It was a typical night at the Bronze. Music pounded, teens danced, drinks poured – the whole nine yards. Jesse wandered through the crowd, feeling better than he had in weeks. After spending the last few months trying to extinguish a crush he knew was bad for him, he'd finally succeeded and could walk normally. Now, if he ran into Cordelia Chase on the street, he felt less compelled to run and hide until she passed. Sure, she treated him the same as all the other dorks in school, but he finally felt safe enough to be within the same vicinity as her.

He'd finished his homework for the night, so his parents had allowed him to spend a few hours here. He knew at least Willow and Xander would be here. Buffy would probably be out kicking vampire butt, and she insisted she do that alone. Not that he complained at all about that. He had zero desire to go out and help her slay unless absolutely necessary. His slayage of Darla had been personal, and also under the 'absolutely necessary' category to save Angel. He could live without ever doing it again as far as he was concerned.

He spotted his friends at a table not too far away, but they hadn't seen him yet. He almost made himself known when he saw that Xander was talking, and Willow was staring at him dreamily. Frowning, he got just close enough he could hear the conversation.

"You know how I feel about you. It's, uh, pretty obvious, isn't it? There's never been anyone else for me… but you. And we're good friends, and it's time to take the next step."

Jesse looked between them, wondering if maybe he should walk away and pretend he heard nothing.

Xander continued. "Would you, um… date me?" He grinned after he said that. "Oh that's good! 'Date me'!" The grin fell, and he made a face. "It's terrible, right?"

Willow snapped out of her lovesick expression. "Huh? Oh, no! Oh, yes, 'date me' is silly…"

Jesse closed his eyes despairingly. Had he ever done anything remotely this pathetic while hung up on Cordelia? Would his friends have staged an intervention? And then he recalled, they had – three times.

Xander tried again. "See, what I should do is I should just start with talking about the dance." He cleared his throat. "Y'know, Buffy, Spring Fling just isn't any dance. It's a time for students to choose, um… a mate and then we can… observe their… mating rituals and tag them before they migrate." He buried his face in his hands. "Just kill me!"

Jesse decided to put an end to this by walking up. "Or call David Attenborough to narrate it," he grinned, taking a seat opposite them.

Xander blanched. "How much did you hear?"

"Not enough. By all means, Xan-man – pray continue!"

Willow swatted his arm. "Leave him alone! He's doing fine!"

Xander slumped in his chair. "Why's it so hard? I should just walk up to her and say, 'Hey, I like you. Let's go to the dance together.'"

Willow smiled excitedly. "Oh, that's good! Direct and to the point!"

Realizing he'd just found the correct approach, Xander got to his feet triumphantly. "I'm ready. I wanna do it now. I gotta do it now."

Willow quickly held out a hand to stop him. "Oh, Buffy's not here. You can practice on me some more."

But Xander shook his head. "No, no, I can't wait until tomorrow, I-I'll be thinking about it too much. Why didn't Buffy show up tonight? What's she doing?"

"Killing vampires," replied Jesse flatly. "Wanna get in the middle of that? Wait 'til tomorrow. Strike while the iron's lukewarm."

Buffy hit the ground hard on her back and exhaled, not too far away from a parked car. Relieved to have missed it, she propped herself up to see the latest vampire approach her and growl. She rolled into a reverse somersault and came up standing, ready to fight. When the vampire growled again, she pulled a stake out from under her jacket behind her back and held it pointing out from her hips so the vampire could see. He frowned at the sight of it as Buffy put on an evil smile. Riled, the vampire and he launched himself at her.

She hit him with an out-to-in crescent kick, and then followed up with a high front snap kick, stunning him. She immediately plunged the stake home, and he fell over backward and burst into ashes when he hit the ground.

A proud smile graced Buffy's lips. Three in one night. Giles would be proud.

Giles got up from his books at the table and went into his office to make some tea. He carried one book with him – the Codex that Angel got for him last week. It had been a great help in figuring out the prophecy concerning the Master. He still marveled at the poetry of a vampire assisting in taking down what would normally be considered one of his leaders. He sat down at his desk with his cup of tea and read the text.

"Ho korias phanaytie toutay… tay nuktee. 'The Master shall rise…' Yes, yes, this is it!" he said triumphantly. "'The Master shall rise, and the Slayer…'" He couldn't finish the rest of it out loud. His voice trailed off in horror, his heart almost stopping. "My God!" He sat back, scratching his chin contemplatively. What could he do? He knew his duty, but there had to be some way he could prevent it.

He reached for his tea, but the cup began to rattle on the saucer before he could take it. He stared at the rippling liquid inside before the tremors spread throughout the room, and then the building. Realizing it to be an earthquake, he got up while his teacup vibrated off the desk and smashed on the floor.

Patrons of the Bronze went into a frenzied panic as the building began to shake. Lights swayed back and forth, dust fluttered down from shelves and drink glasses shattered all around them. Jesse, Xander and Willow stood in the middle of the chaos, looking around helplessly as everything went to hell around them.

Xander grabbed Willow's arm. "Under the stairs! Under the stairs!" he yelled. The trio ran and inserted themselves under the nearest staircase. Jesse had to work to make sure he didn't hit his head, and Willow nearly got her fingers smashed by the various shoes stomping on the metal step she briefly grabbed onto. They held onto each other in a group hug as the shaking intensified, waiting for the chaos to end.

Buffy steadied herself as the trees shook around her. Car alarms went off in the distance. She may have only lived in Sunnydale for a few months, but even she could tell this wasn't your standard California earthquake.

Giles came out of his office just in time to witness several bookshelves falling over as the walls began to crack around him. A loud shuddering noise rumbled under his feet, and he took a step back as the floor seemed to split open like a big zigzagging zipper in the ground.

Giles wandered out of his office and crossed to the cage to put some books away. He still felt shaken by what he'd read last night. What could he even do with this knowledge now that he had it? What could he possibly tell her? How could he possibly inform Buffy that –

"Morning!" Buffy's voice rang out. "Wow. The damage looks fairly structural. Are we safe in here?"

Giles practically jumped as he saw her inspecting the earthquake damage. "Buffy!" he exclaimed before catching himself. "Er, yes, we're, we're safe. Uh, but probably best not to go up there," he added, glancing up towards the stacks.

Buffy looked at him with concern. He probably didn't look too well. "How're you doin' there, Giles? Get much sleep last night?"

"I've been working."

"Me, too. I went hunting last night, and it is awfully sweet of you to ask. It's getting hairy out there, Giles. I killed three vampires last night, and one of them was practically on school grounds."

Giles nodded. That much was true. "Their numbers are increasing."

"And they're getting cockier. Look, I'm not loving it. Last night was a pretty close call."

"Yes," Giles murmured distantly, still lost in thought.

Buffy, however, mistook this for lack of interest. "Giles, care? I'm putting my life on the line battling the undead. Look, I broke a nail, okay? I'm wearing a press-on. The least you could do is exhibit some casual interest. You could go, 'hmm'."

Still distracted, Giles asked, "Hmm?" Seeing her annoyed expression, he tried to stay focused. "Oh, sorry. Um, yes, I'm very glad that you're alright. Uh, I-I need to verify, um… I just can't really talk right now."

Buffy huffed. "Fine. That's okay. I can't put it off any longer. I have to meet my terrible fate."

