6: This Looks Like a Case For Captain Obvious

Toby frowned thoughtfully. "First, suppose you tell us more about this Ascension. I've been checking the Watcher diaries, but-"

"Kane, Sharpsville, nothing else?" summarised Wesley with a nod. Giles rolled his eyes at him and started talking before he could continue.

"The Mayor went through a number of stages in preparation for his Ascension the first time around. First, the dedication, which took place a hundred days before graduation day... he became, to all intents and purposes, completely invulnerable."

Sam blinked. "Then how did you-"

"We discovered that the invulnerability lasted only until he actually transformed into his demon form. The demon body, although, uh, somewhat... large... was in fact mortal, and could be killed by exposure to extreme heat and pressure." He frowned, and pushed back his glasses.

"Or so we believed," Wesley added, somewhat unneccessarily. Buffy sighed.

"Those pesky immortals, huh? Totally bug-some."

Toby winced at this mangling of the English language, but seemed to decide to rise above it. "You defeated him once; can we do it again?"

"I would think so," Giles said with a firm nod. "I don't know how Wilkins managed to survive the blast before, but it had to have been an emergency plan. The fact that he hasn't returned to Sunnydale, the place he specifically set up a hundred years ago for the purposes of his Ascension, suggests that he was considerably weakened. He would appear to be trying to recreate the ceremony, but I doubt it would be nearly as powerful as previously."

"So in practical terms, what can we expect?" asked Josh, leaning forward in his seat.

"Smaller snake?" shrugged Buffy. "Therefore less dynamite, which I'm thinking is a big 'yay'."

"Stopping it before it gets that far is also good," suggested CJ dryly.

Josh nodded. "'Cuz dynamite and the Secret Service? Not a good combination."

"Yes," agreed Wesley. "We have to remember that we're not dealing with the simple Sunnydale authorities here."

"Ah, Captain Obvious! Thank God you're here!" mocked Buffy gently, and Giles gave her a smile that was half-warning, half-amusement. Sam was beginning to feel a little sorry for the younger British man, even if he did seem overly prissy. He knew what it was like being cast as the overeager geeky one.

"What else does Tribby... um, the Mayor... need to do for the ceremony?" asked Donna, giving Wesley another smile. Donna was always willing to be kind to people who were being mocked, provided they weren't Josh. Or rumoured to be having a gay affair with Josh. Sam winced slightly at the memory.

"The Box of Gavroc," said Wesley quickly, and Giles nodded, getting back down to business.

"Yes. Before the Ascension, the Mayor had to consume the demonic energy from the Box to give himself enough power. He'll have to go through the same process this time to rebuild his power base."

"Uh, when you say 'consume'-" began Josh hesitantly.

"It's full of about five billion spidery things about yea big," explained Buffy, making a shape the size of a dinner plate. "And it's not smart to leave the box open. They like to do the whole Alien face-hugger scene." Josh looked like he could have done without that information, and Donna shuddered.

"Spiders? Yech," said CJ, pulling a face.

"If we stole the box from him, he'd have to abort the Ascension?" asked Toby.

Giles nodded. "It can be destroyed, if the correct rituals are used. We intended to do so last time, but... circumstances intervened."

Wesley looked irked, but said nothing. There had obviously been some sort of disagreement over this last time.

"So that's a plan?" said Josh, half-disbelieving. "Get the Box, stop the Ascension?"

"Yeah." Buffy pulled a face. "In theory. As to whether it's gonna stay that simple..."

"This looks like a case for Captain Obvious," observed Wesley.