If any of you watch the news around the United States, I am in one of those areas where there has been a lot of snow and ice and thus, I've been home for a while and for an unspecified time. However, I am safe and warm and it has given me the opportunity to write to my heart's content, so I'm trying to write as fast as I can to catch up on stories. I hope you enjoy.

darck ben: The slayers are facing a demon they've never really encountered before. These demons are quite mad in the head, but they are quite intelligent and are not adverse with using the weaponry of the day. They didn't hesitate to do the same in using weaponry of their opponents in medieval England in 'Army of Darkness'.

It was that willingness that made them so deadly in effectively wiping out an entire group of slayers as Buffy has this irrational bias against guns about not being effective against supernatural creatures (it would take me another paragraph to explain why they actually are) and insists the slayers under her prescribe to the same nonsense while at the same time for some reason demons don't use them when they would be quite effective in killing a quite mortal slayer.

They were simply unprepared in facing such an enemy who wasn't willing to 'play by the agreed upon rules of killing one another' and they paid dearly for it.

Fanfic-Reader-88: This is 'Gibby', love is not really in his vocabulary and have you've seen the actress that plays Tasha? The running joke I have in my stories about her being an underwear model that sometimes forget to wear them is a reference to her. After seeing her, it's easy to understand what's on 'Gibby's' mind.

Challenge King: As if my stories are that straight forward?

Twilight Warrior 627: You sure it is Gibby? Beck is feeling the same frustrations as his canon counterpart did between the breakup and 'Tori Fixes Beck and Jade': he keeps striking out with the ladies. The slayers knew about the book for a while, but they've been letting Sikowitz handle it with Tori. However, things have obviously changed and they apparently don't see Tori as reliable anymore. The poor girl is having trust issues on both sides.

Rating: T

Chapter 10

Boomerang Theater
Los Angeles, CA
Friday, April 20, 2012

Jade just finished up the last verse of her song and started off to the left of the stage to grab a drink when the stage manager hastily walked onto the stage and shouted to get Jade and the backup musicians' attentions, "I don't want to alarm you, but I wanted to let you know that we're locking down the building for the next little while as a precaution. There've been reports of gunfire inside the JW Marriott hotel next door, but there's no need to be alarmed. Police are on the scene and there is plenty of security for the building."

The band instantly started whispering among themselves while Jade heart seized up at hearing things had gotten violent over at the hotel. She cursed herself for letting Freddie talk her into rehearsing and preparing for the show instead of going with them. She quickly trotted towards the left of the stage, but the manager sidestepped into her way.

He held up his hands and quickly stated, "There's no need to be alarmed Miss West."

She snapped back, "I'm not alarmed. I'm getting my stepbrother. I want him out here so I can see him, so you need to get out of my way before I move you."

The cold look the future musical star was giving him was all the incentive he needed to wisely step aside and let her pass.

She turned to her left to the side entrance of the preparation area and quickly made her way to one of the dressing rooms that had an armed guard standing on either side of the door. She found as she expected Ian playing a game on Cat's PearPad while the redhead worked on some homework at a small table that the crew had provided for the dressing room. Cat looked up with a worried covered face at her friend nearly storming into the room. "What's wrong?"

Jade was about to bluntly answer, but saw Ian looked up at her with a mildly concerned expression on his adorable face. "Ah… nothing, I was just taking a break and I needed to grab my phone and I wanted you to come out and watch me for a bit. I want to know what you think of my performance." She walked over to her Gears-of-War bag sitting next to Cat and opened up one of the small pouches and pulled her pear shaped phone out of the pocket.

Before she dialed a number, she whispered into her ear, "They just reported a shooting at the hotel next door."

The petite redhead put on a near panicked expression and harshly whispered, "Tori? Beck?"

The pale singer shook her head. "I don't know, that's why I'm grabbing my phone."

