*Just a little note-I just finished reading "The Lost Slayer" (It's good, if you haven't read it, you should) and I noticed how glaringly similar the Kachiquels are to my new special demon mix. It wasn't intentional, and I started writing this WAY before I even saw the book.*

The first thing that registered in Phoebe's mind was how ugly these things were. Human shaped, but with a face she assumed belonged to a vampire. And there was something sinister in the way it held itself and the way it moved. Not like anything she had seen before.

The fight was six against twelve, in their favor. Not the worst odds in the world, considering. But they were unprepared for how strong the demon/vampire mixes were, and how skilled they were in a fight. And how three more of them came out of nowhere as soon as the good guys noticed they were there.

The first thing Prue did was order Amanda away. Under the circumstances, they couldn't risk having their whitelighter injured. She would return as soon as it was safe. Amanda didn't want to leave the fight, but she agreed that it made sense.

Phoebe took on a solitary one to her left. She launched a spinning kick at its head, as it grabbed her ankle and slammed her down into the pavement of the street she had been standing on a second before. She fell hard, not getting up.

Piper tried to blow up one that was attacking her fallen sister's body. It didn't do any damage, except for pissing it off. She cursed and shook her hands, as if to jump-start her powers. She tried it again, but the same thing happened. It came at her now, irritated and her multiple attempts to kill it. Now, she tried freezing it, but it only stayed frozen for a second. She had to start hand-to-hand, and that wasn't exactly Piper's area of expertise.

"Damn it! What are these things?"

"Beats me. But if you figure it out, let me know." Xander answered Piper's rhetorical question.

Not far away, Buffy was holding her own against two. She staked one through the heart while knocking another off its feet with an impressive little kick Phoebe had showed her. It just looked at the wood point protruding from its chest with amusement. The vampire/demon took the stake out and tossed it away. Buffy paled visibly.

"Pull back! They won't stake! It's too dangerous. Will, Tara, Charmed, Do a- "

As Buffy shouted her assessment of the situation, which was becoming worse by the minute, she momentarily let her guard down. A vampire/demon noticed and kicked her painfully in the spine. The Slayer went down hard, and tried to get back up as a different one kicked her in the ribs.

No one checked on Buffy during this whole fight, except to make sure she was still standing. They figured she was the strongest and would be the last to need help. When her announcement was abruptly cut off, Xander looked over in time to see her go down. He went to help, only to be knocked out of the way and into a nearby tree. He was out of the fight.

Phoebe, Buffy, and Xander were down. Anya followed suit in a second. Prue held the vampires at bay with her powers as she figured out what their next move was. They were down a slayer, and a Charmed One. The odds weren't favoring them any more, and she didn't want to lose them all. Willow and Tara were still ok, and so was Piper. Prue didn't even count Cole in, but he was standing protectively over Phoebe.

Prue called out all their names, and they turned to listen. "We have two choices-stay and get our collective asses kicked, and probably all die, or somehow get out of here. I don't know about you three, but I like door #2 a little better, and I'm started to get tired. So. Any ideas?"

Piper had one.

"What about Amanda? She can group-hug us out of here. Amanda!" She called their temporary Whitelighter's name experimentally. She appeared a few seconds later and surveyed the damage. Eight of the demon/vampire hybrids were circling around them, still being held back by Prue's telekinesis. Phoebe, Xander, Anya, and The Slayer were all lying unconscious on the ground. A small trickle of blood leaked out of the back of Xander's head, and at least three of Buffy's ribs were broken.

"What happened?"

"We lost." Prue said shortly. "Can you get us all out of here and back to the Summer's house?"

"In two trips, yes. But let me heal them first." Amanda healed Buffy first. The Slayer slowly sat up.

"Did we win? Why aren't my ribs broken? Is everyone ok?" Amanda smiled at Buffy.

"I healed you. Don't think about it to hard." Then the whitelighter moved over to heal Xander and Anya who were just as confused as Buffy. Phoebe wasn't quite as surprised.

"Thanks. It's great that that works so well."

Ok, now everybody's awake. Can we go? I can only hold this for a minute, at most." Prue asked. They could hear the exhaustion in her voice.

Amanda took the Slayer's friends back first, and then came back for the Charmed Ones and the Slayer herself. Back at Buffy's house, they came up with a new plan.

"When your Book says to combine our powers with the powers of the slayer, maybe that means you have to work together to kill each one. Wait. And why is there more than one, anyway?" Willow frowned. "And the extra evilys were almost as strong as the original. I don' like how this is going. It could make as many as it wants, and pretty soon.." She faded off.

"We'd had a pretty nasty pest problem." Buffy finished. "We have to get them all, so they can't make any more. And I think I know who can help."

"Who?" Xander asked. "Better not be Deadboy. Anyone but Deadboy."

"Faith."