Disclaimers: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. Numb3rs belongs to CBS. (NOT ME!!!)
AN: Thanks again to
Katgurl, for beta-reading this chapter.

Warnings: ...If anyone thinks I need to put a warning about something here, please tell me. Enjoy! ^_^

First Meeting

Part I in Mathematics & Magic

By Jess S

Chapter 6: Demon Hunting

Part II

Eppes Back Yard, Pasadena, California – July 5, 1996 – Late Morning

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie shook his head slightly as a muffled 'it's open' gave him permission to push the door to the guest room – Annie's room now, really – open. "Annie, it's almost noon."

"It's Sunday," came the girl's muffled protest from beneath a pillow. Followed a moment later by an equally muffled inquiry. "Do I smell coffee?"

"Yes," Charlie confirmed, holding the already prepared cup he'd brought her – four-fifths coffee, one-fifth fat-free milk and one sugar – a little closer to the bed before drawing it back as the blonde slowly emerged from beneath her pillow. "But you'll have to get up for it, if you want any."

"All the way up?" the Slayer asked with a stifled yawn, her wide-green eyes bright and somehow mournful as she clutched her covers closer to herself.

"All the way up and out of bed, yes." The older teenager replied, rolling his eyes as he took a step further back towards the door, lest she be able to steal the coffee and return to bed too easily. When his friend didn't move or reply, just continued staring at the cup of coffee he turned and set it down on the bureau by the door before turning back towards her and crossing his arms, an eyebrow rising as he asked, "I thought that, as the Slayer, you didn't need much sleep normally? You certainly seem to have plenty of energy most of the time."

"I don't need it," the blonde yawned, finally deigning to swing her legs over the side of the bed and wrap one of the blankets around her shoulders as she rose to her feet, gliding around him to snag the cup of coffee with far more grace and ease than a normal person could ever hope to attain, let alone possess right after they'd first waken and before their first sip of coffee. "Doesn't mean I don't like to sleep when I get the chance." She told him before savoring her first sip of the caffeinated beverage.

"Sorry." Charlie shrugged, looking down with a sigh. "I was just... worried, I guess. I mean, you were hit by a truck last night."

A small but warm smile made its way across Buffy's face, "That's very sweet of you, Charlie. But I'm fine." Setting the now half-empty coffee cup down again she tossed her blanket back to the bed than did a cartwheel around him to the bedside, her smile widening as she spun back around to his bemused expression. "See? Fits as a...Fit as, um..."

"A fiddle?"

"Huh?"

"That's the expression, Annie. 'Fit as a fiddle.'" Charlie told her with a small smile, shaking his head at the confused expression on her face.

"Yeah. Fit as a fiddle. One-hundred-percent...What's a fiddle, anyway?"

"It's a musical instrument...like a violin, I think." Charlie replied, shaking his head in amusement at her confused expression.

"So I'm like a violin? How's a violin... um, 'fit'?"

"It's just an expression, Annie... So you're really all right?"

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy shook her head as she stepped around Charlie again to snag her half-empty cup of coffee, enjoying another sip before she replied. "I'm fine, Charlie. I was fine last night, too, remember?"

"You were hit by a truck last night. I should have taken you to the hospital."

"And tell them I was hit by a truck? Then let the watch as my mostly superficial injuries faded overnight?" Buffy shook her head again, smirking as comprehension finally seemed to dawn on the genius. "I'd be a lab rat the rest of my very short life." She winced at that slip as the older teen immediately frowned at her.

"What'd you mean 'very short life'?" he demanded.

Buffy finished off her coffee and set the cup down with a sigh and shrugged. "It wouldn't be long before the Council heard about it, Charlie. And I don't know if they'd actually kill me to keep the secret, but they would, at the very least, take me away and send me back to my destiny, and... Slayers really don't live very long. Kendra didn't even last a full year. Hell, I barely lasted more than a year."

"What?" Charlie's wide-eyes were fixed on her face, still demanding answers as he caught her arm and pulled her back to the bed, pulling her down next to him as he sat down. "What'd you mean you did last more than a year? You're right here!"

"Yeah..." Buffy tugged a little at his hold on her arm, trying to turn away a bit, but gave up when he stubbornly refused to let go, she sighed. "I... When I moved to Sunnydale, last year, with my Mom I started Slaying again after some of my new friends were threatened... Near the end of the school year Giles and Angel found a prophecy about me that said I would face The Master – a really old vamp that was trying to open the Hellmouth – on Prom night and that I would die and The Master would be freed and unleash Hell on Earth."