She turned and took a few steps towards a corner of the room away from Ian. She pulled up her contact list and hit the speed dial then brought it up to her ear. She impatiently waited for the other end of the phone to pick up. She hadn't hit Beck's or Tori's number…

Freddie's voice answered, "Jade?"

"Oh thank God… are you alright? Is everyone alright? They just told us that there was gunfire next door."

"There was, but we're alright. All of us are alright."

"Where are you?"

"We're heading to Tori's to regroup and figure out what to do next."

"What happened?"

"I'll tell you when you're done. Just focus on rehearsing for the show. Don't worry about us, we are and will be fine. Getting ready for your show is impor—"

"You're more important to me than some damn show," she whispered out before catching herself. She suddenly swallowed as she realized what she had said then was further shocked that she didn't regret the slip of emotion and truth of what she felt.

Each of them paused on either side of the phone for a few seconds then Freddie broke the silence, "Thank you for the concern… for caring and I appreciate it, but I need you to focus on the show, so I can focus on this. I'm trying my best to make sure nothing sabotages your performance, but if you're worrying about this then they don't have to do anything to sabotage you. When you're done, I'll catch you up on what's going on, but until then focus everything on the show and let the rest of us worry about the details."

She had the overwhelming urge to ring his neck for him telling her to butt out but at the same time touched that he was putting her dreams first and wanting her to succeed. She quietly answered in a far more calm voice than she felt, "I thought this was about finding the book and putting an end to all of this, not about me performing."

"Things have changed these last couple of weeks. I have… new priorities and you performing on Sunday is one of those priorities. I can still find the book and make that happen. I never meant to interrupt and disrupt your life and I'm not going to do it now."

She sighed out in defeat, "You haven't interrupted my life or done anything to cause me to wish you weren't here, but finding the book and stopping him is not your burden to carry alone. I'm not Carly; you don't have to martyr yourself to prove anything to me or yourself." She knew it was a cheap shot to make about the Seattle girl, but she processing him putting her so much in front of other things after such a short amount of time knowing one another that wasn't in that creepy stalkerish manner.

There was a pause at his end and for a moment she thought she had gone too far and offended him with her remark against Carly, but he finally answered with a surprisingly soft laugh, "I think that's what I've liked most about you Jade: I've never had to prove anything. You just took me as I am without any ridicule or anything else… Jade, please just do this for me. Just grab your dream and let me worry about the monsters."

She had seen nothing but obstacles in her life about getting to this point in about to become a star and now she was hearing encouragement for it, she seriously contemplated saying to Hell with it all and for a guy that she had only known for a few weeks, but they had been some meaningful weeks… "Okay, okay… I'm going to rehearse for a few more hours then I'm going to Tori's and you're telling me everything that happened."

She wanted to groan as she could just imagine his boyish grin appearing on his face on the other end of the phone.

"Deal. Stay safe and focus. I…" he trailed off, but she easily filled in the words he wasn't sure he was allowed to say yet between them.

"I… I do to and you do the same."

The call ended a second later then she turned to look at the concerned expression on her redheaded friend.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, Freddie said everything was fine and told me to focus on rehearsals and let them worry about the book, so… I'm going to do what he asked."

"You don't look happy with that."

"I… I just don't like the idea of them excluding me from the fun that's all."

Cat smirked at her long time friend and softly mocked in a higher pitched tone, "Right…"

Jade frowned at her then turned her attention to Ian while he casually played his game. She knelt down in front of the child, reassuringly rubbing one of his knees and whispered to him in a conspiratorial manner, "Sweetie, get your stuff. I want you to come out and watch me rehearse. I want to know what you think."

He smiled then gave his stepsister a kiss on the cheek before answering, "Okay."

She picked up the child while Cat gathered their things, not trusting to leave anything in the room and tempting anyone from stealing from them.

