ACT ONE

            One of them carried a sacred duty to defend the world from vampires and demons.  One was a tortured vampire with a soul, atoning for his crimes.  One was a self-proclaimed demon hunter with a past he hadn't trusted anyone else with and two were high school students with what they believed to be more problems than the other three had put together. 

For the moment though Faith, Spike, Robert, Dawn and Kennedy weren't worried about problems, duties or demons, they were simply having a good time, enjoying each other's company.  With the exception of Faith and Robert who hadn't said a sentence to each other the entire night.  Their avoiding talking to each other did not go unnoticed by the rest of the gang though no one exactly knew how to say anything about it or how to get the two of them talking.

            It had to be an awkward situation for the two of them.  The last time they saw each other, Faith was in prison and Robert was on the other side of the bars.  Though neither of them had been particularly forthcoming regarding those events, despite efforts by both Dawn and Spike to pry information from them, they did know something happened that strained the friendship they had built, causing Robert to leave on his journey around the world, showing up in Sunnydale as a demon hunter a year later.

            Dawn, after spending half an hour engrossed in conversation with her friends, realized she had forgotten about Tyler and looked to where he had been sitting, seeing that his bar stool was now occupied by someone else.  Kennedy, noticing Dawn looking in that direction, briefly removed herself from listening to one of Spike's stories from one of his many collections.  "He left right after the gang showed up," Dawn was forced to wonder why it was Kennedy was keeping such a close eye on him but wrote it off to potential Slayer instincts and just trying to help.

            "Oh well," she conceded.  "Maybe next time."  Though she didn't feel bad about missing yet another chance to talk to Tyler, Dawn was suddenly reminded of how tired she felt.  It had been a long day and all of this fun was beginning to take its toll on her.  "Hey gang," she waited until the end of Spike's story before standing up, preparing to leave.  "I'm wiped; think I'm going to head to the house."

            "Yeah," Kennedy stood up also.  Though she wasn't as tired as Dawn, her day had been equally long and she imagine she would want to be in bed before the rest of the gang was ready to call it a night.  "Think I'm going to call it also."

            "Be careful going home," Faith didn't need to remind them of that.

            Dawn nodded.  "Don't worry, it's not like this town sits on top of a Hellmouth or anything like that."  Kennedy slightly laughed at Dawn's dry humor, the other three not seeming to find it funny.

            "Careful," Faith reiterated.

            "Don't worry," Kennedy took Dawn's arm.  "I'll keep her out of trouble."

            "You kids behave yourself now," Spike, in a good mood, commented as they left.  The vampire had been getting more than his fair share of violence lately, hence the unusually cheery mood the vampire was displaying.  Robert, Faith and he watched the two girls leave the club.  Spike gave a fake sniffle.  "Our little girls are all grown up."

            "Speaking of being grown up," Faith stood, removing her jacket, revealing her sleeveless, skintight black top.  The band began another loud and fast song, the dance floor quickly filling up with people, the intensity and speed of the overhead lights increasing to fit the music.  "Let's have some fun.  One of you dance with me."  Though they both stared at her, neither Robert nor Spike accepted the invitation.  "No takers?"  Faith was almost hurt especially when they didn't answer a second time.  "Your loss," Faith said, walking out onto the dance floor, disappearing into a sea of people.

            Spike fixed his eyes on Robert who slowly sipped his drink, all while obviously keeping his eyes on Faith.  "What's wrong with you?"  The vampire was blunt.

            "Excuse me."

            "Go dance with the girl," Spike motioned his head in the direction of the dance floor.  "It's obvious you want to.  You don't have any reason to hold back anymore."

            "Yeah I do," Robert's voice became deadly serious. 

Spike didn't understand but he supposed he had his reasons.  "Well", the vampire popped off of his stool.  "I guess one of us ought to have some fun."  As Spike worked his way through the crowd, drawing more than a few suggestive glances from single women, the band finished the song they were playing, the guitar playing instantly began leading into another, slower tune.

"All right," the lead singer enthusiastically grasped his microphone.  "This is the last dance for the evening so grab that special someone and let us take you home." 

Spike found Faith amongst a large group of men and women who were now pairing off for the final song; she smiled when she saw him.  "May I have this dance Slayer?"  He extended his hand to her; she took it, wrapping her around him as he wrapped his around her waste.

"You sure you can handle it?"  Faith gave him a playful smile that bordered on flirtatious.

"If you're sure dancing with a vampire won't hurt your image."

"No more than dancing with a Slayer will hurt yours."

