A/N: A special acknowledgement to writer Nancy Holder for her Buffy novel The Book Of Fours. This is one of my favorite of the Buffy novels II've read so, I'm siting her OC of India Cohen as Buffy's predecessor in this story. Until Joss actually names a different predecessor, in my twisted brain, India will always be canon.

Chapter One. Welcome To The Hellmouth Pt 1.

Sunnydale California 1997.

"A-are you sure about this, Josh?" the beautiful blond girl asked. Josh Randall looked over at her. Oh yes, she was HOT! With her blond hair, innocent expression, and the Catholic schoolgirl uniform that was hugging her petite but shapely frame. She looked a little older than most girls who went to St Christopher's, a nearby Catholic private school, but Josh didn't care. She was hot ,and she definitely seemed interested.

"Don't worry," said Josh, putting a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "Nobody is ever in the school this time of night. But hey, if you're nervous, we don't HAVE to do this." Josh didn't want to scare the girl off. Not too many girls showed much of an interest in him. He was very average. Brown hair, brown eyes, thin, not terribly athletic or artistic. He got good grades but wasn't even really a brain. He'd been amazed when this beautiful girl had given him the eye. Then, when he'd finally gotten up the nerve to talk to her, she had asked if they could go somewhere private. He decided to try to impress her by breaking into Sunnydale High School, and they now stood in one of the classrooms.

"It's ok," said the girl, giving him a small smile. "I'm not scared if you're with me."Josh thought he saw something almost...predatory in her blue eyes, but figured that had to be a trick of the poor lightning. "You're sure, though, that nobody else is here?"

"I'm sure,"said Josh.

"Good," said the girl. Suddenly, her face changed. Her eyes turned yellow, her teeth grew to fangs, and her face took on a bumpy ridgey look. Josh screamed as the last thing he felt was sharp teeth sinking into his neck.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

She tossed and turned in her sleep, racked with nightmares. Mostly a disjointed collection of images. A homless man wandering down an alley, then being attacked by something.

A disembodied voice saying " I'll take you... like a cancer. I'll get inside you and eat my way out."

A horrible white demonic face.

"I'll destroy you. I'll destroy your sisters."

("Buffy!")

A pool of blood.

("Buffy!")

And roars coming out of the shadows.

"BUFFY!"

Buffy's eyes snapped open and she sat straight up in her bed, feeling a little disoriented as she tried to shake off the effects of the dream. For a moment, she really didn't remember where she was, then she looked over at the double bed on the other side of the room and saw her sisters, Faith and Kimberly, looking at her worriedly. She also saw all the half unpacked boxes piled around.

Oh, right. Sunnydale.

After the trouble in LA, leading to she and Faith getting kicked out of school, then their parents divorce, Buffy, Faith, Kim's mother, Joyce, had packed them and their little sister, Dawn, up and moved here to Sunnydale. She'd bought a nice house, with three bedrooms and two bath's, one connected to the master bedroom. Rather than make one of the triplets bunk with their ten year old sister, Joyce had decided to put the three girls in the master bedroom, since it was the biggest. With all the stuff three teenage girls need, there had not been room for three beds, so, Joyce had bought a double bed and the girls took turns sharing the double and one sleeping in the twin.

"Bad dreams?" asked Kim. Faith looked worried.

Buffy nodded. "Part of the whole Slayer package," she sighed.

Last year, Buffy had been approached by a strange man called Merrick, who claimed Buffy had been called as The Vampire Slayer. It turned out he was right, and Buffy was stronger and faster than normal people, as well as healing quickly, and having these strange dreams Kim had taken to calling her "Slayer Dreams". However, something strange had happened. The night Buffy had encountered her first vampires, Faith and Kim had shown up at the cemetery, and clearly also had Slayer powers.

Merrick had been puzzled at first, but finally worked it out. Because they were fraternal triplets, Buffy, Faith, and Kim had all been born with the potential to one day be called as the Slayer. Somehow, when the previous Slayer, India Cohen, had died, somehow, all three had been activated. Merrick had quickly judged that, since Buffy as the one he'd been led to, was the actual Chosen one, and the other two's close DNA relationship had led to a sort of "shared calling" between them.

