Hey Guys, I'm posting the second episode now. Thanks for all your feedback. Here goes "The Harvest". And I added a twist to make it less like the episodes. : )

In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.

Giles knew that something was wrong. He felt it, even as he poured over his books, looking for something – anything – about the Harvest. He had been trying to distract himself for over an hour now, and it simply wasn't working.

Had Buffy managed to save Willow from that vampire? And if so, why hadn't she at least let him know? After all this worrying, he would be furious if she were sleeping at home, safe and sound, without telling him anything.

Suddenly, Giles stiffened, and felt his eyes rolling back in his head. His mind went fuzzy and his head light, as if he were about to faint, something he had never done in his life. Although he didn't feel himself falling backwards, he could no longer see what was in front of him. At first, there was only black. Then, slowly, a picture emerged, showing him a mausoleum in one of Sunnydale's cemeteries. A huge man was crouched down in an open coffin, and as the picture zoomed in, Giles could see that the man was a vampire, about to bite... Buffy!

Then the vampire jerked back, and Buffy took the opportunity to kick him, sending him flying. The vampire has burned himself on a silver cross hanging around Buffy's neck. Not wasting a second, buffy jumps out of the coffin and runs out of the mausoleum.

She ran for a while in the darkened cemetery, and finally spotted another vampire, leaning over another victim that Giles could not see clearly. The victim is shouting.

"No! Get off!"

"Hey!" That was Buffy, and when the vampire whirled around, the Slater kicked him off his intended pray. The vampire scrambles to his feet and runs, with Buffy close on his tail. Willow – the "victim" – stood too, and raced after Buffy.

The two girls came across Xander, being dragged across the lawn by two vampires. Willow shouted out to him, and while the vampires were distracted by Willow, Buffy jumped in to the fight. She punched one and kicked another, then snaps a stick off a tree and plunges it into the vampires, who instantly turn to dust.

Willow was at Xander's side in an instant, her small face creased with concern.

"Xander, are you okay?"

Blearily, he sat up. "Man, something hit me."

" Where's Jesse?" Buffy demanded.

"I don't know! They surrounded us." Willow supplied.

"That girl grabbed him and took off."

"Which way?"

"I don't know."

Buffy stood and looked out across the cemetery. A pained look crossed her features, and she whispered, "Jesse..."

Giles snapped to without warning, suddenly finding himself standing in the library once more.

What the hell had happened? He glanced around him to make sure he really was in the library, and then sank into a chair at the table. An illusion. That was all. It was late and he was tired. That hadn't actually happened. It was an illusion, and nothing more...

*****

It was the next morning before Buffy, Willow and Xander went to the library. It had taken Buffy several minutes to convince Giles that she was okay, that they all were, and that he had no choice but to tell Willow and Xander everything. He had taken several moments after that to try and decide how to start. After all, how did one explain centuries of ancient history in a few minutes, especially to two teenagers who hadn't believed in vampires since they were five?

Giles looked over at the three teens as he paced in front of them. Buffy knew everything already, but was sitting there watching him with patient green eyes from under the icepack she held to her head. Xander and Willow looked much more anxious, but Giles could not blame them for that. Finally, he began to speak.

"This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons demons walked the Earth. They made it their home, their... their Hell. But in time they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals for man. All that remains of the old ones are vestiges, certain magics, certain creatures..." Giles was relieved when he didn't stammer through his whole speech. Willow would have noticed instantly, because she was a frequent visitor to the library and had never heard him stammer. If Buffy was confused over the lack of stammering, she didn't show it.

"And vampires." Buffy added, seeming to decide she had gone too long without speaking.

"Okay, this is where I have a problem." Xander said, "See, because we're talking about vampires. We're having a talk with vampires in it.

Willow, always the sensible one, pointed out, "Isn't that what we saw last night?"

Buffy chimed in again with a glib comment. "No. No, those weren't vampires; those were just guys in thundering need of a facial. Or maybe they had rabies. It could have been rabies. And that guy turning to dust? Just a trick of light." Xander gave her a look, and she grew serious once more. "That's exactly what I said the first time I saw a vampire. Well, after I was done with the screaming part."

