Half Blessing, Half Curse

by TD Master

Ranma 12 BtVS crossover, Xander is sold to the Chinese mob by his father in between season 1 and 2 of Buffy.

20. part 20

----20----

"What?" Buffy asked from her superior position, down at Kendra.

"De Slayer, one girl in all- . . ." Kendra started.

Buffy interrupted her mightily pissed, "I know what the slayer is, bitch. /I/ am the Slayer."

Buffy saw the momentary confusion in Kendra's eyes, but then returned, remarkably collected for a girl having a knee on her throat, "/You/ are de other Slayer? Dee one before me?"

Buffy blinked, took her in. "You can't be the other Slayer. She's in . . . uh . . . South America somewhere, and her name is . . ." Buffy spat out, frowning, trying to remember.

"Kendra, dat'd be me," Kendra replied.

Buffy kept looking, remembering the shapeshifting snake demon Xander and Willow had talked about, but this girl didn't seem the snake, none of her alarm bells were ringing now that she had her, and the girl's eyes weren't all hypnosy either. Slowly Buffy eased some of her weight off of Kendra, and said, "Suggestion, we quit el fighto, and we go to my watcher to figure out what's going on, okay?"

Kendra took the blonde in with suspicion for a moment, then took the offered hand, got up said, "Okay."

-----

Spike was heading out of his hide out, a few minions behind him. Just before he would reach the exit, he felt his throat constrict and lifted off the floor. He gurgled, and then gasped in pain as he was painfully slammed against the wall of the hallway. He looked surprised as a big red demon seemed to emerged from thin air, his head first, and then rippling down. Spike looked right just a bit, and so his minions stare blankly forward in mid-step, unmoving.

"-Vampire,-" the demon hissed angrily, "your information, was incomplete."

"Ugh," Spike gasped out, "is that you're exc- gargh-"

The demon squeezed harder, and took a step closer, saying, "I don't give excuses, vampire. Upon your hiring us, you were instructed to give us all the information you had. Nowhere did you mention a werecat."

"Were-what?" Spike spoke out starting to get fed up with this.

The demon smiled thinly, and explained, "Somehow I don't see how you can fail to notice a humanoid cat running around. If it weren't for the werecat, you're girl Amazon would have been dead by now, killed by her own mother."

Spike got angry, and slammed hard at the demon's hand around his throat. The demon winced and decided to let go. "Listen, buddy," Spike hissed out angrily, "I have never seen a bloody big cat around here, except in the zoo. I don't see what the problem is with it anyway, cat, no cat, just use it the same way."

"I can't," the demon whispered, although it sounded like a yelled order, "cats, I hate them, they are my only weakness; the damn things are just too damn pigheaded to be put under control."

Spike was about to leave, when another voice interrupted him. "Does the same go for a super witch?" Spike and the demon looked at the entrance of the hideout, where a man in a business suit stood.

"Super witch?" Spike muttered in annoyance. "What in bloody hell are you talking about? And who are you anyway?"

The man morphed, and formed a snake demon. It slithered closer a bit, and told Spike, "The redheaded super witch. She blasted me out my target's living room with nothing more but her anger and concern, didn't even need to mutter a spell," it hissed out, its forked tongue slipping out regularly. "Last time I ate a witch with that kind of power was a 150 years ago; there are only a handful, if even that many witches with that kind of power across the world."

Spike frowned, and then said, "Redhead? The only redhead I know whose with those bloody white hats, is no witch, she has no power, and if she does, it won't be enough to lift a sodding pencil."

The snake suddenly slid forward, fast enough for Spike to get nervous. The mind controlling demon just smirked and took a step back to give his fellow Terakan some room. "/I/ am not a liar, imply that again, or for that matter if I find out you're lying to me," the snake hissed out, its fangs and slitted, golden eyes glowing with anger in Spike's face. It shrugged, and added, "You won't very filling, with you turning to dust before you can nourish me, but it won't be for nourishment. The Order of Teraka frowns upon killing customers, sometimes I don't care if they frown."

"Right, well," Spike spoke, a little shiver of fear running down his spine. He was pretty sure he could take these demons, but still . . . especially seeing the snake slip smoothly back into its human disguise. "You can still finish the jobs, right?"

"Don't worry, by this afternoon they'll all be dead," the mind controlling demon spoke casually.

"Good," Spike answered with a huff, "Now, would let my minions move again, I'm somewhat in a hurry." The demons shuddered back to life, took a startled look at the two new demons, and then shrank in on themselves with fear. "Let's go," Spike ordered his minions, and walked out. The minions following, taking in the demons nervously. Once Spike was gone, the demons each went another way.

-----

Angel was smoking, as he had covered himself with the meager protections he could find. He groaned with the pain that the sunlight was inducing. He was already weakened, and soon the little protections he had managed to find wouldn't even be enough to keep him from bursting into flames either.

He looked up weakly as heavy steel-barred door opened noisily. Willy came in, grabbed Angel by his feet, and started dragging him out. "Don't worry, I got ya," Willy said as he continued dragging. As Angel was dragged through a short distance of sunlight, the smoking became heavier and he groaned with the pain. Then Willy opened a small trapdoor in the ground, and dumped Angel down it. He followed him down into the sewer. A moment later from the shadows emerged Spike.

"Hello, Willy," Spike told the weasel.

"Hey, Spike, see, I told ya," Willy replied, indicating Angel.

Spike grinned, nodded, and made a gesture with his head. Some of his minions came from the shadows and headed for the weakened Angel. "Hey, we had a deal remember?" Willy asked a little afraid they were just going to take him.

"Yeah, Willy, we did," Spike muttered and pulled dollars from within his coat. He started counting and dumped the bills in Willy's head. "Remember, mouth shut about this," Spike told Willy and then dumped a few extra bucks on his hand.

"Not a problem," Willy said, and then Spike dropped the last bill into the sewage water as his minions disappeared into the darkened tunnel dragging Angel. Spike shook his head in disgust at the money grubbing bastard, as he actually bent down to get the last bill. As Willy straightened back up, he asked, "Hey, what are you gonna do with him anyway?"

Spike gave a smirk, and told him, "I'm thinking, dinner and a movie, don't want to rush into anything. I've been hurt y'know." He then turned and walked after his minions.

-----

"My car!" Cordelia suddenly very loudly realized, as she and Xander jumped through the air.

"Ow, my ears," Xander complained, landing a little wobbly and walking normally across the slanted roof instead of running like he did before. He freed his head and attempted an ear massage.

"Damn you, Harris!" Cordelia told him with dread, much less loud now. "My car is still back there with that evil assassin!"

Xander sighed in frustration, stopping altogether, and turned around to face Cordelia and said, "Last time I checked, Queenie, bugs don't eat cars, and I'm pretty certain he wasn't hired to kill yours."

"Oh, yeah, laugh it up, Dweeb Boy," Cordelia told him angrily, "You're just a nobody, a wimp. All here sprouting around as if he's mister super hero, and now he runs like a coward."

"Hey, I attacked it, beat it, kicked it, it just turned to bugs and back again!" Xander yelled back at Cordelia, most assuredly pissed off. "It's called a tactical retreat, but I don't suppose you would understand something like that. Nah, you would want me to continue fighting, and in a lucky moment have that thing kill you no doubt!"

"Yeah, right; all you were thinking about was an opportunity to grope me!" Cordelia accused him taking a step forward.

Xander took a step forward as well, and added, "I'm not the dumb one who let bug assassin into the house."

"How was I supposed to know it was an assassin!" Cordelia yelled right back at him. "He looked human, sold makeup and gave free samples!"

"AT FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE GOD DAMN MORNING?" Xander screamed back at her, actually making Cordelia take a step back as she realized how little she had been thinking.

"Well, I thought he had really big family to support," Cordelia muttered, making Xander roll his eyes.

Just as he was about to say something about feeding a million mouth, a gun shot rang out, and some hail zipped right alongside Xander. Both of them looked down, seeing a portly, balding man with a gun leaning out a roof window, already yelling, "DAMN RIGHT IT'S FIVE O'CLOCK IN FUCKING MORNING!" He aimed his double barreled hunting rifle once again, making Xander grab Cordelia and started running. A second shot destroyed on of the roof tiles just behind Cordelia as the man yelled, "SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!" Xander tightened his grip around Cordelia's waist as the man reloaded. He jumped, and another gunshot rang out, while the man loudly added, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ON MY ROOF ANYWAY?" A tile broke on the new roof, and Cordelia's face was contorted in terror. Xander ran on, and quickly jumped a second time, pulling Cordelia along. Behind them, the man stopped firing, and suddenly questioned to himself softly, "How did you get there in the first place? And uh . . ." He blinked twice as he reminded himself at how high and far the two of them had jumped. He took it in one more time, cocked his head, and then quickly disappeared back into the house, shaking in fear.

On the second roof after the lunatic with a gun, Xander paused again, his hand still around Cordelia's waist. He looked back for a moment, than at Cordelia's face. Their eyes locked, and then they kissed hungrily, deeply, passionately. After a moment they broke apart, and they looked shocked at each other. Xander then muttered, "We need to get back, there I need sleep, and very strong, black coffee." Cordelia nodded agreement - fine she wanted Xander, but this was just way too freaky. Xander then continued jumping from roof to roof.

-----

"Giles, Giles!" Buffy called distraught as she entered the library. She took in Giles reading in a book, Jenny doing the same. Lotion and Deo were doing a light sparring match, while Willow wasn't present. The bunnied Amazon had taken off the hat, so her ears were clearly visible. Since her skirt was whirling about in her movements, the tail too was already very visible. When Lotion noticed Kendra, it was no surprise she went rigid with embarrassment.

Kendra came in after her, and taking in the others, and noticing Jenny and Lotion, she went immediately in a battle stance. Just before she could attack, while everyone stopped what they were doing to take in Buffy and thus Kendra, Buffy grabbed her fellow Slayer by her shoulders holding her back, and said, "Calm down, they aren't demons, they're good girls - just a temporary magic mishap."

Kendra looked with distaste at all the non-Slayers and non-Watchers assembled and said, "What . . . are dey all doing here?"

"They're friends," Buffy exclaimed as Giles stately walked around the counter to go to the new girl.

"Friends?" Kendra asked confused.

Buffy nodded to her, saying, "Yeah, friends, amigos . . ." Buffy paused as she took in Lotion and Deo, and added, "Some more than others; comrades in arms."

Giles reached Buffy and Kendra, and said cautiously, "I am Rupert Giles, and who might you be?"

Kendra opened her mouth to answer respectfully, but Buffy beat her to it, "This is Kendra, the Vampire Slayer."

"That is not possible," Deo spoke coming closer, her daughter in tow. Her eyes were on Kendra cold and narrow, actually making the Slayer shiver for a moment. "There is only one Slayer."

"Actually, Buffy died, was revived by CPR and a new Slayer was called. Her name /is/ Kendra," Giles answered calmly, resetting his glasses, "are you certain she is who she claims to be, Buffy?"

"No," Buffy answered again, before Kendra could tell something to verify her identity. The exotic Slayer flashed an annoyed look at Buffy, as she added, "But she's not a Terakan assassin. I made sure, no ring, and apart from her viper tongue, there's nothing snakey about her."

"Viper tongue?" Kendra questioned with an indignant look.

Buffy sighed, and told her annoying sister slayer, "It's a joke, okay?"

"She's human," Deo said, making Giles take a look at Deo, "My senses are quite a bit more sensitive than future son-in-law's and my daughters, Watcher, I sense nothing demonic."

Giles turned back to Kendra, and explained, "One of the Terakan assassins is a demonic shapeshifting snake."

Kendra looked with large eyes at the Amazon, jerked her head toward Giles at his explanation, then shook her head, and said, "Mr. Giles, my watcher can corroborate that I am indeed the Slayer."

"Slayer?"

Kendra whirled around and saw a somewhat awake Willow standing there in a red overall, and some fresh makeup, her hair was still grungy. Kendra's hands went up to fight, and Buffy grabbed the Slayer's shoulder, telling her annoyed, "Calm down, another friend.

"Apparently this is Kendra, and there's been a screw up," Buffy told her best friend, indicating Kendra with her free hand.

"Oh! You're the other Slayer," Willow said, and told Buffy, "Freshening up a bit in the bathroom." Willow then frowned and asked Kendra, "What are you doing here?"

Buffy folded her arms across her chest, and added, "Yeah, and why didn't you contact us on beforehand or something."

The redhead slipped past the Slayers, looked at Lotion for a moment, and then moved over to Jenny with a hopeful look. The cat-woman shook her head just a bit, making Willow's eyes fall. She looked back up and then glared at Deo, who just returned a smile.

"Mr. Giles, I still do not understand," Kendra spoke up, looking around, "a Slayer is supposed to work alone, so her identity is not revealed, and she does not endanger others. I do not see why you would let Buffy have friends."

"What?" Buffy asked shocked.

"Ah, well," Giles answered the exotic slayer, fidgeting, "I came to realize that with Buffy, I had to make allowances."

"What is /that/ supposed to mean?" Buffy wondered out loud.

"They cannot help," Kendra continued not understanding, "even if they know; they'd be too weak." Kendra indicated Lotion, while adding, "Bunny or no bunny."

That was it. For a whole long time, Lotion had turned inside, attempting to find her balance with the weird placing of her ears, more so while adding the tension of flatting them over her head. Even more so, the embarrassment, the mortification of being part Bunny in front of her friends and her mother, who was the one who got her into this. And now this. "I KILL!" she yelled in rage, speeding forward and slamming a devastating punch across Kendra's jaw. The Slayer didn't even have time to try and deflect the blow, before it hit, and she was launched backward, till she crashed into the wall perpendicular to the doors. Kendra groaned in pain, and had difficulty keeping her eyes open.

Lotion appeared before her, pulled her out of the wall, and as she rammed a fist in Kendra's stomach said, having lost all care about proper English, "I not bunny! You tease! Then worse, dare say I weak!"

Kendra blocked the following knee with extreme effort, groaning out. With an enraged yell Lotion threw another punch. Kendra blocked it, but yelled in pain as her arm was jarred. Then she felt herself be lifted off the ground by her shoulders, and so the girl pull back her leg. "Lotion!" Giles snapped, and Lotion snapped her head back at him. "I believe that's enough."

With Kendra looking fearfully hopeful at Lotion's face, the Amazon contemplated Giles words. Then, without opening her mouth, she growled and powerfully put the Slayer back down on her feet. Lotion turned away a bit, and Kendra stumbled back to her own place.

Buffy smirked evilly at Kendra, and told her smugly, "A word of advice, don't piss off the crazy Amazon chick."

Kendra gave Buffy a glare, and then spoke up with some difficulty, "How is this possible? No human can be this strong without the use of dark magics."

"I DO NOT CHEAT!" Lotion screamed as a new punch connected to Kendra's chin. The Slayer was once more launched back, until she smashed into the same place she smashed into before, making the Kendra-shaped indentation a little deeper. There she stood for a moment, groaned, before she slowly sank to her knees and then fell down further.

