Disclaimer: I claim no right over the characters from BtVS portrayed in the piece of
fiction. All rights of the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer is reserved by Mutant Enemy,
Sandollar, Kuzui Enterprises and Fox. This piece of fiction is not to be reproduced
anywhere or edited without the express consent of the author as named above.

Warning: This piece of literature contains scenes with violence, strong language and
religious references that may be considered offensive. Parental disgression should be
applied.

Chapter 5: Discoveries


Buffy walked up the street toward her home. Each step seemed harder than the last.
She wasn`t approaching in the dark of the night or hidden beneath the cloak of the
Messenger. She glanced at her home. And realized that things had changed.

Instead of the simple garden her mother had kept there was a regular show of flowers
and well kept bushes. The old Summers car was gone, replaced by a run of the mill
japanese car and the house was obviously being repainted. Buffy walked closer and
glanced at the mailbox. The name listed wasn`t Summers but Elison. Her mother had
moved. She needed information and fast. Buffy walked towards the home of her friends.

It was getting dark, but Buffy didn`t notice. She was distraught almost to the point of
crying. She couldn`t find anyone, she knew. Giles, Xander, Cordelia and Willow had all
moved. Giles apartment was up for rent and his neighbour hadn`t know where he and
his wife had moved. Xander`s parents had just told her that he had moved to LA to live
with his girlfriend. And Willow`s parents hadn`t been home, but Willow`s room had been
entirely empty. She had moved away to some college somewhere. And so had her
mother. Buffy walked down the sidewalk towards a red glowing neon sign, which only
read Willy`s. Maybe that old stoolie knew something.

For Willy life had turned to the better. Angel had moved away, the slayer`s gang was
gone and the new slayers knew nothing of his existence. His customers were happy
and the blood sold as before Buffy had come to town. Willy limped over to his
storeroom, he had to gather some more warm blood for his customers.

Thomas 'Rake' Willis was a modern vampire, he followed the times and tried to adapt to
the new rules when they got made. He was a survivor clinging onto even his undeath
like it was a huge price. These days life in Sunnydale was easier. And he should know
being a veteran of not only the replacement slayer years, the terror campaign of Spike,
but also of the year and a half when Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel had almost
entirely decimated the vampire population of Sunnydale. He began drinking his very
bloody Mary, when he felt a sense of dread, a sense of something approaching. Slowly
he put down his drink and stared at the door to the street.

Suddenly the door opened and a small young girl walked inside.

Rake almost spit out the still warm blood as he saw someone he knew had died at least
twice. In the door stood a much longer haired but otherwise unchanged Buffy. The bane
of the Master, Spike and any other evil than had ever crossed paths with her. A girl,
who`s human life had been ended a long time ago in an inferno partly because of the
actions of the owner of this place. Rake left the glass, where it stood and edged towards
the entrance as he expected the life of every evil being in the bar to end within minutes.

But luck was not with Rake this time. Buffy knew him from before and she knew very
well that unlike the other beings she saw, he alone had recognized her. So as he
silently tried to walk out the door, Buffy spun around and hammered a recently made
stake into his back. He died in a miniature explosion of dust motes.

Buffy turned to face the barroom. All around the growls of vampires made it sound like
she had stepped into a lion`s cage. She stared around the room and for a microsecond
the demons inside their hosts, each and everyone knew, that this girl was more than
capable of destroying them and still sit down later and have a drink. All of them
understood that this was the time to leave and all quietly slipped away through the
various exits leaving the already sparsely populated bar completely empty.

Willy walked out from the storeroom only to find his bar empty. All his regulars had
disappeared without a trace or a sound. Cautiously he walked into the room. The last
time this had happened he had been stuck all night feeding pieces of human flesh to a
chaos demon in the sewers. Then a human figure stepped out of the shadows, which
were plentiful in his bar.

"I seem to disturb the clientele of your bar everytime I come here. It seems to be a bad
habit of mine", she replied and sat calmly at the bar like she was just another customer.

