Willow had been having a bad feeling the entire time that they had been scrounging around in her bedroom to acquire the ritual books that she had referenced. She had quickly been learning to trust her gut feeling, it was what allowed her to summon Archer in the first place, and right now it was screaming at her to quickly get back to the library, pronto. If the way that her blonde friend increasingly became more active in her worrying was anything to go by, then she wasn't the only one feeling that way.

"Have you found everything yet?"

Willow let out a relieved sigh as she finally found the last of her research and gave a small nod of affirmative to the blonde haired Slayer.

It seems as though you might have given me the order to stay behind to look after your friends if you were so worried about them.

Willow almost slapped her hand against her forehead in exasperated realization, only unable to do so due to the amount of notes and books she was carrying. Archer had made an excellent point, but she had gotten too used to the man following after her in his ghostly form for the entire day. She supposed it was too late to rectify her mistake as well.

Darn it, I wish you had thought to tell me that before we had spent the last hour trying to find all the things that I had used. I think we might need to have a talk about informing me of relevant details before they become relevant.

She had the distinct impression that the red clad man was merely smirking at her, but she decided to ignore him to focus on not tripping over her own two feet. She had done that before and it was never a fun experience for anyone involved.

"I'm getting the serious wiggins, tonight. It feels like something big is about to happen."

Willow turned her attention to the blonde haired Slayer at that statement. If Willow had learned to be mindful of her own gut instincts, she had learned to trust Buffy's even more. If the Slayer thought something bad was about to go down, chances were highly likely that something bad was going to occurred.

"We weren't even gone for an entire hour, Buff. I'm sure everyone's just fine with where we left them. No reason to get spooked or anything."

Her words rang false even to her own ears, but she knew that the other teen needed to hear them, lest she drive herself to the brink with worry. Which would probably not be a good thing. Sighing she readjusted her arms to make the stacks of notes and books lighter, but she realized that her platitudes were having no effect on the blonde Slayer.

"I always need to listen to my gut, Wills. It's what's kept me alive this long and right now it sending me a serious case of the heebie jeebies."

Well, it looked like Willow was right in her platitudes having no effect; she kind of wished that it had though.

The girl might be onto something, the sun's been down for awhile now. If what I've learned about this town is any indication then we should be ambushed right about…

Just as Archer trailed off, three menacing men dressed in darker clothes and wearing leather jackets that looked like they might be from the fifties strolled out into the street.

…now.

Sometimes Willow really wished she hadn't gotten as snarky a Servant as she had. It would have made dealing with these types of situations all the more easier.

"Well, well, well. It seems we have a couple of birds going out for an evening stroll. Where ya headed sweet thangs?"

Willow rolled her eyes at the comment, but it looked as though Buffy seemed a bit relieved at being accosted by a few vampires. Willow was sure that the slayer intended to use them to let off a bit of stress at having to deal with all the other crazy things that she had had to deal with today.

"Wow. What kinda cheesy villain flick did you three idiots step out of? Are you gonna threaten my little dog too?"

Apparently snarking back to the vampires was not what they had been expecting, but it appeared that doing so was enough to at least anger the leader. Unfortunately for these vampires, they were just thick headed enough not to catch onto the fact that neither girl was showing any sort of fear towards them.

"Apparently you don't understand how this works, girly. We threaten you, then we eat you."

Buffy merely examined her nails as the vampire went on, before she slowly curled it into a fist.

"I think I'm gonna need a manicure after tonight. I can just feel it."

With that, she sucker punched the lead vampire, who had been looking on in disbelief. The monster went flying backwards and his two friends had blank stares of horror over what had just occurred.

"Oh, also, just FYI. I'm the Slayer so…"

Buffy gave a small wave at the two dumbfounded lackeys as the leader groaned from the floor.

"…howdy."

With that the blonde Slayer performed an admirable roundhouse kick to the head of one goon and knocked him into the other. With a flick of her wrist a wooden stake appeared in her hands and she flung it towards the downed leader, striking him directly in the chest.

