A/N Thanks for all of the great reviews earlier and sorry for taking so long to update. I have to warn you that from this point on there will be some character death.

Chapter 3

The Four

For a moment, that felt more like centuries, Xander stared at the burning building, unmoving. He had come back from hell itself for the girl of his dreams, only to possibly lose her again. Finally coming to his senses, he looked up and saw Faith with her mouth open in a wide O. Taking advantage of her shock, he kicked his leg up knocking the sword out of her hand, before kipping back up to his feet. Tapping into his limited dark magick, he spread his hand forward and sent out a powerful red shockwave that took her off of her feet.

Seeing that she was out of it, he turned and ran for the school. Covering his mouth and nose with his hand he was prepared to jump through an opening, until the ceiling crumbled and collapsed, covering his entrance.

"Got damn it!" he screamed to himself as he stared at the fiery wall. Touching it with his right hand, a sudden feeling of something he couldn't describe came over him. Nearly falling off of his feet from the feeling, he suddenly righted himself and looked down by the other end of the burning school. Running to where this new instinct told him, he saw another huge hole that had been blown through from the explosion.

Not wasting time he jumped though and as he walked through the burning building more glass broke and wood splintered, behind him. Turning his slight jog into a run, he ran towards the library and past a group of lockers. Looking down at the fire around him, he noticed that it seemed to bend and flex as he walked past them. Bumping into someone, he looked up and touched the pommel of his sword as he saw three beings in front of him. The one in the front was wearing a red robe and carrying a grand broad sword along with a steel chain that he was using as a leash for a giant werewolf looking demon. The second one was wearing an all black robe carrying what he assumed was a baby wrapped up in a white blanket and the last one was wearing a sickly yellow robe and was carrying a sickle. As he tried to look under the hoods of their robes, he saw nothing but darkness.

"Who the hell are you?!" he yelled over the roaring fire. Feeling something dangerous about these beings, he tightened his grip on his sword.

"We are The Four." the one wearing the black said in a gravely low, woman's voice.

"I hate to embarrass you lady." Xander said as he started to look around. "But theres only three of you."

"That's because this is the forth member, Alexander." the woman spoke again indicating the baby and making the hair on the back of his neck rise.

'How the hell does she know who I am?' he thought to himself. 'And why is it, that I feel like I know them?'

"But only the one who sees is meant to see him." she went on, interrupting his thoughts. "Would you care to take a gander?" she asked holding the baby forward. Even though he knew he didn't have much time, before the building collapsed, he still craved to see what was under the blanket. As he was about to reach out and remove the blanket he suddenly heard someone scream out. Not just anyone it was...

"Buffy." Xander whispered. Running past The Four and the eerily quiet and obedient beast, he ran into what was left of the library. Flames licked the wall and black smoke nearly engulfed him as he ran in and saw that the place was nearly finished burning to a crisp. Seeing nothing but bodies, both human and demon thrown about the floor, he was about to grab someone and take them out when the support beams behind him collapsed blocking his only way out.

"Fuck!" he yelled aloud as more smoke got into his lungs. This place, earth, was nothing like hell. There was no magic to help keep him alive around fire. "Is it too much to ask for a miracle?" he asked looking up at the heavens. As he yelled that his sword started to pulse. Speaking to him telepathically, Xander looked to a far wall that was untouched by the flames and he drew his sword.

"Angelic Aftermath!" he screamed as he swung the blade to the ground. Powerful energy whipped out of it and smashed into the wall, blowing a huge hole through it. Not having time to pick and choose, he grabbed the first body he was next too and started to drag them out of the school. Looking down he saw that it was Willow. With a smile on his face, he turned and saw Faith standing in front of him. Not saying a word, she turned and ran into the building to help him gather up the others.

The Bronze

Sametime

The group known as The Four walked through the parking lot of the Bronze slowly but with purpose. Ignoring the teenagers that teemed about, the leader of the group wearing red glanced at the doorman they walked up on and smiled, even as his new pet, which he used magic on to keep it in it's demonic form, growled angrily beside him.

"Hey!" the doorman yelled as they tried to walk past him. "That's five bucks from each of you and no dogs are allowed."

Looking back at the one with the deathly pale yellow robe, the leader nodded his head. Reaching up the doorman tried to back away as he saw the skeletal hands of the one with the yellow robe. To late, he put two bony fingers on the man's forehead and watched amused as the whites of his eyes turned jet black and his body started to shrink and crack. After only a few seconds the man was nothing more then a hollow deathly pale husk and like dust he blew away as a strong gust of wind blew him away.

