FIC: Class of '99 - R/18 - AU - Pt. I-C

[Andy Stoffel <see2go4me@xxxxxxxxx>]

AUTHOR: -Andy- (see2go4me@xxxxxxxxx)
RATING: R/18 (For violence and adult themes)
DISCLAIMER: This is a derivative work. All BtVS characters and concepts 
belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, and others. 
Additional characters and ideas are the property of Davis/Panzer, 
Marvel, DC Comics, MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp and 
many, many others.
SUMMARY: A challenge response - What if Willow knew she was gay before 
she met Buffy? And everyone else in Sunnydale knew it also? How 
different would the Buffyverse really be? A Re-envisioning of BtVS 
Seasons 1-3.
SPOILERS: Seasons 1-3 of BtVS.
DISTRIBUTION: Ask first please.
Author Notes: Feedback always welcome. See the end of this part for any 
additional info.

----

Chapter Title: "The New Girl - Pt. I-C"

----

Bursting into the library, Dawn at his heels, Xander skidded to a stop 
in front of the counter. Willow and Giles looked up in surprise at 
their noisy entrance.

 "Giles! We have problems! Big problems!" He told them loudly, 
breathing heavily.

 "Xander? I didn't know you liked them that young?" Willow asked with a 
smirk, eyeing the small girl who was gazing at them and the library 
curiously.

 "Geeze, Willow!" Xander grumbled, noticing the big grin that appeared 
on Dawn's face when she heard Willow's comment. "Don't give her any 
ideas. Buffy's going to be angry enough about this without your help."

 "Buffy?" Willow looked at the small girl, obviously puzzled.

 "Xander?" Giles asked, frowning at him. "What is Buffy's sister doing 
here?"

 "Her sister?" Willow looked at the girl again, only seeing a slight 
resemblance to the missing blonde. "I won't ask how you know that. 
Now." She said to Giles, eyeing him suspiciously.

 "She was following us." Xander told them. "Buffy doesn't know. I 
thought it would be safer for her here than wandering around out there 
until we can get her home." He waved vaguely at the windows.

 "What's the problem?" Giles asked. "And where is Buffy?"

 "Vampires. Lots of them. Headed to the Bronze!" He leaned against the 
checkout counter, still trying to catch his breath. Looking around he 
pointed at a chair at a book free corner of the large table Willow and 
Giles were using. "Sit!" He gruffly told Dawn. "Buffy is checking it 
out," He told them, "but she thinks she might need some help."

 "Xander!" Willow squeaked, trying to point at Dawn without being 
obvious. "Ixnay on the ampirevay alktay!"

 "Huh?" Xander looked at her in confusion.

 "She means the vampires." Dawn told him, giggling. "There were at 
least ten." she told them. At their disbelieving looks, "Hey! I'm not 
blind. I saw them too," she added. She looked eagerly at the books in 
front of her on the table. "Do you guys help her with the monster 
hunting? That's so cool! Can I help too?"

 Giles groaned in frustration. "No!"

 "She's my sister!" Dawn protested.

 "It isn't allowed." Giles told her gently. Willow looked at him in 
surprise at his sudden change in tone.

 "Dawn, it's too dangerous." Xander added.

 "Guys!" Willow interrupted before they could say more. "Speaking of 
danger... what about Buffy? Shouldn't we be helping her?"

 "And Buffy's sister?" Giles asked, frowning over at Dawn.

 "We can drop her off at home on the way to the Bronze." Xander told 
them.

 "Giles?" Willow asked. "You said your books say this Harvest thing is 
'the night of the crescent moon, the first past the solstice' ?"

 "Yes?" Giles looked at her.

 "Isn't that tonight?" She waved a small book. "According to this 
almanac anyway."

 "Damn." He muttered. "You said there were vampires headed towards the 
Bronze?" He looked at Xander.

 "Yes..."

 "We need to get there now." Giles muttered, going into his office. 
"She's going to need our help."

 "What about Dawn?" Xander asked, watching him grab several things out 
of a drawer. "Are we still taking her home?"

 "We don't have time." Giles announced after looking at his watch. 
"She'll have to stay in the library."

 "I want to come!" Dawn protested.

 "Is it any safer for her here by herself?" Willow asked. "Do vampires 
have to be invited to come in here?"

 "No..." Giles answered reluctantly. "It's a public place."

