Chapter 17: The Hunt

*****England*****

Willow made it to Ethan just in time. Luckily, the slayer Susie didn't need her help as her injuries looked worse than they were.

Jackson was so relieved that he hugged Willow. "Thank you!" he said. Then he turned toward his lover, reaching for his hand.

"You're going to be okay," Jackson said to Ethan.

Ethan gave him a weak smile and closed his eyes.

Jackson panicked. "He passed out!" he exclaimed.

"No, he's just resting," Willow assured him.

Scott grinned. "So happy you could save him," he said. He held out his hand to her and pulled her in for a hug.

"I'm glad you're okay," Willow said. "I think the hunters are gunning for you now."

"It seems they want to take on slayers now, too," Giles said grimly.

"So what's the plan?" Willow asked.

"We're working on locating every hunter enclave globally right now," Giles said.

"Are you planning a coordinated attack?" Scott asked.

"Yes," Giles said nodding. "We hope to move on them within a week."

"Where do you need me and my friends?" Scott asked, willing to join them to end these attacks.

"We would be happy to have your help," Giles said. "We should have a plan formed by tomorrow."

Malia asked Scott, "Are we going to kill Monroe? I really want that bitch dead."

"You do? I got shot because of that whack job," Lydia said. "She's mine."

"It was my house she shot up," Scott reminded the girls.

"Well, I need to get back home," Willow said. "Let us know if there's anything stateside we can do to help."

"We will," Giles said, hugging her goodbye.

"Thanks," Scott said.

"My pleasure," Willow said.

"Are you leaving already?" Kennedy asked, a hopeful look in her eye.

"I have a job, and I don't want to be gone from little Will," she said.

"Who's that?" Kennedy asked.

"Oz's little boy," Willow said, her eyes lighting up. "He's the cutest thing." She pulled out her cell phone and showed Kennedy a picture of him grinning and waving his spoon from his highchair.

Kennedy's eyes darkened, but she forced a smile on her face. "Yes, he's very cute," she agreed. She grabbed Willow's hand and pulled her aside.

"Kennedy, I really don't have time to catch up," Willow said. "I left suddenly."

"I just wanted a minute, Will. Don't I deserve that?" Kennedy asked, giving her a beseeching smile.

Willow looked at her in resignation. She had cared a great deal about Kennedy—she still did. However, Kennedy was bossy and controlling. At first, Willow had liked how different she was to Tara, but after a few months, Kennedy's abrasiveness had started to grate. Her dislike for Buffy and disrespect for Xander had caused more than one fight. Willow decided she had enough, but Kennedy wasn't quick to let go. Willow had to move to another country to make her point clear.

"I don't really think I owe you anything, Ken. We dated for a while, but it didn't work out," Willow said. "I've moved on, so should you."

"Dated? Is that all we were to each other?" Kennedy asked.

"I care about you, Kennedy," Willow said. "I always will, but I was never in love with you."

Kennedy's eyes filled with tears. "You don't have to be cruel," Kennedy said.

"I'm not trying to be, but you are having too much trouble letting go," Willow said. "My life is in Beacon Hills with Oz now."

"You're back with Oz?" Kennedy asked in surprise. Of course, she shouldn't have been, not after the remarks from the Beacon Hill crew.

Willow shook her head. "No, but he needs me—so does his son. You never really needed me, Ken. I was just there. You liked being with Buffy's best friend more than you liked being with me."

"That's not true!" Kennedy insisted.

"Really?" Willow said. "What's my favorite food?" Kennedy didn't answer. "My favorite book?"

"You never told me those things!" she said.

"You never asked. You never asked because you didn't want to know," Willow said. "I need to go. Take care."

Willow turned away from her, transporting herself back home without the aid of a portal.

When she made back to Beacon Hills, she startled Buffy, who was now there with Derek.

"Give a girl a warning, Will!" Buffy said.

"Sorry," Willow said. Then she collapsed.

"Is she okay?" Derek asked, alarmed.

