Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Note: Italics are Buffy's personal/Slayer thoughts.

(O.O)

Xander

"We're all so going to die tonight."

At least that was what I thought when Vampire Rambo appeared from the forest along with his badly fashioned vampire minions. But when Buffy ordered Willow and I to go and fetch Giles and Ms. Calendar I felt a little tickle of hope, because I knew that the spell they'd been preparing could instantly defeat the super strong vamps in front of us. Of course, as usual, fate had it out for us because once we left Buffy's side we got ambushed by another group of vampires. At least they weren't the super powered kind, but unfortunately they were still vampires all the same.

Man, where were these guys hiding when Buffy was still with us earlier?

Willow and I tried to fight for like two nano-seconds, but four vamps against the two of us without Buffy was just way too much. So we did the time honored thing and ran like hell. Not surprisingly with the way the night had been going it was in the opposite direction of where we needed to go. But the jerks wouldn't leave us be. I mean, jeez, you'd think we were the only food for their group tonight. Since we couldn't shake them we decided to lead them to Giles and Ms. Calendar so they can perform the spell and kill these bozos. Anyway, we circled back running like the hounds of Lucifer were chasing us, straight towards the crypt where Giles and Ms. Calendar were, the vamps hot on our heels. We rushed inside just in time to see the two of them on the verge of kissing each other.

Talk about scarred for life. At least my parents had the decency to do that romantic crap inside the bedroom, well, they did back when they would stopped yelling at each other long enough to do it. Anyway, me and Willow chose to ignore what we were seeing and instead we hurriedly relayed to Giles what'd happened, where Buffy was, and that we were being followed. As if they'd heard us, the vamps broke through the crypt door and came rushing inside. All four vampires advanced on us with hungry eyes while Willow begged Giles to perform the spell.

What happened next was just too fast for my mind to keep up with. Later I remembered things as if they were sequences from a movie I'd been watching. The vampires attacked us and we fought back. Giles tried to defend Ms. Calendar, who was in the process of doing the spell, but he got knocked out unconscious. I tried to defend my fallen companion from the vampire who'd knocked him out by grabbing and waving around an old tire iron I'd found lying on the floor. At the same time, Ms. Calendar screamed as one of the vamps got a hold of her and was going for her jugular. I'd switched to trying to hit that vamp when all of a sudden a supernova blossomed inside the crypt and the vampires around us screamed as they met their doom.

When the light finally dimmed, the crypt had several new additions to its already dusty floor. Willow was standing at the corner and on her palm was the crystal thingy that was to be used as the focus for the sunlight spell Giles and Ms. Calendar were supposed to have done.

"Willow," Ms. Calendar gasped, "How-"

"I-I studied the spell before we left, an-and you were in trouble, a-and Mr. Giles was unconscious, I just thought I-I had to do something even though everyone said that the spell was dangerous and ha-had to be done by an expert, I j-just ha-had to do something or e-everyone wo-would have died." Willow was in tears as she stuttered through her explanation. I went to comfort my best friend, but Ms. Calendar beat me to it.

"Oh, sweetie, don't cry. You did okay. You saved everyone, Willow. You don't need to apologize for anything," she told her, taking my friend in to her arms.

"She's right, Wills, you were amazing with the spell casting and the light thing. You totally beat those vamps, sending all of them all straight to dustville central!" I said, joining the two.

Willow kept crying, but I knew it was because of everything we'd been through tonight rather than because she regretted doing the spell. What she did was amazing, and she shouldn't feel sorry for it. It even made me proud to call her my bestfriend. I was about to tell her this to comfort her but then the crypt door banged open and we all jumped into fighting positions. There was a collective sigh of relief when we saw it was only Buffy. She was sweating and breathing hard.

