Abandoned warehouse in Sunnydale's industrial district, November 17th 1997
The Scooby gang, Angel and Kendra burst into the warehouse!
"Angel. Still following the Slayer around like a lost puppy?" Spike asked mockingly, staring at the newcomers in contempt.
Drusilla briefly blurred and vanished, before reappearing – one of her arms wrapped around Xander's neck.
"Let Xander go right now, you thundering loony!" Buffy shouted, holding a wooden stake in her right hand.
"No, no, no! He's mine, naughty Slayer!" Drusilla hissed.
Kendra aimed her crossbow at her, and let loose with a loud TWANG! Drusilla pushed Xander out of the arrow's way, before she grabbed it in mid-air.
"That's not very nice, y'know. You could 'ave hurt my Kitten!" she growled at Kendra, looking offended.
Elsewhere, not far away, Spike and Angel were facing off. "You really think you can take me, old man?" Spike laughed.
"Spike, you may be older than you were back in the 19th century – but I can still take you any day." Angel got ready to take on Spike.
"We'll see about that!" Spike roared, before they started throwing punches at each other.
{ Oh, God, what the HELL am I doing here? } Cordy thought to herself in terror, as she fired an arrow at an incoming vampire, dusting it. { Holy crap, I did it! Yeah, that's right; no one messes with Queen C! }
In the meantime, Drusilla had attacked Kendra, slamming the junior Slayer into a nearby wall. Infuriated, Buffy headed towards Drusilla – but she turned and grabbed Buffy by the neck, easily tossing her to the ground. Shaking her head, Kendra got up and engaged the vampiress in combat – eventually breaking free from Drusilla's hold on her arm, as both Slayers took her on.
Unnoticed by the Chosen Two, Giles sliced through the vampires with a sword. Xander got his balance back, as Willow and Oz fired a couple of arrows - hitting the vamps that were about to attack him.
Twin explosions of dust filled the air.
"Thanks, guys!" Harris gave the undercover robots a quick thumbs-up. He then grabbed the arrows off the ground. { Better than nothing… }
While she was busy with Kendra, Buffy stabbed Drusilla in the back with her stake. But the vampiress didn't even appear to notice, and she explode into dust either! { Why didn't that work!? } Buffy thought to herself in confusion. { I'm sure I hit the heart – }
Drusilla knocked Kendra aside and, in an amazing show, flexibility and dexterity, pulled out the stake from her back. She then snapped the piece of wood in half, and threw it away.
"You've been a very bad Slayer!" Dru told her, as she faced Buffy and then finally vamped out.
Not far away, Spike jumped up and then side-swiped Angel. Angel hit the ground hard. Spike then gave Angel a hard kick to the head, knocking him out cold. { Sod you, poofter, I'll deal with ya later. Right now, I got a Slayer and a blood bag to kill… }
Spying his closest target, Spike headed for Xander while the others were busy fighting what was left of the minions. The Slayers were still trying their best against Drusilla. Angel was out for the count. That left the teenage ponce on his own, against William the Bloody. "Got no friends to back you up now, you wanker!"
Spike smiled at Xander and vamped out. The blood bag panicked, hurling the wooden crossbolts at him by hand. Spike easily knocked them out of the way, and jumped at his target, almost flying across the room –
Xander instinctively punched Spike in the face, which was the only thing he could think of. And much to his surprise, Spike flew across the warehouse, crashing into one of the tables. Breaking the table in half.
{ What the hell?! How did I that? } Xander asked himself with a shocked look on his face, as he briefly stared at his right fist.
"Spoike!" Drusilla cried out in distress. She punched both Slayers in the chest to get them out of her way, before she ran over to Spike and helped him up.
"Thanks, luv," Spike absently told her, as he wiped the blood from his mouth. { How the bleedin' hell did THAT happen? No, never mind! Lucky punch, or whatever… } "You'll pay for that, you git – oh yeah, you will..." He gave Xander the patented vampire death glare.
As the last of the minions were dusted, Buffy ran over to Angel to check on him. { Angel? ANGEL! }
Drusilla suddenly got a funny look on her face, as she started tugging Spike along with her towards the front door of the lair. "C'mon, Spoike, the stars say we 'ave to go. Now's not the time to finish this!"
Kendra was about to go after Spike and Drusilla as they escaped the warehouse, but then thought better of it. After fighting Drusilla, she knew she was no match for the demented undead - let alone taking on Spike as well. { The better part of valour, and all that. }
By this point, Cordy, Willow, Giles and Oz had gotten over their shock of seeing Xander punch Spike all the way across the room. Well, sort of. Cordelia was staring at her old sparring partner as if he was the Gunslinger, all over again…
"How did you do that, Xander?" Willow asked in awe.
