LEGAL A/N: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, UPN and the WB. The Dead Zone and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Sequel to Real. Post-BTVS S7 "Chosen" and post-DZ S4 "Vangaurd"

7: Attack

Thunder crashed over New York after a bolt of lightning illuminated the sky over Rose Hill Cemetery as brightly as day. Hundreds of gravestones were positioned all around the cemetery with several additional mausoleums. Ethan Rayne was inside the largest, with five other vampires standing guard.

Ethan stood in the center of a darkened room with an unlit candle in hand. He had his eyes closed as he hummed softly, slightly swaying back and forth as he had been for the past hour. He stood in the center of a pentagram drawn in chalk on the cement floor, the symbol weighed down with dozens of other ritualistic signs written around and on top of it. The five vamp guards stood in a circle of protection around Ethan and tiredly tried to keep their eyes open while Ethan preformed the most boring of rituals in the coldest building in the city.

The beefy, linebacker-type vampires gazed around at each other, their legs aching from standing there for an hour and their bellies rumbling with hunger. "This sucks," the one with sandy-blonde hair named Marv declared. "Why couldn't we do this in the hotel?"

"This is sacred ground," Ethan answered, trying to concentrate and frustrated with being interrupted. "It is harder to disrupt the balance."

Chester, a surfer-type, dim-witted vampire, asked with obliviousness, "What balance?"

A punk-rocker, badass vamp named Drake rolled his eyes. "Are you talking about a real balance or a cheesy, Elton John 'Circle of Life' balance?"

Ethan sighed in annoyance as he attempted to explain without much hope. "It's… it's the… sacred balance. It-it's… sacred."

Chester tried hard to understand. "But when you say that…"

"Dude!" a pretty-boy vampire named Manuel hissed. "You might disrupt the balance!"

The fifth vampire, an older man with a thick Jersey accent named Steve challenged, "Yeah, but what kind of balance, is it?"

Marv whined, "Why isn't the hotel sacred?"

Steve snapped, "Shut it about the hotel already, eh?"

A red-faced Ethan burst out in a flash of anger, "You're disrupting the balance!" All of them fell into silence as Ethan glared at each of them in annoyance. With a sigh, he rolled his eyes and continued the spell, sitting down in the center of the pentagram and lighting the red candle in his hands.

"All right," Ethan began, calmed down. "Each of you, sit on the five points of the star." The vampires gave each other a strange, uncertain look. "Don't just stand there," Ethan ordered, "sit on the five points!" The vamps shrugged at each other and followed his orders.

Marv said under his breath, "Finally." Ethan shot his fierce gaze towards Marv and he quieted himself, breaking eye-contact immediately and finding a sudden interest in the walls.

Ethan returned to his task, closing his eyes in deep mediation. The vampires stared at him curiously as he began to chant rapid-fire in Latin. "What's he saying?" Chester asked.

"How would we know, you idiot?" Drake answered. The lightning outside began to occur more rapidly as the vamps staring up at the ceiling, hearing the swirling of electricity in the sky over the mausoleum.

Ethan's eyes opened wide and were dark with black magic. "Sons of Utarefson, hear onto me," he declared in a booming voice. "Let live they that follow and die they that flee. Embrace your father's demon; take your weapons in hand. By the will of Utarefson, you shall obey my command!"

The flame of Ethan's candle exploded into a short ball of fire as a bolt of lightning struck the mausoleum. The five vampires suddenly howled with horror and pain as they were incinerated from the inside out, exploding into a cloud of dust and ash. The ashes of their bodies transformed into a golden cloud that rose out of the vents, windows and cracks of the mausoleum and traveled through the air, dissipating and spreading like a virus over the city.

Buffy Summers sat in a chair at the round table in Johnny's hotel room as he sat across from her. Johnny had thrown his clean, dark blue, button-up shirt over his tank undershirt – the memory of how much he had enjoyed gazing at her flesh in his dreams fueling his desire for modesty and self-control. Both of them stared at each other in awkward silence. She couldn't bring herself to explain how she had met Johnny. He couldn't bring himself to explain the visions he was having of her future – and the stranger ones he was having of their non-existent past.