 "I'll stay in the car." Dawn promised, staring wide-eyed at the things 
Giles was putting on the table.

 Willow nodded at the small girl before turning back to the sputtering 
Giles and a pale Xander. "Looks like she's coming with us. Unless you 
have a better idea?"

 Giles shook his head resignedly.

 "I didn't think so." Willow said, getting out of her chair as he 
stuffed the items into a large pouch and headed to the door.

 "Who gets to deal with Buffy if she gets hurt?" Xander asked, eyeing 
Willow nervously.

 "Xander, she'll be safer in the car than we'll be helping Buffy." 
Willow told him. "If she gets angry you can blame me."

 "Great!" He agreed, a little too enthusiastically for her taste, 
before following them out to Giles car.

---

 She stayed as far back as possible as she followed the vampires 
towards the Bronze, wondering, somewhat illogically, what a group of 
vampires was called. A flock? A herd? A pack? Merrick had occasionally 
referred to vampire nests but nests didn't move. She shook her head at 
the thought. Merrick hadn't had time to teach her how to deal with more 
than one vampire at a time. He'd constantly stressed the solitary 
nature of her destiny. The slayer wasn't meant to face armies of 
walking evil. She knew that the night before she'd been very lucky. The 
only other time she'd had to fight a large number of vampires she'd 
trapped them in the school gym and set fire to it. And even that had 
been a very close call.

 Stopping in the shadows a block from the Bronze, she watched the 
vampires roughly drag the bouncer and the teens hanging out near the 
door into the building. Frowning, she noticed that they'd left someone 
guarding the entrance. That wasn't a good sign. They obviously didn't 
want to be disturbed before they finished whatever they had planned. 
And there were probably a couple at the back entrance she'd seen 
earlier. Shaking slightly as she felt the rush of adrenaline she 
experienced just before a fight, Buffy wondered if they knew there was 
a slayer in town. And if they even cared.

 She knew enough about vampires to know that only an experienced one, 
possibly a master, would have thought of something like guarding the 
doors. She'd been extremely lucky when she'd faced that master in LA. 
If he hadn't been over-confident in his ability to kill slayers she 
would have certainly died. She winced at the thought. It was looking 
more and more like now was a bad time to have moved to Sunnydale.

 According to Xander, the Bronze was the only dance club for teens in 
town. And if it was anything like it had been the last time she was 
there, it was packed almost to the roof with people her age. She 
couldn't burn the place down, like she had at Hemery, without killing 
half the teenagers in Sunnydale. She really needed a plan of some sort. 
Which wasn't her strong point. And she didn't have time to waste 
waiting for someone used to planning these things, like Giles. Whatever 
she did, it had to happen really soon. Probably before he showed up.

 Making her way carefully around the old warehouse containing the 
Bronze, Buffy was relieved to see only one vampire guarding the back 
door. She also noticed there were several fire-escapes that didn't seem 
to be guarded. She wasn't really sure which was the best way in. If she 
were lucky she could take care of the two on the outside without anyone 
inside noticing.

 But if she snuck inside, and didn't take care of them it could end 
badly. If Xander was able to get to Giles and they came to help, they 
could get hurt. And once inside, she couldn't just open the doors to 
let people escape while she fought the vampires in there. They would 
run right into one of the vampires.

 A number of other options went quickly through her head, each 
discarded as quickly as she thought of it. She kept coming back to her 
original idea. She had to get inside. The vampires outside had to go. 
It was that simple. Maybe she could surprise them? The smarter vampires 
would probably be inside doing whatever. She headed back around to the 
front of the Bronze, carefully keeping to the shadows.

---

 She hadn't been expecting an Einstein but Buffy was very surprised at 
how easily she had fooled the vampire at the main entrance with her 
valley girl act. It had been distracted long enough for her to stake it 
without a fight. Unfortunately, the door it had been guarding had been 
locked from the inside and had looked too thick and heavy for her to 
break down with her bare hands. Which left either the back door or the 
fire escapes she'd seen earlier as her best bets for getting inside.

 Watching the vampire at the back door from the shadows cast by a pile 
of wooden crates, Buffy briefly wondered why a vampire would bother 
smoking. She'd seen how flammable they could be. One little bit of hot 
ash in the wrong spot and poof, just a pile of dust. She was sure there 
was a reason but that was another thing, beyond the basics of vampire 
killing that Merrick hadn't had a chance to teach her.

