Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel belong to their copyright holders, I own nothing.

Chapter 13: Teaming Up

The door to Angel's office flew open, slamming against the wall, as Spike stormed in. In all honesty, he wasn't sure why he was comin' to Angel's office. It wasn't like he could help Spike. But still. The fact that a Slayer—a Slayer who had been trained by Buffy back even before she was a Slayer—was complete drained by a vampire was a big deal. And there was something off about Vi's death that Spike couldn't place. Plus there was that creepy note to deal with. There'll be more to come? What did that even mean?

All in all, as much as Spike didn't want to admit it, he would need Angel's help to figure this out. There was a vampire out there strong enough to kill a Slayer, why would he stop with just one? Spike knew what it felt like to kill a Slayer (even two), and it was amazing. No, the mystery vampire wouldn't stop, and Spike wanted Angel to know about what was happening.

Angel was sitting at his desk, looking off, doing nothing (like usual, Spike thought to himself). He barely even glanced up at Spike's storming in. Then, finally, as he stopped in front of Angel's desk, Angel looked at him.

"So here's the deal," Spike got right down to it. "I got a problem. As much as I would like to deal with it on my own, I need your help."

"Spike, now's not really a good-"

"Here," Spike pulled the note out of his pocket and threw it on Angel's desk. It landed on the top of a stack of papers, upside down. At first, he didn't move. But then he snatched the note up and read it.

His face got pale (if it could even get any paler?). He frowned and seemed to read the note again. For Spike, that was actually a good sign. That probably meant he knew who wrote the note.

"Spike, where did you get this?" Angel asked sternly.

"Oh, I got it last night," Spike started off nonchalantly. "You know, attached to a body of a dead and fully drained Slayer."

Angel handed the note back to Spike. Similar to Spike, he then reached into his own pocket and pulled out his own little slip of paper. He gave it to Spike It read: For Angel. I'll be seeing you. From…

The "From…" was the same. That was the signature. A different note, with the same ending.

"Who the bloody hell gave you this?" Spike was angry. Someone was sending both him and Angel notes? Why?

"I wish I knew," Angel shook his head and then stood up. "Follow me. I'll show you something."

They left the office and went into the lobby. Spike had a feeling he knew where they were going. The lab. He was a bit confused on what Angel would want to show him in there, but the direction they went in definitely told him he was right. They were going to the lab.

Inside, Angel showed Spike the body of the woman he found in his office last night.

"What did you do?" Spike questioned Angel.

"Nothing, you idiot," Angel rolled his eyes. "My note was attached to hers, just like yours. She wouldn't, um… She wouldn't…"

"Be a Slayer?" Spike finished. "Yep, this here is Rona. Another Slayer Buffy personally helped trained while she was still a potential."

"I had the science teams running her through any system to try and find out who she was. Guess I can call that off now."

"So there's a connection. Two dead Slayers, both of them left for us with two notes on them, personally addressed to us. This is clearly about us."

"Don't be so selfish, Spike."

Spike frowned. "Oh, selfish? Alright then. What's your brilliant theory?"

Angel was silent. He had no theory. Deep inside, he knew Spike was probably right. This was about them.

"What vampire could kill two Slayers in one night?" Angel asked.

"A pretty damn good one, I'll give 'im that."

"This isn't a joke."

"Do I look like I'm laughin'? Seriously, Angel. Someone has to be really strong to do this."

Angel scratched his neck in thought. "I don't know. They were fairly new…"

"Fine. Whatever. Believe what you want to believe. I'm gonna go do something about this." He began to walk away.

"What are you doing?"

"We need to find out who did this and brought them to us!"

"How?"

Spike wished he had an answer.

Giles had informed Faith, Kennedy, and Wesley on the extremity of the situation, and now they were thinking of plans. It pained Giles, it truly did, but what could they do? As much as he didn't want to be in a fight, Willow, Xander, Dawn, and Oz were wrong. They had no other choices. Why couldn't they see that?

They didn't know where Buffy was and they really had no way of finding her. Either way, the plan was simple enough. Faith and Kennedy would have no choice but go out patrolling, and if they saw Buffy then they knew what they had to do.

