6:43 pm, Wednesday – Slayer Base HQ

The Scoobies had gotten back to the apartment in the evening, after they had pretty much worn themselves out trying to find the ingredients and getting information about the gauntlet. Getting the former was the easy part; getting the latter proved to be impossible. Some of Robin's contacts had either been not in the know, or some just played dumb and kept their mouths shut about it, as if talking about the thing would bring its wrath on them. Buffy had to wonder whether the reason they were quiet was the gauntlet, or the person wearing it. Needless to say, Buffy's faith in Giles' bargain was already starting to diminish. 'Diminish' wasn't really the right word; 'plummet' was more like it.

Buffy was frustrated. Not only did she have to contend with a big, ominous evil ready to make its debut, she also had to deal with the fact that a possibly-evil cop with a most-assuredly evil gauntlet was making them jump through hoops just to avoid jail-time. Add to that the fact that she had yet to gather any of the new Slayers and help them and Buffy felt she was going to be crushed under the weight of all of her problems. She briefly longed for the days of Sunnydale; it was a rotting cesspool of death, destruction, and darkness, but at least it was her cesspool. Now she was in somebody else's cesspool and had to play by their rules.

She wanted to take a brief nap before a patrol/reconnaissance mission, to abate the headache she was having from all of the stress. In the meantime, Giles would try and find more on the gauntlet and Willow would work on the spell to find the potential victims. She had hoped that by the time she woke up they had gotten further on both subjects. But while Willow was close to completing her spell, Giles still had little information on the gauntlet or the woman wearing it.

It was around 8:30 when Buffy left and Giles, tired from the day's work, decided he was going to be the one taking a brief nap. As soon as he drifted to sleep, Willow picked up her cell phone and went outside of the room. Dialing, she was hoping that her decision to do what she was planning was the right one.

"Hello?" the voice on the other side said.

"Wesley? It's Willow."

"Willow, how nice to hear a friendly voice. Is everything all right in New York?"

"No, unfortunately. Things have gotten a little hectic, and we're really stressed. Actually Wes, we need some help. We ran into something and don't have much info on it 'cause of our limited resources. Giles says he heard something about it a long time ago but doesn't remember it. And the Council's current collection hasn't been helpful. I wanted you to check it out for me."

"Of course, Willow. But I have to ask: why didn't Mr. Giles call himself?"

"Well, it's uh... kind of complicated... well, you see..."

"He doesn't trust us."

"Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"I assumed something like this would happen. Our association with Wolfram & Hart probably has many suspecting our loyalties."

"Well, it does kind of put you in the 'questionable' column of the allies list. But I know you guys mean well, and we really need this info."

"I'll do what I can, Willow. So, what am I working with?" Wes said, taking out a pen and paper.

"A gauntlet. Reverts back into a bracelet and can extend a sword. Felt pretty evil, too. It's being worn by a female cop whom Buffy had a recent... encounter with."

"An encounter?" Wesley said, understanding fully well what that meant. "Huh. Well...gauntlet, bracelet, sword... Okay, I'll have what information I can gather by about 12:30 EST."

"Thanks, Wes."

"No problem, Willow."

Willow hung up and felt relieved. Oh sure, Giles and Buffy would be upset to know that she had used Wolfram & Hart's resources to aid them, but they were running out of time and options. All of their energies needed to go into finding the killer. The gauntlet was an important issue, but it was a side one compared what they were dealing with. She just wanted to make sure they didn't have to worry about the thing at a critical moment. And Angel and his crew were in the best position to help them determine that.

She hoped.


11:02 pm, Wednesday – Sara Pezzini's apartment

Sara had called it a night after briefing her partners and the captain on what she learned from Dana Carlson. She conveniently left out the part of the Brit and the blonde from the health-food store, accompanied by a red-headed witch, showing up at the apartment minutes before her. She also left out the part where she made an arrangement with them on sharing information.

She hoped the morning wouldn't bring about the fifth victim. It was a given that if it happened, something worse was soon going to be on the way, something that might make New York a bloodbath. The city had been through enough in recent years; its people didn't need to be in terror of a serial killer trying to bring evil to their door.

Sara was also worried about her new 'allies'. The blonde was a Slayer, they said, some kind of superhero designed to kill vampires and stuff. She wondered if that power had any ill psychological effects, like the Witchblade. If that made the girl unstable or out of control in any way, that would introduce a ticking time-bomb to an already tense situation.

Sara decided to put those thoughts to rest for the night. She already had a headache to complement to her injuries and wanted the night's sleep to be as pleasant as possible. She took some pain-relievers and set about for a night on the couch, by the phone in case something happened. Which, she hoped, nothing would.


