In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness, until now.

I was waiting with Willow for Xander to come to school like I normally did. After I'd moved here from England with my dad they'd been the first to make me welcome so we stayed with each other and became quick friends. I saw him doing his usual bob and weave through the crowd on his skateboard and moved towards him with Willow at my side. I had one other friend, but he was kinda a secret from everyone, especially my dad. We watched him crash into the railing and fell beneath it.

"I'm Okay. I feel good." He told us as Willow smiled down at him. "Liz! Willow! You're so very much the people that I wanted to see!" he said getting up.

"Oh, really?" Willow asked with a smile on her face as we started walking towards the school.

"Yeah. You know, I kinda had a problem with the math." He told her.

"Uh, which part?" she asked him.

"The math. Can you help me out tonight, pleeeease, be my study buddy?" he begged her.

"Well, what's in it for me?" she asked him.

"A shiny nickel!" he bribed.

"Okay. Do you have 'Theories in Trig'? You should check it out." She told him.

"Check it out?" he asked her.

"From the library? Where the books live." Willow reminded him.

"Right, I'm there! See, I wanna change..." he told her and I laughed.

"Xander, if you change then I'll start doing as my father tells me to do more often." I told him making them both laugh as we walked through the school doors.

"Hey, hey!" Jesse said as we met up with him in the school.

"Hey, Jesse, what's what?" Xander asked him.

"New Girl!" Jesse said and I paid more attention. She was the one my father was waiting on I bet.

"That's right, I saw her. Pretty much a hottie!" Xander said.

"I heard someone was transferring..." Willow cimed in.

"So tell!" Xander said.

"Tell what?" Jesse asked him.

"What's the sitch, what do ya know about her?" Xander asked.

"New girl!" Jesse repeated.

"Well, you're certainly a font of nothing!" Xander said as we made our way to our lockers and separated to our classes.

I had history with Cordelia and the new girl: Buffy Sommers. Everyone was doing their own thing, reading, taking notes, etc. as the teacher told us about the Black Death.

"It's estimated that about 25 million people died in that one four-year span. But the fun part of the Black Plague is that it originated in Europe how?" she asked us, but no one answered. "As an early form of germ warfare. If you'll look at the map on page 63 you can trace the spread of the disease into Rome, and then north. And this popular plague led to what social changes? Steve?" she asked right before the bell rang and we all got up to leave. I immediately moved down the hall and found Willow at the fountain.

"Hey, how was class?" I asked her.

"It was ok." She told me.

"Knowing you, you already knew everything they were telling you." I joked with her making her laugh before she took a drink.

"Willow!" we both turned to see Buffy with Cordelia. "Nice dress! Good to know you've seen the softer side of Sears."

"Uh, oh, well, my mom picked it out." Willow told her.

"No wonder you're such a guy magnet. Are you done?" She asked rudely. Willow looked at the fountain, then back to Cordelia.

"Oh!" Willow said finally understanding what she was after.

"Why don't you ever back off?" I asked her as I followed Willow out of the hallway. I made my back to Willow who was almost out the door. "Hey, Will, you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I'm used to it." She reminded me and I just looked at her.

"I'm going to go see my dad. You sure you're going to be okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah. I'll see you at lunch." She said with a smile.

"See ya." I then left her for the library.

"Dad." I called out for him.

"I'm here." He said coming down from the stacks.

"New girl's here." I told him.

"Is she?" he asked me interested as we moved to his office.

"You know, ever since they lost interest in…" I started saying but he cut me off.

"Don't worry about it, Liz. We will find her and make sure the same thing doesn't happen to her that did you." He told me giving me a comforting hug.

"Hello?" we heard a girl call out. "Is anybody here?" Dad left the office and I watched as he walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to him startled revealing Buffy.

"Ooo!" she gasped before smiling. "Anybody's here!"

"Can I help you?" he asked her.

"I was looking for some, well, books. I'm new." She told him.

"Miss Summers?" Dad asked her.

"Good call! Guess I'm the only new kid, huh?" she asked him with a smile.

"I'm Mr. Giles. The librarian. I was told you were coming." He told her as he headed behind the counter.

"Great! So, um, I'm gonna need 'Perspectives on 20th Century...'" she started saying.