Vega Residence

As Freddie was wrapping up his phone call with Jade then calling up Carly, Tasha was shivering, partially out of still shocked about what had happened less than an hour ago and a little from genuinely being cold. Tori took a seat next to her and wrapped a blanket around the hopeful model's shoulders.

Tasha looked up at the gathered teenagers and whispered out, "What just happened to me?"

"Ah…" Tori attempted to answer, but trailed off immediately then looked to Beck for some help to explain what happened.

He attempted to reassuringly smile at her then answered, "Well you see… you ah… you were possessed by a demon."

"A what?"

As the Hollywood Arts students attempted to try to explain what happened to her and the ensuing firefight in a manner that didn't make them sound crazy or put Tasha into hysterics, Freddie paced around the piano at the back of the living room with his phone to the side of his face. He whispered out in a harsh tone to the person on the other end of the phone, "Gibby has the book."

Carly snapped back on the other end, "How? He's here. I mean he's upstairs. We're getting ready for the show tonight."

"I saw him Carly and he was possessed by something. I saw it in his eyes."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone then he heard Carly shout out away from the phone about Sam getting Gibby. The web-hostess returned to the phone and answered, "Sam's getting Gibby and we'll be right there. We'll get to the bottom of this. Where exactly are you?"

"We're at Tori's, but the house is warded, so you'll have to drop in the backyard."

"We'll be there in a few minutes. Look for us in her backyard."

"Fine, I'll see you then, bye." He pressed the end call button just as the doorbell rang as for the first time it seemed that the front door had been locked.

Tasha's body jerked in surprise and looked to the door. Tori reassuringly rubbed her back up and down and called out, "Who's there?"

Freddie pulled out his weapon from behind his back and pointed at the door while Beck had the decency to stand partially in front of him to be used as a bullet or any other projectile sponge.

"It's me!" Dusty shouted from the other side of the door.

The tech-producer blew out a breath and lowered his firearm. He walked over and answered the door, revealing Dusty holding a plastic shopping bag. "I took the hard drives for the security cameras and took care of the backups. There's not going to be any recorded evidence of our appearance."

Freddie peered inside the plastic bag and asked, "How far back do the videos go?"

Dusty shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, I just figured out which hard drives they were recorded on and took them."

The tech-producer idly commented, "I'll take a look at them. I want to see who visited Gibby's room and see if we can figure out who he was infecting. You have to be fairly close to infect people with a possession."

Tasha spoke up as she stood up, "I didn't notice anyone visiting except for room service, but he would like to go out and hang by the pool or one of the restaurants inside the hotel."

Dusty nodded along and stated the obvious, "That's where he infected people—the guards and Miss Clyne. He was using the high traffic in the restaurant when he'd summon them."

Tasha hesitantly asked, "Is that what he did to me in the elevator?"

Freddie quietly answered, "Yes."

The inspiring model shivered under her blanket and Tori wrapped an arm around her to comfort her.

He hated to push, but time was a factor, "Do you know why he was staying at the hotel? Do you know why he was interested in the awards show next door at the Boomerang Theater?"

She shook her head. "He didn't mention anything about the awards show. We were probably going to watch it Sunday, but other than that, it was the furthest thing from my mind. I was just enjoying the vacation and excited about meeting some people about some modeling opportunities… oh my God, I missed that…"

Freddie looked to her sympathetically and attempted to reassure her, "It's okay. You'll just tell them that you were at the hotel when the… incident happened."

Tori quickly added, "Yeah, it's all on the news. They have to understand and want to see you again." Tori didn't know the girl from Eve, but that didn't prevent her from trying to be reassuring and helpful.

Tasha snapped her head to look at Freddie and asked in a panicky voice, "Are you going to get in trouble?"

He cracked an awkward smile and shrugged a shoulder. "Hopefully not with taking all the security footage then it's all our words against theirs."

A sudden knock on the glass door of the kitchen caught everyone's attention, stopping the conversation in its tracks.