"But you stopped it, right? You're right here in front of me. Alive... And," Charlie shrugged a little as he waived around them with his free hand. "no Hell... right?"

"Yeah." Buffy sighed again. "I kinda freaked out when I found out about it... I heard Giles and Angel arguing about it. And I said I quit... but then I realized that if I let The Master unleash Hell on Earth that it wouldn't be worth living, anyway. So I went to face The Master, not realizing that it was my blood he needed to free himself and open the Hellmouth."

After she'd been quiet for several long moments, Charlie asked quietly. "What happened?"

"I... I froze. And he caught me... and bit me." Buffy looked down a bit, her voice pained as she continued. "And he fed on me... He didn't need that much, cause my blood is... magically powerful, I guess, and he really wanted to get out after being stuck down there for decades, so he just threw me into a pool of water after he'd taken enough." She shrugged a little. "But I was too weak to move, and he'd thrown me in face down, so I drowned." Buffy smiled slightly as she watched Charlie shake his head forcefully, probably shaking off probabilities of survival in drowning victims or something similar.

"How did... How are you here, then?"

Buffy sighed but responded, her voice just as quiet as the mathematicians. "My friends rescued me. Angel led Xander down to The Master's lair and pulled me out of the water. Xander performed CPR."

"So the prophecy didn't come true, then. You didn't die."

"No. I did." At the confused look the genius gave her she smiled again. "I didn't know it at the time, but my heart stopped. And I was 'dead' long enough for the next Slayer to be Called... That was Kendra."

"...Was? You said she didn't last a full year, but how..."

"She was killed by Drusilla, before…before I left Sunnydale."

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie shook his head and sighed at the far-off look in his friend's eyes again, and reached out, taking her hand again to bring her back to the present. "I think that's enough for now, don't you?"

"Wh—Yeah. Yeah." Annie nodded, rising smoothly from the bed and gently tugging her hand away from his to head to her bureau and started to rummage through the drawers. "So any plans for the day? What are your parents doing?"

"Um, Dad's finishing that project in the Arts District. Mom... I think she said she was going to a book club meeting, but she should be back in an hour or two. Then they wanted to go out tonight... I was gonna work on... um, the demon-thing." He winced as Annie turned and raised an eyebrow at him.

"'The demon-thing'?"

"What do you call it?"

The blonde turned back to the bureau and pulled out a shirt before shutting the drawer and opening another one containing shorts. "Don't have a name for it yet... Actually, I usually don't name 'em. Usually one of the Scoobies does that."

"'The Scoobies?' Like Scooby-Doo?" Charlie asked, his mind bringing up images from the cartoon and making him smile in amusement.

"Hey, I just said I don't do naming. Xander picked it. Now shoo, I'll be down in a half-hour or so."

"Yes, ma'am," Charlie replied, obediently rising from the bed himself and heading towards the door. He stopped halfway there though as a paper by the hamper caught his eye and he moved over to pick it up and turn it over. "You kept this?"

"Huh?" Annie turned to look at him and blinked when he held the paper up. Then she shrugged. "Oh yeah. I don't need it, you can throw it out if you want."

"Why'd you keep it?"

The Slayer shook her head, smiling slightly. "Didn't want to litter. Now shoo."

"Yes, ma'am," Charlie repeated, shaking his head in bemusement as he turned toward the door, glancing down at the paper again as he neared the trash can near the door and stopped. "Annie..."

"Charlie can you please leave so that I can get dressed?"

"But—" Charlie stopped and winced as the Slayer sent him a half-playful but nonetheless fierce glare and turned towards the door. "Alright, alright. I'll be working in my room when you're ready for lunch...preferably sooner rather than later?"

"Charlie, you really need a girlfriend." Annie told him, right before she firmly shut the door to her bedroom in his face.

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy sighed as she made her way through several careful stretches, pleased to find that there really was no lingering damage from her run-in with the truck the night before. She was still a little sore, but everything seemed to be in working order, and other than the biggest bruise along her waist – where the truck actually hit her – all of the bruises had faded.

With another sigh she glided over to her dresser, wrinkling her nose in disappointment at her now empty coffee cup before starting to rummage through the drawers for a suitable outfit for the day.