Leading the way into the full music blaring club, Red robe took off the chain of his pet werewolf Oz, before leaning down to speak to it.

"Go. Play." he rasped as he unleashed the demon on the unsuspecting teens. Like an obedient dog, the lycan got up on all fours and ran into a crowd like a rapid animal. Reaching out with his powers Red robe sealed all the doors so they wouldn't get out. Nodding his head to the others, they disappeared into thin air, even as he smiled at the first of the humans screams.


Feeling gentle, yet strong hands holding her, Buffy smiled in her unconsciousness. That was until she felt her body being put down on something soft and wet. Something that felt like grass. Slowly forcing her eyes open and coughing up smoke, she looked up and saw a pair of liquid brown eyes, she hadn't seen in months.

"Xander?" she asked as she tried to sit up. Before she could ask him anything else, the school itself started to collapse on itself.

"Oz?" a voice asked weakly. Looking back he saw Willow bolt up and look around frantically.

"Take it easy, Red." Faith said trying to hold her down. "There ain't nobody else in there."

"Xander?" Buffy asked again as she successfully sat up. "I can't believe this. Where did you...how did you..."

"I'll explain later." he said looking down and then growling as he saw one of the men he had helped out of the building. Sitting up Angel stared wide eyed, back at him. "You!"

"Xander? Xander what the hell..."

"How in the hell did you get back to earth deadboy?" Xander asked as he lifted Angel up off of his by the scruff of his neck. "The last time I saw you, you were in hell with me."

"Get your hands off of me." Angel growled low in his throat.

"Make me."

"Xander let him go." Buffy said confused at their exchange. "Angel's good now."

"Good?" Xander asked with a bitter laugh, even though he did as she asked. "Buffy, I know I've been gone for a long time but the last time I saw him, he was killing our friends."

"But he's different now." Buffy said in an almost begging way for him to understand. "He has a soul."

"Hitler had a soul too, Buffy." he replied as he turned back to Angel. "But he still found time to sadistically murder people."

"That's highly unlikely." a very pompous, self important voice said. Looking behind Angel, Xander saw an older man wearing glasses and a nice suit. An older man that was definitely not Giles. "He sold his soul long ago and his body was inhabited by demons."

"We don't need a history lesson, Wussley." Faith told the Watcher, as she held up a crying Willow. "The cops are gonna be here any minute, I hear the sirens."

"Oz..." Willow cried out again as she lowered her head on Faith's shoulder.

"Oz." Xander mouthed to Faith.

"Boyfriend." she mouthed back.

"Maybe he ran away Willow." Xander tried to comfort her. "I didn't see anybody else in there."

"Well he's not a person right now." Willow informed him. "He's a werewolf."

"A were..." he stopped as he thought back to his encounter with the evil beings. 'Didn't they have a hairy demon chained up with them?'

"What is it?" she asked as she finally looked up and saw her friend. "Xander... when did you..."

"I'll explain later." Xander said hearing the sirens for himself. "Let's just get out of here."

As they made it to the parking lot they all went separate ways in different vehicles, each promising to meet up at Buffy's house later on. Buffy went with Angel in his car, Wesley drove alone, and Willow, Xander and Faith drove in Oz's van. The latter driving. She put the car in gear and slammed on the gas, burning some rubber in her hurry to get going.

"Willow I don't think you need to worry about, Oz." Xander said as he turned in his seat and looked back at his friend, who was curled up into a ball on the floor crying. "Well not right now anyway."

"What...what are you talking about?"

"I don't know all of what's going on but I saw some guys taking him." he said as his mind went back to the robed people he saw. "Don't worry, we'll get him back." he said as Faith took a corner without slowing down, and skidded around it. "That is if we make it in one piece." he went on as he looked over at Faith.

"I'm just to hear some tunes." Faith replied as she reached over, turned on the radio and began to turn the station dial. In the process she bent over too low to see over the dashboard. While changing stations, she didn't realize that she was pulling on the steering wheel, and the van made a wide left turn, but fortunately onto another road, and so they didn't hit anything.

"Eyes on the road! Eyes on the road!" Xander shouted. He had just come back from hell and he wasn't anxious to go back.

"I missed you." Willow whispered into his ear as she sat up and hugged him from behind.

"I missed you too." Xander replied with a genuine smile as he turned to really look at her. She had cut her hair a little shorter, wore better clothes, and looking a little deeper he saw a small crackle of magick attached to her spirit. But through all that she was still his Willow.