            "So what's the deal with your friend?"  Spike and the Slayer moved slowly the music together, Faith looking at his face but seeming distracted, occasionally looking over her shoulder to the table where Robert still sat, watching the two of them.

            "I don't know," the truth of it was she had barely been able to talk to Robert since he arrived in Sunnydale and she didn't know why he was keeping himself so distant from her.  "He's changed so much Spike, he feels like a totally different person than when I knew him a year ago.  We were so close then and now, it feels like there's just this big space between us."

            "People change Slayer, you're a testament to that but just because the two of you have changed, and it doesn't mean you're not still friends.  Doesn't mean you can't now have something both of you wanted when you couldn't have it.  People change but it doesn't change how they feel about each other."  Spike felt like in some ways he should be giving this lecture to himself.

            "You sure about that Spike?"  The vampire wondered what the Slayer was getting at.  "Meaning, even though you turned to the good side, you still love Drusilla, would still be with her if you had the chance?"  He wondered how she knew about that, thinking that it sometimes felt like the story of his life was on the best seller list.

            "That's different."  The vampire's voice became harsh.

            "Because you're different," Faith knew she had Spike when he did not reply.  They silently danced until the end of the song when they separated.  Faith suddenly did not want to be here.  "I've got to go."  She stormed out of The Bronze, almost knocking people over on the way.

            As Spike went to the bar, ordering a strong drink, a group of three men, in their twenties by the looks of them, on the upper level of the club watched him attentively.  They were all dressed normally but unlike the rest of the patrons, did not seem to be interested in having.  Conventional fun at least.  "That's not Spike is it?"  One of them asked in a thick southern outfit.

            "'Fraid so," the second, who was chewing on a thick piece of straw, answered, also with a southern accent.

            "What's he doing dancing with a Slayer?"  The third one asked, his southern accent not as strong as the other two.  The sight they had just witnessed discussed all of them, hardly able to believe that their old friend Spike was getting all cozy with a Slayer.  Granted it was the Slayer that allegedly went evil but it was a Slayer nonetheless.

            "Rumor is he fights for them now," the first one commented, gesturing to the crowd of people below.  "I even heard he went and got a soul.  And it wasn't like a soul to play with and torture either, he got his soul back."

            "That's sick," the third one quickly added, snarling his nose in repulsion.

            "Don't worry boys," the second said from behind the other two.  "We're going to show Spike the error of his ways.  Then we're going to take care of the Slayer."

***

            "Hey, you want to go make a round through the cemetery?"  Kennedy suggested as they walked by it.  Following her brief hospitalization, Kennedy had spent the last few nights sitting at home, doing homework and calisthenics rather than going out on patrol with Faith.  Having not even seen a vampire for most of the week, she had a growing urge for a little action.

            Dawn had been reserved since they left The Bronze walking home.  Normally Dawn would be up for a spot of action herself but she was in a strange way tonight.  "Nah, no cemeteries tonight, just home and hot chocolate and bed."

            "I don't know," Dawn answered with a shrug and a lie.  She really did know; she knew that nothing felt right.  Even hanging with the gang, having a great time at The Bronze didn't feel exactly right, without Buffy and Willow.  Even Andrew and Xander didn't bother to show, if they even knew about the little get together.  Ever since Faith moved in and Buffy left, everyone seemed to be growing further apart, Dawn didn't want that to happen.  "Do you miss Willow?"  Dawn's question came out of the blue, catching Kennedy off guard.

            "Yes," her bubbly, need to slay something attitude disappeared.  "Very much."  It was something Kennedy hadn't worked through in her own mind or with others yet.  She tried, as much as possible, to just not think about Willow.  To not worry about her, to not wish she could be in her arms and to not wonder if Willow was having the same feelings.

            Dawn began to feel as though she could open up, that Kennedy understood how she felt.  "Does everything," she was unsure of the words she wanted to use.  "Since she left, does everything just feel a little –"

            "Wrong?"  Kennedy finished her sentence.  She answered with a reserved nod.  "In a lot of ways it does, I miss her a lot but, I'm not sure if it's wrong or if it's something I'm just not used to yet you know?  A lot of this is real new to me.  High school, training.  You and Faith, especially you, are closer to me than my family ever was and that means a lot.  I don't thing wrong is the word for it, just different."

            "Yeah, different," Dawn could see that.  She wasn't really having any problems, just that everything felt a little off.  "Different isn't bad, I can work with different."  Dawn felt some confidence returning, it was not the first time Kennedy had that effect on her.

