Giles was sitting at the Magic Box, one hand holding a cup of tea as he stared at a picture of a pottery bowl with a tree painted on it. The tree had flowers in the branches and flames at it's trunk. He had no doubt that this was supposed to be the tree from the prophecies. He was starting to wonder if they had been put in merely to give generations of Watchers headaches.

"Giles. There was some weird slimy demon out near the docks." Buffy's voice was filled with dismay, and there was a pungent scent like salt and fish that had preceded her into the room.

Giles looked at her, seeing the slight bruise forming on her cheek, the translucent slime over her sleeve and splashed onto her jeans. Her hair was in disarray, something that was happening more often now than in previous years. Before, it would have been a sign of a very busy night, but now? Now it might mean nothing serious. Nothing more than she hadn't felt like searching through the bathroom. "Of course but I'll need more than weird, slimy, and that particular smell to find it. How tall was it? Was it humanoid? What color?"

"It was sort of blueish gray, a bit taller than me. It looked like maybe it was scaly, but there was this disgusting slime over it, so that I couldn't get a good grip. Humanoid, webbed hands with nasty claws And big, ugly fish eyes. It looked like it was searching for something on a dock, and it hadn't been bothering the assorted people, but when I got within about twenty feet it went for me, making this sort of hissing noise. Not snake like, but..." Buffy shrugged, grabbing a towel to try to wipe away the slime and smell.

Giles sighed, reaching for the books of demons. This was not the way he d intended to spend his evening, although it wasn't much of a surprise. "Willow and her computer skills would be useful right about now."

"Don't bring her into this. She's done enough." Buffy glared, sounding unhappy.

Giles looked at her, frowning. "What are you talking about?"

"This is all her fault. She shouldn't have brought me back. She should have left me there, you were fine. And now, there's this thing with her and Amy, and what about Tara? We can do without that sort of help!" Buffy was pacing, looking for one of her spare outfits.

Giles stood up, glaring at Buffy. "We were NOT fine! We were fighting a loosing battle to keep the demons from taking over this town! It's a bloody miracle that nobody got killed fighting things while you were dead! We didn't ask Willow to bring you back because we all thought that you were either gone or trapped in Glory's hell dimension. She took a huge bloody risk, and all she's gotten is trouble from you. What is the problem?"

"I was in heaven, Giles! She ripped me out of heaven and dragged me back here to hell." Buffy glared at him, her eyes filled with tears.

Giles looked at his Slayer, noting the harshness in her expression. She'd lost weight, her cheeks hollowed and her eyes almost sunken. Taking a deep breath, he tried to be calm when he spoke again. "We were not fine. If somehow you had images that implied that we were managing alright without you, you were either deluding yourself or being deliberately deceived. It was a terribly difficult time, and the only reason that Willow brought you back was that she couldn't see any other way to survive. We even made efforts to get Faith out of prison to patrol, but those fell through. What do you think we should have done, allowed ourselves to die, one by one, until demons overran the town? Perhaps watched as they ripped Dawn into pieces? Maybe allowed ourselves to be killed and turned so that we could have a front row seat?"

He started flipping pages, looking for the demon. "Besides that, after knowing her for six years, I would hope that you would have a higher opinion of Willow's intelligence than to think that she would be having an affair in your house. No, she isn't perfect, but Buffy, we are all trying our best here."

"Why would Dawn think why would she say it if it wasn't true?" Buffy sighed, finally grabbing a bag with a set of clothing.

Giles rubbed at his temple, wishing yet again that there was a book to understand teenagers. "I have no difficulty believing that Amy was less than fully dressed. When you were transformed into a rat, you were also unclad when you resumed your proper form. Dawn simply did not take that into proper consideration."

"So if Willow and Amy aren't having an affair, why did she break up with Tara?" Buffy had vanished behind a stack of boxes, presumably to change her clothing.

"How did you feel when you witnessed Angel kissing Faith during that scheme of yours? No doubt it hurt, even though you knew that it was all an act. I think those suspicions felt very painful and real to Tara, especially since she didn't know what was going on. And if the person that you cared for, were dating, started accusing you of having an affair, would you stay with them?" Giles stopped, frowning at the page before him. "This might be your demon."

Buffy walked over, glancing at the illustration. "Yeah, that looks like it. So hmm... decapitation and burning. Ick. And you think I owe Willow an apology?"

