Hello everyone! Happy Victorious Memorial Day. One year ago was the final episode of Victorious. I'm glad I had a chapter done on one of my chapters to publish for this date.

Challenge King: Thank you and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Fanfic-Reader-88: For this universe, it wouldn't necessarily be much of a stretch for Gibby to want revenge and be evil as something that is revealed in this chapter, Gibby could resent Freddie. I thought it was a good twist in throwing off who really is behind this mess.

Twilight Warrior 627: I'm not sure when the next stare-down will be in the fullest sense of the term, but that story isn't through yet as it is a strong secondary plot.

protogenxl: Thank you for reading. I'm not familiar with the video game/series and I'm not sure how compatible it would be as how I have things set up just at this moment.

PD31 updated 'A Place to Call Home' so you should check it out and Fanfic-Reader-88 had a oneshot he published of Freddie/Trina (still patiently waiting for his update on his other story as if I'm in any position in wanting people to update faster HA!)

Rating: T Violence

Chapter 11

Hyperion Hotel
Los Angeles, CA

Xander rested his mouth against his knuckles as he braced his elbow against the armrest of his chair and quietly sat in the office that once belonged to Angel then Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (then back to Angel) when Angel Investigations was headquartered in the old hotel. The hotel had long been abandoned by the demonic vampire with a soul as he had disappeared from the world, in hiding to God knows where or worst a pile of dust that had long been swept up in the wind.

He may have been sitting quietly, but the office itself was no such thing as he patiently listened to Rona rant on about the disaster that had fell upon her fellow slayers at the hotel next to where Jade was performing in the following days.

Rona had physically recovered from her experience of having the heart of the demon extinguished, but emotionally, she was far from okay and now he was on the other end of hearing about it, "We've lost five more slayers… they may be alive, but they're not slayers anymore. We tried it your way and look where it's gotten us. We've got to put this Freddie kid down and his demon pet."

Xander lifted his head away from his fist and sharply asked, "Why? He didn't shoot at any of the girls, but actually saved them from those things. I didn't get to try it my way because you're the one that sent slayers to follow Tori without orders."

"Keeping an eye on her was the obvious thing to do to see if she could lead us to the book or where Jade's staying. You think if she found it or where Jade was staying that she'd tell Sikowitz?"

"We don't need to know where Jade's staying because we're not going after her. We are going to leave her alone until she really does prove to be a threat instead of making baseless assumptions on her because people want to make comparisons between her and Faith. If they find the book before us then they are going to need our help to destroy it."

"Buffy doesn't see it that way."

"Buffy's not here."

Rona softly bit her tongue then asked, "If you can't make the call because he healed your eye then I will."

Xander slightly shook his head and muttered, "If you want vengeance on the kid then you're on your own because I'm not telling anyone to go after him."

She looked over a shoulder to him in mild disgust while she turned to head for the door. "Fine, I'll take this to Buffy. She's not going to like it one bit that you're taking their side over ours."

He snapped back, "You go do that and while you're at it you can explain why we lost five more and one in the hospital with a gunshot to the leg."

She clenched her jaw tightly just before she walked out of the room, keeping herself from telling him where he could stuff it. She walked out into the lobby just in time for Jade and Dusty to appear in the middle of it with a fluttering sound of wings.

She dived under the reception counter and grabbed a hidden crossbow. She stood up and pointed the weapon at the nephil.

He raised a hand without bothering to look at her and she was flung over the reception counter, around his right and across the large lobby to smash against the opposite wall. There was a considerable thump when she hit the wall then dropped to the floor.

Xander heard the commotion and came running out of the office, grabbing a hanging arming sword on his way out. A number of other girls started exiting their rooms on the first floor to look over the guardrail to see the pair in the middle of the lobby and Xander holding a sword. They dashed back into their respective rooms and came back out with various stakes and knives (and one girl with a battle ax) in their respective hands. They trotted down the stairs leading to the entrance while a few others made their way down the stairs towards the back doors to the atrium. About eight girls surrounded them on three sides with Xander cautiously walking around reception desk.

Jade passed the quickest of glances around her at her fellow slayers, slightly suppressing the pit of fear forming in her stomach at possibly facing that many at one time as taking on five yesterday was still fresh on her mind. She turned her attention to Xander and rallying her confidence, she stated, "Hello Xander. We need to talk."

Xander glanced between Jade and Dusty's shoulders to see Rona slowly pull herself up to her hands and knees then lowered his sword. "Okay, I'm all ears."

She dryly remarked, trying to get any psychological edge she could over the veteran demon fighter, "And both eyes."

Xander glanced to Dusty and slowly remarked, "Yeah, your friend took care of that."

She matter-of-factly remarked, "Yeah, he's sweet like that, but my point: we have a lead on the Necronomicon and after what happened this afternoon at the hotel, we know we're going to need all the help we can get and I'm here to ask for that help."

The former one-eyed man had a muscle ticked in the left side of his neck when he looked on in shock from the turn in Jade's attitude from this morning.