A part of her – the athletic and competitive part that had always enjoyed being the Slayer – was pleased to be investigating demonic activity again. The part of her that was till mourning Angel was far less pleased. And other part, the part that was growing to adore Charlie and his family was totally terrified of loosing that.

Whether it be letting Charlie come to harm in some form or another or scaring the whole family off with her freakish abilities and affiliation with the supernatural... she hadn't felt quite as 'at home' as she did in the Eppes family's Craftsman House for a good many years. Even before she became the Slayer, the fights between her parents and their pending divorce hadn't made home an overly comfortable place to be. And they'd argued over the most insignificant things for years before she'd started high school...

Still, she knew now that she couldn't ignore the supernatural. If she had ignored the Slayer the night she had met Charlie, she never would have met him. And he'd be dead and buried now.

How many more innocents were dead because of her negligence?

Buffy shook her head forcefully, trying to shake such thoughts away. "What the hell," she muttered to herself with a glance at the clock on her bedside table before tossing her clothes onto the bed. "I have time for a few katas. Charlie won't notice..."

Then she calmly stepped into one of the resting positions Angel had taught her, before taking a deep breath and starting to work her way through the calming exercise.

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie frowned as he looked down at the flyer again before shaking his head and putting it aside, deliberately right on top of the map he'd drawn up for his friend. Then he turned to his laptop, which was still open to his email and opened a word document to list what he'd learned so far:

Annie = Anne O'Connor = Buffy Anne Summers = "Slayer" of vampires & demons

O'Connor = Angel's human surname

Sunnydale, CA = a Hellmouth

Kendra = Buffy's successor (deceased)

Merrick = Buffy's first Watcher (deceased)

Giles = Buffy's current Watcher

Angel/Angelus = a vampire & Annie's ex.

Xander = a friend of Buffy's

The Watcher's Council – some kind of association that is supposed to help the Slayer... as back-up?

Drusilla = vampire/demon who killed the Slayer Kendra?

Charlie's frown deepened as his quick mind noticed several problems with some of the assumptions on his list.

First, if Kendra was Called – he'd noticed the capital emphasis Annie kept putting on that word – when Buffy's heart stopped, shouldn't another Slayer have been Called when Kendra was killed?

After a moment's thought he realized that one probably was, but Annie would not have met her because Kendra – from what he'd gathered – was killed right before Annie left Sunnydale, by someone or something called 'Drusilla.'

Another problem was this 'Watcher's Council.' It sounded like the Slayer's Watcher's purpose was to provide back-up for the Slayer. From what Buffy said though, that back-up was mostly in the form of research. Now, as a scientist and a life-long student he greatly believed in research and the idea that knowledge is power... but shouldn't someone help the Slayer more that that? It sounded like these 'Watchers' were an actual, probably international, organization that was headed by a 'Council.' And if that were the case, why then was so much pressure put on Annie? Sure, she was supposedly 'Chosen' by some higher power for this purpose, but that didn't mean she needed to do it alone...

It also sounded like Annie did have some other friends who helped her. These 'Scoobies' that were named so by her friend, 'Xander,' who had saved her life. As well as Angel, before he became Angelus again...

Plus Annie was supposedly put in an asylum for some time when she told her parents about vampires and demons... Why did this 'Watchers' Council' allow that?

His frown still deepening, Charlie saved and then minimized the list he'd made before opening a window to Google and typing in "Sunnydale, California" and "news."

As a list of results popped up he skimmed down it till one caught his eye:

SUNNYDALE HIGH SCHOOL

With a nod to himself he clicked on the link to the school's website, skimmed over the typical welcoming message and clicked on the link for the archives of the school's newspaper. It only took him a few moments to come to a horrifying realization, and a few more clicks to check that each newspaper was at least half obituaries or missing-persons reports of people affiliated with the school: some teachers, but many, many more students. Some of the smaller issues were just a cover page over pages of obituaries and missing-persons!

Remembering that Annie had only moved to Sunnydale a few years back, he closed the older issue he'd been skimming through and open up the archives for 1994 and was surprised to find on the first page of the first issue in January '94 was a brief biography of 'The New Girl, Buffy Summers.' Quickly copying and saving that article into Word he continued looking through the archives, not paying any mind to the minutes passing as he noticed the obituaries in the school paper markedly shrinking after 'Buffy's' arrival.

Shortly after she'd arrived a local club called "The Bronze" was attacked by gang members on PCP – which seemed to be a popular excuse for supernatural attacks. Before that someone named Jesse McNally was apparently killed with a pitchfork, and his two closest friends were listed as Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg.

