“Why do I do this all the time?” Cordelia whined. “I’m running out of excuses to come here after school.” The Scooby Gang was all there, seated on or around the table at the center of the library.

“This time it’s very important. Trust me”, Buffy said, leaving the floor open for Giles to speak.

“Right. I trust you. That’s a plan”, Cordelia said.

Giles gave her a look and went on to explain about the stones and what would happen. Everyone was quiet, even Xander.

“Wow”, Willow said in awe when he had finished. Oz nodded.

“Hold on”, Xander said. “You said Slayers, which would be Buffy, Watchers which would be you and any others, witches covers Willow, but not Cordy’s kind of witch, and I don’t need to continue the list. But anyway, what about people like me? And Oz, and Cordy? What happens to us? We know about it, but we don’t have powers or anything.”

Giles looked at Oz and Xander. “I’m honestly not sure. I think that because you know about them, it’ll be harder for them to take you, but I don’t know if it will stop them.”

“Nobody has to worry because I’m gonna find whatever it is and get rid of it”, Buffy said determinedly.

“Buffy--” Giles started.

“No. I am. I can do this. Have I ever really let you guys down?” Buffy asked.

“Well, you saved the world on more than one occasion. I’ll give you points for that”, Oz said.

“I think you can do it”, Willow said helpfully.

“Thanks Will. And I can. Giles, just point me in the direction of what to kill and let me at it.”

“You can’t do it alone”, Giles told her, knowing she wouldn’t be stopped.

“I don’t intend to. Angel will help me. He’s not scared to die”, Buffy said. she thought.

“Hey!”, Xander protested. “I can help! We all will.” He looked around for agreement. Oz nodded, as did Willow. Everyone looked at Cordelia.

She sighed. “Alright, alright. I’ll help. But if I get hurt, or dead or something, I’ll kill you guys.”

“Not if you’re dead you won’t”, Oz pointed out. He only received a glare from Cordelia.

“Okay. So we fight this”, Buffy said. “Where do we start?”

“Research”, Giles replied.

“I claim not looking at Watcher Diaries!”, Xander called. Everyone had to agree with that.

*****

Research had come up with nothing but bad news. This seemed nearly unbeatable. Buffy left to patrol, against Giles’ better judgement. She also went alone, something she had told Giles she wouldn’t do until everything was solved. The vampires she encountered proved to be no challenge, as they all seemed to fear her more. She made a mental note to mention that to Giles. Seeing all the vampires run from her made her not want to be alone. She decided to go see one vampire she knew wouldn’t run from her.

She knocked on Angel’s door and he opened it. He was wearing black jeans and a black teeshirt. “Hi”, she said as she walked in and sat on his bed. He shut the door and sat next to her.

“What’s going on?”, he asked, concerned, since the last time he saw her she was so happy.

“Demons. As usual. But bigger”, she sighed. “Remember the stones we found? Well if they’re put together in a set of five they call demons who basically come and enslave the entire world, except those who know about them.” She looked deep into the eyes of the vampire across from her. “And I don’t think I can stop them.”

“You know I’ll do anything to help. We’ll beat this”, Angel reassured her.

“Angel, I don’t think we can. Everything we’ve read today, it just looks more hopeless with each page.” She hadn’t let the others see how discouraged she actually felt. Someone had to believe they could beat it, and again it had been her. The more Buffy thought about what they had learned, the more she wished she didn’t know anything. It might have been better to be enslaved with the others than to know that people you knew were forced to work for demons while you were free. She felt the Slayer in her come back and said “But we have to try. I’ll die before I let this happen.”

*****

“This is just like old times”, Xander said, playing drums on the edge of the table with his fingers. He was seated with Willow and Buffy at the Bronze.

“Mmm”, Buffy nodded, sipping her capuchino.

“Buffy, you should try to forget about this for a while, have some fun”, Willow suggested. The demon problem had been taking a toll on Buffy, more so than anything else had.

In two days they had found nothing helpful or hopeful, just that the average vampire was afraid of the stones and wouldn’t be a problem. Patrols turned up empty, just more vampires running from her.

“Yeah, I think I’m just gonna do a quick patrol and maybe actually start that history project. Which is kinda stupid because we’ll probably be overrun by demons in the next few days”, Buffy said putting on her jacket.

Xander couldn’t remember seeing her this discouraged. He tried joking with her but it hadn’t put her in any better mood. He tried to get her to dance, with no success. “Do you need any help?”, he asked.

Buffy shook her head. “No. Giles has the stones so I don’t have to worry about that. I’ll be fine. See ya guys.” She left the Bronze, wondering aimlessly around Sunnydale. As usual, she ended up in a cemetery. She was twirling her stake, ready for action. Action came in the form of a vampire, and not the one she wanted to see.

