Chapter 3

They got ready and geared up quietly and in a concise and deliberately organised fashion. No one really wanted to speak up or offer any words of encouragement for a fight that could very well lose their friend her soul. But in each of their eyes was a fiery determination that you couldn't falter.

Gripping their weapons tightly they all piled into the two cars parked out front of the magic box. The engine's roared into life and like a convoy they set off towards the old high school where so many bad memories had been created and still haunted every single one of them.

Fifteen minutes later they pulled up to the newly rebuilt Sunnydale high school and as the engines of both cars cooled down there was an almost palpable aura of focus within the confines of both cars. The neighbourhood was quiet; the only sounds were of a distant siren some miles away.

Exiting the vehicles they took the building in, it hadn't changed enough from the original incarnation that each one of them didn't have a memory flash of some kind. They each shook it off in turn and tuned out the racing of their own hearts as they walked forward into the mouth of hell.

Entering the school they had decided it was best to stick together, having only one person in the group capable of taking the enemy on in a one on one wasn't to their favour. Before they even had a chance to turn the first corner towards the library they heard the patrol's footsteps on the linoleum floor and the sounds of the vampire's voices carried.

"I tell you man, nobody's coming. Nobody even knows we have her body. We killed that little runt before he had a chance to tell anybody"

"You know the boss. He likes to take precautions. That's all this is"

"Yea I know but why the hell did we get stuck with patrol duty."

His voice sounded irritated and slightly angry.

Xander stopped his comrades with a well placed arm at the corner and put one finger to his lips issuing a command of silence. They all nodded in concession and placed their backs to the wall. Slowly Xander eased a stake from the pocket of his brown cord jacket and eased his sword up to neck height in wait. He nodded to Spike and got a wink in reply.

The heads of the enemy came into view, the ridged formation of vampirism clear for anybody to see. One step more was to be there last, Xander and Spike struck with deliberate and deadly accuracy.

Spike chose to grab his victim by the neck to stop any call outs to his friends, grabbing the victims head in both hands he then snapped the neck and drove home the stake then looked into the vampire's eyes as he turned slowly to dust.

Xander struck with a grace nobody had witnessed before. He clamped his hand over the mouth of the vampire and span round the body, lowering his arm to the vampire's neck he stopped all sounds threatening to emerge then eased the blade of his katana through the vampire's neck turning it to dust.

Each of the group watching shared a look as they witnessed the display of fighting prowess from their friend; they shrugged it off as the group moved through the halls towards the library. Lightly stepping as they went as to not alert the over sensitive ears of any undead they crept up on the last corner and Xander eased his head around so he could spot the doors.

Two vampires were stood on guard idly chatting and occasionally looking for trouble down there separate sides of the long passage. Xander ducked his head back around and reached for the crossbow from Willow, loading it up with a bolt he passed it off to Spike and ushered him to go right round the other side. Taking another crossbow from Dawn he made sure it was loaded then looked back round the corner.

Giving Spike two minutes to reach the other side he then let loose a bolt, it flew straight and to the point as one of the vampires crumpled to dust. The other's face fell and as his face contorted into anger and his lips were poised ready to shout he felt a compression in his chest and like his comrade he disappeared within a split second.

They moved down the hallways to the double doors, looking through the clear circular porthole windows Xander took a slight intake of breath at the sight before him.

Inside were a dozen or more vampires, they all circled a giant hole in the floor that they'd dug with a few implements still laid nearby. Buffy's body was tied to a piece of wood which was practically nailed to the nearby wall. One of the vampires held a massive book and was clearly the leader of the rabble. He was a massive hulk of a vampire, muscles adorning every inch of his body right up to his head which stood from the floor at a very tall 6 foot 5 and counting.

The ritual was ready.

As the last vestiges of light set to disappear into the never-ending darkness that was a Sunnydale night the vampire's lips moved as he uttered the words from the ancient book held in his hands.

"Tersus somes quorum nos have brought vos EGO queso thee"

The earth shook slightly and each of the group looked at each other with unease, both vampires and humans alike.

"Voco animus pro possession"

Xander's face was pressed tightly to the window as he took in every sight and sound, ready to announce himself at any given moment to these leeches that had taken his friends body. Giles's hand was on his arm and he looked into the watchers eyes and knew to restrain himself until the right moment.

Bursting red light suddenly shot from the hole in the floor, from the mouth of hell itself. The ceiling crumpled and gave way to a force stronger than cement and concrete as the beam of light tore its way through and up into the clouds.

The vampire leader dodged a piece of falling debris and his words continued to shake the very fabric of the hellmouth willing it to do his bidding.

"Planto somes quod animus unus iterum"

The streaming red light scorching into the sky gave way to ghostly clouds of white and they each aimed for the body of Buffy the vampire slayer and with each strike her body shook like a thousand volts had been passed into her.

"Ut nos can dico super nostrum Everto senior"

Then suddenly as the light dissipated and the vampires cheered Buffy the vampire slayer took in an almighty breath.

She was alive.