"Aren`t humans supposed to stay dead?", he asked surly and limped to the place across
from her. Nothing surprised him about that girl or this town anymore. She had returned
from the dead once why not again. At least this time she didn`t seem hell bent on
sending him into bankruptcy or the hospital. Well not yet anyway.

"Well, yeah. It seems, they make exceptions for me", she quiped and smiled.

"Okay then, what can I help you with?", he asked hoping that she didn`t need money
again.

"Well, you helped me a lot last time. So I was thinking. How about you give me some
money without me beating the crap out of you and then you answer a couple of
questions of mine", she said and smiled sweetly at him.

Willy scowled at her, hesitating slightly, then open the register and handed her a small
stack of hundred dollar bills.

"Business has been really good lately", she replied as she counted the money. "Now for
some Q and A", Buffy said.

"Where is Angel?", she asked.

"He left for LA thankfully and took most of your old gang with him. I think they are all
there now, even that smart redhaired girl", he explained.

"Have you heard anything about my mother?", she asked and looked like she didn`t
expect him to know anything.

And just as expected he shook his head.

"Do you know the patrol route of the slayers?", she inquired.

Willy looked surprised at her. "I know nothing about such…", but before he could finish
the lie, Buffy cut him off.

"Don`t lie to me. The route of the Slayer false or not has probably been one of the most
common trade items in Sunnydale for these last 4 years. So what is it?", she asked in a
tone that indicated impatience.

"Okay as far as I know this is it", Willy said and handed her, a map of Sunnydale
covered with a red marker track and small notes about times and dates. It looked like
some of the vampires Buffy and later Wendy has slain had been out to make a map of
the most common patrol route of the Slayer. Buffy felt satisfied in her knowledge that
she had never followed routes and had instead visited collection spots around town at
random times and at random intervals even several times in one night.

"Thank you and I am almost sorry for scaring away your customers", she replied and left
half the stack of dollar bills on table.

Willy took the money and watched in surprise as the girl walked out of his bar like
nothing had happened.

Buffy walked towards one of the parks indicated on the map as one of the places, where
the Slayer would be next. Weatherly Park her old hunting ground.

Faith shivered slightly from the cold air brought in by the wind from the sea. The
weather was that great this year. Slowly she walked into the boring park. She had been
a Slayer for quite a while now and felt capable of handling most if not all challenges.
She had been chosen as the Slayer after Kendra had been killed by a vampire named
Kakitos. Faith noticed that there seemed to be no vampires around tonight. In fact the
park seemed very peaceful.

She had no sooner thought that thought to the end, when a piercing scream of pain
resounded from some place up ahead. Faith ran as fast as she could and stumbled
through the bushes to try and save who ever had screamed. However instead of a
bloodthirsty vampire drinking the blood of some helpless teenager, Faith encounted a
strange scene.

A small blond longhaired girl was fighting a big grey skinned demon… The demon
punched the girl hard. Faith moved in expecting her to fly to the ground and fall
unconcious. However instead the girl merely grunted in pain. Faith stopped in her tracks
again. This girl was not normal.

Buffy somersaulted backwards and using her strength and an outstretched leg to make
a vertical circle kick, landing on her two feet. Not even her longer hair got in her way.
The demon staggered back and she pressed her offensive. She punched as hard as
she could, putting every ounce of strength, speed and her entire body into the punch. It
impacted with a wet ripping sound. Suddenly both the demon and girl stopped moving.

Faith couldn`t help herself. Her mouth fell open. First the girl delivered a kick worthy of
the Matrix or some Hong Kong martial arts movie, which almost lifted the demon into
the air. Then that little bit of a girl continued with a simple no frills punch, but with an
almost disgusting result. Her hand had penetrated the chest of the thing like it wasn`t
there and she had carried through with enough force to dig all the way through to the
other side. A thick oily flow of blood covered the girl`s arm after she withdrew it from the
demon`s insides. It toppled over and began dissolving into a black slime.

