A/N-oh, reunions! The first (well, not really first) of many!

I do not own anything of the Buffy verse. If I did, every episode would be like "Once More With Feeling". Well, maybe not every episode.

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"Oh my God!" cried Dawn with her sweater over her head as her only means of protection as she dodged the ferocious rain drops that fell around her and the ping pong size hailstones. They had just gotten off the jet, it being almost unable to land. All around her, the wind whipped and various objects went flying as the slayers fled toward the security and dryness of the Military Headquarters, their new home for however long this new mission would take. "Oh my God! Oh my God! That's it! I'm never trusting the government ever again. They said we'd get here after the storm passed."

"It did pass," replied Buffy, running up from behind her, shouting over the roaring winds. "This is the aftermath of the storm. Come on, we have to get inside." She grabbed her by the hand and they ran.

They reached the building and stepped inside headquarters. "Definitely not cozy," thought Buffy to herself, looking around at the room, "But much improved from the outside."

"This is crazy," cried Dawn, "There's, like, three feet of water outside and we're on high ground! Did you see the city when we were flying in? It looks like…"

"Hell?" interrupted Kennedy, who stepped in from another room. Her fingers were entwined with another, the hand of a red head.

"Willow! Kennedy!" Dawn screamed in delight, after not having seen her friends in months, and proceeded in hugging them both.

"Dawnie! Oh, I missed you so much!" said Willow cheerfully. But her face quickly became sullen. "Yeah it's pretty bad out there." Willow bite her lip, while Kennedy squeeze dher girlfriend's hand tighter.

"This is awful! Why didn't they evacuate? Could anyone even be alive out there?" Dawn searched her two friends' faces for an answer.

"Well, they didn't have enough time, I guess," reasoned Buffy. "Too many people. They didn't know exactly when or where it was hitting."

"Don't worry Dawn. We'll save them," said Kennedy. She just hoped it would be true.

"Where's the rest of the gang?" asked Buffy, as soaking wet girls continued to run past them into the security of the military headquarters. Buffy took the end of her long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, whipped it around, and wrung out the water from it with her hands.

"Well, I hear that that dashing Alexander Harris was mobbed by too many beautiful women to come," said a voice over Buffy's left shoulder.

Buffy turned. She should have known. "Xander!" she yelled as she leapt into the arms of her eye-patched friend. From the room behind him emerged Giles, quickly cleaning his glasses in his usual manner, then putting them on to get a better look at Buffy. She gave her old watcher and loving father figure an equally joyful hug.

As she stepped away from the embrace, Buffy noticed Andrew had also quietly entered the room. He couldn't seem to look Buffy in the eye, but rather diverted them to the sopping wet floor as he said, "Hi, Buffy."

"Weird," thought Buffy, "But hey! Would I expect anything less from Andrew?"

Buffy looked around at all her friends. It was the first time they had really been together since their last apocalypse.

"Well, I guess the gang's all here!" Willow tried to say cheerfully, yet failed miserably. Secretly, they all knew the gang wasn't all there. No one would admit it, but all were thinking about a certain bunny-fearing friend.

Finally, Buffy broke the ice, "And it took long enough! Whatever happened to the mall trip I was promised?" asked Buffy jokingly, referring to their talk before their last trip to the Hellmouth, " Why can't we ever do that? Aren't there ever any apocalypse there?" she said with a smile. Her friends smiled back.

"So what's the plan?" asked Xander, rubbing his palms together and stepping lcoser, tightening the circle.

"Well, if you haven't noticed," began Giles, crossing his arms, "We can't exactly go out right now. So once it clears up slightly, hopefully by morning, we can go and start the rescue efforts."

"And I can kick whatever's beastie's ass that's behind this!"

Buffy looked towards the source of the outburst and was shocked who she saw. The surprises just never seemed to end lately. "Faith! I didn't expect…"

"Well, us veteran slayers got to keep these newbies in line, right?" Faith cocked an eyebrow and turned to face a freckle faced, pigtailed girl, "Hey, no slouching!" she scoffed, pointing a stern finger. The girl straightened up and scampered away in a panic. Faith laughed.

"Something's a-brewin', alright," thought Buffy, "Just not necessarily the storm."