Chapter 36

Buffy and Giles walked into the kitchen through the back door, only to see the three potentials already up and eating breakfast.

"Let's not tell the others just yet." Buffy was saying. "It'll give us a chance to…." She stopped when she saw the girls in the kitchen.

"Sorry about the British invasion." Kennedy said.

"We've been up for hours." Molly said as she buttered toast.

"4 P.M. London time." Annabelle clarified.

"Are you all right?" Kennedy asked. "You look…."

"Oh." Buffy shut the door. "Yeah, I'm ok. I just got into a fight is all." She looked at Giles. "You want to tell me with what?"

"Yes, Buffy, but don't you think we should, uh, discuss this privately?" Giles asked.

"You mean, not in front of the next generation? No time to coddle them, Giles. Welcome to the war room, guys." Buffy noticed Annabelle take out a notepad to take notes.

"Uh, what you fought was a vampire, but it was, um, something more than that. It was a Turok-Han. As Neanderthals are to human beings, the Turok-Han are to vampires. Primordial, ferociously powerful killing machines, as single-minded as animals. They are the vampires that vampires fear. An ancient and entirely different race and, until this morning, I thought they were a myth."

"So, The First shows up, and now this? You think it's a coincidence?"

"I think it's more likely that the Turok-Han is here as an agent of The First."

"Um, did you slay it?" Annabelle asked.

"No, it's still out there, somewhere."

"What's it want?" Molly asked.

"All of us dead. But for now it looks like sunlight is keeping this UberVamp away."

"So, until sunset, I suggest you get some rest." Giles said. "A few hours sleep will do a world of difference."

"No sleep today. Can't."

"Oh, come on, you're exhausted."

"Ah, it comes with the gig. Somehow I don't think taking on prehistoric evil comes with nap time. Sorry, potential guys. I know you came a long way, and you wanna get into it, but the best thing you can do right now is just sit tight, wait it out. I'm gonna go to work, see what I can find out. I'll be back before sunset."

"How do you plan to research something as ill-defined as The First?"

"I have the best plan ever."

Buffy sat at her desk, talking on the phone and using her computer. Beside her keyboard was a large gourmet coffee. She had a web browser up and was using a search engine. In the search field, she had typed evil.

"Yeah, well, I already re-checked the basement. Wait, you know, hold on, I'm gonna try something." Buffy typed on her keyboard. "Maybe The First isn't ready for modern technology. Displaying results 1 through 10 of 900,517. Ok, I gotta narrow this down. I'll call you back? Yeah." Buffy hung up then typed manifestations of evil in the search field.

Principal Wood walked up to her cubicle wall without her noticing and read from her computer screen. "Manifestations of evil?" Buffy typed more in the search field and Wood read what she was typing. "In…. the…. movies. You're searching for evil movies?"

"Uh, I know it's not the all-time most kosher use of my office hours, um, but, you know, looking at some down time. And what can I say, I just love those evil, evil movies. Like Exorcist, you know, Blair Witch…."

"Hmm. As opposed to Rob Schneider's Oeuvre."

"Different kind of evil."

"Yeah. Buffy, you know, I'm not that big a fan of scary movies, even the hokie ones. Sometimes they go to a place that I think kids could stand to avoid." He sat in the chair in front of her desk and crossed his arms.

"Well, it's not for the kids."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm only saying that once you see true evil, it can have some serious after burn, and then you can't unsee what you saw. Ever. That's just one opinion. I better get back to work." He stood and walked out of her cubicle.

"What kind of movies do you like?"

"Oh, me? Mysteries. I love finding out what's underneath it all at the very end." He walked away.

Buffy lifted an eyebrow and shook her head at the creepiness that was Principal Wood. On a whim, Buffy picked up her phone and dialed the Hyperion's number. Nobody picked up and it went to the answering machine. "Hey Angel, it's Buffy. I just wanted to let you know everything's ok down here. The First is back in town in a big way and we've got our hands full, but we'll be ok. Connor says hey. He's helping out where he can and now he's in a house full of women that will keep multiplying as the days go by. There's an attack on the Slayer line by the First and it's taking out potential Slayers before hitting Faith and then me. I was wondering, if you have time, if you could check on Faith and let me know if she's ok. Let her know to keep a look out for guys in robes with no eyes. They're called Bringers. I guess I'll talk to you later. I hope everything's ok down there. Oh, and hi to everyone else. Gunn, Fred, Wesley, Lorne…. Cordelia if she's not evil anymore. Bye Angel. " She hung up and went back to searching.

The school bell rang. Buffy was washing her face in the sink. She touched a sore spot on her face, then went to inspect her arms as well. She unzipped the arm of her blazer to reveal scrapes and bruises that rivaled what she had had with the Beast. Suddenly, Joyce's loving touch, and her concerned voice spoke and Buffy was in her bathroom at home.