Giles whirled around in shock. Had she found out already? "What?!" he exclaimed.

She smiled bitterly. "Biology," she clarified before walking out the door.

The double doors to the outdoor area swung open, and Buffy, Xander, Jesse and Willow came out onto the balcony before heading down the stairs.

"Wow," Buffy sighed heavily. "That was boring."

Xander grimaced in agreement. "I don't feel that boring covers it."

"We're coming up on the end of the school year," complained Jesse. "You'd think they'd be busting out all the stops so we'll pay attention to the gripping finale."

Willow grinned slightly. "Even I was bored. And I'm a science nerd."

Buffy looked at her discouragingly. "Don't say that."

But Willow smiled. "I'm not ashamed. It's the computer age. Nerds are in."

"Are they?" Jesse asked. "Damn. If only I'd known. It's way too late for me to become a nerd."

Xander, however, looked between his two friends with a pointed look. "Willow, Jesse, don't you guys have a thing?"

"A 'thing'?" Jesse repeated, completely deadpan.

Willow, however, remembered something. "The thing! That we have! Which is… a thing that we have to go to. Come on, Jess!"

At the bottom of the stairs, she hooked Jesse's arm and dragged him away. "Guess we'll be going then," Jesse shrugged, just barely having time to wave goodbye before they disappeared into the crowd.

Buffy stared after them, bemused, before looking to Xander for answers. "What on earth was that about?"

Xander shrugged innocently. "Uh, you know Willow is. Always in a rush." After laughing awkwardly for a moment, he cleared his throat. "So, uh, Buffy, I wanted to, um… There was this thing I wanted to ask you, to talk to you about."

Suspecting nothing, Buffy smiled. "Okay, what's up?"

Fumbling for a moment, Xander guided her over to a stone bench. "Uh, let's go over here and sit."

"Okay, now you're making me nervous."

"Oh, no, no, there's nothing to be nervous about. Really, it's silly. Ha, ha!" he said in a tone that suggested he was shaking like a leaf inside. At the bench, he bluntly shooed away another boy sitting there, and once alone, they sat together. It did very little to reassure Buffy.

"Well?" she asked.

Xander shifted awkwardly, his smile looking vaguely constipated. "Um… You know, Buffy, uh, Spring Fling is a… time for students to gather and… Oh, God!" He paused to take a breath, and then it all came out in a rush. "Buffy, I want you to go to the dance with me. You and me, on a date."

Buffy's mouth hung open just a little as the invitation impacted one her. Her brain sputtered like an old truck before her voice started working. "I- I don't know what to say."

Xander shrugged pleasantly. "Well, you're not laughing," he said somewhat brightly, "so that's a good start. Buffy, I like you. A lot. And I know we're friends, and we've had experiences… We've fought some blood-sucking fiends, and that's all been a good time. But I want more. I wanna dance with you."

Buffy tried to smile but it felt wrong. This whole situation felt wrong. "Xander, you're one of my best friends. You and Jesse and Willow…"

"Well, neither of them are looking to date you." He smiled a little. "Although Will can be a little shy sometimes, so she could just be playing it pretty close to the chest."

Buffy still couldn't try to smile. God, he was going to make this hard. "I don't want to spoil the friendship that we have."

"Well, I don't want to spoil it either. But that's not the point, is it? You either feel a thing or you don't."

Buffy looked down for a moment, trying to get her thoughts together. She didn't really need to think about it. She knew how she felt. Xander never felt like a potential boyfriend. If anything, he felt more like a brother. Something about the two of them together just felt incredibly-very-much wrong. She looked him in the eye, hoping to be as gentle as possible. "I don't. Xander, I'm, I'm sorry. I-I just don't think of you that way."

For a moment, Xander looked like all the air deflated out of him, but he still tried to keep on a smile. "Well, try," he said in a hopeful tone that didn't have much hope at all. "I'll wait."

"Xander…," she sighed.

At last, he seemed to give up, backing away from her, his smile turning undeniably bitter. "Nah. Forget it," he said, getting up. "I'm not him. I mean, I guess a guy's gotta be undead to make time with you."

Buffy flinched. "That's really harsh," she said, genuinely hurt.

"Look, I'm sorry," he continued, not sounding very sorry at all – sounding like he'd just had his heart broken and wanted to take her down with him. "I don't handle rejection well. Funny! Considering all the practice I've had, huh?"

"Xander, I'm sorry, I don't know…"

He gripped his backpack strap, his smile completely gone. "You know what? Let's just not." He stormed off into the building, his head hung low.

Letting out a bummed out sigh, Buffy turned to watch him leave. Part of her wanted to go after him, but he clearly needed to be alone right now – and frankly, he'd handled the rejection badly enough she didn't really want to go after him. She decided to just get to her next class instead.

Giles sat in his office at the library, the phone to his ear as he spoke with Angel. "Hello. Uh, this is Giles."

"Giles?"

"Uh… Rupert Giles."

"I know who you are. Why are you calling me?"

Giles swallowed briefly. Calling a vampire – still felt strange. "I need to see you."

"Kinda earlier than I normally see people."

"No, I - I realize that. Uh… Come after sundown."

"Okay, I'll be there."

"Good. I'll see you then." He hung up, relieved to have that over with. He still didn't know if he could trust Angel, but the ensouled vampire had come through for them a few times before. Might as well give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

"You know," a voice said, making him jump, "that outfit looks just like the one you wore yesterday. Only wrinklier." Jenny Calendar stood in the doorway. "Were you here all night?"

Giles blinked. He hadn't heard her enter. "Sorry, uh… I'm not really up to, uh, socializing just now," he said, hoping she would take a hint and let him get on with the horror.

She didn't. "Something's going on, Rupert, and I'm guessing you already know what it is."

He got up from his chair, now curious. She'd helped before with Moldach, and what all did she truly know about the world they lived in? "What do you know?"

"Well, I have been surfing the 'Net, looking for unexplained incidents. You know, people are always sending stuff my way. They know the occult's my turf. Now, here is the latest. A cat last week gave birth to a litter of snakes. A family was swimming in Whisper Lake when the lake suddenly began to boil. And Mercy Hospital last night, a boy was born with his eyes facing inward. I'm not stupid. This is apocalypse stuff. And throw in last night's earthquake, and I'd say we've got a problem. I would say the end is pretty seriously nigh."

Giles looked at her. Could he really let her into the fold? Trusting Angel felt foreign enough, but at least the vampire appreciated books over computers. "I don't know if I can trust you," he said quietly.

"I helped you cast that demon out of the Internet. I think that merits some trust." Her expression turned concerned. "Look, I'm scared, okay? Oh, plus, I've got this crazy monk emailing me from Cortona about some Anointed One?"

The name made Giles come up short. "The Anointed One? He's dead!"

Jenny's eyes widened. "Someone's dead?"

Cursing himself, Giles forced the conversation back on track. "Uh, who is this monk?"

"Uh, a brother Luca something? Keeps sending out global mailings about a prophecy."

"I need you to talk to him, find out everything he knows."

Jenny crossed her arms, annoyed now. "Look, Rupert, you haven't told me jack, so what's with the order?"

"Just do it!" Giles insisted. "I'll e-explain later."

She gave him an unimpressed look. "You better," she said before turning and leaving.