 She shrugged, dismissing the thought from her head. She would have 
plenty of time, if she survived, to think about all of the things she 
didn't know about the destiny that had been forced on her that would be 
useful in a fight. And from the appalled looks he'd been giving her 
earlier, she was sure Giles was just dying to tell her all sorts of 
other things she didn't really want to know about being a vampire 
slayer.

 She watched the glowing cigarette for a few more seconds. It wasn't 
helping her get inside. But it did provide her with a good idea of 
where the vampire was standing. She changed her grip on her stake. It 
had been a while since she'd spent any time throwing them from this 
kind of distance. She'd have only the one chance.

 She crept closer, hoping it wouldn't smell or hear her. She was able 
to get close enough to make out the face of the vampire. She grimaced 
when she recognized it. It was probably a good thing she'd sent Xander 
back to get Giles. Staking the thing that looked like his friend where 
he could see it happen wouldn't have gone over well. She wasn't sure if 
she would be able to tell him about it later. But it did give her an 
idea.

 "Jesse!" She shouted, as she strolled out into the light. As the 
vampire stared at her in obvious confusion, wondering who she was, she 
was able to get close enough that she couldn't possibly miss. Not 
waiting for it to recognize her, she threw the stake as hard as 
possible, following it with her fist as quickly as she could, just in 
case it missed.

 The heavy thud, as it embedded itself in the vampire's chest, was 
followed by an almost gentle whisper as the vampire turned into a cloud 
of dust just as she reached it. Quickly retreating, Buffy just barely 
managed to avoid breathing in any of the dust. "Nasty." she muttered to 
herself, trying not to think about how toxic vampire dust probably was. 
Or what it was doing to her hair.

 Turning back to the door, she found it was also locked from the 
inside. "Damn!" she whined under her breath. It looked like she was 
definitely going to have to go in by one of the fire escapes.

---

 Darla watched from the shadows, just barely controlling her anger, for 
now. He'd been her new toy. To replace the one the Gypsies had stolen 
from her. The one thing she could call her own. Something to take with 
her from the Hellmouth when the Master's plan failed. Drusilla had 
warned her, in her own way, the last time she'd seen her, of her vision 
that the Master would not be allowed to open the Hellmouth. All she had 
to do was survive long enough and she would be free to take her new boy 
away with her. And survival? That was something she was good at. She'd 
survived for centuries away from the Master and she could do it again.

 But the slayer had ruined it. She could feel the anger boiling through 
her blood. And a slayer she must be. Darla had seen her kill several of 
the Master's minions the night before and had been suspicious, though 
she hadn't told the Master. The way she'd almost casually killed her 
new one tonight proved it. She would get her revenge later, if the 
slayer survived the night. And if she survived telling the Master that 
a slayer had interfered with his plans a suitable revenge would take 
time to put in motion.

 She waited to see what the slayer would do next, stepping back further 
from the slayer, deeper into the shadows when it seemed like the slayer 
had noticed her. Darla knew she wasn't strong enough to challenge a 
slayer by herself. Even if she looked almost toy like in the glare of 
the street lights. But she had to be careful. Luke was already 
suspicious of her participation in the Harvest.

---

 As Buffy stepped back from the door the faint whisper of a familiar 
sensation across her senses drew her attention to the deep shadows 
nearby. It was almost like a vampire was somewhere behind her. An old 
one. But that didn't make much sense. Vampires were killing machines. 
They existed for the blood and violence. One wouldn't be just watching 
her. Especially after she dusted the door guards. She turned slowly, 
trying to look into the shadows but she couldn't see anything. Before 
she could get a clear direction it was gone.

 Listening carefully, she started to hear faint screams coming from 
inside the Bronze. It had been less than five minutes since she'd 
dusted the guard at the front. Time was obviously running out for the 
people inside. If there was another vampire somewhere nearby it could 
wait, she decided. The people trapped inside were more important than a 
stray that she could chase later.

 She hurried around to the closest fire escape. Jumping up, she grabbed 
the lower rung of the rusty ladder several feet above her head. She 
smiled smugly to herself at the easy with which she was able to pull 
herself up onto the bottom landing. There was no glass in the window 
next to it, leading into the Bronze. Buffy pulled out her spare stake 
before cautiously crawling through the opening. She found herself in a 
dark and musty smelling room with the dimly lit outline of a doorway at 
its far end.

