Hello everyone. I have another chapter ready and I hope you enjoy. I was going to wait a little longer before posting as to lessen the gap until the next chapter as I plan for that one early next week, but decided to go ahead and post. I want to hopefully get the next iGuess We're Roommates chapter out by Thursday.

Jeremy Shane: Thank you and another chapter.

darck ben: I think the ball was dropped with not ever truly resolving the whole Faith/Xander thing onscreen. I don't know if it ever was in the comics. If Xander appears, I'll treat him right and the same with Faith as she was always one of my personal favorites. Oh, who's Dawn? :D

Fanfic-Reader-88: You're about to see what happens to those that came knocking. You're welcome for the shout out.

Twilight Warrior 627: Twist and turns as 'the book' is not the only plot of the story. We'll see who came after Jade and what will the aftermath be. Dagon comes from very early source material from the first Evil Dead I believe as one of the demons, yet his is also a pagan deity, so I split the difference that will be explored later.

Rating: T/Borderline M for violence/language

PD31 and Fanfic-Reader-88 both have updated, so you should check them out after reading this. However, Fanfic's story is not for younger readers. Reader discretion is advised. You've been warned.

Chapter 7

West Residence
Los Angeles, CA

Jade's right fist collided with the Asian decent girl and she went face first into the kitchen counter, cracking the granite countertop with her forehead and leaving a smear of blood. Her head bounced off the counter and she rolled to the floor unconscious.

She was the second slayer to be successfully put down in the five minute battle that had already seemed like an eternity for Jade in holding off five slayers at once, the first one being a hotheaded slayer that thought she could brute strength rush the pale slayer but ended up with Jade's favorite scissors lodged in her throat. Her spine severed from the base of her skull and dead on the floor with blood seeping out onto the foyer to the front door.

The rest of the house already bore the scars of the battle with the slayers as the heavy oak dining room table was demolished, several of the spirals of the stair guardrail (one Jade had used to lodge in one of the slayers shoulders) and several other pieces of furniture turned over along with some indentations in several walls.

Jade was a little worst for wear, but she was still holding her own with her bottom lip was split and she had been hit so hard across her left eyebrow, her brow ring was torn out and some blood flowing into her left eye. The wound and the bit of blood getting in her eye burned and stung, but it drove her own to fight harder. She was glad she had decided to wear her black and red skirt today as it gave her a slight edge in mobility against the other slayers.

After the second slayer went down, two more of the five slayers rushed her, one from the dining room after picking herself up from the broken table, and one from the living room entrance in the hopes of catching her from two sides.

Jade kicked out, hitting the one charging from the dining room in the stomach and sending her flying towards the bottom of the stairs at the other end of the kitchen and just past the dining room. The pale slayer turned to face the other intruder, but the girl was able to catch Jade from the side and driving her into the side of the counter of the island.

The pale slayer growled in frustration from her side striking the unforgiving edge of the countertop, fortunate not to crack any ribs as she struggled with the other slayer grasping the shoulder of her long black cardigan. She got one hand around the other slayer's throat and one on her shoulder, trying to push her away. They twisted and turned until Jade was turned around and driven backwards to the opposite counter top from the separation wall between the kitchen and living room.

The other slayer also had the advantage of having in her other hand being free and holding a pistol gripped taser. She had pulled out the unit from the front of the taser that would fire the metal prongs, exposing directly the leads to use as a traditional stun-gun, before charging her fellow slayer and now took the opportunity to slip between Jade's arms and press it to the left side of the pale singer's throat.

Jade screamed as the electrical charge coursed through her directly to her brain and before seizing up her muscles, particularly her esophagus.

In the living room, Mrs. West was on her back, the cell phone she had used to call Freddie disregarded somewhere on the floor several feet away from her. She was too busy to try to call again as she held a carving knife upwards at the throat of the fifth slayer she was struggling to kill, but she was losing the battle over the demon powered girl. She heard the scream of her little girl and her blood went cold. She turned her head while struggling to see her daughter seizing up and slumping over the counter with a taser gleefully pressed against her neck to make her suffer than just to incapacitate her. "Jade!"

