Author's Notes: This is (hopefully) going to be a full-length rewrite of Season 1 - but with Jesse McNally as a main character along with all the others. It's something that I've thought about doing for a long time, and it's been a bit slow-going (mainly because Season 1 is such a slog compared to the others), but I've finally gotten the season finished, so I'm going to go ahead and start posting it. These aren't going to be super in-depth to begin with, but the format will evolve as we go. Each episode should be at least one chapter long. I have noticed the more I write, the more I decide to adapt from the original episode, so you will notice over the next few stories that things change a bit. Initially, I only wrote scenes from Jesse's POV, but that faded over time.

So this will pick up right when the changes start, showing how Jesse becomes a part of the group. I often thought it a shame he didn't make it past the first episode, as he had the potential to be Buffy's most loyal friend - he's not an authority figure like Giles, he's not in love with her like Xander, and he's not a people pleaser like (early) Willow, so it's possible he could've been someone Buffy was lacking in later seasons. Some episodes will just be like the normal eps, just with Jesse now present, while others will have him causing seemingly small alterations to the timeline, which might give way to something bigger later on. Naturally, it would be boring if it's just Jesse reacting to stuff - he needs stuff to do, so he'll have his own character arcs and trials he has to deal with. Most of those will be in later seasons, but for now, let's just enjoy where the story takes us. The more stuff happens, I'll throw in as needed. Enjoy!

Thanks to FanFiction user "myheadsgonenumb" and her excellent AU Angel fic that partly inspired this, "What You Do Afterwards", which explores all five seasons of 'Angel' but with Doyle still alive to enjoy it all.

As far as Jesse was concerned, this night had been one hell of a rollercoaster. Somehow, he had gone from being rejected (again) by Cordelia Chase at the Bronze to being picked up by some nice girl named Darla, who took him away to presumably make out, only for her to start biting his neck and doing… some kind of sucky thing to him, before Willow had shown up with some guy, and then they got attacked by vampires, only for the new girl, Buffy, to show up and save their asses.

Again - rollercoaster.

Xander had shown up as well, trying to help him and Willow escape, but they got jumped by more vampires and got separated. Jesse still felt groggy as he dimly realized how much blood he must've lost, and he couldn't focus on the world around him as well as he should've. So he didn't really have the necessary strength to resist when Darla came after him again, her fangs(?!) glistening in the moonlight as she proceeded to finish what she started.

At the last possible second, though, she suddenly went howling backwards, hissing like a feral cat, backing away furiously. Jesse groggily looked up and spotted… the new school librarian holding a crucifix?

The older man looked down at Jesse with concern. "Are you all right?"

Jesse slowly blinked. "I was about ten minutes ago," he slurred. "Not sure anymore."

The librarian reached down and helped him up, observing the wound. "Not too serious, I should think," he remarked. "Definitely seen worse."

At that moment, Buffy came running up, followed by Willow and Xander. "Oh, thank God," she gasped. "Everyone accounted for." She looked at the librarian. "Decided to join us? What changed your mind?"

"Flipped a coin," deadpanned the librarian.

Willow scurried up to Jesse, concern in her eyes. "Jess, are you okay?"

"He's fine," the librarian answered. "Now let's get away from here."

"And go where?" Xander demanded, clearly very freaked out.

"School library. Come on."

"The library?! Dude, I know things are bad, but there's no need to panic!"

Willow hooked his arm and dragged him through the cemetery while Buffy and the librarian helped Jesse to walk. Jesse glanced over his shoulder a couple times, ignoring the pain in his neck as he did so, trying to see if Darla came back. No sign of her. Probably the first time he felt relief at the disappearance of a beautiful woman.

The librarian - named Giles - tended to Jesse's wounds with a first-aid kit before sending them all home to rest. Not that Jesse did any resting. He had to pass off the plaster on his neck as the result of an altercation with a tree branch. He didn't have to lie too much, thankfully. He knew full well his folks would never believe him about vampires, and they accepted that a school faculty member had helped him, so he made it to his room with mostly no problems.