"Buffster!" I called happily. You couldn't blame for being happy to see my friend, after all if she was here then it meant that she'd been able to defeat those ugly, super-powered vamps without the spell's help. I also considered it a plus that Angel wasn't there with her. Major happiness for the Xan-man. "So glad you could join us! We were just celebrating how Willow saved the day! And since you're here that must mean you guys defeated vamp Rambo and his cronies, and once again saving the world from possible super-powered vamp invasion!" I was nearly doing my happy dance.

Only the look on her Buffy's wasn't the look of someone who'd just won a battle, it was that of a soldier heading off to war.

"Buffy? What's wrong?" Willow asked thickly, her voice muffled by sobs.

"Where's Giles?" she asked, ignoring Willow's concerned question. Scanning the room she quickly found her unconscious Watcher. Rushing to his side she shook him. "Giles, Giles, Giles! I need your help. You shouldn't sleep in a time like this!"

"Buffy, you shouldn't force Rupert to wake up that way." Ms. Calendar stopped her. "He's been hurt badly. We need to take him to the hospital immediately. I need to go too." My teacher was holding a blood soaked handkerchief tightly against her neck.

Buffy panicked. "There's no time to go to the hospital right now, we need to go back and help Angel!"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her obviously unnecessary concern for the undead wonder. She wasn't thinking straight because dead boy was in danger yet again and she believed we all needed to drop everything to go and save the jerk's butt. I was starting to think that the guy's destiny wasn't to help Buffy but to be constantly saved by her every time a crisis rolled around.

"I understand your concern, Buffster, but Angel can handle himself, plus he's got that Spike guy with him. I'm sure they'll be okay while we take Giles and Ms. Calendar to the hospital. They're more important than a couple of vampires who've been taking care of themselves for a long time." I was trying to calm her down and help her focus, but my words had the opposite effect.

"Don't tell me they'll be okay, Xander! You didn't see the newly arrived vampires that came after we defeated the last bunch! If the first ones looked scary, despite their weird fashion sense, you'd pee your pants if you saw this new group! They were bigger, meaner and looked like they had the skills to back up their bad ass appearances! They were nothing like the vampires that came earlier. I had to leave Spike and Angel behind to fight them. If those two get killed, then there is no stopping those vampires from taking over Sunnydale and the surrounding towns. Before the effects of the ritual wear off they'll have done more damage than any vampire in history! So what do you think is more important at the moment, Xander Harris?" She was in my face now and I couldn't help but be scared of her. Embarrassingly, I was also kind of turned on. Teenage hormones really do a number on a guy, but being frightened of her? I never wanted that to happen again.

"Okay, Buff. I get it! Sorry, and again I understand what you mean, but it doesn't change the fact that Giles and Ms. Calendar can't do the spell for you at the moment. If you force it, they could seriously get hurt. I know that when you have a chance to think about, you wouldn't want that."

Her eyes widened and it made me believe that I was finally getting through to her. Her gaze softened. "Sorry, Xander. I didn't mean to yell at you, and you are right, I usually wouldn't let any of you get hurt in the process of saving the world. I was just so caught up with my own fears that I didn't-"

"Hey, no worries, I totally understand what you're going through." I stopped her from saying anymore. Like I said, I totally got how she was feeling. Not that I approved of her Angel fueled hysteria, but I was her friend, so supporting her would always be top priority next to Angel-hating. "And again, Buffster, we want to help, but Giles and Ms. Calendar-"

"-Are hurt," she finished my sentence. She finally took the time to assess our companions and I could see the guilt in her eyes as she looked at everyone's injuries. "I guess there's nothing we can do to help Spike and Angel." I could hear her disappointment and resignation in her voice. It nearly broke my heart. I wished that there was something I could do to help ease my friend's pain.

"Actually there is," Willow's voice penetrated through my melancholic thoughts.

"What do you mean, Wills?" Buffy asked her.

"I mean there is a way to help them, Angel and Spike, I mean. The spell-"

"Is too dangerous!" Ms. Calendar cut her off. "It was sheer luck that you were able to perform it earlier. but to do it again? Alone, without supervision? I advise against it, Willow."

