Back at Giles's apartment, the former Watcher was asleep at his desk, his face mashing the keyboard of his laptop computer. Suddenly he snapped awake, still disoriented by his location.
"Wha-? Wha-? Oh." Giles muttered as he realised that he had fallen asleep at the computer while researching The Chalice.
Unfortunately, his efforts had been fruitless. He hadn't intended to be downstairs all night, he was even dressed in his pyjamas since he had decided to go to bed hours ago. He just never managed to get there. He looked at his clock and saw that dawn would be approaching in less than half an hour. He was looking forward to his bed, for at least a few hours sleep.
Giles was heading upstairs about to go to bed when there was a knock at his door. He sighed heavily and trudged back down the stairs to the front door. Another knock came before he had reached the door. He was hopeful it wasn't Spike seeking refuge again. That damn vampire had been coming to Giles for help ever since he was neutered. As Giles walked past the coffee table he glanced at the crossbow leaning against it. If it was Spike, Giles was not in the mood to be annoyed. Another knock bought an audible groan from the former Watcher.
"Oh for Godsake, I'm coming!"
Giles opened the door and was greeted by Buffy and Angel, along with the rest of their entourage. Giles stepped aside and gestured them inside as they all filed past him.
"Cordelia, you've certainly changed." he offered by way of greeting as the leggy brunette made her way in to his apartment.
"You're still the same." she replied tactlessly and upon several looks from the others, she added, "What? It's a good thing."
Once they were in the living room, Giles told them all to take a seat where ever they could.
"So this is everyone I take it." he said.
"All that we brought with us." Buffy quipped.
"Ah, I see. Well I gather it's The Chalice that brings you all here?" Giles asked the group assembled before him.
Angel nodded then introduced Giles to Doyle, since the Irish half-demon was the only person in the room Giles did not know.
"Hey G-Man, how's it hangin'?" Doyle greeted with a nod.
"Oh wonderful, an Irish Xander." Giles quipped. "Who would like some tea? Perhaps I'll put the kettle on?"
When Giles stood, everyone suddenly noticed his long, royal blue pyjamas emblazoned with small anchors. Buffy and Willow stifled giggles as Giles noticed their looks.
"Nice 'jam'mies Giles! Are those from The Intimate Watcher collection?" Xander wisecracked.
Before Giles could manage a response, Cordelia retorted, "Don't be stupid Xander. Giles isn't a Watcher anymore. He got fired."
"Thankyou for reminding me Cordelia." Giles said before disappearing in to the kitchen to prepare the tea.
There was another knock at the door and Giles could be heard cursing at the sound from the kitchen. The sun had risen not long ago and that meant he would more than likely be stuck with at least Angel for most of the day. Probably the rest of the group as well. He was not in the mood for more visitors. All he wanted to do was sleep since he had spent most of the night researching The Chalice.
"I'll get it." Buffy called and made her way to the door.
She opened it and was confronted with the sight of Spike huddled under a blanket. Her shoulders sagged as the bleached blonde vampire stood restlessly in front of her.
"C'mon Slayer! A man could burn alive out here!" Spike exclaimed.
Buffy promptly punched Spike in the nose.
"You're not a man or alive, Spike." she stated then punched him in the nose again. "Come in."
Spike quickly dashed inside and clutched his nose, looking at the people watching him with mixed reactions.
"Y'know, she has real anger management problems." Spike quipped, wiping blood from his swelling nose.
"Spike." Angel hissed through clenched teeth as he rushed at the vampire, delivering a third punch to the vampire's nose.
"Ow! And you're just a pillock!" Spike howled as pain hit him like a brick to the head.
Angel started to herd Spike out the door, his former prodigy resisting, when Buffy grabbed his arm.
"Angel, stop. Spike's been spayed. He can't bite like all the other puppy dogs anymore." Buffy said of the chip that had been put in Spike's head to stop him feeding. "Come on. Let's get you to the bathroom and clean you up. You're bleeding everywhere." she suggested, dragging him toward Giles's bathroom.
"I'm bleeding everywhere too y'know!" Spike complained.
"I know, but I don't care." Buffy stated, then called to Giles, "Giles can we use your bathroom to clean Angel up?"
"Why not? Make yourselves at home." Giles replied sarcastically.
Knowing glances were exchanged between Willow, Xander, Doyle, Spike and Cordelia as Buffy led Angel to the bathroom.
"So should we brace for another possible apocalypse then?" Doyle asked as Giles walked in to the room with a tray heavy with teacups and a full pot of tea.
"If The Chalice makes its way to the Hellmouth and is activated then I dare say we're in for a spot of bother, yes." Giles stated, not knowing that Doyle had not been referring to The Chalice.
"He means Buffy and Angel getting all groiny." Cordelia said flatly.
"Where?" Giles spat, not meaning to seem as concerned as he did. "I mean, I certainly hope nothing's going on in my bathroom. I just cleaned it yesterday."
"Yeah, 'cause the world being destroyed is nothing compared to a dirty bathroom." Xander quipped.
"He's talking about the dirty stuff happening in there." Cordelia told Xander.
Xander grimaced at the sound of her voice.