The matriarch turned her attention back to the slayer and rallied all her strength, calling upon every motherly instinct that would allow a mother nearly impossible feats of strength in a dire emergency. She roared in righteous anger and caught the teenager off guard with shoving the blade into the girl's throat and the end sticking out of the other side.

The slayer looked down at her in horror and coughed up a bit of blood onto Mrs. West's face (along with blood from her neck spilling all over the top of her shirt) before the dying girl rolled off of her. She quickly disregarded the girl and pulling the blade out as she still had a death grip on the handle. She pulled herself on her feet to see that her daughter was going into a seizure with foaming drool starting to fall from her mouth.

Mrs. West was about to run and leap over the couch to tackle the girl with the intent of stabbing her to death, but she was blinded and quickly shielded her eyes as the slayer holding Jade screamed in horror and pain as her eyes burned out of her sockets with a blinding white/yellowish light and a high pitch whine sounded throughout the entire first floor.

The light stopped just as abruptly as it had began and the girl released Jade and dropped to the floor, her mind overcome with shock as the heart of the demon residing in her was destroyed along with her eyes and tongue. Jade started to fall as well, her nerves to the point of near overload and unable to respond from the prolonged electrical shock, but Dusty caught her with his right arm.

The Asian slayer that Jade had put down by bashing her head into the counter had managed to get back on her feet and tried to charge Dusty, but he threw out his open left palm to jab her directly in the sternum, breaking literally half her ribs and sending the girl flying back into the stainless steel door of the refrigerator. There was an audible crack from her back hitting the refrigerator, leaving a considerable dent in the door before she collapsed in a heap onto the kitchen floor.

Freddie having appeared next to Dusty, immediately saw the slayer at the stairs finally pick herself up to reengage in the fight, but the 'Promised One' would have none of that. He charged at her and speared her with his right shoulder before lifting her from her feet and slamming her down on the hard kitchen floor.

He straddled her stomach and started rapidly forearming the girl in the face. After the first few swings of smashing his forearm into her face, going right through her feeble attempts to protect her face even with her demon enhanced strength, he broke her nose and started sending blood flying from her nose and mouth (along with a few teeth). A few more swings and the girl was unconscious, but he swung a few more times in fury for some satisfaction of hurting the girl that had attacked Jade.

The thought of Jade crossed his mind, causing him to stop his beatdown. He stood up and didn't bother a second glance at her while he turned to see that Dusty was sitting and cradling the trembling teenager while Mrs. West gently stroked her daughter's forehead and whispering to her.

He knelt down to the slayer's left and next to Mrs. West. He looked on in near panic that Jade was still involuntarily shaking while clearly unconscious, drooling on herself and her eyes rolling to the back of her head. He looked to Dusty with a desperate expression, expecting him to do something.

The nephil slightly shook his head and whispered, "I don't know how that demon part inside of her will react."

Freddie quickly snapped, "I don't care about the damn demon part. Kill it if you have to, just help her."

"She does or we would have gotten it out of her from the start."

The two stared at one another for a few seconds until Mrs. West interrupted, "Dusty please. We'll deal with what happens."

He nodded then looked to the girl still trembling in his arms. He had shifted her to his left arm before Freddie had knelt down, so he lifted his free right hand and gently pressed his pointer and middle finger to her forehead.

A slight vacuum sound later, Jade opened her eyes and took a deep breath, her shaking instantly ending, the messy drool and blood gone from her lips and down her chin and her wounds healed. He helped her sit up and she glanced around to see the three. Her eyes nearly shot out at seeing the blood all over her mother's neck and shirt. "Mom?"

She rested a hand on her daughter's shoulder and quickly reassured her, "I'm okay. It's not mine."

Jade nodded then looked to Freddie just before he pulled her into an embrace and gently rocked with her in his arms. He kissed her temple then whispered a thanks to God that she was alright. She lifted her arms to gently return the hug, relaxing in his embrace and feeling an overwhelming sense of safety.

