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Disclaimers: All characters here are owned by Joss Whedon and Co. They are in no way mine, and there is going to be no profit made from this story, except for my personal enjoyment.

Distribution: Anywhere, just tell me where it's going, and give me credit (The-Aussie-Witch)

Spoilers: Season 6, and some Season 7 rumoured spoilers (I'm not looking at all the spoilers for Season 7)

Rating: PG-13 because of violence and language, and because there is no M-15+ on Fanfiction.net (An Australian Rating standing for Mature Audiences, fifteen and older).

Summary: starts straight from the minute Grave left off! I am not a Spike and Buffy 'shipper' and I'm not sure if things will be right between those two as of yet (Maybe, maybe not). Some 'people' from Spike's past as a human might be involved as well.

Authors Note: Thanks for the reviews…

This is a big chapter…. Lots of big important things happen…. Rememeber, you don't have to understand what's going on. It'll all be explained over time!


Thanks again for the reviews… more would be rrrreeeeeeaaallllllllyyyyy good

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Chapter 15

The gang at the Summers' house had decided that they all needed to find out a way to contact Giles in England. They didn't have a number to call, and they didn't have anyone they knew to call to get Giles, and they didn't have the number of the coven.

Night had fallen, and the best thing Buffy had decided to do was to go patrolling. Unfortunately, she didn't know what she was going out and getting herself into at the time. She left her house at around ten, confident that the night would be fairly quiet and nothing major would happen. She was wrong about that.

Buffy was walking down one of the many back streets of Sunnydale, heading to her favourite cemetery, cursing because she didn't know of any normal people who would have a favourite cemetery. When she was just about there, six figures came running out of the cemetery, oblivious to Buffy's presence. She could instantly tell that they were vampires and that they were running from something.

Buffy half concealed herself behind a nearby hedge, watching to see what was going to happen. A couple of moments later, the group of vampires stopped. Buffy saw five more vampires coming down the street, heading for the group. They joined up with the group, and stood looking into the cemetery. Buffy was wondering what was going on. It was early in the night, and these vampires looked like they'd been in the fight of their lives. A couple of moments later, another group of vampires came out of the graveyard. It was obvious to Buffy that the first group had been running from the second group. The second group had nine in their ranks, and they all carried some sorts of swords or long daggers. Buffy watched as the groups faced off. She could tell that they were viciously saying something to each other, but from her distance she couldn't tell what, and she wasn't going to risk getting closer. She couldn't take on twenty vamps on her own, no matter how good she was.

In the next moment, the vampires attacked each other. Buffy stood behind the hedge, amused.

"If this keeps up, I'll be out of work," Buffy said as the first vampire was dusted. "Good." She watched as the vampires fought each other, the ones with swords winning. She heard a rustling sound behind her, and spun around to see three vampires behind her. They were obviously reinforcements for one of the groups, and from the large swords Buffy could see in their hands, she could tell which group. "The big vampire fight's over there," Buffy said while pointing behind her.

"We don't want to fight them. We want you," one of the vampires replied.

"Heard the blood of a Slayer's pretty good," another one replied. Buffy recognised the other vampire as one of the ones that had gotten away the night she had taken Dawn out on her first patrol. She knew that he was stronger than ordinary vampires, and guessed the other two were as well.

"Fine then. If you're going to kill me, can you at least tell me what this whole vamp vs. vamp thing is about," Buffy said sarcastically, knowing that it wouldn't work. The first vampire lunged at her, swinging his sword for her neck, and Buffy easily ducked it and rammed her fist into his midsection. She grabbed the vampire by the sides of his leather duster and using her momentum and his weight, she pulled herself up and rammed her knee into his chest as he was doubled over, sending him flipping onto his back on the ground. She didn't have time to try and recover the sword from him before the other two attacked. One of them had circled around behind her, and the other one was in front of her. The one behind Buffy attacked first, and she sidestepped his attack, spun around and delivered a roundhouse kick to his hip. She then grabbed the hand his sword was in and twisted the whole arm around, making him drop the sword. She kneed him in the guts and then threw him into the other vampire, which was coming at her, sending them both to the ground. She picked up the sword and faced off against the original vampire which had attacked her. He swung the sword at her midsection, and Buffy easily blocked it. She faked to swing right and spun around and took off the vampire's head easily, turning him to dust. The other two were struggling to get up, and Buffy decapatated them too. To Buffy, it was far to easy. Any normal vampire would have been harder to kill than that, and she knew that at least one of them was stronger than a normal vampire. She just shrugged it off to luck.

