A/N: This is set after 2 years after the events of "The Girl in Question" (Basically because that's when I started writing it) so the big NFA battle isn't mentioned and there are a few details that are changed. Oh, and the title…I never said I was original : )

Reunion

Buffy had never liked flying in airplanes so she was relieved to say the least when her plane finally touched down at LAX airport. After the sizzling temperatures of Rome Los Angeles paled in comparison. She had not been back to America for two years and Buffy could not decide whether she had missed it or not. As she made her way through the super-tight airport security she felt jet-lagged and exhausted. It was saying something for a Slayer to feel exhausted. Dawn on the other hand was still buzzing with energy even after a flight that seemed to go on for eternity. Buffy had thought at one point that the plane had been pulled into some time portal where things moved incredibly slowly, either that or they just kept going around and around in circles due to some demonic whirlpool in the sky.

As Dawn jabbered on about being back in America and how she missed Rico, her new boyfriend back home in Italy, Buffy's mind switched to business. Just because there were now hundreds of Slayers it did not mean that her work was done – far from it. Though most of her work now consisted of setting up the new council, run by her and her friends, she also regularly checked on newly called Slayers.

However, on this particular trip she was not here for either of those responsibilities. She was here to bring down a much bigger threat. One that she had to warn a certain vampire with a soul about. Sure, she could have called Angel on the phone but these demons were tricky and Buffy knew he would need help. Besides, she liked surprising him. He got this funny look on his face – the one where his eyes widened and his jaw went slack like a cartoon character. It made Buffy smile just thinking about it.

"Hey, what's the funny?" Dawn asked looking suspiciously all grown up nowadays.

It still amazed Buffy when she looked at her sister and saw how much she had changed. Dawn was now a confident, intelligent young woman. With a tan that most girls would die for. Her long dark hair was wavy now and had blond highlights in places; she strode through the airport in her high boots, dark blue jeans, suede belt and pinstripe shirt.

Buffy shook her head at her sister indicating that it was nothing important. They picked their luggage up from the baggage claim and for a couple of women they packed surprising light – each of them had just one medium sized sports bag. They didn't intend to stay long. Just long enough to beat these demons down.

The Kraals were a group of lower-level demons with upper-level demon aspirations. Normally, this would have just been a run-of-the-mill 'demon's getting too big of for their boots' deal if the Kraal's didn't have the added bonus of a new wonder drug that gave them one hell of a power boost. The drug was called 'Speed Beads', which Dawn had giggled at incessantly. Basically the drug made them super strong, super fast and super un-killable at least until it wore off. The Kraal had a desire to rule L.A and, of course, kill and/or enslave all of the human occupants. Now, it may be that Angel and Co weren't even aware of the problem yet because the Kraal were good at being secretive, at not making too big of a dent before they had to. The only reason Buffy had found out about them was because some of these 'Speed Beads' had made their way to Rome where the various demon riff-raff were using them to get one up on the new Slayer that had taken up residence in their city. Buffy had bashed their brains in, of course. But it had been tough for a while and certainly not the easiest fight in her life.

It would be harder here, though. Considering this was where the Kraal's were based and there were, by all accounts, a lot of them. Or so the demon she had promised to torture had told her when she had asked where the drugs had come from.

On a wider scale Buffy had Giles using all of the council's resources to block off all further shipments of the drugs and the call had been put out to all Slayer's to watch out for them and report any sightings. Demons were strong enough as it were they really didn't need the help of a drug.

Buffy and Dawn vacated the airport and got into a cab telling the driver to take them to offices of Wolfram & Hart. She cringed inwardly as she had to say it. Buffy did not approve of Angel's taking over of the evil law firm and her opinion had not changed in that respect. However, her feelings had to be put aside on this manner. The Kraal's were too big of a threat for anyone but Buffy to be sent to help.