"I think perhaps you were hasty in your judgment, just as she was hasty in assuming that you were trapped in Glory's home dimension. If you value Willow as a friend, you should apologize, and perhaps explain why you have been so angry towards her." Giles sighed, sipping at his tea.

Buffy looked at him, frowning. "But nobody's even seen Willow lately."

"Perhaps this is cause for worry, rather than the statement that she is hiding from guilt? Perhaps the fact that so many people were willing to think that badly hurt her?" Giles looked at his Slayer, hoping that she could make her way back to the more happy attitude and hopefulness that she'd had before her death and resurrection.

Buffy paused, looking at Giles as she lifted a short sword. "Giles? Was there another Slayer called when I in the spring?"

He shook his head sadly. "Not that I am aware of."

"So there won t be another Slayer until Faith is gone? And if she's in prison... She's probably pretty safe." Buffy frowned. "Do you think... Angel said Faith was trying to get better, looking for redemption. Will she be able to manage it?"

"I wish I knew." Giles wanted to reassure Buffy, wanted to give her a hug and tell her that everything would be alright, to make things better. But he couldn't fix this.

End part 25.

Everyone sat around the fireplace, toasting marshmallows. It could have been a cheerful gathering, but the air was rather thick with all sorts of tension. Xander was looking nervously at Faith, who kept not looking at Xander, almost looking at Wesley before glancing away, and watching Spike suspiciously. Spike was trying to keep an eye on Faith, Angel, and both witches. Wesley was just focusing on Faith, and Willow kept sneaking wistful glances at Angel, and slightly hurt ones at Xander.

"I can t believe that you've been here the whole time. Why didn't we notice this?" Xander's question wasn't very loud, but it fell into the near silent room, carrying to all of them.

"Red popped out long enough to get me. But I don't know how long that took, I was pretty out of it. But not quite dead. I don't think I was dead..." Faith became quieter, glancing at Wesley before looking back at her marshmallow.

"Why did you come back here?" Spike s question was clearly intended for Angel.

Angel sighed, twirling the marshmallow wire in his hands as he gazed into the fire. "We'd been trying to find a way to keep the Council from killing Faith. They'd been sending demons into the prison somehow, trying to kill her. And I'd been having strange dreams. They were about Sunnydale. Spike, what in the hell were you thinking, Buffy?"

Spike blinked, his mouth opening and closing a few times before anything coherent came out. "How... what do you know? Think you know that is."

Xander blinked, looking from Angel to Spike and back to Angel before looking over at Willow and Amy. "Please tell me that he isn't... that Spike and... say it's not so?"

Angel just groaned, dropping his head into the hand currently not holding the wire. "Spike, you idiot. Buffy is bad for you. She'll twist you up into knots, and rip you apart inside. Possibly even give you a nice impalement and trip to hell as a goodbye."

Xander looked back to Angel, his s'more frozen on the way to his mouth. You're saying Buffy's bad for Spike? What about that whole nauseating eternal tortured love thing?"

Amy started giggling, letting her head rest on Faith s shoulder. Her soft words carried a little, but not enough to disrupt things. Faith and Willow started to snicker as well, Wesley only watching the pair of vampires with a look of dismay. "Ohh... This is better than Jerry Springer."

Angel sighed, looking into the fire. "I did love her. At the time, I thought of her as my sunlight. But sunlight can burn and we did burn each other, both literally and figuratively. I lost count of the number of times that she accidentally opened the curtains on me The comments about her day and the things that she could do. I loved her with a desperate painful need. Sometimes though, love isn't enough. And after spending a long time in hell, it sort of faded. But the ironic part is that when I got back, she was still in love with me. It was doomed from the start a vampire and a Slayer. Doomed to become one of those terrible tragedies. And it did, but we managed to stagger through, trying to pick up the broken pieces of our lives."

"But weren't you still trying back in our senior year?" Xander's question sounded confused.

Angel looked at him, and perhaps for the first time, smiled at Xander. "Have you ever tried to say no to Buffy?"

"Bet it went safer for him." Spike's bitter murmur went almost unheard in the quiet room. "She's not the same now. Being dead changed her. She said she said that she couldn't really feel things anymore."

Xander put his s more into his mouth. "I really don t want to think about Buffy and Spike. Not unnggh. No. Someone pass another marshmallow?"