"Now where have you been, buster?" she asked, feeling a little better because of his presence, and giving him her 'Resolve face'. "And I want the truth. Buffy told us you were dead."

"I'll tell you when we get to Buffy's house." he replied as he suddenly thought about something. "Hey where's Giles?" as he said that Willow had an even sadder look on her face then before.

Sunnydale Memorial Hospital

Moments Later

Stopping in front of the hospital Xander hanged his head low as he found out the cause of Giles being in a coma. After he and Angel had went to hell, Buffy was walking out of the crypt and had found the older man laying under a tree, unconscious and losing alot of blood. Using her Slayer strength she had managed to get him to the hospital in the knick of time before he died. Once he was stabilized the doctors told her that with the combination of blood loss and head trauma that he was in a coma. A coma where he might not ever wake up from. And that's why Xander held his head low now, because he knew that if he had taken the older man to the hospital he wouldn't be in the condition he was in now.

'But if I had taken him then Buffy wouldn't be alive.' he thought to himself. As the van screeched to a halt he was thrown out of his dark reverie, even as his head hit the dashboard. "Ow."

"Stop being a cry baby." Faith said as she slapped him on the arm. "We're here."

"Well I guess I can't take this in there with me." he said aloud as he put his sword in the back. As they all got out they took in the night and got a fresh smell of the stale air. Walking towards the building Xander suddenly stopped and looked off into the air.

"Xander what's wrong?" Willow asked as she looked back at him.

"Nothing." he replied giving her a fake smile. "You two go on ahead. I'll catch up."

Giving each other a look, Faith and Willow walked into the hospital. Once they were out of sight, he put a grim look on his face, before running towards the side of the building. Once there he looked around, before jumping fifteen feet in the air where he caught onto a drain pipe. Quickly he climbed it, as if it were a rope, until he reached the top of the building. Climbing over the edge of the building and standing to his feet, he let his eyes adjust to the darkness and he saw a figure with his back turned to him, crouched over the edge of the building.

"How does it feel to be back home?" the friendly voice asked, causing Xander to drop his guard and smile.

"It's a lot less hot." Xander joked, as he walked over to his friend and sat down beside him. "What are you doing here?"

"Unfortunately to be the bearer of bad news again." Natas told him. "The Apocalypse is coming."

"Another one." Xander joked. "Man you'd think the bad guys would've found something else to do by now."

"Now isn't the time to joke knight. I didn't mean that it was a apocalypse, I meant that it was THE apocalypse."

"You mean fire and brimstone?" he asked as the angel nodded. "So those guys I met are really..."

"The Four Horsemen." the angel finished for him. "Death, Desolation, and War are already here."

"What about the fourth member?" Xander asked as he stood to his feet and started to pace.

"The anti-christ." Natas replied in distaste. "He too is here. Hiding...waiting to strike. Be quick in visiting your friend. Time is short and you must prepare for war."

"How did you know about, Giles?" Xander asked as Natas smiled back at him.

"I'm an angel remember." and with that he jumped off the side of the roof, spreading his wings out widely. Looking to where he jumped, Xander saw that his friend was already gone.

Easily finding Giles' room Xander walked in and saw Faith and Willow already waiting for him. But even all the time he had spent in hell didn't prepare him for what he was now seeing. Giles was hooked up to monitoring machines that beeped to tell the condition of his heart. And even though he had only been gone for a short time the Watcher had seemed to age almost ten years. He was just so broken and fragile looking. Even though he had been through many torcher devices himself, he couldn't fathom what Giles was going through. And yet what was worse, Xander knew that it was his fault for causing Giles this pain.

As he stood there reminiscing about all the adventures and all the advice the older man had given in the short time he had known him, he failed to hear the first of many screams. Coming out of yet another reverie he turned and saw Faith running out of the room.

"Will's stay here." he ordered as he ran out of the room behind the dark haired Slayer. Seeing alot of nurses, patients, and doctors running for their lives, Faith grabbed one to get an explanation.

"Hey, what the hell is going on?" she asked the terrified woman nurse.

"There's something in the children's wing!" she yelled hysterically. "It's killing them and it's coming this way." squirming out of Faith's grasp the older woman ran down the hall to join the others. Angered that somebody or something was hurting children Faith ran down the opposite end.

"Faith wait!" Xander shouted as he ran up behind her. Using his senses he picked up the same demonic aura he felt earlier that night when he had faced the Four. Knowing that it was them he increased his speed, but came to a screeching halt when he turned the corner. Right in front of him Faith stood in awe at the yellow robed, sickle carrying demon further down the hallway. It had it's hands outstretched towards the walls and Xander could tell that each time he passed a door that the occupant of the room died instantly.

