Chapter 9

Xander walked into school the next day and stopped at the sight of Ford and Buffy talking.

Walking up, Xander repressed the urge to punch the vampire worshiping jerk.

"I sort of had an idea. It's a... It's a secret. I kinda wanna surprise you." Ford said as Xander got within hearing range.

"I like surprises." Buffy said halfway sincerely.

"Really? Cause you know I don't." Xander countered as he finally broke into the conversation and stepped up next to Buffy.

After a moment of glaring at the intruder, Ford finally smiled tightly at the other teen and turned back to Buffy. "So I'll see you there, Nine-ish?"

"Sure," Buffy responded as she stared at Xander in confusion.

"Great," Ford said as he turned around to walk away. "It's gonna be fun."

"Somehow I doubt that." Xander muttered to himself as he glared at the retreating teen before turning towards Buffy with a smile. "So Buffy, party at the deathtrap tonight, I hear."

Smiling slightly, Buffy turned to walk down the hall with Xander pacing her. "Yeah, I hear people are just dying to get in."

--

Xander was angry, even after the knowledge that the whole thing was a trap, Buffy had still insisted on going to the club by herself.

Growling to himself, Xander headed inside.

He needed his armor.

--

Drusilla was worried, Spike had made a deal with the little Judas boy to betray the Slayer. The stars sang that the Judas child was right, but Miss Edith was worried, she whispered warnings about the Tin Man.

Sitting in the darkness of her room, Dru rocked back and forth with the small doll as she wondered what she should do.

In all her years the stars had always been right, but they had forgotten to tell her things and that had gotten the insane vampire in trouble, like the time in Peru, but Miss Edith had always given good advice and Dru was concerned about ignoring the small voice.

"Dru love, it's time." Spike said happily as he imagined his lover back to her old self.

"Spike, I'm scared. Miss Edith says the Tin Man is going to be angry if we go after the Slayer tonight." Drusilla whispered as she continued to rock herself slightly.

"Don't worry love, I've talked to the Wizard and straightened it all out, everything's going to be fine." Spike said soothingly as he tried to get his unbalanced sire moving.

With a snarl, Drusilla's hand lashed out and caught her favorite child in the face.

Jerking back, Spike felt his face where the four long scratches lay across his cheek, pulling back his hand he stared at the blood in confusion for a second before growling. He shifted into his full demonic face and the shallow cuts healed. Turning to his lover, Spike considered forcing the vampiress to come with him before shrugging it off, "Fine then, I'll bring you back something sweet to eat, love." Spike growled before leaving the warehouse.

Staring after the younger vampire, Dru started to whimper at the thought of being truly alone.

--

Xander moved as quickly as he could towards the vampire wannabe club as he prayed he was quick enough to save his friend.

Willow and he had managed to enhance the battery system slightly but in the end Xander had forgone most of his more advanced equipment and had settled on his microwave cannon and two or three of the more self contained weapons systems.

Ignoring the clanking of the axe he had strapped on, Xander stumbled slightly as the dark skinned Slayer stepped out of an alley way in front of him.

"Kendra, what are you doing here?" Xander asked as he tried to ignore the memory of the rant Willow had given him at the discovery of 'that' little secret.

Xander flinched as he remembered he had meant to tell Giles about her while at school today.

"You are going after de vampires?" Kendra asked and took his silence as confirmation. "Den it is me job to help you, sir."

"Kendra, you don't understand I…" Xander trailed off, he really didn't want to deal with this without Giles there to help. Sighing, Xander rubbed at the sweat on his head and winced when his armored gauntlet hit the helmet. "Great, okay the friend I'm going to save, her name's Buffy and she's the… A vampire Slayer, she died last year and I revived her with CPR, she's walking into a trap right now and I have to save her." Xander blurted out and waited for Kendra's response.

After a momentary pause, the Jamaican Slayer took a breath and looked at the armored man that had helped her. "She is in trouble from vampires?" She asked and nodded when he confirmed it. "Den everything else be secondary, let's go."

"Alright, but… do you have something to cover your face with?" Xander asked and explained at her quizzical look. "Nobody else knows you're here, if you cover your face we can have at least a tiny bit of time to resolve everything before you become a target."

That problem was resolved by adding a scarf tied around the face to a hooded shirt concealing the young Slayer's features.

With a curse at the time wasted, Xander and Kendra headed for the club.

--

Xander frowns as he gets to the Sunset Club and stares at the open metal door. "Great, looks like the party has started without us, Kendra. When we get in there, Buffy is the short blond. Watch out for Spike, he has peroxide white hair, a leather jacket and he's killed two slayers, so if you see him, tell me and I'll deal with him."

Saying a silent prayer to anyone that was listening for his friend's safety, Xander rushed towards the door.

Moving down the stairs, Xander took in the sight of Buffy pressed into a corner as she tried to protect as many of the idiots as she could behind her.

Stepping forward, Xander grabbed a vampire around the throat and simply flung the undead creature off the balcony. Taking a moment, he set the targeting crosshairs over the falling leech and pressed the firing stud.

With a popping crack, the vampire disintegrated and showered the occupants below with dust.

In the silence that settled, Xander pointed his cannon at Spike. "Let them go or no one gets out of here alive."

--

(A/N) Wow, you have no idea how hard it is to write this part out without using Dru as a hostage.

Anyway that's that chapter down, hope you all enjoyed it.

And WAHOO! The first 10k words on this little 'One Shot' hope you all enjoy.

-Tjin.