This was confirmed when some testing had revealed that neither Faith nor Kimberly had full Slayer power. It was almost like their shared calling had not been quite able to manage three full Slayers. Faith and Kim's power seemed to be based on each of their individual gifts. Faith, always the toughest of the three, now had strength and endurance to match Buffy's, but had recieved less of a boost to her speed and agility , while Kim, who had been on the Freshman gymnastics team at Hemry, was as fast and agile as Buffy, but, not as strong. Plus, it seemed Slayers got some sort of boost to their fighting abilities. Faith was better at hand to hand, while Kim was better with weapons, and Buffy had received a boost to both.

There was a knock at their door. "Hey, you guys up?" came Dawn's voice.

"We're up, Dawnie," called Faith, smiling. She could be a pest, but they all loved their little sister. Faith was particularly close to her. She went over and opened the door.

"Mom says to hurry it up," said Dawn, all smiles and already dressed for school. "She says you don't want to be late for your first day at your new school. Are you guys excited? I am!" Their little sister loved school.

Faith rolled her eyes. "Well, we'll get ready a lot faster if a certain little chatterbox will stop distracting us and go downstairs and tell Mom we'll be down in a minute." She turned Dawn around and gave her bottom a smack to get her moving.

Dawn's hands went back to her bottom, rubbing it dramatically. She glared at Faith. "That HURT!" she complained, running out of the room. "Moooooooom!"

Faith rolled her eyes again. Even with her Slayer strength, the swat couldn't have hurt THAT much.

"Yeah, certainly don't want to be late," mumbled Buffy, looking at the floor. She was the most nervous of the three of them about their new school.

Kim, who had gotten up to brush her long brunette hair, walked over and sat down next to Buffy, putting her arm around her. "Oh, come on, Buff," she said. "It'l lbe just fine. You know what Mom says "a new school and a new start.""

"Yeah, B," said Faith, sitting down on Buffy's other side and also putting an arm around her. "We're putting all that shit from Hemry behind us, and leaving the Slayer stuff behind too. We offed that Lotho's creep, so, it should be smooth sailing from now on."

Buffy nodded. "You're right," she said with false cheerfulness. She hugged both of her sisters. They all got up and started to get ready.

"FAITH MARIE SUMMERS!" came their mother's voice from downstairs. "What have I told you about hitting your sister?"

"Don't get caught?" she said with a lopsided grin to Buffy and Kimberly, who both laughed. She was the first of them to get dressed, being less fashion conscious than the other two. In truth, Faith was a bit of a tomboy. She left the room and called out," It wasn't really a HIT, Mom. More of a love pat."

Buffy and Kim exchanged a grin at their sisters antics and finished getting ready.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"So, what I'm saying is," Joyce was saying to Faith in the jeep as they pulled up to Sunnydale High school. " the next time I hear your little sister complain about one of your so called "love pats" you'll be getting several dozen of your own. Are we clear, young lady?"

Faith blushed a little in the passenger seat next to Joyce. As the oldest of the triplets and the "biggest" of all four girls, she usually rode shotgun. "Fine" she said, looking at the floor. All four of them had been spanked by Joyce at one time or another, but it was still EMBARRASSING to be threatened with it in front of her sisters. "Sorry, Squirt."

Dawn looked sad and leaned forward, and kissed Faith on the cheek. "Sorry I got you in trouble," she whispered, making Faith smile.

Joyce's voice softened as Faith, Buffy and Kim all got out of the car. "Now you three have a good day. I know you'll all make friends right away."

Kim smiled and leaned into Joyce's window, kissing her on the cheek. She was the only one of the three who never got uncomfortable with PDA's with their parents. "Thanks Mom," she said. "Love you."

"Love you guys," said Joyce, smiling. "Oh, and Buffy, Faith...TRY not to get kicked out."

Faith and Buffy exchanged an eyeroll. "We'll try," the promised as Joyce pulled away to take Dawn to the elementary school.

Kim sighed as they took in their new surroundings. "It'd be nice if she wouldn't keep reminding you guys of all that," she said sympathetically.