After a largely sleepless night, he immediately joined the others in the library to get some answers. Giles proved willing to provide the necessary exposition.

"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…," he stuttered briefly, "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 magicks, certain creatures…"

"And vampires," finished Buffy.

"Okay, this is where I have a problem," said Xander, still trying to keep calm and failing miserably. "See, because we're talking about vampires. We're having a talk with vampires in it."

Giles indicated the plaster on Jesse's neck. "I'm afraid so."

"Just figures," sighed Jesse. "First time a girl pays any kind of attention to me, she's a vampire."

Buffy patted his knee. "Don't take it too hard. Happens to most guys. You're doing better than them, though. Most of them become vampires."

Jesse nodded, appreciating the perspective.

Willow sat in her chair, trying to calm herself down. "So we just saw a bunch of vampires?"

"No," said Buffy, faux-nervously. "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." She crossed her arms. "That's exactly what I said the first time I saw a vampire. Well, after I was done with the screaming part."

"Glad I'm not the only one who had that reaction," said Jesse.

"Oh, I need to sit down," gasped Willow.

"You are sitting down," Buffy pointed out.

Willow looked at her seated self with slight embarrassment. "Oh. Good for me."

Xander spoke up. "So vampires are demons?"

Giles straightened his glasses as he spoke. "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."

"Hope they've got cable," mused Jesse.

"And who are you guys?" asked Willow, looking at Buffy and Giles as if they might be about to kill them as well.

"I'm the Slayer," Buffy said simply.

Xander motioned for her to elaborate. "And that is…?"

"For as long as there have been vampires, there's been the Slayer," Giles explained, almost as if his voice belonged in a movie trailer. "One girl in all the world, a Chosen One."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "He loves doing this part."

Giles deflated slightly. "The Slayer hunts vampires, Buffy is a Slayer, don't tell anyone," he said bluntly. "Well, I think that's all the vampire information you need."

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

"You don't kill them. I do," said Buffy flatly. "End of story."

"But these things are in our town, doing who-knows-what! You think they're just gonna stop because you got in the way?"

"Of course not. This is where the 'slaying' part of the job comes into play."

Willow got to her feet. "Uh, this may be the dumb question, but shouldn't we call the police?"

"And they'll believe us, of course," sighed Giles.

"We don't have to say 'vampires'! We could just say that there's a… bad man," she finished lamely.

Buffy shook her head. "They couldn't handle it even if they did show up. They'd only come with guns."

"And never bring a gun to a stake fight?" asked Jesse. This actually got a smirk out of her while Giles just rolled his eyes.

"I gotta find these guys," she continued. "They must have a lair somewhere in town."

"But why Sunnydale? Of all the places in the world, they literally choose a place with the word 'sun' right in the name. They'd be better off in Seattle."

Giles sighed - apparently a common occurrence for him. "Sunnydale was built on a portal to another dimension. The first Spanish settlers named it 'La Boca Del Inferieno', which roughly translates into 'The Mouth of Hell'." He addressed Buffy. "We really need to find out where they went. Did you see?"

Buffy shook her head. "I looked around, but as soon as they got clear of the graveyard, they could have just, voom!"

Xander's eyes widened. "They can fly?!"

"They can drive."

"I don't remember hearing a car," objected Willow.

Giles leaned against the desk and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Let's take an enormous intuitive leap, shall we, and say they went underground."

"Vampires really jam on sewer systems," Buffy told them. "You can get anywhere in the entire town without catching any rays. But I didn't see any access around there."

"Well, there's an electrical tunnel that runs under the whole town," supplied Xander.

"If we had a diagnostic of the tunnel system it might indicate a meeting place, it would, uh…," he trailed off, realizing how difficult acquiring such a thing would be. "I suppose we could go to the building commission."

Willow raised her hand meekly. "I might know another way."

Within half an hour, Willow had the city plans on the computer monitor.

"And these are just open to the public?" asked Giles.

"Er, no," she said quietly. "I may have accidentally decrypted the city council's security systems a while back."

Jesse let out an impressed whistle. "Will, you never cease to amaze me."

"You naughty girl," teased Xander.