"Uh-what do you mean?" Buffy asked obviously not following on the conversation. So I gave her a short recap on the earlier events. "I see, so that strange light show was your work, huh, Wills?" My best friend nodded shyly. "Cool! That's great! So do you think you can do it again?" she asked.

Ms. Calendar glared at Buffy. "I think not! As I said, Buffy, this spell is highly sensitive and Willow doesn't possess the skills or the experience needed to perform the spell-"

"Yet she was able to anyway. Ms. Calendar, I understand your concern, really, but this is Willows decision. If she says she can then she'll do it, so she can help save a lot of people." Buffy said shutting up Ms. Calendar by emphasizing the 'saving a lot of people' part of the conversation. Then she turned to face Willow to wait for her answer to her previous question.

"Yeah," my friend answered, "Yeah, I think I can do it again, as long as I don't have to worry about getting eaten by vampires while doing the spell."

"Good." was Buffy's only reply before turning again to face me. "Xander, I need you to take Giles and Ms. Calendar to the hospital and wait for us there. Willow and I will follow just as soon as we take care of that crazy vampire army. Do you understand?"

I didn't like the idea of getting left behind but I understood the need to accompany Giles and Ms. Calendar. They were weakened and would fall prey to any vamps around if I left them be. So I nodded my head and agreed to her orders.

"Thanks," she said before she left with Willow to kill of some evil undead villains.

(O.O)

Buffy

Willow and I hurriedly walked to where I'd left Spike and Angel. I wanted to take off running but I knew if I did that Willow wouldn't be able to keep up with me. This irrational fear gripped my heart as we approached the scene of the fight. I knew that I shouldn't be worried because Xander was right: Spike could take care of himself. Only I couldn't help it. As I'd ran to get help and had left the two ensouled vampires to fend for themselves, it'd been Spike, not Angel, but Spike I'd been worried about. Fear for his life–well, unlife–had spurred me to run like to wind to the crypt where Giles and the others had been stationed.

When I got there I'd continued with the weirdness. I'd tried to wake a very injured Giles, ignored Ms. Calendar's bleeding, and I'd yelled at Xander when he'd tried to be logical about everything. This wasn't like me at all but if Xander hadn't said anything I wouldn't have even realized that I was being bizarro-Buffy. Something really was wrong with me. I was afraid of whatever could be making me change so much without me even realizing it.

I really needed to talk to, Giles, when all of this was over. But first I needed to focus on the problem at hand.

I paused and turned to Willow, who'd stopped beside me.

"Buffy? Is something wrong?"

"Will, do you have to chant when you do that spell?" I asked her.

"Uh, well, yeah. I have to invoked the Will of Apollo, the Greek Sun God, and ask for his Blessing. Then I need to whisper a few Greek words before I say the rest of the incantation," she answered. "Why do you ask?"

I ignored her question and pressed on with my own ones. "How long so you think will it take for you to finish casting the spell and how long will it take for the spell to start working? Can you cast it while walking?"

"Uh, maybe a minute? T-two minutes at most for me to finish the incantation. The spell takes effect immediately after I finish casting it. As for casting it while walking? I guess I can do that, though I need to be really concentrating in order to perform it. But I'm a good multitasker. I can do two things or more at the same time. So I'm sure it won't be a huge problem for me."

"Good." I nodded in approval before getting to the point. "Willow, I need you to do the spell while we walk towards that clearing," I pointed to where I left Spike an Angel earlier. I could distinctly hear the sounds of a fight coming from that direction. "I'm hoping once we get there you'd be done so you can immediately cast. If not, then at least you've already started and I'll join in the battle and help Spike and Angel. Can you do this, Will?"

She hesitated for a minute, which scared me into thinking that she wasn't as up for this as I had thought. But with a shake of her head Willow donned her infamous resolve face and all my worries evaporated.