The pair held onto each other for a few seconds, each feeling that something a little deeper than worrying about the other's safety, before Jade whispered, "Ian?"

She pulled away from him and got up from the floor to dash up the stairs, stepping over the unconscious and blooded slayer sprawled out at the foot of the stairs.

As she ran up to check on Ian, Freddie stood up and walked around Dusty to the slayer struggling to get up after impacting the refrigerator. She was having a considerable tough time doing such a thing as her legs where not moving and fighting back a collapsed lung.

He leaned down and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and lifted her off the floor with her feet slightly dangling. He looked her directly in the eye and whispered, "Where's Andrew?"

The girl gathered a bit of spittle with blood in her mouth then spat the mixture in Freddie's face.

He closed his eyes as it hit his cheek then slowly blew out a breath. He opened his eyes and kept a cold stare.

She defiantly whispered, "I can't feel my legs; do you think I'm going to tell you shit?"

He dragged her to kitchen island to lay her across it and whispered while maintaining his harsh glare, "Dusty, get me a knife. We're going to cut the demon out of her and then we'll see how willing she is to talk."

The slayer swallowed in fear as she was able to see two of her sisters unconscious on the floor, one in shock from her eyes being burned out of their sockets.

Ian hid under his bed in Jade's room as soon as she had shouted for him to stay in the room and lock the door. Ira remained with him inside and growled and barked at the door as he sensed someone approaching the locked door until Jade shouted, "Honey, open the door. It's Jadey."

The dog calmed as the child crawled out from under the bed and reached the door, turning the handle to unlock it. A relieved smile appeared on his face at seeing the pale teenager.

She knelt down and pulled him tightly against her and gently rubbed the back of his head.

He whispered in a timid voice, "I heard shouting and stuff downstairs and—"

She closed her eyes and whispered in return in her ear, "It's okay, it's okay… mommy's here. Mommy's here."

Her words relaxed the child in her arms and they held one another.

Van Nuys Airport
Los Angeles, CA

Andrew relaxed in his chair on the private jet while he sipped his very expensive drink and watched some random DVD on his laptop sitting on the table in front of him. He had nothing better to do than wait for his slayers to return with Jade so they could head back to Scotland and have a more controlled setting to explain the situation to the teenager. He was so engrossed in the movie and relaxing, he barely heard the door to the back of the cabin opened and he lazily remarked, "Ah, you're back. I hope it wasn't too—"

He was interrupted when he felt the cold barrel of a pistol pressed to the side of his throat. He froze in place from the contact and a colder whisper, "They're not coming. You'll be going back to England by yourself."

The Watcher slightly turned his head and glanced upward to see Freddie's penetrating stare. He swallowed the lump of fear threatening to come up as he felt his stomach sinking then he whispered fearfully, "How did you… where are the girls?"

"Well, two of them are dead, another doesn't have her tongue and eyes anymore and another one's rib cage has collapsed with a broken back… fortunately the last one only has a broken nose, a few busted out teeth and a broken jaw. Oh, and we exorcized or killed the demon part of the surviving slayers."

Andrew's first reaction was to think Freddie was bluffing, but the look in the teenager's eyes told him differently. "Wh-where are they?"

"We dropped them off at various hospitals for treatment along your dead to be properly taken care of."

"What are you going to do now? Kill me?"

Freddie took a soft breath and remained silent for a few moments, causing in Andrew's mind the tension to rise in the airplane cabin. The Seattleite finally whispered, "I've thought about it, but I need you alive right now."

Fear quickly turned into confusion for the Watcher and he asked without thinking, "Need me?"

"Yes." He motioned towards the laptop and instructed, "I assume you video chat with your bosses in England? Keep them up to date as to what's going on?"

"Yes."

"Good. I want to speak to someone that actually has some authority, maybe Buffy herself."

"And if I say no?"

Freddie pressed the barrel of the gun a little harder against the side of Andrew's neck and whispered, "Get them on the screen or I'll send you back to them in a body bag as my message."

