“It makes sense,” concurred Giles. “Tactically speaking, we’re less of a threat on the move than we are at this house – in fact, I think the First would prefer us to be moving because we have wounded and a lot of supplies to take care of. We would still have to make those considerations in the house, but it’s a fortified position.”

“Yeah, real fortified,” quipped Kennedy as she glanced at the gaping hole in the front wall of the next room.

“The point is, we can move in and seize the school with minimal casualties now that we have this force of Slayers to back us up,” reiterated Wesley.

“You’re right,” said Angel. “And we have to make this strike as soon as possible.”

Wesley nodded at the vampire, and the Slayers all straightened up as if preparing to tackle this planning like it was an actual battle.

“Alright, then. The bus should be loaded within half an hour, I recommend we set out at that time and take the school immediately.”

“Ah…” said Kennedy, attracting everyone’s attention. “I hate to sound miss petulant child but I’m gonna stand by what I said before.”

Wesley looked at her enquiringly.

“We have to find Willow.”

**********

“Try again.”

“I told you, I can’t!”

“Try again.”

“Is there even a rational part of you left? I just told you I can’t!” Willow screamed as a harsh red light enveloped her, and then passed away.

“Try again.”

Willow sobbed in despair. The light claimed her again.

“Try again.”

**********

“I can feel her hurting,” continued Kennedy as the others listened intently. “I’m getting the impression that…it’s not that she would give the power of that scythe to the Erus Veneficus, but I think that she can’t.”

“Cordelia must have drained it of its power when she activated the Slayers,” mused Giles.

“Yeah, something like that. But that doesn’t mean we abandon her.”

“Of course not,” stated Angel firmly. “But we can’t let the First summon another one of those demons or we’ll lose this opportunity. We have to take the Seal and then we can worry about the Erus Veneficus.”

“Agreed,” said Wesley, and Giles nodded in concurrence.

“Wes,” said Faith suddenly. She’d almost been forgotten about in the discussion. “The First doesn’t have any big shadow demons handy but there’s bound to be some other surprises about the place other than that bus.”

“That’s true, but I think the school will be almost completely deserted of both Turok-Han and Bringers so we’ll be able to identify and disarm any traps it might have set at leisure.”

She looked into the distance for a moment, obviously giving the plan some thought. “Alright,” she said finally. “But I still think we’re missing something.”

“We probably are,” agreed Wesley, “But unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of gathering all of the information on the situation, we can only take opportunities when they present themselves to us.”

“I don’t mean to doubt you, Wes, I can just remember another recent ‘opportunity’ that almost got most of the people in this house blown up.”

He tried to smile reassuringly. “We’ll go in with our wits fully about us this time, prepared as well as we can be.”

She nodded and headed towards the bus, lifting up a container along the way.

“Alright then,” said Giles. “Let’s get started.”

**********

The previous night, darkness seeped around the buildings of a Sunnydale street in the blackest of night. Not even moonlight illuminated this street, only the few remaining street lights which flickered dimly, valiantly fighting back the suffocating blackness, even if it was for the briefest of seconds.

A hundred feet down the road, the streetlights, powered by one of the few electric generators still functioning in the city, glowed happily in the normal, yet still black night. This one area, though, was plunged into such inky blackness it was unnatural.

One of the lights flickered and illuminated a scurrying figure which rushed towards the very centre of the void.

It was a Bringer. Not having eyes, it needed no light to bring about the First’s will and knew exactly where its objective lay – or more precisely, hovered above the street.

He reached out and plucked a tiny dot out of the air. A normal human wouldn’t have been able to see either the dot or the Bringer, but they were both there nonetheless. The Bringer carefully cupped the dot in his hands and then boldly walked down the street. Boldly, because he was still enveloped in the field of pure blackness.

As he rounded the corner further down the street, the streetlights which had just been flickering sporadically flickered to life and the night returned to normal, and then moments later died as their electric generator failed, leaving no-one the wiser as to the strange effects of the field of inky darkness.

**********

Buffy’s eyes snapped open and she gasped as she took in her surroundings. She wasn’t in her house, and Willow was nowhere in sight.

“Woah, calm down,” said a familiar voice from beside her. She looked into Xander’s eyes. “You’re safe.”

She was on a bus. “I’m on a bus,” she stated matter of factly.

“Hey Giles,” called Xander. “We’ve got a severe case of ‘fire bad, tree pretty’ over here.”

Giles shuffled over. “Buffy, you’re awake.”

“Uh-oh, it’s contagious,” muttered Xander, and Giles pretended he hadn’t heard the younger man. The Watcher brought Buffy up to date on current events, and she stood up, stretched as well as she could under the circumstances, and then strode to the front of the bus where Connor guided the bus through the deserted streets.

