Chapter 31: A Stab in the Dark

Disclaimer: No ownership. I'm just perpetually on my knees before the altar of Jossverse. :P.

Rating: I think I'm boring everyone to death repeating the same thing each time. See the first fourteen chapters if you haven't, yet :)

Summary: This is the summary of the last couple of chapters and anything important I thought needed to be added. :D.

AU from the ending of Season 4. The timeline has been skewed because of Cassandra and Daniel's appearance, which means that Faith awakes a year later than she should have with less confusion. Although the bodyswap takes place, she chooses to go to Angel willingly, parting on fairly good terms with Buffy. Spike helped save Buffy when he realized it wasn't Buffy coming on to him, but Riley didn't, and slept with her. Big verbal fight between Riley, Buffy, and Spike, ending with Buffy storming out, Riley attempting (and then giving up) following her, and Spike who has become rather confused as of late as to his feelings about her following her and looking after her. Not is all emotional angst, however, as there are glimpses of a new Big Bad arising. Such a Big Bad that the Council has gotten rather worried and is thinking of making contact with Buffy again. Two new characters of Frederick, Travers' nephew, and Elspeth, Travers' daughter, added. Elspeth thinks of Buffy as a person, Frederick as an old-fashioned Council person would. Buffy has also revealed some interesting thoughts about Spike as she struggles to deal with her confusion, resulting in an intriguing conversation with Willow. Cassandra, Dawn, and Daniel have also started vaguely discussing what they'd seen the previous night. The gang met up at Giles' house and did the enjoinment spell again… only Spike refused to let them in and it resulted in a magical ripple that injured Giles. Cue in the familiar scene of Sunnydale Hospital…

A/N (Thank-you very much to kim for your review! Yes, they still aren't figuring Spike out… but hopefully they'll stop being dense soon. :D. I'm sorry for the lateness and the misguidance… homework decided to turn against me. I hope you enjoy this chapter, though. Now onto our regularly scheduled chapter! I hope you enjoy. )

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The sterile environment of the hospital didn't exactly leave much for them to do except for worry as they paced up and down, sat and fidgeted, hugged and talked, and leant against the wall ashen-faced respectively.

"He'll be okay, won't he?" Willow asked softly.

Tara smoothed her fingers over her hand. "Of course he will," soothed. "I think that…"

She suddenly realized everyone was looking to her. One hopeful, one loving, one startled, one curious, one interested, one with no recognizable expression on his face. She blushed and began stuttering.

"I… i-it's just what I think, b-but I d-don't think he got knocked unconscious. I t-think that the magic aftershock is to blame."

"That would make sense," Willow mused, and then smiled hopefully. "That means he'll be okay, right?"

"I don't think I want to make a judgment until we see the X-rays," Buffy continued fidgeting. "His arm looked funny."

"It didn't look that serious," Xander joined in, attempting to reassure both them and himself. "I mean, nothing seemed twisted where it shouldn't have been. Besides the arm."

"He didn't look too bad to me," Anya added helpfully. "Except for the whole knocked out thing, of course."

Spike stayed silent.

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Three hours ago…

Giles' furrowed brow greeted them as soon as they stepped in through the door. His normally (somewhat) spotless apartment seemed as if a hurricane had passed through, with books scattered unevenly on every available surface instead of piled neatly as they usually were. It hadn't changed much since Daniel and Cassandra had moved in with him, albeit it was perhaps slightly messier. Today, however, testified silently to the seriousness of the situation to send Giles on such a desperate search through his personal library.

Buffy glanced around quickly, taking it all in with a look. "We're the first ones here? Did Xander and Anya go to pick up Spike?"

"Yeah, they did…" Willow managed to observe before a smoking vampire hurtled through the open door, before throwing the blanket off. "Aargh… ow!" he yelped, clutching at one of his pale hands that had turned a bright red. He turned to face them. "You know, there better be a good reason for waking me up like that."

The others ignored him, instead focusing on Giles. "Whoah, G-man," Xander forced lightness into his voice. "Another apocalypse? Oh wait, you look like that all the time."

"I told you not to call me that," Giles said absentmindedly as he ushered them in. "And we don't know yet. But it looks like something happened the other night that got the Council seriously worried."

"Wait," Willow steadied herself, surprise etching her features. "The Council?"

"Why did you think I was so freaked before?" Buffy laughed humourlessly. "But you didn't really say much on the phone, Giles. Why now?"