She didn't know if she was welcome but, frankly, she didn't care. Sure, it would be a more pleasant visit if Angel worked with her in a civil manner but if he didn't she would just have to work with him in an uncivil manner.

Buffy sighed as she settled back against the seat and watched the sights go past. A long time ago Buffy had lived in L.A and she had thought it was the best place in the whole world to live in. At least until she found out about demons, vampires and her abilities to slay them.

It took them about twenty minutes to arrive outside of the huge law firm building and Buffy felt like there should an ominous music key, like 'dum dum duuum!'. Instead Buffy and Dawn just got out of the cab paid the driver his money and started walking towards the building. They got to the door and Buffy stopped, making Dawn turn and stop too.

"Are you...nervous?" She asked softly.

Buffy shook her head "Not nervous. I just have this weird feeling that...that this is gonna be one of those visits that irreconcilably changes my life. Is that stupid?"

Dawn smiled "Nope. Usually any visits to or from Angel result in much grief/anger/intense smoochies between you. So, you're probably right"

"Thankyou ever so" Buffy rolled her eyes but grinned as she pulled the door open and strolled into the foyer.

The Slayer walked in a couple of steps as she took in the large white interior; the place looked a lot bigger inside than it even had outside. There were sharp lines everywhere, black marble flooring, white paint everywhere, and cold metal staircases. It was all very now, very hip, very minimalist. It was the kind of place every business aspired to look like, yet to Buffy it was all too cold, too clean, as if a lot of polishing up had been done to get rid of the stains. With a place like Wolfram and Hart, all she had heard about it, she was betting there were a lot of stains.

The Slayer felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck just by standing in this huge complex. It was a law firm but there was a lot more to it then that, there were things here that weren't only evil and unnatural they were so powerful that everything told her to prepare for an attack. Her fists balled at her sides and it took everything she had not to get paranoid and lash out at the people all bustling about – all looked so normal, so human...or at least as normal and human as lawyers could ever look. In their sharp suits and slicked hair they were just too normal.

She took a few more slow steps into the huge place and she heard talking, phones ringing, a few laughs, coughing, and shouting...all very normal sounds for a place of work. It was a good facade, if Buffy had not had her supernatural senses she would have sworn it was just a normal, if very expensive, law firm.

Dawn let out an impressed whistle "Kinda makes you almost understand the whole 'evil deal' thing that Angel did, huh?"

"If you say so" Buffy murmured.

"Oh, come on. The place is cool, you have to admit that"

"Something here just isn't right. It's...creepy" Buffy hefted her bag up onto her shoulder better and then looked towards the elevator "Let's go"

Dawn followed her "We're not gonna call up and warn him?"

Buffy turned back to her sister and gave her a grin "Not really my style"

"Ah, the big entrance. So cool! I've never had one of those"

"Trust me," Buffy stepped into the elevator with her sister "you never get tired of them"

The doors slid closed and the Summers' women rode the elevator up, although in Buffy's opinion a downward ride would have been more appropriate for where they were going. As they moved up floor-to-floor the elevator was filled with business suit types and Buffy felt way too casual in what she was wearing. She felt like she stood out in her beige hipster pants, brown boots and white mesh shirt that was so see-through she had to wear a white camisole vest underneath it. Her hair was loose and she had made extra effort with her make-up because, hey, Angel was still her ex and she didn't want him to forget how good she could look. Especially since he always looked effortlessly fine. So unfair.

The next floor was their floor.

"Lights. Camera" Buffy said as the doors slid open "Action"

A flying demon slammed into the elevator between Dawn and Buffy, her sister let out a scream of surprise. Buffy reacted without hesitation she used her hefty bag to swing down in an arc and smash in the face of the scaly green thing. It shrieked and grabbed her bag throwing it out of the elevator before using both of it's clawed feet to kick into her abdomen and send her sprawling into the corridor onto the floor. She heard the sounds of fights behind her but could not look because the demon was on her again flicking out it's long, slimy tongue to suck out her eye. Eww was Buffy's only thought before she grabbed the tongue in her hand and ripped it out of the mouth. Blood, red blood, splurted out of the mouth onto Buffy's white shirt and half of her face. The Slayer punched the screeching demon in the face but its heavy weight still did not fall off of her.

