Upon the buildings of L.A. the light of the full moon created a look of home, of softness, and a false security-like a predator luring a prey.

In one of those buildings a woman sat on a chair holding a glass of whiskey with one hand and the bottle in the other. She threw the cup away, smiling at the sound of broken glass, and took a swing from the bottle. She made a face, there was something missing about this drink. She remembered the missing taste with a longing and soon she was looking through her cupboards for the desired ingredient. A moment later she emerged with a small bottle, classy and delicate, that held a crimson coloured liquid. Professionally she dropped a sufficient amount of the crimson liquid into the whiskey bottle. She smiled with satisfaction after she had another sip of the drink-she had always loved the taste of Irish whiskey and blood. When the bottle of whiskey finished, she reached towards the counter and took the small bottle and finished that off as well, whipping the small trail of blood from her mouth.

Without making a sound the dark woman gracefully and delicately walked towards the window and sat down on the sill, one foot resting on it, the other on the floor, her hand on top of her propped up knee.

It was only there-in the luring light of the full moon-that became apparent that she was beautiful. Her black hair, as dark and vibrant as that of a raven's plume. Her emerald eyes held a secret to them, they were cold and dull-uninterested as though they had seen all they had witnessed everything that they wanted. They were beautiful, yet held a strong irony to them; they looked wise-far beyond the ostensible age of the woman. She had ruby lips and a strong nose. Her complexion was paler than that of a normal human, much like one that had stopped breathing and was denied the simple pleasures of life. Her skin, perfect except for a scar that came from the corner of her right eye to the corner of her lip giving her an intimidating look, making her more mysterious. Everything about this woman was beautiful and ironic at the same time, her imperfections made perfect as though done on purpose.

That woman was a creature of the night- a servant to light, a slave to the dark. She alone knew about the true bitterness and cruelty that life held, the unfairness, the mockery. She had seen it all, at it's best, and at its worst, she had seen the beauty, the danger, the darkness. She had seen people and empires rise and fall, she had watched as the future turn into history. She knew exactly what loneliness and guilt truly were.

To most she was but a shadow, to others an enemy, to some fortunate few a friend known as Midnight, but now she was going back to the naïve name that she had once carried-Buffy.

A/N: Hope you like it, R&R please-thank you. Props for whoever got the part from LXG. Sorry I took so long to update-it was a year actually hehe =D. Forgive me but it has a long story to it, and it completely justifies why I hadn't updated but I'll spare you it. Oh and by the way if a passage is marked , it means I got something to say at the end about that. I was going to stop here but I figured since it's literally been a year since I last updated I should give my readers a longer chapter. ENJOY!

Buffy looked around her house, it was near the Hyperion- fifteen minutes by car. It was a mansion in actuality, bigger-a castle, per say. It was a gift given to her by a friend who she had taken this mission on for; he had been kind enough to offer the house, even though she had to pay for it-she was offered it but Nathan wasn't that generous.

Her house was dark, lit by dim lights, the walls adored by expensive and original portraits like the real Mona Lisa and earlier paintings of Picasso and such. The walls themselves were painted either red, gold and black or silver, black and hunter green.

She got up from her place on the window sill and walked up the stairs, she had picked her room on the top floor for two reasons-one, she liked exercise- and two she loved height, looking out the window on that floor was better than looking outside on the ground floor.

She took her time walking up each step, calmly and slowly she took her steps; life would be too long if you get everything done quickly and then what else could she do? Think about her past, that's what.

She finally reached her room, as she opened the door she found that despite herself she was comparing this room to the one she had in Sunnydale before she had been kicked out.

This room was dark, decorated with black, red and green while the other was white, peach and sometimes pink. Her room was tidy, everything exactly where it should be nothing the way she didn't want it to be, where as the other was messy and everything out of order. This one was not overdone but classical and graceful. The other was over done-in her opinion at least.

This room was coloured black, red and green, her furniture were in an old fashioned style. There was a window shut closed with a red curtain on the far end of the room, her bed was pushed against the wall right bellow the window on its side. The walls were adored by her favourite books, not a single ounce sparred-except where the furniture was of course. Right beside the door way on the wall to her left was her closet and a little further up on her right was her dressing table.

Sighing she walked towards her closet and rummaged around, usually she wouldn't care what she wore but today was an exception. She was going to the Hyperion to help them out in this 'beast' stuff and had heard that Angelus is back, and to interview Angelus about this 'Beast' she had to wear something appealing. She finally decided on a black and red halter corset top with tight black leather pants and put her hair in a high ponytail, she wouldn't put any makeup on even if her life was at stake.

Buffy packed her stuff, just a black carry-on with the things she needs, put on her calf boots, put her whip at the clasp to the side of her waist and put on her leather jacket that reached her calf and fitted perfectly to her body. She placed her daggers inside her boots, and tucked her silver knife at the back of her leather pants.

Opening her window she jumped out and landed with cat-like grace. The height of the window to the ground was about 20 stories high-give or take a few-but it didn't matter, she had trained to be able to handle way more than that.

She lurked in the shadows when the human population increased and if she was not subtle she would have risked exposure. Something she did not want to risk right now.

Buffy slowed down her pace as she neared the Hyperion, she stopped at three steps before the door-listening for her cue to come in. She smiled as Cordellia once again gave it.

"We have been sending messages for a warrior for two weeks! Where the hell are they?!"

Buffy walked in "Right here". All eyes turned towards her, and only in the eyes of two did a sign of recognition flicker. Faith and Angel.

"Who are you?" If Buffy's non-existent heart hadn't been so numb she would have been hurt that her own sister (who she had died for once) didn't recognize her but she didn't care, not now.

She tilted her head and smirked, her eyes meeting Faith's "Care to tell them, Fai?"

