The two walked slowly hand in hand toward the noisy training block. Several Slayers exited at the same time they entered, all chatting excitedly, eating energy bars and swallowing water. They took no notice of the two strangers; they were simply ´old watchers´

They paused briefly taking in the sight of Buffy talking to a flushed Faith. The music pounding into the hall was deafening. They exchanged small smiles of amusement and walked closer as Faith withdrew and jogged past wiping her forehead with a hand towel.

They took up positions either side of Buffy, guarding her just as they always did at the end of training.

Buffy rummaged in her bag and found her good luck charm. She held the spectacles in her hand, her fingers gently tracing the bridge, the metal warm in her hands and she could almost see their owner pushing them up onto his nose and squinting into a book. She smiled sadly and after a further rummage, she found one of his freshly laundered handkerchiefs and gave the lenses a careful polish. She slid her sports bag to her shoulder and walked slowly from the hall, the precious spectacles still in her hand.

She hesitated at the door and her followers stopped too. "I know you´re here. Can you tell me why?" She glanced round seeing no one else in the hall, hearing nothing but the echo of her own voice. She shrugged and carried on through the double doors.

Willow and Xander were left alone in the hall. He smiled reassuringly at Willow… it wasn´t time yet. She felt bolstered by his quiet encouragement and dissolved through the door. Xander hesitated a moment only because he hated doors. He chose to blink through them.

They caught up with Buffy in her apartment. Willow sat on the sofa thumbing through a Council recruitment magazine. She smiled ruefully at Xander as he blinked through the apartment door. "You´re such a wimp."

He smiled sweetly at her. "Tadpoles, Will…" and then he sniggered as Willow shivered.

Buffy sat up in bed. Something had woken her, swinging her feet to the floor she reached for her robe draped over the bedpost and went to investigate. She walked swift and silently through the council corridors to the dorms where the newest and youngest Slayers slept.

Alice was awake and carefully had her face turned to her pillow to deaden her sobs. Buffy knew that a vampire clan had terrorised her Transylvanian village and had slaughtered her family, but she´d not had the opportunity to talk to her about it.

"Alice…Alice…" Buffy whispered then "oofed" as the young Slayer threw herself into her arms. "Shhh, Shhhh, It´s alright now. I´m here…What´s the matter?"

She listened carefully as Alice explained in her thick Transylvanian accent that the others had said she couldn´t be a Slayer, not with an accent like Dracula…

Buffy smiled briefly. "Well Alice, I met Dracula once, and believe me, he´s not all he´s cracked up to be. Just a big reputation…Come to think of it, your accent might be an advantage."

Alice had stopped crying and was now sniffing back her tears. "…How?"

"You may be able to get closer to vamps to dust them, but that takes great courage, get ´em up close and personal. End as many of them as you can to pay for your family." Buffy stopped speaking as she saw the light of vengeance in Alice´s eyes. Confidence now rested where sorrow and hopelessness once dwelt.

"Come with me, I have something to give you." Alice took her hand as she led them through a labyrinth of corridors to a room with a chest resting in the centre. Buffy closed the door and opened the chest. It was divided into two halves; one filled with twisted carved stakes of various woods and the other filled with stuffed toys.

Buffy solemnly tied a blindfold round Alice´s eyes. "Step forward and choose your life long companions."

Alice shivered and plunged her hands into the box, right hand soft and left hand hard. She withdrew a stake of yew and a life-like hedgehog. Buffy removed her blindfold so she could look on her choices. She smiled and cuddled the hedgehog close muttering his name…Spike.

"Thank you GranB, I think I´ll go to breakfast now." Alice hurried down the stairs to the kitchen.

Buffy looked at the rising sun and breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone safe for another day. She felt her pocket for the ever-present eyeglasses; not for the first time she slipped them on and gazed around. They made her dizzy.

"Giles…How the heck did you see through these?" She thrust them into her pocket and turned to follow after Alice. She didn´t notice the ghostly hand; lit with the early morning glow, reach out to stroke her hair.

End part 1

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