Disclaimer:  Nope, not mine.  Belongs to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.

Author's note:  Okay, so I haven't updated this in a looooooooong time.  Sorry.  I had to do some serious thinking about where I wanted this story to go and what was happening with all of these characters I've spent most of my free time developing.  Updates should be more frequent in the future.

Chapter 6:

The inside of Dee's left forearm collided forcefully with April's as the two stood facing each other in a low horse stance.  In unison, the two sisters swung their arms fluidly upwards to collide again at head level.  Then they each allowed their arms to drop, colliding again at waist-level in a standard three-star exercise.

Anders watched with some interest as the two sisters batted their forearms against each other in an activity designed to condition and toughen them.  In many ways it was like watching Dee work out with herself, the two were so alike in appearance.  April, in spite of her young age stood less than an inch shorter than her sister, and her hair, though slightly lighter than Dee's, hung in exactly the same way.  In spite of their physical similarities, however, the two were vastly different in temperament.  In many ways, certainly, April was as aggressive as her older sister, but it was a more subdued aggression.  Dee would launch herself at a threat, often giving little to no thought to her own safety.  April was more of a thinker.  The yin to Dee's yang.

More than that, he was pleased to see the effect that April was having on his slayer.  He'd actually caught Dee smiling only two days before.  He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her smile with something other than a joke.  It was as if having April around allowed her to let go of a hidden pain.  Dee was certainly happier than he'd seen her in a very long time.  Actually, he wasn't entirely certain he'd ever seen Dee happy, period.

April was no slayer, and she never would be, but in the three months she'd been training, she had become quite a skilled martial artist in her own right.  Her thin, lithe figure was perfect for Bak Fu Pai.  The White Tiger style of Kung Fu relied upon being able to move and yield with an incoming blow rather than to directly oppose it, making the difference between your opponent's strength and yours irrelevant.  April could move more quickly than most people simply because she had less weight to throw around.

The fight was getting harder.  Dee had appeared more and more frequently in the mornings with scratches, bruises and bite marks; even after a night's worth of slayer healing.  This morning had been the worst he'd seen her in a long time.  Her wounds had healed as the day progressed, but for about an hour that day she'd looked as though she'd been beaten within an inch of her life.  Dee had been less than forthcoming with details, but the injuries were such that no amount of makeup could cover it.  Most of the office had assumed that she simply had an abusive boyfriend and had, predictably, pretended not to notice.  This was probably the only time that Anders had actually been grateful for that particular human tendency.

As far as he knew, a slayer had never been turned.  Faith had certainly dabbled on the darker side of things for a while, but she'd come back from the brink in time to help in the final battle against the First.  He'd have to consult the codex, but he knew of no slayer who had faced such a foe.  To have a slayer Vampire not only fighting, but training the forces of evil…  He shook his head, no wonder Dee was getting beaten up.

"Talk to me, Oz."  Dee's face was firm, determined when she sat across from Oz's desk.

"Pyramid Import/Export?"

She nodded, "It's time," she said, simply.

"A relative newcomer on the Bay, they run their operation right here out of San Diego."  He opened a file in front of him, "they have one of the largest shipping fleets in California.  Mostly small craft."  He read a little further, "they also have a respectable fleet of cargo aircraft."

"Cargo aircraft, cargo ships.  Call me crazy, but if you were staging a secret war, and had soldiers who had unfortunate reactions to sunlight, how would you position them around the world?"

Oz nodded, silently.  "How many foot soldiers do you think Osiris has his hands on?"

Dee shrugged, "If I had to guess, I'd say that he had an endless supply.  No matter how many I kill, he always seems to have more."

Oz bit his lower lip, "big cities tend to have a lot of people nobody would miss."

Dee nodded, "and they're getting better, stronger."

"Anders told me what you looked like this morning."

"Did he."  Dee's voice was hard, but unsurprised.

"Dee, he's just worried about you."

"He should keep his worries to himself."

"He would, if it was him he was worried about."

"I can take care of myself."  She waved a hand at him, stopping him from saying any more.

