Angel didn't know
why he had come back. Why had he returned to Sunnydale? What could possibly draw him to a place that opened so many wounds? And what on earth had prompted him to bring Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia?Turning down alleyways that were comfortably familiar he spotted a blonde girl walking ahead of him. Every sense went on the alert, how many girls walked with that kind of purpose down darkened alleys at midnight? Padding silently after her, looking every inch like a 6'2" panther, he prepared himself to find out.
Buffy didn't know why she was still patrolling. More specifically, she didn't know why she was still hovering around the abandoned warehouses that had been vampless since Angel...wasn't Angel. There had been no activity-para or normal-here for months.
Something told her to stay.
Xander would call it her 'spider sense', the thing was, she had learned to trust it over the years of her time as slayer so she stayed alert and listening, every nerve tingling.
A loud crash of trash cans followed by the sounds of a vicious scuffle triggered her into instant action and she turned and sprinted in the direction of the noise.
Grabbing the girl by the arm, Angel whirled her around to face him. What he was expecting was the rotten, feral face of a vampire. What he got was a well-trained punch square in the face. Staying light on the balls of his feet he parried every blow she sent his way. She was good, before he realised what she was going to do she had knocked his feet out from under him using a move that would have Olympic gymnasts green with envy.
Dropping neatly on top of him, her knees on his shoulders, she pulled a very sharp, fierce looking stake from the waistband of her jeans. As she drove it down towards his chest, Angel squeezed his eyes shut, preparing himself for the sharp pain followed by nothingness, when he felt the rush of air caused by her falling arm stop abruptly, heard her sharp yelp of shock then the clatter of the stake falling to the ground.
Finally daring to open one eye, he saw the girl still sitting on his chest with her arm still raised and Buffy standing behind her, her hand clamped tightly around the stranger's wrist.
Slowly, the blonde girl stood, allowing Angel the free use of his upper limbs.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Buffy rounded on the girl angrily. "And just out of mild curiosity who the hell are you?"
"Brooke," the girl said, although he couldn't be sure Angel thought he heard a lilt of an accent that sounded very familiar. "I'm a slayer. That is to say we can't really say the slayer any more can we? There's too damn many of us."
"Another slayer?" Buffy seemed disbelieving. "How?"
"You know, I've lived a long time and seen a lot of slayers and not a SINGLE ONE HASN'T TRIED TO KILL ME!" Angel fumed, raising his voice at the end of the sentence. "Now why do you suppose that is?"
"Vampire thing...hold up. What are you doing here?"
"I honestly don't know," Angel told Buffy, meeting her icy blue gaze with his own melting brown eyes.
"And you?" she questioned Brooke.
"Irish vampires are boring. It's a case of watch 'em get drunk then stake 'em when they fall into an alcohol induced coma."
"So you skipped out on your watcher, muscled in on my town, and tried to kill my boyf..." she checked herself, cleared her throat before moving on. "My friend?"
"I didn't know he was him," she said apologetically.
"You better take her to Giles," Angel cut in, dabbing experimentally at a trickle of blood running from a cut on his lip, glaring at Brooke as he did so.
"You're not staying?" Buffy voice was tinged with disappointment.
"I am, that is if you want me to, it's just that I need to sort out the other 3/4 of Angel Investigations and I think me and 'stakes first questions later' should stay apart for a while."
"Quit talking like you don't work off 'bite and avoid'." Buffy teased him with a playful smile.
"Er...I hate to break up this cosy little chat but I really need to talk to your watcher." Brooke broke in.
"I could really grow to dislike her," Angel told Buffy with a shake of his head. "I'll check in with you guys later OK?"
"No problem," Buffy threw back over her shoulder as she propelled Brooke away.
"Giles," Buffy pulled her ex watcher into his kitchen, away from the all-hearing ears of Brooke. "Just what the hell is going on? Two slayers I had almost been able to handle but if there's three I..."
"Buffy you're neglecting to think this through," Giles chastised her, his soft British voice holding its usual tinge of exasperation it always acquired when something like this happened. "For all we know Faith could be..."
"Dead?" Buffy cut in, raising her eyebrows. "You mean you haven't been in touch with the council? You haven't tried to find out if this girl is even who she says she is?"
