Disclaimer: Buffy Not Mine. Takes place before season four. This is based on a plot bunny of mine speculating as to why they chose a girl to be the Slayer and not a man.

Prologue

It was a warm fall evening as Buffy walked patrol. Dressed in a tank top and tight jeans she looked just like any other teenager out for a late night walk. It was the crossbow across her back and the stake in her hand that set her apart from every other normal teenager. For the past couple of nights activity had been high in the business district of Sunnydale. It seemed like a group of thieves, except that they never took anything. They just broke in trashed the place and left. Apparently what they were looking for wasn't in any of those places. Last night Buffy had gotten to one of the break-ins just as the robbers were leaving. She wasn't able to catch them. Tonight, if she saw them, she wasn't going to let them get away.

Her steps took her towards the Museum of Natural Science. It wasn't a large museum, but its exhibits were entertaining enough if you were really bored one afternoon. A banner across the roof proclaimed a new exhibit from England on Celtic weapons to open at the end of the month. Giles was all a giddy for this one to open and was planning to take the entire Scooby gang to go see it. He said he knew the curator of the exhibit and some of the artifacts were supposed to be of a magical nature.

She looked at the banner and her eyes then drifted to a light that bounced like a wil-o-wisp in one of the windows. It bobbed and jerked around as if the person carrying it was holding something else. Perhaps something they weren't supposed to? Curious, Buffy ran up the steps to the museum.

The guard, an old man who probably should have been retired three decades ago, lay slumped against the door. The door was ajar by the few inches needed to hold the guard's foot. Carefully Buffy stepped inside and silently moved towards where she saw the light last.

Coming around a corner she saw a man dressed in black, holding a flashlight in his teeth and carrying something that obviously didn't belong to him. Startled at her sudden appearance the man stared at her for a second before hissing at her, spitting out the flashlight as he did so.

"That's new." Buffy said. She took a step forward. The man backed away looking all around him for a way out. Apparently he didn't want a fight. Which, Buffy thought, was too bad because he was going to get one. "Now then, you have two choices. Either you give me what's in your arms and come peacefully, or I kick your butt and then I take what you have anyway," She paused, "So what's it going to be."

The man hissed again and then turned and ran. Taking a deep breath, Buffy rolled her eyes before taking off after him, "Why do they always have to run?"

Through the corridors and halls of the museum Buffy chased him, dodging around pedestals and columns. Finally they reached the closed hall where the new exhibit was being put together. Huge crates and boxes littered the room making it difficult to see the area clearly. Buffy slowed down to a silent walk, stake clutched in her hand. She didn't think the guy was a vampire, but it gave her a certain amount of security feeling it in her hand.

Rounding a crate she saw him just as he stepped into the shadows and vanish. Cursing Buffy stalked to the shadow and walked right into a curtain. Fumbling she discovered that the thief hadn't vanished by magic so much as a curtain covering an exit. But it didn't matter much now. The thief was gone.

So... What was stolen?