PART ONE

Xander Harris was back in Sunnydale after being away for nearly twenty years. After Willow and Oz's wedding, he couldn't stay. Leaving aside the fact that the woman he loved had just got married, it was a sad fact that his interference with her love life had cost him the regard and friendship of just about everyone whose opinion he valued. And once he was no longer accepted as a slayerette, what was the point of staying on the Hellmouth?

So he had gone to New York, to find fame and fortune. Unfortunately, fame and fortune had remained determinedly elusive. He had started work as an office boy for a magazine, and had gradually worked his way up to the position of copy editor. Hardly a glamorous job, but it paid the rent. And that was important.

But now he was back. He'd started a new life, but he couldn't quite shake himself free of the old one. He'd had no contact with anyone from his home town since he left, not even his parents, and he had no idea what had happened to everyone. He wanted to know. Was Buffy alive? Were Willow and Oz happy? Had they had children? Where was Cordelia? Was Giles still watching? So he had come to Sunnydale.

It hadn't changed a great deal in the intervening years. Sure, it was a little more modern, but everything still seemed to be in the same place. At the airport he had seen an advert for a band playing at the Bronze. In the taxi to the Holiday Inn he'd gone past the High School, and seen the present generation of students eating lunch on the lawn. The hotel, where he's once worked for two weeks as a busboy before being fired for his 'attitude' was as it always had been, save for a little new technology.

Xander checked in, and went to his room.

***************

Elizabeth Osbourne was asleep. This is a perfectly normal thing to do. However, when done in a geometry class, it is apt to get you into trouble. Teachers, even in the twenty-first century, do not take kindly to their students using their classrooms as glorified bedrooms. Furthermore, Elizabeth Osbourne was 'problem student'. Though clearly very intelligent, she missed classes with alarming regularity, had a reputation for violence, and seldom did as she was told. And her parents! "Well!" Mrs Champley the English teacher was wont to say, "If her parents insist on dealing with her in such a lax manner, it's not surprising she turned into such a little monster!"

Mrs Champley was wrong on at least one point. Elizabeth wasn't a monster. But she killed them. Quite regularly, and very competently. Elizabeth was the Slayer. One girl in all the world...well, you know the drill. All her life she'd known that vampires were real. She'd even known a few. Her parents, who were "cool" - her own words - didn't believe in keeping their children in ignorance as to the real nature of Sunnydale. Once they had decided to stay - Oz had done his best to get Willow away, but she had remained adamant - the newly weds had decided that the only way to keep their prospective family safe was to make sure they knew everything there was to know about vampires and demons, and things that go bump in the night.

Elizabeth got a detention for sleeping in her geometry class. She was philosophical about it. She'd had detentions before, and would probably get them again. It wasn't a big deal. Willow had a slightly different opinion.

"It's just not fair! Elizabeth is the slayer. She saves everyone's life on a daily basis, and this is all the thanks she gets! It's not right. They should do something about it." She warmed to her subject. "The Watchers' Council. They should provide tutors or something." Oz watched his wife, his "you-are-quite-something" smile on his face. Even after nineteen years of marriage, Oz still thought Willow was the closest thing to an angel this side of heaven. Her vehemence when it came to protecting their children only made him love her more.

"It's no biggie, Mom. I'll do their stupid detention. It's Saturday morning, so it's not like I should be out patrolling or anything. And Uncle Giles'll be in the library, so I'll have someone to talk to." She patted her mother on the shoulder, and started out of the room. Turning, she added, "I'm going out for a quick look round the cemeteries. I won't be long."

Willow watched as her daughter bounced jauntily out of the house. She reminded her of Buffy, before Angel and all the problems that ensued from that. But when she first came to Sunnydale, Buffy had been like that - bouncy and fun and full of life. Buffy was dead now. Really, it was amazing that she had lasted as long as she did. She had been killed by a vampire attack nearly ten years ago. There had been an assortment of slayers ever since, until nearly two years ago, when fifteen year old Elizabeth Anne Osbourne had been called.

***************

Elizabeth wandered round one of Sunnydale's multitudinous cemeteries, hoping some creature of the night would accost her and give her something to do. Slaying was dangerous and adrenaline-pumping. But when there was no danger around, it very quickly turned boring. And cold. Suddenly, something tapped her on the shoulder, and she leapt round, knocking the fiend to the ground, and standing over it threateningly. Then she saw who it was.

"Ooh, on fighting form tonight, sis!" She gave him her hand and helped him up.

"What are you doing out here, Alex?" Alexander Osbourne smiled at his little sister as he was hauled to his feet. "I got back from college about an hour ago. Mom said you'd gone out on patrol, so I though I'd come by and say hello. Nice stake."

She grinned. "Thanks. Whittled it myself."

"A girl of hidden talents."

"You betcha."

Brother and sister started walking through the cemetery. Elizabeth told Alex about her last few kills, and the detention for sleeping in geometry. Alex told Elizabeth about his college classes, his girlfriend, and the fledgling vampire he'd managed to dust on the way back from a party.

"...And I was like, 'O die, die, miserable creature.' Then it ran at me, and I..." Alex's blow-by-blow account was cut off when something large and heavy ploughed into the back of him, knocking him out. Elizabeth swung round as she saw her brother collapse, and was immediately knocked unconscious when a strong fist connected with her jawbone.

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