 The screams of terrified teenagers grew louder as she reached the 
door. Rising above it was a deep gravely voice. She couldn't make out 
what it was saying but something about it sent unpleasant shivers down 
her spine. It was like listening to liquid evil.

 The door opened out onto a walkway at the back of the Bronze. The 
front seemed very far away. Buffy wasn't sure how she was going to get 
there from where she was. Except for several large beams that spanned 
the entire building, there didn't seem to be any connection between the 
walkway she was standing on and the front. She hadn't realized it was 
so big when she'd been there the night before. Looking down, she saw 
why. The open upper floor took up almost the entire length of the 
warehouse. From the walkway she could see down into a number of rooms, 
including the restrooms. She winced as she realized that they weren't 
as private as they appeared and vowed to only use them in an emergency.

 She climbed over the railing and gingerly walked down the largest beam 
towards the front of the Bronze, only stopping briefly in the middle to 
try and find the vampires below her. She stopped after she'd counted 
ten of them, mostly near the doors and the stage. There wasn't any way 
she could think of that this would end well. A very large vampire with 
a strange symbol on his face was pacing back and forth on the stage and 
ranting away like a mad priest. He seemed to be the one in charge. She 
grimaced at the bodies on the stage, hoping she hadn't known them. It 
had been bad at Hemery. She'd known most of the students who'd died.

 Reaching the front walkway, the one she'd dragged Willow up to the 
night before, she stared in bemusement as the next victim was dragged 
up onto the stage. Her tentative plan, to sneak down and open the front 
door so people could escape before she dealt with the vampires, wasn't 
going to work. Not unless she wanted Cordelia's blood on her hands. She 
wondered briefly if Cordelia would remember being saved from vampires 
this time.

 Looking for the quickest way down to the stage, before Cordelia 
stopped screaming, she turned around when she heard a low growl 
directly behind her. An emaciated vampire was running in her direction 
from the stairs. Looking quickly over her shoulder, Buffy braced 
herself against the railing. At the moment the vampire reached her, and 
before it could do more than breath on her, she threw out the hand 
holding her stake, hitting it with as much force as possible in its 
heart. Without pausing, in a continuous motion she grabbed one of its' 
arms with her free hand and used its momentum against it, pulling it up 
and over her shoulder. She just barely managed to pull her stake out as 
it tumbled over the railing behind her.

 It turned to dust with a faint 'poof' just before it could hit the 
edge of dance floor below. The shocked sounds from the nearby teenagers 
drew the attention of the closest vampires, some instinct causing them 
to look up at her in surprise. She could feel the evil radiating from 
the large vampire on the stage that had been about to take a bite out 
of Cordelia as it looked in her direction.

 Suppressing a shudder and taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, 
Buffy yelled down in her best perky, airhead voice. "I'm sorry! I hope 
I'm not interrupting anything."

 Before it could say anything, Buffy jumped over the railing, landing 
loudly, her boots echoing in the sudden silence. Perched precariously 
on a table near the edge of the dance floor, she gave the master 
vampire her best intimidating frown.

 "Are you sure you want that one?" She taunted it. "You don't know 
where she's been. All those antibiotics can't possibly be good for 
you."

 The vampire threw Cordelia out into the crowd in response and walked 
to the edge of the stage. "You dare interfere?" It growled at her. "You 
shall be next." It motioned to several smaller vampires. "Bring her 
here."

 Buffy barely had a chance to see that Cordelia was now standing in a 
frightened huddle with several other Sunnydale cheerleaders before the 
vampires reached her.

 Jumping off of the table, she knocked down the closest vampire with a 
swift kick before colliding with the other one. As they both hit the 
ground she stabbed it with her stake. Feeling the other one coming up 
behind her, she turned as quickly as possible, and sweeping its feet 
out from underneath it, she pounced on it as it landed, once more 
making good use of her stake.

 Getting back to her feet, she looked at the older vampire. "I guess 
they don't make them like they used to." She quipped, dodging to one 
side and staking a third vampire as it clumsily reached for her. "You 
might want to ask for a refund."

 "Bring her here!" It ordered again. "Our Master shall be pleased."

