Disclaimer: I own nothing except ideas. Saban owns Power Rangers, JK Rowling owns Harry Potter, Joss Whedon owns Buffy.

Chapter 3 – Whispers in the Dark

*Summers' home*

Tommy and Kim spent the night with Buffy and Joyce, again trying to figure out what to do about their busted car. Tommy spent an hour on the phone with Jason, again trying to explain why they couldn't come back to Angel Grove. Between the need to fix the car, again, and trying to understand who might be watching them, Tommy felt there was good reason to stay for a bit longer. In the morning, Buffy and Joyce left to make an appeal to the school board to be allowed back into the school for her senior year. Tommy went to be with his car for when the tow truck would arrive, which left Kim all alone, who decided that if they were going to be in Sunnydale for a while, they at least would need some other clothes and toiletries to live on.

Buffy and Joyce returned home, finding out that their appeal had been accepted that she'd be re-enrolled the next day. Next was Kim, who had managed to carry four or five rather large shopping bags balanced on her small frame.

"I see you found the mall easily enough," Buffy joked, seeing Kim enter the home.

"Yeah... I needed to get a few things, and... well."

"You like to shop?" They both grinned at Buffy's question. "Next time I'll have to go with you, I can help you find all the deals in town."

"That sounds great... I just... no offense, but I hope the next time I'm shopping in Angel Grove." Kim was putting the bags down near the couch and then sank into it, while Buffy seated herself on an end table across from her. "The longer we stay here, the longer I feel something bad is going to happen. I mean, the first night we were here, someone wrote on Tommy's car, 'welcome to Sunnydale, rangers.' How would someone know who we are, and why would they care?"

"I don't know," Buffy replied honestly. "But it's not the weirdest thing to happen in this town, and it's not weird considering that you and Tommy are somewhat famous, being power rangers and all."

"Yeah..." They sat quietly for a few minutes before Buffy chose to change the subject.

"So, are you and Tommy together?"

"Yeah, almost for a year and a half now. Before that we were dating for 3 years in high school, but I broke up with him while I was in Florida."

"Wow... you guys have been together a long time."

"Yeah. Are you dating anyone?"

"I... um, no," Buffy replied quickly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry," Kim responded, patently chewing on her bottom lip.

"No... it's..." Buffy stopped, trying to think how to word what she was about to say. "I was in love with a vampire."

"Really?" Kim asked genuinely. "What happened?"

"Well... his name was Angel. He was different though. He had a soul."

"What do you mean?"

"He fought other vampires. He fought alongside me. And, he loved me."

"Oh. What happened between you two?"

"Well, the soul was part of a curse, punishment for his old life. If he experienced one moment of true happiness, he would lose it and revert to Angelus, which was who he was before the soul. One night, we came back from a battle and we... well..."

"Oh," Kim said, realizing what Buffy was implying.

"Afterwards he turned, and went on terrorizing me and the town, and activated Acathla to destroy the world. I killed him to stop it."

"I'm sorry." They sat silently, Kim thinking through what Buffy had just shared with her, when Buffy asked a question.

"So, if you and Tommy have been together so long, why did you request separate rooms?"

"Personal choice," was all Kim replied.

"Ahhh... saving yourself for marriage type of deal?"

"More than that." Before Kim could explain, Tommy walked through the door to see Kim and Buffy sitting in the living room.

"Hey, everything all right?" He asked.

"Yeah, but would you mind carrying these bags upstairs?" Kim asked, Buffy silently thanking her so that she wouldn't have to explain everything again to Tommy.

"No problem, Beautiful."

It wasn't too long before dinner, and Mrs. Summers had prepared a fantastic meal for her daughter and her new friends. It was during the meal that Tommy was happy to announce that, despite a very steep price, he was told that his jeep should be up and running in no time. Afterwards, Xander and the rest of the scoobies arrived at the Summers' home to walk over to the Bronze together. It was odd to both Tommy and Kim to go to a typical high school hang-out, considering they had both been out of school for a couple of years. Even more so that the bronze wasn't exactly the Youth Center. Even so, they were delighted to be in the company of someone who could potentially lead them to find their stalker.

The music blared as the gang found a table, and oddly the group began to notice a very attractive brunette dancing with some guy that, quite honestly, didn't look like he measured up. Tommy and Kim whispered to each other, but then set their attention on the scoobies as they caught up on life.

"So, did you guys have a place like this in Angel Grove?" Cordelia asked.

