we dealing with here?" Sam asked.

"It's a being call The First Evil. It predates anything we've ever faced…it is responsible for all that is wrong in the world." Answered Dawn from her perch on the arm of Faith's chair.

"He's one of Lucifer's buddies then?" Dean asked.

"Older." Replied the teen. "He and a few other higher beings predate God, Satan, and most of the Old Ones. I predate all of them, though I didn't have any sentience until a few years ago."

"Oh, really? The Key is older than everything?" Sam inquired.

"All research we have done so far has lead us to that conclusion." Giles answered before changing back to the more important topic. "The problem with the First Evil, is that it has no physical form…otherwise it would be easily dealt with. Banishing spells seem to have no effect on it and it has interfered with other spells that both myself and Willow have attempted."

"We might be able to help with that…" Sam started to say before they were interrupted by a group of potentials carrying a badly wounded young woman.

"Damn! What happened?" Buffy asked as Anya, Dawn, and Giles went to work on the injured party.

"We were just doing a routine patrol around the neighborhood." Annabelle started.

"Then a group of about fifteen bringers ambushed us. Rona was killed right away, the rest of us wouldn't have fared much better if Kennedy hadn't been tagging along. She had slipped away to check out one of the houses and rushed out, surprising the bringers when she heard the noise. It gave us enough time to regroup and get the Hell out." Amanda added.

"Wo men sha le jiu ren shou shang de ji ge ren. Wo ke yi gao su ni zai na li, suo yi wo men ke yi cheng wei luo na de ji shen bei bu." Said Chao-Ahn.

"Could you repeat that more slowly please?" Giles asked.

"She said they killed nine and wounded couple others, and that we should get Rona's body." Dawn translated.

"Faith, grab a couple potentials and handle that please." Buffy ordered.

"When did you learn Chinese?" Giles asked.

"Over the last three nights." Replied the teen, she turned toward the brothers, "Learning languages is about the only useful thing I got from being the key. I basically "unlock" a language simply by reading it and willing myself to understand."

Anya looked up from where she was checking on the wounded potential, "We should move Kennedy upstairs, I think she'll be okay, but she's gonna be out for a while."

"Xander," Dawn said as the carpenter lifted the unconscious girl, "Go ahead and put her on my bed for now. We have to redo the sleeping arrangements anyway."

"Alright, B. I'm takin Vi and Amanda with me, we'll be back." Faith said as she and the two girls in question headed toward the door.

Buffy nodded her approval while Dawn locked eyes with the brunette slayer from across the room. "Be careful." Said the former mystical ball of energy, "All of you." She added.

Dean stood up after a brief talk with his brother, "Mind if I go along?" He asked.

Faith looked over at Buffy, who just tilted her head to the side, leaving the decision to Faith. The dark slayer shrugged, "Why the Hell not. You got weapons?"

"That depends on where you left my baby."

"Your baby?" Dawn asked curiously.

"Yeah, it's big, black, chrome, and has a v8." Sam replied, "It's got our weapons in it."

"Oh, it's parked in the alley behind the house." Said the teen. "67' Impala right? It's got the 327 4-Barrel right? Pushing out, what, 300 horsepower?"