Rona slowly walked around the pair (trying to ignore her pain wrecking through her from colliding into the wall), putting her fellow slayers between her and them until she stood next to Xander. She asked in outrage, "You have some nerve don't you? Ask us from help?!" She pointed at Dusty as she yelled, "After what you did, after what he did! We're not slayers anymore because of him!"

The girls surrounding them reflectively tightened and loosened their grips around their weapons and glared at the lean young man.

Dusty snorted out with a slight mocking tone, "Wow… to be a strong woman now means having a demon inside you? What a feminist message. I'd like to point out, if it wasn't for me, how many of you would be dead? How many of you were shot up before I got to you?" He glanced around the gathered slayers/former slayers and finished, "I know I had to pull one of you back just before you stepped through the gates of Hell after your throat was ripped out by one of them."

He turned to look at a particularly good looking dark headed young woman who flinched at the memory of being dead for a few minutes. He chuckled, "You need to find some Jesus real bad."

The girls that had been at the hotel that were among the group surrounding the pair glanced to one another and appeared to be becoming apprehensible in challenging the young man. They may have hated to admit it, but he was right in him saving some of their lives even at the price of no longer being slayers.

One slayer, a light skinned Latino with dark hair that had a mild resemblance to Tori, that had been able to hold her own in the firefight and that had been able to defend her sisters after two had went down in short order at the elevator, challenged, "You worship Jesus demon?"

"My mother is an Archangel of the Lord. There's no demon in me unlike what the rest of you use to have in you. I fried those demon parts in you with her grace that she gave on her side of the conception process. And yes, I am a Christian and if you have a problem with it, you can kiss my ass."

No one commented on quite un-Christian manner that he finished that statement, but the slayer that had her throat ripped out dismissively commented, "There are no such things as angels."

Another slayer sharply retorted, "Speak for yourself."

Xander raised his free hand and shouted, "Hey, we're going off topic." He looked to Jade and continued in a calm voice, "You want our help, you have it. We want the book destroyed too."

Rona turned to the just over thirty year man and shouted in outrage, "How?! More than half of us in this room aren't slayers anymore! You want to call in more slayers so they can arrange for more of them to get taken out?"

"Buffy has made it quite clear: we are to do everything we can to stop another hellgod from being released. They have a lead and we're going to take advantage of it."

The former slayer shook her head, completely dumbfounded that he was willing to do such a thing. "And if it's a trap just to kill us?"

Dusty raised a finger. "That would be too much trouble. We don't need to lead you into a trap. If we wanted you dead, I could simply kill all of you right now."

One of the slayers that hadn't been at the hotel during the fight snapped off at him, "Big talk little boy."

Dusty raised his right hand up towards the girl who spoke on their right and a soft white/yellowish glow formed in his palm. "Now which one do I turn into a piece of charcoal first while I blast a hole in the side of the building large enough for Optimus Prime to drive through? "

The girls took several cautious steps back.

Xander snapped sharply, "Enough, what do you need?"

Jade smiled, feeling better on how easy this had gone while Dusty wasn't so sure.

Neutronium Records

Mason was looking over all the minor details about the awards show in two days. He had plenty of underlings worry about all those details, but he was a hands-on vampire and it took his mind off the very little information coming out of what happened at the hotel. There were nothing but scattered reports of some firefight between security and a number of teenagers and young woman then wild tales that included one guard trying to go cannibalistic at a young woman and a blinding light that shattered all the windows on one floor.

The office door opened and Chelsea looked around edge of the door. She quietly interrupted him, "Freddie Benson is here to see you and he insists it's quite important."

He hid his eagerness in wanted to see the young man from Seattle in desperately wanting to have answers to what happened next door to his rehearsals. He calmly replied, "Oh? Well show him in."

The next moment Chelsea led Freddie and Sam into the office.

Mason put on a pleasant, diplomatic smile to the pair. "Freddie and… who is this lovely creature?"

Sam looked to the vampire with a bored expression, having little patience with something that she should be killing. "I'm Sam Puckett. I'm a…" She paused in having to speak the word, "…friend of Freddie's."

The half-millennium old vampire raised his brow and overdramatically remarked, "Ah… so what's with the visit? I assume it has something to do with Jade?"

Sam threw the taller teenager a disapproving expression, somehow feeling that she had a right to judge any potential partners for the tech-producer. Mason noticed the blonde's expression, but refrained from commenting.

Freddie calmly answered, "Not directly, but I wanted to let you know what happened at the hotel next door to the theater this afternoon."

"So you were there? The 'fantastic' story coming out of there has some merit?"

"I haven't really took a good look at the news since I've been too busy planning my next move."

"In trying to recover the Necronomicon? Is that why you were at the hotel?"

"We were tracking down a lead and it quickly turned into a firefight with a number of deadites then some slayers showed up. It was a real mess."

"You've could have told me what you were planning. I would have been more than happy to have helped out with some support."

