Hey, this took forever to get around to. This was the whole point of the story, I just wanted Buffy and Elena to meet. Problem was, I took so much time getting them both to this point that I forgot exactly how I wanted the meeting to go in the first place. However, since I started it, I refused to not finish it, so I wrote the end anyway. And I think I like it just fine.

"What about Sky-gliders?" Elena was still trying to wrap her head around Damon's phobia of heights.

He just rolled his eyes. "They're so low to the ground I could just jump off if I needed to."

"Well, you could just turn into a bird if the plane was about to crash." she pointed out. He grit his teeth. He ignored her and concentrated on the gate to the cemetery they'd walked to from Sunnydale Airport. It was really a small town, it hardly even deserved an airport. She looked at him as he stared intently at the gate. Was he trying to unlock it? Elena gave him a look and pushed it open. He looked a little surprised and maybe even a little embarrassed. She walked past him into the cemetery and gasped. Dark power surrounded this place like mist. It made air hard to take in and her whole body started to sweat, while at the same time, it was so unnaturally cold for California that Elena got goosebumps.

"Tell me about this girl again." Elena rubbed her hands over her shoulders and wiped cool sweat off her neck.

"I don't know much, Elena, only the legend. One girl with supernatural abilities to hunt down the demons. Her specialty being the vampire demons, of course." He sounded like he was mocking it. Probably thinking no way a human girl could beat him.

"You're not a demon, Damon." Elena didn't know how she would ever get him to see that part of him she was sure was there.

He turned and stopped so that he looked down at her with sad eyes. "Only a letter's difference, Elena." Before she could get out the denial on the tip of her tongue, Damon turned back around and kept on talking. "These aren't vampires like me and Stefan, they are literally demons in a human skin that feed on blood. They are descendants of the 'old ones', various demons and demigods that had a multitude of powers and abilities. Then there's me, who is a descendant of a true vampire, not a demon who happens to have vampire-like qualities."

She shook her head. "That doesn't make sense."

"Sure it does, you've got the original human, the original vampire, the original demon, the original witch, etc., and we are all only descendants of them. The only thing is, when full demons and demigods roamed the Earth, they were so powerful they ruled it, they dominated every other race and it was pretty much just a huge bloodbath of fun for them, but as time passed, they got weaker and weaker until they could no longer control the other races, actually becoming a lesser race in the process, because the other races maintained the same level of power. There must be a minimum of how weak a lesser 'vamp' can get, because otherwise I'm sure they would have been wiped out long ago."

Elena stared at her feet as they walked, trying to understand. "And the girl that kills the demons, she is supposed to be here?" They had almost walked the entire length of the cemetery.

"Yes, but I must've made a mistake-" A scream sounded nearby. Damon held out his hand. Elena took it and together they jogged at human speed to where Elena assumed the scream came from.

It only took a couple minutes before Damon started walking cautiously through a patch of trees. "Why are we going slow? Someone could be hurt!" She asked, trailing after him.

"I know, and it could be the slayer's the one doing the hurting. Ssh." they came out of the trees and Elena nearly ran into him, because he'd come to a complete stop.

She peered over her shoulder.

"Look, Xander, I can explain!"

A pretty blonde girl with mussed hair and a wrinkled dress shouted desperately, but Elena couldn't really concentrate on that, she was too busy trying not to look at the blonde guy with his pants at his knees. Even so, she slipped up a bit and stared. He looked different that Stefan. The blonde girl noticed her wondering eyes and scowled. She shoved his jeans up to his waist so hard the blonde man gave out a grunt of pain. "Careful, love, we'll need that later." he said as he zipped them up.

Elena blushed and looked at Damon. He was grinning knowingly.

The blonde girl was patting herself all over her dress. "Shit, Spike, my stake's back at your place. Did you bring one?" She didn't look worried, just annoyed.

"No, Buffy, maybe if you hadn't skipped out so fast-"

"Shut up!" Buffy said. They didn't seem like the happiest couple. Maybe this Buffy was cheating on the aforementioned Xander with this Spike guy. She took a deep breath and put her hands up in a defensive fighting position. Damon and Elena just looked at her.

"I don't have all day!" Buffy seemed really exasperated. "Spike, you wanna help me here?"

"Help you what? They haven't even done anything yet." He leaned against a gravestone and stroked it, looking at Buffy with a secretive look. She blushed and looked away.

"Just like a lesser vamp!" Damon scoffed. "Honestly, Slayer, you're better off with the real vampires." he gave her a suggestive look, and Elena wasn't the only one pissed.

