The silence could not have been more awkward for the group, or at least most of them. Tobias seemed to be perfectly fine with walking with the people who had found him with two half naked woman he'd apparently slept with for an unbelievable amount of time and seemed to be intimate with, but the rest of them sure as hell weren't. Well, except Anya, but she didn't count as a normal person.

Tobias rolled his eyes, feeling Xander shoot a look behind him, practically bursting with questions. "Alright, since this is already awkward for you guys and I don't want to be the subject of looks for the rest of the day, I'll answer any questions you may have. Well, not any question, there's some secrets I'm not ready to share."

"OK... Um..." Xander tried to think of a place to start within this storm of curiosity and confusion he had. "So... Those two were your girlfriends? Both of them?"

Tobias nodded. "Been with Kazehana for a little more than a year, Yahan 11 months. Didn't enter a relationship with her until later, and no," he cut off Xander as his mouth opened. "I did not cheat on Kazehana, she was fully aware of Yahan when she joined."

"Where'd you meet them?" Anya asked. "Because the names aren't ones you'd normally hear in places like this."

Tobias seemed to think for a second before chuckling, apparently amused. "I guess you could say we met in Tokyo, though we knew by a different name. Shinto Teito."

"What the heck were you doing in Japan?" Buffy asked.

"Complete accident." Tobias said simply. "You want more info about that, you'll have to wait until I tell you on my own. Next."

"How long have they been in Sunnydale?"

"They actually arrived at the same time The Gentlemen did, but lost their voices with the rest of the town. The only reason Buffy and later Willow knew about them was because they ran into me and Buffy the night we killed the Gentlemen when we were patrolling and I then sent them to check on Willow just in case. As for why they didn't tell you... Actually, I don't have an explanation for that." He gave the pair a questioning look. "Why didn't you tell them?"

Willow shifted. "Well, I thought you'd want to tell them and would, but it never came around, so I didn't bring it up."

"Oh. Well, thank you for respecting my privacy Willow. Buffy?"

"Um... Same reason." She said, but the truth was she'd honestly forgotten to tell the others. First it was the Gentlemen, then dealing with Riley's outing as a commando and the Sacrifice of Three to end the world, then starting to date... Really it just got lost in the mix.

"You completely forgot to tell them didn't you?" Tobias killed her excuse without mercy and in a deadpan.

"You forgot to tell your best friends that Tobias has two insanely hot girlfriends?" Xander pointed at her. "Shame on you."

"Xander, I say this as a friend. If you make any kind of pass at them, I will not be responsible for the consequences."

"Whoa, easy pal," he held up his hands in surrender. "I solemnly swear off them, just don't hurt me. Besides," he put his arm around Anya's shoulder and pulled her close. "I got my own girlfriend whom I'm perfectly happy with."

"Good. And for the record, I wouldn't be the one hurting you. They would, and you do not want to see Yahan with a grudge and her knife. You'd be jumping at shadows for weeks." He paused. "And Kazehana might accidentally cause a mini tornado is she was pissed off enough, but I seriously doubt either of those will happen. They're pretty friendly and level headed." He noticed everyone had stopped and was looking at him oddly, except for Buffy. "What?"

"Is there anything else we should know about them?" Willow asked.

"What do you-oh." Tobias said, realizing what he'd just said without meaning too. He sighed. Oh well, not like they weren't going to find out at some point anyways. "OK, yeah. Both of them have abilities, like I do. Actually, not like I do, because my abilities come from a twisted, spiritual power while theirs is a biological part of them, but that's not important at the moment." He blinked before smacking his head with a groan. "And I apparently need my brain to mouth filter replaced. Forget what I just said please."

The blink he got from everyone pretty much said their thoughts were of the 'wait, what' variety. And the best way to make them forget what he'd just said would be to drop another bomb on them.

"Anyways, yeah, Kazehana and Yahan both have their own abilities. Kazehana's got wind powers and can do a lot of what I can on a smaller scale. Yahan, on the other hand, has shadow powers and can travel through them like walking through a door."

"Interesting. Is she part wraith? They can do something similar." Anya asked.

"Nope, not a drop of demon blood in either of them, just like me. Doesn't make them any less dangerous though. Kazehana can be a powerhouse when she wants to and Yahan is deadly fast."

