Dinner was uncharacteristically quiet at first. Spider-Man took off a little shaken after seeing the man he referred to only as Uncle Ben. Jean had Scott relocated to the infirmary complexes at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngster's in Westchester which were in her words "more mutant friendly". Buffy told Dawn about Alex's comatose state, something that made both girls near silent in grief. Buffy, Spike, Xander, and Dawn were all at the restaurant at the hotel just trying to sort through the day's events.
"Maybe it's just me but this place is more hectic than Sunnydale." Xander said cutting his steak.
"Major metropolitan would be harder to deal with. Yeesh, how's Angel do it?" Buffy asked.
"Hair gel. Lots of hair gel." Spike said, withdrawing a blood packet from his duster and pouring the contents into his beer as quickly as possible.
"I just can't get over what he said." Dawn frowned.
"Dawn, don't sweat it. It was just the First playing mind games again." Buffy said to her sister.
"Not him. Morlun. He said I was infinite or something along those lines. Is it because I'm the Key?" Dawn asked.
"I thought that Key stuff went to the wayside after we got rid of Glory?" Xander asked.
"When Willow went crazy last year she threatened to turn me back into whatever I was before those monks made me from Buffy. What am I?" Dawn asked.
"Currently seventeen and boy crazy." Xander said with a reassuring smile.
"Maybe we can do some research into it. Find out what the Key really was. After we beat the First of course. If we beat it." Buffy frowned.
"You'll beat it. It's what you do Buff." Xander said.
"Yeah Slayer, what's one more Big Bad?" Spike said drinking his beer/blood.
"That is so disgusting Spike." Buffy replied turning her nose up a little, "Besides, hello this isn't like my other enemies. I can't blow this guy up or stake him or beat him with a troll hammer or tear his heart out. Sending him to Hell doesn't matter. And we can't talk him down like Willow."
"Someone mention my name?" Willow came bounding up.
"Hey Will! How'd your session go?" Xander asked as he took a drink of his soda.
"Better than expected." Willow said as Xander spit his drink all over the place.
"Xander what is…wrong?" Buffy said as she saw Faith walking up behind Willow, checking out a guy.
Faith smiled halfheartedly at Buffy and gave a small wave, "Hey B. Long time no see."
"Faith! You're not in jail!" Xander stated the obvious.
"Nothing gets past you Harris. What's bleach boy doing here?" Faith said gesturing to Spike.
"He's on our side now. He has a soul." Willow explained as she sat.
Faith snapped her fingers in realization and pulled a chair from an occupied table and sat down with the others, grabbing a bite of Spike's Blooming Onion.
"Like Angel?" she asked.
"No!" Spike defended.
"Hey Spike. Long time no see." Faith said smirking, as she chowed down.
No lights went off for Spike.
"Uh, do I know you? Other than by reputation?" Spike asked, raising his scarred eyebrow.
"We met once when I was wearing a different body." Faith said looking at Buffy.
Suddenly the lights were on and somebody was home.
"Oh yeah, when you did the switch. No wonder Buffy came up to me and said she'd ride me till I ……popped." Spike said as Buffy glared.
Faith turned her gaze to Dawn.
"Well hey, look who grew up to be woman sized." Faith smirked.
Dawn scowled, "Hey look, its someone who tried to kill my sister."
Dawn then noted Spike and Willow, "Well someone else."
"So what's the what B? Red here tells me we got a big end of the world deal coming." Faith said.
"We'll fill you in later. It's been a bad day." Buffy sighed
"Yeah Buffy, you look a little rough. What happened today?" Willow asked.
"Big fight. I'd rather not go into it. Site seeing was kind of a bust. Only sites I saw were stars and the little birdie things that go around your head after you get whacked in cartoons." Buffy sighed.
"That sucks." Willow said.
"Willow, how exactly is Faith with you?" Xander asked still shocked Faith, sweet, sexy, homicidal Faith was at the table.
"Well Doctor Strange and I kind of went to Los Angeles for a few hours. Remember that weird darkness that's been on the news there? Was a big demon causing it. Blah blah, Angel lost his soul. Doc restored it and so on. Alls straightened out." Willow said not mentioning Angel's completely resouled status.
"Yeah and he can't lose it again B. Though Cordy kind of had her eyes on him." Faith said.
"Oh." Was Buffy's quiet reply. Faith's lack of tact floored her.
And Spike too. He swallowed hard. The man she always wanted was able to be with her now. He would be tossed out. If Spike ever felt fear it was that moment.
