Pain, the first thing Odette registered upon her consciousness returning. Which was quickly followed by a fierce ringing of her ears. She was sitting on the ground, with her back against a wall, chin resting on her chest. With a groan she lifted her head and peeled her eyes open. As her vision righted itself she made sense of the blurry shape in front of her. She shrieked and jerked backward. Her head met a stone wall with a crack, sending her ears ringing and filling her vision with spots.

Axel chuckled, " Careful there pet," he reached back and felt around the back of her head. When he brought his hand back there were tiny flecks of blood along his fingers. When he raised them to his mouth and licked the droplets Odette turned her head and dry heaved. "Awe, don't be like that." Odette reached up to her neck and felt the crusted blood and slight raised bumps from where she was bitten.

"Wh…..why am I…."

She bit back a whimper when Axel's hand brushed hers away. He movements felt sluggish, as if she were moving through molasses. She could feel herself start to shake as Axel's fingers brushed over the raised flesh. "I'll admit, I was planning to down ya like a frostie and have done with it." His hand snaked up to grip her chin. Odette's hands grabbed his wrist reflexively but couldn't move him away. He glanced down at her shaking fingers and grinned wickedly before jerking her chin up and forcing her to meet his eyes. "Don't worry dove, she'll be right." he said glancing down at her hands briefly. "Took a bit much is all, but something in your blood is….." he cocked his head to the side. "don't know how to right explain it but, I sure felt sparks."

Odette shook her head, and he released her chin. "Your insane." she hissed

He snickered and reached down yanking a chain, which Odette soon realized was attached to her ankle as she as jerked with it, he arms flailed as she was dragged down . Axel leaned forward and braced an arm jus above her shoulder, effectively caging her. She glared up at him as he leaned down, their noses almost touching.

"Maybe dove, but your the first puzzle I've found these last hundred years. So like it or not little bird you're mine till I says otherwise."

Odette spit at him but he dodged to the side, snickering. "Much as I'd love to give you a go over little bird, I'm buggered so I'm going to take a kip." she flinched as he tucked her hair behind an ear. "don't fret none though I've left you some company." in a blink he was gone.

Breathing heavily though her nose, Odette hoisted herself back into a sitting position against the wall. Glancing down she saw the loop her chain was attached to had another chain. She followed it and felt her heart pull with dread.

"Jesse?" she croaked. He was laying facedown, a chain around his ankle. Before she could work up a plan on how to get over to him she heard faint footsteps giving way to hushed voices. Closing her eyes and taking a few steading breaths, she listened hard.

"How can you tell?"

"No more rats"

Eyes flying open Odette cried out, "Buffy! Xander!"

they sound of footsteps grew louder and Odette could have cried with joy as they rounded the corner. The paled at the sight of them before running forward.

Xander running over to Jesse, and Buffy knelt down by her, before taking a nearby rock and smashing the links in the chains, leaving the cuff still around her ankle. She lifted her, slinging Odette's arm around her shoulder to take most of her weight and they turned back to the boys as Jesse shot to his feet.

Xander grabbed his arms, steading his friend. "Jesse, man, are you OK?"

Jesse chuckled weakly, eyes flitting wildly about, "I am not OK on an epic scale. We gotta get out of here!"

Xander pulls him into a hug, "It's cool. Buffy's a superhero!"

Buffy passes Odette to Xander before crouching to smash Jesse's chains. Unfortunately the pieces bounced off a nearby pipe the sound echoing around the walls.

Xander winced, "Do you think anybody heard that?"

They hurried down the underground halls, Buffy cowering the area with her flashlight, Xander was helping steady Odette and Jesse walked with his arms wrapped around himself.

"They knew you were gonna come. They said that I – I was the bait…"

Xander groaned, "Oh, great, now you tell us."

Buffy leads them back through the tunnel and stops, shadows move at the other end and she winces, "Oops."

Jesse started backing away, fisting his hands in his hair. "Oh, no, no…"

Without look back at them Buffy called to him, "Do you know another way out?"