"I know what you're after!" he interrupted her and with a big grin on his face he pulled out a large old book with the word VAMPYR written in gold leaf on the front cover. Buffy looked up at him with an uneasy gaze.

"That's not what I'm looking for." She told him.

"Are you sure?" he asked her.

"I'm way sure." She told him.

"My mistake." Dad said confused before he put the book back behind the counter and she fled. "So, what is it you said..." he stood up and watched her run out of the library. I walked up to him and stared at the doors.

"Well, I'm going to go to lunch. I'll see you later?" I asked him.

"Of course, yes." He said. I kissed him on the cheek before leaving to meet Willow for lunch. I found her outside sitting on a bench and joined her.

"Hey Will." I said sititng next to her.

"Hey. How's your dad?" she asked me.

"Same old, same old." I told her before Buffy approached us.

"Uh, Hi! Willow, right? I'm sorry I don't know who you are." Buffy told me.

"I'm Liz." I told her.

"Why? I-I mean, hi! Uh, did you want me to move?" Willow asked her.

"Why don't we start with 'Hi, I'm Buffy,' and, uh, then let's segue directly into me asking you for a favor." Buffy asked sitting next to me. "It doesn't involve moving, but it does involve hanging out with me for a while."

"But aren't you hanging out with Cordelia?" she asked her.

"I can't do both?" Buffy asked.

"Not legally." Willow and I told her.

"Look, I really wanna get by here, new school, and... Cordelia's been really nice... to me... anyway, but, um, I kinda have this burning desire not to flunk all my classes, and I heard a rumor that you were the person to talk to if I wanted to get caught up." Buffy told her. "Both of you."

"Oh, I could totally help you out! Uh, if you have sixth period free we could meet in the library?" Willow offered.

"Or not. Or we could meet someplace quieter. Louder. Uh, that place just kinda gives me the wiggins." Buffy told her.

"Oh, it has that effect on most kids. I love it, though, it's a great collection, and the new librarian is really cool." Willow said with a smile.

"Unless you're his kid." I corrected.

"He's new?" Buffy asked. "And you're his daughter?"

"Yeah, we just moved here about a week ago. He was a curator at The British Museum." I told her.

"There's only one?" Willow asked me and I nodded. "But he knows everything, and he brought all these historical volumes and biographies and am I the single dullest person alive?"

"Not at all." Buffy told her. Xander then hopped up on the wall behind us and sat on it between Buffy and myself as Jesse stood in front of us and dropped his bag.

"Hey!" Jesse greeted.

"You guys busy? Are we interrupting? We're interrupting." Xander said tossing his bag to Jesse.

"Hey!" the three of us said.

"Hey there!" Jesse said dropping Xander's bag next to his own.

"Buffy, this is Jesse and that's Xander." Willow introduced them.

"Oh, me and Buffy go waaay back, old friends, very close. Then there's that period of estrangement where I think we were both growing as people, but now here we are, like old times, I'm quite moved." Xander said.

"Is it me, or are you turning into a bibbling idiot?" Jesse asked him with a smile.

"No, it's, uh, it's not you." Xander told him.

"Well, it's nice to meet you guys, I think." Buffy said giving us a confused look.

"Well, you know, we wanted to welcome ya, make ya feel at home, unless you have a scary home..." Jesse told her.

"And to return this." He told her holding a stake. "The only thing I can think is that you're building a really little fence." He said handing it to her and she grabbed it from his hand.

"Hah, no, um, a-a-actually it was for self-defense. Everyone has them in L.A. Pepper spray is just so passe'." She said putting away.

"So what do you do for fun, what do you like, what do you look for in a man, let's hear it." Xander asked her.

"If you have any dark, painful secrets you'd like us to publish?" Jesse asked her.

"Gee, everyone wants to know about me. How keen." She said.

"Well, not much goes on in a one Starbucks town like Sunnydale. You're pretty big news." Xander told her.

"Yes, I was big news when I first moved here as well." I told her.

"But I'm not. Really." Buffy insisted.

"Are these guys bothering you?" Cordelia asked her walking up to us.

"Uh, no!" Buffy told her.

"She's not hanging out with us." Willow tried telling her

"Hey! Cordelia!" Jesse said standing quickly.

"Oh, please!" she said to Jesse before turning to Buffy. "I don't mean to interrupt your downward mobility, but I just wanted to tell you that you won't be meeting Coach Foster, the woman with the chest hair, because gym was canceled due to the extreme dead guy in the locker."

