Chapter 37

Buffy walked in the front door with Rona, the latest potential to hit Sunnydale. She had rescued her at the bus station where a welcoming committee of Bringers had met Rona. "You guys are all still up?" Buffy asked.

"Ah! Who needs sleep?" Xander said.

"Everybody, this is Rona."

"Hi. Hi, Rona." Everyone said.

"Um…." Rona looked at Buffy. Why is that guy tied to a chair?"

"The question you'll soon be asking is, 'Why isn't he gagged?'" Xander said with a smirk.

Anya entered the room with a rolled up sleeping bag, and Giles followed her in saying, "Molly, why don't you show our new houseguest where the kitchen is. I'm sure she's hungry after her travels."

Molly held up a bag of potato chips. "Fair enough. I'm a bit peckish meself."

"Bit what as well?" Rona asked Anya as she followed Molly.

"That's English for hungry." Anya said as she unrolled the sleeping bag and arranged it on the floor.

"Oh, here I thought hungry was English for hungry."

"Everything all right?" Giles asked Buffy.

"She had a welcoming committee." Buffy said.

"So, The First knows potential Slayers are making their way here?" Xander asked.

"I must warn the coven to be cautious." Giles said.

Buffy shook her head. "The First's always gonna be one step ahead of us, Giles. I need to know how to stop it. No, not stop it, hurt it. I want to hurt it real bad. Tell me how."

"I…. I don't know, Buffy. I've exhausted all the sources I have left with little result. The Watcher's records are still really all we have to go on."

"I made the rounds myself." Anya said. "Tried to dig up anything useful from the demon community."

"They're a community now?" Xander asked. "What's next, the Ladies' Auxiliary?"

"The ones that didn't attack me, didn't know anything or didn't talk. Either way, we've got squat."

"Well, squat's not gonna cut it." Buffy said. "What about the Turok-Han?"

"The vampire time forgot?" Xander asked.

"Time may have forgotten him, but I sure won't. We know stakes don't kill it, but anything in those ancient books about what does? Sunlight, fire, germs?"

"So, Giles, with that thing guarding the entrance to The First's crib, how will Buffy get to Spike?" Andrew called from the dining room.

"I really hate to admit this, but he's not wrong. There's no way we'll be able to help Spike until that thing is out of the way. "

"Spike?" A blonde potential asked. "Sorry, I'm confused. He's that vampire who's been killing people, right? He's the one you're worried about helping?"

"Well, we need him to…. he's the one that's been…. it's complicated, Chloe."

"I'm Chloe, she's Eve." The real Chloe said.

"It's just, well, we've been talking, and do we have some kind of plan?" Eve asked. "You know, any kind of plan to keep us from dying?"

"We're working on it." Buffy said.

"There is one avenue that we haven't tried yet…." Giles said.

"Giles!" Anya protested.

"Beljoxa's Eye."

"And exactly what part of town is that avenue in?" Xander asked.

"I told you no." Anya said to Giles.

"Wh-what is Botox's eye?" Buffy asked.

"Beljoxa's Eye. It's an oracle type creature that exists in a dark dimension." Giles said.

"Internal vortex more like." Anya grumped.

"Fun." Buffy said.

"Not really, no."

"The point is, only demons can open the gateway to it." Giles said.

"Excuse me, ex-demon here."

"You still have friends in the fold. Murderous acquaintances, anyway."

"Look, there's no reason to think this Beljoxa's Eye will have any of the answers we're looking for."

"I'll take anything I can get." Buffy said. "Anya, please, we're running out of time. Spike's running out of time."

Anya sighed. "Fine. But if I get killed, I'll make sure I become a poltergeist to make yours and Giles' lives hell."

"Ok, deal. Has anybody seen Connor?"

"He's up in your room on his cot asleep." Dawn said, walking in from the kitchen. "Angel called."

"Oh. Thanks." Buffy headed up the stairs and into her room. Connor was curled up, dead asleep, on his cot. He had moved in to Buffy's room to get away from all the girls that were starting to sleep in his room. Buffy decided not to wake him and went over to the phone. She took it off the cradle and went into the bathroom, locking the door.

Angel picked up on the fourth ring. "Is everything ok?" He asked.

"How'd you know it was me?"

"Intuition."

"Good one. Yeah, everything's peachy. How about up there?"

"Cordelia's disappeared. We've been searching for her for days, but it's like she's dropped off the face of the Earth."

"We haven't heard a peep from her down here. Then again, not many peeps can be heard over the roaring of the First lately."

"Any luck with that?"

"The only luck with that would be the fact that I'm not dead or a vegetable from that beating I took a few days ago."

"Willow said you were hurt pretty badly."

"I think I'd prefer fighting the Beast than this thing. I shoved a stake in its heart and it didn't turn to dust. I threw everything I have at it and it still kicked my ass into the next generation."

"You'll beat it Buffy."

"I didn't beat the Beast. Angelus did."

"He had the advantage. You didn't." She sighed heavily and covered her eyes for a moment. "Is Connor ok?"

"A little edgy cause of all the girls in the house, but other than that…."

"Why edgy?"

"They've all hit on him at one point or another except Kennedy…. She seems to be taken with Willow. And he's not used to all that attention from girls. He's a lot like his father in that way."

"I liked your attention."

"Again I say, he's a lot like his father in that way."

"Maybe he'll fall for one of the potentials and you can be free to do what you want."