In their final confrontation with Lotho's, Kim had gotten separated from her sisters. Buffy and Faith had fought Lotho's himself in the gym, while Kim fought his Lieutenant, Amylin in the cafeteria. As a result of the fight with Lotho's and his minions, the gym had burned to the ground, and the blame had gone on Buffy and Faith.

"A lot of things would be nice," said Faith, thinking of Oliver Pike, whom she had just started dating when all this went down. Faith and Pike had been friends before all this went down, both hanging with the same crowd, then they'd sort of fallen for each other when Pike found out about vampires, etc.

Buffy squeezed Faith's shoulder in sympathy. Faith immediately looked at her sisters. She was only two minutes older than Buffy who was five minutes older than Kim, but, Faith always regarded herself as the big sister, looking out for them. She knew, despite Kim's cheerfulness, they were both nervous about starting in at a new school, so she put on her happy face. "C' mon you two,"she said. "Let's go meet with the principal then we can take over this school!" All three laughed, and linked arms and started inside the school, when they noticed a dark haired boy their own age heading towards them, on a skateboard, looking like he had little, if any, control over the thing.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Xander Harris was starting to think maybe riding his skateboard to school had been a bad idea. He did fine on the thing so long as nobody else was around, but, the moment he had to, well, steer the thing he started having problems.

"Excuse me," he shouted to the crowd, making people move aside. "Coming through...coming through... look out please...not sure how to stop...don't wanna hurt anybody." He noticed three new girls as he careened by them. All three were gorgeous. The tallest one, in the middle, had really dark brown hair, and was wearing a red tee shirt and jeans. One of the other two was blonde and wearing a lavender mini dress. The third, the one who really caught Xander's yes, had straight hair a lighter brown than the taller girls, and was wearing a blouse and skirt, both in shades of pink. Xander craned his head to keep looking at them, ok, mostly the shorter brunette, and lost any pretense of control over the skateboard. He ran right into a stair rail, doing a rather impressive flip over the rail and landing on his back. he lay there for a moment, then got to his feet. He noticed all three new girls looking at him with amusement.

"You SUCK Harris!," yelled Larry Blaisedell from nearby.

"Thanks for reminding me, Larry," he called as the three girls walked inside. "I might have forgotten."

"Are you ok?" he heard a familiar voice ask from next to him. He turned to see his best friend, Willow Rosenberg standing there. Willow was a cute but awkward girl with long red hair and a bit of a whipped puppy look about her. She was really smart, with a somewhat overbearing mother who, unfortunately for Willow, still picked out her clothes.

"Willow!" he exclaimed happily. "You're SO the person I wanted to see!"

"Really?" asked Willow, for some reason beaming at him.

"Yeah," said Xander. "Remember our homework? Well, I kinda had a problem with the math."

Willow's smile got a bit less bright as she asked him," Which part?"

Xander looked embarrassed. "The math," he answered. He looked at her plaintively. "Can you help me tonight? Please? Be my study buddy?"

Willow shook her head at him. "What's in it for me?" she asked him, clearly amused.

"A shiny nickel!" Xander singsonged, making it sound like equivalent to the city of El Dorado or King Solomon's Mines.

Willow laughed. "Ok. I'll help you."she said. "Do you have "Theories In Trig"? You should check it out."

Xander looked lost. "Check it out?" he asked.

Willow rolled her eyes. "From the library," she told him. "Where the books live."

"Right," said Xander. "I'm there! See? I WANT to change."

Willow just shook her head as they entered the building and their friend Jesse came up to them. Jesse was an awkward kid, more so than Xander was. "Hey," he said by way of greeting.

"Jesse!" said Xander. "What's what?"

Jesse shrugged. "Three new girls" he answered.

"That's right!" said Xander. "I saw them. Total hotties."

"I heard somebody new was transferring here," added Willow, who usually knew these things.

"So," said Xander to Jesse. "Tell."

"Tell what?" asked Jesse, confused.

"The sitch," answered Xander. "What do you know about them?"

Jesse shrugged again. "Three new girls," he repeated, leaving it at that.

Xander shook his head exasperatedly. "Well, you're certainly a font of nothing!" he said as the three went to their classes.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-