"I got that."
Willow coughed and slightly raised her hand, getting the attention of the entire group. While they had all been discussing the apocalyptic possibilities of a reunion of the flesh between Buffy and Angel, she had been pondering the dangers of The Chalice.
"So, Angel never explained exactly what this Chalice thingy does." Willow mentioned, fishing for an explanation.
Giles took his glasses off and began cleaning them. When Giles started to clean his glasses that often meant one of two things; what he was about to say was going to be bad, or what he was about to say was going to be long-winded. Sometimes, it was both. In this particular case, Giles didn't know a whole lot.
"Unfortunately there isn't a lot of information on The Chalice. Most of what has been recorded was, until recently, believed to be myth and legend. There's never been any concrete proof that it actually exists. It is said to be made from the stone from a Hellmouth that existed in another dimension many milennia ago. The stone apparently is made of ancient demon flesh. If The Chalice reaches the Hellmouth it becomes active. If that happens portals will open, dimensions will bleed in to each other and basically any apocalypse we've ever faced will seem like a church picnic." Giles sombrely told the group.
Willow swallowed hard.
"I'm guessing that'd be kinda bad." she reasoned, her voice small.
"Quite the under statement. From what I've read this dimension would cease to exist. The problem is, we don't know enough to be able to stop The Chalice from being activated. All I know for sure is that if it is activated, there will be no way of stopping it."
Upon seeing Willow's extremely distressed look, Xander put a comforting arm around her.
"It's gonna be ok, Will. We're totally on the case. Sure, we don't know what the case is but we're on it." Xander told her, trying to reassure her. Upon looks from Giles, Cordy and Doyle, he asked, "I'm not helping am I?"
Doyle reached for a cup of tea and took a sip. He grimaced slightly, shaking his head at the taste. He put the cup down and walked over to a cabinet against the far wall.
"Got any single malt layin' about G-Man?" Doyle asked.
"No, and, for the love of God, please stop calling me G-Man." Giles reprimanded, joining Doyle at the cabinet and closing the small door that he had opened in his search.
"You mean to tell me that an Englishman hasn't got any Teacher's around his pad?"
"One, we don't live in the seventies anymore so this is not my 'pad' and two, Teacher's is scotch. I am not Scottish!"
"Well neither am I, but I don't tend to be prejudiced when it comes to drinkin'" Doyle countered.
"Prejudiced? God, you don't even tend to be choosy. You'd drink dishwater if you thought it had alcohol in it." Cordy stated.
In the bathroom, Buffy had cleaned and dressed Angel's gunshot wound and was now working on the places where the werewolf had clawed him. Angel sat on the sink while Buffy cleaned the cuts on his face. She wiped a swab over his left cheek and he flinched slightly.
"Did that hurt?" she asked concernedly.
Angel nodded.
"Just a little. You need to remember you're wiping not digging. Try being a little gentle." he told her with a smile.
She apologised and wiped his cheek again. He flinched and took her hand in his.
"Like this." he told her as he guided her hand.
"Oh, like that. Nice and soft." she replied almost in a whisper.
Angel touched her cheek without even thinking. Being this close to Buffy caused him to lose any self-constraint.
"Soft." he repeated.
He then cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. Buffy returned the kiss, dropping the packet of swabs on the bathroom floor, her hands tangling in Angel's hair. As they kissed, the door opened. They broke the kiss almost instantly. It was Giles.
"Oh bloody marvellous. Perhaps when you're done, you could join us in the living room to discuss stopping the impending apocalypse?" Giles said, looking at Buffy and Angel in turn. "That is, of course, if you're not too busy trying to cause one."
Giles looked at them a second longer then closed the door. Buffy smiled sheepishly at Angel. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know where to look. She wanted Angel back but she also knew they had agreed not to tempt fate. Now they had and Buffy wasn't sure what that meant for picked the swabs up off the floor and went to wipe his cuts again. Angel raised his hand.
"All better, I swear." he stammered and hopped off the sink. "Thanks"
Angel smiled at Buffy as he stood near her. They leaned toward each other and almost kissed again but pulled up short.
"We'd better…" Buffy said.
"Yeah. We'd better…" Angel agreed.
He then turned and walked straight into the closed door. Buffy giggled softly. He stepped back, his face red with embarrassment, then opened the bathroom door and left. Buffy cleaned up the bathroom and then joined Angel and the rest of the group. When she sat down next to Willow she noticed that all eyes were on her. She was about to comment when Xander, as usual, made a wisecrack.
"Who's been a naughty Buffy?" he asked mockingly.
"Xander!" Willow exclaimed in disbelief at Xander's comment.
"Like he was the only one thinkin' it." Spike quipped.
Angel rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"Shut up Spike."
The bleached blond vampire stood bolt upright.
"Why don't you do the shuttin' up, you nancy boy, hair gel wearing ponce!" he countered.
"Why don't you make me, Captain Peroxide?" Angel replied, standing to face Spike.
"Alright then! I will!"
