AN:I was looking at the dates and noticed that the new moon was on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving in 1997. So consider the time line to be changed on acount of holidays.

Dilvish, read the story, enjoyed same.

Who makes a better member of the twelve? Oz or Jonathon?

The school library. Willow, Xander, Buffy and Jesse are sitting at the table.

Willow begins "So Giles is sure that the vampire who stole his book is connected to the one you slayed last night? Or is it slew?"

Giles comes out of the stacks with a National Geographic magazine. "Both are correct, and, yes, I'm sure. Du Lac was both a, a theologian and a mathematician. This article describes an invention of his, which he called 'The Du Lac Cross'." He comes down the stairs.

Xander "So, why go to all the trouble of inventing something, and then giving it a weak name like that? I mean, I'd of gone with 'The Cross-o-matic', or, uh, 'The Amazing Mr. Cross'."

The gang just stare at him. He looks up at Giles and nods. Giles doesn't think his musings are funny either.

Giles hands the open magazine to Willow. "The cross was more than a mere symbol, it was, uh, as Buffy put it so eloquently this morning, a decoder ring thingie."

Jesse laughs "Decoder ring thingie?"

Giles "That is how she referred to it before I had determined what it was."

Willow: "According to this, Du Lac destroyed every cross except the one buried with him."

Buffy: "Why destroy your own work?"

Giles paces. "Perhaps he feared what might happen if it fell into the wrong hands."

Xander "A fear we'll soon get to experience for ourselves up close and personal."

Giles "Unless we can preempt their plans."

Willow "How?"

Giles pulls a chair out and sits. "Uh, by learning what's in the book before they do. Which means we can expect to be here later tonight."

Willow smiles broadly. "Goody! Research party!"

Xander: "Will, you need a life in the worst way."

Buffy gets up. "Speaking of, Will and I really have to bail for now, but I promise we'll be back bright and early tomorrow and ready to search and slay."

Giles "This is a matter of some urgency, Buffy."

Buffy "I realize that. But we have plans and this isn't a prophecy situation. We'll be back in a few hours ready to research. Time to touch base and make sure I know why I'm fighting. And we'll bring snacks with us. And Angel." Buffy looks to Willow.

Willow looks up. "We should go. Y-y'know, gather our strength. Get something to eat."

Giles "Perhaps you're right. There may be fierce battles ahead."

Buffy makes tracks for the door, Willow along side her.

Jesse "But we need snacks now."

Xander complains "And Ho-Hos are a vital part of my cognitive process!"

Buffy smiles back at him. "Sorry, Xand, Jess. Someplace we have to be."

Giles, Jesse and Xander give each other a knowing look.

The ice skating rink. The place is empty except for Buffy skating gracefully in front of Willow. She makes use of the whole rink, doing practiced turns and spins. A minute later Buffy skates quickly by the staging area, and unnoticed by them, a stage panel begin pushed open. The one-eyed bounty hunter looks in at her.

Buffy skates along, showing off for Willow. She does a crouching maneuver, but wipes out and slides backward against the sidewall. As she starts to regain her feet up the bounty hunter reaches down and grabs her by the neck and lifts her off of the ice. He pushes her down onto the railing and begins to choke her. Buffy tries to pry his hands from her throat as she struggles to breathe.

Willow cries out "Buffy!" and takes off running to help. Angel comes running out to the ring, his game face showing.

He leaps at the bounty hunter, knocking him off of Buffy. She falls from the railing onto the ice landing on her knee. The bounty hunter pushs himself to his feet letting Angel punch him in the kidney. The bounty hunter is unfazed, and returns with a double-fisted punch to Angel's stomach, sending him back into the wall. Angel comes off the wall and jabs him in the face, but the bounty hunter just shrugs it off. He punches Angel in the face and gut, making him stagger into the wall again. The bounty hunter grabs Angel by the throat and lifts him up. Buffy comes skating toward them at a fast pace.. She grabs the rail and uses it to swing up with her foot and catches him in the back of the neck with the blade of her skate, severing his spine. He collapses there, dead.

Willow rubs Buffy's knee while Angel crouches over the bounty hunter and lifts his hand to inspect his ring.

Buffy "The Hellmouth presents: Dead Guys On Ice. Not exactly the evening we were aiming for."

Angel looks closely at the ring. "You're in danger. You know what the ring means?"

Buffy "I just killed a Super Bowl champ?"

Angel gets annoyed. "I'm serious! You should go home and wait until you hear from me." He drops the bounty hunter's hand and stands up. He still has his game face on. "Are you two okay?"

Buffy "What about you?"

Angel "Forget about me. This is bad, Buffy. We gotta get you two outta here."

Willow "Why? What's happening?"

Buffy "What, you mean hide?"

Angel "Let's just get you someplace safe for now! Then I'll explain."

Buffy "What about your eye?"

"It's nothing serious. How are you?"

"I'll live." She starts to get to her feet but hisses as she puts her weight on her knee. Angel picks her up and carries her out, Willow worriedly walking beside them, holding Buffy's hand. Off to the side the girl from the airport walks up and stops, observing them.