Not long after that a cheerleader – he subconsciously shuddered at the term, memories of the harmless-looking vampires that had attacked him possibly leaving at least that lasting mark in his psyche – had apparently spontaneously combusted during cheerleader tryouts... He didn't think a vampire would just wander out in sunlight, so there must have been something else behind that.

A week after that the high school biology teacher, Dr. Keith Gregory was found beheaded and stuffed into a cafeteria locker. And his replacement, a Miss Natalie French died a few days later when her house burnt to the ground.

A few days later the school's principle, Robert Flutie, was supposedly eaten by wild dogs in his office only a few hours after his pet pig, the school mascot 'Herbert' had suffered the same fate. He was replaced by an 'Armin Snyder.'

The next death the paper reported on was two weeks later, when a ballerina named Emily Ryan was murdered in the high school's theater, where she'd apparently been preparing for the school talent show when someone knocked her out and cut her heart out. Another student in the talent show, a skilled ventriloquist named Morgan Shay was also murdered in the theater a few days later, except his brain was removed.

Charlie couldn't help but cringe back – even more than he had with the earlier stories – as he read through this particular story, the idea of someone removing another person's organs disturbing him.

The article ended with the Talent Show being a success after another participant, a Magician named Marc Reed, disappeared.

The next article he noticed was one about the town water being contaminated and supposedly leading to vivid hallucinations and general chaos.

The next week focused on a series of attacks by an 'unknown assailant.' A baseball player was beaten with a bat in the boy's locker room. A cheerleader was pushed down a staircase. Another girl, Cordelia Chase, was also kidnapped. And a girl named Marcie Ross disappeared... except unlike the other victims, the high school reporter couldn't find any information on Ross beyond the facts that she was born and raised in Sunnydale and had been a sophomore when she disappeared.

Another article was about a minor earthquake leading to school starting late, and then being canceled entirely when the members of the 'AV Club' were found in their club room brutally murdered.

Later in the week the school library was destroyed by another, much more massive earthquake, but the Spring Fling, held at the Bronze, was apparently a success. The reporter had noted that several people's clothing had suffered from the quake but those like Buffy Summer's had still been able to pull it off and have a blast.

"Knock, knock."

Charlie jumped slightly and turned his head towards the door, where a fully dressed Annie was smiling at him.

"Glad to see you could keep yourself busy, but you said you wanted to talk sooner rather than later, right?"

Glancing at the clock the mathematician shook his head again as he realized he'd been reading for nearly an hour and quickly saved the link to the archive he'd been reading before closing the window and setting his laptop aside. "Yeah, come look at this Annie..." Then, rising from his chair he grabbed the map he'd prepared for Annie, the flyer still sitting on top, and waived her over to his bed, where he unrolled the map all the way and set the flyer down on top of it.

The Slayer came over, her expression serious as she studied the map, before she raised an eyebrow at him. "So I should be looking in the red area, right?"

"Yes. That's the area that your victims seem to have the high probable commonality. But..." Shaking his head he grabbed the flyer he'd just set to the side and held it out to her. "Look at this."

"Wh—Charlie, I told you to toss this, it's trash."

Charlie shook his head firmly, gently grabbing her arm to stop her from turning further towards his nearby trashcan. "No, read it... Please."

"Come home to Family Home." Annie rolled her eyes, but obediently read the words aloud, "'In our house, the light is always on.' ...so what?"

"Look at the address." Charlie told her, watching as her eyes obediently went to the fine print at the bottom of the page. He saw the moment she made the connection as her eyes widened.

"Is this...?" she turned her eyes towards the map, frowning as Charlie nodded.

"Right in the middle of the hot zone, yeah."

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy shook her head as she turned her gaze back to the paper again to stare at the seemingly innocent message. "So Ken could have something to do with the dimensional gate... he draws victims in, maybe?" she sighed, "I don't think he's a demon... I should have sensed it, if he was."

"You'd just been hit by a truck when you ran into him, Annie. I don't doubt you were more than a little disorientated," Charlie reminded her gently.

"Yeah, I guess," Buffy nodded half-heartedly, glancing down at the paper again. A part of her – the Slayer – was more than a little excited to have her target mapped out for her, but another part felt like it was the beginning of an end she didn't want to come.