Tori quickly cut through the kitchen and opened the door and let Carly and Sam in… with the blonde gripping Gibby tightly by the arm to drag him inside.

Gibby remarked, completely dumbfounded on how he was suddenly appeared in Los Angeles, "Ah, what's going on? How the jank did we get here?"

He suddenly threw up his hands as he saw from the end of the kitchen Freddie and Dusty pointing their guns at him while Beck looked to him with blue eyes and extended canines. "Woah, easy with the firepower guys. Freddie, when did you start carrying?"

Freddie kept the weapon two handedly trained on the taller teenager and hissed out, "How did Sam find you?"

He half smirked and raised an eyebrow before turning a look to Freddie that suggested the tech-producer had asked something stupid, "It's a Friday afternoon and we still have a show to put on, where else would I be?"

Carly quickly explained, "He's been with us the entire afternoon. We went to the Groovy Smoothie then back to my place to get ready for the show."

Freddie slowly eased his weapon down, unsure of what to think, but Dusty kept his .45 steadily trained towards the obnoxious teenager ready to shoot him in the face and accused, "Then what the Hell did we just face?"

The question was initially ignored by the taller and heavier set teenager as looked past them to see Tasha cautiously standing behind the three males. He casually laughed out, "Hey Tasha?"

Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and she took a few fearful steps back then made a mad dash between the couches and up the stairs. Beck turned and gave chase to her in concern.

Gibby blinked, completely dumbfounded by the reaction. "Wow, was not expecting that reaction. I didn't think we left off that bad."

Dusty lowered his weapon then holstered it behind his back. He cautiously remarked, "I don't see any demon in him."

Tori thumbed over to Gibby as she looked to Freddie and asked completely bewildered by the situation, "Then who did we meet?"

Freddie uttered, hardly believing the words out of his mouth when a wild explanation came to mind, "Evil Gibby."

Dusty dryly remarked, "Clearly he was evil—"

"No, I mean an evil Gibby… a demonic clone."

Tori knotted her beautiful brow and snapped out, "A what?"

Freddie ignored her for a moment and asked, "Do you remember anything strange happening to you just before I left for Los Angeles?"

Gibby frowned and looked to the kitchen floor, trying to recall anything strange happening to him around that time. He lifted his chin and casually glanced to the ceiling. "I remember about a week or more before you left I had this weird dream—a nightmare. I was getting ready to go out—had me a hot date—and I was checking myself in the mirror. You know I had to look good for my lady friend, but my reflection started acting weird. He was creepy and I know this sounds crazy but he started talking back to me. I freaked out and smashed the mirror, but then the dream just gets weirder from there."

He took a breath and shook his head. "Little versions of me came out of the pieces and started running around. They started throwing things at me and really trying to hurt me. The dream just gets weirder from there and all I remember is at some point one of them got into my mouth and I suddenly had an eyeball growing out of my shoulder blade. The next thing I remember is that I woke up about an hour later—late for my date. I got me a few adult beverages to try to forget."

Dusty glanced to Freddie and remarked, "Okay, that's crazy even for me and my family has gone through a lot of crazy stuff."

"Maybe, but something like that happened to Ash. The book was able to release a demon to mimic him from his reflection then they were able to get in him to gets some DNA to break away and created an evil duplicate of him. All the memories and personality, but it was a twisted and evil."

Tori asked, "Like when a demonic vampire inhabits the body of the person the sire killed?"

"Yeah, but these are intelligent and not overwhelmed by their demonic natures in being stupid plus they have their own living, breathing body. They have a real physical form that they didn't hijack."

"Oh, isn't that just perfect. Exorcism might be right out the window since it doesn't inhabit a body it shouldn't and sunlight might not do jack to them. It might have the protections slayers have against holy objects."

"Maybe, but we can always use the standard methods the book describes: dismemberment, fire or burying alive. The first one should be easy: shoot it enough times until it goes down then we hack it to pieces, but that's not what really worries me."

