"That's him!" Xander and Willow said in unison. The three of them ducked into a booth, out of view.
Unbelievably, Giles was having dinner with the fellow. It didn't look very cordial. Buffy strained her ears to pick up their conversation.
"What's he saying?" Xander couldn't stand it any longer.
"Shhh," Buffy hissed. "They're talking about taking heads…." She filled them in on the grizzly conversation.
The angry young man got up to leave.
"Okay, I've heard enough," Buffy said, getting into Slayer mode.
"Me too," said Willow, and Xander nodded. "What do we do now?"
"We need that chronicle thing," she said to Willow. "It's got some sort of ritual in it."
"Right." Willow could handle that.
"And me?" Xander asked.
"Follow Ryan," Buffy said. "We need to know where he goes."
Xander swallowed. "I think I know where he'll be. Unless he's been busy, the 'body' he mentioned is old Tompkins'."
"Good. We have two hours, people." Buffy slid down in the vinyl seat as the Immortal passed their booth. He moved like a hunter, striking a matching chord in Buffy. Slayer to slayer, she understood him on a gut level she didn't want to think about.
"We'll need somewhere quiet, and isolated, to perform this Immortal ritual," Willow said, ever practical.
Buffy thought for a minute. "The library's too public—"
"Not to mention flammable," Xander said, thinking of those lightning bolts.
"How about the cemetery?" Willow said.
"Our home away from home," Xander quipped.
"Why not?" Buffy agreed. "That solves the problem of what to do with the body afterward." Disposing of vampires was never a problem, as they self-destructed and left no messy residue.
"What about Giles?" Willow whispered, watching the forlorn back of their good friend and stalwart guide through many a hair-raising occurrence on the Hellmouth.
"Leave Giles to me." Buffy had a plan, but she didn't think Giles would approve of it.
Buffy waylaid Giles on his way to the library. "Hi. What's new?" She sounded her usual, cheery self.
"Oh, Buffy," he said, coming back from a million miles away. He couldn't bring himself to turn her away, but he must. "I haven't got time right now—"
"I know." She danced along side of him, juices pumping. "You have a date with the sword guy."
That made him slow his pace a moment. "What an absurd idea." he said, trying to deny it. He must get her to leave, before something went wrong. The Immortal was a threat to Buffy and the others as long as Giles lived to tempt him. Afterward, he'd move on to greener hunting grounds.
"In two hours." Buffy went on as if he hadn't spoken.
Giles stopped with his hand on the library door. "You were eavesdropping. I'm disappointed in you, Buffy."
"No, you're not," she smiled. "You think I'm pretty special. And you're kind of special to me too, Giles. That's why I can't let you meet this Immortal. He'll only take your head."
Giles pushed through the door and let it swing closed behind them. "I know," he said bravely, making his way to his desk by rote. "But it can't be helped."
"Yes it can," Buffy said, trying to stand where he would look at her. "I can take his head first."
Giles whipped around with surprising quickness and took her by the shoulders. "Promise me you won't interfere, Buffy. It's not your fight. It's mine."
Buffy stared up at his face contorted with emotion. "And just what were you planning to fight with?" she asked. "This?" She stepped back and drew his sword from behind her back.
"Where did you find that," he demanded.
"You should know, Giles. You hid it in the stacks."
His shoulders sagged. "And I meant it to stay hidden," he said, slumping onto his desk.
Buffy's cheeks flared with anger. "You were going to let the misbegotten creature chop your head off! Without a fight."
"What' the use in a fight you can't win?" he said, voicing the thoughts that had haunted him ever since the stranger's arrival in Sunnydale.
"You can say that to me?" Buffy was just getting started. "After all the hopeless causes you've sent me out to face? Oh, that's rich, Giles."
She paced the floor before his desk, then wheeled on her mentor. "That's the coward's way out," she said harshly.
Giles looked up from polishing his glasses. "You really think so? I wondered myself—"
She let him mull it over for himself, setting his sword on the desk beside him. He fingered its grip, running his fingers lovingly don the line of runes.
"It's been so long, though," he said. "I've forgotten more than I can remember."
"It's just like riding a bike," she said. "You never really forget."
"I suppose you could be right."
It was working. Buffy could see the wheels begin to turn in his mind, changing sure defeat into possible victory. A glimmer of hope that meant a will to live.
That's all she wanted to see. Walking quietly around the desk, she picked up the massive dictionary and brought it down on Giles' head with all her Slayer force.
He crumpled to the floor without a sound. She almost panicked when she saw all the blood, but she reminded herself that Immortals couldn't be killed any way but one.
She picked up his sword and headed for the door. They died when you cut their heads off. And that's just what she had in mind for one tough customer with a sword of his own.
Where he was all alone, she had her companions to help her. Giles didn't have anything to worry about. Together they'd rid the world of one Richie Ryan.