 The empty space in front of the stage quickly deteriorated into a mad 
scramble as four large vampires attempted to capture Buffy. Ducking and 
kicking and punching, she fought her way to the stage, stake in hand. 
She'd managed to stake two more of them, more by luck than skill, when 
her stake was knocked from her hand and exhausted by the sustained 
effort, she found herself quickly overwhelmed by the remaining vampires 
and dragged onto the stage.

 "Yes, I can feel the power in your blood." It crowed.

 "And I can smell your bad breath.", she retorted.

 Looking for some way to escape, Buffy stomped down as hard as she 
could on the feet of the vampires holding her and wrenched herself 
free. Before they could grab her again she dove suicidally at the 
vampire in front of her, hoping she could drive it off of the stage and 
closer to something she could use to kill it.

 She was able to get in what she thought were several good punches, 
though they didn't seem to affect the vampire, before it knocked her 
across the stage and into a pile of things covered with a tarp. Before 
she could get back to her feet under her own power a large hand reached 
down and lifted her up by her throat.

 With her left hand, Buffy reached desperately behind her back for 
something, anything that would get her out of the clutches of the 
rather large vampire long enough to catch her breath. Oxygen was 
becoming a serious issue and she could feel herself starting to panic 
as her vision started to go fuzzy around the edges.

 It held her at arms length several feet above the stage floor, too far 
away for her short legs to reach, no matter how hard she twisted her 
body and swung them. She could feel her back pressing against something 
hard and round in the pile as she tried to pry the large, cold hand 
away from her neck with her other hand.

 Her lungs almost at the bursting point, her questing hand came across 
something long and slightly pointed. She quickly wrapped her hand 
around it, her sensitive fingers telling her it was something wooden. 
Swinging her free hand back around to her front, Buffy instinctively 
launched the long object straight towards the heart of the vampire that 
was slowly choking her. It stared at her in shock and reached for the 
drumstick now sticking out of its chest. With one last desperate kick, 
she sent it the rest of the way through the vampire's heart. Gripping 
her throat until it had completely turned to dust, the vampire dropped 
Buffy in a heap on the floor before engulfing her in its dusty remains.

 The remaining vampires stared at her in shock before racing for the 
exits, quickly followed by the surviving Bronze patrons.

 "Well, that was a bit anti-climactic." Buffy grumbled, once her heart 
had slowed down after the narrow escape. Climbing to her feet, she 
brushed the the remains of several vampires from her clothes and shook 
her hair, sending an additional cloud of dust into the air.

---

 Giles parked his car in an alley Xander pointed out to him a block 
from the Bronze.

 "Stay here! With the windows closed." Xander told Dawn. "And keep your 
head down." She nodded, watching them climb out of the car and head 
towards the Bronze.

 Before they could reach the door, it burst open and a large crowd of 
frightened teenagers poured out into the night.

 "Wait here." Giles told them with a look that allowed no arguing 
before fighting his way through the crowd into the Bronze. Ignoring his 
order, Willow and Xander followed closely behind him.

 Looking around, it appeared empty to Willow, until she caught sight of 
the small figure sitting on the edge of the stage. "Are you okay?" she 
asked anxiously as they approached.

 "Yeah." Buffy mumbled, tiredly sliding off of her perch on the edge of 
the stage onto her feet. "No more vampire hostages."

 "Did you get them all?" Xander asked, kicking at a pile of dust.

 "No." She told him with a grimace. "A couple of them got away. Out the 
back." She waved towards the other end of the Bronze. "They weren't in 
any hurry to stay once I took care of their boss."

 "You'll have to hunt them down this weekend." Giles told her, drawing 
a frown from Willow. "They can't be allowed to tell anyone there's a 
slayer in Sunnydale. It's too dangerous."

 "Can we discuss that later?" Buffy asked. "I really don't want to be 
here when the police show up. They tend to react badly to dead people." 
She waved towards the bodies slumped at the back of the stage. Xander 
and Willow both turned pale when they saw what she was pointing to.

 "Yes, of course." Giles exclaimed, quickly motioning them towards the 
exit.

---

 She let her exhaustion overtake her once they reached Giles' car. 
Leaning against it she watched them for a minute as they calmed down 
from the earlier excitement. "Cordelia had another close call tonight." 
She told them, shaking her head. "Can I charge her next time?" She 
asked Giles hopefully. "She's kind of high maintenance."

