Buffy was sitting on a park bench in the nearby Washington square park with a coffee in her hands. Next to her sat a still blushing Kia. Giles was sitting on a bench across form them with willow and Tara. Spike was standing watch in a darker corner of the area waiting for his cue. Buffy set her coffee down on the bench beside her and turned to Kia.

"OK this is going to be a little hard to believe but you've got to keep an open mind. I'm a slayer. I fight vampires and demons and all the bed monsters and such. You are also a slayer. There was a girl before you. Her name is faith. She died for a few minutes and you were activated. Faith is now recovering but your still here. Now normally I would not want to subject you to anything this life has to offer. Its dangerous and lonely with a high mortality rate and sub-minimum wage. I'm living proof of that. I've died twice already. But you have been chosen and there is not much we can do about that." Buffy explained, surprised at how easily the words flowed out of her mouth. Kia stared wide eyed at Buffy then cleared her throat slightly.

"W-why me? I'm not really anything special." She said softly turning her gaze back to the ground. Buffy smiled gently and laid her hand on the girls shoulder.

"You were chosen for a reason. You are special. One of the chosen few. It used to be the chosen one but I managed to muck up that system. OK now the thing about being a slayer is you get to have a watcher. Usually a stodgy older British man with an inflated sense of superiority and books. Lots and lots of books." Buffy smiled and gestured to Giles who was scowling at her. "Take it away stodgy older British man." She told him and looked towards him expectantly. Giles frowned at her for a moment then turned his attention to Kia, leaning forward and straightening his glasses.

"All right. As Buffy told you, you are a slayer. Being that entails having heightened strength, speed, agility, senses, and such. It also means that you have a sacred duty. A destiny which you can't really get out of. I know its not really fair but there is nothing I can do about it. The slayers are usually governed by a group called the watchers council. They over see everything. They are the ones who informed us that you were the slayer and asked us to travel from California to kind of introduce you to your calling." Giles explained. Kia nodded slightly then looked up at Giles contemplatively.

"How do I know your not just making all of this up?" she asked. Giles nodded and gestured for spiked to some forward. Spike stood in front of Kia and waited.

"This is why." Giles said and spike let his demonic visage come to the fore. Kia jerked back startled and stared awed up at the ridges of spike's face, his gold eyes and the sharp teeth.

"Oh." She replied. Buffy smiled and patted Kia's hand.

"Yeah its a little wiggy at first. Now just because spike's a vampire doesn't necessarily make him evil. The verdict is still out on that one for him. I will be happy to tell you the whole spike story later but for now you should probably get home. Since you were called you have become a target for allot of demons who would just love to take out a slayer. The council says that they have adopted you. Going to be legal starting tomorrow. If you would like, we would like for you to come back to Cali with us. We live on a hell mouth so you'll get some on job education." Buffy told her with a wry grin. Kia smiled back shyly and nodded.

"I would like that. I don't have anything keeping me here." She said and a dark shadow crossed her face but was gone just as quickly. But Buffy noticed it and saw the hard sharp look in her eyes after it had passed. The look quickly softened and was gone but Buffy stored that tid bit of information away for some other time. Kia stood and straightened out her skirt. Buffy also stood and smiled gently at the girl.

"Where should we meet tomorrow?" the girl asked seeming nervous again. Buffy looked to Giles who answered.

"We are staying at a hotel just a few blocks from here, do you know where the Hilton is?" Giles asked. Kia nodded her head yes and looked studiously away from anyone's eyes. "We should meet there about four, will you be done with school by then?" he asked. Kia nodded again but she seemed distracted, her eyes were trained on the shadows just beyond the tree line to their left. Buffy looked at the spot and instantly the familiar feeling raced across the pit of her stomach that signaled vampires. Buffy stepped up next to Kia, close but not touching.

"What do you feel?" she asked softly. Without looking away from the shadows Kia answered.

"Hunger. I smell blood." She whispered, barely audible. Buffy's eyes widened and she looked taken back. She glanced at spike for conformation. He nodded.

"She's right. They must have a fresh kill." He told buffy. Buffy and spike began moving at the smae time in perfect counter point to each other towards the shadows. Giles willow and Tara trailed after them in a loose hunting formation that had become second nature to them. After a moments hesitation Kia followed. As they got closer two dark figures became visible crouched over a prone body. A twig snapped under willows foot and the figures jerked to attention snarling their rage at being interrupted. One of them sprang at willow and Tara and was immediately set upon by buffy and spike. The other one made as if it was going for Giles then changed its trajectory in a spilt second and leapt for Kia. Kia waited until the last possible second then stepped to the side. The vampire flew past her and into a tree. Buffy and spike had dispatched their vampire and turned to watch Kia. She spun around faster than they had ever seen a human move and sent her foot crashing into the back of the vampires skull smashing it into the tree and splitting it open like a rotten melon.

