Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, nor do I own any of the lines that I used from some of the BTVS episodes.

Thanks to: laffinpebbles, wackycavegirl, cyndur, Damia - Queen of the Gypsi's, Danielle, and madskillzpro. I luv you guys! Keep on reviewing!

A/N: Oh, and tiny reminder. This is my version of BTVS' Season 7. And of course, a big thanks to all those who reviewed the last chapter. You guys are the reason for this next update. So – ENJOY!

Chapter Six: From Beneath You, It Devours

"That trip came close to being utterly useless," Harry said with a grimace, as he and Draco made their way back to the apartment. Unfortunately, Willy knew nothing about Caleb nor did he know anything about wizards. It was quite ironic how a town crawling with vampires and demons knew nothing about the wizarding world.

"Not quite," Draco said. "He did tell us about the Slayer."

"Which we already know exists and lives here in Sunnydale," Harry said with a shrug. "Not exactly useful."

Draco stared at him. "Will you use that bloody head of yours Potter? All we have to do is find the Slayer and she'll lead us straight to Caleb. We capture him. We bring him back to the Ministry. We get gold stars."

"Will you use that bloody head of yours Malfoy?" Harry mimicked, glaring at him. "Number one, we don't know where the Slayer is. Number two, she may not know anything about Caleb. And number three, we don't get bloody gold stars!"

Draco cocked an eyebrow. "I was joking about the last part, Potter."

Harry groaned and threw his hands up in the air in frustration. Sometimes, dealing with Malfoy was just as tiring as dealing with Gilderoy Lockhart, who, thankfully, had lost all of his memories years ago.

"We'll just have to tell her about Caleb, then. Easy." Draco said with a shrug.

"No we won't," Harry corrected him with a frown. "Caleb is a wizard. Therefore, he is strictly our business. Not the Slayer's."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. But I still think we should go and talk to her. She could have all the bloody answers to all of our bloody questions."

Harry sighed and gave up. It wasn't like they were getting anywhere, anyway. "Alright. Let's just do it tomorrow. My head feels like it's about to split into two."

"I agree, Potter. You obviously need your beauty sleep." Draco smirked.

"Shut up Malfoy."

"No, you shut up."

Harry mentally cursed his boss for sticking him with Malfoy. "Honestly Malfoy, we could go at this for several hours." But Draco wasn't listening to him, he was gazing at something far off in the distance.

A graveyard.

"I thought I heard something," Draco informed him. His steel-gray eyes flickered slightly as they scanned the cemetery across the road. Harry followed his gaze, trying to look into the dimness. The street was lit by nothing but one solitary lamppost, and it gave off an eerie glow with the color akin to that of a feline's eyes.

And that was when they heard it – a blood-curling scream.

"Shit," Draco cursed and broke off at a run, Harry at his heels. They darted past the wide-open iron gates of the Sunnydale Memorial Park, going off the walkway and onto the grassy lawn. The gravestones jutted up from the ground in an almost haunting way, the dim light allowing them to give off inconsolable shadows of grief. They were running many feet above numerous coffins. Coffins that held within them dead people.

A freezing chill ran down Harry's spine, but as his sight caught a young girl – no older than sixteen running straight towards them, he forgot all about being nervous to being defensive. His Auror sense kicked in, and automatically, he pulled out his wand. From beside him, he saw Draco do the same.

And that was when they saw them.

Four or five men – if they were human – clad in pitch-black robes, were chasing the terrified girl across the graveyard. And they were slowly gaining on her.

The girl skidded to a stop in front of the two wizards. Her face was covered with dried tears, and her skin was deathly pale. She trembling from head to toe. Frightened blue eyes stared at Harry. "Please – please don't hurt me."

"We won't hurt you. We're the good guys. What are those things? Chasing you?" Harry asked. The robed figures were nearing them, and he could see Draco preparing to attack.

"I – I don't kn- know," she stammered. Fresh waves of tears fell from her eyes.

"Quick, get behind us." Harry instructed, just as the figures came to a stop five feet from them.

"What do you want?" Draco asked, his voice flat.

They had no answer for the two wizards, their only response was to pull out long, and incredibly jagged knives from inside their robes. The dim light glinted against the sharp metal, giving it an even more dangerous effect.

And then they lunged.

…

The fight ended twenty minutes later. The robe-clad figures had retreated to wherever they had come from, seeing as they were no match for the number of spells and hexes the two wizards had cast upon them. Fortunately, none of them were severely harmed. Harry had escaped the brawl unscathed, Draco, on the other hand had a cut on his left cheek. It was not deep, but the demon hunter claimed it hurt like 'bloody-fucking-hell'.

Harry cast a healing spell on it, and the scarlet liquid that was quite a contrast against his pale skin, vanished. All that was left was an uneven line – a scar. "It'll disappear in a few days, Malfoy." Harry said rolling his eyes at Draco's incessant cursing.

Ignoring his 'partner', he turned to look at the girl they had apparently rescued. She was still shaken from the recent events, but much of the color had returned to her face. She had light brown hair, blue eyes, and she was wearing a pink shirt and faded jeans. Harry wondered why an innocent-looking girl like her was being chased by Dementor-look-alikes.

"I'm Harry Potter by the way," he introduced himself. "And the prat over there, is Draco Malfoy."

"T – Taylor. Taylor McKenzie." She stumbled over her words.

"Why were those things chasing you?" Harry asked gently.

Taylor neglected to answer his specific question, but she did give an answer that startled him.

"They killed my Watcher."

Draco's grumbling stopped. "What?"

"You're a Slayer?" Harry asked, surprised.