Willow spoke up for the first time, her voice faint. "Oh, I need to sit down."

"You are sitting down." Buffy pointed out.

"Oh." Willow looked around, as if she had just noticed she was, indeed, sitting down. "Good for me."

Xander was frowning. "So vampires are demons?"

Giles explained. "The books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul. He bit another, and another, and so they walk the Earth, feeding... Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out, and the old ones to return."

" And that would be a what?

"For as long as there have been vampires, there's been the Slayer. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One."

Buffy was grinning. "He loves doing this part."

Stamping down the urge to smile back, Giles scowled instead and said, "Alright. The Slayer hunts vampires, Buffy is a Slayer, don't tell anyone. Well I think that's all the vampire information you need."

Buffy's grin only broadened, her eyes dancing.

"Except for one thing." Xander said, "how do you kill them?"

"You don't." Buffy said, all traces of humour gone. "I do."

"Well, Jesse's my..."

Buffy didn't let him finish. "Jesse is my responsibility. I let him get taken."

"That's not true!" Xander protested.

"If you hadn't shown up they would have taken us, too." Willow added and then looked a bit faint. "Does anybody mind if I pass out?"

"Breathe." Buffy reminded her.

" Breathe."

"Breathe." Buffy faced Giles again. "This big guy, Luke. He talked about an offering to the Master. Now, I don't know what or who, but if they weren't just feeding then Jesse may still be alive. I'm gonna find him."

"This big guy"? Was she referring to the large man that Giles had seen hunkering over Buffy in the crypt? So far everything they had told him was exactly like the "vision" Giles had, and he didn't like it one bit. In fact, he felt a bit sick. He had never been one for "visions". He dabbled lightly in magic, but visions were beyond him, and had never occurred before.

Willow spoke again. "This may be the dumb question, but shouldn't we call the police?"

"And they'd believe us, of course." Giles said quietly, not really paying attention.

"Well, we don't have to say vampires. We, we could just say that there's a bad man..."

"They couldn't handle it even of they did show up. They'd only come with guns." Buffy said gently.

The sound of Buffy's voice snapped Giles out of his baffled thoughts. "You have no idea where they took Jesse?"

"I looked around, but soon as they got clear of the graveyard, they could have just, voom!"

Xander looked alarmed. "They can fly?"

"They can drive."

"Oh."

"I don't remember hearing a car." Willow muttered, her face pinched together in concentration.

"Let's take an enormous intuitive leap, shall we, and say they went underground." Giles suggested.

Willow and Xander looked confused, so Buffy explained. "Vampires really jam on sewer systems. You can get anywhere in the entire town without catching any rays. But I didn't see any access around there."

Xander, amazingly enough, was the supplier of information now. "Well, there's an electrical tunnel that runs under the whole town."

"If we had a diagnostic of the tunnel system it might indicate a meeting place, it would, uh... I suppose we could go to the building commission."

"We so don't have time."

Willow smiled, looking a bit sheepish. "Um, guys? There may be another way."

Only a few minutes later, Willow had the entire layout of the city up on one of the library computers. Buffy was pointing excitedly at the screen. "There it is!"

"That runs under the graveyard." Willow confirmed.

"I don't see any access."

Giles scanned the image up on the monitor and then looked down at Willow with raised brows. "So, all the city plans are just open to the public?"

Willow regained the same sheepish expression from before. "Um, well, in a way. I sort of stumbled onto them when I accidentally decrypted the city council's security system."

Xander grinned. "Someone's been naughty."

Giles wasn't listening to them anymore. His attention had been caught by Buffy's face, which was lined with stress and frustration. "There's nothing here, this is useless!" The girl cried, whirling from the computers.

"I think you're being a bit hard on yourself." Giles said gently, but Buffy was already shaking her head. "You're the one that told me that I wasn't prepared enough. Understatement! I thought I was on top of everything, and then that monster, Luke, came out of nowhere..."

Giles was about to assure her further when her face suddenly lit up, as if she were remembering something.

Xander noticed the expression too. "What?"