 "Maybe you can use her as bait for the ones that escaped!" Xander 
suggested. Willow giggled nervously at the idea, not sure if she should 
be finding something like that funny.

 Giles frowned at the strange look that quickly crossed Buffy's face at 
Xander's comment. "That wouldn't be appropriate." he told him.

 "One can dream." Xander retorted.

 Before he could reply, Buffy noticed the occupant of Giles' car. 
"What's she doing here?" she asked, shocked. She narrowed her eyes when 
she noticed Giles and Willow looking quickly at Xander. "You brought my 
little sister?" She stared at Xander in disbelief. "Here?"

 "Buffy! She was following us." He told her. "What was I supposed to do 
with her?"

 "Take her home?" Buffy suggested.

 "There wasn't time to take her home!" He protested. "I had to get to 
Giles! And she would have just followed us back here anyway!"

 She looked at the others, hoping for some clue, some idea of how to 
deal with his revelation. She could tell Giles wasn't happy with the 
situation but thought he would save his displeasure for when he had her 
alone. She sighed in resignation. "Okay. But next time... don't bring 
her along." She looked down at her curious sister, who was watching 
them through the now open window. "What did you think you were doing?" 
She asked in her best imitation of Mom-voice.

 "I wanted to watch you fighting vampires!" Dawn told her eagerly.

 "What vampires?" Buffy asked. She caved in, recognizing the expression 
on her sister's face. Dawn could be very stubborn when she knew she was 
right. "You know better than that. You aren't even supposed to know 
about them."

 "Buffy!" Dawn whined. "I'm not going to forget."

 "And what if Mom finds out you were wandering around this late at 
night? She'll ground you until next summer." When it looked like Dawn 
wasn't taking the threat seriously, she added, "And if you accidentally 
say the 'V' word? We'll both be in trouble. You know what she thinks 
about that."

 "I'm not a kid!" Dawn protested. "I would never do that."

 Buffy shook her head. "I need to get her home," she told the others, 
opening the door and pulling a subdued Dawn out of the car.

 "I'll see you tomorrow morning." Giles told her. "We can talk about 
tonight."

 "But it's a Saturday!" Buffy protested.

 "And we need to spend the day getting her caught up on her classes." 
Willow added, trying to be helpful.

 "Yeah!" Buffy agreed, giving Willow a wink in thanks.

 "You can do that after we talk." Giles told her firmly. "You can use 
the library."

 "When?" Buffy asked. "After lunch?" She added hopefully.

 "10 o'clock." He corrected her. "In the morning."

 "Okay. If I don't get grounded." She grumbled, before leaving, Dawn in 
tow.

---

 Buffy dropped down onto the grass and leaned against the tree next to 
Willow. "Hey!" She waved around her at Xander, who was sitting on her 
other side. "Am I too early?" she asked.

 "Yeah. Another ten minutes." Willow told her, looking at her watch. 
"They don't open the doors until 10:00 on Saturdays."

 "Some people, who shall remain nameless, got here thirty minutes ago." 
Xander grumbled tiredly. "I think they want to prove they are better 
than the rest of us patriarchal drones."

 "You learn well, young Jedi." Willow replied mockingly. "The 
patriarchy shall be defeated."

 "I'm impressed." Buffy told her with a grin. "You have him using big 
words."

 "Hey!" Xander protested.

 "Yup." Willow winked at her.

 Buffy leaned across Willow and patted him on the shoulder. "There, 
there. It'll be okay. You'll forget them eventually." Feeling a slight 
shudder from Willow as she sat back up, Buffy looked at her curiously 
for a moment.

 "Why are we here?" Xander asked. "Again?"

 "You can go home if you want to." Buffy told him. "Giles just wants to 
know about last night. Neither of you needs to be here. Unless you 
really want to watch him get huffy."

 "Huffy? Why would he get huffy?" Willow asked.

 "Well..." before she could continue, Buffy noticed Xander was about to 
say something. "You want to tell her, Xander?"

 "Me?" He looked at her innocently.

 "Yes, you." Buffy waved for him to go ahead.

 "You didn't notice?" He asked Willow. When she shook her head he 
sighed. "He was unhappy about Dawn knowing about Buffy being the 
slayer. I don't think he's too happy that you and I know about Buffy 
either."

