Author's Notes:

All these brilliant characters (except for K) belong to Joss Whedon because if they belonged to me, I'd be… Joss Whedon. Which I'm not. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks, and enjoy.

The Second Vamp Nest

The next morning, everyone was up and getting ready to go to the next vampire nest. K actually managed to shower, a luxury she barely had time for lately. She had to be careful of her left arm, though, and avoid getting the sling wet. Before long, everyone was at the lobby of the hotel, ready to get into the van.

Kennedy drove with Buffy up front next to her. Angel, Spike, and Xander sat in the middle row as the four other girls squeezed in at the back.

They had arrived at the next building, which was around half the size of the first one.

"At least it's smaller," Willow said. "Probably less vamps. We'll be able to kill them more easily."

They got out of the van, Angel and Spike running under the blanket, and entered the ground floor of the second building.

"It looks exactly the same!" Kennedy scoffed.

"There are no vampires on this floor," Angel said.

"And there are five floors instead of eight," Satsu noted. "What's the plan, Buffy?"

"First floor is empty," Buffy started. "We'll go in pairs for the other floors. And one group of three. Dawn, you'll have to be with a Slayer, just so I'm sure you're safe."

Dawn scoffed, but didn't argue.

"I'm trying to make it so that the power on each floor is somewhat equal. Willow and Xander, you take the second floor. Satsu, Kennedy, and Dawn take the third floor. Keep her safe. Angel and Spike, you take the fourth floor."

Angel and Spike looked at each other in terrible confusion, but didn't talk back to Buffy's orders.

"And K and I will take the fifth. Any questions?"

No one spoke.

"Good. Let's go."

Everyone went to his or her designated floor, and as Buffy and K entered the hallways of the fifth floor, they began to stealthily look for vampires.

Once the showed themselves, Buffy was a slaying machine. She kept most of the vampires at a distance from K and killed them before they even got close. K figured that it was probably because she wanted to keep her at a distance, too. Then why did she choose to go to the floor with her?

A few vampires came from the other side towards K, but she was able to stake them with ease. "This is too easy this time," K said.

Buffy decapitated one last vampire with her axe.

"I guess there are less on this floor," she said. "I'll do a quick check around. You stay there."

"But I can help you," K said, not taking a step. "I can help if there are any more vampires."

"Just stay there," Buffy ordered as she disappeared behind a corner.

K didn't move as she patiently waited for Buffy to come back. It felt like forever. She felt like she was frozen. She felt no pain, only a heavy weight in her chest. She didn't know how much time passed when Buffy returned.

"This floor's empty," she said. "Let's go one floor down. Angel and Spike should be there."

K obeyed, and the two slayers went down the stairs to the fourth floor.

They saw Angel first, searching the rooms of the office building for more vampires.

"What's going on here?" Buffy asked.

"Where's Spike?" K asked, a little too loudly.

"He's on the other side of the floor," Angel said. "And we're just checking to see if there are any more vampires on this floor. We dusted, like, ten of them, and there don't seem to be any more."

Spike came around the corner. "No more," he said.

K smiled. "Spike," she said quietly.

Spike smiled back. "Hello, love. Is everything clear up top?"

Buffy nodded. "So there are no vampires on this floor?"

"This is way too easy. I mean, I haven't even gotten sore yet," K said. "I'm not complaining, though. I mean, my arm's already in this sling."

"I think all the vampires are moving down," Angel said. "They might be trying to escape, but I can't see how what with the sun shining down outside and all. There is a possibility of another exit, though."

"Then let's get down there. Fast, before they escape."

The four of them ran down one more floor and searched for Kennedy, Satsu, and Dawn.

"Dawn?" Buffy called. "Kennedy? Satsu?"

After the four of them looked around for a bit, they found the three girls fighting off a huge hoard of vampires with great difficulty.

"We have to help!" Buffy announced, less than a second after everyone had already jumped into the rumble.

It was difficult for K to fight off so many vampires off at once, especially because of her injured arm.

A vampire lifted her up and pushed her against the wall by her shoulders. She squired, but couldn't escape his grasp.

"Mmm… blood of a Slayer," the vampire said. Just as it leaned in to bite her, it vanished and turned into dust.

"Dawn," K gasped as she tried to stay standing. "Thank you. You saved me."

"Don't mention it," she said, smiling.

K smiled back. "Dawn, look out!" K pushed Dawn out of the way of a lunging vampire. K punched it in the face, leaving it in a daze just before stabbing it in the chest.

Dawn had fallen over, and was looking up at K in complete awe.

"You saved me," she said.

K laughed. "Don't mention it. We're even now."

K extended her hand, and Dawn grabbed it. K pulled her up.

They briefly smiled at each other before getting back into a fighting stance and beating down more vampires.

"God, this is so endless!" Dawn complained.

"Dawn, go help Spike. I can handle it here, but he seems to be having some trouble," K said.

Dawn nodded, and left K alone with her group of vampires.

She started dusting them with ease before some of the tougher ones actually decided to hit back.

One of them had picked up a slayer weapon—a crossbow with the wooden arrows in it. He pointed it at K from a distance.

"What a nifty little device," the vampire chuckled. "Let's get rid of the smallest one first."

K didn't have time to react when she realized that the vampire had already shot the arrow in her direction. She closed her eyes and winced, waiting for the sharp pain of the arrow to penetrate her. But it didn't. What had happened? K opened her eyes to see the arrow, but it was sticking through something—a person.

It was Angel. He had stood in the way of the arrow. It stuck through just below his chest and stuck out on the other side of his back. He pulled it out, wincing, and then threw the arrow into the vampire's heart.

"Angel…" K said quietly. "Y-you just saved my life. Oh, God, you're hurt because of me."

"It's better I got hit than you," Angel told her. "You would've died."

"Yeah, but… oh, God, it was so close to your heart. If you had died because of me…"

"But I didn't," Angel said. "So it's okay."

Spike was in front of Buffy and Dawn, fighting off and staking a whole group of vampires. He was protecting the Summers girls. Once he was finished, that was the last of them on that floor. As the dust shifted, everything grew silent.

"Willow and Xander must be going through hell," Satsu said. "If the vampires are moving down, and they're on the lowest floor."

Everyone ran. On the lower floor, Willow and Xander didn't seem to be going through too much trouble to be killing the vampires. Willow would freeze them using magic and Xander would go around and stake each one.

"Willow, did any vampires escape to the ground floor?" Buffy asked. "They seemed to be going down, they were trying to escape."

"No, Xander and I made sure none of them would get away," Willow said. "You guys look really beat up, though."

"The floor above this one had a ton of vamps. And we didn't have a witch to freeze them."

"Oh. Sorry."

"No, don't apologize. You were great down here," Buffy said as Xander dusted the last vampire. "And now we're done."

Willow nodded. "Good. What time is it?"

"It's around 6."

"Should we get back to the hotel?"

"We'll go back," Buffy said, "and we'll discuss our plans for tomorrow."