Chapter Fifteen: Research
"Now again," Giles said, as he held the board up in front of Dawn and got ready for her to strike.
Dawn pulled back her fist and punched the board solidly, snapping it in two with ease.
"Remarkable," Giles mumbled, putting the two halves of wood aside.
"Whatever," Dawn sighed, rolling her eyes. "Look, can we just get on with this? How many evil, bloodsucking blocks of wood am I going to have to kill today? How about we just go back to you throwing knives at my head? At least that I can use as a decent party trick."
"Oh, all right," he conceded. "We can take a break."
Giles and Dawn ascended the basement steps and joined the others in the living room. The whole gang was there. Buffy, Spike, Willow, Xander and Anya. They were spread about the room talking in low whispers.
"So how goes it?" Xander asked, when he saw Dawn's gloomy face.
"Oh, just peachy keen," she said, smiling painfully. "Giles thinks I've got the strength of a Slayer. Go fig."
"Yes all right, that's enough," he said, motioning her toward the couch.
Dawn sat down in a huff, wedging herself between Anya and Buffy.
"So now what?" Buffy asked, leaning forward and folding her hands between her knees.
Giles removed his glasses and cleaned them briskly. "Well, now, we just have to decide what this all means." He put his glasses back on. "Dawn, apparently, is the new Slayer. Spike," he nodded his head in Spike's direction, "Spike's back from the dead. I don't know what we do next. Seems to me like a typical day in good old Sunnydale. I just don't know."
"Well, do we know why Spike's no longer a big pile of dust?" Anya asked, glancing in his direction.
"Not . . . really," Buffy answered. "Thought we'd cross that bridge when we came to it."
"Well, there's no time for speculation here," Giles interrupted. "What we need are facts. Willow, get on the net. Find anything you can about resurrection spells, turning vampires mortal. Anything at all."
"I'll get on it," she said soberly. Willlow already knew everything there was to know about resurrection spells, having succeeded in casting a whopper of a one herself once. It was that very resurrection spell that had unleashed The First in the first place. Willow didn't like her assignment, but she couldn't argue with Giles.
"Anya."
"Yes?" she asked, her voice sickeningly perky.
"I want you to use your demon connections to find any information you can. See if anyone knows how to go about turning a vampire human. Since we know it is, in fact, possible, someone somewhere must know something."
"I don't know how much luck I'll have with the demon community. Anyanka Jenkins is not really their favorite little ex-vengeance demon anymore. But I'll try."
"Good. Xander." Giles turned to look at him. "I want you to hit the books. There's a stack of volumes in my room back at your apartment. Again, cover the Spike angle. Buffy, Dawn and I will stay here and work the Slayer angle."
"What about Spike?" Dawn interjected. "Doesn't he get stuck with some lame researching job or something?"
"Oh, right. Uh, Spike, you can . . . you can . . ."
"Stay out of the way?" he provided.
"Well, yes, I suppose that works too."
Spike got up and grabbed his duster off the back of the couch. He swung it around his shoulders and shrugged into it. "I'm going out." He headed for the door.
Buffy got up and followed him out into the entryway. "Are you sure?"
He stopped and turned to look at her. "I'm not much good to anyone here. Go back inside, make with the saving the world. I'll see you later." He offered her a rye smile and turned to leave.
Buffy reached out and pulled him to her, placing a sweet, warm kiss against his lips. "Don't be too late," she whispered. "We never got to finish what we started last night."
"Actually, as I recall, we did. Several times in fact."
Buffy smiled at him. "Oh really? I guess you'll just have to refresh my memory when you get back."
Spike smiled in spite of himself. "I'll be back later. I promise." He kissed her gently and then turned and walked out the door.
A moment later, Buffy reentered the living room to find Dawn all alone of the couch, sulking.
"Hey," Buffy said, as she dropped down next to her sister. "How's it going?"
"How does it look like it's going?" Dawn said, folding her arms across her chest.
"Okay. Been taking lessons on being a spoiled brat?"
Dawn glowered at her. "Giles wants us to do research. No vamp slaying. No demon slaughter. Just research. You'd think if I was going to get stuck being the Slayer, the least he could do would be to take me out on patrol, show me the ropes."
"You already know the ropes. You've already double knotted them and turned them into a noose. You know the ropes Dawn. Intimately."
"Well, it still doesn't seem fair."
"Nothing ever does."
Just then, Giles came in from the dining room and sat down in the chair across from the couch. "I think I've discovered what it was I was doing wrong," he said, not bothering to look up from the open book he was cradling between his hands. "I've been researching this from the Slayer angle, not the Watcher angle. And therein lies the problem."
Buffy and Dawn both stared at him curiously. Giles was very much being Giles.
He flipped a few pages in his text and then began to scan the page. "Aha! You see. I knew it." He looked up at the two slightly bewildered girls. "I was looking in the wrong book all along. Among other topics, this one chronicles the history of Watching, and also makes some interesting predictions about it."
"What's it say?" Dawn asked, not sure she really wanted to know.
"Well," he flipped another page and traveled his index finger down the sheet as he read, "it says that after the root of all evil has been quelled . . ." he looked up at them. "That would be The First."
"Yeah, we got that," Buffy said.
"Well, after it has been quelled, a new Slayer will be called. One not born of the mortal world. One possessing great strength and mystical energy."
"You're just finding this now?" Buffy questioned, her voice slightly accusing.
"Well, I'm a Watcher, "Giles said defensively. "Never thought I'd have to read the bloody manual," he grumbled.
"Bloody, huh?" Dawn asked. "You been hanging out with Spike?"
"Oh yes, very funny. Moving on," he said, returning to the text. "It says that you will have a Watcher, one fitting your unique status. A . . . Wait that's not right." Giles flipped the page over, perused the other side, and then flipped it back again. "A guide chosen from among the lower beings. Hmm."
"Hmm?" asked Dawn.
"It's nothing," he shook his head absently.
"Aren't we all lower beings? Well, those of us who aren't great balls of mystical energy."
He took off his glasses and bit on the end of the earpiece thoughtfully. "Not in this case. This is referring to something else. That's strange."
"What?" Buffy joined the conversation.
"Nothing." Giles snapped the book shut, and got up from the chair. "I think that's enough research for one night. Why don't you girls go out and have some fun. Take a break from your Slayer duties."
Buffy and Dawn both turned and looked at each other. What the heck was wrong with Giles?
"Uh Giles?" Buffy said, watching him from the corner of her eye. "Are you okay?"
"What? Oh yes, I'm fine. Quite fine. I just have some work I have to do. Nothing to concern yourselves with." He smiled at them wanly. "See you in the morning. Goodnight girls." He made for the door, and in a moment he was gone.
Dawn quickly recalled the morning the previous week when Angel had called Buffy, and she had told him she was "fine." Somehow "fine" never meant "fine" in their house.