Buffy kept her eyes trained on the sewer entrance, waiting for a signal from Angel that his team was in position. He had taken Oz and Anya through the sewers so as not to alarm the general populace with their monster-y appearance. She squinted in the dim light and allowed a tense smile to grace her lips as she saw the manhole cover in front of City Hall rattle before silently sliding back into place.

She flashed the lights on the principal’s car, letting everyone in Giles’ car across the street know that the show was about to begin. Faith stopped drumming. “We on, B?”

“Yup,” Buffy replied. She reached into the backseat and grabbed a grappling hook and the knife the Mayor had given Faith. She stepped out of the car and held her hand up to show Giles five minutes. He nodded, pointing to the sky to show her that the eclipse wasn’t far off and she should hurry. Faith slammed her car door, and hefted the sword over her shoulder.

“Little conspicuous, don’t you think?” Buffy asked.

“Oh yeah, and a grappling hook is standard accessory gear for today’s girl,” Faith replied.

They hurried across the street just as Giles, Wesley, Willow, and Xander exited Giles’ car. Buffy rolled her eyes as Cordelia vehemently refused to get out, insisting that not only was this a suicide mission, plus it was bad lighting. As the rest of the gang headed for City Hall Xander tossed a remark over his shoulder that caused Cordelia to scramble out of the car quickly.

Willow turned to Xander. “What did you say?”

“I told her that when she had a vampire’s pasty white skin that every light was going to be bad lighting.”

Willow smiled as Cordelia passed them and hurried through the main entrance first. The smile faded from Willow’s face as Cordy came charging right back out again, heading for Giles’ car. “What’s up with that?”

She heard Wesley’s gasp and looked past him to the hallway in City Hall. A hallway filled with vampires. “That might’ve been the best idea.” She paused. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Cordelia.”

Giles stared grimly. “Buffy’s going to need us inside.”

“We’re safe as long as we’re outside right?” Xander asked, “I mean, sunlight hurts vampires last time I checked.”

“Until the eclipse,” Giles agreed.

“Who’s dumb plan was this?” Xander asked.

Willow looked nervously between the two of them. “Xander, Buffy needs us inside, not outside arguing.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t going inside. I just asked whose dumb plan this was.” He flashed her a quick half smile before bringing the crossbow down from his shoulder. “Because I know this wasn’t my dumb plan.”

“For once,” Wesley snorted.

Giles broke open his vest to pull several bottles of holy water out. “Could you both just shut up and fight?”

Willow let out a small banzai yell and charged through the door, stopping short of the vampires in the lobby. “You guys were supposed to follow!” she hollered over her shoulder, holding a cross and a stake at the ready as the vampires surrounded her.

“Right. Sorry.” Giles noted, as the rest of the group ran in to join the fray.

Buffy pulled herself over the low wall of the roof to see Faith pacing restlessly, hefting the sword repeatedly as she tested its weight.

“Okay,” Faith breathed. “So how does this go down? Straight take down? We toy with him? What?”

Buffy squatted beside the skylight and surveyed the room below. “We should probably wait for him to show up first.”

“Right. Battle tactics 101.” Faith joined Buffy next to the skylight and stared down into the room where she’d nearly sacrificed her soul. “I wanna take this guy down, B.”

“Me too.”

“I want it bad.” She looked over at Buffy to see if she was looking at her. When she didn’t meet her eyes, Faith continued, “I just don’t know if I can do it.”

“When the fate of the world rests on your shoulders, you find out you can do a lot of things you never thought you could.” Buffy continued to scan the room, tensing when the door opened and the Mayor strode in, looking supremely confident. “I had to kill Angel. And I didn’t think I could. But I did it.”

“What if I’m not as strong as you?”

“There’s only one way to find out.” Buffy nodded toward the Mayor as he sat as his desk and opened a book. “We go in?”

“We go in hard and fast.”

Faith smiled and brought the sword down into fighting position. “Now you’re talking like me.”

Angel forced open the fire escape door and scanned the basement quickly. “Coast is clear. Let’s go.”

Anya moved in behind him, her hand over her face. “No one’s here?” Panic laced her voice. “No one can see me?”

“You’re not invisible,” Oz noted, speaking around his elongated teeth. He sniffed the air, searching for familiar scents. “The others are in. And they’re scared.”

