"Spike: And in terms of a plan?

Angel: We fight.

Spike: Bit more specific?

Angel: Well, personally, I kinda wanna slay the dragon. Let's go to work."

            As Angel picked up his sword to swing, he heard a lot of shuffling behind him. They were surrounded, damn it! This was not what he had anticipated. But then again, they were going against the Senior Partners so anything went. Slowly, very slowly, he and the others turned around....

"Need some help?" She said with a twinkle in her eye and a confident smile on her face.

Buffy!

            She stood there with scythe in hand and she wasn't alone. Next to her stood Faith on one side and Willow on the other; behind them were women.....lots of women. The slayers. The ones Willow had awakened with the power of the scythe when they were fighting The First. They had come to help their friends in their time of need. Time to quickly regroup and attack. As Illyria was their strongest warrior (besides Willow) she went first and incinerated a whole slew of demons. Buffy started giving out orders:

"Will, seems one is injured, can you heal him and keep some of the group around him, he is human. The rest of you take flanking positions! Stay sharp, we need to kill all of these demons before they drag this whole dimension into hell with them. Vacation time's over, let's see what you're made of!"

            She then walked up to Angel and saw Spike watching her. She knew of his resurrection from both Andrew and their trip to Italy so she smiled at them both but before they could say anything, she said:

"Let's kick some demon ass then we can catch up, ok?" Faith smirked.

"Yeah man, this lovey dovey shit ain't gonna work with the monster squad about to get us! Let's do this thing!"

"Works for me." Spike said and he stood next to Faith as they took on their first round of demons and monsters.

"Just like old times?" Angel asked Buffy with his sexy half smile, she cocked her head at him and readied her scythe as he did his sword.

"With us? Always." She said and the two of them ran together into the fray.

            The Senior Partners weren't holding back but neither were the champions. Now with the slayers and Willow in the mix, the battle was more even keeled. Not that the worst thunderstorm in LA let up much. All that was heard for hours on end was slicing and dicing. It would be a while before the real casualty count was visible. Though the demon army was strong and powerful, it was still no match for a bunch of regimented slayers.

            That didn't however mean that there weren't casualties, a lot of the newer slayers were felled early on as well as Rona who was trying to be in too many places at once. Rona was one of the original slayers from the war with The First. But as this battle continued no one stopped to mourn. Slayers had expiration dates just like everyone else; though theirs were often before the age of 25.

            After restoring Gunn to fighting condition and healing his wound that he received while fighting with the vampires belonging to the senator, Willow torched the giant walking Godzilla and close to 30,000 monster demons that looked like they were part of Xerxies army from the movie The 300. Her hair only turned slightly black but no veins this time. She was able to maintain control even though she went into total killer mode. She knew what was needed of her in order for all of them to survive.

            And suddenly, just as it had begun, it ended. The sunrise was looming and before the demons or what was left of them disappeared; the magnitude of the battle was shown. The losses, the dead beasts were visible. But the sun shown again and that meant that Angel and Spike had to get inside or they would be extra crispy in a matter of seconds. They found a warehouse and everyone hid there. As everyone took stock of the wounded and dead, Faith looked around and asked:

"Does this mean we won?"

            There was a silence as no one knew how to answer that one. Except than one of the slayers looked at her watch and shrieked as everyone looked at her:

"Holy shit! We've been fighting for 3 days straight! The darkness only lifted now......that-that's a good thing, right? Right?!?"

"Has to be...the Senior Partners wouldn't just give up easily and if the girl's watch is on point and we have been scrapping for 3 days straight....then I'd say we kicked some bloody ass!" Spike finished triumphantly.

            As people started talking amongst themselves and clumping up, Angel tried to figure out what all of this could mean. Spike was right as much as he hated to admit it; the Senior Partners didn't just stick their tails between their legs and run. They must have beaten them fair and square and had they sent anymore monsters after them, they would have been very unguarded down below.

            After all, if he thought about it, everything made some sort of warped sense. As he was sitting on a crate, Buffy walked up to him and brushed the hair out of his face and tilted his chin so she could look at the cut on his forehead. He didn't even feel it.

"Brooding as usual?" She said with a little smile as he looked up at her and shook his head to get himself out of his own mind. He was about to have a thought epiphany.