Buffy then remembered the fight that was happening between the vampires in the street and the entrance to the cemetery. A lot of vampires had been dusted, and there were about ten left, all fighting each other.

All of a sudden, vampires started dusting everywhere. Buffy could hear something like a rubber band being fired. Then she heard it again, and again. With each sound, another vampire turned to dust before her. She looked at the area surrounding the vampires, but couldn't see anything. Then, three dark shadowy figures came out of the cemetery, each holding crossbows. Buffy could see the figures were tall, and fast. They had dark hooded robes on, and they seemed to shine even though there was hardly any light around to reflect off of the robes.

The vampires instantly knew that the dark shadowy figures were a threat and turned to face them. Buffy's slayer senses were going off the scale as the shadowy figures moved towards the vampires, almost seeming to float off the ground. She watched as the dark figures took out two long knives each and moved at lightning speed towards the vampires. She watched as the first vampire, one with a sword, attacked the first hooded figure. He swung downwards towards the figure's head, but with lightning speed, the figure sidestepped it, stepped forward so it was beside the vampire as it was swinging it's sword, and cut it's head off easily and swiftly. It was attacked by two more vampires and it spun backwards out of the way. In the same lightning quick speed, it ducked under one of the vampire's swords, and deep cuts appeared across the vampire's torso, obviously the knife had been there. The rest of the tall hooded figures caught up with the first one, and in a matter of seconds, all the vampires were piles of dust.

Buffy stared, awestricken. She couldn't look away. She had never seen anything move like those figures just had. Three of them had taken apart ten vampires in a matter of seconds, and not one of them had even been touched. She stared at their robes, wondering what kind of creatures they were. Her brain was refusing to take in what she had just seen, and she was frozen in place. She snapped out of her shock-stricken state when she realised that the figures were moving, but she almost completely froze in place when she realised that they were moving towards her.

"How could they know I'm here. I've been silent and been hiding behind the bush," Buffy thought. She knows how they knew she was there, and right now, she didn't care. Everything in her was telling her to run, and run she did. She knew what the shadowy figures wanted at that exact moment; her dead.

As Buffy was running back through the streets of Sunnydale, it occurred to her that this was the first time since Glory had learnt that Dawn was the key, that she had ever run from a fight, and she didn't like the feeling. She had run four blocks before she turned around to see if the figures were following her. She was greatly relieved when she didn't see any of them behind her. She stopped running and turned around to face the way she had just come, making sure that there was nothing following her. She then noticed she still had the sword in her hand, and she was thankful. Buffy took in her surroundings. She was on the footpath of one of the main streets in Sunnydale. To her right was a large brick wall, and to her left was the street, obviously. She then realised that she was beside the rather large, for a small town, department store called Target. To say that Buffy was spooked was an understatement. She just had this gut feeling that something was watching her, and she knew that it was one of the hooded figures. Just then, a hand came down hard on Buffy's shoulder.

Västerås – Sweden; Watchers Council HQ

Michelle had been in the office all day and she desperately wanted to get home, but she had to wait until one of the field agents came and reported in. She liked working at the Watchers Council's Sweden branch. She had been raised by her father, who was fairly well known and respected in the Watchers Council. She really didn't have any sort of connection with her father though. When she was growing up, her father had always been preoccupied with his Slayer than her. She kenw that Watchers weren't meant to have children, but her father was an exception, only due to his skills as a Watcher. She remembered being there for her Father when his Slayer died, he was devestated. Her mind wondered back to the time before her father had a Slayer, and all the things that her and her father had done together.

"Michelle?" she heard. She slightly jumped back in her seat, startled at the voice. She looked up and saw the man she had been waiting for.

"Howard! Don't do that," she exclaimed.

"Sorry, it looked like you were off with the faeries," Howard replied.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about things, that's all," Michelle replied. "Didn't hear you come in," she added.

"That's okay. Didn't mean to startle you," he replied. Michelle just smiled at him.

"So, how'd everything go?" Michelle asked.

"Fine. I took the female vampire into the holding cells already. You can call and check it up if you want. I had to kill the other vampires though," Howard replied. Michelle just nodded.

"Good, now I can get out of here," she said. She turned around and gathered up her things. When she turned back around, Howard was gone. It was strange that she couldn't remember hearing the doors open or close. She just shrugged it off.

An Hour Earlier; Västerås – Sweden; Watchers Council HQ

Rhonny was startled to hear shouting from outside. He quickly jumped up and ran to the window. Under the lights outside, he could see someone being restrained, with someone else holding them.