“Give it to me”, the vampire growled. Buffy noted that he was dressed as the non-dust-able one had been. He was about the same height with olive colored skin. His black eyes gleamed with yellow.

“Baby. Aha aha”, Buffy sang, remembering the lyrics to the Offspring song 'Pretty Fly for a White Guy.'

“I said hand it over!”, he growled ominously, approaching her slowly.

“Hand what over? What makes you think you deserve presents from me?”, Buffy asked, genuinely not knowing what he wanted. Buffy could here one sneaking up behind her.

“You have it. I can sense it. Give it and I’ll just leave”, he told her. Buffy thought. It sounded so funny, this vampire trying to reason with her.

“Nope. I don’t believe that will work out, seeing as I don’t have anything of yours. I will be kind enough to kill you though”, Buffy said as raised her stake.

The vampire roared and came at her. She sidestepped, but not fast enough to avoid being hit in the shoulder. Hard. she cursed as pain shot through her shoulder and down her right arm. She whipped around to face him and gave a high snap kick to his neck. The vampire stumbled back and Buffy was immediately attacked by the other one. This one was female, smaller. Buffy concentrated fully on her for about a minute, raining her with a series of sharp kicks and punches. The vampire fell back and knowing it wouldn’t dust, Buffy let her be. She ran at the other one who was getting up. When she was in close enough range, she jumped at him with the stake out. She was almost on him when his hand lashed out, connecting with her face.

“Why does everyone have to hit my face?!”, Buffy yelled at the vampire who was back on his feet. “I’m so gonna kill you for that!” And she did. She ducked her head and barreled right into him, knocking him to the ground. She plunged the stake into him, knowing he was like the other and wouldn’t dust. As the adrenaline rush she had moments before wore off, she felt the pain in her shoulder like fire. Not ready to go home and explain more injuries to her mother, or back to the Bronze to do the same for Xander and Willow, she headed to Angel’s.

When she got there, she found he wasn’t there. she thought as she forced the door. She didn’t think he’d mind her breaking in. She looked around at the familiar place and sat on his bed to wait.

Not ten minutes had past when the door opened and Angel came in. “I was looking for you”, he said as if he knew she was waiting. He tossed his coat on the floor and sat next to her. She turned her face to him and he saw the fresh bruise. “Was it them again?” She nodded. “We can defeat this thing. We will. I promise.” Angel reached up to massage her neck and shoulders and Buffy winced as he touched her right shoulder.

She slipped her jacket off and Angel could clearly see her swollen shoulder beneath the straps of her lavender tank top. “I really don’t like these guys”, she said.

“Is it broken?”, Angel asked, concerned. He was ready to go after these new vampires just because they made Buffy feel like she couldn’t fix it. Them physically hurting her made him want to kill them even more.

“I don’t think so. I hope this ends soon because these guys are way too tough.” Angel was gently rubbing her shoulder, making sure it wasn’t broken. She relaxed into his touch and he continued his massage. “You’re good at this”, she said.

“You’re good to practice on”, he said simply.

“You’re so good to me”, the Slayer said as she fell back against the vampire’s broad chest. She tilted her head up to look at him and he leaned down and met her with a kiss. As far as she was concerned, there were no crazy demons running around Sunnydale as she lay in Angel’s arms.

***** In the arms of the angel, may you find some comfort here *****

*****

“G-man, it’s Saturday. I’m here why?”, Xander asked as he wondered around the library. “I could be doing better things than this you know. Like sleeping maybe.”

“Xander, be agreeable for once. Is Cordelia coming? Because it might be best if she didn’t.”

“I heard that Tact Guy”, Cordelia said as she came through the door. “And you guys always say I don’t help enough, so here I am.” She looked at Xander, "See, I try. Although this is one of the biggest wastes of time I’ve ever seen.”

“Giles, speak”, Buffy commanded.

“Yes, I believe I found the meaning of the writing on the stones. The actual writing is of unknown origins, but I was able to translate it into Latin which is le--”

“We don’t know Latin. Just tell us the English version”, Buffy said, eager for information on defeating these demons.

“Well, the idea is if a group of demons gets the stones together and do the ritual, they cover the planet in demons. If a group of mortals put them together and does the ritual nothing happens. You must start with a certain amount of power to make anything happen. If a witch gets them”, he said, looking at Willow, “the witch can bind the stones. The, uh, catch is, she needs at least four. We have two.”

“Giles! This isn’t helpful! Just discouraging”, Buffy said.

“Also”, Giles continued. “The order of demons that will perform the ritual send out fida`i, those who sacrifice themselves, usually vampires, to collect the stones. If they know we have them--”

“They do!”, Buffy interrupted. she thought.

“What?” Giles asked, confused. “How? You’ve been encountered again?”

“Hence the new bruise and still painful shoulder. It happened the other night. I was patrolling--”

“Alone?”, Giles asked reproachfully.