Jesse followed Willow into the hall, and then nearly collided with her when she came to an abrupt halt and tried to turn around and go the other way. He looked at her questioningly before spotting Cordelia with her latest boyfriend, Kevin. Jesse didn't know what happened to Mitch after the invisible girl fiasco, but he knew she tended to cycle through boys for one reason or another.

"I'll get everything tonight after practice. The guys'll help me," he heard Kevin saying.

"Well, it's all in the A-V room," Cordelia told him. "The sound system, and the decorations… And, oh, Aura needs help, um, moving the coolers."

"Don't sweat it!"

"Well, bring everything to the Bronze, and I'll meet you there in the morning!"

"Done!"

Cordelia giggled, her pearly white teeth glistening in the fluorescent lights. "You're so sweet! Why're you so sweet?"

Kevin grinned. "I dunno! 'Cause I'm usually mean as a snake!"

As she smiled at him, her eyes flitted over, and she spotted them. "Willow!" she exclaimed, causing Willow to almost flee again. Cordelia said goodbye to Kevin and parted ways with him. "Willow! I really like your outfit!" she said, walking up to them.

Willow frowned. "No, you don't."

Cordelia shook her head in agreement "No, I really don't, but I need a favor."

"What kind?"

As Cordelia laid out her needs – she needed someone who knew how to set up a sound system at the Bronze – Jesse could hear a thumping noise in a nearby classroom, and he angled his head to see inside. He saw Xander throwing a ball against the wall in a classroom – a sure sign that he needed to work off some anger. Three guesses as to why.

"… I'd be really, really grateful! I mean, I'd talk to you at the dance and everything." She eyed Jesse. "I'll even be nice to your loser friend, here."

Willow looked at her incredulously. "Didn't my 'loser friend' help save your life a few weeks ago?"

Cordelia scoffed. "And how does he respond to my gratitude? By saying 'that's what friends are for'? I mean, after all these years of pining for me, he's…" She trailed off as Jesse simply walked past them and into the classroom. "See what I mean?!" she complained.

Willow simply assured Cordelia she'd be at the Bronze at ten tomorrow to help set up before following Jesse into the room. They stood a sensible distance from Xander as he threw the ball repeatedly against the wall.

Jesse, sensing his friend's efforts hadn't gone too well, decided to start with the obvious. "She said 'no', huh?"

Xander responded by throwing the ball just a little bit harder this time.

Jesse nodded. "Well, you took your shot. No casualties. Ego slightly bruised, but hey, we've all been there."

"I guess it could be worse," grunted Xander, still throwing the ball. "I could have gangrene on my face."

"And green doesn't match anything you're wearing," Jesse grinned.

Willow spoke up awkwardly. "Well, what did she say?"

"Apart from 'no', does it really matter? She's still jonesin' for Angel, and could care less about me."

Jesse frowned. That didn't sound quite like Buffy.

Willow shrugged, however, perhaps hoping this would finally be the end of it. "At least now you know."

Xander nodded. "Yeah, you're right. The deal's done. The polls are in, and it's time for my concession speech." Then, his expression brightened, telling Jesse he'd just had another bright idea as he zeroed in on Willow. "Hey, I know what we'll do! We can go! Be my date! We'll, we'll have a great time! We'll dance, we'll go wild! Whadaya say?"

Willow looked affronted. "No."

"Good!" Then, both he and Jesse registered what she'd just said, and they both looked at her in surprise. "What?"

"There's no way," she said resolutely.

Xander let out a breath, disappointed yet again. "Willow, come on!"

But Willow still looked about as angry as she could. "You think I wanna go to the dance with you and watch you wish you were at the dance with her? You think that's my idea of hijinks? You should know better."

The point having been firmly hammered home, Xander had the decency to look ashamed "I didn't think."

Willow still glared at him. "I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. I'll see you guys on Monday."

She turned to leave, but Jesse took a step towards her. "Will?"

"Jess, I'm sorry, but… I'm gonna go home alone." She continued out the door and out of sight. Jesse stared after her, still stunned, and a little bit proud of her.

Xander turned back to his ball, muttering to himself. "That's okay. I don't wanna go. I'm just gonna go home, lie down and listen to country music. The music of pain." He went to throw the ball again, but Jesse swung around and caught his arm before he could. "Jess, what're you – ?"

"Buffy and Willow both think the world of you, and you're wrecking all that just because of some lousy dance?"

Xander got his arm free, dropping the ball in the process. "Buffy does not think the world of me. She's all hung up on Mr Broody Vampire while I'm over here – "

"Throwing a ball against the wall? What did she really say? Did she say she didn't care about you?"

Xander glared but then looked down at his shoes. "She said she just doesn't feel that way for me. That our friendship means too much to her."

"Wow. What a bitch." Xander didn't look up, so Jesse soldiered on. "The woman you've been obsessed with for several months values your friendship and wants you in her life. I was obsessed with Cordelia for three years before I finally got over it, and she still calls me a loser. So don't go acting all oppressed just because Buffy cares about you enough to let you down easy."

Xander still continued to stare down at his shoes, but his shoulders had loosened a little, suggesting maybe he'd finally let go of some of that bitterness. Deciding to ease up a little, Jesse patted his shoulder.

"I know it's hard to hear, Xan-Man," he said calmly. "But maybe it's time to move on? It's not impossible."

Xander looked back up for a moment before letting his gaze fall again, slumping into a nearby desk and looking deep in thought. Jesse gave him another pat on the shoulder and left. His friend needed to think things over.

As if having to turn down Xander had been bad enough, now the water in the girls' locker room poured blood from the sinks. She'd gone to wash up a little and very nearly got doused in bright crimson. She'd tried all of them, and it was the same thing. Seriously wigged out, she sought out Giles at the library.

She heard his voice in his office and stopped when she heard how distressed he sounded. "It's clear. It's what's gonna happen. Uh, it's happening now!" he stammered.

Then, Angel moved into the light to read the Codex, much to her shock. Since when did he and Giles have conversations? "Angel?"

But Angel remained unaware of her presence. Clearly, whatever Giles told him distracted him from his usual vampire senses. "It can't be. You've gotta be wrong."

Giles shrugged helplessly. "I've checked it against all my other volumes. It's very real."

"Well, there's gotta be some way around it."

"Listen. Some prophecies are… a bit dodgy. They're… they're mutable. Buffy herself has thwarted them time and time again, but this is the Codex. There is nothing in it that does not come to pass."

"Then you're reading it wrong."

"I wish to God I were! But it's very plain! Tomorrow night Buffy will face the Master, and she will die."

Buffy had by now made it to the doorway, still unseen by either of them. Giles' words made her run cold, and for a moment, she couldn't breathe. She was going to die. It had been foretold. She was going to die. She'd always known the possibility to be true in her head – this line of work wasn't particularly safe, after all – but to hear it spelled out like that…

She started to laugh. She didn't know why. Just something in her brain finally snapped from all the pressure. It caused Angel and Giles to see her. She slowly walked away from the office door. She could hear Angel coming after her, but she stopped by the table and faced them. Giles stood in his office doorway.

Her laughter faded, the smile only barely left on her lips. "So that's it, huh? I remember the drill. One Slayer dies, next one's called! Wonder who she is." She looked at Giles. "Will you train her? Or will they send someone else?"

