The First will use the pronouns of whatever form it takes (she/her for Buffy, he/him for Spike, etc.) and use it/its pronouns when not taking someone else's form.

Chapter 10: The Other Side of the Board

The First Evil was in a good mood.

It had been laying out the pieces for its plan for years now, even if it did have to readjust for… minor setbacks (that stupid vampire and his stupid Slayer).

But the witch, the only one of Buffy Summer's stupid gang that actually had any sort of power, had been killed.

In a way, that was sort of a disappointment; Willow had been filled with so much potential for darkness. Then again, she was too well connected to her friends for her to have been totally brought over.

But it was no use dwelling on what ifs, and the redhead had done so much more for her dead than she would have if she had stayed alive: Cordelia Chase was still on this dimension.

The Not-Quite Fallen Power was still stuck in that disgustingly pure dimension with no meat sack to hitch a ride on, and the one being it had truly worried about couldn't interfere with her stupid world peace.

Of course, she could have been a useful distraction for the vampire and his gang, but it would have only been temporary, and since the Power would have had to lose, there was truly nothing to be gained by letting her get in grasp of her goal.

And, it thought with the incorporeal version of a smirk, Angel was now literally next door to his Slayer, the one person who could almost certainly make him lose his soul, even with the apocalypse approaching. And then it would have another piece on the chessboard, one who would no doubtably take away much of Buffy's attention.

So, best case scenario, Angel turns back to Angelus, kills (or even better, turns) Buffy Summers. Its Harbingers could get someone to kill the true (though less annoying) Slayer, Caleb and the Bringers could get the Potentials, the Watchers and the utterly green Slayer that would be called with Faith's death.

Worst case: Caleb, the Harbingers and the Turk'hans kill everyone and it wins, though that wasn't quite as fun as mind games.

It took a moment to consider trying to turn Faith again, before deciding Angel had done too good of a job, and it would be best to kill her before she could join her predecessor in Sunnydale.

There was also the vampire's spawn and the Key to think about, though Connor's prophecies didn't apply to it, his revenge plan would undoubtedly fail and little Dawn Summers could simply be killed for the Key to revert to its energy state and not pose any issue. The First doubted Dawn had even considered the implications of being the Key after Glorificus's plan flopped.

But there was one more piece, and it hadn't had the chance to decide his fate. The First had been disappointed when William had gotten his soul back (though his work with Buffy had meant it wasn't nearly as hard of a blow as it had been when it'd lost Angelus), but was mostly worried about what the implications for two ensouled vampires were.

There was one place it could go for more ideas, but with its current plans for Wolfram and Hart, it would be rude to ask for help beforehand.

So it was best to get started immediately.

†

Warren knew he was lucky.

He had shot the Slayer, somehow failed to kill her and escaped. And considering he had also accidentally killed one of her friends, he knew he should be grateful to have successfully made it to Mexico.

'Should' being the key word.

There were a stupid amount of people who couldn't speak English, and Warren wasn't exactly going to start learning Mexican.

"A room. You know, sleeping place?" He tried to gesture.

"No tengo idea de lo que está diciendo, señor."

It was times like these Warren almost regretted leaving Andrew and Jonathan behind. They could have picked up something by now.

After another twenty minutes or so in which Warren was finally able to get a room, though he was extremely irritated and had a large scowl on his face.

"Stupid Slayer," he muttered as he slammed down his duffel bag.

"Now that's a good sign."

Warren whirled around, gun in his hand as he heard the amused (and dreaded) voice behind him.

"Wh– How did you find me?"

Buffy Summers smirked at him from her place at the doorway, before she started to walk towards him, to which Warren immediately responded by shooting his handgun.

But the bullets passed through her into the hallway wall.

"As I was about to say," Buffy said, still amused, "I'm not the Slayer."

"What are you?" he asked, still in shock that whatever it was hadn't been disturbed at all by the bullets.

"I," she said, "am the First Evil." She smirked. "And we are going to have a little chat."

†

Angel's surprise move (to where, only Lilah Morgan knew, but she was planning on holding onto that information until she could benefit the most) had caused enough shock that the CEO of the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart had called a meeting of all the department heads.

The seven heads gathered into the conference room only slightly worried, with the exception of Linwood Murrow, who was a mixture of furious and worried.

"And none of you have any idea where he is?" Lucy Alba, the CEO, asked.

There were various shakes of heads, and Lucy turned to Linwood.

"Isn't most of your department focused on Angel?" she asked in a faux-innocent sounding voice, "He is, after all, a vital piece to the apocalypse."

"Possibly."

Eight heads swiveled around at the sound of a dead voice.

"You're not Holland Manners," Lucy remarked, raising her eyebrows. After seven years as CEO, she had learned to tell when she was talking to a deceased employee.

"Obviously not," not-Holland remarked. "I just thought you may appreciate talking to a familiar face."

"And… what are you?"
Holland smiled. "The First Evil."

The seven heads straightened up, and even Lucy shifted in her seat.

"I… wasn't aware you were working with us."

"I wasn't. I just thought you might appreciate the heads up that there are currently two ensouled vampires."

The head of Research and Intelligence leaned forward, eyes wide. "How is that possible? We've kept a close eye on the Kalderah people to know if they cursed another vampire."

Faux-Holland shrugged. "That's what I'm coming to you for."

"And what would we get for helping you?"

The First smiled. "I keep a former Power from killing you all."

The blood drained from a few faces as Lucy considered it for a moment.

"Let me talk to the Senior Partners."

†

Amelia ran through the neighborhood street around Sydney, her heart pounding as she jumped over a fence.

They were coming.

She jumped around the second side of the fence, and glanced over her shoulder again.

No one was around.

At three in the morning, not many teens were willing to risk their parents' wrath by being out so late, especially in the decent neighborhood she was running in. And Amelia wouldn't have wanted anyone to interfere anyway.

She turned down another street and tried to shake away the memories of her Watcher's dead body, stabbed once through the heart with a knife. She looked over her shoulder again, before she ran straight into a hard, cold chest.

She hit the ground of the alley, staring at the vaguely humanoid face. But this was no human.

She tried to scramble away, but the one that had been chasing her grabbed her arm and pulled her up.

Amelia struggled to get away, but fell still as the cool knife penetrated her chest.

Her body fell to the ground, and her eyes glazed over.

From beneath you, it devours.