            A scream came from the cemetery prompting both girls to come to an immediate halt.  When they heard a second scream, Kennedy jumped over the fence, helping Dawn over before shooting into a full sprint.  Running through headstones, crypts, trees and flowers, Kennedy and Dawn followed the sound of the female scream as their only guide.  The two girls ran into an opening to see a vampire preparing to get intimately acquainted with the neck of a young blonde girl it had bent over a tombstone.

            Not waiting for Dawn to catch up, Kennedy pulled a stake from the inner pocket of her jacket and ran towards the vampire, hoping to stab it through the back while it was off guard, distracted by its meal squirming underneath him.  When she neared the vampire, prepared to drive the stake into its back, it spun around, lifting the girl off the tombstone and throwing her into Kennedy, breaking her charge.

            Kennedy recovered quickly lifting the girl off of, getting her first good look at her face.  "Amber?"  Kennedy thought she recognized the girl from school who Dawn had identified as one of the group of popular girls.

            "Please, please help me," she said, trying to crawl away.

            "Mmmm … looks like this is my lucky day," the vampire walked slowly towards the two seemingly helpless girls.  "Two meals for the price of one."  He stood above them, giving Kennedy time to think of a plan, thinking Dawn should be conveniently catching up to her soon.  "Now, my only problem is, should I eat the light haired blood or the dark haired blood first."

            "Oh, take her!  Take her!"  Amber exclaimed, pointing to Kennedy.

            Kennedy recognized the vampire now as who Amber had been talking to at The Bronze.  She scolded herself for being too distracted at the time to recognize him then.  Had she, she could have told the Slayer and saved everyone a whole lot of trouble.

            "Hey!"  Kennedy let go of a long held breath when she heard Dawn's voice from behind them.  "Hey!  Vampire!"  The sister of the Slayer didn't quite seem to know what to say while the demon stared at her.  "Why don't you come … eat me!"

            "A volunteer!"  He gave a fangy smiled and began to run towards her.

            Thanks to Dawn's distraction, Kennedy had the opening she needed.  She swept the vampire's legs out from under him as she flipped to her feet in a defensive stance.  The vampire began to struggle back to its feet but Kennedy was prepared.  She struck him across the face with a right cross, immediately followed by a left cross and kicked him with her right foot, sending him rolling into the tombstone, his head hit against in with a loud cracking noise.

            With adrenaline surging through her veins, Kennedy ran after him.  The vampire, still lying on the ground, planted his foot in her stomach, popped to his feet, grabbed her by the shoulders and tossed her into the tombstone.  "I hate working for my dinner," he lowered his head, inching towards her neck.

            "I'm not anyone's dinner."  She rammed her elbow into his chin, grabbed the vampire, reversing their positions and tossing him into the tombstone, cracking his back against it.  With the vampire stunned, she brought the stake up, ramming the weapon into its heart, the demon turning to dust.

            "That," Kennedy turned her head to see a still shocked looking Amber walking up from behind her.  "Was so cool!"  Finally realizing that her attacker was gone, Amber ran up to Kennedy throwing her arms around her.  Kennedy raised her eyebrows, giving Dawn an uncomfortably surprised expression.

            "Thank you so much," Amber's voice at least sounded genuinely appreciative for Kennedy's action.  Pulling away from her, Amber studied her face.  "Hey, don't you go to Sunnydale High?"

            "Uh, yeah, yeah I do."

            Hearing footsteps coming from behind her, Amber quickly looked around, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw it was just Dawn.  "Dawnie!"  Amber squealed, ran to Dawn, through her arms around her and squeezed her tightly.  "Thank you too Dawn.  Thank you for distracting him so uh," Amber realized she still didn't know Kennedy's name.

            "Kennedy," Dawn volunteered the information.

            "So Kennedy could kill that mean, uh, thing, uh, what was that exactly?"  Amber was quickly realizing she had no clue what was going on.  She should have known taking a romantic walk through the cemetery with a man she met on The Bronze would not end well.

            "Vampire," Kennedy was calm, cool and casual as she walked past Amber, who was still hugging Dawn, on her way back to the road.  She didn't see the need to indulge Amber's scared ramblings nor was she particularly interested in doing so.

            "A vampire!"  Amber wouldn't have believed what they told her if not for having gotten a good look at the creature right before it tried to bite her neck, something she expected a vampire would be likely to do.

            "Yeah," Dawn said, pulling Amber's arms away from her and walking quickly to catch up with Kennedy.  "Hey, we've got to split, see you at school Monday."

            Feeling suddenly alone, Amber looked around the cemetery, fearing there could be more vampires just waiting to swoop down upon her.  "Hey," she waved to Dawn and Kennedy, walking as fast as she could in high heels to catch up with them.  "Can I come with?"