"He didn't come out of nowhere." Buffy breathed, "He came from behind me. I was facing the entrance, he came from behind me, and he didn't follow me out. The access to the tunnels is in the mausoleum! The girl must have doubled back with Jesse after I got out! God! I am so mentally challenged!"

"So, what's the plan?" Xander asked eagerly, "We saddle up, right?"

"There's no 'we', okay? I'm the Slayer, and you're not."

" I knew you'd throw that back in my face."

" Xander, this is deeply dangerous."

" I'm inadequate. That's fine. I'm less than a man."

Giles expression automatically flashed with anger. Xander had no right to be annoyed with Buffy. Slayers were not supposed to get civilians involved at all, much less in the actual fights. She was doing well. Of course, he wished she wouldn't be so hard on herself, but the Slayer was tough. He had not been certain of that until that morning.

Willow, thankfully, interrupted before Giles could reprimand Xander. "Buffy, I'm not anxious to go into a dark place full of monsters. But I do want to help. I need to."

Giles took the moment to add his piece. He could put the two to work, keep them out of trouble while Buffy went after Jesse. "Well, then help me. I've been researching this Harvest affair. It seems to be some sort of preordained massacre. Rivers of blood, Hell on Earth, quite charmless. I'm a bit fuzzy, however, on the details. It may be that you can wrest some information from that dread machine."

He realized everyone was staring at him with baffled and amused expressions.

He sighed. "That was a bit British wasn't it?"

Buffy smiled, "Welcome to the New World."

Giles allowed his lips to twitch and then turned to Willow. "I want you to go on the 'Net."

Willow grinned, relieved, and began to type. "Oh, sure, I can do that."

"Then I'm outta here. If Jesse's alive, I'll bring him back."

Giles watched her walk towards the door with worried eyes, and spoke before she reached it. "Do I have to tell you to be careful?"

She turned back and gave him a look, then turned around again and left without another word.

*****

Close to two hours later, Giles was bent over the notes that Willow had printed from the computer for him when he felt an all-too-familiar sensation. He his eyes rolling back in his head, his mind going fuzzy, felt lightheaded and dizzy. Then everything went black, and the picture began to form in his mind.

Buffy, Jesse and Xander were running down a dark tunnel. Giles was annoyed to see Xander there, but did not dwell on it. The three came to an intersection, looked right, and saw only glowing eyes in the darkness, accompanied by low growling.

"Wait, wait." Jesse said, sounding panicked, "They brought me through here, there, there should be a way up. I hope!"

He led them into a small enclosed chamber – a dead end.

Buffy whirled around to face the door. "I don't think this is the way out!"

"We can't fight our way back through those things. What do we do?"

Jesse grinned, "I got an idea." As they watched, his face crumpled and sharp fangs jutted from his gums. "You can die!"

There was a horrified silence. Xander's Xander looked sympathetic, but Giles was watching Buffy's face. Although she looked surprised, her expression was calculating.

"Jesse, man. I'm sorry." Xander said.

"Sorry?" Jesse asked, incredulous, "I feel good, Xander! I feel strong! I'm connected, man, to everything!"

Unnoticed by anyone but Giles, Buffy began to push against the door. She had noticed the vampires outside moving down the hall towards them.

"I can hear the worms in the earth!" Jesse cried, exuberant.

"That's a plus." Xander muttered.

"I know what the Master wants." The other boy continued, "I'll serve his purpose. That means you die. And I feed.

Buffy glanced over her shoulder, not stopping in her shoving against the door. "Xander, the cross!"

Remembering, Xander shoved his hand, clutching a wooden cross, into Jesse's face. Jesse backtracked slightly, a growl ripping from his throat. Xander frowned. "Jesse, Man. We're buds. Don't you remember?"

"You're like a shadow to me now." Jesse scoffed.

Xander set his expression determinedly. "Then get outta my face."

Jess knocked the cross aside and slammed the boy into the wall, then moved to face him threateningly. Buffy grabbed him from behind, tossed him easily into the hall with the rest of the vampires, and tried once again to shove shut the heavy door. Giles watched her efforts with a critical eye. She had to be really emotionally upset not to be able to close it with the same ease with which she had thrown the teenager. When they were clear-minded, there was very little a Slayer couldn't do.

