Author's Notes: There is a dipiction of Cos-play in this chapter. I do not own the character nor the world from which the character comes from. You will figure it out pretty fast, it's the first part of the story. I will only say that I love 2k and Gearbox, the owners of the character, and pray they would no more sue me than they would any cosplayer out there. Can't wait for Number III guys!

Chapter 6: The Other Three

Across town, another petite blonde was skipping merrily around a warehouse. Sitting in the middle of her path was a square wood table made of thick oak. On top of this table sat four plates upon which rested crumpets and teacups sat next to the plates. In the middle of the table was a teapot still steaming with freshly brewed tea.

Four chairs sat around the table. In one sat a large glass jar. This jar wore a top hat and had a monocle somehow affixed to the front of it. Two eyes, a mustache, and a smiling face were drawn in on the jar as if it were some wealthy British type person. Across from the wealthy British jar sat two stuffed rabbits. The eyes of these rabbits looked dark one moment then shone with a deep red glow the next. Between the two occupied chairs sat a third that held a rather rumpled and terrified looking vampire. He was dressed in clothes that looked out of date by at least two decades with hair even more out of fashion.

The fourth and final chair was empty.

"You know I am so glad you could join us today," the Annalyse said with a smile as she skipped around the table. "It's not every day I get to have the bestest tea party in the world you know."

Annalyse spun around and came to a stop next to the vampire. He struggled with seeing what looked for all the world like an insane teenage girl leaning in towards him. The glowing pink ropes that held him in place did not leave much room for struggling, however.

Annalyse adjusted the hockey mask she wore on the side of her head slightly before looking down at her brown dress. Her grin broadened to almost manic perportions before she looked back up at the vampire, "I mean, you would think I wouldn't enjoy cosplay. I mean, I wear a costume almost 70% of the time back home. That would mean that I should want to wear normal clothes, right? But there is just something freeing about dressing up as someone else. Don't you agree?"
"Um.. ah... yes," the vampire stuttered out in a voice wracked with fear.

Annalyse bopped him in the back of his head, "I was talking to Reggie, you silly boy." Annalyse sighed and shot an apologetic look to the British jar before turning back to the vampire, "Still I suppose I ought to be more polite to you. You have answered my questions quite thoroughly after all."

The vampire nodded in enthusiastic agreement, "Yea. I did. Told you all about the blonde chi... girl. The Slayer. Everything you wanted to know."

Annalyse nodded again smiling brightly, "Yes you did. Infaaaact," she said with a bit of a sing-song in her voice, "one more question answered right and you win the grand prize."

The vampire's eyes sparked with a bit of hope. He had no idea who this loony girl was but she had spent the last three days questioning him between trips out of the warehouse she had found him and his group. At first, he had simply refused. She beat him around a few times but having vampiric constitution was a wonderful thing. The fact that barring serious injury, which she was more than capable of dealing he knew, he didn't feel much at all. Eventually, he broke and started answering questions. This last night he had started to get even more frightened. She hadn't hit him once, not seriously anyways. She instead had drug him out to this table and held a tea party.

"Anything, just ask please," he responded despretly.

"What is the name of the Slayer," Annalyse asked with deceptive simplicity. She looked at the vampire with a smile of warmth and trust as she waited for him to respond.

"I don't know," he finally said.

"Eeeeeh, wrong answer."

"No, no, no, no, please, I don't know. No one knows. Well, Spike probley knows, Drusilla if she stays sane long enough, and Angelus surely knows. The rest of us, though? We just try to stay well away from Slayers. None of us know. We either drain them or they kill us."

Annalyse stopped and put a finger on her chin as if pondering the vampires explination. She first started nodding her head, then shook it several times before returning to nodding, "Alright, I'll give you that one. So you win the grand prize my friend. Are you ready for it?"

"Please, please, anything," the vampire begged.

Annalyse brought out a small handheld remote that looked like a garage door opener and pressed the button, "Okay there you go. You get mah ladies and their ba-donk-a-donks. Have fun, I need to go get some food."

Setting the remote down on the table infront of the two rabbits she smiled as she turned and started walking out. The vampire sat confused as to what she was talking about as the petite blonde worman who had spent three days breaking him walked out of sight. It was nearly five minutes later when he noticed the eyes of the stuffed rabbits. Their red blinking lights had sped up.

