Lara had seen Titanic - a lot. Bryce had this fascination with watching it and criticizing the computer graphics.

The tea room seemed to have been designed from that movie and Lara felt very uncomfortable.

"So what do we know about this artifact?" Bryce asked Lara.

"It's a bit like the All Seeing Eye," she said, handing Bryce a wad of paper. "From what I've read, it sounds like a piece of jewelry."

"Like earrings or a bracelet?" Hillary raised his eyebrows.

"More like a necklace or a ring," Lara paused, as the waitress came over.

"A cappuccino, an orange juice and a cup of Earl Grey tea," she said, in her nasal voice breaking. "And three raspberry muffins."

As the waitress tottered away, Hilly shook his head and winced. "If her voice had been one octave higher, my ears would have bled."

Lara snorted with laughter and took her cappuccino. "Anyway, I think it's a piece of jewelry. I understand Rupert's urgency to find it, actually."

"Why?" Bryce asked, gulping his orange juice.

"Because Sunnydale is on top of a Hellmouth," Lara smiled in her 'I'm right and better than you' way.

"Huh?"

"What, exactly, is a Hellmouth?"

Lara broke off a corner of her muffin. "A Hellmouth is where the fabric of normalcy or humanity is weak. It is where demons and magicks can easily break through into our world," Lara smiled.

"And how do you know this?" Bryce demanded. "I mean, it doesn't sound like common knowledge, does it?"

Lara mockingly flung her hand to her heart. "I am completely shocked that you don't trust me, Bryce," she said. "After all my studies of artifacts, rare and mystical, you think I wouldn't know about a place where the fabric of realism is almost non-existent?"

Bryce sat back. "You have a point there, Lara."

"Good. Now, it is almost 5 p.m. We're expected back at the library," Lara said, finishing her cappuccino. "That was the worst cappuccino I have ever had. It was more like lukewarm milk."

"You've been spoilt by Hillary," Bryce smirked, standing up.

"I know," Lara replied. "We'll take the Porsche. Hurry along, chop chop."

*~*~*~*~*~*
Buffy and the gang had returned to the library to research the artifact and Giles had insisted that Buffy train.

"Why? I don't need to train; I'm not locating the artifact," Buffy retorted, as she loaded the crossbow.

Giles rolled his eyes. "I dare say Lara will need some help; after all, guns don't kill vampires."

Willow looked up from her computer. "Giles, did you know that Lady Croft's father was a part of some light group? To do with that All Seeing Eye."
"Really," Giles looked up. "I know nothing on the subject of ancient artifacts - unless, of course, they will involve the Slayer."

"Which is where I come in," came another, female, British voice.

"Lady Croft," came Buffy's unenthusiastic reply. "You're back."

"Don't call me 'Lady Croft'," Lara said. "It'd remind me of my mother - if I'd known her. Lara is fine."

Buffy gave her an evil look and turned back to fixing her crossbow. Willow looked at Lara.

"Lara?" Willow asked tentatively. Lara walked over. "Um, I was on the 'Net, looking for some information on you, but I can't find anything under 'Lady Croft'."

Lara nodded. "If you're looking for articles on me - try 'Tomb Raider'- that's what the press call me."

"Tomb Raider?" Xander asked incrediously. "Isn't that a bit.. you've still got those guns, don't you?"

Lara nodded. "Yeah. It's so people don't annoy me."

Xander winced and looked back at his book. Willow suddenly started laughing.

"Xander, we'll have to get Angel a set of those guns, when you annoy him!" she was laughing now, and so was Buffy.

Lara ignored them and turned to Giles. "From your research, I think the artifact is a ring or an amulet - just the way they refer to it."

"So?" Xander said. "It could be an ankle bracelet or a nose ring?"

Lara gave him a 'you're-annoying-me' look. "That's exactly what my butler said. If it's as ancient as it sounds like, it'll be a ring or a necklace."

"I'll ask Angel; he knows all about those old bits of jewelry," Buffy pulled on a sweatshirt.

"Who's Angel?" Lara said, setting up her laptop.

"My boyfriend," Buffy said, giving Lara a 'who-dares-wins' look.

Suddenly, Bryce and Hilly walked in, carting another two sets of Lara's Colts, nine more clips and a laptop.

"Who the hell are you?" Xander asked, rudely.

"Mr Hillary and...Bryce. Lara's employees," Hilly said, regally.

"Bryce, I want you to contact our sources and email around about an artifact lost in California around 1703, okay? A piece of magical jewelry. It's probably been sent here from Salem or somewhere. Maybe the Illuminati?" Lara logged on to the 'Net.

"Lara, do you actually know how to kill a vampire?" Buffy asked. "I mean, guns will work for most things, but not vampires."

"Yes, I'm surprised what people can live through these days," Lara replied. "I mean, to kill Mr Powell, I had to throw him into a timestorm."

Buffy rolled her eyes and threw up her hands in a 'I give up' way.

"What Buffy is trying to say, is that vampires can only be killed by a wooden stake to the heart," Giles said, patiently.

Bryce snickered. "So, Buffy here, spends her nights strolling through graveyards, pushing bits of sharpened wood through dead people?"

"Yes," came another voice. Cordelia stood by the door, in her cheerleading uniform. "That is pretty much all Buffy does."

Lara snickered as well, and sent her email to Shugrave.

"Once we nail the location of the artifact, it's a matter of getting together the appropriate supplies and getting it," Lara scanned the site she was on.

"Hey," Xander spoke up, pointing to his book. "Here is something about a necklace, 'crafted before time' and it was 'so powerful, it was sent to Hell-on-Earth'."

"What was it called?" Giles asked.

"The Amulet of Light," Xander replied. "Did I find something? Did Xander actually help?"

Lara got up, and peered over his shoulder. "I'll say you did," she murmured, pulling the book closer. Snatching Bryce's microscope, she slid he book underneath it.

"The All Seeing Eye," she murmured, noticing the design on the necklace. "Illuminati."
The drawing of the necklace was very detailed - a long chain. Three jewels - one big one, set in gold or silver, and two pieces of what appeared to be quartz, engraved with the All Seeing Eye.

"Bryce, look up the Amulet of Light. And then our friend, Mr Powell. See what his latest case was," Lara took the book.

"I thought you said Mr Powell was dead?" Buffy said.

"Oh, I never said he was dead. He would've never died," Lara said. "What I did to him was so much worse than death. Which is why finding the amulet is going to be so much more dangerous for me."