Buffy stared at me for a moment, her face blanching and I could hear her heart beating in rapid-time as adrenaline kicked in. Her lips parted as though she was going to say something, instead she turned, shoved the caught vampire into Angel and ordered him to watch her.

"Come on," she said to me, and then broke into a full-on sprint out the door. I followed suit, and quickly caught up to, and passed her. She wasn't far behind me, though as we charged back to the school. Anyone passing by us that night would have seen two blurs, we were moving so quickly, and with good cause.

I can't speak for the Slayer, but I was going through several scenarios of how the situation could be playing out at the school right now with our friends. None of them were pleasant.

The thought made me push harder, and I felt the Essence stir when I begged for more power.

We're getting hungry

'Later, now's really not the time, just help me.'

It growled reluctantly, but gave me the extra boost I needed, giving me a good five-foot advantage over the Slayer.

As soon as we entered the school, I could smell the presence of vampires, though whether they were still here or not was a different matter altogether. It was a sure wager that they had been here at least in the last ten minutes.

I ran straight to the library, the scent growing stronger with every foot of ground I covered.

Bursting through the doorway, my worst fears were confirmed: vampires had been here, and they'd taken our friends. Signs of a struggle were everywhere: overturned tables, carts tipped, books scattered across the floor, and all our friends gone.

No, not all. There was one vampire still, moving towards a crouched figure by the banisters.

Xander.

I reached for my stake, feeling my fangs snap into place as I let out a challenging roar. The vampire whirled towards me, too late. I was already launching myself at him, swinging my stake at his chest.

He reached up to deflect, which I'd expected. I used my left arm to knock his hand away and changed the direction of the stake so that it came from below and struck beneath his ribs and struck up into his heart.

The vampire turned to dust about the time Buffy charged into the library, she took stock of the situation and I could feel the anger and fear radiating off of her.

Then she saw Xander as I moved towards him, just now noticing the scent of warm blood in the area, still pouring, still pumping. The Essence gave a growl of hunger and squirmed deep in my chest, but I ignored it.

"Xander?" I said as Buffy ran towards us. He flinched at the sound, but looked up. Blood poured from his nose, across his lips, and a smaller trickle was dripping slowly from a cut on his lip.

I grasped his arm as he struggled to stand up, but when Buffy ran up he flinched away.

"What happened?" she asked, even though we already knew the answer.

"Vampires." Xander practically spat the word. "The ones you could handle yourself."

He wiped at his face, breathing heavily, ragged breaths making him shudder. Buffy winced at his words, and looked…well, she looked scared.

"Where are they?" she asked.

"I don't know." He answered, anger and frustration glinting in his eyes as he looked at her. And resentment, and blame. Whether for himself or Buffy or both I couldn't be sure.

"I don't know what your problem is," Xander continued after a pause, anger thick in his voice, anger and pain, "what your issues are, but as of now I officially don't care. If you'd just worked with us for five seconds, you could've stopped this. Instead," he took another ragged breath, "instead you had to charge off like an idiot, acting so stupid Marge had to go after you to keep you from getting hurt. If you'd just thought for a second, she could've stayed behind."

Egad but the lad had a point. They only reason I'd gone was because Buffy hadn't seemed to be in her right mind. If we'd just coordinated this better…

But it was too late to start thinking of all the 'what ifs' in this situation. If that's all we did we'd never get anything done.

I said as much aloud to the two of them. Buffy was badly shaken, clearly. Her bravado hadn't saved her friends, and she knew she was at fault here.

"W-We just have to think," she said, her voice shaking and strained, "think where they've taken them."

"If they hurt Willow I'll kill you." Xander answered.

"Enough!" I snapped, stepping in between them so they couldn't look at each other. "We've had enough fighting for one night, for now we have to dispense with threats and think about saving the others or we're not going to get anywhere."

Xander huffed but lowered his angry gaze, and Buffy swallowed.

"All right," I sighed, rubbing my forehead, a thought occurring to me; "all right. Xander, why didn't they take you? Why were they going to kill you?"

He thought for a moment, shook his head.

"Giles said they wanted the people closest to the Master." He reminded me. I frowned and looked at Buffy.

"Those closest to him when he died." She said.

Which, more or less, included me, I suppose.

"Giles," Xander started listing, "Willow, Cordelia, you," he looked at me.

"Miss Calendar." Buffy added.

If I could have I would have blushed. I'd forgotten about that woman. I often did.

"So they've almost got a complete set, now." Xander pointed out.

"We need to find out where." Buffy repeated.

"How?" Xander demanded.