The vampire's eyes widened in the realization that blinking red lights were never good and he struggled even harder against the glowing pink bonds. It was another two minutes before the bonds suddenly blinked out of existence and the vampire bolted from his seat. Without thinking and driven by panic he rushed to the nearest door. He threw it open and stepped out into the sunlight.

Immediately after laughter filled the warehouse as Annalyse stepped back into sight of the table. She walked up and picked up the remote and pressed the button again. The eyes of the rabbits died and went to a dull black.

"Wow, so they really do catch on fire in sunlight. I guess they are vampires after all."

-

Dear Diary,

Okay, so I know it has been awhile since I last wrote. There was all the insanity dealing with Buffy's boyfriend. Or is he ex-boyfriend now? I'm still not entirely sure on what is going on there. I mean, sure Angel went all I'm evil and sadistic but it wasn't like it was his fault. No that falls purely to the gypsies. Stupid rules that no one tells anyone about. I mean that would be like wanting someone to explain string theory to someone who couldn't understand any math more complicated than pi.

Anyways... Mom and Dad have been home for two days now. Yea, go figure, they got home the day AFTER I was released from the hospital. Normally I wouldn't have thought anything about it but the hospital had called my parents to inform them of my injuries and at the time they didn't know when or even if I would wake up. What did they do? Well not race home that's for sure. They instructed the hospital that when I was ready to be released that Giles was to handle it.

Okay so that is bad, but what I found out today was even worse. I went to get Mom's cell phone for her from her office here in the house. I stopped to look at her call list and saw that she had called the hospital at least a half dozen times after they received the first call. The last call was about 6 hours after I had been released to Giles.

Now back before I found out about Sunnydale's nightlife I would not have thought much about it. My parents were at a conference after all. They couldn't just drop everything the instant they found out, could they? In this time and place though it got me suspicious. So I decided to hack their credit card statements. Not that hard really, someone needs to tell them a five-year-old could, and did from what I could tell, set up their network security.

What did I find out? They didn't even purchase their tickets home until five minutes after that last call to the hospital. They waited for me to get out of the hospital before even coming home! It was like they were avoiding me being there for some reason.

I did notice that there was a hidden partition on Mom's computer. I have no idea why she would have such a thing. I didn't put it there and while Mom uses computers for her work I don't think she has the knowledge to set something up like that. From first look it seems to be encrypted. Maybe I can find something on it that will explain the strange timing coming home. Something to look into while they are gone I guess.

Willow

-
Faith stood on the corner of the main intersection of a no-name town that you would miss if you blinked while walking. She had been here two days. Two days more than she would have preferred to be stuck in the town.

Her ride had decided that if she wasn't verbally offering herself to him that meant she was offering in other ways. When he discovered courtesy of a broken jaw that she wasn't he had thrown her out of the car. Now she was trying for the second night to get a ride out of the hole in the middle of America she had found herself in.

Two hours had passed and only one car had gone by and it hadn't even slowed down for her. She was just begining to consider walking when the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Someone was watching her, she knew. They were close. Her face burned red at the thought of someone having gotten that close to her without noticing.

Casually she glanced one way then the other before reaching down and picking up her duffle bag and turning around, making a show of walking away from the corner and towards a dingy ally that sat behind the town's three bars. It didn't take long for her to hear the sounds of pursuit.

About half-way down the ally, she heard her pursuer step into it behind her. A smile played across her lips as she lured him further into her trap. Stopping she turned to face him. Vampire, her senses screamed out at her. She gave him a toothy grin and dropped her duffle to the ground.

"Hey, you know where a bus stop around here is, guy? I need to get outta this no-horse town," Faith said as she rolled her shoulders.

The vampire smiled as he moved closer. His entire body loose and relaxed as he neared the predator of his kind. Faith casually wondered if he didn't realize what she was or if he was just nutters as his silky voice responded, "No, but I have a car. I'm sure I could give you a ride where ever you wish, honey."

Faith repressed a snort for a moment by covering her mouth with her hand and looking away. The vampire's outfit looked about as tacky as his attempt to pick her up and was giving her problems not laughing at him.

"Though I think I know just where you need to go, honey," the vampire continued as he got closer. A sound behind Faith caused her to glance back. She spotted the second vampire as the first finished speaking, "After all no one wishes to deny Kakistos' hospitality."

Fear shot through Faith like a hot iron followed by anger. She had thought she had gotten away from Kakistos. After watching Diana ripped to pieces before her she had ran as far and as fast as she could. She had been haphazardly following her now dead Watchers final command. Go to California and find help. She had hoped that she wouldn't need help by the time she got there. Now she knew better. Kakistos was still on her trail.

