5:07 am, Tuesday - Detective Sara Pezzini's Apartment

Sara was sound asleep. And in that sleep she dreamt of things that were, things that weren't, and things that could have been. She saw Conchobar, a love lost. She saw her father, a dedicated officer with a somewhat spotty past, but still her hero in many respects. She saw a life without the accursed Witchblade, away from the rigors of combating evil that the world only saw in its nightmares. One could term the dream a pleasant one. That is, until she saw two girls bound and gagged with knives plunging into their chests.

Sara awoke with a start... again. Sweat... cold sweat... drenched her body, making her tank top cling to her body. Not again, she thought. She got up to take a shower, knowing Jake or Danny would be calling soon. Brushing her teeth and putting her hair into a ponytail, she threw on some clothes, her jacket, and lastly, her holster and gun. Her cell phone rang at that moment, as if by fate.

"Danny, let me guess: Another murder," she said.

Danny was a bit surprised. "Yeah," he replied. "How'd you know?"

"Why else would you be calling at 5:30 in the morning?"

"Right. Dante wants us over at the crime scene. NYU, East Campus."

"Got it," said Sara. With that, she hung up the phone. Only Tuesday and we got a serial killer running rings around us, she thought as she left. She pondered hitting the heavy bag, but all the punches wouldn't do her frustration justice. She was angry. She was more than angry... she was furious. Drawing back a punch anyway, the Witchblade activated, extending the small blade she used for close, in-quarters fighting. It punctured the bag and its contents emptied onto the floor. When Sara saw what happened, she tried to calm down. "Relax, Sara, relax," she mumbled to herself. "Don't lose control." Taking a moment, she retracted the Witchblade, grabbed her helmet and keys, and left.

She arrived at the crime scene storming through, just trying to get in and get out. She saw Danny, who had been talking with some of the uniformed officers on the scene.

"What do we have?" she said curtly.

"Kyrie and Kelly Tobias. Twins. The groundskeepers found them this morning. I just got here so I haven't had a chance to question them."

"I'll do it," Sara said. "I need to still wake up anyway. Where's McCartey?"

"He should be here soon."

Exhaling a sigh of frustration, she merely said, "You know, Danny, sometimes I really hate this job."

"You and me both, Pez. You and me both."


6:57 am, Tuesday – Slayer Base HQ

Buffy woke up to a nice bright morning. She was going to get an early jog in, to get the juices flowing, before getting down to tracking the killer. Turning on the TV in the main room, she went back into her room to take off her pajamas and put on her sweats. Returning to the chair in front of the TV, just as she was putting on her running shoes, she saw a reporter talking about a murder.

"Yes, Bob. I'm over on NYU's East Campus where police officials arrived to a grisly scene. Two girls were found dead by morning groundskeepers. Police will not release any information about the victims, but I'm going to try and talk to one of the detectives on the scene. Excuse me... excuse me, detective."

Buffy yelled at the top of her lungs, "Willow, Giles, get in here!"

Both came rushing out, Willow with night cream on and Giles wearing... well, wearing the same thing on his face. Both Buffy and Willow just stared at him.

"What? It helps the pores," was his only reply.

Buffy disregarded it and said, "Look on the news."

There the female reporter was trying to get the attention of a blond, male cop. "Excuse me, detective." The cop turned around and stopped. "Excuse me," the reporter said, "But can you tell us about the victims or the crime?"

The detective answered simply and effectively. "No". Clearly not satisfied with that answer, she tried to follow him but was cut off by a couple of uniformed cops.

"Well, as you can see, Bob, the police are not releasing anything as of yet. If anything gets through we'll be sure to let our viewers know about this shocking murder on NYU's campus. This is Sandra Turner reporting for Channel 4. Back to you, Bob."

"Thanks, Sandra. Once again, two grisly murders on NYU's campus found this morning. We'll be reporting throughout the day on the incident."

Buffy shut off the TV. "Probably more heart-victims," she said.

Willow saw her face and knew how she felt. She knew Buffy felt like there was something she could have done, anything. She knew Buffy was regretting her decision to not patrol last night. But Willow reassured her, saying, "Buffy, we're pretty far from NYU's campus. You couldn't have done anything, even on patrol."

Buffy, sullen but resolved, said, "I know, Will. I just want to get started before this guy does any more damage. Let's do some more research on the ritual, see what we can find out. No doubt we got lucky on that interview with Ms. Valakesh's assistant since it happened three weeks ago. We probably won't get anywhere near any witnesses today. Maybe tomorrow."

"Agreed," said Giles. Despite their recent squabble a few weeks ago, Giles had enormous pride in his Slayer's judgment. He had taught her all he could, and anything else she would learn would come from age and experience. Then again, he made mistakes too in his "older" years, such as misjudging Spike's usefulness. To Giles, it just made him realize that everyone had something more to learn.


10:32 am, Tuesday - 11th Precinct

"You look good on camera, McCartey. You ever think of going into films, making teenage girls scream wherever you go?"