Spike got right in Angel's face, pushing him. Angel pushed back, knocking Spike off his feet and sending him hurtling in to Giles's coffee table. Wood splintered as Spike hit the floor. He was on his feet quickly and ran at Angel, tackling him in to the wall, sending a shelf crashing to the floor. The pair exchanged blows for a short time before Buffy and Doyle wrestled them apart.
"Brilliant! Just brilliant! How much of my stuff do plan to damage before you get it all out of your systems?" Giles spat at the pair of vampires as he surveyed the damage the pair had done to his living room during their short scuffle.
"Giles, there's over a hundred years of this macho crap in their systems. They'd destroy your whole house and still not have it out of their system." Buffy reasoned as she dragged Angel back to the couch.
Elsewhere, Ethan Rayne stood in front of a pedestal on which rested a dark brown stone cup. It had no distinct markings and it held no visual significance, yet Ethan regarded it as though it was his most prized possession. He gazed upon it, a smile creeping on to his weathered features.
"You, my pretty, are the star of the show." he stated toward the stone cup.
He dared not touch it though, for this was The Chalice Of The Ancients, a cup with so much evil in it that someone with a soul could not lay even a finger on it. Ethan had a soul, even if most of the things he did would illustrate otherwise. So he had to wait impatiently until he could perform a ritual to have his soul taken from him. Ethan was uneasy with his current arrangement given that he preferred to work alone and had been forced to hire a demon to help him steal The Chalice. Being unsoulled had caused Ethan little trouble up until now. Now he was worried about being betrayed.
"Ethan Rayne, I have brought man to you." a gruff voice told Ethan.
Ethan turned to see his associate dragging a man through the door of the warehouse they were using as a base of operations. The demon, Praxik, was a Glakk demon. Glakk demons were also known as Bone Hunters given their propensity for collecting the bones of their victims. They were large, blue coloured demons, muscular in proportions and vicious. Known as soulless, heartless, cruel and not very intelligent, Ethan felt that a Glakk demon was perfect as hired muscle. And Praxik was even dumber than most Glakk demons, given the fact that most Glakk demons could speak proper English.
"Thankyou Praxik." Ethan said acknowledging the large demon, then turned his attention to the man crumpled in a heap next to him. "Mr. Finlayson. Glad you could join us. I certainly hope that my big, oafish friend over there didn't hurt you too much?"
Dennis Finlayson was in his late thirties with red hair and a red goatee beard. He worked at the SunnydaleArtGallery and had been working there for two years. He knew a large amount about unusual artefacts but the manager of the gallery seldom allowed such things to be displayed in her gallery. He didn't know who the man in front of him was but he knew something was definitely amiss.
"Who are you? And how do you know my name?" Finlayson said as he got to his feet.
"I have connections and they have told me that you may be able to give me some information on something not readily available. I have a number of artefacts in my possession that could be used in certain rituals. What I need from your good self is a little bit of information."
Finlayson regarded Ethan with suspicion.
"What kind of information?"
"Oh, consider it a game Mr. Finlayson. A little match the artefact to the ritual. Nothing more nothing less." Ethan quipped.
He guided Finlayson toward a table covered with several artefacts. He didn't notice the other man stop at the pedestal where The Chalice rested. Finlayson reached for The Chalice with curiosity and his hand was slapped away by Praxik.
"No touch Chalice!" the demon boomed.
Finlayson held his hand, a look of pain turning to anger. He went to berate Praxik when Ethan grabbed him by the shoulders, directing him toward the table.
"I was just wanting a closer look." Finlayson explained.
"Trust me, Mr. Finlayson, you don't want a closer look at that." Ethan explained. "Now if you'd be so kind as to take a look at these for me and tell me which one of them would be useful in a soul-taking ritual."
Finlayson's jaw dropped. He had knowledge in tribal and demon rituals and he knew of soul-taking rituals but he also knew that they were extremely dangerous. He pointed to one of the smaller pieces.
"This one would be what you're looking for but it's only one half." Finlayson said, unsure whether he should give Ethan the information, but also unsure of what would happen if he didn't.
"And where would I find the other half?" Ethan asked.
Finlayson shifted uncomfortably.
"At the gallery. We have items like this stored out back. The manager would never allow it to be released though."
"Really? I think we can be persuasive." Ethan replied looking at Praxik. "What's the manager's name?"
"Joyce Summers." Finlayson told Ethan, swallowing hard.
"Very good." Ethan said as Praxik walked over to the pedestal where The Chalice stood like an overseer of evil. When the demon had The Chalice in his grasp, Ethan turned back to Finlayson and said, "Oh and ?"
Finlayson gave Ethan a puzzled look and that was when Praxik tossed The Chalice to him.
"Catch."
Finlayson reflexively caught The Chalice in both hands. When the stone touched his skin, he let out a blood-curdling scream that echoed off the walls of the warehouse like a banshee's howl. His chest began to burn from the inside, spreading a wild flame throughout his body, charring his flesh as it went. Soon the scream became an indistinguishable gurgle and then ceased entirely as Finlayson became nothing more than cinders scattering across the floor.
"Man burned." Praxik stated as he scooped up The Chalice.
Ethan merely nodded in agreement and followed the lumbering Glakk demon out the door.