"It may be a coincidence... but it doesn't seem likely. It's an area that all of the victims you found are clearly moving away from or going out of their way to avoid. And – Annie, are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Buffy nodded again, tossing the shelter's flyer down on the map and turning to leave. "I'm fine... You want lunch?"

"My Mom's not back yet," the older teen pointed out mildly, his eyes still set rather closely on her face. "She wanted to take us out, remember?"

"Yeah... Well, with the Slayer metabolism there's no reason I can't have a snack while we wait... You sure you're not hungry?"

"No, thanks, Annie. I can wait."

"'K... Well, I'll just head down. Let me know if you find anything else?" Buffy looked back at him when he didn't respond right away and had to fight to keep her expression care-free when she saw he was still observing her closely, concern in his gaze.

"Of course," the mathematician replied, his voice quiet. "I'll be down shortly, I just have a few more things to analyze. Call me if my Mom gets back sooner?"

"Sure..." Buffy nodded, before turning and walking out the door. She stopped at the threshold and glanced back to see Charlie sitting down at his desk again, one of his half-gone notebooks open and a pencil in hand. "Hey, Charlie?"

He looked up, eyebrows raised. "Yeah?"

Buffy glanced down before looking up to lock gazes with him again and say, "Thanks," before walking away and quickly down the stairs before he could respond. But Slayer hearing meant she heard it anyway, despite being at the bottom of the stairs while his reply was a soft murmur.

"Your welcome, Annie."

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie sighed, shaking his head as he gazed at the doorway Annie had wandered away from moments before, his half-surprised reply floating after her. Some of what he was finding in Sunnydale's news was making some of her reactions make sense, but was still leaving him more than a little confused.

If there was an entire organization dedicated to helping the Slayer, as Annie suggested, why was this "Giles" the only adult in Sunnydale to support her? Sure, it sounded like she had friends – this "Scooby gang" – to help her, but that didn't seem like enough.

And where was the government in all of this? He understood the idea that most ordinary people might subconsciously suppress any interactions with the supernatural. He could even remember doing it himself, or trying to, after his attack. His over-curious mind had eventually won and forced him to pursue answers, but there was a part of him that really, really hadn't wanted to. But there should be at least some part of the government doing something about this. It looked like before Buffy arrived in Sunnydale half-a-dozen students at Sunnydale High had disappeared or died on a weekly basis. The number had dropped after her arrival, but that was just the high school. That probably meant that more than a dozen people had been murdered or had disappeared on a weekly basis for years – how had the government not noticed?!

Shaking his head again, Charlie set his notebook aside and grabbed his laptop again, opening it up and clicking on the link back to the news archives again.

After the last Spring Fling, the next school articles were in mid-September, and it seemed odd – and more than a little wrong – to be relived that there were only two obituaries in the first edition of the school paper, but the September before there had been nine, in both cases students that had not returned for that school year, having been died during the summer. One of the two girls hadn't even apparently suffered a supernatural death. She was killed in a car crash with a drunk driver. Still very, very sad, of course, but still less horrifying than the idea that these high school students were being picked off one-by-one as snacks by monsters.

Charlie winced as the girl's obituary took a more disturbing twist half-way though, in that her body had apparently been dug up after her funeral in, according to the young reporter, yet another example of similar grave robberies the police were investigating.

The next article he noticed was about the school being attacked by gang members on PCP during Parent Teacher Night, illustrating yet again how little sense it made for the adults in the town to be unaware of what was really going on. Annie had said that 'gang members on PCP' was a common explanation for vampires, after all.

In the next issue one of the missing-persons articles was about a girl named Ampata Gutierrez, who had been an exchange student from Latin America that was staying with Buffy Summers before she disappeared.

In the first issue of November, a reporter reported on the Halloween tricksters of '96 having apparently gotten more than a little out of hand.

Two weeks later, Buffy's name was mentioned again. This time she was the alibi for the school librarian, Dr. Rupert Giles. Apparently a friend of his, a Philip Henry from England was murdered and found outside of Sunnydale High's library, pointing two connections towards the school librarian.

Charlie nodded to himself as he minimized the window and opened up his list again, adding the new information about Buffy's Watcher to it before saving it.

Dr. Rupert Giles = Buffy's current Watcher = from England

The next article was seemingly full of information about the upcoming school's Career Week more than anything else. After which the high school was evacuated due to a gas leak under the school library. The following week the Mall was closed for several days, though no explanation was given as to why.

In February there was an article about Xander Harris, obviously written by an admirer, that made him blink in confusion.

