The next morning the Scoobies sat in a diner eating a late breakfast. Between them and all the slayers, they pretty much had enough people to fill the school bus they'd appropriated and all the tables round about were full of familiar faces. Willow poured syrup over her waffles.
'So you think it's a side effect of the spell?'
Kennedy waved her fork at her. 'What else could it be?'
'I don't know, ordinarily I'd say research, but we kinda lost all the books.'
Giles looked up from his tea.
'I have a back up library. I mean it's based back in England, but it's all on computer. We can get someone to send it over to us.'
Buffy nudged him in the arm.
'Since when did you join the computer age?'
'I…I didn't. Willow did it for me years ago. When I first decided to go back.'
Willow shrugged looking slightly hurt. 'I thought you didn't keep those.'
'Well, it seemed like a good idea, and I made you take time out of your summer, so it felt rude not to keep them.'
'I guess. Well yeah me. And Giles obviously. So there's a plan. We get hold of a computer and we research. Good old fashioned research.'
Xander groaned. 'I don't know if I'm prepared to keep saving the world if the only reward I get is to bury myself in heavy old books, or computers, or…whatever, some metaphors don't translate so well.'
Buffy picked up a piece of toast, 'but if it's part of the spell Willow did then it can't be that bad can it? I mean that was good magic, right, not black magic?'
'I meant to tell you guys. It was so cool. There was this energy around me, and seriously. I mean I'm over my thing with magics, but this was very very cool!'
Kennedy chipped, 'Her hair went white. And I don't mean X-Men Rogue one feeble stripe white. She glowed white.'
Xander beamed. 'That's my Will.'
'I didn't know at first if it was going to work, but it just sort of came over me.' She grinned at Kennedy. 'Bad choice of words.' Kennedy tried to stifle a laugh. 'Well you know, you get the idea. What I'm saying is, there were no ill intentions there. That was white magic.'

Everyone shuffled uncomfortably in their seats. Giles put another lump of sugar into his tea and took his glasses off to clean them, getting a look from Buffy that he recognised even without the clear vision.
One of the girls came over from a table nearby.
'Hey guys. I didn't mean to interrupt, but we were sort of wondering, whether there's a plan. I mean some of us have homes to go to, but we don't really want to go home. We wondered if there was anything long term we should be doing? In the fight, against evil you know, because it hasn't…I mean…it's still there right, evil? It hasn't gone completely? We still get to fight right?'
She shuffled awkwardly and Giles smiled at her.
'Yes, there is still evil to face. And don't worry. You'll all have somewhere to go, to train and….well….other..' He trailed off, not quite sure whether he was telling the truth. Buffy cut in. 'It will be fine Vi. Tell the others not to worry. We're all in this together now. You're sticking with us for as long as you want to.'
Vi smiled and walked back to her table where the girls crowded round to speak to her.
'So,' Buffy turned back to the group, 'I guess we need to find somewhere to stay. With a lot of rooms.'
Willow grinned. 'You know who I know that doesn't live that far away and owns his own hotel?'
Buffy cut her off. 'Yeah and that would work out just great Will.'
Giles jumped suddenly. 'Sorry just my phone. I have it on vibrate.' He pulled his cell phone out from a pocket and excused himself from the table.
Xander watched him go. 'Who would call him? Aren't we all the people he knows?'
Faith grinned, 'Well I guess we can rule out any Sunnydale numbers.'
It was hard to hide the excitement in Willow's voice. 'Maybe it's the coven. In England?' then off everyone's bemused looks. 'They were cool okay. They took me in when, lets face it, I was kinda apocalyptic, and they helped me out a lot, plus the most amazing library I have ever seen. Judge away I don't care.' Kennedy put a protective hand over hers.
'I think it sounds cool.'

Giles came back to the table. 'That was one of the elders.'
Willow grinned, 'Told ya so.'
He furrowed his eyebrows. 'They tell me that they've had girls turning up on their doorstep since yesterday afternoon.'
Faith chipped in. 'Slayers.'
'I should think so. I've told them to house as many as they can, but I'm going to have to go back. This might alter our plans somewhat.'
Buffy sipped the last of her coffee. 'I guess we need a big meeting. Has anyone seen Dawn this morning?'
Willow glanced over at the tables of slayers. 'She was hanging out with the girls. I think she liked having people around her own age to talk to.'
Xander spotted her and pointed. 'Over there with Amanda. Hey Dawn.'
Dawn looked up, but Buffy was already walking over to her. She slid into the booth next to Dawn.
'Hey Buffy, Amanda was just telling me about the fight, with the cavern and the millions of uber-vamps and everything. Gotta tell you, I'm glad I wasn't down there. I'm sure it was fun and everything, but I was scared enough where I was thank you very much.'
Buffy put a protective arm around her.
'The guys are talking about what we're going to do next. I didn't know if you'd want…'
'I'm fine with whatever you decide. We're all in it together right? I trust you.'
She smiled gently and Buffy hugged her. 'Okay, well I'll let you know as soon as we decide anything.' She looked around at the rest of the girls who were all looking right back at her. She could feel their unease this morning. 'We'll let you all know.'

Back at the table talk had moved on to filling Kennedy and Robin in on past fights.
Xander was laughing, 'You should have been there. I was awful.' Willow gave him a look. 'Well I was. It was all I could do not to run away screaming like a big manly girl.'
'Don't say that Xander. You're incredibly brave.'
He grinned, 'and I have the battle scars to prove it.'
There was an awkward moment as everyone shifted slightly in their seats and tried not to catch anyone's eyes. 'It's okay guys. It's my eye and I say it's okay to joke about it. The bad guy was sliced and diced and it all ended happily ever after.'
Buffy squeezed in next to him. 'Did anyone come up with any ideas?'
Giles looked up, happy to change the subject back. 'We could head for Cleveland.' He paused as no-one registered anything. 'The other hellmouth. There's sure to be something we could do to help there.'
Willow was looking thoughtful and Buffy looked over at her. 'Will? You okay?'
She looked up. 'I'm fine. I've got an idea. I think we need to go to England.'
Xander groaned. 'Is this about the libraries, because seriously, they're gonna have to be pretty impressive books Will.'
She glared at him. 'I'm being serious. I think we have to think bigger. Pool our resources and get organised. Right now our biggest chance is with the coven. They have the resource and the funding to help us out, and they're not like the Watchers Council, they understand the fight. We could start something really important from there. Start our own council, train up some real Watchers, no offence Giles.'
Giles raised his eyebrows. 'None taken.'
'I mean, we could get a big research team going who really know how to help, and then we'd have an army. Really and truly we'd be a force to be reckoned with.' She stopped, out of steam, but Buffy could feel it in Faith and Kennedy, excitement bubbling up inside. Kennedy squeezed Willow's arm.
'I think it sounds incredible.'
Xander grinned. 'Like a school? We destroy two high schools and then we open our own? Is there no escape?'
Giles cut in 'An academy of slayers, learning how to really fight.'
Buffy leaned forward, 'We got so carried away with how urgent everything was back there we never really got a chance to slow down and train them all, and now there are God knows how many and we could get them to do it right. We could protect them until they're ready.'
Andrew leant over from the booth next door. 'I think it sounds cool. I'm in. Do we get to wear lapel badges?'