Giles looked suitably horrified but his voice remained even. "Buffy, I…"

She cut him off. "They say how he's gonna kill me? Do you think it'll hurt?" The smile had disappeared, and now she could feel tears flowing freely from her eyes. Angel tried to hug her, but she put up her hands and quickly stepped away. "Don't touch me!" she snapped before rounding on Giles again. "Were you even gonna tell me?"

"I was hoping that I wouldn't have to," Giles explained, looking so infuriatingly lost. "That there was… some way around it. I…" He trailed off.

But Buffy made her mind up. "I've got a way around it. I quit!"

"It's not that simple," said Angel, sounding incredibly condescending.

"I'm making it that simple!" Buffy yelled. "I quit! I resign, I- I'm fired, you can find someone else to stop the Master from taking over!"

Giles took a tentative step forward. "I'm not sure that anyone else can. All the… the signs indicate…"

Buffy couldn't stand it anymore. She grabbed a book and threw it at him. "The signs? Read me the signs!" she practically screamed. "Tell me my fortune! You're so useful sitting here with all your books! You're really a lotta help!"

For all of his British composure, Giles genuinely looked like he'd just been slapped. "No," he said quietly. "I don't suppose I am."

Angel tried again, but he just sounded so damn condescending. "I know this is hard."

"What do you know about this?" she demanded. "You're never gonna die!"

"You think I want anything to happen to you? Do you think I could stand it? We just gotta figure out a way…"

"I already did. I quit, remember? Pay attention!"

Giles spoke up again. "Buffy, if the Master rises…"

Buffy cut him off with the simple action of yanking the cross from her neck. "I don't care!" She stared hard at him, her breathing becoming more ragged as the anger gave way to fear and sorrow. "I don't care. Giles, I'm sixteen years old. I don't wanna die." She threw down the cross, and it hit the carpeted floor silently.

Giles and Angel could only look at her, whatever arguments they had gone. Part of her knew she was being unfair, but her fear prevented her from caring. Without another word, Buffy turned and stormed out of the library.

That night, Buffy looked through a photo album, looking back on her life in its poorly-lit red-eyed glory. She'd had some time to calm down, but her mind remained made up. She didn't care what anyone said. She quit. She wanted out. She would run as far as she could and make sure that prophecy never caught up.

She heard a knock at the door, and Joyce popped her head in. "Hi, honey. You alright?"

What a loaded question. "Sure," she said halfheartedly.

Joyce nodded as she came into the room. "Probably just full from that bite of dinner you nearly had. Feel like telling me what's on your mind?"

Buffy looked at her mom for a long moment, and then, an impractical idea came to her. "Mom, let's go away!" she said with a huge smile.

Joyce looked suitably confused by the request. "What?"

"Anywhere, just for a while, all weekend!"

"Honey, I…"

"No, it'll be great!" Buffy insisted. "You and me, a mother-daughter thing… We can talk about all the embarrassing things you love to bring up."

Joyce, however, couldn't be swayed. "You know the gallery's open on weekends."

But Buffy couldn't let it go. If she could convince her mom to do this, then maybe they could both be spared whatever apocalypse was bubbling to the surface. "Mom, please!"

"Isn't the Prom tomorrow night? Or Spring Fling, whatever they're calling it?"

"I-I guess."

"Nobody asked you?"

Buffy winced, remembering Xander's less-than-mature reaction to being rejected. "Oh, someone…," she said quietly, sitting back down on her bed.

"But not the right 'someone'," Joyce concluded, making Buffy's heart sink a little lower. "See, sometimes I actually do know what you're thinking." She went over to Buffy's closet. "Well, then, uh, this probably isn't the best time for this, but, uh…" She opened the closet to reveal a beautiful white sleeveless gown. "I saw you eyeing it at the store. I figured…"

Stunned, Buffy got up from her bed, gazing at the dress. "Mom, we can't afford this."

Joyce smiled wryly. "The way you've been eating, we can afford it."

Buffy looked at it longingly. It was so beautiful – the kind of dress she should be obsessing over instead of her impending demise.

"I think you should wear it," Joyce continued. "To the dance."

Buffy shook her head. "No, I- I can't go to the dance."

"Says who? Is it written somewhere? You should do what you want. Homecoming, my freshman year of college. I didn't have a date, so I got dressed up and I went anyway."

"Was it awful?"

Joyce nodded wistfully. "It was awful. For about an hour."

"Then what happened?"

"I met your father," her mother smiled. It was a bittersweet smile, but still, a smile.

"He didn't have a date either?"

"He did." Buffy's eyes widened, and Joyce grinned even bigger. "And that's a much funnier story that you will not get to hear. Oh, but it was a beautiful night!" she added with a sigh.

Buffy smiled at the anecdote, but the knowledge of what would happen soon still preyed on her. "And you had your whole life ahead of you."

"Yeah," Joyce said, still with that faraway look in her eye.

"Must be nice."

"Oh, Kevin said that he'd bring everything to the Bronze last night," sneered Cordelia bitterly. "He promised! We'll never get everything ready in time."

Willow tried not to roll her eyes too big. She'd rather not be walking next to Cordelia Chase right now, but she hadn't seen Buffy or Jesse yet, and she was avoiding Xander. While she didn't exactly regret telling him off, the thought of having to confront him again and try to hammer things out just made her hang out with Cordelia and use the popular girl as a shield. "He probably forgot. It's not that big a deal," she suggested.

Cordelia looked at her like she was an idiot. "Uh, you don't understand. I'm not mad! He totally flaked on me. On me! And I don't even care. God help me, I think it's cute!" she complained pitifully.

Willow smiled at that. At least Kevin had inspired some degree of humanity in the bitchiest girl in school. They reached the Audio-Visual room and they could see Kevin and his friends through the windows.

"There they are! They're watching cartoons. That's so cu…" Cordelia caught herself. "That's not cute. That's annoying. I'm annoyed."

"Right," agreed Willow. "I'm furious."

"Men. I don't know why we put up with them."

Willow's mind flashed back to Xander. "I hear ya."

"Obviously, Kevin has underestimated the power of my icy stare."

She opened the door, and Willow got the shock of her life as Kevin's body fell out into the hall. He had a vampire bite on his neck. Willow barely heard Cordelia's scream of horror as she went down to try and revive her dead boyfriend. Her eyes darted all over the room. With the door open, she could now see it had been trashed, and the boys were all dead.

She stared at the bloody handprint on the TV screen.

Buffy had been trying on the dress when Joyce informed her of something on the news – several boys in the AV room at school had been horribly murdered. She'd gone straight to Willow, finding her at her place up in her room, having been crying for a long time. She looked so distraught, and it took Buffy a long time to soothe and get her to talk a little.

"I've seen so much. I thought I could take anything. But, Buffy, this… this was different."

"It'll be alright," Buffy said quietly. She'd said it several times since coming over, but it seemed to be all she had.

"I'm trying to think how to say it… to explain it so you understand."

"It doesn't matter as long as you're okay."

"I'm not okay," Willow insisted. "I knew those guys. I go to that room every day. And when I walked in there, it… it wasn't our world anymore. They made it theirs. And they had fun." A tear rolled down her cheek, and she had never looked so lost. "What are we gonna do?"

Buffy felt something deep inside herself change. The fear remained, but now she felt resolute. "What we have to do," she said as she got up. She would do what she had to do – for Willow, for her friends, for everyone. "Promise me you'll stay in tonight, okay?"

