Library: 6:45pm:
Buffy had been training for most of the day. Even Willow and Xander were getting a little bit of training. However, their jobs would mostly consist of throwing holy water at any and all vampires that came after them. They would also be armed with big crosses. Buffy, Giles, Angel, and Cassandra would do most of the hand to hand fighting. When Angel and Cassandra arrived, Angel volunteered to wait outside the school and be a lookout. Whenever he sees Spike and his group coming, he would run into the school and warn the others. It was not a perfect plan, but it was the best they could do under such short notice.
The group was obviously nervous, especially Willow and Xander. They did not have the strength of a Slayer or a vampire, but they would help as much as they could. Buffy was still unsure of Cassandra’s role in all of this, but she decided to put all of the mistrust and jealousy beside for tonight. Buffy knew, deep down, that Cassandra could be trusted. As much as she hated to admit it, Buffy did believe that Cassandra was on their side. The animosity she had against Cassandra had been born out of jealousy. Buffy knew that Cassandra would end up staying in Sunnydale, Giles had told her about their conversation the night before. Buffy had mixed feelings about this. Part of her wanted Cassandra to just go back to wherever she came from, but another part knew that she needed her help. Buffy then put all of that out of her mind, she had to focus on the coming battle.
The group was trying to stay busy while waiting for the battle. Xander, Willow, Buffy, and Giles were nervous and keeping themselves busy helped them to not be as nervous. Cassandra was not very nervous. She had confidence in her abilities, but she was not cocky. Cassandra was fearful for Xander, Willow, and Giles. She knew that they did not have any supernatural abilities to help them in the fight. In the short time that she had known them, she had grown to like Willow, Xander, and especially Giles. [ I wish I had people like that around me when I was slaying. It might have made a difference. However, they would have probably been brutally killed just like the rest of the people that I loved. ]
Cassandra was amazed as to how quickly she had been accepted by Xander and Willow. Xander, being the typical teenage male, was always staring at her like she was a piece of meat. He thought he was being cool about it, but it was obvious he was in deep lust mode. Cassandra was constantly amused by this. Beyond this, Cassandra really liked Xander. She felt that he was a really good person, even though he liked to shoot his mouth off. Cassandra discovered that one of Xander’s favorite pastimes was to insult Angel. He even did a pretty good Angel impression. He did not know what Cassandra knew. That lurking just underneath the brooding and angsty personality that his human soul had developed, was one of the most vicious demons that Cassandra had ever known. She hoped that her new friends would never have to see it.
Cassandra also really liked Willow. She was one of the kindest people that Cassandra had ever known. She reminded her so much of her sister, Clara, in that way. Willow had even started preaching to her the virtues of computers and the online world. Being used to the old ways of doing things, Cassandra was a little skeptical.
Halfway through Willow’s impromptu Internet lesson, they heard someone come through the library. Everyone tensed up thinking that it was Angel coming to announce that Spike was on his way. Cassandra was surprised to see another teenager come through the door.
“Cordelia, what are you doing here?” Buffy asked, a little bit annoyed.
“Well, nice to see you too.” The girl retorted sarcastically. “I’m here to get some information about a paper that is due tomorrow. What’s going on? Is the world ending or something?”
Buffy shook her head. “You came at a really bad time. Spike and his gang are on his way to attack.” Cassandra’s interest was peaked. [ Another person knows about vampires? ]
“Oh my God! I got to get out of here.” Cordelia was getting frantic.
Cassandra spoke up. “You can’t. If they are on their way, you might run into them. Spike might stop for a little appetizer, in the form of a helpless girl wandering the streets at night.” Stated Cassandra while staring pointedly at Cordelia.
“Who are you?” Asked Cordelia.
“I’m Cassandra.”
“Oh really, I’ve never seen you around before.”
“It doesn’t matter. You can’t go home now.” Said Cassandra, getting slightly annoyed by this girl.
Buffy spoke up. “Cordelia, we could use your help.”
“What! I’m not a freak like you. I can’t kill vampires.” Yelled Cordelia.
“Can you toss holy water and hold a cross?” Asked Buffy, who was getting more annoyed by the second.
Before she could even reply, Giles started loading Cordelia down with holy water, and he gave her a big cross just like the ones Willow and Xander were holding. “OK, since it doesn’t look like I have much choice, I’ll help. But, I’m officially protesting.” Cordelia was then lead away by Xander to be told of the plan.
As soon as Cordelia was out of earshot, Cassandra leaned in to Buffy. “Who is she?”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Someone who goes to school here. She got caught up in this, and she helps occasionally. Not one of my most favorite people to be around.”
Cassandra nodded understandingly. “I can imagine.”
Suddenly Angel came through the back entrance to the library. “Spike and his gang are coming!”
The group sprang into action. “How far away and how many?” Buffy asked while getting her stakes ready.
“About fourteen, not as bad as we first thought.” Answered Angel.
As was the plan, Angel and Cassandra hid so that they would not been seen at first. They wanted all of them in the library and then the group would attack in force. Buffy, and the rest of the group sat at the table, pretending that they were researching something.
Suddenly the doors to the library opened and a group of vampire, with Spike in the lead, stormed the room. “Slayer! Good to see you again. Hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”
Buffy and the group got up and grabbed their supplies. Before the vampires could react, Angel and Cassandra came out of hiding while wearing their demon faces. This was the signal for the counter-offensive to begin.