"Perhaps."

The graying haired vampire cocked his head to the side and remarked, "You don't trust me."

"I don't know you. I've known about you for about two weeks and I can't make a judgment about someone that's several hundred years old."

"You don't have to trust me, just trust that I would protect my investment."

Freddie maintained an even expression.

"You may not like that I really don't have an emotional attachment to Jade as you obviously do, but just a business one. However, it is what it is and it is far better than trying to put up an act that you wouldn't believe in the first place."

Freddie slightly frowned, hating to admit that the vampire was correct. However, he didn't dwell on it and asked, "Then why don't you help me now?"

He slightly turned his head to the right and raised an eyebrow. "Now you want my help? What sort of help do you need?"

"We believe we've found a way to track him down—the one that has the book, but we want to make sure we bring enough firepower to put him down and end this. We don't want anything close to a fair fight. A few possessed security guards from the hotel nearly wiped out a group of slayers. I have a healthy respect for what we can be up against and I don't want them shot up. Also… Jade is asking some to the slayers for help and I'd like a counterbalance them in case they get any funny ideas."

Mason asked with a neutral voice, not trying not to hint at any judgment about Jade's decision, "She's asking the very people that tried to murder her?"

"As I said, we have a healthy respect for what we're facing and we are hedging our bets."

Mason nodded along and walked around his desk to lean against the edge of it. "I have a number of… individuals that can help you. They can even up the odds of whatever you're facing."

"I appreciate it. We can use all the help we can get."

"So, what do you have planned?"

Vega Residence

Freddie and Jade returned to the Vega residence with their partial celestial beings rides within minutes of each other after about taking half an hour in securing help from their respective visits. While they had been gone, Cat had successfully cast the location spell to track down the demon-clone and like other creatures of darkness, decided to squat in a warehouse at the seafront. It was a considerable step down from staying in a five star hotel, but apparently he hadn't made a backup plan if he had been discovered.

As they waited to hear from the Xander and Mason that their forces were ready to go, the others went through their own pre-battle rituals.

Jade sat in the lawn chair in the backyard of the Vega's home, slowly scraping the sharping stone against the edge of her grandfather's old KA-BAR combat knife. Regardless of the sentimental value, she would have much preferred an ancient Kurdish demon killing knife, but those weren't exactly something she could buy off Craigsmix. However, it was a battle tested weapon and blessed by an old army chaplain, so if it went into a deadite, it would certainly feel it.

As she sharpened the blade, she occasionally looked to the calm pool of water illuminated by the flood lights. Her mind idly wandered about how she would just love to jump in and forget about all her problems. She was occupied by her duel tasks so much that she didn't notice that Freddie took a seat next to her in the neighboring seat.

He remained silent for a few seconds, taking a long glance at the Vega's backyard pool and waiting for her to acknowledge his presence. He finally whispered, "Hey."

"Hi," she softly answered as she focused on the blade.

He softly admitted, "I don't want you to go."

She stopped her sharping and looked to him in a dumfounded manner. "Why?"

He turned in his seat and looked at her. He answered in an imploring voice, "Do you even have to ask the question? I… I'm falling for you Jade and even if I wasn't, I care about you and don't want anything to happen to you."

"That's an irrational reason based on some fairytale view of love where the 'big strong hero' protects the 'weak damsel-in-distress'."

He narrowed his gaze on her and softly uttered, "You really think I have a fairytale view of love?"

Before the dark brunette was allowed to answer, he pushed on, "Fine, how about a rational reason: You have responsibilities now… you have a son to look after, not rushing into battle."

She clenched her jaw tight and glared at him so hard that she could almost burn a look through him. Any other male would have quivered in fear from such a look directed at them, but he held his gaze steady. She finally glanced down, slightly frowning as she was unable to continue to try to intimidate him. She softly uttered, "And what do I tell him if his fath—you don't come back and I'm the one that sat idly by?"

He didn't remark on the idea that Ian started seeing him as a father to him, but focused on the second half of her question, "This was never your responsibility. You didn't have to help."

"I'm a slayer."

"That doesn't want to be one. You've never embraced it like you or I've seen Tori do. It's not justification alone."

"And being a 'Promised One' is?"

"No, not entirely since the book has a hatred for me and does want to destroy me, but just… I feel like I have a purpose other than being some computer/technical geek. It's my battle to fight, so let me fight it to protect the ones I care about."

She softly shook her head and answered without malice or anger, but in a gentle tone, "No. You don't get to ask me to make that choice. We both go or neither of us goes."

They held a stare on one another for a few moments until Freddie slightly shook his head with a faint of a smile. "I had to try."

She glanced away and muttered, "You're too sweet for your own good."

He threw on his boyish grin and playfully retorted, "I can see it in your eyes; you like me being sweet on you."

She snapped her head up and just stared at his little bit of smugness. Something like that should have irritated her, but she found it a little enduring. She finally cracked a smile then laughed, "You're so sure of yourself, aren't you?"