"I'll do what you need me to do, Buffy." I smiled at my friend, who returned it before whirling to walk quickly towards the sounds of battle.

As we got closer I could clearly hear the pained screams of the vampires my companions were fighting. It gave me hope that they were both still alive. I could also hear Willow chanting some foreign language that was Greek to me, and may have actually been Greek. Anyway, it signified that she was already doing what I'd asked of her. When we arrived at the battle, I was terrified and surprised at what I saw. Out of the thirteen vampires that'd been there when I left earlier, only seven remained. Unfortunately, that number still included the now obviously injured vampire leader. Angel and Spike had practically leveled his army, and it was frightening to watch them going about it.

Both vampires were vamped out and were brutally fighting against the remnants of the army. Angel was using his fangs to tear into the flesh of an enemy's limb, while Spike was using his bare hands to rip off another's head. Both of them were covered in blood and I had a suspicion that most of it were not their own.

What was worse was that my body was screaming at me to join them in their massacre. It wanted to do everything I was seeing and so much more.

FIGHT! HURT! SLAY!

I was craving the kill. The Slayer in me wanted out. It wanted to dust all of its vampire enemies then turn on those I called friend and see what they'd do when faced with a real opponent, their predator.

I was shaking, trying to hold back my instincts and what it was demanding that I should do. It was Willow's horrified gasp that brought me back to reality. She looked frightened and it allowed me to squash those urges and pack them away. I put my hand on her shoulder and wordlessly urged her to continue the spell. I still held my stake but I felt better now that I had full control of myself again. But it was around that same time, when I was feeling back to my normal self again, that something happened to force me into the fray.

Angel had suddenly shifted back into his human face and turned in my direction, locking gazes with me. I saw the terror on his face as he realized just what I had witnessed. He tried to call my name but was cut off as one of his enemies used his distraction as an opportunity to strike. The enemy vamp pulled out a long, thin knife that he'd been hiding somewhere in his persons and brought it down swiftly into Angel's back. My boyfriend fell to his knees and screamed in pain.

"Angel!" I cried and hurriedly ran to his direction, forgetting all the horror and disgust I'd felt at what I'd seen.

When the vampire that had stabbed Angel produced a stake, I ran faster and hurriedly dusted another vamp who tried to intercept me. I saw the vampire raised his stake, readying to plunge it into my boyfriend's back. I knew that I wasn't gonna make it. I was too far away and Angel was still hunched over, not yet recovered from the pain of the knife wound, and was blind to the attack.

"Angel!" I called out, desperate and hopeful that he would at least try to notice and defend himself from the attack.

Then swoosh! Dust...

My eyes widened as the vampire the was about to kill Angel turned to ashes in front of me. Two stakes dropped from where he stood, one from his hand and the other was from his heart. Through the dust cloud I could see Spike a few yards away with his arm raised. He'd been the one to throw the stake. He gave me a slight nod and pointed to Angel, letting me know to take care of him. Spike returned to the offensive before I had time to nod back. I finished my approach and crouched down at Angel's fallen form.

"Angel," I said, wincing as I inspected the blood seeping from his wounds.

"Buffy…I…I'm sorry. Earlier tha-" he tried to apologize but I cut him off. This wasn't the time or the place to talk about what I'd seen.

"Not now, Angel. You're hurt and we need to get you out of here," I told him in my no-funny-business voice.

Pulling him up I helped him wrap his arm around my shoulder. We were walking slowly away when I was kicked from behind and was sent sprawling on the ground, Angel landing mostly on top of me. Looking behind me I saw that it was the vampire leader who'd had attacked me. As gently as I could I moved Angel off me before climbing back to my feet to face the asshole who'd ruined my night.

"Well, well, well, it looks like the Slayer came back for her pets," he said. "And here I thought they were expendable nothings to the great Slayer who defeated The Master."