 "Tough!" Willow muttered. "He'll just have to live with it. And it 
isn't Buffy's fault her sister followed you guys last night. It's sort 
of cute actually." She turned to Buffy. "She couldn't stop asking 
questions all the way to the Bronze."

 "He also probably isn't too happy that I didn't wait for you guys to 
show up before going into the Bronze." Buffy added morosely.

 "Why not?" Xander asked curiously.

 Buffy shrugged. "It's a whole Watcher thing. They like to be the ones 
to make the big decisions."

 "And I'm not going home!" Willow spouted.

 "Huh?" Buffy stared at her, wondering what she was talking about.

 "You said we could leave. Nuh-uh!" Willow shook her head briskly. "We 
still have to get started with the studying. I can't help you if I 
don't know what you don't know. And the library is the best place for 
that."

 "We can't do that at your house?" Buffy asked her hopefully. "My house 
is out. Mom wanted me to babysit. I only got out of it because she 
doesn't want me to fail my classes."

 "No. My dad is home. He might want to do the 
father-daughter-girlfriend bonding thing." Willow swatted Xander at his 
unsuccessful attempt to not laugh.

 "Girlfriend?" Buffy squeaked.

 "Yeah." Xander laughed. "Her parents are a bit over-supportive of the 
whole lesbian thing. They think any girl friends Willow has over, for 
any reason, are 'girlfriend' material."

 Willow shrugged as if unable to really explain her parents. "Xander 
and Jesse are the only friends I have left who are brave enough to come 
over."

 "Ouch." Buffy said, reaching over and, without thinking, giving her a 
quick hug. "Sounds kind of embarrassing."

 "Yup." Willow murmured sadly.

 "You know, I get the whole Obi-Wan thing." Xander mused several 
minutes later. "He was really quick to get out the stakes and holy 
water last night. But calling him a 'Watcher' makes it sound like he's 
one of those Highlander guys."

 "Highlander?" Buffy asked confused. She looked at Willow for an 
explanation.

 "TV show. Guys running around chopping each other's heads off with 
swords." Willow told her, glaring at Xander. "They have these people 
called watchers who secretly follow them around and write down 
everything they do."

 "It's a cool show!" Xander protested, stung by her obvious 
displeasure. "And we only did it once."

 "Sounds kind of creepy." Buffy said, sensing a story there. "But that 
isn't Giles' job. He's more like a coach." She thought for a moment, 
trying to think of a good example. "Ice skaters have personal coaches. 
Slayers have Watchers."

 "And he knows a lot of things." Willow added excitedly. "He has all of 
those ancient books. And he knows all sorts of languages. We might not 
have helped with the vampires last night but we were ready to!"

 Before Buffy could add anything, they noticed Giles standing on the 
school steps silently watching them. "I think that's for us." She told 
them, climbing to her feet, bending down to brush bits of grass and 
stone from her jeans. She wasn't able to stop the faint blush that 
resulted from the sound of two quickly in-drawn breaths but she managed 
to not turn back and look at her companions, instead walking quickly 
across the street towards Giles.

---

 Giles watched her fidget out of the corner of one eye as he wrote 
everything she'd told him in his working journal. He could tell she was 
looking for the slightest excuse to leave. She seemed to have an excess 
of nervous energy, even for a slayer. "We need to discuss a regular 
training schedule." He told her. "And you need to work on your 
endurance."

 "Huh?" She looked at him for a moment before her attention returned to 
Willow and Xander, who were at a table out in the library laughing 
about something.

 "From what you told me, the vampires themselves weren't your real 
problem. You were more than a match for them until you ran out of 
energy."

 "I kinda know that." She grumbled. "I was there."

 "There seem to be an unusually large amount of vampires in the area." 
He said. "From Merrick's journals..."

 "You have his journals?" She interrupted. "Can I see them?" She asked 
hopefully.

 "Not here. They're in the Council archives in London." He watched her 
enthusiasm deflate at his answer and wondered what she expected to find 
in them. He'd found them rather dry and impersonal. "If you wish I can 
request a copy be sent here."

 "Thanks!" She perked up visibly.

 "As I was about to say," He continued. "Merrick's training seemed to 
focus on single combat. I have the feeling you need to know how to deal 
with larger packs of vampires. A more long term strategy. And the 
sooner the better."

 "You're the watcher." Buffy told him. "Whatever you think I need that 
I don't already know."