He leaned closer to her, threatening to turn over the lawn chair and whispered, "I'm sure I've read the signals from you correctly and if I haven't, you could always slap me."

She sat the sharpening stone and the knife on the patio table to her left then turned back to him before cupping his cheeks in her hands. "I'd actually prefer to kiss you."

"Real—"

He didn't get to finish his question as she leaned in and pulled his face to her at the same time to capture his lips into a deep kiss. He leaned further forward to deepen the kiss while his hands moved to rest on her hips in order to hold her and maintain his balance.

Unknown to either, Carly watched behind the window in silence while the pair engaged in a deep kiss. Her mind briefly recalled when she had witness Sam kiss him like that outside in a breezeway of Ridgeway High School during their school lock-in to finish their final junior projects. However, she witnessed something quite different than when Sam had kissed their technical producer: Freddie was eagerly returning the kiss and they gently started exchanging chaste kisses after the initial deep kiss.

She turned away from the window so she wouldn't have to witness the exchange and make her own preparations before the battle.

Several minutes later after the pair had a mini-make out session, Freddie returned inside and started examining the breach of his break-action sawed-off double barrel shotgun at the Vegas' kitchen table.

Carly quietly asked, "You and Jade have gotten close? Sam implied that she was your girlfriend now."

He kept his eyes on his shotgun and dryly answered, "I don't want to talk about this with you."

She frown, clearly hurt that he would just brush her off. "Why? Why don't you want to talk about this?"

He tore his eyes away from the weapon and looked to his ex-girlfriend. He answered with a curt tone, "Maybe I don't want you to hit me or ridicule me or make some stupid remark for my choice who I find attractive."

She took a sharp breath and looked at him wide eyed as if he had physically slapped her.

He sat the shotgun down and looked up at his first love with an incredulous expression. "Last year I told you that I thought Tori was hot… you hit me for it. You got mad because I had the nerve to look at another girl that wasn't you. Why should I divulge anything to you about how I might feel about another girl?"

"I'm sorry."

Freddie bowed his head and softly shook his head before looking back up. He patiently smiled and asked, "About what exactly? About hitting me? Or about the fact that you thought you somehow had the say on who I could find attractive when you've made it clear that you don't want me as a boyfriend? You don't get to be jealous."

The Seattle brunette huffed out a breath then picked up the unloaded shotgun and sat it down on the kitchen table before taking the seat. She softly admitted, "I was kind of upset that Sam was going on about Steven cheating on me with Tori then you going on about saying how you thought she was hot. I guess I thought she could've had a point if you were finding Tori so attractive and I was not jealous."

"Then why didn't you hit her instead of me?"

She weakly answered with an embarrassed smile, "Because she's Sam."

"And being Freddie wasn't enough to keep you from hitting me during a childish temper tantrum?"

She was about to answer, but he shook his head and continued in a regretful tone, "Something changed after the accident… I stopped and waited. I gave you all the space you needed to make any decision in regards to us in a romantic sense and you didn't hear a peep out of me. It took you a year almost to the day of the accident for you to answer me… by starting to date Steven without one word to me. I should have realized then but it took me until you wanted me to get with Sam after she kissed me: we're friends, but clearly you have a scale when it comes to them and I'm a few notches down from the top. Let's please not pretend our friendship has more value to it than it does. One of those things excluded from our friendship is me discussing anything to do with my love life, whether I'm seeing someone or not."

Carly's sweet face became a mask quickly, hiding her anger at his words as well as the hurt at his view of their friendship. She was interrupted a second time from defending herself when Dusty (geared up with a tactical vest and thigh holster) approached from the living room and awkwardly cleared his throat to get the attention of the former couple. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we just got a call for the slayers and Thornesmith saying they were ready to go."

Carly turned and Freddie stood up. He picked up his shotgun and stated with a sharp tone. "Good, let's put the bastard down and get the book."

After the teenagers gathered their belongings, they piled into several vehicles and started on their way towards the location Cat had determined the demon-clone was holding up. Cat had remained behind to watch over Ian with André, Robbie and Rex coming over to keep them company and be a few extra warm bodies in case something unexpected happened. André hadn't been going with Tori and the rest for the last two weeks or so, but he was no slouch in the demon fighting department and Rex being a golem that could break most things in half would give any supernatural creature pause in wanting to challenge him. Trina returning home an hour later would be some back up even if she wasn't a slayer because she prided herself on her fighting skills.

Twenty minutes after leaving the Vega residence, the group arrived in a secluded alley where three armored SUVs were already parked.

Freddie wore a concerned expression as he pulled the Charger on the opposite side of the alley to the SUVs, fearing that they could have already moved in to try to get the Gibby demon-clone. However, his fears were extinguished at seeing a number of individuals around one of the hoods of the vehicles planning instead of the middle of executing one.

Beck's GTO pulled up behind the Charger and the vampire was the first one to step out of the vehicle, followed by Tori, Carly and Sam.