"Oy!" An indignant Spike straightened and his face shifted into a wrinkly mess of hard skin as he took a step closer to Elena and Damon. Elena screamed. He smoothed out his face. "It's alright love, we're just gonna get rid of this ponce for you."

"She is not your love!" Damon growled and the veins under his eyes grew prominent.

"Ooh, we don't get many of your kind at the Hellmouth." Buffy sat on the steps to a nearby mausoleum.

"We tend to avoid places of Demon power, I'm sure you understand why." Buffy nodded at Damon's words.

"Cause you're too weak for us here." Spike smirked.

"I'll show you weak, boy." Damon and Spike lunged for each other at the same time.

"Great, a supernatural pissing contest." Buffy looked at her nails. "You wanna sit down next to me-"she trailed off.

"Elena." Elena sat next to her.

"Nice to meet ya. I'm Buffy." Elena mumbled a greeting in return. "So, you don't seem too surprised, I'm betting you knew about your boyfriend, right?" She shook her head.

"You don't approve?" Damon wasn't her boyfriend, but she was involved with a vampire. Stefan. "Where do you get off-"

"Hey, you've seen where I get off, okay?" She held out her hands as if in surrender. "At least I know I shouldn't be with with him. Maybe it's different with your kind of vamp, but mostly I just don't think people that are so different should be together."

"Oh, like how black people and white people shouldn't be together?" Elena said sarcastically.

"No!" Buffy hastily defended herself. "No, those are just differences in looks, I mean more than that."

"Like how Jews shouldn't mix with Christians, then?" Elena knew she was being unfair.

"What? No! I-" Buffy was pretty flustered.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. That was mean. Even if it was like that, I really have no right to judge, so I'm sorry. You just hit a sore spot right now." Elena blinked back tears.

"What do you mean?" Buffy put a hand on her shoulder.

"My boyfriend's missing." Buffy's eyes trailed to Damon and back to Elena like she was crazy. Spike seemed to be getting more hits in, but every once in a while Damon would use powers that Spike didn't have for an advantage, but they both recovered so quickly it was pretty evenly matched. Elena turned away as Damon took a particularly hard punch to his right eye.

"That's not my boyfriend. That's my boyfriend's brother. He went off to find a cure for vampirsm, because he wants to be human for me. But I love him for who he is!" A few tears did fall now.

"Geez, I do know how to put my foot in my mouth. I'm sorry. Where do you think he went?" Buffy looked concerned for her.

"You haven't seen him? We thought he came here." Elena cried harder.

Buffy patted her on the head and sat up. She walked over to the two vampires and grabbed a fistful of each of their cloths. Then she threw them apart. Spike just pouted as he got up, like his mom had taken away his favorite toy because he was being bad. When Damon stood he just looked stunned. He must have been surprised at that which Buffy seemed capable. So was Elena. Buffy smirked when she saw their faces.

Damon whistled. "What a woman."

"Tell me about it." Spike agreed. "She only got sexier when she came back from the dead." Elena's head shot up.

Damon's brows went up. "She's a vampire?"

"No." Buffy made a noise of disgust. Elena stared up at her in wonder. "What?" She asked, uncomfortable with Elena's gaze.

"It happened to you, too?" Elena grinned.

"You mean you..."

"died." Elena nodded enthusiastically and told her all about how she died. "What do you remember? All I can remember is how happy I was, how at peace."

Buffy let out a big breath and nearly collapsed on the steps. "Me too." Buffy was finding it hard to form words. She thought she was a freak, but now she'd found someone just like her. She took Elena's hand and squeezed it. She shed a tear as she shared her own story of her death, her sacrifice. "And the world-it-it just isn't the same."

"I know! I'm so grateful for every moment now, so happy I got a second chance to be with the people I love!" Buffy froze at Elena's words and her face went blank. She'd admit it, for a moment there, she thought she had found a friend, a person who had actually known what she was going through. She was wrong. She'd always be wrong now.

She pulled her hand away and stared blankly at her knees. Elena was confused. She was going to ask Buffy what was wrong when the boys caught her attention.

"Blondes are definitely sexier. I tried the whole 'brunette' thing. It didn't work out well, she was a total bitch." Spike said to Damon. They had been chatting like they were old friends, and about Buffy and Elena, it seemed.

"Redheads are nice, too." Damon added thoughtfully.

"Oh, yeah, I know this sweet little redheaded witch, you might not notice it at first, but she is a damn cute little morsel." Spike licked his lips.

"Hey, is her name Bonnie?" Damon asked, surprised. Spike shook his head. "It must just be coincidence, I know a redheaded witch, too."

"Bet mine's cuter." Spike said automatically.