"I don't know where to begin," Buffy finally declared, breaking the thick quiet. Johnny looked up at her, accidentally looking into her eyes again. He gazed down at the table as he cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Um… your friends," Johnny nervously began. "They, uh, found me. They told me that you were having visions." He glanced up at her face for a moment to see it turn a darker shade as she tried to push images out of her head. The same expression that he found himself having after his meetings with Greg Stillson. "Visions of Armageddon," he added, studying her closely. Buffy nearly winced at the word.

It was true. She had seen it, too. But how?

"I don't understand how this is happening," Buffy whispered in confusion. "I-I mean… Is it because of something that you did?" she asked with uncertainty.

"I don't know," he sighed with honesty, shaking his head. Another shade of somber sadness and worry crossed her face.

She meekly asked with a hollow, disheartened tone, "Then is it something that I did?"

Johnny gazed at her, examining her tone and demeanor. "You mean is it something that you deserve?" he replied. Buffy looked up at him with subtly stunned eyes. She considered denying his claim, but instead pursed her lips even tighter. "I don't really know what's happening here," John declared to her sincerely, "but I don't think you're responsible."

"What if I am?" Buffy asked with a bitter tone. "I pissed off the wrong god, some witch, the Powers – whoever." She shook her head in frustration and shrugged. "Maybe it's payback from coming back from the dead… or letting my formerly soulless, ex-boyfriend sacrifice himself… or even for turning the Potentials into Slayers." Johnny gazed at her blankly. Buffy glanced over at him to see his lost expression. "You've got no idea what I'm talking about, do you?" He shrugged apologetically. Buffy blushed with embarrassment. "Okay… let's just ignore Buffy's outburst of the evening, shall we?"

Johnny smiled at her and replied, "I guess you're too amazing to be summed up with a few visions." Buffy looked up at him, thrown off guard. He reeled back and broke eye contact, embarrassed at himself for saying something that must have sounded so stupid. He cleared his throat again. "Uh… what have you seen?"

Her voice became hollow again as she swallowed hard and replied, "People dying. Fire. Washington being destroyed."

Johnny shook his head with understanding. "Yep, that sounds like Armageddon."

"But not in any way I've ever seen it."

He looked up at her, perplexed. "There's more than one?"

Buffy gave a nervous half-smile of surprise. "Boy… I seem to remember you understanding a lot more when I talked about these things."
Johnny shook his head as he stared up at her, lost. "No, I don't seem to understand… Buffy, how do you know me?"

Buffy stared up at him blankly. She swallowed hard and began anxiously. "I… I've… I've had dreams," she answered slowly. Johnny could feel his face begin to turn red. He looked away again as he heard her tone carrying hints of sadness and disappointment. "But… that wasn't you… was it?"

There were too many things he wanted to say, but he couldn't find the power within himself to say them. Instead, he forced himself to make eye-contact with her as he began, "Ten years ago, I was in an accident that put me in a coma for six years. During that time, my brain rewired itself to function through my Dead Zone."

She gazed at him in confusion. "You're what who?"

"Dead Zone," he repeated. "It's the part of the brain that normally remains useless."

"Oh," she answer
ed with a hint of embarrassment. "Must have missed that part in biology."
"And now when I touch things, I get visions of the past or the future," Johnny continued. "Truth is I probably should've died in the accident or my sleep. The chances of my survival were non-existent. The chances of it changing me the way it has are unheard of."

"So you're the lucky exception?"

"And supposedly the only psychic of my kind in the world."

"Until I came along."

Johnny sympathized with her overload of information. "I know it's a little hard to understand."

"Actually, it's really not," Buffy replied. "One psychic in every generation… until there's a mix-up and then there's two. I just don't understand why it's me. Or why it's happening at all."

"Have you ever had any psychic experiences before?" Johnny asked.

"Oh, yeah," she nodded. "I've predicted everything from the First Evil devouring the world to my own demise. 'Premonitions from Higher Powers while in a dream state' in Giles-speak."

"Dreams?" Johnny repeated, his mind in contemplation. "I've never had any psychic dreams. Not until recently."

Buffy gazed at him, her mind also in thought. "If I had a bill I'd be betting you started having dreams about the same time I walked in on your vision job."

