A/N - So, I know that not much happens in this chapter, but there does need to be a kind of setup. I'll try and have more content in the next chapter, hopefully including Cas and some demon or vampire action. Thank you everyone for reading. :)

Dean was slightly perplexed by this girl. I mean, she couldn't be that much more than 19 or 20, but here she was, out in the dead of night hunting and killing vampires. But with a stake. There was something very different about this place, and these vampires weren't the sort he'd experienced before. Dean had seen himself that a stake through the heart had killed it, he'd seen it explode in a shower of dust. He just didn't get how there were two completely different types of vampires, each with completely different vulnerabilities. Well, hopefully this wouldn't have anything to do with Lucifer, though he had a nagging suspicion that he was never very far away.

After Buffy had staked the last vamp, Dean and Sam had continued searching the house. To their dismay, they'd found Enochian angel-proofing sigils covering the walls, including a banishing sign drawn from blood. This, combined with the appearance of large amounts of sulphur, didn't give them a very good feeling.

"This must've been some kinda demon hideout," Sam noted, when they found a pot of blood in a cupboard. "I mean, it's angels against demons at the moment right? So any demons that're up to something are gonna try and make sure no-one upstairs hears about it. It's all this blood that's really shady. What d'you think they're using it for?"

Dean shook his head, taking the pot of blood from Sam and taking a close look. "You gotta remember that we know for sure there's been vamps in here. Maybe they were working together, trying to keep a low profile so they couldn't go out to feed and hence the blood? I dunno man, this all getting a bit crazy."

Sam smirked. "It is the apocalypse, remember, don't expect things to stay too normal."

"That's just it though. Things are goin' insane. Lucifer's still walking around and at the moment, we got no way of stopping him. I don't know how much longer we're gonna be able to keep up with this. Not to mention we got less backup, 'cause hunters are getting killed all over the place."

"I know dude, but even though we've got no gameplan we've just gotta keep fighting until we work something out." Sam said with a shrug.

"Yeah, I know," Dean sighed. "I don't fancy going back to hell though, so I reckon we should do our best to keep out of it."

Sam just nodded, not looking at Dean.

Then, the front door swung open, and Buffy walked through. Both Sam and Dean's hands had jumped straight to their guns. Buffy put her hands up into the air in mock surrender. "Alright guys! It's just me."

Dean relaxed slightly. "Yeah, alright. Where'd you go anyway? You don't really wanna be wandering off."

"If you say so. I can look after myself; I've only died once since I came here." Sam frowned, and Dean turned to look at him, eyes wide. Buffy continued. "If you really wanna know, I went to fetch my supplies." At this, Buffy held up her bag, from which Dean and Sam could see assorted stakes, a cross, some bottles of what they assumed was holy water, and what appeared to be a crossbow. Sam raised his eyebrows.

Dean jumped off the table on which he had been sitting, stretched and spoke. "So, uh, Buffy. Do you want us to drop you at your place or something? We were gonna go find a place to stay while we figure out what the hell's going on around here, and what the hell those vamps were."

"Um, sure, thanks!" Buffy replied with a small smile. "Well, if you want to come by, say my house on Monday, midday time? I can take you to see my watcher. Well, my ex-watcher. And we can explain…well, we can try and explain what we do. Well, what I do. Well…yeah. So is that good?"

The brothers looked at each other. Sam raised his eyebrows, Dean shrugged and made a non-committal gesture with his head, Sam nodded and gestured to his gun on the table, Dean nodded and they turned back to Buffy.

"That sounds fine." Sam smiled.

"So, you guys have a car right?" Buffy asked. Dean's face lit up.

Dean and Sam had had a very dull weekend, involving doing lots of research but finding very little. They were trying to find some different lore regarding the different types of vampire, but so far even Bobby hadn't had much luck. To Dean's intense disappointment there were practically no decent bars round where they were staying in Sunnydale, and the brothers had agreed to try and keep a low profile in case Lucifer had demon spies around. This meant that their time was dedicated solely to research, in Dean's case with added drinking. Despite the hours spent, Sam and Dean emerged from the weekend with nothing but sleep deprivation. By the time the Winchesters were due to meet Buffy, Dean was in a bad mood.

"I just don't see how this is gonna help us with Lucifer. We need to find a way to kill that sonofabitch before he kills everyone else, including us. What are we gonna get from these lame excuses for vampires anyway?"

Sam sighed. "C'mon Dean. We've got no leads on Lucifer, no signs or anything. Even the angels aren't talking. We haven't seen Cas for a whole week so he's probably working on something."

"I know Sam. I just feel like we should be trying to track him down or something, rather than ending up in this freaky town. It gives me a bad feeling." A pause. "I wish Cas was here. I'm worried 'bout the guy."