Dusty pulled up his cherry red 1965 Mustang Fastback up to the end of the opposite building to the alleyway. He could appear in an instant like Sam to the warehouse, but felt like having an extra set of wheels couldn't hurt in case the unexpected happened.

The teenagers approached the presumed vampires (Dusty and Sam picked them up as such in an instant, followed by the rest with their respective supernatural senses) just as a pair of black SUVs pulled up at the other end of the alley. Once parked, several young ladies exited the vehicles followed by Xander. Jade noticed Rona immediately and was not happy with having to deal with the former empowered slayer.

The three groups met up at the vampires' SUVs, each group wearily looking to one another, waiting to see if anyone would turn their meeting into a violent one.

The apparent lead vampire with the appearance of being in his late thirties, short very dark hair and a slim build standing at six feet sternly interrupted the standoff, "Are we going to stop the demon or are we going to just wait around here until someone flinches and we start trying to kill each other?"

Xander spoke up, but everyone could hear his disapproval of working with the vampires even if they weren't demonic as his hatred of vampires had never waned, "We're going to stop him and get the book back."

The lead vampire retorted, "We are killing the demon, but my orders are quite clear: to secure the book."

Rona shouted, "We are not letting you have the book!"

Freddie and the others remained silent, seeing how the two sides were about to play out the argument even as Freddie had not agreed to let the vampires—Mason have the book.

"And how exactly are you going to stop us slayer? Wave a pointy wooden stick at us?"

She took a step forward and shouted, "I'll shove that pointy wooden stick up that vampiric ass of yours."

Her aggressive stance was not appreciated by the vampires as two raised their M4 clone carbines at her face. Slayer or not, a 5.56mm round through the face would not be a pleasant thing for her. She backed up and the other slayers instinctive reached for their knives and stakes.

Freddie harshly called out, "Stop it right now!"

The two groups looked to him with a passing glance.

"Neither of you are having the book. I'm getting it and I'm destroying it. If either side tries to take it, I won't hesitate to kill either of you. I don't trust Mason and certainly don't trust Buffy with it. You're here to help us put down the demons, nothing more."

The lead vampire sarcastically asked, "Because we're vampires?"

Xander quickly followed, "Why would you distrust us with the book?"

Freddie looked to the vampire and answered, "Because I've known him for about two weeks…" He turned to Xander and finished with a sharp tongue, "and because she released thousands of demons before to infect thousands of girls—including three of my friends—the same way whoever got the book in the first place. You think I'm going to give her that kind of power?"

The two groups held their tongues at his explanation, a few of the slayers in particular outraged at the comparison. However, a number of others saw his point.

Freddie continued with a curt tone, "You're the first ones here, what's the plan of the attack since Mason assured you're the experts?"

The vampire, Michael was quickly forming respect for the young man at seeing his forcefulness and his quick assessment of the situation. His employer may not like that he couldn't obtain the book, but sometimes one does not get what they want. He quickly turned to a large electronic pad resting on the hood of one of the SUVs and answered,

"We pulled the blueprints for the place on our way here and in combination of observing the place with the thermals, we've determined that there are about twenty individuals mulling about inside and out of it. We can't determine if any of the homeless individuals around the perimeter are some form of demon or not, but since it appears that they are rotating inside and out of the building it is safe to assume they are—if he's actually in there and it isn't just a bunch of squatters."

Xander idly remarked, "At least we outnumber them."

He spared him a patient look then continued, "But we don't know if he has others deeper inside that the thermals can't see or what kind of hardware he's packing. If he was smart enough to have infected security guards at the hotel he was staying as his own personal bodyguards, what's preventing him from having a gun store owner possessed and raid the shop for all the hardware one needs? We do have to be cautious to how we approach this situation."

Freddie quietly asked, "Then are you still working up a plan?"

The vampire leader pointed to the rear of the warehouse on the other side of the waterfront (since the 'front' was considered the side facing the dock) with an electronic stile and started to explain, "Actually, we have worked out a plan. I want to secure the rear exits of the buildings then move in from the front. He'll either do one of two things: make a stand and hope he can fight us off in trying to secure the book or he'll have his underlings fight a holding action against us while he attempts to escape from the rear. With either decision, we'll have him: we either crush his men in a straight up fight with surprise and overwhelming firepower or we'll drive him right into the arms our people covering the rear."

Rona sharply remarked, "That simple huh? Walk in there and blast away? These things are some of the toughest things we've ever encountered. You make it sound like it's a cakewalk."

The armored vampire calmly answered, "Young lady, unlike your boss who is an amateur when it comes to tactics and strategy—so much so she lead you into a death trap years ago in an barn—I'm a professional. I've been a soldier in some form or fashion since the Second World War and my experience has come from hard fought battles were I've lost plenty of friends and comrades. One of the hard lessons I've learned is not to underestimate my opponents' capabilities and effectively try to counter them. I know they match a young vampire's strength or even surpass it, so I want to avoid a physical confrontation with them, but I know they are susceptible to hallowed rounds like any other demonic creature and we've brought plenty of firepower to exploit that advantage. How would your strategy of charging in and screaming with medieval weaponry be more effective?"