“How far are we?”

“Not far,” was the curt reply. Buffy suddenly noticed how there was none of the usual chit-chat present even in a group of apocalyptic demon fighters riding into battle. Even though it was broad daylight everyone sat riveted by the surrounding buildings, watching for Turok-Han, Bringers or potentially deadlier enemies.

Buffy tried to push the fact that Spike was still alive to the back of her mind and focus on the upcoming battle.

But then Giles was beside her, and she couldn’t resist the burning desire to know any longer.

“Where…?”

“Hmm? Oh…he and Angel are approaching the school via the sewers.”

“Of course.”

The bus turned slowly around a corner, and there before them stood Sunnydale High in all its high tech splendour.

Buffy stared at the building, and without looking away called to the others. “Stay alert.”

Not even that brief warning was needed for the others.

The bus rolled into the yard of the school past the wreckage of its twin. Buffy saw Faith look and then quickly move to the other side of the bus.

Connor applied the brakes and they hissed loudly. The doors rumbled open, and he switched off the ignition. An uneasy silence echoed around the occupants of the bus.

“You all know where to go, right?”

Nods from all around.

“All right then, let’s go.”

The Slayers poured out of the bus, creating a perimeter around the bus. Lorne, Dawn, Anya, Xander, Father Duncan and Andrew stayed on the bus with the dubious job of ‘guarding the wounded and the supplies,’ a job which Lorne and Anya readily accepted, Andrew meekly agreed with, Xander made a small show of wanting to come with the main group but then ‘coming around’ to the idea without much of a fight, Father Duncan had quickly seen the logic of and which Dawn hotly protested. She had agreed only after being threatened with being chained to one of the seats, and even then she had glared and stomped around.

Wesley and Gunn, the Brit wielding a semi-automatic shotgun and Gunn holding a large battleaxe, headed to the entrance of the school to do some recon. Buffy, after inspecting the battle line, got everyone into a huddle.

“Alright, I’ve been out of it but I’m all up to speed. But, keeping in mind I’ve only just woken up, can I get a recap please?”

Giles smiled and stepped forward. “Wesley and Gunn are scouting ahead now, and then we’ll split into three groups. Wesley will lead one, Faith another and you, Buffy, will head up the last. We’ve determined there are three routes to the Seal which the Turok-Han, or indeed anything else the First can raise, and we are travelling along these routes. Then we simply head along, securing key locations like the cafeteria and the gym, and down towards the Seal.”

“Simply…” said Buffy, mulling over Giles’ word. “Let’s hope so anyway.”

She looked around and asked the same question again. “Everyone know where they have to be? Alright then, let’s go!”

The group burst across to where Wesley and Gunn held the perimeter, then through into the main building. Silence descended upon them as Wesley’s gun swept across every potential hiding place – even if it was bathed in sunlight – and Gunn crouched, ready to meet anything that might launch out to attack them.

Wesley split off down one corridor with Fred and six Slayers following him.

Faith headed down another with Gunn and five of her sister Slayers.

Buffy continued down the same long hallway with Giles and Connor flanking her, the three remaining Slayers bringing up the rear.

The attack was underway.

**********

The Bringer, only hours earlier, had crept along the same corridor clutching the same black dot he had retrieved from the street. Carefully he headed down corridors and hallways, stairs and then chambers until he had reached his destination.

The First itself stood next to the Seal.

“Do it,” it commanded, and the Bringer, instinctively knowing what its master wanted, complied without a fleeting thought to the contrary.

For even to think of disobedience was a slow, agonising death.

He slowly reached forward over the lamb’s hideous visage, and releasing the dot, sensed it hover safely just above the surface of the gateway to Hell.

He made a ritual gesture and then abruptly drew his knife from his belt and stabbed it into the centre of the dot. A high pitched shriek had emanated from it and a torrent of fluid had rushed out of the black and splashed onto the surface of the Seal.

“And so,” intoned the First, “That which I have summoned has returned to that which I summoned it from.” Then it scowled. “The Slayer and her friends think they can kill my precious minion? Well if quality doesn’t work then we can always try quantity.”

The Seal popped open and retracted into the earth. Still the blood flowed from the earthly remains of the shadow demon. Then, slowly, implacably, a taloned hand slapped onto the blood soaked dirt.

The Turok-Han pulled itself up from the gateway and growled. The First turned to the Bringer once again.

“Rig one of the buses with an explosive device.” Then it turned back to the Turok-Han. “Tell me, do you happen to know what ‘kamikaze’ means?”

The creature grinned wickedly as more and more of its spawn filled the chamber.

