Chapter 6

And the Dead Shall Rise

The night was thick with an evil mist as Principal Wood drove across town to get to Buffy's house. Giles seemed almost scared of something when he called him several hours ago. He in turn was a little apprehensive about going to Buffy's, because of Faith.

He didn't want her to think what they shared together was just about sex. Given a little time he would make her see that not all guys just want her for her body. As he took a right on Revello drive a foul stench filled the air and at the same moment a wolf's howl was heard.

"Damn what the hell was that?" he said as he rolled his window back up. As he got closer to the Summer's residence he saw over a hundred people shuffling about. As he stopped his car by a mass swarm of the people, the light from his car illuminated one of their faces. Or what was left of it.

His-its- face was deathly pale, except for the blood smeared around its rotting lips. Flaps of dried skin hung from its sunken cheeks, and the dark wells of the creature's eye sockets glittered with hunger as it reached out with skeletal hands-

To say the pricipal was shocked was an understatement. 'Great fucking zombies.' he thought as he looked to Buffy's house that was about 30 feet away. Clutching onto the small machette that lay in his passenger seat he opened his door.

"Alright, I can do this." he said, and slammed the car door. That proved to be a mistake. Several of the undead were alerted by the noise and came charging. As the one he was looking at got close he used the machette and chopped it's head off.

As another one of the things came up behind him he shot an elbow out to greet it. As he tried to stab another zombie something big and fury lunged at him. Which made his weapon and the zombies nearest to him, fall to the ground. Looking up he saw the hulking figure of a wolf. Getting to his feet he jumped over the hood of his car and made a run for the house.

"Please be open. Please be open." he said as he neared the house. Before he was able to grab the handle the door swung open.

As soon as the lights went off, the people in the Summers house began to scream. Closing her eyes and concentrating, Jesse activated her magical powers.

"ELECTRO'S!" she shouted as the lights in the house came back on.

"What the hell is going on?" Buffy shouted as she entered the Kitchen. With Giles, Faith, and Spike not far behind.

"I don't know!" Willow answered with fear in her voice. "One minute were talking and the next minute the light's go out." she finished as she looked over at Jesse. Since Willow was the nearest to Jesse she heard her use a magical phrase to make the lights come back on.

Jesse ignored her and looked over at Buffy. "Buffy we have a problem. There are demonic presenses surrounding the house. I can't tell how many but there's ...alot. I'll do a quick patrol." she finished. Not waiting for a reply she stormed out of the kitchen grabbed her coat and opened the front door.

As she opened it she was surprised to see a heavily panting black man on the door step. Aiming her shotgun above his head she fired at the large Were' creature that was dangerously close to him. To their satisfaction the thing went down like a dog with a comical yelp. Stepping aside the man practically fell into the house.

Giving him the once over she turned around and started blasting into a crowd of zombies. After a few seconds the scooby gang and potentials came running into the room.(they didn't realize that Jesse had gone outside. Even though the blasting of the shotgun could be heard. Go figure there the scooby gang eh.) They saw Principal Wood on the floor gasping for air, but as they tried to run to him they saw a zombie try to shuffle into the house.

With lightning quick speed Faith jumped over Robin and drop kicked the Zombie out of the door.

As the door began to shut, well almost shut, a pair of bloody hands grabbed the door.

Everyone inside screamed as one of the undead slowly began to pry the door open, as Faith tried to push back on it. It was a very large man that was at least six- eleven and was incredibly muscular that had no shirt on and his torso was entirely covered in blood.

Once the thing had pried the door completely open (making Faith fall over in the process), and was about to jump in, a sword blade popped through its sternum, stopping just millimeters from Faith's face.

The monster let out an otherworldly cry of pain and let the door go. Jesse pulled the blade out and grabbed the monster around the neck, flinging it into the wall of the nearest house.

When the monster hit the stone wall, it hit with enough force to leave a body-sized hole in it. The monster hit the ground and Jesse quickly entered the house.

The monster she threw stood up and charged at the door. Jesse removed the shotgun from her back and aimed carefully.

The zombie was about ten feet away when Jesse pulled the trigger.

The top half of the thing's head was ripped off entirely.

