Chapter 7

The gang planned throughout the rest of the afternoon and got ready after the sun went down for Angel to accompany Buffy and Willow. Willow had received some valuable pointers from Harry in regards to some protection spells. She felt ready in case anything unexpected may occur.

After the sun had set, Buffy and Willow met Angel at City Hall to finalize their plans and then climbed up onto the roof to find where the box may have been stashed. They approached a skylight above a meeting room and noticed a faint glow emanating from it that wasn't from the normal lighting of the room. When they looked down onto the table below, they noticed the large black box Buffy had described Faith carrying into the building.

"That's it!" Buffy exclaimed in an excited whisper. Looking at Willow, she asked, " You ready Wills?"

Looking down herself at the box that exuded a feeling of evil, she replied, "Y-yeah, I am." She couldn't help but stutter just a little due to the evil she was feeling. 'What could possibly be in that thing,' she thought to herself as she prepared the Wicca spell to remove the glowing shield of protection around it.

With Willow gathering the ingredients for the spell and getting into the right mindset, Buffy opened up the windowpane that was directly above the box. Looking over at Willow, Buffy found her to be ready and stepped back to allow her to do her "mumbo jumbo." Willow got into position, and started her spell while sprinkling the powdered ingredients through the open window. With each passing second, the shield started to glow brighter and brighter, before finally dissipating with a slight flash of light.

With a smile of satisfaction, she waved Buffy and Angel to the box below while saying, "Tah dah!"

"Well done Willow! You can start heading back now, we'll take it from here," Angel said as he started to get the harness ready to lower Buffy into the room below. With a nod, Willow gathered her things and headed back the way they had come. 'Now to get down the ladder and meet back up with Giles and Wesley.'

Elsewhere…

Xander had just arrived with the ingredients that Willow had specified to get in order to completely destroy the box. He was headed to the library to meet up with Oz and Harry. He was still getting used to the newest individual to grace the Scooby Gang. He had to admit it was kind of cool to have another magic wielder on their side. 'Even if it is a different type of magic than Willow's,' he thought to himself as he strode through the empty hallways of the school.

He was the same age as them, but he acted more mature than Giles he had noticed. 'It must be what's happening back in England that has him so riled up.' After hearing Harry's story, he immediately knew he would fit well in Sunnydale for the time being. He had asked Buffy for assistance and she had agreed after they had taken care of their own issue with the mayor.

Upon reaching the library carrying the sack of ingredients, he noticed that Harry was talking with Oz about the potion he had promised to help him control the wolf inside him.

"The Wolfsbane Potion is a more difficult potion to brew. In fact, I only know of a select few individuals that would be able to brew it and be successful. I trained with one such individual so I could help my friend. I have some already started in my trunk that I'll show you. And after that, I'll teach you how to make it," at this point in the conversation, Harry noticed that Xander had returned from his little shopping trip. "Xander! How'd everything go?"

"Fine, got the ingredients right here. Some look so alike it's not even funny!"

Harry had to chuckle at that, since that was something he had thought when he had first started Hogwarts. "I know what you mean. But after a while, they don't anymore. Trust me on this." Harry started to go through the different items that was in the sack and arranged them on the table. "We'll get things organized and wait for the others to return to actually make the potion." The other two in the room nodded with him.

"Cool with me, now let's get back to that potion of yours…" Oz said as they finished laying out the ingredients.

Back at City Hall…

With the rig ready, Angel attached the harness to Buffy and prepared to lower her to the room to retrieve the box. It wasn't a strain at all for the vampire, with his enhanced strength, to lower Buffy down with the rig he made.

"Just a bit more!" Buffy said as she was almost within reach of the box. She started to feel the same evil that Willow had felt earlier and she knew they needed to destroy this thing as soon as possible. A few more inches of rope released from Angel got her to the spot needed to grab the box. "Got it! Haul me up!"

