Giles finished cleaning his glasses and put them back on. "Are you certain that it was a Shadow Man?" Giles spoke calmly into the phone.

Buffy's voice sounded a little distressed. "Anya and Dawn think so, I don't think I believe it, but you know Sunnydale; Welcome to the Hellmouth, we got our very own vampires, demons, and Shadow Men. Why do they call them Shadow Men anyway, it just sounds broad; they could live in shadows, they could be shadows ­ ooh, like on 'Peter Pan'!"

Giles didn't smile; he just looked out the window. "I'll go check on Willow, see if she knows anything. Maybe the coven can sense something. Afterwards I'll consult my books and call you once I know anything."

"I knew you'd say that."

"You knew I'd say what?" Giles asked.

"You always consult your books; I miss it."

Giles had to grin, "I miss you too, Buffy."

After getting off the phone with Buffy, he left to visit the coven.

Xander was walking up the lawn towards the Summers's house when he heard the scream. He ran into the house to discover that Anya had teleported in right behind Dawn. Dawn had one hand over her heart and was gasping "Don't… ever… do that… again."

Anya snickered and remarked "Sorry about that, can't control who is in the room with me when I teleport now, can I.?" That was when Anya noticed Xander. "Oh look, it's Mr. Xander-I-saved-the world-friggin' Harris."

Xander smiled painfully; for someone he loved so much, he couldn't understand why she hated him so much. But then there was that whole incident where he jilted her at the alter. "Nice to see you too, Anya ­ or should I say 'Anyanka' ­ converting back to your demon ways?"

"Oh, save it Harris. What are you doing here anyway?"

Dawn intervened. "Whoa, save it until later, okay. I asked Xander to come stay with me while Buffy was out looking for information." Dawn looked at Xander. "Anya was gathering any information she could."

Anya glared at Xander smugly while speaking to Dawn, "Well, I guess that's okay then. You wouldn't want to be sucked into the Shadow World; that would be awful. You could push him in and run for it."

Xander had about enough. "Anya, I don't know why you are acting this way. I thought that your sleeping with Spike was enough of a payback, but apparently not. I know I hurt you, and I'm sorry. But sooner or later you are going to have to get over it and act like a human being ­ only you can't because..."

"Because I'm a Vengeance Demon, blah, blah, blah. Now you are going to go on about the whole Vengeance Demon thing…" Anya started.

"Because you're a demon!" Xander exclaimed.

"Stop it!" Dawn screamed. Xander and Anya stopped arguing and looked at her. Calmly, Dawn said "Buffy will be back in a little bit. Can we all just sit down and wait quietly. They sat on the couch, Dawn in the middle. Xander and Anya glared silently at each other.

Buffy walked in a few minutes later. "Didn't learn anything at the demon bars." She plopped down on the couch. "What about you guys? Anything? Anya?"

Anya nodded and smiled at knowing she had important information. "Yes, a Shadow Man has gotten into our dimension. Apparently, Willow did it."

"Willow? But how did Willow do it, she's in the middle of rehabilitation?" Xander asked.

Anya continued, "She didn't do it recently, she did it when she flayed Warren alive. Remember his body burst into flames and went poof. Only it didn't just poof because Willow sent it to Niflheim for eternal torment."

"But wouldn't Willow have told us if she opened a Hell dimension and something got out?" Buffy asked.

"I don't think she knew, Buffy. Xander and I were with you in the woods when you saw Willow kill Warren. We didn't see anyone appear where Warren vanished."

"True." Buffy said. "Why didn't we see him come into our dimension?"

"He's a Shadow Man. It was dark and shadowy in the woods that night. He probably just blended right into, well, the dark and the shadows."

Dawn was leaning against the wall in thought. "What is it doing here spying on Buffy? If he wants to kill her, why doesn't he?"

"Hey!" Buffy said in disbelief. "I'm the one that died not too long ago so you could stay alive little Miss Key-to-the-hell- dimensions."

"That's not what I meant. And I'm not The Key anymore, I might have been made from it, but I think the power it-I- yielded was only for that one time. I just don't understand why he is just watching you while you sleep. He's not watching me sleep too, is he?"

Anya shrugged. "I don't know why he's hanging around. I know that Shadow Men stalk their prey for fun, but he seems to be taking an eternity to do something. Maybe he can't open a portal back to snag you; D'Hoffryn said he didn't know what this Shadow Man was doing. Then he lectured me for trying to help you."

Buffy smiled gratefully. "Thank you Anya."

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot." Anya picked up a small gray book off of the end table. "I brought this so you could study it."

"Homework? Why do I always have to do the extra reading?" Buffy asked, taking the book from Anya.

"It is a book about The Elder Futhark ­ runes. If perchance you get dragged into The Shadow World, you can use them even if you possess no magic power what so ever. Runes are the only magical elements that can be called on in the Shadow World." Anya explained.

"Ooh, I wanna look at them." Dawn said taking the book from Buffy and flipping through the pages."

"Ok, now I really have to get to Peru, so I will see you when I get back." Anya said. And before anyone could said anything, Anya vanished.

"So runic studies it is. I'll order a pizza." Xander walked off to get the telephone.

Giles had just gotten back home when the phone started to ring. He knew it was Buffy before he answered. "What have you found out?" he asked.

"Willow did it."

"Oh, dear Lord."

Buffy explained to him what Anya had found out.

"Buffy be extra careful, and don't go into any dark places alone."

"I won't. And I'll make sure not to take candy from strangers either." Buffy joked.

"I'm serious Buffy; if you end up in the Shadow World, it will be very difficult to get you back out alive."

"Okay, I get it. Try talking to Willow about when she killed Warren, see if she can recall on how she sent him to the Shadow World."