"What?" Buffy asked her.

"What are you talking about?" Willow asked her.

"Some guy was stuffed in Aura's locker!" Cordelia told us.

"Dead." Buffy said.

"Totally dead. Way dead." Cordelia said.

"It's not just a little dead then?" Xander asked her.

"Don't you have an elsewhere to be?" Cordelia asked him.

"You're the one who came up to us." I reminded her.

"Y'know, if you need a shoulder to cry on, or just to nibble on..." Jesse offered her.

"How did he die?" Buff asked her.

"I don't know." Cordelia told her.

"Well, were there any marks?" Buffy asked her.

"Morbid much! I didn't ask!" Cordelia told her.

"Um, I gotta book. I'll, I'll see you guys later." Buffy said grabbing her things and leaving.

"I have to get to the library." I said before grabbing my own things and leaving.

"Dad!" I called to him as I charged into the library.

"What? What is it?" he asked me.

"There was a body found in the gym. He was stuffed in a girls locker." I told him.

"Did you check out the scene?" he asked me.

"Nope, Buffy was there also so she probably did." I told him right before Buffy barged into the library.

"Okay, what's the sitch?" she asked before seeing me.

"Sorry?" Dad asked her.

"Speak freely." I told her. "I already know about all this."

"You heard about the dead guy, right? The dead guy in the locker?" she asked him.

"Yes." He told her as she dropped her bag on the table and headed up the stairs to us.

"'Cause, it's the weirdest thing. He's got two little, little holes in his neck, and all his blood's been drained. Isn't that bizarre? Aren't you just going, ooo?" she asked us.

"I was afraid of this." Dad said.

"Well, I wasn't! It's my first day! I was afraid that I was gonna be behind in all my classes, that I wouldn't make any friends, that I would have last month's hair. I didn't think there'd be vampires on campus. And I don't care." She told him.

"Then why are you here?" he asked her.

"To tell you that... I don't care, which... I don't, and... have now told you, so... bye." She said before turning away from her.

"Is he, w-will he... rise again?" he asked her.

"Who?" she asked him.

"The dead boy." I told her.

"No. He's just dead." She told us.

"Can you be sure?" Dad asked her.

"To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood. And then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they're just gonna kill you. Why am I still talking to you?" she asked before turning and going back down the stairs.

"You really have no idea what's going on, do you? You think it's coincidence, your being here? That boy was just the beginning." Dad warned her.

"Oh, why can't you people just leave me alone?" she asked him.

"Because you are the Slayer." He said going down the stairs after her. "Into each generation a Slayer is born, one girl in all the world, a Chosen One, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires..."

"...with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil blah, blah, blah... I've heard it, okay?" Buffy told him.

"I really don't understand this attitude. You, you've accepted your duty, you, you've slain vampires before..." Dad said.

"Yeah, and I've both been there and done that, and I'm moving on." She told him.

"What do you know about this town?" he asked going into the office.

"It's two hours on the freeway from Neiman Marcus?" Buffy asked him.

"Dig a bit in the history of this place. You'll find a, a steady stream of fairly odd occurrences. Now, I believe this whole area is a center of mystical energy," dad said coming back out with four books. "That things gravitate towards it that, that, that you might not find elsewhere."

"Like vampires." Buffy said.

"Like zombies, werewolves, incubi, succubi, everything you've ever dreaded was under your bed, but told yourself couldn't be by the light of day. They're all real!" he told her placing the books into her hands.

"What? You, like, sent away for the Time-Life series?" she asked him.

"Ah, w-w-w-yes." He said and I nodded.

"Did you get the free phone?" she asked.

"Calendar." I answered.

"Cool! But, okay," she gave him the books back. "First of all, I'm a Vampire Slayer. And secondly, I'm retired. Hey, I know! Why don't you two kill 'em?" she asked us.

"I-I'm a Watcher, I-I haven't the skill… and Liz…" he started saying.

"Oh, come on, stake through the heart, a little sunlight... It's like falling off a log." She told him.

"A, a Slayer slays, a Watcher..." he tried telling her.

"...watches?" she offered.

"Yes. No!" he told her setting the books down. "He, he trains her, he, he, he prepares her..."