Buffy called out to Xander to help, as the boy had been leaning uselessly against the wall where he had been pushed. Xander obeyed, and they shoved the door shut just as a vampire stuck in his arm in. The vamp hastily removed the limb as the door slammed shut. Buffy locked the door, and the vampires began to pound against it.

"We need to get out of here!" Buffy said hastily, stating the obvious.

"There is no out of here!"

Xander's flashlight flickered around the room, finally landing on a grate in the ceiling.

"Up there!"

Buffy leapt up onto something that was stacked against the wall and pried at the heavy grate. Meanwhile, the vampires are doing the same to the door, tearing it apart and bending it inwards in an attempt to smash it down.

Finally, the grate came off in Buffy's hand.

"Go!" She shouted to Xander.

No, get yourself out first. Giles felt ashamed the second he thought it. The Slayer must always put civilian safety first. That was the rule. He should know better, despite personal feeling. He frowned to himself. He had only known this girl for two days. Why did he care so much? Probably for the same reason – whatever that reason was – that he could see these events in "visions."

Buffy started to help Xander crawl into the vents, just as a vampire reaches in and pulls the latch on the door. Buffy scrambled into the duct after Xander, and the vampire came in after them. Xander and Buffy moved as quickly as they could through the twisting metal tunnels, the vampire scurrying after his prey with malicious glee as Giles watched with his heart in his throat. Xander finally reached a ladder and began to climb, both Buffy and the vampire right behind him.

Above ground now, Xander pulled himself from the hole, then instantly turned to help Buffy out. Buffy was half way out of the hole when the vampire grabbed her ankle and started to haul her back into the hole.

"No..."

Giles had meant to shout the word, but it came out a hoarse whisper.

"Xander, pull!" Buffy shouted.

Xander yanked Buffy's hand hard enough to haul her out into the sunlight. The vampire's skin began to burn and hiss, and a coil of smoke swirled from his flesh. The vamp let go and Buffy and Xander tumbled onto the ground.

Giles felt a stab of absurd jealousy, seeing them lying so close together on the ground. But he also felt grateful. He had expected Xander to be a burden to Buffy, not a help. And no matter how certain he was that Buffy would have managed without him, he was glad the boy had been there.

He noticed that the image was fading, ebbing away into the blackness again. Then the blackness faded until all that was left was the white paper and neatly typed black words on the desk in front of him.

He ignored the paper. The first thing on his mind was getting rid of these unexplainable feelings he was having for the Slayer. Noticing how pretty she was, reading and recognizing every expression, mood and thought when it flitted across that small face. Feeling jealous of a boy her own age that was clearly besotted, but as far as Giles could tell, no real threat. And there he went again. Threat? Since when were boys that Buffy may or may not be attracted to a threat to him? She was only sixteen years old, and his Slayer.

That explained it! That was why he was feeling these things, why he was so protective, why he could see these "visions". The bonds formed between the Slayer and her Watcher were no small thing... even if it was unusual for them to be so strong after only two days. The only things between himself and Buffy were the Slayer/Watcher bonds... like the bond between a father and a daughter.

But if that were the case, why was there a nagging sensation of disappointment mixed in with the relief at having solved the problem?

*****

Giles was bent over the papers once more, several minutes later, when the door opened again. His head shot up, the word out of his mouth before he could check it.

"Buffy?"

"It's just me." Willow said, walking across the library towards him. "So there's no word?"

"Ah, not as yet, no." He wished he could tell her that Buffy and Xander were okay, that they would be back in a few minutes, most likely. But he would have been unable to explain how he knew, and besides, he didn't want to be the one to break the news that Jesse was a vampire.

"Well, I-I'm sure they're... great." The girl muttered apprehensively.

To distract her, Giles asked, "Did you find anything of interest?"

Willow frowned. "I think, maybe... I surfed through the old newspapers around the time of that big earthquake back in '37? And for several months before there were a rash of murders." She handed him a new stack of papers.

"Great! I-I mean, well, not, not 'great' in a good way..." For Christ's sake he was beginning to sound like Buffy. "Um... go on?"

