Chapter 7

Darkness fell. Buffy shivered. She could sense something off about the night. She could feel trouble. Buffy felt something she usually ignored when she felt it, afraid. She shoved the fear aside. After all, she was the Slayer , wasn't she? She jumped as someone knocked at the door. Joyce opened the door.

"Faith. Hi. Come in. Haven't seen you for a while."

The dark haired, almost Goth looking secondary Slayer nodded a hello and bee-lined for Buffy. "B. We have a problem."

"This is unusual?" Buffy shot back. She sighed mentally. No matter how hard she tried, she had problems with the brash girl in front of her. Faith was, technically, no older than Buffy. Slayers tended to be mid to late teen years.

"No. I mean Big Trouble."

Buffy could hear the capital letters. This was odd. Faith didn't usually talk in caps. "How so? Have you told Giles?"

"There's a new bad ass in town and I haven't seen Giles. I went to his house but he wasn't home."

"Ah. Willow." Buffy called her best friend and found that she was not home. She called Xander. She called Giles. She called the library. She didn't expect anyone to answer but wasn't surprised when Giles did so. "Oh, Giles. Hi. You thought you'd let me have the day off?" she inquired brightly.

"Ah - Buffy. Er -no. Just - we don't know what it is - yet. We're at the library."

"We're coming."

"We?" Giles asked empty air and a line gone dead sound. "We," he muttered. Angel? The door to the library swung open and shut. Giles wheeled to face the newcomer, his face going distressingly blank.

The youthful looking vampire stopped just inside the door and nodded to everyone. He hesitated. He could see the anger, the hate, the desire to stake-the-vampire flaming in Giles' eyes. He understood the desire. There was a part of him that didn't blame the man one bit, he knew just how evil he could be when he was Angelus. But, Angel wasn't suicidal just at the moment, so he waited.

"Well, one more," Giles said softly. He got a firm grip on his desire to do bodily harm and gestured for Angel to join them.

Tanya looked up from the book she was holding. She put the book down. This was more like it. Siro was nice. That was the problem. Rayden, well, Rayden was just a bit mystical for her. But here was a young man who looked like he could be a bit of fun. She moved to greet him.

"I'm Tanya Kropotkin." She looked directly into his eyes and smiled. Angel was struck by the deep aquamarine blue of her eyes. He smiled.

"Angel."

They shook hands. She looked down at his with a slight frown. "Don't tell me - " she looked up again. "You're a vampire?" There was no sting in the words, just a touch of intrigued amusement.

He nodded. It was a hesitant admission. Her reaction threw him. No revulsion. No allure. Just matter of fact. She tucked her arm through his and drew him to a seat at the table, but slightly away from the others. She noticed Cheri's ironic look from behind the computer console where she and Willow were net surfing.

"So, what brings *you* to our little soiree?"

"Yeah," Xander seconded the question with more than a little sarcasm in his tone.

"I - I'm not sure." He was frowning. "Something happened - this afternoon. There's someone new. Some *thing* new. I don't know. But the whole town feels - odd."

"A new Master?" Buffy asked from the doorway. She spotted Angel next to the tawny woman she didn't recognize, did a slight double take and put two and two together. Great, ex-vampire with vampire with-a-soul. Buffy's eyes got a little green and then she sat on the jealousy monster. After all, Angel was *just* a friend, a very good friend, a very close friend - an ex-lover who - Lose this train of thought, she told herself sternly. It goes nowhere.

"Something like that. I'm not sure. Just that it arrived today and that - that the Hellmouth is about to be very active." Angel had a peculiar blank look on his face as he said the latter. His voice changed.

"Oh, very active," another voice said, a smooth, slimy voice. "The Hellmouth hasn't had a work out like this in years. I plan to have a lot of fun, Slayer. And there is nothing you or the bitch with you or the godling can do to stop me. Oh, yes," he turned his eyes on Rayden. "Oh, yes. I know you, Lord Rayden of the Earth Realm, Guardian and Mentor of the Victor of Mortal Kombat. The Emperor of the OutWorld is soooo glad you're not there. You and that fool with you." He grinned at them, a leering, distinctly non-Angel leer. "While you are here, they are alone, together and they are in danger."

Rayden's face, seldom relaxed, grew stonier with each sentence. He was not the protector of the last winner, just his mentor. Yet without his guidance, as ignored as it sometimes was, Kung Lao could and did manage to get into a lot of trouble. Of course, he usually managed to get himself back out again, with the help of his friends. Only one of those friends was here, with Rayden, instead of where he should be, at Kung Lao's side.

Rayden took a step toward the possessed vampire. (There was a part of Buffy's brain which was having problems with this scenario. Technically, a vampire was a dead body possessed by a demon. In Angel's case, he had a demon and his soul - and now another demon? The part of her brain devoted to logic, luckily a very, very tiny part given her destiny, was making funny little snapping and crackling noises, smoke rising from the circuits as it attempted to deal with this situation. Equally luckily, no one else seemed to be noticing.)

Angel looked at the Thunder God. His own normally soulful dark eyes were glittering with unholy power. Rayden's eyes took on the baleful glitter of lightening. Giles began to worry about the flammable possibilities in a library full of relatively elderly reference works. "Ready to take me on, godling?" he hissed.

A slender, surprisingly strong hand on his throat prevented his rising. He turned to stare at Tanya. Something in her eyes coupled with the increasing grip on his throat broke through. Something flickered. Angel was again Angel and looking worried. He carefully did not lift a hand to defend himself. The grip loosened. Tanya smiled at him, leaned forward and kissed the startled vampire. Well, startled for perhaps a few seconds before that kiss worked on raising his body temperature and his libido all at once.

