Sitting in the living room, Xander and Faith watched TV. Dawn had gone to bed, and Willow and Buffy had eventually joined them. Joyce was upstairs getting ready for bed as well.

After a very long conversation with Buffy, Joyce had decided to put the teens up for the night, although tomorrow she was definitely going to get some straight answers from them.

And Faith and Xander most certainly weren't going to be sleeping in the same room.

Faith would be staying with Buffy, and Xander would have to make due with on the couch.

Just before going to bed the thought stuck Buffy.

"Where's Giles?"

Giles was in hell.

Although the literal version might actually be less painful, he reflected.

He was locked in a basement with two hormonal teenagers and a demon waiting for them to try to get out.

He could hear the creature upstairs. It was sitting in a rocking chair and every so often it would rock back and forth.

So far he had broken up the teens three times.

Once for fighting and two times for – other things.

He most certainly was NOT going to sit here with them groping each other.

After breaking them up again, he looked to the ceiling imploringly and asked, "Why me? I know did terrible things as Ripper but this goes beyond punishment."

Behind him, Cordelia and Jessie had once again began to make out.

Just then, there was more movement up stairs, causing Cordelia to jump and almost scream. They heard a loud thump and then nothing.

It was so quite that when someone tried the door it cause everyone in the basement to jump.

But not as much as when Buffy called through the door.

"Giles?"

"He was a bug man," Jessie was telling the group once they were out of the house.

"What is it with you and Bug people?" Buffy asked with a smirk, thinking back to the teacher that almost has eaten him last year.

"Not a bug man, but one made up lots of little buggies," Jessie explained looking down at the shorter Slayer.

Giles had left to see if he could find out anything about the bug man, while Cordelia had taken off to get a shower after finding a bug in her hair.

The whole time Xander had sat and watched the group.

The Family.

He had Faith and that was all he needed.

But seeing the group, the way it moved and talked, he missed having a family.

He had always been surrounded by people. Sure, maybe he was never an important part. But he had been a part of it, nonetheless.

Faith watched the group from the side.

While she wouldn't have minded being a part of a group like that, it wasn't a driving need. She was a loner. And other than Xander and Linda, she hadn't really wanted or needed anyone. But she knew her Xander. This was what he had always wanted.

And to see him cut off from it hurt her more than she thought it could.

"You ok?" Faith asked. Buffy looked up at the sound of the voice. She had almost forgotten about the others.

"What was that thing?" Buffy asked Xander walking over. "You were over there by yourself and it didn't attack you. So what was it?"

"I don't know," Xander almost whispered.

He was looking at the new tattoos on his hands. Every time he lost control, new ones would come to the surface and they would stay.

These were like chains wrapping around his hands - even covering his palms - and each link was covered in barbs.

Just looking at them he knew that they were covered in a poison.

"You don't know?" Buffy asked. "Guy, I am trying to give you a break here. I don't trust you. You set my teeth on edge. But Willow seems to like you. That gives you a break, but lying to me doesn't help you."

"I'm not lying," Xander said in the same voice. "I don't know who was there. I can't remember what happened after the fight."

Buffy still looked like she didn't believe him. But she had to deal with a monster this close to her home and Angel was still out there somewhere with Spike, who was doing god know what to him.

"Get some rest. Tomorrow, we're tearing the town apart. We've got to find Angel," Buffy told the group.

"What about the Assassin?" Jessie asked. "They're still gunning for you."

"I can handle them."

Later, after everyone had gone home or to bed, Xander felt a movement in the room with him.

"Faith?"

"Yeah." Xander could see her dark form move across the room.

"You lied to them," was all she said. "What was over there?"

"I don't know," Xander replied, with a sigh, before he added, "but it felt like - Family."

The next day

The Library was quiet.

Half of the Scoobies were looking through books, trying to find out how Spike could be using Angel. If they could find out why, then they would know where.

The other half was looking through the books for the Bug man.

Xander had caught the looks he was getting. From Buffy's confrontational looks, to Giles' speculative glances, to Faith's trusting grins. And Willow's hopeful expression.

It was tiresome.