"Well, they sound like the kind you were looking for." She flipped through a couple of pages she still had in her hand. "Throat's, blood..." Willow looked slightly green.

Giles sighed. "It's all coming together. I rather wish it weren't."

A few minutes later, Willow was looking in one of Giles' books, and Giles was going over the papers Willow had brought when Buffy and Xander entered the room.

Willow gasped and spun away from the book. "Did you find Jesse?"

Giles closed his eyes, wishing he didn't have to be here for this, but at the same time wanting to comfort them.

"Yeah." Xander's voice was grim enough that a pained expression crossed Willow's face.

"Was he dead?"

"Worse" Buffy said with a soft sigh. She moved to sit on the edge of the tabl e. Giles had opened her eyes and was watching her face. When he could easily read the misery there, the disappointment, guilt and frustration, he was not amazed. Already, he was used to knowing everything she felt the moment she felt it. "I'm sorry, Willow." Buffy continued, "We were too late. And they were waiting for us."

Willow was silent for a moment, and then said earnestly, "At least you two are okay."

Xander kicked a waste basket violently. The noise startled Buffy, and she turned and stared at her friend with wide green eyes.

"I don't like vampires." He half-snarled. Of all of them, he had been closest to Jesse. "I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good."

Buffy turned to Giles. "So, Giles! Got anything that can make this day any worse?"

Giles moved over to the whiteboard and set down his pen. Wishing more then anything he had good news to give her, he nonetheless said, "How about the end of the world?"

Buffy grimaced. "Knew I could count on you."

Giles hastened on. "This is what we know. Some sixty years ago, a very old, very powerful vampire came to this shore, not just to feed."

"He came 'cause this town's a mystical whos-it." Buffy suggested.

"Yes. The Spanish who first settled here called it 'Boca del Infierno'. Roughly translated, 'Hellmouth'. It's a sort of a portal between this reality and the next. This vampire hopes to open it."

"Bring the demons back." Said Buffy.

"End of the world." Xander added, still sounding angry.

"But he blew it!" Willow chimed in, "Or, I mean, there was an earthquake that swallowed half the town, and him, too."

"You see, opening dimensional portals is a tricky business. Odds are he got himself stuck, rather like a, uh, cork in a bottle."

"And this Harvest thing is to get him out." Xander checked, his voice a bit calmer now.

"It comes once in a century, on this night." Giles continued, "The Master can draw power from one of his minions while it feeds. Enough power to break free and open the portal. The minion is called the Vessel, and he bears this symbol."

He picked up a Dry-Erase marker and drew a three-pointed star on the whiteboard behind him.

"So, I dust anyone sporting that symbol, and no Harvest." Buffy quipped from where she still sat on the table's edge.

"Simply put, yes."

"Any idea where this little get-together is being held?"

Giles felt like smiling. Despite how exhausted and emotionally upset she must already be from the incident with Jesse, she was still ready to go and fight some more.

"There, there are a number of possibilities." He said.

"They're goin' to the Bronze."

Despite the absolute certainty in Xander's voice when he spoke the words, Willow still asked, "Are you sure?"

Xander scoffed. "Come on. All those tasty young morsels all over the place? Anyway, that's where Jesse's gonna be, trust me."

Giles snatched his coat and started towards the doors, pleased when the others automatically jumped up too.

"Then we should get there. The sun will be down before long."

"I gotta make a stop." Buffy said, even as she followed them. "Won't take long."

Giles frowned. "What for?"

"Supplies."

******

Standing in her room about half an hour later, Buffy mused over what she needed to bring with her. As she picked up a heavy black jacket, she mentally went over all the objects in her trunk. Her thoughts were interrupted by her mother's voice.

"Buffy?"

"Mom!"

Joyce frowned, but Buffy did not hear the discord in her voice. "You're going out?"

"I have to." Buffy put on the jacket in her hands.

"I didn't hear you come in last night."

"I was really quiet."

Joyce's eyes filled with doubt. "It's happening again, isn't it? I got a call from your new principal. Says you missed some classes today?"

Buffy sighed. "I was running an errand." She tried to keep the annoyance from her voice, but she knew she had to hurry, and she could not start packing until her mother left.