"Prepares me for what? For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For having to spend all of my time fighting for my life and never getting to tell anyone because I might endanger them? Go ahead! Prepare me." She told him. They just looked at each other for a moment before Buffy exhaled, turned and left the library in disgust.

"Great going Dad." I said going after her.

"Damn!" he said before following.

"It's getting worse!" Dad called after her when we caught up to her.

"What's getting worse?" she asked not turning to us.

"The influx of the undead." He told her.

"Not just vamps but all supernatural monsters. It's been building for years in this town." I told her.

"There's a reason why you're here and a reason why it's now!" he told her.

"Because now is the time my mom moved here." She said trying to move away from us but I stepped in front of her.

"Something's coming, something, something... something is, is gonna happen here. Soon!" he told her.

"Gee, can you vague that up for me?" she asked him sarcastically.

"The signs, as far as I can tell, point to a crucial mystical upheaval, very soon. Days. Possibly less." He answered.

"Oh, come on! This is Sunnydale! How bad an evil can there be here?" she asked him.

"That's what we need to find out." I told her. She gave me a look before going to her next class.

Later that night I was preparing to go to the Bronze with my dad to look for Buffy and try to talk sense into her.

"Hey." I turned and saw my friend standing outside my window and smiled at him.

"Hey. What's up?" I asked him.

"I plan on meeting her tonight. Did she take your warning?" he asked me and I shook my head. "Did you think she would?"

"In all honesty, I had hoped she would. But I understand why she didn't in a way." I said leaning on the wall next to the window.

"Because you want the same thing?" he asked me. "A normal life?"

"Sometimes I do, but most the time I don't. If I had a normal life I'd be just as at risk as the rest of this town." I explained. "I'd be… defenseless. I'd have never met you." I said looking at him again. He just stared at me and handed me a box.

"The Hellmouth is about to open." He told me as I took the box. "Be ready for the Harvest."

"The Harvest?" I asked turning to him but he was already gone. I opened the box to see a cross necklace inside. "Thank you. Angel."

Later at the Bronze I was standing next to my father when Buffy joined the two of us.

"So, you like to party with the students. Isn't that kinda skanky?" Buffy asked my dad.

"Oh, right, this is me having fun. Watching... clown hair prance about is hardly my idea of a party. I'd much rather be at home with a cup of Bovril and a good book." Dad told her.

"You need a personality, stat!" she told him.

"Don't we both know it." I agreed earning a look from him.

"This is a perfect breeding ground for vampire activity." He reminded her. "It's dark, it's crowded... Besides, I knew you were likely to show up, and I have to make you understand..."

"...that the Harvest is coming. I know, your friend told me." She told him.

"What did you say?" he asked her.

"The Harvest. That mean something to you? 'Cause I'm drawing a blank." She told us.

"I'm not sure. Uh... W-who told you this?" he asked her as I looked out among the crowd.

"This... guy. Dark, gorgeous in an annoying sort of way. I figured you two were buds." She told him.

"No. The Harvest. Did he say anything else?" he asked her.

"Something about the Mouth of Hell. I really didn't like him!" she told him.

"Hellmouth." I said and they both looked to me as the band finished the song they were playing and switched to the next one as the three of us stared down at the crowd below us.

"Look at them, throwing themselves about, completely unaware of the danger that surrounds them." Dad told her.

"Lucky them." She said.

"Or perhaps you're right. Perhaps there is no trouble coming, the signs could be wrong. It's not as though you've been having the nightmares." Dad said and Buffy just continued to stare at them. I watched her face as she watched them and her eyes widened. She's had them.

"I didn't say I'd never slay another vampire. It's not like I have all these fluffy bunny feelings for them, I'm just not gonna get way extracurricular with it." She explained. "You know, if I see one, sure I'll..."

"Will you be ready?" he asked her. "There's so much you don't know about them, about your own powers. A vampire appears to be completely normal until the feed is upon them, only then do they reveal their true demonic visage."

"You're like a textbook with arms, I know this." She reminded him.

"The point is, a Slayer should be able to see them anyway. Without looking, without thinking. Can you tell me if there's a vampire in this building?" he asked her and she looked below us.

"Maybe..." she said, but we both knew she couldn't.

"You should know. Even through this mass and this... din, you should be able to sense them. Well, try! Reach out with your mind." He told her and she looked around. "You have to hone your senses, focus until the energy washes over you, until you, you feel every particle o-of..."