Before Rona could react, Xander calmly asked, "How do we fit in your plan?"

He directed a stile against the electronic pad and continued to explain his plan for deployment, "I'd like to place you and your slayers at the rear of the building to prevent them from slipping away. You should have sufficient strength and numbers on your side in an enclosed area to effectively deal with them."

Rona asked in an accusing voice, "So you can have a clear run at the book?"

He stood up straight and flippantly asked, "Would you have liked me to place you in the front as cannon fodder? I can certainly alter the plan to accommodate you."

Rona looked like she wanted to jump the hood of the SUV and strangle him, but Xander put a calming hand on her shoulder besides the fact that several of the vampires were ready to raise their weapons at her.

Rona finally remarked after calming down a bit, "But I want a few of us to go with you." She turned to one of the only girls that was still a slayer after the hotel fight and instructed her, "Elena, you go with them and make sure they don't try anything funny with the book."

The attractive Virginian in her late teens that oddly bared a resemblance to Tori, but not in the measure of Shelby Marx, nodded her head in accepting the assignment.

Carly asked the obvious question, "Where do we fit in this plan?"

Freddie answered with a glance to the lead vampire, "We'll split between supporting them and covering the rear. I was thinking I, Dusty, Beck, and Tori would go in…"

He caught the disapproving stare of Jade with him leaving her out.

"…and Jade… would go in for support with them while you and Sam help the other slayers cover the rear."

Sam snapped, "Why do I get to miss out on all the fun?"

He looked to the blonde and stated what he thought was the obvious, "Because I need you as an anchor for the slayers since… most of them are not slayers anymore. You're one of the trump cards in case things go to chizz."

The ones that had lost the heart of the demon in them passed a few harsh glares in his and Dusty's direction. The nephil ignored it for the most part, but he did have his hand around the grip of his Knight Armaments carbine hanging in front of him.

The lead vampire calmly instructed, "If there aren't any more questions, suit up. We're going in five minutes."

A few of the teenagers headed back to their respective cars. Dusty had 'obtained' a few stab vests that would also protect against the 9mm caliber handguns a few of the demons could be carrying if any were from the hotel security and the girls wear putting them on under their jackets, Freddie personally making sure Jade was securing it properly under her leather jacket and over her shirt.

The slayer that Rona had instructed to go with them inside cautiously approached the GTO and Tori was the first to notice her after Beck help her double check she was wearing her vest correctly before turning to help Carly. She of course noticed that though it wasn't an identical appearance as she shared with Shelby Marx, but they shared a similar enough appearance to be noticeable. Tori politely introduced herself to the fellow slayer, "Hi, I'm Tori."

The other brunette nodded her head and just as politely introduced herself, "Elena."

Tori turned her head away to pull out an arming sword from the backseat of the GTO, but keeping an eye on Beck.

The slightly taller slayer noticed Tori looking over to Beck helping Carly double check the straps on her vest and she motioned with a nod of her head towards the vampire as she questioned, "Vampire boyfriend?"

Tori quickly snapped her head to look at Elena and answer, "He's not my boyfriend, but he is my friend, so don't get any idea with the staking."

She softly laughed and raised her hands. "I wasn't, but I was going to offer some advice to be careful it was the case. I know from experience."

"You do?"

"Yeah. I had these two vampires all hung up with me after my parents died in a car accident. Apparently I looked just like their sire and in their deluded heads they wanted to rekindle a romance with me."

Tori raised an eyebrow. "What did you do?"

She smugly smiled. "I'm a slayer and they were vampires…"

Tori glanced away and suppressed a laugh, "Oh…"

"Yeah, I wasn't interesting in getting in the middle of a Twilight novel."

"I still wonder sometimes when I'll wake up and this is only a dream because I watched the movie one too many times before bed."

Elena snorted out a laugh, "If it was only that simple."

Freddie was double checking his double barrel shotgun one last time as he lazily walked over to Dusty patiently waiting for the others to secure radios Mason's vampires were handing out to everyone. He quietly whispered, hoping the vampires and slayers wouldn't overhear his conversation. "I'm going to go for the book as soon as I'm inside. I want you to stick close to Jade."

"What about Tori?"

"Beck wants the job, let him have it. Getting shot or stabbed is not going to be a problem for him. I got to… I got to trust him because you can't cover them both and I won't be there."

"A vampire shield? You expect me to do the same for her?"

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow that suggested that was exactly what he wanted Dusty to do if need be.

Almost to the minute of Michael, the leader of the vampire squad, the uneasy allies started taking up their respective positions. As four vampires, two on each door covered the slayers from about a hundred yards away on the rooftop of another warehouse across, the two entry teams quietly made their way from either side to the front entrance and a loading entrance.