Buffy cocked an eyebrow, interested as a thought struck her. "Hey Tobias."

"Yeah?"

"If you had to rank them, you, and me, what would the standings be?"

"Hhmm." He tapped his chin. "Well, if we're talking about physical prowess, it'd go you, Kazehana, Yahan because she's built for power and speed while her abilities just gives her exit strategies and ways to confuse her opponents, and finally me. If you're talking about actually based on our powers, then it'd be you, Yahan, Kazehana, and me."

"Excuse me, but why are you on the top of both rankings?" Xander asked.

Tobias gave him a dead serious look that made everyone pause for a second. This was not him making any joke or arrogance on his part, but simply delivering the facts. "Yahan's power effectiveness depends on outside factors, mostly if there are shadows around she can utilize in battle. During the day, it's not at full efficiency, but night is just as much her domain as vampires, maybe even more so since she can manipulate them to give herself escape routes at full power. Kazehana can use her powers at any time, producing a powerful breeze to a gale powerful enough to send car flying to a full-fledged tornado at her height of power. She can also produce wind blades that can slice through most anything like butter. If push came to shove, she could damage a large portion of the town."

Buffy swallowed. She could do some damage, but hearing what Tobias's girlfriends could do made her suddenly feel like she'd only been a medium sized fish living in a large pond. They, however, were the big fish.

"W-w-what can you do?" Willow asked, seemingly as shocked as the others.

He considered it for the second. "You mean at full throttle?" The redhead nodded. "Let me put it this way. At full power, my range of air manipulation is around ten miles. And what I can do with all that air... well, Sunnydale would be indistinguishable from the surrounding desert flatness."

Buffy instantly scratched her last thought at that picture. There weren't big fish in this pond now, there were sharks, and Tobias was the biggest. She was suddenly very thankful he was on their side and such a nice guy, or they'd be royally screwed.

"No wonder you could have sex for hours on end. With that kind of stamina you could go at it for days." Anya said, apparently impressed.

And just like that, the tension died in a blazing inferno.

Tobias burst out laughing while the others looked mortified, doubly for Xander. "Oh, you have no idea. We all have at least Slayer level stamina, plus an empathic link between us. If they feel happy, sad, angry, anything, I feel it and vice versa. You throw that into the mix and the pleasure is absolutely mind blowing. We've actually once broke glass when I made them scream."

"Any chance I could join in?"

"ANYA!" Everyone's faces went supernova at the blunt question.

"No chance in hell Anya. It's a private party, and we do not invite anybody to it."

"Can you please stop talking to my girlfriend about what you and yours get up to please? I don't need these images in my head after you threatened me with bodily harm." Xander pleaded with a red face.

Tobias smirked. "Consider this payback for waking me up this morning, but," he sighed, like he was making some big sacrifice. "Very well, I'll stop embarrassing all of you. Besides, we're here." He said, pointing at the building Giles lived in and that they had almost walked past. Putting aside the satisfaction at getting his small revenge, Tobias asked seriously as they walked up the path, "So how high is the probability we're going to have another apocalypse level event with this demon?"

"Pretty high, but we won't know for sure until we talk to..." They all stopped, staring at the open front door that was hanging off its hinges. "Giles."

The group hurried in and found the place trashed. Buffy saw that the other side of the door knob was slightly warped, finger marks in the metal. A shirt was on the floor, torn in half, next to a shattered chair and a piece of the banister next to the stairs. The phone was also crushed.

"Looks like Xander wasn't the only one to get a visit from our new friend." She said while Tobias examined a hole in the wall next to the wall mounted mirror and Xander ran upstairs.

"He's not upstairs." He reported, coming back down.

"Oh god, Giles." Willow said.

"OK, there's a demon and Giles is gone. But it doesn't mean that he's hurt. I mean, there's no blood anywhere so maybe the demon just took him somewhere?" Buffy asked, trying to calm them down. Anya picked up the ripped shirt and looked at it while Tobias stuck his hand in the hole, fingers spread.

"I think it ate him up." The former vengeance demon said mildly, making everyone even more worried.