Two weeks later the school's computer teacher – a Jenny Calendar – was murdered, her neck snapped before she was left in her boyfriend, Dr. Rupert Giles' home for him to find. And Charlie was beginning to see more and more of where the guilt Annie seemed to be carrying around was coming from. The murder of her Watcher's lover could not have been easy for Giles or Annie.

A short time later a flu epidemic went through the town, and many high school students were hospitalized, including Buffy Summers... whom Charlie was beginning to notice the reporter constantly made a point of mentioning.

A few weeks later all of the students on the Sunnydale High School's swim team disappeared, and several of their skins – not attached to their bodies – were found in various places around the town, making authorities presume the jocks to be dead.

The last edition of most recent school year talked about an attack on the high school library by gang members on PCP. An unknown African-American teenage girl was murdered, her throat cut. Willow Rosenberg was injured in the attack and Rupert Giles was apparently kidnapped but later released. Buffy Summers was accused of the attack by Principle Snyder and wanted by the police for a time, but later cleared by the living victims and was no longer wanted for the crimes. Friends and family were desperate for news of the still missing young woman...

After closing the Internet windows, Charlie saved the list he'd made thus far and sighed. His friend had clearly been through a lot, from what he could tell her world had all but fallen apart just a few months past. And so she'd run. She'd runaway like so many of the young people whose fates they were now investigating.

Charlie glanced at his map again and sighed, closing his laptop to set it aside and grabbing his notebook and pencil again. He was confident in his findings: that the homeless shelter was located right in the middle of his hot zone made him all the more so. Still, in never hurt to double check. He might have missed something the first time through, and he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if that something was a thing Annie – as the Slayer Buffy or just as someone who would soon be in the area – needed to know.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Eppes Back Yard, Pasadena, California – July 5, 1996 – Early Afternoon

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy smiled as she heard the familiar sound of Maggie's Eppes van pull into the driveway out sound, followed by a door opening closing and familiar footsteps moving around outside. Quickly finishing the dishes that had been in the sink, she closed the dish washer and hurried outside to meet her, arriving just in time to snag two of the heavier grocery bags the older woman was struggling with. "Here, Maggie. Let me take those."

"Wh—Oh, hello, Annie. No, here, let me take one, they're rather heavy. We'll make two trips."

"No it's fine," Buffy turned away slightly to keep the heavy bags from the older woman. "I got these."

"Are you sure?" Upon receiving a firm, confident nod the older blonde gave her a bright smile in return, before turning back to grab the other two – lighter – bags, then closing the van's rear door and hitting the automatic lock on her keychain before turning to lead the way inside. "Well thank you... I see Charlie managed to wake you."

"Yup." Buffy confirmed, rolling her eyes when Mrs. Eppes glanced back at her with a raised eyebrow, and following her up the steps. "He bribed me."

"Bribed you? With what?"

"Coffee."

Maggie laughed, shaking her head as she set her bags down on the counter in the kitchen, Buffy quickly following her example. "Well he is a genius... and a college student."

"And he was at least smart enough to wait until eleven to try it," Buffy added, inciting another laugh even as she finished unloading the contents of her two bags onto the counter and quickly folded the paper bags up to put them in the drawer with the other recycled bags, accepting the bags the older woman handed her before closing the door and turning back to put the actual groceries away. "He said you wanted to go out to lunch?"

"Yes," Maggie glanced at the clock, a rueful expression crossing her face as it was almost one o'clock now. "If you want to... Did you eat already?"

"No." Buffy shook her head as she put the new gallon of milk in the fridge. "Just finished a snack a little while ago... but I'm still starving, and Charlie decided to just wait," she quickly reassured her, making the older woman smile again.

"Then go get Charlie, I'll finish up with this."

"Yes, ma'am," Buffy smiled, giving up the chore without a fight and quickly hurrying out of the kitchen and up the stairs to Charlie's bedroom again. Glancing in the doorway, she shook her head as she found him still bent over his notebook, working away. "Knock, knock." She smiled when he jumped before turning to her. "You ready? Your Mom's home."

"Tell her I'll be right down," the mathematician told her, before returning to his notes.

Buffy rolled her eyes again and glided into the room and over to his desk, leaning over his shoulder to look at the notes and wrinkling her nose at the work within, which she recognized as number and mathematical symbols, but they might as well have been in Greek or Chinese, cause she certainly couldn't read them. "What're you working on?"