"There's one." She said pointing to a man talking to a girl.

"W-where?" dad asked her.

"Right there, talking to that girl." She said continuing to point at him.

"You don't know..." he told her.

"Oh, please! Look at his jacket. He's got the sleeves rolled up, and the shirt! Deal with that outfit for a moment." Buffy told him and I laughed.

"She's got a point dad."

"It's dated?" he asked her.

"It's carbon dated. Trust me, only someone living underground for ten years would think that was still the look." She told him.

"But you didn't... hone." He said and the couple turned and we saw the girl he was talking to.

"Oh, no." Buffy said.

"Isn't that..." dad started asking.

"Willow." I said.

"What's she doing?" dad asked.

"Seizing the moment!" Buffy said before going downstairs. I gripped the railing tightly and watched as th vampire took my friend away.

"Dad we have to do something." I told him before going downstairs. I was soon joined by Buffy and my dad.

"That was quick. Well done! I-I need to go to the library. This Harvest thing..." dad started saying.

"I didn't find them!" she said and I grabbed her arm forcing her to look at me.

"The vampire is not dead?" dad asked her.

"Willow isn't safe?" I asked her.

"No, but my social life is on the critical list." She told us.

"Screw your social life! Willow is more important than that!" I shouted at her.

"So, what do we do?" Dad asked.

"I'll take care of it!" she told us.

"We'll take care of it!" I corrected her.

"I-I-I need to come with you, yes?" Dad asked us.

"Don't worry. One vampire we can handle." She told him and we both left the Bronze only to run into Xander outside.

"Hey, you're leaving already?" he asked us.

"Oh, Xander! Have you seen Willow?" Buffy asked him.

"Not tonight, no." he answered.

"She left with a guy." I told him.

"We're talking about Willow, right? Scorin' at the Bronze, work it girl..." Xander said doing a little dance.

"No, we need to find her. Where would he take her?" Buffy asked.

"Ice cream maybe?" I offered and we started to walk away again.

"Why? Oh, hey, I hope he's not a vampire, because then you might have to slay him." Xander said and we both turned to him.

"Was there a... a school bulletin? Was it i-in the newspaper? Is there anyone in this town who doesn't know I'm the Slayer?" she asked him.

"No. I only know that you think that you're the Slayer, and the reason why I know that..." Xander started telling her but I cut him off.

"It doesn't matter." I said.

"You're serious!" Xander said finally getting it.

"We don't find her and there's gonna be one more dead body in the morning!" Buffy told him. The three of us quickly made our way to the ice cream parlor only to find a cemetery on the way.

"Looks like we found them." I said before we all ran into the cemetery. As we continued to search for them we heard Willow scream from one of the crypts and quickly went inside to find both her and Jesse surrounded by two vampires.

"Well, this is nice. I-it's a little bare, but a dash of paint, a few throw pillows... call it home!" Buffy said walking inside of it. She moved away from the two innocents and drew the vampires to her.

"Who the hell are you?" the female vampire asked her.

"You mean there's actually someone in this town who doesn't know already? Whew, that's a relief, I'm telling you! Having a secret identity in this town is a job of work." Buffy said.

"Buffy, we bail now, right?" Xander asked her.

"Not yet!" the male vampire said.

"For once I'm in total agreement." I said.

"Okay, first of all, what's with the outfit? Live in the now, okay? You look like DeBarge!" Buffy told him as she turned to the female. "Now, we can do this the hard way, or... well, actually there's just the hard way."

"That's fine with me!" the female told her.

"Are you sure? Now, this in not gonna be pretty. We're talking violence, strong language, adult content..." Buffy listed off as the male roared behind her. She pulled out a stake from her shirt and she jammed it into his heart. His face was one of shock as he fell back and turned to ashes. None of the others could believe their eyes. "See what happens when you roughhouse?"

"He was young and stupid!" the female told her.

"Xander, Liz, go!" Buffy told us and we quickly went to Willow and Jesse and pulled them with us out of the crypt.

"Don't go far!" the female called after us as she and Buffy started fighting. We ran through the cemetery the other two supporting Jesse as we went.

"We'll get the police, it's just a few blocks up!" Willow said but we were stopped by a large group of vampires.

"Looks like planning won't help." I told her. We were surrounded by vampires.

TO BE CONTINUED.