Disclaimer: I don't own anyone in this fanfic, except Akin, Sheila, and Dierdre. Everybody else belongs to their rightful parties.

A/N The First had Lissa take huge amounts of pigs blood so she could open up the Hellmouth. After it was open she let the Reapers go down there and feed on some of the Uber-vamps. Once they did that it balanced their cells so they are more like regular vamps now in the aspect that they can dust without just being exposed to sunlight, like on the Blade 2 movie.

So when they dust from beheadings or being shot in the heart by vamp killing bullets please don't complain. Just go with it. I loved the aspect of the reapers in blade 2, but I hated the fact that the only way to kill them was by sunlight, or them just dying on their own. And if you're not buying the explaination of their cells being balanced then just remember that the laws of vampirism changes when they are in another dimension. Just like on Angel when he went to Pylea and he could walk in the sunlight.

Also thanks to my new reviewers and Xander will come into play very soon.

Chapter 7

Potential

Two weeks had passed and still the First hadn't shown back up. Not that, that was a bad thing, but it also meant that it was planning something big. Giles and Sheila would leave from time to time and go to get some new potentials. Even though Sheila's house was big, the sheer number of potentials was still overwhelming.

As promised Akin started to train the girls. With the help of Kennedy of course. The girls were nowhere near being ready, but they were getting better and better by each passing day. He also taught them a magical meditating technique, where they went into a sleep like trance and they would meet up in a sort of dimensional limbo.

The point of the exercise was so the potentials wouldn't actually get harmed by training and because in the limbo world time was longer there so on the outside world they might have done a week's worth of training but in limbo it was more like a month.

Out of all of the potentials, Annabelle was the worse in shooting. So Akin would take her to a shooting range and pretend like he was her older brother, so she could get in. He spent hours with her being personally trained by him. Even though Akin was older then her, he still couldn't help but be attracted to Annabelle. Even though he wouldn't tell anyone that. He was also back at full power. It seems that the powers were holding it back from him as a form of punishment. But seeing that the world was at stake, they decided to give his powers back to him.

Willow and Tara also did a spell to see if there were any potentials in Sunnydale. They were presently surprised that there was one in town. Her name was Amanda.


"Why want you let me train?" Dawn asked Kendra. They are standing in the backyard while the potential slayers even Dierdre are, being led by Kennedy in a training exercise.

"Because before Buffy...went away she asked me to keep you safe." Kendra replied. "And being safe isn't going out on de field with de others."

"Huh!" all of the potentials yell at once.

"Punch block combo!" Kennedy yells out with her hands on her hips.

"Huh!" the girls yell out as they do the move.

"Cross block kick!"

"Huh!"

"Chamber your energy." Kenndy says as she starts to pace. "Punch block combo!" Eve does the moves incorrectly, and Kennedy notices, walking up to her. "Hold it! What the hell do you call that, Eve? Try that in the field, you are dead. Drop, and give me 20."

"20 what?" Eve asked.

"Push-ups, maggot!" Kennedy yells as she gets in her face. Eve drops to do push-ups; as Kennedy turns toward Kendra and Dawn, still scowling, then suddenly grinning and giddy. "I love this job. Sorry about the maggot comment though." she said talking about her comment to Dierdre.

"Don't worry about it." Kendra said as she looked over at the potential. "She's going to need to toughen up, for what's to come."

"So when are you going to join our group?" Kennedy asked Dawn.

"Never." Kendra answered for her. "Dawn isn't to be trained at all. Now go back to your troops." Kendra said kind of coldly. Kennedy just gave her a look, nodded her head, and went back to the potentials.

"I can't believe you!" Dawn screamed as she looked up at Kendra, who was unfazed by her comment, and stormed off. She passed Akin, Johnathon, and Willow on the way into the house. She didn't even give them a second glance.

"What's wrong with Dawnie?" Willow asked as she walked up to Kendra.

"Nothing." Kendra replied not meeting her gaze.

"Alright girls, enough!" Akin yelled loud enough for all the girls to hear. All the potentials then stop and give him, their undivided attention. "All of you have trained really hard in the last two weeks, so tonight the most experienced of you will go with me to a demon bar."

"And de new potentials of de group will come with me and Johnathon on patrol." Kendra told them as she stood beside Akin.

"Alright girls, get some rest, for tonight we hunt." Akin told them.

Later that night

Downtown Sunnydale

As the potentials and Akin prowl the streets of downtown Sunnydale, Akin can't help but feel a bit apprenhensive. Something about tonight just seemed...off. Shrugging the negative thoughts off he walks up to the building he had spent all week scouting.

"Alright girls this is it." he said as he turned and looked at them. He had Rona, Eve, Annabelle, Kennedy, and the new potential Amanda that Willow and Tara had found. "Everybody stay close and keep watch for anybody that looks suspicious."

