The Slayer of New Gotham

by magicmumu

Rumors of strange happenings brings Faith to a city called New Gotham, where she finds she's not just dealing with vampires. Birds of Prey TV crossover. Femslash warning.

2. Section 2

Faith

I sit next to Barbara at her Delphi system. She looks like she is in her zone at this oversized computer. She types in many different commands, then sets the programs to an automatic, so she says. "We have an errand to run. We need to get some parts in the Underground, and also, I need to get holy water and some garlic."

"The garlic doesn't do too much. You can just get the holy water."

"I know a woman from high school opened a shop Underground after the earthquake. She liked to practice witchcraft and all that. I used to think she was all talk when she spoke of once moving a pencil, but things have changed since I was 16, and with you here, I don't see why we can't check out her shop." Barbara says. "As far as I know she doesn't get much business, just enough to make a semi-decent living Underground. Mostly teenagers who have watched 'The Craft' too much buy from her store." I smile at that.

"Yeah, mostly kids who thought dark magic wasn't real, but looked cool usually bought from the Magic Shop, a store Giles owned." I say.

"So, that is where we are going. Is your jacket in the training room still?" I nod. "You go get it, then we will go."

"Okay, be right back." I walk back up the training room. It is then I notice how trashed it is because of Helena and my fight. I didn't notice the various weapons on the floor when I had left the room earlier. I pick up my coat, and then walk back out. Barbara has her coat on as well, and she points to the elevator. We both get in, and then my Slayer senses go off as we reach ground level. I look at Barbara, and she seems to fidget. "Are you alright?" She shakes her head.

"I'm scared, actually, but I do not know why. I fear for... someone, but I don't know who. Something big is about to happen, I can feel it." When we step out of the elevator, I see Barbara twitch out of the corner of my eye. This isn't right. What is going on with her? From what I have seen, Barbara Gordon isn't a twitchy person. We stroll along at a quickened pace. We travel at least 6 blocks before I see Barbara look up at a building with a sign that says 'No Man's Land Collectables'.

"What is this place?" I ask as we walk inside. The building looks brand new, and it even smells like fresh paint. I watch another customer look about the shop at various nick knacks.

"The entrance to the Underground is in here." Barbara whispers. There is a young man at the counter reading a comic book of the newest X-men series. He has light brown hair and green eyes. He's actually kind of cute, and reminds me too much of Xander. I guess everyone's got to have their own cute geek. This young man looks up at the two of us, his eyes switching from me to Barbara, then back at me.

"Ms. Gordon! Pleased to see you've made it to my corner of New Gotham. How can I help you?"

"Well," Barbara says casually, "I need one of those Scooby Doo Pez dispensers that I saw in here before vandals hit your store. I was looking for them all over the Internet. Even Ebay didn't have any of Scrappy Doo." she rambles. This man nods. "Sorry Gibson, I've been a little scatterbrained since my apartment was robbed. Anyway, I also need the newer keyboard you fixed for me last month." This makes Gibson's eyes shift quicker, as if unsure of me. He's not sure if he should say anything in fear of me finding out their odd little code. I already understand it, but only because I was told where we are headed before hand.

"Th- The new keyboard?" he asks. "But I thought you said you didn't want it yet."

"My computer is acting up lately, and I need that keyboard for my computer so I can continue my searches. Do you still have it?"

"O-Of course."

"Have you met Dinah's cousin, Faith? She wasn't expected to come visit her until next week, but there was a miscommunication, so she is here this week." Gibson smiles politely. "Dinah told her about the robbery." She says. I reach out and take his hand, shaking it.

"Nice to meet you." I say.

"Same. Come on, then. I think I left it in the back. Ma'am?" He calls out to the woman looking around. She looks up. "I am going to help these lovely ladies out, then I will be out here in a second to assist you if you need it. It should only take a second." Gibson smiles at her and she nods in her understanding. We enter the back room, which for the most part looks like a normal storage room filled with various items for the shop. In the far back is a small door, which has a box in front of it. Gibson easily moves the box and opens the door, and then turns to look at us. "Be careful down there. We both know how dangerous some parts are." he warns. Barbara nods and pats his arm.

"Thank you Gibson. We will find a different way back, but this way is the quickest-"

"No need to explain. I know you ladies do the odd things you do for a good reason. I trust you're up to something, and I bet we'll have you to thank for saving our butts once again." he says. He steps out if the way and allows us to walk into the small elevator. Oh crap. I hate the Underground. Gibson turns to leave and return to his other costumer in the store, and I see his back before the door closes.

"Dinah told me of your claustrophobia in elevators. I'm surprised that you were so calm in the one in the Clocktower."

"Unlike some people." I say.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You weren't very calm in there, and I was worried about you. I guess I didn't think of my own fears." She doesn't say anything for a moment, then she shifts the topic to me again.

"If you are feeling so uncomfortable, take my hand and give it a squeeze." she says simply, as if that isn't a childlike thing to do. I don't say to her that I am no longer 4, and that she isn't my mother, but when the elevator starts to move, I grab on to her hand, shutting my eyes. It is mostly when the elevator descends that I feel scared. It feels like the walls slowly shrink in towards me while the floor stretches away from me.

"Lemme know if I squeeze too tightly."

"You're doing just fine." she soothes. The elevator stops just a moment later and I let go of her hand. "Are you okay now?" she asks as soon as I am out of the elevator. I nod, but wonder the same for her, since I know I should have crushed her hand, but she didn't seem phased by it. I feel the familiar triangle of vampires near by, but as soon as I take a couple of steps it is gone completely, like shutting myself into a soundproof room while Mardi Gras continues outside my door. This isn't good. Or perhaps...

"Yeah. I think there is a protection spell around here."

"That would be Linda's work. She said she wanted to help Batman protect the city with the biggest protection spell in the history of witches. I guess she never found it."

"Who's Batman?" Barbara sighs.

"It's a long story, Faith."

"Does it end happily ever after?"

"I'd assume you would know the answer to that."

"No story really ends that way." I say.

"Rarely. If we have time later, I will tell you more about him." 'If we have time later.' 'If you stay longer than a couple of nights...' Barbara takes out a flashlight as if nothing happened in the elevator and starts moving. There is a small light coming from a small torch where a streetlamp used to be. We move towards it, and are in the main street.

"North Field Boulevard..." I murmur, reading the just barely visible sign. We travel down this darkened street, lit with torches along the way like streetlamps, even though it is the middle of the day. In a little bit though, it will be night here, and something tells me all Hell will break loose tonight. We see a large B, and it appears to be a small part of the sign.

"That was the Gotham City bank. Always had to repair that place because it was robbed every other month or so." I feel eyes on me and search the building. Behind the large B is a smaller figure, more feminine than the usual sense of man. I look around, but I do not see anything. We walk up the street some more, and see a shop with the sign 'Madam Linda's Shop for the Mysterious' above it, not much different from Gibson's shop. "Only Linda..." Barbara mutters with fondness. She must have been a pretty good friend to this Linda, even though she didn't believe in her hobby then. Crossing the street, I feel a familiar presence, and for a second, I feel as if I am back in Sunnydale. A small bell sounds to announce our arrival. Sitting at the counter, actually ON it, is a woman with long blonde hair, which is pulled back in a long ponytail. I stop in my tracks. She looks up at us, but doesn't seem surprised to see me here. She has a look on her face that says she wouldn't even care if she were told she won all the money on the planet.

"Wow, what has the wicked slayer from the West coming into my humble little shop?" She doesn't acknowledge Barbara.

"Anya? You're- I thought you died."

"Yeah, dead as a door handle... or some weird human phrase I've already forgotten and don't ever care to repeat anyway." she says dryly.

"So... what happened?"

"When I got to Morrow, the demon version of Limbo, I asked Chicnerache (Sheek-nurr-ack) a couple of simple questions, and he got mad at me. He sent me back here for eternity as an immortal with no powers so that he wouldn't have to deal with me again." I let out a whoop of laughter.

"Ha! Only you would piss off the demon St. Peter!" I say. "Seriously, Ahn, I am glad to see you again. Xander and Freak Boy were in a large slump when I left."

"I miss Andrew. He was weird, but nice."

"I have the number to Buffy's house in Chicago. I can probably get a hold of him for you and tell him to give you a call." Anya shrugs.

"I don't know if I want to go back to that life. I like living in this shop, even if it does get lonely here."

"Where is Madam Linda?" I ask her. "We need to talk to her."

"She's dead." For the first time since we got here, Barbara speaks up.

"Dead?" Anya looks at her.

"Yeah, as in doesn't see anymore because the cemetery guys sewed her eyes shut before locking her in that damned casket." she snaps. She looks down at the counter and hides her tears.

"H-How?" Barbara asks. Anya wipes her eyes.

"She told me that she was getting sick from the asbestos in this old building, but I think it was something else. She knew she was going to die. When I first got here, I found this shop when I sensed the protection spell. She let me work here even though this place doesn't get too much business. She told me that she knew I was a demon from the start, but knew I was no harm to her demonically. She asked me to care for the shop for her, since she said she was thinking about going to see her brother, Chad. I thought she meant she was leaving for like a week for a vacation, but the next morning she was gone. She died in the night. I found out that Chad was her brother that had died when this city was called 'Just Gotham City'. I think it was all the potions and spells she cast over the years that had eventually killed her. She wasn't a real witch like Willow or Tara, and I think the magic must have been taken from her body energy."

"She once mentioned that she wanted to cast her own spells, but knew she didn't have her own magic. She says there is a spell she once found that allowed her to turn the energy within her, but needed a 'real witch' to cast the spell upon her." Barbara tells us in a soft slow tone. "I guess she found her 'real witch'." She says darkly. There is a couple of moments of silence.

"So..." Anya wipes her eyes again, then looks up at me. "Did you some here for a chitchat, or do I get to take her money now?" I didn't think Anya knew enough about human emotions to be able to hide them behind a subject change or a humorous (or what I think it is supposed to be a humorous) remark. This makes Anya seem more human than before, when she didn't understand what it meant to be polite or coy or anything over the surface of what it really was that she was feeling. She still has the attitude that we all have come to mostly ignore when talking to her, and she knows exactly what not to say at the wrong time, but she always tells the truth, or at least the truth according to her. I respect that about her.

"We need the usual vamp hunting stuff. Well, I made stakes while she was on the computer, but we need holy water, axes... 3 of them, Helena and Dinah will need one... and three crosses." Anya looks about the shop and stares at Barbara while she gets the order together.

"Okay..." Her eyes are light at the business she's getting. "She a Slayer?"

"No, she fights something that already lives here."

"Oh, those empowered people who like to slowly kill themselves down here." Anya says.

"Yeah, them." I say, rolling my eyes a little.

"So, you forming your own little Scoobie gang here?"

"No. I won't be here long enough to form one." I say. "So, how much will all that cost?" I say, reaching into my backpack, but Barbara had slapped down $500 on the counter.

"It doesn't matter. Keep the change." She says. Anya comes back with the things we ordered, and then leans against the counter.

"Thanks." she says. She puts it all in a box that she had found, then places the money in a drawer. "Faith?" She asks as I move towards the box, getting ready to lift it up. "I-" I look at her, watching her. "I missed you. You are a lot like me. I mean, you're not a demon, but you weren't really acknowledged by Buffy's gang too much when you came back. I was wondering if..."

"If...?"

"Will you come back and see me? Before you skip town? You know... to say goodbye?" She rolls her eyes as if what she is asking is too foolish for me to even consider. There was an insecurity in her voice as if she was sure I would say no, and that I would never want to see her again once I leave this shop. It is something I had planned to do anyway, but to have her ask me to makes me feel wanted.

"Of course, Ahn. I'll come see you before I go."

"It's a shame you're not going to stay. It would be nice to be a part of a team again."

"I work alone, Anya." I say in a low voice. I don't think Barbara hears me. "Eventually, I always end up working alone."

"I suppose. Just know that I will miss you, and if you run into Xander out there, tell him I miss them too." I nod, but I can't seem to move. It feels as if there is something else I am supposed to do, something is supposed to be said before I leave, but I can't seem to figure it out. "OH!" Anya says suddenly, looking at Barbara. She jumps off of the counter and walks to the other end of the shop, and then removes a book. She flips through the pages as if looking for something, then throws it behind her. She then reaches behind the place where the book had been. Then her hand emerges with a small silver box. She walks over to Barbara and opens the box, taking out a medallion. It is in the shape of a golden spiral, and on the spiral are small yellow jewels. Anya starts speaking in a language I have never heard before, only recognizing what could be a disfigured version of the Latin word for 'Health'. She put the medallion over Barbara's head, letting the jewels rest on her chest, and says, "Do not take this off." She says something else in (I think) Russian. Barbara seems to understand this time, and she frowns in though.

"Come on, Faith. We still have one more place to go." She grabs my jacket sleeve, and semi-urgently pulling me out of the shop. I shoot Anya a quick goodbye look before following behind the redhead. I look around to find the presence is gone. I am glad, because it creeped me out.

*Someone's POV*

"My sire, I have come baring good news." I say, kneeling to one knee as I bow to Him.

"Is it about the Slayer?" I sigh.

"Partly..."

"What is it?"

"I have finally found the perfect hiding place for the family. It is much more grand than this." This... This is a shoddy little apartment where the landlord let us live for free when we threatened his life. It stinks of vomit and the piss of some animal I do not care to identify, and there are cracks in the walls, the floors, and just about anywhere else.

"You better not be lying to me."

"I tell no lies, sire. I speak only truths, as I serve you and you alone."

"Look at me." I do as he says. He looks deep within me, and it almost hurts. I know all he sees is the truth and the love I hold there for my Cierra. "Very well, where is it then?"

"The Batcave." A hushed silence falls. "I bought a potion that will open its doors, but I know where it is now, and I shall open this space to you. If the rumors are true, it will be a part of Wayne Manor."

"You're saying that you've gotten your way into Wayne Manor?"

"Yes, Sire."

"Take us there. If you indeed have succeeded in fulfilling your task and finding our new home, you will be ceremoniously rewarded." The usual growl in his voice is gone, and He sounds pleased with me. I smile as I gaze at the dusty floorboards. The only thing that could ruin my moment of glory is if that potion I got doesn't work, but I will never know for sure if it does or not until I use it in front of them. "We will wait until Chase gets back from wherever that fool went, then we shall go. You will show us to our new home." I nod.

"Yes Sire."