Buffy, however, didn't see any access points that stood out to her, but then she remembered how the leader of the vampires, Luke, had gotten the jump on her. "He didn't come out of nowhere. 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! God! I am so mentally challenged!"

"So what's the plan?" asked Xander. "We saddle up and beat their undead behinds?"

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

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

Jesse put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Dude, she just got done talking about being the 'Chosen One'. Guessing she got 'chosen' for a reason. She's got this."

Buffy smiled briefly at him before readdressing Xander. "I need to get the jump on these guys before they start whatever they're planning."

"Planning?" asked Willow worriedly.

Giles nodded. "We have to assume that the attack last night is just the first step of some bigger plan. It was far too coordinated for a random feeding. They need something."

Willow approached Buffy. "Buffy, I'm not anxious to go into a dark place full of monsters. But I do want to help. I need to."

"Well, then help me," Giles told her. "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."

They all stared at him. He stared back, mildly aware of how British he'd just been. He told Willow to search the internet, which she eagerly agreed to. Buffy set off to investigate the tunnels and see about locating the vamps.

Xander and Jesse stood awkwardly in the doorway, not sure what to do with themselves.

"So…," Xander said at last. "Need us for anything?"

Giles glanced up at them. "We're only going to research the Harvest."

Jesse found his voice. "I can order pizza."

"… Pepperoni, thank you."

The day of school went by, with Xander, Willow and Jesse attending their various classes. It felt so strange to sit through British Lit, Geometry, Chemistry and World History knowing that the end of the world could very well be brewing somewhere in the heart of Sunnydale. They couldn't stop glancing out the window, just in case the world ended.

Eventually, regular classes ended, and the trio returned to the library to find Giles still researching. He had some leathery old books open, but he looked slightly relieved for human interaction when they arrived.

"Did you find anything of interest?" he asked Willow.

She pulled some printouts from her backpack. "I think, maybe…," she said hopefully. "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."

"Great!" he said as he took them. Then, he remembered they were talking about the end of the world. "I-I mean, well, not, not 'great' in a good way, uh, um, uh, go on?"

"Well, they sound like the ones you were looking for," she said, going through the printouts with him. "Lots of throats and blood."

Xander and Jesse looked as well and both grimaced.

"I am never eating stroganoff again," Jesse muttered.

As they started going through the books together, the door opened, and in walked Buffy, looking a little worse for wear. A few cuts and muddied clothes, but overall, still in one piece.

"Did you kick their asses?" asked Willow hopefully.

Buffy responded by kicking a trash can and fuming past them.

"Guessing they kicked yours," said Xander awkwardly. "I don't like vampires. I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good."

"Too many of them," Buffy replied. "Almost got overwhelmed. Just barely got out in one piece. God, I can't believe I almost got taken down like that." She turned to her Watcher. "So, Giles! Got anything that can make this day any worse?"

Giles went over to the whiteboard he'd been writing at all day and put down his pen. "How about the end of the world?"

"Knew I could count on you."

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

"It's because it's built on a mystical whozit," Buffy supplied.

"The mouth of hell thing?" asked Jesse.

"Correct," said Giles. "More commonly referred to as a 'Hellmouth'. It's a sort of, um, portal between this reality and the next. This vampire hopes to open it."

"Bring the demons back," said Buffy.

"End of the world," Xander realized.

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

Giles nodded. "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?" asked Xander.

"It comes once in a century, on this night. 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." Giles drew a three-pointed star on the whiteboard.

Buffy stared at it. "So, I dust anyone sporting that symbol, and no Harvest."

"Simply put, yes."

Xander nodded. "Sweet. So we know how to stop these guys."

Buffy gave him a look. "There's no 'we', Xander," she said sternly. "I'm going to take care of this. You all just go back to being normal high school kids, okay? Live that life I can never have, 'kay?"

"And we're supposed to just sit idly back while these things come into our town and you fight them off solo? Because that's what you said you were going to do earlier, and it doesn't look like it went too well for you," he retorted, indicating her damaged clothes.