Dawn wrapped the strap of her bag around the demon's neck and pulled it off a little. Enough for Buffy to roll out of the way, stand, and kick in the side of the demon's skull with her boot. The demon fell limp to the ground with Dawn's bag still around its neck.

Buffy heard Dawn call out but she was already turning around and grabbed the flying lizard demon by the shoulders and using it's own momentum to throw it into the wall. It hit with a thud and the Slayer grabbed it around the neck and slammed its face into the wall again. Without looking behind her she kicked her foot back and struck gold when the heel of her boot landed in the neck of the sneaky demon behind her. The demon she had pinned to the wall lashed out with its claw hands behind itself and managed to slash Buffy across the ribs ripped her clothes and her skin. She let out a wince and lost her hold for a second but it was enough for the demon to wiggle free and backhand her across the face, leaving shallow claw furrows across her cheek.

The Slayer grabbed its hand and snapped its wrist like a twig making it scream like a baby. She then elbowed it in the face and whirled it around throwing it into the other lizard demon behind her that had been trying to sneak up on her again. The two demons collided bone-crushingly hard and fell in a heap on the floor.

Buffy saw another demon running towards her but had enough time to register other people fighting, flashes of axes and battle cries as things got ugly. Before she could determine where Angel was, if he was here at all, the demon was upon her. She punched it in the face and then shoved it back giving herself enough room to land a wicked snap kick to it's chin driving it's head upwards and she heard the satisfying pop of it's spinal column.

The demon slumped to the ground and another one jumped over its body into her. Buffy hit the floor on her back and groaned at the ache that ran up her back. She could hear Dawn fighting and prayed she'd be all right and that someone was helping her. Buffy had to first take care of herself though.

She grabbed the jaw of the demon and tried to avoid the tongue thing again. Buffy head butted it and the demon swayed but did not fall. She hefted her foot up to kick it in the abdomen but before she did it the demon's claws dug deeply into her arm and it seemed to be trying to rip her limbs off. If she kicked it off now there was a good chance her arms would go along for the ride too.

So, instead she head butted it again and again until it's eyes went dazed then she punched it and ripped it's claws out of her arm painfully eliciting a moan and wince of pain on both occasions that she had to do it. Buffy kicked it hard in the abdomen and it went flying into the air and out of her sight.

She took a moment then flipped herself up and spun around once she heard the familiar sound of an axe whistling through the air.

A dark figure spun around to face her at the same time and swung its axe down towards her head at lightening speed.

Buffy had only a second to react so she whipped her arms up and caught it in just the last millisecond. Her hands gripped tight on the metal handle as she pushed against the immense strength of her opponent. The blade of the axe was a centimeter from her face and she found when she blinked that her eyelashes brushed along its blade.

She looked up to face her attacker and her heart stopped.

No.

That...that...can't...

Not that. It's not even...possible.

Buffy's eyes skated over the face, that face, and her whole body felt aflame by disbelief and a strange...empty feeling.

It. Can't. Be.

But it was. It was. Somehow.

He can't be standing here...it's a lie.

But it wasn't. She knew that even as she thought it. Her mind, her body, her heart...just knew.

The ice blue eyes looked back at her with equal shock. The pressure on the axe was not released, from either of them. The two of them just stood there in perfect denial and absolute bewilderment. It could have been seconds or minutes or hours that passed for all she knew but still they did not move. She knew one of them would have to say something or hit the other one to break them out of the spell. So, she did both.

"You bastard" Buffy said matter-of-factly before landing an excellent right hook to the vampire's face.

Spike crashed to the floor on his ass taking the axe with him.

A/N: So, whaddya think?