His look of befuddlement was the last thing he had before turning back into dust. The other two glanced at their leader (or what was left of him) as they groggily got to their feet. For a beat there was no movement as the two vampires looked towards the Vampire Slayer. Then they glanced at one another briefly before turning tail and beginning to try and escape.

Should I intervene?

Willow just smiled in amusement at her Servant's question. She was sure that the man was only offering as a courtesy.

No, let Buff have her fun. This will be a good way to help her de-stress.

There was slight hum in her mind of acknowledgement as the blonde Slayer bounded over to the other two vampires and flipped one on its back before dusting it with a downward stab of her stake.

To each their own I suppose.

Finally Buffy flung the stake once more and it smashed into the other fleeing vampires back, directly where the heart would be. As the final goon became dust, Buffy dusted her hands off in satisfaction.

"Well, I guess that was one way to get me to be a little less worried. Kinda lame that they sucked so much though."

Willow merely smiled at the Slayer's statement. She was sure that Archer would have helped easily enough if something more difficult had occurred. However, now that the fighting was over, Buffy once more had a worried glint in her eye.

"The problem is that why would these chuckleheads be hanging around trying to ambush me? I thought my rep had gotten around the community pretty well by now."

She got her answer in the form of a British drawl.

"Well, luv, I'd say it's to be some sort of distraction."

Willow snapped her attention down the street and actually felt her first twinge of fear for the night. Standing before them, casually smoking a cigarette was a vampire that had actually managed to kill Slayers.

Master?

Archer's soothing presence calmed her mind somewhat. Her Servant had fought Angelus to a standstill, surely he would be able to take on the blonde haired leather jacketed vamp that had just made himself known.

It also looked as if the vampire's appearance had made Buffy go into more of a rage than she usually did if the snarl was anything to go by.

"Spike. What the hell are you doing here?"

Although Buffy's tone was casual, it looked as though her eyes were anything but. They were glinting with barely restrained violence in the rising moonlight. It did nothing to deter either of the two girls when the blonde vampire raised his hands in a soothing gesture.

"I'm not here for a fight, Slayer. You and me, we got the same enemy at the moment. And how does the saying go? The enemy of my enemy is-"

Thankfully Buffy cut off the blond vampire's words. Willow was getting a bit sick at the thought of working with him.

"-still my enemy. That's not how this works, Spike."

The blond vampire looked a bit taken aback at Buffy's abrupt rejection, but Willow whole heartedly agreed with the idea. After all the last time they had been working with a vampire it had only brought about the return of Angelus, and that hadn't been fun for anyone so far.

"Sheesh, luv. Thought you might appreciate a little bit of help. Especially since Angelus is planning to really wreck your shit up tonight."

Willow's stomach dropped out at that. She had thought that here friends were safe. If what Spike said was true then everyone was in danger right now. With a glance to the back of her hand, she came to a decision.

Spike looked startled as a man with tanned skin and white hair appeared behind the burgeoning witch.

"Archer! By my command, get us back to the library as quickly as possible and defend everyone who is there!"

There was a ripping noise before the very fabric of reality was ripped through as the people on the street were suddenly transported into the library that they had been in only about an hour earlier. Willow thought that she might have felt nauseas at the abrupt change and she noticed that both Buffy and Spike had grabbed their heads in agony as if whatever it was that Willow had done had tried to liquefy their brains and leak from their ears.

The last thing that she saw was one of her Command Spells fade from existence once the action had been executed. Afterwards she welcomed the sweet embrace of unconsciousness as her notes and books clattered to the floor.

Xander was fairly certain that he was going into shock. He was also fairly certain that he would be dying fairly soon. Already, Angelus had decimated the team that had been left behind in the library. While Kendra had put up a valiant fight and had been able to hold him off in the beginning, especially with the others harassing the undead monster, in the end the old vampire had just been too much for them to handle.

No plan survived first contact with the enemy and although Xander was able to direct the others so that they were putting up one hell of a fight, he knew that it just wouldn't be enough to get the edge that they needed to win. One mistake was all it took for things to go up in flames.