I looked at Buffy, understanding what she meant.

"The vampire at the Bronze." I said. She nodded. I turned to Xander.

"Get cleaned up," I told him, "then I'll give you a ride to the Bronze. Hurry."

He nodded, wincing as he stood and made his way out the library and to the boys' bathroom. Buffy's shoulders slumped when he left, and she looked at me. Self-loathing filled her eyes, her lips pressed tightly together.

I knew what she was going to say, and I didn't want to hear it. Not now. Now was not the time for remorse or trying to shift blame or ask to have blame removed.

"No." I said, stopping her before she even spoke.

"Later." I said softly. "Not now."

She looked hurt, but she gave a terse nod and looked away.

That was hard to do. I wanted to give her comfort. After all, she was still a child, all things considered. She'd made a mistake because she'd misbehaved, she wanted forgiveness, or just someone to tell her it would be all right. But I couldn't tell her that, because I didn't know.

It was hard, but she needed to learn. And some lessons are hard learned.

I sighed and rubbed at my face again. Heavens but sometimes I missed those quiet, lonely libraries and villages I'd left behind. They were far less complicated.

When we got back to the Bronze, Buffy wasted no time beginning the interrogation, while Angel, Xander, and I watched.

Buffy was getting increasingly frustrated with the vampire's reticence, and she was taking out her anger on it as well. The vampire seemed unfazed by it, however.

Buffy threw the vampire on the ground and loomed over her, practically trembling with fury.

"Last time," she snarled, "where are they?"

"You're too late," the vampire chuckled, "your friends are dead."
"Then it won't matter if you tell us, will it?" I said.

"Where are they?" Buffy demanded.

"What're you going to do?" The vampire laughed, "Kill me?"

Buffy glanced at me, a question in her eyes. I gave a slight nod, letting my fangs lower and feeling my shoulders tense in preparation.

"No," Buffy said, smiling sweetly at the vampire, "but if you've hurt our friends, she will." She took a step back and I rushed forward. The vampire turned, startled, I grabbed her left arm and pulled it back and up, twisting it as I did. I heard something in her shoulder pop and felt the joint give to my grip.

She yelped and I grabbed the back of her head. I slammed her face-down on a nearby pool-table, pulled her back, then flipped her onto it. She started to snarl at me, so I snapped at her face, barely avoiding biting down on her nose.

The vampire recoiled, growling softly as Buffy stepped beside me and gave me a tap on the shoulder, letting me know it was her turn, now.

I stepped aside as she wrenched off the cross around her neck.

"We are going to kill you," Buffy said, "but, since I'm not going to kill you any time soon…" the vampire hissed at her, and Buffy dropped the silver cross into her open mouth, immediately creating a stream of smoke as it began to burn the vampire.

Huh, I'd never thought to do that, before.

It was effective, in any case.

"The question is," Buffy continued, as the vampire started to writhe in pain, "what to do in the meantime?"

Buffy yanked the cross out, and smiled at the vampire again.

"So," she said, "one more time. Tell me where they are."

She told us.

When we got to the warehouse (it's always a warehouse, isn't it? I wonder what would happen if they just tore down empty warehouses? Where would all the baddies go to hold their clandestine and nefarious meetings?) the ritual was just getting underway.

The children, Giles, and Ms. Calendar all hung suspended from a chain that ran the width of the room.

They were still alive, for now, but unconscious.

"Behold," a man's voice was saying, "these four mortals: witnesses to our Master's wretched demise. They will breathe their last this night. The blood that pours from their throats will bring new life to the Old One. We gather, for his resurrection."

He paused dramatically (baddies are often dramatic, after all) and then added: "We gather for the dawn of this new era."

The four of us stopped short, since we were following Buffy's lead and she had stopped.

She stood there, staring.

"Buffy," Xander whispered, "Buffy!"

She snapped out of it and turned.

"We've got to do something, now." He whispered at her. She nodded slowly and motioned vaguely at Angel and Xander.

"You two get the others out of here." She said.

"We'll distract the vermin," I said, prodding Buffy with my elbow, "right?"

She nodded, her eyes still distant.

"Right." She said quietly.

"What're you going to do?" Angel asked. I looked at Buffy, giving her the chance to take charge this time.

She did.

"I'm going to kill them all." She sounded almost nonchalant as she said it.

I slid my stake out and checked the inner pocket on my coat, where I'd stashed a small amount of holy water. It wouldn't do any damage, but it would distract a vampire long enough to kill it, if I got cornered.

Buffy and I moved towards the group, careful to stay low and out of sight as they began their ritual in earnest.

