Chapter 3: Trials and Tribulations

Sunnydale High School

Giles walked into the cafeteria looking for Buffy and saw her sitting at a table on the other side of the room. Ignoring the looks from the other children Giles walked over to Buffy's table and saw Xander and Willow at the table as well. Clearing his throat, "Miss Summers, it has come to my attention that you have an overdue library book. Please have it brought back no later than 4pm today." With that Giles turned and left the cafeteria just as he saw Snyder walk in.

Leaning over towards Buffy, "Does that mean what I..." Willow stopped talking when she saw Principal Snyder standing at their table. "Uh yes?" Willow asked nervously.

"Ahhh! All the juvenile delinquents in one place. Just how I like them." Turning his attention to Summers, "Miss Summers. I see you were late again this morning, that is the 4th time in the last 2 weeks. I'll be contacting your mother about your continued tardy behaviour and about suspending you the next time it happens." Smiling, Snyder turned and walked away with a cheerful lift to his step.

"Geez Buff, that's harsh," said Xander as he stuffed a roll in his mouth.

"Personally I think he's a frog in search of a lillypad." Buffy said when she saw Willow's face. "Sorry Will, I forgot. My bad."

"No, it's good. I need to deal with my froggy issues!"

Reaching over Buffy took Willlow's hand, "That's the spirit Will, meet that fear head on..."

"And run as fast as possible in the other direction I say!" Xander chimed in and got a dark look from Buffy.

"Xander, don't help." Buffy said annoyed at Xander's attempt at humour.

"Hey Buff, you know what they say; 'Into every garden a little rain must fall,' although in Will's case I think it'd be frogs..." Xander said as he fell into a fit of laughter at his own joke.

Buffy slammed her foot down on Xander's toes and Xander jumped up only to have his legs ram into the bottom of the table causing him to fall backwards and launch all the trays on the table into the air before they landed on him with a loud clatter as they hit the floor.

"I think Xander's done with lunch Will, what do you think?" Buffy said in an innocent voice

"I guess so." Willow replied. "I didn't think Xander was that clumsy anymore though..." Willow said to Buffy as they walked out of the cafeteria.

"I did want my brownie though." Willow mused.

"You can have one of my mom's homemade cookies if you help me with my math homework tonight,"

"That sounds suspiciously like a bribe, how do you know I'm bribable?" Willow folded her arms dramatically, "I could be the uncorruptable-type you know, like Kevin Costner in The Untouchables, only a woman."

"Will, when it comes to my Mom's Double-Fudge Chocolate Chip cookies you crumble at the very mention of them," Buffy said mock-smugly.

Her mouth watering at the thought of Buffy's mom's cookies, "What time do you want me to stop by?" Willow asked.

"Stop by after the meeting. If you're nice I'll even let you stay for dinner."

Sunnydale Library

Late Afternoon

Pushing the doors to the Library open Buffy and Willow walked inside. "Hey Giles, what's up? You found something more on that vamp?" Buffy asked.

"Yes I did."

Buffy looked at Willow in time to see her sticking her tongue out at her, "You keep that up and someone'll bite that tongue someday Will." Buffy said with a smile.

"You wish!" Willow retorted.

Buffy saw Miss Calender and Xander were already sitting and waiting for them to arrive. Grabbing a seat Buffy sat down and Willow took a seat by Xander. "So glad you could join us Buffy," Came Giles' dry British voice.

"Hey I got held up! It's not like were talking end of the world saveage I'm late for."

"Well now that everyone is here..." Giles walked over to the table carrying the sword from the now very dead vampire and laying it down on the table. "It would seem that someone wants you dead Buffy. According to my research, the Assamite's are not your typical vampires,"

Willow spoke up, "Not typical how?" she asked.

"It seems that they are a clan of assassins for one. They don't Turn just anyone into a vampire according to what I've been able to find, but rather it is a 'gift' for years of service. They allow themselves to be hired out as assassins by vampires and other supernatural beings, and it is something they have proven to be very good at. In fact, they've almost never failed, there have been a few exceptions of course. But as a rule failure would mean death for the assassin."

"But why would Buffy be targeted now? Most of the vampire's she's faced are all history and they didn't exactly seem all that loyal to each other," asked Willow.

"Very true Willow, most of them are dead. But not all I'd wager, plus she has put a dent in quite a few attempts in opening the Hellmouth. One of the smarter ones may have decided taking Buffy on directly wasn't in his best interest." Giles replied.

"So where does that leave me then?" Buffy asked concerned.

"For right now it means you'll have to be on your guard. I've a few contacts I'm waiting to hear back from, perhaps they will be able to give me some more information that will be of use to us." Giles answered.