Buffy glared at him. "What part of 'Chosen One' are you not getting?" she asked. "I fight these battles alone. Because I have to. I don't have a choice."

"But we do," said Willow, stepping forward. "Look, we won't get in the way. We just… we don't want to leave you on your own when we could help you."

Buffy looked between the two of them before looking over at Jesse. He'd been sensible enough to let her go alone before. Maybe he'd do it again.

But this time, when Jesse stood up, he faced her. Somewhat timid, but his eyes looked so earnest. "Look, I can't say I'm thrilled to go running headlong into battle with a bunch of evil naked mole rats," he said slowly but calmly. "But they're right, Buffy. We can't just let you go off into a fight on your own. And I'm not saying that out of some misplaced sense of chivalry, because, frankly, I'll probably be hiding behind you most of the time, but… I know we only met you yesterday, but you're our friend, and we're not going to let you do this alone."

Buffy looked as though her certainty might be wavering. "Jesse…," she started, but he interrupted.

"We won't do anything without your say-so, but we're going, Buffy. Whether you like it or not."

For a moment, Buffy felt strangely moved by his words, but almost as quickly as it had started, she reasserted her command and nodded, looking over at Giles.

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

Giles looked less sure of that. "There's a number of possibilities."

But Xander's eyes widened. "They're going to the Bronze."

"Are you sure?" asked Willow.

"Come on. All those tasty young morsels all over the place?"

Jesse followed his friend's logic. "It's where I'd go for young blood if I were a vampire," he said. He glanced at Buffy. "Again, thanks for making that not happen," he added, pointing to the plaster on his neck.

Giles immediately grabbed his coat and headed for the door. "Then we should get there," he said. "The sun will be down before too long."

Buffy and the others followed him. "I gotta make a stop. Won't take long."

"What for?"

"Supplies."

Thankfully, it didn't take long to get Buffy's weapons from her house. Getting them past her mom took a little ingenuity, not to mention lots of rope, but they got in and out in less than ten minutes. That gave them plenty of time to get to the Bronze and get everyone in position. The five of them patrolled the club, keeping an eye out for any familiar vamp faces from last night.

"Why don't we just pull the fire alarm and evacuate everyone?" Jesse asked.

"We need to lure the vamps in here so I can kill them," Buffy explained. "Unfortunately, that means we need live bait."

Jesse's eyes fell on Cordelia out on the dance floor with some guy and felt his heart twist. He didn't like leaving the object of his affection at the mercy of any passing creatures of the night, no matter how cruel she'd been to him in the past.

Buffy seemed to sense his displeasure and patted his shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry. The whole point of being here early is to make sure no one gets hurt. I've got Willow and Xander manning the exits. I'll need you to start herding people in their direction. Understood?"

Jesse swallowed down his fear. "Roger Wilco."

Buffy gave him another smile before setting off to resume patrolling the place.

Jesse moved slowly in the opposite direction, his eyes scanning everywhere. His head bobbed lightly to the music, and he maneuvered through the crowds of dancing teenagers. His eyes kept swinging back towards Cordelia. Maybe he could warn her somehow. She had just wrapped up dancing with some guy, so he started making his way over.

"Psst! Cordy!" he hissed.

Upon hearing her name, she turned and glared at him. "Who gave you permission to speak to me?"

"Cordy, listen to me!" he said, trying to be heard over the music. "Something's about to go down! You need to get away from here!"

She rolled her eyes disparagingly. "Oh, and let me guess - you're my only hope and you're going to save my life by making out with me somewhere?"

"I wish," Jesse admitted, "but no. You need to go. Take your friends and escape. Preferably out the back door."

Cordelia frowned. "Escape what?"

Suddenly, the lights went out, plunging them into darkness. The people started complaining and wondering what happened.

Then, a familiar man walked up on the stage and shouted out over the crowd.

Jesse realized he was one of the vampires from last night. "Escape him!"

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" the vampire shouted. "There is no cause for alarm. Actually, there is cause for alarm. It just won't do any good."

His face shifted to his more vampiric appearance, making several people scream in terror.

Cordelia frowned. "I thought there wasn't any band tonight."