"I gave you a few of the reasons before…"

"Wait," Anya interrupted, a puzzled look on her face. "I don't understand. I feel as if everyone in this room knows what we're talking about and I don't. I feel excluded."

"Don't worry demon-girl," Spike's narrowed eyes darted between the speakers. "You're not the only one."

"Yes," Tara offered timidly. "C-c-could someone possibly g-give an explanation?" she looked around. "J-just so t-that we all know what we're dealing with."

Giles took off his glasses and began cleaning. Taking that as a sign that this was going to be a while, the group began assembling themselves onto his couch and armchairs, waiting impatiently for the Watcher to begin.

"Well," Giles took a deep breath. "This is going to take a while…"

"Try to summarize it," Buffy suggested flatly. "It sounded pretty urgent."

He sighed, looked around, and gestured at the state of the room. "Well, as you can no doubt see, I've tried researching it. But none of the books that I've found seem to match it."

"Match what, Watcher?" Spike demanded.

"Match what the Council has been describing."

"Which is?" Willow prompted helpfully.

Giles surveyed their faces soberly, taking in the expressions that ranged from annoyed to worried, apprehensive to relaxed, curious to bored, and a strange combination of all six. But mostly, he rested on the features of his Slayer, and the determination already written there.

Ready for an apocalypse again. She's ready for the possibility of the world ending, she's ready to try with all her might to stop it.

She's ready to die again, if need be.

"Uh… Giles?"

He snapped himself out of his sorrow-laden reverie, and placed the glasses in his hands back onto his eyes hurriedly. "Sorry, I was just thinking where to start and how to put this."

"Are you done?" queried Anya.

"Yes, I think I am," Giles nodded. "It appears that the Council's equipment have picked up massive surges of demonic energy lately, emerging from the Hellmouth..."

"You mean the Hellmouth is opening again?" Xander interrupted.

"Gee," Buffy rolled her eyes. "Isn't it a bit early?" she asked sarcastically. "By my calendar, it should be around two weeks from now."

"Now, Buffy," Giles said reprovingly. "This is actually…"

"I was joking, Giles."

"But can't you feel when the Hellmouth is open with your Slayer senses?" Anya demanded. "D'Hoffran always told me that you did."

The blonde Slayer sighed, and pulled her knees to her chest. "Yeah, I can," she affirmed. "It's like… this nagging in the back of my mind. It's really irritating. Happens whenever the Hellmouth is stirring."

"I get it too," Spike proffered. "Hellmouth demonic energy is powerful stuff. Why do you think I came to this sorry, sun-blighted excuse of a place?"

"I thought it was because you wanted to kill Buffy, but ended up getting your ass kicked again and again, deadboy," Xander chuckled.

Spike shot him a glare, but before he could retaliate, Giles had continued.

"Back to what I was saying before somebody interrupted me, what got the Council interested, and worried, might I add, was the fact that the demonic energy wasn't coming from the Hellmouth itself."

"Explain," Buffy said tersely. "In the past I thought the demons just drew on it to attempt their little world-ending scenarios."

"They described it as this." Giles proffered. "Imagine the Hellmouth as a mirror that multiplies the energy directed towards it and sends it back at the original source of the energy with ten times the amount put into it in the first place. That's what's causing these surges. Someone… or something, rather, is feeding off the Hellmouth, and it might trigger an opening if it keeps accelerating like this."

"How did the Council know about this, anyway?"

"Well," Giles rubbed his eyes from underneath his glasses. "It appears they still have been keeping an eye on the area, and us. They actually somehow recorded the energy shift from our enjoining spell."

The mere mention of it sent her nerve ends tingling. I'll deal with the whole Council-spying-on-us thing later, she promised herself. For now…

"That reminds me," Buffy looked at them all in the eye…

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"What are you doing here?"

Riley blinked at the hostility in the redhead's voice. Her lips were pressed together thinly, her eyes dark and accusing.

"Uh…" he gestured to the card in his hand. "I heard Giles wasn't well. Just a get well card."

He shifted uncomfortably as she stared him through. "We've only been here for an hour, how did you know?"

The ex-soldier laughed uneasily, sidestepping the question. "What is this, an interrogation?" he sighed and shook his head. "Look, Willow," he said honestly. "I just wanted to give Giles this," he looked down at the card. "It's not really anything, I know. Just my well wishes."

Grudgingly, she stepped aside. He walked over carefully to where the others stood in a circle around a protesting Giles.

"Oh no, really, it's okay. Honestly… Buffy, stop that!"

