Chapter 2
Los Angeles
Wesley pushed forward faster and faster as the ceiling above began to collapse. He led the way through the cave; the young girl behind him, Gunn behind her and Cordelia lagging a little ways back. He found it odd that it took them so long to reach the entrance to the cave, he could've sworn that they were closer.
They reached a familiar lit room, the room Wesley recognized only as the entranceway where he, Cordy and Gunn faced the lizard demons. The exit was seemingly sealed shut. The demon bodies had disappeared, leaving no trace of the fight.
"What the hell!" he heard Gunn shout. "Where are we!"
"I thought this was the way," the teenage girl said.
"It is... I think." Wesley looked around the cave, cautious of the falling rocks. "Let's head back!"
Cordelia immediately turned on her heel, she now leading the way back to the altar room.
They all ran through the dark pathway they followed moments ago. Instead of reentering into the room with the creepy well, they found themselves standing in another similarly lit cave.
"Oh god!" Cordelia panicked. "Wes, what's going on?"
"They must've jinxed the cave before we got here. They probably wanted to turn anyone around who-"
A rock smacked hard into the former watcher's skull. He collapsed to the ground in a daze.
"Wesley!" Gunn called, reaching down for his companion. He threw one of his limp arms around his shoulder.
"What do we do?" the teenage girl cried, looking up to the crumbling ceiling above. She grabbed hold of Cordelia's arm.
Any second they'd all be buried in the heaps of what used to be a cave.
Gunn looked around, completely stunned at the sight of everything falling. He never thought this would be the way he'd go out; battling a ferocious demon, maybe, but being crushed to death by the remains of a jinxed cave...
The demon hunter looked up, a large rock soared to the ground preparing to knock him out if his misery. However, something strange happened. The rock stopped. The ceiling stopped crumbling altogether. A blue shimmer surrounded him, Wesley, Cordelia and the girl. Everything went white. Gunn's body suddenly felt weak. He closed his eyes and fell to the ground, Wesley in his arms.
A few moments later he opened them, regaining some sort of strength and consciousness. Gunn found himself, and Wesley, laying on the floor of Caritas; Lorne, the Deathwok Clan demon looking down at them.
"Well my darlings," he said through his ruby red lips."Looks like we've got an apocalypse on our hands."
...
Sunnydale
After calling the cops and giving her statement of finding the three bodies while "taking a shortcut home from the Bronze," Buffy headed straight to the Magic Box, knowing good and well that Rupert Giles was awake and possibly doing inventory for the store. Buffy called her mom, giving her regrets for not returning home immediately after an hour of patrolling. She then called Giles, informing him of the situation with the bodies and the weirdo teleporting demon who lead her to them. He gave his usual responses. "Good Lord" probably said while taking off his glasses all worried, and "Are you alright?" after Buffy told him about the encounter with the teleporting demon.
It never ceased to amaze the slayer how predictable her former watcher was.
Buffy stormed into the shop and immediately saw Giles, Xander and Anya sitting around the usual round table.
"Buffy," Giles called, standing from his chair.
"Giles I'm honestly in no mood for your routine check up." she came to the table. "I'm fine, it didn't try to hurt me; It was helping. I just wanna find whatever is doing this and kill it...fast." the slayer said, a strong sense of urgency in her voice.
"I understand, but we wouldn't even know where to start." Giles said. "There are hundreds of demons who harbor and feast on human hearts."
"That and there are probably thousands of ritual sacrifices that require a human heart." Anya added.
"Fine," Buffy shrugged. "Then I'll just catch this thing in the act and-"
"Or," a voice came from the entrance door. Everyone turned to look. A man wearing a trench coat walked into the store. "Maybe it'll…catch you." he grinned.
Snakes of all kind suddenly sprouted from under the trench coat, flailing and snapping their way at Buffy.
"Oh god," Xander gasped
"Giles!" Buffy shouted, jumping back in a stance. "Weapons!"
Two snakes lunged straight for the slayer.
...