Willow nodded, and Buffy turned to leave. "Buffy?" When she stopped and looked back, she saw Willow smiling sheepishly through her tears. "I like your dress."

Buffy looked down at the dress and managed a weak smile. It did look pretty. "Take care," she said as evenly as she could. She set off for Sunnydale High.

Jenny Calendar went over the papers and books that sat in haphazard piles between herself and Giles. "Okay, so this Master guy tried to open the Hellmouth. But he got stuck in it, and now all the signs are reading that he's gonna get out, which opens the Hellmouth, which brings the demons, which ends the world."

Giles nodded. "That about sums it up, yes."

Jenny shook her head. "The part that gets me, though, is where Buffy is the Vampire Slayer. She's so little."

"You know how to get in touch with this, uh, brother Luca chap?"

Unfortunately, Luca had become unreachable recently. "He's disappeared. Did send out one last global though. A short one," she added, picking up a scrap of paper.

"What did it say?"

"Isaiah 11:6, which I dutifully looked up."

Giles, however, already knew the verse. "'The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf, the lion and the fatling together, and the little child to lead them.'"

"That's kind of a warm and fuzzy for a message of doom."

Giles looked thoughtful. "Well, that depends where he's leading them to. Aurelius wrote of the Anointed One, 'The Slayer will not know him, and he will lead her into Hell.'"

"So Luca thinks the Anointed is a kid?" asked Jenny.

"If the vampire that Buffy killed was in fact not the Anointed, then it may well be."

"Well, then we need to warn her."

"I don't intend to involve her at all."

"What do you mean?"

Giles' expression looked absolute. "Buffy's not gonna face the Master. I am."

"No, you're not." Jenny turned and saw Buffy entering through the main doors. Her expression remained firm, but anyone could tell the poor girl was frightened. "So, I'm looking for a kid, huh? And he'll lead me to the Master?"

Giles tried to look as rational as she did. "Buffy, I'm not gonna send you out there to die. Now, you were right. I- I've waded around in these old books for so long, I've forgotten what the real world is like. I- it's time I found out."

"You're still not going up against the Master."

"I've made up my mind."

"So have I."

"I made up mine first! I'm older and wiser than you, and just… just do what you're told for once! Alright?" he said firmly.

But Buffy still looked resolute. "That's not how it goes. I'm the Slayer."

"I don't care what the books say," Giles said, crossing to her. "I defy prophecy, and I am going. There's nothing you can say that will change my mind."

"I know." She turned to go, but then threw a hard punch to his face, and he fell backward to the floor, out cold. Jenny scrambled to his aid, almost not noticing Buffy pick up a cross necklace from the table and put it on.

"When he wakes up," Buffy said quietly, "tell him… I don't know. Think of something cool, tell him I said it."

Despite the suddenness of these events, Jenny still looked at her imploringly. "You fight the Master, and you'll die."

"Maybe," agreed Buffy as she picked up the crossbow. "Maybe I'll take him with me." And on that note, she was gone, leaving Jenny to tend to Giles.

Once outside the school, it didn't take long for Buffy to find the Anointed One. She spotted a small boy walking up to her, probably died around age ten or so. He looked frightened and held out a hand to her.

"Help me…," he called out in an almost monotone voice.

Buffy lowered the crossbow and approached – might as well get it over with. "It's okay. I know who you are."

She took his small hand in hers, and she allowed herself to be led to the Master.

"She what?!" Xander practically exploded. He had joined Jesse and Willow in the library with Giles and Ms Calendar. Giles had a bruise on his jaw, and he'd just gotten done telling them about Buffy's mission.

Willow paced the room a little, dealing with her natural fretting. "I told you there was something going on with her."

"And she knew about the prophecy at this point?" Jesse asked. Giles nodded, making Jesse throw his hands up in frustration. "So now what do we do?"

"We stay calm, first thing," Giles attempted to take control.

Xander, however, balked at the suggestion. "Calm?"

"I think he's right," Willow tried to be reasonable.

But Xander would not be swayed. "I'm sorry, calm may work for Locutus of the Borg here," he said, indicating Giles, who clearly missed the reference, "but I'm freaked out, and I intend to stay that way."

"Xan-Man, chill," Jesse tried to say.

"How could you let her go?" Xander rounded on Giles.

The older man glared at him. "As the soon-to-be-purple area of my jaw will attest, I did not let her go!" he snapped.

"Well, how can we help her?" Willow asked.

Ms. Calendar chose this moment to remind them all that she still stood in the room. "Uh, I'm sorry to bring this up, but we also have an apocalypse to worry about?"

Jesse, Xander and Willow both looked affronted at their computer teacher's involvement. "How come she's in the club?" Willow demanded.

"And why is she so remarkably casual about saying the word 'apocalypse'?" added Jesse.

Ms. Calendar looked annoyed by their attitudes but continued to make her point. "Once the Master gets free, the Hellmouth opens, the demons come to party, and everybody dies."

Xander shook his head like a petulant child. "Uh, uh, I don't care. I'm sorry, I don't. Right now I gotta help Buffy."

"We don't even know where she's gone," Giles pointed out.

"No. But I can find out."

Xander heaved a breath as he made it up to the apartment. Giles had given him the directions needed – apparently he and Angel had a level of correspondence before now, so the Watcher knew how to find him. Jesse had offered to accompany him, but Xander knew he had to do this by himself. As much as he resented the guy, he needed the vampire to trust him – and that might not work if he came with 'back up'. Walking up to the door, he took a deep breath and knocked on the door. The footsteps on the other side moved slowly, and when the door opened, he tried not to resent that he looked handsome even in the dim light.

Angel looked unimpressed. "Oh. Look who's here."

"Mind if I come in?" Xander asked, not waiting for an answer as he entered.

"Make yourself at home." Angel shut the door and crossed his arms patiently.

Xander cut right to the chase. "She's gone."

"What do you mean?"

"Buffy – she's gone to fight the Master."

Angel's expression betrayed only the slightest hint of alarm. "He'll kill her."

"Rumor has it. Only we're not gonna let it happen."

"Well, what do you propose we do about it?"

Struggling not to lose his temper with the vampire's attitude, Xander took a breath as he continued speaking. "Look, I know you can find this Master guy. He's underground, right? Take me to him."

Angel looked at him seriously. "You're way outta your league, kid. The Master will kill you before you can even breathe. If you're lucky."

Xander pretended to think for a moment as he reached into his back pocket. "How can I say this clearly?" he wondered before pulling out the crucifix he'd stashed earlier.

Angel growled at the sight of it, but Xander advanced on him, continuing until Angel tripped backwards over his couch. Satisfied, he pocketed it again, standing over the creature that could snap his neck like a dry twig.

"I don't like you. At the end of the day, I pretty much think you're a vampire. But Buffy's got this big old yen for you. She thinks you're a real person. And right now I need you to prove her right."

Angel glared fiercely at him. "You're in love with her."

"Aren't you?"

Back in the library, Giles came out of the stacks with an armful of books, which he proceeded to set down in front of Willow, Jesse and Jenny. "The Master is as old as any vampire on record. There's no telling how powerful he'll be if he reaches the surface."

Jenny eyed the stack of books. "Okay, here's my question: the Hellmouth opens."

"Yes."

"Where? If he's underground, and it's right where he is, where's it gonna open?"