Tori was the first to ask with utter shock on her face, "It's not."

"No. Things were starting to go weird weeks before I left Seattle. That's what got our attention in the first place, but what happened to Gibby was just before I left, so someone else had to have the book in the first place before he had the Gibby clone created and passed the book along."

Carly picked up, "Wait, if there is someone else then why would they pass the book off in the first place? Why give up that kind of power if you're evil?"

Freddie shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe we were getting close and he or she wanted to throw us off. Since I left, we haven't given it a second thought that they could still be in Seattle. It's been quiet other than the other usual activities and I just followed the trail until I got here."

Sam raised a hand and called out, "Wait a second, so there's someone back in Seattle pulling the strings? What good is that going to do him with someone else having the book?"

The tech-producer shook his head and patiently pointed out, "Sam, this is the early twenty first century and not thousands of years ago in ancient Samaria; he could have just used a high resolution digital camera to take pictures of all the pages like I did Charles Dingo's frozen head years ago or made some really high resolution scans."

Tori asked in a completely flabbergasted tone, "You did what?"

Dusty snorted out a laugh, "You mean that urban myth is true? He really did have his head frozen?"

Freddie nodded. "Yeah. I guess he expected to have it reattached to a robot in the future."

"All you'd get would be zombie Dingo. His soul would have long past on to either Heaven or Hell unless he's a ghost and the head is what is anchoring him on Earth. Wow, re-inhabiting one's own body. That would be a first."

"Okay, could someone please fill me in on what's going on?" Gibby looked to Sam and asked, "Okay, one second we're in Carly's apartment, the next we're here. How the jank did we end up here? And what is all this talk about demons."

Sam dryly remarked, "I really am part demon and that's not just a joke. Carly's a vampire slayer and we hunt monsters. Freddie left to hunt down a monster book that apparently created a demon clone of you."

Gibby blinked and looked around to the rest of them then started laughing and shaking his head. He slapped himself and muttered, "Okay Gibster, time to wake up."

While Gibby fruitlessly slapped himself to wake up from what he thought he was dreaming, Tori crossed her arms under her chest and rolled her eyes. She huffed out a breath and muttered, "Great, another dead end: we don't have a clue where demon-clone Gibby could go and now there could be someone else out there probably with a digital copy of the book. Things are just getting worst and worst."

A heavy silence filled the room as the gravity of the situation fell on the teenagers, but Dusty pursed his lips in a manner as if he was tasting something sour then hesitantly started, "I hate to make this suggestion, but…"

Freddie asked with a guarded tone, "What?"

"Since this 'Evil Gibby' has the same flesh as Gibby and we have him here… there are location spells that can be used to track him down."

Freddie raised his eyebrows and snorted, "You? You're seriously suggesting magic?"

He answered with a flat tone, "I'm suggesting using the tools at hand. It should be a simple enough spell for Cat to perform. We find exactly where he's hiding, mount up and we put down anything that gets in our way with overwhelming firepower to get the book and making him tell us who let him out originally."

Freddie glanced to the floor for a second then looked to Tori then Carly. He looked back to the nephil and asked, "Can you get us a spell and what would she need?"

"I don't know, but I could easily get anything she needs for it, but there is one hiccup and it involves him."

"What's that?"

"We'd have to use a bit of his flesh to do it."

Gibby's eyes bugged out, "My flesh?"

"A little bit of blood would do. It's not like we'd have to hack off a limb or anything."

He quickly shook his head. "Oh no, I'm not bleeding. I hate needles. I just need to wake up."

Dusty dryly remarked, "This isn't a dream and do you see any needles around?"

The larger teenager looked like he was about to bolt, but Sam had a firm grip on his arm.

Carly looked in mild horror and interrupted, "You can't be serious."