'Death' he thought to himself.

"Yo, ugly!" Faith said pointing at him. "You the one killing off all those kids?" she asked only being greeted back with muted silence. "Of course you are." running forward she prepared to throw a punch at her adversary only for her fist to go numb. Looking down at it she saw that it started to blister and turn an unearthly shade of grey. "What the fuc..." before she could finish her curse a gust of wind past her at blinding speed and the next thing she knew was that the demon was laying on his back and Xander was suddenly at her side with his foot outstretched.

"Faith go back get as many people as you can, Giles, and Willow and get the hell out of here." he said calmly as he looked back to see the thing getting back to it's feet.

"But..."

"No but's, just go." he told her, giving her a little push. "I'll hold him off long enough for you guys to get out." seeing the worried look on her face he added. "Don't worry, I'll be right behind you."

Not knowing fully why she ran, because she had never run from a fight before, Faith started to run down the hallway. Chancing another glance over her shoulder she saw Xander getting into a defensive pose ready to fight.

'Damn I left my sword.' Xander thought to himself as he instinctively reached for it. 'I guess I'll just have to stall.' "So it's just me and you Bones." Xander joked as Death stood up, his hood being thrown back, exposing his skeletal head. Maggots and snakes slither out where his eyes were supposed to be and if Xander hadn't of spent several hundred years in hell he would have been severely freaked out. "Let's do this."

Running with demonic speed Xander went into a rainbow kick, which Death somehow seemed to slide under. Changing tactics he went into a quick series of rapid fire punches only for Death to block every blow before grabbing his hands in a surprisingly tight grip.

"You aren't mad that I called you Bones are you?" Xander asked with a wince, as the eyeless sockets stared blankly at him. As if to answer his question Death suddenly grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off of his feet. With effortless strength the age old demon hurled Xander out of the nearest window. Not caring or feeling the glass beneath him Death tossed his hood back up and continued to walk down the hall to finish his massacre.


"Red, we gotta scram!" Faith yelled as she charged into the room.

"What...what's going on?" Willow asked nervously. "Where's Xander and...and what happened to your hand."

"I ain't got time to explain." Faith replied hurriedly as she started to unhook anything she could from Giles' body. "Just help me unhook the G-man so we can get him outside." seeing that Faith was spooked by something the wiccan decided not to say anything and assisted her with what she was doing. Wheeling the whole bed out, Willow grabbed Giles' glasses off a nearby nightstand and headed outside after her friend.

"Don't you think it's going to be a tight squeeze inside Oz's van?" Willow asked looking up to Faith.

"Forget about the van, we're gonna steal us an ambulance." before Willow could argue about leaving her boyfriend's vehicle behind they both heard the sound of glass breaking. Looking back just in time they saw Xander fall face first onto the top of the van, crushing the roof down like a pancake.

"The ambulance it is." Faith said with raised eyebrows, even as she and Willow ran up to Xander as he rolled slowly off of the van, barely keeping his balance.

"Did anybody get the license plate of the truck that hit me?" he asked woozily as he wobbled around a bit.

"Xander are you, okay?" Willow asked, as she put a hand on his shoulder to help stabilize him.

"Never better." he replied as he spat out a glob of blood.

"I thought you had everything under control stud?" Faith asked as Xander reached through the broken van and pulled out his sword.

"I did until..." before he could make a witty remark the front of the hospital exploded in a shower of brick and glass. Looking back as the dust started to settle, they saw Death strolling out calmly with his sickle.

"Xander..."

"Let's get the hell out of here!" he yelled as he grabbed Willow's hand. Quickly putting Giles in the back of the nearest ambulance they drove off into the night, sirens blaring, leaving Death to stare off at them.


"Angel you haven't said anything since we left the school." Buffy commented as he stopped his car in front of her house. Looking at her slightly shaken up, he looked back out into the street.

"I'm not sure what you want me to say."

"How about, 'Hey Buffy your best friend is back from hell. How do you feel about that.' " Buffy started. "I mean I know hell couldn't have been a picnic but..."

"You have no idea." Angel replied quietly.

"Look, if you need to talk."

"That's just it, Buffy I don't want to talk about it." Angel nearly screamed as he shrugged off her touch. "You're at home now. I have to get a few things from my house, but I'll be back in a few for the meeting." wordlessly Buffy got out of Angel's car, shocked because of his outburst of anger, and closed the door. Watching as his car quickly sped off into the night, Buffy held her head down low.