"A Potential Slayer," Taylor said in a small voice. "T-the Watchers Council's been destroyed. The last thing my Watcher and I heard from them was their advice to go straight here to Sunnydale – to The Slayer's house."

"Why?" Draco asked, exchanging confused and alarmed looks with Harry. The Ministry never told them anything about the Watcher's Council being destroyed. So it must have happened just a few days ago, when they had already arrived in California.

Taylor started to tremble once again. "Something's coming."

…

Buffy paced the living room floor with apprehension. It was almost midnight, and Giles had not yet arrived. He had left the Summers' house several hours ago, saying that he had some business to attend to – urgent business. He had promised that he would be back and tell them everything.

But he wasn't back – yet.

And the Scooby Gang were getting worried.

"What's taking him so long?" Buffy said out loud.

"Maybe he ran into some traffic," Xander suggested from his spot on the couch.

"It's eleven-forty in the evening, Xander. Traffic does not exist at this time in the night," Buffy said with a frown. "You don't think he ran into something, do you? Something – awful?"

"Are you trying to jinx us Buffy?" Anya asked crossly.

Buffy shot her a look. "No, but -- " she was unable to finish her sentence when a knock came from the front door. She let out a relieved breath and darted over to open the door.

"Giles what -- " she was again unable to finish her sentence when she saw that the person standing on their 'Welcome mat' was not Giles at all. In fact, it was someone that she was not expecting at all.

Because the last time she saw him, he had been slightly – delusional – terrified of something, he could not see.

"Spike?" He looked different. Almost like a normal person. Gone was the leather duster, and bad-ass façade. It was replaced by jeans and nice hair. She reminded herself that he was still a vampire, but the troubled look in his eyes – the guilt and regret she saw there, made him almost human. Almost.

"Buffy," he said softly. Regret filled his expression.

She heard commotion behind her, and she realized that her friends were now there. Both Slayer and vampire turned to look at them. Xander and Dawn wore similar expressions of distrust and anger, Willow simply looked surprised, while Anya was staring at Spike strangely.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Xander spat, his voice livid with rage.

Spike ignored them, gazing only at Buffy. "The Big Bad's coming," he said in a whisper. "I'm warning you. We have to prepare for the Big Bad. It's going to devour us all."

"Devour?" Willow asked nervously.

Spike took several steps backward, his eyes never leaving Buffy's. "From beneath you, it devours."

And then he took off. Buffy was about to run after him, but was stopped by Xander's and Dawn's grip on her arms. They refused to let her go. "No. We don't know what he's up to." Xander said distrustfully. "Right now, we have to wait for Giles. We'll deal with Spike later."

Numbly, Buffy nodded and followed her friends back into the living room.

Anya stayed behind, watching the dark night where the vampire had vanished into. Being a vengeance demon, she could see things the others could not. And she had seen something entirely new in Spike.

Silently, she made her way back into the living room, keeping her newly-found secret to herself.

…

Agonizing memories of that night when Spike had tried to rape her, tormented her to no end as they haunted her thoughts, her nightmares, her feelings…Buffy shook them all away, now was not the time to dwell in the past. They had more important things to discuss.

Giles had arrived half an hour after Spike had fled from the Summers' home. The Watcher had arrived with three Potential Slayers in tow. Kennedy, Amanda, and Vi. Right now, they were being told about the recent events. Events that they had no idea had occurred.

Giles currently sat in one of the armchairs, his expression troubled.

"What is it Giles?" Willow asked nervously.

"I'm afraid," Giles sighed. "I'm afraid we have a slight apocalypse."

You could've heard a pin drop from the silence that was the reply from Giles' blunt statement.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with Spike's 'From beneath you it devours', now would it?" Dawn asked anxiously, glancing at her sister.

Anya nodded. "Halfrek and I had talked about this the other day ago. D'Hoffryn, the Lower Beings…they're all feeling the heat. Something's rising guys, something older than the Old Ones. And everybody's tail is twitching. Halfrek said that a man arrived in Sunnydale a week ago. He's been stirring up some trouble…some of her friends told her that's he carries with him some powerful magic. Almost like Willow. Dark Willow."

The red-head winced.

Giles stared at Anya. "That's it. That's him! He must've been the one behind the Bringers' hunt for the Potentials and the destruction of the Watchers Council." Giles shook his head, while the others listened to him warily. "There's not a doubt that he's in contact with the First."

"I think I speak for all of us when I say 'huh'." Xander said.

"Giles, slow down please. What're Bringers? Why was the Watchers Council destroyed? And when your talking about the First, you don't possibly mean…" Buffy trailed off. She did not like the look in Giles' eyes. "Oh god. The First Evil."

It was then that Willow fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Giles and Buffy were immediately at her side. "Wills! Willow, are you okay?" Buffy asked, her eyes wide.

Giles, however, remained calm. This had happened before. Back in England. During her rehabilitation with the Coven. "What did you remember, Willow?" he asked gently.

The witch buried her head in her hands. "I felt the earth. It's all connected, it is. But it's not all good and pure and rootsy. There's deep…deep black. I saw… I saw the earth, Giles. I saw its teeth." She looked up at him, fear in her emerald-green eyes. "It's going to open. It's going to swallow us all."

"The Hellmouth." Buffy understood as Spike's words echoed in her head.

From beneath you, it devours…

…

A/N: I just love that line! Hahaha! And if you guys can remember some of the lines I placed in this fic (some of the stuff Anya and Willow said) were taken from the episode: "Lessons".

Anyway, REVIEW! The next chapter's all ready, and I'll post it once I get some reviews. :-)