With that said he opens the door and they walk into, a high-ceilinged room packed with swaying bodies. It's more of a dancehall then a bar. Off to the sides, demons are gambling with kittens, discussing how they want to take over the world, and being ritually scarred. Even blood packs are being passed through the writhing crowd. Everyone looks suspicious.

Akin and the girls drift through the press of flesh. Feral faces flash by them, distorted by the stroboscopic lights. A female vampire suddenly latches onto Akin. He shoves her aside, keeps scanning faces. It takes every ounce of his restraint not to cut loose.

As he and the girls make it to the front of the room, Akin walks up to the bar and signals for the bartender to come to him. He's a big demon with small horns and glowing red eye's. The rest of his body looks fairly human though.

"I want to know all the information you or your patrons..." he emphasized the word. "have on the First."

"And who's asking meatbag?" the bartendar asked in a low scary voice.

"I am called The Hunter." Akin said as he flashed his glowing milky white eye's. The demon's eye's widen and he immediately dropped his tone.

"O...okay, I don't know much but..."

As he begins to spill his gut's three shadowed figures are lurking near one of the exits. They are skinhead types with robes on, each with a hairline scar running down their chin.

"If I find out you're lying to me, I'll be back." Akin told the bartender as he turned around and bumped into somebody. As he looked up he saw that it was a tall black man with a shaved head.

"Principal Wood, what are you doing here?" Amanda asked.

"I should ask you the same thing." Wood replied as he tilted his head to the side.


Dawn sat down heavily with tears in her eye's, on Sheila's couch and sighed. She knew that Kendra loved her, but it was her choice if she wanted to fight the darkness not her's. Deep inside all Dawn wanted was to help, to be useful. Not be in the way like she felt she was with Buffy.

That's the whole reason Buffy died anyway. 'It was because of me.' Dawn thought to herself. It was like no one saw Dawn anymore. It was like she was just an inconvenience. Everytime she had a thought about something or had something to contribute to the team, she would be ignored.

The only person who ever paid attention to her... the one who always saw her was Xander. And even he's gone. It was already bad enough that her father didn't want her, her sister and mother were dead, but even the guy she had a crush on was gone.

No one knew that Dawn had abandonment issues. No one knew that she just wanted to curl up in a ball and die. That's because no one was watching her.

"Dawn." a voice said snapping her out of her musings. Looking up she saw Kendra standing in the darkness looking at her.

"Kendra?" Dawn asked as she wiped away at her tears. "I thought you were out on patrol with the others?"

"I was." Kendra said as she stepped into the light. "I let Johnathon handle it for tonight. I just wanted to talk to you." she said as a feral grin spread across her lips.


After Principal Wood gave Akin a brief history of who he really was, they all turn to head out. The bartendar was so scared about being in the presense of the legendary Hunter, that he spilled his gut's about where he thought the First was hiding out.

As they reach the door one of the skinhead figure's spins towards them. It's a Reaper. All three of them are, eyes wide with bloodlust as they leap at Akin and the others. Suddenly, the Reapers are everywhere, blocking the exits, ripping into their vampire victims, tossing them aside like toys. Vampires scream and run, some taking to the walls as a means of escape, some racing across the ceiling.

"Everybody take out your weapon's now!" Akin shouted over the chao's. Not having to be told twice the girls do as thier told. Even Wood takes out a battle axe that he was concealing in his overcoat. The group goes back to back aiming their weapons at the Reapers as they slowly surround them. Seeing that they are to close to each other to shoot their weapons, they move off from each other a little.

Suddenly a Reaper explodes out from the walk-in, rather than the door behind them. He leaps atop Wood, slamming him to the floor. Amanda swings the axe Wood dropped, missing the Reaper, taking out a chunk of the wall instead. Amanda swings and misses again, taking a chunk out of the floor.

Kennedy empties her automatic rifle into the Reaper even as -- the Reaper turns on Amanda, catching the axe. The Reaper's lower jaw then disengages and splits open, revealing a freakishly enlarged esophagus lined with serrated, sharklike teeth. All of this takes a split-second. No time for Amanda to react, the Reaper latches its grossly expanded mouth onto her throat and begins draining her before Kennedy's eye's. The Reaper shudders and the whites of his eyes bleed red as an ecstatic wave washes over him. His pale flesh, pulsing with engorged veinwork, becomes flushed, turning crimson as --

"Ohmygodhe'skillingmehe's" Amanda manages to get out as her face becomes increasingly pallid. Her face begins caving inward, shrinking as every millimeter of blood is vacuumed out of her. Blood vessels are popping up beneath the Reaper's briefly translucent skin, becoming engorged and pilated. The veins continue to swell, racing up her neck, then branching out over her face, chest, and arms -- like an instant network of varicose veins.

