A/N NEW CHAPTER! And the end of season 2 episode 1. Hope you enjoy it. There is a bit of Irish near the end. If any one, who knows how to speak Irish, notices I got something wrong please tell me and I will see about having it corrected.


Day 3

Morning

"Aisling!" Aisling paused as she walked through the lounge and turned to see Willow and Xander seated with Mr. Giles.

Slowly Aisling made her way over to the group and waved. "Hey," She said.

Willow motioned toward Mr. Giles excitedly, "We were just telling Mr. Giles about the two vampires you said you fought last night."

Aisling looked confused for a moment and turned to the school librarian. "You know about the demon underbelly?"

"Yes." Mr. Giles said. "I am Buffy's watcher."

Aisling tilted her head in faux confusion; Spike had told her about Watchers when he told her about Slayers. Being the Slayer of Slayers meant he spent time researching everything there was to know about them, but, she wasn't sure if everyone who knew about Slayers would know about their trainers. Best to play dumb about it. "Watcher?"

"I help train Buffy and keep her abreast of the Supernatural elements she is likely to encounter." Giles explained unnecessarily.

"Ah," Aisling said.

Giles nodded before changing the subject. "Now back to last night, it is intriguing that a girl like you was able to fight off two vampires."

Why bring my gender into this? Outwardly Aisling shrugged. "They were pretty distracted with getting Cordelia. Had they not been so one-track-minded, I likely would have been in a lot more trouble." Aisling allowed.

"Her dad's a demon hunter," Willow said excitedly. "Taught her everything she knows."

Giles appraised her with even greater interest. "Is that so?"

Aisling shuffled nervously on her feet. "Yea, he... uh didn't think it right that I know about the demon world but not have the ability to defend myself as best I could."

"Maybe we can ask her father's help in regards to Buffy," Xander said. "How's your dad with magic?"

"He doesn't really do much magic." She told them. "Any magic that needs doing he contacts a witch he knows and trusts. Besides..."

"Why would Buffy need magical assistance?" Giles cut in.

"Well, she's possessed or something," Willow said. "I mean, why else would she be acting like B-I-T-C-H?"

"It's more likely she's suffering from what happened at the hands of the master," Giles said. "Her dealings with the Master had to be extremely traumatic."

Aisling grumbled, " I told you she was likely dealing with issues last night."

Willow looked at her apologetically, "No offence, but you don't know her," She said, "You met her two days ago."

"What would you know about trauma anyway," Xander asked.

Aisling just stared at Xander for a moment before She became indignant. "You saw me-!"

"Hey, guys, what are you talking about?" Everyone turned around to see Buffy walking over to them.

"Trout," Xander said. "Nasty little fish, aren't they?"

It was a weak save, and Buffy didn't seem to buy it, but neither did she question it.

"How'd you sleep?" Giles asked, eager to change the subject.

"Like a rock, Master's gone."

"I'm sorry?"

"The Master. I went by his grave last night after I took Cordelia home, and they have a vacancy."

"Good God!" Giles exclaimed.

"What would somebody want with Master bones?" Willow asked.

Xander: "A trophy, a horrible conversation piece?" Xander said as a weak attempt at humour.

Buffy shook her head "They're gonna bring him back. They're gonna bring the Master back to life, and I seem to recall you telling me he was history." Her tone became more and more hostile as she continued to talk.

"Buffy, I've never heard of a revivification ritual being successful." Giles defended.

Buffy didn't care about the previous failures. "But you've heard of them? Thanks for the warning."

Willow tried to placate Buffy. "Well, Buffy, Giles did bury him and..."

Buffy cut Willow off "Look, this is Slayer stuff, okay? Could we have just a little less from the civilians, please?"

Aisling became indignant. " Civilian? Excuse you, I'm the entire reason Cordelia wasn't a meal last night." She said, at the same time Xander shouted out, "Okay, that's just about enough!"

"You shouldn't have gotten involved," Buffy argued to Aisling shooting Xander a look before turning back to Aisling. "You could have been killed."

Aisling scoffed. "And let Cordelia die? A real selling point you got there." She said sarcastically.

Aisling decided to ignore Willow's mumbling "it really was" under her breath.

"Ok, some of you have class," Snyder said as he walked up to their table. "And some of you have jobs."

Giles stood. "Right, we'll finish the conversation later."

"About trout," Willow said.

Aisling glared at Buffy before she turned and stalked off.

Before she could get a decent amount of distance between herself and those four people, however, Giles walked up beside her.

"My apologies for Buffy," Giles said.

Aisling turned to Giles "No," She said.

Giles paused and stared at Aisling. "No?" He asked.