"And I warned her too," Buffy said with mock-regret, than gave bunny-Lotion a big smile and two thumbs up. The Amazon gave Buffy a glare who quickly took a step back closer to Willow.

"Was that really necessary?" Giles asked of Lotion as she returned to her mother, who didn't seem to think anything was wrong. Jenny looked concerned at the delirious Slayer, and hoped she was alright.

"She accused me of cheating," Lotion just replied, making Giles sigh.

In the meantime the watcher had gone over to the phone, while taking a note book out of one of the counter's drawers. Everyone looked expectantly as Giles moments later started dialing a number. A bit later, Giles started speaking, "Ah, Mr. Zabuto, I am Rupert Giles. I am Buffy Summers' watcher in Sunnydale."

The others couldn't hear the other end of the conversation. Then Giles spoke a few things that made no sense at all; probably some identifying code to verify they really were watchers, Willow thought. Then Giles continued speaking understandably, "Samuel, I have here a girl who says her name is Kendra, and that she is the Slayer.

"Mmh, mmh," Giles returned into the phone, and then proceeded with giving a description of Kendra. "Indeed. I see, then she is who she says she is." Giles nodded, and finished, "Thank you, and godspeed, Samuel."

As Giles put down the phone, there was a groan from the downed slayer, and slowly and painfully Kendra got up. Giles turned to the group of waiting people, and said, "Well, Kendra indeed is who she says she is."

Willow asked subdued, still struggling with her enhanced magic, "Shouldn't they have called us before they sent her here?"

Kendra was finally to her feet and shook her head to clear it. Jenny arrived at the Slayer and looked her over, just to be sure Lotion hadn't actually hurt Kendra.

"There we have it then," Buffy told Kendra bitingly, "You didn't give us your schedule, we don't need you, you can go home."

Giles spoke up, pacing back and forth, holding his glasses, "Mr. Zabuto and I have already agreed that for the time being Kendra will remain here, until the present crisis is averted. Kendra, why exactly did he send you here?"

Kendra made a tiny bow, and said, "There were signs, all pointing that a dark power was about to rise in Sunnydale. Mr. Zabuto that there was a larger chance of success if the forces of darkness did not know I was present."

"So she attacks me," Buffy muttered with rolling eyes. "Brilliant scheming."

Before Kendra could answer, Jenny said, "Drusilla." Everyone looked over to her, as she continued, "We found a ritual from Du Lac's work, it is to revive a wounded master vampire, on the night of the new moon."

"That's tonight," Willow said with wide concerned eyes. Jenny nodded. "Then Spike is the one who hired the Order of Teraka; to keep us from interfering," Willow added with annoyed revelation.

The door to the library opened, and in came Xander and Cordelia. Kendra was still recovering to attack the new entries. "Speaking of the Order," Xander said, apparently having heard the last words, "We just met the king /freak/ of the Order."

Kendra went rigid, and looked down. Cordelia came after him, and said, "And you left my car with bug guy."

"Will you quit with the damn car already?" Xander spat at her. Cordelia glared at him as she walked past them all to a seat at the table. "It isn't like you left the keys inside, did you?" Cordelia huffed and folded her arms across her chest.

Buffy smiled at Xander, asking him sweetly, "Xander, what is it with you and bug people?"

"Oh," Xander said, turning back to look at his love, "But this is different. Praying Mantis lady /was/ a bug, this was a guy /of/ bugs. I was just looking forward for some payback too, but fists and kicks just went straight through. The guy turned into a mass of bugs for a while, and then he was back to his guy-form again. Seriously . . ." Xander paused as he finally lost enough frustration to notice Kendra half hidden behind Jenny - and Kendra was hot. "Oh, hello, and who might you be?"

"Kendra the vampire Slayer," Deo supplied casually. Xander turned to look at the Amazon, who added, "too long a story to tell, son in law."

Xander narrowed his eyes at her, and said, "If I weren't hunted by the Order of Teraka, I'd be finding away to kill you . . . or at least hurt you very badly." Deo smirked at him. Xander turned back, smiled at the shy, sexy Slayer and offered his hand, "Nice to meet you, how are you?" Cordelia rolled his eyes at Xander's flirting, while Buffy just looked even more annoyed.

Kendra tried to answer, looking half up, very much aware of Xander's physique, the muscles in his bare arms, and the ones in his legs, covered in a skintight jeans, something else covered by those jeans. His gender was unmistakable, and much more important, "I . . . uh . . . tank . . . uh, I tink . . . I will be of service." Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Great, it's good to help people out," Xander answered with a smile, not quite knowing what else to say to such a statement.

He then backed away, while Giles pulled a book from the counter. "Xander, see if you can see him in here, and whether he has a weakness," Giles said, while Xander nodded and came over.

Lotion in the meanwhile, had walked over, and grabbed Kendra by the neck, pulling her closer. The Slayer looked up and afraid at the freakishly strong Amazon. Before anyone could warn her, Lotion said, "Go for my future husband, and I will kill you. I've tolerated enough."

"Lotion," Willow spoke up, feeling sad for Kendra, seeing her former self reflected back on, "don't worry, she's too shy to try anything."

"She better not," Lotion whispered and backed off from the exotic slayer.

Buffy looked back up and then settled on Kendra, asking her, "There's one thing that's still bugging me though." Buffy flashed a quick look and smirk over at Cordelia and Xander, both of which had sent a glare her way. "How come you attacked me?"

"Because . . . I tought you were . . . a vampire," Kendra answered with a little difficulty, still feeling her banged up body, eying Lotion with a lot of respect.

"Oh, neato, score one royal miss for the newbie," Buffy said rolling her eyes.

Kendra got a little pissed off at the elder Slayer, and replied, "I had good reason to teenk you were a vampire. Did I not see you kissing one earlier tonight?"

Willow went rigid and slung a supportive arm around Buffy, saying, "Buffy would never do that . . ." Buffy smiled at the support, but then Willow frowned, ". . . except for that you on a rare occasion do that." Buffy gave Willow a quick look of confused betrayal. Willow once again added though, "But only with Angel. Right?"

"Of course," Buffy answered with just a little offence.

"Angel?" Kendra asked with a frown. "Do you mean Angelus? I've reat about eem, ee's a monstar."

"Not anymore," Giles said cleaning his glasses, looking over Xander's shoulder as he flipped another page in the book.

"He's got a gypsy curse now," Buffy explained.

"Gypsy curse?" Deo asked intrigued.

Xander gave a grumble before explaining, "They stuffed the soul of the guy he was before becoming a vampire back inside the body."

"Ee didn't seem any better than the otter animals when I- . . ." Kendra started, and the quit the moment she saw Buffy turn her head and glare dangerously at her.

"When you what?" Buffy hissed, stepping up to the other Slayer. "When you /what/?"

Kendra swallowed, as she could feel Buffy's hate radiating off of the older Slayer, directed straight at her. "When I locked eem in a dungeon wit eastern exposure at tis dingy bar," she explained, seeing Buffy's eyes widened with fear and a cold simmering rage.

"-Show me,-" Buffy growled out with rage, grabbing the exotic Slayer and dragging her along to the exit.

"Hey, Buffy, don't split up, there are assassins out there," Xander called out, as he continued flipping through the book.

Buffy threw open the doors, almost tossing Kendra out, and returned with a smile, "I'll keep her safe." Then Buffy was out the door.

"Buffy!" Willow tried calling but she was already gone. "Be careful," she added softly.

"Damn," Deo said annoyed. Everyone remaining looked at her. "Now I'll have to teach them mental shields later when they return."

"Mental shields?" Cordelia asked confusion.

"The Dinuano demon, the mind controller," Deo explained calmly, her beautiful face seemingly in a perpetual scowl. "We cannot fight him if he can simply take over our minds."

"You can teach us?" Willow asked incredulously. The woman was an annoying bitch, who may have put them in even more danger than the all the Terakan assassins combines, and now she was helping again, even though she refused to remove what she did to Willow.

As Deo nodded, Jenny said sarcastically, "Forgive me if I seem rude, but you couldn't keep the demon from taking you over; what do you think you can teach them in a few hours, or even less."

"Twelve I think," Giles said with an educated guess, "I highly doubt they'd attack in the middle of the day with witnesses."

Deo took back over, "I wasn't prepared; and no, I don't, I don't think even if I was prepared I could keep its mind out of me indefinitely. But that's not necessary. When you attacked it; it was not able to simply command me to kill you. He was not prepared for your presence, and I don't know if its limitations are less when it is, but it has demonstrated it has them. You need to be able to keep him out of your mind just long enough to reach it and fight it physically. If it's fighting a physical battle, its mental abilities seem diminished."

"That is a good idea," Giles spoke as he walked in the middle of the room. "I myself have some mental shield abilities, and no doubt Jenny as well, or not?"

"Limited, very limited," the werecat replied, almost purring.

"Needed it to keep Eyghon from taking over, huh?" Willow said as she came to the middle of the library, where Cordelia joined them as well.

Giles nodded, "It is six thirty right now, school starts in two hours. I suggest we start right away. Each of us teaching the others all we now, there are multiple mental shield techniques, we will likely have different ones, and our chances of success increase if we have more than one."

"Agreed," Deo spoke as she sat down in a lotus position. Xander joined them, as did Lotion and all of them sat down to learn.

-----

Buffy and Kendra entered Willy's basement, and then into the open dungeon. Buffy looked around and saw nothing; Kendra did the same, saw the same, but realized the meaning. "No ashes," she pointed out.

Buffy who was in the back looking around some boxes, turned around and asked, "What?"

"No ashes, when a vampire dies, ee leeves ashes," Kendra explained to the blonde Slayer.

"I know that, I've killed vampires," Buffy told Kendra her concern not making the connection.

Kendra then calmly clarified, "Eef there are no ashes, that means that he was not eere."

Buffy stepped up to Kendra. She growled, "That's good, that means I don't have to kill you."

Kendra took a step closer, and replied, "You could try. Eet eesn't my fault aneeway. I'm supposed to keell vampires."

Buffy narrowed her eyes, and then turned around, walking back out the dungeon. Kendra followed and together they climbed back up the stairs. They found Willy coming from a side door, and he looked with wide eyes at the girls. "Hey!" Buffy blurted out, rapidly closing the distance between her and him. She grabbed him by the collar and spun him around facing the bar counter. With a quick shove she pushed him back against it, making his bend back. She took another step closer and bent menacingly over him, grabbing his collar. "Where's Angel?" Buffy requested as Kendra stepped next to her, peering closely at the sleaze bag.

Willy in the meantime was in heaven, a scary heaven, but a heaven. Two of the hottest girls he'd every seen was partially leaning against him. He had his hands up at his head to show his innocence, or at least harmlessness, and so he could feel Buffy's breasts press against his side and stomach, along with the crooked sweater she wore. Her hair was still mostly a mess; for once in her life the ex-cheerleader wasn't in the mood to mess with them. Of her makeup of the night before, only a bit was left, her lips just a bit more pink that without any makeup on. The sexy face was just centimeters away, a small pat of him urging him to kiss it. At the same time, he could feel her strength, and her hot breath and glaring eyes made it very clear she willing and able to use it. The second girl was an exotic one, dark skin. Her hair was done in a loose tail; and she wore thick red lipstick, and deep orange eyeshadow. She too had raw power, he could tell. The cleavage-rich small top, leaving her midriff bare above a pare of tight pants, gave the girl an almost naughty, sexy look - if her eyes weren't those of cold, trained killing machine. He felt fear coursing through his veins, as the other substance usually in his veins went south. "Huh?" he managed to blurt out from his confused, aroused, fearful position.

"Tee vampire I locked up down dere," Kendra clarified.

"Oh, Angel!" Willy exclaimed making the pissed off Buffy roll her eyes. "He's fine. I saved him in the nick of time too. Five more minutes and he'd be extra well done." Buffy got a little closer, a bit more menacing, a bit more arousing. "What? You'd think I let my buddy Angel fry? Me and him go /way/ back."

"Then where is he?" Buffy questioned the bar weasel.

Willy smiled like one too, when he replied, "He went down below, you know, to recuperate."

Buffy grimaced, but Kendra spoke up, "Dere, ee's fine. Let's go back to Mr. Giles for furder eenstructions."

Buffy gave Kendra a look, and then let Willy go. She straightened up, and said, "Fine, let's get back."

She started walking toward the exit, and Kendra came right after her. Willy got up, walked to straight across from the exit, seeing Buffy and Kendra walking just at it, and he said, "Hey, I /gotta/ ask you two something." Buffy and Kendra stopped, and turned around. Buffy placed her right hand in her side, and cocked her head, while Kendra just turned half, and turned the rest with her head. "Have you thought about doing nude modeling?" he asked the two hot girls, who showed no reaction, apart from Buffy raising her eyebrows. Willy continued, "I know this guy who has a camera, and he's really good. Strictly high class art photos - just nude." The Slayers just turned around and walked away. "Call me if you change your minds!" he called after them.

-----

Buffy was reading through a book with known Terakan assassins in order to find Xander's bug guy. Xander himself was across from Buffy at the counter reading through a different book, as were others. Buffy was doing two more things at the same time. The first was to keep up the mental block Deo and Giles had just told her to do. Basically, the two went thus. Deo's was to generate a barrier around the mind of energy, my envisioning a wall or something else that felt unpassable to her wrapped around her mind and head. Giles' was twofold, first keep the mind totally empty, and second whenever one was forced to think, making it go utterly chaotic, without pattern, with lots of emotions. Buffy found she had no trouble with Giles' instructions. Blank was what she wanted to be in the first place, and in combination with her friends and one boyfriend under attack, and the irritating newly arrived Slayer - chaos and emotions were practically unavoidable. Periodically Deo, Jenny, or Giles would attempt with some magic to breach her, and the other's barriers, for now they all held.

The second thing she was doing, was watching said Slayer. Kendra was with Giles at the counter, talking and joking with him. If she didn't know better she'd say Kendra was coming onto Giles. Worse, they were laughing and joking about research, boring old books, and more. Next to her sat Willow and she was practicing her mental shields, while keeping her magic down. Cordelia sitting across from Willow, seemed mostly bored and annoyed. Lotion finally, had retreated to the back of the library, hating her bunnyfication and being mortified by it. Deo and Jenny were in some kind of heated argument that Buffy had no interest in.

"Look at that, Giles junior," Buffy muttered just a little jealous.

"Oh, well," Willow started, looking at the two, "well, don't worry, Giles will always consider you his Slayer."

Buffy sighed, and then leant back. "Yeah, I suppose," she answered her best friend and rival.

Willow blinked and asked Buffy, "Then what is it?"

Buffy chewed her bottom lip for a few moments, and then answered, "You and Xander."

"Huh? What did we do?" Willow asked Buffy confused.