Faith passed one over, almost glancing at Wesley. "Marshmallows and chocolate can't fix everything."

"But maybe if we're willing to try?" Wesley was looking right at Faith, his expression hinting that he wasn't thinking about Buffy or marshmallows or much of anything besides Faith. "There does seem to be some things going on... perhaps if we remember that none of us are quite perfect, and that we've all made a few mistakes in the past?"

Spike stood up, pausing a moment beside Willow. "Got any hot chocolate?" Leaning closer, he whispered "Is it just me or is he hung up on his Slayer?"

Willow tried not to laugh. H"e is, and I think it's over the refrigerator in the kitchen... which you should know where is."

Spike left in search of his hot chocolate, and Willow called after him "Bring a couple cups, please!"

Turning to everyone else, Willow sighed, resisting the urge to just loose sight of things in chocolate, marshmallows, and Angel wait, definitely not time for those sort of thoughts. "Is everybody willing to try to work past or through old grudges and arguments? I keep having the feeling that something big is coming, and if we're too busy fighting each other, it's going to win."

"What is this it that you're worried about?" Wesley looked at her, for the first time looking at someone besides Faith.

"I don t know, but I keep getting this feeling of something coming, something cold and dark and hungry. Evil. And if we can t stop it..." Willow shivered. "I wish I had some answers, but it s just a really intense creepy feeling."

"He s not real, not like a real person that you can see, can call on the phone." Faith's words were low, almost as if she didn't really want to talk about it. "But it's there. Like a dark thing that just sort of looks like a man because the shape serves a purpose. But it isn't human, it was never human, and it's old, and evil, and hungry."

The room fell silent, and everybody looked at Faith. Nobody was quite certain what to say, but Spike offered the Slayer a mug of hot cocoa. "Here, this'll warm you up inside."

Faith took the mug, wrapping her hands around it before taking a long swallow. "Why is yours the only one with marshmallows on top?"

"You're not helpless, if you want marshmallows, put them in your cocoa on your own." Spike's retort lacked venom. "This thing. What does it eat?"

Willow looked into the fire, her eyes now filled with worry. "I don t know. Something from people, I think. I've only had nightmares... there's a shadowy shape, sort of like a man, but the proportions aren't quite human, and it's... it frightens me. And it moves through the streets, and it looks like it's really slow, but I can't get far away, so I'm sort of stuck watching what's happening. Then it will grab someone, and pick them up, and there's this horrible biting noise while the person screams and the shadow thing gets stronger. I don't know how dream-me can tell that it s stronger, because it doesn't get bigger, or glow or anything, but... Then all the color sort of fades from the victim, so that the dead person looks like they're from a black and white movie while everything else is in color. Then it moves closer, and I wake up, hoping that I haven't been screaming."

"It wants us to know. It wants us to be afraid." Faith's voice was soft, as if she was trying not to be afraid. "Maybe maybe the fear makes people taste better? Or maybe are there things that eat emotions? Can it use our dreams to try to manipulate us, to keep us separated? Maybe try to make sure that we can't fight it?"

"Fear does change the taste of people." Angel's words were soft, laced with brooding. "And I think I remember a few mentions of things that can feed on emotions stories that Darla told me, a long time ago. The details are sort of fuzzy but it was some sort of spirit thing. A hunting spirit, and it ate emotions, hopes, dreams, fears souls. Or maybe Darla was just trying to scare me."

Everyone became very quiet at that. There was no argument when Wesley made a soft statement, his voice shaking. "We need to do some research."

End part 26.

Buffy stomped her way through the cemetery, feeling annoyed about almost everything. She had felt peaceful, happy as if there was nothing depending on her any more. She could just be. And then Willow had dragged her back to Sunnydale, made her alive again. Forced her once more to fight demons and vampires and evil, to be bruised and threatened and miserable, to live in a place full of memories of her mother, with Dawn... Dawn depended on her, but Dawn could be so incredibly annoying sometimes. Always wanting to get her way, to go places, hang out with her friends, spend money that they didn't have

Okay, so maybe Dawn was just being a fairly normal teenage girl. That didn't make it easier to understand her. It made it more frustrating to keep her safe. She didn't have enough time or money for everything!

