The old woman watched the scene unfold before her in her magic mirror. The slayer was being beaten dearly. *She's getting what she deserves* the old woman thought to herself. She leaned back in satisfaction.

*Where is that cat?*

*****

The cat was sitting perched up high on a bookshelf, in a large, plainly decorated room. It was part of a huge mansion overlooking a beautiful garden. The cat's green eyes stayed focus on a small blonde who was beginning to wake up from an injury in battle.

Buffy's vision was blurred as she woke up in strange surroudings. She looked around the very large room and tried to sit up, but was met with a wave of dizziness.

*Why is it lately that everytime I've woken up I have a throbbing headace?*

"I was wonderimg when you'd awaken," a female voice said. Buffy turned to the voice.

"You're Sita," Buffy stated. Sita nodded in response. Strangely enough, Buffy was calm in her presence. From Kendra's words, Sita was a very powerful vampire. It was then that Buffy noticed the large windows, some that reached to the ceiling, that were in the room.

"Um... you do know that the sun is rising," Buffy said to Sita.

Sita looked like she would almost laugh. "What kind of stereotype of vampires do you have? That they cringe at crosses, melt in holy water, and burn in the sun?"

Buffy raised an eyebrow at her. "Pretty much."

Sita began to laugh, but when Buffy continued to stare at her strangely, she stopped. "You're serious."

"Who are you?" Buffy asked.

"I'm a vampire, but I guess not of your kind. If anything, I guess you could call me a yashini." When she spoke, Buffy could hear the thousands of years in her voice. It's calm and yet strange knowing. "We drink blood, I drink blood, but not because I really have to, but because I crave to. Crosses don't scare me, in fact I wear one as an ornament. And the sun, well you can see for yourself." She pointed to the window as the suns rays cascaded into the large room. "We have fast speed, great strength, and heightened senses, much like the vampire you are thinking of I'm sure."

Buffy nodded. Sita continued. "I don't want to dwell much on the yashini history. It's a painful one for me. I was there when the first had been born. I blame myslef for the cause of it. It was long ago, a little less than 5000 years. That is how old I am. I was one of the first and I am also the very last. I once promised to my God that I would never make another of my kind." Sadness swept over her eyes. "But all promises can be broken," she said quietly, perhaps to herself, not to Buffy.

Buffy could not understand everything, but she felt sorry for the woman who sat before her.

"What about you?" Sita asked, breaking Buffy's thoughts. "Who are you?"

Buffy thought for a while of a way to explain it to her, and then realized the best way. "In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer." Buffy shrugged. "She is me."

"It must be hard for you," Sita said sympathectically. "You're so young."

Buffy sighed. "Well, I'm not so young anymore." She wanted to change the subject. "Why did you come to Sunnydale?" she asked.

"I heard of a group of vampires terrorizing the town, I assumed it was my kind. I never imagined that it was real vampires. I was about to leave because I couldn't sense any yashini when I spotted Kendra, then I knew I had to stay."

"Kendra?"

"Yes, Kendra is a menace-"

"Wait, Kendra?" Buffy asked in disbelief. "Dark skin, dark hair... funny accent Kendra?" Sita nodded. "Kendra's a slayer also."

"I thought there is only one Slayer in a generation."

"It's a long story, but anyways, Kendra's harmless, unless it comes to a vampire, which I might you are. And as I recalled, she warned me about you!"

Sita chuckled. "Maybe that knock on the head you had earlier is still effecting you. Kendra caused havoc last I saw her. I challenged her to a battle to the death, and when I had the upper hand, she ran."

"That's ridiculous," Buffy said, beginning to get angry. "Only a few days ago, she rescued me and my friends."

"I've seen enough to know," Sita said curtly.

"Well maybe you don't know enough," Buffy snapped.

"Maybe you don't." They glared at each other with anger.

*Is she lying?* Buffy thought. *Is she on my side or not?*

"You know," Buffy said slowly. "When a vampire is made, the soul of the body is gone. You never told me whether or not yashini's keep the soul once they are converted."

"Are you trying to make a point?"

"Maybe you're not the good kind vampire that I thought you were."

Sita kept her temper down to a minimum. "A yashini does not destroy the soul. But sometimes such power brings greed and evil, and things like that have been known to kill a soul."

"That still leaves me wondering if you're the good guy or the bad." The stared in silence at each other.

Buffy did not want to believe Sita, but her stomach churned as she wondered. That night in the warehouse, she had been pushed out into the open, but on purpose? *No, it was an accident... wasn't it?* And slowly, everything that had occured in that warehouse came back to her.

*****

Giles had not heard from either slayers about their excursion to the vampires warehouse, and it worried him. It was already morning again and neither had bothered to contact him. He decided to try to continue to pass the time while searching for a possible way to bring Angel's soul back. He worried what might happen if he didn't. He had read the old watcher diaries on what Angelus' hobbies were: murder, torture, blood... Giles shuddered at the thought. And Buffy depended on Giles for him to find a way.

He sighed as he flipped through yet another book of spells. He did not notice when a weary looking man walked up beside him. "Magick spells and curses," he read. Giles was startled and quickly closed his book and covering it up.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The man's eyes continued to dart around, looking at the other books open on the table. "Soul, eh? Strange how soul searchers are always looking in the wrong places."