"Help me," Buffy replied sadly. Willow blinked, a little surprised and confused. Buffy pulled her feet of the table and properly faced Willow. Then softly she explained, "I'm the Slayer, I was chosen to do this, and I hate - hated it. Then you two come along, and you start helping me; you don't have to do it, but you do. You choose to fight on my side, and it will probably mean we're all going to die together young; or just you. I'm supposed to protect you guys, but instead, you've been protecting me. I wish I could teleport you both to the other side of the planet out of harm's way - except that you probably be back in a day or two, fighting with me. And me; I'm trying to do as less as possible, then I look at her, a watcher, no friends, far away from her family - and I realize something; I'm the luckiest girl around with you guys as friends - and I suppose even Lotion and Cordy. Then I remember again how I was just a few days ago . . ." Buffy paused, looked deeply into Willow's eyes, and finished, "It makes me feel guilty."

"H-hey, no guilt, Buffy," Willow said. Realizing her emotions were going up, and not wanting to go out of control again, got her anxious. She took a deep breath, pushed her every boiling and rising magic deeply away, and continued, "You got a big death sentence, eternal fighting, and the weight and fate of the world slammed on your doorstep, everybody who gets that is entitled to some moping."

Buffy smiled, and then added, "Well, no more moping from me. From now on, Will, I'm demon asskick gal and loving it."

"Okay," Willow answered a little uncertain at Buffy's smile.

"Aha!" Xander exclaimed triumphant, and everyone looked over at. "Found him, Mr. Bugs R Me!" Buffy and Willow quickly walked over, as did Giles and Kendra. "Can only be killed in his disassembled state," Xander read from the book with a small drawing. "You hear that Cordelia? That means when it's in its itty bitty bug parts; which it wasn't. So if we'd stayed, we'd be bug food. You got any more complaints about your car?"

"It better not be dirty on bug poop, Harris, you're paying the cleaning bill," Cordelia told him, folding her arms across her chest.

The others looked with odd looks at the couple firing barbs at each other. "Ha!" Xander called with a superior grin. "You wound me with your . . ." Xander paused, his triumphant turned down. "How much would that be?"

"It's a Mercedes, ten thousand bucks wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility," Cordelia stated with superiority.

"Hey! I'm just a poor emancipated boy, with a little well fare and a part time job at a bookstore! I'd be broke!" Xander complained deeply wounded. He turned to Giles and pleaded, "Tell her I can't be blamed for what some demon does!"

Buffy grinned, as did Willow, while Kendra looked both amazed and a little intimidated at Xander. Buffy placed her hand on his shoulders, and said, "Don't worry, Xan. An assassin won't soil a car."

"Of course, he might put a bomb on it," Willow supplied thoughtfully. Xander looked at her with shock.

"Yep, to kill the owner when she starts the car," Buffy added with a delicious grin as Xander blanched further. "I hear the bomb squad just detonate the bomb to be safe. That would come down to some hundred fifty thousand dollars." Xander whimpered.

"Which you do not have to pay, Xander," Giles spoke casually. "She can't blame you for what an assassin did."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Cordelia added thoughtfully, "you wouldn't believe what a lawyer can spin in the courtroom."

It was time for Kendra to jump in, albeit a little timidly, "D-de council has lawyers; good ones . . . uhm . . . they'd be of service . . . free of charge to close allies, I teenk."

"How do you know the council has lawyers?" Buffy asked astonished.

"Eets in de Slayer handbook," Kendra answered with a smile.

"There's a Slayer handbook?" Buffy asked surprised, then turned to Giles. "How come I didn't get a Slayer handbook?" Cordelia, Xander and Willow looked at the interchange.

"Ah, well," Giles said with a smle, "you were found so late you were already chosen, Merrick put in his journals he thought it was best to give you a crash course in how to fight and stay alive before going on the next stage."

"And what about you?" Buffy asked him dangerously.

Nervously Giles swallowed, and explained, "Well, I thought that in your case, the handbook would be . . . uhm . . . not for you?"

"What I want to know is," Willow butted enthusiastically in with a smile, "is there a tank top too, 'cause that would be cool."

"Swim trunks," Xander added as Buffy, Kendra and Giles were giving Willow a strange look. "A nice cross with a stake emblem, with a blazing yellow sun behind it low on the pipe."

"A bathing suit," Cordelia mused, as she pictured Xander's emblem, "'Cause that emblem will be the big fashion hit!"

With a wide grin and a low voice Xander added, "Bikinis."

"You are three are spazzes," Buffy told them rapidly. "You do realize that, don't you?"

"Hey, I can't help it you're such a dork, the biggest geeks in school have better fashion sense than you do," Cordelia told the Slayer far too sweetly.

"I do not understand?" Kendra asked them confused.

Buffy rolled her eyes, and checked out the clock in one smooth movement, then said, "On that note, I better get to my police thingy, before Snyder is going to blow a fuse."

Xander looked up, and Deo took notice of it. He got up and started walking after Buffy, saying, "Yeah, I gotta go put in an appearance as well."

"Me too," Willow said and left the library as well.

Kendra followed them out the door with her eyes.

-----

Outside the library Buffy turned right, while Xander went left. Willow went in the same direction as Buffy went. Xander took the first right. The corridor moved onward to the left as well, to the front of the school. Facing the street was a large window. After a few steps he stopped, looking directly at a hot girl in a short skirt. Behind there wasA small top and high heels completed the brunette's ensemble. "You're not fooling me a second time, Snakey," Xander said coldly. The other students in the room just looked confused.

The brunette looked at him surprised for a moment, and then she chuckled. "How did you know?" the girl asked him sweetly.

"You can change your shape, but you can't change your demonic essence," Xander spoke softly with a thin smile. "There's been several times I failed to notice the signs my energy sense told me, not any more." The students around him and the girl who took a step to the middle of the hallway, looked with greater confusion and concern from one side to the other.

The brunette's eyes gained the unnatural sparkle, but Xander averted his eyes, looking down and a way, keeping an eye on the girl from the corner of its eyes. "Well, then," the girl with a sigh in her voice, "I suppose we're going to do this the hard way."

The next moment everyone screamed in fear as the girl morphed in her true cobra-like form and jumped forward, fangs bared. Xander quickly jumped back, once again coming into the cross corridor. With a hiss the cobra bit down at Xander's neck, and just barely moved his body to the left. He twisted to his left further and rammed his left fist forward. The snake was no slouch either, and pulled its head and body back, while bringing up its right arm to block Xander's punch. It bit at Xander's exposed side, but with a roar he brought up his right fist in an uppercut. It smashed into the Snake's chin before the fangs could bit into Xander. With a painful groan the snake was launched off its feet and backward toward the library entrance. As around Xander people screamed, and Buffy and Willow had turned to look, the Snake somehow used its tail as a spring board, launching itself at Xander the moment its body hit the floor.

With all the speed Xander could squeeze from his body, he let himself drop down, and the fangs snapped shut just above him. The demon flew onward, as Xander landed on his hands twisting around. With a quick motion Xander swiped at the demon, smashing it in the lower part of its snake body. It growled in the pain, as both were once again at the cross roads of the corridors. The snake's fist shot down, and as it hit Xander full in the face - making him slide back and yell with the sudden pain - a gunshot rang out through the corridor.

At the other side of the corridor, Buffy had just named her presence to the police woman, as a loud round of screaming rang out. Buffy and everyone else, including Willow who was a little further behind her, turned as one toward the sounds of fear. A moment later there was loud hissing growl, Xander came sliding back out of a side corridor, and a man-sized cobra with arms came jumping in, nearly snapping its fangs into Xander. Buffy jerked with fear for her fried as she saw it happening, in her minds eye her Slayer instincts told her how to fight that thing already. The quick quiver of fear, was what saved her life. It made her see in the corner of her eye, the police woman pull a gun from her holster and aim it at Buffy. Her body reacted on pure instinct, twisting off to the right, toward the raging fight, with inhuman speed. The gunshot rang out, as the bullet already zipped centimeters away from the slayer.

The students on this side screamed out as well, and the bullet hurtled straight at the suddenly terrified Willow. Daniel 'Oz' Osbourne who was standing next to her jumped . . . then hung in the air as Willow energy blasted out from her. Her hand shot up, and the bullet stopped moving hanging in the air just before or, her eyes wide as she felt her magic erupt from her being. As cop fired several more shots, a whirlwind of energy flashed around the witch, several lightning-like bolts shooting out from her. A water pipe sprung where one struck, making water rapidly flow across the floor. More screams sounded as several fire bolts were flung from Willow - and casually twisted around anyone on its path par Deo's technique - at least the deadly ones that was. Many weaker flashes hit there mark, turning students to singed delirium before the cold water sloshing their feet made them run away. After Buffy jumped up to the ceiling to avoid another bullet, it went straight for Jonathan who stood off to the side against the wall nailed immovable by fear. How she could know, Willow didn't understand, but she knew the bullet went for it. The fright of his impending death made Willow's power shot out from her again, making Oz drop to the floor without mercy, and turned the bullet to a pie which slammed into Jonathan's shocked face.

"Ow," Oz muttered from the floor, and then looked up at Willow, having multi-colored arcs of energy and resulting wind flash around her. "Wow," Oz muttered with wide eyes. The other students didn't have the same cool, and were too busy trying to run for safety and screaming out; they were hardly aware of Willow's magic.

Buffy had finally managed to get close enough to the gun-wielding Terakan fake-cop woman to beat the gun out of her hands, which she promptly did. The gun skittered off to their left, and Buffy followed up with a punch to the woman's face, roaring out her displeasure. The woman got launched off her feet, landed a few meters away as Buffy stalked after her. As she got up, she pulled another gun from an ankle holster and fired. Buffy was already moving, forward and twisting off to the side.

Xander blocked the right cross with his right for arm. The punch coming from the snake demon had his arm buzzing with the impact though. He threw a punch which connected to what past for the snake's chest - which was really just a really thick hose, with a small piece a little wide then the rest where the arms were attached. Xander surged forward, and landed a knee in the demon's body, making it jerk and give a grunt of pain. Suddenly Xander felt his legs being grabbed. His surprised look down, even if it was for a fraction of a second was his critical mistake. From grabbed came secured, and the same happened to its legs higher up. The knee had brought Xander very close to the snake, had been his undoing. In less then a second the snake had wrapped himself around Xander's lower legs. Another moment later it was up to his torso. Finally it wrapped Xander's hands tight to his body, and a moment later it was up to his chest. Xander struggled, but the snake's body design to strangle was too strong. "Now you die," the demon hissed amongst fleeing students, grabbing Xander by his shoulders with an iron grip. It opened its mouth wide, baring its poisonous fangs, and lunged down . . .

"AAAH!" the demon suddenly screamed, its right arm reaching over to its left, where purplish blood oozed from a wound.

Xander wasted no time capitalizing on his good fortune, and slammed his forehead with all his might into the snake's nose. Wrenching his arms free, he followed up with a devastating right cross, which would normally have sent the snake flying meters away. As it was, the Snake was still half coiled around Xander, and so it only served to loosen the snake's coil, and sent it slithering back till it fell to the floor.

As the snake rapidly got up, Xander took a peak at what had been his fortune. The demon rose and did the same, looking behind him for just a moment. He obviously recognized the perpetrator and hissed out, "That incompetent bitch!" Then, deciding that with his still injured arm, fighting Xander was to big a risk, it turned to its right and bounded into the side corridor Xander met it earlier.

On the other side of the school hall things changed for the worse. As the fake police woman rounded the corner she fired another shot, while Buffy pursued her, confident in her speed and agility as well as the woman's lousy aim to survive it. That is when it happened. The students hysterical screaming - and Oz' awed look - stopped. Instantly they were calm and turned around to face Buffy, most behind her, but some before her on her path toward the woman. Willow looked confused as Oz turned away from her as he got up, and went after Buffy along with the rest of the students. Buffy hesitated for a moment as she saw the large imposing red demon casually walk in Sunnydale High's corridors in front of her, coming toward her. The moment of hesitation was enough for her to miss one student's punch, and another's swipe. A moment later she caught said punch on her chin, and the swipe across her legs, and down she went.

As more and more students started beating and kicking the down Buffy, the demon grabbed the other Terakan assassin by her neck, lifted her smoothly onto the floor and rammed her painfully into the wall. The Dinoano demon looked over at the Slayer being pounded by her fellow students and whispered, "Mental shields - she even saw me. Expected, albeit annoying." The demon whipped his head to the woman, and whispered dangerously, "As for you, you're antics have ruined the element of surprise. You have no elegance, no art, nothing discrete, just point and shoot. It's a miracle how you even managed one hit, and why the Order keeps you on, perhaps I should bring that up."

Buffy, still half trapped under the pile of students, whispered as the pain started to get to her, "Sorry, guys." With a roar she fought back, easily removing the group of students off of her, then kicking and punching them aside; however there were still many more students coming.

Buffy turned to the demon, and took in the scene of the demon holding up the fake police woman for just a moment. The demon looked over to her, grimaced and tossed the other Terakan assassin behind her, hissing, "Get lost." The demon grinned at Buffy and focused his gaze on her. Buffy who just started to charge the demon, was confused for a moment, then felt her mind tingling, as if someone was attempting to shove a thousand needles into her mind. She grabbed her hand, and groaned with the painful sensation, then realizing the demon was about to pierce her mental shield. This allowed the students to once more pounce on her, beating her in her face, and kicking into her stomach.

"NNGG!" Buffy groaned out, at the multiple sensations of pain. One student appeared amongst the crowd holding a knife, steadily moving toward the helpless Slayer.

Willow had followed Oz onto the side corridor, and looked in shock as the sweet guy was kicking her best friend. She had been busy reigning in her emotions and power, simply because she was afraid she might hurt someone, or turn them into a toad or something. Luckily for - and possibly many others - the cavalry had arrived. Jenny and Kendra came barreling past her. Jenny was partly on all fours, growling viciously. They wasted no time getting to the students and tearing them off of Buffy. When they saw writhing on the floor clutching her head. Jenny's eyes flashed and then attacked the demon. Kendra remained behind, shaking Buffy to see if she could get her out of it.

Jenny reached the demon and slashed at it with her claws. The demon caught her at her wrists and lifted her off the floor. "I'm not unprepared now, you cat bitch," demon growled at her, and slammed his foot into Jenny's stomach.

She groaned, and told him, "Fuck you." Her entire body twisted up and slammed her knee into its chin and the demon staggered back, letting go of the werecat.

-----

Meanwhile back in the library, the remaining occupants just saw Kendra and Jenny tearing out of there at the commotion outside. They had remained for a short while to see if no one would attack inside as well, but had soon lost the war between patience and concern, good thing too. That left Lotion, Deo, Cordelia and Giles. "Quite impressive," Deo spoke with a satisfied smile, looking at where Xander was fighting the snake demon as if she could look through the wall. Giles looked at her questioningly, and she added, "Young Xander felt the snake demon and went to face him. He's becoming better with his sixth sense - that is good."