"We haven't finished unpacking, and I'm getting calls from the principal."

It was Buffy's turn to frown. "Mom, I promise, it is not gonna be like before. But I have to go." When had she accepted all of this again? Why was she letting this tear everything apart, again? Hadn't she promised herself – and her mother – that she wouldn't?

"No."

"Mom?!"

"The tapes all say I should get used to saying it. No."

Buffy's voice was now tinged with desperation. "This is really, really important."

"I know." Joyce said in a voice meant to mollify. "If you don't go out it'll be the end of the world. Everything is life or death when you're a sixteen-year-old girl."

Ha! If only she knew... "Look, I don't have time to talk about this..."

Even Joyce was starting to get annoyed now. "Buffy, you've got all the time in the world, you're not going anywhere. Now, if you wanna stay up here and sulk, I won't hold it against you. But if you wanna come down, I'll make us some dinner."

Joyce left, closing the door behind her. Buffy leaned against the door of her closet for a moment, closed her eyes, and let out a deep breath. For a moment she hesitated. Then she turned and opened the closet again, dragging the trunk out. Promises or no, there were lives at risk, and people that counted on her.

******

Buffy rattled the doors at the front entrance of the Bronze to no avail. The vampires must have already locked it.

"It's locked!" She groaned.

"We're too late!" Giles could hardly believe it. After all of that... too late?

Buffy scowled at him, but he could tell she was only worried, not angry, even as she protested, "I didn't know I was going to get grounded!"

"Can't you break it down?" Xander demanded.

"No, not that thing. Um...You guys try the back entrance, and I'll find my own way."

Knowing that Buffy's entrance would probably be a bit unorthodox – but also a lot faster - Giles agreed before anyone could protest. "Right. Come on."

"Uh, wait! Guys! Here!" Buffy pushed her bag into Willow's hands. "You get the exit cleared and the people out. That's all! Don't go Wild Bunch on me."

As if he was just going to stand there and let her fight alone? Then again, Giles was not entirely sure if he wanted her to know that he could fight yet. Well, he could be there in an instant if she were in danger. "Um, see you inside, then."

Giles, Xander and Willow took off, Giles leading the way. Willow tried the back door, which was also locked.

"We've gotta get in there before Jesse does something stupider than usual." Xander muttered to himself.

Giles' face went dark. "You listen to me! Jesse is dead! You have to remember that when you see him, you're not looking at your friend. You're looking at the thing that killed him."

Xander's face flashed with anger, but before he could argue, Giles froze, his face going pale.

Not again. Three visions in 24 hours? Why did he have to see what Buffy was doing now? He already knew. It seemed that these visions occurred when Buffy was in any kind of danger. If they were going to continue, he would have to learn how to control them. If they occurred when he himself were in a dangerous situation, he was in trouble. As his world faded around him, he heard Willow cry,

"Giles?"

"Migraine..." He whispered, "Give me a moment."

Then all went black, and the scene inside the Bronze arose in his mind.

Buffy was currently breaking a window above the stage of the Bronze. She crawled onto the ledge just inside, and looked down. Giles followed her gaze, to where the large vampire Buffy had fought the night before stood.

"I feel the Master's strength growing!" he cried, "I feel him rising. Every soul brings him closer! I need another!"

Buffy was whispering something. "The vessel."

Giles looked again, and saw that the girl was right – the very symbol he had drawn on the whiteboard was etched onto the vampire's forehead in what looked like blood.

A vampire on the upper level of the floor spotted Buffy and growled at her. Buffy's eyes flashed to him, then down at what was happening below, apparently unconcerned. Giles frowned; more worried then she, but turned his attention to the stage as well.

"Tonight is his ascension. Tonight will be history at its end! Yours is a glorious sacrifice! Degradation most holy." The vampire looked around. "What? No volunteers?!"

A blonde, female vampire was dragging someone up on to the stage. Giles vaguely recognized her, but didn't know her name. Buffy obviously knew her, though, because she breathed out a name. "Cordelia."

"Here's a pretty one." The blonde vampire said.

