Chapter 6: Swaying Emotions

"He called you!" Angel shouted as he was pacing through her living room. "And you decided to tell me this now! Why didn't you call me! Miss Summers, this is big!"

"He told me not to contact you or any of the police. You shouldn't even be here right now. I don't need your help Angel, thank you anyway." Buffy told him, watching him pace impatiently from the fireplace, spike sitting at the end on the arm of the couch, his arms crossed and obviously annoyed with Angels attitude.

"Yea mate." Spike added with a smile. "So you'll just be on your merry way."

Angel shot an angry look at spike as he walked closer to buffy. "You do need my help, as much as you both hate to admit it and I can help you with this. We can find this guy. Just...we can put a tracker on your phone and cameras outside your home. He is obviously watching you from what you told me about the pancakes. You need our help otherwise you might never find him. Or if you do find, you aren't going to be able to take him down" Angel reached and brushed his finger against her arm, making her twitch violently from pain that Spike had caused unknowingly to her arm when he grabbed her so hard he left bruises. Angel pulled away quickly like she had burnt him, not knowing what made her hurt when he barely brushed her arm.

Spike, noticing her flinch as well, stepped closer as he got into his protective mode, wrapping a strong arm around her waist and pulling her to him. "I think its time for you to leave... Angel O'Hara."

Just as he was about to walk out, Her cell phone rings. Rings again. And again.

"Buffy, answer it." Angel demanded softly, picking up the phone and handing it to her.

She hesitated but finally answered. "What?"

"I thought I told you not to talk to the detective." The voice told her with an all too calm tone.

She didn't have a clue on what to say which wouldn't cause him to get angry. Keeping her mouth shut, she waited for him to say something else.

"I'm glad I picked you Miss Summers. You're a hell of a person do you know that." The person started laughing as if she had made a joke, but nothing about this conversation was a laughing matter and it annoyed her how amused he was.

"You picked me?" She asked carefully, not wanting him to get irritated. She couldn't believe how sick this person was, establishing a connection with her, learning about her life before they destroyed it.

"Of coarse, I pick all my victims. I learn about them so I know how to hurt them, How else would I know everything I do, and believe me, I know probably more about you than you do." Another sadistic laugh. "But out of all my victims, you seem to be the most interesting. Hang on Miss Summers...its going to be a bumpy ride! Are you ready?" They made one last laugh as they hung up.

She shut her cell phone, shaken a little but otherwise nothing. She couldn't pick what she was feeling because she felt everything at once. Anger, fear, hatred, Sadness, stressed, and much more. All the emotions were flowing through her body all leading to one main emotion...determination. She vowed to herself at that moment she was going to find her sister. Whoever had Dawn was challenging her. And she was going to accept it. She knew she can beat him. She could feel it. Her heart was racing, her blood pumping, sweat forming. She could feel the determination slowly take over her body.

"Buffy?" Spike whispered, staring at her carefully, trying to pick up on what she was feeling.

"Im ready." She announced, looking up from the cell phone to the two men staring back at her.

"For what?" Angel asked, walking a bit closer.

"War."

Angel and Spike looked at each other them back at Buffy, both thinking she had lost it.

"Buffy, I know your tired but..." Spike started but was immediately cut off by Buffy.

"I'm beyond tired. I'm beyond scared. I am in the middle of some psycho's twisted game that they think I can't beat. Well let them think that. They want a fight. Well we'll give them one. If either of you want to walk out on this, do it now. Because we just became a team. We just accepted a challenge. Its going to be gruesome and tiring and severe, but we can do it. I know we can. We are so much stronger than they are and if they so much as lay a hand on any of us...I'll kill them myself."

She paused for a moment, letting them take in everything she had just said. Smiling a bit when she noticed the shock and surprise looks on their faces, she continued with confidence.

"Any questions?"