"Buffy, what happened?" Joyce asked.

"Uh, oh, it's ok, Mom."

"I tried to warn you, but…. right. The last thing you need now is one of helpful Mom's guilt trips. I'll get you some ice."

"No. Mom, I-I can't."

"Buffy, you have to heal."

"I don't have time."

"Are you worried about the sun going down? Because there's some things you can't control. The sun always goes down, the sun always comes up."

"Everyone's counting on me."

"Well, they do that, and I'm sorry, Buffy, but these-these friends of you put too much pressure on you. They always have."

"Something evil is coming."

"Buffy, evil isn't coming, it's already here. Evil is always here. Don't you know? It's everywhere."

"And I have to stop it."

"How are you gonna do that?"

"I-I don't know yet, but…."

"Buffy, no matter what your friends expect of you, evil is a part of us. All of us. It's natural. And no one can stop that. No one can stop nature, not even…."

The school bell rang and Buffy snapped awake at her desk. There was a student sitting in the chair in front of her desk. "Oh, um, I'm sorry. What were we talking about?"

"Only my life. You're just like all the others."

"No. No, no, no. I'm different. I'm hip. I relate to the young people." The kid stood up to leave. "No, don't go, uh, uh…."

"Roger."

"Roger. See? I knew that!" Roger left and Buffy sighed. She hung her head in her hands.

Connor and Willow were getting weapons from the weapons chest. Giles was pacing. Xander was finishing up working on the living room window with Dawn's help. The Potentials were sitting on the couch.

"This day's almost over." Giles said, looking at watch. "And the sun will go down in 17 minutes."

"Hey, junior slayers, don't look so worried." Xander said. "I mean, sure, we don't know where Spike is, or how to fight The First, or if and when the super style vampire is gonna attack us all. However, house…."Xander tapped his hammer on the boarded up windows. "Boarded up. Now all we gotta do is trap this UberVamp in a pantry, and it's game over."

"Xander, newbies." Willow warned. "Let's ease them in to the whole jokes in the face of death thing."

"Who's joking? That pantry thing could work. Are you saying M. Night Shamalayan lied to us?"

"You'll be ok." Buffy said to the potentials.

"Ok, or even better. It's like our guarantee." Willow said. She turned to Buffy and said quietly, "Um, Buffy, I just, I want you to know that I'm really sorry for letting you down. You know, here before with the magic going all aah and me going all eeee and everything getting all rrrr. I wish I could help out."

"No one expects you to make everything right."

"So, I can't do everything, but I should at least be able to do something. I have so much power, but when I try to use it…."

"Don't, ok?"

"Ok. But, you need help, Buffy. I know you, and I know you'll never admit it, but you need help."

"I'll be ok. Ok, or better. It's like my guarantee."

Kennedy stood and walked up to Buffy and Willow. "Hey, are we getting weapons? Trained fighters? Patton is coming? I've heard worse ideas."

"We'll be armed when the Slayer feels we're ready." Annabelle said.

"I feel ready." Molly said.

"You're frightened. You must learn to control your fear."

"Hey, you know what would help with that? Weapons."

"Uh, I don't know about that…." Buffy started.

"We're sitting ducks without them."

"We're with the Slayer. Safe as houses." Annabelle insisted.

"Do you see the house we're in?"

"It'll come straight for us, won't it?"

"We should load them up, Giles." Buffy said finally.

Buffy and Xander walked into the dining room where Andrew was still tied to a chair. He looked at them pitifully and said, "Listen to me, man, I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Of course you've got a bad feeling, dude. You're-you're tied to a chair." Xander said,

"No. Yeah, but above and beyond that. I'm telling you that my spider-sense is tingling. This is gonna get hairy. I'm talking weird with a beard. Better untie me."

"And that'll help us, how?"

"Ok, I know what you're thinking. Andrew, bad guy. You think I'm a super-villain like Dr. Doom or Apocalypse or-or The Riddler. But I admit I went over to the dark side, but just to pick up a few things, a-and now I'm back. I've learned. I'm good again."

"And when were you good before?"

Buffy and Xander walked out as Andrew said behind them, "Ok, technically, never. Touché. But I'm like Vader in the last 5 minutes of Jedi with redemptive powers minus a redemptive struggle of epic redemption which chronicles…." He stopped struggling and sighed. "These ropes itch."

Buffy was looking out the window in the kitchen when Giles walked in. She turned to him as he walked up to her. "How're we doing on time?"

"Sunset should be any minute now. Done everything we can. And don't worry, everyone here understands that you're calling the shots." Giles said.

"I just hope I'm calling the right ones."

"You have all my faith. And they're depending on you."

"Giles, that's not exactly what I needed to hear right now."

Molly entered the room and interrupted them. "Guys? Annabelle split."