Cordelia screamed when she saw the vampire's face. The male vampire stroked a hand down Cordelia's cheek and leaned in towards her neck, teeth bared. Giles felt himself jolt in surprise along with the rest of them when a body landed on the stage, dropped from above. His eyes – along with everyone else's – shot to Buffy, who was leaning against the railing above. Giles smiled, proud. He had not even noticed she was fighting the vampire.

"Oh, I'm sorry, were you in the middle of something?" Buffy asked sweetly, putting up that airheaded front again.

"You!" The male vampire gasped.

"You didn't think I'd miss this. Did you?" She asked; disbelief in her tone.

"I hoped you'd come."

"Be right down!"

Buffy stepped away from the railing, but ignored the stairs, choosing instead to flip over the railing, landing lightly and easily on the pool table below. A vampire attacked her from the side, but she easily flipped over, grabbing a pool cue as she spun, and stabbed it into the vampire, who fell and turned to dust.

"Okay, Vessel boy." Buffy said cheerily, shrugging off her jacket. "You want blood?"

"I want yours!" The Vessel dropped Cordelia, who scrambled away. "Only yours!"

Not a chance. Giles scoffed to himself, and though he felt the undercurrent of worry he knew he would always feel, he was not confident that Buffy was going to be okay. Then again... why was he still here?

Buffy only shrugged. "Works for me."

Buffy ran across the floor and cartwheeled up onto the stage, instantly jumping up and kicking the Vessel, who crashed back into a pile of chairs on the stage. By the time he stood and growled at her, she was already in her fighting stance. The Vessel leapt towards her and aimed a punch that she easily ducked, spinning around to stand behind him. Again, he tried to punch her, and she blocked the blow, grabbed his arm, and kicked him several times in the stomach before he manages to escape. Pulling a stake out of nowhere, she lunged. The Vessel blocked her, snatched the stake, lifted her up, and threw her into a pile of boxes.

Then everything went black. Panicking, Giles forced himself to wait until his vision fully returned and his head stopped spinning before he tried to take in what was going on. Willow was standing at his side, a concerned hand at his elbow, while Xander had somehow managed to break in, and the door was standing wide.

"Hurry!"

They ran inside. All three sets of eyes flashed to the side, and they saw Buffy tangled up among the boxes, exactly as she had been in Giles' vision. Then she stands, so all three of them turned again to the horrified crowd.

Xander ushered them in a low voice. "C'mon! Let's go! C'mon! C'mon! C'mon! C'mon!"

Giles and Willow were at the other door now. "Hurry up! Come on! Through this door! Come on! This

way!"

Giles made sure the people got through swiftly and quietly, but one watchful eye was on the stage, and Buffy. Buffy, meanwhile, spun and punched the Vessel in the face, once more landing him in a pile of stuff. While he's dazed, Buffy's eyes shoot to Xander, who has just been grabbed by another vampire. Without hesitating, she grabbed a cymbal and tosses it, Frisbee-style. Xander saw what was going on and ducked, and the cymbal easily sliced the vampires head off.

"Head's up!" Xander said with a grin.

Buffy laughed, and then the Vessel grabbed her from behind.

"I always wanted to kill a Slayer!"

Giles forced his attention away. Buffy can handle herself. "One at a time! Quickly! Quickly!"

Then he spotted the blonde vampire.

"We're going to have to open the front as well!" He told Willow, but before he could move, Darla leapt on him, knocking him to the floor.

Buffy, on the stage, spotted this, and also saw Xander and Jesse facing off on the other side of the stage, even as she struggled in the Vessel's grip.

"Jesse! I know there's still a part of you in there." Xander cried.

Jesse snarled. "Okay... Let's deal with this. Jesse was an excruciating loser who couldn't get a date with anyone in the sighted community! Look at me. I'm a new man!"

Behind her, The Vessel spoke, his voice triumphant. "Master! Taste of this... and be free!"

He let out a sort of roar, and moved closer to bite Buffy's neck. Instantly, she snapped her head back, knocking him off of her and into a wall behind. She turned to face him.

"How'd it taste?"

Her worried gaze turned from the dazed vampire to Giles and the blonde vampire, who were still struggling. Then she saw Willow approach them from behind.