"Oh, she's fine," Dawn said. "She teleported without my blood, and now she'll be wiped out for a few hours."

Derek bent down and picked her off the floor.

Dawn grinned as Derek took Willow to her room.

"Damn, B," Faith said, watching Derek's backside in admiration as he headed to the room on the other side of the kitchen. "That may be the finest piece of ass I've ever laid eyes on."

"You better get those eyes off that ass because it's mine," Buffy said, glaring at her.

Dawn giggled. "He carried Willow like she weighed nothing," Dawn said.

"I can do that just as easily," Buffy said.

"Yes, but you're a freak and don't have those muscles," Dawn said with a sigh.

"Nor would you look that fine while doing it," Faith added with a grin.

"Okay, you two need to stop drooling over my boyfriend!" Buffy said.

"Well, point me to some other hot werewolves, and we'll leave yours alone!" Faith said with a smirk.

Buffy shoved her. "I can't believe you guys are here," she said. She was surprised to get the call that they were here, but it was so good to have them.

"I'm staying," Dawn said, giving her that mutinous expression.

"I'm glad," Buffy said, smiling. "Did you like your room?"

Dawn nodded. "This house is so huge! But not too big like our headquarters. It's perfect," she said happily.

"It's Derek's family home—he rebuilt it after hunters burned it to the ground," she said.

"Good for him," Faith said.

"How come he's not living here?" Dawn asked.

"It's too hard for him—most of his family died in the house fire," Buffy said.

Derek came out of the kitchen. "I rebuilt the house almost entirely, so no ghosts," he said with a wry smile. "Just too many memories for me."

"I'm sorry," Dawn said, giving him a sympathetic look.

"Thanks," Derek said.

"So how long are you going to stay, Faith?" Buffy asked her.

Faith shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Until Giles says I need to be somewhere else." Her phone rang. "Speaking of the devil."

"What's up G?" she asked.

Buffy watched her step away to talk to Giles as Derek sat back down next to her on the sofa.

"Do you want to start school tomorrow?" Buffy asked Dawn.

"I brought my transcripts," Dawn said. "I'm glad to be back in the States. England schools were just too weird."

"Schools, school," Faith said, hanging up. "G says there's a group of hunters in San Francisco."

"Really?" Derek asked.

"He wants us to do a targeted attack at all the locations we can find," Faith said. "We're going to send a message to them that they need to stop targeting werewolves who don't harm humans."

"I'll call my pack," Derek said.

"Don't you mean our pack?" Buffy said with a grin.

"Yes," he said, rolling his eyes. He pulled out his phone to call Liam.

*****Later That Evening*****

Dawn was excited to meet the rest of Derek's pack since she'd be going to school with them. "Is the banshee here? Giles told me you had a banshee," she said to Derek as the cars started to unload.

"No, Lydia's with Giles in London. She's doing the tour thing with Scott and Malia," Derek said. "My Uncle Peter is with him."

Theo got out of Liam's car and spotted the new teenager. The girl was stunning. "Who is that?" he asked Liam.

Liam didn't know, but he was about to find out. "Hi," he said. Then another woman he didn't know stepped onto the porch. His mouth went dry as the woman was even sexier.

"So these kids are your team?" Faith asked Derek, not impressed.

Mason could tell by the way the brunette moved that she was a slayer. He'd watched Miss Summers—Buffy—when she walked down the hallway at school. People just instinctively moved out of her way, not consciously realizing a predator was amongst them.

"Guys, this is Faith, Buffy's number two slayer," Derek said, pointing at the brunette.

"I knew it," Mason said to Corey.

"Are you a slayer?" Liam asked Dawn.

Dawn shook her head. "No, thank God," she said. "I'm Dawn."

"I'm Liam," Liam said, holding out his hand.

Dawn took it, smiling. He was cute. "Are you a wolf?" she asked.

Liam nodded. "I'm Scott's number two," he said.