***

            Spike and Robert left The Bronze through the front entrance.  The band had stopped playing and the DJ's selection of music was becoming horribly repetitive and the two of them could only drink so much.

            "I'm telling you mate," Spike continued the conversation they were having at the bar before Robert decided it was time to leave.  Spike had offered to challenge him to a drinking contest which he wisely refused.  "She cares about you."  The two of them leaned against the outside wall of the club, Spike lighting a cigarette.  The flow of people into The Bronze had stopped and only a few people were leaving with the night still fairly early, giving them relative privacy for their conversation.  "I can see it in her eyes, when she looks at you, the same thing I see when you look at her."

            "Let it go Spike."  Robert bummed a cigarette and light from the vampire, taking a long drag off it as he relaxed against the wall.  Despite her being very prevalent in his thoughts, Faith was the last thing he wanted to talk about.  "There's nothing between Faith and I," he puffed on the cigarette again.

            Spike finished off his smoke and flicked the cigarette, sparks and tiny ashes dancing across the concrete.  "Just take one piece of advice and then I'll let it go."  Robert nodded for Spike to continue.  "If you really do care about her, love her, then don't let it go unsaid.  It'll tear you up inside until you do tell her.  Don't wait until it's too late or until you've done too much damage to yourself."

            Waiting for a response that never came, Spike felt something bite his left leg.  "Ow!"  He reached down and pulled a tiny metallic spider from his leg.  He hadn't noticed it crawling up his leg but it definitely had a strong bite.  After briefly examining it and showing it to Robert, Spike tossed it to the ground, the robot breaking apart when it hit the cold concrete.  "Damn erector sets," Spike commented as he focused on lighting another cigarette.  "I told the bloody idiot he came up with the idea they were going to be trouble."

            Robert brought his eyes to the ground and his own cigarette fell out of his mouth.  He tapped Spike in the arm, pointing to the ground where dozens, hundreds of the robot spiders closed on them from all sides.  "Bloody hell!"  Spike shouted, his own cigarette falling to the ground.

            Robert wasted no time.  Reaching into his coat, he pulled his matching Glock pistols from underneath his arms, took aim with each and began firing.  A single bullet was enough to stop one of the robots but they were too many.  As they got past Robert's wall of bullet fire, both Spike and the demon hunter began stomping at the ground around them.

            "I'm sure a bloody nerd is behind this," Spike said, stomping at the ground, crushing several spiders with each attempt.  The vampire picked the ones that made their way onto his leg off with his hands and tossed them into the approaching mass.  "If we live through this, we're getting rid of all the bloody nerds!"  Robert paused to reload both of his weapons.  Spike began madly kicking at the spiders, sending groups of them flying into those still approaching but there was no end in sight, they kept coming.

            Robert finished reloading his pistols and tossed one to Spike while he reached down to his leg, pulling a smaller Glock from a concealed holster.  Both of them continued to open fire and stomp the robot spiders as they approached.  Finally, after several minutes where both of them received more than several bites and stings, the remaining spiders retreated.  Spike flipped the pistol around, holding it by the barrel to hand it back to Robert.

            As soon as he took the gun back, Spike ran in the direction of the retreating robots.  The vampire wasn't the type to let something that had just try to kill him escape.  Running after them for three blocks, Robert close behind him, Spike finally saw them disappear into the sewers.  The vampire slid to a stop at a nearby manhole, popping the lid off of it.  "They went into the sewers!"  Spike filled Robert in when he caught up.  "I think we can still catch them!"

            "Let 'em go Spike," Robert was not winded despite having just ran several blocks at a full sprint.

            "Excuse me!"  The vampire angrily stood up from the ground.  "Maybe you missed something but those things just tried to kill us!  I think that has earned them a good thrashing!"

            Despite Spike's angry and aggressive demeanor, Robert remained eerily calm, taking the time to replace his weapons in their holsters after reloading each, something he had not been able to do while running to catch up with Spike.  "Wherever they're going, there's bound to be more of them and we're not real well equipped to fight off another army of those things."

            Spike admitted Robert was probably right, despite his burning desire to exact some payback for the attempted attack against them.  "I guess your right," Spike slid the manhole cover back on.  "But mark my words; I'm going to get a little revenge on them.  I still think we should go down there now, see how many of the little bastards we could take out."

            "Yeah well, some of us do have to go to work tomorrow."  Robert said much to Spike's amazement.

            "Work?"

            "I got a job," Robert casually remarked as he started walking away.  "Start tomorrow."

            "A job?"  Spike scoffed.  "Why?  Where?"

