See Part I for disclaimer and details. Thanks again to everyone who has sent me some feedback, good or bad; it feeds the addiction. Hmm, the last chapter didn't get all that many hits or reviews though. Therefore, that begs the question: should I keep going with this story?

Part V: Of Back Alleys And Historic Meetings

The Bronze, Sunnydale. January, 1997

Buffy was feeling incredibly embarrassed, not to mention worried that her social life was now on the critical list, thanks to mistakenly attacking Harmony with her stake near the back of the club. Well, maybe that was all for the best. After all, the next three years weren't exactly going to give her a lot of time to be part of the popular crowd anyway.

Meeting up with Xander and Giles again after failing to find Thomas the vampire, the British man said to the Slayer, "Well, that was quick. Well done! Uh, I-I'd best get going to the library. This Harvest thing-"

"I didn't get him. That DeBarge wannabe is still around somewhere," Buffy interrupted her new mentor. "Xand?"

The young man concentrated. "I'm not getting anything close by-"

"They've all left? Damn it!" the Chosen One exploded.

"No vampire would, um, would leave a place like this empty-handed. Most likely, some poor unfortunates they've picked up are, are going to be killed..." Giles started to stammer.

"I'll take the back, you take the front!" Xander said to Buffy as he started to move off.

Buffy called out, "Be careful!" Then she turned to Giles, "And you, get with the book learning already!" before she rushed off.

As the Watcher obediently headed for the front door, he failed to spot Willow and Jesse starting to follow after Buffy...

Outside the back of the Bronze. A few seconds later

"I have a dream, you know. It's me on the cheerleading squad, adored by every varsity male as far as the eye can see! My philosophy is we have to try to achieve our dreams, right? Otherwise we...we wither and die! And I don't want to die till I've really made my mark in this world, you know what I'm saying?" Cordelia was acting chagrined, yet still pretty and accessible. In her own mind, at least.

For his part, Angelus was already bored out of his brain. ( Vapid little motor-mouthed idiot! ) Then he grinned to himself, ( Mmmm, maybe when the Master feeds on you, he'll choke to death on your blood! That's my dream, anyway. )

"HEY!"

Cordelia stopped and turned around, her features turning into an angry scowl when she recognized the new arrival. "You! What do you want?"

Xander came closer, noting that the vampire she was with had also stopped alongside her. "Cordelia, get over here right now-" Then he saw Angelus's face, and his eyes went wide. "You..."

The former Angel raised his eyebrows, surprise and irritation evident on his face. "Do I know you, boy?"

"No. But I know you, I've...seen you before. I know what you are, anyway," Xander replied softly as he took out a hand-carved stake out of his jacket.

"What's that for, you idiot?" Cordelia snapped. Then she screamed, when she suddenly caught sight of the male vampire's demon features. "WHAT THE HELL IS ALL THIS?"

Angelus quickly grabbed her with an evil grin on his face. As Xander's words had made him decide to skip the preliminaries and get to the fun part. "I swear, it's gonna be such a pleasure to bleed you-"

"BLEED me! Look, you asshole-" Cordy started to rant at her captor, disfigured nightmare of a face or not.

"Cordelia. Shut up and let me handle this!" Xander shouted, his eyes fixed on those of Angelus.

"So. You've decided to be this little whore's white knight, have you? Well then, let me introduce myself, boy. Name's Angelus," the soulless demon purred.

"Who are you calling a whore, you dickless son of a bitch!" Cordelia instantly screamed, unable to tolerate hearing that crack.

"Don't do it, vampire," Xander warned him as he saw the fangs descending on the girl's neck. "I'm warning you – the moment you start feeding, I'll stake you right in the heart!"

"You and what army, boy?"

"The Slayer army," Xander retorted, still desperately playing for time and trying to figure out a way to prevent Cordy from getting killed at the hands of this...thing.

Angelus cocked his head, holding Cordelia easily even as she struggled to get free. He then absently clamped a hand over her mouth when she started to scream for help, as he regarded his adversary. "Now, what would YOU know about Slayers?"

Xander decided to continue stalling. "I've seen you kill one of them, and her five-year-old son. And I'm telling you right now, that trick you used to take out Miss 1970's Harlem? It isn't gonna work on me."

Now THAT captured the vampire's interest. As far as Angelus knew, no one else had witnessed that fight between him and Nikki Wood nearly 19 years ago, or how he'd mercilessly butchered the watching Robin Wood afterwards.

Not to mention that Xander would have been in diapers back then, if he'd been around at all. So how the HELL did this mortal child know anything about all that?