"No, you're not," Derek said. "I'm here now, and that would be me."

Liam didn't miss a beat. "I'm Scott's number three," he said.

"When Stiles isn't in town," Derek said with a smirk.

"Okay, so I'm number four," Liam said, grinning.

"I'm Theo," Theo said. "I'm last."

Dawn giggled. "That's probably where I rank, too," she said. "Buffy's my sister."

Instinctively, Theo and Liam took a step back away from Dawn, causing Derek to look smug while Faith snickered.

"At least they're not stupid," Faith pointed out.

"That remains to be seen," Derek said. He looked at the boys. "Come on inside. We have news."

Another car pulled up. It was Parrish with Xander. Xander spotted Faith and grinned. "I thought I sensed trouble," he said.

"You know you missed me!" Faith exclaimed, pulling him in close for a hug. Then she looked at Parrish and whistled. "So who's the new hottie?"

"This is Jordan Parrish, a deputy and a hellhound," Xander said.

"No shit? A hellhound?" Faith said, looking him up and down. "He doesn't look like any dog I've ever seen."

"Because I'm not a dog," Parrish said, frowning at the new girl. She was beautiful, but he found the frank appraisal off-putting.

"He's more like what a phoenix would be if they were real," Xander explained.

"I thought you had deputy training?" Derek asked Xander.

"I do," Xander said. "Parrish managed to get me pulled for a twenty-four special assignment."

"The Sheriff did it," Jordan said when everyone looked at him.

"Are they all here?" Buffy asked, coming to the door. "Xander? I hadn't had a chance to miss you yet."

"Yes," Derek said, ushering them in. "Xander got a pass to join us."

"For once, I know people in high places who aren't going to turn into a giant snake and try to eat me," Xander said with a grin. Everyone who wasn't from Sunnydale thought he was joking.

"Mason, why weren't you at track practice?" Buffy asked. "I thought you were joining the track team?"

"Huh?" Mason asked.

"So you can work on your running away skills, remember?" Xander said with a grin.

The group laughed as they moved to settle around the living room. Introductions were made, including the two new slayers. "This is Neveah and Grace, two new slayers who will be joining the team here," Buffy said, introducing him to a tall willowy brunette, and a short, compact African American. Not all of the high schoolers had met them yet.

"Okay, so we're heading out at lunch tomorrow to move on a hunter house in San Francisco," Buffy said. "We've located a dozen hot spots that various slayer teams will be moving on around the world, including a big one in London."

"Any word on where Monroe is?" Liam asked.

"Willow says she has some family in San Francisco, so it's possible she might be there," Buffy said.

"What about school?" Mason asked.

"You and Corey are staying here because I need someone to keep an eye on Dawn," Buffy said, ignoring Dawn's protest. "She's trouble-prone."

"Not true!" Dawn protested.

When Faith, Willow, and Xander all gave her incredulous looks, she protested, "Hey, it's not me! It's Buffy's fault. She's the reason I have this supposed yummy mystical blood that vampires and demons want to drain, and I'm sister to the oldest slayer!"

"I can stay, too," Theo volunteered. "Those guys aren't much help in a fight."

"Good point," Buffy said.

Liam gave Theo a dirty look, annoyed he'd managed to figure out a way to get a jump on him with Dawn. However, he wanted to beat some hunters more than he wanted to flirt with the new girl.

Buffy outlined her plan of attack. "Oz with stay here with his son while Xander and Jordan drive around the perimeter and make sure none get away from us," she explained.

"Is Scott coming back?" Liam asked.

"He's working with slayers to hit the hunters in London," Derek said. "They tried to kill him already and nearly killed Ethan instead."

"Seriously?" Liam asked.

"Willow went over there and kept the wolfsbane from killing him," Derek said.

"How are we dealing with the hunters? Are we going to kill them?" Liam wondered.

"We are going to give them a beatdown," Buffy said. "If you have to kill to save a life, then do so, but our primary objective is to capture as many as we can. We're going to do some reconditioning."

