A/N : Thought for the day - Reviewers are the coolest people on the web :-)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 3

"I'm never drinking champagne again" Willow groaned as she sat on the kerb in Sunnydale's main street, clutching her head.

"I did try to stop you, sweetie" her girlfriend reminded her with a gentle smile.

"Well, I didn't know I was gonna be going into battle right after I drank it" the red-head sighed, "This wasn't exactly the plan for the evening" she said glancing over at Spike with a look that told him exactly what hers and Tara's plans had been.

"So sorry to screw up your love life, pet" the vampire rolled his eyes, "but this is a bloody emergency, y'know"

"Spike's right" Buffy agreed, though she knew her Wiccan friends already understood it anyway, "If Cordy's getting visions about something happening here, and Spike's dreaming almost the exact same thing, I don't think it's going to lead to hugs and puppies"

"It's good that Xander and Anya got their wedding day all done before this happened" Tara considered, "Th-they deserved a nice day"

"That they did, pet" Spike smiled at her.

He hadn't meant to get angry at her or Willow, honestly he liked the two witches, they were the first to really accept the relationship between himself and Buffy, and he would always love them a little bit for that. He had no right to be liked by such good people, and yet here they were, totally okay with the fact he and the Slayer were together, and completely accepting of his daughter when she was still around.

"I wish we knew what was coming" Buffy sighed, "I'd feel a whole lot better if I had some idea what kind of ass I need to kick"

"Right there with you, luv" Spike told her, leaning back against a lamp post and lighting up a cigarette, a habit he'd almost managed to give up when Annaliese was around. Now he was back on the fags, mostly when he was nervous or jittery about something, like right now.

"So your vision-dream didn't show you the demon?" Willow checked she understood, "and Cordy's didn't either?"

"Not as such" Spike told her, blowing out smoke, "Mostly it was just a vibe, a feeling like something big, bad, and nasty is comin' to town, and it's real pissed off too"

"Oh" was all Willow could think of to say.

As the champagne from earlier made her head spin like a manic gyroscope once again, she swallowed hard, and wished she was anywhere but here. How her best friend's wedding day had turned into such a fiasco she had no idea. She'd hoped for just one pleasant and quiet day on the Hellmouth, but it seemed it was impossible. Some kind of Big Bad was coming and in all honesty she didn't really feel in any fit state to fight it, nevertheless she and Tara were here, to stand side by side with Buffy and Spike and take on whatever was thrown at them.

Sometimes she wished she had their strength, even now when her powers were as advanced as they had become over the past couple of years. Though Slayer strength and vampire abilities played a big part, Willow knew the real strength in these two came from within. They coped so well with the loss of those they loved, first Buffy lost her Mom, then Spike lost his daughter, and somehow they'd banded together and found a way to carry on and do their jobs. It was incredible to the red-head, who was sure that if she ever lost anybody she loved that much, it would finish her.

"You okay, sweetie?" Tara checked as she caught her girlfriend staring her oddly.

"Uh-huh" she nodded, forcing a smile, "I just, I love you" she said simply, causing her girlfriend to blush slightly and duck her face behind her hair, after all they were in the middle of the street and Buffy and Spike were right there.

"I love you" she responded in kind a moment later, and the two shared a smile.

The sweet moment didn't last as Spike started yelling.

"Mojo on standby, ladies" he warned them, as they started to feel what he was getting, the ground and sky both rumbling in unison around them, "Whatever's on it's way, I think it's bloody here"

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Cordelia complained as Angel drove them towards Sunnydale, "I mean, thank God we're not trying to catch a road-runner demon, we'd be pretty crappy at it"

"Are you comparing my car to Wile E Coyote?" Angel checked, looking both confused and offended, "This is a classic Cordelia, and we're going fast enough. I'm already way over the limit"

"It's not over the limit enough" she complained, "Angel, you didn't see that vision, you didn't feel what I felt..."

"I know" the vampire agreed, eyes flitting between her and the road ahead, "but you haven't got this upset about a vision in a while, Cordy. Why was this one different?"

"Because I wasn't the only one to see it" she explained, "And because it's in Sunnydale. You do remember what happened last time we visited, right?"

The look he gave her told Cordelia in no uncertain terms that of course he remembered, and that he was far from thrilled that she'd asked that question.

"I'm sorry" she said softly, "I know you remember, I know you could never forget, and I, I... argh!" she suddenly screamed, her hand going to her head as another vision hit her.

It was awfully graphic as she saw Buffy, Spike, Willow, Tara, all blown back down the street by a powerful blast. Fire and lightning, a forcefield that threatened to almost blow buildings out of it's way. Such power, Cordy was scared half to death just from feeling a fraction of it through her second-sight.

"Cordelia! Cordy, can you hear me?" Angel was asking her as she came out of it.