Giles scratched his head thoughtfully. "Good point. Uh, well, look, you have a look through the Black Chronicles…," he said, handing the book in question to her.

"Okay."

As she went to work, Giles turned to Willow at the table, sitting across from her. "Willow? Could you look through the local histories, please. Check for any common denominators, uh, locations of incidences and such."

"Right, okay," Willow nodded, heading for the computer immediately.

Jesse hung back, watching everyone go to work. "Guess I'm ordering pizza again," he said sheepishly.

But to his surprise, Giles hooked his arm and guided him to his office. "You can help me research here," he assured him "Hopefully, between the two of us, we can cover twice as much ground."

Jesse grinned a little. "Well, one and a half more, anyway."

At the entrance to the Master's lair, the Anointed One stopped, and Buffy looked at him expectantly. He simply pointed down below, inviting her to enter, before leaving the way they came. Buffy watched him go, too nervous to feel affronted. Kids today, she thought. They can't be bothered to see anything through to the end.

She made her way down to the floor below. When she got there, she found hundreds of candles burning everywhere.

"Welcome." The Master's voice seemed to come from all directions. She kept her fear under control and continued to look around.

"Thanks for having me." She waited for him to show himself, but he remained hidden for now. She needed to get him out in the open. "Y'know, you really ought to talk to your contractor. Looks like you got some water damage."

"Oh, good. The feeble banter portion of the fight. Why don't we just cut to the…"

Buffy spun around before he could finish and launched a bolt in the direction of his voice. With his lightning reflexes, the Master caught it in mid-flight right in front of his chest. His face looked just like it had in her dreams – pale blue skin, scrunched up with a mouth full of fangs, no hair on his head. She quickly reloaded the bow.

"Nice shot." He casually snapped the bolt in half, chucked it aside and began to circle her like a vulture. "You're not going to kill me with that thing."

With the new bolt loaded, Buffy looked up, only to find he'd disappeared again. "Don't be so sure," she said, eyes flitting around the cavern carefully.

"You still don't understand your part in all this, do you? You are not the hunter. You are the lamb."

Buffy's head darted back and forth. His voice came from every direction. She tried not to panic, but this really unnerved her. The last thing she needed was a vampire that could throw his voice.

Everyone sat at the table in the center of the library, reviewing the various demon volumes. "Well, let's think about this, then," said Giles. "The vampires have been gathering, they know he's coming, they will be his army."

"Do you think they'll gather at the Hellmouth?" asked Jenny.

"Well, the last time the Master tried to rise was the Harvest," explained Willow. "He sent a bunch of vampires to get him fresh blood."

"Well, where did that go down?"

"The Bronze," said Jesse automatically, before comprehension dawned on him, and his eyes widened. "Oh crap, the Prom!"

Giles immediately moved from the table. "We have to warn them."

But Jenny stooped Giles in his tracks. "No! We'll go. You have to concentrate on demon killing. My car's in the lot. Willow – you come with me. Jesse – stay and help Giles."

Willow followed her to the door, but she still looked back at Jesse in annoyance. "Why are we doing what she says?"

Jesse just smiled encouragingly and stuck with Giles at the stacks of books.

"Stay together!" Giles called after them. "And for God's sake, be careful!"

Buffy slowly made her way around, searching for the Master. She came upon a dead and disgustingly rotted body. "You know, for someone who's all powerful, you sure do like to hide," she called out, moving past it with a repressed shudder.

A soft thump echoed behind her. She looked briefly but saw nothing in the dim lighting. "I'm waiting for you," his voice called out. "I want this moment to last."

"Well, I don't."

Ahead, she saw another corner for her to go around. Her nerves already a little frayed, she spotted the silhouette of a man in the flickering candlelight. Frowning, she made her way towards it.

"I understand," said the Master.

She turned around, and in one swift sweep of his hand, the Master knocked the crossbow out of her hands. Before she could react, he grabbed her by the neck.

Running out of the school into the parking lot, Ms. Calendar dug around in her bag for her keys as she and Willow headed for her car.

"What if they get to the Bronze before we do?" Willow asked, looking over her shoulder to see if they'd been followed.

Ms. Calendar looked up to answer, but whatever she'd been about to say died on her lips as she saw something. "Don't need to worry about that!"

"Why not?"

"Because they're not going to the Bronze."

Willow turned to follow her eyeline and saw, moving through the field across from the school, a hoard of vampires approaching. Looking across the parking lot, they saw even more of them. They turned to go back and saw even more of them blocking their way, surrounding them.

Buffy swung upwards with her arm, knocking the Master's hand away and starting to run. She made it halfway to the nearest corner before she felt some strong force compelling her to stop. While she tried to fight against it, she felt like a fish fighting the current as her head slowly turned back in his direction. He'd caught her in his hypnotic powers. He approached her, making slow twisting motions with his hand to wield his power. He came up behind her, gently took off her leather jacket and let it fall to the ground. Buffy tried to fight harder, panting with the effort, but he had her.

The Master stood behind her, speaking into her hair. "You tried. It was noble of you. You heard the prophecy that I was about to break free and you came to stop me. But prophecies are tricky creatures. They don't tell you everything." He leaned in close, his voice a whisper. "You're the one that sets me free! If you hadn't come, I couldn't go. Think about that!"

Frozen with fear, Buffy felt what little hope she had drained away. She'd just given him what he needed. More than that – her Slayer blood would be far more powerful than what he needed. She'd handed him his victory, and she couldn't do a damn thing about it. A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Apparently satisfied that she'd had time to realize how badly she'd messed up, the Master bent down and bit her at the base of her neck with remarkable gentleness. He drank a few sips, and she could feel the life force leaving her body, leaving her as weak and limp as a ragdoll. "Oh, God! The power!" he cried.

He let her go. In her weakened state, she fell to her knees.

"And by the way…," the Master added casually as she fell face down into a pool of water. "I like your dress." She could just hear him stepping over to the edge of his confines and pushing against the field. She tried to summon the strength to lift herself out of the pool, but he'd taken enough blood to prevent that, and no amount of Slayer healing would replace it before she finally drowned.

The trip through the tunnels had been long and tiring, and that was just the pair of them bickering. Xander insisted that Angel kept staring longingly at his neck, which Angel took offense to. Honestly – the sooner they found the Master's lair, the better.

They came to an adjoining tunnel that had light pouring through, and they could hear something sounding like thunder that made Angel come to a halt, his eyes wide with fear.

"What was that?" Xander asked nervously.

Angel delivered the news he did not want to hear. "It's too late. He's gone up."

They broke into a run for the Master's lair. Angel got there first, looked around and spotted Buffy. He scrambled down to the floor and rushed to her as Xander reached the lair's entrance, immediately seeing her as well. Angel reached her and quickly pulled her out of the water. He held her and tried to listen for breathing. Nothing. He looked up at Xander. "She's dead!"

Xander looked down at them and swallowed hard. Hoping against hope, he ran down to join them. "No. She's not dead," he insisted.

Angel looked at him like he was crazy. "She's not breathing."

"But if she drowned, uh, there's a shot!" Xander insisted, grasping at straws and hoping one of them would help. "CPR!"

Angel hesitated. "You have to do it. I have no breath."

Without missing a beat, Xander took off his jacket and laid it over her. He knelt down by her face and looked at her a moment, thinking back to how immaturely he'd acted at her turning him down and knowing he couldn't let that be their last interaction. He put his mouth on hers and blew into her lungs. He let go and began to pump her chest.