Giles and Deo were standing with the counter while Lotion was sitting at the table, gnawing her teeth. A huge part of her wanted to go out and help the others, most notably her fiance, but if she went out and fight, everyone would see her as a Bunny. There was no way she could keep her present condition a secret if she had to make all kinds of fighting moves. Besides, she didn't know how many assassins were outside, and how many would come in here. Giles and Cordelia might need the help of both her and Deo - with all her strength, the mother still couldn't be in two places at the same time after all. That, and her shame made her stay put.

Cordelia was mostly tense as gunshots, screams and the occasional yell of pain filtered muffled into the library. She was still sitting at the counter just left of Giles, and was both stricken with a little fear and guilt. Was the bug guy out there? Should she help? Are you crazy even thinking that?

There was a sound, and a filter high up in the far left corner of the library came tumbling down from its place. There was a flash, and Giles instantly dove at Cordelia, yelling, "Down!" He yelled in pain as he collided with the cheerleader and forced down and off the stool, but not before Cordelia yelled out in pain and reached for her left cheek with her left hand.

"AH!" she yelled a second time, as she collided with the floor Giles on top of her, he yelled out even harder. Cordelia was on her side, with Giles over at her waist, and he she could see his legs. Two handles of what had to be throwing knives stuck out of his right leg. The rest of the knives were obviously in his flesh: one just above his knee, the other embedded in the dividing line between his leg and groin. Blood oozed steadily from the wounds, coloring his greenish pants a dark ugly brownish-purple. Cordelia's eyes were wide, more so when she felt blood flow against the hand she still held against her cheek. Her face!

The assassin had thrown knives twice in rapid succession before slipping just as rapidly from the ventilation shaft. The first volley was at all four occupants of the library, the second only at the two remaining upright. Both throws were eight knifes - that meant the first time it was two per person, the second time four. The first time around Lotion and Deo had rather easily dodged the two knives thrown their way. The second time with four they had more trouble. Lotion - not as fast, strong and agile (yet) - as her mother had the most difficulty. Jumping back onto the table she sat at, made her avoid one knife. The second coming at her face she avoided by pushing her head out of the way. A third coming at her heart she swatted aside, the fourth coming at her stomach she only barely avoided by jumping back, down and twisting herself end over end. It still wasn't quite enough to keep the last knife from cutting through her skintight top.

The next moment the assassin was already there - dressed in black leather pants, a black top, a black leather jacket and black boots. Her black hair fit perfectly with her dress sense - which was completed by having knives, daggers, and swords in every available position. The only thing that disrupted the theme, was the bright red lipstick. With a grunt she had pulled two curved swords from sheaths on her back and slashed then down at Lotion. The bunnyfied Lotion jumped backward, off the table. Her foot caught behind one of the chairs, having lost some of her balance and familiarity in her new form - most notably the unfamiliar place of her ears and with them her sense of balance. Worse, bunnies weren't exactly fighters or acrobats, making it impossible for her to land properly and so she landed painfully on her tail.

"YOW!" she screamed out, quickly rolling herself onward and off her offended new body part.

"Too easy," the female sword master whispered with a satisfied grin and drove both swords down at Lotion as she jumped off the table.

"NO!" sounded loudly through the library, and a moment later the swords stuck into the wooden floor just in front of Lotion who looked up surprised. The assassin looked angrily at the one who had interrupted her kill. Deo had jumped forward with amazing speed as she saw her daughter's predicament, grabbed the assassins wrists, and forced the swords back just enough to miss. Growling angrily, Deo said, "You don't touch my daughter."

A moment later Deo kicked out with a vicious kick to the assassins torso. With a crack of some of her ribs. Doubled over, she was launched backward and up like a bullet, till she crashed through a book case, which instantly shattered.

Giles had just finished maneuvering himself off of Cordelia, while the cheerleader started to rise, as he noticed the destruction of the book case. "WATCH THE BOOKS!" he yelled in dread.

"The books?" Cordelia questioned the librarian in disbelief. "Watch the books?" Giles shrugged.

Deo jumped up the higher section of the library, and actually growled. Her long brunette hair flowing with the movement. She stepped down off the railing, just as the assassin got up, holding her broken ribs in pain. The sword mistress grimaced at the enraged face of the Amazon as she stalked toward her. "Damn it," she hissed. Forcing herself up, turned around and ran. She jumped up a book case, and then jumped onward through narrow window at ground level. She rolled over the grass, got up again, and ran off.

-----

As the wounded snake demon tried to run off to recuperate from the bullet wound, Xander quickly chased after it. "You're not getting away," Xander growled at its retreated form, catching up to the demon quickly. It suddenly turned around and swiped the back of its snake body at Xander. Xander halted, pulling back, making the swipe miss barely.

"AAH!" Xander screamed out in pain, clutching his own right arm. He pulled back and turned around, flatting himself against a wall. The snake demon hesitated for a moment to see if their injuries cancelled each other out, but the decided not to take a chance. Xander rapidly checked his bleeding upper arm, and noticed it was just a grazing wound.

It couldn't have been the fake cop that had probably shot the snake in his arm; they were outside a line of fire. Extending his awareness of the environment, he rapidly looked around, and noticed the window at the street side, the building across from it. Growling he jumped up and forward, twisting around, landing against the ceiling with his feet, and pushed back down. At the same moment a bullet hole tore in the wall where Xander had just been standing.

Xander landed on his feet again after a particularly impressive somersault, and ran for the crossroads. He jumped, ducking into the right corridor, while the blonde woman across the street fired again, hitting a rolled-up fire hose. "Upgraded to a rifle, huh, bitch," Xander hissed and ran onward, quickly formulating a plan as he painfully held his arm.

-----

Across the corridor, Kendra was fighting off the students under mind control, trying not to hurt them permanently. She was standing over Buffy, determined to protect her sister Slayer. With a roundhouse kick , she send three charging students flying back to slam against a wall. She grabbed a clumsy punch and threw her own perfectly executed one, making the girl slump to the ground unconscious. She took a look over at the vicious battle between werecat and demon, and the demon seemed to be winning. From the side came another student holding a fire extinguisher to smash her brains in with, and she grabbed the arms, pulling onward and tossing the boy into another one. As she started to feel her own mental defenses erode under the demon's telepathic onslaught, she kicked Buffy. "Come on, Buffy, snap out of eet, we need to help out Jenny and make de theeng withdraw its mind," Kendra told the blonde girl desperately. "Eet will hurt your friends," Kendra added, tossing aside a student once again revived from its unconsciousness. She winced as the girl slammed against the wall with her head, and muttered, "I ope you don't have brain damage."

Below her, Buffy's eyes snapped open, as Kendra's sentence about her friend filtered through her painful mind. She gritted her teeth, as rage over her friends burned through her mind, keeping the demon's mind at bay. She rose to her feet with her teeth visibly clenched shut. "RAH!" she yelled slamming her fist into the wall, making a nice star. She turned around to face the battle between Jenny and the demon, and she growled out, "Let's kick its ass, Kendra."

Kendra grinned, and said, "I was 'oping you'd say dat." The two nodded at each other, and jumped over a new wall of charging students, while behind them Willow smiled with satisfaction, still a little magic swishing around her. The students that came at them from the front, now collided with the students that came at them from their back, making the mindless puppets drop comically to the ground before getting back up again.

The Slayers raced toward the demon, who just got a scratch across his chest form Jenny. With a vicious backhand to the cat woman's face, she was slammed painfully against the wall. The Slayers jumped, Buffy high, Kendra low. The mind-controlling demon blocked Buffy's flying kick, making Kendra's hit his knees. He groaned and took a stabilizing step back. Buffy came down, twisting herself around as she punched down and over its nose. "Oah!" he exclaimed at the pain, staggering back.

Kendra ran forward, and kicked out, as behind her and Buffy the mass of students started running at them. The demon deflected blow, spinning a little to its left and back. Buffy's follow up he avoided and landed a solid blow in her stomach. "Oof!" she exclaimed as she clutched her stomach and took a few steps back. Her stomach may hurt, but the buzzing in her mind was gone now.

With a growling miaow, Jenny got back into the fight, kicking out at the demon's left knee. As the demon took the leg back to avoid getting hit, Jenny suddenly jumped up with her still standing left foot, and with a hiss sliced her extended talons once more across the demon's chest. With a moan of pain he staggered back, and the students hesitated, looking confused for a moment, before starting the charge again.

The demon grabbed for Jenny's neck - a bunch from Kendra slammed against it making him let go. Kendra kicked out high, as Jenny threw a punch at the demon's stomach. The demon staggered back, and then as it righted itself it looked surprised as Buffy came jumping over the other two fighters. A moment later she kicked out with all her might, and slammed her foot in the demon's face. "AARGH!" the massive demon yelled out as it was launched of its feet, and after a painful landing slid backward a bit more. The charging students halted, looked around confused, and then blinked their eyes.

The demon gave an annoyed growl, then turning around got up, and ran out the school, muttering to himself, "That incompetent bitch, this is her fault."

-----

The blonde peered through her scope, tracking where Xander most likely went, although at the moment she only saw wall. She was moving her gun left, and saw Xander for a moment through the window of a class room, and an open door he ran past. Further left there was another opportunity, through the window of a classroom, and then a window perpendicular to that one of the same room. Xander was moving south now, he had turned. The window was big and she squeezed off a shot. The bullet was launched from the gun almost completely silent, the suppressor doing its job. Two windows broke, but she just missed him. Damn, he was fast.

A little further on he turned left; she could see it through a window as he opened a door into that room. What the hell was he doing in the bathroom?

-----

Xander opened the door of a stall, an ducked behind it. A bullet passed through the door overhead, and then slammed through the pot. Water splashed up, and covered him, turning him instantly into Lexa. "Ah, yuck!" Lexa exclaimed in annoyance, her breasts straining against the now suddenly tight shirt. "At least it smells like it was flushed."

Lexa jumped back to the middle of the toilet rooms, where a wide well was present. With quick kick its cover was off, and she jumped inside. "EEW!" Lexa exclaimed as the sewer smell assaulted her senses. A bullet slammed into the toilet's floor a moment later.

-----

"DAMN!" the blonde woman hissed out angrily. What was he up to? She moved the scope up and down toward the building she was lying on. Which way would he go? Would he actually try . . .?"

Suddenly she switched her gun back to her right, and immediately pulled her head up, her hand as well. In a quick motion she snatched a crossbow bolt from the air, and then she looked down at the library. A moment later she looked through the scope, seeing the brown-haired bunny-eared Amazon. "Lotion," the blonde hissed, as she saw the girl's eyes widen.

She quickly switched the gun back toward where the sewer would be where Harris had disappeared into. She scanned again, but she didn't see him haven come out on the street or anything. She switched back to Lotion and noticed she was about to fire again.

"Damn it," the blonde hissed, accepting that her target really was coming for her, probably via the building itself; finding a sewer exit on the bottom floor. Between the crossbow bolts, and the guy coming out the roof door directly behind her, her position just lost all tactical advantage. She couldn't shoot an emerging Xander, and stop the crossbow coming directly toward her back at the same time after all. Quickly hanging the rifle on her shoulder, she picked up her case, and ran off to her right to the edge of the building, muttering, "That lucky bitch . . . bastard." There she jumped, making an annoyed sound, and sailed high through the air before landing on the following building's roof.

Xander opened the door just then, and turned around searching for her, and found her jumping from roof to roof, just like he did escaping from the bug demon.

-----

Kendra and Buffy were checking up on the students. But all they were was banged up, a few would be black and blue for a while, but nothing major. Jenny though, had already run back to the library. Luckily, the mind control seemed to have left most of the students' memories a confused black - perhaps a few flashes here and there.

That was, except Oz, who took in the redhead of his dreams. Willow had specifically searched him out, and was knelt close by, looking concerned at the bruises forming on his body. "You tried to save me, not necessary, but . . ." Willow said with gratitude.

"Uh, ya, well, uhm . . . you really . . .?" he asked remember the energy swirling around him, it had made her look even more beautiful and sexy.

Willow smiled at him, as she continued suppressing the unnatural amounts of magic raging through her body. She looked up at Buffy and Kendra finishing their inspection, and asked them with a sour tone, "Did you have to be so rough on them?"

Kendra and Buffy came over and took in the bruised Oz. Buffy smiled at the couple, while Kendra just answered, "Eet was eider heem bruised, or me and Buffy gutted."

"So who's this?" Buffy asked with a smile, as Willow slowly helped Oz to his feet.

"This is Oz, you know, I told you about him, he got stuck with in the genius section as well," Willow explained hastily.

"Very nice to meet you," Buffy said with a far too big smirk. Willow narrowed her eyes at her friend in suspicion.

-----

"Was that . . .?" Lotion wondered, and then looked back at her mother. "Could that be . . .?"

"Be who?" Giles asked, as Cordelia attempted to bandage him. She had already torn open the pants, and looked with dread and confusion at the knives. What to do? And worse, what about her face?

Jenny came back into the library fast, and almost immediately noticed the smell of blood and where it came from. "Rupert!" she called in fear, and bounded to his side immediately. She turned to Cordelia, and said, "First aid kit, behind the counter."

"Oh, right," Cordelia answered, wanting to smash herself into her face. With all the nerves raging through her body, she had completely forgot.

She went over, and soon returned with the kit, as Lotion and Deo came over, Giles still looking questioningly at them. They stayed silent, as Jenny went to work on safely removing the knives from Giles' flesh.

A few moments later Buffy, Kendra and Willow came back into the library. "Oh, my god! What happened?" Buffy exclaimed in shock as she saw Jenny remove the first knife, and immediately put pressure above the wound to halt the much more gushing wound now. With her other hand she already pulled out the prepared a needle and thread.

"There was another assassin; three actually," Deo informed Buffy who looked stricken. "Apart from the knife wielding bitch here, Xander went after the snake, and a blonde woman with a gun was across the street."

"Yeah, look at my face!" Cordelia exclaimed indignantly, pointing at the scar. Kendra immediately took a few first aid supplies and maneuvered Cordelia over to a chair.

"Seet," Kendra told her, and a confused Cordelia did so. Buffy and Willow looked astonished as the Slayer started with cleaning Cordelia's wound, which had already stopped bleeding.

Buffy crunched her face, and she asked friendly, "Let me guess: Slayer handbook?"

Kendra looked back at Buffy for a moment, before turning back to examining and treating Cordelia's wound. She answered her, "Knowing how to treat wounds can save lives, innocents', your watcher's, and your own should you need it."

Lexa came into the library, having completely forgotten about the bleeding arm, and said, "Damn it, both got away." The sleeve of his shirt on his right arm was red.

Kendra jumped up immediately, and went into a stance. When everyone looked confused, she asked Buffy, "Anoder friend?"

"Not another, you've already met her," Willow answered Kendra.