The former villain fearfully swallowed then quickly turned to end the movie and started the video chatting program. He quickly typed then the pair waited a few seconds for the chat to be answered. An older gentleman with glasses appeared on the screen and he immediately put on a worried expression at seeing the unknown teenager to his eyes pressing the end of a gun to the side of Andrew's neck. He whispered, "Andrew?"

The younger Watcher nervously laughed, "Hi Giles."

The gentleman kept a weary eye on Freddie and asked his colleague, "Are you alright?"

Andrew glanced up to Freddie and tried to idly answer, "That's left to be seen."

Giles looked to Freddie and calmly asked, "Mister Benson, is there a particular reason why you're holding a gun to my colleague's neck?"

"So you know who I am?"

"Yes."

"Then who are you?"

"I'm Rupert Giles."

Andrew quickly offered, "He's our top Watcher—Buffy's Watcher."

Freddie spared Andrew a quick glance then looked back to the laptop monitor. "Okay, so you actually have some pull?"

"In a manner of speaking. Now would you please tell me why you are holding Andrew hostage?"

"Yes, so I can have your attention. I want you to tell Buffy Summers something for me: After I'm done with that damn hellgod and destroying that blasted book that I know you know I'm after, she's next. Jade's not going to live the rest of her life watching her back waiting for you to send any more slayers to kill her."

The elder Watcher looked to him in mild shock and was about to reply, but Freddie angrily tapped a button on the keyboard to end the video. He looked to Andrew and hissed, "Go back to England and if I ever see you again, I will kill you."

Andrew felt real fear, the first time in a long time as he watched Freddie slowly take a few steps back, keeping the weapon trained on the Watcher until he reached the door and slipped out of the plane.

Neutronium Records

Chelsea opened the door and peaked around the edge of the door to quickly inform her boss, "Mason, Jade West is here to see you and it's quite urgent."

Mason looked up at the paper work on his desk, slightly frowning at the interruption, but waved her to let them inside. She stepped inside the room and held the door for Jade as she Jade walked into the office, carrying Ian in her arms with her mother barely a step behind her.

Mason got up from his chair and quickly walked around his desk to meet them at seeing the guarded and tensed expressions on their faces. His voice was laced with what sounded like genuine concern, "Jade? Mrs. West?"

The slayer snapped out, "Can you protect me?"

"What happened?"

"The Slayers broke into my home and tried to… they tried to kidnap me and it… it got deadly. Two of them are dead and two more are crippled. I don't think that's going to get Buffy to back off. I had to get their attention now."

He took a deep, unneeded breath, a habit left over from when he possessed his mortal coil. "Yes, hurting them that bad would get their full attention."

"So, can you protect me?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and held his opposite upper arms with his hands. He nodded and replied, "Yes. I have several properties where you, your mom and stepbrother can move—"

She was quick to interrupt, "I don't want to be driven from my home."

"You may not have a choice." The look of sheer defiance on her face told him that it may be a losing argument if he pushed for her and her family to move from their home, but he had to try.

"Jade, they know where you live and they could send more slayers. It's not a defensible position especially since warding isn't all that affective against them. You can stay in a secret and secure location for the time being. Once you've done your performance, they wouldn't dare move against you without exposing themselves. They would have law enforcement after them and they don't want that kind of trouble on their hands. You just have to keep a low profile until Sunday."

Jade looked to Ian's innocent face then towards her mother's concerned, but supportive expression. She looked back to the vampire and reluctantly answered, "Fine. We'll go where you think we'll be safe."

"Good, but Jade, I'll be honest with you: I'm not ready to go to war with the Slayers—not alone anyway."

Jade pulled Ian a little closer to her and looked to his slightly worried expression, not fully understanding the situation but still knowing something was wrong. She looked back to the vampire and answered, "Then I guess you need to get ready and get some allies… what can I do to help you along?"

It took every last bit of self-control for Mason not to crack a smirk.