The one who'd spoken, a male vampire who looked like he fancied himself some sort of priest, held a blade in his hand.

"For the Old One," he said, "For his pain," he looked around at his followers, smiling, "for the Dark."

His followers echoed the last three words, moving in a circle. Buffy stepped up to the last one to speak.

"For the-" Buffy didn't give him the chance to finish, she stabbed into his back, penetrating all the way to his heart. He gasped and immediately turned into dust, revealing us standing behind him.

For a moment no one said anything, just stared at us in stunned silence. The false priest was the one to recover first. He gave an odd yell that ended in a battle roar, which triggered the other vampires to attack.

Two pounced at Buffy, I kicked one, a female, away from her, and as the vampire stumbled I moved in and plunged the stake into her heart. I didn't pause to watch her disintegrate, but spun back to the others.

Three other vampires went for Buffy, and she was a flurry of striking limbs.

I moved to intercept a vampire who was moving around to flank her, throwing a blow that caught him across the jaw and snapped his head to the side. Another kick to the back sent him sprawling across the floor.

A second vampire saw my attack and turned to me, snarling, leaning back to kick me, so I moved in, slamming my head into his snarling face.

"The sacrifices!" the false priest screamed in fury, I looked over to see them being pulled away from us, "Stop them!" he screamed.

One vampire broke off from the rest of the group to obey the command, but as I went to intercept him, another female vampire grabbed me from behind and threw me into the wall. I dropped my stake in the process and fumbled for the holy water in my pocket as she charged at me.

I wrestled it out and threw it as hard as I could at her face. The glass shattered and the holy water splashed across her face, making it sizzle.

She shrieked more in surprise than pain and I lunged at her, matching her snarl with my own. We went down on the floor together, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the false priest making a retreat.

I growled in frustration, I couldn't get to him in time, with this vampire beneath me it would take too much time to finish her and get to him as well.

I started beating at her face, venting my frustration with the situation, the day, the week, the Master, the Hellmouth, everything. It was all so frustrating.

The vampire snarled after every blow, even though her face was bloodied and broken after a few hits. Beside me, Buffy broke a crate over a vampire's head, and the pieces went flying and skittering across the floor. I grabbed one and plunged into the vampire, missed the heart, and had to do it again.

By the time she turned to dust and I stood, the false priest was gone.

Buffy was fighting one last vampire, and I started to go help her, but then realized she was fine. If anything, she was venting as well.

She knocked the vampire away from her when a voice roared behind us: "Enough!"

I looked back, and the false priest was back, wielding a sledgehammer.

"Your day is done, girl." He said, moving slowly towards Buffy. I don't think he saw me in the shadows.

"I'll grind you into a sticky paste." He snapped. "And hear you beg, before I smash in your face."

They just stood there for a moment and Buffy looked around.

"So," she said, "are you gonna kill me? Or are we just making small talk?"

The false priest blinked in surprise then roared and charged at her, as did the other vampire.

Buffy didn't move, instead she blinked, stepped towards a tall torch that had been burning at the altar where the Master's bones lay, and wrenched it free, twirled it, then held it horizontal. The other vampire ran straight into the point and turned to dust, while the false priest ran into the burning tip.

The false priest burned swiftly, screaming as he did so. His last act before he fell was to raise his hammer in one last vain attempt to destroy the Slayer. It fell before he even tried to swing.

Buffy stood for a long time, breathing heavy, as though stunned.

I stepped out of the shadows, moving towards her. She looked around, slowly, as though in a dream.

"It's over." I heard Willow say quietly up above us. I looked up, too see if she was hurt. She looked well enough, perhaps a little pale.

"No, it's not." Xander answered grimly.

Buffy's gaze came to rest on the Master's bones: the one who had caused all of this in the first place. She sniffed, then reached down for the hammer, picked it up, and moved towards the altar.

She started smashing the bones, and she started crying. Bones and bits of bones scattered in every direction, leaving behind crushed powder.

Angel appeared from behind me. I hadn't even noticed him approach. He nodded to me, moving towards Buffy. I returned the nod and stepped back again. She didn't need me, right now, in any case.

She finished smashing the bones and started crying in earnest. Angel moved up behind her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay," he whispered, "it's okay."

She turned, sobbing, and leaned into him while he wrapped his arms around her. I sighed and looked up again at the children. Giles had joined them, looking none the worse for wear, aside from being a little disheveled.

He caught my eye and smiled, ever so slightly. I returned it and gave a half-bow.

Xander was right, this wasn't over. But at the very least, we were safe for now.