"I have no clue, Willow. But I like it!" He grinned.
"Pretty cool," Oz said with a rare smile, before the undercover robot slipped back to its normal expressionless mask.
Not far away, Angel got up with Buffy's help. She had eyes for no one other than her undead boyfriend as she said, "Are you hurt, Angel?"
"No. But Spike will be, soon enough," Angel groaned, clutching his head where Spike had kicked it.
"Where's Spike and Drusilla?" Buffy asked, looking around.
"They got away, I-I'm afraid," Giles replied with a heavy sigh.
"Then we should get moving, before something else happens!" Cordy said grouchily, but secretly glad that Xander was alright.
Buffy was briefly tempted to burn down the warehouse so that the undead couldn't use it as a lair anymore, but eventually decided against it. She knew that sort of thing could get...complicated, if there were any witnesses. So the Scooby gang, Angel and Kendra then quickly piled into the van and car and drove off.
In Oz's van, Willow sat in the passenger seat next to Oz, who was driving. Xander was sitting in the middle between Cordelia and Kendra in the back of the van. He stared at the Caribbean girl and asked, "So, who are you, again?"
"I am Kendra, de Vampire Slayer," she replied, but not making eye contact with him.
"Huh?" Xander looked at her in disbelief.
"Yeah, there's two of them now. Remember when you brought the Fashion-less One back to life last spring? Kendra here got Called as a result," Cordy shrugged.
"Oh. But hey, you could have killed me with that arrow, ya know!" Xander wasn't sure if he could trust this new Slayer.
"You were in de way of me shot," Kendra suddenly gave him the evil eye.
{ Well, great. We're obviously off to a wonderful start with this Slayer, } Cordelia thought to herself in annoyance.
"I take it you don't have many friends, do you? Or people you work with doing the Slayage?" Xander demanded.
"No. I usually work wit' my Watcher, Mr. Zabuto, or alone. Never really was allowed to make friends, especially after I was called as de Slayer," Kendra told him.
Cordelia rolled her eyes, but said nothing. As Xander and Kendra continued to talk, she eavesdropped on Willow and Oz talking about the movie they saw at the Sun Cinema, before even that topic started to bore her. And just to top off the most *fabulous* evening ever, it started to rain when the van (and Giles's car) arrived at the school parking lot.
Elsewhere Spike, Dru and the last of their minions found a new lair - which was an abandoned old mansion on Crawford Street. "Bloody hell, Dru, why HERE? Look at all the windows, bloody sunlight is gonna get in all over the place..." Spike grumbled.
"Now, now, don't be cross. I love the sunshine!" Drusilla spread her arms apart, with that green Gem almost glittering on her finger.
Spike quickly shut himself up, as they made themselves at home. In a way, he supposed that their new lair's location made a twisted sort of sense – it was pretty unlikely that the Slayers or the other white hats would ever think to look for them here. And if any of the minions were careless enough to let themselves get exposed to the ruddy daylight? Well, that was their problem!
Across town, everyone exited the vehicles into the pouring rain and quickly ran towards the school. Ending up more than a little wet, no one said a word while walking down the hall towards the library. Once inside, everyone towelled off before sitting down at the table.
"This isn't going to take all night, is it, Giles?" Cordy asked, as she briefly yawned. "I mean, it's late, and I've got cheerleader practice tomorrow!"
"Not too long, no, err... let's get down to business," Giles replied. { I'm getting to old for this, but still. Needs must, call of duty and all that. }
"We failed. Both Spike and Drusilla are still out dere!" Kendra said bluntly. { Maybe I should go out and take down some the minions, at least, } she thought to herself.
"Yeah, true, but – listen, Kendra, what were you thinking, firing an arrow at Xander?" Buffy wasn't too happy with her.
"I t'ought I would take her head off wit' it, while de demon was distracted wit' him," she gestured at Xander, while glaring at Buffy.
"So much for working as a team," Willow sighed.
"Err, Kendra, Willow has a point, I-I'm afraid. We can't risk friendly fire," Giles said gently, as the Caribbean girl turned to look at him. "I, um, I know it's, err, something of an adjustment for you – but as long as you're here, I must ask you to take care with regards to civilian lives, as it were."
Kendra just shrugged as Giles decided to make some coffee to stay awake. It wasn't clear if she would accept Giles's orders, but she hadn't dismissed the Watcher's words out of hand, either.
"What happened to you tonight, Xander? Did, did Spike and Drusilla do anything to you?" Buffy asked with a worried look.
"Nope. Weird as, but that Drusilla vamp wouldn't let Spike lay a finger on me. Same with the other vamps. Apparently, she wants to turn me herself as some point. Don't know what she was thinking..." Drusilla was pretty crazy, and Xander hoped he didn't run into her again anytime soon.