"Well good for Angel." Buffy replied giving Spike a smile and slipping her foot out of her shoe and up his leg. Spike felt it and smiled, checked to see it was hers and not Faith's, then smiled again.
"I believe I asked what we're up against here. Come on, tell me." Faith asked again, somewhat annoyed.
"Oh. Remember that First guy I told you about that tried to get Angel to kill himself on Christmas? Well that basically." Buffy said replying to Faith.
"Oh. I figure it's bad?" Faith asked
"The worst." Buffy stated.
"Monsters?"
"Yeah."
"Hopeless against the forces of darkness?"
"Yep."
"Little chance of surviving?"
"Slim to none."
"Bring it on." Faith smirked.
Going home was a little more eventful. Willow managed to convince Doctor Strange just to teleport them home rather than deal with another bus. After arriving and getting a few shocked looks at the fact Faith was with them, Giles brought them up to speed. The Hellmouth had been quiet. Tara had been learning more about her new physical powers and was getting used to talking to Poe. She even took Kennedy and a few other of the older Potential Slayers like Molly, Rona, and Amanda, out patrolling. Tara had additionally struck up sort of a fast friendship with Kennedy, and the two had decided that if Willow was for it then they both could see her. Willow at hearing that news took Kennedy and Tara to her room and wasn't seen for hours. Though there were mumblings of the word "Yum", as Xander can attest to.
Additionally, it seems Gaira had escaped his little aquarium and had grown to the size of a small monkey thanks to Andrew playing around with Willow's magick supplies. Luckily he had become somewhat tame towards the people in the house since they had fed him crickets. Anya even gave him a bath and then rushed to Xander as soon as he came in and exclaimed that she wanted a certain part of his anatomy and children, unfortunately as Xander can attest to.
News reports had filtered in. There seemed to be a new contender in the game the First was playing in town. A mysterious preacher who burned a symbol into the necks of those he did not murder. In the days, that followed Buffy led an unsuccessful attack on the preacher, who was named Caleb, and Xander would have lost his eye in that attack had Tara not put up a force barrier in between Xander's face and Caleb's hand. Unfortunately, a Potential Slayer fell in the battle, feeding Buffy's ache for a rematch with the sinister clergyman. Dissension somewhat grew, but Tara was ever the peacemaker and tried to keep it calm. Ultimately, she succeeded and no one did anything rash.
All in all it was a fairly normal few days. There was even an interesting side adventure with the demon hunter known as Dante (but that is another story). But there was no forgetting about the First. It was coming. And it was coming soon.
"I see you've been preparing." The First said, in the form of Buffy, in a cave deep below the earth.
The response was reverberating droning.
"Excellent. All is in accordance. Soon we'll have my little coming out party." The First said walking in the cave with something massive following him behind as evidenced by the shaking of the cave, "You can place it here."
The First pointed and tendrils carefully lowered a cocoon onto the cave floor. The First smiled as it looked at the cocoon.
"I assume the specifications were followed to the letter?" the First asked.
Reverberation followed.
"Good. You've done well my pet. You should indulge yourself by taking some parts of the world before I rise. Because after I do there will be nothing. Caleb will attend to the Slayers and their allies at present, until I am ready. You can play with a few of the higher up powers for a time. But do it soon. When I rise everything will end. Even one as old as you. It will be glorious won't it?" the First asked, greeted by more droning, "Yes I knew you'd see it my way. And don't even think about destroying that chrysalis. If you do, you will regret it. I'll see to it. Understood? Good."
The First looked at the cocoon and walked to it before regarding its pet.
"Go have fun while you can Lavos." The First smiled as it entered the cocoon with glowed bright blue with life.
Additionally the alien giant known as Lavos screamed its high pitched roar and began boring towards the surface.
The End until The End.
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Okay a few things I need to iron out.
I'm sorry I couldn't add who everyone wanted me to. I wrote this like sixth months ago.
Secondly, I'm going to TRY and edit and post my story about the First. There may be problems due to A) the a-drive on that particular disk is all screwed up and B) wouldn't ya know it, the webpage that had the story went down when that worm hit the net, so no copying and pasting.
I hope I can post it here soon, because I guarantee most people would enjoy it. Least I hope. Just keep hope alive
P.S. I mentioned a side adventure with Dante of Devil May Cry fame in this story, though that's not one I wrote. A friend wrote it and it was really pretty good, though it was on Superherochat too before it went down. So no real reference, though if the site comes back up I recommend reading it on the fanfic board. It's really good.