Johnny shook his head in bewilderment and awe. "These dreams… they're nothing like I've ever had before. I'm there and feel real, and when I wake up they are real. What's worse is that they don't make any sense."

"What do you mean?" she asked, gazing at him. Her green eyes found just one of the signs he was talking about peeking out of his dark shirt. "Oh, my god," she breathed in astonishment as she reached out and touched the burn mark of Buffy's cross on his chest.

Johnny was standing shirtless with a bored expression on his face as Buffy, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and a black, transparent blouse over another camisole, wrapped her strong arms around him, embracing him with tearful relief. His arms gave her no reply of any match.

"Oh, my god," she whispered. "I was freaking out!" She let go of him and gazed lovingly at his face. "You just disappeared."

"What?" he shrugged, careless in manner and tone. "I took off." Buffy blinked at him in confusion as he moved to the small bed that he and Buffy had made love on previously. He grabbed a black shirt lying on the bed and put it on as his girlfriend stared at him in worried confusion.

"But… you didn't say anything," she said in bewilderment. "You just left."

"Yeah," he scoffed cruelly. "Like I really wanted to stick around after that."

Buffy reeled back from a serious blow with a look of shock on her face as tears of misery began to take the place of those of joy. "What?" she breathed, her heart breaking. Johnny appeared beside her, walking up to her and studying her carefully. It was a horrified, agonized expression which he had the misfortune of seeing on her face before. She was watching the person she loved become a monster before her very eyes.

Johnny came out of the vision in confusion. "It happened again," Buffy said, staring at him with eager eyes. "Just now. What did you see?"

He looked up at her, once more in a predicament. Hesitantly and as gently as he could, he answered, "Your boyfriend. The… day after your birthday."

Buffy's expression slowly melted into darkness, bitter memories of a harsh past haunting her green eyes. "I'm sorry," he added, giving her cause for surprise.

"For what?"

After a moment, he answered with a hint of guilt, "For the things he said. They weren't—"

"That wasn't him talking," Buffy interrupted him, obviously not wanting to dwell on the subject. Johnny gazed at her with guilt and confusion. It wasn't him. It was me.

"Long story," Buffy explained shortly. "But I don't understand. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Haven't got an answer," Johnny said, shaking his head. "Usually my visions aren't so random; they're centered around a specific place and event. But it's almost as if they're trying to connect me to your entire life."

"They have a mind of their own?" she asked incredulously.

He scoffed as he shook his head, "I'm almost sure of it." He stopped and turned towards the window, the curtains drawn tightly in front of it. His attention was pulled away from the situation as he continued to gaze warily at the door and window they were sitting next to.

"What is it?" Buffy asked, noting his heightened alertness. He reached out in a flash, quicker than she could blink, and grabbed her by the arm, yanking her away from the window.

A flaming bottle of alcohol tied to a rock smashed through the window and exploded on the table where they were sitting. Both of them ducked as drops of flaming liquid splattered around the room, setting the bedspread on fire. They could hear shouts and hollers outside, beckoning the Slayer to come out and play.

Buffy came to a stand in full Slayer mode, Johnny arising beside her. He turned towards the smashed window and heard the calls, along with inhuman roars from unknown beings outside. He gazed passed the flaming curtains and table to see two, large, beefy men standing in the window – their jaws heavy with jagged teeth, their teeth glowing yellow in the firelight, and their faces distorted and twisted into a reptilian structure.

The same way he had envisioned his own face.

Buffy pulled wide-eyed Johnny away from the window as they ran through the hotel room and into the bathroom. "Come on!" she ordered. The two of them rushed in as Johnny closed the door behind them. Buffy kicked a small window near the sink. "Can you fit through there?" she asked him.

Johnny considered the size, but his thoughts were interrupted by the demonic roar that was now coming from inside the hotel room. "I can today," he quickly answered as Buffy climbed through the window and Johnny followed. They pulled themselves out of the window into the alley beside them, coming to a stand and turning around to face…

A gang of over a dozen vamped-out vampires, all staring at them and waiting anxiously with licking lips and hungry eyes. "Slayer," an Indian vampire woman hissed as she glared at them along with the other vampires of all shapes, ages and sizes.