"You have to stake him!" buffy shouted. Kia looked up and buffy tossed a stake to the girl. Kia caught it one handed and smoothly sent it whistling down into the vampires heart. The body exploded into ash and settled on the ground. Kia stood for a few seconds staring at the pile watching some of it get blown away in the wind. Then her knees buckled and she sat down on the ground hard. Giles got to her first and knelt beside the visibly shaken girl. Her face was paler than normal and her eyes were wide.

"T-t-t-tha..." she was stammering so hard she couldn't even finish her sentence. Buffy was immediately by the girls side and wrapped her arms around Kia's shoulders. Kia clutched the arms around her for a few moments letting her self take comfort from them. Tara spike and willow went over to the victim and examined him. It was an elderly homeless man. Buffy helped Kia to her feet and they went over to the body. A small strangled croak came from Kia's throat and she sank down to her knees next to the body.

"Oh ivan. I play chess with him every Thursday. He's always so nice, a little crazy but nice." She said, her voice sounding thick. Kia gently brushed the man's open eyes shut and stood.

"I think I'm gonna go home now." She said blandly and walked away from the group. Her arms wrapped tightly around her torso hugging herself. Buffy made a move to go after her but spike stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Let her go. This is something you can't help her with. Give her time." He told her and gently pulled her away.

Kia wandered the empty city streets till well after midnight knowing that she should go back to the dorms but not wanting to face all the questions. Eventually her feet led her to the front steps of the old tall building with its gargoyles and ancient stone. Only a few lights lit the multitude of windows along the massive stony face this late at night. Suddenly Kia found herself unable to place her foot on the first step leading to the front door. Instead her body turned and went past the building towards the large catholic cathedral adjacent to the dorms and the school building at a dead run. She burst through the side door she knew was always open and ran through the dark church, her way lit only by a few random scattering of candles. She collapsed at the base of the tall stone figure of the virgin Mary, the only thing she had believed in her whole life. Kia looked up at the carved face of the virgin mother and the tears she had been holding back before burst out of her in a hot flood.

"Why me? What did I do? What did I do to deserve this? I didn't do anything wrong. God... I didn't do anything." She sobbed and turned her eyes away from the bland white face that stared down at her with shallow benevolence. Kia wasn't especially religious but her mother had raised her catholic with the belief that god had a plan for everyone, even some one 'as useless and lazy as Kia was'.

"Be good for me Kia. Don't do anything bad while I'm gone. God is watching you Kia. He whispers in my ear." She would say that every night before she went to work. Kia would always nod dumbly but inside her head she was screaming.

"If god is watching then why are you still here?" but Kia never said those words out loud. She just turned away from her mother's retreating back and began to clean the house and prepare herself for the beating that came every night when her mother came home. She accepted her mothers fury every night when she came home, her head full of fire and her veins full of liquor. She took it all with a steely resolve and retreated back to her room to nurse her wounds once her mother had spent her strength with weighty blows. Kia remembered that last night. Her mother had come home totting her new flame, some over weight greasy pig like man she had picked up from the bar where she worked. Once the man finished with her mother he came into Kia's room. It had been dark, the only light came from the dim streetlight filtering through her curtains. He had leered at her and pressed the cold barrel of his pistol into the base of Kia's skull as he spread his stagnant weight over her frail body. Kia had kicked him off of her and knocked him down before running from the apartment. The man had followed her laughing crazily as blood poured from his nose. She had lost him before she entered the park and spent a few cold miserable hours on a park bench near the chess tables and the arch de triomph that towered over the cold blue lit path. She had returned to the apartment and gone to her mothers room. Her mother was sprawled on the bed, her eyes wide and staring, blood dripping from her fingertips and an empty hypodermic needle still stuck in the ravaged and track marked flesh of her inner arm. Kia had knelt beside her mother and gently stroked her long deep red hair, so much like Kia's . This was like the fall of Lucifer. Lucifer did not storm from heaven in a righteous rage followed by violent whirlwinds and imps. No he lay broken and bleeding on the rocks of the earth weeping blood for his sins and his expulsion from the light. Kia wiped away the salty trails of her tears and straightened into a kneeling position before the stone effigy. She looked up at the carved face once again and a tiny gasp escaped her lips. In the corner of the lovingly carved lines of Mary's eye a spot of blood peaked and ran down the smooth white expanse of the statues cheek. It was immediately followed by another and another now the blood traced from both eyes, gleaming black in the dim candle light. Kia got up and ran from the church leaving behind the deity that weeped blood for Kia's sins.