"Kind of," Tommy responded. "It was more of a gym though and less of a club."

"Gym?" Xander asked. "How could a hangout be a gym?"

"Well, it wasn't just a gym," Kim replied. "There was a juice bar, and sometimes Tommy and I taught classes there. You know, martial arts and gymnastics classes, to younger students."

"That's one of the reasons we decided to go into the business we have now."

"Right, the Yellow Frog thingy, right?" Buffy asked.

"Yellow Frog?" Willow asked.

"Is that a power ranger thing?" Oz asked.

"More than that," Kim said, now thinking about how the four teens came to name their new found school. Before she could dwell on it too long, Buffy broke her thoughts.

"That girl, the one dancing with the way not stylish guy... where'd she go?"

"Do you think that the guy wasn't exactly human?" Tommy asked.

"Vampire 101, the boys generally have no sense of style." As Buffy finished, she and the rest of the crew got up and rushed out of the building into the main parking lot. The seven of them stood outside with very little noise, minus the faint music from the Bronze.

"Buff, maybe we're just over-reacting," Xander said. However, immediately after the words left his mouth, they heard a crash on the other side of the building.

"You were saying?" Tommy asked sarcastically, spurring the group to run towards the loud noise. As they approached the back alley, Buffy pulled a stake from her coat, ready to spring into action. However, what the group found was rather surprising: the brunette girl was more than holding her own with the now vampire-faced teenaged boy. After she kicked him into the wall, she looked over to see Buffy and the others not more than 15 feet from her.

"Mind if I borrow that?" She asked Buffy, pointing to the wooden weapon. Buffy, confused, merely shrugged and handed it to her, watching as she fiercely elbowed the vampire back into the wall of the building, and then thrusting the stake deep in the heart, turning him to dust. She walked back over to the scoobies, along with Tommy and Kim. "You must be Buffy. I'm Faith, the new slayer in town."

*Abandoned Warehouse, outskirts of Sunnydale, CA*

"I got off the phone with the Mayor, and we're all cleared to take out both slayers," a young black man, at least in appearance, shared out loud. "However, he also seemed to think that there were two other people we should be concerned about, they once called themselves... how did he put it, power rangers." It was then that an older man appeared. His face was disfigured, a scar running down from his right eye towards his cheek, his fingers cloven together, and his face portraying that of an obvious vampire.

"Mr. Trick," the vampire started. "I don't care how many humans, slayers, or power rangers you give me... I want Faith first."

"I understand that, Kakistos," the black man, who was named 'Mr. Trick,' replied. "My point is the Mayor doesn't like that all these folks are in town, he has big plans. If he is cautious, we should probably be as well."

*Summers' Home*

The scoobies and rangers, along with Faith, came back to the Summers' home confused about their new companion. Not only was the shock on the fact that she was a slayer, but in how she handled herself. She was edgy and crude, at one point Kim wanted to slap her for saying a suggestive comment to Tommy, but she resisted. But, at the same time, there was a feeling of pity and sadness for the girl. With all the power and beauty, it seemed as though she had lived a hard life. As she shared with them about her life, Tommy and Kim couldn't help but want to reach out to her. Her mom had been a drunk, Dad split town, watcher/mentor was killed.

Still, as they settled back into the Summers' home, and Faith in her apartment, Kim and Buffy stayed up talking about the events of the night.

"You doing ok?" Buffy asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Kim replied. "You looked pretty shaken by the fact that there is another slayer."

"Yeah... it's complicated. I mean, there was another slayer, last year. But she was completely different, by the book. Faith... it just seems like she's running from something."

"It's too bad she can't keep running out of town," Kim muttered not so subtly. Buffy smirked. "I'm sorry... I just... I keep going from I want to help her to I want to punch her."

"The comment about her and Tommy "shacking up" wasn't exactly tactful."

"Is that what she said?" Tommy interjected, coming from the basement up to the living room. "I had no clue, I was talking with Giles about something when I saw your cheeks got red and puffy."

"Yeah... Faith talked about how she wouldn't mind, well... and she's very attractive and..."

"Not you." As he said that to Kim he quickly slipped his arm around her shoulder and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Trust me when I say you won't have to worry about her, or anyone else for that matter."

"No offense, but the amount of cuteness might make me gag," Buffy joked at the pair, which brought a much needed laugh.

*Mayor's office, next morning*

"Mr. Finch, you know I don't like it when dust finds it way onto my desk," A tall, slender man with slicked back brown hair said. He said it with a slight smile, but the balding man standing across from him felt no ease at his smile.