All hell broke loose in the library. Buffy, Cassandra, and Angel started hand to hand fighting with any vampire that were foolish enough to come up against them. Between the three of them, they dusted eight vampires in a space of a just a few minutes. The rest of the group threw holy water to help distract the other vampires, while being careful not to throw holy water on Cassandra or Angel. After about five minutes of fighting, the remaining vampires started fleeing the scene quickly. They did not know that the Slayer would be prepared, and they definitely were not counting on Cassandra or Angel being there. That factor, plus the holy water being thrown on them, was the deciding factor in regards to their running away. Seeing that he was outnumbered, Spike and the few vampires that were left decided to get out of there as well. “Well Slayer, it’s been fun.”
“Not nearly as fun as staking you would be.” Buffy retorted.
“I don’t think so pet. Goodbye for now, Slayer. Welcome to Sunnydale, Cassandra.” With that, Spike got out of there as quickly as possible.
As soon as he and the other vampires were gone, everyone let out a sigh of relief. “It looks like it is over.” Said Buffy.
Everyone was quiet for a few minutes, just lost in their own thoughts. The silence was broken by Cordelia’s whining. “Oh my God. I broke a nail. I just had a manicure today.”
No one responded verbally to that. Everyone just stared at her like she had grown a second head. “That’s Cordelia for you. We defeated the bad guys, but all she is concerned about is her nails.” Said Xander in an amused tone of voice.
That lightened the mood a little. The group then started to clean up some of the damage that the library had received during the fight. While Buffy was cleaning up, she noticed that Cassandra was still here helping clean up after Angel had even left. Buffy thought back to the fight. Buffy had never seen anyone fight like Cassandra. She was a formidable fighter. Buffy was glad that she would never have to fight her. Seeing her fight, Buffy understood how she had killed that many Slayers. During the fight, all doubts about Cassandra’s loyalties left her mind. Cassandra watched Buffy’s back during the fight, and had saved her life a few times tonight because of that.
After all of the cleaning up was done, everyone sat down and relaxed. They talked about the fight and other topics from history with Giles to the newest fashions with Buffy and Cordelia. Buffy discovered that Cassandra was incredibly easy to talk to. Even Cordelia, who was so happy to be able to talk fashion with someone with ‘good taste’ as she called it, loved talking to her. Cordelia was surprised when she found out that Cassandra was a vampire. It was totally shocking to her that a creature of the night could have good taste in clothes.
Around 2:00am, Giles informed the teenagers that they needed to get home before they got in trouble. Because of the danger of Spike and his gang, Buffy and Cassandra both walked each one of the group home, except Cordelia because she drove her own car.
Cassandra had insisted walking Buffy home. She said that just in case something happened, she would have backup. About halfway from Xander’s house to Buffy’s house, Buffy spoke up. “I just want to thank you for helping us. You didn’t have to.”
Cassandra smiled. “I know I didn’t have to, but I wanted to.”
“I want to apologize for the way that I treated you at first. I was a little suspicious.”
“I know, but I understand. You’re the Slayer, you are supposed to be suspicious of vampires.”
“Yeah, but I was more suspicious because of you and Angel’s past together.” Stated Buffy, honestly.
Cassandra nodded. “I know, it’s no big deal.”
“I need to know. What was your relationship like with Angel.?” Buffy asked.
“We were together since he sired me, and it lasted for about a hundred years.” Cassandra replied, conveniently leaving out the part about their demons being bonded. She knew that Buffy would not understand.
“Did you love him?”
Cassandra smiled. “Love.” She shook her head. “We were vicious demons, we couldn’t love anything. We didn’t have the capacity to love. It was very dysfunctional. Kind of like a strange, Jerry Springer type of relationship. Mostly, it was a partnership. But, now that is over. Me and Angel are friends now, nothing more.”
Buffy smiled. “I know, it’s just hard meeting his ex girlfriend.”
“Are you two together?” Cassandra asked.
Buffy shook her head. “Not really. He mostly just gives me information then leaves. He’s also really cryptic. I’m not sure about him.”
“Give it time. He loves you, I can tell.”
Buffy did not respond, she just thought about this new information. They finally made it to Buffy’s house. “Well, thanks again for the help. Are you staying in Sunnydale?”
“Yeah, is that a problem?”
“Oh no, I think it will be good having you here.”
Cassandra smiled. “Good, because I was going to stay anyway, no matter what you said.”
Buffy laughed. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” Cassandra then turned around to walk back to her hotel room.
Cassandra’s Journal: October 6, 1997:
The counter-offensive went well. Spike’s men were defeated, but Spike got away. Buffy must have gotten over her suspicion of me, because after the fight she was really friendly to me. On the way, while I was walking her home, she even apologized for the way she treated me. She didn’t need to apologize, I understand completely. I’ve definitely decided to stay in Sunnydale for a while. I really want to help this Slayer and her friends. I don’t want to see them destroyed, and I will do everything I can to protect them.
Who would have thought that a simple business trip would turn out like this. I met Angelus and Spike again. I lost a few good friends, and gained some. I also re-joined the fight against good and evil, and I’m on the good side for a change.
I’m going to be running The Bronze personally now, since I’m in Sunnydale. It will not be the same without Mike. I really miss him and Marie, they were such good people. I hate that they had to die so young and in such a violent way. Maybe I can stop more good people from being killed.
I have a lot to do tomorrow. I have to get my things shipped here from Charleston and I have to find a place to live. Also I have more legal paperwork regarding The Bronze. I’m going to be busy for the next few days. I feel really good about this move to Sunnydale. I sure hope I can help this Slayer live longer than I did.
The End....
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