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Giles may have gotten a response had he not knocked a book on the floor. When he bent over to pick it up and to face the stranger again, he was gone. But in through the door walked in a very tired and angered looking Buffy.

"Buffy! There you are, where on earth have you been? I've been worried sick..." he stopped his yelling when he noticed that a young woman had followed her in. "Oh, um, hello."

"Giles, chill, I'm fine. This is Sita," she said, gesturing to Sita.

"Sita." He held his hand out for a hand shake. "Oh, wait!" He retracted his hand quickly. "The vampire who can go into the sun?"

"It's a long story, one we will get into later," she stopped talking when a wave of dizziness swept over her. She grabbed the table for support.

"Buffy? Are you alright?" Giles asked. He looked around the room once again. "Where's Kendra?"

Buffy looked at him. "That's what I want to know. I'd like some things cleared..." Another dizziness wave swept and she wobbled to the floor.

Giles and Sita were at her side as she passed out. "Buffy!!" Giles called out. "Oh, God, what's wrong with her?"

Jenny came into the room and rushed over to see what the commotion was. "What's wrong with Buffy?" she asked.

"I don't know," Giles replied. Jenny tried to wake Buffy and accidentally brushed her hand on Buffy's cross.

"Ow," she exclaimed. "That's hot." *Why was her cross so hot?* Jenny thought. *Is it what caused Buffy to faint? But Angel's cross...* It was then that she remembered a spell from her gyspy heritage. One where a person's most prized possession was used to weaken a person's spirit. Thinking quickly, Jenny grabbed the cross and ignoring the burning sensation, she pulled it off of Buffy's neck. She threw it on the ground and stepped on it several times trying to crush it.

"Jenny! My God, what are you doing?!" Giles exclaimed. Sita seemed to catch on to Jenny's intuition and tried to help her crush it. "You two, please? What are you trying to do?" He became frantic in his plees. He knew how much Buffy had treasured that cross. "Oh," he cried exasperated. "At least do it right." He ran into the storage room and came back with a heavy mallet, which he handed over to Sita. Using her strength, she brought it down on the cross with enough force to finally break in half.

"Now can you two please tell me what that was necessary for?" Giles asked.

"That cross was what caused Buffy to faint. See?" She pointed to Buffy, who was slowly looking better and beginning to wake up. Jenny glanced over to the woman who had helped her. "Thanks for the help. Who are you?"

Giles introduced them. "Jenny, this is Sita, Sita, this is Jenny. Longer introductions later." He knelt by Buffy's side and gently begun to wake her. "Buffy? Are you alright?"

"I'm... fine," she stuttered out. Her breathing was improving, but she still felt tired.

"Here," Giles said as he brought her over to the library's couch to lay her down. "You just rest for now." Buffy was happy to obey.

He turned to the other two woman in the room. "Thank goodness you knew what to do Jenny." He stopped for a moment to think. "How did you know what to do?"

"I... uh... "

"Dru? Are you okay pet?" Spike stroked Drusilla's hair gently, waiting for an answer. "Did that nasty lady hurt you badly?" When the strange girl had arrived on the scene, she beat up everybody, with the exception of Spike, he had stayed hidden. Kendra, Angel and Dru was quickly taken down.

*Blasted girl,* Spike thought. *Whoever the hell she was.*

"Spikey?" Dru whimpered in his arms.

"I'm here pet."

"My head hurts," she whined.

"It's okay, Dru, we'll get that girl for you."

Kendra and Angelus also began to wake up. "Don't I get that kind of attention too?" Angelus asked cynically.

"Oh, shut up, you couldn't even handle the girl, AND the Slayer got away, and from the looks of it, the Slayer wasn't even putting up much of a fight."

"Don't be so mean, Spikey," Angelus said as he stood up off of the ground. "At least I was fighting, you could have at least lent a hand. I'm sure that those big, bad wheels of yours could have really given her a scare." He smirked.

Angelus looked over in Kendra's direction, she was slowly making her way out of the warehouse, but Angelus stepped in front of her. "So, tell me, Miss Slayer, why didn't things go as planned? You weren't planning to double cross us, now where you?"

Kendra only glared at him silently.

Angelus continued. "Cause, you know, I'm still aching to due a Slayer in and I don't mind starting with you."

"I didn't know she'd come," she replied evenly.

"That other girl? Who is she?" Angelus asked.

"She's not nice," said Drusilla in Spike's arms. "She's different, and pretty too." She turned to Spike. "Spike, do you think she's prettier than me?"

"No, of course not, sweetheart, you'll always be prettiest." Drusilla smiled, satisfied with Spike's answer.

"Her name is Sita," Kendra explained. "I met her long a short while ago. She's very powerful."

Angelus simply shrugged it away with a smug grin. "Just another worthy adversary, as well as another step to step on to get to Buffy."

"So," said Spike. "What do we do now, mate? The stupid girl's plan didn't work, and now they know she's a bad guy."

"I have an idea," Drusilla said.

To be continued in the next part...