“I guess that’s our cue.” Angel swung up the stairs, headed for the main floor. The others followed closely behind him, reluctant to let the fighter leave them behind. He burst through the door, startling the vampire that had been guarding it. With a quick motion, Angel staked him then moved into the main lobby.

Vampires had the small group of fighters surrounded, although they seemed to be holding their own. Giles’ vest was ripped, although he still hurled bottles of holy water, burning any attacker daring to get too close. Xander was wresting with a vampire who had gotten hold of his crossbow, trying to loosen the monster’s grip. Willow plowed through the dust of a staked vamp, heading for her next victim, as Wesley followed in her wake, holding any advancing monsters off with a cross.

“One at a time,” Angel muttered underneath his breath.

“One at a time, what?” Anya asked.

“We kill them one at a time.”

“I don’t think so,” Anya replied. A second later, she noticed Xander and his vampire, and hurried forward, kicking the vampire in the shins and boxing his ears. The vampire staggered back, releasing his grip on the crossbow.

“She has strange motivations,” Oz noted, his eyes locked on admiring Willow’s ferocity as she continued making her way through the crowd of demons.

Angel smirked and headed for the fight. “Don’t we all.”

Buffy glanced up at the sky, her whole body tensed for the fight to come. The moon was sliding into place over the sun and the whole of Sunnydale was shrouded in a haunting darkness. “It’s almost time.”

Faith, whose gaze was locked on the Mayor as he performed some sort of ritual, nodded. “I get that feeling. He’s starting to change.”

Buffy looked back down into the office, gasping softly as the Mayor’s body and skin seemed to shift, elongating, stretching grotesquely. He threw his head back as the transformation continued, his body becoming the long black form of a snake, his head growing hooded like a cobra.

“Ew,” Buffy shrugged. “I’ve killed prettier demons.” Giving Faith a grin, she nodded toward the skylight. “Showtime.” With a graceful leap, she shattered the glass and sailed through the air, landing neatly on the Mayor’s desk.

“You’re supposed to be dead,” the Mayor said, staring at her in shock.

“I get that a lot,” Buffy replied. Checking the sun in the sky to make sure it was fully covered, she circled around the Mayor, taking in his new appearance. As the moon covered the last slice of sun, his demonic form vanished, leaving him in his human state once again.

He stared at his hands in confusion as Buffy sank the knife into the back of his neck. “And you’re supposed to be invulnerable. Guess they don’t make Slayer’s hearts like they used to, eh, Mr. Mayor?”

He fell forward, sputtering impotently as Buffy sank the knife in further.

He let out a shriek of shock and pain, his body sprawled on the carpet. He crawled forward, trying to escape Buffy, muttering under his breath.

“You know, as far as villains go, you’ve been the easiest to kill.”

“You’ll see little girl, I still have some cards up my sleeve.”

Faith dropped to the floor in front of him, squatting down and smiling at him. “And would one of those cards be me?”

Angel smiled as the Mayor’s shriek echoed through the entire building.

Picking up the vampire he held in his grip, he bared his teeth. “Sounds like a death knell to me, boys. I don’t suppose you want to add your own to it, do you?”

“Not really.”

“Then I suggest you run.”

“Faith. There’s my girl.” Blood dribbled out the side of his mouth as he spoke. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

Faith helped the Mayor to his feet, her eyes locked on his. “I figure after all of our history, you deserve to be standing up when you die.”

“You can’t kill me. I made who you are.” Real fear shone in his eyes as he watched her twirl the sword in her hand. “And you expect me to thank you for that?” Faith laughed hollowly. She shoved him away from her, slamming him back into the wall so that the knife sank even further into his neck. “Funny thing is, Boss, I feel better about myself having these guys hate me than having you love me.”

She raised the Hunter’s sword above him menacingly. Her gaze darted to the door where the rest of the group had gathered, looking battered and worn from their own battle, then to Buffy who gave her an encouraging smile. “You know what, Boss? Thanks for nothing.” She swung the sword in a wide arc, anticipating a brutal backlash as the sharp blade pierced his flesh.

Instead of a shattering impact, the room exploded in black light, sending them all crashing to the floor as the Mayor’s cry rang throughout the room, fading as his body was obliterated.

Sitting up, they all realized the room was flooded with light, the eclipse gone as they all returned to their human forms.

Oz looked in from the hallway, noting that besides the shards of glass from the skylight, the room was in perfect condition. “Huh. That was anti-climactic.”