Angel heard her and tried to pull her back up, but the rope had gotten stuck somehow. He tugged with as much strength as he could that wouldn't snap the rope. "I can't! The damn thing is stuck!"

The commotion of Angel trying to bring Buffy back to the roof, and their talking, alerted some nearby guards that something wasn't quite right. The guards started to investigate by going through the nearby rooms looking for intruders. Finding nothing, they all thought the same thing at the same time, "THE BOX!!"

Angel was trying everything to get her out of that room. He could sense other vampires on their way to their location.

"Angel! Hurry! I'd like to very much come up now please!" Buffy exclaimed while floating in mid air with the box in her grasp.

Suddenly the doors to the room opened up with a "BANG!" The guards stormed into the room, but stopped when they saw the blonde holding the box in mid air. For a brief moment, Buffy and the guards were just staring at each other not really believing what they were seeing.

"Get her!" one of the guards yelled to his fellow vampires.

"Oh boy," Buffy said to herself as she tried to dodge as best she could while being strapped. "Angel! Cut me loose!"

Not wasting a second, Angel did as asked, and he cut the line Buffy was hanging from. He also joined her by jumping through the opening and landing on the table below. With Buffy free from the rope, she dropped the box on the table to engage a couple of the vampires that came through the door. She was dodging their punches left and right. She had to get her footing back under her before she could go on the offensive. With a quick right hook, one of her attackers was rendered unconscious after hitting his head on the wall from the strength of Buffy's punch.

"Everything all right, Angel?" she asked while trading blows with her other attacker. Ducking a roundhouse kick, she retaliated with her own roundhouse that was a successful hit. Her attacker didn't seem phased, however and came after her once again.

"Just peachy!" he replied while dodging his own attacker's fists and kicks. He swung his fist at the annoying vampire in front of him and found success in the loud "CRACK" of the jaw breaking. Nodding in satisfaction, Angel then proceeded to grab the box and swung it at the last attacker. Hitting the vampire in the head was enough to stun him for a second, in which Angel dropped the box for a chair and swung that onto the other's back. Both Buffy and Angel somehow gathered the vampires onto the other side of the large table the box had been placed on and proceeded to topple the table onto the vampires to give them enough time to escape the room with the box.

The vampires gave chase through the hallways following the intruding Slayer and traitor vampire. They were hot on their heels when Angel and Buffy finally came to the front entrance and ran down the steps, only to stop and jump over the hedge to the right of the doorway. The vampires came running out, looking in all directions for the two that had taken their boss's box. A black van that Giles and Wesley were in, came screeching through the parking lot headed in the opposite direction that Angel and Buffy had gone to distract the vampires. The plan worked, and the vampires were running after the van as if their life depended on it.

Noticing the coast was clear, Buffy and Angel hightailed it out of there to head back to the library. Everything had been a success and it was time to take care of the box they had just stolen from the Mayor.

After the vampires lost the van, they returned to City Hall. Inside, they found the Mayor in the conference room that they were previously fighting in. He was not happy.

"Well…" he said while looking at all the damage that was done to his newly redone conference room. "This is very unfortunate. I just had this room redecorated for Pete's sake! At the tax payer's expense, of course." Here he paused, still looking around. "OH! That's right…and they've got my box!!" he exclaimed while sweeping both hands towards one of the chairs that had been damaged. He had a look of rage across his face at the loss of one of the most important pieces for his Ascension.

"That may be, but looky what we have here!" a female voice behind the Mayor said in gleeful voice.

Looking around towards the doorway, the Mayor took notice of what his Faith had in her possession. She was holding the red headed Wicca in a one armed hold, with her knife poised at the girl's throat. Faith seemed pleased with herself for her finding of the Wicca. A smirk came across the Mayor's face as he realized that all was not lost just yet.

Back at the library…

Buffy was upset to say the least. Her friend had been captured! When they had returned to the library, they found everyone present except for Willow. Buffy and Angel thought she was with Giles and Wesley, and they had believed her to have stayed with Buffy and Angel.

