Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns everything that is the Buffyverse! The only things that are mine are the characters Sophi and Nancy.

Sophi stood at the convenience store counter, occasionally glancing over at her friend Nancy. She was working the graveyard shift and assumed there was a riot going on because of all the fire and screaming outside. She didn't care though. Nancy was her only friend in Sunnydale and she was alive so why should she care about some stupid riot? Besides, worse things had happened here. A year ago Sunnydale was a big sinkhole. But somehow, it had gotten rebuilt. Whenever she thought of that, it gave her an eerie feeling like something was being kept hidden from the residents of the small town.

She moved here to "enhance her life experience" as her mother put it. Or in normal terms, stop mooching off of your family and get a job. The rest of her family was in New York. She looked through the glass sliding door as if she was expecting to see the gasoline pump outside explode any minute. Nancy walked over to the storage room and grabbed her purse. "Soph, let's face it. No ones gonna come during a riot to buy gas or a lottery ticket. Let's just go to the shelter to make sure were safe. Soph?" said Nancy tugging at Sophia's blue sleeve. Sophia was too busy looking at the blond girl that entered the store carrying an arsenal of weapons to listen to what Nancy was saying. "Shut up, Nan," murmured Sophi. She slowly pointed at the girl that was coming over to the counter.

"Oh my god! Please don't kill meeee!" Screamed Nancy. The girl cracked a smile. "I'm not here to kill you. Just take this and go to the shelter, quick before this place gets attacked!" She said as she threw two swords at the girls. Sophi was still skeptical, "Who are you? And what the hell is going on!" she asked. "The names Buffy. And it's exactly that. Hell. Now g..." Before she could finish her sentence a large monster with horns came crashing through the northern wall of the store along with a few smaller monsters. Sophi screamed and flung her self at Nancy. Buffy took one of her many weapons and in a few swings killed all of the beasts. "Nasty little demons! Oh why couldn't it just be vampires! You just go poke, poke and bye vampy!" she said to herself while looking at the remains of the demon. It's not that it was hard to kill the demon it's just it wasn't very pleasant to look at after it was dead. "Demons? Vampires?" Nancy muttered while struggling to stand. Sophi was still hanging on her, crying. Her brown hair was smooshed against Nancy's uniform. "Listen, just go to the shelter before you get killed," Buffy told them. She ran out of the store, her ax over her shoulder, ready to fight.

Nancy pushed Sophi off of her and grabbed her sword. "Sophi, get up and grab your sword!" Nancy said strictly. Sophi was compliant and took the battered, old sword Buffy had given her off the ground. They walked out to see a city with burning flames touching the dark evening sky. Buffy jumped out from the corner of the wrecked building. She decided that the risk of them going to the shelter alone was too great even if it was only a block away. Sophi immediately put her sword up but lowered it once she saw it was the blond girl. "Hey, why don't I walk you there? It's not very far away and I don't want to lose two people like you," Buffy told the two seemingly traumatized girls. "What do you mean people like us?" said Sophi. Buffy realized her mistake in wording and quickly came up with an excuse. "I mean innocent people. Your not like the warriors we lost while fighting." Buffy said, looking at Sophi to see if she bought it. "I guess..." Sophi said. "Ok! Hurry up, we need to get there before you get hurt!" said Buffy, starting to run in the direction of the shelter. She just hoped it wouldn't be too late.