"Hhmm." Tobias hummed, taking his hand out. He flexed it, looking around the room. Something was bugging him, but he couldn't tell what. "Anya, let me see that shirt."

The blonde blinked, but handed it to him as he walked over. He took it, tracing the ripped edges, then dropped it, going to the door to examine the side that faced outside.

"Tobias, what are you...?"

"Shut up, I'm thinking." Tobias cut Buffy off, looking at the door knob next, then turning on the spot. "Because there's something wrong with this picture."

"You mean besides the lack of Giles?" Xander asked sarcastically.

Tobias pointed at the door face. "Look at this door. There's no impression, no dents or cracks in it, but the inside handle is crushed. And the shirt," he picked up both halves again. "Is apparently ripped right in half, but it looks more like it was cut to me. Plus the phone is crushed, there's a hole in the wall, banister is torn out and chair is crushed."

"What are you saying?" Buffy said, not in the mood to play games.

Tobias looked at her. "All this destruction, but one thing's not making any sense... If the demon got out through the door, then how'd it get in in the first place?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"OK, what about this one?" Willow asked, showing Xander a picture.

"OK, that's a giant vulture." He pointed at the picture. "I'd mention if it was a giant vulture."

"I've actually seen a giant vulture before." Tobias said, closing his current book and picking up another. "Thing always went right for the eyes. Least until I ran into some other guys and tricked it into going after them."

"How is that at all relevant?" Buffy asked.

"It's not, but it's also proven you work better if you don't panic and keep a level head."

After putting the door back into place and cleaning up, the entire gang had started searching for any description of the demon that Xander has seen. And after three hours of searching... They had nothing.

"You know, even if we figure out what kind of demon has Giles, how will find it?" Willow asked.

"We'll figure it out." Buffy brushed off. "What about this one, it's got tufty ears." She showed the picture, but Xander shook his head. She grumbled and moved away before everyone froze, a sound coming from outside.

"What was that?" Willow asked.

"Human. No idea who, but considering he's got a beating heart and isn't bursting in flames, it's safe to say they're among the living." Tobias rattled off, never looking up from the page he was reading. "'Injects victims with toxin that causes extreme pain until their minds snap, followed by tearing limb from limb and devouring the still pulsing heart.' Right, never meeting one these things then."

Buffy ignored the passage her friend had just read and went to the door, stake she has grabbed from her bag in hand just in case. Everyone except Tobias watched it tensely. The door then screeched open, bottom dragging across the floor, and Buffy lifted her arm up in preparation to stake...

Riley, who walked through the door and blinked when he saw he wasn't alone, dressed in civilian clothes. His eyes locked onto the nearest person. "Buffy?"

"Riley?" Buffy lowered her arm while everyone relaxed. "What are you doing here?"

"There were some 911 coming from a few different places, including here."

"You get 911 calls?" Xander asked, standing up from the desk he was sitting at. Everyone looked particularly hopeful, thinking maybe Giles had managed to call for help before he'd been taken.

"We have a tap into the system. It flags things with possible non-human causes," the commando explained. "We check them out. What are you doing here?" He directed the question towards Buffy.

"This is Giles' apartment. He's missing. The calls, did anyone see what did it?" She asked.

"Negative," he said formally, straightening and standing at attention before realizing it wasn't strictly necessary. "Um, no. Neighbors just heard, you know, growling, things breaking. Sounded like a struggle."

"Poor Giles." Willow muttered.

"We'll get him back Will. Xander, it didn't happen to have stingers, did it?" Tobias asked.

"No."

"Damn it." He growled, flipping the page.

"What are you working on?" Riley asked, looking at everyone

"Uh, we have stuff. Pictures..."

"We have nothing." Anya said helpfully, cutting off Buffy's meager response. Said blonde crossed her arms and leaned against the closest wall, trying not to look as upset as she felt. She must not have done a good job because Riley put both hands on her shoulders in comfort.

"I'll help. The whole Initiative. We'll do whatever you need."

She smiled weakly. "Thanks. I just wish I knew what I needed. I keep thinking, "Let's ask Giles" and then I remember."