The tech-producer looked to the web-hostess and answered in a curt tone, "We had him and he slipped through our fingers and we have no idea where he's at or how he would strike next. I'm not giving him the chance, especially since whatever he has planned has something to do with PMA's. I'm not letting him sabotage Jade's chance. If I have to bend some rules to stop him then I'll bend those rules."

Sam quickly retorted for the brunette, "This is about getting the book and stopping a hellgod from being released, not trying to impress your girlfriend. You need to get your priorities straight."

Carly blinked and quickly looked between Freddie and Sam before she remarked in a sharp tone, "Girlfriend? When did you get a girlfriend?"

Freddie ignored the question from his ex and answered the blonde headed half-demon, "I have my priorities straight: stop Dagon."

"It doesn't sound like it. Sounds like you're more concern about Jade above everything else. You've probably started a war with the slayers over her."

Carly shouted, "You did what?!"

Freddie rhetorically asked with a dry tone, "You didn't tell her?"

"It didn't come up this morning after we talked last night."

Carly threw up her hands and shouted, "Okay, what is going on? Jade's your girlfriend now and something's going on with you and the slayers?"

Freddie closed his eyes and shook his head. He did not want to deal with this right now with Carly, so he did what he thought was the most logical thing to do: he ignored her. He looked to Dusty and instructed without hesitation, "Find a spell for Cat and get whatever she needs for it."

"Right," Dusty answered before he disappeared in a blink of an eye with an accompanying soft flutter.

He stated with a sharp tone to the rest of them, "Cat's performing the spell, we'll found him and get the book then figure out who really is behind all this. End of discussion. In the meantime, I'm going to check on Tasha and Gibby, if you try to leave I will hunt you down, kneecap you and drag you back here."

He turned then started towards the stairs, leaving a fearful Gibby, an annoyed Sam and a confused Carly.

Tori awkwardly laughed, "Does anyone want anything?"

Vega Residence

Around two hours after Freddie's phone call, the door to the Vega home opened and Jade walked inside with Cat holding a sleeping Ian in her arms as she trailed right behind her. Jade ignored everyone else in the room as she walked to Freddie who was getting up from the couch and threw her arms around the back of his neck and pulled him into a tight hug.

Carly looked on in mild shock, seeing the confirmation of what Sam had caught her up on what had happened yesterday. Tori looked on in mild surprise about seeing openly what she had started to suspect between them, especially after yesterday.

Cat easily let a smile form on her face at seeing the physical response in Jade seeing the cute boy from Seattle.

Jade pulled slightly away, but didn't let him go. She whispered in a hushed tone that she hoped no one could overhear even with superhuman hearing, "Are you okay? Really?"

He gently took her hands into his hands and pulled them off his shoulders as he reassuringly smiled to her. "I'm fine and so is everyone else."

She blew out a loud breath at finally seeing with her own eyes that his reassuring words had been correct. Once she was satisfied that everything was okay with quick glances to Tori and Beck behind Freddie on the couch, the nearly raven haired colored girl glanced over to her frenemy and politely asked, "Tori, could Ian borrow a bed? He really didn't get his nap this afternoon."

"Sure," the younger Vega sister answered and took the child out of the Cat's arms. Ian easily relaxed his head on the brunette's shoulder, undisturbed from being transferred from one young woman to another in what to his body was trading one soft pillow to another.

Once the girl was heading up the stairs and her view unblocked by Freddie and Beck, she saw Carly and Sam on the second red couch towards the kitchen. "Carly? Sam?"

Carly hesitantly waved and hesitantly answered, "Hey."

"What are you doing here? Not that it's not a bad thing to see you, but…" She snapped her head to Freddie and sharply asked, "What happened and why are they here?"

He snorted out a breath through his nose and tried to tell what happened in as much a concise manner as possible, "We were looking for the book when Tori and I ran into an old friend from Seattle while some security guards that had been turned into deadites tried to murder Beck and Dusty on one of the upper floors. Of course everything snowballed from there in a firefight when some slayers showed up."