"If she's truly sorry for upsetting me. She can apologize, to me, herself," Aisling said. "I will not accept an apology made from you. Especially when your only saying so because you want something from me." Aisling raised an eyebrow at him expectantly.

Giles stared at her for a moment. "Right, well, be that as it may, I would wish for you to come to the Library after school, give more information on the vampires you killed. It might help us figure out what the vampire's are planning."

Aisling stared at him. "I don't know… I was hoping to head straight home after school. I may not be the Slayer, but that doesn't mean the things I have to do are any less important."

"And I don't mean to keep you from those responsibilities." Giles insisted. "But since your father is a demon hunter, any information you could provide would be useful. I won't keep you long, but any little bit of information may help."

Aisling looked up at Giles. "I can't stay long. I'll give you any information I have, but then I have to go."


After School

"Ah, Aisling. You're here. Very good," Giles said as she stepped into the library. He was seated at the round table with Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Cordelia shockingly enough. "Perhaps you could start by giving us an overview of the vampires you faced last night."

Aisling sat at the table. "Don't know how much help I can be. Two vampires appeared, attacked Cordelia. I staked one from behind. The other told me to give up the girl, and they'd let me go. I smashed a bottle of holy water in their face, and while they were distracted by the pain, I staked them in the chest."

"So you didn't really engage in a fight."

"I kicked one of the vampires," Aisling said. "But outside of that- No I didn't go toe to toe. Avoid and evade and distract are my go-to's when dealing with malicious entities that are stronger than me."

"You got lucky one of the vampires ignored you," Buffy said.

"The question is why they would want Cordelia," Giles asked. "Even go so far as to strike a deal with you. Most vampires would have just drained the both of you. Or seeing you as a threat to their wellbeing, would have just run off."

Aisling shrugged. "The vamp wasn't really forthcoming with answers, and I didn't have the wherewithal to interrogate." She said. "I needed to bring her down and quickly."

Giles' answering smile had a touch of nervousness to it. "I wasn't trying to suggest that you did anything wrong. At the very least, you made sure there were two fewer vampires were running around. Your story also seems to fit what Cordelia herself has been saying."

"Great" Cordelia said sarcastically before standing. "Can I go now? Sunset is fast approaching and and I have like 0 desire to be vampire food."

"Well faster we decide why they wanted you. The Faster your life is in slightly less peril." Aisling said. "And The faster going out at night is just a tad safer for you which means you can get back to having a social life that much quicker."

Cordelia pursed her lips. "Point."

Aisling sat at the table. "Anything else, did you find anything else on the revivification spell?"

"Yeah," Cordelia said. "Am I safe tonight? I don't think I could handle being a homebody indefinitely. I have a life, you know."

"I have been looking through the books. According to them, the ritual includes the blood of the person or persons, who are closest to the Master." Giles said.

"Which is me," Buffy said. "I killed him; really helps with the bonding."

"Not necessarily," Aisling said. "Close in what context? Sire-line? Distance? Relationship wise?"

"The assumption would be-"

Aisling shook her head. "No. No assumptions. Those will easily get you killed. Be sure. Are you checking a translation or the actual document? You should be aware that things get lost and mixed up in translation all the time."

"What would you know about that?" Buffy asked.

"Demon. Hunter. Dad," Aisling said. "I can't count the number of times my dad has gone on a contract with half the information, assumed the other half and nearly gotten himself killed in the process."

"Needless to say, Aisling has a point," Giles said. "I should be sure. To be honest, the word 'Close' has many connotations we won't be sure until we double-check."

At that moment, a rock smashed through the window with a note attached. Calling for the Slayer to come alone to the Bronze.

"Guess we know who they need for the ritual," Buffy said emotionlessly, standing up to head off. "Guess they wanted Cordelia as food after all."

Cordelia stood up. "If that's the case..." She said standing up.

"What about the rest of the note?" Willow asked. "Y'know where it clearly says this is a trap."

Cordelia paused. "They are right you know. Going yourself could be tantamount to suicide."

Aisling nodded. "Willow and Cordelia are right. You should at least take someone with you to have your back."

"What, like you?" Buffy snapped. "Look, just because you got lucky with a couple of vamps-"

"I wasn't talking about me," Aisling said coolly. "But yeah, going there alone will likely get you killed."

Xander stood up, "Aisling's right," He said, "You shouldn't go alone."

"And going with someone else will likely get them killed in the process," Buffy said. "I can't keep worrying about whether or not you guys will be ok. I'm going-alone."

Before anyone could argue with her, Buffy turned and walked out the door.