"Actually, Willow," Lexa said with a sultry town and took two steps forward, swaying her entire body, "I don't think she has, but I can tell you, Kendra, I'm a sweetheart." She gave the girl a wink, and the Slayer was even more confused.

Lexa looked over the counter, and grinned; Giles was always good for some war tea water. She dipped her hand in the water boiler and it indeed was still warm. She then brought the hands to her face and dipped it in the water. Lexa grew a little taller, her shoulders widened, her hips narrowed jut a bit, and Xander grinned at Kendra, telling her, "Hi."

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Kendra screamed out in shock.

Deo nodded as Kendra finished her screaming, then said, "Jusenkyo indeed great curse."

Xander chuckled as Jenny continued her treating of Giles wounds. He spoke, "I fell into the Cursed Spring of the Drowned Girl. Cold water makes me a girl, warm a guy again." Deo reached Xander and pointed out his wound to him. He looked confused at it for a moment, and then remembered. He allowed her to move him to a seat, where he sat down, and she started examining the wound.

Kendra nodded slowly, and then turned back to Cordelia, continue her treatment much, much too calmly. Willow and Buffy smiled at each other, and Cordelia turned her glare to Xander. She pointed at the wound, and told him, "I haven't quite figured out why yet, Xander, but I know this is somehow your fault!"

Xander blinked at her as Deo got some of the first aid stuff. "Me?" Xander exclaimed in surprise. "They're assassins, and I didn't hire them. How is that my fault: if you didn't have the hots for me, trying to seduce me, you wouldn't be here?"

"I /knew/ it!" Cordelia told him with a glare.

Xander rolled his eyes, and told her, "That won't even leave a scar. At most a white line, which just one layer of makeup will cover up, you usually where ten." Cordelia growled.

"Hold steell, or eet will be much beegger," Kendra told Cordelia, which promptly shut her up.

Giles spoke up as Jenny started on treating the second wound. "Will one of you two finally tell me who you saw?"

They looked from him to the Amazons. Mother and daughter looked at each other, and then Lotion replied, "Several years ago, an Amazon named Oilay stole a holy artifact. She was caught, the artifact retrieved, but she managed to escape and left the tribe - the blonde sniper looked a lot like her, and she moved like us as well."

"Shit," Willow muttered with a little fear, "So now we have a super strong Amazon after us as well, just great."

"She's not as strong as I am," Deo added carefully, looking around the occupants of the library, "Just a little stronger than Lotion."

"And that matters what, exactly?" Willow requested annoyed, and a moment later a mass off flowers came falling from the ceiling, quickly covering everyone and the library floor and tables. Flowery looks of annoyance turned to Willow, and giving an apologetic wave she said, "Hih-hih, sorry."

Giles groaned, and everyone but Kendra and Cordelia looked over to see Jenny start to stitch his second wound. Kendra had finished cleaning Cordelia's wound, and placed a gauze on it, sticking it to her face with a few pieces of tape. Cordelia felt the gauze, and grimaced - her beautiful face.

Xander was irritated. Several times there had been attempts on his life and friends, and he had taken out only one of the assassins. Six of them were still out there, and they could come back anytime they wanted to. He shook his head a bit, as Giles gave another groan. Xander noticed Lotion standing off to the side, next to her mother. She no longer had the ears tucked underneath a hat, and he noticed her sadness. Slowly he inched toward her as Giles spoke up to keep himself distracted from the needle entering and re-entering his flesh, "We need to take the fight to them, we can't sit here waiting for them to try and kill us again."

Xander wasn't exactly in love with Lotion, but he definitely had feelings for her. He considered her a friend, one of 'his girls', she was also highly attractive. So there was a little more than friendship, a 'potential'. He took in her sad form, and then gently put an arm around her waist. When she looked up startled, her eyes brightened a bit, enjoying his arm. At the same time, Buffy spoke deeply concerned, "With 'we', you mean 'us', as in 'we minus you', right, Giles? There's no way you're walking, much less fighting like that for the next few weeks."

Giles gritted his teeth, and focused on the problem at hand. "We have several problems, if one could be solved we could possibly solve all of them," Giles said with pained face. "First, we don't know where Spike's lair is. Second, the ritual must be held at a church, and we have no idea which. There are forty-three churches in Sunnydale, so once the sun sets, we can't possibly search them all before Spike completes the ritual. Third, is that he needs Drusilla's sire, but we don't know who that is. Fourth is the Order."

"Sire?" Buffy questioned with dread. "As in, the vamp that made her?"

"Indeed," Deo supplied casually. They all looked at Buffy.

Buffy looked around the library for a moment, and then said, "Angel, that is Angelus made Drusilla."

"Shit," Xander muttered annoyed.

Buffy walked resolutely over to the phone, and called. Everyone looked at her with bated breath. After a while she put the phone on the hook, and said, "He's not home. They must have gotten him." Buffy turned to Giles, as Jenny finished the stitches. "Will this- . . . will this ritual- . . ." Buffy started in fear.

"-kill him, I'm afraid so, Buffy," Giles answered her gravely.

Everyone was silent, as Buffy looked down. Emotion coiled around her. Fear, helplessness, pain. Spike had Angel! She loved Angel! He tried to have Xander killed! She loved Xander! Down on the floor there was a sudden purring, and then watched as Jenny was rubbing her body like a feline against an embarrassed Giles and then started kissing him.

"Get a room," Cordelia told them rolling her eyes.

Suddenly Buffy looked up, a cold look on her face. "That does it!" she hissed out angrily. "I'm done. No more Miss Nice Slayer!" Everyone looked at her with wide eyes at her outburst, but she wasn't done yet. "I'm going to kill Spike, I'm going to tear him limb from limb. He can try and kill me, that's fine. He can send assassins after me, no problem - -but nobody messes with my boyfriends and lives!-"

"Boyfriend/s/?" everyone but Cordelia exclaimed. Xander was both annoyed at being just one of two and extremely happy that Buffy actually called him her boyfriend.

Before Buffy could answer though, Cordelia finally lost her cool. "Boyfriends?" she snapped angrily. "Boyfriends? That's it?" She took a few steps forward and pointed at the bandaged side of her. "You see this?" Cordelia screamed furiously. "Take a number. After I'm done with the bitch who did this, the bastard who hired her is going down." She whirled around and walked over to the weapons cage, attempting to open the locked door. She twisted around again, and hissed, "Giles, keys!"

"Uh!" Giles started.

"Now!" Cordelia yelled, making everyone look at her with wide eyes. A moment later a bundle of keys flew through the air. Cordelia caught them, found the right key and opened it. She entered, took two short swords from the wall, and stalked back out of the cage. She swung the swords around, making several expert slashes, thrusts and twirls. Grinning dangerously she muttered barely audible, "Just like riding a bike."

"Uh, Cordelia?" Xander asked a little nervously, taking a step forward, letting go of Lotion. "I can't remember teaching you swords . . . in fact, /I/ don't know swords."

Cordelia's teeth were bared as the dangerous grin refused to leave her face, and she said, "When I was little, my parents forced me to take a 'high-class' sport for several years. I could choose between ballet, golf . . . and fencing. Take a guess. The teacher taught me a bit more than just a foil, thank god. I'm sure your training will help with this too." Then Cordelia looked confused at the swords, looking down at her skirted outfit. "I just need a place to put them . . ."

-----

Angel was bound to a bed, arms spread wide to the two poles. Drusilla poured holy water from a cup over his chest. His skin sizzled and smoked, and he screamed out in pain. There were more marks of where Drusilla had been torturing him earlier.

"Daddy," Drusilla singsonged. "I remember my daddy, he was nice. Then you ripped out his throat." She poured some more of the offending water, making Angel scream in pain once again.

"Oh!" Drusilla suddenly exclaimed, and looked up happily, lightheaded. Then she turned and walked out of the bedroom. Outside she found Spike, their minions, and all but one of the Terakan assassins. The blonde Amazon was to the right, next to her stood a smiling bug guy. A bit further on stood a woman in cop's clothing, then a red demon. At the left there was the snake demon, who was poking with tweezers in the wound of his arm.

"You failed again," Spike murmured with great annoyance. "So what's the bloody excuse this time?"

The red demon growled and turned to the cop woman. "Her." His hand reached out, grabbed her by the throat, and walking forward and he slammed her against the wall. "She screwed all of this up."

"Try it," the cop wheezed out through the tight grip. The demon felt something called and looked down, seeing the gun under his chin. "And we get to see which is faster, strangling or a trigger finger."

The snake demon gave out a strangled curse, and then he pulled a bullet from the wound. Once it was removed, the bullet hole he inspected started to heal steadily, but slowly. "I had him," he growled out, and then flashed its snake eyes at the cop still held above the floor, "I was just about to sink my fangs into his neck, when . . ." He held up the bullet while pausing, before finishing, "this is your bullet, you amateur hussy."

The snake seemed ready to finish what the red demon started, when Drusilla interrupted. She had hands to her head, and whimpered, "Pain. It hurts when such nice friends attack each other . . ."

"Dru," Spike said quickly coming over, as the assassins and the minions watched.

Drusilla's eyes opened again, and for a moment blazing with non-existent strength, she added, "must not, must kill bad guys, must kill nasty Slayer and friends."

Spike nodded, and flashed the Dinoano demon a look, and humoring his employer he put the woman down. The final assassin came struggling into the room next to the Cobra. He and Drusilla looked over and saw her watching them. She straightened up painfully, held her hands in front of her stomach and started chanting. Her hands lit up green, then a lot of small green light balls flew from her hands into her stomach. After a few moments of this, she stopped, and stretched. Then she told Spike, "You hired me to kill the Amazon, you however did not mention the mother is ten times stronger, faster, and more agile than her daughter is. That, annoys me."

"I could have told you that," the blonde amazon spoke up with a grin.

Spike angrily blew air out through his nose, and then turned to the blonde, "And why didn't you, or better yet, why did /you/ fail?"

"I did not fail, I just have yet to succeed," she answered him flatly, and finished, "that Harris kid must be the luckiest son of a bitch this side of the equator, hell, in the world. Luck goes only so far, he will go down next time."

The cobra hissed, then said, "It will take about an hour before this is healed, then I'll finish what I started."

"Oh, I like our new friends, Spike," Drusilla muttered pressing her hand against his shoulder.

Spike breathed out in irritation, and said, "You heard her, you bloody wankers. You just stay here and come with us, guard the church and the ritual - I'd like to see the them try and stop us with all of you present." He then turned around, and led his beloved back to the bedroom.

-----

Buffy and Kendra were in Giles' office. Buffy was wearing black workout pants with a white line and a blue spaghetti-strapped shirt. Buffy was angrily cutting a stake as Kendra looked outside through the windows. There Buffy's friends were busy trying to figure out where Spike could be, or which church he might be using. A few who had mass that night had fallen off, but there were still too many to manually search after night fall, and they didn't have enough people to stake them all out. Stake out? That had to be a cosmic irony? Or did a Slayer actually come up with the phrase to begin with. "Ah, now dat's going to be bugging me all day," Kendra complained with a little annoyance.

"What is?" Buffy asked her counterpart without looking up from the forming stake.

"'Stake out.' Wheder a Slayer tought dat up or not," Kendra answered Buffy.

Buffy grinned at the Slayer, and told her, "I get that too sometimes."

Kendra sighed and looked back outside. "Your friends are crazy, in about a hundred ways," Kendra said, taking in the oddball crew. Buffy frowned and then looked up, about to ask whether she meant that as an insult, but Kendra continued with a smile, "I can see why you feet so well togeder. Boyfriend/s/?"

"Ah, well," Buffy replied a nervous, yet a happy smile on her face, "It's a long story."

"Hmm, would 'you're a pervert', about sum eet up?" Kendra asked her pointedly. "A vampire?"

"Uh, yeah, well . . ." Buffy started nervously, then brightened, "Xander's got four, girlfriends that is."

"Four?" Kendra asked with eyes bugging out.

Buffy smirked, and clarified, "Me, Willow, Cordelia and Lotion all want him, and he's dating all of us. See, I'm not so bad."

"Yeah, Xander . . ." Kendra started then nervously looked down.

Buffy paused her stake making, and asked, "What? He's hot?"

Kendra swallowed, looking up at Buffy panicked while she said, "Well . . . dat ees . . . kinda . . . muscles . . . but . . ." Buffy just looked amused at Kendra. "I'm not allowed to talk to boys - they are a deestraction."

"Can't your parents put a stop to that?" Buffy asked the exotic Slayer immediately.

"My parents?" Kendra asked surprised. "My parents gave me up to de Watchers when I was three. Dat's how serious dey took de calling." Buffy looked appalled at Kendra. "You do not ave to feel sorry for me, I don't feel sorry for me. Dey tought dey did right thing for me, and I guess for de world."

"I guess," Buffy sad sadly looking down at her almost finished stake. "I couldn't miss my mother and my friends. They're amazing, sometimes I feel completely inadequate compared to them."

"So do I," Kendra replied looking intently at Lotion researching something in a book, "She ees so strong; I almost can't believe eet's natural, what you just showed will actually make me dat strong, and not some dark magic."

"Well, it will," Buffy said, frowning. She looked back up, and said, "You don't get it, at all. Xander is stronger than Lotion."

"What?" Kendra asked shocked.

Buffy nodded, and explained, "And what you felt is nothing. That bunny thing, if she's normal, one punch would have put you unconscious . . . or at least wish you were." Buffy gave Kendra a pointed look, and said, "I got hit by her before they trained me, so I know, trust me. Deo though, she's even more powerful than Xander, like ten times or so." Kendra looked with wide eyes at Buffy. Buffy grinned and added, "And we can get that strong as well, but that's not what I was talking about." Buffy looked down, and then explained, "Look at them. They fight because they chose to, not because they were chosen. Then they cheer me up, and look at me like I'm some grand champion or hero . . ." Buffy frowned and then looked back up. Smiling she added, "Although I suppose that last has been going down lately. They're starting to see me as just a friend, I guess."

"We should be going after Drusilla, not save your vampire boyfriend," Kendra said suddenly. There, she had finally said it. She was about to say something earlier, but Cordelia's outburst had interrupted her train of thought then.

Buffy stood up straighter and narrowed her eyes at Kendra. "Saving Angel means we're going after Drusilla," Buffy whispered dangerously, "They are the same thing, but if they weren't, we'd still be going after Angel."

"So eet's true den, a boyfriend does distract you," Kendra returned, growing angry.

"I don't care," Buffy returned angrily.

Kendra nodded, and growled, "Den you are right, you certainly are not a hero."

Buffy was about to return a more deadly statement, when the door opened and Xander casually walked in. "Excuse me, lovely ladies," Xander said with a big grin, looking from one to the other for a moment. Then he walked forward. He maneuvered smoothly around Giles' desk, and went to one of the metal cabinets in the back, right in the middle of Buffy and Kendra. He opened one drawer, and then stopped. He looked to a silent Buffy, and then turned his head to look at an even more silent Kendra. The exotic Slayer looked down, then carefully angled her head up just a bit to take a peak, and swallowed when she noticed Xander examining her.

