Part 2:

#

"I'm telling you that woman is a fucking nightmare," Faith insisted.

Buffy could not help but smile. Faith's ranting about the evilness of the tutor Giles had arranged for her to take lessons with had become something of a ritual for them these past two weeks.

"Out of luck, Faith," Buffy just answered, smiling. "Now Ms. Burg, she is real nice."

Buffy herself was amazed at how great she got along with the tutor Joyce had gotten for her. She had stolen the idea from Giles, of course, after Buffy had decided not to go back to high school, but had apparently had a much better hand at choosing. While Buffy had yet to meet Faith's own personal demon in person she felt she had gotten a better deal by far.

"You say that now," Faith shot back. "You only had two lessons with her, girlfriend. Wait until you get around to the algebra."

Faith shuddered upon uttering that word. Buffy loved seeing her like this. Not shuddering, but so relaxed. The other Slayer had been with them for little over a month now, but she was really starting to let her guard down. The bad girl attitude was still firmly in place most of the time, but there were times like this at well. Times when Faith acted her age and complained about the evilness of teachers.

Somehow it all made Buffy feel almost like a teenager as well.

Angel was moving at a little distance, knowing that he was hopelessly outmatched in the chattering duels between the two Slayers. Buffy was only getting back into it now herself, having had no one to trade barbs and quips with for decades, but she was rapidly regaining her razor-sharp tongue. Faith gave her plenty of practice, too.

"How's the state of legal guardianship coming?" Buffy asked. "Giles your official parent yet?"

"Paperwork's supposed to be finished by now." Faith was marveling at how quickly she had gotten used to the idea of Giles being her legal guardian. A month ago the very thought of having a stuffy British librarian lording over her would have sent her running with a string of obscenities on her lips. Giles was cool, though. In his own, British way.

"So Giles can officially order you around soon."

"As if! He tried to scold me for setting that cursed candy factory on fire, but the whole authoritative thing isn't really his style. He's wicked cute, though, when he tries to look cross with me."

Buffy giggled, surprised at the sound. With everything that happened, not just these last seven weeks, but also the last thirty years, she had spent much too little time laughing. Even those times in Hell when Angel and her had managed to hide away and spent some time alone together in relative peace she had not had much reason to laugh.

Returning from Hell had not been the happily ever after they had so long imagined it to be, no, but things were slowly but surely getting better.

That mere thought, of course, was the universe's cue to send trouble their way.

"Vampires," Angel was the first to notice. "At least six of them."

The two Slayers nodded, falling into step with him. Angel and Buffy fought together like a single entity with two bodies after all this time and these last weeks Faith had managed to adapt her usual rush-in-and-bust-heads style of fighting so they worked together almost flawlessly. The three carefully sneaked up to the spot where they could now hear several voices involved in a heated argument.

"This is not a good idea," one of the vampires said to the others.

"It's nearly been half a year since Angelus lost the reigns of power," another reminded him. "It's about time someone new took over."

"Angelus is still in town," yet a third said. "He was seen at Willy's several times."

"Rumors," the second one said. "And even if he were still around, from what I hear Khan is way more powerful than Angelus ever was."

"Khan?" Buffy whispered, looking at Angel. He frowned a bit, but said nothing.

"Look, guys," the argument went on, "it's clear that sooner or later there will be a need to take sides. So, who are we gonna pick? Someone who might or might not be around anymore and we haven't seen hide nor hair of these last five months or someone who might reduce us all to dust in a second if we refuse his offer?"

"Did these guys work for you when you were all evil?" Faith asked.

"Could be," Angel whispered back. "It's been a while. But that gives me an idea."

Without waiting for any of them to say anything he rose and walked out into the open, directly toward the six arguing vampires.

"Well, boys," he announced himself, a cruel smirk easily slipping onto his face. "I could not help but hear my name being mentioned."

Six faces turned at once to look at him, six almost identical looks of fear appearing on them the moment they recognized him.

"A-Angelus," one of them stuttered. "We thought you ... I mean everybody said you ..."

"Reports of my true death were very much exaggerated." He walked up to them, casually slipping an arm around the closest one. "What is it I have to hear here? I take a few months paid vacation to work on my tan and here you guys are arguing about taking up with a new boss? I must say I'm a bit ... disappointed."

"What? Us?" The vampire beside him shook his head. "No way, Angelus. Never! I mean, you know us, we are ..."

" It's bad enough I had to take care of that bastard Kakistos," Angel interrupted him. "Who is the new guy? Who is trying to take my beautiful little town from me this time?"

The vampires looked even more scared now. They had all heard of Kakistos, of course, one of the most powerful vampires of all time. He had come to Sunnydale for reasons no one was quite sure about only to find his final death. There had been rumors that the Slayers were involved, other rumors naming Angelus as his better.

"We ... we didn't see him," one of the vampires stuttered. "We just ... you know, the old undead grapevine. Says that Sebastian Khan has moved into town and is looking to take over."

"Sebastian Khan," Angel mumbled. He had heard that name somewhere before.

"Yeah, you know? Guy caused quite a stir in Louisiana a few years back. Deposed the local master in no time flat and ... well, the humans blamed it on an outbreak of cholera. Can you believe that?"

Angel chuckled, even though he felt sick doing it. Khan, yes, he had heard that name before. Sometime before Hell, when he had been Angelus and looking to get back up to speed on the happenings within vampire society. Sebastian Khan. An upstart master, they called him, too young to hold any true claim to that position, yet with the power to back it up. No one knew much about him, but everyone acknowledged that he was dangerous.

"You are sure he is in town? Do you know where his daylight retreat is?"

"No. Only a few of the boys have seen him so far. He has these guys with him, fancy themselves warrior vampires of some kind. They have been putting out the word that he'll be looking for recruits soon, but that's all we know."

Angel looked at the other vampires present, but they all looked down and offered no further clues. With the fear coming off them he was quite sure that they had told him all they knew.

"Very well, boys. I guess that's it then."

"You ... you mean we can ...?"

The vampire was never able to finish its question before a stake flying out of nowhere buried itself in its heart and reduced him to dust. The remaining five were too shocked by the sudden appearance of two Slayers that they hardly managed to defend themselves. Angel took out the two standing next to him with the stakes hidden up the sleeves of his leather coat and Buffy and Faith needed less than a minute for the rest.

As the dust slowly settled around them Buffy looked at Angel.

"You all right?" she asked softly, knowing how hard it must have been for him to play the part of Angelus.

"That remains to be seen," he just answered, quickly filling them in on what little he remembered hearing about Sebastian Khan.

"We should check in with Giles," Buffy said when he finished. "Maybe he can tell us more about this Khan guy."

#

In the darkened office of Sunnydale's city hall Mayor Richard Wilkins III. looked at an old black-and-white framed photograph. It showed the man known as Richard Wilkins I., who held a truly uncanny resemblance to his own grandson. He was standing in front of an old steam locomotive, the first such train to make a stop at the newly built Sunnydale train station more than a century ago.

Next to him stood a younger man, also dressed in contemporary clothing. He was smiling and had a hand placed on Wilkins' shoulder in a gesture of easy companionship.

"Sebastian," Richard Wilkins mumbled to himself. "After all these years you have come back."

Stubbornness was a trait he usually admired in people. Not in this particular instance, though. No, right now the only thing he did feel was a certain amount of anger, tinged with just the tiniest trace of fear.

TO BE CONTINUED