She'd flown blind before, but Giles had always been her rock, the one she went to when she had questions that needed answering and that had to do with the supernatural. The few times he wasn't available was when they already had someone to blame for him being missing or had enough clues to piece the puzzle together themselves. But now that they didn't have the older, wiser, and more experienced-in-the-ways-of-life-and-mystical-stuff Watcher, they were lost.

Xander must've been thinking the same thing because he turned in his chair. "He'd be great right now. He'd find himself in a second. Nobody is cooler in a crisis." He said firmly, pointing to drive that fact home.

"Hhmm-hm." Tobias cleared his throat, looking pointedly at the teen from his spot.

"OK, fine, or you."

"Thank you." Tobias grabbed and tossed a large book towards Riley. "Might as well help in the meantime. We've still got 20 plus books to check."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Two more hours of searching brought them to past 2 PM, all of them having changed spots to the more comfortable couch. Anya, Willow, and Xander were sitting on the cushions, Buffy and Tobias on an arm each and Riley standing behind his girlfriend.

Xander tapped the book he was reading before pressing it to Willow. "That's it, that's the thing that attacked me."

"Oh, thank you god." Tobias stood up and moved around to look over Willow's shoulder. A picture depicted a demon that had long, curly horns similar to those of a ram, pointed and hairy ears that stuck out from them, pointed teeth, claws, and coarse skin. "Let's see. Fyarl demon. Foot soldier type, works for other demons a lot of the time. Very strong and... OK, that's new. Uses mucous that hardens like rock in fights."

"Ew." Willow made a face as he read that.

A BEEP came from Riley's pocket, promoting him to take out a cellphone and flip it open. "Agent Finn, go ahead."

"How do we kill it?" Buffy asked.

"Passage says that silver is deadly to it."

"Yes. I understand." Riley nodded before hanging up. "The demon attacked Professor Walsh. Got out of a small, gray car. A Citroen."

"It stole Giles' car." Willow said.

"Why would a demon steal a car?" Xander asked.

Anya added, "Why would a demon steal that car?"

Tobias stood up, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Stealing a car is an aggressive move and it attracts attention, but these Fyarl demons don't sound like independent thinkers. Someone must be directing it."

Buffy nodded. "Will, this morning, when you were telling me about those spells that are going wrong . . . could that be caused by someone using majiks to control a demon? Making this Fyarl demon attack Giles?"

She nodded slowly. "Yes. Yeah, that would draw in a lot of dark energy."

The blonde nodded before standing up. "OK. Willow, Xander: stay here. Who's ever controlling this demon may call and ask for a ransom. Give them anything they want."

"You got it."

"Riley, Tobias, we're going to the magic shop. Maybe whoever did this needed supplies." She said, walking around the couch to look at Giles desk. "Let's see, something silver..." She picked up a letter opener, which resembled a dull switch blade.

"That's not very sharp." Tobias noted.

"Guess I'll have to put some muscle behind it then."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Twenty minutes later the trio was exiting the car Riley had been driving and were approaching the door, Buffy moving quicker than the others.

"I didn't even know this was here." Tobias said, looking at the store. It was one of those out of the way shops that you could walk right by and not even realize it was there, or think it was one that sold junk to tourist.

"Willow stops here sometime to buy extra supplies. Hopefully like our guy did." Buffy said, stopping in front of the door and lifting her leg on preparation to kick it open.

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Tobias pulled her back. "Can you at least let me try the door before we kick it in?"

"Actually, I have a master key..." Riley tried to speak up.

"We don't have time to play nice." The blonde said angrily, trying to move past him.

He sighed, rubbing his brow. "Buffy, if you'd let me open the door, we'd be in already."

She growled lowly, crossing her arms "Well, hurry up then."

"The things I do for friends." Tobias rolled his eyes before looking at the door knob. A quick thought and the lock clicked, allowing him to push the door open. "After you." He said with a mock bow.

"Thanks." Buffy muttered as she walked past while Riley just stared at him. Tobias noticed and just looked back blankly.

"What?"

"How did you do that?"

"You mean the lock on the door?" He got a nod in response. "One of my tricks." And with that answer explaining absolutely nothing, Tobias went into the shop, leaving the commando little choice but to follow.