So, of course, five seconds later, Giles found out that the original version stated that they need the blood of the person, (or persons) that were physically closest to him at the moment of his death.

Two seconds after that, vampires appeared out of stacks.

"Great," Aisling said as she pulled a stake out of her purse. "Guess we know who the mice were for this trap."

At that moment, the vampires attacked.


"Hey, Wake up." Aisling heard before feeling someone tap her on the face.

Aisling blinked as she stared up at the faces of Buffy Summers and Xander Harris. Xander was looking ashen and angry standing as far away from buffy as made sense.

"How are you feeling?" Buffy said helping her up.

Aisling rubbed the back of her head, "Like I went a few rounds with way too many vamps," Aisling said. "I remember staking one and then pain in my head, and then… nothing," Aisling said. She stared up at Buffy. "I take it the note was a dead end?"

"Yeah, a ploy to lure me away, so the vamps could grab the real targets."

Aisling groaned as the pain flared. "Yeah, apparently the ritual calls for the blood of the people who were physically nearest to him when he died," Aisling said. "Which I don't get. Wouldn't that have been you?"

"I killed him," Buffy said. She pointed up at the ceiling. "But I killed him by throwing him through the skylight," Buffy said, "He landed on a particularly huge piece of wood and died when it shishkabobed him."

Aisling winced. "And the people in this room at the time…?"

"Giles, Willow, Ms. Calendar and… Cordelia." Buffy said. "Guess we know why they wanted her now."

"If you had just worked with us for five minutes, we could have avoided all this." Xander hissed at Buffy. "But now because you weren't here. Willow and Giles..."

"No one here knew anything until Giles read the untranslated text," Aisling defended. "We don't have time to hash this out. Get angry at her for her attitude later. We have people to save."

"They hurt Willow; I'll kill you," Xander snarled at Buffy.

Aisling sighed; they didn't have time for this. "Do you know where they would have been taken?"

Buffy shook her head. "But I know someone who does."


Buffy took them to the empty Bronze. Aisling looked curiously at the older man who was holding a female vampire in place with relative ease. Buffy paused for a moment and introduced the two as quickly as she could. "Angel - Aisling, Aisling - Angel,"

Aisling's eyes widened when she shook her hand and felt cold skin and no pulse. She'd gotten good at surreptitiously checking someone's pulse when shaking someone's hand, especially when there was no sun. "He's-"

"He's good," Buffy said quickly. "He has a soul."

"He got his soul back?" Aisling asked, her head tilted slightly. Angel gazed at her; his eyes narrowed slightly. Aisling wondered if the vampire could smell the scent of Spike on her. Vampires did smell distinct from humans, so it was possible, and the name Angel did sound familiar. Though if he chose to get his soul back...

"Gypsy curse 100 or so years ago." Buffy noticed how Aisling's eyes dimmed when she said that. "Look, I'll explain this in better detail later but for right now…"

Aisling nodded and stepped aside as Buffy interrogated the female vampire. After Buffy tried to get the vampire to talk by stuffing a cross down the vampire's throat, Aisling pulled out her bottle of holy water and stepped in.

"Try aiming for the eyes," Aisling said. "Problem with torturing her via the mouth and throat is that we need this vampire to talk, the eyes on the other hand..." Aisling trailed off as she forced open the vampire's eyes and dropped a few drops. "She doesn't need to see to tell us where our friends are."

The vampire screamed. Aisling blinked as her mind was unwillingly transported back to Prague but she shook her head and continued on. Clutching the bottle tightly in her hand.

"I have lots of pent-up rage and no time for a long conversation," Aisling said darkly. "Where are they?"

After a few more drops of Holy Water into the eyes, the vampire told them exactly where they could be found. When she was done revealing what they needed to know, Buffy proceeded to put the vampire out of her misery with a quick stake to the heart.


Fortunately, as they entered, they could hear one of the vampires proselytizing that drowned out Buffy, Xander, Aisling and Angel carefully and quietly entered the factory.

All four of them stepped forward but immediately stopped when they saw Mr. Giles, Willow, Cordelia and Miss Calendar. They were hanging upside down over, what Aisling could only assume to be, the Master's bones. Though – now that Aisling thought about it - didn't vampires dust after being killed, leaving nothing behind? Even Dracula, who could self-resurrect, didn't leave behind a skeleton. What made the Master so special?

Shaking her head to free herself of those thoughts, she stepped closer to Buffy, to somehow signal her for what the plan could be, only to have Angel block her way.

Xander, standing right beside Aisling, whispered to Buffy and asked her what the plan was. Aisling rolled her eyes. It's a good thing they're all so focused on the speech, or we would be so bloody screwed.