The girl turned around and saw Faith. "Fuck, I had hoped to stay incognito around you",
she cursed, while the strange blood evaporated and left the girl`s arm and clothing
clean.

"Who… No what are you?", Faith walked up to the girl. She knew no fear, never had
and never would.

Buffy smiled. Eventhough the girl seemed to be the perfect warrior, she was only
covering up for her insecurities. "I am… Well it`s hard to explain. The closest thing
would be to say that I was awakened from death to achieve, what I missed the last time
around".

Faith drew a stake and threw it at the girl, taking it as a cue that she had returned from
the dead.

Buffy saw the stake coming and easily caught it like the Master had caught her
crossbow bolts. "Hey, stop that. I am not a vampire. I have a pulse", she said and threw
the stake casually over the shoulder.

Faith almost gaped in surprise again, but managed to stop her self. "Then what are
you?", she asked cautiously without letting down her guard.

"I am what could be called a spirit of good. An Angel is the proper christian term even if I
have never actually met God as far as I can remember", Buffy explained and walked
over to sit on a bench nearby. Faith cautiously followed.

"And what do you want from me? I am not a saint nor do I plan to be", she said.

Buffy smiled. "Nor am I. I was chosen for this, because I was the only recently dead
Slayer meant to be alive and a Slayer", Buffy explained and invited Faith to sit across
from her.

"Wait a minute. You are a recently dead Slayer. You look nothing like either Kendra or
Wendy", Faith was unconvinced and remained standing right in front of the now sitting
girl.

"Close but no sale. I am a slightly older version. My name is Buffy", Buffy smiled in the
friendliest manner, she could manage at that moment.

Faith looked even more surprised. "But… Well it would… Have done it before…", she
mumbled as thoughts and memories from old fighting lessons together with Wendy
raced through her mind.

"Before you say anything. Yes, it`s the second time I return from the dead. Yes, I know I
am making a nuisance of myself not staying dead and all that. Well this time I am back.
I am back to stay and fight. Oh and Faith. Dodge!", Buffy screamed when a group of
three vampires suddenly jumped over the bench behind Faith and attacked.

Faith dropped prone and kicked the first vampire in ankles. Buffy jumped up and
viciously kicked the rightmost vampire in the face. It flew backwards over the bench
onto the grass. It`s jaw was pulverized.

The central vampire rushed Buffy and threw her to the ground with him on top trying to
bite her jugular.

The vampire Faith was fighting growled in surprise, when it suddenly joined the others
on the ground. Faith jumped to her feet and drew another stake from her jacket. The
vampire staggered to his feet only to find Faith`s stake easily sliding into his chest and
ending his undeath.

Buffy freed herself from the vampire`s grip with sheer strength. Her hands finally free,
she quickly grabbed the vampire`s collarbone on each side and snapped them like
toothpicks under a steamroller. Then she threw him off her, grabbed one of the boards
making up the park bench and broke off a wooden sliver. The vampire desperately tried
to run away, but even from the ground Buffy`s throwing aim was true and soon the
vampire found it`s place amongst the truly dead.

Faith turned to help the girl, when a strangely slackjawed vampire grabbed her from
behind. It had caught her unaware and it was strong. She was left without enough
breath to fight back properly. She felt the deadly state of unconciousness approach
quickly. Suddenly she heard a cracking sound like a branch being broken followed by a
wet wrenching and the sound of a vampire dusting. The deathgrip of the vampire
disappeared and she quickly regained her bearings. Behind her stood the girl.

"What did you do?", Faith asked in surprise.

"I tore off it`s head", Buffy said like that happened every day.

"Have you ever heard of a stake?", Faith asked.

Buffy smiled and nodded. "I don`t know, what came over me either. I am not usually so
violent, but when I saw it grab you and… I guess I have issues with demons".

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway thanks B", Faith interrupted her then suddenly paused. "You
didn`t come here just to introduce yourself have you?", she guessed.

Buffy shook her head. "No, I need your help"…