The first team reached the loading entrance and one of Mason's vampires knelt down to begin picking the lock, but Dusty motioned a hand behind him and the latch opened as if someone had opened it from the other side.

He curiously looked over his shoulder to the nephil while Dusty responded with a shrug of his shoulder.

A second vampire pushed the door open while a third took the lead, Michael being the last of the vampires. The others quickly followed behind as silently as possible, the vampires rapidly and methodically making their way through the maze of stacked crates to sweep the area.

The demons were standing about dormant, as some oddly life mannequins as at the moment they didn't have any purpose but to wait in a convenient clearing of crates. The trick of appearing dead to lure in the living for a quick strike actually put them at a disadvantage for once as they were caught off guard by the swiftly moving vampires as the undead creatures immediately started firing away when they caught the demons in their crosshairs. They dropped the first few demons then a few more before they could react, but once they did, about a dozen and a half charged at them. It was a somewhat useless gesture as they turned their sights on them and fired several more bursts at them and dropping a few of them to join their fellow demons to wither in pain.

The ones they missed continued charging and leapt across several crates long and high to tackle a few vampires or leap down from some of the higher stacked crates. Things quickly turned into a struggle for them that Michael had wanted to avoid, but no plan survives contact with the enemy.

Things also shifted when a few deadites turned out to be armed with pistols and started firing in return, causing everyone to dive for cover who wasn't in hand-to-hand combat whether they were wearing a vest or not or weren't vulnerable to bullets. Dusty pulled Jade down and shielded her from a few shots behind one of the wooden crates.

He tuned out everything but trying to listen to the demon firing at them. Seconds stretched out until he heard the slide go back, but not move forward then the soft sound of the magazine fall from the grip. The teenager stood up in a snap from behind the crate and trained his weapon on the demon. Before the magazine hit the ground, Dusty fired off a burst, putting four rounds into the center of the demon's chest. He screamed in agony as he clenched his chest and dropped to the ground.

One deadite, a man in his late twenties that would look quite attractive if not for the grey skin and bleeding mouth, charged at Jade from the pair's left, but she gripped her war hammer she was carrying with two hands and swung it squarely at his jaw. Several teeth flew out of his mouth when the left side of his jaw shattered and he went face first into the ground. She was next to him in an instant and swung several times at his back, hearing the reactionary sounds of broken vertebrae and effectively crippling him until he could regenerate.

Freddie separated from the others and ran around the inner edge of the warehouse, determined to reach the Gibby demon-clone. He reached near the end of the building to a set of stairs without running into a single deadite, the vampires and the rest of his friends keeping them quite occupied.

He dashed up them in short order and was about to reach a catwalk that led to an office when a deadite appeared at the top of the landing.

It hissed out, "Where do you think you're going?"

"Through you," Freddie snapped as he raised his shotgun. He pulled the trigger and fired off one of the barrels of his shotgun, blasting the blessed buckshot into the chest of the deadite.

The demon fell back and screamed in agony as the blessed balls burned through his chest. He desperately clawed at his chest to try to reach the shot, but he didn't have the focus to dig out the rounds.

Freddie slowly finished climbing the steps and reached the demon. He pressed the end of the barrel against the deadite's face and hissed out, "Where's the book?"

The demon laughed the searing pain for the buckshot and the end of the barrel burning his cheek, "You really think I would tell you?"

Freddie was about to threaten him again, but noticed the demon twitch his eyes back towards the office door, confirming his suspicions. He pulled the barrel away from his face and walked around him to head for the office.

A deadite swung widely at Tori, but she ducked the swing and brought up her right foot and kicked out and sent him flying backwards several feet and crashing hard into a pillar of stacked crates about a dozen feet high. He hit it was such impact that it started tumbling down and crashing into other stacks. Some started falling like dominos, crashing onto some deadites, particularly one that was locked in hand-to-hand combat with Beck. The vampire blinked at the sheer luck of the pillar crashing on top of the demon.

The vampires and the ragtag group of super-empowered teenagers pushed back the hoard from Hell and a few of them decided that it was better to retreat then face being sent back to Hell. They dash as fast as their legs could take them to the rear of the warehouse to the back doors.

Several burst through the pair of backdoors and two immediately went down from well placed shots to the head from the twin snipers on the opposite roofs. The others were faster and tried to make their escape, but ran head long into the slayers and de-powered slayers.

One charged at Sam, but she grabbed the deadite by the throat and lifted it off the ground. The next moment, nearly blinding glowing red and whitish light blazed out of the creature's eyes and mouth as it screamed in horror. The light ceased and she tossed the poor young man away, leaving him shivering in the process but alive.

The others paused in their tracks, apparently able to understand fear at seeing their fellow demon apparently being destroyed by a mere touch. That was their mistake as the slayers and former slayers charged them with their medieval weaponry which a sword, ax or hammer could still do some damage even if some were not super-powered anymore.