Jesse fidgeted, "I don't, uh, maybe? Come on" he took off down the corridor and the others quickly followed.

Jesse paused at an juncture and looked around frantically he pointed down one. "Wait, wait. They brought us through here! There should be a way up. I hope." They all ran down the corridor before coming to a room but there was no exit.

Odette lent heavily against the wall and looked back, paling as she saw Axel strolling lazily down the corridor with a few others, their faces vamped out.

"Run, run, run as fast as you can little bird." He called tauntingly in a sing song voice.

Xander paced frantically, "We can't fight our way back through those things.. what do we do?"

"I've got an idea" Odette glanced over past Xanders shoulder and swallowed a shriek.

"Oh god Jesse." she whispered brokenly. And the others turned to see Jesse his face vamped out, grinning wickedly.

"You can die."

Odette could see Xander's shoulders slump, and could hear Buffy struggling to close the door.

"Jesse.. Man, I'm sorry…"

Odette glanced Jesse over, her brows furrowed, "His shoulder…...He …..he was bitten when we came here." she reached up to feel the dried blood around her own bite, still staring at his smooth, unbroken skin.

Jesse threw his head back and laughed. "Neat healing powers huh Det?" He tilted his head to look down his nose at Xander. "Sorry? I feel good, Xander. I feel strong. I'm connected, man. To everything. I can hear the worms in the earth."

Odette blinked back tears. "Jesse, please."

Tilting his head at her he smiled. He gestured down at himself, "Didn't want the weak, pathetic loser before did ya Det? I wasn't worth your time, well guess what?" he took a step forward only to be stopped by Xander raising the cross he held defensively. "You're gonna pay attention to me this time." he turned his attention back to Xander. "I know what the Master wants. I'll serve his purpose. That means you die. And I feed."

"Jesse. ma, we're buds. Can't you remember."

Jesse scoffed, "You're like a shadow to me now."

"Then get out of my face." Holding the cross, Xander backs Jesse towards the door, Buffy turned quickly grabbing Jesse ruffly and hurls him out knocking into the approaching vampires and sending them sprawling.

"Help me." Buffy hissed and Xander and Odette managed to help her slam the door shut and they all leaned back against it.

"We need to get out of here."

Odette shot an unimpressed look at the blonde, "No shit Sherlock."

Xander suddenly pointed toward the ceiling, " Up there!"

following his gaze they spotted an air vent, and Odette bite her lip nervously, unsure how she was going to climb up there.

I slow knocking echoed off the door, "Little bird, little bird let me come in." Odette shuddered as the familiar Australian accent drifted softly through the door.

Buffy climbs up and pulls away the metal sheet revealing a hole big enough to climb through. As the top corner of the door starts to bend inward, Buffy helps Xander into the vent, then between the two of them they hoist Odette up through the opening. Buffy hopped up and they were crawling as fast as they could.

A few loud thumps and then growls were echoing off the metal around them. When they found latter they started up Buffy first so she could take the grate off, then Xander, and finally Odette. Every minute felt like an eternity. As sunlight hit her face she smiled, reaching up to take Xander's outstretched hand.

Suddenly a large, clawed hand snagged Odette's ankle like a vice. She shrieked and Buffy and Xander each grabbed her arms, making her the string in a life or death version of tug of war. Glancing down Odette met the green eyes of the monster below. With one last pull they managed to pull her far enough out that the sunlight hit his hand. In seconds the pale flesh was smoking and Axel let out a viscous snarl before releasing her and pulling his arm back into the shadows.

Growling lowly he met her gaze from the shadows. "This isn't over little bird, the sun won't be up forever." his eyes gleamed and locked on her wounded shoulder. "The chase only makes the victory all the sweeter."

as the vampires slunk farther into the corridors the three teens tried desperately to catch their breath.

No one spoke as they shuffled along to a payphone, Odette barely even registered when Buffy was calling for a ride. Xander was practically the only thing holding her up and she stared off blankly, only finally blinking as a familiar gray 1963 Citroën DS drove up. Tears filled her eyes and Giles ran forward, Willow exiting the passenger side, and he dragged her into a firm hug, pressing her head into his chest as her shoulders shook with sobs.