Kennedy retreats, horrified. Wood scurries backwards, then scrambles to his feet.Wood leaps, snapping the Reaper's neck with a spinning heel kick, but the Reaper keeps coming.

As the vampire patrons flee, the potentials and Akin open up fire, unleashing a hailstorm of bullets, cutting into vampires and Reapers alike as they run.

Annabelle looks up alarmed, as a Reaper comes her way. As she reaches for a specialized shotgun, the Reaper continues forward, moving so fast she almost seems a blur as BA-BOOM! BA-BOOM! Annabelle pumps her shotgun repeatedly. Two projectiles fire out, chained together by a length of titanium cable. The cable catches the Reaper in the mid-section, cutting it clean in half.

The upper half of the Reaper falls, then rights itself, landing on its clawed hands. Impossibly, the she-Reaper keeps coming. She skitters towards Annabelle on her hands like the half-man from Todd Browning's "FREAKS". The half-Reaper launches itself at Annabelle, hitting her in the chest, knocking her back to the floor. Annabelle panics as she struggles with the thing, trying to fend off its claws and fangs as it tries to lock its mouth into her arm. She screams.

As she closes her eye's awaiting her death, the weight is suddenly lifted off of her. Opening up her eye's she see's Akin with his sword in one hand and the other one he's offering to her. Taking his hand she stands to her feet and looks around.

Not saying a word Akin walks past her and goes to help the others. A lone vampire makes it towards one of the exits. He couldn't believe all of the chao's he had just seen. Seeing that two Reapers were heading his way, he flattens himself against the door.

"I'm getting the fuck..." before the vampire can even finish his sentence, a sword punches straight through the door and into his chest. He gasps and turns to ash as the sword disengages back out through the door and CRASH. The door explodes open, sending clouds of burning vampire embers every which way.

In walks Blade, grinning wickedly, mach ready. As the two Reapers rise - POW! A silver hollow-point, with a magnesium core, hits the first one in the neck. POW! Another hollow-point takes out the second. The Reapers drop, turning to ash. Blade holsters his mach, striding through Reaper ash piles. The place is eerily quiet now, in stark contrast to the mayhem of the last few minutes. Just the steady, low-pitched hum of the air conditioning units.

"Who are you?" Akin asked as he approached the man.

"The name's..."

"Blade." Kennedy answered for him.

"And how the fuck do you know me...little girl?" Blade asked.

"Come on Wesley, I've seen all of your movies." Kennedy answered ignoring his tone. Before Blade could reply, some groaning could be heard.

"Guy's come quick!" Eve yelled out. Blade and the others gather around her only to see that her and Rona are holding down Amanda. She's thrashing about, clutching her wounded, infected arm.

"Oh god, oh God it hurts! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts. Ugh!" Amanda lets loose an agonized scream as Blade and the others look on. She's undergoing a horrific change, taking on the gaunt, vein-engorged features of a proper Reaper. She snarls and wails, gnashing her teeth like a rabid animal.

Blade draws closer. Already, the flesh on Amanda's chin is splitting as a seam begins to form.

"How long since she was bitten?" Blade asked.

"A couple of minutes." Rona replied as she looked up at him.

"I'm sorry kid." Blade says unnerved, as he unsheathes his sword, decapitating Amanda even as the others protest. Amanda's head rolls off and she crumbles into dust.

"What the fuck did you do that for?" Akin exploded as he grabbed Blade on the shoulder. "We probably could have saved her."

"Never fucking touch me." Blade said as he spins his arm around, knocks Akin's hand off of his shoulder, and delivers an open palmed strike to Akin's chest. The force of the blow sent Akin reeling and he drops his sword.

As Akin's eye's start to glow a milky white, he lunges forward and scoops up his sword that lies nearby. He swings it at Blade. Blade parries and steps backward, taking a blow to the head in the process, then another to the side. The two of them exchange a flurry of blows back and forth until their weapons lock and they are face to face.

Both men are trembling, straining against their weapons, using every ounce of strength to keep the other at bay. And just when it looks like Akin is gaining the upper hand...

"Enough!" Wood shouted out. Blade and Akin were still holding each other at bay. "I don't know what's going on here, but I think we're fighting on the same side. Standing here fighting each other isn't going to solve anything. I think we should just go somewhere and talk about this."

"Alright." Akin said as he eased up on his sword. Blade did the same. "We'll go back to Kendra's home and talk there."


"So you really are Blade?" Principal Wood asked, after he had just got done explaining his story.

"Yeah, now how the hell do you know that?" he asked.

"Well in this world, you aren't real. You're just a comic book character and a few years ago they made a movie about you." Kennedy explained.

"And who are you supposed to be?" he asked as he looked over at Akin. He had to admit that the guy was good. He could probably match him move for move.