"Rupert, do these assassins only go after their target or do the rest of Buffy's friends need to be on the alert as well?" Jenny Calender asked.

Taking his glasses off in a nervous gesture, "I don't know if they'd consider her friends as targets as well," Giles answered Jenny's unasked question, "and if that is the case then it might be wise if Willow and Xander went out during only during the day and stayed indoors during the night."

"Hey! I can take care of myself Giles," Xander said as she puffed his chest out.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, "Be that as it may Xander, however you will stay inside at night! Buffy cannot be effective and take care of herself if she is worrying about you being attacked or worse."

"What's worse than dead?" Xander asked cluelessly. "That's pretty much the end of the line there." Xander got a kick in the shins, "Ow!" he yelled.

"Being vamped would come under 'worse', Xander!" said Willow.

"Oh," Xander said feeling a little deflated.

Frowning Willow turned toward Miss Calender, "But what about my training?"

"Don't worry Willow, your training won't stop. I have a few things in mind that may help you keep off the vamps radar." Miss Calender replied reassuringly.

"Hey Buffy, at least on the positive side if you're going to be dead, you won't have to worry about studying for Miss Kramer's geometry test this week!" Xander said cheerfully.

A look of hurt and anger passed over Buffy's face, standing up Buffy grabbed her jacket and walked out of the Library.

Xander felt a hard smack to the back of his head, "Hey!"

"What is wrong with you Xander? That's not what Buffy needed to hear from a friend!"

Xander looked over to see a very angry Willow, "But that's not what I meant, I was just joking. You know, trying to break up the doom and gloom here."

Xander felt another blow to the back of his head again, "Xander sometimes you are so stupid!" Willow said angrily before grabbing her stuff and running after Buffy.

Willow caught up with Buffy a few minutes later, slightly out of breath, "Hey Buffy!"

"Hi Will," came Buffy's flat reply without even looking at her.

"Buffy, I'm sorry about Xander, he's an idiot sometimes, actually a lot of the time, but he usually means well."

Shaking her head, "He's right in a way though. Even we manage to figure something out with these vamp-assassins, I'm still not going to see my 18th birthday. So what does it matter?"

Willow grabbed Buffy's arm and pulled her around, "You stop that Buffy! It does matter and you're not going to die anytime soon!"

Smiling sadly, "Yes I am, we both know it. It's just a matter of time is all. Well at least you won't have to waste your time helping me study." With that Buffy turned and started walking quickly away.

Angry at Buffy's depression, Willow ran in front of Buffy. "Buffy Anne Summers you stop this pity party right now! You are going to graduate high school and as long as I'm around I'm not letting you die anytime soon!"

A small smile crossed Buffy's face, "Is that so?"

"Yes!" Willow answered strongly.

"Well then who am I to say no when Willow has spoken." Grabbing Willow into a hug, "Thanks Will." Buffy said softly before letting go of Willow. "You up for drowning the depression under some choclatey cookie goodness? Mom baked another large batch today."

Linking her arm with Buffy's, "Yep! Let's go. And later we'll go over that math test..."

"Will!" Buffy mock-whined. "I'm the Slayer I don't need to study!"

"Well Miss Slayer...you do! I'm not letting you turn into a female version of Xander!"

"Ewwww! That was a visual I could have done without!" Buffy said with a grimace.

"You know what I meant!" Willow said as she gently slapped Buffy on the arm.

"Yeah. Now hurry I think I can smell those cookies from here!"

The next night...

"You sure you want to be out here tonight Will?" Buffy asked as they walked through the graves of the cemetery.

"For the third time yes and you're stalling...What is a Tangent in terms of sine and cosine?"

Before Buffy could answer she saw a vamp jump out of the darkness and grab Willow throwing her to the ground. Buffy felt the heat of anger and grabbed the vamp by the neck, throwing him off of Willow.

Pulling out her stake, Buffy intercepted the vamp as it charged Willow again and jammed her stake into its heart. A short scream and a cloud of dust were all that remained of the vampire.

Turning back towards Willow, "You okay Will?"

"Yeah, just a little sore." Willow said as she got up off the ground.

Khalif nodded to himself as he saw how the Slayer defended her little "tag along" friend. So much the better, she'll be distracted by her friend and easier to kill. Khalif thought smugly at rubbing this victory in Omar's face. With that thought Khalif signaled the 1st group to attack.