Dinah

"This sucks." I mutter. I have been walking around doing nothing since before the sun had set on us. After what happened the night before, I am not too eager to roam these streets by myself. It is strange, though, that I feel I can patrol Underground Gotham on my own unarmed with the exception of my powers, yet here I am with a stake in my coat pocket, and I am scared to roam the streets I know, which are well lit compared to the Underground.

"Hey! Dinah!" I jump at the sound of my name. This isn't a very good street. It isn't very busy, and it is near the dark part of the city where I was attacked last night. I turn to see Tim Ross standing by the Laundromat, smoking a cigarette.

"Hi." I say slowly. Tim and I are not friends. In fact we only know each other because Tim is friends with Matt, and Matt and I are sort of friends. Other than that, if we didn't have classes together, we would not ever cross paths. I don't see why he would be talking to me. Then again, he was absent today. He might just want the homework or something.

"I was just wondering if you had the homework for 6th period." See? I'm right. Paranoid much, Dinah?

"Miss Carter handed out a worksheet for us to do." 'Which I still haven't even started. Bad Llama!' I scold myself.

"Shit," he hisses as he flicks his cigarette butt away angrily. "I really need that credit. You think you could give me the questions over the phone later? I'll be in your debt for life."

"I am busy now, but I will call you in the morning. Do you have a pen?" I ask. Tim searches his pockets, taking out a $5 dollar bill, 2 dimes, a penny, a lighter, his pack of cigarettes, his New Gotham High School ID card, and finally a Bic pen. He smiles sheepishly, then shoves everything back in their rightful places. He then motions that he'll write it on my hand for me. When he takes a step closer to me, I catch a whiff of the air and back away from him. I look him in the eyes and I can tell he knows that I know what he is. He put on his 'game face' as Faith had called it in her mind.

"I always knew you're an odd little bitch, runnin' around as if you owned the place, but you? One of those freaks? It was so obvious, yet I never saw it coming." He starts reaching towards me, ready to grab me, but I roughly swat his hands away before taking the stake out of my pocket. "You're no Slayer. That much I know. You'll never be fast enough to stake me." he says in a cocky manner.

"Maybe not," says a rough voice above us, "but I am." Helena jumps down from the roof 4 stories above us, landing smoothly and gracefully between us in a slight crouch. She slowly straightens up as Tim just stares. "This is the part where you run towards me screaming 'Grr, Argh!'." she says. "You, scary ugly vampire, me scared helpless little girl who can't do nothin' but scream and run." she grunts in a very Tarzan-like voice that almost makes me giggle. "Ring a bell there?"

"N-No!" Tim says in terror. He turns and runs for his afterlife.

"Oh...Kay..." Helena says, disappointment in her eyes and voice.

"I think he thought you were Faith." I tell her. Helena's lip curls a little in disgust at the thought of the other brunette.

"Faith," she snarls, "I'm nothing like her. She's just a bitchy little girl with a major attitude problem." I don't say anything. 'Hmm... sounds like a certain meta I know...' I think. I don't point out that they are almost too alike at times. Both of them lost so much, grew up too fast. I don't tell her that she, too, is that way, as a mask to hide what she truly is. "Work here's done, Dinah. Let's go home." I nod. Barbara and Faith would be back within the hour if they hadn't already made it back before us, then we can find out tomorrow what is going on and what we can all do together to stop it.

Helena and I walk back to the Clocktower, Helena mostly talking about how much she was looking forward to a fight with Tim Ross. After a while, I fall into my own thoughts. I wonder what it would be like to do this kind of thing night after night. To shove a stake in to the heart of something with the face of a human's. It just goes against everything Barbara has told us about how we do not kill. I feel as if I had killed someone today when I stabbed that vampire with that stake, or at least, I did until he turned to dust and I reminded myself that the face wasn't human, that the eyes shouldn't have been yellow like that. Would I always have that thought of regret for the first milli-second of staking them before they turn to dust? I wonder what it would be like to run into someone I used to know before they got turned. What if I have to continue to fight these vampires with (or without) Faith, and I have to go up against a vampire I used to know, used to love? What if I had to fight Gabby? Barbara? Helena? Gibson? Alfred? Even Faith herself?

"Dinah? D? What's wrong?" Helena had stopped sometime within the time I was thinking, and when I kept going she had grabbed my arms to snap me out of my thoughts. My head shifts slowly to look up at Helena, and I feel tears fall down my cheeks at a slightly faster rate. Helena doesn't wait for an answer. She gathers me carefully into her arms and holds me to her.

"Helena," I whisper, "I was just- I was j-just-" Why can't I talk?

"Shh..." she says quietly. "It's okay, Dinah. I'll protect you, I love you. I'll protect you." The words are heard, but just barely over my sobs. I feel safe within her arms. She holds me as an older sister would while I am still trying not to think of the horrible things my mind has come up with. "I'm here," Her hand rubs circles on my back before it strokes my hair, and I cry, dripping tears on her trench coat. "It's okay." When my hiccups subside, she still does not let go or back away from me. Only when I let go a couple of minutes later does she move at all.

"Thank you." I mew. I clear my throat. She stares at me, as if to silently wonder something, what I was thinking to make me break down like that, but she says nothing for a moment.

"Anytime." She whispers. She puts her arm on my shoulder as a way to comfort me further, and we continue to walk back to the Clocktower in silence except for the scuffle of our shoes.

Faith

The shop we go to next is called Bitz 'N' Pieces. The first thinking I see when we enter the shop is a mechanical woman who just stands there waving. 'Look, it's Andrew's girlfriend... well, if he wasn't gay.' I chuckle at my own lame mental joke, causing Barbara to turn and look at me with a raised eyebrow. I only wink at her in a slightly seductive way. She shakes her head and continues into the shop, approaching a woman with short and spiky orange/red hair. 'I thought it was funny.' I think with a small sigh.

"Barbara! Still working on that gadget of yours for your spine?" Barbara thinks it over as if she wants to say 'yes'. She instead shakes her head, looking at the woman.

"No. No, I've given up on that." I can tell it is a brand new decision. She wants to say something else, but doesn't.

"Well, what can I do for ya' then?" Barbara rambles off a short list of things she needs; the only words I understand are 'bit', 'square', 'parts', 'that thing' and 'plastic'. Other than that, all the rest was 'technobabble', as Dinah called it earlier. I actually like that phrase. The other woman (not to my surprise) understands everything, and has her things for her within 3-5 minutes of wondering around her store. When she gets them all, Barbara pays the woman, pats my shoulder blade, and wheels out the door. I look at the other woman in surprise, then follow the whir of the wheelchair.

"That was fast."

"Stacy's great. She already knows where all of the parts I normally use are. I think she memorized them because I might be her biggest customer." I smile at that.

"I can see that."

When we reach the Clocktower, I slowly walk into the elevator, and sigh. "Hey," Barbara says, causing me to open them again. "If you aren't up to the elevators again, there are stairs in the visible entrance. It is just blocked off to the general public." She sees my relief, and laughs, her emerald eyes twinkling. "I must warn you though, that it is a long climb."

"I can handle it. I need the exercise." Barbara takes out a small set of keys and takes one of the smaller ones off of the keychain. She hands it to me, and I take it from her after setting down the weapons from Anya's store.

"Alright. I guess I will see you at the top, then." I nod, then step out of the elevator, watching it close before I walk around the building to the main entrance. It was locked with a chain, and a small lock. I use the key to open it, and walk in. Right away, I see the stairs and start climbing them one by one. I wonder what Barbara's got up her sleeve, as I am sure she has quite a few things up there for these vamps. I know she's going to create some sort of gadget to help fight the vampires, but what could she make? She started to tell me something earlier when she made me a sandwich, but she never got around to 'telling me later' after I rested in the den and watched Sponge Bob Square Pants, allowing myself to be easily amused by the show.

"And what is up with Anya?" I wonder out loud, hearing my own voice slightly echo. What did Anya give to Barbara? Will it help? In what way? And what the Hellmouth did she SAY to Barbara? What language did she say the (what I'm guessing) spell in? When I get to the top, I open the door and see Dinah sitting on a chair in front of the Delphi, but she isn't looking at the screens. Her face is reddened from crying. I rush to her and kneel in front of her, ignoring Helena's hardened stare.

"Are you alright?" I ask, my voice worried. My hand rests on her knee for balance after I set the key on the desk next to her, and I look up into her face to see her response so I know if she is or isn't lying to me.

"She's fine." says Helena through clenched teeth. Barbara hit her lightly on her knee, the closest thing to her. Helena growls a little bit, but says nothing else.

"Dinah had some scary thoughts about vampires. She's afraid of running into one with a face she loves. She ran into a classmate tonight, but he ran away." I look up at Barbara as she speaks, then look back into Dinah's eyes. She seems to ask me something, and I know what her question is.

"Look, I am not gonna lie to you an' tell you shit like that don't happen, but Dinah, you have to keep in mind that who you knew isn't behind those yellow eyes and fangs. They are by then gone." I tell her.

"Do-too they eve-ever cross over?" She says between hiccups. "Like my mom got to, or Helena's mother?" Helena seems to go stiff at the mention of her mother.

"I would like to think so." I say to Dinah. "Vampires have no souls, meaning they left the body before it was turned. Now... Where did it go? I would like to think they cross over then." I say. In reality, I never really thought of it like that, only coming up with the explanation on the spot to help the younger girl get some peace of mind. I always thought that the person wasn't even a person anymore, so who cares if they cross over or not? Dinah seems to accept this answer and the logic behind it. I stand up, picking up the weapons by Barbara's side. I stretch my legs, then go put the supplies near where Barbara is building her do-hickey. When I look back at the trio, I feel my heart sink slightly. Helena's right, these three people are a family. They need each other and did fine without the likes of me. They are perfect, these three. Divided, they are alright. They can all certainly hold their own by themselves, but together, they are defeatable. I can tell that this Harley Quinn character did a number to them, but here they are now, stronger than ever.

Each woman has their own strenght to add. Helena is the muscle: strong, brave, quick. Barbara is the brain: logical, witty, clever and stubborn. Dinah is the heart: caring, young, free. Helena toughs it out, being and staying strong willed, Barbara directs the other two where to go and how to outsmart the bad guys, and Dinah is the almost innocent that remind them all exactly why they're fighting the long battle to begin with. It is an excellent team. One I don't belong in even if I had my own thing to bring to it. I would never be a part of a team like that again. If I am, though, lucky enough to find one, I am bringing Anya with me, and I will make her leave that shop in the almost hell hole of the Underground. I would do what I can to help her open a shop in a better city in like Florida or somewhere, where she can make tons more money, and I know she wouldn't say no to that. I know we all overlooked Anya most of the time like we had for Cordy, only really acknowledging her as Xander's girlfriend except for when we needed her knowledge of demonology, but other than that we just... tolerated her. Well, most of us. We didn't even mourn her death with Xander and Andrew. We just kept moving, and I feel badly for that. We just kept moving, finding more Slayers, trained them, then kept moving some more, heading as far away form what was left of Sunnydale as we can. That was the goal.

I look down at my shoes, not able to look at the sight much longer. I'll stick to that goal. Just keep moving. If I find another Slayer along the way, great, I will tell Willow about her. If not, I'll be the Slayer in that town or city for a night or two. I cough loudly, which gets Helena's attention. She's annoyed with me for interrupting their Kodak moment. "I'm gonna bounce. You guys try an' get some sleep. Dinah, try not to think about that alright? It will only drive you bonkers. I don't want to see a frown on that face of yours, or worse yet, more tears." I turn and enter the elevator, too tired to want to take the stairs again. It is as if I fought the longest battle with my brain again, and it mentally wore me out. I look down at the floor as the elevator doors close and I don't see or hear them anymore. I put my knuckle up to my mouth and bite down as I descend.

*Someone's POV*

It is almost 11:30. Where is Chase? I have been pacing the creaky floor while they (Eagle, Miranda, Kenneth, and Paw) sit on the floor and the moldy couch watching the news on a TV with shoddy reception. It's the best we can get down here. "Would Someone sit their ass down?! The pacing is driving me mad." Paw shouts at me.

"He's afraid He's not going to like his guano cave he found for us. It would surprise me not if He sliced your throat because he hates it. No mere mortal has what it takes to please Him." Miranda says with a slow smile. She is the only one here who still has her old name, since He found she didn't really fit into any name he had for her. She has as of late taken on the look of the mortal gothic teenagers, wearing black everything, white makeup, which doesn't make much of a difference to her complexion, and has chains and chokers all over her, making her look like the bitch she is.

"So why are YOU here, Murr-rand-duh?" I say, drawing out her name. "Did you get down on your knees and ... 'pledge your love for Him'?" I snap. Miranda understands my innuendo and insult. She jumps up and grabs me by my collar, pushing me against the wall.

"You asshole! I'm gonna-"

"Do what? Bite me? Kill me? I'm already dead, so go ahead and do it. I'm sure Master would love to come out here after making it with Wild Cat and see my corpse out here before I get a chance to show Him his new home, an event he's been waiting 6 months for."

"I'll hide the body." She growls, not responding to the second half of my remark.

"You're too lazy to, and even if you somehow bribed Eagle, Paw, Kenneth, or Chase to do it with your imaginary money, He knows my blood's scent. He will smell it on your breath." Miranda huffs, knowing that I'm right. She shoves me harder against the wall, then drops me purposefully on the floor. There I stay in silence, glaring at the pigs in font of me. It makes me wonder why I want to spend the rest of eternity with them as my family, but then I think of my Cierra. Dark beauty with almost blackened eyes, and hair just as so. The way my Nubian Queen looked at me or said my name in that African accent that hasn't left her blood after 10 years in America. I sigh as my heart aches for her, to see her, hold her. I do not know where my Master has her hidden, but I will see her again; that, he has promised me. I will see her again when I do what is asked of me. He has her hidden so she would not distract me. I'm sure the wait will only make my heart grow fonder. Even as a soulless, heartless being, I know I will fall for her time and time again, and I look forward to the moment I can tell her this.

I am shaken from my memories and thoughts by the sound of the door to our shithole slamming. Chase walks in with a large bag he got from the Gap, but inside is not clothes, as no clothing store is open this late. He sits on the floor at Kenneth's feet and starts to take out the bag's contents. Everyone in the room is silent, looking at the older vampire of almost 50 with interest. It is more interesting than what is on the boob tube. Chase takes out 4 jars of blood, two packs of cigarettes, a Penthouse magazine, and a box of Poptarts. He hands a jar of blood to everyone but me, then throws a pack of cigarettes at me, and another pack at Kenneth, and then he places the box of Poptarts in front of Paw. He then opens the Penthouse as if his gift giving isn't something out of the blue.