"Nah, these two are worth far more than all of your minions combined, even with you as the bonus prize in the bottom of the box of crackerjacks. I just left to get some extra help because I was expecting more from your group. Turns out I was wrong and all I needed were just these two to take care of you and your super-powered up selves. I'd call that pathetic but what else should I expect from a Rambo reject," I said with a smirk. I was happy that I'd been able to use Xander's nickname for this guy.

Wanna-be-Rambo looked angry and I couldn't blame him, I did just insult him and his friends.

"Bitch!" he snarled as he ran to attack me.

I easily avoided him by side stepping and followed it with a spinning kick to the back.

"Just a little revenge for the earlier knockdown," I told him.

He stumbled but immediately recovered and once again came at to me in a blind fury. He delivered several powerful punches that bruised the arm I was using to shield my face. I tried to counter, but my hits weren't affecting him like they had my previous opponents.

He was way tough. One of his punches connected with my sternum and my heart skipped a beat as I was thrown across the grass. This power boost really was doing a good job of making the guy unkillable.

He strode toward me while I was still swaying on my feet and cringing from the pain of his previous attack. He laughed at my injures.

"As I said earlier Slayer, only God can save you now!" he howled and launched himself to bite me in my neck.

But had stopped him before he could even get close to break my skin. I had my hands on his shoulders before grabbing hold of his shirt and throwing him to the side. He landed on one of the headstones and shakily got up on his feet. I placed my hands on my hips and looked at the vampire with a victorious grin. "And as my blonde vampire companion said earlier: God's not the only one capable of making miracles! Willow!" I called out to my friend as the last part of her chant got louder and echoed through the cemetery.

"God of the Sun, I beseech thee! Plein Luminosus!"

At her final words the crystal she was carrying started to glow. The light quickly blossomed into miniature sun that blasted through the cemetery, hitting everyone in the area. It took a while for the light to fade and for me to readjust to the darkness of the night. Once I could see again I quickly surveyed my surroundings. The spell had been a great success. All the vampires were dusted. Every single one of-

My eyes widened and my stomach flip flopped in morbid realization!

Spike! Angel!

I had forgotten to warn them about the spell. They had dusted along with the others. It was an inglorious end when all they'd done was fight by my side.

"Buffy!" I heard Willow calling me excitedly. "We did it! We defeated those ugly vampires. We save the world aga…Buffy? What's wrong?" She came to a stop in front of me and I could barely see her worried expression.

Huh, I hadn't even noticed that I was crying.

"Buffy, are you hurt? What's wrong? Please tell me: how can I help?" There was panic in her voice, but I couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"Will…Angel and Sp…pike," was all I can get out through my sobs.

I saw the realization dawn on my friend's features. "Oh, Buffy. I'm so sorry," she said as tears gathered in her eyes as well.

I cried harder as she gathered me into a hug. I was feeling guilt, grief and regret all at the same time. My insides were burning with it all. The guilt from forgetting that Angel and Spike were just as vulnerable to sunlight as the other vampires was going to eat me alive. They'd both just seemed like so much more. I'd lost my boyfriend and while I'd barely met Spike he'd already made a such deep impression on me and I felt his loss just as acutely as Angel's. The regret from not finding out what the future would be like with them in it was more that I could bare.

My mind blanked as pain swamped it. I clutched at Willow so I wouldn't fall apart.

"I've heard about tears of joy, but this is just ridiculous. You two ladies look like someone just ran over your puppy," a very familiar British accent remarked from behind us.

Willow and I scrambled around to see who it was.

My mouth hung open at seeing the familiar bleached haired vampire. He was injured and as missing his black leather coat but otherwise looked unharmed by the spell.

"Spike!" Willow and I hollered. We threw ourselves at him, hugging him fiercely.

"Ugh! Easy on the goods there, ladies. 'M a bit sore from the fight and the spell," he said as he gently urged us to let go.

Willow immediately released him but I was a bit more reluctant. I stepped back but kept my hand lightly holding onto the fabric of his red shirt.

He's real, he's alive.