Freddie kicked the door open and it swung a few times before settling and allowing him to cautiously enter. He cautiously walked into the office with the stock of his shotgun firmly tucked against his shoulder. He steadied his breathing as he further entered the room, but not seeing a sign of anyone else until he saw the messy desk and surrounding cabinets of a typical office. The swivel chair behind the desk had its back turned towards the front of the office, but Freddie could see the top of the back of the Gibby demon-clone's head peaking from about the top of the backrest.

Freddie stopped feet from the desk and shouted, "Where's the book you demonic son-of-a-bitch?!"

The demon ignored him, content to face away from the 'Promised One'.

The Seattlite took several calming breaths before he slowly walked around the right end of the desk to stand to the side of the sitting demon. He instantly frowned at seeing the Gibby demon-clone looking as if sleeping with his head hanging down and arms resting on the armrests. However, there was an odd smell to it… the smell of rotting death.

Freddie kicked out to turn the demon to face him and the chair swiveled to face him, the teenager keeping the shotgun firmly aimed at the demon. He looked down at noticing a large piece of paper tapped to the deadite's chest.

"Sorry, but I decided I needed a new suit for the PMAs, so I ditched this one. I'll see you there or maybe not…"

He sucked in a sharp breath at realizing that the demon had dumped the body and left to find a new 'meat-suit' to house him. As enraged as he felt, he did had the withal to noticed a soft red blinking under the piece of paper and quickly tore it off. His eyes widened in horror as he saw several red digits counting down to less than half a minute. He turned and pressed the radio stud against his neck and shouted, "It's a trap! He's rigged a bomb!"

He turned and made a mad dash out of the office and towards the stairs. He stopped just before reaching them to look out over the warehouse to try to spot his friends. Some were still fighting it out with some deadites as they were trying to retreat, but a half a dozen or so demons had decided to stay and fight it out. He saw among the stacked boxes that Jade was currently fending off two of the deadites with her hammer in one hand and combat knife in the other.

The demons were bloodied and bruised, but they were still fighting and would soon be dead by the look in Jade's eyes as she as about to attack them both, however time was an issue now after hearing Freddie's shout.

Freddie meanwhile took matters in his own hands and leapt off the railing and dropped the nearly two stories down to the floor, rolling as he landed. He was back on his feet in an instant. He charged and shouted from behind them and raised his shotgun and bashed one of them in the face just as he was turning to see where the shout had originated. He flung backwards against a crate and struggled to push off to charge at Freddie, but the teenager brought the shotgun level and fired at point blank range into the demon's face. The shot of course took most of it and the poor soul's head off then slumped to the ground.

In the confusion, the other demon paused in his attention on Jade which gave the slayer to swing her hammer to the side of the deadite's face and sending him to the floor. She was about to swing down on him to make sure he was down, but Freddie grabbed her elbow and started pulling her along towards the back of the building with a shout, "We got to go!"

Elena was on her back, struggling to keep a deadite from trying to bite her face off as it snapped at her while straddling her. Tori got behind it and pulled her forearm around its neck and yanked him off of the slayer. The brunette rolled off the back of the deadite to jump back on her feet as the demon recovered. He was about to charge her, but was stopped in its tracks when Beck appeared to come out of nowhere and spear the demon in the chest with Tori's dropped arming sword. He pushed hard enough to drive the deadite back into a pillar of crates and embed the blade poking out of the back of the deadite into the wood, pinning the creature.

Tori grabbed Elena by the arm and dragged her to her feet. "We got to go." She pulled the slightly taller slayer with her towards one of the back entrances with Beck right behind them.

Some deadites gave chase, but Dusty trailed behind long enough to give the rest cover to leave. He raised his palm and let out a blinding light towards the charging hoard.

The group of teenage friends ran out of the back followed by a few of Mason's vampires that hadn't already escaped ahead of them. They ran for several more feet to try to get as far away as they could, but seconds a large explosion rocked the building, sending the loading door exploding outward with such force that it was sent flying into the water and the rest of the windows shattering with flames shooting out of them.

The group almost as a hold threw themselves to the ground the instant they heard and felt the explosion behind them.

Freddie struggled to climb onto his hands and knees. He started looking around to find the pale brunette, "Jade? Jade?!"

Fortunately, the pale dark brunette hadn't separated from him once they got out, so she was still by his side laying on the pavement. She rolled onto her back and deeply took a few breaths before she sat up.

He crawled to her and pulled her into a hug, repeatedly kissing her cheek and temple while thanking God she was alright.

She relaxed into his arms and she surrendered to the embrace as the warehouse started burning and the others were checking to see if everyone got out in time.

Author's Note: They just can't catch a break can they? I'm not sure if there are one or two chapters left to the story, but hopefully one way or the other this story will be finished by next Saturday at the latest. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Yes, there is an Easter egg of another fandom in the chapter if you noticed.

Guest star Jeffrey Donovan as Michael
Guest star Nina Dobrev as Elena