***

The Scooby Gang convened at Giles' house twenty minutes later. The possibility of the world ending did not worry them much; they had saved the world before and would save it again. Spike getting all prophet of doom-y though, that was strange and as Xander pointed out. "Any woman who can reduce The Big Bad to a Pile of angst-ridden Jell-O has to be something special."

Willow and Tara poured over all the books they could scrap together. So far, information on the Ashanti was proving to be elusive. The explanation, according to Spike, was the knife had gone through several name changes over the centuries since its creation.

The one thing that Willow found out quickly though is that, the knife killed any mortal who used it. Trapping their souls within the crystal lattice of the blade and increasing the blade's power. Spike was on shaky ground on much of Ashanti lore but for this, he had an explanation.

"The knife was crafted by a demon mage, least that was the story I beat out of the guy I stole it from" He explained to Giles

"That's true" Willow spoke up from where she and Tara were going over old tomes. "The demon used his own energy to power the daggers magic. Apparently Humans are usually used to power the thing then a sufficiently powerful mage uses the blade to do, well, anything they want."

"Of course…"Continued Tara " if you do the spell wrong or screw it up somehow your soul would end up trapped inside the blade along with your victims."

"Of course, Giles announced "Such mages are rare, due to its semi demonic state. The Ashanti blade would be the perfect means to work magic on the Hellmouth." Giles grabbed one of The Watcher Chronicles "That should narrow down the list of suspects, there are only a hand full of mages powerful enough to use the blade Let alone try using it this close to the Hellmouth."

Buffy and Xander walked into the room. "Well Mr. Weasel is all locked down, he won't be telling anything to anybody for a while." Xander tossed his lanky form into a chair ignoring Giles' dark look.

"You know for a guy with enough brass to run a bar for demons and monsters you would think he would have a higher pain threshold."

"Where is he? "Giles asked?

"We left him tied up at Spike's"

"Great…" The vampire cursed "Just what the place needed a bleeding stool pigeon stinking up the joint"

Buffy took over the discussion. "Do we know yet what this Blue Woman wants with this blade thing"

"I've got a big fat zero, nothing in the Watcher Chronicles even says that she can do major mojo." Willow collapsed in frustration back n the couch.

"She might be looking for the person or persons who are trying to find and use the knife." Giles volunteered.

"That might explain why she wants to play catch the stake with Spike." Xander smiled evilly in the direction of Spike.

"Sod off Harris…you've got no idea how hardcore this bitch really is." Spike sneered. There was little love or respect between these two. He looked at the roomful of eyes on him and made a decision. "She might think that I can lead her to Morgan"

Willow was the first to speak "You met Morgane"

"No…Not The Fey, nobody's seen her in decades, and I would just as soon not see her again. I am talking about Lord Morgan"

A room full of blank looks stared back at him. He turned to Giles exasperated. "Don't tell me these people don't know about the clan conflicts"

Giles felt a room full of eyes swivel to look at him. "In my defense, this is America, inter-clan warfare means nothing here."

"On behalf of the people in this room born after 1970…" shot Xander "what the hell are you two talking about"

"Morgan is a vampire, a rather powerful one, if it comes to that, Word is Sonja Blue has a real Jones for killing him."

"So she kills vampires, why should I be concerned," Buffy said in a dismissive voice

"Buffy, Sonja Blue may prefer killing vampires but she has no problem killing normal people who get in the crossfire between her and her vengeance." Giles produced a sheaf of papers. "These were faxed to me by … an old friend"

Buffy took the faxed sheets and glanced through the pictures. They showed a downtown bar. The young people in the pictures wore gang colours. They all had blue hair, thy also had all been killed in various fashions. The thought process that had gone into the killing ranged from inspired to just plain deranged.

"She did this?" Buffy said quietly "Why? Did they hurt her or something"

"The word I got is that the people in those photos were known associates of one Geoffrey Chastain. Chastain showed up dead in a bar the same night this happened with both his hands shattered and his neck broken."

The room was now quiet again as each person digested this development in various ways.

"Ok Spike do you know where this …person might be now?" Buffy muttered resolutely.

"Well…there are only a few places that I am known to hang out in. frankly I don't think that anyone is going to last under her brand of interrogation."

"Right, you guys stay here" She turned to Xander already raising from his reclined position "that especially means you Xander"

"Come on Buffy, there is no way your going to face this lunatic by yourself"

"I'm not facing her by myself … Spike's coming with me"

"Hold on…hold on Girlie are you out of your blond haired, pom-pom waving mind"

"No arguments Spike, twenty minutes ago I didn't know this woman existed, now I have to confront her…maybe even fight her. I want any advantage I can get and right now that means you."

"You don't need an advantage, with this girl, you need the biggest, meanest back-up you can find, and that's to keep her distracted while you run away."

"That may be true Spike but I am going to face her tonight, now you can run if you want, But, if you do, you won't have the one advantage that might keep you alive if you meet her"

"What would that be?"

"Me, in case you have forgotten, in four years of trying you haven't managed to kill me once and your reputation was something to behold when we first met. So, Decide. You could take your chances as my backup. On the other hand, you could take a chance on running into this psycho on your own. I'll be in the car waiting for you to make up your mind."

***