**********

Wesley covered the Slayers down the corridor with his weapon and glanced over at Fred, smiling reassuringly. She returned the grim smile and they continued down, checking all the while for any kind of trap, be it tripwires, mystical sensors, explosive devices – anything.

**********

Faith crept cautiously along the hallway, poking her head into one of the classrooms along the way. Nothing. She jerked her head to Gunn and they continued on, this time Gunn taking the lead and checking the next room. Then he waved them on and another Slayer, Katie, led the way. Thus they continued towards the evil Seal.

**********

The eerie silence continued to be unbroken as Buffy entered the cafeteria. Chairs lay on the floor, tables were upturned, and food and blood splattered the walls.

Connor made a beeline for the kitchen using tables as cover then disappeared from view for a few seconds. He emerged from the back room and shook his head.

Buffy let loose a tense breath. Somehow she got the feeling that, although she should be glad the school was apparently deserted that something was going to happen, and that it wasn’t a good thing.

They exited the room and carried on their way.

**********

Angel and Spike also walked in silence, uneasy due to the fact they were now under the premises of Sunnydale High. The plan was to meet the others in the chamber containing the Seal, but Angel wanted to make good enough time to be able to meet up as they entered the basement, and Spike obviously had similar sentiments as he didn’t argue the point.

They approached the sewer entrance to the basement.

“Are you ready?” muttered Spike, and Angel silently nodded. He set his shoulder and charged into the school.

**********

“What was that?” asked Fred suddenly.

Everyone whirled around, several clicks echoing as Wesley and two of the Slayers aimed guns down the corridor towards the scraping sound they’d just heard.

Slowly, almost painfully, Wesley stepped towards the corner and after a moments hesitation poked his head around to look. The hallway was empty. Unconvinced, he jerked his head to the others and the Slayers appeared on either side of him aiming their guns.

He continued his slow advance and was about to give up and head back when the doors to one of the classrooms burst open. One of the Slayers shrieked and fired a round at the figure which emerged, and it dived for cover and another figure raised its arms protectively.

Nerves completely shot, Wesley identified the figures just as he was about to pull the trigger and sighed tensely. “Hold your fire,” he said quickly.

Spike got up, looking a mixture of terrified and pissed off. Angel just managed to look surprised.

“Uh…I’m…sorry,” managed the Slayer who’d shot the round. “You’re vampires, and I haven’t quite got used to the whole sensing you guys thing.”

“It’s okay,” said Spike. “You might want to work on the aim though, you sort of missed me.”

“Oh…right.”

The two vampires walked to meet the small group.

“Might want to give us some warning next time,” said Wesley, grinning tightly.

Angel grunted and nodded. “Maybe we should continue on.”

Spike shook his head. “I’m gonna go find some of the others. Distribute the strength a bit better.”

“Good idea,” said Angel a bit too enthusiastically, and after being eyed by Spike for a few moments, turned and headed down the corridor. Wesley exchanged a look with Fred, then they and the Slayers followed the ensouled vampire while the other went to track the others.

**********

“This isn’t right,” insisted Faith. “There should be something here, anything.”

“I hear that. The First sets that bus to explode then all we get is silence inside the school? Somethin’ ain’t right here.”

Faith gestured to the others to stop and huddle.

“Okay, we have to get to the Seal but I’m thinkin’ this whole thing is a big trap.”

“What, the First lured us in here?” asked a Slayer, Katie.

“I think so. It’s too quiet. There should at least be some Bringers about, and there’s nothing.”

“So what do we do? We can’t exactly run off and leave the others, we kinda have to keep going,” said another Slayer.

“Actually,” said Katie slowly, reaching behind her. “Me and some others thought ahead to something like this happening.” Her hand reappeared with a walkie-talkie in it. Faith smiled and took the offered radio.

**********

Buffy nearly jumped out of her skin when Faith’s voice crackled from behind her. Quickly, she snatched the radio from the hands of the startled Slayer and pressed the button.

“What is it Faith?”

There was a brief moments silence.

“I’m not likin’ this, B. It’s too quiet.”

“I agree,” floated Wesley’s voice from the speaker. “There should be something here but there’s nothing.”

Buffy sighed and regarded the situation for a moment.

“We haven’t seen anything either,” crackled Xander’s voice suddenly. “I mean, we have this whole daylight thing going on but Bringers can move around in the daytime, right?”

“We don’t have any choice,” she said into the device. “We have to press on. Good thinking to the guys who thought up this radio thing,” she added, smiling at the Slayer in front of her.

“Me and Spike have arrived, by the way,” came Angel’s voice. “He said he was going to head off and spread the strength around between us, or something.”