12:33 am, Thursday – Slayer Base HQ

Willow waited for Wesley to call her with information. Luckily, Buffy was out still on patrol and Giles went to fetch food at the local Chinese food place for the long night's work. She wanted to make sure they weren't around when she got the call. Pacing back and forth she finally stopped when her cell phone rang.

"Wes?"

"It's me. I believe I have some information on your gauntlet. I checked with all of the books we have and there's only one that matches that description."

"What is it?" asked Willow, who had a notepad and pen ready.

"A metal gauntlet dubbed the 'Witchblade', an ancient weapon of mysterious origins but used for various purposes. Thought to be myth, it can only be worn by women. Legend has it that Joan of Arc and Boudicca wore it at one time or another. It was also said to be able to take the form of a bracelet or various other pieces of jewelry, aside from producing a sword, though what else it's capable of remains a mystery. Nothing else is known about it."

"I think that's our gauntlet," said Willow.

"Willow, it's speculated that this gauntlet was destroyed over a thousand years ago. Frankly, I'm surprised that such a weapon would go unnoticed by Joan of Arc's contemporaries if it had actually existed. Most consider it to be a myth."

"Well, no one really knows about the Slayer, and a lot consider her a myth."

"Good point," Wesley acceded.

"Thanks a lot, Wes. I'll relay the information to Buffy and Giles. Tell Angel I said 'hi'."

"I will. Be careful out there, Willow."

Buffy had returned from her patrol fifteen minutes after Wesley's call and Giles came in five minutes later with Chinese takeout. Willow was nervous. She was going to tell them that she got the information on the gauntlet, but went behind their backs to do it. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and these were desperate times.

"Hey, guys. I found out about our mysterious gauntlet," Willow said.

"Really? How? Where?" Giles asked.

"Well, I made some inquiries and just got the info a few minutes ago."

Giles was now curious. "I thought all of Robin's contacts had no information on it."

"Well, I... didn't exactly go through Robin's contacts."

Buffy furrowed her brow. "So, who was the contact?" she asked.

Willow had been readying herself for that question. Wincing, she said, "Wesley".

"What?!" exclaimed Buffy.

"Buffy, I called Wesley and he gave me the info."

To say Giles was disappointed was an understatement. He was making that clucking sound with his tongue, which was never a good sign. "Willow, I thought we agreed that Wolfram & Hart couldn't be trusted. You may have just made a bad situation worse."

Willow was now the one who was disappointed. She was getting irritated at the fact that some of her closest friends questioned her judgment. Okay, so they did sometimes when the occasion called for it, i.e. her little mystical addiction. But this time was different. They needed answers and she got them. They disliked the methods, but discounting something on account of 'disliking' it wasn't an option.

"Hey!" she yelled. "We've been searching on this thing the entire day. We've got a killer out there hunting witches and a cop sporting a funky glove. We wanted the answer to one and we got it. I did it because we need to put everything we have into finding this witch-killer. They had the resources, they had the means, and I used them. And I'm not sorry I did it. So, are we going to waste time arguing, or are we going to try and find this killer?" Giles started to concede after Willow's tirade.

Tensions were running high. They all knew it, but tried to keep a lid on them. They only knew slightly more than they did yesterday on the killer and what they knew yesterday wasn't very much. Buffy also knew that Willow was taking these murders personally. She herself acted the same way when The First was hunting potential Slayers. She also saw that Willow had on what she called 'resolve face'. It was the face she made when she stuck to something, despite all opposition. No one could talk her out of it even if they tried. Giles knew the face, too. Sighing, she said, "Okay, Will, we understand why you did it. Let's just try and be careful about what info we share with Wolfram & Hart." Changing the subject, she asked, "So, what is our least-favorite cop carrying?"

Willow brought out her pad. "It's something called the 'Witchblade'. It's only worn by women and thought to have been worn by Joan of Arc. Other than that there's really no more info."

"Ah, yes!" Giles said. "I knew I had read something about it. It was supposed to endow the wearer with some abilities, though I don't know which kind."

"Yeah, like being able to hit small blondes," Buffy said, rubbing her nearly-healed swollen eye.

"That's the best I could come up with. I don't think we should worry about it for now."

"I agree," said Giles. "Let's get back to focusing on stopping this killer."

"I'm going out again for a few more hours, see if I can dredge up any new info," said Buffy.

And so began yet another night of red eyes, takeout, slayage, and copious amounts of caffeine.