Buffy took a few steps forward and placed her hand on Xander's back. He figured something out, and asked, "Uh, so why are you looking at the ground."

"You . . . you . . . you're a . . . boy," Kendra struggled out.

Confused, Xander muttered, "I could splash some water on me."

Buffy giggled, and then explained, "Her watcher forbade her to talk to boys, they are apparentlee a deestraction." Kendra glared at Buffy.

Xander's eyes rose in even greater confusion, and more so when he took in Kendra's apparel. Lovely makeup, large earrings, tight pants, and an even tighter top that left her midriff bare, and was low enough there was a hint of cleavage - not that the tightness required cleavage to show off her lovely breasts. Something was filtering at Xander's consciousness, but he could quite figure out what it was, and so he asked instead, "So what if you're a lesbian?"

Buffy's eyes widened at that, her mouth quirking in a smile, and then Kendra said confused, "A what?"

Kendra's expression and question were comical, and Xander's dead on dry comment on how that measure couldn't keep the problem away, was even more so. Buffy burst out in giggles and laughter, partly doubling over, and only holding onto Xander's back kept her somewhat upright. Xander turned to her, and looked with confusion at the blonde Slayer, who only slowly got herself under control. While Buffy was still busy, Xander shrugged and explained to Kendra, "You know, a girl that likes other girls."

"Dat happens?" Kendra asked surprised, and Buffy's laughter grew worse again, but only a little bit.

Finally the blonde put herself under control and turned to one of the guys she designated 'boyfriend'. She pulled him down, and before she realized what she was doing, she planted a sweet kiss on his lips, feeling the heat of his lips in the touch. As Xander righted himself, he looked down at Buffy and said, "Wow. It's been a long time since we've done that . . . have we even done that?"

Buffy blinked, and remembered the hot, fiery, passionate kisses they shared, and the even hotter, passionate and sweaty sex . . . but no gentle sweet, loving kisses. She gave a tiny shudder at the remembered encounter, and then quickly answered, "No, I don't think we have."

Kendra looked with total confusion at Buffy and Xander, and finally said, "You two are weird."

"See!" Xander said happily, "You can talk to a boy after all!" Xander went back to the drawer and looked through it.

"Hey, Xan?" Buffy asked slowly.

"Yeah."

"We're gonna save Angel, right?" Buffy asked him just a bit uncertain.

Xander sighed as Kendra frowned. "Sure," Xander said friendly, burning with jealousy at the inside, as well as rage. How anyone could love a corpse was beyond him.

"Angel!" Kendra called out suddenly, remembering. The other two looked at her. "He was threatening de weasel at de bar, I just tought he wanted to eet him, but - if Angel's good . . ."

"Than that bastard isn't a friend," Buffy said with a huge, predatory grin. "Which probably means he knows where they're going to have the ritual."

"You teenk he'll tell us where eet ees?" Kendra asked Buffy.

Grinning widely, Buffy answered, "I teenk we mite make im." Then they turned and headed for the office door.

Xander followed them out, and he said, "You two realize how scary you two are like that was, right? Not to mention hot as hell."

The Slayers didn't listen as Buffy headed straight for the door, saying, "I figured it out, Giles. It's the dirtbag in the bar. Come on, guys, we'll have Angel back in no time."

"Hold on a moment," Giles stated resolutely from his chair at the main table. Buffy took a few more steps as Kendra stood still right away.

When she noticed nobody was following her, Buffy turned around, and said, "What?"

"Most of the day has passed, and there have been no more attacks, Buffy," Giles explained carefully. "That probably means Spike is keeping the assassins with him to guard the ritual. Just finding the site is not enough, you need a strategy, and I have just the thing . . ." Giles outlined his basic idea and everyone nodded.

"Good," Deo said and took center stage, "then I shall lead."

"Why? You're putting Willow through that, attacked Xander," Buffy listed off pissed, and decided to quit the rest of the list for speed purposes. "I should lead this mission."

Cordelia huffed, and quickly got in, "And you hogging the bitch for yourself no doubt. I should- . . ."

Willow coughed exceptionally loud, and everyone looked over at her. "Remember last time we had this problem, we had a simple solution," Willow said and pointed at Xander.

The others looked over to him. "Me?" Xander asked a little nervously, and then looked at Willow's confidence filled face. "Oh, okay, I guess . . ."

-----

Buffy and Kendra burst in through the door of the bar. Willy - just next to his counter - looked frightened as he saw the two dangerous, and beautiful girls come at him. He turned around to run, and he did, but the Slayers were much faster. They crossed the distance in no time at all, and Buffy grabbed him in the back of his jacket. "Alright sleaze ball," Buffy growled at him, and flung him toward the bar counter. She walked over and grabbed him again.

"I didn't do anything," Willy whimpered, hands up in innocent defense.

"Where's Angel?" Buffy hissed at him, pissed.

Willy once more whimpered out, "I don't know I swear."

Buffy pulled her hand back ready for a punch as Kendra stayed back a bit. "Quite lying, you bastard. Where are they holding the ritual!" Buffy told him angrily bringing her hand threateningly forward.

"They didn't tell me, I don't know," Willy tried desperately.

"Just hit heem, Buffy," Kendra told the blonde.

"Last chance," Buffy growled, and Willy looked much more frightened now.

Willy hesitated and Kendra took a step forward, saying, "Alright, I'll do it."

Buffy smirked at Willy as Kendra came into view of the snitch, looking extremely dangerous and pissed off. "She wants to hit," Buffy growled angrily.

Willy nodded, "Okay, okay, okay! I'll tell ya, I'll tell ya!" Buffy eased her grip and lowered her arm again.

"Where?" Buffy requested, pulling him at the collar of his jacket to the middle of the bar.

"I can't tell you," Willy started, seeing the dangerous frowns on the slayer, and see he continued without missing a beat, "I'll have show you."

"Alright, let's go!" Buffy said, grabbing the sleazy man and pulling him toward the exit.

"Wait, we have to go back to our watcher for orders," Kendra told Buffy.

"I don't take orders," Buffy spat back.

Kendra's eyebrows raised and told her, "No wonder you died."

"Listen," Buffy said angrily to the other Slayer, "right now, they could be killing Angel, and I'm going to stop it. You can either come with me, or stay here. I'm not going to let Angel die." With Willy in tow, Buffy left the bar.

Frustrated Kendra called after her, "He /should/ die. Why am I the only who sees that?"

-----

"Here it is," Willy told Buffy as he led her into the beige-stoned church. "See, remember that your friend Willy always comes through in a snitch."

The two bent left, and soon reached another door that entered the inner church itself on its corner. Suddenly three vampires appeared from the door, and three more from a niche behind Buffy. Buffy looked around shocked, as Willy said, "Here's the Slayer. See, remember your friend Willy always comes through in a snitch."

-----

Inside the church, Drusilla and Angel were chained together just in front of the altar. Drusilla's left hand was wrapped into Angel's right hand, and that's where they were tied together. The Terakan assassins stood in several positions around the place. The red Dinoano demon stood in the middle, amidst the church benches, while the others were spread around, apart from Oilay, she was nowhere to be seen. Further there were vampire minions spread around as well. The church was light beige on the inside like it was on the outside, oil worked windows everywhere; paintings of Jesus' last ordeal around the place. Candles burned in several positions, most notably around the altar area. Spike walked around, spraying incense from a golden vaporizer to the four corners of the earth, while speaking an ancient tongue. Having done the corner in the right in front of the two strung up vampires, he moved over to the left, where he chanted onward. Done, he put the vaporizer down and he walked over to vampire and sire. Chanting again, he pulled a stake, and rammed it through the hands of the two. Angel groaned, while Drusilla gave a pleasurable moan, then a bright white light emitted from the stake and their hands, then died down. Angel continued to groan.

"Right," Spike drawled with a pleasant tone, "Now we just let it simmer till it boils, and yum, yum."

"Hey, Spike," Willy called as he entered the church, while Buffy escorted by several vampires came in after him. "I came for the reward."

"WHY DID THE HELL DID YOU BRING THE BINT HERE, YOU SOD!" Spike yelled out angrily.

Willy looked intimidated, and said, "You said you wanted her."

"Dead! I wanted her dead!" Spike yelled at him pissed off.

"S-sorry, I thought dead or alive," Willy said backing away a bit.

Buffy's gaze had been locked on Angel all the time, and finally couldn't keep quiet. "Angel," she said with dread.

Spike looked back for a moment, then returned to Buffy, and said, "Yeah, I hate to see him like this too, luv. On the bright side, he'll be dust in five minutes." Buffy glared at Spike angrily. "Will someone kill her already?" Spike asked impatient.

-----

Outside was Xander, leading the group of warriors of light, minus Giles and Buffy who was already inside. "Outer guards first," Xander said crouched behind a bush. He nodded backward, and the returned the gesture. Then they made a beeline to the entrance of the church. They entered and the split up in two groups. Cross bow bolts flew, and a moment later there were a few piles of ashes.

Xander took in the church, quickly, hoping their faith, especially Willow's in him was justified. He found the soldier's memories of tactics and strategy coming to him easily. He checked the outer hallway, which lead forward on both sides of the church. There was the inner sanctum, Xander realized, and a corridor going fully around hit. Most likely a few exits to allow the mass of people normally inside back out. No doubt the corridor would lead even around the back - or front, depending on how you looked at it - but was likely closed off. No matter, he doubted the old doors could hold back an Amazon. "Alright," Xander said and everyone listened. His heart beat in his chest, and continued, "If I had a sniper in my team, I'd place her in the middle in the front or the back on the second floor, that way anyone who goes in can be shot right away," Xander said resolutely; shoving away his self-doubt. "Lotion, can you take your sister Amazon?"

Lotion nodded determinately, her hat having fallen off on her way running from the bushes, so her ears were up. Xander accepted the answer, trusting that Lotion wasn't making herself feel better, and so he said, "You go take the rifle away from the sniper then, as other ranged weapons. Only when she's not able to shoot, can we go inside."

They all nodded. Xander got out a whistle, gave it to Lotion, and told her, "Three quick bursts is the signal she can't shoot anymore."

"Got it," Lotion said, taking the whistle, and then rapidly ran off taking the right side corridor.

"All right, this is how we're going to play it . . ." Xander muttered out, his fingers tingling.

-----

Lotion quickly navigated the church, dispatching two more vampires on the way. She reached a door leading to the left. Three was another door forward leading to the priest's or reverent's residence. She quickly kicked the on to the left in. There was a staircase going, up, and Lotion rapidly went up. This was a small room, just next to the highest part of the crucifix. A small niche leaning into the church, and having a hole through which would could see inside the church. The room was some three meters long, and one wide. At the hole sat a blonde woman, the rifle stuck through the hole. "Oilay," Lotion put all her effort into the snarl.

Surprised the Amazon looked up, and said, "Lotion." With quick movement, Lotion pulled her nunchakus from her back and sped forward. As the blonde got up, she pulled the rifle back to aim at Lotion, but she was too fast. Two luscious bodies collided together, and Lotion wrapped her nunchakus around the rifle, wrenched, and sent it skittering to the floor. A punch to her face was the reward for her effort. As she staggered back, she grabbed Oilay by her collar, and pulled her along, backward, till the both of them rolled down the stairs. Painfully their bodies banged against the stairs. Once they were down, they scrambled back to their feet, and Lotion quickly brought the whistle to her mouth. She blew three powerful times quickly.

-----

"Will someone kill her already?" Spike asked impatient.

The cop drew her gun with a grin, and started aiming it at Buffy. Three shrill whistles sounded suddenly. They all looked up, except for Buffy. With a vicious kick, Buffy beat the gun out of the woman's hand, as Spike muttered, "What the bloody hell?" She followed up with another one, sending the woman tumbling away from her, and then two doors opened. In came Kendra, Willow, Deo, and Jenny. Xander remained with the door, as a third one opened at the front, emitting Cordelia. Willow, Deo, and Jenny wasted no time staking vampires as they made their way to the mind control demon, who casually stayed standing, waiting for them with a smirk. Willy in the meanwhile, did everything he could do to sneak away.

"Hey, larvae boy," Xander called and the bug guy turned to face him, grinned and then quickly walked at Xander.

In the front, Cordelia pulled out her swords from her back, and said, "Hey, sword bitch, you're going to pay what you did to me."

The mistress of the swords turned to her, pulled her own, and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, but I forgot my wallet." With a yell she attacked, their swords clanging together.

Kendra jumped over Buffy, dropping a stake, and flying feet first into Spike who was launched back. Buffy caught the stake and dusted two vampires right away, and followed up with two more. Then she moved over to Kendra where Spike rose to his feet. "Who the sodding hell are you?" Spike asked in confusion.

"It's your lucky day, Spike, two Slayers, no waiting," Buffy told him with a grin as she and Kendra advanced on him, "You get to face the weaker opponents here, you might actually get lucky."

Both Slayers kicked out, and Spike blocked Kendra's, but Buffy's hit him and he staggered back. From the side the cop lady got back up, pulled a knife and running over a bunch of benches she attacked Buffy. The blonde turned to face her new attacker and grabbed the woman's wrists before the knife could hit. The fake cop then slammed her knee in Buffy's stomach.

Deo landed a solid blow on the mind-control demon, and he was flung back, crashing through the benches. With a growl he got up, and blocked a slash from Jenny, pushing her back.

As Willow grabbed a vampire's fist and twisted him aside, slamming a stake in his heart, Xander closed the doors. He grabbed a bottle of glue that he had standing next to it, and poured it on the ground. The bug guy transformed in his component parts and came through the crack underneath the door, right into the glue. Right away Xander started crushing the mealworms. After several seconds of doing that, he was pretty certain the demon was dead.

"I think our business got rudely interrupted, twice over, don't you agree?"

Xander twisted to his right and saw the snake demon standing there, its snake eyes glowing. It had come through the second door, and Xander said, "Oh, yeah, let's finish this."

The demon grew some twenty centimeters in size and lashed out its arms, stretching out. Xander blocked the first, and twisted in between the arms, avoiding the second. The arms crossed and came back, attempting to catch Xander. He jumped though, over the arms, and kicked out viciously across the snake's face, it's wide outstretched Cobra hood flapping as its entire body jerked sideways. With a yell, Xander landed another kick in its snake body, before a backhand sent Xander flying and slamming in the wall, making him groan in pain. With all his speed and effort he twisted off the wall and away before the demon's hand crashed into the wall where he had been with a roar. Chunks of wall came tumbling down, and Xander kicked the demon in the shoulder, making it flying back, and roaring in pain. Xander stalked toward it.

-----

Lotion looked hatefully at her fellow Amazon, wearing the short skirt, and told her, "You joined an assassins order working alongside demons. You have dishonored all Amazons, I will restore it with your death."