The inside of the shop was small, but fully stocked. The shelving along the walls and free standing ones were fully stocked with glass jars, baskets, and single items that were all apparently used in magic. Things like feathers, hair, dolls, claws, fangs, insect eyes, plants, herbs, spices, crystals, you name it, and it was in that shop. Tables held more ingredients and books while a long wooden counter had an old fashioned cash register. Buffy was busy studying through the records at the counter.

"Okay. Credit card slips, sales receipt. Help me look." She told the pair.

Tobias moved behind the counter to help. "Do you have any idea what we're looking for?" He asked while scanning the papers.

"No, unfortunately. There's a few guys that would do something like this but it seems like a new one keeps popping up every other week."

"OK, well whoever did this would've gotten their supplies early, maybe a week at most if they spent time running surveillance after that. So if we assume that, then there's only about..." Tobias discarded any records that were dated more than a week ago. "Twenty or so names."

"You sound like you've done this before." Riley noted as he gave them a look.

"You pick up some tricks here and there." He replied. "You want to help us look or just stand there..."

"That one." Buffy interrupted, grabbing the paper Tobias had just gotten to. She scowled at the name written on it, knowing this was going to get ugly. "Ethan Rayne."

"Someone you know?" Tobias asked while putting away the other slips.

"Professional bad guy. He's gotta be the guy that made the demon attack Giles." Buffy said shortly as Riley took the slip and looked at the name. She didn't really register it while going through everything she knew about the evil spell caster.

Ethan Rayne actually an old friend of Giles from when they were in college, but the man had been radically different then. Instead of a mature responsible guy who followed the rules, he'd been a stereotypical rebellious bad boy, as well as a demon worshipper who preferred the name "Ripper". Eventually he got himself sorted out and became a Watcher, but Ethan had stayed basically the same. He was a spineless, smooth talking worm that practiced dark and chaotic magic which had caused them problems more than a few times. His recorded stunts in Sunnydale included turning everyone into their costumes on Halloween, bewitching Band candy so that any adults who ate it regressed into their behavior when they were teens, and now apparently sending demons after Giles.

"At least we know who we're looking for." The blonde said.

Tobias leaned against the counter. "For all the good that does us. We have no idea where to even start looking."

"Command, are you there?" The pair looked at Riley to see he was talking into a cell phone while looking at the slip they'd found.

"What are you doing?"

"It's Agent Finn," he ignored Buffy's question as he said, "I need a search. Local hotel registrations matching the name Ethan Rayne. R-A-Y-N-E. Call me back." Finished, he flipped the phone shut.

"You can do that?" Buffy asked, sounding slightly impressed.

He shrugged. "It'll take a few minutes."

"Get in the car, be ready to go." She ordered, her and Tobias heading for the door while Riley trailed behind them.

"Buffy," he said, stopping the pair just before they went out the door. He looked slightly guilty. "Earlier, when I talked to Professor Walsh, she gave me very specific orders."

"OK." She said, not seeing the problem.

"She said when we located the demon I . . . I'm not supposed to bring either of you along."

"Oh." The blonde said, not missing a beat. She and Tobias looked at each other before they started walking towards the door again.

"Uh, where are you going?"

"We're going to the car." Buffy replied pointedly.

"Guys, I can't take you with me."

"Oh, I see the confusion." Tobias nodded. "Well, it's fairly simple. You're not taking us with you; we're going and simply letting you come along."

"It's not really your call. This is a military operation now." Riley said firmly and finally, expecting them to cave in to that.

Oh, the poor ignorant fool.

Buffy's eyes went harder than steel while her bearing shifted ever so slightly, just enough to let those who looked know she was not to be trifled with are the moment. Tobias took a different route, his eyes going flat and inexpressive, but it couldn't hide the sudden feeling that he was far more dangerous than he appeared to be.

"Then call out the troops. Because nothing less than that is gonna stop me. This demon did something to Giles and I'm gonna kill it." She turned, marching out the door.

"Don't bother, it won't stop me." Tobias said flatly and coldly as he followed the blonde, leaving Riley no choice but to follow them.

A/N: Almost done with this episode. Next episode will be the one before Faith wakes up, but it'll still be a bit of a surprise at one point. Also, just a heads up, I will be messing with the timeline a bit so it'll work better. Anyways, see you next time.