"What's this for?" Paw asks, opening his jar of blood. He sniffs at it, then moans in pleasure. "Meta blood. Still warm, too!"

"What blood?" Chase asks.

"Meta. Those freaks have a fancy name for what they are. They like to be called metahumans." Paw explains as he opens the Poptarts, then dips them in the blood. He's done this for the last 2 months since he was turned. He used to be named Brian Hampton, or something, but He named him Paw, because he turns into a bear, which is his freak power. He can still do it, but it is as if he's almost forgotten how to do it. Vamping out easier than shifting into a bear. He take a huge bite of his blood covered Poptart, and I look away, opening the pack of cigarettes before Chase realizes who he gave them to. I don't want him to forget I am not his family member yet, but he looks at me, placing his hands in his pockets.

"Does Someone need a light?" I nod not that I know he had actually meant to give me the cigs, and he searches his pocket, finally tossing a book of matches. He turns back to Paw. "Well, only the best for my family. I caught one today. Bit him good in the neck, and I felt gooooooood. I wanted to share it with you, since I know you are all hungry. The smokes, money, and Penthouse were on him when I killed the man, but I bought the Poptarts for you since you can't seem to stomach just blood yet. I think it is the 'meta' in you that says you can't, but as you forget how to turn to a bear, you seem more capable of digesting the blood. I was just looking out for ya's."

"Well, thank you." Kenneth says, snatching the matches out of my left hand after I lit my cigarette.

Chase looks at Miranda. "You get the mag after I jerk it. There's a few girls in here I know you'll get off on." he says.

"You don't have much to jerk, so I'll not be waiting long for it." she says, earning a howl of laughter from Kenneth. I know that about 10 years ago when she was bitten, Miranda was a shy mousy little girl, about 18 or 19, but she knows her way around a computer, which is why He has her. He knew that He would need someone like that in this new millennium, so he got Sunnydale High's computer geek at the time, though I know there are a few others better than her now. The reason Kenneth laughs so, is because Miranda has gotten better with innuendos because she didn't understand them before, but now she gives them as well as she receives, and that can be taken anyway you like. Chase only smiles, knowing that her statement is true (from what I've heard) and then laughs as well at the joke. He got up then.

"These are for Him an' Pumpkin." he says, setting the bag down next to Kenneth, whom he trusts the most in the family, being the second oldest member of the family. He was bitten not long after Chase was. "Give it to them as soon as they get out here. You know how He gets after rough sex." He says, closing the bathroom door.

"And for God's sake, clean up after yourself, man! I almost slipped last time!" Paw whines after him. All that is heard from Chase is laughter. I light up my second cigarette, feeling all stress leave my body along with the smoke that I exhale. "Those are bad for you, man." Paw says to me.

"Fuck off, Furball." I say, taking a drag.

"I'm just sayin'-"

"Eat your fuckin' Poptarts before I-"

"Aw, Someone leave him alone." Kenneth says, and I stay quiet, not finishing my sentence. I watch as the credits for the news is shown, and the late night line up is on the screen. Some late night TV talk show comes on after that.

"Awww..." Miranda complains. "I've seen this one! There ain't any hot chicks in it either." She flips the channels that have semi better reception with her feet, and settles on some sci-fi show called Andromeda, and drools over a character named Rebecca. The door to His room opens, and the last two of the family walk out.

"Turn that off!" He barks. Miranda watches the screen until Rebecca is no longer seen, then taps the switch with her large toe, which makes the screen go black. He grabs Wild Cat's hand and turns to Paw. "Chase back yet?"

"Yes, Sire. He's in the bathroom."

"At least he does that nonsense in private." He mutters dryly.

"He brought us all freak blood." Miranda speaks up. He smiles fondly at Miranda, His only daughter. Then He picks up the first jar he sees, handing it to Wild Cat. Then he gets his own. Their jars are nearly twice as large as the rest, but no one cares about this fact. While He feeds on the blood with the same murmurs of 'still warm' that Paw had given earlier, Chase emerges from the bathroom, tossing the Penthouse at Miranda.

"Page 31 is a sight to be seen." He mutters as he passes her. She takes a peak, then closes the magazine, clearly aroused. "Told ya."

"Thank you, my childe for the nourishment. I feel stronger already. As you know, Someone's been looking for our new home. He found it, or so he says." He looks at me.

"I have, sire-" I protest.

"SILENCE!!" I shut up immediately with a broody look upon my face. Miranda snickers.

"When are we going to go?" Chase asks after a moment of silence.

"As soon as Wild Cat and I are finished feeding, we will go."

We leave at midnight, exactly. He gets impatient after a mile and a half of walking, accusing me at first of leading Him astray, on a wild goose chase. "My Love, calm yourself. We haven't been on this street, so how can he lead you in circles? I think Someone knows where he is going, you just need to be patient." Wild Cat soothes.

"I am just ready to see this Batcave that the people down her talk so much about."

"I am too, Love. I am too. I saw a sign for Wayne Boulevard a couple of blocks past. I think we are almost there. Right, Maggot?"

"Almost." I say. I clutch the small bottle of potion in my pocket, stroking it lovingly with my fingers. Then, ten minutes later, we are there at the wall Jimmy had shown me to earlier today. I take out the potion, and hold it high above my head for the family to see. "Stand back. I bought the strongest potion she had." They all take a step back, though a couple of them laugh as if this is a big joke they are in on that I am playing on Him. I frown at them, then throw the potion at the wall, holding my breath.

It works! I can't believe it works! The wall has opened without a sound, then after everyone walks inside, it closes again. "Miranda!" He barks when the alarms sound, but she is already at the computers typing commands into it. Soon, the alarms are off. The room is quiet as He looks around. There is a large whirring sound, and the round shape on the floor opens up, and we all move back. Slowly, we see what was underneath us. The Batmobile! So it isn't a myth. I look up at Him, who is staring at me, and he's... Yes, I'm not going mad. He is smiling. He looks about again, then climbs the stairs near the computers where Miranda plays around, and turns on a switch. It turns off some sort of hologram that seemed to be more of the wall, but I notice that it is a door. He walks over and opens the door, and there are stairs... leading up... into Wayne Manor. "So, you really have found the Batcave, and Wayne Manor is right above us. the myths and rumors of Bruce Wayne being Batman aren't false." He is silent for a few seconds, and I am almost fidgety under his stare. "This is perfect for our family. I owe you what I promised. Kenneth! Paw! Call all your friends. I am throwing a party, and make sure that Cierra Chembia is invited!"

Dinah

I feel badly. Not only does my head hurt, but my heart does, too. I saw the look on Faith's face when she left on the elevator. She doesn't look 22 when she wants to cry. She looks 12. I wanted to go to her and hug her, but I was in Helena's arms then like I always dreamed to be, and I let my selfishness take over me. "As much as I hate to say it, Faith is right, damn her." Helena says, getting up slowly. I nod. I still have to go to school tomorrow. School is almost over in a couple of months, and I don't want to end it badly. As if to read my mind, Helena adds, "If you're late for class, Miss Allen might get the weird idea that you want to stay with her over the summer." Barbara, who had gone to the balcony only a moment before, comes back with a metal doohickey that looks like the disk that had unstablized Cam Henderson's powers. I don't ask what it is, or what it will be. I am tired, and I am ready to go to bed. Asking Barbara would have her talking, trying to explain it for at least an hour.

"Yeah," I yawn widely. "I'll see you to in the morning. Thank you," I look them both in the eyes. "For everything." I get weak smiles from the both of them. I walk up to my room and stare at the Lillix poster, then I settle into bed, not bothering to change out of my clothes and into pajamas.

{Faith is walking across the street and towards her hotel when she suddenly looks up and smells the air. Then she starts running. Down the street she goes, towards the middle school not more than 3 blocks away. She turns the corner of that street, and sees a vampire about to bite into a larger set woman's neck. The woman zaps the vampire with her hands and he let go. "Oooh, electrifying."

"So that's why it smells like a crematorium over here." Faith says, causing the vampire to turn and look at her. The woman, smart lass, takes this distraction and uses it to run for her life. The vampire runs after her and has Faith hot on his trail. The vampire, a tall man of maybe 25 years of age before he died, catches up to the frightened metahuman. She screams. Faith tries to reach them in time, but a knife enters the woman's stomach. Faith sees she is still alive, but her eyes are wide as she slumps to the ground.

"I've been looking for you, Slayer."

"Hmm. What a coincidence. You found me." Faith takes out her stake and tries to stick it into the vampire, but she underestimates the vampire, who blocks and dodges all her 5 attempts. "Oh, you're one of those guys who knew Martial Arts before they died. How annoying." Faith says. "Show me what you've got."

"Gladly." The vampire and Faith fight, and no one seems to win or lose either way. A blast of electricity hits Faith in the back, and she falls.

"Oh my God!! I meant to get hi-" The meta stops talking and screams when the vampire advances on her.

"Thanks for your help." he says before he grabs the woman and bites into her neck-}

"Dinah! Dinah. DINAH!!" I look up at the voice's direction, then sit up. Helena is at the foot of my bed.

"Helena! We've got to go find Faith."

"You're right, 'we've got to find Faith'. People or vampires or whatever have just found their way into the Batcave!" This makes me jump out of bed.

"What?!" How?!" I screech.

"We don't know, but I'm thinking Faith'll know." I follow Helena out of my room and next to Barbara, who has tools and lots of metal everywhere, but she is ignoring it now. She is now typing like mad at the Delphi. I look up at the screens and see 6 or 7 vampires at the Batcave's main computer turning off the alarms, or at least the flashing lights around them. It is then that I notice that there is movement on the screens, but no sound. I can tell that Barbara is trying to get in to the Batcave's main systems, but the female vampire had gotten to it first and has done something to keep Barbara out of it.

"Do you have an alarm here for the Batcave? It seems no one would have known that the Batcave is being in..." I have a hard time saying the word as memories flash in my mind of Harley Quinn. "...vaded." I say.

"I did have an alarm before the Clocktower... before that, and in the middle of getting it repaired again, it must have slipped my mind to have it put back in place." she says, looking ashamed.

"It's okay, Barbara. We'll get through this."

"I know we will." Helena says. Then a thought hits me.

"We have to get to Faith. Oh god! How could I have forgotten? I-I had a dream about her, one of the real ones, and she is in trouble now." I run towards the elevator, and Helena runs after me.

"Bring her back here." Barbara orders as if I would do anything else. "I will see what I can do to help her Slayer healing- if she's still alive."

"Don't say things like that, Barbara." I say as horror creeps into my voice. With that, the elevator closes. I tap my foot impatiently as it does down.

"I may not like Faith, but I don't want to see her dead." Helena says.

"She's not dead." I say, more as a way to convince myself than Helena. "She- My dream didn't end right when she had fallen, and since the dream was about her, I would have to think she isn't dead, or it would have just been abrupt." I say, but I don't even believe my own lie. As soon as the elevator stops and opens the door, I turn on my comms., then take the path Faith had in my dream. I see her on the ground and go to my knees. I look at her and then around to find that the body of the woman is there. Not only did that vampire suck her dry, he'd also snapped her neck. I am surprised that both bodies are there and that Faith wasn't killed when the vampire had the chance to. I am surprised that the vampire didn't take her body to his sire or whatever and show off that he'd wounded and possibly killed a Slayer, a goal for most vamps from what I saw in Faith's mind.

Before I can check for anything, Helena says, "She's still alive. I can hear three pulses." I lean in and check anyway, and she is right. I sigh a big sigh of relief. We (okay Helena) carry Faith back to the Clocktower. As soon as Helena places Faith on the floor, Barbara crawls out of her wheelchair, and a medallion I didn't notice earlier (as it must have been in her shirt the whole time) peeks out. She takes it off and places it on Faith's chest cavity. The spiral on the medallion has jewels on it, and they one by one begin to glow, slowly moving towards the middle of the spiral. When all of the jewels lit up, Faith squinted, as if waking up to someone rudely turning on the light after being in darkness for so long.

"Am... I dead?" I hear Faith ask. I look at her, but before anyone can answer, she slowly shakes her head. "No... Barbara. I see... Barbara." Her eyes widen and she sits up quickly. "Wait, Barbara's not dead, is she-?" Barbara places a firm hand over the medallion, and pushes Faith back down.

"No, Faith. I'm not dead. Calm down."

"But- But you're glowing." she says.

"You're glowing." Barbara counters. Faith looks down and sees the medallion. She attempts to sit up, but slowly this time. Barbara allows her to.

"The... the woman is she-"

"He killed her."

"I couldn't save her."

"No, I guess you couldn't, but you tried, and I bet you would have won if she didn't get you with her energy blast thingy." I say. Faith shakes her head and lowers them to her knees.

"Helena, Dinah, go to Wayne Manor and try to find a way in. Take the crosses and axes on the table. You've already got the stakes."

"Vampires?" Faith asks. "I'm in. I've got unfinished business." She stands up and grabs the axes and bottles of water, passing them to us.

"You should rest, Faith." Barbara says halfheartedly, as if she knows that she isn't going to win anything.

"Look, I want to help you. You just saved my life." Faith walks back to Barbara and picks her up, then places her back in her chair. Barbara wasn't expecting that, and she jumped, as if a static electric shock went from Faith to her. Maybe there is some left in her from that metahuman. Faith places a kiss on Barbara's forehead, and put the medallion on her neck where it was before. "Thank you for what you did."

"Anya said, 'do not take it off.' then she said, 'Let it heal.' I was thinking she meant me, but I let it heal you. I hope it fully healed you, Faith, because I know nothing I say will keep you here." Barbara turns to us, Helena and me. "If you need help, let me know immediately." We nod and the three of us take the elevator down. Faith leans against the back wall of the elevator and has her eyes closed. I smile. She seems better now, since she's taken the elevator 3 times at least today. Hopefully her claustrophobia will go away, and she will fear nothing.

Faith

We enter the Underground by stairs thankfully, since the entrance on Old Gotham Way is accessible by a ladderway hidden under a Dumpster. So that was how Dinah was able to throw that Dumpster with her mind. She's been doing that for a while. She must go to the Underground more than I thought, since she so far knows of 2 ways in and out. Apparently, Helena didn't know this fact, that Dinah knows her way around the Underground- "When all of this is said and done, you're talking. We're gonna have an extra long chitchat." She says in a low growl. Dinah doesn't say anything, but jumps down the darkened hole, while Helena motions for me to go first. I don't argue, and jump in, moving out of the way when I hear Helena jump as well. The fall isn't very long, and it surprises me that we don't have far to fall. I figure that it couldn't be a large fall, or Dinah would have gotten hurt. I look over to see she is fine, and she didn't even wait for us or look back to see if we landed safely. She already knows that we have, if she was able to so easily.