Hushed voices asked if they wanted to head back to the library but Odette shook her head erratically.

"NO!' she cleared her throat and ducked back into her dads shoulder as everyone turned to look at her. "Ca….Can we please just stay somewhere in the sunlight….just for a bit."

Willow retrieved some books and a first aid kit from Giles' car and they walked to a picnic area sitting directly in the sun. Giles gently brushed the matted hair from Odette's shoulder and set to work cleaning the bite. For a while they sat in silence, broken only by the occasional hisses from Odette as the alchole hit the bite marks.

Willow cleared her throat quietly, "Did you find Jesse?"

Xander hunched over and put his head in his hands, "Yeah."

Willow winced, "Is he dead?"

Odette looked out over her dad's shoulder, "Worse" she whispered

Buffy put her hand supportively on Xander's shoulder but addressed Willow. "Worse. I'm sorry Willow. We were too late. And they were waiting for us."

Willow turned slightly green but nodded, "At least you saved Odette. And you to came back ok, that's important right?"

Xander braced his elbows on his knees and propped his chin on his fists. "I don't like vampires. I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good."

Buffy nodded but turned to her watcher, "So, Giles, you got anything that can make this day any worse?"

Giles had just finished placing a large bandaged over Odette's newly cleaned wound and pulled her into his side in a hug before leveling a serious look at the blonde. "How about the end of the world?"

Buffy pinched the bridge of her nose. "Knew I could count on you."

Giles picked up the book Willow passed to him and opened it to the bookmarked page. "This is what we know. Some sixty years ago a very old, very powerful vampire came to this shore, and not just to feed."

"He came 'cause this town is a mystical whoosit?"

Giles leveled an unimpressed look at her before continuing, "Yes. The Spanish who first settled here called it Boca Del Inferno – roughly translated: Hellmouth. A sort of portal between this reality and the next. This vampire hoped to open it."

Buffy grimaced, " Bring the demons back, end of the world."

"But he blew it." Willow continued. "Or, I mean, there was an earthquake that swallowed half the town. And him too."

Giles nodded, "Opening dimensional portals is a tricky business. Odds are he got himself stuck. Rather like a cork in a bottle."

"And this harvest thing is to get him out?" Xander questioned.

"It comes once in a century, on this night. A Master can draw power from one of his minions while it feeds. Enough power to break free, and open the portal. The minion is called the Vessel, and he bears this symbol." Giles turned the book around to show everyone the symbol in question.

Buffy shrugged, "So, I dust anyone sporting that symbol and no Harvest?"

"Simply put, yes."

Buffy clapped her hands together once, "Any idea where this little get together is being held."

Giles rubbed his chin, "Well, there are a number of possibilities….."

"The Bronze."

Everyone turned to look at Odette who had finally looked up, her eyes hard, and angry, almostly like fire was lite behind them.

Willow fidgeted, "Are you Sure Odette?"

Xander however simply nodded, "Come on, all those tasty young morsels all over the place. Anyway, that's where Jesse's gonna be, trust me."

Having finally decided on a destination Giles stood and urged his daughter to do the same, "Yes well, we should get moving, the sun will be down soon and we should drop Odette off at…" he was interrupted as Odette jerked herself free, stumbling slightly but quickly righted herself. She squared her shoulders and the muscles in her jaw tightened as she squared off with her father.

"We are not dropping Odette off anywhere." she hissed. "these bastards are going down, nobody tries to make me a happy meal and gets away with it."

Giles looked ready to argues before sighing. "it never pays to argue with you when you have that look in your eye. Otherwise you'll just sneak out your bedroom window on your own again."

Odette smiled, "Hey, when has being grounded ever stopped me from doing the right thing?"

Her father raised and eyebrow, "How was sneaking off to Tyler Wasmond's party the right thing?"

before Odette could answer Buffy interrupted, "We gotta make a quick stop for supplies first, won't take long."