So many people with so many ideas of who or what he was. After hours of this, he was getting fed up. And the Voice just wouldn't leave him alone.

With every look, it would tell him something. How Buffy didn't trust him, even though he had not done anything to her.

Or how Giles was planning his death, so that he would never get to his true power.

Or that Faith would leave him, now that she had met someone like her. Someone that wasn't becoming a monster.

Or that Willow was just using him. A stepping stone to true power. Power that the red head wanted more than anything. Power so no one could hurt her ever again.

Giles watched the boy.

He seemed to be sinking into a very dark place and there was nothing he could do about it. Faith had taken him aside this morning, telling him about what Xander had told her about the Bug Demon.

It was all very disconcerting.

He wanted to trust the young man, but about him something bothered him.

One minute he charming and friendly. Even childish, to a degree. Then next, a dark shadow would roll into his eyes and something else was looking out at you.

Something not human.

He was preparing to contact the Council. It was his duty. He couldn't find anything in his books here to help the lad. But maybe the Council could. And if they couldn't, they had the resources to take the boy out.

Looking again at the boy, then across to the other children, he didn't know what scared him worse: that he would let a child go to his death, or that he hadn't enough problem with it to stop it.

Across town.

"He's still with the slayer. Both of them," the young girl said, looking up from a bowl in front of her.

"Is he holding them?" the leader of the solders asked.

"No," the woman said looking at the bowl again, "I can see nothing that would say that. They appear to be... Bored."

Buffy popped her gum again while looking at a picture in a book. She hated this part of the gig - looking stuff up.

Just give her something to hit and she was happy. She looked at the picture again. Still not really looking at it.

A shadow moved across her looking up she saw a smiling Faith.

"Uh, Buff?" Faith asked.

"Yeah?" Buffy replied, looking up at the dark Slayer.

"You been staring hard at that picture. You got something you want to tell us?" Faith asked, smirking.

"What?" Buffy asked, confused.

"That's Ill'thid porn your reading." Faith said as she started to laugh. "Complete with pictures of their tentacles. If you know what I mean."

Buffy looked back at the picture she had been staring at. And as if by magic, it snapped into focus. She could make out what it was and where it was sliding. And she could even see the young girl's face in he illustration. And just knew it was sliding into the place it should have been going.

Giles had just time to dodge as a book came flying across the room.

"Buffy!"

Spike looked down at his love.

Dru.

She was sleeping. At peace. A smile playing on her face. He wished that she was strong enough that would allow him to act on his impulses. To fall on her and tear and drink. To bath in her blood while she was fighting him back.

But with her illness she wouldn't be able to hurt him back the way he needed it. And it was just no fun hurting her unless she could hurt him back.

With a growl, he turned and strode out of his bedroom. He didn't stop 'til he reached the main room where he had Angel chained.

Spike looked at Angel, then spat on him before flopping into a chair. He leaned back, kicking his booted feet up on to the table before him.

"How the might have fallen!"

Angel just lay there. He had tried everything he could do to try an escape but nothing worked. His only hope was that Buffy would find him.

"You know, Peaches," Spike was telling him, "if you just go willingly, I will go easy on you. After we're done, we'll just pack up and go. Leave your Slayer and her little band of merry men alone."

"Spike," Angel finally said. "You're full of shit."

"Yep," Spike replied with a easy smile. "True."

"You're just going to go after Buffy," Angel said looking up at the master vampire, "as soon as you get Dru back on her feet."

"No," Spike said looking down at the master Vampire. "I'm going after them all. Your Slayer. Her Watcher. The computer nerd. The cheerleader. All of them."

"You touch them, and I'll kill you," Angel snarled.

"You won't have to," a voice called out. Dru was standing in the doorway.

The worms in the wall had awoken her, whispering the secrets only they knew.

"The Horsemen are coming. And those that watch are following. And Spike has a choice to make. Is he going to be the hammer or the nail. Both are tools but only one is kept. The other is used and left."

And with that, the Seer turned to Angel.

"You've seen the carpenter. Would you go against him? Hmmm... Daddy?"

Then she laughed and started to dance.

The stars looked so nice this time of day.

Soon.

It would all be over soon.