Villa Royale Penthouse
Penthouses at Palazzo

Jade may not have wanted to flee from her home, but her mother had the foresight of having them gather as many of their essential belongings and throw them in her and her daughter's car so they wouldn't have to return to their home in the foreseeable future. Due to such a decision, the three were able to move right into one of Mason's properties as soon as they left Neutronium Records with a heavy security detail that would remain to guard the property.

They had picked their rooms (Jade making sure Ian would stay in her room) then were able to take a breath and decompress after the last few hours. Ian was relaxing with Ira in the living room, playing with some of his toys while Mrs. West peacefully watched from the couch with the TV playing in the background.

Jade had opted to walk out onto the balcony of the two level penthouse to relax and try to clear her head. She took a seat in one of the fine cushioned chairs on the balcony and just relaxed back in the seat. Due to Dusty's healing touch, she didn't have any marks or feel any kind of soreness or fatigue from her supernatural fight, but the emotional toll was finally hitting her. She was just in a life and death fight with other slayers and some were going home in body bags. What was worst was that she knew it wasn't over but just beginning.

A soft and comforting voice called out from over her left shoulder, "It's a lovely view. Mason looks like he's trying to outdo himself."

She looked over her shoulder in relief to see Freddie resting against the door frame wearing a weary expression. She got up from her seat and without thinking pulled him into a hug.

She took a deep breath and just inhaled his comforting scent. She didn't stop to think that he was doing the same thing with his nose nearly pressed to the side of her neck. They held one another for a few more seconds before Freddie pulled away, but still holding her in his arms, and asked, "Are you alright?"

She slightly nodded her head and whispered, "Yeah."

He returned with a look that showed he somewhat doubted her statement.

She blew out a breath seeing that he wouldn't let her get by with that answer then retook her seat to look out toward the meticulously kept surrounding property.

He took a seat on the coffee table in front of her. He gave her a sympathetic expression while he waited for her answer.

The pale slayer finally answered with a voice of irritation and real fear, "I'm furious and I want to beat the chizz out of that valley girl airhead but…"

"But what?"

She turned her head and met his eyes, her eyes giving away her fear. "There's something like five hundred of them and now I'm in their crosshairs. How do you win that fight?"

Freddie slight frowned and glanced away from the lovely teenager. It was a thought that had plagued him for hours, especially after he gave his warning to the Watchers. Righteous indignation could only take someone so far, but to take on a small army it wouldn't be enough. However, he realized that he'd fight anyway and find someway to beat them. He could feel an inkling of the answer in the back of his mind.

She glanced down and felt a tightening in her chest of feeling absolutely alone seeing that he thought it was a hopeless situation. She whispered out, avoiding looking at him, "You can bail. You don't have to get anymore involved than you already are. Just find the book then get as far away from me as you can so they don't come after you."

He reached over and gently took one of her hands and laced his fingers. He answered in a hushed tone, "I'm not going anywhere. You're not in this fight alone. I told Buffy's Watcher that once I've destroyed that book that she's next on my list."

She snapped her head up and gave him a completely dumbfounded expression. "You what?"

"I found out where they were going to take you and tracked down Andrew. I had a short video chat with the other Watcher and I told him to deliver that message for me. I'll stop her. You're not going to be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life fearing that some slayer was going to get you and it may not be such a hopeless fight."

Her troubled feelings were slightly displaced with a moment of confusion. She slightly squinted her eyes and asked in a nearly breathless tone, "What do you mean?"

"Remember what you told Tori Sunday?"

"What?"

"About how Buffy and the Slayers are having everyone start to turn on them? Traditional enemies setting aside their differences in order to get ready to fight Buffy and her slayers? It's more or less insane to be with them when everyone will start to go after them."

Realizing his point was like a light switch going off in her head and she felt a wave of relief go through her. "She can't turn all of them on me without worrying about everything else taking the opportunity to go against her."

He reassuringly smiled to her and commented with an almost smug tone, "We don't have to fight an entire army. We just have to stop them piecemeal—whatever she sends, we stop them until I can get to her."