"So a tangent is the opposite side divided by the adjacent side of the triangle," Buffy was saying as four vampires charged out of nowhere. "Damn!" Ducking under the arms of the first vamp Buffy jammed her stake into the heart of the vampire behind him. Buffy felt something hit her from behind, making her stumble slightly and blocked the kick from another vampire. Grabbing the vampires' foot Buffy twisted it hard to her right and heard a SNAP as the vampire cried out in pain and fell to the ground. That's two down! Hopefully they didn't notice Will.

Willow backed up from the vampire that stalked towards her. "Uh, nice vampire?" she asked as he looked around desperately for something wooden.

"Sorry but I just love eating little girls," the vampire growled as he moved towards his prey.

Calming herself Willow called the magick to herself and created a ball of green fire in her hand behind her. "Are you really, really sure about that? Your friends look like they could use some help you know."

"Yes I am!" the vampire yelled as he suddenly charged.

Willow watched the vampire charge her and brought the fireball in front of her throwing it to meet the vampire's charge. As the fireball hit it engulfed the vampire in green flames and in a matter of moments the vampire screamed as it turned into dust.

"See I told you you should help your friends!"

What! That's no tag-along, she's a Witch! Since when does the Slayer Hunt with allies? Khalif thought angrily. No matter. I must tell Omar of this development though, we cannot fail, if we do the alternatives are not pleasant. "But if I kill the Witch that will make it much easier when I go after the Slayer," smiling evilly, "Yes, that will work quite nicely."

Buffy looked around and saw Willow walking towards her, a feeling of relief swept over Buffy as she saw Willow looked uninjured. "Hey Willow, you okay?"

"Yep! Willow - 1 and Vamp - 0!" Willow said with a grin.

"Glad to hear it. I think that that's enough patrolling for tonight though. Let's head back in."

"You sure? I'm okay and it's kinda early to stop patrolling." Willow asked as they walked towards the exit of the cemetery.

"Yeah, plus I think that attack was it for the night..." Buffy stopped walking suddenly as she felt her Slayer sense go off and looked around. Off towards some mausoleum's Buffy saw several figures moving around. "Will, stay here!" Buffy whispered before running towards the figures, keeping to the shadows as she did.

Pulling up behind a large tree about 10 feet away, Buffy peeked around the tree at the figures. She could see that the figures were tall with dark blue skin, Demons! But what are they doing or looking for?

"Was it there?" a familiar voice asked and the demons stopped, turning to see a vampire in a black duster walk out of the shadow of the nearest mausoleum.

One of the demons snarled, "Go away vampire, your kind isn't welcome here."

"Awww, now that's not very nice and here I wanted to help you guys out." the vampire replied with a smile that bared his fangs.

"Nezzoharborath, not like your kind! When he return, he will kill you all!" Asgaroth, the leader of the demons replied.

The vampire started walking slowly in a lazy circle towards the demons, "Nezzo eh?" And Buffy saw the vampire clearly for the first time and gasped inadvertantly as she recognized him, even in 'Game Face'. "Angel?"

The closest demon whirled around at Buffy's whispered voice and charged her, it's claws bared.

Drawing her sword Buffy blocked the demon's attack with its claws and dove between its' legs, coming to her feet behind it. As she rolled to her feet Buffy turned and swung the sword at the back of the demon's legs and the blade sliced cleanly through, severing one leg at the knee and the demon toppled over. But Buffy was already on the move running toward the closest of the demons.

To Buffy's surprise Angel attacked the nearest demon with a kick to its head and then Buffy was too busy fighting to see Angel anymore. Parrying the attack from one demon, Buffy kicked another and rolled to her left to give her some room when there was a loud WHOOSH behind her and an explosion threw her forward head first into a tree.

Willow had heard Buffy call her name before she ran off towards some old crypts. Uh oh! There must be some trouble over there! Willow realized as she moved to follow Buffy. Stopping suddenly Willow opened herself up and looked for any magick she could tap into. Seeing a smallish ley-line nearby, Willow "grabbed" the line and opened a connection to it, feeling the magick flow into her. Satisfied she was ready now Willow moved quickly towards where she saw Buffy was last when she heard the sounds of fighting up ahead.

Just as Willow was nearing the fighting a large, blue skinned demon seemed to pop out of nowhere and Willow fell backwards trying to avoid it's claws. Scared, Willow reacted with the first spell that came to mind, "Ergane Incendium!" Willow' voice boomed loudly and a basketball sized ball of blue flame flew from her hands towards the demon. With a loud WHOOSH the ball completely engulfed the demon incinerating it and continuing on its path before exploding just in front of 2 other demons 10' feet behind the first one. The blast picked Willow up and threw her backwards as she felt her head hit something hard and Willow saw stars.