"In all fairness Buffy, we've only known she exists for all of fifteen minutes. And in case you've forgotten we have no attachments to the council what so ever. There's really nothing we can do but take her word for it."
"OK, let's go off into the little world where everything is simple and frogs wear pink hats and assume Faith isn't dead. Then how? How could there be another slayer?" Buffy questioned, pacing the floor like a caged animal.
"Then my only offer of a possible explanation is that Faith has at some point been technically dead, even if only for a few seconds-very much like what happened to you."
Buffy shuddered a little at this thought, before it struck her.
"Brooke?" she called through to the sitting room. "When did you find out you were a slayer?"
"About two years ago. Why?" the Irish girl answered, wandering aimlessly into the kitchen.
"It must have been when I stabbed her, to save Angel, remember?" Buffy turned to Giles. "Oh God, I really did technically kill her."
"Listen, I'm feeling kind of antsy so what say we call it a night and meet up somewhere in the morning and talk this through huh?" asked Brooke, looking hopefully towards the door.
"Where are you staying?" Buffy asked, this time she was going to keep a very close eye on any other slayer that was called, she couldn't risk having a Faith number two.
"Well...actually...I was going to try and find somewhere now."
"At 12:30? I really don't think so," Buffy said, smiling kindly at the younger girl. She felt a sharp stab of empathy towards this girl; she couldn't have been more than seventeen and all ready she had the huge responsibility of saving the world as her job. *How's that for a paper route* Buffy thought cynically to herself. "Why don't you come and stop at my room? I'm almost certain my room mate will be out so there's a bed free."
"Really," Brooke asked, trying carefully to stop herself sounding to eager. "OK, you're room it is."
As they turned to go Buffy swung round to Giles.
"Oh by the way, Angel's in town, he said something about meeting up later so if he calls round tonight tell him where we are."
With that the two girls strolled off into the night.
"So d'you want to tell me why you're really here? All that about Irish vamps being boring-it's not the reason is it?"
"Buffy, let me tell you one thing right now, we might share a job and you seem real nice and all, but don't try and get me to tell you all my problems. I could go on a long time and quite frankly the wounds were healing nicely." as she said this, Brooke kept her eyes glued to her sneakers and fought desperately to keep her voice from cracking.
"Sorry," Buffy said softly.
"It's OK, really, I just don't do feelings any more-at least I try not to..."
"Shh," Buffy whispered. "Something's up ahead, through those trees."
She jerked her head towards a copse on the other side of the cemetery they were using as a short cut to the college.
Running swiftly but quietly across the springy, well cared for turf, they reached the band of trees in seconds. Drawing out her previously used stake and silently handing Buffy another, Brooke moved into fighter mode. Buffy followed suit, as they ducked into the shrubbery. Too late, they realised how many vampires there were lurking in the shadows. But they didn't attack. One of them stepped forward, his face was human and for a second Buffy thought it was Angel; he looked so similar to the handsome vampire she knew so well. But when he spoke it was obvious that this was a newcomer to Sunnydale.
"Brooke," he said warmly, his accent amazingly like the Irish girl's, before swinging around to face Buffy. "And look you brought a friend, how cute."
The look of fear on Brooke's face told Buffy what they had to do.
"Run," she yelled, grabbing the girls arm and dragging her out of the cemetery and towards the college.
They didn't relax until the door to Buffy's room closed behind them and they knew they were safe.
Collapsing onto her bed and jerking her head towards the empty one opposite her, Buffy propped herself onto her elbow and glared at Brooke.
"What was that all about? How did that guy know you're name and what is he doing here?" she asked, struggling to control her rising anger.
"I don't know," Brooke said vaguely, rolling towards the wall. "We're rather well known people among vampires you know."
"He knew you," Buffy insisted. "And I saw your face, you know him, now tell me what he's doing here."
"Buffy," two pairs of blue eyes locked. "I seriously don't know who he is."
"Fine," Buffy said shortly, rolling away and closing her eyes.
Sleep came quickly for Buffy but Brooke lay awake for a long time, staring at the patterns on the ceiling that were cast by a street lamp outside, trying to block out memories that threatened to engulf her.