"Slayers? Where did they come from?"

"We think they probably followed Tori and then when the deadites saw them, that's when the bullets started flying. They almost got slaughtered if it wasn't for us—well if not for Dusty flash frying them. I wonder if they'll learn that Buffy's 'no gun' policy is a bunch of chizz. Anyway, we tracked down the book and who had it, but unfortunately during the fight he got away and now—"

Beck sharply corrected, "Dusty let him get away."

Freddie looked over his shoulder and frowned at the taller teenager. "And if he hadn't, Tasha would be dead. He made the right call."

"Tasha? Who's Tasha?"

"Gibby's ex-girlfriend."

Jade crossed her arms under her chest and asked, "Wait, how is she involved?"

"She was the one Tori and I met before everything went to Hell and it's actually led us to a break even if we had a setback in getting the book." Freddie looked to the petite redhead and politely informed her, "Cat, we need you to perform a spell to track down who has the book. Dusty is hunting down a spell and all the ingredients you need. We find where he's located and we put an end to this."

The redhead happily clapped her hands and squealed like a young school girl, "Oooo, a new spell."

Gibby asked with a displeasured expression from the kitchen, "Could you not be that excited?"

Jade pointed to the large teenager and asked with a confused expression, "Why is he here and why is he handcuffed to a chair?"

"So he can't run away. It's better than shooting him in the knees."

She raised her pierced eyebrow. "Why does he want to run away?"

"The spell we're going to use requires a bit of Gibby's flesh, but we can settle for a little bit of his blood."

Cat slightly frowned and the excitement quickly left her while she muttered, "Blood magic?"

Jade quickly asked, "Why?"

"Because the one that has the book we found out is a 'demon clone' of Gibby. Since they have the same flesh, we can use a spell Dusty suggested to track him down."

"Demon clone?"

Freddie shook his head. "One of the tricks in their bag. If a certain type gets in you, they can bud off of you and create an evil duplicate of you."

"And why haven't you mentioned this before?"

He shrugged his shoulders and embarrassingly smiled, "I didn't think of it. I thought it was a little bit of a myth."

A fluttering sound interrupted and caught their attention before Jade could possibly chew him out for the oversight. Everyone looked to see that Dusty had returned holding up a bag and a warn leather bound book. "Hey, I got the stuff and the spell. Actually a couple just in case one doesn't work. I have a Bavarian spell, I have an old Egyptian spell and I know there are a few more in here."

Cat quickly rushed to him and snatched the book from his hand, eager to look through the old spell book. She plopped down on the couch towards the door and eagerly started flipping through the pages.

Jade asked in a concerned filled voice, "Okay, Cat does her spell and then what? We go all gun-ho on him? You just said he nearly wiped out a bunch of slayers with a few guards. If he's hunkering down, we don't know how many more demons he's released or what they could be carrying."

Dusty quickly agreed, "Jade has a point. There was what? About eight slayers? I know they had to take out about six of them from the fight in minutes. Beck, Sammy and I would be fine, but you guys are quite mortal. If it turns into a long drawn out fight, one of you could get killed."

"That's why we're all going and overwhelm him before he knows what hits him. You and Sam make it a whole new game and can blast through anything he that he could put up in our way."

Jade reluctantly suggested, "If that's how we're going to play it then we're going to need all the help we can get if we're going after him, so… I need to find Xander and ask if they want to join the party."

Tori returned from the second floor to hear Jade's comment and instantly asked, "You're doing your best to keep them from being involved with your life and now you want to ask for their help?"

She turned and looked to her fellow slayer. "They want the book too, so why not let them do some of the heavy lifting? I think they owe me after breaking into my home and trying to murder me. I can't go home without worrying about whether they're going to try to kill me. If Xander meant what he said, then let him prove it by backing us up."