We walk a couple of blocks and end up at a dead end. "Here. This is right under Wayne Manor." Dinah says, not looking at Helena or myself. She looks instead at the wall that is supposed to be the Batcave wall. I cannot hear anything on the other side of the wall, but my Slayer senses are going hog-wild. I watch Dinah, as does Helena. She seems to know what the blonde is doing, but I m clueless, yet still I stay still and quiet. Then, a light blue orb emits from her left hand, and my eyes widen some. The orb grows slightly, and then when it is about the size of her and, she throws it at the wall. Nothing happens, but when I look closely, there is a small dent in it. Dinah looks a little dizzy, but she frowns. "Damn it."

"Shit!" I say, looking at the wall. I am not sure if I am more surprised that the wall didn't budge at this orb hitting it, or that Dinah even had an orb. I look at Dinah, whom is not good at hiding her disappointment.

"That was the strongest looking energy blast I have seen you do, D."

"It didn't work." Dinah pouts. Helena put a hand on her shoulder, and Dinah finally looks at her.

"It put a dent in the wall, look." Helena says. Dinah must not have seen it before then. She looks at it, then nods as if telling herself something, then mentally agreeing. She sits down and closes her eyes. She has her hands in front of her, fingers spread, and each hand is about 5 inches apart from the other. After a moment, the blue light appears between them. Then she just seems to hold it in one hand as it gets larger.

"Help me stand." She says through clenched teeth, and I know she was trying not to break concentration, and that it is hard for her to even say anything in her deep concentration. Helena picks her up, and Dinah stands. "Al... Alright. Count of three, both of you hit... wall and-" She stops talking, as she staggers a little bit. This energy blast is taking a lot out of her, and all I can think about is what Anya had said about Linda and how she might have really died. "One..."

"Dinah don't-" I start to walk to her, but Helena holds me back. I get out of her grip, but only after a hard struggle.

"Let her do this. We have to work together. If we hit the wall along with that energy blast, I think we will get through that wall, but I need you with me on this. Your Slayer Strength along with my meta abilities. Let her do this. I know she can. Come back and get ready to knock this motherfucker down!"

"Alright." I say reluctantly, standing beside Helena at the wall, poised and ready to give it my best shot.

"Two..." Dinah says. She is sweating now. She is shaking really badly. I fight the urge to snap her out of it, but Helena is watching me, coldly shaking her head, saying not to do it. "Three-"

"STAND BACK!!" I look up to see a small bottle in the air. I recognize it and push Helena out of the way. I'm not close enough for Dinah, but before I hit the ground, I see the energy blast leave her control and hit the wall at the same time the bottle of potion does, and the loudest boom in the history of the noise is heard, and the Underground shakes. I hear a bunch of murmurs of 'what the hell happened' and 'what's going on?'. When pieces of the wall stop falling, I stand up and hold out a hand for Helena to grab. She looks at it hesitantly, then grabs the offered hand. I pull her to her feet and we both look around.

"Dinah?!" We shout at the same time. We both look at each other, and smile slightly, though reluctantly. She still has a grudge on me for treading on her territory, and I still have a grudge on her for kicking my ass for almost no reason.

"Dinah?!" Helena calls again.

"We're over here!" I hear. I look through the debris and see Anya covering Dinah with her own body. I see a couple of red spots on her arms that I know are going to bruise later, and she has a few cuts on each arm and a blood stain on her back from the wall debris hitting her.

"That'll bruise." She says as if to read my mind.

"Thank you... whoever you are, for saving Dinah."

"Anya, how did you find us?" I ask.

"Your redhead called me. Said she couldn't get through a door and needed something to open one. I figured she was talking about the same thing that man had wanted earlier, so I took his leftover potion and came over." Anya gets up and pulls Dinah to her feet, but she is shaky. Helena grabs the girl and lets her lean on her.

Are you three alright? I heard a large boom, then there was a small earthquake up here. Oracle asks, concerned.

"We're all fine." Helena says. "I thought there were only 6 vampires."

There were before the security cameras shut off.

"There's a hellova lot more than that now!" I turn to look inside the hole Dinah and Anya have made. Inside about 40- 50 vampires stagger to their feet with the exception of a large vampire who held onto a dead body with one arm, and a smaller vampire male in the other, the larger vampire helping the smaller one keep his balance.

"Oh shit!!" I cry.

"We're gonna die. Well, you three are. I am immortal." Anya states. "I might make it through this if I don't get decapitated." Helena shoots her a hard look. "What?"

"Oracle, we're way outnumbered." Helena says. "Dinah's weak."

The vampires that have regained balance look at us before the large vampire yells "ORSHNECARR!", which I am going to guess means something along the lines of 'look at me', because that is what they all do, as do Helena, Dinah, Anya, and I. The large vampire holds the dead body over his head, then says, "Rise and meet your new life, a life you will live with Cierra. Rise now and claim your reward of eternal life." We all can only stare at this display, not sure what is going on. The man's eyes snap open, yellow and demonic. The vampire puts the newbie vampire down, and he instantly goes to his knees in a low bow, kissing the large vampire's feet.

"Thank you, Sire." The larger vampire motions for a dark skinned female vampire to emerge from the door. The only thing I can think is that she looks like she walked off the of Queen of the Damned. Behind her, I could just barely make out stairs. She walks up to the man as the large vampire tells the new vamp to stand. He takes the man and the woman vamp's hands and combines them, and the man looks into the yellow eyes of the woman.

"You're still warm." she says to him. A dark hand touches a light skinned cheek, and the new vampire's eyes close as if he wanted to live like that for the rest of his afterlife.

"From this day forth, you are no longer a mere mortal. You are apart of my family. You are no longer Edward Green, or even Someone. You are now Coyote. So tell me, Coyote, are you hungry?" At this everyone howls at him. The new vampire nods. He does not look up at the larger vampire.

"Yes, Sire. I'm starving."

"Then take your fill of a Slayer and two freaks."

"Oracle! We're in trouble." Dinah says in a small voice.

At the same time, Helena screeches "Freak?! Who are YOU calling a freak, Ugzilla!"

"Kill them. Bring me the Slayer. Do what you will with the FREAKS." Helena growls, eyes flashing.

"Over your dead bodies!" She yells, making me smile. That was a good one. Oracle says something to Helena and Dinah, but I cannot hear it over the sound of foot steps.

"You shouldn't have called her a freak..." Dinah shouts after Helena punches the first vampire to her.

"Helena!" I call. She pushes a vampire to the ground, then looks at me. "This city, this Batcave is yours. Take it back... Let me help you." Helena has a look of surprise as I rush towards her, kicking a vampire coming at her. I reach out my hand, and she shakes it in that weird warrior's way I saw once on Xena. Our fingertips almost touch the other's inner elbow. Helena nods.

"You heard the Slayer. This is my city, so get the fuck out!" She gets a her stake out, and I do the same. Dinah follows suit, even though she is shakier than us in doing so. She seems stronger now, but not by much. Anya picks up the 3 axes, throwing 2 in our direction. Helena and I catch them. Helena's eyebrow raises as if to ask me if I'm ready to party. I nod quickly.

"Let's do it."

Dinah

Never have I been in a battle with more than 20 people to fight against at a time. Here I am now with 40 or more vampires, stronger than the average human. I take my stake out anyway, and dust the 60 something year old vampire closest to me. A woman with long black hair grabs the wrist that hold the stake, and I can't seem to move it. She squeezes down, and I swear I hear as well as feel the bone snap. "Ah-ha!" I scream in pain, tears welling up in my eyes. I reach into my pocket and open the small bottle of water with my teeth on the cork, splashing it on her. She screams, then seems to become engulfed in fire before turning to dust. An arm finds its way around my neck, and I elbow the vampire in the face a couple of times with my unhurt elbow, holding the broken bone to my side. I use my mind to hurl pieces of the broken steel wall at the heads of various vampires that tried to go near myself, Helena, or Faith as they fought one on one, two on two, or two on one with the vampires.

They move in sync with each other now, almost back to back as they fight vampires, dust filling the air enough to give any asthmatic an attack for life. Faith throws one vampire into the one that Helena is fighting, and then at the same time, Helena and Faith bring their stakes down on the vamps, and they are both dusted. "Ha! There's 4 for me. I am getting good at this." Helena shouts.

"Not bad for a beginner, but I think Dinah has you beat. She's already got 6." Helena looks up at me, and I smile slyly at her before ducking a blow from a short, large set woman. She wasn't very fast, and I easily dodged her moves, though each step I took moved my hurt arm around. When I find an opening, I stake her as well. What is left of the water goes onto the vampire behind her, but it is barely enough to make him shield his eyes with his hands. I throw the bottle in a random direction, and it hit another vampire, which makes him angry. He runs towards me, but is pushed down by Tim Ross. He walks slowly to me, hitting anyone in his path between us. When he is close enough to me, he runs the rest of the way and knocks me to the ground. I scream as my broken wrist gets jostled around. I punch him with all I had in my left arm, the good one. He looks away for a second with the force of my blow, but he looks back at me with a smile on his face, holding his jaw.

"Do you know how long I have been waiting for this moment?"

"Uh- A couple of hours maybe?" I say in a hopeful tone as a suggestion.

"Don't be smart." he growls.

"Well," I say in a slight scoff, "if I can't be, then who will?" I ask. He stays silent, not seeming to get my insult of his intelligence, or lack thereof, and I use this time to push him off of me. "My point exactly." I say, staking him. He turns to dust and I unexpectedly feel satisfaction, as if I am having fun with this. No, this is wrong. I am not supposed to like this... but I do. I do. I am loving this. I want revenge for my wrist, for my family, for my mother, for my past... and I plan to get it. Now. Supposedly, a Slayer is given the gifts of added strengths that will help her defeat these demons. I am no Slayer, yet still I am able to slay them, and that fact makes me feel good about myself that I can take care of myself, even hurt like this.

I look quickly at the fallen wall that was blasted open, and my eyes widen at the sight of a blonde woman who has a crossbow raised and she is ready to shoot. I look at her target, which is in the direction of the vampire that had turned the newbie vampire that Faith is now fighting. She fires, and the wooden arrow hits the smaller vampire next to him. It is a perfect shot. The taller vampire holds onto the smaller vampire. " Wild Cat, My Love!" He shouts.

At the same time, the smaller vampire says, "I love you, Charles." The smaller vampire has it written in his eyes before he turns to dust, and for a moment, I am saddened by the look on Charles' face as he tries to grab at the dust in the air, holding on to what he could of his lover. He stares that the dust that settles on the ground. Charles seems to realize that he is gone, his Wild Cat, and after a second, a tear falls from his face. Then he rushes towards the blonde haired woman, and being quicker than her, grabs at her.

"YOU! I shall have your head! I will mount it on my wall along with the freaks and the Slayer, and I will laugh as I drink my wine and blood under them!" The blonde woman holds out a hand and a ball of fire is seen. She throws it at him, but he dodges it.

I hear a growl and turn quickly in time to see a furry, bulky vampire, as if he had tried to turn into a bear. It's Brian! That was the power he had.

"Like my new look, Dinah?"

"Oh definitely. I like the fur and fang look you've got going on there. I think it will become a new fashion statement in no time." I say sarcastically, but inside, I am scared. This is exactly what I was afraid of. I met Brian in No Man's Land, and though he is older than me, or he was before he died, he was a nice man to talk to. Now he seems to be a half vampire and half metahuman still. "A half vampire is still a vampire." I say, closing my eyes as I ram the stake through his heart. I heave a few deep breaths as I repeat that it wasn't really Brian anymore... that his soul passed on before I staked that... monster. I look back up at the blonde woman to see she is on the ground, hardly able to get up. Then, I see Barbara wheel up behind her, wearing UV lenses over her glasses. She presses a button on her wheelchair and small wooden sticks shoot from the armrests, one going into the Charles' heart, and the other in the heart of one next to him. Both turn to dust.

Then something strange happens. Barbara's legs begin to twitch madly, as if she is having some sort of seizure. I can only stare. What is happening? Barbara doesn't seem hurt, as only her legs seem to be moving. They seem to after a while tap the foot rests as if feeling fidgety, like she really wants to do something, but has nowhere to go. "HEY!! YOU... DINAH!" I look over and see Anya. "Vampire!" I look about and try to block his advance. There is a blow to the head, and then it goes black.

Faith

"HEY!! YOU... DINAH!" I look about to see what Anya is shouting about as a sharp pain sears through me for a split second. It is a familiar feeling, but it can't be. I can't be feeling this now. A vampire is running at Dinah, and then there is another running towards her side." Vampire!" When Dinah looks behind her, the one at her side hides her, then takes her axe.

"HELENA!!" I yell. She looks up from the woman vampire she had just staked, the one that was at the controls, and doesn't watch her turn to dust. She sees what I am pointing at, and she rushes towards her young friend. The vampire that hit the girl is about to cut into Dinah' flesh when a flash of red is seen, and the vampire is dusted.

"Take Dinah and find shade." Barbara orders in her Oracle voice, kicking at an oncoming vampire.

"What?!" Helena asks, looking at Barbara with shock in her eyes. I am looking at her just as so, not able to believe she is walking, let alone kicking the ass of two vampires at the same time.

"Go! Find-" She steals Helena's stake and plunges into both vamps' hearts, then looks up at Helena as if to wonder why she was still there, questioning her orders. "Find shade. You too, Faith." Barbara dodges the oncoming hit at her stomach, and with a swing I have never even seen on a baseball player, she hits the female vamp to the ground. She does a couple of flips to dodge other vampires, ending up next to her wheelchair. On the seat is the metal disc she was working with, the one she said had done some freaky shit with some dude's powers. I run with Anya, who has the blonde woman over her shoulders and was hiding with Helena and Dinah behind the main computers. I watch Anya look over the other blonde to see if she is okay. She seems fine, but wobbly on her feet. I peek over the computer, and see Barbara adjust the glasses on her nose, then slide the disc on the floor. "Things are about to heat up," she says darkly.