“Has anyone seen him?” asked Buffy after a moments hesitation. The responses rolled in – no-one had. “Okay, then. Keep in touch, stay alert and keep on towards the Seal. We aren’t far now.”

She clipped the radio to her belt after asking the previous owner if it was alright for her to do so. Then they pressed on.

**********

Faith had done the same thing as Buffy, and the unfamiliar weight of the radio bounced against her hip from her belt. They heard a voice from behind them.

“Hey, wait up!”

Spike trotted up to them and smiled. “You’re a hard girl to catch, when you want to be.”

“Yeah, well…” muttered Faith. She nodded down the corridor and they pressed on.

“Hang on,” said Spike suddenly. He stood upright and listened intently. Faith drew a breath to ask what was happening but Spike raised his hand and listened a second longer then shook his head.

“Thought I heard something…”

Faith remembered Buffy’s question earlier and unclipped the radio suddenly. She held it out to him.

“B asked if we’d seen you, I guess you should be the one to say hello.”

He stood looking at the radio for a moment, making no movement to take it. Faith shook the radio at him and then a terrible suspicion fell upon her.

“Spike, take the radio.”

He looked at her helplessly for a second and then grinned.

“Thank God you’re all as gullible as I thought. You almost moved out of my little ambush, it took a lot of planning and you only needed to stay put for a few seconds longer.” He winked out of existence.

Faith pressed down on the radio. “Heads up everyone, if you see Spike make sure he’s actually solid before listening to him.”

Buffy’s voice floated urgently back. “The First?”

“Yeah, said it’d set up an ambush for us or something. Needed us to stay still a few more seconds, so it distracted us by being Spike.”

“What’s the ambush?” asked Wesley.

“Dunno yet, I’m guessing it’ll be Bringers.”

“Get out of there Faith,” came Buffy’s voice. “We’ll come to back you up – where are you?”

Faith looked around, checking for visible landmarks. Amanda took the radio from her. “We’re by the science labs.”

“We’re not far,” answered Wesley tersely. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Faith started running down the corridor from the way they’d come but Turok-Han poured from around the corners. She turned and saw that they were surrounded.

“You ready for some more ubervamp action, Charlie-boy?” she asked, as Gunn took a position directly behind her so they could fight back-to-back.

“’Course,” he said cockily, but Faith could sense the tension. “Just watch my back, ‘aight?”

Faith directed the other Slayers into defensive positions. “Katie, take the first wave – Joanne, be ready to back her up when they get too much to handle. Rona, you and Amanda do the same but from behind us. Anne, you’re with me and Gunn supporting them.” Anne cocked her pistol and took aim at the nearest vampire. The other four Slayers took up their positions and Faith and Gunn tensed for the assault.

Then the Turok-Han approached.

**********

Wesley tore down the corridor, followed closely by his team. He made a last second check of his shotgun and the rounded a corner to see the backs of too many Turok-Han to count. He skidded to a stop and the vampires turned slowly to face them, snarling.

“Alright everyone, just like you were trained – one vampire at a time. Pick your targets wisely and concentrate on it until it’s dust, then pick another. We can do this, remember to compensate for your additional strength, and trust your instincts.”

The Slayers took up positions behind him and he raised the shotgun.

The Turok-Han ran towards them.

**********

Buffy was reasonably certain of her knowledge of the school layout but was equally certain she’d taken a wrong turn somewhere. There wasn’t time to turn back so they ploughed on, Giles at the rear – mainly due to his speed not being enhanced like the others – and Connor in front, due to his unique parentage granting him augmented abilities.

Gunshots echoed through the halls and Buffy instantly focused on them, tearing towards the sounds as they were joined by the screaming of human girls and the roaring of Turok-Han.

The radio crackled once and Buffy distinctly heard the sound of a blade entering flesh – she’d heard it often enough in her lifetime to recognise the noise.

Then she heard a girl groaning, and as far as she knew Faith was the only other female with a radio.

She tried to travel even faster as the radio feed got cut and together they tore towards the battle.

**********

Wahey! Another update **really** quickly! Okay, here's the part where I beg for help! I'm planning something a *little* different for the next chapter and it may take me a while, but I'm asking anyone who has the time to email me ([email protected]) to be a beta reader, for the next chapter only and then if we want to carry it on we can discuss it later, but I think with the thing I'm gonna do I'll have to do it just right, and to do that I'll need a beta reader. Preferably someone who's familiar with the story so far! But if not ah well. Benefits: you'll get to see my (hopefully) fantastic chapter at least a few hours before everyone else and tear it to pieces! Hmm, not so great benefits I guess, but if you're interested just give me an email. Enough rambling - please review! Thanks!