"No way is yours cuter, mine even has freckles. I'd bet mine tastes better, too." Damon responded.

"Not bloody likely, I'll bet my witch's blood is way tastier with all the power she has."

Before their argument could turn into another physical brawl, Buffy stood up and walked between them. "I'm sorry, we can't help you. Let's go, Spike." Spike stood up eagerly. Elena had a feeling he'd follow Buffy into hell if he had to.

"Wait, Buffy, Damon said he came this way, is there anyone else we could talk to here?" Elena took a step toward the girl she was talking intimately with only moments ago, upset at this abrupt dismissal.

"Then he lied. This is my town, I would know." Her face had hardened and hid an undercurrent of anger. She turned away.

Elena looked at Damon, suspicion in her eyes. Damon avoided her eyes. "Go on, Slayer. Have another go at that pathetic excuse for a vampire. It won't make either one of you less of a monster." He turned back with a darkly pleased look to where they came from, but not before he got a glimpse of their faces. Elena saw the looks on their faces, too, but she also saw Spike lunging at Damon. She stepped in front of Damon's back, but Spike moved so fast she didn't have time to call out a warning.

Spike's fist slammed into Elena's cheek so hard she thought he had cracked her skull. She didn't remember falling, but she felt her hair thread through the grass as she tried to sit up. She saw only black for a few seconds, but her vision, as shaky as it was, returned in time for her to see Buffy pummeling Damon with punch after punch, even faster, it seemed, than Spike. She didn't give Damon time to recover and it wasn't long before Damon was laying on the grass next to her, blood pouring from his mouth.

"You bitch, what did you do to him?" Buffy looked really worried. She was kneeling next to spike on the grass. It looked like he was seizing, he was shaking so hard. Blood was pouring through his nose and ears and eyes.

"I knew-you-cared." He had to pause to cough up blood a few times, but Buffy knew what he said. She started breathing heavily and tears fell. She was this near laughing hysterically.

"Buffy, what..." Elena wasn't even sure what the question she should be asking was.

Buffy's head fell forward, whispering things to Spike and her hair covered her face. "Go" she said, loud enough for Elena to hear. "Go." She said again, louder.

"Buffy, I don't understand, what's wrong?" Elena moved closer, but stopped dead when Buffy's head flew up and she bared her teeth at Elena in an all-too-human snarl.

"Go now or I will rip out your beating heart. I don't know what you are, but I don't exactly care."

"Buffy..." Spike said weakly.

"Yes? Yes? Spike? Why did this happen? Your chip doesn't react this way to humans." Her hands stroked the sides of his face.

He looked a bit revived. "She is light where you are darkness, pet." He started to sit up, but lost consciousness and fell back down to the ground.

"Buffy, I'm sorry, I thought we-" Elena gulped and didn't bother to hide how hurt she was.

"What? You thought we had a bond? That we were the same? Please." She gave Elena a look that made her feel like Buffy was looming over her and looking down in disgust, even though Buffy was kneeling on the ground. "It isn't all the same, Elena. Now, leave." Buffy was almost choking on her anger. This girl came back better, and she came back wrong. Buffy should be used to how much the world sucked, no pun intended, by now, but it amazed her she could still feel that tight feeling in her bones. It had reared to the surface with Cordelia, and that jealous rage was even worse with Elena. This girl was probably the mirror image of herself. Popular, cute, blonde, and with a soft spot for the terminally fanged. Only, Elena's life was a piece of cake. Her lover was missing? At least she had love. Buffy had nothing real, not like Elena. Her feelings made control hard, but Buffy wasn't a stranger to difficult. She could control this. "I may not kill you, Elena, but I will kill Damon. What do I care if there's one less bloodsucker in the world? Last chance, leave." She let Elena see the hate in her eyes.

Elena backed up. She helped Damon to his feet, and they walked hastily towards the exit, leaving Buffy cradling Spike's face and cleaning up his blood with the hem of her dress.

They had reached the gate and had both simultaneously turned left, headed towards the airport. "Elena." Damon reached for her arm and she spun around, facing him.

He wasn't sure what shocked him more, her swelling pink cheekbone or the anger in the lines around her pretty blue eyes.

She spoke first. "It hurt." He looked at her cheek again. It hurt to move her mouth, it hurt to talk, but she swallowed the pain down. "It hurt, but you, your lies, you getting my hopes up, your betrayal, that all hurt a million times worse, Damon." She turned back on her heel and lead the rest of the way to the airport.

He silently followed her, wondering how it had turned out this way, how he had gotten her hurt, when he had just wanted to spend time with her, and protect her.