Giles cleared his throat. Tanya disengaged and looked around. "Yes?"

"Somewhere else," he said pointedly.

Tanya tsked lightly and grinned at him. Giles was the more attractive of the two, but he didn't seem susceptible, not like the vampire was. She sat back in her chair, keeping a possessive grip on Angel who couldn't make up what was slowly coalescing back of his mind as to whether he objected or not. He refused to look at Buffy.

"OK," Buffy broke the tension. "We have a new player in town. Giles. Do we know anything else, yet?"

"Er - mmm - no. Not yet."

Willow and Cheri made simultaneous "eureka" sounds, although over different things, both of their computers having located items for which they were searching. Cheri grinned at Willow. "You first."

Willow beamed and then frowned at the screen. "OK. I've got tornado vortices with time/dimension traveling - stuff - " she ended uncertainly. "Well, they've been reported. They exist - like we didn't know that - and they tend to - well - transport things and people. Usually to very important points in time - so, like we now have confirmation that it's happened before, but it doesn't tell us why now." She looked around at the faces around her. "Does it?"

Giles didn't know whether to be relieved or appalled that Willow had apparently missed the entire conversation with not-Angel. "And you?"

"Me - I've got our motorcycle riding friend - one Vince Black a.k.a. Reno Raines, bounty hunter, wanted for murder of a fellow police officer and ostensibly connected to Sixkiller Enterprises. Now - by what Willow says, Mr. Black/Raines got to Sunnydale via the highways of our land with a bunch of mis-marked highway signs. Unlikely that someone he is after is out mucking about with highway signs - do we agree?"

Everyone except Rayden and Siro nodded. After all, they weren't certain just what the woman was talking about.

"OK. So, we have a new demon in town. We have Mr. Black/Raines deliberately delivered to us, or to Sunnydale, anyway. I sense some sort of connection. By the way, who are the two newbies, relative to the group. Hello, Buffy."

"Hi. That's Angel. This is Faith. We try to keep them separated."

"Ah. Uhm - you're both - uh - "

"You're sounding like Giles."

Cheri grinned and looked Giles up and down. "Sound like, OK. Look like - not gonna happen. So, any ideas on where to locate the new bad guy in town?" Cheri, blessed with an incredible ability to split her attention between two or more things, had caught the interview with the possessing vampire.

"We hit the usual places. Interested?" the latter was to Faith.

"Couldn't keep me away."

"We'll come with you," Siro called, heading after them and followed by Rayden. Both Buffy and Faith gave him a look. The one questioning his sanity, the other just sizing him up. They both nodded. Buffy would try to look out for them. Faith figured she could use them as bait.

The street outside was quiet. Very quiet. Extremely quiet for a Saturday night. Buffy and Faith split up and headed for their favorite patrol areas. Siro followed Buffy. Rayden hesitated for a moment, recalled that Siro was nearly as good as Kung Lao and followed Faith, at a respectful distance.

Two hours later, the four met outside the Bronze. No vampire activity had met them. Faith was looking annoyed. She didn't mind the old guy following her, although he was certainly silent spooky enough, but she hated getting all that adrenaline pumped for nothing.

"Hungry?" Buffy asked.

"Not yet."

"Hmm. Me neither. Frustrated."

"Yeah. Shall we?" Faith gestured toward the Bronze. It was always a good place to check for younger vamps. At Buffy's nod, they headed in. Inside, things were as usual. The band played. People danced, drank and did teen things. Some of them did older than teen things. Neither Slayer sensed any vampires in the place. How dull.

Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow." While it was said in slightly differing tones, Oz was wondering if Willow had gotten stuck in a groove. Willow looked up, her dark eyes looked huge, horror struck. "Oh, wow."

"Uh - yes. But what?" Giles prodded gently.

"Uhm - " she looked back at the screen. "You - you remember how the Master was - well - getting out, but kinda - like - take over the worldish? Well - this is worse."

Giles walked around behind the girl and took a look at the screen. She was right. It was worse. It was insane. And this from the point of view of one who normally dealt with items the rest of the world would dub insane. Not good. He resettled his glasses on his face and did a thorough read through of the information. Cheri, not wanting to add to the overload on the spatial area, pulled up the same info on her screen and did a quick scan through. She laughed.

Giles and Willow looked at her. Laughter did not seem appropriate. She met their gazes with her usual not quite straight grin. "It's a game."

"What?"

"A video game." Just about everyone in the room was looking at her like she had lost her mind. She chuckled. "Look. Video games are big on the martial arts thing right now. Mortal Kombat tm, NightStalkers tm, that kind of thing. This is obviously older than the vidiot age, *but* what they're describing is a tournament."

"A tournament? This is insane."

"Uh - demons? Y'know, this isn't any crazier than a normal day in the Hellmouth," Xander chimed in.

Giles frowned at the young man, then relented. Really, it didn't make any less sense than some of the other things which had happened in Sunnydale. "So - recommendations?"

"We let the fighters take it on. Oh, hell! Reno! He's a martial artist, as well as those other things. But why - we've gotta find him. Tanya - Tanya, get your hands off the man and come on. Besides, the blond's out there somewhere."

Tanya glared at her. Cheri grinned back. Tanya slid her hand out of Angel's and joined her almost twin as she headed out of the library. After a moment, Angel headed after the two of them with a slight nod to Giles in passing. Giles looked after him with a combination of good riddance and worry. What if the other one possessed him again? He gave the material a quick read through again. Yes. There would be a battle. But where? And who?

Reno Raines dropped his second victim of the night. He looked quite satisfied. Something was drawing him to the other side of town. He followed the call.