 "Buffy, learning is a constant process, even for a slayer. There will 
always be something you will need to know." He told her firmly.

 "Whatever." She grumbled, causing him to sigh. "So... when are you 
going to yell at me?"

 "Yell? Why would I yell at you?" He asked in surprise.

 "I can think of half a dozen different things that went wrong last 
night." She told him. "And we're not even talking about Dawn, Willow, 
and Xander knowing about the slayer thing. Merrick would go ballistic 
if I even walked too fast in public."

 "I'm not Merrick." He told her. "While I'm not happy that you have 
involved Willow and Xander in your life, I'm not angry with you."

 "And Dawn?" Buffy asked.

 "Children see more than they are given credit for." He told her. 
"Living at home it was inevitable she would find out."

 "And?"

 "I'm not sure what else you want me to say. It's going to make your 
job harder, and the Council won't be pleased when they find out."

 "No surprise there." Buffy muttered. "Are you going to tell them?"

 "No." He kept his answer simple. Now wasn't the time to upset her by 
telling her what the Council's most likely reaction to finding out 
about her friends would be.

 "Is there anything else?" She asked quietly, picking up on his 
seriousness.

 "Yes." He pulled out a book he'd found earlier that morning. Opening 
it to a page he'd marked, he placed it in front of her. "Does that look 
familiar?" He pointed to the symbol on the forehead of the central 
figure.

 "Yeah." She looked closer. "The vampire that was in charge of last 
nights little party had that on his face."

 "And he referred to his 'Master' ?"

 "Yes." She looked at him curiously. "Why?"

 "The Harvest is apparently a ceremony where a vampire called the 
'Vessel' is able to gain power from the blood of its' victims and share 
it with another vampire."

 "So... we have a more powerful vampire out there somewhere?" She 
asked. "Is it going to try that Harvest thing again?"

 "No. Fortunately it'll be a long time, a number of decades, before the 
ceremony can be done again. And hopefully we can deal with this 
'Master' vampire before that happens." He told her.

 "Do you have any idea who this 'Master' is?" Buffy asked. "Is it some 
famous vampire?"

 "I don't know yet." He admitted. "There are a few clues but nothing 
solid."

 "Let me know when you find out." Buffy said. "I need to spend some 
time with the studying thing. According to Xander, Willow isn't someone 
you want to piss off."

 Raising an eyebrow, he turned to look over at Willow in surprise.

 "No, I don't see it either." She told him giggling. "But you never 
know. No one takes me seriously because I'm too short and blonde. You 
wouldn't believe the things I can get away with." She winked at him 
before getting up and leaving his office to join Willow and Xander.

 Shaking his head, Giles stared in bemusement at the three teenagers 
for a moment before closing the door to his office. He wasn't sure who 
to feel sorry for the most. Himself, the Council, or any vampires who 
wandered into Sunnydale.


---------------

TBC...

---------------

Some (many) Additional Notes:

[1]: Why yes, Buffy DOES stake Jesse in this fic. It was either that or 
have him run off with Darla. Or maybe it wasn't him? Don't worry, Darla 
will have her revenge in a future part of the story.
[2]: The Master and Angel don't directly appear yet.
[3]: This is not a crossover. But Stargate fans might have noticed that 
it takes place within the Stargate universe. A sequel (does that make 
this a prequel?) that I have tentatively planned will be a crossover. 
But don't hold your breath. I don't plan to start working on it until 
the summer of 2006.
[4]: This is sort of based on a challenge posted to BwW by GHRDR on May 
4th, 2005:

     http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/buffywantswillow/message/30428

[5]: This is definitely an alternate universe. Some things are 
different, some are almost the same as canon. Characters WILL die. 
Lives will change. It's the nature of life on a Hellmouth. (Those who 
like to read ahead and guess what is going to happen know where to find 
my fic notes...)
[6]: The next part of this fic? Don't expect anything until late 
January, 2006. This part. (all 20K words) took 5 months to get to this 
point.... and I have many fics ahead of it in line to work on first...
[7]: (If you have problems with e-mail) This fic can be found here:

- ikoly: http://www.ikoly.com/fanfic/story.php?no=502
- tth:   http://www.tthfanfic.com/story.php?no=7678
- ff.net and alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer.creative: eventually.

----

Hope y'all liked this...

-Andy-

-
- http://radio.weblogs.com/0104508/
-



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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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