A vampire picks up the disc and just looks at it. Nothing happens and he just laughs at it. Then, a hot light emits from the disc, and the vampire drops it. The light covers the whole Batcave, and every vampire in the room is engulfed in flames before they are dusted, as if they were outside in the sun. 'Go find shade.' Barbara had said. Maybe that is what just happened. They were in sunlight. Barbara's disc must have somehow trapped sunlight. Man, she sure does know how to make Slaying look easy. I could get off on watching her. When the light is gone, I stand up and look around. There is dust everywhere.

"That was wicked cool." I breathe. There are a couple of spots where blood was spilled, but other than that, all is still. Anya and the other blonde metahuman slowly stand as well. Helena stays where she is, looking down at Dinah, her fingers touching her cheek. We are silent as we watch her. It seems almost too intimate to watch, and the urge to leave the room is strong within me. I can still hear Dinah's pulse, though slower, and her right wrist is dangling on her stomach, swollen. Barbara walks over to them both and kneels by Dinah's side.

"D, wake up. It's time to go home. We won." Helena says, though she knows that Dinah might not even hear her.

"Where's the medallion I gave you?" Anya asks, looking at Barbara, searching for it with her eyes. Barbara touches her neck, and it is not on it. "For-" she starts to say, and I can feel that she is about to rant. "I swear! You tell someone not to take off Sisten's Medallion, and what do they do? They take it off!!" She put up her hands in surrender. "I give up."

"Calm down, it's in my pocket." Barbara says, then I hear her stomach growl. I look at her sideways. My stomach growls back at her. She smiles at me.

"I still told you not to take it off." Anya pouts. "Put it on her."

"Way ahead of you." Barbara says, putting it on the blonde girl's chest cavity as she had done for me, and the jewels on the spiral, all ten of them, start to glow one by one, slowly going into the middle. Each jewel took about 10 seconds to light up after the one before it had, and it seemed to take a long time. Finally, Dinah is engulfed in the glow. It is the same glow I saw around Barbara (making me at first believe she was an angel). Dinah's eye brow twitches as I watch her wrist shift back in place. The strawberry blonde newcomer looks like she is going to be sick at the sight of her wrist moving as it is. Dinah slowly opens her eyes and touches the place where she had been hit.

"Immunna kick his ass." she mumbles.

"Already taken care of. Barbara did it." At those words, Dinah looks at Barbara, who kneels above her.

"You're walking. Helena said no to that-"

"Slayer Healing." I blurt out, interrupting Dinah's slight scolding. This causes everyone to look at me. My brain seems to click on after that. "Barbara's an ex- Potential, now a Slayer. This explains it." I murmur. "When I first met Barbara, something about her made me nervous to be around her, and I couldn't for the life of me figure it out. Then, I saw her scratch her leg, and that was weird. I thought it was a nervous twitch, which then made me wonder what would make her so twitchy to begin with. Just now, it hit me. Slayer senses. Her Slayer senses were starting to bother her. Her Slayer strength was helping her Slayer healing... a-and I bet even that medallion was healing her spine as well." The more I speak, the more it all makes sense, no pun intended.

"Me? A Slayer?"
"Why's that tough to believe?" Dinah asks, repeating Barbara's words earlier in the bathrooms of New Gotham High School. "Do you, Miss All Seeing, All Knowing, have any freaking clue how you are suddenly able to walk?" she asks.

"Language, Dinah." Helena says.

"I said 'freaking'. That's not cussing."

"What do I keep tellin' you about the F word?" Dinah thinks this over, then smiles at what is obviously an inside joke.

"Sorry," she says. Barbara bites her lip uncertainly, and I shift from one foot to another to hide my arousal. She sure does know how to get my Slayer senses all riled up, and after the large battle we just had, it is not a hard thing to do.

"I don't know... It all seems farfetched to me."

"Hell-o! A medallion which held MAGIC just healed me, we just slayed like 50 vampires, and we won, mind you... the 4 - 5 of us." Dinah says, looking at the newcomer, nodding her thanks to her. "How's that for farfetched, not to mention what we do nightly on a regular basis."

"Yes, but..." Barbara trails off.

"Why you?" I finish for her.

"Yes," she replies meekly. I shrug.

"Why any of us? Why Buffy? Why me? Why not Dinah, or Helena, or any male for that matter? Why NOW?" I ask. I shake my head. "We may never know for sure. You are who you are, and there's no going back." All 4 women look at me as I think over what I just said. 'That was wise, like Yoda.' I think proudly to myself.

"So, if she's a Slayer, then there is one way to find out for sure right, Faith?" Anya asks. To my surprise, she winks. "She just 'slayed like 50 vampires' with her little machine, which I think counts, not to mention the couple dusted on her own with your stake, I might add... So she'd be hungry and horny like you always get after slaying." Dinah, Barbara, and the newcomer blush. "If she's a real Slayer like you say, she'll want multiple orgasms after a box of pizza. Sounds hot." She finishes.

"Right..." Helena says, but after she closes her mouth, her eyes slowly widen a bit, looking over at Barbara. I look over at Barbara as well, smiling because I know that what Anya says is true.

Dinah

I look between Faith and Helena as they look at Barbara. She blushes even more so than she had when Anya made her first comment about Faith's after slaying side effects. The look on Barbara's face says it all, then Anya repeats it. "See, she is hungry and horny. She's a Slayer." she says. She turns back to Faith. "So, now that you have solved that, can you solve the mystery that is this woman?" Faith studies the woman.

"Nope." She says simply. The blonde woman steps forward a little, towards Anya.

"It is complicated who I am, but I suppose you all are used to that. I am actually two people in one body. When I died, I somehow ended up in Maria's body. It is like a bad case of schizophrenia. My name is Jenny Calender. I am borrowing Maria McDowel's body until I can figure out how I got into this body and how to get out and cross over. Something tells me it was a gypsy spell a relative had put on my as a baby. I have a cousin who placed a spell on his sister, and know she lives still as a farmer in Kentucky after her car crash. Anyway, until I figure out how to get out of it, I will be here with Maria."

"Jenny Calender... Jenny Calender... I know I have heard that name at least once back in Sunnydale or even when we were out of Sunnydale in Chicago or somewhere." Faith says. Then it clicks, I can see it in her eyes. She looks over at her and says, "You were Giles' girl."

"Yeah, I was," she says sadly. Helena watches their exchange with interest as she slowly strokes my hair. I want to sleep now.

"Why didn't you go back to S-dale and see him?"

"Maria doesn't like flying, and she didn't want to leave- Yes, I did. Quit using me as an excuse-!" Jenny (or was it Maria?) sighs. "It doesn't matter now. It is in the past, and Sunnydale is gone."

"But I can get a hold of him! I know how to. I still have Buffy's number, and she can tell me where Willow and the gang went." Jenny doesn't say anything. I slowly get up off of the ground and walk up to Barbara. I hug her. She seems surprised at the sudden movement, but she doesn't seem to mind the contact with me.

"I'm happy for you." I say.

"I'm so glad you are all safe. Let's get out of here." Barbara says as we part. As soon as we all leave the Batcave and drop Anya at the shop and Maria/Jenny across the street at the Old Gotham Bank where she lives, the rest of us walk towards the Clocktower, where I am forced by Barbara to show them the exit there, which leads to the alleyway where the elevator is, the entrance way I always took. it always looked as if I was just walking around the block a few times when I was in the Underground if Barbara ever looked at my status on the Delphi. Barbara and Helena's eyebrows raise, but they say nothing. We get onto the elevator, and Faith almost doesn't seem phased by it. Almost. We all sit down at the table with the exception of Barbara, who stands (because she can) behind my chair.

"So what was that gadget you made? I saw you take it off of the balcony earlier." I say, turning in my seat to look at the new Slayer. "Or a piece of it anyway."

"I used to be the device I made to unstablize Cam's genetic makeup. I took it apart and reversed the-" She stops talking when she sees that we aren't all following her, least of all Faith.

"You took it apart and made it into something that collected sunlight, right?" Faith asks.

"Roughly, yes." Barbara says with a small smile.

"That was really cool. Where were you when I was starting out?"

"Probably still in physical therapy for my back after I was shot."

"You were shot?" Faith asks, her eyes going wide.

"Dinah didn't tell you?"

"No. Never got around to it." Barbara nods, thinking. It is quiet as Barbara slowly turns to the refrigerator and starts fishing out different things, finally starting to make sandwiches, like 12 of them. She set two in front of me, two in front of Helena, and 4 in front of herself and Faith before she sits down with 4 cans of soda. "It happened about 7 years ago." Barbara says. She tells Faith everything, about Batman and Nightwing and Batgirl, about the shooting, Helena's mother, my dreams, my running to them, Helena's dislike for me at first, my mother, Al Hawk, and finally Harley Quinn's invasion of the Clocktower and the murder of Wade Brixton. I step in after that, telling them all about my fears of my new family tearing apart, and going to the Underground as a way to help protect them by using my powers on many metahumans to gain entrance and exit ways. I tell them about my knowledge of these places and gaining more during my little patrols when I 'went for a walk'.

Faith takes al of this information in, then she tells Helena and Barbara her story, about Boston, about her watcher, about Buffy, the Scoobies, demons, vampires, the Mayor... everything I saw within her... Well, not everything. I watch my guardian's face she takes in all of this information. All is silent for a while, then I get up, mumbling an excuse me, and then I leave out to the balcony.

Faith

I watch as Dinah leaves the room. I am not sure what is on her mind. Maybe she just can't stand the silence, or maybe she just wanted to see the sunrise, as she was standing next to the gargoyles while she looks out towards the city with a refreshed look upon her face. I watch as Helena walks out with her to see if she's alright. "Faith," Barbara says as a way to get my attention back to her. I look back at her. "I need to talk to you." Her voice is almost hushed. I tilt my head in a manner that asks her what's up, though I think I already know what this is about. I say nothing as I rip into my 3rd sandwich. Barbara studies me, and I wish she would just say what it is she needs to say. Her gaze is turning me on faster than the flip of a light switch. I slowly chew, then I swallow my bite before putting down the food, no longer feeling hungry... well not for that at least. "About this Slayer thing..." I start to tense a little bit. She looks at me, her eyes raking my body. She continues to speak as I shift a little bit in my seat. "I don't know anything about this at all. I thought I was all seeing all knowing, but here is Dinah going Underground, and I didn't even notice it, and there are vampires everywhere for who knows how long without my knowledge... Listen, what you said back there in the Batcave... I know you know more about this type of thing than you lead on. I know that you know what you are doing, and I know that when it comes to vampires, I don't. And what about these Watchers? Aren't they supposed to train these Slayers?"

"You're the mentor now, Babs." I say.

"Babs... I haven't been called that in a long time."

"Well, I'd call ya' B, but that is taken, and I would call you Red, but well... That's taken too, so Babs it is."

"Dick Grayson called me that when we were younger. Before my chair," she says with a slight fond look on her face. She turns to me as if she was broken from her thoughts. "I need a mentor now Faith, since I am a Slayer."

"It's not that hard. You shove a stake into a vampire's heart and POOF, they're dust. Nothing that requires training, since you were all big and bad when you were Batgirl." I slowly stand up, wanting to follow Dinah and go out and join the gargoyles. I walk a step or two away from the table, away from Barbara. She stares at me as if she can't believe her ears. She crosses her arms over her chest.

"And what of the other demons that you and Buffy fight?" she challenges. I shrug.

"I doubt they'll come this way." I say half-heartedly.

"Why? The vampires moved this way." Barbara points out. I sigh. 'I am not the sharpest stake in the weapons chest...' I think to myself. "By the way you are speaking, I would guess that you don't want to be here," she accuses, "but I know that's bullshit," she spits out. She is getting a little angry. I know that my almost nonverbal answers are getting to her. "I saw the way you interacted with Dinah and with Anya. You want to stay here. I can see it in your eyes right now." She's right, but I am not going to say it.

"No-"

"Why are you fighting this, Faith?"

"I don't belong here, Barbara, and you know it. We both do."

"What makes you think you don't belong here?"

"I just know." I say.

"Very convincing answer," she says dryly. "You think you're destined to be alone. Is that it?" she asks. "Well? Is it?"

"I am destined to be alone. That is the way I am. I cannot be around other people for very long before I fuck up their lives." I step back a couple of steps, but Barbara stands up, getting out of her chair. She walks next to me, but when I back up more, she stops.

"You didn't 'fuck things up' here, Faith. You helped Helena, Dinah and I get the Batcave back."

"Well, given time something would happen and I'll fuck it up for all of you with only myself to blame. I am just not going to take that chance." I say, my voice rising. I am starting to fight back tears, as well as everything else. I hate when I cry; it makes me angry when I break down, showing just how weak I am. Just how much of a coward I am... I am getting angry now. Why won't she just let this go? Why is this so important to her? I am nobody.

"I know you look at Helena, Dinah and myself and think we are abnormally perfect as a family."

"It is almost sickening." I say, putting a hand to my eyes to hide the fact that a tear has fallen. I wipe it away angrily.

"We've all made mistakes here, Faith. I let someone into our other life, and he got killed. Helena trusted the wrong person, and Dinah almost killed her mother's killer. You murdered someone, but it was an accident." She says. Flashes of the night things went wrong go through my mind, but Barbara's voice cuts through them, making me look at her and listen to her words. Her voice softens now that she knows she has my attention. "That vampire, Angel, believed that you can change, and you have." She stresses the last three words of that sentence. "Why can't you believe that, too? I know you said it often enough to- what did you call them, the Scooby gang?- but do you believe your own words?" Barbara walks around the table, and I fight every urge to run, the elevator for once being my savior. I don't move.

"Just let it go." My voice is shaky. 'Was that a plea I heard, Faith?' I taunt myself, inwardly rolling my eyes. I turn away from her. 'What is she doing to me?' I watch Helena and Dinah as they stand in silence, watching over the city as they always will. Hopefully one day they will be watching the city hand in hand. My Slayer senses are buzzing so loudly it almost deafens me. I can feel that Barbara is right behind me.

"Fine." She says this almost curtly. "I'll let it go, but you must know that you are needed here, Faith." I wonder why she keeps saying my name in almost each sentence like that. It almost unnerves me. I feel her breath on my neck, and the hum of arousal overrides the Slayer senses. Damn it, I want her. As much as I fight myself on this, I know the Clocktower calls to me, and the temptation to stay is so strong.

"You don't need me here. This is why I must go." 'I don't want to hurt you. For some reason, I can't let you hurt anymore.' I take a deep breath as that thought creeps up on me. I push it down as far as I can. "You're all doing fine without me." I tell her, screaming at my body as I fight the urge to turn around.

