Foreword: All characters belong to Joss Whedon and/or David Greenwalt. Also, I think I've gone crazy, because this is not something that I normally write. Anyway. This takes place in Buffy's seventh season, and Angel's fourth, up through both's third episode, (except for where Cordelia comes back and Angel's in love with her, because I don't like her) which is as far as I've seen. Old characters will be returning. The pairing situation is complicated, so I'll leave it a surprise. Enjoy. Shouldn't be too many spoilers, if any at all. Also, events from the Buffy books do factor in.

Special thanks to my Watchers, Jessica and Kathy. Jess for naming my demons and looking others up. Thanks to Kathy for proofreading and making me skinny and graceful (not weighty and awkward). Thanks to Kit for being the Buffy expert and helping me out when I need info. Another thanks to Chris for beta-ing.

The Darkest Hour before Dawn

Seven

Faint light filtered through the windows of the mansion through the heavy curtains. The walls were bare now, so unlike they'd been when Buffy had first set foot inside the place. Dust coated everything, no one having set foot inside since Angel had left four years before.

Buffy pushed back the heavy curtains, flooding the room with light. She sighed, breaking the utter silence around her.

During the day, during her sleep, she had dreamt. Not only dreams, but nightmares. She knew that she was not the only one having the nightmares, from the pale faces she passed in the halls, from the cries of fear the others thought no one heard. She knew because she could see it in Oz's eyes, on Dawn's face as she left for school, in Willow's silence as she surfed the Internet.

Buffy stood at the edge of a massive precipice, staring out at the other side. The sun had not yet risen, but the moon had set, and the stars were slowly fading away. The horizon had not yet begun to lighten. Yet in the still darkness, she could see the other side.

A line of wooden posts stood at the edge of the other side. Tied to the posts were all the people she cared for—Willow, Xander, Dawn, and Angel, among others she recognized. Directly across from her was Angel.

Buffy's fingernails dug into her hands as she clenched her fists, drawing blood. Watching her with a smile was Faith.

The rogue slayer drove the stake into Angel's heart.

Buffy had woken to the sound of her own scream.

~`~

The sun was setting, and it was that time where everything is not dark, yet nothing is light, when everything is blurred. The time before a night patrol when nothing would be out yet, when they expected nothing, and when everyone was growing antsy waiting to be able to move.

Buffy always worried that this, someday, would be the time something would attack. Not all demons had to stick to the night. Vampires, yes, but not all demons.

Willow was surfing the Internet, as she had been the entire day. Oz was plucking something out on Lindsey's guitar while the ex-lawyer watched, humming the melody softly as the werewolf played. Angel was somewhere in the back of the house sleeping, as was Dawn. Anya and Xander were attempting to help Wesley do research.

Connor was pacing. Buffy felt like getting up and joining him, instead of sitting around doing nothing.

"Can we do something?" Connor asked, turning and looking at Buffy. "I'm sick of just sitting here."

"What are we supposed to do?" Lindsey asked. "Run out and say here we are, come and kill us?"

"Maybe kill you," Connor said. "But not me, and not the Slayer."

"I'm sure you're invincible," Lindsey said, his voice thick with sarcasm.

"Stop," Oz said. He'd stopped plucking his guitar.

"I know how he feels," Buffy said, turning her eyes to the windows, with their heavy curtains drawn back, the fading sunlight spilling in. "I'm restless, like I can feel something, something dark." She stood and walked over to the window, trailing her fingers down the glass. "I've never felt anything like it before."

Connor walked over and stood next to the window, the golden sunlight washing over him, as well as the slayer. He could see nothing unusual, yet he could not really see anything. Not isolated at Angel's mansion.

"I'm going patrolling," Buffy said.

"Buffy, you can't go alone." Oz said.

"From now on, until the end of this, we're three groups. Oz, I want you, Wesley, and Anya to stay here and watch my sister." She said. "Connor, Lindsey and I will patrol with one group, and when Angel wakes up, he needs to take Willow and Xander and form another patrol."

"Do you think this division thing is a good idea?" Oz asked.

"We don't have much of a choice right now. Can't you feel it?" Buffy asked. She walked over and knelt next to Oz. "You're as touched by the supernatural as I am. Can't you feel it?"

Oz frowned. He handed the guitar to Lindsey and stood, walking over to the window. He looked out, the sunlight pouring over his face. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he turned back to Buffy.

"I'm sorry, Buffy," Oz said. "I don't feel anything. Maybe I'm not touched the right way. You're the slayer. Specifically, a Vampire Slayer. Connor's the child of vampires. When Angel wakes, ask him."

Buffy sighed. "I'm going patrolling," she said again. "You can fight, right Lindsey?"

Lindsey put the guitar into its case and stood. "If I have to," he said. "I'm no good with a stake."

"Then we'll get you a sword, or something. What's your weapon of choice, Connor?" she asked. She went into the adjacent room. "Axes, maces, swords, stakes. Pick your poison."

Connor and Lindsey went in as well. Connor's face lit up when he saw the array of weapons that filled the room. Buffy slipped a stake into her jeans, into a sheath on her arm, and slung a small pack across her chest that rattled when she moved it, a sound that indicated it was full of wood, slender pieces of wood, probably stakes. She also picked up a crossbow, and Connor and Lindsey both knew that the pack contained arrows.

She lifted a sword from a shelf. It seemed to tingle in her hands, full of memories. This was the sword she had fought Angel with, she knew, the sword with which she had sent him to hell to save the world. She could remember it vividly, the way it had felt to destroy the man that she loved, the last kiss, knowing that he had been returned to Angel. She could remember the way the tears felt, the way they tasted. Her eyes welled up.

She handed the sword to Connor, yet the tightness she felt in her chest did not ease. She turned back to the wall, taking down an axe. Connor had passed the sword on to Lindsey, who was staring at it, trying to understand how he was supposed to work it. Buffy wanted to laugh, but at the same time, laughing seemed inappropriate. Lindsey held the sword back out to Connor.

"I'm not exactly trained to fight with a sword, you know." Lindsey said. "I'm more about guns, and um. Sledgehammers."

"How about… an axe? Or a crossbow. There should be another lurking around in here somewhere," Buffy said. "They're easy. Point and shoot."

"Careful what you give me. I've got a twitchy right hand. Kind of has a mind of it's own sometimes." Lindsey said.

Buffy and Connor turned and stared at him.

"Um. What?" Buffy asked.

"Angel cut off my hand," he said, holding up his right hand. "And the law firm I worked for, the evil bastards, gave me a new one that wanted to go back to its original owner's body. I deal with it."

"Well," Buffy said. "A crossbow okay?"

She held out her crossbow, taking the sword back from Connor. She removed the pack and offered it to Lindsey, who swung it around his neck. She took down an axe and handed it to Connor.

"Is there another? Like this one?" Connor asked, hefting the axe in his hand and feeling its weight. To him, it felt good, a beautiful weapon, a strong weapon.

"I think so," Buffy said. She looked around the room, then reached out and took a second axe from a shelf, an axe identical to the one that Connor held in his hands.

He swung that one too, moving both axes in tandem, shocking Buffy slightly, and certainly startling Lindsey. "Now we can go," he said.

Buffy handed Connor a stake, then slipped one into Lindsey's shirt pocket. "Just in case," she told him.

The trio left the mansion and headed into the city of Sunnydale.