"Yes, Mayor Wilkins," he said with a slight stutter. "I'll make sure to get lysol and a rag and wipe it down for you."

"Oh, it's not necessary for you to clean it Mr. Finch!" He said, now with an even wider grin. "I just need to make sure that we restock so that we can keep this office spotless. Now, I'm meeting with Mr. Trick in the evening, which is necessary since he's a vampire. Are there any other appointments on the schedule?"

"Just one, although I don't know exactly who it is," Deputy Mayor Allan Finch replied. "All I know is he will be here any moment."

"Well, it must be important. Why don't you go outside and show him into my office when he arrives." Finch departed from the room, which was neatly organized and had all the essentials for a working office of a Mayor. He waited, until he heard a knock at the door. "Come in." As he peered towards the doorway the first thing he saw was a cane tap the floor. His eyes followed upwards to the man's clean-shaven face and golden flowing locks of hair.

"Well, well... you are no ordinary muggle, are you."

"Ahhh... muggle. British wizards have always been so exciting to meet! I'm delighted to meet you. I'm Mayor Wilkins, and you are?"

"Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy," he said coolly, rejecting a business-like handshake as he wandered over to the window across from his desk, thumbing through the blinds. "I hear you have major plans coming up. A way to rule the muggles of this town. I'd like to help you, if you'd be willing to help me." Mayor Wilkins responded with a devilish, yet seemingly kind, smile.

"I think we could come to some sort of mutual agreement."

It had been another long, nerve-wracking day for Tommy and Kim. The more they waited in Sunnydale to find answers, the more they felt like they were going to have to stay there for months, maybe even years, before they actually found out who or what was potentially pursuing them. Buffy noticed how the tension was especially getting to Kim, so she suggested that they just stay at their place and take it ease for the day. Besides, it seemed like their jeep was finally going to be ready to go, so Tommy wanted to make sure he could pick it up during the daylight.

Buffy, however, had no time to rest. As she prepped with Giles to patrol, they came across an old vampire named Kakistos in one of the books they were using for research. Between some of the bits and pieces of information that Faith had given them, they were concerned that Kakistos could end up coming to Sunnydale, and that Faith might have even been fleeing from him, leading him right to the hellmouth. From this, Buffy decided that it was time to start being a bit more forceful in terms of pumping Faith for information.

When she arrived at Faith's motel room, the edge that she carried with her faded for the moment. It was a classic dive of a motel, which she had expected when she mentioned the part of town she was staying in. But it was worse than she imagined. The siding on the outside looked worn, with patches of paint stripped away. The sign looked like it went through more than one earthquake without being fixed up, and the doors and windows hadn't been updated in decades. Some of them were splintered or broken, one of them was even shattered in. It was a surprise that the building wasn't condemned and shut down. She gradually walked towards the door of Faith's room, and knocked. The door swung open, revealing the hot mess that was Faith. Ripped jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and messy black hair.

"Sup, B?" Faith asked nonchalantly. Apparently, Faith was all ready on a first letter basis with the ranking slayer.

"Well, F," Buffy replied, clearly regaining her edge that she had lost when she had first approached the motel. "There's been a few clues that a new vamp is in town." She closed the door behind her, looking at her and then the room, which was undoubtedly decrepit in its appearance. The wallpaper was peeling, the mattress looked like it was busting at the seams, and there had all ready been a few cockroach sightings. However, Buffy was unfazed this time, her eyes becoming fixated on her slayer counterpart. "Does the name Kakistos ring a bell?" Faith flinched at his name, which was visibly obvious to Buffy. "So, you know him?"

"Yeah, I've heard of him," she said coolly, trying to recover from her obvious shock. "Old dude, right?"

"Yeah... old, to the point where his hands are cloven. Apparently he recently killed some random watcher..."

"HE WASN'T JUST SOME WATCHER!" Faith shouted, clearly disturbed.

"He was your watcher... wasn't he?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?" Buffy asked genuinely.

"Kakistos captured us, killed him right in front of me. Then he tried to kill me. Instead, he came away with a car across half his face."

"And now he's looking for retribution?"

"He won't get the chance, I'm..."

"Running?" Buffy asked, growing impatient. "Leave me to clean up your mess while you run away?"

Faith squirmed as Buffy challenged her, but they were interrupted by a knock at the door. Faith ran to the door to look through the peep-hole. "Who is it?"