"You wanted to say who."

"I did, but…."

"We can't. I know. I remember. Still fresh in my mind."

Angel sighed. "Hey, I talked to Faith. She said all's quiet there and she'd call if anything happened. I doubt a guy in a robe with symbols carved into his skin where his eyes should be would be able to get past the security in that place. It's pretty tight. Besides, they have those knives and that wouldn't go over well with the guards."

"At least she's safe there. Which is more than I can say for us here."

"You'll be ok. I have faith in you." Angel paused. "No pun."

"Well, if things get worse, we may have to find a way to get Faith out of jail."

"I'll come down there as soon as we get Cordy back."

"Thank you. We're going to need all the super-muscle we can get. Besides, you've had more interaction with this thing than we have."

"Not by choice."

"I know." Buffy yawned.

"How much sleep have you gotten since you've been back there?"

"Not a lot." She confessed.

"You barely had any while you were down here. Get some sleep, Buffy."

"Sounds like a plan to me." She sighed. "It's, what? Three in the morning? I'll get about two hours if I'm lucky. Some of the girls are still on their local time, so there's someone up around the clock."

"You're babbling. Go to sleep, Buffy. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, Angel."

"Bye, Buffy."

Buffy hung up and went into her room. She curled up on top of the covers and went to sleep.

Xander squatted next to Andrew's chair, untying him. "Ow! Watch it! That's my joystick hand."

Xander rolled eyes. "I'm not gonna touch that one."

Buffy stood on the other side of Andrew, with her arms crossed. "Ok, listen up, Andrew. I don't exactly know what to do with you, except that we don't have time to babysit a hostage."

"Especially a hostage that's gotten more than a little ripe."

Buffy made a face and stepped back a few feet away from Andrew. "So, I'm here to tell you, if you try anything, try to run…. Did you ever see the movie Misery?"

"Six times. But the book was scarier than the movie 'cause instead of crushing his foot with a sledge hammer, Kathy Bates chops it off with…." Andrew stopped rambling when he saw Buffy glaring at him and swallowed hard. "I'll be good."

Willow came in from the kitchen with Connor in tow eating a bowl of Corn Pops. "Buffy, word from the underground. Another potential arrived in town the day before yesterday. She's at the Sun Spot Motel, near the highway."

"The day before yesterday? Why are we just finding out about it now?" Xander asked.

"Bringers killed her Watcher before he could tell anyone he sent her. If it wasn't for a particularly powerful seer in the coven, we wouldn't even know about it now."

"Ok, I mean, there's still a couple of hours of daylight left. You guys should be safe here. I'll get her and bring her back."

"I'll go with you." Connor followed Buffy out the door.

"All right, retrieving a potential. Let's do it!" Andrew said, but he stopped when Buffy turned and glared at him. "Or I could just go wash up."

Buffy and Connor walked up to Room 25. "You sure this is it?" Connor asked.

"The clerk said it's the only check-in they've had in a week. Tourism must be down." Buffy said. She knocked on the door. "Hello!" She knocked again. "It's ok. We're friendly. And we have eyes."

Connor peered in through the window and then looked at Buffy. "Kick the door down."

Buffy kicked the door in and entered, followed by Connor. They saw a girl lying on the floor, face down in a pool of blood. Buffy knelt to touch her and looked back up at Connor. "She's cold. Been dead for days."

"Poor girl." Connor said. "She made it all the way to Sunnydale just to get herself killed." Buffy rolled the girl over. "If only we…."

"Eve?" Buffy moved so Connor could see the girl's face.

"Eve, who's in our house?"

Buffy and Connor stared at the dead girl, wide-eyed and incredulous. Then in a sudden burst of energy from both of them, they took off at a run back to Buffy's house. Buffy walked in the front door in a huff first and looked around just as Connor burst in behind her. Willow and Dawn were at the dining room table.

"Buffy!" Willow said startled.

"What is it?" Dawn asked.

Buffy looked at Andrew who was on her couch. She glared at him and he sat up and wiped off the part of the couch his feet were on. Buffy just rolled her eyes and went into the next room. Connor, Xander, Willow, Dawn, and Andrew followed. Buffy rushed down the stairs to the basement.

"Get away from them." She snapped to "Eve."

Kennedy looked up from reading a book. "Who? Get away from who?"

"Eve" turned to look at Buffy. "What's the problem, officer?"

"I said get away from them now." Buffy growled through gritted teeth.

"Buffy, what did Eve do?" Dawn asked.

"That's not Eve." Connor said.

"Eve's dead." Buffy clarified.

Rona held up her hands in confusion. "I don't…. I don't understand." All the girls stood and backed away from "Eve".

"Eve" stood and faced Buffy. "Oops! One more down. Oh, well, can't save 'em all, can ya, Buffy?" She turned to face the slayers-in-training. "Thanks for the slumber party, girls. It's been real fun the last couple of nights. I learned a whole lot…."

"Shut up, and get out!" Buffy yelled.

"Or you'll do what? I'll be sending a guest over to visit y'all later on tonight, after the sun goes down of course. Try and make him feel welcome before he rips y'all to pieces. Bye." Eve disappeared in a flash of light, like a television being turned off.

"I need to go wash up again." Andrew ran back up the stairs.

"Everybody upstairs." Buffy said quietly. "Now." The tone of her voice had everyone rushing up the stairs.