She slightly shook her head, the feeling of disbelief and mild hopelessness pushing aside the brief feelings of relief that his words had eased off of her heart. "Why? Why would you try to… 'stop' her when every other monster has failed to do it and had been killed for the trouble? Why would you get involved? Why risk your life?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm… I'm your friend and I… I love you as such…" He trailed off sounding like he wanted to say more on that point, but finished instead, "…and I don't want anything to happen to you."

She gently pressed her top teeth into her bottom lip as she tried to accept that answer and their conflicted emotions playing on their respective faces. Each could see that there was something left unsaid by the other, but neither apparently had the courage to continue speaking.

Jade was the first to break the tension feeling staring by leaning forward, wrapping the back of her right arm around the back of his neck. He instinctively slipped his hands onto her waist under the open and loose cardigan just as their lips met. She cupped his cheek with her free hand and thumbed over the corner of his mouth just as each deepened the kiss.

Somewhere in Scotland

In one of the studies in the old Scottish estate that the Slayer Organization had turned into their central headquarters, Giles held the end of the earpiece of his glasses and relaxed back in his seat in deep contemplation of the recent turn of events in regards to just one unremarkable slayer among the nearly two thousand slayers that it had been estimated had been called since Willow's spell nearly ten years ago. Such an assessment would clearly have to be reconsidered by what Andrew and Rona had reported from earlier in the day.

As he attempted to figure out a way to resolve the situation without further bloodshed, Buffy and Xander walked into the study. The most famous vampire slayer wore an understandably irritated expression after apparently hearing both reports Andrew had sent them. Xander wore a more docile expression, hoping to be the levelheaded one of the situation.

Buffy asked with an impatient breath, "Two slayers are dead and two more crippled including somehow not beings slayers anymore from some inexperienced slayer that's making nice with a vampire to work for him? Have I heard the situation correctly from Andrew?"

The elder Watcher blew out a tired breath, something he noticed he had been doing a lot lately over the last few hours after hearing from Andrew—twice, the second time without Freddie pointing a gun to his throat. "Unfortunately yes to an extent. From what Rona and Andrew told us, she's has some powerful friends: a 'Promised One' and a fellow named 'Dusty' somehow has the ability to destroy the part of the demon inside a slayer by touch and was able to… exorcize it out of another one. We can only assume he did the same with the others."

Xander let out an almost giddy laugh, "Wow, that's a nifty power. What do you mean by 'exorcize'? You mean like 'The Exorcist'?"

The blonde spared him a slightly annoyed expression while commenting, "A dangerous power." She looked to Giles and questioned, "What can do something like that? What is he?"

Giles quickly opted to answer Xander before going into what he saw what was going to be the deeper conversation with Buffy, "Yes. Since what powers a slayer is the heart of a demon bestowed by the original Shadow Men, it is foreseeable—" He placed his glasses back on his face, "—and apparently now confirmed that it is possible to exorcize it from a slayer."

The answer didn't sit well with Buffy, but she didn't think on it more as the Watcher continued, "And what exactly is this Dusty? According to the Watcher Erin Sikowitz in L.A. training another slayer, he's a nephil."

Xander squinted his one good eye and questioned, knowing he couldn't have heard correctly, "A nipple?"

Giles pinched the bridge of his nose then calmly and patiently answered, "A nephil, the offspring of a human and an angel."

Buffy cocked her head to the side and dismissed out of hand, "An angel? There are no such things as angels. Hellgods, demons, Old One pure demons, Powers that Be and everything else in between, but there are no angels. The kid's probably just some kind of offshoot demon half-breed we don't know about or warlock with some nifty powers."

Giles hesitated to argue against her point as he was far more incline to support her theory as out of all the denizen of demonic creatures faced in the long history of the Slayers and Watchers, none had ever encountered something close to an angel. Also, if they did exist, why hadn't they stepped in during all the supernatural conflicts?

Buffy quickly continued, "What about the other one? The one that threatened me."