"Yourself, sure.  How about April, or a city of people who don't even know your name?"

Dee was silent.

"This isn't just about you anymore, Dee."

"Pyramid Import/Export.  Where do they operate out of?"

"They lease a building downtown."  He pushed a paper across his desk where Dee took it.

Dee looked at it, reading it carefully.

"What are you going to do?"

Dee smiled, "I'm gonna pay them a visit; and I'm gonna bring April with me."

Oz actually looked stunned, "tell me you're joking."

Dee shook her head, "She deserves to see this finished."

"You really think you can stop Osiris?"

"Osiris won't be there."

"Then, why…"  He stopped, realizing, "You're going after Anne."

Dee nodded, "I think it's about time I finish what I started on the bridge, don't you?"

The side of the building was actually an easier climb than some of the free-climbs Dee had done in her time.  It was a little sheerer than the Castleton tower in Utah (which reminded her; she hadn't been out climbing in a while… Maybe April would like to head out to Utah with her this weekend), her favorite climb, but it didn't require her to improvise much.  Rock is put together essentially at random, forcing you to make it up as you went.  The building was basically a stepladder.  Once you managed to climb over one rung of the ladder, all you had to do was repeat the same motions over and over again.  It didn't require much in the way of reading the rock.  She was also carrying significantly more weight than she normally did while climbing.  She had a pair of stakes tucked into her belt, two Wakizashi criss-crossed her back, and as always, she had a pair of chopsticks in her hair.  She was better-armed than she typically was, simply because she didn't know what she was going to run into once she was inside.

She was also wearing a harness; something she practically never did.

She smoothly slid a camming device into a small crack between two bricks.  It was only about a half-inch deep; plenty for the small spring-loaded device.  It had been years since Dee had used any protection whatsoever while climbing, but it had been years since she'd climbed with a partner, too.

April stood at the bottom, feeding the rope out to her sister as she slowly progressed upwards.  It had been a while since April had done any climbing; but having a super-strong sister meant that she probably wouldn't have to.  The plan was for Dee to get to the top, set up an anchor, and hoist her up.  April would pick up the cams as she was hoisted.  They figured that would be quicker than April trying to climb on her own.  Dee had had a good 230 foot rope left over from the time when she used to climb with her father, plenty to make it to the top of the eight-story building, with a fair margin added in.  It was still in perfect shape.

April shook her head.  No rope could survive seven years if it had been used regularly.  Dee's climbing shoes, on the other hand, had shown quite a bit of wear; and most of it looked recent.

She's been climbing without ropes, April realized.  April had only ever met two types of people who would climb without any protection whatsoever: the adrenaline junkies and those who had nothing to lose.  Dee was not an adrenaline junky.

Dee still didn't know about her, as far as she knew.  Her reflection had oscillated back and forth between being almost as solid as it was normally, and being so faint as to be nearly invisible.  It had been exactly eighty-four days since she'd been attacked on Dee's doorstep.  She knew that because her reflection was at its faintest on every twenty-eighth day following the attack, and it was at its faintest today.

Dee peeked gingerly over the edge of the roof.  Nobody.  It looked as though they didn't expect her.

She scanned the rooftop carefully.  No cameras, nothing.

This doesn't feel right.

A single door on the roof allowed access to the helicopter landing pad, as she'd figured.  She hoped that security would be lower here, since there was no access to the roof from outside apart from by helicopter; not exactly a stealthy approach.

But she couldn't see any cameras.  This made no sense.

She wasn't exactly about to look a gift horse in the mouth, however, so…

She vaulted over the building's edge and walked to the scaffolding under the helicopter pad.  That would make a perfect anchor point.

There were very few things more satisfying, Anne realized, than seeing your adversary do exactly what you wanted her to do.  She really is quite good, Anne thought with some admiration as she watched the slayer dart under the landing pad and out of the view of the tiny camera she'd had placed on the rooftop specifically for this moment.  To her credit, if she hadn't known that she was coming, Anne doubted that Dee would have been detected.

Welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly.