"You have no idea, Xander," Angel said, wishing he'd never turned Dru in the first place. "But if she's got you in her sights, you need to watch your back from now on. Don't go anywhere alone, and stay inside after dark." Xander just shrugged and nodded, that made sense to him.
"Okay, getting back to business? I stabbed Drusilla in the back, I'm sure I hit her heart - but she didn't turn to dust, Giles!" Buffy suddenly exclaimed.
"Yes, I saw dat as well. Do ya have an explanation for dis, Mr. Giles?" Kendra nodded.
"Oh...well, l-let me think," the Watcher stammered, suddenly at a loss. He was silent for nearly a minute, thinking over any legends that might explain what the Slayers had witnessed. There was nothing, until he finally remembered – something. "Was Drusilla wearing some kind of, of gem?"
"I think so, Giles. Pretty sure I got a glimpse of a green rock on her ring finger," Buffy mused, before turning to Kendra – who nodded, indicating that she'd seen it as well.
"Okay, and why would that matter?" Cordy asked, with a bored look on her face.
"There's a legend – I'll not bore you with the details, but suffice it to say this gem is called the Gem of Amara. It's, it's the vampire Holy Grail, as it were – it gives the wearer the ability not to be killed by anything; staking, fire, decapitation, the lot," Giles said with a heavy sigh.
"No. It can't be!" Angel looked horrified.
"Just great, a unkillable demon!" Kendra said, slamming her hands on the table. "Mr. Giles, what do we do?"
Giles looked at his watch. "I'll have to inform the Council, get everyone I can to help figure out a strategy to kill an, an unkillable vampire. But, uh, for now - it's getting late," Giles said, finishing his coffee. "You, you should all go home and get some sleep. Kendra, you'll come home with me." The brown-skinned girl nodded, deferring to the British man's authority.
"He's right, we've got school tomorrow," Willow yawned. She looked around, but at this point Angel had already made his exit. "Darn it, Xander's right – we need to put a bell on Angel, or something..."
The Scooby gang and Kendra subsequently left the school library, heading back to the parking lot. Giles told Kendra that he had a guest room she could stay in for the time being, which she graciously accepted. They got into Giles' car and drove off, while Willow got into Oz's van and the undercover robot drove her home. Which left Buffy, Xander and Cordy standing around, looking at one another.
"Oh, fine. I guess I can give you two a ride!" Cordy wasn't too happy about that, but knew that not to offer would make her look petty and ungrateful for all the times Buffy had saved her life so far.
"Thanks, Cor, you're the best!" Xander gives her a thumbs-up, while Buffy rolled her eyes.
Without a word, they got into Cordelia's car - which roared off in the direction of Revello Drive. She dropped Buffy off first, then she headed for the Bronze where Xander's uncle's car was still waiting at the parking lot. Cordy handed Xander his keys. "You might need them, dork."
"Thanks, Cor." He was about to say something else but, after seeing the look on the brunette's face, decided against it. { Good thing I'm wearing a hoodie, } he thought, as he put up his hood as a sort of protection against the rain. "See you tomorrow, Cordelia."
"Whatever. Just - don't get kidnapped by vampires again."
"I'll try not to." He got out of the car and into the rain, which had started up again. He quickly ran to his uncle's Chevy and unlocked the car door. Xander then drove home, as Cordelia did likewise.
A while later, Joyce came home from her date with Ted. "I had a wonderful time, Ted."
"Me too. So, when am I gonna be meeting your daughter?" the Ted Buchanan robot asked with a smile.
"It's too late tonight. Maybe next time?" Joyce mused.
"Sounds good. Well, good night Joyce!" Ted gave her a quick kiss before walking back to his car.
Buffy was asleep in bed when Joyce briefly checked in on her. The Summers mother smiled, thinking that her life was going pretty good right now!
Abandoned mansion on Crawford Street, November 18th 1997
As the midnight hour passed, a new arrival caused some raised eyebrows for Drusilla, Spike and their minions.
The vampire introduced himself as Count Orlok. He wore a long, black coat and pants with black shoes. He had pointy ears, pointy teeth, an old-looking face and very long, canine-like fangs. Count Orlok strolled in front of the roaring fireplace, looking at the vamps gathered around him.
What no one knew was that the so-called Count was Buffy's old friend, Billy Fordham. Ford had come to Sunnydale to surprise Buffy, but mostly to find a vampire to turn him. He didn't have much time left to live, and thanks to a bizarre set of circumstances, he'd gotten his wish; but not from Spike...
"I have guests!" Count Orlok grinned. He had been squatting in the mansion since he'd been turned, after all.
"Oh…a human trapped in a vampire's body," Dru said with a dreamy voice. "How nice!"