"You three get the others out of here," Buffy said.

"We need you to distract the vampires," Angel said.

Buffy nodded slightly. "Right." She said.

"What are you gonna do?"

Aisling had a pretty good idea how she was going to 'distract' the vampires. She stepped around Angel and pulled out a stake, and tossed it to Buffy. Buffy caught it on reflex. "I already have one." Buffy started.

"Stakes dissolve when left in a vampire's heart," Aisling reminded her. "It's always good to have a backup. Want that back if it doesn't get destroyed." She said.

"What if a vampire-"

Aisling smirked and opened her purse to reveal how many more weapons she had at her disposal. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed that Angel stiffened when he saw the expression cross her face. Who did my father say was the only vampire in history that was worse than him? Andre, Angus, Angel, Angelus?

Aisling blinked as the story her father told her came back to her but shook her head to avoid the images. If Buffy was right and he did have his soul, then that changed things – not everything (A soul didn't immediately mean the demon went away)- but it did change things. Besides, it's not like her dad had ever shown her a picture of Angelus.

She watched as Buffy snuck up behind one of the vampires and staked him from behind.

The moment the vampires ran towards buffy Angel, Xander and Aisling hurried up the ladder. Once she was finished climbing, she grabbed hold of the chains that connected to the pulley system that was holding the four about-to-be-sacrificed-humans in place. She immediately started pulling on the chains pulling the sacrifices away from the Master's bones.

"Be ready to meet them," Aisling told Xander. "We want them freed quickly."

Xander hurried to the edge. When the chained upside-down people were close enough to him, he immediately started to release them and set them down.

OF course, the second all four of them were down, that was when the vampire showed up.

Aisling pulled out a switchblade. "That won't-" Angel started as Aisling swung the blade, and it hit the vampire in the eye socket. Aisling hadn't been aiming at the eye socket more like the general area of his face, but she wasn't about to complain when it shut Angel up.

The vampire stumbled back and raised his hand to the knife in his eye. Angel dove forward and started fighting the vampire while Giles and the others slowly woke up.

Miss Calendar crawled over to Mr. Giles. "Are you all right?" Mr. Giles asked.

"Yeah, I'm Ok." Ms. Calendar said as Mr. Giles sat up. Miss Calendar's placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Where's Buffy?" Giles said.

"She's… working out her issues," Xander said. Aisling stood and looked out at what was going on on the floor below.

Once she had been able to push one of the vampires away. The other vampire, one that had been proselytizing earlier, came in with a mallet and threatened The Slayer.

Buffy broke off a torch; used the broken edge to stab the vampire, coming at her from behind, in the chest. Then used the fiery side of the torch to burn the mallet-wielding vampire into ash.

Aisling moved forward when it seemed like it was done, but Xander held her back. "Wait," Xander said.

Aisling tilted her head in confusion and looked toward Buffy. "But it's done, isn't it?" She asked. Willow nodded from Xander's side.

Xander shook his head. "No," he said. "It's not."

They watched as Buffy slowly picked up the mallet and walked over to the Master's bones. She stood over his body for a second or two then proceeded to smash the Master's bones into as many pieces as she could.

Aisling watched as the tension slowly made its way from Buffy's body as she cathartically smashed what was left of the Master. When she was done, she stared at the broken pieces of bone. Angel stepped up beside her, Buffy dropped the mallet, and, though she couldn't see Buffy's face, Aisling knew she was crying.


"Hey, Ash," Spike called as he heard the door open. "How was-" Spike paused as he heard the door slam shut. "School?"

Ash stormed into his room stalked into his closet. For a moment, all he could hear was the sound of things being moved and tossed around before she exited the room with an empty punching bag in her hand.

Spike winced. "That bad?"

"I do not want to talk about it," Aisling said.

Spike decided to let it go for now. "Have anything to do with why you were late to your first period today?"

Aisling winced a little before she glanced at him. "You know about that?"

"Your school called," Spike said.

"Yeah, I was speaking to some students before class started didn't realize the bell rang," Aisling said. "Now, if you don't mind. I'm gonna fill this up with the sand I bought today. Beat the ever-loving daylights out of it until I either feel better or collapse from exhaustion, whichever comes first. Alright?"

Spike glanced at her for a moment then nodded his head. "Wrap your hands first," was all he had to say about it.

Aisling waved her hand. "I will." She said before she stalked out of the room. A moment later, she came back. "Want me to get you anything?"

Spike chuckled. "No, Ash, I'll be good till dinner."

Aisling nodded once before she left again.

He paused for a moment before he said and called out to her again. "Ash!"