Distantly, I remembered there was another vampire that I should be concerned about.

"What about Angel?" I asked, hopeful that he was alive too.

"He's over there, pet, underneath my coat." Spike pointing at a large lump of fabric a few feet away from us, right beside a headstone.

So that's why I hadn't seen them.

We approached the lump and I slowly raised the leather that protected him to assess the damage to his body. It was bad. He was still bleeding profusely the knife wound and was now burned anywhere that hadn't been completely covered when the spell had gone off. He was unconscious, possibly from pain. But no matter how bad he looked, I couldn't help but be happy that he was still alive.

"Bastard would've died had I not thought of covering him with my coat. Seriously, you lot made a sunlight spell but somehow failed to inform the members of your team that would find it deadly? That's a hell of an oversite," Spike scolded us. "Had I not been here, Angelus would've been nothing but dust in the wind. The wanker required more saving tonight than any damsel in distress I've ever had the pleasure of rescuing. God, Great Grandmum really owes me a lot for tonight," he ranted as he pulled his coat from Angel's still form.

As I further inspected Angel and listened to Spike's rather valid complaints, I found that I had a few questions of my own.

"How are you still alive?" Willow asked, right as I was about to say the same thing.

I looked up at Spike, who was taking out a cigarette from his coat pocket, and waited for him to answer. He adjusted his shirt's left sleeve and revealed a tattoo of a stylized sun with a star in its center. "This is an archaic helio-protection symbol that was magically painted on us by a witch coven in Transylvania after we rescued them from Dracula. The symbol temporarily protects us from the sun's harmful rays."

"You can walk under the Sun?" I asked, stunned.

"Dracula's real?" Willow said at the same time.

Spike chuckled. "Not for long periods but, yeah, we can get by the sun's dangerous rays if we have to," he answered me first, before turning to Willow. "And yes, Dracula is real. He's the idiot that babbled to the world about most of the weaknesses of vampires. And the mirror bit? That was his work too! And to top off, the wanker still owes me eleven quid!"

Well, that's just weird.

Angel's pain groan reminded us that there were more important matters at the moment than Dracula not being a myth.

"Angel…" I whispered, but he remained still. If it wasn't for the way his face was grimacing in pain, I would've thought he was still completely unconscious. I turned to my companions. "Can you guys help me carry him back to his apartment? There's blood there and some medical supplies there that'd be a big help."

Spike sighed before he handed his coat to Willow. He kneeled down and helped me pick up Angel. With the two of us carrying him, one of his arms strung over each of our shoulders, it was easy enough to move him. We started walking towards Angel's apartment, with Willow following closely behind.

This wasn't how I expected this night to end but I was happy all the same. We'd defeated the crazy strong vamps, no one was killed, and once again a lot of people had been saved. All in the day's work for a Slayer and her friends. I was pleased, and I wasn't going to ruin my good mood by thinking about how strange things had gotten recently for me, feelings wise. I was saving that for tomorrow, when I'd have a chance to talk to Giles about it. If he was doing better.

I glanced over at Spike.

Tomorrow. I promised myself.

(O.O)

Interlude

In an abandoned church on the outskirts of Sunnydale, a small group of vampires had nested. Their leader was livid from the reports her minions had delivered to her about what had happened to her beloved brother that night at the hands of the Slayer.

She screamed in frustration, throwing a table towards her cowering minions. "Are you telling me, that despite all the vampires I had ordered to accompany my brother, this Slayer was still able to defeat and kill him?!"

The minions shivered in fear, but answered nonetheless: "Yes, mistress."

She screamed again and hurled another piece of furniture across the nave of the dilapidated church. The rampage continued until there was no more furniture to destroy. Then she fell on her knees and began to sob: "Lucius, Lucius, my darling brother, I swear to you, she will pay. I swear with every fiber of my being she will pay!"

The vampire growled as her demon burst forth. Throwing her head back she roared her fury the night sky.

(O.O)