Kendra had tried to perform a disarming move (literally) on the centuries old vampire and he had retaliated by performing one of his own. Unfortunately this one landed seamlessly and suddenly the other Slayer was down an arm and screaming in pain.

The vampire then took out the legs from underneath her and ferociously thrust his sword into her, pinning the girl to the ground. Xander would never forget the sight of the light leaving the girls eyes. He had flashbacks to what had happened to Jesse so long ago (even though he and the other Slayer were admittedly less close with one another, they were still comrades fighting against all the things that went bump in the night.) and he had felt himself snap.

He had let out a guttural bellow, one that had apparently caught the vampire off guard and in his fury he had managed to land the only clean hit that they had gotten on the monster. He had landed a devastating headbutt that had him seeing stars and apparently at the very least dazed the pale monster for a moment. Unfortunately for him, the vampire was someone who could easily shake off what he had suffered from Xander's hit and the next thing Xander knew was that he was flying through the room only to crash into a bookshelf, one that had survived the fight between the two Slayers and that Archer prick.

The vampire had his attention firmly on Xander after the stunt he had pulled, but thankfully for Xander Ms. Calendar had been waiting in the wings to try and utilize some sort of spell. It was fortunate for Xander, but it was rather the opposite for the teacher as Angelus was able to dodge the attack.

The vampire's rage seemed to increase sevenfold at the botched spell and his vamp face had replaced his regular one. Giles had tried valiantly to land an attack, but it wasn't enough and Angelus had taken him out with a brutal blow to the head. Xander was fairly certain he would have been screaming in fury as he watched one of the only adults he looked up to crumble to the ground as though he were a puppet with his strings cut off, but he was pretty sure that Angelus' hit had possibly punctured a lung.

With two of their more prominent frontline fighters down for the count and Xander barely keeping himself conscious (if he was going to die, he would do it by seeing it coming, not having his throat slit while he was passed out from pain) Angelus had free reign over the library once more.

"Now, now, Jenny. That wasn't a very nice spell you were trying to hit me with. I daresay it might have even given me back that pesky thing you all call a soul. I think I'll enlighten you on just how…"

Here the centuries old monster bared his fangs and Xander was fairly certain he could feel the vampire's intent coming from all the way over here. The only good thing at the moment was that Oz and Cordelia were able to make it out before the vampire had begun to go on his rampage.

"…freeing a person feels without a soul."

With that said the vampire had begun to kill the woman known as Jenny Calendar. He hadn't done it quick and easy. He had drawn it out and eventually the poor women had screamed herself hoarse, but it still wasn't enough for the monster that had once been a vampire with a soul, but it seemed as though there was a small mercy and the woman finally succumbed to her wounds.

"A pity, I had planned to turn her, and then dust her."

Xander put on the bravest face he knew as he looked towards the monster that now wore his once ally's skin. He knew that he was the only one really left conscious for the vampire to enjoy and he was pretty sure that the he had some sort of demented plan for Giles that none of them could even begin to fathom.

However, just as the vampire stood over Xander menacingly and the teen had begun to make peace with what would no doubt end in his demise, there was an explosion within the library and it felt as if the very fabric of reality was screaming out in protest due to the new presences.

Xander felt himself tear up as he saw that Buffy had returned, along with Wills and her new Servant (and for some strange reason Spike, but Xander could give a rat's ass about that pompous idiot at the moment) and they were looking as though they were ready to throw down.

With a small sigh of relief Xander let himself slide down the bookcase that he was leaning against. The last thing he saw was Angelus turning to face the newcomers before his entire world turned black.

Archer ignored the cloying scent of blood that permeated the library that he had been only around an hour ago. He was slightly concerned for his summoner, but he knew that in order to pull off what she had the Command Spell had been partially fueled by her own magic, hopefully she would be fine.

He knew that their arrival would cause more chaos to the library (and he was slightly amazed that they had all bent the fabric of space and time to get to this location, perhaps this world was more mired in the mystic than his own was), but it looked as though the place was already in shambles from what had happened here. He only needed to look towards the other end of the room to find the being responsible for the bloody mess that was left behind.