Buffy stared at them with a worrisome expression that she had not usually had before. However, it was the way they looked that caused her newfound agitation. This gang looked nothing like a normal gang. It consisted of a multitude of various vampires, all different ages, possibly even different languages that had little in common except for two common facts: they were certainly all demons, and their yellow eyes now took on a distinctive golden glow. As Xander would've put it, a scarier version of an already scare-worthy scary.

A little, vampire girl with brown skin grinned wide. "We've been waiting for you, Slayer."

"Vampire Slayer," Johnny repeated, staring at them all and kicking himself for his stupidity and bad timing. "Now I get it."

Buffy pulled out a stake from the back of her jeans. "Aim for the heart," she declared and tossed it into his hands.

In three, quick flashes, Johnny saw Buffy working in action. She was dressed to kill in a darkened cemetery with stake in hand, and she plowed the weapon into the hearts of the vampires she was fighting.

Johnny gazed at the stake in shock, then turned to her small woman beside him as she whipped out another stake from the small of her back and gripped it tightly, standing in a defensive, countering pose.

Johnny said slowly, "So… were not gonna die?"

"I don't plan to," she answered. A male vampire charged at her, full-force, as Buffy grabbed him and threw him through the window into the burning bathroom.

Johnny looked up at the rest of the gang that eyed him maliciously as he tightened his grip on the weapon and tensed up his muscles. He declared with an amazed sigh, "I did not see this coming." Buffy punched a female vampire to the ground as a male vamp rushed at Johnny. He ducked down and flipped the vamp over his back, kicking another in the stomach. Buffy spin-kicked a man and dusted him, the dug her stake into the heart of another female behind her.

Johnny shoved a vampire away and punched another approaching vamp in the stomach. The teenage male doubled over, but then delivered a jarring punch to Johnny's jaw, one so powerful that it spun him around as he hit the concrete.

"Johnny!" Buffy exclaimed as she saw him go down after dusting another vampire. The stake fell out of John's hands as he lay on the ground motionless. The teenage male vamp grabbed him by the shoulder and rolled him onto his back, glaring down at him with sharp fangs.

"This won't hurt a bit," he hissed, "after the first hour." Johnny all of a sudden sat up and head-butted the vampire crushingly. The vamp went back as Johnny pushed himself to his feet. The male vamp flipped up onto his feet as John punched him in the face and added a kick to the chest. As more vampires approached Johnny from behind, he drove the stake into the heart of the vampire, dusting him.

Another grabbed Johnny from behind, binding its arms around his shoulders. He drove his elbow into the vamp's chest and side-kicked him away. A female vampire rushed him from the left as Johnny jabbed the stake into her heart, finishing her instantly.

Another vampire tossed aside by Buffy crawled on the ground below the mayhem towards Johnny. He was already fighting with a dark-skinned male, swinging slow punches, one of them connecting with Johnny's jaw.

He saw himself being bitten from behind by the male vampire as it jumped off the ground and buried its fangs into his shoulder.

Johnny kicked the dark-skinned vampire into a wooden crate, the smashed pieces of which dusted it, while he jabbed his stake out behind him without looking and buried it into the heart of the approaching vampire as it jumped up from the ground.

Each of them took on the vampires, steadily holding their own as Buffy killed the last of them. The dust settled around them as they stood side-by-side, panting in stunned silence. Johnny gazed around at the piles of dust as the breeze took them away while Buffy turned around and fixated her stare on him.

"What?" Johnny asked, noticing her confused expression.

Buffy gazed at him, perplexed, as she tried to catch her breath. "You…" The words simply faded off the first time, but she then restarted and continued as she gazed at him with a furrowed brow. "You… didn't miss the heart." He stared back at her, just as confused as she.

"What does that mean?" he asked, shaking his head.

Buffy stared at him, stunned out of words to explain. "You didn't… miss." Another roar suddenly let out from the street, ripping their attention away.

"Looks like you're popular tonight," Johnny observed as he cautiously gazed at the dark street, expecting more vampires to arrive shortly.

"This is different," Buffy declared. "These vamps are possessed. They're looking for us." She grabbed him by the arm as they took off down the alley in the opposite direction. "Come on. Let's get out of here."