"My name is Akin Bembola." Akin regarded him. "But I'm also known as the Hunter."

"The Hunter?" Blade asked recognition dawning. "On my world you're nothing more than a legend. A boogieman for the vampires."

As he says this Kendra, Johnathon, and the other potentials walk into the room.

"So how was your patrol?" Kendra asked as she walked all the way into the room. Blade looked up at her and immediately unsheathed his sword.

"You!" Blade screamed as he walked towards her. "You're the reason why the Reapers are here."

"Me what are you..."

"Just calm down!" Akin shouted as he grabbed Blades arm. "What do you mean, she's the reason the Reapers are here?" Then Blade told them what he saw, before he came to their dimension.

"That wasn't Kendra." Johnathon told Blade. "That was the First Evil."

"The First Evil?" Blade asked as he gave him a questioning look. 'This has got to be the wierdest day of my life.' Blade thought to himself. And that's saying a lot for a guy who hunt's vampires, for a living. With that thought in his head, Johnathon and the others told him all they knew of the First and a little about what's been going on in Sunnydale.


"I'm sorry but we've run out of bedrooms." Kendra told Blade as she opened up the attic door. "Dis is all dat we have left."

"It'll be fine." Blade said as he looked around the dusty attic. Truth be told anything would be better than having a bunch of teenage girls drooling all over him.

"Well dare's some blanket's over on de cot if you get cold." Kendra said as she walked to the door. "I'll see you in the mornin' " she said as she left.

Blade shrugs off his coat and drops it on the back of a nearby chair. Unstrapping his weapons and taking off his armour and shirt, he sits down on the floor and get's ready for his nightly meditation session. As he get's comfortable he suddenly smells something in the air. As he get's to his feet he suddenly hears a girl crying.

As he walks about the room, he suddenly see's a white girl with long brown hair holding a 9 mm to her head, sitting behind some boxes.

"Kid put the gun down." Blade says calmly to her.

"Why should I." Dawn says with tears falling down her face. "Nobody's gonna care if I die." Blade just looked at her. Even though he still had an unnerved expression on his face, you could still see his concern for the girl in his eye's.

"What's your name?" Blade asked.

"D...Dawn." Dawn told him as her hand trembled on the gun.

"Buffy's little sister." Blade said figuring it out.

"H...how do you know me?" she asked as she looked up at him again.

"Kendra told me about you." he said as he crouched down and sat next to her. "She was going on and on tonight about how proud she was of you. How do you think she'll feel if you do something stupid and blow your brains out?"

"You don't know me." Dawn said as her finger reached the trigger. "She doesn't care about me. Nobody does."

"Is that a fact?" he asked. "Then why did she tell me that, if she could have another little sister, that she wished that it would be you."

"D...did she say that?" Dawn asked with a low voice.

"Yeah, she did." Blade said as he reached his hand out. "Now give me the gun."

With nerveless fingers Dawn lowered the gun from her temple. With shaky hands she put it in Blade's hand.

"I'm sorry!" Dawn cried out as she buried her head into Blade's chest and cried. Blade was caught off guard by the contact, but finally put his arm around Dawn and held her.

"Why the hell do you alway's have to spoil my fun?" a voice asked. Looking up, Blade saw a cute, short blonde standing about ten feet away from him and Dawn. The First had spent all night telling Dawn lies. She just wanted to see her dead.

"Buffy?" Dawn asked as she looked up.

"That's not your sister." Blade said. It wasn't just because he was told Buffy was dead, but now that he's honed his senses a little he saw a shroud of darkness surrounding the figure before him.

"Get out of here!" Blade growled.

"Oh, I'm going." The First/ Buffy told him. "I just wanted you to know that you had better get ready. Because with the help of the Reapers, I'm going to take over this reality and every reality there is. Be seeing you Dawnie." she said as she blinked away.

Dawn just latched onto Blade tighter, while he sat there and wondered how he was going to get himself out of this one.

Akin's hotel room

Akin shakes in his bed as he has another disturbing dream. He's having a dream about one of the most painful experiences of his life. Only this time Xander is there instead of him. As he's about to wake up from his nightmare, a thought suddenly goes across his mind.

"My God!" Akin shouts out as he sits up in his bed. Sweat is pouring down his face, as if someone threw a bucket of water on him. "I know how to get Xander back."

TBC...

Please review...

Also I know Blade might have seemed out of character with Dawn, but I really think he has a soft spot in his heart for kids. It was originally supposed to be a scene with Akin and Dawn but I wanted it to be like this. And if anybody is wondering how Blade survived two weeks on his own in another universe well, when he came to this dimension, he went to LA and he found a guy that almost duplicated his serum, but it just wasn't as strong as the original. He got money to pay for it and to live off of by mugging vampires and pawning their jewelry and other things from their nests, before he dusted them.