"So you're going to come here, slay a few vampires, drop a bomb on me that changes my whole world, then just leave like that? I-"

"That is what I do!" I shout, turning fiercely. I am surprised at how close we really are. I thought we had maybe 6 or 7 inches between us before, but there is almost no space between us now. Barbara says nothing. She just looks at me with a sadness that makes me even more angry. "What?!" Barbara shakes her head slowly.

"I don't believe that, but I promised to let it go, and I will." she is quiet for a moment, then she looks me straight in the eyes. "I wish you luck wherever you go, whatever you decided to do." She leans in to kiss me on the cheek, but I turn my head at the last moment, letting her lips touch mine in a peck. She backs away quickly.

"I'm sorry." I say, but deep within me, I know that I am not. I want to kiss her again, a real kiss this time with tongue and heart and soul, but I cannot tell what she is thinking, for her look is masked. I can hear that her heart rate is quicker though.

"I want you," she says, stepping closer to me again and recapturing my lips. I kiss her back, biting her lower, then upper lip. I wonder briefly if I'm hurting her before I realize she's a Slayer as well, so I didn't. In fact, she seems to encourage it. She slowly breaks away, "to stay." She finishes her sentence while she looks deep within me. My hands lower, leaving her body. "Faith..." I move away. I don't know what to say, what to do. Actually, I know what I want to say, what I want to do, but is it right?

Dinah

I am surprised that Helena is now by my side. Actually, no I am not. It seems she'll always be by my side, doing her best to protect me and Barbara, although I know now that Barbara will be the one doing more protecting. I am surprised, though, that she was so close behind me when we left. I want to turn to her and start talking, but I don't know what to say to her now. Besides that, the sight of the sunrise makes words unnecessary. I inhale the scent of the brand new day, a day I lived long enough to see, and I am going to enjoy it while it is young. It is nice to have her company; it feels like sharing with her when in reality, it isn't mine to share. I wonder briefly what goes on inside that head of hers, but I never have the courage to just ask her. Maybe I am afraid that she won't talk to me, or maybe I am afraid of actually hearing the truth, whatever that might be.

As I watch the sky get lighter by the minute, I think about Gabby and how glad I am that I can see her again. I realize that she is a part of my complete existence. With Slayers, metahumans, vampires, ex-vengeance demons, a two souled human, and Alfred, it is a sigh of relief that I have Gabby there to balance me out. It is okay that she is 'just human'. In fact, that is why I love her much as my best friend. It is nice to just spend a day laying on your stomach on the floor, talking about your crushes while taking dorky magazine quizzes to find out how well you know your best friend or your favorite celebrity. It is nice to escape from the madness of my life. Sure, it still sucks that I can't talk to her about it, and who knows, maybe one day I will have no choice but to tell her, but for now, I'm willing to settle for giving her the mysterious look that totally drives her nuts whenever she asks me why I couldn't make it to the movies or something. That is the best part about being a superhero, that Look. "You okay?" I finally ask the feral woman beside me when I feel Helena's body shift some. She looks at me, seeming to be at ease with herself and her surroundings. Her eyes squint in her 'Helena smile', and nods.

"Yeah. You alright, D?"

"Yeah." I say. "It just brought back memories when you told me that vampires had taken over the Batcave last night. It seemed easier last night when we fought vampires, when the last time it was just humans we had faced." Helena pulls me into a hug. I am not really sure what to think of this newer, more protective cat Helena has become, but I like the hugs. I like the fact that there are more of them.

"You're a tough cookie, Dinah." she says. I smile at her compliment.

"I'm glad we got through it."

"Yeah, me too." There is silence for a moment or two. "You know that if you need anything, I'm here. You know that right? You don't have to hide stuff like that from Barbara an' me anymore. We're here. I'm here." I don't say anything for a moment, and I think of the last time I heard Helena say 'I'm here.' She had also said 'I love you', though at the time, I was still in my own thoughts about Helena as a vampire and my having to turn her to dust. "Dinah?" Helena asks.

"Yes," I whisper. "Yes, I know." My mind wonders what that 'I love you' could have meant, and I try to leave it alone. Surely it is just a big sister thing. When her arms leave me, I try not to shiver, but I do anyway. I look up into her eyes, and I want to kiss her so badly. I gently touch her cheek '- talk to me. Should I tell her?' "Tell me what?" I ask out loud. Her eyes widen. "I-I'm sorry. I-"

"It's okay. I can't- I was just..." I don't say anything. I am confused, really. Why doesn't she want to tell me? I look up into her eyes and I can tell she's scared, yet she still tries to speak "I-" I don't let her finish. If I can be the one to kiss Faith first, then I will be the one to kiss Helena first. I am expecting her to pull away from me at any moment and shun me for doing this, but she doesn't. I am surprised. 'I love you, Helena.' I think to her. She breaks away, and it seems it is hard for her to breathe. she leans in and gives me a shorter kiss. "You have no clue how long I've waited to do that."
"Give me one." Helena whispers, her forehead touching mine.

"Since before I met you... face to face that is..." I trail off and look away briefly. 'I can't believe I admitted that.' It was a secret I had planned to keep locked away in the farthest crevice of my heart, but here I am her arms and I am spewing out my feelings as it wasn't all that important for me to keep in the first place. Helena looks down at me and smiles.

"I have to admit that you were a pain in my side at first, but I watched you a lot because of Barbara and all... but after your mother died, I saw you, and you were no longer a kid to me, even if I still called you that. It wasn't meant to hurt you, Dinah. It was all just teasing until Faith told me that you don't take it that way." I broke away slightly so that I can look into her eyes.

"I know you didn't do it to hurt me. I just didn't like it when you thought of me as Kid."

"I don't. You were, like I said, 'a pain in my side', but you've grown so much because of what the Redmonds did to you, and I understand that the young naive girl you come off to be is just an act, it is your mask, like the broodiness is mine...or so Barbara says. Listen, can I... I mean just for a little while.... hold you?" It was a small request brought on by an even smaller voice that I know I would never say no to. I nod. Before Helena could make a move towards me, I hear Faith shouting something to Barbara, but I can't hear exactly what is said. Helena turns to go see what is going on, but I grab her arm.

"Don't- I mean, it's probably a Slayer thing." I say. Helena listens for a moment more then she puts an arm across my shoulders, pulling me to her. I like this. I like this a lot.

Faith

"I'm sorry, okay?!" I shout back at Barbara. "What more do you want me to say?!"

"Say you'll stay! With us... with me!" She replies. I'm not expecting that, but still I shake my head.

"I can't." Barbara stares at me for a moment more, then she leaves, going to the elevator without another word. Not sure what else to do, I walk up to the training room after seeing Dinah and Helena in a cuddly embrace. "Good for you, Dinah." I say to myself. I stand in front of the punching bag and start to punch the bag a few times weakly, then allow my hits to become faster, stronger. I'm beating all of my pain, my happiness, my love, my hate, my sadness, my wondering/running feet... everything into it simply because at the moment, it bares my face. I stop long enough to stare at the long taped up rip in the bag. "Damn, Dinah sure did a number on that thing. Hate to be the one she really wanted to kill." I murmur with some admiration. Of course, I know who it was that she wanted to kill now. She was thinking about Harley Quinn at the time. I know that if she saw that bitch again, she would kill her, and I'd bet all the money I've ever owned on her. I know she can. She could rip her in half no problem, and she wouldn't even have to lay her pretty manicured hands on her. It comes as no surprise that she is that powerful, actually, as she did rip a door from the hinges with her mind just the day before, and she did just lift a full Dumpster with her mind only a couple of hours ago. I halfheartedly hit the bag once, twice, three times for good measure, then I just stare at it, not feeling anything as I gasp for air. My body is screaming at me to go find Barbara-Damnit! Why won't I just listen for once?!- It would be easy enough with the Slayer to Slayer connection we have and all, but I fight that, too. "I can't." I repeat. 'I must move on.' I think to myself. 'You can't stay here, Faith. You don't belong here.' I tell myself; it's like a mantra running through my head. 'You don't belong anywhere.' Footsteps are heard not long after that, and I automatically tense up.

"Knock knock." The voice makes me jump. "Down Lassie." Helena says, repeating my words from the last time the two of us were in the training room alone. I look up at her slowly. She is standing in the doorway with the world upon her shoulders. Unlike the last time though, she looks like she's comfortable about wearing it. She saunters over to me and inspects my face.

I am not sure what to think about Helena now. We fought side by side, sure, but Helena's a predator and would do anything to protect her territory, even if it means joining with the enemy, then ripping them apart when all is said and done. I must admit that it felt good fighting side by side with someone again, fighting with someone who was strong, fast and graceful enough to watch my back at the same time I watched theirs. Now that all is said and done... Now that Helena's gotten her daddy's hideout back, is this the part where she rips me apart? Is this the part where she continues to tell me how useless I am here? Things I already know? A noise that I never knew could come from a Slayer escapes my throat at the thought of hearing words like that. I can't stand even the thought of hearing them now. Not from these people. From anyone else, maybe I would have been fine with it, but not here. I start to back away from her approaching form, and I try to find a way to leave the room. Helena sees this and as if to read my thoughts, she blocks my way towards the door. I am forced to look into her eyes. They are unexpectedly warm, soft, concerned.... guilty. She clears her throat. "Look Faith, I want to say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done what I did-"

"You don't have to Helena-" Her hand shoots up, to silence me, I know, but still I cower from it. Her hands fall to her sides immediately. She looks down at her hands as if to scold them.

"Please hear me out?" she seems to plead with me. I slowly nod. "Faith, I shouldn't have done that. I-" she can't seem to find anything else to say. "I shouldn't have let my jealousy ge-"

"Whoa whoa whoa! Jealously?" I ask, looking at her as if she had just grown another head, which actually wouldn't really phase me considering where I'm from. I as shocked at her words. "What have you got to be jealous of? I have nothing. You have family, though unconventional, but still a family none the less. You have wicked good looks, fighting skill to make Jackie Chan envious, Dinah's affections... You have everything I could ever want. It is I who should be jealous of you..."

"I was jealous of the fact that all this shit happened to you, anyone can tell just from lookin' at you... You have that vibe that anyone can pick up. You had all this shit happen to you, and you act like you don't care. I was pissed because I can't be that calm about the things that have happened to me. At the time, I didn't know I had 'Dinah's affections', either." Helena uses her fingers as quotation marks, then she blushes. "I thought she would go out with you or somethin' and..." She looks down, not able to finish her sentence. I know what she's going to say next. 'I thought she would go out with you and that you were trying to take her away from me'.

"I was." I blurt out. Helena's head shoots up to look at me. "I was," I repeat when she looks at me in disbelief as if she wasn't sure that she had heard me correctly. "I mean, don't get mad, but I saw her and thought she was cute. I admire the way the chick fights, even if it doesn't yet compare with yours." I look away from her, wondering if I should say the next words that come to my mind. "She kissed me yesterday, but-" Helena's face turns from almost neutral to... well hurt. "I said 'But'." The fare woman before me looks back at me and tries to hide her feelings, wiping them from her face as quickly as she can. "She chose you, Helena. In my head, I heard your name. I was a substitute for you, and now that I think of it, Dinah may have at the time been a substitute for Buffy."

"And what about Barbara? When you kissed her, is she a substitute for Willow?" There is no bitterness in Helena's voice and I realize that it is a genuine question, though how she knows about our kiss is a mystery. "Uhm... you have her... lipstick..." Helena says somewhat shyly, though there was a knowing smirk that rose at the sight of me blushing.

"No. I never really liked Willow and she hated me. Barbara is no one's substitute. She's too unique." I find myself admitting. there is silence for a minute or two. It is like a small challenge to see who can go the longest without breaking this silence first.

"She really wants you to stay." My heart skips a beat, my palms start to sweat, my face turns a little red, and just about any other cliché you can think of from romantic movies happen to me at that statement. I know she wants me to stay, but I can't hurt her. Even though I know I can find myself falling head over heels again, I can't hurt her. For once I am not running because I am afraid of being hurt. Fuck that, it's all been done, and I will deal, but to see any pain on their faces... Well, I can't handle that. She deserves a helluva lot better than me. "She needs you here to take the place of her Watcher that she was gypped of getting as the privilege of being a Slayer. Even mentors need to be taught." I don't say anything, and I know she knows I'm about to say no again, so she keeps going in order to draw me in. "You haven't even been here all that long. Just barely two nights. And a day. That isn't hardly enough time for tourism. I can show you the night life. Well, I'm sure you've seen the height of our night life, but I know you like dancing, and maybe it won't be like The Silver back in Sunnydale, but it will still be kick ass." She's rambling, and it is... cute. She'd surely kick my ass if she heard me say that out loud about her.

"The club was called the Bronze," is all I say.

"Oh, well, you get my drift though right?"

"Why do you care, Hel? Just yesterday you couldn't wait for me to leave. Why are you tryin' so hard gettin' me to stay?"

"Because I was wrong." She stresses each and every word in her sentence. "Okay? I'm only metahuman here, alright. Believe it or not I AM wrong once in a blue moon." She grins as I give her a look that plainly says 'Surrrre...', but I don't say anything. After another moment of silence, she says, "Fine, Rock Paper Scissors." I raise an eyebrow. "Best of three. I win, you stay a couple more weeks, lemme show you around here a little more, and help Barbara with these new Slayer powers. You win, you can go back to doing your Slayer... things and move on if you must." What the-

"That's kinda leaving shit up to chance, isn't it?" I ask a little bit nervously. She has a challenge in her voice, one I cannot back away from, as it is in my nature not to.

"Well, I thought that was what your life is all about. Want. Take. Have? Screw everything else? Take chances? Ring a bell?" I look down for a second then back up at her with a grin. "What do you have to lose?" 'Everything.' I think to myself, but I don't want that thought to show on my face. Helena has her hand flat out towards me, and she slowly (as if to not spook me or something) places her fist on top of it. This is my last chance. My 100th opportunity I have been given to stay... I may not get another one, and I know I will have made a mistake 5 minutes later if I pass this one up. 'I am not going to fuck this up. I can't.' I finally give in. I copy her motion.

"Alright smart one. Best of three." We pound our palms twice then both of our hands are flat. "Paper." I smirk. We do it again, and I have my fist rested with two fingers out pointing towards Helena, who has just her fist on her palm. "Damn," I say.

"Rock crushes scissors..." the older woman sings.