A group of minion vampires moved from behind a mausoleum, fanning out in an effort to surround her. They were dressed in clothing that would have looked perfectly normal on the campus, or at the mall, but the yellow eyes and fangs were a dead give away. Buffy looked at them, debating trying to insult them, wondering if they were even worth the effort. "This is the best you can do? It's good that you got over the funeral wear and grave dirt, but come on, a Nirvana shirt?"

"Looks like we found ourselves someone who thinks that she's tough." The guy wore big baggy pants, with a chain that presumably led to his wallet, and a somewhat grungy gray baseball jersey.

Rolling her eyes, Buffy pulled a stake. "Look, you guys get points for having half a clue on tactics, but I don't have time to play victim tonight."

Naturally, the vampires didn't quite see her point of view on things. They attacked, and Buffy had the perfect chance to vent some of her frustrations. The unfairness of being dragged back to earth after utter blissful peace. The responsibilities of being a parent figure to her sister, dealing with Dawn's temper and desires and efforts towards dating. The chance that maybe they had all over reacted to Willow and Amy, seeing things that weren't really there. Her frustration over the whole thing between her and Spike. And the fact that she really hated to think that maybe she'd made a few bad choices lately.

It was almost a letdown to find that she'd dusted the last one.

Kicking the last pile of dust, Buffy continued on, her senses alert. There was something in the air tonight, magic and something else, something sort of creepy. Not that she could describe it, but there was something this wiggy feeling. And she really didn't like it.

"The shadows will feast." A voice with a faint accent that she couldn't place rasped at her, reminding her of someone who'd spent a week with a sinus infection. Something moved towards her, moving slowly. It was a thin, almost bony creature, maybe her own height, dressed in a long, almost toga like dark gown. It had clumps of long dark hair, reminding her of something part way between a zombie and medusa. The skin was an almost scale like purple pink, and the creature's eyes were sort of milky white, as if there was some sort of film over them. Over all, this maybe female demon looked entirely freaky. Not that she'd done anything hostile yet.

"Say what?" Buffy looked at the thing again. Skin hung loosely over bones, reminding her of a very skinny old lady. With little claw bits on her very bony knuckles and elbows. Ick.

Those pale eyes turned right towards Buffy, and a dark tongue swept over thin lips. "Can't you feel it in the air? Evil darkness that hungers for all that separates that which moves from that which rots... the Hunter has been awakened. It comes from the shadows, the shadows of the dark past. It was one of the things that cause the fear that lead to the creation of your kind, Slayer."

Buffy took a step back, looking at the freaky old demon woman. "Hunter? Hungry shadows? Are you trying to scare me?"

Bony fingers flickered though the air, as if trying to capture the night breeze. Those pale eyes were aimed at her again, and Buffy wondered if this thing could even see. "Are you frightened, Slayer? You should be, considering what has awakened."

Raising her stake, Buffy glared. "I don t like being threatened. Send your hungry shadow thing home, and just stop whatever hellmouthy plan there is."

There was a dry chuckle, like autumn leaves tumbling in the wind. "Not my shadow thing, and I have not the power to send it home, nor the power to unleash it. It comes from beyond, and to beyond it must return but I can not bind it. Nothing would summon this to them... it does not care for divisions of human or demon, of good or evil. The hunter seeks it's prey, and what it seeks is all of us. Human, demon, menace, protector, from peasants and shopkeepers to murders and fiends. All things that move and creep and plot are it's prey There is but one way to be certain it can not devour me from the darkness."

Buffy watched as the old demon woman grabbed at her wrist, the one that held her stake. Moving her hand slightly lower and to the left, the demon woman took a sudden step forward, the stake sliding into her chest. Dark purple fluid oozed out around the stake, and from the woman's lips. She collapsed to the ground, the weight of her body pulling the stake with it.

Buffy was feeling really freaked out now, and slowly backed away from the now dead demon woman. The faster that she could get out of here, kill the fish demon at the docks, and go back to Giles, the sooner she could have someone find out what this hungry shadow thing was. If it freaked creepy old demon ladies out enough to kill themselves, it couldn't be a good thing.

It had only made her wiggy feeling get more stronger, and she was absolutely certain that whatever had the demon lady so frightened would eventually be a danger that she had to deal with. Some big, freaky evil that ate things. As if things weren't complicated enough. Just wait until she told Giles

End part 27.