"Just the creepy receptionist guy of the motel," Faith replied in a perturbed tone. "He's been annoying the crap out of me, keeps creeping on me." She opened the door. "What do you wan..." She stopped short as the lanky boy fell to the ground, clearly dead. She looked back up to see a terrifying face in front of her.

"Oh Faith, how I've missed you," Kakistos hissed. Faith instinctively kicked him in the midsection, realizing that he could enter without an invitation.

"Out the back!" Faith yelled, and Buffy and Faith fled through the back door. Kakistos got up with a smile on his face, motioning for his men to pursue them. The slayers found their way into a back alley, running as fast as they could until they found an opening in an abandoned warehouse. They ran into the center of it, when suddenly, Buffy grabbed Faith by the arm to stop her.

"Faith, look around us, people have been living here," noting the supplies and other things strewn around the room.

"An astute observation Ms. Summers," A young, black man appeared to their left. "The name is Mr. Trick."

"I'd say the trick was on you," Buffy quipped, while Faith looked around nervously. Trick only smiled devilishly, and began pacing.

"You know, it's sad that it had to come to this. If Faith never came here, you, Ms. Summers, could have had a shot at a normal life, with normal friends... well, as normal as power rangers are."

"How do you know about them?" Buffy asked sternly.

"Let's just say I have friends in high places. Speaking of which." Trick merely pointed behind them, and as the turned around simultaneously, both Faith and Buffy were struck in their temples by Kakistos. They staggered up as Kakistos and maybe six other vampires encompassed them in the center of the warehouse.

"Faith, you need to help me in this, we can beat them," Buffy whispered to Faith, trying to help build her confidence. However, Buffy knew that she was going to be of little help in this battle. Her legs were shaking, eyes nearly glazed over. The once overconfident new slayer was overcome with fear, clearly thinking she would always be able to outrun her pursuers. "Faith, now!" Buffy shouted, breaking her stance with her, going right for the leader of the pack. Faith, still shaky, tried to begin fighting, but was almost immediately knocked to the ground by a pair of Kakistos' minions. Buffy was able to land some hits on Kakistos, including a devastating roundhouse kick into his chest. As he staggered, Buffy pulled out her stake and plunged it into his chest. She waited for him to turn to ash, but nothing happened. He merely grinned at her and then swatted her across her face, sending her to the hard concrete ground. Faith fought off the pack of vamps, slowly regaining her confidence. That is, until she turned to see her true adversary. Her face drained itself of all color, becoming a colorless white. She noticed the stake still sticking out of his chest, and an idea hit her, and with precision aimed a kick directly at the stake to plunge it further into his heart, but to no avail. He caught her leg, and with great force he swiftly swung her into the hard wall, Faith's body landing on the concrete with a thud.

"Oh Faith," He cackled, methodically plodding his way towards her near lifeless body. "I'm going to enjoy tearing you apart."

"Hey!" A male voice shouted behind him. Kakistos turned only to see a young man twirl in the air and thrust his foot directly to the stake, plunging it into the depths of his heart. He looked at him, realizing that a mere mortal had just defeated one of the most legendary vampires of all time. Once he turned to ash, Tommy Oliver ran to Faith to check on her, as Xander and the other scoobies chased off the other vamps, with Mr. Trick disappearing into the darkness of the night outside of the warehouse. "Kim, check on Buffy," he said looking to her, and Kim nodded and rushed over to the girl who was currently picking herself up off the floor. Tommy meanwhile helped Faith up. "You ok?"

"Five by five," she responded, but Tommy gave a confused look. "I'm ok, thanks."

"Faith," Buffy gasped, sporting a bruise near her eye and being helped by Kim to move.

"Let's go home," she quickly stated. "We gotta rest if we're going to keep on top of our slayer duties."

"Right."

They travelled back to the Summers home, Faith immediately going to sleep and Joyce out of town at a convention, leaving only Buffy, Kim and Tommy in the living room.

"So it was Kakistos that was after us?" Tommy asked. "Why?"

"I don't know, but it seemed like Mr. Trick, whoever he is, knew something about you," Buffy answered.

"Do you think we have anything else to worry about?" Kim asked nervously.

"I doubt it... I think you guys should be in the clear to get back to Angel Grove," Buffy replied.

"Finally!" Kim shouted joyously. "No offense, but I'm extremely excited to get back."

"Haha, I understand," Buffy grinned. "Just know that you now have good friends in Sunnydale."