"The story of my life." she said aloud as she kicked a can before walking into her house. "Hey, Mom." she turned to call up the stairs, putting down her jacket. She then frowned and looked down the hall toward the kitchen. Something didn't seem right. "Mom?" she called again as she heard something upstairs. Feeling a little silly for being scared she started to walk upstairs and down the hall. "You and Dawn aren't trying to scare me again are you?" she asked as she walked into Joyce's bedroom to see her mom, with Dawn laid out on her stomach, laying on the bed.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she took a closer look at Joyce. Her eyes were open, staring sightlessly at the ceiling as one of her arms hung loosely over the edge of the bed. Looking into her sisters eyes she saw that they too were blank and her chest didn't move up and down like it should. "Mom? Dawn?" Buffy asked quietly as she moved closer into the room.

Not getting an answer she rushed over and began shaking Joyce and then her sister by the shoulders.

"Mom! Mom! Mommy..." she repeated the word many times and then shouted it in Joyce's face, getting no reaction. Seeing that both of their skins were deathly pale Buffy knew that they were dead. Suddenly she fell to her knees and vomited on the floor. A small giggle sounded into the room over the retching noises of her throwing up. Looking up from her position by the doorway, Buffy saw a black robed figure, carrying a baby walking out of her moms closet.

"Hello Slayer." Desolation said with a cackle as her grotesque, burn-scarred face erupted in a blast of blazing hellfire.

Her Slayer instincts taking over Buffy scrambled to her feet and tore out of the room, narrowly avoiding Desolation's flamed attack. Trying to get a weapon, from her secret hiding place under a hallway table, another fireball flew by her head narrowly missing her but destroying the table.

Walking slowly out of the room Buffy got back to her feet, even as the demon swatted at her with razor sharp nails, edging her back onto the landing at the top of the stairs.

"I'll kill you for what you did to my family." Buffy said as she wiped some tears from her eyes and got into a defensive stance. With a smile on her greyish and charred lips, Desolation swatted at Buffy again and even though she ducked, she lost her balance and tumbled violently down the stairs.

Laying crumbled at the bottom of the stairs, cowering in fear, Buffy could only watch helplessly as the female demon slowly walked down the stairs, cackling menacingly. Seeing that Buffy was trying to get to her feet Desolation reached under it's robe and hurled a charred, flaming skull at her. The skull screamed forward, missing Buffy's face by inches, then it inexplicably changed course and flew back up the stairs, disappearing into her dark advancing silhouette.

"Your family was simple to kill as you will be." the demon rasped out as it lifted up a foot to squish Buffy's head. "Consider yourself a farewell message to the, Knight." before she could lower her foot on Buffy's soft head the door to the house were suddenly flown open. To Desolation's surprise and delight the one it mostly wanted to see strolled into the room.

"Buffy?" Xander asked as he looked from her to the demon. "You!"

"You've finally arrived." Desolation screeched happily. "Now the fourth will come forth. Feast your eyes on this babe and you will finally know who is the anti-christ." she said as she threw the baby in Xander's direction. By instinct he caught it and cradled it in his arms, just as Faith walked into the room.

"What the..." was all Faith said as she attempted to go after the demon, who turned and ran upstairs. Jumping over the still downed form of Buffy, Faith ran upstairs and let out a shout at what she found upstairs. Not only was the demon gone but Joyce and the squirt lay motionless on the bed together, dead.

Ignoring Faith's shout, compelled like he was before to see the baby, Xander threw back it's cover and saw that it wasn't a baby at all, but rather a white hand mirror. Looking at his reflection in it it suddenly occured to him why he felt like he knew the Four horsemen, why Death didn't turn him into ashes, and why he was compelled to see this so called baby. It was because he was one of them.

"I'm the anti-christ." he whispered to himself as he fell to his knees, drowning out the sounds of Buffy crying and Faith's shouting.

Angel's Apartment

Sametime

Taking off his jacket Angel angrily flung it onto his coffee table. 'When would Buffy understand that theres just somethings I don't wanna talk about.' he thought to himself. He hated to lie to her about why he was going home, but he just needed time to think.

Suddenly feeling a demonic presence in the room, he looked up just in time to be knocked violently down to the ground. Managing to look up at his attacker, that was still holding him down he saw that it was the still in werewolf form of Oz. Feeling something else in the room he looked up to see a red robed demon standing over them.

"Just another soldier in the war." War mumbled more to himself as he put his hand down on Angel's chest. Feeling a burning sensation the vampire started to scream even as his soul started to leave his body.