The library. Giles inspects the ring under a magnifying lamp. Buffy is sitting on the steps with Willow beside her holding an icepack to her knee. Angel, Jesse and Xander are at the table.

Buffy "This guy was hard-core, Giles. And Angel was power-freaked by that ring."

"I'm afraid he was not overreacting. This ring is worn only by members of the Order of Taraka. It's a society of deadly assassins dating back to before King Solomon. Their credo is to sow discord and kill the unwary."

The group look concerned and upset.

Buffy "These assassins, someone hired them. Who? And Why?" She pauses and thinks for a moment. "Spike. The vamp that stole the book worked for him. What do you want to bet that the vamp that took the cross works for him to?"

Willow "Then he's planing something."

Buffy "We just need to figure out what.."

Giles rubs his eyes and exhales. "I don't know, I don't know. I think the best thing we can do is to find a secure location. Somewhere out of the way you can go until we decide on the best course of action."

"I have to agree with Giles." Angel comments.

Buffy gets up. "Okay, now you have both say to head for the hills. Are you saying I can't handle this, that I'm not strong enough to fight these people?"

Giles: "They're a breed apart, Buffy. Unlike vampires they have no earthly desires, but to collect their bounty. They find a target, and, uh... they eliminate it. You can kill as many of them as you like, it won't make any difference. Where there's one, there will be another, and another. They won't stop coming until the job is done." Willow listens in shock while Buffy absorbs this solemnly. "Each one of them works alone. His own way. Some are human, some... a-are not. Y-you won't know who they are until they strike."

We see Norman looking through his binoculars at Buffy's house. On the floor behind him Mrs. Kalish is lying there dead. A trail of mealworms leads from her over to Norman sitting in a chair.

Norman takes the binoculars from his eyes. There are mealworms crawling over his shoes. His hand and part of his forearm are missing, and the mealworms crawl all over it. They quickly form a hand, and it takes on the appearance of human skin. He calmly reaches over to a cup of tea and lifts it to take a sip.

Halls at school. Buffy is wigged and tense as she walks down the hall. She holds her hands to the back of her neck and shoulders. She jumps when a boy barges through the doors in the hall in front of her. She walks through the doors and scans the students in the hall, paranoid about them looking at her. The police recruiter looks at her, and she stares back. A teacher comes down the stairs in front of her and looks at her as he runs a comb through his hair. Several students walk past her, giving her the occasional glance. Behind her Oz comes walking at a quick pace. She hears a locker slam behind her and spins toward the noise, notices Oz quickly bearing down on her, takes him by the neck and shoves him into the wall.

"Try it!"

Oz is confused. "Try what?"

She realizes she's made a mistakes and lets go of his neck. "I-I'm sorry."

"Still not clear what I'm supposed to try."

"Nothing. God, I'm... sorry, I..." She steps away from him, looks both ways down the hall and quickly heads off in the direction she was going. Oz moves away from the wall and shudders.

"That is one tense person."

Buffy's street at night. Buffy walks home alone, arms crossed and scanning the area around her. When she reaches her house she stops and just stares at it. She thinks better of going inside, looks around again and continues on.
The library. Giles walks out of his office cleaning his glasses. Willow is sitting at the counter going through a volume. Angel is looking through volumes at the table. Xander is sitting on the steps thinking.

Willow "I wish there was more we could do."

"We're doing all that we can. The only course of action is to try and find out what was in that stolen book." He puts on his glasses and reads a card from the catalog.

Willow "I've never seen Buffy like that. She just took off."

Jesse comes in. "Well, she didn't go home. I let the phone ring a few hundred times before I remembered her mom and sister are out of town."

Giles "Well, maybe Buffy unplugged the phone."

Xander comments. "No, it's a statistical impossibility for a sixteen-year-old girl to unplug her phone. Besides, they could easily find out where she lives. Giles, Angel." He looks at them coldly. "You forgot that Buffy's may be only sixteen but she is still a veteran. You just couldn't tell her what was happening and help her deal. You had to just keep pointing ouot how inadequate to the task she was."

Willow nods in agreement.

Giles "Well, perhaps my words of caution were... a little too alarming."

Willow with heavy sarcasm. "Ya think? We have no idea where she is and the order could be anywhere."

Xander "It's good that she took you seriously, Giles, but you focused to much on the danger, not enough on what she can do. I just wish we knew where she was."

Out side Willow's house. Buffy walks over to the door. There's no answer when she knocks.

"Willow?" She calls out desperately.

She tries the doorknob, but it's locked.

After a moment, she hears someone opening the door.

It swings open to reveal Ira Rosenberg. He looks at the forlorn figure of his daughter's best friend standing there and pulls the door open and lets her in. She enters and he leads her to the kitchen. He fixes them both a cup of chamomile tea and sits beside her, just waiting for her to relax. After a few minutes he asks "How did your date with my daughter go?"

"You know. Oh. .hh"

"Don't worry. I accidentally overheard Willow talking to you on the phone yesterday. It surprised me but." He shrugs his shoulders.

She calms down. "You don't mind?"

"She is my daughter. I want her to be happy. And her path is not mine. So how did it go?'

"It was wonderful until this guy attacked us. And I don't want to go home tonight. May I?"

"Go on upstairs. You may stay here tonight.