"Likewise in Angel Grove," Tommy replied. Kim inched closer towards Tommy on the couch, when Buffy asked a sudden question.

"Just how did you find us in that warehouse anyway?"

"Honestly, we saw those creeps as we were driving back from picking up the jeep," Kim explained. "When we saw they were chasing you, we went and parked it and ran after you guys."

"Xander went to drop us off, and he had Oz and Willow with him, so that's how we all got there," Tommy continued.

"I guess having a twice-busted jeep paid off, didn't it?"

*Mayor's Office*

Deputy Mayor Finch walked Mr. Trick into the office and left him alone with the Mayor. "Feel free to take a seat Mr. Trick," Mayor Wilkins said politely. He did so without saying a word. "Can I get you anything? Water, tea, coffee, blood of a beautiful young lady?"

"You know, for a demon who longs to ascend, you are the quintessential nice guy," Mr. Trick retorted.

"Well, I prefer manners and cleanliness. I mean, besides, cleanliness is next to godliness." The Mayor almost got himself to laugh, but Trick only smirked at his evil counterpart. "Of course, I see myself as that god, so... I prefer me, then cleanliness. Anyway, I'd love to know why you came here."

"The slayer."

"Which one? Because, I don't know if you realized this, but because of you and your former master, I now have to deal with two of those pubescent fighting machines."

"What if I could help you eliminate them?" Trick asked with a knowing grin.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Let's just say I'm well connected," Trick smiled wickedly, which the Mayor matched with a smile of his own.

"Let me consult with one of my trusted consultants, and we can get the ball rolling. By the way... what happened to the rangers? My consultant is going to want to know about them as well."

*Summer's home*

Buffy, Faith, Giles, and the rest of the scoobies had come over during the lunch hour to see off their new found friends. Once Tommy and Kim packed up the jeep, stood outside their jeep to give one last good-bye to their new friends.

"Thanks for everything," Tommy said, pulling Buffy into a hug, followed by Kim giving the blonde a giant squeeze.

"I'm pretty sure it's us that should be thanking you," Buffy said with a faint grin. "I think you guys saved our lives twice over the past week."

"And I'm pretty sure you helped us by figuring out who was after us," Kim said. They shook the rest of their hands, and then Tommy and Kim climbed into the driver's and passenger's seats, closed the doors, and started their trek back to Angel Grove.

"I'm going to miss them," Willow said.

"Yeah, they were pretty chill," Oz replied, wrapping his arm around Willow.

"They were a cute couple too," Cordelia chimed in, garnering an odd look from Xander. "What? I can't say that they looked like a really cute couple? I mean, they were like Angel and Buffy before Angel turned all evil on us." This garnered odd, even menacing looks from everyone, minus Faith who seemed mildly intrigued.

"Thanks for the reminder, Cordy," Buffy muttered, clearly shaken by this comment. Silence became the norm for the rest of their time at Buffy's home, and when it was time for everyone to back to the school, Buffy chose instead to stay home. The emotions brought out by reminders of what she had with Angel were finally too much to bear and she spent the late afternoon lying on her bed in tears. As it became evening, she focused on the ring on her finger. It was a Claddagh ring, the one Angel had given her the night before they had consummated their relationship and he had reverted to Angelus. She focused on it, for the longest time seeing it as the last strand of hope that he would one day return as just Angel. But she knew he wasn't coming back. She had made sure of it. Convinced that she had to finally let the idea of him go, she urged herself out of bed and made the trek to his old mansion. Memories resurfaced of when she had killed him to save the world. Even as she entered, she saw the statue of Acathla, which moved her close to tears. She lifted up her hand and slid the ring off her finger, looked at it for one last time, allowing one last moment of hope. Then, she dropped it in the middle of the floor, a small clank sounding as it hit the ground. "Goodbye Angel," she whispered. She slowly walked out, hoping against hope that maybe something would happen, like in the movies where you think your long lost love is dead, and instead he miraculously survived. But she knew that wasn't going to happen. She finally left, looking back to the mansion almost each minute until its sight disappeared from her eyes.

It was then that it happened. The mansion became filled with wondrous light, and a male body fell from the ceiling, hitting the ground hard. The man was naked, markings of obvious torture stained him. If Buffy had remained for just 10 minutes longer, she would have recognized him instantly as Angel. Yet, something was different. Though he was no longer Angelus, his eyes were filled with bloodlust. Something had tortured him to this point. The question was who?

To Be Continued...

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- Googz333