Despite herself she found that she still cared for Faith, her sister-slayer-she still had a protective instinct for her not wanting her to get hurt, wanting to protect her the way you do for smaller or twin sister. Faith wasn't among the people who she wanted revenge for destroying her life and even though the reason behind the betrayal was Faith, she had never blamed her. Still she forced herself to focus and put away those futile feelings, and those lethal emotions.

"It's-"

"Buffy" Angel finished, instantly the group's gaze was more alert. Some of their heads snapped at her so fast that their necks cracked-causing Buffy who had very very supersensitive hearing to cringe inwardly.

"Good job Soul-Boy." She looked at him evenly, forcing thoughts about him to leave her head "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be all soulless and well...yourself?"

Angel looked sufficiently hurt by her comment about him being actually Angelus and Buffy took pleasure in that.

"Willow" came a voice, nauseatingly familiar. Suspecting who it might be Buffy turned towards the source of the voice and didn't even fight back an annoyed sigh when she saw who it was.

Kennedy stepped up towards her "Willow did it, she was able to divide the two-one Angel and one Angelus."

Buffy raised her eyebrows in a bored way "Really? Didn't think you'd be able to that, Will. I underestimated you, my apologies."

Kennedy took another step towards her "She's a Goddess, you know that? That's how we defeated The First."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, then said in a neutral voice "Intriguing. However I find it my obligation to point out that you cannot be made into a Goddess, you are simply born one. Unless of course you eat the Ambrosia but then you would be hated amongst the gods and Zeus himself would probably make your fate worse than that of Hades. I also find it my obligation to enlighten you about the fact that something has never been alive, never lived, never breathed can't be at some point-if ever-defeated. You simply fought off servants-not even strong enough to be minions-using an army of Slayers. Oh and congratulations on doing that by the way."

She was about to side step Kennedy and walk past her when Kennedy grabbed her arm, pulling her back. Buffy stopped walking, locked her eyes with Kennedy's and the glanced at her arm then locking their gazes again. "Do you really think that this is a healthy action?"

Kennedy let go.

"Now that is a healthy choice." She walked past Kennedy, "Knew you would be too much of a coward."

Kennedy took out her knife from her boots "TURN AROUND!!"

Buffy did as commanded, only for the reason to see what Kennedy had come up with for a way to intimidate her.

Kennedy once again took a step towards Buffy, circling around her making Buffy turn also.

She held the knife at Buffy's throat "You are not the only Slayer anymore-there is at least a dozen of us right now in this room and I am the second in command. So don't" she put more pressure on the knife but not enough to cause Buffy to bleed "push your luck." She didn't loosen her grip on the knife.

Buffy just smirked, not at all affected by the pathetic excuse for a threat "You know Ken, if you were a more trained and experienced slayer with a higher IQ and common sense-Faith per say" She waved her hand in the general direction of Faith "I would have at least pretended to be intimidated but since you're..." she searched her wide expanse of vocabulary for a word that would suite Kennedy but coming up with nothing English she settled for a less knowledgeable word "you, to even try and pretend to look intimidated would require highly terrible acting skills which I do not wield but," she looked at where Cordelia was standing, shooting her death glares "Cordelia would be just fit for the job. Cord? If you ever want to go back to that 'career' of yours here, here's a job just fit for your level of acting skills."

Cordy just glared, not able to come up with something snappy and clever enough, Kennedy wasn't faring any better.

"Buffy." Her ex-friends all said in unison, simultaneously taking a step towards her, the regret and tenderness in their voice distinguishable.

Buffy disregarded them "Listen I'm here for one reason and one reason only-stop the Beast" She took the last step down the steps "I work alone, I stay alone, and I fight alone-anyone who comes in my way will not live to regret it. Everyone got it?"

They all nodded, each with a different degree of sentiment.

"Alright, lets get this party started."

A/N: So, how is it? Like? Sort of like? Hate? Hate with immense passion? Then review and tell me! I like reviews and flames-reviews make me feel good, flames help me...so don't sugarcoat anything for me and tell me where I've made the mistakes-English isn't my first language and though I know it's not an excuse I still make mistakes or typos. Kay thanks.

prophecy-girl3: Thank you so much, sorry I didn't update. Yeah that episode pissed me so much, words could not describe it.

manticore-gurl071134: Thank you

Lanfear1:  glad you like it!!!

treacle-antlers: Hi! Thanks for the help. I'm not very good at spelling-couldn't do it right to save my life. Also I don't really get the Cordelia part, so if you could just give me the name with the right spellings I would really appreciate it. Thanks for pointing out the mistakes.

Kendra3: I did! See? Hehe-dude, sorry that was so gay

SlayKitten91: I'm so glad you like it. Thank you.

Goddessa39 ): I was going to make it BA, but now I'm not sure-Buffy isn't going to go with anyone else though if she doesn't go with Angel. Perhaps I'll make a sequal that puts the two together. I don't know, I'll see where the story takes me. Oh and by the way, I absolutely love your stories especially since most of them are Scoobie and Xander bashing please update teaching magick. Please put Harry and Ginny together. Please!!!!!

Miracle Angel Summers: Thanks, and I will-if you have any ideas just email me at my email-it says it on my page. God, I am so glad you like me story! Hope you like my update. And thanks if I do need help, I will.

Fantasywriter13: Thank you, the update for FMIS will come in a little while. Kay, thanks.

Bloodied Turquoise Knives: I am so sorry, that I didn't update. But the reason is long and stupid and embarrassing but part of it was because my writing skills were pretty poor then and now that I've improved a little I think that I can do this story justice.

Me-Spike-4eva: Thank you

LizaGirl: Yes, I just did. Hehe-sorry that was gay too.

And that's a wrap! Later everyone please R&R.