"This is a glorious night!" he continued. "It is also the last one any of you shall ever see. Bring me the first."

A vampire brought someone to the stage, whom Jesse realized was the bouncer, who currently thrashed about, trying to get free. "What do you guys want, man, huh? You want money? Man, what's wrong with your faces?"

The vamp grabbed him by the throat, wrapped his other arm around the man's head and gave the crowd one last smile. "Watch me, people. Fear is like an elixir. It's almost like blood."

He bit the doorman and the man screamed.

Jesse looked back over his shoulder. He could just barely see into the backroom. Already, he could make out Willow at one of the doors, herding classmates through the emergency exit. He gripped Cordelia's shoulder. "Quick!" he whispered in her ear. "Go that way!"

"Hey!" she angrily whispered back, refusing to let herself be shoved around. "What the hell is going on?"

A loud thump at the stage interrupted them, and they looked to see the bouncer lying dead on the floor, blood streaming out of two holes in his neck. "Next!" the vampire shouted.

"Nothing good!" Jesse hissed, giving her a shove towards the door. "Now go!"

"But what about you?!"

Jesse pulled the stake from his pocket. "I have to stay! Just go!"

Cordelia looked at him in shock and, he liked to think, admiration, before she turned and hightailed it through the crowd, surreptitiously diverting whatever people she could.

Looking back to the stage, he watched as another vampire forced another person on stage. His eyes widened when he saw Darla amongst them, and his hand instinctively went to his neck. He wasn't ready to see her again.

He saw a flick of blonde and turned to see Buffy making her way around the room, unseen by anyone else. Swallowing down his fear, he did the same on the opposite side, just in case she needed him for… something.

The vampire on stage dropped the second victim. "I feel the Master's strength growing!" he bellowed. "I feel him rising. Every soul brings him closer! I need another! Tonight is his ascension. Tonight will be history at its end! Yours is a glorious sacrifice! Degradation most holy." He jeered at the audience. "What? No volunteers?!"

He almost went to take his third victim when Buffy kicked the vampire in the back of the head. The victim managed to wriggle away, and the vampires all saw Buffy behind them.

She simply smiled cheerfully. "Oh, I'm sorry, were you in the middle of something?"

"You!"

"You didn't think I'd miss this. Did you?"

But the vampire smiled. "I hoped you'd come."

"I do like to make an entrance."

Jesse's eyes flitted amongst the crowd. Already, he could see a majority of the attendees had gotten out. The only ones left were the ones who couldn't get around their vampire captors.

Buffy did a somersault through the air and landed on a pool table. A vampire attacked from her right, so she grabbed a pool cue on the way, hopped off the table and thrust it into her attacker.

"Okay, Vessel boy," she announced to the leader, deftly slipping off her jacket. "You want blood?"

"I want yours!" he hissed, ignoring his other offerings. "Only yours!"

Buffy shrugged. "Works for me."

She ran and cartwheeled up onto the stage, and immediately launched into a full spinning hook kick. The leader staggered into a pile of chairs. Buffy assumed a fighting position as he got up and growled.

Jesse watched mesmerized as the fight got underway. She really could handle herself. He slowly slipped the stake back into his pocket and looked around for an exit, but the other vamps had them covered.

Then, he spotted Xander slipping into the room. They locked eyes and nodded at each other, Jesse hoping his friend took it as a signal to start getting people out. Thankfully, it worked, and Xander helped guide a few more people away from the other vampires and towards the exit.

Unfortunately, it didn't go completely unnoticed, and one of the vamps grabbed Xander by the neck. Luckily, Buffy saw and grabbed a cymbal from the vacant drum set and threw it like a frisbee. Xander ducked just in time, while the vampire got his head chopped off for his troubles, crumbling to dust as he did.

"Head's up!" Xander declared.

The leader vamp grabbed Buffy from behind, holding her tightly "I always wanted to kill a Slayer!" He looked to the ceiling. "Master! Taste of this… and be free!" With a roar, he moved in to bite Buffy. She responded by snapping her head back to land a headbutt on his face, knocking him off of her and back to the wall.