Connor walked in behind Molly and looked at Buffy. Buffy thought for a minute and then nodded. She walked into the living room with Molly, Connor, and Giles behind her. "Will, Xander, I want you with Giles. Take downtown and near the Bronze. Connor, I want you here to guard Dawn, Molly, and Kennedy." He started to protest. "You're the only one that can take this thing on. If it comes here…."

"I'll kill it." Connor said.

"It's strong."

"So am I."

Buffy nodded and grabbed her coat.

Buffy had found her way to the industrial manufacturing complex. She walked past a dumpster and saw Annabelle's body lying still on the ground. As she took a moment to contemplate the situation, the UberVamp attacked her from behind, knocking her to the ground. Buffy crawled away to crouch beside the dumpster. She looked at the UberVamp and then got up to fight with it. She kicked, it ducked. She punched, it blocked. It punched her in the face, then in the stomach, and Buffy fell to the ground face first. It picked her up and tried to choke her, but she spit blood in its face, startling it. Buffy managed to escape its clutches. She ran away, hiding in the nearby factory. The UberVamp licked the blood off of its face, growled, and headed after Buffy.

Buffy ran into the factory and looked around for somewhere to hide. She wasn't making a fast flight since she was limping. She had been beaten by the Beast only days before and then Angelus and then by this thing early this morning. Her body was tired and aching and she knew she was in trouble. She ran deeper into the building, which was very industrial in nature with vertical metal pipes and valves. The UberVamp had followed her to the building and was looking for her. She surprised it by coming from behind it and smacking it in the head with a large metal pipe, but she didn't even manage to knock him down. They fought mercilessly and it wrestled the pipe from her hand when she swung it at the thing again. It threw the pipe to the ground and they returned kicks and punches.

It punched her and she bent over at the waist. It kicked her in the chest, sending her crashing into a metal support beam. The UberVamp came at her again, and she dropped to the ground to avoid its fist. She stood painfully and it punched and kicked her, finally causing her to double over in pain as it punched her ribs. It punched her in the head, sending her to the ground again. It picked her up, backhanded her in the face, then punched her so hard, she flew 25 feet across the room.

It ran toward her, but she looked around and noticed a pulley hoisting a pallet of metal beams. Buffy kicked a control lever for the pulley, sending the beams crashing on top of the UberVamp as it came towards her. Still lying on the ground, Buffy hid her face as they landed. She got up and ran away slowly, still limping, but stopped and turned around. Her eyes widened as she saw the UberVamp rising from the pile of metal beams, unhurt. It leapt out of the rubble and sprinted after her.

In no time at all, it had caught up to her, grabbing her from behind and throwing her into a concrete wall. She stepped back, still standing, as the UberVamp literally crawled up the wall to gain momentum and height to kick her in the face, knocking Buffy to the ground. Then it kicked her in the head again before grabbing her arm and throwing Buffy through a concrete block wall. The wall crumbled down on top of her, the roof caved in, and then there was only blackness.

"Buffy!" Xander called. He lifted off part of the metal roof that had fallen on top of Buffy, revealing her body lying there still on the ground in a pile of rubble, her face covered in blood. Xander was flanked by Willow and Giles. "Oh, God almighty." They all stared at Buffy's beaten body.

Buffy was curled up in a chair in her room, listening to the others talk downstairs. She was beaten up quite badly, her face bloody and bruised. She stared straight ahead as she listened and tried not to think about how much her body hurt.

"We could make plans as we always do, but the truth is, Buffy was our plan." Giles said. "There is no back up."

"Giles, she looks bad." Willow said.

"She does. I'm afraid there may be internal bleeding."

"What does that mean? Will she…."

"Die? I don't think so. I don't know."

"What do we do if she can't fight, if she can't beat this thing?" Connor asked.

"We're back at square one."

"Which square would that be, exactly?" Xander asked.

"I'm not sure. The First predates everything we've ever known, or can know. It's everywhere. It's pure. I don't know if we can fight it."

Buffy walked in, and everyone turned to look, unaware that she had been listening. "You're right." She said. "We don't know how to fight it. We don't know when it'll come. We can't run, can't hide, can't pretend it's not the end, cause it is. Something's always been there to try and destroy the world. We've beaten them back, but we're not dealing with them anymore. We're dealing with the reason they exist. Evil. The strongest. The First."

"Buffy, I…. I-I know you're tired."

"I'm beyond tired. I'm beyond scared. I'm standing on the mouth of hell, and it is gonna swallow me whole. And it'll choke on me. We're not ready? They're not ready. They think we're gonna wait for the end to come, like we always do. I'm done waiting. They want an apocalypse? Oh, we'll give 'em one. Anyone else who wants to run, do it now. Cause we just became an army. We just declared war. From now on, we won't just face our worst fears, we will seek them out. We will find them, and cut out their hearts one by one, until The First shows itself for what it really is. And I'll kill it myself. There is only one thing on this earth more powerful than evil, and that's us. Any questions?"