Sam looked sharply at Dean. He knew his older brother didn't show vulnerability, that he hated to admit if anything was wrong. However, Dean had almost said yes to Michael out of good intentions, and although he'd promised Sam that they'd keep fighting against their supposed destinies, Sam was still worried about him. He didn't know if Dean would change his mind, whether he'd crack and give in to the archangel. Dean said he was fine, of course. But Sam thought that Dean looked seriously worried, and maybe even scared.

"We could try calling for Cas again, you know? I mean, we've found something odd here, maybe we should ask if he knows anything about it."

Sam was just trying to make Dean feel better. Dean didn't need to know that Sam wasn't feeling too good either.

At that point, they arrived at Buffy's house. Dean stopped the Impala at the spot where they'd left Buffy on Friday night, hit the horn a few times and waited. Around 30 seconds later, the front door opened and Buffy sauntered out. Dean eyed her critically. She was wearing a sort of flowery dress. Sam watched Dean's reaction and said nothing. Until he got fed up of the appalled look on Dean's face.

"Dean, I don't think she expects us to be attacked! She should be allowed to wear a dress. And besides, I thought we were just going over to see a friend of hers?"

"I know Sam, I know. And hell, I'm not trying to stop the girl looking nice or anything. But it is a bit impractical. Jeans are good. Jeans have pockets. You know, for putting stakes in?"

Buffy reached the car. Dean stopped talking as Sam shot him a meaningful glance. Sam smiled at Buffy.

"So where exactly are we going?"

"What the hell happened here?"

Dean pulled up the Impala on the road in front of Sunnydale High, and the three of them climbed out. Sam was staring at the school, or what there was of it.

The main building of the school had been rebuilt, the reception space, the canteen and the area containing the library. The rest was still a work in progress. At least most of the buildings had walls by now, albeit no roofs.

Buffy surveyed the sight with a slight look of glee. The brothers looked slightly confused, so she explained. "It sort of got destroyed."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, I can see that. And how did it get destroyed exactly?"
"Well, the mayor did this Ascension thing, and turned into a demon on graduation day. So we killed it. It managed to get the school first though. Oh, and the head teacher. But I didn't like him anyway."

Dean continued nodding, in a faintly ironic way. "Okay, awesome. Who're we here to see again? And why're we here?"

"He's called Giles. He used to be my watcher, before I told the council to stick it. He's the librarian here, or he will be when it's fully rebuilt. He's here at the moment trying to sort all the books out. His collection was damaged a while back, I'm not sure he's ever going to recover." Buffy started walking into the school, but Dean and Sam hung back.

"Wait, you're just expecting us to walk in there? Isn't anyone going to be suspicious?" Dean asked suspiciously.

Buffy didn't stop, or even turn around. "Nah, it'll be fine," she called. "It's not like there's anyone here. They're not even building at the moment. Seriously, only Giles would turn up on a day like today."
Dean figured they didn't have much of an option. The Winchesters looked at each other, shrugged simultaneously and followed Buffy into the building site.

When the trio walked through the door of the library, Giles was sorting through a gigantic box, containing probably hundreds of books. There were 7 more boxes in the room. Dean noted all of this with only a vague interest; he was far too busy being wary of attack. He walked slowly, his right hand close to his side in case he needed to grab the knife. Sam appeared a lot more relaxed, and Buffy clearly couldn't care less.

"Hey Giles." Buffy made her presence known by grabbing a book out of the box he was sorting through and examining it with a faintly horrified look on her face. "This all looks real interesting."

Giles looked up, giving her a faint smile and putting down the book he was holding. "Hello Buffy. Well yes, it is actually. But probably not to you. I've had to re-buy practically all of my original stock , since most of them got, um, destroyed, and it's taken a fair bit of organising." As he was speaking, Giles took off his glasses and ran a hand over his face. "It's quite exhausting."

During this conversation, Dean and Sam stood awkwardly at the door. Dean felt slightly dubious about this guy. Sure, he'd got a pretty damn huge book collection, but how much tweed does a guy need to wear?

Buffy - who had picked up a crossbow and had been idly examining it - seemed to remember the Winchester's existence and turned to them. "Giles, this is Sam and Dean Winchester." The brothers raised their hands in turn. Giles gave a slight start when he realised he had company, and immediately tried to grab the crossbow out of Buffy's hand, an excuse already forming in his mind. Buffy stubbornly kept hold of the bow. "It's okay Giles. They know about stuff. I met them when I was patrolling on Friday night, and they said they wanted more information about the kind of vampires we get round here."

Giles nodded slowly, then gave another slight start. "You mean, you have different kind of vampires elsewhere?"
The brothers nodded. Buffy sighed. "Grab a chair, guys. This may take a while."