Archer glanced at the carnage and realized that at least two of them were dead and the other two were most likely in critical condition. It was as he was assessing the room that he realized that the other two were once more getting their bearings. If the way the blond vampire paled even further was anything to go by, he very much did not want to be anywhere in the vicinity at the moment.

"Angel… what have you done?"

Archer almost winced at the low small whimper that had come out of the blonde girl that he had met just the night before. He had not expected her to take this nightmare to heart, but perhaps the two's history was more entrenched than he had first thought.

In any case, while the small murmur that the blonde had muttered might be enough for human ears not to hear, he knew for a fact that the monster standing across from him had no trouble hearing the girl's anguish. The cruel smile that slowly slid across the vampire's face was all the confirmation that he needed.

"Welcome back, Buffy. Do you like what I've done with the place?"

The vampire gave a casual look around the room as if admiring his handiwork.

"It was a bit dreary in here so I decided to spruce it up with the color red. I do so love that color."

The blonde teen let out an incoherent scream of rage and sprung towards the vampire that had decorated the room with others' blood. The monster merely laughed as he danced around her punches and kicks before he eventually lashed out and was able to score a hit on the Slayer, sending her flying through a bookshelf this time.

Archer winced at that, it was never fun to be punted through solid objects; he had had enough realities of facing Heracles to attest to that.

"Oh dear, if you keep acting like that, I'm going to think you don't enjoy my gifts."

Archer let loose a sigh before he traced some Black Keys and flung them into the retreating blond vampire's shadow. The monster let loose a yelp of surprise as he found that he could no longer move even if he tried.

"What the hell did ya do to me, ya ponce?"

Archer merely smirked at the blond vampire, making sure to put as much contempt into it as possible.

"Stay there for a minute, I might have some questions after this."

The vampire looked as though he was trying to struggle even more at that, but Archer was content to know that he wouldn't be able to get free. Angelus had yet to figure out that the person who had bested him was once more within the room, he was too busy trying to bring misery to the Slayer that was groggily getting to her feet.

"I think this might be our last dance, Buffy. Make sure you entertain me."

With that said the vampire lunged towards the still incoherent Slayer, but before he could strike with his sword, Archer had appeared and caught the blow with ease. He somewhat enjoyed the widening of the vampire's eyes as he recognized who had put a stop to his rampage and although Archer felt the vampire trying his damnedest to disconnect from the Knight of the Bow, Archer knew would not let him. With a smirk towards the monster, Archer deftly turned his blade and deflected the blow entirely before lashing out with a front kick that sent the vampire crashing through a book case.

While the vampire was occupied with recovering, Archer decided to turn his attention to the blonde Slayer.

"Gather your wounded and get out of here."

The Slayer looked on in shock at Archer's statement, but the Servant didn't have time to be coddling to the teen. She was in this fighting these monsters, she should have known the risks coming into it.

"I'll be the one to take care of this cocky vampire. You might say that things that are older and stronger than the average human are my specialty."

The blonde obviously disagreed with his tactics if the way her expression was pinching was anything to go by, but that was just too damn bad for her. Archer knew that he was the best option to fight the narcissistic vampire and he would stand by that decision.

"This isn't up for debate, Blondie. I'm stronger than you, that thing is stronger than you. Let the adults have a conversation so that we can end this bloodshed."

He ignored the indignant squawk at her nickname and once more focused his attention on the vampire that was slowly rising out of the rubble of bookshelves.

The vampire looked suitably furious at having been punted through furniture and Archer made sure that his smirk was obvious to see to the monster.

"Like hell this isn't up for debate! I'm the Vampire Slayer! Slaying vampires is kinda my thing!"

Archer merely sent a prayer to whatever deity that governed this world that it would spare him from crazy ass teenage girls. Her outburst had once more drawn the attention of Angelus. Archer was pretty sure that he had never strangled a teenage blonde girl before, but he was willing to do so if that's what it took to get the girl to shut up.