***

            After walking around Sunnydale for an hour, Dawn and Kennedy had finally convinced Amber she was safe to go home.  Granted they had to walk her to her house, then to her room and basically tuck her into bed, but the bottom line was they had finally gotten rid of her and managed to get back to the house.  To their surprise, as soon as they walked in the door, Faith was waiting behind it, arms crossed with a rather annoyed expression on her face.

            "And where have you two been?"  The Slayer instantly jumped on him.  When she beat them home despite that they left The Bronze before her, she had grown concerned, even searching the nearby neighborhood for them before deciding that it would be better to wait at the house.

            Dawn stuttered, still thinking Faith's reaction would be something like Buffy's.  "Uh, we had a little trouble on the way home, no big problems though."  Judging by the look on her face, the Slayer did not find that answer satisfactory.

            "Vampire," Kennedy took the lead and delivered the answer.  Dawn now expected a harsh dressing down about how they shouldn't be out looking for and fighting vampires on their own.

            "Kill it?"  Faith's annoyed expression did not disappear.

            "Yeah," Kennedy did not share Dawn's concern that Faith might be mad, thinking it better to be straight with her rather than try to dance around the subject.

            "Good," Faith relaxed slightly.  She turned around, walking up the stairs.  With all of the lights off in the house, it was evident Faith had been putting off the end of the evening waiting for the two girls to return home.  "I'll see you in the morning."

            Dawn and Kennedy shared a look.  "That was too easy," Dawn was the first to comment.

            "Faith's cool like that," Kennedy took off her jacket, hanging it on the wooden coat rack in the entryway.  "She probably would have only been mad if we got killed."  Kennedy strolled into the kitchen as Dawn hung up her coat, following shortly after.  Kennedy was warming up a pot of milk on the stove, in line with Dawn's hot chocolate comment from earlier in the evening.

            Dawn went to the cabinet, grabbing two mugs before getting the chocolate sauce out of the refrigerator and marshmallows from another cabinet.  As she was laying out the items, the phone rang.  Considering it was rather late in the evening, both Dawn and Kennedy considered it could be either Buffy or Willow calling and bolted to the cordless phone on the kitchen wall, Kennedy barely beating Dawn to it.

            "Hello," after only a couple seconds of conversation, the expression on Kennedy's face noticeably changed.  She handed the phone to Dawn, trying to look disappointed, forcing Dawn to wonder who was calling and what kind of bad news.  "For you," she said as Dawn accepted the phone.  "Tyler," Kennedy whispered with a wry grin before Dawn put the phone to her ear.

            Panicking, she covered the phone with her hand, not holding it to her hear, very literally scared as she looked at Kennedy.  "What do I say?"

            "Just be yourself," Kennedy coolly walked out of the room, shooting Dawn a final grin.  "I'll leave the two of you alone."

            Dawn took several deep breaths before holding the phone up to her ear.  "Hello," she breathed a sigh of relief that she managed to get the first word out, thinking it all had to be downhill from there.

            "Hey Dawn," she couldn't help but think how sexy Tyler's voice was.  "It's Tyler.  Tyler Jacobson."

            "Uh, hey Tyler," for once in her life, Dawn had no idea what to say next.  "How's it going?"  She went with the always safe approach.

            "Pretty good I guess, I just wanted to say I saw you at The Bronze tonight with your, friends," Tyler put an odd emphasis on the word.  "Sorry I didn't get a chance to talk to you.  I was hoping maybe we could talk at school on Monday."  Before Dawn could respond, Tyler continued speaking.  "You mind if I make a little confession?"

            "Uh sure."  Dawn was more than happy to let him continue talking as it kept the pressure to continue the conversation off of her.

            "Well, to be honest, I've been wanting to get to know you better for a while now.  Last year you seemed so distracted all the time but now, well, I think it'd be fun if we spent some time together."

            Dawn was beaming.  "Yeah, I'd like that too."

            "Great, well I guess I'll talk to you later then."

            "Yeah," Dawn agreed.  "See you soon."

            "Count on it."

            Following her phone call, Dawn and Kennedy shared cups of hot chocolate and half an hour of gossip and conversation, Kennedy wanting to know all the details from Tyler's call.  They then retired to their individual rooms.  Dawn, exhausted, wasted little time changing into a spaghetti strap shirt and pair of shorts before collapsing into bed.

            On her window ceil, a tiny metallic creature sat, its black eyes gazing into Dawn's room, recording everything.  Miles away, on a computer screen, a young man watched everything in real time, gazing at Dawn, using a joystick and tapping the keys on his keyboard to zoom in on her face, smiling as he sipped his soda.