"Yea, so not happening playboy," Faith shot at the first vampire. "Your boss couldn't stop me. What makes you think you two can?"

The vampire grinned as his human mask slipped revealing his demonic nature, "Kakistos was busy playing with your Watcher, Slayer. We aren't. Now, are you going to come along like a good girl or do we get to hurt you?"

Faith didn't respond verbally. Instead, she made her intentions known in other ways. With a smooth turn and flick, a stake slid down her shirt sleeve into her hand and found it's way through the air and into the heart of the second vampire. Turning back to the first as his friend blew away in a cloud of dust she just smiled, a second stake dropping into her other hand from her sleeve.

"You killed Hernando," the vampire shouted in anger. "Why did you kill Hernando? He did nothing to you, Slayer!"
Faith rolled her eyes, "Let's see, him vampire, me Slayer. You can do the math, right? Besides, you wanted to take me back to your boss."

"Wanted, what makes you think I've changed my mind," the vampire snarled.

Faith leapt forward planting her foot solidly into the vampire's chin flipping him head over ass. Before he could hit the ground she spun in place and backhanded him across his ribs slamming him into the wall. Her grin stretched further as she stalked over to the vampire as he tried to pick himself out of the wall. She slammed her fist into the back of his head then quickly sent two jabs into his kidneys and an elbow to his spine.

"Well the way I figure it, by the time I'm done with you, you will be wishing I'd dust you or just get out of town," Faith remarked casually as she continued dissecting her opponent's body with her fists.

She was just getting into the rhythm of things when a powerful blow caught her from the side sending her down the alleyway on an impromptu flight of her own. She felt her ribs crack under the force and winced as she rolled to a stop. Kicking back to her feet she spotted what was her third vampire of the night. This one was huge easily topping seven feet and looked like he belonged in a professional wrestling ring. Cracking her neck as she adjusted her stance she spat out blood before giving him a smile.

"Alright, now that is more like it," Faith said pushing all the confidence she could into her voice. "Figured old Kaky wouldn't send flunkies like those two after a slayer. So come on big boy, you got a name or you just want to..."

She was cut off as the vampire suddenly moved. He was almost too quick for her to catch it with her eyes as he closed on her his fist leading the way. She ducked the blow and returned with one of her own to his stomach. The vampire didn't make a sound and instead brought his hand down aiming it at her head.

Faith spun away from the second blow and lashed out with her knee at his ribs. Again he didn't try to block or dodge and simply took the hit. She let the momentum of bouncing off of him carry her around the third strike of his fist and tried to strike home with her stake hoping to end the fight quickly.

The vampire chose then to bother to block the impending death blow. He caught her wrist easily in his large hand and whipped her to the side slamming her bodily into the wall of the bar.

Faith spun to her feet almost as soon as she made contact with the ground. Pushing off from the wall she charged the vampire and sent a leaping roundhouse at his face. It connected and spun him which he turned into a hammering blow to her kidney that sent her careening into another wall.

Her undead opponent moved with that unnatural speed of his again and brought his knee up into Faiths jaw as she slid down. The impact lifted her back up. Using the momentum she shoved off the wall as she rose and rammed her head into his jaw. That got the first sounds of pain from the vampire.

"There we go, knew you would scream like your friend," Faith said as she started landing blow after blow in rapid succession to the vampires torso.

After about the seventh strike the vampire recovered and caught her fist and twisted it around forcing Faith to her knees. He spit blood and a bit of broken fang out as he snarled, "And you will die like your watcher."

Faith felt her rage start to burn hotter than before. Pumping her legs beneath her she slammed up again catching the vampire in the jaw. Kicking back she caught his knee cap slamming it back the opposite direction it was hinged. The vampires howling filled the small town night bringing a feral grin to Faiths lips.

"Yea, well I got a message for your boss," Faith spat out as she slipped a third stake from her pants having lost the second earlier. "Tell him I said hi when he meets you in hell."

Faith slammed the stake home then jerked it out as the vampire turned to dust. Brushing herself off she started walking towards the original first vampire of the evening. His bones were already starting to knit back together as she approached him.

"Now I'm just pissed. I hope you have car keys," Faith grumbled as she approached the vampire. The gleam in her eyes promised him much pain if he couldn't produce said keys.