"Get off him!"

The vampire looked up, and Willow threw the holy water. She screamed as her face began to smoke, and she shot to her feet and ran out of the club, mingling with the stragglers.

Buffy's eyes shot to the other pair. Jesse had Xander up against the wall, and Xander had a stake pointing at Jesse's heart.

"Ooo! Alright. Put me out of my misery." Jesse scoffed. "You don't have the guts."

Someone ran past them, desperate to get out of the club. As they ran past, they bumped into Jesse from behind, pushing him onto the stake. Jesse turned to dust, and two other vampires grabbed Xander before he had a chance to react.

Unseen by Buffy, Giles had scrambled to his feet, and stood watching the events on the stage.

Looking away from Xander, Buffy snatched up a microphone and held it up threateningly towards the Vessel, who had stood.

"You forget." The vampire sneered. "Metal can't hurt me."

"There's something you forgot about, too. Sunrise!"

Sunrise? Giles frowned, then watched as Buffy threw the stand at the window behind the Vessel. He ducked, instantly, and the window broke behind him. A bright light poured inside the room, and the Vessel leaned back, arms thrown up, expecting to be burned. Giles realized it was a lamp at the same time that the Vessel did, but their reactions were quite different. Giles grinned, and the Vessel began to scream as Buffy stabbed him with her stake from behind.

"It's in about nine hours, moron!"

Giles felt like applauding. As the Vessel staggered to the edge of the stage and fell, turning to ash, Buffy turned bright eyes to the two vampires who still held Xander between them. Instantly, the vampires dropped the boy and ran out of the Bronze. Looking triumphant, Buffy hopped down, and Giles, Willow and Xander moved to her side.

"I take it its over." Giles said, as they were the only ones still in the Bronze.

"Did we win?" Willow asked.

"Well, we averted the Apocalypse. I give us points for that." Buffy replied.

Xander sighed. "One thing's for sure: nothing's ever gonna be the same."

*****

The next day, Buffy was walking along the path outside of the school, sucking on a lollipop, and she overheard Cordelia speaking to her friend about what had occurred at the Bronze.

"Well, I heard it was rival gangs. You know, fighting for turf? But all I can tell you is they were an ugly way of looking. And Buffy, like, knew them! Which is just too weird. I mean, I don't even remember that much, but I'm telling you, it was a freak show!"

"Oh, I wish I'd been there!"

"You should have been there. It was so creepy..."

Cordelia and the girl walked off, and Buffy went forward to meet Xander.

Seeing his bemused expression, she asked, "What exactly were you expecting?"

He looked baffled, now. "I don't know, something. I mean, the dead rose. We should at least have an assembly."

Giles and Willow met them, and they continued to walk.

"People have a tendency to rationalize what they can and forget what they can't." Giles explained to Xander.

"Believe me, I've seen it happen." Buffy added.

Willow shivered slightly. "Well, I'll never forget it, none of it."

"Good! Next time you'll be prepared."

"Next time?"

"Next time is why?"

Giles fought down a smile. "We've prevented the Master from freeing himself and opening the Mouth of Hell. That's not to say he's going to stop trying. I'd say the fun is just beginning."

"More vampires?"

They stopped walking.

"Not just vampires." Giles said almost gleefully. "The next threat we face may be something quite different." His eyes flashed to Buffy's.

"I can hardly wait!"

Trying to look stern, he said, "We're at the center of a mystical convergence here. We may, in fact, stand between the Earth and its total destruction."

Buffy grinned at him, "Well, I gotta look on the bright side. Maybe I can still get kicked out of school!"

Buffy, Xander and Willow started to walk away, with Giles staring after them, trying to pretend it wasn't one of them in particular his eyes followed down the path.

"Oh, yeah, that's a plan." Xander agreed, "'Cause lots of schools aren't on Hellmouths."

"Maybe you could blow something up." This suggestion was from Willow. "They're really strict about that."

Buffy shook her head slightly, waving the lollipop, "I was thinking of a more subtle approach, y'know, like excessive not studying."

Amused, Giles turned back towards his library. "The Earth is doomed!"