With a sigh he flung Kanshou at the vampire and he parried the blade away from him, snarling as he bounded over to where Archer was standing. Even though Archer was down a blade they once more exchanged a flurry of blows, some of which blew papers all over the library,

Out of the corner of his eye he could see that the Slayer was watching their fight with her mouth agape in astonishment. She had probably never seen a fight taking place at the speeds that he and Angelus were pushing. This time the vampire wasn't playing around and was actively trying to get a hit in.

Archer wouldn't let him, but it was interesting to see what the vampire's style was. With another flourish, he summoned another Kanshou and was able to force the vampire back with a swipe of the blade that appeared in his hand. Immediately after wards he sent Black Keys after the vampire. Unfortunately, Angelus was much wilier than Spike and was able to dodge that assault.

"Tch."

Archer was more annoyed than anything that the damn vampire was able to dodge, but he was sure that he could make up for it. With one last glance towards the blonde teen he decided he needed to be a bit more forceful in what he was requiring of her.

"Just help your friends, Buffy. They need you more at the moment and I can take care of this scum easily enough. If you don't trust me, at least trust that Willow had all your best interests at heart. I won't be taken down so easily and you can provide the defense so that he doesn't kill anyone else that is in this library."

Apparently he had finally gotten through to the stubborn blonde because she reluctantly seemed to agree with what he was saying. With that in mind, Archer decided to go on the offensive to give the girl time to get away. The only thing that was hindering Archer at the moment was the fact that there were innocents still spread throughout the library and as such he really wasn't able to go all out. That was fine with him though, in a match of skill he knew that he would never lose to a lowly vampire no matter how tough said vampire was supposed to be.

"I'm gonna enjoy ripping you a new whole, jackass."

Archer merely let his ever present smirk do the talking as he once more parried a vicious slash from the monster. While Archer was able to keep up and could end this with a stronger technique, the vampire was doing fairly admirably to keep pace with him. Once all the others were out of the way the kiddie gloves were coming off though.

He found some amusement in seeing the other vampire trying to get out of the bind that he was in, but knew that it was a futile attempt with the way Archer had pinned him down. Archer was a bit fortunate to learn some very colorful swear words from the British vampire.

Once he was sure that Buffy had stated gathering the wounded, Archer decided that he really wasn't having the best time in the library, it was just too enclosed. With this thought in mind, the Servant lashed out with a kick to Angelus' mid section and once more sent him flying, but this time it was through a wall and out into the courtyard of the school.

Archer couched down and launched himself after the vampire a second afterwards. While the monster was looking slightly dazed from once more being sent through a solid structure, he was able to parry the first attack that Archer lashed out with Kanshou, but completely missed the second slash that came with Bakuya.

Archer felt a deep sense of satisfaction as the blade bit into the vampire's flesh and he let out a howl of pain and fury. However, Angelus was nothing if not tough and tried to go for a strike with his own sword. Archer merely danced back from the slash and took up a loose stance a respectable distance from the vampire.

Angelus was snarling as his vampiric face bled through, but Archer wasn't intimidated by the shifting of a man to a monster. The true evil that he had seen was more often than not quite good looking and their outer appearance didn't reflect the one within. He supposed that it was a bit of a novelty to actually be fighting a monster that was one in every sense of the word. He was also enjoying the hint of fear that the vampire now had in his expression.

Archer knew that the monster was skilled with the blade. He also knew that once you reached a certain level it was easy to tell when you were outclassed in the areas in swordsmanship. He was sure that the vampire hadn't had anyone to really challenge his title in quite a long time.

The vampire's off hand now hung uselessly at his side and Archer was quite glad of his hit. He had scored some major damage and he was sure that he would be able to finish the monster off if he kept pressing the advantage. He only wished that he was in a less populated area so that he could Trace something that would really be able to take out the vampire once and for all.

"I think I might be beginning to have a genuine vendetta against you."

Archer merely let his smirk grow at the vampire's comment. He was always happy to oblige when people thought they could out snark him.

