The Hart of L.A.

Giles, Riley, Buffy, Faith, Gunn, Lorne, Wesley, Oz, Andrew, Xander, and Fred stopped in front of the school. Spike and Angel had to wait for the sun to go down before they could join in to help. The school had been evacuated, but the lawn was littered with bodies of police officers. They saw the demon on the side of the building. It had ahold of a female, looked sort of like a teacher. Buffy ran up behind it and swept it's legs. It didn't knock it down, but it did release it's hold on the woman. Faith grabbed her and pushed her towards the street. The demon reared back and knocked both Faith and Buffy down. Willow whispered, " redante`" and the demon went flying into a tree. Almost instantly it was back on it's feet. " Foolish humans, you think you can stop me?" Buffy stared up at it. " Yes," she used the axe, spun around, and hit the demon square on the jaw, making it move backwards. " I do!"

It seemed like nothing could stop the demon. Fred, Andrew, and Xander were all unconcious. They'd now been fight for about four hours. They had several to go before Spike and Angel could get there, plus it was a long way to go before it tried to ascend. At the moment, Faith was flying through the air after the demon had backhanded her. Willow, so far, was the only one that could do damage to it. All she had to do was look at something, say 'move', and the object would go charging at the demon. So far she'd thrown a slide, a tree, a car, a bench, a boulder, and was currently throwing one of the axes at it.

Angel and Spike were going nuts just sitting in his office. They were so worried about Buffy, that they were actually getting along. They had about another hour to go. So far, the gang had been fighting for over eight hours. Angel could only imagine how everyone was feeling. " Bloody hell! Did you see what that demon just did to her? He could break her neck doing that! I'm half a mind to go now!" Angel couldn't help but agree with Spike. They didn't want to, but they couldn't take their eyes off of the news channel. Then it dawned on him. " Let's go. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. We can wait in my car, until the sun goes down." They both rushed down to the parking garage and immiedatley turned on the news station.

Buffy didn't know how much longer she could last. It was only Faith, Riley, Willow, and herself fighting now. Gunn had been a great help, but he'd been slashed in the ribs. Xander couldn't see well enough to help, after being bashed up against the school. Andrew was still out cold, and Fred was looking after Wesley. The sun was finally going down, so the other two would be joining them soon. Without realizing it, Buffy had let her guard down. The next thing she knew she was flying towards school, and hit the side of the building. She looked around and noticed that Giles was kneeling beside her. After that everything went blank.

Angle and Spike, seeing what happened, charged at the demon. Angel had a death grip on the sword. " Hey, there, that wasn't very nice." The demon turned around towards Angel. " Stupid Vampire!" Angel held the sword up for the demon to see. " Lookie what I've got. I'll bet you were hoping to never see this again." The demon roared and charged at Angel. Spike took advantage and attacked the demon from behind.

When Buffy came to, she saw Angel, Spike, Faith, and Oz fighting. The demon was bleeding green. She looked around and saw that Willow was smiling at her. " Hey, Buffy, glad you could join us again." Buffy grinned at her. " How we doin, Wils? We haven't lost anyone have we?" Willow's smile weakened. " No, we haven't lost anyone, but everyone is pretty banged up." Buffy nodded, and noticed someone had joined in the fighting. Willow, following her line of vision, saw her. " Kennedy!" Kennedy glanced over at Willow. " Hey, Wil, sorry I'm late!"

It was nearly midnight before the earth started to shake. Angel was the first one to see the portal. " Guys, we've got to move!" There were only a few moving now. Angel was knocked backwards when he'd tried to take the demon's head off. Buffy grabbed the sword from him, jumped up on a tree stump, and swung. The demon's head went flying off, and everyone cheered. Well, almost everyone. They couldn't seem to find Oz, and Buffy had dropped to her knees. Buffy looked down, and saw what had stabbed her. It was one of the horns that had been on the demon's arms. Just then Willow screamed. " Oh, God! Oz is unconcious, and bleeding from his head!"

Faith was the first on to notice Buffy. " I'm sure glad that that's over, aren't you B.? Buffy? Buffy, are you okay?" All Buffy could do was moan. Angel, Spike, and Riley were on their knees in seconds. " Here, Riley, call for two ambulances." The ambulances came and took both Buffy and Oz to the hospital, both were unconcious.

Everyone was in the waiting room at the hospital, including Dawn. Willow had gone to get her, and she was currently crying silently on Spike's shoulder. Wesley was outside talking to his secretary, when he ran in to talk to Angel. " Angel! Angel, she's awake!" Angel looked up hopefully. " Buffy?" Wesley was shaking his head. " No."

" No, it's Cordelia."

The end....for now.