Buffy could only stare as humans all over the Bronze jerked their heads and turned into catlike, doglike and birdlike beings. Only five human faces remained. Xander, Cordelia, Jesse, a girl standing beside him and a middle age man. She watched as the beings, who weren't registering to her mystical senses, tore apart the vampires until all that was left was dust. More frightened than she'd been since the night Merrick had introduced her to her first vampire, Buffy backed away from the metal railing and looked frantically around for a way out. Then she saw another person standing at the end of the balcony. He was short, only a few inches taller than her and about her age.
"You don't have to be afraid. We won't hurt you." He assured her.
"What are you?!" Buffy demanded. "Are you one of them?"
"Yes. My name is Johnathan and I promise, we won't hurt you. You're Buffy, right? New girl? We both go to Sunnydale High School."
"What are those things?" She demanded.
"Let's go down and you can talk to Xander."
"What is he? What is going on here?!"
"Please, come down with me. You won't be hurt."
"As if you could hurt me! Fine, I want answers."
"So do we. We made sure there was no one here when we set the trap for the vampires."
Buffy preceded Johnathan down the stairs to the floor praying she wasn't making a mistake. The creatures were silent as she made her way through them until she was standing in front of Xander.
"Johnathan?" Xander questioned.
"She came in through the skylight, Xan, and dusted a vampire." Johnathan answered. "And she's strong, maybe as strong as you, she left dents in the railing when she gripped it."
"As strong as me? You're not a Grimm, what are you?" Xander asked.
"What's a Grimm? And I'm the Slayer!"
"I've never heard of a Slayer."
"THE Slayer, as in the only one." Buffy retorted. "One dies, another activates. It's our job to fight the vampires."
"The Slayer?" The older man who hadn't changed said. "I think I remember my mother mentioning a legend of a girl between something like twelve and eighteen somehow chosen by Magic to be gifted with powers similar to a Grimms' to fight supernatural evil. I'd have to check our archives to see if any of our ancestors have actually encountered one."
"I'm not a legend. You're turn, what's a Grimm?"
"Enhanced human." Xander answered. "Gifted with superior strength, speed and innate fight skills. Our job is to police the Wesen, who are para humans and to keep normal humans and Wesen safe from other threats, like vampires."
"Para humans? What's a para human?"
"A being with two natures, human and animal." Xander answered.
"That's why they look like animals?"
"Yes. They're naturally occurring, born to the Earth, just as normal humans are and have existed along side them since prehistory."
"Are there a lot of them?"
"I don't think there's ever been a census taken, but worldwide, yes, there are. Here in Sunnydale, a few hundred total."
"And they're not demons? They're not registering as demons to my senses."
"No, demons look and feel very different to us too." Xander assured her. "You register on my senses, there's something dark in you. But it doesn't feel the same as the vampires and you are human."
"You don't register to me at all and dark? That's odd, I'll have to talk to my Watcher about that, about all of this."
"Watcher?"
"The one who trains a Slayer. Who's training you?"
"My Uncle." Xander indicated the middle age man who'd mentioned the legend.
"Your family knows what you are? Aren't you worried about endangering them?"
"Being a Grimm runs though family lines, my Uncle is a Grimm too and his mother was too. My father didn't activate though, sometimes it just doesn't."
"Family lines? There's more of you?"
"Several hundred worldwide, at least. What use is just one warrior? There's strength in numbers as we proved tonight."
"There's always only ever been one Slayer at a time. The Watchers call it a Sacred Duty, the will of the gods."
"Considering our ancestors were worshiped as gods, I sincerely doubt that." One of the cat like beings told her. Several of them laughed.
"Is he serious?" Buffy asked.
"Yes, he is." Xander's Uncle replied. "Especially in Egypt and India and a number of other countries. Nowadays most of the world doesn't know they exist, like vampires and demons, which also used to be widely known about."
"How did you find out about the Harvest? I was warned by a guy in a really nice leather coat, he told me the Master would rise and try to open the Hellmouth."
"Nice leather coat? We interrogated a vampire wearing a leather coat, he told us about the Harvest and the Master. Looked like he was in his mid twenties. Big forehead." Jesse said.
"That's him. But he didn't feel like a vampire, in fact I thought he was a human. How do you know he was a vampire?"
"I could see the demon in him. Maybe he was trying to trick you, make you think he was a human." Xander answered.
"He said he was a friend, then he said, he never said he was my friend. So maybe you're right."
"I think we've all had about enough for now." Xander's Uncle decided. "Thank you all for helping out tonight, it's much appreciated."
"Hey, you Harris' have been protecting Sunnydale for decades from these things." One of the doglike people said. "And I felt the need to stretch anyway."
The human faces reappeared and the Wesen left until it was just Buffy, Xander, Cordelia, Jesse, Jesse's girlfriend, Amy, who'd remained silent and Xander's Uncle left.
"Now what?" Buffy asked.