"Open up hey. It might be a good idea!" the person shouted from outside. Rhonny ran around to the controls and opened up the large roller door which was the main entrance to the warehouse that had the holding cells in it. He watched as the man brought in a vampire, restrained. "I'm Howard. Name should be on the list," the man said. Rhonny looked at the list and saw that a Howard was due to bring in a vampire for holding and interrogation tonight. He nodded and showed Howard a large cage in which he was to put the vampire. They both walked over to the cage and Howard asked Rhonny to open it for him, as he was preoccupied with the vampire. Rhonny did as he was asked, not suspicious of anything. Howard shoved the vampire into the cage and then got Rhonny to close the door to the cage and put a very large padlock on it.

"I'll just need for you to sign a couple of forms," Rhonny said to Howard.

"Sorry, no can do. I've really got to go. I don't have time, sorry. I'll do it tomorrow," Howard replied. Rhonny just looked at him, not liking that he was going to get in trouble for Howard not signing the forms. "Listen. I'll come in first thing tomorrow and sign the forms, that way, no one will know I didn't do it now," Howard said to him.

"Okay, fine," Rhonny replied, not knowing that in the morning there would be a police report of a body down at the docks, and that that body would be Howard's.

Buffy spun around, grabbed the neck of whatever was behind her, shoved it hard against the wall, and raised her sword to it's head. It was a certainty that if it was a human behind her, their neck would be crushed by now.

"Buffy! Are you crazy! It's me!" Anya screamed. Realising this, Buffy released her grip on Anya and lowered her sword.

"Anya. What are you doing?" Buffy asked.

"I was walking down the street until a certain Vampire Slayer tried to kill me," Anya sarcastically replied. "What's up with you?"

"Oh. Um, nothing. Just saw some stuff I was pretty sure I didn't need to see," Buffy replied, looking around. "Big guys in dark shiny cloaks killing ten vampires in about ten seconds," Buffy added. Anya just nodded in reply. They started walking down the street, Buffy telling Anya things that had happened since she'd left a couple of days earlier, and Anya telling Buffy all of her 'vengeance demon' stories.

It didn't take long for Faith to find a bit of room at the shelter. She put her things down, which weren't much, and spent the rest of the night answering questions that most of the kids had as to how she took the vampire out so easily. She learned that most of the kids were, or had been, members of a gang that hunted vampires in this area, so most of them knew the basics about vampires. She didn't tell them that she was a Slayer though, she didn't want to give that away. Her cover story was that she'd grown up knowing about Vampires and therefore knew how to handle herself well against them.

She spent most of the day scouting out the local area, getting to know the 'lay of the land' although there wasn't much 'land' around. It was mostly concrete sidewalks and bitumen streets. She'd spent a good part of the day looking for Angel Investigations. It didn't seem too hard to find at first. Just look up the phone book for the address and then look up a street directory to find out where to go. However there was only a phone number for Angel Investigations in the phone book, and she'd spent most of the day ringing the number, but no one was answering.

When night fell, she decided that she might actually try and live up to her name as the Vampire Slayer and go patrolling. It certainly looked like those kids in the shelter needed some help around the area, and what better than to have a Vampire Slayer hunting at night. Faith had asked some of the kids of the areas to stay away from, in hope that they'd tell her so she could go patrolling in those areas and cut the vampire population down. The most feared area now was the docks. According to the kids, some strange stuff had gone down there a couple of months earlier, and now it was a haven for all kinds of nasties. Faith thanked them, and then went to Anne to get a stake from her before heading out.

When Faith arrived at the dock area, there wasn't much activity. From what she could tell, there hadn't been any vamps in the area for a decent amount of time. She was just about to give up when she looked down the beach and saw a group of people moving along the beach suspiciously. She followed them, staying at least seventy metres behind them. She saw them enter a cave that was etched into the cliffs at the end of the beach, and she followed them.

Faith reached the entrance to the cave and looked inside, keeping herself hidden. There were four vampires in total, and they were all standing around in a circle, preparing for a ritual obviously. Faith grabbed her stake out of the back of her pants and charged into the cave, staking one vampire as she entered.

Ten minutes later, Faith emerged out of the cave. She had a large bruise on her right arm, and a busted up lip that was already starting to heal. She made her way over to the beach and started up the slope. She was halfway up the slope when she noticed a figure standing at the top of the embankment twenty metres down looking out to the ocean. As soon as she looked at him, her Slayer senses told her that he was dangerous.

