Part 2

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Giles sat on his couch, tiredly rubbing his forehead.

It had been a long two days.

So many things to think of. So many things to do. Everyone trying to keep themselves occupied with something to take their mind of the very thing they were all occupying themselves with.

Buffy. Buffy was dead.

Or maybe she wasn't. Maybe her mind, her soul, whatever it might be that made a human being, survived inside that thing the Initiative had created. For two weeks it had lived among them and no one had even suspected a thing. Oh, both Angel and Giles had suspected that something had happened to Buffy down in the Initiative lab, but never in their wildest dreams would they have suspected something like this.

Was Buffy or some part of her still alive? Or had a machine somehow managed to fool itself into thinking it was a person?

Buffy, or whatever she was, had escaped from the lab, too fast for anyone to stop her. Not even Faith and Angel had managed to catch up with her. Ever since then they had tried to find her, barely sleeping, scouring the town and its surroundings for Buffy. Or not Buffy. They wouldn't know until they found her.

"How do you expect to find something that can change its bloody shape?" Spike had asked that question when Angel had threatened him into aiding in the search. It was a very good question, Giles had to admit. How indeed?

He just knew they had to find her. Somehow.

"You should get some sleep." Giles looked up when Rose McNamara came into the room. For a moment he felt an irrational bout of anger towards the other Watcher. She was the one who had told them of a Slayer's death, registered by the Council's seers. That had caused them to go back down into the Initiative lab, causing Buffy to find her own dead body.

It wasn't her fault, of course. The truth would have come out eventually. A part of Giles would have liked it to be later, though. Much later.

"No, I do not think so," Giles said, gladly taking the cup of tea she offered him. "I'm quite content to stay awake."

To be more precise he was afraid of what he might dream should he go to sleep. From the look on her face Rose understood only too well.

"Have you talked to Faith?" she changed the subject, for which he was grateful.

"I did, actually," Giles sighed, leaning back on the couch. "I was surprised she didn't immediately wring my neck when I did."

Rose nodded in understanding. The few days she had been here and she had already managed to make herself a pretty clear picture of the Slayer. The only Slayer now. Beneath all her tough exterior Faith was a very vulnerable and insecure person, one who seemed willing to do everything in her power to redeem herself for the things she had done, but at the same time seemed desperately afraid of letting anyone close enough to help her do it.

After a long phone talk with the Council it had been agreed upon that Rose should become Faith's new Watcher. If the Slayer could be convinced to work for them again, that was.

"What did she say then?" Rose asked, sitting down beside Giles.

"She seemed uncertain. Said something about her bad experiences with Watchers assigned to her."

Rose nodded again. Faith's first Watcher had been killed by the Vampire Kakistos while Faith had been forced to watch. Her second Watcher had turned out to be a phony. Her third had, however indirectly, quickened her slide into darkness. It was no wonder she wasn't anxious to try for a fourth time.

"I guess we will have to give her some time," Rose resigned. All her life she had hoped for the chance to one day be chosen to guide a Slayer, yet she had imagined it to be under very different circumstances than these.

"At least until this ... mess is cleaned up," she concluded.

Giles closed his eyes. This 'mess' that was Buffy. If only they could find her. Or find some way to be certain that she was really dead. Either option would be preferable to this. Not knowing, daring to hope, yet threatened by despair.

There was a tentative knock on the door and Giles stood wearily, feeling a deep-set tiredness in every single bone. Opening the door he found Willow outside, standing beside a blonde girl he didn't know.

"Hi, Giles," Willow said. "This is my friend Tara. Can we come in?"

Giles stepped aside, not voicing an actual invitation. It was pure habit, not in any way intentional on his part. Not that he wouldn't have been reluctant to simply invite an unknown person into his home, but it was broad daylight outside.

Besides, he would actually have welcomed something as simple as a Vampire right now.

"Tara is a witch," Willow started into the introduction immediately. "We met during that thing with the Gentlemen. I ... I think she can help us."

The blonde girl just nodded, hiding half her face behind a curtain of hair. Giles got the impression that she was extremely shy, yet at the same time decades of experience in the supernatural made the hairs on his neck stand up straight.

Whoever this girl was, she was powerful.

"Wi-Willow told me w-what happened," Tara said.

Giles threw the redhead a look, but Willow just nodded encouragingly. Apparently she trusted this girl.

"I was browsing through the specs of this android thing," Willow said, simply refusing to think of it as whatever might remain of her best friend, "and I think we might have a chance of tracking it down by zeroing in on its magical components."

"Magical components?" Rose asked, coming over from Giles' small kitchen.

"Yes. The android isn't a machine, not completely at least. Apart from that strange magical metal they made it from, the Initiative apparently incorporated several other mystical artifacts into its design. There isn't a reactor or conventional energy source anywhere inside its frame. So it must get its power through magical means."

A part of Giles was deeply disturbed about their conversation. They were talking about an android, a machine. A bit more complicated than his refrigerator, but just a machine. Yet might it not be more? Might they not be talking about Buffy? His Slayer? The one he should have protected?

Giles found a hand resting on his shoulder and looked up into Rose's face. She understood, he realized. She, too, had been trained to guide and protect a Slayer, should she ever be chosen to be a Slayer's Watcher, and while she hadn't had that opportunity so far, she could sympathize.

"With Tara's help I think I can come up with a spell to find it," Willow concluded her findings.

Giles closed his eyes for a moment and then nodded.

"Very well. Gather whatever you need for the spell. I'll call Angel and his friends over from the mansion. Then you can perform the spell."

"That won't be necessary, I think," a new voice intruded.

All heads turned toward the open door. Toward the figure that stood there, framed by sunlight.

"But I guess you should call Angel and his friends regardless," the person that looked like Buffy Summers said.

TO BE CONTINUED