The mathematician sighed, giving her a slightly aggravated glance before his eyes went back to the book as he replied. "Just double checking some of my work."

"On the hot zone thing?" Buffy guessed, rolling her eyes when he nodded in reply. "Why? We already have a target."

Charlie shook his head, finishing off the line of thought he was presently working on and then snapping the book closed with a sigh as he turned to her. "And what if it turns out to be wrong?"

Buffy frowned. "I don't think it is... do you?"

"No," Charlie sighed. "But it never hurts to be sure," he pointed out, before rising to his feet. "You ready to go?"

"I was ready an hour ago, remember?"

"That was an hour ago," the older teen teased. "You sure you don't have to do something to your hair or—"

"My hair?! What's wrong with my hair?" Buffy demanded, dashing over to his nearby mirror to scrutinize her appearance with frown.

"Nothing! Nothing!" Charlie hastily reassured her, grabbing her arm to gently drag her out the door and towards the stairs where his Mother was waiting, a small smile on her face. "Annie, I was teasing."

"But—"

"Mom, tell Annie her hair looks fine." Charlie ordered, grunting as she tried to twist out of his grip – though undoubtedly aware that if she really wanted to break away she'd have done so.

"You look lovely, Annie," the older woman reassured her, her warm and reassuring tone calming the teen enough to make her stop struggling and instead glare at the other teen.

"What? Owe!" Charlie winced and his hand flew to the back of his head where she'd just wacked him.

"You do not tease a girl about her hair!" Buffy told him. "You—You... You just don't!" She then turned with a huff, flipping her hair over her shoulder – and into his nearby face – before breezing past the chuckling Mrs. Eppes and out the door.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Eppes Back Yard, Pasadena, California – July 19, 1996 – Late Evening

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie sighed, shaking his head in exasperation at the stubborn look on the Slayer's face. "Why not?"

"It's not safe, Charlie."

"It's not much safer for you, Annie. And you're still going."

"I'm the Slayer."

"That doesn't mean you should wander into a dangerous situation like this alone. What... What if you're outnumbered? Or hurt? What then?"

"Then I die. And the next Slayer is Called."

Charlie stared at the resolute expression on his friend's face for several long moments before shaking his head, a heavy frown stretching across his face. "Annie—"

"I'm sorry, Charlie. But that's the way it is. I'm the Slayer. I have to do this... and you can't come with me. You can't protect me—"

"But I can help!"

"Help distract me, maybe. No!" The blonde shook her head violently and Charlie couldn't help but take a step back at the glare she shot towards him. "Charlie... You have no training for this kind of situation. You don't know how to fight. You know almost nothing about demons. Your abilities in stealth and tracking are next to none... You really can't help me in this. You'll just distract me. And that could get both of us killed."

Charlie looked down for several long moments before shaking his head and looking up again. "What... What if you don't come back?"

"Then I'm dead. And you have to forget about me."

"But—"

"Charlie. If I get stuck in the other dimension and am gone for even an hour of this dimensions time... I'll be dead of old age long before you could possibly mount a rescue. Especially since you'd need to go through a whole lot of training and make a lot of friends before it'd be possible."

"But... I want to help," Charlie protested quietly, hating how weak his voice sounded if only because it clearly showed how weak and useless he felt at this point in time.

"You already have, Charlie," and suddenly 'The Slayer' was gone, as a smile made her 'Annie' again. "You gave me the target I'm supposed to hit... Now let me hit it, OK?"

"I guess I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"No." the Slayer admitted, as she drew back and turned away. "Not really..." she offered him a rueful smile, "We already spent the past two weeks checking your data, remember? It's pretty safe to say that Ken's the bad guy..."

"Do you have to go tonight?" Charlie protested again, shaking his head when she raised an eyebrow at him. "You were just hit by a truck last night."

"I'm fine, Charlie. And..." Annie shook her head. "And I'm the Slayer. I have to go..." She told him, turning away before looking over her shoulder again, "Good bye, Charlie. And thank you... for everything." And then she was gone, disappearing down the sidewalk at a brisk sprint that would have dropped an Olympic runner after a few seconds, but probably wouldn't even leave her winded.

Charlie stared after her for several long moments before he shook his head roughly, a heavy frown on his face again. No matter how weak he was physically, no matter how unprepared he might be... two hands were always better than one, right? So, realistically, this was just Annie being over-protective.

Well... over-protective people was something he'd grown used to a long time ago. But that didn't mean he always listened to them...