"Hullo, kitten. Oooh, I've finally found you..."

Both Xander and Angelus turned to see Drusilla, and her sire groaned at the realization. ( Satan's balls, HE'S the one who turns out to be her 'kitten'? Terrific! )

"Dru, this isn't a good time-" Angelus started to say.

But Xander paid him no attention as he met yet another figure from the dream this morning. "Ah, shit. Who are you?"

"I'm your destiny," the fascinated vampiress murmured, as she swayed slowly while approaching Xander. "Look at me..."

Luckily, the human figured out what she was about to attempt. "Save the hypnosis crap for the tourists, lady! If Lothos couldn't do it, what makes you think you've got any hope in hell?"

Dru paid no attention. "Come to me...BE in me..."

But the moment she got close enough, Xander's left hand shot out of his pocket, brandishing the cross in front of Drusilla's face. "That's close enough!"

Dru shrieked and stepped back, her game face appearing. "Graaaagh! Bad kitten!"

For her part, Cordelia was in a state of complete confusion and denial. ( This is not happening. This is not happening! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING! ) she kept repeating to herself.

The young woman had no idea what to make of it all: vampires, Slayers, and whatever other crazy stuff these people were talking about. All she knew was that she wanted to be back inside the Bronze, where everything made sense!

Thus, in a moment of instinctive self-preservation, Cordy slammed her stiletto pump down onto Angelus's foot. And then tried to hit him in the nuts with her heel, bringing her leg up and backwards at the same time.

Someone up there must have liked her, as beginner's luck came into play and the male vampire roared with pained annoyance. His grip weakened, the female teen escaped from the demon, running all-out towards the Bronze without even a glance backwards.

Xander covered her with the cross and stake, retreating back towards the dubious safety of the nightclub, before Drusilla said, "That's not very nice what you're doing, kitten!"

"The name's Xander," the boy replied. "And too bad, so sad!"

"You don't even know who you are...who you were. But I can see it..."

For some reason, Xander stopped. "What are you talking about, you undead leech?"

Angelus was looking interested, ignoring the pain just as Drusilla ignored the insult. She started to move back and forth and then chanted, "The man in the hat, so-so naughty he was...before you were born, even. Cuckoo in the nest, you are! I can see it, kitten, you're not who you would 'ave been. Magic pixie dust floating about, all 'round your head..."

( Is she talking about that demon Whistler? What the hell is all this? ) "You're crazy!" Xander shouted out.

"True, but she still has the visions. She may not understand all that she sees, boy, but 140 years as a seer Drusilla's never been wrong before," Angelus looked thoughtful, as he absently said this to his prey and sized him up again. ( I wonder... )

Xander's head was starting to whirl with all these revelations. ( Holy shit, she's the vamp who's been dreaming about me for a hundred years? Oh, this is bad... )

"Cribs mixed, siblings switched. The Angel-beast was no more, Daddy came back! So it's all different, but also the same...oh, kitten, it's gonna be all so wonderful. The whole world will bleed, it will! Won't you come with us? I could be your new mummy..." Drusilla crooned.

"HIM? Over my dusted body!" Angelus instantly roared out, furious about Dru's wish to become this annoying child's sire.

"We can only hope, you bloodsucking motherfucker," Xander cursed his enemy, as he continued to back away.

Well, that was the final straw as far as that soulless vampire was concerned. With a loud bellow, Angelus charged at Xander and despite the cross burning him, their momentum carried both men straight into the alley wall.

Xander tried to stake his nemesis, but failed due to being in such close proximity to his undead body. Angelus was about to bite his victim, fangs gleaming under the thin sliver of moonlight, when Drusilla screamed as the stars started whispering their secrets to her.

"NOOOOO! NOOOOO! DADDY! DON'T KILL HIM!"

Dru instantly grabbed her so-called 'father' with all of her supernatural strength, and started to drag the vampire away. "The fires of dawn. Death, demons and dragons! Green light, so pretty, no, no, no – it mustn't be like that..." she muttered crazily.

Angelus was halfway tempted to just stake her and be done with it as his mad childe hauled him off. But reason and prudence stayed his hand. Even if the warning made no sense to him – or he suspected, to Dru herself – Angelus was willing to heed it for now, as the seer had obviously sensed something bad coming for all of them.

Back in the alley, Xander was slumped down on the ground, his head and neck bleeding profusely even though Angelus hadn't managed to feed for long. He sensed the injuries weren't life-threatening, but they weren't something to just brush off either.

( Gotta get up, damn it. Might have a concussion, I need to stay awake... ) But the youth was more badly hurt than he'd first thought and quickly passed out.