Angel had heard from Willie that some demons were looking in the old crypts for something, a weapon of considerable power that was hidden away somewhere. He had spent the last several hours waiting when he finally saw some demons searching the crypts here.

Angel saw one of the demons must have gotten wind of Buffy and attacked her, Oh well, so much for the stealthy way! Angel had thought as he attacked the demon's leader, Asgaroth. Angel thought things were under control, Oh great! Willow! he thought sarcastically Can things get any more complicated? Angel was thinking just as he saw Willow cast the flame spell and dove through the doorway into a crypt.

Stepping out of the crypt, Angel saw the demons had been burnt to ashes along with everything else nearby. Looking around nervously Angel finally saw Buffy lying on the ground about 20 feet away.

Buffy started to sit up quickly and stopped, leaning back down her head pounding. "God, did someone get the license plate of the truck that hit me?" Buffy mumbled.

Willow got to her feet and saw her spell had gone wrong and frantically looked for Buffy. Seeing a body lying a little ways out of the blast Willow ran towards it full tilt, regardless of how much she hurt. Seeing it was Buffy Willow fell to her knees and pulled Buffy into her lap. "OhgeezI'msosorryBuffyitwasthedemonhestarteledmeandIhadallthismagickandyouhavetobeokayorImnevergoingtoforgivemyself!"

Willow was rewarded with a large smile from Buffy, "Can you say that again Will? But this time lots slower please!"

Willow hugged Buffy tightly, "You're okay!" Willow cried out as she held onto Buffy not wanting to let go.

"Yes Will, but oxygen becoming an issue here. Can you ease off the hug a little?"

Instantly contrite Willow let go of Buffy. "Sorry." Willow said with her head down.

"Will, I said ease off a little on the hug. Not let me go." Smirking, "So you cast a little spell there?"

Willow held Buffy against her, feeling better now that she knew Buffy wasn't furious with her for her spell almost killing her. "Yeah, I sorta put a little more energy into it than I meant to."

Turning her head Willow saw it was Angel, "Angel, Buffy's hurt can you..." Willow never finished.

"Willow are you crazy? That spell almost fried Buffy and me! What were you thinking?" Angel asked, angrily cutting Willow off.

"Leave it alone Angel!" Buffy yelled, "It was an accident," and winced as her yelling made her headache worse.

With that Angel picked Buffy up easily in his arms, Willow felt a flash of jealousy as she watched Angel walk away with Buffy. Willow sat there for several moments trying to decipher her feelings, before just giving up and following them finally.

Assamite Lair

That Night…

Khalif walked into the underground lair and headed directly for Omar's chambers. Seeing the doorway Khalif walked past the assassin standing guard, unannounced.

"Omar, we have a complication with our target," Khalif stopped as he saw Omar feeding on a human and waited for him to finish. A minute later, the human fell to the floor and Omar turned to face him. His dusky skin and sharp-featured face was marred by the blood smeared on his mouth and running down his neck.

"What is it," Omar asked impatiently, "that you cannot wait for me to finish my meal?"

"The Slayer has allies, and one of them is a Witch." Khalif replied simply.

Khalif was rewarded with a look of surprise on Omar's face, "What? A Witch...here?"

"Yes here." Khalif said smugly. "We will have to revise our initial plan to include removing the Witch as well."

Smothering his initial surprise Omar's mind worked furiously, "Perhaps there is another way to kill the Slayer," Omar said calmly as the germ of an idea came to him. "What do we know of the Slayer's family?"

"Family?" Khalif asked. "You know the Law. Families are off-limits unless it is cleared by an Elder to take such actions."

"Unless the situation is dire and the target will escape termination," Omar finished. "I would say this complication makes our situation dire and since there is no Elder to contact. I say we use the Slayer's family as a weapon against her."

"No! That is not acceptable and I will not be a part of such a dishonourable act!" Turning around angrily, Khalif took one step when he felt something slam into his back. Khalif only had a moment to realize he had been betrayed before he exploded in a cloud of dust.

Stepping over the pile of dust Omar opened the door to his quarters. "Go and summon the others, there has been a change in our plans." Omar walked out of the room and took several steps before he stopped and turned around toward the guard. "Oh and clean that pile of dust in my quarters before I return."

Fifteen minutes later Omar stood in the meeting room looking at the seven other assassins in the room. "There has been a change of leadership. I, Omar ali-Hazef Hussein, am now in charge. There will be no more attacks on the Slayer for the time being, instead I need to know about the Slayer's family; who they are and where they can be found."

Omar looked at each of the vampires and saw no dissent, "Then go! Find out what I need and we shall have the Slayer!"

Continued in Chapter 4