Faith was tired. Tired of running. She felt like she had been running her whole damn life. She'd run from her Ma's boyfriend's, who wanted a piece of young tail. She'd run from the pimps on the street that wanted to sell her and make money. She'd run from the weird lady who'd called herself a Watcher and claimed, she Faith, had the potential to be some kinda weirdo superhero, called the Slayer. What kind of superhero is called the Slayer, anyway. Sounded like a killer, not a hero.

And then she'd woken up stronger than she'd ever been. At first it had been freaky, but cool, no one was going to mess with her ever again. And then she'd broken that guys arm, the one that grabbed her ass. And suddenly it wasn't so cool. She went looking for the weirdo lady, thinking she could help her understand. And she had. Professor Diana Dormer, Field Watcher of the Watchers Council, had told her the history of the Slayer. How the Slayer stood alone against the vampires and demons that preyed on humans. How it had always been this way. Slayers gave their lives in a nightly war to keep the rest of the world safe. She had been Chosen by a Higher Power. Chosen to be a warrior and protect people. It felt great. She was something special.

And then Kakistos came. Ancient and powerful and god was he ugly. And what he did to D was uglier still. Before she died, D told her to go to Sunnydale, California. "There are people there that can help you. I was told not to tell you about them. But I was wrong. They can help you. Protect." Before she could finish, she had died. D had been good to her. Faith wanted to bury her, give her the respect she deserved, but Kakistos was coming and she had to run. And she did. All the way to California. To this town called Sunnydale. Where were these people that could help her? And would they help her if they knew that monster had chased her accross the country. She was sure he wasn't far behind her. Any time she'd try to stop for a breather, it wouldn't be long before she saw him again.

Faith needed to relax. She'd been in Sunnydale for a few days. There'd been no sign of Kakistos and she felt like she was going to snap in two. She asked the clerk at the Motor Lodge, where she was staying, where the kids hung out and he told about the Bronze, a teen and young adult hang out place. $5 cover charge, he said and you can buy snacks. They had music and dancing. 'Sounds just like what I need.' She thought. She got the address and found her way over to it. Once she paid the cover charge, she went in. There was a band playing. Good hard dancing music. 'Yeah, this is good, take my mind off things.' She thought.

Faith had been there awhile when she began to feel a little uneasy. It almost felt like she being was watched. She let her slayer senses play a little. She found a vampire in the crowd, but he wasn't looking at her. Something else was. Her senses where telling her it wasn't demonic or evil, but it was something she'd never felt before. She decided to try to draw it out. She made her way over to the vampire and asked him to dance. Soon she was bumping and grinding on the dance floor, working him up. Then she invited him out back. Thinking he was getting an easy meal, the vamp followed her.

She was fighting with the vamp, when she realized she'd forgotten her stake. 'Damn,' she thought, ' is there something around here I can use to dust this sucker?' She was checking, when suddenly it dusted. Standing behind where the former bloodsucker had been, was a guy, cute in a scruffy kinda way. He was holding a long ass sword.

He looked at her a moment, smirked, and sheathed the sword on his back. "I take it, you're the new Slayer. Welcome to Sunnydale, home of the Hellmouth. I'm Alexander Harris, Alpha of the Sunnydale Protectors Pack. You can call me Xander. I suggest we go see Rupert Giles, he was Buffy Summers Watcher, before she died. We had word from the Watchers Council that your Watcher, Diana Dormer, had died, but none of those tea drinkers were sure where you were."

She eyed him warily, he was setting off her senses. "What are you? You don't feel normal to me. Don't feel like a demon or vamp, but you sure aren't normal."

"No, I'm not. Protectors are humans who's souls have been bonded to animals' souls, through a Ritual called the Guardian Ritual. It's a very old Ritual, practiced for thousands of years by tribes in America, Africa and Australia. We fight vampires and demons."

"Woah, wait a minute. I was told Slayers are the only ones that do that!"

"Yeah, the Council doesn't like admitting we exist. Or that we're stronger than Slayers. Or that we predate Slayers. Kinda upsets them to think they're not the only ones that fight these things. Not that most Watchers actually do any fighting. They just send you Slayers out, ill equipped, without armor or backup."

"So you want to come with us to Giles'? He can verify everything I've said."

"Us?"

"Us." A voice said. A girl stepped out of the shadows. She moved with an animals' grace and melted against the side of the young man, who wrapped an arm around her waist. "This is Cordelia Chase, my mate and co-alpha. We had the night off and we were on a date night when we spotted you. Slayers register on our senses too."

Faith went with them. They weren't registering like vamps or demons and she was curious about them. They drove over to a ground floor condo and parked in front of it. Their knock was answered by a gorgeous woman in her early thirties. She gestured them in. The guy, Xander, introduced her and the man as Jenny Calendar and Rupert Giles.