"I'll sleep with one eye open. Not that you'll be surviving this."

Angelus narrowed his eyes at Archer's declaration, but stayed silent for a moment. He then glanced back towards the hole where he had been ejected from the library a considering look on his vampiric face.

"I think I know of something that might distract you a bit and allow me to get away clean."

With a devilish grin, the vampire sheathed his sword and brought his fingers to his mouth before he let out a piercing whistle that carried throughout the entire school. Archer was more annoyed than anything else seeing as his ears were more sensitive than most, but he was sure that what came next would be even more trouble. The damn vampire seemed to love stirring it up after all.

With one more look towards the hole, the vampire turned around and began bolting away with his preternatural speed. Archer swore up and down in his head. He had been sloppy and if the monster got away now he was going to be pissed.

With that thought in mind the Knight of the Bow traced his signature weapon. A sleek black bow that looked almost incomprehensible to the regular person appeared and with it an arrow. A breath later and the arrow was fired from his bow at speeds not obtainable by normal human standards.

Unfortunately for him, Angelus was a vampire who was more paranoid than he let on and as soon as he had heard the string being pulled taught, the vampire had sent his senses into overdrive. He was able to slightly lean to the side. The arrow still blew a hole through the vampire's shoulder, but it was non-fatal as opposed to the certain death that Archer had been aiming for.

"Tch."

Not to be deterred, the Servant of the Bow once more traced and arrow, but he suddenly had to lean out of the way of a vampire that had wildly thrown a punch at him.

The red clad man had heard movement all around him, but he had thought he would have a greater length of time before he would have to address the issue. With a small sigh he let go of the od comprising his bow and once more traced his favored twin swords, decapitating a vampire as he did so.

Archer glanced around and realized that he might have been a bit off in his calculations about how many vampires Angelus was able to gather as backup. While they posed no real threat to him, there were still people within the school. Coupled with the fact that it would take him a few minutes to take out the vampires that surrounded him, he supposed he would have to face the facts and acknowledge that the damn vampire had put him in check.

With a sigh that betrayed his annoyance at the current situation he found himself in, the Servant of the Bow got into a loose stance and began to get to work. Angelus had dealt a blow on the teens that he had seen today, but there were still people to fight against him and Archer was sure that once his Master awoke he would be sent to take out the vermin. He was looking forward to it.

Hello everyone, been a bit since I updated this.

If you're paying attention to my other stories then you know this is a Big Update of all of the stories I am considering active to promote my P a treon. Now I won't be blocking any sort of access on the fanfiction site to my stories or gating them, this is simply a way for me to push myself into updating faster and gaining revenue to launch an anime review site. I had had a review site before, but it is now defunct due to struggling funds. If you're feeling generous go on over to p a treon .com (slash) RedhathackerSin, just take out the spaces and make the slash a symbol. I've already posted two anime reviews there, one for patrons and one for the general public. I've also put a poll purely for patrons on which of the five active stories that I've just updated I should do once more before the month of June is out.

I had a bit of a time wondering where I really wanted to take this story, I have an idea of where it will eventually end up, but it's always those elusive middle bits that make it tough to keep on keeping on. Anywho, Angelus' days are most likely numbered and the next chapter will be dealing with the fallout of this one. If you are into the Bufffyverse you know that this was a major blow to those characters and it should be interesting to see how Archer's you can't save everyone mentality clashes with the younger Scoobies.

I just want to thank everyone who faved, followed, and reviewed. Even more than a year later I keep on getting the occasional review and this is in a not so popular fandom. I wouldn't be surprised if this story does not get the votes to be updated again during the month of June, but c'est la vie. I think that's enough of my little rant corner for now, let's get onto the good stuff.

If you're feeling kind leave a fav, follow, or review! If you're feeling kinder check out the P a treon! This is still unbetad at the moment, but I'll be going back through all active works and editing them, so that's something to look forward to. Onto the disclaimer!

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Fate/Stay Night. They belong to Joss Whedon and Type-Moon respectively. Please support the official release!

P a treon .com (slash) RedhathackerSin