"How did this happen?" Buffy asked to the group in barely restrained anger. Anger at whom, she didn't know. Herself? Giles and Wesley? It didn't matter, her friend was in the hands of her enemy.

"We thought she'd stay with you," Giles said as he walked around the box on the table.

"They must have grabbed her when she hit the ground. We should have thought something like this might happen. I'm sorry Buffy," Angel said as he leant against an arm rail to the higher level of the library.

"Listen, it's no one's fault. But how do we fix this? We need to focus and deal!" the blonde Slayer said while looking at her friends. "Oz, I swear I won't let any harm come to her."

Oz appreciated hearing this from Buffy. He really cared for Willow. Everybody traded ideas on what needed to be done. Xander said to do a full assault, where Giles argued that wouldn't work since they'd probably kill Willow straight away. Wesley didn't make the atmosphere any better when he said they might have already killed her by that time. This was met with Oz getting out of his seat to throw a punch at the stuck up British Watcher. Harry had anticipated this and held the young man in place.

"No, they wouldn't. They know what she means to us. She's too valuable as long as the box is…in…our…." here Buffy trailed off as another idea came to her. "We make a trade!"

"Absolutely not! I forbid it! This box is too valuable! It must be destroyed!" Wesley exclaimed.

"No, we call the Mayor to setup a meeting. It's the only way!" Buffy argued with eyes flashing dangerously.

Xander made a comment about volunteering to knock some sense into Wesley by hitting him.

"Wesley, you want to duck and cover. I don't think you can take on all of us!" Buffy said in a dangerous voice.

"DAMN IT! Listen to me! This box is key to the Mayor's Ascension. Thousands and thousands of lives depend on us destroying it right away! I want to help as much as the rest of you, but we'll find another way to do it!" Wesley argued back to the blonde.

Buffy and Wesley traded comments where Wesley pretty much said it was Buffy's fault for taking the fight to the Mayor. Everything went down from there to an arguing frenzy. Harry and Oz were the only two not shouting at each other. Harry was getting tired of this and cast a wide ranged silencing spell.

"Alright, all of you! Enough!" Harry exclaimed to the silenced library. "Arguing won't help Willow right now. So start acting like adults, or that spell won't come off anytime soon." He said this with a face that dared any of them to argue. It was actually a funny sight seeing all of their mouths still flapping trying to make words come out. Oz took it a step further by throwing the ingredients for the spell to destroy the box to a nearby wall.

Everyone looked at Oz strangely for that action. But it made sense when that was their chance of destroying the box once and for all. Oz knew that Willow was more important to him, and the rest of her friends in the room. Harry cancelled the spell on the group and Buffy told Giles to make the call.

City Hall…

In a storage room by the looks of things, Willow was trying to open the window to try and escape. With no luck, and panting from the attempt, she then looked for another means to get out of the room as quickly as she could. When she pulled out a drawer, she only had a moment to look at the contents, before a vampire with his game face on opened the door on.

"What are you doing?" the vampire asked as he slowly approached the young mortal in front of him.

"Uh…I'm…looking for a sucking candy. Cause my mouth dries out when I'm nervous, or being held prisoner." When the vampire never slowed his movements towards her, she realized she might have said something wrong. "I suddenly think 'sucking' is the wrong word to use around vampires." She closed her eyes for a brief second of concentration. "Hey! Did you get permission to be in here and eat the hostage? I don't think so! You're going to be in big trouble when the Mayor…"

At this point, the vampire grabbed Willow's arms pinning them to her side. Growling at the figure in his grasp, "Just a little taste, that's all I'm asking for."

Willow groaned in pain, but still concentrated on the task at hand. When the vampire leaned down to sink his fangs in her neck, he suddenly went to dust. Willow had levitated a pencil from the drawer to drive into his back.

Gasping for breath, she quickly made her way out of the room and down the hallway. She had to stop suddenly and make a quick dash into another room as she heard voices coming her way.

