The Bronze's front door swung open and, with a loud thud, hit the wall. A petite blond stalked out, followed by a group of four other teens. The taller of the two males had his arm around a smashing brunette. She laughed at some witty thing he said and leaned closer to him.

The shorter male held a guitar case in one of his hands, in the other he held the hand of a pretty redhead. He grinned shyly at her. She grinned back.

Buffy Summers glanced back at her four friends and rolled her eyes. She pretended not to notice the pang that hit her heart. I used to look at Angel like that, she realized, noting Willow Rosenburg's adoring gaze, sent in Oz's direction.

Buffy blinked back tears and forced herself to turn and peer into the shadows surrounding the tiny town of Sunnydale, CA.

Across the street, Angelus appeared under a streetlight. No other vamps were in sight. Buffy grimaced. Angelus' face held a contemptive smirk. Buffy's fists itched to wipe it off for him. She curbed her impulse, at least for the moment, and called out over her shoulder:

"Guys!"

The Slayerettes (and honorary Slayerette, Oz) jumped to attention. The edged up behind their Slayer. Xander pulled a large cross from a jacket pocket, Willow found a bottle of Holy water in her purse, Cordelia extracted a long sharp stake from her persona and Oz was handed both a cross and a stake by Willow. He looked surprised for a few seconds, but (as usual) he could roll with the punches quite well. He sidled closer to Willow, nevertheless.

"Stay here," Buffy muttered softly. She began swaggering over to Angelus; a sardonic smile played upon her lips.

A car rounded a nearby streetcorner, at a much faster speed than was safe. Before Buffy could get out of its path it had run her down and was gone.

Buffy lay facedown on the ground, right in the middle of the street, her friends on one side, Angelus on the other.