"Cordelia, I don't care if you think this place smells, unless you want to go and snuggle in between Xander and Anya, it's all we have OK?" Wesley tried his level best to ignore the constant complaints coming from the bed next to him.
"She gets a tiny apartment in LA and she's overjoyed, give her a mansion in an attractive town and she curses you to hell," Angel mused, wandering into the room, carrying a leather bound book.
"Dang, can't a brother get some peace around here?" Gunn asked dragging his pillow over his head and pulling the covers up over himself. When he next spoke his voice was muffled. "It's 2am for crying out loud."
"Well I don't care if you guys want to sleep, I've been dumped in a room with men." she emphasised the last word. "How distasteful is that?"
"Look Cordelia if you want to have a room to yourself..." Angel offered gesturing down the hallway.
"Sleep in a room alone in a house that is owned by a vampire and therefore can be entered by anything...hmm let me think...no! Dying horribly was not on my to do list today."
"So do shut up and go to sleep," begged Wesley. "Please."
"Don't you dare tell me to shut up..."
Shaking his head Angel walked out into the little courtyard at the back of the mansion *it's gonna be a long night*.
"OK," said Willow hitting a final key on her laptop and giving a final click on her mouse. "She's telling the truth. But the council really should put up more complex barriers on their internal systems, I mean any hacker could just waltz on in and...Never mind."
She finished her sentence hurriedly when she noticed the looks she was receiving off her friends.
"Told you," said Brooke with a grin. "So now you know I'm not an imposter."
"We'd still very much like to know what you're doing here," Angel cut in peevishly, putting down the book he had been flicking through idly.
"Did you make it back with no confrontation last night?" Giles asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"Weird, freaky vamp army in the southern cemetery," Buffy summarised. "Tall guy seemed to be in charge, Irish accent, looked a little like Angel."
On hearing this Angel looked up abruptly.
"What?" he asked.
"Tall, dark, Irish, vampy, figure we better stake him, it's not often you meet one who has power and doesn't intend to use it."
"I think I may know who he is."
"I already do," Brooke's voice was small as she spoke. Buffy felt her anger at the way Brooke had shamelessly lied to her the previous night but allowed her to continue.
"His name's Luke. He's been the terror of Ireland for about two hundred and forty years now. I came here because I need your help to kill him, I knew he'd follow me, he always does."
"Do you know anything else about him? Anything at all about his history or weaknesses?" Giles asked, matter of factly.
Brooke shook her head.
"How about I fill in the blanks. He was my brother, quite literally."
"I thought you only had a sister." Willow said, a small frown creasing her face.
"When you've done what I did you'll understand there are certain things that you keep to yourself and turning your younger brother into a vicious animal is one of them. He begged me to turn him, said it would be like it always had been between us, we were real close, he copied everything I did and looked to me before anyone else. My father said he would come to no good just like me and he was right. But we went our separate ways; he never wanted to leave Ireland. He was evil, really evil, even in my heyday I was impressed by the things he did. He got off on seducing girls, getting into their homes, then killing everyone they cared about while they watched helplessly, begging him to stop. We need to find him and stop him, if he's after Brooke he'll turn on all of us." as he said this Angel had lowered his eyes from the gang in the room. It was his fault if anything happened to anything at his brother's hands.
"We start now," Buffy said determinedly, reaching for her weapons bag.
"And you'll find a vampire just wandering around in the bright sunshine of a typical southern Californian summer afternoon won't you?" quipped Xander. "Man they just queue to soak up those warm, deadly rays don't they."
"No," Buffy began using the kind of voice that one might use with a not-very-bright three-year-old. "But I know of a certain blonde vampire that will probably have all the information we need about where Luke is."
"I'm coming with you," Brooke said, standing and pulling a stake out of her backpack.
"Me too," Xander began.
"No," Buffy insisted, pushing him back into his chair and dropping a heavy book into his lap. "Stay here and read the lovely books and see if you can find anything else out about Luke. Angel," she turned to him and pushed another book into his hands. "You know what you're looking for, help Willow on the computer and Xander with the big words OK?"
"Sure," he replied with a slight smile.