"Nibblet get away from the window!" Spike yelled as he pulled Dawn away. There seemed to be a permenate mask of horror on Dawn's face as she looked up at Spike with wide eyes.

"There's hundreds of them Spike..." Dawn croaked as Buffy came over to her. "What the hell are we going to do?"

Buffy looked at Dawn, hard, and then she looked over at Spike. 'Just what the hell are we going to do?' she thought as she heard the wails of the dead outside.

Willow immediately ran to her backpack when she saw how many zombies were outside. Robin, Xander, and a few potentials( the ones that weren't scared shitless) broke tables and took doors off the hinges to use as a barricade.

Finding the book she needed, Willow finally found the spell she was looking for. As she began the incantation, someone lightly tapped her on the shoulder. Turning she saw that it was Jesse.

"Have you seen my Dad?" she asked with concern in her voice. As Willow shook her head no, Jesse took off like a shot upstairs.

After searching three rooms, she finally found Giles in Buffy's room looking out of the window.

"Do you really think we can win this?" Giles asked with his back turned to her, still looking out of the window.

"Of course we are going to win." Jesse said as she joined Giles at the window. "When I was a little kid, and you read me stories, you always told me the good guys always win."

"Ah, but this is different." Giles said as he turned to look at Jesse. "Your presense here has caused something different to happen hasn't it?" As he said this Jesse looked down at her feet before she answered. Out of everybody in her family, Grandpa Giles was the only one to ever make her nervous.

" Yes Grandpa. From the stories you and my parents told me when I was young, none of this stuff was supposed to happen." she said as she met his gaze for a second then lowered it back to her feet.

"It's going to be alright, dear." Giles said as he put his hand on her elbow. A second later he applied a lot of pressure to it.

"Grandpa you're hurting me!" Jesse screamed as she looked up at Giles, who had a murderous gleam in his eyes.

"Get away from her!" someone shouted from across the room. As both Giles and Jesse looked over to the voice they saw that it was Giles.

"Damn Rupert." Giles/First said. "You guys always have to spoil my fun." It said as it let go of Jesse's arm and morphed into Buffy. "Thanks for coming when you did, Jesse." The First said with a grin.

"Get the hell away from her." Giles demanded as he slowly inched towards them, axe in hand.

"Now Grandpa Giles is that anyway to talk in front of my daughter?" the First asked as it morphed into the future Willow.

"No...!" Jesse screamed as she curled into a ball and started crying. Willow/The First looked down upon her with a wicked smile.

"So she is supposed to be the savior of mankind?" Willow/the first asked mockingly with a laugh.

"I'll tell you what kid." The First said as it got down on it's knees and morphed into future Xander. "Since you are responsible for me being corporeal, I'll give you one day to prepare yourself." Then it stood and looked over at Giles.

"Be seeing you G-man." it said with a small wave as it blinked out of existance. As soon as it left Giles ran to Jesse's side and held her against him.

"It's going to be alright." Giles soothed as she again cryed into his chest.

"No..." Jesse said in between sobs. "I let them die Grandpa." She said referring to her parents. Giles just held her as she cryed.

"From what you told us there was nothing you could have done." Giles tried to reassure. But it had the opposite effect as Jesse cried even harder.

"But, I'm the Slayer Grandpa. I'm supposed to be... supposed to be..."

"Strong." Giles answered for her.

"Yeah." she said as her tears started to subsided.

"Then be strong." Giles told her firmly. "Look at me Jesse." Giles told her as he put his hand under her chin.

"Your parent's might have died in the future, but what about now?" Giles asked. "Your parents made a huge sacrifice, now what are you going to do, sit here and cry?"

"But Grandpa..."

"But nothing Jesse!" Giles all but screamed. "Your parents need you to be strong now, Jesse." Giles said as he made eye contact with her. "I need you to be strong." he added in a more gentle tone.

In that moment Jesse made a decision. Enough of being scared all the time. With a plan forming in her head she decided. Now was the time to fight.

TBC...

Please review...

A/N the reason the firstwas able to turn into Giles is because it was the future Giles. Jesse was so used to looking at the older version of Giles that she couldn't tell the difference.