The title was taken from the Billy Joel album "An Innocent Man" and the quote is taken from the song of the same title off the same album.

DISCLAIMER: All characters and situations seen on the show belong not to me but to Joss "Da Man" Whedon.

"They're a breed apart, Buffy. Un..unlike vampires, they have no earthly desires but to collect their bounty. They find a target and they, uh..they element it. You can kill as many of them as you like..it won't make any difference. Where there's one, there will be another and another...they won't stop coming until the job is done. Each one of them works alone, in his own way. Some are human. Some...are not. You won't know who they are until they strike."

He looked up at her as if expecting her to make light of his words but the stricken expression on her face convinced him otherwise; he'd gotten through.

"I'm gonna die," Buffy Summers murmured, fighting to keep her emotions checked. Out of the corner of her eye she saw both Willow and Xander take a cautious step towards her. She put up a hand and moved away and towards the door. "No..please..I..no.."

"Buffy, we'll.."

She nodded quickly and cut him off, "I know you will, Giles." She shook her head, "But you're probably right, it won't matter." She looked at him with such large, frightened, pleading eyes and when he could give her no reassurance, she allowed a tear to skid down her cheeks before turning away from him and rushing towards the library door.

"Buffy!" Xander cried, starting to move after her. Giles grabbed his arm.

"Give her time, this is a lot to take in. She's a smart girl..she won't do anything rash."

Slowly, reluctantly, he nodded. Slumping down into one of the chairs he murmured, "Now what?"

Willow touched his shoulder gently,"Now we find out how to save her life."

Buffy moved quickly away from the library,oblivious to the faces around her but painfully aware of their presenses and the fact that any of these people could be the creature who wanted to add a notch to their belt by killing her.

She pulled her arms in close to her body as if to hold herself. As a child it'd always made her feel more secure to curl into herself. As a child, no one had been trying to kill her.

A locker slammed and she jumped, her heart leaping into her throat and cutting of her oxygen. Trembling slightly, she took a couple deep breaths and tried to calm herself. There was little doubt that Giles' words had her on edge but it would do little good to go skitzoid.

"Hey!" A voice called out behind her.

Buffy spun quickly, dropping into a defensive position, hands clenched tightly into fists. Her eyes blazed fire.

"Woah, Buffy..it's me." Jenny Calendar said softly, eyebrow raised slightly in concern. "Are you okay?"

Buffy tried to smile but it came out rather sad looking so she stopped. Finally she replied,"Yeah..I just...didn't sleep last night..I'm a little punchy..maybe I shoulda skipped the coffee, huh?"

"Right..caffeine can kill ya," Jenny murmured, not altogether buying. On one hand, Buffy was a normal teen and teens were anything but normal. On the other hand, she was also the Slayer and that could mean...no..it couldn't mean anything. She'd retired from helping Rupert and company and that was that.

Buffy nodded,"I'll keep that in mind..I gotta..I gotta get to..class..or something." And with that she broke away from the confused computer teacher.

Calendar watched for a long moment and then shook her head,"Let it go, Jen..you promised yourself you wouldn't get involved."

By the time she reached her locker in the East Hall, her head was buzzing. She felt apprehensive and more than a little scared. It wasn't like she hadn't faced death before. She'd even died but that'd still been different. There'd only been one Master. There were an unknown amount of assasins.

And it didn't help that because of her jumpiness she'd slammed that guitar player against the wall. Talk about embarassing. Good thing it hadn't been someone from Cordy's circle.

Hands shaking, she pulled a flannel out of her back-pack that hung from the hook in her locker. She glanced at the binder containing a few pamphlets from the Law Enforcement table and she laughed softly. "Doughnuts."

She tied the flannel around her waist and gently shut the locker. Scanning carefully about, she began to make her way through the halls towards the front entrance that would allow her to exit Sunnydale High.

A little bit of luck kept her from running smack into Principle Snyder who'd spent the entire morning planning out his newest "if you don't watch your step you'll be watching your expulsion speech." It was a good thing too because in the mood she was, she'd probably have gotten herself not only expelled but arrested for slaying the school top-hat.

The minutes turned into hours and the light faded into darkness but she barely noticed. Her knee had begun to ache again, the injury potentially more serious than she'd at first realized. Just like the danger, she thought sadly. She'd wanted to laugh it off but in truth, until they found a way to get the assasins off her back, it was going to be, metaphorically speaking, one hell of a long night.

As often happened when she walked to clear her mind, her thoughts moved in a whirlwind and without general direction. She thought about everything for a fleeting moment and then moved on. It was like nothing stuck..almost as if her life was free-floating in front of her eyes and it wasn't allowing her the opportunity to push the pause button.

She reached down and rubbed absently at her knee, the pain for a moment becoming unbearable and she wondered how she'd be able to defend herself. Then she'd decided she'd do fine because she had no other choice. It wasn't like she could tell the assasin, "Hey, could we reschedule..my knee hurts." Pain was irrelevant. Only life and death mattered in the long run.

Looking up, she was somewhat suprised to find herself standing in front of her house. For a moment she forgot how dark and empty it was and then she remembered; mom was in Los Angeles.

A voice in her head wondered how her mother would react when she came home to find out that her daughter had been killed. Buffy quickly banished the thought..it wasn't going to help. She'd needed to focus on something more productive.

Angel.

His name rushed into her mind and stuck against her mental wall. He already knew was kind of trouble she was in and she knew he'd do anything to protect her. He'd done it before. She glanced up at her house sadly and then moved away towards Angels' apartment. Her place had nothing to offer and right now more than ever, she needed to be where she felt safe and not alone.

The dreams came fast and furious. Mostly bizarre images that meant little or nothing to her. Smears of color blurring her vision until a sharp pain sent her reeling into the next dream. Every now and again she could make out a familiar face but as soon as she was able to put a name to it, it faded back into the insanity.

Giles. Willow. Xander. All of them watched helplessly from makeshift stands as one of the smears overwhelmed her and she fell into the nothingness. She felt herself fading and her will to live disapating.

And then he moved out from under the cloak of colors, brilliant and obvious. "Don't give up, Buffy." Angel murmured, stepping close to her and resting his curved palm over her cheek. She moaned slightly and dipped her head against his hand, allowing herself to fall completely into him. Safety. Love. And so many other things that she could only begin to put words to.

"Head's up," he whispered.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"Open your eyes..now." Angel yelled, pushing her away from her.

Buffy's eyelids jerked open in confusion. A moment later her body reacted and just narrowly missed being slammed by a hatchet.

"You must be number two."