The look in her eyes made the young wolfpack members wary—she was such a contradiction. Buffy was such a girl—even more than Lydia. However, she had a steel backbone, and the fire in her eyes right now revealed the predator that she kept tightly leashed. Liam couldn't help but wonder if he'd get a chance to see her unleash it.

*****London, the next day*****

Ed was pissed. They'd voted to attack the wolves and the slayers. This was a mistake, and he'd been yelling at his fellow hunters about it for the past ten minutes.

"This is not what I signed up for. I'm not about to take on the slayers. My cousin works for the Council as a maintenance man, and he has told me that the slayers mandate is to safeguard humanity," Ed said. "They've stopped the world from ending more than once."

"Then why are they consorting with weres?" Kyle, one of the team leaders, asked.

"Because werewolves are humans twenty-seven days a week," Ed said.

Before the argument could escalate, the door to the warehouse they were in crashed open and two dozen women came in. When the hunters picked up their guns to shoot, their bullets bounced off some invisible shield.

It took less than five minutes for the slayers to subdue them. Ed recognized McCall, the true alpha. An older man was walking next to him.

Giles address the group of hunters. "You are slaughtering innocent women and children in the name of safeguarding humanity. You are nothing but butchers, and you will cease your targeting now," he said.

"Who are you?" Ed asked.

"No werewolf is innocent—they're monsters," Kyle said.

"Monsters are a group who people who terrorize teenagers and leave babies orphaned," Giles said. "I am Rupert Giles, head of the Watcher's Council. Most of these girls here are my slayers. You have betrayed the hunter's code, and the Watchers Council will take you all in for judgement."

"I told them to stop, but they wouldn't listen," Ed said in disgust.

"You confounded your sins by attacking one of ours," Giles said. "Now you will face the consequences."

"Load them up," Scott said. They had zip tied all the hunters and threw them into one of their vans.

"What are you going to do with them?" Peter asked Giles.

"We're going to find the ones who can be reasoned with and do some mind wipes of the others," Giles said.

"Seriously?" Scott asked in surprise.

"They should die," Peter said.

"If we kill all of them, it would draw undue attention to us," Giles said. "I have three covens, who are going to work on making sure they never pick up arms against a werewolf again."

"You guys can do that?" Scott asked in surprise.

"We can," Giles said. The hunters would learn the hard way not to go after one of his girls.

Peter didn't like not getting to shed some blood, but he did like knowing they'd get their minds jacked with. He would wait and see if the mind-mojo held. If it didn't, then he'd have his revenge in blood. Somehow, he didn't think this Mr. Giles would even object all that much.

*****San Francisco******

Buffy led the team into a large house on the outskirts of town. The driveway was about a mile long, so they walked down it.

"Shouldn't we have waited until night?" Liam asked.

"No, I don't want their to be any mistakes due to lack of sight," Buffy said. "They could have families there. We'll never be like them."

They took up flanking positions. Xander and Parrish stayed at the end of the drive ready to catch anyone who made it out. The place was fenced in, so it was unlikely that anyone would manage to escape out the backside of the property.

Willow went in first behind Buffy, so she could neutralize any weapons.

These group of hunters were itching for a fight. When their bullets got them nowhere, they threw down their weapons and engaged in hand-to-hand with Buffy and the others.

Derek and Liam worked hard not to kill anyone, so they kept their claws leashed. Liam got hit once in the face when he was distracted by watching Buffy fight.

Buffy, though, just went for the knockout punch whenever she could, wasting very little energy trying to brawl with the human hunters. She didn't want to accidentally kill someone. Then her eyes locked on a familiar face.

"That's Monroe!" she called out to Derek, seeing the dark-skinned women trying to get out a side door.

"Will!" Buffy yelled, getting her attention and pointing. "Stop her."

Willow threw up her hand, immobilizing Monroe.

Liam couldn't believe it—they finally had Monroe.

*****To Be Continued*****