A few minutes later, Cordelia nervously stuck her head out the door again. ( Why the hell am I doing this? ) she asked herself for maybe the millionth time. ( I was just hallucinating, that's all. I didn't see anything! Those two were obviously just high on drugs or whatever, and EXTREMELY superstitious about crucifixes! And Xander Summers obviously knew them. He's probably even in cahoots with them! )

But however far the Chase girl was willing to go into Sunnydale-type denial, she simply couldn't lie to herself that much. Deep down, the curvaceous brunette knew that Xander had shown up to save her, like the white knight Angelus had accused him of being. And also deep down, Cordy knew that was the real reason why she was coming back out here.

Xander hadn't come back inside the club behind her. And she might have been seriously hurt, or worse, had it not been for the actions of a boy she had almost instantly come to both detest and desire at the same time.

Cordelia quickly spotted Xander's unconscious form and gasped in horror. "Xander?" Quickly pulling out her cell phone, she dialled 911 and demanded that an ambulance come over to the Bronze as quickly as possible.

A mausoleum in one of Sunnydale's cemeteries. Ten minutes later

Buffy Summers had not been idle while Xander had been facing down two of the most notorious killers in Europe's history.

Even though she couldn't sense the undead like her sibling, the blonde Chosen One still had a brain and a pair of eyes in her head. Asking a couple of Bronze patrons if they had seen anyone who had just walked out of the club, she had made tracks to the nearest cemetery, Willow and Jesse hot on her heels.

"This is crazy, Will," the young man had said to his best friend at the time they'd entered the boneyard. "Who the heck hangs out in a cemetery at night?"

"I don't know," Willow had replied. "I mean, an ice cream bar I could understand, but a graveyard? Something weird is going on!"

Buffy in the meanwhile had finally caught up with Darla and Thomas, who had brought their offerings here to take them underground to the Master. "Well, this is nice. I-it's a little bare, but a dash of paint, a few throw pillows...call it home!"

Both soulless vamps stared at her. "Who are you?" Darla demanded.

Buffy brought out a stake, and said to the people known as Amber Grove and Jonathan Levinson, "You guys okay?"

"What's going on?" Jonathan asked in disbelief, weak and disoriented from a bleeding neck after Darla had gotten hungry along the way.

"We need to get outta here!" Amber called out desperately, regretting more than ever her decision tonight to be daring for once.

"You're not going anywhere," Darla snarled as she vamped out.

"Not till we've fed!" Thomas vamped out too.

Buffy Summers instantly went into Slay mode. "Now, this is not in any way gonna be pretty. We're talking violence, strong language, adult content..."

Thomas roared and charged at her like a mindless beast, but the Chosen One staked him effortlessly. "See what happens when you roughhouse?"

Darla looked at her enemy in disbelief. "I don't believe it. YOU'RE the Slayer Dru warned us about?"

Willow and Jesse were standing at the doorway to the mausoleum, and had just witnessed their first vampire going 'poof'. "Buffy?" the redhead asked uncertainly, unsure if she believed what she'd just seen.

"Willow! Jesse! Grab these two and get outta here!" Buffy called out as she prepared herself for the next battle.

Darla started to walk forward as the two new arrivals stepped inside. "Thomas was young and stupid. I'm not!"

"Yeah, I kinda figured that already. About the not young thing, that is. I mean, just between us girls? Makeup is your friend! 'Cause you're looking a little worn around the eyes there..." Then Buffy noticed Willow hesitating. "Willow, go!"

"She won't get far!" Darla yelled as the fight was suddenly on.

The female vampire punched high, but Buffy easily blocked the blow. As the four teens started to leave the mausoleum, Darla went for a backhand punch but the Slayer blocked that too and followed up with a snap kick to the vampire's stomach. They traded blows and kicks for a few moments, before Buffy felt the need to speak up and say something.

"You know, deep down I just wanted to start over. Be like everybody else. Did I mention this was my first day in Sunnydale?" she quipped.

"Too bad it'll also be your last!"

The battle continued, Slayer and vampire exchanging punches and kicks. It was an even contest until Darla got the upper hand, and threw Buffy into a coffin within the mausoleum.

Elsewhere, the flashing lights of an ambulance had just left the Bronze, an unconscious Xander in the back while a concerned Cordelia watched him depart. At the library Giles was paging through an old volume and he suddenly stopped on a picture of Satan, one with lightning coming from his hand and out to a human's.

But Buffy was unconcerned about all that, as right then Darla's vampire face came into view, plunging down to bite her neck. "Supper time, finally!" the soulless demon growled.

TBC...