She turned to him, winded. "How'd it taste?"

Suddenly, Jesse felt a hand on his shoulder, and he found himself face-to-face with Darla once again. "Well, hello!" she purred.

Jesse gulped, immediately putting a hand on his stake. "Oh, no. I'm not falling for that one again."

Darla smirked, her features shifting into her game face. "Is that so? I guess I'm just not as shallow and vapid as that cheerleader you're so hangdog over."

Jesse felt a stab of anger, but he held it together. "You shut up."

"She'll never love you. You're nothing more than a little barnacle, trying to attach yourself to her." Her smile widened, letting her fangs glisten in the dim light. "And here I am, right here, ready to make you into a real man…"

Jesse glanced past her. He could see Willow approaching with a small vial, looking like she might be ready to unleash its contents. Locking eyes with her briefly, he looked back at Darla. "Thanks," he said, "but I think I'll work on that myself."

He gave her a good shove, and Willow flung the small bottle of holy water all over Darla's head. "Out, vile jelly!" she shouted.

Darla let out a howl of pain and fled, smoke pouring from her hair and shoulders.

Jesse looked at Willow gratefully, but he couldn't stop his amused expression. "'Out, vile jelly'?" he asked incredulously.

Willow shrugged helplessly. "It sounded good in my head," she said as she glomped him in a big hug.

The friendship moment ceased when they heard glass shattering. They turned to see Buffy had thrown a microphone stand through a window behind the vampire leader, letting a bright light shine through. He shielded himself as if it were sunlight, but when nothing happened, they saw that it was a bright stage light.

Buffy lunged at him from behind and jammed the stake home. "Sunrise is in about nine hours, moron!" she snapped.

The leader began to stagger off the stage before tipping over and turning into ash. Buffy stood over them, staring blankly, before looking at the two vampires still alive. Apparently, that look alone sent them panicking and fleeing the room.

Buffy hopped down to the floor. Giles entered the room, wiping his glasses, having apparently had his own adventures elsewhere in the building. "I take it that it's over."

"Did we win?" Willow asked hopefully.

"Well, we averted the apocalypse," said Buffy. "I give us points for that."

"Despite my guidance counselor saying I'd never make anything of myself," added Jesse.

"One thing's for sure," said Xander. "Nothing's ever gonna be the same."

"Well, I heard it was rival gangs," Cordelia said to some girls about the previous weekend. "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!" said one of the girls.

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

Buffy watched them walk off before meeting Xander and Jesse.

"What exactly were you expecting?" she asked Xander.

He shrugged in response. "I don't know, something. I mean, the dead rose. We should at least have an assembly."

Jesse snorted. "Dude, you know they'd just make it about school spirit or some crap."

They ran into Giles and Willow, and the five continued to walk.

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

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

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

"I know I won't," said Jesse, rubbing his now-healed neck. "I'm only just starting to get full feeling back in this thing."

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

Xander blanched. "Next time?" he repeated.

"Next time is why?" asked Willow.

"We've prevented the Master from freeing himself and opening the mouth of Hell," Giles explained. "That's not to say he's going to stop trying. I'd say the fun is just beginning."

Willow brought the gang to a halt. "More vampires?"

Giles shook his head. "Not just vampires. The next threat we face may be something quite different."

"Like vampire Smurfs?" asked Jesse, earning another smirk from Buffy.

Giles pretended not to hear. "We're at the center of a mystical convergence here. We may, in fact, stand between the Earth and its total destruction."

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

She walked off and Willow, Jesse and Xander followed, leaving Giles behind.

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

"Maybe you could blow something up," suggested Willow. "They're really strict about that."

"I was thinking of a more subtle approach, y'know," said Buffy. "Like excessive not studying."

"Oh, then you're gonna fit in just fine with us," Jesse grinned.

Somewhere behind, they dimly heard Giles remark, "The Earth is doomed!" in his usual deadpan British manner, but they ignored him and kept going.

Time for World History.

Author's Notes: Okay that's the setup out of the way. We'll get to the nitty-gritty stuff soon! Enjoy!