Wes, meanwhile, wasn't so sure about all this. Giles, Faith, and Kennedy all seemed ready to jump into action, no matter the consequences. It struck him odd that they weren't even trying to make up with the rest of the group or even phoning Angel and Spike for extra help or somebody.

Angel and Spike…they knew, right? Faith believed they did before, but Wes hadn't talked to Angel since he'd gone to Rome. He doubted they didn't know, but if they knew, wouldn't both of them jump on the plane and get here as fast as they could, despite the new argument between them? It just didn't seem right. Buffy was a big part to a lot of people's lives, and Giles shouldn't just be deciding if she should die or not just because her soul hadn't helped. There had to be other ways to save her.

"Maybe we could do a locater spell?" Giles suggested to Wesley. "It might not tell us exactly where she is, but it'd give us a general overview of where she could be."

"I don't know…" Wes spoke. Giles looked at him and frowned. "It's just that I feel we may be acting rather hastily. There has to be another way, I'm sure."

"You didn't see her, Wesley. There was pure-pure evil in her eyes, nothing else. She promised she'd be back to kill us, basically. And she had a soul. Believe me, if there was another way, I'd be jumping at it, but there is not one that I see. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Do Angel and Spike know? At Wolfram & Hart there are plenty resources that maybe could-"
"They know," Giles lied. "And no offense to your evil law firm's ancient resources, but if you could not find anything that could've saved your beloved friend Fred, what makes you believe there'll be something that can save Buffy?"

That stung, and Giles knew it did. This was what he wanted, though. A little part of him felt bad for hurting Wesley, but he needed to do it so that Wes wouldn't be tempted to call Angel or Spike or anybody else.

Wesley stayed quiet after that, not knowing what to do. This was wrong, and he knew it. But Faith and Kennedy didn't know it. No, in fact, they seemed ready to go into a fight. That wasn't good. It couldn't possibly be.

Wesley had left L.A. to get away, but suddenly he was feeling like he wanted to go home now more than ever.

While Angel and Spike searched for clues and information about the two dead Slayers (and found close to nothing), Buffy was taking some time to stand her ground. There were followers of Vamp Master that stretched all the way out here, in L.A., but since the news of his death and her rising hadn't quite fully risen just yet, she needed to make sure everyone knew who was boss.

They gathered in the mansion, and she informed them all about the situation. Luckily, she didn't have any fighters or arguers like John in England. Or, actually, not so lucky. Buffy found she actually enjoyed torturing disobedient ones.

Night fell after a while, and Buffy thought she should go paint the town red—literally and figuratively. With a semi-large group of other vampires, they walked the L.A. streets looking for potential victims.

Buffy found a guy who looked strangely like Angel. Tall, dark hair and eyes, handsome. Plus he looked like someone who could brood really well—just like the vampire with a soul himself, right? So she'd chosen a victim. She separated from the group and followed him down the street.

"Mister?" she called after him until he turned around.

"Yeah?" he raised an eyebrow.

"I need your help with something."

The man glanced nervously to the side. Nobody was around them. "With what?"

"Well, you see, I have this friend, and you guys look just like each other. No joke. And I was thinking you could help me surprise him."

Hurriedly, before any more words were spoken, Buffy attacked. She was faster than anything, and she dragged him into an alley before he even knew what was going on. And then her face changed and she was biting his neck and there was blood but for some reason he couldn't help but think about how good it felt to get bitten and drunken out of.

But Buffy didn't want him dead. She opened her own wrist and dropped as much blood into his mouth as she could. She couldn't believe it'd taken this long. Her first siring. Because she wanted a surprise for Angel and Spike. If they were just to see her, how boring would that be?

Buffy had a good plan now, one that would be completed tomorrow night, if everything went correctly.

Oh, she was excited.

Angel and Spike found nothing all day and night. At least, not what they were looking for.

They got some information, some rumors, about that new rising bag guy—Vamp Master, or whatever. There were rumors that he'd been staked and someone else had taken over.

They'd gotten no names, though, mostly because the vampires in L.A. didn't exactly know about Buffy yet, and if they did then they weren't talking about her under her own strict orders.

So, in short, Angel and Spike didn't find what they were looking for. It was disappointing.

But even if they didn't know it yet, tomorrow things would change. There would be an abundance of differences. Tomorrow, they were going to get one of the greatest shocks of their long lives.