"But why?" she pouted as she arranged the blankets one last time. "Now it looks more comfy."

"You gave us a bit of a fright," Riley smiled as he made his presence known.

Everything instantly went quiet. He shifted uncomfortably as he realized just how stupid following his impulses had been. It'd seemed like a good idea at the time…

"What are you doing here, Riley?" Buffy asked coldly.

He winced, and held up the card, feeling rather pathetic. No, this had not been a good idea at all. "Just a get-well card. I heard you got hurt."

"How?"

"Look," he was beginning to get irritated. "I've already passed Willow's test," he stepped forwards and positioned the card on Giles' table, daring to brush softly against Buffy as he did so. She tensed beneath him, and he quickly withdrew. No forgiveness yet, it'd seem. "I just wanted to drop in and see if you were okay."

"I'm fine, thank-you Riley," Giles said coldly.

Riley looked at the faces that were regarding him, most of all at the face of the girl that he loved with all his heart. But also the girl he knew didn't love him back. Frost immobilized her features. He panned slowly across. Tara's was hesitant, Xander's bewildered. Anya was admiring the quality of the hospital gown. And Giles' was still cold.

"That's… that's good then," he shook his head. What did I expect? "I'll… um… I'll be off then. Get better soon," he smiled weakly.

He felt eyes in his back as he walked away, out of the room and down the sterile corridor. Nurses and doctors and orderlies hurried past as he kept walking. He felt… empty.

"Hey, wait up, man."

He turned around, surprised, and saw Xander standing before him.

"Hey, wasn't expecting you to really come after me…"

Riley fell silent at the expression on his face. Xander stood before him for a long time, the fluorescent lighting chasing away all shadow from his face except for the ones under his eyes.

"Why?"

"Why what?" Riley replied.

"You know why, Riley."

He sighed, and leaned against the wall. "I don't know," he said finally. "She seemed… I didn't do it deliberately. You know that."

"Yeah, I do," Xander agreed. "I just don't get how you…"

Riley's eyes stopped him. "It doesn't matter now, does it? I did, and now she hates me."

"I wouldn't say that," Xander said carefully. "But…"

"And you think I was wrong too," he accused. "You think it's unforgivable, don't you?"

"You hurt her," Xander stated simply.

"I know," he answered, and then walked away.

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Cassandra felt horrible for taking advantage of the situation.

"Should we really be doing this?" she asked as Daniel dumped in schoolbag at the door and began immediately sifting through things.

"This could be one of our only chances to get at Giles' books together," Dawn reasoned as she too began searching. "Mum's coming in about an hour and a half, so we need to move fast."

"I hope he's okay," Cass worried.

"Yeah," Dawn agreed, leafing through a concise dictionary of Latin spell derivatives. "I got such a shock when Mum rung the school."

Silently, they searched the area haphazardly, attempting to put everything back where they'd found it. It was hard going.

"What are we really looking for, anyway?" Dawn asked after a while.

"Some hints of a ritual of some sort," Daniel proffered.

She shot a dirty look at him. She still hadn't completely forgiven him over his previous behaviour. "Thanks, that was really enlightening," she replied sarcastically.

"Okay," he took a deep breath, and Cass saw the haunted look jump straight back into his eyes. "Look for a knife."

"What kind of knife?"

He turned back to flipping through forbidden books before he answered.

"One that looks like it could swallow the sun."

Silently, they kept searching.

An hour and twenty minutes later, however, they'd still come up with nothing. "This isn't working," Daniel said, frustrated.

They'd combed the main room, discarding the books they hadn't thought were relevant. Still, it was a near impossible task. Giles' library was far more extensive than they had thought, certainly.

"We only have another ten minutes," Dawn said anxiously. "Let's just get what we can… a knife, did you say?"

Cassandra fidgeted uncomfortably. They all remembered the stark silence that had greeted Daniel's hoarse description before, that aura of dread and darkness that had permeated the very air.

"Yes," she affirmed quietly. "A knife."

They searched amongst the books again for what seemed a millennia, until both Daniel and Dawn looked up and realized that Cassandra had frozen over a page, her eyes wide.

"What?" Dawn scrambled over to check. "Have you found it?"

Cass gulped. "Yeah," she said, her throat rasping. "I think I have."

The bell rung.

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What do you want me to say?

Well, come on. What do you want me to say?

That I felt guilty for the Watcher getting hurt?

No.

I didn't.

There. Now bugger off. I don't want to talk any more…

Stop it! Not your eyes. I don't want your pity! Just… go!

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