"I know, I know." I say in a semi- growl at her gloating words. She smiles. We do it again, and I'm scissors and she's paper. I smirk again, but I don't say anything. We nod to each other and do it again. One, two...

Dinah

I watch as Faith and Helena wrestle. "Helena!" I scream when she bumps against the coffee table, which as my homework and my Cherry Pepsi on it. I hold the drink still as the rest of the table wobbles a little.

"No! Metas will always rule!!" she shouts, getting the younger slayer to the floor and straddling her. She hold her flailing arms down. "Slayers drool vampire saliva!"

"Eww.." Faith pants, "Visual." she grunts, struggling still under Helena's pin.

"Helena, leave her alone." I say to her.

"Aw, its' okay, Dinah. I'm showing Helena who really rules." Faith says.

"Says the one pinned to the ground like a chump." Helena replies.

"Sounds kinky." I blurt out, but I don't look like I want to blush like I usually would at that moment if Anya would have said it.

"Your girlfriend needs to stop hanging out with Anya so much in her shop." Faith says. "She's starting to scare me." Helena chuckles.

"She scares everybody." I look up at them both, watching Faith as she struggles out of Helena's firm hold.

"That's not what you said last night, and if you want a repeat performance, I suggest you watch what you say while I'm in here." I raise an eyebrow to challenge Helena and see what she has to say about that, but a whoosh of air cuts off what Helena may or may not have had as a reply.

"How about we just don't go there." I stand up and see Batgirl walking towards us. I look at the window in the training room and smile, even though I will never get used to that.

"Show off." Helena says. She gets up with a laugh, then holds out her hand for Faith to grab on to, and like always, Faith stares at it for a split second, as if she still doesn't trust it. She needs to learn that Helena won't hurt her, though after what happened a week ago, I am not surprised that she's a little hesitant, but one of these days, that outstretched hand could be the difference between life and death if she hesitates. Faith grabs it finally and bounces back up.

"Heh..." Batgirl says sheepishly.

"How was sweeps?" I ask, looking at the superhero. She no longer has the cowl to her Batgirl suit, but the rest of it is there. As for the mask, she has one that covers her eyes, but other than that, her hair flows free when she's out there fighting off metas and vampires.

"It was great, but listen. We need to reconstruct our system of working at night. I don't know what to do about the Delphi when I'm out there, and it worries me." Faith walks over to the redhead and places a hand upon her face and Batgirl leans into her touch. She does nothing more, but the longing is there in her eyes. "We need to find someone else to permanently tackle over the Delphi. We need Anya, Jenny/Maria, and Gibson out there with us at night now, as there are more places to cover. As much as I like Alfred watching over us, it isn't his job to do it 24 hours." Batgirl looks at the clock face. "Dinah, go page Gibson and tell him that you're going to the Underground to see if things are under control there, and I want you two back at a decent hour. If something happens, go to Anya's store and wait it out, but no matter what happens, be careful. I need to make a few more stakes. Last guy took it with him when he was dusted. how the Hell that happened, I have no clue..." I smile as I walk to the Delphi to page Gibson.

An hour and a half later, Gibson and I are walking through the Underground, and we hear shuffling behind us. "Seems like someone wants to give us a surprise attack." I murmur to Gibson.

"It appears so." he agrees. We don't do anything, instead, we keep walking pretending we were innocent metas walking through the underground, most likely going to Pyro, the small dark bar there which is a block away from the upper lever of No Man's Land. When the presence behind us gets closer, almost directly behind us, we turn around, Gibson pressing the trigger to his little squirt gun filled with holy water, and myself with a stake in my hand, raised and ready to pierce his heart. I am about to, but something stops me, a squeak, and then a rustle of clothing as someone steps between myself and the vampire, a grey haired man who might not have done much. The blur dusts the vampire, and I look annoyed.

"Damn it Faith, I had that one!" Gibson nods in agreement. I somehow know it isn't Faith. Knowing the Slayer, she would have some witty remark about how old the vampire was or something like that, but there was none.

"Ex-CUSE me?!" A voice filled with attitude shifted the wind around my neck and I know I made a mistake. Who is she? Words are muttered, and a small light engulfs the figure. It is another brunette girl about my age, maybe a couple of years older. "Do I look like Faith?"

"Uhmmmm... Yeah?" I say, looking from the brunette girl to the redhead at her side holding her hand, and then finally, my eyes land on a blonde haired boy who just stands there trembling with a cross outstretched at us. When he sees that we aren't shying away from it, he looks at it as if it was broken or something. The redhead's gaze burns my flesh it seems, but I stare back at her.

"Do we know you?" the redhead asks, looking at me, then at Gibson.

"No, we haven't met, but I know of you. I've heard stories and such, and I saw.... I saw you..."

"You saw me?"

"I'm a friend of Faith's. From what I saw, you weren't... Not really."

"Yeah, because she was a psycho bitch."

I heard that, and I'm telling her you said that. I hear in my ear. For Anya, she had been quiet in my ear as she guided us. I do not know why she's been quiet this long, but when I hear her voice, I jump. the brunette Slayer looks around looks around frantically, looking for the source of the voice.

"I know that voice." She says in a low growl.

"You should." I say sarcastically, but I don't tell them who it is, for they think she's dead.

"Where have I heard that voice?" She glares at me, as if it is my fault she's confused. Honestly, no wonder Faith doesn't like her. I smirk slightly.

Ignore her. She's just hot air. I snicker.

"So, you know Faith?"

Want me to get her so she can sorta get you out of this awkward moment? She sounds scary.

"Yeah." I say, only who I am answering is a mystery, but it works both ways. The redhead, Willow, looks thoughtful. Other than that, there is silence. Gibson stares at the frightened boy, Andrew, and seems sympathetic to his situation. He too hates sweeping the Underground, but his guilty conscience made sure that he was ready to come with me when I went. He made me promise that I'd call him or page him before I left. So he knew how he felt chasing after these girls because he wanted to be a part of it all in case he can stop something bad from happening.

"Shouldn't you be at home watching some chick flick with your girlfriends?" the Slayer, Kennedy, asks with a scoff. I know she thinks I am too young for this line for work. I don't say anything.

"Shouldn't you be at home making out to a chick flick with your girlfriend?" asks a new voice, a familiar voice that made me snort my laughter. Kennedy glares my way, but I ignore her. I know that now I have Slayer back up if she really wanted to hurt me, but I doubt she would even if she wanted to. Willow would stop her.

"Faith." she says with almost a snort. She reminded me so much of Helena then, you know, when she hated Faith.

"Potential." she says back in the same manner. I grab Faith's arm.

"Um, speaking of girls, where's ours?" I ask. Faith smirks at me knowingly.

"Batgirl needed a cold shower, and Huntress went to the Dark Horse for a little while to bug Lennard. She's trying to get him to turn it into more of a dance club." she tells me.

"Oh." I say meekly. She chuckles softly, then turns back to her friends, or semi-sorta friends... I am not sure what Faith truly considers them to be anymore. I mean she cares for some more than others obviously, but it is hard to tell who she cares for more than who. I watch as they start to talk.

"What are you all doing on my side of the universe?" she asks, looking at the three in front of her.

"We heard you'd come this way from Dawn, and we wanted to see if you needed any help. Will did some research on the place and thought you could use some back up." Andrew says. Faith smiles at him.

"Long time, no see, Freak Boy."

"As to you, Faith." he says.

"So, we did a location spell for you, and it lead us here. Actually, it led us to a hotel room. The spell just takes us to the first place you or something of yours spent more than 24 hours in. Then Kennedy felt some vampire around here, so we sorta followed it here. Then we dusted them, then followed these two when we found one more sneaking up on them, then Kennedy dusted him, and we started talking and we..." So this is Willowbabble... It's cute. As if to read my thoughts, Faith starts to laugh.

"Oh, it's nice to see you again, Red. Really, I think we have things here. Is it just you three?"

"No, Giles is at that hotel across the street from the Clocktower. That is where the location spell had originally brought us when we were looking for you." she repeats.

"We were just about to leave the Underground. Gibson tries to get it over with as fast as he can, since he gets the creeps down here. Come on, we'll go to the exits and get the heck out of here... How did you get down here anyway?"

"Followed the vamp down here." Willow says slowly.

"Right." Faith says as if she hadn't thought of that.

I walk closer to Faith, wishing she would shield me from Kennedy. I don't like the glares she's giving me as she says, "So, are you going to introduce your new clan or what?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll introduce you to them as soon as we all get together for a little shindig..."

"Faith...?" I ask slowly.

"Well, Batgirl's always tellin' us that she wants to meet the S-dale gang."

"Yeah, but-" Faith looks up at me.

"What are you afraid of?"

Willow's girlfriend. Anya blurts out. I can't help but snicker.

"Listen, it won't be nothing like when... well, nothing like that, okay? I know them. I trust them... well most of them..." She says, giving Kennedy a saucy look. Kennedy rolls her eyes.

"And I trust you, so... Let's go, I guess." Faith makes a quick head movement that signals for everyone to follow her, and we all do, walking through the barely lit streets and alleys. I feel a tap on my shoulder. It's Faith. "Which way do we go from here to take the steps?" she asks in a whisper. I smile and point to our left. "Cool." she says, and we take a right and climb the 50 or so steps.

"I'll go back to the store then, and check on teens. They tend to get rowdy on movie night." Gibson says when we reach the top of the steps and reach the main streets near the high school. I smile warmly at him. I squeeze his shoulder in a silent goodbye.

"See you later, Gibs." I watch as he walks down the street towards No Man's Land. I wish we could have gone a couple blocks west and used that exit way, which is what we might have done if Faith wasn't there and so afraid of the elevators, but I don't understand that she will use the elevator in the Clocktower, yet she won't use elevators other than that one. That elevator goes up 50 or more stories, when the elevators in the Underground only go one story. Faith looks at Willow for a second and has a look on her face that says she wants to say something, but she keeps her mouth shut and lightly tugs at my jacket just to mess with me. I push her a little bit then follow her down the block, going in the opposite direction Gibson had taken. I only hear shuffling as we walk through the city, and I can tell that Faith is alert.

I see you two are about a block away from the Clocktower. Anya says. Are all of you coming up?

"Is that okay?" I ask slowly. I am not sure if Barbara will actually allow them in the Clocktower.

Head Honcho says it's alright. Any friend of Faith's is a friend of ours. I am confused, really. We were way too cautious with Faith when she got here, but I guess now that Faith has earned our trust, they are cool with her. I shrug. In the Clocktower, Barbara's word goes, so Faith leads us all to the entrance to the Clocktower. Willow looks at Andrew, then nods her head towards the hotel across the street, and he nods in understanding before he trots off across the street, nearly getting ran over by a small brown truck that had to slam on the breaks to avoid hitting him. There are shouts of his enraged cursing and then the sound of him apologizing before I look back at the rest of the group. Faith is looking at me and my facial expression turns to puzzled. She seems to ask me what I think so far of her friends, and I give no visible reply. She lets out a silent chuckle, then she places an arm around my shoulders.

A few minutes later, Andrew returns with an older man in his late 40's. This, I know is Mr. Rupert Giles. If Rupert Giles and Jenny Calender were lovers once, I wonder what would happen when they meet up. I mean, I'm sure they are both different now. I wonder if they could even give things another try. Mr. Giles looks like he is tired beyond belief and seems to be asking Andrew if this could wait until later. Then he sees Faith and he brightens some. "I was beginning to think you had moved on, and that you weren't here after all."

"Nice to see you G-man." Faith says. They hug quickly, then we enter the alley where the elevator is. Faith enters the code, we all walk into the elevator, myself standing next to Faith and holding her arm again as she closed her eyes. Usually it is Barbara holding her arm, but she isn't with us. She is at the top. Andrew, Willow, Kennedy and Giles seem not sure about the elevator after a few floors. They all seem to be asking 'How many floors ARE there?' I smile a little, then when the doors open, I see Helena first, then Barbara when she walks into view. Faith opens her eyes when she feels the other woman's presence. A grin crosses her face.

Faith

I look around at the people in my life and smile. I have already made all of the introductions and we are now at a loss for words, really. I think it is sorta funny, yet I cannot find any words to say either. Part of me wants to just spill out everything. I watch as Giles looks at Jenny, wondering if he's met her before. Jenny has a look on her face that plainly says yes, even though she had only introduced herself to Giles as Maria, or she just let Maria do the talking. Mostly, the laughter is caused by the look of shock on their faces upon seeing Anya. She looks back at them as if she isn't sure what the big deal is. "So, how are things in Seattle?" she asks finally.

"Uh- uh, well, we couldn't find a Slayer there. There was one in a place a few hours away, but she was only 6." Giles says slowly. I nod. "H-How-"

"There was no others in the state of Washington?" Anya asks, purposely cutting him off. I don't think she feels like talking about her death right now.

"We were about to look when heard where you were." Giles says as he looks at me. "Willow's been dreaming of you lately and they were pretty scary."

"The lying dead in an alley somewhere one?" Dinah asks.

"Yeah." Willow admits.

"Oh, been there, done that." she says with a shrug, leaning against Helena. I roll my eyes at her. She is such a mouse when none of the others are around, but when Barbara, Helena, Anya or I are around, she is a smart ass. I wrap an arm around Willow's shoulders.

"I think it is time to tell you about metahumans, my friend. Sit down, this will take a while." I try my best to get my friends to understand metahumans, which is hard, since I barely understand them myself. Well, I understand them, but not the concept of how or why. Willow seems to understand, and so does Giles, but Andrew and Kennedy still seem lost.

"There are actually people who are born with mutant powers like in the X-men?" I give Helena a warning look.

"Sorta, but they are called metahumans. You could get killed calling them mutants." I tell him gently. He nods. He looks like he is enjoying this, as if he is dreaming his geek dreams again about kissing Jean Grey or something. If I think about it, it is almost like that for me. I get to kiss a hot redhead, only she isn't a telepath/telekinetic, as that is Dinah, but Barbara still moves me every time... "Each has their own power. It cannot be duplicated." I say. Kennedy raises her hand. "You aren't in school, Ken." I say. "What's up?" She slowly lowers her hand.

"That's the part that gets to me. Why is it that no one has the same powers as someone else? If there are so many of them around, you'd think two would run into each other and have the same powers."

"I'll just say what Dinah told me. 'If Barbara doesn't know, then I don't know.' " Barbara smiles at that and looks at the teenaged meta. "It isn't really known why, Kennedy." The youngest of the Slayers seems to accept this as an answer. "This is why I came here. I thought that the supernatural like happenings around the city were vampires, and of course some of it was, but I think for the most part, it was the metas."