Giles got up from his seat and walked around his desk as he answered, "Yes, Freddie Benson. He's what is referred to as a 'Promised One'. They are quite similar in function of a slayer and almost matching abilities, but in a far more focused capacity. They were foretold to be warriors chosen by God to protect the world from a particular type of demon called a 'deadite'. They inhabit a person, similar to how a demon inhabits a vampire, but the poor victim is still alive. He or she is to perhaps one day finally destroy the book that unleashes them and defeat the ancient god Dagon from ever returning to Earth."

"And because he thinks he's a wannabe slayer, he thinks he can threaten me because his girlfriend wants to do a replay of Faith and we're trying to stop it before it happens?"

Xander spoke up, hoping to calm the clearly irritated young woman, "Buffy, it's obvious what's going on here: Andrew making the same stupid mistake that Wesley did that drove Faith right to the Mayor. Instead of talking and remaining supportive that we just don't want her to fall into the wrong crowd, he tries to kidnap her and now some girls are dead. This Freddie kid is obviously upset and reacting like a teenager would react: react without thinking and trying to act all tough hoping that we'll leave them alone."

Giles took a seat on the edge of his desk and laced his fingers to rest his hands on a knee. "Xander, I may not have wholeheartedly supported Andrew's plan, but he does have a point. Sikowitz and his slayer have done nothing but talk to Jade to get her to see the dangers of continuing the path she's on. Perhaps if we have gotten Faith to talk to her…"

Buffy frowned at the mention of her fellow slayer's name, still after all these years being quite uncomfortable and having her doubts about just how loyal or effective Faith was to the cause.

"…anyway, what done is done. We just have to handle the situation as it stands now."

Xander suggested before the Watcher could continue or Buffy voice her opinion on what should be done, "Let me go to L.A. and maybe try to smooth things over. Give everyone a chance to take a step back from all the macho posturing."

Buffy looked to her long time friend and asked indignantly, "How do we take a step back when two slayers are dead with two more crippled and the rest no longer slayers? That's like asking Caleb to take a step back—they've done more damage in a day than he did to us before I killed him."

The muscles under the eye patch over Xander's left eye twitched at hearing the name, but he kept his composure and responded, "Which wouldn't have happened if Rona hadn't threatened Jade and Andrew hadn't sent more slayers to get her. This Freddie guy is just trying to protect her in his mind thinking we're a threat. You'd do the same thing if someone tried to do that to Dawn—wait, you did do the same thing to the Knights of Byzantium and threatened to kill the rest of us if we had no other choice but to kill Dawn if we couldn't stop Glory before the ritual." He shook his head and softly pleaded, "He's doing the exact same thing you did, so give me a chance."

Buffy frowned, feeling quite annoyed that Xander was throwing up her past to prove his point. After a few seconds of wearing a guarded expression towards her friend, she relented, "Fine, go to L.A. and see if we can't find a way to diffuse this situation before it gets any worst."

The patch wearing man beamed a thankful smile then turned and quickly made his way out of the room to pack and get on his way to Los Angeles.

Once Giles thought he was out of earshot, he reluctantly spoke, "I hate to bring this up, but…"

Buffy turned with crossed arms and tiredly asked, "What?"

"If Xander isn't successful… they already stopped seven slayers and between them and if Tori, Carly and their two demonic friends and vampire join in with that vampire trying to take over Los Angeles stepping in… we may have to commit an entire squad or more to stop them then of course there is that book and trying to stop the release of another hellgod."

"If we have to commit that and more then we have to. We are not letting a hellgod out if we can avoid it and I'm not having a repeat of the Mayor. We already have enough problems with rogue slayers popping up." Her fierce voice lowered and was replaced with a more reluctant tone, "You were right about Genevieve… sometime the dirty work has to be done against a fellow slayer."

The old Watcher nodded his head in accepting Buffy's semi-apology over an incident that happened years ago regarding to how he had dealt with a rogue slayer that was clearly a threat to Buffy.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading. I hope people enjoyed the appearances by some of the canon characters. Take care and I hope to have the next chapter finished by next weekend.