Leaving the building, Buffy and Spike started walking in the general direction of the graveyard. It seemed like the best place to split off and start patrolling. They could cover more ground that way. Spike seemed a little withdrawn. While dusting a couple vampires along the way who had decided at that particular moment to attack, they fell into conversation.

"Why the silent treatment?" Buffy asked.

"The new guy. I'm just curious about him. We don't know anything, and you brought him to Giles?"

"Well, he helped me out of a jam. Then he handled himself in a fight, slightly goofy, but he still did well. The goofiness seems to be a subconscious way of throwing his enemies off track, though what do I know? I'm not Giles." She grinned.

"Sounds like you might be a little bit interested in him."

"Is that jealousy I hear?"

Spike sighed, "Maybe a little. But I'm more worried for your safety."

They continued walking, each lost in their own thoughts, while keeping an eye out. Things seemed quiet that night, except for the few they'd dusted, nothing was moving around.

Xander decided that researching without food was never a good thing, so he asked if anyone wanted anything. After taking the orders, he went to the nearby deli, and got the food, and lots of chips. It was Giles money after all. Xander loved annoying him. On his way back, he saw a vampire trying to bite someone. Taking out the stake he always carried, he snuck up, and dusted it.

"Want me to walk you home?" He asked the woman.

"My ride just pulled up." She said, as a car pulled up behind them. She got in, and they pulled out. Xander sighed, went back to the food, and took it to Giles. It just wasn't his day. Why couldn't vampires wait until after he ate?

Meanwhile, Vash was reading different things, and stumbled across something that didn't make sense. However, it rhymed, as did the prophecy, maybe this was it. "Look to the outside for what you seek, then you will know that the business is bleak."

"Does this mean anything?" He asked Giles.

"Let me see... it doesn't look similar to anything… any reason why you thought it was something we're looking for?"

"It rhymed same as the prophecy."

"That's not exactly what I was thinking of when I thought of researching."

"Well, it looked unique to me. Or do all prophecies rhyme?"

"The only way we can find cross references, is by studying, jumping to conclusions is not a good idea." Giles said, turning away.

Vash looked at Giles' back, then at the sentence he'd discovered. He copied it down, and put the copy in his pocket. Then he searched for anything that matched it and the prophecy.

At that point, Xander returned with the food, picking up a roll of paper towels from the front. "Hey G-man, got your food."

"I told you not to call me that." Giles said as he opened up his bag. Then he looked at what Xander was taking out. "We don't need that many chips!"

On the outskirts of town, a tremor occurred. Causing a couple of trees to fall over.

The tremor was abnormal for Sunnydale. Demons were not terrorizing people. Vampires were too busy trying to get a meal to care and it wasn't even a full moon. The only indication that the tremor vaguely fell into the realm of "normal" for Sunnydale was that there was a slight shimmering at the epicenter of the tremor. An indistinguishable figure fell out of the portal onto its back. Smoke was rising from almost all of its front, and part of the back lower half. The shimmering disappeared. Another shimmering, two feet away, appeared in the air. A tall, cross-shaped item dropped from it with a clanging thud, causing what appeared to be dust or sand to fly from the top of it in all directions.

The figure tried to get up, but fell again, grunting in pain. His clothing was burned in most places. Blood soaked where it was threadbare. His face was charred. A doctor would have declared this individual almost dead. But then, he'd never met a preacher with this many lives, and strength of will. The figure, now shown to be that of a man, propped himself up on one arm, slightly less injured than the other..., and looked around. Noticing the cross-shape nearby, he inched over to it, painfully, and used it as a crutch to stand up.

"Where am I?" he asked himself. Then pushing the item into the ground a little more, he leaned on it with his arms hanging over the ends. Exhausted and in pain, he fell asleep that way. He dreamed, and remembered. Kneeling in front of an alter at a church, praying, then a flash of light, intense heat battering him. Then landing on his back, in pain, in a place different from where he was. It just wasn't his day.

Buffy and Spike had separated at the graveyard, and continued patrolling. They had agreed to meet back there in an hour or two just to check up on each other. Spike made his way toward the edge of town, planning on circling back through the side streets and returning to the meeting place. Buffy followed her own path, but with similar designs.

Hearing the rumble of a tremor, Spike decided to investigate. As he went along, he noticed five vampires walking his way. He decided to stop by and say hello.

"Hello mates, out for a bite?" he asked, taking out his stakes and preparing to fight.

The vampires, characteristically, put on their demon faces and rushed him. Spike dodged one punch, and staked another vampire. He then kicked a second one, staked the first, and pummeled the other three. All the while staking them as the opportunity arose. Finally, they were all gone.

"That was entertaining. Wonder if there's anymore around?" He continued on his way. Finally reaching the edge of town, he found a crater. Looking around, he flinched and looked away. A huge cross, with a couple of arms draped across it, was imbedded in the ground. Closing his eyes, he walked in a round about way toward the back. "Now, how to get him off of it without burning myself."

Vash finally found something that might shed some light on the passage he had found... as well as satisfy Giles need for intense research. "And a demon will arrive from beyond, more powerful than a master. Without the stampede, the slayer will die."

Buffy hadn't found any enemies to fight... which was surprising. "I wonder how Spike is doing?" She had felt the tremor from the other end, but something else had caught her eye. Some kind of glowing, which soon stopped. She walked over, with all her senses alert, and scanned the area. Other than scorched earth, and a smell of rotting flesh, she couldn't see or hear anything. Then she heard a noise. As she turned around, she was struck by a fist, and knocked twenty feet into an abandoned building. After a second, she was back on her feet. Whatever it had been was nowhere to be seen. "Better get Spike, and since Vash is involved, bring him along too." She headed back to the Magic Box at a run.

Chakra had already fed for the night, or he'd have stayed around to toy with the interesting female. Her aura was powerful, and would feed him for many a night. However, he needed to find out where he was first. Get a base set up, then start harvesting his food. It was going to be a glutton filled immortal life. As he walked, looking for a place to set up, he came across some creature with horns. Known to Buffy and the Scooby Gang as a very powerful vengeance demon, it was killing a couple of people. Chakra removed its head in half a second, and hung it from a light post. "That's my prey not yours." He walked away laughing.