"It does seem as if things are alright with you now." Willow says, then turns to the immortal ex-vengeance demon. "I can't believe you're alive, Anya." she breathes. "I don't know how, but I am glad." Anya smiles.

"I keep getting the feeling I've met you before, Maria."

"Uh, her name is Jenny as well." Dinah says meekly. Jenny/Maria glares at her.

"Jenny?" Giles seems interested now.

"Yes." Dinah says.

"It's my-"

"Jenny Calender." Willow breathes. I look over at the young redhead and see that she is slightly glowing. "I knew there was something familiar about you."

"Anyone else who's lost say 'Aye'." Dinah says, even though she knows somewhat what's going on. Andrew, Kennedy, Barbara and Helena all raise their hands.

"Aye!" they chorus. Anya sighs.

"Alrighty, Giles, meet your girlfriend that you thought was dead but is now sharing the body of some unsuspecting soul who happens to be a pyro metahuman. Jenny... and Maria, meet Giles, the guy you were too chicken shit to meet because you were afraid he'd look at you like you're a nut job... not unlike the look he's giving me now. Alrighty, now that we are all friends, lets go to sleep."

"It is quite a lot to keep up with..." Helena says slowly.

"I- but..." Giles takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes. "I do believe a rest is in order. Will you ladies be available to talk in the morning?"
"No problem." Barbara says, trying not to laugh at the older man.

"Er-thanks."

"Rupert-" Jenny/Maria says, but she says nothing else.

"Good night to you all, then." Giles and Kennedy walking back into the elevator with Willow following after them. Andrew, who is looking at the Delphi system, looks around and seeing as his gang is leaving, he hurries after them. The way he was drooling over the many monitors and the pictures of missing people that were on them makes my mind turn a little bit. Maybe...

Dinah

I think I have a headache. A really big one. His name is Andrew, and he won't shut up, and actually seems to understand the technobabble that Barbara is telling him about the Delphi. While they go into the various types of monitors... blah blah blah, I zone into my one thoughts and think about the last 36 hours that passed since we met the Sunnydale gang. Mr. Giles and Faith's other friends had come back the next day a little before noon looking for answers, and we tried the best we could to give them some. We mostly spoke of Anya and Jenny/Maria, explaining how they have come back from the dead, but not back to Sunnydale. When Jenny Calender had joined with Maria McDowell, Maria didn't notice it at first because Jenny was too weak to do much. Still, she felt twitchy more often when she was up in an area that had other people in it. After a while, she could see the things that Jenny had, as if her memories and Jenny's had combined. She had gone to a shrink for a little while about these things, but her therapist only told her that they were dreams and that she needed to separate the dreams from reality, but she couldn't seem to do that. She had broken down after a while, and ended up in Arkham for many months to about a year as Jenny had gotten stronger, and Maria started to understand. When Jenny and Maria had come to a compromise, Maria was then considered cured and was let back into society, where she hid Underground.

As for Anya, she was actually open and honest with her thoughts as she told Giles that she didn't want to go back and be apart of the Scooby gang like before. She told them that she wanted more than 'the occasional rough sex with Xander'. She says that as much as she misses the Sunnydale gang, she thought it was time for her to move on. Which, after a large celebratory dinner out, where they spoke of good times and the bad with Faith, is what they did as well, going back to Seattle to continue their search for Slayers. Jenny said she wanted to go with them and help them out. There were no objections, as they all were thinking of the same thing. Maybe together they can figure out what has happened to Jenny and how she can cross over. After Barbara and Faith had some sort of discussion, they asked Andrew if he would like to stay with us. I thought this was sort of a surprise, but when they explained that he seemed to know what he was talking about when it came to the Delphi, I realized, he could be the person to take Barbara's spot as Oracle.

It surprises me how quickly, though, that Andrew understands this stuff, whereas my brain shut off after the first few seconds due to an overload. He nods eagerly as Helena laughs. I think it is great that she get along with Andrew so well. She doesn't see him as any sort of threat, and knows that him being here will help us as well as him. When he was with the Scooby gang, he wasn't liked because of his background, and now, like Faith, he is out seeking his redemption, and I hope he gets that here. He is training hard, trying to learn the commands and his way around the Delphi, and by the looks of it, he might even be able to become OJ (that is what Helena started calling him earlier today after Faith called him Oracle Jr.) tonight while the rest of us are out on sweeps. With his reading glasses on like he has them now, it is creepy how much like Barbara he actually looks. He could almost be her son.

At this moment, he is looking at me expectantly, as if he is waiting for me to come back to reality. I realize then he has asked me a question and that Barbara has left the room. "I'm sorry dude, what was that?" I ask.

"I asked you if you could go into the training room for a moment, please. It is time for an experiment."

"Are you trying to imply that I am a guinea pig?" I ask, sounding slightly hurt, though my face plainly says I'm not.

"Only in the nicest way possible." he jokes. I smile and walk up the ramp and into the training room.

Alright, anyone who can hear me, please meet me at the Delphi. I hear in my ear about 3 minutes later. I smile again at the excitement I hear in his voice, and I walk out down to the Delphi. I am met by Helena, who was in my room, Faith, who was on the balcony, Barbara, who was in the elevator, Anya, who was in the kitchen area, and Gibson who was on the staircase where they hid as part of this experiment. "ALRIGHT!!" Andrew cries in his excitement, happy that he has gotten us all online by himself. It is like a test he has passed.

Faith

Alright, no more middleman walkie talkies. You hear everyone, right? Andrew says in my ear as I am last to get on the elevator and start sweeps. It's been a few days, and it seems everything is going well with Andrew at the Delphi. I think it was a good idea, and I am glad that Barbara allowed us to try this.

"I'm not sure. Everyone say something."

Like what? Anya asks in a confused voice, but I know she's being funny... I think...

Metas rule. Helena says in unison with Gibson and Barbara's

Something.

"Dinah?"

I'm here.

Good. Barbara and Helena, you two go to Genesis Memorial and make sure none of the families rise tonight or any other. Faith and Dinah, I want you at The Holt cemetery in the downtown area. I don't like the lack of activity at Benny's Jewels. From your history, that place used to get robbed all the time. If you can stake some vamps along the way, that would be awesome, too. Anya and Gibson... You two go to the Underground and check the entrance and exit ways. I don't want any vampires surfacing anytime soon. I can hear typing in the background, and I feel safe knowing he's watching over us like a guardian angel. It feels like I want to take that safety and give it away to the rest of the city. Is this how Dinah felt? With Barbara in her ear, she knew she wasn't alone. With Andrew in my ear and Dinah by my side as I meet her on the corner, I know I am not alone.

Man, you sound like you're liking that chair a little too much. I hear Barbara say, and I can't help but smile, knowing that she is there, too.

Jealous. I hear a smile in his words, and I laugh, imagining him grinning like the dork he is as he watches our little dots move about one of the screens. I know what Barbara is going to say though. She's not at all jealous.

Not one bit. See? Told you. As much as I miss Oracle, as Oracle, I missed Batgirl more.

"Y'know, you were hot behind the glasses, sitting there typing like a maniac at the Delphi like that..." I know my eyes are glazing over a bit. Dinah nudges me. "Wicked hot."

I'm hotter with the mask and the cape. It shows of my ass... sets better. I think about some of our more heated moments together, and my body heat rises. Damn it.

"Have to agree with that one." I say in a husky tone. "But I might need some research data to back that up, you know to make sure it is correct." I say suggestively.

Hey! No orgasms until after sweeps... and maybe a little foreplay. Knowing Barbara, who isn't quite used to Anya's excessive use of the 'O' word, she is blushing like mad, but her next words throw me off.

Slaying IS our foreplay. she says, and it is my turn to blush.

Alright, TMI. Gibson says, though his tone is a cross between 'Ew' and Tell me more'.

Okay okay, let's get this over with. The sooner we get this done, the sooner Anya and Faith can get back and take a cold shower.

Together? Helena asks. Dinah laughs.

I'm game. Anya says in a joking manner.

Hey, it's on. Orgy in the shower at midnight.

"Dinah! I'm shocked!" I say.

Enough. Andrew says.

"Yessss SIR!" I say in a playful growl. Andrew sighs, but the lines go quiet.

Thirty minutes later, Dinah and I are walking as quietly as we can through The Holt cemetery to take the shortcut to Benny's Jewels. From where we stand, it seems all is quiet, and in a place like this, that isn't always good. In fact, sometimes that is the one thing to fear. It means there is a big conspiracy or something going on. Dinah shuffles a little bit, and I look at her. She shrugs as if she was afraid I'd get mad at her for it or something, but in reality, I didn't care if she woke the dead... uh, so to speak. We need a little action around here. "I don't sense anything." I murmur to both Dinah and Andrew. "I don't think anything is here.

I don't either, and Batgirl and I split up, dividing the memorial spot. Helena says, heaving a heavy sigh.

Batgirl? Andrew asks. There's no reply. Damn it, if this is her revenge for all the times you went off comms. as some sort of rebellious thing, I am gonna kick your ass, Huntress, meta or not. I've got connections. Huntress only laughs. I'm serious. I'll sic Faith on you!

"Leave me out of this. You're on your own, Freak Boy-"

Aw, that's because your scared I'll whoop you. You know that metas rule, and you don't want me to prove it.

"Oh now it's on. You, Me, Clocktower, 1 AM. You're going down." I say.

You... wish. she says. I freeze for a second, then start to laugh in unison with Huntress. Dinah smiles, and we walk towards Benny's Jewels, though I know I am not going to find anything. Dinah follows after me. We roam around between those two places for another 15 minutes or so, and both Helena and I are disappointed. Not even a newbie to play with. Helena whines, though it is my thoughts as well.

That was time wasted. I could have had two hours of sex. Anya complains.

With who? Helena asks.

Well, no one, but if I did have someone, I would have had major sex with them in the time it took for us to walk around these stupid streets. Anya grumbles.

Alright, ladies. I get the hint. Come on back to the Clocktower. I think the city is dead... haha. Where the Hellmouth is Batgirl? Andrew demands.

"I don't know-" Suddenly I see her as we exit the cemetery, seeming to fly on her cables as if they extend from her hands like Spiderman. She lands expertly next to me, letting her cables gather to her. "Show off." I say with a smirk.

"I hate to have to do this to you, Dinah, but-" She shoots her cables upwards the nearest building, and she grabs on to my waist.

"OH SHIT!" I scream when my feet leave the ground unexpectedly.

"Hmm. I'm here, Andrew." She laughs at Andrew indistinct muttering. "Me Batgirl, you Faith." She says in a caveman-like voice.

"Didn't take you to for one who likes the kinky sex games, but I'm all for it." We land on the roof, and I fall forward, but Barbara catches me, and holds me against her. I look up into her eyes, and I swear my knees refuse to work for a split second.

"My dear Faith, you can take me anyway you want." She says in a purr. Man, for someone who blushes at the word orgasm...

Could you two please turn off comms. when you whisper sweet nothings into each other's ear? Some of us all knowing DON'T want to know who likes it how. Andrew whines.

"You like it, Freak Boy. Makes you all tingly inside to think about it." I tease.

Hell-o! Gay here!

"So is everyone else in our group." I say, gasping when Barbara's hand roams under my shirt. I raise an eyebrow at Barbara, but I don't say anything.

Alfred's not. Andrew says.

At the same time, Dinah asks, Gibson and Anya are gay?

Alfred's almost like a Watcher, therefore he is like a totally different species altogether. Anya says.

I beg your pardon? Alfred says in the background at the same time Andrew bursts out into a small fit of giggles.

Tell Pen-man I meant no harm. Anya remarks.

No harm done, Miss Anya, though... Next time you're over in the Clocktower, might I suggest you avoid drinking the tea.

Was that a threat, Alfred? Helena asks.

No no. Not at all, Huntress. It was a promise. I ignore the rest of the banter as Barbara kisses my neck.

"How can you stand it? The side effects are driving me crazy. You've dealt with it for years, and I've only dealt with it for a couple of weeks."

"Got some action out there in the cemetery, huh?"

"Not nearly as much as you're about to get." Barbara growls.

"Clocktower... now." I say breathlessly. Barbara's eyebrows raise, and then we start heading back to the Clocktower at an alarming rate. About ten minutes later, I don't notice that we are in the elevator, as Barbara's making sure I'm distracted. "Ooh, gropage... Groping's nice." I say. As the elevator nears the top, I groan, hearing the unique 'vampire alert' shriek of the Delphi monitor system. The elevator doors open to reveal the rest of the group, including Alfred. They were looking at the many screens. I walk to Helena's side.

"What've we got?"

"This, ladies and gents, is why the nights been so dull." Andrew says, pointing to the monitors.

"Yay! Big battle time. My favorite time of the month." Anya says in a sardonic tone. Dinah and Gibson laugh at this while Andrew only shakes his head. On the screens I see a gathering of vampires causing mayhem at a club called Draco's Club.

"Babs an' I woulda been able to sense them halfway across the city!" I protest.

"From the slight yellowish tint to their skin, they seem to have auras. Vampires don't have auras; the exception being Spike and Angel, since they have their souls back. I think it's a spell-" Andrew says, but he is cut off by Anya.

"X-trake." Anya blurts out, not looking up from the screens. "Linda sold it in the shop, but when I took over, I made sure I got rid of it." Andrew nods, but Dinah, Helena, Gibson, Alfred, and Barbara are all confused.

"So, what is X-trake exactly, and what does it do? Make it look like you have a soul?" Anya smiles at Dinah's question.

"It's a potion, and yes, that's exactly what it does. It's to disguise demons and vamps from the likes of us. Those that can sense them like Slayers, witches, and other demons." She explains, happy to have some info to show off. "It was a big seller in the store among the teens, and afraid that one day someone would buy it off of a teen, I got rid of it. It doesn't harm mortals. It just seems like a mango flavored energy drink or something equally delicious."

"Well," Helena says, looking at me with knowing look. "It appears hunting season has come early this year. After all, the family that preys together..." She let herself trail off, a predatory smirk enters her face as her eyes change to their feral state. I return the smile. I hold out my hand towards her, not unlike in the Batcave when I told her I was there to help her get it back. She grabs it in that same warriors' grasp. We shake once, then I look around at the rest of the group.

"C'mon," I say, "the faster we get this shit over with, the faster we can come home." Home... It is such a wonderful word now that it finally has a meaning for me.

The End