Oilay laughed out loud, before replying, "/I/ have dishonored all Amazons? Have you looked in the mirror lately? You're a bunny."

With a roar Lotion jumped forward, swiveling her one remaining nunchakus at Oilay, but the blond ducked coming forward. She came up, slamming her head devastatingly into Lotion's chin, while grabbing the right arm which held the weapon. With a quick slamm of her forearm to Lotion's inner elbow, the brunette was made to let go of her weapon. Lotion slammed her knee into Oilay's stomach, then slammed her fist forward, landing easily on Oilay's two armed block. A rapid jab came from the blonde, which the brunette barely avoided. Lotion jumped slightly, and kicked high, twisting around. Oilay ducked and slammed both her hands into Lotion's stomach. Lotion rammed painfully against the wall, which cracked around her shape. She moved forward, punching with her left fist, but Oilay blocked it. Lotion twisted around, making a vicious roundhouse backhand. Oilay smoothly ducked underneath it, and successfully landed an uppercut, making lotion fly back.

Oilay flashed forward, and drew a sword from a side sheath. The curved blade sliced down, and Lotion just barely rolled aside. With a vicious kick to the blonde's hand the brunette forced the sword out of the equation. Lotion got up, and walked into a powerful left punch that smashed on her chest, and she was launched off her feet.

She landed on her hands, and with a flick she was righted again. Lotion took a step forward and kicked high. Oilay ducked, and slammed a foot on Lotion's still standing knee. With a scream of pain lotion staggered back, and then fell to the ground. Oilay took a running start and slammed her right fist straight into Lotion's bunny nose, making her shove backward till stopped against the wall. Oilay growled, and smoothly retrieved her sword, then lunged forward.

-----

The cop Terakan's knife hand came down sharply at Buffy's neck. The Slayer almost casually bent back, and then with a rapid left-right-left combo sent the woman staggering back. A powerful kick to her stomach sent her flying back. To Buffy's surprise she saw the woman getting back up. She was still grabbing her stomach, but it was a testament to the woman's training she was even getting up at all.

Buffy gave a quick look back and saw how Spike landed a solid blow to Kendra's face, following it up with a kick to her face. She blocked the following swipe and managed to land a punch in Spike's stomach, but the master vampire recovered quickly, making a bit toward the exotic Slayer's neck. Having to draw back was enough for Spike to punch a powerful blow on Kendra's chin, while telling her, "I could do with eating another bloody Slayer." He chuckled at his own pun.

Buffy knew Kendra couldn't beat Spike, but she was pretty certain she could beat the woman who had just climbed back to her feet. "Switch," she said, and dunked moving backward. Kendra rolled over Buffy and charged forward to the woman. Kendra grabbed the hand making an underhand cut, and bent it out of the way, as she rammed her right fist into the woman's chin with a roar. The woman's head snapped sideways, and she staggered back, but she already recovered.

Meanwhile Spike told Buffy, "I much rather be fighting you anyway."

"Same here," Buffy told him, and threw a left. Spike grabbed the punch and threw her over his shoulder. Buffy landed on her back, but immediately kicked up in Spike's face, making him stagger back. Buffy jumped back up, her feet first and then pulling her body up. She threw a right, which Spike blocked, and the Slayer twisted around to the left. She blocked Spike's next kick, and he grabbed her left fist. He did the same with the right coming after, and he grinned as Buffy tried to pull her hands back uselessly. Then she suddenly jumped forward and slammed her forehead in his nose. "ARGH!" Spike exclaimed as he fell back.

-----

Two swords clanged against two other swords. Cordelia twisted hers down, forcing the assassins down with her. With a yell, she pulled the upper one back and made a swipe at the assassin's neck. The assassin blocked the hit with her own sword, and then they tested their strength, one sword down at the floor, Cordelia's right, high up. Their faces wee close together, both grimacing. "You're good," the assassin admitted, "but not good or strong enough."

"Save for the other side after I cut off your head, bitch," Cordelia snarled back, as they were fighting in front of the door she had gotten into. With a quick twist and a kick, the assassin made Cordelia stagger out the door and fall to her ass. The cheerleader quickly moved her swords to in front of her, blocking the downward arc of the assassin's swords. Cordelia kicked the S&M mistress in her stomach, giving her time to get up. She twisted to her left while bringing her up to deflect the assassin's blow. Twisting her swords onward she unbalanced the assassin and made a stab at the woman's kidney. The assassin twisted out of the way and brought one sword down at Cordelia's jugular. The cheerleader deflected it with her left sword, while twisting aside and slicing with her right at the assassin's side. There the Terakan's other sword met hers. The assassin twisted rapidly around, swords screeching against each other. The right sword slung around, as the left stayed against Cordelia's right. Cordelia brought up her left, holding it with the blade down and out. Then Cordelia jumped back and twisted to her left, making the sword scrape against each other, and pushing the assassin away. The assassin had to take a step back.

For a moment, the two women looked at each other, breathing heavily. The assassin had thought she had had Cordelia, most people would twist the onward to the right, leaving the back fully open, but not this one. She grimaced and then attacked, twisting around her and letting the swords swivel around.

Cordelia deflected the first sword with her left, then twisted aside herself. Letting her right swivel around and slam down, where it was met with the Terakan's other sword. Cordelia twisted around, pushing the swords away. She was facing the assassin with her back now, where she laid her swords. A cling and the vibration up her arms told her the assassin had struck them. Cordelia swivelled once more around, keeping the swords facing the assassin though. The cheerleader thanked her cheerleading practices as she let both swords swivel about, one downward and one upward, both meeting a sword from the Terakan with a clang. The sword mistress moved her right sword up and lunged forward. Cordelia twisted back to her right, deflecting the blow with her right sword. Twisting around again she met the Terakan's left blade with her own left, and she continued her rapid turn. She brought both swords together again and slammed the down. The assassin blocked it with her left sword, and continued her own turn bringing her right down rapidly. Cordelia turned rapidly back, bringing her left sword to meet the downward arcing right, and then both them turned around, back to back, and finally facing each other closely again, swords locked together.

"Cheerleading, you gotta love it," Cordelia told the assassin to get her angry enough to make a mistake.

-----

Meanwhile, Willow dusted another vampire. Just barely as the vamp had managed to push her high up against a pillar and was about to suck her dry. Coughing for breath she fell down, and managed to get up, while fires erupted around the church as a result of her near death experience.

Deo slammed a powerful foot into the red demon's back, making him double over. She followed up with a bunch that cut open his face, and made him scream in pain. He twisted and threw a powerful punch, but she smoothly twisted away, a smile on her face. This thing wouldn't stand a change, certainly not with Jenny helping out. The cat indeed sprung forth from the other side, and slashed her claws with vicious mewl across the demon's arm. His skin cut open, showing more of its yellow blood. "YOU BITCH!" the demon screamed in anger, grabbing Jenny suddenly by her face and tossing her into a couple of vamps who had decided to go for Willow. She'd be busy with them for a couple of minutes. That didn't help much though, as Deo slammed her foot into the demon's torso with all her might. Bones cracked and broke audibly and the demon was launched off its feet, flying toward Willow who got surrounded by another small group of vampires.

Ignoring the pain, the demon rapidly grabbed the vampires, and tossed the vampires at Deo, keeping her busy not much longer than a few seconds the demon estimated, but that was all he needed. It was time to finish this, and getting up it groaned in pain, rising to its full height in front of Willow, who stiffened with surprise of the demon towering over her. The demon grinned, and pointed his left hand at Willow. He poured all its might into Willow, and where earlier the quick mental shields could hold, because he had been controlling a few dozen kids, this time there was just Willow that he threw his power into, and her shield shattered like a tool shed in the way of an avalanche. Willow shuddered, and then went slack.

The demon gave a laugh, and then ordered, "Now, my sweet, use all that power of yours you seem so afraid to use, and kill your friends for me."

Willow slowly nodded, and started to gather her magic. Inside though, something happened. Inside Willow's logical mind, meticulously planned the deaths of her friend. A toad here, a lightning bolt there - she'd squash the toad later - she would let Buffy be consumed by fire. While her logical mind did that, her emotions went haywire; panic, horror, pain, love, all voiced in a single despairing emotional outrage at the depth of her being: -NOOOOOOOOO!-

Outside, as Deo's twisting of Willow's magic and chi activated, a cone of see-through black energy swivelled up around Willow like a whirlwind, her hair flying up. Instantly everything went haywire. Lightning bolts shot out from Willow everywhere, some incinerating a vampire instantly, one smoothly twisting around Jenny, another around the suddenly astonished red demon. The undirected attacks wouldn't hurt anything, but after all, the demon and Jenny were alive, the vampires weren't. More lightning bolts slammed in the stones of the church, exploding outward, debris falling down. The windows instantly shattered, sending colored glass flying inward everywhere.

"Fool," Deo muttered with a grin as she watched the shocked red demon and the witch's magic being set free.

Buffy just finished giving Spike a devastating uppercut, and sent him tumbling over a turned bench, when Willow's magic erupted, fires started everywhere, wind gripped at her being, and the windows explode inward. Buffy ducked as the glass shards flung past her. She then turned around and saw as glass shards from the large rounded window at the front of the church embedded into Angel and Drusilla and tumbled over them. "Angel!" Buffy exclaimed in shock and quickly jumped onto the altar area and ran over. She grabbed his cuffs and tried to undo them, yanking and pulling. A lighting bolt from Willow slammed into the chain that held the vampires and they fell down. Buffy went down with them to continue her efforts to get Angel free.

Kendra and the cop halted for a moment, looking over at the spectacle, as did almost everyone else. Then the cop grinned and sliced at Kendra with her knife. Only Kendra's supernatural Slayer reflexes saved her, making jump almost of her own accord backward just in time. However, it was not fast enough to keep the cop from cutting open her shirt and leaving only a shallow cut between her breast. "That's me favorite shirt!" Kendra exclaimed looking down at her shirt, holding it to inspect it. She suddenly realized something, looked up, and exclaimed, "That's me /only/ shirt!" She suddenly surged forward with anger, slabbed her knee into her stomach hard, while grabbing her knife arm by the wrist. Kendra twisted underneath rabidly, and a moment later she slammed the Terakan's own knife into her chest. The woman coughed once, and then dropped down. Kendra looked angrily down at the assassin.

Meanwhile, inside of Willow the battle raged on. Telepathic control, versus completely chaotic magic, which bounded from one side to the other, and casually found a completely different direction to bound into. The magic ate more and more away at the control as Willow's fury over the soon death's of her friends grew. Finally the control shattered, and Willow's rage took a hold of the witch.

Willow's eyes regained focus, and turned pitch black, not just her pupils, but even the whites turned to an oily blackness. "What the . . .?" the Dinoano demon muttered in shock, as suddenly Willow's veins become pronounced, and turned black. Her red hair turned pitch black as well.

Willow looked up at the demon; one giant coil of power. She put her right hand out and a ball of black see-through energy formed there. With an inhuman, growling voice, Willow snarled, "-You die!-" With a scream of rage Willow threw her right and forward, and the black energy surged forward in a deadly beam. The see-through black beam, as if a billion microscopic bats flew out from Willow's hand, slammed into the demon's body and enveloped it, blasting onward behind it. Willow's inhuman snarling scream of fury mixed with the demonic scream of pain, giving surround sound to the spectacle. The energy burned at the demon's flesh, and started disintegrating it, down the molecular level. First it's skin was torn open, yellow blood splashing forth, which was slammed backward away from Willow along the energy beam's path. Then the demon's flesh dissolved, steadily revealing its skeleton, until finally that too evaporated.

Once the demon was completely torn apart, Willow's magic suddenly shut down. The lightning bolts disappeared, and the cone of energy flashed away. Then as she dropped exhausted to her knees, her eyes, hair and veins returned to normal. Then she collapsed further down to her stomach.

Behind her, Jenny suddenly yelled, screamed and scratched, as she contorted her body. Her cat ears shrank back in her head, as did her fur and face. A moment later good old Jenny lay still on the floor. Then she looked up, took herself in, and noticed three vampire who had survived the onslaught rising next her. "Shit," she muttered as noticed her predatory instincts and superhuman agility and strength were gone as well.

Before the situation got dire though, the vampires turned to dust, three stakes dropping to the ground. Jenny looked up and saw Deo offering a hand. "That's why I didn't remove the condition, even with the demons coming after them," Deo told her with a big grin. "I knew it would sooner or later go after Willow to use her power. And if she were strong enough, worthy enough, she do exactly this." Jenny let herself be pulled up, and Deo finished, "You see, you teaching her control kept the condition going, her magic and chi constantly in a tug of war. The original test was too see if she recognized she should go somewhere and release everything she had, burning it out." Deo turned around and took in the unconscious witch. "What a rival; she may still be after my future son-in-law, but the stories of who Lotion had to beat to get to Xander, will remove any question about why she didn't get him right away." Deo nodded with satisfaction. Jenny sighed in annoyance.

-----

Oilay lunged the sword forward, directly at Lotion's heart, as explosions rang out everywhere. Oilay didn't care, closing the gap between her and the other Amazon in no time. Then Lotion's body convulsed, her ears retreated and reformed human ears, and unseen her tail shrank back. There was a slap, and suddenly Lotion's hands were slammed at either side of the blade, keeping it locked between them, the point just barely a centimeter away from her heart. Lotion's eyes snapped open and looked directly into Oilay's annoyed eyes. "No more weakened, fluffy, nice, sweet, silent, imbalanced, bunny Lotion," Lotion growled out. "Nihau." Suddenly she twisted up and over the sword, her left foot pushing off the floor. A moment later her right slammed into Oilay's stomach and she was launched off her feet. Lotion tossed the sword aside once she was up, and walked toward Oilay who groaning got up.

"You disgust me, Oilay," Lotion spoke with a wide grin as she walked over. "You couldn't beat Shampoo despite her being so much younger than you, and so you went to get shortcuts for power and skill, stealing to get what you needed. You get caught and you're tossed out, and now look at you, pitiful assassin working with demons."

Oilay growled and attacked, throwing a powerful right punch. Lotion smoothly bent back, making her miss, and grabbed the arm. She bent it back, making the blonde yell out at the pain. Lotion followed up with powerful kick to Oilay's stomach, and then an uppercut to make her fly up and away.

"You're going down, you could defeat me before, but not anymore. I won't let you," Lotion said with a smile, making Oilay grimace and spit out some blood from her bruised face. She quickly came over and started with a low kick, followed it up with a powerful left hook, which Lotion deflected. Oilay continued turning on her left leg, and swivelled her right one up. Unprepared, Lotion got the roundhouse kick full in her face. Blood drawn, and pain flaring in her cheek Lotion was launched back, slamming back against the wall, painfully cracking it.

Oilay snickered as she came at Lotion, saying, "You just got lucky."