So flipping open his cell phone he quickly dialed a number he knew from multiple uses and after hitting 'send' put the phone up to his ear to wait for a response. "Yes, hello. I need a cab from 874 Hunter Street, Pasadena. I'm headed downtown. To Central City East. Yes, actually, very close to Skid Row*... Can I get a cab there or should I call another company? Fifteen minutes. Thank you."

And then Charlie hung up with a sigh, hoping that he'd be able to help and that he wasn't making the biggest mistake of his life...

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy forced an earnest expression onto her face as the three men – demons of some kind, she clearly recognized now that she was concentrating – that had answered the shelter's door continued to stare at her blankly. "You know, I just – I woke up, and I looked in the mirror, and I thought, hey, what's with all the sin? I need to change. I'm... I'm dirty. I'm bad with the sex and the envy and that-that loud music that us kids listen to nowadays... And, uh... I just suck at undercover." She shook her head in exasperation before putting her hands on her hips and glaring at them. "Where's Ken?"

The only response she received was the door slamming in her face, and the sound of locks turning on the other side.

Buffy rolled her eyes and sighed. "Well, I guess we're doin' this the hard way, then." And so saying, kicked the door in. "You know you really might want to look into better locks... it usually takes at least two kicks with that many locks." She offered, before ducking as one of the three came at her with a club.

It probably took her less than a minute to disarm them and knock them all out, and by the time she was done she could feel the Slayer stretching it's senses inside of her, humming with energy and excitement as it let her know the general direction of her target.

Buffy rolled her eyes as she came up to another locked door and simply spun on one foot to kick it in also.

"This is a private moment." The so-called Ken immediately protested, rising from the floor to both meet her and clearly putting himself in between her and the big pool inky-darkness that just screamed 'evil portal' and the innocent dressed in white that was about to be pulled into it. "If you could just—"

"Hate to break it to you – Actually, no. I don't mind breaking it to you at all, Ken. But your little operation here is over. And so—"

"B—Anne?"

Buffy's startled eyes quickly went to the blonde 'victim-to-be' that had turned to her with an equally started expression. "Lily, get away from that!"

"Wh-What's going on?"

"Ignore her, Lily. Rickie's waiting for you, remember? Just—"

"Rickie, her boyfriend? You kidnapped her boyfriend?!" Buffy demanded, clear outrage leaking through into her voice.

"Of course not," the masked-demon replied, though he was clearly directing the answer to Lily much more than her. "Rickie came to us quite willingly... Everyone does."

"Yeah. They're just not allowed to leave when they find out what you have planned for them, huh? No, Lily, get back!" Buffy leapt forward and tried to grab the other girl as she sensed a surge of dark energy from the portal just before the portal itself shot upward and seized the screaming girl.

"Uh, uh, uh," Ken somehow managed to halt her leap just enough to allow the portal to suck its newest victim in. "Lily made—" he grunted as her elbow made contact with his face and she heard a strange squelching noise that made her blink as his nose remained completely squished in after she jerked her elbow away. "Well, if you insist."

And with a shove from the demon she was suddenly flying the rest of the way to, and through the portal...

She could only pray that the voice she heard cry, "No! Annie!" just before she fell through was a trick of her imagination.

End of Chapter 6: Demon Hunting – Part II.

AN: Well, there's Chapter 6. And as you can probably tell, this part of the Series – which really only covers the first episode of Season 3, "Anne," is quickly drawing to a close. But don't worry! For one thing, I have already marked this as a SERIES, so there WILL be more to come after this ends! And for another, we still have a few chapters left! :-D

For notes from within the chapter, there were going to be more but I ended up moving some of them to the next chapter, so the only informational bit I'm going to give you for now is this:

* "Skid Row," according to Wikipedia, is an area of downtown Los Angeles, "officially known as Central City East" that is home to "one of the largest populations of homeless persons in the United States," with estimates between seven and eight thousand people living there. It's "official boundaries" are Third Street and Seventh Street to the north and south and Alameda Street and Main Street to the east and west, respectively.

Considering "Ken's" targets were homeless teens who very quickly became homeless old people, it made sense to me that the shelter would be near there.

Let me know what you think! As always, comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated.

(And yes, I'm still working on papers and tests... I just found myself with some free time this evening and need a break. Hope you don't mind. ;-)

Bye for now! ^_^

Jess S

NEXT: Chapter 7: An Actual Hell.