Dusty spoke up from his seat next Cat, "Tori's right though." He glanced to Freddie and asked, "I know I put at least put six of them down when smiting the deadites." He looked back to Jade and finished, "They are not going to be happy to see you and they are just going to add that number to blame on you."

"Probably, but a few more extra warm bodies isn't going to hurt so I should at least try."

Freddie took a breath as of course he didn't like the idea, but didn't think he would be able to talk her out of it. "Well if you're going to ask them, I don't want you to go by yourself in case they get any ideas."

"I'll take Dusty. That'll make them think twice from trying anything."

The former webmaster snorted out, "Or just piss them off more at seeing me and antagonize them to try something."

A piece of Freddie didn't mind that possibility: the slayers trying something stupid against Dusty so he could have the excuse to fry the demons in them like he did in the hotel. A few less slayers to deal with in the future, but the rational part of his mind won out and hoped against such a thing. However, that pause gave his mind a second thought on how he could have a little more insurance against Jade's idea.

"Fine, while you do that, I'm going to ask Mason for some help, see if he has a few guys to spare."

Tori ask in a frustrated manner, "How is that any better of an idea? You want to get slayers and vampires to be on the same side?"

Freddie pointed to Beck. "How many times have we've done it with him? Besides, he's got to have a few extra guys from his security detail that can handle something like this. He's trying to become the king of Los Angeles after all and if he's really so concerned about Jade then he needs to put his money where his mouth is and counterbalance the slayers if they agree to help us but decide to double cross us."

She ignored the double entendre and retorted, "That's different. He's Beck."

"Whatever, they need to get over their hang ups and deal with this or we're all going to be in the same sinking boat when a hellgod is unleashed. I'm not eager to have a prize fight with one in the streets of L.A."

"I think both of you are having really bad ideas. Mixing that up is just begging for something to go wrong."

"Maybe, but I'm not interesting in having a fair fight with that damn abomination. They can act like rational adults for a few hours."

Dusty snorted out a laugh, "Slayers rational?"

The three slayers in the room turned to him with clearly disapproving expressions.

"You ladies are all exceptions and you know it because you're not under her silly mind control. I stand by my general statement."

Tori sighed as she threw up her hands in frustration. "Fine, we'll try it your way."

Freddie cracked his second smile after today's events and softly laughed, "Thanks for your approval."

Dusty got up from his seat to take a step next to Jade. "Let's go ahead and get this over with then." The pale girl turned to Tori and asked the brunette of the home, "Watch Ian for me until I get back?"

Tori nodded her head and reassuringly smiled, a point she had absolutely no problem. "Absolutely."

Freddie stated to his Seattle nemesis, "Sam, I could use a lift, save some time."

The blonde frowned at the idea of being his taxi service, but one look from Carly telling her that she should honor the request got her to get up from her seat to walk to the 'Promised One'. She frowned as she took a step next to him.

Freddie whispered over to Beck and asked, "Make sure Gibby behaves for Cat's spell."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he cooperates."

"Okay, we'll be back soon."

Jade disappeared in a flutter with Dusty while Freddie disappeared in silence with Sam.

Cat got up from her seat and grabbed the bag of ingredients to perform her spell on the kitchen table. She sat the book on the table to the opposite side of the kitchen island then walked around to get a glass bowl out of one of the kitchen cabinets then returning to the open book and placed the bowl in the center of the table. She smiled to Gibby. "Okay Gibby, I'm going to need just tinsy-winsy amount of your blood."

He deeply frowned at her, signaling he was not going to cooperate with her no matter her cuteness.

Beck stated in a flat tone as he lifted his pointer finger and the nail supernaturally extended to a sharpened point, "Hold your arm out."

Gibby swallowed down a bit of fear, but extended his arm.

Author's Note: I know, a setup chapter, but you need them for the deliver of drama later. I bet you didn't see that twist and for those that have seen 'Army of Darkness', you understand how I pulled off that trick about Gibby. Take care, OneHorseShay.