"C'mon," he grunted. "C'mon!"

Willow counted at least ninety vampires – or maybe it was only ten, and she'd counted them nine times in her fear. In any case, it was more than she and Ms. Calendar could handle on their own. "Why are they coming here?" her teacher wondered as they backed away.

"Not caring!" Willow snapped. Honestly, as much as she respected her as a teacher, she really felt off her game having someone outside the main group with her.

Before she could formulate an escape plan, they heard tires squealing behind them, and they looked up to see a car come to a halt with the faint scent of burnt rubber. A head leaned out of the driver's side window – Cordelia Chase?!

"Get in!"

Willow silently groaned as she and Ms. Calendar hustled into the car, slamming the doors behind them. Indebted to Cordelia Chase? This night just kept getting worse.

Getting desperate now, Xander breathed into Buffy's lungs again and continued to pump her chest, not even noticing how close he was to her boobs. No time for that now. "C'mon! Breathe! Breathe!" He ignored Angel looking down in despair. He refused to give up. "C'mon!"

After another moment, Xander stopped pumping. He didn't know why he stopped – maybe he felt like that was enough. A second later, Buffy opened her eyes wide and drew a breath. Lying flat on her back, not moving a muscle, her eyes darted around frantically as she took in her surroundings.

"Buffy!" Xander half-gasped, half-laughed, relief pouring through his system to see her making any kind of movement. She turned her head to the side and coughed up a bunch of water. He looked over at Angel and shared a smile with him – not sure if the vampire was impressed or not, and also not sure if he cared. In the end, they both had what they wanted – a not-dead Buffy.

Xander put his hand on Buffy's forehead and stroked it gently in the hope it would soothe her. She looked up at him, clearly surprised to see him. "Xander?" she croaked.

He just smiled. "Welcome back."

Willow and Ms Calendar huddled in the car as Cordelia babbled her explanation for her handy arrival. "I was sitting where Kevin and I used to park, and all of a sudden these things are coming at me!" she panicked.

They all screamed as a vampire jumped on top of the car, causing it to rock from side to side.

"What do we do now?" Ms Calendar cried.

Willow attempted her most authoritative voice in effort to be in charge. "We've gotta get to the library!"

Cordelia nodded firmly. "Library! Great!" She shifted to reverse, causing everyone to get flung to the side as she made a fast U-turn, throwing the vampire off of the roof of her car, and then, she abruptly headed toward the school building. The car's engine raced as Cordelia gunned it toward the doors.

Willow felt significantly less in charge. "Of course, we generally walk there," she said meekly.

They crashed through the doors and into the hall.

Jesse and Giles looked up from the books they had pulled out at the noise and ran out of the office to investigate. "What on earth…?" Giles started, but then, they could see through the little windows on the double doors that a car had decided to carelessly drive through the halls of the school. Even worse, vampires accompanied it, growling and snarling like rabid wolves.

Mercifully, the car stopped just in time, and Willow, Cordelia and Ms Calendar came running out of it, heading straight for the doors. They slammed them open and then shut them again just before the vampires got there. They scratched and surged at the door, but they held it shut.

"Come in, why don't you?" Jesse said, still wide-eyed shocked at what he'd just seen.

"What's happening?" demanded Giles.

"Guess!" Ms Calendar snapped back.

A vampire punched through the small round window in one of the doors and grabbed at them. Giles and Jesse grabbed a bookcase and carried it over to the door, allowing Willow to grab a sign and start hitting the vampire's arm with it. With the bookcase in place, Giles grabbed the copier and pulled it over, too.

"Why are they coming here?!" he shouted.

The Master opened the roof access door and walked out on top of Sunnydale High. He looked at the view around him of the town at night and smiled. He exhaled an unnecessary lungful of air, walked to the edge of the roof and held his arms out as he surveyed the scene. "My world! Oh, my beautiful world!"

Buffy wobbled briefly as Xander and Angel helped her up. Her thoughts swam with the horror of everything that had just happened to her, but she did everything she could to ignore it. She'd just friggin' died, and she did not want to think about it. She tried to focus on something – anything – else. "The Master?" she asked.

"He's gone up," Angel confirmed.

Relieved to have a mission, Buffy started to go. Xander attempted to stop her. "No. You're still weak."

"No," Buffy denied, stopping thoughtfully as she felt her Slayer healing seemingly go into overdrive. "No, I feel strong. I feel different." She really did. She felt like every moment of her life had been leading to tonight. She felt unstoppable. "Let's go!"

Everyone piled more things in front of the door. Giles looked at the back of the library and saw vampires trying to get in. "They're coming in through the stacks!" he shouted.

Ms Calendar grabbed Willow's arm. "C'mon!" she said, hustling her to the back of the library. "The bookshelves!" They lifted a fairly heavy bookcase against the French doors that lead to the stacks and leaned against it.

Giles then remembered something important. "My office…" He ran to secure his office and all the dangerous books therein.

Jesse nearly went with him, but then, another vampire punched through the other library door window and grabbed Cordelia's arm. She immediately started screaming. "Somebody help!"

Instinctively, Jesse looked for something to do just that, and he found a medium-sized fire ax on the floor. Grabbing it, he ran back to the door, raising it over his head. "Sorry!" he shouted as he brought it down hard, and it sliced through the vampire's arm, cutting the hand off and causing it to withdraw, howling furiously. Cordelia shrieked at the impact, and then again at the gross hand that flopped on the ground and rapidly decomposed.

As the door continued to surge, he helped her hold it shut. She looked at him almost inquisitively despite her fear. "Why'd you say, 'sorry'?" she asked over the noise.

"Pre-emptive," he replied sheepishly. "Just in case I missed."

To his surprise, she actually laughed at that. "You are such a dork." Despite himself, Jesse smiled, too.

Buffy marched determinedly toward the school with Xander and Angel close behind.

"So, how do you know where the Master's going?" Xander asked after managing to stay quiet most of the journey.

"I know," she replied.

A vampire dove out in front of them, trying to block their way into the school.

"Oh, look, a bad guy," she remarked, not even breaking her stride as she punched him on her way by, and he fell flat on his back. She didn't have time for this.

They made it inside with very little incident – at least, none worth mentioning – and arrived at the stairs leading to the roof. She could sense him up on the roof. Straightening her dress, she addressed Xander and Angel. "Okay, you two wait here, keep the rest of the vampires off me."

"Right," Xander nodded, his crucifix at the ready.

"Angel, better put on your game face."

Angel complied, letting his demon take the forefront. "I'm ready."

Looking at them gratefully, Buffy turned and made her way up to the roof. One way or another, this wouldn't take long.

Jesse kept the ax in his hands as the vampires continued to try and punch their way in, taking swipes at the incoming undead arms. "Also – sorry about Kevin," he grunted as sympathetically as he could. "He was a nice guy."

Cordelia stared at him, dumbfounded. "Thanks… You're seriously not jealous?"

The vampires had stopped trying to reach through for the moment, so he just leaned against the door to help her keep them out. "I'm also sorry I never took 'no' for an answer and followed you around like a lost puppy for three years." The door shuddered briefly, but he shouldered against it again. "Guess I'm just trying to say everything I've been hiding from in case tonight's the night, y'know?" he smiled awkwardly. "If we survive, can we just be friends?"