"I don't think she'll be coming back here tonight sir," came Faith's voice through the closed door that hid Willow.

"You ever have a dog?" the Mayor asked as he shut the door to his office. When Faith looked at him funny he continued, "I did, and Irish Setter. Dogs are loyal, fiercely loyal. They'll do anything for a friend. Buffy's like a dog, and before you can say Jimmy cracked corn, you'll get to see me kill her like one too!"

When the voices died down, Willow snuck out of the room she was in and entered the Mayor's office. She searched through a few things, before opening the cupboard with the Mayor's collection of demonic artifacts. She found a secret compartment, which had the Books of Ascension in it. She was nearly hyperventilating at this point. 'Here's everything we need!' she thought in excitement. It was at this point she remembered a spell she read about and had asked Harry about.

Flashback

While going through one of Harry's spell books, Willow had come upon one she thought was unfair to a point. "Harry? Why is there a spell in here that will duplicate any object? Isn't that kind of cheating in a way?"

Harry came over to look at the spell in question, "Oh? Let's see…oh that spell. Not quite, that's only a temporary duplication spell. It will allow an object, let's say a rare book, to be duplicated for a short amount of time. Enough to where the information in it could be copied down, and the copy from the spell would just disappear. It isn't permanent."

"Oh! I see, handy, very handy!"

End Flashback

Remembering the spell, she started to copy the books and shrink them with another spell. Since she wasn't used to this kind of magic, it took some time for her to get all of the books copied. When she finally finished, the door to the office opened and Faith stepped in.

"Well, check out the book worm! Anybody with brains would have tried to escape out of this place as soon as possible, but no! Not you! You go around snooping where you don't belong!" Looking at the books the red head was looking through, she continued, "And it looks like you know too much, which leads to killin!"

Willow tried to talk her way out of the situation, but somehow it didn't work. It didn't have anything to do with her saying how Faith had screwed up her life. How she didn't make the most of the things she had, like friends and a social life. She figured she had gone too far when she called Faith a "selfish, worthless, waste." Faith didn't appreciate that and punched the girl in the face.

"You hurt me, I'll hurt you. It's just I'm more efficient and you're begging for some pain!"

"Girls, I don't want to separate you two. Faith, come on, something has come up and you know I don't like to repeat myself. I just receive one heck of an interesting phone call," the Mayor said as he sat behind his desk.

The School Cafeteria…

The gang was waiting in the cafeteria with the box. They had made the phone call and the offer. Harry had setup some proximity wards to let them know when their company was coming. He needn't have bothered, when they announced their presence to everyone by disconnecting the power. Angel made a comment about seeing okay after Xander said he couldn't.

The doors opened up and the Mayor strolled in with Faith behind him. She had willow at knife point once again. Some vampires were also in his entourage. He stepped forward when Buffy did the same.

"This is exciting, isn't it! Secret meetings in the dead of night! Exchange of prisoners and goods! I feel like we should all be wearing trench coats to fit the mood!" the Mayor said in a gleeful mood. He almost had his box back! His eyes scanned the room while saying this and noticed a face he didn't recognize.

Harry felt the Mayor's eyes on him and looked him in the face. He was surprised when he noticed the Mayor actually seemed stunned when he looked at him. 'He must know who and what I am.'

"So you're the wizard my Faith was telling me about. Can't say I'm impressed much. You don't seem like a threat to me."

"You would be surprised," Harry said in a deadly calm voice.

Buffy took the conversation over. "Let her go!"

The Mayor looked at her and simply said, "No. Not until I have the box in my hands! So you're the girl that has caused me all this trouble. I don't see what's special about you. I mean, you're skinny, pretty maybe. Now why couldn't things have worked out between you, Angel, and my Faith. I don't see much of a future for you two."

Here the Mayor went into a conversation about how Angel and Buffy could never work. With his immortality and not being truly happy, Angel wasn't much of an individual that Buffy could have a relationship with.

"Just make the trade!" the Mayor finished.