Faith approached him, figuring he was a companion to the vampires she had just slain. She crept up behind him, hoping to get the jump on him before he realised she was there. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. When Faith was about five metres away from him, he spun around and faced her.

"You should know it's stupid to try and sneak up on me," he said to Faith.

"Oh well, had to try. It's easier to kick your ass without you knowing I'm here," Faith replied. With that, the young man ran at Faith and struck out. From the speed and force of the blow, Faith definitely figured he was a vampire. The blow hit her across the face, and sent her head snapping to the side. He was about to hit out again, but Faith blocked the blow. She tried to hit him with her other arm, but he blocked the blow. Faith went to punch him in the head, but he caught her wrist. With her wrist above her head, Faith ducked down, moved towards the vamp, and delivered, and uppercut to the stomach area before springing up and kneeing him in the same place as hard as she could. She was surprised when the vamp was still standing. Any blow like that would have knocked an ordinary vampire to the ground, but it only caused this one to double over. She got a quick look at his face, and was surprised to see that he hadn't morphed into full vamp face yet. He recovered quickly and went to deliver a snap-kick to Faith's head, but she caught his foot an inch or two before it hit her face. Suddenly, in an instant, the kid was off the ground spinning, his other foot approaching Faith's head. He was using her grip on his foot as an anchor to something in order to kick her head in. With nothing else she could do, Faith released the kid's foot and threw herself to the ground. Her and the young man that she was fighting stood up and faced off at the same time. "You're good," Faith said to him while looking at him. She was pleased to see that he looked fairly hurt from the couple of blows she had managed to deliver to him. She also knew herself that she was worn out and couldn't keep this up for long. She put up the façade that she was barely tired, and saw it register on the kid's face. She knew that he knew that Faith wasn't going to give up, and with that, the kid slowly started to back away. Faith wasn't going to let him get away that easily, she at least wanted to know what he was. "Hey!" Faith screamed. "We're not done yet."

Faith ran at him and tackled him to the ground. Quickly, he shoved her off of him and got up again.

"Fine, you want to fight. We'll fight," he replied. This time, he came at Faith with everything he had. Faith was surprised at the skill, strength and speed of the teenager she was facing. Faith finally saw an opening in his attacks and attacked back. She quickly brought him down to the ground, but not before hearing approaching footsteps. She was kneeling down on his chest with her hand around his throat.

"Get off him, now!" she heard a voice say menacingly. She looked up and saw a young bald black man standing above her holding a really large, wicked looking axe. Behind her, a girl approached holding a crossbow pointed at Faith.

"Why should I?" Faith replied calmly. She could tell that these two were just people, unlike the teenager she was holding to the ground. She looked down at the kid and snapped her head up when she heard the growl of a vampire. She saw six vampires behind the bald man and the girl. "Shit," she whispered under her breath. In an instant she got up and raced past the bald man and the girl into the vampires. She was glad to see that the girl had already spun around and was aiming the crossbow at some of the vampires. Faith ran at the vampires, stake in hand. It was the same stake that Anne had given her at the shelter. It wasn't until Faith had finished fighting the vampires that she'd realised that no one was there helping her. Sure, the girl had dusted a couple of vampires with the crossbow, but soon after she'd stopped.

"What are you?" the boy Faith'd been fighting before asked.

"You're asking me? What the hell are you?" Faith replied, her temperament stretched to the limit.

"There's three of us, and one of you," the bald man added, "you go first."

"Okay, fine. I'm Faith… the vampire Slayer. You are?" she said, looking at the boy.

"You're Faith?" the bald man exclaimed.

"Yeah, who're you?" Faith replied. She wasn't expecting the bald man to ready his axe and the girl to raise her crossbow.

"What are you doing out of jail," The girl asked, hiding behind her crossbow.

"How do you know me? And that's none of your business," Faith replied.

"We're friends of Angel," the bald man said.

"Angel? You're friends of Angel? Where is he?" Faith replied.

"He's due to come here any minute now," the boy said to Faith. She could tell that he was lying. It was obvious that they didn't want her to make any trouble, so that's why the boy said that Angel wasn't too far away.

"Look. I'm not going to hurt any of you. I just need to talk to Angel, like right now," Faith replied. "I didn't break out of prison… well, not exactly. I only broke out because the Watchers Council's gonna kill me to get another Slayer," Faith explained, "I don't want to hurt anyone right now." The girl and the bald man lowered their weapons, only slightly though.

"Angel's… missing," the girl said. "We're out searching for him."

"Come on, how long's he been gone?" Faith replied.

"A couple of months," The boy replied, disinterested.