The confrontation

Amanda had been wandering around Sunnydale nearly all night. She hadn't met a single living soul, and she hadn't run into any of those scary Turok-Han ubervamps.

The sun was going to come up soon, so it looked like she wouldn't. She should be getting back, but...

Amanda wasn't sure what brought her back to the vineyard. Last time she was here, she was with Buffy and Faith, and the other girls were with her, and Buffy's friends. There was no back-up this time. It was just her.

This was a bad place. Why was she here? Because Buffy told her to trust her instincts. Uncertain as she was, this was where her instincts led her.

Amanda felt a thrill, fighting, killing the Bringers on guard duty. They weren't be expecting an attack, obviously, because she killed two of them before they could react, and the third one went down quickly.

She sneaked inside, hoping not to draw attention to herself. There were voices, coming from downstairs.

"It shouldn't be long now. Don't worry. It'll come out." That was that scary preacher guy!

"I heard you the first time, Caleb." Was that Buffy? She sounded annoyed. No, Amanda reminded herself. It was the First.

"We're almost there," Caleb said.

"That's what you said yesterday," the First-slash-Buffy said, impatient.

A Bringer tried to sneak up on her. Amanda heard the squeak of its shoe just in time. She ducked. The Bringer buried its knife in the wood of the wall. Amanda axed it in the back.

The body fell down the stairs before she could stop it. So much for sneaking in.

Amanda went down the steps cautiously. This was where they fought Caleb the last time.

He smirked. "Well if it ain't the replacement."

"Um, hi?" Amanda offered, nervously. She'd feel so much better if she had her axe, but she didn't want to take her eyes off him.

"Back to play this game again?" The crazy preacher-guy asked, smirking. "Thought you learned better last time."

He was circling her slowly, trying to intimidate her. Amanda was already frightened though. She'd pretty much reached her limit when they told her she was the slayer. He was just one more thing to be scared of.

"I don't suppose you could tell me where you've hidden whatever it is you're hiding? I don't want to cause any trouble," Amanda said nervously, turning to keep him in sight.

"Trouble?" Caleb asked. "Why, you're just a dead little girl. You just don't know it yet."

Caleb punched her. Only, she half-stumbled half-dodged out of the way, so he never connected.

Purely on reflex, she lashed out with her own punch. Caleb flinched. He actually flinched! Maybe whatever mystical-demon-steroids he was taking to make him super strong were wearing off?

One way or another, it was all over here, Amanda knew. She wished she'd never come. She was the slayer, the one girl, even if she didn't really know what she was doing. He was the bad guy.

Only one of them could walk away from this. Amanda just hoped it was her.

&&

Buffy was standing on a ledge, overlooking a vast cavern. It was just like what the Shadow Men had showed her. Her thoughts were almost drowned out by the snarling and growling of thousands, maybe tens of thousands of ubervamps.

Buffy closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. And then she said goodbye to Sunnydale, and maybe a whole lot more.

"Let's get this show on the road."

&&

Caleb threw another punch, and another. Something was definitely wrong with him. He should've killed her a bunch of times already. Amanda ducked, dodged, and wove out of the way, and miraculously managed to keep from getting squished.

For the first time since Mister Giles told her she was the next slayer, she felt maybe she could pull this off.

The scary preacher man was seriously losing his temper. Okay, he was still super-strong, but Amanda had landed several punches, and he actually seemed to have felt them. That was something, right?

"Quit messing around and kill her!" Buffy-slash-the-First snapped, annoyed.

Amanda ducked under his punch, landing another of her own. Caleb lifted a heavy cask of wine over his head, hurling it at her. She only just managed to dive out of the way.

She pulled herself to her feet, scrambling out of the way, narrowly missing another cask. Blood red wine spilled everywhere.

"I'm tryin' to do just that!" Caleb growled, his attention only on Amanda.

"Try harder," Buffy-slash-the-First said, crossing her arms over her chest and looking decidedly unimpressed.

He threw another cask. "Bitch! Stand still so I can squash you!"

And then Amanda saw it: a trap door. It'd been covered by casks of wine, but Caleb had taken care of that for her.

He rushed her. She dove for the trap door. He missed her by inches, crashing into a couple of casks of wine. The trap door shut behind her.

There it was! The weapon! Buffy was right! It was some kind of axe-thing. Whoa. Talk about shiny.

"So you found it," Caleb drawled, coming into the cave behind her. "Big deal. Question is, can you pry it from that there rock before I come over there and break you in two?"

Amanda made a dash for the weapon.

Caleb was right behind her. He grabbed her hair, yanking her back. She let out an involuntary scream of pain. Amanda twisted before he could really grab her. She punched him as hard as she could in the face. He let go. Amanda fell into a very basic fighting stance.

The ground started to shake. It was happening.

"What's goin' on?" Caleb demanded. "Are you doin' this?"

He rushed at her. Amanda kicked him in the face. Caleb stumbled back.

Now was her chance! She rushed for the weapon. This time she reached it. Strength surged through her, and confidence, the power of the slayer, as she grabbed it.

Amanda pulled the shiny axe-thing out easily, like it was meant for her. She looked around. The cave was coming down around her ears.

"This is Buffy," she whispered.

"Impossible," Caleb snarled.

He charged at her. She ducked underneath his swing, then sliced up and through him, putting all her slayer-strength behind her new weapon.

Caleb fell to pieces. Amanda wondered if she should've punned or something.

She shook her head. She had to get out of here.