Aisling stepped back in, concerned. "What is it?"

"Is breá liom tú," He told her. "Tá a fhios agat é sin, ceart?" (I love you, you know that, right?)

Aisling smiled. "tátá a fhios agam, mé i ngrá leat freisin" (I know, I love you too.) She told him before she left closing the door softly behind her.

Five minutes later, he heard the thud thud thud of Aisling punching the bag as hard as she could. He tried to pretend that he didn't also smell the scent of her tears.


Day Four

Aisling had just opened her locker to grab her books when she heard someone call out her name. "Aisling!"

Aisling to see Buffy running up to her. She turned back to her locker and sighed. "Hey, Buffy. Need something?" Aisling asked.

Buffy paused for a minute, then took a deep breath and plowed on through. "I'm sorry."

Aisling turned back and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"I went through a lot last May, and I just took it out on everyone." Buffy paused. "But as you said, my problems are not an excuse for treating everyone as bad as I did."

"And I wasn't the only one who said that. Cordelia may have been a bit more insensitive than I was about it, though." Aisling turned to Buffy. "but I would be lying if I said I didn't understand."

Buffy shook her head. "You couldn't understand."

"Not your specific trauma, no," Aisling conceded. "But trauma in general and how that can affect you?" Aisling sighed. "That I understand."

Buffy took a deep shuttering breath. "Do you think my friends will forgive me?"

Aisling sighed. "I think if your friends care about you, they won't take a couple of off days to heart."


Aisling and Buffy walked to class together. When they got to their homeroom, Buffy paused and hesitated.

Aisling paused for a second and gave Buffy a soft smile, "It will be fine." She said before she entered the classroom.

Buffy took a deep breath and entered. She slowly walked up to the empty seat beside Willow and behind Aisling.

A moment passed then Xander started talking. "There's a rumour going around that, uh, Mr. Cox is the most boring teacher in the entire world. Like, I think he won a belt or something."

Aisling chuckled and turned around. "Heard a couple of girls say the same the first day I got here."

"Like, yes." Buffy agreed.

"Well, I hear he nods off a lot. So that's a plus." Willow said.

"So, we Bronzin' it tonight?" Xander asked.

"Wednesday, it's kinda beat," Willow said.

"Well, we could grind our enemies into talcum powder with a sledgehammer, but, gosh, we did that last night." Xander joked.

Aisling snorted. "Could see a movie?" She started. She stopped when Willow, Xander and Buffy turned to look at her. "Or I'm so not apart of this conversation."

Buffy put a hand on her arm. "You helped prevent the Master from coming back," Buffy whispered. "You're apart of this. We all are."

Aisling smiled. "Awesome."

"Though no offence, but after all the excitement, I don't think I could sit through a movie," Xander said. "Hey, how about miniature golf?"

Aisling groaned. "I suck at miniature golf."

Xander stared at Aisling with a look of surprise. "You can throw a knife straight into a vampire's eye but not tap a ball into a hole?"

Buffy turned to the raven-haired girl in surprise. "You did that?"

Aisling smirked again. "Well, I was aiming in the general direction of the guy's face. It was by luck that the knife entered the eye." Maybe her dad was right. Maybe befriending the slayer would work out.

Just as soon as she could work up the nerve to tell her that her father was a vampire.


A/N Hope you enjoyed that. Started writing the second chapter. HOPEFULLY it will be shorter than this three chapter version of 2x01. This needed to be longer because I needed to introduce Aisling to all the main characters, so this was going to have to be longer. I'm going to try with a consistent chapter length of 10-15 pages. Whether or not a succeed or fail at that will remain to be seen.

Originally I wasn't going to have Aisling be apart of the rescue mission. Instead have her head straight him so furious with Buffy with the way she acted, and that's why she's angry, But changed my mind. Aisling had a bad time in Prague, her dad was kidnapped and tortured and Aisling's own actions were not praiseworthy when she tried to save him, certain actions she did during the rescue reminded her of the things she did when rescuing her dad.

She's only as functional as she is because she went to therapy on orders from Spike immediatly after they arrived back home. Like came home Saturday had the meeting on Monday type of deal. Therapist was able to help her through that trauma right away. (Again i have no idea how therapy works.)

Spike knows Irish Gaelic. He learned as a way to bond with Aisling. Never showed it, but sometimes they will have conversations in Irish so as to avoid people listening in on their conversations.

And speaking of therapy. Do you guys want actually see bits of her therapy sessions? Cause if you do, word of warning I've never been to therapy, chances are I will be making mistakes regarding the sessions.

Anyway! If you want to see more please leave a review!