"Friends?" Cordelia repeated.

Jesse shrugged. "Or we could start as acquaintances and work our way up to being just friends?"

Before Cordelia could answer, another hand burst through the door, but just as Jesse raised the ax to attack it, she grabbed the hand and bit hard into it. The vampire screamed and retracted instantly. "Yeah!" she shouted. "See how you like it!"

Jesse slowly lowered the ax again, his mouth hanging open at having just seen Sunnydale High's Queen Bee Cordelia Chase herself bite a vampire on the hand. He started laughing. "Oh my god, that was so cool!"

Cordelia actually started to smile and laugh as well.

But then, they heard something towards the back of the room – Willow and Ms Calendar screaming. "GILES! GILES!"

Now they could see it – a huge green multi-headed tentacles demon bursting through the crack in the floor, flailing about and reaching around railings on the upper-level, snarling and hissing. Giles came running out of his office in time to see it emerge.

"What the hell is that?!" Jesse shouted.

"The Hellmouth!" Giles gasped, looking more fascinated than frightened.

Jesse positioned himself in front of Cordelia as the three-headed creature towered over them, reaching all the way to the ceiling.

The Master looked in through the skylight and clapped his hands idly, almost like a little boy delighted by the carnage he caused. "Yes. Come forth, my child. Come into my world."

Buffy smirked as she tiptoed up to the other side of the skylight and gave him her most patronizing tone. "I don't think it's yours just yet."

The Master turned his head and stared at her in surprise. "You're dead!" he exclaimed, even sounding like a child in his frustration.

Buffy smiled. "I may be dead, but I'm still pretty. Which is more than I can say for you."

"You were destined to die! It was written!" He didn't raise his voice, but his tone suggested he wanted to stomp his foot petulantly.

"What can I say? I flunked the written."

The Master growled and reached his arm out to try his hypnosis on her again. Buffy jolted as if under his spell. "Come here!"

Willow screamed as the Hellmouth creature tried to drag her away from Ms. Calendar, who held onto her for dear life. "GIIILES!" she shouted.

Giles snapped out of his fascination with the creature and searched for something he could use to help them.

"Giles!" he heard Jesse shouted, and he turned to see Jesse tossing him the fire ax. He snatched it out of the air and ran up the stairs to their aid. He swung it into one of the heads, and the creature roared in agony as the women continued to scream.

Buffy slowly approached the Master, apparently hypnotized. He grabbed her by the throat again, his red-stained mouth crinkling in a sadistic grin. "Did you really think you could best me here when you couldn't below?" he asked as he let go of her neck.

Buffy tilted her head curiously. "You have fruit-punch-mouth."

The Master's smug demeanor dropped in confusion. "What?" She swung a wide hard punch to his mouth, and he fell down.

"Save the hypnosis crap for the tourists," she snapped, doing a swinging roundhouse kick that connected squarely with his face. He swiped at her and she jerked back, but he managed to slice her with his fingernails across her upper right chest, drawing blood. She punched him in the kidney. He punched her in the jaw. She tried to punch him again, but he blocked her and punched her in the face, sending her flying backward into the wall behind her.

Giles swung again with the ax and hit the creature. He tried again, but this time it knocked him off of the mezzanine and onto the large table below. It broke on impact, and one side fell over onto its end, leaving a huge spike pointing upward.

At the bottom of the stairs, Angel and Xander worked together – begrudgingly, naturally – to fight off a pair of vampires. Angel fought one while the other jumped on Xander's back. He held his cross up to her and she jumped off. Angel staked his while Xander punched out the other.

The Master wouldn't give up fighting, which really irritated Buffy. She launched herself into a front tuck over his head and landed between him and the skylight. She kicked him in the side with a side snap kick, but he quickly turned around and grabbed her by the neck again.

"Where are your jibes now?" he growled.

But Buffy didn't look into his eyes. She peered down through the corner of her eye and saw the upended table through the skylight. She almost smiled.

"You laugh when my Hell is on Earth?"

"You're that amped about Hell…," she croaked out before grabbing him by his own neck, taking him by surprise. "Go there!"

She lifted him up and flipped him over herself and through the skylight. He fell down and was impaled on the table. His ugly face contorted briefly in shock before he slowly turned to ash, his body breaking up like a swarm of flies until only his skeleton was left.

Moments later, with a horrible defeated rumbling sound, the Hellmouth creature quickly disappeared back into the floor, dragging its tentacles across the carpet in a goopy mess as it went. Buffy let out a sigh that had been building up inside her like an inflating balloon. It was over.

By the main library doors, Jesse and Cordelia pushed the last of the junk away from them and pulled the door open for Buffy, Angel and Xander. They all walked over to the Master's remains, lying prone on the table..

Giles, thankfully not seriously injured save for some bruising, stepped through the mess. "The vampires?"

"Gone," said Cordelia.

"The Master?" asked Angel.

"Dead," Giles confirmed. "The Hellmouth is closed." He eyed his Slayer, who currently looked a million miles away. "Buffy…" She didn't answer. "Buffy?"

Snapping out of her shock - it was finally over – Buffy smiled reassuringly. "Oh, sorry. It's just been a really weird day."

Xander nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! Buffy died, and everything!"

Willow and Jesse both reacted with shock. "Wow! Harsh!" said Willow sympathetically.

"But… you're okay now though, right?" Jesse asked, looking her up and down.

Buffy smiled sheepishly. "No missing parts. Engine still running."

Giles looked concerned, but of course, his Britishness kept it dignified. "I should have known that wouldn't stop you." Her smile became much more genuine, as if the argument earlier never happened.

Ms Calendar cleared her throat. "Well, what do we do now?" she asked.

Giles looked around the wrecked library. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd like to get out of this place. I don't like the library very much anymore."

Xander's eyes lit up like the metaphorical lightbulb over his head. "Hey! I hear there's a dance at the Bronze tonight. Could be fun."

Willow looked uncertain. "But… none of us have dates," she said, almost looking at him hopefully.

To her annoyance, Jesse obliviously stepped on her hint-dropping. "Eh, dates are overrated. Let's just all go together – as friends," he added hastily. "Not suggesting some group date thingy."

To their surprise, Cordelia looked in favor of the idea. "Yeah!"

Willow looked over at her best friend. "Buffy?"

Looking around her kick-ass friends, Buffy nodded in agreement. "Sure! We saved the world. I say we party!" She looked down at her dress. "I mean, I got all pretty."

Ms. Calendar eyed the remains of the Master skeptically. "And what about him?"

Buffy followed her gaze and shrugged. "He's not going anywhere. Loser."

And so, they all moved off, chattering amongst themselves about the night's events. Willow invited Angel to join them while Giles swore he would not dance, much to Ms. Calendar's amusement. Cordelia bragged about saving the day with her car while Xander and Jesse patted each other on the back and imitated their fighting stances.

Buffy tailed the group, smiling fondly at everyone's antics, as Angel came up beside her, a sheepish smile on his face. "By the way, I really like your dress."

"Yeah, yeah," Buffy grinned. "Big hit with everyone."

Author's Notes: And that's Season 1 finished! Thanks so much for reading all that! I will say Season 1 is a slog for me, but at least it's done, and I can move on to the really good stuff. Season 2 is being written. Not sure when I'll start posting, but once it's more finished than not, I will. That's when the changes really start to kick in!