CHAPTER 3

The chime over the Magic Box jingled as Buffy entered the closed store. The place was dark and eerily empty. Actually, the shop had always given Buffy a slightly creepy feeling. Eyes of newt (or salamander or some sort of slimy amphibian) were sitting right on the counter for goodness sakes! A major 'Eww!'

"Giles?" Buffy called, walking carefully into the main part of the store, her eyes scanning the shadows.

"Ah, Buffy good," Giles said, appearing at the railing of the upper section of the store. "I've found something rather disturbing." His suit looked rumpled, and Buffy suspected he might have been studying for hours, or days, without a break.

"Oh, well good. Have you eaten? You look tired."

"No," Giles said slowly. "Very not good, I'm afraid. While I can't tell you how much I um, appreciate the 'mother henning' there is serious evil to be dealt with."

"Right. So, I'm the Slayer; I'll find, kill, save world. What's up?"

Giles walked down the spiral stairs to met Buffy. "It says here," he indicated a dark musty book griped in his left hand. "That every thirty five years the most devoted of the demonic races is given the opportunity to perform a ritual sacrifice. If my calculations are correct, two days from now these demons will gather to perform the ritual and kill twenty-three siblings."

"Twenty-three? Giles that's slightly ridiculous, nobody would give birth to that many children."

"Not human siblings. The demons will, um, well they will sacrifice their own."

"Okay, I'm failing to see where this is bad."

Giles took off his glasses and began cleaning them. "Buffy, if this ritual goes through it says here 'For every life taken a thousand lives will be given. The strongest will beget stronger and their numbers shall increase to outnumber the stars and assault the heavens.' It's a fertility ritual. If we don't stop it, the deaths of these twenty-three demons will result in the birth of thousands of stronger demons." He put his glasses back on. "The world would be over run. Not even you could take out so many. They would overpower the forces of good through sheer numbers. We're facing an apocalypse."

"So how do we stop it?" Buffy got right to the point.

"We don't let them complete the sacrifice. I propose that we capture one of the demons and keep it here until the deadline for the ritual has passed."

"Take it alive, I can do that. Riley does it all the time, can't be that hard. Where do I find them?"

"Well, I don't know exactly," Giles said in an embarrassed tone of voice. "Actually, I don't even know what type of demon we're looking for." He opened the book and began flipping pages. "Ah, here: 'The children of the sacrifice will be mirrors of one another, they shall wear the color of their death and look upon the world through eyes stained with the blood they will give.'"

"So we're talking black demons with red eyes?" She brushed her hair out of her face.

Giles looked at his slayer with pride. "Yes, I believe so, but I'm not certain."

Buffy put her hand on Giles arm. "You stay here and research this some more, I'm going to met Riley for patrol and let him know what's up. Oh, but you should eat something first, and maybe take a nap?"

"Buffy I don't think you understand-" He said, annoyed.

"Giles," she said softly, all trace of playful silliness gone. "I do understand. I understand that if I don't get out there and patrol the regular demons and vampires are going to kill more people tonight. We will find this evil and stop it, but I'm not any help here. I need to be out there where I can do some good, so I am counting on you to stay here, be my Watcher, and figure this out for me. It's not like the demon is going to be delivered to our door with a bow around its neck, if I'm out there maybe I'll spot it."

"You're right, of course," Giles said, impressed with his charge. "But Buffy, be careful."

"You can count on it." She said with a small smile, and then she was gone out into the night.