Chapter Thirteen

The Magic Shop, Sunnydale, USA – year 2001

Sitting silently on a bench, Haruka waited for Buffy to appear. A long time had passed since she first came to Sunnydale to take her place at Buffy's side, much had happened since then. She had become a part of the impromptu group surrounding the Slayer, and due to her training, she had become valuable fighting partner to Buffy. For she could follow the blonde to places, no one else could go due to her training

Haruka smiled slightly, remembering how it had been in the beginning after Giles 'introduced' her to the world of vampires. She had been enthusiastically if cautiously accepted into the 'Scooby Gang', starting as a researcher and back-up help along with the rest of them. Buffy and Haruka had become even closer friends, as well as Haruka and Spike. After she had given Spike a little talk about Angelus' identity of course. He had not been a little upset to hear that his grandsire was the one and only Lord Lamia. It had reduced his danger level dramatically though.

The turn about concerning her position in the group had come one night when she and the others had been walking towards the Bronze sans Buffy, who was busy stalking the cemeteries. They had been attacked by a group of five vampires, a group far to large for them to take care of without a fighter. And so, she had ignored her own safety, grabbed a stake and made a frontal attack at the vampires. It had felt good being back in the game, but she had been forced to admit that she badly needed to train up her now once again superhuman abilities. Haruka had been very out of shape back then.

Willow and the others had been amazed by her abilities though, and soon, Haruka had found herself put in hard training with Buffy. Under the training only a Slayer usually was given, she had quickly regained her former lethality, and within two months, she had started to patrol with Buffy. The other woman had been thrilled to have a partner again, and there were much talking done those nights besides killing vamps. If Haruka would be honest, she had to admit that she had never known the petite girl better than now.

The only cloud on Haruka's relatively blue sky was the worsening situation in Tokyo and the fact that that Buffy didn't show the slightest hint of regaining her memories. Both were bad news for all of them, the team would never feel complete without the regal, witty and strong Buffy with them. Not to mention that they needed Buffy to transform completely. Their most powerful transformation was only reachable with a full group after all; most upgrades were reached that way even though it wasn't needed to maintain them. As of now, they were only able to transform into their weakest forms using channeling vessels Angelus had created. And those forms were not among the most practical. For example, Haruka's attack was 'Sand storm' and that didn't quite make much of an effect when it came to youma. If you didn't count the fact, it made you loose sight of them.

Sighing, Haruka rose. The situation in Sunnydale had been very tense lately as well. They had barely recuperated from their dust with the machine/demon hybrid Adam when Dracula had shown up in Sunnydale, having heard about the slayer. He had started to wave around his usual hocus pocus, sucking peoples' necks into the next century, trying to get to Buffy of course. The situation had been rather messy when Haruka finally decided to put an end to it. She didn't have anything against a fly eating Xander, but when he started to mess around with Buffy's head, she stepped on the brakes and called in Angelus.

Dracula left town very soon after that. You didn't just go up against the oldest vampire in existence if you had any brain cells left.

Shaking her head, Haruka went to find her blonde friend. No doubt, she had been stuck with her mother and sister. Again.

The Hyperion, LA USA – year 2001

Setsuna concentrated as she carefully and gracefully mimicked the movements Minako showed before her. It was an ancient form of taichi that was supposed to help you relax and concentrate. So far, it had mostly made her do the latter, and that only because it was so hard to learn. If she had to choose between Angelus' yoga lessons and these, she she would choose yoga any day. Yoga only made you stiff and tight for a couple of days. This gave her a new set of bruises every day due to her loosing her balance. Minako didn't seem to have that problem though.

When their retraining had begun, Setsuna had envisioned some sort of quick course of refreshing coursed that wouldn't take too much out of her. That one had quickly been taken out of her. They had instead begun by increasing their fitness and endurance, a slow and difficult process. It almost had made her feel like she was back at Charon training to be a senshi again.

When they finally were considered fit enough again, the procidure of learning everything, every basic move, from the beginning had begun. Setsuna quite frankly felt like thanking the stars that she only needed a few tries before she got it with her previous training. Yet, the process of learning went remarkably slowly. And they hadn't even begun with anything magical yet…

A particularly stretchy movement made her yelp and fall to her butt. Again. Minako winced symphathizingly and helped her stand, showing her the particular movement again.

"Don't worry," Minako smiled giving her friend a reassuring pat. "You'll get it soon."

Setsuna had her doubts.

Angelus' Office, LA USA – year 2001

Minako was talking merrily to Hotaru over a chessboard when Angelus came running in, talking rapidly into his cellphone. Pacing quickly around the office while the two young women watched him concernedly, he gestured wildly with one hand before ending the call and turning towards Minako, dragging his hand through his hair even as he struggled to get out what he needed.

"Minako," he said, giving her a piercing look. "There's a demon overrun in the harbor and there's no way I will be able to defeat them all by myself."

She immediately understood what he was asking and rose, shrugging out of her white shirt.

"Will I need to transform?" she asked, fastening her hair into a high ponytail at the back of her head.

Angelus shook his head, already diving into his office and coming back out with two swords.

"No," he answered, handing her one of the swords. "A disguise would be enough."

Minako nodded and reached into her subspace pocket to grab the transformation pen she used as Sailor V and quickly transformed into a slender brunette dressed in ripped jeans and a fitted, red tank top. Without a word, they both headed towards the door after telling Hotaru to wait for Cordelia to come pick her up.

"Be careful!" the young Saturni called after them, then sighed and leaned back into her chair. The situation in LA was getting worse.

After meeting Glory, Sunnydale, USA – year 2001

Haruka dove into her car as soon as she got out from the Magic Box, dialing the number to Angelus' cell on her own one. Tapping her fingers restlessly on her knee, she frowned. When Buffy had briefed them about the mystery woman with the powers she had met the other night, she had immediately understood who it was, differently from the others. Only one being matched the description Buffy had given them. And that meant a catastrophe.

"Lamia, Angelus," the ancient vampire shortly said as he answered the call.

"We have a problem," Haruka tensely said, almost clipping his sentence off. "Glorificus is in Sunnydale, and she has made contact with Buffy."

The reaction was instant.

"****," Angelus swore between clenched teeth. "You're sure it's her."

Haruka grinned bitterly.

"I haven't met her in person," she replied, "but Buffy described her as blonde, nutty and powerful beyond words. And she called herself Glory."

Angelus snorted.

"Well, she always did have a warped sense of humor," he relented. "This is not good, Haruka."

"Tell me about it," Haruka muttered. "I have to go. I'll keep you posted on the situation at hand, but I warn you, you better speed up our training. Because if Glorificus got through, it's only a question of time before Metalia does too."