"Ha ha, very funny," Jake said. "Actually, my parents wanted me to go into medicine."

"How'd they take the cop thing?" Danny asked.

"How do you think?" Jake quipped.

Danny knew the story well enough. It came with many first-generation cops; the family's disapproval of a dangerous, under-appreciated, and not-too-high-paying job. "Okay, so where are we at?" Danny said, getting back on track.

Sara was the first to respond. "Well, I questioned the groundskeepers. They just came to do some work when they found the bodies. I checked with the school officials on any clubs the girls were apart of, though I didn't mention the witch stuff. Didn't want the press on it just yet. Found out they were a part of the campus Wiccan group. Got a list of e-mails and names from the directory. I'm going to try and track'em down and ask if they saw anything weird lately."

"Asking witches about something weird," Jake said sarcastically. He didn't buy all this "hocus-pocus, mumbo-jumbo", as he called it. But the killer did. And that was all that mattered to him.

"I'll join you on this one, Pez," said Danny.

"Fine by me," said Sara. "Let's go."

"I'm going to check with Forensics, see if they come up with anything," Jake said. "I'm also going to check Ms. Devereaux's workplace again and ask the employees."


11:45 am, Tuesday – NYU Campus

Danny and Sara had come up a little dry on the list of Wicca club members. Either the person was out of their dorm or didn't know the victims too well. They were counting on the next member on the list, Cassandra Lockhart, to give them something to work with. Approaching the door, Sara knocked, hoping that someone was home.

The door opened and a tall brunette responded sullenly, "Yes?"

"Ms. Lockhart?" Sara asked.

"Yes?" the girl answered.

Flashing their badges, Sara replied, "Detectives Pezzini and Woo, Ms. Lockhart. We're investigating the deaths of Kyrie and Kelly Tobias."

"Please come in. I knew them somewhat. Not a whole lot, but they were some of the nicest people you'd ever meet in your entire life. Who would do something like this?" she said, bitterly.

"We're trying to find that out ma'am," Danny replied. "Did any of them notice anyone following them, or anyone weird hanging around their dorms?"

"No, nothing like that," the girl said.

Sara spoke up next. "We tracked some of the people who saw her last. They say they were at a club meeting last night until morning. Were there any newcomers, or people who might have been out of place there?"

"No, it was a pretty small gathering. Since it's spring semester, most of our group is gone. Everyone knew everybody. But there is someone who you should talk to: Dana Carlson, a senior. She heads our... club."

"Do you know where we could find Ms. Carlson at this time?" Sara asked hopefully.

"Well, she doesn't have any classes today. You could probably catch her at the Met. She's a major in archeology and has an internship over there. Plus she got an extension on her senior thesis and works on it there during her time off. No doubt she probably never even heard what happened since she's so busy."

"Thank you for your time, ma'am," Danny said politely.

"If I can do anything else to help, just let me know. I want you to catch the guy who did this," she said.

"We'll keep in touch," said Sara. As she started to leave, she turned and asked, "By the way, has a British guy or a blonde girl asked you any questions about the murders, or inquired about your club?"

"No, no one like that came by," the girl said.

"Thanks again, ma'am," said Sara.

As they left, Danny spoke first. "Think the Brit and the blonde might be suspects?"

"Maybe. Ms. Valakesh's assistant they came to the health-food store asking questions, but her murder was over a month ago and no one mentioned those two in the report. That means they might have just started looking into it."

"Or they could be the killers and are just being quirky," said Danny. "So, to the Met?"

"To the Met," Sara replied.


12:03 pm, Tuesday – Slayer Base HQ

"Giles, we've gone over every book you've got here, plus the one in the mini-library. Willow's been checking the web since 7:00 this morning and we've only seen four rituals that use hearts. Demon-summoning, power-granting, but none of them specifically use witch hearts", Buffy said.

"I know, I know. It looks like patrol might be the only way to get any information."

Willow had a suggestion. She knew no one would like it, but what did she have to lose by asking it? "Well, we could ask Angel and his crew..." This drew looks of surprise from both Buffy and Giles. "...or not," she quickly amended. "Yeesh, turn off the faces."

"Willow, I don't want to involve Angel in this," Buffy said.

Willow read between the lines. She knew what Buffy really meant. "You mean you don't want to involve Wolfram & Hart in this."

"That too. Look, Will, until we know more about whatever they're up to, I don't want to give them any leads on our work," Buffy said.

"Wolfram & Hart has always been a partner in the worst evils in the world," Giles agreed. "If we alert Angel, someone may get wind of it and interfere. Or worse, exacerbate the situation."

Willow relented, but searched for something. "Still, we've got to do something. I mean, are we just going to sit here and read until the sun goes down?"

Buffy and Giles just looked at each other. With a great sigh, Buffy handed Willow one of Giles' books. Willow, disappointed, just said, "I'll go search the web some more."