"What? No....I was just thinking about how everything is connected."

"Connected? What do you mean?" She looked at him confused and he got up off his crate and started pacing back and forth.

"Well you-you know how when we first joined Wolfram & Hart---" Buffy cut him off briefly.

"Yeah that, not the smartest idea you've ever had."

"I know but hear me out....when we decided or rather I decided that we were going to join them, it was Lilah who gave me the information and pendant that Spike wore to help you win the war against The First."

"Yes, where are you going with this?" Buffy asked as Spike, Faith, and the others stopped talking and started listening as Angel put the puzzle pieces together that had already aligned themselves in his head.

"Lilah wouldn't give us something to help us unless it was also helping the Senior Partners; you see what I'm saying?" Buffy ever the smart whip put the rest of it together for them.

"Meaning that The First Evil was a threat to the Senior Partners themselves. Which also means, because The First is always around and never leaves it would take any opportunity to grab hold of something to move forward in this dimension. If the Senior Partners had sent their whole arsenal of demons after us, they would have been left unprotected and vulnerable against it."

"Buffy, you remember what Giles said after talking to that Beljoxa's eye thing? That The First is the creator of all evil, meaning it created the Senior Partners too. I have a hard time believing they would just want to give whatever dimensional ownership they have to it just because it was their creator." Willow chimed in filling in the last blocks of this supernatural cluster-fuck.

"Anyone else just got a bleeding headache from this information overload?" Spike said raising his hand as some slayers hesitantly raised theirs too.

"So we won is basically what you're sayin?" Faith said with a smile.

"Looks like it. I don't know what it means for tomorrow but for today, we won yet another apocalypse." Buffy nodded sitting down on some old blankets on the warehouse floor looking exhausted.

"Oh come on! Can't you people look a little happy? We just beat those puncy buggers at their own bloody game!" Spike said waving his hands.

"Shut up Spike." Buffy and Angel said in unison, then looked at each other and smiled.

"So now what? We can't stay here for too long." Angel said looking around at their makeshift hospital.

"No we can't, but we have to get some food and rest a bit before we move back to base."

"Base?" Gunn asked, speaking for the first time.

"Long story. But we must go find some food first and definately more first aid kits. When we get back to base, we can put the injured into the hospital there."

        Buffy said before getting up with a slight groan and looking at Faith who without needing instructions grabbed a few of the slayers and headed out the door without a glance back as Buffy plopped back onto the blankets and lay down. She looked at Willow who was busy putting up a barrier against all evil around the warehouse. That should keep any unwanted visitors out for the remainder of the time they spend there. It didn't take too long for Faith and the others to get back. They brought back plenty of food and even blood for the boys who took their containers gratefully and clinking them together in a celebratory toast, guzzled them down before Spike found a board to lay on as he watched Buffy from a semi discreet angle.

        As Faith and the other girls, handed out food and first aid kits to those who needed/wanted them, Spike remembered the last time he and Buffy spoke; down in the Hellmouth where she told him that she loved him. He knew it wasn't true. She felt something for him but it didn't come close to what she felt for Angel as was evident from the way they looked and just acted around each other. He wasn't a total fool. His girl wasn't really his girl and never really truly was. He knew that now. Meanwhile, Illyria who at this point was all by herself, joined him. She felt just like he did, out of the group, the unpopular one.

        She creeped out the slayers and that kind of made him laugh. She was not a bad bird apart from kicking his ass on occasion and wanting him as her pet. Perhaps he could have her as his pet. Now that would be his kind of something, he thought to himself as he grinned and moved over so she could sit more comfortably. She was as still as a statue. Probably still absorbing everything that went down; being human meant she had a lot to adjust to. Especially losing Wesley. Spike sighed as he rolled onto his back and thought about everyone they had lost in the last year. Fred was the worst. If there was some way to change it, get a time machine or something. As he was pondering the negative things around them, Faith got Buffy's attention.

"Yo B, just found out this warehouse stands on Resurrection Blvd. Pretty rad, don't you think?" She said hitching her thumb over her shoulder as she took another bite of her sandwich.

            Before Buffy had a chance to reply, a stunning bright blue-gold light filled the whole entire place. It seemed brighter than the sun and then a beautiful female voice filtered out of it:

"Well isn't that convenient...."

To be continued.....