Lotion growled and attacked, throwing a right fished that Oilay deflected. The brunette rammed her feet into Oilay's right upper leg though, making her stagger back. "That should even things out a bit," Lotion spoke, the knee Oilay had kicked earlier still making her limp a bit. Oilay made a devastating left kick, but Lotion blocked it, and then slammed both her fists into Oilay's stomach. The blonde staggered back, groaning in pain. "Now you die," Lotion hissed at her. Oilay attacked with a right punch, and Lotion grabbed it, quickly twisting herself underneath, then kicked Oilay's right knee, making her sink down. Quickly Lotion grabbed Oilay's head, the blonde's eyes widened in terror, and then with a snap her neck was broken, and she slumped down dead. Lotion then turned back and walked away.

-----

On the other side Cordelia and the assassin were in a furious exchange of blows, parries, and lunges. Twisting around, and slicing at each other, the four swords slashed, and scraped against each other over and over. It was almost a dance as the two twisted around. Swords clashing high and low, and Cordelia jumped back. The Terakan lunged forward with both swords at chest height. Cordelia swivelled her swords and placed them in between against the swords, then forced them out. She let herself fall backward and kicked with her feet into the assassin's stomach, launching her up and over her. Cordelia rolled onward to her feet, jumped up, and turned around. The assassin was up as well and blocked Cordelia's double sword strike at the side.

The assassin twisted Cordelia's blades and arms up and over her. Cordelia was now twisted bent over, but instead of two arms there, it was already one. Using her bodies maneuverability she had already twisted one sword out of the lock, and twisted her entire body to the side. The assassin wanted to push Cordelia back up, and completely unprotected slice her open. Instead though, Cordelia let the locked sword go, making the sword mistress make a stabilizing step forward, as Cordelia jumped and twisted with her remaining sword through the air. A moment later the sword sliced through the assassin's neck, while Cordelia yelled out with the exertion on her body.

Cordelia landed and saw the body seemingly balance for a moment. Then the head fell off, blood sprayed everywhere, and the Terakan's body dropped to the ground. Cordelia jumped back from the spraying blood, and waited a moment until most of the pressure was equalized. Then she walked over, and fished her blood-covered sword from the ground. Once standing she looked down, forcing away her tears and gag reflex, and said, "There can be only one, bitch." Than she spit once into the blood and walked onward to the front of the church, careful not to step into the blood.

-----

Back inside, Spike noticed Buffy with his Dru, and getting up, he snarled, "DRU!" He quickly jumped onto the altar area, and slammed his fist in Buffy's face. The Slayer, too concerned for her boyfriend, didn't see it coming, and groaned as her body slammed back. Spike pulled some keys from his leather duster, unlocked the cuffs, and quickly picked up Drusilla. He took in the devastation, all the windows gone, chucks off stone away, fire burning everywhere, the demons dead, as were most of his vampires, Willy that weasel was sneaking out the back door, and all around him were the white hats. Only one option really; run like hell. To the same left door Willy had just snuck out of. So that's what he did. Running with Drusilla in hands he jumped over a bench and ran toward the left along the organ. As Deo and Jenny were slowly picking up Willow, nobody was in his way . . . or so he thought.

Buffy had gotten up, so him running. She immediately got the vaporizer Spike had discarded earlier, and tossed it with all her might and her supernatural accuracy through the air. It slammed hard against Spike's head, and he careened of into the organ that promptly collapsed on top of him. Buffy gave a satisfied nod, quickly picked up Angel, slung him over her shoulder and jumped down, as the fires kept spreading. "Come on, Kendra, let's get out of here," Buffy said and the exotic slayer followed her.

In the middle they met Deo and Jenny, the latter was carrying Willow in her arms. "Let's go," Buffy said and the four of them got going, leaving through the door.

Once out the door they came across Xander fighting the snake demon. "Jesus," Kendra muttered in shock, looking at the amazing display. Left and right arrived Lotion and Cordelia who looked at the event the same way. Angel managed to look up just a bit, groaning with weakness and followed the fight as well.

The battle was amazing. A battered and bruised snake demon, versus a battered and bruised Xander Harris. The demon flung a rapid punch that Xander avoided barely by leaning back. The snake's tail wrapped around his feet. This time, Xander did not hesitate at all. He jumped up, continuing leaned backward, and slammed first his left and then his right foot in the snake's chin, while he flipped onward through the air, and landed two meters further back. The snake hissed in pain and staggered back. The demon wasted no time with small talk, and simply charged Xander again, its eyes now glowing with its power and anger. Xander pushed the rapid right punch aside with his left hand, and twisted himself fully around, bringing his right fist to bare in a twisting punch. The demon ducked, and twisted around as Xander brought his leg around for a spin kick. The demon grabbed Xander by the waist though, and prepared bit him with his fangs. Xander rapidly slammed a punch in the demon's nose, making it let go and stagger back. Xander struck, taking a step forward and crashing its foot in the long snake body right where it straightened up. Xander added a punch to the middle of the straight up part. The demon suddenly snapped down for a vicious bite. Just in time Xander let himself fall backward, avoiding certain death. He went into a handstand, and slung his feet up, slamming it in the demon's throat. As the snake grabbed its throat in gasped in pain, Xander finished the backward flip and then jumped up.

With a yell he stretched out his feet toward the snake's head. It quickly jumped up and over Xander, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling both up. As both fighters tumbled about up into the air, Xander threw a vicious punch at the snake's head. It moved his head on time, and threw his own, landing it solidly on Xander's face. Xander's face reeled back from it, but kicked out hitting the demon in the head. Both started tumbling down to the floor again, and the demon managed to get a hold on Xander's ankles. He twisted and then with a roar slammed Xander onto the floor below, cracking the stone. Xander coughed, and groaned in pain, but forced himself to twist aside before the downward snap of the demon would have imbedded him with poison. With a quick motion he twisted around and slammed his feet in the section of the demon's snake body slithering on the floor. The snake growled, and watched Xander get back up.

The snake threw a punch that Xander parried, and kicked out. The snake undulated its body, making the kick miss. It swung its tail end around and Xander jumped over it, then blocked another punch, before slamming his elbow in the side of the demon's head. The demon staggered back toward a pillar, and Xander suddenly surged forward with a yell. He slammed his shoulder into the snake and pushed him onward, both leaving the ground toward the pillar. The snake grabbed Xander by the shoulders, wrapped its tail end around the pillar, and then with a yank from the tail, accelerated around it. Half-way around the pillar the demon let go of Xander, who twisted away toward the inner church wall. With extreme effort Xander landed on it with his feet, grunting with the strain, and then pushed off. The demon had removed himself from the pillar and came at Xander.

"Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire!" Xander yelled, using his ace up his sleeve at the right time. Just as he reached the demon, he started throwing over a hundred punches in a single second. The snake put its arms up in front of him, but the sheer amount of bruising punches were too much, they breached through the snake's defenses, its arms falling back. More punches followed on and then up the demon's equivalent of a chest. Xander pulled his hands up and slammed repeatedly on the snake's fangs. Cracks formed, and then they shattered under the onslaught. Xander's flight came to an end as gravity got a hold of him, but the heavily injured snake was now flying backward, screaming and hissing from the extreme pain of its shattered fangs. Xander ran forward rammed another punch in the snake's gut. Then grabbed an arm and tossed the large snake over his shoulder, slamming it on the ground.

"Rah! You!" the demon hissed out with difficulty, but Xander had already pulled his stake and slammed it down, right where in a human would be its heart. The snake pierced, the snake jerked, and then fell silent. Xander pulled the snake back out.

Heavily breathing, Xander looked down upon his defeated opponent. "Cordy, can I borrow one of your swords?" Xander asked, and Cordelia quickly came over.

"Sure," she said and handed him a sword as the fire in the inner church was now a powerful blazing inferno.

Xander took the sword and as the others got closer, he chopped off the snake's head. Xander handed the sword back over, saying to everyone, wheezing with exhaustion, "Just in case."

"Let's just get out of here, before the whole place collapses," Lotion pointed out, as some of the others took in Xander.

"Yeah," Xander said take deep slow breaths, then the left the church.

-----

"Hey, Willow," Jenny greeted from her desk, as Willow - once more in her new clothes - entered the computer room the next day.

"Hi," Willow greeted steadily. She walked over, hesitated for a moment, and then told Jenny, "When I- . . . when the magic, when I let it all out . . ." Jenny's eyebrows raised questioningly. "I wasn't me," Willow explained to Jenny, "I didn't feel like me. There was just power, just all that rage, all that hate, and darkness; I was magic, almost craving it . . . I don't ever want to feel like that again."

Jenny looked questioningly at her, and then asked, "You want to stop our training?"

"No!" Willow half-exclaimed. Then explained, "Don't worry too much with teaching me new spells and such. Control first, leave the fireballs. Absolute control, and focus on avoiding magic taking over, you know. I don't want the magic taking over, /ever/."

"You got it," Jenny said. Willow nodded, turned and left.

-----

"Hey, Cordelia, we need to talk," Xander said, catching up to the cheerleader. Still somewhat bruised, he gestured toward and empty classroom, avoiding the other students milling about.

"Okay," Cordelia answered subdued and they went inside.

"So?" Cordelia asked him.

Xander took a deep breathe, and started, "Cordelia, you're a great girl, surprisingly."

"Oh, no, where's this going," Cordelia asked him stricken.

"If you let me get there," he said tersely, and she shot up. "Okay, you're a great girl, Cor, but we can't date anymore. Love to keep you as a friend, but not anymore like that."

"Why?" Cordelia asked with trembling lips.

Xander sighed, looking down, and then told her, "Our insults. We go at it, and then we're kissing. I can't do that Cor. You know my father sold me to the mob, he shouted insults at me and my mother all the time as well. I don't want to go that road, and however unlikely it is I'll turn out like that, I just don't even want to tempt fate. If insults is what et us going, we have to break even the possibility off. You're the first that gets a definite answer; not the one you wanted, but . . ."

"Please, Xander, give me another, I'll bet we get to kissing and passion without the insults," Cordelia asked almost desperately.

"Sorry, Cordelia," he said, and then on impulse hugged her. "We're still friends if you want us to be. You need anything, I'm there for you."

He then broke the hug and left the classroom.

-----

Nervously Willow searched through the school, and quickly found him. "Oh, hey, Oz," she said, walking tall, wearing a pair of tight jeans and a green top.

"Hi," Oz said, brightening up and quickly joined the witch, taking out an animal-shaped potato chip from a bag. "Uhm, what I saw?" he asked softly.

"Ah, ya, well . . ." Willow let it hang there, and turned around to go in his direction.

Slowly they started walking, and he said, "Your secret is safe with me, I don't remember anything from when . . ." Softer he said, "when it was in control." Oz then smiled at her and said, "For the rest, everyone else seems to repress."

"Yeah, that's good," Willow said, most of her nervousness is gone and smiled at him.

"You have the most beautiful smile I've ever seen," Oz told her with a smile.

"Wha?" Willow exclaimed a little taken aback, then blushed. Oz started a funny story, but she suddenly interrupted. "Hold on," Willow told him, putting her hand on his chest. "Listen, Oz, you're great guy, but . . . uh . . . I have my eye on someone else, you know?"

"Oh, well, yeah, whoever that is, is lucky," Oz said, then brightened a bit, realizing something, "or stupid."

"No, it's complicated," Willow turned his hope down, "Sorry, Oz, but I'm going for him, and I'd love for us to be friends, but no dates, and kissing, well unless we're on a double date and the one dong the kissing with you is someone other than me." Willow faltered realizing her babble, and smiled at a still smiling, albeit sadly, Oz. Willow noticed Cordelia walk slowly toward her. "Oh! I know! If you wanted a date," Willow exclaimed with a smile, just a hint of sneaky in there, and grabbed Oz, pulling him along to Cordelia. "Cordelia, this is Oz, Oz, Cordelia. At first glance she seems like a bitch, but trust me, she isn't that bad once you get to know. Oz wants a date, have fun you two." Willow walked off, and gave Oz a sexy smile and a far too innocent goodbye wave.

"Uh, wha, huh?" Oz managed, for once in his life flabbergasted at the sudden change of events, then looked up at the cheerleader; wearing a lovely skirt and shirt.

For a moment the two were silent, in which time Cordelia suddenly got an idea; one last ditch effort - jealousy. "That's great," Cordelia said with a bright smile and pulled Oz along, turning him around.

"But- . . ." Oz attempted.

Cordelia barreled right over him, "You're a band member right? That's good, so interesting. I'm looking for a date as well. Say, Friday? Bronze? Will you pick me up at eight?"

"Uh . . ."

-----

Another day later

Kendra and Buffy with Xander next to her walked across Sunnydale High toward a taxi cab. She was wearing a green top now. "Now remember," Buffy told Kendra. "When you get there, you . . ."

"Use de ticket, not de cargo hold," Kendra answered with a smile.

Buffy nodded with a smile, as they reached the taxi cab. "Good, you need to stand up for yourself a bit you know. See about decent work hours, and vacations, spent here in good old Sunnydale of course."

Kendra smiled at Buffy, and said, "Why do you keep doing dat? Talk about the Slayer as eef eet's a job. But eet's not, eet's who you are."

"That in that handbook of yours?" Buffy asked her sister Slayer.

Kendra shook her head, and said, "No, learned eet from you." Buffy smiled. Kendra looked wistfully at Xander and said, "A Slayer with two boyfriends, one a vampire." Buffy looked down embarrassed as Kendra shook her head. "Xander, tank you for de extra training."

"No, problem, stay alive, Kendra," Xander told her with a smile.

Kendra nodded, and then turned to Buffy again, "You remember, look at beegger picture more, okay. And tanks again for de top."

Buffy made a half-hearted salute, and said, "Will do, and no problem. Goodbye, Kendra."

"Goodbye, Buffy," Kendra returned, hugged Buffy quickly, and then got into the cab.

Buffy and Xander watched the cab drive off and then turned around. "You know, Buffy, there's something about Kendra that keeps me going, 'eew'," Xander told her as they walked toward the school.

"Her? She isn't 'hot'?" Buffy asked, pretty certain Kendra was someone guys and Xander would consider very sexy.

"That's not it, it isn't so much her, as it is . . . I don't, I can't quite put my finger on it," Xander explained with a frown.

Buffy took him in, and then asked with a grin, "Hyena smell coming back and she's got bad-smelling makeup on?"

Xander turned to look at her, was about to say no, and then his eyes widened. "That's it!" Xander exclaimed softly.

"It is?" Buffy asked him with a confused pout.

Xander then swallowed, and asked Buffy, "She's not allowed to talk to boys, right?" Buffy nodded. "So, how come she's wearing makeup and lipstick that tells every guy, 'Come here, kiss me, and make my knees buckle with that tongue of yours?' Then that bare midriff, tight top."

"Uhm," Buffy frowned, shrugged, and answered, "Blending in better?"

Xander looked at her with a 'huh' expression and returned dryly, "So she rides a cargo hold?" Buffy's eyes quirked up, and then frowned down.

To Be Continued . . .