Faith brought Willow to Buffy and Angel brought the box back to her. At this point, Principal Snyder had to step into the room. He took the box and said, "I bet I'll find drugs in this box!"

The Mayor stepped in at this point and Snyder proved his cowardice by immediately backpedaling his accusations. One of the security guards, whom Snyder gave the box to, opened the black box. "No! Don't!" the Mayor exclaimed. It was too late, a insect like create jumped out of the box and killed the poor man by attacking his face.

"Open the door!" Snyder said to the other guard.

"Don't do it! We can't let that thing escape!" Giles exclaimed in a panicked rush.

Everyone started to look for the creature. The walls were looked at and the ceiling as well. The creature suddenly fell on top of the Mayor's face.

"Boss!" Faith exclaimed. She quickly grabbed the creature and tossed it aside.

The cuts and abrasions healed on the Mayor's face. "I wouldn't leave that open if I were you," he said as he looked at the box. Buffy quickly slammed the lid down, cutting off the legs of another of the creatures. She then felt a creature jump on her back. Relying on her instinct, she immediately fell onto the floor and smashed the creature. Rolling off of the floor and onto her feet, she looked at the dead being with disgust.

Faith noticed another of the creatures on a nearby wall. She threw her knife at the thing, scaring poor Wesley half to death. She nailed it, and it died with a horrible screech. The Mayor grabbed his box and made his way to the now opened doorway.

"Is that all of them?" Oz asked.

"No, there's about 50 billion of those little critters in here. Raise your hand if you're invulnerable? No, didn't think so. Faith? Faith!" the Mayor said to the black haired beauty. She was looking at her knife she had thrown at the wall. She was leaving it behind. She quickly followed the Mayor out of the school.

"Why could you be like normal kids and deal in drugs!" Snyder said as he held up a chair like a shield to protect him. He quickly left as well.

Buffy went over and pulled the knife out of the creature and the wall. "That went swimmingly!" Wesley exclaimed.

"It was alright," Buffy said examining the blade.

The School Library…

The gang was back at the library listening to Willow recall her time in City Hall. She had just finished telling of the encounter with Faith, when Giles interrupted her.

"Willow, are you telling me you had your hands on the Books of Ascension?" Giles asked while holding his glasses in one hand.

"Yes, volumes one through five," replied Willow with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Is there anything you can remember from them? Anything at all?"

"I was kind of in a hurry to get out of there, and I skimmed through some of the lesser details. But I don't think you have to worry for another few days."

"And why's that?" Wesley asked in a sarcastic tone.

Harry had been looking at Willow and noticed a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. "You used the spell I taught you, didn't you Willow?" he asked with a slight smirk on his face. That slight smirk turned into a full smirk when Willow answered in the positive.

"What spell?" Wesley asked.

"A duplication spell that will allow a person to copy an item, in this case a few books, that will last for a week," Harry answered with a slight glare towards the other British Watcher.

At this point, Willow produced the five shrunken books, which she enlarged, and gave to the older Watcher. "Here you go Giles! See what you can make of them, and you better hurry to get all the information copied down."

Giles looked as if Christmas had come early. His smile was so wide it was funny!

Wesley piped in his two cents by saying the information in the texts must be worth it for Buffy to risk everyone's lives for that box.

The next day, Buffy and Willow were talking beneath a tree about their future plans about college. Willow let Buffy know that she wasn't going to be leaving her anytime soon, and she produced an acceptance letter to Sunnydale University. Buffy was ecstatic and tackled Willow to the ground in her happiness. In the end, it was just another day in Sunnydale.

AN: Another chapter for you all to read! I'm getting some great feedback with this story. I appreciate everyone that's read it and especially those that have reviewed it! Thanks! I still would love to hear from any that read my story. So please! Please! Review this story! The more reviews I have, the quicker I'll update! Also, if you haven't already, read my other story. That one I'll update every other week or so, unless it gets popular. My main focus is this story right now. Again, enjoy! And review!