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Lightning snapped and crackled across Gwen's body, as she then unleashed a mighty bolt, hurling it straight at Emily. She blocked with the scythe and was blasted across the throne room, slamming painfully against the wall. She cried out as she fell to her knees, before having to dive out of the way of another lightning bolt, as Dawn ducked behind a pillar which was struck by another bolt, blasting a chuck out of the stone.

"This won't be fun if you're gonna hide," Gwen said.

Dawn remained behind her pillar, which was assaulted again, as Emily darted across the throne room, narrowly avoiding a lightning bolt. She dived behind a pillar, moving towards Gwen, who moved around to the pillars, blasting at Emily, as she ducked around just in time, the lightning bolt skimming past the pillars and leaving behind a deep slash.

"If you come out now, I promise not to kill you too badly," Gwen said.

Darting around the pillar, Emily raced towards Gwen, diving over a lightning bolt that swept through the throne room, as Gwen stepped into view, her fist slamming into Emily's face. Both staggered back from each other, with Gwen holding her wrist in pain.

"What the hell are you?" she demanded.

"I believe the technical term is 'dhampire'," Emily replied.

She lunged, slashing with the scythe, as Gwen rolled out of the way, whirling around and unleashing another bolt of lightning, which struck the pillar instead, while Emily had dodged and slashed wide. Gwen gasped, falling to her knees as she clutched at the wound on her stomach, blood slipping past her fingers, as Dawn joined the pair.

"I think it's time we left," she told her niece.

"We need to go to New York City," Emily replied, "Can you take us there."

Nodding, Dawn accepted the scythe and ran over the cut in her hand, flicking her blood onto the floor, before calling an incantation, as Gwen slumped onto her side, her blood pooling around her. Emily spared her a brief glace, before jumping into the portal.

"Wait, you can't leave me like this," Gwen groaned.

"Sorry, but you brought this upon yourself," Dawn said, "You chose to ally with evil, instead of using your powers for good. If you're lucky, you might get found in time."

And with that, Dawn turned away and followed after her niece through the portal.

XXXXX

"Fred!" Angelus cried happily, "Gee, you look great. Haven't aged a day!"

The small, willowy brunette shrank back from the bars of her cell, as Angelus stood before the cell, a wide grin on his face. For nearly twenty years, he had been searching for her and now that he finally had her, he could finally remove her from the board. But it wasn't this woman before him that he wanted to talk to. Sure enough, the woman began to change, blue markings appearing on her skin, as her eyes and lips turned icy blue, while dark blue streaks appeared in her hair. Her clothes, a white shirt and short red skirt, melted together and transformed to create a full body armour made out of leather. Angelus smirked as the woman gave him a death glare, seizing hold of the cell bars.

"Hello, Illyria. We've been chasing you for a long time now."

"It should be you in here and me out there, deciding your fate," Illyria said, "And I would make sure your suffering lasted an eternity."

"Yeah, that's nice," Angelus said, "So, why the hiding? The great and mighty God-King cowering from a mere little vampire like me? That's not you, Illy. Not you at all."

"When I get out of here, I will take pleasure in removing your spine," Illyria growled.

"Yeah, keep chasing that dream, Blue. You're not getting out of here at all. See, it's been a while since I tortured someone and they didn't die straight away. Get the picture?" Angelus smirked, "Now that we've got that settled, ciao!"

He turned away with a swish of his coat and began walking away, as Illyria gripped the bars and began testing their strength, however, an electrical current surged through the bars and struck her, knocking her away from the bars, as Angelus chuckled to himself.

"Oh yeah, I forget to mention. Those are wired to deliver a charge that can take down a vampire, so best of luck breaking out."

With a smirk, he turned away and left the room, while Illyria still remained on the floor.

XXXXX

A portal opened up in the streets of New York City, as Emily and Dawn came tumbling out. The portal closed behind the pair, as they slowly got to their feet, dusting themselves off and looking around. Luckily, they had landed in an alley and there was no-one in sight to have seen the portal. However, Emily realized that she would be having trouble trying to hide the scythe, but decided against it and began heading for the alley exit.

"So, why are we in New York?" Dawn asked, "What made you want to come here?"

"After Connor died-" Emily started.

"Wait, Connor's dead?" Dawn cried incredulously.

The young Slayer paused and nodded, as the elder woman closed her eyes in despair. She had met Connor some time after Angelus began his destruction of the world and after some time, they had grown close and even started dating, although it ended when she was captured by Angelus. But even after all this time, she had still loved him and was deeply saddened to hear that he had passed, knowing who was responsible for his death.

"Anyhow, I found that he had been gathering together a few profiles of people I have never heard of, people who might leading their own rebellion," Emily finished.

"Do you remember the names?" Dawn asked, "We could ask around."

"Uh, their names were Robin Wood and Vi. They sound familiar to you?"

"Yes! They both helped us in the war against the First," the older woman cried happily, "Oh, if they are alive, we have to find them."

She headed out of the alley, entering the streets of New York, as Emily quickly joined her, holding the scythe by her side, trying to discreetly hide it from sight as the pair walked along the street, passing a few civilians, who were giving Emily strange looks, but she did her best to ignore them, trying not to attract too much attention, but she knew she wasn't fooling anyone, with several people giving her a wide berth and even one began running off in the opposite direction.

"Maybe we should have stuck to the alleys," Emily muttered.

"These streets aren't exactly frequented much," Dawn replied, "We should be fine for a while, but we will have to hurry."

"How are we going to find them anyway?"

"We might have a chance if we follow them two," Dawn pointed out.

Looking where her aunt was pointing, Emily saw a man and a woman chatting away merrily as they headed down a small street. Quickening her pace, Emily darted across the street, before coming to the corner and heading down, just catching sight of the pair turning down a small alley. Chasing after them, Emily reached the pair in time as the man vamped out and attempted to attack the woman. Charging in, Emily put her shoulder down and rammed the vampire in the middle of the back, sending him sprawling, as the woman hysterically left the alley. The vampire snarled, getting to his feet and whirling around in time to see a blade slicing towards him. His head fell away, bursting into dust, along with the rest of his body, as Emily turned around to an arriving Dawn.

"Well, he's been taken care of."

"Hold it right there," cried a new, male voice.

Emily whirled around, raising the scythe, but saw that a crossbow was aimed at her, as another man suddenly appeared behind Dawn, also holding a crossbow.

"Wait, wait, we're here to help you guys," Dawn cried, "We're looking for Robin Wood."

"Sorry, missy, don't know that name," the hunter aiming at Emily replied.

"Hey, you recognise this?" Emily asked, holding up the scythe, "This belonged to my mother, Buffy Summers. She fought alongside Robin Wood against the First Evil. Now, do you think you could take us to him?"

The hunter paused, lowering his crossbow and bringing a hand to his ear, as if he was listening to a com-link. After exchanging a few words with the person on the other end, he looked back at Emily and Dawn, motioning to his partner to lower his crossbow.

"Alright, let's go then. He wants to see you."

XXXXX

"Sir, I just got a report in from New York City," Solan announced.

"Oh, do tell," Angelus said, "What's this report?"

"Apparently, one of our men saw a portal opening up in an alleyway in Beverly Hills. He did mention something about seeing a young blond girl and an older brunette woman."

"Hmm, that sure sounds like Emily and Dawn. Which must mean that Xander is no longer with us, or Gwen for that matter. Very well then, Solan, you're now in charge. Take a small team to New York and end this nuisance for me."

"As you command, sir."

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