“And I was attacked by two more of those funky vamps. And they were good in the tag team department. The guy one told me to give it to him. That he knew I had it. I guess he meant the rocks. And he really wanted them.”

“You should’ve told me right away. Buffy--”

“It was the other night, not last week. It didn’t seem important until now. If I knew it was important I would’ve gone right to your house. It was late. Okay?”, Buffy snapped.

“Did you go to Angel’s?”, Xander asked pointedly. Cordelia smacked him, but he waited for an answer.

“Is it your business?”, Buffy replied harshly.

“Buffy”, Willow started, but Buffy motioned for her not to say anything. The witch just looked at Oz and said nothing.

“Why don’t you guys go home? I want to talk to Buffy alone”, Giles asked politely.

“Hey, fine by me”, Cordelia said standing up. Everybody else stood up, not quite sure what to say to Buffy, who was sitting in a chair playing with the edge of the table.

“Bye Buffy”, Willow said, looking at her friend. She knew this was wigging her out. They all just expected she’d handle it. Xander and Oz chorused their good bye’s and they left, Cordelia leading the way.

“I know. I shouldn’t have acted like that, I should just accept what I have to do without complaining”, Buffy said before Giles could say anything.

“Buffy it’s expected for you to get frustrated.”

“But Giles, I don’t think I stop this. I really don’t”, Buffy said, letting her head fall to the table.

Giles seemed at a loss for words. “Well, I have faith in you. I’m sure with the right preparation...”

“We don’t even know what the right preparation is! We don’t know when they’ll do anything, or how far they’ll go”, Buffy said, waiting for her Watcher to fix things.

“You’re right. We don’t. But they need all the stones, so I say the first step is making it as hard as possible for them to get them. And I do think they’ll stop at nothing”, Giles told her.

“That’s encouraging”, Buffy muttered. Giles just nodded, know he probably couldn’t help her mood.

Three hours had past and Buffy was still sitting in the library. Giles was researching and she was trying to help when Willow came in.

“Resolve face”, she said, pointing to her face. She stood right in front of Buffy and set a small messenger bag on the table. “Giles, do you still have the stones?”

He looked up from his book, startled. “Oh, hello Willow. Why yes, I think they’re in the desk. Hold on.”

While he went to get the stones, Willow explained what she was doing. “I’m going to try a binding spell.” When Buffy tried to protest she wouldn’t give her the chance. “Nope. I’m going to. This is how I’m going to help. I’ve been going through spell books all day, and I’ve created my own binding spell by combining bits and pieces of other ones. I’m pretty sure it’ll work.”

Giles handed her the stones somewhat reluctantly. Willow had cleared an area of the table and started lighting white candles, all the while chanting in Latin. She took out of her bag what Buffy thought looked like an incense burner. Willow methodically crumbled various plants into it and dropped the stones in. Her chanting grew faster and louder and when stopped the seven candles extinguished themselves.

“Wow”, Buffy said. “Think it worked?”

Willow looked slightly amazed herself. “I’m not sure. The trick is, it’s working in a sort of alternate dimension. Like it’s delayed. In twelve hours we’ll know if the stones are still empowered.”

“Willow, I’m assuming you were careful when working on this spell. It’s not an especially good idea for inexperienced witches to make their own spells. Powerful ones anyway”, Giles said. “However, I’m glad you did, because I’m afraid that’s as close as we’ve come to defeating this.”

“Hey, no problem. It was pretty fun actually.”

“Well, thanks. It means alot”, Buffy told her. “I mean that.”

“I know you do. Now we wait I guess. Are we in research mode?”

“Yes. If you’d be willing to help...”, Giles hinted.

Through the course of the afternoon, Xander and Oz had shown up, ready to help. Willow had tried to talk to more Watchers, but they were of no help. Oz and Xander searched books, coming up mostly empty. Xander still didn’t go near the Watcher’s Diaries.

Buffy was gazing out the window, noticing for the first time it was dark. Willow’s spell still had four hours to ‘travel’ before they’d know anything. Buffy stood up, stretching. “I’m going on a food run. Anyone want?” She left with the usual Scooby Gang doughnut order.

Outside, it had gotten considerably colder than the last time she was out and she was glad she had her leather jacket with her. She dug her hands into her pockets and felt something in the right one. She pulled it out and saw it was another one of the stones.

Buffy thought as she entered the doughnut shop. She got her food and headed back, deciding to go the long way back to school.

She was about halfway there when she heard an all to familiar sound. Buffy stopped to determine where they were and how many there were. From the noise she guessed there were three or four, which was why she was completely surprised when she was surrounded by eight. she thought, trying quickly to think of a plan. With eight on one, the odds definitely weren’t in her favor. She didn’t have a chance to plan as they all rushed her at once.