The advantage of immortality was the fact that it made you very patient.  You could, in principle, wait forever.  She'd anticipated Dee showing up a little sooner than she did, but it didn't bother her particularly that it took her a little longer than she'd expected.  All the pieces were now in play, it was time to move for a quick checkmate.

April threw an arm over the edge of the roof and dragged herself up and over.  Anders hadn't been exaggerating about Slayer strength.  Dee had pulled her up the side of the wall effortlessly.

She darted across the roof, wincing as the metal camming devices she had attached to her harness clanged loudly.

"Next time we decide to make an illegal entry into a building," April whispered as she tucked her thin frame tightly into the space under the landing pad next to Dee's, "I vote we leave the cams behind."

Dee smiled, "On that note, leave 'em here."

April nodded gratefully, on top of making a lot of noise, the equipment was heavy.

"Stay behind me.  If someone manages to get by me, use that."  Dee pointed to the stake April had tucked into her jacket.

"Yes ma'am."

"If anything happens to me, make your way back up here and rappel down the side of the building; then run and don't stop running until you get to Oz's place."

April nodded.

"Do you have keys to my car?"

April shook her head, "Don't need 'em."

"What?"

"Well, you know mom has a really nice car and there were a couple of times when I wanted to, well, borrow it."  April grinned.

"You taught yourself to hotwire a car?"

"It beats having to take the bus out on a date."  April's grin widened.

"How many times did you set off the alarm trying?"

"A lot, at first, but after a while I could look at a circuit and figure out the obvious traps."  April smiled, "she kept upgrading the system, too.  I think she figured out that I kept borrowing her car."

"You wouldn't happen to have any hobbies that won't have the police beating down my door, would you?"

"I'll let you know."

"Just so we're clear, if the police ever do show up at my doorstep, I'm handing you over."

In unison, the two darted towards the door at the far end of the rooftop.

Dee rested her hand against the door, just above the doorknob.  This would make more noise than she would have liked, but it would work.

With a scream of tortured metal, the door swung opened, clanging against the wall of the dark stairwell.

"Stealthy, Dee."

"There's nobody here."  Dee whispered.

"Yeah, but the sound could have carried a long way."

"No," Dee replied, "I mean why isn't anybody watching this door?"  She turned to April, "If you were an evil, dead person, wouldn't you watch the roof, just in case; or at least wire it with some kind of security device?"  April now realized that Dee held a stake in each hand, expecting the stairwell to be crowded with vampires, apparently.

April looked around.  Dee was right.  The stairway led down to a small open area, and it was empty, "So what do we do?"

Dee shrugged, "what else?  We keep going."

The two stalked silently down the stairs, keeping low to the ground to move more quickly and silently.

They stepped off the bottom step into an open, dimly lit area.  Above their heads were pipes and wiring of some kind.

"Dee, I really don't like this."  April's voice wasn't frightened, exactly, but it was uneasy.

"Me neither."

"Not your most reassuring line."  April told her.

"I had one," Dee told her, "but they talked me out of it."

"'They?'  Who?"  April turned to look in the same direction as her sister.  "Oh."  She could see a pair of vampires just stepping out of the shadows at the far end of the room.  April saw Dee stiffen and her breathing quicken.  "Dee, what are you waiting for?  It's just two of 'em."

Dee looked up, "it's not just two."

From the space above them where they'd assumed was nothing but pipes and wiring fell dozens of vampires; positioned perfectly to encircle the two sisters.  They landed smoothly, fangs bared; each was prepared to strike.

"Apes, stay behind me," Dee whispered to her sister, knowing even as she said it that it wouldn't do any good.  She couldn't defend herself and her sister, not against such a concerted effort.  Anne had known they were coming, and had set a trap.

Sharing a single thought, the two sisters darted for the stairwell they had entered by, only to find that it, too was blocked by a single vampire.

She walked smoothly down the stairs and into the light, pushing her red hair away from her eyes.

"Anne."  Dee made no effort to hide the spite in her voice.

Anne's vampiric eyes seemed to glow in the dim light.  "Checkmate," she whispered.