He'd pulled the car over and was glad he had when she was released from her trance and grabbed at him, needing at least a few moments of comfort.

"What happened? What did you see?" he was asking her as he held her close, trying not to sound panicked in an effort to soothe her.

"It's bad, Angel" she told him as she pulled from his arms and looked him in the eye, "Whatever it is, it's an even bigger deal than we thought. We have to get there, now"

"We will" he promised her, though they had a few miles to go and not that much power left in the car to make it go any faster than they had been, but he'd try.

He hadn't seen Cordelia look this scared in a good long while. LA and the work they did there had hardened her to a lot of horrors. For her to be this worked up over a vision, she'd seen and felt something very powerful and very bad.

Angel put the car in gear, pulled back onto the road and put his foot on the gas. He didn't relish the prospect of facing whatever Big Bad was coming to Sunnydale, but he had a job to do, that's why he was here.

The Slayer, her vampire boyfriend, and two witch friends scrambled to get up from the floor where they had literally been blown onto their backs by the force of something as yet unseen.

"What the...?" Spike began to ask, but he received his answer before he'd even had time to pose the question.

It wasn't quite a portal, but something was warping the space in front of them, pushing and pulling as if it were trying to rip a hole into the very fabric of space and time, and punch it's way into Sunnydale right now.

Buffy opened her mouth to ask Willow and Tara if there was a way to stop whatever it was getting in, but she didn't get a chance as an almighty explosion threatened to blind them all.

As they shielded their eyes from the bright red/orange light, they missed what it had brought forth from the beyond. They soon noticed the beast, as it bellowed like the monster it was.

"Oh my God" Buffy gasped, her eyes going wide at the sight of a demon, at least seven feet tall and almost as wide, with scales, and horns, and every possible bad ugly feature a demon could have. She'd never seen anything like it in her life, and honestly, she wished she wasn't seeing it now.

Before she had a chance to speak, or form any kind of strategy, Spike went with his usual fight plan and dived right in with a battle cry that was, ironically, loud enough to wake the dead. The Slayer followed his lead, brandishing her weapon and using it the best way she could to hack at any part of the demon threatening to come near her.

Willow and Tara scrambled into action, hands clasped together as they conjured up the first thing they could think of that might be useful. A fireball was soon present in the street, right above the heads of the two Wiccans who had made it appear. With a mighty push of their collective powers they shot it towards the beast.

"Buffy, Spike, down!" Willow yelled, and they both got out of the way as the ball of fire flew at the demon, smashing into it's face and temporarily blinding it.

The distraction helped the Slayer and vampire to gain the upper hand for a while, but it was soon clear that the two of them alone would not be enough to bring the Godzilla-type beast down. The witches were clearly off their mojoing game, and weren't exactly as handy with a sword or axe as they might be.

Buffy was starting to worry about this when suddenly a loud crash emanated from the sky, like thunder with a lightening strike to accompany it, but much more powerful than any storm that the Slayer had ever seen.

With a blinding flash, not unlike the one that had brought forth the demon, something else appeared, looking to Spike as if it, or more specifically they, had been dropped from the sky. Two figures landed deftly on their feet behind the demon that was not expecting the attack to suddenly come from two sides.

Not given a chance to question to arrival of the new fighters, who seemed as eager to finish off this demon as they were, Buffy and Spike swung back into action, hacking and slashing at the beast before them. They hadn't noticed yet that the spell their Wiccan friends had earlier performed had an adverse effect on them both, though mostly Willow. They had since retreated to a shop doorway out of harms way, Tara holding on tight to her girlfriend, watching the fight before her with fear etched on her features. This was perhaps the most trouble she'd seen Spike and Buffy have with any demon in a good long while, and whilst the arrival of two extra fighters gave her some comfort, she worried about who they might be, what they might want, and how they had suddenly appeared out of the sky like they had.

"Slayer, now!" Spike said suddenly catching both the witches attention.

They watched as the vampire distracted the demon momentarily, allowing Buffy the chance to plunge her sword into what they assumed to be the creatures heart. Luckily they were right this time and with an almighty roar the demon finally died, one weapon embedded in it's chest, another in it's spinal column.

As the beast fell to it's side, it revealed the new arrivals to the Hellmouths protectors. Spike's features formed into a frown as he eyed the dark haired girl that stood before him, her eyes lighting up at the very sight of him. She was maybe sixteen or seventeen years old, pale and pretty, but battle-scarred more than her girl her age ought to be, and those eyes, he knew them so well...

"Daddy!" the stranger suddenly squealed, rushing into Spike's arms and hugging him tight.

It was Annaliese.

To Be Continued...

A/N : Yeah, so a lot of you guessed that was coming - am I getting boring and predictable or what?!